Model-based Estimation for Pose, Velocity of Projectile from Stereo Linear Array Image

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Zhuxin; Wen, Gongjian; Zhang, Xing; Li, Deren

2012-01-01

The pose (position and attitude) and velocity of in-flight projectiles have major influence on the performance and accuracy. A cost-effective method for measuring the gun-boosted projectiles is proposed. The method adopts only one linear array image collected by the stereo vision system combining a digital line-scan camera and a mirror near the muzzle. From the projectile's stereo image, the motion parameters (pose and velocity) are acquired by using a model-based optimization algorithm. The algorithm achieves optimal estimation of the parameters by matching the stereo projection of the projectile and that of the same size 3D model. The speed and the AOA (angle of attack) could also be determined subsequently. Experiments are made to test the proposed method.

Approximations of thermoelastic and viscoelastic control systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burns, J. A.; Liu, Z. Y.; Miller, R. E.

1990-01-01

Well-posed models and computational algorithms are developed and analyzed for control of a class of partial differential equations that describe the motions of thermo-viscoelastic structures. An abstract (state space) framework and a general well-posedness result are presented that can be applied to a large class of thermo-elastic and thermo-viscoelastic models. This state space framework is used in the development of a computational scheme to be used in the solution of a linear quadratic regulator (LQR) control problem. A detailed convergence proof is provided for the viscoelastic model and several numerical results are presented to illustrate the theory and to analyze problems for which the theory is incomplete.

A Well-Posed, Objective and Dynamic Two-Fluid Model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chetty, Krishna; Vaidheeswaran, Avinash; Sharma, Subash; Clausse, Alejandro; Lopez de Bertodano, Martin

The transition from dispersed to clustered bubbly flows due to wake entrainment is analyzed with a well-posed and objective one-dimensional (1-D) Two-Fluid Model, derived from variational principles. Modeling the wake entrainment force using the variational technique requires formulation of the inertial coupling coefficient, which defines the kinetic coupling between the phases. The kinetic coupling between a pair of bubbles and the liquid is obtained from potential flow over two-spheres and the results are validated by comparing the virtual mass coefficients with existing literature. The two-body interaction kinetic coupling is then extended to a lumped parameter model for viscous flow over two cylindrical bubbles, to get the Two-Fluid Model for wake entrainment. Linear stability analyses comprising the characteristics and the dispersion relation and non-linear numerical simulations are performed with the 1-D variational Two-Fluid Model to demonstrate the wake entrainment instability leading to clustering of bubbles. Finally, the wavelengths, amplitudes and propagation velocities of the void waves from non-linear simulations are compared with the experimental data.

A validated non-linear Kelvin-Helmholtz benchmark for numerical hydrodynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lecoanet, D.; McCourt, M.; Quataert, E.; Burns, K. J.; Vasil, G. M.; Oishi, J. S.; Brown, B. P.; Stone, J. M.; O'Leary, R. M.

2016-02-01

The non-linear evolution of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability is a popular test for code verification. To date, most Kelvin-Helmholtz problems discussed in the literature are ill-posed: they do not converge to any single solution with increasing resolution. This precludes comparisons among different codes and severely limits the utility of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability as a test problem. The lack of a reference solution has led various authors to assert the accuracy of their simulations based on ad hoc proxies, e.g. the existence of small-scale structures. This paper proposes well-posed two-dimensional Kelvin-Helmholtz problems with smooth initial conditions and explicit diffusion. We show that in many cases numerical errors/noise can seed spurious small-scale structure in Kelvin-Helmholtz problems. We demonstrate convergence to a reference solution using both ATHENA, a Godunov code, and DEDALUS, a pseudo-spectral code. Problems with constant initial density throughout the domain are relatively straightforward for both codes. However, problems with an initial density jump (which are the norm in astrophysical systems) exhibit rich behaviour and are more computationally challenging. In the latter case, ATHENA simulations are prone to an instability of the inner rolled-up vortex; this instability is seeded by grid-scale errors introduced by the algorithm, and disappears as resolution increases. Both ATHENA and DEDALUS exhibit late-time chaos. Inviscid simulations are riddled with extremely vigorous secondary instabilities which induce more mixing than simulations with explicit diffusion. Our results highlight the importance of running well-posed test problems with demonstrated convergence to a reference solution. To facilitate future comparisons, we include as supplementary material the resolved, converged solutions to the Kelvin-Helmholtz problems in this paper in machine-readable form.

Multimodal Deep Autoencoder for Human Pose Recovery.

PubMed

Hong, Chaoqun; Yu, Jun; Wan, Jian; Tao, Dacheng; Wang, Meng

2015-12-01

Video-based human pose recovery is usually conducted by retrieving relevant poses using image features. In the retrieving process, the mapping between 2D images and 3D poses is assumed to be linear in most of the traditional methods. However, their relationships are inherently non-linear, which limits recovery performance of these methods. In this paper, we propose a novel pose recovery method using non-linear mapping with multi-layered deep neural network. It is based on feature extraction with multimodal fusion and back-propagation deep learning. In multimodal fusion, we construct hypergraph Laplacian with low-rank representation. In this way, we obtain a unified feature description by standard eigen-decomposition of the hypergraph Laplacian matrix. In back-propagation deep learning, we learn a non-linear mapping from 2D images to 3D poses with parameter fine-tuning. The experimental results on three data sets show that the recovery error has been reduced by 20%-25%, which demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Method of orthogonally splitting imaging pose measurement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Na; Sun, Changku; Wang, Peng; Yang, Qian; Liu, Xintong

2018-01-01

In order to meet the aviation's and machinery manufacturing's pose measurement need of high precision, fast speed and wide measurement range, and to resolve the contradiction between measurement range and resolution of vision sensor, this paper proposes an orthogonally splitting imaging pose measurement method. This paper designs and realizes an orthogonally splitting imaging vision sensor and establishes a pose measurement system. The vision sensor consists of one imaging lens, a beam splitter prism, cylindrical lenses and dual linear CCD. Dual linear CCD respectively acquire one dimensional image coordinate data of the target point, and two data can restore the two dimensional image coordinates of the target point. According to the characteristics of imaging system, this paper establishes the nonlinear distortion model to correct distortion. Based on cross ratio invariability, polynomial equation is established and solved by the least square fitting method. After completing distortion correction, this paper establishes the measurement mathematical model of vision sensor, and determines intrinsic parameters to calibrate. An array of feature points for calibration is built by placing a planar target in any different positions for a few times. An terative optimization method is presented to solve the parameters of model. The experimental results show that the field angle is 52 °, the focus distance is 27.40 mm, image resolution is 5185×5117 pixels, displacement measurement error is less than 0.1mm, and rotation angle measurement error is less than 0.15°. The method of orthogonally splitting imaging pose measurement can satisfy the pose measurement requirement of high precision, fast speed and wide measurement range.

Creating Discussions with Classroom Voting in Linear Algebra

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cline, Kelly; Zullo, Holly; Duncan, Jonathan; Stewart, Ann; Snipes, Marie

2013-01-01

We present a study of classroom voting in linear algebra, in which the instructors posed multiple-choice questions to the class and then allowed a few minutes for consideration and small-group discussion. After each student in the class voted on the correct answer using a classroom response system, a set of clickers, the instructor then guided a…

Estimation of Faults in DC Electrical Power System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gorinevsky, Dimitry; Boyd, Stephen; Poll, Scott

2009-01-01

This paper demonstrates a novel optimization-based approach to estimating fault states in a DC power system. Potential faults changing the circuit topology are included along with faulty measurements. Our approach can be considered as a relaxation of the mixed estimation problem. We develop a linear model of the circuit and pose a convex problem for estimating the faults and other hidden states. A sparse fault vector solution is computed by using 11 regularization. The solution is computed reliably and efficiently, and gives accurate diagnostics on the faults. We demonstrate a real-time implementation of the approach for an instrumented electrical power system testbed, the ADAPT testbed at NASA ARC. The estimates are computed in milliseconds on a PC. The approach performs well despite unmodeled transients and other modeling uncertainties present in the system.

Robust head pose estimation via supervised manifold learning.

PubMed

Wang, Chao; Song, Xubo

2014-05-01

Head poses can be automatically estimated using manifold learning algorithms, with the assumption that with the pose being the only variable, the face images should lie in a smooth and low-dimensional manifold. However, this estimation approach is challenging due to other appearance variations related to identity, head location in image, background clutter, facial expression, and illumination. To address the problem, we propose to incorporate supervised information (pose angles of training samples) into the process of manifold learning. The process has three stages: neighborhood construction, graph weight computation and projection learning. For the first two stages, we redefine inter-point distance for neighborhood construction as well as graph weight by constraining them with the pose angle information. For Stage 3, we present a supervised neighborhood-based linear feature transformation algorithm to keep the data points with similar pose angles close together but the data points with dissimilar pose angles far apart. The experimental results show that our method has higher estimation accuracy than the other state-of-art algorithms and is robust to identity and illumination variations. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Vision-Aided Inertial Navigation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Roumeliotis, Stergios I. (Inventor); Mourikis, Anastasios I. (Inventor)

2017-01-01

This document discloses, among other things, a system and method for implementing an algorithm to determine pose, velocity, acceleration or other navigation information using feature tracking data. The algorithm has computational complexity that is linear with the number of features tracked.

Experimental and Theoretical Results in Output Trajectory Redesign for Flexible Structures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dewey, J. S.; Leang, K.; Devasia, S.

1998-01-01

In this paper we study the optimal redesign of output trajectories for linear invertible systems. This is particularly important for tracking control of flexible structures because the input-state trajectores, that achieve tracking of the required output may cause excessive vibrations in the structure. We pose and solve this problem, in the context of linear systems, as the minimization of a quadratic cost function. The theory is developed and applied to the output tracking of a flexible structure and experimental results are presented.

Nonlinear features for classification and pose estimation of machined parts from single views

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Talukder, Ashit; Casasent, David P.

1998-10-01

A new nonlinear feature extraction method is presented for classification and pose estimation of objects from single views. The feature extraction method is called the maximum representation and discrimination feature (MRDF) method. The nonlinear MRDF transformations to use are obtained in closed form, and offer significant advantages compared to nonlinear neural network implementations. The features extracted are useful for both object discrimination (classification) and object representation (pose estimation). We consider MRDFs on image data, provide a new 2-stage nonlinear MRDF solution, and show it specializes to well-known linear and nonlinear image processing transforms under certain conditions. We show the use of MRDF in estimating the class and pose of images of rendered solid CAD models of machine parts from single views using a feature-space trajectory neural network classifier. We show new results with better classification and pose estimation accuracy than are achieved by standard principal component analysis and Fukunaga-Koontz feature extraction methods.

Existence and Regularity Results for the Inviscid Primitive Equations with Lateral Periodicity

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hamouda, Makram, E-mail: mahamoud@indiana.edu; Jung, Chang-Yeol, E-mail: changyeoljung@gmail.com; Temam, Roger, E-mail: temam@indiana.edu

2016-06-15

The article is devoted to prove the existence and regularity of the solutions of the 3D inviscid Linearized Primitive Equations (LPEs) in a channel with lateral periodicity. This was assumed in a previous work (Hamouda et al. in Discret Contin Dyn Syst Ser S 6(2):401–422, 2013) which is concerned with the boundary layers generated by the corresponding viscous problem. Although the equations under investigation here are of hyperbolic type, the standard methods do not apply because of the specificity of the hyperbolic system. A set of non-local boundary conditions for the inviscid LPEs has to be imposed at the lateralmore » boundary of the channel making thus the system well-posed.« less

A noble refractive optical scanner with linear response

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mega, Yair J.; Lai, Zhenhua; DiMarzio, Charles A.

2013-03-01

Many applications in various fields of science and engineering use steered optical beam systems. Currently, many methods utilize mirrors in order to steer the beam. However, this approach is an off-axis solution, which normally increases the total size of the system as well as its error and complexity. Other methods use a "Risely Prisms" based solution, which is on-axis solution, however it poses some difficulties from an engineering standpoint, and therefore isn't widely used. We present here a novel technique for steering a beam on its optical axis with a linear deflection response. We derived the formulation for the profile required of the refractive optical component necessary for preforming the beam steering. The functionality of the device was simulated analytically using Matlab, as well as using a ray-tracing software, Zemax, and showed agreement with the analytical model. An optical element was manufactured based on the proposed design and the device was tested. The results show agreement with our hypothesis. We also present some proposed geometries of the several other devices, all based on the same concept, which can be used for higher performance applications such as two-dimensional scanner, video rate scanner etc.

Image reconstruction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vasilenko, Georgii Ivanovich; Taratorin, Aleksandr Markovich

Linear, nonlinear, and iterative image-reconstruction (IR) algorithms are reviewed. Theoretical results are presented concerning controllable linear filters, the solution of ill-posed functional minimization problems, and the regularization of iterative IR algorithms. Attention is also given to the problem of superresolution and analytical spectrum continuation, the solution of the phase problem, and the reconstruction of images distorted by turbulence. IR in optical and optical-digital systems is discussed with emphasis on holographic techniques.

Ill-posedness of the 3D incompressible hyperdissipative Navier–Stokes system in critical Fourier-Herz spaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nie, Yao; Zheng, Xiaoxin

2018-07-01

We study the Cauchy problem for the 3D incompressible hyperdissipative Navier–Stokes equations and consider the well-posedness and ill-posedness in critical Fourier-Herz spaces . We prove that if and , the system is locally well-posed for large initial data as well as globally well-posed for small initial data. Also, we obtain the same result for and . More importantly, we show that the system is ill-posed in the sense of norm inflation for and q  >  2. The proof relies heavily on particular structure of initial data u 0 that we construct, which makes the first iteration of solution inflate. Specifically, the special structure of u 0 transforms an infinite sum into a finite sum in ‘remainder term’, which permits us to control the remainder.

Locally linear regression for pose-invariant face recognition.

PubMed

Chai, Xiujuan; Shan, Shiguang; Chen, Xilin; Gao, Wen

2007-07-01

The variation of facial appearance due to the viewpoint (/pose) degrades face recognition systems considerably, which is one of the bottlenecks in face recognition. One of the possible solutions is generating virtual frontal view from any given nonfrontal view to obtain a virtual gallery/probe face. Following this idea, this paper proposes a simple, but efficient, novel locally linear regression (LLR) method, which generates the virtual frontal view from a given nonfrontal face image. We first justify the basic assumption of the paper that there exists an approximate linear mapping between a nonfrontal face image and its frontal counterpart. Then, by formulating the estimation of the linear mapping as a prediction problem, we present the regression-based solution, i.e., globally linear regression. To improve the prediction accuracy in the case of coarse alignment, LLR is further proposed. In LLR, we first perform dense sampling in the nonfrontal face image to obtain many overlapped local patches. Then, the linear regression technique is applied to each small patch for the prediction of its virtual frontal patch. Through the combination of all these patches, the virtual frontal view is generated. The experimental results on the CMU PIE database show distinct advantage of the proposed method over Eigen light-field method.

Thin film flow along a periodically-stretched elastic beam

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boamah Mensah, Chris; Chini, Greg; Jensen, Oliver

2017-11-01

Motivated by an application to pulmonary alveolar micro-mechanics, a system of partial differential equations is derived that governs the motion of a thin liquid film lining both sides of an inertia-less elastic substrate. The evolution of the film mass distribution is described by invoking the usual lubrication approximation while the displacement of the substrate is determined by employing a kinematically nonlinear Euler-Bernoulli beam formulation. In the parameter regime of interest, the axial strain can be readily shown to be a linear function of arc-length specified completely by the motion of ends of the substrate. In contrast, the normal force balance on the beam yields an equation for the substrate curvature that is fully coupled to the time-dependent lubrication equation. Linear analyses of both a stationary and periodically-stretched flat substrate confirm the potential for buckling instabilities and reveal an upper bound on the dimensionless axial stiffness for which the coupled thin-film/inertial-less-beam model is well-posed. Numerical simulations of the coupled system are used to explore the nonlinear development of the buckling instabilities.

Time-Domain Impedance Boundary Conditions for Computational Aeroacoustics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tam, Christopher K. W.; Auriault, Laurent

1996-01-01

It is an accepted practice in aeroacoustics to characterize the properties of an acoustically treated surface by a quantity known as impedance. Impedance is a complex quantity. As such, it is designed primarily for frequency-domain analysis. Time-domain boundary conditions that are the equivalent of the frequency-domain impedance boundary condition are proposed. Both single frequency and model broadband time-domain impedance boundary conditions are provided. It is shown that the proposed boundary conditions, together with the linearized Euler equations, form well-posed initial boundary value problems. Unlike ill-posed problems, they are free from spurious instabilities that would render time-marching computational solutions impossible.

Numerical evaluation of discontinuous and nonconforming finite element methods in nonlinear solid mechanics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bayat, Hamid Reza; Krämer, Julian; Wunderlich, Linus; Wulfinghoff, Stephan; Reese, Stefanie; Wohlmuth, Barbara; Wieners, Christian

2018-03-01

This work presents a systematic study of discontinuous and nonconforming finite element methods for linear elasticity, finite elasticity, and small strain plasticity. In particular, we consider new hybrid methods with additional degrees of freedom on the skeleton of the mesh and allowing for a local elimination of the element-wise degrees of freedom. We show that this process leads to a well-posed approximation scheme. The quality of the new methods with respect to locking and anisotropy is compared with standard and in addition locking-free conforming methods as well as established (non-) symmetric discontinuous Galerkin methods with interior penalty. For several benchmark configurations, we show that all methods converge asymptotically for fine meshes and that in many cases the hybrid methods are more accurate for a fixed size of the discrete system.

Head pose estimation in computer vision: a survey.

PubMed

Murphy-Chutorian, Erik; Trivedi, Mohan Manubhai

2009-04-01

The capacity to estimate the head pose of another person is a common human ability that presents a unique challenge for computer vision systems. Compared to face detection and recognition, which have been the primary foci of face-related vision research, identity-invariant head pose estimation has fewer rigorously evaluated systems or generic solutions. In this paper, we discuss the inherent difficulties in head pose estimation and present an organized survey describing the evolution of the field. Our discussion focuses on the advantages and disadvantages of each approach and spans 90 of the most innovative and characteristic papers that have been published on this topic. We compare these systems by focusing on their ability to estimate coarse and fine head pose, highlighting approaches that are well suited for unconstrained environments.

Quantum Linear System Algorithm for Dense Matrices.

PubMed

Wossnig, Leonard; Zhao, Zhikuan; Prakash, Anupam

2018-02-02

Solving linear systems of equations is a frequently encountered problem in machine learning and optimization. Given a matrix A and a vector b the task is to find the vector x such that Ax=b. We describe a quantum algorithm that achieves a sparsity-independent runtime scaling of O(κ^{2}sqrt[n]polylog(n)/ε) for an n×n dimensional A with bounded spectral norm, where κ denotes the condition number of A, and ε is the desired precision parameter. This amounts to a polynomial improvement over known quantum linear system algorithms when applied to dense matrices, and poses a new state of the art for solving dense linear systems on a quantum computer. Furthermore, an exponential improvement is achievable if the rank of A is polylogarithmic in the matrix dimension. Our algorithm is built upon a singular value estimation subroutine, which makes use of a memory architecture that allows for efficient preparation of quantum states that correspond to the rows of A and the vector of Euclidean norms of the rows of A.

Singular value decomposition: a diagnostic tool for ill-posed inverse problems in optical computed tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lanen, Theo A.; Watt, David W.

1995-10-01

Singular value decomposition has served as a diagnostic tool in optical computed tomography by using its capability to provide insight into the condition of ill-posed inverse problems. Various tomographic geometries are compared to one another through the singular value spectrum of their weight matrices. The number of significant singular values in the singular value spectrum of a weight matrix is a quantitative measure of the condition of the system of linear equations defined by a tomographic geometery. The analysis involves variation of the following five parameters, characterizing a tomographic geometry: 1) the spatial resolution of the reconstruction domain, 2) the number of views, 3) the number of projection rays per view, 4) the total observation angle spanned by the views, and 5) the selected basis function. Five local basis functions are considered: the square pulse, the triangle, the cubic B-spline, the Hanning window, and the Gaussian distribution. Also items like the presence of noise in the views, the coding accuracy of the weight matrix, as well as the accuracy of the accuracy of the singular value decomposition procedure itself are assessed.

Asymptotic stability of a nonlinear Korteweg-de Vries equation with critical lengths

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chu, Jixun; Coron, Jean-Michel; Shang, Peipei

2015-10-01

We study an initial-boundary-value problem of a nonlinear Korteweg-de Vries equation posed on the finite interval (0, 2 kπ) where k is a positive integer. The whole system has Dirichlet boundary condition at the left end-point, and both of Dirichlet and Neumann homogeneous boundary conditions at the right end-point. It is known that the origin is not asymptotically stable for the linearized system around the origin. We prove that the origin is (locally) asymptotically stable for the nonlinear system if the integer k is such that the kernel of the linear Korteweg-de Vries stationary equation is of dimension 1. This is for example the case if k = 1.

A Deformable Atlas of the Laboratory Mouse

PubMed Central

Wang, Hongkai; Stout, David B.; Chatziioannou, Arion F.

2015-01-01

Purpose This paper presents a deformable mouse atlas of the laboratory mouse anatomy. This atlas is fully articulated and can be positioned into arbitrary body poses. The atlas can also adapt body weight by changing body length and fat amount. Procedures A training set of 103 micro-CT images was used to construct the atlas. A cage-based deformation method was applied to realize the articulated pose change. The weight-related body deformation was learned from the training set using a linear regression method. A conditional Gaussian model and thin-plate spline mapping were used to deform the internal organs following the changes of pose and weight. Results The atlas was deformed into different body poses and weights, and the deformation results were more realistic compared to the results achieved with other mouse atlases. The organ weights of this atlas matched well with the measurements of real mouse organ weights. This atlas can also be converted into voxelized images with labeled organs, pseudo CT images and tetrahedral mesh for phantom studies. Conclusions With the unique ability of articulated pose and weight changes, the deformable laboratory mouse atlas can become a valuable tool for preclinical image analysis. PMID:25049072

Quantitative Assessment of Arrhythmia Using Non-linear Approach: A Non-invasive Prognostic Tool

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chakraborty, Monisha; Ghosh, Dipak

2017-12-01

Accurate prognostic tool to identify severity of Arrhythmia is yet to be investigated, owing to the complexity of the ECG signal. In this paper, we have shown that quantitative assessment of Arrhythmia is possible using non-linear technique based on "Hurst Rescaled Range Analysis". Although the concept of applying "non-linearity" for studying various cardiac dysfunctions is not entirely new, the novel objective of this paper is to identify the severity of the disease, monitoring of different medicine and their dose, and also to assess the efficiency of different medicine. The approach presented in this work is simple which in turn will help doctors in efficient disease management. In this work, Arrhythmia ECG time series are collected from MIT-BIH database. Normal ECG time series are acquired using POLYPARA system. Both time series are analyzed in thelight of non-linear approach following the method "Rescaled Range Analysis". The quantitative parameter, "Fractal Dimension" (D) is obtained from both types of time series. The major finding is that Arrhythmia ECG poses lower values of D as compared to normal. Further, this information can be used to access the severity of Arrhythmia quantitatively, which is a new direction of prognosis as well as adequate software may be developed for the use of medical practice.

Quantitative Assessment of Arrhythmia Using Non-linear Approach: A Non-invasive Prognostic Tool

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chakraborty, Monisha; Ghosh, Dipak

2018-04-01

Accurate prognostic tool to identify severity of Arrhythmia is yet to be investigated, owing to the complexity of the ECG signal. In this paper, we have shown that quantitative assessment of Arrhythmia is possible using non-linear technique based on "Hurst Rescaled Range Analysis". Although the concept of applying "non-linearity" for studying various cardiac dysfunctions is not entirely new, the novel objective of this paper is to identify the severity of the disease, monitoring of different medicine and their dose, and also to assess the efficiency of different medicine. The approach presented in this work is simple which in turn will help doctors in efficient disease management. In this work, Arrhythmia ECG time series are collected from MIT-BIH database. Normal ECG time series are acquired using POLYPARA system. Both time series are analyzed in thelight of non-linear approach following the method "Rescaled Range Analysis". The quantitative parameter, "Fractal Dimension" (D) is obtained from both types of time series. The major finding is that Arrhythmia ECG poses lower values of D as compared to normal. Further, this information can be used to access the severity of Arrhythmia quantitatively, which is a new direction of prognosis as well as adequate software may be developed for the use of medical practice.

Regularization strategies for hyperplane classifiers: application to cancer classification with gene expression data.

PubMed

Andries, Erik; Hagstrom, Thomas; Atlas, Susan R; Willman, Cheryl

2007-02-01

Linear discrimination, from the point of view of numerical linear algebra, can be treated as solving an ill-posed system of linear equations. In order to generate a solution that is robust in the presence of noise, these problems require regularization. Here, we examine the ill-posedness involved in the linear discrimination of cancer gene expression data with respect to outcome and tumor subclasses. We show that a filter factor representation, based upon Singular Value Decomposition, yields insight into the numerical ill-posedness of the hyperplane-based separation when applied to gene expression data. We also show that this representation yields useful diagnostic tools for guiding the selection of classifier parameters, thus leading to improved performance.

Locating binding poses in protein-ligand systems using reconnaissance metadynamics

PubMed Central

Söderhjelm, Pär; Tribello, Gareth A.; Parrinello, Michele

2012-01-01

A molecular dynamics-based protocol is proposed for finding and scoring protein-ligand binding poses. This protocol uses the recently developed reconnaissance metadynamics method, which employs a self-learning algorithm to construct a bias that pushes the system away from the kinetic traps where it would otherwise remain. The exploration of phase space with this algorithm is shown to be roughly six to eight times faster than unbiased molecular dynamics and is only limited by the time taken to diffuse about the surface of the protein. We apply this method to the well-studied trypsin–benzamidine system and show that we are able to refind all the poses obtained from a reference EADock blind docking calculation. These poses can be scored based on the length of time the system remains trapped in the pose. Alternatively, one can perform dimensionality reduction on the output trajectory and obtain a map of phase space that can be used in more expensive free-energy calculations. PMID:22440749

Locating binding poses in protein-ligand systems using reconnaissance metadynamics.

PubMed

Söderhjelm, Pär; Tribello, Gareth A; Parrinello, Michele

2012-04-03

A molecular dynamics-based protocol is proposed for finding and scoring protein-ligand binding poses. This protocol uses the recently developed reconnaissance metadynamics method, which employs a self-learning algorithm to construct a bias that pushes the system away from the kinetic traps where it would otherwise remain. The exploration of phase space with this algorithm is shown to be roughly six to eight times faster than unbiased molecular dynamics and is only limited by the time taken to diffuse about the surface of the protein. We apply this method to the well-studied trypsin-benzamidine system and show that we are able to refind all the poses obtained from a reference EADock blind docking calculation. These poses can be scored based on the length of time the system remains trapped in the pose. Alternatively, one can perform dimensionality reduction on the output trajectory and obtain a map of phase space that can be used in more expensive free-energy calculations.

Local Laplacian Coding From Theoretical Analysis of Local Coding Schemes for Locally Linear Classification.

PubMed

Pang, Junbiao; Qin, Lei; Zhang, Chunjie; Zhang, Weigang; Huang, Qingming; Yin, Baocai

2015-12-01

Local coordinate coding (LCC) is a framework to approximate a Lipschitz smooth function by combining linear functions into a nonlinear one. For locally linear classification, LCC requires a coding scheme that heavily determines the nonlinear approximation ability, posing two main challenges: 1) the locality making faraway anchors have smaller influences on current data and 2) the flexibility balancing well between the reconstruction of current data and the locality. In this paper, we address the problem from the theoretical analysis of the simplest local coding schemes, i.e., local Gaussian coding and local student coding, and propose local Laplacian coding (LPC) to achieve the locality and the flexibility. We apply LPC into locally linear classifiers to solve diverse classification tasks. The comparable or exceeded performances of state-of-the-art methods demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Multichannel myopic deconvolution in underwater acoustic channels via low-rank recovery

PubMed Central

Tian, Ning; Byun, Sung-Hoon; Sabra, Karim; Romberg, Justin

2017-01-01

This paper presents a technique for solving the multichannel blind deconvolution problem. The authors observe the convolution of a single (unknown) source with K different (unknown) channel responses; from these channel outputs, the authors want to estimate both the source and the channel responses. The authors show how this classical signal processing problem can be viewed as solving a system of bilinear equations, and in turn can be recast as recovering a rank-1 matrix from a set of linear observations. Results of prior studies in the area of low-rank matrix recovery have identified effective convex relaxations for problems of this type and efficient, scalable heuristic solvers that enable these techniques to work with thousands of unknown variables. The authors show how a priori information about the channels can be used to build a linear model for the channels, which in turn makes solving these systems of equations well-posed. This study demonstrates the robustness of this methodology to measurement noises and parametrization errors of the channel impulse responses with several stylized and shallow water acoustic channel simulations. The performance of this methodology is also verified experimentally using shipping noise recorded on short bottom-mounted vertical line arrays. PMID:28599565

Quantum Linear System Algorithm for Dense Matrices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wossnig, Leonard; Zhao, Zhikuan; Prakash, Anupam

2018-02-01

Solving linear systems of equations is a frequently encountered problem in machine learning and optimization. Given a matrix A and a vector b the task is to find the vector x such that A x =b . We describe a quantum algorithm that achieves a sparsity-independent runtime scaling of O (κ2√{n }polylog(n )/ɛ ) for an n ×n dimensional A with bounded spectral norm, where κ denotes the condition number of A , and ɛ is the desired precision parameter. This amounts to a polynomial improvement over known quantum linear system algorithms when applied to dense matrices, and poses a new state of the art for solving dense linear systems on a quantum computer. Furthermore, an exponential improvement is achievable if the rank of A is polylogarithmic in the matrix dimension. Our algorithm is built upon a singular value estimation subroutine, which makes use of a memory architecture that allows for efficient preparation of quantum states that correspond to the rows of A and the vector of Euclidean norms of the rows of A .

A numerical technique for linear elliptic partial differential equations in polygonal domains.

PubMed

Hashemzadeh, P; Fokas, A S; Smitheman, S A

2015-03-08

Integral representations for the solution of linear elliptic partial differential equations (PDEs) can be obtained using Green's theorem. However, these representations involve both the Dirichlet and the Neumann values on the boundary, and for a well-posed boundary-value problem (BVPs) one of these functions is unknown. A new transform method for solving BVPs for linear and integrable nonlinear PDEs usually referred to as the unified transform ( or the Fokas transform ) was introduced by the second author in the late Nineties. For linear elliptic PDEs, this method can be considered as the analogue of Green's function approach but now it is formulated in the complex Fourier plane instead of the physical plane. It employs two global relations also formulated in the Fourier plane which couple the Dirichlet and the Neumann boundary values. These relations can be used to characterize the unknown boundary values in terms of the given boundary data, yielding an elegant approach for determining the Dirichlet to Neumann map . The numerical implementation of the unified transform can be considered as the counterpart in the Fourier plane of the well-known boundary integral method which is formulated in the physical plane. For this implementation, one must choose (i) a suitable basis for expanding the unknown functions and (ii) an appropriate set of complex values, which we refer to as collocation points, at which to evaluate the global relations. Here, by employing a variety of examples we present simple guidelines of how the above choices can be made. Furthermore, we provide concrete rules for choosing the collocation points so that the condition number of the matrix of the associated linear system remains low.

Solving ill-posed inverse problems using iterative deep neural networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Adler, Jonas; Öktem, Ozan

2017-12-01

We propose a partially learned approach for the solution of ill-posed inverse problems with not necessarily linear forward operators. The method builds on ideas from classical regularisation theory and recent advances in deep learning to perform learning while making use of prior information about the inverse problem encoded in the forward operator, noise model and a regularising functional. The method results in a gradient-like iterative scheme, where the ‘gradient’ component is learned using a convolutional network that includes the gradients of the data discrepancy and regulariser as input in each iteration. We present results of such a partially learned gradient scheme on a non-linear tomographic inversion problem with simulated data from both the Sheep-Logan phantom as well as a head CT. The outcome is compared against filtered backprojection and total variation reconstruction and the proposed method provides a 5.4 dB PSNR improvement over the total variation reconstruction while being significantly faster, giving reconstructions of 512 × 512 pixel images in about 0.4 s using a single graphics processing unit (GPU).

Three-Dimensional Inverse Transport Solver Based on Compressive Sensing Technique

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cheng, Yuxiong; Wu, Hongchun; Cao, Liangzhi; Zheng, Youqi

2013-09-01

According to the direct exposure measurements from flash radiographic image, a compressive sensing-based method for three-dimensional inverse transport problem is presented. The linear absorption coefficients and interface locations of objects are reconstructed directly at the same time. It is always very expensive to obtain enough measurements. With limited measurements, compressive sensing sparse reconstruction technique orthogonal matching pursuit is applied to obtain the sparse coefficients by solving an optimization problem. A three-dimensional inverse transport solver is developed based on a compressive sensing-based technique. There are three features in this solver: (1) AutoCAD is employed as a geometry preprocessor due to its powerful capacity in graphic. (2) The forward projection matrix rather than Gauss matrix is constructed by the visualization tool generator. (3) Fourier transform and Daubechies wavelet transform are adopted to convert an underdetermined system to a well-posed system in the algorithm. Simulations are performed and numerical results in pseudo-sine absorption problem, two-cube problem and two-cylinder problem when using compressive sensing-based solver agree well with the reference value.

Linear Aerospike SR-71 Experiment (LASRE): Aerospace Propulsion Hazard Mitigation Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mizukami, Masashi; Corpening, Griffin P.; Ray, Ronald J.; Hass, Neal; Ennix, Kimberly A.; Lazaroff, Scott M.

1998-01-01

A major hazard posed by the propulsion system of hypersonic and space vehicles is the possibility of fire or explosion in the vehicle environment. The hazard is mitigated by minimizing or detecting, in the vehicle environment, the three ingredients essential to producing fire: fuel, oxidizer, and an ignition source. The Linear Aerospike SR-71 Experiment (LASRE) consisted of a linear aerospike rocket engine integrated into one-half of an X-33-like lifting body shape, carried on top of an SR-71 aircraft. Gaseous hydrogen and liquid oxygen were used as propellants. Although LASRE is a one-of-a-kind experimental system, it must be rated for piloted flight, so this test presented a unique challenge. To help meet safety requirements, the following propulsion hazard mitigation systems were incorporated into the experiment: pod inert purge, oxygen sensors, a hydrogen leak detection algorithm, hydrogen sensors, fire detection and pod temperature thermocouples, water misting, and control room displays. These systems are described, and their development discussed. Analyses, ground test, and flight test results are presented, as are findings and lessons learned.

Determination and analysis of non-linear index profiles in electron-beam-deposited MgOAl2O3ZrO2 ternary composite thin-film optical coatings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sahoo, N. K.; Thakur, S.; Senthilkumar, M.; Das, N. C.

2005-02-01

Thickness-dependent index non-linearity in thin films has been a thought provoking as well as intriguing topic in the field of optical coatings. The characterization and analysis of such inhomogeneous index profiles pose several degrees of challenges to thin-film researchers depending upon the availability of relevant experimental and process-monitoring-related information. In the present work, a variety of novel experimental non-linear index profiles have been observed in thin films of MgOAl2O3ZrO2 ternary composites in solid solution under various electron-beam deposition parameters. Analysis and derivation of these non-linear spectral index profiles have been carried out by an inverse-synthesis approach using a real-time optical monitoring signal and post-deposition transmittance and reflection spectra. Most of the non-linear index functions are observed to fit polynomial equations of order seven or eight very well. In this paper, the application of such a non-linear index function has also been demonstrated in designing electric-field-optimized high-damage-threshold multilayer coatings such as normal- and oblique-incidence edge filters and a broadband beam splitter for p-polarized light. Such designs can also advantageously maintain the microstructural stability of the multilayer structure due to the low stress factor of the non-linear ternary composite layers.

The quasi-optimality criterion in the linear functional strategy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kindermann, Stefan; Pereverzyev, Sergiy, Jr.; Pilipenko, Andrey

2018-07-01

The linear functional strategy for the regularization of inverse problems is considered. For selecting the regularization parameter therein, we propose the heuristic quasi-optimality principle and some modifications including the smoothness of the linear functionals. We prove convergence rates for the linear functional strategy with these heuristic rules taking into account the smoothness of the solution and the functionals and imposing a structural condition on the noise. Furthermore, we study these noise conditions in both a deterministic and stochastic setup and verify that for mildly-ill-posed problems and Gaussian noise, these conditions are satisfied almost surely, where on the contrary, in the severely-ill-posed case and in a similar setup, the corresponding noise condition fails to hold. Moreover, we propose an aggregation method for adaptively optimizing the parameter choice rule by making use of improved rates for linear functionals. Numerical results indicate that this method yields better results than the standard heuristic rule.

X-33 Attitude Control Using the XRS-2200 Linear Aerospike Engine

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hall, Charles E.; Panossian, Hagop V.

1999-01-01

The Vehicle Control Systems Team at Marshall Space Flight Center, Structures and Dynamics Laboratory, Guidance and Control Systems Division is designing, under a cooperative agreement with Lockheed Martin Skunkworks, the Ascent, Transition, and Entry flight attitude control systems for the X-33 experimental vehicle. Test flights, while suborbital, will achieve sufficient altitudes and Mach numbers to test Single Stage To Orbit, Reusable Launch Vehicle technologies. Ascent flight control phase, the focus of this paper, begins at liftoff and ends at linear aerospike main engine cutoff (MECO). The X-33 attitude control system design is confronted by a myriad of design challenges: a short design cycle, the X-33 incremental test philosophy, the concurrent design philosophy chosen for the X-33 program, and the fact that the attitude control system design is, as usual, closely linked to many other subsystems and must deal with constraints and requirements from these subsystems. Additionally, however, and of special interest, the use of the linear aerospike engine is a departure from the gimbaled engines traditionally used for thrust vector control (TVC) in launch vehicles and poses certain design challenges. This paper discusses the unique problem of designing the X-33 attitude control system with the linear aerospike engine, requirements development, modeling and analyses that verify the design.

Accommodation of practical constraints by a linear programming jet select. [for Space Shuttle

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bergmann, E.; Weiler, P.

1983-01-01

An experimental spacecraft control system will be incorporated into the Space Shuttle flight software and exercised during a forthcoming mission to evaluate its performance and handling qualities. The control system incorporates a 'phase space' control law to generate rate change requests and a linear programming jet select to compute jet firings. Posed as a linear programming problem, jet selection must represent the rate change request as a linear combination of jet acceleration vectors where the coefficients are the jet firing times, while minimizing the fuel expended in satisfying that request. This problem is solved in real time using a revised Simplex algorithm. In order to implement the jet selection algorithm in the Shuttle flight control computer, it was modified to accommodate certain practical features of the Shuttle such as limited computer throughput, lengthy firing times, and a large number of control jets. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first such application of linear programming. It was made possible by careful consideration of the jet selection problem in terms of the properties of linear programming and the Simplex algorithm. These modifications to the jet select algorithm may by useful for the design of reaction controlled spacecraft.

Contactless and pose invariant biometric identification using hand surface.

PubMed

Kanhangad, Vivek; Kumar, Ajay; Zhang, David

2011-05-01

This paper presents a novel approach for hand matching that achieves significantly improved performance even in the presence of large hand pose variations. The proposed method utilizes a 3-D digitizer to simultaneously acquire intensity and range images of the user's hand presented to the system in an arbitrary pose. The approach involves determination of the orientation of the hand in 3-D space followed by pose normalization of the acquired 3-D and 2-D hand images. Multimodal (2-D as well as 3-D) palmprint and hand geometry features, which are simultaneously extracted from the user's pose normalized textured 3-D hand, are used for matching. Individual matching scores are then combined using a new dynamic fusion strategy. Our experimental results on the database of 114 subjects with significant pose variations yielded encouraging results. Consistent (across various hand features considered) performance improvement achieved with the pose correction demonstrates the usefulness of the proposed approach for hand based biometric systems with unconstrained and contact-free imaging. The experimental results also suggest that the dynamic fusion approach employed in this work helps to achieve performance improvement of 60% (in terms of EER) over the case when matching scores are combined using the weighted sum rule.

Finite-horizon differential games for missile-target interception system using adaptive dynamic programming with input constraints

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Jingliang; Liu, Chunsheng

2018-01-01

In this paper, the problem of intercepting a manoeuvring target within a fixed final time is posed in a non-linear constrained zero-sum differential game framework. The Nash equilibrium solution is found by solving the finite-horizon constrained differential game problem via adaptive dynamic programming technique. Besides, a suitable non-quadratic functional is utilised to encode the control constraints into a differential game problem. The single critic network with constant weights and time-varying activation functions is constructed to approximate the solution of associated time-varying Hamilton-Jacobi-Isaacs equation online. To properly satisfy the terminal constraint, an additional error term is incorporated in a novel weight-updating law such that the terminal constraint error is also minimised over time. By utilising Lyapunov's direct method, the closed-loop differential game system and the estimation weight error of the critic network are proved to be uniformly ultimately bounded. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated by using a simple non-linear system and a non-linear missile-target interception system, assuming first-order dynamics for the interceptor and target.

Optimization of multi-image pose recovery of fluoroscope tracking (FTRAC) fiducial in an image-guided femoroplasty system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Wen P.; Armand, Mehran; Otake, Yoshito; Taylor, Russell H.

2011-03-01

Percutaneous femoroplasty [1], or femoral bone augmentation, is a prospective alternative treatment for reducing the risk of fracture in patients with severe osteoporosis. We are developing a surgical robotics system that will assist orthopaedic surgeons in planning and performing a patient-specific, augmentation of the femur with bone cement. This collaborative project, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has been the topic of previous publications [2],[3] from our group. This paper presents modifications to the pose recovery of a fluoroscope tracking (FTRAC) fiducial during our process of 2D/3D registration of X-ray intraoperative images to preoperative CT data. We show improved automata of the initial pose estimation as well as lower projection errors with the advent of a multiimage pose optimization step.

Improved pose and affinity predictions using different protocols tailored on the basis of data availability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Prathipati, Philip; Nagao, Chioko; Ahmad, Shandar; Mizuguchi, Kenji

2016-09-01

The D3R 2015 grand drug design challenge provided a set of blinded challenges for evaluating the applicability of our protocols for pose and affinity prediction. In the present study, we report the application of two different strategies for the two D3R protein targets HSP90 and MAP4K4. HSP90 is a well-studied target system with numerous co-crystal structures and SAR data. Furthermore the D3R HSP90 test compounds showed high structural similarity to existing HSP90 inhibitors in BindingDB. Thus, we adopted an integrated docking and scoring approach involving a combination of both pharmacophoric and heavy atom similarity alignments, local minimization and quantitative structure activity relationships modeling, resulting in the reasonable prediction of pose [with the root mean square deviation (RMSD) values of 1.75 Å for mean pose 1, 1.417 Å for the mean best pose and 1.85 Å for the mean all poses] and affinity (ROC AUC = 0.702 at 7.5 pIC50 cut-off and R = 0.45 for 180 compounds). The second protein, MAP4K4, represents a novel system with limited SAR and co-crystal structure data and little structural similarity of the D3R MAP4K4 test compounds to known MAP4K4 ligands. For this system, we implemented an exhaustive pose and affinity prediction protocol involving docking and scoring using the PLANTS software which considers side chain flexibility together with protein-ligand fingerprints analysis assisting in pose prioritization. This protocol through fares poorly in pose prediction (with the RMSD values of 4.346 Å for mean pose 1, 4.69 Å for mean best pose and 4.75 Å for mean all poses) and produced reasonable affinity prediction (AUC = 0.728 at 7.5 pIC50 cut-off and R = 0.67 for 18 compounds, ranked 1st among 80 submissions).

Stiffness optimization of non-linear elastic structures

DOE PAGES

Wallin, Mathias; Ivarsson, Niklas; Tortorelli, Daniel

2017-11-13

Our paper revisits stiffness optimization of non-linear elastic structures. Due to the non-linearity, several possible stiffness measures can be identified and in this work conventional compliance, i.e. secant stiffness designs are compared to tangent stiffness designs. The optimization problem is solved by the method of moving asymptotes and the sensitivities are calculated using the adjoint method. And for the tangent cost function it is shown that although the objective involves the third derivative of the strain energy an efficient formulation for calculating the sensitivity can be obtained. Loss of convergence due to large deformations in void regions is addressed bymore » using a fictitious strain energy such that small strain linear elasticity is approached in the void regions. We formulate a well-posed topology optimization problem by using restriction which is achieved via a Helmholtz type filter. The numerical examples provided show that for low load levels, the designs obtained from the different stiffness measures coincide whereas for large deformations significant differences are observed.« less

Stiffness optimization of non-linear elastic structures

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wallin, Mathias; Ivarsson, Niklas; Tortorelli, Daniel

Our paper revisits stiffness optimization of non-linear elastic structures. Due to the non-linearity, several possible stiffness measures can be identified and in this work conventional compliance, i.e. secant stiffness designs are compared to tangent stiffness designs. The optimization problem is solved by the method of moving asymptotes and the sensitivities are calculated using the adjoint method. And for the tangent cost function it is shown that although the objective involves the third derivative of the strain energy an efficient formulation for calculating the sensitivity can be obtained. Loss of convergence due to large deformations in void regions is addressed bymore » using a fictitious strain energy such that small strain linear elasticity is approached in the void regions. We formulate a well-posed topology optimization problem by using restriction which is achieved via a Helmholtz type filter. The numerical examples provided show that for low load levels, the designs obtained from the different stiffness measures coincide whereas for large deformations significant differences are observed.« less

Rapid transfer alignment of an inertial navigation system using a marginal stochastic integration filter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Dapeng; Guo, Lei

2018-01-01

This study aims to address the rapid transfer alignment (RTA) issue of an inertial navigation system with large misalignment angles. The strong nonlinearity and high dimensionality of the system model pose a significant challenge to the estimation of the misalignment angles. In this paper, a 15-dimensional nonlinear model for RTA has been exploited, and it is shown that the functions for the model description exhibit a conditionally linear substructure. Then, a modified stochastic integration filter (SIF) called marginal SIF (MSIF) is developed to incorporate into the nonlinear model, where the number of sample points is significantly reduced but the estimation accuracy of SIF is retained. Comparisons between the MSIF-based RTA and the previously well-known methodologies are carried out through numerical simulations and a van test. The results demonstrate that the newly proposed method has an obvious accuracy advantage over the extended Kalman filter, the unscented Kalman filter and the marginal unscented Kalman filter. Further, the MSIF achieves a comparable performance to SIF, but with a significantly lower computation load.

Error image aware content restoration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Choi, Sungwoo; Lee, Moonsik; Jung, Byunghee

2015-12-01

As the resolution of TV significantly increased, content consumers have become increasingly sensitive to the subtlest defect in TV contents. This rising standard in quality demanded by consumers has posed a new challenge in today's context where the tape-based process has transitioned to the file-based process: the transition necessitated digitalizing old archives, a process which inevitably produces errors such as disordered pixel blocks, scattered white noise, or totally missing pixels. Unsurprisingly, detecting and fixing such errors require a substantial amount of time and human labor to meet the standard demanded by today's consumers. In this paper, we introduce a novel, automated error restoration algorithm which can be applied to different types of classic errors by utilizing adjacent images while preserving the undamaged parts of an error image as much as possible. We tested our method to error images detected from our quality check system in KBS(Korean Broadcasting System) video archive. We are also implementing the algorithm as a plugin of well-known NLE(Non-linear editing system), which is a familiar tool for quality control agent.

Manifolds for pose tracking from monocular video

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Basu, Saurav; Poulin, Joshua; Acton, Scott T.

2015-03-01

We formulate a simple human-pose tracking theory from monocular video based on the fundamental relationship between changes in pose and image motion vectors. We investigate the natural embedding of the low-dimensional body pose space into a high-dimensional space of body configurations that behaves locally in a linear manner. The embedded manifold facilitates the decomposition of the image motion vectors into basis motion vector fields of the tangent space to the manifold. This approach benefits from the style invariance of image motion flow vectors, and experiments to validate the fundamental theory show reasonable accuracy (within 4.9 deg of the ground truth).

Autocalibration of a projector-camera system.

PubMed

Okatani, Takayuki; Deguchi, Koichiro

2005-12-01

This paper presents a method for calibrating a projector-camera system that consists of multiple projectors (or multiple poses of a single projector), a camera, and a planar screen. We consider the problem of estimating the homography between the screen and the image plane of the camera or the screen-camera homography, in the case where there is no prior knowledge regarding the screen surface that enables the direct computation of the homography. It is assumed that the pose of each projector is unknown while its internal geometry is known. Subsequently, it is shown that the screen-camera homography can be determined from only the images projected by the projectors and then obtained by the camera, up to a transformation with four degrees of freedom. This transformation corresponds to arbitrariness in choosing a two-dimensional coordinate system on the screen surface and when this coordinate system is chosen in some manner, the screen-camera homography as well as the unknown poses of the projectors can be uniquely determined. A noniterative algorithm is presented, which computes the homography from three or more images. Several experimental results on synthetic as well as real images are shown to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method.

An eye model for uncalibrated eye gaze estimation under variable head pose

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hnatow, Justin; Savakis, Andreas

2007-04-01

Gaze estimation is an important component of computer vision systems that monitor human activity for surveillance, human-computer interaction, and various other applications including iris recognition. Gaze estimation methods are particularly valuable when they are non-intrusive, do not require calibration, and generalize well across users. This paper presents a novel eye model that is employed for efficiently performing uncalibrated eye gaze estimation. The proposed eye model was constructed from a geometric simplification of the eye and anthropometric data about eye feature sizes in order to circumvent the requirement of calibration procedures for each individual user. The positions of the two eye corners and the midpupil, the distance between the two eye corners, and the radius of the eye sphere are required for gaze angle calculation. The locations of the eye corners and midpupil are estimated via processing following eye detection, and the remaining parameters are obtained from anthropometric data. This eye model is easily extended to estimating eye gaze under variable head pose. The eye model was tested on still images of subjects at frontal pose (0 °) and side pose (34 °). An upper bound of the model's performance was obtained by manually selecting the eye feature locations. The resulting average absolute error was 2.98 ° for frontal pose and 2.87 ° for side pose. The error was consistent across subjects, which indicates that good generalization was obtained. This level of performance compares well with other gaze estimation systems that utilize a calibration procedure to measure eye features.

Application of infrared thermography in computer aided diagnosis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Faust, Oliver; Rajendra Acharya, U.; Ng, E. Y. K.; Hong, Tan Jen; Yu, Wenwei

2014-09-01

The invention of thermography, in the 1950s, posed a formidable problem to the research community: What is the relationship between disease and heat radiation captured with Infrared (IR) cameras? The research community responded with a continuous effort to find this crucial relationship. This effort was aided by advances in processing techniques, improved sensitivity and spatial resolution of thermal sensors. However, despite this progress fundamental issues with this imaging modality still remain. The main problem is that the link between disease and heat radiation is complex and in many cases even non-linear. Furthermore, the change in heat radiation as well as the change in radiation pattern, which indicate disease, is minute. On a technical level, this poses high requirements on image capturing and processing. On a more abstract level, these problems lead to inter-observer variability and on an even more abstract level they lead to a lack of trust in this imaging modality. In this review, we adopt the position that these problems can only be solved through a strict application of scientific principles and objective performance assessment. Computing machinery is inherently objective; this helps us to apply scientific principles in a transparent way and to assess the performance results. As a consequence, we aim to promote thermography based Computer-Aided Diagnosis (CAD) systems. Another benefit of CAD systems comes from the fact that the diagnostic accuracy is linked to the capability of the computing machinery and, in general, computers become ever more potent. We predict that a pervasive application of computers and networking technology in medicine will help us to overcome the shortcomings of any single imaging modality and this will pave the way for integrated health care systems which maximize the quality of patient care.

Trajectory-based visual localization in underwater surveying missions.

PubMed

Burguera, Antoni; Bonin-Font, Francisco; Oliver, Gabriel

2015-01-14

We present a new vision-based localization system applied to an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) with limited sensing and computation capabilities. The traditional EKF-SLAM approaches are usually expensive in terms of execution time; the approach presented in this paper strengthens this method by adopting a trajectory-based schema that reduces the computational requirements. The pose of the vehicle is estimated using an extended Kalman filter (EKF), which predicts the vehicle motion by means of a visual odometer and corrects these predictions using the data associations (loop closures) between the current frame and the previous ones. One of the most important steps in this procedure is the image registration method, as it reinforces the data association and, thus, makes it possible to close loops reliably. Since the use of standard EKFs entail linearization errors that can distort the vehicle pose estimations, the approach has also been tested using an iterated Kalman filter (IEKF). Experiments have been conducted using a real underwater vehicle in controlled scenarios and in shallow sea waters, showing an excellent performance with very small errors, both in the vehicle pose and in the overall trajectory estimates.

Adaptive nonlinear robust relative pose control of spacecraft autonomous rendezvous and proximity operations.

PubMed

Sun, Liang; Huo, Wei; Jiao, Zongxia

2017-03-01

This paper studies relative pose control for a rigid spacecraft with parametric uncertainties approaching to an unknown tumbling target in disturbed space environment. State feedback controllers for relative translation and relative rotation are designed in an adaptive nonlinear robust control framework. The element-wise and norm-wise adaptive laws are utilized to compensate the parametric uncertainties of chaser and target spacecraft, respectively. External disturbances acting on two spacecraft are treated as a lumped and bounded perturbation input for system. To achieve the prescribed disturbance attenuation performance index, feedback gains of controllers are designed by solving linear matrix inequality problems so that lumped disturbance attenuation with respect to the controlled output is ensured in the L 2 -gain sense. Moreover, in the absence of lumped disturbance input, asymptotical convergence of relative pose are proved by using the Lyapunov method. Numerical simulations are performed to show that position tracking and attitude synchronization are accomplished in spite of the presence of couplings and uncertainties. Copyright © 2016 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Single trial detection of hand poses in human ECoG using CSP based feature extraction.

PubMed

Kapeller, C; Schneider, C; Kamada, K; Ogawa, H; Kunii, N; Ortner, R; Pruckl, R; Guger, C

2014-01-01

Decoding brain activity of corresponding highlevel tasks may lead to an independent and intuitively controlled Brain-Computer Interface (BCI). Most of today's BCI research focuses on analyzing the electroencephalogram (EEG) which provides only limited spatial and temporal resolution. Derived electrocorticographic (ECoG) signals allow the investigation of spatially highly focused task-related activation within the high-gamma frequency band, making the discrimination of individual finger movements or complex grasping tasks possible. Common spatial patterns (CSP) are commonly used for BCI systems and provide a powerful tool for feature optimization and dimensionality reduction. This work focused on the discrimination of (i) three complex hand movements, as well as (ii) hand movement and idle state. Two subjects S1 and S2 performed single `open', `peace' and `fist' hand poses in multiple trials. Signals in the high-gamma frequency range between 100 and 500 Hz were spatially filtered based on a CSP algorithm for (i) and (ii). Additionally, a manual feature selection approach was tested for (i). A multi-class linear discriminant analysis (LDA) showed for (i) an error rate of 13.89 % / 7.22 % and 18.42 % / 1.17 % for S1 and S2 using manually / CSP selected features, where for (ii) a two class LDA lead to a classification error of 13.39 % and 2.33 % for S1 and S2, respectively.

A novel reporter system for neutralizing and enhancing antibody assay against dengue virus.

PubMed

Song, Ke-Yu; Zhao, Hui; Jiang, Zhen-You; Li, Xiao-Feng; Deng, Yong-Qiang; Jiang, Tao; Zhu, Shun-Ya; Shi, Pei-Yong; Zhang, Bo; Zhang, Fu-Chun; Qin, E-De; Qin, Cheng-Feng

2014-02-18

Dengue virus (DENV) still poses a global public health threat, and no vaccine or antiviral therapy is currently available. Antibody plays distinct roles in controlling DENV infections. Neutralizing antibody is protective against DENV infection, whereas sub-neutralizing concentration of antibody can increase DENV infection, termed antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE). Plaque-based assay represents the most widely accepted method measuring neutralizing or enhancing antibodies. In this study, a novel reporter virus-based system was developed for measuring neutralization and ADE activity. A stable Renilla luciferase reporter DENV (Luc-DENV) that can produce robust luciferase signals in BHK-21 and K562 cells were used to establish the assay and validated against traditional plaque-based assay. Luciferase value analysis using various known DENV-specific monoclonal antibodies showed good repeatability and a well linear correlation with conventional plaque-based assays. The newly developed assay was finally validated with clinical samples from infected animals and individuals. This reporter virus-based assay for neutralizing and enhancing antibody evaluation is rapid, lower cost, and high throughput, and will be helpful for laboratory detection and epidemiological investigation for DENV antibodies.

Shuttle orbiter Ku-band radar/communications system design evaluation: High gain antenna/widebeam horn

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Iwasaki, R.; Dodds, J. G.; Broad, P.

1979-01-01

The physical characteristics of the high gain antenna reflector and feed elements are described. Deficiencies in the sum feed are discussed, and lack of atmospheric venting is posed as a potential problem area. The measured RF performance of the high gain antenna is examined and the high sidelobe levels measured are related to the physical characteristics of the antenna. An examination of the attributes of the feed which might be influenced by temperature extremes shows that the antenna should be insensitive to temperature variations. Because the feed support bipod structure is considered a significant contributor to the high sidelobe levels measured in the azimuth plane, pod relocation, material changes, and shaping are suggested as improvements. Alternate feed designs are presented to further improve system performance. The widebeam horn and potential temperature effects due to the polarizer are discussed as well as in the effects of linear polarization on TDRS acquisition, and the effects of circular polarization on radar sidelobe avoidance. The radar detection probability is analyzed as a function of scan overlap and target range.

A non-parametric postprocessor for bias-correcting multi-model ensemble forecasts of hydrometeorological and hydrologic variables

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brown, James; Seo, Dong-Jun

2010-05-01

Operational forecasts of hydrometeorological and hydrologic variables often contain large uncertainties, for which ensemble techniques are increasingly used. However, the utility of ensemble forecasts depends on the unbiasedness of the forecast probabilities. We describe a technique for quantifying and removing biases from ensemble forecasts of hydrometeorological and hydrologic variables, intended for use in operational forecasting. The technique makes no a priori assumptions about the distributional form of the variables, which is often unknown or difficult to model parametrically. The aim is to estimate the conditional cumulative distribution function (ccdf) of the observed variable given a (possibly biased) real-time ensemble forecast from one or several forecasting systems (multi-model ensembles). The technique is based on Bayesian optimal linear estimation of indicator variables, and is analogous to indicator cokriging (ICK) in geostatistics. By developing linear estimators for the conditional expectation of the observed variable at many thresholds, ICK provides a discrete approximation of the full ccdf. Since ICK minimizes the conditional error variance of the indicator expectation at each threshold, it effectively minimizes the Continuous Ranked Probability Score (CRPS) when infinitely many thresholds are employed. However, the ensemble members used as predictors in ICK, and other bias-correction techniques, are often highly cross-correlated, both within and between models. Thus, we propose an orthogonal transform of the predictors used in ICK, which is analogous to using their principal components in the linear system of equations. This leads to a well-posed problem in which a minimum number of predictors are used to provide maximum information content in terms of the total variance explained. The technique is used to bias-correct precipitation ensemble forecasts from the NCEP Global Ensemble Forecast System (GEFS), for which independent validation results are presented. Extension to multimodel ensembles from the NCEP GFS and Short Range Ensemble Forecast (SREF) systems is also proposed.

Anomaly General Circulation Models.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Navarra, Antonio

The feasibility of the anomaly model is assessed using barotropic and baroclinic models. In the barotropic case, both a stationary and a time-dependent model has been formulated and constructed, whereas only the stationary, linear case is considered in the baroclinic case. Results from the barotropic model indicate that a relation between the stationary solution and the time-averaged non-linear solution exists. The stationary linear baroclinic solution can therefore be considered with some confidence. The linear baroclinic anomaly model poses a formidable mathematical problem because it is necessary to solve a gigantic linear system to obtain the solution. A new method to find solution of large linear system, based on a projection on the Krylov subspace is shown to be successful when applied to the linearized baroclinic anomaly model. The scheme consists of projecting the original linear system on the Krylov subspace, thereby reducing the dimensionality of the matrix to be inverted to obtain the solution. With an appropriate setting of the damping parameters, the iterative Krylov method reaches a solution even using a Krylov subspace ten times smaller than the original space of the problem. This generality allows the treatment of the important problem of linear waves in the atmosphere. A larger class (nonzonally symmetric) of basic states can now be treated for the baroclinic primitive equations. These problem leads to large unsymmetrical linear systems of order 10000 and more which can now be successfully tackled by the Krylov method. The (R7) linear anomaly model is used to investigate extensively the linear response to equatorial and mid-latitude prescribed heating. The results indicate that the solution is deeply affected by the presence of the stationary waves in the basic state. The instability of the asymmetric flows, first pointed out by Simmons et al. (1983), is active also in the baroclinic case. However, the presence of baroclinic processes modifies the dominant response. The most sensitive areas are identified; they correspond to north Japan, the Pole and Greenland regions. A limited set of higher resolution (R15) experiments indicate that this situation is still present and enhanced at higher resolution. The linear anomaly model is also applied to a realistic case. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.).

