7,872 research outputs found
Intruders in the Dust: Air-Driven Granular Size Separation
Using MRI and high-speed video we investigate the motion of a large intruder
particle inside a vertically shaken bed of smaller particles. We find a
pronounced, non-monotonic density dependence, with both light and heavy
intruders moving faster than those whose density is approximately that of the
granular bed. For light intruders, we furthermore observe either rising or
sinking behavior, depending on intruder starting height, boundary condition and
interstitial gas pressure. We map out the phase boundary delineating the rising
and sinking regimes. A simple model can account for much of the observed
behavior and show how the two regimes are connected by considering pressure
gradients across the granular bed during a shaking cycle.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
The Effect of absorbing sites on the one-dimensional cellular automaton traffic flow with open boundaries
The effect of the absorbing sites with an absorbing rate , in both
one absorbing site (one way out) and two absorbing sites (two ways out) in a
road, on the traffic flow phase transition is investigated using numerical
simulations in the one-dimensional cellular automaton traffic flow model with
open boundaries using parallel dynamics.In the case of one way out, there exist
a critical position of the way out below which the current is
constant for and decreases when increasing
for . When the way out is located at a
position greater than , the current increases with for
and becomes constant for any value of
greater than . While, when the way out is located at any position
between and (), the current increases,
for , with and becomes constant for
and decreases with for
. In the later case the density undergoes two
successive first order transitions; from high density to maximal current phase
at and from intermediate density to the low one at
. In the case of two ways out located respectively
at the positions and , the two successive transitions occur
only when the distance - separating the two ways is smaller than
a critical distance . Phase diagrams in the (),
() and () planes are established. It is found
that the transitions between Free traffic, Congested traffic and maximal
current phase are first order
Principles of cardiovascular magnetic resonance feature tracking and echocardiographic speckle tracking for informed clinical use
Tissue tracking technology of routinely acquired cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) cine acquisitions has increased the apparent ease and availability of non-invasive assessments of myocardial deformation in clinical research and practice. Its widespread availability thanks to the fact that this technology can in principle be applied on images that are part of every CMR or echocardiographic protocol. However, the two modalities are based on very different methods of image acquisition and reconstruction, each with their respective strengths and limitations. The image tracking methods applied are not necessarily directly comparable between the modalities, or with those based on dedicated CMR acquisitions for strain measurement such as tagging or displacement encoding. Here we describe the principles underlying the image tracking methods for CMR and echocardiography, and the translation of the resulting tracking estimates into parameters suited to describe myocardial mechanics. Technical limitations are presented with the objective of suggesting potential solutions that may allow informed and appropriate use in clinical applications
Discrete stochastic models for traffic flow
We investigate a probabilistic cellular automaton model which has been
introduced recently. This model describes single-lane traffic flow on a ring
and generalizes the asymmetric exclusion process models. We study the
equilibrium properties and calculate the so-called fundamental diagrams (flow
vs.\ density) for parallel dynamics. This is done numerically by computer
simulations of the model and by means of an improved mean-field approximation
which takes into account short-range correlations. For cars with maximum
velocity 1 the simplest non-trivial approximation gives the exact result. For
higher velocities the analytical results, obtained by iterated application of
the approximation scheme, are in excellent agreement with the numerical
simulations.Comment: Revtex, 30 pages, full postscript version (including figures)
available by anonymous ftp from "fileserv1.mi.uni-koeln.de" in the directory
"pub/incoming/" paper accepted for publication in Phys.Rev.
Presence of Many Stable Nonhomogeneous States in an Inertial Car-Following Model
A new single lane car following model of traffic flow is presented. The model
is inertial and free of collisions. It demonstrates experimentally observed
features of traffic flow such as the existence of three regimes: free,
fluctuative (synchronized) and congested (jammed) flow; bistability of free and
fluctuative states in a certain range of densities, which causes the hysteresis
in transitions between these states; jumps in the density-flux plane in the
fluctuative regime and gradual spatial transition from synchronized to free
flow. Our model suggests that in the fluctuative regime there exist many stable
states with different wavelengths, and that the velocity fluctuations in the
congested flow regime decay approximately according to a power law in time.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Two-lane traffic rules for cellular automata: A systematic approach
Microscopic modeling of multi-lane traffic is usually done by applying
heuristic lane changing rules, and often with unsatisfying results. Recently, a
cellular automaton model for two-lane traffic was able to overcome some of
these problems and to produce a correct density inversion at densities somewhat
below the maximum flow density. In this paper, we summarize different
approaches to lane changing and their results, and propose a general scheme,
according to which realistic lane changing rules can be developed. We test this
scheme by applying it to several different lane changing rules, which, in spite
of their differences, generate similar and realistic results. We thus conclude
that, for producing realistic results, the logical structure of the lane
changing rules, as proposed here, is at least as important as the microscopic
details of the rules
Traffic jams and ordering far from thermal equilibrium
The recently suggested correspondence between domain dynamics of traffic
models and the asymmetric chipping model is reviewed. It is observed that in
many cases traffic domains perform the two characteristic dynamical processes
of the chipping model, namely chipping and diffusion. This correspondence
indicates that jamming in traffic models in which all dynamical rates are
non-deterministic takes place as a broad crossover phenomenon, rather than a
sharp transition. Two traffic models are studied in detail and analyzed within
this picture.Comment: Contribution to the Niels Bohr Summer Institute on Complexity and
Criticality; to appear in a Per Bak Memorial Issue of PHYSICA
Self-guided wakefield experiments driven by petawatt class ultra-short laser pulses
We investigate the extension of self-injecting laser wakefield experiments to
the regime that will be accessible with the next generation of petawatt class
ultra-short pulse laser systems. Using linear scalings, current experimental
trends and numerical simulations we determine the optimal laser and target
parameters, i.e. focusing geometry, plasma density and target length, that are
required to increase the electron beam energy (to > 1 GeV) without the use of
external guiding structures.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figure
Perturbative Analysis of Nonabelian Aharonov-Bohm Scattering
We perform a perturbative analysis of the nonabelian Aharonov-Bohm problem to
one loop in a field theoretic framework, and show the necessity of contact
interactions for renormalizability of perturbation theory. Moreover at critical
values of the contact interaction strength the theory is finite and preserves
classical conformal invariance.Comment: 12 pages in LaTeX, uses epsf.sty, 5 uuencoded Postscript figures sent
separately. MIT-CTP-228
Estudio preliminar de micromamĂferos del Pleistoceno Superior de la cueva de Loutraki (Pella, Macedonia, Grecia)
[Abstract] The Loutraki Bear-cave (Northern Greece) yielded a rich Pleistocene fauna including mammals, amphibians and reptiles. In the present study the small mammal fauna associated with cave-bear remains is studied. The material comes from a long-time excavation project, which is still in progress. This study allows us to propose a Late Pleistocene age for the Loutraki fauna. The composition of the LAC-micromammalin fauna suggests a complex environment
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