Inchworm locomotion gait for snakelike robot

To establish a universal and easily controlled gait for practical use of snakelike robot movement, an inchworm locomotion gait model based on a serpenoid curve is presented. By analyzing the relations of two adjacent waves in the process of locomotion and doing an approximation of the serpenoid curve, the motion function of relative angles between two adjacent links and the absolute angles between each link and the baseline on the traveling curve are built. Two efficiency criterions of the gait are given as the energy loss function f and the unit displacement in one cycle dunit.Three parameters of the criterions affecting the efficiency of the gait （ the number of links that form the traveling wave n, the included angle between two adjacent links α, and the phase difference of adjacent included angles β） are discussed by simulations and experiments. The results show that f is insensitive to n; raising n increases dunit significantly; the maximum wave amplitude of α is a decreasing function of n; and increasing α reduces the displacement influence off when n is determined. The gait model is suitable for different inchworm locomotions of a snakelike robot whose traveling waves are formed by different numbers of identical links. A wave formed by more links or a greater relative angle between two adjacent links both lead to greater velocity of the movement.

Inferring Genome Ancestry and Estimating Molecular Relatedness Among 187 Chinese Maize Inbred Lines

The inference of genome ancestry and the estimation of molecular relatedness are of great importance for breeding efficiency and association studies. Seventy SSR loci, evenly distributed in 10 chromosomes, were assayed for polymorphism among 187 commonly used maize （Zea mays L.） inbreds which represent the genetic diversity in China. The identified 290 alleles served as raw data for estimating population structure using the coalescent linked loci, based on the ADMIXTURE model. Population number, K, has been inferred to be between five and seven. Specifying five subpopulations （K = 5） led to a distinct decrease and specifying K to be greater than six resulted in only minimal increases in the likelihood value. Therefore, population number, K, has been inferred into six subpopulations, which are PA, BSSS （includes Reid）, PB, Lan （Lancaster Sure Crop）, LRC （Luda Reb Cob, a Chinese landrace, and its derivatives）, and SPT （Si-ping-tou, a Chinese landrace and its derivatives）. The Kullback-Leibler distance of pairwise subpopulation was also inferred as n × p （187 ×6） Q matrices, which gave a detailed percentage of genetic composition of six subpopulations and molecular relatedness of each line. The genome-wide linkage disequilibrium （LD） indicated that the asso- ciation studies in QTLs and/or candidate genes might avoid nonfunctional and spurious associations, as most of the LD blocks were broken among diverse germplasm. The defined population structure has given us a clear genetic structure of these lines for breeding practice and established a good basis for association analysis.

Dynamic load balancing based on restricted multicast tree in triplet-based hierarchical interconnection network

To solve the load balancing problem in a triplet-based hierarchical interconnection network（THIN） system, a dynamic load balancing （DLB）algorithm--THINDLBA, which adopts multicast tree （MT）technology to improve the efficiency of interchanging load information, is presented. To support the algorithm, a complete set of DLB messages and a schema of maintaining DLB information in each processing node are designed. The load migration request messages from the heavily loaded node （HLN）are spread along an MT whose root is the HLN. And the lightly loaded nodes（LLNs） covered by the MT are the candidate destinations of load migration; the load information interchanged between the LLNs and the HLN can be transmitted along the MT. So the HLN can migrate excess loads out as many as possible during a one time execution of the THINDLBA, and its load state can be improved as quickly as possible. To avoid wrongly transmitted or redundant DLB messages due to MT overlapping, the MT construction is restricted in the design of the THINDLBA. Through experiments, the effectiveness of four DLB algorithms are compared, and the results show that the THINDLBA can effectively decrease the time costs of THIN systems in dealing with large scale computeintensive tasks more than others.

SHEsis,a powerful software platform for analyses of linkage disequilibrium,haplotype construction,and genetic association at polymorphism loci

In multiloci-based genetic association studies of complex diseases, a powerful and high efficient tool for analyses oflinkage disequilibrium (LD) between markers, haplotype distributions and many chi-square/p values with a large numberof samples has been sought for long. In order to achieve the goal of obtaining meaningful results directly from raw data,we developed a robust and user-friendly software platform with a series of tools for analysis in association study withhigh efficiency. The platform has been well evaluated by several sets of real data.

