Thick unevenness compensation in a hot rolling mill havingautomatic gage control

Hot rolling products with improved quality features such as thickness profile, strip width, flatness and material mechanical properties, are in increasing demand. The project goal is to improve the production quality in an existing hot rolling mill at Aceralia Steel Company, Aviles, Spain. This paper describes the design and implementation of a supervisory system for real-time compensation of uneven thickness on both sides of a rolled strip. The design is based on a multivariable process model, whose parameters are calculated online using measurement data from the mill. As a result, a computer system was developed that corrects the automatic gage control output from online acquired mill operation data. Previously, this task was done manually and periodically by a human operator. Manual correction is tedious and error prone, since it is based on visual inspection. Moreover, the proposed method leads to notorious improvement in the output strip quality, as the correcting signal may be continuously applied before the uneven thickness effect is visible     

Speed control of induction motors using a novel fuzzy sliding-modestructure

This paper presents a new approach to indirect vector control of induction motors. Two nonlinear controllers, one of sliding mode type and the other PI-fuzzy logic-based, define a new control structure. Both controllers are combined by means of an expert system based on Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy reasoning. The sliding-mode controller acts mainly in a transient state while the PI-like fuzzy controller acts in the steady state. The new structure embodies the advantages that both nonlinear controllers offer: sliding-mode controllers increasing system stability limits, and PI-like fuzzy logic based controllers reducing the chattering in permanent state. The scheme has been implemented and experimentally validated     

Optimal digital filtering for tremor suppression

Remote manually operated tasks such as those found in teleoperation, virtual reality, or joystick-based computer access, require the generation of an intermediate electrical signal which is transmitted to the controlled subsystem (robot arm, virtual environment, or a cursor in a computer screen). When human movements are distorted, for instance, by tremor, performance can be improved by digitally filtering the intermediate signal before it reaches the controlled device. This paper introduces a novel tremor filtering framework in which digital equalizers are optimally designed through pursuit tracking task experiments. Due to inherent properties of the man-machine system, the design of tremor suppression equalizers presents two serious problems: 1) performance criteria leading to optimizations that minimize mean-squared error are not efficient for tremor elimination and 2) movement signals show ill-conditioned autocorrelation matrices, which often result in useless or unstable solutions. To address these problems, a new performance indicator in the context of tremor is introduced, and the optimal equalizer according to this new criterion is developed. Ill-conditioning of the autocorrelation matrix is overcome using a novel method which we call pulled-optimization. Experiments performed with artificially induced vibrations and a subject with Parkinson's disease show significant improvement in performance. Additional results, along with MATLAB source code of the algorithms, and a customizable demo for PC joysticks, are available on the Internet at http:?tremor-suppression.com.     

Sol-gel preparation and thermal stability of Pd/γ-Al2O3 catalysts

A series of Pd/-Al₂O₃ catalysts with a designed loading of 1 wt % were prepared by the sol-gel method using boehmite (AlOOH) sols and various palladium compounds. These materials were developed for later use as inorganic membranes. The samples were calcined at 400 °C in flowing O₂ to decompose the Pd complex and change the phase of the support to -Al₂O₃. H₂ pulse chemisorption was used to determine the average Pd particle sizes, while particle size distributions were obtained from TEM micrographs. XRD was used to determine the crystallinity of the -Al₂O₃ support after extended treatments at 650 °C in O₂ and H₂ atmospheres. The physical properties of the support were studied using nitrogen adsorption-desorption at 77 K. Initial BET surface areas were about 350 m²/g. Pore size distributions were very narrow and centered at 3.6 nm, but broadened and became bimodal during the 650 °C treatments. An ion-exchanged sample prepared by traditional methods was used as a basis for comparison to the sol-gel samples.     

Congenital abnormalities in Brazilian children associated with misoprostol misuse in first trimester of pregnancy

BACKGROUND: Misoprostol is commonly used to induce abortion in Brazil, and in other countries in South and Central America where abortions are illegal. However, misoprostol is not very effective in inducing abortions, and exposure to the drug in utero can cause abnormalities in the fetus. We aimed to define the common phenotypical effects of exposure to the drug. METHODS: We studied 42 infants from S?o Paulo, Brazil, who were exposed to misoprostol during the first 3 months of gestation, and then born with congenital abnormalities. We interviewed each of the infants' mothers to find out about misoprostol exposure and dosage. Each infant was physically examined by a geneticist or a neuropaediatrician. FINDINGS: 17 of the infants had equinovarus with cranial-nerve defects. Ten children had equinovarus as part of more extensive arthrogryposis. The most distinctive phenotypes were arthrogryposis confined to the legs (five cases) and terminal transverse-limb defects (nine cases) with or without Mobius sequence. The most common dose of misoprostol taken was 800 microg (range 200-16000 microg). INTERPRETATION: Deformities attributed to vascular disruption were found in these children. We suggest that the uterine contractions induced by misoprostol cause vascular disruption in the fetus, including brain-stem ischaemia. Information on the effects of taking misoprostol during pregnancy should be made more widely available, to dissuade women from misusing the drug.     

