2,627 research outputs found
Assessing Water Quality of Redwine Creek in the Grambling, LA Area
The abstract for this presentation can be downloaded by clicking on the blue download button
Avian Use of a Bottomland Hardwood Afforestation Site in the Red River Alluvial Valley
Colby W. Sharp is a Graduate Associate in the School of Biological Sciences at Louisiana Tech University.
Heidi L. Adams and William B. Patterson are Assistant Professors in the School of Biological Sciences at Louisiana Tech University
When personal identities confirm versus conflict with group identities: Evidence from an intergroup paradigm
Permissions were not obtained for sharing the full text of this article.This study provides an experimental investigation of the consequences of conflict between children's personal identities and experimentally manipulated group identities. Elementary-school-aged children (N = 82, ages 5-11) attending a summer school program rated their own academic and athletic abilities and were then randomly assigned to one of two novel groups. Children's views of the academic and athletic skills of the novel groups were assessed both before and after information about the groups' academic and athletic skills was manipulated via posters placed in their classrooms. Following the manipulation, children's self-views, ingroup identification, and intergroup attitudes were assessed. Results indicated that (a) in the absence of information about the novel groups, children projected their personal identities onto their ingroup identities, (b) children maintained their ingroup identities in the face of new information that should have altered their ingroup identities, and (c) more positive personal identities predicted ingroup bias, which in turn predicted happiness with one's ingroup membership. The latter finding suggests that a tendency for children to generalize from their idiosyncratic positive self-views, rather than an indiscriminate desire for self-enhancement or positivity, may be responsible for ingroup bias
Using binary stars to bound the mass of the graviton
Interacting white dwarf binary star systems, including helium cataclysmic
variable (HeCV) systems, are expected to be strong sources of gravitational
radiation, and should be detectable by proposed space-based laser
interferometer gravitational wave observatories such as LISA. Several HeCV star
systems are presently known and can be studied optically, which will allow
electromagnetic and gravitational wave observations to be correlated.
Comparisons of the phases of a gravitational wave signal and the orbital light
curve from an interacting binary white dwarf star system can be used to bound
the mass of the graviton. Observations of typical HeCV systems by LISA could
potentially yield an upper bound on the inverse mass of the graviton as strong
as km (
eV), more than two orders of magnitude better than present solar system derived
bounds.Comment: 21 pages plus 4 figures; ReVTe
1RXS J232953.9+062814: A Dwarf Nova with a 64-minute Orbital Period and a Conspicuous Secondary Star
We present spectroscopy and time-series photometry of the newly discovered
dwarf nova 1RXS J232953.9+062814. Photometry in superoutburst reveals a
superhump with a period of 66.06(6) minutes. The low state spectrum shows
Balmer and HeI emission on a blue continuum, and in addition shows a rich
absorption spectrum of type K4 +- 2. The absorption velocity is modulated
sinusoidally at P_orb = 64.176(5) min, with semi-amplitude K = 348(4) km/s. The
low-state light curve is double-humped at this period, and phased as expected
for ellipsoidal variations. The absorption strength does not vary appreciably
around the orbit. The orbital period is shorter than any other cataclysmic
variable save for a handful of helium-star systems and V485 Centauri (59
minutes). The secondary is much hotter than main sequence stars of similar
mass, but is well-matched by helium-enriched models, indicating that the
secondary evolved from a more massive progenitor. A preliminary calculation in
which a 1.2 solar-mass star begins mass transfer near the end of H burning
matches this system's characteristics remarkably well.Comment: accepted to Astrophysical Journal Letters; 14 pages, 3 eps figures +
1 jpg greyscale figur
Assimilation of Oil-Derived Elements by Oysters Due to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
During and after the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill (DWHOS), oysters (Crassostrea virginica) were exposed to oil and susceptible to incidental consumption of surface and subsurface oil materials. We determined the contribution of oil materials from the DWHOS to diet of oysters by comparing carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) stable isotope ratios in oyster shell to ratios in suspended particulate matter (SPM) and in fresh and weathered oil. Average δ13C and δ15N values in oyster shell (−21 ± 1‰ and 9−11‰, respectively) were consistent with consumption of naturally available SPM as opposed to values in oil (−27 ± 0.2‰, 1.6 ± 0.4‰). Stable isotope ratios in oyster adductor muscle were similar to shell for δ15N but not δ13C, suggesting either a recent shift in diet composition or differential assimilation of C between tissue types. We found no evidence of assimilation of oil-derived C and N and, therefore, no evidence of an oyster-based conduit to higher trophic levels. Trace elements in shell were inconclusive to corroborate oil exposure. These findings are not an indication that oysters were not exposed to oil; rather they imply oysters either did not consume oil-derived materials or consumed too little to be detectable compared to natural diet
Penguin biogeography along the West Antarctic Peninsula: Testing the canyon hypothesis with Palmer LTER observations
The West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) is home to large breeding colonies of the ice-dependent Antarctic Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae). Although the entire inner continental shelf is highly productive, with abundant phytoplankton and krill populations, penguin colonies are distributed heterogeneously along the WAP (Ducklow et al., 2013, in this issue). This ecological conundrum targets a long-standing question of interest: what environmental factors structure the locations of Adélie penguin "hot spots" throughout the WAP
Exploring Halo Substructure with Giant Stars. VI. Extended Distributions of Giant Stars Around the Carina Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy -- How Reliable Are They?
The question of the existence of active tidal disruption around various dSph
galaxies remains controversial. That debate often centers on the nature (bound
vs. unbound) of extended populations of stars. However, the more fundamental
issue of the very existence of the extended populations is still contentious.
We present an evaluation of the debate centering on one particular dSph,
Carina, for which claims both for and against the existence of stars beyond the
King radius have been made. Our review includes an examination of all previous
studies bearing on the Carina radial profile and shows that the survey method
which achieves the highest detected dSph signal-to-background in the outer
parts of the galaxy is the Washington M, T2 + DDO51 (MTD) filter approach from
Paper II in this series. We then address statistical methods used to evaluate
the reliability of MTD surveys in the presence of photometric errors and for
which a new, a posteriori statistical analysis methodology is provided.
Finally, these statistical methods are tested by new spectroscopy of stars in
the MTD-selected Carina candidate sample. Of 74 candidate giants with follow-up
spectroscopy, the MTD technique identified 61 new Carina members, including 8
stars outside the King radius. From a sample of 29 stars not initially
identified as candidate Carina giants but that lie just outside of our
selection criteria, 12 have radial velocities consistent with membership,
including 5 extratidal stars. Carina is shown to have an extended population of
giant stars extending to a major axis radius of 40' (1.44x the nominal King
radius).Comment: 56 pages, 10 figures. Submitted to the Astronomical Journal, 2004 Sep
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