Shear viscosity, instability and the upper bound of the Gauss-Bonnet coupling constant

We compute the dimensionality dependence of $\eta/s$ for charged black branes with Gauss-Bonnet correction. We find that both causality and stability constrain the value of Gauss-Bonnet coupling constant to be bounded by 1/4 in the infinite dimensionality limit. We further show that higher dimensionality stabilize the gravitational perturbation. The stabilization of the perturbation in higher dimensional space-time is a straightforward consequence of the Gauss-Bonnet coupling constant bound.Comment: 16 pages,3 figures+3 tables,typos corrected, published versio

Novel characterization method of impedance cardiography signals using time-frequency distributions

The purpose of this document is to describe a methodology to select the most adequate time-frequency distribution (TFD) kernel for the characterization of impedance cardiography signals (ICG). The predominant ICG beat was extracted from a patient and was synthetized using time-frequency variant Fourier approximations. These synthetized signals were used to optimize several TFD kernels according to a performance maximization. The optimized kernels were tested for noise resistance on a clinical database. The resulting optimized TFD kernels are presented with their performance calculated using newly proposed methods. The procedure explained in this work showcases a new method to select an appropriate kernel for ICG signals and compares the performance of different time-frequency kernels found in the literature for the case of ICG signals. We conclude that, for ICG signals, the performance (P) of the spectrogram with either Hanning or Hamming windows (P¿=¿0.780) and the extended modified beta distribution (P¿=¿0.765) provided similar results, higher than the rest of analyzed kernels.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Development of a prototype robot and fast path-planning algorithm for static laser weeding

To demonstrate the feasibility and improve the implementation of laser weeding, a prototype robot was built and equipped with machine vision and gimbal mounted laser pointers. The robot consisted of a mobile platform modified from a small commercial quad bike, a camera to detect the crop and weeds and two steerable gimbals controlling the laser pointers. Visible-one laser pointers were used to simulate the powerful laser trajectories. A colour segmentation algorithm was utilised to extract plants from the soil background; size estimation was used to differentiate crop from weeds; and an erosion and dilation algorithm was developed to separate objects that were touching. Conversely, another algorithm, which utilised shape descriptors, was able to distinguish plant species in non-touching status regardless of area difference. Next, in order to reduce route length and run time, a new path-planning algorithm for static weeding was proposed and tested. It was demonstrated to be more efficient especially when addressing a higher density of weeds. A model was then established to determine the optimal segmentation size, based on the route length for treatment. It was found that the segmentation algorithm has the potential to be widely used in fast path-planning for the travelling-salesman problem. Finally, performance tests in the indoor environments showed that the weeding mean positional error was 1.97 mm, with a 0.88 mm standard deviation. Another test indicated that with a laser traversal speed of 30 mm/s and a dwell time of 0.64 s per weed, it had a hit rate of 97%

Learning Temporal Transformations From Time-Lapse Videos

Based on life-long observations of physical, chemical, and biologic phenomena in the natural world, humans can often easily picture in their minds what an object will look like in the future. But, what about computers? In this paper, we learn computational models of object transformations from time-lapse videos. In particular, we explore the use of generative models to create depictions of objects at future times. These models explore several different prediction tasks: generating a future state given a single depiction of an object, generating a future state given two depictions of an object at different times, and generating future states recursively in a recurrent framework. We provide both qualitative and quantitative evaluations of the generated results, and also conduct a human evaluation to compare variations of our models.Comment: ECCV201

Experimental study on a small-scale R245fa organic Rankine cycle system for low-grade thermal energy recovery

This work conducted an experimental investigation of a small-scale organic Rankine cycle (ORC) system at designed operating and control conditions for low-grade thermal energy recovery application. In the ORC system, R245fa was selected as working fluid while a turboexpander (turbine) with a high speed and permanent magnet synchronous electricity generator was installed to produce electric power and two-plate type heat exchangers were designed as an evaporator and condenser. The effects of condenser cooling water temperatures and R245fa superheat at the turbine inlet on the system performance were measured and analyzed. Practically, to ensure safe operation of the ORC expander, the R245fa superheat at the expander inlet is controlled to remain constant. The experimental results showed that at constant heat source parameters (temperature and flow rate), the turboexpander power output and cycle efficiency increased with lower cooling water temperatures. Under the specified test condition ranges, the maximum turboexpander power generation could achieve 5.405 kW when the cooling water temperature and the pressure ratio were set at 23.0°C and 7.3 respectively. On the other hand, at certain cooling water temperatures, the superheat at the expander inlet exerted a negative impact on the turboexpander and system performances when the evaporating pressure was kept constant. Ultimately, the superheat was found to be an important control parameter to ensure efficient and safe system operation

