2024
Authors
Xuan, JW; Mérand, A; Thompson, W; Zhang, Y; Lacour, S; Blakely, D; Mawet, D; Oppenheimer, R; Kammerer, J; Batygin, K; Sanghi, A; Wang, J; Ruffio, JB; Liu, MC; Knutson, H; Brandner, W; Burgasser, A; Rickman, E; Bowens-Rubin, R; Salama, M; Balmer, W; Blunt, S; Bourdarot, G; Caselli, P; Chauvin, G; Davies, R; Drescher, A; Eckart, A; Eisenhauer, F; Fabricius, M; Feuchtgruber, H; Finger, G; Schreiber, NMF; Garcia, P; Genzel, R; Gillessen, S; Grant, S; Hartl, M; Haussmann, F; Henning, T; Hinkley, S; Hönig, SF; Horrobin, M; Houllé, M; Janson, M; Kervella, P; Kral, Q; Kreidberg, L; Le Bouquin, JB; Lutz, D; Mang, F; Marleau, GD; Millour, F; More, N; Nowak, M; Ott, T; Otten, G; Paumard, T; Rabien, S; Rau, C; Ribeiro, DC; Bordoni, MS; Sauter, J; Shangguan, J; Shimizu, TT; Sykes, C; Soulain, A; Spezzano, S; Straubmeier, C; Stolker, T; Sturm, E; Subroweit, M; Tacconi, LJ; van Dishoeck, EF; Vigan, A; Widmann, F; Wieprecht, E; Winterhalder, TO; Woillez, J;
Publication
NATURE
Abstract
Owing to their similarities with giant exoplanets, brown dwarf companions of stars provide insights into the fundamental processes of planet formation and evolution. From their orbits, several brown dwarf companions are found to be more massive than theoretical predictions given their luminosities and the ages of their host stars1-3. Either the theory is incomplete or these objects are not single entities. For example, they could be two brown dwarfs each with a lower mass and intrinsic luminosity1,4. The most problematic example is Gliese 229 B (refs. 5,6), which is at least 2-6 times less luminous than model predictions given its dynamical mass of 71.4 +/- 0.6 Jupiter masses (MJup) (ref. 1). We observed Gliese 229 B with the GRAVITY interferometer and, separately, the CRIRES+ spectrograph at the Very Large Telescope. Both sets of observations independently resolve Gliese 229 B into two components, Gliese 229 Ba and Bb, settling the conflict between theory and observations. The two objects have a flux ratio of 0.47 +/- 0.03 at a wavelength of 2 mu m and masses of 38.1 +/- 1.0 and 34.4 +/- 1.5 MJup, respectively. They orbit each other every 12.1 days with a semimajor axis of 0.042 astronomical units (au). The discovery of Gliese 229 BaBb, each only a few times more massive than the most massive planets, and separated by 16 times the Earth-moon distance, raises new questions about the formation and prevalence of tight binary brown dwarfs around stars. Analysis of the cool brown dwarf Gliese 229 B suggests that it is actually a close binary of two less massive brown dwarfs, explaining its low luminosity and settling the conflict between theoretical predictions and measurements.
2024
Authors
Ribeiro, JEF; Silva, JG; Aguiar, A;
Publication
IEEE ACCESS
Abstract
Domain-specific standards and documents heavily regulate safety-critical systems. One example is the DO-178C standard for aerospace, which guides organizations to achieve system safety and evidence for their certification. Under such regulated contexts, most organizations use traditional development processes, in contrast to the massive adoption of Agile in the software industry. Among other benefits, Agile methods promise faster delivery and better flexibility to address customer needs. Adopting Agile methods and practices are possible in aerospace because the DO-178C standard does not prescribe concrete software development methods. In spite of that, Agile development is not used in DO-178C contexts. To help change that, our research aims to understand whether and how organizations engineering safety-critical software systems for aerospace may benefit from Agile methods and practices. We analyzed the DO-178C standard and confirm that it is compatible with Agile methods. Then, we present a systematic literature mapping of adopting Agile in software development for aerospace, where we identified significant concerns, recurrent issues, and several challenges. Some real industry aerospace projects provided us with important data and the perspective of domain experts about the pros and cons of Agile methods in this context. We conclude by proposing an agenda of research opportunities to improve safety-critical software development towards agility that we consider worthy of further research, application and confirmation in wider contexts.
