1,112 research outputs found
The visual standards for the selection and retention of astronauts, part 2
In preparation for the various studies planned for assessing visual capabilities and tasks in order to set vision standards for astronauts, the following pieces of equipment have been assembled and tested: a spectacle obstruction measuring device, a biometric glare susceptibility tester, a variable vergence amplitude testing device, an eye movement recorder, a lunar illumination simulation chamber, a night myopia testing apparatus, and retinal adaption measuring devices
A stochastic model for the evolution of the web allowing link deletion
Recently several authors have proposed stochastic evolutionary models for the growth of the web graph and other networks that give rise to power-law distributions. These models are based on the notion of preferential attachment leading to the ``rich get richer'' phenomenon. We present a generalisation of the basic model by allowing deletion of individual links and show that it also gives rise to a power-law distribution. We derive the mean-field equations for this stochastic model and show that by examining a snapshot of the distribution at the steady state of the model, we are able to tell whether any link deletion has taken place and estimate the link deletion probability. Our model enables us to gain some insight into the distribution of inlinks in the web graph, in particular it suggests a power-law exponent of approximately 2.15 rather than the widely published exponent of 2.1
On Abelian Multi-Chern-Simons Field Theories
In this paper a class of multi-Chern-Simons field theories which is relevant
to the statistical mechanics of polymer systems is investigated. Motivated by
the problems which one encounters in the treatment of these theories, a general
procedure is presented to eliminate the Chern-Simons fields from their action.
In this way it has been possible to derive an expression of the partition
function of topologically linked polymers which depends explicitly on the
topological numbers and does not have intractable nonlocal terms as it happened
in previous approaches. The new formulation of multi-Chern-Simons field
theories is then used to remove and clarify some inconsistencies and
ambiguities which apparently affect field theoretical models of topologically
linked polymers. Finally, the limit of disentangled polymers is discussed.Comment: 18 pages, plain LaTe
Shift multiplexing with spherical reference waves
Shift multiplexing is a holographic storage method particularly suitable for the implementation of holographic disks. We characterize the performance of shift-multiplexed memories by using a spherical wave as the reference beam. We derive the shift, selectivity, the cross talk, the exposure schedule, and the storage density of the method. We give experimental results to verify the theoretical predictions. (C) 1996 Optical Society of Americ
Sampling properties of directed networks
For many real-world networks only a small "sampled" version of the original
network may be investigated; those results are then used to draw conclusions
about the actual system. Variants of breadth-first search (BFS) sampling, which
are based on epidemic processes, are widely used. Although it is well
established that BFS sampling fails, in most cases, to capture the
IN-component(s) of directed networks, a description of the effects of BFS
sampling on other topological properties are all but absent from the
literature. To systematically study the effects of sampling biases on directed
networks, we compare BFS sampling to random sampling on complete large-scale
directed networks. We present new results and a thorough analysis of the
topological properties of seven different complete directed networks (prior to
sampling), including three versions of Wikipedia, three different sources of
sampled World Wide Web data, and an Internet-based social network. We detail
the differences that sampling method and coverage can make to the structural
properties of sampled versions of these seven networks. Most notably, we find
that sampling method and coverage affect both the bow-tie structure, as well as
the number and structure of strongly connected components in sampled networks.
In addition, at low sampling coverage (i.e. less than 40%), the values of
average degree, variance of out-degree, degree auto-correlation, and link
reciprocity are overestimated by 30% or more in BFS-sampled networks, and only
attain values within 10% of the corresponding values in the complete networks
when sampling coverage is in excess of 65%. These results may cause us to
rethink what we know about the structure, function, and evolution of real-world
directed networks.Comment: 21 pages, 11 figure
Topological interactions in systems of mutually interlinked polymer rings
The topological interaction arising in interlinked polymeric rings such as
DNA catenanes is considered. More specifically, the free energy for a pair of
linked random walk rings is derived where the distance between two segments
each of which is part of a different ring is kept constant. The topology
conservation is imposed by the Gauss invariant. A previous approach (M.Otto,
T.A. Vilgis, Phys.Rev.Lett. {\bf 80}, 881 (1998)) to the problem is refined in
several ways. It is confirmed, that asymptotically, i.e. for large
where is average size of single random walk ring, the effective
topological interaction (free energy) scales .Comment: 16 pages, 3 figur
Holographic Storage Using Shift Multiplexing
We demonstrate theoretically and experimentally a new multiplexing method for volume holographic storage using a single reference beam that is composed of multiple plane waves or is a spherical wave. We multiplex the holograms by shifting the recording material or the recording/readout head. The volume properties of the recording medium allow selective readout of holograms stored in successive overlapping locations. High storage densities can be achieved with a relatively simple implementation by use of the new method
An introduction to Graph Data Management
A graph database is a database where the data structures for the schema
and/or instances are modeled as a (labeled)(directed) graph or generalizations
of it, and where querying is expressed by graph-oriented operations and type
constructors. In this article we present the basic notions of graph databases,
give an historical overview of its main development, and study the main current
systems that implement them
Gel-Electrophoresis and Diffusion of Ring-Shaped DNA
A model for the motion of ring-shaped DNA in a gel is introduced and studied
by numerical simulations and a mean-field approximation. The ring motion is
mediated by finger-shaped loops (hernias) that move in an amoeba-like fashion
around the gel obstructions. This constitutes an extension of previous
reptation tube treatments. It is shown that tension is essential for describing
the dynamics in the presence of hernias. It is included in the model as long
range interactions over stretched DNA regions. The mobility of ring-shaped DNA
is found to saturate much as in the well-studied case of linear DNA.
Experiments in polymer gels, however, show that the mobility drops
exponentially with the DNA ring size. This is commonly attributed to
dangling-ends in the gel that can impale the ring. The predictions of the
present model are expected to apply to artificial 2D obstacle arrays (W.D.
Volkmuth, R.H. Austin, Nature 358,600 (1992)) which have no dangling-ends. In
the zero-field case an exact solution of the model steady-state is obtained,
and quantities such as the average ring size are calculated. An approximate
treatment of the ring dynamics is given, and the diffusion coefficient is
derived. The model is also discussed in the context of spontaneous symmetry
breaking in one dimension.Comment: 8 figures, LaTeX, Phys. Rev. E - in pres
Free-energy calculations for semi-flexible macromolecules: Applications to DNA knotting and looping
We present a method to obtain numerically accurate values of configurational
free energies of semiflexible macromolecular systems, based on the technique of
thermodynamic integration combined with normal-mode analysis of a reference
system subject to harmonic constraints. Compared with previous free-energy
calculations that depend on a reference state, our approach introduces two
innovations, namely the use of internal coordinates to constrain the reference
states and the ability to freely select these reference states. As a
consequence, it is possible to explore systems that undergo substantially
larger fluctuations than those considered in previous calculations, including
semiflexible biopolymers having arbitrary ratios of contour length L to
persistence length P. To validate the method, high accuracy is demonstrated for
free energies of prime DNA knots with L/P=20 and L/P=40, corresponding to DNA
lengths of 3000 and 6000 base pairs, respectively. We then apply the method to
study the free-energy landscape for a model of a synaptic nucleoprotein complex
containing a pair of looped domains, revealing a bifurcation in the location of
optimal synapse (crossover) sites. This transition is relevant to target-site
selection by DNA-binding proteins that occupy multiple DNA sites separated by
large linear distances along the genome, a problem that arises naturally in
gene regulation, DNA recombination, and the action of type-II topoisomerases.Comment: Main article: 24 pages, 8 figures; Supplemental Material: 21 pages, 6
figures. Typos correcte
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