1,298 research outputs found
Preventing Franchise Flight: Could Cleveland Have Kept the Browns by Exercising its Eminent Domain Power?
The purpose of this Comment is to analyze whether Ohio law would allow for such a taking, and to determine if such action would have solved the problem of keeping the Browns in Cleveland. In analyzing this issue and focusing on the difficulties that such a taking would create, it will be demonstrated that this taking probably cannot be achieved successfully, and that some congressional intervention is needed to rectify the franchise relocation problem
Linking Hydrogen (δ2H) Isotopes in Feathers and Precipitation: Sources of Variance and Consequences for Assignment to Isoscapes
Background: Tracking small migrant organisms worldwide has been hampered by technological and recovery limitations and sampling bias inherent in exogenous markers. Naturally occurring stable isotopes of H (d 2 H) in feathers provide an alternative intrinsic marker of animal origin due to the predictable spatial linkage to underlying hydrologically driven flow of H isotopes into foodwebs. This approach can assess the likelihood that a migrant animal originated from a given location(s) within a continent but requires a robust algorithm linking H isotopes in tissues of interest to an appropriate hydrological isotopic spatio-temporal pattern, such as weighted-annual rainfall. However, a number of factors contribute to or alter expected isotopic patterns in animals. We present results of an extensive investigation into taxonomic and environmental factors influencing feather d 2 H patterns across North America. Principal Findings: Stable isotope data were measured from 544 feathers from 40 species and 140 known locations. For d 2 H, the most parsimonious model explaining 83 % of the isotopic variance was found with amount-weighted growingseason precipitation d 2 H, foraging substrate and migratory strategy. Conclusions/Significance: This extensive H isotopic analysis of known-origin feathers of songbirds in North America and elsewhere reconfirmed the strong coupling between tissue d 2 H and global hydrologic d 2 H patterns, and accounting for variance associated with foraging substrate and migratory strategy, can be used in conservation and research for th
CMB observations from the CBI and VSA: A comparison of coincident maps and parameter estimation methods
We present coincident observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB)
from the Very Small Array (VSA) and Cosmic Background Imager (CBI) telescopes.
The consistency of the full datasets is tested in the map plane and the Fourier
plane, prior to the usual compression of CMB data into flat bandpowers. Of the
three mosaics observed by each group, two are found to be in excellent
agreement. In the third mosaic, there is a 2 sigma discrepancy between the
correlation of the data and the level expected from Monte Carlo simulations.
This is shown to be consistent with increased phase calibration errors on VSA
data during summer observations. We also consider the parameter estimation
method of each group. The key difference is the use of the variance window
function in place of the bandpower window function, an approximation used by
the VSA group. A re-evaluation of the VSA parameter estimates, using bandpower
windows, shows that the two methods yield consistent results.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures. Final version. Accepted for publication in MNRA
How a Diverse Research Ecosystem Has Generated New Rehabilitation Technologies: Review of NIDILRR’s Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers
Over 50 million United States citizens (1 in 6 people in the US) have a developmental, acquired, or degenerative disability. The average US citizen can expect to live 20% of his or her life with a disability. Rehabilitation technologies play a major role in improving the quality of life for people with a disability, yet widespread and highly challenging needs remain. Within the US, a major effort aimed at the creation and evaluation of rehabilitation technology has been the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers (RERCs) sponsored by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research. As envisioned at their conception by a panel of the National Academy of Science in 1970, these centers were intended to take a “total approach to rehabilitation”, combining medicine, engineering, and related science, to improve the quality of life of individuals with a disability. Here, we review the scope, achievements, and ongoing projects of an unbiased sample of 19 currently active or recently terminated RERCs. Specifically, for each center, we briefly explain the needs it targets, summarize key historical advances, identify emerging innovations, and consider future directions. Our assessment from this review is that the RERC program indeed involves a multidisciplinary approach, with 36 professional fields involved, although 70% of research and development staff are in engineering fields, 23% in clinical fields, and only 7% in basic science fields; significantly, 11% of the professional staff have a disability related to their research. We observe that the RERC program has substantially diversified the scope of its work since the 1970’s, addressing more types of disabilities using more technologies, and, in particular, often now focusing on information technologies. RERC work also now often views users as integrated into an interdependent society through technologies that both people with and without disabilities co-use (such as the internet, wireless communication, and architecture). In addition, RERC research has evolved to view users as able at improving outcomes through learning, exercise, and plasticity (rather than being static), which can be optimally timed. We provide examples of rehabilitation technology innovation produced by the RERCs that illustrate this increasingly diversifying scope and evolving perspective. We conclude by discussing growth opportunities and possible future directions of the RERC program
Hamlet Without the Prince of Denmark: Relationship Banking and Conditionality Lending in the London Market for Foreign Government Debt, 1815-1913
This paper offers a theory of conditionality lending in 19th century international capital markets. We argue that ownership of reputation signals by prestigious banks rendered them able and willing to monitor government borrowing. Monitoring was a source of rent, and it led bankers to support countries facing liquidity crises in a manner similar to modern descriptions of relationship lending to corporate clients by parent banks. Prestigious bankers' ability to implement conditionality loans and monitor countries' financial policies also enabled them to deal with solvency. We find that, compared with prestigious bankers, bondholders' committees had neither the tools nor the prestige required for effectively dealing with defaulters. Hence such committees were far less important than previous research has claimed
