A robust momentum management and attitude control system for the space station

A game theoretic controller is synthesized for momentum management and attitude control of the Space Station in the presence of uncertainties in the moments of inertia. Full state information is assumed since attitude rates are assumed to be very assurately measured. By an input-output decomposition of the uncertainty in the system matrices, the parameter uncertainties in the dynamic system are represented as an unknown gain associated with an internal feedback loop (IFL). The input and output matrices associated with the IFL form directions through which the uncertain parameters affect system response. If the quadratic form of the IFL output augments the cost criterion, then enhanced parameter robustness is anticipated. By considering the input and the input disturbance from the IFL as two noncooperative players, a linear-quadratic differential game is constructed. The solution in the form of a linear controller is used for synthesis. Inclusion of the external disturbance torques results in a dynamic feedback controller which consists of conventional PID (proportional integral derivative) control and cyclic disturbance rejection filters. It is shown that the game theoretic design allows large variations in the inertias in directions of importance

Differential effects of anti-B7-1 and anti-B7-2 monoclonal antibody treatment on the development of diabetes in the nonobese diabetic mouse.

Insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) is thought to be an immunologically mediated disease resulting in the complete destruction of the insulin-producing islets of Langerhans. It has become increasingly clear that autoreactive T cells play a major role in the development and progression of this disease. In this study, we examined the role of the CD28/B7 costimulation pathway in the development and progression of autoimmune diabetes in the nonobese diabetic (NOD) mouse model. Female NOD mice treated at the onset of insulitis (2-4 wk of age) with CTLA4Ig immunoglobulin (Ig) (a soluble CD28 antagonist) or a monoclonal antibody (mAb) specific for B7-2 (a CD28 ligand) did not develop diabetes. However, neither of these treatments altered the disease process when administered late, at > 10 wk of age. Histological examination of islets from the various treatment groups showed that while CTLA4Ig and anti-B7-2 mAb treatment blocked the development of diabetes, these reagents had little effect on the development or severity of insulitis. Together these results suggest that blockade of costimulatory signals by CTLA4Ig or anti-B7-2 acts early in disease development, after insulitis but before the onset of frank diabetes. NOD mice were also treated with mAbs to another CD28 ligand, B7-1. In contrast to the previous results, the anti-B7-1 treatment significantly accelerated the development of disease in female mice and, most interestingly, induced diabetes in normally resistant male mice. A combination of anti-B7-1 and anti-B7-2 mAbs also resulted in an accelerated onset of diabetes, similar to that observed with anti-B7-1 mAb treatment alone, suggesting that anti-B7-1 mAb's effect was dominant. Furthermore, treatment with anti-B7-1 mAbs resulted in a more rapid and severe infiltrate. Finally, T cells isolated from the pancreas of these anti-B7-1-treated animals exhibited a more activated phenotype than T cells isolated from any of the other treatment groups. These studies demonstrate that costimulatory signals play an important role in the autoimmune process, and that different members of the B7 family have distinct regulatory functions during the development of autoimmune diabetes

A Tale of Two DRAGGNs: A Hybrid Approach for Interpreting Action-Oriented and Goal-Oriented Instructions

Robots operating alongside humans in diverse, stochastic environments must be able to accurately interpret natural language commands. These instructions often fall into one of two categories: those that specify a goal condition or target state, and those that specify explicit actions, or how to perform a given task. Recent approaches have used reward functions as a semantic representation of goal-based commands, which allows for the use of a state-of-the-art planner to find a policy for the given task. However, these reward functions cannot be directly used to represent action-oriented commands. We introduce a new hybrid approach, the Deep Recurrent Action-Goal Grounding Network (DRAGGN), for task grounding and execution that handles natural language from either category as input, and generalizes to unseen environments. Our robot-simulation results demonstrate that a system successfully interpreting both goal-oriented and action-oriented task specifications brings us closer to robust natural language understanding for human-robot interaction.Comment: Accepted at the 1st Workshop on Language Grounding for Robotics at ACL 201

A Tale of Two DRAGGNs: A Hybrid Approach for Interpreting Action-Oriented and Goal-Oriented Instructions

