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Industrial robots have made it possible for robotics to become a worldwide discipline both in economy and in science. However, their capabilities are limited, especially regarding contact tasks where it is required to regulate or at least limit contact forces. At one point, it was noticed that elasticity in the joint transmission, which was treated as a drawback previously, is actually helpful in this regard. This observation led to the introduction of elastic joint robots that are well-suited to contact tasks and cooperative behavior in particular, so they become more and more widespread nowadays. Many researchers try to implement such devices not with trivial series elastic actuators (SEA) but with more sophisticated variable stiffness actuators (VSA) that can regulate their own mechanical stiffness. All elastic actuators demonstrate shock robustness and safe interaction with external objects to some extent, but when stiffness may be varied, it provides additional benefits, e. g., in terms of energy efficiency and task adaptability. Here, we present a novel variable stiffness actuator with a magnetic coupler as an elastic element. Magnetic transmission is contactless and thus advantageous in terms of robustness to misalignment. In addition, the friction model of the transmission becomes less complex. It also has milder stiffness characteristic than typical mechanical nonlinear springs, moreover, the stiffness curve has a maximum after which it descends. Therefore, when this maximum torque is achieved, the coupler slips, and a new pair of poles defines the equilibrium position. As a result, the risk of damage is smaller for this design solution. The design of the joint is thoroughly described, along with its mathematical model. Finally, the control system is also proposed, and simulation tests confirm the design ideas.

The numerical methods developed by the author recently for calculating the molecular system based on the direct solution of the Schrodinger equation by the Monte Carlo method have shown a huge uncertainty in the choice of solutions. On the one hand, it turned out to be possible to build many new solutions; on the other hand, the problem of their connection with reality has become sharply aggravated. In ab initio quantum mechanical calculations, the problem of choosing solutions is not so acute after the transition to the classical format of describing a molecular system in terms of potential energy, the method of molecular dynamics, etc. In this paper, we investigate the problem of choosing solutions in the classical format of describing a molecular system without taking into account quantum mechanical prerequisites. As it turned out, the problem of choosing solutions in the classical format of describing a molecular system is reduced to a specific marking of the configuration space in the form of a set of stationary points and reconstruction of the corresponding potential energy function. In this formulation, the solution of the choice problem is reduced to two possible physical and mathematical problems: to find all its stationary points for a given potential energy function (the direct problem of the choice problem), to reconstruct the potential energy function for a given set of stationary points (the inverse problem of the choice problem). In this paper, using a computational experiment, the direct problem of the choice problem is discussed using the example of a description of a monoatomic cluster. The number and shape of the locally equilibrium (saddle) configurations of the binary potential are numerically estimated. An appropriate measure is introduced to distinguish configurations in space. The format of constructing the entire chain of multiparticle contributions to the potential energy function is proposed: binary, threeparticle, etc., multiparticle potential of maximum partiality. An infinite number of locally equilibrium (saddle) configurations for the maximum multiparticle potential is discussed and illustrated. A method of variation of the number of stationary points by combining multiparticle contributions to the potential energy function is proposed. The results of the work listed above are aimed at reducing the huge arbitrariness of the choice of the form of potential that is currently taking place. Reducing the arbitrariness of choice is expressed in the fact that the available knowledge about the set of a very specific set of stationary points is consistent with the corresponding form of the potential energy function.

Self-organization of molecules on a solid surface is one of the promising directions for materials generation with unique magnetic, electrical, and optical properties. They can be widely used in fields such as electronics, optoelectronics, catalysis, and biology. However, the structure and physicochemical properties of adsorbed molecules are influenced by many parameters that must be taken into account when studying the self-organization of molecules. Therefore, the experimental study of such materials is expensive, and quite often it is difficult for various reasons. In such situations, it is advisable to use the mathematical modeling. One of the parameters in the considered adsorption systems is the multiparticle interaction, which is often not taken into account in simulations due to the complexity of the calculations. In this paper, we evaluated the influence of multiparticle interactions on the total energy of the system using the transfer-matrix method and the Materials Studio software package. The model of monocentric adsorption with nearest interactions on a triangular lattice was taken as the basis. Phase diagrams in the ground state were constructed and a number of thermodynamic characteristics (coverage $\theta$, entropy $S$, susceptibility $\xi$) were calculated at nonzero temperatures. The formation of all four ordered structures (lattice gas with $\theta=0$, $(\sqrt{3} \times \sqrt{3}) R30^{\circ}$ with $\theta = \frac{1}{3}$, $(\sqrt{3} \times \sqrt{3})R^{*}30^{\circ}$ with $\theta = \frac{2}{3}$ and densest phase with $\theta = 1$) in a system with only pairwise interactions, and the absence of the phase  $(\sqrt{3}\times \sqrt{3}) R30^\circ$ when only three-body interactions are taken into account, were found. Using the example of an atomistic model of the trimesic acid adsorption layer by quantum mechanical methods we determined that in such a system the contribution of multiparticle interactions is 11.44% of the pair interactions energy. There are only quantitative differences at such values. The transition region from the  $(\sqrt{3} \times \sqrt{3}) R^{*}30^\circ$ to the densest phase shifts to the right by 38.25% at $\frac{\varepsilon}{RT} = 4$ and to the left by 23.46% at $\frac{\varepsilon}{RT} = −2$.

