The Circular Velocity Curve of the Milky Way from 55 to 2525 kpc

We measure the circular velocity curve $v_{\rm c}(R)$ of the Milky Way with the highest precision to date across Galactocentric distances of $5\leq R \leq 25$ kpc. Our analysis draws on the $6$-dimensional phase-space coordinates of $\gtrsim 23,000$ luminous red-giant stars, for which we previously determined precise parallaxes using a data-driven model that combines spectral data from APOGEE with photometric information from WISE, 2MASS, and Gaia. We derive the circular velocity curve with the Jeans equation assuming an axisymmetric gravitational potential. At the location of the Sun we determine the circular velocity with its formal uncertainty to be $v_{\rm c}(R_{\odot}) = (229.0\pm0.2)\rm\,km\,s^{-1}$ with systematic uncertainties at the $\sim 2-5\%$ level. We find that the velocity curve is gently but significantly declining at $(-1.7\pm0.1)\rm\,km\,s^{-1}\,kpc^{-1}$, with a systematic uncertainty of $0.46\rm\,km\,s^{-1}\,kpc^{-1}$, beyond the inner $5$ kpc. We exclude the inner $5$ kpc from our analysis due to the presence of the Galactic bar, which strongly influences the kinematic structure and requires modeling in a non-axisymmetric potential. Combining our results with external measurements of the mass distribution for the baryonic components of the Milky Way from other studies, we estimate the Galaxy's dark halo mass within the virial radius to be $M_{\rm vir} = (7.25\pm0.26)\cdot 10^{11}M_{\odot}$ and a local dark matter density of $\rho_{\rm dm}(R_{\odot}) = 0.30\pm0.03\,\rm GeV\,cm^{-3}$.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. All data can be downloaded here: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.146805

A Macro-Quantitative Analysis of Governance Performance

“State-Building” wird vielerorts als Prinzip moderner Entwicklungspolitik angesehen. Dies beruht auf der Annahme, dass dem modernen Staat eine zentrale Rolle im Bereich der Gewährleistung von Governance-Dienstleistungen zukommt. Das Verhältnis zwischen Staatlichkeit und so verstandener „Governance“ ist jedoch alles andere als klar. Auf Basis eines makro-quantitativen Ansatzes, analysieren wir die Performanz von Staaten in Bereichen wie Sicherheit, Gesundheit, Bildung, ökonomische Subsistenz, Infrastruktur und Umwelt und fragen, inwieweit Staatlichkeit die entsprechenden Unterschiede erklären kann, wenn für diverse andere Faktoren kontrolliert wird, die in den entsprechenden Debatten (v.a. in der Politikwissenschaft und (Entwicklungs-) Ökonomie) als zentral angesehen werden. Drei Ergebnisse der Untersuchung stechen hervor: Erstens – und entgegen der obigen Annahme – lässt sich keine signifikante, konsistente Beziehung zwischen Staatlichkeit und objektiver Governance- Performanz herstellen. Zweitens schneiden die entsprechenden Indikatoren besser ab, wenn es um den Zusammenhang zur subjektiven Wahrnehmung von Governance- Performanz geht, was die Ubiquität der o.g. Annahme bestätigt. Drittens schließlich stellt sich der Grad des „Empowerment“ von Frauen über ganz verschiedene Sachbereiche hinweg als stärkster Prädiktor der Governance- Performanz heraus. Dieses Ergebnis rechtfertigt den Schwerpunkt, den viele Akteure der Entwicklungspolitik derzeit auf die Förderung von Frauen legen.State building is seen as the central tenet of many present-day development efforts. This rests on a global normative script that emphasizes the modern state’s role in providing governance services from security to education to health. However, the relationship between statehood and governance outcomes is not well understood. We use a macro-quantitative approach to analyze state performance in various governance dimensions including security, health, education, economic subsistence, infrastructure, and the environment. We test for the power of statehood in explaining the variation in governance outcomes while controlling for various other factors prominent in the respective debates in political science, economics, and development studies. The analysis yields three interesting results. First, statehood does not have a consistent significant relationship with governance outcomes. It matters more for some outcomes than for others. Second, we find that statehood sometimes performs better at predicting subjective (survey-based) evaluations than at predicting objective measures of governance outcomes (which confirms the ubiquity of the normative script). Finally, we find that the degree of domestic female empowerment performs consistently strong at explaining the variation in governance outcomes. This result is consistent with the policy community’s emphasis on women’s roles in development

Corner Store Strategies: Innovative Approaches to Addressing Economic and Public Health in Rural North Carolina

More than 29 million Americans live in food deserts. The growing prevalence of food deserts contributes to the epidemics of obesity and chronic disease. Despite this, no state legislation has been identified that has directly funded healthy food retail in corner stores—stores which often cannot stock produce or nutrient-dense foods due to their lack of costly refrigeration equipment. With more than twice as many corner stores in food deserts than in high-income areas, this represents a missed opportunity. In 2016, the North Carolina General Assembly enacted and funded innovative legislation to address the challenge of food access in food deserts through an appropriation to supply refrigeration and food stocking equipment to corner stores. The NC Department of Agriculture was tasked with the development and implementation of this Healthy Food Small Retailer Program (HFSRP). The HFSRP is layering multiple “no-cost” intervention strategies with its equipment initiative to address both economic and public health issues in NC food deserts and to provide a more solid foundation for sustainability.Master of Public Healt

