Optical control of solar sails using distributed reflectivity

The dynamics of solar sails with a variable surface reflectivity distribution are investigated. When changing the reflectivity across the sail film, which can be achieved using electro-chromic coatings, the solar radiation pressure forces and torques across the sail film can be controlled without changing the attitude of the spacecraft relative to the Sun and without using mechanical systems. The paper presents two approaches. First, a continuous reflectivity distribution is presented to control the sail attitude under the influence of, for example, gravity gradient torques in Earth orbit. The second approach assumes discrete on/o reflectivity regions across the surface. Both concepts of `optical reconfiguration' of solar sails enable a more flexible steering of the spacecraft and minimize actuation effort

"If You Can't Beat them, Join them": A Usability Approach to Interdependent Privacy in Cloud Apps

Cloud storage services, like Dropbox and Google Drive, have growing ecosystems of 3rd party apps that are designed to work with users' cloud files. Such apps often request full access to users' files, including files shared with collaborators. Hence, whenever a user grants access to a new vendor, she is inflicting a privacy loss on herself and on her collaborators too. Based on analyzing a real dataset of 183 Google Drive users and 131 third party apps, we discover that collaborators inflict a privacy loss which is at least 39% higher than what users themselves cause. We take a step toward minimizing this loss by introducing the concept of History-based decisions. Simply put, users are informed at decision time about the vendors which have been previously granted access to their data. Thus, they can reduce their privacy loss by not installing apps from new vendors whenever possible. Next, we realize this concept by introducing a new privacy indicator, which can be integrated within the cloud apps' authorization interface. Via a web experiment with 141 participants recruited from CrowdFlower, we show that our privacy indicator can significantly increase the user's likelihood of choosing the app that minimizes her privacy loss. Finally, we explore the network effect of History-based decisions via a simulation on top of large collaboration networks. We demonstrate that adopting such a decision-making process is capable of reducing the growth of users' privacy loss by 70% in a Google Drive-based network and by 40% in an author collaboration network. This is despite the fact that we neither assume that users cooperate nor that they exhibit altruistic behavior. To our knowledge, our work is the first to provide quantifiable evidence of the privacy risk that collaborators pose in cloud apps. We are also the first to mitigate this problem via a usable privacy approach.Comment: Authors' extended version of the paper published at CODASPY 201

Emergence of slow-switching assemblies in structured neuronal networks

Unraveling the interplay between connectivity and spatio-temporal dynamics in neuronal networks is a key step to advance our understanding of neuronal information processing. Here we investigate how particular features of network connectivity underpin the propensity of neural networks to generate slow-switching assembly (SSA) dynamics, i.e., sustained epochs of increased firing within assemblies of neurons which transition slowly between different assemblies throughout the network. We show that the emergence of SSA activity is linked to spectral properties of the asymmetric synaptic weight matrix. In particular, the leading eigenvalues that dictate the slow dynamics exhibit a gap with respect to the bulk of the spectrum, and the associated Schur vectors exhibit a measure of block-localization on groups of neurons, thus resulting in coherent dynamical activity on those groups. Through simple rate models, we gain analytical understanding of the origin and importance of the spectral gap, and use these insights to develop new network topologies with alternative connectivity paradigms which also display SSA activity. Specifically, SSA dynamics involving excitatory and inhibitory neurons can be achieved by modifying the connectivity patterns between both types of neurons. We also show that SSA activity can occur at multiple timescales reflecting a hierarchy in the connectivity, and demonstrate the emergence of SSA in small-world like networks. Our work provides a step towards understanding how network structure (uncovered through advancements in neuroanatomy and connectomics) can impact on spatio-temporal neural activity and constrain the resulting dynamics.Comment: The first two authors contributed equally -- 18 pages, including supplementary material, 10 Figures + 2 SI Figure

