460 research outputs found
A quantitative approach to topology for fuzzy regions
There has been lots of research in the field of fuzzy spatial data and the topology of fuzzy spatial objects. In this contribution, an extension to the 9-intersection model is presented, to allow for the relative position of overlapping fuzzy regions to be determined. The topology will be determined by means of a. new intersection matrix, and a set of numbers, expressing the similarity between the topology of the given regions and a number of predefined cases. The approach is not merely a conceptual idea, but has been built on our representation model and can as such be immediately applied
Strong Connections on Quantum Principal Bundles
A gauge invariant notion of a strong connection is presented and
characterized. It is then used to justify the way in which a global curvature
form is defined. Strong connections are interpreted as those that are induced
from the base space of a quantum bundle. Examples of both strong and non-strong
connections are provided. In particular, such connections are constructed on a
quantum deformation of the fibration . A certain class of strong
-connections on a trivial quantum principal bundle is shown to be
equivalent to the class of connections on a free module that are compatible
with the q-dependent hermitian metric. A particular form of the Yang-Mills
action on a trivial U\sb q(2)-bundle is investigated. It is proved to
coincide with the Yang-Mills action constructed by A.Connes and M.Rieffel.
Furthermore, it is shown that the moduli space of critical points of this
action functional is independent of q.Comment: AMS-LaTeX, 40 pages, major revision including examples of connections
over a quantum real projective spac
Applying spatial reasoning to topographical data with a grounded geographical ontology
Grounding an ontology upon geographical data has been pro-
posed as a method of handling the vagueness in the domain more effectively. In order to do this, we require methods of reasoning about the spatial relations between the regions within the data. This stage can be computationally expensive, as we require information on the location of
points in relation to each other. This paper illustrates how using knowledge about regions allows us to reduce the computation required in an efficient and easy to understand manner. Further, we show how this system can be implemented in co-ordination with segmented data to reason abou
Phase transitions in a ferrofluid at magnetic field induced microphase separation
In the presence of a magnetic field applied perpendicular to a thin sample
layer, a suspension of magnetic colloidal particles (ferrofluid) can form
spatially modulated phases with a characteristic length determined by the
competition between dipolar forces and short-range forces opposing density
variations. We introduce models for thin-film ferrofluids in which
magnetization and particle density are viewed as independent variables and in
which the non-magnetic properties of the colloidal particles are described
either by a lattice-gas entropy or by the Carnahan-Starling free energy. Our
description is particularly well suited to the low-particle density regions
studied in many experiments. Within mean-field theory, we find isotropic,
hexagonal and stripe phases, separated in general by first-order phase
boundaries.Comment: 12 pages, RevTex, to appear in PR
Influence of medium composition on the characteristics of a denitrifying biofilm formed by alcaligenes denitrificans in a fluidised bed reactor
The influence of the ratio carbon/nitrogen and phosphorus concentration on the performance of a biofilm fluidised bed reactor
used for denitrification and on the properties of the biofilm was studied. Although the removal efficiencies of C and N reached
steady-state values, the thickness of the biofilm steadily increased. The dry density of the biofilm did not seem to be dependent
on the loading conditions, although a denser biofilm was obtained when there was no nutrient limitation that corresponded to the
complete removal of nitrate and carbon. The composition of the biofilm in terms of proteins and polysaccharides changed with
the C/N ratio and P concentrations. Higher denitrifying activities, which were obtained with increasing P concentrations, were
related with higher protein content, since metabolism was shifted from polysaccharide production towards cell production. The
thickness and the density of the biofilms were related mainly with the shear stress in the reactor and the composition of biofilms
was dependent on the composition of the medium and related with higher activities of the microorganisms.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - PRAXIS XXI .
Instituto de Biotecnologia e Química Fina (IBQF)
Law, politics and the governance of English and Scottish joint-stock companies 1600-1850
This article examines the impact of law on corporate governance by means of a case study of joint-stock enterprise in England and Scotland before 1850. Based on a dataset of over 450 company constitutions together with qualitative information on governance practice, it finds little evidence to support the hypothesis that common-law regimes such as England were more supportive of economic growth than civil-law jurisdictions such as Scotland: indeed, levels of shareholder protection were slightly stronger in the civil-law zone. Other factors, such as local political institutions, played a bigger role in shaping organisational forms and business practice
Chiral spinors and gauge fields in noncommutative curved space-time
The fundamental concepts of Riemannian geometry, such as differential forms,
vielbein, metric, connection, torsion and curvature, are generalized in the
context of non-commutative geometry. This allows us to construct the
Einstein-Hilbert-Cartan terms, in addition to the bosonic and fermionic ones in
the Lagrangian of an action functional on non-commutative spaces. As an
example, and also as a prelude to the Standard Model that includes
gravitational interactions, we present a model of chiral spinor fields on a
curved two-sheeted space-time with two distinct abelian gauge fields. In this
model, the full spectrum of the generalized metric consists of pairs of tensor,
vector and scalar fields. They are coupled to the chiral fermions and the gauge
fields leading to possible parity violation effects triggered by gravity.Comment: 50 pages LaTeX, minor corrections and references adde
Virus shapes and buckling transitions in spherical shells
We show that the icosahedral packings of protein capsomeres proposed by
Caspar and Klug for spherical viruses become unstable to faceting for
sufficiently large virus size, in analogy with the buckling instability of
disclinations in two-dimensional crystals. Our model, based on the nonlinear
physics of thin elastic shells, produces excellent one parameter fits in real
space to the full three-dimensional shape of large spherical viruses. The
faceted shape depends only on the dimensionless Foppl-von Karman number
\gamma=YR^2/\kappa, where Y is the two-dimensional Young's modulus of the
protein shell, \kappa is its bending rigidity and R is the mean virus radius.
The shape can be parameterized more quantitatively in terms of a spherical
harmonic expansion. We also investigate elastic shell theory for extremely
large \gamma, 10^3 < \gamma < 10^8, and find results applicable to icosahedral
shapes of large vesicles studied with freeze fracture and electron microscopy.Comment: 11 pages, 12 figure
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