Voronoi-Based Coverage Control of Heterogeneous Disk-Shaped Robots

In distributed mobile sensing applications, networks of agents that are heterogeneous respecting both actuation as well as body and sensory footprint are often modelled by recourse to power diagrams — generalized Voronoi diagrams with additive weights. In this paper we adapt the body power diagram to introduce its “free subdiagram,” generating a vector field planner that solves the combined sensory coverage and collision avoidance problem via continuous evaluation of an associated constrained optimization problem. We propose practical extensions (a heuristic congestion manager that speeds convergence and a lift of the point particle controller to the more practical differential drive kinematics) that maintain the convergence and collision guarantees.For more information: Kod*la

Self-Evaluation Applied Mathematics 2003-2008 University of Twente

This report contains the self-study for the research assessment of the Department of Applied Mathematics (AM) of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS) at the University of Twente (UT). The report provides the information for the Research Assessment Committee for Applied Mathematics, dealing with mathematical sciences at the three universities of technology in the Netherlands. It describes the state of affairs pertaining to the period 1 January 2003 to 31 December 2008

Quality assessment technique for ubiquitous software and middleware

The new paradigm of computing or information systems is ubiquitous computing systems. The technology-oriented issues of ubiquitous computing systems have made researchers pay much attention to the feasibility study of the technologies rather than building quality assurance indices or guidelines. In this context, measuring quality is the key to developing high-quality ubiquitous computing products. For this reason, various quality models have been defined, adopted and enhanced over the years, for example, the need for one recognised standard quality model (ISO/IEC 9126) is the result of a consensus for a software quality model on three levels: characteristics, sub-characteristics, and metrics. However, it is very much unlikely that this scheme will be directly applicable to ubiquitous computing environments which are considerably different to conventional software, trailing a big concern which is being given to reformulate existing methods, and especially to elaborate new assessment techniques for ubiquitous computing environments. This paper selects appropriate quality characteristics for the ubiquitous computing environment, which can be used as the quality target for both ubiquitous computing product evaluation processes ad development processes. Further, each of the quality characteristics has been expanded with evaluation questions and metrics, in some cases with measures. In addition, this quality model has been applied to the industrial setting of the ubiquitous computing environment. These have revealed that while the approach was sound, there are some parts to be more developed in the future

Coase and Car Repair: Who Should Be Responsible for Emissions of Vehicles in Use?

This paper examines the current assignment of liability for in-use vehicle emissions and suggests some alternative policies that may reduce the cost and increase the effectiveness. The authors first discuss the cost, performance and incentives under current Inspection and Maintenance (I/M) programs, using the recently implemented Arizona "Enhanced I/M" program as an example. These programs were designed to identify and repair vehicles with malfunctioning emission control systems. Since their inception, however, I/M programs have been plagued by transaction costs that have drastically raised the cost of I/M as well as limited its effectiveness. These transaction costs fall into three categories: emission monitoring, repair avoidance, and non-transferability of emission reductions. The authors argue that most of these transaction costs can be attributed to the current assignment of liability for I/M to motorists, and they examine the potential for other liability assignments to reduce transaction costs and improve program efficiency. Among the alternative institutional arrangements discussed are greater imposition of liability on manufacturers, emission repair subsidies, repair liability auctions, and vehicle leasing.

Plant RNA-binding proteins as key players in abiotic stress physiology

Abiotic stress has a major effect on global crop production. Hence, plants have evolved and developed several response mechanisms to survive and grow under abiotic stresses. Plant cells can sense and respond to changes in different environmental stresses due to the specific modifications observed in gene expression, metabolism, and physiology. Only a few recognized sensors have been found due to the difficulty of functional redundancy in genes that code for sensor proteins. A defect in one gene causes no remarkable phenotypic changes in stress responses. Recent research has identified crucial RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) important for stimulus-specific responses. RBPs play a crucial part in plants’ growth and development, post-transcriptional gene regulation, and RNA metabolism induced during stress responses. Among the currently identified over 200 different RBPs, the majority of which are plant-specific and carry out plant-specific functions. As an essential component of plants’ adaptive process in different environmental conditions, RBPs regulate the following processes: RNA stability, RNA export, pre-mRNA splicing, polyadenylation, and chromatin modification. Plants have also developed different defense responses or molecular mechanisms to combat stress via genotypic and phenotypic expressions. With a unique understanding of RBPs in other organisms, RBPs functions in a plant are still limited. Hence, this review discusses the latest developments in RBPs function during the development and growth of plants, primarily under abiotic stress circumstances

Particle Swarm Optimization for Interference Mitigation of Wireless Body Area Network: A Systematic Review

Wireless body area networks (WBAN) has now become an important technology in supporting services in the health sector and several other fields. Various surveys and research have been carried out massively on the use of swarm intelligent (SI) algorithms in various fields in the last ten years, but the use of SI in wireless body area networks (WBAN) in the last five years has not seen any significant progress. The aim of this research is to clarify and convince as well as to propose a answer to this problem, we have identified opportunities and topic trends using the particle swarm optimization (PSO) procedure as one of the swarm intelligence for optimizing wireless body area network interference mitigation performance. In this research, we analyzes primary studies collected using predefined exploration strings on online databases with the help of Publish or Perish and by the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis (PRISMA) way. Articles were carefully selected for further analysis. It was found that very few researchers included optimization methods for swarm intelligence, especially PSO, in mitigating wireless body area network interference, whether for intra, inter, or cross-WBAN interference. This paper contributes to identifying the gap in using PSO for WBAN interference and also offers opportunities for using PSO both standalone and hybrid with other methods to further research on mitigating WBAN interference