Notions of symmetry in human movement for recognition

Notions of symmetry are powerful for understanding as they explore relationships in nature for analysis. We describe how symmetry analysis can be used to recognize people by their gait. This approachis reinforced by the view from psychology that human gait is a symmetrical pattern of motion and that symmetrical properties of human movement can indeed be used for human gait analysis.Here, we use gait as a vehicle to investigate both the symmetry of moving objects as provided in our new spatial and spatio-temporal symmetry analyses. We apply these symmetry extractions to a numberof databases to demonstrate their potency. A performance analysis shows that using symmetry for gait recognition enjoys practical advantages such as relative immunity to noise, ability to handlemissing information and the capability to handle occlusion. The results show that the symmetrical properties of human gait appear to be unique and can indeed be used for analysis and for recognition with recognition rates exceeding 90%. Best performance is achieved by a spatio-temporal operator, reflecting the view that recognition by gait is not just from body shape, but also by the way the body moves

Aberrational Effects for Shadows of Black Holes

In this paper, we discuss how the shadow of a Kerr black hole depends on the motion of the observer. In particular, we derive an analytical formula for the boundary curve of the shadow for an observer moving with given four-velocity at given Boyer--Lindquist coordinates. We visualize the shadow for various values of parameters.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures; Proceedings of the 524. WE-Heraeus-Seminar held at the Physikzentrum, Bad Honnef, Germany, 17.--23.2.201

Detection, occurrence, and fate of emerging contaminants in agricultural environments (2019)

A review of 82 papers published in 2018 is presented. The topics ranged from detailed descriptions of analytical methods, to fate and occurrence studies, to ecological effects and sampling techniques for a wide variety of emerging contaminants likely to occur in agricultural environments. New methods and studies on veterinary pharmaceuticals, microplastics, and engineered nanomaterials in agricultural environments continue to expand our knowledge base on the occurrence and potential impacts of these compounds. This review is divided into the following sections: Introduction, Analytical Methods, Fate and Occurrence, Pharmaceutical Metabolites, Anthelmintics, Microplastics, and Engineered Nanomaterials

An irreplaceability map for Tasmanian priority plant species

There is a strong need to map the relative importance of areas for nature conservation both inside and outside reserves, given increasing development pressures and ongoing threats to biodiversity. Nature conservation importance has typically been established using iterative or optimising systems which select areas to achieve explicit targets. Irreplaceability has been a concept used in many of these analyses. We calculated rarity-weighted richness values (irreplaceability scores) from reliable distributional data for all vascular plant species of conservation importance in one square kilometre grid cells covering the State of Tasmania, Australia. The spatial patterns of scores on the irreplaceability index were not strongly related to data collection intensity. Thus, our scores were reliable for most parts of the State, irrespective of survey effort, except where there were no or little survey data. Irreplaceability scores were high in places with concentrations of local endemics, on mountains with persistent snow cover, along the northern part of the coast and on the Bass Strait islands

Probing Quantum Geometry at LHC

We present an evidence, that the volumes of compactified spaces as well as the areas of black hole horizons must be quantized in Planck units. This quantization has phenomenological consequences, most dramatic being for micro black holes in the theories with TeV scale gravity that can be produced at LHC. We predict that black holes come in form of a discrete tower with well defined spacing. Instead of thermal evaporation, they decay through the sequence of spontaneous particle emissions, with each transition reducing the horizon area by strictly integer number of Planck units. Quantization of the horizons can be a crucial missing link by which the notion of the minimal length in gravity eliminates physical singularities. In case when the remnants of the black holes with the minimal possible area and mass of order few TeV are stable, they might be good candidates for the cold dark matter in the Universe.Comment: 14 pages, Late

Small Horizons

All near horizon geometries of supersymmetric black holes in a N=2, D=5 higher-derivative supergravity theory are classified. Depending on the choice of near-horizon data we find that either there are no regular horizons, or horizons exist and the spatial cross-sections of the event horizons are conformal to a squashed or round S^3, S^1 * S^2, or T^3. If the conformal factor is constant then the solutions are maximally supersymmetric. If the conformal factor is not constant, we find that it satisfies a non-linear vortex equation, and the horizon may admit scalar hair.Comment: 21 pages, latex. Typos corrected and reference adde

A scalar field condensation instability of rotating anti-de Sitter black holes

Near-extreme Reissner-Nordstrom-anti-de Sitter black holes are unstable against the condensation of an uncharged scalar field with mass close to the Breitenlohner-Freedman bound. It is shown that a similar instability afflicts near-extreme large rotating AdS black holes, and near-extreme hyperbolic Schwarzschild-AdS black holes. The resulting nonlinear hairy black hole solutions are determined numerically. Some stability results for (possibly charged) scalar fields in black hole backgrounds are proved. For most of the extreme black holes we consider, these demonstrate stability if the ``effective mass" respects the near-horizon BF bound. Small spherical Reissner-Nordstrom-AdS black holes are an interesting exception to this result.Comment: 34 pages; 13 figure

Predictive significance of the six-minute walk distance for long-term survival in chronic hypercapnic respiratory failure

Background: The 6-min walk distance ( 6-MWD) is a global marker of functional capacity and prognosis in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ( COPD), but less explored in other chronic respiratory diseases. Objective: To study the role of 6-MWD in chronic hypercapnic respiratory failure ( CHRF). Methods: In 424 stable patients with CHRF and non-invasive ventilation ( NIV) comprising COPD ( n = 197), restrictive diseases ( RD; n = 112) and obesity-hypoventilation- syndrome ( OHS; n = 115), the prognostic value of 6-MWD for long- term survival was assessed in relation to that of body mass index (BMI), lung function, respiratory muscle function and laboratory parameters. Results: 6-MWD was reduced in patients with COPD ( median 280 m; quartiles 204/350 m) and RD ( 290 m; 204/362 m) compared to OHS ( 360 m; 275/440 m; p <0.001 each). Overall mortality during 24.9 (13.1/40.5) months was 22.9%. In the 424 patients with CHRF, 6-MWD independently predicted mortality in addition to BMI, leukocytes and forced expiratory volume in 1 s ( p <0.05 each). In COPD, 6-MWD was strongly associated with mortality using the median {[} p <0.001, hazard ratio ( HR) = 3.75, 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.24-6.38] or quartiles as cutoff levels. In contrast, 6-MWD was only significantly associated with impaired survival in RD patients when it was reduced to 204 m or less (1st quartile; p = 0.003, HR = 3.31, 95% CI: 1.73-14.10), while in OHS 6-MWD had not any prognostic value. Conclusions: In patients with CHRF and NIV, 6-MWD was predictive for long- term survival particularly in COPD. In RD only severely reduced 6-MWD predicted mortality, while in OHS 6-MWD was relatively high and had no prognostic value. These results support a disease-specific use of 6-MWD in the routine assessment of patients with CHRF. Copyright (C) 2007 S. Karger AG, Basel