Friends of the Public Libraries, Indiana Origins and Outlook

"Where there are friends, there is wealth," wrote Titus Maccius Plaurus more than 2,000 years ago (An Invitation). An advocacy group in Syracuse, N.Y., whose interest lay in the promotion of the welfare of its community's branch libraries and main libraries, took this sentiment to heart when they established their organization in 1922. They called themselves the Friends of Reading of Onondanga County, Inc., and in the process started a Friends of Libraries movement that has resulted in the strengthening of libraries nationwide. Friends of Libraries are very much an influential presence today, providing support for public, university, and special libraries at local, state and national levels

Label Transfer from APOGEE to LAMOST: Precise Stellar Parameters for 450,000 LAMOST Giants

In this era of large-scale stellar spectroscopic surveys, measurements of stellar attributes ("labels," i.e. parameters and abundances) must be made precise and consistent across surveys. Here, we demonstrate that this can be achieved by a data-driven approach to spectral modeling. With The Cannon, we transfer information from the APOGEE survey to determine precise Teff, log g, [Fe/H], and [$\alpha$/M] from the spectra of 450,000 LAMOST giants. The Cannon fits a predictive model for LAMOST spectra using 9952 stars observed in common between the two surveys, taking five labels from APOGEE DR12 as ground truth: Teff, log g, [Fe/H], [\alpha/M], and K-band extinction $A_k$. The model is then used to infer Teff, log g, [Fe/H], and [$\alpha$/M] for 454,180 giants, 20% of the LAMOST DR2 stellar sample. These are the first [$\alpha$/M] values for the full set of LAMOST giants, and the largest catalog of [$\alpha$/M] for giant stars to date. Furthermore, these labels are by construction on the APOGEE label scale; for spectra with S/N > 50, cross-validation of the model yields typical uncertainties of 70K in Teff, 0.1 in log g, 0.1 in [Fe/H], and 0.04 in [$\alpha$/M], values comparable to the broadly stated, conservative APOGEE DR12 uncertainties. Thus, by using "label transfer" to tie low-resolution (LAMOST R $\sim$ 1800) spectra to the label scale of a much higher-resolution (APOGEE R $\sim$ 22,500) survey, we substantially reduce the inconsistencies between labels measured by the individual survey pipelines. This demonstrates that label transfer with The Cannon can successfully bring different surveys onto the same physical scale.Comment: 27 pages, 14 figures. Accepted by ApJ on 16 Dec 2016, implementing suggestions from the referee reports. Associated code available at https://github.com/annayqho/TheCanno

Thermal UAS survey of reactivated hot spring activity in Waiwera, New Zealand

The utilization of geothermal reservoirs as alternative energy source is becoming increasingly important worldwide. Through close-range aerial photogrammetry realized by unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), this study investigates the surface expression of a leaking warm water reservoir in Waiwera, New Zealand, that has been known for many centuries but remained little explored. Due to overproduction during the 1960s and 1970s the reservoir has suffered significant pressure reduction, which resulted in the loss of artesian conditions and led to the desiccation of the hot springs in close succession. However, shortly after the recent shutdown of the primary user (Waiwera Thermal Resort & Spa) renewed artesian activity was reported by locals but no hot spring activity has been observed so far. Therefore, this study was carried out in October 2019 to assess the actual conditions of thermal activity in the area of the former hot springs. UAS with coupled thermal infrared cameras were used for thermal mapping and the obtained data show renewed activity of the hot springs on the beachfront of Waiwera. Faults and fractures were identified as important fluid pathways, as well as individual fluid conducting lithologies

A comparative study of the efficiency of chart versus computer-generated contrast sensitivity testing in glaucoma patients and controls

Purpose. The goal of this study was to assess the efficiency of chart vs. computergenerated contrast sensitivity tests in glaucoma patients and controls. Methods. A total of 64 individuals (30 young controls, 18 older controls, 16 glaucoma patients) were tested for contrast sensitivity using 4 different tests. Two tests determined contrast sensitivity (CS) for detecting large targets with sharp borders. One of these was the MARS printed chart, and the other a computerized number search test by Bailey. The second assessment determined spatial contrast sensitivity (SCS) for sinusoidal grating targets at several spatial frequencies. One of these was the printed Vistech chart, the other a computerized test by Faubert. Results. Both CS tests showed a decrease in the glaucoma group versus both the control groups (p < 0.001). The tests for SCS demonstrated a decrease in sensitivity both with age (p < 0.001) and in the presence of glaucoma (p < 0.001) across all spatial frequencies. Conclusion. The data indicated that SCS was superior in separating the three study groups. Neither of the computer-generated tests was more sensitive than its printed counterpart

Modeling Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) Disease Propagation and Control Strategies Using Memoryless State Transitions

Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) is an infectious disease affecting goats and sheep. PPR has a mortality rate of 80% and a morbidity rate of 100% in naïve herds. This disease is currently of concern to Afghani goat and sheep herders as conditions in Afghanistan are conducive to the disease becoming an epidemic. PPR is similar to Rinderpest, but is not as well studied. There is a lack of empirical data on how the disease spreads or effective large-scale mitigation strategies. We developed a herd-level, event-driven model of PPR, using memoryless state transitions, to study how the virus propagates through a herd, and to identify effective control strategies for disparate herd configurations and environments. This model allows us to perform Sensitivity Analyses (SA) on environmental and disease parameters for which we do not have empirical data and to simulate the effectiveness of various control strategies. We find that reducing the amount of time from the identification of PPR in a herd to the vaccination of the herd will radically reduce the number of deaths that result from PPR. The goal of this model is to give policy makers a tool to develop effective containment strategies for managing outbreaks of PPR