Catching the wave [gravity wave communication]

In 1873, when James Clerk Maxwell published his treatise unifying electromagnetic theory, he stated that light was electromagnetic in nature and he predicted that electromagnetic waves of greater length might exist. A dozen years later, Heinrich Hertz constructed apparatus with which he generated and received these longer waves, and he demonstrated that their behavior was identical to that of light. In the century following Hertz, these longer waves, which we now call radio waves, have been utilized to provide a vast worldwide communication system. In his theory of general relativity, published in 1915, Albert Einstein postulated the existence of gravity waves that propagate at the speed of light. If these waves could be used for communication purposes, they would open a whole new spectrum for exploitation, independent of the electromagnetic spectrum. Why is it that today, three quarters of a century later, we don't have gravity-wave transmitting and receiving stations? The article examines the reasons for this and then determines quantitatively how far we are from adding gravity waves to our communications repertoire     

Vector-controlled induction motor drive with a self-commissioningscheme

Different vector-controlled structures are discussed, and their suitability for an economical and reliable industrial drive system is explored. From this, the design of a compact control hardware is derived, composed of an 80196 microcontroller and an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) for the generation of the pulsewidth modulation (PWM) signals. The drive system can be configured from a host computer or a hand-held servicing unit through a serial data link. Monitoring and diagnostic functions are included. A self-commissioning scheme permits the setting of the parameters for optimum dynamic performance of the induction motor. Various oscillograms demonstrate the behavior of the vector controller operating a 25-kVA PWM inverter     

Autonomous system expansion planning considering renewable energysources-a computer package

The authors describe the interactive package ASP (Autonomous System Planning), which determines the optimal expansion plan of an autonomous generation system including diesel units, wind generators, and photovoltaic generators. Utilizing meteorological data, load demand data and estimated economical parameters, the package finds the optimal system expansion policy for a period of N years. The solution algorithms implemented in the package recognize planning and operational constraints and take into consideration the stochastic nature of the meteorological conditions, loads, and the availability of the diesel units     

New results in spectral estimation of decimated processes

The aim of this letter is to derive the spectral density of decimated processes, and to establish their model when they are generated from ARMA processes. The optimal conditions of decimation are also discussed.<>     

High-frequency performance of submicrometer channel-length siliconMOSFETs

Polycide-gate silicon n-channel MOSFETs were fabricated on the basis of a standard 0.5-μm MOS technology and measured over the 1.5-26.5-GHz frequency range, in order to investigate the effects of channel-length reduction on device behavior at high frequency. Excellent microwave performances were obtained with a maximum operating frequency (f_max) and a unity-current-gain frequency f _t near 20 GHz for 0.5-μm-gate-length NMOS devices. An equivalent circuit for a MOSFET with its parasitic elements was extracted from measured S-parameter data. The influence of gate resistance, gate-to-drain overlap capacitance, substrate conductivity, and the transit-time effect between the source and drain on microwave characteristics was analyzed     

Asbestos replacement aspects: Modification of the fibre-matrix interphase in lonomer based composites

Asbestos fibres, of the chrysotile variety, and chopped carbon fibres were pretreated by an in-situ polycondensation technique eventually resulting in a polyamide coating on the fibre surface. Ionomer based composites containing either carbon or asbestos fibres in random in plane fibre orientation were prepared, and the influence of this coating process on the tensile properties was investigated. It was found that for the asbestos-filled composites the presence of the nylon 6,6 interlayer improves the tensile performance, especially at moderate polyamide depositions. This is not the case with the pretreated carbon-filled composites for which carbon fibres with higher polyamide contents are preferred. Combinations of the treated asbestos fibres with carbon and/or aramid fibres may be used to reduce the asbestos content in asbestos-only based engineering plastics.     

Deuterated liquid scintillator (NE230) as a fast neutron detectorfor cold-fusion and other research

Deuterated scintillators (NE230) can provide, without time-of-flight, usable neutron energy spectra for neutrons E _n⩾1 MeV. The authors have assembled and calibrated several of these detectors and used them in experiments searching for d+d fusion-neutron emission (E_n, 2.5 MeV) in Pd+D ₂O electrolysis and Ti+D₂ adsorption at LN temperatures. The detectors yielded direct fusion-neutron spectra and set limits in the Pd+D and Ti+D experiments of <7×10^-24 fusion n/s/dd pair and <3×10^-24 fusion n/s/dd pair respectively. In addition, these detectors have been used for in-beam accelerator experiments requiring coincidence between fast neutrons and scattered ions     

Measurement of human red blood cell deformability using a single micropore on a thin Si3N4 film

The filtration method for the evaluation of the RBC deformability has been further refined to simulate the deformations encountered in the recticuloendothelial system (in particular the spleen), a recognized site of aged and sickled cells removal. The core of the developed measuring system is a very thin (0.4 micron thick) filter that consists of single micropore (diameters down to 1 micron) on a Si3N4 film which has been constructed using silicon microfabrication techniques. Individual RBC's deformability is quantified measuring the cell pore passage time. From one blood sample 200 passage times are analyzed by a computer, displaying mean and median values as deformability indexes, and class and cumulative histograms for studying the passage times distribution. In this paper the effectiveness of the developed system as a routine clinical evaluation tool is demonstrated by studying several factors that are known to affect the RBC deformability, such as temperature, addition of diamide and glutaraldehyde, and blood storage conditions. In addition, it is experimentally demonstrated that the human RBC can traverse a pore with a diameter as small as 1 micron when the pore length is very short, thus broadening the experimental conditions under which the RBC deformability (fluidity) can be studied.     

A deterministic particle method for the kinetic model of semiconductors: The homogeneous field model

We present a new particle method for the simulation of the semiconductor Boltzmann equation—the weighted particle method. This method differs from the Monte-Carlo method by the approximation of the collision operator—we allocate each particle a weight which varies in time according to the collision integral. This integral is evaluated by means of a quadrature formula, which does not require the use of random numbers. The aim of this paper is to show that this method gives accurate results on physically relevant problems. Linear as well as non-linear collision integrals can be handled the same way by this method. Precise representations of the distribution functions are available, which allow a good insight into the physical processes. In this paper, we only consider the homogeneous field model with an emphasis on the collision operator. Numerical results are presented with a comparison with the Monte-Carlo method.