LIANA Model Integration System - architecture, user interface design and application in MOIRA DSS

International audienceThe LIANA Model Integration System is the shell application supporting model integration and user interface functionality required for the rapid construction and run-time support of the environmental decision support systems (EDSS). Internally it is constructed as the framework of C++ classes and functions covering most common tasks performed by the EDSS (such as managing of and alternative strategies, running of the chain of the models, supporting visualisation of the data with tables and graphs, keeping ranges and default values for input parameters etc.). EDSS is constructed by integration of LIANA system with the models or other applications such as GIS or MAA software. The basic requirements to the model or other application to be integrated is minimal - it should be a Windows or DOS .exe file and receive input and provide output as text files. For the user the EDSS is represented as the number of data sets describing scenario or giving results of evaluation of scenario via modelling. Internally data sets correspond to the I/O files of the models. During the integration the parameters included in each the data sets as well as specifications necessary to present the data set in GUI and export or import it to/from text file are provided with MIL_LIANA language. Visual C++ version of LIANA has been developed in the frame of MOIRA project and is used as the basis for the MOIRA Software Framework - the shell and user interface component of the MOIRA Decision Support System. At present, the usage of LIANA for the creation of a new EDSS requires changes to be made in its C++ code. The possibility to use LIANA for the new EDSS construction without extending the source code is achieved by substituting MIL_LIANA with the object-oriented LIANA language

Black Holes, Entropy Bound and Causality Violation

The gravity/gauge theory duality has provided us a way of studying QCD at short distances from straightforward calculations in classical general relativity. Among numerous results obtained so far, one of the most striking is the universality of the ratio of the shear viscosity to the entropy density. For all gauge theories with Einstein gravity dual, this ratio is \eta/s=1/4\pi. However, in general higher-curvature gravity theories, including two concrete models under discussion - the Gauss-Bonnet gravity and the (Riemann)^2 gravity - the ratio \eta/s can be smaller than 1/4\pi (thus violating the conjecture bound), equal to 1/4\pi or even larger than 1/4\pi. As we probe spacetime at shorter distances, there arises an internal inconsistency in the theory, such as a violation of microcausality, which is correlated with a classical limit on black hole entropy.Comment: 8 pages, no figures; Invited contribution to appear in the Proceedings of the 75 Years since Solvay, Singapore, Nov 2008, (World Scientific, Singapore, 2009

An efficient coding system for deep space probes with specific application to Pioneer missions

One-half rate convolutional encoding with sequential decoding for deep space probe telemetry links with application to Pioneer mission

Fission Hindrance in hot 216Th: Evaporation Residue Measurements

The fusion evaporation-residue cross section for 32S+184W has been measured at beam energies of E_beam = 165, 174, 185, 196, 205, 215, 225, 236, 246,and 257 MeV using the ATLAS Fragment Mass Analyzer. The data are compared with Statistical Model calculations and it is found that a nuclear dissipation strength, which increases with excitation energy, is required to reproduce the excitation function. A comparison with previously published data show that the dissipation strength depends strongly on the shell structure of the nuclear system.Comment: 15 pages 9 figure

How Well Does AdS/QCD Describe QCD?

AdS/QCD is an extra-dimensional approach to modeling hadronic physics, motivated by the AdS/CFT correspondence in string theory. AdS/QCD models are often more accurate than would have been expected at energies below a few GeV. We address the question of why these models are so successful, and respond to some of the criticisms that have been waged against these models.Comment: To appear in proceedings of Crossing the Boundaries: Gauge Dynamics at Strong Coupling (Shifmania), Minnesota, May 14-17, 2009. 12 pages, 2 eps figure

Taxonomic Features and Comparison of the Gut Microbiome from Two Edible Fungus-Farming Termites (Macrotermes falciger, M. natalensis) Harvested in the Vhembe District of Limpopo, South Africa