Resistivity Instability in Polysilicon Resistors Under Metal Interco-nnects and Its Suppression by Compensating Ion Implantation

The resistivity instability of the boron-doped polysilicon resistors being a line resistance element of ICs is within the range of several kΩ's,especially when our running the underneath metal interconnects.Polysilicon resistors have been fabricated under various processing conditions as well as some electrical and crystallographic characteristics have been obtained.It is shown the resistivity instability mainly results from the variational carrier mobility.By analyzing the Seto's model,the barrier height and trapped charge density are observed reducing under the Al over layer.Therefore,the resistance instability is also caused by both the charge trapping/detrapping occurring at polysilicon grain boundaries and the resultant variation in the potential barrier height.The formation of high-stability polysilicon resistors in the range of several kΩ's has been decided by compensating the ion implantation,which makes the charge trapping/detrapping at the grain boundary less susceptible to the hydrogen annealing.

On Univalent Functions in Multiply Connected Domains

The present article is an account of results on univalent functions in multiply connected domains obtained by the author. It contains two rery simple proofs of Villat's formula; Schwarz's formula, Poisson's formula and Poisson-Jensen formula in multiply connected domains; the differentiability theorem with respect to the parameter of analytic function family containing one parametric variable on multiply connected domains; variation theorem and parametric representation theorem of univalent functions in multiply connected domains; the solution of an extremal problem of differentiable functionals.

Three-Dimensional Multi-mesh Material Point Method for Solving Collision Problems

A new multi-mesh contact algorithm for three-dimensional material point method is presented. The contact algorithm faithfully recovers the opposite acting forces between colliding bodies. Collision procedures between regular bodies and/or rigid bodies are treated within the same framework. Multi-value of momentum and mass are defined on every node to describe the contact/sliding/separation procedure. Both normal and tangential velocities of each particle at the contact surface are calculated in respective individual mesh. A Coulomb friction is applied to describe the sliding or slipping between the contacting bodies. The efficiency of the contact algorithm is linearly related to the number of the contacting bodies because the overlapped nodes are labeled by sweeping the material particles of all bodies when the nodal momentum and mass are formed at every time step. Numerical simulation shows that our contact algorithm possesses high accuracy and low numerical energy dissipation, which is very important for solving collision problems.

Comparative Study of PCR Kits with Cell Culture and LCR in the Detection of Chlamydia Trachomatis Infections

Objective: To determine the diagnostic performancesof six Chinese PCR kits for detection of Chlamydiatrachomatis in patients with sexually transmitteddiseases using cell culture and LCR as references.Methods: Endocervical or urethral swab specimenswere collected from 673 patients attending STDclinics in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing and Tianjin. C.trachomatis culture and PCR were performed onspecimens from all patients while LCR detection wasperformed only on specimens with discordant cultureand PCR results.Results: Of the 616 patients, 6.3% (39) wereculture-positive while 23.5% to 28.7% were positiveby PCR testing. Compared to cell culture, the sensi-tivity of all six PCR methods was 90% or higher. In200 cases with discrepant reports, LCR and PCRshowed excellent consistency (YI index: 0.523-0.881 ), the sensitivity and specificity of PCR methodswere 83.9%- 98.6% and 66.7%- 94.7% respectively,while PCR2 showed the highest YI index (0.881). Withthe reference standard defined as culture positive orLCR positive plus at least one PCR positive fordiscrepant results, we found that the specificity andsensitivity of all six Chinese PCR kits were higherthan 95% and 85%, respectively.Conclusions: Domestically-produced PCR kits forChlamydia trachomatis detection are highly sensi-tive and specific, however, quality control remainsimportant in their clinical application.

Multiple Resonance and Stability of a Motor-elastic Linkage Mechanism System

The dynamics of a three-phase AC motor-elastic linkage mechanism system is considered. Taking the drive motor and the linkage mechanism as an integrated system, the coupling dynamic equations of the system are established by the finite element method. The multiple resonance and its stability of the system are studied using the method of multiple scales. The first order approximate solutions of the multiple resonance of the system are obtained. An algorithm for determining the stability of resonance is derived. The studies show that the multiple resonance and its stability of the system are not only related to the structure parameters of the linkage mechanism, but also to the electromagnetism parameters of the motor. At last, an experiment is given to verify the results of the theoretical analysis.