2024
Authors
Viera, M; Pardo, A; Saraiva, J;
Publication
FUNCTIONAL AND LOGIC PROGRAMMING, FLOPS 2024
Abstract
Tabulation is a well-known technique for improving the efficiency of recursive functions with redundant function calls. A key point in the application of this technique is to identify a suitable representation for the table. In this paper, we propose the use of zippers as tables in the tabulation process. Our approach relies on a generic function zipWithZipper, that makes strong use of lazy evaluation to traverse two zippers in a circular manner. The technique turns out to be particularly efficient when the arguments to recursive calls are closely situated within the function domain. For example, in the case of natural numbers this means function calls on fairly contiguous values. Likewise, when dealing with tree structures, it means functions calls on immediate sub-trees and parent nodes. This results in a concise and efficient zipper-based embedding of attribute grammars.
2024
Authors
Gonçalves, ASR; Alves, C; Graça, SR; Pires, A;
Publication
CLINICAL ORAL INVESTIGATIONS
Abstract
Objectives Space, an extreme environment, poses significant challenges to human physiology, including adverse effects on oral health (e.g., increase of periodontitis prevalence, caries, tooth sensitivity). This study investigates the differences in oral health routines and oral manifestations among analog astronauts during their daily routines and simulated space missions conducted on Earth. Materials and methods This research focused on scientist-astronaut candidates of the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences (IIAS) and analog astronauts from other institutions. The study used a cross-sectional methodology with a descriptive component. A total of 16 participants, comprising individuals aged between 21 and 55 years, were invited to complete an online questionnaire. A comparison was made between the subjects' oral hygiene practices in everyday life (designated as Earth in this research) and their oral hygiene routines during their space analog missions. Results (i) Toothbrushing duration was mostly 1-3 minutes (n = 13; 81.30% on Earth; n = 11; 68.80% on a mission); (ii) time spent was the greatest difficulty in maintaining oral hygiene routine on a mission (n = 9; 53,6%); (iii) There were more experienced oral symptoms on Earth (n = 12; 75%) than on mission (n = 7; 43.80%); (iv) The most frequent frequency of oral check-ups was > 12 months (n = 6; 37,5%); (v) Oral health materials were scarce on the mission (n = 9; 56.30%); (vi) For the majority, personal oral hygiene was classified as good (n = 9; 56.30% on Earth; n = 7; 43.80% on the mission). Conclusion and Clinical relevance This research contributes to increasing knowledge of oral hygiene measures in extreme environments, but further research is needed as this topic remains relatively understudied. This study represents an initial contribution to oral health in analog space missions, aiming to propose guidelines for future missions, including deep space missions and expeditions to extreme environments.
