An offline/real-time artifact rejection strategy to improve the classification of multi-channel evoked potentials

The primary goal of this paper is to improve the classification of multi-channel evoked potentials (EPs) by introducing a temporal domain artifact detection strategy and using this strategy to (a) evaluate how the performance of classifiers is affected by artifacts and (b) show how the performance can be improved by detecting and rejecting artifacts in offline and real-time classification experiments. Using a pattern recognition approach, an artifact is defined in this study as any signal that may lead to inaccurate classifier parameter estimation and inaccurate testing. The temporal domain artifact detection tests include: a within-channel standard deviation (STD) test that can detect signals with little or abnormal variations in each channel and also detect faulty channels, a within-channel clipping (CL) test to detect amplitude clipped EPs in each channel, and a multi-channel EP median distance (MC-MED) test to detect atypical signals not identified by the STD and CL tests. Because the MC-MED test is class-dependent, a novel “pre-testing” approach is developed to identify artifacts in real-time classification experiments. The performance of the artifact detection strategy is demonstrated on real single-trial EP ensembles and it is shown that the strategy is quite effective in identifying atypical EPs. In order to demonstrate the effects of artifacts on classifier performance, a series of classification experiments are designed using a multi-channel decision fusion classification algorithm. Specifically, the classification performance is evaluated on (a) real EP ensembles with artifact contaminations in the training and test sets and (b) ensembles that are free of artifacts in both the training and test sets. It is shown that the improvement in classification accuracy through the incorporation of the artifact detection strategy can be quite significant in real-time classification trials. Furthermore, the generalized formulation of the artifact rejection classification strategy makes it adaptable to various other problems involving the multi-class classification of multivariate signals of multiple sensors.     

Chemo‐enzymatic synthesis of lipophilic ferulates and their evaluation for antioxidant and antimicrobial activities

An efficient chemo‐enzymatic synthesis of ferulic acid‐based structured lipids mimicking triacylglycerol with a pendant phenolic moiety was carried out for the first time. Initially, ferulic acid was reduced to coniferyl alcohol, followed by its esterification with fatty acids. The key step in the synthesis was dihydroxylation of the olefinic side chain of coniferyl ester, which was eventually esterified with fatty acids to generate phenolic structured lipids. Two such compounds of varying fatty acid chain lengths were synthesized in good yield. Structural confirmation of both compounds is based on IR, ¹H and ¹³C NMR, and MS techniques. The synthesized compounds were tested for in vitro antioxidant and antimicrobial activities. Both compounds exhibited moderate to good antioxidant activity. The phenolic structured lipid with only shorter‐chain fatty acids showed antibacterial activity. Both compounds did not show any antifungal activity.     

Diffusion bonding SiC or Si3N4 to Nimonic 80A

A method of diffusion bonding SiC or Si₃N₄ to Nimonic 80A was developed to establish the fundamental technology for the application of ceramics to machinery components used at elevated temperature. An analysis of the thermal stress that occurs in ceramic/Nimonic 80A bonded composites was done using the finite element method, and a bonding experiment based on the analytical results was conducted. The composites were produced by the insert metal bonding method, using varying thickness of Ni, W, Kovar, Cu and so on. It was found that the residual thermal stress in the ceramic part of the composite was extremely low and that the composite had a tensile strength of more than 98 MPa at room temprature. Furthermore, the paper describes the feasibility of the application ofthis bonding method to components for marine diesel engines.     

Uranium-based TRU multi-recycling with thermal neutron HTGR to reduce environmental burden and threat of nuclear proliferation

To reduce environmental burden and threat of nuclear proliferation, multi-recycling fuel cycle with high temperature gas-cooled reactor has been investigated. Those problems are solved by incinerating trans-uranium (TRU) nuclides, which is composed of plutonium and minor actinoid, and there is concept to realize TRU incineration by multi-recycling with fast breeder reactor. In this study, multi-recycling is realized even with a thermal reactor by feeding fissile uranium from outside of the fuel cycle instead of breeding fissile nuclide. In this fuel cycle, recovered uranium and natural uranium are enriched and mixed with recovered TRU to fabricate fresh fuels.

