770 research outputs found
Supporting Community Gardening in Alaska Through Development of a Community Garden Practice Guide
Presented to the Faculty
of the University of Alaska Anchorage
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement
for the Degree of
MASTER OF PUBLIC HEALTHAnchorage is home to an increasing number of community gardens. The body of literature on the health benefits and potential health risks related to gardening in an urban setting has been steadily expanding as the popularity of urban gardening flourishes in cities across the nation. With Alaska Community Action on Toxics’ (ACAT) interest in community health, the precautionary principle, and healthy gardening practices, a partnership was developed with ACAT for a project and practicum designed to support these values through environmental testing and analysis, key informant interviews, and a practicum experience culminating in the creation of a guide for Alaska gardeners. The final product of the project was a user-friendly guide entitled Understanding Urban Soils: A Guide for Better Understanding the Need and Practice of Testing for Garden Soil Contaminants, in which safe gardening practices and interpretation of soil test results are addressed.Signature Page / Title Page / Abstract / Table of Contents / List of Figures / List of Tables / List of Appendices / Background / Research Methods / Research Results / Discussion and Recommendations / Project Outcomes , Strengths, and Weaknesses / References / Appendice
Sky localization of complete inspiral-merger-ringdown signals for nonspinning massive black hole binaries
We investigate the capability of LISA to measure the sky position of
equal-mass, nonspinning black hole binaries, combining for the first time the
entire inspiral-merger-ringdown signal, the effect of the LISA orbits, and the
complete three-channel LISA response. We consider an ensemble of systems near
the peak of LISA's sensitivity band, with total rest mass of 2\times10^6
M\odot, a redshift of z = 1, and randomly chosen orientations and sky
positions. We find median sky localization errors of approximately \sim3
arcminutes. This is comparable to the field of view of powerful electromagnetic
telescopes, such as the James Webb Space Telescope, that could be used to
search for electromagnetic signals associated with merging massive black holes.
We investigate the way in which parameter errors decrease with measurement
time, focusing specifically on the additional information provided during the
merger-ringdown segment of the signal. We find that this information improves
all parameter estimates directly, rather than through diminishing correlations
with any subset of well- determined parameters. Although we have employed the
baseline LISA design for this study, many of our conclusions regarding the
information provided by mergers will be applicable to alternative mission
designs as well.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Sky Localization of Complete Inspiral-Merger-Ringdown Signals for Nonspinning Black Hole Binaries with LISA
We investigate the capability of LISA to measure the sky position of equal-mass, nonspinning black hole binaries, including for the first time the entire inspiral-merger-ringdown signal, the effect of the LISA orbits, and the complete three-channel LISA response. For an ensemble of systems near the peak of LISA's sensitivity band, with total rest mass of 2 x l0(exp 6) Stellar Mass at a redshift of z = 1 with random orientations and sky positions, we find median sky localization errors of approximately approx. 3 arcminutes. This is comparable to the field of view of powerful electromagnetic telescopes, such as the James Webb Space Telescope, that could be used to search for electromagnetic signals associated with merging black holes. We investigate the way in which parameter errors decrease with measurement time, focusing specifically on the additional information provided during the merger-ringdown segment of the signal. We find that this information improves all parameter estimates directly, rather than through diminishing correlations with any subset of well-determined parameters
IMECE2003-44212 VEHICLE HEALTH MONITORING SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT AND DEPLOYMENT
ABSTRACT Over the last several years the North American railroad industry has seen a determined growth in the area of advanced vehicle health monitoring systems, such as wheel impact load detectors, truck performance detectors, hunting detectors; and more recently, in low hanging air hose detectors, acoustic bearing detectors, and wheel profile measurement systems. The interest in performance-based monitoring is high and growing. Latest developments by Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Association of American Railroads (AAR), are in the initial stages of deployment and include acoustic roller bearing detectors and truck performance detectors. Together, these detectors and others still in development look to provide railroads and car owners with information on car component performance that can lead to preventive or predictive maintenance. This paper will describe the development and deployment of the Trackside Acoustic Detection System (TADS) and Truck Performance Detector (TPD) by TTCI in North America and internationally