Coupled multiview autoencoders with locality sensitivity for three-dimensional human pose estimation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Jialin; Sun, Jifeng; Luo, Shasha; Duan, Bichao

2017-09-01

Estimating three-dimensional (3D) human poses from a single camera is usually implemented by searching pose candidates with image descriptors. Existing methods usually suppose that the mapping from feature space to pose space is linear, but in fact, their mapping relationship is highly nonlinear, which heavily degrades the performance of 3D pose estimation. We propose a method to recover 3D pose from a silhouette image. It is based on the multiview feature embedding (MFE) and the locality-sensitive autoencoders (LSAEs). On the one hand, we first depict the manifold regularized sparse low-rank approximation for MFE and then the input image is characterized by a fused feature descriptor. On the other hand, both the fused feature and its corresponding 3D pose are separately encoded by LSAEs. A two-layer back-propagation neural network is trained by parameter fine-tuning and then used to map the encoded 2D features to encoded 3D poses. Our LSAE ensures a good preservation of the local topology of data points. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method.

Effects and risk assessment of linear alkylbenzene sulfonates in agricultural soil. 5. Probabilistic risk assessment of linear alkylbenzene sulfonates in sludge-amended soils.

PubMed

Jensen, J; Løkke, H; Holmstrup, M; Krogh, P H; Elsgaard, L

2001-08-01

Linear alkylbenzene sulfonates (LAS) can be found in high concentrations in sewage sludge and, hence, may enter the soil compartment as a result of sludge application. Here, LAS may pose a risk for soil-dwelling organisms. In the present probabilistic risk assessment, statistical extrapolation has been used to assess the risk of LAS to soil ecosystems. By use of a log-normal distribution model, the predicted no-effect concentration (PNEC) was estimated for soil fauna, plants, and a combination of these. Due to the heterogeneous endpoints for microorganisms, including functional as well as structural parameters, the use of sensitivity distributions is not considered to be applicable to this group of organisms, and a direct, expert evaluation of toxicity data was used instead. The soil concentration after sludge application was predicted for a number of scenarios and used as the predicted environmental concentration (PEC) in the risk characterization and calculation of risk quotients (RQ = PEC/PNEC). A LAS concentration of 4.6 mg/kg was used as the current best estimate of PNEC in all RQ calculations. Three levels of LAS contamination (530, 2,600, and 16,100 mg/kg), three half-lives (10, 25, and 40 d), and five different sludge loads (2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 t/ha) were included in the risk scenarios. In Denmark, the initial risk ratio would reach 1.5 in a realistic worst-case consideration. For countries not having similar sludge regulations, the estimated risk ratio may initially be considerably higher. However, even in the most extreme scenarios, the level of LAS is expected to be well beyond the estimated PNEC one year after application. The present risk assessment, therefore, concludes that LAS does not pose a significant risk to fauna, plants, and essential functions of agricultural soils as a result of normal sewage sludge amendment. However, risks have been identified in worst-case scenarios.

Computational efficiency improvements for image colorization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Chao; Sharma, Gaurav; Aly, Hussein

2013-03-01

We propose an efficient algorithm for colorization of greyscale images. As in prior work, colorization is posed as an optimization problem: a user specifies the color for a few scribbles drawn on the greyscale image and the color image is obtained by propagating color information from the scribbles to surrounding regions, while maximizing the local smoothness of colors. In this formulation, colorization is obtained by solving a large sparse linear system, which normally requires substantial computation and memory resources. Our algorithm improves the computational performance through three innovations over prior colorization implementations. First, the linear system is solved iteratively without explicitly constructing the sparse matrix, which significantly reduces the required memory. Second, we formulate each iteration in terms of integral images obtained by dynamic programming, reducing repetitive computation. Third, we use a coarseto- fine framework, where a lower resolution subsampled image is first colorized and this low resolution color image is upsampled to initialize the colorization process for the fine level. The improvements we develop provide significant speedup and memory savings compared to the conventional approach of solving the linear system directly using off-the-shelf sparse solvers, and allow us to colorize images with typical sizes encountered in realistic applications on typical commodity computing platforms.

The Transformation App Redux: The Notion of Linearity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Domenick, Anthony

2015-01-01

The notion of linearity is perhaps the most fundamental idea in algebraic thinking. It sets the transition to functions and culminates with the instantaneous rate of change in calculus. Despite its simplicity, this concept poses complexities to a considerable number of first semester college algebra students. The purpose of this observational…

Automatic design of synthetic gene circuits through mixed integer non-linear programming.

PubMed

Huynh, Linh; Kececioglu, John; Köppe, Matthias; Tagkopoulos, Ilias

2012-01-01

Automatic design of synthetic gene circuits poses a significant challenge to synthetic biology, primarily due to the complexity of biological systems, and the lack of rigorous optimization methods that can cope with the combinatorial explosion as the number of biological parts increases. Current optimization methods for synthetic gene design rely on heuristic algorithms that are usually not deterministic, deliver sub-optimal solutions, and provide no guaranties on convergence or error bounds. Here, we introduce an optimization framework for the problem of part selection in synthetic gene circuits that is based on mixed integer non-linear programming (MINLP), which is a deterministic method that finds the globally optimal solution and guarantees convergence in finite time. Given a synthetic gene circuit, a library of characterized parts, and user-defined constraints, our method can find the optimal selection of parts that satisfy the constraints and best approximates the objective function given by the user. We evaluated the proposed method in the design of three synthetic circuits (a toggle switch, a transcriptional cascade, and a band detector), with both experimentally constructed and synthetic promoter libraries. Scalability and robustness analysis shows that the proposed framework scales well with the library size and the solution space. The work described here is a step towards a unifying, realistic framework for the automated design of biological circuits.

Design requirements for SRB production control system. Volume 2: System requirements and conceptual description

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1981-01-01

In the development of the business system for the SRB automated production control system, special attention had to be paid to the unique environment posed by the space shuttle. The issues posed by this environment, and the means by which they were addressed, are reviewed. The change in management philosphy which will be required as NASA switches from one-of-a-kind launches to multiple launches is discussed. The implications of the assembly process on the business system are described. These issues include multiple missions, multiple locations and facilities, maintenance and refurbishment, multiple sources, and multiple contractors. The implications of these aspects on the automated production control system are reviewed including an assessment of the six major subsystems, as well as four other subsystem. Some general system requirements which flow through the entire business system are described.

Ares I Flight Control System Overview

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hall, Charles; Lee, Chong; Jackson, Mark; Whorton, Mark; West, mark; Brandon, Jay; Hall, Rob A.; Jang, Jimmy; Bedrossian, Naz; Compton, Jimmy;

Sparse Unorganized Point Cloud Based Relative Pose Estimation for Uncooperative Space Target.

PubMed

Yin, Fang; Chou, Wusheng; Wu, Yun; Yang, Guang; Xu, Song

2018-03-28

This paper proposes an autonomous algorithm to determine the relative pose between the chaser spacecraft and the uncooperative space target, which is essential in advanced space applications, e.g., on-orbit serving missions. The proposed method, named Congruent Tetrahedron Align (CTA) algorithm, uses the very sparse unorganized 3D point cloud acquired by a LIDAR sensor, and does not require any prior pose information. The core of the method is to determine the relative pose by looking for the congruent tetrahedron in scanning point cloud and model point cloud on the basis of its known model. The two-level index hash table is built for speeding up the search speed. In addition, the Iterative Closest Point (ICP) algorithm is used for pose tracking after CTA. In order to evaluate the method in arbitrary initial attitude, a simulated system is presented. Specifically, the performance of the proposed method to provide the initial pose needed for the tracking algorithm is demonstrated, as well as their robustness against noise. Finally, a field experiment is conducted and the results demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Sparse Unorganized Point Cloud Based Relative Pose Estimation for Uncooperative Space Target

PubMed Central

Chou, Wusheng; Wu, Yun; Yang, Guang; Xu, Song

2018-01-01

This paper proposes an autonomous algorithm to determine the relative pose between the chaser spacecraft and the uncooperative space target, which is essential in advanced space applications, e.g., on-orbit serving missions. The proposed method, named Congruent Tetrahedron Align (CTA) algorithm, uses the very sparse unorganized 3D point cloud acquired by a LIDAR sensor, and does not require any prior pose information. The core of the method is to determine the relative pose by looking for the congruent tetrahedron in scanning point cloud and model point cloud on the basis of its known model. The two-level index hash table is built for speeding up the search speed. In addition, the Iterative Closest Point (ICP) algorithm is used for pose tracking after CTA. In order to evaluate the method in arbitrary initial attitude, a simulated system is presented. Specifically, the performance of the proposed method to provide the initial pose needed for the tracking algorithm is demonstrated, as well as their robustness against noise. Finally, a field experiment is conducted and the results demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed method. PMID:29597323

FAST Modularization Framework for Wind Turbine Simulation: Full-System Linearization

DOE PAGES

Jonkman, Jason M.; Jonkman, Bonnie J.

2016-10-03

The wind engineering community relies on multiphysics engineering software to run nonlinear time-domain simulations e.g. for design-standards-based loads analysis. Although most physics involved in wind energy are nonlinear, linearization of the underlying nonlinear system equations is often advantageous to understand the system response and exploit well-established methods and tools for analyzing linear systems. Here, this paper presents the development and verification of the new linearization functionality of the open-source engineering tool FAST v8 for land-based wind turbines, as well as the concepts and mathematical background needed to understand and apply it correctly.

FAST modularization framework for wind turbine simulation: full-system linearization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jonkman, J. M.; Jonkman, B. J.

2016-09-01

The wind engineering community relies on multiphysics engineering software to run nonlinear time-domain simulations e.g. for design-standards-based loads analysis. Although most physics involved in wind energy are nonlinear, linearization of the underlying nonlinear system equations is often advantageous to understand the system response and exploit well- established methods and tools for analyzing linear systems. This paper presents the development and verification of the new linearization functionality of the open-source engineering tool FAST v8 for land-based wind turbines, as well as the concepts and mathematical background needed to understand and apply it correctly.

A boundary-value problem for a first-order hyperbolic system in a two-dimensional domain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhura, N. A.; Soldatov, A. P.

2017-06-01

We consider a strictly hyperbolic first-order system of three equations with constant coefficients in a bounded piecewise-smooth domain. The boundary of the domain is assumed to consist of six smooth non-characteristic arcs. A boundary-value problem in this domain is posed by alternately prescribing one or two linear combinations of the components of the solution on these arcs. We show that this problem has a unique solution under certain additional conditions on the coefficients of these combinations, the boundary of the domain and the behaviour of the solution near the characteristics passing through the corner points of the domain.

Solution of Nonlinear Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Turner, L. R.

1960-01-01

The problem of solving systems of nonlinear equations has been relatively neglected in the mathematical literature, especially in the textbooks, in comparison to the corresponding linear problem. Moreover, treatments that have an appearance of generality fail to discuss the nature of the solutions and the possible pitfalls of the methods suggested. Probably it is unrealistic to expect that a unified and comprehensive treatment of the subject will evolve, owing to the great variety of situations possible, especially in the applied field where some requirement of human or mechanical efficiency is always present. Therefore we attempt here simply to pose the problem and to describe and partially appraise the methods of solution currently in favor.

Inertial motion capture system for biomechanical analysis in pressure suits

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Di Capua, Massimiliano

A non-invasive system has been developed at the University of Maryland Space System Laboratory with the goal of providing a new capability for quantifying the motion of the human inside a space suit. Based on an array of six microprocessors and eighteen microelectromechanical (MEMS) inertial measurement units (IMUs), the Body Pose Measurement System (BPMS) allows the monitoring of the kinematics of the suit occupant in an unobtrusive, self-contained, lightweight and compact fashion, without requiring any external equipment such as those necessary with modern optical motion capture systems. BPMS measures and stores the accelerations, angular rates and magnetic fields acting upon each IMU, which are mounted on the head, torso, and each segment of each limb. In order to convert the raw data into a more useful form, such as a set of body segment angles quantifying pose and motion, a series of geometrical models and a non-linear complimentary filter were implemented. The first portion of this works focuses on assessing system performance, which was measured by comparing the BPMS filtered data against rigid body angles measured through an external VICON optical motion capture system. This type of system is the industry standard, and is used here for independent measurement of body pose angles. By comparing the two sets of data, performance metrics such as BPMS system operational conditions, accuracy, and drift were evaluated and correlated against VICON data. After the system and models were verified and their capabilities and limitations assessed, a series of pressure suit evaluations were conducted. Three different pressure suits were used to identify the relationship between usable range of motion and internal suit pressure. In addition to addressing range of motion, a series of exploration tasks were also performed, recorded, and analysed in order to identify different motion patterns and trajectories as suit pressure is increased and overall suit mobility is reduced. The focus of these evaluations was to quantify the reduction in mobility when operating in any of the evaluated pressure suits. This data should be of value in defining new low cost alternatives for pressure suit performance verification and evaluation. This work demonstrates that the BPMS technology is a viable alternative or companion to optical motion capture; while BPMS is the first motion capture system that has been designed specifically to measure the kinematics of a human in a pressure suit, its capabilities are not constrained to just being a measurement tool. The last section of the manuscript is devoted to future possible uses for the system, with a specific focus on pressure suit applications such in the use of BPMS as a master control interface for robot teleoperation, as well as an input interface for future robotically augmented pressure suits.

Review: Interactions between temperament, stress, and immune function in cattle

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Stressors encountered by animals can pose economic problems for the livestock industry due to increased costs to the producer as well as the consumer. Stress can also adversely affect many physiological systems, including the reproductive and immune systems. In recent years, stress has been associat...

Induced seismicity closed-form traffic light system for actuarial decision-making during deep fluid injections.

PubMed

Mignan, A; Broccardo, M; Wiemer, S; Giardini, D

2017-10-19

The rise in the frequency of anthropogenic earthquakes due to deep fluid injections is posing serious economic, societal, and legal challenges to many geo-energy and waste-disposal projects. Existing tools to assess such problems are still inherently heuristic and mostly based on expert elicitation (so-called clinical judgment). We propose, as a complementary approach, an adaptive traffic light system (ATLS) that is function of a statistical model of induced seismicity. It offers an actuarial judgement of the risk, which is based on a mapping between earthquake magnitude and risk. Using data from six underground reservoir stimulation experiments, mostly from Enhanced Geothermal Systems, we illustrate how such a data-driven adaptive forecasting system could guarantee a risk-based safety target. The proposed model, which includes a linear relationship between seismicity rate and flow rate, as well as a normal diffusion process for post-injection, is first confirmed to be representative of the data. Being integrable, the model yields a closed-form ATLS solution that is both transparent and robust. Although simulations verify that the safety target is consistently ensured when the ATLS is applied, the model from which simulations are generated is validated on a limited dataset, hence still requiring further tests in additional fluid injection environments.

Modified Chapman-Enskog moment approach to diffusive phonon heat transport.

PubMed

Banach, Zbigniew; Larecki, Wieslaw

2008-12-01

A detailed treatment of the Chapman-Enskog method for a phonon gas is given within the framework of an infinite system of moment equations obtained from Callaway's model of the Boltzmann-Peierls equation. Introducing no limitations on the magnitudes of the individual components of the drift velocity or the heat flux, this method is used to derive various systems of hydrodynamic equations for the energy density and the drift velocity. For one-dimensional flow problems, assuming that normal processes dominate over resistive ones, it is found that the first three levels of the expansion (i.e., the zeroth-, first-, and second-order approximations) yield the equations of hydrodynamics which are linearly stable at all wavelengths. This result can be achieved either by examining the dispersion relations for linear plane waves or by constructing the explicit quadratic Lyapunov entropy functionals for the linear perturbation equations. The next order in the Chapman-Enskog expansion leads to equations which are unstable to some perturbations. Precisely speaking, the linearized equations of motion that describe the propagation of small disturbances in the flow have unstable plane-wave solutions in the short-wavelength limit of the dispersion relations. This poses no problem if the equations are used in their proper range of validity.

Vision based control of unmanned aerial vehicles with applications to an autonomous four-rotor helicopter, quadrotor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Altug, Erdinc

Our work proposes a vision-based stabilization and output tracking control method for a model helicopter. This is a part of our effort to produce a rotorcraft based autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). Due to the desired maneuvering ability, a four-rotor helicopter has been chosen as the testbed. On previous research on flying vehicles, vision is usually used as a secondary sensor. Unlike previous research, our goal is to use visual feedback as the main sensor, which is not only responsible for detecting where the ground objects are but also for helicopter localization. A novel two-camera method has been introduced for estimating the full six degrees of freedom (DOF) pose of the helicopter. This two-camera system consists of a pan-tilt ground camera and an onboard camera. The pose estimation algorithm is compared through simulation to other methods, such as four-point, and stereo method and is shown to be less sensitive to feature detection errors. Helicopters are highly unstable flying vehicles; although this is good for agility, it makes the control harder. To build an autonomous helicopter, two methods of control are studied---one using a series of mode-based, feedback linearizing controllers and the other using a back-stepping control law. Various simulations with 2D and 3D models demonstrate the implementation of these controllers. We also show global convergence of the 3D quadrotor controller even with large calibration errors or presence of large errors on the image plane. Finally, we present initial flight experiments where the proposed pose estimation algorithm and non-linear control techniques have been implemented on a remote-controlled helicopter. The helicopter was restricted with a tether to vertical, yaw motions and limited x and y translations.

Experimental and Theoretical Results in Output-Trajectory Redesign for Flexible Structures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dewey, J. S.; Devasia, Santosh

1996-01-01

In this paper we study the optimal redesign of output trajectory for linear invertible systems. This is particularly important for tracking control of flexible structures because the input-state trajectories that achieve the required output may cause excessive vibrations in the structure. A trade-off is then required between tracking and vibrations reduction. We pose and solve this problem as the minimization of a quadratic cost function. The theory is developed and applied to the output tracking of a flexible structure and experimental results are presented.

The full Keller-Segel model is well-posed on nonsmooth domains

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Horstmann, D.; Meinlschmidt, H.; Rehberg, J.

2018-04-01

In this paper we prove that the full Keller-Segel system, a quasilinear strongly coupled reaction-crossdiffusion system of four parabolic equations, is well-posed in the sense that it always admits an unique local-in-time solution in an adequate function space, provided that the initial values are suitably regular. The proof is done via an abstract solution theorem for nonlocal quasilinear equations by Amann and is carried out for general source terms. It is fundamentally based on recent nontrivial elliptic and parabolic regularity results which hold true even on rather general nonsmooth spatial domains. For space dimensions 2 and 3, this enables us to work in a nonsmooth setting which is not available in classical parabolic systems theory. Apparently, there exists no comparable existence result for the full Keller-Segel system up to now. Due to the large class of possibly nonsmooth domains admitted, we also obtain new results for the ‘standard’ Keller-Segel system consisting of only two equations as a special case. This work is dedicated to Prof Willi Jäger.

Le futur linguistique: temps lineaire ou temps ramifie (The Linguistic Future: Linear or Branching Time)?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martin, Robert

1981-01-01

Discusses the problems posed by a semantic analysis of the future tense in French, addressing particularly its double use as a tense and as a mood. The distinction between linear and branching time, or, certainty and possibility, central to this discussion, leads to a comparative analysis of future and conditional. (MES)

On the Quasimonotonicity of a Square Linear Operator with Respect to a Nonnegative Cone

DTIC Science & Technology

1998-06-01

follows from the result from Perron (1907) and Frobenius (1912) on the theory of nonnegative matrices, which states that a nonnegative matrix has a...Dissertation 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE ON THE QUASIMONOTONICITY OF A SQUARE LINEAR OPERATOR WITH RESPECT TO A NONNEGATIVE CONE 6. AUTHOR(S) Beaver, Philip...ABSTRACT (maximum 200 words) The question of when a square, linear operator is quasimonotone nondecreasing with respect to a nonnegative cone was posed for

Asynchronous sampled-data approach for event-triggered systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mahmoud, Magdi S.; Memon, Azhar M.

2017-11-01

While aperiodically triggered network control systems save a considerable amount of communication bandwidth, they also pose challenges such as coupling between control and event-condition design, optimisation of the available resources such as control, communication and computation power, and time-delays due to computation and communication network. With this motivation, the paper presents separate designs of control and event-triggering mechanism, thus simplifying the overall analysis, asynchronous linear quadratic Gaussian controller which tackles delays and aperiodic nature of transmissions, and a novel event mechanism which compares the cost of the aperiodic system against a reference periodic implementation. The proposed scheme is simulated on a linearised wind turbine model for pitch angle control and the results show significant improvement against the periodic counterpart.

Recursive linearization of multibody dynamics equations of motion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lin, Tsung-Chieh; Yae, K. Harold

1989-01-01

The equations of motion of a multibody system are nonlinear in nature, and thus pose a difficult problem in linear control design. One approach is to have a first-order approximation through the numerical perturbations at a given configuration, and to design a control law based on the linearized model. Here, a linearized model is generated analytically by following the footsteps of the recursive derivation of the equations of motion. The equations of motion are first written in a Newton-Euler form, which is systematic and easy to construct; then, they are transformed into a relative coordinate representation, which is more efficient in computation. A new computational method for linearization is obtained by applying a series of first-order analytical approximations to the recursive kinematic relationships. The method has proved to be computationally more efficient because of its recursive nature. It has also turned out to be more accurate because of the fact that analytical perturbation circumvents numerical differentiation and other associated numerical operations that may accumulate computational error, thus requiring only analytical operations of matrices and vectors. The power of the proposed linearization algorithm is demonstrated, in comparison to a numerical perturbation method, with a two-link manipulator and a seven degrees of freedom robotic manipulator. Its application to control design is also demonstrated.

Minimum mean squared error (MSE) adjustment and the optimal Tykhonov-Phillips regularization parameter via reproducing best invariant quadratic uniformly unbiased estimates (repro-BIQUUE)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schaffrin, Burkhard

2008-02-01

In a linear Gauss-Markov model, the parameter estimates from BLUUE (Best Linear Uniformly Unbiased Estimate) are not robust against possible outliers in the observations. Moreover, by giving up the unbiasedness constraint, the mean squared error (MSE) risk may be further reduced, in particular when the problem is ill-posed. In this paper, the α-weighted S-homBLE (Best homogeneously Linear Estimate) is derived via formulas originally used for variance component estimation on the basis of the repro-BIQUUE (reproducing Best Invariant Quadratic Uniformly Unbiased Estimate) principle in a model with stochastic prior information. In the present model, however, such prior information is not included, which allows the comparison of the stochastic approach (α-weighted S-homBLE) with the well-established algebraic approach of Tykhonov-Phillips regularization, also known as R-HAPS (Hybrid APproximation Solution), whenever the inverse of the “substitute matrix” S exists and is chosen as the R matrix that defines the relative impact of the regularizing term on the final result.

Comprehensive Analysis and Characterization of Linear Antigenic Domains on HN Protein from Genotype VII Newcastle Disease Virus Using Yeast Surface Display System

PubMed Central

Li, Tao; Wang, Gaoling; Shi, Bingtian; Liu, Peixin; Si, Wei; Wang, Bin; Jiang, Li; Zhou, Lunjiang; Xiu, Jinsheng; Liu, Henggui

2015-01-01

Circulation of genotype VII Newcastle disease virus (NDV) has posed a great threat for the poultry industry worldwide. Antibodies against Hemagglutinin-neuraminidase (HN), a membrane protein of NDV with critical roles in NDV infection, have been reported to provide chickens protection from NDV infection. In this study, we comprehensively analyzed the in vivo antibody responses against the linear antigenic domains of the HN protein from genotype VII NDV using a yeast surface display system. The results revealed four distinct regions of HN, P1 (1-52aa), P2 (53-192aa), P3 (193-302aa) and P4 (303-571aa), respectively, according to their antigenic potency. Analysis by FACS and ELISA assay indicated P2 to be the dominant linear antigenic domain, with the immunogenic potency to protect the majority of chickens from NDV challenge. In contrast, the P1, P3 and P4 domains showed weak antigenicity in vivo and could not protect chickens from NDV challenge. These results provide important insight into the characteristic of humoral immune responses elicited by HN of NDV in vivo. PMID:26121247

ARID relative calibration experimental data and analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Doty, Keith L

1992-01-01

Several experiments measure the orientation error of the ARID end-frame as well as linear displacements in the Orbiter's y- and z-axes. In each experiment the position of the ARID on the trolley is fixed and the manipulator extends and retracts along the Orbiter's y-axis. A sensor platform consisting of four sonars arranged in a '+' pattern measures the platform pitch about the Orbiter's y-axis (angle b) and yaw about the Orbiter's x-axis (angle alpha). Corroborating measurements of the yaw error were performed using a carpenter's level to keep the platform perpendicular to the gravity vector at each ARID pose being measured.

Quantization with maximally degenerate Poisson brackets: the harmonic oscillator!

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nutku, Yavuz

2003-07-01

Nambu's construction of multi-linear brackets for super-integrable systems can be thought of as degenerate Poisson brackets with a maximal set of Casimirs in their kernel. By introducing privileged coordinates in phase space these degenerate Poisson brackets are brought to the form of Heisenberg's equations. We propose a definition for constructing quantum operators for classical functions, which enables us to turn the maximally degenerate Poisson brackets into operators. They pose a set of eigenvalue problems for a new state vector. The requirement of the single-valuedness of this eigenfunction leads to quantization. The example of the harmonic oscillator is used to illustrate this general procedure for quantizing a class of maximally super-integrable systems.

Numerical investigation of the onset of centrifugal buoyancy in a rotating cavity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pitz, Diogo B.; Marxen, Olaf; Chew, John

2016-11-01

Buoyancy-induced flows in a differentially heated rotating annulus present a multitude of dynamics when control parameters such as rotation rate, temperature difference and Prandtl number are varied. Whilst most of the work in this area has been motivated by applications involving geophysics, the problem of buoyancy-induced convection in rotating systems is also relevant in industrial applications such as the flow between rotating disks of turbomachinery internal air systems, in which buoyancy plays a major role and poses a challenge to accurately predict temperature distributions and heat transfer rates. In such applications the rotational speeds involved are very large, so that the centrifugal accelerations induced are much higher than gravity. In this work we perform direct numerical simulations and linear stability analysis of flow induced by centrifugal buoyancy in a sealed rotating annulus of finite gap with flat end-walls, using a canonical setup representative of an internal air system rotating cavity. The analysis focuses on the behaviour of small-amplitude disturbances added to the base flow, and how those affect the onset of Rossby waves and, ultimately, the transition to a fully turbulent state where convection columns no longer have a well-defined structure. Diogo B. Pitz acknowledges the financial support from the Capes foundation through the Science without Borders program.

Total Dose Effects on Single Event Transients in Linear Bipolar Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Buchner, Stephen; McMorrow, Dale; Bernard, Muriel; Roche, Nicholas; Dusseau, Laurent

2008-01-01

Single Event Transients (SETs) originating in linear bipolar integrated circuits are known to undermine the reliability of electronic systems operating in the radiation environment of space. Ionizing particle radiation produces a variety of SETs in linear bipolar circuits. The extent to which these SETs threaten system reliability depends on both their shapes (amplitude and width) and their threshold energies. In general, SETs with large amplitudes and widths are the most likely to propagate from a bipolar circuit's output through a subsystem. The danger these SET pose is that, if they become latched in a follow-on circuit, they could cause an erroneous system response. Long-term exposure of linear bipolar circuits to particle radiation produces total ionizing dose (TID) and/or displacement damage dose (DDD) effects that are characterized by a gradual degradation in some of the circuit's electrical parameters. For example, an operational amplifier's gain-bandwidth product is reduced by exposure to ionizing radiation, and it is this reduction that contributes to the distortion of the SET shapes. In this paper, we compare SETs produced in a pristine LM124 operational amplifier with those produced in one exposed to ionizing radiation for three different operating configurations - voltage follower (VF), inverter with gain (IWG), and non-inverter with gain (NIWG). Each configuration produces a unique set of transient shapes that change following exposure to ionizing radiation. An important finding is that the changes depend on operating configuration; some SETs decrease in amplitude, some remain relatively unchanged, some become narrower and some become broader.

Well-posed Euler model of shock-induced two-phase flow in bubbly liquid

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tukhvatullina, R. R.; Frolov, S. M.

2018-03-01

A well-posed mathematical model of non-isothermal two-phase two-velocity flow of bubbly liquid is proposed. The model is based on the two-phase Euler equations with the introduction of an additional pressure at the gas bubble surface, which ensures the well-posedness of the Cauchy problem for a system of governing equations with homogeneous initial conditions, and the Rayleigh-Plesset equation for radial pulsations of gas bubbles. The applicability conditions of the model are formulated. The model is validated by comparing one-dimensional calculations of shock wave propagation in liquids with gas bubbles with a gas volume fraction of 0.005-0.3 with experimental data. The model is shown to provide satisfactory results for the shock propagation velocity, pressure profiles, and the shock-induced motion of the bubbly liquid column.

Automatic Design of Synthetic Gene Circuits through Mixed Integer Non-linear Programming

PubMed Central

Huynh, Linh; Kececioglu, John; Köppe, Matthias; Tagkopoulos, Ilias

2012-01-01

Automatic design of synthetic gene circuits poses a significant challenge to synthetic biology, primarily due to the complexity of biological systems, and the lack of rigorous optimization methods that can cope with the combinatorial explosion as the number of biological parts increases. Current optimization methods for synthetic gene design rely on heuristic algorithms that are usually not deterministic, deliver sub-optimal solutions, and provide no guaranties on convergence or error bounds. Here, we introduce an optimization framework for the problem of part selection in synthetic gene circuits that is based on mixed integer non-linear programming (MINLP), which is a deterministic method that finds the globally optimal solution and guarantees convergence in finite time. Given a synthetic gene circuit, a library of characterized parts, and user-defined constraints, our method can find the optimal selection of parts that satisfy the constraints and best approximates the objective function given by the user. We evaluated the proposed method in the design of three synthetic circuits (a toggle switch, a transcriptional cascade, and a band detector), with both experimentally constructed and synthetic promoter libraries. Scalability and robustness analysis shows that the proposed framework scales well with the library size and the solution space. The work described here is a step towards a unifying, realistic framework for the automated design of biological circuits. PMID:22536398

Embedding Game-Based Problem-Solving Phase into Problem-Posing System for Mathematics Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chang, Kuo-En; Wu, Lin-Jung; Weng, Sheng-En; Sung, Yao-Ting

2012-01-01

A problem-posing system is developed with four phases including posing problem, planning, solving problem, and looking back, in which the "solving problem" phase is implemented by game-scenarios. The system supports elementary students in the process of problem-posing, allowing them to fully engage in mathematical activities. In total, 92 fifth…

3-D linear inversion of gravity data: method and application to Basse-Terre volcanic island, Guadeloupe, Lesser Antilles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barnoud, Anne; Coutant, Olivier; Bouligand, Claire; Gunawan, Hendra; Deroussi, Sébastien

2016-04-01

We use a Bayesian formalism combined with a grid node discretization for the linear inversion of gravimetric data in terms of 3-D density distribution. The forward modelling and the inversion method are derived from seismological inversion techniques in order to facilitate joint inversion or interpretation of density and seismic velocity models. The Bayesian formulation introduces covariance matrices on model parameters to regularize the ill-posed problem and reduce the non-uniqueness of the solution. This formalism favours smooth solutions and allows us to specify a spatial correlation length and to perform inversions at multiple scales. We also extract resolution parameters from the resolution matrix to discuss how well our density models are resolved. This method is applied to the inversion of data from the volcanic island of Basse-Terre in Guadeloupe, Lesser Antilles. A series of synthetic tests are performed to investigate advantages and limitations of the methodology in this context. This study results in the first 3-D density models of the island of Basse-Terre for which we identify: (i) a southward decrease of densities parallel to the migration of volcanic activity within the island, (ii) three dense anomalies beneath Petite Plaine Valley, Beaugendre Valley and the Grande-Découverte-Carmichaël-Soufrière Complex that may reflect the trace of former major volcanic feeding systems, (iii) shallow low-density anomalies in the southern part of Basse-Terre, especially around La Soufrière active volcano, Piton de Bouillante edifice and along the western coast, reflecting the presence of hydrothermal systems and fractured and altered rocks.

The nucleolus is well-posed

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fragnelli, Vito; Patrone, Fioravante; Torre, Anna

2006-02-01

The lexicographic order is not representable by a real-valued function, contrary to many other orders or preorders. So, standard tools and results for well-posed minimum problems cannot be used. We prove that under suitable hypotheses it is however possible to guarantee the well-posedness of a lexicographic minimum over a compact or convex set. This result allows us to prove that some game theoretical solution concepts, based on lexicographic order are well-posed: in particular, this is true for the nucleolus.

Stability of Linear Equations--Algebraic Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cherif, Chokri; Goldstein, Avraham; Prado, Lucio M. G.

2012-01-01

This article could be of interest to teachers of applied mathematics as well as to people who are interested in applications of linear algebra. We give a comprehensive study of linear systems from an application point of view. Specifically, we give an overview of linear systems and problems that can occur with the computed solution when the…

Recognizing visual focus of attention from head pose in natural meetings.

PubMed

Ba, Sileye O; Odobez, Jean-Marc

2009-02-01

We address the problem of recognizing the visual focus of attention (VFOA) of meeting participants based on their head pose. To this end, the head pose observations are modeled using a Gaussian mixture model (GMM) or a hidden Markov model (HMM) whose hidden states correspond to the VFOA. The novelties of this paper are threefold. First, contrary to previous studies on the topic, in our setup, the potential VFOA of a person is not restricted to other participants only. It includes environmental targets as well (a table and a projection screen), which increases the complexity of the task, with more VFOA targets spread in the pan as well as tilt gaze space. Second, we propose a geometric model to set the GMM or HMM parameters by exploiting results from cognitive science on saccadic eye motion, which allows the prediction of the head pose given a gaze target. Third, an unsupervised parameter adaptation step not using any labeled data is proposed, which accounts for the specific gazing behavior of each participant. Using a publicly available corpus of eight meetings featuring four persons, we analyze the above methods by evaluating, through objective performance measures, the recognition of the VFOA from head pose information obtained either using a magnetic sensor device or a vision-based tracking system. The results clearly show that in such complex but realistic situations, the VFOA recognition performance is highly dependent on how well the visual targets are separated for a given meeting participant. In addition, the results show that the use of a geometric model with unsupervised adaptation achieves better results than the use of training data to set the HMM parameters.

Smoothing-Based Relative Navigation and Coded Aperture Imaging

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Saenz-Otero, Alvar; Liebe, Carl Christian; Hunter, Roger C.; Baker, Christopher

2017-01-01

This project will develop an efficient smoothing software for incremental estimation of the relative poses and velocities between multiple, small spacecraft in a formation, and a small, long range depth sensor based on coded aperture imaging that is capable of identifying other spacecraft in the formation. The smoothing algorithm will obtain the maximum a posteriori estimate of the relative poses between the spacecraft by using all available sensor information in the spacecraft formation.This algorithm will be portable between different satellite platforms that possess different sensor suites and computational capabilities, and will be adaptable in the case that one or more satellites in the formation become inoperable. It will obtain a solution that will approach an exact solution, as opposed to one with linearization approximation that is typical of filtering algorithms. Thus, the algorithms developed and demonstrated as part of this program will enhance the applicability of small spacecraft to multi-platform operations, such as precisely aligned constellations and fractionated satellite systems.

Well-posed continuum equations for granular flow with compressibility and μ(I)-rheology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barker, T.; Schaeffer, D. G.; Shearer, M.; Gray, J. M. N. T.

2017-05-01

Continuum modelling of granular flow has been plagued with the issue of ill-posed dynamic equations for a long time. Equations for incompressible, two-dimensional flow based on the Coulomb friction law are ill-posed regardless of the deformation, whereas the rate-dependent μ(I)-rheology is ill-posed when the non-dimensional inertial number I is too high or too low. Here, incorporating ideas from critical-state soil mechanics, we derive conditions for well-posedness of partial differential equations that combine compressibility with I-dependent rheology. When the I-dependence comes from a specific friction coefficient μ(I), our results show that, with compressibility, the equations are well-posed for all deformation rates provided that μ(I) satisfies certain minimal, physically natural, inequalities.

Well-posed continuum equations for granular flow with compressibility and μ(I)-rheology

PubMed Central

Schaeffer, D. G.; Shearer, M.; Gray, J. M. N. T.

2017-01-01

Continuum modelling of granular flow has been plagued with the issue of ill-posed dynamic equations for a long time. Equations for incompressible, two-dimensional flow based on the Coulomb friction law are ill-posed regardless of the deformation, whereas the rate-dependent μ(I)-rheology is ill-posed when the non-dimensional inertial number I is too high or too low. Here, incorporating ideas from critical-state soil mechanics, we derive conditions for well-posedness of partial differential equations that combine compressibility with I-dependent rheology. When the I-dependence comes from a specific friction coefficient μ(I), our results show that, with compressibility, the equations are well-posed for all deformation rates provided that μ(I) satisfies certain minimal, physically natural, inequalities. PMID:28588402

Well-posed continuum equations for granular flow with compressibility and μ(I)-rheology.

PubMed

Barker, T; Schaeffer, D G; Shearer, M; Gray, J M N T

2017-05-01

Continuum modelling of granular flow has been plagued with the issue of ill-posed dynamic equations for a long time. Equations for incompressible, two-dimensional flow based on the Coulomb friction law are ill-posed regardless of the deformation, whereas the rate-dependent μ ( I )-rheology is ill-posed when the non-dimensional inertial number I is too high or too low. Here, incorporating ideas from critical-state soil mechanics, we derive conditions for well-posedness of partial differential equations that combine compressibility with I -dependent rheology. When the I -dependence comes from a specific friction coefficient μ ( I ), our results show that, with compressibility, the equations are well-posed for all deformation rates provided that μ ( I ) satisfies certain minimal, physically natural, inequalities.

Putting Man in the Machine: Exploiting Expertise to Enhance Multiobjective Design of Water Supply Monitoring Network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bode, F.; Nowak, W.; Reed, P. M.; Reuschen, S.

2016-12-01

Drinking-water well catchments need effective early-warning monitoring networks. Groundwater water supply wells in complex urban environments are in close proximity to a myriad of potential industrial pollutant sources that could irreversibly damage their source aquifers. These urban environments pose fiscal and physical challenges to designing monitoring networks. Ideal early-warning monitoring networks would satisfy three objectives: to detect (1) all potential contaminations within the catchment (2) as early as possible before they reach the pumping wells, (3) while minimizing costs. Obviously, the ideal case is nonexistent, so we search for tradeoffs using multiobjective optimization. The challenge of this optimization problem is the high number of potential monitoring-well positions (the search space) and the non-linearity of the underlying groundwater flow-and-transport problem. This study evaluates (1) different ways to effectively restrict the search space in an efficient way, with and without expert knowledge, (2) different methods to represent the search space during the optimization and (3) the influence of incremental increases in uncertainty in the system. Conductivity, regional flow direction and potential source locations are explored as key uncertainties. We show the need and the benefit of our methods by comparing optimized monitoring networks for different uncertainty levels with networks that seek to effectively exploit expert knowledge. The study's main contributions are the different approaches restricting and representing the search space. The restriction algorithms are based on a point-wise comparison of decision elements of the search space. The representation of the search space can be either binary or continuous. For both cases, the search space must be adjusted properly. Our results show the benefits and drawbacks of binary versus continuous search space representations and the high potential of automated search space restriction algorithms for high-dimensional, highly non-linear optimization problems.

Design and implementation of a vision-based hovering and feature tracking algorithm for a quadrotor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Y. H.; Chahl, J. S.

2016-10-01

This paper demonstrates an approach to the vision-based control of the unmanned quadrotors for hover and object tracking. The algorithms used the Speed Up Robust Features (SURF) algorithm to detect objects. The pose of the object in the image was then calculated in order to pass the pose information to the flight controller. Finally, the flight controller steered the quadrotor to approach the object based on the calculated pose data. The above processes was run using standard onboard resources found in the 3DR Solo quadrotor in an embedded computing environment. The obtained results showed that the algorithm behaved well during its missions, tracking and hovering, although there were significant latencies due to low CPU performance of the onboard image processing system.

Model-based elastography: a survey of approaches to the inverse elasticity problem

PubMed Central

Doyley, M M

2012-01-01

Elastography is emerging as an imaging modality that can distinguish normal versus diseased tissues via their biomechanical properties. This article reviews current approaches to elastography in three areas — quasi-static, harmonic, and transient — and describes inversion schemes for each elastographic imaging approach. Approaches include: first-order approximation methods; direct and iterative inversion schemes for linear elastic; isotropic materials; and advanced reconstruction methods for recovering parameters that characterize complex mechanical behavior. The paper’s objective is to document efforts to develop elastography within the framework of solving an inverse problem, so that elastography may provide reliable estimates of shear modulus and other mechanical parameters. We discuss issues that must be addressed if model-based elastography is to become the prevailing approach to quasi-static, harmonic, and transient elastography: (1) developing practical techniques to transform the ill-posed problem with a well-posed one; (2) devising better forward models to capture the transient behavior of soft tissue; and (3) developing better test procedures to evaluate the performance of modulus elastograms. PMID:22222839

Systems Challenges for Hypersonic Vehicles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hunt, James L.; Laruelle, Gerard; Wagner, Alain

1997-01-01

This paper examines the system challenges posed by fully reusable hypersonic cruise airplanes and access to space vehicles. Hydrocarbon and hydrogen fueled airplanes are considered with cruise speeds of Mach 5 and 10, respectively. The access to space matrix is examined. Airbreathing and rocket powered, single- and two-stage vehicles are considered. Reference vehicle architectures are presented. Major systems/subsystems challenges are described. Advanced, enhancing systems concepts as well as common system technologies are discussed.

Gaussian discriminating strength

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rigovacca, L.; Farace, A.; De Pasquale, A.; Giovannetti, V.

2015-10-01

We present a quantifier of nonclassical correlations for bipartite, multimode Gaussian states. It is derived from the Discriminating Strength measure, introduced for finite dimensional systems in Farace et al., [New J. Phys. 16, 073010 (2014), 10.1088/1367-2630/16/7/073010]. As the latter the new measure exploits the quantum Chernoff bound to gauge the susceptibility of the composite system with respect to local perturbations induced by unitary gates extracted from a suitable set of allowed transformations (the latter being identified by posing some general requirements). Closed expressions are provided for the case of two-mode Gaussian states obtained by squeezing or by linearly mixing via a beam splitter a factorized two-mode thermal state. For these density matrices, we study how nonclassical correlations are related with the entanglement present in the system and with its total photon number.

Multiple beam antenna/switch system study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1989-01-01

In the study of the Multiple Beam Antenna/Switch for the space to ground link (SGL) uplink and downlink services, several issues related to system engineering, antenna, transmit/receive, and switch systems were addressed and the results are provided. Bandwidth allocation at Ku band is inadequate to serve the data rate requirements for the forward and return services. Rain and depolarization effects at EHF, especially at Ka band, pose a significant threat to the link availabilities at heavy rain areas. Hardware induced effects such as the nonlinear characteristics of the power amplifier may necessitate the use of linearizers and limiters. It is also important to identify the components that are susceptible to the space radiation effects and shield or redesign them with rad-hard technologies for meeting the requirements of the space environment.

Constraining a land-surface model with multiple observations by application of the MPI-Carbon Cycle Data Assimilation System V1.0

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schürmann, Gregor J.; Kaminski, Thomas; Köstler, Christoph; Carvalhais, Nuno; Voßbeck, Michael; Kattge, Jens; Giering, Ralf; Rödenbeck, Christian; Heimann, Martin; Zaehle, Sönke

2016-09-01

We describe the Max Planck Institute Carbon Cycle Data Assimilation System (MPI-CCDAS) built around the tangent-linear version of the JSBACH land-surface scheme, which is part of the MPI-Earth System Model v1. The simulated phenology and net land carbon balance were constrained by globally distributed observations of the fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (FAPAR, using the TIP-FAPAR product) and atmospheric CO2 at a global set of monitoring stations for the years 2005 to 2009. When constrained by FAPAR observations alone, the system successfully, and computationally efficiently, improved simulated growing-season average FAPAR, as well as its seasonality in the northern extra-tropics. When constrained by atmospheric CO2 observations alone, global net and gross carbon fluxes were improved, despite a tendency of the system to underestimate tropical productivity. Assimilating both data streams jointly allowed the MPI-CCDAS to match both observations (TIP-FAPAR and atmospheric CO2) equally well as the single data stream assimilation cases, thereby increasing the overall appropriateness of the simulated biosphere dynamics and underlying parameter values. Our study thus demonstrates the value of multiple-data-stream assimilation for the simulation of terrestrial biosphere dynamics. It further highlights the potential role of remote sensing data, here the TIP-FAPAR product, in stabilising the strongly underdetermined atmospheric inversion problem posed by atmospheric transport and CO2 observations alone. Notwithstanding these advances, the constraint of the observations on regional gross and net CO2 flux patterns on the MPI-CCDAS is limited through the coarse-scale parametrisation of the biosphere model. We expect improvement through a refined initialisation strategy and inclusion of further biosphere observations as constraints.

On three dimensional object recognition and pose-determination: An abstraction based approach. Ph.D. Thesis - Michigan Univ. Final Report

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Quek, Kok How Francis

1990-01-01

A method of computing reliable Gaussian and mean curvature sign-map descriptors from the polynomial approximation of surfaces was demonstrated. Such descriptors which are invariant under perspective variation are suitable for hypothesis generation. A means for determining the pose of constructed geometric forms whose algebraic surface descriptors are nonlinear in terms of their orienting parameters was developed. This was done by means of linear functions which are capable of approximating nonlinear forms and determining their parameters. It was shown that biquadratic surfaces are suitable companion linear forms for cylindrical approximation and parameter estimation. The estimates provided the initial parametric approximations necessary for a nonlinear regression stage to fine tune the estimates by fitting the actual nonlinear form to the data. A hypothesis-based split-merge algorithm for extraction and pose determination of cylinders and planes which merge smoothly into other surfaces was developed. It was shown that all split-merge algorithms are hypothesis-based. A finite-state algorithm for the extraction of the boundaries of run-length regions was developed. The computation takes advantage of the run list topology and boundary direction constraints implicit in the run-length encoding.

Bayesian prestack seismic inversion with a self-adaptive Huber-Markov random-field edge protection scheme

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tian, Yu-Kun; Zhou, Hui; Chen, Han-Ming; Zou, Ya-Ming; Guan, Shou-Jun

2013-12-01

Seismic inversion is a highly ill-posed problem, due to many factors such as the limited seismic frequency bandwidth and inappropriate forward modeling. To obtain a unique solution, some smoothing constraints, e.g., the Tikhonov regularization are usually applied. The Tikhonov method can maintain a global smooth solution, but cause a fuzzy structure edge. In this paper we use Huber-Markov random-field edge protection method in the procedure of inverting three parameters, P-velocity, S-velocity and density. The method can avoid blurring the structure edge and resist noise. For the parameter to be inverted, the Huber-Markov random-field constructs a neighborhood system, which further acts as the vertical and lateral constraints. We use a quadratic Huber edge penalty function within the layer to suppress noise and a linear one on the edges to avoid a fuzzy result. The effectiveness of our method is proved by inverting the synthetic data without and with noises. The relationship between the adopted constraints and the inversion results is analyzed as well.

FlyCap: Markerless Motion Capture Using Multiple Autonomous Flying Cameras.

PubMed

Xu, Lan; Liu, Yebin; Cheng, Wei; Guo, Kaiwen; Zhou, Guyue; Dai, Qionghai; Fang, Lu

2017-07-18

Aiming at automatic, convenient and non-instrusive motion capture, this paper presents a new generation markerless motion capture technique, the FlyCap system, to capture surface motions of moving characters using multiple autonomous flying cameras (autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs) each integrated with an RGBD video camera). During data capture, three cooperative flying cameras automatically track and follow the moving target who performs large-scale motions in a wide space. We propose a novel non-rigid surface registration method to track and fuse the depth of the three flying cameras for surface motion tracking of the moving target, and simultaneously calculate the pose of each flying camera. We leverage the using of visual-odometry information provided by the UAV platform, and formulate the surface tracking problem in a non-linear objective function that can be linearized and effectively minimized through a Gaussian-Newton method. Quantitative and qualitative experimental results demonstrate the plausible surface and motion reconstruction results.

Evaluation of the Food and Agriculture Sector Criticality Assessment Tool (FASCAT) and the Collected Data.

PubMed

Huff, Andrew G; Hodges, James S; Kennedy, Shaun P; Kircher, Amy

2015-08-01

To protect and secure food resources for the United States, it is crucial to have a method to compare food systems' criticality. In 2007, the U.S. government funded development of the Food and Agriculture Sector Criticality Assessment Tool (FASCAT) to determine which food and agriculture systems were most critical to the nation. FASCAT was developed in a collaborative process involving government officials and food industry subject matter experts (SMEs). After development, data were collected using FASCAT to quantify threats, vulnerabilities, consequences, and the impacts on the United States from failure of evaluated food and agriculture systems. To examine FASCAT's utility, linear regression models were used to determine: (1) which groups of questions posed in FASCAT were better predictors of cumulative criticality scores; (2) whether the items included in FASCAT's criticality method or the smaller subset of FASCAT items included in DHS's risk analysis method predicted similar criticality scores. Akaike's information criterion was used to determine which regression models best described criticality, and a mixed linear model was used to shrink estimates of criticality for individual food and agriculture systems. The results indicated that: (1) some of the questions used in FASCAT strongly predicted food or agriculture system criticality; (2) the FASCAT criticality formula was a stronger predictor of criticality compared to the DHS risk formula; (3) the cumulative criticality formula predicted criticality more strongly than weighted criticality formula; and (4) the mixed linear regression model did not change the rank-order of food and agriculture system criticality to a large degree. © 2015 Society for Risk Analysis.

Estimating satellite pose and motion parameters using a novelty filter and neural net tracker

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lee, Andrew J.; Casasent, David; Vermeulen, Pieter; Barnard, Etienne

1989-01-01

A system for determining the position, orientation and motion of a satellite with respect to a robotic spacecraft using video data is advanced. This system utilizes two levels of pose and motion estimation: an initial system which provides coarse estimates of pose and motion, and a second system which uses the coarse estimates and further processing to provide finer pose and motion estimates. The present paper emphasizes the initial coarse pose and motion estimation sybsystem. This subsystem utilizes novelty detection and filtering for locating novel parts and a neural net tracker to track these parts over time. Results of using this system on a sequence of images of a spin stabilized satellite are presented.

Evaluation of the Linear Aerospike SR-71 Experiment (LASRE) Oxygen Sensor

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ennix, Kimberly A.; Corpening, Griffin P.; Jarvis, Michele; Chiles, Harry R.

1999-01-01

The Linear Aerospike SR-71 Experiment (LASRE) was a propulsion flight experiment for advanced space vehicles such as the X-33 and reusable launch vehicle. A linear aerospike rocket engine was integrated into a semi-span of an X-33-like lifting body shape (model), and carried on top of an SR-71 aircraft at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. Because no flight data existed for aerospike nozzles, the primary objective of the LASRE flight experiment was to evaluate flight effects on the engine performance over a range of altitudes and Mach numbers. Because it contained a large quantity of energy in the form of fuel, oxidizer, hypergolics, and gases at very high pressures, the LASRE propulsion system posed a major hazard for fire or explosion. Therefore, a propulsion-hazard mitigation system was created for LASRE that included a nitrogen purge system. Oxygen sensors were a critical part of the nitrogen purge system because they measured purge operation and effectiveness. Because the available oxygen sensors were not designed for flight testing, a laboratory study investigated oxygen-sensor characteristics and accuracy over a range of altitudes and oxygen concentrations. Laboratory test data made it possible to properly calibrate the sensors for flight. Such data also provided a more accurate error prediction than the manufacturer's specification. This predictive accuracy increased confidence in the sensor output during critical phases of the flight. This paper presents the findings of this laboratory test.

Comparison of detection techniques for capillary electrophoresis analysis of gold nanoparticles.

PubMed

Matczuk, Magdalena; Aleksenko, Svetlana S; Matysik, Frank-Michael; Jarosz, Maciej; Timerbaev, Andrei R

2015-05-01

As metallic nanoparticles are growing in importance as analytes in CE, increases an interest in appropriate detection methods for their quantification in various samples. For gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), the most common UV detection poses intricacy of inadequate sensitivity that hinders the applicability of CE. With the objective of resolving this challenge, UV detection was compared with C(4) D and ICP-MS as alternative modes of detection for AuNPs. A C(4) D detector, applied under pressure-driven conditions, exhibited better sensitivity than a UV detector. However, C(4) D turned to be unsatisfactory to differentiate the signal of AuNPs at common CE conditions despite varying the nature of BGE and detection conditions. Due to intrinsic sensitivity and low background levels typical to Au, ICP-MS greatly surpasses UV detection. After optimization trials, CE-ICP-MS gained the LOD of AuNPs as low as 2 × 10(-15) M, as well as an excellent performance in terms of signal stability and linearity. Also importantly, the optimized BGE appears to be well matched to explore the behavior of AuNPs in biologically relevant systems. This was demonstrated by probing the interaction between AuNPs and the main blood-transporting protein, HSA. © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Backward semi-linear parabolic equations with time-dependent coefficients and local Lipschitz source

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nho Hào, Dinh; Van Duc, Nguyen; Van Thang, Nguyen

2018-05-01

Let H be a Hilbert space with the inner product and the norm , a positive self-adjoint unbounded time-dependent operator on H and . We establish stability estimates of Hölder type and propose a regularization method with error estimates of Hölder type for the ill-posed backward semi-linear parabolic equation with the source function f satisfying a local Lipschitz condition.

Migration, Sociolinguistic Scale, and Educational Reproduction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Collins, James

2012-01-01

Migration-based language pluralism and globalized identity conflicts pose challenges for educational research and linguistic anthropology, in particular, how we think about education and social inequality. This article proposes new conceptual tools, drawn from linguistic anthropology as well as world systems theory, for analyzing the role of…

Expanding the Space of Plausible Solutions in a Medical Tutoring System for Problem-Based Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kazi, Hameedullah; Haddawy, Peter; Suebnukarn, Siriwan

2009-01-01

In well-defined domains such as Physics, Mathematics, and Chemistry, solutions to a posed problem can objectively be classified as correct or incorrect. In ill-defined domains such as medicine, the classification of solutions to a patient problem as correct or incorrect is much more complex. Typical tutoring systems accept only a small set of…

Two-layer contractive encodings for learning stable nonlinear features.

PubMed

Schulz, Hannes; Cho, Kyunghyun; Raiko, Tapani; Behnke, Sven

2015-04-01

Unsupervised learning of feature hierarchies is often a good strategy to initialize deep architectures for supervised learning. Most existing deep learning methods build these feature hierarchies layer by layer in a greedy fashion using either auto-encoders or restricted Boltzmann machines. Both yield encoders which compute linear projections of input followed by a smooth thresholding function. In this work, we demonstrate that these encoders fail to find stable features when the required computation is in the exclusive-or class. To overcome this limitation, we propose a two-layer encoder which is less restricted in the type of features it can learn. The proposed encoder is regularized by an extension of previous work on contractive regularization. This proposed two-layer contractive encoder potentially poses a more difficult optimization problem, and we further propose to linearly transform hidden neurons of the encoder to make learning easier. We demonstrate the advantages of the two-layer encoders qualitatively on artificially constructed datasets as well as commonly used benchmark datasets. We also conduct experiments on a semi-supervised learning task and show the benefits of the proposed two-layer encoders trained with the linear transformation of perceptrons. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Face pose tracking using the four-point algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fung, Ho Yin; Wong, Kin Hong; Yu, Ying Kin; Tsui, Kwan Pang; Kam, Ho Chuen

2017-06-01

In this paper, we have developed an algorithm to track the pose of a human face robustly and efficiently. Face pose estimation is very useful in many applications such as building virtual reality systems and creating an alternative input method for the disabled. Firstly, we have modified a face detection toolbox called DLib for the detection of a face in front of a camera. The detected face features are passed to a pose estimation method, known as the four-point algorithm, for pose computation. The theory applied and the technical problems encountered during system development are discussed in the paper. It is demonstrated that the system is able to track the pose of a face in real time using a consumer grade laptop computer.

A fast and accurate imaging algorithm in optical/diffusion tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Klibanov, M. V.; Lucas, T. R.; Frank, R. M.

1997-10-01

An n-dimensional (n = 2,3) inverse problem for the parabolic/diffusion equation 0266-5611/13/5/015/img1, 0266-5611/13/5/015/img2, 0266-5611/13/5/015/img3, 0266-5611/13/5/015/img4 is considered. The problem consists of determining the function a(x) inside of a bounded domain 0266-5611/13/5/015/img5 given the values of the solution u(x,t) for a single source location 0266-5611/13/5/015/img6 on a set of detectors 0266-5611/13/5/015/img7, where 0266-5611/13/5/015/img8 is the boundary of 0266-5611/13/5/015/img9. A novel numerical method is derived and tested. Numerical tests are conducted for n = 2 and for ranges of parameters which are realistic for applications to early breast cancer diagnosis and the search for mines in murky shallow water using ultrafast laser pulses. The main innovation of this method lies in a new approach for a novel linearized problem (LP). Such a LP is derived and reduced to a well-posed boundary-value problem for a coupled system of elliptic partial differential equations. A principal advantage of this technique is in its speed and accuracy, since it leads to the factorization of well conditioned, sparse matrices with non-zero entries clustered in a narrow band near the diagonal. The authors call this approach the elliptic systems method (ESM). The ESM can be extended to other imaging modalities.

Uncertainty analysis and robust trajectory linearization control of a flexible air-breathing hypersonic vehicle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pu, Zhiqiang; Tan, Xiangmin; Fan, Guoliang; Yi, Jianqiang

2014-08-01

Flexible air-breathing hypersonic vehicles feature significant uncertainties which pose huge challenges to robust controller designs. In this paper, four major categories of uncertainties are analyzed, that is, uncertainties associated with flexible effects, aerodynamic parameter variations, external environmental disturbances, and control-oriented modeling errors. A uniform nonlinear uncertainty model is explored for the first three uncertainties which lumps all uncertainties together and consequently is beneficial for controller synthesis. The fourth uncertainty is additionally considered in stability analysis. Based on these analyses, the starting point of the control design is to decompose the vehicle dynamics into five functional subsystems. Then a robust trajectory linearization control (TLC) scheme consisting of five robust subsystem controllers is proposed. In each subsystem controller, TLC is combined with the extended state observer (ESO) technique for uncertainty compensation. The stability of the overall closed-loop system with the four aforementioned uncertainties and additional singular perturbations is analyzed. Particularly, the stability of nonlinear ESO is also discussed from a Liénard system perspective. At last, simulations demonstrate the great control performance and the uncertainty rejection ability of the robust scheme.

C-arm rotation encoding with accelerometers.

PubMed

Grzeda, Victor; Fichtinger, Gabor

2010-07-01

Fluoroscopic C-arms are being incorporated in computer-assisted interventions in increasing number. For these applications to work, the relative poses of imaging must be known. To find the pose, tracking methods such as optical cameras, electromagnetic trackers, and radiographic fiducials have been used-all hampered by significant shortcomings. We propose to recover the rotational pose of the C-arm using the angle-sensing ability of accelerometers, by exploiting the capability of the accelerometer to measure tilt angles. By affixing the accelerometer to a C-arm, the accelerometer tracks the C-arm pose during rotations of the C-arm. To demonstrate this concept, a C-arm analogue was constructed with a webcam device affixed to the C-arm model to mimic X-ray imaging. Then, measuring the offset between the accelerometer angle readings to the webcam pose angle, an angle correction equation (ACE) was created to properly tracking the C-arm rotational pose. Several tests were performed on the webcam C-arm model using the ACEs to tracking the primary and secondary angle rotations of the model. We evaluated the capability of linear and polynomial ACEs to tracking the webcam C-arm pose angle for different rotational scenarios. The test results showed that the accelerometer could track the pose of the webcam C-arm model with an accuracy of less than 1.0 degree. The accelerometer was successful in sensing the C-arm's rotation with clinically adequate accuracy in the C-arm webcam model.

Data-driven discovery of Koopman eigenfunctions using deep learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lusch, Bethany; Brunton, Steven L.; Kutz, J. Nathan

2017-11-01

Koopman operator theory transforms any autonomous non-linear dynamical system into an infinite-dimensional linear system. Since linear systems are well-understood, a mapping of non-linear dynamics to linear dynamics provides a powerful approach to understanding and controlling fluid flows. However, finding the correct change of variables remains an open challenge. We present a strategy to discover an approximate mapping using deep learning. Our neural networks find this change of variables, its inverse, and a finite-dimensional linear dynamical system defined on the new variables. Our method is completely data-driven and only requires measurements of the system, i.e. it does not require derivatives or knowledge of the governing equations. We find a minimal set of approximate Koopman eigenfunctions that are sufficient to reconstruct and advance the system to future states. We demonstrate the method on several dynamical systems.

CAD-model-based vision for space applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shapiro, Linda G.

1988-01-01

A pose acquisition system operating in space must be able to perform well in a variety of different applications including automated guidance and inspections tasks with many different, but known objects. Since the space station is being designed with automation in mind, there will be CAD models of all the objects, including the station itself. The construction of vision models and procedures directly from the CAD models is the goal of this project. The system that is being designed and implementing must convert CAD models to vision models, predict visible features from a given view point from the vision models, construct view classes representing views of the objects, and use the view class model thus derived to rapidly determine the pose of the object from single images and/or stereo pairs.

Fixing extensions to general relativity in the nonlinear regime

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cayuso, Juan; Ortiz, Néstor; Lehner, Luis

2017-10-01

The question of what gravitational theory could supersede General Relativity has been central in theoretical physics for decades. Many disparate alternatives have been proposed motivated by cosmology, quantum gravity and phenomenological angles, and have been subjected to tests derived from cosmological, solar system and pulsar observations typically restricted to linearized regimes. Gravitational waves from compact binaries provide new opportunities to probe these theories in the strongly gravitating/highly dynamical regimes. To this end however, a reliable understanding of the dynamics in such a regime is required. Unfortunately, most of these theories fail to define well posed initial value problems, which prevents at face value from meeting such challenge. In this work, we introduce a consistent program able to remedy this situation. This program is inspired in the approach to "fixing" viscous relativistic hydrodynamics introduced by Israel and Stewart in the late 70's. We illustrate how to implement this approach to control undesirable effects of higher order derivatives in gravity theories and argue how the modified system still captures the true dynamics of the putative underlying theories in 3 +1 dimensions. We sketch the implementation of this idea in a couple of effective theories of gravity, one in the context of Noncommutative Geometry, and one in the context of Chern-Simons modified General Relativity.

Radiation protection for manned space activities

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jordan, T. M.

1983-01-01

The Earth's natural radiation environment poses a hazard to manned space activities directly through biological effects and indirectly through effects on materials and electronics. The following standard practices are indicated that address: (1) environment models for all radiation species including uncertainties and temporal variations; (2) upper bound and nominal quality factors for biological radiation effects that include dose, dose rate, critical organ, and linear energy transfer variations; (3) particle transport and shielding methodology including system and man modeling and uncertainty analysis; (4) mission planning that includes active dosimetry, minimizes exposure during extravehicular activities, subjects every mission to a radiation review, and specifies operational procedures for forecasting, recognizing, and dealing with large solar flaes.

The LET Procedure for Prosthetic Myocontrol: Towards Multi-DOF Control Using Single-DOF Activations.

PubMed

Nowak, Markus; Castellini, Claudio

2016-01-01

Simultaneous and proportional myocontrol of dexterous hand prostheses is to a large extent still an open problem. With the advent of commercially and clinically available multi-fingered hand prostheses there are now more independent degrees of freedom (DOFs) in prostheses than can be effectively controlled using surface electromyography (sEMG), the current standard human-machine interface for hand amputees. In particular, it is uncertain, whether several DOFs can be controlled simultaneously and proportionally by exclusively calibrating the intended activation of single DOFs. The problem is currently solved by training on all required combinations. However, as the number of available DOFs grows, this approach becomes overly long and poses a high cognitive burden on the subject. In this paper we present a novel approach to overcome this problem. Multi-DOF activations are artificially modelled from single-DOF ones using a simple linear combination of sEMG signals, which are then added to the training set. This procedure, which we named LET (Linearly Enhanced Training), provides an augmented data set to any machine-learning-based intent detection system. In two experiments involving intact subjects, one offline and one online, we trained a standard machine learning approach using the full data set containing single- and multi-DOF activations as well as using the LET-augmented data set in order to evaluate the performance of the LET procedure. The results indicate that the machine trained on the latter data set obtains worse results in the offline experiment compared to the full data set. However, the online implementation enables the user to perform multi-DOF tasks with almost the same precision as single-DOF tasks without the need of explicitly training multi-DOF activations. Moreover, the parameters involved in the system are statistically uniform across subjects.

Developing a Viable Approach for Effective Tiered Systems

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-01-17

TERMS 16. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF: a. REPORT 19a. NAME OF RESPONSIBLE PERSON 19b. TELEPHONE NUMBER (include area code ) b. ABSTRACT c. THIS PAGE 18...is changing the world. Now deal with it” (New Scientist 2006). If true, this significant message is one that would extend well beyond the realm of...system-of-systems poses formidable challenges for the acquisitions bureaucracy and the defense industries” (Dombrowski et al. 2002). “TRLs

Multi-Maneuver Clohessy-Wiltshire Targeting

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dannemiller, David P.

2011-01-01

Orbital rendezvous involves execution of a sequence of maneuvers by a chaser vehicle to bring the chaser to a desired state relative to a target vehicle while meeting intermediate and final relative constraints. Intermediate and final relative constraints are necessary to meet a multitude of requirements such as to control approach direction, ensure relative position is adequate for operation of space-to-space communication systems and relative sensors, provide fail-safe trajectory features, and provide contingency hold points. The effect of maneuvers on constraints is often coupled, so the maneuvers must be solved for as a set. For example, maneuvers that affect orbital energy change both the chaser's height and downrange position relative to the target vehicle. Rendezvous designers use experience and rules-of-thumb to design a sequence of maneuvers and constraints. A non-iterative method is presented for targeting a rendezvous scenario that includes a sequence of maneuvers and relative constraints. This method is referred to as Multi-Maneuver Clohessy-Wiltshire Targeting (MM_CW_TGT). When a single maneuver is targeted to a single relative position, the classic CW targeting solution is obtained. The MM_CW_TGT method involves manipulation of the CW state transition matrix to form a linear system. As a starting point for forming the algorithm, the effects of a series of impulsive maneuvers on the state are derived. Simple and moderately complex examples are used to demonstrate the pattern of the resulting linear system. The general form of the pattern results in an algorithm for formation of the linear system. The resulting linear system relates the effect of maneuver components and initial conditions on relative constraints specified by the rendezvous designer. Solution of the linear system includes the straight-forward inverse of a square matrix. Inversion of the square matrix is assured if the designer poses a controllable scenario - a scenario where the the constraints can be met by the sequence of maneuvers. Matrices in the linear system are dependent on selection of maneuvers and constraints by the designer, but the matrices are independent of the chaser's initial conditions. For scenarios where the sequence of maneuvers and constraints are fixed, the linear system can be formed and the square matrix inverted prior to real-time operations. Example solutions are presented for several rendezvous scenarios to illustrate the utility of the method. The MM_CW_TGT method has been used during the preliminary design of rendezvous scenarios and is expected to be useful for iterative methods in the generation of an initial guess and corrections.

A Method of Determining Where to Target Surveillance Efforts in Heterogeneous Epidemiological Systems

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The spread of pathogens into new environments poses a considerable threat to health, ecosystems, and agricultural productivity worldwide. Early detection through effective surveillance is a key strategy to reduce the risk of their establishment. Whilst it is well established that statistical and eco...

Assessing the utility of ultraviolet irradiation to reduce bacterial biofilms in fish hatchery well water supplies

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The accumulation of bacterial biofilms and consequent clogging of screens, pipes, and heat exchanger equipment is problematic for water supply systems contaminated with iron bacteria and other slime forming bacteria. Despite the ubiquitous threat posed by iron bacteria contamination in groundwater s...

Global Perspectives: Some Questions and Answers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Center for Global Perspectives, New York, NY.

To enlighten the reader on the status, objectives, and needs of global education, this paper poses and answers questions related to global perspectives. A global perspective is interpreted to include heightened awareness and understanding of the global system as well as increased consciousness of the intimate relationship of self, humankind, and…

IMU-based Real-time Pose Measurement system for Anterior Pelvic Plane in Total Hip Replacement Surgeries.

PubMed

Zhe Cao; Shaojie Su; Hao Tang; Yixin Zhou; Zhihua Wang; Hong Chen

2017-07-01

With the aging of population, the number of Total Hip Replacement Surgeries (THR) increased year by year. In THR, inaccurate position of the implanted prosthesis may lead to the failure of the operation. In order to reduce the failure rate and acquire the real-time pose of Anterior Pelvic Plane (APP), we propose a measurement system in this paper. The measurement system includes two parts: Initial Pose Measurement Instrument (IPMI) and Real-time Pose Measurement Instrument (RPMI). IPMI is used to acquire the initial pose of the APP, and RPMI is used to estimate the real-time pose of the APP. Both are composed of an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) and magnetometer sensors. To estimate the attitude of the measurement system, the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) is adopted in this paper. The real-time pose of the APP could be acquired together with the algorithm designed in the paper. The experiment results show that the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) is within 1.6 degrees, which meets the requirement of THR operations.

Rethinking pedagogy for second-order differential equations: a simplified approach to understanding well-posed problems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tisdell, Christopher C.

2017-07-01

Knowing an equation has a unique solution is important from both a modelling and theoretical point of view. For over 70 years, the approach to learning and teaching 'well posedness' of initial value problems (IVPs) for second- and higher-order ordinary differential equations has involved transforming the problem and its analysis to a first-order system of equations. We show that this excursion is unnecessary and present a direct approach regarding second- and higher-order problems that does not require an understanding of systems.

Non-linear continuous time random walk models★

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stage, Helena; Fedotov, Sergei

2017-11-01

A standard assumption of continuous time random walk (CTRW) processes is that there are no interactions between the random walkers, such that we obtain the celebrated linear fractional equation either for the probability density function of the walker at a certain position and time, or the mean number of walkers. The question arises how one can extend this equation to the non-linear case, where the random walkers interact. The aim of this work is to take into account this interaction under a mean-field approximation where the statistical properties of the random walker depend on the mean number of walkers. The implementation of these non-linear effects within the CTRW integral equations or fractional equations poses difficulties, leading to the alternative methodology we present in this work. We are concerned with non-linear effects which may either inhibit anomalous effects or induce them where they otherwise would not arise. Inhibition of these effects corresponds to a decrease in the waiting times of the random walkers, be this due to overcrowding, competition between walkers or an inherent carrying capacity of the system. Conversely, induced anomalous effects present longer waiting times and are consistent with symbiotic, collaborative or social walkers, or indirect pinpointing of favourable regions by their attractiveness. Contribution to the Topical Issue "Continuous Time Random Walk Still Trendy: Fifty-year History, Current State and Outlook", edited by Ryszard Kutner and Jaume Masoliver.

Comparison of different methods for gender estimation from face image of various poses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ishii, Yohei; Hongo, Hitoshi; Niwa, Yoshinori; Yamamoto, Kazuhiko

2003-04-01

Recently, gender estimation from face images has been studied for frontal facial images. However, it is difficult to obtain such facial images constantly in the case of application systems for security, surveillance and marketing research. In order to build such systems, a method is required to estimate gender from the image of various facial poses. In this paper, three different classifiers are compared in appearance-based gender estimation, which use four directional features (FDF). The classifiers are linear discriminant analysis (LDA), Support Vector Machines (SVMs) and Sparse Network of Winnows (SNoW). Face images used for experiments were obtained from 35 viewpoints. The direction of viewpoints varied +/-45 degrees horizontally, +/-30 degrees vertically at 15 degree intervals respectively. Although LDA showed the best performance for frontal facial images, SVM with Gaussian kernel was found the best performance (86.0%) for the facial images of 35 viewpoints. It is considered that SVM with Gaussian kernel is robust to changes in viewpoint when estimating gender from these results. Furthermore, the estimation rate was quite close to the average estimation rate at 35 viewpoints respectively. It is supposed that the methods are reasonable to estimate gender within the range of experimented viewpoints by learning face images from multiple directions by one class.

Load identification approach based on basis pursuit denoising algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ginsberg, D.; Ruby, M.; Fritzen, C. P.

2015-07-01

The information of the external loads is of great interest in many fields of structural analysis, such as structural health monitoring (SHM) systems or assessment of damage after extreme events. However, in most cases it is not possible to measure the external forces directly, so they need to be reconstructed. Load reconstruction refers to the problem of estimating an input to a dynamic system when the system output and the impulse response functions are usually the knowns. Generally, this leads to a so called ill-posed inverse problem, which involves solving an underdetermined linear system of equations. For most practical applications it can be assumed that the applied loads are not arbitrarily distributed in time and space, at least some specific characteristics about the external excitation are known a priori. In this contribution this knowledge was used to develop a more suitable force reconstruction method, which allows identifying the time history and the force location simultaneously by employing significantly fewer sensors compared to other reconstruction approaches. The properties of the external force are used to transform the ill-posed problem into a sparse recovery task. The sparse solution is acquired by solving a minimization problem known as basis pursuit denoising (BPDN). The possibility of reconstructing loads based on noisy structural measurement signals will be demonstrated by considering two frequently occurring loading conditions: harmonic excitation and impact events, separately and combined. First a simulation study of a simple plate structure is carried out and thereafter an experimental investigation of a real beam is performed.

Linear adsorption of nonionic organic compounds from water onto hydrophilic minerals: Silica and alumina

USGS Publications Warehouse

Su, Y.-H.; Zhu, Y.-G.; Sheng, G.; Chiou, C.T.

2006-01-01

To characterize the linear adsorption phenomena in aqueous nonionic organic solute-mineral systems, the adsorption isotherms of some low-molecular- weightnonpolar nonionic solutes (1,2,3-trichlorobenzene, lindane, phenanthrene, and pyrene) and polar nonionic solutes (1,3-dinitrobenzene and 2,4-dinitrotoluene) from single-and binary-solute solutions on hydrophilic silica and alumina were established. Toward this objective, the influences of temperature, ionic strength, and pH on adsorption were also determined. It is found that linear adsorption exhibits low exothermic heats and practically no adsorptive competition. The solute-solid configuration and the adsorptive force consistent with these effects were hypothesized. For nonpolar solutes, the adsorption occurs presumably by London (dispersion) forces onto a water film above the mineral surface. For polar solutes, the adsorption is also assisted by polar-group interactions. The reduced adsorptive forces of solutes with hydrophilic minerals due to physical separation by the water film and the low fractions of the water-film surface covered by solutes offer a theoretical basis for linear solute adsorption, low exothermic heats, and no adsorptive competition. The postulated adsorptive forces are supported by observations that ionic strength or pH poses no effect on the adsorption of nonpolar solutes while it exhibits a significant effect on the uptake of polar solutes. ?? 2006 American Chemical Society.

Control and stabilization of decentralized systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Byrnes, Christopher I.; Gilliam, David; Martin, Clyde F.

1989-01-01

Proceeding from the problem posed by the need to stabilize the motion of two helicopters maneuvering a single load, a methodology is developed for the stabilization of classes of decentralized systems based on a more algebraic approach, which involves the external symmetries of decentralized systems. Stabilizing local-feedback laws are derived for any class of decentralized systems having a semisimple algebra of symmetries; the helicopter twin-lift problem, as well as certain problems involving the stabilization of discretizations of distributed parameter problems, have just such algebras of symmetries.

Finding Strong Bridges and Strong Articulation Points in Linear Time

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Italiano, Giuseppe F.; Laura, Luigi; Santaroni, Federico

Given a directed graph G, an edge is a strong bridge if its removal increases the number of strongly connected components of G. Similarly, we say that a vertex is a strong articulation point if its removal increases the number of strongly connected components of G. In this paper, we present linear-time algorithms for computing all the strong bridges and all the strong articulation points of directed graphs, solving an open problem posed in [2].

Airburst-Generated Tsunamis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berger, Marsha; Goodman, Jonathan

2018-04-01

This paper examines the questions of whether smaller asteroids that burst in the air over water can generate tsunamis that could pose a threat to distant locations. Such airburst-generated tsunamis are qualitatively different than the more frequently studied earthquake-generated tsunamis, and differ as well from tsunamis generated by asteroids that strike the ocean. Numerical simulations are presented using the shallow water equations in several settings, demonstrating very little tsunami threat from this scenario. A model problem with an explicit solution that demonstrates and explains the same phenomena found in the computations is analyzed. We discuss the question of whether compressibility and dispersion are important effects that should be included, and show results from a more sophisticated model problem using the linearized Euler equations that begins to addresses this.

Evaluation of Computer Aided Vortex Forecast System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rossow, Vernon J.; Olson, Lawrence E. (Technical Monitor)

1995-01-01

Several countries, including the United States. Canada, Germany, England and Russia, are in the process of trying to develop some sort of computer-aided system that will guide controllers at airports on the hazard posed by lift-generated vortices that trail behind subsonic transport aircraft. The emphasis on this particular subject has come about because the hazard posed by wake vortices is currently the only reason why aircraft are spaced at 3 to 6 miles apart during landing and takeoff rather than something like 2 miles. It is well known that under certain weather conditions, aircraft spacings can be safely reduced to as little as the desired 2 miles. In an effort to perhaps capitalize on such a possibility, a combined FAA and NASA program is currently underway in the United States to develop such a system. Needless to say, the problems associated with anticipating the required separation distances when weather conditions are involved is very difficult. Similarly, Canada has a corresponding program to develop a vortex forecast system of their own.

Control algorithm implementation for a redundant degree of freedom manipulator

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cohan, Steve

1991-01-01

This project's purpose is to develop and implement control algorithms for a kinematically redundant robotic manipulator. The manipulator is being developed concurrently by Odetics Inc., under internal research and development funding. This SBIR contract supports algorithm conception, development, and simulation, as well as software implementation and integration with the manipulator hardware. The Odetics Dexterous Manipulator is a lightweight, high strength, modular manipulator being developed for space and commercial applications. It has seven fully active degrees of freedom, is electrically powered, and is fully operational in 1 G. The manipulator consists of five self-contained modules. These modules join via simple quick-disconnect couplings and self-mating connectors which allow rapid assembly/disassembly for reconfiguration, transport, or servicing. Each joint incorporates a unique drive train design which provides zero backlash operation, is insensitive to wear, and is single fault tolerant to motor or servo amplifier failure. The sensing system is also designed to be single fault tolerant. Although the initial prototype is not space qualified, the design is well-suited to meeting space qualification requirements. The control algorithm design approach is to develop a hierarchical system with well defined access and interfaces at each level. The high level endpoint/configuration control algorithm transforms manipulator endpoint position/orientation commands to joint angle commands, providing task space motion. At the same time, the kinematic redundancy is resolved by controlling the configuration (pose) of the manipulator, using several different optimizing criteria. The center level of the hierarchy servos the joints to their commanded trajectories using both linear feedback and model-based nonlinear control techniques. The lowest control level uses sensed joint torque to close torque servo loops, with the goal of improving the manipulator dynamic behavior. The control algorithms are subjected to a dynamic simulation before implementation.

Global Regularity for Several Incompressible Fluid Models with Partial Dissipation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Jiahong; Xu, Xiaojing; Ye, Zhuan

2017-09-01

This paper examines the global regularity problem on several 2D incompressible fluid models with partial dissipation. They are the surface quasi-geostrophic (SQG) equation, the 2D Euler equation and the 2D Boussinesq equations. These are well-known models in fluid mechanics and geophysics. The fundamental issue of whether or not they are globally well-posed has attracted enormous attention. The corresponding models with partial dissipation may arise in physical circumstances when the dissipation varies in different directions. We show that the SQG equation with either horizontal or vertical dissipation always has global solutions. This is in sharp contrast with the inviscid SQG equation for which the global regularity problem remains outstandingly open. Although the 2D Euler is globally well-posed for sufficiently smooth data, the associated equations with partial dissipation no longer conserve the vorticity and the global regularity is not trivial. We are able to prove the global regularity for two partially dissipated Euler equations. Several global bounds are also obtained for a partially dissipated Boussinesq system.

History of Physical Terms: "Pressure"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frontali, Clara

2013-01-01

Scientific terms drawn from common language are often charged with suggestions that may even be inconsistent with their restricted scientific meaning, thus posing didactic problems. The (non-linear) historical journey of the word "pressure" is illustrated here through original quotations from Stevinus, Torricelli, Pascal, Boyle,…

Data-Driven Approaches for Paraphrasing across Language Variations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xu, Wei

2014-01-01

Our language changes very rapidly, accompanying political, social and cultural trends, as well as the evolution of science and technology. The Internet, especially the social media, has accelerated this process of change. This poses a severe challenge for both human beings and natural language processing (NLP) systems, which usually only model a…

78 FR 1991 - Major Capital Investment Projects

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-01-09

...) published on June 3, 2010 (75 FR 31383), which posed a series of questions about the current regulation and... system in which well- justified projects are funded. At the same time, FTA seeks to ensure that it does...; to use a series of standard factors in a simple spreadsheet to calculate vehicle miles traveled (VMT...

Staying True?: Progressive Leadership in Tough Times

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pignatelli, Frank

2012-01-01

A system of accountability in public schools predicated upon standardized testing accompanied by high-stakes consequences for leaders, as well as teachers and students, has posed a daunting challenge to educational leaders who align themselves with core tenets of progressive education. This essay explores what it might mean--and take--to stay true…

Improving Education for Migrant-Background Students: A Transatlantic Comparison of School Funding

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sugarman, Julie; Morris-Lange, Simon; McHugh, Margie

2016-01-01

The educational needs of migrant-background students in primary and secondary schools pose a growing challenge for policymakers and educators around the world. Some national, regional, and local governments have well-designed systems of support for such students, while others are just beginning to establish targeted policies and practices to meet…

Blowout Monitor

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1994-01-01

C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS), a NASA-developed software shell for developing expert systems, has been embedded in a PC-based expert system for training oil rig personnel in monitoring oil drilling. Oil drilling rigs if not properly maintained for possible blowouts pose hazards to human life, property and the environment may be destroyed. CLIPS is designed to permit the delivery of artificial intelligence on computer. A collection of rules is set up and, as facts become known, these rules are applied. In the Well Site Advisor, CLIPS provides the capability to accurately process, predict and interpret well data in a real time mode. CLIPS was provided to INTEQ by COSMIC.

Analysis of periodically excited non-linear systems by a parametric continuation technique

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Padmanabhan, C.; Singh, R.

1995-07-01

The dynamic behavior and frequency response of harmonically excited piecewise linear and/or non-linear systems has been the subject of several recent investigations. Most of the prior studies employed harmonic balance or Galerkin schemes, piecewise linear techniques, analog simulation and/or direct numerical integration (digital simulation). Such techniques are somewhat limited in their ability to predict all of the dynamic characteristics, including bifurcations leading to the occurrence of unstable, subharmonic, quasi-periodic and/or chaotic solutions. To overcome this problem, a parametric continuation scheme, based on the shooting method, is applied specifically to a periodically excited piecewise linear/non-linear system, in order to improve understanding as well as to obtain the complete dynamic response. Parameter regions exhibiting bifurcations to harmonic, subharmonic or quasi-periodic solutions are obtained quite efficiently and systematically. Unlike other techniques, the proposed scheme can follow period-doubling bifurcations, and with some modifications obtain stable quasi-periodic solutions and their bifurcations. This knowledge is essential in establishing conditions for the occurrence of chaotic oscillations in any non-linear system. The method is first validated through the Duffing oscillator example, the solutions to which are also obtained by conventional one-term harmonic balance and perturbation methods. The second example deals with a clearance non-linearity problem for both harmonic and periodic excitations. Predictions from the proposed scheme match well with available analog simulation data as well as with multi-term harmonic balance results. Potential savings in computational time over direct numerical integration is demonstrated for some of the example cases. Also, this work has filled in some of the solution regimes for an impact pair, which were missed previously in the literature. Finally, one main limitation associated with the proposed procedure is discussed.

Depth-resolved registration of transesophageal echo to x-ray fluoroscopy using an inverse geometry fluoroscopy system

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hatt, Charles R.; Tomkowiak, Michael T.; Dunkerley, David A. P.

2015-12-15

Purpose: Image registration between standard x-ray fluoroscopy and transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) has recently been proposed. Scanning-beam digital x-ray (SBDX) is an inverse geometry fluoroscopy system designed for cardiac procedures. This study presents a method for 3D registration of SBDX and TEE images based on the tomosynthesis and 3D tracking capabilities of SBDX. Methods: The registration algorithm utilizes the stack of tomosynthetic planes produced by the SBDX system to estimate the physical 3D coordinates of salient key-points on the TEE probe. The key-points are used to arrive at an initial estimate of the probe pose, which is then refined using amore » 2D/3D registration method adapted for inverse geometry fluoroscopy. A phantom study was conducted to evaluate probe pose estimation accuracy relative to the ground truth, as defined by a set of coregistered fiducial markers. This experiment was conducted with varying probe poses and levels of signal difference-to-noise ratio (SDNR). Additional phantom and in vivo studies were performed to evaluate the correspondence of catheter tip positions in TEE and x-ray images following registration of the two modalities. Results: Target registration error (TRE) was used to characterize both pose estimation and registration accuracy. In the study of pose estimation accuracy, successful pose estimates (3D TRE < 5.0 mm) were obtained in 97% of cases when the SDNR was 5.9 or higher in seven out of eight poses. Under these conditions, 3D TRE was 2.32 ± 1.88 mm, and 2D (projection) TRE was 1.61 ± 1.36 mm. Probe localization error along the source-detector axis was 0.87 ± 1.31 mm. For the in vivo experiments, mean 3D TRE ranged from 2.6 to 4.6 mm and mean 2D TRE ranged from 1.1 to 1.6 mm. Anatomy extracted from the echo images appeared well aligned when projected onto the SBDX images. Conclusions: Full 6 DOF image registration between SBDX and TEE is feasible and accurate to within 5 mm. Future studies will focus on real-time implementation and application-specific analysis.« less

Antiviral Innate Immunity through the lens of Systems Biology

PubMed Central

Tripathi, Shashank; García-Sastre, Adolfo

2015-01-01

Cellular innate immunity poses the first hurdle against invading viruses in their attempt to establish infection. This antiviral response is manifested with the detection of viral components by the host cell, followed by transduction of antiviral signals, transcription and translation of antiviral effectors and leads to the establishment of an antiviral state. These events occur in a rather branched and interconnected sequence than a linear path. Traditionally, these processes were studied in the context of a single virus and a host component. However, with the advent of rapid and affordable OMICS technologies it has become feasible to address such questions on a global scale. In the discipline of Systems Biology’, extensive omics datasets are assimilated using computational tools and mathematical models to acquire deeper understanding of complex biological processes. In this review we have catalogued and discussed the application of Systems Biology approaches in dissecting the antiviral innate immune responses. PMID:26657882

Ideal Weyl points and helicoid surface states in artificial photonic crystal structures.

PubMed

Yang, Biao; Guo, Qinghua; Tremain, Ben; Liu, Rongjuan; Barr, Lauren E; Yan, Qinghui; Gao, Wenlong; Liu, Hongchao; Xiang, Yuanjiang; Chen, Jing; Fang, Chen; Hibbins, Alastair; Lu, Ling; Zhang, Shuang

2018-03-02

Weyl points are the crossings of linearly dispersing energy bands of three-dimensional crystals, providing the opportunity to explore a variety of intriguing phenomena such as topologically protected surface states and chiral anomalies. However, the lack of an ideal Weyl system in which the Weyl points all exist at the same energy and are separated from any other bands poses a serious limitation to the further development of Weyl physics and potential applications. By experimentally characterizing a microwave photonic crystal of saddle-shaped metallic coils, we observed ideal Weyl points that are related to each other through symmetry operations. Topological surface states exhibiting helicoidal structure have also been demonstrated. Our system provides a photonic platform for exploring ideal Weyl systems and developing possible topological devices. Copyright © 2018 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.

Model Order Reduction Algorithm for Estimating the Absorption Spectrum

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Van Beeumen, Roel; Williams-Young, David B.; Kasper, Joseph M.

The ab initio description of the spectral interior of the absorption spectrum poses both a theoretical and computational challenge for modern electronic structure theory. Due to the often spectrally dense character of this domain in the quantum propagator’s eigenspectrum for medium-to-large sized systems, traditional approaches based on the partial diagonalization of the propagator often encounter oscillatory and stagnating convergence. Electronic structure methods which solve the molecular response problem through the solution of spectrally shifted linear systems, such as the complex polarization propagator, offer an alternative approach which is agnostic to the underlying spectral density or domain location. This generality comesmore » at a seemingly high computational cost associated with solving a large linear system for each spectral shift in some discretization of the spectral domain of interest. In this work, we present a novel, adaptive solution to this high computational overhead based on model order reduction techniques via interpolation. Model order reduction reduces the computational complexity of mathematical models and is ubiquitous in the simulation of dynamical systems and control theory. The efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in the ab initio prediction of X-ray absorption spectra is demonstrated using a test set of challenging water clusters which are spectrally dense in the neighborhood of the oxygen K-edge. On the basis of a single, user defined tolerance we automatically determine the order of the reduced models and approximate the absorption spectrum up to the given tolerance. We also illustrate that, for the systems studied, the automatically determined model order increases logarithmically with the problem dimension, compared to a linear increase of the number of eigenvalues within the energy window. Furthermore, we observed that the computational cost of the proposed algorithm only scales quadratically with respect to the problem dimension.« less

Effects of Grafting Density on Block Polymer Self-Assembly: From Linear to Bottlebrush

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lin, Tzu-Pin; Chang, Alice B.; Luo, Shao-Xiong

Grafting density is an important structural parameter that imparts significant influences over the physical properties of architecturally complex polymers. In this paper, the physical consequences of varying the grafting density (z) were studied in the context of block polymer self-assembly. Well-defined block polymers spanning the linear, comb, and bottlebrush regimes (0 ≤ z ≤ 1) were prepared via grafting-through ring-opening-metathesis polymerization (ROMP). ω-norbornenyl poly(D,L-lactide) (PLA) and polystyrene (PS) macromonomers were copolymerized with discrete co-monomers in different feed ratios, enabling precise control over the grafting density. Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) experiments demonstrate that these graft block polymers can self-assemble into long-range-orderedmore » lamellar structures. For seventeen series of block polymers with variable z, the scaling of the lamellar period with the total backbone degree of polymerization (d* ~ N bb α) was studied. The scaling exponent α monotonically decreases with decreasing z and exhibits an apparent transition at z ≈ 0.2, suggesting significant changes in the chain conformations. Comparison of two block polymer systems, one that is strongly segregated for all z (System I) and one that experiences weak segregation at low z (System II), indicates that the observed trends are primarily caused by the polymer architectures, instead of segregation strengths. A model is pro-posed in which the characteristic ratio (C ∞), a proxy for the backbone stiffness, scales with N bb as a function of the grafting density: C ∞ ~ N bb f(z). To the best of our knowledge, this report represents the first study of scaling behavior for the self-assembly of block polymers with variable grafting density. Lastly, the relationships disclosed herein provide valuable insights into conformational changes with grafting density, thus introducing new opportunities for future block polymer design.« less

Effects of Grafting Density on Block Polymer Self-Assembly: From Linear to Bottlebrush

DOE PAGES

Lin, Tzu-Pin; Chang, Alice B.; Luo, Shao-Xiong; ...

2017-10-26

Grafting density is an important structural parameter that imparts significant influences over the physical properties of architecturally complex polymers. In this paper, the physical consequences of varying the grafting density (z) were studied in the context of block polymer self-assembly. Well-defined block polymers spanning the linear, comb, and bottlebrush regimes (0 ≤ z ≤ 1) were prepared via grafting-through ring-opening-metathesis polymerization (ROMP). ω-norbornenyl poly(D,L-lactide) (PLA) and polystyrene (PS) macromonomers were copolymerized with discrete co-monomers in different feed ratios, enabling precise control over the grafting density. Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) experiments demonstrate that these graft block polymers can self-assemble into long-range-orderedmore » lamellar structures. For seventeen series of block polymers with variable z, the scaling of the lamellar period with the total backbone degree of polymerization (d* ~ N bb α) was studied. The scaling exponent α monotonically decreases with decreasing z and exhibits an apparent transition at z ≈ 0.2, suggesting significant changes in the chain conformations. Comparison of two block polymer systems, one that is strongly segregated for all z (System I) and one that experiences weak segregation at low z (System II), indicates that the observed trends are primarily caused by the polymer architectures, instead of segregation strengths. A model is pro-posed in which the characteristic ratio (C ∞), a proxy for the backbone stiffness, scales with N bb as a function of the grafting density: C ∞ ~ N bb f(z). To the best of our knowledge, this report represents the first study of scaling behavior for the self-assembly of block polymers with variable grafting density. Lastly, the relationships disclosed herein provide valuable insights into conformational changes with grafting density, thus introducing new opportunities for future block polymer design.« less

Characteristic Functional of a Probability Measure Absolutely Continuous with Respect to a Gaussian Radon Measure

DTIC Science & Technology

1984-08-01

12. PERSONAL AUTHORISI Hiroshi Sato 13* TYPE OF REPORT TECHNICAL 13b. TIME COVERED PROM TO 14. OATE OF REPORT (Yr. Mo., Day) Aug. 1984...nectuary and identify by bloc* number) Let p and p.. be probability measures on a locally convex Hausdorff real topological linear space E. C.R. Baker [1...THIS PAGE ABSTRACT Let y and y1 be probability measures on a locally convex Hausdorff real topological linear space E. C.R. Baker [1] posed the

On the Problems of Construction and Statistical Inference Associated with a Generalization of Canonical Variables.

DTIC Science & Technology

1982-02-01

of them are pre- sented in this paper. As an application, important practical problems similar to the one posed by Gnanadesikan (1977), p. 77 can be... Gnanadesikan and Wilk (1969) to search for a non-linear combination, giving rise to non-linear first principal component. So, a p-dinensional vector can...distribution, Gnanadesikan and Gupta (1970) and earlier Eaton (1967) have considered the problem of ranking the r underlying populations according to the

Study of optical nonlinearities in Se-Te-Bi thin films

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sharma, Ambika; Yadav, Preeti; Kumari, Anshu

2014-04-01

The present work reports the nonlinear refractive index of Se85-xTe15Bix thin films calculated by Ticha and Tichy relation. The nonlinear refractive index of Chalcogenide amorphous semiconductor is well correlated with the linear refractive index and WDD parameters which in turn depend on the density and molar volume of the system. The density of the system is calculated theoretical as well as experimentally by using Archimedes principle. The linear refractive index and WDD parameters are calculated using single transmission spectra in the spectral range of 400-1500 nm. It is observed that linear as well as nonlinear refractive index increases with Bi content. The results are analyzed on the basis of increasing polarizability due to larger radii of Bi.

Visual analysis of mass cytometry data by hierarchical stochastic neighbour embedding reveals rare cell types.

PubMed

van Unen, Vincent; Höllt, Thomas; Pezzotti, Nicola; Li, Na; Reinders, Marcel J T; Eisemann, Elmar; Koning, Frits; Vilanova, Anna; Lelieveldt, Boudewijn P F

2017-11-23

Mass cytometry allows high-resolution dissection of the cellular composition of the immune system. However, the high-dimensionality, large size, and non-linear structure of the data poses considerable challenges for the data analysis. In particular, dimensionality reduction-based techniques like t-SNE offer single-cell resolution but are limited in the number of cells that can be analyzed. Here we introduce Hierarchical Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (HSNE) for the analysis of mass cytometry data sets. HSNE constructs a hierarchy of non-linear similarities that can be interactively explored with a stepwise increase in detail up to the single-cell level. We apply HSNE to a study on gastrointestinal disorders and three other available mass cytometry data sets. We find that HSNE efficiently replicates previous observations and identifies rare cell populations that were previously missed due to downsampling. Thus, HSNE removes the scalability limit of conventional t-SNE analysis, a feature that makes it highly suitable for the analysis of massive high-dimensional data sets.

Fuzzy distributed cooperative tracking for a swarm of unmanned aerial vehicles with heterogeneous goals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kladis, Georgios P.; Menon, Prathyush P.; Edwards, Christopher

2016-12-01

This article proposes a systematic analysis for a tracking problem which ensures cooperation amongst a swarm of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), modelled as nonlinear systems with linear and angular velocity constraints, in order to achieve different goals. A distributed Takagi-Sugeno (TS) framework design is adopted for the representation of the nonlinear model of the dynamics of the UAVs. The distributed control law which is introduced is composed of both node and network level information. Firstly, feedback gains are synthesised using a parallel distributed compensation (PDC) control law structure, for a collection of isolated UAVs; ignoring communications among the swarm. Then secondly, based on an alternation-like procedure, the resulting feedback gains are used to determine Lyapunov matrices which are utilised at network level to incorporate into the control law, the relative differences in the states of the vehicles, and to induce cooperative behaviour. Eventually stability is guaranteed for the entire swarm. The control synthesis is performed using tools from linear control theory: in particular the design criteria are posed as linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). An example based on a UAV tracking scenario is included to outline the efficacy of the approach.

An oscillating wave energy converter with nonlinear snap-through Power-Take-Off systems in regular waves

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Xian-tao; Yang, Jian-min; Xiao, Long-fei

2016-07-01

Floating oscillating bodies constitute a large class of wave energy converters, especially for offshore deployment. Usually the Power-Take-Off (PTO) system is a directly linear electric generator or a hydraulic motor that drives an electric generator. The PTO system is simplified as a linear spring and a linear damper. However the conversion is less powerful with wave periods off resonance. Thus, a nonlinear snap-through mechanism with two symmetrically oblique springs and a linear damper is applied in the PTO system. The nonlinear snap-through mechanism is characteristics of negative stiffness and double-well potential. An important nonlinear parameter γ is defined as the ratio of half of the horizontal distance between the two springs to the original length of both springs. Time domain method is applied to the dynamics of wave energy converter in regular waves. And the state space model is used to replace the convolution terms in the time domain equation. The results show that the energy harvested by the nonlinear PTO system is larger than that by linear system for low frequency input. While the power captured by nonlinear converters is slightly smaller than that by linear converters for high frequency input. The wave amplitude, damping coefficient of PTO systems and the nonlinear parameter γ affect power capture performance of nonlinear converters. The oscillation of nonlinear wave energy converters may be local or periodically inter well for certain values of the incident wave frequency and the nonlinear parameter γ, which is different from linear converters characteristics of sinusoidal response in regular waves.

A Probabilistic Feature Map-Based Localization System Using a Monocular Camera.

PubMed

Kim, Hyungjin; Lee, Donghwa; Oh, Taekjun; Choi, Hyun-Taek; Myung, Hyun

2015-08-31

Image-based localization is one of the most widely researched localization techniques in the robotics and computer vision communities. As enormous image data sets are provided through the Internet, many studies on estimating a location with a pre-built image-based 3D map have been conducted. Most research groups use numerous image data sets that contain sufficient features. In contrast, this paper focuses on image-based localization in the case of insufficient images and features. A more accurate localization method is proposed based on a probabilistic map using 3D-to-2D matching correspondences between a map and a query image. The probabilistic feature map is generated in advance by probabilistic modeling of the sensor system as well as the uncertainties of camera poses. Using the conventional PnP algorithm, an initial camera pose is estimated on the probabilistic feature map. The proposed algorithm is optimized from the initial pose by minimizing Mahalanobis distance errors between features from the query image and the map to improve accuracy. To verify that the localization accuracy is improved, the proposed algorithm is compared with the conventional algorithm in a simulation and realenvironments.

A Probabilistic Feature Map-Based Localization System Using a Monocular Camera

PubMed Central

Kim, Hyungjin; Lee, Donghwa; Oh, Taekjun; Choi, Hyun-Taek; Myung, Hyun

2015-01-01

Image-based localization is one of the most widely researched localization techniques in the robotics and computer vision communities. As enormous image data sets are provided through the Internet, many studies on estimating a location with a pre-built image-based 3D map have been conducted. Most research groups use numerous image data sets that contain sufficient features. In contrast, this paper focuses on image-based localization in the case of insufficient images and features. A more accurate localization method is proposed based on a probabilistic map using 3D-to-2D matching correspondences between a map and a query image. The probabilistic feature map is generated in advance by probabilistic modeling of the sensor system as well as the uncertainties of camera poses. Using the conventional PnP algorithm, an initial camera pose is estimated on the probabilistic feature map. The proposed algorithm is optimized from the initial pose by minimizing Mahalanobis distance errors between features from the query image and the map to improve accuracy. To verify that the localization accuracy is improved, the proposed algorithm is compared with the conventional algorithm in a simulation and realenvironments. PMID:26404284

3D ocular ultrasound using gaze tracking on the contralateral eye: a feasibility study.

PubMed

Afsham, Narges; Najafi, Mohammad; Abolmaesumi, Purang; Rohling, Robert

2011-01-01

A gaze-deviated examination of the eye with a 2D ultrasound transducer is a common and informative ophthalmic test; however, the complex task of the pose estimation of the ultrasound images relative to the eye affects 3D interpretation. To tackle this challenge, a novel system for 3D image reconstruction based on gaze tracking of the contralateral eye has been proposed. The gaze fixates on several target points and, for each fixation, the pose of the examined eye is inferred from the gaze tracking. A single camera system has been developed for pose estimation combined with subject-specific parameter identification. The ultrasound images are then transformed to the coordinate system of the examined eye to create a 3D volume. Accuracy of the proposed gaze tracking system and the pose estimation of the eye have been validated in a set of experiments. Overall system error, including pose estimation and calibration, are 3.12 mm and 4.68 degrees.

A Semi-Discrete Landweber-Kaczmarz Method for Cone Beam Tomography and Laminography Exploiting Geometric Prior Information

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vogelgesang, Jonas; Schorr, Christian

2016-12-01

We present a semi-discrete Landweber-Kaczmarz method for solving linear ill-posed problems and its application to Cone Beam tomography and laminography. Using a basis function-type discretization in the image domain, we derive a semi-discrete model of the underlying scanning system. Based on this model, the proposed method provides an approximate solution of the reconstruction problem, i.e. reconstructing the density function of a given object from its projections, in suitable subspaces equipped with basis function-dependent weights. This approach intuitively allows the incorporation of additional information about the inspected object leading to a more accurate model of the X-rays through the object. Also, physical conditions of the scanning geometry, like flat detectors in computerized tomography as used in non-destructive testing applications as well as non-regular scanning curves e.g. appearing in computed laminography (CL) applications, are directly taken into account during the modeling process. Finally, numerical experiments of a typical CL application in three dimensions are provided to verify the proposed method. The introduction of geometric prior information leads to a significantly increased image quality and superior reconstructions compared to standard iterative methods.

Iterative Nonlinear Tikhonov Algorithm with Constraints for Electromagnetic Tomography

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Xu, Feng; Deshpande, Manohar

2012-01-01

Low frequency electromagnetic tomography such as the capacitance tomography (ECT) has been proposed for monitoring and mass-gauging of gas-liquid two-phase system under microgravity condition in NASA's future long-term space missions. Due to the ill-posed inverse problem of ECT, images reconstructed using conventional linear algorithms often suffer from limitations such as low resolution and blurred edges. Hence, new efficient high resolution nonlinear imaging algorithms are needed for accurate two-phase imaging. The proposed Iterative Nonlinear Tikhonov Regularized Algorithm with Constraints (INTAC) is based on an efficient finite element method (FEM) forward model of quasi-static electromagnetic problem. It iteratively minimizes the discrepancy between FEM simulated and actual measured capacitances by adjusting the reconstructed image using the Tikhonov regularized method. More importantly, it enforces the known permittivity of two phases to the unknown pixels which exceed the reasonable range of permittivity in each iteration. This strategy does not only stabilize the converging process, but also produces sharper images. Simulations show that resolution improvement of over 2 times can be achieved by INTAC with respect to conventional approaches. Strategies to further improve spatial imaging resolution are suggested, as well as techniques to accelerate nonlinear forward model and thus increase the temporal resolution.

Numerical binary black hole mergers in dynamical Chern-Simons gravity: Scalar field

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Okounkova, Maria; Stein, Leo C.; Scheel, Mark A.; Hemberger, Daniel A.

2017-08-01

Testing general relativity in the nonlinear, dynamical, strong-field regime of gravity is one of the major goals of gravitational wave astrophysics. Performing precision tests of general relativity (GR) requires numerical inspiral, merger, and ringdown waveforms for binary black hole (BBH) systems in theories beyond GR. Currently, GR and scalar-tensor gravity are the only theories amenable to numerical simulations. In this article, we present a well-posed perturbation scheme for numerically integrating beyond-GR theories that have a continuous limit to GR. We demonstrate this scheme by simulating BBH mergers in dynamical Chern-Simons gravity (dCS), to linear order in the perturbation parameter. We present mode waveforms and energy fluxes of the dCS pseudoscalar field from our numerical simulations. We find good agreement with analytic predictions at early times, including the absence of pseudoscalar dipole radiation. We discover new phenomenology only accessible through numerics: a burst of dipole radiation during merger. We also quantify the self-consistency of the perturbation scheme. Finally, we estimate bounds that GR-consistent LIGO detections could place on the new dCS length scale, approximately ℓ≲O (10 ) km .

Distributed cooperative control of AC microgrids

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bidram, Ali

In this dissertation, the comprehensive secondary control of electric power microgrids is of concern. Microgrid technical challenges are mainly realized through the hierarchical control structure, including primary, secondary, and tertiary control levels. Primary control level is locally implemented at each distributed generator (DG), while the secondary and tertiary control levels are conventionally implemented through a centralized control structure. The centralized structure requires a central controller which increases the reliability concerns by posing the single point of failure. In this dissertation, the distributed control structure using the distributed cooperative control of multi-agent systems is exploited to increase the secondary control reliability. The secondary control objectives are microgrid voltage and frequency, and distributed generators (DGs) active and reactive powers. Fully distributed control protocols are implemented through distributed communication networks. In the distributed control structure, each DG only requires its own information and the information of its neighbors on the communication network. The distributed structure obviates the requirements for a central controller and complex communication network which, in turn, improves the system reliability. Since the DG dynamics are nonlinear and non-identical, input-output feedback linearization is used to transform the nonlinear dynamics of DGs to linear dynamics. Proposed control frameworks cover the control of microgrids containing inverter-based DGs. Typical microgrid test systems are used to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control protocols.

Control of a HexaPOD treatment couch for robot-assisted radiotherapy.

PubMed

Hermann, Christian; Ma, Lei; Wilbert, Jürgen; Baier, Kurt; Schilling, Klaus

2012-10-01

Moving tumors, for example in the vicinity of the lungs, pose a challenging problem in radiotherapy, as healthy tissue should not be irradiated. Apart from gating approaches, one standard method is to irradiate the complete volume within which a tumor moves plus a safety margin containing a considerable volume of healthy tissue. This work deals with a system for tumor motion compensation using the HexaPOD® robotic treatment couch (Medical Intelligence GmbH, Schwabmünchen, Germany). The HexaPOD, carrying the patient during treatment, is instructed to perform translational movements such that the tumor motion, from the beams-eye view of the linear accelerator, is eliminated. The dynamics of the HexaPOD are characterized by time delays, saturations, and other non-linearities that make the design of control a challenging task. The focus of this work lies on two control methods for the HexaPOD that can be used for reference tracking. The first method uses a model predictive controller based on a model gained through system identification methods, and the second method uses a position control scheme useful for reference tracking. We compared the tracking performance of both methods in various experiments with real hardware using ideal reference trajectories, prerecorded patient trajectories, and human volunteers whose breathing motion was compensated by the system.

Optimized MCT IR-modules for high-performance imaging applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Breiter, R.; Eich, D.; Figgemeier, H.; Lutz, H.; Wendler, J.; Rühlich, I.; Rutzinger, S.; Schallenberg, T.

2014-06-01

In today's typical military operations situational awareness is a key element for mission success. In contrast to what is known from conventional warfare with typical targets such as tanks, asymmetric scenarios now dominate military operations. These scenarios require improved identification capabilities, for example the assessment of threat levels posed by personnel targets. Also, it is vital to identify and reliably distinguish between combatants, non-combatants and friendly forces. To satisfy these requirements, high-definition (HD) large format systems are well suited due to their high spatial and thermal resolution combined with high contrast. Typical applications are sights for long-range surveillance, targeting and reconnaissance platforms as well as rotorcraft pilotage sight systems. In 2012 AIM presented first prototypes of large format detectors with 1280 × 1024 elements in a 15μm pitch for both spectral bands MWIR and LWIR. The modular design allows integration of different cooler types, like AIM's split linear coolers SX095 or SX040 or rotary integral types depending whatever fits best to the application. Large format FPAs have been fabricated using liquid phase epitaxy (LPE) or molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) grown MCT. To offer high resolution in a more compact configuration AIM started the development of a 1024 × 768 10μm pitch IRmodule. Keeping electro/optical performance is achieved by a higher specific charge handling capacity of the readout integrated circuit (ROIC) in a 0.18μm Si CMOS technology. The FPA size fits to a dewar cooler configuration used for 640 × 512 15μm pitch modules.

Creating XML/PHP Interface for BAN Interoperability.

PubMed

Fragkos, Vasileios; Katzis, Konstantinos; Despotou, Georgios

2017-01-01

Recent advances in medical and electronic technologies have introduced the use of Body Area Networks as a part of e-health, for constant and accurate monitoring of patients and the transmission as well as processing of the data to develop a holistic Electronic Health Record. The rising global population, different BAN manufacturers and a variety of medical systems pose the issue of interoperability between BANs and systems as well as the proper way to propagate medical data in an organized and efficient manner. In this paper, we describe BANs and propose the use of certain web technologies to address this issue.

Artifacts as Sources for Problem-Posing Activities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bonotto, Cinzia

2013-01-01

The problem-posing process represents one of the forms of authentic mathematical inquiry which, if suitably implemented in classroom activities, could move well beyond the limitations of word problems, at least as they are typically utilized. The two exploratory studies presented sought to investigate the impact of "problem-posing" activities when…

Hessian Schatten-norm regularization for linear inverse problems.

PubMed

Lefkimmiatis, Stamatios; Ward, John Paul; Unser, Michael

2013-05-01

We introduce a novel family of invariant, convex, and non-quadratic functionals that we employ to derive regularized solutions of ill-posed linear inverse imaging problems. The proposed regularizers involve the Schatten norms of the Hessian matrix, which are computed at every pixel of the image. They can be viewed as second-order extensions of the popular total-variation (TV) semi-norm since they satisfy the same invariance properties. Meanwhile, by taking advantage of second-order derivatives, they avoid the staircase effect, a common artifact of TV-based reconstructions, and perform well for a wide range of applications. To solve the corresponding optimization problems, we propose an algorithm that is based on a primal-dual formulation. A fundamental ingredient of this algorithm is the projection of matrices onto Schatten norm balls of arbitrary radius. This operation is performed efficiently based on a direct link we provide between vector projections onto lq norm balls and matrix projections onto Schatten norm balls. Finally, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods through experimental results on several inverse imaging problems with real and simulated data.

INTEGRATION OF PARTICLE-GAS SYSTEMS WITH STIFF MUTUAL DRAG INTERACTION

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Yang, Chao-Chin; Johansen, Anders, E-mail: ccyang@astro.lu.se, E-mail: anders@astro.lu.se

2016-06-01

Numerical simulation of numerous mm/cm-sized particles embedded in a gaseous disk has become an important tool in the study of planet formation and in understanding the dust distribution in observed protoplanetary disks. However, the mutual drag force between the gas and the particles can become so stiff—particularly because of small particles and/or strong local solid concentration—that an explicit integration of this system is computationally formidable. In this work, we consider the integration of the mutual drag force in a system of Eulerian gas and Lagrangian solid particles. Despite the entanglement between the gas and the particles under the particle-mesh construct,more » we are able to devise a numerical algorithm that effectively decomposes the globally coupled system of equations for the mutual drag force, and makes it possible to integrate this system on a cell-by-cell basis, which considerably reduces the computational task required. We use an analytical solution for the temporal evolution of each cell to relieve the time-step constraint posed by the mutual drag force, as well as to achieve the highest degree of accuracy. To validate our algorithm, we use an extensive suite of benchmarks with known solutions in one, two, and three dimensions, including the linear growth and the nonlinear saturation of the streaming instability. We demonstrate numerical convergence and satisfactory consistency in all cases. Our algorithm can, for example, be applied to model the evolution of the streaming instability with mm/cm-sized pebbles at high mass loading, which has important consequences for the formation scenarios of planetesimals.« less

A truncated generalized singular value decomposition algorithm for moving force identification with ill-posed problems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Zhen; Chan, Tommy H. T.

2017-08-01

This paper proposes a new methodology for moving force identification (MFI) from the responses of bridge deck. Based on the existing time domain method (TDM), the MFI problem eventually becomes solving the linear algebraic equation in the form Ax = b . The vector b is usually contaminated by an unknown error e generating from measurement error, which often called the vector e as ''noise''. With the ill-posed problems that exist in the inverse problem, the identification force would be sensitive to the noise e . The proposed truncated generalized singular value decomposition method (TGSVD) aims at obtaining an acceptable solution and making the noise to be less sensitive to perturbations with the ill-posed problems. The illustrated results show that the TGSVD has many advantages such as higher precision, better adaptability and noise immunity compared with TDM. In addition, choosing a proper regularization matrix L and a truncation parameter k are very useful to improve the identification accuracy and to solve ill-posed problems when it is used to identify the moving force on bridge.

Host pathogen relations: exploring animal models for fungal pathogens.

PubMed

Harwood, Catherine G; Rao, Reeta P

2014-06-30

Pathogenic fungi cause superficial infections but pose a significant public health risk when infections spread to deeper tissues, such as the lung. Within the last three decades, fungi have been identified as the leading cause of nosocomial infections making them the focus of research. This review outlines the model systems such as the mouse, zebrafish larvae, flies, and nematodes, as well as ex vivo and in vitro systems available to study common fungal pathogens.

MEG and fMRI Fusion for Non-Linear Estimation of Neural and BOLD Signal Changes

PubMed Central

Plis, Sergey M.; Calhoun, Vince D.; Weisend, Michael P.; Eichele, Tom; Lane, Terran

2010-01-01

The combined analysis of magnetoencephalography (MEG)/electroencephalography and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) measurements can lead to improvement in the description of the dynamical and spatial properties of brain activity. In this paper we empirically demonstrate this improvement using simulated and recorded task related MEG and fMRI activity. Neural activity estimates were derived using a dynamic Bayesian network with continuous real valued parameters by means of a sequential Monte Carlo technique. In synthetic data, we show that MEG and fMRI fusion improves estimation of the indirectly observed neural activity and smooths tracking of the blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) response. In recordings of task related neural activity the combination of MEG and fMRI produces a result with greater signal-to-noise ratio, that confirms the expectation arising from the nature of the experiment. The highly non-linear model of the BOLD response poses a difficult inference problem for neural activity estimation; computational requirements are also high due to the time and space complexity. We show that joint analysis of the data improves the system's behavior by stabilizing the differential equations system and by requiring fewer computational resources. PMID:21120141

Teaching Determinants Using Rook Arrangements

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hendrickson, Anders O. F.

2018-01-01

Teaching determinants poses significant challenges to the instructor of a proof-based undergraduate linear algebra course. The standard definition by cofactor expansion is ugly, lacks symmetry, and is hard for students to use in proofs. We introduce a visual definition of the determinant that interprets permutations as arrangements of…

An Automated Strategy for Binding-Pose Selection and Docking Assessment in Structure-Based Drug Design.

PubMed

Ballante, Flavio; Marshall, Garland R

2016-01-25

Molecular docking is a widely used technique in drug design to predict the binding pose of a candidate compound in a defined therapeutic target. Numerous docking protocols are available, each characterized by different search methods and scoring functions, thus providing variable predictive capability on a same ligand-protein system. To validate a docking protocol, it is necessary to determine a priori the ability to reproduce the experimental binding pose (i.e., by determining the docking accuracy (DA)) in order to select the most appropriate docking procedure and thus estimate the rate of success in docking novel compounds. As common docking programs use generally different root-mean-square deviation (RMSD) formulas, scoring functions, and format results, it is both difficult and time-consuming to consistently determine and compare their predictive capabilities in order to identify the best protocol to use for the target of interest and to extrapolate the binding poses (i.e., best-docked (BD), best-cluster (BC), and best-fit (BF) poses) when applying a given docking program over thousands/millions of molecules during virtual screening. To reduce this difficulty, two new procedures called Clusterizer and DockAccessor have been developed and implemented for use with some common and "free-for-academics" programs such as AutoDock4, AutoDock4(Zn), AutoDock Vina, DOCK, MpSDockZn, PLANTS, and Surflex-Dock to automatically extrapolate BD, BC, and BF poses as well as to perform consistent cluster and DA analyses. Clusterizer and DockAccessor (code available over the Internet) represent two novel tools to collect computationally determined poses and detect the most predictive docking approach. Herein an application to human lysine deacetylase (hKDAC) inhibitors is illustrated.

Gradient-based stochastic estimation of the density matrix

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Zhentao; Chern, Gia-Wei; Batista, Cristian D.; Barros, Kipton

2018-03-01

Fast estimation of the single-particle density matrix is key to many applications in quantum chemistry and condensed matter physics. The best numerical methods leverage the fact that the density matrix elements f(H)ij decay rapidly with distance rij between orbitals. This decay is usually exponential. However, for the special case of metals at zero temperature, algebraic decay of the density matrix appears and poses a significant numerical challenge. We introduce a gradient-based probing method to estimate all local density matrix elements at a computational cost that scales linearly with system size. For zero-temperature metals, the stochastic error scales like S-(d+2)/2d, where d is the dimension and S is a prefactor to the computational cost. The convergence becomes exponential if the system is at finite temperature or is insulating.

A well-posed optimal spectral element approximation for the Stokes problem

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Maday, Y.; Patera, A. T.; Ronquist, E. M.

1987-01-01

A method is proposed for the spectral element simulation of incompressible flow. This method constitutes in a well-posed optimal approximation of the steady Stokes problem with no spurious modes in the pressure. The resulting method is analyzed, and numerical results are presented for a model problem.

Lagrange formula for differential operators on a tree-graph and the resolvents of well-posed restrictions of operator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koshkarbayev, Nurbol; Kanguzhin, Baltabek

2017-09-01

In this paper we study the question on the full description of well-posed restrictions of given maximal differential operator on a tree-graph. Lagrange formula for differential operator on a tree with Kirchhoff conditions at its internal vertices is presented.

Seamless Tracing of Human Behavior Using Complementary Wearable and House-Embedded Sensors

PubMed Central

Augustyniak, Piotr; Smoleń, Magdalena; Mikrut, Zbigniew; Kańtoch, Eliasz

2014-01-01

This paper presents a multimodal system for seamless surveillance of elderly people in their living environment. The system uses simultaneously a wearable sensor network for each individual and premise-embedded sensors specific for each environment. The paper demonstrates the benefits of using complementary information from two types of mobility sensors: visual flow-based image analysis and an accelerometer-based wearable network. The paper provides results for indoor recognition of several elementary poses and outdoor recognition of complex movements. Instead of complete system description, particular attention was drawn to a polar histogram-based method of visual pose recognition, complementary use and synchronization of the data from wearable and premise-embedded networks and an automatic danger detection algorithm driven by two premise- and subject-related databases. The novelty of our approach also consists in feeding the databases with real-life recordings from the subject, and in using the dynamic time-warping algorithm for measurements of distance between actions represented as elementary poses in behavioral records. The main results of testing our method include: 95.5% accuracy of elementary pose recognition by the video system, 96.7% accuracy of elementary pose recognition by the accelerometer-based system, 98.9% accuracy of elementary pose recognition by the combined accelerometer and video-based system, and 80% accuracy of complex outdoor activity recognition by the accelerometer-based wearable system. PMID:24787640

Tackling the challenges of matching biomedical ontologies.

PubMed

Faria, Daniel; Pesquita, Catia; Mott, Isabela; Martins, Catarina; Couto, Francisco M; Cruz, Isabel F

2018-01-15

Biomedical ontologies pose several challenges to ontology matching due both to the complexity of the biomedical domain and to the characteristics of the ontologies themselves. The biomedical tracks in the Ontology Matching Evaluation Initiative (OAEI) have spurred the development of matching systems able to tackle these challenges, and benchmarked their general performance. In this study, we dissect the strategies employed by matching systems to tackle the challenges of matching biomedical ontologies and gauge the impact of the challenges themselves on matching performance, using the AgreementMakerLight (AML) system as the platform for this study. We demonstrate that the linear complexity of the hash-based searching strategy implemented by most state-of-the-art ontology matching systems is essential for matching large biomedical ontologies efficiently. We show that accounting for all lexical annotations (e.g., labels and synonyms) in biomedical ontologies leads to a substantial improvement in F-measure over using only the primary name, and that accounting for the reliability of different types of annotations generally also leads to a marked improvement. Finally, we show that cross-references are a reliable source of information and that, when using biomedical ontologies as background knowledge, it is generally more reliable to use them as mediators than to perform lexical expansion. We anticipate that translating traditional matching algorithms to the hash-based searching paradigm will be a critical direction for the future development of the field. Improving the evaluation carried out in the biomedical tracks of the OAEI will also be important, as without proper reference alignments there is only so much that can be ascertained about matching systems or strategies. Nevertheless, it is clear that, to tackle the various challenges posed by biomedical ontologies, ontology matching systems must be able to efficiently combine multiple strategies into a mature matching approach.

Exemplar-based human action pose correction.

PubMed

Shen, Wei; Deng, Ke; Bai, Xiang; Leyvand, Tommer; Guo, Baining; Tu, Zhuowen

2014-07-01

The launch of Xbox Kinect has built a very successful computer vision product and made a big impact on the gaming industry. This sheds lights onto a wide variety of potential applications related to action recognition. The accurate estimation of human poses from the depth image is universally a critical step. However, existing pose estimation systems exhibit failures when facing severe occlusion. In this paper, we propose an exemplar-based method to learn to correct the initially estimated poses. We learn an inhomogeneous systematic bias by leveraging the exemplar information within a specific human action domain. Furthermore, as an extension, we learn a conditional model by incorporation of pose tags to further increase the accuracy of pose correction. In the experiments, significant improvements on both joint-based skeleton correction and tag prediction are observed over the contemporary approaches, including what is delivered by the current Kinect system. Our experiments for the facial landmark correction also illustrate that our algorithm can improve the accuracy of other detection/estimation systems.

How Do Schools Compensate for Socio-Economic Disadvantage? PISA in Focus No. 76

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

OECD Publishing, 2017

2017-01-01

As educators know well, there are many barriers to learning that originate outside of school, such as those that arise from socio-economic disadvantage. In many education systems, the concentration of disadvantaged students in certain schools poses an additional challenge. Yet it is also true that schools with effective learning environments and…

Intercom, 77. Explorations in the Emergent Present.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hanvey, Robert

The issue of Intercom promotes an awareness of the world as a system that poses new possibilities and obligations for educators as well as policy makers. The first part includes interviews with and excerpts from the works of Denis Meadows, joint author of Limits to Growth; Mihajlo Mesarovic, co-author of Mankind at the Turning Point; Robert…

Teacher Education and Social Ethics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ayeni, M. A.; Adeleye, J. O.

