623 research outputs found
American Attitudes Toward Foreign Policy
The character of the role of the American people in international affairs has been molded to a considerable extent by two factors-the attitudes and perspectives of our founding fathers and our geopolitical position. Our early leaders were profoundly influenced by the age of the enlightenment that period of intellectual ferment based on the proposition that the application of rational thoughts could cure the ills of mankind and bring about peace and harmony
The impact of poor asthma control among asthma patients treated with inhaled corticosteroids plus long-acting β2-agonists in the United Kingdom : a cross-sectional analysis
This study was sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim Ltd UK, which was involved in all stages of the study conduct and analysis and also funded all costs associated with the development of the manuscript. The authors acknowledge Kantar Health and Errol J Philip for providing medical writing support. Editorial assistance and medical writing support was also provided by Michelle Rebello, PhD, and Suchita Nath-Sain, PhD, of Cactus Communications. This study was sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim Ltd., UK, which also funded all costs associated with the development of the manuscript. Author Correction, npj Primary Care Respiratory Medicine 27, Article number: 65 (2017) doi:10.1038/s41533-017-0063-5, 05 December 2017 Correction to:npj Primary Care Respiratory Medicine (2017); doi:10.1038/s41533-017-0014-1; Published 09 March 2017Peer reviewedPublisher PD
Carnegie Hubble Program: A Mid-Infrared Calibration of the Hubble Constant
Using a mid-infrared calibration of the Cepheid distance scale based on
recent observations at 3.6 um with the Spitzer Space Telescope, we have
obtained a new, high-accuracy calibration of the Hubble constant. We have
established the mid-IR zero point of the Leavitt Law (the Cepheid
Period-Luminosity relation) using time-averaged 3.6 um data for ten
high-metallicity, Milky Way Cepheids having independently-measured
trigonometric parallaxes. We have adopted the slope of the PL relation using
time-averaged 3.6 um data for 80 long-period Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC)
Cepheids falling in the period range 0.8 < log(P) < 1.8. We find a new
reddening-corrected distance to the LMC of 18.477 +/- 0.033 (systematic) mag.
We re-examine the systematic uncertainties in H0, also taking into account new
data over the past decade. In combination with the new Spitzer calibration, the
systematic uncertainty in H0 over that obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope
(HST) Key Project has decreased by over a factor of three. Applying the Spitzer
calibration to the Key Project sample, we find a value of H0 = 74.3 with a
systematic uncertainty of +/-2.1 (systematic) km/s/Mpc, corresponding to a 2.8%
systematic uncertainty in the Hubble constant. This result, in combination with
WMAP7 measurements of the cosmic microwave background anisotropies and assuming
a flat universe, yields a value of the equation of state for dark energy, w0 =
-1.09 +/- 0.10. Alternatively, relaxing the constraints on flatness and the
numbers of relativistic species, and combining our results with those of WMAP7,
Type Ia supernovae and baryon acoustic oscillations yields w0 = -1.08 +/- 0.10
and a value of N_eff = 4.13 +/- 0.67, mildly consistent with the existence of a
fourth neutrino species.Comment: 27 pages, 8 figures, Accepted for publication in Ap
Stripping of Acacia koa Bark by Rats on Hawaii and Maui
Koa (Acacia koa) is the most valuable native timber species in
Hawaii. Bark stripping of young trees by rats, a common but unstudied phenomenon,
may affect survival, growth, and quality of koa. Up to 54% of the trees
sampled in 4- to 6-year-old stands in the Laupahoehoe and Waiakea areas on
Hawaii were wounded by rats; only 5% of trees sampled in a l-year-old stand on
Borge Ridge, Maui, were wounded. Wounds were generally long and narrow.
Complete girdling was not observed, and direct mortality seemed low. However,
indirect effects of damage-deformation of stems, infection by pathogens, and
premature death-require further study. Because only young trees seem susceptible
to bark stripping, rodent control may be desirable during the first 5 years
of koa stand growth
Developing an awareness of the literary and its effect on the L2 language development of three non-native English speaking teachers
Bachman and Bachman and Palmer's model of communicative language ability from the domain of second language acquisition framed this exploratory mixed-methods developmental case study. The study examined the acquisition of both pragmatic language and language processes as they are related to the reading of authentic literary texts by non-native English speaking teachers (non-NESTs), a cohort recent research has shown desires more access, in both understanding and use, to the kind of pragmatic language use that marks native-speaker usage, and which can be found in literary language. The participants were three non-native English speaking teachers in Sri Lanka who participated in a seven-week intervention involving the study and use of literary language. These are the summarized findings about the participants' pragmatic language use in the post-test conducted after the intervention: literal-level questions elicited less pragmatic language use than inferential-level questions; post-intervention responses elicited greater pragmatic function use, especially for a story with greater cultural resonance for participants; decreases in certain pragmatic functions often indicated the engagement of a wider variety of pragmatic functions in the post-tests; and variety of pragmatic function use appears to be an indicator of language ability. These are the general conclusions about the processes that need to be engaged in the successful reading of literary language by L2 users: a capacity to recognise inferential details in literary texts is key to interpretive understanding; ultimate comprehension and interpretation of inferential meaning is compromised when respondents assign incorrect meanings to lexical and semantic elements; texts from the participants' native culture elicited more interpretive understanding; and composition of"correct" and"incorrect" answers to inferential-level questions contain nuances that are of interest to researchers in SLA and applied linguistics, as they appear to suggest at least some of the processes that need to be involved, and so engaged, in reading and understanding texts with high inferential content
The Carnegie Hubble Program
We present an overview of and preliminary results from an ongoing
comprehensive program that has a goal of determining the Hubble constant to a
systematic accuracy of 2%. As part of this program, we are currently obtaining
3.6 micron data using the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) on Spitzer, and the
program is designed to include JWST in the future. We demonstrate that the
mid-infrared period-luminosity relation for Cepheids at 3.6 microns is the most
accurate means of measuring Cepheid distances to date. At 3.6 microns, it is
possible to minimize the known remaining systematic uncertainties in the
Cepheid extragalactic distance scale. We discuss the advantages of 3.6 micron
observations in minimizing systematic effects in the Cepheid calibration of the
Hubble constant including the absolute zero point, extinction corrections, and
the effects of metallicity on the colors and magnitudes of Cepheids. We are
undertaking three independent tests of the sensitivity of the mid-IR Cepheid
Leavitt Law to metallicity, which when combined will allow a robust constraint
on the effect. Finally, we are providing a new mid-IR Tully-Fisher relation for
spiral galaxies
The Carnegie Hubble Program: The Distance and Structure of the SMC as Revealed by Mid-infrared Observations of Cepheids
Using Spitzer observations of classical Cepheids we have measured the true
average distance modulus of the SMC to be mag (corresponding to kpc), which is
mag more distant than the LMC. This is in agreement with previous results from
Cepheid observations, as well as with measurements from other indicators such
as RR Lyrae stars and the tip of the red giant branch.
Utilizing the properties of the mid--infrared Leavitt Law we measured precise
distances to individual Cepheids in the SMC, and have confirmed that the galaxy
is tilted and elongated such that its eastern side is up to 20 kpc closer than
its western side. This is in agreement with the results from red clump stars
and dynamical simulations of the Magellanic Clouds and Stream.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. 38 Pages, 11 figures. Figure 9 is
interactive. Spitzer photometry for all Cepheids available as online tabl
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