A Response to Professor Scheffler’s Paper

I find much of value in Professor Scheffler’s remarks. However, there is a problem facing teacher education that very fundamental, and it requires a more radical solution. The problem is a crisis of faith in our current system of education. This crisis compels the prospective teacher to consider the characterization, definition, and justification of any subject matter whatsoever

Towards Scalable Visual Exploration of Very Large RDF Graphs

In this paper, we outline our work on developing a disk-based infrastructure for efficient visualization and graph exploration operations over very large graphs. The proposed platform, called graphVizdb, is based on a novel technique for indexing and storing the graph. Particularly, the graph layout is indexed with a spatial data structure, i.e., an R-tree, and stored in a database. In runtime, user operations are translated into efficient spatial operations (i.e., window queries) in the backend.Comment: 12th Extended Semantic Web Conference (ESWC 2015

Three-loop QCD corrections and b-quark decays

We present three-loop (NNNLO) corrections to the heavy-to-heavy quark transitions in the limit of equal initial and final quark masses. In analogy with the previously found NNLO corrections, the bulk of the result is due to the beta_0^2 alpha_s^3 corrections. The remaining genuine three-loop effects for the semileptonic b --> c decays are estimated to increase the decay amplitude by 0.2(2)%. The perturbative series for the heavy-heavy axial current converges very well.Comment: 5 page

Visual analytics of contact tracing policy simulations during an emergency response

Epidemiologists use individual-based models to (a) simulate disease spread over dynamic contact networks and (b) to investigate strategies to control the outbreak. These model simulations generate complex ‘infection maps’ of time-varying transmission trees and patterns of spread. Conventional statistical analysis of outputs offers only limited interpretation. This paper presents a novel visual analytics approach for the inspection of infection maps along with their associated metadata, developed collaboratively over 16 months in an evolving emergency response situation. We introduce the concept of representative trees that summarize the many components of a time-varying infection map while preserving the epidemiological characteristics of each individual transmission tree. We also present interactive visualization techniques for the quick assessment of different control policies. Through a series of case studies and a qualitative evaluation by epidemiologists, we demonstrate how our visualizations can help improve the development of epidemiological models and help interpret complex transmission patterns

The relation between productivity and species diversity in temperate-arctic marine ecosystems

Energy variables, such as evapotranspiration, temperature, and productivity explain significant variation in the diversity of many groups of terrestrial plants and animals at local to global scales. Although the ocean represents the largest continuous habitat on earth with a vast spectrum of primary productivity and species richness, little is known about how productivity influences species diversity in marine systems. To search for general relationships between productivity and species richness in the ocean, we analyzed data from three different benthic marine ecosystems (epifaunal communities on subtidal rock walls, on navigation buoys in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and Canadian Arctic macrobenthos) across local to continental spatial scales (1000 km) using a standardized proxy for productivity, satellite-derived chlorophyll a. Theoretically, the form of the function between productivity and species richness is either monotonically increasing or decreasing, or curvilinear (hump- or U-shaped). We found three negative linear and three hump-shaped relationships between chlorophyll a and species richness out of 10 independent comparisons. Scale dependence was suggested by more prevalent diversity-productivity relationships at smaller (local, landscape) than larger (regional, continental) spatial scales. Differences in the form of the functions were more closely allied with community type than with scale, as negative linear functions were restricted to sessile epifauna while hump-shaped functions occurred in Arctic macrobenthos (mixed epifauna, infauna). In two of the data sets, (St. Lawrence epifauna and Arctic macrobenthos) significant effects of chlorophyll a co-varied with the effects of salinity, suggesting that environmental stress as well as productivity influences diversity in these marine systems. The co-varying effect of salinity may commonly arise in broad-scale studies of productivity and diversity in marine ecosystems when attempting to sample the largest range of productivity, often encompassing a coastal-oceanic gradient

Evaluation of two interaction techniques for visualization of dynamic graphs

Several techniques for visualization of dynamic graphs are based on different spatial arrangements of a temporal sequence of node-link diagrams. Many studies in the literature have investigated the importance of maintaining the user's mental map across this temporal sequence, but usually each layout is considered as a static graph drawing and the effect of user interaction is disregarded. We conducted a task-based controlled experiment to assess the effectiveness of two basic interaction techniques: the adjustment of the layout stability and the highlighting of adjacent nodes and edges. We found that generally both interaction techniques increase accuracy, sometimes at the cost of longer completion times, and that the highlighting outclasses the stability adjustment for many tasks except the most complex ones.Comment: Appears in the Proceedings of the 24th International Symposium on Graph Drawing and Network Visualization (GD 2016

Electric Dipole Moments of Leptons in the Presence of Majorana Neutrinos

We calculate the two-loop diagrams that give a non-zero contribution to the electric dipole moment d_l of a charged lepton l due to possible Majorana masses of neutrinos. Using the example with one generation of the Standard Model leptons and two heavy right-handed neutrinos, we demonstrate that the non-vanishing result for d_l first appears in order O(m_l m_\nu^2 G_F^2), where m_\nu is the mass of the light neutrino and the see-saw type relation is imposed. This effect is beyond the reach of presently planned experiments.Comment: 13 page

Relevance of soft modes for order parameter fluctuations in the Two-Dimensional XY model

We analyse the spin wave approximation for the 2D-XY model, directly in reciprocal space. In this limit the model is diagonal and the normal modes are statistically independent. Despite this simplicity non-trivial critical properties are observed and exploited. We confirm that the observed asymmetry for the probability density function for order parameter fluctuations comes from the divergence of the mode amplitudes across the Brillouin zone. We show that the asymmetry is a many body effect despite the importance played by the zone centre. The precise form of the function is dependent on the details of the Gibbs measure, giving weight to the idea that an effective Gibbs measure should exist in non-equilibrium systems, if a similar distribution is observed.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figure

Benthic-pelagic trophic coupling in an Arctic marine food web along vertical water mass and organic matter gradients

Source at: http://doi.org/10.3354/meps12582Understanding drivers of benthic-pelagic coupling in Arctic marine ecosystems is key to identifying benthic areas that may be sensitive to climate-driven changes in hydrography and surface production. We coupled algal biomass and sedimentary characteristics with stable isotope data for 113 fishes and invertebrates in the Canadian Beaufort Sea and Amundsen Gulf to examine how trophic structure was influenced by the vertical water mass structure and organic matter input regimes, from 20 to 1000 m depths. Indices of community-level trophic diversity (isotopic niche size, 13C enrichment relative to a pelagic baseline, and δ13C isotopic range) increased from west to east, coincident with the use of more diverse dietary carbon sources among benthic functional groups. Data suggested benthic-pelagic trophic coupling was strongest in the western study region where pelagic sinking flux is relatively high, intermediate in the central region dominated by riverine inputs of terrestrial organic matter, and weakest in the east where strong pelagic grazing is known to limit sinking flux. Differences in δ13C between pelagic and benthic functional groups (up to 5.7 ‰) increased from west to east, and from the nearshore shelf to the upper slope. On the upper slope, much of the sinking organic matter may be intercepted in the water column, and dynamic hydrography likely diversifies available food sources. In waters > 750 m, there were no clear trends in benthic-pelagic coupling or community-level trophic diversity. This study represents the first description of fish and invertebrate food web structure > 200 m in the Canadian Beaufort Sea