853 research outputs found
Biases in the Quasar Mass-Luminosity Plane
We find that the recently reported departure from the Eddington luminosity
limit for the highest quasar black hole masses at a given redshift is an
artifact due to biases in black hole mass measurements. This sub-Eddington
boundary (with non-unity slope) in the quasar mass-luminosity plane was
initially reported by Steinhardt & Elvis (2010a) using the FWHM-based black
hole mass catalogue of Shen et al. (2008). However, the significance of the
boundary is reduced when the FWHM-based mass-scaling relationship is
recalibrated following Wang et al. (2009) and using the most updated
reverberation mapping estimates of black hole masses. Furthermore, this
boundary is not seen using mass estimates based on the line dispersion of the
same quasars' MgII emission lines. Thus, the initial report of a sub-Eddington
boundary with non-unity slope was due to biases in estimating masses using the
FWHM of a fit of one or two Gaussians to quasar MgII emission lines. We provide
evidence that using the line dispersion of the MgII line produces less biased
black hole mass estimates.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRA
Examining How International Experiences Promote Global Competency Among Engineering Graduate Students
Employers across the globe are seeking engineers that possess more “soft skills”: leadership, communication, and teamwork skills. In addition to these characteristics as well as the traditional engineering problem solving skills, engineers are required to have attributes of global competency which would help them thrive in the global workforce. A plethora of information and studies exist on undergraduate students and their global competency development. Despite these efforts, there is little information on engineering doctoral students and methods for increasing their levels of global competency. Doctoral students are at the forefront of scientific and technological innovation and discoveries, so it is critical that they are trained to work effectively in diverse environments. This study comparatively examines the intercultural experiences of a) engineering doctoral students from the U.S. who traveled abroad, and b) international engineering doctoral students who traveled to the U.S. Findings show that both groups of students prepared themselves to go abroad in multiple ways, and that some domestic students abroad reported negative experiences due to a mismatch between pre-travel expectations and actual experiences abroad. International students experienced greater adjustment outcomes when they had greater levels of support, and these students also frequently mentioned cross-cultural differences rather than similarities. Findings of our study can help U.S. and international academic institutions identify strategies to increase graduate students\u27 global competency levels
The Importance of Broad Emission-Line Widths in Single Epoch Black Hole Mass Estimates
Estimates of the mass of super-massive black holes (BHs) in distant active
galactic nuclei (AGNs) can be obtained efficiently only through single-epoch
spectra, using a combination of their broad emission-line widths and continuum
luminosities. Yet the reliability and accuracy of the method, and the resulting
mass estimates, M_BH, remain uncertain. A recent study by Croom using a sample
of SDSS, 2QZ and 2SLAQ quasars suggests that line widths contribute little
information about the BH mass in these single-epoch estimates and can be
replaced by a constant value without significant loss of accuracy. In this
Letter, we use a sample of nearby reverberation-mapped AGNs to show that this
conclusion is not universally applicable. We use the bulge luminosity (L_Bulge)
of these local objects to test how well the known M_BH - L_Bulge correlation is
recovered when using randomly assigned line widths instead of the measured ones
to estimate M_BH. We find that line widths provide significant information
about M_BH, and that for this sample, the line width information is just as
significant as that provided by the continuum luminosities. We discuss the
effects of observational biases upon the analysis of Croom and suggest that the
results can probably be explained as a bias of flux-limited, shallow quasar
samples.Comment: 10 text pages + 4 Figures + 1 Table. Accepted for publication in ApJ
Letter
Assessing Clinical Software User Needs for Improved Clinical Decision Support Tools
Consolidating patient and clinical data to support better-informed clinical decisions remains a primary function of electronic health records (EHRs). In the United States, nearly 6 million patients receive care from an accountable care organization (ACO). Knowledge of clinical decision support (CDS) tool design for use by physicians participating in ACOs remains limited. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine whether a significant correlation exists between characteristics of alert content and alert timing (the independent variables) and physician perceptions of improved ACO quality measure adherence during electronic ordering (the dependent variable). Sociotechnical theory supported the theoretical framework for this research. Sixty-nine physician executives using either a Cerner Incorporated or Epic Systems EHR in a hospital or health system affiliated ACO participated in the online survey. The results of the regression analysis were statistically significant, R2 = .108, F(2,66) = 3.99, p = .023, indicating that characteristics of alert content and timing affect physician perceptions for improving their adherence to ACO quality measures. However, analysis of each independent variable showed alert content highly correlated with the dependent variable (p = .007) with no significant correlation found between workflow timing and the dependent variable (p = .724). Understanding the factors that support physician acceptance of alerts is essential to third-party software developers and health care organizations designing CDS tools. Providing physicians with improved EHR-integrated CDS tools supports the population health goal of ACOs in delivering better patient care
Reverberation Mapping Results from MDM Observatory
We present results from a multi-month reverberation mapping campaign
undertaken primarily at MDM Observatory with supporting observations from
around the world. We measure broad line region (BLR) radii and black hole
masses for six objects. A velocity-resolved analysis of the H_beta response
shows the presence of diverse kinematic signatures in the BLR.Comment: To appear in the Proceedings of the IAU Symposium No. 267:
Co-Evolution of Central Black Holes and Galaxies, Rio de Janeiro, 200
Book Reviews
Book Reviews
The Oppenheimer Case: The Trial of a Security System
By Charles P. Curtis
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1955. Pp. xi, 281. 6.65
reviewer: J. Raymond Denney
=============================
Military Law under the Uniform Code of Military Justice
By William B. Aycock and Seymour W. Wurfel
Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1955. Pp. xviii, 430.
reviewer: James B. Earle
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Why Johnny Can\u27t Read
By Rudolf Flesch
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1955. Pp. ix, 222.
==================================
Plain Words: Their ABC
By Sir Ernest Gowers
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1955. Pp. viii, 298.
===================================
Effective Legal Writing
By Frank E. Cooper
Indianapolis, The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1953. Pp. x, 313.
reviewer: J. Allen Smith
==================================
The Moral Decision: Right and Wrong in the Light of American law
By Edmond Cahn
Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, Pp. ix, 315. $5.00
reviewer: Samuel Enoch Stump
A smart telerobotic system driven by monocular vision
A robotic system that accepts autonomously generated motion and control commands is described. The system provides images from the monocular vision of a camera mounted on a robot's end effector, eliminating the need for traditional guidance targets that must be predetermined and specifically identified. The telerobotic vision system presents different views of the targeted object relative to the camera, based on a single camera image and knowledge of the target's solid geometry
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