Liouville-space R-matrix-Floquet description of atomic radiative processes involving autoionizing states in the presence of intense electromagnetic fields

A reduced-density-operator description is developed for coherent optical phenomena in many-electron atomic systems, utilizing a Liouville-space, multiple-mode Floquet–Fourier representation. The Liouville-space formulation provides a natural generalization of the ordinary Hilbert-space (Hamiltonian) R-matrix-Floquet method, which has been developed for multi-photon transitions and laser-assisted electron–atom collision processes. In these applications, the R-matrix-Floquet method has been demonstrated to be capable of providing an accurate representation of the complex, multi-level structure of many-electron atomic systems in bound, continuum, and autoionizing states. The ordinary Hilbert-space (Hamiltonian) formulation of the R-matrix-Floquet method has been implemented in highly developed computer programs, which can provide a non-perturbative treatment of the interaction of a classical, multiple-mode electromagnetic field with a quantum system. This quantum system may correspond to a many-electron, bound atomic system and a single continuum electron. However, including pseudo-states in the expansion of the many-electron atomic wave function can provide a representation of multiple continuum electrons. The 'dressed' many-electron atomic states thereby obtained can be used in a realistic non-perturbative evaluation of the transition probabilities for an extensive class of atomic collision and radiation processes in the presence of intense electromagnetic fields. In order to incorporate environmental relaxation and decoherence phenomena, we propose to utilize the ordinary Hilbert-space (Hamiltonian) R-matrix-Floquet method as a starting-point for a Liouville-space (reduced-density-operator) formulation. To illustrate how the Liouville-space R-matrix-Floquet formulation can be implemented for coherent atomic radiative processes, we discuss applications to electromagnetically induced transparency, as well as to related pump–probe optical phenomena, and also to the unified description of radiative and dielectronic recombination in electron–ion beam interactions and high-temperature plasmas.

Towards more flexible Architecture Description Languages for industrial applications

Architecture Description Languages (ADLs) have emerged in recent years as a tool for providing high-level descriptions of software systems in terms of their architectural elements and the relationships among them. Most of the current ADLs exhibit limitations which prevent their widespread use in industrial applications. In this paper, we discuss these limitations and introduce ALI, an ADL that has been developed to address such limitations. The ALI language provides a rich and flexible syntax for describing component interfaces, architectural patterns, and meta-information. Multiple graphical architectural views can then be derived from ALI's textual notation.

Relational architecture description language for software families

Software Product-Line Engineering has emerged in recent years, as an important strategy for maximising reuse within the context of a family of related products. In current approaches to software product-lines, there is general agreement that the definition of a reference-architecture for the product-line is an important step in the software engineering process. In this paper we introduce ADLARS, a new form of architecture Description language that places emphasis on the capture of architectural relationships. ADLARS is designed for use within a product-line engineering process. The language supports both the definition of architectural structure, and of important architectural relationships. In particular it supports capture of the relationships between product features, component and task architectures, interfaces and parameter requirements.

'Conditional candour' and 'knowing me': an interpretive description study on patient preferences for physician behaviours during end-of-life communication

OBJECTIVE: To understand patients' preferences for physician behaviours during end-of-life communication.

METHODS: We used interpretive description methods to analyse data from semistructured, one-on-one interviews with patients admitted to general medical wards at three Canadian tertiary care hospitals. Study recruitment took place from October 2012 to August 2013. We used a purposive, maximum variation sampling approach to recruit hospitalised patients aged ≥55 years with a high risk of mortality within 6-12 months, and with different combinations of the following demographic variables: race (Caucasian vs non-Caucasian), gender and diagnosis (cancer vs non-cancer).

RESULTS: A total of 16 participants were recruited, most of whom (69%) were women and 70% had a non-cancer diagnosis. Two major concepts regarding helpful physician behaviour during end-of-life conversations emerged: (1) 'knowing me', which reflects the importance of acknowledging the influence of family roles and life history on values and priorities expressed during end-of-life communication, and (2) 'conditional candour', which describes a process of information exchange that includes an assessment of patients' readiness, being invited to the conversation, and sensitive delivery of information.

