What do gas-rich galaxies actually tell us about modified Newtonian dynamics?

It has recently been claimed that measurements of the baryonic Tully-Fisher relation (BTFR), a power-law relationship between the observed baryonic masses and outer rotation velocities of galaxies, support the predictions of modified Newtonian dynamics for the slope and scatter in the relation, while challenging the cold dark matter (CDM) paradigm. We investigate these claims, and find that: 1) the scatter in the data used to determine the BTFR is in conflict with observational uncertainties on the data; 2) these data do not make strong distinctions regarding the best-fit BTFR parameters; 3) the literature contains a wide variety of measurements of the BTFR, many of which are discrepant with the recent results; and 4) the claimed CDM "prediction" for the BTFR is a gross oversimplification of the complex galaxy-scale physics involved. We conclude that the BTFR is currently untrustworthy as a test of CDM.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures; minor revisions to match published versio

Toward understanding ambulatory activity decline in Parkinson disease

BACKGROUND: Declining ambulatory activity represents an important facet of disablement in Parkinson disease (PD). OBJECTIVE: The primary study aim was to compare the 2-year trajectory of ambulatory activity decline with concurrently evolving facets of disability in a small cohort of people with PD. The secondary aim was to identify baseline variables associated with ambulatory activity at 1- and 2-year follow-up assessments. DESIGN: This was a prospective, longitudinal cohort study. METHODS: Seventeen people with PD (Hoehn and Yahr stages 1-3) were recruited from 2 outpatient settings. Ambulatory activity data were collected at baseline and at 1- and 2-year annual assessments. Motor, mood, balance, gait, upper extremity function, quality of life, self-efficacy, and levodopa equivalent daily dose data and data on activities of daily living also were collected. RESULTS: Participants displayed significant 1- and 2-year declines in the amount and intensity of ambulatory activity concurrently with increasing levodopa equivalent daily dose. Worsening motor symptoms and slowing of gait were apparent only after 2 years. Concurrent changes in the remaining clinical variables were not observed. Baseline ambulatory activity and physical performance variables had the strongest relationships with 1- and 2-year mean daily steps. LIMITATIONS: The sample was small and homogeneous. CONCLUSIONS: Future research that combines ambulatory activity monitoring with a broader and more balanced array of measures would further illuminate the dynamic interactions among evolving facets of disablement and help determine the extent to which sustained patterns of recommended daily physical activity might slow the rate of disablement in PD.This study was funded primarily by the Davis Phinney Foundation and the Parkinson Disease Foundation. Additional funding was provided by Boston University Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health (K12 HD043444), the National Institutes of Health (R01NS077959), the Utah Chapter of the American Parkinson Disease Association (APDA), the Greater St Louis Chapter of the APDA, and the APDA Center for Advanced PD Research at Washington University. (Davis Phinney Foundation; Parkinson Disease Foundation; K12 HD043444 - Boston University Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health; R01NS077959 - National Institutes of Health; Utah Chapter of the American Parkinson Disease Association (APDA); Greater St Louis Chapter of the APDA; APDA Center for Advanced PD Research at Washington University

Science with coffee and hobnobs

Many parents or guardians of primary school pupils have little knowledge of science, and many lack confidence in their ability to help their children, though most welcome the chance to do so. We describe our experiences running a series of meetings in the form of coffee sessions at local primary schools, where parents can increase their knowledge and confidence in the science their children study, and engage in simple experiments with their children to apply the knowledge they gain. We discuss how this programme can be instrumental in improving the profile of scientific education and scientific careers for children of a young age

The Thresher : lucky imaging without the waste

JAH acknowledges funding from the Science and Technology Facilities Council of the United Kingdom.In traditional lucky imaging (TLI), many consecutive images of the same scene are taken with a high frame-rate camera, and all but the sharpest images are discarded before constructing the final shift-and-add image. Here, we present an alternative image analysis pipeline – The Thresher – for these kinds of data, based on online multi-frame blind deconvolution. It makes use of all available data to obtain the best estimate of the astronomical scene in the context of reasonable computational limits; it does not require prior estimates of the point-spread functions in the images, or knowledge of point sources in the scene that could provide such estimates. Most importantly, the scene it aims to return is the optimum of a justified scalar objective based on the likelihood function. Because it uses the full set of images in the stack, The Thresher outperforms TLI in signal-to-noise ratio; as it accounts for the individual-frame PSFs, it does this without loss of angular resolution. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our algorithm on both simulated data and real Electron-Multiplying CCD images obtained at the Danish 1.54-m telescope (hosted by ESO, La Silla). We also explore the current limitations of the algorithm, and find that for the choice of image model presented here, non-linearities in flux are introduced into the returned scene. Ongoing development of the software can be viewed at https://github.com/jah1994/TheThresher.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Etherscapes: Massless, Elastic, Technology and Control

This thesis is an exploration into the ether of the digital aesthetic. It attempts to capture a segment of the continually morphing space then deconstruct and analyse it through electronic and new media art. Herein you will find a questioning of technology and control within electronic and new media art as an investigation into better understanding the current media image and visual culture that so powerfully influences the modern social construct. By nature this argument has existed for some years but only now with advancements in technology and more affordable realisation of ideas by media artists, the topic of the digital aesethetic, technology and control has become relevant for popular debate. As war lingers in our minds, terrorism hits headlines, and experiements in cloning human DNA take place, the technology that society demands can only necessarily be seen as a major contributing factor to today's strange times. However, strange or not, the questions I wish to discuss; Does technology determine contemporary society or do we determine technology? Where does the control exist