2,601 research outputs found
A flexible one-pot route to metal/metal oxide nanocomposites
We report a one-pot route to Au/CeO2 nanocomposites. A readily-available biopolymer, sodium alginate, is exploited for controlled formation and stabilisation of gold nanoparticles followed by in situ growth of a sponge-like network of CeO2 nanoparticles. The flexible nature of this method as a general route to mixed metal/metal oxide nanocomposites is also demonstrated
Mechanical and electrochemical properties of multiple-layer diode laser cladding of 316L stainless steel
In the present investigation, a detailed mechanical and electrochemical properties of multiple-layer laser clad 316L stainless steel (from the powders produced by gas atomized route) has been carried out. Multiple-layer laser cladding of 316L stainless steel has been conducted using a diode laser. The mechanical property (rmcrohardness) of the fabricated product has been evaluated using a microhardness testing machine and correlated with the process parameters. The electrochemical property, mainly pitting corrosion resistance of the fabricated layer corresponding to maximum microhardness (in a 3.56% NaCl solution) has been evaluated using standard potentiodynamic polarization testing. The microhardness of the laser assisted fabricated layers was found to vary from 170 to 278 VHN, increased with decrease in applied power density and increase in scan speed and was higher than that of conventionally processed 316L (155 VHN). The superior microhardness value is attributed to grain refinement associated with laser melting and rapid solidification. The critical potential to pit formation (E-PP1) was measured to be 550 mV saturated calomel electrode (SCE) and superior to the conventionally processed 316L stainless steel (445 mV (SCE)). (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
Modular Synthesis of Sketches Using Models
One problem with the constraint-based approaches to synthesis that have become popular over the last few years is that they only scale to relatively small routines, on the order of a few dozen lines of code. This paper presents a mechanism for modular reasoning that allows us to break larger synthesis problems into small manageable pieces. The approach builds on previous work in the verification community of using high-level specifications and partially interpreted functions (we call them models) in place of more complex pieces of code in order to make the analysis modular.
The main contribution of this paper is to show how to combine these techniques with the counterexample guided synthesis approaches used to efficiently solve synthesis problems. Specifically, we show two new algorithms; one to efficiently synthesize functions that use models, and another one to synthesize functions while ensuring that the behavior of the resulting function will be in the set of behaviors allowed by the model. We have implemented our approach on top of the open-source Sketch synthesis system, and we demonstrate its effectiveness on several Sketch benchmark problems.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant NSF-1116362)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant NSF-1139056)United States. Dept. of Energy (Grant DE-SC0005372
Proof by analogy in mural
One of the most important advantages of using a formal method of developing software is that one can prove that development steps are correct with respect to their specification.
Conducting proofs by hand, however,can be time consuming to the extent that designers have to judge whether a proof of a particular obligation is worth conducting.
Even if hand proofs are worth conducting, how do we know that they are correct?
One approach to overcoming this problem is to use an automatic theorem proving system to develop and check our proofs. However, in order to enable present day
theorem provers to check proofs, one has to conduct
them in much more detail than hand proofs. Carrying out more detailed proofs is of course more time consuming.
This paper describes the use of proof by analogy in an attempt to reduce the time spent on proofs.
We develop and implement a proof follower based on analogy and present two examples to illustrate its
characteristics. One example illustrates the successful use of the proof follower. The other example illustrates that the follower's failure can provide a hint that enables the user to complete a proof
Boundary conditions and defect lines in the Abelian sandpile model
We add a defect line of dissipation, or crack, to the Abelian sandpile model.
We find that the defect line renormalizes to separate the two-dimensional plane
into two half planes with open boundary conditions. We also show that varying
the amount of dissipation at a boundary of the Abelian sandpile model does not
affect the universality class of the boundary condition. We demonstrate that a
universal coefficient associated with height probabilities near the defect can
be used to classify boundary conditions.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure; suggestions from referees incorporated; to be
published in Phys. Rev.
Critical States in a Dissipative Sandpile Model
A directed dissipative sandpile model is studied in the two-dimension.
Numerical results indicate that the long time steady states of this model are
critical when grains are dropped only at the top or, everywhere. The critical
behaviour is mean-field like. We discuss the role of infinite avalanches of
dissipative models in periodic systems in determining the critical behaviour of
same models in open systems.Comment: 4 pages (Revtex), 5 ps figures (included
Sandpile Model with Activity Inhibition
A new sandpile model is studied in which bonds of the system are inhibited
for activity after a certain number of transmission of grains. This condition
impels an unstable sand column to distribute grains only to those neighbours
which have toppled less than m times. In this non-Abelian model grains
effectively move faster than the ordinary diffusion (super-diffusion). A novel
system size dependent cross-over from Abelian sandpile behaviour to a new
critical behaviour is observed for all values of the parameter m.Comment: 11 pages, RevTex, 5 Postscript figure
Verification of PCP-Related Computational Reductions in Coq
We formally verify several computational reductions concerning the Post
correspondence problem (PCP) using the proof assistant Coq. Our verifications
include a reduction of a string rewriting problem generalising the halting
problem for Turing machines to PCP, and reductions of PCP to the intersection
problem and the palindrome problem for context-free grammars. Interestingly,
rigorous correctness proofs for some of the reductions are missing in the
literature
Analog Property Checkers: A Ddr2 Case Study
The formal specification component of verification can be exported to simulation through the idea of property checkers. The essence of this approach is the automatic construction of an observer from the specification in the form of a program that can be interfaced with a simulator and alert the user if the property is violated by a simulation trace. Although not complete, this lighter approach to formal verification has been effectively used in software and digital hardware to detect errors. Recently, the idea of property checkers has been extended to analog and mixed-signal systems.
In this paper, we apply the property-based checking methodology to an industrial and realistic example of a DDR2 memory interface. The properties describing the DDR2 analog behavior are expressed in the formal specification language stl/psl in form of assertions. The simulation traces generated from an actual DDR2 interface design are checked with respect to the stl/psl assertions using the amt tool. The focus of this paper is on the translation of the official (informal and descriptive) specification of two non-trivial DDR2 properties into stl/psl assertions. We study both the benefits and the current limits of such approach
A Logical Product Approach to Zonotope Intersection
We define and study a new abstract domain which is a fine-grained combination
of zonotopes with polyhedric domains such as the interval, octagon, linear
templates or polyhedron domain. While abstract transfer functions are still
rather inexpensive and accurate even for interpreting non-linear computations,
we are able to also interpret tests (i.e. intersections) efficiently. This
fixes a known drawback of zonotopic methods, as used for reachability analysis
for hybrid sys- tems as well as for invariant generation in abstract
interpretation: intersection of zonotopes are not always zonotopes, and there
is not even a best zonotopic over-approximation of the intersection. We
describe some examples and an im- plementation of our method in the APRON
library, and discuss some further in- teresting combinations of zonotopes with
non-linear or non-convex domains such as quadratic templates and maxplus
polyhedra
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