A New Coupling Potential for the Scattering of Deformed Light Heavy-Ions

This letter introduces a new coupling potential to explain the experimental data over wide energy ranges for a number of systems. Within the coupled-channels formalism, this letter first shows the limitations of the standard coupled-channels theory in the case where one of the nuclei in the reaction is strongly deformed and then, demonstrates that a global solution to the problems of light heavy-ion reactions such as $^{12}$C+$^{12}$C, $^{16}$O+$^{28}$Si and $^{12}$C+$^{24}$Mg can be found using a new second-derivative coupling potential in the coupled-channels formalism. This new approach consistently improves the agreement with the experimental data for the elastic and inelastic scattering data as well as for their excitation functions using constant or slightly energy-dependent parameters.Comment: 4 Pages, 5 Figures, submitted to the Phys. Lett.

A distributed optimization framework for localization and formation control: applications to vision-based measurements

Multiagent systems have been a major area of research for the last 15 years. This interest has been motivated by tasks that can be executed more rapidly in a collaborative manner or that are nearly impossible to carry out otherwise. To be effective, the agents need to have the notion of a common goal shared by the entire network (for instance, a desired formation) and individual control laws to realize the goal. The common goal is typically centralized, in the sense that it involves the state of all the agents at the same time. On the other hand, it is often desirable to have individual control laws that are distributed, in the sense that the desired action of an agent depends only on the measurements and states available at the node and at a small number of neighbors. This is an attractive quality because it implies an overall system that is modular and intrinsically more robust to communication delays and node failures

The Polar Projection – an Alternative Approach for Spatial Analysis

The polar projection presented here results from the need to have a uniform yet fairly simple method for recording the various phenomena and relations pertaining to land development. The contact infrastructure anisotropy and variable population and development density lead to socioeconomic space discontinuities. In the “spherical†model all subareas are characterized by coordinates on some “basic†spherical surface. The basic “air†distance between them can thus be identified directly. However, from the points corresponding to the subareas we can draw the radii of the sphere to represent the concrete connection between two subareas available in this moment by means of a segment connecting the corresponding radii at different distances from the centre of the sphere. Thus connections longer or shorter than the basic distance are to be found on an other sphere than the basic sphere. Accordingly, the degree of connectedness is characterized by the corresponding length of radius to express several alternative connections to employ a spatial or time measure and to state whether the lengthening of the distance is due to a “roundabout†connection or to the low speed parameters etc. It is thus possible to dodge the difficulties which in such cases emerge because of the necessity to employ both types of models – the gravity and the “opportunity†models. In order to simplify things instead of concentric spheres we can use parallel planes, intersected by a bundle of lines. A projection of the developed area can consist of selecting the base surface where the element distribution density matches the “standard†density. Now any deviation from this standard density can be presented as moving the surface towards or further away from the pole. Using this approach to register the socioeconomic space, we can bring all information down to the length of the “projection rayâ€. Many of the tasks pertaining to modeling events and processes require certain arithmetic operations or use of mathematical functions to measure results. This is performed “on the side†without visual “contact†with the area. A twin system, which can serve as the geometrical basis for registering and building certain relations may be involved.

Evaluating the Differences of Gridding Techniques for Digital Elevation Models Generation and Their Influence on the Modeling of Stony Debris Flows Routing: A Case Study From Rovina di Cancia Basin (North-Eastern Italian Alps)

