Person localization using sensor information fusion

Nowadays the incredible grow of mobile devices market led to the need for location-aware applications. However, sometimes person location is di cult to obtain, since most of these devices only have a GPS (Global Positioning System) chip to retrieve location. In order to sup- press this limitation and to provide location everywhere (even where a structured environment doesn't exist) a wearable inertial navigation sys- tem is proposed, which is a convenient way to track people in situations where other localization systems fail. The system combines pedestrian dead reckoning with GPS, using widely available, low-cost and low-power hardware components. The system innovation is the information fusion and the use of probabilistic methods to learn persons gait behavior to correct, in real-time, the drift errors given by the sensors.This work is part-funded by ERDF - European Regional Development Fund through the COMPETE Programme (operational programme for competitiveness) and by National Funds through the FCT Fundao para a Cincia e a Tecnologia (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) within project FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER- 028980 (PTDC/EEI-SII/1386/2012). Ricardo also acknowledge FCT for the support of his work through the PhD grant (SFRH/DB/70248/2010)

Cosmology in the Universe with distance dependent Lorentz-violating bakground

We consider a cosmological setup with the inflaton field in the presence of a redshift dependent Lorentz-violating time-like background to address the inflationary regime and other phases of the Universe. We also show that the regime of dark energy at large distances (low redshifts) is essentially dominated by the presence of the Lorentz-violating background.Comment: 8 pages, no figure, Latex, to appear in AHE

Lorentz-violating dimension-five operator contribution to the black body radiation

We investigate the thermodynamics of a photon gas in an effective field theory model that describes Lorentz violations through dimension-five operators and Horava-Lifshitz theory. We explore the electrodynamics of the model which includes higher order derivatives in the Lagrangian that can modify the dispersion relation for the propagation of the photons. We shall focus on the deformed black body radiation spectrum and modified Stefan-Boltzmann law to address the allowed bounds on the Lorentz-violating parameter.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures. Version published in PL

On the dual equivalence between self-dual and Maxwell-Chern-Simons models with Lorentz symmetry breaking

In this paper, we use gauge embedding procedure and master action approach to establish the equivalence between the self-dual and Maxwell-Chern-Simons models with Lorentz symmetry breaking. As a result, new kinds of Lorentz-breaking terms arise.Comment: 14 pages, minor corrections, version accepted to Physical Review

Noncommutative correction to the entropy of BTZ black hole with GUP

We investigate the effect of noncommutativity and quantum corrections to the temperature and entropy of a BTZ black hole based on a Lorentzian distribution with the generalized uncertainty principle (GUP). To determine the Hawking radiation in the tunneling formalism we apply the Hamilton-Jacobi method by using the Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin (WKB) approach. In the present study we have obtained logarithmic corrections to entropy due to the effect of noncommutativity and GUP. We also address the issue concerning stability of the non-commutative BTZ black hole by investigating its modified specific heat capacity.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures; published version in AHE

Additional ecological services of CSO-CW besides water treatment: modelling CSO-CW behaviour for urban runoff management

INTRODUCTION Combined sewer overflows (CSOs) have been recognized as a dangerous pollutant source for receiving water bodies, and CSO treatment is hence very important to promote a sustainable development. Constructed wetlands (CWs) are starting to be considered as a viable and eco-sustainable technology to treat CSOs (Meyer et al., 2013). However, CSO-CW provides other ecological services beside to water treatment: (i) urban runoff management, (ii) biodiversity increase, (iii) social services (e.g., recreation). Here we have developed a mathematical model of a real case study to highlight the functioning of CSO-CW as also a flood mitigation system, which promotes an urban runoff management from a post-development (high peak, short duration) back again to a pre-development (low peak, high duration) hydrograph influent to the river (Fletcher et al., 2013). METHODS The experimental case study is located in Gorla Maggiore, Italy (46°N, 9°E). The CSO-CW is composed of: (i) grid and sedimentation tank as first flush primary treatment; (ii) four French-type vertical subsurface flow (VF) CW beds as secondary stage (3840 m2) designed to treat the first flush (up to 640 l s-1); (iii) a free water surface flow (FWS) wetland with multiple roles of tertiary treatment of first flush and also second flush treatment (3174 m2), biodiversity increasing, recreational area, and hydraulic buffer (with a floodable surface area up to 7200 m2). The theoretical hydraulic retention time (HRT) is equal to 36 h. A sampling campaign has been done in 2014 in order to characterise temporal variations of CSO quality and quantity and to assess CW removal performances. The data about water quantity (CSO flow rates continuously registered by an automatic sensor with a sampling frequency of 15 minutes) are here used as input of the mathematical model. The mathematical model simulates the unsaturated water flow in VF beds (Richards equation) and the depth of the ponding layer above the VF surface and in the FWS (mass balance equations). In this way, water outflows from each stage of the CW plant are estimated, and the flood mitigation efficiency of the CW is evaluated for different type of CSO events (i.e., single or multiple average CSO events, high return time CSO event). RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The model results show the good performance of the CSO-CW as flood mitigation system. The single CSO average event (883 m3 over 2.4 hours, with a maximum flow rate of 250 l/s) is satisfactorily laminated: (i) the peak flow is reduced by 95%; (ii) the outflow duration is 21 times longer than the one of the CSO event; (iii) the CW is able to store 95% of the influent volume during the CSO event.The CSO-CW exhibits also performs well for CSO mitigation when a sequence of consecutive CSO average events (up to 5, i.e. the maximum number of consecutive CSO events registered) is considered as shown in Figure 1. In this case, the peak flow is reduced by 53%, the outflow is prolonged 5.7 times compared to the CSO event duration, and 38% of the influent volume is stored during the CSO event. Flood mitigation performances remain high also for events with high return time (equal to 10 years – maximum flow rate: 3.4 m3 s−1, volume: 11497 m3, duration: 4.8 h), for which the FWS behaves as a buffer system storing 71% of the influent volume, in addition to the lower (11%) but not negligible mitigation effect provided by the VF beds. Moreover, the peak flow (86% reduction) and the outflow duration (27 times longer than the CSO event duration) are satisfactorily improved for such 10 year return time events. Fig. 1. Influent and simulated effluent flow rate from CSO-CW treatment for a sequence of 5 consecutive CSO mean events: influent CSO (gray line), VF outflow (dotted line), VF overflow (dashed line), and FWS outflow (continuous line). CONCLUSIONS The results of this modelling study confirm the potential of CWs to behave as flood mitigation systems providing the additional ecological service of sustainable urban runoff management. The selected case study demonstrates how CSO-CW promotes a shift from a post-development (high peak, short duration) to a pre-development (low peak, high duration) hydrograph influent to the river water body