3,915 research outputs found
Human activity modeling and Barabasi's queueing systems
It has been shown by A.-L. Barabasi that the priority based scheduling rules
in single stage queuing systems (QS) generates fat tail behavior for the tasks
waiting time distributions (WTD). Such fat tails are due to the waiting times
of very low priority tasks which stay unserved almost forever as the task
priority indices (PI) are "frozen in time" (i.e. a task priority is assigned
once for all to each incoming task). Relaxing the "frozen in time" assumption,
this paper studies the new dynamic behavior expected when the priority of each
incoming tasks is time-dependent (i.e. "aging mechanisms" are allowed). For two
class of models, namely 1) a population type model with an age structure and 2)
a QS with deadlines assigned to the incoming tasks which is operated under the
"earliest-deadline-first" policy, we are able to analytically extract some
relevant characteristics of the the tasks waiting time distribution. As the
aging mechanism ultimately assign high priority to any long waiting tasks, fat
tails in the WTD cannot find their origin in the scheduling rule alone thus
showing a fundamental difference between the present and the A.-L. Barabasi's
class of models.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figure
First-principles calculation of positron lifetimes and affinities in perfect and imperfect transition-metal carbides and nitrides
First-principles electronic structure and positron-state calculations for transition-metal carbides and nitrides are performed. Perfect NaCl structures as well as structures with metal or carbon/nitrogen vacancies are considered. The positron affinities and lifetimes are determined. The trends are discussed and the results are compared with recent positron lifetime measurements for group-IV and -V refractory metal carbides. The present analysis suggests, contradictory to an earlier interpretation, that positrons are trapped and annihilated at both carbon and metal vacancies. The concentration of metal vacancies detected by positron annihilation methods is probably very low, below the sensitivity limit of other experimental methods.Peer reviewe
Additive decomposition applied to the semiconductor drift-diffusion model
A new numerical method for semiconductor device simulation is presented. The additive decomposition method has been successfully applied to Burgers' and Navier-Stokes equations governing turbulent fluid flow by decomposing the equations into large-scale and small-scale parts without averaging. The additive decomposition (AD) technique is well suited to problems with a large range of time and/or space scales, for example, thermal-electrical simulation of power semiconductor devices with large physical size. Furthermore, AD adds a level of parallelization for improved computational efficiency. The new numerical technique has been tested on the 1-D drift-diffusion model of a p-i-n diode for reverse and forward biases. Distributions of , n and p have been calculated using the AD method on a coarse large-scale grid and then in parallel small-scale grid sections. The AD results agreed well with the results obtained with a traditional one-grid approach, while potentially reducing memory requirements with the new method
EUV ionization of pure He nanodroplets: Mass-correlated photoelectron imaging, Penning ionization and electron energy-loss spectra
The ionization dynamics of pure He nanodroplets irradiated by EUV radiation
is studied using Velocity-Map Imaging PhotoElectron-PhotoIon COincidence
(VMI-PEPICO) spectroscopy. We present photoelectron energy spectra and angular
distributions measured in coincidence with the most abundant ions He+, He2+,
and He3+. Surprisingly, below the autoionization threshold of He droplets we
find indications for multiple excitation and subsequent ionization of the
droplets by a Penning-like process. At high photon energies we evidence
inelastic collisions of photoelectrons with the surrounding He atoms in the
droplets
Exponential Decay for Small Non-Linear Perturbations of Expanding Flat Homogeneous Cosmologies
It is shown that during expanding phases of flat homogeneous cosmologies all
small enough non-linear perturbations decay exponentially. This result holds
for a large class of perfect fluid equations of state, but notably not for very
``stiff'' fluids as the pure radiation case
Matrix-free calcium in isolated chromaffin vesicles
Isolated secretory vesicles from bovine adrenal medulla contain 80 nmol of Ca2+ and 25 nmol
of Mg2+ per milligram of protein. As determined with a Ca2+-selective electrode, a further accumulation
of about 160 nmol of Ca2+/mg of protein can be attained upon addition of the Ca2+ ionophore A23187.
During this process protons are released from the vesicles, in exchange for Ca2+ ions, as indicated by the
decrease of the pH in the incubation medium or the release of 9-aminoacridine previously taken up by the
vesicles. Intravesicular Mg2+ is not released from the vesicles by A23 187, as determined by atomic emission
spectroscopy. In the presence of N H Q , which causes the collapse of the secretory vesicle transmembrane
proton gradient (ApH), Ca2+ uptake decreases. Under these conditions A23 187-mediated influx of Ca2+
and efflux of H+ cease at Ca2+ concentrations of about 4 pM. Below this concentration Ca2+ is even released
from the vesicles. At the Ca2+ concentration at which no net flux of ions occurs the intravesicular matrix
free Ca2+ equals the extravesicular free Ca2+. In the absence of NH4C1 we determined an intravesicular
pH of 6.2. Under these conditions the Ca2+ influx ceases around 0.15 pM. From this value and the known
pH across the vesicular membrane an intravesicular matrix free Ca2+ concentration of about 24 pM was
calculated. This is within the same order of magnitude as the concentration of free Ca2+ in the vesicles
determined in the presence of NH4C1. Calculation of the total Ca2+ present in the secretory vesicles gives
an apparent intravesicular Ca2+ concentration of 40 mM, which is a factor of lo4 higher than the free
intravesicular concentration of Ca2+. It can be concluded, therefore, that the concentration gradient of free
Ca2+ across the secretory vesicle membrane in the intact chromaffin cells is probably small, which implies
that less energy is required to accumulate and maintain Ca2+ within the vesicles than was previously
anticipated
Cosmological post-Newtonian expansions to arbitrary order
We prove the existence of a large class of one parameter families of
solutions to the Einstein-Euler equations that depend on the singular parameter
\ep=v_T/c (0<\ep < \ep_0), where is the speed of light, and is a
typical speed of the gravitating fluid. These solutions are shown to exist on a
common spacetime slab M\cong [0,T)\times \Tbb^3, and converge as \ep
\searrow 0 to a solution of the cosmological Poisson-Euler equations of
Newtonian gravity. Moreover, we establish that these solutions can be expanded
in the parameter \ep to any specified order with expansion coefficients that
satisfy \ep-independent (nonlocal) symmetric hyperbolic equations
Plasmon Evolution and Charge-Density Wave Suppression in Potassium Intercalated Tantalum Diselenide
We have investigated the influence of potassium intercalation on the
formation of the charge-density wave (CDW) instability in 2H-tantalum
diselenide by means of Electron Energy-Loss Spectroscopy and density functional
theory. Our observations are consistent with a filling of the conduction band
as indicated by a substantial decrease of the plasma frequency in experiment
and theory. In addition, elastic scattering clearly points to a destruction of
the CDW upon intercalation as can be seen by a vanishing of the corresponding
superstructures. This is accompanied by a new superstructure, which can be
attributed to the intercalated potassium. Based on the behavior of the c-axis
upon intercalation we argue in favor of interlayer-sites for the alkali-metal
and that the lattice remains in the 2H-modification
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