Replica determinism and flexible scheduling in hard real-time dependable systems

Fault-tolerant real-time systems are typically based on active replication where replicated entities are required to deliver their outputs in an identical order within a given time interval. Distributed scheduling of replicated tasks, however, violates this requirement if on-line scheduling, preemptive scheduling, or scheduling of dissimilar replicated task sets is employed. This problem of inconsistent task outputs has been solved previously by coordinating the decisions of the local schedulers such that replicated tasks are executed in an identical order. Global coordination results either in an extremely high communication effort to agree on each schedule decision or in an overly restrictive execution model where on-line scheduling, arbitrary preemptions, and nonidentically replicated task sets are not allowed. To overcome these restrictions, a new method, called timed messages, is introduced. Timed messages guarantee deterministic operation by presenting consistent message versions to the replicated tasks. This approach is based on simulated common knowledge and a sparse time base. Timed messages are very effective since they neither require communication between the local scheduler nor do they restrict usage of on-line flexible scheduling, preemptions and nonidentically replicated task sets

Universal Law for the Elastic Moduli of Solids and Structures

A law previously found for shear moduli of crystalline materials is developed and extended to all elastic moduli in solids and structures. Shear moduli were previously shown to depend only on specific volume. The bulk moduli of many materials and structures are now predicted analytically and empirically shown with unerring accuracy by observing the elasticity as a specific volume power law. The law is supported by experimental evidence from: foams, Schneebeli 2-dimensional graphene mats, metamaterials, fully dense metals, ceramics and minerals. This new, generalized, universal, elastic moduli law always describes materials that support shear stresses i.e., solids; it is shown that all elastic moduli are directly dependent only on the specific volume.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figures, 1 Table and 1 Appendi

Models of polarized infrared emission from bipolar nebulae

Many stars with circumstellar dust shells show a high degree of linear polarization (Sato et al. 1985). We are developing a model which assumes that the polarization arises from scattering by circumstellar dust. Our model assumes a geometry in which the star is surrounded by an optically thin spherical dust shell and embedded within an optically thick disk. This geometry is consistent with that proposed for objects with bipolar molecular outflow. This is important because many bipolar flow objects have also been observed to be highly polarized. The high degree of linear polarization is produced because the disk differentially attenuates the light from the star. The light incident from the point source is attenuated by a factor of exp(-tau/cos theta) where theta is the angle between a ray from the point source to the scatterer and a ray normal to the disk; tau is the optical depth at the wavelength of interest. Hence, the light scattered from the regions directly above and below the disk give the largest contribution to the total flux. The scattering angle for light from these regions is near 90 deg., so the light is strongly polarized and, in the Rayleigh scattering regime, is polarized parallel to the disk. The Stokes parameters for the scattered light from each particle in the shell are calculated by using the scattering matrix elements generated by a Mie scattering program. After the Stokes parameters for each particle are computed they are summed to give the Stokes parameters for the entire shell. Two graphs are presented which show the intensity and polarization spectrum generated by our model using the optical constants for astronomical silicates as defined by Draine and Lee (1984)

Soft Mode Dynamics Above and Below the Burns Temperature in the Relaxor Pb(Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)O_3

We report neutron inelastic scattering measurements of the lowest-energy transverse optic (TO) phonon branch in the relaxor Pb(Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)O_3 from 400 to 1100 K. Far above the Burns temperature T_d ~ 620 K we observe well-defined propagating TO modes at all wave vectors q, and a zone center TO mode that softens in a manner consistent with that of a ferroelectric soft mode. Below T_d the zone center TO mode is overdamped. This damping extends up to, but not above, the waterfall wave vector q_wf, which is a measure of the average size of the PNR.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures; modified discussion of Fig. 3, shortened captions, added reference, corrected typos, accepted by Phys. Rev. Let

Reinforced structural plastics

Reinforced polyimide structures are described. Reinforcing materials are impregnated with a suspension of polyimide prepolymer and bonded together by heat and pressure to form a cured, hard-reinforced, polyimide structure

A Low Cost Ultrasound-based Localisation System

This paper presents a low-cost localisation system based on ultrasonic sensing and time of flight measurements. A compact ultrasound emitter has been designed to generate omnidirectional train of ultrasound pulses which are then picked up by several fixed receivers measuring the time difference of arrival. A least squares approach is used to analytically obtain a first estimate of the emitter position, which is then refined through steepest descent optimisation. All processing is done via a standard Arduino platform, proving the low computational demands of the method. Localisation results are validated against a state-of-the-art Optitrack motion capture system. It is shown that the system can cover a 4.3x3.1m arena with a mean error localisation error of 1.57cm and an average standard deviation of 1.39cm throughout the arena