Agile user stories enriched with usability

Usability is a critical quality factor. Therefore, like traditional software teams, agile teams have to address usability to properly catch their users experience. There exists an interesting debate in the agile and usability communities about how to achieve this integration. Our aim is to contribute to this debate by discussing the incorporation of particular usability recommendations into user stories, one of the most popular artifacts for communicating agile requirements. In this paper, we explore the implications of usability for both the structure of and the process for defining user stories. We discuss what changes the incorporation of particular usability issues may introduce in a user story. Although our findings require more empirical validation, we think that they are a good starting point for further research on this line

Generalized Assisted Inflation

We obtain a new class of exact cosmological solutions for multi-scalar fields with exponential potentials. We generalize the assisted inflation solutions previously obtained, and demonstrate how they are modified when there exist cross-couplings between the fields, such as occur in supergravity inspired cosmological models.Comment: 5 page

Gravitational field around a screwed superconducting cosmic string in scalar-tensor theories

We obtain the solution that corresponds to a screwed superconducting cosmic string (SSCS) in the framework of a general scalar-tensor theory including torsion. We investigate the metric of the SSCS in Brans-Dicke theory with torsion and analyze the case without torsion. We show that in the case with torsion the space-time background presents other properties different from that in which torsion is absent. When the spin vanish, this torsion is a $\phi$-gradient and then it propagates outside of the string. We investigate the effect of torsion on the gravitational force and on the geodesics of a test-particle moving around the SSCS. The accretion of matter by wakes formation when a SSCS moves with speed $v$ is investigated. We compare our results with those obtained for cosmic strings in the framework of scalar-tensor theory.Comment: 22 pages, LaTeX, presented at the "XXII - Encontro Nacional de Fisica de Particulas e Campos", Sao Lourenco, MG, Brazi

Accurate Atmospheric Parameters at Moderate Resolution Using Spectral Indices: Preliminary Application to the MARVELS Survey

Studies of Galactic chemical and dynamical evolution in the solar neighborhood depend on the availability of precise atmospheric parameters (Teff, [Fe/H] and log g) for solar-type stars. Many large-scale spectroscopic surveys operate at low to moderate spectral resolution for efficiency in observing large samples, which makes the stellar characterization difficult due to the high degree of blending of spectral features. While most surveys use spectral synthesis, in this work we employ an alternative method based on spectral indices to determine the atmospheric parameters of a sample of nearby FGK dwarfs and subgiants observed by the MARVELS survey at moderate resolving power (R~12,000). We have developed three codes to automatically normalize the observed spectra, measure the equivalent widths of the indices and, through the comparison of those with values calculated with pre-determined calibrations, derive the atmospheric parameters of the stars. The calibrations were built using a sample of 309 stars with precise stellar parameters obtained from the analysis of high-resolution FEROS spectra. A validation test of the method was conducted with a sample of 30 MARVELS targets that also have reliable atmospheric parameters from high-resolution spectroscopic analysis. Our approach was able to recover the parameters within 80 K for Teff, 0.05 dex for [Fe/H] and 0.15 dex for log g, values that are lower or equal to the typical external uncertainties found between different high-resolution analyzes. An additional test was performed with a subsample of 138 stars from the ELODIE stellar library and the literature atmospheric parameters were recovered within 125 K for Teff, 0.10 dex for [Fe/H] and 0.29 dex for log g. These results show that the spectral indices are a competitive tool to characterize stars with the intermediate resolution spectra.Comment: Accepted for publication in AJ. Abstract edited to comply with arXiv standards regarding the number of character

Investigation into the mechanisms by which microwave heating enhances separation of water-in-oil emulsions

The separation of water-in-oil emulsions made with Azeri crude was investigated using natural gravity settling and microwave heating techniques. Separation times could be reduced by an order of magnitude compared with untreated emulsions. Increasing the salinity of the water phase leads to a 15% average decrease in the settling time for untreated emulsions compared with over 90% for microwave-heated emulsions. An image analysis technique showed that the observed increases in settling time could not be attributed to changes in viscosity alone. Significant coalescence of water droplets occurs during microwave heating, however the effects of coalescence and viscosity reduction cannot be completely decoupled. Despite this, it is clear that it is the thermal effect of microwave heating that leads to improvements in settling times, and that any advantages in microwave heating over conventional heating can be explained by selective heating of the aqueous phase rather than so-called non-thermal effects

Gravitational field around a time-like current-carrying screwed cosmic string in scalar-tensor theories

