584 research outputs found
They want to tell us: Attention-aware Design and Evaluation of Ambient Displays for Learning
This paper explores the interaction between users and ambient displays and the evaluation thereof in a learning context. A formative design study examined the user attention towards ambient displays as well as the influence of different display designs. Experimental prototypes were varied on two design dimensions, namely representational fidelity and notification level, and deployed on a university campus. For the evaluation a combined approach using quantitative attention data as well as qualitative assessment methods was used. The results show a high degree of user interest in the displays over time, but do not provide clear evidence that the design of the displays influences the user attention. Nevertheless, the combination of quantitative and qualitative measurement does provide a more holistic view on user attention. The gathered insights can inform future designs and developments of ambient displays also beyond the learning context
Regeneration in gap models: priority issues for studying forest responses to climate change
Recruitment algorithms in forest gap models are examined with particular regard to their suitability for simulating forest ecosystem responses to a changing climate. The traditional formulation of recruitment is found limiting in three areas. First, the aggregation of different regeneration stages (seed production, dispersal, storage, germination and seedling establishment) is likely to result in less accurate predictions of responses as compared to treating each stage separately. Second, the relatedassumptions that seeds of all species are uniformly available and that environmental conditions are homogeneous, are likely to cause overestimates of future species diversity and forest migration rates. Third, interactions between herbivores (ungulates and insect pests) and forest vegetation are a big unknown with potentially serious impacts in many regions. Possible strategies for developing better gap model representations for the climate-sensitive aspects of each of these key areas are discussed. A working example of a relatively new model that addresses some of these limitations is also presented for each case. We conclude that better models of regeneration processes are desirable for predicting effects of climate change, but that it is presently impossible to determine what improvements can be expected without carrying out rigorous tests for each new formulation
Preceding rule induction with instance reduction methods
A new prepruning technique for rule induction is presented which applies instance reduction before rule induction. An empirical evaluation records the predictive accuracy and size of rule-sets generated from 24 datasets from the UCI Machine Learning Repository. Three instance reduction algorithms (Edited Nearest Neighbour, AllKnn and DROP5) are compared. Each one is used to reduce the size of the training set, prior to inducing a set of rules using Clark and Boswell's modification of CN2. A hybrid instance reduction algorithm (comprised of AllKnn and DROP5) is also tested. For most of the datasets, pruning the training set using ENN, AllKnn or the hybrid significantly reduces the number of rules generated by CN2, without adversely affecting the predictive performance. The hybrid achieves the highest average predictive accuracy
Recent advance in high manufacturing readiness level and high temperature CMOS mixed-signal integrated circuits on silicon carbide
A high manufacturing readiness level silicon carbide (SiC) CMOS technology is presented. The unique process flow enables the monolithic integration of pMOS and nMOS transistors with passive circuit elements capable of operation at temperatures of 300 °C and beyond. Critical to this functionality is the behaviour of the gate dielectric and data for high temperature capacitanceâvoltage measurements are reported for SiO2/4H-SiC (n and p type) MOS structures. In addition, a summary of the long term reliability for a range of structures including contact chains to both n-type and p-type SiC, as well as simple logic circuits is presented, showing function after 2000 h at 300 °C. Circuit data is also presented for the performance of digital logic devices, a 4 to 1 analogue multiplexer and a configurable timer operating over a wide temperature range. A high temperature micro-oven system has been utilised to enable the high temperature testing and stressing of units assembled in ceramic dual in line packages, including a high temperature small form-factor SiC based bridge leg power module prototype, operated for over 1000 h at 300 °C. The data presented show that SiC CMOS is a key enabling technology in high temperature integrated circuit design. In particular it provides the ability to realise sensor interface circuits capable of operating above 300 °C, accommodate shifts in key parameters enabling deployment in applications including automotive, aerospace and deep well drilling
Transport Properties of the Quark-Gluon Plasma -- A Lattice QCD Perspective
Transport properties of a thermal medium determine how its conserved charge
densities (for instance the electric charge, energy or momentum) evolve as a
function of time and eventually relax back to their equilibrium values. Here
the transport properties of the quark-gluon plasma are reviewed from a
theoretical perspective. The latter play a key role in the description of
heavy-ion collisions, and are an important ingredient in constraining particle
production processes in the early universe. We place particular emphasis on
lattice QCD calculations of conserved current correlators. These Euclidean
correlators are related by an integral transform to spectral functions, whose
small-frequency form determines the transport properties via Kubo formulae. The
universal hydrodynamic predictions for the small-frequency pole structure of
spectral functions are summarized. The viability of a quasiparticle description
implies the presence of additional characteristic features in the spectral
functions. These features are in stark contrast with the functional form that
is found in strongly coupled plasmas via the gauge/gravity duality. A central
goal is therefore to determine which of these dynamical regimes the quark-gluon
plasma is qualitatively closer to as a function of temperature. We review the
analysis of lattice correlators in relation to transport properties, and
tentatively estimate what computational effort is required to make decisive
progress in this field.Comment: 54 pages, 37 figures, review written for EPJA and APPN; one parag.
added end of section 3.4, and one at the end of section 3.2.2; some Refs.
added, and some other minor change
Classification of a supersolid: Trial wavefunctions, Symmetry breakings and Excitation spectra
A state of matter is characterized by its symmetry breaking and elementary
excitations.
A supersolid is a state which breaks both translational symmetry and internal
symmetry.
Here, we review some past and recent works in phenomenological
Ginsburg-Landau theories, ground state trial wavefunctions and microscopic
numerical calculations. We also write down a new effective supersolid
Hamiltonian on a lattice.
