3,233 research outputs found
Online Predictive Optimization Framework for Stochastic Demand-Responsive Transit Services
This study develops an online predictive optimization framework for
dynamically operating a transit service in an area of crowd movements. The
proposed framework integrates demand prediction and supply optimization to
periodically redesign the service routes based on recently observed demand. To
predict demand for the service, we use Quantile Regression to estimate the
marginal distribution of movement counts between each pair of serviced
locations. The framework then combines these marginals into a joint demand
distribution by constructing a Gaussian copula, which captures the structure of
correlation between the marginals. For supply optimization, we devise a linear
programming model, which simultaneously determines the route structure and the
service frequency according to the predicted demand. Importantly, our framework
both preserves the uncertainty structure of future demand and leverages this
for robust route optimization, while keeping both components decoupled. We
evaluate our framework using a real-world case study of autonomous mobility in
a university campus in Denmark. The results show that our framework often
obtains the ground truth optimal solution, and can outperform conventional
methods for route optimization, which do not leverage full predictive
distributions.Comment: 34 pages, 12 figures, 5 table
3D tracking of particles in a dusty plasma by laser sheet tomography
The collective behavior of levitated particles in a weakly-ionized plasma
(dusty plasma) has raised significant scientific interest. This is due to the
complex array of forces acting on the particles, and their potential to act as
in-situ diagnostics of the plasma environment. Ideally, the three-dimensional
(3D) motion of many particles should be tracked for long periods of time.
Typically, stereoscopic imaging using multiple cameras combined with particle
image velocimetry (PIV) is used to obtain a velocity field of many particles,
yet this method is limited by its sample volume and short time scales. Here we
demonstrate a different, high-speed tomographic imaging method capable of
tracking individual particles. We use a scanning laser sheet coupled to a
single high-speed camera. We are able to identify and track tens of individual
particles over centimeter length scales for several minutes, corresponding to
more than 10,000 frames.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure
Non-saturating large magnetoresistance in semimetals
The rapidly expanding class of quantum materials known as {\emph{topological
semimetals}} (TSM) display unique transport properties, including a striking
dependence of resistivity on applied magnetic field, that are of great interest
for both scientific and technological reasons. However, experimental signatures
that can identify or discern the dominant mechanism and connect to available
theories are scarce. Here we present the magnetic susceptibility (), the
tangent of the Hall angle () along with magnetoresistance in four
different non-magnetic semimetals with high mobilities, NbP, TaP, NbSb and
TaSb, all of which exhibit non-saturating large MR. We find that the
distinctly different temperature dependences, and the values of
in phosphides and antimonates serve as empirical criteria to
sort the MR from different origins: NbP and TaP being uncompensated semimetals
with linear dispersion, in which the non-saturating magnetoresistance arises
due to guiding center motion, while NbSb and TaSb being {\it
compensated} semimetals, with a magnetoresistance emerging from nearly perfect
charge compensation of two quadratic bands. Our results illustrate how a
combination of magnetotransport and susceptibility measurements may be used to
categorize the increasingly ubiquitous non-saturating large magnetoresistance
in TSMs.Comment: Accepted for publication at Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., minor revisions,
6 figure
Kinetic analysis of an efficient DNA-dependent TNA polymerase.
