Empowering practice?

The Discovery of a Field Methane Dwarf from Sloan Digital Sky Survey Commissioning Data

“…It was undetected in u ′ , g ′ , and r ′ . Data are quoted as asinh magnitudes (Lupton, Gunn, & Szalay 1999, Fan et al 1999a) and are on the AB system (Fukugita et al 1996). The i ′ detection is at low signal-to-noise ratio, but is consistent between the two observations.…”

“…The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) is a joint project of the University of Chicago, Fermilab, the Institute for Advanced Study, the Japan Participation Group, The Johns Hopkins University, the Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy, Princeton University, the United States Astrometry is given in J2000 coordinates. Photometry is reported in terms of asinh magnitudes, which smoothly goes to a linear scale in the limits of low signal-to-noise ratio; see Lupton, Gunn & Szalay (1999) and Fan et al (1999a) for details. The u * , g * , and r * values all represent non-detections (for comparison, in our system, zero flux corresponds to 24.24, 24.91, 24.53, 23.89, and 22.47, in u * , g * , r * , i * , and z * , respectively).…”

L Dwarfs Found in Sloan Digital Sky Survey Commissioning Imaging Data

“…The SDSS uses a modified magnitude scale µ(f ) to handle the low signal to noise ratio régime, including slightly negative fluxes f (Lupton et al 1999):…”

Risk Interpretation: Between Doctor and Patient

“…29 Moreover, the risks considered unacceptable in the society represent more important fears. 30 Diseases, in fact, under the same conditions, are not considered to be the same by the patients: the various conditions have also a metaphorical value. In the past, plague or leprosy were a typical example: they could represent signs of the divine punishment which affected towns and individuals in order to punish them for their sins.…”

“…The possibility to calculate and predict (also the unexpected) is a vital part of such plan. 19 Therefore, the fundamental characteristic of contemporary medicine À medicine in the age of technique À is the manipulation of reality aimed to obtain certain desired results. 20 Risk analysis using complex mathematical tools has become an extremely powerful instrument because it allows to characterize the causal factors of several pathologies and the groups of subjects more susceptible to develop diseases.…”