3,731 research outputs found

    BlogForever D2.4: Weblog spider prototype and associated methodology

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    The purpose of this document is to present the evaluation of different solutions for capturing blogs, established methodology and to describe the developed blog spider prototype

    Shackled to the Status Quo: A Replication

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    We conducted a methodological replication of the Polites and Karahanna (2012) model of incumbent system influence on switching to a new Information System using e-mail systems Gmail and Inbox as the incumbent and new systems, respectively. Our replication results support much of the original study. Inertia to use the existing system significantly affected intentions to use the new system. Inertia also affected perceptions of the new system (perceived ease of use and relative advantage) which in turn affected intentions. We found a few differences from the original study and highlight what we consider the major ones. First, the original study found that sunk costs, incumbent system habit, and transition costs all significantly influenced inertia, whereas we found that only sunk costs had a significant influence on inertia. We attribute this to the differences in technologies studied; the original study examined a technology that required a change in both software and work processes whereas we studied a technology switch that only required a change in software (no major change in work processes). Second, the original study found a complex two-part moderation of inertia on the relationship between subjective norm and intentions, while we found a simple direct effect of subjective norm on intentions with no moderation. We also attribute this to the differences in technologies studied; the original study examined a technology that required mutual switch by two parties whereas we studied a technology that required a switch by only one

    Testing for Features in the Primordial Power Spectrum

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    Well-known causality arguments show that events occurring during or at the end of inflation, associated with reheating or preheating, could contribute a blue component to the spectrum of primordial curvature perturbations, with the dependence k^3. We explore the possibility that they could be observably large in CMB, LSS, and Lyman-alpha data. We find that a k^3 component with a cutoff at some maximum k can modestly improve the fits (Delta chi^2=2.0, 5.4) of the low multipoles (l ~ 10 - 50) or the second peak (l ~ 540) of the CMB angular spectrum when the three-year WMAP data are used. Moreover, the results from WMAP are consistent with the CBI, ACBAR, 2dFGRS, and SDSS data when they are included in the analysis. Including the SDSS galaxy clustering power spectrum, we find weak positive evidence for the k^3 component at the level of Delta chi' = 2.4, with the caveat that the nonlinear evolution of the power spectrum may not be properly treated in the presence of the k^3 distortion. To investigate the high-k regime, we use the Lyman-alpha forest data (LUQAS, Croft et al., and SDSS Lyman-alpha); here we find evidence at the level Delta chi^2' = 3.8. Considering that there are two additional free parameters in the model, the above results do not give a strong evidence for features; however, they show that surprisingly large bumps are not ruled out. We give constraints on the ratio between the k^3 component and the nearly scale-invariant component, r_3 < 1.5, over the range of wave numbers 0.0023/Mpc < k < 8.2/Mpc. We also discuss theoretical models which could lead to the k^3 effect, including ordinary hybrid inflation and double D-term inflation models. We show that the well-motivated k^3 component is also a good representative of the generic spikelike feature in the primordial perturbation power spectrum.Comment: 23 pages, 6 figures; added new section on theoretical motivation for k^3 term, and discussion of double D-term hybrid inflation models; title changed, added a new section discussing the generic spikelike features, published in IJMP

    A Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect Survey for High Redshift Clusters

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    Interferometric observations of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect (SZE) toward clusters of galaxies provide sensitive cosmological probes. We present results from 1 cm observations (at BIMA and OVRO) of a large, intermediate redshift cluster sample. In addition, we describe a proposed, higher sensitivity array which will enable us to survey large portions of the sky. Simulated observations indicate that we will be able to survey one square degree of sky per month to sufficient depth that we will detect all galaxy clusters more massive than 2x10^{14} h^{-1}_{50}M_\odot, regardless of their redshift. We describe the cluster yield and resulting cosmological constraints from such a survey.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, latex, contribution to VLT Opening Symposiu
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