617 research outputs found
A Comparison of Weak Lensing Measurements From Ground- and Space-Based Facilities
We assess the relative merits of weak lensing surveys, using overlapping
imaging data from the ground-based Subaru telescope and the Hubble Space
Telescope (HST). Our tests complement similar studies undertaken with simulated
data. From observations of 230,000 matched objects in the 2 square degree
COSMOS field, we identify the limit at which faint galaxy shapes can be
reliably measured from the ground. Our ground-based shear catalog achieves
sub-percent calibration bias compared to high resolution space-based data, for
galaxies brighter than i'~24.5 and with half-light radii larger than 1.8". This
selection corresponds to a surface density of ~15 galaxies per sq arcmin
compared to ~71 per sq arcmin from space. On the other hand the survey speed of
current ground-based facilities is much faster than that of HST, although this
gain is mitigated by the increased depth of space-based imaging desirable for
tomographic (3D) analyses. As an independent experiment, we also reconstruct
the projected mass distribution in the COSMOS field using both data sets, and
compare the derived cluster catalogs with those from X-ray observations. The
ground-based catalog achieves a reasonable degree of completeness, with minimal
contamination and no detected bias, for massive clusters at redshifts
0.2<z<0.5. The space-based data provide improved precision and a greater
sensitivity to clusters of lower mass or at higher redshift.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, submitted to ApJ, Higher resolution figures
available at http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~mansi/GroundvsSpace.pd
The effects of charge transfer inefficiency (CTI) on galaxy shape measurements
(Abridged) We examine the effects of charge transfer inefficiency (CTI)
during CCD readout on galaxy shape measurements required by studies of weak
gravitational lensing. We simulate a CCD readout with CTI such as that caused
by charged particle radiation damage. We verify our simulations on data from
laboratory-irradiated CCDs. Only charge traps with time constants of the same
order as the time between row transfers during readout affect galaxy shape
measurements. We characterize the effects of CTI on various galaxy populations.
We baseline our study around p-channel CCDs that have been shown to have charge
transfer efficiency up to an order of magnitude better than several models of
n-channel CCDs designed for space applications. We predict that for galaxies
furthest from the readout registers, bias in the measurement of galaxy shapes,
Delta(e), will increase at a rate of 2.65 +/- 0.02 x 10^(-4) per year at L2 for
accumulated radiation exposure averaged over the solar cycle. If uncorrected,
this will consume the entire shape measurement error budget of a dark energy
mission within about 4 years. Software mitigation techniques demonstrated
elsewhere can reduce this by a factor of ~10, bringing the effect well below
mission requirements. CCDs with higher CTI than the ones we studeied may not
meet the requirements of future dark energy missions. We discuss ways in which
hardware could be designed to further minimize the impact of CTI.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, and 2 tables. Accepted for publication in PAS
Detection of Weak Gravitational Lensing by Large-scale Structure
We report a detection of the coherent distortion of faint galaxies arising
from gravitational lensing by foreground structures. This ``cosmic shear'' is
potentially the most direct measure of the mass power spectrum, as it is
unaffected by poorly-justified assumptions made concerning the biasing of the
distribution. Our detection is based on an initial imaging study of 14
separated 8' x 16' fields observed in good, homogeneous conditions with the
prime focus EEV CCD camera of the 4.2m William Herschel Telescope. We detect an
rms shear of 1.6% in 8' x 8' cells, with a significance of 3.4 sigma. We
carefully justify this detection by quantifying various systematic effects and
carrying out extensive simulations of the recovery of the shear signal from
artificial images defined according to measured instrument characteristics. We
also verify our detection by computing the cross-correlation between the shear
in adjacent cells. Including (gaussian) cosmic variance, we measure the shear
variance to be (0.016)^2 plus/minus (0.012)^2 plus/minus (0.006)^2, where these
1 sigma errors correspond to statistical and systematic uncertainties,
respectively. Our measurements are consistent with the predictions of
cluster-normalised CDM models (within 1 sigma) but a COBE-normalised SCDM model
is ruled out at the 3.0 sigma level. For the currently-favoured Lambda-CDM
model (with Omega_m = 0.3), our measurement provides a normalisation of the
mass power spectrum of sigma_8 = 1.5 plus/minus 0.5, fully consistent with that
derived from cluster abundances. Our result demonstrates that ground-based
telescopes can, with adequate care, be used to constrain the mass power
spectrum on various scales. The present results are limited mainly by cosmic
variance, which can be overcome in the near future with more observations.Comment: 17 LaTex pages, including 13 figures and 3 tables. Accepted for
publication in MNRAS, minor revisio
Resuscitating the Physician-Patient Relationship: Emergency Department Communication in an Academic Medical Center
Study objective: We characterize communication in an urban, academic medical center emergency department (ED) with regard to the timing and nature of the medical history survey and physical examination and discharge instructions.
