COMPARISON OF CONCEPTION RATES IN BEEF CATTLE INSEMINATED WITH EITHER SEXEDULTRA™ SEX-SORTED SEMEN OR CONVENTIONAL SEMEN IN FIXED-TIME ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION (FTAI) PROTOCOLS

Estrous synchronization and artificial insemination (ESAI) are reproductive technologies that cattlemen can use to improve the reproductive performance of their herds. Controlling the gender ratio of the calf-crop can also improve the opportunity for increased revenue and profit. Producers are able to shift and/or control the gender ratio of their calf crop by incorporating sex-sorted semen into their AI programs. However, decreased conception rates to AI have been previously observed when sex-sorted semen was used in comparison to conventional semen of the same sires. The objective of the first study was to determine if conception rates will differ in females inseminated with conventional semen or SexedULTRA™ sex-sorted semen when estrus is synchronized using an industry-standard, 7-d CO-Synch + Controlled Internal Drug Release (CIDR) protocol for fixed-time artificial insemination (FTAI). The objective of the second study was to determine if conception rate to FTAI differs between SexedULTRA™ sex-sorted and conventional semen when yearling beef heifers are synchronized using a 14-d controlled internal drug release (CIDR) - PGF2α (PGF) protocol modified to optimize the control of ovulation and timing of insemination

Maps of the Southern Millimeter-wave Sky from Combined 2500 deg^2 SPT-SZ and Planck Temperature Data

We present three maps of the millimeter-wave sky created by combining data from the South Pole Telescope (SPT) and the Planck satellite. We use data from the SPT-SZ survey, a survey of 2540 deg^2 of the the sky with arcminute resolution in three bands centered at 95, 150, and 220 GHz, and the full-mission Planck temperature data in the 100, 143, and 217 GHz bands. A linear combination of the SPT-SZ and Planck data is computed in spherical harmonic space, with weights derived from the noise of both instruments. This weighting scheme results in Planck data providing most of the large-angular-scale information in the combined maps, with the smaller-scale information coming from SPT-SZ data. A number of tests have been done on the maps. We find their angular power spectra to agree very well with theoretically predicted spectra and previously published results

Measurements of Sub-degree B-mode Polarization in the Cosmic Microwave Background from 100 Square Degrees of SPTpol Data

We present a measurement of the B-mode polarization power spectrum (the BB spectrum) from 100 deg^2 of sky observed with SPTpol, a polarization-sensitive receiver currently installed on the South Pole Telescope. The observations used in this work were taken during 2012 and early 2013 and include data in spectral bands centered at 95 and 150 GHz. We report the BB spectrum in five bins in multipole space, spanning the range 300 ≤ ℓ ≤ 2300, and for three spectral combinations: 95 GHz × 95 GHz, 95 GHz × 150 GHz, and 150 GHz × 150 GHz. We subtract small (<0.5σ in units of statistical uncertainty) biases from these spectra and account for the uncertainty in those biases. The resulting power spectra are inconsistent with zero power but consistent with predictions for the BB spectrum arising from the gravitational lensing of E-mode polarization. If we assume no other source of BB power besides lensed B modes, we determine a preference for lensed B modes of 4.9σ. After marginalizing over tensor power and foregrounds, namely, polarized emission from galactic dust and extragalactic sources, this significance is 4.3σ. Fitting for a single parameter, A_(lens), that multiplies the predicted lensed B-mode spectrum, and marginalizing over tensor power and foregrounds, we find A_(lens) = 1.08 ± 0.26, indicating that our measured spectra are consistent with the signal expected from gravitational lensing. The data presented here provide the best measurement to date of the B-mode power spectrum on these angular scales

Cluster Cosmology Constraints from the 2500 deg^2 SPT-SZ Survey: Inclusion of Weak Gravitational Lensing Data from Magellan and the Hubble Space Telescope

