It is discussed here how trustworthy predictions of etched track parameters in nuclear trackdetection technique can be made? Problems involved in doing so are described along with discussion about their possible solutions. Arguments are presented using 5.2 MeV alpha particle track etching experiments with CR-39 detector and corresponding calculations using computer programs TRACK{sub V}ISION and TRACK{sub T}EST. Experimental and computational results in the present paper are useful for further basic research and technology applications of solid state nuclear trackdetection technique.
Solid state nuclear track detectors (SSNTD) record radiation in the form of tracks. In the case of high track density, however, it is not always possible to distinguish each track separately. The track density might then be underestimated unless the loss of track number due to overlapping is compensated. An elaborated 'erosion' or curve fitting process is applied usually, for the separation of the overlapping tracks, to automatic track counting systems. This paper shows a much simpler correction method which was developed by the analogy of the correction equation for the dead time of GM counters. From a set of about 10 data obtained from high track density detectors, the equation for SSNTD can be determined by a least square fitting. Once the equation is found, true ...
One of the keystones of the canceled BTeV experiment (proposed at Fermilab's Tevatron) was its sophisticated three-level trigger. The trigger was designed to reject 99.9% of light-quark background events and retain a large number of B decays. The BTeV Pixel Detector provided a 3-dimensional, high resolution tracking system to detect B signatures. The Level 1 pixel detector trigger was proposed as a two stage process, a track-segment finder and a vertex finder which analyzed every accelerator crossing. In simulations the track-segment finder stage outputs an average of 200 track-segments per accelerator crossing (2.5MHz). The vertexing stage finds vertices and associates track-segments with the vertices found. This paper proposes a novel adaptive pattern recognition model to find the number and the estimated location of vertices, and to cluster ...
Polymers are required to use in radiation environments as insulation materials. However, they often suffer from tracking failure. There is an increasing demand to evaluate radiation effects on dielectric performance. This paper presents a recurrence plot (RP) approach to analyse surface discharge sequences of gamma-ray irradiated polymer materials based on tracking test. Studying the non-linear characteristics of discharge sequences can assist in understanding the underlying mechanism of the discharge process. Discharge sequences of the test are extended to m-dimensional phase space by using the phase space reconstructed method. As test samples, polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) and polybutylene naphthalate (PBN) were irradiated to 100 kGy and then up to 1 MGy with a dosage rate of 10 kGy h{sup -1} by using a {sup 60}Co gamma source. The tracking tests were carried out according to the test method described in IEC60112. It ...
Radon concentration measurement in the ground can be used for the prospecting for uranium and earthquake prediction. Some results of radon concentration measurement in the soil are presented here. The moisture condensation at the detector surface can affect on the detection efficiency. Due to this problem we tested a few filter papers on water permeability. The ratio of track densities on solid state nuclear track detector (SSNTD) in the open and the closed diffusion chamber is also determined. (author)
Fission track analysis (FTA) technique for the determination of "2"3"9Pu excreted through urine has been standardized using blank samples, tracer and "2"3"9Pu spikes. Double stage anion exchange separation protocol has been applied and an average radiochemical recovery of "2"3"9Pu of 18% was obtained. An average track registration efficiency of 11 tracks per #mu#Bq of "2"3"9Pu, irradiated to 0.35x10"1"7 neutron fluence was established. Reagent blank urine samples from 11 controlled subjects were analyzed by FTA and an average of 149#+-#14 tracks was obtained. Minimum detectable activity of 34 #mu#Bq L"-"1 of urine sample was obtained and will be useful for monitoring chronic exposure cases handling MOX fuel.
We propose a novel surveillance system that uses hybrid camera network. The system contains a panorama camera and PTZ cameras to take the wide range images and face images at high enough resolution for identification tasks. The robust human detection methods include robust background subtraction method (RRC), skin color segmentation and face tracking method. First, the system detects persons from a panorama image, and then the detailed face images are obtained with the PTZ cameras. The PTZ cameras can track the faces using the four directional features and the relaxation matching. In addition, the system has automatic camera position calibration feature. Thus, the user can use the system without any troublesome settings.
An alternative utilization is presented for the gaseous ionization chamber in the detection of energetic heavy ions, which is called Bragg Curve Spectroscopy (BCS). Conceptually, BCS involves using the maximum data available from the Bragg curve of the stopping heavy ion (HI) for purposes of identifying the particle and measuring its energy. A detector has been designed that measures the Bragg curve with high precision. From the Bragg curve the range from the length of the track, the total energy from the integral of the specific ionization over the track, the dE/dx from the specific ionization at the beginning of the track, and the Bragg peak from the maximum of the specific ionization of the HI are determined. This last signal measures the atomic number, Z, of the HI unambiguously.