2014-01-01

It poses no difficulty to argue that the success of any nation depends to a large extent on the quality of her teachers. This is because the outcome of teaching, which is learning, manifests in all services rendered by the individual in all sectors of life. If the products of the school system do not learn well both academically and morally, they…

Study on the initial value for the exterior orientation of the mobile version

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Zhi-jing; Li, Shi-liang

2011-10-01

Single mobile vision coordinate measurement system is in the measurement site using a single camera body and a notebook computer to achieve three-dimensional coordinates. To obtain more accurate approximate values of exterior orientation calculation in the follow-up is very important in the measurement process. The problem is a typical one for the space resection, and now studies on this topic have been widely conducted in research. Single-phase space resection mainly focuses on two aspects: of co-angular constraint based on the method, its representatives are camera co-angular constraint pose estimation algorithm and the cone angle law; the other is a direct linear transformation (DLT). One common drawback for both methods is that the CCD lens distortion is not considered. When the initial value was calculated with the direct linear transformation method, the distribution and abundance of control points is required relatively high, the need that control points can not be distributed in the same plane must be met, and there are at least six non- coplanar control points. However, its usefulness is limited. Initial value will directly influence the convergence and convergence speed of the ways of calculation. This paper will make the nonlinear of the total linear equations linearized by using the total linear equations containing distorted items and Taylor series expansion, calculating the initial value of the camera exterior orientation. Finally, the initial value is proved to be better through experiments.

Stochastic Multiresonance for a Fractional Linear Oscillator with Quadratic Trichotomous Noise

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhu, Jian-Qu; Jin, Wei-Dong; Zheng, Gao; Guo, Feng

2017-11-01

The stochastic multiresonance behavior for a fractional linear oscillator with random system frequency is investigated. The fluctuation of the system frequency is a quadratic trichotomous noise, the memory kernel of the fractional oscillator is modeled as a Mittag-Leffler function. Based on linear system theory, applying Laplace transform and the definition of fractional derivative, the expression of the system output amplitude (SPA) is obtained. Stochastic multiresonance phenomenon is found on the curves of SPA versus the memory time and the memory exponent of the fractional oscillator, as well as versus the trichotomous noise amplitude. The SPA depends non-monotonically on the stationary probability of the trichotomous noise, on the viscous damping coefficient and system characteristic frequency of the oscillator, as well as on the driving frequency of external force. Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 61134002

Multilayer Joint Gait-Pose Manifolds for Human Gait Motion Modeling.

PubMed

Ding, Meng; Fan, Guolian

2015-11-01

We present new multilayer joint gait-pose manifolds (multilayer JGPMs) for complex human gait motion modeling, where three latent variables are defined jointly in a low-dimensional manifold to represent a variety of body configurations. Specifically, the pose variable (along the pose manifold) denotes a specific stage in a walking cycle; the gait variable (along the gait manifold) represents different walking styles; and the linear scale variable characterizes the maximum stride in a walking cycle. We discuss two kinds of topological priors for coupling the pose and gait manifolds, i.e., cylindrical and toroidal, to examine their effectiveness and suitability for motion modeling. We resort to a topologically-constrained Gaussian process (GP) latent variable model to learn the multilayer JGPMs where two new techniques are introduced to facilitate model learning under limited training data. First is training data diversification that creates a set of simulated motion data with different strides. Second is the topology-aware local learning to speed up model learning by taking advantage of the local topological structure. The experimental results on the Carnegie Mellon University motion capture data demonstrate the advantages of our proposed multilayer models over several existing GP-based motion models in terms of the overall performance of human gait motion modeling.

DAISY: a new software tool to test global identifiability of biological and physiological systems.

PubMed

Bellu, Giuseppina; Saccomani, Maria Pia; Audoly, Stefania; D'Angiò, Leontina

2007-10-01

A priori global identifiability is a structural property of biological and physiological models. It is considered a prerequisite for well-posed estimation, since it concerns the possibility of recovering uniquely the unknown model parameters from measured input-output data, under ideal conditions (noise-free observations and error-free model structure). Of course, determining if the parameters can be uniquely recovered from observed data is essential before investing resources, time and effort in performing actual biomedical experiments. Many interesting biological models are nonlinear but identifiability analysis for nonlinear system turns out to be a difficult mathematical problem. Different methods have been proposed in the literature to test identifiability of nonlinear models but, to the best of our knowledge, so far no software tools have been proposed for automatically checking identifiability of nonlinear models. In this paper, we describe a software tool implementing a differential algebra algorithm to perform parameter identifiability analysis for (linear and) nonlinear dynamic models described by polynomial or rational equations. Our goal is to provide the biological investigator a completely automatized software, requiring minimum prior knowledge of mathematical modelling and no in-depth understanding of the mathematical tools. The DAISY (Differential Algebra for Identifiability of SYstems) software will potentially be useful in biological modelling studies, especially in physiology and clinical medicine, where research experiments are particularly expensive and/or difficult to perform. Practical examples of use of the software tool DAISY are presented. DAISY is available at the web site http://www.dei.unipd.it/~pia/.

Robust automatic measurement of 3D scanned models for the human body fat estimation.

PubMed

Giachetti, Andrea; Lovato, Christian; Piscitelli, Francesco; Milanese, Chiara; Zancanaro, Carlo

2015-03-01

In this paper, we present an automatic tool for estimating geometrical parameters from 3-D human scans independent on pose and robustly against the topological noise. It is based on an automatic segmentation of body parts exploiting curve skeleton processing and ad hoc heuristics able to remove problems due to different acquisition poses and body types. The software is able to locate body trunk and limbs, detect their directions, and compute parameters like volumes, areas, girths, and lengths. Experimental results demonstrate that measurements provided by our system on 3-D body scans of normal and overweight subjects acquired in different poses are highly correlated with the body fat estimates obtained on the same subjects with dual-energy X-rays absorptiometry (DXA) scanning. In particular, maximal lengths and girths, not requiring precise localization of anatomical landmarks, demonstrate a good correlation (up to 96%) with the body fat and trunk fat. Regression models based on our automatic measurements can be used to predict body fat values reasonably well.

Calculation and application of energy transaction allocation factors in electric power transmission systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fradi, Aniss

The ability to allocate the active power (MW) loading on transmission lines and transformers, is the basis of the "flow based" transmission allocation system developed by the North American Electric Reliability Council. In such a system, the active power flows must be allocated to each line or transformer in proportion to the active power being transmitted by each transaction imposed on the system. Currently, this is accomplished through the use of the linear Power Transfer Distribution Factors (PTDFs). Unfortunately, no linear allocation models exist for other energy transmission quantities, such as MW and MVAR losses, MVAR and MVA flows, etc. Early allocation schemes were developed to allocate MW losses due to transactions to branches in a transmission system, however they exhibited diminished accuracy, since most of them are based on linear power flow modeling of the transmission system. This thesis presents a new methodology to calculate Energy Transaction Allocation factors (ETA factors, or eta factors), using the well-known process of integration of a first derivative function, as well as consistent and well-established mathematical and AC power flow models. The factors give a highly accurate allocation of any non-linear system quantity to transactions placed on the transmission system. The thesis also extends the new ETA factors calculation procedure to restructure a new economic dispatch scheme where multiple sets of generators are economically dispatched to meet their corresponding load and their share of the losses.

Programming strategy for efficient modeling of dynamics in a population of heterogeneous cells.

PubMed

Hald, Bjørn Olav; Garkier Hendriksen, Morten; Sørensen, Preben Graae

2013-05-15

Heterogeneity is a ubiquitous property of biological systems. Even in a genetically identical population of a single cell type, cell-to-cell differences are observed. Although the functional behavior of a given population is generally robust, the consequences of heterogeneity are fairly unpredictable. In heterogeneous populations, synchronization of events becomes a cardinal problem-particularly for phase coherence in oscillating systems. The present article presents a novel strategy for construction of large-scale simulation programs of heterogeneous biological entities. The strategy is designed to be tractable, to handle heterogeneity and to handle computational cost issues simultaneously, primarily by writing a generator of the 'model to be simulated'. We apply the strategy to model glycolytic oscillations among thousands of yeast cells coupled through the extracellular medium. The usefulness is illustrated through (i) benchmarking, showing an almost linear relationship between model size and run time, and (ii) analysis of the resulting simulations, showing that contrary to the experimental situation, synchronous oscillations are surprisingly hard to achieve, underpinning the need for tools to study heterogeneity. Thus, we present an efficient strategy to model the biological heterogeneity, neglected by ordinary mean-field models. This tool is well posed to facilitate the elucidation of the physiologically vital problem of synchronization. The complete python code is available as Supplementary Information. bjornhald@gmail.com or pgs@kiku.dk Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Global reverse supply chain design for solid waste recycling under uncertainties and carbon emission constraint.

PubMed

Xu, Zhitao; Elomri, Adel; Pokharel, Shaligram; Zhang, Qin; Ming, X G; Liu, Wenjie

2017-06-01

The emergence of concerns over environmental protection, resource conservation as well as the development of logistics operations and manufacturing technology has led several countries to implement formal collection and recycling systems of solid waste. Such recycling system has the benefits of reducing environmental pollution, boosting the economy by creating new jobs, and generating income from trading the recyclable materials. This leads to the formation of a global reverse supply chain (GRSC) of solid waste. In this paper, we investigate the design of such a GRSC with a special emphasis on three aspects; (1) uncertainty of waste collection levels, (2) associated carbon emissions, and (3) challenges posed by the supply chain's global aspect, particularly the maritime transportation costs and currency exchange rates. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first attempt to integrate the three above-mentioned important aspects in the design of a GRSC. We have used mixed integer-linear programming method along with robust optimization to develop the model which is validated using a sample case study of e-waste management. Our results show that using a robust model by taking the complex interactions characterizing global reverse supply chain networks into account, we can create a better GRSC. The effect of uncertainties and carbon constraints on decisions to reduce costs and emissions are also shown. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Large data well-posedness in the energy space of the Chern-Simons-Schrödinger system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lim, Zhuo Min

2018-02-01

We consider the initial-value problem for the Chern-Simons-Schrödinger system, which is a gauge-covariant Schrödinger system in Rt × Rx2 with a long-range electromagnetic field. We show that, in the Coulomb gauge, it is locally well-posed in Hs for s ⩾ 1, and the solution map satisfies a local-in-time weak Lipschitz bound. By energy conservation, we also obtain a global regularity result. The key is to retain the non-perturbative part of the derivative nonlinearity in the principal operator, and exploit the dispersive properties of the resulting paradifferential-type principal operator using adapted Up and Vp spaces.

Accurate frequency domain measurement of the best linear time-invariant approximation of linear time-periodic systems including the quantification of the time-periodic distortions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Louarroudi, E.; Pintelon, R.; Lataire, J.

2014-10-01

Time-periodic (TP) phenomena occurring, for instance, in wind turbines, helicopters, anisotropic shaft-bearing systems, and cardiovascular/respiratory systems, are often not addressed when classical frequency response function (FRF) measurements are performed. As the traditional FRF concept is based on the linear time-invariant (LTI) system theory, it is only approximately valid for systems with varying dynamics. Accordingly, the quantification of any deviation from this ideal LTI framework is more than welcome. The “measure of deviation” allows us to define the notion of the best LTI (BLTI) approximation, which yields the best - in mean square sense - LTI description of a linear time-periodic LTP system. By taking into consideration the TP effects, it is shown in this paper that the variability of the BLTI measurement can be reduced significantly compared with that of classical FRF estimators. From a single experiment, the proposed identification methods can handle (non-)linear time-periodic [(N)LTP] systems in open-loop with a quantification of (i) the noise and/or the NL distortions, (ii) the TP distortions and (iii) the transient (leakage) errors. Besides, a geometrical interpretation of the BLTI approximation is provided, leading to a framework called vector FRF analysis. The theory presented is supported by numerical simulations as well as real measurements mimicking the well-known mechanical Mathieu oscillator.

Molecular dynamics simulations in hybrid particle-continuum schemes: Pitfalls and caveats

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stalter, S.; Yelash, L.; Emamy, N.; Statt, A.; Hanke, M.; Lukáčová-Medvid'ová, M.; Virnau, P.

2018-03-01

Heterogeneous multiscale methods (HMM) combine molecular accuracy of particle-based simulations with the computational efficiency of continuum descriptions to model flow in soft matter liquids. In these schemes, molecular simulations typically pose a computational bottleneck, which we investigate in detail in this study. We find that it is preferable to simulate many small systems as opposed to a few large systems, and that a choice of a simple isokinetic thermostat is typically sufficient while thermostats such as Lowe-Andersen allow for simulations at elevated viscosity. We discuss suitable choices for time steps and finite-size effects which arise in the limit of very small simulation boxes. We also argue that if colloidal systems are considered as opposed to atomistic systems, the gap between microscopic and macroscopic simulations regarding time and length scales is significantly smaller. We propose a novel reduced-order technique for the coupling to the macroscopic solver, which allows us to approximate a non-linear stress-strain relation efficiently and thus further reduce computational effort of microscopic simulations.

Odometry and Laser Scanner Fusion Based on a Discrete Extended Kalman Filter for Robotic Platooning Guidance

PubMed Central

Espinosa, Felipe; Santos, Carlos; Marrón-Romera, Marta; Pizarro, Daniel; Valdés, Fernando; Dongil, Javier

2011-01-01

This paper describes a relative localization system used to achieve the navigation of a convoy of robotic units in indoor environments. This positioning system is carried out fusing two sensorial sources: (a) an odometric system and (b) a laser scanner together with artificial landmarks located on top of the units. The laser source allows one to compensate the cumulative error inherent to dead-reckoning; whereas the odometry source provides less pose uncertainty in short trajectories. A discrete Extended Kalman Filter, customized for this application, is used in order to accomplish this aim under real time constraints. Different experimental results with a convoy of Pioneer P3-DX units tracking non-linear trajectories are shown. The paper shows that a simple setup based on low cost laser range systems and robot built-in odometry sensors is able to give a high degree of robustness and accuracy to the relative localization problem of convoy units for indoor applications. PMID:22164079

Physical characterization of a scanning photon counting digital mammography system based on Si-strip detectors.

PubMed

Aslund, Magnus; Cederström, Björn; Lundqvist, Mats; Danielsson, Mats

2007-06-01

The physical performance of a scanning multislit full field digital mammography system was determined using basic image quality parameters. The system employs a direct detection detector comprised of linear silicon strip sensors in an edge-on geometry connected to photon counting electronics. The pixel size is 50 microm and the field of view 24 x 26 cm2. The performance was quantified using the presampled modulation transfer function, the normalized noise power spectrum and the detective quantum efficiency (DQE). Compared to conventional DQE methods, the scanning geometry with its intrinsic scatter rejection poses additional requirements on the measurement setup, which are investigated in this work. The DQE of the photon counting system was found to be independent of the dose level to the detector in the 7.6-206 microGy range. The peak DQE was 72% and 73% in the scan and slit direction, respectively, measured with a 28 kV W-0.5 mm Al anode-filter combination with an added 2 mm Al filtration.

Odometry and laser scanner fusion based on a discrete extended Kalman Filter for robotic platooning guidance.

PubMed

Espinosa, Felipe; Santos, Carlos; Marrón-Romera, Marta; Pizarro, Daniel; Valdés, Fernando; Dongil, Javier

2011-01-01

This paper describes a relative localization system used to achieve the navigation of a convoy of robotic units in indoor environments. This positioning system is carried out fusing two sensorial sources: (a) an odometric system and (b) a laser scanner together with artificial landmarks located on top of the units. The laser source allows one to compensate the cumulative error inherent to dead-reckoning; whereas the odometry source provides less pose uncertainty in short trajectories. A discrete Extended Kalman Filter, customized for this application, is used in order to accomplish this aim under real time constraints. Different experimental results with a convoy of Pioneer P3-DX units tracking non-linear trajectories are shown. The paper shows that a simple setup based on low cost laser range systems and robot built-in odometry sensors is able to give a high degree of robustness and accuracy to the relative localization problem of convoy units for indoor applications.

Velocity feedback control with a flywheel proof mass actuator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kras, Aleksander; Gardonio, Paolo

2017-08-01

This paper presents four new proof mass actuators to be used in velocity feedback control systems for the control of vibrations of machines and flexible structures. A classical proof mass actuator is formed by a coil-magnet linear motor, with either the magnet or the armature-coil proof mass suspended on soft springs. This arrangement produces a net force effect at frequencies above the fundamental resonance frequency of the springs-proof mass system. Thus, it can be used to implement point velocity feedback loops, although the dynamic response and static deflection of the springs-proof mass system poses some stability and control performance limitations. The four proof mass actuators presented in this study include a flywheel element, which is used to augment the inertia effect of the suspended proof mass. The paper shows that the flywheel element modifies both the dynamic response and static deflection of the springs-proof mass system in such a way as the stability and control performance of velocity feedback loops using these actuators are significantly improved.

Stochastic Stability of Nonlinear Sampled Data Systems with a Jump Linear Controller

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gonzalez, Oscar R.; Herencia-Zapana, Heber; Gray, W. Steven

2004-01-01

This paper analyzes the stability of a sampled- data system consisting of a deterministic, nonlinear, time- invariant, continuous-time plant and a stochastic, discrete- time, jump linear controller. The jump linear controller mod- els, for example, computer systems and communication net- works that are subject to stochastic upsets or disruptions. This sampled-data model has been used in the analysis and design of fault-tolerant systems and computer-control systems with random communication delays without taking into account the inter-sample response. To analyze stability, appropriate topologies are introduced for the signal spaces of the sampled- data system. With these topologies, the ideal sampling and zero-order-hold operators are shown to be measurable maps. This paper shows that the known equivalence between the stability of a deterministic, linear sampled-data system and its associated discrete-time representation as well as between a nonlinear sampled-data system and a linearized representation holds even in a stochastic framework.

Applying Pose Clustering and MD Simulations To Eliminate False Positives in Molecular Docking.

PubMed

Makeneni, Spandana; Thieker, David F; Woods, Robert J

2018-03-26

In this work, we developed a computational protocol that employs multiple molecular docking experiments, followed by pose clustering, molecular dynamic simulations (10 ns), and energy rescoring to produce reliable 3D models of antibody-carbohydrate complexes. The protocol was applied to 10 antibody-carbohydrate co-complexes and three unliganded (apo) antibodies. Pose clustering significantly reduced the number of potential poses. For each system, 15 or fewer clusters out of 100 initial poses were generated and chosen for further analysis. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations allowed the docked poses to either converge or disperse, and rescoring increased the likelihood that the best-ranked pose was an acceptable pose. This approach is amenable to automation and can be a valuable aid in determining the structure of antibody-carbohydrate complexes provided there is no major side chain rearrangement or backbone conformational change in the H3 loop of the CDR regions. Further, the basic protocol of docking a small ligand to a known binding site, clustering the results, and performing MD with a suitable force field is applicable to any protein ligand system.

An investigation into multi-dimensional prediction models to estimate the pose error of a quadcopter in a CSP plant setting

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lock, Jacobus C.; Smit, Willie J.; Treurnicht, Johann

2016-05-01

The Solar Thermal Energy Research Group (STERG) is investigating ways to make heliostats cheaper to reduce the total cost of a concentrating solar power (CSP) plant. One avenue of research is to use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to automate and assist with the heliostat calibration process. To do this, the pose estimation error of each UAV must be determined and integrated into a calibration procedure. A computer vision (CV) system is used to measure the pose of a quadcopter UAV. However, this CV system contains considerable measurement errors. Since this is a high-dimensional problem, a sophisticated prediction model must be used to estimate the measurement error of the CV system for any given pose measurement vector. This paper attempts to train and validate such a model with the aim of using it to determine the pose error of a quadcopter in a CSP plant setting.

Improving dynamic performances of PWM-driven servo-pneumatic systems via a novel pneumatic circuit.

PubMed

Taghizadeh, Mostafa; Ghaffari, Ali; Najafi, Farid

2009-10-01

In this paper, the effect of pneumatic circuit design on the input-output behavior of PWM-driven servo-pneumatic systems is investigated and their control performances are improved using linear controllers instead of complex and costly nonlinear ones. Generally, servo-pneumatic systems are well known for their nonlinear behavior. However, PWM-driven servo-pneumatic systems have the advantage of flexibility in the design of pneumatic circuits which affects the input-output linearity of the whole system. A simple pneumatic circuit with only one fast switching valve is designed which leads to a quasi-linear input-output relation. The quasi-linear behavior of the proposed circuit is verified both experimentally and by simulations. Closed loop position control experiments are then carried out using linear P- and PD-controllers. Since the output position is noisy and cannot be directly differentiated, a Kalman filter is designed to estimate the velocity of the cylinder. Highly improved tracking performances are obtained using these linear controllers, compared to previous works with nonlinear controllers.

Point-of-entry treatment of petroleum contaminated water supplies

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Malley, J.P. Jr.; Eliason, P.A.; Wagler, J.L.

1993-03-01

Contamination of individual wells in rural area from leaking petroleum storage tanks poses unique problems for regulatory agencies utilities, and potentially responsible parties. A potential solution is the use of point-of-entry (POE) treatment techniques. Results indicate POE systems using aeration followed by granular activated carbon (GAC) are a viable, cost effective, short-term solution while ground water remediation is performed or an alternate drinking water supply is secured. Selection and design of POE systems should consider variations in water usage and contaminant concentrations. Iron and manganese did not affect POE system performance at the ten sites studied. However, iron precipitation wasmore » observed and may pose problems in some POE applications. Increased concentrations of nonpurgeable dissolved organic carbon consisting primarily of methy-t-butyl ether (MTBE) and hydrophilic petroleum hydrocarbons were found in the raw waters but did not affect volatile organic chemical (VOC) removals by aeration of GAC. Microbial activity as measured by heterotrophie plate count significantly increased through four of the ten POE systems studied. Reliability of the POE systems will best be achieved by specifying top quality system components, educating POE users, and providing routine maintenance and VOC monitoring. 20 refs., 9 figs., 4 tabs.« less

Linear Temporal Logic (LTL) Based Monitoring of Smart Manufacturing Systems.

PubMed

Heddy, Gerald; Huzaifa, Umer; Beling, Peter; Haimes, Yacov; Marvel, Jeremy; Weiss, Brian; LaViers, Amy

2015-01-01

The vision of Smart Manufacturing Systems (SMS) includes collaborative robots that can adapt to a range of scenarios. This vision requires a classification of multiple system behaviors, or sequences of movement, that can achieve the same high-level tasks. Likewise, this vision presents unique challenges regarding the management of environmental variables in concert with discrete, logic-based programming. Overcoming these challenges requires targeted performance and health monitoring of both the logical controller and the physical components of the robotic system. Prognostics and health management (PHM) defines a field of techniques and methods that enable condition-monitoring, diagnostics, and prognostics of physical elements, functional processes, overall systems, etc. PHM is warranted in this effort given that the controller is vulnerable to program changes, which propagate in unexpected ways, logical runtime exceptions, sensor failure, and even bit rot. The physical component's health is affected by the wear and tear experienced by machines constantly in motion. The controller's source of faults is inherently discrete, while the latter occurs in a manner that builds up continuously over time. Such a disconnect poses unique challenges for PHM. This paper presents a robotic monitoring system that captures and resolves this disconnect. This effort leverages supervisory robotic control and model checking with linear temporal logic (LTL), presenting them as a novel monitoring system for PHM. This methodology has been demonstrated in a MATLAB-based simulator for an industry inspired use-case in the context of PHM. Future work will use the methodology to develop adaptive, intelligent control strategies to evenly distribute wear on the joints of the robotic arms, maximizing the life of the system.

Self-expressive Dictionary Learning for Dynamic 3D Reconstruction.

PubMed

Zheng, Enliang; Ji, Dinghuang; Dunn, Enrique; Frahm, Jan-Michael

2017-08-22

We target the problem of sparse 3D reconstruction of dynamic objects observed by multiple unsynchronized video cameras with unknown temporal overlap. To this end, we develop a framework to recover the unknown structure without sequencing information across video sequences. Our proposed compressed sensing framework poses the estimation of 3D structure as the problem of dictionary learning, where the dictionary is defined as an aggregation of the temporally varying 3D structures. Given the smooth motion of dynamic objects, we observe any element in the dictionary can be well approximated by a sparse linear combination of other elements in the same dictionary (i.e. self-expression). Our formulation optimizes a biconvex cost function that leverages a compressed sensing formulation and enforces both structural dependency coherence across video streams, as well as motion smoothness across estimates from common video sources. We further analyze the reconstructability of our approach under different capture scenarios, and its comparison and relation to existing methods. Experimental results on large amounts of synthetic data as well as real imagery demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.

Pose Measurement Performance of the Argon Relative Navigation Sensor Suite in Simulated Flight Conditions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Galante, Joseph M.; Eepoel, John Van; Strube, Matt; Gill, Nat; Gonzalez, Marcelo; Hyslop, Andrew; Patrick, Bryan

2012-01-01

Argon is a flight-ready sensor suite with two visual cameras, a flash LIDAR, an on- board flight computer, and associated electronics. Argon was designed to provide sensing capabilities for relative navigation during proximity, rendezvous, and docking operations between spacecraft. A rigorous ground test campaign assessed the performance capability of the Argon navigation suite to measure the relative pose of high-fidelity satellite mock-ups during a variety of simulated rendezvous and proximity maneuvers facilitated by robot manipulators in a variety of lighting conditions representative of the orbital environment. A brief description of the Argon suite and test setup are given as well as an analysis of the performance of the system in simulated proximity and rendezvous operations.

Refined gradient theory of scale-dependent superthin rods

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lurie, S. A.; Kuznetsova, E. L.; Rabinskii, L. N.; Popova, E. I.

2015-03-01

A version of the refined nonclassical theory of thin beams whose thickness is comparable with the scale characteristic of the material structure is constructed on the basis of the gradient theory of elasticity which, in contrast to the classical theory, contains some additional physical characteristics depending on the structure scale parameters and is therefore most appropriate for modeling the strains of scale-dependent systems. The fundamental conditions for the well-posedness of the gradient theories are obtained for the first time, and it is shown that some of the known applied gradient theories do not generally satisfy the well-posedness criterion. A version of the well-posed gradient strain theory which satisfies the symmetry condition is proposed. The well-posed gradient theory is then used to implement the method of kinematic hypotheses for constructing a refined theory of scale-dependent beams. The equilibrium equations of the refined theory of scale-dependent Timoshenko and Bernoulli beams are obtained. It is shown that the scale effects are localized near the beam ends, and therefore, taking the scale effects into account does not give any correction to the bending rigidity of long beams as noted in the previously published papers dealing with the scale-dependent beams.

Variables Involved in Personal, Social and School Adjustment in a Sample of Preschool-Aged Children from Different Cultural Backgrounds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Calero, Maria Dolores; Fernandez-Parra, Antonio; Lopez-Rubio, Sonia; Carles, Rosario; Mata, Sara; Vives, Maria del Carmen; Navarro, Elena; Marquez, Jose

2013-01-01

The continuing incorporation of immigrant populations into the Spanish educational system poses an important challenge in that all participants must cooperate toward creating the best possible adaptation process at the academic level as well as on the personal and social levels. A number of different factors appear to influence children's…

Pose determination of a blade implant in three dimensions from a single two-dimensional radiograph.

PubMed

Toti, Paolo; Barone, Antonio; Marconcini, Simone; Menchini-Fabris, Giovanni Battista; Martuscelli, Ranieri; Covani, Ugo

2018-05-01

The aim of the study was to introduce a mathematical method to estimate the correct pose of a blade by evaluating the radiographic features obtained from a single two-dimensional image. Blade-form implant bed preparation was performed using the piezosurgery device, and placement was attained with the use of magnetic mallet. The pose determination of the blade was described by means of three consecutive rotations defined by three angles of orientation (triplet φ, θ and ψ). Retrospective analysis on periapical radiographs was performed. This method was used to compare implant (axial length along the marker, i.e. the implant structure) vs angular correction factor (a trigonometric function of the triplet). The accuracy of the method was tested by generating two-dimensional radiographic simulations of the blades, which were then compared with the images of the implants as appearing on the real radiographs. Two patients had to be excluded from further evaluation because the values of the estimated pose angles showed a too-wide range to be effective for a good standardization of serial radiographs: intrapatient range from baseline to 1-year survey was > of a threshold determined by the clinicians (30°). The linear dependence between implant (CF°) and angular correction factor (CF^) was estimated by a robust linear regression, yielding the following coefficients: slope, 0.908; intercept, -0.092; and coefficient of determination, 0.924. The absolute error in accuracy was -0.29 ± 4.35, 0.23 ± 3.81 and 0.64 ± 1.18°, respectively, for the angles φ, θ and ψ. The present theoretical and experimental study established the possibility of determining, a posteriori, a unique triplet of angles (φ, θ and ψ) which described the pose of a blade upon a single two-dimensional radiograph, and of suggesting a method to detect cases in which the standardized geometric projection failed. The angular correction of the bone level yielded results very close to those obtained with an internal marker related to the implant length.

A novel smart lighting clinical testbed.

PubMed

Gleason, Joseph D; Oishi, Meeko; Simkulet, Michelle; Tuzikas, Arunas; Brown, Lee K; Brueck, S R J; Karlicek, Robert F

2017-07-01

A real-time, feedback-capable, variable spectrum lighting system was recently installed at the University of New Mexico Hospital to facilitate biomedical research on the health impacts of lighting. The system consists of variable spectrum troffers, color sensors, occupancy sensors, and computing and communication infrastructure, and is the only such clinical facility in the US. The clinical environment posed special challenges for installation as well as for ongoing maintenance and operations. Pilot studies are currently underway to evaluate the effectiveness of the system to regulate circadian phase in subjects with delayed sleep-wake phase disorder.

The Galileo Attitude and Articulation Control System - A radiation-hard, high precision, state-of-the-art control system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rhoads Stephenson, R.

1986-01-01

The Galileo Mission and Spacecraft design impose tight requirements on the Attitude and Articulation Control System (AACS). These requirements, coupled with the flexible spacecraft, the need for autonomy, and a severe radiation environment, pose a great challenge for the AACS designer. The resulting design and implementation are described, along with the discovery and solution of the Single-Event Upset problem. The status of the testing of the AACS in the Integration and Test Laboratory as well as at the spacecraft level is summarized.

Transient and chaotic low-energy transfers in a system with bistable nonlinearity

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Romeo, F., E-mail: francesco.romeo@uniroma1.it; Manevitch, L. I.; Bergman, L. A.

2015-05-15

The low-energy dynamics of a two-dof system composed of a grounded linear oscillator coupled to a lightweight mass by means of a spring with both cubic nonlinear and negative linear components is investigated. The mechanisms leading to intense energy exchanges between the linear oscillator, excited by a low-energy impulse, and the nonlinear attachment are addressed. For lightly damped systems, it is shown that two main mechanisms arise: Aperiodic alternating in-well and cross-well oscillations of the nonlinear attachment, and secondary nonlinear beats occurring once the dynamics evolves solely in-well. The description of the former dissipative phenomenon is provided in a two-dimensionalmore » projection of the phase space, where transitions between in-well and cross-well oscillations are associated with sequences of crossings across a pseudo-separatrix. Whereas the second mechanism is described in terms of secondary limiting phase trajectories of the nonlinear attachment under certain resonance conditions. The analytical treatment of the two aformentioned low-energy transfer mechanisms relies on the reduction of the nonlinear dynamics and consequent analysis of the reduced dynamics by asymptotic techniques. Direct numerical simulations fully validate our analytical predictions.« less

Dysphagia Screening: Contributions of Cervical Auscultation Signals and Modern Signal-Processing Techniques

PubMed Central

Dudik, Joshua M.; Coyle, James L.

2015-01-01

Cervical auscultation is the recording of sounds and vibrations caused by the human body from the throat during swallowing. While traditionally done by a trained clinician with a stethoscope, much work has been put towards developing more sensitive and clinically useful methods to characterize the data obtained with this technique. The eventual goal of the field is to improve the effectiveness of screening algorithms designed to predict the risk that swallowing disorders pose to individual patients’ health and safety. This paper provides an overview of these signal processing techniques and summarizes recent advances made with digital transducers in hopes of organizing the highly varied research on cervical auscultation. It investigates where on the body these transducers are placed in order to record a signal as well as the collection of analog and digital filtering techniques used to further improve the signal quality. It also presents the wide array of methods and features used to characterize these signals, ranging from simply counting the number of swallows that occur over a period of time to calculating various descriptive features in the time, frequency, and phase space domains. Finally, this paper presents the algorithms that have been used to classify this data into ‘normal’ and ‘abnormal’ categories. Both linear as well as non-linear techniques are presented in this regard. PMID:26213659

Differentiation at Higher Levels of Cognitive Ability: Evidence from the United States

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kane, Harrison D.; Oakland, Thomas D.; Brand, Christopher R.

2006-01-01

Most psychologists and educators assume that intelligence is a linear construct, meaning that smart people simply have more intelligence than their less gifted peers. Likewise, individuals with mental retardation are thought to have less intelligence. In contrast to this widely accepted belief, the authors posed an alternative hypothesis--that…

Realtime Reconstruction of an Animating Human Body from a Single Depth Camera.

PubMed

Chen, Yin; Cheng, Zhi-Quan; Lai, Chao; Martin, Ralph R; Dang, Gang

2016-08-01

We present a method for realtime reconstruction of an animating human body,which produces a sequence of deforming meshes representing a given performance captured by a single commodity depth camera. We achieve realtime single-view mesh completion by enhancing the parameterized SCAPE model.Our method, which we call Realtime SCAPE, performs full-body reconstruction without the use of markers.In Realtime SCAPE, estimations of body shape parameters and pose parameters, needed for reconstruction, are decoupled. Intrinsic body shape is first precomputed for a given subject, by determining shape parameters with the aid of a body shape database. Subsequently, per-frame pose parameter estimation is performed by means of linear blending skinning (LBS); the problem is decomposed into separately finding skinning weights and transformations. The skinning weights are also determined offline from the body shape database,reducing online reconstruction to simply finding the transformations in LBS. Doing so is formulated as a linear variational problem;carefully designed constraints are used to impose temporal coherence and alleviate artifacts. Experiments demonstrate that our method can produce full-body mesh sequences with high fidelity.

High-efficient entanglement distillation from photon loss and decoherence.

PubMed

Wang, Tie-Jun; Wang, Chuan

2015-11-30

We illustrate an entanglement distillation protocol (EDP) for a mixed photon-ensemble which composed of four kinds of entangled states and vacuum states. Exploiting the linear optics and local entanglement resource (four-qubit entangled GHZ state), we design the nondemolition parity-checking and qubit amplifying (PCQA) setup for photonic polarization degree of freedom which are the key device of our scheme. With the PCQA setup, a high-fidelity entangled photon-pair system can be achieved against the transmission losses and the decoherence in noisy channels. And in the available purification range for our EDP, the fidelity of this ensemble can be improved to the maximal value through iterated operations. Compared to the conventional entanglement purification schemes, our scheme largely reduces the initialization requirement of the distilled mixed quantum system, and overcomes the difficulties posed by inherent channel losses during photon transmission. All these advantages make this scheme more useful in the practical applications of long-distance quantum communication.

Towards development of a mobile RF Doppler sensor for continuous heart rate variability and blood pressure monitoring.

PubMed

Insoo Kim; Bhagat, Yusuf A

2016-08-01

The standard in noninvasive blood pressure (BP) measurement is an inflatable cuff device based on the oscillometric method, which poses several practical challenges for continuous BP monitoring. Here, we present a novel ultra-wide band RF Doppler radar sensor for next-generation mobile interface for the purpose of characterizing fluid flow speeds, and for ultimately measuring cuffless blood flow in the human wrist. The system takes advantage of the 7.1~10.5 GHz ultra-wide band signals which can reduce transceiver complexity and power consumption overhead. Moreover, results obtained from hardware development, antenna design and human wrist modeling, and subsequent phantom development are reported. Our comprehensive lab bench system setup with a peristaltic pump was capable of characterizing various speed flow components during a linear velocity sweep of 5~62 cm/s. The sensor holds potential for providing estimates of heart rate and blood pressure.

Non-Cooperative Facial Recognition Video Dataset Collection Plan

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kimura, Marcia L.; Erikson, Rebecca L.; Lombardo, Nicholas J.

The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) will produce a non-cooperative (i.e. not posing for the camera) facial recognition video data set for research purposes to evaluate and enhance facial recognition systems technology. The aggregate data set consists of 1) videos capturing PNNL role players and public volunteers in three key operational settings, 2) photographs of the role players for enrolling in an evaluation database, and 3) ground truth data that documents when the role player is within various camera fields of view. PNNL will deliver the aggregate data set to DHS who may then choose to make it available tomore » other government agencies interested in evaluating and enhancing facial recognition systems. The three operational settings that will be the focus of the video collection effort include: 1) unidirectional crowd flow 2) bi-directional crowd flow, and 3) linear and/or serpentine queues.« less

PAN AIR: A computer program for predicting subsonic or supersonic linear potential flows about arbitrary configurations using a higher order panel method. Volume 4: Maintenance document (version 1.1)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Baruah, P. K.; Bussoletti, J. E.; Chiang, D. T.; Massena, W. A.; Nelson, F. D.; Furdon, D. J.; Tsurusaki, K.

1981-01-01

The Maintenance Document is a guide to the PAN AIR software system, a system which computes the subsonic or supersonic linear potential flow about a body of nearly arbitrary shape, using a higher order panel method. The document describes the over-all system and each program module of the system. Sufficient detail is given for program maintenance, updating and modification. It is assumed that the reader is familiar with programming and CDC (Control Data Corporation) computer systems. The PAN AIR system was written in FORTRAN 4 language except for a few COMPASS language subroutines which exist in the PAN AIR library. Structured programming techniques were used to provide code documentation and maintainability. The operating systems accommodated are NOS 1.2, NOS/BE and SCOPE 2.1.3 on the CDC 6600, 7600 and Cyber 175 computing systems. The system is comprised of a data management system, a program library, an execution control module and nine separate FORTRAN technical modules. Each module calculates part of the posed PAN AIR problem. The data base manager is used to communicate between modules and within modules. The technical modules must be run in a prescribed fashion for each PAN AIR problem. In order to ease the problem of supplying the many JCL cards required to execute the modules, a separate module called MEC (Module Execution Control) was created to automatically supply most of the JCL cards. In addition to the MEC generated JCL, there is an additional set of user supplied JCL cards to initiate the JCL sequence stored on the system.

Mechanical System Reliability and Cost Integration Using a Sequential Linear Approximation Method

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kowal, Michael T.

1997-01-01

The development of new products is dependent on product designs that incorporate high levels of reliability along with a design that meets predetermined levels of system cost. Additional constraints on the product include explicit and implicit performance requirements. Existing reliability and cost prediction methods result in no direct linkage between variables affecting these two dominant product attributes. A methodology to integrate reliability and cost estimates using a sequential linear approximation method is proposed. The sequential linear approximation method utilizes probability of failure sensitivities determined from probabilistic reliability methods as well a manufacturing cost sensitivities. The application of the sequential linear approximation method to a mechanical system is demonstrated.

A robotic orbital emulator with lidar-based SLAM and AMCL for multiple entity pose estimation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shen, Dan; Xiang, Xingyu; Jia, Bin; Wang, Zhonghai; Chen, Genshe; Blasch, Erik; Pham, Khanh

2018-05-01

This paper revises and evaluates an orbital emulator (OE) for space situational awareness (SSA). The OE can produce 3D satellite movements using capabilities generated from omni-wheeled robot and robotic arm motions. The 3D motion of satellite is partitioned into the movements in the equatorial plane and the up-down motions in the vertical plane. The 3D actions are emulated by omni-wheeled robot models while the up-down motions are performed by a stepped-motorcontrolled- ball along a rod (robotic arm), which is attached to the robot. Lidar only measurements are used to estimate the pose information of the multiple robots. SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping) is running on one robot to generate the map and compute the pose for the robot. Based on the SLAM map maintained by the robot, the other robots run the adaptive Monte Carlo localization (AMCL) method to estimate their poses. The controller is designed to guide the robot to follow a given orbit. The controllability is analyzed by using a feedback linearization method. Experiments are conducted to show the convergence of AMCL and the orbit tracking performance.

Neutron Imaging Control Report: FY 2016

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gibson, D. J.

2016-11-30

During the 2016 fiscal year, work began on the supervision and control systems for the neutron source currently under construction in the B194 accelerator caves. This source relies on a deuteron beam colliding with a high-speed stream of deuterium gas to create neutrons, which poses significant technical challenges. To help overcome those challenges, an integrated, operator-focused control architecture is required to collect and assimilate disparate data from a variety of measurement points, as well as provide the means to remotely control the system hardware.

First-Order System Least-Squares for the Navier-Stokes Equations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bochev, P.; Cai, Z.; Manteuffel, T. A.; McCormick, S. F.

1996-01-01

This paper develops a least-squares approach to the solution of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations in primitive variables. As with our earlier work on Stokes equations, we recast the Navier-Stokes equations as a first-order system by introducing a velocity flux variable and associated curl and trace equations. We show that the resulting system is well-posed, and that an associated least-squares principle yields optimal discretization error estimates in the H(sup 1) norm in each variable (including the velocity flux) and optimal multigrid convergence estimates for the resulting algebraic system.

Least-Squares Data Adjustment with Rank-Deficient Data Covariance Matrices

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Williams, J.G.

2011-07-01

A derivation of the linear least-squares adjustment formulae is required that avoids the assumption that the covariance matrix of prior parameters can be inverted. Possible proofs are of several kinds, including: (i) extension of standard results for the linear regression formulae, and (ii) minimization by differentiation of a quadratic form of the deviations in parameters and responses. In this paper, the least-squares adjustment equations are derived in both these ways, while explicitly assuming that the covariance matrix of prior parameters is singular. It will be proved that the solutions are unique and that, contrary to statements that have appeared inmore » the literature, the least-squares adjustment problem is not ill-posed. No modification is required to the adjustment formulae that have been used in the past in the case of a singular covariance matrix for the priors. In conclusion: The linear least-squares adjustment formula that has been used in the past is valid in the case of a singular covariance matrix for the covariance matrix of prior parameters. Furthermore, it provides a unique solution. Statements in the literature, to the effect that the problem is ill-posed are wrong. No regularization of the problem is required. This has been proved in the present paper by two methods, while explicitly assuming that the covariance matrix of prior parameters is singular: i) extension of standard results for the linear regression formulae, and (ii) minimization by differentiation of a quadratic form of the deviations in parameters and responses. No modification is needed to the adjustment formulae that have been used in the past. (author)« less

Control and System Theory, Optimization, Inverse and Ill-Posed Problems

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-09-14

Justlfleatlen Distribut ion/ Availability Codes # AFOSR-87-0350 Avat’ and/or1987-1988 Dist Special *CONTROL AND SYSTEM THEORY , ~ * OPTIMIZATION, * INVERSE...considerable va- riety of research investigations within the grant areas (Control and system theory , Optimization, and Ill-posed problems]. The

X-33 Ascent Flight Controller Design by Trajectory Linearization: A Singular Perturbational Approach

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zhu, J. Jim; Banker, Brad D.; Hall, Charles E.

2000-01-01

The flight control of X-33 poses a challenge to conventional gain-scheduled flight controllers due to its large attitude maneuvers from liftoff to orbit and reentry. In addition, a wide range of uncertainties in vehicle handling qualities and disturbances must be accommodated by the attitude control system. Nonlinear tracking and decoupling control by trajectory linearization can be viewed as the ideal gain-scheduling controller designed at every point on the flight trajectory. Therefore it provides robust stability and performance at all stages of flight without interpolation of controller gains and eliminates costly controller redesigns due to minor airframe alteration or mission reconfiguration. In this paper, a prototype trajectory linearization design for an X-33 ascent flight controller is presented along with 3-DOF and 6-DOF simulation results. It is noted that the 6-DOF results were obtained from the 3-DOF design with only a few hours of tuning, which demonstrates the inherent robustness of the design technique. It is this "plug-and-play" feature that is much needed by NASA for the development, test and routine operations of the RLV'S. Plans for further research are also presented, and refined 6-DOF simulation results will be presented in the final version of the paper.

Control design for robust stability in linear regulators: Application to aerospace flight control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yedavalli, R. K.

1986-01-01

Time domain stability robustness analysis and design for linear multivariable uncertain systems with bounded uncertainties is the central theme of the research. After reviewing the recently developed upper bounds on the linear elemental (structured), time varying perturbation of an asymptotically stable linear time invariant regulator, it is shown that it is possible to further improve these bounds by employing state transformations. Then introducing a quantitative measure called the stability robustness index, a state feedback conrol design algorithm is presented for a general linear regulator problem and then specialized to the case of modal systems as well as matched systems. The extension of the algorithm to stochastic systems with Kalman filter as the state estimator is presented. Finally an algorithm for robust dynamic compensator design is presented using Parameter Optimization (PO) procedure. Applications in a aircraft control and flexible structure control are presented along with a comparison with other existing methods.

Characterizing Hypervelocity Impact (HVI)-Induced Pitting Damage Using Active Guided Ultrasonic Waves: From Linear to Nonlinear

PubMed Central

Liu, Menglong; Wang, Kai; Lissenden, Cliff J.; Wang, Qiang; Zhang, Qingming; Long, Renrong; Su, Zhongqing; Cui, Fangsen

2017-01-01

Hypervelocity impact (HVI), ubiquitous in low Earth orbit with an impacting velocity in excess of 1 km/s, poses an immense threat to the safety of orbiting spacecraft. Upon penetration of the outer shielding layer of a typical two-layer shielding system, the shattered projectile, together with the jetted materials of the outer shielding material, subsequently impinge the inner shielding layer, to which pitting damage is introduced. The pitting damage includes numerous craters and cracks disorderedly scattered over a wide region. Targeting the quantitative evaluation of this sort of damage (multitudinous damage within a singular inspection region), a characterization strategy, associating linear with nonlinear features of guided ultrasonic waves, is developed. Linear-wise, changes in the signal features in the time domain (e.g., time-of-flight and energy dissipation) are extracted, for detecting gross damage whose characteristic dimensions are comparable to the wavelength of the probing wave; nonlinear-wise, changes in the signal features in the frequency domain (e.g., second harmonic generation), which are proven to be more sensitive than their linear counterparts to small-scale damage, are explored to characterize HVI-induced pitting damage scattered in the inner layer. A numerical simulation, supplemented with experimental validation, quantitatively reveals the accumulation of nonlinearity of the guided waves when the waves traverse the pitting damage, based on which linear and nonlinear damage indices are proposed. A path-based rapid imaging algorithm, in conjunction with the use of the developed linear and nonlinear indices, is developed, whereby the HVI-induced pitting damage is characterized in images in terms of the probability of occurrence. PMID:28772908

A Linearized Prognostic Cloud Scheme in NASAs Goddard Earth Observing System Data Assimilation Tools

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Holdaway, Daniel; Errico, Ronald M.; Gelaro, Ronald; Kim, Jong G.; Mahajan, Rahul

2015-01-01

A linearized prognostic cloud scheme has been developed to accompany the linearized convection scheme recently implemented in NASA's Goddard Earth Observing System data assimilation tools. The linearization, developed from the nonlinear cloud scheme, treats cloud variables prognostically so they are subject to linearized advection, diffusion, generation, and evaporation. Four linearized cloud variables are modeled, the ice and water phases of clouds generated by large-scale condensation and, separately, by detraining convection. For each species the scheme models their sources, sublimation, evaporation, and autoconversion. Large-scale, anvil and convective species of precipitation are modeled and evaporated. The cloud scheme exhibits linearity and realistic perturbation growth, except around the generation of clouds through large-scale condensation. Discontinuities and steep gradients are widely used here and severe problems occur in the calculation of cloud fraction. For data assimilation applications this poor behavior is controlled by replacing this part of the scheme with a perturbation model. For observation impacts, where efficiency is less of a concern, a filtering is developed that examines the Jacobian. The replacement scheme is only invoked if Jacobian elements or eigenvalues violate a series of tuned constants. The linearized prognostic cloud scheme is tested by comparing the linear and nonlinear perturbation trajectories for 6-, 12-, and 24-h forecast times. The tangent linear model performs well and perturbations of clouds are well captured for the lead times of interest.

The rarity of "unusual" [corrected] dispositions of victim bodies: staging and posing.

PubMed

Keppel, Robert D; Weis, Joseph G

2004-11-01

The act of leaving a victim's body in an unusual position is a conscious criminal action by an offender to thwart an investigation, shock the finder and investigators of the crime scene, or give perverted pleasure to the killer. The unusual position concepts of posing and staging a murder victim have been documented thoroughly and have been accepted by the courts as a definable phenomenon. One staging case and one posing case are outlined and reveal characteristics of those homicides. From the Washington State Attorney General's Homicide Investigation and Tracking System's database on murder covering the years 1981-2000 (a total of 5,224 cases), the relative frequency of unusual body dispositions is revealed as a very rare occurrence. Only 1.3% of victims are left in an unusual position, with 0.3% being posed and 0.1% being staged. The characteristics of these types of murders also set them apart: compared to all other murders, in staged murders the victims and killers are, on average, older. All victims and offenders in the staged murders are white, with victims being disproportionately white in murders with any kind of unusual body disposition. Likewise, females stand out as victims when the body is posed, staged, or left in other unusual positions. Whereas posed bodies are more likely to include sexual assault, often in serial murders, there is no evidence of either in the staged cases. Lastly, when a body is left in an unusual position, binding is more likely, as well as the use of more "hands on" means of killing the victim, such as stabbing or cutting weapons, bludgeons, ligatures, or hands and feet.

Differences between measured and linearly interpolated synoptic variables over a 12-h period during AVE 4

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dupuis, L. R.; Scoggins, J. R.

1979-01-01

Results of analyses revealed that nonlinear changes or differences formed centers or systems, that were mesosynoptic in nature. These systems correlated well in space with upper level short waves, frontal zones, and radar observed convection, and were very systematic in time and space. Many of the centers of differences were well established in the vertical, extending up to the tropopause. Statistical analysis showed that on the average nonlinear changes were larger in convective areas than nonconvective regions. Errors often exceeding 100 percent were made by assuming variables to change linearly through a 12-h period in areas of thunderstorms, indicating that these nonlinear changes are important in the development of severe weather. Linear changes, however, accounted for more and more of an observed change as the time interval (within the 12-h interpolation period) increased, implying that the accuracy of linear interpolation increased over larger time intervals.

Sinc-Galerkin estimation of diffusivity in parabolic problems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smith, Ralph C.; Bowers, Kenneth L.

1991-01-01

A fully Sinc-Galerkin method for the numerical recovery of spatially varying diffusion coefficients in linear partial differential equations is presented. Because the parameter recovery problems are inherently ill-posed, an output error criterion in conjunction with Tikhonov regularization is used to formulate them as infinite-dimensional minimization problems. The forward problems are discretized with a sinc basis in both the spatial and temporal domains thus yielding an approximate solution which displays an exponential convergence rate and is valid on the infinite time interval. The minimization problems are then solved via a quasi-Newton/trust region algorithm. The L-curve technique for determining an approximate value of the regularization parameter is briefly discussed, and numerical examples are given which show the applicability of the method both for problems with noise-free data as well as for those whose data contains white noise.

PAN AIR modeling studies. [higher order panel method for aircraft design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Towne, M. C.; Strande, S. M.; Erickson, L. L.; Kroo, I. M.; Enomoto, F. Y.; Carmichael, R. L.; Mcpherson, K. F.

1983-01-01

PAN AIR is a computer program that predicts subsonic or supersonic linear potential flow about arbitrary configurations. The code's versatility and generality afford numerous possibilities for modeling flow problems. Although this generality provides great flexibility, it also means that studies are required to establish the dos and don'ts of modeling. The purpose of this paper is to describe and evaluate a variety of methods for modeling flows with PAN AIR. The areas discussed are effects of panel density, internal flow modeling, forebody modeling in subsonic flow, propeller slipstream modeling, effect of wake length, wing-tail-wake interaction, effect of trailing-edge paneling on the Kutta condition, well- and ill-posed boundary-value problems, and induced-drag calculations. These nine topics address problems that are of practical interest to the users of PAN AIR.

Isometric Non-Rigid Shape-from-Motion with Riemannian Geometry Solved in Linear Time.

PubMed

Parashar, Shaifali; Pizarro, Daniel; Bartoli, Adrien

2017-10-06

We study Isometric Non-Rigid Shape-from-Motion (Iso-NRSfM): given multiple intrinsically calibrated monocular images, we want to reconstruct the time-varying 3D shape of a thin-shell object undergoing isometric deformations. We show that Iso-NRSfM is solvable from local warps, the inter-image geometric transformations. We propose a new theoretical framework based on the Riemmanian manifold to represent the unknown 3D surfaces as embeddings of the camera's retinal plane. This allows us to use the manifold's metric tensor and Christoffel Symbol (CS) fields. These are expressed in terms of the first and second order derivatives of the inverse-depth of the 3D surfaces, which are the unknowns for Iso-NRSfM. We prove that the metric tensor and the CS are related across images by simple rules depending only on the warps. This forms a set of important theoretical results. We show that current solvers cannot solve for the first and second order derivatives of the inverse-depth simultaneously. We thus propose an iterative solution in two steps. 1) We solve for the first order derivatives assuming that the second order derivatives are known. We initialise the second order derivatives to zero, which is an infinitesimal planarity assumption. We derive a system of two cubics in two variables for each image pair. The sum-of-squares of these polynomials is independent of the number of images and can be solved globally, forming a well-posed problem for N ≥ 3 images. 2) We solve for the second order derivatives by initialising the first order derivatives from the previous step. We solve a linear system of 4N-4 equations in three variables. We iterate until the first order derivatives converge. The solution for the first order derivatives gives the surfaces' normal fields which we integrate to recover the 3D surfaces. The proposed method outperforms existing work in terms of accuracy and computation cost on synthetic and real datasets.

Sum-of-Squares-Based Region of Attraction Analysis for Gain-Scheduled Three-Loop Autopilot

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Seo, Min-Won; Kwon, Hyuck-Hoon; Choi, Han-Lim

2018-04-01

A conventional method of designing a missile autopilot is to linearize the original nonlinear dynamics at several trim points, then to determine linear controllers for each linearized model, and finally implement gain-scheduling technique. The validation of such a controller is often based on linear system analysis for the linear closed-loop system at the trim conditions. Although this type of gain-scheduled linear autopilot works well in practice, validation based solely on linear analysis may not be sufficient to fully characterize the closed-loop system especially when the aerodynamic coefficients exhibit substantial nonlinearity with respect to the flight condition. The purpose of this paper is to present a methodology for analyzing the stability of a gain-scheduled controller in a setting close to the original nonlinear setting. The method is based on sum-of-squares (SOS) optimization that can be used to characterize the region of attraction of a polynomial system by solving convex optimization problems. The applicability of the proposed SOS-based methodology is verified on a short-period autopilot of a skid-to-turn missile.

Blending Velocities In Task Space In Computing Robot Motions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Volpe, Richard A.

1995-01-01

Blending of linear and angular velocities between sequential specified points in task space constitutes theoretical basis of improved method of computing trajectories followed by robotic manipulators. In method, generalized velocity-vector-blending technique provides relatively simple, common conceptual framework for blending linear, angular, and other parametric velocities. Velocity vectors originate from straight-line segments connecting specified task-space points, called "via frames" and represent specified robot poses. Linear-velocity-blending functions chosen from among first-order, third-order-polynomial, and cycloidal options. Angular velocities blended by use of first-order approximation of previous orientation-matrix-blending formulation. Angular-velocity approximation yields small residual error, quantified and corrected. Method offers both relative simplicity and speed needed for generation of robot-manipulator trajectories in real time.

The representation of manipulable solid objects in a relational database

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bahler, D.

1984-01-01

This project is concerned with the interface between database management and solid geometric modeling. The desirability of integrating computer-aided design, manufacture, testing, and management into a coherent system is by now well recognized. One proposed configuration for such a system uses a relational database management system as the central focus; the various other functions are linked through their use of a common data repesentation in the data manager, rather than communicating pairwise to integrate a geometric modeling capability with a generic relational data managemet system in such a way that well-formed questions can be posed and answered about the performance of the system as a whole. One necessary feature of any such system is simplification for purposes of anaysis; this and system performance considerations meant that a paramount goal therefore was that of unity and simplicity of the data structures used.

Decentralized State Estimation and Remedial Control Action for Minimum Wind Curtailment Using Distributed Computing Platform

DOE PAGES

Liu, Ren; Srivastava, Anurag K.; Bakken, David E.; ...

2017-08-17

Intermittency of wind energy poses a great challenge for power system operation and control. Wind curtailment might be necessary at the certain operating condition to keep the line flow within the limit. Remedial Action Scheme (RAS) offers quick control action mechanism to keep reliability and security of the power system operation with high wind energy integration. In this paper, a new RAS is developed to maximize the wind energy integration without compromising the security and reliability of the power system based on specific utility requirements. A new Distributed Linear State Estimation (DLSE) is also developed to provide the fast andmore » accurate input data for the proposed RAS. A distributed computational architecture is designed to guarantee the robustness of the cyber system to support RAS and DLSE implementation. The proposed RAS and DLSE is validated using the modified IEEE-118 Bus system. Simulation results demonstrate the satisfactory performance of the DLSE and the effectiveness of RAS. Real-time cyber-physical testbed has been utilized to validate the cyber-resiliency of the developed RAS against computational node failure.« less

Decentralized State Estimation and Remedial Control Action for Minimum Wind Curtailment Using Distributed Computing Platform

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Liu, Ren; Srivastava, Anurag K.; Bakken, David E.

Intermittency of wind energy poses a great challenge for power system operation and control. Wind curtailment might be necessary at the certain operating condition to keep the line flow within the limit. Remedial Action Scheme (RAS) offers quick control action mechanism to keep reliability and security of the power system operation with high wind energy integration. In this paper, a new RAS is developed to maximize the wind energy integration without compromising the security and reliability of the power system based on specific utility requirements. A new Distributed Linear State Estimation (DLSE) is also developed to provide the fast andmore » accurate input data for the proposed RAS. A distributed computational architecture is designed to guarantee the robustness of the cyber system to support RAS and DLSE implementation. The proposed RAS and DLSE is validated using the modified IEEE-118 Bus system. Simulation results demonstrate the satisfactory performance of the DLSE and the effectiveness of RAS. Real-time cyber-physical testbed has been utilized to validate the cyber-resiliency of the developed RAS against computational node failure.« less

The Use of Articles in L2 English: A Phraseological Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lesniewska, Justyna

2016-01-01

While it is a well-known fact that speakers of article-less mother tongues, such as Polish, experience problems with articles in English, this study seeks to investigate the problem from a different perspective. Namely, it poses the question of whether the correct use of the article system of the L2 is indeed a purely grammatical task (as it is…

Significance of cannabis use to dental practice.

PubMed

Maloney, William James

2011-04-01

The illicit use of the three main forms of cannabis-marijuana, hash, hash oil-pose certain obstacles and challenges to the dental professional. There are a number of systemic, as well as oral/head and neck manifestations, associated with cannabis use. Dentists need to be aware of these manifestations in order to take whatever precautions and/or modifications to the proposed treatment that might be necessary.

A taxonomic framework for assessing governance challenges and environmental effects of integrated food-energy systems.

PubMed

Gerst, Michael D; Cox, Michael E; Locke, Kim A; Laser, Mark; Kapuscinski, Anne R

2015-01-20

Predominant forms of food and energy systems pose multiple challenges to the environment as current configurations tend to be structured around centralized one-way through-put of materials and energy. In addition, these configurations can introduce vulnerability to input material price and supply shocks as well as contribute to localized food insecurity and lost opportunities for less environmentally harmful forms of local economic development. One proposed form of system transformation involves locally integrating “unclosed” material and energy loops from food and energy systems. Such systems, which have been termed integrated food-energy systems (IFES), have existed in diverse niche forms but have not been systematically studied with respect to technological, governance, and environmental differences. As a first step in this process, we have constructed a taxonomy of IFES archetypes by using exploratory data analysis on a collection of IFES cases. We find that IFES may be classified hierarchically first by their primary purpose—food or energy production—and subsequently by degree and direction of vertical supply chain coordination. We then use this taxonomy to delineate potential governance challenges and pose a research agenda aimed at understanding what role IFES may play in food and energy system transformation and ultimately what policies may encourage IFES adoption.

Precise visual navigation using multi-stereo vision and landmark matching

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhu, Zhiwei; Oskiper, Taragay; Samarasekera, Supun; Kumar, Rakesh

2007-04-01

Traditional vision-based navigation system often drifts over time during navigation. In this paper, we propose a set of techniques which greatly reduce the long term drift and also improve its robustness to many failure conditions. In our approach, two pairs of stereo cameras are integrated to form a forward/backward multi-stereo camera system. As a result, the Field-Of-View of the system is extended significantly to capture more natural landmarks from the scene. This helps to increase the pose estimation accuracy as well as reduce the failure situations. Secondly, a global landmark matching technique is used to recognize the previously visited locations during navigation. Using the matched landmarks, a pose correction technique is used to eliminate the accumulated navigation drift. Finally, in order to further improve the robustness of the system, measurements from low-cost Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) and Global Positioning System (GPS) sensors are integrated with the visual odometry in an extended Kalman Filtering framework. Our system is significantly more accurate and robust than previously published techniques (1~5% localization error) over long-distance navigation both indoors and outdoors. Real world experiments on a human worn system show that the location can be estimated within 1 meter over 500 meters (around 0.1% localization error averagely) without the use of GPS information.

