154,481 research outputs found
The shortest distance among points in general position
AbstractWe prove that among n points in the plane in general position, the shortest distance can occur at most (2+37)n times. We also give a construction where the shortest distance occurs more than (2+516)Nâ10ânâ times
Visibility Graphs, Dismantlability, and the Cops and Robbers Game
We study versions of cop and robber pursuit-evasion games on the visibility
graphs of polygons, and inside polygons with straight and curved sides. Each
player has full information about the other player's location, players take
turns, and the robber is captured when the cop arrives at the same point as the
robber. In visibility graphs we show the cop can always win because visibility
graphs are dismantlable, which is interesting as one of the few results
relating visibility graphs to other known graph classes. We extend this to show
that the cop wins games in which players move along straight line segments
inside any polygon and, more generally, inside any simply connected planar
region with a reasonable boundary. Essentially, our problem is a type of
pursuit-evasion using the link metric rather than the Euclidean metric, and our
result provides an interesting class of infinite cop-win graphs.Comment: 23 page
Network depth: identifying median and contours in complex networks
Centrality descriptors are widely used to rank nodes according to specific
concept(s) of importance. Despite the large number of centrality measures
available nowadays, it is still poorly understood how to identify the node
which can be considered as the `centre' of a complex network. In fact, this
problem corresponds to finding the median of a complex network. The median is a
non-parametric and robust estimator of the location parameter of a probability
distribution. In this work, we present the most natural generalisation of the
concept of median to the realm of complex networks, discussing its advantages
for defining the centre of the system and percentiles around that centre. To
this aim, we introduce a new statistical data depth and we apply it to networks
embedded in a geometric space induced by different metrics. The application of
our framework to empirical networks allows us to identify median nodes which
are socially or biologically relevant
Flip Distance Between Triangulations of a Simple Polygon is NP-Complete
Let T be a triangulation of a simple polygon. A flip in T is the operation of
removing one diagonal of T and adding a different one such that the resulting
graph is again a triangulation. The flip distance between two triangulations is
the smallest number of flips required to transform one triangulation into the
other. For the special case of convex polygons, the problem of determining the
shortest flip distance between two triangulations is equivalent to determining
the rotation distance between two binary trees, a central problem which is
still open after over 25 years of intensive study. We show that computing the
flip distance between two triangulations of a simple polygon is NP-complete.
This complements a recent result that shows APX-hardness of determining the
flip distance between two triangulations of a planar point set.Comment: Accepted versio
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Articular human joint modelling
Copyright @ Cambridge University Press 2009.The work reported in this paper encapsulates the theories and algorithms developed to drive the core analysis modules of the software which has been developed to model a musculoskeletal structure of anatomic joints. Due to local bone surface and contact geometry based joint kinematics, newly developed algorithms make the proposed modeller different from currently available modellers. There are many modellers that are capable of modelling gross human body motion. Nevertheless, none of the available modellers offer complete elements of joint modelling. It appears that joint modelling is an extension of their core analysis capability, which, in every case, appears to be musculoskeletal motion dynamics. It is felt that an analysis framework that is focused on human joints would have significant benefit and potential to be used in many orthopaedic applications. The local mobility of joints has a significant influence in human motion analysis, in understanding of joint loading, tissue behaviour and contact forces. However, in order to develop a bone surface based joint modeller, there are a number of major problems, from tissue idealizations to surface geometry discretization and non-linear motion analysis. This paper presents the following: (a) The physical deformation of biological tissues as linear or non-linear viscoelastic deformation, based on spring-dashpot elements. (b) The linear dynamic multibody modelling, where the linear formulation is established for small motions and is particularly useful for calculating the equilibrium position of the joint. This model can also be used for finding small motion behaviour or loading under static conditions. It also has the potential of quantifying the joint laxity. (c) The non-linear dynamic multibody modelling, where a non-matrix and algorithmic formulation is presented. The approach allows handling complex material and geometrical nonlinearity easily. (d) Shortest path algorithms for calculating soft tissue line of action geometries. The developed algorithms are based on calculating minimum âsurface massâ and âsurface covarianceâ. An improved version of the âsurface covarianceâ algorithm is described as âresidual covarianceâ. The resulting path is used to establish the direction of forces and moments acting on joints. This information is needed for linear or non-linear treatment of the joint motion. (e) The final contribution of the paper is the treatment of the collision. In the virtual world, the difficulty in analysing bodies in motion arises due to body interpenetrations. The collision algorithm proposed in the paper involves finding the shortest projected ray from one body to the other. The projection of the body is determined by the resultant forces acting on it due to soft tissue connections under tension. This enables the calculation of collision condition of non-convex objects accurately. After the initial collision detection, the analysis involves attaching special springs (stiffness only normal to the surfaces) at the âpotentially colliding pointsâ and motion of bodies is recalculated. The collision algorithm incorporates the rotation as well as translation. The algorithm continues until the joint equilibrium is achieved. Finally, the results obtained based on the software are compared with experimental results obtained using cadaveric joints
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