Statistical characterization of polychromatic absolute and differential squared visibilities obtained from AMBER/VLTI instrument

In optical interferometry, the visibility squared modulus are generally assumed to follow a Gaussian distribution and to be independent of each other. A quantitative analysis of the relevance of such assumptions is important to help improving the exploitation of existing and upcoming multi-wavelength interferometric instruments. Analyze the statistical behaviour of both the absolute and the colour-differential squared visibilities: distribution laws, correlations and cross-correlations between different baselines. We use observations of stellar calibrators obtained with AMBER instrument on VLTI in different instrumental and observing configurations, from which we extract the frame-by-frame transfer function. Statistical hypotheses tests and diagnostics are then systematically applied. For both absolute and differential squared visibilities and under all instrumental and observing conditions, we find a better fit for the Student distribution than for the Gaussian, log-normal and Cauchy distributions. We find and analyze clear correlation effects caused by atmospheric perturbations. The differential squared visibilities allow to keep a larger fraction of data with respect to selected absolute squared visibilities and thus benefit from reduced temporal dispersion, while their distribution is more clearly characterized. The frame selection based on the criterion of a fixed SNR value might result in either a biased sample of frames or in a too severe selection.Comment: A&A, 13 pages and 9 figure

Analytical analysis of Lyot coronographs

We derive an analytical solution to the computation of the output of a Lyot coronagraph for a given complex amplitude on the pupil plane. This solution, which does not require any simplifying assumption, relies on an expansion of the entrance complex amplitude on a Zernike base. According to this framework, the main contribution of the paper is the expression of the response of the coronagraph to a single base function. This result is illustrated by a computer simulation which describes the classical effect of propagation of a tip-tilt error in a coronagraph

Privatized distributed anomaly detection for large-scale nonlinear uncertain systems

In this article two limitations in current distributed model based approaches for anomaly detection in large-scale uncertain nonlinear systems are addressed. The first limitation regards the high conservativeness of deterministic detection thresholds, against which a novel family of set-based thresholds is proposed. Such set-based thresholds are defined in a way to guarantee robustness in a user-defined probabilistic sense, rather than a deterministic sense. They are obtained by solving a chance-constrained optimization problem, thanks to a randomization technique based on the Scenario Approach. The second limitation regards the requirement, in distributed anomaly detection architectures, for different parties to regularly communicate local measurements. In settings where these parties want to preserve their privacy, communication may be undesirable. In order to preserve privacy and still allow for distributed detection to be implemented, a novel privacy-preserving mechanism is proposed and a so-called privatized communication protocol is introduced. Theoretical guarantees on the achievable level of privacy, along with a characterization of the robustness properties of the proposed distributed threshold set design, taking into account the privatized communication scheme, are provided. Finally, simulation studies are included to illustrate our theoretical developments

Desenvolvimento e caracterização termo-mecanica de compositos de PET reciclado com fibra de vidro

