A new voltage control equipment using fuzzy inference

Power system control equipment needs higher sensitivity and operational reliability. Advanced voltage control equipment is needed for reducing the frequency of tap changes and improving the characteristics (the relationship between the actual voltage and reference voltage) of the voltage to meet today's power system requirements. However, these objectives are in a trade-off relationship. Studies of voltage control derived from a knowledge base suitable for electric power systems can satisfy these objectives using fuzzy inference. Compared with corresponding conventional equipment, the new equipment improved the deviation of 30 min average voltage of 30 percent. This paper describes the design concept of new voltage control equipment using fuzzy inference. In addition, field test results are described along with rules of fuzzy inference, membership functions, and the deviation of 30 min average voltage through detailed simulation.     

Changes in the thermomechanical behavior of epoxy glasses under the state of strain aging

Changes in thermomechanical behavior with structural relaxation taking place in epoxy glasses were studied. Differential scanning calorimetry measurements and thermostimulated strain recovery tests were performed for specimens deformed and then aged under fixed strain. In the course of heating, the specimens started to absorb thermal energy, whereas plastic strain was still stable. At higher temperatures, plastic strain started recovery, which was accompanied by exothermic behavior of the specimen. With an increase in the aging duration, the endothermic peak signified and moved to a higher temperature. These results indicated that the longer the aging duration was, the harder the plastic strain and strain energy were frozen in the glassy structure. This freeze‐strain phenomenon was observed for crosslinked epoxy glass, as well as polymeric glasses with linear molecular structures, aged under strain. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008     

High-performance polymer alloys of polybenzoxazine and bismaleimide

Two series of high-performance polymer alloys were prepared by mixing typical benzoxine monomers, 3-phenyl-3,4-dihydro-2H-1,3-benzoxazine (P-a) or 6,6-(1-methylethyliden)-bis-(3,4-dihydro-3-phenyl-2H-1,3-benzoxazine) (B-a), with a typical bismaleimide, 4,4-bismaleimidodiphenyl methane by various ratios followed by thermal treatment up to 240 °C. DSC and IR of the alloys were examined to follow the curing reaction. These analyses showed that the obtained polymer alloys are AB co-cross-linked polymer networks through the formation of ether linkage between the hydroxyl group of polybenoxazine and the double bond of bismaleimide. Viscoelastic analysis and softening temperature measurement revealed that the polymer alloys have much higher glass transition temperatures than those of each homopolymer. The thermal stability also increased with the increase of bismaleimide content as evidenced by TGA.     

Ideal crosslinked-polymers and their characterization in free-radical monovinyl-divinyl copolymerizations

The critical conditions in which the classical Flory-Stockmayer gelation theory (F-S theory) is applicable to monovinyl-divinyl copolymerizations were pursued in detail. The resulting prepolymers or precursors of ideal crosslinked-polymers were characterized as standard polymers for the discussion of network formation in free-radical monovinyl-divinyl copolymerizations. Methyl methacrylate was copolymerized with a small amount of ethylene dimethacrylate, butylene dimethacrylate or nonapropyleneglycol dimethacrylate in the presence of lauryl mercaptan, a chain transfer agent to reduce the occurrence of a thermodynamic excluded volume effect and intramolecular crosslinking as the primary and secondary factors, respectively, for the greatly delayed gelation in the free-radical monovinyl-divinyl copolymerizations and, moreover, to keep the primary chain length constant by inhibiting a gel effect. The ratio of the actual gel point to the theoretical one reached 1.1, supporting the validity of F-S theory. The resulting prepolymers were subjected to SEC-MALLS analysis to determine the molecular weights, the molecular-weight distributions and the radii of gyration; the correlations of molecular weight vs. elution volume and radius of gyration vs. molecular weight were useful for the characterization of the precursors of ideal network-polymers.     

Spontaneous hemorrhage of an adrenal cortical adenoma causing Cushing''s syndrome

A modified surgical splint for Le Fort I osteotomies with transverse expansion is presented. The splint is made of a transpalatal stainless steel bar with acrylic abutment against the palatal surface of the molar and bicuspid tooth. It is rigid and renders excellent retention. It causes minimal patient discomfort, and oral hygiene is hardly compromised.     

