University of Victoria

About: University of Victoria is a education organization based out in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Galaxy. The organization has 14994 authors who have published 41051 publications receiving 1447972 citations. The organization is also known as: Victoria College.

SDSS-IV MaNGA IFS Galaxy Survey - Survey Design, Execution, and Initial Data Quality

Abstract: The MaNGA Survey (Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory) is one of three core programs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV. It is obtaining integral field spectroscopy for 10,000 nearby galaxies at a spectral resolution of R ∼ 2000 from 3622 to 10354 A. The design of the survey is driven by a set of science requirements on the precision of estimates of the following properties: star formation rate surface density, gas metallicity, stellar population age, metallicity, and abundance ratio, and their gradients; stellar and gas kinematics; and enclosed gravitational mass as a function of radius. We describe how these science requirements set the depth of the observations and dictate sample selection. The majority of targeted galaxies are selected to ensure uniform spatial coverage in units of effective radius (Re) while maximizing spatial resolution. About two-thirds of the sample is covered out to 1.5Re (Primary sample), and one-third of the sample is covered to 2.5Re (Secondary sample). We describe the survey execution with details that would be useful in the design of similar future surveys. We also present statistics on the achieved data quality, specifically the point-spread function, sampling uniformity, spectral resolution, sky subtraction, and flux calibration. For our Primary sample, the median r-band signal-to-noise ratio is ∼70 per 1.4 A pixel for spectra stacked between 1Re and 1.5Re. Measurements of various galaxy properties from the first-year data show that we are meeting or exceeding the defined requirements for the majority of our science goals.

The unique ecology of human predators

Abstract: Paradigms of sustainable exploitation focus on population dynamics of prey and yields to humanity but ignore the behavior of humans as predators. We compared patterns of predation by contemporary hunters and fishers with those of other predators that compete over shared prey (terrestrial mammals and marine fishes). Our global survey (2125 estimates of annual finite exploitation rate) revealed that humans kill adult prey, the reproductive capital of populations, at much higher median rates than other predators (up to 14 times higher), with particularly intense exploitation of terrestrial carnivores and fishes. Given this competitive dominance, impacts on predators, and other unique predatory behavior, we suggest that humans function as an unsustainable “super predator,” which—unless additionally constrained by managers—will continue to alter ecological and evolutionary processes globally.

Measurement of Higgs boson production in the diphoton decay channel in pp collisions at center-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Abstract: A measurement of the production processes of the recently discovered Higgs boson is performed in the two-photon final state using 4.5 fb(-1) of proton-proton collisions data at root s = 7 TeV and 20.3 fb(-1) at root s = 8 TeV collected by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The number of observed Higgs boson decays to diphotons divided by the corresponding Standard Model prediction, called the signal strength, is found to be mu = 1.17 +/- 0.27 at the value of the Higgs boson mass measured by ATLAS, m(H) = 125.4 GeV. The analysis is optimized to measure the signal strengths for individual Higgs boson production processes at this value of m(H). They are found to be mu(ggF) = 1.32 +/- 0.38, mu(VBF) = 0.8 +/- 0.7, mu(WH) = 1.0 +/- 1.6, mu(ZH) = 0.1(-0.1)(+3.7), and mu t (t) over barH = 1.6(-1.8)(+2.7), for Higgs boson production through gluon fusion, vector-boson fusion, and in association with a W or Z boson or a top-quark pair, respectively. Compared with the previously published ATLAS analysis, the results reported here also benefit from a new energy calibration procedure for photons and the subsequent reduction of the systematic uncertainty on the diphoton mass resolution. No significant deviations from the predictions of the Standard Model are found.

Impact of climate variability and land use changes on global biogenic volatile organic compound emissions

Abstract: A biogenic emissions scheme has been incorporated in the global dynamic vegetation model ORCHIDEE (Organizing Carbon and Hydrology in Dynamic EcosystEms) in order to calculate global biogenic emissions of isoprene, monoterpenes, methanol, acetone, acetaldehyde, formaldehyde and formic and acetic acids. Important parameters such as the leaf area index are fully determined by the global vegetation model and the influences of light extinction (for isoprene emissions) and leaf age (for isoprene and methanol emissions) are also taken into account. We study the interannual variability of biogenic emissions using the satellite-based climate forcing ISLSCP-II as well as relevant CO 2 atmospheric levels, for the 1983–1995 period. Mean global emissions of 460 TgC/yr for isoprene, 117 TgC/yr for monoterpenes, 106 TgC/yr for methanol and 42 TgC/yr for acetone are predicted. The mean global emission of all biogenic compounds is 752±16 TgC/yr with extremes ranging from 717 TgC/yr in 1986 to 778 TgC/yr in 1995, that is a 8.5% increase between both. This variability differs significantly from one region to another and among the regions studied, biogenic emissions anomalies were the most variable in Europe and the least variable in Indonesia (isoprene and monoterpenes) and North America (methanol). Two scenarios of land use changes are considered using the 1983 climate and atmospheric CO 2 conditions, to study the sensitivity of biogenic emissions to vegetation alteration, namely tropical deforestation and European afforestation. Global biogenic emissions are highly affected by tropical deforestation, with a 29% decrease in isoprene emission and a 22% increase in methanol emission. Global emissions are not significantly affected by European afforestation, but on a European scale, total biogenic VOCs emissions increase by 54%.

Early spectra of the gravitational wave source GW170817: Evolution of a neutron star merger.

Abstract: On 17 August 2017, Swope Supernova Survey 2017a (SSS17a) was discovered as the optical counterpart of the binary neutron star gravitational wave event GW170817. We report time-series spectroscopy of SSS17a from 11.75 hours until 8.5 days after the merger. Over the first hour of observations, the ejecta rapidly expanded and cooled. Applying blackbody fits to the spectra, we measured the photosphere cooling from 11 , 000 − 900 + 3400 to 9300 − 300 + 300 kelvin, and determined a photospheric velocity of roughly 30% of the speed of light. The spectra of SSS17a began displaying broad features after 1.46 days and evolved qualitatively over each subsequent day, with distinct blue (early-time) and red (late-time) components. The late-time component is consistent with theoretical models of r-process–enriched neutron star ejecta, whereas the blue component requires high-velocity, lanthanide-free material.