This paper identifies a neglected manuscript, Viterbo, Centro Diocesano di Documentazione (CeDiDo), Capitolare 51 (R), as the extant archetype of the Libri Romani version of the glossary of Placidus. It first demonstrates that R is the parent of the three witnesses to the Libri Romani text used by editors, and it considers the implications of the neglected manuscript for future editions of the text. It then corroborates the importance of R by tracing its travels in humanistic and antiquarian circles in Italy in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. This history provides a framework for future research on the textual transmission of the Libri Romani text of Placidus.

The yeast, Brettanomyces bruxellensis (Brett) is a significant cause of quality defects associated with red wine spoilage. At least some wine producers spend significant resources to prevent, detect, and mitigate damage from Brett, and many express concern about it, but some producers and consumers say they like it in small doses. Brett damage is especially of concern in premium red wine and has become more of a concern to producers in recent years as consumers have become better informed about it. We combine information from diverse sources to develop an initial understanding of the economics of Brettanomyces and management practices to mitigate its consequences. An analysis of detailed confidential data from three wineries in California reveals that at least some wineries are incurring significant costs to reduce the risk of infection with Brettanomyces. Some other wineries that opt not to spend so much on prevention are incurring higher costs in treating infected wines and in lost value from wines being downgraded to lower-valued blends. Results from an online survey of industry participants reinforce the analysis of the detailed data from the three wineries and suggest that the findings may be indicative of conditions more generally across the industry. (JEL Classifications: D22, D24, L66)

We present a detailed analysis of the radio galaxy PKS $2250{-}351$ , a giant of 1.2 Mpc projected size, its host galaxy, and its environment. We use radio data from the Murchison Widefield Array, the upgraded Giant Metre-wavelength Radio Telescope, the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder, and the Australia Telescope Compact Array to model the jet power and age. Optical and IR data come from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey and provide information on the host galaxy and environment. GAMA spectroscopy confirms that PKS $2250{-}351$ lies at $z=0.2115$ in the irregular, and likely unrelaxed, cluster Abell 3936. We find its host is a massive, ‘red and dead’ elliptical galaxy with negligible star formation but with a highly obscured active galactic nucleus dominating the mid-IR emission. Assuming it lies on the local M– $\sigma$ relation, it has an Eddington accretion rate of $\lambda_{\rm EDD}\sim 0.014$ . We find that the lobe-derived jet power (a time-averaged measure) is an order of magnitude greater than the hotspot-derived jet power (an instantaneous measure). We propose that over the lifetime of the observed radio emission ( ${\sim} 300\,$ Myr), the accretion has switched from an inefficient advection-dominated mode to a thin disc efficient mode, consistent with the decrease in jet power. We also suggest that the asymmetric radio morphology is due to its environment, with the host of PKS $2250{-}351$ lying to the west of the densest concentration of galaxies in Abell 3936.

The spatial-intensity profile of light reflected during the interaction of an intense laser pulse with a microstructured target is investigated experimentally and the potential to apply this as a diagnostic of the interaction physics is explored numerically. Diffraction and speckle patterns are measured in the specularly reflected light in the cases of targets with regular groove and needle-like structures, respectively, highlighting the potential to use this as a diagnostic of the evolving plasma surface. It is shown, via ray-tracing and numerical modelling, that for a laser focal spot diameter smaller than the periodicity of the target structure, the reflected light patterns can potentially be used to diagnose the degree of plasma expansion, and by extension the local plasma temperature, at the focus of the intense laser light. The reflected patterns could also be used to diagnose the size of the laser focal spot during a high-intensity interaction when using a regular structure with known spacing.

We present a revised effective wavelength and photometric calibration for the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer W4 band, including tests of empirically motivated modifications to its pre-launch laboratory-measured relative system response curve. We derived these by comparing measured W4 photometry with photometry synthesised from spectra of galaxies and planetary nebulae. The difference between measured and synthesised photometry using the pre-launch laboratory-measured W4 relative system response can be as large as 0.3 mag for galaxies and 1 mag for planetary nebulae. We find the W4 effective wavelength should be revised upward by 3.3%, from 22.1 to 22.8 μm, and the W4 AB magnitude of Vega should be revised from mW4 = 6.59 to mW4 = 6.66. In an attempt to reproduce the observed W4 photometry, we tested three modifications to the pre-launch laboratory-measured W4 relative system response curve, all of which have an effective wavelength of 22.8 μm. Of the three relative system response curve models tested, a model that matches the laboratory-measured relative system response curve, but has the wavelengths increased by 3.3% (or ≃ 0.73 μm) achieves reasonable agreement between the measured and synthesised photometry.

