4,558 research outputs found
Helium mixtures in nanotube bundles
An analogue to Raoult's law is determined for the case of a 3He-4He mixture
adsorbed in the interstitial channels of a bundle of carbon nanotubes. Unlike
the case of He mixtures in other environments, the ratio of the partial
pressures of the coexisting vapor is found to be a simple function of the ratio
of concentrations within the nanotube bundle.Comment: 3 pages, no figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
Behavior change interventions: the potential of ontologies for advancing science and practice
A central goal of behavioral medicine is the creation of evidence-based interventions for promoting behavior change. Scientific knowledge about behavior change could be more effectively accumulated using "ontologies." In information science, an ontology is a systematic method for articulating a "controlled vocabulary" of agreed-upon terms and their inter-relationships. It involves three core elements: (1) a controlled vocabulary specifying and defining existing classes; (2) specification of the inter-relationships between classes; and (3) codification in a computer-readable format to enable knowledge generation, organization, reuse, integration, and analysis. This paper introduces ontologies, provides a review of current efforts to create ontologies related to behavior change interventions and suggests future work. This paper was written by behavioral medicine and information science experts and was developed in partnership between the Society of Behavioral Medicine's Technology Special Interest Group (SIG) and the Theories and Techniques of Behavior Change Interventions SIG. In recent years significant progress has been made in the foundational work needed to develop ontologies of behavior change. Ontologies of behavior change could facilitate a transformation of behavioral science from a field in which data from different experiments are siloed into one in which data across experiments could be compared and/or integrated. This could facilitate new approaches to hypothesis generation and knowledge discovery in behavioral science
2MASS Galaxies in the Fornax Cluster Spectroscopic Survey
The Fornax Cluster Spectroscopic Survey (FCSS) is an all-object survey of a
region around the Fornax Cluster of galaxies undertaken using the 2dF
multi-object spectrograph on the Anglo-Australian Telescope. Its aim was to
obtain spectra for a complete sample of all objects with 16.5 < b_j < 19.7
irrespective of their morphology (i.e. including `stars', `galaxies' and
`merged' images). We explore the extent to which (nearby) cluster galaxies are
present in 2MASS. We consider the reasons for the omission of 2MASS galaxies
from the FCSS and vice versa. We consider the intersection (2.9 square degrees
on the sky) of our data set with the infra-red 2 Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS),
using both the 2MASS Extended Source Catalogue (XSC) and the Point Source
Catalogue (PSC). We match all the XSC objects to FCSS counterparts by position
and also extract a sample of galaxies, selected by their FCSS redshifts, from
the PSC. We confirm that all 114 XSC objects in the overlap sample are
galaxies, on the basis of their FCSS velocities. A total of 23 Fornax Cluster
galaxies appear in the matched data, while, as expected, the remainder of the
sample lie at redshifts out to z = 0.2 (the spectra show that 61% are early
type galaxies, 18% are intermediate types and 21% are strongly star
forming).The PSC sample turns out to contain twice as many galaxies as does the
XSC. However, only one of these 225 galaxies is a (dwarf) cluster member. On
the other hand, galaxies which are unresolved in the 2MASS data (though almost
all are resolved in the optical) amount to 71% of the non-cluster galaxies with
2MASS detections and have redshifts out to z=0.32.Comment: 5 pages, accepted by A&A, resubmitted due to missing reference
What’s so bad about scientism?
