Knuthian Drawings of Series-Parallel Flowcharts

Inspired by a classic paper by Knuth, we revisit the problem of drawing flowcharts of loop-free algorithms, that is, degree-three series-parallel digraphs. Our drawing algorithms show that it is possible to produce Knuthian drawings of degree-three series-parallel digraphs with good aspect ratios and small numbers of edge bends.Comment: Full versio

Distributed fibre optic sensors for measuring strain and temperature of cast-in-situ concrete test piles

In this paper we present the use of distributed fibre optic sensor (DFOS) technology to measure the temperature and strain of reinforced concrete test piles during construction and during static load tests. Eight test piles were recently instrumented with DFOS, on three construction sites in London, by the Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (CSIC), in collaboration with Ove Arup & Partners Ltd. The concrete curing temperature profiles of the piles were used to detect the presence of significant defects in the piles. The load test strain profiles along the length of the piles were used to determine the load capacity of the piles and estimate the design parameters of the various soil strata, as well as the internal relative displacement of the piles under various loads. Being distributed in nature, DFOS give a much more detailed picture of the performance of a test pile, as compared to traditional embedded point sensors, such as vibrating wire strain gauges and extensometers. This is demonstrated with a sample of data obtained from one of the instrumented test piles.This is the author accepted manuscript. It is currently under an indefinite embargo pending publication by ICE Publishing

Control of the reaching mode in variable structure systems

This paper focuses on the behaviour of variable structure systems with dynamic control, particularly during the reaching mode of operation. It is shown that stability problems may arise during this reaching phase. The causes of these problems are closely related with the problems of windup commonly found in conventional control systems with actuator constraints. Methods for stabilization of the reaching mode are proposed which are based on the concepts of 'realizable reference' and observers. Well-known algorithms that have been previously proposed from empiric ideas, can now be rigorously derived using these concepts. The theoretical framework developed by Kothare and co-workers in the context of windup is generalized to study and design control algorithms for the reaching mode

Monitoring bridge degradation using dynamic strain, acoustic emission and environmental data

This paper studies the long term structural behaviour of a Victorian railway viaduct under train loading and temperature variation. A multi-sensing, self-sustaining and remotely controlled data acquisition system combines fibre Bragg grating strain sensors with acoustic emission sensors for the study of both global dynamic deformation and local masonry deterioration. A statistical analysis of fibre Bragg grating signals reveals regions with permanent change in the dynamic deformation of the bridge over the last two years, whereas in other locations the deformation follows a seasonal cyclic pattern. In order to decouple changes in structural behaviour due to real mechanical damage from normal seasonal effect, the paper studies the ambient temperature effect on the dynamic deformation of the bridge, showing a clear linear dependence. In particular, when temperature increases, the dynamic strain due to train loading decreases uniformly in the longitudinal direction. In the transverse direction, where the thermal expansion is not constrained, the decrease is smaller. Decoupling damage from normal seasonal effect is of critical importance for the development of reliable early warning structural alert systems for infrastructure networks. The paper further studies local masonry deterioration at four critical location by combining data from the two sensing technologies: fibre optic and acoustic emission sensors.This work is being funded by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, EPSRC and Innovate UK through the Data-Centric Engineering programme of the Alan Turing Institute and through the Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction. Funding for the monitoring installation was provided by EPSRC under the Ref. EP/N021614/1 grant and by Innovate UK under the Ref. 920035 grant

Molecular Basis of Phenylketonuria in Italy

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Numerical Evidence for Spontaneously Broken Replica Symmetry in 3D Spin Glasses

By numerical simulations of the $3d$ Ising spin glass we find evidence that spontaneous replica symmetry breaking theory and not the droplet model describes with good accuracy the equilibrium behavior of the system.Comment: PHYSREV format, 2 .ps figures added with figure command in uufiles forma

Pixel and Voxel Representations of Graphs

We study contact representations for graphs, which we call pixel representations in 2D and voxel representations in 3D. Our representations are based on the unit square grid whose cells we call pixels in 2D and voxels in 3D. Two pixels are adjacent if they share an edge, two voxels if they share a face. We call a connected set of pixels or voxels a blob. Given a graph, we represent its vertices by disjoint blobs such that two blobs contain adjacent pixels or voxels if and only if the corresponding vertices are adjacent. We are interested in the size of a representation, which is the number of pixels or voxels it consists of. We first show that finding minimum-size representations is NP-complete. Then, we bound representation sizes needed for certain graph classes. In 2D, we show that, for $k$-outerplanar graphs with $n$ vertices, $\Theta(kn)$ pixels are always sufficient and sometimes necessary. In particular, outerplanar graphs can be represented with a linear number of pixels, whereas general planar graphs sometimes need a quadratic number. In 3D, $\Theta(n^2)$ voxels are always sufficient and sometimes necessary for any $n$-vertex graph. We improve this bound to $\Theta(n\cdot \tau)$ for graphs of treewidth $\tau$ and to $O((g+1)^2n\log^2n)$ for graphs of genus $g$. In particular, planar graphs admit representations with $O(n\log^2n)$ voxels

Progress and status of APEmille

We report on the progress and status of the APEmille project: a SIMD parallel computer with a peak performance in the TeraFlops range which is now in an advanced development phase. We discuss the hardware and software architecture, and present some performance estimates for Lattice Gauge Theory (LGT) applications.Comment: Talk presented at LATTICE97, 3 pages, Late

On Smooth Orthogonal and Octilinear Drawings: Relations, Complexity and Kandinsky Drawings

We study two variants of the well-known orthogonal drawing model: (i) the smooth orthogonal, and (ii) the octilinear. Both models form an extension of the orthogonal, by supporting one additional type of edge segments (circular arcs and diagonal segments, respectively). For planar graphs of max-degree 4, we analyze relationships between the graph classes that can be drawn bendless in the two models and we also prove NP-hardness for a restricted version of the bendless drawing problem for both models. For planar graphs of higher degree, we present an algorithm that produces bi-monotone smooth orthogonal drawings with at most two segments per edge, which also guarantees a linear number of edges with exactly one segment.Comment: Appears in the Proceedings of the 25th International Symposium on Graph Drawing and Network Visualization (GD 2017

Low T Dynamical Properties of Spin Glasses Smoothly Extrapolate to T=0

We compare ground state properties of 3D Ising Spin Glasses with Gaussian couplings with results from off-equilibrium numerical simulations at non zero (but low) temperatures. We find that the non-zero temperature properties of the system smoothly connect to the T=0 behavior, confirming the point of view that results established at T=0 typically also give relevant information about the $T\ne 0$ physics of the system.Comment: 14 pages and 4 ps figure