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that patients prefer a nuanced approach to truth telling when having end-of-life discussions with their physician. This may have important implications for clinical practice and end-of-life communication training initiatives.

Energy-Aware Rate and Description Allocation Optimized Video Streaming for Mobile D2D Communications

The proliferation problem of video streaming applications and mobile devices has prompted wireless network operators to put more efforts into improving quality of experience (QoE) while saving resources that are needed for high transmission rate and large size of video streaming. To deal with this problem, we propose an energy-aware rate and description allocation optimization method for video streaming in cellular network assisted device-to-device (D2D) communications. In particular, we allocate the optimal bit rate to each layer of video segments and packetize the segments into multiple descriptions with embedded forward error correction (FEC) for realtime streaming without retransmission. Simultaneously, the optimal number of descriptions is allocated to each D2D helper for transmission. The two allocation processes are done according to the access rate of segments, channel state information (CSI) of D2D requester, and remaining energy of helpers, to gain the highest optimization performance. Simulation results demonstrate that our proposed method (named OPT) significantly enhances the performance of video streaming in terms of high QoE and energy saving.

Applications of the generalized Langevin equation: Towards a realistic description of the baths

The generalized Langevin equation (GLE) method, as developed previously [L. Stella et al., Phys. Rev. B 89, 134303 (2014)], is used to calculate the dissipative dynamics of systems described at the atomic level. The GLE scheme goes beyond the commonly used bilinear coupling between the central system and the bath, and permits us to have a realistic description of both the dissipative central system and its surrounding bath. We show how to obtain the vibrational properties of a realistic bath and how to convey such properties into an extended Langevin dynamics by the use of the mapping of the bath vibrational properties onto a set of auxiliary variables. Our calculations for a model of a Lennard-Jones solid show that our GLE scheme provides a stable dynamics, with the dissipative/relaxation processes properly described. The total kinetic energy of the central system always thermalizes toward the expected bath temperature, with appropriate fluctuation around the mean value. More importantly, we obtain a velocity distribution for the individual atoms in the central system which follows the expected canonical distribution at the corresponding temperature. This confirms that both our GLE scheme and our mapping procedure onto an extended Langevin dynamics provide the correct thermostat. We also examined the velocity autocorrelation functions and compare our results with more conventional Langevin dynamics.

PESSTO: Survey description and products from the first data release by the Public ESO Spectroscopic Survey of Transient Objects

Context. The Public European Southern Observatory Spectroscopic Survey of Transient Objects (PESSTO) began as a public spectroscopic survey in April 2012. PESSTO classifies transients from publicly available sources and wide-field surveys, and selects science targets for detailed spectroscopic and photometric follow-up. PESSTO runs for nine months of the year, January - April and August - December inclusive, and typically has allocations of 10 nights per month. 

Aims. We describe the data reduction strategy and data products that are publicly available through the ESO archive as the Spectroscopic Survey data release 1 (SSDR1). 

Methods. PESSTO uses the New Technology Telescope with the instruments EFOSC2 and SOFI to provide optical and NIR spectroscopy and imaging. We target supernovae and optical transients brighter than 20.5^m for classification. Science targets are selected for follow-up based on the PESSTO science goal of extending knowledge of the extremes of the supernova population. We use standard EFOSC2 set-ups providing spectra with resolutions of 13-18 Å between 3345-9995 Å. A subset of the brighter science targets are selected for SOFI spectroscopy with the blue and red grisms (0.935-2.53 μm and resolutions 23-33 Å) and imaging with broadband JHK<inf>s</inf> filters. 

