High-Order Robotic Joint Sensing with Multiple Accelerometer and Gyroscope Systems

In recent years work into larger humanoid robotic systems and other highly dynamic legged robots has driven a need to increase control system performance and parameter estimation capability. This in turn has seen an increase in the use of higher order joint space derivative terms such as acceleration and jerk being introduced into the control systems and estimators. Although it is evident that the inclusion of these terms can increase the performance of the estimators and control systems, there is a distinct lack of high quality sensors or systems capable of providing this information. Instead it is apparent that those researchers aiming to employ the acceleration and jerk terms are having to resort to other poor quality methods of acquiring the information, which in turn limits the capability of the systems. The works examined suggest that in particular, access to higher quality sources of joint space acceleration measurement or estimation can lead to increases in the performance of control systems and estimators employing these terms. The aim of this work is to investigate the feasibility and capability of a new joint space sensor based on positional encoders and MEMs accelerometers that can estimate angular joint position, velocity and acceleration. The system proposed employs the accelerometer only IMU (AO-IMU) concept to estimate link angular acceleration and velocity in an inertial frame. This concept is then extended to obtain these angular components relative to the previous link. Sensor fusion techniques are then tasked with estimating the velocity states of the AO-IMU and ensuring consistency across the relative states. Two calibration schemes are proposed and demonstrated to correct for the bias, gain and cross axis effects present in the inertial sensors and to correct for the non-ideal placement of the sensors on the body frame. The performance of the system is compared to three online methods common in the literature with significant increases in performance being shown across all states, particularly in the acceleration and velocity states. The base sensor system is then augmented to explore alternate inertial sensor arrangements and structures. In this the effects of adding MEMs gyroscopes to the sensor system are studied and shown to have a small positive effect on the relative velocity state. The addition of multiple relative accelerometers are then studied to examine whether the initial system design choices could be improved upon, with this study showing greater increases in the relative acceleration and velocity states performance. Taking inspiration from the positive results of the multiple relative accelerometer study, an alternate sensor system structure is proposed whereby the robot is instrumented with AO-IMUs and the relative accelerometers omitted. This augmented structure may prove more useful in larger robotic systems. This study initially showed poor results with the low angular velocities experienced by the upper link AO-IMU introducing bias errors. This was corrected for by the inclusion of gyroscopes with the resulting system exhibiting good performance. The findings within this work show that with some modification, the AO-IMU is capable of directly measuring the relative angular acceleration and velocity of a robotic link. When combined with positional sensors this system can be extended to obtain high quality measurements of a joint’s angular position, velocity and acceleration.Thesis (MPhil) -- University of Adelaide, School of Mechanical Engineering, 201

UBVRI Photometry of the Type Ia SN 1994D in NGC 4526

We present optical photometry for the type Ia SN 1994D in NGC 4526 from 1994 March 7 to June 4 starting 13 days before B-band maximum. The light curves of this SN resemble closely those of the normal type Ia events SNe 1989B and 1980N, differing only in a slightly faster decline after maximum in VRI. The optical absolute magnitudes of SN 1994D, however, are significantly brighter than those of its near twins, and brighter than those predicted by Phillips\u27 [ApJ, 413, L105 (1993)] relationship between decline rate and luminosity. Our small amount of IR photometry of SN 1994D is not inconsistent with that of other type IA SNe

Clonal transitions and phenotypic evolution in Barrett esophagus

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Barrett's esophagus (BE) is a risk factor for esophageal adenocarcinoma but our understanding of how it evolves is poorly understood. We investigated BE gland phenotype distribution, the clonal nature of phenotypic change, and how phenotypic diversity plays a role in progression. METHODS: Using immunohistochemistry and histology, we analyzed the distribution and the diversity of gland phenotype between and within biopsy specimens from patients with nondysplastic BE and those who had progressed to dysplasia or had developed postesophagectomy BE. Clonal relationships were determined by the presence of shared mutations between distinct gland types using laser capture microdissection sequencing of the mitochondrial genome. RESULTS: We identified 5 different gland phenotypes in a cohort of 51 nondysplastic patients where biopsy specimens were taken at the same anatomic site (1.0-2.0 cm superior to the gastroesophageal junction. Here, we observed the same number of glands with 1 and 2 phenotypes, but 3 phenotypes were rare. We showed a common ancestor between parietal cell-containing, mature gastric (oxyntocardiac) and goblet cell-containing, intestinal (specialized) gland phenotypes. Similarly, we have shown a clonal relationship between cardiac-type glands and specialized and mature intestinal glands. Using the Shannon diversity index as a marker of gland diversity, we observed significantly increased phenotypic diversity in patients with BE adjacent to dysplasia and predysplasia compared to nondysplastic BE and postesophagectomy BE, suggesting that diversity develops over time. CONCLUSIONS: We showed that the range of BE phenotypes represents an evolutionary process and that changes in gland diversity may play a role in progression. Furthermore, we showed a common ancestry between gastric and intestinal-type glands in BE

