Zero miss distance guidance using feedforward and periodic control

There have been attempts at obtaining robust guidance laws to ensure zero miss distance (ZMD) for interceptors with parametric uncertainties. All these laws require the plant to be of minimum phase type to enable the overall guidance loop transfer function to satisfy strict positive realness (SPR). The SPR property implies absolute stability of the closed loop system, and has been shown in the literature to lead to ZMD because it avoids saturation of lateral acceleration. In these works higher order interceptors are reduced to lower order equivalent models for which control laws are designed to ensure ZMD. However, it has also been shown that when the original system with right half plane (RHP) zeros is considered, the resulting miss distances, using such strategies, can be quite high. In this paper, an alternative approach using the circle criterion establishes the conditions for absolute stability of the guidance loop and relaxes the conservative nature of some earlier results arising from assumption of in�nite engagement time. Further, a feedforward scheme in conjunction with a lead-lag compensator is used as one control strategy while a generalized sampled hold function is used as a second strategy, to shift the RHP transmission zeros, thereby achieving ZMD. It is observed that merely shifting the RHP zero(s) to the left half plane reduces miss distances signi�cantly even when no additional controllers are used to ensure SPR conditions.

EESM-Based Link Adaptation in Point-to-Point and Multi-Cell OFDM Systems: Modeling and Analysis

In contemporary wideband orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems, such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) and WiMAX, different subcarriers over which a codeword is transmitted may experience different signal-to-noise-ratios (SNRs). Thus, adaptive modulation and coding (AMC) in these systems is driven by a vector of subcarrier SNRs experienced by the codeword, and is more involved. Exponential effective SNR mapping (EESM) simplifies the problem by mapping this vector into a single equivalent fiat-fading SNR. Analysis of AMC using EESM is challenging owing to its non-linear nature and its dependence on the modulation and coding scheme. We first propose a novel statistical model for the EESM, which is based on the Beta distribution. It is motivated by the central limit approximation for random variables with a finite support. It is simpler and as accurate as the more involved ad hoc models proposed earlier. Using it, we develop novel expressions for the throughput of a point-to-point OFDM link with multi-antenna diversity that uses EESM for AMC. We then analyze a general, multi-cell OFDM deployment with co-channel interference for various frequency-domain schedulers. Extensive results based on LTE and WiMAX are presented to verify the model and analysis, and gain new insights.

A Seventeen-level Inverter With a Single DC-link For Motor Drives

In the present paper, a novel topology for generating a 17-level inverter using three-level flying capacitor inverter and cascaded H-bridge modules with floating capacitors. The proposed circuit is analyzed and various aspects of it are presented in the paper. This circuit is experimentally verified and the results are shown. The stability of the capacitor balancing algorithm has been verified during sudden acceleration. This circuit has many pole voltage redundancies. This circuit has an advantage of balancing all the capacitor voltages instantaneously by switching through the redundancies. Another advantage of this topology is its ability to generate all the 17 pole voltages from a single DC link which enables back to back converter operation. Also, the proposed inverter can be operated at all load power factors and modulation indices. Another advantage is, if one of the H-bridges fail, the inverter can still be operated at full load with reduced number of levels.

On the possible variation of the lightning striking distance as assumed in the IEC lightning protection standard as a function of structure height

The effect of structure height on the lightning striking distance is estimated using a lightning strike model that takes into account the effect of connecting leaders. According to the results, the lightning striking distance may differ significantly from the values assumed in the IEC standard for structure heights beyond 30m. However, for structure heights smaller than about 30m, the results show that the values assumed by IEC do not differ significantly from the predictions based on a lightning attachment model taking into account the effect of connecting leaders. However, since IEC assumes a smaller striking distance than the ones predicted by the adopted model one can conclude that the safety is not compromised in adhering to the IEC standard. Results obtained from the model are also compared with Collection Volume Method (CVM) and other commonly used lightning attachment models available in the literature. The results show that in the case of CVM the calculated attractive distances are much larger than the ones obtained using the physically based lightning attachment models. This indicates the possibility of compromising the lightning protection procedures when using CVM. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Flocking at a distance in active granular matter

The self-organized motion of vast numbers of creatures in a single direction is a spectacular example of emergent order. Here, we recreate this phenomenon using actuated nonliving components. We report here that millimetre-sized tapered rods, rendered motile by contact with an underlying vibrated surface and interacting through a medium of spherical beads, undergo a phase transition to a state of spontaneous alignment of velocities and orientations above a threshold bead area fraction. Guided by a detailed simulation model, we construct an analytical theory of this flocking transition, with two ingredients: a moving rod drags beads; neighbouring rods reorient in the resulting flow like a weathercock in the wind. Theory and experiment agree on the structure of our phase diagram in the plane of rod and bead concentrations and power-law spatial correlations near the phase boundary. Our discovery suggests possible new mechanisms for the collective transport of particulate or cellular matter.

