An analysis of oral reading achievement in relation to a basal text,

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston Universit

A concept for reducing oceanic separation minima through the use of a TCAS-derived CDTI

A concept for using a cockpit display of traffic information (CDTI), as derived from a modified version of the Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System 2 (TCAS 2), to support reductions in air traffic separation minima for an oceanic track system is presented. The concept, and the TCAS modifications required to support it, are described. The feasibility of the concept is examined from a number of standpoints, including expected benefits, maximum alert rates, and possible transition strategies. Various implementation issues are analyzed. Pilot procedures are suggested for dealing with alert situations. Possible variations of the concept are also examined. Finally, recommendations are presented for other studies and simulation experiments which can be used to further verify the feasibility of the concept

A Two-Chain Path Integral Model Of Positronium

We have used a path integral Monte Carlo technique to simulate positronium (Ps) in a cavity. The primitive propagator is used, with a pair of interacting chains representing the positron and electron. We calculate the energy and radial distribution function for Ps enclosed in a hard, spherical cavity, and the polarizability of the model Ps in the presence of an electrostatic field. We find that the positron distribution near the hard wall differs significantly from that for a single particle in a hard cavity. This leads to systematic deviations from predictions of free-volume models which treat Ps as an effective, single particle. A virial-type estimator is used to calculate the kinetic energy of the particle in the presence of hard walls. This estimator is found to be superior to a kinetic-type estimator given the interaction potentials, cavity sizes, and chain lengths considered in the current study. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-9606(00)50447-4]

Arkansas\u27 Incendiary Wildfire Record: 1983-1987

All wildfire reports from lands protected by the Arkansas Forestry Commission for the calendar years 1983 through 1987 were studied. The number of wildfires steadily increased from 2,185 in 1983 to 4,150 in 1987, burning a total of 27,146 hectares in 1987. Incendiarism on forested lands in 1987 comprised 77% of the total fires and 84% of the area burned. Incendiarism was responsible for 40% of all fires and 60% of the area burned in 1983, but increased to 54% of all fires and 69% of the area burned in 1987. In 1987, 80% of all incendiary fires on industry lands were started by local residents. Most incendiary fires occurred on Class 3 (52%) and Class-2 (27%) fire-danger class-days. More incendiary fires (64%) occurred during the spring fire season (January through June). The general public reported 66% the non-incendiary fires, but only 56% of the incendiary-caused fires. Implications of these findings for wildfire prevention programs are discussed

Finding Strong Gravitational Lenses in the Kilo Degree Survey with Convolutional Neural Networks

The volume of data that will be produced by new-generation surveys requires automatic classification methods to select and analyze sources. Indeed, this is the case for the search for strong gravitational lenses, where the population of the detectable lensed sources is only a very small fraction of the full source population. We apply for the first time a morphological classification method based on a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) for recognizing strong gravitational lenses in $255$ square degrees of the Kilo Degree Survey (KiDS), one of the current-generation optical wide surveys. The CNN is currently optimized to recognize lenses with Einstein radii $\gtrsim 1.4$ arcsec, about twice the $r$-band seeing in KiDS. In a sample of $21789$ colour-magnitude selected Luminous Red Galaxies (LRG), of which three are known lenses, the CNN retrieves 761 strong-lens candidates and correctly classifies two out of three of the known lenses. The misclassified lens has an Einstein radius below the range on which the algorithm is trained. We down-select the most reliable 56 candidates by a joint visual inspection. This final sample is presented and discussed. A conservative estimate based on our results shows that with our proposed method it should be possible to find $\sim100$ massive LRG-galaxy lenses at z\lsim 0.4 in KiDS when completed. In the most optimistic scenario this number can grow considerably (to maximally $\sim$2400 lenses), when widening the colour-magnitude selection and training the CNN to recognize smaller image-separation lens systems.Comment: 24 pages, 17 figures. Published in MNRA

Searching for galaxy clusters in the Kilo-Degree Survey

In this paper, we present the tools used to search for galaxy clusters in the Kilo Degree Survey (KiDS), and our first results. The cluster detection is based on an implementation of the optimal filtering technique that enables us to identify clusters as over-densities in the distribution of galaxies using their positions on the sky, magnitudes, and photometric redshifts. The contamination and completeness of the cluster catalog are derived using mock catalogs based on the data themselves. The optimal signal to noise threshold for the cluster detection is obtained by randomizing the galaxy positions and selecting the value that produces a contamination of less than 20%. Starting from a subset of clusters detected with high significance at low redshifts, we shift them to higher redshifts to estimate the completeness as a function of redshift: the average completeness is ~ 85%. An estimate of the mass of the clusters is derived using the richness as a proxy. We obtained 1858 candidate clusters with redshift 0 < z_c < 0.7 and mass 13.5 < log(M500/Msun) < 15 in an area of 114 sq. degrees (KiDS ESO-DR2). A comparison with publicly available Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)-based cluster catalogs shows that we match more than 50% of the clusters (77% in the case of the redMaPPer catalog). We also cross-matched our cluster catalog with the Abell clusters, and clusters found by XMM and in the Planck-SZ survey; however, only a small number of them lie inside the KiDS area currently available.Comment: 13 pages, 15 figures. Accepted for publication on Astronomy & Astrophysic

Exponent Bounds for a Family of Abelian Difference Sets

Which groups G contain difference sets with the parameters (v, k, λ)= (q3 + 2q2 , q2 + q, q), where q is a power of a prime p? Constructions of K. Takeuchi, R.L. McFarland, and J.F. Dillon together yield difference sets with these parameters if G contains an elementary abelian group of order q2 in its center. A result of R.J. Turyn implies that if G is abelian and p is self-conjugate modulo the exponent of G, then a necessary condition for existence is that the exponent of the Sylow p-subgroup of G be at most 2q when p = 2 and at most q if p is an odd prime. In this paper we lower these exponent bounds when q ≠ p by showing that a difference set cannot exist for the bounding exponent values of 2q and q. Thus if there exists an abelian (96, 20, 4)-difference set, then the exponent of the Sylow 2-subgroup is at most 4. We also obtain some nonexistence results for a more general family of (v, k, λ)-parameter values

Proteins to Order Use of Synthetic DNA to Generate Site-Specific Mutations

The ability to cause specific changes in the amino acid sequences of proteins would greatly advance studies on the influence of protein structure on biochemical function. If the desired changes can once be made in the nucleic acid which encodes the protein, one can use cloning in an appropriate microorganism to produce essentially limitless quantities of the mutant protein. We describe here the application of oligonucleotide-directed site-specific mutagenesis to accomplish this objective for the enzyme B-lactamase, the gene for which is contained in the plasmid pBR322. The method uses a procedure to screen for mutant clones which depends on the DNA in the various colonies and not on the properties of the mutant protein; the method can, therefore, be widely applied and does not require, in each separate case, the development of a screening procedure which depends on some phenotypic difference between mutant and wild-type protein