6,219 research outputs found

    Full transmission through perfect-conductor subwavelength hole arrays

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    Light transmission through 2D subwavelength hole arrays in perfect-conductor films is shown to be complete (100%) at some resonant wavelengths even for arbitrarily narrow holes. Conversely, the reflection on a 2D planar array of non-absorbing scatterers is shown to be complete at some wavelengths regardless how weak the scatterers are. These results are proven analytically and corroborated by rigorous numerical solution of Maxwell's equations. This work supports the central role played by dynamical diffraction during light transmission through subwavelength hole arrays and it provides a systematics to analyze more complex geometries and many of the features observed in connection with transmission through hole arrays.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

    The influence of crack-imbalance orientation and orbital evolution for an extended cracked Jeffcott rotor

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    Vibration peaks occurring at rational fractions of the fundamental rotating critical speed, here named Local Resonances, facilitate cracked shaft detection during machine shut-down. A modified Jeffcott-rotor on journal bearings accounting for gravity effects and oscillating around nontrivial equilibrium points is employed. Modal parameter selection allows this linear model to represent first mode characteristics of real machines. Orbit evolution and vibration patterns are analyzed, yielding useful results. Crack detection results indicate that, instead of 1x and 2x components, analysis of the remaining local resonances should have priority; this is due to crack-residual imbalance interaction and to 2x multiple induced origins. Therefore, local resonances and orbital evolution around 1/2, 1/3 and 1/4 of the critical speed are emphasized for various crack-imbalance orientations

    Associations between sedentary time, physical activity and bone health among older people using compositional data analysis

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    Introduction : Aging is associated with a progressive decrease in bone mass (BM), and being physical active is one of the main strategies to combat this continuous loss. Nonetheless, because daily time is limited, time spent on each movement behavior is co-dependent. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between BM and movement behaviors in elderly people using compositional data analysis. Methods : We analyzed 871 older people [395 men (76.9 +/- 5.3y) and 476 women (76.7 +/- 4.7y)]. Time spent in sedentary behavior (SB), light physical activity (LPA) and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), was assessed using accelerometry. BM was determined by bone densitometry (DXA). The sample was divided according to sex and bone health indicators. Results : The combined effect of all movement behaviors (PA and SB) was significantly associated with whole body, leg and femoral region BM in the whole sample (p<0.05), with leg and pelvic BM (p<0.05) in men and, with whole body, arm and leg BM (p<0.05) in women. In men, arm and pelvic BM were negatively associated with SB and whole body, pelvic and leg BM were positively associated with MVPA (p<0.05). In women, whole body and leg BM were positively associated with SB. Arm and whole body BM were positively associated and leg BM was negatively associated with LPA and arm BM was negatively associated with MVPA (p<0.05). Women without bone fractures spent less time in SB and more in LPA and MVPA than the subgroup with bone fractures. Conclusion : We identified that the positive effect of MVPA relative to the other behaviors on bone mass is the strongest overall effect in men. Furthermore, women might decrease bone fracture risk through PA increase and SB reduction, despite the fact that no clear benefits of PA for bone mass were found

    Conservation status and updated census of Patella ferruginea (Gastropoda, Patellidae) in Ceuta: distribution patterns and new evidence of the effects of environmental parameters on population structure

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    The Strait of Gibraltar has important populations of the highly endangered patellid limpet Patella ferruginea. Between 2006 and 2010, an exhaustive census was carried out in Ceuta. The total coastline was divided into 17 sectors. The coast of each sector was examined by using 10 m transects. For the case of those sectors composed of breakwaters, jetties or islets, no transects were used, and instead, the total number of individuals was recorded. Each individual was measured to the nearest millimetre using a calliper. Moreover, the complete rocky shore length where the species could potentially be present was calculated, and an estimation of the total number of individuals that each sector could host was made. Results indicate that Ceuta could be home to around 44,000 individuals. The species found in Point Benzú, its westernmost limit of distribution on the North African coasts. The largest populations were recorded on the South Bay, with higher Mediterranean influence. Our results indicate that substrate roughness (topographic heterogeneity) and the area’s accessibility highly influence the abundance and population structure. Those populations located on high topographic heterogeneity substrates show higher recruitment rates and lower percentages of larger individuals, while medium to low rugosity surfaces presented the opposite pattern. Additionally, easily accessible areas (and frequented by humans) presented smaller average shell sizes. Implications of the results for conservation purposes are discussed

    Water maser detections in southern candidates to post-AGB stars and Planetary Nebulae

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    We intended to study the incidence and characteristics of water masers in the envelopes of stars in the post-AGB and PN evolutionary stages. We have used the 64-m antenna in Parkes (Australia) to search for water maser emission at 22 GHz, towards a sample of 74 sources with IRAS colours characteristic of post-AGB stars and PNe, at declination <32deg< -32 \deg. In our sample, 39% of the sources are PNe or PNe candidates, and 50% are post-AGB stars or post-AGB candidates. We have detected four new water masers, all of them in optically obscured sources: three in PNe candidates (IRAS 12405-6219, IRAS 15103-5754, and IRAS 16333-4807); and one in a post-AGB candidate (IRAS 13500-6106). The PN candidate IRAS 15103-5754 has water fountain characteristics, and it could be the first PN of this class found. We confirm the tendency suggested in Paper I that the presence of water masers in the post-AGB phase is favoured in obscured sources with massive envelopes. We propose an evolutionary scenario for water masers in the post-AGB and PNe stages, in which ``water fountain'' masers could develop during post-AGB and early PN stages. Later PNe would show lower velocity maser emission, both along jets and close to the central objects, with only the central masers remaining in more evolved PNe.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures. Accepted by Astronomy and Astrophysic

    Ensemble random forest filter: An alternative to the ensemble Kalman filter for inverse modeling

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    [EN] The ensemble random forest filter (ERFF) is presented as an alternative to the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) for inverse modeling. The EnKF is a data assimilation approach that forecasts and updates parameter estimates sequentially in time as observations are collected. The updating step is based on the experimental covariances computed from an ensemble of realizations, and the updates are given as linear combinations of the differences between observations and forecasted system state values. The ERFF replaces the linear combination in the update step with a non-linear function represented by a random forest. This way, the non-linear relationships between the parameters to be updated and the observations can be captured, and a better update produced. The ERFF is demonstrated for log-conductivity identification from piezometric head observations in several scenarios with varying degrees of heterogeneity (log-conductivity variances going from 1 up to 6.25 (ln m/d)2), number of realizations in the ensemble (50 or 100), and number of piezometric head observations (18 or 36). In all scenarios, the ERFF works well, reconstructing the log-conductivity spatial heterogeneity while matching the observed piezometric heads at selected control points. For benchmarking purposes, the ERFF is compared to the restart EnKF to find that the ERFF is superior to the EnKF for the number of ensemble realizations used (small in typical EnKF applications). Only when the number of realizations grows to 500 the restart EnKF can match the performance of the ERFF, albeit at more than double the computational cost.The authors acknowledge grant PID2019-109131RB-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and project InTheMED, which is part of the PRIMA Programme supported by the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement No 1923.A. Godoy, V.; Napa-García, GF.; Gómez-Hernández, JJ. (2022). Ensemble random forest filter: An alternative to the ensemble Kalman filter for inverse modeling. Journal of Hydrology. 615:1-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2022.12864211361
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