Phase shift bandwidth and scan range in microstrip arrays by the element frequency tuning

In this paper, the far-field phase shift properties of microstrip patch antennas are investigated. It is shown that, similar to reflectarrays, the resonant nature of microstrip patches can be used to change the phase of the radiated field. This phase change can be caused by the dimensional change of the microstrip patch, or by a reactive loading of its cavity such as an aperture on its ground plane. However, the available phase shift is limited by the antenna impedance bandwidth. The problem is initially investigated for conventional patch antennas, determining the available phase shift range. It is then studied for a wideband E-slot microstrip antenna, showing a considerably larger phase shift range. Then, a micro-electro-mechanical (MEM) based ground plane membrane, activated by an electrode from below, is proposed to adaptively generate and control the required phase shifts. It provides a low loss, continuously variable phase shifter that can be used at high frequencies for beam scanning in small arrays.     

Sex Differences and Individual Differences in Cognitive Performance and Their Relationship to Endogenous Gonadal Hormones and Gonadotropins.

Sexually dimorphic cognitive performance in men (n=42) and women (n=42) was related to testosterone, estradiol, progesterone, luteinizing hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone, and sex hormone binding globulin, measured in 10-ml blood samples collected between 0900 and 1030 and, among women, during the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle. Significant sex differences favored men on spatial tasks (Mental Rotation and Judgment of Line Orientation) and on an inhibition task and favored women on a verbal task (category fluency). However, there were no significant relationships between any of the hormones and cognitive performance, suggesting that there are few, if any, consistent, substantial relationships between endogenous, nonfluctuating levels of gonadal hormones or gonadotropins and these cognitive abilities in men or women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influence of Silicon Morphology and Mechanical Properties of Piston Alloys

In this paper, the influence of silicon particle morphology on mechanical properties of two piston alloys has been reported. Alloys having nominal composition Al-12%Si-1%Ni-0.8%Cu-0.6%Mg (LM13) and Al-17%Si-1%Ni-0.8%Cu-0.6%Mg (LM28) were prepared by melting and casting. The morphology of silicon crystals was changed using additives during the melt treatment and subsequently by heat treatment. Mechanical properties such as hardness, ductility, and tensile strength of experimental alloys were tested. Test results showed that the melt treatment and heat treatment of both the alloys increased the tensile strength, hardness, and ductility. However, the influence of melt treatment on mechanical properties was not as significant as that of heat treatment. Tensile strength and ductility of LM13 was found to be higher than the LM28 alloy under similar conditions. Hardness of LM28 was higher than the LM13 alloy. Optical and SEM studies showed a change in eutectic silicon morphology on melt treatment of LM13. However, change in morphology of primary silicon particles was not significant as for LM28. Heat treatment of both alloys caused spheroidization and better distribution of eutectic silicon crystals. Sharp-edged primary silicon particles were rounded off after the heat treatment of LM28. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of tensile fractured surfaces was carried out to study the influence of microstructure on fracture mode. Heat treatment of both alloys promotes dimple fracture. However, as-cast and melt-treated alloys show predominantly cleavage fracture.     

Job scheduling in mesh multicomputers

A new approach for dynamic job scheduling in mesh-connected multiprocessor systems, which supports a multiuser environment, is proposed in this paper. Our approach combines a submesh reservation policy with a priority-based scheduling policy to obtain high performance in terms of high throughput, high utilization, and low turn-around times for jobs. This high performance is achieved at the expense of scheduling jobs in a strictly fair, FCFS fashion; in fact, the algorithm is parameterized to allow trade-offs between performance and (short-term) POPS fairness. The proposed scheduler can be used with any submesh allocation policy. A fast and efficient implementation of the proposed scheduler has also been presented. The performance of the proposed scheme has been compared with the FCFS policy, the only existing scheduling strategy for meshes, to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Simulation results indicate that our scheduling strategy outperforms the FCFS policy significantly. Specifically, our strategy significantly reduces the average waiting delay of jobs over the FCFS policy. The fast implementation of the proposed scheduler results in low allocation and deallocation time overhead, as well as low space overhead     

