Qualitative egomotion

Due to the aperture problem, the only motion measurement in images, whose computation does not require any assumptions about the scene in view, is normal flow—the projection of image motion on the gradient direction. In this paper we show how a monocular observer can estimate its 3D motion relative to the scene by using normal flow measurements in a global and qualitative way. The problem is addressed through a search technique. By checking constraints imposed by 3D motion parameters on the normal flow field, the possible space of solutions is gradually reduced. In the four modules that comprise the solution, constraints of increasing restriction are considered, culminating in testing every single normal flow value for its consistency with a set of motion parameters. The fact that motion is rigid defines geometric relations between certain values of the normal flow field. The selected values form patterns in the image plane that are dependent on only some of the motion parameters. These patterns, which are determined by the signs of the normal flow values, are searched for in order to find the axes of translation and rotation. The third rotational component is computed from normal flow vectors that are only due to rotational motion. Finally, by looking at the complete data set, all solutions that cannot give rise to the given normal flow field are discarded from the solution space.Research supported in part by NSF (Grant IRI-90-57934), ONR (Contract N00014-93-1-0257) and ARPA (Order No. 8459).     

New Mononuclear Cu(II) Complexes and 1D Chains with 4-Amino-4H-1,2,4-triazole

The crystal structures of two mononuclear Cu(II) NH₂trz complexes [Cu(NH₂trz)₄(H₂O)](AsF₆)₂ (I) and [Cu(NH₂trz)₄(H₂O)](PF₆)₂ (II) as well as two coordination polymers [Cu(μ₂-NH₂trz)₂Cl]Cl·H₂O (III) and [Cu(μ₂-NH₂trz)₂Cl] (SiF₆)_0.5·1.5H₂O (IV) are presented. Cationic 1D chains with bridging bis-monodentate μ₂-coordinated NH₂trz and bridging μ₂-coordinated chloride ligands are present in III and IV. In these coordination polymers, the Cu(II) ions are strongly antiferromagnetically coupled with J = −128.4 cm⁻¹ for III and J = −143 cm⁻¹ for IV (H = −J∑S_iS_i+1), due to the nature of the bridges between spin centers. Inter-chain interactions present in the crystal structures were taken into consideration, as well as g factors, which were determined experimentally, for the quantitative modeling of their magnetic properties.     

A computational analysis of the impact of mass transport and shear on three-dimensional stem cell cultures in perfused micro-bioreactors

In this study, Computational Fluid Dynamics(CFD) is used to investigate and compare the impact of bioreactor parameters(such as its geometry, medium flow-rate, scaffold configuration) on the local transport phenomena and, hence, their impact on human mesenchymal stem cell(hM SC) expansion. The geometric characteristics of the TissueFlex174;(Zyoxel Limited, Oxford, UK) microbioreactor were considered to set up a virtual bioreactor containing alginate(in both slab and bead configuration) scaffolds. The bioreactor and scaffolds were seeded with cells that were modelled as glucose consuming entities. The widely used glucose medium, Dulbecco's Modified Eagle Medium(DMEM), supplied at two inlet flow rates of 25 and 100 μl·h~(-1), was modelled as the fluid phase inside the bioreactors. The investigation, based on applying dimensional analysis to this problem, as well as on detailed three-dimensional transient CFD results, revealed that the default bioreactor design and boundary conditions led to internal and external glucose transport, as well as shear stresses, that are conducive to h MSC growth and expansion. Furthermore, results indicated that the ‘top-inout' design(as opposed to its symmetric counterpart) led to higher shear stress for the same media inlet rate(25 μl·h~(-1)), a feature that can be easily exploited to induce shear-dependent differentiation. These findings further confirm the suitability of CFD as a robust design tool.     

Investigation of critical equivalence ratio and chemical speciation in flames of ethylbenzene–ethanol blends

This work investigates five different one-dimensional, laminar, atmospheric pressure, premixed ethanol/ethylbenzene flames (0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 90% ethanol by weight) at their soot onset threshold (?_critical). Liquid ethanol/ethylbenzene mixtures were pre-vaporized in nitrogen, blended with an oxygen–nitrogen mixture and, upon ignition, burned in premixed one-dimensional flames at atmospheric pressure. The flames were controlled so that each was at its visual soot onset threshold, and all had similar temperature profiles (determined by thermocouples). Fixed gases, light volatile hydrocarbons, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), and oxygenated aromatic hydrocarbons were directly sampled at three locations in each flame. The experimental results were compared with a detailed kinetic model, and the modeling results were used to perform a reaction flux analysis of key species. The critical equivalence ratio was observed to increase in a parabolic fashion as ethanol concentration increased in the fuel mixture. The experimental results showed increasing trends of methane, ethane, and ethylene with increasing concentrations of ethanol in the flames. Carbon monoxide was also seen to increase significantly with the increase of ethanol in the flame, which removes carbon from the PAH and soot formation pathways. The PAH and oxygenated aromatic hydrocarbon values were very similar in the 0%, 25% and 50% ethanol flames, but significantly lower in the 75% and 90% ethanol flames. These results were in general agreement with the model and were reflected by the model soot predictions. The model predicted similar soot profiles for the 0%, 25% and 50% ethanol flames, however it predicted significantly lower values in the 75% and 90% ethanol flames. The reaction flux analysis revealed benzyl to be a major contributor to single and double ring aromatics (i.e., benzene and naphthalene), which was identified in a similar role in nearly sooting or highly sooting ethylbenzene flames. The presence of this radical was significantly reduced as ethanol concentration was increased in the flames, and this effect in combination with the lower carbon to oxygen ratios and the enhanced formation of carbon monoxide, are likely what allowed higher equivalence ratios to be reached without forming soot.     

