519 research outputs found
Wide range and tunable linear TMR sensor using two exchange pinned electrodes
A magnetic tunnel junction sensor is proposed, with both the detection and
the reference layers pinned by IrMn. Using the differences in the blocking
temperatures of the IrMn films with different thicknesses, crossed anisotropies
can be induced between the detection and the reference electrodes. The pinning
of the sensing electrode ensures a linear and reversible output. It also allows
tuning both the sensitivity and the linear range of the sensor. The authors
show that the sensitivity varies linearly with the ferromagnetic thickness of
the detection electrode. It is demonstrated that an increased thickness leads
to a rise of sensitivity and a reduction of the operating range
Coupling techniques for nonlinear hyperbolic equations. III. The well-balanced approximation of thick interfaces
We continue our analysis of the coupling between nonlinear hyperbolic
problems across possibly resonant interfaces. In the first two parts of this
series, we introduced a new framework for coupling problems which is based on
the so-called thin interface model and uses an augmented formulation and an
additional unknown for the interface location; this framework has the advantage
of avoiding any explicit modeling of the interface structure. In the present
paper, we pursue our investigation of the augmented formulation and we
introduce a new coupling framework which is now based on the so-called thick
interface model. For scalar nonlinear hyperbolic equations in one space
variable, we observe that the Cauchy problem is well-posed. Then, our main
achievement in the present paper is the design of a new well-balanced finite
volume scheme which is adapted to the thick interface model, together with a
proof of its convergence toward the unique entropy solution (for a broad class
of nonlinear hyperbolic equations). Due to the presence of a possibly resonant
interface, the standard technique based on a total variation estimate does not
apply, and DiPerna's uniqueness theorem must be used. Following a method
proposed by Coquel and LeFloch, our proof relies on discrete entropy
inequalities for the coupling problem and an estimate of the discrete entropy
dissipation in the proposed scheme.Comment: 21 page
New DRIE-Patterned Electrets for Vibration Energy Harvesting
This paper is about a new manufacturing process aimed at developing stable
SiO2/Si3N4 patterned electrets using a Deep Reactive Ion Etching (DRIE) step
for an application in electret-based Vibration Energy Harvesters (e-VEH). This
process consists in forming continuous layers of SiO2/Si3N4 electrets in order
to limit surface conduction phenomena and is a new way to see the problem of
electret patterning. Experimental results prove that patterned electrets
charged by a positive corona discharge show excellent stability with high
surface charge densities that may reach 5mC/m^2 on 1.1\mu m-thick layers, even
with fine patterning and harsh temperature conditions (up to 250{\deg}C). This
paves the way to new e-VEH designs and manufacturing processes.Comment: Proc. European Energy Conference, 201
Is there a best BĂŒchi automaton for explicit model checking?
LTL to BĂŒchi automata (BA) translators are traditionally optimized to produce automata with a small number of states or a small number of non-deterministic states. In this paper, we search for properties of BĂŒchi automata that really influence the performance of explicit model checkers. We do that by manual analysis of several automata and by experiments with common LTL-to-BA translators and realistic verification tasks. As a result of these experiences, we gain a better insight into the characteristics of automata that work well with Spin.PĆekladaÄe LTL na BĂŒchiho automaty jsou obvykle optimalizovĂĄny tak, aby produkovaly automaty s co nejmenĆĄĂm poÄtem stavĆŻ, Äi s co nejmenĆĄĂm poÄtem nedeterministickĂœch stavĆŻ. V tĂ©to publikaci hledĂĄme vlastnosti BĂŒchiho automatĆŻ, kterĂ© skuteÄnÄ ovlivĆujĂ vĂœkon nĂĄstrojĆŻ pro explicitnĂ metodu ovÄĆovĂĄnĂ modelu (model checking). A to pomocĂ manuĂĄlnĂ analĂœzy nÄkolika automatĆŻ a experimenty s bÄĆŸnĂœmi pĆekladaÄe LTL na automaty a realistickĂœmi verifikaÄnĂmi Ășlohami. VĂœsledkem tÄchto experimentĆŻ je lepĆĄĂ porozumÄnĂ charakteristik automatĆŻ, kterĂ© jsou dobrĂ© pro model checker Spin
The role of mutation rate variation and genetic diversity in the architecture of human disease
Background
We have investigated the role that the mutation rate and the structure of genetic variation at a locus play in determining whether a gene is involved in disease. We predict that the mutation rate and its genetic diversity should be higher in genes associated with disease, unless all genes that could cause disease have already been identified.
