Electronic, optical and thermal properties of the hexagonal and fcc Ge2Sb2Te5 chalcogenide from first-principle calculations

We present a comprehensive computational study on the properties of face-centered cubic and hexagonal chalcogenide Ge2Sb2Te5. We calculate the electronic structure using density functional theory (DFT); the obtained density of states (DOS) compares favorably with experiments, also looking suitable for transport analysis. Optical constants including refraction index and absorption coefficient capture major experimental features, aside from an energy shift owed to an underestimate of the band gap that is typical of DFT calculations. We also compute the phonon DOS for the hexagonal phase, obtaining a speed of sound and thermal conductivity in good agreement with the experimental lattice contribution. The calculated heat capacity reaches ~ 1.4 x 106 J/(m3 K) at high temperature, in agreement with experimental data, and provides insight into the low-temperature range (< 150 K), where data are unavailable.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figure

Magnetic domain wall motion in a nanowire: depinning and creep

The domain wall motion in a magnetic nanowire is examined theoretically in the regime where the domain wall driving force is weak and its competition against disorders is assisted by thermal agitations. Two types of driving forces are considered; magnetic field and current. While the field induces the domain wall motion through the Zeeman energy, the current induces the domain wall motion by generating the spin transfer torque, of which effects in this regime remain controversial. The spin transfer torque has two mutually orthogonal vector components, the adiabatic spin transfer torque and the nonadiabatic spin transfer torque. We investigate separate effects of the two components on the domain wall depinning rate in one-dimensional systems and on the domain wall creep velocity in two-dimensional systems, both below the Walker breakdown threshold. In addition to the leading order contribution coming from the field and/or the nonadiabatic spin transfer torque, we find that the adiabatic spin transfer torque generates corrections, which can be of relevance for an unambiguous analysis of experimental results. For instance, it is demonstrated that the neglect of the corrections in experimental analysis may lead to incorrect evaluation of the nonadiabaticity parameter. Effects of the Rashba spin-orbit coupling on the domain wall motion are also analyzed.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figure

Ultrasound in the study and monitoring of osteoarthritis

This review addresses the use of ultrasound (US) as an imaging technique for the evaluation and monitoring of the osteoarthritic joint. US complements both the clinical examination and radiological imaging by allowing the rheumatologist to recognize not only the bony profile but also to visualize the soft tissues. Systematic US scanning following established guidelines can demonstrate even minimal abnormalities of articular cartilage, bony cortex and synovial tissue. US is also extremely sensitive in the detection of soft tissue changes in the involved joints including the proliferation of the synovium and changes in the amount of fluid present within the joint. Monitoring the amount of fluid in the hip and knee joint with osteoarthritis may be a potentially useful finding in the selection of patients for clinical investigation and for assessing their response to therapeutic interventions. © 2008

COMPASS server for remote homology inference

COMPASS is a method for homology detection and local alignment construction based on the comparison of multiple sequence alignments (MSAs). The method derives numerical profiles from given MSAs, constructs local profile-profile alignments and analytically estimates E-values for the detected similarities. Until now, COMPASS was only available for download and local installation. Here, we present a new web server featuring the latest version of COMPASS, which provides (i) increased sensitivity and selectivity of homology detection; (ii) longer, more complete alignments; and (iii) faster computational speed. After submission of the query MSA or single sequence, the server performs searches versus a user-specified database. The server includes detailed and intuitive control of the search parameters. A flexible output format, structured similarly to BLAST and PSI-BLAST, provides an easy way to read and analyze the detected profile similarities. Brief help sections are available for all input parameters and output options, along with detailed documentation. To illustrate the value of this tool for protein structure-functional prediction, we present two examples of detecting distant homologs for uncharacterized protein families. Available at http://prodata.swmed.edu/compas

Adaptive Control of Truss Structures for Gossamer Spacecraft

Neural network-based adaptive control is considered for active control of a highly flexible truss structure which may be used to support solar sail membranes. The objective is to suppress unwanted vibrations in SAFE (Solar Array Flight Experiment) boom, a test-bed located at NASA. Compared to previous tests that restrained truss structures in planar motion, full three dimensional motions are tested. Experimental results illustrate the potential of adaptive control in compensating for nonlinear actuation and modeling error, and in rejecting external disturbances

