First Weak-lensing Results from "See Change": Quantifying Dark Matter in the Two Z>1.5 High-redshift Galaxy Clusters SPT-CL J2040-4451 and IDCS J1426+3508

We present a weak-lensing study of SPT-CLJ2040-4451 and IDCSJ1426+3508 at z=1.48 and 1.75, respectively. The two clusters were observed in our "See Change" program, a HST survey of 12 massive high-redshift clusters aimed at high-z supernova measurements and weak-lensing estimation of accurate cluster masses. We detect weak but significant galaxy shape distortions using IR images from the WFC3, which has not yet been used for weak-lensing studies. Both clusters appear to possess relaxed morphology in projected mass distribution, and their mass centroids agree nicely with those defined by both the galaxy luminosity and X-ray emission. Using an NFW profile, for which we assume that the mass is tightly correlated with the concentration parameter, we determine the masses of SPT-CL J2040-4451 and IDCS J1426+3508 to be M_{200}=8.6_{-1.4}^{+1.7}x10^14 M_sun and 2.2_{-0.7}^{+1.1}x10^14 M_sun, respectively. The weak-lensing mass of SPT-CLJ2040-4451 shows that the cluster is clearly a rare object. Adopting the central value, the expected abundance of such a massive cluster at z>1.48 is only ~0.07 in the parent 2500 sq. deg. survey. However, it is yet premature to claim that the presence of this cluster creates a serious tension with the current LCDM paradigm unless that tension will remain in future studies after marginalizing over many sources of uncertainties such as the accuracy of the mass function and the mass-concentration relation at the high mass end. The mass of IDCSJ1426+3508 is in excellent agreement with our previous ACS-based weak-lensing result while the much higher source density from our WFC3 imaging data makes the current statistical uncertainty ~40% smaller.Comment: Accepted to Ap

Graduate Sessions 8: Neil Denari

Neil Denari is the founder and principal of Neil M. Denari Architects, Inc. He was the director of SCI-Arc from 1997 to 2001 and is currently a professor in the Architecture and Urban Design Department at UCLA. His lecture at Syracuse Architecture, entitled The New Intimacy, is one of over two hundred he has given at institutions throughout France, Japan, and the United States

Using Integrative Approach to Working with Small-Scale farmers

The authors present an argument for reshaping rural extension based on their programming and research experiences in Africa and Asia. The book is composed of four major sections: (a) Extension confronts new opportunities and challenges, (b) The fundamentals of agricultural extension, (c) Learning for Sustainability (LforS) — A learning-oriented integrative extension approach, and (d) Developing and managing an integrative learning-oriented extension approach. In the first section, the authors highlight the need to take smallholder farmers into account when addressing Millennium Development goals. This section, further, provides recommendations for extension and advisory services working with smallholder farmers. They make the case for extension and advisory service to use integrative approaches when working with this population. The second section provides a short background on extension and advisory services and concludes that “the more successful… agricultural extension is in adapting its activities and methods to the prevailing economic, social and ecological environment, the greater will be its chances of success” (p. 13). The third section introduces their integrated model, Learning for Sustainability. This model has seven components: stakeholder dialogue, organizational development, knowledge management, awareness raising, capacity building, social mobilisation for implementation, and monitoring and evaluation. The authors use case studies to document how the model has been used. The fourth section focuses on key elements necessary for an extension or advisory service to be effective in addressing its clientele’s needs. The authors’ overall approach to this book was to provide key insights into reshaping rural extension, based on their collective experiences. The book is not a prescriptive formula for bringing about their recommended changes; rather it establishes parameters (approaches, methods, and tools) from which extension and advisory services may consider changes. The authors note that the approach they present is an “idealized example” (p. XI) of what could be

The Promise and Perils of CNS Drug Delivery: A Video Debate

Neurodegenerative and infectious disorders related to host genetics, aging, and environment are rapidly increasing. Drugs, vaccines, or regenerative proteins offer “real” possibilities for positively affecting disease outcomes but are limited by access across the blood-brain barrier. New developments in nanomedicine and cell based drug delivery are becoming available. These discoveries can lead to improved neurological disease outcomes. Such obstacles include the toxicities inherent in the delivery systems de novo such as immuno- and neurological dysfunctions and perturbations of blood-brain barrier function. This debate by leading experts in the field highlights the promise and perils of CNS drug delivery. Click on Supplemental HTML to watch the streaming video

Graduate Sessions 9: Keller Easterling

Keller Easterling is an architect, professor, urbanist, and writer whose books Enduring Innocence: Global Architecture and Its Political Masquerades and Organization Space: Landscapes, Highways and Houses in America offer original and provocative conflations of spatial theory and contemporary design

Graduate Sessions 7: Anthony Vidler

Anthony Vidler is Dean of the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of The Cooper Union. His books include Histories of the Immediate Present, The Architectural Uncanny, Warped Space, and The Writing of the Walls

Graduate Sessions 1: Sylvia Lavin

Sylvia Lavin is Professor of Architecture at UCLA and writes widely on contemporary architecture and theory. She recently completed a year as a Getty Scholar where she was working on her next book, The Flash in the Pan and Other Forms of Architectural Contemporaneity. She is co-editor of Crib Sheets (Monacelli Press, 2005) and the author of Form Follows Libido: Architecture and Richard Neutra in a Psychoanalytic Culture (MIT Press, 2005)

Graduate Sessions 10: Preston Scott Cohen

Preston Scott Cohen, founder of Preston Scott Cohen, Inc., is the Chair of Architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He is the author of Contested Symmetries and numerous theoretical and historical essays as well as the designer of several significant cultural institutions, urban plans, and residences for which he has received awards and honors including the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Architecture