Wide range and tunable linear TMR sensor using two exchange pinned electrodes

A magnetic tunnel junction sensor is proposed, with both the detection and the reference layers pinned by IrMn. Using the differences in the blocking temperatures of the IrMn films with different thicknesses, crossed anisotropies can be induced between the detection and the reference electrodes. The pinning of the sensing electrode ensures a linear and reversible output. It also allows tuning both the sensitivity and the linear range of the sensor. The authors show that the sensitivity varies linearly with the ferromagnetic thickness of the detection electrode. It is demonstrated that an increased thickness leads to a rise of sensitivity and a reduction of the operating range

From LTL and Limit-Deterministic B\"uchi Automata to Deterministic Parity Automata

Controller synthesis for general linear temporal logic (LTL) objectives is a challenging task. The standard approach involves translating the LTL objective into a deterministic parity automaton (DPA) by means of the Safra-Piterman construction. One of the challenges is the size of the DPA, which often grows very fast in practice, and can reach double exponential size in the length of the LTL formula. In this paper we describe a single exponential translation from limit-deterministic B\"uchi automata (LDBA) to DPA, and show that it can be concatenated with a recent efficient translation from LTL to LDBA to yield a double exponential, \enquote{Safraless} LTL-to-DPA construction. We also report on an implementation, a comparison with the SPOT library, and performance on several sets of formulas, including instances from the 2016 SyntComp competition

Framing the Blue Economy: Placelessness, Development and Sustainability

This article aims at unravelling the wide acceptance and endorsement of the blue economy. It places the blue economy at the confluence of three discourses: placelessness of the sea; development; sustainability. These discourses, originating on land, spread to the marine realm spatially, narratively and normatively. To account for this process, the concept of horizontal reciprocity is introduced to characterise the relation that operates between land and sea and the projection of norms. It is part of a larger process of normalisation of the sea via its inclusion into the dominant model of economic development. Highlighting how the blue economy builds on and echoes these discourses enables an understanding of the challenges resulting from its narrative and practice. The blue economy requires and justifies governance of the maritime space; it opens up new economic and political possibilities and results in further knowledge creation and interventions (resulting in territorialisation of the sea). The discussion calls for further research to critically assess the connections between macro-discourses and local realities and address today’s challenges facing oceans

Liquid transport in scale space

International audienceWhen a liquid stream is injected into a gaseous atmosphere, it destabilizes and continuously passes through different states characterized by different morphologies. Throughout this process, the flow dynamics may be different depending on the region of the flow and the scales of the involved liquid structures. Exploring this multi-scale, multi-dimensional phenomenon requires some new theoretical tools, some of which need yet to be elaborated. Here, a new analytical framework is proposed on the basis of two-point statistical equations of the liquid volume fraction. This tool, which originates from single phase turbulence, allows us notably to decompose the fluxes of liquid in flow–position space and scale space. Direct numerical simulations of liquid–gas turbulence decaying in a triply periodic domain are then used to characterize the time and scale evolution of the liquid volume fraction. It is emphasized that two-point statistics of the liquid volume fraction depend explicitly on the geometrical properties of the liquid–gas interface and in particular its surface density. The stretch rate of the liquid–gas interface is further shown to be the equivalent for the liquid volume fraction (a non-diffusive scalar) of the scalar dissipation rate. Finally, a decomposition of the transport of liquid in scale space highlights that non-local interactions between non-adjacent scales play a significant role

World War ‘V’: Emissions change if Birmingham became vegetarian and contemporary attitudes towards vegetarianism.

This study uses quantitative analysis to assess the current dietary habits of 27 vegetarian and 144 non-vegetarian Birmingham residents. Results suggest that environmental reasons are a more popular motivating factor for becoming vegetarian than in previous studies. Using published nutrition and emissions data, the impact of all residents of Birmingham eating only vegetarian meals, both at-home and when dining in Birmingham restaurants, was assessed. These data show that the average Birmingham resident can save approximately 906 kg of carbon dioxide a year by only eating vegetarian meals totalling 3,924,920,776 KgCO2e (equal to 0.85% of the UK’s emissions output). However, the results indicate that city-wide vegetarianism is not currently feasible for the Birmingham population as some residents do not deem any factors as sufficient motivation

Why highly expressed proteins evolve slowly

Much recent work has explored molecular and population-genetic constraints on the rate of protein sequence evolution. The best predictor of evolutionary rate is expression level, for reasons which have remained unexplained. Here, we hypothesize that selection to reduce the burden of protein misfolding will favor protein sequences with increased robustness to translational missense errors. Pressure for translational robustness increases with expression level and constrains sequence evolution. Using several sequenced yeast genomes, global expression and protein abundance data, and sets of paralogs traceable to an ancient whole-genome duplication in yeast, we rule out several confounding effects and show that expression level explains roughly half the variation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae protein evolutionary rates. We examine causes for expression's dominant role and find that genome-wide tests favor the translational robustness explanation over existing hypotheses that invoke constraints on function or translational efficiency. Our results suggest that proteins evolve at rates largely unrelated to their functions, and can explain why highly expressed proteins evolve slowly across the tree of life.Comment: 40 pages, 3 figures, with supporting informatio