The vibrations produced by trains include two parts which are deterministic and random vibrations. Due to variation of dynamic loads and patterns of load-time, the random vibration of moving train is one of the most important issues in the field of railway engineering. One of the important sources in producing the train vibrations is rail roughness and irregularities. In this paper, responses o...

In hybrid video coding schemes, motion estimation at sub-pixel accuracy, such as 1/2 pixel and 1/4 pixel obviously possesses higher coding efficiency than that at integer-pixel accuracy only. However, it requires more computational overhead for additional processes such as interpolation and search on sub-pixels. We proposed a novel half-pixel motion estimation bypass algorithm based on a linear...

We use a density-matrix renormalization group method to study quantitatively the phase diagram of a one-dimensional extended Hubbard model at half filling by investigating the correlation functions and structure factors. We confirmed the existence of a novel narrow region with long-range bond-order-wave order that was highly controversial recently between the charge-density-wave phase and Mott ...

In this article, we consider Zipf-Mandelbrot law as applied to texts in natural languages. We present a simple model of dependence of the law on the text size, which is featured by variable power-law tail and constant ratio of the most frequent words. As a result we derive several closed formulas, which accord with empirical data qualitatively and partially quantitatively. For example, there ap...

We have performed shell-model calculations of the half-lives and neutron-branching probabilities of the r-process waiting point nuclei at the magic neutron number N = 82. These new calculations use a larger model space than previous shell model studies and an improved residual interaction which is adjusted to recent spectroscopic data around A = 130. Our shell-model results give a good account ...

Observations combined with theoretical modeling of the light curve of the recently discovered supernova 1997D in NGC 1536 suggest that it might host a black hole formed in the aftermath of the explosion. We consider some observable consequences of a black hole in SN 1997D and estimate the late–time accretion luminosity of the material which falls back onto the hole. We find that this luminosity...

Outside intervention in civil warfare is important for humanitarian, theoretical, and practical policy reasons—since 2006, much of the debate over the war in Iraq has turned on the danger of external intervention if the United States were to withdraw. Yet, the literature on intervention has been compartmented in ways that have made it theoretically incomplete and unsuitable as a guide to policy...

To Mom, Dad and my husband: without your support, I wouldn't be here iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge Dr. Eberhard O. Voit, my advisor and mentor, for his invaluable guidance in my research. It would have been impossible for me to touch such an interesting research field and come this far without his willingness to give me a chance at the very beginning. I would also wish to than...

Microsimulations focus on modeling routine activities of individuals and have been used for modeling and planning urban systems like transportation, energy demand, and epidemiology. On the other hand, planning for emergency situations (e.g., disasters) needs to account for human behavior which is not routine or pre-planned but depends upon the current situation like the amount of physical damag...

This paper deals with the reflection and transmission of elastic waves from imperfect interface separating a micropolar elastic solid half-space and a fluid saturated porous solid half-space. Longitudinal and transverse waves impinge obliquely at the interface. Amplitude ratios of various reflected and transmitted waves are obtained and computed numerically for a specific model and results obta...