Optimization of heavy metals total emission, case study: Bor (Serbia)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ilić, Ivana; Bogdanović, Dejan; Živković, Dragana; Milošević, Novica; Todorović, Boban

2011-07-01

The town of Bor (Serbia) is one of the most polluted towns in southeastern Europe. The copper smelter which is situated in the centre of the town is the main pollutant, mostly because of its old technology, which leads to environmental pollution caused by higher concentrations of SO 2 and PM 10. These facts show that the word is about a very polluted region in Europe which, apart from harming human health in the region itself, poses a particular danger for wider area of southeastern Europe. Optimization of heavy metal's total emission was undertaken because years of long contamination of the soil with heavy metals of anthropogenic origin created a danger that those heavy metals may enter the food chains of animals and people, which can lead to disastrous consequences. This work represents the usage of Geographic Information System (GIS) for establishing a multifactor assessment model to quantitatively divide polluted zones and for selecting control sites in a linear programming model, combined with PROMETHEE/GAIA method, Screen View modeling system, and linear programming model. The results show that emissions at some control sites need to be cut for about 40%. In order to control the background of heavy metal pollution in Bor, the ecological environment must be improved.

Linearized aerodynamic and control law models of the X-29A airplane and comparison with flight data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bosworth, John T.

1992-01-01

Flight control system design and analysis for aircraft rely on mathematical models of the vehicle dynamics. In addition to a six degree of freedom nonlinear simulation, the X-29A flight controls group developed a set of programs that calculate linear perturbation models throughout the X-29A flight envelope. The models include the aerodynamics as well as flight control system dynamics and were used for stability, controllability, and handling qualities analysis. These linear models were compared to flight test results to help provide a safe flight envelope expansion. A description is given of the linear models at three flight conditions and two flight control system modes. The models are presented with a level of detail that would allow the reader to reproduce the linear results if desired. Comparison between the response of the linear model and flight measured responses are presented to demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of the linear models' ability to predict flight dynamics.

Single slice US-MRI registration for neurosurgical MRI-guided US

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pardasani, Utsav; Baxter, John S. H.; Peters, Terry M.; Khan, Ali R.

2016-03-01

Image-based ultrasound to magnetic resonance image (US-MRI) registration can be an invaluable tool in image-guided neuronavigation systems. State-of-the-art commercial and research systems utilize image-based registration to assist in functions such as brain-shift correction, image fusion, and probe calibration. Since traditional US-MRI registration techniques use reconstructed US volumes or a series of tracked US slices, the functionality of this approach can be compromised by the limitations of optical or magnetic tracking systems in the neurosurgical operating room. These drawbacks include ergonomic issues, line-of-sight/magnetic interference, and maintenance of the sterile field. For those seeking a US vendor-agnostic system, these issues are compounded with the challenge of instrumenting the probe without permanent modification and calibrating the probe face to the tracking tool. To address these challenges, this paper explores the feasibility of a real-time US-MRI volume registration in a small virtual craniotomy site using a single slice. We employ the Linear Correlation of Linear Combination (LC2) similarity metric in its patch-based form on data from MNI's Brain Images for Tumour Evaluation (BITE) dataset as a PyCUDA enabled Python module in Slicer. By retaining the original orientation information, we are able to improve on the poses using this approach. To further assist the challenge of US-MRI registration, we also present the BOXLC2 metric which demonstrates a speed improvement to LC2, while retaining a similar accuracy in this context.

Dynamic photogrammetric calibration of industrial robots

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maas, Hans-Gerd

1997-07-01

Today's developments in industrial robots focus on aims like gain of flexibility, improvement of the interaction between robots and reduction of down-times. A very important method to achieve these goals are off-line programming techniques. In contrast to conventional teach-in-robot programming techniques, where sequences of actions are defined step-by- step via remote control on the real object, off-line programming techniques design complete robot (inter-)action programs in a CAD/CAM environment. This poses high requirements to the geometric accuracy of a robot. While the repeatability of robot poses in the teach-in mode is often better than 0.1 mm, the absolute pose accuracy potential of industrial robots is usually much worse due to tolerances, eccentricities, elasticities, play, wear-out, load, temperature and insufficient knowledge of model parameters for the transformation from poses into robot axis angles. This fact necessitates robot calibration techniques, including the formulation of a robot model describing kinematics and dynamics of the robot, and a measurement technique to provide reference data. Digital photogrammetry as an accurate, economic technique with realtime potential offers itself for this purpose. The paper analyzes the requirements posed to a measurement technique by industrial robot calibration tasks. After an overview on measurement techniques used for robot calibration purposes in the past, a photogrammetric robot calibration system based on off-the- shelf lowcost hardware components will be shown and results of pilot studies will be discussed. Besides aspects of accuracy, reliability and self-calibration in a fully automatic dynamic photogrammetric system, realtime capabilities are discussed. In the pilot studies, standard deviations of 0.05 - 0.25 mm in the three coordinate directions could be achieved over a robot work range of 1.7 X 1.5 X 1.0 m3. The realtime capabilities of the technique allow to go beyond kinematic robot calibration and perform dynamic robot calibration as well as photogrammetric on-line control of a robot in action.

Ultra-wideband pose detection system for boom-type roadheader based on Caffery transform and Taylor series expansion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fu, Shichen; Li, Yiming; Zhang, Minjun; Zong, Kai; Cheng, Long; Wu, Miao

2018-01-01

To realize unmanned pose detection of a coalmine boom-type roadheader, an ultra-wideband (UWB) pose detection system (UPDS) for a roadheader is designed, which consists of four UWB positioning base stations and three roadheader positioning nodes. The positioning base stations are used in turn to locate the positioning nodes of the roadheader fuselage. Using 12 sets of distance measurement information, a time-of-arrival (TOA) positioning model is established to calculate the 3D coordinates of three positioning nodes of the roadheader fuselage, and the three attitude angles (heading, pitch, and roll angles) of the roadheader fuselage are solved. A range accuracy experiment of a UWB P440 module was carried out in a narrow and closed tunnel, and the experiment data show that the mean error and standard deviation of the module can reach below 2 cm. Based on the TOA positioning model of the UPDS, we propose a fusion-positioning algorithm based on a Caffery transform and Taylor series expansion (CTFPA). We derived the complete calculation process, designed a flowchart, and carried out a simulation of CTFPA in MATLAB, comparing 1000 simulated positioning nodes of CTFPA and the Caffery positioning algorithm (CPA) for a 95 m long tunnel. The positioning error field of the tunnel was established, and the influence of the spatial variation on the positioning accuracy of CPA and CTFPA was analysed. The simulation results show that, compared with CPA, the positioning accuracy of CTFPA is clearly improved, and the accuracy of each axis can reach more than 5 mm. The accuracy of the X-axis is higher than that of the Y- and Z-axes. In section X-Y of the tunnel, the root mean square error (RMSE) contours of CTFPA are clear and orderly, and with an increase in the measuring distance, RMSE increases linearly. In section X-Z, the RMSE contours are concentric circles, and the variation ratio is nonlinear.

Pose Self-Calibration of Stereo Vision Systems for Autonomous Vehicle Applications.

PubMed

Musleh, Basam; Martín, David; Armingol, José María; de la Escalera, Arturo

2016-09-14

Nowadays, intelligent systems applied to vehicles have grown very rapidly; their goal is not only the improvement of safety, but also making autonomous driving possible. Many of these intelligent systems are based on making use of computer vision in order to know the environment and act accordingly. It is of great importance to be able to estimate the pose of the vision system because the measurement matching between the perception system (pixels) and the vehicle environment (meters) depends on the relative position between the perception system and the environment. A new method of camera pose estimation for stereo systems is presented in this paper, whose main contribution regarding the state of the art on the subject is the estimation of the pitch angle without being affected by the roll angle. The validation of the self-calibration method is accomplished by comparing it with relevant methods of camera pose estimation, where a synthetic sequence is used in order to measure the continuous error with a ground truth. This validation is enriched by the experimental results of the method in real traffic environments.

Pose Self-Calibration of Stereo Vision Systems for Autonomous Vehicle Applications

PubMed Central

Musleh, Basam; Martín, David; Armingol, José María; de la Escalera, Arturo

2016-01-01

Nowadays, intelligent systems applied to vehicles have grown very rapidly; their goal is not only the improvement of safety, but also making autonomous driving possible. Many of these intelligent systems are based on making use of computer vision in order to know the environment and act accordingly. It is of great importance to be able to estimate the pose of the vision system because the measurement matching between the perception system (pixels) and the vehicle environment (meters) depends on the relative position between the perception system and the environment. A new method of camera pose estimation for stereo systems is presented in this paper, whose main contribution regarding the state of the art on the subject is the estimation of the pitch angle without being affected by the roll angle. The validation of the self-calibration method is accomplished by comparing it with relevant methods of camera pose estimation, where a synthetic sequence is used in order to measure the continuous error with a ground truth. This validation is enriched by the experimental results of the method in real traffic environments. PMID:27649178

Enhancement of flow measurements using fluid-dynamic constraints

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Egger, H.; Seitz, T.; Tropea, C.

2017-09-01

Novel experimental modalities acquire spatially resolved velocity measurements for steady state and transient flows which are of interest for engineering and biological applications. One of the drawbacks of such high resolution velocity data is their susceptibility to measurement errors. In this paper, we propose a novel filtering strategy that allows enhancement of the noisy measurements to obtain reconstruction of smooth divergence free velocity and corresponding pressure fields which together approximately comply to a prescribed flow model. The main step in our approach consists of the appropriate use of the velocity measurements in the design of a linearized flow model which can be shown to be well-posed and consistent with the true velocity and pressure fields up to measurement and modeling errors. The reconstruction procedure is then formulated as an optimal control problem for this linearized flow model. The resulting filter has analyzable smoothing and approximation properties. We briefly discuss the discretization of the approach by finite element methods and comment on the efficient solution by iterative methods. The capability of the proposed filter to significantly reduce data noise is demonstrated by numerical tests including the application to experimental data. In addition, we compare with other methods like smoothing and solenoidal filtering.

Global Well-Posedness of the Incompressible Magnetohydrodynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cai, Yuan; Lei, Zhen

2018-06-01

This paper studies the Cauchy problem of the incompressible magnetohydro dynamic systems with or without viscosity ν. Under the assumption that the initial velocity field and the displacement of the initialmagnetic field froma non-zero constant are sufficiently small in certain weighted Sobolev spaces, the Cauchy problem is shown to be globally well-posed for all ν ≧ 0 and all spaces with dimension n ≧ 2. Such a result holds true uniformly in nonnegative viscosity parameters. The proof is based on the inherent strong null structure of the systems introduced by Lei (Commun Pure Appl Math 69(11):2072-2106, 2016) and the ghost weight technique introduced by Alinhac (Invent Math 145(3):597-618, 2001).

DAISY: a new software tool to test global identifiability of biological and physiological systems

PubMed Central

Bellu, Giuseppina; Saccomani, Maria Pia; Audoly, Stefania; D’Angiò, Leontina

2009-01-01

A priori global identifiability is a structural property of biological and physiological models. It is considered a prerequisite for well-posed estimation, since it concerns the possibility of recovering uniquely the unknown model parameters from measured input-output data, under ideal conditions (noise-free observations and error-free model structure). Of course, determining if the parameters can be uniquely recovered from observed data is essential before investing resources, time and effort in performing actual biomedical experiments. Many interesting biological models are nonlinear but identifiability analysis for nonlinear system turns out to be a difficult mathematical problem. Different methods have been proposed in the literature to test identifiability of nonlinear models but, to the best of our knowledge, so far no software tools have been proposed for automatically checking identifiability of nonlinear models. In this paper, we describe a software tool implementing a differential algebra algorithm to perform parameter identifiability analysis for (linear and) nonlinear dynamic models described by polynomial or rational equations. Our goal is to provide the biological investigator a completely automatized software, requiring minimum prior knowledge of mathematical modelling and no in-depth understanding of the mathematical tools. The DAISY (Differential Algebra for Identifiability of SYstems) software will potentially be useful in biological modelling studies, especially in physiology and clinical medicine, where research experiments are particularly expensive and/or difficult to perform. Practical examples of use of the software tool DAISY are presented. DAISY is available at the web site http://www.dei.unipd.it/~pia/. PMID:17707944

Linear Temporal Logic (LTL) Based Monitoring of Smart Manufacturing Systems

PubMed Central

Heddy, Gerald; Huzaifa, Umer; Beling, Peter; Haimes, Yacov; Marvel, Jeremy; Weiss, Brian; LaViers, Amy

2017-01-01

The vision of Smart Manufacturing Systems (SMS) includes collaborative robots that can adapt to a range of scenarios. This vision requires a classification of multiple system behaviors, or sequences of movement, that can achieve the same high-level tasks. Likewise, this vision presents unique challenges regarding the management of environmental variables in concert with discrete, logic-based programming. Overcoming these challenges requires targeted performance and health monitoring of both the logical controller and the physical components of the robotic system. Prognostics and health management (PHM) defines a field of techniques and methods that enable condition-monitoring, diagnostics, and prognostics of physical elements, functional processes, overall systems, etc. PHM is warranted in this effort given that the controller is vulnerable to program changes, which propagate in unexpected ways, logical runtime exceptions, sensor failure, and even bit rot. The physical component’s health is affected by the wear and tear experienced by machines constantly in motion. The controller’s source of faults is inherently discrete, while the latter occurs in a manner that builds up continuously over time. Such a disconnect poses unique challenges for PHM. This paper presents a robotic monitoring system that captures and resolves this disconnect. This effort leverages supervisory robotic control and model checking with linear temporal logic (LTL), presenting them as a novel monitoring system for PHM. This methodology has been demonstrated in a MATLAB-based simulator for an industry inspired use-case in the context of PHM. Future work will use the methodology to develop adaptive, intelligent control strategies to evenly distribute wear on the joints of the robotic arms, maximizing the life of the system. PMID:28730154

Monocular-Based 6-Degree of Freedom Pose Estimation Technology for Robotic Intelligent Grasping Systems

PubMed Central

Liu, Tao; Guo, Yin; Yang, Shourui; Yin, Shibin; Zhu, Jigui

2017-01-01

Industrial robots are expected to undertake ever more advanced tasks in the modern manufacturing industry, such as intelligent grasping, in which robots should be capable of recognizing the position and orientation of a part before grasping it. In this paper, a monocular-based 6-degree of freedom (DOF) pose estimation technology to enable robots to grasp large-size parts at informal poses is proposed. A camera was mounted on the robot end-flange and oriented to measure several featured points on the part before the robot moved to grasp it. In order to estimate the part pose, a nonlinear optimization model based on the camera object space collinearity error in different poses is established, and the initial iteration value is estimated with the differential transformation. Measuring poses of the camera are optimized based on uncertainty analysis. Also, the principle of the robotic intelligent grasping system was developed, with which the robot could adjust its pose to grasp the part. In experimental tests, the part poses estimated with the method described in this paper were compared with those produced by a laser tracker, and results show the RMS angle and position error are about 0.0228° and 0.4603 mm. Robotic intelligent grasping tests were also successfully performed in the experiments. PMID:28216555

Monocular-Based 6-Degree of Freedom Pose Estimation Technology for Robotic Intelligent Grasping Systems.

PubMed

Liu, Tao; Guo, Yin; Yang, Shourui; Yin, Shibin; Zhu, Jigui

2017-02-14

Industrial robots are expected to undertake ever more advanced tasks in the modern manufacturing industry, such as intelligent grasping, in which robots should be capable of recognizing the position and orientation of a part before grasping it. In this paper, a monocular-based 6-degree of freedom (DOF) pose estimation technology to enable robots to grasp large-size parts at informal poses is proposed. A camera was mounted on the robot end-flange and oriented to measure several featured points on the part before the robot moved to grasp it. In order to estimate the part pose, a nonlinear optimization model based on the camera object space collinearity error in different poses is established, and the initial iteration value is estimated with the differential transformation. Measuring poses of the camera are optimized based on uncertainty analysis. Also, the principle of the robotic intelligent grasping system was developed, with which the robot could adjust its pose to grasp the part. In experimental tests, the part poses estimated with the method described in this paper were compared with those produced by a laser tracker, and results show the RMS angle and position error are about 0.0228° and 0.4603 mm. Robotic intelligent grasping tests were also successfully performed in the experiments.

Vehicle height and posture control of the electronic air suspension system using the hybrid system approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Xiaoqiang; Cai, Yingfeng; Chen, Long; Liu, Yanling; Wang, Shaohua

2016-03-01

The electronic air suspension (EAS) system can improve ride comfort, fuel economy and handling safety of vehicles by adjusting vehicle height. This paper describes the development of a novel controller using the hybrid system approach to adjust the vehicle height (height control) and to regulate the roll and pitch angles of the vehicle body during the height adjustment process (posture control). The vehicle height adjustment system of EAS poses challenging hybrid control problems, since it features different discrete modes of operation, where each mode has an associated linear continuous-time dynamic. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to the modelling and controller design problem for the vehicle height adjustment system of EAS. The system model is described firstly in the hybrid system description language (HYSDEL) to obtain a mixed logical dynamical (MLD) hybrid model. For the resulting model, a hybrid model predictive controller is tuned to improve the vehicle height and posture tracking accuracy and to achieve the on-off statuses direct control of solenoid valves. The effectiveness and performance of the proposed approach are demonstrated by simulations and actual vehicle tests.

Polarization-dependent plasmonic photocurrents in two-dimensional electron systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Popov, V. V., E-mail: popov-slava@yahoo.co.uk; Saratov State University, Saratov 410012; Saratov Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Saratov 410028

2016-06-27

Plasmonic polarization dependent photocurrents in a homogeneous two-dimensional electron system are studied. Those effects are completely different from the photon drag and electronic photogalvanic effects as well as from the plasmonic ratchet effect in a density modulated two-dimensional electron system. Linear and helicity-dependent contributions to the photocurrent are found. The linear contribution can be interpreted as caused by the longitudinal and transverse plasmon drag effect. The helicity-dependent contribution originates from the non-linear electron convection and changes its sign with reversing the plasmonic field helicity. It is shown that the helicity-dependent component of the photocurrent can exceed the linear one bymore » several orders of magnitude in high-mobility two-dimensional electron systems. The results open possibilities for all-electronic detection of the radiation polarization states by exciting the plasmonic photocurrents in two-dimensional electron systems.« less

Oscillation criteria for half-linear dynamic equations on time scales

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hassan, Taher S.

2008-09-01

This paper is concerned with oscillation of the second-order half-linear dynamic equation(r(t)(x[Delta])[gamma])[Delta]+p(t)x[gamma](t)=0, on a time scale where [gamma] is the quotient of odd positive integers, r(t) and p(t) are positive rd-continuous functions on . Our results solve a problem posed by [R.P. Agarwal, D. O'Regan, S.H. Saker, Philos-type oscillation criteria for second-order half linear dynamic equations, Rocky Mountain J. Math. 37 (2007) 1085-1104; S.H. Saker, Oscillation criteria of second order half-linear dynamic equations on time scales, J. Comput. Appl. Math. 177 (2005) 375-387] and our results in the special cases when and involve and improve some oscillation results for second-order differential and difference equations; and when , and , etc., our oscillation results are essentially newE Some examples illustrating the importance of our results are also included.

Structure-From-Motion in 3D Space Using 2D Lidars

PubMed Central

Choi, Dong-Geol; Bok, Yunsu; Kim, Jun-Sik; Shim, Inwook; Kweon, In So

2017-01-01

This paper presents a novel structure-from-motion methodology using 2D lidars (Light Detection And Ranging). In 3D space, 2D lidars do not provide sufficient information for pose estimation. For this reason, additional sensors have been used along with the lidar measurement. In this paper, we use a sensor system that consists of only 2D lidars, without any additional sensors. We propose a new method of estimating both the 6D pose of the system and the surrounding 3D structures. We compute the pose of the system using line segments of scan data and their corresponding planes. After discarding the outliers, both the pose and the 3D structures are refined via nonlinear optimization. Experiments with both synthetic and real data show the accuracy and robustness of the proposed method. PMID:28165372

On some problems in a theory of thermally and mechanically interacting continuous media. Ph.D. Thesis; [linearized theory of interacting mixture of elastic solid and viscous fluid

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lee, Y. M.

1971-01-01

Using a linearized theory of thermally and mechanically interacting mixture of linear elastic solid and viscous fluid, we derive a fundamental relation in an integral form called a reciprocity relation. This reciprocity relation relates the solution of one initial-boundary value problem with a given set of initial and boundary data to the solution of a second initial-boundary value problem corresponding to a different initial and boundary data for a given interacting mixture. From this general integral relation, reciprocity relations are derived for a heat-conducting linear elastic solid, and for a heat-conducting viscous fluid. An initial-boundary value problem is posed and solved for the mixture of linear elastic solid and viscous fluid. With the aid of the Laplace transform and the contour integration, a real integral representation for the displacement of the solid constituent is obtained as one of the principal results of the analysis.

Impact Hazard Monitoring: Theory and Implementation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Farnocchia, Davide

2015-08-01

Impact monitoring is a crucial component of the mitigation or elimination of the hazard posed by asteroid impacts. Once an asteroid is discovered, it is important to achieve an early detection and an accurate assessment of the risk posed by future Earth encounters. Here we review the most standard impact monitoring techniques. Linear methods are the fastest approach but their applicability regime is limited because of the chaotic dynamics of near-Earth asteroids, whose orbits are often scattered by planetary encounters. Among nonlinear methods, Monte Carlo algorithms are the most reliable ones. However, the large number of near-Earth asteroids and the computational load required to detect low probability impact events make Monte Carlo approaches impractical in the framework of monitoring all near-Earth asteroids. In the last 15 years, the Line of Variations (LOV) method has been the most successful technique as it strikes a remarkable compromise between computational efficiency and the capability of detecting low probability events deep in the nonlinear regime. As a matter of fact, the LOV method is the engine of JPL’s Sentry and University of Pisa’s NEODyS, which the two fully automated impact monitoring systems that routinely search for potential impactors among known near-Earth asteroids. We also present some more recent techniques developed to deal with the new challenges arising in the impact hazard assessment problem. In particular, we describe how to use keyhole maps to go beyond strongly scattering encounters and push forward in time the impact prediction horizon. In these cases asteroids usually have a very well constrained orbit and we often need to account for the action of nongravitational perturbations, especially the Yarkovsky effect. Finally, we discuss the short-term hazard assessment problem for newly discovered asteroids, when only a short observed arc is available. The limited amount of observational data generally leads to severe degeneracies in the orbit estimation process. We overcome these degeneracies by employing ranging techniques, which scan the poorly constrained space of topocentric range and range rate.

A method of determining where to target surveillance efforts in heterogeneous epidemiological systems

PubMed Central

van den Bosch, Frank; Gottwald, Timothy R.; Alonso Chavez, Vasthi

2017-01-01

The spread of pathogens into new environments poses a considerable threat to human, animal, and plant health, and by extension, human and animal wellbeing, ecosystem function, and agricultural productivity, worldwide. Early detection through effective surveillance is a key strategy to reduce the risk of their establishment. Whilst it is well established that statistical and economic considerations are of vital importance when planning surveillance efforts, it is also important to consider epidemiological characteristics of the pathogen in question—including heterogeneities within the epidemiological system itself. One of the most pronounced realisations of this heterogeneity is seen in the case of vector-borne pathogens, which spread between ‘hosts’ and ‘vectors’—with each group possessing distinct epidemiological characteristics. As a result, an important question when planning surveillance for emerging vector-borne pathogens is where to place sampling resources in order to detect the pathogen as early as possible. We answer this question by developing a statistical function which describes the probability distributions of the prevalences of infection at first detection in both hosts and vectors. We also show how this method can be adapted in order to maximise the probability of early detection of an emerging pathogen within imposed sample size and/or cost constraints, and demonstrate its application using two simple models of vector-borne citrus pathogens. Under the assumption of a linear cost function, we find that sampling costs are generally minimised when either hosts or vectors, but not both, are sampled. PMID:28846676

Prostaglandin-mediated recovery from bacteremia delays larval development in fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda.

PubMed

Zhang, Lei; Ringbauer, Joseph A; Goodman, Cynthia L; Reall, Tamra; Jiang, Xing-Fu; Stanley, David

2018-04-01

Insect immunity includes a surveillance system that detects and signals infections, coupled with hemocytic and humoral immune functions. These functions are signaled and coordinated by several biochemicals, including biogenic amines, insect cytokines, peptides, and prostaglandins (PGs). The actions of these mediators are coordinated within cells by various forms of cross-talk among the signaling systems and they result in effective reactions to infection. While this is well understood, we lack information on how immune-mediated recovery influences subsequent juvenile development in surviving insects. We investigated this point by posing the hypothesis that PG signaling is necessary for larval recovery, although the recovery imposes biological costs, registered in developmental delays and failures in surviving individuals. Here, we report that nodulation responses to infections by the bacterium, Serratia marcescens, increased over time up to 5 h postinfection, with no further nodulation; it increased in a linear manner with increasing bacterial dosages. Larval survivorship decreased with increasing bacterial doses. Treating larvae with the PG-biosynthesis inhibitor, indomethacin, led to sharply decreased nodulation reactions to infection, which were rescued in larvae cotreated with indomethacin and the PG-precursor, arachidonic acid. Although nodulation was fully rescued, all bacterial challenged larvae suffered reduced survivorship compared to controls. Bacterial infection led to reduced developmental rates in larvae, but not pupae. Adult emergence from pupae that developed from experimental larvae was also decreased. Taken together, our data potently bolster our hypothesis. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

High-performance image reconstruction in fluorescence tomography on desktop computers and graphics hardware.

PubMed

Freiberger, Manuel; Egger, Herbert; Liebmann, Manfred; Scharfetter, Hermann

2011-11-01

Image reconstruction in fluorescence optical tomography is a three-dimensional nonlinear ill-posed problem governed by a system of partial differential equations. In this paper we demonstrate that a combination of state of the art numerical algorithms and a careful hardware optimized implementation allows to solve this large-scale inverse problem in a few seconds on standard desktop PCs with modern graphics hardware. In particular, we present methods to solve not only the forward but also the non-linear inverse problem by massively parallel programming on graphics processors. A comparison of optimized CPU and GPU implementations shows that the reconstruction can be accelerated by factors of about 15 through the use of the graphics hardware without compromising the accuracy in the reconstructed images.

Intelligent failure-tolerant control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stengel, Robert F.

1991-01-01

An overview of failure-tolerant control is presented, beginning with robust control, progressing through parallel and analytical redundancy, and ending with rule-based systems and artificial neural networks. By design or implementation, failure-tolerant control systems are 'intelligent' systems. All failure-tolerant systems require some degrees of robustness to protect against catastrophic failure; failure tolerance often can be improved by adaptivity in decision-making and control, as well as by redundancy in measurement and actuation. Reliability, maintainability, and survivability can be enhanced by failure tolerance, although each objective poses different goals for control system design. Artificial intelligence concepts are helpful for integrating and codifying failure-tolerant control systems, not as alternatives but as adjuncts to conventional design methods.

Multiple continuous coverage of the earth based on multi-satellite systems with linear structure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saulskiy, V. K.

2009-04-01

A new and wider definition is given to multi-satellite systems with linear structure (SLS), and efficiency of their application to multiple continuous coverage of the Earth is substantiated. Owing to this widening, SLS have incorporated already well-recognized “polar systems” by L. Rider and W.S. Adams, “kinematically regular systems” by G.V. Mozhaev, and “delta-systems” by J.G. Walker, as well as “near-polar systems” by Yu.P. Ulybyshev, and some other satellite constellations unknown before. A universal method of SLS optimization is presented, valid for any values of coverage multiplicity and the number of satellites in a system. The method uses the criterion of minimum radius of a circle seen from a satellite on the surface of the globe. Among the best SLS found in this way there are both systems representing the well-known classes mentioned above and new orbit constellations of satellites.

Estimation of hysteretic damping of structures by stochastic subspace identification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bajrić, Anela; Høgsberg, Jan

2018-05-01

Output-only system identification techniques can estimate modal parameters of structures represented by linear time-invariant systems. However, the extension of the techniques to structures exhibiting non-linear behavior has not received much attention. This paper presents an output-only system identification method suitable for random response of dynamic systems with hysteretic damping. The method applies the concept of Stochastic Subspace Identification (SSI) to estimate the model parameters of a dynamic system with hysteretic damping. The restoring force is represented by the Bouc-Wen model, for which an equivalent linear relaxation model is derived. Hysteretic properties can be encountered in engineering structures exposed to severe cyclic environmental loads, as well as in vibration mitigation devices, such as Magneto-Rheological (MR) dampers. The identification technique incorporates the equivalent linear damper model in the estimation procedure. Synthetic data, representing the random vibrations of systems with hysteresis, validate the estimated system parameters by the presented identification method at low and high-levels of excitation amplitudes.

Constrained model predictive control, state estimation and coordination

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yan, Jun

In this dissertation, we study the interaction between the control performance and the quality of the state estimation in a constrained Model Predictive Control (MPC) framework for systems with stochastic disturbances. This consists of three parts: (i) the development of a constrained MPC formulation that adapts to the quality of the state estimation via constraints; (ii) the application of such a control law in a multi-vehicle formation coordinated control problem in which each vehicle operates subject to a no-collision constraint posed by others' imperfect prediction computed from finite bit-rate, communicated data; (iii) the design of the predictors and the communication resource assignment problem that satisfy the performance requirement from Part (ii). Model Predictive Control (MPC) is of interest because it is one of the few control design methods which preserves standard design variables and yet handles constraints. MPC is normally posed as a full-state feedback control and is implemented in a certainty-equivalence fashion with best estimates of the states being used in place of the exact state. However, if the state constraints were handled in the same certainty-equivalence fashion, the resulting control law could drive the real state to violate the constraints frequently. Part (i) focuses on exploring the inclusion of state estimates into the constraints. It does this by applying constrained MPC to a system with stochastic disturbances. The stochastic nature of the problem requires re-posing the constraints in a probabilistic form. In Part (ii), we consider applying constrained MPC as a local control law in a coordinated control problem of a group of distributed autonomous systems. Interactions between the systems are captured via constraints. First, we inspect the application of constrained MPC to a completely deterministic case. Formation stability theorems are derived for the subsystems and conditions on the local constraint set are derived in order to guarantee local stability or convergence to a target state. If these conditions are met for all subsystems, then this stability is inherited by the overall system. For the case when each subsystem suffers from disturbances in the dynamics, own self-measurement noises, and quantization errors on neighbors' information due to the finite-bit-rate channels, the constrained MPC strategy developed in Part (i) is appropriate to apply. In Part (iii), we discuss the local predictor design and bandwidth assignment problem in a coordinated vehicle formation context. The MPC controller used in Part (ii) relates the formation control performance and the information quality in the way that large standoff implies conservative performance. We first develop an LMI (Linear Matrix Inequality) formulation for cross-estimator design in a simple two-vehicle scenario with non-standard information: one vehicle does not have access to the other's exact control value applied at each sampling time, but to its known, pre-computed, coupling linear feedback control law. Then a similar LMI problem is formulated for the bandwidth assignment problem that minimizes the total number of bits by adjusting the prediction gain matrices and the number of bits assigned to each variable. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Stochastic Swift-Hohenberg Equation with Degenerate Linear Multiplicative Noise

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hernández, Marco; Ong, Kiah Wah

2018-03-01

We study the dynamic transition of the Swift-Hohenberg equation (SHE) when linear multiplicative noise acting on a finite set of modes of the dominant linear flow is introduced. Existence of a stochastic flow and a local stochastic invariant manifold for this stochastic form of SHE are both addressed in this work. We show that the approximate reduced system corresponding to the invariant manifold undergoes a stochastic pitchfork bifurcation, and obtain numerical evidence suggesting that this picture is a good approximation for the full system as well.

Detection of tunnel excavation using fiber optic reflectometry: experimental validation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Linker, Raphael; Klar, Assaf

2013-06-01

Cross-border smuggling tunnels enable unmonitored movement of people and goods, and pose a severe threat to homeland security. In recent years, we have been working on the development of a system based on fiber- optic Brillouin time domain reflectometry (BOTDR) for detecting tunnel excavation. In two previous SPIE publications we have reported the initial development of the system as well as its validation using small-scale experiments. This paper reports, for the first time, results of full-scale experiments and discusses the system performance. The results confirm that distributed measurement of strain profiles in fiber cables buried at shallow depth enable detection of tunnel excavation, and by proper data processing, these measurements enable precise localization of the tunnel, as well as reasonable estimation of its depth.

Feedback linearizing control of a MIMO power system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ilyes, Laszlo

Prior research has demonstrated that either the mechanical or electrical subsystem of a synchronous electric generator may be controlled using single-input single-output (SISO) nonlinear feedback linearization. This research suggests a new approach which applies nonlinear feedback linearization to a multi-input multi-output (MIMO) model of the synchronous electric generator connected to an infinite bus load model. In this way, the electrical and mechanical subsystems may be linearized and simultaneously decoupled through the introduction of a pair of auxiliary inputs. This allows well known, linear, SISO control methods to be effectively applied to the resulting systems. The derivation of the feedback linearizing control law is presented in detail, including a discussion on the use of symbolic math processing as a development tool. The linearizing and decoupling properties of the control law are validated through simulation. And finally, the robustness of the control law is demonstrated.

Multistructure index in revealing complexity of regulatory mechanisms of human cardiovascular system at rest and orthostatic stress in healthy humans

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Makowiec, Danuta; Graff, Beata; Struzik, Zbigniew R.

2017-02-01

Biological regulation is sufficiently complex to pose an enduring challenge for characterization of both its equilibrium and transient non-equilibrium dynamics. Two univariate but coupled observables, heart rate and systolic blood pressure, are commonly characterized in the benchmark example of the human cardiovascular regulatory system. Asymmetric distributions of accelerations and decelerations of heart rate, as well as rises and falls in systolic blood pressure, recorded in humans during a head-up tilt test provide insights into the dynamics of cardiovascular response to a rapid, controlled deregulation of the system's homeostasis. The baroreflex feedback loop is assumed to be the fundamental physiological mechanism for ensuring homeostatic blood supply to distant organs at rest and during orthostatic stress, captured in a classical beat-to-beat autoregressive model of baroreflex by de Boer et al. (1987). For model corroboration, a multistructure index statistic is proposed, seamlessly evaluating the size spectrum of magnitudes of neural reflexes such as baroreflex, responsible for maintaining the homeostatic dynamics. The multistructure index exposes a distinctly different dynamics of multiscale asymmetry between results obtained from real-life signals recorded from healthy subjects and those simulated using both the classical and perturbed versions of the model. Nonlinear effects observed suggest the pronounced presence of complex mechanisms resulting from baroreflex regulation when a human is at rest, which is aggravated in the system's response to orthostatic stress. Using our methodology of multistructure index, we therefore show a marked difference between model and real-life scenarios, which we attribute to multiscale asymmetry of non-linear origin in real-life signals, which we are not reproducible by the classical model.

A preliminary look at techniques used to obtain airdata from flight at high angles of attack

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Moes, Timothy R.; Whitmore, Stephen A.

1990-01-01

Flight research at high angles of attack has posed new problems for airdata measurements. New sensors and techniques for measuring the standard airdata quantities of static pressure, dynamic pressure, angle of attack, and angle of sideslip were subsequently developed. The ongoing airdata research supporting NASA's F-18 high alpha research program is updated. Included are the techniques used and the preliminary results. The F-18 aircraft was flown with three research airdata systems: a standard airdata probe on the right wingtip, a self-aligning airdata probe on the left wingtip, and a flush airdata system on the nose cone. The primary research goal was to obtain steady-state calibrations for each airdata system up to an angle of attack of 50 deg. This goal was accomplished and preliminary accuracies of the three airdata systems were assessed and are presented. An effort to improve the fidelity of the airdata measurements during dynamic maneuvering is also discussed. This involved enhancement of the aerodynamic data with data obtained from linear accelerometers, rate gyros, and attitude gyros. Preliminary results of this technique are presented.

Macrobend optical sensing for pose measurement in soft robot arms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sareh, Sina; Noh, Yohan; Li, Min; Ranzani, Tommaso; Liu, Hongbin; Althoefer, Kaspar

2015-12-01

This paper introduces a pose-sensing system for soft robot arms integrating a set of macrobend stretch sensors. The macrobend sensory design in this study consists of optical fibres and is based on the notion that bending an optical fibre modulates the intensity of the light transmitted through the fibre. This sensing method is capable of measuring bending, elongation and compression in soft continuum robots and is also applicable to wearable sensing technologies, e.g. pose sensing in the wrist joint of a human hand. In our arrangement, applied to a cylindrical soft robot arm, the optical fibres for macrobend sensing originate from the base, extend to the tip of the arm, and then loop back to the base. The connectors that link the fibres to the necessary opto-electronics are all placed at the base of the arm, resulting in a simplified overall design. The ability of this custom macrobend stretch sensor to flexibly adapt its configuration allows preserving the inherent softness and compliance of the robot which it is installed on. The macrobend sensing system is immune to electrical noise and magnetic fields, is safe (because no electricity is needed at the sensing site), and is suitable for modular implementation in multi-link soft continuum robotic arms. The measurable light outputs of the proposed stretch sensor vary due to bend-induced light attenuation (macrobend loss), which is a function of the fibre bend radius as well as the number of repeated turns. The experimental study conducted as part of this research revealed that the chosen bend radius has a far greater impact on the measured light intensity values than the number of turns (if greater than five). Taking into account that the bend radius is the only significantly influencing design parameter, the macrobend stretch sensors were developed to create a practical solution to the pose sensing in soft continuum robot arms. Henceforward, the proposed sensing design was benchmarked against an electromagnetic tracking system (NDI Aurora) for validation.

GMX approximation for the linear E ⊗ ɛ Jahn-Teller effect

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mancini, Jay D.; Fessatidis, Vassilios; Bowen, Samuel P.

2006-02-01

A newly developed generalized moments expansion (GMX) based on the t-expansion of Horn and Weinstein is applied to a linear E ⊗ ɛ Jahn-Teller system. Comparisons are made with other moments schemes as well a coupled cluster approximation.

Three-dimensional face pose detection and tracking using monocular videos: tool and application.

PubMed

Dornaika, Fadi; Raducanu, Bogdan

2009-08-01

Recently, we have proposed a real-time tracker that simultaneously tracks the 3-D head pose and facial actions in monocular video sequences that can be provided by low quality cameras. This paper has two main contributions. First, we propose an automatic 3-D face pose initialization scheme for the real-time tracker by adopting a 2-D face detector and an eigenface system. Second, we use the proposed methods-the initialization and tracking-for enhancing the human-machine interaction functionality of an AIBO robot. More precisely, we show how the orientation of the robot's camera (or any active vision system) can be controlled through the estimation of the user's head pose. Applications based on head-pose imitation such as telepresence, virtual reality, and video games can directly exploit the proposed techniques. Experiments on real videos confirm the robustness and usefulness of the proposed methods.

The Kinect as an interventional tracking system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Xiang L.; Stolka, Philipp J.; Boctor, Emad; Hager, Gregory; Choti, Michael

2012-02-01

This work explores the suitability of low-cost sensors for "serious" medical applications, such as tracking of interventional tools in the OR, for simulation, and for education. Although such tracking - i.e. the acquisition of pose data e.g. for ultrasound probes, tissue manipulation tools, needles, but also tissue, bone etc. - is well established, it relies mostly on external devices such as optical or electromagnetic trackers, both of which mandate the use of special markers or sensors attached to each single entity whose pose is to be recorded, and also require their calibration to the tracked entity, i.e. the determination of the geometric relationship between the marker's and the object's intrinsic coordinate frames. The Microsoft Kinect sensor is a recently introduced device for full-body tracking in the gaming market, but it was quickly hacked - due to its wide range of tightly integrated sensors (RGB camera, IR depth and greyscale camera, microphones, accelerometers, and basic actuation) - and used beyond this area. As its field of view and its accuracy are within reasonable usability limits, we describe a medical needle-tracking system for interventional applications based on the Kinect sensor, standard biopsy needles, and no necessary attachments, thus saving both cost and time. Its twin cameras are used as a stereo pair to detect needle-shaped objects, reconstruct their pose in four degrees of freedom, and provide information about the most likely candidate.

Meteoroids and Meteor Storms: A Threat to Spacecraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Anderson, B. Jeffrey

1999-01-01

Robust system design is the best protection against meteoroid damage. Impacts by small meteoroids are common on satellite surfaces, but impacts by meteoroids large enough to damage well designed systems are very rare. Estimating the threat from the normal meteoroid environment is difficult. Estimates for the occasional "storm" are even more uncertain. Common sense precautions are in order for the 1999 Leonids, but wide-spread catastrophic damage is highly unlikely. Strong Leonid showers are also expected in 2000 and 2001, but these pose much less threat than 1999.

MedSynDiKATe--design considerations for an ontology-based medical text understanding system.

PubMed Central

Hahn, U.; Romacker, M.; Schulz, S.

2000-01-01

MedSynDiKATe is a natural language processor for automatically acquiring knowledge from medical finding reports. The content of these documents is transferred to formal representation structures which constitute a corresponding text knowledge base. The general system architecture we present integrates requirements from the analysis of single sentences, as well as those of referentially linked sentences forming cohesive texts. The strong demands MedSynDiKATe poses to the availability of expressive knowledge sources are accounted for by two alternative approaches to (semi)automatic ontology engineering. PMID:11079899

Serpentine Robot Model and Gait Design Using Autodesk Inventor and Simulink SimMechanics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Daniel; Iman Alamsyah, Mohammad; Erwin; Tan, Sofyan

2014-03-01

The authors introduce gaits of a serpentine robot with linear expansion mechanism where the robot varies its length using joints with three degrees of freedom. The 3D model of the serpentine robot is drawed in Autocad Inventor® and exported to SimMechanics® for straighforward modeling of the kinematics. The gaits are important for robots designed to explore ruins of disasters where the working spaces are very tight. For maximum flexibility of the serpentine robot, we adopted a joint design with three parallel actuators, where the joint is capable of linear movement in the forward axis, and rotational movements around two other axes. The designed linear expansion gaits is calculated for forward movement when the robot is posing straight or turning laterally.

The utility of gravity and water-level monitoring at alluvial aquifer wells in southern Arizona

USGS Publications Warehouse

Pool, D.R.

2008-01-01

Coincident monitoring of gravity and water levels at 39 wells in southern Arizona indicate that water-level change might not be a reliable indicator of aquifer-storage change for alluvial aquifer systems. One reason is that water levels in wells that are screened across single or multiple aquifers might not represent the hydraulic head and storage change in a local unconfined aquifer. Gravity estimates of aquifer-storage change can be approximated as a one-dimensional feature except near some withdrawal wells and recharge sources. The aquifer storage coefficient is estimated by the linear regression slope of storage change (estimated using gravity methods) and water-level change. Nonaquifer storage change that does not percolate to the aquifer can be significant, greater than 3 ??Gal, when water is held in the root zone during brief periods following extreme rates of precipitation. Monitor-ing of storage change using gravity methods at wells also can improve understanding of local hydrogeologic conditions. In the study area, confined aquifer conditions are likely at three wells where large water-level variations were accompanied by little gravity change. Unconfined conditions were indicated at 15 wells where significant water-level and gravity change were positively linearly correlated. Good positive linear correlations resulted in extremely large specific-yield values, greater than 0.35, at seven wells where it is likely that significant ephemeral streamflow infiltration resulted in unsaturated storage change. Poor or negative linear correlations indicate the occurrence of confined, multiple, or perched aquifers. Monitoring of a multiple compressible aquifer system at one well resulted in negative correlation of rising water levels and subsidence-corrected gravity change, which suggests that water-level trends at the well are not a good indicatior of overall storage change. ?? 2008 Society of Exploration Geophysicists. All rights reserved.

Investigation of ODE integrators using interactive graphics. [Ordinary Differential Equations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brown, R. L.

1978-01-01

Two FORTRAN programs using an interactive graphic terminal to generate accuracy and stability plots for given multistep ordinary differential equation (ODE) integrators are described. The first treats the fixed stepsize linear case with complex variable solutions, and generates plots to show accuracy and error response to step driving function of a numerical solution, as well as the linear stability region. The second generates an analog to the stability region for classes of non-linear ODE's as well as accuracy plots. Both systems can compute method coefficients from a simple specification of the method. Example plots are given.

Domestic wells have high probability of pumping septic tank leachate

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Horn, J. E.; Harter, T.

2011-06-01

Onsite wastewater treatment systems such as septic systems are common in rural and semi-rural areas around the world; in the US, about 25-30 % of households are served by a septic system and a private drinking water well. Site-specific conditions and local groundwater flow are often ignored when installing septic systems and wells. Particularly in areas with small lots, thus a high septic system density, these typically shallow wells are prone to contamination by septic system leachate. Typically, mass balance approaches are used to determine a maximum septic system density that would prevent contamination of the aquifer. In this study, we estimate the probability of a well pumping partially septic system leachate. A detailed groundwater and transport model is used to calculate the capture zone of a typical drinking water well. A spatial probability analysis is performed to assess the probability that a capture zone overlaps with a septic system drainfield depending on aquifer properties, lot and drainfield size. We show that a high septic system density poses a high probability of pumping septic system leachate. The hydraulic conductivity of the aquifer has a strong influence on the intersection probability. We conclude that mass balances calculations applied on a regional scale underestimate the contamination risk of individual drinking water wells by septic systems. This is particularly relevant for contaminants released at high concentrations, for substances which experience limited attenuation, and those being harmful even in low concentrations.

Constant-intensity waves and their modulation instability in non-Hermitian potentials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Makris, K. G.; Musslimani, Z. H.; Christodoulides, D. N.; Rotter, S.

2015-07-01

In all of the diverse areas of science where waves play an important role, one of the most fundamental solutions of the corresponding wave equation is a stationary wave with constant intensity. The most familiar example is that of a plane wave propagating in free space. In the presence of any Hermitian potential, a wave's constant intensity is, however, immediately destroyed due to scattering. Here we show that this fundamental restriction is conveniently lifted when working with non-Hermitian potentials. In particular, we present a whole class of waves that have constant intensity in the presence of linear as well as of nonlinear inhomogeneous media with gain and loss. These solutions allow us to study the fundamental phenomenon of modulation instability in an inhomogeneous environment. Our results pose a new challenge for the experiments on non-Hermitian scattering that have recently been put forward.

BCI Competition IV – Data Set I: Learning Discriminative Patterns for Self-Paced EEG-Based Motor Imagery Detection

PubMed Central

Zhang, Haihong; Guan, Cuntai; Ang, Kai Keng; Wang, Chuanchu

2012-01-01

Detecting motor imagery activities versus non-control in brain signals is the basis of self-paced brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), but also poses a considerable challenge to signal processing due to the complex and non-stationary characteristics of motor imagery as well as non-control. This paper presents a self-paced BCI based on a robust learning mechanism that extracts and selects spatio-spectral features for differentiating multiple EEG classes. It also employs a non-linear regression and post-processing technique for predicting the time-series of class labels from the spatio-spectral features. The method was validated in the BCI Competition IV on Dataset I where it produced the lowest prediction error of class labels continuously. This report also presents and discusses analysis of the method using the competition data set. PMID:22347153

Altitude acts as an environmental filter on phylogenetic composition, traits and diversity in bee communities.

PubMed

Hoiss, Bernhard; Krauss, Jochen; Potts, Simon G; Roberts, Stuart; Steffan-Dewenter, Ingolf

2012-11-07

Knowledge about the phylogeny and ecology of communities along environmental gradients helps to disentangle the role of competition-driven processes and environmental filtering for community assembly. In this study, we evaluated patterns in species richness, phylogenetic structure and life-history traits of bee communities along altitudinal gradients in the Alps, Germany. We found a linear decline in species richness and abundance but increasing phylogenetic clustering in communities with increasing altitude. The proportion of social- and ground-nesting species, as well as mean body size and altitudinal range of bee communities, increased with increasing altitude, whereas the mean geographical distribution decreased. Our results suggest that community assembly at high altitudes is dominated by environmental filtering effects, whereas the relative importance of competition increases at low altitudes. We conclude that inherent phylogenetic and ecological species attributes at high altitudes pose a threat for less competitive alpine specialists with ongoing climate change.

Altitude acts as an environmental filter on phylogenetic composition, traits and diversity in bee communities

PubMed Central

Hoiss, Bernhard; Krauss, Jochen; Potts, Simon G.; Roberts, Stuart; Steffan-Dewenter, Ingolf

2012-01-01

Knowledge about the phylogeny and ecology of communities along environmental gradients helps to disentangle the role of competition-driven processes and environmental filtering for community assembly. In this study, we evaluated patterns in species richness, phylogenetic structure and life-history traits of bee communities along altitudinal gradients in the Alps, Germany. We found a linear decline in species richness and abundance but increasing phylogenetic clustering in communities with increasing altitude. The proportion of social- and ground-nesting species, as well as mean body size and altitudinal range of bee communities, increased with increasing altitude, whereas the mean geographical distribution decreased. Our results suggest that community assembly at high altitudes is dominated by environmental filtering effects, whereas the relative importance of competition increases at low altitudes. We conclude that inherent phylogenetic and ecological species attributes at high altitudes pose a threat for less competitive alpine specialists with ongoing climate change. PMID:22933374

Dynamics of cosmological perturbations in modified Brans-Dicke cosmology with matter-scalar field interaction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kofinas, Georgios; Lima, Nelson A.

2017-10-01

In this work we focus on a novel completion of the well-known Brans-Dicke theory that introduces an interaction between the dark energy and dark matter sectors, known as complete Brans-Dicke (CBD) theory. We obtain viable cosmological accelerating solutions that fit supernovae observations with great precision without any scalar potential V (ϕ ). We use these solutions to explore the impact of the CBD theory on the large scale structure by studying the dynamics of its linear perturbations. We observe a growing behavior of the lensing potential Φ+ at late-times, while the growth rate is actually suppressed relatively to Λ CDM , which allows the CBD theory to provide a competitive fit to current RSD measurements of f σ8. However, we also observe that the theory exhibits a pathological change of sign in the effective gravitational constant concerning the perturbations on subhorizon scales that could pose a challenge to its validity.

Rapid detection of Bacillus anthracis spores using a super-paramagnetic lateral-flow immunological detection system.

PubMed

Wang, Dian-Bing; Tian, Bo; Zhang, Zhi-Ping; Deng, Jiao-Yu; Cui, Zong-Qiang; Yang, Rui-Fu; Wang, Xu-Ying; Wei, Hong-Ping; Zhang, Xian-En

2013-04-15

There is an urgent need for convenient, sensitive, and specific methods to detect the spores of Bacillus anthracis, the causative agent of anthrax, because of the bioterrorism threat posed by this bacterium. In this study, we firstly develop a super-paramagnetic lateral-flow immunological detection system for B. anthracis spores. This system involves the use of a portable magnetic assay reader, super-paramagnetic iron oxide particles, lateral-flow strips and two different monoclonal antibodies directed against B. anthracis spores. This detection system specifically recognises as few as 400 pure B. anthracis spores in 30 min. This system has a linear range of 4×10³-10⁶ CFU ml⁻¹ and reproducible detection limits of 200 spores mg⁻¹ milk powder and 130 spores mg⁻¹ soil for simulated samples. In addition, this approach shows no obvious cross-reaction with other related Bacillus spores, even at high concentrations, and has no significant dependence on the duration of the storage of the immunological strips. Therefore, this super-paramagnetic lateral-flow immunological detection system is a promising tool for the rapid and sensitive detection of Bacillus anthracis spores under field conditions. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Robustness Analysis of Integrated LPV-FDI Filters and LTI-FTC System for a Transport Aircraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Khong, Thuan H.; Shin, Jong-Yeob

2007-01-01

This paper proposes an analysis framework for robustness analysis of a nonlinear dynamics system that can be represented by a polynomial linear parameter varying (PLPV) system with constant bounded uncertainty. The proposed analysis framework contains three key tools: 1) a function substitution method which can convert a nonlinear system in polynomial form into a PLPV system, 2) a matrix-based linear fractional transformation (LFT) modeling approach, which can convert a PLPV system into an LFT system with the delta block that includes key uncertainty and scheduling parameters, 3) micro-analysis, which is a well known robust analysis tool for linear systems. The proposed analysis framework is applied to evaluating the performance of the LPV-fault detection and isolation (FDI) filters of the closed-loop system of a transport aircraft in the presence of unmodeled actuator dynamics and sensor gain uncertainty. The robustness analysis results are compared with nonlinear time simulations.

Model-Based Reinforcement of Kinect Depth Data for Human Motion Capture Applications

PubMed Central

Calderita, Luis Vicente; Bandera, Juan Pedro; Bustos, Pablo; Skiadopoulos, Andreas

2013-01-01

Motion capture systems have recently experienced a strong evolution. New cheap depth sensors and open source frameworks, such as OpenNI, allow for perceiving human motion on-line without using invasive systems. However, these proposals do not evaluate the validity of the obtained poses. This paper addresses this issue using a model-based pose generator to complement the OpenNI human tracker. The proposed system enforces kinematics constraints, eliminates odd poses and filters sensor noise, while learning the real dimensions of the performer's body. The system is composed by a PrimeSense sensor, an OpenNI tracker and a kinematics-based filter and has been extensively tested. Experiments show that the proposed system improves pure OpenNI results at a very low computational cost. PMID:23845933

Differential gene expression detection and sample classification using penalized linear regression models.

PubMed

Wu, Baolin

2006-02-15

Differential gene expression detection and sample classification using microarray data have received much research interest recently. Owing to the large number of genes p and small number of samples n (p > n), microarray data analysis poses big challenges for statistical analysis. An obvious problem owing to the 'large p small n' is over-fitting. Just by chance, we are likely to find some non-differentially expressed genes that can classify the samples very well. The idea of shrinkage is to regularize the model parameters to reduce the effects of noise and produce reliable inferences. Shrinkage has been successfully applied in the microarray data analysis. The SAM statistics proposed by Tusher et al. and the 'nearest shrunken centroid' proposed by Tibshirani et al. are ad hoc shrinkage methods. Both methods are simple, intuitive and prove to be useful in empirical studies. Recently Wu proposed the penalized t/F-statistics with shrinkage by formally using the (1) penalized linear regression models for two-class microarray data, showing good performance. In this paper we systematically discussed the use of penalized regression models for analyzing microarray data. We generalize the two-class penalized t/F-statistics proposed by Wu to multi-class microarray data. We formally derive the ad hoc shrunken centroid used by Tibshirani et al. using the (1) penalized regression models. And we show that the penalized linear regression models provide a rigorous and unified statistical framework for sample classification and differential gene expression detection.

Piecewise linear approximation for hereditary control problems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Propst, Georg

1987-01-01

Finite dimensional approximations are presented for linear retarded functional differential equations by use of discontinuous piecewise linear functions. The approximation scheme is applied to optimal control problems when a quadratic cost integral has to be minimized subject to the controlled retarded system. It is shown that the approximate optimal feedback operators converge to the true ones both in case the cost integral ranges over a finite time interval as well as in the case it ranges over an infinite time interval. The arguments in the latter case rely on the fact that the piecewise linear approximations to stable systems are stable in a uniform sense. This feature is established using a vector-component stability criterion in the state space R(n) x L(2) and the favorable eigenvalue behavior of the piecewise linear approximations.

Rayleigh scattering of linear alkylbenzene in large liquid scintillator detectors.

PubMed

Zhou, Xiang; Liu, Qian; Wurm, Michael; Zhang, Qingmin; Ding, Yayun; Zhang, Zhenyu; Zheng, Yangheng; Zhou, Li; Cao, Jun; Wang, Yifang

2015-07-01

Rayleigh scattering poses an intrinsic limit for the transparency of organic liquid scintillators. This work focuses on the Rayleigh scattering length of linear alkylbenzene (LAB), which will be used as the solvent of the liquid scintillator in the central detector of the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory. We investigate the anisotropy of the Rayleigh scattering in LAB, showing that the resulting Rayleigh scattering length will be significantly shorter than reported before. Given the same overall light attenuation, this will result in a more efficient transmission of photons through the scintillator, increasing the amount of light collected by the photosensors and thereby the energy resolution of the detector.

Large-scale 3D geoelectromagnetic modeling using parallel adaptive high-order finite element method

DOE PAGES

Grayver, Alexander V.; Kolev, Tzanio V.

2015-11-01

Here, we have investigated the use of the adaptive high-order finite-element method (FEM) for geoelectromagnetic modeling. Because high-order FEM is challenging from the numerical and computational points of view, most published finite-element studies in geoelectromagnetics use the lowest order formulation. Solution of the resulting large system of linear equations poses the main practical challenge. We have developed a fully parallel and distributed robust and scalable linear solver based on the optimal block-diagonal and auxiliary space preconditioners. The solver was found to be efficient for high finite element orders, unstructured and nonconforming locally refined meshes, a wide range of frequencies, largemore » conductivity contrasts, and number of degrees of freedom (DoFs). Furthermore, the presented linear solver is in essence algebraic; i.e., it acts on the matrix-vector level and thus requires no information about the discretization, boundary conditions, or physical source used, making it readily efficient for a wide range of electromagnetic modeling problems. To get accurate solutions at reduced computational cost, we have also implemented goal-oriented adaptive mesh refinement. The numerical tests indicated that if highly accurate modeling results were required, the high-order FEM in combination with the goal-oriented local mesh refinement required less computational time and DoFs than the lowest order adaptive FEM.« less

Large-scale 3D geoelectromagnetic modeling using parallel adaptive high-order finite element method

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Grayver, Alexander V.; Kolev, Tzanio V.

Here, we have investigated the use of the adaptive high-order finite-element method (FEM) for geoelectromagnetic modeling. Because high-order FEM is challenging from the numerical and computational points of view, most published finite-element studies in geoelectromagnetics use the lowest order formulation. Solution of the resulting large system of linear equations poses the main practical challenge. We have developed a fully parallel and distributed robust and scalable linear solver based on the optimal block-diagonal and auxiliary space preconditioners. The solver was found to be efficient for high finite element orders, unstructured and nonconforming locally refined meshes, a wide range of frequencies, largemore » conductivity contrasts, and number of degrees of freedom (DoFs). Furthermore, the presented linear solver is in essence algebraic; i.e., it acts on the matrix-vector level and thus requires no information about the discretization, boundary conditions, or physical source used, making it readily efficient for a wide range of electromagnetic modeling problems. To get accurate solutions at reduced computational cost, we have also implemented goal-oriented adaptive mesh refinement. The numerical tests indicated that if highly accurate modeling results were required, the high-order FEM in combination with the goal-oriented local mesh refinement required less computational time and DoFs than the lowest order adaptive FEM.« less

An automated hand hygiene training system improves hand hygiene technique but not compliance.

PubMed

Kwok, Yen Lee Angela; Callard, Michelle; McLaws, Mary-Louise

2015-08-01

The hand hygiene technique that the World Health Organization recommends for cleansing hands with soap and water or alcohol-based handrub consists of 7 poses. We used an automated training system to improve clinicians' hand hygiene technique and test whether this affected hospitalwide hand hygiene compliance. Seven hundred eighty-nine medical and nursing staff volunteered to participate in a self-directed training session using the automated training system. The proportion of successful first attempts was reported for each of the 7 poses. Hand hygiene compliance was collected according to the national requirement and rates for 2011-2014 were used to determine the effect of the training system on compliance. The highest pass rate was for pose 1 (palm to palm) at 77% (606 out of 789), whereas pose 6 (clean thumbs) had the lowest pass rate at 27% (216 out of 789). One hundred volunteers provided feedback to 8 items related to satisfaction with the automated training system and most (86%) expressed a high degree of satisfaction and all reported that this method was time-efficient. There was no significant change in compliance rates after the introduction of the automated training system. Observed compliance during the posttraining period declined but increased to 82% in response to other strategies. Technology for training clinicians in the 7 poses played an important education role but did not affect compliance rates. Crown Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A multi-camera system for real-time pose estimation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Savakis, Andreas; Erhard, Matthew; Schimmel, James; Hnatow, Justin

2007-04-01

This paper presents a multi-camera system that performs face detection and pose estimation in real-time and may be used for intelligent computing within a visual sensor network for surveillance or human-computer interaction. The system consists of a Scene View Camera (SVC), which operates at a fixed zoom level, and an Object View Camera (OVC), which continuously adjusts its zoom level to match objects of interest. The SVC is set to survey the whole filed of view. Once a region has been identified by the SVC as a potential object of interest, e.g. a face, the OVC zooms in to locate specific features. In this system, face candidate regions are selected based on skin color and face detection is accomplished using a Support Vector Machine classifier. The locations of the eyes and mouth are detected inside the face region using neural network feature detectors. Pose estimation is performed based on a geometrical model, where the head is modeled as a spherical object that rotates upon the vertical axis. The triangle formed by the mouth and eyes defines a vertical plane that intersects the head sphere. By projecting the eyes-mouth triangle onto a two dimensional viewing plane, equations were obtained that describe the change in its angles as the yaw pose angle increases. These equations are then combined and used for efficient pose estimation. The system achieves real-time performance for live video input. Testing results assessing system performance are presented for both still images and video.

Note: Heated flyer-plate impact system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dolan, D. H.; Seagle, C. T.; Ao, T.; Hacking, R. G.

