Eigenstructure Assignment Based Controllers Applied to Flexible Spacecraft

The objective of this paper is to evaluate the behaviour of a controller designed using a parametric Eigenstructure Assignment method and to evaluate its suitability for use in flexible spacecraft. The challenge of this objective lies in obtaining a suitable controller that is specifically designated to alleviate the deflections and vibrations suffered by external appendages in flexible spacecraft while performing attitude manoeuvres. One of the main problems in these vehicles is the mechanical cross-coupling that exists between the rigid and flexible parts of the spacecraft. Spacecraft with fine attitude pointing requirements need precise control of the mechanical coupling to avoid undesired attitude misalignment. In designing an attitude controller, it is necessary to consider the possible vibration of the solar panels and how it may influence the performance of the rest of the vehicle. The nonlinear mathematical model of a flexible spacecraft is considered a close approximation to the real system. During the process of controller evaluation, the design process has also been taken into account as a factor in assessing the robustness of the system

Clinical Response and Autonomic Modulation as Seen in Heart Rate Variability in Mechanical Intermittent Cervical Traction: A Pilot Study

[[abstract]]OBJECTIVE: To determine the influence of mechanical intermittent cervical traction on the autonomic system. DESIGN: Prospective, cases series study. SUBJECTS: Sixteen healthy volunteers without contraindications for cervical traction. METHODS: Subjects received mechanical intermittent cervical traction in a sitting position under two traction forces (10% and 20% of total body weight). Electrocardiographic and neck surface electromyographic signals were recorded and analysed from 3 5-min periods (before, during and after traction). Subjective symptoms, heart rate and heart rate variability parameters, including standard deviation of all normal-to-normal beat intervals, very low-frequency power, low-frequency power, high-frequency power, multiscale entropy, slope of multiscale entropy, and root mean square value of electromyography amplitude were statistically compared. RESULTS: This pilot study showed that using 10% body weight traction force was more comfortable than using 20% body weight. Only subtle perturbation was noted in the autonomic system when using 20% body weight traction force. CONCLUSION: The response pattern of heart rate variability analysis in this pilot study provides some early information about individual discomfort in cervical traction. The autonomic modulation and the safety of cervical traction with other modality settings or in patients with neck pain require further study.[[notice]]補正完畢[[incitationindex]]SCI[[booktype]]紙

Singular current response from isolated impurities in d-wave superconductors

The current response of a d-wave superconductor containing a single impurity is calculated and shown to be singular in the low-temperature limit, leading in the case of strong scattering to a 1/T term in the penetration depth $\lambda(T)$ similar to that induced by Andreev surface bound states. For a small number of such impurities, we argue this low-$T$ upturn could be observable in cuprate superconductors.Comment: 4 pages, 2 .eps figures. Minor changes to match the published versio

Dynamical Properties of a Growing Surface on a Random Substrate

The dynamics of the discrete Gaussian model for the surface of a crystal deposited on a disordered substrate is investigated by Monte Carlo simulations. The mobility of the growing surface was studied as a function of a small driving force $F$ and temperature $T$. A continuous transition is found from high-temperature phase characterized by linear response to a low-temperature phase with nonlinear, temperature dependent response. In the simulated regime of driving force the numerical results are in general agreement with recent dynamic renormalization group predictions.Comment: 10 pages, latex, 3 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. E (RC

Unconventional Spin Density Waves in Dipolar Fermi Gases

The conventional spin density wave (SDW) phase (Overhauser, 1962), as found in antiferromagnetic metal for example (Fawcett 1988), can be described as a condensate of particle-hole pairs with zero angular momentum, $\ell=0$, analogous to a condensate of particle-particle pairs in conventional superconductors. While many unconventional superconductors with Cooper pairs of finite $\ell$ have been discovered, their counterparts, density waves with non-zero angular momenta, have only been hypothesized in two-dimensional electron systems (Nayak, 2000). Using an unbiased functional renormalization group analysis, we here show that spin-triplet particle-hole condensates with $\ell=1$ emerge generically in dipolar Fermi gases of atoms (Lu, Burdick, and Lev, 2012) or molecules (Ospelkaus et al., 2008; Wu et al.) on optical lattice. The order parameter of these exotic SDWs is a vector quantity in spin space, and, moreover, is defined on lattice bonds rather than on lattice sites. We determine the rich quantum phase diagram of dipolar fermions at half-filling as a function of the dipolar orientation, and discuss how these SDWs arise amidst competition with superfluid and charge density wave phases.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

TagF-mediated repression of bacterial type VI secretion systems involves a direct interaction with the cytoplasmic protein Fha

The bacterial type VI secretion system (T6SS) delivers effectors into eukaryotic host cells or toxins into bacterial competitor for survival and fitness. The T6SS is positively regulated by the threonine phosphorylation pathway (TPP) and negatively by the T6SS-accessory protein TagF. Here, we studied the mechanisms underlying TagF-mediated T6SS repression in two distinct bacterial pathogens, Agrobacterium tumefaciens and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. We found that in A. tumefaciens, T6SS toxin secretion and T6SS-dependent antibacterial activity are suppressed by a two-domain chimeric protein consisting of TagF and PppA, a putative phosphatase. Remarkably, this TagF domain is sufficient to post-translationally repress the T6SS, and this inhibition is independent of TPP. This repression requires interaction with a cytoplasmic protein, Fha, critical for activating T6SS assembly. In P. aeruginosa, PppA and TagF are two distinct proteins that repress T6SS in a TPP-dependent and -independent pathways, respectively. P. aeruginosa TagF interacts with Fha1, suggesting that formation of this complex represents a conserved TagF-mediated regulatory mechanism. Using TagF variants with substitutions of conserved amino acid residues at predicted protein-protein interaction interfaces, we uncovered evidence that the TagF-Fha interaction is critical for TagF-mediated T6SS repression in both bacteria. TagF inhibits T6SS without affecting T6SS protein abundance in A. tumefaciens, but TagF overexpression reduces the protein levels of all analyzed T6SS components in P. aeruginosa. Our results indicate that TagF interacts with Fha, which in turn could impact different stages of T6SS assembly in different bacteria, possibly reflecting an evolutionary divergence in T6SS control

Photon assisted tunneling as an origin of the Dynes density of states

We show that the effect of a high-temperature environment in current transport through a normal metal-insulator-superconductor tunnel junction can be described by an effective density of states (DOS) in the superconductor. In the limit of a resistive low-ohmic environment, this DOS reduces into the well-known Dynes form. Our theoretical result is supported by experiments in engineered environments. We apply our findings to improve the performance of a single-electron turnstile, a potential candidate for a metrological current source.Comment: 4+3 pages, 4 figures; updated to the published version, includes EPAPS supplementary materia

Dynamics of coherent and incoherent emission from an artificial atom in a 1D space

We study dynamics of an artificial two-level atom in an open 1D space by measuring evolution of its coherent and incoherent emission. States of the atom -- a superconducting flux qubit coupled to a transmission line -- are fully controlled by resonant excitation microwave pulses. The coherent emission -- a direct measure of superposition in the atom -- exhibits decaying oscillations shifted by $\pi/2$ from oscillations of the incoherent emission, which, in turn, is proportional to the atomic population. The emission dynamics provides information about states and properties of the atom. By measuring the coherent dynamics, we derive two-time correlation function of fluctuations and, using quantum regression formula, reconstruct the incoherent spectrum of the resonance fluorescence triplet, which is in a good agreement with the directly measured one.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure