1,007 research outputs found
Examining collusion and voting biases between countries during the Eurovision song contest since 1957
The Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) is an annual event which attracts millions
of viewers. It is an interesting activity to examine since the participants of
the competition represent a particular country's musical performance that will
be awarded a set of scores from other participating countries based upon a
quality assessment of a performance. There is a question of whether the
countries will vote exclusively according to the artistic merit of the song, or
if the vote will be a public signal of national support for another country.
Since the competition aims to bring people together, any consistent biases in
the awarding of scores would defeat the purpose of the celebration of
expression and this has attracted researchers to investigate the supporting
evidence for biases. This paper builds upon an approach which produces a set of
random samples from an unbiased distribution of score allocation, and extends
the methodology to use the full set of years of the competition's life span
which has seen fundamental changes to the voting schemes adopted.
By building up networks from statistically significant edge sets of vote
allocations during a set of years, the results display a plausible network for
the origins of the culture anchors for the preferences of the awarded votes.
With 60 years of data, the results support the hypothesis of regional collusion
and biases arising from proximity, culture and other irrelevant factors in
regards to the music which that alone is intended to affect the judgment of the
contest.Comment: to be published in JASS
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Primary cutaneous Epstein-Barr virus-positive diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) in a patient taking fingolimod
A 55-year-old man with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis on fingolimod presented to the dermatology clinic with skin lesions on the left temple and cheek. Histopathology showed a diffuse infiltrate of enlarged, atypical lymphocytes throughout the dermis with an overlying grenz zone and a subpopulation of scattered smaller lymphocytes and plasma cells. Epstein-Barr virus-encoded RNA in situ hybridization stain was positive. Based on the morphologic and immunophenotypic findings, a diagnosis of EBV-positive diffuse large B-cell lymphoma was made. This case aims to raise awareness for the dermatologist that patients on fingolimod may be at increased risk of lymphoproliferative disorders
A Deep 150 MHz GMRT Survey in Eridanus
We present results of a 150 MHz survey of a field centered on Epsilon
Eridani, undertaken with the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT). The survey
covers an area with a diameter of 2 deg, has a spatial resolution of 30" and a
noise level of 3.1 mJy at the pointing centre. These observations provide a
deeper and higher resolution view of the 150 MHz radio sky than the 7C survey
(although the 7C survey covers a much larger area). A total of 113 sources were
detected, most are point-like, but 20 are extended. We present an analysis of
these sources, in conjunction with the NVSS (at 1.4 GHz) and VLSS (at 74 MHz).
This process allowed us to identify 5 Ultra Steep Spectrum (USS) radio sources
that are candidate high redshift radio galaxies (HzRGs). In addition, we have
derived the dN/dS distribution for these observations and compare our results
with other low frequency radio surveys.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in MNRA
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Aria 1.5 : user manual.
Aria is a Galerkin finite element based program for solving coupled-physics problems described by systems of PDEs and is capable of solving nonlinear, implicit, transient and direct-to-steady state problems in two and three dimensions on parallel architectures. The suite of physics currently supported by Aria includes the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations, energy transport equation, species transport equations, nonlinear elastic solid mechanics, and electrostatics as well as generalized scalar, vector and tensor transport equations. Additionally, Aria includes support for arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) and level set based free and moving boundary tracking. Coupled physics problems are solved in several ways including fully-coupled Newton's method with analytic or numerical sensitivities, fully-coupled Newton-Krylov methods, fully-coupled Picard's method, and a loosely-coupled nonlinear iteration about subsets of the system that are solved using combinations of the aforementioned methods. Error estimation, uniform and dynamic h-adaptivity and dynamic load balancing are some of Aria's more advanced capabilities. Aria is based on the Sierra Framework
The Sydney-AAO Multi-object Integral field spectrograph (SAMI)
We demonstrate a novel technology that combines the power of the multi-object
spectrograph with the spatial multiplex advantage of an integral field
spectrograph (IFS). The Sydney-AAO Multi-object IFS (SAMI) is a prototype
wide-field system at the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) that allows 13
imaging fibre bundles ("hexabundles") to be deployed over a 1-degree diameter
field of view. Each hexabundle comprises 61 lightly-fused multimode fibres with
reduced cladding and yields a 75 percent filling factor. Each fibre core
diameter subtends 1.6 arcseconds on the sky and each hexabundle has a field of
view of 15 arcseconds diameter. The fibres are fed to the flexible AAOmega
double-beam spectrograph, which can be used at a range of spectral resolutions
(R=lambda/delta(lambda) ~ 1700-13000) over the optical spectrum (3700-9500A).
We present the first spectroscopic results obtained with SAMI for a sample of
galaxies at z~0.05. We discuss the prospects of implementing hexabundles at a
much higher multiplex over wider fields of view in order to carry out
spatially--resolved spectroscopic surveys of 10^4 to 10^5 galaxies.Comment: 24 pages, 16 figures. Accepted by MNRA
Formation of proto-globular cluster candidates in cosmological simulations of dwarf galaxies at
We perform cosmological hydrodynamical simulations to study the formation of
proto-globular cluster candidates in progenitors of present-day dwarf galaxies
at ) as part of the
"Feedback in Realistic Environment" (FIRE) project. Compact ( pc),
relatively massive (), self-bound stellar clusters form at in
progenitors with . Cluster formation
is triggered when at least of dense, turbulent gas
reaches as a
result of the compressive effects of supernova feedback or from cloud-cloud
collisions. The clusters can survive for ; absent numerical
effects, they would likely survive substantially longer, perhaps to . The
longest-lived clusters are those that form at significant distance -- several
hundreds of pc -- from their host galaxy. We therefore predict that globular
clusters forming in progenitors of present-day dwarf galaxies will be offset
from any pre-existing stars within their host dark matter halos as opposed to
deeply embedded within a well-defined galaxy. Properties of the nascent
clusters are consistent with observations of some of the faintest and most
compact high-redshift sources in \textit{Hubble Space Telescope} lensing fields
and are at the edge of what will be detectable as point sources in deep imaging
of non-lensed fields with the \textit{James Webb Space Telescope}. By contrast,
the star clusters' host galaxies will remain undetectable.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, submitted to MNRA
The anomaly line bundle of the self-dual field theory
In this work, we determine explicitly the anomaly line bundle of the abelian
self-dual field theory over the space of metrics modulo diffeomorphisms,
including its torsion part. Inspired by the work of Belov and Moore, we propose
a non-covariant action principle for a pair of Euclidean self-dual fields on a
generic oriented Riemannian manifold. The corresponding path integral allows to
study the global properties of the partition function over the space of metrics
modulo diffeomorphisms. We show that the anomaly bundle for a pair of self-dual
fields differs from the determinant bundle of the Dirac operator coupled to
chiral spinors by a flat bundle that is not trivial if the underlying manifold
has middle-degree cohomology, and whose holonomies are determined explicitly.
We briefly sketch the relevance of this result for the computation of the
global gravitational anomaly of the self-dual field theory, that will appear in
another paper.Comment: 41 pages. v2: A few typos corrected. Version accepted for publication
in CM
A warm Jet in a cold ocean
Unprecedented quantities of heat are entering the Pacific sector of the Arctic Ocean through Bering Strait, particularly during summer months. Though some heat is lost to the atmosphere during autumn cooling, a significant fraction of the incoming warm, salty water subducts (dives beneath) below a cooler fresher layer of near-surface water, subsequently extending hundreds of kilometers into the Beaufort Gyre. Upward turbulent mixing of these sub-surface pockets of heat is likely accelerating sea ice melt in the region. This Pacific-origin water brings both heat and unique biogeochemical properties, contributing to a changing Arctic ecosystem. However, our ability to understand or forecast the role of this incoming water mass has been hampered by lack of understanding of the physical processes controlling subduction and evolution of this this warm water. Crucially, the processes seen here occur at small horizontal scales not resolved by regional forecast models or climate simulations; new parameterizations must be developed that accurately represent the physics. Here we present novel high resolution observations showing the detailed process of subduction and initial evolution of warm Pacific-origin water in the southern Beaufort Gyre
Unreported VOC Emissions from Road Transport Including from Electric Vehicles
There are widespread policy assumptions that the phase-out of gasoline and diesel internal combustion engines will over time lead to much reduced emissions of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) from road transport and related fuels. However, the use of real-world emissions measurements from a new mobile air quality monitoring station demonstrated a large underestimation of alcohol-based species in road transport emissions inventories. Scaling of industry sales statistics enabled the discrepancy to be attributed to the use of ancillary solvent products such as screenwash and deicer which are not included in internationally applied vehicle emission methodologies. A fleet average nonfuel nonexhaust VOC emission factor of 58 ± 39 mg veh -1 km -1 was calculated for the missing source, which is greater than the total of all VOCs emitted from vehicle exhausts and their associated evaporative fuel losses. These emissions are independent of the vehicle energy/propulsion system and therefore applicable to all road vehicle types including those with battery-electric powertrains. In contrast to predictions, vehicle VOC emissions may actually increase given a predicted growth in total vehicle kilometers driven in a future electrified fleet and will undergo a complete VOC respeciation due to the source change
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