Blast response simulation of an elastic structure: Evaluation of the fluid–structure interaction effect

Blast pressure wave interaction with an elastic structure is investigated using a numerical analysis approach, which considers fluid–structure interaction (FSI) within an Arbitrary Lagrange Euler (ALE) framework. Approximate numerical procedures for solving the Riemann problem associated with the shock are implemented within the Godunov finite volume scheme for the fluid domain. The structural displacement predicted by ignoring FSI is larger than the corresponding displacement considering FSI. The influence of the structural and blast pressure wave parameters on the importance of FSI is studied using an analysis of variables. Two non-dimensional parameters corresponding to the ratios of blast duration to the time period of the structure and the velocity of the structure to the particle velocity of the incident blast pressure wave are identified. It is shown that for a given blast pressure wave, the error in the maximum displacement predicted by ignoring FSI effect during structural motion is directly proportional to the ratio of the structure velocity to the particle velocity of the incident blast pressure wave. There is a continuous exchange of energy between the structure and air during the structural motion, which is significant when the structural velocity is significant compared to the particle velocity of incident blast pressure wave. FSI effect become insignificant when the ratio of velocities starts approaching zero.     

Electricity supply on the island of Dia based on renewable energy sources (R.E.S.)

This paper presents a methodology for determining the specifications of an isolated R.E.S. power production system on an environmentally sensitive ecosystem. The wind and solar power constitute the primary power generation system and diesel generators act as backup. Real wind and solar potential measurements are used. The wind atlas of the island has been constructed. The specifications of the proposed system are optimized by the life cycle cost method. The renewable energy sources (R.E.S.) total annual energy production exceeds 90%. As a result, the dependence on the diesel generator set annual energy production is limited and the system’s operational cost is not practically influenced by the increasing fossil fuel prices. The introduction of a small size desalination plant for the production of drinkable water is also investigated. Both the available R.E.S. potential and the minimization of environmental impacts are considered for the siting of the equipment. The methodology of the present paper may be applied to other regions rich in R.E.S. potential, where the introduction of small size environmentally friendly isolated R.E.S. power systems is investigated.     

Impact of wind power forecasting error bias on the economic operation of autonomous power systems

Many efforts have been presented in the literature for wind power forecasting in power systems and few of them have been used for autonomous power systems. In addition, some recent studies have evaluated the impact on the operation of power systems and energy markets that the improvement of wind power forecasting can have. In this paper, the value of the information provided to the operators of autonomous power systems about forecasting errors is studied. This information may vary significantly, e.g. it can be only the normalized mean absolute error of the forecast, or a probability density function of the errors for various levels of forecasted wind power, which can be provided either during the evaluation phase of the wind power forecasting tool or by online uncertainty estimators. This paper studies the impact of the level of detail provided about wind power forecasting accuracy for various levels of load and wind power production. The proposed analysis, when applied to the autonomous power system of Crete, shows significant changes among the various levels of information provided, not only in the operating cost but also in the wind power curtailment. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A comparison of CPU and GPU implementations for solving the Convection Diffusion equation using the local Modified SOR method

In this paper we study a parallel form of the SOR method for the numerical solution of the Convection Diffusion equation suitable for GPUs using CUDA. To exploit the parallelism offered by GPUs we consider the fine grain parallelism model. This is achieved by considering the local relaxation version of SOR. More specifically, we use SOR with red-black ordering using two sets of parameters _ω1ij${\omega }_{1\mathit{ij}}$ and _ω2ij${\omega }_{2\mathit{ij}}$ for the 5 point stencil. The parameter _ω1ij${\omega }_{1\mathit{ij}}$ is associated with each red (i + j   even) grid point (i,j)$(i\text{,}j)$, whereas the parameter _ω2ij${\omega }_{2\mathit{ij}}$ is associated with each black (i+j$(i+j$ odd) grid point (i,j)$(i\text{,}j)$. The use of a parameter for each grid point avoids the global communication required in the adaptive determination of the best value of ω$\omega$ and also increases the convergence rate of the SOR method (Varga, 1962) [38] and (Young, 1971) [41]. We present our strategy and the results of our effort to exploit the computational capabilities of GPUs under the CUDA environment. Additionally, two parallel CPU programs utilizing manual SSE2 (Streaming SIMD Extensions 2) and AVX (Advanced Vector Extensions) vectorization were developed as performance references. The optimizations applied on the GPU version were also considered for the CPU version. Significant performance improvement was achieved with all three developed GPU kernels differentiated by the degree of recomputations thus affecting the flops per element access ratio.