Modern façade and roof constructions with photovoltaic panels

Glass as a building material is used in a multitude of new applications like modernglass facades or roof constructions. Important points in these times are acontribution to a positive energy balance. So the application of solar panelsbecomes more and more important. Until now most applications are standardapplications with framed panels on roofs or installations on fields. More and moreattractive applications from the architectural point of view are built or are underconstruction. There are on the one hand side different techniques to combine thephotovoltaic element with the glass pane. The possible glass sizes are increasing, sothere are many new ways of application. On the other hand side there are differentpossibilities of the fixing of the solar panel: Linear or in points. First some basicsabout the topics glass and solar are explained. The "traditional" systems for fixingof solar panels and also new systems are presented very short. In addition technicalaspects like principle design rules, static calculation of solar panels and substructureare presented. Built examples with solar panels are presented

Towards binocular active vision in a robot head system

This paper presents the first results of an investigation and pilot study into an active, binocular vision system that combines binocular vergence, object recognition and attention control in a unified framework. The prototype developed is capable of identifying, targeting, verging on and recognizing objects in a highly-cluttered scene without the need for calibration or other knowledge of the camera geometry. This is achieved by implementing all image analysis in a symbolic space without creating explicit pixel-space maps. The system structure is based on the ‘searchlight metaphor’ of biological systems. We present results of a first pilot investigation that yield a maximum vergence error of 6.4 pixels, while seven of nine known objects were recognized in a high-cluttered environment. Finally a “stepping stone” visual search strategy was demonstrated, taking a total of 40 saccades to find two known objects in the workspace, neither of which appeared simultaneously within the Field of View resulting from any individual saccade

Convergence of Adaptive Finite Element Methods

Adaptive finite element methods (FEMs) have been widely used in applications for over 20 years now. In practice, they converge starting from coarse grids, although no mathematical theory has been able to prove this assertion. Ensuring an error reduction rate based on a posteriori error estimators, together with a reduction rate of data oscillation (information missed by the underlying averaging process), we construct a simple and efficient adaptive FEM for elliptic partial differential equations. We prove that this algorithm converges with linear rate without any preliminary mesh adaptation nor explicit knowledge of constants. Any prescribed error tolerance is thus achieved in a finite number of steps. A number of numerical experiments in two and three dimensions yield quasi-optimal meshes along with a competitive performance. Extensions to higher order elements and applications to saddle point problems are discussed as well.Fil: Morin, Pedro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto de Matemática Aplicada del Litoral. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Instituto de Matemática Aplicada del Litoral; ArgentinaFil: Nochetto, Ricardo Horacio. University of Maryland; Estados UnidosFil: Siebert, Kunibert G.. Universität Heidelberg

A test for partial correlation with censored astronomical data

A new procedure is presented, which allows, based on Kendall's \tau, to test for partial correlation in the presence of censored data. Further, a significance level can be assigned to the partial correlation -- a problem which hasn't been addressed in the past, even for uncensored data. The results of various tests with simulated data are reported. Finally, we apply this newly developed methodology to estimate the influence of selection effects on the correlation between the soft X--ray luminosity and both total and core radio luminosity in a complete sample of Active Galactic Nuclei

Azimuth axis optical alignment system Final report

Azimuth axis optical alignment system to monitor and measure attitude or angular position of remote object about azimuth axis using phase information imposed on returning beam of ligh

Towards a new full-sky list of radial velocity standard stars

The calibration of the Radial Velocity Spectrometer (RVS) onboard the ESA Gaia satellite (to be launched in 2012) requires a list of standard stars with a radial velocity (RV) known with an accuracy of at least 300 m/s. The IAU Commission 30 lists of RV standard stars are too bright and not dense enough. We describe the selection criteria due to the RVS constraints for building an adequate full-sky list of at least 1000 RV standards from catalogues already published in the literature. A preliminary list of 1420 candidate standard stars is built and its properties are shown. An important re-observation programme has been set up in order to ensure within it the selection of objects with a good stability until the end of the Gaia mission (around 2018). The present list of candidate standards is available at CDS and usable for many other projects.Comment: Astronomy & Astrophysics, in press, 8 pages, 8 figure

Detection of x-rays from galaxy groups associated with the gravitationally lensed systems PG 1115+080 and B1422+231

Gravitational lenses that produce multiple images of background quasars can be an invaluable cosmological tool. Deriving cosmological parameters, however, requires modeling the potential of the lens itself. It has been estimated that up to a quarter of lensing galaxies are associated with a group or cluster which perturbs the gravitational potential. Detection of X-ray emission from the group or cluster can be used to better model the lens. We report on the first detection in X-rays of the group associated with the lensing system PG 1115+080 and the first X-ray image of the group associated with the system B1422+231. We find a temperature and rest-frame luminosity of 0.8 +/- 0.1 keV and 7 +/- 2 x 10^{42} ergs/s for PG 1115+080 and 1.0 +infty/-0.3 keV and 8 +/- 3 x 10^{42} ergs/s for B1422+231. We compare the spatial and spectral characteristics of the X-ray emission to the properties of the group galaxies, to lens models, and to the general properties of groups at lower redshift.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. 17 pages, 5 figures. Minor changes to tex