76,560 research outputs found
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ICARUS: Intelligent coupon allocation for retailers using search
Many retailers run loyalty card schemes for their customers offering incentives in the form of money off coupons. The total value of the coupons depends on how much the customer has spent. This paper deals with the problem of finding the smallest set of coupons such that each possible total can be represented as the sum of a pre-defined number of coupons. A mathematical analysis of the problem leads to the development of a genetic algorithm solution. The algorithm is applied to real world data using several crossover operators and compared to well known straw-person methods. Results are promising showing that considerable time can be saved by using this method, reducing a few days worth of consultancy time to a few minutes of computation
The calibratrion of dopplergrams and magnetograms at BBSO
The calibration procedure for the Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) videomagnetograph in which the radial velocity of the sidereal rotation of the Sun is used as a calibrator is described. One of the key points of the procedure is to eliminate the effects of the Earth's motion relative to the Sun and the temperature instability of the birefringent filter by tuning the bandpass of the birefringent filter. The other is to make the light level of the direct image of the videomagnetograph the same both in Doppler and in Zeeman modes in order to reduce the errors introduced by imperfect linearity of the transfer curve of the camera tube. Some practical problems of calibration are discussed for further improvement
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Insights into Activation Mechanisms of Store-Operated TRPC1 Channels in Vascular Smooth Muscle.
In vascular smooth muscle cells (VMSCs), the stimulation of store-operated channels (SOCs) mediate Ca2+ influx pathways which regulate important cellular functions including contraction, proliferation, migration, and growth that are associated with the development of vascular diseases. It is therefore important that we understand the biophysical, molecular composition, activation pathways, and physiological significance of SOCs in VSMCs as these maybe future therapeutic targets for conditions such as hypertension and atherosclerosis. Archetypal SOCs called calcium release-activated channels (CRACs) are composed of Orai1 proteins and are stimulated by the endo/sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ sensor stromal interaction molecule 1 (STIM1) following store depletion. In contrast, this review focuses on proposals that canonical transient receptor potential (TRPC) channels composed of a heteromeric TRPC1/C5 molecular template, with TRPC1 conferring activation by store depletion, mediate SOCs in native contractile VSMCs. In particular, it summarizes our recent findings which describe a novel activation pathway of these TRPC1-based SOCs, in which protein kinase C (PKC)-dependent TRPC1 phosphorylation and phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2) are obligatory for channel opening. This PKC- and PIP2-mediated gating mechanism is regulated by the PIP2-binding protein myristoylated alanine-rich C kinase (MARCKS) and is coupled to store depletion by TRPC1-STIM1 interactions which induce Gq/PLCβ1 activity. Interestingly, the biophysical properties and activation mechanisms of TRPC1-based SOCs in native contractile VSMCs are unlikely to involve Orai1
Negative-Index Refraction in a Lamellar Composite with Alternating Single Negative Layers
Negative-index refraction is achieved in a lamellar composite with
epsilon-negative (ENG) and mu-negative (MNG) materials stacked alternatively.
Based on the effective medium approximation, simultaneously negative effective
permittivity and permeability of such a lamellar composite are obtained
theoretically and further proven by full-wave simulations. Consequently, the
famous left-handed metamaterial comprising split ring resonators and wires is
interpreted as an analogy of such an ENG-MNG lamellar composite. In addition,
beyond the effective medium approximation, the propagating field squeezed near
the ENG/MNG interface is demonstrated to be left-handed surface waves with
backward phase velocity.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figure
Tensor Norms and the Classical Communication Complexity of Nonlocal Quantum Measurement
We initiate the study of quantifying nonlocalness of a bipartite measurement
by the minimum amount of classical communication required to simulate the
measurement. We derive general upper bounds, which are expressed in terms of
certain tensor norms of the measurement operator. As applications, we show that
(a) If the amount of communication is constant, quantum and classical
communication protocols with unlimited amount of shared entanglement or shared
randomness compute the same set of functions; (b) A local hidden variable model
needs only a constant amount of communication to create, within an arbitrarily
small statistical distance, a distribution resulted from local measurements of
an entangled quantum state, as long as the number of measurement outcomes is
constant.Comment: A preliminary version of this paper appears as part of an article in
Proceedings of the the 37th ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing (STOC 2005),
460--467, 200
Nonlinear response of a MgZnO/ZnO heterostructure close to zero bias
We report on magnetotransport properties of a MgZnO/ZnO heterostructure
subjected to weak direct currents. We find that in the regime of overlapping
Landau levels, the differential resistivity acquires a quantum correction
proportional to both the square of the current and the Dingle factor. The
analysis shows that the correction to the differential resistivity is dominated
by a current-induced modification of the electron distribution function and
allows us to access both quantum and inelastic scattering rates.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Charge Transfer Fluctuations as a QGP Signal
In this study, we analyze the recently proposed charge transfer fluctuations
within a finite pseudo-rapidity space. As the charge transfer fluctuation is a
measure of the local charge correlation length, it is capable of detecting
inhomogeneity in the hot and dense matter created by heavy ion collisions. We
predict that going from peripheral to central collisions, the charge transfer
fluctuations at midrapidity should decrease substantially while the charge
transfer fluctuations at the edges of the observation window should decrease by
a small amount. These are consequences of having a strongly inhomogeneous
matter where the QGP component is concentrated around midrapidity. We also show
how to constrain the values of the charge correlations lengths in both the
hadronic phase and the QGP phase using the charge transfer fluctuations.
Current manuscript is based on the preprints hep-ph/0503085 (to appear in
Physical Review C) and nucl-th/0506025.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of 18th International Conference on
Ultrarelativistic Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions: Quark Matter 2005 (QM 2005),
Budapest, Hungary, 4-9 Aug 200
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