Integrated Transversal Equalizers in High-Speed Fiber-Optic Systems

Intersymbol interference (ISI) caused by intermodal dispersion in multimode fibers is the major limiting factor in the achievable data rate or transmission distance in high-speed multimode fiber-optic links for local area networks applications. Compared with optical-domain and other electrical-domain dispersion compensation methods, equalization with transversal filters based on distributed circuit techniques presents a cost-effective and low-power solution. The design of integrated distributed transversal equalizers is described in detail with focus on delay lines and gain stages. This seven-tap distributed transversal equalizer prototype has been implemented in a commercial 0.18-µm SiGe BiCMOS process for 10-Gb/s multimode fiber-optic links. A seven-tap distributed transversal equalizer reduces the ISI of a 10-Gb/s signal after 800 m of 50-µm multimode fiber from 5 to 1.38 dB, and improves the bit-error rate from about 10^-5 to less than 10^-12

Long Term Adr Performance: How Do Regional Issues Listed on the NYSE Compare to Us and Regional Index Returns?

This study examines the long-term performance of Asia Pacific, European, and Latin American ADRs versus the S&P500 and their respective regional indexes from 1990-2010. The sample was dividend by stable markets (1990s) and volatile markets (2000s). We find that, when analyzed in total, regional indexes perform similarly to the S&P500. However, the Asia Pacific and Latin America regions do offer diversification benefits individually. Furthermore, the ADRs from each region underperform in stable markets (1990s) and outperform in volatile markets (2000s) leading to great diversification benefits

Qualitative networks: a symbolic approach to analyze biological signaling networks

BACKGROUND: A central goal of Systems Biology is to model and analyze biological signaling pathways that interact with one another to form complex networks. Here we introduce Qualitative networks, an extension of Boolean networks. With this framework, we use formal verification methods to check whether a model is consistent with the laboratory experimental observations on which it is based. If the model does not conform to the data, we suggest a revised model and the new hypotheses are tested in-silico. RESULTS: We consider networks in which elements range over a small finite domain allowing more flexibility than Boolean values, and add target functions that allow to model a rich set of behaviors. We propose a symbolic algorithm for analyzing the steady state of these networks, allowing us to scale up to a system consisting of 144 elements and state spaces of approximately 10(86 )states. We illustrate the usefulness of this approach through a model of the interaction between the Notch and the Wnt signaling pathways in mammalian skin, and its extensive analysis. CONCLUSION: We introduce an approach for constructing computational models of biological systems that extends the framework of Boolean networks and uses formal verification methods for the analysis of the model. This approach can scale to multicellular models of complex pathways, and is therefore a useful tool for the analysis of complex biological systems. The hypotheses formulated during in-silico testing suggest new avenues to explore experimentally. Hence, this approach has the potential to efficiently complement experimental studies in biology

Development of a Generalized Theoretical Model for the Response of a Phase/Doppler Measurement System to Arbitrarily Oriented Fibers Illuminated by Gaussian Beams

We present a generalized theoretical model for the response of the phase/Doppler (P/D) measurement system to light scattered by cylindrical fibers. This theoretical model is valid for arbitrary fiber diameters and refractive indices, for Gaussian incident beams, and it accounts for arbitrary fiber orientations, fiber positions, and effects that are due to the two-dimensional receivers. The generalized P/D computer model (GPDCM) is the extension of an earlier study by the authors, combining past P/D simulation methodology with recent developments in modeling light scattering by tilted cylindrical fibers. A FORTRAN computer program that implements the GPDCM theoretical development was written and tested against known P/D results and physical expectations. To illustrate the capabilities of the GPDCM, we present computation results, comparing the effect of fiber tilt, fiber position, and receiver aperture on the performance of P/D systems configured in backscatter and sidescatter arrangements. Calculations show that the effects of fiber tilt and position are most pronounced in the backscatter P/D arrangement, resulting in broadening of the measured phase distribution. The calculated mean phase shifts, however, were found to be essentially independent of the above factors. Computational results also showed that the effect of fiber tilt and position on phase-distribution measurements can be reduced through proper choice of aperture shape and by imposition of threshold criteria on measurable signal characteristics such as the amplitude ratio and visibilities. The GPDCM provides a computational tool that will he valuable in the design, optimization, and evaluation of P/D fiber measurement systems. (C) 1998 Optical Society of America. OCIS codes: 290.0290, 280.1100, 120.3180

