589 research outputs found
An experimental investigation of microresistor laser printing with gold nanoparticle-laden inks
This paper presents an experimental investigation of the novel thermal manufacturing process of printing and laser curing of nanoparticle-laden inks that can produce functional microstructures such as electronic microresistors and interconnections for semiconductors and other devices. Of specific interest are the complex and interweaved transport phenomena involved, focusing on the absorption and diffusion processes of irradiated laser energy influencing solvent vaporization, the nanoparticle curing process, the substrate, and the final quality of the produced resistor. Parametric studies of the thermal process together with extensive microscopy analysis of the topography and resistivity measurements piece together a better understanding of the underlying physics and aid the development of the technolog
Mathematical Methods Applied to Digital Image Processing
Introduction: Digital image processing (DIP) is an important research area since it spans a variety of applications. Although over the past few decades there has been a rapid rise in this field, there still remain issues to address. Examples include image coding, image restoration, 3D image processing, feature extraction and analysis, moving object detection, and face recognition. To deal with these issues, the use of sophisticated and robust mathematical algorithms plays a crucial role. The aim of this special issue is to provide an opportunity for researchers to publish their latest theoretical and technological achievements in mathematical methods and their various applications related to DIP. This special issue covers topics related to the development of mathematical methods and their applications. It has a total of twenty-four high-quality papers covering various important topics in DIP, including image preprocessing, image encoding/decoding, stereo image reconstruction, dimensionality and data size reduction, and applications
An ARIMA-Intervention Analysis Model for the Financial Crisis in Chinaâs Manufacturing Industry
Triggered by the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States (U.S.), a financial tsunami has spread rapidly around the globe, from the U.S. to Europe and the rest of the world, causing the world economy to enter a recession. China is no exception, and has suffered a sharp reduction in the growth of its export and manufacturing sectors. In this paper, we attempt to model and analyze the impact of financial crisis on the manufacturing industry in China using data collected from March 2005 to November 2008 by the China Statistical Databases of the National Bureau of Statistics of China. The results indicate that Chinaâs manufacturing industry may have to tolerate a significant negative effect caused by the global financial crisis over a period of time, with its gross industrial output value declining continually throughout 2008 and 2009 before reaching a state of equilibrium. The intervention effect is described in this study as temporary but immediate and abrupt. It is found that the ARIMA-Intervention model is more precise at explaining and analyzing the intervention effects of the financial tsunami
Decoupling in an expanding universe: boundary RG-flow affects initial conditions for inflation
We study decoupling in FRW spacetimes, emphasizing a Lagrangian description
throughout. To account for the vacuum choice ambiguity in cosmological
settings, we introduce an arbitrary boundary action representing the initial
conditions. RG flow in these spacetimes naturally affects the boundary
interactions. As a consequence the boundary conditions are sensitive to
high-energy physics through irrelevant terms in the boundary action. Using
scalar field theory as an example, we derive the leading dimension four
irrelevant boundary operators. We discuss how the known vacuum choices, e.g.
the Bunch-Davies vacuum, appear in the Lagrangian description and square with
decoupling. For all choices of boundary conditions encoded by relevant boundary
operators, of which the known ones are a subset, backreaction is under control.
All, moreover, will generically feel the influence of high-energy physics
through irrelevant (dimension four) boundary corrections. Having established a
coherent effective field theory framework including the vacuum choice
ambiguity, we derive an explicit expression for the power spectrum of
inflationary density perturbations including the leading high energy
corrections. In accordance with the dimensionality of the leading irrelevant
operators, the effect of high energy physics is linearly proportional to the
Hubble radius H and the scale of new physics L= 1/M.Comment: LaTeX plus axodraw figures. v2: minor corrections; refs added. JHEP
style: 34 pages + 18 pages appendi
Loop-Generated Bounds on Changes to the Graviton Dispersion Relation
We identify the effective theory appropriate to the propagation of massless
bulk fields in brane-world scenarios, to show that the dominant low-energy
effect of asymmetric warping in the bulk is to modify the dispersion relation
of the effective 4-dimensional modes. We show how such changes to the graviton
dispersion relation may be bounded through the effects they imply, through
loops, for the propagation of standard model particles. We compute these bounds
