Improving the consensus performance via predictive mechanisms

Considering some predictive mechanisms, we show that ultrafast average-consensus can be achieved in networks of interconnected agents. More specifically, by predicting the dynamics of the network several steps ahead and using this information in the design of the consensus protocol of each agent, drastic improvements can be achieved in terms of the speed of consensus convergence, without changing the topology of the network. Moreover, using these predictive mechanisms, the range of sampling periods leading to consensus convergence is greatly expanded compared with the routine consensus protocol. This study provides a mathematical basis for the idea that some predictive mechanisms exist in widely-spread biological swarms, flocks, and networks. From the industrial engineering point of view, inclusion of an efficient predictive mechanism allows for a significant increase in the speed of consensus convergence and also a reduction of the communication energy required to achieve a predefined consensus performance.

ANALYSIS OF PLANAR MECHANISMS BY COMPUTER SUBROUTINE.

A suite of computer subroutines is described which allows rapid analysis of most types of planar mechanism by the writing of a simple computer programme. The analytical techniques of these subroutines are explained, and a worked example is presented to illustrate the use of the package, and to demonstrate its advantages in the calculation of inertia forces within a mechanism.

DISCUSSION OF MECHANISMS OF ACCELERATED AND RETARDED FATIGUE CRACK GROWTH.

The relevance of the effective stress intensity range to crack growth is considered for constant and for variable amplitude loading. The accelerated and retarded growth associated with simple programmed loadings is reported for two steels and an aluminium alloy. The load interaction effects are due to several competing mechanisms, and not due to the single, popular mechanism of crack closure.

MECHANISMS OF ABRASIVE WEAR IN A BORONIZED ALLOY STEEL.

This paper describes the effects of abrasive hardness and size on the 2-body abrasive wear mechanisms of a boronized low alloy steel. It is found that the wear resistance of the boronized steel is much greater against alumina abrasive than against silicon carbide. This difference in wear resistance is much enhanced when the particle size or the applied load is increased. Scanning electron microscopy of the worn specimens and of the used abrasive papers revealed that the enhanced difference in wear resistance between coarse alumina and silicon carbide papers is due to a change in the wear mechanism produced by silicon carbide papers with increasing abrasive particle size.

Mechanisms of erosion of unfilled elastomers by solid particle impact

The mechanisms of material removal were studied during the erosion of two unfilled elastomers (natural rubber and epoxidised natural rubber). The effects of impact velocity and of lubrication by silicone oil were investigated. The development of surface features due to single impacts and during the early stages of erosion was followed by scanning electron microscopy. The basic material removal mechanism at impact angles of both 30° and 90° involves the formation and growth of fine fatigue cracks under the tensile surface stresses caused by impact. No damage was observed after single impacts; it was found that many successive impacts are necessary for material removal. It was found that the erosion rate has a very strong dependance on impact velocity above about 50 ms-1.

Failure mechanisms and toughness of Al2O3 ductile-particle toughened ceramics and SiC fibre-ceramic composites

The development of high performance ceramics and ceramic composites often relies on assumptions about their behaviour during loading and at failure. A crucial influence on the mechanical properties of these materials is the degree of sub-critical cracking, which post mortem investigations cannot adequately reveal. Hence a clear picture of the dynamic micromechanisms of cracking is required if applications of fracture and damage mechanics to theoretical models is to be meaningful.

Inference approach to grammar construction

A system of computer assisted grammar construction (CAGC) is presented in this paper. The CAGC system is designed to generate broad-coverage grammars for large natural language corpora by utilizing both an extended inside-outside algorithm and an automatic phrase bracketing (AUTO) system which is designed to provide the extended algorithm with constituent information during learning. This paper demonstrates the capability of the CAGC system to deal with realistic natural language problems and the usefulness of the AUTO system for constraining the inside-outside based grammar re-estimation. Performance results, including coverage, recall and precision, are presented for a grammar constructed for the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) corpus using the Penn Treebank.

