Density Distribution Sunflower Plots

Density distribution sunflower plots are used to display high-density bivariate data. They are useful for data where a conventional scatter plot is difficult to read due to overstriking of the plot symbol. The x-y plane is subdivided into a lattice of regular hexagonal bins of width w specified by the user. The user also specifies the values of l, d, and k that affect the plot as follows. Individual observations are plotted when there are less than l observations per bin as in a conventional scatter plot. Each bin with from l to d observations contains a light sunflower. Other bins contain a dark sunflower. In a light sunflower each petal represents one observation. In a dark sunflower, each petal represents k observations. (A dark sunflower with p petals represents between /2-pk k and /2+pk k observations.) The user can control the sizes and colors of the sunflowers. By selecting appropriate colors and sizes for the light and dark sunflowers, plots can be obtained that give both the overall sense of the data density distribution as well as the number of data points in any given region. The use of this graphic is illustrated with data from the Framingham Heart Study. A documented Stata program, called sunflower, is available to draw these graphs. It can be downloaded from the Statistical Software Components archive at http://ideas.repec.org/c/boc/bocode/s430201.html . (Journal of Statistical Software 2003; 8 (3): 1-5. Posted at http://www.jstatsoft.org/index.php?vol=8 .)

Selected Works of Richard Burchard: A Resource Guide

This document serves as a resource guide for selected choral works of Richard Burchard, including pertinent background information and biographical details about the composer’s life, information concerning the compositional style and musical structure of his choral works, and accessibility and interpretive considerations for the choral conductor. Works were selected for this study chronologically by publication date, from Burchard’s first published work (Miserere mei, published 2009) through the beginning of this project in early 2012. Born in 1960, Richard Burchard is the Chair of the Music Department at Bellarmine University in Kentucky. Burchrd has written over 50 pieces, many of which remain unpublished. However, his first nine published works have been given premieres at prestigious events such as the American Choral Directors Association National Convention, the National Collegiate Choral Organization National Convention, the California Chapter of the American Choral Directors Association All State Choir Festival, and the American Choral Directors Association Western Division Convention. The premieres of these choral works at these important professional gatherings attest to the growing popularity of his work and the importance of Burchard as a significant new composer in choral composition. Continued acclaim and notoriety suggests the need for scholarly and musical study devoted to Burchard’s choral music

Analysis of Platelet Activating Factor in the Gravid Reproductive Tracts of Swine

Depressed hog prices in 1998 and 1999 were due to not enough shackle space (kill capacity) and not to a glut of slaughter swine. However, many swine producers were put out of business in California. In 2000, market prices rebounded due to increased shackle space and reduced numbers of slaughter swine available as a result of the sellouts of the previous two years. The economic roller coaster ride emphasized the need for maximizing profit while streamlining operations. Increasing numbers of pigs per litter, and thereby reducing the cost per pig produced, is one aspect of streamlining. A significant step in improved litter efficiency would be to utilize platelet activating factor (PAF) in commercial swine operations. Platelet activating factor is involved in signal transduction within many of the body’s physiological systems. Of primary interest in the reproductive system is PAF’s enhancement of embryonic development, placental attachment and sperm functioning. The amount of embryo-derived PAF produced is correlated to pregnancy potential, since higher PAF levels lead to greater numbers of embryos developing to the blastocyst stage. It is produced by the embryos of various mammalian species, exerts significant effects upon the preimplantation embryo placental attachment, and perhaps maternal recognition of pregnancy and sperm functioning. Presently, only Professor John Diehl of the Animal and Veterinary Science Department at Clemson University, in collaboration with others, has published data to suggest that PAF is found in either male or female swine reproductive tracts. Most notably, PAF was found in the uterine luminal fluid (ULF), the developing filamentous embryo and the endometrium

