Neutron Structural Studies of the Superconducting (Nd1?yCay)Ba2(Cu0.94Ga0.06)3Oz System

We investigate the influence of Ca ions on the structural and superconducting properties of (Nd_1–y Cay)Ba₂(Cu_0.94Ga_0.06)₃O _z system by Rietveld refinement of the neutron diffraction patterns of three samples with y = 0.0 (A₁), y = 0.18 (A₂), and y = 0.36 (A₃) along with X-ray diffraction, resistivity, and ac susceptibility measurements. Samples A₂ and A₃ are superconducting with T _c values of 37 K and 76 K, respectively, whereas sample A₁ is semiconducting to 20 K. Neutron diffraction data confirms (a) the occurrence of a single-phase tetragonal structure (space group Pmmm) for all three samples; (b) Ca ions substitute at the Nd site; and (c) increasing y from 0.0 to 0.36 decreases Cu(1)-O(1), Cu(2)-O(2), and Nd-Cu(2) bond lengths, whereas Cu(2)-O(4) bond length increases with corresponding increase in T _c to 76 K due to increasing occupancy of Ca ions at Nd site. A correlation exists between the Cu(1)-O(1), Cu(2)-O(2), Cu(2)-O(4), and Nd-Cu(2) bond lengths and the measured T _c values of three samples.     

Identification of Heffron-Phillips model parameters for synchronous generators operating in closed loop

Heffron-Phillips model of a synchronous machine is commonly used in small signal stability analysis and for off-line design of power system stabilisers. The data used to determine the parameters of this model are either hard to measure or require the machine to be taken off-line to take the measurements which, in general, is inconvenient. identifying these parameters from online data measurements is important since it does not require any a priori knowledge of the machine data. the problem of closed-loop identification of the Heffron-Phillips model parameters is of practical importance since the data used for identification can be gathered when the machine is normally connected to the power system. the use of open-loop identification techniques using data gathered during closed-loop operation of synchronous generators leads to bias errors in the estimated parameters. motivated by the fact that the synchronous machine model is multivariable and is well defined in a state space structure, a closed-loop subspace parameter identification technique is proposed. consistency of the proposed approach is illustrated using Monte Carlo analysis. comparison of the proposed method with open-loop identification technique shows the superiority of this approach.     

Colloidal Synthesis of ZnS,CdS and Zn x Cd1−x S Nanoparticles from Zinc and Cadmium Thiobiuret Complexes

ZnS, CdS and Zn _x Cd_1?x S nanoparticles were synthesised from the thermolysis of 1,1,5,5-tetra-iso-propyl-4-thiobiuret complexes of Zn and/or Cd in oleylamine. The influence of the different reaction parameters (precursor concentration, growth temperature, reaction time and injection solvent/capping agent combination) on the size, morphology and optical properties of the produced nanoparticles were studied. ZnS nanoparticles with size smaller than 4.3 nm had the cubic phase whereas the particles with size larger than 4.3 nm had a hexagonal crystal structure as suggested by the selected area electron diffraction. Transmission electron microscopy showed the formation of spherical ZnS nanoparticles in addition to few ZnS nanorods only at growth temperature of 280 °C. Powder X-Ray diffraction (p-XRD) showed that the obtained CdS nanoparticles were cubic under all reaction conditions except when dodecanethiol was used as an injection solvent which produced hexagonal CdS. The change in the crystal structure of the CdS nanoparticles was accompanied with a change in morphology from spherical to triangular. Cubic Zn _x Cd_1?x S nanoparticles were obtained under all reaction conditions. Lattice spacing of the Zn _x Cd_1?x S nanoparticles showed a very good agreement with Vegard’s law. The optical properties of the Zn _x Cd_1?x S nanoparticles were highly dependent on the ZnS to CdS precursor ratio and the solvents/capping agent combinations. This in detail study on the relationship of solvent systems (capping agents), thermolysis temperatures, time of reactions and precursors will help in understanding to control the morphology, size of the crystallites and phase of the materials.     

Cooperative Multiuser Relay Communications Employing Hierarchical Modulation

Relay-assisted cooperative communications are a promising solution for error-performance improvement and cell coverage extension. However, additional resources such as time slots or frequency bands are required for the relay, which reduce the overall throughput. This paper proposes two cooperative relay schemes that employ hierarchical modulation to overcome this limitation. One scheme is for symmetric downlink communications and the other is for asymmetric downlink communications. These schemes exploit the hierarchical modulation symbols for users in the network and allow the system to transmit two or more independent data streams simultaneously. The proposed schemes reduce the number of transmission phases to the same as conventional schemes without diversity gain. The symbol-error rates of the proposed systems are a function of the distance parameter of hierarchical modulation. By flexibly controlling the distance parameter based on specific scenarios, it allows an extra degree of freedom to guarantee error performance of receivers whose signals undergo different losses.     

