54,725 research outputs found
Extraction of coherent structures in a rotating turbulent flow experiment
The discrete wavelet packet transform (DWPT) and discrete wavelet transform
(DWT) are used to extract and study the dynamics of coherent structures in a
turbulent rotating fluid. Three-dimensional (3D) turbulence is generated by
strong pumping through tubes at the bottom of a rotating tank (48.4 cm high,
39.4 cm diameter). This flow evolves toward two-dimensional (2D) turbulence
with increasing height in the tank. Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV)
measurements on the quasi-2D flow reveal many long-lived coherent vortices with
a wide range of sizes. The vorticity fields exhibit vortex birth, merger,
scattering, and destruction. We separate the flow into a low-entropy
``coherent'' and a high-entropy ``incoherent'' component by thresholding the
coefficients of the DWPT and DWT of the vorticity fields. Similar thresholdings
using the Fourier transform and JPEG compression together with the Okubo-Weiss
criterion are also tested for comparison. We find that the DWPT and DWT yield
similar results and are much more efficient at representing the total flow than
a Fourier-based method. Only about 3% of the large-amplitude coefficients of
the DWPT and DWT are necessary to represent the coherent component and preserve
the vorticity probability density function, transport properties, and spatial
and temporal correlations. The remaining small amplitude coefficients represent
the incoherent component, which has near Gaussian vorticity PDF, contains no
coherent structures, rapidly loses correlation in time, and does not contribute
significantly to the transport properties of the flow. This suggests that one
can describe and simulate such turbulent flow using a relatively small number
of wavelet or wavelet packet modes.Comment: experimental work aprox 17 pages, 11 figures, accepted to appear in
PRE, last few figures appear at the end. clarifications, added references,
fixed typo
Universal in vivo Textural Model for Human Skin based on Optical Coherence Tomograms
Currently, diagnosis of skin diseases is based primarily on visual pattern
recognition skills and expertise of the physician observing the lesion. Even
though dermatologists are trained to recognize patterns of morphology, it is
still a subjective visual assessment. Tools for automated pattern recognition
can provide objective information to support clinical decision-making.
Noninvasive skin imaging techniques provide complementary information to the
clinician. In recent years, optical coherence tomography has become a powerful
skin imaging technique. According to specific functional needs, skin
architecture varies across different parts of the body, as do the textural
characteristics in OCT images. There is, therefore, a critical need to
systematically analyze OCT images from different body sites, to identify their
significant qualitative and quantitative differences. Sixty-three optical and
textural features extracted from OCT images of healthy and diseased skin are
analyzed and in conjunction with decision-theoretic approaches used to create
computational models of the diseases. We demonstrate that these models provide
objective information to the clinician to assist in the diagnosis of
abnormalities of cutaneous microstructure, and hence, aid in the determination
of treatment. Specifically, we demonstrate the performance of this methodology
on differentiating basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC)
from healthy tissue
Massive and refined: a sample of large galaxy clusters simulated at high resolution. I:Thermal gas and shock waves properties
We present a sample of 20 massive galaxy clusters with total virial masses in
the range of 6 10^14 M_sol<M(vir)< 2 10^15M_sol, re-simulated with a customized
version of the 1.5. ENZO code employing Adaptive Mesh Refinement. This
technique allowed us to obtain unprecedented high spatial resolution (25kpc/h)
up to the distance of 3 virial radii from the clusters center, and makes it
possible to focus with the same level of detail on the physical properties of
the innermost and of the outermost cluster regions, providing new clues on the
role of shock waves and turbulent motions in the ICM, across a wide range of
scales.
In this paper, a first exploratory study of this data set is presented. We
report on the thermal properties of galaxy clusters at z=0. Integrated and
morphological properties of gas density, gas temperature, gas entropy and
baryon fraction distributions are discussed, and compared with existing
outcomes both from the observational and from the numerical literature.
Our cluster sample shows an overall good consistency with the results
obtained adopting other numerical techniques (e.g. Smoothed Particles
Hydrodynamics), yet it provides a more accurate representation of the accretion
patterns far outside the cluster cores. We also reconstruct the properties of
shock waves within the sample by means of a velocity-based approach, and we
study Mach numbers and energy distributions for the various dynamical states in
clusters, giving estimates for the injection of Cosmic Rays particles at
shocks. The present sample is rather unique in the panorama of cosmological
simulations of massive galaxy clusters, due to its dynamical range, statistics
of objects and number of time outputs. For this reason, we deploy a public
repository of the available data, accessible via web portal at
http://data.cineca.it.Comment: 26 pages, 20 figures, New Astronomy accepted. Reference list updated.
Higher quality versions of the paper can be found at:
http://www.ira.inaf.it/~vazza/papers A public archive of galaxy clusters data
is accessible at http://data.cineca.it
On the complexity and the information content of cosmic structures
The emergence of cosmic structure is commonly considered one of the most
complex phenomena in Nature. However, this complexity has never been defined
nor measured in a quantitative and objective way. In this work we propose a
method to measure the information content of cosmic structure and to quantify
the complexity that emerges from it, based on Information Theory. The emergence
of complex evolutionary patterns is studied with a statistical symbolic
analysis of the datastream produced by state-of-the-art cosmological
simulations of forming galaxy clusters. This powerful approach allows us to
measure how many bits of information are necessary to predict the evolution of
energy fields in a statistical way, and it offers a simple way to quantify
when, where and how the cosmic gas behaves in complex ways. The most complex
behaviors are found in the peripheral regions of galaxy clusters, where
supersonic flows drive shocks and large energy fluctuations over a few tens of
million years. Describing the evolution of magnetic energy requires at least a
twice as large amount of bits than for the other energy fields. When radiative
cooling and feedback from galaxy formation are considered, the cosmic gas is
overall found to double its degree of complexity. In the future, Cosmic
Information Theory can significantly increase our understanding of the
emergence of cosmic structure as it represents an innovative framework to
design and analyze complex simulations of the Universe in a simple, yet
powerful way.Comment: 15 pages, 14 figures. MNRAS accepted, in pres
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