5,203 research outputs found
Online, interactive user guidance for high-dimensional, constrained motion planning
We consider the problem of planning a collision-free path for a
high-dimensional robot. Specifically, we suggest a planning framework where a
motion-planning algorithm can obtain guidance from a user. In contrast to
existing approaches that try to speed up planning by incorporating experiences
or demonstrations ahead of planning, we suggest to seek user guidance only when
the planner identifies that it ceases to make significant progress towards the
goal. Guidance is provided in the form of an intermediate configuration
, which is used to bias the planner to go through . We
demonstrate our approach for the case where the planning algorithm is
Multi-Heuristic A* (MHA*) and the robot is a 34-DOF humanoid. We show that our
approach allows to compute highly-constrained paths with little domain
knowledge. Without our approach, solving such problems requires
carefully-crafting domain-dependent heuristics
Shear flow induced isotropic to nematic transition in a suspension of active filaments
We study the effects of externally applied shear flow on a model of
suspensions of motors and filaments, via the equations of active hydrodynamics
[PRL {\bf 89} (2002) 058101; {\bf 92} (2004) 118101]. In the absence of shear,
the orientationally ordered phase of {\it both} polar and apolar active
particles is always unstable at zero-wavenumber. An imposed steady shear large
enough to overcome the active stresses stabilises both apolar and moving polar
phases. Our work is relevant to {\it in vitro} studies of active filaments, the
reorientation of endothelial cells subject to shear flow and shear-induced
motility of attached cells.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures submitted to Europhysics Letter
Are we seeing accretion flows in a 250kpc-sized Ly-alpha halo at z=3?
Using MUSE on the ESO-VLT, we obtained a 4 hour exposure of the z=3.12 radio
galaxy MRC0316-257. We detect features down to ~10^-19 erg/s/cm^2/arcsec^2 with
the highest surface brightness regions reaching more than a factor of 100
higher. We find Ly-alpha emission out to ~250 kpc in projection from the active
galactic nucleus (AGN). The emission shows arc-like morphologies arising at
150-250 kpc from the nucleus in projection with the connected filamentary
structures reaching down into the circum-nuclear region. The most distant arc
is offset by 700 km/s relative to circum-nuclear HeII 1640 emission, which we
assume to be at the systemic velocity. As we probe emission closer to the
nucleus, the filamentary emission narrows in projection on the sky, the
relative velocity decreases to ~250 km/s, and line full-width at half maximum
range from 300-700 km/s. From UV line ratios, the emission on scales of 10s of
kpc from the nucleus along a wide angle in the direction of the radio jets is
clearly excited by the radio jets and ionizing radiation of the AGN. Assuming
ionization equilibrium, the more extended emission outside of the axis of the
jet direction would require 100% or more illumination to explain the observed
surface brightness. High speed (>300 km/s) shocks into rare gas would provide
sufficiently high surface brightness. We discuss the possibility that the arcs
of Ly-alpha emission represent accretion shocks and the filamentary emission
represent gas flows into the halo, and compare our results with gas accretion
simulations.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, 1 table, A&A letters accepte
Efficiency in nanostructured thermionic and thermoelectric devices
Advances in solid-state device design now allow the spectrum of transmitted
electrons in thermionic and thermoelectric devices to be engineered in ways
that were not previously possible. Here we show that the shape of the electron
energy spectrum in these devices has a significant impact on their performance.
We distinguish between traditional thermionic devices where electron momentum
is filtered in the direction of transport only and a second type, in which the
electron filtering occurs according to total electron momentum. Such 'total
momentum filtered' kr thermionic devices could potentially be implemented in,
for example, quantum dot superlattices. It is shown that whilst total momentum
filtered thermionic devices may achieve efficiency equal to the Carnot value,
traditional thermionic devices are limited to efficiency below this. Our second
main result is that the electronic efficiency of a device is not only improved
by reducing the width of the transmission filter as has previously been shown,
but also strongly depends on whether the transmission probability rises sharply
from zero to full transmission. The benefit of increasing efficiency through a
sharply rising transmission probability is that it can be achieved without
sacrificing device power, in contrast to the use of a narrow transmission
filter which can greatly reduce power. We show that devices which have a
sharply-rising transmission probability significantly outperform those which do
not and it is shown such transmission probabilities may be achieved with
practical single and multibarrier devices. Finally, we comment on the
implications of the effect the shape of the electron energy spectrum on the
efficiency of thermoelectric devices.Comment: 11 pages, 15 figure
Extremely Metal-Poor Galaxies: The HI Content
Extremely metal-poor (XMP) galaxies are chemically, and possibly dynamically,
primordial objects in the local Universe. Our objective is to characterize the
HI content of the XMP galaxies as a class, using as a reference the list of 140
known local XMPs compiled by Morales-Luis et al. (2011). We have observed 29
XMPs, which had not been observed before at 21 cm, using the Effelsberg radio
telescope. This information was complemented with HI data published in
literature for a further 53 XMPs. In addition, optical data from the literature
provided morphologies, stellar masses, star-formation rates and metallicities.