Polarization-controlled single-mode VCSEL

Relative intensity noise (RIN) in a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) was greatly reduced through the use of polarization control to eliminate competition between two orthogonal polarization states by ensuring there was only one polarization state. Polarization was stable with optical feedback of up to 10%. Polarization control was achieved by inducing a small loss anisotropy in fundamental transversal mode VCSEL's. Anisotropic post structures, such as a rectangular post, an oblique post, or a zigzag-sidewall post, were found to be effective in creating loss anisotropy without serious degradation of other VCSEL characteristics such as light-output power or beam profile     

Room temperature pulsed operation of 1.5 μm GaInAsP/InPvertical-cavity surface-emitting laser

Room-temperature pulsed operation of a GaInAsP/InP vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser diode (VCSELD) with an emission wavelength near 1.55 μm is reported. A double heterostructure with a 34-pair GaInAsP (λ_g=1.4 μm)/InP distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) was grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The measured reflectivity of the semiconductor DBR is over 97% and threshold current is 260 mA for a 40-μmφ device with a 0.88-μm-thick active layer. Threshold current density is as low as 21 kA/cm² at room temperature     

Advanced concepts in electric vehicle design

In 1994, the Eco-Vehicle Project was begun to develop an electric vehicle (EV) using a ground-up design approach that incorporates unique designs specific to an EV. The Eco-Vehicle will be a high-performance, but ultrasmall, battery-powered vehicle. New designs for the Eco-Vehicle include an in-wheel motor drive system, a hollow load floor which will house the batteries, and a new battery management system. The Eco-Vehicle may also utilize other advanced concepts suitable especially for EVs, including solar panels for battery charging and intelligent crash avoidance and guidance systems     

Electrical properties at p-ZnSe/metal interfaces

In order to prepare low resistance ohmic contacts to p-ZnSn by the “deposition and annealing (DA)” technique which has been extensively used for GaAs and Si-based devices, formation of a heavily doped layer by the p-ZnSe/metal reaction is required. For p-ZnSe/Ni contacts, Ni and Se reacted preferentially at the ZnSe/Ni interface upon annealing at temperatures higher than 250°C. However, capacitance-voltage measurements showed that the net acceptor concentration (N_A-N_D) close to the p-ZnSe/Ni interface was reduced upon the Ni/ZnSe reaction, resulting in high contact resistance. For p-ZnSe/Au contacts, neither Au/ZnSe reaction nor reduction of the acceptor concentration were observed after annealing at temperatures lower than 300°C. This indicates that although the metal/p-ZnSe reaction is mandatory to prepare a heavily doped layer, the reaction induced an increase in the compensation donors in the p-ZnSe substrate. In order to increase the acceptor concentration in the vicinity of the p-ZnSe/metal interface through diffusion from the contact materials, Li or O which was reported to play the role of an acceptor in ZnSe was deposited with a contact metal and annealed at elevated temperatures. Ni or Ag was selected as the contact metal, because these metals were expected to enhance Li or O doping by reacting with ZnSe. However, the current density-voltage characteristics of the Li(N)/Ni and Ag(O) contacts exhibited rectifying behavior, and the contact resistances increased with increasing annealing temperature. The present results indicated that, even though the acceptor concentration in the p-ZnSe substrate increased by diffusion of the dopants from the contact elements, an increment of the compensation donors was larger than that of the acceptors. The present experiments indicated that preparation of low resistance ohmic contacts by forming a heavily doped intermediate layer between p-ZnSe and metal is extremely difficult by the DA technique.     

An image processing system using Image Signal Multiprocessors (ISMPs)

This paper describes an image processing system using Image Signal Multiprocessors (ISMPs) adapted to gray-level image preprocessing for image analysis and image enhancement. It is composed of four ISMPs, five 1H-delay-lines, two 512×512×8-bit frame memories, a video timing controller (VTC), two 256-word ×8-bit ×8-table Look Up Tables (LUTs) and 80 nsec/sampling A/D and D/A converters. This multiprocessor system performs convolution operations such as spatial filters, contrast enhancement, and binarization for gray-level images, thinning, thickening, pattern matching etc. for binary images, and image quality improvement for moving images such as T.V. images. Otherwise, it performs feature extraction operations such as area calculations, fillet coordination, and moment calculations for objective image data. Moreover, this system is capable of applying color image processing by using a multiboard system.