Examination of the Circle Spline Routine

The Circle Spline routine is currently being used for generating both two and three dimensional spline curves. It was developed for use in ESCHER, a mesh generating routine written to provide a computationally simple and efficient method for building meshes along curved surfaces. Circle Spline is a parametric linear blending spline. Because many computerized machining operations involve circular shapes, the Circle Spline is well suited for both the design and manufacturing processes and shows promise as an alternative to the spline methods currently supported by the Initial Graphics Specification (IGES)

Optoelectronic Reservoir Computing

Reservoir computing is a recently introduced, highly efficient bio-inspired approach for processing time dependent data. The basic scheme of reservoir computing consists of a non linear recurrent dynamical system coupled to a single input layer and a single output layer. Within these constraints many implementations are possible. Here we report an opto-electronic implementation of reservoir computing based on a recently proposed architecture consisting of a single non linear node and a delay line. Our implementation is sufficiently fast for real time information processing. We illustrate its performance on tasks of practical importance such as nonlinear channel equalization and speech recognition, and obtain results comparable to state of the art digital implementations.Comment: Contains main paper and two Supplementary Material

Streptococcus suis in German pig holdings—conventional and molecular detection

Streptococcus suis (S. suis) is a zoonotic agent worldwide. Pigs are the main reservoir, mostly asymptomatic. Humans get the infection by contact and consumption of contaminated meat and meat products. In this study, samples from 38 pig carcasses fit for human consumption from 17 holdings were arbitrarily selected. From each carcass, seven tissue samples were taken and examined for the presence of S. suis, using conventional microbiology and PCR. In addition, virulence-associated factors (epf, arcA, sly, mrp) were tested with PCR. More isolates were PCR-positive for S. suis as compared to conventional testing, mostly in samples from the heart and from the mandibular lymphnodes. All isolates were epf negative, combinations of arcA, sly and mrp were found in some isolates. Six isolates were positive for arcA and mrp, five for arcA and sly. For three isolates the triple combination arcA + mrp + sly was found. These isolates originated from different pigs

Escaping from nonhyperbolic chaotic attractors

We study the noise-induced escape process from chaotic attractors in nonhyperbolic systems. We provide a general mechanism of escape in the low noise limit, employing the theory of large fluctuations. Specifically, this is achieved by solving the variational equations of the auxiliary Hamiltonian system and by incorporating the initial conditions on the chaotic attractor unambiguously. Our results are exemplified with the H{\'e}non and the Ikeda map and can be implemented straightforwardly to experimental data.Comment: replaced with published versio

Born's rule from measurements of classical signals by threshold detectors which are properly calibrated

The very old problem of the statistical content of quantum mechanics (QM) is studied in a novel framework. The Born's rule (one of the basic postulates of QM) is derived from theory of classical random signals. We present a measurement scheme which transforms continuous signals into discrete clicks and reproduces the Born's rule. This is the sheme of threshold type detection. Calibration of detectors plays a crucial role.Comment: The problem of double clicks is resolved; hence, one can proceed in purely wave framework, i.e., the wave-partcile duality has been resolved in favor of the wave picture of prequantum realit

STREAM: Static Thermodynamic REgulAtory Model of transcription

Motivation: Understanding the transcriptional regulation of a gene in detail is a crucial step towards uncovering and ultimately utilizing the regulatory grammar of the genome. Modeling transcriptional regulation using thermodynamic equations has become an increasingly important approach towards this goal

Effect of oral calcium loading on intact PTH and calcitriol in idiopathic renal calcium stone formers and healthy controls

