1,318 research outputs found
Neutral outflows in high-redshift dusty galaxies
Outflows are crucially important for the gas budget and evolution of luminous star-forming galaxies and AGNs, with observed mass outflow rates of the same order as the star formation rate. Greater star formation and black hole growth lead to more intense feedback and outflows, resulting in self-regulated galaxy growth. Multi-phase observations show that the cool molecular and atomic gas dominate the mass and momentum budget of massive galaxy outflows which additionally remove the direct fuel for star formation. In this thesis we target the molecular and atomic outflows at cosmic noon and dawn where the most extreme star formation and black hole activity is found but where current observations are severely lacking. Techniques commonly used to detect outflows in the nearby universe with emission lines are, however, challenging or impossible with current technology at the high-redshifts of this thesis. Molecular absorption lines provide a powerful and reliable alternative which is demonstrated with the OH+ and OH molecules in this thesis. With observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), this thesis provides cutting-edge comparisons of molecular/neutral outflows at cosmic dawn/noon between star-forming galaxies and dusty quasar hosts. Galaxie
Spectral theory for the failure of linear control in a nonlinear stochastic system
We consider the failure of localized control in a nonlinear spatially
extended system caused by extremely small amounts of noise. It is shown that
this failure occurs as a result of a nonlinear instability. Nonlinear
instabilities can occur in systems described by linearly stable but strongly
nonnormal evolution operators. In spatially extended systems the nonnormality
manifests itself in two different but complementary ways: transient
amplification and spectral focusing of disturbances. We show that temporal and
spatial aspects of the nonnormality and the type of nonlinearity are all
crucially important to understanding and describing the mechanism of nonlinear
instability. Presented results are expected to apply equally to other physical
systems where strong nonnormality is due to the presence of mean flow rather
than the action of control.Comment: Submitted to Physical Review
ICT and environmental sustainability : a case study of a grassroots initiative
Increasingly, local communities develop projects and grassroots
initiatives that address climate change and other environmental sustainability
issues. These projects often commence informally and adopt web-based free
information and communication technologies (ICT) applications to support
their functioning. ICT applications are used to promote the goals of the project,
to recruit more supporters and to facilitate debate among citizens sympathetic to
the cause of environmental stewardship. However, as some of these projects
evolve they become more complex. Struggling with lack of funding, the
solution is to imaginatively combine free web-based ICT applications, to adapt
existing open source applications, and even to develop customized solutions to
address the projectâs needs. We present the results of an exploratory case study
of a grassroots initiative with environmental sustainability goals. The study
shows some evidence of innovative practices in the appropriation of ICTs and
in the communication campaign. Implications of this research for online
communities and society are also discussed.Fundação para a CiĂȘncia e a Tecnologia (FCT
Metallo-dielectric diamond and zinc-blende photonic crystals
It is shown that small inclusions of a low absorbing metal can have a
dramatic effect on the photonic band structure. In the case of diamond and
zinc-blende photonic crystals, several complete photonic band gaps (CPBG's) can
open in the spectrum, between the 2nd-3rd, 5th-6th, and 8th-9th bands. Unlike
in the purely dielectric case, in the presence of small inclusions of a low
absorbing metal the largest CPBG for a moderate dielectric constant
(epsilon<=10) turns out to be the 2nd-3rd CPBG. The 2nd-3rd CPBG is the most
important CPBG, because it is the most stable against disorder. For a diamond
and zinc-blende structure of nonoverlapping dielectric and metallo-dielectric
spheres, a CPBG begins to decrease with an increasing dielectric contrast
roughly at the point where another CPBG starts to open--a kind of gap
competition. A CPBG can even shrink to zero when the dielectric contrast
increases further. Metal inclusions have the biggest effect for the dielectric
constant 2<=epsilon<=12, which is a typical dielectric constant at near
infrared and in the visible for many materials, including semiconductors and
polymers. It is shown that one can create a sizeable and robust 2nd-3rd CPBG at