Dwarf Galaxies in the Coma Cluster. II. Photometry and Analysis

We study the dwarf galaxy population in the central ~700 arcmin^2 of the Coma cluster, the majority of which are early-type dwarf elliptical (dE) galaxies. Analysis of the statistically-decontaminated dE galaxy sequence in the color-magnitude diagram reveals a highly significant trend of color with magnitude (\Delta (B-R)/\Delta R = -0.056\pm0.002 mag), in the sense that fainter dEs are bluer and thus presumably more metal-poor. The mean color of the faintest dEs in our sample is (B-R)~1.15 mag, consistent with a color measurement of the diffuse intracluster light in the Coma core. This intracluster light could then have originated from the tidal disruption of faint dEs in the cluster core. The total galaxy luminosity function (LF) is well modeled as the sum of a log-normal distribution for the giant galaxies, and a Schechter function for the dE galaxies with a faint-end slope \alpha = -1.41\pm0.05. This value of \alpha is consistent with those measured for the Virgo and Fornax clusters. The spatial distribution of the faint dE galaxies (19.0 < R \le 22.5 mag) has R_c = 22.15 arcmin (~0.46h^{-1} Mpc), significantly larger than the R_c = 13.71 arcmin (~0.29h^{-1} Mpc) found for the cluster giants and the brighter dEs (R \le 19.0 mag), consistent with tidal disruption of the faint dEs. Finally, we find that most dEs belong to the general Coma cluster potential rather than as satellites of individual giant galaxies: An analysis of the number counts around 10 cluster giants reveals that they each have on average 4\pm 1 dE companions within a projected radius of 13.9h^{-1} kpc. (Abridged)Comment: Accepted for publication in PASP; 36 pages LaTeX (AASTex using aaspp4.sty), with 14 EPS figures available from http://www.sci.wsu.edu/math/faculty/secker/ftp/ ; Single change in the Introduction (50 kpc corrected to read 50 pc

The enamel-dentine junction of the upper premolars of Homo naledi and other hominins: a morphometric study.

ABSTRACT.Homo naledi is a hominin species first described in 2015 based on remains from the Dinaledi Chamber in the Rising Star cave system in South Africa. There has been much debate about the taxonomy and phylogenetic relationships of H. naledi because of its unique mix of primitive and advanced features. It has a primitive body size, chest, shoulders and hips and the brain size is small both absolutely and in relation to its body size. However, it does show more advanced features in the wrist, foot and thumb. The dentition also shows mixed features, being small, as in modern humans, but retaining certain primitive features in morphology.In this study, geometric morphometric analysis was applied to the enamel-dentine junction (EDJ) of the upper premolars of H. naledi and a comparative sample of living and fossil hominins. The aims of the study were to determine whether this technique can distinguish between the upper premolars of different hominin taxa and of tooth position within taxa and, if so, to use the method to elucidate the taxonomic relationships of Homo naledi. Additionally, the study identified qualitative morphological features of the EDJ. Their frequency of expression between species and tooth position was analyzed and the differences between group mean frequencies of expression was summarised by multidimensional scaling.The principal components of shape, derived from a Procrustes analysis, were able to differentiate well between hominin taxa and between tooth position within taxa. There is a morphological trend from Paranthropus robustus at one extreme to modern Homo sapiens at the other. This is also an allometric trend, as the size of the EDJ is correlated with the first principal component of shape. At the Paranthropus extreme, the EDJ is short and broad, especially in the bucco-lingual direction. The EDJ ridge has a square or rectangular outline with expansion of the talon in a disto-lingual direction. At the other end of the trend, the EDJ is taller and narrower, with a more triangular outline due to a flatter disto-lingual portion of the EDJ ridge. Third upper premolars differ from fourth upper premolars by having taller, more distally placed buccal dentine horns.H. naledi has a unique morphology within the genus Homo. The EDJ is small but, has retained a more primitive morphology. It has a prominent distal accessory buccal dentine horn and a short main buccal dentine horn with prominent disto-lingual extension of the talon, leading to a relatively flat and broad EDJ profile. In addition, the size of the fourth upper premolar is greater than that of the third, as is seen in Australopithecus and Paranthropus and unlike other species of Homo, where the teeth are more equal in size or the third upper premolar is larger. This autapomorphy could suggest that H. naledi was adapted to a different dietary lifestyle than other members of the genus Homo.Qualitative trait analysis identified and described some features at the EDJ for the first time in the hominin study sample. Third upper premolars of the genus Homo are associated with a notch and mesial 'bulge' in the mesial EDJ ridge together with a depression or concavity in the mesial surface of the EDJ (except for H. naledi where there is a bulge but no notch); fourth upper premolars of all hominin species have a tendency to form a distinct distal accessory buccal dentine horn, except for H. neanderthalensis, where there is a distinctive distal buccal shoulder instead; A. africanus teeth are associated with prominent ridges on the buccal surface of the tooth together with extension of the buccal cingulum and lingual cingulum but P. robustus is more strongly associated with a shelf-like lingual cingulum; third upper premolars of H. neanderthalensis have a distinctive boss-shaped bulge in the buccal cingulum. P. robustus and, to a lesser extent A. africanus, show a tendency towards molarisation, with an oblique ridge, distal accessory lingual dentine horn and talon expansion. A transverse crest is almost universally present in the EDJs of all Homo species except for H. sapiens (both fossil and modern) and in H. naledi, where there is a distinctive bucco-mesial ridge in place of the transverse crest in 43% of third upper premolars. This contrasts with the outer enamel surface (OES), where transverse crests are rarely observed in Homo species

