Softening of the insulating phase near Tc for the photo-induced insulator-to-metal phase transition in vanadium dioxide

We use optical-pump terahertz-probe spectroscopy to investigate the near-threshold behavior of the photoinduced insulator-to-metal (IM) transition in vanadium dioxide thin films. Upon approaching Tc a reduction in the fluence required to drive the IM transition is observed, consistent with a softening of the insulating state due to an increasing metallic volume fraction (below the percolation limit). This phase coexistence facilitates the growth of a homogeneous metallic conducting phase following superheating via photoexcitation. A simple dynamic model using Bruggeman effective medium theory describes the observed initial condition sensitivity.Comment: accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter

The Effects of Static and Dynamic Stretching on Postural Stability, Hip Flexibility, and Power

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Generation of broad XUV continuous high harmonic spectra and isolated attosecond pulses with intense mid-infrared lasers

We present experimental results showing the appearance of a near-continuum in the high-order harmonic generation (HHG) spectra of atomic and molecular species as the driving laser intensity of an infrared pulse increases. Detailed macroscopic simulations reveal that these near-continuum spectra are capable of producing IAPs in the far field if a proper spatial filter is applied. Further, our simulations show that the near-continuum spectra and the IAPs are a product of strong temporal and spatial reshaping (blue shift and defocusing) of the driving field. This offers a possibility of producing IAPs with a broad range of photon energy, including plateau harmonics, by mid-IR laser pulses even without carrier-envelope phase stabilization.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, submitted to J.Phys. B (Oct 2011

The Cardiorespiratory Response of Qigong Performed at Different Intensities

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β-Alanine Supplementation Has No Effect on Rowing Performance in College Age Athletes

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Seismological and geotechnical aspects of the Mw=6.3 l’Aquila earthquake in central Italy on 6 April 2009

The L’Aquila earthquake occurred on April 6 2009 at 03:32:39 local time. The earthquake (Mw=6.3) was located in the central Italy region of Abruzzo. Much of the damage occurred in the capital city of L’Aquila, a city of approximate population 73000, although many small villages in the surrounding region of the middle Aterno river valley were also significantly damaged. In the weeks following the earthquake, the Geo-Engineering Extreme Events Reconnaissance (GEER) international team, comprised of members from different European countries and the U.S., was assembled to provide post-earthquake field reconnaissance. The GEER team focused on the geological, seismological, and geotechnical engineering aspects of the event. We describe the principal seismological findings related to this earthquake including moment tensors of the main shock and two triggered events, the aftershock pattern and its variation with time, tectonic deformations associated with the main shock, surface fault rupture, and the inferred fault rupture plane. We describe damage patterns on a village-to-village scale and on a more local scale within the city of L’Aquila. In many cases the damage patterns imply site effects, as neighbouring villages on rock and soil had significantly different damage intensities (damage more pronounced on softer sediments). The April 6 mainshock was the best-recorded event to date in Italy. We present metadata related to the recording sites and then present preliminary comparisons of the data to GMPEs. Those comparisons support the notion of faster distance attenuation in Italy relative to the average for active regions as reflected in NGA GMPEs. Several incidents of ground failure are then discussed, including a number of rockfalls and minor landslides. Perhaps the most significant incidents of ground failure occurred at Lake Sinizzo, for which we describe a number of slumps and spreads around the lake perimeter. This is documented using field observations as well as LIDAR and bathymetric data

Quadratic optimal functional quantization of stochastic processes and numerical applications

In this paper, we present an overview of the recent developments of functional quantization of stochastic processes, with an emphasis on the quadratic case. Functional quantization is a way to approximate a process, viewed as a Hilbert-valued random variable, using a nearest neighbour projection on a finite codebook. A special emphasis is made on the computational aspects and the numerical applications, in particular the pricing of some path-dependent European options.Comment: 41 page