Orientadores: Lucia Helena Innocentini Mei, Julio Roberto BartoliDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia QuimicaResumo: Uma aplicação importante do poli (tereftalato de etileno) - PET - pós consumo a ser considerada e ainda pouco explorada diz respeito ao seu reaproveitamento em outros setores diferentes, tais como o de compósitos de fibra de vidro com matriz polimérica, para aplicações diversas na área de engenharia. Desde modo, se fez necessário um estudo sistemático de compósitos de PET reciclado, reforçado com fibra de vidro, no sentido de explorar as melhores condições de processamento e aditivação destes materiais, a fim de se obter materiais com bom desempenho termo-mecânico. Neste trabalho, foi enfocado o desenvolvimento e a caracterização termo-mecânica de compostos de PET reciclado (padrão) e de compósitos de PET reciclado com fibra de vidro pica_ processados em diferentes condições de extrusão e na presença de antioxidante. A fração em peso de fibra de vidro utilizada no compósito foi de 30% e do antioxidante (0,5%), sendo o mesmo processado em um extrusora dupla rosca. Para tanto, foram usadas diversas técnicas de análise bem conhecidas, e indispensáveis, tais como: Calorimetria Diferencial Exploratória (DSC), Análise Termogravimétrica (TOA), Temperatura de Deflexão Térmica, medidas de viscosidade intrínseca (VI) e de índice de fluidez (MFI) da resina PET reciclada antes e após etapas de processamentos; e ensaios de tração dos compósitos a base de PET. Um planejamento experimental das condições de processamento por extrusão (velocidade da rosca e torque) foi feito para se obter as melhores propriedades termo-mecânicas versus condições de processamento. Uma alta redução na relação de aspecto da fibra de vidro foi encontrada nos compósitos de PET reciclado depois da extrusão. A propriedade mecânica (Módulo de Young) dos compósitos de PET reciclado aumentou depois da adição da fibra de vidro no PET recicladoAbstract: An important application of post-consumer poly(ethylene terephtalate) - PET - to be considered, and still not well explored, i5 its re-use in other different sectors, such as the obtaintion of PET composites reinforced with fibre glass, for several applications in the engineering area. In this way, it is necessary a systematic study of several recycled PET composites reinforced with fibre glass to explore the bes1 processing conditions and additivation to get materials with good performance. In this work, i1 was focused the development and thermo-mechanical characterization of recycled PET composites reinforced with fibre glass and processed at different extrusion conditions. The glass fibre and antioxidant weight fractions in composite were 30 wt % and 0,5 wt %, respectively. Several techniques of analysis well known of these composites were used such as: Differential Scaning Calorimetry (DSC), Termogravimetric analysis (TOA), Deflection Temperature, Measurements of intrinsic viscosity (VI) and melt flow index of recycled resin PET before and after the processing in a twin screw extruder and tensile versus strain evaluation. A Factorial Experimental Design of the processing conditions during extrusion (screw speed and torque) was done to get the best thermo-mechanical properties versus processing conditions. A very high reduction in the aspect ratio of the fibre glass was found in the recycled PET composites after the extrusion. Mechanical properties as Young' s Modulus increased after the addition of fibre glass in recycled PET matrixMestradoCiencia e Tecnologia de MateriaisMestre em Engenharia Químic

Choque de oferta, indexação e política monetária: breves considerações sobre a aceleração inflacionária recente

O artigo analisa a aceleração recente do IPCA, procurando mostrar que ela não se refere,  genuinamente, a um fenômeno de demanda. As pressões (conjunturais) de custos e o componente (estrutural) inercial têm-se mostrado extremamente relevantes na dinâmica dos preços. Em ambos os casos, o uso da política monetária (PM) é um mero paliativo: atenua os efeitos, mas não as causas da inflação. A PM, na melhor das hipóteses, é pouco eficaz para combater esses dois elementos. Ademais, argumenta-se que o elevado sacrifício imposto pela PM torna urgente a busca de mecanismos alternativos, entre os quais destacamos: i) política tributária contracíclica, visando neutralizar o choque de preços das commodities; ii) política agrícola alicerçada em estoques reguladores para reduzir a volatilidade dos preços dos alimentos; e iii) nova rodada de desindexação da economia

A low energy optimization of the CERN-NGS neutrino beam for a theta_{13} driven neutrino oscillation search

The possibility to improve the CERN to Gran Sasso neutrino beam performances for theta_{13} searches is investigated. We show that by an appropriate optimization of the target and focusing optics of the present CNGS design, we can increase the flux of low energy neutrinos by about a factor 5 compared to the current tau optimized focalisation. With the ICARUS 2.35 kton detector at LNGS and in case of negative result, this would allow to improve the limit to sin^22 theta_{13} by an order of magnitude better than the current limit of CHOOZ at Delta m^2 approximately 3 times 10^{-3} eV^2 within 5 years of nominal CNGS running. This is by far the most sensitive setup of the currently approved long-baseline experiments and is competitive with the proposed JHF superbeam.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figure