SPIRE Map-Making Test Report

The photometer section of SPIRE is one of the key instruments on board of Herschel. Its legacy depends very much on how well the scanmap observations that it carried out during the Herschel mission can be converted to high quality maps. In order to have a comprehensive assessment on the current status of SPIRE map-making, as well as to provide guidance for future development of the SPIRE scan-map data reduction pipeline, we carried out a test campaign on SPIRE map-making. In this report, we present results of the tests in this campaign.Comment: This document has an executive summary, 6 chapters, and 102 pages. More information can be found at: https://nhscsci.ipac.caltech.edu/sc/index.php/Spire/SPIREMap-MakingTest201

TCM, TTCM, BICM and Iterative BICM Assisted OFDM-based Digital Video Broadcasting to Mobile Receivers

In this contribution, the performance of trellis coded modulation (TCM), bit-interleaved coded modulation (BICM), BICM with iterative decoding (BICM-ID) and turbo trellis coded modulation (TTCM) is studied in comparison to the pan-European terrestrial Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) system. The decoding complexity and bandwidth efficiency trade-offs of the various systems under study are quantified

Controlled interactivity and engagement in digitally enabled campaigning

This study aims to enrich the understanding of US presidential campaigns and primaries through a focus on interactivity and engagement in digitally-enabled campaigning efforts. Building on Stromer-Galley’s (2014) account of digital presidential campaigns, I will reassess the role played by volunteers within such efforts, comparing how different digital and participative infrastructures define patterns and degrees of interactivity and engagement. The analysis of the three cases taken into account (Dean 2004, Obama 2008, Sanders 2016) allows to formulate some generalizations: while interactivity is usually amplified through digital tools, volunteer engagement with staffers is often allowed – even though controlled from above -, while organizational engagement is always prevented. These patterns of leverage are coherent with those established by other actors dwelling in the institutional political arena

Building Momentum : platformised organising and the democratic deficit

The literature focussing on digital platforms as intraorganisational intermediaries underlines a key shortcoming of this model that has not been addressed by the literatures on digital social movements, advocacy, and activism. This limitation is related to the fact that platform-based organisations usually exploit widespread representations of digital technologies as tools for democratisation, but then offer low-quality internal democracy. This has implications for these organisations’ internal and external legitimacy, which are vital for mobilising and engaging supporters and the general public. This article proposes an historical and processual study of the hybrid organisation Momentum, with the aim of exploring the organisational implications of the cyber-democratising discourse and its impact on the internal legitimacy of platform-based organisations

A <i>Herschel</i> and BIMA study of the sequential star formation near the W 48A H II region

We present the results of Herschel HOBYS (Herschel imaging survey of OB Young Stellar objects) photometric mapping combined with Berkeley Illinois Maryland Association (BIMA) observations and additional archival data, and perform an in-depth study of the evolutionary phases of the star-forming clumps in W 48A and their surroundings. Age estimates for the compact sources were derived from bolometric luminosities and envelope masses, which were obtained from the dust continuum emission, and agree within an order of magnitude with age estimates from molecular line and radio data. The clumps in W 48A are linearly aligned by age (east-old to west-young): we find a ultra-compact (UC) H II region, a young stellar object (YSO) with class II methanol maser emission, a YSO with a massive outflow and finally the NH2D prestellar cores from Pillai et al. This remarkable positioning reflects the (star) formation history of the region. We find that it is unlikely that the star formation in the W 48A molecular cloud was triggered by the UC H II region and discuss the Aquila supershell expansion as a major influence on the evolution of W 48A. We conclude that the combination of Herschel continuum data with interferometric molecular line and radio continuum data is important to derive trustworthy age estimates and interpret the origin of large-scale structures through kinematic information