Observational and theoretical studies of the evolving structure of baroclinic waves

Dynamical processes involved in comma cloud formation, and passive tracer evolution in a baroclinic wave are discussed. An analytical solution was obtained demonstrating the complex nongeostrophic flow pattern involved in the redistribution of low level constituents in a finite amplitude baroclinic wave, and in the formation of the typical humidity and cloud distributions in such a wave. Observational and theoretical studies of blocking weather patterns in middle latitude flows were studied. The differences in the energy and enstrophy cascades in blocking and nonblocking situations were shown. It was established that pronounced upscale flow of both of these quantities, from intermediate to planetary scales, occurs during blocking episodes. The upscale flux of enstrophy, in particular, suggests that the persistence of blocking periods may be due to reduced dissipation of the large scale circulation and therefore entail some above normal predictability

Spin-orientation-dependent spatial structure of a magnetic acceptor state in a zincblende semiconductor

The spin orientation of a magnetic dopant in a zincblende semiconductor strongly influences the spatial structure of an acceptor state bound to the dopant. The acceptor state has a roughly oblate shape with the short axis aligned with the dopant's core spin. For a Mn dopant in GaAs the local density of states at a site 8 angstrom away from the dopant can change by as much by 90% when the Mn spin orientation changes. These changes in the local density of states could be probed by scanning tunneling microscopy to infer the magnetic dopant's spin orientation.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Vortices, circumfluence, symmetry groups and Darboux transformations of the (2+1)-dimensional Euler equation

The Euler equation (EE) is one of the basic equations in many physical fields such as fluids, plasmas, condensed matter, astrophysics, oceanic and atmospheric dynamics. A symmetry group theorem of the (2+1)-dimensional EE is obtained via a simple direct method which is thus utilized to find \em exact analytical \rm vortex and circumfluence solutions. A weak Darboux transformation theorem of the (2+1)-dimensional EE can be obtained for \em arbitrary spectral parameter \rm from the general symmetry group theorem. \rm Possible applications of the vortex and circumfluence solutions to tropical cyclones, especially Hurricane Katrina 2005, are demonstrated.Comment: 25 pages, 9 figure

Discussions on Stability of Diquarks

Since the birth of the quark model, the diquark which is composed of two quarks has been considered as a substantial structure of color anti-triplet. This is not only a mathematical simplification for dealing with baryons, but also provides a physical picture where the diquark would behave as a whole object. It is natural to ask whether such a structure is sufficiently stable against external disturbance. The mass spectra of the ground states of the scalar and axial-vector diquarks which are composed of two-light (L-L), one-light-one-heavy (H-L) and two-heavy quarks (H-H) respectively have been calculated in terms of the QCD sum rules. We suggest a criterion as the quantitative standard for the stability of the diquark. It is the gap between the masses of the diquark and $\sqrt{s_0}$ where $s_0$ is the threshold of the excited states and continuity, namely the larger the gap is, the more stable the diquark would be. In this work, we calculate the masses of the type H-H to complete the series of the spectra of the ground state diquarks. However, as the criterion being taken, we find that all the gaps for the various diquaks are within a small range, especially the gap for the diquark with two heavy quarks which is believed to be a stable structure, is slightly smaller than that for other two types of diquarks, therefore we conclude that because of the large theoretical uncertainty, we cannot use the numerical results obtained with the QCD sum rules to assess the stability of diquarks, but need to invoke other theoretical framework.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure

PerfWeb: How to Violate Web Privacy with Hardware Performance Events

The browser history reveals highly sensitive information about users, such as financial status, health conditions, or political views. Private browsing modes and anonymity networks are consequently important tools to preserve the privacy not only of regular users but in particular of whistleblowers and dissidents. Yet, in this work we show how a malicious application can infer opened websites from Google Chrome in Incognito mode and from Tor Browser by exploiting hardware performance events (HPEs). In particular, we analyze the browsers' microarchitectural footprint with the help of advanced Machine Learning techniques: k-th Nearest Neighbors, Decision Trees, Support Vector Machines, and in contrast to previous literature also Convolutional Neural Networks. We profile 40 different websites, 30 of the top Alexa sites and 10 whistleblowing portals, on two machines featuring an Intel and an ARM processor. By monitoring retired instructions, cache accesses, and bus cycles for at most 5 seconds, we manage to classify the selected websites with a success rate of up to 86.3%. The results show that hardware performance events can clearly undermine the privacy of web users. We therefore propose mitigation strategies that impede our attacks and still allow legitimate use of HPEs

Differentiation of ruminant transmissible spongiform encephalopathy isolate types, including bovine spongiform encephalopathy and CH1641 scrapie

With increased awareness of the diversity of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) strains in the ruminant population, comes an appreciation of the need for improved methods of differential diagnosis. Exposure to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) has been associated with the human TSE, variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease, emphasizing the necessity in distinguishing low-risk TSE types from BSE. TSE type discrimination in ruminants such as cattle, sheep, goats and deer, requires the application of several prion protein (PrP)-specific antibodies in parallel immunochemical tests on brain homogenates or tissue sections from infected animals. This study uses in a single incubation step, three PrP-specific antibodies and fluorescent Alexa dye-labelled anti-mouse Fabs on a Western blot. The usual amount of brain tissue needed is 0.5 mg. This multiplex application of antibodies directed towards three different PrP epitopes enabled differential diagnosis of all established main features of classical scrapie, BSE and Nor98-like scrapie in sheep and goats, as well as the currently known BSE types C, H and L in cattle. Moreover, due to an antibody-dependent dual PrP-banding pattern, for the first time CH1641 scrapie of sheep can be reliably discriminated from the other TSE isolate types in sheep