CLASS Survey Description: Coronal Line Needles in the SDSS Haystack

Coronal lines are a powerful, yet poorly understood, tool to identify and characterize Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs). There have been few large scale surveys of coronal lines in the general galaxy population in the literature so far. Using a novel pre-selection technique with a flux-to-RMS ratio $F$, followed by Markov-Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) fitting, we searched for the full suite of 20 coronal lines in the optical spectra of almost 1 million galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 8. We present a catalog of the emission line parameters for the resulting 258 galaxies with detections. The Coronal Line Activity Spectroscopic Survey (CLASS) includes line properties, host galaxy properties, and selection criteria for all galaxies in which at least one line is detected. This comprehensive study reveals that a significant fraction of coronal line activity is missed in past surveys based on a more limited set of coronal lines; $\sim$60% of our sample do not display the more widely surveyed [Fe X] $\lambda$6374. In addition, we discover a strong correlation between coronal line and WISE W2 luminosities, suggesting that the mid-infrared flux can be used to predict coronal line fluxes. For each line we also provide a confidence level that the line is present, generated by a novel neural network, trained on fully simulated data. We find that after training the network to detect individual lines using 100,000 simulated spectra, we achieve an overall true positive rate of 75.49% and a false positive rate of only 3.96%.Comment: 27 pages, 16 figures, 4 table

Users' perceptions of the contribution of a University green roof to sustainable development

Universities are well placed to adopt and use the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on their campuses to educate and showcase how the SDGs can be delivered in the built environment. Green infrastructure, such as green roofs, green walls, or green parks, are highly visual implementations with environmental and social benefits that contribute to several SDGs, such as 3 (good health and wellbeing), 10 (reduced inequalities), 11 (sustainable cities and communities), 13 (climate action) and 15 (life on land). These features may be referenced in sustainability teaching and learning, which may raise and heighten awareness of the social, economic, and environmental benefits of green infrastructure. In this study, we explored users’ perceptions of the extent to which a university campus green roof contributes to the SDGs and whether users focussed more on its social or environmental benefits. Statistical analyses, namely independent samples t-tests and analysis of variance, were conducted to determine what influenced users’ perceptions of the green roof. The analyses revealed that users’ perceptions did not differ largely by sociodemographic characteristics, though students perceived the social benefits as greater than university staff. Those with greater knowledge of green roofs perceived its environmental benefits as greater, but not the social benefits. The findings demonstrate the importance of green infrastructure on university campuses for encouraging engagement with the SDGs, whilst indicating that knowledge of such infrastructure increases appreciation of their environmental credentials

Early Career Perspectives For the NASA SMD Bridge Program

In line with the Astro2020 Decadal Report State of the Profession findings and the NASA core value of Inclusion, the NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Bridge Program was created to provide financial and programmatic support to efforts that work to increase the representation and inclusion of students from under-represented minorities in the STEM fields. To ensure an effective program, particularly for those who are often left out of these conversations, the NASA SMD Bridge Program Workshop was developed as a way to gather feedback from a diverse group of people about their unique needs and interests. The Early Career Perspectives Working Group was tasked with examining the current state of bridge programs, academia in general, and its effect on students and early career professionals. The working group, comprised of 10 early career and student members, analyzed the discussions and responses from workshop breakout sessions and two surveys, as well as their own experiences, to develop specific recommendations and metrics for implementing a successful and supportive bridge program. In this white paper, we will discuss the key themes that arose through our work, and highlight select recommendations for the NASA SMD Bridge Program to best support students and early career professionals.Comment: White paper developed by the Early Career Perspectives Working Group for the NASA SMD Bridge Program Workshop. 11 page

Testing a Mahalanobis Distance Model of Black Bear Habitat Use in the Ouachita Mountains of Oklahoma

Regional wildlife–habitat models are commonly developed but rarely tested with truly independent data. We tested a published habitat model for black bears (Ursus americanus) with new data collected in a different site in the same ecological region (i.e., Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas and Oklahoma, USA). We used a Mahalanobis distance model developed from relocations of black bears in Arkansas to produce a map layer of Mahalanobis distances on a study area in neighboring Oklahoma. We tested this modeled map layer with relocations of black bears on the Oklahoma area. The distributions of relocations of female black bears were consistent with model predictions. We conclude that this modeling approach can be used to predict regional suitability for a species of interest

