8,689 research outputs found
Optimal Time-dependent Sequenced Route Queries in Road Networks
In this paper we present an algorithm for optimal processing of
time-dependent sequenced route queries in road networks, i.e., given a road
network where the travel time over an edge is time-dependent and a given
ordered list of categories of interest, we find the fastest route between an
origin and destination that passes through a sequence of points of interest
belonging to each of the specified categories of interest. For instance,
considering a city road network at a given departure time, one can find the
fastest route between one's work and his/her home, passing through a bank, a
supermarket and a restaurant, in this order. The main contribution of our work
is the consideration of the time dependency of the network, a realistic
characteristic of urban road networks, which has not been considered previously
when addressing the optimal sequenced route query. Our approach uses the A*
search paradigm that is equipped with an admissible heuristic function, thus
guaranteed to yield the optimal solution, along with a pruning scheme for
further reducing the search space. In order to compare our proposal we extended
a previously proposed solution aimed at non-time dependent sequenced route
queries, enabling it to deal with the time-dependency. Our experiments using
real and synthetic data sets have shown our proposed solution to be up to two
orders of magnitude faster than the temporally extended previous solution.Comment: 10 pages, 12 figures To be published as a short paper in the 23rd ACM
SIGSPATIA
International Portfolio Diversification: Short-Term Financial Assets and Gold
Using a continuous-time finance-theoretic framework, this paper presents the optimal portfolio rule of an international investor who consumes N national composite goods and who holds N domestic-currency-denominated assets with known nominal interest rates in an environment where prices of goods, assets and exchange rates follow geometric Brownian motion. It is shown that the currency portfolio rule described in Macedo (1982a) is applicable to the case where there are N assets with a known price and one asset, gold, with a random rice in terms of the numeraire. Under these assumptions, it is found that the optimal portfolio of an investor consuming goods from all major industrialized countries (according to their weight in total trade) would be dominated in March 1981 by long positions in U.S. dollars (25%), yen (17%), D. marks (16%), French francs (15%) and pounds sterling (10%). An investor consuming only U.S. goods, by contrast, would hold 96% of his optimal portfolio in U.S. dollars. Because of the covariance of exchange rates and gold, the exclusion of the latter generates substantial reshuffling. The analysis of the evolution of portfolios over time shows that shares changed dramatically at the beginning of the period and did not begin to approach their March 1981 values until the end of 1975. In the case of the yen and the pound there were oscillations throughout the period. With respect to the dollar share in the optimal portfolio of the U.S. and international investor, it is found that, in the period between late 1974 and mid-1976, a period in which the dollar is considered to have been "strong", a large decline in its optimal share took place.
Electric and magnetic fields effects on the excitonic properties of elliptic core-multishell quantum wires
The effect of eccentricity distortions of core-multishell quantum wires on
their electron, hole and exciton states is theoretically investigated. Within
the effective mass approximation, the Schrodinger equation is numerically
solved for electrons and holes in systems with single and double radial
heterostructures, and the exciton binding energy is calculated by means of a
variational approach. We show that the energy spectrum of a core-multishell
heterostructure with eccentricity distortions, as well as its magnetic field
dependence, are very sensitive to the direction of an externally applied
electric field, an effect that can be used to identify the eccentricity of the
system. For a double heterostructure, the eccentricities of the inner and outer
shells play an important role on the excitonic binding energy, specially in the
presence of external magnetic fields, and lead to drastic modifications in the
oscillator strength.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figure
Hybrid GMR Sensor Detecting 950 pT/sqrt(Hz) at 1 Hz and Room Temperature.
Advances in the magnetic sensing technology have been driven by the increasing demand for the capability of measuring ultrasensitive magnetic fields. Among other emerging applications, the detection of magnetic fields in the picotesla range is crucial for biomedical applications. In this work Picosense reports a millimeter-scale, low-power hybrid magnetoresistive-piezoelectric magnetometer with subnanotesla sensitivity at low frequency. Through an innovative noise-cancelation mechanism, the 1/f noise in the MR sensors is surpassed by the mechanical modulation of the external magnetic fields in the high frequency regime. A modulation efficiency of 13% was obtained enabling a final device's sensitivity of ~950 pT/Hz1/2 at 1 Hz. This hybrid device proved to be capable of measuring biomagnetic signals generated in the heart in an unshielded environment. This result paves the way for the development of a portable, contactless, low-cost and low-power magnetocardiography device
Sol-gel electrochromic device
All solid state electrochromic devices have potential applications in architectural and automotive fields to regulate the transmission and reflection of radiant energy. We present the optical and electrochemical characteristics of two solid state windows having the configuration glass/ITO/TiO2-CeO2/TiO2/TiO2-CeO2/ITO/glass and glass/ITO/WOa/TiO2/TiO2-CeO2/ITO/glass where the three internal layers have been prepared by sol gel methods. The preparation of the individual sols and some physical properties of the different sol gel coatings are reported
An association UNIFAC model for aqueous and alcohol solutions of sugars
In this work, a modified UNIFAC model [1] that explicitly takes into account association effects is applied to mixtures containing common sugars, alcohols and water.
Following the same strategy adopted before [2], four residual groups were defined to represent the sugars family: the pyranose ring (PYR), the furanose ring (FUR), the osidic bond (-O-) and the hydroxyl ring group (OH ring) [2]. For the association term, a general two sites OH associating group is used to represent association effects in these solutions, allowing a straightforward extension to multicomponent mixtures. Correlation of both solvent activity properties (water activities, vapour pressures, boiling and freezing points of aqueous D-glucose and D-fructose solutions) and sugars (D-fructose, D-glucose and sucrose) solubility in water, ethanol and methanol give very good results. Satisfactory predictions are obtained for vapour-liquid equilibrium and solid-liquid equilibrium of ternary and quaternary mixtures of sugars in mixed solvents
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