Ground motion prediction at gravitational wave observatories using archival seismic data

Gravitational wave observatories have always been affected by tele-seismic earthquakes leading to a decrease in duty cycle and coincident observation time. In this analysis, we leverage the power of machine learning algorithms and archival seismic data to predict the ground motion and the state of the gravitational wave interferometer during the event of an earthquake. We demonstrate improvement from a factor of 5 to a factor of 2.5 in scatter of the error in the predicted ground velocity over a previous model fitting based approach. The level of accuracy achieved with this scheme makes it possible to switch control configuration during periods of excessive ground motion thus preventing the interferometer from losing lock. To further assess the accuracy and utility of our approach, we use IRIS seismic network data and obtain similar levels of agreement between the estimates and the measured amplitudes. The performance indicates that such an archival or prediction scheme can be extended beyond the realm of gravitational wave detector sites for hazard-based early warning alerts.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures; matches published versio

Assessing the outcomes of participatory research: protocol for identifying, selecting, appraising and synthesizing the literature for realist review

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Participatory Research (PR) entails the co-governance of research by academic researchers and end-users. End-users are those who are affected by issues under study (<it>e.g.</it>, community groups or populations affected by illness), or those positioned to act on the knowledge generated by research (<it>e.g.</it>, clinicians, community leaders, health managers, patients, and policy makers). Systematic reviews assessing the generalizable benefits of PR must address: the diversity of research topics, methods, and intervention designs that involve a PR approach; varying degrees of end-user involvement in research co-governance, both within and between projects; and the complexity of outcomes arising from long-term partnerships.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We addressed the above mentioned challenges by adapting realist review methodology to PR assessment, specifically by developing inductively-driven identification, selection, appraisal, and synthesis procedures. This approach allowed us to address the non-uniformity and complexity of the PR literature. Each stage of the review involved two independent reviewers and followed a reproducible, systematic coding and retention procedure. Retained studies were completed participatory health interventions, demonstrated high levels of participation by non-academic stakeholders (<it>i.e.</it>, excluding studies in which end-users were not involved in co-governing throughout the stages of research) and contained detailed descriptions of the participatory process and context. Retained sets are being mapped and analyzed using realist review methods.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The librarian-guided search string yielded 7,167 citations. A total of 594 citations were retained after the identification process. Eighty-three papers remained after selection. Principle Investigators (PIs) were contacted to solicit all companion papers. Twenty-three sets of papers (23 PR studies), comprising 276 publications, passed appraisal and are being synthesized using realist review methods.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>The systematic and stage-based procedure addressed challenges to PR assessment and generated our robust understanding of complex and heterogeneous PR practices. To date, realist reviews have focussed on evaluations of relatively uniform interventions. In contrast our PR search yielded a wide diversity of partnerships and research topics. We therefore developed tools to achieve conceptual clarity on the PR field, as a beneficial precursor to our theoretically-driven synthesis using realist methods. Findings from the ongoing review will be provided in forthcoming publications.</p

Upper limits on the strength of periodic gravitational waves from PSR J1939+2134

The first science run of the LIGO and GEO gravitational wave detectors presented the opportunity to test methods of searching for gravitational waves from known pulsars. Here we present new direct upper limits on the strength of waves from the pulsar PSR J1939+2134 using two independent analysis methods, one in the frequency domain using frequentist statistics and one in the time domain using Bayesian inference. Both methods show that the strain amplitude at Earth from this pulsar is less than a few times $10^{-22}$.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, to appear in the Proceedings of the 5th Edoardo Amaldi Conference on Gravitational Waves, Tirrenia, Pisa, Italy, 6-11 July 200

Improving the sensitivity to gravitational-wave sources by modifying the input-output optics of advanced interferometers