and show that they provide, in some cases, the strongest constraints on
nonstandard gravitational dispersions. The bounds obtained in this way are the
strongest for the fewest extra dimensions and when the extra-dimensional Planck
mass is the smallest. Although the best bounds come for warped 5-D scenarios,
for which the 5D Planck Mass is O(TeV), even in 4 dimensions the graviton loop
can lead to a bound on the graviton speed which is comparable with other
constraints.Comment: 18 pages, LaTeX, 4 figures, uses revte
Application of antagonistic rhizobacteria for control of Fusarium seedling blight and basal rot of lily
Three antagonistic bacteria, Streptomyces misionensis strain PMS101, Bacillus thermoglucosidasius strain PMB207, and S. sioyaensis strain PMS502, were tested for sensitivity to the foliar fungicide Sporgon (a.i. 50% prochloraz-Mn complex) and for efficacy in controlling Fusarium diseases of lily. Results showed that the growth of all three antagonistic strains of bacteria was completely suppressed by Sporgon at a concentration of 500 mu g/mL, but B. thermoglucosidasius strain PMB207 and S. misionensis strain PMS101 were unaffected at concentrations of 100 mu g/mL or lower. A large-scale trial in an automated and environment-controlled commercial greenhouse showed that treatment of scale bulblets of lily with Sporgon (100 mu g /mL) and B. thermoglucosidasius strain PMB207 (1-1.2 x 10(7) cfu/mL) or 100 mu g/mL Sporgon and S. misionensis strain PMS101 (1-1.4 x 10(7) cfu/mL) resulted in a significant reduction (P 0.05). Results of the greenhouse and field experiments showed that treatment of scale bulblets or one-year-old bulbs of lily with B. thermoglucosidasius strain PMB207 (1-1.2 x 10(8) cfu/mL) or S. misionensis strain PMS101 (1-1.4 x 10(8) cfu/mL) without Sporgon was also effective in the control of basal rot caused by F. oxysporum f. sp. lilii. These studies reveal that B. thermoglucosidasius strain PMB207 and S. misionensis strain PMS101 are biocontrol agents which have potential for use in the commercial production of lily bulbs, as they can be used alone or in combination with the fungicide Sporgon at low concentration (< 100 mu g/mL)
Relativistic D-brane Scattering is Extremely Inelastic
We study the effects of quantum production of open strings on the
relativistic scattering of D-branes. We find strong corrections to the brane
trajectory from copious production of highly-excited open strings, whose
typical oscillator level is proportional to the square of the rapidity. In the
corrected trajectory, the branes rapidly coincide and remain trapped in a
configuration with enhanced symmetry. This is a purely stringy effect which
makes relativistic brane collisions exceptionally inelastic. We trace this
effect to velocity-dependent corrections to the open-string mass, which render
open strings between relativistic D-branes surprisingly light. We observe that
pair-creation of open strings could play an important role in cosmological
scenarios in which branes approach each other at very high speeds.Comment: 30 pages; added references and a comment about velocity-dependent
masse
Judgment Error in Lottery Play
We demonstrate that lottery markets can exhibit the "hot-hand" phenomenon, in which past
winning numbers tend to receive a greater share of the bets in future draws, even though past
and future events are independent. This finding is surprising, as works by Clotfelter and Cook
(1993) and Terrell (1994) have previously documented the presence of an opposite effect|the
\gambler's fallacy"|in the U.S. lottery market. The current literature also suggests that the
gambler's fallacy prevails when random numbers are generated by mechanical devices, such as in
lottery games (e.g., Ayton and Fisher (2004), Burns and Corpus (2004), Caruso et al. (2010)).
We use two sets of naturally occurring data to show that both the gambler's fallacy and the
hot-hand fallacy can exist in different types of lottery games. We then run online experimental
studies that mimic lottery games with one, two, or three winning numbers. Our experimental
results show that the number of winning prizes impacts behavior. In particular, whereas a
single-prize game leads to a strong presence of th
Primeval Corrections to the CMB Anisotropies
We show that deviations of the quantum state of the inflaton from the thermal
vacuum of inflation may leave an imprint in the CMB anisotropies. The quantum
dynamics of the inflaton in such a state produces corrections to the
inflationary fluctuations, which may be observable. Because these effects
originate from IR physics below the Planck scale, they will dominate over any
trans-Planckian imprints in any theory which obeys decoupling. Inflation sweeps
away these initial deviations and forces its quantum state closer to the
thermal vacuum. We view this as the quantum version of the cosmic no-hair
theorem. Such imprints in the CMB may be a useful, independent test of the
duration of inflation, or of significant features in the inflaton potential
about 60 e-folds before inflation ended, instead of an unlikely discovery of
the signatures of quantum gravity. The absence of any such substructure would
suggest that inflation lasted uninterrupted much longer than
e-folds.Comment: 17 pages, latex, no figures; v3: added references and comments, final
version to appear in Phys. Rev.
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