Production Regimes for Self-Interacting Dark Matter

In the context of Self-Interacting Dark Matter as a solution for the small-scale structure problems, we consider the possibility that Dark Matter could have been produced without being in thermal equilibrium with the Standard Model bath. We discuss one by one the following various dark matter production regimes of this kind: freeze-in, reannihilation and dark freeze-out. We exemplify how these mechanisms work in the context of the particularly simple Hidden Vector Dark Matter model. In contrast to scenarios where there is thermal equilibrium with the Standard Model bath, we find two regimes which can easily satisfy all the laboratory and cosmological constraints. These are dark freeze-out with 3-to-2 annihilations and freeze-in via a light mediator. In the first regime, different temperatures in the visible and the Dark Matter sectors allow us to avoid the constraints coming from cosmic structure formation as well as the use of non-perturbative couplings to reproduce the observed relic density. For the second regime, different couplings are responsible for Dark Matter relic density and self-interactions, permitting to surpass BBN, X-ray, CMB and direct detection constraints.Comment: 40 pages, 14 figures. Accepted for publication in JCA

Morelos: ¿un mito desmitificado? Una lectura del Martirio de Morelos desde la posmodernidad

En Martirio de Morelos (1981), Vicente Leñero presenta, desde una perspectiva artística, parte de la vida y causa del llamado Siervo de la Nación, José María Morelos y Pavón. En esta pieza, el autor intercala aspectos históricos con detalles ficticios para lograr un efecto estético en los posibles lectores. Con genial agudeza, el autor recrea un momento histórico concreto, la guerra de Inde- pendencia de 1810. La obra posee un cauce de presentación narrativo, el cual se ve envuelto por la modalidad irónica con la que, mediante su idiolecto ¿haciendo uso del conjunto de términos, del vocabulario que posee para expresarse¿ da a conocer esos hechos, desde una óptica humorística, que deambula entre la farsa, la sátira y la comedia, sin descuidar el sentido trágico propio del acontecimiento; es decir, Leñero crea su propia concepción genológica. La Historia es recreada en la ficción, teniendo como base documentos y actas notariales con los cuales Leñero plantea su concepción del momento aquél, al que trae al presente por medio del "Lector", figura creada para servir como vaso comunicante entre pasado y presente. Con todo, la intención de este trabajo, como el nombre lo indica: "Morelos: ¿un mito desmitificado? Una lectura de Martirio de Morelos desde la posmodernidad", es determinar de qué manera José María Morelos y Pavón fue o sigue siendo un mito.En Martirio de Morelos (1981), Vicente Leñero presenta, desde una perspectiva artística, parte de la vida y causa del llamado Siervo de la Nación, José María Morelos y Pavón. En esta pieza, el autor intercala aspectos históricos con detalles ficticios para lograr un efecto estético en los posibles lectores. Con genial agudeza, el autor recrea un momento histórico concreto, la guerra de Inde- pendencia de 1810. La obra posee un cauce de presentación narrativo, el cual se ve envuelto por la modalidad irónica con la que, mediante su idiolecto ¿haciendo uso del conjunto de términos, del vocabulario que posee para expresarse¿ da a conocer esos hechos, desde una óptica humorística, que deambula entre la farsa, la sátira y la comedia, sin descuidar el sentido trágico propio del acontecimiento; es decir, Leñero crea su propia concepción genológica. La Historia es recreada en la ficción, teniendo como base documentos y actas notariales con los cuales Leñero plantea su concepción del momento aquél, al que trae al presente por medio del "Lector", figura creada para servir como vaso comunicante entre pasado y presente. Con todo, la intención de este trabajo, como el nombre lo indica: "Morelos: ¿un mito desmitificado? Una lectura de Martirio de Morelos desde la posmodernidad", es determinar de qué manera José María Morelos y Pavón fue o sigue siendo un mito

