Nuclear β+\beta^+/EC decays in covariant density functional theory and the impact of isoscalar proton-neutron pairing

Self-consistent proton-neutron quasiparticle random phase approximation based on the spherical nonlinear point-coupling relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov theory is established and used to investigate the $\beta^+$/EC-decay half-lives of neutron-deficient Ar, Ca, Ti, Fe, Ni, Zn, Cd, and Sn isotopes. The isoscalar proton-neutron pairing is found to play an important role in reducing the decay half-lives, which is consistent with the same mechanism in the $\beta$ decays of neutron-rich nuclei. The experimental $\beta^+$/EC-decay half-lives can be well reproduced by a universal isoscalar proton-neutron pairing strength.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

Study on QoS support in 802.11e-based multi-hop vehicular wireless ad hoc networks

Multimedia communications over vehicular ad hoc networks (VANET) will play an important role in the future intelligent transport system (ITS). QoS support for VANET therefore becomes an essential problem. In this paper, we first study the QoS performance in multi-hop VANET by using the standard IEEE 802.11e EDCA MAC and our proposed triple-constraint QoS routing protocol, Delay-Reliability-Hop (DeReHQ). In particular, we evaluate the DeReHQ protocol together with EDCA in highway and urban areas. Simulation results show that end-to-end delay performance can sometimes be achieved when both 802.11e EDCA and DeReHQ extended AODV are used. However, further studies on cross-layer optimization for QoS support in multi-hop environment are required

Numerical simulation of two-phase cross flow in the gas diffusion layer microstructure of proton exchange membrane fuel cells

The cross flow in the under-land gas diffusion layer (GDL) between 2 adjacent channels plays an important role on water transport in proton exchange membrane fuel cell. A 3-dimensional (3D) two-phase model that is based on volume of fluid is developed to study the liquid water-air cross flow within the GDL between 2 adjacent channels. By considering the detailed GDL microstructures, various types of air-water cross flows are investigated by 3D numerical simulation. Liquid water at 4 locations is studied, including droplets at the GDL surface and liquid at the GDL-catalyst layer interface. It is found that the water droplet at the higher-pressure channel corner is easier to be removed by cross flow compared with droplets at other locations. Large pressure difference Δp facilitates the faster water removal from the higher-pressure channel. The contact angle of the GDL fiber is the key parameter that determines the cross flow of the droplet in the higher-pressure channel. It is observed that the droplet in the higher-pressure channel is difficult to flow through the hydrophobic GDL. Numerical simulations are also performed to investigate the water emerging process from different pores of the GDL bottom. It is found that the amount of liquid water removed by cross flow mainly depends on the pore's location, and the water under the land is removed entirely into the lower-pressure channel by cross flow

Temperature dependence of electron-spin relaxation in a single InAs quantum dot at zero applied magnetic field

The temperature-dependent electron spin relaxation of positively charged excitons in a single InAs quantum dot (QD) was measured by time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy at zero applied magnetic fields. The experimental results show that the electron-spin relaxation is clearly divided into two different temperature regimes: (i) T < 50 K, spin relaxation depends on the dynamical nuclear spin polarization (DNSP) and is approximately temperature-independent, as predicted by Merkulov et al. (ii) T > about 50 K, spin relaxation speeds up with increasing temperature. A model of two LO phonon scattering process coupled with hyperfine interaction is proposed to account for the accelerated electron spin relaxation at higher temperatures.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

A brain-region-based meta-analysis method utilizing the Apriori algorithm

Background: Brain network connectivity modeling is a crucial method for studying the brain's cognitive functions. Meta-analyses can unearth reliable results from individual studies. Meta-analytic connectivity modeling is a connectivity analysis method based on regions of interest (ROIs) which showed that meta-analyses could be used to discover brain network connectivity. Results: In this paper, we propose a new meta-analysis method that can be used to find network connectivity models based on the Apriori algorithm, which has the potential to derive brain network connectivity models from activation information in the literature, without requiring ROIs. This method first extracts activation information from experimental studies that use cognitive tasks of the same category, and then maps the activation information to corresponding brain areas by using the automatic anatomical label atlas, after which the activation rate of these brain areas is calculated. Finally, using these brain areas, a potential brain network connectivity model is calculated based on the Apriori algorithm. The present study used this method to conduct a mining analysis on the citations in a language review article by Price (Neuroimage 62(2):816-847, 2012). The results showed that the obtained network connectivity model was consistent with that reported by Price. Conclusions: The proposed method is helpful to find brain network connectivity by mining the co-activation relationships among brain regions. Furthermore, results of the co-activation relationship analysis can be used as a priori knowledge for the corresponding dynamic causal modeling analysis, possibly achieving a significant dimension-reducing effect, thus increasing the efficiency of the dynamic causal modeling analysis

Coordinate shift in the semiclassical Boltzmann equation and the anomalous Hall effect

We propose a gauge invariant expression for the side jump associated with scattering between particular Bloch states. Our expression for the side jump follows from the Born series expansion for the scattering T-matrix in powers of the strength of the scattering potential. Given our gauge invariant side jump expression, it is possible to construct a semiclassical Boltzmann theory of the anomalous Hall effect which expresses all previously identified contributions in terms of gauge invariant quantities and does not refer explicitly to off-diagonal terms in the density-matrix response.Comment: 6 pages, 1 fugure. submitted to PR