Some modifications of the classification tree construction algorithm

The paper describes a few modifications of the classification tree construction algorithm that have proved to be useful for solving tasks of noise spectra processing with reference to NPP diagnostics. The article was translated by the authors.     

The Bragg law modified for X-ray diffraction from a bent crystal in the backscattering mode

It is demonstrated for X-ray diffraction from a bent crystal in the backscattering mode that the Bragg angle in the crystal can differ from the value in vacuum by ∼10⁻². This difference exceeds the angular width of the region of total reflection for the CuKα radiation backscattered from the (220) plane of a silicon single crystal. The Bragg law modified with allowance for the refraction and crystal bending is presented.     

Interlaboratory ring test of time-resolved fluoroimmunoassays for zeranol and alpha-zearalenol and comparison with zeranol test kits.

Many zeranol immunoassay test kits cross-react with toxins formed by naturally occurring Fusarium spp. fungi, leading to false-positive screening results. This paper describes the evaluation and application of recently published, dry reagent time-resolved fluoroimmunoassays (TR-FIA) for zeranol and the toxin alpha-zearalenol. A ring test of bovine urine fortified with zeranol and/or alpha-zearalenol in four European Union National Reference Laboratories demonstrated that the TR-FIA tests were accurate and robust. The alpha-zearalenol TR-FIA satisfactorily quantified alpha-zearalenol in urine fortified at 10-30 ng ml(-1). The specificity-enhanced zeranol TR-FIA accurately quantified zeranol in the range 2-5 ng ml(-1) and gave no false-positive results in blank urine, even in the presence of 30 ng ml(-1) alpha-zearalenol. Zeranol TR-FIA specificity was demonstrated further by analysing incurred zeranol-free urine samples containing natural Fusarium spp. toxins. The TR-FIA yielded no false-positive results in the presence of up to 22 ng ml(-1) toxins. The performance of four commercially available zeranol immunoassay test kits was more variable. Three kits produced many false-positive results. One kit produced only one potential false-positive using a protocol that was longer than that of the TR-FIA. These TR-FIAs will be valuable tools to develop inspection criteria to distinguish illegal zeranol abuse from contamination arising from in vivo metabolism of Fusarium spp. toxins.     

Electron avalanches. I. Statistics of partial microdischarges in their pre-streamer stage

Three kinds of statistical distributions of DC microdischarges in homogeneous electric field are discussed. So far the exponential and streamer distributions have been considered as regular statistics describing microdischarge electron avalanches with low (n~<10/sup 5/) and high (n~>10/sup 8/) average carrier populations, respectively. The distributions of avalanches with intermediate populations n~/spl epsi/(10/sup 5/, 10/sup 8/) that exhibit peculiar convex shapes have not been considered as regular distributions so far. They have been regarded as an experimental artefacts causing deviations from the regular exponential law. On the basis of refined experiments we argue for a new interpretation of those peculiar distribution curves. They have proved to be independent of the remaining two regular statistics and manifest a new distribution law well approximated by the Pareto distribution. The basic physics underlying this separate statistical distribution is intimately related to the inner space charges formed inside the avalanches with higher carrier populations. The inner space charges that modify the local intensity of the electric field and result in redistribution of populations and manifestation of a new statistical behavior.     

Thermal Evaluation of Scorched Graphite-Epoxy Panels by Infrared Scanning

A simple measurement system is described for evaluating damage to graphite-epoxy panels, such as those used in high-performance aircraft. The system uses a heating laser and infrared imaging system to measure thermal performance. Thermal conductivity or diffusivity is a sensitive indicator of damage in materials, allowing this thermal measurement to show various degrees of damage in graphite-epoxy composites. Our measurements track well with heat-flux damage to graphite epoxy panels. This measurement system, including analysis software, could easily be used in the field, such as on the deck of an aircraft carrier or at remote air strips.     