The assessment, serial evaluation, and subsequent sequelae of acute kidney injury (ASSESS-AKI) study: design and methods
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The incidence of acute kidney injury (AKI) has been increasing over time and is associated with a high risk of short-term death. Previous studies on hospital-acquired AKI have important methodological limitations, especially their retrospective study designs and limited ability to control for potential confounding factors.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The Assessment, Serial Evaluation, and Subsequent Sequelae of Acute Kidney Injury (ASSESS-AKI) Study was established to examine how a hospitalized episode of AKI independently affects the risk of chronic kidney disease development and progression, cardiovascular events, death, and other important patient-centered outcomes. This prospective study will enroll a cohort of 1100 adult participants with a broad range of AKI and matched hospitalized participants without AKI at three Clinical Research Centers, as well as 100 children undergoing cardiac surgery at three Clinical Research Centers. Participants will be followed for up to four years, and will undergo serial evaluation during the index hospitalization, at three months post-hospitalization, and at annual clinic visits, with telephone interviews occurring during the intervening six-month intervals. Biospecimens will be collected at each visit, along with information on lifestyle behaviors, quality of life and functional status, cognitive function, receipt of therapies, interim renal and cardiovascular events, electrocardiography and urinalysis.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>ASSESS-AKI will characterize the short-term and long-term natural history of AKI, evaluate the incremental utility of novel blood and urine biomarkers to refine the diagnosis and prognosis of AKI, and identify a subset of high-risk patients who could be targeted for future clinical trials to improve outcomes after AKI.</p
Three long period transiting giant planets from TESS
We report the discovery and orbital characterization of three new transiting
warm giant planets. These systems were initially identified as presenting
single transit events in the light curves generated from the full frame images
of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Follow-up radial velocity
measurements and additional light curves were used to determine the orbital
periods and confirm the planetary nature of the candidates. The planets orbit
slightly metal-rich late F- and early G-type stars. We find that TOI 4406b has
a mass of = 0.30 0.04 , a radius of = 1.00 0.02
, and a low eccentricity orbit (e=0.15 0.05) with a period of P=
30.08364 0.00005 d . TOI 2338b has a mass of = 5.98 0.20
, a radius of = 1.00 0.01 , and a highly eccentric orbit (e=
0.676 0.002 ) with a period of P= 22.65398 0.00002 d . Finally, TOI
2589b has a mass of = 3.50 0.10 , a radius of = 1.08
0.03 , and an eccentric orbit (e = 0.522 0.006 ) with a
period of P= 61.6277 0.0002 d . TOI 4406b and TOI 2338b are enriched in
metals compared to their host stars, while the structure of TOI 2589b is
consistent with having similar metal enrichment to its host star.Comment: 24 pages, 16 figures, accepted in A
The TESS Grand Unified Hot Jupiter Survey. I. Ten TESS Planets
We report the discovery of ten short-period giant planets (TOI-2193A b,
TOI-2207 b, TOI-2236 b, TOI-2421 b, TOI-2567 b, TOI-2570 b, TOI-3331 b,
TOI-3540A b, TOI-3693 b, TOI-4137 b). All of the planets were identified as
planet candidates based on periodic flux dips observed by NASA's Transiting
Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). The signals were confirmed to be from
transiting planets using ground-based time-series photometry, high angular
resolution imaging, and high-resolution spectroscopy coordinated with the TESS
Follow-up Observing Program. The ten newly discovered planets orbit relatively
bright F and G stars (,~ between 4800 and 6200 K).
The planets' orbital periods range from 2 to 10~days, and their masses range
from 0.2 to 2.2 Jupiter masses. TOI-2421 b is notable for being a Saturn-mass
planet and TOI-2567 b for being a ``sub-Saturn'', with masses of and Jupiter masses, respectively. In most cases, we
have little information about the orbital eccentricities. Two exceptions are
TOI-2207 b, which has an 8-day period and a detectably eccentric orbit (), and TOI-3693 b, a 9-day planet for which we can set an upper
limit of . The ten planets described here are the first new planets
resulting from an effort to use TESS data to unify and expand on the work of
previous ground-based transit surveys in order to create a large and
statistically useful sample of hot Jupiters.Comment: 44 pages, 15 tables, 21 figures; revised version submitted to A
TESS spots a mini-neptune interior to a hot saturn in the TOI-2000 system
Hot jupiters (P 60 ) are almost always found
alone around their stars, but four out of hundreds known have inner companion
planets. These rare companions allow us to constrain the hot jupiter's
formation history by ruling out high-eccentricity tidal migration. Less is
known about inner companions to hot Saturn-mass planets. We report here the
discovery of the TOI-2000 system, which features a hot Saturn-mass planet with
a smaller inner companion. The mini-neptune TOI-2000 b (, ) is in a 3.10-day
orbit, and the hot saturn TOI-2000 c (, ) is in a
9.13-day orbit. Both planets transit their host star TOI-2000 (TIC 371188886, V
= 10.98, TESS magnitude = 10.36), a metal-rich ([Fe/H] =
) G dwarf 174 pc away. TESS observed the two planets
in sectors 9-11 and 36-38, and we followed up with ground-based photometry,
spectroscopy, and speckle imaging. Radial velocities from CHIRON, FEROS, and
HARPS allowed us to confirm both planets by direct mass measurement. In
addition, we demonstrate constraining planetary and stellar parameters with
MIST stellar evolutionary tracks through Hamiltonian Monte Carlo under the PyMC
framework, achieving higher sampling efficiency and shorter run time compared
to traditional Markov chain Monte Carlo. Having the brightest host star in the
V band among similar systems, TOI-2000 b and c are superb candidates for
atmospheric characterization by the JWST, which can potentially distinguish
whether they formed together or TOI-2000 c swept along material during
migration to form TOI-2000 b.Comment: v3 adds RV frequency analysis; 25 pages, 11 figures, 14 tables;
revision submitted to MNRAS; machine-readable tables available as ancillary
files; posterior samples available from Zenodo at
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7683293 and source code at
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.798826
- …