Uptake,incorporation and metabolism of (3H)triolein in the isolated perfused rabbit heart

The purpose of these experiments was to study the uptake and metabolism of exogenous triglyceride in the isolated perfused rabbit heart. When infused into the rabbit heart, [9,10-³H(N)]triolein was retained and incorporated into a lipid fraction that had the chromatographic mobility of authentic triolein. Incorporation of labeled triolein was not likely to be the result of a lipoprotein lipase-mediated lipolysis/resynthesis cycle, since: (i) The distribution of radioactivity following administration of [³H]oleic acid was markedly different from the distribution of radioactivity following the administration of [³H]triolein; (ii) heparin was administered to the rabbits at the time of sacrifice; and (iii) the hearts were perfused with a protein-free buffer for 20 min prior to the labelling period. When isoproterenol was administered to hearts labelled with [³H]triolein, there was an increased output of total radioactivity, composed of labelled free fatty acids, diacylglycerol and monoacylglycerol. In these same hearts, there was an increased output of glycerol in response to isoproterenol. However, following the administration of bradykinin or angiotensin II, neither the radioactivity nor the glycerol content of the perfusate was changed. These data suggest that [³H]triolein is selectively incorporated into the triglyceride pool of the isolated perfused rabbit heart. Furthermore, this [³H]triolein is available to hormonally-activated lipolytic enzymes. This work was presented in part at the meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, Las Vegas, Nevada, May 1988.     

Hybrid Multihop Relay Protocol Using Dynamic Power Allocation for LTE-Advanced System

In this paper, an adaptive relay scheme of hybrid relay system is proposed based on channel state information of the received signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the relay node. hybrid relay system is comprised of amplify-and-forward, decode-and-forward and demodulate-and-forward together in cooperative networks. The relay protocols are selected adaptively, on the basis of power allocation (PA) constraint, or the SNR value at previous hop. Thus multihop performance of the relay system can be improved by applying PA allocation scheme. The simulation results show that the performance of the novel hybrid relay protocol can be improved significantly compared to the conventional hybrid system in terms of error performance and link efficiency.     

An Architecture for Exploiting Multihoming in Mobile Devices for Vertical Handovers & Bandwidth Aggregation

In recent years, mobile devices with multihoming capabilities i.e. equipped with multiple network interfaces have gained large scale popularity. This multihoming capability enables the mobile devices to connect with multiple diverse access networks simultaneously. However, networking protocol stack implemented in current devices is not capable of exploiting the availability of multiple network interfaces. Multihoming can be used to provide two important services: vertical handovers and bandwidth aggregation. Vertical handover enables a multihomed device to switch its connectivity from one access network to another access network without disrupting the communication session. Bandwidth aggregation enables multihomed device to achieve higher throughput by establishing simultaneous connections over multiple available network interfaces. A number of solutions have been proposed to exploit multihoming for vertical handovers and bandwidth aggregation. However, most of these solutions either require the support of additional network entities such as host agent, foreign agent, mobility gateway, proxy, etc. or they require changes in current widely deployed protocol stack in operating system kernels. Dependence on either network operator, administrator or operating system vendors hinders the large scale deployment of these solutions. This paper presents an end-to-end architecture that offers the vertical handover and bandwidth aggregation services to TCP applications. This architecture neither requires any additional network entity nor it requires the changes in current networking protocol stack in operating system kernels. The paper presents the design, implementation and performance analysis of the proposed architecture.     

Effect of alloys additions on the interlamellar spacing of pearlite

The spacing of pearlite was measured to investigate the effect of, alloying elements on this parameter using high purity plain carbon, 2 % Co, 2 % Si, 1 % Cr and 0.3 % Mo eutectoid steels. The investigation revealed that the addition of these alloying elements increases the spacing of pearlite at a given undercooling.     

Is there increased sympathetic activity in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy?

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to assess autonomic nervous system activity in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. BACKGROUND: Patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy are traditionally thought to have increased sympathetic activity. However, convincing evidence is lacking. METHODS: Heart rate variability was assessed from 24-h ambulatory electrocardiographic (Holter) recordings in 31 patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and 31 age- and gender-matched normal control subjects in a drug-free state. Spectral heart rate variability was calculated as total (0.01 to 1.00 Hz), low (0.04 to 0.15 Hz) and high (0.15 to 0.40 Hz) frequency components using fast Fourier transformation analysis. RESULTS: There was a nonsignificant decrease in the total frequency component of heart rate variability in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy compared with that of normal subjects (mean +/- SD 7.24 +/- 0.88 versus 7.59 +/- 0.57 ln[ms2], p = 0.072). Although there was no significant difference in the high frequency component (5.31 +/- 1.14 versus 5.40 +/- 0.91 ln[ms2], p = 0.730), the low frequency component was significantly lower in patients than in normal subjects (6.25 +/- 1.00 versus 6.72 +/- 0.61 ln[ms2], p = 0.026). After normalization (i.e., division by the total frequency component values), the low frequency component was significantly decreased (38 +/- 8% versus 43 +/- 8%, p = 0.018) and the high frequency component significantly increased (16 +/- 6% versus 12 +/- 6%, p = 0.030) in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The low/high frequency component ratio was significantly lower in these patients (0.94 +/- 0.64 versus 1.33 +/- 0.55, p = 0.013). In patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, heart rate variability was significantly related to left ventricular end-systolic dimension and left atrial dimension but not to maximal left ventricular wall thickness. No significant difference in heart rate variability was found between 14 victims of sudden cardiac death and 10 age- and gender-matched low risk patients. CONCLUSIONS: Our observations suggest that during normal daily activities, patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy experience a significant autonomic alteration with decreased sympathetic tone.