3,864 research outputs found
The Drift Chambers Of The Nomad Experiment
We present a detailed description of the drift chambers used as an active
target and a tracking device in the NOMAD experiment at CERN. The main
characteristics of these chambers are a large area, a self supporting structure
made of light composite materials and a low cost. A spatial resolution of 150
microns has been achieved with a single hit efficiency of 97%.Comment: 42 pages, 26 figure
Conformation of 1,4-dihydropyridine — planar or boat-like?
AbstractThe geometry of the 1,4-dihydropyridine molecule was completely optimized employing three different ab initio basis sets (6–31 G*, 4–31 G, STO—3G). The most reliable 6–31G* basis set provides a very flat boat conformation which may easily undergo defolding to a planar ring arrangement. This result is discussed with respect to enzymatic redox cofactors and the pharmacological activity of dihydropyridine calcium antagonists
Aharonov-Bohm interferences from local deformations in graphene
One of the most interesting aspects of graphene is the tied relation between
structural and electronic properties. The observation of ripples in the
graphene samples both free standing and on a substrate has given rise to a very
active investigation around the membrane-like properties of graphene and the
origin of the ripples remains as one of the most interesting open problems in
the system. The interplay of structural and electronic properties is
successfully described by the modelling of curvature and elastic deformations
by fictitious gauge fields that have become an ex- perimental reality after the
suggestion that Landau levels can form associated to strain in graphene and the
subsequent experimental confirmation. Here we propose a device to detect
microstresses in graphene based on a scanning-tunneling-microscopy setup able
to measure Aharonov-Bohm inter- ferences at the nanometer scale. The
interferences to be observed in the local density of states are created by the
fictitious magnetic field associated to elastic deformations of the sample.Comment: Some bugs fixe
Graphene as a quantum surface with curvature-strain preserving dynamics
We discuss how the curvature and the strain density of the atomic lattice
generate the quantization of graphene sheets as well as the dynamics of
geometric quasiparticles propagating along the constant curvature/strain
levels. The internal kinetic momentum of Riemannian oriented surface (a vector
field preserving the Gaussian curvature and the area) is determined.Comment: 13p, minor correction
DCC dynamics with the SU(3) linear sigma model
The SU(3) extension of the linear sigma model is employed to elucidate the
effect of including strangeness on the formation of disoriented chiral
condensates. By means of a Hartree factorization, approximate dispersion
relations for the 18 scalar and pseudoscalar meson species are derived and
their self-consistent solution makes it possible to trace out the thermal path
of the two order parameters as well as delineate the region of instability
within which spontaneous pair creation becomes possible. The results depend
significantly on the employed sigma mass, with the highest values yielding the
largest regions of instability. An approximate solution of the equations of
motion for the order parameter in scenarios emulating uniform scaling
expansions show that even with a rapid quench only the pionic modes grow
unstable. Nevertheless, the rapid and oscillatory relaxation of the order
parameters leads to enhanced production of both pions and (to a lesser degree)
kaons.Comment: 29 pages, RevTeX, 11 postscript figures, discussion about anomaly
term adde
Modeling Supply Networks and Business Cycles as Unstable Transport Phenomena
Physical concepts developed to describe instabilities in traffic flows can be
generalized in a way that allows one to understand the well-known instability
of supply chains (the so-called ``bullwhip effect''). That is, small variations
in the consumption rate can cause large variations in the production rate of
companies generating the requested product. Interestingly, the resulting
oscillations have characteristic frequencies which are considerably lower than
the variations in the consumption rate. This suggests that instabilities of
supply chains may be the reason for the existence of business cycles. At the
same time, we establish some link to queuing theory and between micro- and
macroeconomics.Comment: For related work see http://www.helbing.or
Universal features in the growth dynamics of complex organizations
We analyze the fluctuations in the gross domestic product (GDP) of 152
countries for the period 1950--1992. We find that (i) the distribution of
annual growth rates for countries of a given GDP decays with ``fatter'' tails
than for a Gaussian, and (ii) the width of the distribution scales as a power
law of GDP with a scaling exponent . Both findings are in
surprising agreement with results on firm growth. These results are consistent
with the hypothesis that the evolution of organizations with complex structure
is governed by similar growth mechanisms.Comment: 4 pages, 7 ps figures, using Latex2e with epsf rotate and multicol
style files. Submitted to PR
Scaling of the distribution of fluctuations of financial market indices
We study the distribution of fluctuations over a time scale (i.e.,
the returns) of the S&P 500 index by analyzing three distinct databases.
