2,100 research outputs found
All Along the Ivory Tower: Black American Identity as Voiced by Poetic Youths
The purpose of the current study was to help amplify and analyze Black American elementary student voice in a post-2020 world. Discussions and writings were conducted at the students’ charter school in spaces where students voiced what it meant to be a Black American youth through both verbal and written means. The current qualitative study focused on using discussions and creative writing to help participants make sense of their identity in their school, community, and the United States. This research provided students’ counternarratives regarding stereotypes associated with being Black American students and focused on how such spaces can positively impact Black American students. The current study used a narrative inquiry via youth participatory action research with critical race theory serving as its theoretical framework. Additionally, the current study also addressed development of critical consciousness as interpreted from a nigrescence framework. When discussing the Black American experience in predominantly White spaces, an analysis of themes revealed fourth- and fifth-grade Black American student participants felt personality mattered most when defining oneself as a Black American. Participants also discussed themes related to both racial battle fatigue and an awareness of how their Blackness in predominantly White spaces had been racially profiled and policed. Participants discussed the United States’ historically violent nature toward Black Americans, wanting to be representatives of representation in predominantly White careers, a desire for equitable treatment from White adults, and an appreciation for trusted adult allies. Through it all, participants noted a desire for changes in their communities and an overall appreciation for engaging in the work with one another also came forth. Findings suggested elementary-aged Black American students wish to work in community with one another and want to share information regarding their experiences to assist educators in cultivating more welcoming spaces in their school communities and beyond
The MASSIVE Survey - I. A Volume-Limited Integral-Field Spectroscopic Study of the Most Massive Early-Type Galaxies within 108 Mpc
Massive early-type galaxies represent the modern-day remnants of the earliest
major star formation episodes in the history of the universe. These galaxies
are central to our understanding of the evolution of cosmic structure, stellar
populations, and supermassive black holes, but the details of their complex
formation histories remain uncertain. To address this situation, we have
initiated the MASSIVE Survey, a volume-limited, multi-wavelength,
integral-field spectroscopic (IFS) and photometric survey of the structure and
dynamics of the ~100 most massive early-type galaxies within a distance of 108
Mpc. This survey probes a stellar mass range M* > 10^{11.5} Msun and diverse
galaxy environments that have not been systematically studied to date. Our
wide-field IFS data cover about two effective radii of individual galaxies, and
for a subset of them, we are acquiring additional IFS observations on
sub-arcsecond scales with adaptive optics. We are also acquiring deep K-band
imaging to trace the extended halos of the galaxies and measure accurate total
magnitudes. Dynamical orbit modeling of the combined data will allow us to
simultaneously determine the stellar, black hole, and dark matter halo masses.
The primary goals of the project are to constrain the black hole scaling
relations at high masses, investigate systematically the stellar initial mass
function and dark matter distribution in massive galaxies, and probe the
late-time assembly of ellipticals through stellar population and kinematical
gradients. In this paper, we describe the MASSIVE sample selection, discuss the
distinct demographics and structural and environmental properties of the
selected galaxies, and provide an overview of our basic observational program,
science goals and early survey results.Comment: 19 pages, 14 figures. ApJ (2014) vol. 795, in pres
The MASSIVE Survey II: Stellar Population Trends Out to Large Radius in Massive Early Type Galaxies
We examine stellar population gradients in ~100 massive early type galaxies
spanning 180 < sigma* < 370 km/s and M_K of -22.5 to -26.5 mag, observed as
part of the MASSIVE survey (Ma et al. 2014). Using integral-field spectroscopy
from the Mitchell Spectrograph on the 2.7m telescope at McDonald Observatory,
we create stacked spectra as a function of radius for galaxies binned by their
stellar velocity dispersion, stellar mass, and group richness. With excellent
sampling at the highest stellar mass, we examine radial trends in stellar
population properties extending to beyond twice the effective radius (~2.5
R_e). Specifically, we examine trends in age, metallicity, and abundance ratios
of Mg, C, N, and Ca, and discuss the implications for star formation histories
and elemental yields. At a fixed physical radius of 3-6 kpc (the likely size of
