4,949 research outputs found
Proportional green time scheduling for traffic lights
We consider the decentralized scheduling of a large number of urban traffic lights. We investigate factors determining system performance, in particular, the length of the traffic light cycle and the proportion of green time allocated to each junction. We study the effect of the length of the traffic cycle on the stability region a urban traffic network. We derive a simple square-root cycle length rule which is optimal for certain road traffic junctions. We prove the maximal stability of a road network under a proportional fair or P0 control scheme.
Further, we support of analysis through a simulation analysis of our policy on the Melbourne CBD urban road network
Fluctuations and the QCD phase diagram
In this contribution the role of quantum fluctuations for the QCD phase
diagram is discussed. This concerns in particular the importance of the matter
back-reaction to the gluonic sector. The impact of these fluctuations on the
location of the confinement/deconfinement and the chiral transition lines as
well as their interrelation are investigated. Consequences of our findings for
the size of a possible quarkyonic phase and location of a critical endpoint in
the phase diagram are drawn.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Physics of Atomic Nucle
3D Surface Measurement for Medical ApplicationâTechnical Comparison of Two Established Industrial Surface Scanning Systems
In 3D mapping of flexible surfaces (e.g. human faces) measurement errors due to movement or positioning occur. Aggravated by equipment- or researcher-caused mistakes considerable deviations can result. Therefore first the appliances' precision handling and reliability in clinical environment must be established. Aim of this study was to investigate accuracy and precision of two contact-free 3D measurement systems (white light vs. laser). Standard specimens of known diameter for sphere deviation, touch deviation and plane deviation were tested. Both systems are appropriate for medical application acquiring solid data (<mm). The more complex white-light system shows better accuracy at 0.2s measuring time. The laser system is superior concerning robustness, while accuracy is poorer and input time (1.5-2.5s) longer. Due to the clinical demand the white-light system is superior in a laboratory environment, while the laser system is easier to handle under non-laboratory condition
Object Serialization and Deserialization Using XML
Interoperability of potentially heterogeneous databases has been an ongoing
research issue for a number of years in the database community. With the trend
towards globalization of data location and data access and the consequent
requirement for the coexistence of new data stores with legacy systems, the
cooperation and data interchange between data repositories has become
increasingly important. The emergence of the eXtensible Markup Language (XML)
as a database independent representation for data offers a suitable mechanism
for transporting data between repositories. This paper describes a research
activity within a group at CERN (called CMS) towards identifying and
implementing database serialization and deserialization methods that can be
used to replicate or migrate objects across the network between CERN and
worldwide centres using XML to serialize the contents of multiple objects
resident in object-oriented databases.Comment: 14 pages 7 figure
The Evolution Of LMC X-4 Flares: Evidence For Super-Eddington Radiation Oozing Through Inhomogeneous Polar Cap Accretion Flows ?
We present the results of two extensive Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer
observations of large X-ray flaring episodes from the high-mass X-ray binary
pulsar LMC X-4. Light curves during the flaring episodes comprise bright peaks
embedded in relatively fainter regions, with complex patterns of recurrence and
clustering of flares. We identify precursors preceding the flaring activity.
Pulse profiles during the flares appear to be simple sinusoids, and pulsed
fractions are proportional to the flare intensities. We fit Gaussian functions
to flare peaks to estimate the mean full-width-half-maximum to be 68 s.
Significant rapid aperiodic variability exists up to a few hertz during the
flares, which is related to the appearance of narrow, spiky peaks in the light
curves. While spectral fits and softness ratios show overall spectral softening
as the flare intensity increases, the narrow, spiky peaks do not follow this
trend. The mean fluence of the flare peaks is (3.1 2.9)
10 ergs in the 2.5--25 keV energy range, with its maximum at 1.9
10 ergs. The flare peak luminosity reaches up to (2.1
0.2) 10 ergs s, far above the Eddington luminosity of a
neutron star. We discuss possible origins of the flares, and we also propose
that inhomogeneous accretion columns onto the neutron star polar caps are
responsible for the observed properties.Comment: 39 pages (including figures and tables), accepted for publication in
Ap
On the spectrum of AdS/CFT beyond supergravity
We test the spectrum of string theory on AdS_5 x S^5 derived in
hep-th/0305052 against that of single-trace gauge invariant operators in free
N=4 super Yang-Mills theory. Masses of string excitations at critical tension
are derived by extrapolating plane-wave frequencies at g_{YM}=0 down to finite
J. On the SYM side, we present a systematic description of the spectrum of
single-trace operators and its reduction to PSU(2,2|4) superconformal primaries
via a refined Eratostenes' supersieve. We perform the comparison of the
resulting SYM/string spectra of charges and multiplicities order by order in
the conformal dimension \Delta up to \Delta=10 and find perfect agreement.
