1,673 research outputs found
The Formation of Galactic Disks
We study the population of galactic disks expected in current hierarchical
clustering models for structure formation. A rotationally supported disk with
exponential surface density profile is assumed to form with a mass and angular
momentum which are fixed fractions of those of its surrounding dark halo. We
assume that haloes respond adiabatically to disk formation, and that only
stable disks can correspond to real systems. With these assumptions the
predicted population can match both present-day disks and the damped Lyman
alpha absorbers in QSO spectra. Good agreement is found provided: (i) the
masses of disks are a few percent of those of their haloes; (ii) the specific
angular momenta of disks are similar to those of their haloes; (iii)
present-day disks were assembled recently (at z<1). In particular, the observed
scatter in the size-rotation velocity plane is reproduced, as is the slope and
scatter of the Tully-Fisher relation. The zero-point of the TF relation is
matched for a stellar mass-to-light ratio of 1 to 2 h in the I-band, consistent
with observational values derived from disk dynamics. High redshift disks are
predicted to be small and dense, and could plausibly merge together to form the
observed population of elliptical galaxies. In many (but not all) currently
popular cosmogonies, disks with rotation velocities exceeding 200 km/s can
account for a third or more of the observed damped Lyman alpha systems at
z=2.5. Half of the lines-of-sight to such systems are predicted to intersect
the absorber at r>3kpc/h and about 10% at r>10kpc/h. The cross-section for
absorption is strongly weighted towards disks with large angular momentum and
so large size for their mass. The galaxy population associated with damped
absorbers should thus be biased towards low surface brightness systems.Comment: 47 pages, Latex, aaspp4.sty, 14 figs included, submitted to MNRA
Safety and efficacy of vismodegib in patients aged ≥65 years with advanced basal cell carcinoma.
Because many patients with unresectable basal cell carcinoma (BCC) are aged ≥65 years, this study explores the efficacy and safety of vismodegib in these patients with locally advanced (la) or metastatic (m) basal cell carcinoma (BCC) in the ERIVANCE BCC trial and the expanded access study (EAS).We compared patients aged ≥65 years to patients aged <65 years taking vismodegib 150 mg/day, using descriptive statistics for response and safety. Patients aged ≥65 years (laBCC/mBCC) were enrolled in ERIVANCE BCC (33/14) and EAS (27/26). Investigator-assessed best overall response rate in patients ≥65 and <65 years was 46.7%/35.7% and 72.7%/52.6% (laBCC/mBCC), respectively, in ERIVANCE BCC and 45.8%/33.3% and 46.9%/28.6%, respectively, in EAS. These differences were not clinically meaningful. Safety was similar in both groups, although those aged ≥65 years had a higher percentage of grade 3-5 adverse events than those aged <65 years. Vismodegib demonstrated similar clinical activity and adverse events regardless of age
The size distribution of galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
abridged: We use a complete sample of about 140,000 galaxies from the Sloan
Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to study the size distribution of galaxies and its
dependence on their luminosity, stellar mass, and morphological type. The large
SDSS database provides statistics of unprecedented accuracy. For each type of
galaxy, the size distribution at given luminosity (or stellar mass) is well
described by a log-normal function, characterized by its median and
dispersion . For late-type galaxies, there is a characteristic
luminosity at (assuming ) corresponding to a stellar
mass M_0\sim 10^{10.6}\Msun. Galaxies more massive than have
and , while less massive
galaxies have and . For
early-type galaxies, the - relation is significantly steeper,
, but the - relation is similar
to that of late-type galaxies. Faint red galaxies have sizes quite independent
of their luminosities.Comment: 42 pages, 18 figures, 2 tables; replaced with the version accepted by
MNRA
Interactive Markov Models of Evolutionary Algorithms
This paper introduces a Markov model for evolutionary algorithms (EAs) that is based on interactions among individuals in the population. This interactive Markov model has the potential to provide tractable models for optimization problems of realistic size. We propose two simple discrete optimization search strategies with population-proportion-based selection and a modified mutation operator. The probability of selection is linearly proportional to the number of individuals at each point of the search space. The mutation operator randomly modifies an entire individual rather than a single decision variable. We exactly model these optimization search strategies with interactive Markov models. We present simulation results to confirm the interactive Markov model theory. We show that genetic algorithms and biogeography-based optimization perform better with the addition of population-proportion-based selection on a set of real-world benchmarks. We note that many other EAs, both new and old, might be able to be improved with this addition, or modeled with this method
Interactive Markov Models of Evolutionary Algorithms