Vertebral Tortuosity Is Associated With Increased Rate of Cardiovascular Events in Vascular Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome

Background Arterial tortuosity is associated with adverse events in Marfan and Loeys-Dietz syndromes but remains understudied in Vascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. Methods and Results Subjects with a pathogeni

Standalone vertex finding in the ATLAS muon spectrometer

A dedicated reconstruction algorithm to find decay vertices in the ATLAS muon spectrometer is presented. The algorithm searches the region just upstream of or inside the muon spectrometer volume for multi-particle vertices that originate from the decay of particles with long decay paths. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using both a sample of simulated Higgs boson events, in which the Higgs boson decays to long-lived neutral particles that in turn decay to bbar b final states, and pp collision data at √s = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC during 2011

Measurements of Higgs boson production and couplings in diboson final states with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements are presented of production properties and couplings of the recently discovered Higgs boson using the decays into boson pairs, H →γ γ, H → Z Z∗ →4l and H →W W∗ →lνlν. The results are based on the complete pp collision data sample recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at centre-of-mass energies of √s = 7 TeV and √s = 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 25 fb−1. Evidence for Higgs boson production through vector-boson fusion is reported. Results of combined fits probing Higgs boson couplings to fermions and bosons, as well as anomalous contributions to loop-induced production and decay modes, are presented. All measurements are consistent with expectations for the Standard Model Higgs boson

Measurement of the top quark pair cross section with ATLAS in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV using final states with an electron or a muon and a hadronically decaying τ lepton

A measurement of the cross section of top quark pair production in proton-proton collisions recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV is reported. The data sample used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 2.05 fb -1. Events with an isolated electron or muon and a τ lepton decaying hadronically are used. In addition, a large missing transverse momentum and two or more energetic jets are required. At least one of the jets must be identified as originating from a b quark. The measured cross section, σtt-=186±13(stat.)±20(syst.)±7(lumi.) pb, is in good agreement with the Standard Model prediction

Measurement of the top quark-pair production cross section with ATLAS in pp collisions at \sqrt{s}=7\TeV

A measurement of the production cross-section for top quark pairs(\ttbar) in $pp$ collisions at \sqrt{s}=7 \TeV is presented using data recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events are selected in two different topologies: single lepton (electron $e$ or muon $\mu$) with large missing transverse energy and at least four jets, and dilepton ($ee$, $\mu\mu$ or $e\mu$) with large missing transverse energy and at least two jets. In a data sample of 2.9 pb-1, 37 candidate events are observed in the single-lepton topology and 9 events in the dilepton topology. The corresponding expected backgrounds from non-\ttbar Standard Model processes are estimated using data-driven methods and determined to be $12.2 \pm 3.9$ events and $2.5 \pm 0.6$ events, respectively. The kinematic properties of the selected events are consistent with SM \ttbar production. The inclusive top quark pair production cross-section is measured to be \sigmattbar=145 \pm 31 ^{+42}_{-27} pb where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. The measurement agrees with perturbative QCD calculations.Comment: 30 pages plus author list (50 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, CERN-PH number and final journal adde

Hunt for new phenomena using large jet multiplicities and missing transverse momentum with ATLAS in 4.7 fb−1 of √s=7 TeV proton-proton collisions

Results are presented of a search for new particles decaying to large numbers of jets in association with missing transverse momentum, using 4.7 fb−1 of pp collision data at s√=7TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider in 2011. The event selection requires missing transverse momentum, no isolated electrons or muons, and from ≥6 to ≥9 jets. No evidence is found for physics beyond the Standard Model. The results are interpreted in the context of a MSUGRA/CMSSM supersymmetric model, where, for large universal scalar mass m 0, gluino masses smaller than 840 GeV are excluded at the 95% confidence level, extending previously published limits. Within a simplified model containing only a gluino octet and a neutralino, gluino masses smaller than 870 GeV are similarly excluded for neutralino masses below 100 GeV