5,499 research outputs found
An assessment of multibody simulation tools for articulated spacecraft
A survey of multibody simulation codes was conducted in the spring of 1988, to obtain an assessment of the state of the art in multibody simulation codes from the users of the codes. This survey covers the most often used articulated multibody simulation codes in the spacecraft and robotics community. There was no attempt to perform a complete survey of all available multibody codes in all disciplines. Furthermore, this is not an exhaustive evaluation of even robotics and spacecraft multibody simulation codes, as the survey was designed to capture feedback on issues most important to the users of simulation codes. We must keep in mind that the information received was limited and the technical background of the respondents varied greatly. Therefore, only the most often cited observations from the questionnaire are reported here. In this survey, it was found that no one code had both many users (reports) and no limitations. The first section is a report on multibody code applications. Following applications is a discussion of execution time, which is the most troublesome issue for flexible multibody codes. The representation of component flexible bodies, which affects both simulation setup time as well as execution time, is presented next. Following component data preparation, two sections address the accessibility or usability of a code, evaluated by considering its user interface design and examining the overall simulation integrated environment. A summary of user efforts at code verification is reported, before a tabular summary of the questionnaire responses. Finally, some conclusions are drawn
No anomalous scaling in electrostatic calibrations for Casimir force measurements
In a recent paper (Phys.Rev.A78, 020101(R) (2008)), Kim at al. have reported
a large anomaly in the scaling law of the electrostatic interaction between a
sphere and a plate, which was observed during the calibration of their Casimir
force set-up. Here we experimentally demonstrate that in proper electrostatic
calibrations the scaling law follows the behavior expected from elementary
electrostatic arguments, even when the electrostatic voltage that one must
apply to minimize the force (typically ascribed to contact potentials) depends
on the separation between the surfaces.Comment: Final versio
Reclaiming the Body: Francis Bacon\u27s Fugitive Bodies and Confucian Aesthetics on Bodily Expression
Recently there has been a cry in Western academic and artistic circles for reclaiming the body and repositioning its locus and identity. Body theories and body art have become topics of attention as well as subjects of philosophical discussion. This article looks at the issue from a comparative perspective, focusing on representative cases in Chinese and Western portrait paintings. It first discusses Francis Bacon\u27s works of human bodies and identifies their philosophical and psychological loci. It then outlines the Confucian discourses on the body, their related metaphysical grounds, and their relations to traditional Chinese portrait paintings. Representative Chinese portraits like those of Ku K\u27ai-chih are introduced. In comparing these, the following questions are addressed: How are body discourses related to different bodily expressions? In what ways do the Confucian ideas on the body shed light on recent discussions in the West on reclaiming the body? Are the problems with the dichotomies of mind and body solved in the Confucian tradition? Can active engagement through the process of reworking artworks create new possibilities of bodily expression
A method to find quantum noiseless subsystems
We develop a structure theory for decoherence-free subspaces and noiseless
subsystems that applies to arbitrary (not necessarily unital) quantum
operations. The theory can be alternatively phrased in terms of the
superoperator perspective, or the algebraic noise commutant formalism. As an
application, we propose a method for finding all such subspaces and subsystems
for arbitrary quantum operations. We suggest that this work brings the
fundamental passive technique for error correction in quantum computing an
important step closer to practical realization.Comment: 5 pages, to appear in Physical Review Letter
Fiber-top atomic force microscope
We present the implementation of an atomic force microscope (AFM) based on fiber-top design. Our results demonstrate that the performances of fiber-top AFMs in contact mode are comparable to those of similar commercially available instruments. Our device thus represents an interesting\ud
alternative to existing AFMs, particularly for applications outside specialized research laboratories, where a compact, user-friendly, and versatile tool might often be preferred
Parametrical optimization of laser surface alloyed NiTi shape memory alloy with Co and Nb by the Taguchi method
Different high-purity metal powders were successfully alloyed on to a nickel titanium (NiTi) shape memory alloy (SMA) with a 3 kW carbon dioxide (CO2) laser system. In order to produce an alloyed layer with complete penetration and acceptable composition profile, the Taguchi approach was used as a statistical technique for optimizing selected laser processing parameters. A systematic study of laser power, scanning velocity, and pre-paste powder thickness was conducted. The signal-to-noise ratios (S/N) for each control factor were calculated in order to assess the deviation from the average response. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was carried out to understand the significance of process variables affecting the process effects. The Taguchi method was able to determine the laser process parameters for the laser surface alloying technique with high statistical accuracy and yield a laser surface alloying technique capable of achieving a desirable dilution ratio. Energy dispersive spectrometry consistently showed that the per cent by weight of Ni was reduced by 45 per cent as compared with untreated NiTi SMA when the Taguchi-determined laser processing parameters were employed, thus verifying the laser's processing parameters as optimum
Multiplpe Choice Minority Game With Different Publicly Known Histories
In the standard Minority Game, players use historical minority choices as the
sole public information to pick one out of the two alternatives. However,
publishing historical minority choices is not the only way to present global
system information to players when more than two alternatives are available.
Thus, it is instructive to study the dynamics and cooperative behaviors of this
extended game as a function of the global information provided. We numerically
find that although the system dynamics depends on the kind of public
information given to the players, the degree of cooperation follows the same
trend as that of the standard Minority Game. We also explain most of our
findings by the crowd-anticrowd theory.Comment: Extensively revised, to appear in New J Phys, 7 pages with 4 figure
Adsorption isotherm studies of palm carotene extraction by synthetic polymer adsorbent
The use of different synthetic polymer resin adsorbents, including HP 20, Exa 31, Exa 32 and Exa 50 for the removal of carotenes from crude palm oil was investigated. The adsorption of carotene was determined using several adsorption isotherm models such as Langmuir and Scatchard plots. The Langmuir adsorption model was found to be sufficient to describe the adsorption of carotenes by using these four types of resins, suggesting that the process was favorable, saturable and an equilibrated mechanism. A curve of Scatchard transformation plot showed that the adsorption involves multiple binding sites. The maximum uptake capacity of all resins used in isopropanol (IPA) was about 5 fold higher than the maximum uptake capacity obtained in n-hexane. The adsorbent found to be most efficient for carotene was HP 20 for experiment carried out in IPA. The carotenes concentration obtained by HP 20 in IPA was 31.44 mg/L compared to 7.12 mg/L obtained in n-hexane
A Tale of Two Tilings
What do you get when you cross a crystal with a quasicrystal? The surprising
answer stretches from Fibonacci to Kepler, who nearly 400 years ago showed how
the ancient tiles of Archimedes form periodic patterns.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figur
Maintaining Soft Arc Consistency in BnB-ADOPT+ During Search
Gutierrez and Meseguer show how to enforce consistency in BnB-ADOPT + for distributed constraint optimization, but they consider unconditional deletions only. However, during search, more values can be pruned conditionally according to variable instantiations that define subproblems. Enforcing consistency in these subproblems can cause further search space reduction. We introduce efficient methods to maintain soft arc consistencies in every subproblem during search, a non trivial task due to asynchronicity and induced overheads. Experimental results show substantial benefits on three different benchmarks. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.The work of Gutierrez and Meseguer was partially supported by the Spanish project TIN2009-13591-C02-02 and Generalitat de Catalunya 2009-SGR-1434.Peer Reviewe
- …