The fuel cycle was designed for a gas turbine high temperature reactor (GTHTR300). Reprocessing is assumed as existing reprocessing with four-group partitioning technology.

As a result, the TRU nuclides excluding neptunium can be recycled by the proposed cycle. The duration of potential toxicity decaying to natural uranium level can be reduced to approximately 300 years, and the footprint of repository for high-level waste can be reduced by 99.7% compared with the standard case. Surplus plutonium is not generated by this cycle. Moreover, incineration of TRU from light water reactor cycle can be performed in this cycle.     

Development of an improved method for calculating the effective delayed neutron fraction of a core using a structure with only a few collapsed energy groups

In this study, an improved method for calculating the effective delayed neutron fraction of a core with a few collapsed energy groups has been developed. To accurately calculate the effective delayed neutron fraction of a core using the conventional method, a structure with several energy groups is needed for the fast energy region in order to reflect the difference in the fission spectra for prompt fission neutrons and delayed neutrons. On the other hand, a structure with only a few energy groups is needed for the criticality evaluation. Thus, the calculation cost increases for the effective delayed neutron fraction calculations owing to the need for a large number of energy groups. To solve this problem, in the present study, the error mechanism for the effective delayed neutron fraction calculation using a structure with only a few energy groups was studied, and it was found that the error results from the collapse of the fission spectra after the cell calculations without adjoint flux weighting. In addition, an improved method for the collapse fission spectra with an adjoint flux obtained by one-point calculation was developed. Using the proposed method, the effective delayed neutron fraction can be estimated with sufficient accuracy using a structure consisting of only a few collapsed energy groups. This result will contribute to reducing the calculation cost and/or improving the accuracy of effective delayed neutron fraction calculations.     

A survey on mobile satellite systems

Satellite systems represent a significant solution to provide communication services to mobile users in under‐populated regions, in emergency areas, on planes, trains, and ships. In all these cases, satellite systems have unique capabilities in terms of robustness, wide area coverage, and broadcast/multicast capabilities. This paper surveys current mobile satellite networks and services from different standpoints, encompassing research issues, recent standardization advances (e.g. mobile extension for DVB‐S2/‐RCS, DVB‐SH) and some operational systems (e.g. Globalstar, Inmarsat BGAN, Iridium, and Thuraya). The last part of this paper is devoted to qualitative and quantitative comparisons of the different mobile satellite systems to understand their characteristics in terms of services, capacity, resource utilization efficiency, and user mobility degree.Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fluorescent aplyronine a: intracellular accumulation and disassembly of actin cytoskeleton in tumor cells

Nonstick: Aplyronine A (ApA) is an antitumor and apoptogenic macrolide of marine origin. We prepared a fluorescent derivative of ApA that accumulated strongly throughout the cytoplasm and caused the rapid disassembly of the actin cytoskeleton in tumor cells. We also established that ApA caused malfunction of cell adhesion and dephosphorylation of focal adhesion kinase with apoptosis.     

Characterization of processing effects in HIPS‐CNF composites using thermogravimetric analysis

To completely establish the processing–structure–property relationships of polymer composites such as Carbon Nanofibers (CNFs) in high‐impact polystyrene, it is necessary to understand the effects of different processes and processing conditions on the properties of the composites. In this work, using thermogravimetric analysis, the effects of solvent processing and twin‐screw extrusion on the weight loss rates and the corresponding temperatures were studied. While there were only marginal effects of the CNF concentration, the type of processing significantly affected the thermo‐oxidative behavior. Extrusion resulted in composites that had better thermal stability compared to the solvent processed ones. Furthermore, higher shear rates in extrusion also led to composites with higher thermal stability. This has important implications in choosing the appropriate process and processing conditions for producing polymer‐CNF composites. It was also demonstrated that thermogravimetric analysis can provide a means of characterizing the degree of dispersion resulting from the processing of the composites that complements conventional microscopy techniques. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2008. © 2008 Society of Plastics Engineers