589 research outputs found
Advances in imaging THGEM-based detectors
The thick GEM (THGEM) [1] is an "expanded" GEM, economically produced in the
PCB industry by simple drilling and etching in G-10 or other insulating
materials (fig. 1). Similar to GEM, its operation is based on electron gas
avalanche multiplication in sub-mm holes, resulting in very high gain and fast
signals. Due to its large hole size, the THGEM is particularly efficient in
transporting the electrons into and from the holes, leading to efficient
single-electron detection and effective cascaded operation. The THGEM provides
true pixilated radiation localization, ns signals, high gain and high rate
capability. For a comprehensive summary of the THGEM properties, the reader is
referred to [2, 3]. In this article we present a summary of our recent study on
THGEM-based imaging, carried out with a 10x10 cm^2 double-THGEM detector.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures. Presented at the 10th Pisa Meeting on Advanced
Detectors; ELBA-Italy; May 21-27 200
Secluded Connectivity Problems
Consider a setting where possibly sensitive information sent over a path in a
network is visible to every {neighbor} of the path, i.e., every neighbor of
some node on the path, thus including the nodes on the path itself. The
exposure of a path can be measured as the number of nodes adjacent to it,
denoted by . A path is said to be secluded if its exposure is small. A
similar measure can be applied to other connected subgraphs, such as Steiner
trees connecting a given set of terminals. Such subgraphs may be relevant due
to considerations of privacy, security or revenue maximization. This paper
considers problems related to minimum exposure connectivity structures such as
paths and Steiner trees. It is shown that on unweighted undirected -node
graphs, the problem of finding the minimum exposure path connecting a given
pair of vertices is strongly inapproximable, i.e., hard to approximate within a
factor of for any (under an
appropriate complexity assumption), but is approximable with ratio
, where is the maximum degree in the graph. One of
our main results concerns the class of bounded-degree graphs, which is shown to
exhibit the following interesting dichotomy. On the one hand, the minimum
exposure path problem is NP-hard on node-weighted or directed bounded-degree
graphs (even when the maximum degree is 4). On the other hand, we present a
polynomial algorithm (based on a nontrivial dynamic program) for the problem on
unweighted undirected bounded-degree graphs. Likewise, the problem is shown to
be polynomial also for the class of (weighted or unweighted) bounded-treewidth
graphs
A concise review on THGEM detectors
We briefly review the concept and properties of the Thick GEM (THGEM); it is
a robust, high-gain gaseous electron multiplier, manufactured economically by
standard printed-circuit drilling and etching technology. Its operation and
structure resemble that of GEMs but with 5 to 20-fold expanded dimensions. The
millimeter-scale hole-size results in good electron transport and in large
avalanche-multiplication factors, e.g. reaching 10^7 in double-THGEM cascaded
single-photoelectron detectors. The multiplier's material, parameters and shape
can be application-tailored; it can operate practically in any counting gas,
including noble gases, over a pressure range spanning from 1 mbar to several
bars; its operation at cryogenic (LAr) conditions was recently demonstrated.
The high gain, sub-millimeter spatial resolution, high counting-rate
capability, good timing properties and the possibility of industrial production
capability of large-area robust detectors, pave ways towards a broad spectrum
of potential applications; some are discussed here in brief.Comment: 8 pages, 11 figures; Invited Review at INSTR08, Novosibirsk, Feb
28-March 5 200
Reconstructing the Past: The Case of the Spadina Expressway
In order to build resilient systems that can be operational for a long time, it is important that analysts are able to model the evolution of the requirements of that system. The Evolving Intentions framework models how stakeholders’ goals change over time. In this work, our aim is to validate applicability and effectiveness of this technique on a substantial case. In the absence of ground truth about future evolutions, we used historical data and rational reconstruction to understand how a project evolved in the past. Seeking a well-documented project with varying stakeholder intentions over a substantial period of time, we selected requirements of the Toronto Spadina Expressway. In this paper, we report on the experience and the results of modeling this project over different time periods, which enabled us to assess the modeling and reasoning capabilities of the approach, its support for asking and answering ‘what if’ questions, and the maturity of the underlying tool support. We also demonstrate a novel process for creating time-based models through the construction and merging of scenarios
Vertex Fault Tolerant Additive Spanners
A {\em fault-tolerant} structure for a network is required to continue
functioning following the failure of some of the network's edges or vertices.
In this paper, we address the problem of designing a {\em fault-tolerant}
additive spanner, namely, a subgraph of the network such that
subsequent to the failure of a single vertex, the surviving part of still
contains an \emph{additive} spanner for (the surviving part of) , satisfying
for every
. Recently, the problem of constructing fault-tolerant additive
spanners resilient to the failure of up to \emph{edges} has been considered
by Braunschvig et. al. The problem of handling \emph{vertex} failures was left
open therein. In this paper we develop new techniques for constructing additive
FT-spanners overcoming the failure of a single vertex in the graph. Our first
result is an FT-spanner with additive stretch and
edges. Our second result is an FT-spanner with additive stretch and
edges. The construction algorithm consists of two main
components: (a) constructing an FT-clustering graph and (b) applying a modified
path-buying procedure suitably adopted to failure prone settings. Finally, we
also describe two constructions for {\em fault-tolerant multi-source additive
spanners}, aiming to guarantee a bounded additive stretch following a vertex
failure, for every pair of vertices in for a given subset of
sources . The additive stretch bounds of our constructions are 4
and 8 (using a different number of edges)
MHSP in reversed-biased operation mode for ion blocking in gas-avalanche multipliers
We present recent results on the operation of gas-avalanche detectors
comprising a cascade of gas electron multipliers (GEMs) and Micro-Hole and
Strip Plates (MHSPs) multiplier operated in reversed-bias (R-MHSP) mode. The
operation mechanism of the R-MHSP is explained and its potential contribution
to ion-backflow (IBF) reduction is demonstrated. IBF values of 4E-3 were
obtained in cascaded R-MHSP and GEM multipliers at gains of about 1E+4, though
at the expense of reduced effective gain in the first R- MHSP multiplier in the
cascade.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figure
Sparse Fault-Tolerant BFS Trees
This paper addresses the problem of designing a sparse {\em fault-tolerant}
BFS tree, or {\em FT-BFS tree} for short, namely, a sparse subgraph of the
given network such that subsequent to the failure of a single edge or
vertex, the surviving part of still contains a BFS spanning tree for
(the surviving part of) . Our main results are as follows. We present an
algorithm that for every -vertex graph and source node constructs a
(single edge failure) FT-BFS tree rooted at with O(n \cdot
\min\{\Depth(s), \sqrt{n}\}) edges, where \Depth(s) is the depth of the BFS
tree rooted at . This result is complemented by a matching lower bound,
showing that there exist -vertex graphs with a source node for which any
edge (or vertex) FT-BFS tree rooted at has edges. We then
consider {\em fault-tolerant multi-source BFS trees}, or {\em FT-MBFS trees}
for short, aiming to provide (following a failure) a BFS tree rooted at each
source for some subset of sources . Again, tight bounds
are provided, showing that there exists a poly-time algorithm that for every
-vertex graph and source set of size constructs a
(single failure) FT-MBFS tree from each source , with
edges, and on the other hand there exist
-vertex graphs with source sets of cardinality , on
which any FT-MBFS tree from has edges.
Finally, we propose an approximation algorithm for constructing
FT-BFS and FT-MBFS structures. The latter is complemented by a hardness result
stating that there exists no approximation algorithm for these
problems under standard complexity assumptions
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