Amorphous metals for hard-tissue prosthesis

Owing to a unique atomic structure lacking microstructural defects, glassy metals demonstrate certain universal properties that are attractive for load-bearing biomedical-implant applications. These include a superb strength, which gives rise to very high hardness and a potential for minimizing wear and associated adverse biological reactions, and a relatively low modulus, which enables high elasticity and holds a promise for mitigating stress shielding. There are, however, other non-universal properties specific to particular amorphous metal alloys that are inferior to presently used biometals and may be below acceptable limits for hard-tissue prosthesis. In this article, features of the performance of amorphous metals relevant to hard-tissue prosthesis are surveyed and contrasted to those of the current state of the art, and guidelines for development of new biocompatible amorphous metal alloys suitable for hard-tissue prosthesis are proposed.     

Oxidation Behavior of a Pd<Subscript>43</Subscript>Cu<Subscript>27</Subscript>Ni<Subscript>10</Subscript>P<Subscript>20</Subscript> Bulk Metallic Glass and Foam in Dry Air

The oxidation behavior of both Pd₄₃Cu₂₇Ni₁₀P₂₀ bulk metallic glass (Pd4-BMG) and its amorphous foam containing 45 pct porosity (Pd4-AF) was investigated over the temperature range of 343 K (70 °C) to 623 K (350 °C) in dry air. The results showed that virtually no oxidation occurred in the Pd4-BMG at T < 523 K (250 °C), revealing the alloy’s favorable oxidation resistance in this temperature range. In addition, the oxidation kinetics at T ≥ 523 K (250 °C) followed a parabolic-rate law, and the parabolic-rate constants (k _p values) generally increased with temperature. It was found that the oxidation k _p values of the Pd4-AF are slightly lower than those of the Pd4-BMG, indicating that the porous structure contributes to improving the overall oxidation resistance. The scale formed on the alloys was composed exclusively of CuO at T ≥ 548 K (275 °C), whose thickness gradually increased with increasing temperature. In addition, the amorphous structure remained unchanged at T ≤ 548 K (275 °C), while a triplex-phase structure developed after the oxidation at higher temperatures, consisting of Pd₂Ni₂P, Cu₃P, and Pd₃P.     

Optimisation and adaptation of synchronisation controllers for networked second-order infinite-dimensional systems

ABSTRACT

The adaptation and optimisation of synchronisation control for networked second-order distributed parameter systems are considered. The objective is to design output feedback controllers guaranteeing agreement between the states of the N systems that individually track a reference model. The controller structure involves feedback terms consisting of the pairwise difference of the measurements of the second-order systems as well as coupling terms that enforce consensus. Placing the closed-loop networked systems in aggregate form allows for further optimisation of the synchronisation gains. Using the aggregate systems ‘closed-loop energy’ as a suitable optimisation measure, the search for the synchronisation gains reduces to the minimisation of the optimisation index, which eventually is described by the trace of the solution to a parameterised Lyapunov operator equation. Considering the adaptation of the synchronisation gains offers an alternative to optimisation. The adaptation is based on Lyapunov redesign-methods and utilises a parameter-dependent Lyapunov functional to extract them. Due to its structure, all network topology information is handled at the local level, thereby relaxing the graph topology conditions in the adaptive case. Numerical studies are included to provide an insight on the effects of synchronisation control of networked second-order distributed parameter systems.     

Adaptive Monitoring and Accommodation of Nonlinear Actuator Faults in Positive Real Infinite Dimensional Systems

We consider a class of positive real infinite dimensional systems which are subjected to incipient actuator faults. The actuator fault is modeled as a time varying transition from an initial (linear or even nonlinear) map into another unknown nonlinear map at the onset of the fault occurrence. An infinite dimensional adaptive detection observer is utilized to generate a residual signal in order to detect the fault occurrence and to assist in the fault accommodation. This is done via an automated control reconfiguration which utilizes information on the new actuator map and adjusts the controller via a right inverse of the new actuator map. A robust modification is utilized in order to avoid false alarms caused by unmodeled dynamics. An example is included to illustrate the applicability of the proposed detection scheme.     

Incipient fault diagnosis of dynamical systems using onlineapproximators

Detection of incipient (slowly developing) faults is crucial in automated maintenance problems where early detection of worn equipment is required. In this paper, a general framework for model-based fault detection and diagnosis of a class of incipient faults is developed. The changes in the system dynamics due to the fault are modeled as nonlinear functions of the state and input variables, while the time profile of the failure is assumed to be exponentially developing. An automated fault diagnosis architecture using nonlinear online approximators with an adaptation scheme is designed and analyzed. A simulation example of a simple nonlinear mass-spring system is used to illustrate the results     

Comparison of number of citations to full original articles versus brief reports

Most biomedical journals accept original research articles in the form of “brief reports”. We compared the citations to full papers versus brief reports in a sample of journals on Infectious Diseases, Clinical Microbiology, and Antimicrobial Agents. Brief reports were cited less often than full-size articles [regression coefficient: 10.94 (95 % CI: 5.19, 16.69)] even after adjustment for the journal’s impact factor. Our findings may influence decisions of editors and authors regarding brief reports.