Nucleon Spin in QCD: Old Crisis and New Resolution

We discuss the shortfalls of existing resolutions of the long-standing gauge invariance problem of the canonical decomposition of the nucleon spin to the spin and angular momentum of quarks and gluons. We provide two logically flawless expressions of nucleon spin which have different physical meanings, using the gauge independent Abelian decomposition. The first one is based on the assumption that all gluons (binding and valence gluons) contribute to the nucleon spin, but the second one is based on the assumption that only the binding gluons (and the quarks) contribute to it. We propose the second expression to be the physically correct one

Evaluation of global EMEP MSC-W (rv4.34)-WRF (v3.9.1.1) model surface concentrations and wet deposition of reactive N and S with measurements

Atmospheric pollution has many profound effects on human health, ecosystems, and the climate. Of concern are high concentrations and deposition of reactive nitrogen (Nr) species, especially of reduced N (gaseous NH3, particulate NH4+). Atmospheric chemistry and transport models (ACTMs) are crucial to understanding sources and impacts of Nr chemistry and its potential mitigation. Here we undertake the first evaluation of the global version of the EMEP MSC-W ACTM driven by WRF meteorology (1∘×1∘ resolution), with a focus on surface concentrations and wet deposition of N and S species relevant to investigation of atmospheric Nr and secondary inorganic aerosol (SIA). The model–measurement comparison is conducted both spatially and temporally, covering 10 monitoring networks worldwide. Model simulations for 2010 compared use of both HTAP and ECLIPSEE (ECLIPSE annual total with EDGAR monthly profile) emissions inventories; those for 2015 used ECLIPSEE only. Simulations of primary pollutants are somewhat sensitive to the choice of inventory in places where regional differences in primary emissions between the two inventories are apparent (e.g. China) but are much less sensitive for secondary components. For example, the difference in modelled global annual mean surface NH3 concentration using the two 2010 inventories is 18 % (HTAP: 0.26 µg m−3; ECLIPSEE: 0.31 µg m−3) but is only 3.5 % for NH4+ (HTAP: 0.316 µg m−3; ECLIPSEE: 0.305 µg m−3). Comparisons of 2010 and 2015 surface concentrations between the model and measurements demonstrate that the model captures the overall spatial and seasonal variations well for the major inorganic pollutants NH3, NO2, SO2, HNO3, NH4+, NO3−, and SO42− and their wet deposition in East Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe, and North America. The model shows better correlations with annual average measurements for networks in Southeast Asia (mean R for seven species: R7¯¯¯¯=0.73), Europe (R7¯¯¯¯=0.67), and North America (R7¯¯¯¯=0.63) than in East Asia (R5¯¯¯¯=0.35) (data for 2015), which suggests potential issues with the measurements in the latter network. Temporally, both model and measurements agree on higher NH3 concentrations in spring and summer and lower concentrations in winter. The model slightly underestimates annual total precipitation measurements (by 13 %–45 %) but agrees well with the spatial variations in precipitation in all four world regions (0.65–0.94 R range). High correlations between measured and modelled NH4+ precipitation concentrations are also observed in all regions except East Asia. For annual total wet deposition of reduced N, the greatest consistency is in North America (0.75–0.82 R range), followed by Southeast Asia (R=0.68) and Europe (R=0.61). Model–measurement bias varies between species in different networks; for example, bias for NH4+ and NO3− is largest in Europe and North America and smallest in East Asia and Southeast Asia. The greater uniformity in spatial correlations than in biases suggests that the major driver of model–measurement discrepancies (aside from differing spatial representativeness and uncertainties and biases in measurements) are shortcomings in absolute emissions rather than in modelling the atmospheric processes. The comprehensive evaluations presented in this study support the application of this model framework for global analysis of current and potential future budgets and deposition of Nr and SIA