Generalized notions of mind change complexity

Gold introduced the notion of learning in the limit where a class S is learnable iff there is a recursive machine M which reads the course of values of a function f and converges to a program for f whenever f is in S. An important measure for the speed of convergence in this model is the quantity of mind changes before the onset of convergence. The oldest model is to consider a constant bound on the number of mind changes M makes on any input function; such a bound is referred here as type 1. Later this was generalized to a bound of type 2 where a counter ranges over constructive ordinals and is counted down at every mind change. Although ordinal bounds permit the inference of richer concept classes than constant bounds, they still are a severe restriction. Therefore the present work introduces two more general approaches to bounding mind changes. These are based on counting by going down in a linearly ordered set (type 3) and on counting by going down in a partially ordered set (type 4). In both cases the set must not contain infinite descending recursive sequences. These four types of mind changes yield a hierarchy and there are identifiable classes that cannot be learned with the most general mind change bound of type 4. It is shown that existence of type 2 bound is equivalent to the existence of a learning algorithm which converges on every (also nonrecursive) input function and the existence of type 4 is shown to be equivalent to the existence of a learning algorithm which converges on every recursive function. A partial characterization of type 3 yields a result of independent interest in recursion theory. The interplay between mind change complexity and choice of hypothesis space is investigated. It is established that for certain concept classes, a more expressive hypothesis space can sometimes reduce mind change complexity of learning these classes. The notion of mind change bound for behaviourally correct learning is indirectly addressed by employing the above four types to restrict the number of predictive errors of commission in finite error next value learning (NV′′)—a model equivalent to behaviourally correct learning. Again, natural characterizations for type 2 and type 4 bounds are derived. Their naturalness is further illustrated by characterizing them in terms of branches of uniformly recursive families of binary trees.     

Permeation measurements for investigating atomic hydrogen flux and wall pumping/fuelling dynamics in QUEST

In order to investigate the overall atomic hydrogen background and the dynamic characteristics of wall pumping/fuelling phenomenon, a permeation probe system has been developed and applied in the spherical tokamak QUEST. Reliability of measurements, within ±3% accuracy and a positive correlation with the hydrogen line emission over three orders of magnitude have been demonstrated for more than 3000 various plasma discharges. By comparison of the experimental permeation (flux) curves with the numerically simulated curves, the net incident atomic hydrogen flux is evaluated in the range of 1 × 10¹⁹ H m^?2 s^?1 to 4 × 10²⁰ H m^?2 s^?1. The atomic flux has been investigated as a function of various plasma operation parameters like RF power, gas pressure and magnetic configuration. Using the static particle balance and permeation measurements, the progress in wall conditioning has been investigated. An inverse correlation between the atomic hydrogen flux and improvement in wall pumping has been observed over the two campaigns.     

Susceptibility to tropical theileriosis of calves born to dams immunized with Theileria annulata (Hisar) cell culture vaccine

Epidemiological evidence suggests that millet might play a role in the etiology of endemic goiter. Recently, we showed that a traditional fermentation procedure of two pearl millet (Pennisetum americanum L. Lecke) cultivars grown in Sudan modified their effects on the weight of the thyroid gland and thyroid hormone profile in rats. In the present study, we report that this fermentation procedure reduced the ash contents of millet by about 40% and removed considerable amounts of Mg (>50%), Zn (27-39%) and K (45%). Other minerals (Ca, Fe, Cu) were not affected. Feeding of one fermented cultivar resulted in significant reduction in bone Mg and Zn contents, whereas feeding of the other fermented cultivar resulted in reduction of bone Mg only. Dietary Mg intake and bone Mg contents correlated negatively with serum T3. Groups fed the millet diets had higher serum Se level compared to those fed wheat or casein diets and feeding of fermented millet resulted in a further increase in serum Se level. Thus our data indicate that in rats the enhanced effects of millet on the thyroid induced by fermentation is likely related to removal of minerals from millet and/or chemical transformation of the goitrogens contained in millet.     

Brownian motion model of nanoparticle considering nonrigidity of matter-a systems modeling approach

The variance models for Brownian motion are developed either using the diffusion equation method or by using spectral analysis with a Langevin equation. The diffusion method approach does not consider properties of matter like inertia, elasticity, and dissipative capabilities whereas in the Langevin equation approach, although based on the property concept, the matter is considered rigid and there are no attempts of inclusion of elastic and other properties to study the Brownian motion. The concept of absoluteness (in rigidity) is debatable in nanodomains, and instead an analytical model for Brownian motion of nanosize particles has been obtained and explored in this work using the Langevin equation considering nonrigidity and dissipative capabilities of matter.     

Characteristics of electrocodeposited Ni-Co-SiC composite coating

Electrodeposited composites are gaining importance for their advantages including low cost, ease and simplicity of operation to tailor made coatings for tribological applications. Generally, composites containing carbides (like SiC) are preferred for high wear resistance along with increased hardness, improved corrosion resistance, and high temperature oxidation resistance as compared to alloy and pure metal electroplating. In the present work, electrolytic codeposition technique was adopted in the deposition of Ni-Co-SiC composite coating on mild steel substrate, using nickel alloyed with cobalt as the binder phase with SiC as dispersed particles. To improve the properties of coating further, Cr plating was also performed. Since the particle size and volume percent variation of dispersoid have great importance in codeposition, so the effect of these two variables on the process of codeposition and properties was observed. Morphological studies of Ni-Co-SiC coating were carried out with scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis to correlate the mechanical and corrosion behaviour of the coating.