We consider the Buffon’s problem for the lattice Rα,a which has the fundamental cell composed by the union of octagon, with all sides of lengths a and the angles (π − α) and ( 2 + α) with α ∈ ] 0, π 2 [ , and of the square with side of length a (see Fig. 1). We determine the probability of intersection of a body test needle of length l, l < a. For α = π 4 we also give the estimate of this proba...

Resumen Background: The goal of this study was to develop and validate the Family Motivational Climate Questionnaire (FMCQ). Parental involvement (PI) affects children’s academic orientations. However, PI questionnaires had not considered parenting behaviours from the perspective of motivational theories. It was therefore decided to develop the FMCQ. Method: 570 Secondary-School students formed...

In this paper a new boundary method for Helmholtz eigenproblems in simply and multiply connected domains is presented. The method is based on mathematically modelling the physical response of a system to external excitation over a range of frequencies. The response amplitudes are then used to determine the resonant frequencies. So, contrary to the traditional scheme, the method described does n...

In the study of photonic crystals, the question arises naturally: which crystals produce the largest band gaps? This question is investigated by means of an optimization-based evolution algorithm which, given two dielectric materials, seeks to produce a material distribution within the fundamental cell which produces a maximal band gap at a given point in the spectrum. The case of H-polarizatio...

This paper deals with the problem of reconstruction from a sequence of images, by linear methods. The reconstruction is made directly, without calculating the fundamental matrices or the trilinear tensors. In a general setting it is shown that it is possible to do such a reconstruction of six points from four images up to a projective transformation. Furthermore, when more point matches are ava...

Multiplicative preconditioning is a popular tool for handling linear systems of equations provided the relevant information about the associated singular values is available. We propose using additive preconditioners, which are readily available for both general and structured ill conditioned input matrices and which preserve matrix structure. We introduce primal and dual additive preconditioni...

In this paper we propose a simple method for detecting (shape, size and location) a scatterer embedded in a host acoustic homogeneous medium from scant measurements of the scattered acoustic pressure in the vicinity (near-or far-field) of the obstacle. We develop a nonlinear constrained minimization regularized method of fundamental solutions for obtaining the numerical solution of the inverse ...

This paper examines the role of spatial behaviours in building human-robot relationships. A group of 8 participants, involved in a long-term HRI study, interacted with an artificial agent using different embodiments over a period of one and a half months. The robot embodiments had similar interactional and expressive capabilities, but only one embodiment was capable of moving. Participants repo...

We present a novel method for estimating the fundamental matrix, a key problem arising in stereo vision. The method aims to minimise a cost function that is derived from maximum likelihood considerations. The respective minimiser turns out to be significantly more accurate than the familiar algebraic least squares technique. Furthermore, the method is identical in accuracy to a Levenberg-Marqua...

The United States Navy and its joint partners continually seek to maintain a responsive, agile, and effective fighting force well suited to combat present-day threats to national security. As a result, U.S. forces are currently undergoing force transformation to adopt an organizational structure capable of supporting this mission. This new organizational structure is known as Network-Centric Wa...