13,686 research outputs found

    Key technologies for safe and autonomous drones

    Get PDF
    Drones/UAVs are able to perform air operations that are very difficult to be performed by manned aircrafts. In addition, drones' usage brings significant economic savings and environmental benefits, while reducing risks to human life. In this paper, we present key technologies that enable development of drone systems. The technologies are identified based on the usages of drones (driven by COMP4DRONES project use cases). These technologies are grouped into four categories: U-space capabilities, system functions, payloads, and tools. Also, we present the contributions of the COMP4DRONES project to improve existing technologies. These contributions aim to ease drones’ customization, and enable their safe operation.This project has received funding from the ECSEL Joint Undertaking (JU) under grant agreement No 826610. The JU receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and Spain, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Italy, Latvia, Netherlands. The total project budget is 28,590,748.75 EUR (excluding ESIF partners), while the requested grant is 7,983,731.61 EUR to ECSEL JU, and 8,874,523.84 EUR of National and ESIF Funding. The project has been started on 1st October 2019

    Examples of works to practice staccato technique in clarinet instrument

    Get PDF
    Klarnetin staccato tekniğini güçlendirme aşamaları eser çalışmalarıyla uygulanmıştır. Staccato geçişlerini hızlandıracak ritim ve nüans çalışmalarına yer verilmiştir. Çalışmanın en önemli amacı sadece staccato çalışması değil parmak-dilin eş zamanlı uyumunun hassasiyeti üzerinde de durulmasıdır. Staccato çalışmalarını daha verimli hale getirmek için eser çalışmasının içinde etüt çalışmasına da yer verilmiştir. Çalışmaların üzerinde titizlikle durulması staccato çalışmasının ilham verici etkisi ile müzikal kimliğe yeni bir boyut kazandırmıştır. Sekiz özgün eser çalışmasının her aşaması anlatılmıştır. Her aşamanın bir sonraki performans ve tekniği güçlendirmesi esas alınmıştır. Bu çalışmada staccato tekniğinin hangi alanlarda kullanıldığı, nasıl sonuçlar elde edildiği bilgisine yer verilmiştir. Notaların parmak ve dil uyumu ile nasıl şekilleneceği ve nasıl bir çalışma disiplini içinde gerçekleşeceği planlanmıştır. Kamış-nota-diyafram-parmak-dil-nüans ve disiplin kavramlarının staccato tekniğinde ayrılmaz bir bütün olduğu saptanmıştır. Araştırmada literatür taraması yapılarak staccato ile ilgili çalışmalar taranmıştır. Tarama sonucunda klarnet tekniğin de kullanılan staccato eser çalışmasının az olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Metot taramasında da etüt çalışmasının daha çok olduğu saptanmıştır. Böylelikle klarnetin staccato tekniğini hızlandırma ve güçlendirme çalışmaları sunulmuştur. Staccato etüt çalışmaları yapılırken, araya eser çalışmasının girmesi beyni rahatlattığı ve istekliliği daha arttırdığı gözlemlenmiştir. Staccato çalışmasını yaparken doğru bir kamış seçimi üzerinde de durulmuştur. Staccato tekniğini doğru çalışmak için doğru bir kamışın dil hızını arttırdığı saptanmıştır. Doğru bir kamış seçimi kamıştan rahat ses çıkmasına bağlıdır. Kamış, dil atma gücünü vermiyorsa daha doğru bir kamış seçiminin yapılması gerekliliği vurgulanmıştır. Staccato çalışmalarında baştan sona bir eseri yorumlamak zor olabilir. Bu açıdan çalışma, verilen müzikal nüanslara uymanın, dil atış performansını rahatlattığını ortaya koymuştur. Gelecek nesillere edinilen bilgi ve birikimlerin aktarılması ve geliştirici olması teşvik edilmiştir. Çıkacak eserlerin nasıl çözüleceği, staccato tekniğinin nasıl üstesinden gelinebileceği anlatılmıştır. Staccato tekniğinin daha kısa sürede çözüme kavuşturulması amaç edinilmiştir. Parmakların yerlerini öğrettiğimiz kadar belleğimize de çalışmaların kaydedilmesi önemlidir. Gösterilen azmin ve sabrın sonucu olarak ortaya çıkan yapıt başarıyı daha da yukarı seviyelere çıkaracaktır

    Transformation of the business model to establish sustainable value in the consumer durables super store industry of Sri Lanka

