Evaluating Throwing Ability in Baseball

We present a quantitative analysis of throwing ability for major league outfielders and catchers. We use detailed game event data to tabulate success and failure events in outfielder and catcher throwing opportunities. We attribute a run contribution to each success or failure which are tabulated for each player in each season. We use four seasons of data to estimate the overall throwing ability of each player using a Bayesian hierarchical model. This model allows us to shrink individual player estimates towards an overall population mean depending on the number of opportunities for each player. We use the posterior distribution of player abilities from this model to identify players with significant positive and negative throwing contributions.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sport

Stochastic transport in the presence of spatial disorder: fluctuation-induced corrections to homogenization

Motivated by uncertainty quantification in natural transport systems, we investigate an individual-based transport process involving particles undergoing a random walk along a line of point sinks whose strengths are themselves independent random variables. We assume particles are removed from the system via first-order kinetics. We analyse the system using a hierarchy of approaches when the sinks are sparsely distributed, including a stochastic homogenization approximation that yields explicit predictions for the extrinsic disorder in the stationary state due to sink strength fluctuations. The extrinsic noise induces long-range spatial correlations in the particle concentration, unlike fluctuations due to the intrinsic noise alone. Additionally, the mean concentration profile, averaged over both intrinsic and extrinsic noise, is elevated compared with the corresponding profile from a uniform sink distribution, showing that the classical homogenization approximation can be a biased estimator of the true mean.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figure

HIKING TRAIL GENERATION IN INFINITE LANDSCAPES

This project procedurally generates an infinite wilderness populated with deterministic hiking trails. Our approach recognizes that hiking trails depend on contextual information beyond the location of the path itself. To address this, we implemented a layered procedural system that orchestrates the generation process. This helps ensure the availability of contextual data at each stage. The first layer handles terrain generation, establishing the foundational landscape upon which trails will traverse. Subsequent layers handle point of interest identification and selection, trail network optimization through proximity graphs, and efficient pathfinding across the terrain. A notable feature of our approach is the deterministic nature of the hiking trails. This characteristic removes the need for storing trail or terrain data, as this technique regenerates the same terrain and paths from any starting point and approach direction. The result is an immersive, boundlessly explorable wilderness

THE EFFECTS OF A CLOTH WRAP IN STABILIZATION OF THE ANKLE

This study aimed to examine the effects of the cloth wrap in ankle stabilization, since there is limited research of cloth wrap ankle stabilization. Twenty subjects (13 female, 7 male) were utilized in this study. Three conditions were performed on each ankle ( Baseline, Wrapped, and Unwrapped). Results showed the only significant difference (p smaller than 0.01) found were the main effects for condition (Baseline vs. Wrapped, vs. Unwrapped). A significant interaction of condition by gender was also found (p=0.034). None of the other interactions were significant (p>0.05). It was concluded that the cloth wrap may have decreased the subject's proprioception. Females also stabilized out faster than males, possibly due to a lower center of gravity (COG)

Realtime Visualization of Kafka Architectures

Apache Kafka specializes in the transfer of incredibly large amounts of data in real-time between devices. However, it can be difficult to comprehend the inner workings of Kafka. Often, to get real-time data, a user must run complicated commands from within the Kafka CLI. Our contribution is a tool that monitors Kafka consumers, producers, and topics, and displays the flow of events between them in a web-based dashboard. This dashboard serves to reduce the complexity of Kafka and enables users unfamiliar with the platform and protocol to better understand how their architecture is configured

Emission Line Properties of Seyfert Galaxies in the 12 Micron Sample

We present spectroscopy of emission lines for 81 Seyfert 1 and 104 Seyfert 2 galaxies in the IRAS 12$\mu$m galaxy sample. We analyzed the emission-line luminosity functions, reddening, and other gas diagnostics. The narrow-line regions (NLR) of Sy1 and 2 galaxies do not significantly differ from each other in most of these diagnostics. Combining the H$\alpha$/H$\beta$ ratio with a new reddening indicator-the [SII]6720/[OII]3727 ratio, we find the average $E(B-V)=0.49\pm0.35$ for Sy1s and $0.52\pm0.26$ for Sy2s. The NLR of Sy1 galaxies has only marginally higher ionization than the Sy2s. Our sample includes 22 Sy1.9s and 1.8s. In their narrow lines, these low-luminosity Seyferts are more similar to the Sy2s than the Sy1s. We construct a BPT diagram, and include the Sy1.8s and 1.9s. They overlap the region occupied by the Sy2s. The C IV equivalent width correlates more strongly with [O III]/H$\beta$ than with UV luminosity. The Sy1 and Sy2 luminosity functions of [OII]3727 and [OIII]5007 are indistinguishable. Unlike the LF's of Seyfert galaxies measured by SDSS, ours are nearly flat at low L. The larger number of faint Sloan "AGN" is attributable to their inclusion of weakly emitting LINERs and H II+AGN "composite" nuclei, which do not meet our classification criteria for Seyferts. An Appendix investigates which emission line luminosities provide the most reliable measures of the total non-stellar luminosity. The hard X-ray or near-ultraviolet continuum luminosity can be crudely predicted from either the [O III]5007 luminosity, or the combination of [O III]+H$\beta$, or [N II]+H$\alpha$ lines, with a scatter of $\pm\,4$ times for the Sy1s and $\pm\,10$ times for the Sy2s. The latter two hybrid (NLR+BLR) indicators have the advantage of predicting the same HX luminosity independent of Seyfert type.Comment: 70 pages, including 15 Figures and 10 Tables. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa

Complex band structure and electronic transmission

The function of nano-scale devices critically depends on the choice of materials. For electron transport junctions it is natural to characterize the materials by their conductance length dependence, $\beta$. Theoretical estimations of $\beta$ are made employing two primary theories: complex band structure and DFT-NEGF Landauer transport. Both reveal information on $\beta$ of individual states; i.e. complex Bloch waves and transmission eigenchannels, respectively. However, it is unclear how the $\beta$-values of the two approaches compare. Here, we present calculations of decay constants for the two most conductive states as determined by complex band structure and standard DFT-NEGF transport calculations for two molecular and one semi-conductor junctions. Despite the different nature of the two methods, we find strong agreement of the calculated decay constants for the molecular junctions while the semi-conductor junction shows some discrepancies. The results presented here provide a template for studying the intrinsic, channel resolved length dependence of the junction through complex band structure of the central material in the heterogeneous nano-scale junction.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure