Primordial helium recombination III: Thomson scattering, isotope shifts, and cumulative results

Upcoming precision measurements of the temperature anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at high multipoles will need to be complemented by a more complete understanding of recombination, which determines the damping of anisotropies on these scales. This is the third in a series of papers describing an accurate theory of HeI and HeII recombination. Here we describe the effect of Thomson scattering, the $^3$He isotope shift, the contribution of rare decays, collisional processes, and peculiar motion. These effects are found to be negligible: Thomson and $^3$He scattering modify the free electron fraction $x_e$ at the level of several $\times 10^{-4}$. The uncertainty in the $2^3P^o-1^1S$ rate is significant, and for conservative estimates gives uncertainties in $x_e$ of order $10^{-3}$. We describe several convergence tests for the atomic level code and its inputs, derive an overall $C_\ell$ error budget, and relate shifts in $x_e(z)$ to the changes in $C_\ell$, which are at the level of 0.5% at $\ell =3000$. Finally, we summarize the main corrections developed thus far. The remaining uncertainty from known effects is $\sim 0.3$ in $x_e$.Comment: 19 pages, 15 figures, to be submitted to PR

Business in Nebraska #292 - January 1969

Changing Patterns of Communities in the Midwest (Dorothy Switzer) The regional concept of economic planning and development discussed in the December issue of Business in Nebraska was the subject also of a workshop conference on Changing Patterns of People and Communities in the Midwest, held in Omaha last month. It is deemed appropriate to report here the most significant highlight of the conference because the panel presentations and subsequent discussions further developed several important apects of regional growth. Business Summary (R. L. Busboom) Both Physical Volume and Dollar Volume Indexes for Nebraska indicate that the October, 1968 level of business activity was above that of October, 1967. For the U.S. these indexes increased over the same period at a rate slightly more than Nebraska\u27s. From September, 1968, to October, 1968, Nebraska\u27s dollar and physical volumes fell, being down about 1.6 percent. The indexes for the U.S. show some increase, with physical volume up 2.1% and dollar volume up 3.4%. Review

Business in Nebraska #294 - March 1969

Extent of Corporation Farming in Nebraska (Dorothy Switzer) Concern has been expressed in many quarters over the apparent increase in the number of nonfarm corporations that are buying land and initiating new farming enterprises in Nebraska. It has become important, therefore, to know the facts about the number of these corporations and the amount of farm land they are operating in the state. This information has recently been made available because Nebraska is one of 22 states included in a preliminary report summarizing a survey of corporate farming. Reprints State and Local Taxes in Nebraska (E. S. Wallace) According to figures recently released Nebrdska ranked 32nd among the 50 states in state and local taxes per resident in 1907. Of the 18 states below Nebraska, 11 were in the Southeast Region. In the Plains Region only Missouri and North Dakota were lower. Review Business Summary (R. L. Busboom) Both Physical Volume and Dollar Volume indexes indicate Nebraska\u27s general level of business activity in December, 1968, was that above that of the same month last year. Both indexes also indicate that the November, 1968, general level of business appears to have been maintained through December. Both the Nebraska indexes were, however, at levels approximately 4% lower than those of the U.S. On a month-to-month bases, however, Nebraska\u27s changes were nearly equal to those of the U.S

Business in Nebraska #297 - June 1969

Nebraska\u27s Export of Agricultural Products (Dorothy Switzer) Nebraska moved up from fourth to third place among the seven states in the West North Central region in dollar volume of agricultural exports in fiscal 1968 and retained its position as ninth ranking state in the nation, according to recent data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Sales amounting to $229.5 million of Nebraska farm products constituted 14.5$1,578.9 billion in volume of sales. Business Summary (R. L. Busboom) Generally, the State\u27s business activity in March was well above that of last year. A 13 percent rise in physical volume combined with the well - known rise in level of prices to effect an overall dollar volume increase of 30 percent. A large increase in construction activity was the major factor in the overall, year -to -year gain. Employment levels were notably higher in 1969 than in 1968. Manufacturing employment was nearly 5 percent higher and other employment showed a gain of 4 percent. Revised Population Estimates (E. S. Wallace) In making 1968 county and city population estimates it was necessary to change slightly the methodology used, since the head tax has been repealed and is no longer available as one of the indicators. In connection with publication of 1968 estimates in our April issue it was stated that some previous estimates would be recalculated using the new method and that if substantial differences were indicated previous estimates would be revised. Review

A Method for Individual Source Brightness Estimation in Single- and Multi-band Data

We present a method of reliably extracting the flux of individual sources from sky maps in the presence of noise and a source population in which number counts are a steeply falling function of flux. The method is an extension of a standard Bayesian procedure in the millimeter/submillimeter literature. As in the standard method, the prior applied to source flux measurements is derived from an estimate of the source counts as a function of flux, dN/dS. The key feature of the new method is that it enables reliable extraction of properties of individual sources, which previous methods in the literature do not. We first present the method for extracting individual source fluxes from data in a single observing band, then we extend the method to multiple bands, including prior information about the spectral behavior of the source population(s). The multi-band estimation technique is particularly relevant for classifying individual sources into populations according to their spectral behavior. We find that proper treatment of the correlated prior information between observing bands is key to avoiding significant biases in estimations of multi-band fluxes and spectral behavior, biases which lead to significant numbers of misclassified sources. We test the single- and multi-band versions of the method using simulated observations with observing parameters similar to that of the South Pole Telescope data used in Vieira, et al. (2010).Comment: 11 emulateapj pages, 3 figures, revised to match published versio

Correlation between vitamin A, E, coenzyme Q10 and degree of insulin resistance in obese and non-obese subjects

The aim of the present study was to investigate correlation between plasma vitamin A, vitamin E, serum coenzyme Q10 levels and degree of insulin resistance in obese and normal weight people. The study was performed on 98 (21 Male, 77 Female) obese people and 78 (20 Male, 58 Female) control subjects. Vitamin A, E and coenzyme Q10 levels were adjusted to the lipid levels. Adjusted vitamin A and E and coenzyme Q10 levels of the obese female group were significantly lower than those of the control female group. Adjusted vitamin A and coenzyme Q10 levels of the obese male group were significantly lower than those of the control male group. Insulin resistance level of the obese female and male groups were significantly higher than that of the control female and male groups. There were no significant correlations between serum coenzyme Q10, plasma vitamin A and E levels and insulin resistance in obese and control subjects. Our findings show that it is essential to use the lipid adjusted levels of lipid soluble nutrients in obesity. Also, we have found no association between insulin resistance and vitamin A, vitamin E and coenzyme Q10 levels in obese subjects

Uncertainties in Theoretical HeI Emissivities: HII Regions, Primordial Abundance, and Cosmological Recombination

A number of recent works in astronomy and cosmology have relied upon theoretical He I emissivities, but we know of no effort to quantify the uncertainties in the atomic data. We analyze and assign uncertainties to all relevant atomic data, perform Monte Carlo analyses, and report standard deviations in the line emissivities. We consider two sets of errors, which we call "optimistic" and "pessimistic." We also consider three different conditions, corresponding to prototypical Galactic and extragalactic H II regions and the epoch of cosmological recombination. In the extragalactic H II case, the errors we obtain are comparable to or larger than the errors in some recent $Y_p$ calculations, including those derived from CMB observations. We demonstrate a systematic effect on primordial abundance calculations; this effect cannot be reduced by observing a large number of objects. In the cosmological recombination case, the errors are comparable to many of the effects considered in recent calculations.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, accepted to MNRAS Letter