3,161 research outputs found
Seven decades of sports writing at the West Australian (1901-1971)
For a country whose identity is much bound up with sport, little research has been done so far into Sports journalism in Australia. This study traces the changes that have occurred in the reporting of sport in the West Alustralian between 1901 and 1971. This time span has been chosen to cover the period from Federation to the point when sport acquired its own section at the back of the newspaper and sports editor Ted CoIlingwood retired after 32 years in the job. In this seventy year period, January and July of every seventh year are taken as a sample to map out the developments in sports journalism. The months January and July have been chosen so as to capture both summer and winter sports. The newspaper\u27s editions of these two months in the eleveo periods were assessed both quantitalively and qualitatively. The quantitative study shows the amount of sport reporting, all the column space devoted to the various sports. It confirms that the amount of sports reporting has been on a steady increase ever since 1901, except for tbe war year 1943
Basal conditions of two Transantarctic Mountains outlet glaciers from observation-constrained diagnostic modelling
This is the published version. Copyright 2014 International Glaciological SocietyWe present a diagnostic glacier flowline model parameterized and constrained by new velocity data from ice-surface GPS installations and speckle tracking of TerraSAR-X satellite images, newly acquired airborne-radar data, and continental gridded datasets of topography and geothermal heat flux, in order to better understand two outlet glaciers of the East Antarctic ice sheet. Our observational data are employed as primary inputs to a modelling procedure that first calculates the basal thermal regime of each glacier, then iterates the basal sliding coefficient and deformation rate parameter until the fit of simulated to observed surface velocities is optimized. We find that the two glaciers have both frozen and thawed areas at their beds, facilitating partial sliding. Glacier flow arises from a balance between sliding and deformation that fluctuates along the length of each glacier, with the amount of sliding typically varying by up to two orders of magnitude but with deformation rates far more constant. Beardmore Glacier is warmer and faster-flowing than Skelton Glacier, but an up-glacier deepening bed at the grounding line, coupled with ice thicknesses close to flotation, lead us to infer a greater vulnerability of Skelton Glacier to grounding-line recession if affected by ocean-forced thinning and concomitant acceleration
Orbital Evolution of Compact White Dwarf Binaries
The new-found prevalence of extremely low mass (ELM, Mhe<0.2 Msun) helium
white dwarfs (WDs) in tight binaries with more massive WDs has raised our
interest in understanding the nature of their mass transfer. Possessing small
(Menv~1e-3 Msun) but thick hydrogen envelopes, these objects have larger radii
than cold WDs and so initiate mass transfer of H-rich material at orbital
periods of 6-10 minutes. Building on the original work of D'Antona et al., we
confirm the 1e6 yr period of continued inspiral with mass transfer of H-rich
matter and highlight that the inspiraling direct-impact double WD binary HM
Cancri likely has an ELM WD donor. The ELM WDs have less of a radius expansion
under mass loss, thus enabling a larger range of donor masses that can stably
transfer matter and become a He mass transferring AM CVn binary. Even once in
the long-lived AM CVn mass transferring stage, these He WDs have larger radii
due to their higher entropy from the prolonged H burning stage.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
Journa
High Resolution Doppler Imager observations of ozone in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/95237/1/jgrd9497.pd
Oxidation of tertiary amine-derivatized surfaces to control protein adhesion
Selective oxidation of omega-tertiary amine self-assembled thiol monolayers to tertiary amine N-oxides is shown to transform the adhesion of model proteins lysozyme and fibrinogen upon them. Efficient preparation of both secondary and tertiary linker amides as judged by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and water droplet contact angle was achieved with an improved amide bond formation on gold quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) sensors using 2-(1H-7-azabenzotriazol-1-yl)-1,1,3,3-tetramethyl hexafluorophosphate methanaminium uronium (HATU). Oxidation with hydrogen peroxide was similarly assessed, and adhesion of lysozyme and fibrinogen from phosphate buffered saline was then assayed by QCM and imaged by AFM. Tertiary amine-functionalized sensors adsorbed multilayers of aggregated lysozyme, whereas tertiary amine N-oxides and triethylene glycol-terminated monolayers are consistent with small protein aggregates. The surface containing a dimethylamine N-oxide headgroup and ethyl secondary amide linker showed the largest difference in adsorption of both proteins. Oxidation of tertiary amine decorated surfaces therefore holds the potential for selective deposition of proteins and cells through masking and other patterning techniques
Serotonin Transporter Genotype (5-HTTLPR) Predicts Utilitarian Moral Judgments
