A faster divide-and-conquer algorithm for constructing delaunay triangulations

An easily implemented modification to the divide-and-conquer algorithm for computing the Delaunay triangulation ofn sites in the plane is presented. The change reduces its (n logn) expected running time toO(n log logn) for a large class of distributions that includes the uniform distribution in the unit square. Experimental evidence presented demonstrates that the modified algorithm performs very well forn2¹⁶, the range of the experiments. It is conjectured that the average number of edges it creates—a good measure of its efficiency—is no more than twice optimal forn less than seven trillion. The improvement is shown to extend to the computation of the Delaunay triangulation in theL _p metric for 1<p.This research was supported by National Science Foundation Grants DCR-8352081 and DCR-8416190.     

On problem transformability in VLSI

The two basic performance parameters that capture the complexity of any VLSI chip are the area of the chip,A, and the computation time,T. A systematic approach for establishing lower bounds onA is presented. This approach relatesA to the bisection flow, . A theory of problem transformation based on , which captures bothAT ² andA complexity, is developed. A fundamental problem, namely, element uniqueness, is chosen as a computational prototype. It is shown under general input/output protocol assumptions that any chip that decides ifn elements (each with (1+)lognbits) are unique must have =(nlogn), and thus, AT²=(n ²log² n), andA= (nlogn). A theory of VLSI transformability reveals the inherentAT ² andA complexity of a large class of related problems.This work was supported in part by the Semiconductor Research Corporation under contract RSCH 84-06-049-6.     

Structure-Activity Relationships of Benzamides and Isoindolines Designed as SARS-CoV Protease Inhibitors Effective against SARS-CoV-2

Inhibition of coronavirus (CoV)-encoded papain-like cysteine proteases (PL^pro) represents an attractive strategy to treat infections by these important human pathogens. Herein we report on structure-activity relationships (SAR) of the noncovalent active-site directed inhibitor (R)-5-amino-2-methyl-N-(1-(naphthalen-1-yl)ethyl) benzamide ( 2 b ), which is known to bind into the S3 and S4 pockets of the SARS-CoV PL^pro. Moreover, we report the discovery of isoindolines as a new class of potent PL^pro inhibitors. The studies also provide a deeper understanding of the binding modes of this inhibitor class. Importantly, the inhibitors were also confirmed to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 replication in cell culture suggesting that, due to the high structural similarities of the target proteases, inhibitors identified against SARS-CoV PL^pro are valuable starting points for the development of new pan-coronaviral inhibitors.     

Experimental and numerical simulation of lignite chemical looping gasification with phosphogypsum as oxygen carrier in a fluidized bed

Phosphogypsum (PG) is a solid waste produced in the wet process of producing phosphoric acid.Lignite is a kind of promising chemical raw material.However,the high sulfur of lignite limits the utilization of lig-nite as a resource.Based on fluidized bed experiments,the optimal reaction conditions for the production syngas by lignite chemical looping gasification (CLG) with PG as oxygen carrier were studied.The study found that the optimal reaction temperature should not exceed 1123 K;the mole ratio of water vapor to lignite should be about 0.2;the mole ratio of PG oxygen carrier to lignite should be about 0.6.Meanwhile,commercial software Comsol was used to establish a fuel reaction kinetics model.Through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) numerical simulation,the process of reaction in fluidized bed were well captured.The model was based on a two-fluid model and coupled mass transfer,heat transfer and chemical reac-tions.This study showed that the fluidized bed presents a flow structure in which gas and solid coexist.There was a high temperature zone in the middle and lower parts of the fluidized bed.It could be seen from the results of the flow field simulated that the fluidized bed was beneficial to the progress of the gasification reaction.     