In the paper three characteristic scales of a biological system are proposed: microscopic (gene's size), mesoscopic (cell’s size) and macroscopic level (organism’s size). For each case the approach to modeling of circadian rhythms is discussed on the base of a time-delay model. At gene’s scale the stochastic description has been used. The robustness of rhythms mechanism to the fluctuations has been demonstrated. At the mesoscopic scale we propose the deterministic description within the spatially extended model. It was found the effect of collective synchronization of rhythms in cells. Macroscopic effects have been studied within the discrete model describing the collective behaviour of large amount of cells. The problem of cross-linking of results obtained at different scales is discussed. The comparison with experimental data is given.

A crucial component of distributed computing systems is network infrastructure. While networking forms the backbone of such systems, it is often the invisible partner to storage and computing resources. We propose to integrate Network Elements directly into distributed systems through the workload management layer. There are many reasons for this approach. As the complexity and demand for distributed systems grow, it is important to use existing infrastructure efficiently. For example, one could use network performance measurements in the decision making mechanisms of workload management systems. New advanced technologies allow one to programmatically define network configuration, for example SDN — Software Defined Networks. We will describe how these methods are being used within the PanDA workload management system of the ATLAS collaboration.

Heart rate (HR) is the most affordable indicator for measuring. In order to control the individual response to physical exercises of different load types heart rate is measured when the athletes perform different types of muscular work (strength machines, various types of training and competitive exercises). The magnitude of heart rate and its dynamics during muscular work and recovery can be objectively judged on the functional status of the cardiovascular system of an athlete, the level of its individual physical performance, as well as an adaptive response to a particular exercise. However, the heart rate is not an independent determinant of the physical condition of an athlete. HR size is formed by the interaction of the basic physiological mechanisms underlying cardiac hemodynamic ejection mode. Heart rate depends on one hand, on contractility of the heart, the venous return, the volumes of the atria and ventricles of the heart and from vascular heart load, the main components of which are elastic and peripheral resistance of the arterial system on the other hand. The values of arterial system vascular resistances depend on the power of muscular work and its duration. HR sensitivity to changes in heart load and vascular contraction was determined in athletes by pair regression analysis simultaneously recorded heart rate data, and peripheral $(R)$ and elastic $(E_a)$ resistance (heart vascular load), and the power $(W)$ of heartbeats (cardiac contractility). The coefficients of sensitivity and pair correlation between heart rate indicators and vascular load and contractility of left ventricle of the heart were determined in athletes at rest and during the muscular work on the cycle ergometer. It is shown that increase in both ergometer power load and heart rate is accompanied by the increase of correlation coefficients and coefficients of the heart rate sensitivity to $R$, $E_a$ and $W$.

Investigation of the influence of external fields on living systems is one of the most interesting and rapidly developing areas of modern biophysics. However, the mechanisms of such an impact are still not entirely clear. One approach to the study of this issue is associated with modeling the interaction of external fields with internal mobility of biological objects. In this paper, this approach is used to study the effect of external fields on the motion of local conformational distortions — kinks, in the DNA molecule. Realizing and taking into account that on the whole this task is closely connected with the problem of the mechanisms of regulation of vital processes of cells and cellular systems, we set the problem — to investigate the physical mechanisms regulating the motion of kinks and also to answer the question whether permanent and periodic fields can play the role of regulators of this movement. The paper considers the most general case, when constant and periodic fields are switching on and off asynchronously. Three variants of asynchronous switching on/off are studied in detail. In the first variant, the time intervals (or diapasons) of the actions of the constant and periodic fields do not overlap, in the second — overlap, and in the third — the intervals are putting in each other. The calculations were performed for the sequence of plasmid pTTQ18. The kink motion was modeled by the McLaughlin–Scott equation, and the coefficients of the equation were calculated in a quasi-homogeneous approximation. Numerical experiments showed that constant and periodic fields exert a significant influence on the character of the kink motion and regulate it. So the switching on of a constant field leads to a rapid increase of the kink velocity and to the establishment of a stationary velocity of motion, and the switching on of a periodic field leads to the steady oscillations of the kink with the frequency of the external periodic field. It is shown that the behavior of the kink depends on the mutual arrangement of the diapasons of the action of the external fields. As it turned out, events occurring in one of the two diapasons can affect the events in the other diapason, even when the diapasons are sufficiently far apart. It is shown that the overlapping of the diapasons of action of the constant and periodic fields leads to a significant increase in the path traversed by the kink to a complete stop. Maximal growth of the path is observed when one diapason is putting in each other. In conclusion, the question of how the obtained model results could be related to the most important task of biology — the problem of the mechanisms of regulation of the processes of vital activity of cells and cellular systems is discussed.