This paper introduces a Markov model for evolutionary algorithms (EAs) that is based on interactions among individuals in the population. This interactive Markov model has the potential to provide tractable models for optimization problems of realistic size. We propose two simple discrete optimization search strategies with population-proportion-based selection and a modified mutation operator. The probability of selection is linearly proportional to the number of individuals at each point of the search space. The mutation operator randomly modifies an entire individual rather than a single decision variable. We exactly model these optimization search strategies with interactive Markov models. We present simulation results to confirm the interactive Markov model theory. We show that genetic algorithms and biogeography-based optimization perform better with the addition of population-proportion-based selection on a set of real-world benchmarks. We note that many other EAs, both new and old, might be able to be improved with this addition, or modeled with this method
Assembly bias and the dynamical structure of dark matter halos
Based on the Millennium Simulation we examine assembly bias for the halo
properties: shape, triaxiality, concentration, spin, shape of the velocity
ellipsoid and velocity anisotropy. For consistency we determine all these
properties using the same set of particles, namely all gravitationally
self-bound particles belonging to the most massive sub-structure of a given
friends-of-friends halo. We confirm that near-spherical and high-spin halos
show enhanced clustering. The opposite is true for strongly aspherical and
low-spin halos. Further, below the typical collapse mass, M*, more concentrated
halos show stronger clustering whereas less concentrated halos are less
clustered which is reversed for masses above M*. Going beyond earlier work we
show that: (1) oblate halos are more strongly clustered than prolate ones; (2)
the dependence of clustering on the shape of the velocity ellipsoid coincides
with that of the real-space shape, although the signal is stronger; (3) halos
with weak velocity anisotropy are more clustered, whereas radially anisotropic
halos are more weakly clustered; (4) for all highly clustered subsets we find
systematically less radially biased velocity anisotropy profiles. These
findings indicate that the velocity structure of halos is tightly correlated
with environment.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
Overcoming Calibration Problems in Pattern Labeling with Pairwise Ratings: Application to Personality Traits
We address the problem of calibration of workers whose task is to label patterns with continuous variables, which arises for instance in labeling images of videos of humans with continuous traits. Worker bias is particularly difficult to evaluate and correct when many workers contribute just a few labels, a situation arising typically when labeling is crowd-sourced. In the scenario of labeling short videos of people facing a camera with personality traits, we evaluate the feasibility of the pairwise ranking method to alleviate bias problems. Workers are exposed to pairs of videos at a time and must order by preference. The variable levels are reconstructed by fitting a Bradley-Terry-Luce model with maximum likelihood. This method may at first sight, seem prohibitively expensive because for N videos, p=N(N−1)/2 pairs must be potentially processed by workers rather that N videos. However, by performing extensive simulations, we determine an empirical law for the scaling of the number of pairs needed as a function of the number of videos in order to achieve a given accuracy of score reconstruction and show that the pairwise method is affordable. We apply the method to the labeling of a large scale dataset of 10,000 videos used in the ChaLearn Apparent Personality Trait challenge
Galaxy-galaxy(-galaxy) lensing as a sensitive probe of galaxy evolution
The gravitational lensing effect provides various ways to study the mass
environment of galaxies. We investigate how galaxy-galaxy(-galaxy) lensing can
be used to test models of galaxy formation and evolution. We consider two
semi-analytic galaxy formation models based on the Millennium Run N-body
simulation: the Durham model by Bower et al. (2006) and the Garching model by
Guo et al. (2011). We generate mock lensing observations for the two models,
and then employ Fast Fourier Transform methods to compute second- and
third-order aperture statistics in the simulated fields for various galaxy
samples. We find that both models predict qualitatively similar aperture
signals, but there are large quantitative differences. The Durham model
predicts larger amplitudes in general. In both models, red galaxies exhibit
stronger aperture signals than blue galaxies. Using these aperture measurements
and assuming a linear deterministic bias model, we measure relative bias ratios
of red and blue galaxy samples. We find that a linear deterministic bias is
insufficient to describe the relative clustering of model galaxies below ten
arcmin angular scales. Dividing galaxies into luminosity bins, the aperture
signals decrease with decreasing luminosity for brighter galaxies, but increase
again for fainter galaxies. This increase is likely an artifact due to too many
faint satellite galaxies in massive group and cluster halos predicted by the
models. Our study shows that galaxy-galaxy(-galaxy) lensing is a sensitive
probe of galaxy evolution.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, accepted in A&
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