Thermodynamics of nonsingular bouncing universes

Homogeneous and isotropic, nonsingular, bouncing world models are designed to evade the initial singularity at the beginning of the cosmic expansion. Here, we study the thermodynamics of the subset of these models governed by general relativity. Considering the entropy of matter, radiation and that the entropy of the apparent horizon is proportional to its area, we argue that these models do not respect the generalised second law of thermodynamics, also away from the bounce.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures. Version published in the European Physical Journal

Exploring degeneracies in modified gravity with weak lensing

By considering linear-order departures from general relativity, we compute a novel expression for the weak lensing convergence power spectrum under alternative theories of gravity. This comprises an integral over a 'kernel' of general relativistic quantities multiplied by a theory-dependent 'source' term. The clear separation between theory-independent and -dependent terms allows for an explicit understanding of each physical effect introduced by altering the theory of gravity. We take advantage of this to explore the degeneracies between gravitational parameters in weak lensing observations.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures. v2: Minor changes to match version accepted by PR

Analysis of a class of boundary value problems depending on left and right Caputo fractional derivatives

In this work we study boundary value problems associated to a nonlinear fractional ordinary differential equation involving left and right Caputo derivatives. We discuss the regularity of the solutions of such problems and, in particular, give precise necessary conditions so that the solutions are C1([0, 1]). Taking into account our analytical results, we address the numerical solution of those problems by the augmented-RBF method. Several examples illustrate the good performance of the numerical method.P.A. is partially supported by FCT, Portugal, through the program “Investigador FCT” with reference IF/00177/2013 and the scientific projects PEstOE/MAT/UI0208/2013 and PTDC/MAT-CAL/4334/2014. R.F. was supported by the “Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)” through the program “Investigador FCT” with reference IF/01345/2014.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Characterization of a rare analphoid supernumerary marker chromosome in mosaic

Abstract publicado em: Chromosome Research. 2015;23(Suppl 1):67-8. doi:10.1007/s10577-015-9476-6Analphoid supernumerary marker chromosomes (SMCs) are a rare subclass of SMCs C-band-negative and devoid of alpha-satellite DNA. These marker chromosomes cannot be identified unambiguously by conventional banding techniques alone being necessary to apply molecular cytogenetic methods in favour of a detailed characterization. In this work we report an analphoid SMC involving the terminal long arm of chromosome 7, in 9 years-old boy with several dysmorphic features and severe development delay. Cytogenetic analysis revealed a mosaic karyotype with the presence of an extra SMC, de novo, in 20 % of lymphocytes and 73 % of fibroblast cells. FISH analysis with alpha-satellite probes for all chromosomes, whole chromosome painting probe for chromosome 7, and D7S427 and TelVysion 7q probes, allowed establishing the origin of the SMC as an analphoidmarker resulting of an invdup rearrangement of 7q36-qter region. Affimetrix CytoScan HD microarray analysis, redefined the SMC to arr[hg19] 7q35(143696249-159119707)×2~3, which correspond to a gain of 15.42 Mb and encloses 67 OMIM genes, 16 of which are associated to disease. This result, combined with detailed clinical description, will provide an important means for better genotype-phenotype correlation and a more suitable genetic counselling to the patient and his parents, despite the additional difficulty resulting from being a mosaic (expression varies in different tissues). Analphoid SMCs derived from chromosome 7 are very rare, with only three cases reported so far. With this case we hope contribute to a better understanding of this type of chromosome rearrangements which are difficult for genetic counselling

Specifying Adaptations through a DSL with an Application to Mobile Robot Navigation

Developing applications for resource-constrained embedded systems is a challenging task specially when applications must adapt to changes in their operating conditions or environment. To ensure an appropriate response at all times, it is highly desirable to develop applications that can dynamically adapt their behavior at run-time. In this paper we introduce an architecture that allows the specification of adaptable behavior through an external, high-level and platform-independent domain-specific language (DSL). The DSL is used here to define adaptation rules that change the run-time behavior of the application depending on various operational factors, such as time constraints. We illustrate the use of the DSL in an application to mobile robot navigation using smartphones, where experimental results highlight the benefits of specifying the adaptable behavior in a flexible and external way to the main application logic