Variable Recruitment in Bundles of Miniature Pneumatic Artificial Muscles and Space Qualified Pneumatic Artificial Muscles

The natural compliance and force generation properties of pneumatic artificial muscles (PAMs) allow them to operate like human muscles in anthropomorphic robotic manipulators. Traditionally, manipulators use a single PAM or multiple PAMs actuated in unison in place of a human muscle. However, these manipulators experience efficiency losses when operated outside their target performance ranges. The unidirectional actuation behavior of a miniature PAM bundle and bidirectional actuation behavior of an antagonistic pair of miniature PAM bundles are characterized and modeled. The results are used to motivate the application of a variable recruitment control strategy to a parallel bundle of miniature PAMs as an attempt to mimic the selective recruitment of motor units in a human muscle to improve the operating efficiency of the actuator. Additionally, the fabrication and quasi-static testing results for PAMs assembled from candidate space qualified bladder and braided sleeve materials for use in space robotics are assessed.

Implementation of continuous-variable quantum key distribution with composable and one-sided-device-independent security against coherent attacks

Secret communication over public channels is one of the central pillars of a modern information society. Using quantum key distribution this is achieved without relying on the hardness of mathematical problems, which might be compromised by improved algorithms or by future quantum computers. State-of-the-art quantum key distribution requires composable security against coherent attacks for a finite number of distributed quantum states as well as robustness against implementation side channels. Here we present an implementation of continuous-variable quantum key distribution satisfying these requirements. Our implementation is based on the distribution of continuous-variable Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen entangled light. It is one-sided device independent, which means the security of the generated key is independent of any memoryfree attacks on the remote detector. Since continuous-variable encoding is compatible with conventional optical communication technology, our work is a step towards practical implementations of quantum key distribution with state-of-the-art security based solely on telecom components.

Savani: A variable resolution whole-mantle model of anisotropic shear velocity variations based on multiple data sets

International audience

A variable atmosphere hypersonic wind tunnel for similitude studies

Mode of access: Internet.

Design and construction of a two dimensional duct equipped with a wave generator and a variable coastal slope and an ocean wave energy conversion system (OWC)

The aims of this thesis were evaluation the type of wave channel, wave current, and effect of some parameters on them and identification and comparison between types of wave maker in laboratory situations. In this study, designing and making of two dimension channels (flume) and wave maker for experiment son the marine buoy, marine building and energy conversion systems were also investigated. In current research, the physical relation between pump and pumpage and the designing of current making in flume were evaluated. The related calculation for steel building, channels beside glasses and also equations of wave maker plate movement, power of motor and absorb wave(co astal slope) were calculated. In continue of this study, the servo motor was designed and applied for moving of wave maker’s plate. One Ball Screw Leaner was used for having better movement mechanisms of equipment and convert of the around movement to linear movement. The Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) was also used for control of wave maker system. The studies were explained type of ocean energies and energy conversion systems. In another part of this research, the systems of energy resistance in special way of Oscillating Water Column (OWC) were explained and one sample model was designed and applied in hydrolic channel at the Sheikh Bahaii building in Azad University, Science and Research Branch. The dimensions of designed flume was considered at 16 1.98 0. 57 m which had ability to provide regular waves as well as irregular waves with little changing on the control system. The ability of making waves was evaluated in our designed channel and the results were showed that all of the calculation in designed flume was correct. The mean of error between our results and theory calculation was conducted 7%, which was showed the well result in this situation. With evaluating of designed OWC model and considering of changes in the some part of system, one bigger sample of this model can be used for designing the energy conversion system model. The obtained results showed that the best form for chamber in exit position of system, were zero degree (0) in angle for moving below part, forty and five (45) degree in front wall of system and the moving forward of front wall keep in two times of height of wave.

Variable stability research aircraft. Submitted to the Panel on Acceleration Stress of the Armed Forces, National Research Council Committee on Bio-Astronautics, Woods Hole Conference, 16-24 July, 1959.

Cover title.

