UND University Village Development: Finding Community in a Diversely Populated Area

Campus planning has become an increasingly important topic over the past twenty years in the field of city planning. With many state?s universities growing at an alarming rate university officials are beginning to wonder were to look for expansion. This thesis project focuses mainly on how to integrate a new style of public university that begins to fund itself through the events that are located on campus. With this new type of development there are concerns about losing the idea of focusing the attention on the student and turning towards just trying to turn a profit. This is the case on the University of North Dakota Campus. This campus has recently expanded its boundaries to include a luxurious new hockey arena that draws in fans from around the Midwest. With such a fan draw the University is looking into ways to incorporate these new visitors into their campus without disturbing the educational element of the college. One way to achieve this goal is to promote a mixed-use development that incorporates all the users into the same site at different times. This type of high-density development will allow the University to expand its student base onto the site and allow for visitors to enjoy the college atmosphere. This thesis is focused mainly on how to integrate these two groups (visitors and students) and the Universities existing alumni who also have an interest in the site. The main idea behind this design is a form of development called New Urbanism. This type of development promotes mixed-use development at a pedestrian scale. This project will also focus on the ideas of campus planning and transit orientated design or TOD. This thesis project will attempt to create a new type of campus design which will further move the University into the community

The Mass-Richness Relation of MaxBCG Clusters from Quasar Lensing Magnification using Variability

Accurate measurement of galaxy cluster masses is an essential component not only in studies of cluster physics, but also for probes of cosmology. However, different mass measurement techniques frequently yield discrepant results. The SDSS MaxBCG catalog's mass-richness relation has previously been constrained using weak lensing shear, Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ), and X-ray measurements. The mass normalization of the clusters as measured by weak lensing shear is >~25% higher than that measured using SZ and X-ray methods, a difference much larger than the stated measurement errors in the analyses. We constrain the mass-richness relation of the MaxBCG galaxy cluster catalog by measuring the gravitational lensing magnification of type I quasars in the background of the clusters. The magnification is determined using the quasars' variability and the correlation between quasars' variability amplitude and intrinsic luminosity. The mass-richness relation determined through magnification is in agreement with that measured using shear, confirming that the lensing strength of the clusters implies a high mass normalization, and that the discrepancy with other methods is not due to a shear-related systematic measurement error. We study the dependence of the measured mass normalization on the cluster halo orientation. As expected, line-of-sight clusters yield a higher normalization; however, this minority of haloes does not significantly bias the average mass-richness relation of the catalog.Comment: 9 pages. Accepted for publication in Ap

Too sophisticated even for highly educated survey respondents? A qualitative assessment of indirect question formats for sensitive questions

Acknowledgements We thank the anonymous reviewers for their concise comments and constructive feedback on our work. We also thank Nicola Babamov, Christophe Heger, Beatrice Schulz, Madeleine Siegel, Nikita Sorgatz, and Anastasiia Tcypina for their assistance with the transcription of the interviews as well as Brian Cooper for proofreading. David Johann would like to thank the German Center for higher Education Research and Science (DZHW) for their support in providing fund for interviewing and transcription. Kathrin Thomas was Research Associate at City, University of London, when the initial phase of the project started and would like to thank City for its support. Heiko Rauhut acknowledges funding from the SNSF by the Starting Grant BSS-GIO 155981 “Social norms, cooperation and conflict in scientific collaborations”. Authors in alphabetical order. Idea: David Johann. Design: Julia Jerke, David Johann, Heiko Rauhut, Kathrin Thomas. Interviews: Julia Jerke, David Johann, Kathrin Thomas. Coding and Analysis: Julia Jerke, David Johann, Heiko Rauhut, Kathrin Thomas. Text: Julia Jerke, David Johann, Heiko Rauhut, Kathrin Thomas. Final approval of the paper: Julia Jerke, David Johann, Heiko Rauhut, Kathrin ThomasPeer reviewedPublisher PD

The Zurich Survey of Academics: Methods, Design, and Data

The Zurich Survey of Academics is a large-scale and representative web survey among scientists at universities in Switzerland, Germany, and Austria (DACH region). The survey was conducted in 2020 and includes N=15,778 scientists from 263 universities. The survey is motivated by recent developments, such as the significant increase of team work in science and problems of how to organize fair and sustainable collaborations. It also reflects recent discussions around the replication crisis, problems of scientific integrity, and the apparently increasing pressures in scientific work. The aim of the survey is to obtain in-depth insights from researchers in Europe. The survey includes a number of new measurements, such as vignettes, factorial surveys, behavioral games, an Implicit Association Test on misconduct, indirect questioning techniques for eliciting scientific misconduct, randomized survey experiments on selective publishing behavior, and more. These measurements are applied to elicit, among other things, selfish versus prosocial behavior of scientists, authorship norms, and provisions of collective goods in science. This document describes the most innovative elements of the survey and the core item batteries, questions, games, behavioral tasks, and how permission to record linkage with individual bibliometric data was obtained. In addition, the specifics of the sampling and data-cleaning are described. The document serves as a companion for informing about the questionnaire and the data for data analysts, interested researchers, reviewers, and those interested in learning more about the specifics of the survey contents and the data structure. The document further entails links to additional material and documents, such as the codebook, ethics approval, and data protection. The survey is part of the larger-scale SNF/ERC Starting grant project “Social Norms, Cooperation and Conflict in Scientific Collaborations”

Handle with Care : Implementation of the List Experiment and Crosswise Model in a Large-Scale Survey on Academic Misconduct

