The annual address delivered before the Cincinnati Astronomical Society, June 3, 1844 /

Report on the Observatory included.

Studying Gender in Conference Talks -- data from the 223rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society

We present a study on the gender balance, in speakers and attendees, at the recent major astronomical conference, the American Astronomical Society meeting 223, in Washington, DC. We conducted an informal survey, yielding over 300 responses by volunteers at the meeting. Each response included gender data about a single talk given at the meeting, recording the gender of the speaker and all question-askers. In total, 225 individual AAS talks were sampled. We analyze basic statistical properties of this sample. We find that the gender ratio of the speakers closely matched the gender ratio of the conference attendees. The audience asked an average of 2.8 questions per talk. Talks given by women had a slightly higher number of questions asked (3.2$\pm$0.2) than talks given by men (2.6$\pm$0.1). The most significant result from this study is that while the gender ratio of speakers very closely mirrors that of conference attendees, women are under-represented in the question-asker category. We interpret this to be an age-effect, as senior scientists may be more likely to ask questions, and are more commonly men. A strong dependence on the gender of session chairs is found, whereby women ask disproportionately fewer questions in sessions chaired by men. While our results point to laudable progress in gender-balanced speaker selection, we believe future surveys of this kind would help ensure that collaboration at such meetings is as inclusive as possible.

Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.

Nuclear science abstracts

Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society

Mode of access: Internet.

Publications - American Astronomical Society

Mode of access: Internet.

The Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.

List of officers and members for 1909, 1914, 1919, 1931, separately paged are included in v. 2, 8, 13, 25, respectively.

Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Mode of access: Internet.

Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Mode of access: Internet.

Contributions to astronomy and geodesy, forming part of vol. xx of the Memoirs of the Royal astronomical society /

Mode of access: Internet.

Regulations of the Astronomical Society of London : established February 8, 1820 : to which is prefixed an address explanatory of their views and objects.

Mode of access: Internet.

Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Mode of access: Internet.

Monthly notices of the Astronomical Society of London.

Title from vol. title page.

Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Published <1980-2007>: Oxford : Blackwell, for the Society; <2010-2011>: Wiley-Blackwell for the Society.

Approximate Bayesian Computation for astronomical model analysis : a case study in galaxy demographics and morphological transformation at high redshift

Approximate Bayesian Computation’ (ABC) represents a powerful methodology for the analysis of complex stochastic systems for which the likelihood of the observed data under an arbitrary set of input parameters may be entirely intractable – the latter condition rendering useless the standard machinery of tractable likelihood-based, Bayesian statistical inference [e.g. conventional Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulation]. In this paper, we demonstrate the potential of ABC for astronomical model analysis by application to a case study in the morphological transformation of high-redshift galaxies. To this end, we develop, first, a stochastic model for the competing processes of merging and secular evolution in the early Universe, and secondly, through an ABC-based comparison against the observed demographics of massive (Mgal > 1011 M⊙) galaxies (at 1.5 < z < 3) in the Cosmic Assembly Near-IR Deep Extragalatic Legacy Survey (CANDELS)/Extended Groth Strip (EGS) data set we derive posterior probability densities for the key parameters of this model. The ‘Sequential Monte Carlo’ implementation of ABC exhibited herein, featuring both a self-generating target sequence and self-refining MCMC kernel, is amongst the most efficient of contemporary approaches to this important statistical algorithm. We highlight as well through our chosen case study the value of careful summary statistic selection, and demonstrate two modern strategies for assessment and optimization in this regard. Ultimately, our ABC analysis of the high-redshift morphological mix returns tight constraints on the evolving merger rate in the early Universe and favours major merging (with disc survival or rapid reformation) over secular evolution as the mechanism most responsible for building up the first generation of bulges in early-type discs.

The Scientific results from the orbiting astronomical observatory (OAO-2),

"Proceedings of a symposium sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the American Astronomical Society held in Amherst, Massachusetts, August 23-24, 1971."