Route Planning in Transportation Networks

We survey recent advances in algorithms for route planning in transportation networks. For road networks, we show that one can compute driving directions in milliseconds or less even at continental scale. A variety of techniques provide different trade-offs between preprocessing effort, space requirements, and query time. Some algorithms can answer queries in a fraction of a microsecond, while others can deal efficiently with real-time traffic. Journey planning on public transportation systems, although conceptually similar, is a significantly harder problem due to its inherent time-dependent and multicriteria nature. Although exact algorithms are fast enough for interactive queries on metropolitan transit systems, dealing with continent-sized instances requires simplifications or heavy preprocessing. The multimodal route planning problem, which seeks journeys combining schedule-based transportation (buses, trains) with unrestricted modes (walking, driving), is even harder, relying on approximate solutions even for metropolitan inputs.Comment: This is an updated version of the technical report MSR-TR-2014-4, previously published by Microsoft Research. This work was mostly done while the authors Daniel Delling, Andrew Goldberg, and Renato F. Werneck were at Microsoft Research Silicon Valle

Computability and analysis: the legacy of Alan Turing

We discuss the legacy of Alan Turing and his impact on computability and analysis.Comment: 49 page

Towards a Notion of Distributed Time for Petri Nets

We set the ground for research on a timed extension of Petri nets where time parameters are associated with tokens and arcs carry constraints that qualify the age of tokens required for enabling. The novelty is that, rather than a single global clock, we use a set of unrelated clocks --- possibly one per place --- allowing a local timing as well as distributed time synchronisation. We give a formal definition of the model and investigate properties of local versus global timing, including decidability issues and notions of processes of the respective models

Monte Carlo simulation of recrystallization

A Monte Carlo computer simulation technique, in which a continuum system is modeled employing a discrete lattice, has been applied to the problem of recrystallization. Primary recrystallization is modeled under conditions where the degree of stored energy is varied and nucleation occurs homogeneously (without regard for position in the microstructure). The nucleation rate is chosen as site saturated. Temporal evolution of the simulated microstructures is analyzed to provide the time dependence of the recrystallized volume fraction and grain sizes. The recrystallized volume fraction shows sigmoidal variations with time. The data are approximately fit by the Johnson-Mehl-Avrami equation with the expected exponents, however significant deviations are observed for both small and large recrystallized volume fractions. Under constant rate nucleation conditions, the propensity for irregular grain shapes is decreased and the density of two sided grains increases

Ultraslow Wave Nuclear Burning of Uranium-Plutonium Fissile Medium on Epithermal Neutrons

For a fissile medium, originally consisting of uranium-238, the investigation of fulfillment of the wave burning criterion in a wide range of neutron energies is conducted for the first time, and a possibility of wave nuclear burning not only in the region of fast neutrons, but also for cold, epithermal and resonance ones is discovered for the first time. For the first time the results of the investigation of the Feoktistov criterion fulfillment for a fissile medium, originally consisting of uranium-238 dioxide with enrichments 4.38%, 2.00%, 1.00%, 0.71% and 0.50% with respect to uranium-235, in the region of neutron energies 0.015-10.0eV are presented. These results indicate a possibility of ultraslow wave neutron-nuclear burning mode realization in the uranium-plutonium media, originally (before the wave initiation by external neutron source) having enrichments with respect to uranium-235, corresponding to the subcritical state, in the regions of cold, thermal, epithermal and resonance neutrons. In order to validate the conclusions, based on the slow wave neutron-nuclear burning criterion fulfillment depending on the neutron energy, the numerical modeling of ultraslow wave neutron-nuclear burning of a natural uranium in the epithermal region of neutron energies (0.1-7.0eV) was conducted for the first time. The presented simulated results indicate the realization of the ultraslow wave neutron-nuclear burning of the natural uranium for the epithermal neutrons.Comment: 35 pages, 19 figures (v2: Fig12 and some misprints in the text are fixed

Immunotronics - novel finite-state-machine architectures with built-in self-test using self-nonself differentiation

A novel approach to hardware fault tolerance is demonstrated that takes inspiration from the human immune system as a method of fault detection. The human immune system is a remarkable system of interacting cells and organs that protect the body from invasion and maintains reliable operation even in the presence of invading bacteria or viruses. This paper seeks to address the field of electronic hardware fault tolerance from an immunological perspective with the aim of showing how novel methods based upon the operation of the immune system can both complement and create new approaches to the development of fault detection mechanisms for reliable hardware systems. In particular, it is shown that by use of partial matching, as prevalent in biological systems, high fault coverage can be achieved with the added advantage of reducing memory requirements. The development of a generic finite-state-machine immunization procedure is discussed that allows any system that can be represented in such a manner to be "immunized" against the occurrence of faulty operation. This is demonstrated by the creation of an immunized decade counter that can detect the presence of faults in real tim

Evolutionary biology for the 21st century

New theoretical and conceptual frameworks are required for evolutionary biology to capitalize on the wealth of data now becoming available from the study of genomes, phenotypes, and organisms - including humans - in their natural environments.Molecular and Cellular BiologyOrganismic and Evolutionary Biolog