Resource-Constrained Adaptive Search and Tracking for Sparse Dynamic Targets

This paper considers the problem of resource-constrained and noise-limited localization and estimation of dynamic targets that are sparsely distributed over a large area. We generalize an existing framework [Bashan et al, 2008] for adaptive allocation of sensing resources to the dynamic case, accounting for time-varying target behavior such as transitions to neighboring cells and varying amplitudes over a potentially long time horizon. The proposed adaptive sensing policy is driven by minimization of a modified version of the previously introduced ARAP objective function, which is a surrogate function for mean squared error within locations containing targets. We provide theoretical upper bounds on the performance of adaptive sensing policies by analyzing solutions with oracle knowledge of target locations, gaining insight into the effect of target motion and amplitude variation as well as sparsity. Exact minimization of the multi-stage objective function is infeasible, but myopic optimization yields a closed-form solution. We propose a simple non-myopic extension, the Dynamic Adaptive Resource Allocation Policy (D-ARAP), that allocates a fraction of resources for exploring all locations rather than solely exploiting the current belief state. Our numerical studies indicate that D-ARAP has the following advantages: (a) it is more robust than the myopic policy to noise, missing data, and model mismatch; (b) it performs comparably to well-known approximate dynamic programming solutions but at significantly lower computational complexity; and (c) it improves greatly upon non-adaptive uniform resource allocation in terms of estimation error and probability of detection.Comment: 49 pages, 1 table, 11 figure

The molecular evolution of surgical oncology

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/88126/1/22050_ftp.pd

High-Power Directional Emission from Microlasers with Chaotic Resonators

High-power and highly directional semiconductor cylinder-lasers based on an optical resonator with deformed cross section are reported. In the favorable directions of the far-field, a power increase of up to three orders of magnitude over the conventional circularly symmetric lasers was obtained. A "bow-tie"-shaped resonance is responsible for the improved performance of the lasers in the higher range of deformations, in contrast to "whispering-gallery"-type modes of circular and weakly deformed lasers. This resonator design, although demonstrated here in midinfrared quantum-cascade lasers, should be applicable to any laser based on semiconductors or other high-refractive index materials.Comment: Removed minor discrepancies with published version in the text and in Fig.

Preliminary Experiments in Robot Juggling: Transputer Based Real-Time Motion Control

In a continuing program of research in robotic control of intermittent dynamical tasks, we have constructed a three degree of freedom robot capable of “juggling” a ball freely in the earth’s gravitational field. This work is a direct extension of that previously reported in [5, 1, 4, 3, 2, 7]. The system consists of four major sections, all of which have been implemented on a network of twelve transputers

Automated methods of predicting the function of biological sequences using GO and BLAST

BACKGROUND: With the exponential increase in genomic sequence data there is a need to develop automated approaches to deducing the biological functions of novel sequences with high accuracy. Our aim is to demonstrate how accuracy benchmarking can be used in a decision-making process evaluating competing designs of biological function predictors. We utilise the Gene Ontology, GO, a directed acyclic graph of functional terms, to annotate sequences with functional information describing their biological context. Initially we examine the effect on accuracy scores of increasing the allowed distance between predicted and a test set of curator assigned terms. Next we evaluate several annotator methods using accuracy benchmarking. Given an unannotated sequence we use the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool, BLAST, to find similar sequences that have already been assigned GO terms by curators. A number of methods were developed that utilise terms associated with the best five matching sequences. These methods were compared against a benchmark method of simply using terms associated with the best BLAST-matched sequence (best BLAST approach). RESULTS: The precision and recall of estimates increases rapidly as the amount of distance permitted between a predicted term and a correct term assignment increases. Accuracy benchmarking allows a comparison of annotation methods. A covering graph approach performs poorly, except where the term assignment rate is high. A term distance concordance approach has a similar accuracy to the best BLAST approach, demonstrating lower precision but higher recall. However, a discriminant function method has higher precision and recall than the best BLAST approach and other methods shown here. CONCLUSION: Allowing term predictions to be counted correct if closely related to a correct term decreases the reliability of the accuracy score. As such we recommend using accuracy measures that require exact matching of predicted terms with curator assigned terms. Furthermore, we conclude that competing designs of BLAST-based GO term annotators can be effectively compared using an accuracy benchmarking approach. The most accurate annotation method was developed using data mining techniques. As such we recommend that designers of term annotators utilise accuracy benchmarking and data mining to ensure newly developed annotators are of high quality

On the relationship between pump chirp and single-photon chirp in spontaneous parametric downconversion

We study the chronocyclic character, i.e. the joint temporal and spectral properties, of the single-photon constituents of photon pairs generated by spontaneous parametric down conversion. In particular we study how single photon properties, including purity and single-photon chirp, depend on photon pair properties, including the type of signal-idler spectral and correlations and the level of pump chirp.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure