Corrosion studies on the USS <Emphasis Type="Italic">Arizona</Emphasis> with application to a Japanese midget submarine

The assessment of corrosion on the USS Arizona included the pioneering development of a minimum-impact cost-effective technique to determine the corrosion rate of steel-hulled shipwrecks in seawater. The technique, with potential application worldwide, is illustrated in this paper with the application to a World War II Japanese midget submarine submerged in deep waters off the Oahu, Hawaii, coast.     

Characterization of Orungo virus, an orbivirus from Uganda and Nigeria

Orungo virus was studied in cell culture and mice by light and electron microscopy. The virus developed in the cytoplasm of infected cells in mouse brain and cell culture in association with a specific viral granular matrix and accompanying filaments. Virus particle size was 63 nm with a core diameter of 34 nm. Most particles were released from infected cells by lysis, but some budded through membranes and assumed a "pseudoenvelope". In its morphology and mode of morphogenesis, Orungo virus was indistinguishable from other described orbiviruses.     

Experimental measurement of temperature profiles of molten flowing polymers in a heat exchanger

Molten polymer was pumped through an isothermal-wall heat exchanger and the temperature at four radial positions was measured with a hypodermic thermocouple. Temperature profiles were obtained for heating, cooling, and isothermal flow of polyethylene, polystyrene and polypropylene at Graetz numbers from 1.7 to 9.2. The results show large viscous heating effects, particularly for cooling.     

Flaxseed Treatments to Reduce Biohydrogenation of α-Linolenic Acid by Rumen Microbes in Cattle

Enrichment of beef muscle with n-3 fatty acids (FA) is one means to introduce these FA into the diet, but ruminal biohydrogenation limits their bioavailability. To address this problem, we evaluated the ability of condensed tannin (quebracho), in the presence or absence of casein, to protect 18:3n-3 in flaxseed from hydrogenation by ruminal microbes in cattle using an in vitro fermentation approach coupled with evaluation in cattle in vivo. Treated and untreated flaxseed was incubated with bovine rumen fluid for 0 and 24 h. With tannin treated flaxseed, hydrogenation of 18:3n-3 was limited to only 13% over 24 h compared to 43% for untreated flaxseed, while addition of casein to the tannin added no additional protection. To determine if a similar level of protection would occur in vivo, we used two groups of five steers fed either a grain-based or forage-based diet. Five steers were given a grain-based diet during the trial and were fed either ground flaxseed or tannin treated flaxseed for 15 days prior to blood collection for plasma lipid fatty acid analysis. The forage fed steers followed the same regimen. Ingestion of tannin-treated flaxseed did not increase 18:3n-3 and 20:5n-3 in plasma neutral lipids as compared to non-treated flaxseed. Thus, we demonstrated that treating ground flaxseed with quebracho tannin is not useful for increasing 18:3n-3 in the neutral lipid of bovine blood plasma, and suggest caution when interpreting results from in vitro trials that test potential treatments for protecting fatty acids from hydrogenation by ruminal microbes.     

Wide-load-range resonant converter supplying the SAE J-1773electric vehicle inductive charging interface

The recommended practice for electric vehicle battery charging using inductive coupling (SAE J-1773), published in January 1995 by the Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc., outlines values and tolerances for critical vehicle inlet parameters which must be considered when selecting a coupler driving topology. The inductive coupling vehicle inlet contains a significant discrete capacitive component in addition to low magnetizing and high leakage inductances. Driving the vehicle interface with a variable-frequency series-resonant power converter results in a four-element topology with many desirable features: unity transformer turns ratio; buck/boost voltage gain; current-source operation; monotonic power transfer characteristic over a wide load range; throttling capability down to no load; high-frequency operation; narrow modulation frequency range; use of zero-voltage-switched MOSFETs with slow integral diodes; high efficiency; inherent short-circuit protection; soft recovery of output rectifiers; and secondary dν/dt control and current waveshaping for the cable, coupler and vehicle inlet, resulting in enhanced electromagnetic compatibility. In this paper, characteristics of the topology are derived and analyzed using two methods. Firstly, the fundamental mode AC sine-wave approximation is extended to battery loads and provides a simple, yet insightful, analysis of the topology. A second method of analysis is based on the more accurate, but complex, time-based modal approach. Finally, typical experimental results verify the analysis of the topology presented in the paper     

Neural network optimization of complex microwave structures with a reduced number of full‐wave analyses

An innovative technique of neural network optimization of substantially less computational cost is presented as a procedure suitable for viable computer‐aided design of complex microwave systems. The number of necessary full‐wave simulations in this optimization procedure is dramatically reduced because of a special objective function (OF) and constrained optimization response surface (CORS) sampling in the dynamic training of the decomposed radial‐basis‐function network. A high rate of convergence to an optimization objective is shown to be dependent on the combined effect of the OF and CORS technique. Performance of the algorithm is illustrated by its application to a waveguide band‐pass filter, a loaded microwave oven, and a dielectric resonator antenna; their optimal designs are found from five‐parameter optimizations requiring as little as 167, 177, and 99 analyses, respectively. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2011.