The Crane-Fly \u3ci\u3eTipula (Tipula)\u3c/i\u3e Oleracea (Diptera: Tipulidae) Reported From Michigan; A New Pest of Turfgrass in Eastern North America.

(excerpt) The subgenus Tipula (Tipula) is an Old World group with two introduced species in North America, the European Crane Fly, Tipula (T.) paludosa Meigen and T. (T.) oleracea Linnaeus, sometimes called the Common Crane Fly (Oosterbroek, 2005). Tipula paludosa is better known in North America, long established in the Pacific Northwest (Jackson 1975) and Canadian Maritimes provinces (Alexander 1962), more recently in California (Umble and Rao 2004, S. Gaimari, California Dept. Food and Agriculture, pers. comm.). It is a leading insect pest of turf grass and pastures in these areas, including infestin

Nonparametric estimation of a convex bathtub-shaped hazard function

In this paper, we study the nonparametric maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) of a convex hazard function. We show that the MLE is consistent and converges at a local rate of $n^{2/5}$ at points $x_0$ where the true hazard function is positive and strictly convex. Moreover, we establish the pointwise asymptotic distribution theory of our estimator under these same assumptions. One notable feature of the nonparametric MLE studied here is that no arbitrary choice of tuning parameter (or complicated data-adaptive selection of the tuning parameter) is required.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.3150/09-BEJ202 the Bernoulli (http://isi.cbs.nl/bernoulli/) by the International Statistical Institute/Bernoulli Society (http://isi.cbs.nl/BS/bshome.htm

Estimation of a discrete monotone distribution

We study and compare three estimators of a discrete monotone distribution: (a) the (raw) empirical estimator; (b) the "method of rearrangements" estimator; and (c) the maximum likelihood estimator. We show that the maximum likelihood estimator strictly dominates both the rearrangement and empirical estimators in cases when the distribution has intervals of constancy. For example, when the distribution is uniform on $\{0, ..., y \}$, the asymptotic risk of the method of rearrangements estimator (in squared $\ell_2$ norm) is $y/(y+1)$, while the asymptotic risk of the MLE is of order $(\log y)/(y+1)$. For strictly decreasing distributions, the estimators are asymptotically equivalent.Comment: 39 pages. See also http://www.stat.washington.edu/www/research/reports/2009/ http://www.stat.washington.edu/jaw/RESEARCH/PAPERS/available.htm

Stellar Populations in Bulges

We present line strengths in the bulges and inner disks of 38 galaxies in the local universe, including several galaxies whose bulges were previously identified as being disk-like in their colors or kinematics, to see if their spectral properties reveal evidence for secular evolution. We find that red bulges of all Hubble types are similar to luminous ellipticals in their central stellar populations. They have large luminosity-weighted ages, metallicities, and alpha/Fe ratios. Blue bulges can be separated into a metal-poor class that is restricted to late-types with small velocity dispersion and a young, metal-rich class that includes all Hubble types and velocity dispersions. Luminosity-weighted metallicities and alpha/Fe ratios are sensitive to central velocity dispersion and maximum disk rotational velocity. Red bulges and ellipticals follow the same scaling relations. We see differences in some scaling relations between blue and red bulges and between bulges of barred and unbarred galaxies. Most bulges have decreasing metallicity with increasing radius; galaxies with larger central metallicities have steeper gradients. Where positive age gradients (with the central regions being younger) are present, they are invariably in barred galaxies. The metallicities of bulges are correlated with those of their disks. While this and the differences between barred and unbarred galaxies suggest that secular evolution cannot be ignored, our results are generally consistent with the hypothesis that mergers have been the dominant mechanism responsible for bulge formation.Comment: 30 pages, 21 figures; submitted to MNRA

Accounting for Multiplicity in Calculating Eta Earth

Using the updated exoplanet population parameters of our previous study, which includes the planetary radius updates from Gaia DR2 and an inferred multiplicity distribution, we provide a revised $\eta_{\oplus}$ calculation. This is achieved by sampling planets from our derived population model and determining which planets meet our criterion for habitability. To ensure robust results, we provide probabilities calculated over a range of upper radius limits. Our most optimistic criterion for habitability provides an $\eta_{\oplus}$ value of $0.34\pm 0.02 \frac{\rm planets}{\rm star}$. We also consider the effects of multiplicity and the number of habitable planets each system may contain. Our calculation indicates that $6.4\pm0.5\%$ of GK dwarfs have more than one planet within their habitable zone. This optimistic habitability criterion also suggests that $0.036\pm0.009\%$ of solar-like stars will harbor 5 or more habitable planets. These tightly packed highly habitable system should be extremely rare, but still possible. Even with our most pessimistic criterion we still expect that $1.8\pm0.2\%$ of solar-like stars harbor more than one habitable planet.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure; Accepted for publication in MNRA

Fractional ac Josephson effect in p- and d-wave superconductors

For certain orientations of Josephson junctions between two p_x-wave or two d-wave superconductors, the subgap Andreev bound states produce a 4pi-periodic relation between the Josephson current I and the phase difference phi: I sin(phi/2). Consequently, the ac Josephson current has the fractional frequency eV/h, where V is the dc voltage. In the tunneling limit, the Josephson current is proportional to the first power (not square) of the electron tunneling amplitude. Thus, the Josephson current between unconventional superconductors is carried by single electrons, rather than by Cooper pairs. The fractional ac Josephson effect can be observed experimentally by measuring frequency spectrum of microwave radiation from the junction. We also study junctions between singlet s-wave and triplet p_x-wave, as well as between chiral p_x + ip_y-wave superconductors.Comment: v. 5: minor update of references in proofs; v.4: minor improvements; v.3: major expansion to 13 pages, 6 figures; v.2: significantly expanded to 6 pages; v.1: 4 pages, 2 figures, RevTeX