Methods: Audiotaping and coding of 93 ED encounters (62 medical history surveys and physical examinations, 31 discharges) with a convenience sample of 24 emergency medicine residents, 8 nurses, and 93 nonemergency adult patients.
Results: Patients were 68% women and 84% black, with a mean age of 45 years. Emergency medicine providers were 70% men and 80% white. Of 62 medical history surveys and physical examinations, time spent on the introduction and medical history survey and physical examination averaged 7 minutes 31 seconds (range 1 to 20 minutes). Emergency medicine residents introduced themselves in only two thirds of encounters, rarely (8%) indicating their training status. Despite physician tendency (63%) to start with an open-ended question, only 20% of patients completed their presenting complaint without interruption. Average time to interruption (usually a closed question) was 12 seconds. Discharge instructions averaged 76 seconds (range 7 to 202 seconds). Information on diagnosis, expected course of illness, self-care, use of medications, time-specified follow-up, and symptoms that should prompt return to the ED were each discussed less than 65% of the time. Only 16% of patients were asked whether they had questions, and there were no instances in which the provider confirmed patient understanding of the information.
Conclusion: Academic EDs present unique challenges to effective communication. In our study, the physician-patient encounter was brief and lacking in important health information. Provision of patient-centered care in academic EDs will require more provider education and significant system support
The Sloan Lens ACS Survey. IV. The Mass Density Profile of Early-Type Galaxies out to 100 Effective Radii
We present a weak-lensing analysis of 22 early-type (strong) lens galaxies, based on deep HST images obtained as part of the Sloan Lens ACS Survey. Using advanced techniques to control systematic uncertainties, we show that weak-lensing signal is detected out to ~300 h^(-1) kpc (at the mean lens redshift z = 0.2). We analyze blank control fields from COSMOS in the same manner, inferring that the residual systematic uncertainty in the tangential shear is less than 0.3%. A joint strong- and weak-lensing analysis shows that the average total mass density profile is consistent with isothermal (i.e., ρ ∝ r^(-2)) over two decades in radius (3-300 h^(-1) kpc, approximately 1-100 effective radii). This finding extends by over an order of magnitude in radius previous results, based on strong lensing and/or stellar dynamics, that luminous and dark components "conspire" to form an isothermal mass distribution. In order to disentangle the contributions of luminous and dark matter, we fit a two-component mass model (de Vaucouleurs+NFW) to the weak- and strong-lensing constraints. It provides a good fit to the data with only two free parameters: (1) the average stellar mass-to-light ratio M_*/L_V = 4.48 ± 0.46 h M_☉ L_☉^(-1) (at z = 0.2), in agreement with that expected for an old stellar population; (2) the average virial mass-to-light ratio M_(vir)/L_V = 246^(+101)_(-87) h M_☉ L_☉^(-1). Taking into account the scatter in the mass-luminosity relation, the latter result is in good agreement with semianalytical models of massive galaxy formation. The dark matter fraction inside the sphere of radius, the effective radius, is found to be 27% ± 4%. Our results are consistent with galaxy-galaxy lensing studies of early-type galaxies that are not strong lenses, in the 30-300 h^(-1) kpc radius range. Thus, within the uncertainties, our results are representative of early-type galaxies in general
Genetic Diversity of PCR-Positive, Culture-Negative and Culture-Positive Mycobacterium ulcerans Isolated from Buruli Ulcer Patients in Ghana.