2014-07-01

A technique for launching heated flyer plates was developed on a single-stage gas gun. This type of impact creates a well-posed mechanical state and a tunable thermal state, which is useful for calibrating dynamic temperature measurements. Proof-of-principle thermoreflectance measurements were performed using this technique. Since the target remains at room temperature until the moment of impact, heated flyers avoid differential expansion and annealing issues, allowing novel impact experiments to be performed.

Note: Heated flyer-plate impact system.

PubMed

Dolan, D H; Seagle, C T; Ao, T; Hacking, R G

2014-07-01

A technique for launching heated flyer plates was developed on a single-stage gas gun. This type of impact creates a well-posed mechanical state and a tunable thermal state, which is useful for calibrating dynamic temperature measurements. Proof-of-principle thermoreflectance measurements were performed using this technique. Since the target remains at room temperature until the moment of impact, heated flyers avoid differential expansion and annealing issues, allowing novel impact experiments to be performed.

Discrimination Between Child and Adult Forms Using Radar Frequency Signature Analysis

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-03-14

Distances. This sensor poses no risk to human subjects or persons operating the equipment. The 88 th Medical Group Bio -Environmental Safety...method of remotely characterizing human activity. Unlike optical sensors , radar systems need not rely upon line-of-sight or good weather to perform well...and in monitoring vital signs through chemical or bio - logical protection suits. These military applications have seen research as early as the mid

Overview of Medicaid capitation and case-management initiatives

PubMed Central

Freund, Deborah A.; Neuschler, Edward

1986-01-01

Case-management programs have grown in number and in acceptance in the Medicaid program since 1981. In this article, we review their structure and incentives as well as what is known about their impact on cost and use. These programs also have been difficult to implement, posing myriad management challenges for prepaid program managers and State administrators. We highlight the problems in the following areas: eligibility, enrollment, rate setting, and management information systems. PMID:10311923

Identifying the principal coefficient of parabolic equations with non-divergent form

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jiang, L. S.; Bian, B. J.

2005-01-01

We deal with an inverse problem of determining a coefficient a(x, t) of principal part for second order parabolic equations with non-divergent form when the solution is known. Such a problem has important applications in a large fields of applied science. We propose a well-posed approximate algorithm to identify the coefficient. The existence, uniqueness and stability of such solutions a(x, t) are proved. A necessary condition which is a couple system of a parabolic equation and a parabolic variational inequality is deduced. Our numerical simulations show that the coefficient is recovered very well.

Advanced human machine interaction for an image interpretation workstation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maier, S.; Martin, M.; van de Camp, F.; Peinsipp-Byma, E.; Beyerer, J.

2016-05-01

In recent years, many new interaction technologies have been developed that enhance the usability of computer systems and allow for novel types of interaction. The areas of application for these technologies have mostly been in gaming and entertainment. However, in professional environments, there are especially demanding tasks that would greatly benefit from improved human machine interfaces as well as an overall improved user experience. We, therefore, envisioned and built an image-interpretation-workstation of the future, a multi-monitor workplace comprised of four screens. Each screen is dedicated to a complex software product such as a geo-information system to provide geographic context, an image annotation tool, software to generate standardized reports and a tool to aid in the identification of objects. Using self-developed systems for hand tracking, pointing gestures and head pose estimation in addition to touchscreens, face identification, and speech recognition systems we created a novel approach to this complex task. For example, head pose information is used to save the position of the mouse cursor on the currently focused screen and to restore it as soon as the same screen is focused again while hand gestures allow for intuitive manipulation of 3d objects in mid-air. While the primary focus is on the task of image interpretation, all of the technologies involved provide generic ways of efficiently interacting with a multi-screen setup and could be utilized in other fields as well. In preliminary experiments, we received promising feedback from users in the military and started to tailor the functionality to their needs

Model-based recognition of 3D articulated target using ladar range data.

PubMed

Lv, Dan; Sun, Jian-Feng; Li, Qi; Wang, Qi

2015-06-10

Ladar is suitable for 3D target recognition because ladar range images can provide rich 3D geometric surface information of targets. In this paper, we propose a part-based 3D model matching technique to recognize articulated ground military vehicles in ladar range images. The key of this approach is to solve the decomposition and pose estimation of articulated parts of targets. The articulated components were decomposed into isolate parts based on 3D geometric properties of targets, such as surface point normals, data histogram distribution, and data distance relationships. The corresponding poses of these separate parts were estimated through the linear characteristics of barrels. According to these pose parameters, all parts of the target were roughly aligned to 3D point cloud models in a library and fine matching was finally performed to accomplish 3D articulated target recognition. The recognition performance was evaluated with 1728 ladar range images of eight different articulated military vehicles with various part types and orientations. Experimental results demonstrated that the proposed approach achieved a high recognition rate.

Incorporating structure from motion uncertainty into image-based pose estimation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ludington, Ben T.; Brown, Andrew P.; Sheffler, Michael J.; Taylor, Clark N.; Berardi, Stephen

2015-05-01

A method for generating and utilizing structure from motion (SfM) uncertainty estimates within image-based pose estimation is presented. The method is applied to a class of problems in which SfM algorithms are utilized to form a geo-registered reference model of a particular ground area using imagery gathered during flight by a small unmanned aircraft. The model is then used to form camera pose estimates in near real-time from imagery gathered later. The resulting pose estimates can be utilized by any of the other onboard systems (e.g. as a replacement for GPS data) or downstream exploitation systems, e.g., image-based object trackers. However, many of the consumers of pose estimates require an assessment of the pose accuracy. The method for generating the accuracy assessment is presented. First, the uncertainty in the reference model is estimated. Bundle Adjustment (BA) is utilized for model generation. While the high-level approach for generating a covariance matrix of the BA parameters is straightforward, typical computing hardware is not able to support the required operations due to the scale of the optimization problem within BA. Therefore, a series of sparse matrix operations is utilized to form an exact covariance matrix for only the parameters that are needed at a particular moment. Once the uncertainty in the model has been determined, it is used to augment Perspective-n-Point pose estimation algorithms to improve the pose accuracy and to estimate the resulting pose uncertainty. The implementation of the described method is presented along with results including results gathered from flight test data.

Evaluating Feynman integrals by the hypergeometry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Feng, Tai-Fu; Chang, Chao-Hsi; Chen, Jian-Bin; Gu, Zhi-Hua; Zhang, Hai-Bin

2018-02-01

The hypergeometric function method naturally provides the analytic expressions of scalar integrals from concerned Feynman diagrams in some connected regions of independent kinematic variables, also presents the systems of homogeneous linear partial differential equations satisfied by the corresponding scalar integrals. Taking examples of the one-loop B0 and massless C0 functions, as well as the scalar integrals of two-loop vacuum and sunset diagrams, we verify our expressions coinciding with the well-known results of literatures. Based on the multiple hypergeometric functions of independent kinematic variables, the systems of homogeneous linear partial differential equations satisfied by the mentioned scalar integrals are established. Using the calculus of variations, one recognizes the system of linear partial differential equations as stationary conditions of a functional under some given restrictions, which is the cornerstone to perform the continuation of the scalar integrals to whole kinematic domains numerically with the finite element methods. In principle this method can be used to evaluate the scalar integrals of any Feynman diagrams.

Automated reverse engineering of nonlinear dynamical systems

PubMed Central

Bongard, Josh; Lipson, Hod

2007-01-01

Complex nonlinear dynamics arise in many fields of science and engineering, but uncovering the underlying differential equations directly from observations poses a challenging task. The ability to symbolically model complex networked systems is key to understanding them, an open problem in many disciplines. Here we introduce for the first time a method that can automatically generate symbolic equations for a nonlinear coupled dynamical system directly from time series data. This method is applicable to any system that can be described using sets of ordinary nonlinear differential equations, and assumes that the (possibly noisy) time series of all variables are observable. Previous automated symbolic modeling approaches of coupled physical systems produced linear models or required a nonlinear model to be provided manually. The advance presented here is made possible by allowing the method to model each (possibly coupled) variable separately, intelligently perturbing and destabilizing the system to extract its less observable characteristics, and automatically simplifying the equations during modeling. We demonstrate this method on four simulated and two real systems spanning mechanics, ecology, and systems biology. Unlike numerical models, symbolic models have explanatory value, suggesting that automated “reverse engineering” approaches for model-free symbolic nonlinear system identification may play an increasing role in our ability to understand progressively more complex systems in the future. PMID:17553966

Automated reverse engineering of nonlinear dynamical systems.

PubMed

Bongard, Josh; Lipson, Hod

2007-06-12

Complex nonlinear dynamics arise in many fields of science and engineering, but uncovering the underlying differential equations directly from observations poses a challenging task. The ability to symbolically model complex networked systems is key to understanding them, an open problem in many disciplines. Here we introduce for the first time a method that can automatically generate symbolic equations for a nonlinear coupled dynamical system directly from time series data. This method is applicable to any system that can be described using sets of ordinary nonlinear differential equations, and assumes that the (possibly noisy) time series of all variables are observable. Previous automated symbolic modeling approaches of coupled physical systems produced linear models or required a nonlinear model to be provided manually. The advance presented here is made possible by allowing the method to model each (possibly coupled) variable separately, intelligently perturbing and destabilizing the system to extract its less observable characteristics, and automatically simplifying the equations during modeling. We demonstrate this method on four simulated and two real systems spanning mechanics, ecology, and systems biology. Unlike numerical models, symbolic models have explanatory value, suggesting that automated "reverse engineering" approaches for model-free symbolic nonlinear system identification may play an increasing role in our ability to understand progressively more complex systems in the future.

Bilinear effect in complex systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lam, Lui; Bellavia, David C.; Han, Xiao-Pu; Alston Liu, Chih-Hui; Shu, Chang-Qing; Wei, Zhengjin; Zhou, Tao; Zhu, Jichen

2010-09-01

The distribution of the lifetime of Chinese dynasties (as well as that of the British Isles and Japan) in a linear Zipf plot is found to consist of two straight lines intersecting at a transition point. This two-section piecewise-linear distribution is different from the power law or the stretched exponent distribution, and is called the Bilinear Effect for short. With assumptions mimicking the organization of ancient Chinese regimes, a 3-layer network model is constructed. Numerical results of this model show the bilinear effect, providing a plausible explanation of the historical data. The bilinear effect in two other social systems is presented, indicating that such a piecewise-linear effect is widespread in social systems.

Mathematical model of susceptibility, resistance, and resilience in the within-host dynamics between a Plasmodium parasite and the immune system.

PubMed

Yan, Yi; Adam, Brian; Galinski, Mary; C Kissinger, Jessica; Moreno, Alberto; Gutierrez, Juan B

2015-12-01

We developed a coupled age-structured partial differential equation model to capture the disease dynamics during blood-stage malaria. The addition of age structure for the parasite population, with respect to previous models, allows us to better characterize the interaction between the malaria parasite and red blood cells during infection. Here we prove that the system we propose is well-posed and there exist at least two global states. We further demonstrate that the numerical simulation of the system coincides with clinically observed outcomes of primary and secondary malaria infection. The well-posedness of this system guarantees that the behavior of the model remains smooth, bounded, and continuously dependent on initial conditions; calibration with clinical data will constrain domains of parameters and variables to physiological ranges. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Confirmation of linear system theory prediction: Changes in Herrnstein's k as a function of changes in reinforcer magnitude.

PubMed

McDowell, J J; Wood, H M

1984-03-01

Eight human subjects pressed a lever on a range of variable-interval schedules for 0.25 cent to 35.0 cent per reinforcement. Herrnstein's hyperbola described seven of the eight subjects' response-rate data well. For all subjects, the y-asymptote of the hyperbola increased with increasing reinforcer magnitude and its reciprocal was a linear function of the reciprocal of reinforcer magnitude. These results confirm predictions made by linear system theory; they contradict formal properties of Herrnstein's account and of six other mathematical accounts of single-alternative responding.

Confirmation of linear system theory prediction: Changes in Herrnstein's k as a function of changes in reinforcer magnitude

PubMed Central

McDowell, J. J; Wood, Helena M.

1984-01-01

Eight human subjects pressed a lever on a range of variable-interval schedules for 0.25¢ to 35.0¢ per reinforcement. Herrnstein's hyperbola described seven of the eight subjects' response-rate data well. For all subjects, the y-asymptote of the hyperbola increased with increasing reinforcer magnitude and its reciprocal was a linear function of the reciprocal of reinforcer magnitude. These results confirm predictions made by linear system theory; they contradict formal properties of Herrnstein's account and of six other mathematical accounts of single-alternative responding. PMID:16812366

Networked dynamical systems with linear coupling: synchronisation patterns, coherence and other behaviours.

PubMed

Judd, Kevin

2013-12-01

Many physical and biochemical systems are well modelled as a network of identical non-linear dynamical elements with linear coupling between them. An important question is how network structure affects chaotic dynamics, for example, by patterns of synchronisation and coherence. It is shown that small networks can be characterised precisely into patterns of exact synchronisation and large networks characterised by partial synchronisation at the local and global scale. Exact synchronisation modes are explained using tools of symmetry groups and invariance, and partial synchronisation is explained by finite-time shadowing of exact synchronisation modes.

Preconditioner and convergence study for the Quantum Computer Aided Design (QCAD) nonlinear poisson problem posed on the Ottawa Flat 270 design geometry.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kalashnikova, Irina

2012-05-01

A numerical study aimed to evaluate different preconditioners within the Trilinos Ifpack and ML packages for the Quantum Computer Aided Design (QCAD) non-linear Poisson problem implemented within the Albany code base and posed on the Ottawa Flat 270 design geometry is performed. This study led to some new development of Albany that allows the user to select an ML preconditioner with Zoltan repartitioning based on nodal coordinates, which is summarized. Convergence of the numerical solutions computed within the QCAD computational suite with successive mesh refinement is examined in two metrics, the mean value of the solution (an L{sup 1} norm)more » and the field integral of the solution (L{sup 2} norm).« less

A Flexible and Efficient Method for Solving Ill-Posed Linear Integral Equations of the First Kind for Noisy Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Antokhin, I. I.

2017-06-01

We propose an efficient and flexible method for solving Fredholm and Abel integral equations of the first kind, frequently appearing in astrophysics. These equations present an ill-posed problem. Our method is based on solving them on a so-called compact set of functions and/or using Tikhonov's regularization. Both approaches are non-parametric and do not require any theoretic model, apart from some very loose a priori constraints on the unknown function. The two approaches can be used independently or in a combination. The advantage of the method, apart from its flexibility, is that it gives uniform convergence of the approximate solution to the exact one, as the errors of input data tend to zero. Simulated and astrophysical examples are presented.

Analysis of undergraduate students' conceptual models of a complex biological system across a diverse body of learners

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dirnbeck, Matthew R.

Biological systems pose a challenge both for learners and teachers because they are complex systems mediated by feedback loops; networks of cause-effect relationships; and non-linear, hierarchical, and emergent properties. Teachers and scientists routinely use models to communicate ideas about complex systems. Model-based pedagogies engage students in model construction as a means of practicing higher-order reasoning skills. One such modeling paradigm describes systems in terms of their structures, behaviors, and functions (SBF). The SBF framework is a simple modeling language that has been used to teach about complex biological systems. Here, we used student-generated SBF models to assess students' causal reasoning in the context of a novel biological problem on an exam. We compared students' performance on the modeling problem, their performance on a set of knowledge/comprehension questions, and their performance on a set of scientific reasoning questions. We found that students who performed well on knowledge and understanding questions also constructed more networked, higher quality models. Previous studies have shown that learners' mental maps increase in complexity with increased expertise. We wanted to investigate if biology students with varying levels of training in biology showed a similar pattern when constructing system models. In a pilot study, we administered the same modeling problem to two additional groups of students: 1) an animal physiology course for students pursuing a major in biology (n=37) and 2) an exercise physiology course for non-majors (n=27). We found that there was no significant difference in model organization across the three student populations, but there was a significant difference in the ability to represent function between the three populations. Between the three groups the non-majors had the lowest function scores, the introductory majors had the middle function scores, and the upper division majors had the highest function scores.

A Block Preconditioned Conjugate Gradient-type Iterative Solver for Linear Systems in Thermal Reservoir Simulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Betté, Srinivas; Diaz, Julio C.; Jines, William R.; Steihaug, Trond

1986-11-01

A preconditioned residual-norm-reducing iterative solver is described. Based on a truncated form of the generalized-conjugate-gradient method for nonsymmetric systems of linear equations, the iterative scheme is very effective for linear systems generated in reservoir simulation of thermal oil recovery processes. As a consequence of employing an adaptive implicit finite-difference scheme to solve the model equations, the number of variables per cell-block varies dynamically over the grid. The data structure allows for 5- and 9-point operators in the areal model, 5-point in the cross-sectional model, and 7- and 11-point operators in the three-dimensional model. Block-diagonal-scaling of the linear system, done prior to iteration, is found to have a significant effect on the rate of convergence. Block-incomplete-LU-decomposition (BILU) and block-symmetric-Gauss-Seidel (BSGS) methods, which result in no fill-in, are used as preconditioning procedures. A full factorization is done on the well terms, and the cells are ordered in a manner which minimizes the fill-in in the well-column due to this factorization. The convergence criterion for the linear (inner) iteration is linked to that of the nonlinear (Newton) iteration, thereby enhancing the efficiency of the computation. The algorithm, with both BILU and BSGS preconditioners, is evaluated in the context of a variety of thermal simulation problems. The solver is robust and can be used with little or no user intervention.

FOREWORD: Tackling inverse problems in a Banach space environment: from theory to applications Tackling inverse problems in a Banach space environment: from theory to applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schuster, Thomas; Hofmann, Bernd; Kaltenbacher, Barbara

2012-10-01

Inverse problems can usually be modelled as operator equations in infinite-dimensional spaces with a forward operator acting between Hilbert or Banach spaces—a formulation which quite often also serves as the basis for defining and analyzing solution methods. The additional amount of structure and geometric interpretability provided by the concept of an inner product has rendered these methods amenable to a convergence analysis, a fact which has led to a rigorous and comprehensive study of regularization methods in Hilbert spaces over the last three decades. However, for numerous problems such as x-ray diffractometry, certain inverse scattering problems and a number of parameter identification problems in PDEs, the reasons for using a Hilbert space setting seem to be based on conventions rather than an appropriate and realistic model choice, so often a Banach space setting would be closer to reality. Furthermore, non-Hilbertian regularization and data fidelity terms incorporating a priori information on solution and noise, such as general Lp-norms, TV-type norms, or the Kullback-Leibler divergence, have recently become very popular. These facts have motivated intensive investigations on regularization methods in Banach spaces, a topic which has emerged as a highly active research field within the area of inverse problems. Meanwhile some of the most well-known regularization approaches, such as Tikhonov-type methods requiring the solution of extremal problems, and iterative ones like the Landweber method, the Gauss-Newton method, as well as the approximate inverse method, have been investigated for linear and nonlinear operator equations in Banach spaces. Convergence with rates has been proven and conditions on the solution smoothness and on the structure of nonlinearity have been formulated. Still, beyond the existing results a large number of challenging open questions have arisen, due to the more involved handling of general Banach spaces and the larger variety of concrete instances with special properties. The aim of this special section is to provide a forum for highly topical ongoing work in the area of regularization in Banach spaces, its numerics and its applications. Indeed, we have been lucky enough to obtain a number of excellent papers both from colleagues who have previously been contributing to this topic and from researchers entering the field due to its relevance in practical inverse problems. We would like to thank all contributers for enabling us to present a high quality collection of papers on topics ranging from various aspects of regularization via efficient numerical solution to applications in PDE models. We give a brief overview of the contributions included in this issue (here ordered alphabetically by first author). In their paper, Iterative regularization with general penalty term—theory and application to L1 and TV regularization, Radu Bot and Torsten Hein provide an extension of the Landweber iteration for linear operator equations in Banach space to general operators in place of the inverse duality mapping, which corresponds to the use of general regularization functionals in variational regularization. The L∞ topology in data space corresponds to the frequently occuring situation of uniformly distributed data noise. A numerically efficient solution of the resulting Tikhonov regularization problem via a Moreau-Yosida appriximation and a semismooth Newton method, along with a δ-free regularization parameter choice rule, is the topic of the paper L∞ fitting for inverse problems with uniform noise by Christian Clason. Extension of convergence rates results from classical source conditions to their generalization via variational inequalities with a priori and a posteriori stopping rules is the main contribution of the paper Regularization of linear ill-posed problems by the augmented Lagrangian method and variational inequalities by Klaus Frick and Markus Grasmair, again in the context of some iterative method. A powerful tool for proving convergence rates of Tikhonov type but also other regularization methods in Banach spaces are assumptions of the type of variational inequalities that combine conditions on solution smoothness (i.e., source conditions in the Hilbert space case) and nonlinearity of the forward operator. In Parameter choice in Banach space regularization under variational inequalities, Bernd Hofmann and Peter Mathé provide results with general error measures and especially study the question of regularization parameter choice. Daijun Jiang, Hui Feng, and Jun Zou consider an application of Banach space ideas in the context of an application problem in their paper Convergence rates of Tikhonov regularizations for parameter identifiation in a parabolic-elliptic system, namely the identification of a distributed diffusion coefficient in a coupled elliptic-parabolic system. In particular, they show convergence rates of Lp-H1 (variational) regularization for the application under consideration via the use and verification of certain source and nonlinearity conditions. In computational practice, the Lp norm with p close to one is often used as a substitute for the actually sparsity promoting L1 norm. In Norm sensitivity of sparsity regularization with respect to p, Kamil S Kazimierski, Peter Maass and Robin Strehlow consider the question of how sensitive the Tikhonov regularized solution is with respect to p. They do so by computing the derivative via the implicit function theorem, particularly at the crucial value, p=1. Another iterative regularization method in Banach space is considered by Qinian Jin and Linda Stals in Nonstationary iterated Tikhonov regularization for ill-posed problems in Banach spaces. Using a variational formulation and under some smoothness and convexity assumption on the preimage space, they extend the convergence analysis of the well-known iterative Tikhonov method for linear problems in Hilbert space to a more general Banach space framework. Systems of linear or nonlinear operators can be efficiently treated by cyclic iterations, thus several variants of gradient and Newton-type Kaczmarz methods have already been studied in the Hilbert space setting. Antonio Leitão and M Marques Alves in their paper On Landweber---Kaczmarz methods for regularizing systems of ill-posed equations in Banach spaces carry out an extension to Banach spaces for the fundamental Landweber version. The impact of perturbations in the evaluation of the forward operator and its derivative on the convergence behaviour of regularization methods is a practically and highly relevant issue. It is treated in the paper Convergence rates analysis of Tikhonov regularization for nonlinear ill-posed problems with noisy operators by Shuai Lu and Jens Flemming for variational regularization of nonlinear problems in Banach spaces. In The approximate inverse in action: IV. Semi-discrete equations in a Banach space setting, Thomas Schuster, Andreas Rieder and Frank Schöpfer extend the concept of approximate inverse to the practically and highly relevant situation of finitely many measurements and a general smooth and convex Banach space as preimage space. They devise two approaches for computing the reconstruction kernels required in the method and provide convergence and regularization results. Frank Werner and Thorsten Hohage in Convergence rates in expectation for Tikhonov-type regularization of inverse problems with Poisson data prove convergence rates results for variational regularization with general convex regularization term and the Kullback-Leibler distance as data fidelity term by combining a new result on Poisson distributed data with a deterministic rates analysis. Finally, we would like to thank the Inverse Problems team, especially Joanna Evangelides and Chris Wileman, for their extraordinary smooth and productive cooperation, as well as Alfred K Louis for his kind support of our initiative.

Linear, multivariable robust control with a mu perspective

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Packard, Andy; Doyle, John; Balas, Gary

1993-01-01

The structured singular value is a linear algebra tool developed to study a particular class of matrix perturbation problems arising in robust feedback control of multivariable systems. These perturbations are called linear fractional, and are a natural way to model many types of uncertainty in linear systems, including state-space parameter uncertainty, multiplicative and additive unmodeled dynamics uncertainty, and coprime factor and gap metric uncertainty. The structured singular value theory provides a natural extension of classical SISO robustness measures and concepts to MIMO systems. The structured singular value analysis, coupled with approximate synthesis methods, make it possible to study the tradeoff between performance and uncertainty that occurs in all feedback systems. In MIMO systems, the complexity of the spatial interactions in the loop gains make it difficult to heuristically quantify the tradeoffs that must occur. This paper examines the role played by the structured singular value (and its computable bounds) in answering these questions, as well as its role in the general robust, multivariable control analysis and design problem.

Maintenance of headland-associated linear sandbanks: modelling the secondary flows and sediment transport

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berthot, Alexis; Pattiaratchi, Charitha

2005-12-01

Linear sandbanks are located globally in areas where there are strong currents and an abundance of sand. In the recent years, these sandbanks have become of strategic interest as a potential source of marine aggregates (sand and gravel) and mineral deposits. They form the seaward boundary of the nearshore zone and therefore are important for the stability of the coastal system. They also commonly reach the sea surface and thus pose a threat to navigation. Headland-associated linear sandbanks are a specific type of sandbanks which are located in the lee of coastal topographic features such as headlands and islands. Interaction between tidal currents and topographic features generate complex three-dimensional circulation patterns that significantly influence the distribution of sediments in the vicinity of the feature. Field and numerical model investigations of the three-dimensional flow structure have been undertaken on the Levillain Shoal, a headland-associated linear sandbank present in the lee of Cape Levillain (Shark Bay, Western Australia). The field data indicated the presence of secondary flows near the tip of the cape and around the bank which were re-produced in the numerical simulations. Numerical results have shown that residual eddies are not representative of the sediment transport and that secondary currents enhance the convergence of sediment towards the sandbank. Maintenance processes have been investigated. Sediment transport paths near the cape and the bank indicate that the sandbank is part of a sand circulation cell where the sand is circulating around the bank with exchanges between the sandbank and the headland.

A Sludge Drum in the APNea System

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hensley, D.

1998-11-17

The assay of sludge drums pushes the APNea System to a definite extreme. Even though it seems clear that neutron based assay should be the method of choice for sludge drums, the difficulties posed by this matrix push any NDA technique to its limits. Special emphasis is given here to the differential die-away technique, which appears to approach the desired sensitivity. A parallel analysis of ethafoam drums will be presented, since the ethafoam matrix fits well within the operating range of the AIWea System, and, having been part of the early PDP trials, has been assayed by many in themore » NDA community.« less

A Synergy-Based Optimally Designed Sensing Glove for Functional Grasp Recognition

PubMed Central

Ciotti, Simone; Battaglia, Edoardo; Carbonaro, Nicola; Bicchi, Antonio; Tognetti, Alessandro; Bianchi, Matteo

2016-01-01

Achieving accurate and reliable kinematic hand pose reconstructions represents a challenging task. The main reason for this is the complexity of hand biomechanics, where several degrees of freedom are distributed along a continuous deformable structure. Wearable sensing can represent a viable solution to tackle this issue, since it enables a more natural kinematic monitoring. However, the intrinsic accuracy (as well as the number of sensing elements) of wearable hand pose reconstruction (HPR) systems can be severely limited by ergonomics and cost considerations. In this paper, we combined the theoretical foundations of the optimal design of HPR devices based on hand synergy information, i.e., the inter-joint covariation patterns, with textile goniometers based on knitted piezoresistive fabrics (KPF) technology, to develop, for the first time, an optimally-designed under-sensed glove for measuring hand kinematics. We used only five sensors optimally placed on the hand and completed hand pose reconstruction (described according to a kinematic model with 19 degrees of freedom) leveraging upon synergistic information. The reconstructions we obtained from five different subjects were used to implement an unsupervised method for the recognition of eight functional grasps, showing a high degree of accuracy and robustness. PMID:27271621

A Synergy-Based Optimally Designed Sensing Glove for Functional Grasp Recognition.

PubMed

Ciotti, Simone; Battaglia, Edoardo; Carbonaro, Nicola; Bicchi, Antonio; Tognetti, Alessandro; Bianchi, Matteo

2016-06-02

Achieving accurate and reliable kinematic hand pose reconstructions represents a challenging task. The main reason for this is the complexity of hand biomechanics, where several degrees of freedom are distributed along a continuous deformable structure. Wearable sensing can represent a viable solution to tackle this issue, since it enables a more natural kinematic monitoring. However, the intrinsic accuracy (as well as the number of sensing elements) of wearable hand pose reconstruction (HPR) systems can be severely limited by ergonomics and cost considerations. In this paper, we combined the theoretical foundations of the optimal design of HPR devices based on hand synergy information, i.e., the inter-joint covariation patterns, with textile goniometers based on knitted piezoresistive fabrics (KPF) technology, to develop, for the first time, an optimally-designed under-sensed glove for measuring hand kinematics. We used only five sensors optimally placed on the hand and completed hand pose reconstruction (described according to a kinematic model with 19 degrees of freedom) leveraging upon synergistic information. The reconstructions we obtained from five different subjects were used to implement an unsupervised method for the recognition of eight functional grasps, showing a high degree of accuracy and robustness.

Performance of multiple docking and refinement methods in the pose prediction D3R prospective Grand Challenge 2016

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fradera, Xavier; Verras, Andreas; Hu, Yuan; Wang, Deping; Wang, Hongwu; Fells, James I.; Armacost, Kira A.; Crespo, Alejandro; Sherborne, Brad; Wang, Huijun; Peng, Zhengwei; Gao, Ying-Duo

2018-01-01

We describe the performance of multiple pose prediction methods for the D3R 2016 Grand Challenge. The pose prediction challenge includes 36 ligands, which represent 4 chemotypes and some miscellaneous structures against the FXR ligand binding domain. In this study we use a mix of fully automated methods as well as human-guided methods with considerations of both the challenge data and publicly available data. The methods include ensemble docking, colony entropy pose prediction, target selection by molecular similarity, molecular dynamics guided pose refinement, and pose selection by visual inspection. We evaluated the success of our predictions by method, chemotype, and relevance of publicly available data. For the overall data set, ensemble docking, visual inspection, and molecular dynamics guided pose prediction performed the best with overall mean RMSDs of 2.4, 2.2, and 2.2 Å respectively. For several individual challenge molecules, the best performing method is evaluated in light of that particular ligand. We also describe the protein, ligand, and public information data preparations that are typical of our binding mode prediction workflow.

Optical neural network system for pose determination of spinning satellites

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lee, Andrew; Casasent, David

1990-01-01

An optical neural network architecture and algorithm based on a Hopfield optimization network are presented for multitarget tracking. This tracker utilizes a neuron for every possible target track, and a quadratic energy function of neural activities which is minimized using gradient descent neural evolution. The neural net tracker is demonstrated as part of a system for determining position and orientation (pose) of spinning satellites with respect to a robotic spacecraft. The input to the system is time sequence video from a single camera. Novelty detection and filtering are utilized to locate and segment novel regions from the input images. The neural net multitarget tracker determines the correspondences (or tracks) of the novel regions as a function of time, and hence the paths of object (satellite) parts. The path traced out by a given part or region is approximately elliptical in image space, and the position, shape and orientation of the ellipse are functions of the satellite geometry and its pose. Having a geometric model of the satellite, and the elliptical path of a part in image space, the three-dimensional pose of the satellite is determined. Digital simulation results using this algorithm are presented for various satellite poses and lighting conditions.

Practical Considerations for Using Constant Force Springs in Space-Based Mechanisms

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Williams, R. Brett; Fisher, Charles D.; Gallon, John C.

2013-01-01

Mechanical springs are a common element in mechanism from all walks of life; cars, watches, appliances, and many others. These springs generally exhibit a linear relationship between force and deflection. In small mechanisms, deflections are small so the variation in spring force between one position and another are generally small and do not influence the design or functionality of the device. However, as the spacecraft industry drives towards larger, deployable satellites, the distances a spring or springs must function over can become considerable so much so that the structural integrity of the device may be impacted. As such, an increasingly common mechanism element is the constant force spring- one that provides a constant force regardless of deflection. These elements are commonly in the conceptual design phase to deal with system-level large deflections, but in the detailed design or integration test phase they can pose significant implementation issues. This article addresses some of the detailed issues in order for these constant force springs to be properly designed into space systems.

A comparison of WEC control strategies

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wilson, David G.; Bacelli, Giorgio; Coe, Ryan Geoffrey

2016-04-01

The operation of Wave Energy Converter (WEC) devices can pose many challenging problems to the Water Power Community. A key research question is how to significantly improve the performance of these WEC devices through improving the control system design. This report summarizes an effort to analyze and improve the performance of WEC through the design and implementation of control systems. Controllers were selected to span the WEC control design space with the aim of building a more comprehensive understanding of different controller capabilities and requirements. To design and evaluate these control strategies, a model scale test-bed WEC was designed formore » both numerical and experimental testing (see Section 1.1). Seven control strategies have been developed and applied on a numerical model of the selected WEC. This model is capable of performing at a range of levels, spanning from a fully-linear realization to varying levels of nonlinearity. The details of this model and its ongoing development are described in Section 1.2.« less

DOSE-RESPONSE RELATIONSHIPS FOR MOLECULAR ALTERATIONS INDUCED BY B[ A ]P IN STRAIN A/J MOUSE LUNG

EPA Science Inventory

Benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) induces tumors in rodents at doses much higher than those found in the environment. Current cancer risk assessment of B[a]P assumes that the risk posed by low level exposure to B[a]P is linear with respect to dose. We have measur...

Literacy (Digital) and the Promise of Mobile Devices for Education of the Underpriveleged Students of Silicon Valley, California

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gonzalez, Michael

2014-01-01

The introduction of the Internet and its hyperlinked content made easily accessible with portable digital devices like smart phones and tablets, posed challenges to the traditional linear and print-oriented notions of what it means to read and write. Now that these traditional notions of read and write literacy have been breached by these…

Laser-assisted delivery of topical methotrexate - in vitro investigations.

PubMed

Taudorf, Elisabeth Hjardem

2016-06-01

Ablative fractional lasers (AFXL) are increasingly used to treat dermatological disorders and to facilitate laser-assisted topical drug delivery. In this thesis, laser-tissue interactions generated by stacked pulses with a miniaturized low-power 2,940 nm AFXL were characterized (study I). Knowledge of the correlation between laser parameters and tissue effects was used to deliver methotrexate (MTX) topically through microscopic ablation zones (MAZs) of precise dimensions. MTX is a well-known chemotherapeutic and anti-inflammatory drug that may cause systemic adverse effects, and topical delivery is thus of potential benefit. The impact of MAZ depth (study II) and transport kinetics (study III) on MTX deposition in skin as well as transdermal permeation was determined in vitro. Quantitative analyses of dermal and transdermal MTX concentrations were performed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) (study II & III), while qualitative analyses of MTX biodistribution in skin were illustrated and semi-quantified by fluorescence microscopy (study II & III) and desorption electro spray mass spectrometry imaging (DESI-MSI) (study III). Laser-tissue interactions generated by AFXL: AFXL-exposure generated a variety of MAZ-dimensions. MAZ depth increased linearly with the logarithm of total energy delivered by stacked pulses, but was also affected by variations in power, pulse energy, pulse duration, and pulse repetition rate. Coagulation zones lining MAZs increased linearly with the applied total energy, while MAZ width increased linearly with the logarithm of stacked pulses. Results were gathered in a mathematical model estimating relations between laser parameters and specific MAZ dimensions. Impact of MAZ depth on AFXL-assisted topical MTX delivery: Pretreatment by AFXL facilitated topical MTX delivery to all skin layers. Deeper MAZs increased total MTX deposition in skin compared to superficial MAZs and altered the intradermal biodistribution profile towards maximum accumulation in deeper skin layers. Biodistribution of MTX occurred throughout the skin without being compromised by coagulation zones of varying thickness. The ratio of skin deposition versus transdermal permeation was constant, regardless of MAZ depth. Impact of transport kinetics on AFXL-assisted topical MTX delivery: MTX accumulated rapidly in AFXL-processed skin. MTX was detectable in mid-dermis after 15 min. and saturated the skin after 7 h at a ten-fold increased MTX-concentration compared to intact skin. Transdermal permeation stayed below 1.5% of applied MTX before skin saturation, and increased afterwards up to 8.0% at 24h. MTX distributed radially into the coagulation zone within 15 min of application and could be detected in surrounding skin at 1.5 h. Upon skin saturation, MTX had distributed in an entire mid-dermal skin section. In conclusion, adjusting laser parameters and application time may enable targeted treatments of dermatological disorders and potentially pose a future alternative to systemic MTX in selected dermatological disorders.

Photomask etch system and process for 10nm technology node and beyond

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chandrachood, Madhavi; Grimbergen, Michael; Yu, Keven; Leung, Toi; Tran, Jeffrey; Chen, Jeff; Bivens, Darin; Yalamanchili, Rao; Wistrom, Richard; Faure, Tom; Bartlau, Peter; Crawford, Shaun; Sakamoto, Yoshifumi

2015-10-01

While the industry is making progress to offer EUV lithography schemes to attain ultimate critical dimensions down to 20 nm half pitch, an interim optical lithography solution to address an immediate need for resolution is offered by various integration schemes using advanced PSM (Phase Shift Mask) materials including thin e-beam resist and hard mask. Using the 193nm wavelength to produce 10nm or 7nm patterns requires a range of optimization techniques, including immersion and multiple patterning, which place a heavy demand on photomask technologies. Mask schemes with hard mask certainly help attain better selectivity and hence better resolution but pose integration challenges and defectivity issues. This paper presents a new photomask etch solution for attenuated phase shift masks that offers high selectivity (Cr:Resist > 1.5:1), tighter control on the CD uniformity with a 3sigma value approaching 1 nm and controllable CD bias (5-20 nm) with excellent CD linearity performance (<5 nm) down to the finer resolution. The new system has successfully demonstrated capability to meet the 10 nm node photomask CD requirements without the use of more complicated hard mask phase shift blanks. Significant improvement in post wet clean recovery performance was demonstrated by the use of advanced chamber materials. Examples of CD uniformity, linearity, and minimum feature size, and etch bias performance on 10 nm test site and production mask designs will be shown.

Methods for intraoperative, sterile pose-setting of patient-specific microstereotactic frames

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vollmann, Benjamin; Müller, Samuel; Kundrat, Dennis; Ortmaier, Tobias; Kahrs, Lüder A.

2015-03-01

This work proposes new methods for a microstereotactic frame based on bone cement fixation. Microstereotactic frames are under investigation for minimal invasive temporal bone surgery, e.g. cochlear implantation, or for deep brain stimulation, where products are already on the market. The correct pose of the microstereotactic frame is either adjusted outside or inside the operating room and the frame is used for e.g. drill or electrode guidance. We present a patientspecific, disposable frame that allows intraoperative, sterile pose-setting. Key idea of our approach is bone cement between two plates that cures while the plates are positioned with a mechatronics system in the desired pose. This paper includes new designs of microstereotactic frames, a system for alignment and first measurements to analyze accuracy and applicable load.

Domestic wells have high probability of pumping septic tank leachate

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bremer, J. E.; Harter, T.

2012-08-01

Onsite wastewater treatment systems are common in rural and semi-rural areas around the world; in the US, about 25-30% of households are served by a septic (onsite) wastewater treatment system, and many property owners also operate their own domestic well nearby. Site-specific conditions and local groundwater flow are often ignored when installing septic systems and wells. In areas with small lots (thus high spatial septic system densities), shallow domestic wells are prone to contamination by septic system leachate. Mass balance approaches have been used to determine a maximum septic system density that would prevent contamination of groundwater resources. In this study, a source area model based on detailed groundwater flow and transport modeling is applied for a stochastic analysis of domestic well contamination by septic leachate. Specifically, we determine the probability that a source area overlaps with a septic system drainfield as a function of aquifer properties, septic system density and drainfield size. We show that high spatial septic system density poses a high probability of pumping septic system leachate. The hydraulic conductivity of the aquifer has a strong influence on the intersection probability. We find that mass balance calculations applied on a regional scale underestimate the contamination risk of individual drinking water wells by septic systems. This is particularly relevant for contaminants released at high concentrations, for substances that experience limited attenuation, and those that are harmful even at low concentrations (e.g., pathogens).

Three-Dimensional Object Recognition and Registration for Robotic Grasping Systems Using a Modified Viewpoint Feature Histogram

PubMed Central

Chen, Chin-Sheng; Chen, Po-Chun; Hsu, Chih-Ming

2016-01-01

This paper presents a novel 3D feature descriptor for object recognition and to identify poses when there are six-degrees-of-freedom for mobile manipulation and grasping applications. Firstly, a Microsoft Kinect sensor is used to capture 3D point cloud data. A viewpoint feature histogram (VFH) descriptor for the 3D point cloud data then encodes the geometry and viewpoint, so an object can be simultaneously recognized and registered in a stable pose and the information is stored in a database. The VFH is robust to a large degree of surface noise and missing depth information so it is reliable for stereo data. However, the pose estimation for an object fails when the object is placed symmetrically to the viewpoint. To overcome this problem, this study proposes a modified viewpoint feature histogram (MVFH) descriptor that consists of two parts: a surface shape component that comprises an extended fast point feature histogram and an extended viewpoint direction component. The MVFH descriptor characterizes an object’s pose and enhances the system’s ability to identify objects with mirrored poses. Finally, the refined pose is further estimated using an iterative closest point when the object has been recognized and the pose roughly estimated by the MVFH descriptor and it has been registered on a database. The estimation results demonstrate that the MVFH feature descriptor allows more accurate pose estimation. The experiments also show that the proposed method can be applied in vision-guided robotic grasping systems. PMID:27886080

Autonomous target recognition using remotely sensed surface vibration measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Geurts, James; Ruck, Dennis W.; Rogers, Steven K.; Oxley, Mark E.; Barr, Dallas N.

1993-09-01

The remotely measured surface vibration signatures of tactical military ground vehicles are investigated for use in target classification and identification friend or foe (IFF) systems. The use of remote surface vibration sensing by a laser radar reduces the effects of partial occlusion, concealment, and camouflage experienced by automatic target recognition systems using traditional imagery in a tactical battlefield environment. Linear Predictive Coding (LPC) efficiently represents the vibration signatures and nearest neighbor classifiers exploit the LPC feature set using a variety of distortion metrics. Nearest neighbor classifiers achieve an 88 percent classification rate in an eight class problem, representing a classification performance increase of thirty percent from previous efforts. A novel confidence figure of merit is implemented to attain a 100 percent classification rate with less than 60 percent rejection. The high classification rates are achieved on a target set which would pose significant problems to traditional image-based recognition systems. The targets are presented to the sensor in a variety of aspects and engine speeds at a range of 1 kilometer. The classification rates achieved demonstrate the benefits of using remote vibration measurement in a ground IFF system. The signature modeling and classification system can also be used to identify rotary and fixed-wing targets.

Linear ordinary differential equations with constant coefficients. Revisiting the impulsive response method using factorization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Camporesi, Roberto

2011-06-01

We present an approach to the impulsive response method for solving linear constant-coefficient ordinary differential equations based on the factorization of the differential operator. The approach is elementary, we only assume a basic knowledge of calculus and linear algebra. In particular, we avoid the use of distribution theory, as well as of the other more advanced approaches: Laplace transform, linear systems, the general theory of linear equations with variable coefficients and the variation of constants method. The approach presented here can be used in a first course on differential equations for science and engineering majors.

In-the-wild facial expression recognition in extreme poses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Fei; Zhang, Qian; Zheng, Chi; Qiu, Guoping

2018-04-01

In the computer research area, facial expression recognition is a hot research problem. Recent years, the research has moved from the lab environment to in-the-wild circumstances. It is challenging, especially under extreme poses. But current expression detection systems are trying to avoid the pose effects and gain the general applicable ability. In this work, we solve the problem in the opposite approach. We consider the head poses and detect the expressions within special head poses. Our work includes two parts: detect the head pose and group it into one pre-defined head pose class; do facial expression recognize within each pose class. Our experiments show that the recognition results with pose class grouping are much better than that of direct recognition without considering poses. We combine the hand-crafted features, SIFT, LBP and geometric feature, with deep learning feature as the representation of the expressions. The handcrafted features are added into the deep learning framework along with the high level deep learning features. As a comparison, we implement SVM and random forest to as the prediction models. To train and test our methodology, we labeled the face dataset with 6 basic expressions.

Using informative priors in facies inversion: The case of C-ISR method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Valakas, G.; Modis, K.

2016-08-01

Inverse problems involving the characterization of hydraulic properties of groundwater flow systems by conditioning on observations of the state variables are mathematically ill-posed because they have multiple solutions and are sensitive to small changes in the data. In the framework of McMC methods for nonlinear optimization and under an iterative spatial resampling transition kernel, we present an algorithm for narrowing the prior and thus producing improved proposal realizations. To achieve this goal, we cosimulate the facies distribution conditionally to facies observations and normal scores transformed hydrologic response measurements, assuming a linear coregionalization model. The approach works by creating an importance sampling effect that steers the process to selected areas of the prior. The effectiveness of our approach is demonstrated by an example application on a synthetic underdetermined inverse problem in aquifer characterization.

Ergodic properties of spiking neuronal networks with delayed interactions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Palmigiano, Agostina; Wolf, Fred

The dynamical stability of neuronal networks, and the possibility of chaotic dynamics in the brain pose profound questions to the mechanisms underlying perception. Here we advance on the tractability of large neuronal networks of exactly solvable neuronal models with delayed pulse-coupled interactions. Pulse coupled delayed systems with an infinite dimensional phase space can be studied in equivalent systems of fixed and finite degrees of freedom by introducing a delayer variable for each neuron. A Jacobian of the equivalent system can be analytically obtained, and numerically evaluated. We find that depending on the action potential onset rapidness and the level of heterogeneities, the asynchronous irregular regime characteristic of balanced state networks loses stability with increasing delays to either a slow synchronous irregular or a fast synchronous irregular state. In networks of neurons with slow action potential onset, the transition to collective oscillations leads to an increase of the exponential rate of divergence of nearby trajectories and of the entropy production rate of the chaotic dynamics. The attractor dimension, instead of increasing linearly with increasing delay as reported in many other studies, decreases until eventually the network reaches full synchrony

Self-reported well-being score modelling and prediction: Proof-of-concept of an approach based on linear dynamic systems.

PubMed

Xinyang Li; Poli, Riccardo; Valenza, Gaetano; Scilingo, Enzo Pasquale; Citi, Luca

2017-07-01

Assessment and recognition of perceived well-being has wide applications in the development of assistive healthcare systems for people with physical and mental disorders. In practical data collection, these systems need to be less intrusive, and respect users' autonomy and willingness as much as possible. As a result, self-reported data are not necessarily available at all times. Conventional classifiers, which usually require feature vectors of a prefixed dimension, are not well suited for this problem. To address the issue of non-uniformly sampled measurements, in this study we propose a method for the modelling and prediction of self-reported well-being scores based on a linear dynamic system. Within the model, we formulate different features as observations, making predictions even in the presence of inconsistent and irregular data. We evaluate the proposed method with synthetic data, as well as real data from two patients diagnosed with cancer. In the latter, self-reported scores from three well-being-related scales were collected over a period of approximately 60 days. Prompted each day, the patients had the choice whether to respond or not. Results show that the proposed model is able to track and predict the patients' perceived well-being dynamics despite the irregularly sampled data.

On improving linear solver performance: a block variant of GMRES

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Baker, A H; Dennis, J M; Jessup, E R

2004-05-10

The increasing gap between processor performance and memory access time warrants the re-examination of data movement in iterative linear solver algorithms. For this reason, we explore and establish the feasibility of modifying a standard iterative linear solver algorithm in a manner that reduces the movement of data through memory. In particular, we present an alternative to the restarted GMRES algorithm for solving a single right-hand side linear system Ax = b based on solving the block linear system AX = B. Algorithm performance, i.e. time to solution, is improved by using the matrix A in operations on groups of vectors.more » Experimental results demonstrate the importance of implementation choices on data movement as well as the effectiveness of the new method on a variety of problems from different application areas.« less

Point Cloud Based Relative Pose Estimation of a Satellite in Close Range

PubMed Central

Liu, Lujiang; Zhao, Gaopeng; Bo, Yuming

2016-01-01

Determination of the relative pose of satellites is essential in space rendezvous operations and on-orbit servicing missions. The key problems are the adoption of suitable sensor on board of a chaser and efficient techniques for pose estimation. This paper aims to estimate the pose of a target satellite in close range on the basis of its known model by using point cloud data generated by a flash LIDAR sensor. A novel model based pose estimation method is proposed; it includes a fast and reliable pose initial acquisition method based on global optimal searching by processing the dense point cloud data directly, and a pose tracking method based on Iterative Closest Point algorithm. Also, a simulation system is presented in this paper in order to evaluate the performance of the sensor and generate simulated sensor point cloud data. It also provides truth pose of the test target so that the pose estimation error can be quantified. To investigate the effectiveness of the proposed approach and achievable pose accuracy, numerical simulation experiments are performed; results demonstrate algorithm capability of operating with point cloud directly and large pose variations. Also, a field testing experiment is conducted and results show that the proposed method is effective. PMID:27271633

PAN AIR: A computer program for predicting subsonic or supersonic linear potential flows about arbitrary configurations using a higher order panel method. Volume 4: Maintenance document (version 3.0)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Purdon, David J.; Baruah, Pranab K.; Bussoletti, John E.; Epton, Michael A.; Massena, William A.; Nelson, Franklin D.; Tsurusaki, Kiyoharu

1990-01-01

The Maintenance Document Version 3.0 is a guide to the PAN AIR software system, a system which computes the subsonic or supersonic linear potential flow about a body of nearly arbitrary shape, using a higher order panel method. The document describes the overall system and each program module of the system. Sufficient detail is given for program maintenance, updating, and modification. It is assumed that the reader is familiar with programming and CRAY computer systems. The PAN AIR system was written in FORTRAN 4 language except for a few CAL language subroutines which exist in the PAN AIR library. Structured programming techniques were used to provide code documentation and maintainability. The operating systems accommodated are COS 1.11, COS 1.12, COS 1.13, and COS 1.14 on the CRAY 1S, 1M, and X-MP computing systems. The system is comprised of a data base management system, a program library, an execution control module, and nine separate FORTRAN technical modules. Each module calculates part of the posed PAN AIR problem. The data base manager is used to communicate between modules and within modules. The technical modules must be run in a prescribed fashion for each PAN AIR problem. In order to ease the problem of supplying the many JCL cards required to execute the modules, a set of CRAY procedures (PAPROCS) was created to automatically supply most of the JCL cards. Most of this document has not changed for Version 3.0. It now, however, strictly applies only to PAN AIR version 3.0. The major changes are: (1) additional sections covering the new FDP module (which calculates streamlines and offbody points); (2) a complete rewrite of the section on the MAG module; and (3) strict applicability to CRAY computing systems.

Application of Microprocessor-Based Equipment in Nuclear Power Plants - Technical Basis for a Qualification Methodology

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Korsah, K.

This document (1) summarizes the most significant findings of the ''Qualification of Advanced Instrumentation and Control (I&C) Systems'' program initiated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC); (2) documents a comparative analysis of U.S. and European qualification standards; and (3) provides recommendations for enhancing regulatory guidance for environmental qualification of microprocessor-based safety-related systems. Safety-related I&C system upgrades of present-day nuclear power plants, as well as I&C systems of Advanced Light-Water Reactors (ALWRs), are expected to make increasing use of microprocessor-based technology. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) recognized that the use of such technology may pose environmental qualification challenges different from current,more » analog-based I&C systems. Hence, it initiated the ''Qualification of Advanced Instrumentation and Control Systems'' program. The objectives of this confirmatory research project are to (1) identify any unique environmental-stress-related failure modes posed by digital technologies and their potential impact on the safety systems and (2) develop the technical basis for regulatory guidance using these findings. Previous findings from this study have been documented in several technical reports. This final report in the series documents a comparative analysis of two environmental qualification standards--Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Std 323-1983 and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 60780 (1998)--and provides recommendations for environmental qualification of microprocessor-based systems based on this analysis as well as on the findings documented in the previous reports. The two standards were chosen for this analysis because IEEE 323 is the standard used in the U.S. for the qualification of safety-related equipment in nuclear power plants, and IEC 60780 is its European counterpart. In addition, the IEC document was published in 1998, and should reflect any new qualification concerns, from the European perspective, with regard to the use of microprocessor-based safety systems in power plants.« less

Linear Phase Sharp Transition BPF to Detect Noninvasive Maternal and Fetal Heart Rate.

PubMed

Marchon, Niyan; Naik, Gourish; Pai, K R

2018-01-01

Fetal heart rate (FHR) detection can be monitored using either direct fetal scalp electrode recording (invasive) or by indirect noninvasive technique. Weeks before delivery, the invasive method poses a risk factor to the fetus, while the latter provides accurate fetal ECG (FECG) information which can help diagnose fetal's well-being. Our technique employs variable order linear phase sharp transition (LPST) FIR band-pass filter which shows improved stopband attenuation at higher filter orders. The fetal frequency fiduciary edges form the band edges of the filter characterized by varying amounts of overlap of maternal ECG (MECG) spectrum. The one with the minimum maternal spectrum overlap was found to be optimum with no power line interference and maximum fetal heart beats being detected. The improved filtering is reflected in the enhancement of the performance of the fetal QRS detector (FQRS). The improvement has also occurred in fetal heart rate obtained using our algorithm which is in close agreement with the true reference (i.e., invasive fetal scalp ECG). The performance parameters of the FQRS detector such as sensitivity (Se), positive predictive value (PPV), and accuracy (F 1 ) were found to improve even for lower filter order. The same technique was extended to evaluate maternal QRS detector (MQRS) and found to yield satisfactory maternal heart rate (MHR) results.

Linear Combinations of Multiple Outcome Measures to Improve the Power of Efficacy Analysis ---Application to Clinical Trials on Early Stage Alzheimer Disease

PubMed Central

Xiong, Chengjie; Luo, Jingqin; Morris, John C; Bateman, Randall

2018-01-01

Modern clinical trials on Alzheimer disease (AD) focus on the early symptomatic stage or even the preclinical stage. Subtle disease progression at the early stages, however, poses a major challenge in designing such clinical trials. We propose a multivariate mixed model on repeated measures to model the disease progression over time on multiple efficacy outcomes, and derive the optimum weights to combine multiple outcome measures by minimizing the sample sizes to adequately power the clinical trials. A cross-validation simulation study is conducted to assess the accuracy for the estimated weights as well as the improvement in reducing the sample sizes for such trials. The proposed methodology is applied to the multiple cognitive tests from the ongoing observational study of the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network (DIAN) to power future clinical trials in the DIAN with a cognitive endpoint. Our results show that the optimum weights to combine multiple outcome measures can be accurately estimated, and that compared to the individual outcomes, the combined efficacy outcome with these weights significantly reduces the sample size required to adequately power clinical trials. When applied to the clinical trial in the DIAN, the estimated linear combination of six cognitive tests can adequately power the clinical trial. PMID:29546251

f(Lovelock) theories of gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bueno, Pablo; Cano, Pablo A.; Óscar Lasso, A.; Ramírez, Pedro F.

2016-04-01

f(Lovelock) gravities are simple generalizations of the usual f( R) and Lovelock theories in which the gravitational action depends on some arbitrary function of the corresponding dimensionally-extended Euler densities. In this paper we study several aspects of these theories in general dimensions. We start by identifying the generalized boundary term which makes the gravitational variational problem well-posed. Then, we show that these theories are equivalent to certain scalar-tensor theories and how this relation is characterized by the Hessian of f. We also study the linearized equations of the theory on general maximally symmetric backgrounds. Remarkably, we find that these theories do not propagate the usual ghost-like massive gravitons characteristic of higher-derivative gravities on such backgrounds. In some non-trivial cases, the additional scalar associated to the trace of the metric perturbation is also absent, being the usual graviton the only dynamical field. In those cases, the linearized equations are exactly the same as in Einstein gravity up to an overall factor, making them appealing as holographic toy models. We also find constraints on the couplings of a broad family of five-dimensional f(Lovelock) theories using holographic entanglement entropy. Finally, we construct new analytic asymptotically flat and AdS/dS black hole solutions for some classes of f(Lovelock) gravities in various dimensions.

A hybrid approach to modeling and control of vehicle height for electronically controlled air suspension

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Xiaoqiang; Cai, Yingfeng; Wang, Shaohua; Liu, Yanling; Chen, Long

2016-01-01

The control problems associated with vehicle height adjustment of electronically controlled air suspension (ECAS) still pose theoretical challenges for researchers, which manifest themselves in the publications on this subject over the last years. This paper deals with modeling and control of a vehicle height adjustment system for ECAS, which is an example of a hybrid dynamical system due to the coexistence and coupling of continuous variables and discrete events. A mixed logical dynamical (MLD) modeling approach is chosen for capturing enough details of the vehicle height adjustment process. The hybrid dynamic model is constructed on the basis of some assumptions and piecewise linear approximation for components nonlinearities. Then, the on-off statuses of solenoid valves and the piecewise approximation process are described by propositional logic, and the hybrid system is transformed into the set of linear mixed-integer equalities and inequalities, denoted as MLD model, automatically by HYSDEL. Using this model, a hybrid model predictive controller (HMPC) is tuned based on online mixed-integer quadratic optimization (MIQP). Two different scenarios are considered in the simulation, whose results verify the height adjustment effectiveness of the proposed approach. Explicit solutions of the controller are computed to control the vehicle height adjustment system in realtime using an offline multi-parametric programming technology (MPT), thus convert the controller into an equivalent explicit piecewise affine form. Finally, bench experiments for vehicle height lifting, holding and lowering procedures are conducted, which demonstrate that the HMPC can adjust the vehicle height by controlling the on-off statuses of solenoid valves directly. This research proposes a new modeling and control method for vehicle height adjustment of ECAS, which leads to a closed-loop system with favorable dynamical properties.

GPU computing with Kaczmarz’s and other iterative algorithms for linear systems

PubMed Central

Elble, Joseph M.; Sahinidis, Nikolaos V.; Vouzis, Panagiotis

2009-01-01

The graphics processing unit (GPU) is used to solve large linear systems derived from partial differential equations. The differential equations studied are strongly convection-dominated, of various sizes, and common to many fields, including computational fluid dynamics, heat transfer, and structural mechanics. The paper presents comparisons between GPU and CPU implementations of several well-known iterative methods, including Kaczmarz’s, Cimmino’s, component averaging, conjugate gradient normal residual (CGNR), symmetric successive overrelaxation-preconditioned conjugate gradient, and conjugate-gradient-accelerated component-averaged row projections (CARP-CG). Computations are preformed with dense as well as general banded systems. The results demonstrate that our GPU implementation outperforms CPU implementations of these algorithms, as well as previously studied parallel implementations on Linux clusters and shared memory systems. While the CGNR method had begun to fall out of favor for solving such problems, for the problems studied in this paper, the CGNR method implemented on the GPU performed better than the other methods, including a cluster implementation of the CARP-CG method. PMID:20526446

Security model for VM in cloud

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kanaparti, Venkataramana; Naveen K., R.; Rajani, S.; Padmvathamma, M.; Anitha, C.

2013-03-01

Cloud computing is a new approach emerged to meet ever-increasing demand for computing resources and to reduce operational costs and Capital Expenditure for IT services. As this new way of computation allows data and applications to be stored away from own corporate server, it brings more issues in security such as virtualization security, distributed computing, application security, identity management, access control and authentication. Even though Virtualization forms the basis for cloud computing it poses many threats in securing cloud. As most of Security threats lies at Virtualization layer in cloud we proposed this new Security Model for Virtual Machine in Cloud (SMVC) in which every process is authenticated by Trusted-Agent (TA) in Hypervisor as well as in VM. Our proposed model is designed to with-stand attacks by unauthorized process that pose threat to applications related to Data Mining, OLAP systems, Image processing which requires huge resources in cloud deployed on one or more VM's.

Thermal Effects on Camera Focal Length in Messenger Star Calibration and Orbital Imaging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burmeister, S.; Elgner, S.; Preusker, F.; Stark, A.; Oberst, J.

2018-04-01

We analyse images taken by the MErcury Surface, Space ENviorment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft for the camera's thermal response in the harsh thermal environment near Mercury. Specifically, we study thermally induced variations in focal length of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS). Within the several hundreds of images of star fields, the Wide Angle Camera (WAC) typically captures up to 250 stars in one frame of the panchromatic channel. We measure star positions and relate these to the known star coordinates taken from the Tycho-2 catalogue. We solve for camera pointing, the focal length parameter and two non-symmetrical distortion parameters for each image. Using data from the temperature sensors on the camera focal plane we model a linear focal length function in the form of f(T) = A0 + A1 T. Next, we use images from MESSENGER's orbital mapping mission. We deal with large image blocks, typically used for the production of a high-resolution digital terrain models (DTM). We analyzed images from the combined quadrangles H03 and H07, a selected region, covered by approx. 10,600 images, in which we identified about 83,900 tiepoints. Using bundle block adjustments, we solved for the unknown coordinates of the control points, the pointing of the camera - as well as the camera's focal length. We then fit the above linear function with respect to the focal plane temperature. As a result, we find a complex response of the camera to thermal conditions of the spacecraft. To first order, we see a linear increase by approx. 0.0107 mm per degree temperature for the Narrow-Angle Camera (NAC). This is in agreement with the observed thermal response seen in images of the panchromatic channel of the WAC. Unfortunately, further comparisons of results from the two methods, both of which use different portions of the available image data, are limited. If leaving uncorrected, these effects may pose significant difficulties in the photogrammetric analysis, specifically these may be responsible for erroneous longwavelength trends in topographic models.

Nonlinear model updating applied to the IMAC XXXII Round Robin benchmark system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kurt, Mehmet; Moore, Keegan J.; Eriten, Melih; McFarland, D. Michael; Bergman, Lawrence A.; Vakakis, Alexander F.

