Conducting polymers at low temperatures and high magnetic fields

Advances in the synthesis of organic conducting polymer systems has increased the electrical conductivity of these systems by several orders of magnitude in the last decade. Several practical applications are envisioned for such systems, but a thorough understanding of the conduction mechanisms and identification of the charge carriers is lacking, making design and implementation for bulk synthesis difficult. In order to clarify our understanding of the electrical properties of these systems, the resistivity and magnetoresistivity of various polymers doped near the metal - insulator transition, such as polyaniline protonated by camphor sulfonic acid (PANi-CSA) and polypyrrole doped with PF₆ (PPy-PF₆), have been studied down to 25 mK in magnetic fields up to 16 T.     

Mechanism of simultaneous solutes separation and concentration by size exclusion cyclic separation

The semicontinuous separation/concentration of two solutes with different molecular size by the size exclusion cyclic separation method is based on the opposite swelling responses of two gels to a temperature change. Experimental results of separation and concentration of solutes are verified qualitatively by the theoretical models based on the local equilibrium assumption. Separation of two solutes is shown by the breakthrough curves in coupled gel columns. In closed coupled columns, the volumetric space for the large molecules which are totally excluded from the gels becomes smaller, creating a concentrating effect as the gels swell when temperature changes. A mechanistic model is suggested to predict the large molecule concentration to increase to its solubility limit as cycle repeats.     

Implementation of a vector quantization codebook design technique based on a competitive learning artificial neural network

We describe an implementation of a vector quantization codebook design algorithm based on the frequencysensitive competitive learning artificial neural network. The implementation, designed for use on high-performance computers, employs both multitasking and vectorization techniques. A C version of the algorithm tested on a CRAY Y-MP8/864 is discussed. We show how the implementation can be used to perform vector quantization, and demonstrate its use in compressing digital video image data. Two images are used, with various size codebooks, to test the performance of the implementation. The results show that the supercomputer techniques employed have significantly decreased the total execution time without affecting vector quantization performance.This work was supported by a Cray University Research Award and by NASA Lewis research grant number NAG3-1164.     

普通砂型铸造中球铁件冒口的CAD

根据球铁件凝固原理，对常用湿砂铸型中制造球铁件，用计算机完成控制压力冒口的设计，流程框图适于各工厂和车间之用。     

Occlusion of large atrial septal defects with a centering buttoned device: early clinical experience

A feasibility clinical study was conducted for the transcatheter occlusion of large ostium secundum atrial septal defects with the centering buttoned device. The centering buttoned device is a modification of the regular buttoned device in which a centering counter-occluder is sutured at the central 40% portion of the occluder. During centering it is stretched, forming a parachute-shaped structure and pulling the occluder over the center of the defect. During buttoning, the counter-occluder forms a double figure eight, opposing the right atrial side of the atrial septum. Occlusion was performed in 12 patients aged 6 to 56 years. All had been rejected for transcatheter occlusion by the regular buttoned device, because of either their defect size or the lack of adequate septal rim. The defect size varied between 23 and 31 mm, and the device size varied between 45 and 60 mm. Nine had immediate effective occlusions of their defects and three residual shunts. One patient with unbuttoning had hemolysis at 2 weeks and underwent surgery. Early results of the transcatheter occlusion of large atrial septal defects are promising, and larger clinical trials are justified.     

Localization of interferon-gamma and Ia-antigen in T cell line-mediated experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis

This study reports the cellular localization of interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) and MHC class II antigen (Ia) in the spinal cord of rats with experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis induced by adoptive transfer of myelin basic protein-specific T cells. Numerous IFN-gamma-positive cells, stained with two different monoclonal antibodies against IFN-gamma, were present from days 3 to 7 after cell transfer. Their number was greatly reduced on day 10. A subpopulation of T cells was IFN-gamma positive. Moreover, a large number of ED1-positive macrophages contained IFN-gamma immunoreactivity. The transient presence of immune cells containing IFN-gamma immunoreactivity in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis suggests a pathogenic role of this cytokine in immune-mediated demyelination of the central nervous system.     

Prediction of evaporation heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop of refrigerant mixtures

A study on the prediction of heat transfer coefficient (HTC) and pressure drop of refrigerant mixtures is reported. HTCs and pressure drops of prospective mixtures to replace R12 and R22 are predicted on the same cooling capacity basis. Results indicate that nucleate boiling is suppressed at qualities greater than 20.0% for all mixtures and evaporation becomes the main heat transfer mechanism. For the same capacity, some mixtures containing R32 and R152a show 8.0–10.0% increase in HTCs. Some mixtures with large volatility difference exhibit as much as 55.0% reduction compared with R12 and R22, caused by mass transfer resistance and property degradation due to mixing (32.0%) and reduced mass flow rates (23.0%). Other mixtures with moderate volatility difference exhibit 20.0–30.0% degradation due mainly to reduced mass flow rates. The overall impact of heat transfer degradation, however, is insignificant if major heat transfer resistance exists in the heat transfer fluid side (air system). If the resistance in the heat transfer fluid side is of the same order of magnitude as that on the refrigerant side (water system), considerable reduction in overall HTC of up to 20% is expected. A study of the effect of uncertainties in transport properties on heat transfer shows that transport properties of liquid affect heat transfer more than other properties. Uncertainty of 10.0% in transport properties causes a change of less than 6% in heat transfer prediction.     

New queueing strategies employing service interval-based priority for real-time communications in atm networks

In this paper, we propose queueing strategies employing the service interval-based priority (sip) which can provide delay-bounded, and loss-free services, while maximizing bandwidth utilization in the atm network. We also describe a variation of the sip, the residual service interval-based priority (rsip) which can achieve almost full utilization by assigning priorities dynamically on the basis of the residual service interval. We store the realtime cells belonging to different connections in logically separated queues, and for each queue, we set a parameter called service interval, during which only one cell is allowed to be transmitted. The sip server takes and transmits the head-of-line (hol) cell of the queue which has the smallest service interval, while the rsip server selects the queue with the smallest residual service interval. When there is no eligible real-time cell, it transmits non-real-time cell, thus enabling a maximized bandwidth utilization. Employing the above queueing strategies, we analyze the delay characteristics deterministically with the leaky bucket bounded input traffic and then dimension the optimal service interval. In dimensioning the service interval and buffer space of each real-time service queue, we consider burstiness of traffic in conjunction with delay constraints, so that bandwidth utilization can get maximized. In addition, we consider the issues of protection from malicious users, average bandwidth utilization, and coupling between the delay bound and the bandwidth allocation granularity.     

Analysis of culture fluorescence by a fiber-optic sensor inNicotiana tabacum plant cell culture

The on-line sensing of viable cell weight in plant cell culture process is applied to analysis and control of process. The fiber-optic fluorescence sensor was constructed to measure the NADH-dependent fluorescence inNicotiana tabacum plant cell culture and the analysis of fluorescence signal was done to be correlated with the viable cell weight. The structured kinetic model for cell growth was proposed to estimate the theoretical viable cell weight. The dimensional analysis was proposed for the interpretation of fluorescence signal, in which the path length, the inner filter effect and the hydrodynamic conditions were considered as the key factors on fluorescence signal. The dimensional analysis and empirical correlation of fluorescence signal to viable cell weight was applied to the interpretation of the detected fluorescence signal during cultivation. The proposed interpretation of fluorescence signal using dimensional analysis was well correlated with the viable cell weight estimated by the structured kinetic model as well as by empirical correlation.