In their attempt to defend philosophy from accusations of uselessness made by prominent scientists, such as Stephen Hawking, some philosophers respond with the charge of ‘scientism.’ This charge makes endorsing a scientistic stance, a mistake by definition. For this reason, it begs the question against these critics of philosophy, or anyone who is inclined to endorse a scientistic stance, and turns the scientism debate into a verbal dispute. In this paper, I propose a different definition of scientism, and thus a new way of looking at the scientism debate. Those philosophers who seek to defend philosophy against accusations of uselessness would do philosophy a much better service, I submit, if they were to engage with the definition of scientism put forth in this paper, rather than simply make it analytic that scientism is a mistake
Cosmological Parameters Degeneracies and Non-Gaussian Halo Bias
We study the impact of the cosmological parameters uncertainties on the
measurements of primordial non-Gaussianity through the large-scale non-Gaussian
halo bias effect. While this is not expected to be an issue for the standard
LCDM model, it may not be the case for more general models that modify the
large-scale shape of the power spectrum. We consider the so-called local
non-Gaussianity model and forecasts from planned surveys, alone and combined
with a Planck CMB prior. In particular, we consider EUCLID- and LSST-like
surveys and forecast the correlations among and the running of the
spectral index , the dark energy equation of state , the effective
sound speed of dark energy perturbations , the total mass of massive
neutrinos , and the number of extra relativistic degrees of
freedom . Neglecting CMB information on and scales /Mpc, we find that, if is assumed to be known, the
uncertainty on cosmological parameters increases the error on by
10 to 30% depending on the survey. Thus the constraint is
remarkable robust to cosmological model uncertainties. On the other hand, if
is simultaneously constrained from the data, the
error increases by . Finally, future surveys which provide a large
sample of galaxies or galaxy clusters over a volume comparable to the Hubble
volume can measure primordial non-Gaussianity of the local form with a
marginalized 1-- error of the order , after
combination with CMB priors for the remaining cosmological parameters. These
results are competitive with CMB bispectrum constraints achievable with an
ideal CMB experiment.Comment: 17 pages, 1 figure added, typos corrected, comments added, matches
the published versio
New constraints on dark energy from the observed growth of the most X-ray luminous galaxy clusters
We present constraints on the mean matter density, Omega_m, the normalization
of the density fluctuation power spectrum, sigma_8, and the dark-energy
equation-of-state parameter, w, obtained from measurements of the X-ray
luminosity function of the largest known galaxy clusters at redshifts z<0.7, as
compiled in the Massive Cluster Survey (MACS) and the local BCS and REFLEX
galaxy cluster samples. Our analysis employs an observed mass-luminosity
relation, calibrated by hydrodynamical simulations, including corrections for
non-thermal pressure support and accounting for the presence of intrinsic
scatter. Conservative allowances for all known systematic uncertainties are
included, as are standard priors on the Hubble constant and mean baryon
density. We find Omega_m=0.28 +0.11 -0.07 and sigma_8=0.78 +0.11 -0.13 for a
spatially flat, cosmological-constant model, and Omega_m=0.24 +0.15 -0.07,
sigma_8=0.85 +0.13 -0.20 and w=-1.4 +0.4 -0.7 for a flat, constant-w model.
Future work improving our understanding of redshift evolution and observational
biases affecting the mass--X-ray luminosity relation have the potential to
significantly tighten these constraints. Our results are consistent with those
from recent analyses of type Ia supernovae, cosmic microwave background
anisotropies, the X-ray gas mass fraction of relaxed galaxy clusters, baryon
acoustic oscillations and cosmic shear. Combining the new X-ray luminosity
function data with current supernova, cosmic microwave background and cluster
gas fraction data yields the improved constraints Omega_m=0.269 +- 0.016,
sigma_8=0.82 +- 0.03 and w=-1.02 +- 0.06. (Abridged)Comment: Submitted to MNRAS. 15 pages, 15 figures. v2: Improved modeling of
the mass-luminosity relation, including additional systematic allowances for
evolution in the scatter and non-thermal pressure support. Constraints are
somewhat weaker, but overall conclusions are unchanged
Scale Dependence of the Halo Bias in General Local-Type Non-Gaussian Models I: Analytical Predictions and Consistency Relations
We investigate the clustering of halos in cosmological models starting with
general local-type non-Gaussian primordial fluctuations. We employ multiple
Gaussian fields and add local-type non-Gaussian corrections at arbitrary order
to cover a class of models described by frequently-discussed f_nl, g_nl and
\tau_nl parameterization. We derive a general formula for the halo power
spectrum based on the peak-background split formalism. The resultant spectrum
is characterized by only two parameters responsible for the scale-dependent
bias at large scale arising from the primordial non-Gaussianities in addition
to the Gaussian bias factor. We introduce a new inequality for testing
non-Gaussianities originating from multi fields, which is directly accessible
from the observed power spectrum. We show that this inequality is a
generalization of the Suyama-Yamaguchi inequality between f_nl and \tau_nl to
the primordial non-Gaussianities at arbitrary order. We also show that the
amplitude of the scale-dependent bias is useful to distinguish the simplest
quadratic non-Gaussianities (i.e., f_nl-type) from higher-order ones (g_nl and
higher), if one measures it from multiple species of galaxies or clusters of
galaxies. We discuss the validity and limitations of our analytic results by
comparison with numerical simulations in an accompanying paper.Comment: 25 pages, 3 figures, typo corrected, Appendix C updated, submitted to
JCA
Improved constraints on dark energy from Chandra X-ray observations of the largest relaxed galaxy clusters
We present constraints on the mean matter density, Omega_m, dark energy
density, Omega_de, and the dark energy equation of state parameter, w, using
Chandra measurements of the X-ray gas mass fraction (fgas) in 42 hot (kT>5keV),
X-ray luminous, dynamically relaxed galaxy clusters spanning the redshift range
0.05<z<1.1. Using only the fgas data for the 6 lowest redshift clusters at
z<0.15, for which dark energy has a negligible effect on the measurements, we
measure Omega_m=0.28+-0.06 (68% confidence, using standard priors on the Hubble
Constant, H_0, and mean baryon density, Omega_bh^2). Analyzing the data for all
42 clusters, employing only weak priors on H_0 and Omega_bh^2, we obtain a
similar result on Omega_m and detect the effects of dark energy on the
distances to the clusters at ~99.99% confidence, with Omega_de=0.86+-0.21 for a
non-flat LCDM model. The detection of dark energy is comparable in significance
to recent SNIa studies and represents strong, independent evidence for cosmic
acceleration. Systematic scatter remains undetected in the fgas data, despite a
weighted mean statistical scatter in the distance measurements of only ~5%. For
a flat cosmology with constant w, we measure Omega_m=0.28+-0.06 and
w=-1.14+-0.31. Combining the fgas data with independent constraints from CMB
and SNIa studies removes the need for priors on Omega_bh^2 and H_0 and leads to
tighter constraints: Omega_m=0.253+-0.021 and w=-0.98+-0.07 for the same
constant-w model. More general analyses in which we relax the assumption of
flatness and/or allow evolution in w remain consistent with the cosmological
constant paradigm. Our analysis includes conservative allowances for systematic
uncertainties. The small systematic scatter and tight constraints bode well for
future dark energy studies using the fgas method. (Abridged)Comment: Published in MNRAS. 20 pages, 11 figures. The data and analysis code
(in the form of a patch to CosmoMC) are now available at
http://www.stanford.edu/~drapetti/fgas_module
Scale dependence of the primordial spectrum from combining the three-year WMAP, Galaxy Clustering, Supernovae, and Lyman-alpha forests
We probe the scale dependence of the primordial spectrum in the light of the
three-year WMAP (WMAP3) alone and WMAP3 in combination with the other
cosmological observations such as galaxy clustering and Type Ia Supernova
(SNIa). We pay particular attention to the combination with the Lyman
(Ly) forest. Different from the first-year WMAP (WMAP1), WMAP3's
preference on the running of the scalar spectral index on the large scales is
now fairly independent of the low CMB multipoles . A combination with the
galaxy power spectrum from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) prefers a
negative running to larger than 2, regardless the presence of low
CMB () or not. On the other hand if we focus on the
Power Law CDM cosmology with only six parameters (matter density
, baryon density , Hubble Constant , optical
depth , the spectral index, , and the amplitude, , of the
scalar perturbation spectrum) when we drop the low CMB contributions
WMAP3 is consistent with the Harrison-Zel'dovich-Peebles scale-invariant
spectrum ( and no tensor contributions) at . When assuming
a simple power law primordial spectral index or a constant running, in case one
drops the low contributions () WMAP3 is consistent
with the other observations better, such as the inferred value of .
We also find, using a spectral shape with a minimal extension of the running
spectral index model, LUQAS CROFT Ly and SDSS Ly exhibit
somewhat different preference on the spectral shape.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures Revtex
From trial to population: A study of a family-based community intervention for childhood overweight implemented at scale
To assess how outcomes associated with participation in a family-based weight management intervention (MEND 7–13, Mind, Exercise, Nutrition..Do it!) for childhood overweight or obesity implemented at scale in the community vary by child, family, neighbourhood and MEND programme characteristics
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