    Get PDF
    The business model of an organization, operates as the fundamental blue print of the planning process, which shapes the nature of the strategies executed during the course of operation. These strategies in turn are responsible for the value creation or value erosion that takes place during the operation of the organization determining its sustainability, and in a broader context the sustainability of the industry. The research is done for the Consumer Durables Super Store (CDSS) industry of Sri Lanka concerning the existing business model, the value erosion occurring as a result of it and the risk it carries to the sustainability of the industry. The theoretical aspect of the research to develop a relationship based business model was anchored on the understanding of existing frameworks relating to sustainable value and extracting relevant areas of each of these frameworks (alignment of value, transforming current strategies and service offerings to create sustainable value) to develop a suitable hybrid framework with modifications to the literature to suite the research context.Ten in-depth interviews with CDSS organizational representatives holding leadership, sales and marketing management positions, and two focus group sessions with fifty selected customers were conducted in a virtual environment due to the prevailing pandemic situation. The data collected were analyzed with NVIVO 12, with themes relevant to the research utilized as codes, giving a clear understanding over the buyer and seller purview on the themes of the research. The findings surfaced the value erosion caused due to the financially driven strategies originated from the transactional orientation of the existing business model. The theories adopted to construct the relationship oriented business model to rectify the value erosion taking place, based on sustainable value, value alignment and service offerings, were modified to incorporate ‘quality of trade’ to bridge the gap, leading towards the creation and delivery of sustainable value to the buyer-seller eco system of the industry

    Towards a more just refuge regime: quotas, markets and a fair share

    Get PDF
    The international refugee regime is beset by two problems: Responsibility for refuge falls disproportionately on a few states and many owed refuge do not get it. In this work, I explore remedies to these problems. One is a quota distribution wherein states are distributed responsibilities via allotment. Another is a marketized quota system wherein states are free to buy and sell their allotments with others. I explore these in three parts. In Part 1, I develop the prime principles upon which a just regime is built and with which alternatives can be adjudicated. The first and most important principle – ‘Justice for Refugees’ – stipulates that a just regime provides refuge for all who have a basic interest in it. The second principle – ‘Justice for States’ – stipulates that a just distribution of refuge responsibilities among states is one that is capacity considerate. In Part 2, I take up several vexing questions regarding the distribution of refuge responsibilities among states in a collective effort. First, what is a state’s ‘fair share’? The answer requires the determination of some logic – some metric – with which a distribution is determined. I argue that one popular method in the political theory literature – a GDP-based distribution – is normatively unsatisfactory. In its place, I posit several alternative metrics that are more attuned with the principles of justice but absent in the political theory literature: GDP adjusted for Purchasing Power Parity and the Human Development Index. I offer an exploration of both these. Second, are states required to ‘take up the slack’ left by defaulting peers? Here, I argue that duties of help remain intact in cases of partial compliance among states in the refuge regime, but that political concerns may require that such duties be applied with caution. I submit that a market instrument offers one practical solution to this problem, as well as other advantages. In Part 3, I take aim at marketization and grapple with its many pitfalls: That marketization is commodifying, that it is corrupting, and that it offers little advantage in providing quality protection for refugees. In addition to these, I apply a framework of moral markets developed by Debra Satz. I argue that a refuge market may satisfy Justice Among States, but that it is violative of the refugees’ welfare interest in remaining free of degrading and discriminatory treatment

    Digital asset management via distributed ledgers

    Get PDF
    Distributed ledgers rose to prominence with the advent of Bitcoin, the first provably secure protocol to solve consensus in an open-participation setting. Following, active research and engineering efforts have proposed a multitude of applications and alternative designs, the most prominent being Proof-of-Stake (PoS). This thesis expands the scope of secure and efficient asset management over a distributed ledger around three axes: i) cryptography; ii) distributed systems; iii) game theory and economics. First, we analyze the security of various wallets. We start with a formal model of hardware wallets, followed by an analytical framework of PoS wallets, each outlining the unique properties of Proof-of-Work (PoW) and PoS respectively. The latter also provides a rigorous design to form collaborative participating entities, called stake pools. We then propose Conclave, a stake pool design which enables a group of parties to participate in a PoS system in a collaborative manner, without a central operator. Second, we focus on efficiency. Decentralized systems are aimed at thousands of users across the globe, so a rigorous design for minimizing memory and storage consumption is a prerequisite for scalability. To that end, we frame ledger maintenance as an optimization problem and design a multi-tier framework for designing wallets which ensure that updates increase the ledger’s global state only to a minimal extent, while preserving the security guarantees outlined in the security analysis. Third, we explore incentive-compatibility and analyze blockchain systems from a micro and a macroeconomic perspective. We enrich our cryptographic and systems' results by analyzing the incentives of collective pools and designing a state efficient Bitcoin fee function. We then analyze the Nash dynamics of distributed ledgers, introducing a formal model that evaluates whether rational, utility-maximizing participants are disincentivized from exhibiting undesirable infractions, and highlighting the differences between PoW and PoS-based ledgers, both in a standalone setting and under external parameters, like market price fluctuations. We conclude by introducing a macroeconomic principle, cryptocurrency egalitarianism, and then describing two mechanisms for enabling taxation in blockchain-based currency systems