the galaxy cores formed at high redshift) stellar age and [alpha/Fe] increase
with increasing sigma* and depend only weakly on stellar mass, as we might
expect if denser galaxies form their central cores earlier and faster. If we
instead focus on 1-1.5 R_e, the trends in abundance and abundance ratio are
washed out, as might be expected if the stars at large radius were accreted by
smaller galaxies. Finally, we show that when controlling for \sigmastar, there
are only very subtle differences in stellar population properties or gradients
as a function of group richness; even at large radius internal properties
matter more than environment in determining star formation history.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures, accepted by ApJ; resubmitted with updated
reference
The Stellar Halos of Massive Elliptical Galaxies II: Detailed Abundance Ratios at Large Radius
We study the radial dependence in stellar populations of 33 nearby early-type
galaxies with central stellar velocity dispersions sigma* > 150 km/s. We
measure stellar population properties in composite spectra, and use ratios of
these composites to highlight the largest spectral changes as a function of
radius. Based on stellar population modeling, the typical star at 2 R_e is old
(~10 Gyr), relatively metal poor ([Fe/H] -0.5), and alpha-enhanced
([Mg/Fe]~0.3). The stars were made rapidly at z~1.5-2 in shallow potential
wells. Declining radial gradients in [C/Fe], which follow [Fe/H], also arise
from rapid star formation timescales due to declining carbon yields from
low-metallicity massive stars. In contrast, [N/Fe] remains high at large
radius. Stars at large radius have different abundance ratio patterns from
stars in the center of any present-day galaxy, but are similar to Milky Way
thick disk stars. Our observations are thus consistent with a picture in which
the stellar outskirts are built up through minor mergers with disky galaxies
whose star formation is truncated early (z~1.5-2).Comment: ApJ in press, 12 pages, 6 figure
Misdiagnosis, Mistreatment, and Harm - When Medical Care Ignores Social Forces.
The Case Studies in Social Medicine demonstrate that when physicians use only biologic or individual behavioral interventions to treat diseases that stem from or are exacerbated by social factors, we risk harming the patients we seek to serve
The Effect of AGN on the Global HI Content of Isolated Low-Mass Galaxies
We investigate the global neutral hydrogen (HI) content of isolated galaxies
selected from the SDSS spectroscopic survey with optical evidence of Active
Galactic Nuclei (AGN). Our sample includes galaxies with unresolved HI
observations from the ALFALFA 70% data release combined with deeper HI
observations of low-mass galaxies with 7.0 < log(M*) < 9.5. We examine the HI
masses of this sample using the distance from the star-forming sequence on the
OIII\Hb and NII\Ha Baldwin Phillips Terlevich (BPT) diagram as a measurement of
AGN activity. In agreement with previous studies, we find that, for galaxies
with log(M*) > 9.5, AGN activity does not correlate with the global HI content.
However, for galaxies with 9.2 < log(M*) < 9.5, we identify a set of objects at
large distances from the BPT star-forming sequence and lower than expected HI
masses. This gas-depleted sample is red in both g-r and NUV-r colors and
compact without distinguishable signs of star formation. This is surprising
because the vast majority of isolated galaxies in this stellar mass regime are
both star-forming and gas-rich. These galaxies are greater than 1.5 Mpc from
any massive galaxy, ruling out environmental processes as a source of the
gas-depletion. We suggest that either black hole feedback or shocks from
extremely bursty star formation cause the emission lines and have destroyed or
otherwise consumed the cold gas.Comment: Accepted to ApJ, 14 pages, 7 figure
Valuing Transgenic Cotton Technologies Using a Risk/Return Framework
Stochastic Efficiency with Respect to a Function (SERF) is used to rank transgenic cotton technology groups and place an upper and lower bound on their value. Yield and production data from replicated plot experiments are used to build cumulative distribution functions of returns for nontransgenic, Roundup Ready, Bollgard, and stacked gene cotton cultivars. Analysis of Arkansas data indicated that the stacked gene and Roundup Ready technologies would be preferred by a large number of risk neutral and risk averse producers as long as the costs of the technology and seed are below the lower bounds calculated in this manuscript.cotton, financial risk, market value, SERF, transgenic, Agribusiness, Crop Production/Industries, Risk and Uncertainty, Q12, Q16,
Distance to the RR Lyrae Star V716 Monocerotis
We present high quality BVRI CCD photometry of the variable star V716
Monocerotis (= NSV 03775). We confirm it to be an RR Lyrae star of variability
type ab (i.e. a fundamental mode pulsator), and determine its metallicity
([Fe/H] = -1.33 +/- 0.25), luminosity (Mv = 0.80 +/- 0.06), and foreground
reddening (E(B-V) = 0.05-0.17) from the Fourier components of its light curve.
