1,287 research outputs found
Self-propagating High temperature Synthesis (SHS) in the high activation energy regime
We derive the precise limit of SHS in the high activation energy scaling
suggested by B.J. Matkowksy-G.I. Sivashinsky in 1978 and by A. Bayliss-B.J.
Matkowksy-A.P. Aldushin in 2002. In the time-increasing case the limit turns
out to be the Stefan problem for supercooled water with spatially inhomogeneous
coefficients. Although the present paper leaves open mathematical questions
concerning the convergence, our precise form of the limit problem suggest a
strikingly simple explanation for the numerically observed pulsating waves
A dark matter interpretation for the ARCADE excess?
The ARCADE 2 Collaboration has recently measured an isotropic radio emission
which is significantly brighter than the expected contributions from known
extra-galactic sources. The simplest explanation of such excess involves a
"new" population of unresolved sources which become the most numerous at very
low (observationally unreached) brightness. We investigate this scenario in
terms of synchrotron radiation induced by WIMP annihilations or decays in
extragalactic halos. Intriguingly, for light-mass WIMPs with thermal
annihilation cross-section, and fairly conservative clustering assumptions, the
level of expected radio emission matches the ARCADE observations.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. v2: one benchmark model added, comments and
references expanded, to appear in PR
Development of numerical algorithms for practical computation of nonlinear normal modes
When resorting to numerical algorithms, we show that nonlinear normal mode (NNM) computation is possible
with limited implementation effort, which paves the way to a practical method for determining the NNMs
of nonlinear mechanical systems. The proposed method relies on two main techniques, namely a shooting
procedure and a method for the continuation of NNM motions. In addition, sensitivity analysis is used to
reduce the computational burden of the algorithm. A simplified discrete model of a nonlinear bladed disk is
considered to demonstrate the developments
Local Group dSph radio survey with ATCA (III): Constraints on Particle Dark Matter
We performed a deep search for radio synchrotron emissions induced by weakly
interacting massive particles (WIMPs) annihilation or decay in six dwarf
spheroidal (dSph) galaxies of the Local Group. Observations were conducted with
the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) at 16 cm wavelength, with an rms
sensitivity better than 0.05 mJy/beam in each field. In this work, we first
discuss the uncertainties associated with the modeling of the expected signal,
such as the shape of the dark matter (DM) profile and the dSph magnetic
properties. We then investigate the possibility that point-sources detected in
the proximity of the dSph optical center might be due to the emission from a DM
cuspy profile. No evidence for an extended emission over a size of few arcmin
(which is the DM halo size) has been detected. We present the associated bounds
on the WIMP parameter space for different annihilation/decay final states and
for different astrophysical assumptions. If the confinement of electrons and
positrons in the dSph is such that the majority of their power is radiated
within the dSph region, we obtain constraints on the WIMP annihilation rate
which are well below the thermal value for masses up to few TeV. On the other
hand, for conservative assumptions on the dSph magnetic properties, the bounds
can be dramatically relaxed. We show however that, within the next 10 years and
regardless of the astrophysical assumptions, it will be possible to
progressively close in on the full parameter space of WIMPs by searching for
radio signals in dSphs with SKA and its precursors.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figure panels. Companion papers: arXiv:1407.5479 and
arXiv:1407.5482. v3: minor revision, matches published versio
Increasing the Precision of Distant Pointing for Large High-Resolution Displays
Distant pointing at large displays allows rapid cursor movements, but can be problematic when high levels of precision are needed, due to natural hand tremor and track-ing jitter. We present two ray-casting-based interaction techniques for large high-resolution displays – Absolute and Relative Mapping (ARM) Ray-casting and Zooming for Enhanced Large Display Acuity (ZELDA) – that ad-dress this precision problem. ZELDA enhances precision by providing a zoom window, which increases target sizes resulting in greater precision and visual acuity. ARM Ray-casting increases user control over the cursor position by allowing the user to activate and deactivate relative map-ping as the need for precise manipulation arises. The results of an empirical study show that both approaches improve performance on high-precision tasks when compared to basic ray-casting. In realistic use, however, performance of the techniques is highly dependent on user strategy
Safety of overlapping inpatient orthopaedic surgery: A multicenter study
