Combinational system of a truncated ball lens and a hyperbolic lens for collimating a highly divergent source

We propose the use of a truncated ball lens in a collimating system to transform a spherical wave from a highly divergent source into a plane wave. The proposed scheme, which incorporates a hyperbolic lens, is discussed, and the overall system is found to have a large acceptance angle and to be free of spherical aberration. Diffraction and polarization effects are neglected, as well as skew rays.     

Compound parabolic tapered fiber for fiber coupling with a highly divergent source

A novel fiber tapering shape, which is based on compound parabolic geometry, is proposed to increase the acceptance angle of a compound parabolic concentrator. The proposed design is described by use of ray optics on a step-index multimode fiber.     

Reactively hot-pressed yttrium iron garnets

Reactive hot-pressing of co-precipitated oxalates of Yttrium and Iron, under 6000–8000 psi, to a maximum temperature of 1100°C, produced high density specimens. Only the stooichiometric mixture (Fe/Y=1.66) produced some garnet phase. Off-stoichiometric specimens were mainly composed of orthoferrites. On annealing in air or oxygen at 1400°C, the orthoferrite phase was converted to the garnet phase (with excess Fe₂O₃ or Y₂O₃ in the lattice) with an accompanying increase in magnetic moment.     

On the design of high-performance algorithms for aligning multiple protein sequences on mesh-based multiprocessor architectures

In this paper, we address the problem of multiple sequence alignment (MSA) for handling very large number of proteins sequences on mesh-based multiprocessor architectures. As the problem has been conclusively shown to be computationally complex, we employ divisible load paradigm (also, referred to as divisible load theory, DLT) to handle such large number of sequences. We design an efficient computational engine that is capable of conducting MSAs by exploiting the underlying parallelism embedded in the computational steps of multiple sequence algorithms. Specifically, we consider the standard Smith–Waterman (SW) algorithm in our implementation, however, our approach is by no means restrictive to SW class of algorithms alone. The treatment used in this paper is generic to a class of similar dynamic programming problems. Our approach is recursive in the sense that the quality of solutions can be refined continuously till an acceptable level of quality is achieved. After first phase of computation, we design a heuristic scheme that renders the final solution for MSA. We conduct rigorous simulation experiments using several hundreds of homologous protein sequences derived from the Rattus Norvegicus and Mus Musculus databases of olfactory receptors. We quantify the performance based on speed-up metric. We compare our algorithms to serial or single machine processing approaches. We testify our findings by comparing with conventional equal load partitioning (ELP) strategy that is commonly used in the parallel processing literature. Based on our extensive simulation study, we observe that DLT paradigm offers an excellent speed-up characteristics and provides avenues for its use in several other biological sequence processing related problem. This study is a first time attempt in using the DLT paradigm to devise efficient strategies to handle large scale multiple protein sequence alignment problem on mesh-based multiprocessor systems.     

Architecting centralized coordination of soccer robots based on principle solution

Coordination strategy is a relevant topic in multi-robot systems, and robot soccer offers a suitable domain to conduct research in multi-robot coordination. Team strategy collects and uses environmental information to derive optimal team reactions, through cooperation among individual soccer robots. This paper presents a diagrammatic approach to architecting the coordination strategy of robot soccer teams by means of a principle solution. The proposed model focuses on robot soccer leagues that possess a central decision-making system, involving the dynamic selection of the roles and behaviors of the robot soccer players. The work sets out from the conceptual design phase, facilitating cross-domain development efforts, where different layers must be interconnected and coordinated to perform multiple tasks. The principle solution allows for intuitive design and the modeling of team strategies in a highly complex robot soccer environment with changing game conditions. Furthermore, such an approach enables systematic realization of collaborative behaviors among the teammates.     

Recurrent neural network approach for cyclic job shop scheduling problem

While cyclic scheduling is involved in numerous real-world applications, solving the derived problem is still of exponential complexity. This paper focuses specifically on modelling the manufacturing application as a cyclic job shop problem and we have developed an efficient neural network approach to minimise the cycle time of a schedule. Our approach introduces an interesting model for a manufacturing production, and it is also very efficient, adaptive and flexible enough to work with other techniques. Experimental results validated the approach and confirmed our hypotheses about the system model and the efficiency of neural networks for such a class of problems.     

Synthesis of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes for protein binding: Effect of casting thickness

Microporous polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes were synthesized from PVDF/N‐methyl‐2‐pyrrolidinone (NMP) solutions using an immersion–precipitation method with a 2‐propanol/water mixture as a soft coagulant. The effects of membrane thickness on pore size distribution and surface/cross‐section morphology were studied using capillary flow porometry and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), respectively. All the synthesized membranes had a small range of pore size distribution, with the pore size decreasing with increasing casting thickness. The semicrystalline PVDF membranes demonstrated significant variations in morphology under SEM observation, with the existence of polymer agglomeration at a casting thickness of 500 μm and above. The protein binding capacity was observed to be highest at a casting thickness of 400 μm, where optimum pore morphology provided a large surface area for protein binding. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013     

'Unfinished Business': Neoliberal Planning Reform in Australia

This paper reviews the recent and contemporary neoliberal reform agendas that have sought a reduced role for planning in Australia. Our aim is to describe these reform paths and to theorise their broader implications for urban governance in Australia. Our analysis focuses on two initiatives: first, the broad reform framework embodied in National Competition Policy that is now affecting planning regulation at the state level; and second, the new vision for a standardised development control system that has been put forward by the Property Council of Australia. As we will show, neoliberal reforms have the potential both to reduce the possibility for spatial regulation and also to undermine the other recent reform agendas that have sought a positive transformation of planning; namely, community democratic movements and environmentalism.     

The unsteady state absorption of oxygen in cumene

New data are reported for the absorption of single bubbles of oxygen less than 5 mm in diameter in cumene at room temperature. Measured rates are compared with the theoretically predicted rates, based on new values of the diffusivity and solubility of oxygen in cumene, for absorption from spheres in potential flow and from rigid spheres. In the presence of the peroxide, which is a reaction product, absorption rates are high initially but decay after 15 seconds or so to a value expected for rigid spheres. The results are explained in terms of the accumulation of surfactant at the bubble surface. Preliminary measurements of the dissolution of carbon dioxide bubbles in water in the same apparatus gave results similar to other determinations reported in the literature.     

Reliability analysis of laterally loaded piles using response surface methods

Response surface methods have been applied to the reliability analysis of laterally loaded piles. Beam elements and a series of discrete springs are used to model the pile–soil system. The pile head displacement and the maximum bending moment in the piles are used as the performance criteria in this study. It is shown in the illustrative example that the CDF and PDF curves of the pile head displacement and the maximum bending moment in the pile obtained from the proposed methods are in good agreement with Monte Carlo simulation. The failure probabilities of the pile under specified performance criteria, the probabilistic responses of the pile-soil system, and the effect of pile-soil parameters to the failure probability of the pile are also studied.