1,098 research outputs found
The Hot-Spot Phenomenon and its Countermeasures in Bipolar Power Transistors by Analytical Electro-Thermal Simulation
This communication deals with a theoretical study of the hot spot onset (HSO)
in cellular bipolar power transistors. This well-known phenomenon consists of a
current crowding within few cells occurring for high power conditions, which
significantly decreases the forward safe operating area (FSOA) of the device.
The study was performed on a virtual sample by means of a fast, fully
analytical electro-thermal simulator operating in the steady state regime and
under the condition of imposed input base current. The purpose was to study the
dependence of the phenomenon on several thermal and geometrical factors and to
test suitable countermeasures able to impinge this phenomenon at higher biases
or to completely eliminate it. The power threshold of HSO and its localization
within the silicon die were observed as a function of the electrical bias
conditions as for instance the collector voltage, the equivalent thermal
resistance of the assembling structure underlying the silicon die, the value of
the ballasting resistances purposely added in the emitter metal
interconnections and the thickness of the copper heat spreader placed on the
die top just to the aim of making more uniform the temperature of the silicon
surface.Comment: Submitted on behalf of TIMA Editions
(http://irevues.inist.fr/tima-editions
A Self-Organized Method for Computing the Epidemic Threshold in Computer Networks
In many cases, tainted information in a computer network can spread in a way
similar to an epidemics in the human world. On the other had, information
processing paths are often redundant, so a single infection occurrence can be
easily "reabsorbed". Randomly checking the information with a central server is
equivalent to lowering the infection probability but with a certain cost (for
instance processing time), so it is important to quickly evaluate the epidemic
threshold for each node. We present a method for getting such information
without resorting to repeated simulations. As for human epidemics, the local
information about the infection level (risk perception) can be an important
factor, and we show that our method can be applied to this case, too. Finally,
when the process to be monitored is more complex and includes "disruptive
interference", one has to use actual simulations, which however can be carried
out "in parallel" for many possible infection probabilities
On Damage Spreading Transitions
We study the damage spreading transition in a generic one-dimensional
stochastic cellular automata with two inputs (Domany-Kinzel model) Using an
original formalism for the description of the microscopic dynamics of the
model, we are able to show analitically that the evolution of the damage
between two systems driven by the same noise has the same structure of a
directed percolation problem. By means of a mean field approximation, we map
the density phase transition into the damage phase transition, obtaining a
reliable phase diagram. We extend this analysis to all symmetric cellular
automata with two inputs, including the Ising model with heath-bath dynamics.Comment: 12 pages LaTeX, 2 PostScript figures, tar+gzip+u
Age-Dependent Regulation of Notch Family Members in the Neuronal Stem Cell Niches of the Short-Lived Killifish Nothobranchius furzeri
Background: The annual killifish Nothobranchius furzeri is a new experimental model organism in biology, since it represents the vertebrate species with the shortest captive life span and also shows the fastest maturation and senescence recorded in the laboratory. Here, we use this model to investigate the age-dependent decay of neurogenesis in the telencephalon (brain region sharing the same embryonic origin with the mammalian adult niches), focusing on the expression of the Notch pathway genes. Results: We observed that the major ligands/receptors of the pathway showed a negative correlation with age, indicating age-dependent downregulation of the Notch pathway. Moreover, expression of notch1a was clearly limited to active neurogenic niches and declined during aging, without changing its regional patterning. Expression of notch3 is not visibly influenced by aging. Conclusion: Both expression pattern and regulation differ between notch1a and notch3, with the former being limited to mitotically active regions and reduced by aging and the latter being present in all cells with a neurogenic potential, regardless of the level of their actual mitotic activity, and so is less influenced by age. This finally suggests a possible differential role of the two receptors in the regulation of the niche proliferative potential throughout the entire fish life
Small world effects in evolution
For asexual organisms point mutations correspond to local displacements in
the genotypic space, while other genotypic rearrangements represent long-range
jumps. We investigate the spreading properties of an initially homogeneous
population in a flat fitness landscape, and the equilibrium properties on a
smooth fitness landscape. We show that a small-world effect is present: even a
small fraction of quenched long-range jumps makes the results indistinguishable
from those obtained by assuming all mutations equiprobable. Moreover, we find
that the equilibrium distribution is a Boltzmann one, in which the fitness
plays the role of an energy, and mutations that of a temperature.Comment: 13 pages and 5 figures. New revised versio
Nature of phase transitions in a probabilistic cellular automaton with two absorbing states
We present a probabilistic cellular automaton with two absorbing states,
which can be considered a natural extension of the Domany-Kinzel model. Despite
its simplicity, it shows a very rich phase diagram, with two second-order and
one first-order transition lines that meet at a tricritical point. We study the
phase transitions and the critical behavior of the model using mean field
approximations, direct numerical simulations and field theory. A closed form
for the dynamics of the kinks between the two absorbing phases near the