A comprehensive system for evaluation of remote sequence similarity detection

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Accurate and sensitive performance evaluation is crucial for both effective development of better structure prediction methods based on sequence similarity, and for the comparative analysis of existing methods. Up to date, there has been no satisfactory comprehensive evaluation method that (i) is based on a large and statistically unbiased set of proteins with clearly defined relationships; and (ii) covers all performance aspects of sequence-based structure predictors, such as sensitivity and specificity, alignment accuracy and coverage, and structure template quality.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>With the aim of designing such a method, we (i) select a statistically balanced set of divergent protein domains from SCOP, and define similarity relationships for the majority of these domains by complementing the best of information available in SCOP with a rigorous SVM-based algorithm; and (ii) develop protocols for the assessment of similarity detection and alignment quality from several complementary perspectives. The evaluation of similarity detection is based on ROC-like curves and includes several complementary approaches to the definition of true/false positives. Reference-dependent approaches use the 'gold standard' of pre-defined domain relationships and structure-based alignments. Reference-independent approaches assess the quality of structural match predicted by the sequence alignment, with respect to the whole domain length (global mode) or to the aligned region only (local mode). Similarly, the evaluation of alignment quality includes several reference-dependent and -independent measures, in global and local modes. As an illustration, we use our benchmark to compare the performance of several methods for the detection of remote sequence similarities, and show that different aspects of evaluation reveal different properties of the evaluated methods, highlighting their advantages, weaknesses, and potential for further development.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The presented benchmark provides a new tool for a statistically unbiased assessment of methods for remote sequence similarity detection, from various complementary perspectives. This tool should be useful both for users choosing the best method for a given purpose, and for developers designing new, more powerful methods. The benchmark set, reference alignments, and evaluation codes can be downloaded from <url>ftp://iole.swmed.edu/pub/evaluation/</url>.</p

Development of group method of data handling based on genetic algorithm to predict incipient motion in rigid rectangular storm water channel

Sediment transport is a prevalent vital process in uvial and coastalenvironments, and \incipient motion" is an issue inseparably bound to this topic. Thisstudy utilizes a novel hybrid method based on Group Method of Data Handling (GMDH)and Genetic Algorithm (GA) to design GMDH structural (GMDH-GA). Also, SingularValue Decomposition (SVD) was utilized to compute the linear coefficient vectors. Inorder to predict the densimetric Froude number (Fr), the ratio of median diameter ofparticle size to hydraulic radius (d=R) and the ratio of sediment deposit thickness tohydraulic radius (ts=R) are utilized as e ective parameters. Using three di erent sources ofexperimental data and GMDH-GA model, a new equation is proposed to predict incipientmotion. The performance of development equation is compared using GMDH-GA andtraditional equations . The results indicate that the presented equation is more accurate(RMSE= 0:18 andMAPE= 6:48%) than traditional methods. Also, a sensitivityanalysis is presented to study the performance of each input combination in predictingincipient motion (15) Development of Group Method of Data Handling based on Genetic Algorithm to predict incipient motion in rigid rectangular storm water channel

Adaptive Control of Truss Structures for Gossamer Spacecraft

Neural network-based adaptive control is considered for active control of a highly flexible truss structure which may be used to support solar sail membranes. The objective is to suppress unwanted vibrations in SAFE (Solar Array Flight Experiment) boom, a test-bed located at NASA. Compared to previous tests that restrained truss structures in planar motion, full three dimensional motions are tested. Experimental results illustrate the potential of adaptive control in compensating for nonlinear actuation and modeling error, and in rejecting external disturbances

Evaluation of measurement accuracies of the Higgs boson branching fractions in the International Linear Collider

Precise measurement of Higgs boson couplings is an important task for International Linear Collider (ILC) experiments and will facilitate the understanding of the particle mass generation mechanism. In this study, the measurement accuracies of the Higgs boson branching fractions to the $b$ and $c$ quarks and gluons, $\Delta Br(H\to b\bar{b},\sim c\bar{c},\sim gg)/Br$, were evaluated with the full International Large Detector model (\texttt{ILD\_00}) for the Higgs mass of 120 GeV at the center-of-mass (CM) energies of 250 and 350 GeV using neutrino, hadronic and leptonic channels and assuming an integrated luminosity of $250 {\rm fb^{-1}}$, and an electron (positron) beam polarization of -80% (+30%). We obtained the following measurement accuracies of the Higgs cross section times branching fraction ($\Delta (\sigma \cdot Br)/\sigma \cdot Br$) for decay of the Higgs into $b\bar{b}$, $c\bar{c}$, and $gg$; as 1.0%, 6.9%, and 8.5% at a CM energy of 250 GeV and 1.0%, 6.2%, and 7.3% at 350 GeV, respectively. After the measurement accuracy of the cross section ($\Delta\sigma/\sigma$) was corrected using the results of studies at 250 GeV and their extrapolation to 350 GeV, the derived measurement accuracies of the branching fractions ($\Delta Br/Br$) to $b\bar{b}$, $c\bar{c}$, and gg were 2.7%, 7.3%, and 8.9% at a CM energy of 250 GeV and 3.6%, 7.2%, and 8.1% at 350 GeV, respectively.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figure