Males and females of the social wasp Ropalidia marginata do not differ in their cuticular hydrocarbon profiles and do not seem to use any long-distance volatile mate attraction cues

Sex pheromones are vital in communication between individuals belonging to opposite sexes and form an integral part of the reproductive biology of various species. Among insects, sexual dimorphism in CHCs has been reported from diverse taxa spanning seven different orders, and thereby CHCs have been implicated as sex pheromones. Because males and females of the primitively eusocial wasp Ropalidia marginata touch each other with their antennae during mating, before engaging in sperm transfer, a sex pheromone that is perceived via contact chemosensation through the antennae can possibly exist in this species. Since CHCs have been implied as sex pheromones in various insects (including hymenopterans), and since sexual dimorphism of CHCs should be an obligatory prerequisite for them to act as sex pheromones, we investigated whether males and females of R. marginata differ in their CHC profiles. We found only nonvolatile CHCs, and our results show absence of sexual dimorphism in CHCs, suggesting that CHCs do not function as sex pheromone in this species. A behavioral assay failed to show presence of mate attraction at a distance, thereby showing the absence of volatile long-distance mate attraction cues (that may originate from sources other than and in addition to CHCs).

Direct Link-Aware Optimal Relay Selection and a Low Feedback Variant for Underlay CR

Cooperative relaying combined with selection has been extensively studied in the literature to improve the performance of interference-constrained secondary users in underlay cognitive radio (CR). We present a novel symbol error probability (SEP)-optimal amplify-and-forward relay selection rule for an average interference-constrained underlay CR system. A fundamental principle, which is unique to average interference-constrained underlay CR, that the proposed rule brings out is that the choice of the optimal relay is affected not just by the source-to-relay, relay-to-destination, and relay-to-primary receiver links, which are local to the relay, but also by the direct source-to-destination (SD) link, even though it is not local to any relay. We also propose a simpler, practically amenable variant of the optimal rule called the 1-bit rule, which requires just one bit of feedback about the SD link gain to the relays, and incurs a marginal performance loss relative to the optimal rule. We analyze its SEP and develop an insightful asymptotic SEP analysis. The proposed rules markedly outperform several ad hoc SD link-unaware rules proposed in the literature. They also generalize the interference-unconstrained and SD link-unaware optimal rules considered in the literature.

Modified Einstein's gravity as a possible missing link between sub- and super-Chandrasekhar type Ia supernovae

We explore the effect of modification to Einstein's gravity in white dwarfs for the first time in the literature, to the best of our knowledge. This leads to significantly sub- and super-Chandrasekhar limiting masses of white dwarfs, determined by a single model parameter. On the other hand, type Ia supernovae (SNeIa), a key to unravel the evolutionary history of the universe, are believed to be triggered in white dwarfs having mass close to the Chandrasekhar limit. However, observations of several peculiar, under- and over-luminous SNeIa argue for exploding masses widely different from this limit. We argue that explosions of the modified gravity induced sub- and super-Chandrasekhar limiting mass white dwarfs result in under- and over-luminous SNeIa respectively, thus unifying these two apparently disjoint sub-classes and, hence, serving as a missing link. Our discovery raises two fundamental questions. Is the Chandrasekhar limit unique? Is Einstein's gravity the ultimate theory for understanding astronomical phenomena? Both the answers appear to be no!

Quantifying the Transmit Diversity Order of Euclidean Distance Based Antenna Selection in Spatial Modulation

In this letter, we quantify the transmit diversity order of the SM system operating in a closed-loop scenario. Specifically, the SM system relying on Euclidean distance based antenna subset selection (EDAS) is considered and the achievable diversity gain is evaluated. Furthermore, the resultant trade-off between the achievable diversity gain and switching gain is studied. Simulation results confirm our theoretical results. Specifically, at a symbol error rate of about 10(-4) the signal-to-noise ratio gain achieved by EDAS is about 7 dB in case of 16-QAM and about 5 dB in case of 64-QAM.

Low-Order Harmonic Suppression for Open-End Winding IM With Dodecagonal Space Vector Using a Single DC-Link Supply

This paper proposes a technique to suppress low-order harmonics for an open-end winding induction motor drive for a full modulation range. One side of the machine is connected to a main inverter with a dc power supply, whereas the other inverter is connected to a capacitor from the other side. Harmonic suppression (with complete elimination of fifth- and seventh-order harmonics) is achieved by realizing dodecagonal space vectors using a combined pulsewidth modulation (PWM) control for the two inverters. The floating capacitor voltage is inherently controlled during the PWM operation. The proposed PWM technique is shown to be valid for the entire modulation range, including overmodulation and six-step mode of operation of the main inverter. Experimental results have been presented to validate the proposed technique.