tricritical point is obtained, providing an exact correspondence between the
presence of conserved quantities and the symmetry of absorbing states. The
second-order critical curves and the kink critical dynamics are found to be in
the directed percolation and parity conservation universality classes,
respectively. The first order phase transition is put in evidence by examining
the hysteresis cycle. We also study the "chaotic" phase, in which two replicas
evolving with the same noise diverge, using mean field and numerical
techniques. Finally, we show how the shape of the potential of the
field-theoretic formulation of the problem can be obtained by direct numerical
simulations.Comment: 19 pages with 7 figure
Study of Water Speed Sensitivity in a Multifunctional Thick-film Sensor by Analytical Thermal Simulations and Experiments
The present paper deals with an application of the analytical thermal
simulator DJOSER. It consist of the characterization of a water speed sensor
realized in hybrid technology. The capability of the thermal solver to manage
the convection heat exchange and the effects of the passivating layers make the
simulation work easy and fast.Comment: Submitted on behalf of TIMA Editions
(http://irevues.inist.fr/tima-editions
Pacman Refutes the Coase Conjecture: Durable-Goods Monopoly with Discrete Demand
We analyze a dynamic game between consumers with unit demands and the sole seller of a durable good. Unlike previous analyses, we assume there exists a finite collection of buyers rather than a continuum. We show that none of the main conclusions of the durable-goods literature survives this change in assumption. In particular, for any demand curve there exists a subgame-perfect equilibrium such that for discount factors near one the monopolist's profit approaches the profit attainable under perfect price discrimination. This contradicts Coase's conjecture (1972)--proved formally for the continuum case by Gul, Sonnenschein, and Wilson (1986)--that the monopolist's profit must always converge to zero. It also implies that renting or precommitting to a path of prices-which Bulow (1982) and Stokey (1979) have shown, respectively, must always increase profit with a continuum of buyers--may strictly reduce profits when the collection of buyers is finite. Hence, while in other contexts the assumption of a continuum of consumers has proved an innocuous and useful simplification, in the context of durable-goods monopoly it has proved misleading.Center for Research on Economic and Social Theory, Department of Economics, University of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/100809/1/ECON026.pd
In vivo analysis of staphylococcus aureus-infected mice reveals differential temporal and spatial expression patterns of fhuD2
Staphylococcus aureus is an opportunistic human pathogen and a major cause of invasive infections such as bacteremia, endocarditis, pneumonia and wound infections. FhuD2 is a staphylococcal lipoprotein involved in the uptake of iron-hydroxymate and is under the control of the iron uptake regulator Fur. The protein is part of an investigational multi-component vaccine formulation that has shown protective efficacy in several murine models of infection. Even though fhuD2 expression was shown to be upregulated in murine kidneys infected with S. aureus, it is unknown whether the bacterium undergoes increased iron deprivation during prolonged infection. Furthermore, different infection niches of S. aureus might provide different environments and iron availability resulting in different fhuD2 expression pattern within different host organs. To address these questions, we characterized the in vitro expression of the fhuD2 gene and confirmed Fur-dependent iron-regulation of its expression. We further investigated its expression in mice infected with a bioluminescent reporter strain of S. aureus expressing the luciferase operon under the control of the fhuD2 promoter. The emission of bioluminescence in different organs was followed over a seven-day time course, as well as quantitative real-time PCR analysis of the RNA transcribed from the endogenous fhuD2 gene. Using this approach, we could show that fhuD2 expression was induced during infection in all organs analyzed and that differences in expression were observed in the temporal expression profiles, and between infected organs. Our data suggest that S. aureus undergoes increased iron deprivation during progression of infection in diverse host organs and accordingly induces dedicated iron acquisition mechanisms. Since FhuD2 plays a central role in providing the pathogen with the required iron, further knowledge of the patterns of fhuD2 expression in vivo during infection is instrumental in better defining the role of this antigen in S. aureus pathogenesis and as a vaccine antigen
Price Discrimination and Intertemporal Self-Selection
We consider a monopolist selling durable goods to consumers with unit demands but different preferences for quality. The seller can offer items of different quality at the same time to induce buyers to self-select, as in Mussa-Rosen (1978), but is not artifically constrained to offer only one such menu. Instead the seller can offer a sequence of menus over time. In the two-buyer case, the seller finds it optimal to abandon multi-item menus with their quality distortions and instead induces self-selection intertemporally. In the unique subgame-perfect equilibrium of the finite-horizon game and the particular equilibrium that we consider in the infinite-horizon game, the monopolist offers in succession single items of efficient quality. In the continuous-time limit of the infinite-horizon game (under both complete and incomplete information), the monopolist approximates the present value of perfect price discrimination. All of our qualitative results for the two-buyer case continue to hold with an arbitrary, finite number of buyers of different types in some equilibria of the complete-information, infinite-horizon game.Center for Research on Economic and Social Theory, Department of Economics, University of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/100820/1/ECON027.pd
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