Results. This first data release (SSDR1) contains flux calibrated spectra from the first year (April 2012-2013). A total of 221 confirmed supernovae were classified, and we released calibrated optical spectra and classifications publicly within 24 h of the data being taken (via WISeREP). The data in SSDR1 replace those released spectra. They have more reliable and quantifiable flux calibrations, correction for telluric absorption, and are made available in standard ESO Phase 3 formats. We estimate the absolute accuracy of the flux calibrations for EFOSC2 across the whole survey in SSDR1 to be typically ∼15%, although a number of spectra will have less reliable absolute flux calibration because of weather and slit losses. Acquisition images for each spectrum are available which, in principle, can allow the user to refine the absolute flux calibration. The standard NIR reduction process does not produce high accuracy absolute spectrophotometry but synthetic photometry with accompanying JHK<inf>s</inf> imaging can improve this. Whenever possible, reduced SOFI images are provided to allow this. 

Conclusions. Future data releases will focus on improving the automated flux calibration of the data products. The rapid turnaround between discovery and classification and access to reliable pipeline processed data products has allowed early science papers in the first few months of the survey.

Revestimentos nanoestruturados para protecção de liga de alumínio

Os revestimentos híbridos nanoestruturados apresentam um elevado potencial no âmbito da protecção anticorrosiva dos metais, prevendo-se que no futuro estes revestimentos possam, não só substituir os tratamentos à base de crómio usados na indústria do tratamento de superfícies metálicas para protecção anticorrosiva, como também evoluir para sistemas integrados multifuncionais que dispensem o pré-tratamento e sejam mais “amigos” do ambiente. O processo sol-gel usado para a obtenção destes revestimentos permite, através da combinação de diferentes precursores e da manipulação das condições de síntese “desenhar” e optimizar a estrutura química e a funcionalidade dos revestimentos nanoestruturados com o objectivo de obter as propriedades desejadas para uma determinada aplicação. O estudo apresentado no presente trabalho teve como objectivo principal a optimização de revestimentos híbridos nanoestruturados obtidos pelo processo sol-gel para a protecção anticorrosiva de uma liga de alumínio frequentemente utilizada na construção civil. Para alcançar este objectivo foram preparados diversos revestimentos híbridos nanoestruturados e aplicados na liga de alumínio EN AW-6063, cujo processo de síntese foi optimizado variando parâmetros como a composição, processo de cura e condições reaccionais sol-gel, visando a obtenção de revestimentos com propriedades anticorrosivas melhoradas. Posteriormente, foi feita uma avaliação do comportamento à corrosão dos revestimentos optimizados em diferentes condições corrosivas, individualmente e como parte integrante de um sistema de protecção anticorrosiva usualmente aplicado em ligas de alumínio para fins arquitecturais. No presente documento é apresentada uma revisão bibliográfica da aplicação deste tipo de revestimentos na protecção anticorrosiva, seguindo-se a descrição detalhada dos procedimentos experimentais do estudo, nomeadamente, os materiais e os procedimentos para obtenção e caracterização dos revestimentos estudados, a apresentação dos resultados obtidos no decurso do desenvolvimento experimental realizado, sua interpretação, discussão e as conclusões parciais mais relevantes. No final, resumem-se as principais conclusões obtidas no estudo e faz-se uma avaliação global da aplicabilidade dos revestimentos optimizados na protecção anticorrosiva de ligas de alumínio no âmbito da construção civil, e indicam-se necessidades de desenvolvimentos futuros.

Le pronom ça en français vaudois description et analyse

Le pronom ça en français vaudois a une distribution qui varie de celle du français standard et accepte des phrases comme « Je ça regarde », concurrent de « Je les regarde ». Nous posons l'hypothèse que cette variation n'est pas seulement une variation d'ordre sociologique, attribuable à un groupe de locutrices et locuteurs, mais qu'elle est interprétable grammaticalement. Le cadre théorique retenu pour expliquer la variation vaudoise est celui de Jean-Marcel Léard qui s'inspire des hypothèses de Guillaume et de Culioli. Les différents emplois sont appréhendés d'un point de vue sémantique. Les pronoms forment un système, dans lequel ça est sémantiquement analysable lorsqu'il est opposé à ses concurrents immédiats, le pronom non autonome le, et le pronom autonome ça. Par ailleurs, une approche en diachronie structurale montre l'influence du substrat franco-provençal et les heurts provoqués par la rencontre de ce système avec le système du français. Cela permet d'expliquer la distribution de ça, l'agrammaticalité des constructions en ça que P, ainsi que le redoublement de pronoms, considéré comme une stratégie de réparation.

