This paper presents the design and validation of a novel and universal 6D seam tracking system that reduces the need of accurate robot trajectory programming and geometrical databases in robotic arc welding. Such sensor driven motion control together with adaptive control of the welding process is the foundation for increased flexibility and autonomous behavior of robotic and manufacturing syst...

Extracting the human brain from magnetic resonance head scans is difficult because of its highly convoluted and nonuniform geometry. A technique based on Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines (NURBS) and energy minimising deformable models to extract the brain surface accurately from MR head scans is presented. The weighting parameter that comes with the NURBS definition is explored to attract the sur...

Soft robot arms possess unique capabilities when it comes to adaptability, flexibility, and dexterity. In addition, soft systems that are pneumatically actuated can claim high power-to-weight ratio. One of the main drawbacks of pneumatically actuated soft arms is that their stiffness cannot be varied independently from their end-effector position in space. The novel robot arm physical design pr...

The M protein of coronavirus plays a central role in virus assembly, turning cellular membranes into workshops where virus and host factors come together to make new virus particles. We investigated how M structure and organization is related to virus shape and size using cryo-electron microscopy, tomography and statistical analysis. We present evidence that suggests M can adopt two conformatio...

Qin et al. (2004) have derived a formula of count rates based on a model of highly symmetric expanding fireballs, where the Doppler effect is the key factor to be concerned, and with their formula some characteristics of gamma-ray burst (GRB) pulses could be well explained. In this paper, we employ the formula to both the Qin modal and the uniform jet modal to study how the rising timescale, ∆τ...

The interest in the influence of videogame experience on our daily life is constantly growing. "First Person Shooter" (FPS) games require players to develop a flexible mindset to rapidly react to fast moving visual and auditory stimuli, and to switch back and forth between different subtasks. This study investigated whether and to which degree experience with such videogames generalizes to othe...

While brain research shows great potential for advancing critical national security interests, the products of the laboratory cannot be realized in operational practice without the polishing and maturing demanded by federal science and technology (S&T) acquisition processes, particularly those of the Department of Defense. Although many acquisition planning functions are relatively conventional...

A s the “baby boomers” approach and enter their retirement years, the accumulation phase of their life-cycle is nearly over. Thus, the focus of many researchers, fi nancial services fi rms, and public policymakers concerned with retirement saving is shifting from the accumulation of resources while working to the drawdown of resources during retirement. Retired households are dependent on the a...

Cognitive flexibility reflects both a trait that reliably differs between individuals and a state that can fluctuate moment-to-moment. Whether individuals can undergo persistent changes in cognitive flexibility as a result of reward learning is less understood. Here, we investigated whether reinforcing a periodic shift in an object selection strategy can make an individual more prone to switch ...

Modal logic of agency is a traditional research field in philosophical logic. Roughly speaking, the approach adopts the general policy to abstract from making explicit state changes and from considering the temporal dimension in describing actions. In fact, actions are simply taken to be relationships between agents and states of affairs. Thus, the conceptual qualification of these relations is...