Debris \ufb02ows are among the most hazardous phenomena in mountain areas. To cope with debris \ufb02ow hazard, it is common to delineate the risk-prone areas through routing models. The most important input to debris \ufb02ow routing models are the topographic data, usually in the form of Digital Elevation Models (DEMs). The quality of DEMs depends on the accuracy, density, and spatial distribution of the sampled points; on the characteristics of the surface; and on the applied gridding methodology. Therefore, the choice of the interpolation method affects the realistic representation of the channel and fan morphology, and thus potentially the debris \ufb02ow routing modeling outcomes. In this paper, we initially investigate the performance of common interpolation methods (i.e., linear triangulation, natural neighbor, nearest neighbor, Inverse Distance to a Power, ANUDEM, Radial Basis Functions, and ordinary kriging) in building DEMs with the complex topography of a debris \ufb02ow channel located in the Venetian Dolomites (North-eastern Italian Alps), by using small footprint full- waveform Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) data. The investigation is carried out through a combination of statistical analysis of vertical accuracy, algorithm robustness, and spatial clustering of vertical errors, and multi-criteria shape reliability assessment. After that, we examine the in\ufb02uence of the tested interpolation algorithms on the performance of a Geographic Information System (GIS)-based cell model for simulating stony debris \ufb02ows routing. In detail, we investigate both the correlation between the DEMs heights uncertainty resulting from the gridding procedure and that on the corresponding simulated erosion/deposition depths, both the effect of interpolation algorithms on simulated areas, erosion and deposition volumes, solid-liquid discharges, and channel morphology after the event. The comparison among the tested interpolation methods highlights that the ANUDEM and ordinary kriging algorithms are not suitable for building DEMs with complex topography. Conversely, the linear triangulation, the natural neighbor algorithm, and the thin-plate spline plus tension and completely regularized spline functions ensure the best trade-off among accuracy and shape reliability. Anyway, the evaluation of the effects of gridding techniques on debris \ufb02ow routing modeling reveals that the choice of the interpolation algorithm does not signi\ufb01cantly affect the model outcomes

Path Similarity Analysis: a Method for Quantifying Macromolecular Pathways

Diverse classes of proteins function through large-scale conformational changes; sophisticated enhanced sampling methods have been proposed to generate these macromolecular transition paths. As such paths are curves in a high-dimensional space, they have been difficult to compare quantitatively, a prerequisite to, for instance, assess the quality of different sampling algorithms. The Path Similarity Analysis (PSA) approach alleviates these difficulties by utilizing the full information in 3N-dimensional trajectories in configuration space. PSA employs the Hausdorff or Fr\'echet path metrics---adopted from computational geometry---enabling us to quantify path (dis)similarity, while the new concept of a Hausdorff-pair map permits the extraction of atomic-scale determinants responsible for path differences. Combined with clustering techniques, PSA facilitates the comparison of many paths, including collections of transition ensembles. We use the closed-to-open transition of the enzyme adenylate kinase (AdK)---a commonly used testbed for the assessment enhanced sampling algorithms---to examine multiple microsecond equilibrium molecular dynamics (MD) transitions of AdK in its substrate-free form alongside transition ensembles from the MD-based dynamic importance sampling (DIMS-MD) and targeted MD (TMD) methods, and a geometrical targeting algorithm (FRODA). A Hausdorff pairs analysis of these ensembles revealed, for instance, that differences in DIMS-MD and FRODA paths were mediated by a set of conserved salt bridges whose charge-charge interactions are fully modeled in DIMS-MD but not in FRODA. We also demonstrate how existing trajectory analysis methods relying on pre-defined collective variables, such as native contacts or geometric quantities, can be used synergistically with PSA, as well as the application of PSA to more complex systems such as membrane transporter proteins.Comment: 9 figures, 3 tables in the main manuscript; supplementary information includes 7 texts (S1 Text - S7 Text) and 11 figures (S1 Fig - S11 Fig) (also available from journal site

Local order and orientational correlations in liquid and crystalline phases of carbon tetrabromide from neutron powder diffraction measurements

The liquid, plastic crystalline and ordered crystalline phases of CBr$_4$ were studied using neutron powder diffraction. The measured total scattering differential cross-sections were modelled by Reverse Monte Carlo simulation techniques (RMC++ and RMCPOW). Following successful simulations, the single crystal diffraction pattern of the plastic phase, as well as partial radial distribution functions and orientational correlations for all the three phases have been calculated from the atomic coordinates ('particle configurations'). The single crystal pattern, calculated from a configuration that had been obtained from modelling the powder pattern, shows identical behavior to the recent single crystal data of Folmer et al. (Phys. Rev. {\bf B77}, 144205 (2008)). The BrBr partial radial distribution functions of the liquid and plastic crystalline phases are almost the same, while CC correlations clearly display long range ordering in the latter phase. Orientational correlations also suggest strong similarities between liquid and plastic crystalline phases, whereas the monoclinic phase behaves very differently. Orientations of the molecules are distinct in the ordered phase, whereas in the plastic crystal their distribution seems to be isotropic.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review B (http://prb.aps.org/