19,932 research outputs found
Near-infrared Observations of Nova V574 Puppis (2004)
We present results obtained from extensive near-infrared spectroscopic and
photometric observations of nova V574 Pup during its 2004 outburst. The
observations were obtained over four months, starting from 2004 November 25
(four days after the nova outburst) to 2005 March 20. The near-IR JHK light
curve is presented - no evidence is seen from it for dust formation to have
occurred during our observations. In the early decline phase, the JHK spectra
of the nova are dominated by emission lines of hydrogen Brackett and Paschen
series, OI, CI and HeI. We also detect the fairly uncommon Fe II line at 1.6872
micron in the early part of our observations. The strengths of the HeI lines at
1.0830 micron and 2.0585 micron are found to become very strong towards the end
of the observations indicating a progression towards higher excitation
conditions in the nova ejecta. The width of the emission lines do not show any
significant change during the course of our observations. The slope of the
continuum spectrum was found to have a lambda^{-2.75} dependence in the early
stages which gradually becomes flatter with time and changes to a free-free
spectral dependence towards the later stages. Recombination analysis of the HI
lines shows deviations from Case B conditions during the initial stages.
However, towards the end of our observations, the line strengths are well
simulated with case B model values with electron density n_e = 10^{9-10}
cm^{-3} and a temperature equal to 10^4 K. Based on our distance estimate to
the nova of 5.5 kpc and the observed free-free continuum emission in the later
part of the observations, we estimate the ionized mass of the ejecta to be
between 10^{-5} and 10^{-6} solar-mass.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRA
Empirical band calculations of the optical properties of d-band metals. VI. The optical conductivity of ferromagnetic iron
The optical conductivity of ferromagnetic Fe was calculated with an interpolation scheme fit to first-principles energy bands for paramagnetic Fe with a constant exchange splitting. Most of the contributions to the conductivity originate in the minority-spin bands, making the rigid splitting a valid assumption. The inclusion of electric-dipole matrix elements is essential for obtaining agreement with experiment. The locations of the transitions in the band structure were found by plotting contributions from differential volumes throughout the irreducible wedge of the Brillouin zone, including dipole matrix elements. The strong transitions around 2.5 eV occur between flat bands in large regions of the zone, regions not associated with symmetry points, lines, or planes. The transitions near 6 eV originate in a smaller volume of k space near a symmetry line, associated with an interband critical point
A hybrid model of connectors in cyber-physical systems
Compositional coordination models and languages play an important role in cyber-physical systems (CPSs). In this paper, we introduce a formal model for describing hybrid behaviors of connectors in CPSs. We extend the constraint automata model, which is used as the semantic model for the exogenous channelbased coordination language Reo, to capture the dynamic behavior of connectors in CPSs where the discrete and continuous dynamics co-exist and interact with each other. In addition to the formalism, we also provide a theoretical compositional approach for constructing the product automata for a Reo circuit, which is typically obtained by composing several primitive connectors in Reo. ? Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014.EI059-74882
How Long It Takes for an Ordinary Node with an Ordinary ID to Output?
In the context of distributed synchronous computing, processors perform in
rounds, and the time-complexity of a distributed algorithm is classically
defined as the number of rounds before all computing nodes have output. Hence,
this complexity measure captures the running time of the slowest node(s). In
this paper, we are interested in the running time of the ordinary nodes, to be
compared with the running time of the slowest nodes. The node-averaged
time-complexity of a distributed algorithm on a given instance is defined as
the average, taken over every node of the instance, of the number of rounds
before that node output. We compare the node-averaged time-complexity with the
classical one in the standard LOCAL model for distributed network computing. We
show that there can be an exponential gap between the node-averaged
time-complexity and the classical time-complexity, as witnessed by, e.g.,
leader election. Our first main result is a positive one, stating that, in
fact, the two time-complexities behave the same for a large class of problems
on very sparse graphs. In particular, we show that, for LCL problems on cycles,
the node-averaged time complexity is of the same order of magnitude as the
slowest node time-complexity.
In addition, in the LOCAL model, the time-complexity is computed as a worst
case over all possible identity assignments to the nodes of the network. In
this paper, we also investigate the ID-averaged time-complexity, when the
number of rounds is averaged over all possible identity assignments. Our second
main result is that the ID-averaged time-complexity is essentially the same as
the expected time-complexity of randomized algorithms (where the expectation is
taken over all possible random bits used by the nodes, and the number of rounds
is measured for the worst-case identity assignment).
