Evaluation of microchamber geometries and surface conditions for electrokinetic driven mixing

The paper presents numerical simulations and analysis of electrokinetic induced mixing in a microchamber in the presence of a fluctuating electric field. Two microchamber geometries are investigated; one plain and the other with strategically placed microbaffles. Both geometries are tested for two extreme surface conditions: a charged surface with induced electrokinesis and another with a neutral or passive surface. Through order of magnitude analysis and numerical experiments it is found that there is an optimal choice of nondimensional frequency and driving potential which leads to the best mixing characteristics. This is given by the relationship Re(eof)/f*< 5 and the condition that f*= O(1), where Re(eof) is the ratio of electrokinetic forces to viscous forces and f*is the nondimensional frequency. Optimal mixing is shown to occur at Re(eof) = 100 and f*= 30. In all cases, best mixing is found to occur when conditions are favorable for the establishment and sustenance of a rotational cell in the chamber driven by the fluctuating ac current. It is shown that the plain microchamber performs better under conditions of surface neutrality while microbaffles enhance mixing substantially in a charged microchamber. In the presence of a rotational cell, the characteristic time scale for mixing is reduced by 2-3 orders of magnitude compared to plain diffusion and is calculated to be between 5 and 10 s for aqueous buffers.     

Wärmeübertragung bei pulsierender Strömung

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Network Assisted Power Control for Wireless Data

The cellular telephone success story prompts the wireless communications community to turn its attention to other information services, many of them in the category of wireless data communications. One lesson of cellular telephone network operation is that effective power control is essential to promote system quality and efficiency. In recent we have applied microeconomic theories to power control taking into account notions of utility and pricing. Our earlier work has shown that this new approach to power control for wireless data performs better than traditional techniques applied for voice signals. However, the operating points of such a strategy result in an unfair equilibrium in that users operate with unequal signal-to-interference ratios. Further, the power control algorithms required to achieve such operating points are more complex than the simple signal-to-interference ratio balancing algorithms for voice. In this paper, we introduce a new concept, Network Assisted Power Control (NAPC) that maximizes utilities for users while maintaining equal signal-to-interference ratios for all users. The power control algorithm is easily implemented via signal-to-interference ratio balancing with the assistance of the network that broadcasts the common signal-to-interference ratio target.     

Change detection for moving object segmentation with robust background construction under Wronskian framework

Although background subtraction techniques have been used for several years in vision systems for moving object detection, many of them fail to provide good results in presence of noise, illumination variation, non-static background, etc. A basic requirement of background subtraction scheme is the construction of a stable background model and then comparing each incoming image frame with it so as to detect moving objects. The novelty of the proposed scheme is to construct a stable background model from a given video sequence dynamically. The constructed background model is compared with different image frames of the same sequence to detect moving objects. In the proposed scheme the background model is constructed by analyzing a sequence of linearly dependent past image frames in Wronskian framework. The Wronskian based change detection model is further used to detect the changes between the constructed background scene and the considered target frame. The proposed scheme is an integration of Gaussian averaging and Wronskian change detection model. Gaussian averaging uses different modes which arise over time to capture the underlying richness of background, and it is an approach for background building by considering temporal modes. Similarly, Wronskian change detection model uses a spatial region of support in this regard. The proposed scheme relies on spatio-temporal modes arising over time to build the appropriate background model by considering both spatial and temporal modes. The results obtained by the proposed model is found to provide accurate shape of moving objects. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme is verified by comparing the results with those of some of the existing state of the art background subtraction techniques on public benchmark databases. We found that the average F-measure is significantly improved by the proposed scheme from that of the state-of-the-art techniques.     

Shape-It-Up: Hand gesture based creative expression of 3D shapes using intelligent generalized cylinders

We present a novel interaction system, “Shape-It-Up”, for creative expression of 3D shapes through the naturalistic integration of human hand gestures with a modeling scheme dubbed intelligent generalized cylinders (IGC). To achieve this naturalistic integration, we propose a novel paradigm of shape–gesture–context interplay (SGCI) wherein the interpretation of gestures in the spatial context of a 3D shape directly deduces the designer’s intent and the subsequent modeling operations. Our key contributions towards SGCI are threefold. Firstly, we introduce a novel representation (IGC) of generalized cylinders as a function of the spatial hand gestures (postures and motion) during the creation process. This representation allows for fast creation of shapes while retaining their aesthetic features like symmetry and smoothness. Secondly, we define the spatial contexts of IGCs as proximity functions of their representational components, namely cross-sections and the skeleton with respect to the hands. Finally, we define a natural association of modification and manipulation of the IGCs by combining the hand gestures with the spatial context. Using SGCI, we implement intuitive hand-driven shape modifications through skeletal bending, sectional deformation and sectional scaling schemes. The implemented prototype involves human skeletal tracking and hand posture classification using the depth data provided by a low-cost depth sensing camera (Kinect?). With Shape-It-Up, our goal is to make the designer an integral part of the shape modeling process during early design, in contrast to the case for current CAD tools which segregate 3D sweep geometries into procedural 2D inputs in a non-intuitive and onerous process requiring extensive training. We conclusively demonstrate the modeling of a wide variety of 3D shapes within a few seconds.     

Stochastic contraction-based observer and controller design algorithm with application to a flight vehicle

This paper focuses on a stochastic version of contraction theory to construct observer-controller structure for a flight dynamic system with noisy velocity measurement. A nonlinear stochastic observer is designed to estimate the pitch rate, the pitch angle, and the velocity of an aircraft example model using stochastic contraction theory. Estimated states are used to compute feedback control for solving a tracking problem. The structure and gain selection of the observer is carried out using Itô's stochastic differential equations and the contraction theory. The contraction property of integrated observer-controller structure is derived to ensure the exponential convergence of the trajectories of closed-loop nonlinear system. The upper bound of the state estimation error is explicitly derived and the efficacy of the proposed observer-controller structure has been shown through the numerical simulations.     

Synthesis of 1,4-dihydropyridine derivatives using nanocrystalline copper(II) oxide catalyst

Nanocrystalline copper(II) oxide catalyzed three-component coupling of aromatic amines, β-ketoesters and cinnamaldehyde to afford the corresponding 1,4-dihydropyridines in moderate to good yields under mild conditions is described. The catalyst can be recovered and reused for four cycles with almost consistent activity.