The calciuric response after an oral calcium load (l000 mg elemental calcium together with a standard breakfast) was studied in 13 healthy male controls and 21 recurrent idiopathic renal calcium stone formers, 12 with hypercalciuria (UCa×V>7.50 mmol/24 h) and nine with normocalciuria. In controls, serum 1,25(OH)2 vitamin D3 (calcitriol) remained unchanged 6 h after oral calcium load (50.6±5.1 versus 50.9±5.0 pg/ml), whereas it tended to increase in hypercalciuric (from 53.6±3.2 to 60.6±5.4 pg/ml, P=0.182) and fell in normocalciuric stone formers (from 45.9±2.6 to 38.1±3.3 pg/ml, P=0.011). The total amount of urinary calcium excreted after OCL was 2.50±0.20 mmol in controls, 2.27±0.27 mmol in normocalciuric and 3.62±0.32 mmol in hypercalciuric stone formers (P=0.005 versus controls and normocalciuric stone formers respectively); it positively correlated with serum calcitriol 6 h after calcium load (r=0.392, P=0.024). Maximum increase in urinary calcium excretion rate, δCa-Emax, was inversely related to intact PTH levels in the first 4 h after calcium load, i.e. more pronounced PTH suppression predicted a steeper increase in urinary calcium excretion rate. Twenty-four-hour urine calcium excretion rate was inversely related to the ratio of δ calcitriol/δPTHmax after calcium load (r=−0.653, P=0.0001), indicating that an abnormally up-regulated synthesis of calcitriol and consecutive relative PTH suppression induce hypercalciuria. Finally, late absorption of calcium as suggested by maximum urinary calcium excretion beyond 4 h after oral calcium load was as rare in hypercalciuric stone formers (2 of 12) as in controls (1 of 13) and did not occur in normocalciuric stone former

Silicates in D-type symbiotic stars: an ISO overview

We investigate the IR spectral features of a sample of D-type symbiotic stars. Analyzing unexploited ISO-SWS data, deriving the basic observational parameters of dust bands and comparing them with respect to those observed in other astronomical sources, we try to highlight the effect of environment on grain chemistry and physic. We find strong amorphous silicate emission bands at 10 micron and 18 micron in a large fraction of the sample. The analysis of the 10 micron band, along with a direct comparison with several astronomical sources, reveals that silicate dust in symbiotic stars shows features between the characteristic circumstellar environments and the interstellar medium. This indicates an increasing reprocessing of grains in relation to specific symbiotic behavior of the objects. A correlation between the central wavelength of the 10 and 18 micron dust bands is found. By the modeling of IR spectral lines we investigate also dust grains conditions within the shocked nebulae. Both the unusual depletion values and the high sputtering efficiency might be explained by the formation of SiO moleculae, which are known to be a very reliable shock tracer. We conclude that the signature of dust chemical disturbance due to symbiotic activity should be looked for in the outer, circumbinary, expanding shells where the environmental conditions for grain processing might be achieved. Symbiotic stars are thus attractive targets for new mid-infrared and mm observations.Comment: 24 pages, 6 figures, 5 tables - to be published in A

Velocity Distributions of Granular Gases with Drag and with Long-Range Interactions

We study velocity statistics of electrostatically driven granular gases. For two different experiments: (i) non-magnetic particles in a viscous fluid and (ii) magnetic particles in air, the velocity distribution is non-Maxwellian, and its high-energy tail is exponential, P(v) ~ exp(-|v|). This behavior is consistent with kinetic theory of driven dissipative particles. For particles immersed in a fluid, viscous damping is responsible for the exponential tail, while for magnetic particles, long-range interactions cause the exponential tail. We conclude that velocity statistics of dissipative gases are sensitive to the fluid environment and to the form of the particle interaction.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Power-Laws in Nonlinear Granular Chain under Gravity

The signal generated by a weak impulse propagates in an oscillatory way and dispersively in a gravitationally compacted granular chain. For the power-law type contact force, we show analytically that the type of dispersion follows power-laws in depth. The power-law for grain displacement signal is given by $h^{-1/4(1-1/p)}$ where $h$ and $p$ denote depth and the exponent of contact force, and the power-law for the grain velocity is $h^{-1/4({1/3}+1/p)}$. Other depth-dependent power-laws for oscillation frequency, wavelength, and period are given by combining above two and the phase velocity power-law $h^{1/2(1-1/p)}$. We verify above power-laws by comparing with the data obtained by numerical simulations.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures; Changed conten