5,799 research outputs found
New insights into pedestrian flow through bottlenecks
Capacity estimation is an important tool for the design and dimensioning of
pedestrian facilities. The literature contains different procedures and
specifications which show considerable differences with respect to the
estimated flow values. Moreover do new experimental data indicate a stepwise
growing of the capacity with the width and thus challenge the validity of the
specific flow concept. To resolve these differences we have studied
experimentally the unidirectional pedestrian flow through bottlenecks under
laboratory conditions. The time development of quantities like individual
velocities, density and individual time gaps in bottlenecks of different width
is presented. The data show a linear growth of the flow with the width. The
comparison of the results with experimental data of other authors indicates
that the basic assumption of the capacity estimation for bottlenecks has to be
revised. In contradiction with most planning guidelines our main result is,
that a jam occurs even if the incoming flow does not overstep the capacity
defined by the maximum of the flow according to the fundamental diagram.Comment: Traffic flow, pedestrian traffic, crowd dynamics, capacity of
bottlenecks (16 pages, 8 figures); (+ 3 new figures and minor revisions
Primordial nucleosynthesis as a probe of fundamental physics parameters
We analyze the effect of variation of fundamental couplings and mass scales
on primordial nucleosynthesis in a systematic way. The first step establishes
the response of primordial element abundances to the variation of a large
number of nuclear physics parameters, including nuclear binding energies. We
find a strong influence of the n-p mass difference (for the 4He abundance), of
the nucleon mass (for deuterium) and of A=3,4,7 binding energies (for 3He, 6Li
and 7Li). A second step relates the nuclear parameters to the parameters of the
Standard Model of particle physics. The deuterium, and, above all, 7Li
abundances depend strongly on the average light quark mass hat{m} \equiv
(m_u+m_d)/2. We calculate the behaviour of abundances when variations of
fundamental parameters obey relations arising from grand unification. We also
discuss the possibility of a substantial shift in the lithium abundance while
the deuterium and 4He abundances are only weakly affected.Comment: v2: 34 pages, 2 figures, typo in last GUT scenario corrected, added
discussion and graph of nonlinear behaviour in GUT scenarios, added short
section discussing binding of dineutron and 8Be, refs added, conclusions
unaltered. Accepted for publication, Phys. Rev.
Computed microtomography visualization and quantification of mouse ischemic brain lesion by nonionic radio contrast agents.
AIM:
To explore the possibility of brain imaging by microcomputed tomography (microCT) using x-ray contrasting methods to visualize mouse brain ischemic lesions after middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO). ----- METHODS:
Isolated brains were immersed in ionic or nonionic radio contrast agent (RCA) for 5 days and subsequently scanned using microCT scanner. To verify whether ex-vivo microCT brain images can be used to characterize ischemic lesions, they were compared to Nissl stained serial histological sections of the same brains. To verify if brains immersed in RCA may be used afterwards for other methods, subsequent immunofluorescent labeling with anti-NeuN was performed. ----- RESULTS:
Nonionic RCA showed better gray to white matter contrast in the brain, and therefore was selected for further studies. MicroCT measurement of ischemic lesion size and cerebral edema significantly correlated with the values determined by Nissl staining (ischemic lesion size: P=0.0005; cerebral edema: P=0.0002). Brain immersion in nonionic RCA did not affect subsequent immunofluorescent analysis and NeuN immunoreactivity. ----- CONCLUSION:
MicroCT method was proven to be suitable for delineation of the ischemic lesion from the non-infarcted tissue, and quantification of lesion volume and cerebral edema
Stability of Localized Wave Fronts in Bistable Systems
Localized wave fronts are a fundamental feature of biological systems from cell biology to ecology. Here, we study a broad class of bistable models subject to self-activation, degradation, and spatially inhomogeneous activating agents. We determine the conditions under which wave-front localization is possible and analyze the stability thereof with respect to extrinsic perturbations and internal noise. It is found that stability is enhanced upon regulating a positional signal and, surprisingly, also for a low degree of binding cooperativity. We further show a contrasting impact of self-activation to the stability of these two sources of destabilization. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.03810
A Linked Data Approach to Sharing Workflows and Workflow Results
A bioinformatics analysis pipeline is often highly elaborate, due to the inherent complexity of biological systems and the variety and size of datasets. A digital equivalent of the ‘Materials and Methods’ section in wet laboratory publications would be highly beneficial to bioinformatics, for evaluating evidence and examining data across related experiments, while introducing the potential to find associated resources and integrate them as data and services. We present initial steps towards preserving bioinformatics ‘materials and methods’ by exploiting the workflow paradigm for capturing the design of a data analysis pipeline, and RDF to link the workflow, its component services, run-time provenance, and a personalized biological interpretation of the results. An example shows the reproduction of the unique graph of an analysis procedure, its results, provenance, and personal interpretation of a text mining experiment. It links data from Taverna, myExperiment.org, BioCatalogue.org, and ConceptWiki.org. The approach is relatively ‘light-weight’ and unobtrusive to bioinformatics users
The Effect of Integrating Travel Time
This contribution demonstrates the potential gain for the quality of results
in a simulation of pedestrians when estimated remaining travel time is
considered as a determining factor for the movement of simulated pedestrians.
This is done twice: once for a force-based model and once for a cellular
automata-based model. The results show that for the (degree of realism of)
simulation results it is more relevant if estimated remaining travel time is
considered or not than which modeling technique is chosen -- here force-based
vs. cellular automata -- which normally is considered to be the most basic
choice of modeling approach.Comment: preprint of Pedestrian and Evacuation 2012 conference (PED2012)
contributio
Synchronization of Sound Sources
Sound generation and -interaction is highly complex, nonlinear and
self-organized. Already 150 years ago Lord Rayleigh raised the following
problem: Two nearby organ pipes of different fundamental frequencies sound
together almost inaudibly with identical pitch. This effect is now understood
qualitatively by modern synchronization theory (M. Abel et al., J. Acoust. Soc.
Am., 119(4), 2006). For a detailed, quantitative investigation, we substituted
one pipe by an electric speaker. We observe that even minute driving signals
force the pipe to synchronization, thus yielding three decades of
synchronization -- the largest range ever measured to our knowledge.
Furthermore, a mutual silencing of the pipe is found, which can be explained by
self-organized oscillations, of use for novel methods of noise abatement.
Finally, we develop a specific nonlinear reconstruction method which yields a
perfect quantitative match of experiment and theory.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Recommended from our members
Association Between Homocysteine and Vascular Calcification Incidence, Prevalence, and Progression in the MESA Cohort.
Background While elevated homocysteine has been associated with calcification in several studies, its importance as a cardiovascular risk factor remains unclear. This study examines the relationship between homocysteine and vascular and valve calcification in the MESA (Multi-ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis) cohort. Methods and Results MESA participants with baseline homocysteine measurements and cardiac computed tomography scans were included (N=6789). Baseline and follow-up assessment of vascular (coronary artery [CAC], descending thoracic aorta [DTAC]) and valve (aortic valve [AVC], mitral annular [MAC]) calcification was performed. Prevalence ratio/relative risk regression was used to assess the relationship of homocysteine with prevalent and incident calcification, and multivariable logistic regression was used to assess associations between homocysteine and calcification progression. Elevated homocysteine was associated with greater relative risk of prevalent and incident CAC and incident DTAC. We also identified a strong association between elevated homocysteine and CAC and DTAC progression. Elevated homocysteine was found to confer a >2-fold increased risk of severe CAC progression (defined as ΔCAC ≥100/year) and an ≈1.5-fold increased risk for severe DTAC progression (defined as ΔDTAC ≥100/year). Conclusions To our knowledge, this is the first study demonstrating an association between elevated homocysteine and both incidence and progression of coronary and extra-coronary vascular calcification. Our findings suggest a potential role for elevated homocysteine as a risk factor for severe vascular calcification progression. Future studies are warranted to further assess the utility of homocysteine as a biomarker for vascular calcification incidence and progression. Clinical Trial Registration https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/. Unique identifier: NCT00005487
- …