Nonlinear control of a nano-hexacopter carrying a manipulator arm

International audienceThis paper proposes a simple solution for stabilization of a nano-hexacopter carrying a manipulator arm in order to increase the type of missions achievable by these types of systems. The manipulator arm is attached to the lower part of the hexacopter. The motion of the arm induces a change of the center of mass of the whole body, which induces torques which can produce the loss of stability. The present work deals with the stabilization of the whole system-that is hexacopter and arm-by means of a set of nonlinear control laws. First, an attitude control, stabilizes the hexacopter to a desired attitude taking into account the movement of the arm. Then, a suitable virtual control and the translational dynamics allow the formulation of a nonlinear controller, which drives the aerial vehicle to a desired position. Both controls consist in saturation functions. Experimental results validate the proposed control strategy and compares the results when the motion of the arm is taken into account or not

Spectral characteristics of side face excited microstructured fibers for photonic integrated circuits formations

We propose a new method for mass production of the photonic crystal devices on the basis of widely-known and well-developed technology such as microstructured optical fibers. In this paper, we investigate the optical properties of side-excited microstructured optical fiber and discuss the conditions for utilization such a structure as a planar photonic crystal device, namely, the high-quality resonance filter.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure

Synthetic biology open language visual (SBOL Visual) version 2.3

People who are engineering biological organisms often find it useful to communicate in diagrams, both about the structure of the nucleic acid sequences that they are engineering and about the functional relationships between sequence features and other molecular species. Some typical practices and conventions have begun to emerge for such diagrams. The Synthetic Biology Open Language Visual (SBOL Visual) has been developed as a standard for organizing and systematizing such conventions in order to produce a coherent language for expressing the structure and function of genetic designs. This document details version 2.3 of SBOL Visual, which builds on the prior SBOL Visual 2.2 in several ways. First, the specification now includes higher-level "interactions with interactions," such as an inducer molecule stimulating a repression interaction. Second, binding with a nucleic acid backbone can be shown by overlapping glyphs, as with other molecular complexes. Finally, a new "unspecified interaction" glyph is added for visualizing interactions whose nature is unknown, the "insulator" glyph is deprecated in favor of a new "inert DNA spacer" glyph, and the polypeptide region glyph is recommended for showing 2A sequences

A Systems Genetics Approach Implicates USF1, FADS3, and Other Causal Candidate Genes for Familial Combined Hyperlipidemia

We hypothesized that a common SNP in the 3' untranslated region of the upstream transcription factor 1 (USF1), rs3737787, may affect lipid traits by influencing gene expression levels, and we investigated this possibility utilizing the Mexican population, which has a high predisposition to dyslipidemia. We first associated rs3737787 genotypes in Mexican Familial Combined Hyperlipidemia (FCHL) case/control fat biopsies, with global expression patterns. To identify sets of co-expressed genes co-regulated by similar factors such as transcription factors, genetic variants, or environmental effects, we utilized weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA). Through WGCNA in the Mexican FCHL fat biopsies we identified two significant Triglyceride (TG)-associated co-expression modules. One of these modules was also associated with FCHL, the other FCHL component traits, and rs3737787 genotypes. This USF1-regulated FCHL-associated (URFA) module was enriched for genes involved in lipid metabolic processes. Using systems genetics procedures we identified 18 causal candidate genes in the URFA module. The FCHL causal candidate gene fatty acid desaturase 3 (FADS3) was associated with TGs in a recent Caucasian genome-wide significant association study and we replicated this association in Mexican FCHL families. Based on a USF1-regulated FCHL-associated co-expression module and SNP rs3737787, we identify a set of causal candidate genes for FCHL-related traits. We then provide evidence from two independent datasets supporting FADS3 as a causal gene for FCHL and elevated TGs in Mexicans

Search for Neutral Higgs Bosons in Events with Multiple Bottom Quarks at the Tevatron

The combination of searches performed by the CDF and D0 collaborations at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider for neutral Higgs bosons produced in association with b quarks is reported. The data, corresponding to 2.6 fb-1 of integrated luminosity at CDF and 5.2 fb-1 at D0, have been collected in final states containing three or more b jets. Upper limits are set on the cross section multiplied by the branching ratio varying between 44 pb and 0.7 pb in the Higgs boson mass range 90 to 300 GeV, assuming production of a narrow scalar boson. Significant enhancements to the production of Higgs bosons can be found in theories beyond the standard model, for example in supersymmetry. The results are interpreted as upper limits in the parameter space of the minimal supersymmetric standard model in a benchmark scenario favoring this decay mode.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure

Observation of the Baryonic Flavor-Changing Neutral Current Decay Lambda_b -> Lambda mu+ mu-

We report the first observation of the baryonic flavor-changing neutral current decay Lambda_b -> Lambda mu+ mu- with 24 signal events and a statistical significance of 5.8 Gaussian standard deviations. This measurement uses ppbar collisions data sample corresponding to 6.8fb-1 at sqrt{s}=1.96TeV collected by the CDF II detector at the Tevatron collider. The total and differential branching ratios for Lambda_b -> Lambda mu+ mu- are measured. We find B(Lambda_b -> Lambda mu+ mu-) = [1.73+-0.42(stat)+-0.55(syst)] x 10^{-6}. We also report the first measurement of the differential branching ratio of B_s -> phi mu+ mu- using 49 signal events. In addition, we report branching ratios for B+ -> K+ mu+ mu-, B0 -> K0 mu+ mu-, and B -> K*(892) mu+ mu- decays.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, 4 tables. Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let