Non-linear screening of external charge by doped graphene

We solve a nonlinear integral equation for the electrostatic potential in doped graphene due to an external charge, arising from a Thomas-Fermi (TF) model for screening by graphene's $\pi$ electron bands. In particular, we study the effects of a finite equilibrium charge carrier density in graphene, non-zero temperature, non-zero gap between graphene and a dielectric substrate, as well as the nonlinearity in the band density of states. Effects of the exchange and correlation interactions are also briefly discussed for undoped graphene at zero temperature. Nonlinear results are compared with both the linearized TF model and the dielectric screening model within random phase approximation (RPA). In addition, image potential of the external charge is evaluated from the solution of the nonlinear integral equation and compared to the results of linear models. We have found generally good agreement between the results of the nonlinear TF model and the RPA model in doped graphene, apart from Friedel oscillations in the latter model. However, relatively strong nonlinear effects are found in the TF model to persist even at high doping densities and large distances of the external charge.Comment: 12 pages including 6 figure

Time to publication for NIHR HTA programme-funded research: a cohort study

ObjectiveTo assess the time to publication of primary research and evidence syntheses funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Programme published as a monograph in Health Technology Assessment and as a journal article in the wider biomedical literature.Study designRetrospective cohort study.SettingPrimary research and evidence synthesis projects funded by the HTA Programme were included in the cohort if they were registered in the NIHR research programmes database and was planned to submit the draft final report for publication in Health Technology Assessment on or before 9 December 2011.Main outcome measuresThe median time to publication and publication at 30?months in Health Technology Assessment and in an external journal were determined by searching the NIHR research programmes database and HTA Programme website.ResultsOf 458 included projects, 184 (40.2%) were primary research projects and 274 (59.8%) were evidence syntheses. A total of 155 primary research projects had a completion date; the median time to publication was 23?months (26.5 and 35.5?months to publish a monograph and to publish in an external journal, respectively) and 69% were published within 30?months. The median time to publication of HTA-funded trials (n=126) was 24?months and 67.5% were published within 30?months. Among the evidence syntheses with a protocol online date (n=223), the median time to publication was 25.5?months (28?months to publication as a monograph), but only 44.4% of evidence synthesis projects were published in an external journal. 65% of evidence synthesis studies had been published within 30.0?months.ConclusionsResearch funded by the HTA Programme publishes promptly. The importance of Health Technology Assessment was highlighted as the median time to publication was 9?months shorter for a monograph than an external journal article

Binary codes with disjoint codebooks and mutual Hamming distance

Equal-length linear binary block error-control codes with disjoint codebooks and mutual Hamming distance are considered. A method of constructing pairs of these disjoint codes from known cyclic codes, and determining their mutual distance, is described. Some sets of length-15 cyclic codes are tabulated

The Brian Simulator

“Brian” is a simulator for spiking neural networks (http://www.briansimulator.org). The focus is on making the writing of simulation code as quick and easy as possible for the user, and on flexibility: new and non-standard models are no more difficult to define than standard ones. This allows scientists to spend more time on the details of their models, and less on their implementation. Neuron models are defined by writing differential equations in standard mathematical notation, facilitating scientific communication. Brian is written in the Python programming language, and uses vector-based computation to allow for efficient simulations. It is particularly useful for neuroscientific modelling at the systems level, and for teaching computational neuroscience

Dynamic charge restoration of floating gate subthreshold MOS translinear circuits

We extend a class of analog CMOS circuits that can be used to perform many analog computational tasks. The circuits utilize MOSFET's in their subthreshold region as well as capacitors and switches to produce the computations. We show a few basic current-mode building blocks that perform squaring, square root, and multiplication/division which should be sufficient to gain an understanding of how to implement other power law circuits. We then combine the circuit building blocks into a more complicated circuit that normalizes a current by the square root of the sum of the squares (vector sum) of the currents. Each of these circuits have switches at the inputs of their floating gates which are used to dynamically set and restore the charges at the floating gates to proceed with the computation

Asymptotics of Quantum Relative Entropy From Representation Theoretical Viewpoint

In this paper it was proved that the quantum relative entropy $D(\sigma \| \rho)$ can be asymptotically attained by Kullback Leibler divergences of probabilities given by a certain sequence of POVMs. The sequence of POVMs depends on $\rho$, but is independent of the choice of $\sigma$.Comment: LaTeX2e. 8 pages. The title was changed from "Asymptotic Attainment for Quantum Relative Entropy

Experimental evidence of high-resolution ghost imaging and ghost diffraction with classical thermal light

High-resolution ghost image and ghost diffraction experiments are performed by using a single source of thermal-like speckle light divided by a beam splitter. Passing from the image to the diffraction result solely relies on changing the optical setup in the reference arm, while leaving untouched the object arm. The product of spatial resolutions of the ghost image and ghost diffraction experiments is shown to overcome a limit which was formerly thought to be achievable only with entangled photons.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Soft-decision minimum-distance sequential decoding algorithm for convolutional codes

The maximum-likelihood decoding of convolutional codes has generally been considered impractical for other than relatively short constraint length codes, because of the exponential growth in complexity with increasing constraint length. The soft-decision minimum-distance decoding algorithm proposed in the paper approaches the performance of a maximum-likelihood decoder, and uses a sequential decoding approach to avoid an exponential growth in complexity. The algorithm also utilises the distance and structural properties of convolutional codes to considerably reduce the amount of searching needed to find the minimum soft-decision distance paths when a back-up search is required. This is done in two main ways. First, a small set of paths called permissible paths are utilised to search the whole of the subtree for the better path, instead of using all the paths within a given subtree. Secondly, the decoder identifies which subset of permissible paths should be utilised in a given search and which may be ignored. In this way many unnecessary path searches are completely eliminated. Because the decoding effort required by the algorithm is low, and the decoding processes are simple, the algorithm opens the possibility of building high-speed long constraint length convolutional decoders whose performance approaches that of the optimum maximum-likelihood decoder. The paper describes the algorithm and its theoretical basis, and gives examples of its operation. Also, results obtained from practical implementations of the algorithm using a high-speed microcomputer are presented

Data transmission with variable-redundancy error control over a high-frequency channel

Results of computations and field tests on a binary-data-transmission system, operating at 1 kbaud over an h.f. channel, are presented. Error correction is effected by means of error detection and automatic request for repeat, via a feedback channel (a Post Office private line). A set of short, fixed-block-length cyclic codes is available, a code of appropriate redundancy being automatically selected to match the varying channel conditions. The decision about which code to use is made at the receiver, and the transmitter is informed via the feedback channel. The results show that relatively simple, reliable, and efficient data communication can be realised by this means