The HST Cosmos Project: Contribution from the Subaru Telescope

The Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) is a Hubble Space Telescope (HST) treasury project.The COSMOS aims to perform a 2 square degree imaging survey of an equatorial field in $I$(F814W) band, using the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). Such a wide field survey, combined with ground-based photometric and spectroscopic data, is essential to understand the interplay between large scale structure, evolution and formation of galaxies and dark matter. In 2004, we have obtained high-quality, broad band images of the COSMOS field ($B, V, r^\prime, i^\prime,$ and $z^\prime$) using Suprime-Cam on the Subaru Telescope, and we have started our new optical multi-band program, COSMOS-21 in 2005. Here, we present a brief summary of the current status of the COSMOS project together with contributions from the Subaru Telescope. Our future Subaru program, COSMOS-21, is also discussed briefly.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, to appear in the Proceedings of the 6th East Asian Meeting on Astronomy, JKAS, 39, in pres

Bilingual and monolingual children prefer native-accented speakers

Adults and young children prefer to affiliate with some individuals rather than others. Studies have shown that monolingual children show in-group biases for individuals who speak their native language without a foreign accent (Kinzler et al., 2007). Some studies have suggested that bilingual children are less influenced than monolinguals by language variety when attributing personality traits to different speakers (Anisfeld and Lambert, 1964), which could indicate that bilinguals have fewer in-group biases and perhaps greater social flexibility. However, no previous studies have compared monolingual and bilingual children's reactions to speakers with unfamiliar foreign accents. In the present study, we investigated the social preferences of 5-year-old English and French monolinguals and English-French bilinguals. Contrary to our predictions, both monolingual and bilingual preschoolers preferred to be friends with native-accented speakers over speakers who spoke their dominant language with an unfamiliar foreign accent. This result suggests that both monolingual and bilingual children have strong preferences for in-group members who use a familiar language variety, and that bilingualism does not lead to generalized social flexibility

Building a collaborative Psychological Science: Lessons Learned from ManyBabies 1

The field of infancy research faces a difficult challenge: Some questions require samples that are simply too large for any 1 lab to recruit and test. ManyBabies aims to address this problem by forming large-scale collaborations on key theoretical questions in developmental science, while promoting the uptake of Open Science practices. Here, we look back on the first project completed under the ManyBabies umbrella—ManyBabies 1—which tested the development of infant-directed speech preference. Our goal is to share the lessons learned over the course of the project and to articulate our vision for the role of large-scale collaborations in the field. First, we consider the decisions made in scaling up experimental research for a collaboration involving 100+ researchers and 70+ labs. Next, we discuss successes and challenges over the course of the project, including the following: protocol design and implementation, data analysis, organisational structures and collaborative workflows, securing funding, and encouraging broad participation in the project. Finally, we discuss the benefits we see both in ongoing ManyBabies projects and in future large-scale collaborations in general, with a particular eye toward developing best practices and increasing growth and diversity in infancy research and psychological science in general. Throughout the article, we include first-hand narrative experiences to illustrate the perspectives of researchers playing different roles within the project. Although this project focused on the unique challenges of infant research, many of the insights we gained can be applied to large-scale collaborations across the broader field of psychology

Aeromechanics Analysis of a Distortion-Tolerant Fan with Boundary Layer Ingestion

A propulsion system with Boundary Layer Ingestion (BLI) has the potential to significantly reduce aircraft engine fuel burn. But a critical challenge is to design a fan that can operate continuously with a persistent BLI distortion without aeromechanical failure -- flutter or high cycle fatigue due to forced response. High-fidelity computational aeromechanics analysis can be very valuable to support the design of a fan that has satisfactory aeromechanic characteristics and good aerodynamic performance and operability. Detailed aeromechanics analyses together with careful monitoring of the test article is necessary to avoid unexpected problems or failures during testing. In the present work, an aeromechanics analysis based on a three-dimensional, time-accurate, Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes computational fluid dynamics code is used to study the performance and aeromechanical characteristics of the fan in both circumferentially-uniform and circumferentially-varying distorted flows. Pre-test aeromechanics analyses are used to prepare for the wind tunnel test and comparisons are made with measured blade vibration data after the test. The analysis shows that the fan has low levels of aerodynamic damping at various operating conditions examined. In the test, the fan remained free of flutter except at one near-stall operating condition. Analysis could not be performed at this low mass flow rate operating condition since it fell beyond the limit of numerical stability of the analysis code. The measured resonant forced response at a specific low-response crossing indicated that the analysis under-predicted this response and work is in progress to understand possible sources of differences and to analyze other larger resonant responses. Follow-on work is also planned with a coupled inlet-fan aeromechanics analysis that will more accurately represent the interactions between the fan and BLI distortion

