How BMW Is Defusing the Demographic Time Bomb

The article focuses on how the German car manufacturer, Bayerische Motoren Werke AG or BMW, is managing the effects of population aging on the industry. The redesign of BMW's factories to accommodate older workers and increase productivity is mentioned. Research on a pilot production line, which is based on a mix of employees who have an average age of 47 in the year 2017, is discussed. The roles of Peter Jürschick, Helmut Mauermann, Günther Stadler, and Kurt Dickert in the development of the pilot project are mentioned. The costs associated with an aging population are noted

The Conformal Willmore Functional: a Perturbative Approach

The conformal Willmore functional (which is conformal invariant in general Riemannian manifold $(M,g)$) is studied with a perturbative method: the Lyapunov-Schmidt reduction. Existence of critical points is shown in ambient manifolds $(\mathbb{R}^3, g_\epsilon)$ -where $g_\epsilon$ is a metric close and asymptotic to the euclidean one. With the same technique a non existence result is proved in general Riemannian manifolds $(M,g)$ of dimension three.Comment: 34 pages; Journal of Geometric Analysis, on line first 23 September 201

Molecular-orbital theory for the stopping power of atoms in the low velocity regime:the case of helium in alkali metals

A free-parameter linear-combination-of-atomic-orbitals approach is presented for analyzing the stopping power of slow ions moving in a metal. The method is applied to the case of He moving in alkali metals. Mean stopping powers for He present a good agreement with local-density-approximation calculations. Our results show important variations in the stopping power of channeled atoms with respect to their mean values.Comment: LATEX, 3 PostScript Figures attached. Total size 0.54

Factorization and Nonfactorization in B Decays

Using NLL values for Wilson coefficients and including the contributions from the penguin diagrams, we estimate the amount of nonfactorization in two-body hadronic B decays. Also, we investigate the model dependence of the nonfactorization parameters by performing the calculation using different models for the form factors. The results support the universality of nonfactorizable contributions in both Cabibbo-favored and Cabibbo-suppressed B decays.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures, revte

Theoretical study of incoherent phi photoproduction on a deuteron target

We study the photoproduction of phi mesons in deuteron, paying attention to the modification of the cross section from bound protons to the free ones with the aim of comparing with recent results at LEPS. For this purpose we take into account Fermi motion in single scattering and rescattering of the phi to account for phi absorption on a second nucleon as well as the rescattering of the proton. We find that the contribution of the double scattering is much smaller than the typical cross section of gamma p to phi p in free space, which implies a very small screening of the phi production in deuteron. The contribution from the proton rescattering, on the other hand, is found to be not negligible compared to the cross section of gamma p to phi p in free space, and leads to a moderate reduction of the phi photoproduction cross section on a deuteron at forward angles if LEPS set up is taken into account. The Fermi motion allows contribution of the single scattering in regions forbidden by phase space in the free case. In particular, we find that for momentum transferred squared close to the maximum value, the Fermi motion changes drastically the shape of d sigma / dt, to the point that the ratio of this cross section to the free one becomes very sensitive to the precise value of t chosen, or the size of the bin used in an experimental analysis. Hence, this particular region of t does not seem the most indicated to find effects of a possible phi absorption in the deuteron. This reaction is studied theoretically as a function of t and the effect of the experimental angular cuts at LEPS is also discussed, providing guidelines for future experimental analyses of the reaction.Comment: 17 pages, 16 figure

Spin pumping and magnetization dynamics in metallic multilayers

We study the magnetization dynamics in thin ferromagnetic films and small ferromagnetic particles in contact with paramagnetic conductors. A moving magnetization vector causes \textquotedblleft pumping\textquotedblright of spins into adjacent nonmagnetic layers. This spin transfer affects the magnetization dynamics similar to the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert phenomenology. The additional Gilbert damping is significant for small ferromagnets, when the nonmagnetic layers efficiently relax the injected spins, but the effect is reduced when a spin accumulation build-up in the normal metal opposes the spin pumping. The damping enhancement is governed by (and, in turn, can be used to measure) the mixing conductance or spin-torque parameter of the ferromagnet--normal-metal interface. Our theoretical findings are confirmed by agreement with recent experiments in a variety of multilayer systems.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure

Spectra of "Real-World" Graphs: Beyond the Semi-Circle Law

Many natural and social systems develop complex networks, that are usually modelled as random graphs. The eigenvalue spectrum of these graphs provides information about their structural properties. While the semi-circle law is known to describe the spectral density of uncorrelated random graphs, much less is known about the eigenvalues of real-world graphs, describing such complex systems as the Internet, metabolic pathways, networks of power stations, scientific collaborations or movie actors, which are inherently correlated and usually very sparse. An important limitation in addressing the spectra of these systems is that the numerical determination of the spectra for systems with more than a few thousand nodes is prohibitively time and memory consuming. Making use of recent advances in algorithms for spectral characterization, here we develop new methods to determine the eigenvalues of networks comparable in size to real systems, obtaining several surprising results on the spectra of adjacency matrices corresponding to models of real-world graphs. We find that when the number of links grows as the number of nodes, the spectral density of uncorrelated random graphs does not converge to the semi-circle law. Furthermore, the spectral densities of real-world graphs have specific features depending on the details of the corresponding models. In particular, scale-free graphs develop a triangle-like spectral density with a power law tail, while small-world graphs have a complex spectral density function consisting of several sharp peaks. These and further results indicate that the spectra of correlated graphs represent a practical tool for graph classification and can provide useful insight into the relevant structural properties of real networks.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures (corrected typos, added references) accepted for Phys. Rev.

Nonresonant Three-body Decays of D and B Mesons

Nonresonant three-body decays of D and B mesons are studied. It is pointed out that if heavy meson chiral perturbation theory (HMChPT) is applied to the heavy-light strong and weak vertices and assumed to be valid over the whole kinematic region, then the predicted decay rates for nonresonant charmless 3-body B decays will be too large and especially B^- --> pi^- K^+ K^- greatly exceeds the current experimental limit. This can be understood as chiral symmetry has been applied there twice beyond its region of validity. If HMChPT is applied only to the strong vertex and the weak transition is accounted for by the form factors, the dominant B^* pole contribution to the tree-dominated direct three-body B decays will become small and the branching ratio will be of order 10^{-6}. The decay modes B^- --> (K^- h^+ h^-)_{NR} and bar{B}^0 --> (bar{K}^0 h^+h^-)_{NR} for h = pi, K are penguin dominated. We apply HMChPT in two different cases to study the direct 3-body D decays and compare the results with experiment. Theoretical uncertainties are discussed.Comment: 24 pages, 2 figures. New experimental results of direct 3-body D decays as Reported at ICHEP2002 are included. To appear in Phys. Re

Quantitative Analysis Procedure for Building Materials in Historic Buildings by Applying Infrared Thermography

[EN] Historic buildings have a great cultural and architectural value. It is necessary to analyze their state of conservation, but sometimes it is difficult to perform laboratory tests without damaging this heritage. In the field of architecture, infrared thermography is usually used to provide descriptive information about the surface temperature of building materials. This current research presents a methodology widely applicable to historic buildings. As an example of application, the study is focused in the Seminary-School of Corpus Christi of Valencia (Spain), a very outstanding building from the 16th Century. This research presents an analytical study to be able to differentiate the temperature distribution of all pixels of a thermographic image. Thermal images are a matrix of data and their study helps us in decision-making based on objective data.Lerma Elvira, C.; Mas Tomas, MDLA.; Gil Benso, E.; Vercher Sanchis, JM.; Torner-Feltrer, MEM. (2018). Quantitative Analysis Procedure for Building Materials in Historic Buildings by Applying Infrared Thermography. Russian Journal of Nondestructive Testing. 54(8):601-609. https://doi.org/10.1134/S1061830918080065S601609548Avdelidis, N.P. and Moropoulou, A., Applications of infrared thermography for the investigation of historic structures, J. Cult. Heritage, 2004, no. 5, pp. 119–127. doi 10.1016/j.culher.2003.07.002Barreira, E. and Freitas, V., Evaluation of building materials using infrared thermography, Constr. Build. Mater., 2007, vol. 21, pp. 218–224. doi 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2005.06.049Bauer, E., Pavón, E., Barreira, E., and Kraus, E., Analysis of building façade defects using infrared thermography: Laboratory studies, J. Build. Eng., 2016, no. 6, pp. 93–104. doi /doi 10.1016/j.jobe.2016.02.012Binda, L., Cardani, G., and Zanzi, L., Nondestructive testing evaluation of drying process in flooded full-scale masonry walls, J. Perform. Constr. Facil., 2010, pp. 473–483. doi 10.1061/(ASCE)CF.1943-5509.0000097Cañas, I., Martín, S., and González, I., Thermal-physical aspects of materials used for the construction of rural buildings in Soria (Spain), Construct. Build. Mater., 2005, vol. 19, pp. 197–211. doi 10.1016/j.conbuildmat. 2004.05.016Carlomagno, G.M., Maio, R., Fedi, M., Meola, C., Integration of infrared thermography and high-frequency electromagnetic methods in archaeological surveys, J. Geophys. Eng., 2011, vol. 8, pp. 93–105. doi 10.1088/1742-2132/8/3/S09Cerdeira, F., Vázquez, ME, Collado, J., and Granada, E., Applicability of infrared thermography to the study of the behavior of Stone panels as building envelopes, Energy Build., 2011, vol. 43, pp. 1845–1851. doi 10.1016/j.enbuild.2011.03.029EN 13187:1998. Thermal performance of buildings. Qualitative detection of thermal irregularities in building envelopes. Infrared method (ISO 6781:1983 modified).Galarza Tortajada, M., La tapia valenciana: una técnica constructiva poco conocida, Proc. First Natl. Congr. Construct. Hist., Madrid, 1996.Grinzato, E., Bison, P.G., and Marinetti, S., Monitoring of ancient buildings by the thermal method, J. Cult. Heritage, 2002, vol. 3, pp. 21–29. doi 10.1016/S1296-2074(02)01159-7Ibarra-Castanedo C., Sfarra, S., Ambrosini, D., Paoletti, D., Bendada, A, and Maldague, X., Diagnostics of panel paintings using holographic interferometry and pulsed thermography, Quant. Infrared Thermogr. J., 2010, vol. 7, no. 1. doi 10.3166/qirt.7.85-114Lagüela, S., Martínez, J., Armesto, J., and Arias, P., Energy efficiency studies through 3D laser scanning and thermographic technologies, Energy Build., 2011, vol. 43, pp. 1216–1221. doi 10.1016/j.enbuild.2010.12.031Lerma, C., Mas, Á., Gil, E., and Galiana, M., An analytical procedure for the study of the documented construction process of the Seminary-School of Corpus Christi in Valencia (Spain), Inf. Constr., 2014, vol. 66 (533), e007. doi 10.3989/ic.12.117Lerma, C., Mas, A., Gil, E., Vercher, J., and Penalver, M.J., Pathology of building materials in historic buildings. Relationship between laboratory testing and infrared thermography, Mater. Constr., 2014, vol. 64 (313), e009. doi 10.3989/mc.2013.06612Lerma, J.L., Cabrelles, M., and Portalés, C., Multitemporal thermal analysis to detect moisture on a building façade, Construct. Build. Mater., 2011, vol. 25, pp. 2190–2197. doi 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2010.10.007Madruga, F.J., Ibarra-Castanedo, C., Conde, O., López-Higuera, J.M., and Maldague, X., Infrared thermography processing based on higher-order statistics, NDT&E Int., 2010, vol. 43, pp. 661–666. doi 10.1016/j.ndteint.2010.07.002Meola, C., Infrared thermography of masonry structures, Infrared Phys. Technol., 2007, vol. 49, no. 3, pp. 228–33. doi 10.1016/j.infraredPosta, J., Dolejs, J., Non-destructive assessment of timber elements with an emphasis on radiometry., Intern. J. Arch. Herit., 2015, vol. 9, no.6.Válek, J., Kruschwitz, S., Wöstmann, J., Kind, T., Valach, J., Köpp, C., and Lesák, J., Nondestructive investigation of wet building material: Multimethodological approach, J. of performance of Constructed Facilities, pp. 462–472. doi 10.1061/(ASCE)CF.1943-5509.000005

Flavour and Collider Interplay for SUSY at LHC7

The current 7 TeV run of the LHC experiment shall be able to probe gluino and squark masses up to values larger than 1 TeV. Assuming that hints for SUSY are found in the jets plus missing energy channel by the end of a 5 fb$^{-1}$ run, we explore the flavour constraints on three models with a CMSSM-like spectrum: the CMSSM itself, a Seesaw extension of the CMSSM, and Flavoured CMSSM. In particular, we focus on decays that might have been measured by the time the run is concluded, such as $B_s\to\mu\mu$ and $\mu\to e\gamma$. We also analyse constraints imposed by neutral meson bounds and electric dipole moments. The interplay between collider and flavour experiments is explored through the use of three benchmark scenarios, finding the flavour feedback useful in order to determine the model parameters and to test the consistency of the different models.Comment: 44 pages, 15 figures; v3: minor corrections, added references, updated figures. Version accepted for publicatio