Extinction of dispersed heterogeneous systems

We consider extinction of various dispersed systems. Isolated boron particles and boron particles in gases are studied. Stability analysis of steady-state thermal regimes of reacting heterogeneous systems for the case of two parallel reactions on the reaction surface using the Frank-Kamenetskii method gives extinction conditions in oxygen-containing media. Curves of the extinction particle size versus the ambient temperature, oxidizer concentration, and, for particles in gases, also versus the oxidizer-to-fuel ratio are plotted. Approximate analytical calculations showed that the extinction process can be most actively controlled by varying the combustion temperature: a decrease in the latter increases the extinction particle size and decreases the completeness of fuel combustion. It is shown that at low ambient temperatures the extinction particle size for suspensions is larger than that for isolated particles. This effect is caused by a decrease in the oxidizer concentration during combustion of suspensions. At high temperatures, the role of this factor weakens.Translated from Fizika Goreniya i Vzryva, Vol. 32, No. 6, pp. 12–19, November–December, 1996.     

Sensorless speed measurement using current harmonic spectralestimation in induction machine drives

This paper proposes a sensorless speed measurement scheme that improves the performance of transducerless induction machine drives, especially for low-frequency operation. Speed-related harmonics that arise from rotor slotting and eccentricity are analyzed using digital signal processing. These current harmonics exist at any nonzero speed and are independent of time-varying parameters, such as stator winding resistance. A spectral estimation technique combines multiple current harmonics to determine the rotor speed with more accuracy and less sensitivity to noise than analog filtering methods or the fast Fourier transform. An on-line initialization routine determines machine-specific parameters required for slot harmonic calculations. This speed detector, which has been verified at frequencies as low as 1 Hz, can provide robust, parameter-independent information for parameter tuning or as an input to a sensorless flux observer for a field-oriented drive. The performance of the algorithm is demonstrated over a wide range of inverter frequencies and load conditions     

Application of evolutionary programming to transient andsubtransient parameter estimation

This paper presents an artificial intelligence approach of using evolutionary programming to estimate the transient and subtransient parameters of a generator under normal operation. The estimation using evolutionary programming is compared with that using a corrected extended Kalman filter. The comparisons with both simulation and micromachine test results show that evolutionary programming is robust to search the real values of parameters even when the data are highly contaminated by noise, while with the extended Kalman filter, the estimation tends to diverge with such data     

Abnormal behavioral responses to fenfluramine in patients with affective and personality disorders. Correlation with increased serotonergic responsivity

Serotonergic responsivity was assessed in 20 psychiatric patients by the prolactin response to a fenfluramine challenge test. During the fenfluramine challenge 6 of 20 patients (30%) spontaneously reported psychopathologic reactions that included: increased anxiety/agitation, psychotic symptoms, illusions, mood elevation, and anergia. The time of peak behavioral symptoms (2.5 +/- 0.8 hrs) corresponded closely to the time of peak increase in prolactin levels (3.0 +/- 1.1 hr). Abnormal behavioral responders had statistically significant greater increases in prolactin 1 to 4 hr after fenfluramine when compared to normal responders. Patients who developed an abnormal psychopathologic response to fenfluramine were characterized by higher levels of anxiety and agitation at the time of admission to the hospital but otherwise were not distinguishable on the basis of severity of other psychiatric symptoms. This study suggests that increased serotonergic transmission may trigger anxiety, psychosis, and mood elevation in specific vulnerable individuals, whereas other patients with similar psychiatric illnesses are not affected.     

Adiabatic couplers: design rules and optimization

Explicit analytic design rules are derived for both 3 dB and full adiabatic couplers. The design rules are in excellent agreement with numerical calculations using the beam propagation method (BPM). It is shown that the length scaling for 3 dB couplers compared to full couplers makes the former more difficult to design. The design for each case is optimized to obtain the upper limit of performance and a comparison is carried out between two different design geometries for both 3 dB and full adiabatic couplers     

Penetrating ocular injuries: an epidemiologic and retrospective study

Penetrating injuries of the eye are an important cause of unilateral visual loss. We studied a series of 82 cases of penetrating injuries treated here from 1987 through 1993. The injuries were caused by sharp objects in 66% and blunt trauma in 6%. The prognosis after a penetrating injury is greatly influenced by the nature of the injury and the extent of the initial drainage. Among factors associated with an unfavorable visual outcome were diminished preoperative visual acuity and scleral wounds with dense vitreous hemorrhage.     

Anatomically constrained electrical impedance tomography forthree-dimensional anisotropic bodies

As shown previously for two-dimensional geometries, anisotropy effects should not be ignored in electrical impedance tomography (EIT) and structural information is important for the reconstruction of anisotropic conductivities. Here, we describe the static reconstruction of an anisotropic conductivity distribution for the more realistic three-dimensional (3-D) case. Boundaries between different conductivity regions are anatomically constrained using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data. The values of the conductivities are then determined using gradient-type-algorithms in a nonlinear-indirect approach. At each iteration, the forward problem is solved by the finite element method. The approach is used to reconstruct the 3-D conductivity profile of a canine torso. Both computational performance and simulated reconstruction results are presented together with a detailed study on the sensitivity of the prediction error with respect to different parameters. In particular, the use of an intracavity catheter to better extract interior conductivities is demonstrated