Investigating the source of Planck-detected AME: high resolution observations at 15 GHz

The Planck 28.5 GHz maps were searched for potential Anomalous Microwave Emission (AME) regions on the scale of $\sim3^{\circ}$ or smaller, and several new regions of interest were selected. Ancillary data at both lower and higher frequencies were used to construct spectral energy distributions (SEDs), which seem to confirm an excess consistent with spinning dust models. Here we present higher resolution observations of two of these new regions with the Arcminute Microkelvin Imager Small Array (AMI SA) between 14 and 18 GHz to test for the presence of a compact ($\sim$10 arcmin or smaller) component. For AME-G107.1+5.2, dominated by the {\sc Hii} region S140, we find evidence for the characteristic rising spectrum associated with the either the spinning dust mechanism for AME or an ultra/hyper-compact \textsc{Hii} region across the AMI frequency band, however for AME-G173.6+2.8 we find no evidence for AME on scales of $\sim 2-10$ arcmin.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, 4 tables. Submitted to Advances in Astronomy AME Special Issu

Ancillary academia: video shorts and the production of university paratexts

This article considers the production of media paratexts beyond the bounds of the entertainment industry. Specifically, it examines the development of video content strategy by universities, and the paratextual function that video shorts serve in the construction of institutional identity. Taking a production studies approach, the article expands the scope of paratextual analysis by exploring the development of video content by university marketers, and the role of promotional intermediaries in selling video expertise to the education market

TIME's past in the present: nostalgia and the black and white image

In 1995, the Hubble Space Telescope sent back to astronomers at the University of Arizona a series of vivid colour images of the Eagle Nebula, a dense formation of interstellar gas and dust the likes of which cradle newborn stars. As evidence that our perceptual universe, in every sense of the word, is defined by the representational powers of colour technology, the Hubble's “cosmic close-ups” are a clear case in point. Colour has become a standard representational form and hence the visual form. If so, what can be said of the recent popularity and proliferation of the black-and-white image? No self-respecting café-bar or discriminating home, it seems, can now do without a black and white print on the wall. Commercial photography and certain forms of advertising have found a new niche in black and white, and even sepia is staging a come-back. The popularity of the black-and-white image cannot be divorced from the commercial culture in which it circulates; it is a “look” and a marker of taste. Monochrome is a stylistic trend but a revealing one, especially if one considers the growing preoccupation in America with heritage and memory. Both Susan Sontag and Roland Barthes give black and white a status of authenticity judged in relation to past time “properly” captured. For Sontag, monochrome gives an image a sense of age, historical distance, and aura. She writes, “the cold intimacy of color seems to seal off the photograph from patina.” Likewise, Barthes comments on the artifice of colour, how it is a “coating applied later on to the original truth of black and white.” For both critics, monochrome is an aesthetic of the authentic figured around a basic quality of pastness

Characterization of Optical Frequency Transfer Over 154 km of Aerial Fiber

We present measurements of the frequency transfer stability and analysis of the noise characteristics of an optical signal propagating over aerial suspended fiber links up to 153.6 km in length. The measured frequency transfer stability over these links is on the order of 10^-11 at an integration time of one second dropping to 10^-12 for integration times longer than 100 s. We show that wind-loading of the cable spans is the dominant source of short-timescale noise on the fiber links. We also report an attempt to stabilize the optical frequency transfer over these aerial links.Comment: 4 pages, submitted to Optics Letter

Bayesian modelling of clusters of galaxies from multi-frequency pointed Sunyaev--Zel'dovich observations

We present a Bayesian approach to modelling galaxy clusters using multi-frequency pointed observations from telescopes that exploit the Sunyaev--Zel'dovich effect. We use the recently developed MultiNest technique (Feroz, Hobson & Bridges, 2008) to explore the high-dimensional parameter spaces and also to calculate the Bayesian evidence. This permits robust parameter estimation as well as model comparison. Tests on simulated Arcminute Microkelvin Imager observations of a cluster, in the presence of primary CMB signal, radio point sources (detected as well as an unresolved background) and receiver noise, show that our algorithm is able to analyse jointly the data from six frequency channels, sample the posterior space of the model and calculate the Bayesian evidence very efficiently on a single processor. We also illustrate the robustness of our detection process by applying it to a field with radio sources and primordial CMB but no cluster, and show that indeed no cluster is identified. The extension of our methodology to the detection and modelling of multiple clusters in multi-frequency SZ survey data will be described in a future work.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, submitted to MNRA