    Optimising acoustic cavitation for industrial application

    Get PDF
    The ultrasonic horn is one of the most commonly used acoustic devices in laboratories and industry. For its efficient application to cavitation mediated process, the cavitation generated at its tip as a function of its tip-vibration amplitudes still needed to be studied in detail. High-speed imaging and acoustic detection are used to investigate the cavitation generated at the tip of an ultrasonic horn, operating at a fundamental frequency, f0, of 20 kHz. Tip-vibration amplitudes are sampled at fine increments across the range of input powers available. The primary bubble cluster under the tip is found to undergo subharmonic periodic collapse, with concurrent shock wave emission, at frequencies of f0/m, with m increasing through integer values with increasing tip-vibration amplitude. The contribution of periodic shock waves to the noise spectra of the acoustic emissions is confirmed. Transitional input powers for which the value of m is indistinct, and shock wave emission irregular and inconsistent, are identified through Vrms of the acoustic detector output. For cavitation applications mediated by bubble collapse, sonications at transitional powers may lead to inefficient processing. The ultrasonic horn is also deployed to investigate the role of shock waves in the fragmentation of intermetallic crystals, nominally for ultrasonic treatment of Aluminium melt, and in a novel two-horn configuration for potential cavitation enhancement effects. An experiment investigating nitrogen fixation via cavitation generated by focused ultrasound exposures is also described. Vrms from the acoustic detector is again used to quantify the acoustic emissions for comparison to the sonochemical nitrite yield and for optimisation of sonication protocols at constant input energy. The findings revealed that the acoustic cavitation could be enhanced at constant input energy through optimisation of the pulse duration and pulse interval. Anomalous results may be due to inadequate assessment for the nitrate generated. The studies presented in this thesis have illustrated means of improving the cavitation efficiency of the used acoustic devices, which may be important to some selected industrial processes

    Full stack development toward a trapped ion logical qubit

    Get PDF
    Quantum error correction is a key step toward the construction of a large-scale quantum computer, by preventing small infidelities in quantum gates from accumulating over the course of an algorithm. Detecting and correcting errors is achieved by using multiple physical qubits to form a smaller number of robust logical qubits. The physical implementation of a logical qubit requires multiple qubits, on which high fidelity gates can be performed. The project aims to realize a logical qubit based on ions confined on a microfabricated surface trap. Each physical qubit will be a microwave dressed state qubit based on 171Yb+ ions. Gates are intended to be realized through RF and microwave radiation in combination with magnetic field gradients. The project vertically integrates software down to hardware compilation layers in order to deliver, in the near future, a fully functional small device demonstrator. This thesis presents novel results on multiple layers of a full stack quantum computer model. On the hardware level a robust quantum gate is studied and ion displacement over the X-junction geometry is demonstrated. The experimental organization is optimized through automation and compressed waveform data transmission. A new quantum assembly language purely dedicated to trapped ion quantum computers is introduced. The demonstrator is aimed at testing implementation of quantum error correction codes while preparing for larger scale iterations.Open Acces

    Analyzing seasonal effects on logistical risks associated with servicing an oil production facility in the Flemish Pass

    Get PDF
    There are field discoveries in the oil and gas industry that require significant investment to develop, and the Bay du Nord and Baccalieu fields in the Flemish Pass are no exception. Long-distance, deep-water production facilities are expected to increase marine logistical risks in an area that already is known for its harsh weather conditions, and the implications of not properly understanding and mitigating these risks are the safety of those involved in the operations and millions of dollars in material damage. This research is focused on more accurately modelling the seasonal effects of changing environmental conditions on the failure rate of marine logistics operations. This work is an extension of previous research in the field and is focused on further model development and refinement. Fault tree and Bayesian network models are compared, with applicable data uncertainty considerations. Model refinements to reflect conditional dependencies more accurately, and a process for establishing mitigation efforts and accident prevention strategies are then proposed. This thesis details data acquisition, application of seasonal conditions inputs, and a quantitative technique for analyzing pre-emptive barriers to logistics operation failure. The final product is a strategy for estimation of logistics operation failure

    Trusts of the Family Home, the 'Familialisation' of Property Law and the Potential for Judicial Development

    Get PDF
    This thesis seeks to critically evaluate the current law governing trusts of the family home and its application to ownership disputes between former cohabitants. This exploration will be examined through the theoretical lens of ‘familialisation’, a term coined by Dewar to describe the modification of property law principles to respond to the familial dimension of ownership disputes.1 To support this thesis in analysing the contemporary issues visible in the modern trusts framework, the thesis will assess the historical development of familialisation. It will draw upon recent academic scholarship to evaluate contemporary criticism of the process of ‘familialisation’ of property law and the modern common intention constructive trust. A central debate intertwined within this area is the relationship between rules and discretion, which has been utilised to characterise and rationalise the tension between property law and family- centric concerns. This thesis will therefore explore how the judiciary could continue to shape this familialisation process so as to protect economically vulnerable cohabiting parties. It will be argued that in order to ascertain the ideal balance between legal certainty, ensured through rules, and flexibility, offered by discretion, further structuring of judicial discretion should be undertaken. This would involve a re-evaluation of the principles considered when determining the acquisition and quantification of a beneficial interest of a party in the family home, providing guidelines for the judiciary whilst retaining a degree of latitude to accommodate the diverse needs of modern families owning and sharing property. Ultimately, this thesis will conclude that further judicial clarification is necessary to address the current deficiencies of trusts of the family home and simultaneously adapt the framework to better respond to the nature of home-sharing
    corecore