Fermi surface and extended van Hove singularity in the non-cuprate layered perovskite superconductor Sr2RuO4

With high-resolution (22 meV) angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, the Fermi surface of the first copper free layered-perovskite superconductor, Sr₂RuO₄, was determined. We observed three bands to cross the Fermi energy in qualitative agreement with LDA band structure calculations; one electron-like surface encircling the point in the projected Brillouin zone, and two hole-like surfaces around the point. The most striking aspect of the measurements is the observation of an extended van Hove singularity. It is located 17 meV below the Fermi energy and extends around the point for about 0.2 Å^–1 along both the — — and the — — directions.These observations demonstrate that van Hove singularities near the Fermi surface are a more generic feature of layered oxides, and call for a clarification of their exact role in oxide superconductivity.We are grateful to D. Singh for making available his band structure calculations. D. H. Lu thanks the VW Foundation for financial support.     

Beyond loop bounds: comparing annotation languages for worst-case execution time analysis

Worst-case execution time (WCET) analysis is concerned with computing a precise-as-possible bound for the maximum time the execution of a program can take. This information is indispensable for developing safety-critical real-time systems, e. g., in the avionics and automotive fields. Starting with the initial works of Chen, Mok, Puschner, Shaw, and others in the mid and late 1980s, WCET analysis turned into a well-established and vibrant field of research and development in academia and industry. The increasing number and diversity of hardware and software platforms and the ongoing rapid technological advancement became drivers for the development of a wide array of distinct methods and tools for WCET analysis. The precision, generality, and efficiency of these methods and tools depend much on the expressiveness and usability of the annotation languages that are used to describe feasible and infeasible program paths. In this article we survey the annotation languages which we consider formative for the field. By investigating and comparing their individual strengths and limitations with respect to a set of pivotal criteria, we provide a coherent overview of the state of the art. Identifying open issues, we encourage further research. This way, our approach is orthogonal and complementary to a recent approach of Wilhelm et al. who provide a thorough survey of WCET analysis methods and tools that have been developed and used in academia and industry.     

Responses of the reflectance indices PRI and NDVI to experimental warming and drought in European shrublands along a north-south climatic gradient

The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of ground-based canopy reflectance measurements to detect changes in physiology and structure of vegetation in response to experimental warming and drought treatment at six European shrublands located along a North-South climatic gradient. We measured canopy reflectance, effective green leaf area index (green LAIe) and chlorophyll fluorescence of dominant species. The treatment effects on green LAIe varied among sites. We calculated three reflectance indices: photochemical reflectance index PRI [531 nm; 570 nm], normalized difference vegetation index NDVI₆₈₀ [780 nm; 680 nm] using red spectral region, and NDVI₅₇₀ [780 nm; 570 nm] using the same green spectral region as PRI. All three reflectance indices were significantly related to green LAIe and were able to detect changes in shrubland vegetation among treatments. In general warming treatment increased PRI and drought treatment reduced NDVI values. The significant treatment effect on photochemical efficiency of plants detected with PRI could not be detected by fluorescence measurements. However, we found canopy level measured PRI to be very sensitive to soil reflectance properties especially in vegetation areas with low green LAIe. As both soil reflectance and LAI varied between northern and southern sites it is problematic to draw universal conclusions of climate-derived changes in all vegetation types based merely on PRI measurements. We propose that canopy level PRI measurements can be more useful in areas of dense vegetation and dark soils.     

ODTLES: A multi-scale model for 3D turbulent flow based on one-dimensional turbulence modeling

A novel multi-scale approach for extending the one-dimensional turbulence (ODT) model of [A.R. Kerstein. One-dimensional turbulence: model formulation and application to homogeneous turbulence, shear flows, and buoyant stratified flows, J. Fluid Mech. 392 (1999) 277] to treat turbulent flow in three-dimensional (3D) domains is described. In this model, here called ODTLES, 3D aspects of the flow are captured by embedding three, mutually orthogonal, one-dimensional ODT domain arrays within a coarser 3D mesh. The ODTLES model is obtained by developing a consistent approach for dynamically coupling the different ODT line sets to each other and to the large scale processes that are resolved on the 3D mesh. The model is implemented computationally and its performance is tested by performing simulations of decaying isotropic turbulence at two different Reynolds numbers and comparing to the experimental data of [H. Kang, S. Chester, C. Meneveau. Decaying turbulence in an active-grid-generated flow and comparisons with large-eddy simulations, J. Fluid Mech. 480 (2003) 129; G. Comte-Bellot, S. Corrsin, Simple Eulerian correlation of full-and narrow band velocity signals in grid-generated ’isotropic’ turbulence, J. Fluid Mech. 48 (1971) 273].     

Driving Automotive User Interface Research

Cars offer an interesting but challenging microcosm for pervasive computing research and, in particular, for interaction with pervasive computing systems. Increasingly, researchers are looking at interactive applications in the car and investigating human-car interaction from a computer science—rather than an ergonomics or mechanical engineering—perspective. This article reports on the International Conference on Automotive User Interfaces and Interactive Vehicular Applications, wherein participants shared presentations on topics such as aesthetics, user interaction and distraction, safety, and driver monitoring.     

Large-area assessment of impervious surface based on integrated analysis of single-date Landsat-7 images and geospatial vector data

Driven by a constantly accelerating increase of urban population in recent decades urban sprawl has become one of the most dynamic processes in the context of global land use transformations. The expansion of urban agglomerations is closely associated with a substantial increase of impervious surface. In Europe, methods for an accurate, fast and cost-effective mapping and assessment of impervious surface on a state-wide or national scale have not been established so far. This study presents an approach for estimating the impervious surface based on a combined analysis of single-date Landsat images and road network and railway vector data using Support Vector Machines and functionalities of geographic information processing. The modeling aims at the provision of data on the impervious surface for the total of residential, industrial and transportation-related areas. The derived information is provided for the administrative units of communities. The output of the procedure is a vector data file providing the ‘percent impervious surface of built-up areas’ (PIS_B) and the ‘percent impervious surface of the total of built-up and transportation-related areas’ (PIS_BT) for the administrative units of communities. The developed method is tested for a study area covering almost one third of the German territory. The results prove the suitability of the approach for a widely automated and area-wide mapping of impervious surfaces. Using reference data sets of three cities (Leipzig, Ludwigshafen, Passau) we realized a mean absolute error of 19.8% and an average error of 6.4% for the percent impervious surface modeled on the basis of the Landsat images. The final product resulting from a combination of the imperviousness raster derived from the satellite images with the transportation-related vector information showed a mean difference of 1% to 4% compared to corresponding reference data and results of previous studies. For the year 2000 our research shows that 45.3% of the area occupied by settlements and transport infrastructure in the German federal state of Bavaria, 44.6% in the state of Baden-Württemberg and 42.6% in the state of Saxony was covered by impervious surface.     

The Chinese Room: Visualization and Interaction to Understand and Correct Ambiguous Machine Translation

We present The Chinese Room , a visualization interface that allows users to explore and interact with a multitude of linguistic resources in order to decode and correct poor machine translations. The target users of The Chinese Room are not bilingual and are not familiar with machine translation technologies. We investigate the ability of our system to assist such users in decoding and correcting faulty machine translations. We found that by collaborating with our application, end-users can overcome many difficult translation errors and disambiguate translated passages that were otherwise baffling. We also examine the utility of our system to machine translation researchers. Anecdotal evidence suggests that The Chinese Room can help such researchers develop better machine translation systems.