A new monitoring system for piping systems in fossil fired power plants

A CEC-funded project has been performed to tackle the problem of producing an advanced Life Monitoring System (LMS) which would calculate the creep and fatigue damage experienced by high temperature pipework components. Four areas were identified where existing Life Monitoring System technology could be improved:

1. 1. the inclusion of creep relaxation

2. 2. the inclusion of external loads on components

3. 3. a more accurate method of calculating thermal stresses due to temperature transients

4. 4. the inclusion of high cycle fatigue terms.

The creep relaxation problem was solved using stress reduction factors in an analytical in-elastic stress calculation. The stress reduction factors were produced for a number of common geometries and materials by means of non-linear finite element analysis. External loads were catered for by producing influence coefficients from in-elastic analysis of the particular piping system and using them to calculate bending moments at critical positions on the pipework from load and displacement measurements made at the convenient points at the pipework. The thermal stress problem was solved by producing a completely new solution based on Green's Function and Fast Fourier transforms. This allowed the thermal stress in a complex component to be calculated from simple non-intrusive thermocouple measurements made on the outside of the component. The high-cycle fatigue problem was dealt with precalculating the fatigue damage associated with standard transients and adding this damage to cumulative total when a transient occurred.

The site testing provided good practical experience and showed up problems which would not otherwise have been detected.     

Multiple access for UWB impulse radio with pseudochaotic time hopping

Pseudochaotic time hopping (PCTH) is a previously proposed encoding/modulation scheme for ultra-wideband (UWB) impulse radio. PCTH exploits concepts from symbolic dynamics to generate aperiodic spreading sequences, resulting in a noise-like spectrum. We present a multiple-access technique suitable for the PCTH scheme. In particular, we provide an analytical expression of the bit-error rate performance as a function of the number of users and validate it by simulation.     

A general discrete contour model in two, three, and four dimensions for topology-adaptive multichannel segmentation

We present a discrete contour model for the segmentation of image data with any dimension of image domain and value range. The model consists of a representation using simplex meshes and a mechanical formulation of influences that drive an iterative segmentation. The object's representation as well as the influences are valid for any dimension of the image domain. The image influences introduced here, can combine information from independent channels of higher-dimensional value ranges. Additionally, the topology of the model automatically adapts to objects contained in images. Noncontextual tests have validated the ability of the model to reproducibly delineate synthetic objects. In particular, images with a signal to noise ratio of SNR /spl les/ 0.5 are delineated within two pixels of their ground truth contour. Contextual validations have shown the applicability of the model for medical image analysis in image domains of two, three, and four dimensions in single as well as multichannel value ranges.     

The regulatory properties of autonomous subtelomeric P elements are sensitive to a Suppressor of variegation in Drosophila melanogaster

Genetic recombination was used in Drosophila melanogaster to isolate P elements, inserted at the telomeres of X chromosomes (cytological site IA) from natural populations, in a genetic background devoid of other P elements. We show that complete maternally inherited P repression in the germline (P cytotype) can be elicited by only two autonomous P elements at 1A and that a single element at this site has partial regulatory properties. The analysis of the surrounding chromosomal regions of the P elements at 1A shows that in all cases these elements are flanked by Telomeric Associated Sequences, tandemly repetitive noncoding sequences that have properties of heterochromatin. In addition, we show that the regulatory properties of P elements at 1A can be inhibited by some of the mutant alleles of the Su(var)205 gene and by a deficiency of this gene. However, the regulatory properties of reference P strains (Harwich and Texas 007) are not impaired by Su(var)205 mutations. Su(var)205 encodes Heterochromatin Protein 1 (HP1). These results suggest that the HP1 dosage effect on the P element properties is site-dependent and could involve the structure of the chromatin.     

Ueber den Einfluss des Kauens auf die Verdauung von Nahrungsmitteln

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Massenspektroskopie von Naturstoffen. I. Vergleichende Anionen-Kationen-Massenspektroskopie von 2,3,4,6-Tetra-O-acetyl-β-D-glucopyranosylestern

Mass Spectroscopy of Natural Compounds. I. Comparative Investigation of Anion-Cation Mass Spectra of 2,3,4,6-Tetra-O-acetyl-β-D-glucopyranosyl Esters The electron attachment mass spectra (anion mass spectra) of 2,3,4,6-tetra-O-acetyl-β-D-glucopyranosyl esters with different structures of the acids are discussed and compared with the corresponding electron impact spectra. In contrast to the cation mass spectra the molecular ion peak appears in all the anion mass spectra.