11,736 research outputs found
Constraining the cosmological co-evolution of galaxies and their supermassive black holes via cutting-edge jeans modelling techniques and population synthesis of active galactic nuclei
No full textGalaxy evolution is still relatively poorly understood. Specifically, star formation, mergers and the influence of a central supermassive black hole are all thought to be key drivers in regulating galaxy formation and evolution, but their relative contributions are not well constrained. Velocity dispersion (σ), a measure of the statistical variance of stellar motions in a galaxy, is known to be a key galaxy property, effectively tracing a galaxy’s gravitational potential well. The evolution of σ with cosmic time is also not well understood, despite having the potential to shed light on the relative importance of mergers versus star formation in building galaxies. σ is also known to be closely connected to the mass of the central supermassive black hole, via a tight correlation with slope of ∼ 4−6, which theories suggest could be a result of energetic winds/jets from active galactic nuclei (AGN) impacting onto the surrounding interstellar medium. In this work, I present a comprehensive semi-empirical approach to compute σ via detailed Jeans modelling, assuming, for the first time, both a constant and scale-dependent mass-to-light ratio M∗/L. I compare with a large sample of local galaxies from the MaNGA survey and find that both models can reproduce the Faber-Jackson relation and the weak dependence of σ with bulge-to-total ratio. I also explore the dynamical-to-stellar mass ratio within R ≲ Re , and show that the full dynamical mass within the effective radius can be fully accounted for by a gradient in M∗/L or a dark matter halo with an NFW profile. I then build velocity dispersion evolutionary histories, using the average histories of main progenitor dark matter haloes, assigning stellar masses, effective radii and Sersic indices via a variety of abundance matching, and empirically motivated relations. I find clear evidence for downsizing in velocity dispersion histories along the progenitor tracks, and a steady increase in velocity dispersion at fixed stellar mass with increasing redshift. I extract comparable velocity dispersion tracks from the TNG50 hydrodynamic simulation. The relative ‘flatness’ of these tracks is shown to be driven by the increasing dark matter fraction within Re, whilst showing a steeper evolution in the presence of a stellar gradient. I then show that a combination of mergers and internal star formation are likely responsible for the constant or increasing σap[M∗,z] with time. I then present new evidence for the fundamental nature of the relationship between black hole mass and σ, and show that my σ ap[M∗, z] tracks are consistent with a nearly constant and steep Mbh − σ relation at z ≲ 2, as predicted by AGN feedback models, with black hole masses derived from the LX − M∗ relation. I also show that AGN clustering can place new constraints on black hole-galaxy scaling relations, and explore the creation of AGN mock catalogs. Finally, I present an outcome of these mock catalogs, Astera, my cosmological visualization tool, which presents a real-time rendering of the large scale universe. Astera can represent an invaluable tool for survey planning and, due to its high user interactivity, also for gaming and educational and outreach activities
Interview with Nicholas Christopher, author of Somewhere in the Night: Film Noir and the American City
No full textInterview with Nicholas Christopher, author of Somewhere in the Night: Film Noir and the American Cit
The effect of public funding on research output: the New Zealand Marsden Fund
No full textThe Marsden Fund is the premiere funding mechanism for blue skies research in New Zealand. In 2014, $56 million was awarded to 101 research projects chosen from among 1222 applications from researchers at universities, Crown Research Institutes and independent research organizations. This funding mechanism is similar to those in other countries, such as the European Research Council.
