2,405 research outputs found
Detecting Baryon Acoustic Oscillations in Dark Matter from Kinematic Weak Lensing Surveys
We investigate the feasibility of extracting Baryon Acoustic Oscillations
(BAO) from cosmic shear tomography. We particularly focus on the BAO scale
precision that can be achieved by future spectroscopy-based, kinematic weak
lensing (KWL) surveys \citep[e.g.,][]{Huff13} in comparison to the traditional
photometry-based weak lensing surveys. We simulate cosmic shear tomography data
of such surveys with a few simple assumptions to focus on the BAO information,
extract the spacial power spectrum, and constrain the recovered BAO feature.
Due to the small shape noise and the shape of the lensing kernel, we find that
a Dark Energy Task Force Stage IV version of such KWL survey can detect the BAO
feature in dark matter by - and measure the BAO scale at the
precision level of 4\% while it will be difficult to detect the feature in
photometry-based weak lensing surveys. With a more optimistic assumption, a
KWL-Stage IV could achieve a BAO scale measurement with
- confidence. A built-in spectroscopic galaxy survey within such
KWL survey will allow cross-correlation between galaxies and cosmic shear,
which will tighten the constraint beyond the lower limit we present in this
paper and therefore possibly allow a detection of the BAO scale bias between
galaxies and dark matter.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures; revised arguments in section 2, results
unchange
Effects of Environment on Depressive Symptoms on Chinese Left-Behind Children
Estimates indicate that about 70 million children in China have been left behind in their hometowns by one or both parents as their parents migrate to other places for work opportunities. However, the potential impact of parental migration on the emotional well-being of left-behind children is still unclear. The purpose of this study was to examine depression levels in Chinese left-behind children and to identify potential risk factors contributing to depressive symptoms in this population. Using a nationally-representative, stratified sample from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) database (3019 children, ages 10-15), an HLM model was applied at 1) the child level measuring the influence of family structure and individual-level parenting practices, and 2) the county level estimating the effects of rural vs. urban differences and county-level parenting practices. Cross-level effects between child factors and county factors were also examined. The depressive symptoms were measured by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D, Radloff, 1977). Findings indicated that the left-behind children were more likely to report higher scores on depressive symptoms indices than children from intact families. Children reporting more positive parenting practices also tended to have fewer depressive symptoms. The effect of family structures on children’s depressive symptoms depended on the county-level parental behaviors. Implications for schools and parenting practices were discussed
Comparison of Image Registration Based Measures of Regional Lung Ventilation from Dynamic Spiral CT with Xe-CT
Purpose: Regional lung volume change as a function of lung inflation serves
as an index of parenchymal and airway status as well as an index of regional
ventilation and can be used to detect pathologic changes over time. In this
article, we propose a new regional measure of lung mechanics --- the specific
air volume change by corrected Jacobian.
Methods: 4DCT and Xe-CT data sets from four adult sheep are used in this
study. Nonlinear, 3D image registration is applied to register an image
acquired near end inspiration to an image acquired near end expiration.
Approximately 200 annotated anatomical points are used as landmarks to evaluate
registration accuracy. Three different registration-based measures of regional
lung mechanics are derived and compared: the specific air volume change
calculated from the Jacobian (SAJ); the specific air volume change calculated
by the corrected Jacobian (SACJ); and the specific air volume change by
intensity change (SAI).
Results: After registration, the mean registration error is on the order of 1
mm. For cubical ROIs in cubes with size 20 mm 20 mm 20 mm,
the SAJ and SACJ measures show significantly higher correlation (linear
regression, average and ) with the Xe-CT based measure of
specific ventilation (sV) than the SAI measure. For ROIs in slabs along the
ventral-dorsal vertical direction with size of 150 mm 8 mm 40
mm, the SAJ, SACJ, and SAI all show high correlation (linear regression,
average , and ) with the Xe-CT based sV without
significant differences when comparing between the three methods.
Conclusion: Given a deformation field by an image registration algorithm,
significant differences between the SAJ, SACJ, and SAI measures were found at a
regional level compared to the Xe-CT sV in four sheep that were studied
University English Teachers’ Professional Development Through Academic Visits: Using Identity as a Theoretical Lens
Academic visitor programs aim to enhance university teachers’ teaching and research capacity and intercultural competence. Its impact, however, has remained under-researched. Using the data collected from two rounds of in-depth interviews with 13 Chinese university English teachers over a year and a half, this study explored their experiences as academic visitors in the UK through the lens of professional identity. Findings revealed that the participants came with various expectations and negotiated and constructed different identities during their academic visits. The participants’ developing identities in turn affected their investment in their professional development in their situated contexts. The study provides important implications for academic visit programs which need to be designed in line with the complex needs and identities of university teachers
Invertibility of Multi-Energy X-ray Transform
Purpose: The goal is to provide a sufficient condition on the invertibility
of a multi-energy (ME) X-ray transform. The energy-dependent X-ray attenuation
profiles can be represented by a set of coefficients using the Alvarez-Macovski
(AM) method. An ME X-ray transform is a mapping from AM coefficients to
noise-free energy-weighted measurements, where .
Methods: We apply a general invertibility theorem which tests whether the
Jacobian of the mapping has zero values over the support of the
mapping. The Jacobian of an arbitrary ME X-ray transform is an integration over
all spectral measurements. A sufficient condition of for
all is that the integrand of is (or )
everywhere. Note that the trivial case of the integrand equals to zero
everywhere is ignored. With symmetry, we simplified the integrand of the
Jacobian into three factors that are determined by the total attenuation, the
basis functions, and the energy-weighting functions, respectively. The factor
related to total attenuation is always positive, hence the invertibility of the
X-ray transform can be determined by testing the signs of the other two
factors. Furthermore, we use the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) to characterize
the noise-induced estimation uncertainty and provide a maximum-likelihood (ML)
estimator.
Conclusions: We have provided a framework to study the invertibility of an
arbitrary ME X-ray transform and proved the global invertibility for four types
of systems
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South Sudan: The Birth of an Economy
We discuss the birth of a new economy in a society that has only recently emerged from a 22-year-long civil war. The pace of growth so far has been fast but uneven. We find that aid and oil money are flowing rapidly into certain sectors, while other employment-generating areas of the economy, particularly agriculture, have barely changed their centuries-old ways. As a result, the recent windfall of wealth has yet to translate into tangible development benefits for the majority of the population. In order to achieve growth in these other sectors, there is a need for more innovation in both government policy and business strategy
On Finding an Equivalent Force to Mimic the Multilayer Ceramic Capacitor Vibration
The Multilayer Ceramic Capacitor (MLCC) Can Vibrate Due to the Piezoelectric Effect When There is AC Noise on the Power Rail. the Vibration of the Capacitor Will Generate a Force on the PCB and Thus Cause the PCB Vibration and Audible Problems May Occur. the Work in This Paper Finds an Equivalent Force with Similar Behavior to the MLCC-Generated Force. the Force is Controllable and Knowable and Thus Can Mimic the Capacitor Vibration on the PCB
Dual-color HIV reporters trace a population of latently infected cells and enable their purification
AbstractHIV latency constitutes the main barrier for clearing HIV infection from patients. Our inability to recognize and isolate latently infected cells hinders the study of latent HIV. We engineered two HIV-based viral reporters expressing different fluorescent markers: one HIV promoter-dependent marker for productive HIV infection, and a second marker under a constitutive promoter independent of HIV promoter activity. Infection of cells with these viruses allows the identification and separation of latently infected cells from uninfected and productively infected cells. These reporters are sufficiently sensitive and robust for high-throughput screening to identify drugs that reactivate latent HIV. These reporters can be used in primary CD4 T lymphocytes and reveal a rare population of latently infected cells responsive to physiological stimuli. In summary, our HIV-1 reporters enable visualization and purification of latent-cell populations and open up new perspectives for studies of latent HIV infection
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