14,697 research outputs found
About the Power to Enforce and Prevent Consensus by Manipulating Communication Rules
We explore the possibilities of enforcing and preventing consensus in
continuous opinion dynamics that result from modifications in the communication
rules. We refer to the model of Weisbuch and Deffuant, where agents adjust
their continuous opinions as a result of random pairwise encounters whenever
their opinions differ not more than a given bound of confidence \eps. A high
\eps leads to consensus, while a lower \eps leads to a fragmentation into
several opinion clusters. We drop the random encounter assumption and ask: How
small may \eps be such that consensus is still possible with a certain
communication plan for the entire group? Mathematical analysis shows that
\eps may be significantly smaller than in the random pairwise case. On the
other hand we ask: How large may \eps be such that preventing consensus is
still possible? In answering this question we prove Fortunato's simulation
result that consensus cannot be prevented for \eps>0.5 for large groups. %
Next we consider opinion dynamics under different individual strategies and
examine their power to increase the chances of consensus. One result is that
balancing agents increase chances of consensus, especially if the agents are
cautious in adapting their opinions. However, curious agents increase chances
of consensus only if those agents are not cautious in adapting their opinions.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figure
Ventilation of double facades
This paper deals with the development and thetesting of a simulation algorithm for the temperaturebehaviour and the flow characteristics of doublefaçades. It has been developed in order to obtain atool which enables the energy consultant to makequick design decisions without being required to usefairly complicated CFD tools.In order to determine the degree of accuracy of thealgorithm, a double façade has been monitored undercontrolled conditions and the results have beencompared against the predicted values for severaldesign situations. The resulting inaccuracy in somecases can be traced back to how the flow resistanceof various geometries are modelled. This paper deals with the development and thetesting of a simulation algorithm for the temperaturebehaviour and the flow characteristics of doublefaçades. It has been developed in order to obtain atool which enables the energy consultant to makequick design decisions without being required to usefairly complicated CFD tools.In order to determine the degree of accuracy of thealgorithm, a double façade has been monitored undercontrolled conditions and the results have beencompared against the predicted values for severaldesign situations. The resulting inaccuracy in somecases can be traced back to how the flow resistanceof various geometries are modelled
On the dependence of the leak-rate of seals on the skewness of the surface height probability distribution
Seals are extremely useful devices to prevent fluid leakage. We present
experimental result which show that the leak-rate of seals depend sensitively
on the skewness in the height probability distribution. The experimental data
are analyzed using the critical-junction theory. We show that using the
top-power spectrum result in good agreement between theory and experiment.Comment: 5 pages, 9 figure
Polycrystalline silicon study: Low-cost silicon refining technology prospects and semiconductor-grade polycrystalline silicon availability through 1988
Photovoltaic arrays that convert solar energy into electrical energy can become a cost effective bulk energy generation alternative, provided that an adequate supply of low cost materials is available. One of the key requirements for economic photovoltaic cells is reasonably priced silicon. At present, the photovoltaic industry is dependent upon polycrystalline silicon refined by the Siemens process primarily for integrated circuits, power devices, and discrete semiconductor devices. This dependency is expected to continue until the DOE sponsored low cost silicon refining technology developments have matured to the point where they are in commercial use. The photovoltaic industry can then develop its own source of supply. Silicon material availability and market pricing projections through 1988 are updated based on data collected early in 1984. The silicon refining industry plans to meet the increasing demands of the semiconductor device and photovoltaic product industries are overviewed. In addition, the DOE sponsored technology research for producing low cost polycrystalline silicon, probabilistic cost analysis for the two most promising production processes for achieving the DOE cost goals, and the impacts of the DOE photovoltaics program silicon refining research upon the commercial polycrystalline silicon refining industry are addressed
The role of noise and initial conditions in the asymptotic solution of a bounded confidence, continuous-opinion model
We study a model for continuous-opinion dynamics under bounded confidence. In
particular, we analyze the importance of the initial distribution of opinions
in determining the asymptotic configuration. Thus, we sketch the structure of
attractors of the dynamical system, by means of the numerical computation of
the time evolution of the agents density. We show that, for a given bound of
confidence, a consensus can be encouraged or prevented by certain initial
conditions. Furthermore, a noisy perturbation is added to the system with the
purpose of modeling the free will of the agents. As a consequence, the
importance of the initial condition is partially replaced by that of the
statistical distribution of the noise. Nevertheless, we still find evidence of
the influence of the initial state upon the final configuration for a short
range of the bound of confidence parameter
Effect of Hydrostatic Pressure on the Superconductivity in NaxCoO2.yH2O
The effect of hydrostatic pressure on the superconducting transition
temperature of Na{0.35}CoO{2}.yH{2}O was investigated by ac susceptibility
measurements up to 1.6 GPa. The pressure coefficient of T{c} is negative and
the dependence T{c}(p) is nonlinear over the pressure range investigated. The
magnitude of the average dlnT{c}/dp=-0.07 GPa^{-1} is comparable to the
pressure coefficient of electron-doped high-T{c} copper oxide superconductors
with a similar value of T{c}. Our results provide support to the assumption of
two-dimensional superconductivity in Na{0.35}CoO{2}.yH{2}O, which is similar to
the cuprate systems, and suggest that intercalation of larger molecules may
lead to an enhancement of T{c}.Comment: Revised Manuscrip
Absence of fermionic quasi-particles in the superfluid state of the attractive Fermi gas
We calculate the effect of order parameter fluctuations on the fermionic
single-particle excitations in the superfluid state of neutral fermions
interacting with short range attractive forces. We show that in dimensions D
\leq 3 the singular effective interaction between the fermions mediated by the
gapless Bogoliubov-Anderson mode prohibits the existence of well-defined
quasi-particles. We explicitly calculate the single-particle spectral function
in the BEC regime in D=3 and show that in this case the quasi-particle residue
and the density of states are logarithmically suppressed.Comment: 4 RevTex pages, 3 figures; title changed, new Figure 1, added
references. We argue that in the entire regime of the BCS-BEC crossover the
quasi-particle picture breaks down in D <=3 for neutral fermions (but NOT for
charged fermions
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