The extraordinarily bright optical afterglow of GRB 991208 and its host galaxy

Observations of the extraordinarily bright optical afterglow (OA) of GRB 991208 started 2.1 d after the event. The flux decay constant of the OA in the R-band is -2.30 +/- 0.07 up to 5 d, which is very likely due to the jet effect, and after that it is followed by a much steeper decay with constant -3.2 +/- 0.2, the fastest one ever seen in a GRB OA. A negative detection in several all-sky films taken simultaneously to the event implies either a previous additional break prior to 2 d after the occurrence of the GRB (as expected from the jet effect). The existence of a second break might indicate a steepening in the electron spectrum or the superposition of two events. Once the afterglow emission vanished, contribution of a bright underlying SN is found, but the light curve is not sufficiently well sampled to rule out a dust echo explanation. Our determination of z = 0.706 indicates that GRB 991208 is at 3.7 Gpc, implying an isotropic energy release of 1.15 x 10E53 erg which may be relaxed by beaming by a factor > 100. Precise astrometry indicates that the GRB coincides within 0.2" with the host galaxy, thus given support to a massive star origin. The absolute magnitude is M_B = -18.2, well below the knee of the galaxy luminosity function and we derive a star-forming rate of 11.5 +/- 7.1 Mo/yr. The quasi-simultaneous broad-band photometric spectral energy distribution of the afterglow is determined 3.5 day after the burst (Dec 12.0) implying a cooling frequency below the optical band, i.e. supporting a jet model with p = -2.30 as the index of the power-law electron distribution.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics, 9 pages, 6 figures (Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 have been updated

Seasonal variations in photooxidant formation and light absorption in aqueous extracts of ambient particles

Fog/cloud drops and aerosol liquid water are important sites for the transformations of atmospheric species, largely through reactions with photoformed oxidants such as the hydroxyl radical (⚫OH), singlet molecular oxygen (1O2∗), and oxidizing triplet excited states of organic matter (3C∗). Despite their importance, few studies have measured these oxidants or their seasonal variations. To address this gap, we collected ambient PM2.5 from Davis, California, over the course of a year and measured photooxidant concentrations and light absorption in dilute aqueous extracts. Mass absorption coefficients (MACs) normalized by dissolved organic carbon range from 0.4–3.8 m2 per gram C at 300 nm. Concentrations of ⚫OH, 1O2∗, and 3C∗ in the extracts range from (0.2–4.7) × 10−15 M, (0.7–45) × 10−13 M, and (0.03–7.9) × 10−13 M, respectively, with biomass burning brown carbon playing a major role in light absorption and the formation of 1O2∗ and 3C∗. Extrapolating photooxidant kinetics from our dilute particle extracts to concentrated aerosol liquid water (ALW) conditions gives an estimated ⚫OH concentration of 7 × 10−15 M and ranges for 1O2∗ and 3C∗ of (0.6–7) × 10−12 M and (0.2–1) × 10−12 M, respectively. Compared to the results in Kaur et al. (2019), our ALW predictions show roughly 10 times higher ⚫OH, up to 5 times higher 3C, and 1O2∗ concentrations that are lower by factors of 20–100. These concentrations suggest that 3C∗ and 1O2∗ in ALW dominate the processing of organic compounds that react quickly with these oxidants (e.g., phenols and furans, respectively), while ⚫OH is more important for less reactive organics.</p

Therapeutic androgen receptor ligands

In the past several years, the concept of tissue-selective nuclear receptor ligands has emerged. This concept has come to fruition with estrogens, with the successful marketing of drugs such as raloxifene. The discovery of raloxifene and other selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs) has raised the possibility of generating selective compounds for other pathways, including androgens (that is, selective androgen receptor modulators, or SARMs)