1,708 research outputs found
Transverse instability for non-normal parameters
We consider the behaviour of attractors near invariant subspaces on varying a
parameter that does not preserve the dynamics in the invariant subspace but is
otherwise generic, in a smooth dynamical system. We refer to such a parameter
as ``non-normal''. If there is chaos in the invariant subspace that is not
structurally stable, this has the effect of ``blurring out'' blowout
bifurcations over a range of parameter values that we show can have positive
measure in parameter space.
Associated with such blowout bifurcations are bifurcations to attractors
displaying a new type of intermittency that is phenomenologically similar to
on-off intermittency, but where the intersection of the attractor by the
invariant subspace is larger than a minimal attractor. The presence of distinct
repelling and attracting invariant sets leads us to refer to this as ``in-out''
intermittency. Such behaviour cannot appear in systems where the transverse
dynamics is a skew product over the system on the invariant subspace.
We characterise in-out intermittency in terms of its structure in phase space
and in terms of invariants of the dynamics obtained from a Markov model of the
attractor. This model predicts a scaling of the length of laminar phases that
is similar to that for on-off intermittency but which has some differences.Comment: 15 figures, submitted to Nonlinearity, the full paper available at
http://www.maths.qmw.ac.uk/~eo
The Mental Demands and Coping Strategies of Professional Motocross Riders: A Qualitative Investigation
Professional motocross is one of the most physically and mentally demanding of sports. Riders often have to simultaneously execute various motor and cognitive tasks while remaining in a calm and focused state. The only published study suggests that detailed pre-performance planning and mental rehearsal are essential when developing motocross athlete’s performance (Collins, Doherty, & Talbot, 1993). While there has been a good deal of information regarding how elite athletes in other sports like figure skating (Gould, Jackson, & Finch, 1993b), wrestling (Gould, Eklund, & Jackson, 1992), and the decathlon (Dale, 2000) deal with the mental demands of their sport, there has been no opportunity for motocross athletes to articulate the mental factors they experience both on and off the track. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to gain an in-depth, comprehensive understanding of professional motocross riders’ experience of the mental demands and coping strategies of their sport. More specifically, an attempt was made to gain a greater understanding of how professional motocross riders view the word “mental demands” as well as how this perspective influences their mindset during practice, competition, around teammates and friends and family. To achieve this purpose, the following questions guided the research: (a) what do they think are some of the mental demands related to being a professional motocross rider?; (b) at what times/when do they experience these mental demands?; and (c) how to they cope with the mental demands that they experience, both on and off the motocross track? Answers to these questions were obtained from seven professional motocross riders who participated in semi-structured interview sessions. Four themes were derived from the interpretive analysis dealing with the athletes’ mental demands. They included: (a) the racing environment; (b) the nature of the sport; (c) expectations; and (d) relationship with others. Three themes representing coping strategies used by the professional motocross riders also emerged. They included: (a) thought control; (b) staying focused; and (c) emotional control. Discussion centered on the consistency of the results with the current sport literature. Finally, implications for sport psychology consultants, riders, and researchers are offered
Chimera states in networks of phase oscillators: the case of two small populations
Chimera states are dynamical patterns in networks of coupled oscillators in
which regions of synchronous and asynchronous oscillation coexist. Although
these states are typically observed in large ensembles of oscillators and
analyzed in the continuum limit, chimeras may also occur in systems with finite
(and small) numbers of oscillators. Focusing on networks of phase
oscillators that are organized in two groups, we find that chimera states,
corresponding to attracting periodic orbits, appear with as few as two
oscillators per group and demonstrate that for the bifurcations that
create them are analogous to those observed in the continuum limit. These
findings suggest that chimeras, which bear striking similarities to dynamical
patterns in nature, are observable and robust in small networks that are
relevant to a variety of real-world systems.Comment: 13 pages, 16 figure
The uncoupling limit of identical Hopf bifurcations with an application to perceptual bistability
We study the dynamics arising when two identical oscillators are coupled near
a Hopf bifurcation where we assume a parameter uncouples the system
at . Using a normal form for identical systems undergoing
Hopf bifurcation, we explore the dynamical properties. Matching the normal form
coefficients to a coupled Wilson-Cowan oscillator network gives an
understanding of different types of behaviour that arise in a model of
perceptual bistability. Notably, we find bistability between in-phase and
anti-phase solutions that demonstrates the feasibility for synchronisation to
act as the mechanism by which periodic inputs can be segregated (rather than
via strong inhibitory coupling, as in existing models). Using numerical
continuation we confirm our theoretical analysis for small coupling strength
and explore the bifurcation diagrams for large coupling strength, where the
normal form approximation breaks down
Optimal Radiometric Calibration for Camera-Display Communication
We present a novel method for communicating between a camera and display by
embedding and recovering hidden and dynamic information within a displayed
image. A handheld camera pointed at the display can receive not only the
display image, but also the underlying message. These active scenes are
fundamentally different from traditional passive scenes like QR codes because
image formation is based on display emittance, not surface reflectance.
Detecting and decoding the message requires careful photometric modeling for
computational message recovery. Unlike standard watermarking and steganography
methods that lie outside the domain of computer vision, our message recovery
algorithm uses illumination to optically communicate hidden messages in real
world scenes. The key innovation of our approach is an algorithm that performs
simultaneous radiometric calibration and message recovery in one convex
optimization problem. By modeling the photometry of the system using a
camera-display transfer function (CDTF), we derive a physics-based kernel
function for support vector machine classification. We demonstrate that our
method of optimal online radiometric calibration (OORC) leads to an efficient
and robust algorithm for computational messaging between nine commercial
cameras and displays.Comment: 10 pages, Submitted to CVPR 201
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