Monte Carlo Markov Chain parameter estimation in semi-analytic models of galaxy formation

We present a statistical exploration of the parameter space of the De Lucia and Blaizot version of the Munich semi-analytic (SA) model built upon the Millennium dark matter simulation. This is achieved by applying a Monte Carlo Markov Chain method to constrain the six free parameters that define the stellar and black hole mass functions at redshift zero. The model is tested against three different observational data sets, including the galaxy K-band luminosity function, B - V colours and the black hole-bulge mass relation, separately and combined, to obtain mean values, confidence limits and likelihood contours for the best-fitting model. Using each observational data set independently, we discuss how the SA model parameters affect each galaxy property and find that there are strong correlations between them. We analyse to what extent these are simply reflections of the observational constraints, or whether they can lead to improved understandings of the physics of galaxy formation. When all the observations are combined, we find reasonable agreement between the majority of the previously published parameter values and our confidence limits. However, the need to suppress dwarf galaxy formation requires the strength of the supernova feedback to be significantly higher in our best-fitting solution than in previous work. To balance this, we require the feedback to become ineffective in haloes of lower mass than before, so as to permit the formation of sufficient high-luminosity galaxies: unfortunately, this leads to an excess of galaxies around L*. Although the best fit is formally consistent with the data, there is no region of parameter space that reproduces the shape of galaxy luminosity function across the whole magnitude range. For our best fit, we present the model predictions for the bJ-band luminosity and stellar mass functions. We find a systematic disagreement between the observed mass function and the predictions from the K-band constraint, which we explain in light of recent works that suggest uncertainties of up to 0.3 dex in the mass determination from stellar population synthesis models. We discuss modifications to the SA model that might simultaneously improve the fit to the observed mass function and reduce the reliance on excessive supernova feedback in small haloes

Wind tunnel tests of high-lift systems for advanced transports using high-aspect-ratio supercritical wings

The wind tunnel testing of an advanced technology high lift system for a wide body and a narrow body transport incorporating high aspect ratio supercritical wings is described. This testing has added to the very limited low speed high Reynolds number data base for this class or aircraft. The experimental results include the effects on low speed aerodynamic characteristics of various leading and trailing edge devices, nacelles and pylons, ailerons, and spoilers, and the effects of Mach and Reynolds numbers

Ageing makes us dyslexic

Background: The effects of typical ageing on spoken language are well known: word production is disproportionately affected while syntactic processing is relatively well preserved. Little is known, however, about how ageing affects reading.Aims: What effect does ageing have on written language processing? In particular, how does it affect our ability to read words? How does it affect phonological awareness (our ability to manipulate the sounds of our language)?Methods & Procedures: We tested 14 people with Parkinson's disease (PD), 14 typically ageing adults (TAA), and 14 healthy younger adults on a range of background neuropsychological tests and tests of phonological awareness. We then carried out an oral naming experiment where we manipulated consistency, and a nonword repetition task where we manipulated the word-likeness of the nonwords.Outcomes & Results: We find that normal ageing causes individuals to become mildly phonologically dyslexic in that people have difficulty pronouncing nonwords. People with Parkinson's disease perform particularly poorly on language tasks involving oral naming and metalinguistic processing. We also find that ageing causes difficulty in repeating nonwords. We show that these problems are associated with a more general difficulty in processing phonological information, supporting the idea that language difficulties, including poorer reading in older age, can result from a general phonological deficit.Conclusions: We suggest that neurally this age-induced dyslexia is associated with frontal deterioration (and perhaps deterioration in other regions) and cognitively to the loss of executive processes that enable us to manipulate spoken and written language. We discuss implications for therapy and treatment

Relation between Light Cone Distribution Amplitudes and Shape Function in B mesons

The Bakamjian-Thomas relativistic quark model provides a Poincar\'e representation of bound states with a fixed number of constituents and, in the heavy quark limit, form factors of currents satisfy covariance and Isgur-Wise scaling. We compute the Light Cone Distribution Amplitudes of $B$ mesons $\phi_{\pm}^B(\omega)$ as well as the Shape Function $S(\omega)$, that enters in the decay $B \to X_s \gamma$, that are also covariant in this class of models. The LCDA and the SF are related through the quark model wave function. The former satisfy, in the limit of vanishing constituent light quark mass, the integral relation given by QCD in the valence sector of Fock space. Using a gaussian wave function, the obtained $S(\omega)$ is identical to the so-called Roman Shape Function. From the parameters for the latter that fit the $B \to X_s\gamma$ spectrum we predict the behaviour of $\phi_{\pm}^B(\omega)$. We discuss the important role played by the constituent light quark mass. In particular, although $\phi_-^B(0) \not= 0$ for vanishing light quark mass, a non-vanishing mass implies the unfamiliar result $\phi_-^B (0) = 0$. Moreover, we incorporate the short distance behaviour of QCD to $\phi_+^B (\omega)$, which has sizeable effects at large $\omega$. We obtain the values for the parameters $\bar{\Lambda} \cong 0.35$ GeV and $\lambda_B^{-1} \cong 1.43$ GeV$^{-1}$. We compare with other theoretical approaches and illustrate the great variety of models found in the literature for the functions $\phi_{\pm}^B (\omega)$; hence the necessity of imposing further constraints as in the present paper. We briefly review also the different phenomena that are sensitive to the LCDA.Comment: 6 figure

