The quantitative measure and statistical distribution of fame

Fame and celebrity play an ever-increasing role in our culture. However, despite the cultural and economic importance of fame and its gradations, there exists no consensus method for quantifying the fame of an individual, or of comparing that of two individuals. We argue that, even if fame is difficult to measure with precision, one may develop useful metrics for fame that correlate well with intuition and that remain reasonably stable over time. Using datasets of recently deceased individuals who were highly renowned, we have evaluated several internet-based methods for quantifying fame. We find that some widely-used internet-derived metrics, such as search engine results, correlate poorly with human subject judgments of fame. However other metrics exist that agree well with human judgments and appear to offer workable, easily accessible measures of fame. Using such a metric we perform a preliminary investigation of the statistical distribution of fame, which has some of the power law character seen in other natural and social phenomena such as landslides and market crashes. In order to demonstrate how such findings can generate quantitative insight into celebrity culture, we assess some folk ideas regarding the frequency distribution and apparent clustering of celebrity deaths.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figure

Constraining Dark Matter Substructure With Gaia Wide Binaries

We use a catalogue of stellar binaries with wide separations (up to 1 pc) identified by the Gaia satellite to constrain the presence of extended substructure within the Milky Way galaxy. Heating of the binaries through repeated encounters with substructure results in a characteristic distribution of binary separations, allowing constraints to be placed independent of the formation mechanism of wide binaries. Across a wide range of subhalo density profiles, we show that subhalos with masses $\gtrsim 65 \ M_\odot$ and characteristic length scales similar to the separation of these wide binaries cannot make up 100% of the Galaxy's dark matter. Constraints weaken for subhalos with larger length scales and are dependent on their density profiles. For such large subhalos, higher central densities lead to stronger constraints. Subhalos with density profiles similar to those expected from cold dark matter must be at least $\sim 5,000$ times denser than predicted by simulation to be constrained by the wide binary catalogue.Comment: 21 pages, 23 figure

Automated Scenario Generation Environment

Report describes IST\u27s investigation into the feasibility of automating the process of planning and scenario generation for large scale (joint level) simulation exercises and development of an architecture for that purpose

Cosmic Gamma-Ray Bursts as a Probe of Star Formation History

The cosmic gamma-ray burst (GRB) formation rate, as derived from the variability-luminosity relation for long-duration GRBs, is compared with the cosmic star formation rate. If GRBs are related to the collapse of massive stars, one expects the GRB rate to be approximately proportional to the star formation rate. We found that these two rates have similar slopes at low redshift. This suggests that GRBs do indeed track the star formation rate of the Universe, which in turn implies that the formation rate of massive stars that produce GRBs is proportional to the total star formation rate. It also implies that we might be able to use GRBs as a probe of the cosmic star formation rate at high redshift. We find that the cosmic star formation rate inferred from the variability-luminosity relation increases steeply with redshift at z > 3. This is in apparent contrast to what is derived from measurements of the cosmic star formation rate at high redshift from optical observations of field galaxies, suggesting that much high-z star formation is being missed in the optical surveys, even after corrections for dust extinction have been made.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, talk given at the CAPP2000 Conference on Cosmology and Particle Physics, Verbier, Switzerland, eds. J. Garcia-Bellido, R. Durrer and M. Shaposhnikov, (AIP,2001

Crystallization and preliminary X-ray diffraction analysis of levansucrase (LsdA) from Gluconacetobacter diazotrophicus SRT4

The endophytic bacterium Gluconacetobacter diazotrophicus SRT4 secretes a constitutively expressed levansucrase (LsdA; EC 2.4.1.10), which converts sucrose to fructo-oligosaccharides and levan. Fully active LsdA was purified to high homogeneity by non-denaturing reversed-phase HPLC and was crystallized at room temperature by the hanging-drop vapour-diffusion method using ammonium sulfate and ethanol as precipitants. The crystals are extremely sensitive, but native data have been collected to 2.5 A under cryogenic conditions using synchrotron radiation. LsdA crystals belong to the orthorhombic space group P22(1)2(1) or P2(1)2(1)2, with unit-cell parameters a = 53.80, b = 119.39, c = 215.10 A