Results
Consistent with our predictions we find that genes associated with Mendelian and complex disease are substantially longer than non-disease genes. However, we find that both Mendelian and complex disease genes are found in regions of the genome with relatively low mutation rates, as inferred from intron divergence between humans and chimpanzees, and they are predicted to have similar rates of non-synonymous mutation as other genes. Finally, we find that disease genes are in regions of significantly elevated genetic diversity, even when variation in the rate of mutation is controlled for. The effect is small nevertheless.
Conclusions
Our results suggest that gene length contributes to whether a gene is associated with disease. However, the mutation rate and the genetic architecture of the locus appear to play only a minor role in determining whether a gene is associated with disease
Presentation of the 9th Edition of the Model Checking Contest.
International audience; The Model Checking Contest (MCC) is an annual competition of software tools for model checking. Tools must process an increasing benchmark gathered from the whole community and may participate in various examinations: state space generation, computation of global properties, computation of some upper bounds in the model, evaluation of reachability formulas, evaluation of CTL formulas, and evaluation of LTL formulas.For each examination and each model instance, participating tools are provided with up to 3600 s and 16 gigabyte of memory. Then, tool answers are analyzed and confronted to the results produced by other competing tools to detect diverging answers (which are quite rare at this stage of the competition, and lead to penalties).For each examination, golden, silver, and bronze medals are attributed to the three best tools. CPU usage and memory consumption are reported, which is also valuable information for tool developers
Magnetic fields in noncommutative quantum mechanics
We discuss various descriptions of a quantum particle on noncommutative space
in a (possibly non-constant) magnetic field. We have tried to present the basic
facts in a unified and synthetic manner, and to clarify the relationship
between various approaches and results that are scattered in the literature.Comment: Dedicated to the memory of Julius Wess. Work presented by F. Gieres
at the conference `Non-commutative Geometry and Physics' (Orsay, April 2007
DNA sequence diversity and the efficiency of natural selection in animal mitochondrial DNA
Selection is expected to be more efficient in species that are more diverse because both the efficiency of natural selection and DNA sequence diversity are expected to depend upon the effective population size. We explore this relationship across a data set of 751 mammal species for which we have mitochondrial polymorphism data. We introduce a method by which we can examine the relationship between our measure of the efficiency of natural selection, the nonsynonymous relative to the synonymous nucleotide site diversity (ÏN/ÏS), and synonymous nucleotide diversity (ÏS), avoiding the statistical non-independence between the two quantities. We show that these two variables are strongly negatively and linearly correlated on a log scale. The slope is such that as ÏS doubles, ÏN/ÏS is reduced by 34%. We show that the slope of this relationship differs between the two phylogenetic groups for which we have the most data, rodents and bats, and that it also differs between species with high and low body mass, and between those with high and low mass-specific metabolic rate
Recombination dynamics of a human Y-chromosomal palindrome:rapid GC-biased gene conversion, multi-kilobase conversion tracts, and rare inversions
The male-specific region of the human Y chromosome (MSY) includes eight large inverted repeats (palindromes) in which arm-to-arm similarity exceeds 99.9%, due to gene conversion activity. Here, we studied one of these palindromes, P6, in order to illuminate the dynamics of the gene conversion process. We genotyped ten paralogous sequence variants (PSVs) within the arms of P6 in 378 Y chromosomes whose evolutionary relationships within the SNP-defined Y phylogeny are known. This allowed the identification of 146 historical gene conversion events involving individual PSVs, occurring at a rate of 2.9-8.4Ă10(-4) events per generation. A consideration of the nature of nucleotide change and the ancestral state of each PSV showed that the conversion process was significantly biased towards the fixation of G or C nucleotides (GC-biased), and also towards the ancestral state. Determination of haplotypes by long-PCR allowed likely co-conversion of PSVs to be identified, and suggested that conversion tract lengths are large, with a mean of 2068 bp, and a maximum in excess of 9 kb. Despite the frequent formation of recombination intermediates implied by the rapid observed gene conversion activity, resolution via crossover is rare: only three inversions within P6 were detected in the sample. An analysis of chimpanzee and gorilla P6 orthologs showed that the ancestral state bias has existed in all three species, and comparison of human and chimpanzee sequences with the gorilla outgroup confirmed that GC bias of the conversion process has apparently been active in both the human and chimpanzee lineages
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