First-principles calculations of a high-pressure synthesized compound PtC

First-principles density-functional method is used to study the recently high-pressure synthesized compound PtC. It is confirmed by our calculations that the platinum carbide has a zinc-blende ground-state phase at zero pressure and the rock-salt structure is a high-pressure phase. The theoretical transition pressure from zinc-blende to rock-salt is determined to be 52GPa. Furthermore, our calculation shows the possibility that the experimentally synthesized PtC by Ono et al. under high pressure condition might undergo a transition from rock-salt structure to zinc-blende after the pressure quench to ambient condition.Comment: A revised versio

Conformal or Walking? Monte Carlo renormalization group studies of SU(3) gauge models with fundamental fermions

Strongly coupled gauge systems with many fermions are important in many phenomenological models. I use the 2-lattice matching Monte Carlo renormalization group method to study the fixed point structure and critical indexes of SU(3) gauge models with 8 and 12 flavors of fundamental fermions. With an improved renormalization group block transformation I am able to connect the perturbative and confining regimes of the N_f=8 flavor system, thus verifying its QCD-like nature. With N_f=12 flavors the data favor the existence of an infrared fixed point and conformal phase, though the results are also consistent with very slow walking. I measure the anomalous mass dimension in both systems at several gauge couplings and find that they are barely different from the free field value.Comment: 26 pages, 11 figure

Using Agent Solutions and Visualization Techniques to Manage Cloud-based Education System

Over the past few years, there are many requests from academic institutions, eLearning developers, education businesses owners, and global enterprises concerning cloud-based education systems. Nowadays, a range of software and applications have been created for managing teaching and learning resources via internet. Many of them have been even trying to integrate all the educational resources into a single cloud system. This paper proposes using agent technologies and visualization solutions to manage cloud-based education systems to match streamline of day to day business and operations. It focuses on adopting agents for University of Westminster’s Cloud computing education system and mobile learning project. It shows how intelligent agents can be used as a good tool for cloud-based education service and associated applications provision and management within Software as Service (SaaS) level

AR-based Technoself Enhanced Learning Approach to Improving Student Engagement

The emerging technologies have expanded a new dimension of self – ‘technoself’ driven by socio-technical innovations and taken an important step forward in pervasive learning. Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) research has increasingly focused on emergent technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR) for augmented learning, mobile learning, and game-based learning in order to improve self-motivation and self-engagement of the learners in enriched multimodal learning environments. These researches take advantage of technological innovations in hardware and software across different platforms and devices including tablets, phoneblets and even game consoles and their increasing popularity for pervasive learning with the significant development of personalization processes which place the student at the center of the learning process. In particular, augmented reality (AR) research has matured to a level to facilitate augmented learning, which is defined as an on-demand learning technique where the learning environment adapts to the needs and inputs from learners. In this paper we firstly study the role of Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) which is one of the most influential theories applied in TEL on how learners come to accept and use a new technology. Then we present the design methodology of the technoself approach for pervasive learning and introduce technoself enhanced learning as a novel pedagogical model to improve student engagement by shaping personal learning focus and setting. Furthermore we describe the design and development of an AR-based interactive digital interpretation system for augmented learning and discuss key features. By incorporating mobiles, game simulation, voice recognition, and multimodal interaction through Augmented Reality, the learning contents can be geared toward learner's needs and learners can stimulate discovery and gain greater understanding. The system demonstrates that Augmented Reality can provide rich contextual learning environment and contents tailored for individuals. Augment learning via AR can bridge this gap between the theoretical learning and practical learning, and focus on how the real and virtual can be combined together to fulfill different learning objectives, requirements, and even environments. Finally, we validate and evaluate the AR-based technoself enhanced learning approach to enhancing the student motivation and engagement in the learning process through experimental learning practices. It shows that Augmented Reality is well aligned with constructive learning strategies, as learners can control their own learning and manipulate objects that are not real in augmented environment to derive and acquire understanding and knowledge in a broad diversity of learning practices including constructive activities and analytical activities

Extending the gaia methodology for the design and development of agent-based software systems

Over the past decade, agent-based computing has emerged as a new and popular paradigm for design, implementation and analysis of distributed information systems. In this paper, the participant researchers in Health Care Computing Group at University of Westminster concentrate on the agent-oriented methodology for the analysis and design of agentbased systems and identify how methodology can support both the levels of "agent structure" and of "agent society" in the agent-oriented software design and development process. The research reported here takes one leading agent-oriented methodology-Gaia, and then extended it by the creation of innovative design tools which aimed at better supporting application to real-world domains. In discussion section, agent-oriented methodology and AUML approaches are compared and evaluated in great detail; the strengths and weaknesses of the current agent-oriented methodology are explored and discussed; the importance of effectively using methodology to improve agents and their productivity potential also is emphasized. Finally, we draw conclusions from the work presented and the experience gained in this research and look into the future possible improvements on agent-oriented software engineering in the agent technology research field

High-Pressure Induced Structural Phase Transition in CaCrO4: Evidence from Raman Scattering Studies

Raman spectroscopic studies have been carried out on CaCrO4 under pressure up to 26GPa at ambient temperature. The Raman spectra showed CaCrO4 experienced a continuous structural phase transition started at near 6GPa, and finished at about 10GPa. It is found that the high-pressure phase could be quenched to ambient conditions. Pressure dependence of the Raman peaks suggested there existed four pressure regions related to different structural characters. We discussed these characters and inferred that the nonreversible structural transition in CaCrO4, most likely was from a zircon-type (I41/amd) ambient phase to a scheelite-type high pressure structure (I41/a).Comment: submitte

Improvements in WRF simulation skills of southeastern United States summer rainfall: physical parameterization and horizontal resolution

Realistic regional climate simulations are important in understanding the mechanisms of summer rainfall in the southeastern United States (SE US) and in making seasonal predictions. In this study, skills of SE US summer rainfall simulation at a 15-km resolution are evaluated using the weather research and forecasting (WRF) model driven by climate forecast system reanalysis data. Influences of parameterization schemes and model resolution on the rainfall are investigated. It is shown that the WRF simulations for SE US summer rainfall are most sensitive to cumulus schemes, moderately sensitive to planetary boundary layer schemes, and less sensitive to microphysics schemes. Among five WRF cumulus schemes analyzed in this study, the Zhang-McFarlane scheme outperforms the other four. Further analysis suggests that the superior performance of the Zhang-McFarlane scheme is attributable primarily to its capability of representing rainfall-triggering processes over the SE US, especially the positive relationship between convective available potential energy and rainfall. In addition, simulated rainfall using the Zhang-McFarlane scheme at the 15-km resolution is compared with that at a 3-km convection-permitting resolution without cumulus scheme to test whether the increased horizontal resolution can further improve the SE US rainfall simulation. Results indicate that the simulations at the 3-km resolution do not show obvious advantages over those at the 15-km resolution with the Zhang-McFarlane scheme. In conclusion, our study suggests that in order to obtain a satisfactory simulation of SE US summer rainfall, choosing a cumulus scheme that can realistically represent the convective rainfall triggering mechanism may be more effective than solely increasing model resolution. © 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

Multiplexing of fiber-optic white light interferometric sensors using a ring resonator

Author name used in this publication: M. S. Demokan2002-2003 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe