A Markov Chain Monte Carlo Algorithm for analysis of low signal-to-noise CMB data

We present a new Monte Carlo Markov Chain algorithm for CMB analysis in the low signal-to-noise regime. This method builds on and complements the previously described CMB Gibbs sampler, and effectively solves the low signal-to-noise inefficiency problem of the direct Gibbs sampler. The new algorithm is a simple Metropolis-Hastings sampler with a general proposal rule for the power spectrum, C_l, followed by a particular deterministic rescaling operation of the sky signal. The acceptance probability for this joint move depends on the sky map only through the difference of chi-squared between the original and proposed sky sample, which is close to unity in the low signal-to-noise regime. The algorithm is completed by alternating this move with a standard Gibbs move. Together, these two proposals constitute a computationally efficient algorithm for mapping out the full joint CMB posterior, both in the high and low signal-to-noise regimes.Comment: Submitted to Ap

An institutional sociology perspective of the implementation of activity based costing by Spanish health care institutions

According to institutional sociology, hospitals will respond to external environmental pressures and adopt Activity-Based-Costing (ABC). This theory overemphasizes conformity and fails to consider the advantages of organizational non-conformance. A conflict of interests between physicians and management leads to physician resistance to accepting ABC. This paper investigates the Spanish government's response to this resistance by creating new public foundation hospitals, and involves a case study of the Alcorcón foundation hospital. Population ecology is offered as an explanation for the emergence of new entities as a result of inert existing entities' resistance to reform.Activity based costing; ABC implementation; Health care; Institutional sociology; Spanish health care sector;

Wavemoth -- Fast spherical harmonic transforms by butterfly matrix compression

We present Wavemoth, an experimental open source code for computing scalar spherical harmonic transforms (SHTs). Such transforms are ubiquitous in astronomical data analysis. Our code performs substantially better than existing publicly available codes due to improvements on two fronts. First, the computational core is made more efficient by using small amounts of precomputed data, as well as paying attention to CPU instruction pipelining and cache usage. Second, Wavemoth makes use of a fast and numerically stable algorithm based on compressing a set of linear operators in a precomputation step. The resulting SHT scales as O(L^2 (log L)^2) for the resolution range of practical interest, where L denotes the spherical harmonic truncation degree. For low and medium-range resolutions, Wavemoth tends to be twice as fast as libpsht, which is the current state of the art implementation for the HEALPix grid. At the resolution of the Planck experiment, L ~ 4000, Wavemoth is between three and six times faster than libpsht, depending on the computer architecture and the required precision. Due to the experimental nature of the project, only spherical harmonic synthesis is currently supported, although adding support or spherical harmonic analysis should be trivial.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, accepted by ApJ

Real space tests of the statistical isotropy and Gaussianity of the WMAP CMB data

ABRIDGED: We introduce and analyze a method for testing statistical isotropy and Gaussianity and apply it to the WMAP CMB foreground reduced, temperature maps, and cross-channel difference maps. We divide the sky into regions of varying size and shape and measure the first four moments of the one-point distribution within these regions, and using their simulated spatial distributions we test the statistical isotropy and Gaussianity hypotheses. By randomly varying orientations of these regions, we sample the underlying CMB field in a new manner, that offers a richer exploration of the data content, and avoids possible biasing due to a single choice of sky division. The statistical significance is assessed via comparison with realistic Monte-Carlo simulations. We find the three-year WMAP maps to agree well with the isotropic, Gaussian random field simulations as probed by regions corresponding to the angular scales ranging from 6 deg to 30 deg at 68% confidence level. We report a strong, anomalous (99.8% CL) dipole ``excess'' in the V band of the three-year WMAP data and also in the V band of the WMAP five-year data (99.3% CL). We notice the large scale hemispherical power asymmetry, and find that it is not highly statistically significant in the WMAP three-year data (<~ 97%) at scales l <= 40. The significance is even smaller if multipoles up to l=1024 are considered (~90% CL). We give constraints on the amplitude of the previously-proposed CMB dipole modulation field parameter. We easily detect the residual foregrounds in cross-band difference maps at rms level <~ 7 \mu K (at scales >~ 6 deg) and limit the systematical uncertainties to <~ 1.7 \mu K (at scales >~ 30 deg).Comment: 20 pages, 20 figures; more tests added; updated to match the version to be published in JCA

Constraints on mode couplings and modulation of the CMB with WMAP data

We investigate a possible asymmetry in the statistical properties of the cosmic microwave background temperature field and to do so we construct an estimator aiming at detecting a dipolar modulation. Such a modulation is found to induce correlations between multipoles with $\Delta\ell=1$. Applying this estimator, to the V and W bands of the WMAP data, we found a significant detection in the V band. We argue however that foregrounds and in particular point sources are the origin of this signal.Comment: 14 pages, 14 figure

Housing Vouchers and the Price of Rental Housing

Abstract. We estimate the effect of increasing the supply of housing vouchers on rents using a panel of units in the American Housing Survey. We do not find that an increase in vouchers affected the overall price of rental housing, but do estimate differences in effects based on an individual unit’s rent before the voucher expansion. Our results are consistent with voucher recipients renting more expensive units after receiving the subsidy. We also find the largest positive price increases for units in relatively supply inelastic cities, suggesting policy makers should take local attributes into account with targeting future housing subsidies