128 research outputs found
PRISM: Sparse Recovery of the Primordial Power Spectrum
The primordial power spectrum describes the initial perturbations in the
Universe which eventually grew into the large-scale structure we observe today,
and thereby provides an indirect probe of inflation or other
structure-formation mechanisms. Here, we introduce a new method to estimate
this spectrum from the empirical power spectrum of cosmic microwave background
(CMB) maps.
A sparsity-based linear inversion method, coined \textbf{PRISM}, is
presented. This technique leverages a sparsity prior on features in the
primordial power spectrum in a wavelet basis to regularise the inverse problem.
This non-parametric approach does not assume a strong prior on the shape of the
primordial power spectrum, yet is able to correctly reconstruct its global
shape as well as localised features. These advantages make this method robust
for detecting deviations from the currently favoured scale-invariant spectrum.
We investigate the strength of this method on a set of WMAP 9-year simulated
data for three types of primordial power spectra: a nearly scale-invariant
spectrum, a spectrum with a small running of the spectral index, and a spectrum
with a localised feature. This technique proves to easily detect deviations
from a pure scale-invariant power spectrum and is suitable for distinguishing
between simple models of the inflation. We process the WMAP 9-year data and
find no significant departure from a nearly scale-invariant power spectrum with
the spectral index .
A high resolution primordial power spectrum can be reconstructed with this
technique, where any strong local deviations or small global deviations from a
pure scale-invariant spectrum can easily be detected
Using automatic robot programming for space telerobotics
The interpreter of a task level robot programming system called Handey is described. Handey is a system that can recognize, manipulate and assemble polyhedral parts when given only a specification of the goal. To perform an assembly, Handey makes use of a recognition module, a gross motion planner, a grasp planner, a local approach planner and is capable of planning part re-orientation. The possibility of including these modules in a telerobotics work-station is discussed
BIOMECHANICS OF SURFING: DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF AN INSTRUMENTED SURFBOARD TO MEASURE SURFBOARD KINETICS
The purpose of this study was to investigate the different relations between the actions of a surfer and the kinematic behaviour of his surfboard. An instrumented surfboard has been designed with a force platform synchronized with an inertial measurement unit and acquisition system. An experimental campaign has been carried out in situ, where different waves have been surfed to validate the device. Results revealed that measured efforts of the surfer and kinematics of his surfboard are consistent regarding the expected behaviour. Instrumented surfboards will help coaches by giving them a new performance analysis tool. It will also provide an experimental database for the development of numerical models about interactions Surfer/Surfboard/Wave
PRISM: Recovery of the primordial spectrum from Planck data
The primordial power spectrum describes the initial perturbations that seeded
the large-scale structure we observe today. It provides an indirect probe of
inflation or other structure-formation mechanisms. In this letter, we recover
the primordial power spectrum from the Planck PR1 dataset, using our recently
published algorithm PRISM. PRISM is a sparsity-based inversion method, that
aims at recovering features in the primordial power spectrum from the empirical
power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). This ill-posed inverse
problem is regularised using a sparsity prior on features in the primordial
power spectrum in a wavelet dictionary. Although this non-parametric method
does not assume a strong prior on the shape of the primordial power spectrum,
it is able to recover both its general shape and localised features. As a
results, this approach presents a reliable way of detecting deviations from the
currently favoured scale-invariant spectrum. We applied PRISM to 100 simulated
Planck data to investigate its performance on Planck-like data. We also tested
the algorithm's ability to recover a small localised feature at
Mpc, which caused a large dip at in the angular power
spectrum. We then applied PRISM to the Planck PR1 power spectrum to recover the
primordial power spectrum. We find no significant departures from the fiducial
Planck PR1 near scale-invariant primordial power spectrum with
and .Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, Accepted in A&A; Updated to match the final
accepted versio
First assessment of the comparative toxicity of ivermectin and moxidectin in adult dung beetles: Sub-lethal symptoms and pre-lethal consequences
Among macrocyclic lactones (ML), ivermectin (IVM) and moxidectin (MOX) potentially affect all
Ecdysozoan species, with dung beetles being particularly sensitive. The comparative effects of IVM
and MOX on adult dung beetles were assessed for the first time to determine both the physiological
sub-lethal symptoms and pre-lethal consequences. Inhibition of antennal response and ataxia
were tested as two intuitive and ecologically relevant parameters by obtaining the lowest observed
effect concentration (LOEC) values and interpolating other relevant toxicity thresholds derived from
concentration-response curves (IC50, as the concentration of each ML where the antennal response is
inhibited by half; and pLC50, as the quantity of ingested ML where partial paralysis was observed by half
of treated individuals) from concentration-response curves. Both sub-lethal and pre-lethal symptoms
obtained in this study coincided in that IVM was six times more toxic than MOX for adult dung beetles.
