SensX: About Sensing and Assessment of Complex Human Motion

The great success of wearables and smartphone apps for provision of extensive physical workout instructions boosts a whole industry dealing with consumer oriented sensors and sports equipment. But with these opportunities there are also new challenges emerging. The unregulated distribution of instructions about ambitious exercises enables unexperienced users to undertake demanding workouts without professional supervision which may lead to suboptimal training success or even serious injuries. We believe, that automated supervision and realtime feedback during a workout may help to solve these issues. Therefore we introduce four fundamental steps for complex human motion assessment and present SensX, a sensor-based architecture for monitoring, recording, and analyzing complex and multi-dimensional motion chains. We provide the results of our preliminary study encompassing 8 different body weight exercises, 20 participants, and more than 9,220 recorded exercise repetitions. Furthermore, insights into SensXs classification capabilities and the impact of specific sensor configurations onto the analysis process are given.Comment: Published within the Proceedings of 14th IEEE International Conference on Networking, Sensing and Control (ICNSC), May 16th-18th, 2017, Calabria Italy 6 pages, 5 figure

The Evolution of Density Structure of Starless and Protostellar Cores

We present a near-infrared extinction study of nine dense cores at evolutionary stages between starless to Class I. Our results show that the density structure of all but one observed cores can be modeled with a single power law rho \propto r^p between ~ 0.2R-R of the cores. The starless cores in our sample show two different types of density structures, one follows p ~ -1.0 and the other follows p ~ -2.5, while the protostellar cores all have p ~ -2.5. The similarity between the prestellar cores with p ~ -2.5 and protostellar cores implies that those prestellar cores could be evolving towards the protostellar stage. The slope of p ~ -2.5 is steeper than that of an singular isothermal sphere, which may be interpreted with the evolutionary model of cores with finite mass.Comment: 19 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

Density and Temperature Structure of TMC-1C from 450 and 850 micron Maps

We have mapped the central 10'x10' of the dense core TMC-1C at 450 and 850 microns using SCUBA on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. The unusually high quality of the 450 micron map allows us to make a detailed analysis of the temperature and column density profiles of the core. We find that the dust temperature at the center of TMC-1C is 7 K, rising to 11 K at the edges. We discuss the possibility and effects of a variable emissivity spectral index on the derived mass profile. The low dust temperature of TMC-1C results in a high derived mass for the core, significantly larger than the virial mass estimated from the linewidth of the N2H+ (1-0) transition. This result is valid within a wide range of dust properties and ellipticities of the core. The N2H+ (1-0) spectra, taken with the IRAM 30m telescope, show signs of self-absorption, which provide evidence of sub-sonic infall motions. The derived density profile and infall velocity is compared to the predictions of several popular star formation models, and the Bonnor-Ebert model isthe best fit analytic model.Comment: 38 pages, 13 Figures, accepted to Ap

Tracing the Mass during Low-Mass Star Formation. II. Modelling the Submillimeter Emission from Pre-Protostellar Cores

We have modeled the emission from dust in pre-protostellar cores, including a self-consistent calculation of the temperature distribution for each input density distribution. Model density distributions include Bonnor-Ebert spheres and power laws. The Bonnor-Ebert spheres fit the data well for all three cores we have modeled. The dust temperatures decline to very low values (\Td \sim 7 K) in the centers of these cores, strongly affecting the dust emission. Compared to earlier models that assume constant dust temperatures, our models indicate higher central densities and smaller regions of relatively constant density. Indeed, for L1544, a power-law density distribution, similar to that of a singular, isothermal sphere, cannot be ruled out. For the three sources modeled herein, there seems to be a sequence of increasing central condensation, from L1512 to L1689B to L1544. The two denser cores, L1689B and L1544, have spectroscopic evidence for contraction, suggesting an evolutionary sequence for pre-protostellar cores.Comment: 22 pages, 9 figures, Ap. J. accepted, uses emulateapj5.st

Magnetically Controlled Spasmodic Accretion During Star Formation. I. Formulation of the Problem and Method of Solution

