Warm dark matter sterile neutrinos in electron capture and beta decay spectra

We briefly review the motivation to search for sterile neutrinos in the keV mass scale, as dark matter candidates, and the prospects to find them in beta decay or electron capture spectra, with a global perspective. We describe the fundamentals of the neutrino flavor-mass eigenstate mismatch that opens the possibility of detecting sterile neutrinos in such ordinary nuclear processes. Results are shown and discussed for the effect of heavy neutrino emission in electron capture in Holmium 163 and in two isotopes of Lead, 202 and 205, as well as in the beta decay of Tritium. We study the de-excitation spectrum in the considered cases of electron capture and the charged lepton spectrum in the case of Tritium beta decay. For each of these cases, we define ratios of integrated transition rates over different regions of the spectrum under study, and give new results that may guide and facilitate the analysis of possible future measurements, paying particular attention to forbidden transitions in Lead isotopes.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, 2 table

Effect of trace iron levels and iron withdrawal by chelation on the growth of Candida albicans and Candida vini

The iron requirements of the opportunistic pathogenic yeast, Candida albicans, and the related nonpathogenic spoilage yeast Candida vini were investigated along with their responses to various exogenous iron chelators. The influence of iron as well as the exogenous chelating agents lactoferrin, EDTA, deferiprone, desferrioxamine, bathophenanthroline sulphonate and a novel carried chelator with a hydroxypyridinone-like Fe-ligand functionality, DIBI, on fungal growth was studied in a chemically defined medium deferrated to trace iron levels (<1.2 μg L−1 or 0.02 μM of Fe). Candida albicans competed better at low iron levels compared with C. vini, which was also more susceptible to most added chelators. Candida albicans was resistant to lactoferrin at physiologically relevant concentrations, but was inhibited by low concentrations of DIBI. Candida vini was sensitive to lactoferrin as well as to DIBI, whose inhibitory activity was shown to be Fe reversible. The pathogenic potential of C. albicans and the nonpathogenic nature of C. vini were consistent with their differing abilities to grow under iron-limiting conditions and in the presence of exogenous iron chelators. Both yeasts could be controlled by appropriately strong chelators. This work provides the first evidence of the iron requirements of the spoilage organism C. vini and its response to exogenous chelators. Efficient iron withdrawal has the potential to provide the basis for new fungal growth control strategie

Exponential stability to localized type III thermoelasticity

This paper investigates the system proposed by a wave equation and a heat equation of type III in one part of the domain; a wave equation and a heat equation of type II in another part of the domain, coupled in a certain pattern. In this paper we prove the exponential stability of the solutions under suitable conditions for the thermal conductivity and coupling term.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

2023 19th International Conference on the Design of Reliable Communication Networks (DRCN),

Producción CientíficaLink failures have a significant negative impact on the availability of a network and should therefore be resolved as soon as possible. Because of the slow convergence time of routing protocols upon detection of a link failure, several IP Fast ReRoute (FRR) mechanisms have been developed to overcome this problem. Recently, segment routing, which is a flexible and scalable way of doing source routing, enabled a new FRR mechanism called Topology Independent Loop-Free Alternate (TI-LFA). As the name suggests, the key feature of TI-LFA is that it guarantees a loop-free detour against any link failure in any network topology. However, typically fast responses to failures only aim to restore the loop-free connection between the affected routers and do not consider the resulting delay or impact on network congestion. This paper presents an initial study on the selected TI-LFA backup paths and their effect on the overall network performance. By means of simulation, we evaluate how efficient TI-LFA reroutes traffic for a number of traffic engineering approaches. Our results quantify the impact of different traffic engineering approaches and network loads on the performance of TI-LFA. This suggests potential directions for improving the effectiveness of TI-LFA protection in segment routing.EU H2020 MSCA ITN-ETN IoTalentum (grant no. 953442)EU H2020-ICT-52-2020 TeraFlow Project (grant 101015857)Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación y Agencia Estatal de Investigación (Proyecto PID2020-112675RB-C42 financiado por MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033

Qualitative results for a mixture of Green-Lindsay thermoelastic solids

We study qualitative properties of the solutions of the system of partial differential equations modeling thermomechanical deformations for mixtures of thermoelastic solids when the theory of Green and Lindsay for the heat conduction is considered. Three dissipation mechanisms are proposed in the system: thermal dissipation, viscosity e ects on one constituent of the mixture and damping in the relative velocity of the two displacements of both constituents. First, we prove the existence and uniqueness of the solutions. Later we prove the exponential stability of the solutions over the time. We use the semigroup arguments to establish our resultsPeer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Transferring knowledge as heuristics in reinforcement learning: A case-based approach

