Spatially Extended Low Ionization Emission Regions (LIERs) at z∼0.9z\sim0.9

We present spatially resolved emission diagnostics for eight $z\sim0.9$ galaxies that demonstrate extended low ionization emission-line regions (LIERs) over kpc scales. Eight candidates are selected based on their spatial extent and emission line fluxes from slitless spectroscopic observations with the HST/WFC3 G141 and G800L grisms in the well-studied GOODS survey fields. Five of the candidates (62.5%) are matched to X-ray counterparts in the \textit{Chandra X-Ray Observatory} Deep Fields. We modify the traditional Baldwin-Philips-Terlevich (BPT) emission line diagnostic diagram to use [SII]/(H$\alpha$+[NII]) instead of [NII]/H$\alpha$ to overcome the blending of [NII] and H$\alpha$+[NII] in the low resolution slitless grism spectra. We construct emission line ratio maps and place the individual pixels in the modified BPT. The extended LINER-like emission present in all of our candidates, coupled with X-Ray properties consistent with star-forming galaxies and weak [OIII]$\lambda$5007\AA\ detections, is inconsistent with purely nuclear sources (LINERs) driven by active galactic nuclei. While recent ground-based integral field unit spectroscopic surveys have revealed significant evidence for diffuse LINER-like emission in galaxies within the local universe $(z\sim0.04)$, this work provides the first evidence for the non-AGN origin of LINER-like emission out to high redshifts.Comment: 11 pages, 1 table, 6 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysics Journal (ApJ

Preparing for a Northwest Passage: A Workshop on the Role of New England in Navigating the New Arctic

Preparing for a Northwest Passage: A Workshop on the Role of New England in Navigating the New Arctic (March 25 - 27, 2018 -- The University of New Hampshire) paired two of NSF\u27s 10 Big Ideas: Navigating the New Arctic and Growing Convergence Research at NSF. During this event, participants assessed economic, environmental, and social impacts of Arctic change on New England and established convergence research initiatives to prepare for, adapt to, and respond to these effects. Shipping routes through an ice-free Northwest Passage in combination with modifications to ocean circulation and regional climate patterns linked to Arctic ice melt will affect trade, fisheries, tourism, coastal ecology, air and water quality, animal migration, and demographics not only in the Arctic but also in lower latitude coastal regions such as New England. With profound changes on the horizon, this is a critical opportunity for New England to prepare for uncertain yet inevitable economic and environmental impacts of Arctic change

Longitudinal changes in respiratory and upper limb function in a pediatric type III spinal muscular atrophy cohort after loss of ambulation

Introduction/Aims: Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) type III is a relatively mild form of SMA. Few studies have investigated the changes in both respiratory and upper limb function within this population after loss of ambulation. The aim of this study was to assess change in percentage of predicted forced vital capacity (FVC% predicted) and change in the Revised Upper Limb Module (RULM) score in these patients throughout a 24-month period after loss of ambulation. Effect of scoliosis and its surgical correction, disease duration since loss of ambulation, weight, and height were also investigated. / Methods: Retrospective analyses were performed on 24 nonambulant SMA III patients from data collected at two centers in the United Kingdom. / Results: The FVC% predicted score showed a significant progressive deterioration of 17% over the 24-month period. Respiratory deterioration correlated significantly with age, weight, disease duration since loss of ambulation, and spinal correctional surgery. Longitudinal RULM data were available for 16 patients; a significant deterioration was observed with a mean decrease in score of 3 over 24 months. Age correlated negatively with RULM score, as did height and time since loss of ambulation. A significant positive correlation between FVC% predicted and RULM was demonstrated. / Discussion: This study highlights how SMA type III patients have progressive deterioration of respiratory and upper limb function after loss of ambulation. Combining data from these assessments could provide insight into clinical progression, inform clinical trials, and provide assistance in managing disease progression expectations for patients

Dark energy constraints from cosmic shear power spectra: impact of intrinsic alignments on photometric redshift requirements

Cosmic shear constrains cosmology by exploiting the apparent alignments of pairs of galaxies due to gravitational lensing by intervening mass clumps. However galaxies may become (intrinsically) aligned with each other, and with nearby mass clumps, during their formation. This effect needs to be disentangled from the cosmic shear signal to place constraints on cosmology. We use the linear intrinsic alignment model as a base and compare it to an alternative model and data. If intrinsic alignments are ignored then the dark energy equation of state is biased by ~50 per cent. We examine how the number of tomographic redshift bins affects uncertainties on cosmological parameters and find that when intrinsic alignments are included two or more times as many bins are required to obtain 80 per cent of the available information. We investigate how the degradation in the dark energy figure of merit depends on the photometric redshift scatter. Previous studies have shown that lensing does not place stringent requirements on the photometric redshift uncertainty, so long as the uncertainty is well known. However, if intrinsic alignments are included the requirements become a factor of three tighter. These results are quite insensitive to the fraction of catastrophic outliers, assuming that this fraction is well known. We show the effect of uncertainties in photometric redshift bias and scatter. Finally we quantify how priors on the intrinsic alignment model would improve dark energy constraints.Comment: 14 pages and 9 figures. Replaced with final version accepted in "Gravitational Lensing" Focus Issue of the New Journal of Physics at http://www.iop.org/EJ/abstract/1367-2630/9/12/E0

3D-HST+CANDELS : the evolution of the galaxy size-mass distribution since z=3

Spectroscopic+photometric redshifts, stellar mass estimates, and rest-frame colors from the 3D-HST survey are combined with structural parameter measurements from CANDELS imaging to determine the galaxy size-mass distribution over the redshift range 0 < z < 3. Separating early- and late-type galaxies on the basis of star-formation activity, we confirm that early-type galaxies are on average smaller than late-type galaxies at all redshifts, and we find a significantly different rate of average size evolution at fixed galaxy mass, with fast evolution for the early-type population, R eff∝(1 + z)–1.48, and moderate evolution for the late-type population, R eff∝(1 + z)-0.75Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Area-level deprivation and adiposity in children: is the relationship linear?