The paper presents results of numerical modeling of stress-strain state of jack-up rigs used for shelf hydrocarbon reservoirs exploitation. The work studied the equilibrium stress state of a jack-up rig standing on seafloor and mechanical behavior of the rig under seismic loading. Surface elastic wave caused by a distant earthquake acts a reason for the loading. Stability of jack-up rig is the main topic of the research, as stability can be lost due to redistribution of stresses and strains in the elements of the rig due to seismic loading. Modeling results revealed that seismic loading can indeed lead to intermittent growth of stresses in particular elements of the rig’s support legs resulting into stability loss. These results were obtained using the finite element-based numerical scheme. The paper contains the proof of modeling results convergence obtained from analysis of one problem — the problem of stresses and strains distributions for the contact problem of a rigid cylinder indenting on elastic half space. The comparison between numerical and analytical solutions proved the used numerical scheme to be correct, as obtained results converged. The paper presents an analysis of the different factors influencing the mechanical behavior of the studied system. These factors include the degree of seismic loading, mechanical properties of seafloor sediments, and depth of support legs penetration. The results obtained from numerical modeling made it possible to formulate preliminary conclusions regarding the need to take site-specific conditions into account whenever planning the use of jack-up rigs, especially, in the regions with seismic activity. The approach presented in the paper can be used to evaluate risks related to offshore hydrocarbon reservoirs exploitation and development, while the reported numerical scheme can be used to solve some contact problems of theory of elasticity with the need to analyze dynamic processes.

In this work, we analyze the system of contracts made by Russian defense enterprises in the process of state defense order execution. We conclude that methods of statistical mechanics can be applied to the description of the given system. Following the original grand-canonical ensemble approach, we can create the statistical ensemble under investigation as a set of instant snapshots of indistinguishable contracts having individual values. We show that due to government regulations of contract prices the contract system can be described in terms of nonextensive Tsallis statistics. We have found that probability distributions of contract prices correspond to deformed Bose – Einstein distributions obtained using nonextensive Tsallis entropy. This conclusion is true both in the case of the whole set of contracts and in the case of the contracts made by an individual defense company as a seller.

In order to analyze how deformed Bose – Einstein distributions fit the empirical contract price distributions we compare the corresponding cumulative distribution functions. We conclude that annual distributions of individual sales which correspond to each company’s contract (order) can be used as relevant data for contract price distributions analysis. The empirical cumulative distribution functions for the individual sales ranking of Concern CSRI Elektropribor, one of the leading Russian defense companies, are analyzed for the period 2007–2021. The theoretical cumulative distribution functions, obtained using deformed Bose – Einstein distributions in the case of «rare contract gas» limit, fit well to the empirical cumulative distribution functions. The fitted values for the entropic index show that the degree of nonextensivity of the system under investigations is rather high. It is shown that the characteristic prices of distributions can be estimated by weighing the values of annual individual sales with the escort probabilities. Given that the fitted values of chemical potential are equal to zero, we suggest that «gas of contracts» can be compared to photon gas in which the number of particles is not conserved.

This work deals with numerical modeling of motion of the multibody systems consisting of rigid bodies with arbitrary masses and inertial properties. We consider both planar and spatial systems which may contain kinematic loops.

The numerical modeling is fully automatic and its computational algorithm contains three principal steps. On step one a graph of the considered mechanical system is formed from the userinput data. This graph represents the hierarchical structure of the mechanical system. On step two the differential-algebraic equations of motion of the system are derived using the so-called Joint Coordinate Method. This method allows to minimize the redundancy and lower the number of the equations of motion and thus optimize the calculations. On step three the equations of motion are integrated numerically and the resulting laws of motion are presented via user interface or files.

The aforementioned algorithm is implemented in the software complex that contains a computer algebra system, a graph library, a mechanical solver, a library of numerical methods and a user interface.