5,221 research outputs found
Target BACRIM: Blurring fact and fiction to create an interactive documentary game
Target: BACRIM
is an immersive and interactive documentary game that exposes the
atrocities of Colombia’s paramilitary forces in one of its most violent regions. The producers combine
both non
-
fiction and fiction to create a game that places the user at the heart of the
story. Through this
docufiction
, which is anchored in augmented reality, the user or participant experiences danger first
-
hand. For the user, this violence is a game. For the people who live in this region, it is a reality. Target:
BACRIM wants to blur tha
t distinction. We therefore create a world, where fiction and non
-
fiction are
interrelated, where genres merge and where individual disciplines escape the shackles of tradition to
converge and create an interactive documentary that places user experience a
t its cor
Gaussian tree constraints applied to acoustic linguistic functional data
Evolutionary models of languages are usually considered to take the form of trees. With the development of so-called tree constraints the plausibility of the tree model assumptions can be assessed by checking whether the moments of observed variables lie within regions consistent with Gaussian latent tree models. In our linguistic application, the data set comprises acoustic samples (audio recordings) from speakers of five Romance languages or dialects. The aim is to assess these functional data for compatibility with a hereditary tree model at the language level. A novel combination of canonical function analysis (CFA) with a separable covariance structure produces a representative basis for the data. The separable-CFA basis is formed of components which emphasize language differences whilst maintaining the integrity of the observational language-groupings. A previously unexploited Gaussian tree constraint is then applied to component-by-component projections of the data to investigate adherence to an evolutionary tree. The results highlight some aspects of Romance language speech that appear compatible with an evolutionary tree model but indicates that it would be inappropriate to model all features as such
Strong Decays of Strange Quarkonia
In this paper we evaluate strong decay amplitudes and partial widths of
strange mesons (strangeonia and kaonia) in the 3P0 decay model. We give
numerical results for all energetically allowed open-flavor two-body decay
modes of all nsbar and ssbar strange mesons in the 1S, 2S, 3S, 1P, 2P, 1D and
1F multiplets, comprising strong decays of a total of 43 resonances into 525
two-body modes, with 891 numerically evaluated amplitudes. This set of
resonances includes all strange qqbar states with allowed strong decays
expected in the quark model up to ca. 2.2 GeV. We use standard nonrelativistic
quark model SHO wavefunctions to evaluate these amplitudes, and quote numerical
results for all amplitudes present in each decay mode. We also discuss the
status of the associated experimental candidates, and note which states and
decay modes would be especially interesting for future experimental study at
hadronic, e+e- and photoproduction facilities. These results should also be
useful in distinguishing conventional quark model mesons from exotica such as
glueballs and hybrids through their strong decays.Comment: 69 pages, 5 figures, 39 table
Sensors and Actuators for the Advanced LIGO+ Upgrade
Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO A+) is a major upgrade to LIGO—the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory. For the A+ project, we have developed, produced, and characterized sensors and electronics to interrogate new optical suspensions designed to isolate optics from vibrations. The central element is a displacement sensor with an integrated electromagnetic actuator known as a BOSEM (Birmingham Optical Sensor and ElectroMagnetic actuator) and its readout and drive electronics required to integrate them into LIGO’s control and data system. In this paper, we report on the improvements to the sensors and the testing procedures undertaken to meet the enhanced performance requirements set out by the A+ upgrade to the detectors. The best devices reach a noise level of 4.5 ×10−11m/√Hz at a measurement frequency of 1 Hz, an improvement of 6.7 times over standard devices
Bifurcations of periodic orbits with spatio-temporal symmetries
Motivated by recent analytical and numerical work on two- and three-dimensional convection with imposed spatial periodicity, we analyse three examples of bifurcations from a continuous group orbit of spatio-temporally symmetric periodic solutions of partial differential equations. Our approach is based on centre manifold reduction for maps, and is in the spirit of earlier work by Iooss (1986) on bifurcations of group orbits of spatially symmetric equilibria. Two examples, two-dimensional pulsating waves (PW) and three-dimensional alternating pulsating waves (APW), have discrete spatio-temporal symmetries characterized by the cyclic groups Z_n, n=2 (PW) and n=4 (APW). These symmetries force the Poincare' return map M to be the nth iterate of a map G: M=G^n. The group orbits of PW and APW are generated by translations in the horizontal directions and correspond to a circle and a two-torus, respectively. An instability of pulsating waves can lead to solutions that drift along the group orbit, while bifurcations with Floquet multiplier +1 of alternating pulsating waves do not lead to drifting solutions. The third example we consider, alternating rolls, has the spatio-temporal symmetry of alternating pulsating waves as well as being invariant under reflections in two vertical planes. This leads to the possibility of a doubling of the marginal Floquet multiplier and of bifurcation to two distinct types of drifting solutions. We conclude by proposing a systematic way of analysing steady-state bifurcations of periodic orbits with discrete spatio-temporal symmetries, based on applying the equivariant branching lemma to the irreducible representations of the spatio-temporal symmetry group of the periodic orbit, and on the normal form results of Lamb (1996). This general approach is relevant to other pattern formation problems, and contributes to our understanding of the transition from ordered to disordered behaviour in pattern-forming systems
Final State Interactions in Hadronic D decays
We show that the large corrections due to final state interactions (FSI) in
the D^+\to \pi^-\pi^+\pi^+, D^+_s\to \pi^-\pi^+\pi^+, and D^+\to K^-\pi^+\pi^+
decays can be accounted for by invoking scattering amplitudes in agreement with
those derived from phase shifts studies. In this way, broad/overlapping
resonances in S-waves are properly treated and the phase motions of the
transition amplitudes are driven by the corresponding scattering matrix
elements determined in many other experiments. This is an important step
forward in resolving the puzzle of the FSI in these decays. We also discuss why
the \sigma and \kappa resonances, hardly visible in scattering experiments, are
much more prominent and clearly visible in these decays without destroying the
agreement with the experimental \pi\pi and K\pi low energy S-wave phase shifts.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figures, 5 tables. Minor changes. We extend the discusion
when quoting a reference and we include a new one. Some typos are fixe
The geometry of spontaneous spiking in neuronal networks
The mathematical theory of pattern formation in electrically coupled networks
of excitable neurons forced by small noise is presented in this work. Using the
Freidlin-Wentzell large deviation theory for randomly perturbed dynamical
systems and the elements of the algebraic graph theory, we identify and analyze
the main regimes in the network dynamics in terms of the key control
parameters: excitability, coupling strength, and network topology. The analysis
reveals the geometry of spontaneous dynamics in electrically coupled network.
Specifically, we show that the location of the minima of a certain continuous
function on the surface of the unit n-cube encodes the most likely activity
patterns generated by the network. By studying how the minima of this function
evolve under the variation of the coupling strength, we describe the principal
transformations in the network dynamics. The minimization problem is also used
for the quantitative description of the main dynamical regimes and transitions
between them. In particular, for the weak and strong coupling regimes, we
present asymptotic formulas for the network activity rate as a function of the
coupling strength and the degree of the network. The variational analysis is
complemented by the stability analysis of the synchronous state in the strong
coupling regime. The stability estimates reveal the contribution of the network
connectivity and the properties of the cycle subspace associated with the graph
of the network to its synchronization properties. This work is motivated by the
experimental and modeling studies of the ensemble of neurons in the Locus
Coeruleus, a nucleus in the brainstem involved in the regulation of cognitive
performance and behavior
Experimental results for nulling the effective thermal expansion coefficient of fused silica fibres under a static stress
We have experimentally demonstrated that the effective thermal expansion coefficient of a fused silica fibre can be nulled by placing the fibre under a particular level of stress. Our technique involves heating the fibre and measuring how the fibre length changes with temperature as the stress on the fibre was systematically varied. This nulling of the effective thermal expansion coefficient should allow for the complete elimination of thermoelastic noise and is essential for allowing second generation gravitational wave detectors to reach their target sensitivity. To our knowledge this is the first time that the cancelation of the thermal expansion coefficient with stress has been experimentally observed
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