2,194 research outputs found
Hydrology of Southwestern Connecticut
Guidebook for field trips in Connecticut: New England Intercollegiate Geological Conference 60th annual meeting, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, October 25-27, 1968: Trip B-
Goodness-of-fit tests of Gaussianity: constraints on the cumulants of the MAXIMA data
In this work, goodness-of-fit tests are adapted and applied to CMB maps to
detect possible non-Gaussianity. We use Shapiro-Francia test and two Smooth
goodness-of-fit tests: one developed by Rayner and Best and another one
developed by Thomas and Pierce. The Smooth tests test small and smooth
deviations of a prefixed probability function (in our case this is the
univariate Gaussian). Also, the Rayner and Best test informs us of the kind of
non-Gaussianity we have: excess of skewness, of kurtosis, and so on. These
tests are optimal when the data are independent. We simulate and analyse
non-Gaussian signals in order to study the power of these tests. These
non-Gaussian simulations are constructed using the Edgeworth expansion, and
assuming pixel-to-pixel independence. As an application, we test the
Gaussianity of the MAXIMA data. Results indicate that the MAXIMA data are
compatible with Gaussianity. Finally, the values of the skewness and kurtosis
of MAXIMA data are constrained by |S| \le 0.035 and |K| \le 0.036 at the 99%
confidence level.Comment: New Astronomy Reviews, in pres
Goodness-of-Fit Tests to study the Gaussianity of the MAXIMA data
Goodness-of-Fit tests, including Smooth ones, are introduced and applied to
detect non-Gaussianity in Cosmic Microwave Background simulations. We study the
power of three different tests: the Shapiro-Francia test (1972), the
uncategorised smooth test developed by Rayner and Best(1990) and the Neyman's
Smooth Goodness-of-fit test for composite hypotheses (Thomas and Pierce 1979).
The Smooth Goodness-of-Fit tests are designed to be sensitive to the presence
of ``smooth'' deviations from a given distribution. We study the power of these
tests based on the discrimination between Gaussian and non-Gaussian
simulations. Non-Gaussian cases are simulated using the Edgeworth expansion and
assuming pixel-to-pixel independence. Results show these tests behave similarly
and are more powerful than tests directly based on cumulants of order 3, 4, 5
and 6. We have applied these tests to the released MAXIMA data. The applied
tests are built to be powerful against detecting deviations from univariate
Gaussianity. The Cholesky matrix corresponding to signal (based on an assumed
cosmological model) plus noise is used to decorrelate the observations previous
to the analysis. Results indicate that the MAXIMA data are compatible with
Gaussianity.Comment: MNRAS, in pres
Minimal model for aeolian sand dunes
We present a minimal model for the formation and migration of aeolian sand
dunes. It combines a perturbative description of the turbulent wind velocity
field above the dune with a continuum saltation model that allows for
saturation transients in the sand flux. The latter are shown to provide the
characteristic length scale. The model can explain the origin of important
features of dunes, such as the formation of a slip face, the broken scale
invariance, and the existence of a minimum dune size. It also predicts the
longitudinal shape and aspect ratio of dunes and heaps, their migration
velocity and shape relaxation dynamics. Although the minimal model employs
non-local expressions for the wind shear stress as well as for the sand flux,
it is simple enough to serve as a very efficient tool for analytical and
numerical investigations and to open up the way to simulations of large scale
desert topographies.Comment: 19 pages, 22 figure
"Dark energy" in the Local Void
The unexpected discovery of the accelerated cosmic expansion in 1998 has
filled the Universe with the embarrassing presence of an unidentified "dark
energy", or cosmological constant, devoid of any physical meaning. While this
standard cosmology seems to work well at the global level, improved knowledge
of the kinematics and other properties of our extragalactic neighborhood
indicates the need for a better theory. We investigate whether the recently
suggested repulsive-gravity scenario can account for some of the features that
are unexplained by the standard model. Through simple dynamical considerations,
we find that the Local Void could host an amount of antimatter
() roughly equivalent to the mass of a typical
supercluster, thus restoring the matter-antimatter symmetry. The antigravity
field produced by this "dark repulsor" can explain the anomalous motion of the
Local Sheet away from the Local Void, as well as several other properties of
nearby galaxies that seem to require void evacuation and structure formation
much faster than expected from the standard model. At the global cosmological
level, gravitational repulsion from antimatter hidden in voids can provide more
than enough potential energy to drive both the cosmic expansion and its
acceleration, with no need for an initial "explosion" and dark energy.
Moreover, the discrete distribution of these dark repulsors, in contrast to the
uniformly permeating dark energy, can also explain dark flows and other
recently observed excessive inhomogeneities and anisotropies of the Universe.Comment: 6 pages, accepted as a Letter to the Editor by Astrophysics and Space
Scienc
Structural identifiability analyses of candidate models for in vitro Pitavastatin hepatic uptake
In this paper a review of the application of four different techniques (a version of the similarity transformation approach for autonomous uncontrolled systems, a non-differential input/output observable normal form approach, the characteristic set differential algebra and a recent algebraic input/output relationship approach) to determine the structural identifiability of certain in vitro nonlinear pharmacokinetic models is provided. The Organic Anion Transporting Polypeptide (OATP) substrate, Pitavastatin, is used as a probe on freshly isolated animal and human hepatocytes. Candidate pharmacokinetic non-linear compartmental models have been derived to characterise the uptake process of Pitavastatin. As a prerequisite to parameter estimation, structural identifiability analyses are performed to establish that all unknown parameters can be identified from the experimental observations available
Dual Vortex Theory of Strongly Interacting Electrons: Non-Fermi Liquid to the (Hard) Core
As discovered in the quantum Hall effect, a very effective way for
strongly-repulsive electrons to minimize their potential energy is to aquire
non-zero relative angular momentum. We pursue this mechanism for interacting
two-dimensional electrons in zero magnetic field, by employing a representation
of the electrons as composite bosons interacting with a Chern-Simons gauge
field. This enables us to construct a dual description in which the fundamental
constituents are vortices in the auxiliary boson fields. The resulting
formalism embraces a cornucopia of possible phases. Remarkably,
superconductivity is a generic feature, while the Fermi liquid is not --
prompting us to conjecture that such a state may not be possible when the
interactions are sufficiently strong. Many aspects of our earlier discussions
of the nodal liquid and spin-charge separation find surprising incarnations in
this new framework.Comment: Modified dicussion of the hard-core model, correcting several
mistake
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