A Possible Cepheid-Like Luminosity Estimator for the Long Gamma-Ray Bursts

We present a possible Cepheid-like luminosity estimator for the long gamma-ray bursts based on the variability of their light curves. To construct the luminosity estimator, we use CGRO/BATSE data for 13 bursts, Wind/KONUS data for 5 bursts, Ulysses/GRB data for 1 burst, and NEAR/XGRS data for 1 burst. Spectroscopic redshifts, peak fluxes, and high resolution light curves are available for 11 of these bursts; partial information is available for the remaining 9 bursts. We find that the isotropic-equivalent luminosities L of these bursts positively correlate with a rigorously-constructed measure V of the variability of their light curves. We fit a model to these data that accommodates both intrinsic scatter (statistical variance) and extrinsic scatter (sample variance). If one excludes GRB 980425 from the fit on the grounds that its association with SN 1998bw at a redshift of z = 0.0085 is not secure, the luminosity estimator spans approx. 2.5 orders of magnitude in L, and the slope of the correlation between L and V is positive with a probability of 1 - 1.4 x 10^-4 (3.8 sigma). Although GRB 980425 is excluded from this fit, its L and V values are consistent with the fitted model, which suggests that GRB 980425 may well be associated with SN 1998bw, and that GRB 980425 and the cosmological bursts may share a common physical origin. If one includes GRB 980425 in the fit, the luminosity estimator spans approx. 6.3 orders of magnitude in L, and the slope of the correlation is positive with a probability of 1 - 9.3 x 10^-7 (4.9 sigma). Independently of whether or not GRB 980425 should be included in the fit, its light curve is unique in that it is much less variable than the other approx. 17 light curves in our sample for which the signal-to-noise is reasonably good.Comment: Accepted to The Astrophysical Journal, 31 pages, 13 figures, LaTe

The relationship of leader behaviors and loci of control.

The principal problem of the study was the following: Are the leader behaviors of business administration graduate students and educational administration graduate students related to their loci of control? The theoretical construct of leader behaviors in the study was defined by the theory of leader role differentiation derived from the Ohio State Leadership Studies and was measured by the Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire-Form XII. The theoretical construct of locus of control was defined by social learning theory as explained by Julian B. Rotter and was measured by Helena Levenson's Multidimensional Locus of Control Scale. Additionally, the theoretical construct of interpersonal behavior as defined by Will Schutz's FIRO theory and measured by the Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation-Behavior Scales was used to find out if interpersonal behaviors were related to either leader behaviors or loci of control.Three conclusions were derived from the findings in the study: (1)The contention supported by researchers associated with the Ohio State Leadership Studies that there are two basic leader behavior dimensions, Initiating Structure and Consideration, was not supported by the findings in the study. It appears that there may be more than two major dimensions, namely, a dimension which focuses on the aspects of the situation. (2)The findings showed that more variables were involved in the composition of leader behaviors for educational administration respondents than business administration respondents. (3)The findings showed that a relationship did exist between leader behaviors and loci of control for the 154 respondents, for example, Internality was the best predictor of the leader behaviors for the respondents in the study.The statistical plan for the study included the following types of statistics: (a)Pearson product moment correlational analyses; (b)Single classification analyses of variance; (c)Median split analyses; (d)Canonical correlational analyses; (e)Factor analysis; and (f)Multiple linear regression analyses. The most productive statistical analyses were the Pearson product moment correlational analyses and multiple linear regression analyses. The data gathered for 21 scales or variables on 154 graduate students from the University of Oklahoma showed the following results: (1) Business administration respondents and educational administration respondents perceived themselves as being internally-controlled, although the educational administration respondents showed a greater inclination to seek their loci of control in Powerful Others and Chance orientations. (2)The characteristics of the LBDQ scale of Consideration were statistically significant with the characteristics of Internality for educational administration respondents only. (3)The characteristics of the LBDQ scale of Initiating Structure were not statistically significant with any of the locus of control scales for either group of respondents. (4)The factor analysis of the twelve LBDQ scales yielded three factor scores which should be researched further. Of particular interest was the third factor score which was labeled the System-Oriented Dimension. When the third factor score was identified as the criterion variable and the locus of control scales and interpersonal behavior scales were used as predictor variables, the predictor variables yielded a multiple R of .81 and an R square of .66. These predictor variables were statistically significant at the .001 alpha level. (5)The characteristics of the interpersonal behavior of Wanted Control were statistically significant and inversely related to nine LBDQ scales for the educational administration respondents. Also the scores on Wanted Control for educational administration respondents were low. Researchers who are interested in the characteristics of interpersonal behaviors, especially Wanted Control, may want to do further research on these findings

International Respiratory Infections Society COVID Research Conversations: Podcast 2 with Dr. Michael S. Niederman and Dr. Edward J. Schenck

Section(s) Topics 1–4 Introductions 5 COVID-19 in New York City 6–7 Telemedicine, long-term sequelae 8 Development of a multi-disciplinary ICU team 9–10 Treatment of ARDS, COVID-19 pathogenesis 11–12 Prioritizing treatment at research 13 Challenges in tracing the natural history of severe COVID-19 14–15 Experience with mechanically ventilated patients; non-pulmonary organ failure 16–17 Mapping COVID-19 trajectories by SOFA score 18–20 Findings: additive organ dysfunction, improving vs. worsening trajectory 21 ARDS therapeutic approaches 22 Clinical trials involving Cornell 23–25 Lessons learned: patient care, research, education, caring for critical care workers 26–30 2021 predictions: improved therapies and research, endemic COVID-19, vaccines 31–33 Prioritizing research projects at Cornell 34–38 Explanations for caseload reduction 39–43 Thanks and sign-of