Walking Like A Waterspider

https://scholarexchange.furman.edu/ninety-six-press/1005/thumbnail.jp

Stellar over-densities in the halo: the extent of the Virgo over-density

We map the three dimensional extent of the Virgo Over-density by combining distance information from RR Lyrae variables and projected spatial information from SEKBO (Keller et al. 2008) and Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) DR6 photometry. The Virgo Over-density is seen to comprise two filaments 14.5 x 3 degrees and 10 x 3 degrees and a circular structure 3 degrees in diameter. Together the three features span 38 degrees of right ascension and declinations of +2 to -15 degrees. RR Lyrae variables place the two filamentary features at heliocentric distances of 20 and 17 kpc respectively, with projected dimensions of 5 x 1 kpc and 3 x 1 kpc.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, MNRAS accepte

International Labor Standards, Soft Regulation, and National Government Roles

[Excerpt] In this article, we briefly describe the different approaches to the regulation of international labor standards, and then argue for a new role for national governments based on soft rather than hard regulation approaches. We argue that this new role shows potential for significantly enhancing progress in international labor standards, since it enables governments to articulate a position without having to deal with the enforcement issues that hard regulation mandates. We justify this new role for governments based on the increasing use of soft regulation in the international arena. Of course, this approach is not without its own problems, but given that existing approaches have all provided imperfect solutions to the problem of improving labor standards globally, re-visiting the role of national governments is in our view, highly important

When was the Large Magellanic Cloud accreted onto the Galaxy ?

Using fully self-consistent N-body models for the dynamical evolution of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) in the Galaxy, we show that if the LMC initially has an extended old stellar halo before its commencement of tidal interaction with the Galaxy, physical properties of the stars stripped from the LMC stellar halo can have fossil information as to when and where the LMC was accreted onto the Galaxy for the first time. If the epoch of the first LMC accretion onto the Galaxy from outside its viriral radius is more than ~4 Gyr ago (i.e., at least two pericenter passages), the stars stripped from the stellar halo of the LMC can form an irregular polar ring or a thick disk with a size of ~100 kpc and rotational kinematics. On the other hand, if the LMC was first accreted onto the Galaxy quite recently (~ 2 Gyr ago), the stripped stars form shorter leading and trailing stellar stream at R=50-120 kpc. Also distributions of the stripped stars in phase space between the two cases can be significantly different. The derived differences in structure and kinematics of the stripped stars therefore suggest that if we compare the observed three-dimensional (3D) distribution and kinematics of the outer Galactic stellar halo along the polar-axis, then we can give strong constraints on the past orbit of the LMC. We find that the orbital properties of the LMC in the successful formation models of the Magellanic Stream (MS) are consistent with those predicted from recent LambdaCDM cosmological simulations. We conclude that the LMC was accreted onto the Galaxy more than ~4 Gyr ago so that interaction between the LMC, the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), and the Galaxy could form the MS and its Leading Arms (LAs).Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, accepted in MNRA

Renewable Technology Transfer to Developing Countries: One Size Does Not Fit All

Developing countries are experiencing unprecedented levels of economic growth. As a result, they will be responsible for most of the future growth in energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions. The development, transfer and use of renewable energy technologies are promising ways towards low-carbon development in these countries. However, the UNFCCC processes have had a limited success in promoting them. This is mainly due to their disconnection with national enabling factors and to their homogeneous approach for all developing countries. This paper addresses these pitfalls by analysing the differentiated performance of developing countries with regards to several indicators of enabling factors for technology transfer. Three quantitative analysis methodologies – principal component analysis, multiple regression analysis and cluster analysis – are used to identify the most important enabling factors of technology transfer and to create groups of developing countries according to their performance in these. Policy recommendations are then adapted to the specific needs of each of the defined groups.DfI

‘Don’t just travel’: thinking poetically on the way to professional knowledge

This paper describes how the medium of ‘found poetry’ is incorporated into a doctoral programme for nurses, educators and allied health and social care professionals at the start of their various doctoral journeys. It advocates a narrative practice approach to issues of researcher identity and reflexivity. ‘Finding’ the poems begins with the creation of collages as representational anchors for students to talk about themselves, their professional practice, their hopes and expectations of the doctoral experience, and their research ideas. (Re)presenting their transcribed talk as poetry involves culling and playing with words, phrases and segments, making changes in spacing, lines and rhythm to arrive at an evocative distillation (Butler-Kisber, 2002). This process enables each person to bring stories and/or fragments of experience into critical engagement with others. Poetic thinking functions pedagogically, helping students find a critical voice to enliven and hone their reflexive writing in relation to their doctoral experience and their research positioning. Arts-based methods of inquiry are an ongoing topic of interest in research communities. Found poetry is a useful starting point to explore creative means by which research participants can recount their stories, and equally, by which researchers can witness and disseminate what they have to tell.self funde

The MACHO Project HST Follow-Up: The Large Magellanic Cloud Microlensing Source Stars