Management of psychiatric symptoms in medically ill patients in the homecare setting

Nurses with critical care knowledge and experience increasingly provide technologically advanced care to patients at home who often present comorbid psychiatric symptoms. Failure to accurately recognize and provide appropriate intervention can be devastating for patients because these symptoms can exacerbate the medical condition and may lead to mortality. The Biopsychosocial Model and the Transactional Model of Stress were presented as guides for nursing practice. Practice is directed at 1) understanding the patient's perception of events, 2) involving the caregiver(s) in the patient's recovery, and 3) enhancing the individual's adaptive coping efforts and resources. The article attempts to guide nurses in making decisions on when to consult and collaborate with an APPN to achieve desired patient outcomes.     

Separation of septal influences on lordosis, ultrasound production, and body weight

It is well known that macromolecules like albumin are markedly restricted in their passage across the glomerular capillary wall. However, the relative importance of solute size, charge and shape is currently debated since much of the previous work is based on dextran in neutral or charge-modified forms. These polymers have certain drawbacks that make them less suitable for analysis of capillary permeability and the notion of a glomerular charge barrier has therefore been questioned. Moreover, macromolecules larger than albumin (mol. wt. 69,000) have been suggested to pass through nonselective 'shunt' pathways. In order to study glomerular permeability, isolated rat kidneys were perfused with albumin solutions containing trace amounts of two differently radiolabelled isoenzymes of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) at low temperature to inhibit tubular function. The isoenzymes have similar size (mol. wt. 140,000) and shape but differ in charge, one carrying a negative net surface charge (LDH1, -19) and the other being slightly cationic (LDH5, +2). The urine and perfusate samples were subjected to high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) gel-filtration to allow for measurements of intact LDH. The fractional clearance was 0.11% +/- 0.04% for the anionic LDH1 and 0.56% +/- 0.07% for LDH5, whereas that for albumin was 0.21% +/- 0.03% at a glomerular filtration rate of 0.11 +/- 0.01 mL min-1 g-1 kidney wet weight. The results were analysed using a homogenously charged membrane model and are compatible with a charge density of 35 mEq L-1, with 95% confidence interval of 26-41 mEq L-1. These findings suggest a significant glomerular charge selectivity for proteins substantially larger than albumin. The charge density is, however, far less than estimated from dextran studies.     

Evaluation of atypical cytochrome P450 kinetics with two-substrate models: evidence that multiple substrates can simultaneously bind to cytochrome P450 active sites

Some cytochrome P450 catalyzed reactions show atypical kinetics, and these kinetic processes can be grouped into five categories: activation, autoactivation, partial inhibition, substrate inhibition, and biphasic saturation curves. A two-site model in which the enzyme can bind two substrate molecules simultaneously is presented which can be used to describe all of these observed kinetic properties. Sigmoidal kinetic characteristics were observed for carbamazepine metabolism by CYP3A4 and naphthalene metabolism by CYPs 2B6, 2C8, 2C9, and 3A5 as well as dapsone metabolism by CYP2C9. Naphthalene metabolism by CYP3A4 and naproxen metabolism by CYP2C9 demonstrated nonhyperbolic enzyme kinetics suggestive of a low Km, low Vmax component for the first substrate molecule and a high Km, high Vmax component for the second substrate molecule. 7, 8-Benzoflavone activation of phenanthrene metabolism by CYP3A4 and dapsone activation of flurbiprofen and naproxen metabolism by CYP2C9 were also observed. Furthermore, partial inhibition of 7, 8-benzoflavone metabolism by phenanthrene was observed. These results demonstrate that various P450 isoforms may exhibit atypical enzyme kinetics depending on the substrate(s) employed and that these results may be explained by a model which includes simultaneous binding of two substrate molecules in the active site.     

Crystal structures of a single coiled-coil peptide in two oligomeric states reveal the basis for structural polymorphism

Each protein sequence generally adopts a single native fold, but the sequence features that confer structural uniqueness are not well understood. To define the basis for structural heterogeneity, we determined the high resolution X-ray crystal structures of a single GCN4 leucine-zipper mutant (Asn 16 to aminobutyric acid) in both dimeric and trimeric coiled-coil conformations. The mutant sequence is accommodated in two distinct structures by forming similarly-shaped packing surfaces with different sets of atoms. The trimer structure, in comparison to a previously-characterized trimeric mutant with substitutions in eight core residues, shows that the twist of individual helices and the helix-helix crossing angles can vary significantly to produce the most favoured packing arrangement.     

The prevalence, structure and clinical problems of multiple sclerosis in the Transcarpathian area based on epidemiological study data

As many as 230 patients with disseminated sclerosis were examined in the Transcarpathian region. Sick male- and female populations were found out to be almost similar. There were more sick persons in the medium-range areas of the Carpathian Mountains, with a mean age being 35 +/- 5 years. It has been established that intake of spirulina makes for lengthening of remission in those patients with disseminated sclerosis.