Database (i) contains approximately 1 million records sampled at 1 min
intervals for the 13-year period 1984-1996, database (ii) contains 8686 daily
records for the 35-year period 1962-1996, and database (iii) contains 852
monthly records for the 71-year period 1926-1996. We compute the probability
distributions of returns over a time scale , where varies
approximately over a factor of 10^4 - from 1 min up to more than 1 month. We
find that the distributions for 4 days (1560 mins) are
consistent with a power-law asymptotic behavior, characterized by an exponent
, well outside the stable L\'evy regime . To
test the robustness of the S&P result, we perform a parallel analysis on two
other financial market indices. Database (iv) contains 3560 daily records of
the NIKKEI index for the 14-year period 1984-97, and database (v) contains 4649
daily records of the Hang-Seng index for the 18-year period 1980-97. We find
estimates of consistent with those describing the distribution of S&P
500 daily-returns. One possible reason for the scaling of these distributions
is the long persistence of the autocorrelation function of the volatility. For
time scales longer than days, our results are
consistent with slow convergence to Gaussian behavior.Comment: 12 pages in multicol LaTeX format with 27 postscript figures
(Submitted to PRE May 20, 1999). See
http://polymer.bu.edu/~amaral/Professional.html for more of our work on this
are
Guidance on the Selection of Appropriate Indicators for Quantification of Antimicrobial Usage in Humans and Animals
An increasing variety of indicators of antimicrobial usage has become available in human and veterinary medicine, with no consensus on the most appropriate indicators to be used. The objective of this review is therefore to provide guidance on the selection of indicators, intended for those aiming to quantify antimicrobial usage based on sales, deliveries or reimbursement data. Depending on the study objective, different requirements apply to antimicrobial usage quantification in terms of resolution, comprehensiveness, stability over time, ability to assess exposure and comparability. If the aim is to monitor antimicrobial usage trends, it is crucial to use a robust quantification system that allows stability over time in terms of required data and provided output; to compare usage between different species or countries, comparability must be ensured between the different populations. If data are used for benchmarking, the system comprehensiveness is particularly crucial, while data collected to study the association between usage and resistance should express the exposure level and duration as a measurement of the exerted selection pressure. Antimicrobial usage is generally described as the number of technical units consumed normalized by the population at risk of being treated in a defined period. The technical units vary from number of packages to number of individuals treated daily by adding different levels of complexity such as daily dose or weight at treatment. These technical units are then related to a description of the population at risk, based either on biomass or number of individuals. Conventions and assumptions are needed for all of these calculation steps. However, there is a clear lack of standardization, resulting in poor transparency and comparability. By combining study requirements with available approaches to quantify antimicrobial usage, we provide suggestions on the most appropriate indicators and data sources to be used for a given study objective
How Gibbs distributions may naturally arise from synaptic adaptation mechanisms. A model-based argumentation
This paper addresses two questions in the context of neuronal networks
dynamics, using methods from dynamical systems theory and statistical physics:
(i) How to characterize the statistical properties of sequences of action
potentials ("spike trains") produced by neuronal networks ? and; (ii) what are
the effects of synaptic plasticity on these statistics ? We introduce a
framework in which spike trains are associated to a coding of membrane
potential trajectories, and actually, constitute a symbolic coding in important
explicit examples (the so-called gIF models). On this basis, we use the
thermodynamic formalism from ergodic theory to show how Gibbs distributions are
natural probability measures to describe the statistics of spike trains, given
the empirical averages of prescribed quantities. As a second result, we show
that Gibbs distributions naturally arise when considering "slow" synaptic
plasticity rules where the characteristic time for synapse adaptation is quite
longer than the characteristic time for neurons dynamics.Comment: 39 pages, 3 figure
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