A finite element large displacement analysis of stiffened plates

A finite element analysis of the large deflection behaviour of stiffened plates using the isoparametric quadratic stiffened plate bending element is presented. The evaluation of fundamental equations of the stiffened plates is based on Mindlin's hypothesis. The large deflection equations are based on von Kármán's theory. The solution algmrithm for the assembled nonlinear equilibrium equations is based on the Newton-Raphson iteration technique. Numerical solutions are presented for rectangular plates and skew stiffened plates.     

Impulse Response of a Meteor Burst Communications Channel Determined by Ray-Tracing Techniques

Ray-tracing techniques are used to derive the impulse response at VHF of a meteor burst communications channel. An approach to analyze the effects of multipath arising from wind shear is also presented and is applied to a simplified model of trail distortion. Within the limitations of the models adopted, we have found that a single path with a spread of approximately 0.2 μs adequately describes the channel behavior within roughly half a second from trail formation, and that a multipath structure with several paths and a total multipath spread of approximately 2 μs is typically associated with the channel at later times, when the wind shear substantially affects the trail shape. These results are consistent with experimental findings according to which a meteor trail communications channel is capable of transmitting beyond-the-horizon bursts of television images of broadcast quality typically for a fraction of a second after trail formation.     

Enhanced HBsAb production in pathogenesis of fulminant viral hepatitis type B

The possible importance of humoral immunity in the pathogenesis of fulminant hepatitis was investigated by comparing 17 patients with fulminant hepatitis type B with 20 patients with severe but non-fulminant disease. Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) was cleared from the serum significantly faster (P less than 0-001) in those with fulminant hepatitis, and in 41% anti-HBsAg (HBsAb) was detectable by radioimmunoassay (RIA) at presentation. In all 11 sera from patients with fulminant hepatitis that were examined by electron microscopy aggregates of HBsAg and HBsAb were seen. In contrast, HBsAb was never detected by RIA in those with non-fulminant hepatitis, and in only one serum specimen (5%) were aggregates seen on electron microscopy. A significant sex difference between fulminant and non-fulminant hepatitis was observed, 65% of patients with fulminant hepatitis but only 15% of patients with non-fulminant hepatitis being women (P less than 0-01). An enhanced production of HBsAb in fulminant hepatitis, by leading to free HBsAb in portal blood, may cause an Arthus reaction in the sinusoids of the liver with ensuing ischaemic necrosis of hepatocytes.     

An information fidelity criterion for image quality assessment using natural scene statistics.

Measurement of visual quality is of fundamental importance to numerous image and video processing applications. The goal of quality assessment (QA) research is to design algorithms that can automatically assess the quality of images or videos in a perceptually consistent manner. Traditionally, image QA algorithms interpret image quality as fidelity or similarity with a "reference" or "perfecft" image in some perceptual space. Such "full-referenc" QA methods attempt to achieve consistency in quality prediction by modeling salient physiological and psychovisual features of the human visual system (HVS), or by arbitrary signal fidelity criteria. In this paper, we approach the problem of image QA by proposing a novel information fidelity criterion that is based on natural scene statistics. QA systems are invariably involved with judging the visual quality of images and videos that are meant for "human consumption." Researchers have developed sophisticated models to capture the statistics of natural signals, that is, pictures and videos of the visual environment. Using these statistical models in an information-theoretic setting, we derive a novel QA algorithm that provides clear advantages over the traditional approaches. In particular, it is parameterless and outperforms current methods in our testing. We validate the performance of our algorithm with an extensive subjective study involving 779 images. We also show that, although our approach distinctly departs from traditional HVS-based methods, it is functionally similar to them under certain conditions, yet it outperforms them due to improved modeling. The code and the data from the subjective study are available at.     

Echocardiographic diagnosis of supravalvular aortic stenosis

The echocardiographic features of supravalvular aortic stenosis seen in a patient with valvular aortic and multiple pulmonary branch stenosis are described. Since patterns of valvular, discrete subvalvular, and supravalvular aortic stenosis can be recognized by echocardiography, it is now possible to screen close relatives of patients having supravalvular aortic stenosis and pulmonary branch stenosis by this non-invasive technic.     

Noise cross PSD estimation using phase information in diffuse noise field

Among various speech enhancement methods, two-microphone noise reduction systems are utilized for their low cost implementation and acceptable performance. Coherence-based methods are well known as efficient two-microphone noise reduction techniques. These techniques, however, do not work well when the received noise signals are correlated. Coherence-based methods can be improved when the cross power spectral density (CPSD) of input noises is available. In this paper, we propose a new method for estimating noise CPSD based on the assumption of a diffuse noise field. With this assumption, we estimate the noise CPSD using phase information. Then, the estimated noise CPSD is used to calculate a coherence-based gain filter which is then employed to enhance noisy signals. We compare the proposed phase-based noise CPSD estimation with a noise CPSD estimation technique based on a voice activity detector (VAD), both of which are herein separately employed in a two-microphone speech enhancement configuration. The comparison shows that the two-microphone speech enhancement scheme utilizing the proposed noise CPSD estimation technique outperforms the enhancement system using the VAD-based noise CPSD estimation.     

Analysis of spatially distributed FU-FB S-ALOHA in fading channels using TUA

The tagged user analysis (TUA) is a generic approximate method developed to analyze random access protocols for finite-user finite-buffer systems that avoids complexities of Markovian analysis by using available queueing results. In this paper, TUA method is extended to the analysis of finite buffer S-ALOHA operating over flat fading radio channels when the user population is spatially distributed. The expressions for system performance indices are derived. It is shown that for moderate number of active users, the simulation and analytical results have a close fit.     

Influence of PP‐g‐MA on morphology,mechanical properties and deformation mechanism of copolypropylene/clay nanocomposite

Copolypropylene/organoclay nanocomposites are prepared by melt intercalation method in this research. Two different routes for addition of compatibilizer are examined, i.e. addition in the twin‐screw extruder along with the polymer and the clay powder simultaneously and premixing the compatibilizer with the reinforcement in a batch mixer before addition to the polypropylene (PP) matrix. Morphology, tensile and impact properties and deformation mechanisms of the samples made via two procedures are studied and compared with those of the noncompatibilized system. To study the structure of nanocomposites, x‐ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy techniques are utilized. The deformation mechanisms of different samples are examined via reflected and transmitted optical microscopy. The results reveal that introduction of compatibilizer and also the procedure in which the compatibilizer is added to the compound, affect structure and mechanical properties of nanocomposite. The elastic modulus of PP‐clay nanocomposite has increased 11.5% with incorporation of compatibilizer. Also, introduction of organoclay without compatibilizer facilitates crazing at the notch tip of PP in 3PB testing. Incorporation of compatibilizer, however, makes difficulties in initiation and growth of crazes at the notch tip. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2009