22,378 research outputs found
The comprehension revolution : a twenty-year history of process and practice related to reading comprehension
Includes bibliographie
The Cluster Distribution as a Test of Dark Matter Models. IV: Topology and Geometry
We study the geometry and topology of the large-scale structure traced by
galaxy clusters in numerical simulations of a box of side 320 Mpc, and
compare them with available data on real clusters. The simulations we use are
generated by the Zel'dovich approximation, using the same methods as we have
used in the first three papers in this series. We consider the following models
to see if there are measurable differences in the topology and geometry of the
superclustering they produce: (i) the standard CDM model (SCDM); (ii) a CDM
model with (OCDM); (iii) a CDM model with a `tilted' power
spectrum having (TCDM); (iv) a CDM model with a very low Hubble
constant, (LOWH); (v) a model with mixed CDM and HDM (CHDM); (vi) a
flat low-density CDM model with and a non-zero cosmological
term (CDM). We analyse these models using a variety of
statistical tests based on the analysis of: (i) the Euler-Poincar\'{e}
characteristic; (ii) percolation properties; (iii) the Minimal Spanning Tree
construction. Taking all these tests together we find that the best fitting
model is CDM and, indeed, the others do not appear to be consistent
with the data. Our results demonstrate that despite their biased and extremely
sparse sampling of the cosmological density field, it is possible to use
clusters to probe subtle statistical diagnostics of models which go far beyond
the low-order correlation functions usually applied to study superclustering.Comment: 17 pages, 7 postscript figures, uses mn.sty, MNRAS in pres
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The effect of atmospheric entry heating on micrometeorite volatile composition
Principal Component Analysis with Noisy and/or Missing Data
We present a method for performing Principal Component Analysis (PCA) on
noisy datasets with missing values. Estimates of the measurement error are used
to weight the input data such that compared to classic PCA, the resulting
eigenvectors are more sensitive to the true underlying signal variations rather
than being pulled by heteroskedastic measurement noise. Missing data is simply
the limiting case of weight=0. The underlying algorithm is a noise weighted
Expectation Maximization (EM) PCA, which has additional benefits of
implementation speed and flexibility for smoothing eigenvectors to reduce the
noise contribution. We present applications of this method on simulated data
and QSO spectra from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.Comment: Accepted for publication in PASP; v2 with minor updates, mostly to
bibliograph
Empirically inspired simulated electro-mechanical model of the rat mystacial follicle-sinus complex
In whiskered animals, activity is evoked in the primary sensory afferent cells (trigeminal nerve) by mechanical stimulation of the whiskers. In some cell populations this activity is correlated well with continuous stimulus parameters such as whisker deflection magnitude, but in others it is observed to represent events such as whisker-stimulator contact or detachment. The transduction process is mediated by the mechanics of the whisker shaft and follicle-sinus complex (FSC), and the mechanics and electro-chemistry of mechanoreceptors within the FSC. An understanding of this transduction process and the nature of the primary neural codes generated is crucial for understanding more central sensory processing in the thalamus and cortex. However, the details of the peripheral processing are currently poorly understood. To overcome this deficiency in our knowledge, we constructed a simulated electro-mechanical model of the whisker-FSC-mechanoreceptor system in the rat and tested it against a variety of data drawn from the literature. The agreement was good enough to suggest that the model captures many of the key features of the peripheral whisker system in the rat
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Lithium and carbon isotopic fractionations between the alteration assemblages of Nakhla and Lafayette
Nakhla and Lafayette delta 7Li values for samples and extracts (4.1-14.2�) are consistent with brine evaporation. Relatively 13C-poor siderite in Lafayette suggests more than one carbon source was sampled
An upper limit on anomalous dust emission at 31 GHz in the diffuse cloud [LPH96]201.663+1.643
[LPH96]201.663+1.643, a diffuse H{\sc ii} region, has been reported to be a
candidate for emission from rapidly spinning dust grains. Here we present
Cosmic Background Imager (CBI) observations at 26-36 GHz that show no evidence
for significant anomalous emission. The spectral index within the CBI band, and
between CBI and Effelsberg data at 1.4/2.7 GHz, is consistent with optically
thin free-free emission. The best-fitting temperature spectral index from 2.7
to 31 GHz, , is close to the theoretical value,
for K. We place an upper limit of 24% ~ (2\sigma)
for excess emission at 31 GHz as seen in a 6\arcmin FWHM beam. Current
spinning dust models are not a good fit to the spectrum of LPH96. No polarized
emission is detected in the CBI data with an upper limit of 2% on the
polarization fraction.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to ApJ
The Microbial Community of a Terrestrial Anoxic Inter-Tidal Zone: A Model for Laboratory-Based Studies of Potentially Habitable Ancient Lacustrine Systems on Mars
Evidence indicates that Gale crater on Mars harboured a fluvio-lacustrine environment that was subjected to physio-chemical variations such as changes in redox conditions and evaporation with salinity changes, over time. Microbial communities from terrestrial environmental analogues sites are important for studying such potential habitability environments on early Mars, especially in laboratory-based simulation experiments. Traditionally, such studies have predominantly focused on microorganisms from extreme terrestrial environments. These are applicable to a range of Martian environments; however, they lack relevance to the lacustrine systems. In this study, we characterise an anoxic inter-tidal zone as a terrestrial analogue for the Gale crater lake system according to its chemical and physical properties, and its microbiological community. The sub-surface inter-tidal environment of the River Dee estuary, United Kingdom (53°21'015.40" N, 3°10'024.95" W) was selected and compared with available data from Early Hesperian-time Gale crater, and temperature, redox, and pH were similar. Compared to subsurface ‘groundwater’-type fluids invoked for the Gale subsurface, salinity was higher at the River Dee site, which are more comparable to increases in salinity that likely occurred as the Gale crater lake evolved. Similarities in clay abundance indicated similar access to, specifically, the bio-essential elements Mg, Fe and K. The River Dee microbial community consisted of taxa that were known to have members that could utilise chemolithoautotrophic and chemoorganoheterotrophic metabolism and such a mixed metabolic capability would potentially have been feasible on Mars. Microorganisms isolated from the site were able to grow under environment conditions that, based on mineralogical data, were similar to that of the Gale crater’s aqueous environment at Yellowknife Bay. Thus, the results from this study suggest that the microbial community from an anoxic inter-tidal zone is a plausible terrestrial analogue for studying habitability
of fluvio-lacustrine systems on early Mars, using laboratory-based simulation experiments
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