Values of LOEC, IC50 and pLC50 obtained for IVM and MOX evaluated in an environmental context
indicate that MOX, despite needing more time for its elimination in the faeces, would be half as harmful
to dung beetles as IVM. This approach will be valuable to clarify the real impact of MLs on dung beetle
health and to avoid the subsequent environmental consequences
The strong gravitational lens finding challenge
Large-scale imaging surveys will increase the number of galaxy-scale strong lensing candidates by maybe three orders of magnitudes beyond the number known today. Finding these rare objects will require picking them out of at least tens of millions of images, and deriving scientific results from them will require quantifying the efficiency and bias of any search method. To achieve these objectives automated methods must be developed. Because gravitational lenses are rare objects, reducing false positives will be particularly important. We present a description and results of an open gravitational lens finding challenge. Participants were asked to classify 100 000 candidate objects as to whether they were gravitational lenses or not with the goal of developing better automated methods for finding lenses in large data sets. A variety of methods were used including visual inspection, arc and ring finders, support vector machines (SVM) and convolutional neural networks (CNN). We find that many of the methods will be easily fast enough to analyse the anticipated data flow. In test data, several methods are able to identify upwards of half the lenses after applying some thresholds on the lens characteristics such as lensed image brightness, size or contrast with the lens galaxy without making a single false-positive identification. This is significantly better than direct inspection by humans was able to do. Having multi-band, ground based data is found to be better for this purpose than single-band space based data with lower noise and higher resolution, suggesting that multi-colour data is crucial. Multi-band space based data will be superior to ground based data. The most difficult challenge for a lens finder is differentiating between rare, irregular and ring-like face-on galaxies and true gravitational lenses. The degree to which the efficiency and biases of lens finders can be quantified largely depends on the realism of the simulated data on which the finders are trained
Evaluation of Oxfendazole, Praziquantel and Albendazole against Cystic Echinococcosis: A Randomized Clinical Trial in Naturally Infected Sheep
Cystic Echinococcosis (CE) is a near-cosmopolitan parasitic zoonosis that causes economic losses in many regions of the world. This parasitic infection can be regarded as an emerging or re-emerging disease causing considerable losses in livestock production. CE is produced by the larval cystic stage (hydatid) of the dog parasite Echinococcus granulosus. After infective eggs are ingested, cysts develop mainly in lungs and liver of humans and animals (sheep, cattle, pigs, horses, etc). Infected people may require surgery and/or Albendazole-based chemotherapy. In this study, we evaluated the effects of Oxfendazole alone (an antiparasitic drug used in animals), Oxfendazole plus Praziquantel, and Albendazole plus Praziquantel against hydatid cysts in sheep over 4 to 6 weeks of treatment. All of the treatments in this study were efficacious in killing the larval stages and, therefore, in minimizing the risk of a dog acquiring new infections (taenias). These treatment schemes can be added to control measures in animals and eventually could be used for the treatment of human infection. Further investigations on different schedules of monotherapy or combined chemotherapy are needed, as well as studies to evaluate the safety and efficacy of Oxfendazole in humans
Euclid preparation: XIII. Forecasts for galaxy morphology with the Euclid Survey using deep generative models
We present a machine learning framework to simulate realistic galaxies for the Euclid Survey, producing more complex and realistic galaxies than the analytical simulations currently used in Euclid. The proposed method combines a control on galaxy shape parameters offered by analytic models with realistic surface brightness distributions learned from real Hubble Space Telescope observations by deep generative models. We simulate a galaxy field of 0.4 deg2 as it will be seen by the Euclid visible imager VIS, and we show that galaxy structural parameters are recovered to an accuracy similar to that for pure analytic SĂ©rsic profiles. Based on these simulations, we estimate that the Euclid Wide Survey (EWS) will be able to resolve the internal morphological structure of galaxies down to a surface brightness of 22.5 mag arcsec-2, and the Euclid Deep Survey (EDS) down to 24.9 mag arcsec-2. This corresponds to approximately 250 million galaxies at the end of the mission and a 50% complete sample for stellar masses above 1010.6 M (resp. 109.6 M) at a redshift z ⌠0.5 for the EWS (resp. EDS). The approach presented in this work can contribute to improving the preparation of future high-precision cosmological imaging surveys by allowing simulations to incorporate more realistic galaxies
- âŠ