We present Hubble Space Telescope (HST) WFPC2 photometry of 13 microlensed source stars from the 5.7 year Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) survey conducted by the MACHO Project. The microlensing source stars are identified by deriving accurate centroids in the ground-based MACHO images using difference image analysis (DIA) and then transforming the DIA coordinates to the HST frame. None of these sources is coincident with a background galaxy, which rules out the possibility that the MACHO LMC microlensing sample is contaminated with misidentified supernovae or AGN in galaxies behind the LMC. This supports the conclusion that the MACHO LMC microlensing sample has only a small amount of contamination due to non-microlensing forms of variability. We compare the WFPC2 source star magnitudes with the lensed flux predictions derived from microlensing fits to the light curve data. In most cases the source star brightness is accurately predicted. Finally, we develop a statistic which constrains the location of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) microlensing source stars with respect to the distributions of stars and dust in the LMC and compare this to the predictions of various models of LMC microlensing. This test excludes at > 90% confidence level models where more than 80% of the source stars lie behind the LMC. Exotic models that attempt to explain the excess LMC microlensing optical depth seen by MACHO with a population of background sources are disfavored or excluded by this test. Models in which most of the lenses reside in a halo or spheroid distribution associated with either the Milky Way or the LMC are consistent which these data, but LMC halo or spheroid models are favored by the combined MACHO and EROS microlensing results.Comment: 28 pages with 10 included PDF figures, submitted to Ap

Targeting hepatic glucokinase to treat diabetes with TTP399, a hepatoselective glucokinase activator

The therapeutic success of interventions targeting glucokinase (GK) activation for the treatment of type 2 diabetes has been limited by hypoglycemia, steatohepatitis, and loss of efficacy over time. The clinical characteristics of patients with GK-activating mutations or GK regulatory protein (GKRP) loss-of-function mutations suggest that a hepatoselective GK activator (GKA) that does not activate GK in cells or affect the GK-GKRP interaction may reduce hyperglycemia in patients with type 2 diabetes while limiting hypoglycemia and liver-associated adverse effects. Here, we review the rationale for TTP399, an oral hepatoselective GKA, and its progression from preclinical to clinical development, with an emphasis on the results of a randomized, double-blind, placebo- and active-controlled phase 2 study of TTP399 in patients with type 2 diabetes. In this 6-month study, TTP399 (800 mg/day) was associated with a clinically significant and sustained reduction in glycated hemoglobin, with a placebo-subtracted least squares mean HbA 1c change from baseline of −0.9% (P < 0.01). Compared to placebo, TTP399 (800 mg/day) also increased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (3.2 mg/dl; P < 0.05), decreased fasting plasma glucagon (−20 pg/ml; P < 0.05), and decreased weight in patients weighing ≥100 kg (−3.4 kg; P < 0.05). TTP399 did not cause hypoglycemia, had no detrimental effect on plasma lipids or liver enzymes, and did not increase blood pressure, highlighting the importance of tissue selectivity and preservation of physiological regulation when targeting key metabolic regulators such as GK

Deconvoluting effects of vine and soil properties on grape berry composition

BACKGROUND: Grape berry composition is influenced by several factors including grapevine and soil properties and their interactions. Understanding how these factors interact to determine berry composition is integral to producing berries with desired composition. Here we used extensive spatio-temporal data to identify significant vine and soil features that influence Shiraz berry composition. RESULTS: The concentrations of berry flavonoids (anthocyanins, tannin and total phenolics), total soluble solids and pH were typically negatively associated with canopy, crop and berry size factors whereas titratable acidity was positively associated. The strengths of the associations, however, were generally greater with the crop and berry size factors than with the canopy size factor. The analyses also resolved separate influences of berry and crop size on berry composition. Soil properties had significant influences on berry composition; however, when influences of soil factors on vine-attributes were accounted for, the apparent effects of soil factors on berry composition were largely non-existent. CONCLUSION: At each site, variations in berry composition were more strongly associated with crop and berry size than with canopy size factors. Apparent influences of soil properties on berry composition are indirect, being mediated via their effects on vine attributes (canopy, crop and berry sizes)

Science Friction: Phenomenology, Naturalism and Cognitive Science

Recent years have seen growing evidence of a fruitful engagement between phenomenology and cognitive science. This paper confronts an in-principle problem that stands in the way of this (perhaps unlikely) intellectual coalition, namely the fact that a tension exists between the transcendentalism that characterizes phenomenology and the naturalism that accompanies cognitive science. After articulating the general shape of this tension, I respond as follows. First, I argue that, if we view things through a kind of neo-McDowellian lens, we can open up a conceptual space in which phenomenology and cognitive science may exert productive constraints on each other. Second, I describe some examples of phenomenological cognitive science that illustrate such constraints in action. Third, I use the mutually constraining relationship at work here as the platform from which to bring to light a domesticated version of the transcendental and a minimal form of naturalism that are compatible with each other