This research measures the effect of funding receipt from the New Zealand Marsden Fund using a unique dataset of funded and unfunded proposals that includes the evaluation scores assigned to all proposals. This allows us to control statistically for potential bias driven by the Fund’s efforts to fund projects that are expected to be successful, and also to measure the efficacy of the selection process itself. We find that Marsden Funding does increase the scientific output of the funded researchers, but that there is no evidence that the final selection process is able to meaningfully predict the likely success of different proposals
Matt Christopher Papers - Accession 1309
No full textThe collection includes letters written by the children’s book author, Matt Christopher, to his son, Marty Christopher. Many of the letters also contain newspaper articles of interest to Matt Christopher, which deal with local sports teams, his writing career, his participation in an exhibition baseball game against the New York Giants in 1938, and other of general interest. Most of the letters are personal in nature, however, a majority of the letters delve into Matt Christopher’s writing career, personal interests, the author’s health, as well as his family life.https://digitalcommons.winthrop.edu/manuscriptcollection_findingaids/2649/thumbnail.jp
Matt Christopher Papers - Accession 1221
No full textMatt Christopher (1917-1997) was a prolific author of children’s books having written over 100 books as well as over 300 short stories, articles, poems, and screenplays. Most of his writings dealt with sports themes, but he also wrote fantasy and mystery themed stories as well. The Matt Christopher Papers consist of both published and unpublished manuscripts, articles, and short stories. Also included are personal and business correspondence, biographical information, scrapbooks, photographs, and memorabilia.https://digitalcommons.winthrop.edu/manuscriptcollection_findingaids/1976/thumbnail.jp
Regulating Code: Good Governance and Better Regulation in the Information Age, by Ian Brown and Christopher T. Marsden
No full textDigital technologies have profoundly changed not only the ways we create, distribute, access, use and re-use information but also many of the governance structures we had in place. Overall, "older" institutions at all governance levels have grappled and often failed to master the multi-faceted and multi-directional issues of the Internet. Regulatory entrepreneurs have yet to discover and fully mobilize the potential of digital technologies as an influential factor impacting upon the regulability of the environment and as a potential regulatory tool in themselves. At the same time, we have seen a deterioration of some public spaces and lower prioritization of public objectives, when strong private commercial interests are at play, such as most tellingly in the field of copyright. Less tangibly, private ordering has taken hold and captured through contracts spaces, previously regulated by public law. Code embedded in technology often replaces law. Non-state action has in general proliferated and put serious pressure upon conventional state-centered, command-and-control models.
Under the conditions of this "messy" governance, the provision of key public goods, such as freedom of information, has been made difficult or is indeed jeopardized.The grand question is how can we navigate this complex multi-actor, multi-issue space and secure the attainment of fundamental public interest objectives. This is also the question that Ian Brown and Chris Marsden seek to answer with their book, Regulating Code, as recently published under the "Information Revolution and Global Politics" series of MIT Press.
This book review critically assesses the bold effort by Brown and Marsden
Dr. Christopher von Rueden – Faculty Author Interview
No full textDr. Christopher von Rueden, an anthropologist and Assistant Professor in the Jepson School of Leadership Studies, discusses a recent article entitled, “Men’s status and reproductive success in 33 non-industrial societies: Effects of subsistence, marriage system, and reproductive strategy,” which he co-authored with Dr. Adrian Jaeggi, an anthropologist at Emory University. Their findings were recently published in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
ESP Across Cultures
No full textThis present volume constitutes the third online edition of ESP Across Cultures.
The decision to change from a paper-based to an online edition has undoubtedly
been beneficial in terms of enjoying greater visibility within the international academic
community. One thing that has not changed over the years, however, since
the inception of the journal in 2004, has been the policy of double-blind peer reviewing,
which means that only a selected number of the papers submitted end up as
being published.
There are seven papers in the current issue, each one analysing a particular aspect
of English for Specific Purposes from a cross-cultural perspective.
The first paper, by Hmoud S. Alotaibi, focuses on research article introductions
in Arabic, analysing the extent to which scholars writing in Arabic in the sphere of
education adhere to the CARS (Create A Research Space) model delineated by John
Swales which was elaborated in particular with regard to the academic conventions
widely adopted in the English-speaking world. Instead of restricting the investigation
to the introductory section as past studies in this field did, the author examines
all of the subheadings and he concludes that all introductions include Move 2 in a
subheading entitled the Problem of the Study, a result that contradicts previous
findings where the paucity of Move 2 was common in non-English RAs, and especially
in Arabic ones.
Patrizia Anesa analyses the websites of the main arbitration centres operating in
Asia from a textual perspective to define how they are discursively constructed and
can be used as promotional tools, thereby helping us to evaluate the importance assumed
by internationalization processes or by local cultural elements in promoting a
particular centre as a seat for international arbitration. She concludes that while
some scholars argue that we are witnessing the ‘Asianization’ of arbitration, with
the increasing bargaining power of Asian parties, on the other hand a phenomenon
of ‘Universal Arbitration’ is also emerging, i.e. a form of convergence of how disputes
are resolved so that parties of any nationality can operate in the same way
with ever fewer language barriers.
