Direct observation of the influence of the As-Fe-As angle on the Tc of superconducting SmFeAsO1−x_{1-x}Fx_{x}

The electrical resistivity, crystalline structure and electronic properties calculated from the experimentally measured atomic positions of the compound SmFeAsO$_{0.81}$F$_{0.19}$ have been studied up to pressures ~20GPa. The correlation between the pressure dependence of the superconducting transition temperature (Tc) and crystallographic parameters on the same sample shows clearly that a regular FeAs$_{4}$ tetrahedron maximizes Tc, through optimization of carrier transfer to the FeAs planes as indicated by the evolution of the electronic band structures.Comment: 15pages, 4 figure

Quantum critical point and superconducting dome in the pressure phase diagram of o-TaS3

We measure the electrical resistance of o-TaS3 between 1K and 300K under pressures up to 20GPa. We observe a gradual decrease of the charge density wave transition temperature with increasing pressure P following a mean-field quantum fluctuation power law with a quantum critical point at a pressure Pc = 11.5GPa. Around the quantum critical point we observe a superconducting dome with a maximum superconducting transition temperature Tc = 3.1K. Such dome is similar to superconducting domes around other types of order suggesting that the QCP is directly responsible for the enhancement of superconductivity through a universal mechanism still not well understood.Comment: To be published in PRB as a Rapid Communication. 11 pages with 4 figure

Large lianas as hyperdynamic elements of the tropical forest canopy

Lianas (woody vines) are an important component of lowland tropical forests. We report large liana and tree inventory and dynamics data from Amazonia over periods of up to 24 years, making this the longest geographically extensive study of liana ecology to date. We use these results to address basic questions about the ecology of large lianas in mature forests and their interactions with trees. In one intensively studied site we find that large lianas (≥10 cm diameter) represent ,5% of liana stems, but 80% of biomass of well-lit upper canopy lianas. Across sites, large lianas and large trees are both most successful in terms of structural importance in richer soil forests, but large liana success may be controlled more by the availability of large tree supports rather than directly by soil conditions. Long-term annual turnover rates of large lianas are 5–8%, three times those of trees. Lianas are implicated in large tree mortality: liana-infested large trees are three times more likely to die than liana-free large trees, and large lianas are involved in the death of at least 30% of tree basal area. Thus large lianas are a much more dynamic component of Amazon forests than are canopy trees, and they play a much more significant functional role than their structural contribution suggests

A short note on the nested-sweep polarized traces method for the 2D Helmholtz equation

We present a variant of the solver in Zepeda-N\'u\~nez and Demanet (2014), for the 2D high-frequency Helmholtz equation in heterogeneous acoustic media. By changing the domain decomposition from a layered to a grid-like partition, this variant yields improved asymptotic online and offline runtimes and a lower memory footprint. The solver has online parallel complexity that scales \emph{sub linearly} as $\mathcal{O} \left( \frac{N}{P} \right)$, where $N$ is the number of volume unknowns, and $P$ is the number of processors, provided that $P = \mathcal{O}(N^{1/5})$. The variant in Zepeda-N\'u\~nez and Demanet (2014) only afforded $P = \mathcal{O}(N^{1/8})$. Algorithmic scalability is a prime requirement for wave simulation in regimes of interest for geophysical imaging.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Strong, Weak and Branching Bisimulation for Transition Systems and Markov Reward Chains: A Unifying Matrix Approach

We first study labeled transition systems with explicit successful termination. We establish the notions of strong, weak, and branching bisimulation in terms of boolean matrix theory, introducing thus a novel and powerful algebraic apparatus. Next we consider Markov reward chains which are standardly presented in real matrix theory. By interpreting the obtained matrix conditions for bisimulations in this setting, we automatically obtain the definitions of strong, weak, and branching bisimulation for Markov reward chains. The obtained strong and weak bisimulations are shown to coincide with some existing notions, while the obtained branching bisimulation is new, but its usefulness is questionable

Unconscious Learning. Conditioning to Subliminal Visual Stimuli.

Se analizó el papel de la consciencia en el condicionamiento pavloviano mediante dos experimentos en los que se utilizaron, como estímulos condicionados (ECs), palabras neutras visualmente enmascaradas y, como estímulo incondicionado (EI), un shock eléctrico. El intervalo inter-estímulo se estableció individualmente. Se utilizó un umbral de detección en el Experimento 1 y un umbral de identificación en el Experimento 2. La principal variable dependiente fue la respuesta de conductancia de la piel. Los resultados mostraron que la respuesta condicionada (RC) fue adquirida por el 58% de los sujetos que percibieron los estímulos por encima del umbral de identificación, por el 50% de los sujetos que percibieron los estímulos por debajo del umbral de detección y por el 11% de los sujetos que percibieron los estímulos por debajo del umbral de identificación, pero por encima del umbral de detección. Estos resultados sugieren que la conciencia de la contingencia EC-EI no es condición necesaria para adquirir una RC del sistema nervioso autónomo

A useful form of the recurrence relation between relativistic atomic matrix elements of radial powers

Recently obtained recurrence formulae for relativistic hydrogenic radial matrix elements are cast in a simpler and perhaps more useful form. This is achieved with the help of a new relation between the $r^a$ and the $\beta r^b$ terms ($\beta$ is a $4\times 4$ Dirac matrix and $a, b$ are constants) in the atomic matrix elements.Comment: 7 pages, no figure

Using genetic algorithms to generate test sequences for complex timed systems

The generation of test data for state based specifications is a computationally expensive process. This problem is magnified if we consider that time con- straints have to be taken into account to govern the transitions of the studied system. The main goal of this paper is to introduce a complete methodology, sup- ported by tools, that addresses this issue by represent- ing the test data generation problem as an optimisa- tion problem. We use heuristics to generate test cases. In order to assess the suitability of our approach we consider two different case studies: a communication protocol and the scientific application BIPS3D. We give details concerning how the test case generation problem can be presented as a search problem and automated. Genetic algorithms (GAs) and random search are used to generate test data and evaluate the approach. GAs outperform random search and seem to scale well as the problem size increases. It is worth to mention that we use a very simple fitness function that can be eas- ily adapted to be used with other evolutionary search techniques