2017-05-01

We consider the application of a new nonlinear model updating strategy to a computational benchmark system. The approach relies on analyzing system response time series in the frequency-energy domain by constructing both Hamiltonian and forced and damped frequency-energy plots (FEPs). The system parameters are then characterized and updated by matching the backbone branches of the FEPs with the frequency-energy wavelet transforms of experimental and/or computational time series. The main advantage of this method is that no nonlinearity model is assumed a priori, and the system model is updated solely based on simulation and/or experimental measured time series. By matching the frequency-energy plots of the benchmark system and its reduced-order model, we show that we are able to retrieve the global strongly nonlinear dynamics in the frequency and energy ranges of interest, identify bifurcations, characterize local nonlinearities, and accurately reconstruct time series. We apply the proposed methodology to a benchmark problem, which was posed to the system identification community prior to the IMAC XXXII (2014) and XXXIII (2015) Conferences as a "Round Robin Exercise on Nonlinear System Identification". We show that we are able to identify the parameters of the non-linear element in the problem with a priori knowledge about its position.

The Fisher-KPP problem with doubly nonlinear diffusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Audrito, Alessandro; Vázquez, Juan Luis

2017-12-01

The famous Fisher-KPP reaction-diffusion model combines linear diffusion with the typical KPP reaction term, and appears in a number of relevant applications in biology and chemistry. It is remarkable as a mathematical model since it possesses a family of travelling waves that describe the asymptotic behaviour of a large class solutions 0 ≤ u (x , t) ≤ 1 of the problem posed in the real line. The existence of propagation waves with finite speed has been confirmed in some related models and disproved in others. We investigate here the corresponding theory when the linear diffusion is replaced by the "slow" doubly nonlinear diffusion and we find travelling waves that represent the wave propagation of more general solutions even when we extend the study to several space dimensions. A similar study is performed in the critical case that we call "pseudo-linear", i.e., when the operator is still nonlinear but has homogeneity one. With respect to the classical model and the "pseudo-linear" case, the "slow" travelling waves exhibit free boundaries.

Maximal likelihood correspondence estimation for face recognition across pose.

PubMed

Li, Shaoxin; Liu, Xin; Chai, Xiujuan; Zhang, Haihong; Lao, Shihong; Shan, Shiguang

2014-10-01

Due to the misalignment of image features, the performance of many conventional face recognition methods degrades considerably in across pose scenario. To address this problem, many image matching-based methods are proposed to estimate semantic correspondence between faces in different poses. In this paper, we aim to solve two critical problems in previous image matching-based correspondence learning methods: 1) fail to fully exploit face specific structure information in correspondence estimation and 2) fail to learn personalized correspondence for each probe image. To this end, we first build a model, termed as morphable displacement field (MDF), to encode face specific structure information of semantic correspondence from a set of real samples of correspondences calculated from 3D face models. Then, we propose a maximal likelihood correspondence estimation (MLCE) method to learn personalized correspondence based on maximal likelihood frontal face assumption. After obtaining the semantic correspondence encoded in the learned displacement, we can synthesize virtual frontal images of the profile faces for subsequent recognition. Using linear discriminant analysis method with pixel-intensity features, state-of-the-art performance is achieved on three multipose benchmarks, i.e., CMU-PIE, FERET, and MultiPIE databases. Owe to the rational MDF regularization and the usage of novel maximal likelihood objective, the proposed MLCE method can reliably learn correspondence between faces in different poses even in complex wild environment, i.e., labeled face in the wild database.

Performance of compost filtration practice for green infrastructure stormwater applications.

PubMed

Faucette, Britt; Cardoso, Fatima; Mulbry, Walter; Millner, Pat

2013-09-01

Urban storm water runoff poses a substantial threat of pollution to receiving surface waters. Green infrastructure, low impact development, green building ordinances, National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) storm water permit compliance, and Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) implementation strategies have become national priorities; however, designers need more sustainable, low-cost solutions to meet these goals and guidelines. The objective of this study was to determine the multiple-event removal efficiency and capacity of compost filter socks (FS) and filter socks with natural sorbents (NS) to remove soluble phosphorus, ammonium-nitrogen, nitrate-nitrogen, E. coli, Enterococcus, and oil from urban storm water runoff. Treatments were exposed to simulated storm water pollutant concentrations consistent with urban runoff originating from impervious surfaces, such as parking lots and roadways. Treatments were exposed to a maximum of 25 runoff events, or when removal efficiencies were < or = 25%, whichever occurred first. Experiments were conducted in triplicate. The filter socks with natural sorbents removed significantly greater soluble phosphorus than the filter socks alone, removing a total of 237 mg/linear m over eight runoff events, or an average of 34%. The filter socks with natural sorbents removed 54% of ammonium-nitrogen over 25 runoff events, or 533 mg/linear m, and only 11% of nitrate-nitrogen, or 228 mg/linear m. The filter socks and filter socks with natural sorbents both removed 99% of oil over 25 runoff events, or a total load of 38,486 mg/linear m. Over 25 runoff events the filter socks with natural sorbents removed E. coli and Enteroccocus at 85% and 65%, or a total load of 3.14 CFUs x 10(8)/ linear m and 1.5 CFUs x 10(9)/linear m, respectively; both were significantly greater than treatment by filter socks alone. Based on these experiments, this technique can be used to reduce soluble pollutants from storm water over multiple runoff events.

GARCH modelling of covariance in dynamical estimation of inverse solutions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Galka, Andreas; Yamashita, Okito; Ozaki, Tohru

2004-12-01

The problem of estimating unobserved states of spatially extended dynamical systems poses an inverse problem, which can be solved approximately by a recently developed variant of Kalman filtering; in order to provide the model of the dynamics with more flexibility with respect to space and time, we suggest to combine the concept of GARCH modelling of covariance, well known in econometrics, with Kalman filtering. We formulate this algorithm for spatiotemporal systems governed by stochastic diffusion equations and demonstrate its feasibility by presenting a numerical simulation designed to imitate the situation of the generation of electroencephalographic recordings by the human cortex.

Designing Autonomy: Opportunities for New Wildness in the Anthropocene.

PubMed

Cantrell, Bradley; Martin, Laura J; Ellis, Erle C

2017-03-01

Maintaining wild places increasingly involves intensive human interventions. Several recent projects use semi-automated mediating technologies to enact conservation and restoration actions, including re-seeding and invasive species eradication. Could a deep-learning system sustain the autonomy of nonhuman ecological processes at designated sites without direct human interventions? We explore here the prospects for automated curation of wild places, as well as the technical and ethical questions that such co-creation poses for ecologists, conservationists, and designers. Our goal is to foster innovative approaches to creating and maintaining the autonomy of evolving ecological systems. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Space Radiation and the Brain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hampson, R. E.

Solar and cosmic radiation pose a number of physiological challenges to human spaceflight outside the protective region of Earth's magnetosphere. Aside from well-described effects of radiation on the blood-forming tissues of the hematopoietic system, there is increasing evidence of direct effects of radiation on the brain as evidenced by studies showing longitudinal decline in memory and cognitive function following radiation specifically directed at brain tissue. These indications strengthen the need to more fully research effects of radiation - particular those components associated with solar wind and galactic cosmic radiation - on the nervous system of mammals from rodents to humans.

Using directed information for influence discovery in interconnected dynamical systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rao, Arvind; Hero, Alfred O.; States, David J.; Engel, James Douglas

2008-08-01

Structure discovery in non-linear dynamical systems is an important and challenging problem that arises in various applications such as computational neuroscience, econometrics, and biological network discovery. Each of these systems have multiple interacting variables and the key problem is the inference of the underlying structure of the systems (which variables are connected to which others) based on the output observations (such as multiple time trajectories of the variables). Since such applications demand the inference of directed relationships among variables in these non-linear systems, current methods that have a linear assumption on structure or yield undirected variable dependencies are insufficient. Hence, in this work, we present a methodology for structure discovery using an information-theoretic metric called directed time information (DTI). Using both synthetic dynamical systems as well as true biological datasets (kidney development and T-cell data), we demonstrate the utility of DTI in such problems.

A well-posed and stable stochastic Galerkin formulation of the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations with random data

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pettersson, Per, E-mail: per.pettersson@uib.no; Nordström, Jan, E-mail: jan.nordstrom@liu.se; Doostan, Alireza, E-mail: alireza.doostan@colorado.edu

2016-02-01

We present a well-posed stochastic Galerkin formulation of the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations with uncertainty in model parameters or the initial and boundary conditions. The stochastic Galerkin method involves representation of the solution through generalized polynomial chaos expansion and projection of the governing equations onto stochastic basis functions, resulting in an extended system of equations. A relatively low-order generalized polynomial chaos expansion is sufficient to capture the stochastic solution for the problem considered. We derive boundary conditions for the continuous form of the stochastic Galerkin formulation of the velocity and pressure equations. The resulting problem formulation leads to an energy estimatemore » for the divergence. With suitable boundary data on the pressure and velocity, the energy estimate implies zero divergence of the velocity field. Based on the analysis of the continuous equations, we present a semi-discretized system where the spatial derivatives are approximated using finite difference operators with a summation-by-parts property. With a suitable choice of dissipative boundary conditions imposed weakly through penalty terms, the semi-discrete scheme is shown to be stable. Numerical experiments in the laminar flow regime corroborate the theoretical results and we obtain high-order accurate results for the solution variables and the velocity divergence converges to zero as the mesh is refined.« less

A system for predicting close approaches and potential collisions in geosynchronous orbits

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beusch, J.; Abbot, R.; Sridharan, R.

The geosynchronous orbit is getting crowded with over 300 active, revenue producing large satellites and over 500 inactive dead resident space objects that pose a physical collision threat to the active satellites. The in situ demise of a particular satellite, Telstar 401, followed by a similar demise of SOLIDARIDAD 1, initiated a research and development effort at MIT Lincoln Laboratory to address this threat. This work with commercial satellite operators is accomplished using the mechanism of Cooperative Research and Development Agreements. Initial work to detect and warn of close approaches with these two failed satellites led to more extensive research on the collision threat over the entire geosynchronous belt. It is apparent that: a) There is a significant probability of collision; b) The probability has increased considerably in the last decade or so; c) The continuing failure of geosynchronous satellites and injection of rocket bodies into or near geosynchronous orbit will increase the threat; d) Debris in or near geosynchronous orbit poses another problem that has to be addressed. This paper surveys what has been achieved so far in predicting the threat and protecting satellites. An assessment of the probability of collision is presented as well as a description of the Geosynchronous Monitoring and Warning System. The operations of the GMWS are described as well as some of the results achieved so far. Areas of current research are mentioned.

Ultra-Low-Dropout Linear Regulator

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thornton, Trevor; Lepkowski, William; Wilk, Seth

2011-01-01

A radiation-tolerant, ultra-low-dropout linear regulator can operate between -150 and 150 C. Prototype components were demonstrated to be performing well after a total ionizing dose of 1 Mrad (Si). Unlike existing components, the linear regulator developed during this activity is unconditionally stable over all operating regimes without the need for an external compensation capacitor. The absence of an external capacitor reduces overall system mass/volume, increases reliability, and lowers cost. Linear regulators generate a precisely controlled voltage for electronic circuits regardless of fluctuations in the load current that the circuit draws from the regulator.

Development of a Linear Stirling System Model with Varying Heat Inputs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Regan, Timothy F.; Lewandowski, Edward J.

2007-01-01

The linear model of the Stirling system developed by NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) has been extended to include a user-specified heat input. Previously developed linear models were limited to the Stirling convertor and electrical load. They represented the thermodynamic cycle with pressure factors that remained constant. The numerical values of the pressure factors were generated by linearizing GRC's nonlinear System Dynamic Model (SDM) of the convertor at a chosen operating point. The pressure factors were fixed for that operating point, thus, the model lost accuracy if a transition to a different operating point were simulated. Although the previous linear model was used in developing controllers that manipulated current, voltage, and piston position, it could not be used in the development of control algorithms that regulated hot-end temperature. This basic model was extended to include the thermal dynamics associated with a hot-end temperature that varies over time in response to external changes as well as to changes in the Stirling cycle. The linear model described herein includes not only dynamics of the piston, displacer, gas, and electrical circuit, but also the transient effects of the heater head thermal inertia. The linear version algebraically couples two separate linear dynamic models, one model of the Stirling convertor and one model of the thermal system, through the pressure factors. The thermal system model includes heat flow of heat transfer fluid, insulation loss, and temperature drops from the heat source to the Stirling convertor expansion space. The linear model was compared to a nonlinear model, and performance was very similar. The resulting linear model can be implemented in a variety of computing environments, and is suitable for analysis with classical and state space controls analysis techniques.

Comparisons of linear and nonlinear pyramid schemes for signal and image processing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morales, Aldo W.; Ko, Sung-Jea

1997-04-01

Linear filters banks are being used extensively in image and video applications. New research results in wavelet applications for compression and de-noising are constantly appearing in the technical literature. On the other hand, non-linear filter banks are also being used regularly in image pyramid algorithms. There are some inherent advantages in using non-linear filters instead of linear filters when non-Gaussian processes are present in images. However, a consistent way of comparing performance criteria between these two schemes has not been fully developed yet. In this paper a recently discovered tool, sample selection probabilities, is used to compare the behavior of linear and non-linear filters. In the conversion from weights of order statistics (OS) filters to coefficients of the impulse response is obtained through these probabilities. However, the reverse problem: the conversion from coefficients of the impulse response to the weights of OS filters is not yet fully understood. One of the reasons for this difficulty is the highly non-linear nature of the partitions and generating function used. In the present paper the problem is posed as an optimization of integer linear programming subject to constraints directly obtained from the coefficients of the impulse response. Although the technique to be presented in not completely refined, it certainly appears to be promising. Some results will be shown.

A new linear back projection algorithm to electrical tomography based on measuring data decomposition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Benyuan; Yue, Shihong; Cui, Ziqiang; Wang, Huaxiang

2015-12-01

As an advanced measurement technique of non-radiant, non-intrusive, rapid response, and low cost, the electrical tomography (ET) technique has developed rapidly in recent decades. The ET imaging algorithm plays an important role in the ET imaging process. Linear back projection (LBP) is the most used ET algorithm due to its advantages of dynamic imaging process, real-time response, and easy realization. But the LBP algorithm is of low spatial resolution due to the natural ‘soft field’ effect and ‘ill-posed solution’ problems; thus its applicable ranges are greatly limited. In this paper, an original data decomposition method is proposed, and every ET measuring data are decomposed into two independent new data based on the positive and negative sensing areas of the measuring data. Consequently, the number of total measuring data is extended to twice as many as the number of the original data, thus effectively reducing the ‘ill-posed solution’. On the other hand, an index to measure the ‘soft field’ effect is proposed. The index shows that the decomposed data can distinguish between different contributions of various units (pixels) for any ET measuring data, and can efficiently reduce the ‘soft field’ effect of the ET imaging process. In light of the data decomposition method, a new linear back projection algorithm is proposed to improve the spatial resolution of the ET image. A series of simulations and experiments are applied to validate the proposed algorithm by the real-time performances and the progress of spatial resolutions.

Optical ranked-order filtering using threshold decomposition

DOEpatents

Allebach, Jan P.; Ochoa, Ellen; Sweeney, Donald W.

1990-01-01

A hybrid optical/electronic system performs median filtering and related ranked-order operations using threshold decomposition to encode the image. Threshold decomposition transforms the nonlinear neighborhood ranking operation into a linear space-invariant filtering step followed by a point-to-point threshold comparison step. Spatial multiplexing allows parallel processing of all the threshold components as well as recombination by a second linear, space-invariant filtering step. An incoherent optical correlation system performs the linear filtering, using a magneto-optic spatial light modulator as the input device and a computer-generated hologram in the filter plane. Thresholding is done electronically. By adjusting the value of the threshold, the same architecture is used to perform median, minimum, and maximum filtering of images. A totally optical system is also disclosed.

Virtual rigid body: a new optical tracking paradigm in image-guided interventions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cheng, Alexis; Lee, David S.; Deshmukh, Nishikant; Boctor, Emad M.

2015-03-01

Tracking technology is often necessary for image-guided surgical interventions. Optical tracking is one the options, but it suffers from line of sight and workspace limitations. Optical tracking is accomplished by attaching a rigid body marker, having a pattern for pose detection, onto a tool or device. A larger rigid body results in more accurate tracking, but at the same time large size limits its usage in a crowded surgical workspace. This work presents a prototype of a novel optical tracking method using a virtual rigid body (VRB). We define the VRB as a 3D rigid body marker in the form of pattern on a surface generated from a light source. Its pose can be recovered by observing the projected pattern with a stereo-camera system. The rigid body's size is no longer physically limited as we can manufacture small size light sources. Conventional optical tracking also requires line of sight to the rigid body. VRB overcomes these limitations by detecting a pattern projected onto the surface. We can project the pattern onto a region of interest, allowing the pattern to always be in the view of the optical tracker. This helps to decrease the occurrence of occlusions. This manuscript describes the method and results compared with conventional optical tracking in an experiment setup using known motions. The experiments are done using an optical tracker and a linear-stage, resulting in targeting errors of 0.38mm+/-0.28mm with our method compared to 0.23mm+/-0.22mm with conventional optical markers. Another experiment that replaced the linear stage with a robot arm resulted in rotational errors of 0.50+/-0.31° and 2.68+/-2.20° and the translation errors of 0.18+/-0.10 mm and 0.03+/-0.02 mm respectively.

The Use of NASA Light-Emitting Diode Near-Infrared Technology for Biostimulation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Whelan, Harry T.

2002-01-01

Studies on cells exposed to microgravity and hypergravity indicate that human cells need gravity to stimulate growth. As the gravitational force increases or decreases, the cell function responds in a linear fashion. This poses significant health risks for astronauts in long-term spaceflight. The application of light therapy with the use of NASA LEDs will significantly improve the medical care that is available to astronauts on long-term space missions. NASA LEDs stimulate the basic energy processes in the mitochondria (energy compartments) of each cell, particularly when near-infrared light is used to activate the color sensitive chemicals (chromophores, cytochrome systems) inside. Optimal LED wavelengths include 680, 730 and 880 nm and our laboratory has improved the healing of wounds in laboratory animals by using both NASA LED light and hyperbaric oxygen. Furthermore, DNA synthesis in fibroblasts and muscle cells has been quintupled using NASA LED light alone, in a single application combining 680, 730 and 880 nm each at 4 Joules per centimeter squared. Muscle and bone atrophy are well documented in astronauts, and various minor injuries occurring in space have been reported not to heal until landing on Earth. An LED blanket device may be used for the prevention of bone and muscle atrophy in astronauts. The depth of near-infrared light penetration into human tissue has been measured spectroscopically.

Reaction-diffusion systems coupled at the boundary and the Morse-Smale property

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Broche, Rita de Cássia D. S.; de Oliveira, Luiz Augusto F.

We study an one-dimensional nonlinear reaction-diffusion system coupled on the boundary. Such system comes from modeling problems of temperature distribution on two bars of same length, jointed together, with different diffusion coefficients. We prove the transversality property of unstable and stable manifolds assuming all equilibrium points are hyperbolic. To this end, we write the system as an equation with noncontinuous diffusion coefficient. We then study the nonincreasing property of the number of zeros of a linearized nonautonomous equation as well as the Sturm-Liouville properties of the solutions of a linear elliptic problem.

A method for exponential propagation of large systems of stiff nonlinear differential equations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Friesner, Richard A.; Tuckerman, Laurette S.; Dornblaser, Bright C.; Russo, Thomas V.

1989-01-01

A new time integrator for large, stiff systems of linear and nonlinear coupled differential equations is described. For linear systems, the method consists of forming a small (5-15-term) Krylov space using the Jacobian of the system and carrying out exact exponential propagation within this space. Nonlinear corrections are incorporated via a convolution integral formalism; the integral is evaluated via approximate Krylov methods as well. Gains in efficiency ranging from factors of 2 to 30 are demonstrated for several test problems as compared to a forward Euler scheme and to the integration package LSODE.

Dynamic Federalism and Wind Farm Siting

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-05-18

drawbacks, however. Among these, the mechanical and electromagnetic properties of wind turbines pose significant hazards and complications to U.S...have drawbacks, however. Among these, the mechanical and electromagnetic properties of wind turbines pose significant hazards and complications to...benefits. Wind energy conversion systems are no exception. Wind power systems use elevated turbines to capture mechanical energy from the wind

Structure-From for Calibration of a Vehicle Camera System with Non-Overlapping Fields-Of in AN Urban Environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hanel, A.; Stilla, U.

2017-05-01

Vehicle environment cameras observing traffic participants in the area around a car and interior cameras observing the car driver are important data sources for driver intention recognition algorithms. To combine information from both camera groups, a camera system calibration can be performed. Typically, there is no overlapping field-of-view between environment and interior cameras. Often no marked reference points are available in environments, which are a large enough to cover a car for the system calibration. In this contribution, a calibration method for a vehicle camera system with non-overlapping camera groups in an urban environment is described. A-priori images of an urban calibration environment taken with an external camera are processed with the structure-frommotion method to obtain an environment point cloud. Images of the vehicle interior, taken also with an external camera, are processed to obtain an interior point cloud. Both point clouds are tied to each other with images of both image sets showing the same real-world objects. The point clouds are transformed into a self-defined vehicle coordinate system describing the vehicle movement. On demand, videos can be recorded with the vehicle cameras in a calibration drive. Poses of vehicle environment cameras and interior cameras are estimated separately using ground control points from the respective point cloud. All poses of a vehicle camera estimated for different video frames are optimized in a bundle adjustment. In an experiment, a point cloud is created from images of an underground car park, as well as a point cloud of the interior of a Volkswagen test car is created. Videos of two environment and one interior cameras are recorded. Results show, that the vehicle camera poses are estimated successfully especially when the car is not moving. Position standard deviations in the centimeter range can be achieved for all vehicle cameras. Relative distances between the vehicle cameras deviate between one and ten centimeters from tachymeter reference measurements.

A model-based 3D template matching technique for pose acquisition of an uncooperative space object.

PubMed

Opromolla, Roberto; Fasano, Giancarmine; Rufino, Giancarlo; Grassi, Michele

2015-03-16

This paper presents a customized three-dimensional template matching technique for autonomous pose determination of uncooperative targets. This topic is relevant to advanced space applications, like active debris removal and on-orbit servicing. The proposed technique is model-based and produces estimates of the target pose without any prior pose information, by processing three-dimensional point clouds provided by a LIDAR. These estimates are then used to initialize a pose tracking algorithm. Peculiar features of the proposed approach are the use of a reduced number of templates and the idea of building the database of templates on-line, thus significantly reducing the amount of on-board stored data with respect to traditional techniques. An algorithm variant is also introduced aimed at further accelerating the pose acquisition time and reducing the computational cost. Technique performance is investigated within a realistic numerical simulation environment comprising a target model, LIDAR operation and various target-chaser relative dynamics scenarios, relevant to close-proximity flight operations. Specifically, the capability of the proposed techniques to provide a pose solution suitable to initialize the tracking algorithm is demonstrated, as well as their robustness against highly variable pose conditions determined by the relative dynamics. Finally, a criterion for autonomous failure detection of the presented techniques is presented.

Rayleigh scattering of linear alkylbenzene in large liquid scintillator detectors

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zhou, Xiang, E-mail: xiangzhou@whu.edu.cn; Zhang, Zhenyu; Liu, Qian

2015-07-15

Rayleigh scattering poses an intrinsic limit for the transparency of organic liquid scintillators. This work focuses on the Rayleigh scattering length of linear alkylbenzene (LAB), which will be used as the solvent of the liquid scintillator in the central detector of the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory. We investigate the anisotropy of the Rayleigh scattering in LAB, showing that the resulting Rayleigh scattering length will be significantly shorter than reported before. Given the same overall light attenuation, this will result in a more efficient transmission of photons through the scintillator, increasing the amount of light collected by the photosensors and therebymore » the energy resolution of the detector.« less

A Multi-Sensorial Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) System for Low-Cost Micro Aerial Vehicles in GPS-Denied Environments

PubMed Central

López, Elena; García, Sergio; Barea, Rafael; Bergasa, Luis M.; Molinos, Eduardo J.; Arroyo, Roberto; Romera, Eduardo; Pardo, Samuel

2017-01-01

One of the main challenges of aerial robots navigation in indoor or GPS-denied environments is position estimation using only the available onboard sensors. This paper presents a Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) system that remotely calculates the pose and environment map of different low-cost commercial aerial platforms, whose onboard computing capacity is usually limited. The proposed system adapts to the sensory configuration of the aerial robot, by integrating different state-of-the art SLAM methods based on vision, laser and/or inertial measurements using an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF). To do this, a minimum onboard sensory configuration is supposed, consisting of a monocular camera, an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) and an altimeter. It allows to improve the results of well-known monocular visual SLAM methods (LSD-SLAM and ORB-SLAM are tested and compared in this work) by solving scale ambiguity and providing additional information to the EKF. When payload and computational capabilities permit, a 2D laser sensor can be easily incorporated to the SLAM system, obtaining a local 2.5D map and a footprint estimation of the robot position that improves the 6D pose estimation through the EKF. We present some experimental results with two different commercial platforms, and validate the system by applying it to their position control. PMID:28397758

Online gesture spotting from visual hull data.

PubMed

Peng, Bo; Qian, Gang

2011-06-01

This paper presents a robust framework for online full-body gesture spotting from visual hull data. Using view-invariant pose features as observations, hidden Markov models (HMMs) are trained for gesture spotting from continuous movement data streams. Two major contributions of this paper are 1) view-invariant pose feature extraction from visual hulls, and 2) a systematic approach to automatically detecting and modeling specific nongesture movement patterns and using their HMMs for outlier rejection in gesture spotting. The experimental results have shown the view-invariance property of the proposed pose features for both training poses and new poses unseen in training, as well as the efficacy of using specific nongesture models for outlier rejection. Using the IXMAS gesture data set, the proposed framework has been extensively tested and the gesture spotting results are superior to those reported on the same data set obtained using existing state-of-the-art gesture spotting methods.

Advances in chemical sensing technologies for VOCs in breath for security/threat assessment, illicit drug detection, and human trafficking activity.

PubMed

Giannoukos, S; Agapiou, A; Taylor, S

2018-01-17

On-site chemical sensing of compounds associated with security and terrorist attacks is of worldwide interest. Other related bio-monitoring topics include identification of individuals posing a threat from illicit drugs, explosive manufacturing, as well as searching for victims of human trafficking and collapsed buildings. The current status of field analytical technologies is directed towards the detection and identification of vapours and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Some VOCs are associated with exhaled breath, where research is moving from individual breath testing (volatilome) to cell breath (microbiome) and most recently to crowd breath metabolites (exposome). In this paper, an overview of field-deployable chemical screening technologies (both stand-alone and those with portable characteristics) is given with application to early detection and monitoring of human exposome in security operations. On-site systems employed in exhaled breath analysis, i.e. mass spectrometry (MS), optical spectroscopy and chemical sensors are reviewed. Categories of VOCs of interest include (a) VOCs in human breath associated with exposure to threat compounds, and (b) VOCs characteristic of, and associated with, human body odour (e.g. breath, sweat). The latter are relevant to human trafficking scenarios. New technological approaches in miniaturised detection and screening systems are also presented (e.g. non-scanning digital light processing linear ion trap MS (DLP-LIT-MS), nanoparticles, mid-infrared photo-acoustic spectroscopy and hyphenated technologies). Finally, the outlook for rapid and precise, real-time field detection of threat traces in exhaled breath is revealed and discussed.

Controlling modal interactions in lasers for frequency selection and power enhancement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ge, Li

2015-03-01

The laser is an out-of-equilibrium non-linear wave system where the interplay of the cavity geometry and non-linear wave interactions determines the self-organized oscillation frequencies and the associated spatial field patterns. Using the correspondence between nonlinear and linear systems, we propose a simple and systematic method to achieve selective excitation of lasing modes that would have been dwarfed by more dominant ones. The key idea is incorporating the control of modal interaction into the spatial pump profile. Our proposal is most valuable in the regime of spatially and spectrally overlapping modes, which can lead to a significant enhancement of laser power as well.

Graph-based linear scaling electronic structure theory.

PubMed

Niklasson, Anders M N; Mniszewski, Susan M; Negre, Christian F A; Cawkwell, Marc J; Swart, Pieter J; Mohd-Yusof, Jamal; Germann, Timothy C; Wall, Michael E; Bock, Nicolas; Rubensson, Emanuel H; Djidjev, Hristo

2016-06-21

We show how graph theory can be combined with quantum theory to calculate the electronic structure of large complex systems. The graph formalism is general and applicable to a broad range of electronic structure methods and materials, including challenging systems such as biomolecules. The methodology combines well-controlled accuracy, low computational cost, and natural low-communication parallelism. This combination addresses substantial shortcomings of linear scaling electronic structure theory, in particular with respect to quantum-based molecular dynamics simulations.

Graph-based linear scaling electronic structure theory

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Niklasson, Anders M. N., E-mail: amn@lanl.gov; Negre, Christian F. A.; Cawkwell, Marc J.

2016-06-21

We show how graph theory can be combined with quantum theory to calculate the electronic structure of large complex systems. The graph formalism is general and applicable to a broad range of electronic structure methods and materials, including challenging systems such as biomolecules. The methodology combines well-controlled accuracy, low computational cost, and natural low-communication parallelism. This combination addresses substantial shortcomings of linear scaling electronic structure theory, in particular with respect to quantum-based molecular dynamics simulations.

Effects of oceanic salinity on body condition in sea snakes.

PubMed

Brischoux, François; Rolland, Virginie; Bonnet, Xavier; Caillaud, Matthieu; Shine, Richard

2012-08-01

Since the transition from terrestrial to marine environments poses strong osmoregulatory and energetic challenges, temporal and spatial fluctuations in oceanic salinity might influence salt and water balance (and hence, body condition) in marine tetrapods. We assessed the effects of salinity on three species of sea snakes studied by mark-recapture in coral-reef habitats in the Neo-Caledonian Lagoon. These three species include one fully aquatic hydrophiine (Emydocephalus annulatus), one primarily aquatic laticaudine (Laticauda laticaudata), and one frequently terrestrial laticaudine (Laticauda saintgironsi). We explored how oceanic salinity affected the snakes' body condition across various temporal and spatial scales relevant to each species' ecology, using linear mixed models and multimodel inference. Mean annual salinity exerted a consistent and negative effect on the body condition of all three snake species. The most terrestrial taxon (L. saintgironsi) was sensitive to salinity over a short temporal scale, corresponding to the duration of a typical marine foraging trip for this species. In contrast, links between oceanic salinity and body condition in the fully aquatic E. annulatus and the highly aquatic L. laticaudata were strongest at a long-term (annual) scale. The sophisticated salt-excreting systems of sea snakes allow them to exploit marine environments, but do not completely overcome the osmoregulatory challenges posed by oceanic conditions. Future studies could usefully explore such effects in other secondarily marine taxa such as seabirds, turtles, and marine mammals.

Systematic generation of buffer systems for pH gradient ion exchange chromatography and their application.

PubMed

Kröner, Frieder; Hubbuch, Jürgen

2013-04-12

pH gradient protein separations are widely used techniques in the field of protein analytics, of which isoelectric focusing is the most well known application. The chromatographic variant, based on the formation of pH gradients in ion exchange columns is only rarely applied due to the difficulties to form controllable, linear pH gradients over a broad pH range. This work describes a method for the systematic generation of buffer compositions with linear titration curves, resulting in well controllable pH gradients. To generate buffer compositions with linear titration curves an in silico method was successfully developed. With this tool, buffer compositions for pH gradient ion exchange chromatography with pH ranges spanning up to 7.5 pH units were established and successfully validated. Subsequently, the buffer systems were used to characterize the elution behavior of 22 different model proteins in cation and anion exchange pH gradient chromatography. The results of both chromatographic modes as well as isoelectric focusing were compared to describe differences in between the methods. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Characterization of attacks on public telephone networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lorenz, Gary V.; Manes, Gavin W.; Hale, John C.; Marks, Donald; Davis, Kenneth; Shenoi, Sujeet

2001-02-01

The U.S. Public Telephone Network (PTN) is a massively connected distributed information systems, much like the Internet. PTN signaling, transmission and operations functions must be protected from physical and cyber attacks to ensure the reliable delivery of telecommunications services. The increasing convergence of PTNs with wireless communications systems, computer networks and the Internet itself poses serious threats to our nation's telecommunications infrastructure. Legacy technologies and advanced services encumber well-known and as of yet undiscovered vulnerabilities that render them susceptible to cyber attacks. This paper presents a taxonomy of cyber attacks on PTNs in converged environments that synthesizes exploits in computer and communications network domains. The taxonomy provides an opportunity for the systematic exploration of mitigative and preventive strategies, as well as for the identification and classification of emerging threats.

Joint source based analysis of multiple brain structures in studying major depressive disorder

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ramezani, Mahdi; Rasoulian, Abtin; Hollenstein, Tom; Harkness, Kate; Johnsrude, Ingrid; Abolmaesumi, Purang

2014-03-01

We propose a joint Source-Based Analysis (jSBA) framework to identify brain structural variations in patients with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). In this framework, features representing position, orientation and size (i.e. pose), shape, and local tissue composition are extracted. Subsequently, simultaneous analysis of these features within a joint analysis method is performed to generate the basis sources that show signi cant di erences between subjects with MDD and those in healthy control. Moreover, in a cross-validation leave- one-out experiment, we use a Fisher Linear Discriminant (FLD) classi er to identify individuals within the MDD group. Results show that we can classify the MDD subjects with an accuracy of 76% solely based on the information gathered from the joint analysis of pose, shape, and tissue composition in multiple brain structures.

Step-response of a torsional device with multiple discontinuous non-linearities: Formulation of a vibratory experiment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Krak, Michael D.; Dreyer, Jason T.; Singh, Rajendra

2016-03-01

A vehicle clutch damper is intentionally designed to contain multiple discontinuous non-linearities, such as multi-staged springs, clearances, pre-loads, and multi-staged friction elements. The main purpose of this practical torsional device is to transmit a wide range of torque while isolating torsional vibration between an engine and transmission. Improved understanding of the dynamic behavior of the device could be facilitated by laboratory measurement, and thus a refined vibratory experiment is proposed. The experiment is conceptually described as a single degree of freedom non-linear torsional system that is excited by an external step torque. The single torsional inertia (consisting of a shaft and torsion arm) is coupled to ground through parallel production clutch dampers, which are characterized by quasi-static measurements provided by the manufacturer. Other experimental objectives address physical dimensions, system actuation, flexural modes, instrumentation, and signal processing issues. Typical measurements show that the step response of the device is characterized by three distinct non-linear regimes (double-sided impact, single-sided impact, and no-impact). Each regime is directly related to the non-linear features of the device and can be described by peak angular acceleration values. Predictions of a simplified single degree of freedom non-linear model verify that the experiment performs well and as designed. Accordingly, the benchmark measurements could be utilized to validate non-linear models and simulation codes, as well as characterize dynamic parameters of the device including its dissipative properties.

A fresh look at linear ordinary differential equations with constant coefficients. Revisiting the impulsive response method using factorization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Camporesi, Roberto

2016-01-01

We present an approach to the impulsive response method for solving linear constant-coefficient ordinary differential equations of any order based on the factorization of the differential operator. The approach is elementary, we only assume a basic knowledge of calculus and linear algebra. In particular, we avoid the use of distribution theory, as well as of the other more advanced approaches: Laplace transform, linear systems, the general theory of linear equations with variable coefficients and variation of parameters. The approach presented here can be used in a first course on differential equations for science and engineering majors.

Compensation of significant parametric uncertainties using sliding mode online learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schnetter, Philipp; Kruger, Thomas

An augmented nonlinear inverse dynamics (NID) flight control strategy using sliding mode online learning for a small unmanned aircraft system (UAS) is presented. Because parameter identification for this class of aircraft often is not valid throughout the complete flight envelope, aerodynamic parameters used for model based control strategies may show significant deviations. For the concept of feedback linearization this leads to inversion errors that in combination with the distinctive susceptibility of small UAS towards atmospheric turbulence pose a demanding control task for these systems. In this work an adaptive flight control strategy using feedforward neural networks for counteracting such nonlinear effects is augmented with the concept of sliding mode control (SMC). SMC-learning is derived from variable structure theory. It considers a neural network and its training as a control problem. It is shown that by the dynamic calculation of the learning rates, stability can be guaranteed and thus increase the robustness against external disturbances and system failures. With the resulting higher speed of convergence a wide range of simultaneously occurring disturbances can be compensated. The SMC-based flight controller is tested and compared to the standard gradient descent (GD) backpropagation algorithm under the influence of significant model uncertainties and system failures.

Fast Time Response Electromagnetic Disruption Mitigation Concept

DOE PAGES

Raman, R.; Jarboe, T.; Jernigan, Thomas C.; ...

2015-09-28

An important and urgent issue for ITER is predicting and controlling disruptions. Tokamaks and spherical tokamaks have the potential to disrupt. Methods to rapidly quench the discharge after an impending disruption is detected are essential to protect the vessel and internal components. The warning time for the onset of some disruptions in tokamaks could be <10 ms, which poses stringent requirements on the disruption mitigation system for reactor systems. In this proposed method, a cylindrical boron nitride projectile containing a radiative payload composed of boron, boron nitride, or beryllium particulate matter and weighing similar to 15 g is accelerated tomore » velocities on the order of 1 to 2 km/s in <2 ms in a linear rail gun accelerator. A partially fragmented capsule is then injected into the tokamak discharge in the 3- to 6-ms timescale, where the radiative payload is dispersed. The device referred to as an electromagnetic particle injector has the potential to meet the short warning timescales for which a reactor disruption mitigation system must be built. The system is fully electromagnetic, with no mechanical moving parts, which ensures high reliability after a period of long standby.« less

Making chaotic behavior in a damped linear harmonic oscillator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Konishi, Keiji

2001-06-01

The present Letter proposes a simple control method which makes chaotic behavior in a damped linear harmonic oscillator. This method is a modified scheme proposed in paper by Wang and Chen (IEEE CAS-I 47 (2000) 410) which presents an anti-control method for making chaotic behavior in discrete-time linear systems. We provide a systematic procedure to design parameters and sampling period of a feedback controller. Furthermore, we show that our method works well on numerical simulations.

Non-linear HRV indices under autonomic nervous system blockade.

PubMed

Bolea, Juan; Pueyo, Esther; Laguna, Pablo; Bailón, Raquel

2014-01-01

Heart rate variability (HRV) has been studied as a non-invasive technique to characterize the autonomic nervous system (ANS) regulation of the heart. Non-linear methods based on chaos theory have been used during the last decades as markers for risk stratification. However, interpretation of these nonlinear methods in terms of sympathetic and parasympathetic activity is not fully established. In this work we study linear and non-linear HRV indices during ANS blockades in order to assess their relation with sympathetic and parasympathetic activities. Power spectral content in low frequency (0.04-0.15 Hz) and high frequency (0.15-0.4 Hz) bands of HRV, as well as correlation dimension, sample and approximate entropies were computed in a database of subjects during single and dual ANS blockade with atropine and/or propranolol. Parasympathetic blockade caused a significant decrease in the low and high frequency power of HRV, as well as in correlation dimension and sample and approximate entropies. Sympathetic blockade caused a significant increase in approximate entropy. Sympathetic activation due to postural change from supine to standing caused a significant decrease in all the investigated non-linear indices and a significant increase in the normalized power in the low frequency band. The other investigated linear indices did not show significant changes. Results suggest that parasympathetic activity has a direct relation with sample and approximate entropies.

Analysis of intra-country virtual water trade strategy to alleviate water scarcity in Iran

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Faramarzi, M.; Yang, H.; Mousavi, J.; Schulin, R.; Binder, C. R.; Abbaspour, K. C.

2010-08-01

Increasing water scarcity has posed a major constraint to sustain food production in many parts of the world. To study the situation at the regional level, we took Iran as an example and analyzed how an intra-country "virtual water trade strategy" (VWTS) may help improve cereal production as well as alleviate the water scarcity problem. This strategy calls, in part, for the adjustment of the structure of cropping pattern (ASCP) and interregional food trade where crop yield and crop water productivity as well as local economic and social conditions are taken into account. We constructed a systematic framework to assess ASCP at the provincial level under various driving forces and constraints. A mixed-integer, multi-objective, linear optimization model was developed and solved by linear programming. Data from 1990-2004 were used to account for yearly fluctuations of water availability and food production. Five scenarios were designed aimed at maximizing the national cereal production while meeting certain levels of wheat self-sufficiency under various water and land constraints in individual provinces. The results show that under the baseline scenario, which assumes a continuation of the existing water use and food policy at the national level, some ASCP scenarios could produce more wheat with less water. Based on different scenarios in ASCP, we calculated that 31% to 100% of the total wheat shortage in the deficit provinces could be supplied by the wheat surplus provinces. As a result, wheat deficit provinces would receive 3.5 billion m3 to 5.5 billion m3 of virtual water by importing wheat from surplus provinces.

Analysis of intra-country virtual water trade strategy to alleviate water scarcity in Iran

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Faramarzi, M.; Yang, H.; Mousavi, J.; Schulin, R.; Binder, C. R.; Abbaspour, K. C.

2010-04-01

Increasing water scarcity has posed a major constraint to sustain food production in many parts of the world. To study the situation at the regional level, we took Iran as an example and analyzed how an intra-country "virtual water trade strategy" (VWTS) may help improve cereal production as well as alleviate the water scarcity problem. This strategy calls, in part, for the adjustment of the structure of cropping pattern (ASCP) and interregional food trade where crop yield and crop water productivity as well as local economic and social conditions are taken into account. We constructed a systematic framework to assess ASCP at the provincial level under various driving forces and constraints. A mixed-integer, multi-objective, linear optimization model was developed and solved by linear programming. Data from 1990-2004 were used to account for yearly fluctuations of water availability and food production. Five scenarios were designed aimed at maximizing the national cereal production while meeting certain levels of wheat self-sufficiency under various water and land constraints in individual provinces. The results show that under the baseline scenario, which assumes a continuation of the existing water use and food policy at the national level, some ASCP scenarios could produce more wheat with less water. Based on different scenarios in ASCP, we calculated that 31% to 100% of the total wheat shortage in the deficit provinces could be supplied by the wheat surplus provinces. As a result, wheat deficit provinces would receive 3.5 billion m3 to 5.5 billion m3 of virtual water by importing wheat from surplus provinces.

Development of a Linear Stirling Model with Varying Heat Inputs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Regan, Timothy F.; Lewandowski, Edward J.

2007-01-01

The linear model of the Stirling system developed by NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) has been extended to include a user-specified heat input. Previously developed linear models were limited to the Stirling convertor and electrical load. They represented the thermodynamic cycle with pressure factors that remained constant. The numerical values of the pressure factors were generated by linearizing GRC s non-linear System Dynamic Model (SDM) of the convertor at a chosen operating point. The pressure factors were fixed for that operating point, thus, the model lost accuracy if a transition to a different operating point were simulated. Although the previous linear model was used in developing controllers that manipulated current, voltage, and piston position, it could not be used in the development of control algorithms that regulated hot-end temperature. This basic model was extended to include the thermal dynamics associated with a hot-end temperature that varies over time in response to external changes as well as to changes in the Stirling cycle. The linear model described herein includes not only dynamics of the piston, displacer, gas, and electrical circuit, but also the transient effects of the heater head thermal inertia. The linear version algebraically couples two separate linear dynamic models, one model of the Stirling convertor and one model of the thermal system, through the pressure factors. The thermal system model includes heat flow of heat transfer fluid, insulation loss, and temperature drops from the heat source to the Stirling convertor expansion space. The linear model was compared to a nonlinear model, and performance was very similar. The resulting linear model can be implemented in a variety of computing environments, and is suitable for analysis with classical and state space controls analysis techniques.

Genetically diverse CC-founder mouse strains replicate the human influenza gene expression signature.

PubMed

Elbahesh, Husni; Schughart, Klaus

2016-05-19

Influenza A viruses (IAV) are zoonotic pathogens that pose a major threat to human and animal health. Influenza virus disease severity is influenced by viral virulence factors as well as individual differences in host response. We analyzed gene expression changes in the blood of infected mice using a previously defined set of signature genes that was derived from changes in the blood transcriptome of IAV-infected human volunteers. We found that the human signature was reproduced well in the founder strains of the Collaborative Cross (CC) mice, thus demonstrating the relevance and importance of mouse experimental model systems for studying human influenza disease.

Clinical Note Creation, Binning, and Artificial Intelligence

PubMed Central

Deliberato, Rodrigo Octávio; Stone, David J

2017-01-01

The creation of medical notes in software applications poses an intrinsic problem in workflow as the technology inherently intervenes in the processes of collecting and assembling information, as well as the production of a data-driven note that meets both individual and healthcare system requirements. In addition, the note writing applications in currently available electronic health records (EHRs) do not function to support decision making to any substantial degree. We suggest that artificial intelligence (AI) could be utilized to facilitate the workflows of the data collection and assembly processes, as well as to support the development of personalized, yet data-driven assessments and plans. PMID:28778845

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Tokola, Ryan A; Mikkilineni, Aravind K; Boehnen, Chris Bensing

Despite being increasingly easy to acquire, 3D data is rarely used for face-based biometrics applications beyond identification. Recent work in image-based demographic biometrics has enjoyed much success, but these approaches suffer from the well-known limitations of 2D representations, particularly variations in illumination, texture, and pose, as well as a fundamental inability to describe 3D shape. This paper shows that simple 3D shape features in a face-based coordinate system are capable of representing many biometric attributes without problem-specific models or specialized domain knowledge. The same feature vector achieves impressive results for problems as diverse as age estimation, gender classification, and racemore » classification.« less

Challenges of Developing New Classes of NASA Self-Managing Mission

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hinchey, M. G.; Rash, J. I.; Truszkowski, W. F.; Rouff, C. A.; Sterritt, R.

2005-01-01

NASA is proposing increasingly complex missions that will require a high degree of autonomy and autonomicity. These missions pose hereto unforeseen problems and raise issues that have not been well-addressed by the community. Assuring success of such missions will require new software development techniques and tools. This paper discusses some of the challenges that NASA and the rest of the software development community are facing in developing these ever-increasingly complex systems. We give an overview of a proposed NASA mission as well as techniques and tools that are being developed to address autonomic management and the complexity issues inherent in these missions.

The relative risk and its distribution of endocrine disrupting chemicals, pharmaceuticals and personal care products to freshwater organisms in the Bohai Rim, China.

PubMed

Zhang, Meng; Shi, Yajuan; Lu, Yonglong; Johnson, Andrew C; Sarvajayakesavalu, Suriyanarayanan; Liu, Zhaoyang; Su, Chao; Zhang, Yueqing; Juergens, Monika D; Jin, Xiaowei

2017-07-15

In this study, the risks to aquatic organisms posed by 12 commonly detected pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) and endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) that are extensively used in Bohai coastal region of China were examined. These were linear alkylbenzene sulfonate (LAS), nonylphenol (NP), diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), norfloxacin (NOR), sulfamethoxazole (SMX), erythromycin (ERY), bisphenol A (BPA), ofloxacin (OFL), carbamazepine (CBZ), naproxen (NPX), atenolol (ATL) and metoprolol (MET). Their relative risk was ranked based on the proximity between the medians of the reported effect concentrations and measured river or lake water concentrations. The surfactants (LAS) and endocrine disrupting chemicals NP (a breakdown product of the surfactant nonylphenol polyethoxylate) and DEHP (a plasticizer) were identified as posing the greatest risk from this range of chemicals. LAS had a hundred-fold higher risk than any of the pharmaceuticals. The highest risk ranked pharmaceuticals were all antibiotics. Zinc (Zn) and mercury (Hg) were added to the comparison as representative heavy metals. Zn posed a risk higher than all the organics. The risk posed by Hg was less than the surfactants but greater than the selected pharmaceuticals. Whereas LAS and DEHP could cause harmful effects to all the wildlife groups, NP and BPA posed the greatest risk to fish. Antibiotics showed the highest risk to algae. Spatial and temporal distributions of PPCPs and EDCs were conducted for risk identification, source analysis and seasonal change exploration. Municipal sewage effluent linked to urban areas was considered to be the major source of pharmaceuticals. With regard to seasonal influence the risk posed by LAS to the aquatic organisms was significantly affected by wet and dry seasonal change. The dilution effects were the common feature of LAS and ERY risks. The difference in LAS and ERY risk patterns along the rivers was mainly affected by the elimination process. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

3D Scene Reconstruction Using Omnidirectional Vision and LiDAR: A Hybrid Approach

PubMed Central

Vlaminck, Michiel; Luong, Hiep; Goeman, Werner; Philips, Wilfried

2016-01-01

In this paper, we propose a novel approach to obtain accurate 3D reconstructions of large-scale environments by means of a mobile acquisition platform. The system incorporates a Velodyne LiDAR scanner, as well as a Point Grey Ladybug panoramic camera system. It was designed with genericity in mind, and hence, it does not make any assumption about the scene or about the sensor set-up. The main novelty of this work is that the proposed LiDAR mapping approach deals explicitly with the inhomogeneous density of point clouds produced by LiDAR scanners. To this end, we keep track of a global 3D map of the environment, which is continuously improved and refined by means of a surface reconstruction technique. Moreover, we perform surface analysis on consecutive generated point clouds in order to assure a perfect alignment with the global 3D map. In order to cope with drift, the system incorporates loop closure by determining the pose error and propagating it back in the pose graph. Our algorithm was exhaustively tested on data captured at a conference building, a university campus and an industrial site of a chemical company. Experiments demonstrate that it is capable of generating highly accurate 3D maps in very challenging environments. We can state that the average distance of corresponding point pairs between the ground truth and estimated point cloud approximates one centimeter for an area covering approximately 4000 m2. To prove the genericity of the system, it was tested on the well-known Kitti vision benchmark. The results show that our approach competes with state of the art methods without making any additional assumptions. PMID:27854315

Towards enhancing and delaying disturbances in free shear flows

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Criminale, W. O.; Jackson, T. L.; Lasseigne, D. G.

1994-01-01

The family of shear flows comprising the jet, wake, and the mixing layer are subjected to perturbations in an inviscid incompressible fluid. By modeling the basic mean flows as parallel with piecewise linear variations for the velocities, complete and general solutions to the linearized equations of motion can be obtained in closed form as functions of all space variables and time when posed as an initial value problem. The results show that there is a continuous as well as the discrete spectrum that is more familiar in stability theory and therefore there can be both algebraic and exponential growth of disturbances in time. These bases make it feasible to consider control of such flows. To this end, the possibility of enhancing the disturbances in the mixing layer and delaying the onset in the jet and wake is investigated. It is found that growth of perturbations can be delayed to a considerable degree for the jet and the wake but, by comparison, cannot be enhanced in the mixing layer. By using moving coordinates, a method for demonstrating the predominant early and long time behavior of disturbances in these flows is given for continuous velocity profiles. It is shown that the early time transients are always algebraic whereas the asymptotic limit is that of an exponential normal mode. Numerical treatment of the new governing equations confirm the conclusions reached by use of the piecewise linear basic models. Although not pursued here, feedback mechanisms designed for control of the flow could be devised using the results of this work.

Use of Proton SEE Data as a Proxy for Bounding Heavy-Ion SEE Susceptibility

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ladbury, Raymond L.; Lauenstein, Jean-Marie; Hayes, Kathryn P.

2015-01-01

Although heavy-ion single-event effects (SEE) pose serious threats to semiconductor devices in space, many missions face difficulties testing such devices at heavy-ion accelerators. Low-cost missions often find such testing too costly. Even well funded missions face issues testing commercial off the shelf (COTS) due to packaging and integration. Some missions wish to fly COTS systems with little insight into their components. Heavy-ion testing such parts and systems requires access to expensive and hard-to-access ultra-high energy ion accelerators, or significant system modification. To avoid these problems, some have proposed using recoil ions from high-energy protons as a proxy to bound heavy-ion SEE rates.

Prospective evaluation of shape similarity based pose prediction method in D3R Grand Challenge 2015

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kumar, Ashutosh; Zhang, Kam Y. J.

2016-09-01

Evaluation of ligand three-dimensional (3D) shape similarity is one of the commonly used approaches to identify ligands similar to one or more known active compounds from a library of small molecules. Apart from using ligand shape similarity as a virtual screening tool, its role in pose prediction and pose scoring has also been reported. We have recently developed a method that utilizes ligand 3D shape similarity with known crystallographic ligands to predict binding poses of query ligands. Here, we report the prospective evaluation of our pose prediction method through the participation in drug design data resource (D3R) Grand Challenge 2015. Our pose prediction method was used to predict binding poses of heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) and mitogen activated protein kinase kinase kinase kinase (MAP4K4) ligands and it was able to predict the pose within 2 Å root mean square deviation (RMSD) either as the top pose or among the best of five poses in a majority of cases. Specifically for HSP90 protein, a median RMSD of 0.73 and 0.68 Å was obtained for the top and the best of five predictions respectively. For MAP4K4 target, although the median RMSD for our top prediction was only 2.87 Å but the median RMSD of 1.67 Å for the best of five predictions was well within the limit for successful prediction. Furthermore, the performance of our pose prediction method for HSP90 and MAP4K4 ligands was always among the top five groups. Particularly, for MAP4K4 protein our pose prediction method was ranked number one both in terms of mean and median RMSD when the best of five predictions were considered. Overall, our D3R Grand Challenge 2015 results demonstrated that ligand 3D shape similarity with the crystal ligand is sufficient to predict binding poses of new ligands with acceptable accuracy.

Vision based object pose estimation for mobile robots

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wu, Annie; Bidlack, Clint; Katkere, Arun; Feague, Roy; Weymouth, Terry

1994-01-01

Mobile robot navigation using visual sensors requires that a robot be able to detect landmarks and obtain pose information from a camera image. This paper presents a vision system for finding man-made markers of known size and calculating the pose of these markers. The algorithm detects and identifies the markers using a weighted pattern matching template. Geometric constraints are then used to calculate the position of the markers relative to the robot. The selection of geometric constraints comes from the typical pose of most man-made signs, such as the sign standing vertical and the dimensions of known size. This system has been tested successfully on a wide range of real images. Marker detection is reliable, even in cluttered environments, and under certain marker orientations, estimation of the orientation has proven accurate to within 2 degrees, and distance estimation to within 0.3 meters.

Teaching Human Poses Interactively to a Social Robot

PubMed Central

Gonzalez-Pacheco, Victor; Malfaz, Maria; Fernandez, Fernando; Salichs, Miguel A.

2013-01-01

The main activity of social robots is to interact with people. In order to do that, the robot must be able to understand what the user is saying or doing. Typically, this capability consists of pre-programmed behaviors or is acquired through controlled learning processes, which are executed before the social interaction begins. This paper presents a software architecture that enables a robot to learn poses in a similar way as people do. That is, hearing its teacher's explanations and acquiring new knowledge in real time. The architecture leans on two main components: an RGB-D (Red-, Green-, Blue- Depth) -based visual system, which gathers the user examples, and an Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) system, which processes the speech describing those examples. The robot is able to naturally learn the poses the teacher is showing to it by maintaining a natural interaction with the teacher. We evaluate our system with 24 users who teach the robot a predetermined set of poses. The experimental results show that, with a few training examples, the system reaches high accuracy and robustness. This method shows how to combine data from the visual and auditory systems for the acquisition of new knowledge in a natural manner. Such a natural way of training enables robots to learn from users, even if they are not experts in robotics. PMID:24048336

Teaching human poses interactively to a social robot.

PubMed

Gonzalez-Pacheco, Victor; Malfaz, Maria; Fernandez, Fernando; Salichs, Miguel A

2013-09-17

The main activity of social robots is to interact with people. In order to do that, the robot must be able to understand what the user is saying or doing. Typically, this capability consists of pre-programmed behaviors or is acquired through controlled learning processes, which are executed before the social interaction begins. This paper presents a software architecture that enables a robot to learn poses in a similar way as people do. That is, hearing its teacher's explanations and acquiring new knowledge in real time. The architecture leans on two main components: an RGB-D (Red-, Green-, Blue- Depth) -based visual system, which gathers the user examples, and an Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) system, which processes the speech describing those examples. The robot is able to naturally learn the poses the teacher is showing to it by maintaining a natural interaction with the teacher. We evaluate our system with 24 users who teach the robot a predetermined set of poses. The experimental results show that, with a few training examples, the system reaches high accuracy and robustness. This method shows how to combine data from the visual and auditory systems for the acquisition of new knowledge in a natural manner. Such a natural way of training enables robots to learn from users, even if they are not experts in robotics.

Head Pose Estimation Using Multilinear Subspace Analysis for Robot Human Awareness

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ivanov, Tonislav; Matthies, Larry; Vasilescu, M. Alex O.

2009-01-01

Mobile robots, operating in unconstrained indoor and outdoor environments, would benefit in many ways from perception of the human awareness around them. Knowledge of people's head pose and gaze directions would enable the robot to deduce which people are aware of the its presence, and to predict future motions of the people for better path planning. To make such inferences, requires estimating head pose on facial images that are combination of multiple varying factors, such as identity, appearance, head pose, and illumination. By applying multilinear algebra, the algebra of higher-order tensors, we can separate these factors and estimate head pose regardless of subject's identity or image conditions. Furthermore, we can automatically handle uncertainty in the size of the face and its location. We demonstrate a pipeline of on-the-move detection of pedestrians with a robot stereo vision system, segmentation of the head, and head pose estimation in cluttered urban street scenes.

In vitro CpG methylation increases the transformation efficiency of Borrelia burgdorferi strains harboring the endogenous linear plasmid lp56.

PubMed

Chen, Qiang; Fischer, Joshua R; Benoit, Vivian M; Dufour, Nicholas P; Youderian, Philip; Leong, John M

2008-12-01

Borrelia burgdorferi is the causative agent of Lyme disease, the most common vector-borne illness in the Northern hemisphere. Low-passage-number infectious strains of B. burgdorferi exhibit extremely low transformation efficiencies-so low, in fact, as to hinder the genetic study of putative virulence factors. Two putative restriction-modification (R-M) systems, BBE02 contained on linear plasmid 25 (lp25) and BBQ67 contained on lp56, have been postulated to contribute to this poor transformability. Restriction barriers posed by other bacteria have been overcome by the in vitro methylation of DNA prior to transformation. To test whether a methylation-sensitive restriction system contributes to poor B. burgdorferi transformability, shuttle plasmids were treated with the CpG methylase M.SssI prior to the electroporation of a variety of strains harboring different putative R-M systems. We found that for B. burgdorferi strains that harbor lp56, in vitro methylation increased transformation by at least 1 order of magnitude. These results suggest that in vitro CpG methylation protects exogenous DNA from degradation by an lp56-contained R-M system, presumably BBQ67. The utility of in vitro methylation for the genetic manipulation of B. burgdorferi was exemplified by the ease of plasmid complementation of a B. burgdorferi B31 A3 BBK32 kanamycin-resistant (B31 A3 BBK32::Kan(r)) mutant, deficient in the expression of the fibronectin- and glycosaminoglycan (GAG)-binding adhesin BBK32. Consistent with the observation that several surface proteins may promote GAG binding, the B. burgdorferi B31 A3 BBK32::Kan(r) mutant demonstrated no defect in the ability to bind purified GAGs or GAGs expressed on the surfaces of cultured cells.

Point cloud modeling using the homogeneous transformation for non-cooperative pose estimation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lim, Tae W.

2015-06-01

A modeling process to simulate point cloud range data that a lidar (light detection and ranging) sensor produces is presented in this paper in order to support the development of non-cooperative pose (relative attitude and position) estimation approaches which will help improve proximity operation capabilities between two adjacent vehicles. The algorithms in the modeling process were based on the homogeneous transformation, which has been employed extensively in robotics and computer graphics, as well as in recently developed pose estimation algorithms. Using a flash lidar in a laboratory testing environment, point cloud data of a test article was simulated and compared against the measured point cloud data. The simulated and measured data sets match closely, validating the modeling process. The modeling capability enables close examination of the characteristics of point cloud images of an object as it undergoes various translational and rotational motions. Relevant characteristics that will be crucial in non-cooperative pose estimation were identified such as shift, shadowing, perspective projection, jagged edges, and differential point cloud density. These characteristics will have to be considered in developing effective non-cooperative pose estimation algorithms. The modeling capability will allow extensive non-cooperative pose estimation performance simulations prior to field testing, saving development cost and providing performance metrics of the pose estimation concepts and algorithms under evaluation. The modeling process also provides "truth" pose of the test objects with respect to the sensor frame so that the pose estimation error can be quantified.

Examining Interactions between Problem Posing and Problem Solving with Prospective Primary Teachers: A Case of Using Fractions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xie, Jinxia; Masingila, Joanna O.

