2,927 research outputs found
Engaging without over-powering: A case study of a FLOSS project
This is the post-print version of the published chapter. The original publication is available at the link below. Copyright @ 2010 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing.The role of Open Source Software (OSS) in the e-learning business has become more and more fundamental in the last 10 years, as long as corporate and government organizations have developed their educational and training programs based on OSS out-of-the-box tools. This paper qualitatively documents the decision of the largest UK e-learning provider, the Open University, to adopt the Moodle e-learning system, and how it has been successfully deployed in its site after a multi-million investment. A further quantitative study also provides evidence of how a commercial stakeholder has been engaged with, and produced outputs for, the Moodle community. Lessons learned from this experience by the stakeholders include the crucial factors of contributing to the OSS community, and adapting to an evolving technology. It also becomes evident how commercial partners helped this OSS system to achieve the transition from an âaverageâ OSS system to a successful multi-site, collaborative and community-based OSS project
Approaching the Coverability Problem Continuously
The coverability problem for Petri nets plays a central role in the
verification of concurrent shared-memory programs. However, its high
EXPSPACE-complete complexity poses a challenge when encountered in real-world
instances. In this paper, we develop a new approach to this problem which is
primarily based on applying forward coverability in continuous Petri nets as a
pruning criterion inside a backward coverability framework. A cornerstone of
our approach is the efficient encoding of a recently developed polynomial-time
algorithm for reachability in continuous Petri nets into SMT. We demonstrate
the effectiveness of our approach on standard benchmarks from the literature,
which shows that our approach decides significantly more instances than any
existing tool and is in addition often much faster, in particular on large
instances.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figure
Scaling of Traction Forces with Size of Cohesive Cell Colonies
To understand how the mechanical properties of tissues emerge from
interactions of multiple cells, we measure traction stresses of cohesive
colonies of 1-27 cells adherent to soft substrates. We find that traction
stresses are generally localized at the periphery of the colony and the total
traction force scales with the colony radius. For large colony sizes, the
scaling appears to approach linear, suggesting the emergence of an apparent
surface tension of order 1E-3 N/m. A simple model of the cell colony as a
contractile elastic medium coupled to the substrate captures the spatial
distribution of traction forces and the scaling of traction forces with the
colony size.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Quark mass correction to the string potential
A consistent method for calculating the interquark potential generated by the
relativistic string with massive ends is proposed. In this approach the
interquark potential in the model of the Nambu--Goto string with point--like
masses at its ends is calculated. At first the calculation is done in the
one--loop approximation and then the variational estimation is performed. The
quark mass correction results in decreasing the critical distance
(deconfinement radius). When quark mass decreases the critical distance also
decreases. For obtaining a finite result under summation over eigenfrequencies
of the Nambu--Goto string with massive ends a suitable mode--by--mode
subtraction is proposed. This renormalization procedure proves to be completely
unique. In the framework of the developed approach the one--loop interquark
potential in the model of the relativistic string with rigidity is also
calculated.Comment: 34 pages, LATE
Permeability of self-affine rough fractures
The permeability of two-dimensional fractures with self-affine fractal
roughness is studied via analytic arguments and numerical simulations. The
limit where the roughness amplitude is small compared with average fracture
aperture is analyzed by a perturbation method, while in the opposite case of
narrow aperture, we use heuristic arguments based on lubrication theory.
Numerical simulations, using the lattice Boltzmann method, are used to examine
the complete range of aperture sizes, and confirm the analytic arguments.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figure
CO adsorption on neutral iridium clusters
The adsorption of carbon monoxide on neutral iridium clusters in the size
range of n = 3 to 21 atoms is investigated with infrared multiple photon
dissociation spectroscopy. For each cluster size only a single v(CO) band is
present with frequencies in the range between 1962 cm-1 (n = 8) and 1985 cm-1
(n = 18) which can be attributed to an atop binding geometry. This behaviour is
compared to the CO binding geometries on clusters of other group 9 and 10
transition metals as well as to that on extended surfaces. The preference of Ir
for atop binding is rationalized by relativistic effects on the electronic
structure of the later 5d metals
String Nature of Confinement in (Non-)Abelian Gauge Theories
Recent progress achieved in the solution of the problem of confinement in
various (non-)Abelian gauge theories by virtue of a derivation of their string
representation is reviewed. The theories under study include QCD within the
so-called Method of Field Correlators, QCD-inspired Abelian-projected theories,
and compact QED in three and four space-time dimensions. Various
nonperturbative properties of the vacua of the above mentioned theories are
discussed. The relevance of the Method of Field Correlators to the study of
confinement in Abelian models, allowing for an analytical description of this
phenomenon, is illustrated by an evaluation of field correlators in these
models.Comment: 100 pages, LaTeX2e, no figures, 1 table, based on the Ph.D. thesises
at the Humboldt University of Berlin (1999) (available under
http://dochost.rz.hu-berlin.de) and the Institute of Theoretical and
Experimental Physics, Moscow (2000), new results are included, extended with
respect to the journal versio
Cosmological Implications of Dynamical Supersymmetry Breaking
We provide a taxonomy of dynamical supersymmetry breaking theories, and
discuss the cosmological implications of the various types of models. Models in
which supersymmetry breaking is produced by chiral superfields which only have
interactions of gravitational strength (\eg\ string theory moduli) are
inconsistent with standard big bang nucleosynthesis unless the gravitino mass
is greater than \CO(3) \times 10^4 GeV. This problem cannot be solved by
inflation. Models in which supersymmetry is dynamically broken by
renormalizable interactions in flat space have no such cosmological problems.
Supersymmetry can be broken either in a hidden or the visible sector. However
hidden sector models suffer from several naturalness problems and have
difficulties in producing an acceptably large gluino mass.Comment: 24 pages (uses harvmac) UCSD/PTH 93-26, RU-3
The origin of the matter-antimatter asymmetry
Although the origin of matter-antimatter asymmetry remains unknown,
continuing advances in theory and improved experimental limits have ruled out
some scenarios for baryogenesis, for example the sphaleron baryogenesis at the
electroweak phase transition in the standard model. At the same time, the
success of cosmological inflation and the prospects for discovering
supersymmetry at the LHC have put some other models in sharper focus. We review
the current state of our understanding of baryogenesis with the emphasis on
those scenarios that we consider most plausible.Comment: submitted to Reviews of Modern Physics; 38 pages; 9 figure
Spectral line shape of resonant four-wave mixing induced by broad-bandwidth lasers
We present a theoretical and experimental study of the line shape of resonant four-wave mixing induced by broad-bandwidth laser radiation that revises the theory of Meacher, Smith, Ewart, and Cooper (MSEC) [Phys. Rev. A 46, 2718 (1992)]. We adopt the same method as MSEC but correct for an invalid integral used to average over the distribution of atomic velocities. The revised theory predicts a Voigt line shape composed of a homogeneous, Lorentzian component, defined by the collisional rate Î, and an inhomogeneous, Doppler component, which is a squared Gaussian. The width of the inhomogeneous component is reduced by a factor of â2 compared to the simple Doppler width predicted by MSEC. In the limit of dominant Doppler broadening, the width of the homogeneous component is predicted to be 4Î, whereas in the limit of dominant homogeneous broadening, the predicted width is 2Î. An experimental measurement is reported of the line shape of the four-wave-mixing signal using a broad-bandwidth, "modeless", laser resonant with the Q1 (6) line of the A2 ÎŁ - X2 Î (0,0) system of the hydroxyl radical. The measured widths of the Voigt components were found to be consistent with the predictions of the revised theory
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