21,997 research outputs found
EACOF: A Framework for Providing Energy Transparency to enable Energy-Aware Software Development
Making energy consumption data accessible to software developers is an
essential step towards energy efficient software engineering. The presence of
various different, bespoke and incompatible, methods of instrumentation to
obtain energy readings is currently limiting the widespread use of energy data
in software development. This paper presents EACOF, a modular Energy-Aware
Computing Framework that provides a layer of abstraction between sources of
energy data and the applications that exploit them. EACOF replaces platform
specific instrumentation through two APIs - one accepts input to the framework
while the other provides access to application software. This allows developers
to profile their code for energy consumption in an easy and portable manner
using simple API calls. We outline the design of our framework and provide
details of the API functionality. In a use case, where we investigate the
impact of data bit width on the energy consumption of various sorting
algorithms, we demonstrate that the data obtained using EACOF provides
interesting, sometimes counter-intuitive, insights. All the code is available
online under an open source license. http://github.com/eaco
The role of binaries in the enrichment of the early Galactic halo. I. r-process-enhanced metal-poor stars
The detailed chemical composition of most metal-poor halo stars has been
found to be highly uniform, but a minority of stars exhibit dramatic
enhancements in their abundances of heavy neutron-capture elements and/or of
carbon. The key question for Galactic chemical evolution models is whether
these peculiarities reflect the composition of the natal clouds, or if they are
due to later mass transfer of processed material from a binary companion. If
the former case applies, the observed excess of certain elements was implanted
within selected clouds in the early ISM from a production site at interstellar
distances. Our aim is to determine the frequency and orbital properties of
binaries among these chemically peculiar stars. This information provides the
basis for deciding whether mass transfer from a binary companion is necessary
and sufficient to explain their unusual compositions. This paper discusses our
study of a sample of 17 moderately (r-I) and highly (r-II) r-process-element
enhanced VMP and EMP stars. High-resolution, low signal-to-noise spectra of the
stars were obtained at roughly monthly intervals over 8 years with the FIES
spectrograph at the Nordic Optical Telescope. From these spectra, radial
velocities with an accuracy of ~100 m/s were determined by cross-correlation
against an optimized template. 14 of the programme stars exhibit no significant
RV variation over this period, while 3 are binaries with orbits of typical
eccentricity for their periods, resulting in a normal binary frequency of
~18+-6% for the sample. Our results confirm our preliminary conclusion from
2011, based on partial data, that the chemical peculiarity of the r-I and r-II
stars is not caused by any putative binary companions. Instead, it was
imprinted on the natal molecular clouds of these stars by an external, distant
source. Models of the ISM in early galaxies should account for such mechanisms.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
Nano granular metallic Fe - oxygen deficient TiO composite films: A room temperature, highly carrier polarized magnetic semiconductor
Nano granular metallic iron (Fe) and titanium dioxide (TiO) were
co-deposited on (100) lanthanum aluminate (LaAlO) substrates in a low
oxygen chamber pressure using a pulsed laser ablation deposition (PLD)
technique. The co-deposition of Fe and TiO resulted in 10 nm
metallic Fe spherical grains suspended within a TiO matrix. The
films show ferromagnetic behavior with a saturation magnetization of 3100 Gauss
at room temperature. Our estimate of the saturation magnetization based on the
size and distribution of the Fe spheres agreed well with the measured value.
The film composite structure was characterized as p-type magnetic semiconductor
at 300 K with a carrier density of the order of . The
hole carriers were excited at the interface between the nano granular Fe and
TiO matrix similar to holes excited in the metal/n-type
semiconductor interface commonly observed in Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (MOS)
devices. From the large anomalous Hall effect directly observed in these films
it follows that the holes at the interface were strongly spin polarized.
