A method for interactive satellite failure diagnosis: Towards a connectionist solution

Various kinds of processes which allow one to make a diagnosis are analyzed. The analyses then focuses on one of these processes used for satellite failure diagnosis. This process consists of sending the satellite instructions about system status alterations: to mask the effects of one possible component failure or to look for additional abnormal measures. A formal model of this process is given. This model is an extension of a previously defined connectionist model which allows computation of ratios between the likelihoods of observed manifestations according to various diagnostic hypotheses. The expected mean value of these likelihood measures for each possible status of the satellite can be computed in a similar way. Therefore, it is possible to select the most appropriate status according to three different purposes: to confirm an hypothesis, to eliminate an hypothesis, or to choose between two hypotheses. Finally, a first connectionist schema of computation of these expected mean values is given

Segregation during directional melting and its implications on seeded crystal growth: A theoretical analysis

Directional melting of binary systems, as encountered during seeding in melt growth, is analyzed for concurrent compositional changes at the crystal-melt interface. It is shown that steady state conditions cannot normally be reached during seeding and that the growth interface temperature at the initial stages of seeded growth is a function of backmelt conditions. The theoretical treatment is numerically applied to Hg1-xCdXTe and Ga-doped Ge

Gas Transport in Porous Media: Simulations and Experiments on Partially Densified Aerogels

The experimental density dependence of gas (argon and nitrogen) permeability of partially densified silica aerogels in the Knudsen regime is quantitatively accounted for by a computer model. The model simulates both the structure of the sintered material and the random ballistic motion of a point particle inside its voids. The same model is also able to account for the densit y dependence of the specific pore surface as measured from nitrogen adsorption experiments.Comment: RevTex, 11 pages + 5 postscript figures appended using "uufiles". Published in Europhys. Lett. 29, p. 567 (1995

Activation of the phosphosignaling protein CheY. I. Analysis of the phosphorylated conformation by 19F NMR and protein engineering

CheY, the 14-kDa response regulator protein of the Escherichia coli chemotaxis pathway, is activated by phosphorylation of Asp57. In order to probe the structural changes associated with activation, an approach which combines 19F NMR, protein engineering, and the known crystal structure of one conformer has been utilized. This first of two papers examines the effects of Mg(II) binding and phosphorylation on the conformation of CheY. The molecule was selectively labeled at its six phenylalanine positions by incorporation of 4-fluorophenylalanine, which yielded no significant effect on activity. One of these 19F probe positions monitored the vicinity of Lys109, which forms a salt bridge to Asp57 in the apoprotein and has been proposed to act as a structural "switch" in activation. 19F NMR chemical shift studies of the labeled protein revealed that the binding of the cofactor Mg(II) triggered local structural changes in the activation site, but did not perturb the probe of the Lys109 region. The structural changes associated with phosphorylation were then examined, utilizing acetyl phosphate to chemically generate phsopho-CheY during NMR acquisition. Phosphorylation triggered a long-range conformational change extending from the activation site to a cluster of 4 phenylalanine residues at the other end of the molecule. However, phosphorylation did not perturb the probe of Lys109. The observed phosphorylated conformer is proposed to be the first step in the activation of CheY; later steps appear to perturb Lys109, as evidenced in the following paper. Together these results may give insight into the activation of other prokaryotic response regulators

Linear systems with adiabatic fluctuations

We consider a dynamical system subjected to weak but adiabatically slow fluctuations of external origin. Based on the ``adiabatic following'' approximation we carry out an expansion in \alpha/|\mu|, where \alpha is the strength of fluctuations and 1/|\mu| refers to the time scale of evolution of the unperturbed system to obtain a linear differential equation for the average solution. The theory is applied to the problems of a damped harmonic oscillator and diffusion in a turbulent fluid. The result is the realization of `renormalized' diffusion constant or damping constant for the respective problems. The applicability of the method has been critically analyzed.Comment: Plain Latex, no figure, 21 page

Gradient and Amplitude Scattering in Surface-Corrugated Waveguides

We investigate the interplay between amplitude and square-gradient scattering from the rough surfaces in multi-mode waveguides (conducting quantum wires). The main result is that for any (even small in height) roughness the square-gradient terms in the expression for the wave scattering length (electron mean free path) are dominant, provided the correlation length of the surface disorder is small enough. This important effect is missed in existing studies of the surface scattering.Comment: 4 pages, one figur

Manifestation of the Roughness-Square-Gradient Scattering in Surface-Corrugated Waveguides

We study a new mechanism of wave/electron scattering in multi-mode surface-corrugated waveguides/wires. This mechanism is due to specific square-gradient terms in an effective Hamiltonian describing the surface scattering, that were neglected in all previous studies. With a careful analysis of the role of roughness slopes in a surface profile, we show that these terms strongly contribute to the expression for the inverse attenuation length (mean free path), provided the correlation length of corrugations is relatively small. The analytical results are illustrated by numerical data.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure

Bandwidth and Electron Correlation-Tuned Superconductivity in Rb0.8_{0.8}Fe2_{2}(Se1−z_{1-z}Sz_z)2_2

We present a systematic angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy study of the substitution-dependence of the electronic structure of Rb$_{0.8}$Fe$_{2}$(Se$_{1-z}$S$_z$)$_2$ (z = 0, 0.5, 1), where superconductivity is continuously suppressed into a metallic phase. Going from the non-superconducting Rb$_{0.8}$Fe$_{2}$(Se$_{1-z}$S$_z$)$_2$ to superconducting Rb$_{0.8}$Fe$_{2}$Se$_2$, we observe little change of the Fermi surface topology, but a reduction of the overall bandwidth by a factor of 2 as well as an increase of the orbital-dependent renormalization in the $d_{xy}$ orbital. Hence for these heavily electron-doped iron chalcogenides, we have identified electron correlation as explicitly manifested in the quasiparticle bandwidth to be the important tuning parameter for superconductivity, and that moderate correlation is essential to achieving high $T_C$