125 research outputs found
Adapting an Elementary School Nutrition Context Assessment for High School Settings and Students
The school nutrition context is comprised of supportive environmental features, programs, policies, and social relationships that shape students’ healthy dietary choices and patterns. When engaging students as change agents, advocates, and partners in making healthy nutrition choices easier, environmental assessment tools developed for adults may be too complex or inappropriately tailored for youth. Adolescents need practical, user-tailored tools that reliably measure the food and beverage environments they encounter in school to inform youth-led changes to the school nutrition context. To meet this need, an evidence-based school environmental assessment was adapted for use in high schools by students as evaluators. Cooperative Extension educators engaged students in experiential learning to adapt the nutrition component of an environmental tool (SPAN-ET) designed for elementary school contexts to high school applications. The resulting tool is a comprehensive nutrition-specific adaptation that incorporates considerations of food security, structures for youth-driven data collection, and data-identified areas for action. The tool was adapted in one high school setting and piloted in three additional high schools. Student-generated data were used to prioritize and plan policy, systems, and environmental strategies aimed at increasing healthy food/beverage access and supporting healthy eating/drinking behaviors to reduce hunger and obesity risk factors in schools
AMiBA: Broadband Heterodyne CMB Interferometry
The Y. T. Lee Array for Microwave Background (AMiBA) has reported the first
science results on the detection of galaxy clusters via the Sunyaev Zel'dovich
effect. The science objectives required small reflectors in order to sample
large scale structures (20') while interferometry provided modest resolutions
(2'). With these constraints, we designed for the best sensitivity by utilizing
the maximum possible continuum bandwidth matched to the atmospheric window at
86-102GHz, with dual polarizations. A novel wide-band analog correlator was
designed that is easily expandable for more interferometer elements. MMIC
technology was used throughout as much as possible in order to miniaturize the
components and to enhance mass production. These designs will find application
in other upcoming astronomy projects. AMiBA is now in operations since 2006,
and we are in the process to expand the array from 7 to 13 elements.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, ApJ in press; a version with high resolution
figures available at
http://www.asiaa.sinica.edu.tw/~keiichi/upfiles/AMiBA7/mtc_highreso.pd
Mass and Hot Baryons in Massive Galaxy Clusters from Subaru Weak Lensing and AMiBA SZE Observations
We present a multiwavelength analysis of a sample of four hot (T_X>8keV)
X-ray galaxy clusters (A1689, A2261, A2142, and A2390) using joint AMiBA
Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE) and Subaru weak lensing observations, combined
with published X-ray temperatures, to examine the distribution of mass and the
intracluster medium (ICM) in massive cluster environments. Our observations
show that A2261 is very similar to A1689 in terms of lensing properties. Many
tangential arcs are visible around A2261, with an effective Einstein radius
\sim 40 arcsec (at z \sim 1.5), which when combined with our weak lensing
measurements implies a mass profile well fitted by an NFW model with a high
concentration c_{vir} \sim 10, similar to A1689 and to other massive clusters.
The cluster A2142 shows complex mass substructure, and displays a shallower
profile (c_{vir} \sim 5), consistent with detailed X-ray observations which
imply recent interaction. The AMiBA map of A2142 exhibits an SZE feature
associated with mass substructure lying ahead of the sharp north-west edge of
the X-ray core suggesting a pressure increase in the ICM. For A2390 we obtain
highly elliptical mass and ICM distributions at all radii, consistent with
other X-ray and strong lensing work. Our cluster gas fraction measurements,
free from the hydrostatic equilibrium assumption, are overall in good agreement
with published X-ray and SZE observations, with the sample-averaged gas
fraction of = 0.133 \pm 0.027, for our sample = (1.2 \pm
0.1) \times 10^{15} M_{sun} h^{-1}. When compared to the cosmic baryon fraction
f_b = \Omega_b/\Omega_m constrained by the WMAP 5-year data, this indicates
/f_b = 0.78 \pm 0.16, i.e., (22 \pm 16)% of the baryons are missing
from the hot phase of clusters.Comment: accepted for publication in ApJ; high resolution figures available at
http://www.asiaa.sinica.edu.tw/~keiichi/upfiles/AMiBA7/ms_highreso.pd
The Yuan-Tseh Lee Array for Microwave Background Anisotropy
The Yuan-Tseh Lee Array for Microwave Background Anisotropy (AMiBA) is the
first interferometer dedicated to studying the cosmic microwave background
(CMB) radiation at 3mm wavelength. The choice of 3mm was made to minimize the
contributions from foreground synchrotron radiation and Galactic dust emission.
