A Learning-Based Guidance Selection Mechanism for a Formally Verified Sense and Avoid Algorithm

This paper describes a learning-based strategy for selecting conflict avoidance maneuvers for autonomous unmanned aircraft systems. The selected maneuvers are provided by a formally verified algorithm and they are guaranteed to solve any impending conflict under general assumptions about aircraft dynamics. The decision-making logic that selects the appropriate maneuvers is encoded in a stochastic policy encapsulated as a neural network. The networks parameters are optimized to maximize a reward function. The reward function penalizes loss of separation with other aircraft while rewarding resolutions that result in minimum excursions from the nominal flight plan. This paper provides a description of the technique and presents preliminary simulation results

Surface segmentation for improved remeshing

Many remeshing techniques sample the input surface in a meaningful way and then triangulate the samples to produce an output triangulated mesh. One class of methods samples in a parametrization of the surface. Another class samples directly on the surface. These latter methods must have sufficient density of samples to achieve outputs that are homeomorphic to the input. In many datasets samples must be very dense even in some nearly planar regions due to small local feature size. We present an isotropic remeshing algorithm called κCVT that achieves topological correctness while sampling sparsely in all flat regions, regardless of local feature size. This is accomplished by segmenting the surface, remeshing the segmented subsurfaces individually and then stitching them back together. We show that κCVT produces quality meshes using fewer triangles than other methods. The output quality meshes are both homeomorphic and geometrically close to the input surface.postprin

Proto-Plasm: parallel language for adaptive and scalable modelling of biosystems

This paper discusses the design goals and the first developments of Proto-Plasm, a novel computational environment to produce libraries of executable, combinable and customizable computer models of natural and synthetic biosystems, aiming to provide a supporting framework for predictive understanding of structure and behaviour through multiscale geometric modelling and multiphysics simulations. Admittedly, the Proto-Plasm platform is still in its infancy. Its computational framework—language, model library, integrated development environment and parallel engine—intends to provide patient-specific computational modelling and simulation of organs and biosystem, exploiting novel functionalities resulting from the symbolic combination of parametrized models of parts at various scales. Proto-Plasm may define the model equations, but it is currently focused on the symbolic description of model geometry and on the parallel support of simulations. Conversely, CellML and SBML could be viewed as defining the behavioural functions (the model equations) to be used within a Proto-Plasm program. Here we exemplify the basic functionalities of Proto-Plasm, by constructing a schematic heart model. We also discuss multiscale issues with reference to the geometric and physical modelling of neuromuscular junctions

Automatic parameterization of rational curves and surfaces IV: Algebraic space curves

For an irreducible algebraic space curve C that is implicitly defined as the intersection of two algebraic surfaces, f (x, y, z) = 0 and g (x, y, z) = 0, there always exists a birational correspondence between the points of C and the points of an irreducible plane curve P, whose genus is the same as that of C. Thus C is rational if the genus of P is zero. Given an irreducible space curve C = (f ∩ g), with f and g not tangent along C, we present a method of obtaining a projected irreducible plane curve P together with birational maps between the points of P and C. Together with [4], this method yields an algorithm to compute the genus of C, and if the genus is zero, the rational parametric equations for C. As a biproduct, this method also yields the implicit and parametric equations of a rational surface S containing the space curve C. The birational mappings of implicitly defined space curves find numerous applications in geometric modeling and computer graphics since they provide an efficient way of manipulating curves in space by processing curves in the plane. Additionally, having rational surfaces containing C yields a simple way of generating related families of rational space curves

Intervalence charge transfer transition in mixed valence complexes synthesised from Ru<SUP>III</SUP>(edta)- and Fe<SUP>II</SUP>(CN)<SUB>5</SUB>-cores

Intervalence charge transfer properties were studied for a set of mixed valence complexes incorporating Ru(III) and Fe(II)-centres linked by various saturated and unsaturated bridging ligands (BL). Studies reveal that degree of ground state electronic interaction and coupling between Ru(III) and Fe(II)-centres can be attenuated by changing the nature of the bridging ligand. Further, inclusion of the bridging ligand with interrupted π-electron system in a β-CD cavity initiate an optical electron transfer from Fe(II) to Ru(III) which is otherwise not observed

UNRWA and the Education of Palestinian Refugees: An Interview with Anne Irfan

This article discusses the history and educational activities of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), an agency created in 1949 immediately after the founding of the state of Israel and the initial dispossession and displacement of the Palestinian people (1948). The trajectory of this organization and current uncertainty about its future, as well as how it has integrated human rights into its curriculum, sheds light on the rights and realities of Palestinian refugees

The Galois Complexity of Graph Drawing: Why Numerical Solutions are Ubiquitous for Force-Directed, Spectral, and Circle Packing Drawings

Many well-known graph drawing techniques, including force directed drawings, spectral graph layouts, multidimensional scaling, and circle packings, have algebraic formulations. However, practical methods for producing such drawings ubiquitously use iterative numerical approximations rather than constructing and then solving algebraic expressions representing their exact solutions. To explain this phenomenon, we use Galois theory to show that many variants of these problems have solutions that cannot be expressed by nested radicals or nested roots of low-degree polynomials. Hence, such solutions cannot be computed exactly even in extended computational models that include such operations.Comment: Graph Drawing 201