near infrared and visible wavelengths even for a photonic crystal which is
composed of more than 97% low refractive index materials (n<=1.45, i.e., that
of silica glass or a polymer). These findings open the door for any
semiconductor and polymer material to be used as genuine building blocks for
the creation of photonic crystals with a CPBG and significantly increase the
possibilities for experimentalists to realize a sizeable and robust CPBG in the
near infrared and in the visible. One possibility is a construction method
using optical tweezers, which is analyzed here.Comment: 25 pp, 23 figs, RevTex, to appear in Phys Rev B. For more information
look at
http://www.amolf.nl/research/photonic_materials_theory/moroz/moroz.htm
A novel length back-calculation approach accounting for ontogenetic changes in the fish length â otolith size relationship during the early life of sprat (Sprattus sprattus)
(Sprattus sprattus), accounting for ontogenetic changes in the relationship between fish length and otolith length. In sprat, metamorphosis from larvae to juveniles is characterized by the coincidence of low length growth, strong growth in body height, and maximal otolith growth. Consequently, the method identifies a point of metamorphosis for an individual as the otolith radius at maximum increment widths. By incorporating this information in our back-calculation method, estimated length growth for the early larval stage was more than 60% higher compared with the result of the biological intercept model. After minimal length growth during metamorphosis, we found the highest increase in length during the early juvenile stage. We thus located the strongest growth potential in the early juvenile stage, which is supposed to be critical in determining recruitment strength in Baltic sprat
Comparative Study of full QCD Hadron Spectrum and Static Quark Potential with Improved Actions
We investigate effects of action improvement on the light hadron spectrum and
the static quark potential in two-flavor QCD for GeV and
. We compare a renormalization group improved action with
the plaquette action for gluons, and the SW-clover action with the Wilson
action for quarks. We find a significant improvement in the hadron spectrum by
improving the quark action, while the gluon improvement is crucial for a
rotationally invariant static potential. We also explore the region of light
quark masses corresponding to on a 2.7 fm lattice using
the improved gauge and quark action. A flattening of the potential is not
observed up to 2 fm.Comment: LaTeX, 35 pages, 22 eps figures, uses revtex and eps
A Seat at the Table: Strategic Engagement in Service Activities for Early-Career Faculty From Underrepresented Groups in the Academy
Many academic institutions strive to promote more diverse and inclusive campuses for faculty, staff, and students. As part of this effort, these institutions seek to include individuals from historically underrepresented groups (URGs)-such as women, people from racial/ethnic minority populations, persons with disabilities-on committees and in other service activities. However, given the low number of faculty members from URGs at many institutions, these faculty members tend to receive more requests to provide service to the institution or department (e.g., serving on committees, mentoring) than their counterparts from majority groups. Faculty members from URGs, especially early-career faculty, thus risk becoming overburdened with providing service at the expense of working on other scholarly activities required for promotion and tenure (i.e., conducting research, publishing). Although many scholars and others have written about this "minority tax" and its implications for early-career faculty from underrepresented racial/ethnic minority groups, fewer have published about how this tax extends beyond racial/ethnic minorities to women and persons with disabilities. Further, the literature provides scant practical advice on how to avoid overburdening early-career faculty from URGs. Here, a group of multidisciplinary early- and mid-career faculty members from URGs seek to provide their peers from URGs with practical strategies for both evaluating the appropriateness of service requests and declining those that are not a good fit. The authors also provide institutional leaders with actionable recommendations to prevent early-career faculty from URGs from becoming overburdened with service
Impaired vision in children prenatally exposed to methadone: an observational cohort study
Background/objectives:
To examine prevalence of failed visual assessment at 8â10 years in children born to methadone-maintained opioid dependent (MMOD) mothers and relate this to known in utero substance exposure.
