Oscillation Effects On Neutrinos From The Early Phase Of a Nearby Supernova

Neutrinos emitted during stellar core collapse leading to a supernova are primarily of the electron neutrino type at source which may undergo oscillation between flavor eigenstates during propagation to an earth-bound detector. Although the number of neutrinos emitted during the pre-bounce collapse phase is much smaller than that emitted in the post-bounce phase (in which all flavors of neutrinos are emitted), a nearby supernova event may nevertheless register a substantial number of detections from the pre-bounce phase at SuperKamiokande (SK) and the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO). The calorimetric measurement of the supernova neutrino fluence from this stage via the charge current and neutral current detection channels in SNO and the corresponding distortion of detected spectrum in SK over the no-oscillation spectrum, can probe information about neutrino mass difference and mixing which are illustrated here in terms of two- and three-flavor oscillation models

Driver behaviour with adaptive cruise control

This paper reports on the evaluation of adaptive cruise control (ACC) from a psychological perspective. It was anticipated that ACC would have an effect upon the psychology of driving, i.e. make the driver feel like they have less control, reduce the level of trust in the vehicle, make drivers less situationally aware, but workload might be reduced and driving might be less stressful. Drivers were asked to drive in a driving simulator under manual and ACC conditions. Analysis of variance techniques were used to determine the effects of workload (i.e. amount of traffic) and feedback (i.e. degree of information from the ACC system) on the psychological variables measured (i.e. locus of control, trust, workload, stress, mental models and situation awareness). The results showed that: locus of control and trust were unaffected by ACC, whereas situation awareness, workload and stress were reduced by ACC. Ways of improving situation awareness could include cues to help the driver predict vehicle trajectory and identify conflicts

CDKN2BAS is associated with periodontitis in different European populations and is activated by bacterial infection

Epidemiological studies have indicated a relationship between coronary heart disease (CHD) and periodontitis. Recently, CDKN2BAS was reported as a shared genetic risk factor of CHD and aggressive periodontitis (AgP), but the causative variant has remained unknown. To identify and validate risk variants in different European populations, we first explored 150 kb of the genetic region of CDKN2BAS including the adjacent genes CDKN2A and CDKN2B, covering 51 tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms (tagSNPs) in AgP and chronic periodontitis (CP) in individuals of Dutch origin (n=313). In a second step, we tested the significant SNP associations in an independent AgP and CP population of German origin (n=1264). For the tagSNPs rs1360590, rs3217992, and rs518394, we could validate the associations with AgP before and after adjustment for the covariates smoking, gender and diabetes, with SNP rs3217992 being the most significant (OR 1.48, 95% CI 1.19 to 1.85; p=0.0004). We further showed in vivo gene expression of CDKN2BAS, CDKN2A, CDKN2B, and CDK4 in healthy and inflamed gingival epithelium (GE) and connective tissue (CT), and detected a significantly higher expression of CDKN2BAS in healthy CT compared to GE (p=0.004). After 24 h of stimulation with Porphyromonas gingivalis in Streptococcus gordonii pre-treated gingival fibroblast (HGF) and cultured gingival epithelial cells (GECs), we observed a 25-fold and fourfold increase of CDKN2BAS gene expression in HGFs (p=0.003) and GECs (p=0.004), respectively. Considering the global importance of CDKN2BAS in the disease risk of CHD, this observation supports the theory of inflammatory components in the disease physiology of CHD

Vehicle localization by lidar point correlation improved by change detection

LiDAR sensors are proven sensors for accurate vehicle localization. Instead of detecting and matching features in the LiDAR data, we want to use the entire information provided by the scanners. As dynamic objects, like cars, pedestrians or even construction sites could lead to wrong localization results, we use a change detection algorithm to detect these objects in the reference data. If an object occurs in a certain number of measurements at the same position, we mark it and every containing point as static. In the next step, we merge the data of the single measurement epochs to one reference dataset, whereby we only use static points. Further, we also use a classification algorithm to detect trees. For the online localization of the vehicle, we use simulated data of a vertical aligned automotive LiDAR sensor. As we only want to use static objects in this case as well, we use a random forest classifier to detect dynamic scan points online. Since the automotive data is derived from the LiDAR Mobile Mapping System, we are able to use the labelled objects from the reference data generation step to create the training data and further to detect dynamic objects online. The localization then can be done by a point to image correlation method using only static objects. We achieved a localization standard deviation of about 5 cm (position) and 0.06° (heading), and were able to successfully localize the vehicle in about 93 % of the cases along a trajectory of 13 km in Hannover, Germany

