A layered fuzzy logic controller for nonholonomic car-like robot

A system for real time navigation of a nonholonomic car-like robot in a dynamic environment consists of two layers is described: a Sugeno-type fuzzy motion planner; and a modified proportional navigation based fuzzy controller. The system philosophy is inspired by human routing when moving between obstacles based on visual information including right and left views to identify the next step to the goal. A Sugeno-type fuzzy motion planner of four inputs one output is introduced to give a clear direction to the robot controller. The second stage is a modified proportional navigation based fuzzy controller based on the proportional navigation guidance law and able to optimize the robot's behavior in real time, i.e. to avoid stationary and moving obstacles in its local environment obeying kinematics constraints. The system has an intelligent combination of two behaviors to cope with obstacle avoidance as well as approaching a target using a proportional navigation path. The system was simulated and tested on different environments with various obstacle distributions. The simulation reveals that the system gives good results for various simple environments

A critical appraisal of WinEcon and its use in a first‐year undergraduate Economics programme

This is an extended review of WinEcon, a CAL package for introductory economics. Our comments are based on a survey of staff and students involved in the first large‐scale (n = 300+) attempt to integrate WinEcon into a teaching and assessment programme

Narrow Linewidth 780 nm Distributed Feedback Lasers for Cold Atom Quantum Technology

Cold atom quantum technology systems have a wide range of potential applications which includes atomic clocks, rotational sensors, inertial sensors, quantum navigators, magnetometers and gravimeters. The UK Quantum Technology Hub in Sensors and Metrology has the aim of developing miniature cold atom systems using an approach similar to that pioneered by the chip scale atomic clock where microfabricated vacuum chambers have atomic transitions excited and probed by lasers. Whilst narrow linewidth Ti:Sa and external cavity diode lasers have been required for cooling and control, such lasers are too large, power hungry and expensive for future miniature cold atom systems. Here we demonstrate 1 mm long 780.24 nm GaAs/AlGaAs distributed feedback (DFB) lasers aimed at 87Rb cold atom systems operating at 20 ˚C with over 50 mW of power and side-mode suppression ratios of 46 dB using sidewall gratings and no regrowth. Rb spectroscopy is used to demonstrate linewidths below the required 6.07 MHz natural linewidth of the 87Rb D2 optical transition used for cooling. Initial packaged fibre-coupled devices demonstrate lifetimes greater than 200 hours. We also investigate the use of integrated semiconductor amplifiers (SOAs) and longer devices to further reduce the linewidths well below 1 MHz. A range of options to control the populations of electrons in the hyperfine split energy levels spaced by 3.417 GHz are examined. Two integrated lasers, integrated electro-absorption modulators (EAMs) and the direct modulation of a single DFB laser approaches are investigated and we will discuss which is best suited to integrated cold atom systems

Next-to-leading resummation of cosmological perturbations via the Lagrangian picture: 2-loop correction in real and redshift spaces

We present an improved prediction of the nonlinear perturbation theory (PT) via the Lagrangian picture, which was originally proposed by Matsubara (2008). Based on the relations between the power spectrum in standard PT and that in Lagrangian PT, we derive analytic expressions for the power spectrum in Lagrangian PT up to 2-loop order in both real and redshift spaces. Comparing the improved prediction of Lagrangian PT with $N$-body simulations in real space, we find that the 2-loop corrections can extend the valid range of wave numbers where we can predict the power spectrum within 1% accuracy by a factor of 1.0 ($z=0.5$), 1.3 (1), 1.6 (2) and 1.8 (3) vied with 1-loop Lagrangian PT results. On the other hand, in all redshift ranges, the higher-order corrections are shown to be less significant on the two-point correlation functions around the baryon acoustic peak, because the 1-loop Lagrangian PT is already accurate enough to explain the nonlinearity on those scales in $N$-body simulations.Comment: 18pages, 4 figure

Large-scale periodicity in the distribution of QSO absorption-line systems

The spatial-temporal distribution of absorption-line systems (ALSs) observed in QSO spectra within the cosmological redshift interval z = 0.0--4.3 is investigated on the base of our updated catalog of absorption systems. We consider so called metallic systems including basically lines of heavy elements. The sample of the data displays regular variations (with amplitudes ~ 15 -- 20%) in the z-distribution of ALSs as well as in the eta-distribution, where eta is a dimensionless line-of-sight comoving distance, relatively to smoother dependences. The eta-distribution reveals the periodicity with period Delta eta = 0.036 +/- 0.002, which corresponds to a spatial characteristic scale (108 +/- 6) h(-1) Mpc or (alternatively) a temporal interval (350 +/- 20) h(-1) Myr for the LambdaCDM cosmological model. We discuss a possibility of a spatial interpretation of the results treating the pattern obtained as a trace of an order imprinted on the galaxy clustering in the early Universe.Comment: AASTeX, 13 pages, with 9 figures, Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Scienc

Sex Disparities in Arrest Outcomes for Domestic Violence

Domestic violence arrests have been historically focused on protecting women and children from abusive men. Arrest patterns continue to reflect this bias with more men arrested for domestic violence compared to women. Such potential gender variations in arrest patterns pave the way to the investigation of disparities by sex of the offender in domestic violence arrests. This study utilizes data from a quantitative dataset that includes responses by police officers who completed a specially mandated checklist after responding to a domestic dispute. The results showed that while females are arrested quite often in domestic disputes, there remains a significant difference in the arrest outcome whereby male suspects were more likely to be arrested than female suspects. Regression models further indicated differences based on sex and certain predictors of arrest, which supported sex-based rationales in arrests for domestic violence.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

A conceptual design study of a Compact Photon Source (CPS) for Jefferson Lab

This document describes the technical design concept of a compact high intensity, multi-GeV photon source. Capable of producing 1012 equivalent photons per second this novel device will provide unprecedented access to physics processes with very small scattering probabilities such as hard exclusive reactions on the nucleon. When combined with dynamic nuclear polarized targets, its deployment will result in a large gain in polarized experiment figure-of-merit compared to all previous measurements. Compared to a traditional bremsstrahlung photon source the proposed concept presents several advantages, most significantly in providing a full intensity in a small spot at the target and in taking advantage of the narrow angular spread associated with high energy bremsstrahlung compared to the wide angular distribution of the secondary radiation to minimize the operational prompt and activation radiation dose rates

The Magnetic Field of the Solar Corona from Pulsar Observations

We present a novel experiment with the capacity to independently measure both the electron density and the magnetic field of the solar corona. We achieve this through measurement of the excess Faraday rotation due to propagation of the polarised emission from a number of pulsars through the magnetic field of the solar corona. This method yields independent measures of the integrated electron density, via dispersion of the pulsed signal and the magnetic field, via the amount of Faraday rotation. In principle this allows the determination of the integrated magnetic field through the solar corona along many lines of sight without any assumptions regarding the electron density distribution. We present a detection of an increase in the rotation measure of the pulsar J1801$-$2304 of approximately 160 \rad at an elongation of 0.95$^\circ$ from the centre of the solar disk. This corresponds to a lower limit of the magnetic field strength along this line of sight of $> 393\mu\mathrm{G}$. The lack of precision in the integrated electron density measurement restricts this result to a limit, but application of coronal plasma models can further constrain this to approximately 20mG, along a path passing 2.5 solar radii from the solar limb. Which is consistent with predictions obtained using extensions to the Source Surface models published by Wilcox Solar ObservatoryComment: 16 pages, 4 figures (1 colour): Submitted to Solar Physic