BackgroundAlthough overlapping surgery is used to maximize efficiency, more empirical data are needed to guide patient safety. We conducted a retrospective cohort study to evaluate the safety of overlapping inpatient orthopaedic surgery, as judged by the occurrence of perioperative complications.MethodsAll inpatient orthopaedic surgical procedures performed at 5 academic institutions from January 1, 2015, to December 31, 2015, were included. Overlapping surgery was defined as 2 skin incisions open simultaneously for 1 surgeon. In comparing patients who underwent overlapping surgery with those who underwent non-overlapping surgery, the primary outcome was the occurrence of a perioperative complication within 30 days of the surgical procedure, and secondary outcomes included all-cause 30-day readmission, length of stay, and mortality. To determine if there was an association between overlapping surgery and a perioperative complication, we tested for non-inferiority of overlapping surgery, assuming a null hypothesis of an increased risk of 50%. We used an inverse probability of treatment weighted regression model adjusted for institution, procedure type, demographic characteristics (age, sex, race, comorbidities), admission type, admission severity of illness, and clustering by surgeon.ResultsAmong 14,135 cases, the frequency of overlapping surgery was 40%. The frequencies of perioperative complications were 1% in the overlapping surgery group and 2% in the non-overlapping surgery group. The overlapping surgery group was non-inferior to the non-overlapping surgery group (odds ratio [OR], 0.61 [90% confidence interval (CI), 0.45 to 0.83]; p < 0.001), with reduced odds of perioperative complications (OR, 0.61 [95% CI, 0.43 to 0.88]; p = 0.009). For secondary outcomes, there was a significantly lower chance of all-cause 30-day readmission in the overlapping surgery group (OR, 0.67 [95% CI, 0.52 to 0.87]; p = 0.003) and shorter length of stay (e, 0.94 [95% CI, 0.89 to 0.99]; p = 0.012). There was no difference in mortality.ConclusionsOur results suggest that overlapping inpatient orthopaedic surgery does not introduce additional perioperative risk for the complications that we evaluated. The suitability of this practice should be determined by individual surgeons on a case-by-case basis with appropriate informed consent.Level of evidenceTherapeutic Level III. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence
The Isotropic Radio Background and Annihilating Dark Matter
Observations by ARCADE-2 and other telescopes sensitive to low frequency
radiation have revealed the presence of an isotropic radio background with a
hard spectral index. The intensity of this observed background is found to
exceed the flux predicted from astrophysical sources by a factor of
approximately 5-6. In this article, we consider the possibility that
annihilating dark matter particles provide the primary contribution to the
observed isotropic radio background through the emission of synchrotron
radiation from electron and positron annihilation products. For reasonable
estimates of the magnetic fields present in clusters and galaxies, we find that
dark matter could potentially account for the observed radio excess, but only
if it annihilates mostly to electrons and/or muons, and only if it possesses a
mass in the range of approximately 5-50 GeV. For such models, the annihilation
cross section required to normalize the synchrotron signal to the observed
excess is sigma v ~ (0.4-30) x 10^-26 cm^3/s, similar to the value predicted
for a simple thermal relic (sigma v ~ 3 x 10^-26 cm^3/s). We find that in any
scenario in which dark matter annihilations are responsible for the observed
excess radio emission, a significant fraction of the isotropic gamma ray
background observed by Fermi must result from dark matter as well.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figure
Multifractal characteristics of optical turbulence measured through a single beam holographic process
We have previously shown that azopolymer thin films exposed to coherent light
that has travelled through a turbulent medium produces a surface relief grating
containing information about the intensity of the turbulence; for instance, a
relation between the refractive index structure constant C2 as a function of
the surface parameters was obtained. In this work, we show that these films
capture much more information about the turbulence dynamics. Multifractal
detrended fluctuation and fractal dimension analysis from images of the surface
roughness produced by the light on the azopolymer reveals scaling properties
related to those of the optical turbulence.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure
Mechanical Design of the SMC (Short Model Coil) Dipole Magnet
The Short Model Coil (SMC) working group was set in February 2007 within the Next European Dipole (NED) program, in order to develop a short-scale model of a NbSn dipole magnet. The SMC group comprises four laboratories: CERN/TE-MSC group (CH), CEA/IRFU (FR), RAL (UK) and LBNL (US). The SMC magnet was originally conceived to reach a peak field of about 13 T on conductor, using a 2500 A/mm2 Powder-In-Tube (PIT) strand. The aim of this magnet device is to study the degradation of the magnetic properties of the NbSn cable, by applying different level of pre-stress. To fully satisfy this purpose, a versatile and easy-to-assemble structure has to be realized. The design of the SMC magnet has been developed from an existing dipole magnet, the SD01, designed, built and tested at LBNL with support from CEA. In this paper we will describe the mechanical optimization of the dipole, starting from a conceptual configuration based on a former magnetic analysis. Two and three-dimensional Finite Element Method (FEM) models have been implemented in ANSYS™ and in CAST3M, aiming at setting the mechanical parameters of the dipole magnet structure, thus fulfilling the design constraints imposed by the materials
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