551 research outputs found
Cosmological and Solar-System Tests of f(R) Modified Gravity
We investigate the cosmological and the local tests of the f(R) theory of
modified gravity via the observations of (1) the cosmic expansion and (2) the
cosmic structures and via (3) the solar-system experiments. To fit the possible
cosmic expansion histories under consideration, for each of them we reconstruct
f(R), known as "designer f(R)". We then test the designer f(R) via the
cosmic-structure constraints on the metric perturbation ratio Psi/Phi and the
effective gravitational coupling G_eff and via the solar-system constraints on
the Brans-Dicke theory with the chameleon mechanism. We find that among the
designer f(R) models specified by the CPL effective equation of state w_eff,
only the model closely mimicking general relativity with a cosmological
constant (LambdaCDM) can survive all the tests. Accordingly, these tests rule
out the frequently studied "w_eff = -1" designer f(R) models which are distinct
in cosmic structures from LambdaCDM. When considering only the cosmological
tests, we find that the surviving designer f(R) models, although exist for a
variety of w_eff, entail fine-tuning.Comment: 22 pages, 9 figures, LaTe
Probing modifications of General Relativity using current cosmological observations
We test General Relativity (GR) using current cosmological data: the cosmic
microwave background (CMB) from WMAP5 (Komatsu et al. 2009), the integrated
Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect from the cross-correlation of the CMB with six galaxy
catalogs (Giannantonio et al. 2008), a compilation of supernovae Type Ia (SNe)
including the latest SDSS SNe (Kessler et al. 2009), and part of the weak
lensing (WL) data from CFHTLS (Fu et al. 2008, Kilbinger et al. 2009) that
probe linear and mildly non-linear scales. We first test a model where the
effective Newton's constant, mu, and the ratio of the two gravitational
potentials, eta, transit from the GR value to another constant at late times;
in this case, we find that standard GR is fully consistent with the combined
data. The strongest constraint comes from the ISW effect which would arise from
this gravitational transition; the observed ISW signal imposes a tight
constraint on a combination of mu and eta that characterizes the lensing
potential. Next, we consider four pixels in time and space for each function mu
and eta, and perform a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) finding that seven of
the resulting eight eigenmodes are consistent with GR within the errors. Only
one eigenmode shows a 2-sigma deviation from the GR prediction, which is likely
to be due to a systematic effect. However, the detection of such a deviation
demonstrates the power of our time- and scale-dependent PCA methodology when
combining observations of structure formation and expansion history to test GR.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures. Minor modifications, version published by Phys.
Rev.
Dynamic ride sharing service: are users ready to adopt it?
Nowadays we are experiencing a shift of paradigm from ownership of goods to sharing goods and experiences. The “sharing economy” paradigm will change the way people experience everyday life in many sectors. In this paper we are focusing on the urban transportation experience presenting a user centric design of an experimental dynamic ridesharing service for Italian users, called VirtualBus [1]. The proposed service is based on a mobile application that allows people to get arrangement in real time for sharing car rides in an urban area, both as “driver” or “passenger”. A smart matching algorithm will provide, within a short time, the best matching between the driver and the passenger learning from users’ feedbacks and improving its suggestions overtime to better fulfill users’ expectations. The service was designed, prototyped and tested involving users in every step, starting from a vision board with the target Personas. Then, a first raw prototype of the mobile application was designed and tested during specific focus group sessions. During the focus groups users highlighted both the importance of defining rewarding and payment rules and some concerns about privacy and reliability of drivers and passengers. Moreover, a large scale questionnaire, with more than 500 respondents, was distributed with the focus on two big Italian cities, Turin and Rome. The questionnaire analysis gave many interesting insights about the city commuting habits and its results were used to enrich the previously designed Personas with the aim of enhancing real users’ scenarios. Next steps will involve real users on selected cities as a test-bed of both the technical solution and the users’ acceptability of a new way of experiencing the urban commuting
Constraints on Gauss-Bonnet Gravity in Dark Energy Cosmologies
Models with a scalar field coupled to the Gauss-Bonnet Lagrangian appear
