127 research outputs found

    II. Apples to apples A2A^2: cluster selection functions for next-generation surveys

    Full text link
    We present the cluster selection function for three of the largest next-generation stage-IV surveys in the optical and infrared: Euclid-Optimistic, Euclid-Pessimistic and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). To simulate these surveys, we use the realistic mock catalogues introduced in the first paper of this series. We detected galaxy clusters using the Bayesian Cluster Finder (BCF) in the mock catalogues. We then modeled and calibrated the total cluster stellar mass observable-theoretical mass (MCLMhM^*_{\rm CL}-M_{\rm h}) relation using a power law model, including a possible redshift evolution term. We find a moderate scatter of σMCLMh\sigma_{M^*_{\rm CL} | M_{\rm h}} of 0.124, 0.135 and 0.136 dex\rm dex for Euclid-Optimistic, Euclid-Pessimistic and LSST, respectively, comparable to other work over more limited ranges of redshift. Moreover, the three datasets are consistent with negligible evolution with redshift, in agreement with observational and simulation results in the literature. We find that Euclid-Optimistic will be able to detect clusters with >80%>80\% completeness and purity down to 8×1013h1M8\times10^{13} h^{-1} M_{\odot} up to z<1z<1. At higher redshifts, the same completeness and purity are obtained with the larger mass threshold of 2×1014h1M2\times10^{14} h^{-1} M_{\odot} up to z=2z=2. The Euclid-Pessimistic selection function has a similar shape with 10%\sim10\% higher mass limit. LSST shows 5%\sim 5\% higher mass limit than Euclid-Optimistic up to z<0.7z<0.7 and increases afterwards, reaching values of 2×1014h1M2\times10^{14} h^{-1} M_{\odot} at z=1.4z=1.4. Similar selection functions with only 80%80\% completeness threshold have been also computed. The complementarity of these results with selection functions for surveys in other bands is discussed.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

    Hot Films on Ceramic Substrates for Measuring Skin Friction

    Get PDF
    Hot-film sensors, consisting of a metallic film on an electrically nonconductive substrate, have been used to measure skin friction as far back as 1931. A hot film is maintained at an elevated temperature relative to the local flow by passing an electrical current through it. The power required to maintain the specified temperature depends on the rate at which heat is transferred to the flow. The heat transfer rate correlates to the velocity gradient at the surface, and hence, with skin friction. The hot-film skin friction measurement method is most thoroughly developed for steady-state conditions, but additional issues arise under transient conditions. Fabricating hot-film substrates using low-thermal-conductivity ceramics can offer advantages over traditional quartz or polyester-film substrates. First, a low conductivity substrate increases the fraction of heat convected away by the fluid, thus increasing sensitivity to changes in flow conditions. Furthermore, the two-part, composite nature of the substrate allows the installation of thermocouple junctions just below the hot film, which can provide an estimate of the conduction heat loss

    Thesis video: Care and handling of soft contact lenses

    Get PDF
    Thesis video: Care and handling of soft contact lense

    Appropriating the Literature: Alcohol Industry Actors' Interventions in Scientific Journals

    Get PDF
    Objective: One research group has recently published three articles on the ways in which alcohol companies and industry social aspects organizations (SAOs) communicate with the public. These articles show how the information produced by the alcohol industry works to produce doubt and uncertainty. Replies from SAOs were published in the respective scientific journals. This article examines these “moments of controversy,” asking in what ways, on which grounds, do the SAOs contest the claims made about them? Method: Three moments of controversy were examined, prompted by articles on SAO information on cancer, on use of Twitter, and on pregnancy and fertility. The articles (n = 3), the responses from the SAOs (n = 8), and the replies by authors Petticrew and colleagues (n = 4), were analyzed, identifying the rhetorical repertoires at work. Results: The responses by SAOs use two main strategies: 1. Posing narrow questions of accuracy rather than engaging with the overall findings of the articles on the context and framing of information; and 2. Making normative claims about what it is to do good science, suggesting that the articles and their findings are not. The second strategy questions the very legitimacy of research examining SAOs. The credibility of being published in the scientific literature affords the responses themselves a rhetorical function, a resource for later use to signal doubt and uncertainty. Conclusions: The SAO interventions in the scientific literature generate controversies. Furthermore, the published traces they leave in the scientific literature enhance SAOs’ ability to make credible claims that the original findings were controversial

    Doing violence to evidence on violence? : How the alcohol industry created doubt in order to influence policy

    Get PDF
    Introduction In 2015/2016 controversy followed the publication of a report on an anthropological study of Australian and New Zealand night-time economies funded by a major alcohol producer. This paper explores the background, moments of public controversy and political uses of the report. Methods Informed by the sociology of scientific controversies, we review the available relevant work of the author of the report, associated material such as press releases, newspaper articles (n = 18) and industry submissions to government (n = 12). Attention was paid to the ways in which claims were made about the relationship between alcohol and violence, and the ways in which credibility and legitimacy were constructed. Results The author of the report has longstanding associations with alcohol industry organisations. Claims made regarding alcohol and violence have remained highly consistent over time, and appear oblivious to developments in the evidence. In the media, the story was largely framed as a contest of credibility between compromised parties. The report continues to be used in alcohol industry submissions to government. Discussion and Conclusions This analysis suggests that this is a ‘counterfeit scientific controversy’; in our assessment, the report has had value not as a contribution to the scientific literature, but as a resource in the claims-making practices of the alcohol industry. Studies of the ways in which industry actors foster science-related content conducted at significant social and conceptual distance from the core of the relevant research community will enhance understandings of the ways in which industry actors engage with science and policy

