787 research outputs found
Investigation of the concept of beauty via a lock-in feedback experiment
Lock-in feedback circuits are routinely used in physics laboratories all
around the world to extract small signals out of a noisy environment. In a
recent paper (M. Kaptein, R. van Emden, and D. Iannuzzi, paper under review),
we have shown that one can adapt the algorithm exploited in those circuits to
gain insight in behavioral economics. In this paper, we extend this concept to
a very subjective socio-philosophical concept: the concept of beauty. We run an
experiment on 7414 volunteers, asking them to express their opinion on the
physical features of an avatar. Each participant was prompted with an image
whose features were adjusted sequentially via a lock-in feedback algorithm
driven by the opinion expressed by the previous participants. Our results show
that the method allows one to identify the most attractive features of the
avatar
Rectangular Layouts and Contact Graphs
Contact graphs of isothetic rectangles unify many concepts from applications
including VLSI and architectural design, computational geometry, and GIS.
Minimizing the area of their corresponding {\em rectangular layouts} is a key
problem. We study the area-optimization problem and show that it is NP-hard to
find a minimum-area rectangular layout of a given contact graph. We present
O(n)-time algorithms that construct -area rectangular layouts for
general contact graphs and -area rectangular layouts for trees.
(For trees, this is an -approximation algorithm.) We also present an
infinite family of graphs (rsp., trees) that require (rsp.,
) area.
We derive these results by presenting a new characterization of graphs that
admit rectangular layouts using the related concept of {\em rectangular duals}.
A corollary to our results relates the class of graphs that admit rectangular
layouts to {\em rectangle of influence drawings}.Comment: 28 pages, 13 figures, 55 references, 1 appendi
Survival of the NASA Mars Odyssey isolate Acinetobacter radioresistens 50v1 on different spaceflight relevant antimicrobial surfaces
Since many years, human mankind travels to space. One of our
mayor interests is the health of astronauts and the protection of the
spacecraft. Apart from external influences, the microbial burden
inside of the International Space Station (ISS) may be dangerous
and must be limited to a minimum. To ensure the status and the
protection of the crew as well as the spacecraft itself, it is
necessary to determine the survival of microorganisms on
different surfaces. Microorganisms are constantly changing their
strategy of survival, primarily induced by extreme environmental
conditions, such as space conditions, compared to their terrestrial
habitats. However, the increased levels in resistance and
robustness possibly play a sensitive role in evolving new virulence
factors in the space environment.
One of the bacteria on the NASA Mars Odyssey spacecraft, which
have been isolated, is the Gram-negative, non-motile bacterium
Acinetobacter radioresistens. Apart from Deinococcus
radiodurans, A. radioresistens shows similar levels in radiation
and oxidative stress tolerance (McCoy et al., 2012). In our work, we used the strain 50v1, isolated from the surface of the Mars
Odyssey spacecraft as well as the type strain DSM6976, which
was isolated on Earth from cotton and soil samples. We
investigated the resistance regarding in their desiccation tolerance
on metallic surfaces including materials with different
antimicrobial properties. For those experiments we exposed and
desiccated both strains on the different surfaces (such as copperand
silver-containing materials) and determined the survival over
different time points. First results show a high resistance of the
spacecraft isolated strain compared to the type strain. These
results give implications about the higher survivability of
environmental microorganisms and highlight the essence of
bioburden reduction and improve sterilization
approaches/techniques for upcoming space exploration missions
towards the search for life outside Earth
Using Link Cuts to Attack Internet Routing
Attacks on the routing system, with the goal of diverting traffic past an enemy-controlled point for purposes of eavesdropping or connection-hijacking, have long been known. In principle, at least, these attacks can be countered by use of appropriate authentication techniques. We demonstrate a new attack, based on link-cutting, that cannot be countered in this fashion. Armed with a topology map and a list of already-compromised links and routers, an attacker can calculate which links to disable, in order to force selected traffic to pass the compromised elements. The calculations necessary to launch this attack are quite efficient; in our implementation, most runs took less than half a second, on databases of several hundred nodes. We also suggest a number of work-arounds, including one based on using intrusion detection systems to modify routing metrics
Development of an experimental 10 T Nb3Sn dipole magnet for the CERN LHC
An experimental 1-m long twill aperture dipole magnet developed using a high-current Nb3Sn conductor in order to attain a magnetic field well beyond 10 T at 4.2 K is described. The emphasis in this Nb3Sn project is on the highest possible field within the known Large Hadron Collider (LHC) twin-aperture configuration. A design target of 11.5 T was chosen
On the 3D distribution and size fractionation of microparticles in a serpentine microchannel
Suitable methods to realize a multi-dimensional fractionation of microparticles smaller than 10 μm diameter are still rare. In the present study, size and density fractionation is investigated for 3.55 μm and 9.87 μm particles in a sharp-corner serpentine microchannel of cross-sectional aspect ratio h∕w = 0.25 . Experimental results are obtained through Astigmatism
Particle Tracking Velocimetry (APTV) measurements, from which three-dimensional particle distributions are reconstructed for Reynolds numbers between 100 and 150. The 3D reconstruction shows for the first time that equilibrium trajectories do not only develop over the channel width, i.e. in-plane equilibrium positions but also over the channel height at different
out-of-plane positions. With increasing Reynolds number, 9.87 μm polystyrene (PS = 1.05 g cm−3) and melamine (MF = 1.51 g cm−3) particles focus on two trajectories near the channel bisector. In contrast to this, it is shown that 3.55 μm polystyrene particles develop four equilibrium trajectories at different in-plane and out-of-plane positions up to a critical
Reynolds number. Beyond this critical Reynolds number, also these particles merge to two trajectories at different channel heights. While the rearrangement of 3.55 μm polystyrene particles just starts beyond Re > 140 , 9.87 μm polystyrene particles undergo this rearrangement already at Re = 100 . As the equilibrium trajectories of these two particle groups are located
at similar out-of-plane positions, outlet geometries that aim to separate particles along the channel width turn out to be a good choice for size fractionation. Indeed, polystyrene particles of different size assume laterally well-separated equilibrium trajectories such that a size fractionation of nearly 100% at Re = 110 can be achieved
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