1,623 research outputs found
Empirical mode decomposition of long-term polar motion observation
We use the Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) method to study the decadal variations in polar motion and its long-term trend since year 1900. The existence of the so-called “Markowitz wobble”, a multidecadal fluctuation of the mean pole of rotation whose nature has long been debated since its discovery in 1960, is confirmed. In the EMD approach, the Markowitz wobble naturally arises as an empirical oscillatory term in polar motion, showing significant amplitude variations and a period of approximately 3 decades. The path of the time-averaged, non-cyclic component of polar motion matches the results of previous investigations based on classical spectral methods. However, our analysis also reveals previously unnoticed steep variations (change points) in the rate and the direction of secular polar motion
Anomalous secular sea-level acceleration in the Baltic Sea caused by isostatic adjustment
Observations from the global array of tide gauges show that global sealevel
has been rising at an average rate of 1.5-2 mm/yr during the last
~150 years [Douglas 1991, Spada and Galassi 2012]. Although a global
sea-level acceleration was initially ruled out [Douglas 1992], subsequent
studies [Douglas 1997, Church and White 2006, Jevrejeva et al.
2008, Church and White 2011] have coherently proposed values of ~1
mm/year/century [Olivieri and Spada 2013]. More complex non-linear
trends and abrupt sea-level variations have now also been recognized.
Globally, these could manifest a regime shift between the late Holocene
and the current rhythms of sea-level rise [Gehrels and Woodworth 2013],
while locally they result from ocean circulation anomalies, steric effects
and wind stress [Bromirski et al. 2011, Merrifield 2011]. Although isostatic
readjustment affects the local rates of secular sea-level change
[Milne and Mitrovica 1998, Peltier 2004], a possible impact on regional
acceleration has been so far discounted [Douglas 1992, Jevrejeva et al.
2008, Woodworth et al. 2009] since the process evolves on a millennium
time scale [Turcotte and Schubert 2002]. Here we report a previously unnoticed
anomaly in the long-term sea-level acceleration of the Baltic Sea
tide gauge records, and we explain it by the classical post-glacial rebound
theory and numerical modeling of glacial isostasy. Contrary to previous
assumptions, our findings demonstrate that isostatic compensation plays
a role in the regional secular sea-level acceleration
Quantum dynamics of a high-finesse optical cavity coupled with a thin semi-transparent membrane
We study the quantum dynamics of the cavity optomechanical system formed by a
Fabry-Perot cavity with a thin vibrating membrane at its center. We first
derive the general multimode Hamiltonian describing the radiation pressure
interaction between the cavity modes and the vibrational modes of the membrane.
We then restrict the analysis to the standard case of a single cavity mode
interacting with a single mechanical resonator and we determine to what extent
optical absorption by the membrane hinder reaching a quantum regime for the
cavity-membrane system. We show that membrane absorption does not pose serious
limitations and that one can simultaneously achieve ground state cooling of a
vibrational mode of the membrane and stationary optomechanical entanglement
with state-of-the-art apparatuses.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figure
GRBs and the thermalization process of electron-positron plasmas
We discuss the temporal evolution of the pair plasma created in Gamma-Ray
Burst sources. A particular attention is paid to the relaxation of the plasma
into thermal equilibrium. We also discuss the connection between the dynamics
of expansion and the spatial geometry of the plasma. The role of the baryonic
loading parameter is emphasized.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, in the Proceedings of the "Gamma Ray Bursts 2007"
meeting, November 5-9, 2007, Santa Fe, New Mexico, US
The antiquity of hydrocephalus: the first full palaeo-neuropathological description
The Pathology Museum of the University of Florence houses a rich collection of anatomical specimens and over a hundred waxworks portraying pathological conditions occurring in the nineteenth century, when the museum was established. Clinical and autopsy findings of these cases can still be retrieved from the original museum catalogue, offering a rare opportunity for retrospective palaeo-pathological diagnostics. We present a historical case of severe hydrocephalus backed by modern-day anthropological, radiological and molecular analyses conducted on the skeleton of an 18-month-old male infant deceased in 1831. Luigi Calamai (1796-1851), a wax craftsman of La Specola workshop in Florence, was commissioned to create a life-sized wax model of the child's head, neck and upper thorax. This artwork allows us to appreciate the cranial and facial alterations determined by 30 lb of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) accumulated within the cerebral ventricular system. Based on the autopsy report, gross malformations of the neural tube, tumours and haemorrhage could be excluded. A molecular approach proved helpful in confirming sex. We present this case as the so-far most compelling case of hydrocephalus in palaeo-pathological research
Effect of beet pulp on growing performance, digestibility, N balance, and ammonia emission in the heavy pig
