Changing landscapes : environmental quality through research, extension and teaching at the University of Missouri--Columbia (2001)

EQ1001Like so many in science today, MU research and outreach personnel are involved in the study of, and education about, the environment at many scales -- from the molecular to the vastness of the atmosphere and beyond. This publication is but the first of many ways in which we will work to inform you about our environmental quality efforts

The Wide Field Spectrograph (WiFeS): Performance and Data Reduction

This paper describes the on-telescope performance of the Wide Field Spectrograph (WiFeS). The design characteristics of this instrument, at the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics (RSAA) of the Australian National University (ANU) and mounted on the ANU 2.3m telescope at the Siding Spring Observatory has been already described in an earlier paper (Dopita et al. 2007). Here we describe the throughput, resolution and stability of the instrument, and describe some minor issues which have been encountered. We also give a description of the data reduction pipeline, and show some preliminary results.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Science, 15pp, 11 figure

Asymptotics of 10j symbols

The Riemannian 10j symbols are spin networks that assign an amplitude to each 4-simplex in the Barrett-Crane model of Riemannian quantum gravity. This amplitude is a function of the areas of the 10 faces of the 4-simplex, and Barrett and Williams have shown that one contribution to its asymptotics comes from the Regge action for all non-degenerate 4-simplices with the specified face areas. However, we show numerically that the dominant contribution comes from degenerate 4-simplices. As a consequence, one can compute the asymptotics of the Riemannian 10j symbols by evaluating a `degenerate spin network', where the rotation group SO(4) is replaced by the Euclidean group of isometries of R^3. We conjecture formulas for the asymptotics of a large class of Riemannian and Lorentzian spin networks in terms of these degenerate spin networks, and check these formulas in some special cases. Among other things, this conjecture implies that the Lorentzian 10j symbols are asymptotic to 1/16 times the Riemannian ones.Comment: 25 pages LaTeX with 8 encapsulated Postscript figures. v2 has various clarifications and better page breaks. v3 is the final version, to appear in Classical and Quantum Gravity, and has a few minor corrections and additional reference

2020 Media Futures

What will our media and entertainment be like in 2020

Determining the Quantitative Principles of T Cell Response to Antigenic Disparity in Stem Cell Transplantation

Alloreactivity compromising clinical outcomes in stem cell transplantation is observed despite HLA matching of donors and recipients. This has its origin in the variation between the exomes of the two, which provides the basis for minor histocompatibility antigens (mHA). The mHA presented on the HLA class I and II molecules and the ensuing T cell response to these antigens results in graft vs. host disease. In this paper, results of a whole exome sequencing study are presented, with resulting alloreactive polymorphic peptides and their HLA class I and HLA class II (DRB1) binding affinity quantified. Large libraries of potentially alloreactive recipient peptides binding both sets of molecules were identified, with HLA-DRB1 generally presenting a greater number of peptides. These results are used to develop a quantitative framework to understand the immunobiology of transplantation. A tensor-based approach is used to derive the equations needed to determine the alloreactive donor T cell response from the mHA-HLA binding affinity and protein expression data. This approach may be used in future studies to simulate the magnitude of expected donor T cell response and determine the risk for alloreactive complications in HLA matched or mismatched hematopoietic cell and solid organ transplantation

Formative study of aggression prevention and reduction in junior primary school: final report presented to the Western Australian Health Promotion Foundation: book 1 of 2

This one year formative study aimed to conduct a feasibility trial of current evidencebased practice to reduce and prevent aggression among junior primary school age children. The project comprised three stages: assessing the types of direct and indirect aggression among junior primary school students and the current practices of teachers and schools to address this behaviour and linking successful current practices to evidence-based research to inform the development of a classroom teaching and behaviour management intervention. Aggression is broadly defined as negative acts which are used intentionally to harm others, and may be classified as proactive, reactive or instrumental aggression. (Smith, Cowie, Olafsson, & Liefooghe, 2002). Whilst interventions to reduce aggression in junior primary school are limited, much research has described the risk and protective factors of aggression. Risk factors of aggressive behaviour include familial, school, and individual. Familial risk factors include: parents not providing clear rules, use of corporal punishment, setting poor examples, displaying conflict or violence and providing poor supervision. School risk factors comprise a lack of school structure and adult supervision, indifferent attitudes of school staff toward aggression; and few consequences of negative behaviours. Individual risk factors such as an impulsive and dominant personality, positive attitudes toward school violence and negative self concept also contribute to aggressive behaviours in young children. Conversely, research has also identified protective factors that are likely to reduce a child\u27s use of aggressive behaviours. These can also be classified as familial, school and individual factors and comprise: parental involvement, attitudes and beliefs not supportive of aggression, emotional and social support from teachers and peers at school; high self esteem; positive outlook and pro-social skills. This study aimed to combine a thorough review of available literature with consultation with stakeholders and teachers to develop and test principles for best practice to reduce aggression and improve social skills. Outcomes of this study have provided an insight into current practice in Western Australian schools as well as stakeholders opinions on this current practice and their ideas for future directions in this field. Most importantly, this research has presented an evidence-based summary of best practice in reducing aggression and improving social skills of junior primary school children. Further, this model has been validated by experts and summarised according to the Health Promoting Schools model for ease of future implementation. This best practice model will be used in future research to inform the development of a large scale aggression reduction and social skill development intervention trial for Western Australian primary schools

The Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer Book 2018

(Abridged) This is the Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer 2018 book. It is intended as a concise reference guide to all aspects of the scientific and technical design of MSE, for the international astronomy and engineering communities, and related agencies. The current version is a status report of MSE's science goals and their practical implementation, following the System Conceptual Design Review, held in January 2018. MSE is a planned 10-m class, wide-field, optical and near-infrared facility, designed to enable transformative science, while filling a critical missing gap in the emerging international network of large-scale astronomical facilities. MSE is completely dedicated to multi-object spectroscopy of samples of between thousands and millions of astrophysical objects. It will lead the world in this arena, due to its unique design capabilities: it will boast a large (11.25 m) aperture and wide (1.52 sq. degree) field of view; it will have the capabilities to observe at a wide range of spectral resolutions, from R2500 to R40,000, with massive multiplexing (4332 spectra per exposure, with all spectral resolutions available at all times), and an on-target observing efficiency of more than 80%. MSE will unveil the composition and dynamics of the faint Universe and is designed to excel at precision studies of faint astrophysical phenomena. It will also provide critical follow-up for multi-wavelength imaging surveys, such as those of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, Gaia, Euclid, the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope, the Square Kilometre Array, and the Next Generation Very Large Array.Comment: 5 chapters, 160 pages, 107 figure