Reputation and the League Standing Effect: The Case of a Split Season in Minor League Baseball

Split season league design resets standings at the midpoint of the season, thus allowing for two periods in which a team can potentially achieve success in a single season. This context allows us to test both the reputation of the first half winner and the league standing effect on demand. Examination of game-level data from the 2010 Southern League reveals fans are unaffected by measures of both team quality and league standing in the second half of the season. On the other hand, the first half winners saw an 11% increase in attendance as a percent of stadium capacity, suggesting that in the second half of the season winners matter more than winning

Social Media in a Subjective-science Mode: The “Facebook Likes” Study Reconfigured with Self-reference

A Cambridge University study of more than 58,000 users of the popular social medium Facebook examined the extent to which the Facebook "Likes" button predicted behaviors and attributes of a diverse nature (IQ, sexual identity, political and popular-culture preferences, religious affiliation, and the like). Despite revealing several intriguing and statistically significant relationships, the research sheds scant light on the nature of the subjectivity at play. In a Q-methodological study of a sample of subjectively communicated responses to the Cambridge research, three versions of the subjective interface between the users of Facebook and the social medium are reported.  Implications for studying the social-psychological aspects of social media from the methodological principle of self-reflection are discussed

The Grizzly, September 8, 2016

Marcon Under Fire for Controversial Tweets • First-Year Class Smaller Than Usual • Ursinus Offers Gateway to Success • Ursinus\u27 Students Mourn the Loss of Beloved Wawa • History Department Welcomes New Professor • Student Researchers Spend Summer with NASA • Opinions: Ostrum to Marcon: Let\u27s Work Toward Inclusion; Students Happily Embrace Changes to Wismer • Spike! Ursinus Volleyball is Back in Action! • The Bears and the Bisonhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1647/thumbnail.jp

Passively Evolving Early-type Galaxies at 1.4<z<2.5 in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field

We report on a complete sample of 7 luminous early-type galaxies in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (UDF) with spectroscopic redshifts between 1.39 and 2.47 and to K<23 AB. Using the BzK selection criterion we have pre-selected a set of objects over the UDF which fulfill the photometric conditions for being passively evolving galaxies at z>1.4. Low-resolution spectra of these objects have been extracted from the HST+ACS grism data taken over the UDF by the GRAPES project. Redshift for the 7 galaxies have been identified based on the UV feature at rest frame 2640<lambda<2850 AA. This feature is mainly due to a combination of FeII, MgI and MgII absorptions which are characteristic of stellar populations dominated by stars older than about 0.5 Gyr. The redshift identification and the passively evolving nature of these galaxies is further supported by the photometric redshifts and by the overall spectral energy distribution (SED), with the ultradeep HST+ACS/NICMOS imaging revealing compact morphologies typical of elliptical/early-type galaxies. From the SED we derive stellar masses of 10^{11}Msun or larger and ages of about 1 Gyr. Their space density at =1.7 appears to be roughly a factor of 2--3 smaller than that of their local counterparts, further supporting the notion that such massive and old galaxies are already ubiquitous at early cosmic times. Much smaller effective radii are derived for some of the objects compared to local massive ellipticals, which may be due to morphological K corrections, evolution, or the presence of a central point-like source. Nuclear activity is indeed present in a subset of the galaxies, as revealed by them being hard X-ray sources, hinting to AGN activity having played a role in discontinuing star formation.Comment: 18 pages, 15 figures, ApJ in pres

SecureMEMS: Selective Deposition of Energetic Materials

There exists a pressing operational need to secure and control access to high-valued electromechanical systems, and in some cases render them inoperable. Developing a reliable method for depositing energetic materials will allow for the near-seamless integration of electromechanical systems and energetic material, and, in turn, provide the pathway for security and selective destruction that is needed. In this work, piezoelectric inkjet printing was used to selectively deposit energetic materials. Nanothermites, comprising of nanoscale aluminum and nanoscale copper oxide suspended in dimethyl-formamide (DMF), were printed onto silicon wafers, which enabled both thermal and thrust measurements of the decomposing energetic material. Various solids loadings were studied in order to optimize printing characteristics. Going forward, further studies will focus on the plausibility of inkjet printing other energetic materials for the purposes of the degradation of electromechanical systems

Fungi: Friend or Foe? A Mycobiome Evaluation in Children with Autism and Gastrointestinal Symptoms

Gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms often affect children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and GI symptoms have been associated with an abnormal fecal microbiome. There is limited evidence of Candida species being more prevalent in children with ASD. We enrolled 20 children with ASD and GI symptoms (ASD + GI), 10 children with ASD but no GI symptoms (ASD - GI), and 20 from typically developing (TD) children in this pilot study. Fecal mycobiome taxa were analyzed by Internal Transcribed Spacer sequencing. GI symptoms (GI Severity Index [GSI]), behavioral symptoms (Social Responsiveness Scale -2 [SRS-2]), inflammation and fungal immunity (fecal calprotectin and serum dectin-1 [ELISA]) were evaluated. We observed no changes in the abundance of total fungal species (alpha diversity) between groups. Samples with identifiable Candida spp. were present in 4 of 19 (21%) ASD + GI, in 5 of 9 (56%) ASD - GI, and in 4 of 16 (25%) TD children (overall P = 0.18). The presence of Candida spp. did not correlate with behavioral or GI symptoms (P = 0.38, P = 0.5, respectively). Fecal calprotectin was normal in all but one child. Finally, there was no significance in serum dectin-1 levels, suggesting no increased fungal immunity in children with ASD. Our data suggest that fungi are present at normal levels in the stool of children with ASD and are not associated with gut inflammation