1,114 research outputs found
Automatic Parameter Tuning for the Morpheus Vehicle Using Particle Swarm Optimization
A high fidelity simulation using a PC based Trick framework has been developed for Johnson Space Center's Morpheus test bed flight vehicle. There is an iterative development loop of refining and testing the hardware, refining the software, comparing the software simulation to hardware performance and adjusting either or both the hardware and the simulation to extract the best performance from the hardware as well as the most realistic representation of the hardware from the software. A Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) based technique has been developed that increases speed and accuracy of the iterative development cycle. Parameters in software can be automatically tuned to make the simulation match real world subsystem data from test flights. Special considerations for scale, linearity, discontinuities, can be all but ignored with this technique, allowing fast turnaround both for simulation tune up to match hardware changes as well as during the test and validation phase to help identify hardware issues. Software models with insufficient control authority to match hardware test data can be immediately identified and using this technique requires very little to no specialized knowledge of optimization, freeing model developers to concentrate on spacecraft engineering. Integration of the PSO into the Morpheus development cycle will be discussed as well as a case study highlighting the tool's effectiveness
Designing Approximation Schemes for Stochastic Optimization Problems, in Particular for Stochastic Programs with Recourse
Various approximation schemes for stochastic optimization problems involving either approximates of the probability measures and/or approximates of the objective functional, are investigated. We discuss their potential implementation as part of general procedures for solving stochastic programs with recourse
Approximations and Error Bounds in Stochastic Programming
We review and complete the approximation results for stochastic programs with recourse. Since this note is to serve as a preamble to the development of software for stochastic programming problems, we also address the question of how to easily find a (starting) solution
Commentary: The carboxyl-terminal Crk SH3 domain: Regulatory strategies and new perspectives
AbstractSince their discovery as cellular counterparts of viral oncogenes more than two decades ago, enormous progress has been made in unraveling the complex regulatory pathways of signal transduction initiated by the Crk family of proteins. New structural and biochemical studies have uncovered novel insights into both negative and positive regulation of Crk mediated by its atypical carboxyl-terminal SH3 domain (SH3C). Moreover, SH3C is tyrosine phosphorylated by receptor tyrosine kinases and non-receptor tyrosine kinases, thereby permitting assemblages of other SH2/PTB domain containing proteins. Such non-canonical signaling by the Crk SH3C reveals new regulatory strategies for adaptor proteins
ATG proteins mediate efferocytosis and suppress inflammation in mammary involution.
Involution is the process of post-lactational mammary gland regression to quiescence and it involves secretory epithelial cell death, stroma remodeling and gland repopulation by adipocytes. Though reportedly accompanying apoptosis, the role of autophagy in involution has not yet been determined. We now report that autophagy-related (ATG) proteins mediate dead cell clearance and suppress inflammation during mammary involution. In vivo, Becn1(+/-) and Atg7-deficient mammary epithelial cells (MECs) produced 'competent' apoptotic bodies, but were defective phagocytes in association with reduced expression of the MERTK and ITGB5 receptors, thus pointing to defective apoptotic body engulfment. Atg-deficient tissues exhibited higher levels of involution-associated inflammation, which could be indicative of a tumor-modulating microenvironment, and developed ductal ectasia, a manifestation of deregulated post-involution gland remodeling. In vitro, ATG (BECN1 or ATG7) knockdown compromised MEC-mediated apoptotic body clearance in association with decreased RAC1 activation, thus confirming that, in addition to the defective phagocytic processing reported by other studies, ATG protein defects also impair dead cell engulfment. Using two different mouse models with mammary gland-associated Atg deficiencies, our studies shed light on the essential role of ATG proteins in MEC-mediated efferocytosis during mammary involution and provide novel insights into this important developmental process. This work also raises the possibility that a regulatory feedback loop exists, by which the efficacy of phagocytic cargo processing in turn regulates the rate of engulfment and ultimately determines the kinetics of phagocytosis and dead cell clearance
Effect of Magnetic Impurities on Energy Exchange between Electrons
In order to probe quantitatively the effect of Kondo impurities on energy
exchange between electrons in metals, we have compared measurements on two
silver wires with dilute magnetic impurities (manganese) introduced in one of
them. The measurement of the temperature dependence of the electron phase
coherence time on the wires provides an independent determination of the
impurity concentration. Quantitative agreement on the energy exchange rate is
found with a theory by G\"{o}ppert et al. that accounts for Kondo scattering of
electrons on spin-1/2 impurities.Comment: 4 page
Energy relaxation due to magnetic impurities in mesoscopic wires: Logarithmic approach
The transport in mesoscopic wires with large applied bias voltage has
recently attracted great interest by measuring the energy distribution of the
electrons at a given point of the wire, in Saclay. In the diffusive limit with
negligible energy relaxation that shows two sharp steps at the Fermi energies
of the two contacts, which are broadened due to the energy relaxation. In some
of the experiments the broadening is reflecting an anomalous energy relaxation
rate proportional to instead of valid for Coulomb
electron-electron interaction, where is the energy transfer. Later it has
been suggested that such relaxation rate can be due to electron-electron
interaction mediated by Kondo impurities. In the present paper the latter is
systematically studied in the logarithmic approximation valid above the Kondo
temperature. In the case of large applied bias voltage Kondo resonances are
formed at the steps of the distribution function and they are narrowed by
increasing the bias. An additional Korringa energy broadening occurs for the
spins which smears the Kondo resonances, and the renormalized coupling can be
replaced by a smooth but essentially enhanced average coupling (factor of
8-10). Thus the experimental data can be described by formulas without
logarithmic Kondo corrections, but with enhanced coupling. In certain regions
of large bias, that averaged coupling depends weakly on the bias. In those
cases the distribution function depends only on the ratio of the electron
energy and the bias, showing scaling behavior. The impurity concentrations
estimated from those experiments and other dephasing experiments can be very
different, and a possible explanation considering the surface spin anisotropy
due to strong spin-orbit interaction is the subject of our earlier paper.Comment: 12 pages, RevTex
Measuring the distribution of current fluctuations through a Josephson junction with very short current pulses
We propose to probe the distribution of current fluctuations by means of the
escape probability histogram of a Josephson junction (JJ), obtained using very
short bias current pulses in the adiabatic regime, where the low-frequency
component of the current fluctuations plays a crucial role. We analyze the
effect of the third cumulant on the histogram in the small skewness limit, and
address two concrete examples assuming realistic parameters for the JJ. In the
first one we study the effects due to fluctuations produced by a tunnel
junction, finding that the signature of higher cumulants can be detected by
taking the derivative of the escape probability with respect to current. In
such a realistic situation, though, the determination of the whole distribution
of current fluctuations requires an amplification of the cumulants. As a second
example we consider magnetic flux fluctuations acting on a SQUID produced by a
random telegraph source of noise.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures; final versio
Dephasing by extremely dilute magnetic impurities revealed by Aharonov-Bohm oscillations
We have probed the magnetic field dependence of the electron phase coherence
time by measuring the Aharonov-Bohm conductance oscillations of
mesoscopic Cu rings. Whereas determined from the low-field
magnetoresistance saturates below 1 K, the amplitude of Aharonov-Bohm
oscillations increases strongly on a magnetic field scale proportional to the
temperature. This provides strong evidence that a likely explanation for the
frequently observed saturation of at low temperature in weakly
disordered metallic thin films is the presence of extremely dilute magnetic
impurities.Comment: Accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter
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