Background Termites are an important food resource for many human populations around the world, and are a good supply of nutrients. The fungus-farming ‘higher’ termite members of Macrotermitinae are also consumed by modern great apes and are implicated as critical dietary resources for early hominins. While the chemical nutritional composition of edible termites is well known, their microbiomes are unexplored in the context of human health. Here we sequenced the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene of gut microbiota extracted from the whole intestinal tract of two Macrotermes sp. soldiers collected from the Limpopo region of South Africa. Results Major and minor soldier subcastes of M. falciger exhibit consistent differences in taxonomic representation, and are variable in microbial presence and abundance patterns when compared to another edible but less preferred species, M. natalensis. Subcaste differences include alternate patterns in sulfate-reducing bacteria and methanogenic Euryarchaeota abundance, and differences in abundance between Alistipes and Ruminococcaceae. M. falciger minor soldiers and M. natalensissoldiers have similar microbial profiles, likely from close proximity to the termite worker castes, particularly during foraging and fungus garden cultivation. Compared with previously published termite and cockroach gut microbiome data, the taxonomic representation was generally split between termites that directly digest lignocellulose and humic substrates and those that consume a more distilled form of nutrition as with the omnivorous cockroaches and fungus-farming termites. Lastly, to determine if edible termites may point to a shared reservoir for rare bacterial taxa found in the gut microbiome of humans, we focused on the genus Treponema. The majority of Treponemasequences from edible termite gut microbiota most closely relate to species recovered from other termites or from environmental samples, except for one novel OTU strain, which clustered separately with Treponema found in hunter-gatherer human groups. Conclusions Macrotermes consumed by humans display special gut microbial arrangements that are atypical for a lignocellulose digesting invertebrate, but are instead suited to the simplified nutrition in the fungus-farmer diet. Our work brings to light the particular termite microbiome features that should be explored further as avenues in human health, agricultural sustainability, and evolutionary research

Black Hole Production from High Energy Scattering in AdS/CFT

In this article we show how to set up initial states in ${\cal N} =4$ SYM theory that correspond to high energy graviton collisions, leading to black hole formation in $AdS_5\times S^5$. For this purpose, we study states in the gauge theory that are dual to graviton wavepackets localized at the center of $AdS_5$, and carrying large angular momentum along the $S^5$. These states are created by exciting only the s-wave mode of one of the complex adjoint scalars of SYM. For a single graviton, the state is 1/2 BPS and one can show that it is dual to a linearized 1/2 BPS geometry in the bulk. Exploiting this dictionary, we show how to localize the particle's wavefunciton so that the dual linearized metric has the form of a Aichelburg-Sexl shock wave. One can then put two such shock waves into a head-on collision, which is known to produce a trapped surface. Finally, we discuss the prospect of studying graviton scattering directly at strong coupling in the gauge theory using a reduced model of matrix quantum mechanics.Comment: 11 pages, revtex format, no figure

AKSZ-BV Formalism and Courant Algebroid-induced Topological Field Theories

We give a detailed exposition of the Alexandrov-Kontsevich-Schwarz- Zaboronsky superfield formalism using the language of graded manifolds. As a main illustarting example, to every Courant algebroid structure we associate canonically a three-dimensional topological sigma-model. Using the AKSZ formalism, we construct the Batalin-Vilkovisky master action for the model.Comment: 13 pages, based on lectures at Rencontres mathematiques de Glanon 200

Asymptotic Bethe equations for open boundaries in planar AdS/CFT

We solve, by means of a nested coordinate Bethe ansatz, the open-boundaries scattering theory describing the excitations of a free open string propagating in $AdS_5\times S^5$, carrying large angular momentum $J=J_{56}$, and ending on a maximal giant graviton whose angular momentum is in the same plane. We thus obtain the all-loop Bethe equations describing the spectrum, for $J$ finite but large, of the energies of such strings, or equivalently, on the gauge side of the AdS/CFT correspondence, the anomalous dimensions of certain operators built using the epsilon tensor of SU(N). We also give the Bethe equations for strings ending on a probe D7-brane, corresponding to meson-like operators in an $\mathcal N=2$ gauge theory with fundamental matter.Comment: 30 pages. v2: minor changes and discussion section added, J.Phys.A version