56,767 research outputs found
A numerical study of one-patch colloidal particles: from square-well to Janus
We perform numerical simulations of a simple model of one-patch colloidal
particles to investigate: (i) the behavior of the gas-liquid phase diagram on
moving from a spherical attractive potential to a Janus potential and (ii) the
collective structure of a system of Janus particles. We show that, for the case
where one of the two hemispheres is attractive and one is repulsive, the system
organizes into a dispersion of orientational ordered micelles and vesicles and,
at low , the system can be approximated as a fluid of such clusters,
interacting essentially via excluded volume. The stability of this cluster
phase generates a very peculiar shape of the gas and liquid coexisting
densities, with a gas coexistence density which increases on cooling,
approaching the liquid coexistence density at very low .Comment: 9 pages, 10 figures, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. in press (2010
Polydisperse fluid mixtures of adhesive colloidal particles
We investigate polydispersity effects on the average structure factor of
colloidal suspensions of neutral particles with surface adhesion. A sticky hard
sphere model alternative to Baxter's one is considered. The choice of
factorizable stickiness parameters in the potential allows a simple analytic
solution, within the ``mean spherical approximation'', for any number of
components and arbitrary stickiness distribution. Two particular cases are
discussed: i) all particles have different sizes but equal stickiness (Model
I), and ii) each particle has a stickiness proportional to its size (Model II).
The interplay between attraction and polydispersity yields a markedly different
behaviour for the two Models in regimes of strong coupling (i.e. strong
adhesive forces and low temperature) and large polydispersity. These results
are then exploited to reanalyze experimental scattering data on sterically
stabilized silica particles.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures (included), Physica A (2001) to appea
New insights on Anthracotherium monsvialense De Zigno, 1888 (Mammalia, Cetartiodactyla) from the lower Oligocene of Monteviale (Vicenza, northeastern Italy)
In Italy, anthracotheres are represented by a few fossils, most of them described during the XIX century and without a standardized scientific method. Anthracotherium monsvialense De Zigno, 1888 was originally
erected from a fossil discovered in the site of Monteviale (Vicenza, northeastern Italy), whose Rupelian (MP21) lignitic beds yielded the richest lower Oligocene evidence of the genus Anthracotherium in Europe. A. monsvialense ranges from MP21 to MP23 and its small size has been interpreted as a consequence of the insular environment, at least at Monteviale. In this study, we summarize the long history of Italian findings providing new descriptions of dental and postcranial morphological features of A. monsvialense, and comparing such small anthracothere with its Asian and European relatives. Morphometric analyses are also performed on teeth, in order to verify the presence of evolutionary trends of the genus Anthracotherium
Influence of mismatch on the defects in relaxed epitaxial InGaAs/GaAs(100) films grown by molecular beam epitaxy
Thick (∼3 μm) films of InxGa1−xAs grown on GaAs(100) substrates, across the whole composition range, have been examined by transmission electron microscopy and double‐crystal x‐ray diffraction. The results were compared with the observed growth mode of the material determined by in situ reflection high‐energy electron diffraction in the molecular beam epitaxy growth system. The quality of the material degraded noticeably for compositions up to x∼0.5 associated with an increased density of dislocations and stacking faults. In contrast, improvements in quality as x approached 1.0 were correlated with the introduction of an increasingly more regular array of edge dislocations
The impact of air pollution on hospital admissions: Evidence from Italy
In this paper we study the impact of air pollution on hospital admissions for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease for 103 Italian provinces, over the period from 2004 to 2009. We use information on annual mean concentrations of carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter, and ozone measured at monitoring station level to build province-level indicators of pollution. Hence, we estimate a regression model for hospital admissions, where we allow our aggregate measures of pollution to be subject to measurement error and correlated with the error term. We also adopt standard errors for estimates that are robust to serial and spatial correlation in the error term, to allow for temporal persistence and geographical concentration of unobservable risk factors.We find that higher levels of particulate matter are associated with higher levels of hospitalisation for children, while ozone plays an important role in explaining hospital admissions of the elderly. Other factors that appear to have an effect on hospital admissions for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are precipitation and provincial unemployment rate
Transforming Normal Programs by Replacement
The replacement transformation operation, already defined in [28], is studied wrt normal programs. We give applicability conditions able to ensure the correctness of the operation wrt Fitting's and Kunen's semantics. We show how replacement can mimic other transformation operations such as thinning, fattening and folding, thus producing applicability conditions for them too. Furthermore we characterize a transformation sequence for which the preservation of Fitting's and Kunen's semantics is ensured
A Numerical Test of a High-Penetrability Approximation for the One-Dimensional Penetrable-Square-Well Model
The one-dimensional penetrable-square-well fluid is studied using both
analytical tools and specialized Monte Carlo simulations. The model consists of
a penetrable core characterized by a finite repulsive energy combined with a
short-range attractive well. This is a many-body one-dimensional problem,
lacking an exact analytical solution, for which the usual van Hove theorem on
the absence of phase transition does not apply. We determine a
high-penetrability approximation complementing a similar low-penetrability
approximation presented in previous work. This is shown to be equivalent to the
usual Debye-H\"{u}ckel theory for simple charged fluids for which the virial
and energy routes are identical. The internal thermodynamic consistency with
the compressibility route and the validity of the approximation in describing
the radial distribution function is assessed by a comparison against numerical
simulations. The Fisher-Widom line separating the oscillatory and monotonic
large-distance behavior of the radial distribution function is computed within
the high-penetrability approximation and compared with the opposite regime,
thus providing a strong indication of the location of the line in all possible
regimes. The high-penetrability approximation predicts the existence of a
critical point and a spinodal line, but this occurs outside the applicability
domain of the theory. We investigate the possibility of a fluid-fluid
transition by Gibbs ensemble Monte Carlo techniques, not finding any evidence
of such a transition. Additional analytical arguments are given to support this
claim. Finally, we find a clustering transition when Ruelle's stability
criterion is not fulfilled. The consequences of these findings on the
three-dimensional phase diagrams are also discussed.Comment: 17 pages, 12 figures; to be published in JC
A pseudo-spectral method for the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation
We discuss a numerical scheme to solve the continuum Kardar-Parisi-Zhang
equation in generic spatial dimensions. It is based on a momentum-space
discretization of the continuum equation and on a pseudo-spectral approximation
of the non-linear term. The method is tested in (1+1)- and (2+1)- dimensions,
where it is shown to reproduce the current most reliable estimates of the
critical exponents based on Restricted Solid-on-Solid simulations. In
particular it allows the computations of various correlation and structure
functions with high degree of numerical accuracy. Some deficiencies which are
common to all previously used finite-difference schemes are pointed out and the
usefulness of the present approach in this respect is discussed.Comment: 12 pages, 13 .eps figures, revetx4. A few equations have been
corrected. Erratum sent to Phys. Rev.
Real Space Renormalization Group for Langevin Dynamics in Absence of Translational Invariance
A novel exact dynamical real space renormalization group for a Langevin
equation derivable from a Euclidean Gaussian action is presented. It is
demonstrated rigorously that an algebraic temporal law holds for the Green
function on arbitrary structures of infinite extent. In the case of fractals it
is shown on specific examples that two different fixed points are found at
variance with periodic structures. Connection with growth dynamics of
interfaces is also discussed.Comment: 22 pages, RevTex 3.0, 5 figures available upon request from
[email protected], to be published in J.Stat.Phy
The cost of space independence in P300-BCI spellers.
Background: Though non-invasive EEG-based Brain Computer Interfaces (BCI) have been researched extensively over the last two decades, most designs require control of spatial attention and/or gaze on the part of the user.
Methods: In healthy adults, we compared the offline performance of a space-independent P300-based BCI for spelling words using Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP), to the well-known space-dependent Matrix P300 speller.
Results: EEG classifiability with the RSVP speller was as good as with the Matrix speller. While the Matrix speller’s performance was significantly reliant on early, gaze-dependent Visual Evoked Potentials (VEPs), the RSVP speller depended only on the space-independent P300b. However, there was a cost to true spatial independence: the RSVP
speller was less efficient in terms of spelling speed.
Conclusions: The advantage of space independence in the RSVP speller was concomitant with a marked reduction in spelling efficiency. Nevertheless, with key improvements to the RSVP design, truly space-independent BCIs could approach efficiencies on par with the Matrix speller. With sufficiently high letter spelling rates fused with predictive
language modelling, they would be viable for potential applications with patients unable to direct overt visual gaze or covert attentional focus
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