High power pulsed lasers

Pulsed high power lasers can deliver sufficient energy on inertial fusion time scales (0.1–10 ns) to heat and compress DT fuel to fusion reaction conditions. Several laser systems have been examined for application to the fusion problem. Examples are Ndglass, CO₂, KrF, and I₂, etc. A great deal of developmental effort has been applied to the Ndglass laser and the CO₂ gas laser systems. These systems now deliver >10⁴ kJ and >20×10¹² W to inertial fusion targets. The Nova Ndglass laser is being constructed to provide >200 kJ and >200×10¹² W of 1 m radiation for fusion experimentation in the mid-1980s. For inertial fusion target gain, >100 times the laser input, it is expected that the laser must deliver 3–5 MJ of energy on the 10–20 ns time scale. This paper reviews the developments in laser technology and outlines approaches to construction of a 3–5 MJ driver.     

A TDOA location algorithm based on data fusion

A new positioning method in mobile networks is presented. Based on the data fusion technology, it processes multi-layer information fusion for the location estimates achieved by the Chan algorithm, which increases mobile positioning accuracy effectively by only using measured difference of arriving (TDOA) signals. The method is simple and practical, especially when the location estimates are corrupted by the non-line-of-sight (NLOS) error. It not only has high positioning accuracy, but also reduces the location failure probability. Results from computer simulation show that the proposed method is effective in various environments. __________ Translated from Journal of Dalian University of Technology, 2005, 45(1): 138–141 (in Chinese)     

When does visual attention select all features of a distractor?

What happens after visual attention is allocated to an object? Although many theories of attention assume that all of its features are selected and processed, there has been little direct evidence that an irrelevant feature dimension of an attended nontarget is processed. In 5 experiments presented here, the authors used a singleton paradigm to investigate the effect of attention on nontarget objects. Participants made a speeded feature discrimination of a target for which the response was either compatible or incompatible with an irrelevant feature dimension of a distractor. The results show that the irrelevant distractor features were processed to the point that they interfered with the response to the target. The response compatibility effect was observed even when the location of the target or the distractor was invariant, although it was much weaker when both locations were invariant. These results demonstrate that in many circumstances, an attended distractor is completely selected and fully processed, and the complete processing of distractors depends on a number of factors, many of which are related to the strength of attention to the distractor. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Working memory capacity and the top-down control of visual search: Exploring the boundaries of "executive attention".

The executive attention theory of working memory capacity (WMC) proposes that measures of WMC broadly predict higher order cognitive abilities because they tap important and general attention capabilities (R. W. Engle & M. J. Kane, 2004). Previous research demonstrated WMC-related differences in attention tasks that required restraint of habitual responses or constraint of conscious focus. To further specify the executive attention construct, the present experiments sought boundary conditions of the WMC-attention relation. Three experiments correlated individual differences in WMC, as measured by complex span tasks, and executive control of visual search. In feature-absence search, conjunction search, and spatial configuration search, WMC was unrelated to search slopes, although they were large and reliably measured. Even in a search task designed to require the volitional movement of attention (J. M. Wolfe, G. A. Alvarez, & T. S. Horowitz, 2000), WMC was irrelevant to performance. Thus, WMC is not associated with all demanding or controlled attention processes, which poses problems for some general theories of WMC. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fusion Innovative Confinement Concepts: 2004

This paper summarizes recent progress in fusion Innovative Confinement Concepts (ICC) as reported at the 2004 ICC Workshop held May 25–28, 2004 in Madison, Wisconsin. This was the third in an annual series of workshops on this topic. The purpose of these workshops is to provide a forum for those who are thinking and working beyond what is considered to be the current state of understanding of fusion concepts.     

Neutronic Comparison of Tritium－Breeding Performance of Candidate Tritium－Breeding Materials

Tritium self-sustainment, which will meet the fuel requirement of fusion reactor, is one of the key issues of fusion power development. The tritium breeding performances of various tritium-breeding materials are compared based on a series of neutronics calculations using three-dimensional Monte Carlo neutron-photon transport code MCNP/4C with the IAEA FENDL-2 data library. The effects of the dimensions of the tritium-breeding zone and the enrichment of 6Li on Tritium Breeding Ratio (TBR) are analyzed. The effects of Be as a neutron multiplier on TBR are also calculated.     

Monitoring of multivariable dynamic processes and sensor auditing

Industrial continuous processes are usually operated under closed-loop control, yielding process measurements that are autocorrelated, cross correlated, and collinear. A statistical process monitoring (SPM) method based on state variables is introduced to monitor such processes. The statistical model that describes the in-control variability is based on a canonical variate (CV) state space model. The CV state variables are linear combinations of the past process measurements which explain the variability of the future measurements the most, and they are regarded as the principal dynamic dimensions. A T² statistic based on the CV state variables is utilized for developing the SPM procedure. The CV state variables are also used for monitoring sensor reliability. An experimental application to a high temperature short time (HTST) pasteurization process illustrates the proposed methodology.     

对气体分析仪现状与发展的初步探讨

本文较详细地介绍了氩、氧、水分等几种分析仪器 ,阐述了它们的工作原理、优点、缺点及使用中应注意的问题     

Application of evidence theory in information fusion of multiple sources in bayesian analysis

How to obtain proper prior distribution is one of the most critical problems in Bayesian analysis. In many practical cases, the prior information often comes from different sources, and the prior distribution form could be easily known in some certain way while the parameters are hard to determine. In this paper, based on the evidence theory, a new, method is presented to fuse the information of multiple sources and determine the parameters of the prior distribution when tile form is known. By taking the prior distributions which result from the infornlation of multiple sources and converting them into corresponding mass functions which can be combined by Dempster-Shafer (D-S) method, we get the combined mass function and the representative points of the prior distribution. These points are used to fit with the given distribution form to determine the parameters of the prior distribution. And then the fused prior distribution is obtained and Bayesian analysis can be performed. How to convert the prior distributions into mass functions properly and get the representative points of the fused prior distribution is the central question we address m this paper. The simulation example shows that the proposed method is effective.     

The Attentional Dynamics of Masked Detection.

A dichoptic masking procedure was used to test whether the mask-dependent cuing effects found in luminance detection by P. L. Smith (2000a) were due to integration masking or interruption masking. Attentional cuing enhanced detection sensitivity (d') when stimuli were backwardly masked with either dichoptic or monoptic masks, whereas no cuing effect was found with unmasked stimuli, implying the mask dependencies were due to interruption of stimulus processing in visual cortex by the mask. The effect is predicted by a gated diffusion process model in which masks interrupt stimulus processing and attention controls the flow of information to a sequential-sampling decision mechanism. The model correctly predicts different patterns of performance for detection and discrimination and cuing effects in simple reaction time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)