These parameters indicate a distance of 4.1 +/- 0.3 kpc, placing V716 Mon near
the plane of the Galaxy well outside the solar circle. This research was
conducted as part of the 1999 Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) and
Practicas de Investigacion en Astronomia (PIA) Programs at Cerro Tololo
Inter-American Observatory (CTIO).Comment: 9 pages including 2 figures and 2 tables; accepted by PAS
Dynamical Measurements of Black Hole Masses in Four Brightest Cluster Galaxies at 100 Mpc
We present stellar kinematics and orbit superposition models for the central
regions of four Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs), based upon integral-field
spectroscopy at Gemini, Keck, and McDonald Observatories. Our integral-field
data span radii from < 100 pc to tens of kpc. We report black hole masses,
M_BH, of 2.1 +/- 1.6 x 10^10 M_Sun for NGC 4889, 9.7 + 3.0 - 2.6 x 10^9 M_Sun
for NGC 3842, and 1.3 + 0.5 - 0.4 x 10^9 M_Sun for NGC 7768. For NGC 2832 we
report an upper limit of M_BH < 9 x 10^9 M_Sun. Stellar orbits near the center
of each galaxy are tangentially biased, on comparable spatial scales to the
galaxies' photometric cores. We find possible photometric and kinematic
evidence for an eccentric torus of stars in NGC 4889, with a radius of nearly 1
kpc. We compare our measurements of M_BH to the predicted black hole masses
from various fits to the relations between M_BH and stellar velocity
dispersion, luminosity, or stellar mass. The black holes in NGC 4889 and NGC
3842 are significantly more massive than all dispersion-based predictions and
most luminosity-based predictions. The black hole in NGC 7768 is consistent
with a broader range of predictions.Comment: 24 pages, 18 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap
Alpha-Vacua, Black Holes, and AdS/CFT
The Schwarzschild, Schwarzschild-AdS, and Schwarzschild-de Sitter solutions
all admit freely acting discrete involutions which commute with the continuous
symmetries of the spacetimes. Intuitively, these involutions correspond to the
antipodal map of the corresponding spacetimes. In analogy with the ordinary de
Sitter example, this allows us to construct new vacua by performing a
Mottola-Allen transform on the modes associated with the Hartle-Hawking, or
Euclidean, vacuum. These vacua are the `alpha'-vacua for these black holes. The
causal structure of a typical black hole may ameliorate certain difficulties
which are encountered in the case of de Sitter alpha-vacua. For
Schwarzschild-AdS black holes, a Bogoliubov transformation which mixes
operators of the two boundary CFT's provides a construction of the dual CFT
alpha-states. Finally, we analyze the thermal properties of these vacua.Comment: 40 pages REVTeX and AMSLaTeX, 17 black&white eps figures. v3:
references added. v4: details of the pinch singularity avoidance for the
string quantization of the Rindler space toy model have been added in both
the body of the paper and in a new 7 page appendix. Other clarifications and
references added. This is the version accepted for publication in Class.
Quant. Gra
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