2024
Authors
Ganci, V; Labadie, L; Perraut, K; Wojtczak, A; Kaufhold, J; Benisty, M; Alecian, E; Bourdarot, G; Brandner, W; Garatti, A; Dougados, C; Lopez, RG; Sanchez-Bermudez, J; Soulain, A; Amorim, A; Berger, JP; Caselli, P; Clénet, Y; Drescher, A; Eckart, A; Eisenhauer, F; Fabricius, M; Feuchtgruber, H; Garcia, P; Gendron, E; Genzel, R; Gillessen, S; Grant, S; Heissel, G; Henning, T; Horrobin, M; Jocou, L; Kervella, P; Lacour, S; Lapeyrère, V; Le Bouquin, JB; Léna, P; Lutz, D; Mang, F; Morujao, N; Ott, T; Paumard, T; Perrin, G; Ribeiro, D; Bordoni, MS; Scheithauer, S; Shangguan, J; Shimizu, T; Straubmeier, C; Sturm, E; Tacconi, L; van Dishoeck, E; Vincent, F; Woillez, J;
Publication
ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS
Abstract
Context. Temporal variability in the photometric and spectroscopic properties of protoplanetary disks is common in young stellar objects. However, evidence pointing toward changes in their morphology over short timescales has only been found for a few sources, mainly due to a lack of high-cadence observations at high angular resolution. Understanding this type of variation could be important for our understanding of phenomena related to disk evolution. Aims. We study the morphological variability of the innermost circumstellar environment of HD 98922, focusing on its dust and gas content. Methods. Multi-epoch observations of HD 98922 at milliarcsecond resolution with VLTI/GRAVITY in the K-band at low (R = 20) and high (R = 4000) spectral resolution are combined with VLTI/PIONIER archival data covering a total time span of 11 yr. We interpret the interferometric visibilities and spectral energy distribution with geometrical models and through radiative transfer techniques using the code MCMax. We investigated high-spectral-resolution quantities (visibilities and differential phases) to obtain information on the properties of the HI Brackett-gamma (Br gamma)-line-emitting region. Results. Comparing observations taken with similar (u,v) plane coverage, we find that the squared visibilities do not vary significantly, whereas we find strong variability in the closure phases, suggesting temporal variations in the asymmetric brightness distribution associated to the disk. Our observations are best fitted by a model of a crescent-like asymmetric dust feature located at similar to 1 au and accounting for similar to 70 % of the near-infrared (NIR) emission. The feature has an almost constant magnitude and orbits the central star with a possible sub-Keplerian period of similar to 12 months, although a 9 month period is another, albeit less probable, solution. The radiative transfer models show that the emission originates from a small amount of carbon-rich (25%) silicates, or quantum-heated particles located in a low-density region. Among different possible scenarios, we favor hydrodynamical instabilities in the inner disk that can create a large vortex. The high spectral resolution differential phases in the Br gamma line show that the hot-gas compact component is offset from the star and in some cases is located between the star and the crescent feature. The scale of the emission does not favor magnetospheric accretion as a driving mechanism. The scenario of an asymmetric disk wind or a massive accreting substellar or planetary companion is discussed. Conclusions. With this unique observational data set for HD 98922, we reveal morphological variability in the innermost 2 au of its disk region. This property is possibly common to many other protoplanetary disks, but is not commonly observed due to a lack of high-cadence observation. It is therefore important to pursue this approach with other sources for which an extended dataset with PIONIER, GRAVITY, and possibly MATISSE is available.
2024
Authors
Soares, L; Perez-Herrera, RA; Novais, S; Ferreira, A; Silva, S; Frazao, O;
Publication
PHOTONICS
Abstract
In this study, different configurations based on linear fiber lasers were proposed and experimentally demonstrated to measure the concentration of liquid solutions. Samples of paracetamol liquid solutions with different concentrations, in the range from 52.61 to 201.33 g/kg, were used as a case-study. The optical gain was provided by a commercial bidirectional Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifier (EDFA) and the linear cavity was obtained using two commercial Fiber Bragg Gratings (FBGs). The main difference of each configuration was the coupling ratio of the optical coupler used to extract the system signal. The sensing head corresponded to a Single-Mode Fiber (SMF) tip that worked as an intensity sensor. The results reveal that, despite the optical coupler used (50:50, 60:40, 70:30 or 80:20), all the configurations reached the laser condition, however, the concentration sensing was only possible using a laser drive current near to the threshold value. The configurations using a 70:30 and an 80:20 optical coupler allowed paracetamol concentration measurements with a higher sensitivity of (-3.00 +/- 0.24) pW/(g/kg) to be performed. In terms of resolution, the highest value obtained was 1.75 g/kg, when it was extracted at 20% of the output power to the linear cavity fiber laser configuration.
The access to the final selection minute is only available to applicants.
Please check the confirmation e-mail of your application to obtain the access code.