Interestingly, the SYM/string massive spectrum exhibits a hidden symmetry
structure larger than expected, with bosonic subgroup SO(10,2) and thirty-two
supercharges.Comment: 28 pages, LaTeX2
The Spitzer-IRAC/MIPS Extragalactic survey (SIMES) in the South Ecliptic Pole field
We present the Spitzer-IRAC/MIPS Extragalactic survey (SIMES) in the South Ecliptic Pole field. The large area covered (7.7 deg^2), together with one of the lowest Galactic cirrus emissions in the entire sky and a very extensive coverage by Spitzer, Herschel, Akari, and GALEX, make the SIMES field ideal for extragalactic studies. The elongated geometry of the SIMES area (â4:1), allowing for significant cosmic variance reduction, further improves the quality of statistical studies in this field. Here we present the reduction and photometric measurements of the Spitzer/IRAC data. The survey reaches depths of 1.93 and 1.75 ÎŒJy (1Ï) at 3.6 and 4.5 ÎŒm, respectively. We discuss the multiwavelength IRAC-based catalog, completed with optical, mid-, and far-IR observations. We detect 341,000 sources with F_(3.6”m) â©Ÿ3Ï. Of these, 10% have an associated 24 ÎŒm counterpart, while 2.7% have an associated SPIRE source. We release the catalog through the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive. Two scientific applications of these IRAC data are presented in this paper. First, we compute integral number counts at 3.6 ÎŒm. Second, we use the [3.6]â[4.5] color index to identify galaxy clusters at z > 1.3. We select 27 clusters in the full area, a result consistent with previous studies at similar depth
Minimum detectable and minimal clinically important changes for pain in patients with nonspecific neck pain
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The minimal detectable change (MDC) and the minimal clinically important changes (MCIC) have been explored for nonspecific low back pain patients and are similar across different cultural settings. No data on MDC and MCIC for pain severity are available for neck pain patients. The objectives of this study were to estimate MDC and MCIC for pain severity in subacute and chronic neck pain (NP) patients, to assess if MDC and MCIC values are influenced by baseline values and to explore if they are different in the subset of patients reporting referred pain, and in subacute versus chronic patients.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Subacute and chronic patients treated in routine clinical practice of the Spanish National Health Service for neck pain, with or without pain referred to the arm, and a pain severity ℠3 points on a pain intensity number rating scale (PI-NRS), were included in this study. Patients' own "global perceived effect" over a 3 month period was used as the external criterion. The minimal detectable change (MDC) was estimated by means of the standard error of measurement in patients who self-assess as unchanged. MCIC were estimated by the mean value of change score in patients who self-assess as improved (mean change score, MCS), and by the optimal cutoff point in receiver operating characteristics curves (ROC). The effect on MDC and MCIC of initial scores, duration of pain, and existence of referred pain were assessed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>658 patients were included, 487 of them with referred pain. MDC was 4.0 PI-NRS points for neck pain in the entire sample, 4.2 for neck pain in patients who also had referred pain, and 6.2 for referred pain. MCS was 4.1 and ROC was 1.5 for referred and for neck pain, both in the entire sample and in patients who also complained of referred pain. ROC was lower (0.5 PI-NRS points) for subacute than for chronic patients (1.5 points). MCS was higher for patients with more intense baseline pain, ranging from 2.4 to 4.9 PI-NRS for neck pain and from 2.4 to 5.3 for referred pain.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In general, improvements †1.5 PI-NRS points could be seen as irrelevant. Above that value, the cutoff point for clinical relevance depends on the methods used to estimate MCIC and on the patient's baseline severity of pain. MDC and MCIC values in neck pain patients are similar to those for low back pain and other painful conditions.</p
The Origin of Carbon-Enhancement and Initial Mass Function of Extremely Metal-Poor Stars in the Galactic Halo
It is known that the carbon-enhanced, extremely metal-poor (CEMP) stars
constitute a substantial proportion in the extremely metal-poor (EMP) stars of
the Galactic Halo, by far larger than CH stars in Population II stars. We
investigate their origin with taking into account an additional evolutionary
path to the surface carbon-enrichment, triggered by hydrogen engulfment by the
helium flash convection, in EMP stars of . This process
is distinct from the third dredge-up operating in more metal-rich stars and
also in EMP stars. In binary systems of EMP stars, the secondary stars become
CEMP stars through mass transfer from the primary stars of low and intermediate
masses, which have developed the surface carbon-enhancement. Our binary
scenario can predict the variations in the abundances not only for carbon but
also for nitrogen and s-process elements and reasonably explain the observed
properties such as the stellar distributions with respect to the carbon
abundances, the binary periods, and the evolutionary stages. Furthermore, from
the observed frequencies of CEMP stars with and without s-process element
enhancement, we demonstrate that the initial mass function of EMP stars need to
give the mean mass ~10\msun under the reasonable assumptions on the
distributions of orbital separations and mass ratio of binary components. This
also indicates that the currently observed EMP stars were exclusively born as
the secondary members of binaries, making up remnants of EMP binary
systems of mass ~10^8\msun in total; in addition to CEMP stars with white
dwarf companions, a significant fraction of them have experienced supernova
explosions of their companions. We discuss the implications of the present
results in relation to the formation of Galactic halo.Comment: 66 pages, 12 figures, 2 tables Accepted for publication in Ap
Chaos in the Einstein-Yang-Mills Equations
Yang-Mills color fields evolve chaotically in an anisotropically expanding
universe. The chaotic behaviour differs from that found in anisotropic
Mixmaster universes. The universe isotropizes at late times, approaching the
mean expansion rate of a radiation-dominated universe. However, small chaotic
oscillations of the shear and color stresses continue indefinitely. An
invariant, coordinate-independent characterisation of the chaos is provided by
means of fractal basin boundaries.Comment: 3 pages LaTeX + 3 pages of figure
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