‘Show us your moves’: trade rituals of television marketing

The purpose of this paper is to examine the professional culture of television marketing in the UK, the sector of arts marketing responsible for the vast majority of programme trailers and channel promos seen on British television screens. In research approach, it draws on participant observation at Promax UK, the main trade conference and award ceremony of the television marketing community. Developing John Caldwell’s analysis of the cultural practices of worker groups, it uses Promax as site of study itself, exploring how a key trade gathering forges, legitimates and ritualizes the identity and practice of those involved in television marketing. Its findings show how Promax transmits industrial lore, not only about ‘how to do’ the job of television marketing but also ‘how to be’ in the professional field. If trade gatherings enable professional communities to express their own values to themselves, Promax members are constructed as ‘TV people’ rather than just ‘marketing people’; the creative work of television marketing is seen as akin to the creative work of television production, and positioned as part of the television industry. The value of the paper is the exploration of television marketing as a professional and creative discipline. This is especially relevant to marketing and media academics who have tended to overlook, or dismiss, the sector and skills of television promotion

Effect of gain and phase errors on SKA1-low imaging quality from 50-600 MHz

Simulations of SKA1-low were performed to estimate the noise level in images produced by the telescope over a frequency range 50-600 MHz, which extends the 50-350 MHz range of the current baseline design. The root-mean-square (RMS) deviation between images produced by an ideal, error-free SKA1-low and those produced by SKA1-low with varying levels of uncorrelated gain and phase errors was simulated. The residual in-field and sidelobe noise levels were assessed. It was found that the RMS deviations decreased as the frequency increased. The residual sidelobe noise decreased by a factor of ~5 from 50 to 100 MHz, and continued to decrease at higher frequencies, attributable to wider strong sidelobes and brighter sources at lower frequencies. The thermal noise limit is found to range between ~10 - 0.3 $\mu$Jy and is reached after ~100-100 000 hrs integration, depending on observation frequency, with the shortest integration time required at ~100 MHz.Comment: 23 pages, 11 figures Typo correcte

Observational constraints on braneworld inflation: the effect of a Gauss-Bonnet term

High-energy modifications to general relativity introduce changes to the perturbations generated during inflation, and the latest high-precision cosmological data can be used to place constraints on such modified inflation models. Recently it was shown that Randall-Sundrum type braneworld inflation leads to tighter constraints on quadratic and quartic potentials than in general relativity. We investigate how this changes with a Gauss-Bonnet correction term, which can be motivated by string theory. Randall-Sundrum models preserve the standard consistency relation between the tensor spectral index and the tensor-to-scalar ratio. The Gauss-Bonnet term breaks this relation, and also modifies the dynamics and perturbation amplitudes at high energies. We find that the Gauss-Bonnet term tends to soften the Randall-Sundrum constraints. The observational compatibility of the quadratic potential is strongly improved. For a broad range of energy scales, the quartic potential is rescued from marginal rejection. Steep inflation driven by an exponential potential is excluded in the Randall-Sundrum case, but the Gauss-Bonnet term leads to marginal compatibility for sufficient e-folds.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures, version to appear in Physical Review

Observing the CMB at High-l using the VSA and AMI

We discuss two experiments - the Very Small Array (VSA) and the Arcminute MicroKelvin Imager (AMI) - and their prospects for observing the CMB at high angular multipoles. Whilst the VSA is primarily designed to observe primary anisotropies in the CMB, AMI is designed to image secondary anisotropies via the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect. The combined l-range of these two instruments is between l = 150 and ~10000.Comment: 8 pages, 13 figures. To be published in the proceedings of "The Cosmic Microwave Background and its Polarization", New Astronomy Reviews, (eds. S. Hanany and K.A. Olive

TIME's past in the present: nostalgia and the black and white image

In 1995, the Hubble Space Telescope sent back to astronomers at the University of Arizona a series of vivid colour images of the Eagle Nebula, a dense formation of interstellar gas and dust the likes of which cradle newborn stars. As evidence that our perceptual universe, in every sense of the word, is defined by the representational powers of colour technology, the Hubble's “cosmic close-ups” are a clear case in point. Colour has become a standard representational form and hence the visual form. If so, what can be said of the recent popularity and proliferation of the black-and-white image? No self-respecting café-bar or discriminating home, it seems, can now do without a black and white print on the wall. Commercial photography and certain forms of advertising have found a new niche in black and white, and even sepia is staging a come-back. The popularity of the black-and-white image cannot be divorced from the commercial culture in which it circulates; it is a “look” and a marker of taste. Monochrome is a stylistic trend but a revealing one, especially if one considers the growing preoccupation in America with heritage and memory. Both Susan Sontag and Roland Barthes give black and white a status of authenticity judged in relation to past time “properly” captured. For Sontag, monochrome gives an image a sense of age, historical distance, and aura. She writes, “the cold intimacy of color seems to seal off the photograph from patina.” Likewise, Barthes comments on the artifice of colour, how it is a “coating applied later on to the original truth of black and white.” For both critics, monochrome is an aesthetic of the authentic figured around a basic quality of pastness