In this paper we consider hot-potato packet routing on trees. As a lower bound, for all sufficiently large n we construct a permutation routing problem on an n-node tree for which an oblivious greedy hot-potato algorithm requires at least 2n o(n) time steps. This lower bound is also valid for the minimumdistance heuristic. Applying the charging argument of Borodin et al. [8] we establish that a...

Introduction: Design of an effective dust mitigation system to support NASA’s new initiative to return to the surface of the Moon must be a high priority [1,2]. A number of strategies have been proposed based on brushing, magnetic susceptibility or magnetic attraction, variable EMF or other surfaces, and particle guns for charging or repelling dust [2]. Brushing was demonstrated to be effective...

Electron charging and discharging were produced in metal-insulator-semiconductor structures containing amorphous silicon quantum dots ~a-Si QDs! by increasing the applied voltage in a stepwise fashion without changing its sign. The metal-insulator-semiconductor structure was fabricated using an insulating silicon nitride film containing a-Si QDs by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. Thi...

This paper shows how the exposure of the Moon to the Earth’s plasmasheet is subject to decadal variations due to lunar precession. The latter is a key property of the Moon’s apparent orbit around the Earth – the nodes of that orbit precess around the ecliptic, completing one revolution every 18.6 years. This precession is responsible for a number of astronomical phenomena, e.g. the year to year...

We created graphene blisters that cover and seal an annular cylinder-shaped microcavity in a SiO2 substrate filled with a gas. By controlling the pressure difference between the gas inside and outside of the microcavity, we switch the graphene membrane between multiple stable equilibrium configurations. We carried out experiments starting from the situation where the pressure of the gas inside ...

Differential charging is often regarded as a problem in X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic studies, especially for insulating or partially conducting samples. Application of a positive bias can reduce the effect of differential charging by attracting stray electrons from the system, thereby compensating for the electron loss. On the other hand, differential charging effect can be enhanced by the...

Ion-induced rectification of nanoparticle quantized capacitance charging was studied using nanoparticle self-assembled monolayers in aqueous solutions in the presence of some unique electrolyte ions. The rectified charging features were interpreted on the basis of a Randles equivalent circuit where the binding of hydrophobic electrolyte ions to surface-confined particle molecules led to the man...

The surface site distribution and the dielectric discontinuity effects on the charging process of a spherical nanoparticle (NP) have been investigated. It is well known that electrostatic repulsion between charges on neighbouring sites tends to decrease the effective charge of a NP. The situation is more complicated close to a dielectric breakdown, since here a charged site is not only interact...

In trolley dilemmas a train is about to kill several victims who could be saved if instead a different victim is harmed. A number of theories have been proposed which assume that permissibility judgments in these harm-based moral dilemmas are mediated by an analysis of the underlying causal structure. For example, it has been postulated that it is permissible to harm people as a side effect but...

We have fabricated atomic-scale metal wires with quantized conductance in electrolytes and studied double layer charging, anionic adsorption and surface stress effects on the quantum transport in the wires. In the double layer charging regime, the conductance changes linearly with the potential, which can be attributed to a change in the amount of electron spill-out of the wire. A large change ...