Accurate recovery-based error upper bounds for the extended finite element framework

[EN] This paper introduces a recovery-type error estimator yielding upper bounds of the error in energy norm for linear elastic fracture mechanics problems solved using the extended finite element method (XFEM) The paper can be considered as an extension and enhancement of a previous work in which the upper bounds of the error were developed in a FEM framework The upper bound property requires the recovered solution to be equilibrated and continuous The proposed technique consists of using a recovery technique, especially adapted to the XFEM framework that yields equilibrium at a local level (patch by patch) Then a postprocess based on the partition of unity concept is used to obtain continuity The result is a very accurate but only nearly-statically admissible recovered stress field, with small equilibrium defaults introduced by the postprocess Sharp upper bounds are obtained using a new methodology accounting for the equilibrium defaults, as demonstrated by the numerical testsThis work has been carried out within the framework of the research projects DPI2007-66773-C02-01, DPI2007-66995-C03-02 and DPI2007-62395 of the Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia (Spain). The financial support of the Generalitat Valenciana and the Universidad Politecnica de Valencia is also acknowledged.Ródenas, J.; Gonzalez-Estrada, O.; Díez, P.; Fuenmayor Fernández, F. (2010). Accurate recovery-based error upper bounds for the extended finite element framework. Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering. 199(37-40):2607-2621. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cma.2010.04.010S2607262119937-4

Repression of SOX6 transcriptional activity by SUMO modification

AbstractSOX6 plays key functions in several developmental processes, including neurogenesis and skeleton formation. In this report, we show that SOX6 is modified in vitro and in vivo by small ubiquitin-related modifier (SUMO) on two distinct sites. Mutation of both sites abolished SOX6 sumoylation and increased SOX6 transcriptional activity. SUMO dependent repression of SOX6 transcription was promoted by UBC9 whereas siRNA to UBC9, cotransfection of inactive UBC9 or a SUMO protease increased SOX6 transcriptional activity. Furthermore, co-expression of SOX6 with SUMO2 results in the appearance of SOX6 in a punctate nuclear pattern that colocalized with promyelocytic leukemia protein, which was partially abolished by mutations in SOX6 sumoylation sites

Thermodynamic Bethe Ansatz of the Homogeneous Sine-Gordon models

We apply the thermodynamic Bethe Ansatz to investigate the high energy behaviour of a class of scattering matrices which have recently been proposed to describe the Homogeneous sine-Gordon models related to simply laced Lie algebras. A characteristic feature is that some elements of the suggested S-matrices are not parity invariant and contain resonance shifts which allow for the formation of unstable bound states. From the Lagrangian point of view these models may be viewed as integrable perturbations of WZNW-coset models and in our analysis we recover indeed in the deep ultraviolet regime the effective central charge related to these cosets, supporting therefore the S-matrix proposal. For the $SU(3)_k$-model we present a detailed numerical analysis of the scaling function which exhibits the well known staircase pattern for theories involving resonance parameters, indicating the energy scales of stable and unstable particles. We demonstrate that, as a consequence of the interplay between the mass scale and the resonance parameter, the ultraviolet limit of the HSG-model may be viewed alternatively as a massless ultraviolet-infrared-flow between different conformal cosets. For $k=2$ we recover as a subsystem the flow between the tricritical Ising and the Ising model.Comment: 30 pages Latex, two figure

Using the infrastructure of a conditional cash transfer program to deliver a scalable integrated early child development program in Colombia : cluster randomized controlled trial

En: British Medical Journal No. 349, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.g5785Objective: To assess the effectiveness of an integrated early child development intervention, combining stimulation and micronutrient supplementation and delivered on a large scale in Colombia, for children’s development, growth, and hemoglobin levels. Design Cluster randomized controlled trial, using a 2×2 factorial design, with municipalities assigned to one of four groups: psychosocial stimulation, micronutrient supplementation, combined intervention, or control. Setting 96 municipalities in Colombia, located across eight of its 32 departments. Participants: 1420 children aged 12-24 months and their primary carers. Intervention Psychosocial stimulation (weekly home visits with play demonstrations), micronutrient sprinkles given daily, and both combined. All delivered by female community leaders for 18 months. Main outcome measures Cognitive, receptive and expressive language, and fine and gross motor scores on the Bayley scales of infant development-III; height, weight, and hemoglobin levels measured at the baseline and end of intervention. Results Stimulation improved cognitive scores (adjusted for age, sex, testers, and baseline levels of outcomes) by 0.26 of a standard deviation (P=0.002). Stimulation also increased receptive language by 0.22 of a standard deviation (P=0.032). Micronutrient supplementation had no significant effect on any outcome and there was no interaction between the interventions. No intervention affected height, weight, or hemoglobin levels. Conclusions: Using the infrastructure of a national welfare program we implemented the integrated early child development intervention on a large scale and showed its potential for improving children’s cognitive development. We found no effect of supplementation on developmental or health outcomes. Moreover, supplementation did not interact with stimulation. The implementation model for delivering stimulation suggests that it may serve as a promising blueprint for future policy on early childhood development