OBJECTIVE: It has been suggested that childhood obesity is inversely associated with deprivation, such that the prevalence is higher in more deprived groups. However, comparatively few studies actually use an area-level measure of deprivation, limiting the scope to assess trends in the association with obesity for this indicator. Furthermore, most assume a linear relationship. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate associations between area-level deprivation and three measures of adiposity in children: body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR). DESIGN: This is a cross-sectional study in which data were collected on three occasions a year apart (2005-2007). SUBJECTS: Data were available for 13,333 children, typically aged 11-12 years, from 37 schools and 542 lower super-output areas (LSOAs). MEASURES: Stature, mass and WC. Obesity was defined as a BMI and WC exceeding the 95th centile according to British reference data. WHtR exceeding 0.5 defined obesity. The Index of Multiple Deprivation affecting children (IDACI) was used to determine area-level deprivation. RESULTS: Considerable differences in the prevalence of obesity exist between the three different measures. However, for all measures of adiposity the highest probability of being classified as obese is in the middle of the IDACI range. This relationship is more marked in girls, such that the probability of being obese for girls living in areas at the two extremes of deprivation is around half that at the peak, occurring in the middle. CONCLUSION: These data confirm the high prevalence of obesity in children and suggest that the relationship between obesity and residential area-level deprivation is not linear. This is contrary to the 'deprivation theory' and questions the current understanding and interpretation of the relationship between obesity and deprivation in children. These results could help make informed decisions at the local level

Large Scale Structure of the Universe

Galaxies are not uniformly distributed in space. On large scales the Universe displays coherent structure, with galaxies residing in groups and clusters on scales of ~1-3 Mpc/h, which lie at the intersections of long filaments of galaxies that are >10 Mpc/h in length. Vast regions of relatively empty space, known as voids, contain very few galaxies and span the volume in between these structures. This observed large scale structure depends both on cosmological parameters and on the formation and evolution of galaxies. Using the two-point correlation function, one can trace the dependence of large scale structure on galaxy properties such as luminosity, color, stellar mass, and track its evolution with redshift. Comparison of the observed galaxy clustering signatures with dark matter simulations allows one to model and understand the clustering of galaxies and their formation and evolution within their parent dark matter halos. Clustering measurements can determine the parent dark matter halo mass of a given galaxy population, connect observed galaxy populations at different epochs, and constrain cosmological parameters and galaxy evolution models. This chapter describes the methods used to measure the two-point correlation function in both redshift and real space, presents the current results of how the clustering amplitude depends on various galaxy properties, and discusses quantitative measurements of the structures of voids and filaments. The interpretation of these results with current theoretical models is also presented.Comment: Invited contribution to be published in Vol. 8 of book "Planets, Stars, and Stellar Systems", Springer, series editor T. D. Oswalt, volume editor W. C. Keel, v2 includes additional references, updated to match published versio

The clustering of massive galaxies at z~0.5 from the first semester of BOSS data

We calculate the real- and redshift-space clustering of massive galaxies at z~0.5 using the first semester of data by the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). We study the correlation functions of a sample of 44,000 massive galaxies in the redshift range 0.4<z<0.7. We present a halo-occupation distribution modeling of the clustering results and discuss the implications for the manner in which massive galaxies at z~0.5 occupy dark matter halos. The majority of our galaxies are central galaxies living in halos of mass 10^{13}Msun/h, but 10% are satellites living in halos 10 times more massive. These results are broadly in agreement with earlier investigations of massive galaxies at z~0.5. The inferred large-scale bias (b~2) and relatively high number density (nbar=3e-4 h^3 Mpc^{-3}) imply that BOSS galaxies are excellent tracers of large-scale structure, suggesting BOSS will enable a wide range of investigations on the distance scale, the growth of large-scale structure, massive galaxy evolution and other topics.Comment: 11 pages, 12 figures, matches version accepted by Ap

Physical activity characterization:Does one site fit all?

Background: It is evident that a growing number of studies advocate a wrist-worn accelerometer for the assessment of patterns of physical activity a priori, yet the veracity of this site rather than any other body-mounted location for its accuracy in classifying activity is hitherto unexplored. Objective: The objective of this review was to identify the relative accuracy with which physical activities can be classified according to accelerometer site and analytical technique. Methods: A search of electronic databases was conducted using Web of Science, PubMed and Google Scholar. This review included studies written in the English language, published between database inception and December 2017, which characterized physical activities using a single accelerometer and reported the accuracy of the technique. Results: A total of 118 articles were initially retrieved. After duplicates were removed and the remaining articles screened, 32 full-text articles were reviewed, resulting in the inclusion of 19 articles that met the eligibility criteria. Conclusion: There is no 'one site fits all' approach to the selection of accelerometer site location or analytical technique. Research design and focus should always inform the most suitable location of attachment, and should be driven by the type of activity being characterized