2017-01-01

Existing studies have quantitatively evidenced the relatedness between problem posing and problem solving, as well as the magnitude of this relationship. However, the nature and features of this relationship need further qualitative exploration. This paper focuses on exploring the interactions, i.e., mutual effects and supports, between problem…

Integrating a Linear Signal Model with Groundwater and Rainfall time-series on the Characteristic Identification of Groundwater Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Yu-Wen; Wang, Yetmen; Chang, Liang-Cheng

2017-04-01

Groundwater resources play a vital role on regional supply. To avoid irreversible environmental impact such as land subsidence, the characteristic identification of groundwater system is crucial before sustainable management of groundwater resource. This study proposes a signal process approach to identify the character of groundwater systems based on long-time hydrologic observations include groundwater level and rainfall. The study process contains two steps. First, a linear signal model (LSM) is constructed and calibrated to simulate the variation of underground hydrology based on the time series of groundwater levels and rainfall. The mass balance equation of the proposed LSM contains three major terms contain net rate of horizontal exchange, rate of rainfall recharge and rate of pumpage and four parameters are required to calibrate. Because reliable records of pumpage is rare, the time-variant groundwater amplitudes of daily frequency (P ) calculated by STFT are assumed as linear indicators of puamage instead of pumpage records. Time series obtained from 39 observation wells and 50 rainfall stations in and around the study area, Pintung Plain, are paired for model construction. Second, the well-calibrated parameters of the linear signal model can be used to interpret the characteristic of groundwater system. For example, the rainfall recharge coefficient (γ) means the transform ratio between rainfall intention and groundwater level raise. The area around the observation well with higher γ means that the saturated zone here is easily affected by rainfall events and the material of unsaturated zone might be gravel or coarse sand with high infiltration ratio. Considering the spatial distribution of γ, the values of γ decrease from the upstream to the downstream of major rivers and also are correlated to the spatial distribution of grain size of surface soil. Via the time-series of groundwater levels and rainfall, the well-calibrated parameters of LSM have ability to identify the characteristic of aquifer.

Numerical Solution of Systems of Loaded Ordinary Differential Equations with Multipoint Conditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Assanova, A. T.; Imanchiyev, A. E.; Kadirbayeva, Zh. M.

2018-04-01

A system of loaded ordinary differential equations with multipoint conditions is considered. The problem under study is reduced to an equivalent boundary value problem for a system of ordinary differential equations with parameters. A system of linear algebraic equations for the parameters is constructed using the matrices of the loaded terms and the multipoint condition. The conditions for the unique solvability and well-posedness of the original problem are established in terms of the matrix made up of the coefficients of the system of linear algebraic equations. The coefficients and the righthand side of the constructed system are determined by solving Cauchy problems for linear ordinary differential equations. The solutions of the system are found in terms of the values of the desired function at the initial points of subintervals. The parametrization method is numerically implemented using the fourth-order accurate Runge-Kutta method as applied to the Cauchy problems for ordinary differential equations. The performance of the constructed numerical algorithms is illustrated by examples.

Plasmonic modes in nanowire dimers: A study based on the hydrodynamic Drude model including nonlocal and nonlinear effects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moeferdt, Matthias; Kiel, Thomas; Sproll, Tobias; Intravaia, Francesco; Busch, Kurt

2018-02-01

A combined analytical and numerical study of the modes in two distinct plasmonic nanowire systems is presented. The computations are based on a discontinuous Galerkin time-domain approach, and a fully nonlinear and nonlocal hydrodynamic Drude model for the metal is utilized. In the linear regime, these computations demonstrate the strong influence of nonlocality on the field distributions as well as on the scattering and absorption spectra. Based on these results, second-harmonic-generation efficiencies are computed over a frequency range that covers all relevant modes of the linear spectra. In order to interpret the physical mechanisms that lead to corresponding field distributions, the associated linear quasielectrostatic problem is solved analytically via conformal transformation techniques. This provides an intuitive classification of the linear excitations of the systems that is then applied to the full Maxwell case. Based on this classification, group theory facilitates the determination of the selection rules for the efficient excitation of modes in both the linear and nonlinear regimes. This leads to significantly enhanced second-harmonic generation via judiciously exploiting the system symmetries. These results regarding the mode structure and second-harmonic generation are of direct relevance to other nanoantenna systems.

Geometric Integration of Hybrid Correspondences for RGB-D Unidirectional Tracking

PubMed Central

Tang, Shengjun; Chen, Wu; Wang, Weixi; Li, Xiaoming; Li, Wenbin; Huang, Zhengdong; Hu, Han; Guo, Renzhong

2018-01-01

Traditionally, visual-based RGB-D SLAM systems only use correspondences with valid depth values for camera tracking, thus ignoring the regions without 3D information. Due to the strict limitation on measurement distance and view angle, such systems adopt only short-range constraints which may introduce larger drift errors during long-distance unidirectional tracking. In this paper, we propose a novel geometric integration method that makes use of both 2D and 3D correspondences for RGB-D tracking. Our method handles the problem by exploring visual features both when depth information is available and when it is unknown. The system comprises two parts: coarse pose tracking with 3D correspondences, and geometric integration with hybrid correspondences. First, the coarse pose tracking generates the initial camera pose using 3D correspondences with frame-by-frame registration. The initial camera poses are then used as inputs for the geometric integration model, along with 3D correspondences, 2D-3D correspondences and 2D correspondences identified from frame pairs. The initial 3D location of the correspondence is determined in two ways, from depth image and by using the initial poses to triangulate. The model improves the camera poses and decreases drift error during long-distance RGB-D tracking iteratively. Experiments were conducted using data sequences collected by commercial Structure Sensors. The results verify that the geometric integration of hybrid correspondences effectively decreases the drift error and improves mapping accuracy. Furthermore, the model enables a comparative and synergistic use of datasets, including both 2D and 3D features. PMID:29723974

Geometric Integration of Hybrid Correspondences for RGB-D Unidirectional Tracking.

PubMed

Tang, Shengjun; Chen, Wu; Wang, Weixi; Li, Xiaoming; Darwish, Walid; Li, Wenbin; Huang, Zhengdong; Hu, Han; Guo, Renzhong

2018-05-01

Traditionally, visual-based RGB-D SLAM systems only use correspondences with valid depth values for camera tracking, thus ignoring the regions without 3D information. Due to the strict limitation on measurement distance and view angle, such systems adopt only short-range constraints which may introduce larger drift errors during long-distance unidirectional tracking. In this paper, we propose a novel geometric integration method that makes use of both 2D and 3D correspondences for RGB-D tracking. Our method handles the problem by exploring visual features both when depth information is available and when it is unknown. The system comprises two parts: coarse pose tracking with 3D correspondences, and geometric integration with hybrid correspondences. First, the coarse pose tracking generates the initial camera pose using 3D correspondences with frame-by-frame registration. The initial camera poses are then used as inputs for the geometric integration model, along with 3D correspondences, 2D-3D correspondences and 2D correspondences identified from frame pairs. The initial 3D location of the correspondence is determined in two ways, from depth image and by using the initial poses to triangulate. The model improves the camera poses and decreases drift error during long-distance RGB-D tracking iteratively. Experiments were conducted using data sequences collected by commercial Structure Sensors. The results verify that the geometric integration of hybrid correspondences effectively decreases the drift error and improves mapping accuracy. Furthermore, the model enables a comparative and synergistic use of datasets, including both 2D and 3D features.

An analysis of a nonlinear instability in the implementation of a VTOL control system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Weber, J. M.

1982-01-01

The contributions to nonlinear behavior and unstable response of the model following yaw control system of a VTOL aircraft during hover were determined. The system was designed as a state rate feedback implicit model follower that provided yaw rate command/heading hold capability and used combined full authority parallel and limited authority series servo actuators to generate an input to the yaw reaction control system of the aircraft. Both linear and nonlinear system models, as well as describing function linearization techniques were used to determine the influence on the control system instability of input magnitude and bandwidth, series servo authority, and system bandwidth. Results of the analysis describe stability boundaries as a function of these system design characteristics.

Well-posedness of characteristic symmetric hyperbolic systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Secchi, Paolo

1996-06-01

We consider the initial-boundary-value problem for quasi-linear symmetric hyperbolic systems with characteristic boundary of constant multiplicity. We show the well-posedness in Hadamard's sense (i.e., existence, uniqueness and continuous dependence of solutions on the data) of regular solutions in suitable functions spaces which take into account the loss of regularity in the normal direction to the characteristic boundary.

Improving the energy efficiency of sparse linear system solvers on multicore and manycore systems.

PubMed

Anzt, H; Quintana-Ortí, E S

2014-06-28

While most recent breakthroughs in scientific research rely on complex simulations carried out in large-scale supercomputers, the power draft and energy spent for this purpose is increasingly becoming a limiting factor to this trend. In this paper, we provide an overview of the current status in energy-efficient scientific computing by reviewing different technologies used to monitor power draft as well as power- and energy-saving mechanisms available in commodity hardware. For the particular domain of sparse linear algebra, we analyse the energy efficiency of a broad collection of hardware architectures and investigate how algorithmic and implementation modifications can improve the energy performance of sparse linear system solvers, without negatively impacting their performance. © 2014 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

The Learning Reconstruction of Particle System and Linear Momentum Conservation in Introductory Physics Course

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Karim, S.; Saepuzaman, D.; Sriyansyah, S. P.

2016-08-01

This study is initiated by low achievement of prospective teachers in understanding concepts in introductory physics course. In this case, a problem has been identified that students cannot develop their thinking skills required for building physics concepts. Therefore, this study will reconstruct a learning process, emphasizing a physics concept building. The outcome will design physics lesson plans for the concepts of particle system as well as linear momentum conservation. A descriptive analysis method will be used in order to investigate the process of learning reconstruction carried out by students. In this process, the students’ conceptual understanding will be evaluated using essay tests for concepts of particle system and linear momentum conservation. The result shows that the learning reconstruction has successfully supported the students’ understanding of physics concept.

Polynomial Monogamy Relations for Entanglement Negativity.

PubMed

Allen, Grant W; Meyer, David A

2017-02-24

The notion of nonclassical correlations is a powerful contrivance for explaining phenomena exhibited in quantum systems. It is well known, however, that quantum systems are not free to explore arbitrary correlations-the church of the smaller Hilbert space only accepts monogamous congregants. We demonstrate how to characterize the limits of what is quantum mechanically possible with a computable measure, entanglement negativity. We show that negativity only saturates the standard linear monogamy inequality in trivial cases implied by its monotonicity under local operations and classical communication, and derive a necessary and sufficient inequality which, for the first time, is a nonlinear higher degree polynomial. For very large quantum systems, we prove that the negativity can be distributed at least linearly for the tightest constraint and conjecture that it is at most linear.

Polynomial Monogamy Relations for Entanglement Negativity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Allen, Grant W.; Meyer, David A.

2017-02-01

The notion of nonclassical correlations is a powerful contrivance for explaining phenomena exhibited in quantum systems. It is well known, however, that quantum systems are not free to explore arbitrary correlations—the church of the smaller Hilbert space only accepts monogamous congregants. We demonstrate how to characterize the limits of what is quantum mechanically possible with a computable measure, entanglement negativity. We show that negativity only saturates the standard linear monogamy inequality in trivial cases implied by its monotonicity under local operations and classical communication, and derive a necessary and sufficient inequality which, for the first time, is a nonlinear higher degree polynomial. For very large quantum systems, we prove that the negativity can be distributed at least linearly for the tightest constraint and conjecture that it is at most linear.

Optical ranked-order filtering using threshold decomposition

DOEpatents

Allebach, J.P.; Ochoa, E.; Sweeney, D.W.

1987-10-09

A hybrid optical/electronic system performs median filtering and related ranked-order operations using threshold decomposition to encode the image. Threshold decomposition transforms the nonlinear neighborhood ranking operation into a linear space-invariant filtering step followed by a point-to-point threshold comparison step. Spatial multiplexing allows parallel processing of all the threshold components as well as recombination by a second linear, space-invariant filtering step. An incoherent optical correlation system performs the linear filtering, using a magneto-optic spatial light modulator as the input device and a computer-generated hologram in the filter plane. Thresholding is done electronically. By adjusting the value of the threshold, the same architecture is used to perform median, minimum, and maximum filtering of images. A totally optical system is also disclosed. 3 figs.

Programming a topologically constrained DNA nanostructure into a sensor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Meng; Zhang, Qiang; Li, Zhongping; Gu, Jimmy; Brennan, John D.; Li, Yingfu

2016-06-01

Many rationally engineered DNA nanostructures use mechanically interlocked topologies to connect individual DNA components, and their physical connectivity is achieved through the formation of a strong linking duplex. The existence of such a structural element also poses a significant topological constraint on functions of component rings. Herein, we hypothesize and confirm that DNA catenanes with a strong linking duplex prevent component rings from acting as the template for rolling circle amplification (RCA). However, by using an RNA-containing DNA [2] catenane with a strong linking duplex, we show that a stimuli-responsive RNA-cleaving DNAzyme can linearize one component ring, and thus enable RCA, producing an ultra-sensitive biosensing system. As an example, a DNA catenane biosensor is engineered to detect the model bacterial pathogen Escherichia coli through binding of a secreted protein, with a detection limit of 10 cells ml-1, thus establishing a new platform for further applications of mechanically interlocked DNA nanostructures.

Periodic control of the individual-blade-control helicopter rotor. Ph.D. Thesis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mckillip, R. M., Jr.

1984-01-01

Results of an investigation into methods of controller design for an individual helicopter rotor blade in the high forward-flight speed regime are described. This operating condition poses a unique control problem in that the perturbation equations of motion are linear with coefficients that vary periodically with time. The design of a control law was based on extensions to modern multivariate synthesis techniques and incorporated a novel approach to the reconstruction of the missing system state variables. The controller was tested on both an electronic analog computer simulation of the out-of-plane flapping dynamics, and on a four foot diameter single-bladed model helicopter rotor in the M.I.T. 5x7 subsonic wind tunnel at high levels of advance ratio. It is shown that modal control using the IBC concept is possible over a large range of advance ratios with only a modest amount of computational power required.

Programming a topologically constrained DNA nanostructure into a sensor

PubMed Central

Liu, Meng; Zhang, Qiang; Li, Zhongping; Gu, Jimmy; Brennan, John D.; Li, Yingfu

2016-01-01

Many rationally engineered DNA nanostructures use mechanically interlocked topologies to connect individual DNA components, and their physical connectivity is achieved through the formation of a strong linking duplex. The existence of such a structural element also poses a significant topological constraint on functions of component rings. Herein, we hypothesize and confirm that DNA catenanes with a strong linking duplex prevent component rings from acting as the template for rolling circle amplification (RCA). However, by using an RNA-containing DNA [2] catenane with a strong linking duplex, we show that a stimuli-responsive RNA-cleaving DNAzyme can linearize one component ring, and thus enable RCA, producing an ultra-sensitive biosensing system. As an example, a DNA catenane biosensor is engineered to detect the model bacterial pathogen Escherichia coli through binding of a secreted protein, with a detection limit of 10 cells ml−1, thus establishing a new platform for further applications of mechanically interlocked DNA nanostructures. PMID:27337657

Modelling and identification for control of gas bearings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Theisen, Lukas R. S.; Niemann, Hans H.; Santos, Ilmar F.; Galeazzi, Roberto; Blanke, Mogens

2016-03-01

Gas bearings are popular for their high speed capabilities, low friction and clean operation, but suffer from poor damping, which poses challenges for safe operation in presence of disturbances. Feedback control can achieve enhanced damping but requires low complexity models of the dominant dynamics over its entire operating range. Models from first principles are complex and sensitive to parameter uncertainty. This paper presents an experimental technique for "in situ" identification of a low complexity model of a rotor-bearing-actuator system and demonstrates identification over relevant ranges of rotational speed and gas injection pressure. This is obtained using parameter-varying linear models that are found to capture the dominant dynamics. The approach is shown to be easily applied and to suit subsequent control design. Based on the identified models, decentralised proportional control is designed and shown to obtain the required damping in theory and in a laboratory test rig.

Preprocessing Inconsistent Linear System for a Meaningful Least Squares Solution

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sen, Syamal K.; Shaykhian, Gholam Ali

2011-01-01

Mathematical models of many physical/statistical problems are systems of linear equations. Due to measurement and possible human errors/mistakes in modeling/data, as well as due to certain assumptions to reduce complexity, inconsistency (contradiction) is injected into the model, viz. the linear system. While any inconsistent system irrespective of the degree of inconsistency has always a least-squares solution, one needs to check whether an equation is too much inconsistent or, equivalently too much contradictory. Such an equation will affect/distort the least-squares solution to such an extent that renders it unacceptable/unfit to be used in a real-world application. We propose an algorithm which (i) prunes numerically redundant linear equations from the system as these do not add any new information to the model, (ii) detects contradictory linear equations along with their degree of contradiction (inconsistency index), (iii) removes those equations presumed to be too contradictory, and then (iv) obtain the minimum norm least-squares solution of the acceptably inconsistent reduced linear system. The algorithm presented in Matlab reduces the computational and storage complexities and also improves the accuracy of the solution. It also provides the necessary warning about the existence of too much contradiction in the model. In addition, we suggest a thorough relook into the mathematical modeling to determine the reason why unacceptable contradiction has occurred thus prompting us to make necessary corrections/modifications to the models - both mathematical and, if necessary, physical.

Preprocessing in Matlab Inconsistent Linear System for a Meaningful Least Squares Solution

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sen, Symal K.; Shaykhian, Gholam Ali

2011-01-01

Mathematical models of many physical/statistical problems are systems of linear equations Due to measurement and possible human errors/mistakes in modeling/data, as well as due to certain assumptions to reduce complexity, inconsistency (contradiction) is injected into the model, viz. the linear system. While any inconsistent system irrespective of the degree of inconsistency has always a least-squares solution, one needs to check whether an equation is too much inconsistent or, equivalently too much contradictory. Such an equation will affect/distort the least-squares solution to such an extent that renders it unacceptable/unfit to be used in a real-world application. We propose an algorithm which (i) prunes numerically redundant linear equations from the system as these do not add any new information to the model, (ii) detects contradictory linear equations along with their degree of contradiction (inconsistency index), (iii) removes those equations presumed to be too contradictory, and then (iv) obtain the . minimum norm least-squares solution of the acceptably inconsistent reduced linear system. The algorithm presented in Matlab reduces the computational and storage complexities and also improves the accuracy of the solution. It also provides the necessary warning about the existence of too much contradiction in the model. In addition, we suggest a thorough relook into the mathematical modeling to determine the reason why unacceptable contradiction has occurred thus prompting us to make necessary corrections/modifications to the models - both mathematical and, if necessary, physical.

Risk Assessment for Mobile Systems Through a Multilayered Hierarchical Bayesian Network.

PubMed

Li, Shancang; Tryfonas, Theo; Russell, Gordon; Andriotis, Panagiotis

2016-08-01

Mobile systems are facing a number of application vulnerabilities that can be combined together and utilized to penetrate systems with devastating impact. When assessing the overall security of a mobile system, it is important to assess the security risks posed by each mobile applications (apps), thus gaining a stronger understanding of any vulnerabilities present. This paper aims at developing a three-layer framework that assesses the potential risks which apps introduce within the Android mobile systems. A Bayesian risk graphical model is proposed to evaluate risk propagation in a layered risk architecture. By integrating static analysis, dynamic analysis, and behavior analysis in a hierarchical framework, the risks and their propagation through each layer are well modeled by the Bayesian risk graph, which can quantitatively analyze risks faced to both apps and mobile systems. The proposed hierarchical Bayesian risk graph model offers a novel way to investigate the security risks in mobile environment and enables users and administrators to evaluate the potential risks. This strategy allows to strengthen both app security as well as the security of the entire system.

Closed-loop stability of linear quadratic optimal systems in the presence of modeling errors

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Toda, M.; Patel, R.; Sridhar, B.

1976-01-01

The well-known stabilizing property of linear quadratic state feedback design is utilized to evaluate the robustness of a linear quadratic feedback design in the presence of modeling errors. Two general conditions are obtained for allowable modeling errors such that the resulting closed-loop system remains stable. One of these conditions is applied to obtain two more particular conditions which are readily applicable to practical situations where a designer has information on the bounds of modeling errors. Relations are established between the allowable parameter uncertainty and the weighting matrices of the quadratic performance index, thereby enabling the designer to select appropriate weighting matrices to attain a robust feedback design.

Linear model describing three components of flow in karst aquifers using 18O data

USGS Publications Warehouse

Long, Andrew J.; Putnam, L.D.

2004-01-01

The stable isotope of oxygen, 18O, is used as a naturally occurring ground-water tracer. Time-series data for ??18O are analyzed to model the distinct responses and relative proportions of the conduit, intermediate, and diffuse flow components in karst aquifers. This analysis also describes mathematically the dynamics of the transient fluid interchange between conduits and diffusive networks. Conduit and intermediate flow are described by linear-systems methods, whereas diffuse flow is described by mass-balance methods. An automated optimization process estimates parameters of lognormal, Pearson type III, and gamma distributions, which are used as transfer functions in linear-systems analysis. Diffuse flow and mixing parameters also are estimated by these optimization methods. Results indicate the relative proximity of a well to a main conduit flowpath and can help to predict the movement and residence times of potential contaminants. The three-component linear model is applied to five wells, which respond to changes in the isotopic composition of point recharge water from a sinking stream in the Madison aquifer in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Flow velocities as much as 540 m/d and system memories of as much as 71 years are estimated by this method. Also, the mean, median, and standard deviation of traveltimes; time to peak response; and the relative fraction of flow for each of the three components are determined for these wells. This analysis infers that flow may branch apart and rejoin as a result of an anastomotic (or channeled) karst network.

Arbitrary waveform modulated pulse EPR at 200 GHz

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kaminker, Ilia; Barnes, Ryan; Han, Songi

2017-06-01

We report here on the implementation of arbitrary waveform generation (AWG) capabilities at ∼200 GHz into an Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) and Dynamic Nuclear Polarization (DNP) instrument platform operating at 7 T. This is achieved with the integration of a 1 GHz, 2 channel, digital to analog converter (DAC) board that enables the generation of coherent arbitrary waveforms at Ku-band frequencies with 1 ns resolution into an existing architecture of a solid state amplifier multiplier chain (AMC). This allows for the generation of arbitrary phase- and amplitude-modulated waveforms at 200 GHz with >150 mW power. We find that the non-linearity of the AMC poses significant difficulties in generating amplitude-modulated pulses at 200 GHz. We demonstrate that in the power-limited regime of ω1 < 1 MHz phase-modulated pulses were sufficient to achieve significant improvements in broadband (>10 MHz) spin manipulation in incoherent (inversion), as well as coherent (echo formation) experiments. Highlights include the improvement by one order of magnitude in inversion bandwidth compared to that of conventional rectangular pulses, as well as a factor of two in improvement in the refocused echo intensity at 200 GHz.

An analysis of the vertical structure equation for arbitrary thermal profiles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cohn, Stephen E.; Dee, Dick P.

1989-01-01

The vertical structure equation is a singular Sturm-Liouville problem whose eigenfunctions describe the vertical dependence of the normal modes of the primitive equations linearized about a given thermal profile. The eigenvalues give the equivalent depths of the modes. The spectrum of the vertical structure equation and the appropriateness of various upper boundary conditions, both for arbitrary thermal profiles were studied. The results depend critically upon whether or not the thermal profile is such that the basic state atmosphere is bounded. In the case of a bounded atmosphere it is shown that the spectrum is always totally discrete, regardless of details of the thermal profile. For the barotropic equivalent depth, which corresponds to the lowest eigen value, upper and lower bounds which depend only on the surface temperature and the atmosphere height were obtained. All eigenfunctions are bounded, but always have unbounded first derivatives. It was proved that the commonly invoked upper boundary condition that vertical velocity must vanish as pressure tends to zero, as well as a number of alternative conditions, is well posed. It was concluded that the vertical structure equation always has a totally discrete spectrum under the assumptions implicit in the primitive equations.

An analysis of the vertical structure equation for arbitrary thermal profiles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cohn, Stephen E.; Dee, Dick P.

1987-01-01

The vertical structure equation is a singular Sturm-Liouville problem whose eigenfunctions describe the vertical dependence of the normal modes of the primitive equations linearized about a given thermal profile. The eigenvalues give the equivalent depths of the modes. The spectrum of the vertical structure equation and the appropriateness of various upper boundary conditions, both for arbitrary thermal profiles were studied. The results depend critically upon whether or not the thermal profile is such that the basic state atmosphere is bounded. In the case of a bounded atmosphere it is shown that the spectrum is always totally discrete, regardless of details of the thermal profile. For the barotropic equivalent depth, which corresponds to the lowest eigen value, upper and lower bounds which depend only on the surface temperature and the atmosphere height were obtained. All eigenfunctions are bounded, but always have unbounded first derivatives. It was proved that the commonly invoked upper boundary condition that vertical velocity must vanish as pressure tends to zero, as well as a number of alternative conditions, is well posed. It was concluded that the vertical structure equation always has a totally discrete spectrum under the assumptions implicit in the primitive equations.

Bidirectional peripheral nerve interface and applications.

PubMed

Thakor, Nitish V; Qihong Wang; Greenwald, Elliot

2016-08-01

Peripheral nerves, due to their small size and complex innervation to organs and complex physiology, pose particularly significant challenges towards interfacing electrodes and electronics to enable neuromodulation. Here, we present a review of the technology for building such interface, including recording and stimulating electrodes and low power electronics, as well as powering. Of particular advantage to building a miniature implanted device is a "bidirectional" system that both senses from the nerves or surrogate organs and stimulates the nerves to affect the organ function. This review and presentation will cover a range of electrodes, electronics, wireless power and data schemes and system integration, and will end with some examples and applications.

An Interactive Program for the Calculation and Analysis of the Parameter Sensitivities in a Linear, Time-Invariant System.

DTIC Science & Technology

1981-03-01

tifiability is imposed; and the system designer now has a tool to evaluate how well the model describes the system . The algorithm is verified by checking its...xi I. Introduction In analyzing a system , the design engineer uses a mathematical model. The model, by its very definition, represents the system . It...number of G (See Eq (23).) can 18 give the designer a good indication of just how well the model defined by Eqs (1) through (3) describes the system

Energy dynamics in a simulation of LAPD turbulence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Friedman, Brett

2012-10-01

It is often assumed that linear instabilities maintain turbulence in plasmas and some fluids, but this is not always the case. It is well known that many fluids display subcritical turbulence at a Reynolds number well below the threashold of linear instability. Certain plasma models such as drift waves in a sheared slab also exhibit subcritical turbulence [1]. In other instances such as drift-ballooning turbulence in tokamak edge plasmas, linear instabilities exist in a system, but they become subdominant to more robust nonlinear mechanisms that sustain a turbulent state [2, 3]. In our simulation of LAPD turbulence, which was previously analyzed in [4], we diagnose the results using an energy dynamics analysis [5]. This allows us to track energy input into turbulent fluctuations and energy dissipation out of them. We also track conservative energy transfer between different energy types (e.g. from potential to kinetic energy) and between different Fourier waves of the system. The result is that a nonlinear instability drives and maintains the turbulence in the steady state saturated phase of the simulation. While a linear restistive drift wave instability resides in the system, the nonlinear drift wave instability dominates when the fluctuation amplitude becomes large enough. The nonlinear instability is identified by its energy growth rate spectrum, which varies significantly from the linear growth rate spectrum. The main differences are the presence of positive growth rates when k|| = 0 and negative growth rates for nonzero k||, which is opposite that of the linear growth rate spectrum.[4pt] [1] B. D. Scott, Phys. Rev. Lett., 65, 3289 (1990).[0pt] [2] A. Zeiler et al, Phys. Plasmas, 3, 2951 (1996).[0pt] [3] B. D. Scott, Phys. Plasmas, 12, 062314 (2005).[0pt] [4] P. Popovich et al, Phys. Plasmas, 17, 122312 (2010).[0pt] [5] [physics.plasm-ph].

Probability distributions of whisker-surface contact: quantifying elements of the rat vibrissotactile natural scene.

PubMed

Hobbs, Jennifer A; Towal, R Blythe; Hartmann, Mitra J Z

2015-08-01

Analysis of natural scene statistics has been a powerful approach for understanding neural coding in the auditory and visual systems. In the field of somatosensation, it has been more challenging to quantify the natural tactile scene, in part because somatosensory signals are so tightly linked to the animal's movements. The present work takes a step towards quantifying the natural tactile scene for the rat vibrissal system by simulating rat whisking motions to systematically investigate the probabilities of whisker-object contact in naturalistic environments. The simulations permit an exhaustive search through the complete space of possible contact patterns, thereby allowing for the characterization of the patterns that would most likely occur during long sequences of natural exploratory behavior. We specifically quantified the probabilities of 'concomitant contact', that is, given that a particular whisker makes contact with a surface during a whisk, what is the probability that each of the other whiskers will also make contact with the surface during that whisk? Probabilities of concomitant contact were quantified in simulations that assumed increasingly naturalistic conditions: first, the space of all possible head poses; second, the space of behaviorally preferred head poses as measured experimentally; and third, common head poses in environments such as cages and burrows. As environments became more naturalistic, the probability distributions shifted from exhibiting a 'row-wise' structure to a more diagonal structure. Results also reveal that the rat appears to use motor strategies (e.g. head pitches) that generate contact patterns that are particularly well suited to extract information in the presence of uncertainty. © 2015. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.

Monitoring and risk assessment of pesticides in irrigation systems in Debra Zeit, Ethiopia.

PubMed

Teklu, Berhan M; Adriaanse, Paulien I; Van den Brink, Paul J

2016-10-01

Since Ethiopia is going through a rapid transformation of its agricultural sector, we assessed the human health and environmental risks due to the past use of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) as well as the risks of the current pesticide use by farmers. A monitoring programme and risk assessment was carried out for the Wedecha-Belbela irrigation system in the Debra Zeit area. The Wedecha and Belbela rivers and adjacent temporary ponds were sampled and examined for the presence of OCPs between August and October 2014, while data on the current pesticide use by small- and large-scale farmers was collected by interviews. The usage patterns were evaluated for risks of using the river or temporary ponds as source of drinking water and for risks for the aquatic ecosystems in the river and ponds with the aid of the PRIMET_Registration_Ethiopa_1.1 model. The samples were collected in five sampling periods, and results indicate that most of the 18 target OCPs were not detected above the detection limit, while g-chlordane may pose chronic risks when surface water is used as drinking water. Endosulfan and heptachlor pose risks to aquatic organisms at second-tier level, while for heptachlor-epoxide B, g-chlordane and b-BHC only risks could be determined at the first tier due to a lack of data. For all nine pesticides used by small-scale farmers the calculated acute risks to humans were low. Second tier risk assessment for the aquatic ecosystem indicated that lambda-cyhalothrin, endosulfan, profenofos, and diazinon may pose high risks. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Coupling density functional theory to polarizable force fields for efficient and accurate Hamiltonian molecular dynamics simulations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schwörer, Magnus; Breitenfeld, Benedikt; Tröster, Philipp; Bauer, Sebastian; Lorenzen, Konstantin; Tavan, Paul; Mathias, Gerald

2013-06-01

Hybrid molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, in which the forces acting on the atoms are calculated by grid-based density functional theory (DFT) for a solute molecule and by a polarizable molecular mechanics (PMM) force field for a large solvent environment composed of several 103-105 molecules, pose a challenge. A corresponding computational approach should guarantee energy conservation, exclude artificial distortions of the electron density at the interface between the DFT and PMM fragments, and should treat the long-range electrostatic interactions within the hybrid simulation system in a linearly scaling fashion. Here we describe a corresponding Hamiltonian DFT/(P)MM implementation, which accounts for inducible atomic dipoles of a PMM environment in a joint DFT/PMM self-consistency iteration. The long-range parts of the electrostatics are treated by hierarchically nested fast multipole expansions up to a maximum distance dictated by the minimum image convention of toroidal boundary conditions and, beyond that distance, by a reaction field approach such that the computation scales linearly with the number of PMM atoms. Short-range over-polarization artifacts are excluded by using Gaussian inducible dipoles throughout the system and Gaussian partial charges in the PMM region close to the DFT fragment. The Hamiltonian character, the stability, and efficiency of the implementation are investigated by hybrid DFT/PMM-MD simulations treating one molecule of the water dimer and of bulk water by DFT and the respective remainder by PMM.

GBAS Ionospheric Anomaly Monitoring Based on a Two-Step Approach

PubMed Central

Zhao, Lin; Yang, Fuxin; Li, Liang; Ding, Jicheng; Zhao, Yuxin

2016-01-01

As one significant component of space environmental weather, the ionosphere has to be monitored using Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers for the Ground-Based Augmentation System (GBAS). This is because an ionospheric anomaly can pose a potential threat for GBAS to support safety-critical services. The traditional code-carrier divergence (CCD) methods, which have been widely used to detect the variants of the ionospheric gradient for GBAS, adopt a linear time-invariant low-pass filter to suppress the effect of high frequency noise on the detection of the ionospheric anomaly. However, there is a counterbalance between response time and estimation accuracy due to the fixed time constants. In order to release the limitation, a two-step approach (TSA) is proposed by integrating the cascaded linear time-invariant low-pass filters with the adaptive Kalman filter to detect the ionospheric gradient anomaly. The performance of the proposed method is tested by using simulated and real-world data, respectively. The simulation results show that the TSA can detect ionospheric gradient anomalies quickly, even when the noise is severer. Compared to the traditional CCD methods, the experiments from real-world GPS data indicate that the average estimation accuracy of the ionospheric gradient improves by more than 31.3%, and the average response time to the ionospheric gradient at a rate of 0.018 m/s improves by more than 59.3%, which demonstrates the ability of TSA to detect a small ionospheric gradient more rapidly. PMID:27240367

Linear Streptomyces plasmids form superhelical circles through interactions between their terminal proteins

PubMed Central

Tsai, Hsiu-Hui; Huang, Chih-Hung; Tessmer, Ingrid; Erie, Dorothy A.; Chen, Carton W.

2011-01-01

Linear chromosomes and linear plasmids of Streptomyces possess covalently bound terminal proteins (TPs) at the 5′ ends of their telomeres. These TPs are proposed to act as primers for DNA synthesis that patches the single-stranded gaps at the 3′ ends during replication. Most (‘archetypal’) Streptomyces TPs (designated Tpg) are highly conserved in size and sequence. In addition, there are a number of atypical TPs with heterologous sequences and sizes, one of which is Tpc that caps SCP1 plasmid of Streptomyces coelicolor. Interactions between the TPs on the linear Streptomyces replicons have been suggested by electrophoretic behaviors of TP-capped DNA and circular genetic maps of Streptomyces chromosomes. Using chemical cross-linking, we demonstrated intramolecular and intermolecular interactions in vivo between Tpgs, between Tpcs and between Tpg and Tpc. Interactions between the chromosomal and plasmid telomeres were also detected in vivo. The intramolecular telomere interactions produced negative superhelicity in the linear DNA, which was relaxed by topoisomerase I. Such intramolecular association between the TPs poses a post-replicational complication in the formation of a pseudo-dimeric structure that requires resolution by exchanging TPs or DNA. PMID:21109537

Focal points and principal solutions of linear Hamiltonian systems revisited

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Šepitka, Peter; Šimon Hilscher, Roman

2018-05-01

In this paper we present a novel view on the principal (and antiprincipal) solutions of linear Hamiltonian systems, as well as on the focal points of their conjoined bases. We present a new and unified theory of principal (and antiprincipal) solutions at a finite point and at infinity, and apply it to obtain new representation of the multiplicities of right and left proper focal points of conjoined bases. We show that these multiplicities can be characterized by the abnormality of the system in a neighborhood of the given point and by the rank of the associated T-matrix from the theory of principal (and antiprincipal) solutions. We also derive some additional important results concerning the representation of T-matrices and associated normalized conjoined bases. The results in this paper are new even for completely controllable linear Hamiltonian systems. We also discuss other potential applications of our main results, in particular in the singular Sturmian theory.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Luszczek, Piotr R; Tomov, Stanimire Z; Dongarra, Jack J

We present an efficient and scalable programming model for the development of linear algebra in heterogeneous multi-coprocessor environments. The model incorporates some of the current best design and implementation practices for the heterogeneous acceleration of dense linear algebra (DLA). Examples are given as the basis for solving linear systems' algorithms - the LU, QR, and Cholesky factorizations. To generate the extreme level of parallelism needed for the efficient use of coprocessors, algorithms of interest are redesigned and then split into well-chosen computational tasks. The tasks execution is scheduled over the computational components of a hybrid system of multi-core CPUs andmore » coprocessors using a light-weight runtime system. The use of lightweight runtime systems keeps scheduling overhead low, while enabling the expression of parallelism through otherwise sequential code. This simplifies the development efforts and allows the exploration of the unique strengths of the various hardware components.« less

Religion and intimate partner violence in Chile: macro- and micro-level influences.

PubMed

Lehrer, Evelyn L; Lehrer, Vivian L; Krauss, Ramona C

2009-09-01

The Catholic Church has had a strong influence on the Chilean legal and social landscape in ways that have adversely affected victims of intimate partner violence; e.g., it succeeded until just five years ago in blocking efforts to legalize divorce. At the same time, quantitative studies based on survey data from the United States and other countries show a generally favorable influence of religion on health and many other domains of life, including intimate partner violence. The present study explores the puzzle posed by these seemingly opposing macro- and micro-level forces. Results based on data from the 2005 Survey of Student Well-Being, a questionnaire on gender-based violence administered to students at a large public university in Chile, show that moderate or low levels of religiosity are associated with reduced vulnerability to violence, but high levels are not. This non-linearity sheds light on the puzzle, because at the macro level the religious views shaping Chile's legal and social environment have been extreme.

High-throughput trace analysis of explosives in water by laser diode thermal desorption/atmospheric pressure chemical ionization-tandem mass spectrometry.

PubMed

Badjagbo, Koffi; Sauvé, Sébastien

2012-07-03

Harmful explosives can accumulate in natural waters in the long term during their testing, usage, storage, and dumping and can pose a health risk to humans and the environment. For the first time, attachment of small anions to neutral molecules in laser diode thermal desorption/atmospheric pressure chemical ionization was systematically investigated for the direct determination of trace nitroaromatics, nitrate esters, and nitramine explosives in water. Using ammonium chloride as an additive improved the instrument response for all the explosives tested and promoted the formation of several characteristic adduct ions. The method performs well achieving good linearity over at least 2 orders of magnitude, with coefficients of determination greater than 0.995. The resulting limits of detection are in the range of 0.009-0.092 μg/L. River water samples were successfully analyzed by the proposed method with accuracy in the range of 96-98% and a response time of 15 s, without any further pretreatment or chromatographic separation.

Wealth in Middle and Later Life: Examining the Life Course Timing of Women's Health Limitations.

PubMed

Wilkinson, Lindsay R; Ferraro, Kenneth F; Mustillo, Sarah A

2018-06-04

Guided by cumulative inequality theory, this study poses two main questions: (a) Does women's poor health compromise household financial assets? (b) If yes, is wealth sensitive to the timing of women's health limitations? In addressing these questions, we consider the effect of health limitations on wealth at older ages, as well as examine how health limitations influence wealth over particular segments of the life course, giving attention to both the onset and duration of health limitations. Using 36 years of data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Mature Women, piecewise growth curve and linear regression models were used to estimate the effects of life course timing and duration of health limitations on household wealth. The findings reveal that women who experienced health limitations accumulated substantially less wealth over time, especially if the health limitations were manifest during childhood or early adulthood. This study identifies how early-life health problems lead to less wealth in later life.

Self-organized cooperative swimming at low Reynolds numbers.

PubMed

Reinmüller, Alexander; Schöpe, Hans Joachim; Palberg, Thomas

2013-02-12

Investigations of swimming at low Reynolds numbers (Re < 10(-4)) so far have focused on individual or collectively moving autonomous microswimmers consisting of a single active building unit. Here we show that linear propulsion can also be reproducibly generated in a self-assembled dynamic complex formed from a granular, HCl-releasing particle settled on a charged quartz wall and a swarm of micrometer-sized negatively charged colloids. In isolation, none of the constituents shows motion beyond diffusion. When brought together, they self-assemble into a complex capable of directed swimming. It is stabilized by toroidal solvent flow centered about the granular particle. Propulsion is then launched by an asymmetric distribution of the colloids. Motion is self-stabilizing and continues for up to 25 min with velocities of 1-3 μm/s. Although the details of the mechanisms involved pose a formidable experimental and theoretical challenge, our observations offer a conceptually new, well-reproduced, versatile approach to swimming and transport at low Reynolds numbers.

Stabilization of the Inverse Laplace Transform of Multiexponential Decay through Introduction of a Second Dimension

PubMed Central

Celik, Hasan; Bouhrara, Mustapha; Reiter, David A.; Fishbein, Kenneth W.; Spencer, Richard G.

2013-01-01

We propose a new approach to stabilizing the inverse Laplace transform of a multiexponential decay signal, a classically ill-posed problem, in the context of nuclear magnetic resonance relaxometry. The method is based on extension to a second, indirectly detected, dimension, that is, use of the established framework of two-dimensional relaxometry, followed by projection onto the desired axis. Numerical results for signals comprised of discrete T1 and T2 relaxation components and experiments performed on agarose gel phantoms are presented. We find markedly improved accuracy, and stability with respect to noise, as well as insensitivity to regularization in quantifying underlying relaxation components through use of the two-dimensional as compared to the one-dimensional inverse Laplace transform. This improvement is demonstrated separately for two different inversion algorithms, nonnegative least squares and non-linear least squares, to indicate the generalizability of this approach. These results may have wide applicability in approaches to the Fredholm integral equation of the first kind. PMID:24035004

On the breakdown of the curvature perturbation ζ during reheating

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Algan, Merve Tarman; Kaya, Ali; Kutluk, Emine Seyma, E-mail: merve.tarman@boun.edu.tr, E-mail: ali.kaya@boun.edu.tr, E-mail: seymakutluk@gmail.com

2015-04-01

It is known that in single scalar field inflationary models the standard curvature perturbation ζ, which is supposedly conserved at superhorizon scales, diverges during reheating at times 0φ-dot =, i.e. when the time derivative of the background inflaton field vanishes. This happens because the comoving gauge 0φ=, where φ denotes the inflaton perturbation, breaks down when 0φ-dot =. The issue is usually bypassed by averaging out the inflaton oscillations but strictly speaking the evolution of ζ is ill posed mathematically. We solve this problem in the free theory by introducing a family of smooth gauges that still eliminates the inflatonmore » fluctuation φ in the Hamiltonian formalism and gives a well behaved curvature perturbation ζ, which is now rigorously conserved at superhorizon scales. At the linearized level, this conserved variable can be used to unambiguously propagate the inflationary perturbations from the end of inflation to subsequent epochs. We discuss the implications of our results for the inflationary predictions.« less

On the breakdown of the curvature perturbation ζ during reheating

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tarman Algan, Merve; Kaya, Ali; Seyma Kutluk, Emine

2015-04-01

It is known that in single scalar field inflationary models the standard curvature perturbation ζ, which is supposedly conserved at superhorizon scales, diverges during reheating at times 0dot phi=, i.e. when the time derivative of the background inflaton field vanishes. This happens because the comoving gauge 0varphi=, where varphi denotes the inflaton perturbation, breaks down when 0dot phi=. The issue is usually bypassed by averaging out the inflaton oscillations but strictly speaking the evolution of ζ is ill posed mathematically. We solve this problem in the free theory by introducing a family of smooth gauges that still eliminates the inflaton fluctuation varphi in the Hamiltonian formalism and gives a well behaved curvature perturbation ζ, which is now rigorously conserved at superhorizon scales. At the linearized level, this conserved variable can be used to unambiguously propagate the inflationary perturbations from the end of inflation to subsequent epochs. We discuss the implications of our results for the inflationary predictions.

Simultaneous Chloramphenicol and Florfenicol Determination by A Validated DLLME-HPLC-UV Method in Pasteurized Milk.

PubMed

Karami-Osboo, Rouhollah; Miri, Ramin; Javidnia, Katayoun; Kobarfard, Farzad

2016-01-01

The antibiotic residues in milk are a well-known serious problem and pose several health hazards to consumers. We have described a simple, rapid, and inexpensive DLLME-HPLC/UV technique for the extraction of chloramphenicol and florfenicol residues in milk samples. Under the optimum conditions, linearity of the method was observed over the range 0.02-0.85 µg/L with correlation coefficients > 0.999. The proposed method has been found to have a good limit of detection (signal to noise ratio = 3) for chloramphenicol (12.5 µg/Kg) and florfenicol (12.2 µg/Kg), and precision with relative standard deviation values under 15% (RSD, n = 3). Good recoveries (69.1-79.4%) were obtained for the extraction of the target analytes in milk samples. This simple and economic method has been applied for analyses of 15 real milk samples. Among all samples only one of them was contaminated to florfenicol; 62.4 µg/Kg and contamination to chloramphenicol was not detected.

Simultaneous Chloramphenicol and Florfenicol Determination by A Validated DLLME-HPLC-UV Method in Pasteurized Milk

PubMed Central

Karami-Osboo, Rouhollah; Miri, Ramin; Javidnia, Katayoun; Kobarfard, Farzad

2016-01-01

The antibiotic residues in milk are a well-known serious problem and pose several health hazards to consumers. We have described a simple, rapid, and inexpensive DLLME-HPLC/UV technique for the extraction of chloramphenicol and florfenicol residues in milk samples. Under the optimum conditions, linearity of the method was observed over the range 0.02-0.85 µg/L with correlation coefficients > 0.999. The proposed method has been found to have a good limit of detection (signal to noise ratio = 3) for chloramphenicol (12.5 µg/Kg) and florfenicol (12.2 µg/Kg), and precision with relative standard deviation values under 15% (RSD, n = 3). Good recoveries (69.1–79.4%) were obtained for the extraction of the target analytes in milk samples. This simple and economic method has been applied for analyses of 15 real milk samples. Among all samples only one of them was contaminated to florfenicol; 62.4 µg/Kg and contamination to chloramphenicol was not detected. PMID:27980571

Perceptual asymmetry in texture perception.

PubMed

Williams, D; Julesz, B

1992-07-15

A fundamental property of human visual perception is our ability to distinguish between textures. A concerted effort has been made to account for texture segregation in terms of linear spatial filter models and their nonlinear extensions. However, for certain texture pairs the ease of discrimination changes when the role of figure and ground are reversed. This asymmetry poses a problem for both linear and nonlinear models. We have isolated a property of texture perception that can account for this asymmetry in discrimination: subjective closure. This property, which is also responsible for visual illusions, appears to be explainable by early visual processes alone. Our results force a reexamination of the process of human texture segregation and of some recent models that were introduced to explain it.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Barstow, Del R; Patlolla, Dilip Reddy; Mann, Christopher J

Abstract The data captured by existing standoff biometric systems typically has lower biometric recognition performance than their close range counterparts due to imaging challenges, pose challenges, and other factors. To assist in overcoming these limitations systems typically perform in a multi-modal capacity such as Honeywell s Combined Face and Iris (CFAIRS) [21] system. While this improves the systems performance, standoff systems have yet to be proven as accurate as their close range equivalents. We will present a standoff system capable of operating up to 7 meters in range. Unlike many systems such as the CFAIRS our system captures high qualitymore » 12 MP video allowing for a multi-sample as well as multi-modal comparison. We found that for standoff systems multi-sample improved performance more than multi-modal. For a small test group of 50 subjects we were able to achieve 100% rank one recognition performance with our system.« less

Theory of bimolecular reactions in a solution with linear traps: Application to the problem of target search on DNA.

PubMed

Turkin, Alexander; van Oijen, Antoine M; Turkin, Anatoliy A

2015-01-01

One-dimensional sliding along DNA as a means to accelerate protein target search is a well-known phenomenon occurring in various biological systems. Using a biomimetic approach, we have recently demonstrated the practical use of DNA-sliding peptides to speed up bimolecular reactions more than an order of magnitude by allowing the reactants to associate not only in the solution by three-dimensional (3D) diffusion, but also on DNA via one-dimensional (1D) diffusion [A. Turkin et al., Chem. Sci. (2015)]. Here we present a mean-field kinetic model of a bimolecular reaction in a solution with linear extended sinks (e.g., DNA) that can intermittently trap molecules present in a solution. The model consists of chemical rate equations for mean concentrations of reacting species. Our model demonstrates that addition of linear traps to the solution can significantly accelerate reactant association. We show that at optimum concentrations of linear traps the 1D reaction pathway dominates in the kinetics of the bimolecular reaction; i.e., these 1D traps function as an assembly line of the reaction product. Moreover, we show that the association reaction on linear sinks between trapped reactants exhibits a nonclassical third-order behavior. Predictions of the model agree well with our experimental observations. Our model provides a general description of bimolecular reactions that are controlled by a combined 3D+1D mechanism and can be used to quantitatively describe both naturally occurring as well as biomimetic biochemical systems that reduce the dimensionality of search.

Preventive Work with Teenagers Who Are Prone to Addiction, in Terms of Educational Space

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parfilova, Gulfiia G.; Velieva, Svetlana V.

2016-01-01

The urgency of research is caused by the growth of risky behaviours among children and adolescents, which poses a serious danger to their physical, mental and moral health, leads to biological, genetic and social degradation, poses a threat to the health and well-being of society as a whole. In this regard, this article aims to identify…

Short-term effects of oil ingestion on American kestrels (Falco sparverius).

PubMed

Pattee, O H; Franson, J C

1982-04-01

The Mexican Ixtoc oil well blowout resulted in extensive oil contamination along the Texas Gulf coast. This oil posed a potential hazard to migrating birds including the endangered peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus). Laboratory tests with the American kestrel (Falco sparverius) indicated that the oil: water mixture gathered at the surface of the blowout site posed little acute hazard to falcons.

How is This Child Feeling? Preschool-Aged Children's Ability to Recognize Emotion in Faces and Body Poses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parker, Alison E.; Mathis, Erin T.; Kupersmidt, Janis B.

2013-01-01

Research Findings: The study examined children's recognition of emotion from faces and body poses, as well as gender differences in these recognition abilities. Preschool-aged children ("N" = 55) and their parents and teachers participated in the study. Preschool-aged children completed a web-based measure of emotion recognition skills…

Mathematical Problem Posing as a Measure of Curricular Effect on Students' Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cai, Jinfa; Moyer, John C.; Wang, Ning; Hwang, Stephen; Nie, Bikai; Garber, Tammy

2013-01-01

In this study, we used problem posing as a measure of the effect of middle-school curriculum on students' learning in high school. Students who had used a standards-based curriculum in middle school performed equally well or better in high school than students who had used more traditional curricula. The findings from this study not only show…

Naturally occurring radionuclides in the ground water of southeastern Pennsylvania

USGS Publications Warehouse

Sloto, Ronald A.

2000-01-01

Naturally occurring radionuclides in the ground water of southeastern Pennsylvania may pose a health hazard to some residents, especially those drinking water from wells drilled in the Chickies Quartzite. Water from 46 percent of wells sampled in the Chickies Quartzite and 7 percent of wells sampled in other geologic formations exceeded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) maximum contaminant level (MCL) for total radium. Radon-222 may pose a health problem for homeowners by contributing to indoor air radon-222 levels. The radon-222 activity of water from 89 percent of sampled wells exceeded 300 pCi/L (picocuries per liter), the proposed USEPA MCL, and water from 16 percent of sampled wells exceeded 4,000 pCi/L. Uranium does not appear to be present in elevated concentrations in ground water in southeastern Pennsylvania.

Detecting and isolating abrupt changes in linear switching systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nazari, Sohail; Zhao, Qing; Huang, Biao

2015-04-01

In this paper, a novel fault detection and isolation (FDI) method for switching linear systems is developed. All input and output signals are assumed to be corrupted with measurement noises. In the proposed method, a 'lifted' linear model named as stochastic hybrid decoupling polynomial (SHDP) is introduced. The SHDP model governs the dynamics of the switching linear system with all different modes, and is independent of the switching sequence. The error-in-variable (EIV) representation of SHDP is derived, and is used for the fault residual generation and isolation following the well-adopted local approach. The proposed FDI method can detect and isolate the fault-induced abrupt changes in switching models' parameters without estimating the switching modes. Furthermore, in this paper, the analytical expressions of the gradient vector and Hessian matrix are obtained based on the EIV SHDP formulation, so that they can be used to implement the online fault detection scheme. The performance of the proposed method is then illustrated by simulation examples.

The Importance of Dynamic Systems Approaches for Understanding Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Howe, Mark L.; Lewis, Marc D.

2005-01-01

We outline the nature of dynamic systems, both linear and nonlinear, and we review dynamic systems principles that apply well to various aspects of human development, including the emergence of new forms, phases of stability and instability, continuous and discontinuous change, and differentiation among individual trajectories. We then document…

Exploring the sustainability of industrial production and energy generation with a model system

EPA Science Inventory

The importance and complexity of sustainability has been well recognized and a formal study of sustainability based on system theory approaches is imperative as many of the relationships between the various components of the system could be non-linear, intertwined, and non-intuit...

Synthesis Methods for Robust Passification and Control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kelkar, Atul G.; Joshi, Suresh M. (Technical Monitor)

2000-01-01

The research effort under this cooperative agreement has been essentially the continuation of the work from previous grants. The ongoing work has primarily focused on developing passivity-based control techniques for Linear Time-Invariant (LTI) systems. During this period, there has been a significant progress made in the area of passivity-based control of LTI systems and some preliminary results have also been obtained for nonlinear systems, as well. The prior work has addressed optimal control design for inherently passive as well as non- passive linear systems. For exploiting the robustness characteristics of passivity-based controllers the passification methodology was developed for LTI systems that are not inherently passive. Various methods of passification were first proposed in and further developed. The robustness of passification was addressed for multi-input multi-output (MIMO) systems for certain classes of uncertainties using frequency-domain methods. For MIMO systems, a state-space approach using Linear Matrix Inequality (LMI)-based formulation was presented, for passification of non-passive LTI systems. An LMI-based robust passification technique was presented for systems with redundant actuators and sensors. The redundancy in actuators and sensors was used effectively for robust passification using the LMI formulation. The passification was designed to be robust to an interval-type uncertainties in system parameters. The passification techniques were used to design a robust controller for Benchmark Active Control Technology wing under parametric uncertainties. The results on passive nonlinear systems, however, are very limited to date. Our recent work in this area was presented, wherein some stability results were obtained for passive nonlinear systems that are affine in control.

Selective removal of polyethylene or polypropylene from their blends based on difference in their adsorption behaviour.

PubMed

Macko, Tibor; Pasch, Harald; Brüll, Robert

2006-05-19

The adsorption of polyethylene and polypropylene on zeolites depends on the nature of zeolite, the solvent as well as the molar mass of the polymer sample. For example, linear polyethylene is strongly retained on zeolite SH-300 from decalin, while isotactic, syndiotactic or atactic polypropylene is fully eluted in this system. On the other hand, polypropylene is retained on zeolite CBV-780 from diphenylether, while linear polyethylene is eluted. These differences in the elution behaviour have been utilised for selective removal of either linear polyethylene or polypropylene from blends of both polymers. The desorption of the retained polymer is difficult, or at times impossible. However, the selected adsorption systems have complimentary character, i.e. either one or second component is eluted or fully retained. Thus these sorbent/solvent systems, identified herein, are the first isocratic chromatographic systems, which enable selectively to remove polyethylene or polypropylene from their mixture. Moreover, decalin/SH-300 enables the removal of both linear and branched polyethylene from mixtures with random ethylene/propylene copolymers (polyethylene fully retained, ethylene/propylene copolymers eluted).

Strike-slip fault propagation and linkage via work optimization with application to the San Jacinto fault, California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Madden, E. H.; McBeck, J.; Cooke, M. L.

2013-12-01

Over multiple earthquake cycles, strike-slip faults link to form through-going structures, as demonstrated by the continuous nature of the mature San Andreas fault system in California relative to the younger and more segmented San Jacinto fault system nearby. Despite its immaturity, the San Jacinto system accommodates between one third and one half of the slip along the boundary between the North American and Pacific plates. It therefore poses a significant seismic threat to southern California. Better understanding of how the San Jacinto system has evolved over geologic time and of current interactions between faults within the system is critical to assessing this seismic hazard accurately. Numerical models are well suited to simulating kilometer-scale processes, but models of fault system development are challenged by the multiple physical mechanisms involved. For example, laboratory experiments on brittle materials show that faults propagate and eventually join (hard-linkage) by both opening-mode and shear failure. In addition, faults interact prior to linkage through stress transfer (soft-linkage). The new algorithm GROW (GRowth by Optimization of Work) accounts for this complex array of behaviors by taking a global approach to fault propagation while adhering to the principals of linear elastic fracture mechanics. This makes GROW a powerful tool for studying fault interactions and fault system development over geologic time. In GROW, faults evolve to minimize the work (or energy) expended during deformation, thereby maximizing the mechanical efficiency of the entire system. Furthermore, the incorporation of both static and dynamic friction allows GROW models to capture fault slip and fault propagation in single earthquakes as well as over consecutive earthquake cycles. GROW models with idealized faults reveal that the initial fault spacing and the applied stress orientation control fault linkage propensity and linkage patterns. These models allow the gains in efficiency provided by both hard-linkage and soft-linkage to be quantified and compared. Specialized models of interactions over the past 1 Ma between the Clark and Coyote Creek faults within the San Jacinto system reveal increasing mechanical efficiency as these fault structures change over time. Alongside this increasing efficiency is an increasing likelihood for single, larger earthquakes that rupture multiple fault segments. These models reinforce the sensitivity of mechanical efficiency to both fault structure and the regional tectonic stress orientation controlled by plate motions and provide insight into how slip may have been partitioned between the San Andreas and San Jacinto systems over the past 1 Ma.

Fractional Gaussian model in global optimization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dimri, V. P.; Srivastava, R. P.

2009-12-01

Earth system is inherently non-linear and it can be characterized well if we incorporate no-linearity in the formulation and solution of the problem. General tool often used for characterization of the earth system is inversion. Traditionally inverse problems are solved using least-square based inversion by linearizing the formulation. The initial model in such inversion schemes is often assumed to follow posterior Gaussian probability distribution. It is now well established that most of the physical properties of the earth follow power law (fractal distribution). Thus, the selection of initial model based on power law probability distribution will provide more realistic solution. We present a new method which can draw samples of posterior probability density function very efficiently using fractal based statistics. The application of the method has been demonstrated to invert band limited seismic data with well control. We used fractal based probability density function which uses mean, variance and Hurst coefficient of the model space to draw initial model. Further this initial model is used in global optimization inversion scheme. Inversion results using initial models generated by our method gives high resolution estimates of the model parameters than the hitherto used gradient based liner inversion method.

Inventory of drainage wells and potential sources of contaminants to drainage-well inflow in Southwest Orlando, Orange County, Florida

USGS Publications Warehouse

Taylor, George Fred

1993-01-01

Potential sources of contaminants that could pose a threat to drainage-well inflow and to water in the Floridan aquifer system in southwest Orlando, Florida, were studied between October and December 1990. Drainage wells and public-supply wells were inventoried in a 14-square-mile area, and available data on land use and activities within each drainage well basin were tabulated. Three public-supply wells (tapping the Lower Floridan aquifer) and 38 drainage wells (open to the Upper Floridan aquifer) were located in 17 drainage basins within the study area. The primary sources of drainage-well inflow are lake overflow, street runoff, seepage from the surficial aquifer system, and process-wastewater disposal. Drainage-well inflow from a variety of ares, including resi- dential, commercial, undeveloped, paved, and industrial areas, are potential sources of con- taminants. The four general types of possible contaminants to drainage-well inflow are inorganic chemicals, organic compounds, turbidity, and microbiological contaminants. Potential contami- nant sources include plant nurseries, citrus groves, parking lots, plating companies, auto- motive repair shops, and most commonly, lake- overflow water. Drainage wells provide a pathway for contaminants to enter the Upper Floridan aquifer and there is a potential for contaminants to move downward from the Upper Floridan to the Lower Floridan aquifer.

Surety of the nation`s critical infrastructures: The challenge restructuring poses to the telecommunications sector

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cox, R.; Drennen, T.E.; Gilliom, L.

1998-04-01

The telecommunications sector plays a pivotal role in the system of increasingly connected and interdependent networks that make up national infrastructure. An assessment of the probable structure and function of the bit-moving industry in the twenty-first century must include issues associated with the surety of telecommunications. The term surety, as used here, means confidence in the acceptable behavior of a system in both intended and unintended circumstances. This paper outlines various engineering approaches to surety in systems, generally, and in the telecommunications infrastructure, specifically. It uses the experience and expectations of the telecommunications system of the US as an examplemore » of the global challenges. The paper examines the principal factors underlying the change to more distributed systems in this sector, assesses surety issues associated with these changes, and suggests several possible strategies for mitigation. It also studies the ramifications of what could happen if this sector became a target for those seeking to compromise a nation`s security and economic well being. Experts in this area generally agree that the U. S. telecommunications sector will eventually respond in a way that meets market demands for surety. Questions remain open, however, about confidence in the telecommunications sector and the nation`s infrastructure during unintended circumstances--such as those posed by information warfare or by cascading software failures. Resolution of these questions is complicated by the lack of clear accountability of the private and the public sectors for the surety of telecommunications.« less

A Neural-Dynamic Architecture for Concurrent Estimation of Object Pose and Identity

PubMed Central

Lomp, Oliver; Faubel, Christian; Schöner, Gregor

2017-01-01

Handling objects or interacting with a human user about objects on a shared tabletop requires that objects be identified after learning from a small number of views and that object pose be estimated. We present a neurally inspired architecture that learns object instances by storing features extracted from a single view of each object. Input features are color and edge histograms from a localized area that is updated during processing. The system finds the best-matching view for the object in a novel input image while concurrently estimating the object’s pose, aligning the learned view with current input. The system is based on neural dynamics, computationally operating in real time, and can handle dynamic scenes directly off live video input. In a scenario with 30 everyday objects, the system achieves recognition rates of 87.2% from a single training view for each object, while also estimating pose quite precisely. We further demonstrate that the system can track moving objects, and that it can segment the visual array, selecting and recognizing one object while suppressing input from another known object in the immediate vicinity. Evaluation on the COIL-100 dataset, in which objects are depicted from different viewing angles, revealed recognition rates of 91.1% on the first 30 objects, each learned from four training views. PMID:28503145