Media Independent Handover Scheme with QoS Provision across UMTS and WiMAX Networks

The rapid growth and innovation of the various mobile communication technologies have caused a change in the paradigm of internet access. Wireless technologies such as WiM AX, WiFi and UM T S/LTE networks have shown great p otential in dominating the wireless access markets. The ex istence of various access technologies requires a means for seamless internetworking to provide an ywhere, anytime services without interruption in the ongoing session, especially in multimedia

Design and implementation of a SPMD simulation platform

This paper describes the design and implementation of HITASE, a general-purpose architecture Simulation Environment for evaluating performance of parallel machine architecture. This simulation environment is designed for SPMD parallel machines and implemented by using program-driven methodology. Compared to other similar simulation systems, our simulation environment has strong generalities, and can study new architecture, such as a reconfigurable multistage interconnection network.

Multi-objective nonlinear model predictive control through switching cost functions and its applications to chemical processes

This paper proposes a switching multi-objective model predictive control(MOMPC) algorithm for constrained nonlinear continuous-time process systems.Different cost functions to be minimized in MPC are switched to satisfy different performance criteria imposed at different sampling times.In order to ensure recursive feasibility of the switching MOMPC and stability of the resulted closed-loop system,the dual-mode control method is used to design the switching MOMPC controller.In this method,a local control law with some free-parameters is constructed using the control Lyapunov function technique to enlarge the terminal state set of MOMPC.The correction term is computed if the states are out of the terminal set and the free-parameters of the local control law are computed if the states are in the terminal set.The recursive feasibility of the MOMPC and stability of the resulted closed-loop system are established in the presence of constraints and arbitrary switches between cost functions.Finally,implementation of the switching MOMPC controller is demonstrated with a chemical process example for the continuous stirred tank reactor.

Fork-Join program response time on multiprocessors with exchangeable join

The Fork-Join program consisting of K parallel tasks is a useful model for a large number of computing applications. When the parallel processor has multi-channels, later tasks may finish execution earlier than their earlier tasks and may join with tasks from other programs. This phenomenon is called exchangeable join (EJ), which introduces correlation to the task’s service time. In this work, we investigate the response time of multiprocessor systems with EJ with a new approach. We analyze two aspects of this kind of systems: exchangeable join (EJ) and the capacity constraint (CC). We prove that the system response time can be effectively reduced by EJ, while the reduced amount is constrained by the capacity of the multiprocessor. An upper bound model is constructed based on this analysis and a quick estimation algorithm is proposed. The approximation formula is verified by extensive simulation results, which show that the relative error of approximation is less than 5%.

Joint Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA) & Walsh-Hadamard Transform: Enhancing the Receiver Performance

Non-orthogonal multiple access(NOMA) is a new access method to achieve high performance gains in terms of capacity and throughput, so it is currently under consideration as one of the candidates for fifth generation(5 G) technologies. NOMA utilizes power domain in order to superimpose signals of multiple users in a single transmitted signal. This creates a lot of interference at the receive side. Although the use of successive interference cancellation(SIC) technique reduces the interference, but to further improve the receiver performance, in this paper, we have proposed a joint Walsh-Hadamard transform(WHT) and NOMA approach for achieving better performance gains than the conventional NOMA. WHT is a well-known code used in communication systems and is used as an orthogonal variable spreading factor(OVSF) in communication systems. Application of WHT to NOMA results in low bit error rate(BER) and high throughput performance for both low and high channel gain users. Further, it also reduces peak to average power ratio(PAPR) of the user signal. The results are discussed in terms of comparison between the conventionalNOMA and the proposed technique, which shows that it offers high performance gains in terms of low BER at different SNR levels, reduced PAPR, high user throughput performance and better spectral efficiency.