In this paper we obtain the space-time generated by a time-like current-carrying superconducting screwed cosmic string(TCSCS). This gravitational field is obtained in a modified scalar-tensor theory in the sense that torsion is taken into account. We show that this solution is comptible with a torsion field generated by the scalar field $\phi$. The analysis of gravitational effects of a TCSCS shows up that the torsion effects that appear in the physical frame of Jordan-Fierz can be described in a geometric form given by contorsion term plus a symmetric part which contains the scalar gradient. As an important application of this solution, we consider the linear perturbation method developed by Zel'dovich, investigate the accretion of cold dark matter due to the formation of wakes when a TCSCS moves with speed $v$ and discuss the role played by torsion. Our results are compared with those obtained for cosmic strings in the framework of scalar-tensor theories without taking torsion into account.Comment: 21 pages, no figures, Revised Version, presented at the "XXIV- Encontro Nacional de Fisica de Particulas e Campos ", Caxambu, MG, Brazil, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Quintessence arising from exponential potentials

We demonstrate how exponential potentials that could arise in the early Universe as a result of Kaluza-Klein type compactifications of string theory, can lead to cosmological solutions which correspond to the currently observed accelerating Universe. The idea is simple, relying solely on the known scaling properties associated with exponential potentials. In particular we show that the existence of stable attractor solutions implies that the results hold for a wide range of coupling constants and initial conditions.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, published versio

Observational Constraints on Chaplygin Quartessence: Background Results

We derive the constraints set by several experiments on the quartessence Chaplygin model (QCM). In this scenario, a single fluid component drives the Universe from a nonrelativistic matter-dominated phase to an accelerated expansion phase behaving, first, like dark matter and in a more recent epoch like dark energy. We consider current data from SNIa experiments, statistics of gravitational lensing, FR IIb radio galaxies, and x-ray gas mass fraction in galaxy clusters. We investigate the constraints from this data set on flat Chaplygin quartessence cosmologies. The observables considered here are dependent essentially on the background geometry, and not on the specific form of the QCM fluctuations. We obtain the confidence region on the two parameters of the model from a combined analysis of all the above tests. We find that the best-fit occurs close to the $\Lambda$CDM limit ($\alpha=0$). The standard Chaplygin quartessence ($\alpha=1$) is also allowed by the data, but only at the $\sim2\sigma$ level.Comment: Replaced to match the published version, references update

Conformal Invariance, Dark Energy, and CMB Non-Gaussianity

In addition to simple scale invariance, a universe dominated by dark energy naturally gives rise to correlation functions possessing full conformal invariance. This is due to the mathematical isomorphism between the conformal group of certain 3 dimensional slices of de Sitter space and the de Sitter isometry group SO(4,1). In the standard homogeneous isotropic cosmological model in which primordial density perturbations are generated during a long vacuum energy dominated de Sitter phase, the embedding of flat spatial sections in de Sitter space induces a conformal invariant perturbation spectrum and definite prediction for the shape of the non-Gaussian CMB bispectrum. In the case in which the density fluctuations are generated instead on the de Sitter horizon, conformal invariance of the horizon embedding implies a different but also quite definite prediction for the angular correlations of CMB non-Gaussianity on the sky. Each of these forms for the bispectrum is intrinsic to the symmetries of de Sitter space and in that sense, independent of specific model assumptions. Each is different from the predictions of single field slow roll inflation models which rely on the breaking of de Sitter invariance. We propose a quantum origin for the CMB fluctuations in the scalar gravitational sector from the conformal anomaly that could give rise to these non-Gaussianities without a slow roll inflaton field, and argue that conformal invariance also leads to the expectation for the relation n_S-1=n_T between the spectral indices of the scalar and tensor power spectrum. Confirmation of this prediction or detection of non-Gaussian correlations in the CMB of one of the bispectral shape functions predicted by conformal invariance can be used both to establish the physical origins of primordial density fluctuations and distinguish between different dynamical models of cosmological vacuum dark energy.Comment: 73 pages, 9 figures. Final Version published in JCAP. New Section 4 added on linearized scalar gravitational potentials; New Section 8 added on gravitational wave tensor perturbations and relation of spectral indices n_T = n_S -1; Table of Contents added; Eqs. (3.14) and (3.15) added to clarify relationship of bispectrum plotted to CMB measurements; Some other minor modification

A mathematical analysis of the evolution of perturbations in a modified Chaplygin gas model

One approach in modern cosmology consists in supposing that dark matter and dark energy are different manifestations of a single `quartessential' fluid. Following such idea, this work presents a study of the evolution of perturbations of density in a flat cosmological model with a modified Chaplygin gas acting as a single component. Our goal is to obtain properties of the model which can be used to distinguish it from another cosmological models which have the same solutions for the general evolution of the scale factor of the universe, without the construction of the power spectrum. Our analytical results, which alone can be used to uniquely characterize the specific model studied in our work, show that the evolution of the density contrast can be seen, at least in one particular case, as composed by a spheroidal wave function. We also present a numerical analysis which clearly indicates as one interesting feature of the model the appearence of peaks in the evolution of the density constrast.Comment: 21 pages, accepted for publication in General Relativity and Gravitatio