432 research outputs found
Robots with Lights: Overcoming Obstructed Visibility Without Colliding
Robots with lights is a model of autonomous mobile computational entities
operating in the plane in Look-Compute-Move cycles: each agent has an
externally visible light which can assume colors from a fixed set; the lights
are persistent (i.e., the color is not erased at the end of a cycle), but
otherwise the agents are oblivious. The investigation of computability in this
model, initially suggested by Peleg, is under way, and several results have
been recently established. In these investigations, however, an agent is
assumed to be capable to see through another agent. In this paper we start the
study of computing when visibility is obstructable, and investigate the most
basic problem for this setting, Complete Visibility: The agents must reach
within finite time a configuration where they can all see each other and
terminate. We do not make any assumption on a-priori knowledge of the number of
agents, on rigidity of movements nor on chirality. The local coordinate system
of an agent may change at each activation. Also, by definition of lights, an
agent can communicate and remember only a constant number of bits in each
cycle. In spite of these weak conditions, we prove that Complete Visibility is
always solvable, even in the asynchronous setting, without collisions and using
a small constant number of colors. The proof is constructive. We also show how
to extend our protocol for Complete Visibility so that, with the same number of
colors, the agents solve the (non-uniform) Circle Formation problem with
obstructed visibility
Gegenbauer-solvable quantum chain model
In an innovative inverse-problem construction the measured, experimental
energies , , ... of a quantum bound-state system are assumed
fitted by an N-plet of zeros of a classical orthogonal polynomial . We
reconstruct the underlying Hamiltonian (in the most elementary
nearest-neighbor-interaction form) and the underlying Hilbert space
of states (the rich menu of non-equivalent inner products is offered). The
Gegenbauer's ultraspherical polynomials are chosen for
the detailed illustration of technicalities.Comment: 29 pp., 1 fi
The locally covariant Dirac field
We describe the free Dirac field in a four dimensional spacetime as a locally
covariant quantum field theory in the sense of Brunetti, Fredenhagen and Verch,
using a representation independent construction. The freedom in the geometric
constructions involved can be encoded in terms of the cohomology of the
category of spin spacetimes. If we restrict ourselves to the observable algebra
the cohomological obstructions vanish and the theory is unique. We establish
some basic properties of the theory and discuss the class of Hadamard states,
filling some technical gaps in the literature. Finally we show that the
relative Cauchy evolution yields commutators with the stress-energy-momentum
tensor, as in the scalar field case.Comment: 36 pages; v2 minor changes, typos corrected, updated references and
acknowledgement
Measurement of circulating filarial antigen levels in human blood with a point-of-care test strip and a portable spectrodensitometer
The Alere Filariasis Test Strip (FTS) is a qualitative, point-of-care diagnostic tool that detects Wuchereria bancrofti circulating filarial antigen (CFA) in human blood, serum, or plasma. The Global Program to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis employs the FTS for mapping filariasis-endemic areas and assessing the success of elimination efforts. The objective of this study was to explore the relationship between the intensity of positive test lines obtained by FTS with CFA levels as determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) with blood and plasma samples from 188 individuals who live in a filariasis-endemic area. The intensity of the FTS test line was assessed visually to provide a semiquantitative score (visual Filariasis Test Strip [vFTS]), and line intensity was measured with a portable spectrodensitometer (quantitative Filariasis Test Strip [gFTS]). These results were compared with antigen levels measured by ELISA in plasma from the same subjects. qFTS measurements were highly correlated with vFTS scores (p = 0.94; P < 0.001) and with plasma CFA levels (p = 0.91; P < 0.001). Thus, qFTS assessment is a convenient method for quantifying W bancrofti CFA levels in human blood, which are correlated with adult worm burdens. This tool may be useful for assessing the impact of treatment on adult filarial worms in individuals and communities
Some remarks on quasi-Hermitian operators
A quasi-Hermitian operator is an operator that is similar to its adjoint in
some sense, via a metric operator, i.e., a strictly positive self-adjoint
operator. Whereas those metric operators are in general assumed to be bounded,
we analyze the structure generated by unbounded metric operators in a Hilbert
space. Following our previous work, we introduce several generalizations of the
notion of similarity between operators. Then we explore systematically the
various types of quasi-Hermitian operators, bounded or not. Finally we discuss
their application in the so-called pseudo-Hermitian quantum mechanics.Comment: 18page
Hydrogen trapping by VC precipitates and structural defects in a high strength Fe-Mn-C steel studied by small-angle neutron scattering
The trapping of hydrogen by VC precipitates and structural defects in high strength Fe-Mn-C steel was studied by small angle neutron scattering. No interaction between H and V in solid solution has been detected but a significant interaction between H and structural defects introduced by plastic deformation has been measured. This last effect was reversible upon outgassing of the H. Moreover a significant interaction between H and VC precipitates has been measured; 5 ppm wt. of H could be trapped in the precipitates. This is consistent with the homogeneous trapping of H within the precipitates rather than at the precipitate/matrix interface
Numerical and experimental study of an air-soil heat exchanger for cooling habitat in Sahelian zone: case of Ouagadougou
The use of air-soil heat exchangers for the cooling home has developed considerably in recent years. In this work, we have leaded the numerical study of an air-soil heat exchanger by using a nodal approach. We have also presented our experimental prototype implemented in Ouagadougou. This study has allowed determining the evolution of air temperature along the exchanger and also validating our numerical results with those of the literature and the experiment
On Invariant Notions of Segre Varieties in Binary Projective Spaces
Invariant notions of a class of Segre varieties \Segrem(2) of PG(2^m - 1,
2) that are direct products of copies of PG(1, 2), being any positive
integer, are established and studied. We first demonstrate that there exists a
hyperbolic quadric that contains \Segrem(2) and is invariant under its
projective stabiliser group \Stab{m}{2}. By embedding PG(2^m - 1, 2) into
\PG(2^m - 1, 4), a basis of the latter space is constructed that is invariant
under \Stab{m}{2} as well. Such a basis can be split into two subsets whose
spans are either real or complex-conjugate subspaces according as is even
or odd. In the latter case, these spans can, in addition, be viewed as
indicator sets of a \Stab{m}{2}-invariant geometric spread of lines of PG(2^m
- 1, 2). This spread is also related with a \Stab{m}{2}-invariant
non-singular Hermitian variety. The case is examined in detail to
illustrate the theory. Here, the lines of the invariant spread are found to
fall into four distinct orbits under \Stab{3}{2}, while the points of PG(7,
2) form five orbits.Comment: 18 pages, 1 figure; v2 - version accepted in Designs, Codes and
Cryptograph
Asymmetric XXZ chain at the antiferromagnetic transition: Spectra and partition functions
The Bethe ansatz equation is solved to obtain analytically the leading
finite-size correction of the spectra of the asymmetric XXZ chain and the
accompanying isotropic 6-vertex model near the antiferromagnetic phase boundary
at zero vertical field. The energy gaps scale with size as and
its amplitudes are obtained in terms of level-dependent scaling functions.
Exactly on the phase boundary, the amplitudes are proportional to a sum of
square-root of integers and an anomaly term. By summing over all low-lying
levels, the partition functions are obtained explicitly. Similar analysis is
performed also at the phase boundary of zero horizontal field in which case the
energy gaps scale as . The partition functions for this case are found
to be that of a nonrelativistic free fermion system. From symmetry of the
lattice model under rotation, several identities between the partition
functions are found. The scaling at zero vertical field is
interpreted as a feature arising from viewing the Pokrovsky-Talapov transition
with the space and time coordinates interchanged.Comment: Minor corrections only. 18 pages in RevTex, 2 PS figure
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