Effelsberg HI integrated flux densities are between 1 and 15 Jy km/s, while
line widths are between 20 and 120 km/s. HI integrated flux densities and line
widths from literature are in the range 0.1 - 200 Jy km/s and 15 - 150 km/s,
respectively. Of the 10 new Effelsberg detections, two sources show an
asymmetric double-horn profile, while the remaining sources show either
asymmetric (7 sources) or symmetric (1 source) single-peak 21 cm line profiles.
An asymmetry in the HI line profile is systematically accompanied by an
asymmetry in the optical morphology. Typically, the g-band stellar
mass-to-light ratios are ~0.1, whereas the HI gas mass-to-light ratios may be
up to 2 orders of magnitude larger. Moreover, HI gas-to-stellar mass ratios
fall typically between 10 and 20, denoting that XMPs are extremely gas-rich. We
find an anti-correlation between the HI gas mass-to-light ratio and the
luminosity, whereby fainter XMPs are more gas-rich than brighter XMPs,
suggesting that brighter sources have converted a larger fraction of their HI
gas into stars. The dynamical masses inferred from the HI line widths imply
that the stellar mass does not exceed 5% of the dynamical mass, while the
\ion{H}{i} mass constitutes between 20 and 60% of the dynamical mass.
(abridged)Comment: 30 pages, accepted for A&
Foreign Direct Investments in Business Services: Transforming the Visegrád Four Region into a Knowledge-based Economy?
Foreign direct investments (FDIs) in the service sector are widely attributed an important role in bringing more skill-intensive activities into the Visegrad Four (V4). This region—comprising Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia—relied heavily on FDIs in manufacturing, which was often found to generate activities with limited skill content. This contribution deconstructs the chaotic concept of “business services” by analysing the actual nature of service sector activities outsourced and offshored to the V4. Using the knowledge-based economy (KBE) as a benchmark, the paper assesses the potential of service sector outsourcing in contributing to regional competitiveness by increasing the innovative capacity. It also discusses the role of state policies towards service sector FDI (SFDI). The analysis combines data obtained from case studies undertaken in service sector outsourcing projects in V4 countries. Moreover, it draws on interviews with senior employees of investment promotion agencies and publicly available data and statistics on activities within the service sector in the region. It argues that the recent inward investments in business services in the V4 mainly utilize existing local human capital resources, and their contribution to the development of the KBE is limited to employment creation and demand for skilled labour
Asynchronous In Situ Processing with Gromacs: Taking Advantage of GPUs
International audienceNumerical simulations using supercomputers are producing an ever growing amount of data. Efficient production and analysis of these data are the key to future discoveries. The in situ paradigm is emerging as a promising solution to avoid the I/O bottleneck encountered in the file system for both the simulation and the analytics by treating the data as soon as they are produced in memory. Various strategies and implementations have been proposed in the last years to support in situ treatments with a low impact on the simulation performance. Yet, little efforts have been made when it comes to perform in situ analytics with hybrid simulations supporting accelerators like GPUs. In this article, we propose a study of the in situ strategies with Gromacs, a molecular dynamic simulation code supporting multi-GPUs, as our application target. We specifically focus on the computational resources usage of the machine by the simulation and the in situ analytics. We finally extend the usual in situ placement strategies to the case of in situ analytics running on a GPU and study their impact on both Gromacs performance and the resource usage of the machine. We show in particular that running in situ analytics on the GPU can be a more efficient solution than on the CPU especially when the CPU is the bottleneck of the simulation
Work extremum principle: Structure and function of quantum heat engines
We consider a class of quantum heat engines consisting of two subsystems
interacting via a unitary transformation and coupled to two separate baths at
different temperatures . The purpose of the engine is to extract
work due to the temperature difference. Its dynamics is not restricted to the
near equilibrium regime. The engine structure is determined by maximizing the
extracted work under various constraints. When this maximization is carried out
at finite power, the engine dynamics is described by well-defined temperatures
and satisfies the local version of the second law. In addition, its efficiency
is bounded from below by the Curzon-Ahlborn value and from
above by the Carnot value . The latter is reached|at finite
power|for a macroscopic engine, while the former is achieved in the equilibrium
limit . When the work is maximized at a zero power, even a small
(few-level) engine extracts work right at the Carnot efficiency.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figure
The potential for atmospheric water harvesting to accelerate household access to safe water
With Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG-6), member states of the UN declared their ambition for universal access to safely managed water, recognising this as fundamental to human health, wellbeing, socioeconomic development, and gender equity. Through the support of expert groups, the UN defined safely managed water as a continuous supply of uncontaminated water delivered directly to every household worldwide. Currently, 2·2 billion people (primarily in low-income and middle-income countries [LMICs]) do not have this level of water service; globally, 200 million hours are spent collecting water from locations beyond the household plot each year, mostly by women and girls.2 The appendix (p 1) provides further reading on water policy and services in low-income settings
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