8,064 research outputs found
Universal Private Estimators
We present \textit{universal} estimators for the statistical mean, variance,
and scale (in particular, the interquartile range) under pure differential
privacy. These estimators are universal in the sense that they work on an
arbitrary, unknown continuous distribution over ,
while yielding strong utility guarantees except for ill-behaved .
For certain distribution families like Gaussians or heavy-tailed distributions,
we show that our universal estimators match or improve existing estimators,
which are often specifically designed for the given family and under \textit{a
priori} boundedness assumptions on the mean and variance of . This
is the first time these boundedness assumptions are removed under pure
differential privacy. The main technical tools in our development are
instance-optimal empirical estimators for the mean and quantiles over the
unbounded integer domain, which can be of independent interest
Robust Sliding Mode Control Based on GA Optimization and CMAC Compensation for Lower Limb Exoskeleton
A lower limb assistive exoskeleton is designed to help operators walk or carry payloads. The exoskeleton is required to shadow human motion intent accurately and compliantly to prevent incoordination. If the user’s intention is estimated accurately, a precise position control strategy will improve collaboration between the user and the exoskeleton. In this paper, a hybrid position control scheme, combining sliding mode control (SMC) with a cerebellar model articulation controller (CMAC) neural network, is proposed to control the exoskeleton to react appropriately to human motion intent. A genetic algorithm (GA) is utilized to determine the optimal sliding surface and the sliding control law to improve performance of SMC. The proposed control strategy (SMC_GA_CMAC) is compared with three other types of approaches, that is, conventional SMC without optimization, optimal SMC with GA (SMC_GA), and SMC with CMAC compensation (SMC_CMAC), all of which are employed to track the desired joint angular position which is deduced from Clinical Gait Analysis (CGA) data. Position tracking performance is investigated with cosimulation using ADAMS and MATLAB/SIMULINK in two cases, of which the first case is without disturbances while the second case is with a bounded disturbance. The cosimulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy which can be employed in similar exoskeleton systems
Central engine afterglow of Gamma-ray Bursts
Before 2004, nearly all GRB afterglow data could be understood in the context
of the external shocks model. This situation has changed in the past two years,
when it became clear that some afterglow components should be attributed to the
activity of the central engine; i.e., the {\it central engine afterglow}. We
review here the afterglow emission that is directly related to the GRB central
engine. Such an interpretation proposed by Katz, Piran & Sari, peculiar in
pre-{\it Swift} era, has become generally accepted now.Comment: 4 pages including 1 figure. Presented at the conference "Astrophysics
of Compact Objects" (July 1-7, 2007; Huangshan, China
Comparative proteomic profiling reveals molecular characteristics associated with oogenesis and oocyte maturation during ovarian development of Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel)
Time-dependent expression of proteins in ovary is important to understand oogenesis in insects. Here, we profiled the proteomes of developing ovaries from Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel) to obtain information about ovarian development with particular emphasis on differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) involved in oogenesis. A total of 4838 proteins were identified with an average peptide number of 8.15 and sequence coverage of 20.79%. Quantitative proteomic analysis showed that a total of 612 and 196 proteins were differentially expressed in developing and mature ovaries, respectively. Furthermore, 153, 196 and 59 potential target proteins were highly expressed in early, vitellogenic and mature ovaries and most tested DEPs had the similar trends consistent with the respective transcriptional profiles. These proteins were abundantly expressed in pre-vitellogenic and vitellogenic stages, including tropomyosin, vitellogenin, eukaryotic translation initiation factor, heat shock protein, importin protein, vitelline membrane protein, and chorion protein. Several hormone and signal pathway related proteins were also identified during ovarian development including piRNA, notch, insulin, juvenile, and ecdysone hormone signal pathways. This is the first report of a global ovary proteome of a tephritid fruit fly, and may contribute to understanding the complicate processes of ovarian development and exploring the potentially novel pest control targets
Is the late near-infrared bump in short-hard GRB 130603B due to the Li-Paczynski kilonova?
Short-hard gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are widely believed to be produced by the
merger of two binary compact objects, specifically by two neutron stars or by a
neutron star orbiting a black hole. According to the Li-Paczynski kilonova
model, the merger would launch sub-relativistic ejecta and a
near-infrared/optical transient would then occur, lasting up to days, which is
powered by the radioactive decay of heavy elements synthesized in the ejecta.
The detection of a late bump using the {\em Hubble Space Telescope} ({\em HST})
in the near-infrared afterglow light curve of the short-hard GRB 130603B is
indeed consistent with such a model. However, as shown in this Letter, the
limited {\em HST} near-infrared lightcurve behavior can also be interpreted as
the synchrotron radiation of the external shock driven by a wide mildly
relativistic outflow. In such a scenario, the radio emission is expected to
peak with a flux of Jy, which is detectable for current radio
arrays. Hence, the radio afterglow data can provide complementary evidence on
the nature of the bump in GRB 130603B. It is worth noting that good
spectroscopy during the bump phase in short-hard bursts can test validity of
either model above, analogous to spectroscopy of broad-lined Type Ic supernova
in long-soft GRBs.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, published in ApJ Lette
A supra-massive magnetar central engine for short GRB 130603B
We show that the peculiar early optical and in particular X-ray afterglow
emission of the short duration burst GRB 130603B can be explained by continuous
energy injection into the blastwave from a supra-massive magnetar central
engine. The observed energetics and temporal/spectral properties of the late
infrared bump (i.e., the "kilonova") are also found consistent with emission
from the ejecta launched during an NS-NS merger and powered by a magnetar
central engine. The isotropic-equivalent kinetic energies of both the GRB
blastwave and the kilonova are about erg, consistent
with being powered by a near-isotropic magnetar wind. However, this relatively
small value demands that most of the initial rotational energy of the magnetar
is carried away by gravitational wave
radiation. Our results suggest that (i) the progenitor of GRB 130603B would be
a NS-NS binary system, whose merger product would be a supra-massive neutron
star that lasted for about seconds; (ii) the equation-of-state of
nuclear matter would be stiff enough to allow survival of a long-lived
supra-massive neutron star, so that it is promising to detect bright
electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational wave triggers without short GRB
associations in the upcoming Advanced LIGO/Virgo era.Comment: Five pages including 1 Figure, to appear in ApJ
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