Towards wafer scale inductive determination of magnetostatic and dynamic parameters of magnetic thin films and multilayers

We investigate an inductive probe head suitable for non-invasive characterization of the magnetostatic and dynamic parameters of magnetic thin films and multilayers on the wafer scale. The probe is based on a planar waveguide with rearward high frequency connectors that can be brought in close contact to the wafer surface. Inductive characterization of the magnetic material is carried out by vector network analyzer ferromagnetic resonance. Analysis of the field dispersion of the resonance allows the determination of key material parameters such as the saturation magnetization MS or the effective damping parameter Meff. Three waveguide designs are tested. The broadband frequency response is characterized and the suitability for inductive determination of MS and Meff is compared. Integration of such probes in a wafer prober could in the future allow wafer scale in-line testing of magnetostatic and dynamic key material parameters of magnetic thin films and multilayers

An End-to-End Conversational Style Matching Agent

We present an end-to-end voice-based conversational agent that is able to engage in naturalistic multi-turn dialogue and align with the interlocutor's conversational style. The system uses a series of deep neural network components for speech recognition, dialogue generation, prosodic analysis and speech synthesis to generate language and prosodic expression with qualities that match those of the user. We conducted a user study (N=30) in which participants talked with the agent for 15 to 20 minutes, resulting in over 8 hours of natural interaction data. Users with high consideration conversational styles reported the agent to be more trustworthy when it matched their conversational style. Whereas, users with high involvement conversational styles were indifferent. Finally, we provide design guidelines for multi-turn dialogue interactions using conversational style adaptation

The gamma-ray burst monitor for Lobster-ISS

Lobster-ISS is an X-ray all-sky monitor experiment selected by ESA two years ago for a Phase A study (now almost completed) for a future flight (2009) aboard the Columbus Exposed Payload Facility of the International Space Station. The main instrument, based on MCP optics with Lobster-eye geometry, has an energy passband from 0.1 to 3.5 keV, an unprecedented daily sensitivity of 2x10^{-12} erg cm^{-2}s$^{-1}, and it is capable to scan, during each orbit, the entire sky with an angular resolution of 4--6 arcmin. This X-ray telescope is flanked by a Gamma Ray Burst Monitor, with the minimum requirement of recognizing true GRBs from other transient events. In this paper we describe the GRBM. In addition to the minimum requirement, the instrument proposed is capable to roughly localize GRBs which occur in the Lobster FOV (162x22.5 degrees) and to significantly extend the scientific capabilities of the main instrument for the study of GRBs and X-ray transients. The combination of the two instruments will allow an unprecedented spectral coverage (from 0.1 up to 300/700 keV) for a sensitive study of the GRB prompt emission in the passband where GRBs and X-Ray Flashes emit most of their energy. The low-energy spectral band (0.1-10 keV) is of key importance for the study of the GRB environment and the search of transient absorption and emission features from GRBs, both goals being crucial for unveiling the GRB phenomenon. The entire energy band of Lobster-ISS is not covered by either the Swift satellite or other GRB missions foreseen in the next decade.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. Paper presented at the COSPAR 2004 General Assembly (Paris), accepted for publication in Advances in Space Research in June 2005 and available on-line at the Journal site (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/02731177), section "Articles in press

On the use of blow up to study regularizations of singularities of piecewise smooth dynamical systems in R3\mathbb{R}^3

In this paper we use the blow up method of Dumortier and Roussarie \cite{dumortier_1991,dumortier_1993,dumortier_1996}, in the formulation due to Krupa and Szmolyan \cite{krupa_extending_2001}, to study the regularization of singularities of piecewise smooth dynamical systems \cite{filippov1988differential} in $\mathbb R^3$. Using the regularization method of Sotomayor and Teixeira \cite{Sotomayor96}, first we demonstrate the power of our approach by considering the case of a fold line. We quickly recover a main result of Bonet and Seara \cite{reves_regularization_2014} in a simple manner. Then, for the two-fold singularity, we show that the regularized system only fully retains the features of the singular canards in the piecewise smooth system in the cases when the sliding region does not include a full sector of singular canards. In particular, we show that every locally unique primary singular canard persists the regularizing perturbation. For the case of a sector of primary singular canards, we show that the regularized system contains a canard, provided a certain non-resonance condition holds. Finally, we provide numerical evidence for the existence of secondary canards near resonance.Comment: To appear in SIAM Journal of Applied Dynamical System

