Effects of Random Link Removal on the Photonic Band Gaps of Honeycomb Networks

We explore the effects of random link removal on the photonic band gaps of honeycomb networks. Missing or incomplete links are expected to be common in practical realizations of this class of connected network structures due to unavoidable flaws in the fabrication process. We focus on the collapse of the photonic band gap due to the defects induced by the link removal. We show that the photonic band gap is quite robust against this type of random decimation and survives even when almost 58% of the network links are removed

Effect of electron-electron interaction on the phonon-mediated spin relaxation in quantum dots

We estimate the spin relaxation rate due to spin-orbit coupling and acoustic phonon scattering in weakly-confined quantum dots with up to five interacting electrons. The Full Configuration Interaction approach is used to account for the inter-electron repulsion, and Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit couplings are exactly diagonalized. We show that electron-electron interaction strongly affects spin-orbit admixture in the sample. Consequently, relaxation rates strongly depend on the number of carriers confined in the dot. We identify the mechanisms which may lead to improved spin stability in few electron (>2) quantum dots as compared to the usual one and two electron devices. Finally, we discuss recent experiments on triplet-singlet transitions in GaAs dots subject to external magnetic fields. Our simulations are in good agreement with the experimental findings, and support the interpretation of the observed spin relaxation as being due to spin-orbit coupling assisted by acoustic phonon emission.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures. Revised version. Changes in section V (simulation of PRL 98, 126601 experiment

A distributed control for a grasping function of a hyperredundant arm

The paper focuses on the control problem of a tentacle robot that performs the coil function of grasping. First, the dynamic model of a hyperredundant arm with continuum elements produced by flexible composite materials in conjunction with active-controllable electro-rheological fluids is analyzed. Secondly, both problems, i.e. the position control and the force control are approached. The difficulties determined by the complexity of the non-linear integraldifferential equations are avoided by using a basic energy relationship of this system. Energy-based control laws are introduced for the position control problem. A force control method is proposed, namely the DSMC method in which the evolution of the system on the switching line by the ER fluid viscosity is controlled. Numerical simulations are also presente

Stability control of a hyperredundant arm for a grasping operation

In this paper a problem of a class of hyperredundant arms with continuum elements that perform the grasping function by coiling is discussed. This function is often met in the animal world as in the case of elephant trunk or octopus tentacle. First, the dynamic model in 3D-space is developed. The equations that describe the motion of the arm that carries a load by coiling are inferred. The stability of the motion is discussed. Numerical simulations of the motion towards an imposed target are presente

XML Reconstruction View Selection in XML Databases: Complexity Analysis and Approximation Scheme

Query evaluation in an XML database requires reconstructing XML subtrees rooted at nodes found by an XML query. Since XML subtree reconstruction can be expensive, one approach to improve query response time is to use reconstruction views - materialized XML subtrees of an XML document, whose nodes are frequently accessed by XML queries. For this approach to be efficient, the principal requirement is a framework for view selection. In this work, we are the first to formalize and study the problem of XML reconstruction view selection. The input is a tree $T$, in which every node $i$ has a size $c_i$ and profit $p_i$, and the size limitation $C$. The target is to find a subset of subtrees rooted at nodes $i_1,\cdots, i_k$ respectively such that $c_{i_1}+\cdots +c_{i_k}\le C$, and $p_{i_1}+\cdots +p_{i_k}$ is maximal. Furthermore, there is no overlap between any two subtrees selected in the solution. We prove that this problem is NP-hard and present a fully polynomial-time approximation scheme (FPTAS) as a solution

Learning with precise spike times : a new decoding algorithm for liquid state machines

There is extensive evidence that biological neural networks encode information in the precise timing of the spikes generated and transmitted by neurons, which offers several advantages over rate-based codes. Here we adopt a vector space formulation of spike train sequences and introduce a new liquid state machine (LSM) network architecture and a new forward orthogonal regression algorithm to learn an input-output signal mapping or to decode the brain activity. The proposed algorithm uses precise spike timing to select the presynaptic neurons relevant to each learning task. We show that using precise spike timing to train the LSM and selecting the readout presynaptic neurons leads to a significant increase in performance on binary classification tasks, in decoding neural activity from multielectrode array recordings, as well as in a speech recognition task, compared with what is achieved using the standard architecture and training methods

More than 9 years of continuous trastuzumab treatment in metastatic breast cancer without cardiac toxicity: a case report and literature review

Florin Badulescu,1 Adriana Badulescu,2 Doru Paul,3 Carmen Florina Popescu,4 Cristina Florescu5 1Department of Oncology, Universitatea de Medicina si Farmacie, Craiova, Romania; 2Department of Surgery, Universitatea Titu Maiorescu, Bucuresti, Romania; 3Monter Cancer Center, North Shore LIJ Cancer Institute, Lake Success, NY, USA; 4Department of Pathology, Spitalul Universitar Clinic de Urgenta, Craiova, Romania; 5Department of Cardiology, Universitatea de Medicina si Farmacie, Craiova, Romania Abstract: The main concern of long-term use of trastuzumab remains its association with potential cardiac side effects. Although these side effects are real, they are probably overemphasized. We report the case of a woman with metastatic breast cancer, who is currently in complete remission, and who received trastuzumab continuously for more than 9 years, without any significant cardiac toxicity. Keywords: metastatic breast cancer, long survival, trastuzuma

ASPECTS REGARDING THE APPEARANCE AND THE EVOLUTION OF KEYNESIAN DOCTRINE

This present paper is based on the importance of the keynesian doctrine in time and tries to make a brief foray into the life and work of John Maynard Keynes, revealing important aspects related to the new concepts this doctrine brought in the history of economic thought, looking at the same time to the criticism addressed to the keynesism and studying the effects they had in the development study of economic science. The objective of this theory is “the analysis of the mechanism of the market economy in order to ensure sustainable development, reducing or eliminating the disequilibrium, when it is not verified in practice the idea of the self equilibrium through the price mechanism."Keynes wrote in an era marked by mass unemployment, by degradation and suffering at an incredible level. A reasonable person could have supported the failure of capitalism, concluding that only major institutional changes - perhaps nationalization of means of production - could restore economic health

The XML benchmark project

With standardization efforts of a query language for XML documents drawing to a close, researchers and users increasingly focus their attention on the database technology that has to deliver on the new challenges that the sheer amount of XML documents produced by applications pose to data management: validation, performance evaluation and optimization of XML query processors are the upcoming issues. Following a long tradition in database research, the XML Store Benchmark Project provides a framework to assess an XML database's abilities to cope with a broad spectrum of different queries, typically posed in real-world application scenarios. The benchmark is intended to help both implementors and users to compare XML databases independent of their own, specific application scenario. To this end, the benchmark offers a set queries each of which is intended to challenge a particular primitive of the query processor or storage engine. The overall workload we propose consists of a scalable document database and a concise, yet comprehensive set of queries, which covers the major aspects of query processing. The queries' challenges range from stressing the textual character of the document to data analysis queries, but include also typical ad-hoc queries. We complement our research with results obtained from running the benchmark on our XML database platform. They are intended to give a first baseline, illustrating the state of the art