Robots operating alongside humans in diverse, stochastic environments must be able to accurately interpret natural language commands. These instructions often fall into one of two categories: those that specify a goal condition or target state, and those that specify explicit actions, or how to perform a given task. Recent approaches have used reward functions as a semantic representation of goal-based commands, which allows for the use of a state-of-the-art planner to find a policy for the given task. However, these reward functions cannot be directly used to represent action-oriented commands. We introduce a new hybrid approach, the Deep Recurrent Action-Goal Grounding Network (DRAGGN), for task grounding and execution that handles natural language from either category as input, and generalizes to unseen environments. Our robot-simulation results demonstrate that a system successfully interpreting both goal-oriented and action-oriented task specifications brings us closer to robust natural language understanding for human-robot interaction.Comment: Accepted at the 1st Workshop on Language Grounding for Robotics at ACL 201

The Ellipticity and Orientation of Clusters of Galaxies from N-Body Experiments

In this study we use simulations of 128$^3$ particles to study the ellipticity and orientation of clusters of galaxies in N-body simulations of differing power-law initial spectra (P(k) \propto k^n ,n = +1, 0, -1, -2$), and density parameters ($\Omega_0 = 0.2$to 1.0). Furthermore, unlike most theoretical studies we mimic most observers by removing all particles which lie at distances greater than 2 1/h Mpc from the cluster center of mass. We computed the axial ratio and the principal axes using the inertia tensor of each cluster. The mean ellipticity of clusters increases strongly with increasing$n$. We also find that clusters tend to become more spherical at smaller radii. We compared the orientation of a cluster to the orientation of neighboring clusters as a function of distance (correlation). In addition, we considered whether a cluster's major axis tends to lie along the line connecting it to a neighboring cluster, as a function of distance (alignment). Both alignments and correlations were computed in three dimensions and in projection to mimic observational surveys. Our results show that significant alignments exist for all spectra at small separations ($D < 15 h^{-1}$Mpc) but drops off at larger distance in a strongly$n-$dependent way.Comment: 22 pages, requires aaspp4.sty, flushrt.sty, and epsf.sty Revised manuscript, accepted for publication in Ap

Boundary effects on the scaling of the superfluid density

We study numerically the influence of the substrate (boundary conditions) on the finite--size scaling properties of the superfluid density $\rho_s$ in superfluid films of thickness $H$ within the XY model employing the Monte Carlo method. Our results suggest that the jump $\rho_s H/T_c$ at the Kosterlitz--Thouless transition temperature $T_c$ depends on the boundary conditions.Comment: 2 pages, 1 Latex file, 1 postscript figure, 2 style file

Large bandwidth, highly efficient optical gratings through high index materials

We analyze the diffraction characteristics of dielectric gratings that feature a high index grating layer, and devise, through rigorous numerical calculations, large bandwidth, highly efficient, high dispersion dielectric gratings in reflection, transmission, and immersed transmission geometry. A dielectric TIR grating is suggested, whose -1dB spectral bandwidth is doubled as compared to its all-glass equivalent. The short wavelength diffraction efficiency is additionally improved by allowing for slanted lamella. The grating surpasses a blazed gold grating over the full octave. An immersed transmission grating is devised, whose -1dB bandwidth is tripled as compared to its all-glass equivalent, and that surpasses an equivalent classical transmission grating over nearly the full octave. A transmission grating in the classical scattering geometry is suggested, that features a buried high index layer. This grating provides effectively 100% diffraction efficiency at its design wavelegth, and surpasses an equivalent fused silica grating over the full octave.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figure

AAV-mediated and pharmacological induction of Hsp70 expression stimulates survival of retinal ganglion cells following axonal injury.

We evaluated the effect of AAV2- and 17-AAG (17-N-allylamino-17-demethoxygeldanamycin)-mediated upregulation of Hsp70 expression on the survival of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) injured by optic nerve crush (ONC). AAV2-Hsp70 expression in the retina was primarily observed in the ganglion cell layer. Approximately 75% of all transfected cells were RGCs. RGC survival in AAV2-Hsp70-injected animals was increased by an average of 110% 2 weeks after the axonal injury compared with the control. The increase in cell numbers was not even across the retinas with a maximum effect of approximately 306% observed in the inferior quadrant. 17-AAG-mediated induction of Hsp70 expression has been associated with cell protection in various models of neurodegenerative diseases. We show here that a single intravitreal injection of 17-AAG (0.2 ug ul(-1)) results in an increased survival of ONC-injured RGCs by approximately 49% compared with the vehicle-treated animals. Expression of Hsp70 in retinas of 17-AAG-treated animals was upregulated approximately by twofold compared with control animals. Our data support the idea that the upregulation of Hsp70 has a beneficial effect on the survival of injured RGCs, and the induction of this protein could be viewed as a potential neuroprotective strategy for optic neuropathies