Our Space: Being a Responsible Citizen of the Digital World
Our Space is a set of curricular materials designed to encourage high school students to reflect on the ethical dimensions of their participation in new media environments. Through role-playing activities and reflective exercises, students are asked to consider the ethical responsibilities of other people, and whether and how they behave ethically themselves online. These issues are raised in relation to five core themes that are highly relevant online: identity, privacy, authorship and ownership, credibility, and participation.Our Space was co-developed by The Good Play Project and Project New Media Literacies (established at MIT and now housed at University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism). The Our Space collaboration grew out of a shared interest in fostering ethical thinking and conduct among young people when exercising new media skills
Bostonia: 1993-1994, no. 2-3
Founded in 1900, Bostonia magazine is Boston University's main alumni publication, which covers alumni and student life, as well as university activities, events, and programs
Low-frequency gravitational-wave science with eLISA/NGO
We review the expected science performance of the New Gravitational-Wave
Observatory (NGO, a.k.a. eLISA), a mission under study by the European Space
Agency for launch in the early 2020s. eLISA will survey the low-frequency
gravitational-wave sky (from 0.1 mHz to 1 Hz), detecting and characterizing a
broad variety of systems and events throughout the Universe, including the
coalescences of massive black holes brought together by galaxy mergers; the
inspirals of stellar-mass black holes and compact stars into central galactic
black holes; several millions of ultracompact binaries, both detached and mass
transferring, in the Galaxy; and possibly unforeseen sources such as the relic
gravitational-wave radiation from the early Universe. eLISA's high
signal-to-noise measurements will provide new insight into the structure and
history of the Universe, and they will test general relativity in its
strong-field dynamical regime.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures, proceedings of the 9th Amaldi Conference on
Gravitational Waves. Final journal version. For a longer exposition of the
eLISA science case, see http://arxiv.org/abs/1201.362
Advanced localization of massive black hole coalescences with LISA
The coalescence of massive black holes is one of the primary sources of
gravitational waves (GWs) for LISA. Measurements of the GWs can localize the
source on the sky to an ellipse with a major axis of a few tens of arcminutes
to a few degrees, depending on source redshift, and a minor axis which is 2--4
times smaller. The distance (and thus an approximate redshift) can be
determined to better than a per cent for the closest sources we consider,
although weak lensing degrades this performance. It will be of great interest
to search this three-dimensional `pixel' for an electromagnetic counterpart to
the GW event. The presence of a counterpart allows unique studies which combine
electromagnetic and GW information, especially if the counterpart is found
prior to final merger of the holes. To understand the feasibility of early
counterpart detection, we calculate the evolution of the GW pixel with time. We
find that the greatest improvement in pixel size occurs in the final day before
merger, when spin precession effects are maximal. The source can be localized
to within 10 square degrees as early as a month before merger at ; for
higher redshifts, this accuracy is only possible in the last few days.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, version published in Classical and Quantum
Gravity (special issue for proceedings of 7th International LISA Symposium
A Crucial Role for Kupffer Cell-Derived Galectin-9 in Regulation of T Cell Immunity in Hepatitis C Infection
Approximately 200 million people throughout the world are infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV). One of the most striking features of HCV infection is its high propensity to establish persistence (∼70–80%) and progressive liver injury. Galectins are evolutionarily conserved glycan-binding proteins with diverse roles in innate and adaptive immune responses. Here, we demonstrate that galectin-9, the natural ligand for the T cell immunoglobulin domain and mucin domain protein 3 (Tim-3), circulates at very high levels in the serum and its hepatic expression (particularly on Kupffer cells) is significantly increased in patients with chronic HCV as compared to normal controls. Galectin-9 production from monocytes and macrophages is induced by IFN-γ, which has been shown to be elevated in chronic HCV infection. In turn, galectin-9 induces pro-inflammatory cytokines in liver-derived and peripheral mononuclear cells; galectin-9 also induces anti-inflammatory cytokines from peripheral but not hepatic mononuclear cells. Galectin-9 results in expansion of CD4+CD25+FoxP3+CD127low regulatory T cells, contraction of CD4+ effector T cells, and apoptosis of HCV-specific CTLs. In conclusion, galectin-9 production by Kupffer cells links the innate and adaptive immune response, providing a potential novel immunotherapeutic target in this common viral infection
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