Multi-color imaging of selected southern interacting galaxies

The authors present preliminary results from a study of selected Arp-Madore Southern Hemisphere peculiar galaxies. Broadband charge coupled device (CCD) images (BVRI) of a subset of these galaxies allow us to study each galaxy's optical morphology, color, and (in a crude manner) degree of nuclear activity, and to compare them with similar data we possess on other active galaxies. Many of these galaxies have optical morphologies closely resembling those of powerful radio galaxies (Smith and Heckman 1989), yet their radio emission is unremarkable. Accurate positions for subsequent spectroscopic studies have been determined along with broad band photometry and morphology studies. Detailed observations of these comparatively bright, low-redshift, well-resolved interacting systems should aid our understanding of the role interactions play in triggering galaxy activity. This work is the initial effort in a long term project to study the role played by the dynamics of the interaction in the production and manifestations of activity in galaxies, and the frequency of galaxy mergers

Biplot and Singular Value Decomposition Macros for Excel©

The biplot display is a graph of row and column markers obtained from data that forms a two-way table. The markers are calculated from the singular value decomposition of the data matrix. The biplot display may be used with many multivariate methods to display relationships between variables and objects. It is commonly used in ecological applications to plot relationships between species and sites. This paper describes a set of Excelé macros that may be used to draw a biplot display based on results from principal components analysis, correspondence analysis, canonical discriminant analysis, metric multidimensional scaling, redundancy analysis, canonical correlation analysis or canonical correspondence analysis. The macros allow for a variety of transformations of the data prior to the singular value decomposition and scaling of the markers following the decomposition.

Diffusion of Lexical Change in Social Media

Computer-mediated communication is driving fundamental changes in the nature of written language. We investigate these changes by statistical analysis of a dataset comprising 107 million Twitter messages (authored by 2.7 million unique user accounts). Using a latent vector autoregressive model to aggregate across thousands of words, we identify high-level patterns in diffusion of linguistic change over the United States. Our model is robust to unpredictable changes in Twitter's sampling rate, and provides a probabilistic characterization of the relationship of macro-scale linguistic influence to a set of demographic and geographic predictors. The results of this analysis offer support for prior arguments that focus on geographical proximity and population size. However, demographic similarity -- especially with regard to race -- plays an even more central role, as cities with similar racial demographics are far more likely to share linguistic influence. Rather than moving towards a single unified "netspeak" dialect, language evolution in computer-mediated communication reproduces existing fault lines in spoken American English.Comment: preprint of PLOS-ONE paper from November 2014; PLoS ONE 9(11) e11311

Wide-field direct CCD observations supporting the Astro-1 Space Shuttle mission's Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope

Wide field direct CCD observations are being obtained to support and complement the vacuum-ultraviolet (VUV) images provided by Astro's Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT) during a Space Shuttle flight in December 1990. Because of the wide variety of projects addressed by UIT, the fields observed include (1) galactic supernova remnants such as the Cygnus Loop and globular clusters such as Omega Cen and M79; (2) the Magellanic Clouds, M33, M81, and other galaxies in the Local Group; and (3) rich clusters of galaxies, principally the Perseus cluster and Abell 1367. Ground-based observations have been obtained for virtually all of the Astro-1 UIT fields. The optical images allow identification of individual UV sources in each field and provide the long baseline in wavelength necessary for accurate analysis of UV-bright sources. To facilitate use of our optical images for analysis of UIT data and other projects, we plan to archive them, with the UIT images, at the National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC), where they will be universally accessible via anonymous FTP. The UIT, one of three telescopes comprising the Astro spacecraft, is a 38-cm f/9 Ritchey-Chretien telescope on which high quantum efficiency, solar-blind image tubes are used to record VUV images on photographic film. Five filters with passbands centered between 1250A and 2500A provide both VUV colors and a measurement of extinction via the 2200A dust feature. The resulting calibrated VUV pictures are 40 arcminutes in diameter at 2.5 arcseconds resolution. The capabilities of UIT, therefore, complement HST's WFPC: the latter has 40 times greater collecting area, while UIT's usable field has 170 times WFPC's field area

Detection of bondline delaminations in multilayer structures with lossy components

The detection of bondline delaminations in multilayer structures using ultrasonic reflection techniques is a generic problem in adhesively bonded composite structures such as the Space Shuttles's Solid Rocket Motors (SRM). Standard pulse echo ultrasonic techniques do not perform well for a composite resonator composed of a resonant layer combined with attenuating layers. Excessive ringing in the resonant layer tends to mask internal echoes emanating from the attenuating layers. The SRM is made up of a resonant steel layer backed by layers of adhesive, rubber, liner and fuel, which are ultrasonically attenuating. The structure's response is modeled as a lossy ultrasonic transmission line. The model predicts that the acoustic response of the system is sensitive to delaminations at the interior bondlines in a few narrow frequency bands. These predictions are verified by measurements on a fabricated system. Successful imaging of internal delaminations is sensitive to proper selection of the interrogating frequency. Images of fabricated bondline delaminations are presented based on these studies

Biplot and Singular Value Decomposition Macros for Excel©

The biplot display is a graph of row and column markers obtained from data that forms a twoway table. The markers are calculated from the singular value decomposition of the data matrix. The biplot display may be used with many multivariate methods to display relationships between variables and objects. It is commonly used in ecological applications to plot relationships between species and sites. This paper describes a set of Excel© macros that may be used to draw a biplot display based on results from principal components analysis, correspondence analysis, canonical discriminant analysis, metric multidimensional scaling, redundancy analysis, canonical correlation analysis or canonical correspondence analysis. The macros allow for a variety of transformations of the data prior to the singular value decomposition and scaling of the markers following the decomposition