The eigenstates of the Hamiltonian contains both the ground state
wavefunction and all the excited states (supersolidon) wavefunctions. We
contrast various kinds of supersolids in both continuous systems and on
lattices, both condensed matter and cold atom systems. We provide additional
new insights in studying their order parameters, symmetry breaking patterns,
the excitation spectra and detection methods.Comment: REVTEX4, 19 pages, 3 figure
SPIDER: Probing the Early Universe with a Suborbital Polarimeter
We evaluate the ability of SPIDER, a balloon-borne polarimeter, to detect a
divergence-free polarization pattern ("B-modes") in the Cosmic Microwave
Background (CMB). In the inflationary scenario, the amplitude of this signal is
proportional to that of the primordial scalar perturbations through the
tensor-to-scalar ratio r. We show that the expected level of systematic error
in the SPIDER instrument is significantly below the amplitude of an interesting
cosmological signal with r=0.03. We present a scanning strategy that enables us
to minimize uncertainty in the reconstruction of the Stokes parameters used to
characterize the CMB, while accessing a relatively wide range of angular
scales. Evaluating the amplitude of the polarized Galactic emission in the
SPIDER field, we conclude that the polarized emission from interstellar dust is
as bright or brighter than the cosmological signal at all SPIDER frequencies
(90 GHz, 150 GHz, and 280 GHz), a situation similar to that found in the
"Southern Hole." We show that two ~20-day flights of the SPIDER instrument can
constrain the amplitude of the B-mode signal to r<0.03 (99% CL) even when
foreground contamination is taken into account. In the absence of foregrounds,
the same limit can be reached after one 20-day flight.Comment: 29 pages, 8 figures, 4 tables; v2: matches published version, flight
schedule updated, two typos fixed in Table 2, references and minor
clarifications added, results unchange
Nuclear Alpha-Particle Condensates
The -particle condensate in nuclei is a novel state described by a
product state of 's, all with their c.o.m. in the lowest 0S orbit. We
demonstrate that a typical -particle condensate is the Hoyle state
( MeV, state in C), which plays a crucial role for
the synthesis of C in the universe. The influence of antisymmentrization
in the Hoyle state on the bosonic character of the particle is
discussed in detail. It is shown to be weak. The bosonic aspects in the Hoyle
state, therefore, are predominant. It is conjectured that -particle
condensate states also exist in heavier nuclei, like O,
Ne, etc. For instance the state of O at MeV
is identified from a theoretical analysis as being a strong candidate of a
condensate. The calculated small width (34 keV) of ,
consistent with data, lends credit to the existence of heavier Hoyle-analogue
states. In non-self-conjugated nuclei such as B and C, we discuss
candidates for the product states of clusters, composed of 's,
triton's, and neutrons etc. The relationship of -particle condensation
in finite nuclei to quartetting in symmetric nuclear matter is investigated
with the help of an in-medium modified four-nucleon equation. A nonlinear order
parameter equation for quartet condensation is derived and solved for
particle condensation in infinite nuclear matter. The strong qualitative
difference with the pairing case is pointed out.Comment: 71 pages, 41 figures, review article, to be published in "Cluster in
Nuclei (Lecture Notes in Physics) - Vol.2 -", ed. by C. Beck,
(Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2011
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Fine-scale temporal characterization of trends in soil water dissolved organic carbon and potential drivers
Long-term monitoring of surface water quality has shown increasing concentrations of Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC) across a large part of the Northern Hemisphere. Several drivers have been implicated including climate change, land management change, nitrogen and sulphur deposition and CO2 enrichment. Analysis of stream water data, supported by evidence from laboratory studies, indicates that an effect of declining sulphur deposition on catchment soil chemistry is likely to be the primary mechanism, but there are relatively few long term soil water chemistry records in the UK with which to investigate this, and other, hypotheses directly. In this paper, we assess temporal relationships between soil solution chemistry and parameters that have been argued to regulate DOC production and, using a unique set of co-located measurements of weather and bulk deposition and soil solution chemistry provided by the UK Environmental Change Network and the Intensive Forest Monitoring Level II Network . We used statistical non-linear trend analysis to investigate these relationships at 5 forested and 4 non-forested sites from 1993 to 2011. Most trends in soil solution DOC concentration were found to be non-linear. Significant increases in DOC occurred mostly prior to 2005. The magnitude and sign of the trends was associated qualitatively with changes in acid deposition, the presence/absence of a forest canopy, soil depth and soil properties. The strongest increases in DOC were seen in acidic forest soils and were most clearly linked to declining anthropogenic acid deposition, while DOC trends at some sites with westerly locations appeared to have been influenced by shorter-term hydrological variation. The results indicate that widespread DOC increases in surface waters observed elsewhere, are most likely dominated by enhanced mobilization of DOC in surficial organic horizons, rather than changes in the soil water chemistry of deeper horizons. While trends in DOC concentrations in surface horizons have flattened out in recent years, further increases may be expected as soil chemistry continues to adjust to declining inputs of acidity
Anomalous Transport from Kubo Formulae
Chiral anomalies have profound impact on the transport properties of
relativistic fluids. In four dimensions there are different types of anomalies,
pure gauge and mixed gauge-gravitational anomalies. They give rise to two new
non-dissipative transport coefficients, the chiral magnetic conductivity and
the chiral vortical conductivity. They can be calculated from the microscopic
degrees of freedom with the help of Kubo formulae. We review the calculation of
the anomalous transport coefficients via Kubo formulae with a particular
emphasis on the contribution of the mixed gauge-gravitational anomaly.Comment: 36 pages, 4 figures, 1 table; to appear in Lect. Notes Phys.
"Strongly interacting matter in magnetic fields" (Springer), edited by D.
Kharzeev, K. Landsteiner, A. Schmitt, H.-U. Yee; v2 small changes in
introduction, added references; v3 corrected eq. (21) and added eq. (77),
added reference
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