Herding stochastic autonomous agents via local control rules and online target selection strategies

Autonomous Robots - We propose a simple yet effective set of local control rules to make a small group of “herder agents” collect and contain in a desired region a large ensemble of...     

Summarizing consumer reviews

Journal of Intelligent Information Systems - E-commerce giants like Amazon rely on consumer reviews to allow buyers to inform other potential buyers about a product’s pros and cons. While...     

Mid-IR real-time monitoring of the carbocationic polymerization of isobutylene and styrene

The in-situ monitoring of the living carbocationic polymerization of isobutylene (IB) and styrene (St) with a fiber optic Attenuated Total Reflection (ATR) probe in the mid-IR "fingerprint" range is reported here for the first time. Monomer consumption was followed by the disappearance of the C=C stretching for both IB and St, and the C−H bending of the CH₃-group in IB. The formation of polyisobutylene (PIB) was also monitored by tracing the asymmetrical doublet characteristic of C−H bending of the t-butyl groups of the PIB. Conversion measurements by conventional off-line gravimetry correlated well with the new technique. Received: 27 August 1997/Revised version: 2 November 1997/Accepted: 20 November 1997     

A disposable,integrated loop-mediated isothermal amplification cassette with thermally actuated valves

An inexpensive, disposable, integrated, polymer-based cassette for loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) of target nucleic acids was designed, fabricated, and tested. The LAMP chamber was equipped with single-use, thermally actuated valves made with a composite consisting of a mixture of PDMS and expandable microspheres. The effect of the composite composition on its expansion was investigated, and the valve’s performance was evaluated. In its closed state, the valve can hold pressures as high as 200 kPa without any significant leakage. Both the LAMP chamber and the valves were actuated with thin film heaters. The utility of the cassette was demonstrated by carrying out LAMP of Escherichia coli DNA target and reverse transcribed loop meditated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) of RNA targets. The amplicons were detected in real time with a portable, compact detector. The system was capable of detecting as few as 10 target molecules per sample in well under 1 h. The portable, integrated cassette system described here is particularly suited for applications at the point of care and in resource-poor countries, where funds and trained personnel are in short supply.     

Antimagic labeling and canonical decomposition of graphs

An antimagic labeling of a connected graph with m edges is an injective assignment of labels from {1,…,m} to the edges such that the sums of incident labels are distinct at distinct vertices. Hartsfield and Ringel conjectured that every connected graph other than K₂ has an antimagic labeling. We prove this for the classes of split graphs and graphs decomposable under the canonical decomposition introduced by Tyshkevich. As a consequence, we provide a sufficient condition on graph degree sequences to guarantee an antimagic labeling.     

Adaptive isogeometric analysis by local h-refinement with T-splines

Isogeometric analysis based on non-uniform rational B-splines (NURBS) as basis functions preserves the exact geometry but suffers from the drawback of a rectangular grid of control points in the parameter space, which renders a purely local refinement impossible. This paper demonstrates how this difficulty can be overcome by using T-splines instead. T-splines allow the introduction of so-called T-junctions, which are related to hanging nodes in the standard FEM. Obeying a few straightforward rules, rectangular patches in the parameter space of the T-splines can be subdivided and thus a local refinement becomes feasible while still preserving the exact geometry. Furthermore, it is shown how state-of-the-art a posteriori error estimation techniques can be combined with refinement by T-splines. Numerical examples underline the potential of isogeometric analysis with T-splines and give hints for further developments.