Fluid Driven by Tangential Velocity and Shear Stress: Mathematical Analysis, Numerical Experiment, and Implication to Surface Flow

This paper investigates behaviors of flows driven by tangential velocity and shear stress on their boundaries such as solid walls and water surfaces. In a steady flow between two parallel plates with one of them in motion, analytic solutions are the same when a velocity and a shear stress boundary condition are applied on the moving plate. For an unsteady, impulsively started flow, however, analysis shows that solutions for velocity profiles as well as energy transferring and dissipation are different under the two boundary conditions. In an air-water flow, if either a velocity or a stress condition is imposed at the air-water interface, the problem becomes ill-posed because it has multiple solutions. Only when both of the conditions are specified, it will have a unique solution. Numerical simulations for cavity flows are made to confirm the theoretical results; a tangential velocity and a shear stress boundary condition introduce distinct flows if one considers an unsteady flow, whereas the two conditions lead to a same solution if one simulates a steady flow. The results in this paper imply that discretion is needed on selection of boundary conditions to approximate forcing on fluid boundaries such as wind effects on surfaces of coastal ocean waters

Stability and Complexity of Minimising Probabilistic Automata

We consider the state-minimisation problem for weighted and probabilistic automata. We provide a numerically stable polynomial-time minimisation algorithm for weighted automata, with guaranteed bounds on the numerical error when run with floating-point arithmetic. Our algorithm can also be used for "lossy" minimisation with bounded error. We show an application in image compression. In the second part of the paper we study the complexity of the minimisation problem for probabilistic automata. We prove that the problem is NP-hard and in PSPACE, improving a recent EXPTIME-result.Comment: This is the full version of an ICALP'14 pape

Pseudorapidity and Initial-energy Densities in pp+pp and Heavy-ion Collisions at RHIC and LHC

A known exact and accelerating solution of relativistic hydrodynamics for perfect fluids is utilized to describe pseudorapidity densities of $\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 5.02$ TeV Pb$+$Pb and $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV $p$$+$$p$ collisions at LHC. We evaluate a conjectured initial energy densities $\epsilon_{\rm corr}$ in these collisions, and compare them to Bjorken's initial energy density estimates, and to results for Pb$+$Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 2.76$ TeV and $p$$+$$p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 7$ and 8 TeV.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures. Presented at the XIII Workshop on Particle Correlations and Femtoscopy, Cracow, Polan

Integrating risks of climate change into water management

The Working Group II contribution to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change critically reviewed and assessed tens of thousands of recent publications to inform about the assess current scientific knowledge on climate change impacts, vulnerability and adaptation. Chapter 3 of the report focuses on freshwater resources, but water issues are also prominent in other sectoral chapters and in the regional chapters of the Working Group II report as well as in various chapters of Working Group I. With this paper, the lead authors, a review editor and the chapter scientist of the freshwater chapter of the WGII AR5 wish to summarize their assessment of the most relevant risks of climate change related to freshwater systems and to show how assessment and reduction of those risks can be integrated into water management

A Two-Dimensional Polyimide-Graphene Heterostructure with Ultra-fast Interlayer Charge Transfer

Two-dimensional polymers (2DPs) are a class of atomically/molecularly thin crystalline organic 2D materials. They are intriguing candidates for the development of unprecedented organic–inorganic 2D van der Waals heterostructures (vdWHs) with exotic physicochemical properties. In this work, we demonstrate the on-water surface synthesis of large-area (cm2), monolayer 2D polyimide (2DPI) with 3.1-nm lattice. Such 2DPI comprises metal-free porphyrin and perylene units linked by imide bonds. We further achieve a scalable synthesis of 2DPI-graphene (2DPI-G) vdWHs via a face-to-face co-assembly of graphene and 2DPI on the water surface. Remarkably, femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy reveals an ultra-fast interlayer charge transfer (ca. 60 fs) in the resultant 2DPI-G vdWH upon protonation by acid, which is equivalent to that of the fastest reports among inorganic 2D vdWHs. Such large interlayer electronic coupling is ascribed to the interlayer cation–π interaction between 2DP and graphene. © 2021 The Authors. Angewandte Chemie International Edition published by Wiley-VCH Gmb

Fast variability from black-hole binaries

Currently available information on fast variability of the X-ray emission from accreting collapsed objects constitutes a complex phenomenology which is difficult to interpret. We review the current observational standpoint for black-hole binaries and survey models that have been proposed to interpret it. Despite the complex structure of the accretion flow, key observational diagnostics have been identified which can provide direct access to the dynamics of matter motions in the close vicinity of black holes and thus to the some of fundamental properties of curved spacetimes, where strong-field general relativistic effects can be observed.Comment: 20 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in Space Science Reviews. Also to appear in hard cover in the Space Sciences Series of ISSI "The Physics of Accretion onto Black Holes" (Springer Publisher

From thermal rectifiers to thermoelectric devices

We discuss thermal rectification and thermoelectric energy conversion from the perspective of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics and dynamical systems theory. After preliminary considerations on the dynamical foundations of the phenomenological Fourier law in classical and quantum mechanics, we illustrate ways to control the phononic heat flow and design thermal diodes. Finally, we consider the coupled transport of heat and charge and discuss several general mechanisms for optimizing the figure of merit of thermoelectric efficiency.Comment: 42 pages, 22 figures, review paper, to appear in the Springer Lecture Notes in Physics volume "Thermal transport in low dimensions: from statistical physics to nanoscale heat transfer" (S. Lepri ed.

Controlled Synthesis, Characterization, and Flow Properties of Ethylene–Diene Copolymers

The flow response of branched entangled resins is dominated by the branching topology of the constituent molecules, a property that is not directly accessible using experimental analytical tools for industrially relevant complex resins. In this paper, the controlled terpolymerization of ethylene, 1,9-decadiene, and either hexene or octene in a continuous stirred tank reactor with a metallocene catalyst, is reported. The synthesized samples are characterized extensively with various analytical tools and their rheological properties are measured with small amplitude oscillatory shear and start-up uniaxial extension experiments. A model is developed for the polymerization process with the mass balance during synthesis providing strong constraints on the rate constants. In silico ensembles of molecules, generated via Monte Carlo sampling, are used to reproduce the experimental results. The computer model allows us to infer the detailed branching structure of the molecules and to predict the optimum range of reactor conditions for this synthesis

Knowledge network modelling to support decision-making for strategic intervention in IT project-oriented change management

This is the Accepted Manuscript version of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Decision Systems on 20 March 2014, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/12460125.2014.886499.This paper focuses on knowledge management to enhance decision support systems for strategic intervention in information technology (IT) project-oriented change management. It proposes a model of change management knowledge networks (CMKNM) to support decision by tackling three existing issues: insufficient knowledge traceability based on the relationships between knowledge elements and key factors, lack of procedural knowledge to provide adequate policies to guide changes, and lack of ‘lessons learned’ documentation in knowledge bases. A qualitative method was used to investigate issues surrounding knowledge mobilisation and knowledge networks. Empirical study was undertaken with industries to test the CMKNM. Results are presented from the empirical study on the key factors influencing knowledge mobilisation in IT project-oriented change management, knowledge networks and connections. The CMKNM model allows key knowledge mobilisation factors to be aligned with each other; it also defines the connections between knowledge networks allowing knowledge to be mobilised by tracing knowledge channels to support decision.Peer reviewe

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results