In their paper, Mahmood Reza Atai and Fatemeh Asadnia examine the communicative
and promotional function of university homepages by looking at the ‘university
overview’, ‘university mission statement’, and ‘university introduction at a
glance’ genres, using a corpus of 210 texts selected from homepages of the top 500
universities ranked by the Academic Ranking of World Universities. The findings
demonstrated that the three genres shared communicative purposes, functional
units, certain moves and steps, socio-academic contexts, and discourse community
members that led to the formation of a genre set.
Gaetano Falco explores ways of using comics in an MA course on translation of
economic texts as a means of stimulating the interest of language students with no
economics skills in order to introduce economics-related lexis and improve thematic
competence in general. He observes that empirical research has shown that films
and comics can indeed be useful resources to teach economic translation to students
with no skills in economics. However, the author warns that the use of comics for
educational purposes may have its drawbacks, e.g. when students deal with complex
sign systems which embody complex economic concepts, where often the humorous
element is lost.
In her paper, Irina Khoutyz describes the differences in how scholars present
their findings in research articles (RA) in international journals in English and in
Beyza Björkman
Christian Burgers
Jan Chovanec
Anda-Elena Cretiu
Erika Dalan
John Douthwaite
Hanem El-Farahaty
Said Faiq
Silvia Ferreri
Inmaculada Fortanet-Gómez
Pedro Fuertes-Olivera
Giuliana Garzone
Christoph Hafner
Ruba Khamam
Anna Loiacono
Geraldine Ludbrook
John McRae
Susan Petrilli
Silvia Pireddu
Tarja Salmi-Tolonen
Jeffrey Segrave
Charlotte Taylor
Margherita Ulrych
John Kenneth White
Jessica Williams
I hope you will enjoy the current issue of this journal and will make the most of
the free access to all past issues.
Christopher Williams
(Chief Editor)
6 FOREWORD
local journals in Russian. She then looks into the reasons for these differences, seeking
explanations from the sociocultural contexts in which these RAs were written,
as well as providing advice to local authors as to how to make their RAs more competitive
at the international level. The differences include the apparent lack of
structure of Russian RAs with respect to English RAs; the tendency in Russian authors
not to specify the purpose in writing a paper; and the tendency of Russian authors
to present the methodology used in less detail compared with English RAs.
Luisella Leonzini investigates the use of verbal and visual metaphors in economic-
media discourse within the context of the euro crisis by studying the correlation
between linguistic and pictorial metaphors and text-image intersemiotic relations.
The research is based on a cross-analysis of English and Italian editorial
articles published between 2009 and 2012. In both corpora, metaphorical realizations
frame the economic crisis which hit the single currency and the eurozone in
2009 as a partial collapse and hint at a possible return to stability in the form of a
recovery. The aim of this paper is to analyse the collapse/caduta and
recovery/ripresa metaphors across languages in the press.
Ian Robinson reports on using corpus linguistics to aid students in writing a creative
text. He looks at the available literature to help understand what is meant by
‘creativity’. A worksheet was prepared using a corpus linguistic analysis of modern,
English versions of the stories of the Brothers Grimm. This worksheet was constructed
with the use of a specialized corpus, and a stop-list was created which contained
single words as well as word clusters found in the tales. Students were then
asked to select some of these words and phrases to help them write stories which
were then analysed, and a follow-up questionnaire was used to elicit the students’
perceptions concerning creativity. The author concludes that creativity is essential
in EFL and that it is something to be fostered in students
The case for the fundamental MBH-σ relation
No full textStrong scaling relations between host galaxy properties (such as stellar mass, bulge mass, luminosity, effective radius etc) and their nuclear supermassive black hole's mass point toward a close co-evolution. In this work, we first review previous efforts supporting the fundamental importance of the relation between supermassive black hole mass and stellar velocity dispersion (M
BH-σ
e). We then present further original work supporting this claim via analysis of residuals and principal component analysis applied to some among the latest compilations of local galaxy samples with dynamically measured supermassive black hole masses. We conclude with a review on the main physical scenarios in favor of the existence of a M
BH-σ
e relation, with a focus on momentum-driven outflows.
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Book review: The theatrical public sphere, by Christopher B. Balme
No full textBook review of: The theatrical public sphere, by Christopher B. Balme. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014; ISBN 9781107006836 (£60.00)Publisher PD
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