Enrichissement du didacticiel "Des médias et des mots" description des principales difficultés orthographiques et syntaxiques présentes dans les médias écrits québécois

Le principal objectif de notre mémoire de maîtrise, de type production, visait à enrichir le contenu du didacticiel Des médias et des mots par la production d'une série de fiches traitant de difficultés d'ordre orthographique et syntaxique ainsi que des mots touchés par les Rectifications orthographiques. Ce didacticiel, hébergé dans le site ayant pour adresse http://catifq.usherbrooke.ca/didacticielmedia, a été créé pour répondre aux besoins des journalistes, rédacteurs et animateurs de la presse écrite et présente de façon ludique des fiches d'exercice concernant des difficultés langagières tirées de contextes réels d'utilisation et accompagnées de solutions de rechange et d'un commentaire explicatif. Afin de respecter le critère de contextes réels d'emploi, nous avons procédé, avant le travail de rédaction des fiches, au repérage dans un corpus représentatif de textes journalistiques québécois des principales difficultés orthographiques et syntaxiques, c'est-à-dire celles qui posent problème par rapport à la"norme" du français écrit et dont l'utilisation était récurrente. Cette étape a été effectuée au moyen d'une liste d'écarts constituée à partir des difficultés de la langue française abordées dans les cours de français normatif que nous donnons au Département des lettres et communications de l'Université de Sherbrooke et regroupées dans 22 catégories différentes. L'inventaire des difficultés langagières rencontrées dans le discours journalistique québécois nous a, par la suite, amenée à analyser les usages linguistiques observés. Ainsi, nous avons pu établir que l'utilisation de la préposition représente le problème le plus récurrent dans les textes journalistiques. L'emploi du verbe (accord et conjugaison), des participes passés des verbes pronominaux et du trait d'union apparaît aussi comme une difficulté très importante dans ce genre de discours. Enfin, les données recueillies concernant le genre des substantifs, quelques cas d'orthographe d'usage de même que l'emploi de l'apostrophe, des adjectifs de couleur, des adjectifs verbaux, des déterminants numéraux, de demi, de même, des participes passés autres que ceux des pronominaux, de quel que/ quelque, de quoi que/ quoique, et de tout confirment le fait que ces notions posent problème aux journalistes.

Normdaten im Semantic Web - Konzept für eine Ontologie der Personennamendatei (PND)

Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es, ein Konzept für eine Darstellung der Personennamendatei(PND) in den Sprachen Resource Description Framework (RDF), Resource DescriptionFramework Schema Language (RDFS) und Web Ontology Language (OWL) zu entwickeln. Der Prämisse des Semantic Web folgend, Daten sowohl in menschenverständlicher als auch in maschinell verarbeitbarer Form darzustellen und abzulegen, wird eine Struktur für Personendaten geschaffen. Dabei wird von der bestehenden Daten- und Struktursituation im Pica-Format ausgegangen. Die Erweiterbarkeit und Anpassbarkeit des Modells im Hinblick auf zukünftige, im Moment gegebenenfalls noch nicht absehbare Anwendungen und Strukurveränderungen, muss aber darüber hinaus gewährleistet sein. Die Modellierung orientiert sich an bestehenden Standards wie Dublin Core, Friend Of A Friend (FOAF), Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR), Functional Requirements for Authority Data (FRAD) und Resource Description and Access (RDA).