Lyman Alpha Emitter Evolution in the Reionization Epoch

Combining cosmological SPH simulations with a previously developed Lyman Alpha production/transmission model and the Early Reionization Model (ERM, reionization ends at redshift z~7), we obtain Lyman Alpha and UV Luminosity Functions (LFs) for Lyman Alpha Emitters (LAEs) for redshifts between 5.7 and 7.6. Matching model results to observations at z~5.7 requires escape fractions of Lyman Alpha, f_alpha=0.3, and UV (non-ionizing) continuum photons, f_c=0.22, corresponding to a color excess, E(B-V)=0.15. We find that (i) f_c increases towards higher redshifts, due the decreasing mean dust content of galaxies, (ii) the evolution of f_alpha/f_c hints at the dust content of the ISM becoming progressively inhomogeneous/clumped with decreasing redshift. The clustering photoionization boost is important during the initial reionization phases but has little effect on the Lyman Alpha LF for a highly ionized IGM. Halo (stellar) masses are in the range 10.0 < \log M_h < 11.8 (8.1 < \log M_* < 10.4) with M_h \propto M_*^{0.64}. The star formation rates are between 3-120 solar masses per year, mass-weighted mean ages are greater than 20 Myr at all redshifts, while the mean stellar metallicity increases from Z=0.12 to 0.22 solar metallicity from z~7.6 to z~5.7; both age and metallicity positively correlate with stellar mass. The brightest LAEs are all characterized by large star formation rates and intermediate ages (~200 Myr), while objects in the faint end of the Lyman Alpha LF show large age and star formation rate spreads. With no more free parameters, the Spectral Energy Distributions of three LAE at z~5.7 observed by Lai et al. (2007) are well reproduced by an intermediate age (182-220 Myr) stellar population and the above E(B-V) value.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, accepted to MNRA

Antimicrobials: a global alliance for optimizing their rational use in intra-abdominal infections (AGORA)

Intra-abdominal infections (IAI) are an important cause of morbidity and are frequently associated with poor prognosis, particularly in high-risk patients. The cornerstones in the management of complicated IAIs are timely effective source control with appropriate antimicrobial therapy. Empiric antimicrobial therapy is important in the management of intra-abdominal infections and must be broad enough to cover all likely organisms because inappropriate initial antimicrobial therapy is associated with poor patient outcomes and the development of bacterial resistance. The overuse of antimicrobials is widely accepted as a major driver of some emerging infections (such as C. difficile), the selection of resistant pathogens in individual patients, and for the continued development of antimicrobial resistance globally. The growing emergence of multi-drug resistant organisms and the limited development of new agents available to counteract them have caused an impending crisis with alarming implications, especially with regards to Gram-negative bacteria. An international task force from 79 different countries has joined this project by sharing a document on the rational use of antimicrobials for patients with IAIs. The project has been termed AGORA (Antimicrobials: A Global Alliance for Optimizing their Rational Use in Intra-Abdominal Infections). The authors hope that AGORA, involving many of the world's leading experts, can actively raise awareness in health workers and can improve prescribing behavior in treating IAIs

Searches for Gauge-Mediated Supersymmetry Breaking Topologies in e+e- collisions at LEP2

In gauge-mediated supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking (GMSB) models the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) is the gravitino and the phenomenology is driven by the nature of the next-to-lightest SUSY particle (NLSP) which is either the lightest neutralino, the stau or mass degenerate sleptons. Since the NLSP decay length is effectively unconstrained, searches for all possible lifetime and NLSP topologies predicted by GMSB models in e+e- collisions are performed on the data sample collected by OPAL at centre-of-mass energies up to 209 GeV at LEP. Results independent of the NLSP lifetime are presented for all relevant final states including direct NLSP pair-production and, for the first time, also NLSP production via cascade decays of heavier SUSY particles. None of the searches shows evidence for SUSY particle production. Cross-section limits are presented at the 95% confidence level both for direct NLSP production and for cascade decays, providing the most general, almost model independent results. These results are then interpreted in the framework of the minimal GMSB (mGMSB) model, where large areas of the accessible parameter space are excluded. In the mGMSB model, the NLSP masses are constrained to be larger than 53.5 GeV/c^2, 87.4 GeV/c^2 and 91.9 GeV/c^2 in the neutralino, stau and slepton co-NLSP scenarios, respectively. A complete scan on the parameters of the mGMSB model is performed, constraining the universal SUSY mass scale Lambda from the direct SUSY particle searches: Lambda > 40, 27, 21, 17, 15 TeV/c^2 for messenger indices N=1, 2, 3, 4, 5 respectively, for all NLSP lifetimes.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. To appear in Proceedings of SUSY06, the 14th International Conference on Supersymmetry and the Unification of Fundamental Interactions, UC Irvine, California, 12-17 June 200

Color suppressed contributions to the decay modes B_{d,s} -> D_{s,d} D_{s,d}, B_{d,s} -> D_{s,d} D^*_{s,d}, and B_{d,s} -> D^*_{s,d} D^*_{s,d}

The amplitudes for decays of the type $B_{d,s} \to D_{s,d} D_{s,d}$, have no factorizable contributions, while $B_{d,s} \to D_{s,d} D^*_{s,d}$, and $B_{d,s} \to D^*_{s,d} D^*_{s,d}$ have relatively small factorizable contributions through the annihilation mechanism. The dominant contributions to the decay amplitudes arise from chiral loop contributions and tree level amplitudes which can be obtained in terms of soft gluon emissions forming a gluon condensate. We predict that the branching ratios for the processes $\bar B^0_d \to D_s^+ D_s^-$, $\bar B^0_d \to D_s^{+*} D_s^-$ and $\bar B^0_d \to D_s^+ D_s^{-*}$ are all of order $(2- 3) \times 10^{-4}$, while $\bar B^0_s \to D_d^+ D_d^-$, $\bar B^0_s \to D_d^{+*} D_d^-$ and $\bar B^0_s \to D_d^+ D_d^{-*}$ are of order $(4- 7) \times 10^{-3}$. We obtain branching ratios for two $D^*$'s in the final state of order two times bigger.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figure