Funding Information: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research is supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), Starting Grant “CONCISE” BSSGIO 155981 of Heiko Rauhut. Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2021. Copyright: Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.Peer reviewedPostprin

The QUEST Data Processing Software Pipeline

A program that we call the QUEST Data Processing Software Pipeline has been written to process the large volumes of data produced by the QUEST camera on the Samuel Oschin Schmidt Telescope at the Palomar Observatory. The program carries out both aperture and PSF photometry, combines data from different repeated observations of the same portion of sky, and produces a Master Object Catalog. A rough calibration of the data is carried out. This program, as well as the calibration procedures and quality checks on the output are described.Comment: 17 pages, 1 table, 8 figure

Blazar Optical Variability in the Palomar-QUEST Survey

We study the ensemble optical variability of 276 FSRQs and 86 BL Lacs in the Palomar-QUEST Survey with the goal of searching for common fluctuation properties, examining the range of behavior across the sample, and characterizing the appearance of blazars in such a survey so that future work can more easily identify such objects. The survey, which covers 15,000 square degrees multiple times over 3.5 years, allows for the first ensemble blazar study of this scale. Variability amplitude distributions are shown for the FSRQ and BL Lac samples for numerous time lags, and also studied through structure function analyses. Individual blazars show a wide range of variability amplitudes, timescales, and duty cycles. Of the best sampled objects, 35% are seen to vary by more than 0.4 magnitudes; for these, the fraction of measurements contributing to the high amplitude variability ranges constantly from about 5% to 80%. Blazar variability has some similarities to that of type I quasars but includes larger amplitude fluctuations on all timescales. FSRQ variability amplitudes are particularly similar to those of QSOs on timescales of several months, suggesting significant contributions from the accretion disk to the variable flux at these timescales. Optical variability amplitudes are correlated with the maximum apparent velocities of the radio jet for the subset of FSRQs with MOJAVE VLBA measurements, implying that the optically variable flux's strength is typically related to that of the radio emission. We also study CRATES radio-selected FSRQ candidates, which show similar variability characteristics to known FSRQs; this suggests a high purity for the CRATES sample.Comment: 29 pages, 12 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap

Measuring Lensing Magnification of Quasars by Large Scale Structure using the Variability-Luminosity Relation

We introduce a technique to measure gravitational lensing magnification using the variability of type I quasars. Quasars' variability amplitudes and luminosities are tightly correlated, on average. Magnification due to gravitational lensing increases the quasars' apparent luminosity, while leaving the variability amplitude unchanged. Therefore, the mean magnification of an ensemble of quasars can be measured through the mean shift in the variability-luminosity relation. As a proof of principle, we use this technique to measure the magnification of quasars spectroscopically identified in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, due to gravitational lensing by galaxy clusters in the SDSS MaxBCG catalog. The Palomar-QUEST Variability Survey, reduced using the DeepSky pipeline, provides variability data for the sources. We measure the average quasar magnification as a function of scaled distance (r/R200) from the nearest cluster; our measurements are consistent with expectations assuming NFW cluster profiles, particularly after accounting for the known uncertainty in the clusters' centers. Variability-based lensing measurements are a valuable complement to shape-based techniques because their systematic errors are very different, and also because the variability measurements are amenable to photometric errors of a few percent and to depths seen in current wide-field surveys. Given the data volume expected from current and upcoming surveys, this new technique has the potential to be competitive with weak lensing shear measurements of large scale structure.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap

Highly Variable Objects in the Palomar-QUEST Survey: A Blazar Search using Optical Variability

We identify 3,113 highly variable objects in 7,200 square degrees of the Palomar-QUEST Survey, which each varied by more than 0.4 magnitudes simultaneously in two broadband optical filters on timescales from hours to roughly 3.5 years. The primary goal of the selection is to find blazars by their well-known violent optical variability. Because most known blazars have been found in radio and/or X-ray wavelengths, a sample discovered through optical variability may have very different selection effects, elucidating the range of behavior possible in these systems. A set of blazars selected in this unusual manner will improve our understanding of the physics behind this extremely variable and diverse class of AGN. The object positions, variability statistics, and color information are available using the Palomar-QUEST CasJobs server. The time domain is just beginning to be explored over large sky areas; we do not know exactly what a violently variable sample will hold. About 20% of the sample has been classified in the literature; over 70% of those objects are known or likely AGN. The remainder largely consists of a variety of variable stars, including a number of RR Lyrae and cataclysmic variables.Comment: 22 pages (preprint format), 2 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ. References update

Antimicrobial resistance surveillance in the AFHSC-GEIS network

International infectious disease surveillance has been conducted by the United States (U.S.) Department of Defense (DoD) for many years and has been consolidated within the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center, Division of Global Emerging Infections Surveillance and Response System (AFHSC-GEIS) since 1998. This includes activities that monitor the presence of antimicrobial resistance among pathogens. AFHSC-GEIS partners work within DoD military treatment facilities and collaborate with host-nation civilian and military clinics, hospitals and university systems. The goals of these activities are to foster military force health protection and medical diplomacy. Surveillance activities include both community-acquired and health care-associated infections and have promoted the development of surveillance networks, centers of excellence and referral laboratories. Information technology applications have been utilized increasingly to aid in DoD-wide global surveillance for diseases significant to force health protection and global public health. This section documents the accomplishments and activities of the network through AFHSC-GEIS partners in 2009