naturally from Kaluza-Klein compactifications of pure higher-dimensional
gravity. We study linear, cosmological perturbations in the limits of weak
coupling and slow-roll, and derive simple expressions for the main observable
sub-horizon quantities: the anisotropic stress factor, the time-dependent
gravitational constant, and the matter perturbation growth factor. Using
present observational data, and assuming slow-roll for the dark energy field,
we find that the fraction of energy density associated with the coupled
Gauss-Bonnet term cannot exceed 15%. The bound should be treated with caution,
as there are significant uncertainies in the data used to obtain it. Even so,
it indicates that the future prospects for constraining the coupled
Gauss-Bonnet term with cosmological observations are encouraging.Comment: 15 pages. v3: extended analysis, conclusions change
Insights into the Structure of Dot@Rod and Dot@Octapod CdSe@CdS Heterostructures
CdSe@CdS dot@rods with diameter around 6 nm and length of either
20, 27, or 30 nm and dot@octapods with pod diameters of ?15 nm and lengths of ?50
nm were investigated by X-ray absorption spectroscopy. These heterostructures are
prepared by seed-mediated routes, where the structure, composition, and morphology of
the CdSe nanocrystals used as a seed play key roles in directing the growth of the second
semiconducting domain. The local structural environment of all the elements in the
CdSe@CdS heterostructures was investigated at the Cd, S, and Se K-edges by taking
advantage of the selectivity of X-ray absorption spectroscopy, and was compared to pure
reference compounds. We found that the structural features of dot@rods are
independent of the size of the rods. These structures can be described as made of a
CdSe dot and a CdS rod, both in the wurtzite phase with a high crystallinity of both the
core and the rod. This result supports the effectiveness of high temperature colloidal
synthesis in promoting the formation of core@shell nanocrystals with very low
defectivity. On the other hand, data on the CdSe@CdS with octapod morphology suggest the occurrence of a core composed of
a CdSe cubic sphalerite phase with eight pods made of CdS wurtzite phase. Our findings are compared to current models
proposed for the design of functional heterostructures with controlled nanoarchitecture
Frontal brain asymmetries as effective parameters to assess the quality of audiovisual stimuli perception in adult and young cochlear implant users
How is music perceived by cochlear implant (CI) users? This question arises as "the next step" given the impressive performance obtained by these patients in language perception. Furthermore, how can music perception be evaluated beyond self-report rating, in order to obtain measurable data? To address this question, estimation of the frontal electroencephalographic (EEG) alpha activity imbalance, acquired through a 19-channel EEG cap, appears to be a suitable instrument to measure the approach/withdrawal (AW index) reaction to external stimuli. Specifically, a greater value of AW indicates an increased propensity to stimulus approach, and vice versa a lower one a tendency to withdraw from the stimulus. Additionally, due to prelingually and postlingually deafened pathology acquisition, children and adults, respectively, would probably differ in music perception. The aim of the present study was to investigate children and adult CI users, in unilateral (UCI) and bilateral (BCI) implantation conditions, during three experimental situations of music exposure (normal, distorted and mute). Additionally, a study of functional connectivity patterns within cerebral networks was performed to investigate functioning patterns in different experimental populations. As a general result, congruency among patterns between BCI patients and control (CTRL) subjects was seen, characterised by lowest values for the distorted condition (vs. normal and mute conditions) in the AW index and in the connectivity analysis. Additionally, the normal and distorted conditions were significantly different in CI and CTRL adults, and in CTRL children, but not in CI children. These results suggest a higher capacity of discrimination and approach motivation towards normal music in CTRL and BCI subjects, but not for UCI patients. Therefore, for perception of music CTRL and BCI participants appear more similar than UCI subjects, as estimated by measurable and not self-reported parameters
ISW effect in Unified Dark Matter Scalar Field Cosmologies: an analytical approach
We perform an analytical study of the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect
within the framework of Unified Dark Matter models based on a scalar field
which aim at a unified description of dark energy and dark matter. Computing
the temperature power spectrum of the Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropies
we are able to isolate those contributions that can potentially lead to strong
deviations from the usual ISW effect occurring in a CDM universe. This
helps to highlight the crucial role played by the sound speed in the Unified
Dark Matter models. Our treatment is completely general in that all the results
depend only on the speed of sound of the dark component and thus it can be
applied to a variety of unified models, including those which are not described
by a scalar field but relies on a single dark fluid.Comment: 15 pages, LateX file; one comment after Eq.(36) and formula (44)
added in order to underline procedure and main results. Accepted for
publication in JCAP; some typos correcte
Focal Cerebral Infarction in Newborn: Description of Three Cases:
We observed 3 full-term newborns with focal ischemic injury of the middle cerebral artery (MCA), in which diagnosis of MCA stroke was suspected by US and confirmed by CT scan and MRI. A four-year follow-up was carried out to study the effect of neonatal stroke on neurodevelopmental outcome. All children had a history of pre-perinatal risk factors: neonatal cerebral infarction in term infants, in fact, has many possible causes, including bacterial meningitis, inherited or acquired coagulopathies, trauma and hypoxia-ischemia. The prognosis of neonatal MCA infarction depends on early diagnosis, on the CNS plasticity mechanism and, finally, on medical therapy and neuropsychological rehabilitation
Clinical presentation of strokes confined to the insula: a systematic review of literature
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The insular cortex serves a wide variety of functions in humans, ranging from sensory and affective processing to high-level cognition. Hence, insular dysfunction may result in several different presentations. Ischemic strokes limited to the insular territory are rare and deserve a better characterization, to be quickly recognized and to receive the appropriate treatment (e.g. thrombolysis). METHODS: We reviewed studies on patients with a first-ever acute stroke restricted to the insula. We searched in the Medline database the keywords "insular stroke" and "insular infarction", to identify previously published cases. Afterwards, the results were divided depending on the specific insular region affected by the stroke: anterior insular cortex (AIC), posterior insular cortex (PIC) or total insula cortex (TIC). Finally, a review of the clinical correlates associated with each region was performed. RESULTS: We identified 25 reports including a total of 49 patients (59.7 ± 15.5 years, 48% male) from systematic review of the literature. The most common clinical phenotypes were motor and somatosensory deficits, dysarthria, aphasia and a vestibular-like syndrome. Atypical presentations were also common and included dysphagia, awareness deficits, gustatory disturbances, dysautonomia, neuropsychiatric or auditory disturbances and headache. CONCLUSIONS: The clinical presentation of insular strokes is heterogeneous; however, an insular stroke should be suspected when vestibular-like, somatosensory, speech or language disturbances are combined in the same patient. Further studies are needed to improve our understanding of more atypical presentations
The ISW-tSZ cross correlation: ISW extraction out of pure CMB data
If Dark Energy introduces an acceleration in the universal expansion then
large scale gravitational potential wells should be shrinking, causing a
blueshift in the CMB photons that cross such structures (Integrated Sachs-Wolfe
effect, [ISW]). Galaxy clusters are known to probe those potential wells. In
these objects, CMB photons also experience inverse Compton scattering off the
hot electrons of the intra-cluster medium, and this results in a distortion
with a characteristic spectral signature of the CMB spectrum (the so-called
thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect, [tSZ]). Since both the ISW and the tSZ
effects take place in the same potential wells, they must be spatially
correlated. We present how this cross ISW-tSZ signal can be detected in a
CMB-data contained way by using the frequency dependence of the tSZ effect in
multi frequency CMB experiments like {\it Planck}, {\em without} requiring the
use of external large scale structure tracers data. We find that by masking low
redshift clusters, the shot noise level decreases significantly, boosting the
signal to noise ratio of the ISW--tSZ cross correlation. We also find that
galactic and extragalactic dust residuals must be kept at or below the level of
~0.04 muK^2 at l=10, a limit that is a factor of a few below {\it Planck}'s
expectations for foreground subtraction. If this is achieved, CMB observations
of the ISW-tSZ cross correlation should also provide an independent probe for
the existence of Dark Energy and the amplitude of density perturbations.Comment: submitted to MNRA
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