We derive cosmological constraints using a galaxy cluster sample selected from the 2500 deg2 SPT-SZ survey. The sample spans the redshift range 0.25 5. The sample is supplemented with optical weak gravitational lensing measurements of 32 clusters with 0.29 < z < 1.13 (from Magellan and Hubble Space Telescope) and X-ray measurements of 89 clusters with 0.25 < z < 1.75 (from Chandra). We rely on minimal modeling assumptions: (i) weak lensing provides an accurate means of measuring halo masses, (ii) the mean SZ and X-ray observables are related to the true halo mass through power-law relations in mass and dimensionless Hubble parameter E(z) with a priori unknown parameters, and (iii) there is (correlated, lognormal) intrinsic scatter and measurement noise relating these observables to their mean relations. We simultaneously fit for these astrophysical modeling parameters and for cosmology. Assuming a flat νΛCDM model, in which the sum of neutrino masses is a free parameter, we measure Ω_m = 0.276 ± 0.047, σ_8 = 0.781 ± 0.037, and σ_8(Ω_m/0.3)^(0.2) = 0.766 ±0.025. The redshift evolutions of the X-ray Y_X–mass and M_(gas)–mass relations are both consistent with self-similar evolution to within 1σ. The mass slope of the Y_X–mass relation shows a 2.3σ deviation from self-similarity. Similarly, the mass slope of the M_(gas)–mass relation is steeper than self-similarity at the 2.5σ level. In a νw CDM cosmology, we measure the dark energy equation-of-state parameter w = −1.55 ± 0.41 from the cluster data. We perform a measurement of the growth of structure since redshift z ~ 1.7 and find no evidence for tension with the prediction from general relativity. This is the first analysis of the SPT cluster sample that uses direct weak-lensing mass calibration and is a step toward using the much larger weak-lensing data set from DES. We provide updated redshift and mass estimates for the SPT sample

SPT-GMOS: A Gemini/GMOS-South Spectroscopic Survey of Galaxy Clusters in the SPT-SZ Survey

We present the results of SPT-GMOS, a spectroscopic survey with the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) on Gemini South. The targets of SPT-GMOS are galaxy clusters identified in the SPT-SZ survey, a millimeter-wave survey of 2500 deg^2 of the southern sky using the South Pole Telescope (SPT). Multi-object spectroscopic observations of 62 SPT-selected galaxy clusters were performed between 2011 January and 2015 December, yielding spectra with radial velocity measurements for 2595 sources. We identify 2243 of these sources as galaxies, and 352 as stars. Of the galaxies, we identify 1579 as members of SPT-SZ galaxy clusters. The primary goal of these observations was to obtain spectra of cluster member galaxies to estimate cluster redshifts and velocity dispersions. We describe the full spectroscopic data set and resulting data products, including galaxy redshifts, cluster redshifts, and velocity dispersions, and measurements of several well-known spectral indices for each galaxy: the equivalent width, W, of [O II] λλ3727, 3729 and H-δ, and the 4000 Å break strength, D4000. We use the spectral indices to classify galaxies by spectral type (i.e., passive, post-starburst, star-forming), and we match the spectra against photometric catalogs to characterize spectroscopically observed cluster members as a function of brightness (relative to m⋆). Finally, we report several new measurements of redshifts for ten bright, strongly lensed background galaxies in the cores of eight galaxy clusters. Combining the SPT-GMOS data set with previous spectroscopic follow-up of SPT-SZ galaxy clusters results in spectroscopic measurements for >100 clusters, or ~20% of the full SPT-SZ sample

Maps of the Southern Millimeter-wave Sky from Combined 2500 deg^2 SPT-SZ and Planck Temperature Data

We present three maps of the millimeter-wave sky created by combining data from the South Pole Telescope (SPT) and the Planck satellite. We use data from the SPT-SZ survey, a survey of 2540 deg^2 of the the sky with arcminute resolution in three bands centered at 95, 150, and 220 GHz, and the full-mission Planck temperature data in the 100, 143, and 217 GHz bands. A linear combination of the SPT-SZ and Planck data is computed in spherical harmonic space, with weights derived from the noise of both instruments. This weighting scheme results in Planck data providing most of the large-angular-scale information in the combined maps, with the smaller-scale information coming from SPT-SZ data. A number of tests have been done on the maps. We find their angular power spectra to agree very well with theoretically predicted spectra and previously published results

A Measurement of Gravitational Lensing of the Cosmic Microwave Background by Galaxy Clusters Using Data from the South Pole Telescope

Clusters of galaxies are expected to gravitationally lens the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and thereby generate a distinct signal in the CMB on arcminute scales. Measurements of this effect can be used to constrain the masses of galaxy clusters with CMB data alone. Here we present a measurement of lensing of the CMB by galaxy clusters using data from the South Pole Telescope (SPT). We develop a maximum likelihood approach to extract the CMB cluster lensing signal and validate the method on mock data. We quantify the effects on our analysis of several potential sources of systematic error and find that they generally act to reduce the best-fit cluster mass. It is estimated that this bias to lower cluster mass is roughly 0.85σ in units of the statistical error bar, although this estimate should be viewed as an upper limit. We apply our maximum likelihood technique to 513 clusters selected via their Sunyaev–Zeldovich (SZ) signatures in SPT data, and rule out the null hypothesis of no lensing at 3.1σ. The lensing-derived mass estimate for the full cluster sample is consistent with that inferred from the SZ flux: M_(200,lens)=0.83_(-0.37)^(+0.38)M_(200,SZ) (68% C.L., statistical error only)