The authenticity of resources for the teaching of foreign languages and cultures in France: variable geometry notion

International audience

Extracting reusable document components for variable data printing

Variable Data Printing (VDP) has brought new flexibility and dynamism to the printed page. Each printed instance of a specific class of document can now have different degrees of customized content within the document template. This flexibility comes at a cost. If every printed page is potentially different from all others it must be rasterized separately, which is a time-consuming process. Technologies such as PPML (Personalized Print Markup Language) attempt to address this problem by dividing the bitmapped page into components that can be cached at the raster level, thereby speeding up the generation of page instances. A large number of documents are stored in Page Description Languages at a higher level of abstraction than the bitmapped page. Much of this content could be reused within a VDP environment provided that separable document components can be identified and extracted. These components then need to be individually rasterisable so that each high-level component can be related to its low-level (bitmap) equivalent. Unfortunately, the unstructured nature of most Page Description Languages makes it difficult to extract content easily. This paper outlines the problems encountered in extracting component-based content from existing page description formats, such as PostScript, PDF and SVG, and how the differences between the formats affects the ease with which content can be extracted. The techniques are illustrated with reference to a tool called COG Extractor, which extracts content from PDF and SVG and prepares it for reuse.

Pulmonary vascular resistance: A meaningless variable?

Almost 20 years ago, Adriaan Versprille published an editorial in this journal to explain why, in his opinion, the calculation of pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) is meaningless [1]. The uncertainties of PVR were underscored a year later by McGregor and Sniderman in the American Journal of Cardiology [2]. Obviously, both papers failed to convince. A Medline search from 1985 to the end of 2002 reveals no less than 7,158 papers with PVR calculations. What is it that could be wrong in all this literature?.

Desarrollo de arquitecturas para procesamiento de control de la mirada en sistemas de visión activa con resolución espacial variable

En esta tesis se aborda la implementación de un sistema completo de visión activa, en el que se capturan y generan imágenes de resolución espacial variable. Todo el sistema se integra en un sólo dispositivo del tipo AP SoC (All Programmable System on Chip), lo que nos permite llevar a cabo el codiseño hardware-software del mismo, implementando en la parte lógica los bloques de preprocesado intensivo, y en la parte software los algoritmos de procesado de control más complejo. El objetivo es que, trabajando con un campo visual del orden de Megapíxeles, se pueda procesar una tasa moderada de imágenes por segundo. Las imágenes multiresolución se generan a partir de sensores de resolución uniforme con una latencia nula, lo que permite tener preparada la imagen de resolución variable en el mismo instante en que se ha terminado de capturar la imagen original. Como innovación con respecto a las primeras contribuciones relacionadas con esta Tesis, se procesan imágenes con toda la información de color. Esto implica la necesidad de diseñar conversores entre espacios de color distintos, para adecuar la información al tipo de procesado que se va a realizar con ella. Estos bloques se integran sin alterar la latencia de entrega de los sucesivos fotogramas. El procesamiento de estas imágenes multirresolución genera un mapa de saliencia que permite mover la fóvea hacía la región considerada como más relevante en la escena. El contenido de la imagen se estructura en una jerarquía de niveles de abstracción. A diferencia de otras arquitecturas de este tipo, como son la pirámide regular y el polígono foveal, en las que se trabaja con imágenes de resolución uniforme en los distintos niveles de la jerarquía, la pirámide irregular foveal que se propone en esta tesis combina las ideas de trabajar con una imagen realmente multirresolución, que incluya el campo de visión completo que abarcan sensor y óptica, con el procesamiento jerárquico propio de las pirámides irregulares. Para ello en esta tesis se propone la implementación de un algoritmo de diezmado irregular que, tomando como base la imagen multirresolución, dará como resultado una estructura piramidal donde los distintos niveles no son imágenes sino grafos orientados a la resolución del problema de segmentación y estimación de saliencia. Todo el sistema se integra en torno a la arquitectura de bus AXI, que permite conectar entre si todos los cores desarrollados en la parte lógica, así como el acceso a la memoria compartida con los algoritmos implementados en la parte software. Esto es posible gracias a los bloques de acceso directo a memoria AXI-VDMA, en una propuesta de configuración que permite tanto la integración perfectamente coordinada de la transferencia de la imagen multirresolución generada a la zona de trabajo del algoritmo de segmentación como su recuperación para la posterior visualización del resultado del proceso, y todo ello con una tasa de trabajo que mejora los resultados de plataformas similares.

