Search results for "Function"
showing 10 items of 14432 documents
Minimal clinically important difference for asthma endpoints: an expert consensus report
2020
Minimal clinically important difference (MCID) can be defined as the smallest change or difference in an outcome measure that is perceived as beneficial and would lead to a change in the patient's medical management.The aim of the current expert consensus report is to provide a “state-of-the-art” review of the currently available literature evidence about MCID for end-points to monitor asthma control, in order to facilitate optimal disease management and identify unmet needs in the field to guide future research.A series of MCID cut-offs are currently available in literature and validated among populations of asthmatic patients, with most of the evidence focusing on outcomes as patient repo…
Cosmological bounds on neutrino statistics
2018
We consider the phenomenological implications of the violation of the Pauli exclusion principle for neutrinos, focusing on cosmological observables such as the spectrum of Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropies, Baryon Acoustic Oscillations and the primordial abundances of light elements. Neutrinos that behave (at least partly) as bosonic particles have a modified equilibrium distribution function that implies a different influence on the evolution of the Universe that, in the case of massive neutrinos, can not be simply parametrized by a change in the effective number of neutrinos. Our results show that, despite the precision of the available cosmological data, only very weak bounds can …
Non-linear evolution of the cosmic neutrino background
2012
We investigate the non-linear evolution of the relic cosmic neutrino background by running large box-size, high resolution N-body simulations which incorporate cold dark matter (CDM) and neutrinos as independent particle species. Our set of simulations explore the properties of neutrinos in a reference Lambda CDM model with total neutrino masses between 0.05-0.60 eV in cold dark matter haloes of mass 10(11) – 10(15) h(-1) M-circle dot, over a redshift range z = 0 – 2. We compute the halo mass function and show that it is reasonably well fitted by the Sheth-Tormen formula, once the neutrino contribution to the total matter is removed. More importantly, we focus on the CDM and neutrino proper…
N-body simulations with generic non-Gaussian initial conditions I: Power Spectrum and halo mass function
2010
We address the issue of setting up generic non-Gaussian initial conditions for N-body simulations. We consider inflationary-motivated primordial non-Gaussianity where the perturbations in the Bardeen potential are given by a dominant Gaussian part plus a non-Gaussian part specified by its bispectrum. The approach we explore here is suitable for any bispectrum, i.e. it does not have to be of the so-called separable or factorizable form. The procedure of generating a non-Gaussian field with a given bispectrum (and a given power spectrum for the Gaussian component) is not univocal, and care must be taken so that higher-order corrections do not leave a too large signature on the power spectrum.…
Gravitational Waves and Gamma-Rays from a Binary Neutron Star Merger: GW170817 and GRB 170817A
2017
On 2017 August 17, the gravitational-wave event GW170817 was observed by the Advanced LIGO and Virgo detectors, and the gamma-ray burst (GRB) GRB 170817A was observed independently by the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor, and the Anticoincidence Shield for the Spectrometer for the International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory. The probability of the near-simultaneous temporal and spatial observation of GRB 170817A and GW170817 occurring by chance is $5.0\times 10^{-8}$. We therefore confirm binary neutron star mergers as a progenitor of short GRBs. The association of GW170817 and GRB 170817A provides new insight into fundamental physics and the origin of short gamma-ray bursts. We use the ob…
Solutions of the Einstein field equations for a bounded and finite discontinuous source, and its generalization: Metric matching conditions and jumpi…
2019
We consider the metrics of the General Relativity, whose energy-momentum tensor has a bounded support where it is continuous except for a finite step across the corresponding boundary surface. As a consequence, the first derivative of the metric across this boundary could perhaps present a finite step too. However, we can assume that the metric is ${\cal C}^1$ class everywhere. In such a case, although the partial second derivatives of the metric exhibit finite (no Dirac $\delta$ functions) discontinuities, the Dirac $\delta$ functions will still appear in the conservation equation of the energy-momentum tensor. As a consequence, strictly speaking, the corresponding metric solutions of the …
Canopy directional emissivity: Comparison between models
2005
Land surface temperature plays an important role in many environmental studies, as for example the estimation of heat fluxes and evapotranspiration. In order to obtain accurate values of land surface temperature, atmospheric, emissivity and angular effects should be corrected. This paper focuses on the analysis of the angular variation of canopy emissivity, which is an important variable that has to be known to correct surface radiances and obtain surface temperatures. Emissivity is also involved in the atmospheric corrections since it appears in the reflected downwelling atmospheric term. For this purpose, five different methods for simulating directional canopy emissivity have been analyz…
High redshift galaxies in the ALHAMBRA survey. II. Strengthening the evidence of bright-end excess in UV luminosity functions at 2.5 <= z<= 4.5 by PD…
2018
Context. Knowing the exact shape of the ultraviolet (UV) luminosity function (LF) of high-redshift galaxies is important to understand the star formation history of the early Universe. However, the uncertainties, especially at the faint and bright ends of the LFs, remain significant. Aims. In this paper, we study the UV LF of redshift z = 2:5 4.5 galaxies in 2.38 deg of ALHAMBRA data with I ≤ 24. Thanks to the large area covered by ALHAMBRA, we particularly constrain the bright end of the LF. We also calculate the cosmic variance and the corresponding bias values for our sample and derive their host dark matter halo masses. Methods.We have used a novel methodology based on redshift and magn…
Direct detection of a break in the teraelectronvolt cosmic-ray spectrum of electrons and positrons
2017
High energy cosmic ray electrons plus positrons (CREs), which lose energy quickly during their propagation, provide an ideal probe of Galactic high-energy processes and may enable the observation of phenomena such as dark-matter particle annihilation or decay. The CRE spectrum has been directly measured up to $\sim 2$ TeV in previous balloon- or space-borne experiments, and indirectly up to $\sim 5$ TeV by ground-based Cherenkov $\gamma$-ray telescope arrays. Evidence for a spectral break in the TeV energy range has been provided by indirect measurements of H.E.S.S., although the results were qualified by sizeable systematic uncertainties. Here we report a direct measurement of CREs in the …
Updating the orbital ephemeris of the dipping source XB 1254-690 and the distance to the source
2017
XB 1254-690 is a dipping low mass X-ray binary system hosting a neutron star and showing type I X-ray bursts. We aim at obtaining more accurate orbital ephemeris and at constraining the orbital period derivative of the system for the first time. In addition, we want to better constrain the distance to the source in order to locate the system in a well defined evolutive scenario. We apply for the first time an orbital timing technique to XB 1254-690, using the arrival times of the dips present in the light curves that have been collected during 26 years of X-ray pointed observations performed from different space missions. We estimate the dip arrival times using a statistical method that wei…