Structure and magneto transport properties suggested that these PLD films have
potential nano spintronics applications.Comment: 6 pages in Latex including 8 figure
Pilot interaction with automated airborne decision making systems
The use of advanced software engineering methods (e.g., from artificial intelligence) to aid aircraft crews in procedure selection and execution is investigated. Human problem solving in dynamic environments as effected by the human's level of knowledge of system operations is examined. Progress on the development of full scale simulation facilities is also discussed
New Hamiltonian formalism and quasi-local conservation equations of general relativity
I describe the Einstein's gravitation of 3+1 dimensional spacetimes using the
(2,2) formalism without assuming isometries. In this formalism, quasi-local
energy, linear momentum, and angular momentum are identified from the four
Einstein's equations of the divergence-type, and are expressed geometrically in
terms of the area of a two-surface and a pair of null vector fields on that
surface. The associated quasi-local balance equations are spelled out, and the
corresponding fluxes are found to assume the canonical form of energy-momentum
flux as in standard field theories. The remaining non-divergence-type
Einstein's equations turn out to be the Hamilton's equations of motion, which
are derivable from the {\it non-vanishing} Hamiltonian by the variational
principle. The Hamilton's equations are the evolution equations along the
out-going null geodesic whose {\it affine} parameter serves as the time
function. In the asymptotic region of asymptotically flat spacetimes, it is
shown that the quasi-local quantities reduce to the Bondi energy, linear
momentum, and angular momentum, and the corresponding fluxes become the Bondi
fluxes. The quasi-local angular momentum turns out to be zero for any
two-surface in the flat Minkowski spacetime. I also present a candidate for
quasi-local {\it rotational} energy which agrees with the Carter's constant in
the asymptotic region of the Kerr spacetime. Finally, a simple relation between
energy-flux and angular momentum-flux of a generic gravitational radiation is
discussed, whose existence reflects the fact that energy-flux always
accompanies angular momentum-flux unless the flux is an s-wave.Comment: 36 pages, 3 figures, RevTex
MACS: Multi-agent COTR system for Defense Contracting
The field of intelligent multi-agent systems has expanded rapidly in the recent past. Multi-agent architectures and systems are being investigated and continue to develop. To date, little has been accomplished in applying multi-agent systems to the defense acquisition domain. This paper describes the design, development, and related considerations of a multi-agent system in the area of procurement and contracting for the defense acquisition community
The role of binaries in the enrichment of the early Galactic halo. II. Carbon-Enhanced Metal-Poor Stars - CEMP-no stars
The detailed composition of most metal-poor halo stars has been found to be
very uniform. However, a fraction of 20-70% (increasing with decreasing
metallicity) exhibit dramatic enhancements in their abundances of carbon - the
so-called carbon-enhanced metal-poor (CEMP) stars. A key question for Galactic
chemical evolution models is whether this non-standard composition reflects
that of the stellar natal clouds, or is due to local, post-birth mass transfer
of chemically processed material from a binary companion; CEMP stars should
then all be members of binary systems. Our aim is to determine the frequency
and orbital parameters of binaries among CEMP stars with and without
over-abundances of neutron-capture elements - CEMP-s and CEMP-no stars,
respectively - as a test of this local mass-transfer scenario. This paper
discusses a sample of 24 CEMP-no stars, while a subsequent paper will consider
a similar sample of CEMP-s stars. Most programme stars exhibit no statistically
significant radial-velocit variation over this period and appear to be single,
while four are found to be binaries with orbital periods of 300-2,000 days and
normal eccentricity; the binary frequency for the sample is 17+-9%. The single
stars mostly belong to the recently-identified ``low-C band'', while the
binaries have higher absolute carbon abundances. We conclude that the
nucleosynthetic process responsible for the strong carbon excess in these
ancient stars is unrelated to their binary status; the carbon was imprinted on
their natal molecular clouds in the early Galactic ISM by an even earlier,
external source, strongly indicating that the CEMP-no stars are likely bona
fide second-generation stars. We discuss potential production sites for carbon
and its transfer across interstellar distances in the early ISM, and
implications for the composition of high-redshift DLA systems. Abridged.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
Impact of reionization on CMB polarization tests of slow-roll inflation
Estimates of inflationary parameters from the CMB B-mode polarization
spectrum on the largest scales depend on knowledge of the reionization history,
especially at low tensor-to-scalar ratio. Assuming an incorrect reionization
history in the analysis of such polarization data can strongly bias the
inflationary parameters. One consequence is that the single-field slow-roll
consistency relation between the tensor-to-scalar ratio and tensor tilt might
be excluded with high significance even if this relation holds in reality. We
explain the origin of the bias and present case studies with various tensor
amplitudes and noise characteristics. A more model-independent approach can
account for uncertainties about reionization, and we show that parametrizing
the reionization history by a set of its principal components with respect to
E-mode polarization removes the bias in inflationary parameter measurement with
little degradation in precision.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures; submitted to Phys. Rev.
- …