Joint Network and Fountain Codes Design for RelayAssisted Multi-User System

In relay-assisted multi-user system, relay coding is important to enhance the robustness and reliability of cooperative transmission. For better adaptability and efficiency, two joint network and fountain coding(JNFC) schemes are proposed. When the condition of all direct channels is worse, JNFC scheme based on distributed LT(DLT) codes is used. Otherwise, JNFC scheme based on multi-dimensional LT(MD-LT) codes is suited. For both two above-mentioned schemes, the united degree distribution design method for short-length fountain codes is proposed. For the latter scheme, MD-LT codes are proposed for equal error protection(EEP) of each user. Simulation results and analysis show that the united degree distribution need less decoding overhead compared with other degree distribution for short-length fountain codes. And then, all users are protected equally in despite of asymmetric uplinks.

IMPROVED DELAUNAY TRIANGULATION FOR TRIMMED NURBS SURFACE

An improved algorithm of Delaunay triangulation is proposed by expanding the scope from a convex polygon to an arbitrary polygon area in which holes can be contained in the subdivision procedure. The data structure of generated triangles and the exuviationslike method play a key role, and a single connectivity domain (SCD) without holes is constructed as the initial part of the algorithm. Meanwhile, some examples show that the method can be applied to the triangulation of the trimmed NURBS surface. The result of surface tessellation can be used in many applications such as NC machining, finite element analysis, rendering and mechanism interference detection.

Effects of pore size and porosity of surface-modified porous titanium implants on bone tissue ingrowth

The effects of surface-modified porous titanium implants with different porosities and pore sizes on osseointegration were investigated in vivo.Three porous titanium implants(A30,A40 and A50 containing volume fractions of space-holder NaCl being 30%,40%and 50%,respectively)were manufactured by metal injection moulding(MIM).The surface-modified implants were implanted into muscles and femurs of hybrid male dogs.Interface osteogenic activity and histological bone ingrowth of porous titanium implants were evaluated at 28,56 and 84 d.The results showed that when additive space-holder amount of NaCl increased from 30%to 50%(volume fraction),the general porosity and mass fraction of macropores of porous titanium rose from 42.4%to 62.0%and from 8.3%to 69.3%,respectively.Histologic sections and fluorescent labeling showed that the A50 implant demonstrated a significantly higher osteogenic capacity at 28 d than other implants.Bone ingrowth into the A30 implant was lower than that into other implants at 84 d.Therefore,the pore structure of A50 implant was suitable for new bone tissue to grow into porous implant.

A Design of ABC95 Array Computer Multi-function Interconnection Chips

ABC95 array computer is a multi-function network computer based on FPGA technology. A notable feature of ABC95 array computer is the support of complex interconnection, which determines that the computer must have enough I/O band and flexible communications between Pes. The authors designed the interconnecting network chips of ABC95 and realized a form of multi-function interconnection. The multi-function interconnecting network supports conflict-free access from processors to memory matrix and the MESH network of enhanced processors to processor communications. The design scheme has been proved feasible by experiment.

BALANCE ROUTING TRAFFIC IN GENERALIZED SHUFFLE-EXCHANGE NETWORK

A methodology is proposed to handle problem that under equiproble address of packet traffic at the input port, Generalized Shuffle-Exchange Network (GSEN) routes traffic unevenly because of the unbalanced routing tags. The idea is to use routing tag according to probability, which can be evaluated by using Moore-Penrose inverse in matrix analysis. An instance is used to illustrate the idea, and the simulation is done to show the improvement in performance issues.

User Association and Wireless Backhaul Bandwidth Allocation for 5G Heterogeneous Networks in the Millimeter-Wave Band

The user association and wireless backhaul bandwidth allocation for a two-tier heterogeneous network （HetNet） in the mil- limeter wave （mmWave） band is proposed in this article. The two-tier HetNet is built up with a macro base station （MBS） and several small cell SBSs, where the MBS is assumed to be equipped with large-scale antenna arrays but the SBSs only have single-antenna capa- bility and they rely on the wireless link to the MBS for backhaul. The sum of logarithmic user rate, which is established according to the result of multi-user Multiple Input Mul- tiple Output （MIMO） downlink employing Zero-Force Beamforming （ZFBF）, is chosen as the network utility for the objective func- tion. And a distributed optimization algorithm based on primal and dual decomposition is used to jointly optimize the user association variable xj,z and the wireless backhaul band- width factor α. Simulation results reveal that the distributed optimization algorithm jointly optimizing two variables outperforms the con- ventional SINR-based user association strate- gies.