19,464 research outputs found

    Investigating the Relationship between Environment and Active Galactic Nuclei activity at High Redshift

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    This thesis presents an investigation into the relationship between large-scale structure environment and Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) activity at high redshift. To accomplish this, the environments of AGN are studied from two complementary perspectives. Firstly, various observations of a specific large-scale structure at z = 2.3 are used to assess the level of AGN activity in relation to the field. The main result of this study is that both the emission-line and X-ray selected AGN populations are significantly enhanced; X-ray detected Lyman Alpha Emitters (LAEs), however, are not found to be significantly enhanced. The host galaxy properties of z ~ 1 X-ray sources are then derived and studied in detail. Confirming previous results, X-ray sources are found in optically luminous (MB ~< −20.5mag), massive (log(M∗/ M⊙) ≥ 10.5) red and blue hosts. A larger fraction of red/green hosts harbour obscured (log(NH) ≥ 22) AGN than blue, with the most obscured sources (log(NH) ≥ 23.5) also being more frequently found in red/green host galaxies than blue. The second approach used the 3rd-nearest neighbour measure to study the environment of X-ray hosts at z ~ 1, accounting for their optical colour, luminosity and stellar mass. A main new and important result is that X-ray hosts are found in regions of enhanced density compared to optical galaxies of equivalent mass, which is not due to the observed colour-density relation at z ~ 1. The enhancement is found to be most significant at the reddest colours, brightest luminosities, and highest stellar masses. The results from this thesis show that the dense environments probed in this work generally promote AGN activity. This is probably not due to major mergers, but could be due to an increased probability of minor mergers/interactions and/or milder environmental processes triggering nuclear activity. Alternatively, perhaps there is some other galaxy property (e.g., residing in higher mass haloes) which is conducive to AGN activity

    Performance, physiological, and oculometer evaluation of VTOL landing displays

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    A methodological approach to measuring workload was investigated for evaluation of new concepts in VTOL aircraft displays. Physiological, visual response, and conventional flight performance measures were recorded for landing approaches performed in the NASA Visual Motion Simulator (VMS). Three displays (two computer graphic and a conventional flight director), three crosswind amplitudes, and two motion base conditions (fixed vs. moving base) were tested in a factorial design. Multivariate discriminant functions were formed from flight performance and/or visual response variables. The flight performance variable discriminant showed maximum differentation between crosswind conditions. The visual response measure discriminant maximized differences between fixed vs. motion base conditions and experimental displays. Physiological variables were used to attempt to predict the discriminant function values for each subject/condition trial. The weights of the physiological variables in these equations showed agreement with previous studies. High muscle tension, light but irregular breathing patterns, and higher heart rate with low amplitude all produced higher scores on this scale and thus represent higher workload levels

    The Potential Impact of a Proposed Ban on the Sale of U.S. Horses for Slaughter and Human Consumption

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    Both federal and state governments in the United States are being asked to enact laws that would make slaughtering of horses for human consumption illegal. In the past, the United States was one of the principal exporters of horsemeat to Europe. This paper examines the impacts of a proposed ban on the U.S. horse industry and the U.S. export market for horsemeat. Findings indicate a loss of approximately $300 per horse in the United States as a result of such a ban. The supply of U.S. exported horsemeat has declined during the past decade. The results suggest that the most significant factors influencing this decline are lower real prices and competing imports.horse slaughter, horsemeat, meat exports, Agricultural and Food Policy, Livestock Production/Industries,

    The effect of a scanning flat fold mirror on a CMB B-mode experiment

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    We investigate the possibility of using a flat-fold beam steering mirror for a CMB B-mode experiment. An aluminium flat-fold mirror is found to add \sim0.075% polarization, which varies in a scan synchronous way. Time-domain simulations of a realistic scanning pattern are performed, and the effect on the power-spectrum illustrated and a possible method of correction applied.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in Rev Sci Ins

    Domestic work, learning and literacy practices across transnational space

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    This paper explores the learning experiences and literacy practices of a group of female migrant domestic workers from Nepal, reporting on ethnographic data collected between 2008 and 2013. Drawing on the conceptualisation of literacy as a social practice, as well as the notion of translocational positionality, it examines the way in which the women’s emerging literacy practices in English interacted with their experiences as migrant workers. It argues that understanding the transnational nature of the women’s lives is essential to understanding the complex ways in which literacy was threaded through their social and material practices. In doing so it points to the need for a more complex conceptualisation of context and of the relationship between the local and global within literacy research, which pays attention to the way in which literacy practices interact with processes entailing movement and positioning across boundaries and between different transnational spaces

    Assessment of different urban traffic control strategy impacts on vehicle emissions

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    This paper investigates the influence of traffic signal control strategy on vehicle emissions, vehicle journey time and total throughput flow within a single isolated four-armed junction. Two pre-timed signal plans are considered, one with two-stages involving permissive-only opposing turns and the other with four-stages which has no conflicting traffic. Additionally, the increase in efficiency by utilising actuated signal timing where green time is re-optimised as flow values vary is investigated. A microscopic traffic simulation model is used to model flows and AIRE (Analysis of Instantaneous Road Emissions) microscopic emissions model is utilised to out- put emission levels from the flow data. A simple junction model shows that the two-stage signal plan is more efficient in both emis- sions and journey time. However, as the level of opposed turning vehicles and conflicting movement increases, the two-stage model moves to being the inferior signal plan choice and the four-stage plan outputs fewer emissions than the two-stage plan. A real-world example of a four-armed junction has been used in this study and from the traffic survey data and existing junction layout; it is rec- ommended that a two-stage plan is used as it produces lower amounts of emissions and shorter journey times compared to a four-stage plan. The results also show that nitrogen oxides (NOx) are the most sensitive to changes in flow followed by carbon dioxide (CO2), Black Carbon and then particulate matter (PM10)
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