71 research outputs found
Freedom to park: post-socialist automobility in Tallinn, Estonia
This dissertation examines a significantâyet seemingly banal and largely unstudied question of urban living: car parking. While car parking has emerged as a problem in various parts of the world throughout the twentieth century, the rapid motorisation since 1991 has made it a particularly intense topic in the former Soviet Union. By investigating the problematic of parking governing in the city of Tallinn (Estonia) the dissertation has two aims. Firstly, it draws attention to the role of materialities in urban research. It is argued that to govern means to govern in relation to materialities. Thus, the research develops the notion of material governmentality inspired by the work of Foucault and the actor-network studies on the agency of things. Secondly, the dissertation re-conceptualises the notion of âpost-socialismâ. While the term âpostsocialismâ is often utilised for cities located in Eastern Europe it is routinely comprehended as spatially and temporally bounded. To make the term more applicable, it is revised into a concept allowing attention to various continuities and anticontinuities emerging in aspects, rather than in terms of cities and societies in general. Material governmentality and post-socialism are explored in the dissertation through three cases dealing with different facets of the parking regulations in Tallinn. Firstly, the thesis looks into the legal debates on the governing of car parking, analysing questions about the constitutionality of the state in a society wishing to move away from the totalitarian practices found under socialism. Secondly, the thesis investigates the contradictions of the âwill to governâ and âlegal voidsâ as they emerge in relation to materialisations and post-socialist continuities of parking standards and failing regulations of parking operators. Thirdly, the research investigates the ways in which governing procedures are affected by the continuities of the Soviet spaces using the case of a Soviet housing estate
Flux- and volume-limited groups/clusters for the SDSS galaxies: catalogues and mass estimation
We provide flux-limited and volume-limited galaxy group and cluster
catalogues, based on the spectroscopic sample of the SDSS data release 10
galaxies. We used a modified friends-of-friends (FoF) method with a variable
linking length in the transverse and radial directions to identify as many
realistic groups as possible. The flux-limited catalogue incorporates galaxies
down to m_r = 17.77 mag. It includes 588193 galaxies and 82458 groups. The
volume-limited catalogues are complete for absolute magnitudes down to M_r =
-18.0, -18.5, -19.0, -19.5, -20.0, -20.5, and -21.0; the completeness is
achieved within different spatial volumes, respectively. Our analysis shows
that flux-limited and volume-limited group samples are well compatible to each
other, especially for the larger groups/clusters. Dynamical mass estimates,
based on radial velocity dispersions and group extent in the sky, are added to
the extracted groups. The catalogues can be accessed via http://cosmodb.to.ee
and the Strasbourg Astronomical Data Center (CDS).Comment: 16 pages, 18 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in A&
Differences on the level of hepatic transcriptome between two flatfish species in response to liver cancer and environmental pollution levels
Environmental factors can cause cancer in both wild animals and humans. In ecological settings, genetic variation
and natural selection can sometimes produce resilience to the negative impacts of environmental change.
An increase in oncogenic substances in natural habitats has therefore, unintentionally, created opportunities for
using polluted habitats to study cancer defence mechanisms. The Baltic and North Sea are among the most
contaminated marine areas, with a long history of pollution. Two flatfish species (flounder, Platichthys flesus and
dab, Limanda limanda) are used as ecotoxicological indicator species due to pollution-induced liver cancer.
Cancer is more prevalent in dab, suggesting species-specific differences in vulnerability and/or defence mechanisms.
We conducted gene expression analyses for 30 flatfishes. We characterize between- and within-species
patterns in potential cancer-related mechanisms. By comparing cancerous and healthy fishes, and noncancerous
fishes from clean and polluted sites, we suggest also genes and related physiological mechanisms
that could contribute to a higher resistance to pollution-induced cancer in flounders. We discovered changes in
transcriptome related to elevated pollutant metabolism, alongside greater tumour suppression mechanisms in the
liver tissue of flounders compared to dabs. This suggests either hormetic upregulation of tumour suppression or a
stronger natural selection pressure for higher cancer resistance for flounders in polluted environment. Based on
gene expression patterns seen in cancerous and healthy fish, for liver cancer to develop in flounders, genetic
defence mechanisms need to be suppressed, while in dabs, analogous process is weak or absent. We conclude that
wild species could offer novel insights and ideas for understanding the nature and evolution of natural cancer
defence mechanisms.We are grateful to the crew of RW Walther Herwig III for all-round
help during the fieldwork. This project has received funding from the
European Unionâs Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme
under grant agreement No. 951963.We are grateful to the crew of RW Walther Herwig III for all-round
help during the fieldwork. This project has received funding from the
European Unionâs Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme
under grant agreement No. 951963
Relative distances of Omega Centauri and 47 Tucanae
We present precise optical and near-infrared ground-based photometry of two
Globular Clusters (GCs): Omega Cen and 47 Tuc. These photometric catalogs are
unbiased in the Red Giant Branch (RGB) region close to the tip. We provide new
estimates of the RGB tip (TRGB) magnitudes--m_I(TRGB)=9.84+/-0.05, Omega Cen;
m_I(TRGB)=9.46+/-0.06, 47 Tuc--and use these to determine the relative
distances of the two GCs. We find that distance ratios based on different
calibrations of the TRGB, the RR Lyrae stars and kinematic distances agree with
each other within one sigma. Absolute TRGB and RR Lyrae distance moduli agree
within 0.10--0.15 mag, while absolute kinematic distance moduli are 0.2--0.3
mag smaller. Absolute distances to 47 Tuc based on the
Zero-Age-Horizontal-Branch and on the white dwarf fitting agree within 0.1 mag,
but they are 0.1--0.3 mag smaller than TRGB and RR Lyrae distances.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication by ApJ
Stellar mass map and dark matter distribution in M31
Stellar mass distribution in M31 is estimated using optical and infrared
imaging data. Combining the derived stellar mass model with various kinematical
data, properties of the DM halo of the galaxy are constrained.
