12,465 research outputs found
Verifiable control of a swarm of unmanned aerial vehicles
This article considers the distributed control of a swarm of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) investigating autonomous pattern formation and reconfigurability. A behaviour-based approach to formation control is considered with a velocity field control algorithm developed through bifurcating potential fields. This new approach extends previous research into pattern formation using potential field theory by considering the use of bifurcation theory as a means of reconfiguring a swarm pattern through a free parameter change. The advantage of this kind of system is that it is extremely robust to individual failures, is scalpable, and also flexible. The potential field consists of a steering and repulsive term with the bifurcation of the steering potential resulting in a change of the swarm pattern. The repulsive potential ensures collision avoidance and an equally spaced final formation. The stability of the system is demonstrated to ensure that desired behaviours always occur, assuming that at large separation distances the repulsive potential can be neglected through a scale separation that exists between the steering and repulsive potential. The control laws developed are applied to a formation of ten UAVs using a velocity field tracking approach, where it is shown numerically that desired patterns can be formed safely ensuring collision avoidance
Current Renormalisation Constants with an O(a)-improved Fermion Action
Using chiral Ward identities, we determine the renormalisation constants of
bilinear quark operators for the Sheikholeslami-Wohlert action lattice at
beta=6.2. The results are obtained with a high degree of accuracy. For the
vector current renormalisation constant we obtain Z_V=0.817(2)(8), where the
first error is statistical and the second is due to mass dependence of Z_V.
This is close to the perturbative value of 0.83. For the axial current
renormalisation constant we obtain Z_A = 1.045(+10 -14), significantly higher
than the value obtained in perturbation theory. This is shown to reduce the
difference between lattice estimates and the experimental values for the
pseudoscalar meson decay constants, but a significant discrepancy remains. The
ratio of pseudoscalar to scalar renormalisation constants, Z_P/Z_S, is less
well determined, but seems to be slightly lower than the perturbative value.Comment: 8 pages uuencoded compressed postscript file. Article to be submitted
to Phys.Rev.
Structural ambiguity of the Chinese version of the hospital anxiety and depression scale in patients with coronary heart disease
Background
The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) is a widely used screening tool designed as a case detector for clinically relevant anxiety and depression. Recent studies of the HADS in coronary heart disease (CHD) patients in European countries suggest it comprises three, rather than two, underlying sub-scale dimensions. The factor structure of the Chinese version of the HADS was evaluated in patients with CHD in mainland China.
Methods
Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted on self-report HADS forms from 154 Chinese CHD patients.
Results
Little difference was observed in model fit between best performing three-factor and two-factor models.
Conclusion
The current observations are inconsistent with recent studies highlighting a dominant underlying tri-dimensional structure to the HADS in CHD patients. The Chinese version of the HADS may perform differently to European language versions of the instrument in patients with CHD
Can clinicians and scientists explain and prevent unexplained underperformance syndrome in elite athletes: an interdisciplinary perspective and 2016 update
The coach and interdisciplinary sports science and medicine team strive to continually progress the athlete's performance year on year. In structuring training programmes, coaches and scientists plan distinct periods of progressive overload coupled with recovery for anticipated performances to be delivered on fixed dates of competition in the calendar year. Peaking at major championships is a challenge, and training capacity highly individualised, with fine margins between the training dose necessary for adaptation and that which elicits maladaptation at the elite level. As such, optimising adaptation is key to effective preparation. Notably, however, many factors (eg, health, nutrition, sleep, training experience, psychosocial factors) play an essential part in moderating the processes of adaptation to exercise and environmental stressors, for example, heat, altitude; processes which can often fail or be limited. In the UK, the term unexplained underperformance syndrome (UUPS) has been adopted, in contrast to the more commonly referenced term overtraining syndrome, to describe a significant episode of underperformance with persistent fatigue, that is, maladaptation. This construct, UUPS, reflects the complexity of the syndrome, the multifactorial aetiology, and that ‘overtraining’ or an imbalance between training load and recovery may not be the primary cause for underperformance. UUPS draws on the distinction that a decline in performance represents the universal feature. In our review, we provide a practitioner-focused perspective, proposing that causative factors can be identified and UUPS explained, through an interdisciplinary approach (ie, medicine, nutrition, physiology, psychology) to sports science and medicine delivery, monitoring, and data interpretation and analysis
Further implications of the Bessis-Moussa-Villani conjecture
We find further implications of the BMV conjecture, which states that for
hermitian matrices A and B, the function Tr exp(A - t B) is the Laplace
transform of a positive measure.Comment: LaTeX, 8 page
Exponents appearing in heterogeneous reaction-diffusion models in one dimension
We study the following 1D two-species reaction diffusion model : there is a
small concentration of B-particles with diffusion constant in an
homogenous background of W-particles with diffusion constant ; two
W-particles of the majority species either coagulate ()
or annihilate () with the respective
probabilities and ; a B-particle and a
W-particle annihilate () with probability 1. The
exponent describing the asymptotic time decay of
the minority B-species concentration can be viewed as a generalization of the
exponent of persistent spins in the zero-temperature Glauber dynamics of the 1D
-state Potts model starting from a random initial condition : the
W-particles represent domain walls, and the exponent
characterizes the time decay of the probability that a diffusive "spectator"
does not meet a domain wall up to time . We extend the methods introduced by
Derrida, Hakim and Pasquier ({\em Phys. Rev. Lett.} {\bf 75} 751 (1995); Saclay
preprint T96/013, to appear in {\em J. Stat. Phys.} (1996)) for the problem of
persistent spins, to compute the exponent in perturbation
at first order in for arbitrary and at first order in
for arbitrary .Comment: 29 pages. The three figures are not included, but are available upon
reques
Exome sequencing of 85 Williams–Beuren syndrome cases rules out coding variation as a major contributor to remaining variance in social behavior
Making the market: How U.S. Policy influences near term agriculture and biofuel industry production and profitability under technology adoption
The beneficiaries of technology adoption in agriculture and biofuels markets in the United States are heavily influenced by domestic biofuel policies and market context. Biofuel mandates, one of the key pillars of domestic biofuel policies, may significantly alter the elasticity of demand for biofuels as well as the derived demand for maize used to produce a significant share of ethanol in the United States. Using a stochastic agriculture and biofuels model, we assess how the introduction of technology may affect the crops and biofuel markets under binding and non-binding biofuel mandates and discuss the implications for analysis of EU biofuel policies.biofuels, policy, technology adoption, mandates, Agricultural and Food Policy, Farm Management, Land Economics/Use,
A Combined Component-Based Approach for the Design of Distributed Software Systems
Component-based software development enables the construction of software artefacts by assembling binary units of production, distribution and deployment, the so-called components. Several approaches to component-based development have been proposed recently. Most of these approaches are based on the Unified Modeling Language (UML). UML has been increasingly used in component-based development, despite some shortcomings of this language. This paper presents a methodology for the design of component-based applications that combines a model-based approach with a UML-based approach. This combined approach tackles some of the limitations of UML, allowing a better control of the design proces
Decentralized Model for a Two-Stage Supply Chain with Exogenous Demand
This paper presents a formal mathematical model for managing problems of stochastic demands; confronting many industries in the society today. We consider a two- stage supply chain where the upstream manufacturer (stage2) must always fill exogenous demands from the downstream manufacturer (stage1) using two types of expediting : Overtime production and outsourcing.Key words: Supply chain management(SCM), Supply chain(SC), Inventory, backorder, Opti-mality
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