Thermodynamics of tubelike flexible polymers

In this work we present the general phase behavior of short tubelike flexible polymers. The geometric thickness constraint is implemented through the concept of the global radius of curvature. We use sophisticated Monte Carlo sampling methods to simulate small bead-stick polymer models with Lennard-Jones interaction among non-bonded monomers. We analyze energetic fluctuations and structural quantities to classify conformational pseudophases. We find that the tube thickness influences the thermodynamic behavior of simple tubelike polymers significantly, i.e., for given temperature, the formation of secondary structures strongly depends on the tube thickness

Properties of the non-Gaussian fixed point in 4D compact U(1) lattice gauge theory

We examine selected properties of the gauge-ball spectrum and fermionic variables in the vicinity of the recently discussed non-Gaussian fixed point of 4D compact U(1) lattice gauge theory within the quenched approximation. Approaching the critical point from within the confinement phase, our data support scaling of $T1^{+-}$ gauge-ball states in units of the string tension square root. The analysis of the chiral condensate within the framework of a scaling form for the equation of state suggests non mean-field values for the magnetic exponents $\delta$ and $\beta_{exp}$.Comment: 73K postscript fil

Role of vibrational entropy in the stabilization of the high-temperature phases of iron

The phonon dispersions of the bcc and fcc phases of pure iron ({\alpha}-Fe, {\gamma}-Fe and {\delta}-Fe) at ambient pressure were investigated close to the respective phase transition temperatures. In the open bcc structure the transverse phonons along T1 [{\xi}{\xi}0] and T1 [{\xi}{\xi}2{\xi}] are of particularly low energy. The eigenvectors of these phonons correspond to displacements needed for the transformation to the fcc {\gamma}-phase. Especially these phonons, but also all other phonons soften considerably with increasing temperature. Comparing thermodynamic properties of the fcc and the two bcc phases it is shown that the high temperature bcc phase is stabilized predominantly by vibrational entropy, whereas for the stabilization of the fcc phase electronic entropy provides an equal contribution.Comment: to appear in Physical Review

Universality of the gauge-ball spectrum of the four-dimensional pure U(1) gauge theory

We continue numerical studies of the spectrum of the pure U(1) lattice gauge theory in the confinement phase, initiated in our previous work. Using the extended Wilson action $S = -\sum_P [\beta \cos(\Theta_P) + \gamma \cos(2\Theta_P)]$ we address the question of universality of the phase transition line in the ($\beta,\gamma$) plane between the confinement and the Coulomb phases. Our present results at $\gamma= -0.5$ for the gauge-ball spectrum are fully consistent with the previous results obtained at $\gamma= -0.2$. Again, two different correlation length exponents, $\nu_{ng} = 0.35(3)$ and $\nu_{g} = 0.49(7)$, are obtained in different channels. We also confirm the stability of the values of these exponents with respect to the variation of the distance from the critical point at which they are determined. These results further demonstrate universal critical behaviour of the model at least up to correlation lengths of 4 lattice spacings when the phase transition is approached in some interval at $\gamma\leq -0.2$.Comment: 16 page

A neural network z-vertex trigger for Belle II

We present the concept of a track trigger for the Belle II experiment, based on a neural network approach, that is able to reconstruct the z (longitudinal) position of the event vertex within the latency of the first level trigger. The trigger will thus be able to suppress a large fraction of the dominating background from events outside of the interaction region. The trigger uses the drift time information of the hits from the Central Drift Chamber (CDC) of Belle II within narrow cones in polar and azimuthal angle as well as in transverse momentum (sectors), and estimates the z-vertex without explicit track reconstruction. The preprocessing for the track trigger is based on the track information provided by the standard CDC trigger. It takes input from the 2D ($r - \varphi$) track finder, adds information from the stereo wires of the CDC, and finds the appropriate sectors in the CDC for each track in a given event. Within each sector, the z-vertex of the associated track is estimated by a specialized neural network, with a continuous output corresponding to the scaled z-vertex. The input values for the neural network are calculated from the wire hits of the CDC.Comment: Proceedings of the 16th International workshop on Advanced Computing and Analysis Techniques in physics research (ACAT), Preprint, reviewed version (only minor corrections

Proactive Aging Mitigation in CGRAs through Utilization-Aware Allocation

Resource balancing has been effectively used to mitigate the long-term aging effects of Negative Bias Temperature Instability (NBTI) in multi-core and Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) architectures. In this work, we investigate this strategy in Coarse-Grained Reconfigurable Arrays (CGRAs) with a novel application-to-CGRA allocation approach. By introducing important extensions to the reconfiguration logic and the datapath, we enable the dynamic movement of configurations throughout the fabric and allow overutilized Functional Units (FUs) to recover from stress-induced NBTI aging. Implementing the approach in a resource-constrained state-of-the-art CGRA reveals $2.2\times$ lifetime improvement with negligible performance overheads and less than $10\%$ increase in area.Comment: Please cite this as: M. Brandalero, B. N. Lignati, A. Carlos Schneider Beck, M. Shafique and M. H\"ubner, "Proactive Aging Mitigation in CGRAs through Utilization-Aware Allocation," 2020 57th ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conference (DAC), San Francisco, CA, USA, 2020, pp. 1-6, doi: 10.1109/DAC18072.2020.921858

Interactions of human microglia cells with Japanese encephalitis virus

Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is a neurotropic flavivirus causing mortality and morbidity in humans. Severe Japanese encephalitis cases display strong inflammatory responses in the central nervous system and an accumulation of viral particles in specific brain regions. Microglia cells are the unique brain-resident immune cell population with potent migratory functions and have been proposed to act as a viral reservoir for JEV. Animal models suggest that the targeting of microglia by JEV is partially responsible for inflammatory reactions in the brain. Nevertheless, the interactions between human microglia and JEV are poorly documented.Methods: Using human primary microglia and a new model of human blood monocyte-derived microglia, the present study explores the interaction between human microglia and JEV as well as the role of these cells in viral transmission to susceptible cells. To achieve this work, vaccine-containing inactivated JEV and two live JEV strains were applied on human microglia.Results: Live JEV was non-cytopathogenic to human microglia but increased levels of CCL2, CXCL9 and CXCL10 in such cultures. Furthermore, human microglia up-regulated the expression of the fraktalkine receptor CX3CR1 upon exposure to both JEV vaccine and live JEV. Although JEV vaccine enhanced MHC class II on all microglia, live JEV enhanced MHC class II mainly on CX3CR1+ microglia cells. Importantly, human microglia supported JEV replication, but infectivity was only transmitted to neighbouring cells in a contact-dependent manner.Conclusion: Our findings suggest that human microglia may be a source of neuronal infection and sustain JEV brain pathogenesis