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Bioinspired Autonomous Visual Vertical Control of a Quadrotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
Near-ground maneuvers, such as hover, approach, and landing, are key elements of autonomy in unmanned aerial vehicles. Such maneuvers have been tackled conventionally by measuring or estimating the velocity and the height above the ground, often using ultrasonic or laser range finders. Near-ground maneuvers are naturally mastered by flying birds and insects because objects below may be of interest for food or shelter. These animals perform such maneuvers efficiently using only the available vision and vestibular sensory information. In this paper, the time-to-contact (tau) theory, which conceptualizes the visual strategy with which many species are believed to approach objects, is presented as a solution for relative ground distance control for unmanned aerial vehicles. The paper shows how such an approach can be visually guided without knowledge of height and velocity relative to the ground. A control scheme that implements the tau strategy is developed employing only visual information from a monocular camera and an inertial measurement unit. To achieve reliable visual information at a high rate, a novel filtering system is proposed to complement the control system. The proposed system is implemented onboard an experimental quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle and is shown to not only successfully land and approach ground, but also to enable the user to choose the dynamic characteristics of the approach. The methods presented in this paper are applicable to both aerial and space autonomous vehicles
Superpotentials for M-theory on a G_2 holonomy manifold and Triality symmetry
For -theory on the holonomy manifold given by the cone on {\bf
S^3}\x {\bf S^3} we consider the superpotential generated by membrane
instantons and study its transformations properties, especially under monodromy
transformations and triality symmetry. We find that the latter symmetry is,
essentially, even a symmetry of the superpotential. As in Seiberg/Witten
theory, where a flat bundle given by the periods of an universal elliptic curve
over the -plane occurs, here a flat bundle related to the Heisenberg group
appears and the relevant universal object over the moduli space is related to
hyperbolic geometry.Comment: 58 pages, latex; references adde
Immunological and Functional Properties of the Acetylcholine Receptor Expressed on the Human Cell Line TE671
Peer Reviewe
FDGâPET. A possible prognostic factor in head and neck cancer
Previous studies have shown that high uptake of 18F-fluoro-2-deoxy-glucose in head and neck cancer, as determined by the standardized uptake value on positron emission tomography scan, was associated with poor survival. The aim of this study was to confirm the association and to establish whether a high standardized uptake value had prognostic significance. Seventy-three consecutive patients with newly diagnosed squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck underwent a positron emission tomography study before treatment. Age, gender, performance status tumour grade, stage, maximal tumour diameter and standardized uptake value were analyzed for their possible association with survival. The median standardized uptake value for all primary tumours was 7.16 (90% range 2.30 to 18.60). In univariate survival analysis the cumulative survival was decreased as the stage, tumour diameter and standardized uptake value increased. An standardized uptake value of 10 was taken as a cut-off for high and low uptake tumours. When these two groups were compared, an standardized uptake value >10 predicted for significantly worse outcome (P=0.003). Multivariate analysis demonstrated that an standardized uptake value >10 provided prognostic information independent of the tumour stage and diameter (P=0.002). We conclude that high FDG uptake (standardized uptake value>10) on positron emission tomography is an important marker for poor outcome in primary squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. Standardized uptake value may be useful in distinguishing those tumours with a more aggressive biological nature and hence identifying patients that require intensive treatment protocols including hyperfractionated radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy
Promoter analysis by saturation mutagenesis
Gene expression and regulation are mediated by DNA sequences, in most instances, directly upstream to the coding sequences by recruiting transcription factors, regulators, and a RNA polymerase in a spatially defined fashion. Few nucleotides within a promoter make contact with the bound proteins. The minimal set of nucleotides that can recruit a protein factor is called a cis-acting element. This article addresses a powerful mutagenesis strategy that can be employed to define cis-acting elements at a molecular level. Technical details including primer design, saturation mutagenesis, construction of promoter libraries, phenotypic analysis, data analysis, and interpretation are discussed
