On sorting triangles in a delaunay tessellation

In a two-dimensional Delaunay-triangulated domain, there exists a partial ordering of the triangles (with respect to a vertex) that is consistent with the two-dimensional visibility of the triangles from that vertex. An equivalent statement is that a polygon that is star-shaped with respect to a given vertex can be extended, one triangle at a time, until it includes the entire domain. Arbitrary planar triangulations do not possess this useful property which allows incremental processing of the triangles.This work was partially supported by the National Science Foundation's US-Italy Collaborative Research Program under Grant INT-8714578 and Information, Robotics, and Intelligent Research Grant IRI-8704781.     

Temporal order and functional analysis of mutations within the Fli-1 and p53 genes during the erythroleukemias induced by F-MuLV

The erythroleukemias induced by Friend murine leukemia virus (F-MuLV) result from the accumulation of a number of genetic changes, including activation of the Fli-1 proto-oncogene and inactivation of the p53 tumor suppressor gene. We have determined the temporal order of mutation of the genes involved in this multistage malignancy, by serial in vivo transplantation of F-MuLV induced primary erythroleukemias into syngenic Balb/c mice. These primary tumors are capable of growing when transplanted into syngenic mice, but die after several days of in vitro culture. From the transplanted tumors grown in syngenic mice, erythropoietin-dependent cell lines were established in culture that are clonally related to cells in the primary tumors. We show that retroviral insertional activation of the Fli-1 ets family member is the first detectable genetic event in F-MuLV induced primary erythroleukemias. Mutations in the p53 gene were observed in the Epo-dependent cell lines but not in the transplanted erythroleukemias used to establish these cell lines in culture. These data suggest that activation of Fli-1 plays an important role in the early stages of F-MuLV-induced leukemia, perhaps by altering the self-renewal probabilities of erythroid progenitor cells and that p53 mutations immortalize these cells, enabling them to grow in vitro in the presence of Epo.     

Complete forward displacement solutions for a class of three-branch parallel manipulators

Forward displacement solutions are presented for a class of spatial parallel manipulators. In particular, considered are manipulators consisting of a platform supported through passive spherical joints by three branches, each branch having three-revolute joints forming its main arm. Solutions are described for arbitrary main-arm layouts and for all possible cases of redundant (nine, eight, and seven sensors) and non-redundant (six sensors) sensing of branch main-arm joint displacements. It is demonstrated that closed-form forward displacement solutions can be found for all cases of redundant sensing. Furthermore, it is shown that a closed-form solution can be obtained for one of the two possible cases of non-redundant sensing of the main-arm joint displacements. The only case of joint displacement sensing not allowing a closed-form forward displacement solution is two joints sensed per branch, a case that can be expressed as a 16th-order polynomial of a single variable. Due to the importance of having efficient and failure-safe solutions for the forward displacement problem, it is suggested that appropriate redundancy in displacement sensing should be an important consideration in the design of parallel manipulation devices. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

GIBC formulation for the resonant frequencies and fielddistribution of a substrate-mounted dielectric resonator

Dielectric resonators (DR's) are widely used in telecommunication systems. A method is proposed here to find the resonant frequency and field distribution in a substrate-mounted DR structure. The field of a dielectric rod has been decomposed into a combination of guided modes with unknown coefficients and an unknown continuous spectrum of radiation field. The unknowns are then obtained by applying two generalized impedance boundary conditions (GIBC's) representing the substrate and air layers at the top and bottom of the DR. This leads to the calculation of the total (guided+radiation) field as well as the resonant frequency of the structure     

Religion and spirituality: Linkages to physical health.

Evidence is presented that bears on 9 hypotheses about the link between religion or spirituality and mortality, morbidity, disability, or recovery from illness. In healthy participants, there is a strong, consistent, prospective, and often graded reduction in risk of mortality in church/service attenders. This reduction is approximately 25% after adjustment for confounders. Religion or spirituality protects against cardiovascular disease, largely mediated by the healthy lifestyle it encourages. Evidence fails to support a link between depth of religiousness and physical health. In patients, there are consistent failures to support the hypotheses that religion or spirituality slows the progression of cancer or improves recovery from acute illness but some evidence that religion or spirituality impedes recovery from acute illness. The authors conclude that church/service attendance protects healthy people against death. More methodologically sound studies are needed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Legendre multiwavelet functions for numerical solution of multi-term time-space convection–diffusion equations of fractional order

Engineering with Computers - In this study, the Ritz–Galerkin method based on Legendre multiwavelet functions is introduced to solve multi-term time-space convection–diffusion equations...     