By

Vowel normalization is a computation that is meant to account for the differences in the absolute direct (physical or psychophysical) representations of qualitatively equivalent vowel productions that arise due to differences in speaker properties such as body size types, age, gender, and other socially interpreted categories that are based on natural variation in vocal tract size and shape. In this dissertation, we address the metaphysical and epistemological aspects of vowel normalization pertaining to spoken language acquisition during early infancy. We begin by reviewing approaches to conceptualizing and modeling the phonetic components of early spoken language acquisition, forming a catalog of phenomena that serves as the basis for our discourse. We then establish the existence of a vowel normalization computation carried out by infants early in their spoken language acquisition, and put forward a conceptual and technical framework for its investigation which focuses attention on the generative nature of the computation. We then situate the acquisition of vowel normalization within a broader developmental framework encompassing a suite of vocal learning phenomena, including language-specific caretaker vocal exchanges

William Plummer Fowler Jr. Correspondence

Entries include typed letters on personal stationery and a typed biography

The Orbiter Stability Experiment on STS-40

The Orbiter Stability Experiment (OSE) was developed to evaluate the steadiness of the STS Orbiter as a potential platform for instrumentation that would image the Sun in its extreme ultraviolet and soft X-ray radiations. We were interested in any high frequency motions of the Orbiter's orientation due to normal operations and manned activities. Preliminary results are presented of the observations. Other than the expected slow motion of the Orbiter within the specified angular deadband of 0.1 degrees during the observations, it was found that high frequency (above 1 Hz) angular motions (jitter) were not detectable at the 0.25 arc sec detection limit of the most sensitive detector, for most of the period of observation. No high frequency motions were recorded during intervals that were identified with vernier thruster firings. However, one short interval with detectable spectral power to a frequency of 10 Hz has been found to date. It has not yet been correlated with a particular activity going on at the time. The results of the observations may also be of value in assessing perturbations to the Orbiter's micro-gravity environment produced by normal operations

The 2011 Eruption of the Recurrent Nova T Pyxidis; the Discovery, the Pre-eruption Rise, the Pre-eruption Orbital Period, and the Reason for the Long Delay

We report the discovery by M. Linnolt on JD 2455665.7931 (UT 2011 April 14.29) of the sixth eruption of the recurrent nova T Pyxidis. This discovery was made just as the initial fast rise was starting, so with fast notification and response by observers worldwide, the entire initial rise was covered (the first for any nova), and with high time resolution in three filters. The speed of the rise peaked at 9 mag/day, while the light curve is well fit over only the first two days by a model with a uniformly expanding sphere. We also report the discovery by R. Stubbings of a pre-eruption rise starting 18 days before the eruption, peaking 1.1 mag brighter than its long-time average, and then fading back towards quiescence 4 days before the eruption. This unique and mysterious behavior is only the fourth known anticipatory rise closely spaced before a nova eruption. We present 19 timings of photometric minima from 1986 to February 2011, where the orbital period is fast increasing with P/dot{P}=313,000 yrs. From 2008-2011, T Pyx had a small change in this rate of increase, so that the orbital period at the time of eruption was 0.07622950+-0.00000008 days. This strong and steady increase of the orbital period can only come from mass transfer, for which we calculate a rate of 1.7-3.5x10^-7 Mo/yr. We report 6116 magnitudes between 1890 and 2011, for an average B=15.59+-0.01 from 1967-2011, which allows for an eruption in 2011 if the blue flux is nearly proportional to the accretion rate. The ultraviolet-optical-infrared spectral energy distribution is well fit by a power law with flux proportional to nu^1.0, although the narrow ultraviolet region has a tilt with a fit of \nu^{1/3}. We prove that most of the T Pyx light is not coming from a disk, or any superposition of blackbodies, but rather is coming from some nonthermal source.Comment: ApJ submitted, 62 pages, 8 figures; much added data, updated analysi

Reminiscences of the war of the rebellion. Did Abraham Lincoln receive aid from the spirit world? Some extracts from Mrs. Nettie Colburn Maynard\u27s book-- Was Abraham Lincoln a spiritualist?

Compiled by W.H. Plummer. In fact an advertisement for the book \u27Was Abraham Lincoln a spiritualist?\u27, which had originally been published by R.C. Hartranft, Philadelphia, in 1891.https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/fvw-pamphlets/2075/thumbnail.jp