The Dark Energy Survey

We describe the Dark Energy Survey (DES), a proposed optical-near infrared survey of 5000 sq. deg of the South Galactic Cap to ~24th magnitude in SDSS griz, that would use a new 3 sq. deg CCD camera to be mounted on the Blanco 4-m telescope at Cerro Telolo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO). The survey data will allow us to measure the dark energy and dark matter densities and the dark energy equation of state through four independent methods: galaxy clusters, weak gravitational lensing tomography, galaxy angular clustering, and supernova distances. These methods are doubly complementary: they constrain different combinations of cosmological model parameters and are subject to different systematic errors. By deriving the four sets of measurements from the same data set with a common analysis framework, we will obtain important cross checks of the systematic errors and thereby make a substantial and robust advance in the precision of dark energy measurements.Comment: White Paper submitted to the Dark Energy Task Force, 42 page

Distribution, Abundance, and Biological Characteristics of Groundfish off the Coast of Washington, Oregon, and California, 1977-1986

We compare results of bottom trawl surveys off Washington, Oregon, and California in 1977, 1980, 1983, and 1986 to discern trends in population abundance, distribution, and biology. Catch per unit of effort, area-swept biomass estimates, and age and length compositions for 12 commercially important west coast groundfishes are presented to illustrate trends over the lO-year period. We discuss the precision, accuracy, and statistical significance of observed trends in abundance estimates. The influence of water temperature on the distribution of groundfishes is also briefly examined. Abundance estimates of canary rockfish, Sebastes pinniger, and yellowtail rockfish, S. Jlavidus, declined during the study period; greater declines were observed in Pacific ocean perch, S. alutus, lingcod, Ophiodon elongatus, and arrowtooth flounder, Atheresthes stomias. Biomass estimates of Pacific hake, Merluccius productus, and English, rex, and Dover soles (Pleuronectes vetulus, Errex zachirus, and Microstomus pacificus) increased, while bocaccio, S. paucispinis, and chilipepper, S. goodei, were stable. Sablefish, Anoplopoma fimbria, biomass estimates increased markedly from 1977 to 1980 and declined moderately thereafter. Precision was lowest for rockfishes, lingcod, and sablefish; it was highest for flatfishes because they were uniformly distributed. The accuracy of survey estimates could be gauged only for yellowtail and canary rockfish and sablefish. All fishery-based analyses produced much larger estimates of abundance than bottom trawl surveys-indicative of the true catchability of survey trawls. Population trends from all analyses compared well except in canary rockfish, the species that presents the greatest challenge to obtaining reasonable precision and one that casts doubts on the usefulness of bottom trawl surveys for estimating its abundance. (PDF file contains 78 pages.

The Lost Generation of Autistic Women’s Experiences of Secondary School: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis Approach

This paper focuses on the “lost generation” of autistic women’s experiences of secondary school using an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) approach. Autistic women were supported through inclusive research practices to share their experiences of secondary school as an unrecognised autistic child, as captured through an online questionnaire and semi-structured interview. The core features of the cohort included a diagnosis of autism post eighteen years old, and attendance at a mainstream secondary school in the United Kingdom. The findings highlight the participants’ difficult experiences, including bullying, difficult relationships with peers, sensory difficulties within their school environment and processing differences within their learning. The findings also showed two areas that positively contributed to their school experiences, including friendships and positive relationships with teachers. Discussions centre on the benefits that autistic adults bring to informing educational enquiry and why the phenomenon of the lost generation of autistic girls is still a current concern

Constructing Melchior Lorichs's 'Panorama of Constantinople'

In Constructing Melchior Lorichs's Panorama of Constantinople, Nigel Westbrook, Kenneth Rainsbury Dark, and Rene Van Meeuwen propose that Melchior Lorichs's 1559 Panorama of Constantinople was created by using a viewing grid. The panorama is thus a reliable graphic source for the lost or since-altered Ottoman and Byzantine buildings of the city. The panorama appears to lie outside the conventional symbolic mode of topographical depiction common for its period and constitutes a rare "scientific" record of an encounter of a perspicacious observer with a vast subject. The drawing combines elements of allegory with extensive empirical observation. Several unknown structures, shown on the drawing, have been located in relation to the present-day topography of Istanbul, as a test-case for further research

Early roman-period Nazareth and the sisters of Nazareth convent

First discovered by accident in 1884 – and thereafter informally investigated by workmen, nuns and clergy, for several decades – the archaeological site at the Sisters of Nazareth convent in central Nazareth has remained unpublished and largely unknown to scholarship. However, work by the Nazareth Archaeological Project in 2006–10 showed that this site offers a full and important stratified sequence from ancient Nazareth, including well-preserved Early Roman-period and later features. These include a partially rock-cut structure, here re-evaluated and interpreted on the basis of both earlier and newly recorded data as a first-century ad domestic building – perhaps a ‘courtyard house’ – the first surface-built domestic structure of this date from Nazareth to be published, and the best preserved. The site was subsequently used in the Roman period for burial, suggesting settlement contraction or settlement shift

Western Britain in late antiquity

The relevance of the concept of ‘Late Antiquity’ to fifth- and sixth-century Western Britain is demonstrated with reference to the archaeology of the British kingdom of Dumnonia, and then used to reinterpret portable material culture. Themes discussed include the dating of Palestinian amphorae in Britain, the extent of the settlement at Tintagel, tin as a motivation for Byzantine trade, the re-use of Roman-period artefacts, and ‘Anglo-Saxon’ artefacts on Western British sites. The central paradoxes of Late Antiquity: simultaneous conservatism and fluidity, continuity and innovation, are seen to illuminate ‘Dark Age’ Britain and offer new avenues for future research

Crossing the Pale: Representations of White Western Women in Indian Film and Media

In this paper I focus on the way the white Western woman is scripted into two recent Indian films, and show how colonial discourses still affect the way she is represented today in Indian media. More than just a simple plot device, her usevalue in partnership or sexual relations to the Indian male protagonist, rests upon two points: one, the power she represents due to her position as a signifier of Western economic forces, two, her projection as seductress and victim in colonialist discourses that characterised the Indian male as effeminate and rapacious of English women. The films I will discuss are: Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India (Dir.Ashutosh Gowariker, 2001) and Rang de Basanti: A Generation Awakens (Dir.Rakeysh Omprakesh Mehra, 2006). I will also look at an advertisement for an Indian clothing company