The psychological and neurobiological processes underlying moral judgment have been the focus of extensive recent research. Here we show that serotonin transporter (5-HTTLPR) genotype predicts responses to moral dilemmas featuring foreseen harm to an innocent.Participants in this study judged the acceptability of actions that would unintentionally or intentionally harm an innocent victim in order to save others' lives. An analysis of variance revealed a genotype × scenario interaction, F(2, 63) = 4.52, p = .02. Results showed that, relative to long allele homozygotes (LL), carriers of the short (S) allele showed particular reluctance to endorse utilitarian actions resulting in foreseen harm to an innocent individual. LL genotype participants rated perpetrating unintentional harm as more acceptable (M = 4.98, SEM = 0.20) than did SL genotype participants (M = 4.65, SEM = 0.20) or SS genotype participants (M = 4.29, SEM = 0.30). No group differences in moral judgments were observed in response to scenarios featuring intentional harm.The results indicate that inherited variants in a genetic polymorphism that influences serotonin neurotransmission influence utilitarian moral judgments as well. This finding is interpreted in light of evidence that the S allele is associated with elevated emotional responsiveness
Cosmology of Axions and Moduli: A Dynamical Systems Approach
This paper is concerned with string cosmology and the dynamics of multiple
scalar fields in potentials that can become negative, and their features as
(Early) Dark Energy models. Our point of departure is the "String Axiverse", a
scenario that motivates the existence of cosmologically light axion fields as a
generic consequence of string theory. We couple such an axion to its
corresponding modulus. We give a detailed presentation of the rich cosmology of
such a model, ranging from the setting of initial conditions on the fields
during inflation, to the asymptotic future. We present some simplifying
assumptions based on the fixing of the axion decay constant , and on the
effective field theory when the modulus trajectory is adiabatic, and find the
conditions under which these assumptions break down. As a by-product of our
analysis, we find that relaxing the assumption of fixed leads to the
appearance of a new meta-stable de-Sitter region for the modulus without the
need for uplifting by an additional constant. A dynamical systems analysis
reveals the existence of many fixed point attractors, repellers and saddle
points, which we analyse in detail. We also provide geometric interpretations
of the phase space. The fixed points can be used to bound the couplings in the
model. A systematic scan of certain regions of parameter space reveals that the
future evolution of the universe in this model can be rich, containing multiple
epochs of accelerated expansion.Comment: 27 pages, 12 figures, comments welcome, v2 minor correction
Ultra-light Axions: Degeneracies with Massive Neutrinos and Forecasts for Future Cosmological Observations
A generic prediction of string theory is the existence of many axion fields.
It has recently been argued that many of these fields should be light and, like
the well known QCD axion, lead to observable cosmological consequences. In this
paper we study in detail the effect of the so-called string axiverse on large
scale structure, focusing on the morphology and evolution of density
perturbations, anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background and weak
gravitational lensing of distant galaxies. We quantify specific effects that
will arise from the presence of the axionic fields and highlight possible
degeneracies that may arise in the presence of massive neutrinos. We take
particular care understanding the different physical effects and scales that
come into play. We then forecast how the string axiverse may be constrained and
show that with a combination of different observations, it should be possible
to detect a fraction of ultralight axions to dark matter of a few percent.Comment: 24 pages, 16 figures, this version: corrected typos, some comments
added, matches published versio
X-ray properties of the white dwarf pulsar eRASSU J191213.9-441044
We report X-ray observations of the newly discovered pulsating white dwarf
eRASSU J191213.9-441044 with Spectrum Roentgen Gamma and eROSITA (SRG/eROSITA)
and XMM-Newton. The new source was discovered during the first eROSITA all-sky
survey at a flux level of fX (0.2 - 2.3 keV) = 3.3 e-13 erg cm-2 s-1 and found
to be spatially coincident with a G = 17.1 stellar Gaia-source at a distance of
237 pc. The flux dropped to about fX = 1 e-13 erg cm-2 s-1 during the three
following eROSITA all-sky surveys and remained at this lower level during
dedicated XMM-Newton observations performed in September 2022. With XMM-Newton,
pulsations with a period of 319 s were found at X-ray and ultraviolet
wavelengths occurring simultaneously in time, thus confirming the nature of
eRASSU J191213.9-441044 as the second white-dwarf pulsar. The X-ray and
UV-pulses correspond to broad optical pulses. Narrow optical pulses that
occurred occasionally during simultaneous XMM-Newton/ULTRACAM observations have
no X-ray counterpart. The orbital variability of the X-ray signal with a
roughly sinusoidal shape was observed with a pulsed fraction of ~28% and
maximum emission at orbital phase ~0.25. The ultraviolet light curve peaks at
around binary phase 0.45. The X-ray spectrum can be described with the sum of a
power law spectrum and a thermal component with a mean X-ray luminosity of
Lx(0.2-10 keV) = 1.4 e30 erg s-1. The spectral and variability properties could
indicate some residual accretion, in contrast to the case of the prototypical
object AR Sco.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, A&A Letter accepte
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