Determination of Galaxy Spin Vectors in the Pisces-Perseus Supercluster with the Arecibo Telescope

We use HI observations made with the upgraded Arecibo 305M Telescope in August 1998 to obtain accurate spin vector determinations for 54 nearly edge-on galaxies in the Minnesota Automated Plate Scanner Pisces-Perseus Survey (MAPS-PP). We introduce a simple observational technique of determining the sense of rotation for galaxies, even when their HI disks are not fully resolved. We examined the spin vector distribution of these 54 galaxies for evidence of preferential galaxy alignments. We use the Kuiper statistic, a variant of the Kolmogorov--Smirnov statistic, to determine the significance of any anisotropies in the distribution of galaxy spin vectors. The possibility of ``spin vector domains'' is also investigated. We find no significant evidence of preferential galaxy alignments in this sample. However, we show tha t the small sample size places weak limits on the level of galaxy alignments.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figures, Accepted for Publication in Astronomical Journa

Detection of the effect of cosmological large-scale structure on the orientation of galaxies

Galaxies are not distributed randomly throughout space but are instead arranged in an intricate "cosmic web" of filaments and walls surrounding bubble-like voids. There is still no compelling observational evidence of a link between the structure of the cosmic web and how galaxies form within it. However, such a connection is expected on the basis of our understanding of the origin of galaxy angular momentum: disk galaxies should be highly inclined relative to the plane defined by the large-scale structure surrounding them. Using the two largest galaxy redshift surveys currently in existence (2dFGRS and SDSS) we show at the 99.7% confident level that these alignments do indeed exist: spiral galaxies located on the shells of the largest cosmic voids have rotation axes that lie preferentially on the void surface.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters; Face-on galaxies included and improved discussion on statistical methods; High resolution figures will be published in the Journal versio

Assessing Professionalism: A theoretical framework for defining clinical rotation assessment criteria

Although widely accepted as an important graduate competence, professionalism is a challenging outcome to define and assess. Clinical rotations provide an excellent opportunity to develop student professionalism through the use of experiential learning and effective feedback, but without appropriate theoretical frameworks, clinical teachers may find it difficult to identify appropriate learning outcomes. The adage “I know it when I see it” is unhelpful in providing feedback and guidance for student improvement, and criteria that are more specifically defined would help students direct their own development. This study sought first to identify how clinical faculty in one institution currently assess professionalism, using retrospective analysis of material obtained in undergraduate teaching and faculty development sessions. Subsequently, a faculty workshop was held in which a round-table type discussion sought to develop these ideas and identify how professionalism assessment could be improved. The output of this session was a theoretical framework for teaching and assessing professionalism, providing example assessment criteria and ideas for clinical teaching. This includes categories such as client and colleague interaction, respect and trust, recognition of limitations, and understanding of different professional identities. Each category includes detailed descriptions of the knowledge, skills, and behaviors expected of students in these areas. The criteria were determined by engaging faculty in the development of the framework, and therefore they should represent a focused development of criteria already used to assess professionalism, and not a novel and unfamiliar set of assessment guidelines. The faculty-led nature of this framework is expected to facilitate implementation in clinical teaching

A proposed quantitative methodology for the evaluation of the effectiveness of Human Element, Leadership and Management (HELM) training in the UK