Application of the LOICZ Methodology to the Mediterranean Sea

From a broad perspective, the LOICZ (Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone) approach attempts to evaluate coastal change from a system perspective and assumes that the effects taking place are due to pressures within the whole basin. The LOICZ methodology was applied to the Mediterranean Sea in order to estimate its water, salt and nutrient budget, as well as to gain insights into its biogeochemical cycles. In order to undertake this budget approach, various input data relative to the three budgets were gathered for the time period of 1996 to 2005. In the case of the Mediterranean Sea, it was seen that there is still a gap between LOICZ data requirements and the standard monitoring practices in the coastal zone, both from a spatial as well as temporal viewpoint. The results show that on average over the time period 1996 to 2005, the phosphorous and nitrogen budgets of 1.35·10-2 mmol m-2 d-1 and 3.22·10-1 mmol m-2 d-1, respectively, suggest an excess of release over uptake. The budget calculations translate to the fact that on average the Mediterranean Sea acts as a sink of phosphorous and nitrogen. No specific, statistically relevant trend of the water quality and ecosystem functioning of the Mediterranean Sea was observed. An examination of the stoichiometric linkage of C, N and P through the Redfield ratio indicates that nitrogen fixation and production of dissolved inorganic carbon dominate over denitrification and consumption of dissolved inorganic carbon via net organic production.JRC.H.5-Rural, water and ecosystem resource

Feasibility Study of the Application of the LOICZ Budget to the Mediterranean Sea

The Mediterranean Sea is an important regional EU sea and often used to assess the impacts of global change on the environment, due to its practically enclosed character. As most of the northern part is bordered by the EU, it is also of interest in the evaluation of the environmental and economic impact of the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive and related environmental legislation. For this purpose, the feasibility to carry out a budget approach, developed in LOICZ (Land Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone) project has been analyzed. The activities carried out allow to conclude that all budget components can be reliably estimated and such budget correctly set up. In particular: - estimates for precipitation and evaporation of the Mediterranean Sea can be obtained from ECMWF; other sources for estimates of such variables are available, and in a further implementation of this work a comparison between estimate sets will be carried out; - estimates of annual flow and nutrient output to the Mediterranean Sea as required by the LOICZ budget can be obtained via the setting up of the AVGWLF model, with reasonable operating expense (time and effort) and with acceptable assumptions made for information/data not available for some or all of the regions, especially in the Asian and North African part of the Mediterranean; - exchanges through the Gibraltar and Dardanelles Straits can also be reliably estimated, based on previous studies. It is recognized that the estimates of all budget components, as illustrated in the paragraphs above, can be improved. It is foreseen that some of these improvements will be obtained already in the actual implementation of the LOICZ budget.JRC.H.5-Rural, water and ecosystem resource

On the relationship between head circumference, brain size, prenatal long-chain PUFA/5-methyltetrahydrofolate supplementation and cognitive abilities during childhood

Head circumference in infants has been reported to predict brain size, total grey matter volume (GMV) and neurocognitive development. However, it is unknown whether it has predictive value on regional and subcortical brain volumes. We aimed to explore the relationship between several head circumference measurements since birth and distributions of GMV and subcortical volumes at later childhood. We examined seventy-four, Caucasian, singleton, term-born infants born to mothers randomised to receive fish oil and/or 5-methyltetrahydrofolate or placebo prenatal supplementation. We assessed head circumference at birth and at 4 and 10 years of age and cognitive abilities at 7 years of age. We obtained brain MRI at 10 years of age, on which we performed voxel-based morphometry, cortical surface extraction and subcortical segmentation. Analyses were controlled for sex, age, height, weight, family status, laterality and total intracranial volume. Prenatal supplementation did not affect head circumference at any age, cognitive abilities or total brain volumes. Head circumference at 4 years presented the highest correlation with total GMV, white matter volume and brain surface area, and was also strongly associated with GMV of frontal, temporal and occipital areas, as well as with caudate nucleus, globus pallidus, putamen and thalamus volumes. As relationships between brain volumes in childhood and several outcomes extend into adulthood, we have found that ages between 0 and 4 years as the optimal time for brain growth; postnatal factors might have the most relevant impact on structural maturation of certain cortical areas and subcortical nuclei, independent of prenatal supplementation