We formulate the problem of the late accretion phase of the evolution of an isothermal magnetic disk surrounding a forming star. The evolution is described by the six-fluid MHD equations, accounting for the presence of neutrals, atomic and molecular ions, electrons, and neutral, positively, and negatively charged grains. Only the electron fluid is assumed to be attached to the magnetic field, in order to investigate the effect of the detachment of the ions from the magnetic field lines that begins at densities as low as 10^8 cm^-3. The "central sink approximation" is used to circumvent the problem of describing the evolution inside the opaque central region for densities greater than 10^11 cm^-3. In this way, the structure and evolution of the isothermal disk surrounding the forming star can be studied at late times without having to implement the numerically costly radiative transfer required by the physics of the opaque core. The mass and magnetic flux accumulating in the forming star arecalculated, as are their effects on the structure & evolution of the surrounding disk. The numerical method of solution first uses an adaptive grid and later, after a central region a few AU in radius becomes opaque, switches to a stationary but nonuniform grid with a central sink cell. It also involves an implicit time integrator, an advective difference scheme that possesses the transportive property, a second-order difference approximation of forces inside a cell, an integral approximation of the gravitational and magnetic fields, and tensor artificial viscosity that permits an accurate investigation of the formation and evolution of shocks in the neutral fluid.Comment: Astrophysical Journal, in press. 32 page

Ermittlung des Verbrauchs biogener Festbrennstoffe im Sektor Gewerbe,Handel, Dienstleistungen (GHD-Sektor)

Die Politik hat sich sowohl auf nationaler als auch auf europäischer Ebene ambitionierte Ziele zum Ausbau erneuerbarer Energien und zur Minderung der Treibhausgasemissionen gesetzt. Im Nationalen Aktionsplan für Erneuerbare Energien der Bundesrepublik Deutschland sind diese Ziele bis zum Jahr 2020 definiert. Der Anteil erneuerbarer Energien bei der Bereitstellung von Wärme und Kälte soll demnach von 6,6 % auf 15,5 % des Bruttoendenergieverbrauches steigen. Entsprechend der zunehmenden Bedeutung der solarthermischen, oberflächennahen und geothermischen Wärme wird der relative Anteil der Biomasse abnehmen. Mit den im Nationalen Aktionsplan aufgeführten 79 % leistet sie dennoch einen essentiellen Betrag im regenerativen Wärmemarkt [BMU 2010]. [... aus der Einleitung

Invasion thresholds and the evolution of nonequilibrium virulence

The enterprise of virulence management attempts to predict how social practices and other factors affect the evolution of parasite virulence. These predictions are often based on parasite optima or evolutionary equilibria derived from models of host-parasite dynamics. Yet even when such models accurately capture the parasite optima, newly invading parasites will typically not be at their optima. Here we show that parasite invasion of a host population can occur despite highly nonoptimal virulence. Fitness improvements soon after invasion may proceed through many steps with wide changes in virulence, because fitness depends on transmission as well as virulence, and transmission improvements can overwhelm nonoptimal virulence. This process is highly sensitive to mutation supply and the strength of selection. Importantly, the same invasion principle applies to the evolution of established parasites, whenever mutants arise that overcome host immunity/resistance. A host population may consequently experience repeated invasions of new parasite variants and possible large shifts in virulence as it evolves in an arms race with the parasite. An experimental study of phage lysis time and examples of mammalian viruses matching some of these characteristics are reviewed

Soft Photon Problem in Leptonic B-decays

We point out at the peculiarity of B --> mu nu decay, namely the enhancement of the soft photon events which originate from the structure dependent part of the B --> mu nu gamma amplitude. This may be a dominant source of systematic uncertainty and compromise the projected experimental uncertainty on Gamma(B --> mu nu). We show that the effect of these soft photons can be controlled if the experimental cut on identification of soft photons is lowered and especially if the better resolution in identifying the momentum of muon emerging from B --> mu nu, is made. A lattice QCD computation of the relevant form factors would be highly helpful for a better numerical control over the structure dependent soft photon emission.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figure

Resolved images of self-gravitating circumstellar discs with ALMA

In this paper we present simulated observations of massive self-gravitating circumstellar discs using the Atacama Large Millimetre/sub-millimetre Array (ALMA). Using a smoothed particle hydrodynamics model of a $0.2M_{\odot}$ disc orbiting a $1M_{\odot}$ protostar, with a cooling model appropriate for discs at temperatures below $\sim 160$K and representative dust opacities, we have constructed maps of the expected emission at sub-mm wavelengths. We have then used the CASA ALMA simulator to generate simulated images and visibilities with various array configurations and observation frequencies, taking into account the expected thermal noise and atmospheric opacities. We find that at 345 GHz (870 $\mu$m) spiral structures at a resolution of a few AU should be readily detectable in approximately face-on discs out to distances of the Taurus-Auriga star-forming complex.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, accepted to MNRAS. Figure quality degraded. Full paper with higher quality figures available at http://www2.fisica.unimi.it/lodato/CossinsLodatoTesti1.pd