On the sources of the late integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect

In some scenarios, the peculiar gravitational potential of linear and mildly nonlinear structures depends on time and, as a result of this dependence, a late integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect appears. Here, an appropriate formalism is used which allows us to improve on the analysis of the spatial scales and locations of the main cosmological inhomogeneities producing this effect. The study is performed in the framework of the currently preferred flat model with cosmological constant, and it is also developed in an open model for comparisons. Results from this analysis are used to discuss the contribution of Great Attractor-like objects, voids, and other structures to the CMB anisotropy.Comment: 25 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in New Astronom

Galaxy clusters and microwave background anisotropy

Previous estimates of the microwave background anisotropies produced by freely falling spherical clusters are discussed. These estimates are based on the Swiss-Cheese and Tolman-Bondi models. It is proved that these models give only upper limits to the anisotropies produced by the observed galaxy clusters. By using spherically symmetric codes including pressureless matter and a hot baryonic gas, new upper limits are obtained. The contributions of the hot gas and the pressureless component to the total anisotropy are compared. The effects produced by the pressure are proved to be negligible; hence, estimations of the cluster anisotropies based on N-body simulations are hereafter justified. After the phenomenon of violent relaxation, any realistic rich cluster can only produce small anisotropies with amplitudes of order $10^{-7}$. During the rapid process of violent relaxation, the anisotropies produced by nonlinear clusters are expected to range in the interval $(10^{-6},10^{-5})$. The angular scales of these anisotropies are discussed.Comment: 31 pages, 3 postscript figures, accepted MNRA

Learning from observations of the microwave background at small angular scales

In this paper, we focus our attention on the following question: How well can we recover the power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background from the maps of a given experiment?. Each experiment is described by a a pixelization scale, a beam size, a noise level and a sky coverage. We use accurate numerical simulations of the microwave sky and a cold dark matter model for structure formation in the universe. Angular scales smaller than those of previous simulations are included. The spectrum obtained from the simulated maps is appropriately compared with the theoretical one. Relative deviations between these spectra are estimated. Various contributions to these deviations are analyzed. The method used for spectra comparisons is discussed.Comment: 15 pages (LATEX), 2 postcript figures, accepted in Ap

GraFIX: a semiautomatic approach for parsing low- and high-quality eye-tracking data

Fixation durations (FD) have been used widely as a measurement of information processing and attention. However, issues like data quality can seriously influence the accuracy of the fixation detection methods and, thus, affect the validity of our results (Holmqvist, Nyström, & Mulvey, 2012). This is crucial when studying special populations such as infants, where common issues with testing (e.g., high degree of movement, unreliable eye detection, low spatial precision) result in highly variable data quality and render existing FD detection approaches highly time consuming (hand-coding) or imprecise (automatic detection). To address this problem, we present GraFIX, a novel semiautomatic method consisting of a two-step process in which eye-tracking data is initially parsed by using velocity-based algorithms whose input parameters are adapted by the user and then manipulated using the graphical interface, allowing accurate and rapid adjustments of the algorithms’ outcome. The present algorithms (1) smooth the raw data, (2) interpolate missing data points, and (3) apply a number of criteria to automatically evaluate and remove artifactual fixations. The input parameters (e.g., velocity threshold, interpolation latency) can be easily manually adapted to fit each participant. Furthermore, the present application includes visualization tools that facilitate the manual coding of fixations. We assessed this method by performing an intercoder reliability analysis in two groups of infants presenting low- and high-quality data and compared it with previous methods. Results revealed that our two-step approach with adaptable FD detection criteria gives rise to more reliable and stable measures in low- and high-quality data

CFD modelling of post-combustion carbon capture with amine solutions in structured packing columns

The scope of the present thesis is the development of a Computational Fluid Dynamics model to describe the multiphase flow inside a structured packing absorber for postcombustion carbon capture. The work focuses mainly on two flow characteristics: the interface tracking and the reactive mass transfer between the gas and the liquid. The interface tracking brings the possibility of studying the liquid maldistribution phenomenon, which strongly affects the mass transfer performance. The development of a user-defined function to account for the reactive mass transfer between phases constitutes the second major concept considered in this thesis. Numerical models found in the literature are divided into three scales due to the current computational capacity: small-, meso- and large-scale. Small-scale has usually dealt with interface tracking in 2D computational domains. Meso-scale has usually been considered to assess the dry pressure drop performance of the packing (considering only the gas phase). Large-scale studies the liquid distribution over the whole column assuming that the structured packing behaves as a porous medium. This thesis focuses on small- and meso-scale. The novelty of this work lies in expanding the capabilities of the aforementioned scales. At small-scale, the interfacial tracking is implemented in a 3D domain, instead of 2D. The user-defined function that describes the reactive mass transfer of CO2 into the aqueous MEA solution is also included to assess the influence of the liquid maldistribution on the mass transfer performance. At the meso-scale, the Volume of Fluid method for interface tracking is included (instead of only the gas phase) to describe flow characteristics such as the liquid hold-up, the interfacial area and the mass transfer. At the theoretical level, this model presents the particularity of including both a mass and a momentum source term in the conservation equations. A comprehensive mathematical development shows the influence of the mass source terms on the momentum equation

Logic Integer Programming Models for Signaling Networks

We propose a static and a dynamic approach to model biological signaling networks, and show how each can be used to answer relevant biological questions. For this we use the two different mathematical tools of Propositional Logic and Integer Programming. The power of discrete mathematics for handling qualitative as well as quantitative data has so far not been exploited in Molecular Biology, which is mostly driven by experimental research, relying on first-order or statistical models. The arising logic statements and integer programs are analyzed and can be solved with standard software. For a restricted class of problems the logic models reduce to a polynomial-time solvable satisfiability algorithm. Additionally, a more dynamic model enables enumeration of possible time resolutions in poly-logarithmic time. Computational experiments are included