Lower bounds on the rotation distance of binary trees

The rotation distanced(S,T) between two binary trees S, T of n vertices is the minimum number of rotations to transform S into T. While it is known that d(S,T)?2n−6, a well-known conjecture states that there are trees for which this bound is sharp for any value of n?11. We are unable to prove the conjecture, but we give here some simple criteria for lower bound evaluation, leading for example to individuate some “regular” tree structures for which d(S,T)=3n/2−O(1), or d(S,T)=5n/3−O(1).     

A decentralized kinematic control architecture for collaborative and cooperative multi-arm systems

In this paper a two-layer decentralized framework for kinematic control of cooperative and collaborative multi-robot systems is developed. The motion of the system is specified at the workpiece level, by adopting a task-oriented formulation for cooperative tasks. The first layer computes the motion of the single arms in the system. In detail, the control unit of each robot computes the end-effector motion references in a decentralized fashion on the basis of the knowledge of the assigned cooperative task and the motion references computed by its neighbors. Then, in the second layer, each control unit computes the reference joint motion of the corresponding manipulator from the end-effector reference motion. The approach is, then, tested in simulation on a work-cell composed by several manipulators, and experimentally on a dual-arm kinematically redundant work-cell composed by industrial manipulators.     

An IR molding system for direct shaping of thermoplastics

A new molding technique is proposed to directly mold small parts from thermoplastic pellets. A small molding machine was designed and fabricated: the mold consisted of a transparent glass and a metallic frame; an infrared (IR) lamp provided the heat for the pellet melting. Molding tests were carried out by using three commercial thermoplastics and two metallic molds. Molding time and IR lamp power were changed to extract a moldability window for each combination of material and metallic mold. In the best process conditions, a high quality of the samples was obtained in terms of mold filling and surface aesthetics. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2010. © 2010 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Planar packing of trees and spider trees

In [A. García, C. Hernando, F. Hurtado, M. Noy, J. Tejel, Packing trees into planar graphs, J. Graph Theory (2002) 172-181] García et al. conjectured that for every two non-star trees there exists a planar graph containing them as edge-disjoint subgraphs. In this paper we prove the conjecture in the case in which one of the trees is a spider tree.     

A backoff strategy for model‐based experiment design under parametric uncertainty

Model‐based experiment design techniques are an effective tool for the rapid development and assessment of dynamic deterministic models, yielding the most informative process data to be used for the estimation of the process model parameters. A particular advantage of the model‐based approach is that it permits the definition of a set of constraints on the experiment design variables and on the predicted responses. However, uncertainty in the model parameters can lead the constrained design procedure to predict experiments that turn out to be, in practice, suboptimal, thus decreasing the effectiveness of the experiment design session. Additionally, in the presence of parametric mismatch, the feasibility constraints may well turn out to be violated when that optimally designed experiment is performed, leading in the best case to less informative data sets or, in the worst case, to an infeasible or unsafe experiment. In this article, a general methodology is proposed to formulate and solve the experiment design problem by explicitly taking into account the presence of parametric uncertainty, so as to ensure both feasibility and optimality of the planned experiment. A prediction of the system responses for the given parameter distribution is used to evaluate and update suitable backoffs from the nominal constraints, which are used in the design session to keep the system within a feasible region with specified probability. This approach is particularly useful when designing optimal experiments starting from limited preliminary knowledge of the parameter set, with great improvement in terms of design efficiency and flexibility of the overall iterative model development scheme. The effectiveness of the proposed methodology is demonstrated and discussed by simulation through two illustrative case studies concerning the parameter identification of physiological models related to diabetes and cancer care. © 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2010     

Elemental composition of size-fractionated urban aerosol collected in Florence, Italy; preliminary results

An extensive investigation is in progress aiming at the characterisation of the air particulate composition in Florence. We present here the preliminary results concerning the analysis of size-fractionated aerosol samples taken by two-stage streaker samplers in two sites characterised by different urban settings (one in a heavy traffic area, one in a green area). The sampling period (21 January–22 February) includes two days during which the Municipality of Florence has banned the circulation of non-catalytic cars, due to the increase of NO₂ above the “recommended safety values”. Hourly concentrations of 20 elements from Na to Pb were determined using the external beam PIXE facility of the I.N.F.N. Van de Graaff accelerator at the Physics Department of the Florence University. Factor analysis on the data set confirms that traffic is the main source of atmospheric pollution in Florence. The ban of non-catalytic cars seems to have produced no effect on the concentration of detected elements (in particular Pb and Br).     

Hourly measurement of particulate concentrations with streaker samplers and optical methods

We have studied the possibility of continuous particulate monitoring, by an optical system, on the filters of a two-stage streaker sampler. The streaker deposits, collected for PIXE analysis, have been examined off-line by measuring the attenuation of a light beam. The optical analysis provides, in a few minutes, an estimate of hourly total mass concentrations, over a one week period, for both stages, very useful as a selection for further PIXE irradiation. We describe the set-up and the calibration procedures, where PIXE plays a fundamental role in resolving different aerosol compositions and in validating the prototype performance. The results obtained over 2 weeks of operation and the comparison with the aerosol component determined via PIXE analysis, are also discussed.     

SVD-Based Techniques for Zero-Padded Block Transmission Over Fading Channels

In this paper, the performance of filter bank transceivers in the presence of a dispersive time-variant channel is investigated. It is well known that filter bank transceivers can be adapted to the channel transfer function to yield intersymbol interference (ISI) cancellation. When the channel is time variant, several problems arise, since the transceiver should be changed whenever the channel evolves. In this paper, we will allow both the transmitter and the receiver to change and satisfy the interference-free condition, under the assumption of a zero-padded block transmission. In this case, the optimum transmitter-receiver pair can be computed by using a singular value decomposition (SVD) of the channel matrix. A fast receiver adaptation based on SVD tracking is presented. Simulation results show that minimum performance loss with respect to the optimum receiver can be achieved for our reduced complexity receiver     

Aerosol characterisation in Italian towns by IBA techniques

The composition of particulate matter in the atmosphere of four major Italian towns (Florence, Genoa, Milan and Naples) has been studied with the extensive application of IBA techniques. The aerosol has been collected simultaneously in the four towns during the first weeks of year 2001, by two-stage continuous streaker samplers, which provide the separation of the particulate matter in two fractions. The concentrations in air of about 20 elements, and the total particulate mass, have been extracted in the PM2.5 and PM10 fractions with hourly resolution by PIXE, PIGE and optical analyses of about 2700 samples. IBA analyses have been performed at the 3 MeV external proton beam of the INFN accelerator facility at the University of Florence.