Identifying the neutrino mass spectrum from a supernova neutrino burst

We study the role that the future detection of the neutrino burst from a galactic supernova can play in the reconstruction of the neutrino mass spectrum. We consider all possible 3$\nu$ mass and flavor spectra which describe the solar and atmospheric neutrino data. For each of these spectra we find the observable effects of the supernova neutrino conversions both in the matter of the star and the earth. We show that studies of the electron neutrino and anineutrino spectra as well as observations of the neutral current effects from supernova will allow us (i) to identify the solar neutrino solution, (ii) to determine the type of mass hierarchy (normal or inverted) and (iii) to probe the mixing $|U_{e3}|^2$ to values as low as $10^{-4} - 10^{-3}$.Comment: 53 pages, 13eps figures. Substantial changes made, new results, figures and tables adde

Pléiades project: Assessment of georeferencing accuracy, image quality, pansharpening performence and DSM/DTM quality

Pléiades 1A and 1B are twin optical satellites of Optical and Radar Federated Earth Observation (ORFEO) program jointly running by France and Italy. They are the first satellites of Europe with sub-meter resolution. Airbus DS (formerly Astrium Geo) runs a MyGIC (formerly Pléiades Users Group) program to validate Pléiades images worldwide for various application purposes. The authors conduct three projects, one is within this program, the second is supported by BEU Scientific Research Project Program, and the third is supported by TÜBİTAK. Assessment of georeferencing accuracy, image quality, pansharpening performance and Digital Surface Model/Digital Terrain Model (DSM/DTM) quality subjects are investigated in these projects. For these purposes, triplet panchromatic (50 cm Ground Sampling Distance (GSD)) and VNIR (2 m GSD) Pléiades 1A images were investigated over Zonguldak test site (Turkey) which is urbanised, mountainous and covered by dense forest. The georeferencing accuracy was estimated with a standard deviation in X and Y (SX, SY) in the range of 0.45m by bias corrected Rational Polynomial Coefficient (RPC) orientation, using ~170 Ground Control Points (GCPs). 3D standard deviation of ±0.44m in X, ±0.51m in Y, and ±1.82m in Z directions have been reached in spite of the very narrow angle of convergence by bias corrected RPC orientation. The image quality was also investigated with respect to effective resolution, Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) and blur coefficient. The effective resolution was estimated with factor slightly below 1.0, meaning that the image quality corresponds to the nominal resolution of 50cm. The blur coefficients were achieved between 0.39-0.46 for triplet panchromatic images, indicating a satisfying image quality. SNR is in the range of other comparable space borne images which may be caused by de-noising of Pléiades images. The pansharpened images were generated by various methods, and are validated by most common statistical metrics and also visual interpretation. The generated DSM and DTM were achieved with ±1.6m standard deviation in Z (SZ) in relation to a reference DTM.Airbus Defence and SpaceBEU/2014-47912266-01TÜBİTAK/114Y38

The impact of customer-specific marketing expenses on customer retention and customer profitability

We study the effects of customer-specific marketing expenses on customer retention and customer profitability in a business-to-business setting. Using data from a company providing hygiene services, we look at the impact of a hitherto unstudied type of expense targeted at individual customer relationships: the offering of free equipment to customers. The data allow tracking the activities performed in more than 4,500 customer relationships over a period of 4 years. Retention rates are higher for customers targeted with free equipment, but this effect results from an interaction with customer size. First-order dynamic panel data analyses show that the impact of targeted marketing expenses on customer dollar profit is positive for large customers, but there is no effect for smaller customers. Thus, targeted marketing expenses seem to be a tool for relationship maintenance rather than customer development: they help in retaining large customers that generate more profit, but they do not seem to work in developing new customers into larger, more profitable ones

Anomalous kinetics, patterns formation in recalescence, and final microstructure of rapidly solidified Al-rich Al-Ni alloys

