Chain flexibility versus molecular entanglement response to rubbing deformation in designing poly(oxadiazole-naphthylimide)s as liquid crystal orientation layers

Four poly(oxadiazole-imide)s containing naphthalene rings, with different flexibility and molecular weight, are investigated with respect to their rheological properties to establish the optimal processing conditions from solution phase to film state for liquid crystal orientation purposes. The film uniformity and strength are determined by monitoring the flow behavior and chain entanglements. The solution rheological data are in agreement with film tensile testing, revealing that higher molecular weight favors chain entanglements and implicitly the film mechanical resistance. In order to analyze the suitability of these films as alignment layers their surface is patterned by rubbing with two types of velvet. Liquid crystal alignment of 4′-pentyl-4-biphenylcarbonitrile nematic is tested by polarized light microscopy. The resulting behavior is correlated with the polyimide malleability and characteristics of the textile fibers, namely their polarity, size, and mechanical features. The competitive effects between chain flexibility and entanglements, together with the interactions occurring between the polymer and velvet are analyzed in order to explain the surface regularity, which influences the uniformity of the liquid crystal alignment. The contrast between dark and bright states recorded on the liquid crystal cell indicates that some of these polynaphthalimides are promising candidates for liquid crystal display devices.     

Designing Unimodular Sequence Sets With Good Correlations—Including an Application to MIMO Radar

A multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar system that transmits orthogonal waveforms via its antennas can achieve a greatly increased virtual aperture compared with its phased-array counterpart. This increased virtual aperture enables many of the MIMO radar advantages, including enhanced parameter identifiability and improved resolution. Practical radar requirements such as unit peak-to-average power ratio and range compression dictate that we use MIMO radar waveforms that have constant modulus and good auto- and cross-correlation properties. We present in this paper new computationally efficient cyclic algorithms for MIMO radar waveform synthesis. These algorithms can be used for the design of unimodular MIMO sequences that have very low auto- and cross-correlation sidelobes in a specified lag interval, and of very long sequences that could hardly be handled by other algorithms previously suggested in the literature. A number of examples are provided to demonstrate the performances of the new waveform synthesis algorithms.     

Direction-of-arrival estimation in applications with multipath and few snapshots

This paper analyzes two direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation algorithms used in the presence of multipath propagation and with very few snapshots. The conditional maximum likelihood (CML) algorithm and the method of direction estimation (MODE) are discussed. The estimates provided by these algorithms are shown to coincide for large number of snapshots or large signal-to-noise ratio. Necessary and sufficient conditions are derived for the algorithms to yield unique estimates. It is shown that their uniqueness conditions coincide with the minimal uniqueness condition on the array, that is independent of the algorithm used (if the array does not satisfy this minimal condition, no DOA estimation method can give unique estimates). Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the theoretical results.The work of A. Nehorai and D. Starer was supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research under Grant No. AFOSR-90-0164 and by the Office of Naval Research under Grant No. N00014-91-J-1298.     

Adaptive parameter estimation for a constrained low-pass system

A novel algorithm is presented for adaptive parameter estimation for a constrained low-pass Butterworth system model. The algorithm will estimate the system cutoff frequency and gain online. When it is known that the true system has a low-pass Butterworth structure or some transfer function similar to it and its true order is used, the algorithm will lead to a substantial savings in computation and more accurate results than unconstrained algorithms. Potential applications include filter design and adaptive decision on Nyquist rate for systems     

Using prior knowledge in SVD-based parameter estimation for magnetic resonance spectroscopy--the ATP example

We introduce the knowledge-based singular value decomposition (KNOB-SVD) method for exploiting prior knowledge in magnetic resonance (MR) spectroscopy based on the SVD of the data matrix. More specifically, we assume that the MR data are well modeled by the superposition of a given number of exponentially damped sinusoidal components and that the dampings alphakappa, frequencies omegakappa, and complex amplitudes rhokappa of some components satisfy the following relations: alphakappa = alpha (alpha = unknown), omegakappa = omega + (kappa- 1)delta (omega = unknown, delta = known), and rhokappa = Ckapparho (rho = unknown, ckappa = known real constants). The adenosine triphosphate (ATP) complex, which has one triple peak and two double peaks whose dampings, frequencies, and amplitudes may in some cases be known to satisfy the above type of relations, is used as a vehicle for describing our SVD-based method throughout the paper. By means of numerical examples, we show that our method provides more accurate parameter estimates than a commonly used general-purpose SVD-based method and a previously suggested prior knowledge-based SVD method.     

