Corrosion-fatigue durability of pipe steel in carbonate-bicarbonate medium

Ufa Petroleum Institute, Ufa. Translated from Fiziko-Khimicheskaya Mekhanika Materialov. Vol. 29, No. 5, pp. 97–98, September–October, 1993.     

Application of microwaves and millimeter waves for thecharacterization of teeth for dental diagnosis and treatment

This paper presents applications of microwaves and millimeter waves for the characterization of teeth. This is done by measuring the complex permittivity over the frequency range from 0.04 to 40 GHz. These measurements have revealed that dental caries are significantly more lossy to microwaves and millimeter waves than the healthy tooth, and this difference can be used for dental diagnosis. The experimental results have been confirmed by using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. In addition, millimeter-wave heating of the lossy dental caries can be used as a sterilization treatment. It is concluded that millimeter waves can be used for dental medical diagnosis as well as dental medical treatment     

Dynamic digital holographic wavelength filtering

This paper describes the theory and results of a new generic technology for use in optical telecommunications and wavelength division multiplexing (WDM): dynamic digital holographic wavelength filtering. The enabling component is a polarization-insensitive ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) spatial light modulator (SLM) in conjunction with a highly wavelength-dispersive fixed diffractive element. The technology has been used to perform demultiplexing of single or multiple WDM signals, dynamic erbium doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) gain equalization and channel management, and used to tune an erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) functioning as a high power, very narrow linewidth WDM source     

Multimedia Signal Processors: An Architectural Platform with Algorithmic Compilation

Novel algorithmic features of multimedia applications and advances in VLSI technologies are driving forces behind the new multimedia signal processors. We propose an architecture platform which could provide high performance and flexibility, and would require less external I/O and memory access. It is comprised of array processors to be used as the hardware accelerator and RISC cores to be used as the basis of the programmable processor. It is a hierarchical and scalable architecture style which facilitates the hardware-software codesign of multimedia signal processing circuits and systems. While some control-intensive functions can be implemented using programmable CPUs, other computation-intensive functions can rely on hardware accelerators.To compile multimedia algorithms, we also present an operation placement and scheduling scheme suitable for the proposed architectural platform. Our scheme addresses data reusability and exploits local communication in order to avoid the memory/communication bandwidth bottleneck, which leads to faster program execution. Our method shows a promising performance: a linear speed-up of 16 times can be achieved for the block-matching motion estimation algorithm and the true motion tracking algorithm, which have formed many multimedia applications (e.g., MPEG-2 and MPEG-4).     

Sooner is better than perfect [millenium bug]

The author warns that it is not just personal computers and corporate IT systems that are at risk from impending date changes. He argues that the danger of embedded systems failing to cope should be just as great a cause for concern     

Continuous stimulated emission at T=293 K from separate-confinement heterostructure diode lasers with one layer of InAs quantum dots grown on vicinal GaAs(bd001) surfaces misoriented in the [010] direction in the active region

The electroluminescence and stimulated emission of lasers with one layer of InAs quantum dots (QD’s) grown in a single molecular-beam epitaxial process on vicinal GaAs(001) surfaces misoriented in the direction [010] by 2, 4 and 6° are investigated. It is discovered that an increase in the misorientation angle leads to a blue shift and a decrease in the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the electroluminescence spectrum. This effect is attributed to a decrease in the size of the quantum dots and improvement in their size uniformity. A strong dependence of the threshold current density on the width of the spontaneous luminescence spectrum is discovered. The room-temperature threshold current density of the lasers with one layer of quantum dots and the spontaneous luminescence spectrum having the smallest FWHM (54 meV) equals 210 A/cm². Fiz. Tekh. Poluprovodn. 32, 1482–1486 (December 1998)     

Waveform reconstruction from the average-value model ofline-commutated converter-synchronous machine systems

Relationships are established which can be used to predict the instantaneous waveforms of a line-commutated converter/synchronous machine system using an average value model. The analytically predicted waveforms are shown to be a valid approximation of the waveforms predicted by detailed simulation during both steady-state and transient conditions, while requiring much less computation time. The method set forth substantially increases the capabilities of average value simulations     

Application of outranking methods to economic and financial justificaton of CIM systems

Traditional economic evaluation methods concentrate on maximizing or minimizing a single objective such as net present value and pay back period. In the last decade, there has been an increased awareness of the need to consider multiple attributes in the evaluation of advanced manufacturing systems. Various methods have recently been developed for the evaluation of CIM systems. This paper discusses multiattribute methods for justification of CIM systems and outranking methods including ELECTRE, ORESTE, and PROMETHEE.     

Intracellular analysis of relations between the slow (< 1 Hz) neocortical oscillation and other sleep rhythms of the electroencephalogram

The newly described slow cortical rhythm (approximately 0.3 Hz), whose depolarizing-hyperpolarizing components are analyzed in the preceding article, is now investigated from the standpoint of its relations with delta (1-4 Hz) and spindle (7-14 Hz) rhythmicity. Regular-spiking and intrinsically bursting cortical neurons were mostly recorded from association suprasylvian areas 5 and 7; fewer neurons were also recorded from pericruciate motor and posterolateral visual areas. Although most cells were investigated under various anesthetics, a similar slow cortical rhythm was found in animals with brainstem transection at the low- or high-collicular levels. These cerveau isolé (isolated forebrain) preparations display the major sleep rhythms of the EEG in the absence of general anesthetics. In 38% of recorded cortical neurons (n = 105), the slow rhythm was combined with delta oscillation. Both cellular rhythms were phase locked to the slow and delta oscillations in the surface- and depth-recorded EEG. In a group of this cell sample (n = 47), delta activity occurred as stereotyped, clock-like action potentials during the interdepolarization lulls of the slow rhythm. In another neuronal subsample (n = 58), delta events were grouped in sequences superimposed upon the depolarizing envelope of the slow rhythm, with such sequences recurring rhythmically at approximately 0.3-0.4 Hz. The associations between the two cellular and EEG rhythms (1-4 Hz and 0.3-0.4 Hz) were quantified by means of autocorrelograms, cross-correlograms, and spike-triggered averages. In 26% of recorded neurons (n = 72), the slow rhythm was combined with spindle oscillations. Regular-spiking cortical neurons fully reflected the whole frequency range of thalamically generated spindles (7-14 Hz). However, during similar patterns of EEG spindling, intrinsically bursting cells fired grouped action potentials (with intraburst frequencies of 100-200 Hz) at only 2-4 Hz. The dependence of the slow cortical oscillation upon the thalamus was studied by lesions and stimulation. The slow rhythm survived extensive ipsilateral thalamic destruction by means of electrolytic lesions or kainate-induced loss of perikarya in thalamic nuclei that were input sources to the recorded cortical neurons. To further prevent the possibility of a thalamic role in the genesis of the slow rhythm, through the contralateral thalamocortical systems and callosal projections, we also transected the corpus callosum in thalamically lesioned animals, and still recorded the slow rhythm in cortical neurons. These data indicate that the thalamus is not essentially implicated in the genesis of the slow rhythm.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)