Culture of Mycobacterium ulcerans from Buruli ulcer patients has very low sensitivity. Thus confirmation of M. ulcerans infection is primarily based on PCR directed against IS2404. In this study we compare the genotypes obtained by variable number of tandem repeat analysis of DNA from IS2404-PCR positive cultures with that obtained from IS2404 positive, culture-negative tissue. A significantly greater genetic heterogeneity was found among culture-negative samples compared with that found in cultured strains but a single genotype is over-represented in both sample sets. This study provides evidence that both the focal location of bacteria in a lesion as well as differences in the ability to culture a particular genotype may underlie the low sensitivity of culture. Though preliminary, data from this work also suggests that mycobacteria previously associated with fish disease (M. pseudoshottsii) may be pathogenic for humans
The Third Gravitational Lensing Accuracy Testing (GREAT3) Challenge Handbook
The GRavitational lEnsing Accuracy Testing 3 (GREAT3) challenge is the third
in a series of image analysis challenges, with a goal of testing and
facilitating the development of methods for analyzing astronomical images that
will be used to measure weak gravitational lensing. This measurement requires
extremely precise estimation of very small galaxy shape distortions, in the
presence of far larger intrinsic galaxy shapes and distortions due to the
blurring kernel caused by the atmosphere, telescope optics, and instrumental
effects. The GREAT3 challenge is posed to the astronomy, machine learning, and
statistics communities, and includes tests of three specific effects that are
of immediate relevance to upcoming weak lensing surveys, two of which have
never been tested in a community challenge before. These effects include
realistically complex galaxy models based on high-resolution imaging from
space; spatially varying, physically-motivated blurring kernel; and combination
of multiple different exposures. To facilitate entry by people new to the
field, and for use as a diagnostic tool, the simulation software for the
challenge is publicly available, though the exact parameters used for the
challenge are blinded. Sample scripts to analyze the challenge data using
existing methods will also be provided. See http://great3challenge.info and
http://great3.projects.phys.ucl.ac.uk/leaderboard/ for more information.Comment: 30 pages, 13 figures, submitted for publication, with minor edits
(v2) to address comments from the anonymous referee. Simulated data are
available for download and participants can find more information at
http://great3.projects.phys.ucl.ac.uk/leaderboard
Bayesian correlated clustering to integrate multiple datasets
Motivation: The integration of multiple datasets remains a key challenge in systems biology and genomic medicine. Modern high-throughput technologies generate a broad array of different data types, providing distinct – but often complementary – information. We present a Bayesian method for the unsupervised integrative modelling of multiple datasets, which we refer to as MDI (Multiple Dataset Integration). MDI can integrate information from a wide range of different datasets and data types simultaneously (including the ability to model time series data explicitly using Gaussian processes). Each dataset is modelled using a Dirichlet-multinomial allocation (DMA) mixture model, with dependencies between these models captured via parameters that describe the agreement among the datasets.
Results: Using a set of 6 artificially constructed time series datasets, we show that MDI is able to integrate a significant number of datasets simultaneously, and that it successfully captures the underlying structural similarity between the datasets. We also analyse a variety of real S. cerevisiae datasets. In the 2-dataset case, we show that MDI’s performance is comparable to the present state of the art. We then move beyond the capabilities of current approaches and integrate gene expression, ChIP-chip and protein-protein interaction data, to identify a set of protein complexes for which genes are co-regulated during the cell cycle. Comparisons to other unsupervised data integration techniques – as well as to non-integrative approaches – demonstrate that MDI is very competitive, while also providing information that would be difficult or impossible to extract using other methods
Demonstrating the effectiveness of the fundamentals of robotic surgery (FRS) curriculum on the RobotiX Mentor Virtual Reality Simulation Platform
Fundamentals of robotic surgery (FRS) is a proficiency-based progression curriculum developed by robotic surgery experts from multiple specialty areas to address gaps in existing robotic surgery training curricula. The RobotiX Mentor is a virtual reality training platform for robotic surgery. Our aims were to determine if robotic surgery novices would demonstrate improved technical skills after completing FRS training on the RobotiX Mentor, and to compare the effectiveness of FRS across training platforms. An observational, pre-post design, multi-institutional rater-blinded trial was conducted at two American College of Surgeons Accredited Education Institutes-certified simulation centers. Robotic surgery novices (n = 20) were enrolled and trained to expert-derived benchmarks using FRS on the RobotiX Mentor. Participants’ baseline skill was assessed before (pre-test) and after (post-test) training on an avian tissue model. Tests were video recorded and graded by blinded raters using the Global Evaluative Assessment of Robotic Skills (GEARS) and a 32-criteria psychomotor checklist. Post hoc comparisons were conducted against previously published comparator groups. On paired-samples T tests, participants demonstrated improved performance across all GEARS domains (p < 0.001 to p = 0.01) and for time (p < 0.001) and errors (p = 0.003) as measured by psychometric checklist. By ANOVA, improvement in novices’ skill after FRS training on the RobotiX Mentor was not inferior to improvement reported after FRS training on previously published platforms. Completion of FRS on the RobotiX Mentor resulted in improved robotic surgery skills among novices, proving effectiveness of training. These data provide additional validity evidence for FRS and support use of the RobotiX Mentor for robotic surgery skill acquisition
The USNO-B Catalog
USNO-B is an all-sky catalog that presents positions, proper motions,
magnitudes in various optical passbands, and star/galaxy estimators for
1,042,618,261 objects derived from 3,643,201,733 separate observations. The
data were obtained from scans of 7,435 Schmidt plates taken for the various sky
surveys during the last 50 years. USNO-B1.0 is believed to provide all-sky
coverage, completeness down to V = 21, 0.2 arcsecond astrometric accuracy at
J2000, 0.3 magnitude photometric accuracy in up to five colors, and 85%
accuracy for distinguishing stars from non-stellar objects. A brief discussion
of various issues is given here, but the actual data are available from
http://www.nofs.navy.mil and other sites.Comment: Accepted by Astronomical Journa
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