Biosensor based on cellobiose dehydrogenase for detection of catecholamines

A cellobiose dehydrogenase (CDH)-modified graphite electrode was designed for amperometric detection of catecholamines in the flow injection mode, by their recycling between the graphite electrode (+300 mV vs Ag|AgCl) and the reduced FAD cofactor of adsorbed CDH, resulting in an amplified response signal. The high efficiency of the enzyme-catecholamine reaction leads to a detection limit below 1 nM and a sensitivity of 15.8 A.M(-1) x cm(-2) (approximately 1150 nA/microM) for noradrenaline, with a coverage of less than 2.5 microg of CDH adsorbed on the electrode surface (0.073 cm(2)). Working parameters such as pH, cellobiose concentration, carrier buffer, and applied potential were optimized, using hydroquinone as a model analyte. The sensitivity, linear range, and amplification factor can be modulated by the steady-state concentration of cellobiose in the flow buffer. The response of the sensor decreases only 2% when run continuously for 4 h in the flow injection mode. The response peak maximum is obtained within 6 s at a flow rate of 0.5 mL/min, representing the time of the entire sample segment to pass the electrode. CDH enzymes from Phanerochaete chrysosporium and Sclerotium rolfsii were investigated, providing different characteristics of the sensor, with sensors made with CDH from P. chrysosporium being the better ones.     

Chemical transformation of PVC by phase transfer catalysis

Summary Suspension type PVC was reacted with sodium phenoxide in presence of different quaternary ammonium halides in THF or THF/water mixtures. The competition elimination vs. substitution of chlorine atoms depends on the homogeneity of the system, i.e. the more homogeneous the reaction mixture the less substituted the polymer.Dedicated to the 60th anniversary of Prof. Otto Vogl     

MIMO Radar with Colocated Antennas

We have provided a review of some recent results on the emerging technology of MIMO radar with colocated antennas. We have shown that the waveform diversity offered by such a MIMO radar system enables significant superiority over its phased-array counterpart, including much improved parameter identifiability, direct applicability of adaptive techniques for parameter estimation, as well as superior flexibility of transmit beampattern designs. We hope that this overview of our recent results on the MIMO radar, along with the related results obtained by our colleagues, will stimulate the interest deserved by this topic in both academia and government agencies as well as industry.     

On Probing Signal Design For MIMO Radar

A multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar system, unlike a standard phased-array radar, can choose freely the probing signals transmitted via its antennas to maximize the power around the locations of the targets of interest, or more generally to approximate a given transmit beampattern, and also to minimize the cross-correlation of the signals reflected back to the radar by the targets of interest. In this paper, we show how the above desirable features can be achieved by designing the covariance matrix of the probing signal vector transmitted by the radar. Moreover, in a numerical study, we show that the proper choice of the probing signals can significantly improve the performance of adaptive MIMO radar techniques. Additionally, we demonstrate the advantages of several MIMO transmit beampattern designs, including a beampattern matching design and a minimum sidelobe beampattern design, over their phased-array counterparts.     

Iterative algorithm to compute the maximal and stabilising solutions of a general class of discrete-time Riccati-type equations

In this article an iterative method to compute the maximal solution and the stabilising solution, respectively, of a wide class of discrete-time nonlinear equations on the linear space of symmetric matrices is proposed. The class of discrete-time nonlinear equations under consideration contains, as special cases, different types of discrete-time Riccati equations involved in various control problems for discrete-time stochastic systems. This article may be viewed as an addendum of the work of Dragan and Morozan (Dragan, V. and Morozan, T. (2009), ‘A Class of Discrete Time Generalized Riccati Equations’, Journal of Difference Equations and Applications, first published on 11 December 2009 (iFirst), doi: 10.1080/10236190802389381) where necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of the maximal solution and stabilising solution of this kind of discrete-time nonlinear equations are given. The aim of this article is to provide a procedure for numerical computation of the maximal solution and the stabilising solution, respectively, simpler than the method based on the Newton–Kantorovich algorithm.