A relevant aspect of pig farm units concerning the environmental impact is the ammonia emission from slurries, which is detrimental for animal (and sometimes also for human) welfare. This emission is co-responsible for acid rains, for the increase of bad smells and is detrimental for the respiratory apparatus (Portejoie et al., 2002)
Dispersion analysis of the nucleon form factors including meson continua
Dispersion relations provide a powerful tool to analyse the electromagnetic
form factors of the nucleon for all momentum transfers. Constraints from
meson-nucleon scattering data, unitarity, and perturbative QCD can be included
in a straightforward way. In particular, we include the 2pi, rho-pi, and KKbar
continua as independent input in our analysis and provide an error band for our
results. Moreover, we discuss two different methods to include the asymptotic
constraints from perturbative QCD. We simultaneously analyze the world data for
all four form factors in both the space-like and time-like regions and
generally find good agreement with the data. We also extract the nucleon radii
and the omega-NN coupling constants. For the radii, we generally find good
agreement with other determinations with the exception of the electric charge
radius of the proton which comes out smaller. The omega-NN vector coupling
constant is determined relatively well by the fits, but for the tensor coupling
constant even the sign can not be determined.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figure
Growth and slaughter performance, nitrogen balance and ammonia emission from slurry in pigs fed high fibre diets
The aim of the work was to determine digestibility, nitrogen balance and ammonia emission from excreta, in the typical Italian heavy pig during the last phase of growth, when fed diets with a high fibre content. In comparison with a traditional control diet (C), two diets with 12 and 24% wheat bran (WB12 and WB24) and two other diets with 12 and 24% dried beet pulp (BP12 and BP24) were tested. Totally 76 Landrace x Large White fattening barrows, from 45 to 170 kg live weight distributed in 16 pens, were utilized in the trial. Thirty pigs were allocated to 6 metabolic cages in 5 consecutive periods in order to have 6 observations per treatment. For diets C, WB12 and WB24 daily weight gain (DWG), feed conversion ratio (FCR) and slaughtering performances were also registered, on 20 pigs per dietary treatment. Growing and slaughter performances were similar for pigs fed C and WB12 diets, whilst diet WB24 determined a significant (P<0.05) decrease in performances (growth and feed conversion) in the first period of fattening and a lower dressing percentage at slaughter (85.5, 84.4 and 82.5% for C, WB12 and WB24, respectively). Comparing the diets with the same level of inclusion of the fibrous feeds, WB diets had a lower OM and energy digestibility, while BP diets registered a lower protein but a higher fibre digestibility. Consistently with other experiments, BP diets determined an increase of faecal and a reduction of urinary N, as a percentage of the intake N, as well as a decrease of ammonia emission from the slurries (- 16.6 and -25.3% for BP12 and BP24, in comparison with C diet). For the WB diets the reduction of urinary N and the increase in faecal N were less marked and a reduction of ammonia emissions was not registered
Switchable Genetic Oscillator Operating in Quasi-Stable Mode
Ring topologies of repressing genes have qualitatively different long-term
dynamics if the number of genes is odd (they oscillate) or even (they exhibit
bistability). However, these attractors may not fully explain the observed
behavior in transient and stochastic environments such as the cell. We show
here that even repressilators possess quasi-stable, travelling-wave periodic
solutions that are reachable, long-lived and robust to parameter changes. These
solutions underlie the sustained oscillations observed in even rings in the
stochastic regime, even if these circuits are expected to behave as switches.
The existence of such solutions can also be exploited for control purposes:
operation of the system around the quasi-stable orbit allows us to turn on and
off the oscillations reliably and on demand. We illustrate these ideas with a
simple protocol based on optical interference that can induce oscillations
robustly both in the stochastic and deterministic regimes.Comment: 24 pages, 5 main figure
Efficient algorithms for rigid body integration using optimized splitting methods and exact free rotational motion
Hamiltonian splitting methods are an established technique to derive stable
and accurate integration schemes in molecular dynamics, in which additional
accuracy can be gained using force gradients. For rigid bodies, a tradition
exists in the literature to further split up the kinetic part of the
Hamiltonian, which lowers the accuracy. The goal of this note is to comment on
the best combination of optimized splitting and gradient methods that avoids
splitting the kinetic energy. These schemes are generally applicable, but the
optimal scheme depends on the desired level of accuracy. For simulations of
liquid water it is found that the velocity Verlet scheme is only optimal for
crude simulations with accuracies larger than 1.5%, while surprisingly a
modified Verlet scheme (HOA) is optimal up to accuracies of 0.4% and a fourth
order gradient scheme (GIER4) is optimal for even higher accuracies.Comment: 2 pages, 1 figure. Added clarifying comments. Accepted for
publication in the Journal of Chemical Physic
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