122 research outputs found
The High-Flux Backscattering Spectrometer at the NIST Center for Neutron Research
We describe the design and current performance of the high-flux
backscattering spectrometer located at the NIST Center for Neutron Research.
The design incorporates several state-of-the-art neutron optical devices to
achieve the highest flux on sample possible while maintaining an energy
resolution of less than 1mueV. Foremost among these is a novel phase-space
transformation chopper that significantly reduces the mismatch between the beam
divergences of the primary and secondary parts of the instrument. This resolves
a long-standing problem of backscattering spectrometers, and produces a
relative gain in neutron flux of 4.2. A high-speed Doppler-driven monochromator
system has been built that is capable of achieving energy transfers of up to
+-50mueV, thereby extending the dynamic range of this type of spectrometer by
more than a factor of two over that of other reactor-based backscattering
instruments
"m=1" coatings for neutron guides
A substantial fraction of the price for a supermirror neutron guide system is the shielding, which is needed because of the gamma radiation produced as a result of neutron absorption in the supermirror layers. Traditional coatings have been made of nickel-titanium heterostructures, but Ni and Ti also have a fairly high absorption cross section for cold and thermal neutrons. We examine a number of alternatives to Ni as part of a study to reduce the gamma radiation from neutron guides. Materials such as diamond and Be have higher neutron scattering density than Ni, smaller absorption cross section, and when a neutron is absorbed they emit gamma photons with lower energies. We present reflectivity data comparing Ni with Be and preliminary results from diamond coatings showing there use as neutron guide coatings. Calculations show that Be and diamond coatings emit two orders of magnitude fewer gamma photons compared to Ni, mainly because of the lower absorption cross section
"m=1" coatings for neutron guides
A substantial fraction of the price for a supermirror neutron guide system is the shielding, which is needed because of the gamma radiation produced as a result of neutron absorption in the supermirror layers. Traditional coatings have been made of nickel-titanium heterostructures, but Ni and Ti also have a fairly high absorption cross section for cold and thermal neutrons. We examine a number of alternatives to Ni as part of a study to reduce the gamma radiation from neutron guides. Materials such as diamond and Be have higher neutron scattering density than Ni, smaller absorption cross section, and when a neutron is absorbed they emit gamma photons with lower energies. We present reflectivity data comparing Ni with Be and preliminary results from diamond coatings showing there use as neutron guide coatings. Calculations show that Be and diamond coatings emit two orders of magnitude fewer gamma photons compared to Ni, mainly because of the lower absorption cross section
Towards the Formalization of Fractional Calculus in Higher-Order Logic
Fractional calculus is a generalization of classical theories of integration
and differentiation to arbitrary order (i.e., real or complex numbers). In the
last two decades, this new mathematical modeling approach has been widely used
to analyze a wide class of physical systems in various fields of science and
engineering. In this paper, we describe an ongoing project which aims at
formalizing the basic theories of fractional calculus in the HOL Light theorem
prover. Mainly, we present the motivation and application of such formalization
efforts, a roadmap to achieve our goals, current status of the project and
future milestones.Comment: 9 page
From cellular attractor selection to adaptive signal control for traffic networks
The management of varying traffic flows essentially depends on signal controls at intersections. However, design an optimal control that considers the dynamic nature of a traffic network and coordinates all intersections simultaneously in a centralized manner is computationally challenging. Inspired by the stable gene expressions of Escherichia coli in response to environmental changes, we explore the robustness and adaptability performance of signalized intersections by incorporating a biological mechanism in their control policies, specifically, the evolution of each intersection is induced by the dynamics governing an adaptive attractor selection in cells. We employ a mathematical model to capture such biological attractor selection and derive a generic, adaptive and distributed control algorithm which is capable of dynamically adapting signal operations for the entire dynamical traffic network. We show that the proposed scheme based on attractor selection can not only promote the balance of traffic loads on each link of the network but also allows the global network to accommodate dynamical traffic demands. Our work demonstrates the potential of bio-inspired intelligence emerging from cells and provides a deep understanding of adaptive attractor selection-based control formation that is useful to support the designs of adaptive optimization and control in other domains
Testing bibliometric indicators by their prediction of scientists promotions
We have developed a method to obtain robust quantitative bibliometric
indicators for several thousand scientists. This allows us to study the
dependence of bibliometric indicators (such as number of publications, number
of citations, Hirsch index...) on the age, position, etc. of CNRS scientists.
Our data suggests that the normalized h index (h divided by the career length)
is not constant for scientists with the same productivity but differents ages.
We also compare the predictions of several bibliometric indicators on the
promotions of about 600 CNRS researchers. Contrary to previous publications,
our study encompasses most disciplines, and shows that no single indicator is
the best predictor for all disciplines. Overall, however, the Hirsch index h
provides the least bad correlations, followed by the number of papers
published. It is important to realize however that even h is able to recover
only half of the actual promotions. The number of citations or the mean number
of citations per paper are definitely not good predictors of promotion
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