Force analysis of minimal self-adaptive fingers using variations of four-bar linkages

This paper presents the design and optimization of four versions of self-adaptive, a.k.a. underactuated, fingers based on four-bar linkages. These fingers are designed to be attached to and used with the same standard translational grippers as one finds in the manufacturing and packaging industries. This paper aims at showing self-adaptive fingers as simply as possible and analysing the resulting trade-off between complexity and performance. To achieve this objective, the simplest closed-loop 1 degree-of-freedom (DOF) linkage, namely the four-bar linkage, is used to build these fingers. However, it should be pointed out that if this work does consider a single four-bar linkage as the basic building block of the fingers, four variations of this four-bar linkage are actually discussed, including some with a prismatic joint. The ultimate purpose of this work is to evaluate whether the simplest linkages for adaptive fingers can produce the same level of performance in terms of grasp forces as more complex designs. To this end, a kinetostatic analysis of the four fingers is first presented. Then, the fingers are all numerically optimized considering various force-based metrics, and results are presented. Finally, these results are analysed and prototypes shown.

Family Canon: The Politics of Family during the Last Civic-Military Dictatorship in Argentina, 1976–83

On 24 March 1976 a military junta deposed President María Estela Martínez de Perón and assumed power in Argentina. From the first days of the takeover, the authorities worked vigorously to restore what they defined as legitimate Argentine values. This article shows how the family became a focal point of the government's efforts because of its double function as an agent of and a target for renovation. A microcosm of the Argentine nation, the family was considered the basic building block of society, a guarantor of the civic well-being of the nation and, as such, an important ally of the authoritarian state in the fight to restore Argentina's ‘traditional’ values. The analysis focuses on the civic-military regime's efforts to fashion a family canon, which would become the only legitimate version of the Argentine family, and the broad repertoire of strategies used to impose it on the Argentine population.

Realizing Spin-Conserved and Spin-Encrypted Hologram using Multipolar-modulated Meta-platform

The chiro-optical effects complemented with polarization conservation and wavefront shaping finds potential applications in advanced imaging, sorting and detection of enantiomers and quantum optics. Here, a unique design strategy proposed to manifest enormous chiro-optical effects using achiral structures (instead of conventional chiral antennas). The basic building block of the meta-platform contains a pair of achiral structures. The underlying mechanism behind the giant chiro-optical effects is explained by numerically calculating the multipolar resonances of scattering power. The designed diatomic meta-platform achieves absolute control over spin and wavefront of incident light to demonstrate the polarization-conserved and -encrypted meta-holograms.

Numerical investigation and Comparative analysis of tunable graphene-gold metasurface based polarizer structures for infrared frequency

We present the comparative analysis of tunable graphene-based metasurface polarizer structure THz frequency range. This polarizer structures have been numerically investigated over the 10 THz to 25 THz of the frequency range. Reflectance co-efficient, phase variation, and phase difference parameters have been investigated to identify the behavior of polarization effect over the range of 10 THz to 25 THz of the frequency. The proposed polarizer has been also investigated for the different shapes of the top gold resonator structure. The proposed structure is tunable for the range of 0.1 eV to 0.9 eV of the graphene Fermi energy. The proposed structure also works on the wide range of the input incident wave of the X and Y polarization. This structure having small, compact tunable design and it can be used as a basic building block in the large THz circuits and structures.

FAMILY LIFE CRISIS – A COMBINATION OF TRADITIONAL AND POSTMODERN VALUES AND FORMS OF LIFE

In the recent times, we are witnessing turbulent changes in society which cannot be avoided, even by families. These changes began to manifest themselves most markedly at the end of World War I and became more pronounced in the second half of the 20th century. A diverse range of cohabitation forms has emerged. Discussions about these forms have multiplied, with new questions arising. There is still a debate among experts about what form of cohabitation is called "family". Is the family still considered the foundation of the state, the basic building block of society? Despite these shifts in cohabitation, we still consider the family the most stable institution in society. The older functions that the family has fulfilled so far are gradually changing as a result of the current societal changes, and divisions exist only in theoretical considerations. When examining crisis in the family, the position of women in the family is also an important aspect, especially when regarding gender equality. Few studies address the issue that "women's thinking" about the family depends on the myriad of external and internal conditions that women encounter in childhood and during their upbringing. We later transfer these "inner truths" into our behavior when we are adults. We cannot ignore the importance of mass media, such as TV, the Internet, the various world communication networks, which are regarded by contemporary sociology as the third factor of socialization, alongside the family and school. Unfortunately, these may be regarded as rather as a factor of negative socialization.