In 2006, a review of maritime accidents found that non-technical skills (NTSs) are the single largest contributing factor towards such incidents. NTSs are composed of both interpersonal and cognitive elements. These include things such as situational awareness, teamwork, decision making, leadership, management and communication skills. In a crisis situation, good NTSs allow a deck officer to quickly recognise that a problem exists and then harness the resources that are at their disposal to safely and efficiently bring the situation back under control. This paper has two aims. The first is to develop a methodology which will enable educators to quantitatively assess the impact of Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA)-approved Human Element, Leadership and Management (HELM) training on deck officer’s NTSs with a view to identifying further training requirements. The second is to determine whether the HELM training provided to develop the NTSs of trainee deck officers is fit for purpose. To achieve these aims, a three-phase approach was adopted. Initially, a taxonomy for deck officer’s NTSs is established, behavioural markers are identified and the relative importance of each attribute is calculated using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP). Subsequently, a set of scenarios were identified for the assessment of deck officer’s NTSs in a ship bridge simulator environment. A random selection of students that have completed the Chief Mate (CM) programme was performed, and data regarding their NTS-related performance in the scenarios was collected. Finally, the collected data was fed into the evidential reasoning (ER) algorithm, utility values were produced and, having established these values, the effectiveness of the HELM training that the students have received was then evaluated

An X-ray and Optical Study of Matter Distribution in the Galaxy Cluster A 2319

A new analysis of velocity distribution, optical photometry and X-ray surface brightness from ROSAT PSPC data of the galaxy cluster A 2319 is presented. The temperature profile derived from ASCA data (Markevitch et al.,1996) is taken into account. A method to check the hydrostatic model in the presence of a temperature gradient is proposed. Consistency of the hydrostatic isothermal model and the explanation of the "beta-discrepancy" are discussed. Galaxy and gas density profiles of the main component A 2319A are derived, allowing for the effect of the secondary component A 2319B. The inadequacy of a polytropic model, which would produce a binding mass decrease with respect to the isothermal beta-model, is discussed. A simple interpolation of the temperature profile provides instead an increase of the binding mass and a lower baryon fraction thus mitigating the "baryon catastrophe". Assuming as typical the value f_b ~ 0.2, a comparison with the most recent estimate of Omega_b(nucl) implies for the cosmological parameter Omega_o less than 0.4.Comment: 7 pages, 2 tables, 8 figure

History of unique heliometric observations of the moon's physical libration

© Medwell Journals, 2016.The research is devoted to the investigation history of the kinetic and dynamic parameters of the Moon. Today, the Moon is the subject of a comprehensive study in many space experiments. In this research, we proposed a historical analysis of unique Heliometric observations of the Moon's physical libration. The article described the history of the beginning of observations and study of the physical libration of the Moon in Engelhardt Astronomical Observatory (EAO) and the main results obtained by these studies. The programs of space missions consist of the subtle effects investigation of the rotational motion and the physical liberation, a study of the gravitational field of the Moon and planets crosslink tracking methods, creating a selenographic coordinate system and the standing the variety of the internal structure of the Moon. Unquestionably, the basis for all these studies are the classic Heliometric observations of lunar physical liberation started over 100 years ago. In 2015, it was the 100th anniversary of Banachiewicz's series of physical libration of the Moon creation. The values of the parameters of the lunar physical libration obtained from Heliometric observations are given. The study also describes Banachiewicz's observations on the meridian circle, participation in observations of a solar eclipse at the 1912 year and gravimetric expeditions

Merging Galaxies in the SDSS EDR

We present a new catalog of merging galaxies obtained through an automated systematic search routine. The 1479 new pairs of merging galaxies were found in approximately 462 sq deg of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Early Data Release (SDSS EDR; Stoughton et al. 2002) photometric data, and the pair catalog is complete for galaxies in the magnitude range 16.0 <= g* <= 20. The selection algorithm, implementing a variation on the original Karachentsev (1972) criteria, proved to be very efficient and fast. Merging galaxies were selected such that the inter-galaxy separations were less than the sum of the component galaxies' radii. We discuss the characteristics of the sample in terms of completeness, pair separation, and the Holmberg effect. We also present an online atlas of images for the SDSS EDR pairs obtained using the corrected frames from the SDSS EDR database. The atlas images also include the relevant data for each pair member. This catalog will be useful for conducting studies of the general characteristics of merging galaxies, their environments, and their component galaxies. The redshifts for a subset of the interacting and merging galaxies and the distribution of angular sizes for these systems indicate the SDSS provides a much deeper sample than almost any other wide-area catalog to date.Comment: 58 pages, which includes 15 figures and 6 tables. Figures 2, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, and 14 are provided as JPEG files. For online atlas, see http://home.fnal.gov/~sallam/MergePair/ . Accepted for publication in A

