626 research outputs found
Proactive Highly Ambulatory Sensor Routing (PHASeR) protocol for mobile wireless sensor networks
This paper presents a novel multihop routing protocol for mobile wireless sensor networks called PHASeR (Proactive Highly Ambulatory Sensor Routing). The proposed protocol
uses a simple hop-count metric to enable the dynamic and robust routing of data towards the sink in mobile environments. It is motivated by the application of radiation mapping by unmanned vehicles, which requires the reliable and timely delivery of regular measurements to the sink. PHASeR maintains a gradient metric in mobile environments by using a global TDMA MAC layer. It also uses the technique of blind forwarding to pass messages through the network in a multipath manner. PHASeR is analysed mathematically based on packet delivery ratio, average packet delay, throughput and overhead. It is then simulated with varying mobility, scalability and traffic loads. The protocol gives good results over all measures, which suggests that it may also be suitable for a wider array of emerging applications
Cluster Monte Carlo study of multi-component fluids of the Stillinger-Helfand and Widom-Rowlinson type
Phase transitions of fluid mixtures of the type introduced by Stillinger and
Helfand are studied using a continuum version of the invaded cluster algorithm.
Particles of the same species do not interact, but particles of different types
interact with each other via a repulsive potential. Examples of interactions
include the Gaussian molecule potential and a repulsive step potential.
Accurate values of the critical density, fugacity and magnetic exponent are
found in two and three dimensions for the two-species model. The effect of
varying the number of species and of introducing quenched impurities is also
investigated. In all the cases studied, mixtures of -species are found to
have properties similar to -state Potts models.Comment: 25 pages, 5 figure
Practical reasoning in political discourse: The UK government's response to the economic crisis in the 2008 Pre-Budget Report
This article focuses on practical reasoning in political discourse and argues for a better integration of argumentation theory with critical discourse analysis (CDA). Political discourse and its specific genres (for example, deliberation) primarily involve forms of practical reasoning, typically oriented towards finding solutions to problems and deciding on future courses of action. Practical reasoning is a form of inference from cognitive and motivational premises: from what we believe (about the situation or about means—end relations) and what we want or desire (our goals and values), leading to a normative judgement (and often a decision) concerning action. We offer an analysis of the main argument in the UK government’s 2008 Pre-Budget Report (HM Treasury, 2008) and suggest how a critical evaluation of the argument from the perspective of a normative theory of argumentation (particularly the informal logic developed by Douglas Walton) can provide the basis for an evaluation in terms of characteristic CDA concerns. We are advancing this analysis as a contribution to CDA, aimed at increasing the rigour and systematicity of its analyses of political discourse, and as a contribution to the normative concerns of critical social science
The Coincidence Counting Technique for orders of magnitude background reduction in data obtained with the Magnetic Recoil Spectrometer at OMEGA and the NIF
Upgrade of the MIT Linear Electrostatic Ion Accelerator (LEIA) for nuclear diagnostics development for Omega, Z and the NIF
Crime as risk taking
Engagement in criminal activity may be viewed as risk-taking behaviour as it has both benefits and drawbacks that are probabilistic. In two studies, we examined how individuals' risk perceptions can inform our understanding of their intentions to engage in criminal activity. Study 1 measured youths' perceptions of the value and probability of the benefits and drawbacks of engaging in three common crimes (i.e. shoplifting, forgery, and buying illegal drugs), and examined how well these perceptions predicted youths' forecasted engagement in these crimes, controlling for their past engagement. We found that intentions to engage in criminal activity were best predicted by the perceived value of the benefits that may be obtained, irrespective of their probabilities or the drawbacks that may also be incurred. Study 2 specified the benefit and drawback that youth thought about and examined another crime (i.e. drinking and driving). The findings of Study 1 were replicated under these conditions. The present research supports a limited rationality perspective on criminal intentions, and can have implications for crime prevention/intervention strategies
Robust Ad-hoc Sensor Routing (RASeR) protocol for mobile wireless sensor networks
Robust Ad-hoc Sensor Routing (RASeR) is a novel protocol for data routing in mobile wireless sensor networks (MWSNs). It is designed to cope with the demanding requirements of emerging technologies, which require the reliable and low-latency delivery of packets in highly mobile conditions. RASeR uses blind forwarding, which is facilitated by a novel method of gradient maintenance. The problem of maintaining a gradient field in a changing topology, without flooding, is solved by using a global time division multiple access MAC. Furthermore, it is enhanced with the additional options of a supersede mode, to aid time-critical applications, reverse flooding, to allow sink-to-sensor commands and energy saving sleep cycles to reduce power consumption. Analytical expressions are derived and verified by simulation. RASeR is compared with the state-of-the-art MWSN routing protocols, PHASeR and MACRO, as well as the MANET protocols, AODV and OLSR. The results indicate that RASeR is a high performance protocol, which shows improvements over PHASeR, MACRO, AODV and OLSR. Tested over varying levels of mobility, scalability and traffic, the simulations yield near perfect PDR in many scenarios, as well as a low end-to-end delay, high throughput, low overhead and low energy consumption. The robustness of this protocol and its consistent reliability, low latency and additional features, makes it highly suitable to a wide number of applications. It is specifically applicable to highly mobile situations with a fixed number of nodes and small payloads
HI in the Outskirts of Nearby Galaxies
The HI in disk galaxies frequently extends beyond the optical image, and can
trace the dark matter there. I briefly highlight the history of high spatial
resolution HI imaging, the contribution it made to the dark matter problem, and
the current tension between several dynamical methods to break the disk-halo
degeneracy. I then turn to the flaring problem, which could in principle probe
the shape of the dark halo. Instead, however, a lot of attention is now devoted
to understanding the role of gas accretion via galactic fountains. The current
cold dark matter theory has problems on galactic scales, such as
the core-cusp problem, which can be addressed with HI observations of dwarf
galaxies. For a similar range in rotation velocities, galaxies of type Sd have
thin disks, while those of type Im are much thicker. After a few comments on
modified Newtonian dynamics and on irregular galaxies, I close with statistics
on the HI extent of galaxies.Comment: 38 pages, 17 figures, invited review, book chapter in "Outskirts of
Galaxies", Eds. J. H. Knapen, J. C. Lee and A. Gil de Paz, Astrophysics and
Space Science Library, Springer, in pres
Asymmetry sum rule for molecular predissociation
© 2000 American Physical SocietyIn the case of weak diatomic molecular predissociation by noninteracting, optically inactive continuum states, it is demonstrated that the predissociation line shape is more accurately represented by a Beutler-Fano profile than by a Lorentzian. The weak asymmetry that is found to occur is due principally to interactions with neighboring vibrational resonances. For this type of predissociation in the case of multiple continua, a sum rule for the corresponding line-shape asymmetry is derived. This sum rule is verified numerically using single-channel and multichannel coupled Schrödinger-equation calculations for the Schumann-Runge band system of O2. Similar results are presented for the case of optically active continua.F. T. Hawes, L. W. Torop, B. R. Lewis and S. T. Gibso
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