20,285 research outputs found
Surface Critical Behavior in Systems with Absorbing States
We present a general scaling theory for the surface critical behavior of
non-equilibrium systems with phase transitions into absorbing states. The
theory allows for two independent surface exponents which satisfy generalized
hyperscaling relations. As an application we study a generalized version of
directed percolation with two absorbing states. We find two distinct surface
universality classes associated with inactive and reflective walls. Our results
indicate that the exponents associated with these two surface universality
classes are closely connected.Comment: latex, 4 pages, to appear in PR
Brittle extension of the continental crust along a rooted system of low-angle normal faults: Colorado River extensional corridor
A transect across the 100 km wide Colorado River extensional corridor of mid-Tertiary age shows that the upper 10 to 15 km of crystalline crust extended along an imbricate system of brittle low-angle normal faults. The faults cut gently down a section in the NE-direction of tectonic transport from a headwall breakaway in the Old Woman Mountains, California. Successively higher allochthons above a basal detachment fault are futher displaced from the headwall, some as much as tens of kilometers. Allochthonous blocks are tilted toward the headwall as evidenced by the dip of the cappoing Tertiary strata and originally horizontal Proterozoic diabase sheets. On the down-dip side of the corridor in Arizona, the faults root under the unbroken Hualapai Mountains and the Colorado Plateau. Slip on faults at all exposed levels of the crust was unidirectional. Brittle thinning above these faults affected the entire upper crust, and wholly removed it locally along the central corridor or core complex region. Isostatic uplift exposed metamorphic core complexes in the domed footwall. These data support a model that the crust in California moved out from under Arizona along an asymmetric, rooted normal-slip shear system. Ductile deformation must have accompanied mid-Tertiary crustal extension at deeper structural levels in Arizona
Soot formation and burnout in flames
The amount of soot formed when burning a benzene/hexane mixture in a turbulent combustor was examined. Soot concentration profiles in the same combustor for kerosene fuel are given. The chemistry of the formation of soot precursors, the nucleation, growth and subsequent burnout of soot particles, and the effect of mixing on the previous steps were considered
Management of Phytophthora cinnamomi for biodiversity conservation in Australia: Part 2. National best practice guidelines
Disease in natural ecosystems of Australia, caused by the introduced plant pathogen Phytophthora cinnamomi, is listed as a key threatening process under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). The Act requires the Australian Government to prepare and implement a threat abatement plan for nationally coordinated action to mitigate the harm caused by P. cinnamomi to Australian species, particularly threatened flora, fauna and ecological communities. The .National Threat Abatement Plan for Dieback Caused by the Root-Rot Fungus Phytophthora cinnamomi. (NTAP) was released in 2001 (Environment Australia, 2001). The NTAP is designed to promote a common understanding of the national threat P. cinnamomi poses to biodiversity in Australia.
This project, funded by the Australian Government Department of the Environment and Heritage (DEH), is one of the most significant actions to be implemented from the NTAP to date. The project has two major components:
* to review current management approaches and identify benchmarks for best practice
* the development of risk assessment criteria and a system for prioritising management of assets that are or could be threatened by P. cinnamomi.
The project outputs are presented in a four-part document entitled Management of Phytophthora cinnamomi for Biodiversity Conservation in Australia:
Part 1 - A Review of Current Management
Part 2 - National Best Practice Guidelines
Part 3 - Risk Assessment for Threats to Ecosystems, Species and Communities: A Review
Part 4 - Risk Assessment Models for Species, Ecological Communities and Areas.
A model of best practice was developed which encompasses all the components necessary for an informed and integrated approach to P. cinnamomi management, from strategic through to on-ground management. The current document (Part 1 . A Review of Current Management) thoroughly reviews the approaches to P. cinnamomi management in Australia within the context of the best practice model
Where we stand on structure dependence of ISGMR in the Zr-Mo region: Implications on K_\infty
Isoscalar giant resonances, being the archetypal forms of collective nuclear
behavior, have been studied extensively for decades with the goal of
constraining bulk nuclear properties of the equation of state, as well as for
modeling dynamical behaviors within stellar environments. An important such
mode is the isoscalar electric giant monopole resonance (ISGMR) that can be
understood as a radially symmetric density vibration within the saturated
nuclear volume. The field has a few key open questions, which have been
proposed and remain unresolved. One of the more provocative questions is the
extra high-energy strength in the region, which manifested in
large percentages of the sum rule in Zr and Mo above the
main ISGMR peak. The purpose of this article is to introduce these questions
within the context of experimental investigations into the phenomena in the
zirconium and molybdenum isotopic chains, and to address, via a discussion of
previously published and preliminary results, the implications of recent
experimental efforts on extraction of the nuclear incompressibility from this
data.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, invited to be submitted to a special issue of
EPJA honoring Prof. P. F. Bortigno
Bridging the microscopic and the hydrodynamic in active filament solutions
Hydrodynamic equations for an isotropic solution of active polar filaments
are derived from a microscopic mean-field model of the forces exchanged between
motors and filaments. We find that a spatial dependence of the motor stepping
rate along the filament is essential to drive bundle formation. A number of
differences arise as compared to hydrodynamics derived (earlier) from a
mesoscopic model where relative filament velocities were obtained on the basis
of symmetry considerations. Due to the anisotropy of filament diffusion, motors
are capable of generating net filament motion relative to the solvent. The
effect of this new term on the stability of the homogeneous state is
investigated.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Europhys. Let
On the push&pull protocol for rumour spreading
The asynchronous push&pull protocol, a randomized distributed algorithm for
spreading a rumour in a graph , works as follows. Independent Poisson clocks
of rate 1 are associated with the vertices of . Initially, one vertex of
knows the rumour. Whenever the clock of a vertex rings, it calls a random
neighbour : if knows the rumour and does not, then tells the
rumour (a push operation), and if does not know the rumour and knows
it, tells the rumour (a pull operation). The average spread time of
is the expected time it takes for all vertices to know the rumour, and the
guaranteed spread time of is the smallest time such that with
probability at least , after time all vertices know the rumour. The
synchronous variant of this protocol, in which each clock rings precisely at
times , has been studied extensively. We prove the following results
for any -vertex graph: In either version, the average spread time is at most
linear even if only the pull operation is used, and the guaranteed spread time
is within a logarithmic factor of the average spread time, so it is . In the asynchronous version, both the average and guaranteed spread times
are . We give examples of graphs illustrating that these bounds
are best possible up to constant factors. We also prove theoretical
relationships between the guaranteed spread times in the two versions. Firstly,
in all graphs the guaranteed spread time in the asynchronous version is within
an factor of that in the synchronous version, and this is tight.
Next, we find examples of graphs whose asynchronous spread times are
logarithmic, but the synchronous versions are polynomially large. Finally, we
show for any graph that the ratio of the synchronous spread time to the
asynchronous spread time is .Comment: 25 page
Nematic and Polar order in Active Filament Solutions
Using a microscopic model of interacting polar biofilaments and motor
proteins, we characterize the phase diagram of both homogeneous and
inhomogeneous states in terms of experimental parameters. The polarity of motor
clusters is key in determining the organization of the filaments in homogeneous
isotropic, polarized and nematic states, while motor-induced bundling yields
spatially inhomogeneous structures.Comment: 4 pages. 3 figure
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