Average Overlap for Clustering Incomplete Data using Symmetric Non-Negative Matrix Factorization

Clustering techniques which can handle incomplete data have become increasingly important due to varied applications in marketing research, medical diagnosis and survey data analysis. Existing techniques cope up with missing values either by using data modification/imputation or by partial distance computation, often unreliable depending on the number of features available. In this paper, we propose a novel approach for clustering data with missing values, which performs the task by Symmetric Non-Negative Matrix Factorization (SNMF) of a complete pair-wise similarity matrix, computed from the given incomplete data. To accomplish this, we define a novel similarity measure based on Average Overlap similarity metric which can effectively handle missing values without modification of data. Further, the similarity measure is more reliable than partial distances and inherently possesses the properties required to perform SNMF. The experimental evaluation on real world datasets demonstrates that the proposed approach is efficient, scalable and shows significantly better performance compared to the existing techniques.

Effects of site stiffness and source to receiver distance on surface wave tests' results

By using six 4.5 Hz geophones, surface wave tests were performed on four different sites by dropping freely a 65 kg mass from a height of 5 m. The receivers were kept far away from the source to eliminate the arrival of body waves. Three different sources to nearest receiver distances (S), namely, 46 m, 56 m and 66 m, were chosen. Dispersion curves were drawn for all the sites. The maximum wavelength (lambda(max)), the maximum depth (d(max)) up to which exploration can be made and the frequency content of the signals depends on the site stiffness and the value of S. A stiffer site yields greater values of lambda(max) and d(max). For stiffer sites, an increase in S leads to an increase in lambda(max). The predominant time durations of the signals increase from stiffer to softer sites. An inverse analysis was also performed based on the stiffness matrix approach in conjunction with the maximum vertical flexibility coefficient of ground surface to establish the governing mode of excitation. For the Site 2, the results from the surface wave tests were found to compare reasonably well with that determined on the basis of cross boreholes seismic tests. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

QoS Aware Trust Metric based Framework for Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless Sensor Networks have gained popularity due to their real time applications and low-cost nature. These networks provide solutions to scenarios that are critical, complicated and sensitive like military fields, habitat monitoring, and disaster management. The nodes in wireless sensor networks are highly resource constrained. Routing protocols are designed to make efficient utilization of the available resources in communicating a message from source to destination. In addition to the resource management, the trustworthiness of neighboring nodes or forwarding nodes and the energy level of the nodes to keep the network alive for longer duration is to be considered. This paper proposes a QoS Aware Trust Metric based Framework for Wireless Sensor Networks. The proposed framework safeguards a wireless sensor network from intruders by considering the trustworthiness of the forwarder node at every stage of multi-hop routing. Increases network lifetime by considering the energy level of the node, prevents the adversary from tracing the route from source to destination by providing path variation. The framework is built on NS2 Simulator. Experimental results show that the framework provides energy balance through establishment of trustworthy paths from the source to the destination. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

High Performance Modulation of High-Frequency AC Link Inverter

Inverters with high voltage conversion ratio are used in systems with sources such as batteries, photovoltaic (PV) modules or fuel cells. Transformers are often used in such inverters to provide the required voltage conversion ratio and isolation. In this paper, a compact high-frequency (HF) transformer interfaced AC link inverter with lossless snubber is discussed. A high performance synchronized modulation scheme is proposed for this inverter. This modulation addresses the issue of over-voltage spikes due to transformer leakage inductance and it is shown that the circuit can operate safely even when the turn-on delay, such as dead-time, is not used in the HF rectifier section. The problem of spurious turn-on in the HF inverter switches is also mitigated by the proposed modulation method. The circuit performance is validated experimentally with a $900W$ prototype inverter.

Nonlinear Dynamics of a Rotating Flexible Link

This paper deals with the study of the nonlinear dynamics of a rotating flexible link modeled as a one dimensional beam, undergoing large deformation and with geometric nonlinearities. The partial differential equation of motion is discretized using a finite element approach to yield four nonlinear, nonautonomous and coupled ordinary differential equations (ODEs). The equations are nondimensionalized using two characteristic velocities-the speed of sound in the material and a velocity associated with the transverse bending vibration of the beam. The method of multiple scales is used to perform a detailed study of the system. A set of four autonomous equations of the first-order are derived considering primary resonances of the external excitation and one-to-one internal resonances between the natural frequencies of the equations. Numerical simulations show that for certain ranges of values of these characteristic velocities, the slow flow equations can exhibit chaotic motions. The numerical simulations and the results are related to a rotating wind turbine blade and the approach can be used for the study of the nonlinear dynamics of a single link flexible manipulator.