La violencia contra la pareja o expareja mujer: un estudio de la variable de la nacionalidad en la base de datos de la Guardia Municipal de Donostia/San Sebastian

[ES]Este Trabajo de Fin de Grado (TFG) está relacionado con las prácticas efectuadas en la Guardia Municipal de San Sebastián (País Vasco) y pretende analizar las órdenes de protección concedidas a víctimas de violencia de género inmigrantes y nacionales para comprobar si existe alguna diferencia en cuanto a su aplicación. Asimismo, se pretende analizar el procedimiento efectuado por este cuerpo policial y servicios sociales en estos casos, así como el perfil de la víctima y el agresor. Por otra parte, se procura analizar aspectos controvertidos de la Ley Orgánica 1/2004 de Medidas de Protección Integral de la Violencia de Género. Para ello, se utilizara una metodología mixta. Por una parte de corte cualitativo realizando cuatro entrevistas (a dos víctimas, una agente de policía y una trabajadora social) para ahondar más respecto a este tema. En segundo lugar, desde una perspectiva cuantitativa se explorará la base de datos de la Guardia Municipal en materia de violencia de género para realizar un análisis estadístico. Finalmente, se abordaran las conclusiones a las que se ha llegado con este trabajo y se propondrán mejoras de cara a futuras investigaciones y a la operatividad de la Guardia Municipal.

Design of a variable width pulse generator feasible for manual or automatic control

A variable width pulse generator featuring more than 4-V peak amplitude and less than 10-ns FWHM is described. In this design the width of the pulses is controlled by means of the control signal slope. Thus, a variable transition time control circuit (TTCC) is also developed, based on the charge and discharge of a capacitor by means of two tunable current sources. Additionally, it is possible to activate/deactivate the pulses when required, therefore allowing the creation of any desired pulse pattern. Furthermore, the implementation presented here can be electronically controlled. In conclusion, due to its versatility, compactness and low cost it can be used in a wide variety of applications.

La comprensión del concepto de variable en profesores de matemáticas de secundaria

Gran parte de los estudios realizados en tomo al concepto de variable y sus diferentes usos se ha centrado en estudiantes de secundaria, bachillerato y primer semestre universitario; en todos ellos se han detectado diversas dificultades para la comprensión y manejo adecuado de tal concepto. El concepto de variable es fundamental no sólo para el aprendizaje sino también para la enseñanza del álgebra. Como marco teórico para esta investigación se utilizó la descomposición que Ursíni y Trigueros (1998) hacen del concepto de variable. En ésta se consideran una serie de aspectos que incluyen la capacidad de interpretación, simbolización y manipulación de cada uno de los 3 usos de la variable que se consideran, a saber: variable como incógnita específica, variable como número general y variables en relación funcional. Este resumen se refiere a los resultados de una investigación llevada a cabo con 74 profesores de matemáticas de secundaria a los que se les aplicó un cuestionario de 65 preguntas abiertas, dicho instrumento ya había sido diseñado y validado para realizar un estudio con estudiantes universitarios. Posteriormente se realizaron entrevistas a 6 profesores, tomando como base las respuestas dadas en el cuestionario. Se encontró que algunas de estas dificultades son similares a las que presentan los estudiantes.

ENGINEERING HIERARCHICAL MESO-/MICROPOROUS LAMELLAR ZEOLITES WITH VARIABLE TEXTURAL AND CATALYTIC PROPERTIES

Meso-/microporous zeolites combine the charactersitics of well-defined micropores of zeolite with efficient mass transfer consequences of mesopores to increase the efficiency of the catalysts in reactions involving bulky molecules. Different methods such as demetallation and templating have been explored for the synthesis of meso-/microporous zeolites. However, they all have limitations in production of meso-/microporous zeolites with tunable textural and catalytic properties using few synthesis steps. To address this challenge, a simple one-step dual template synthesis approach has been developed in this work to engineer lamellar meso-/microporous zeolites structures with tunable textural and catalytic properties. First, one-step dual template synthesis of meso-/microporous mordenite framework inverted (MFI) zeolite structures was investigated. Tetrapropyl ammonium hydroxide (TPAOH) and diquaternary ammonium surfactant ([C22H45-N+(CH3)2-C6H12-N+(CH3)2-C6H13]Br2, C22-6-6) were used as templates to produce micropores and mesopores, respectively. The variation in concentration ratios of dual templates and hydrothermal synthesis conditions resulted in production of multi-lamellar MFI and the hybrid lamellar-bulk MFI (HLBM) zeolite structures. The relationship between the morphology, porosity, acidity, and catalytic properties of these catalysts was systematically studied. Then, the validity of the proposed synthesis approach for production of other types of zeolites composites was examined by creating a meso-/microporous bulk polymorph A (BEA)-lamellar MFI (BBLM) composite. The resulted composite samples showed higher catalytic stability compared to their single component zeolites. The studies demonstrated the high potential of the one-step dual template synthesis procedure for engineering the textural and catalytic properties of the synthesized zeolites.