We study frequency dependent (FD) input-output schemes for signal-recycling interferometers, the baseline design of Advanced LIGO and the current configuration of GEO 600. Complementary to a recent proposal by Harms et al. to use FD input squeezing and ordinary homodyne detection, we explore a scheme which uses ordinary squeezed vacuum, but FD readout. Both schemes, which are sub-optimal among all possible input-output schemes, provide a global noise suppression by the power squeeze factor, while being realizable by using detuned Fabry-Perot cavities as input/output filters. At high frequencies, the two schemes are shown to be equivalent, while at low frequencies our scheme gives better performance than that of Harms et al., and is nearly fully optimal. We then study the sensitivity improvement achievable by these schemes in Advanced LIGO era (with 30-m filter cavities and current estimates of filter-mirror losses and thermal noise), for neutron star binary inspirals, and for narrowband GW sources such as low-mass X-ray binaries and known radio pulsars. Optical losses are shown to be a major obstacle for the actual implementation of these techniques in Advanced LIGO. On time scales of third-generation interferometers, like EURO/LIGO-III (~2012), with kilometer-scale filter cavities, a signal-recycling interferometer with the FD readout scheme explored in this paper can have performances comparable to existing proposals. [abridged]Comment: Figs. 9 and 12 corrected; Appendix added for narrowband data analysi

Search for gravitational wave bursts in LIGO's third science run

We report on a search for gravitational wave bursts in data from the three LIGO interferometric detectors during their third science run. The search targets subsecond bursts in the frequency range 100-1100 Hz for which no waveform model is assumed, and has a sensitivity in terms of the root-sum-square (rss) strain amplitude of hrss ~ 10^{-20} / sqrt(Hz). No gravitational wave signals were detected in the 8 days of analyzed data.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures. Amaldi-6 conference proceedings to be published in Classical and Quantum Gravit

Onoterade fastighetsbolags kriterier för att bli beviljade kredit

Att investera i fastigheter kräver kapital. Kapital kan bland annat erhållas från olika låneinstitut och riskkapitalbolag. Det traditionella sättet att införskaffa kapital är genom banklån. Av denna anledning uppfyller banker en viktig funktion i samhället. En stor del i bankens arbete består därmed i att bedöma kundens kreditvärdighet. I kreditbedömningen analyseras bolagets återbetalningsförmåga och ledning. Resultatet av denna studie visar att kreditbedömningsprocessen inte skiljer sig avsevärt mellan de olika bankerna. Viktiga aspekter som analyseras i bedömningen är kassaflödet och värdet på kreditens säkerhet. Bankerna gör i stort sett ingen skillnad på nystartade eller etablerade bolag, fokus ligger på erfarenhet och en bedömning av bolagets lönsamhet

Comparison of Ultraviolet Data From Colocated Instruments from the US EPA Brewer Spectrophotometer Network and the U.S. Department of Agriculture UV-B Monitoring and Research Program

Several ground-based ultraviolet (UV) monitoring networks exist in the United States, each of which is unique in the instrumentation employed for measurements. Two of these UV networks are the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Brewer Spectrophotometer Network and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) UV-B monitoring network, with a combined instrument total of 52 sites, with 32 sites located in the mainland United States. The Brewer records full sky spectra from 287 to 363 nm with 0.55-nm resolution, whereas the USDA instrument is a broadband device that measures broadband erythemally weighted UV data. To date, limited comparisons of data collected from these networks have been analyzed for comparative and quality assurance (QA) purposes. The data we use is taken from sites where instruments from each program are colocated, namely, Big Bend National Park, Texas, and Everglades National Park, Florida. To reduce the contribution of errors in the Brewer-based instruments, the raw data is corrected for stray light rejection, the angular response of the full sky diffuser, the temperature dependence of the instruments, and the temporal variation. This reduces the estimated errors of the absolute irradiance values of each Brewer spectral measurement to approximately ±5%. The estimated uncertainty of the USDA instruments is approximately ±6% with a systematic bias of (–13 to 5% depending on the total ozone) and is comprised of (1) standard lamp measurement errors, (2) spectral response determination, and (3) the angular response of the diffuser. We perform comparisons between the Brewer spectrally integrated and erythemally weighted UV irradiance measurements and the data collected by the broadband erythemal UV meters at colocated sites between 1997 through to 2002. ©2005 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers

Veritas & Vanitas: A Journal of Creative Nonfiction

A journal of creative nonfiction produced by students at the Marion campus of The Ohio State University with contributions from the students and faculty at the Marion campus of The Ohio State University and Marion Technical College