    Creating a Professional Development Plan for a Simulation Consortium

    Get PDF
    As the United States struggles with health care reform and a nursing education system that inadequately prepares students for practice, dramatic advances in educational technology signal opportunities for both academic and practicing nurses to affect our profession as never before. Simulation technologies provide large and small institutions with the means to educate health care students and novice professionals effectively and efficiently through hands-on experience, but the costs of such a venture can be prohibitive. A simulation consortium offers a venue for different health care and educational institutions with shared goals to pool knowledge, monies, and labor toward health care education throughout a geographic area. This article details one Midwestern U.S. region's work in creating a professional development plan for a new simulation consortium

    From the tobacco industry's uses of science for public relations purposes to the alcohol industry: Tobacco industry documents study

    Get PDF
    Introduction Associates for Research in Substances of Enjoyment (ARISE) was formed by tobacco companies in the late 1980s designed to counter public health policy development. This study examines the alcohol content of ARISE and the contribution of ARISE to alcohol industry activities in a key period in the globalisation of the alcohol industry, generating insights into the inter-relationships between the tobacco and alcohol industries in their involvements in policy-oriented science. Methods We systematically searched the UCSF Truth Tobacco Documents Library for information about ARISE, alcohol and the alcohol industry. This material was supplemented with an analysis of the contributions by ARISE associates to one volume in the International Center for Alcohol Policies (ICAP) book series on alcohol and pleasure. Results ARISE placed nicotine alongside caffeine, chocolate and other foods, and alcohol as treats which brought pleasure and other benefits. Alcohol was thus intrinsic to the ARISE project for the tobacco industry. This study shows that at a formative moment in the mid-1990s the major alcohol companies took advantage of the intellectual inheritance and personnel provided by the tobacco industry when establishing ICAP. Key to this was an ICAP conference that resulted in Alcohol and pleasure: A health perspective (1999). Discussion and Conclusions Not only did ARISE use alcohol to play a supporting role in a sophisticated tobacco industry strategy, the alcohol industry engaged with ARISE as part of its own strategy. This shows the importance of careful attention to corporate activities on the fringes of peer-reviewed science

    The ecology and control of earthworms on golf courses

    Get PDF
    Earthworm casts on golf courses affect the playability of the turf and can potentially damage mowing equipment. Traditionally this problem has been limited using chemical controls. It is estimated that 0.6% of the total UK land surface is occupied by golf courses, therefore, the land management strategies which green keepers adopt with respect to the application of chemicals has a major environmental impact. The aim of this thesis was to investigate the ecology and potential control of earthworm casting in golf turf in environmentally sustainable ways. A quadrat survey of earthworm casts was conducted over two years at five golf courses in Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, UK. Using generalized linear models and forward multiple stepwise regression, an internally validated predictive model of earthworm casting activity was constructed. Annual activity on surfaces was predicted using five physicochemical parameters of which C: N and total inorganic nitrogen were the most important. Environmental parameters were also used to predict monthly earthworm activity, with evapotranspiration and rainfall representing the most significant variation. ' Mustard extraction surveys were used to investigate species diversity and community structure of earthworms. Four dominant species were identified (Aporrectodea rosea, Lunibricus rubellus, Aporrectodea longa and Lumbricus terrestris). It is likely that A. longa and L. terrestris, the two must abundant anecic forms, cause the greatest problems to green keepers as these are the largest of the four earthworm species. The microbial community of soil represents the earthworm's primary food source. An analysis of the microbial community size (using chloroform-extraction) and community structure (using phospholipid fatty acid [PLFA] analysis) showed that different surfaces found on golf courses supported significantly distinct and consistent microbial communities. Differences in population size and structure were evident at different depths through all golf course soil profiles investigated. Individual surface types were comparable, irrespective of geographical location. Therefore different surfaces and depths through the soil profile on golf courses represent different earthworm habitats. An investigation of the effects of different construction techniques and materials used in the golf industry on the rate of earthworm cast formation was made. This showed no effect of construction on the vertical distribution of earthworms, but the rate of casting increased on the sand dominated surfaces. It is proposed that this is due to the lower calorific value that this soil represents to the earthworms. This knowledge was applied in an earthworm cast mitigation experiment, reducing casting rates by stimulating the size of the microbial community with glucose solution. Control through physical exclusion of earthworms to the surface using a buried mesh was also trialled and significantly reduced earthworm casts, however no causal mechanism could be elucidated. This study has advanced the understanding of earthworm ecology on golf courses, deriving mechanistic understandings of this system as a whole. This will lead to a more environmentally sustainable approach to the control of earthworms on golf courses.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

    Intra-individual movement variability during skill transitions: A useful marker?

    Get PDF
    Applied research suggests athletes and coaches need to be challenged in knowing when and how much a movement should be consciously attended to. This is exacerbated when the skill is in transition between two more stable states, such as when an already well learnt skill is being refined. Using existing theory and research, this paper highlights the potential application of movement variability as a tool to inform a coach’s decision-making process when implementing a systematic approach to technical refinement. Of particular interest is the structure of co-variability between mechanical degrees-of-freedom (e.g., joints) within the movement system’s entirety when undergoing a skill transition. Exemplar data from golf are presented, demonstrating the link between movement variability and mental effort as an important feature of automaticity, and thus intervention design throughout the different stages of refinement. Movement variability was shown to reduce when mental effort directed towards an individual aspect of the skill was high (target variable). The opposite pattern was apparent for variables unrelated to the technical refinement. Therefore, two related indicators, movement variability and mental effort, are offered as a basis through which the evaluation of automaticity during technical refinements may be made
    corecore