9,277 research outputs found
Bilevel shared control for teleoperators
A shared system is disclosed for robot control including integration of the human and autonomous input modalities for an improved control. Autonomously planned motion trajectories are modified by a teleoperator to track unmodelled target motions, while nominal teleoperator motions are modified through compliance to accommodate geometric errors autonomously in the latter. A hierarchical shared system intelligently shares control over a remote robot between the autonomous and teleoperative portions of an overall control system. Architecture is hierarchical, and consists of two levels. The top level represents the task level, while the bottom, the execution level. In space applications, the performance of pure teleoperation systems depend significantly on the communication time delays between the local and the remote sites. Selection/mixing matrices are provided with entries which reflect how each input's signals modality is weighted. The shared control minimizes the detrimental effects caused by these time delays between earth and space
GM crops and gender issues
Correspondence in the December issue by Jonathan Gressel not only states that gender issues in rural settings have not been adequately addressed with respect to weed control biotech but also asserts that such technology can increase the quality of life of rural women in developing countries. Improved weed control is a labor-saving technology that can result in less employment in a labor surplus rural economy. Often in rural areas, wage income is the main source of income and an important determinant of the quality of life, particularly where employment opportunities are generally limited. Apart from soil preparation, planting and weeding, harvesting is also 'femanual' work that can generate more employment if yields are higher. Biotech can enhance the quality of life of women but only if the technology is associated with overall generation of rural employment
Young\u27s modulus of [111] germanium nanowires
This paper reports a diameter-independent Young’s modulus of 91.9 ± 8.2 GPa for [111] Germaniumnanowires (Ge NWs). When the surface oxide layer is accounted for using a core-shell NW approximation, the YM of the Ge core approaches a near theoretical value of 147.6 ± 23.4 GPa. The ultimate strength of a NW device was measured at 10.9 GPa, which represents a very high experimental-to-theoretical strength ratio of ∼75%. With increasing interest in this material system as a high-capacity lithium-ion battery anode, the presented data provide inputs that are essential in predicting its lithiation-induced stress fields and fracture behavior
Primordial Magnetic Field Limits from Cosmic Microwave Background Bispectrum of Magnetic Passive Scalar Modes
Primordial magnetic fields lead to non-Gaussian signals in the cosmic
microwave background (CMB) even at the lowest order, as magnetic stresses and
the temperature anisotropy they induce depend quadratically on the magnetic
field. In contrast, CMB non-Gaussianity due to inflationary scalar
perturbations arises only as a higher order effect. Apart from a compensated
scalar mode, stochastic primordial magnetic fields also produce scalar
anisotropic stress that remains uncompensated till neutrino decoupling. This
gives rise to an adiabatic-like scalar perturbation mode that evolves passively
thereafter (called the passive mode). We compute the CMB reduced bispectrum
() induced by this passive mode, sourced via the
Sachs-Wolfe effect, on large angular scales. For any configuration of
bispectrum, taking a partial sum over mode-coupling terms, we find a typical
value of , for a magnetic field of nG, assuming a nearly
scale-invariant magnetic spectrum . We also evaluate, in full, the bispectrum
for the squeezed collinear configuration over all angular mode-coupling terms
and find . These values are more than times larger than the
previously calculated magnetic compensated scalar mode CMB bispectrum.
Observational limits on the bispectrum from WMAP7 data allow us to set upper
limits of nG on the present value of the cosmic magnetic field of
primordial origin. This is over 10 times more stringent than earlier limits on
based on the compensated mode bispectrum.Comment: 9 page
Packaging Problems-Present and Future of Service Rations
Developments of food packaging from the early days of rigid containers up to the modern method of using flexible materials are revealed. Factors involving the selection for packing different types of Service rations are discussed. Future areas of research and development activity are outlined briefly
Pulsating stars in the VMC survey
The VISTA survey of the Magellanic Clouds system (VMC) began observations in
2009 and since then, it has collected multi-epoch data at Ks and in addition
multi-band data in Y and J for a wide range of stellar populations across the
Magellanic system. Among them are pulsating variable stars: Cepheids, RR Lyrae,
and asymptotic giant branch stars that represent useful tracers of the host
system geometry.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, proceeding contribution of invited presentation
at "Wide-field variability surveys: a 21st-century perspective", San Pedro de
Atacama (Chile
A novel heavy-fermion state in CaCu_3Ru_4O12
We have measured susceptibility, specific heat, resistivity, and thermopower
of CaCuTiRuO and CaCuMnRuO, and
have found that CaCuRuO can be regarded as a heavy-fermion oxide
in d-electron systems. The Kondo temperature is near 200 K, and the
susceptibility (1.4 emu/Cu mol) and the electron specific heat
coefficient (28 mJ/Cu molK) are moderately enhanced. The resistivity is
proportional to at low temperatures, and satisfies the Kadowaki-Woods
relation. The heavy-fermion state comes from the interaction between the
localized moment of Cu 3d and the conduction electron of Ru 4d. An
insulator-metal transition occurs between and 4 in
CaCuTiRuO, which can be regarded as a transition from
magnetic insulator to heavy-fermion metal.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, submitted to J. Phys. Soc. Jp
Simultaneous computation of dynamical and equilibrium information using a weighted ensemble of trajectories
Equilibrium formally can be represented as an ensemble of uncoupled systems
undergoing unbiased dynamics in which detailed balance is maintained. Many
non-equilibrium processes can be described by suitable subsets of the
equilibrium ensemble. Here, we employ the "weighted ensemble" (WE) simulation
protocol [Huber and Kim, Biophys. J., 1996] to generate equilibrium trajectory
ensembles and extract non-equilibrium subsets for computing kinetic quantities.
States do not need to be chosen in advance. The procedure formally allows
estimation of kinetic rates between arbitrary states chosen after the
simulation, along with their equilibrium populations. We also describe a
related history-dependent matrix procedure for estimating equilibrium and
non-equilibrium observables when phase space has been divided into arbitrary
non-Markovian regions, whether in WE or ordinary simulation. In this
proof-of-principle study, these methods are successfully applied and validated
on two molecular systems: explicitly solvated methane association and the
implicitly solvated Ala4 peptide. We comment on challenges remaining in WE
calculations
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