Ada ‘95 does not provide for a constructor mechanism with parameters for initializing newly created objects. The package Ada.Finalization provides an initialize procedure which is automatically called at object creation time, but that procedure takes only one argument, i.e. the object being operated upon. This is hardly useful, since initialization of any kind usually requires additional inform...

Since at least the dawn of history, human beings have been interested in their own origins and in the make-up of their world. Most cultures, for example, have "origins" stories in their religions and myths to explain what and who we are. But until what we call "science" gained a foothold, no explanation provided verifiable conclusions. Only with the advent of the scientific method and the ever-...

It is proven that any spherically symmetric spacetime that possesses a compact Cauchy surface and that satis es the dominant-energy and non-negative-pressures conditions must have a nite lifetime in the sense that all timelike curves in such a spacetime must have a length no greater than 10max (2m), where m is the mass associated with the spheres of symmetry. This result gives a complete resolu...

We compare multivariate aging notions of conditionally independent lifetimes with corresponding univariate aging notions of their one-dimensional marginal distributions. Let G(t|θ) (t ≥ 0) be a one-dimensional survival function indexed by θ; for simplicity’s sake, we assume here that θ is a non-negative scalar quantity; let, furthermore, Π be a probability distribution over [0,∞) and consider t...

Recent advances in development of multi-core processor architectures and three-dimensional (3D) integration supported by continuous semiconductor device scaling continued to boost the performance of modern computers. However, in order to proceed with the performance enhancement beyond 3D integration completely new innovative approaches are mandatory. The electron spin attracts a significant att...

Persistent photoconductivity was observed in strontium titanate (SrTiO(3)) single crystals. When exposed to sub-bandgap light (2.9 eV or higher) at room temperature, the free-electron concentration increases by over 2 orders of magnitude. After the light is turned off, the enhanced conductivity persists for several days, with negligible decay. From positron lifetime measurements, the persistent...

The absorption band shape of chromophores in liquid solution at room temperature is usually dominated by pure electronic dephasing dynamics, which occurs on the sub-100 fs time scale. Herein, we report a series dyads consisting naphthalenediimide (NDI) electron acceptor with one or two phenyl-based donors for photoinduced intramolecular transfer fast enough to be competitive dephasing. As conse...