The Chandra Source Catalog
The Chandra Source Catalog (CSC) is a general purpose virtual X-ray
astrophysics facility that provides access to a carefully selected set of
generally useful quantities for individual X-ray sources, and is designed to
satisfy the needs of a broad-based group of scientists, including those who may
be less familiar with astronomical data analysis in the X-ray regime. The first
release of the CSC includes information about 94,676 distinct X-ray sources
detected in a subset of public ACIS imaging observations from roughly the first
eight years of the Chandra mission. This release of the catalog includes point
and compact sources with observed spatial extents <~ 30''. The catalog (1)
provides access to the best estimates of the X-ray source properties for
detected sources, with good scientific fidelity, and directly supports
scientific analysis using the individual source data; (2) facilitates analysis
of a wide range of statistical properties for classes of X-ray sources; and (3)
provides efficient access to calibrated observational data and ancillary data
products for individual X-ray sources, so that users can perform detailed
further analysis using existing tools. The catalog includes real X-ray sources
detected with flux estimates that are at least 3 times their estimated 1 sigma
uncertainties in at least one energy band, while maintaining the number of
spurious sources at a level of <~ 1 false source per field for a 100 ks
observation. For each detected source, the CSC provides commonly tabulated
quantities, including source position, extent, multi-band fluxes, hardness
ratios, and variability statistics, derived from the observations in which the
source is detected. In addition to these traditional catalog elements, for each
X-ray source the CSC includes an extensive set of file-based data products that
can be manipulated interactively.Comment: To appear in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 53 pages,
27 figure
The class of the locus of intermediate Jacobians of cubic threefolds
We study the locus of intermediate Jacobians of cubic threefolds within the
moduli space of complex principally polarized abelian fivefolds, and its
generalization to arbitrary genus - the locus of abelian varieties with a
singular odd two-torsion point on the theta divisor. Assuming that this locus
has expected codimension (which we show to be true for genus up to 5), we
compute the class of this locus, and of is closure in the perfect cone toroidal
compactification, in the Chow, homology, and the tautological ring.
We work out the cases of genus up to 5 in detail, obtaining explicit
expressions for the classes of the closures of the locus of products of an
elliptic curve and a hyperelliptic genus 3 curve, in moduli of principally
polarized abelian fourfolds, and of the locus of intermediate Jacobians in
genus 5. In the course of our computation we also deal with various
intersections of boundary divisors of a level toroidal compactification, which
is of independent interest in understanding the cohomology and Chow rings of
the moduli spaces.Comment: v2: new section 9 on the geometry of the boundary of the locus of
intermediate Jacobians of cubic threefolds. Final version to appear in
Invent. Mat
Incompressible magnetohydrodynamic modes in the thin magnetically twisted flux tube
Context. Observations have shown that twisted magnetic fields naturally occur, and indeed are omnipresent in the Sunâs atmosphere. It
is therefore of great theoretical interest in solar atmospheric waves research to investigate the types of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD)
wave modes that can propagate along twisted magnetic flux tubes.
Aims. Within the framework of ideal MHD, the main aim of this work is to investigate small amplitude incompressible wave modes
of twisted magnetic flux tubes with m â„ 1. The axial magnetic field strength inside and outside the tube will be allowed to vary, to
ensure the results will not be restricted to only cold plasma equilibria conditions.
Methods. The dispersion equation for these incompressible linear MHD wave modes was derived analytically by implementing the
long wavelength approximation.
Results. It is shown, in the long wavelength limit, that both the frequency and radial velocity profile of the m = 1 kink mode are
completely unaffected by the choice of internal background magnetic twist. However, fluting modes with m â„ 2 are sensitive to the
particular radial profile of magnetic twist chosen. Furthermore, due to background twist, a low frequency cut-off is introduced for
fluting modes that is not present for kink modes. From an observational point of view, although magnetic twist does not affect the
propagation of long wavelength kink modes, for fluting modes it will either work for or against the propagation, depending on the
direction of wave travel relative to the sign of the background twist
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