B-Meson Distribution Amplitudes of Geometric Twist vs. Dynamical Twist

Two- and three-particle distribution amplitudes of heavy pseudoscalar mesons of well-defined geometric twist are introduced. They are obtained from appropriately parametrized vacuum-to-meson matrix elements by applying those twist projectors which determine the enclosed light-cone operators of definite geometric twist and, in addition, observing the heavy quark constraint. Comparing these distribution amplitudes with the conventional ones of dynamical twist we derive relations between them, partially being of Wandzura-Wilczek type; also sum rules of Burkhardt-Cottingham type are derived.The derivation is performed for the (double) Mellin moments and then re-summed to the non-local distribution amplitudes. Furthermore, a parametrization of vacuum-to-meson matrix elements for non-local operators off the light-cone in terms of distribution amplitudes accompanying independent kinematical structures is derived.Comment: 18 pages, Latex 2e, no figure

Appreciation of entertainment

The purpose of this article is to examine the experience of appreciation to media entertainment as a unique audience response that can be differentiated from enjoyment. To those ends, the first section provides a conceptualization of appreciation in which we outline how we are using the term and how it is distinct from questions of emotional valence. The second section discusses the types of entertainment portrayals and depictions that we believe are most likely to elicit feelings of appreciation. Here, we suggest that appreciation is most evident for meaningful portrayals that focus on human virtue and that inspire audiences to contemplate questions concerning life’s purpose. In the final section we consider the affective and cognitive components of appreciation, arguing that mixed-affective responses (rather than bi-polar conceptualizations of affective valence) better capture the experience of appreciation and its accompanying feelings states such as inspiration, awe, and tenderness

Controls on the spatial distribution of oceanic <i>δ</i>¹³C_DIC

We describe the design and evaluation of a large ensemble of coupled climate–carbon cycle simulations with the Earth system model of intermediate complexity GENIE. This ensemble has been designed for application to a range of carbon cycle questions, including the causes of late- Quaternary fluctuations in atmospheric CO2. Here we evaluate the ensemble by applying it to a transient experiment over the recent industrial era (1858 to 2008 AD). We employ singular vector decomposition and principal component emulation to investigate the spatial modes of ensemble variability of oceanic dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) δ13C, considering both the spun-up pre-industrial state and the transient change. These analyses allow us to separate the natural (preindustrial) and anthropogenic controls on the δ13CDIC distribution. We apply the same dimensionally reduced emulation techniques to consider the drivers of the spatial uncertainty in anthropogenic DIC. We show that the sources of uncertainty related to the uptake of anthropogenic δ13CDIC and DIC are quite distinct. Uncertainty in anthropogenic δ13C uptake is controlled by air–sea gas exchange, which explains 63% of modelled variance. This mode of variability is largely absent from the ensemble variability in CO2 uptake, which is rather driven by uncertainties in thermocline ventilation rates. Although the need to account for air–sea gas exchange is well known, these results suggest that, to leading order, uncertainties in the ocean uptake of anthropogenic 13C and CO2 are governed by very different processes. This illustrates the difficulties in reconstructing one from the other, and furthermore highlights the need for careful targeting of both δ13CDIC and DIC observations to better constrain the ocean sink of anthropogenic CO2

Omaha\u27s Missouri Valley History Conference, 1958-2009: An Intellectual History

The history conference, the profession’s agora, is an overlooked phenomenon in the sociology of knowledge and epistemology. Following the Royal Historical Society, New England antiquarian societies, and the American Historical Association, hundreds of state and county historical societies sprouted up across the nation throughout the nineteenth century. By the end of the twentieth century, annual history conferences were both regional (including the Southern, Northern Great Plains, and Western) and thematic (including conferences on religion, colonial America, and railroads). This phenomena includes the Missouri Valley History Conference (MVHC). This article examines the MVHC, which is still ongoing, from its launch in 1958 to 2009. During this period of time the conference, which has always been based in Omaha, has included about 4,600 scholarly papers and 125 luncheon and banquet addresses delivered by experienced and aspiring scholars. Thousands of CVs mention participating as a MVHC paper presenter, moderator, discussant, or attendee, and the first footnote of many published papers – including six journal articles or book chapters from your author – acknowledge the MVHC

Predicting the movements of permanently installed electrodes on an active landslide using time-lapse geoelectrical resistivity data only

If electrodes move during geoelectrical resistivity monitoring and their new positions are not incorporated in the inversion, then the resulting tomographic images exhibit artefacts that can obscure genuine time-lapse resistivity changes in the subsurface. The effects of electrode movements on time-lapse resistivity tomography are investigated using a simple analytical model and real data. The correspondence between the model and the data is sufficiently good to be able to predict the effects of electrode movements with reasonable accuracy. For the linear electrode arrays and 2D inversions under consideration, the data are much more sensitive to longitudinal than transverse or vertical movements. Consequently the model can be used to invert the longitudinal offsets of the electrodes from their known baseline positions using only the time-lapse ratios of the apparent resistivity data. The example datasets are taken from a permanently installed electrode array on an active lobe of a landslide. Using two sets with different levels of noise and subsurface resistivity changes, it is found that the electrode positions can be recovered to an accuracy of 4 % of the baseline electrode spacing. This is sufficient to correct the artefacts in the resistivity images, and provides for the possibility of monitoring the movement of the landslide and its internal hydraulic processes simultaneously using electrical resistivity tomography only