Construction of à la carte QconCAT protein standards for multiplexed quantification of user-specified target proteins

Background QconCATs are quantitative concatamers for proteomic applications that yield stoichiometric quantities of sets of stable isotope-labelled internal standards. However, changing a QconCAT design, for example, to replace poorly performing peptide standards has been a protracted process. Results We report a new approach to the assembly and construction of QconCATs, based on synthetic biology precepts of biobricks, making use of loop assembly to construct larger entities from individual biobricks. The basic building block (a Qbrick) is a segment of DNA that encodes two or more quantification peptides for a single protein, readily held in a repository as a library resource. These Qbricks are then assembled in a one tube ligation reaction that enforces the order of assembly, to yield short QconCATs that are useable for small quantification products. However, the DNA context of the short construct also allows a second cycle of loop assembly such that five different short QconCATs can be assembled into a longer QconCAT in a second, single tube ligation. From a library of Qbricks, a bespoke QconCAT can be assembled quickly and efficiently in a form suitable for expression and labelling in vivo or in vitro. Conclusions We refer to this approach as the ALACAT strategy as it permits à la carte design of quantification standards. ALACAT methodology is a major gain in flexibility of QconCAT implementation as it supports rapid editing and improvement of QconCATs and permits, for example, substitution of one peptide by another.

Implementation of types of VCO

A Voltage Controlled Divider (VCO) is a basic building block in most of the electronic systems. Phase-locked loop (PLL), tone synthesizers, Frequency Shift Keying (FSK), frequency synthesizers, etc make use of VCO’s to generate an oscillating frequency that can be decided with the help of components. Voltage Controlled Divider can be implemented for analog applications. The project proposes three types of VCO using Electric tool and LT Spice XVII tool. The three VCO’s that are implemented are CMOS Ring Oscillator, Colpitts Oscillator and Relaxation Oscillator. These circuits generate two oscillating frequencies that is decided by the circult components. Keywords: Voltage Controlled Divider (VCO), CMOS Ring Oscillator, Colpitts Oscillator, Relaxation Oscillator, oscillating frequency.

Flexible Transmitter Network

Current neural networks are mostly built on the MP model, which usually formulates the neuron as executing an activation function on the real-valued weighted aggregation of signals received from other neurons. This letter proposes the flexible transmitter (FT) model, a novel bio-plausible neuron model with flexible synaptic plasticity. The FT model employs a pair of parameters to model the neurotransmitters between neurons and puts up a neuron-exclusive variable to record the regulated neurotrophin density. Thus, the FT model can be formulated as a two-variable, two-valued function, taking the commonly used MP neuron model as its particular case. This modeling manner makes the FT model biologically more realistic and capable of handling complicated data, even spatiotemporal data. To exhibit its power and potential, we present the flexible transmitter network (FTNet), which is built on the most common fully connected feedforward architecture taking the FT model as the basic building block. FTNet allows gradient calculation and can be implemented by an improved backpropagation algorithm in the complex-valued domain. Experiments on a broad range of tasks show that FTNet has power and potential in processing spatiotemporal data. This study provides an alternative basic building block in neural networks and exhibits the feasibility of developing artificial neural networks with neuronal plasticity.

The Effect of Cluster Size on the Intra-Cluster Ionic Polymerization Process

Polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are widespread in the interstellar medium (ISM). The abundance and relevance of PAHs call for a clear understanding of their formation mechanisms, which, to date, have not been completely deciphered. Of particular interest is the formation of benzene, the basic building block of PAHs. It has been shown that the ionization of neutral clusters can lead to an intra-cluster ionic polymerization process that results in molecular growth. Ab-initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) studies in clusters consisting of 3–6 units of acetylene modeling ionization events under ISM conditions have shown maximum aggregation of three acetylene molecules forming bonded C6H6+ species; the larger the number of acetylene molecules, the higher the production of C6H6+. These results lead to the question of whether clusters larger than those studied thus far promote aggregation beyond three acetylene units and whether larger clusters can result in higher C6H6+ production. In this study, we report results from AIMD simulations modeling the ionization of 10 and 20 acetylene clusters. The simulations show aggregation of up to four acetylene units producing bonded C8H8+. Interestingly, C8H8+ bicyclic species were identified, setting a precedent for their astrochemical identification. Comparable reactivity rates were shown with 10 and 20 acetylene clusters.

Vortex Laser Based on a Plasmonic Ring Cavity

The orbital angular momentum (OAM) of the structure light is viewed as a candidate for enhancing the capacity of information processing. Microring has advantages in realizing the compact lasers required for on-chip applications. However, as the clockwise and counterclockwise whispering gallery modes (WGM) appear simultaneously, the emitted light from the normal microring does not possess net OAM. Here, we propose an OAM laser based on the standing-wave WGMs containing clockwise and counterclockwise WGM components. Due to the inhomogeneous intensity distribution of the standing-wave WGM, the single-mode lasing for the OAM light can be realized. Besides, the OAM of the emitted light can be designed on demand. The principle and properties of the proposed laser are demonstrated by numerical simulations. This work paves the way for exploring a single-mode OAM laser based on the plasmonic standing-wave WGMs at the microscale, which can be served as a basic building block for on-chip optical devices.