Finally, we study the node-averaged ID-averaged time-complexity.Comment: (Submitted) Journal versio
Robotics in place and the places of robotics: productive tensions across human geography and human–robot interaction
Bringing human–robot interaction (HRI) into conversation with scholarship from human geography, this paper considers how socially interactive robots become important agents in the production of social space and explores the utility of core geographic concepts of scale and place to critically examine evolving robotic spatialities. The paper grounds this discussion through reflections on a collaborative, interdisciplinary research project studying the development and deployment of interactive museum tour-guiding robots on a North American university campus. The project is a collaboration among geographers, roboticists, a digital artist, and the directors/curators of two museums, and involves experimentation in the development of a tour-guiding robot with a “socially aware navigation system” alongside ongoing critical reflection into the socio-spatial context of human–robot interactions and their future possibilities. The paper reflects on the tensions between logics of control and contingency in robotic spatiality and argues that concepts of scale and place can help reflect on this tension in a productive way while calling attention to a broader range of stakeholders who should be included in robotic design and deployment
A comparison of mean density and microscale density fluctuations in a CME at 10 R ⊙
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/94990/1/grl15395.pd
Mechanism of inhibition of tumour growth by aspirin and indomethacin.
The growth of a 3-methylcholanthrene-induced fibrosarcoma of C3H mice was inhibited by aspirin and indomethacin. While the tumour contained relatively high concentrations of PGE2-like material, that were markedly diminished by indomethacin treatment, our results did not confirm the recently proposed hypothesis that the anti-tumour effect arises from a restoration of depressed immune function. For example, mice that had completely eliminated their tumours under indomethacin administration were not immune to rechallenge. The tumour-bearing animals were not non-specifically immunodepressed, as their splenic PFC responses against SRBC were enhanced. However, while indomethacin augmented the PFC response in normal mice, this adjuvant effect was depressed in tumour-bearing animals. The spleen-cell PHA responses of tumour bearers were severely depressed, and such cells suppressed the PHA response of normal cells. Only after prolonged indomethacin treatment did animals (with comparable tumour burdens) show weak PHA responses and somewhat diminished suppressive activity. Possible alternative mechanisms, such as direct cytotoxicity, or inhibition of inflammation, phosphodiesterase activity, blood coagulation or calcium availability were not implicated (nor definitively excluded) in the anti-tumour effect
Dynamics of Single- and Multi-photon Ionisation Processes in Molecules
Single-photon ionisation and resonant multiphoton ionisation studies, which can now be carried out using synchrotron radiation and pulsed dye lasers respectively, are providing important dynamical information on molecular photoionisation. In this paper we discuss some results of our recent studies of several, single- and multi-photon ionisation processes in molecules. The results will be taken from our studies of (i) single-photon ionisation of linear molecules with emphasis on the role of shape and autoionising resonances on these cross· sections, (ii) photoionisation from oriented NiCO as a simple but realistic model of photoemission in adsorbate-substrate systems, and (iii) resonant multiphoton ionisation of H_2
Randomisation and Derandomisation in Descriptive Complexity Theory
We study probabilistic complexity classes and questions of derandomisation
from a logical point of view. For each logic L we introduce a new logic BPL,
bounded error probabilistic L, which is defined from L in a similar way as the
complexity class BPP, bounded error probabilistic polynomial time, is defined
from PTIME. Our main focus lies on questions of derandomisation, and we prove
that there is a query which is definable in BPFO, the probabilistic version of
first-order logic, but not in Cinf, finite variable infinitary logic with
counting. This implies that many of the standard logics of finite model theory,
like transitive closure logic and fixed-point logic, both with and without
counting, cannot be derandomised. Similarly, we present a query on ordered
structures which is definable in BPFO but not in monadic second-order logic,
and a query on additive structures which is definable in BPFO but not in FO.
The latter of these queries shows that certain uniform variants of AC0
(bounded-depth polynomial sized circuits) cannot be derandomised. These results
are in contrast to the general belief that most standard complexity classes can
be derandomised. Finally, we note that BPIFP+C, the probabilistic version of
fixed-point logic with counting, captures the complexity class BPP, even on
unordered structures
Counter Machines and Distributed Automata: A Story about Exchanging Space and Time
We prove the equivalence of two classes of counter machines and one class of
distributed automata. Our counter machines operate on finite words, which they
read from left to right while incrementing or decrementing a fixed number of
counters. The two classes differ in the extra features they offer: one allows
to copy counter values, whereas the other allows to compute copyless sums of
counters. Our distributed automata, on the other hand, operate on directed path
graphs that represent words. All nodes of a path synchronously execute the same
finite-state machine, whose state diagram must be acyclic except for
self-loops, and each node receives as input the state of its direct
predecessor. These devices form a subclass of linear-time one-way cellular
automata.Comment: 15 pages (+ 13 pages of appendices), 5 figures; To appear in the
proceedings of AUTOMATA 2018
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