The Shapes of Dense Cores and Bok Globules

The shapes of isolated Bok globules and embedded dense cores of molecular clouds are analyzed using a nonparametric method, under the alternate hypotheses that they are randomly oriented prolate objects or that they are randomly oriented oblate objects. In all cases, the prolate hypothesis gives a better fit to the data. If Bok globules are oblate, they must be very flat; the average axis ratio is b/a = 0.3, and few or no globules can have b/a > 0.7. If Bok globules are prolate, then the mean axis ratio is b/a = 0.5. For most data samples of dense cores, the randomly-oriented oblate hypothesis can be rejected at the 99% confidence level. If the dense cores are prolate, their mean axis ratio is approximately 0.4 to 0.5. Dense cores are significantly different in shape from the clouds in which they are embedded; clouds have flatter apparent shapes, and are inconsistent with a population of randomly oriented axisymmetric objects.Comment: 26 pages (LaTeX) including 8 postscript figures; to appear in Ap

Grizzly Bear Scavenging of Carrion on the Northern Yellowstone Winter Range (1997-2012)

The Northern Yellowstone Winter Range (NYWR) in northwestern Wyoming and southwestern Montana is an important winter migratory destination for ungulates.  The NYWR is within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), a landscape characterized by a complex ecological system of predators, scavengers, and ungulates.  Grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) are dominant members of the scavenging community throughout the spring.  However, little is known about factors associated with grizzly bear use of carcasses.  Of particular interest to managers is how habitat and anthropogenic factors are associated with carcass use.  Such information, for example, may be useful to manage spring recreation in important bear foraging areas to reduce conflict and support conservation efforts.  We used logistic regression to analyze spring survey data from 23 transects located in Yellowstone National Park and the Gallatin National Forest during 1997–2012, to identify factors associated with grizzly bear scavenging of winter- or predator-killed ungulates.  Multi-model inference was used to evaluate relative support for a set of a priori candidate models containing environmental and temporal correlates. Our preliminary findings showed support for models with distance to forest edge, road density, and elevation. Results indicated negative relationships between these factors and probability of carcass use.  Our results suggest that spatial heterogeneity in landscape-level habitat characteristics and human activity affect grizzly bear use of a valuable spring food source

Transforming Post-Secondary Education in Mathematics

In this manuscript, I introduce and describe the work of mathematicians and mathematics educators in the group Transforming Post-Secondary Education in Mathematics (TPSE Math or TPSE, pronounced "tipsy", for short). TPSE aims to coordinate and drive constructive change in education in the mathematical sciences at two-year colleges, four-year colleges, and universities across the nation. It seeks to build on the successes of the entire mathematical sciences community. This manuscript reviews the events that led to the founding of TPSE Math and articulates its vision and mission. In its first phase with national events, TPSE found broad consensus with the mathematical sciences community on the challenges facing the community. Learning from educational transformations experiences in other scientific fields, and with the support of the Mathematical Advisory Group of 34 mathematical sciences department chairs and leaders, TPSE moves into a second phase focused on action. This is a snapshot in time, and TPSE's ongoing activities will continue to be documented and disseminated. The piece concludes with a reflection of the impact that my involvement in this work has had on my career.Comment: 17 page

Living together apart: Perceived concealment as signal of exclusion in marital relationships

This article examines how perceiving concealment in close relationships influences marital well-being. It suggests that the perception of concealment from a partner signals separateness from one's partner and contributes to feelings of perceived partner exclusion. These feelings of exclusion, in turn, should negatively affect relational quality. These predictions are tested in a prospective study among 199 newlywed couples. Results suggest that perceiving concealment reduced marital adjustment and trust and increased conflict over time. Importantly, change in perceived partner exclusion mediated these effects. This article demonstrates that the perception of concealment (a) has deleterious effects on relational well-being in the long run and (b) is harmful in part because it elicits feelings of exclusion. © 2009 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc

Moxifloxacin: Clinically compatible contrast agent for multiphoton imaging

Multiphoton microscopy (MPM) is a nonlinear fluorescence microscopic technique widely used for cellular imaging of thick tissues and live animals in biological studies. However, MPM application to human tissues is limited by weak endogenous fluorescence in tissue and cytotoxicity of exogenous probes. Herein, we describe the applications of moxifloxacin, an FDA-approved antibiotic, as a cell-labeling agent for MPM. Moxifloxacin has bright intrinsic multiphoton fluorescence, good tissue penetration and high intracellular concentration. MPM with moxifloxacin was demonstrated in various cell lines, and animal tissues of cornea, skin, small intestine and bladder. Clinical application is promising since imaging based on moxifloxacin labeling could be 10 times faster than imaging based on endogenous fluorescence.1152sciescopu

Hedonism and the experience machine

Money isn’t everything, so what is? Many government leaders, social policy theorists, and members of the general public have a ready answer: happiness. This paper examines an opposing view due to Robert Nozick, which centres on his experience-machine thought experiment. Despite the example's influence among philosophers, the argument behind it is riddled with difficulties. Dropping the example allows us to re-version Nozick's argument in a way that makes it far more forceful - and less dependent on people's often divergent intutions about the experience machine

Between overt and covert research: concealment and disclosure in an ethnographic study of commercial hospitality

This article examines the ways in which problems of concealment emerged in an ethnographic study of a suburban bar and considers how disclosure of the research aims, the recruitment of informants, and elicitation of information was negotiated throughout the fieldwork. The case study demonstrates how the social context and the relationships with specific informants determined overtness or covertness in the research. It is argued that the existing literature on covert research and covert methods provides an inappropriate frame of reference with which to understand concealment in fieldwork. The article illustrates why concealment is sometimes necessary, and often unavoidable, and concludes that the criticisms leveled against covert methods should not stop the fieldworker from engaging in research that involves covertness

Comments on the d-wave pairing mechanism for cuprate high TcT_c superconductors: Higher is different?

The question of pairing glue for the cuprate superconductors (SC)is revisited and its determination through the angle resolved photo-emission spectroscopy (ARPES) is discussed in detail. There are two schools of thoughts about the pairing glue question: One argues that superconductivity in the cuprates emerges out of doping the spin singlet resonating valence bond (RVB) state. Since singlet pairs are already formed in the RVB state there is no need for additional boson glue to pair the electrons. The other instead suggests that the d-wave pairs are mediated by the collective bosons like the conventional low $T_c$ SC with the alteration that the phonons are replaced by another kind of bosons ranging from the antiferromagnetic (AF) to loop current fluctuations. An approach to resolve this dispute is to determine the frequency and momentum dependences of the diagonal and off-diagonal self-energies directly from experiments like the McMillan-Rowell procedure for the conventional SC. In that a simple d-wave BCS theory describes superconducting properties of the cuprates well, the Eliashberg analysis of well designed high resolution experimental data will yield the crucial frequency and momentum dependences of the self-energies. This line of approach using ARPES are discussed in more detail in this review, and some remaining problems are commented.Comment: Invited review article published in the Journal of Korean Physical Society; several typos corrected and a few comments and references adde

Electrostatic potential in a superconductor

The electrostatic potential in a superconductor is studied. To this end Bardeen's extension of the Ginzburg-Landau theory to low temperatures is used to derive three Ginzburg-Landau equations - the Maxwell equation for the vector potential, the Schroedinger equation for the wave function and the Poisson equation for the electrostatic potential. The electrostatic and the thermodynamic potential compensate each other to a great extent resulting into an effective potential acting on the superconducting condensate. For the Abrikosov vortex lattice in Niobium, numerical solutions are presented and the different contributions to the electrostatic potential and the related charge distribution are discussed.Comment: 19 pages, 11 figure