alpha-l-Threofuranosyl nucleoside triphosphates (tNTPs) are tetrafuranose nucleoside derivatives and potential progenitors of present-day beta-d-2'-deoxyribofuranosyl nucleoside triphosphates (dNTPs). Therminator DNA polymerase, a variant of the 9 degrees N DNA polymerase, is an efficient DNA-directed threosyl nucleic acid (TNA) polymerase. Here we report a detailed kinetic comparison of Therminator-catalyzed TNA and DNA syntheses. We examined the rate of single-nucleotide incorporation for all four tNTPs and dNTPs from a DNA primer-template complex and carried out parallel experiments with a chimeric DNA-TNA primer-DNA template containing five TNA residues at the primer 3'-terminus. Remarkably, no drop in the rate of TNA incorporation was observed in comparing the DNA-TNA primer to the all-DNA primer, suggesting that few primer-enzyme contacts are lost with a TNA primer. Moreover, comparison of the catalytic efficiency of TNA synthesis relative to DNA synthesis at the downstream positions reveals a difference of no greater than 5-fold in favor of the natural DNA substrate. This disparity becomes negligible when the TNA synthesis reaction mixture is supplemented with 1.25 mM MnCl(2). These results indicate that Therminator DNA polymerase can recognize both a TNA primer and tNTP substrates and is an effective catalyst of TNA polymerization despite changes in the geometry of the reactants
Fermionic construction of partition functions for two-matrix models and perturbative Schur function expansions
A new representation of the 2N fold integrals appearing in various two-matrix
models that admit reductions to integrals over their eigenvalues is given in
terms of vacuum state expectation values of operator products formed from
two-component free fermions. This is used to derive the perturbation series for
these integrals under deformations induced by exponential weight factors in the
measure, expressed as double and quadruple Schur function expansions,
generalizing results obtained earlier for certain two-matrix models. Links with
the coupled two-component KP hierarchy and the two-component Toda lattice
hierarchy are also derived.Comment: Submitted to: "Random Matrices, Random Processes and Integrable
Systems", Special Issue of J. Phys. A, based on the Centre de recherches
mathematiques short program, Montreal, June 20-July 8, 200
Fermionic construction of partition function for multi-matrix models and multi-component TL hierarchy
We use -component fermions to present -fold
integrals as a fermionic expectation value. This yields fermionic
representation for various -matrix models. Links with the -component
KP hierarchy and also with the -component TL hierarchy are discussed. We
show that the set of all (but two) flows of -component TL changes standard
matrix models to new ones.Comment: 16 pages, submitted to a special issue of Theoretical and
Mathematical Physic
Nonperturbative dynamics of scalar field theories through the Feynman-Schwinger representation
In this paper we present a summary of results obtained for scalar field
theories using the Feynman-Schwinger (FSR) approach. Specifically, scalar QED
and chi^2phi theories are considered. The motivation behind the applications
discussed in this paper is to use the FSR method as a rigorous tool for testing
the quality of commonly used approximations in field theory. Exact calculations
in a quenched theory are presented for one-, two-, and three-body bound states.
Results obtained indicate that some of the commonly used approximations, such
as Bethe-Salpeter ladder summation for bound states and the rainbow summation
for one body problems, produce significantly different results from those
obtained from the FSR approach. We find that more accurate results can be
obtained using other, simpler, approximation schemes.Comment: 25 pags, 19 figures, prepared for the volume celebrating the 70th
birthday of Yuri Simono
Operation of a superconducting nanowire quantum interference device with mesoscopic leads
A theory describing the operation of a superconducting nanowire quantum
interference device (NQUID) is presented. The device consists of a pair of
thin-film superconducting leads connected by a pair of topologically parallel
ultra-narrow superconducting wires. It exhibits intrinsic electrical
resistance, due to thermally-activated dissipative fluctuations of the
superconducting order parameter. Attention is given to the dependence of this
resistance on the strength of an externally applied magnetic field aligned
perpendicular to the leads, for lead dimensions such that there is essentially
complete and uniform penetration of the leads by the magnetic field. This
regime, in which at least one of the lead dimensions lies between the
superconducting coherence and penetration lengths, is referred to as the
mesoscopic regime. The magnetic field causes a pronounced oscillation of the
device resistance, with a period not dominated by the Aharonov-Bohm effect
through the area enclosed by the wires and the film edges but, rather, in terms
of the geometry of the leads, in contrast to the well-known Little-Parks
resistance of thin-walled superconducting cylinders. A theory, encompassing
this phenomenology, is developed through extensions, to the setting of parallel
superconducting wires, of the Ivanchenko-Zil'berman-Ambegaokar-Halperin theory
for the case of short wires and the Langer-Ambegaokar-McCumber-Halperin theory
for the case of longer wires. It is demonstrated that the NQUID acts as a probe
of spatial variations in the superconducting order parameter.Comment: 20 pages, 18 figure
Guided Neuronal Growth on Arrays of Biofunctionalized GaAs/InGaAs Semiconductor Microtubes
We demonstrate embedded growth of cortical mouse neurons in dense arrays of
semiconductor microtubes. The microtubes, fabricated from a strained
GaAs/InGaAs heterostructure, guide axon growth through them and enable
electrical and optical probing of propagating action potentials. The coaxial
nature of the microtubes -- similar to myelin -- is expected to enhance the
signal transduction along the axon. We present a technique of suppressing
arsenic toxicity and prove the success of this technique by overgrowing
neuronal mouse cells.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figure
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