Oseltamivir-Resistant Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 Virus Infection in England and Scotland, 2009–2010

Monitoring of antiviral resistance is strongly recommended for immunocompromised patients

VizieR Online Data Catalog: Absolute Proper motions Outside the Plane (APOP) (Qi+, 2015)

The APOP is a absolute proper motion catalog achieved on the Digitized Sky Survey Schmidt plates data established by GSC-II project that outside the galactic plane (|b|>27°). The sky cover of this catalog is 22,525 square degree, the mean density is 4473 objects/sq.deg. and the magnitude limit is around R=20.8mag. The systematic errors of absolute proper motions related to the position, magnitude and color are practically all removed by using the extragalactic objects. The zero point error of absolute proper motions is less than 0.6mas/yr, and the accuracy is better than 4.0mas/yr for objects bright than R=18.5, and rises to 9.0mas/yr for objects with magnitude 18.5We believe the catalog is reliable for operational applications and will be also fine for astrophysical research. But the user should use this catalog with that in mind, the accuracy condition is good for objects with Declination>-30 degree and is not very well for others, the reason is that the epoch difference is large for Declination>-30° (45 years) but South than that is only around 12 years. It is fine for statistical studies for objects with Declination<-30° that people could find and remove obviously incorrect entries. (1 data file)

A Brief Overview of the Absolute Proper motions Outside the Plane catalog (APOP)

APOP is the first version of an absolute proper motion catalog achieved using the Digitized Sky Survey Schmidt plate material outside the galactic plane (|b|≥ 27(o) ). The resulting global zero point error is less than 0.6 mas/yr, and the precision better than 4.0 mas/yr for objects brighter than R_{F}=18.5, rising to 9.0 mas/yr for objects with magnitude in the range 18.5<R_{F}<20.0. The average position accuracy is about 150 mas (per coordinate) with a systematic deviation from the ICRS around 0.2 mas. The catalog covers 22,525 square degrees and lists 100,777,385 objects to the limiting magnitude of R_{F}̃ 20.8. Although the Gaia mission is poised to set the new standard in catalog astronomy, the methods and procedures used for APOP will be useful in other reductions to dispel astrometric magnitude- and color-dependent systematic errors from the next generation of ground-based surveys

Macrophage Inhibitory Cytokine 1 (MIC-1/GDF15) Decreases Food Intake, Body Weight and Improves Glucose Tolerance in Mice on Normal & Obesogenic Diets

Food intake and body weight are controlled by a variety of central and peripheral factors, but the exact mechanisms behind these processes are still not fully understood. Here we show that that macrophage inhibitory cytokine-1 (MIC-1/GDF15), known to have anorexigenic effects particularly in cancer, provides protection against the development of obesity. Both under a normal chow diet and an obesogenic diet, the transgenic overexpression of MIC-1/GDF15 in mice leads to decreased body weight and fat mass. This lean phenotype was associated with decreased spontaneous but not fasting-induced food intake, on a background of unaltered energy expenditure and reduced physical activity. Importantly, the overexpression of MIC-1/GDF15 improved glucose tolerance, both under normal and high fat-fed conditions. Altogether, this work shows that the molecule MIC-1/GDF15 might be beneficial for the treatment of obesity as well as perturbations in glucose homeostasis

Atypical AT Skew in Firmicute Genomes Results from Selection and Not from Mutation

The second parity rule states that, if there is no bias in mutation or selection, then within each strand of DNA complementary bases are present at approximately equal frequencies. In bacteria, however, there is commonly an excess of G (over C) and, to a lesser extent, T (over A) in the replicatory leading strand. The low G+C Firmicutes, such as Staphylococcus aureus, are unusual in displaying an excess of A over T on the leading strand. As mutation has been established as a major force in the generation of such skews across various bacterial taxa, this anomaly has been assumed to reflect unusual mutation biases in Firmicute genomes. Here we show that this is not the case and that mutation bias does not explain the atypical AT skew seen in S. aureus. First, recently arisen intergenic SNPs predict the classical replication-derived equilibrium enrichment of T relative to A, contrary to what is observed. Second, sites predicted to be under weak purifying selection display only weak AT skew. Third, AT skew is primarily associated with largely non-synonymous first and second codon sites and is seen with respect to their sense direction, not which replicating strand they lie on. The atypical AT skew we show to be a consequence of the strong bias for genes to be co-oriented with the replicating fork, coupled with the selective avoidance of both stop codons and costly amino acids, which tend to have T-rich codons. That intergenic sequence has more A than T, while at mutational equilibrium a preponderance of T is expected, points to a possible further unresolved selective source of skew