Development of a Generalized Theoretical Model for the Response of a Phase/Doppler Measurement System to Arbitrarily Oriented Fibers Illuminated by Gaussian Beams

We present a generalized theoretical model for the response of the phase/Doppler (P/D) measurement system to light scattered by cylindrical fibers. This theoretical model is valid for arbitrary fiber diameters and refractive indices, for Gaussian incident beams, and it accounts for arbitrary fiber orientations, fiber positions, and effects that are due to the two-dimensional receivers. The generalized P/D computer model (GPDCM) is the extension of an earlier study by the authors, combining past P/D simulation methodology with recent developments in modeling light scattering by tilted cylindrical fibers. A FORTRAN computer program that implements the GPDCM theoretical development was written and tested against known P/D results and physical expectations. To illustrate the capabilities of the GPDCM, we present computation results, comparing the effect of fiber tilt, fiber position, and receiver aperture on the performance of P/D systems configured in backscatter and sidescatter arrangements. Calculations show that the effects of fiber tilt and position are most pronounced in the backscatter P/D arrangement, resulting in broadening of the measured phase distribution. The calculated mean phase shifts, however, were found to be essentially independent of the above factors. Computational results also showed that the effect of fiber tilt and position on phase-distribution measurements can be reduced through proper choice of aperture shape and by imposition of threshold criteria on measurable signal characteristics such as the amplitude ratio and visibilities. The GPDCM provides a computational tool that will he valuable in the design, optimization, and evaluation of P/D fiber measurement systems. (C) 1998 Optical Society of America. OCIS codes: 290.0290, 280.1100, 120.3180

Modulation of contractility in human cardiac hypertrophy by myosin essential light chain isoforms

Cardiac hypertrophy is an adaptive response that normalizes wall stress and compensates for increased workload. It is accompanied by distinct qualitative and quantitative changes in the expression of protein isoforms concerning contractility, intracellular Ca2+-homeostasis and metabolism. Changes in the myosin subunit isoform expression improves contractility by an increase in force generation at a given Ca2+-concentration (increased Ca2+-sensitivity) and by improving the economy of the chemo-mechanical transduction process per amount of utilised ATP (increased duty ratio). In the human atrium this is achieved by partial replacement of the endogenous fast myosin by the ventricular slow-type heavy and light chains. In the hypertrophic human ventricle the slow-type β-myosin heavy chains remain unchanged, but the ectopic expression of the atrial myosin essential light chain (ALC1) partially replaces the endogenous ventricular isoform (VLC1). The ventricular contractile apparatus with myosin containing ALC1 is characterised by faster cross-bridge kinetics, a higher Ca2+-sensitivity of force generation and an increased duty ratio. The mechanism for cross-bridge modulation relies on the extended Ala-Pro-rich N-terminus of the essential light chains of which the first eleven residues interact with the C-terminus of actin. A change in charge in this region between ALC1 and VLC1 explains their functional difference. The intracellular Ca2+-handling may be impaired in heart failure, resulting in either higher or lower cytosolic Ca2+-levels. Thus the state of the cardiomyocyte determines whether this hypertrophic adaptation remains beneficial or becomes detrimental during failure. Also discussed are the effects on contractility of long-term changes in isoform expression of other sarcomeric proteins. Positive and negative modulation of contractility by short-term phosphorylation reactions at multiple sites in the myosin regulatory light chain, troponin-I, troponin-T, α-tropomyosin and myosin binding protein-C are considered in detai