526 research outputs found
Limitations in the use of IR spectra for the determination of hydrogen concentration in a-Si: H films
Infra-red (IR) spectroscopy has been used to monitor hydrogen concentrations in hydrogenated amorphous silicon thin films. Wagging and. stretching modes were used with appropriate correction factors for film thickness and proportionality constants to convert between integrated absorption and hydrogen concentration. Two different types of IR spectra were observed even though in other respects the films appeared to be identical. The values of hydrogen concentration were calculated from wagging and stretching modes. These values are in agreement for one type of IR spectrum but are not the same for the other type. Possible reasons for observed differences are presented as well as a suggestion for an improved procedure which can give more reliable values of the hydrogen concentration
Coloring random graphs
We study the graph coloring problem over random graphs of finite average
connectivity . Given a number of available colors, we find that graphs
with low connectivity admit almost always a proper coloring whereas graphs with
high connectivity are uncolorable. Depending on , we find the precise value
of the critical average connectivity . Moreover, we show that below
there exist a clustering phase in which ground states
spontaneously divide into an exponential number of clusters and where the
proliferation of metastable states is responsible for the onset of complexity
in local search algorithms.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, version to app. in PR
Sharp transition towards shared vocabularies in multi-agent systems
What processes can explain how very large populations are able to converge on
the use of a particular word or grammatical construction without global
coordination? Answering this question helps to understand why new language
constructs usually propagate along an S-shaped curve with a rather sudden
transition towards global agreement. It also helps to analyze and design new
technologies that support or orchestrate self-organizing communication systems,
such as recent social tagging systems for the web. The article introduces and
studies a microscopic model of communicating autonomous agents performing
language games without any central control. We show that the system undergoes a
disorder/order transition, going trough a sharp symmetry breaking process to
reach a shared set of conventions. Before the transition, the system builds up
non-trivial scale-invariant correlations, for instance in the distribution of
competing synonyms, which display a Zipf-like law. These correlations make the
system ready for the transition towards shared conventions, which, observed on
the time-scale of collective behaviors, becomes sharper and sharper with system
size. This surprising result not only explains why human language can scale up
to very large populations but also suggests ways to optimize artificial
semiotic dynamics.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure
Views from within a narrative : Evaluating long-term human-robot interaction in a naturalistic environment using open-ended scenarios
Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are credited. Date of acceptance: 16/06/2014This article describes the prototyping of human–robot interactions in the University of Hertfordshire (UH) Robot House. Twelve participants took part in a long-term study in which they interacted with robots in the UH Robot House once a week for a period of 10 weeks. A prototyping method using the narrative framing technique allowed participants to engage with the robots in episodic interactions that were framed using narrative to convey the impression of a continuous long-term interaction. The goal was to examine how participants responded to the scenarios and the robots as well as specific robot behaviours, such as agent migration and expressive behaviours. Evaluation of the robots and the scenarios were elicited using several measures, including the standardised System Usability Scale, an ad hoc Scenario Acceptance Scale, as well as single-item Likert scales, open-ended questionnaire items and a debriefing interview. Results suggest that participants felt that the use of this prototyping technique allowed them insight into the use of the robot, and that they accepted the use of the robot within the scenarioPeer reviewe
Polynomial iterative algorithms for coloring and analyzing random graphs
We study the graph coloring problem over random graphs of finite average
connectivity . Given a number of available colors, we find that graphs
with low connectivity admit almost always a proper coloring whereas graphs with
high connectivity are uncolorable. Depending on , we find the precise value
of the critical average connectivity . Moreover, we show that below
there exist a clustering phase in which ground states
spontaneously divide into an exponential number of clusters. Furthermore, we
extended our considerations to the case of single instances showing consistent
results. This lead us to propose a new algorithm able to color in polynomial
time random graphs in the hard but colorable region, i.e when .Comment: 23 pages, 10 eps figure
KCDC - The KASCADE Cosmic-ray Data Centre
KCDC, the KASCADE Cosmic-ray Data Centre, is a web portal, where data of
astroparticle physics experiments will be made available for the interested
public. The KASCADE experiment, financed by public money, was a large-area
detector for the measurement of high-energy cosmic rays via the detection of
air showers. KASCADE and its extension KASCADE-Grande stopped finally the
active data acquisition of all its components including the radio EAS
experiment LOPES end of 2012 after more than 20 years of data taking. In a
first release, with KCDC we provide to the public the measured and
reconstructed parameters of more than 160 million air showers. In addition,
KCDC provides the conceptional design, how the data can be treated and
processed so that they are also usable outside the community of experts in the
research field. Detailed educational examples make a use also possible for
high-school students and early stage researchers.Comment: 8 pages, accepted proceeding of the ECRS-symposium, Kiel, 201
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