Strength, strain-rate sensitivity and ductility of copper with nanoscale twins

We present a comprehensive computational analysis of the deformation of ultrafine crystalline pure Cu with nanoscale growth twins. This physically motivated model benefits from our experimental studies of the effects of the density of coherent nanotwins on the plastic deformation characteristics of Cu, and from post-deformation transmission electron microscopy investigations of dislocation structures in the twinned metal. The analysis accounts for high plastic anisotropy and rate sensitivity anisotropy by treating the twin boundary as an internal interface and allowing special slip geometry arrangements that involve soft and hard modes of deformation. This model correctly predicts the experimentally observed trends of the effects of twin density on flow strength, rate sensitivity of plastic flow and ductility, in addition to matching many of the quantitative details of plastic deformation reasonably well. The computational simulations also provide critical mechanistic insights into why the metal with nanoscale twins can provide the same level of yield strength, hardness and strain rate sensitivity as a nanostructured counterpart without twins (but of grain size comparable to the twin spacing of the twinned Cu). The analysis also offers some useful understanding of why the nanotwinned Cu with high strength does not lead to diminished ductility with structural refinement involving twins, whereas nanostructured Cu normally causes the ductility to be compromised at the expense of strength upon grain refinement.     

GPELab,a Matlab toolbox to solve Gross–Pitaevskii equations I: Computation of stationary solutions

This paper presents GPELab (Gross–Pitaevskii Equation Laboratory), an advanced easy-to-use and flexible Matlab toolbox for numerically simulating many complex physics situations related to Bose–Einstein condensation. The model equation that GPELab solves is the Gross–Pitaevskii equation. The aim of this first part is to present the physical problems and the robust and accurate numerical schemes that are implemented for computing stationary solutions, to show a few computational examples and to explain how the basic GPELab functions work. Problems that can be solved include: 1d, 2d and 3d situations, general potentials, large classes of local and nonlocal nonlinearities, multi-components problems, and fast rotating gases. The toolbox is developed in such a way that other physics applications that require the numerical solution of general Schrödinger-type equations can be considered.     

Efficient multiple-precision integer division algorithm

Design and implementation of division algorithm is one of the most complicated problems in multi-precision arithmetic. Huang et al. [1] proposed an efficient multi-precision integer division algorithm, and experimentally showed that it is about three times faster than the most popular algorithms proposed by Knuth [2] and Smith [3]. This paper reports a bug in the algorithm of Huang et al. [1], and suggests the necessary corrections. The theoretical correctness proof of the proposed algorithm is also given. The resulting algorithm remains as fast as that of [1].     

Optimum sweeps of simple polygons with two guards

A polygon P admits a sweep if two mobile guards can detect an unpredictable, moving target inside P  , no matter how fast the target moves. Two guards move on the polygon boundary and are required to always be mutually visible. The objective of this study is to find an optimum sweep such that the sum of the distances travelled by the two guards in the sweep is minimized. We present an O(n²)$O(n^2)$ time and O(n)$O(n)$ space algorithm for optimizing this metric, where n   is the number of vertices of the given polygon. Our result is obtained by reducing this problem to finding a shortest path between two nodes in a graph of size O(n)$O(n)$.     

Dynamic replica placement and selection strategies in data grids— A comprehensive survey

Data replication techniques are used in data grid to reduce makespan, storage consumption, access latency and network bandwidth. Data replication enhances data availability and thereby increases the system reliability. There are two steps involved in data replication, namely, replica placement and replica selection. Replica placement involves identifying the best possible node to duplicate data based on network latency and user request. Replica selection involves selecting the best replica location to access the data for job execution in the data grid. Various replica placement and selection algorithms are available in the literature. These algorithms measure and analyze different parameters such as bandwidth consumption, access cost, scalability, execution time, storage consumption and makespan. In this paper, various replica placement and selection strategies along with their merits and demerits are discussed. This paper also analyses the performance of various strategies with respect to the parameters mentioned above. In particular, this paper focuses on the dynamic replica placement and selection strategies in the data grid environment.     

Human interaction with policy flight simulators

Policy flight simulators are designed for the purpose of exploring alternative management policies at levels ranging from individual organizations to national strategy. This article focuses on how such simulators are developed and on the nature of how people interact with these simulators. These interactions almost always involve groups of people rather than individuals, often with different stakeholders in conflict about priorities and courses of action. The ways in which these interactions are framed and conducted are discussed, as well as the nature of typical results.