SDSS observations through the ugriz filters and the Spitzer imaging at 3.6
microns are used to sample the SED of the galaxy at each imaging pixel.
Intrinsic dust extinction effects are taken into account by using far-infrared
observations. Synthetic SEDs created with different stellar population
synthesis models are fitted to the observed SEDs, providing estimates for the
stellar mass surface density. The stellar mass distribution of the galaxy is
described with a 3D model consisting of a nucleus, a bulge, a disc, a young
disc and a halo component, each following the Einasto density distribution
(relations between different functional forms of the Einasto density
distribution are given in App. B). By comparing the stellar mass distribution
to the observed rotation curve and kinematics of outer globular clusters and
satellite galaxies, the DM halo parameters are estimated.
Stellar population synthesis models suggest that M31 is dominated by old
stars throughout the galaxy. The total stellar mass is (10-15)10^10Msun, 30% of
which is in the bulge and 56% in the disc. None of the tested DM distribution
models can be falsified on the basis of the stellar matter distribution and the
rotation curve of the galaxy. The virial mass of the DM halo is
(0.8-1.1)10^12Msun and the virial radius is 189-213kpc, depending on the DM
distribution. The central density of the DM halo is comparable to that of
nearby dwarf galaxies, low-surface-brightness galaxies and distant massive disc
galaxies, thus the evolution of central DM halo properties seems to be
regulated by similar processes for a broad range of halo masses, environments,
and cosmological epochs.Comment: 11 pages, 13 figures, 6 tables, accepted for publication in Astronomy
and Astrophysic
A Social Sciences and Humanities research agenda for transport and mobility in Europe: key themes and 100 research questions
Transport and mobility systems need to be transformed to meet climate change goals and reduce negative environmental and social effects. Despite EU policies having targeted such problems for more than three decades, transitions have been slow and geographically uneven. For effective change to happen, transport and mobility research needs fresh perspectives and better integration of knowledge from the Social Sciences and Humanities. Based on a Horizon Scanning approach, which allowed for a great deal of openness and variety in scholarly viewpoints, this paper presents a novel research agenda consisting of 8 themes and 100 research questions that may contribute to achieving environmentally sustainable mobility transitions within Europe. This research agenda highlights the need to not only support technological solutions for low-carbon mobility, but the importance of transformative policies that include new processes of knowledge production, civic participation and epistemic justice. We contend that the agenda points to the need for further research on the dynamics of science-society interactions
TOPz: Photometric redshifts for J-PAS
The importance of photometric galaxy redshift estimation is rapidly
increasing with the development of specialised powerful observational
facilities. We develop a new photometric redshift estimation workflow TOPz to
provide reliable and efficient redshift estimations for the upcoming
large-scale survey J-PAS which will observe 8500 deg2 of the northern sky
through 54 narrow-band filters. TOPz relies on template-based photo-z
estimation with some added J-PAS specific features and possibilities. We
present TOPz performance on data from the miniJPAS survey, a precursor to the
J-PAS survey with an identical filter system. First, we generated spectral
templates based on the miniJPAS sources using the synthetic galaxy spectrum
generation software CIGALE. Then we applied corrections to the input photometry
by minimising systematic offsets from the template flux in each filter. To
assess the accuracy of the redshift estimation, we used spectroscopic redshifts
from the DEEP2, DEEP3, and SDSS surveys, available for 1989 miniJPAS galaxies
with r < 22 magAB. We also tested how the choice and number of input templates,
photo-z priors, and photometric corrections affect the TOPz redshift accuracy.
The general performance of the combination of miniJPAS data and the TOPz
workflow fulfills the expectations for J-PAS redshift accuracy. Similarly to
previous estimates, we find that 38.6% of galaxies with r < 22 mag reach the
J-PAS redshift accuracy goal of dz/(1 + z) < 0.003. Limiting the number of
spectra in the template set improves the redshift accuracy up to 5%, especially
for fainter, noise-dominated sources. Further improvements will be possible
once the actual J-PAS data become available.Comment: 20 pages, 24 figure
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Atmospheric stilling leads to prolonged thermal stratification in a large shallow polymictic lake
To quantify the effects of recent and potential future decreases in surface wind speeds on lake thermal stratification, we apply the one-dimensional process-based model MyLake to a large, shallow, polymictic lake, VÔrtsjÀrv. The model is validated for a 3-year period and run separately for 28 years using long-term daily atmospheric forcing data from a nearby meteorological station. Model simulations show exceptionally good agreement with observed surface and bottom water temperatures during the 3-year period. Similarly, simulated surface water temperatures for 28 years show remarkably good agreement with long-term in situ water temperatures. Sensitivity analysis demonstrates that decreasing wind speeds has resulted in substantial changes in stratification dynamics since 1982, while increasing air temperatures during the same period had a negligible effect. Atmospheric stilling is a phenomenon observed globally, and in addition to recent increases in surface air temperature, needs to be considered when evaluating the influence of climate change on lake ecosystems
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