In a paper in an earlier issue of this journal I endeavoured to show that Nonius Marcellus’ three glossarial sources known as ‘Gloss. iii’, ‘Alph. Verb’ and ‘Alph. Adverb’ (lists 26, 27 and 28 in W.M. Lindsay's analysis of Nonius’ sources) were compiled by a lexicographer who paid attention to both metre and sense when excerpting works of Republican poetry. That compiler always excerpted quotations of poetry such that they consisted of, or began or ended with, a metrically complete verse. That method has produced quotations of high quality that are, on several counts, considerably more transparent and more reliable than those preserved by less diligent sources.

We discuss the optimal detection of point sources from multiwavelength imaging data using an approach, referred to as MDET, which requires no prior knowledge of the source spectrum. MDET may be regarded as a somewhat more general version of the so-called ‘chi-squared’ technique. We describe the theoretical basis of the technique, and show examples of its performance with four-channel infrared broadband imaging data from the WISE mission. We also discuss the potential benefits of applying it to the multifrequency data cubes of the ASKAP surveys, and suggest that it could increase the detection sensitivity of searches for neutral hydrogen emission at moderately high redshifts.

The 2mass Tully–Fisher Survey (2mtf) aims to measure Tully–Fisher (TF) distances for all bright, inclined spirals in the 2mass Redshift Survey (2mrs) using high-quality Hi widths and 2mass photometry. Compared with previous peculiar-velocity surveys, the 2mtf survey provides more accurate width measurements and more uniform sky coverage, combining observations with the Green Bank, Arecibo, and Parkes telescopes. With this new redshift-independent distance database, we will significantly improve our understanding of the mass distribution in the local Universe.

This paper re-examines the scholarly views about the beginning of Latin poetry that were current in the late second century b.c., and proposes that the earliest scholars, specifically Accius and Porcius Licinus, marked Livius Andronicus’ hymn to Juno Regina of 207 b.c., rather than a play in 197 b.c., as the fountainhead of Latin literature. Those histories would suggest that the dominant interpretation put poetry at the heart of the affairs of the state at war; when in the early 40s b.c. Varro and his contemporaries disproved Accius, they were both bringing out new facts about Livius’ earlier career, and rewriting the history of Latin poetry, so that it had its origins in peace, rather than in war.

We report preliminary results from a deep I-band optical search for substellar candidates in the p Oph star-forming region. The dusty molecular cloud provides an opaque screen at optical wavelengths, making the survey sensitive to faint substellar candidates near the cloud surface. Of the 89 objects detected in the oph A and oph C molecular cores, one third are substellar candidates.

With the current convergence of determinations of the Hubble Constant (e.g. The Extragalactic Distance Scale, 1997, Livio, Donahue and Panagia, eds.) to values within ±25% rather than a factor of two, and the clear possibility of determining q0 using high redshift supernovae (Garnavich et al. 1998), the major remaining problem in observational cosmology is the determination of Ω — what is the dark matter, how much is there, and how is it distributed?

The most direct approach to the last two parts of the question has been to study galaxy dynamics, first through the motions of galaxies in binaries, groups and clusters, and in the last decade and a half, driven by the observation of our motion w.r.t. the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and thenotion that DM must be clumped on larger scales than galaxy clusters if (Ω is to be unity, through the study of large scale galaxy flows.

The ratio of the mass density to the closure mass density, Ω, is thought by most observers to be ~0.1-0.3, primarily based on the results of dynamical measurements of galaxy clusters and, more recently, gravitational lensing studies of clusters. In contrast, most theoretical cosmologists opt for a high density universe, Ω = 1.0, based on the precepts of the inflation scenario, the difficulty of forming galaxies in low density models given the observed smoothness of the microwave background radiation, and the observational evidence from the matching of the available large scale flow measurements (and the absolute microwave background dipole velocity) to the local density field. However this last result is extremely controversial—matching the velocity field to the density field derived from IRAS (60μ) selected galaxy samples yields high Ω values (e.g., Dekel et al. 1993) but matching to optically selected samples yields low values (Hudson 1994; Lahav et al. 1994; Santiago et al. 1995). On small scales, the high Ω camp argues that the true matter distribution is much more extended than the distribution of galaxies, so the dynamical mass estimates are biased low.