Analysis of the mechanisms for impaired high-temperature, high-speed performance of 1.3 μm InGaAsP lasers

In this paper, the static and dynamic performance of multi quantum-well (MQW) 1.3 μm InGaAsP Fabry Perot lasers is assessed experimentally and theoretically to identify the mechanisms responsible for impaired high speed performance at elevated temperature. Initially, threshold currents and spontaneous emission spectra are characterized for a range of temperatures from room temperature to 85 °C to indicate a significant increase in non-radiative current contributions. Preliminary estimates are made for the contributions of leakage and Auger recombination rates, found from the dependence of integrated spontaneous emission with carrier density. Drift-diffusion modelling is found to accurately predict the trend of threshold currents over temperature. Using gain modelling good agreement is found between the measured and predicted integrated spontaneous emission intensity. Gain measurements at 85 °C indicate a reduction in RIN frequency to 63% of the 25 °C value which matches well with experimental small signal performance.

The use of C-V techniques to investigate instability mechanisms in M-I-S structures

In the field of flat panel displays, the current leading technology is the Active Matrix liquid Crystal Display; this uses a-Si:H based thin film transistors (TFTs) as the switching element in each pixel. However, under gate bias a-Si:H TFTs suffer from instability, as is evidenced by a shift in the gate threshold voltage. The shift in the gate threshold voltage is generally measured from the gate transfer characteristics, after subjecting the TFT to prolonged gate bias. However, a major drawback of this measurement method is that it cannot distinguish whether the shift is caused by the change in the midgap states in the a-Si:H channel or by charge trapping in the gate insulator. In view of this, we have developed a capacitance-voltage (C-V) method to measure the shift in threshold voltage. We employ Metal-Insulator-Semiconductor (MIS) structures to investigate the threshold voltage shift as they are simpler to fabricate than TFTs. We have investigated a large of number Metal/a-Si:H/Si3N4/Si+n structures using our C-V technique. From, the C-V data for the MIS structures, we have found that the relationship between the thermal energy and threshold voltage shift is similar to that reported by Wehrspohn et. al in a-Si:H TFTs (J Appl. Phys, 144, 87, 2000). The a-Si:H and Si3N4 layers were grown using the radio-frequency plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition technique.

Chromosomal mechanisms underlying the karyotype evolution of the oriental voles (Muridae, Eothenomys)

We have investigated the karyotype relationships of two oriental voles, i.e. the Yulong vole (Eothenomys proditor, 2n = 32) and the large oriental vole (Eothenomys miletus, 2n = 56) as well as the Clarke's vole (Microtus clarkei, 2n = 52), by a combined a

Bayesian inference of population expansions in domestic bovines

< p > The past population dynamics of four domestic and one wild species of bovine were estimated using Bayesian skyline plots, a coalescent Markov chain Monte Carlo method that does not require an assumed parametric model of demographic history. Four dom

Demodulation as probabilistic inference

Demodulation is an ill-posed problem whenever both carrier and envelope signals are broadband and unknown. Here, we approach this problem using the methods of probabilistic inference. The new approach, called Probabilistic Amplitude Demodulation (PAD), is computationally challenging but improves on existing methods in a number of ways. By contrast to previous approaches to demodulation, it satisfies five key desiderata: PAD has soft constraints because it is probabilistic; PAD is able to automatically adjust to the signal because it learns parameters; PAD is user-steerable because the solution can be shaped by user-specific prior information; PAD is robust to broad-band noise because this is modeled explicitly; and PAD's solution is self-consistent, empirically satisfying a Carrier Identity property. Furthermore, the probabilistic view naturally encompasses noise and uncertainty, allowing PAD to cope with missing data and return error bars on carrier and envelope estimates. Finally, we show that when PAD is applied to a bandpass-filtered signal, the stop-band energy of the inferred carrier is minimal, making PAD well-suited to sub-band demodulation. © 2006 IEEE.