The goal of this paper is to propose and analyse a transfer learning meta-algorithm that allows the implementation of distinct methods using heuristics to accelerate a Reinforcement Learning procedure in one domain (the target) that are obtained from another (simpler) domain (the source domain). This meta-algorithm works in three stages: first, it uses a Reinforcement Learning step to learn a task on the source domain, storing the knowledge thus obtained in a case base; second, it does an unsupervised mapping of the source-domain actions to the target-domain actions; and, third, the case base obtained in the first stage is used as heuristics to speed up the learning process in the target domain. A set of empirical evaluations were conducted in two target domains: the 3D mountain car (using a learned case base from a 2D simulation) and stability learning for a humanoid robot in the Robocup 3D Soccer Simulator (that uses knowledge learned from the Acrobot domain). The results attest that our transfer learning algorithm outperforms recent heuristically-accelerated reinforcement learning and transfer learning algorithms. © 2015 Elsevier B.V.Luiz Celiberto Jr. and Reinaldo Bianchi acknowledge the support of FAPESP (grants 2012/14010-5 and 2011/19280-8). Paulo E. Santos acknowledges support from FAPESP (grant 2012/04089-3) and CNPq (grant PQ2 -303331/2011-9).Peer Reviewe

Morphological and structural evidences concerning the origin of sheet fractures

[Abstract] Sheet fractures are well and widely developed in massive rocks, i.e., rocks lacking other partings, and they have been discussed in the literature for more than a century. Yet there is no agreement as to their origino Two contrasted interpretations hold sway. Almost without exception, geologist adhere to the pressure release or erosional offloading hypothesis. Engineers and engineering geologist, on the other hand, interpret sheet partings as buckling, i.e., crumpling or bending out of plane, related to compressive stresses, particularly lateral stresses. After a review of nomenclature and a description of the characteristics of sheet fractures, a critique ofprevious explanations of their origin is presented. What are perceived to be critical Enes of structural and morphological evidence. bearing on the origin ofsheet fracture are next reviewed, and this is followed by a discusion of the possible origins of the structures

A set of software tools to build an author assessment package on Moodle: Implementing the AEEA proposal

A set of new types of assessment is required for learning management systems (LMSs), and there is a need for a way to assess lifelong adaptive competencies. Proposed solutions to these problems need to preserve the interoperability, reusability, efficiency and abstract modeling already present in LMSs. This paper introduces a set of software tools for an author assessment package on the LMS Moodle being developed as part of adaptive e-learning engine architecture (AEEA). The principal features of this set are: 1) The set avoid editing items for a 360-degree feedback evaluation, 2) Whole items and tests are linked to levels of competencies acquisition, 3) The competency-based eassessment data model are based on e-learning specification and complemented with XML data on the appraised competencies, 4) Items and tests are storage in repositories, and 5) The tools are integrated within Moodle to facilitate the design of an assessment plan

Cellulose Nanofiber-Based Aerogels from Wheat Straw: Influence of Surface Load and Lignin Content on Their Properties and Dye Removal Capacity

Water pollution is one of the most serious problems worldwide. Nanocellulose-based aerogels usually show excellent adsorption capacities due to their high aspect ratio, specific surface area and surface charge, making them ideal for water purification. In this work, (ligno)cellulose nanofibers (LCNFs/CNFs) from wheat straw residues were obtained using two types of pre-treatments: mechanical (Mec) and TEMPO-mediated oxidization (TO), to obtain different consistency (0.2, 0.4, 0.6 and 0.8) bioaerogels, and their adsorption capacities as dye removers were further studied. The materials were characterized in terms of density, porosity and mechanical properties. An inversely proportional relationship was observed between the consistencies of the aerogels and their achieved densities. Despite the increase in density, all samples showed porosities above 99%. In terms of mechanical properties, the best results were obtained for the 0.8% consistency LCNF and CNF-Mec aerogels, reaching 67.87 kPa and 64.6 kPa for tensile strength and Young’s modulus, respectively. In contrast, the adsorption capacity of the aerogels was better for TEMPO-oxidized aerogels, reaching removal rates of almost 100% for the CNF-TO5 samples. Furthermore, the residual lignin content in LCNF-Mec aerogels showed a great improvement in the removal capacity, reaching rates higher than 80%, further improving the cost efficiency of the samples due to the reduction in chemical treatments