Effect of dispersion states (electrostatic/electrosteric stabilization) on particles arrangement in the yttria-stabilized zirconia sediments

In the present work, particle arrangement and their packing in the sediment layer of zirconia suspension were studied. To evaluate the particle settling, aqueous suspensions of zirconia nanoparticles were prepared in different dispersion states. In one state, Dolapix CE64 was used as a dispersant to provide electrosteric mechanism. In another state, pH of the suspension was adjusted at 4 to provide electrostatic mechanism. The other state was the combination of dispersant and pH adjustment which resulted in the most stable suspension. First of all, the stability of all dispersion states was evaluated by zeta potential, sediment volume (SV) and height, viscosity, and packing density (PD). Then, the sediment layers of all suspensions were characterized. Incorporation of electrostatic mechanism was resulted in a main decrease in viscosity with high surface charges, while electrosteric mechanism caused lower sedimentation of particles. Fall velocities of particles/agglomerates were estimated, and the influences of dispersion states on the particles fall velocities were characterized. The microstructural observation revealed homogeneous packing of particles in the sediment layer of the stable suspension demonstrating the proper dispersion of particles. Dolapix CE64 and pH adjustment resulted in a uniform arrangement of particles without agglomeration and spherical and regular granules with a uniform shape.     

Modification of phenol–formaldehyde resol resins by lignin,starch, and urea

Lignin‐based chemicals, starch, and urea were used as modifiers for phenol–formaldehyde resol resins. The effects of the addition stage of the modifiers used in the synthesis of the resins and the type of modification reagent on the structures of the resins and their molar masses and reactivities were investigated. The modifications with corn starch and lignin promoted condensation; this was verified by increased molar masses and high ratios of methylene bridges to the sum of free ortho and para aromatic groups with respect to the corresponding reference resin without a modification reagent. The later the modifier was added to the resin condensation mixture, the more methylene bridges were formed with respect to the amounts of free ortho and para aromatic groups. In addition, when urea or wheat starch was added in the later condensation stage, the final condensation also reached high stages. The modifications with lignosulfonate and starch, as well as the early addition of urea, enhanced p–p′ bridge structures. The lowest condensation stage and, therefore, the highest reactivity were found when wheat starch was added with the starting reagents. The curing heat of the wheat‐starch‐modified resins decreased according to the deferred addition point of starch. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 88: 582–588, 2003     

Design and analysis of single-factor experiments: Analysis of variance of the effect of rice husk ash and commercial fillers in NR compounds

Summary White rice husk ash (WRHA) and black rice husk ash (BRHA) were incorporated into natural rubber (NR) using a laboratory-sized two-roll mill. A conventional vulcanization system was used for curing and physical tests of the NR vulcanized involved determining of tensile and tear resistances. For comparison purposes, precipitated silica (Zeosil-175) and carbon black (N774) were used too. Using the analysis of variance of single-factor experiments, it can be concluded that: BRHA is non-reinforcing filler and its use is limited to 20 phr; WRHA is semi-reinforcing filler and the variation of filler loading (0 up to 50 phr) causes the maximum variation upon tensile strength of NR compounds; and, that although carbon black and silica are reinforcing fillers, a real reinforcement is reached up to 20 phr for tensile strength.     

Fuzzy logic controller and cascade inverter for direct torque control of IM

In this paper, a five-level cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverters topology is applied on induction motor control known as direct torque control (DTC) strategy. More inverter states can be generated by a five-level inverter which improves voltage selection capability. This paper also introduces two different control methods to select the appropriate output voltage vector for reducing the torque and flux error to zero. The first is based on the conventional DTC scheme using a pair of hysteresis comparators and look up table to select the output voltage vector for controlling the torque and flux. The second is based on a new fuzzy logic controller using Sugeno as the inference method to select the output voltage vector by replacing the hysteresis comparators and lookup table in the conventional DTC, to which the results show more reduction in torque ripple and feasibility of smooth stator current. By using Matlab/Simulink, it is verified that using five-level inverter in DTC drive can reduce the torque ripple in comparison with conventional DTC, and further torque ripple reduction is obtained by applying fuzzy logic controller. The simulation results have also verified that using a fuzzy controller instead of a hysteresis controller has resulted in reduction in the flux ripples significantly as well as reduces the total harmonic distortion of the stator current to below 4 %.