A diagonalized multilevel fast multipole method with spherical harmonics expansion of the k-space Integrals

Diagonalization of the fast multipole method (FMM) for the Helmholtz equation is usually achieved by expanding the multipole representation in propagating plane waves. The resulting k-space integral over the Ewald sphere is numerically evaluated. Storing the k-space quadrature samples of the method of moments (MoM) basis functions constitutes a large portion of the overall memory requirements of the resulting algorithm for solving the integral equations of scattering and radiation problems. In this paper, it is proposed to expand the k-space representation of the basis functions by spherical harmonics in order to reduce the sampling redundancy introduced by numerical quadrature rules. Aggregations, plane wave translations, and disaggregations in the realized multilevel fast multipole method (MLFMM) are carried out using the k-space samples of a numerical quadrature rule. However, the incoming plane waves on the finest MLFMM level are expanded in spherical harmonics again. Thus, due to the orthonormality of spherical harmonics, the testing integrals for the individual testing functions are simplified into series over products of spherical harmonics expansion coefficients. Overall, the resulting MLFMM can save a considerable amount of memory without compromising accuracy and numerical speed.     

Stabilization of singularly perturbed fuzzy systems

This paper presents some novel results for stabilizing singularly perturbed (SP) nonlinear systems with guaranteed control performance. By using Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy model, we construct the SP fuzzy (SPF) systems. The corresponding fuzzy slow and fast subsystems of the original SPF system are also obtained. Two fuzzy control designs are explored. In the first design method, we propose the composite fuzzy control to stabilize the SPF subsystem with H/sup /spl infin// control performance. Based on the Lyapunov stability theorem, the stability conditions are reduced to the linear matrix inequality (LMI) problem. The composite fuzzy control will stabilize the original SP nonlinear systems for all /spl epsiv//spl isin/(0,/spl epsiv//sup */) and the upper bound /spl epsiv//sup */ can be determined. For the second design method, we present a direct fuzzy control scheme to stabilize the SP nonlinear system with H/sup /spl infin// control performance. By utilizing the Lyapunov stability theorem, the direct fuzzy control can guarantee the stability of the original SP nonlinear systems for a given interval /spl epsiv//spl isin/[/spl epsiv/_,/spl epsiv/~]. The stability conditions are also expressed in the LMIs. Two SP nonlinear systems are adopted to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed control schemes.     

Origin of the threshold voltage instability in SiO/sub 2//HfO/sub 2/ dual layer gate dielectrics

The magnitude of the V/sub T/ instability in conventional MOSFETs and MOS capacitors with SiO/sub 2//HfO/sub 2/ dual-layer gate dielectrics is shown to depend strongly on the details of the measurement sequence used. By applying time-resolved measurements (capacitance-time traces and charge-pumping measurements), it is demonstrated that this behavior is caused by the fast charging and discharging of preexisting defects near the SiO/sub 2//HfO/sub 2/ interface and in the bulk of the HfO/sub 2/ layer. Based on these results, a simple defect model is proposed that can explain the complex behavior of the V/sub T/ instability in terms of structural defects as follows. 1) A defect band in the HfO/sub 2/ layer is located in energy above the Si conduction band edge. 2) The defect band shifts rapidly in energy with respect to the Fermi level in the Si substrate as the gate bias is varied. 3) The rapid energy shifts allows for efficient charging and discharging of the defects near the SiO/sub 2//HfO/sub 2/ interface by tunneling.     

Experimental evaluation of velocity and power estimation forultrasound blood flow imaging, by means of a two-dimensionalautocorrelation approach

This paper evaluates experimentally the performance of a novel axial velocity estimator, the 2D autocorrelator, and its Doppler power estimation counterpart, the 2D zero-lag autocorrelator, in the context of ultrasound color flow mapping. The evaluation also encompasses the well-established 1D autocorrelation technique for velocity estimation and its corresponding power estimator (1D zero-lag autocorrelator), to allow performance comparisons under identical conditions. Clutter-suppressed in vitro data sets from a steady-flow system are used to document the effect of the range gate and ensemble length, noise level and angle of insonation on the precision of the velocity estimates. The same data sets are used to examine issues related to the estimation of the Doppler signal's power. The first-order statistics of power estimates from regions corresponding to flow and noise are determined experimentally and the ability of power-based thresholding to separate flow signals from noise is characterized by means of ROC analysis. In summary, the results of the in vitro evaluation show that the proposed 2D-autocorrelation form of processing is consistently better than the corresponding 1D-autocorrelation techniques, in terms of both velocity and power estimation. Therefore, given their relatively modest implementation requirements, the 2D-autocorrelation algorithms for velocity and power estimation appear to represent a superior, yet realistic, alternative to conventional Doppler processing for color flow mapping