Parsec-scale Properties of Brightest Cluster Galaxies

We present new VLBI observations at 5 GHz of a complete sample of Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs) in nearby Abell Clusters (distance class <3). Combined with data from the literature, this provides parsec-scale information for 34 BCGs. Our analysis of their parsec scale radio emission and cluster X-ray properties shows a possible dichotomy between BCGs in cool core clusters and those in non cool core clusters. Among resolved sources, those in cool core clusters tend to have two-sided parsec-scale jets, while those in less relaxed clusters have predominantly one-sided parsec-scale jets. We suggest that this difference could be the result of interplay between the jets and the surrounding medium. The one-sided structure in non cool core clusters could be due to Doppler boosting effects in relativistic, intrinsically symmetric jets; two-sided morphology in cool core clusters is likely related to the presence of heavy and mildly relativistic jets slowed down on the parsec-scale. Evidence of recurrent activity are also found in BCGs in cool core clusters.Comment: 20 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Human factors in general practice: early thoughts on the educational focus for specialty training and beyond

In the third article in the series, we describe the outputs from a series of roundtable discussions by Human Factors experts and General Practice (GP) Educational Supervisors tasked with examining the GP (family medicine) training and work environments through the lens of the systems and designed-centred discipline of Human Factors and Ergonomics (HFE). A prominent issue agreed upon proposes that the GP setting should be viewed as a complex sociotechnical system from a care service and specialty training perspective. Additionally, while the existing GP specialty training curriculum in the United Kingdom (UK) touches on some important HFE concepts, we argue that there are also significant educational gaps that could be addressed (e.g. physical workplace design, work organisation, the design of procedures, decision-making and human reliability) to increase knowledge and skills that are key to understanding workplace complexity and interactions, and supporting everyday efforts to improve the performance and wellbeing of people and organisations. Altogether we propose and illustrate how future HFE content could be enhanced, contexualised and integrated within existing training arrangements, which also serves as a tentative guide in this area for continuing professional development for the wider GP and primary care teams

Multimodality in galaxy clusters from SDSS DR8: substructure and velocity distribution

We search for the presence of substructure, a non-Gaussian, asymmetrical velocity distribution of galaxies, and large peculiar velocities of the main galaxies in galaxy clusters with at least 50 member galaxies, drawn from the SDSS DR8. We employ a number of 3D, 2D, and 1D tests to analyse the distribution of galaxies in clusters: 3D normal mixture modelling, the Dressler-Shectman test, the Anderson-Darling and Shapiro-Wilk tests and others. We find the peculiar velocities of the main galaxies, and use principal component analysis to characterise our results. More than 80% of the clusters in our sample have substructure according to 3D normal mixture modelling, the Dressler-Shectman (DS) test shows substructure in about 70% of the clusters. The median value of the peculiar velocities of the main galaxies in clusters is 206 km/s (41% of the rms velocity). The velocities of galaxies in more than 20% of the clusters show significant non-Gaussianity. While multidimensional normal mixture modelling is more sensitive than the DS test in resolving substructure in the sky distribution of cluster galaxies, the DS test determines better substructure expressed as tails in the velocity distribution of galaxies. Richer, larger, and more luminous clusters have larger amount of substructure and larger (compared to the rms velocity) peculiar velocities of the main galaxies. Principal component analysis of both the substructure indicators and the physical parameters of clusters shows that galaxy clusters are complicated objects, the properties of which cannot be explained with a small number of parameters or delimited by one single test. The presence of substructure, the non-Gaussian velocity distributions, as well as the large peculiar velocities of the main galaxies, shows that most of the clusters in our sample are dynamically young.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures, 2 online tables, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic