A photometricity and extinction monitor at the Apache Point Observatory

An unsupervised software ``robot'' that automatically and robustly reduces and analyzes CCD observations of photometric standard stars is described. The robot measures extinction coefficients and other photometric parameters in real time and, more carefully, on the next day. It also reduces and analyzes data from an all-sky $10 \mu m$ camera to detect clouds; photometric data taken during cloudy periods are automatically rejected. The robot reports its findings back to observers and data analysts via the World-Wide Web. It can be used to assess photometricity, and to build data on site conditions. The robot's automated and uniform site monitoring represents a minimum standard for any observing site with queue scheduling, a public data archive, or likely participation in any future National Virtual Observatory.Comment: accepted for publication in A

The UK Voluntary Monitoring Schemes for Pig Health and Welfare: working towards improved health status

A pork industry with high health status will have less disease, use fewer antibiotics and present less risk to public health. The United Kingdom has three voluntary pig health schemes (PHS); Wholesome Pigs Scotland (WPS) in Scotland, the BPEX Pig Health Scheme (BPHS) in England and Wales and the Pig Regen health and welfare checks (NIH&W). They capture information on different macroscopic conditions detected in slaughter pigs. In this study, the prevalence, seasonal variations and year trends of eight conditions as assessed by these PHS were compared and evaluated. Data collected between July 2005 and December 2012 were used. In total 2,061,779 pigs, from 4,420 pig units in 46,321 batches of pigs supplied to 25 abattoirs were examined. The respiratory conditions assessed were: enzootic pneumonia-like lesions, pleurisy, pleuropneumonia, abscesses in the lung; while the non-respiratory conditions were: pericarditis (PC), milk spots (MS), papular dermatitis (PD) and tail biting. The shape of year and seasonal effects among schemes were visualised and the effects were quantified across schemes. The shapes of year trend differed between the PHS for respiratory conditions but were similar for non-respiratory conditions. WPS and NIH&W had a lower prevalence of respiratory conditions than BPHS. This was also observed for PC and PD; however, BPHS had a lower prevalence for MS compared to the other schemes. Non-respiratory lesions showed marked seasonal effects. Continuous standardised monitoring of lesions at slaughter is an effective tool for monitoring disease incidence. Early detection of changes, when combined with comparison of similar schemes in countries with a similar profile of pig production and management, could enable prompt investigation and ultimately lead to ‘safer’ pork

Monte Carlo study of the hull distribution for the q=1 Brauer model

We study a special case of the Brauer model in which every path of the model has weight q=1. The model has been studied before as a solvable lattice model and can be viewed as a Lorentz lattice gas. The paths of the model are also called self-avoiding trails. We consider the model in a triangle with boundary conditions such that one of the trails must cross the triangle from a corner to the opposite side. Motivated by similarities between this model, SLE(6) and critical percolation, we investigate the distribution of the hull generated by this trail (the set of points on or surrounded by the trail) up to the hitting time of the side of the triangle opposite the starting point. Our Monte Carlo results are consistent with the hypothesis that for system size tending to infinity, the hull distribution is the same as that of a Brownian motion with perpendicular reflection on the boundary.Comment: 21 pages, 9 figure

The effect of weather on porcine disease conditions using data from the UK voluntary pig health schemes

Previous studies of macroscopic conditions detected in slaughter pigs at abattoir through voluntary pig health schemes have shown that some lesions have strong seasonal effects. This led us to investigate if weather and other climatic conditions are associated with increases or decreases in the prevalence of the conditions

The Black Hole-Bulge Relationship in Luminous Broad-Line Active Galactic Nuclei and Host Galaxies

We have measured the stellar velocity dispersions (\sigma_*) and estimated the central black hole (BH) masses for over 900 broad-line active galactic nuclei (AGNs) observed with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The sample includes objects which have redshifts up to z=0.452, high quality spectra, and host galaxy spectra dominated by an early-type (bulge) component. The AGN and host galaxy spectral components were decomposed using an eigenspectrum technique. The BH masses (M_BH) were estimated from the AGN broad-line widths, and the velocity dispersions were measured from the stellar absorption spectra of the host galaxies. The range of black hole masses covered by the sample is approximately 10^6 < M_BH < 10^9 M_Sun. The host galaxy luminosity-velocity dispersion relationship follows the well-known Faber-Jackson relation for early-type galaxies, with a power-law slope 4.33+-0.21. The estimated BH masses are correlated with both the host luminosities (L_{H}) and the stellar velocity dispersions (\sigma_*), similar to the relationships found for low-redshift, bulge-dominated galaxies. The intrinsic scatter in the correlations are large (~0.4 dex), but the very large sample size allows tight constraints to be placed on the mean relationships: M_BH ~ L_H^{0.73+-0.05} and M_BH ~ \sigma_*^{3.34+-0.24}. The amplitude of the M_BH-\sigma_* relation depends on the estimated Eddington ratio, such that objects with larger Eddington ratios have smaller black hole masses than expected at a given velocity dispersion.Comment: Accepted for publication in A

Projected Images of Major Chinese Outbound Destinations

This study aimed to explore the projected images of major outbound destinations based on popular travel magazines in China. Travel articles on Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and Taiwan from 2006 to 2008 were content analyzed. Japan was reported on most, and the projected images of the six destinations are dominated by leisure and recreation, and culture, history and art. Correspondence analysis was used to examine relationships between destinations and popular image attributes. The results showed that South Korea and Macau had distinct projected images, whereas Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Vietnam shared many similar image attributes. Practical implications for destination marketing organizations are provided

Observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background and Implications for Cosmology and Large Scale Structure

Observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) are discussed, with particular emphasis on current ground-based experiments and on future satellite, balloon and interferometer experiments. Observational techniques and the effects of contaminating foregrounds are highlighted. Recent CMB data is used with large scale structure (LSS) data to constrain cosmological parameters and the complementary nature of CMB, LSS and supernova distance data is emphasized.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figures. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. A., 1998, in pres

Large-amplitude isothermal fluctuations and high-density dark-matter clumps

Large-amplitude isothermal fluctuations in the dark matter energy density, parameterized by \Phi\equiv\delta\rhodm/\rhodm, are studied within the framework of a spherical collapse model. For \Phi \ga 1, a fluctuation collapses in the radiation-dominated epoch and produces a dense dark-matter object. The final density of the virialized object is found to be \rho_F \approx 140\, \Phi^3 (\Phi+1) \rhoeq, where \rhoeq is the matter density at equal matter and radiation energy density. This expression is valid for the entire range of possible values of $\Phi$, both for $\Phi \gg 1$ and $\Phi \ll 1$. Some astrophysical consequences of high-density dark-matter clumps are discussed.Comment: 15 pages plus 3 figures (included at the end as a uuencoded postscript file), LaTeX, FNAL--PUB--94/055--

Efficient Photometric Selection of Quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: 100,000 z<3 Quasars from Data Release One

We present a catalog of 100,563 unresolved, UV-excess (UVX) quasar candidates to g=21 from 2099 deg^2 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release One (DR1) imaging data. Existing spectra of 22,737 sources reveals that 22,191 (97.6%) are quasars; accounting for the magnitude dependence of this efficiency, we estimate that 95,502 (95.0%) of the objects in the catalog are quasars. Such a high efficiency is unprecedented in broad-band surveys of quasars. This ``proof-of-concept'' sample is designed to be maximally efficient, but still has 94.7% completeness to unresolved, g<~19.5, UVX quasars from the DR1 quasar catalog. This efficient and complete selection is the result of our application of a probability density type analysis to training sets that describe the 4-D color distribution of stars and spectroscopically confirmed quasars in the SDSS. Specifically, we use a non-parametric Bayesian classification, based on kernel density estimation, to parameterize the color distribution of astronomical sources -- allowing for fast and robust classification. We further supplement the catalog by providing photometric redshifts and matches to FIRST/VLA, ROSAT, and USNO-B sources. Future work needed to extend the this selection algorithm to larger redshifts, fainter magnitudes, and resolved sources is discussed. Finally, we examine some science applications of the catalog, particularly a tentative quasar number counts distribution covering the largest range in magnitude (14.2<g<21.0) ever made within the framework of a single quasar survey.Comment: 35 pages, 11 figures (3 color), 2 tables, accepted by ApJS; higher resolution paper and ASCII version of catalog available at http://sdss.ncsa.uiuc.edu/qso/nbckde