The initial configuration of seven 0.6m telescopes mounted on a 6-m hexapod
platform was dedicated in October 2006 on Mauna Loa, Hawaii. Scientific
operations began with the detection of a number of clusters of galaxies via the
thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect. We compare our data with Subaru weak lensing
data in order to study the structure of dark matter. We also compare our data
with X-ray data in order to derive the Hubble constant.Comment: accepted for publication in ApJ (13 pages, 7 figures); a version with
high resolution figures available at
http://www.asiaa.sinica.edu.tw/~keiichi/upfiles/AMiBA7/pho_highreso.pd
Tests of AMiBA Data Integrity
We describe methods used to validate data from the Y.T. Lee Array for
Microwave Background Anisotropy (AMiBA), an interferometric array designed to
measure the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect and the anisotropy of the Cosmic
Microwave Background (CMB). We perform several statistical tests on data from
pointed galaxy cluster observations taken in 2007 and noise data from long-term
blank sky observations and measurements with the feeds covered by the
absorbers. We apply power spectrum analysis, cross power spectrum analysis
among different outputs with different time lags in our analog correlator, and
sample variance law tests to noise data. We find that (1) there is no time
variation of electronic offsets on the time scale of our two-patch observations
(~10 minutes); (2) noise is correlated by less than 10% between different lags;
and (3) the variance of noise scales with the inverse of time. To test the
Gaussianity of the data, we apply Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) tests to cluster
data, and find that a 5% significance level efficiently detects data sets with
known hardware problems without rejecting an excess of acceptable data. We also
calculate third- and fourth-order moments and cumulants for the noise residual
visibilities and find that about 95% of our data are within the 99% confidence
regions of Gaussianity.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
Feedhorn-Coupled Transition-Edge Superconducting Bolometer Arrays for Cosmic Microwave Background Polarimetry
NIST produces large-format, dual-polarization-sensitive detector arrays for a broad range of frequencies (30-1400 GHz). Such arrays enable a host of astrophysical measurements. Detectors optimized for cosmic microwave background observations are monolithic, polarization-sensitive arrays based on feedhorn and planar Nb antenna-coupled transition-edge superconducting (TES) bolometers. Recent designs achieve multiband, polarimetric sensing within each spatial pixel. In this proceeding, we describe our multichroic, feedhorn-coupled design; demonstrate performance at 70-380 GHz; and comment on current developments for implementation of these detector arrays in the advanced Atacama Cosmology Telescope receive
B Cell Activating Factor (BAFF) and T Cells Cooperate to Breach B Cell Tolerance in Lupus-Prone New Zealand Black (NZB) Mice
The presence of autoantibodies in New Zealand Black (NZB) mice suggests a B cell tolerance defect however the nature of this defect is unknown. To determine whether defects in B cell anergy contribute to the autoimmune phenotype in NZB mice, soluble hen egg lysozyme (sHEL) and anti-HEL Ig transgenes were bred onto the NZB background to generate double transgenic (dTg) mice. NZB dTg mice had elevated levels of anti-HEL antibodies, despite apparently normal B cell functional anergy in-vitro. NZB dTg B cells also demonstrated increased survival and abnormal entry into the follicular compartment following transfer into sHEL mice. Since this process is dependent on BAFF, BAFF serum and mRNA levels were assessed and were found to be significantly elevated in NZB dTg mice. Treatment of NZB sHEL recipient mice with TACI-Ig reduced NZB dTg B cell survival following adoptive transfer, confirming the role of BAFF in this process. Although NZB mice had modestly elevated BAFF, the enhanced NZB B cell survival response appeared to result from an altered response to BAFF. In contrast, T cell blockade had a minimal effect on B cell survival, but inhibited anti-HEL antibody production. The findings suggest that the modest BAFF elevations in NZB mice are sufficient to perturb B cell tolerance, particularly when acting in concert with B cell functional abnormalities and T cell help
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The tenth data release of the Sloan digital sky survey: First spectroscopic data from the SDSS-iii apache point observatory galactic evolution experiment
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) has been in operation since 2000 April. This paper presents the tenth public data release (DR10) from its current incarnation, SDSS-III. This data release includes the first spectroscopic data from the Apache Point Observatory Galaxy Evolution Experiment (APOGEE), along with spectroscopic data from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) taken through 2012 July. The APOGEE instrument is a near-infrared R ~ 22,500 300-fiber spectrograph covering 1:514-1:696 μm. The APOGEE survey is studying the chemical abundances and radial velocities of roughly 100,000 red giant star candidates in the bulge, bar, disk, and halo of the Milky Way. DR10 includes 178,397 spectra of 57,454 stars, each typically observed three or more times, from APOGEE. Derived quantities from these spectra (radial velocities, effective temperatures, surface gravities, and metallicities) are also included.
DR10 also roughly doubles the number of BOSS spectra over those included in the ninth data release. DR10 includes a total of 1,507,954 BOSS spectra, comprising 927,844 galaxy spectra; 182,009 quasar spectra; and 159,327 stellar spectra, selected over 6373.2 deg2.This is an author-created, un-copyedited version of an article accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. The publisher is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from it. The Version of Record is available online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0067-0049/211/2/17. The accepted version will be under embargo until the 18th March 2015
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