Performance Evaluation of an Optoelectronic Oscillator Based on a Band-Pass Microwave Photonic Filter Architecture

The experimental performance evaluation of an optoelectronic oscillator based on a band-pass microwave photonic filter architecture is carried out. The novelty of this proposal resides in the fact that the architecture used allows enhancing the free spectral range of the optoelectronic oscillator. Considering the optical spectral characteristics of the multimode laser diode used as an optical source, the length and the chromatic dispersion parameter of the optical fiber which acts as a feedback loop, it is possible to determine the appearance of a series of spectrally pure microwave signals widely spaced. In particular, the experimental results show a phase noise as low as -92.69 dBc/Hz at 10 kHz offset frequency from the 2.26 GHz carrier for an optical delay line of 25.24 km and a Q factor of 2.04×109

Applying BAT Evolutionary Optimization to Image-Based Visual Servoing

This paper presents a predictive control strategy for an image-based visual servoing scheme that employs evolutionary optimization. The visual control task is approached as a nonlinear optimization problem that naturally handles relevant visual servoing constraints such as workspace limitations and visibility restrictions. As the predictive scheme requires a reliable model, this paper uses a local model that is based on the visual interaction matrix and a global model that employs 3D trajectory data extracted from a quaternion-based interpolator. The work assumes a free-flying camera with 6-DOF simulation whose results support the discussion on the constraint handling and the image prediction scheme

Cultural effects on neurodevelopmental testing in children from six European countries: An analysis of NUTRIMENTHE Global Database

Cultural background is an important variable influencing neuropsychological performance. Multinational projects usually involve gathering data from participants from different countries and/or different cultures. Little is known about the influence of culture on neuropsychological testing results in children and especially in European children. The objectives of this study were to compare neuropsychological performance of children from six European countries (Belgium, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland and Spain) using a comprehensive neuropsychological battery and to apply a statistical procedure to reduce the influence of country/cultural differences in neuropsychological performance. As expected, the results demonstrated differences in neuropsychological performance among children of the six countries involved. Cultural differences remained after adjusting for other confounders related to neuropsychological execution, such as sex, type of delivery, maternal age, gestational age and maternal educational level. Differences between countries disappeared and influence of culture was considerably reduced when standardised scores by country and sex were used. These results highlight the need for developing specific procedures to compare neuropsychological performance among children from different cultures to be used in multicentre studies

Adaptive step ODE algorithms for the 3D simulation of electric heart activity with graphics processing units

In this paper we studied the implementation and performance of adaptive step methods for large systems of ordinary differential equations systems in graphics processing units, focusing on the simulation of three-dimensional electric cardiac activity. The Rush-Larsen method was applied in all the implemented solvers to improve efficiency. We compared the adaptive methods with the fixed step methods, and we found that the fixed step methods can be faster while the adaptive step methods are better in terms of accuracy and robustness. (c) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.This work has been partially funded by Universitat Politecnica de Valencia through Programa de Apoyo a la InvestigaciOn y Desarrollo (PAID-06-11) and (PAID-05-12), by Generalitat Valenciana through projects PROMETEO/2009/013 and Ayudas para la realizacion de proyectos de I+D para grupos de investigacion emergentes GV/2012/039, and by Ministerio Espafiol de Economia y Competitividad through project TEC2012-38142-004.García Mollá, VM.; Liberos Mascarell, A.; Vidal Maciá, AM.; Guillem Sánchez, MS.; Millet Roig, J.; González Salvador, A.; Martínez Zaldívar, FJ.... (2014). Adaptive step ODE algorithms for the 3D simulation of electric heart activity with graphics processing units. Computers in Biology and Medicine. 44:15-26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compbiomed.2013.10.023S15264