Copyright © 2022 The Authors. From thermodynamical consideration, rather a monotonically increasing crystal growth velocity with increasing undercooling is expected in the crystallization of liquids, mixtures, and alloys [P.K. Galenko and D. Jou, Physics Reports 818 (2019) 1]. By contrast to this general theoretical statement, Al-rich Al-Ni alloys show an anomalous solidification behavior: the solid-liquid interface velocity slows down as the undercooling increases [R. Lengsdorf, D. Holland-Moritz, D. M. Herlach, Scripta Materialia 62 (2010) 365]. It is also found that besides the anomalous growth behaviour, changes in the shape of the recalescence front as the growth front morphology occur. In the light of recent measurements in microgravity with an Al-25at.% Ni alloy sample onboard the International Space Station (ISS) results confirming this anomalous behavior as an unexpected trend in solidification kinetics are presented. The measurements show multiple nucleation events forming the growth front, a mechanism that has been observed for the first time in Al-Ni alloys [D. Herlach et al., Physical Review Materials 3 (2019) 073402; M. Reinartz et al. JOM 74 (2022) 2420] and summarized with detailed analysis in the present publication over a wider range of concentrations. Particularly, the experimental measurements and obtained data directly demonstrate that the growth front does thus not consist of dendrite tips (as in usual rapid solidifying samples), but of newly forming nuclei propagating along the sample surface in a coordinated manner. Theoretical analysis on intensive nucleation ahead of crystal growth front is made using the previously developed model [D.V. Alexandrov, Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical 50 (2017) 345101]. Using equations of this model, quantitative calculations confirm the interpretation of experimentally observed propagation of the recalescence front and obtained data on the microstructure of droplets solidified in electromagnetic levitation facility (EML) on the Ground, under reduced gravity during parabolic flights, and in microgravity conditions onboard the ISS.European Space Agency (ESA) within the project NEQUISOL under contract No. 15236/02/NL/SH for experimental measurements under reduced gravity and by RSF under project No. 21-19-00279 for theoretical modeling; German Space Center - Space Administration under contract No. 50WM1941; German Science Foundation (DFG) under the Project GA 1142/11-1 for experimental measurements on the Ground

Orientation of oblique airborne image sets - Experiences from the ISPRS/Eurosdr benchmark on multi-platform photogrammetry

During the last decade the use of airborne multi camera systems increased significantly. The development in digital camera technology allows mounting several mid- or small-format cameras efficiently onto one platform and thus enables image capture under different angles. Those oblique images turn out to be interesting for a number of applications since lateral parts of elevated objects, like buildings or trees, are visible. However, occlusion or illumination differences might challenge image processing. From an image orientation point of view those multi-camera systems bring the advantage of a better ray intersection geometry compared to nadir-only image blocks. On the other hand, varying scale, occlusion and atmospheric influences which are difficult to model impose problems to the image matching and bundle adjustment tasks. In order to understand current limitations of image orientation approaches and the influence of different parameters such as image overlap or GCP distribution, a commonly available dataset was released. The originally captured data comprises of a state-of-the-art image block with very high overlap, but in the first stage of the so-called ISPRS/EUROSDR benchmark on multi-platform photogrammetry only a reduced set of images was released. In this paper some first results obtained with this dataset are presented. They refer to different aspects like tie point matching across the viewing directions, influence of the oblique images onto the bundle adjustment, the role of image overlap and GCP distribution. As far as the tie point matching is concerned we observed that matching of overlapping images pointing to the same cardinal direction, or between nadir and oblique views in general is quite successful. Due to the quite different perspective between images of different viewing directions the standard tie point matching, for instance based on interest points does not work well. How to address occlusion and ambiguities due to different views onto objects is clearly a non-solved research problem so far. In our experiments we also confirm that the obtainable height accuracy is better when all images are used in bundle block adjustment. This was also shown in other research before and is confirmed here. Not surprisingly, the large overlap of 80/80% provides much better object space accuracy – random errors seem to be about 2-3fold smaller compared to the 60/60% overlap. A comparison of different software approaches shows that newly emerged commercial packages, initially intended to work with small frame image blocks, do perform very well

Is Large Lepton Mixing Excluded?

The original \bnum -(or $\bar{\nu}_{\tau}$-) energy spectrum from the gravitational collapse of a star has a larger average energy than the spectrum for \bnue since the opacity of \bnue exeeds that of \bnum (or $\nu_{\tau}$). Flavor neutrino conversion, \bnue $\leftrightarrow$ \bnum, induced by lepton mixing results in partial permutation of the original \bnue and \bnum spectra. An upper bound on the permutation factor, $p \leq 0.35$ (99$\%$ CL) is derived using the data from SN1987A and the different models of the neutrino burst. The relation between the permutation factor and the vacuum mixing angle is established, which leads to the upper bound on this angle. The excluded region, $\sin^2 2\theta > 0.7 - 0.9$, covers the regions of large mixing angle solutions of the solar neutrino problem: ``just-so" and, partly, MSW, as well as part of region of $\nu_{e} - \nu_{\mu}$ oscillation space which could be responsible for the atmospheric muon neutrino deficit. These limits are sensitive to the predicted neutrino spectrum and can be strengthened as supernova models improve.Comment: 20 pages, TeX file. For hardcopy with figures contact [email protected]. Institute for Advanced Study number AST 93/1