Subjects/methods:
Follow up of observational cohort study of methadone-exposed and comparison children matched for birthweight, gestation and postcode of residence at birth. Participants were 144 children (98 exposed, 46 comparison). Prenatal drug exposure was previously established via comprehensive maternal and neonatal toxicology. Children were invited to attend for visual assessment and casenotes were reviewed. Presence of acuity poorer than 0.2 logMAR, strabismus, nystagmus and/or impaired stereovision constituted a âfailâ. Fail rates were compared between methadone-exposed and comparison children after adjusting for known confounding variables.
Results:
33 children attended in person: data were also derived from casenote review for all children. After controlling for maternal reported tobacco use, methadone-exposed children were more likely to have a visual âfailâ outcome, adjusted odds ratio 2.6, 95% CI 1.1â6.2; adjusted relative risk 1.8 (95% CI 1.1â3.4). Visual âfailâ outcome rates did not differ between methadone-exposed children who had (nâ=â47) or had not (nâ=â51) received pharmacological treatment for neonatal abstinence/opioid withdrawal syndrome (NAS/NOWS); fail rate 62% vs 53% (95% CI of differenceâ11â27%).
Conclusions:
Children born to MMOD mothers are almost twice as likely as unexposed peers to have significant visual abnormalities at primary school age. Prenatal methadone exposure should be considered in the differential diagnosis of nystagmus. Findings support visual assessment prior to school entry for children with any history of prenatal opioid exposure.
Trial registration:
The study was prospectively registered on ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT03603301), https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03603301
Leptonic and Semileptonic Decays of Charm and Bottom Hadrons
We review the experimental measurements and theoretical descriptions of
leptonic and semileptonic decays of particles containing a single heavy quark,
either charm or bottom. Measurements of bottom semileptonic decays are used to
determine the magnitudes of two fundamental parameters of the standard model,
the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix elements and . These
parameters are connected with the physics of quark flavor and mass, and they
have important implications for the breakdown of CP symmetry. To extract
precise values of and from measurements, however,
requires a good understanding of the decay dynamics. Measurements of both charm
and bottom decay distributions provide information on the interactions
governing these processes. The underlying weak transition in each case is
relatively simple, but the strong interactions that bind the quarks into
hadrons introduce complications. We also discuss new theoretical approaches,
especially heavy-quark effective theory and lattice QCD, which are providing
insights and predictions now being tested by experiment. An international
effort at many laboratories will rapidly advance knowledge of this physics
during the next decade.Comment: This review article will be published in Reviews of Modern Physics in
the fall, 1995. This file contains only the abstract and the table of
contents. The full 168-page document including 47 figures is available at
http://charm.physics.ucsb.edu/papers/slrevtex.p
Planck 2015 results. XXVII. The Second Planck Catalogue of Sunyaev-Zeldovich Sources
We present the all-sky Planck catalogue of Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) sources detected from the 29 month full-mission data. The catalogue (PSZ2) is the largest SZ-selected sample of galaxy clusters yet produced and the deepest all-sky catalogue of galaxy clusters. It contains 1653 detections, of which 1203 are confirmed clusters with identified counterparts in external data-sets, and is the first SZ-selected cluster survey containing > confirmed clusters. We present a detailed analysis of the survey selection function in terms of its completeness and statistical reliability, placing a lower limit of 83% on the purity. Using simulations, we find that the Y5R500 estimates are robust to pressure-profile variation and beam systematics, but accurate conversion to Y500 requires. the use of prior information on the cluster extent. We describe the multi-wavelength search for counterparts in ancillary data, which makes use of radio, microwave, infra-red, optical and X-ray data-sets, and which places emphasis on the robustness of the counterpart match. We discuss the physical properties of the new sample and identify a population of low-redshift X-ray under- luminous clusters revealed by SZ selection. These objects appear in optical and SZ surveys with consistent properties for their mass, but are almost absent from ROSAT X-ray selected samples
- âŠ