Enhancing Energy Production with Exascale HPC Methods

High Performance Computing (HPC) resources have become the key actor for achieving more ambitious challenges in many disciplines. In this step beyond, an explosion on the available parallelism and the use of special purpose processors are crucial. With such a goal, the HPC4E project applies new exascale HPC techniques to energy industry simulations, customizing them if necessary, and going beyond the state-of-the-art in the required HPC exascale simulations for different energy sources. In this paper, a general overview of these methods is presented as well as some specific preliminary results.The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Programme (2014-2020) under the HPC4E Project (www.hpc4e.eu), grant agreement n° 689772, the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under the CODEC2 project (TIN2015-63562-R), and from the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation through Rede Nacional de Pesquisa (RNP). Computer time on Endeavour cluster is provided by the Intel Corporation, which enabled us to obtain the presented experimental results in uncertainty quantification in seismic imagingPostprint (author's final draft

No evidence of break-up effects on the fusion of 9Be with medium-light nuclei

AbstractFusion cross sections were measured for the 9Be+27Al and 19F+9Be, 12C systems, at energies above the Coulomb barrier, in order to investigate the possible effect of fusion hindrance due to the break-up of the weakly bound nuclei. Comparisons with one-dimensional barrier penetration models and with other similar systems, where no break-up is expected to occur, show no evidence of fusion hindrance

Quantitative evaluation of the effects of positional versus orientational disorder on the scattering of acoustic phonons in disordered matter

The phonon scattering processes in the three solid phases of ethanol are investigated using thermal conductivity, light, and neutron-scattering measurements as well as molecular dynamics simulations on single- crystalline models for two crystalline modifications (fully ordered monoclinic and orientationally disordered bcc phases). The orientationally disordered crystal is found to exhibit a temperature dependence of the thermal conductivity that is remarkably close to that of a structurally disordered solid, especially at low temperatures. This results, together with measurements of Brillouin linewidths as derived from light scattering measurements, emphasize the role of orientational disorder in phonon scattering. The experimental results obtained on polycrystal samples are then discussed with the aid of computer simulations on single-crystalline models of both bcc and monoclinic crystals. Our findings are in good agreement with the wealth of thermodynamic and dynamic data available so far, but at variance with the inferences drawn from inelastic x-ray data on polycrystalline samples, where a common nature for the excitations in all phases is postulated

Reproducibility in the absence of selective reporting : An illustration from large-scale brain asymmetry research

Altres ajuts: Max Planck Society (Germany).The problem of poor reproducibility of scientific findings has received much attention over recent years, in a variety of fields including psychology and neuroscience. The problem has been partly attributed to publication bias and unwanted practices such as p-hacking. Low statistical power in individual studies is also understood to be an important factor. In a recent multisite collaborative study, we mapped brain anatomical left-right asymmetries for regional measures of surface area and cortical thickness, in 99 MRI datasets from around the world, for a total of over 17,000 participants. In the present study, we revisited these hemispheric effects from the perspective of reproducibility. Within each dataset, we considered that an effect had been reproduced when it matched the meta-analytic effect from the 98 other datasets, in terms of effect direction and significance threshold. In this sense, the results within each dataset were viewed as coming from separate studies in an "ideal publishing environment," that is, free from selective reporting and p hacking. We found an average reproducibility rate of 63.2% (SD = 22.9%, min = 22.2%, max = 97.0%). As expected, reproducibility was higher for larger effects and in larger datasets. Reproducibility was not obviously related to the age of participants, scanner field strength, FreeSurfer software version, cortical regional measurement reliability, or regional size. These findings constitute an empirical illustration of reproducibility in the absence of publication bias or p hacking, when assessing realistic biological effects in heterogeneous neuroscience data, and given typically-used sample sizes