The problem of passively tracking a moving signal source has importance in a variety of applications such as radar, sonar, seismology, and radio astronomy. In many applications, only limited information is available about the signal source. It will be assumed here that only the signals which are detected by the sensors and the velocity of the source signal are known. The objective of this document is to present a program which passively tracks a target using an array of sensors. This program is available in MATLAB, version 3.5. The algorithm which is implemented consists of three main parts: time delay estimation, passive localization, and data post processing. Each of these parts are discussed, and the mathematical foundation for their solution given. Following, this the organization of the program is presented, and an example of its usage is given.
A cost effectively method to fabricate nanopores in silicon by only using the conventional wet-etching technique is developed in this research. The main concept of the proposed method is a two-step etching process, including a premier double-sided wet etching and a succeeding track-etching. A special fixture is designed to hold the pre-etched silicon wafer inside it such that the track-etching can be effectively carried out. An electrochemical system is employed to detect and record the ion diffusion current once the pre-etched cavities are etched into a through nanopore. Experimental results indicate that the proposed method can cost effectively fabricate nanopores in silicon.
We performed both a laboratory and field intercomparison of two novel glass-based retrospective radon detectors previously used in major radon case-control studies performed in Missouri and Iowa. The new detectors estimate retrospective residential radon exposure from the accumulation of a long-lived radon decay product, Pb-210, in glass. The detectors use track registration material in direct contact with glass surfaces to measure the alpha emission of a Pb-210 decay product, Po-210. The detector's track density generation rate (tracks cm{sup -2} hr{sup -1}) is proportional to the surface alpha activity. In the absence of other strong sources of alpha emission in the glass, the implanted surface alpha activity should be proportional to the accumulated Po-210 and hence, the cumulative radon gas exposure. The goals of the intercomparison were to: (1) perform collocated measurements using two different glass-based ...
Poster session: Abstract is full text. Track membranes are thin polymer foils irradiated by heavy ions. The defects created by the heavy ions are located along the ions trajectory, the track. It is possible to open channels by etching with a chemical agent. These channels are very uniform. Small Angle Scattering (of X rays and neutrons) give global information about the characteristics of the channel shape. As the nanochannels are strictly parallel, an excellent sample orientation is required to obtain interpretable spectra. Then shoulders due to the oscillations of the Bessel function (radial part of the channel shape Fourier transform) are easily seen in the scattered intensity in the PXY data treatment software of SAS spectra allow to determine the channel diameter with its dispersion law, to demonstrate the existence of a wall thickness with a linearly varying density, and to assess the roughness. PXY can also detect ...
An unmanned aerial vehicle called RAVEN, said to be capable of remote tracking of onshore and offshore oil and gas facilities, has been developed by a group of graduate students from Memorial University of Newfoundland. RAVEN is claimed to be capable of performing a number of tasks under its own control without the need for human intervention, including checking onshore pipelines for damage, or scouting the path of hazardous icebergs offshore. The RAVEN was created to meet the need for real time iceberg tracking and early hazard detection, supplementing or replacing the present method of RADARSAT images and tracking by manned aircraft. The RAVEN can be launched from any platform; it can fly under conditions that would be too dangerous for a manned aircraft. Currently in the prototype stage, the first trial flight for the RAVEN is expected to take place in September 2002. The first flight will consist of ...
Given the possibility of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza arriving in North America and monitoring programs that have been established to detect and track it, we review intercontinental movements...Full Text Available
This paper presents a unique method, currently under evaluation, that can continuously track pipeline operation providing essentially instantaneous responses to leaks or ruptures without causing a pressure drop or energy loss. Using the highly linear characteristics of a very accurate and repeatable meter and then correlating it to a second identical unit, a dynamic leak detection system is planned that can be retrofitted on existing pipelines without a major construction effort nor destroying the integrity of the existing transmission line. Initial tests performed on a crude oil transmission line verified the equipment's performance and established that the repeatability limits are sufficient to continue development of the concept.
Researchers at the Laboratory of Nuclear Microanalysis in Besancon (France) are developing and improving radon measurements in order to detect and analyse, more precisely radon emanation anomalies in both fields of Earth Sciences and Radioprotection. In order to characterize radon emanation, two complementary techniques are developed; continuous measurement through a portable proportional counter and passive measurements by nuclear track detectors for both fieldwork and laboratory analysis. A mathematical model is being devised to interpret the nuclear track detector response. This model is performed according to the device characteristics: type of detectors, shape and size of cells and whether a membrane is used or not. In addition to the theoritical study, experimental radon concentration measurements will be reported. (author).
Researchers at the Laboratory of Nuclear Microanalysis in Besancon (France) are developing and improving radon measurements in order to detect and analyse, more precisely radon emanation anomalies in both fields of Earth Sciences and Radioprotection. In order to characterize radon emanation, two complementary techniques are developed; continuous measurement through a portable proportional counter and passive measurements by nuclear track detectors for both fieldwork and laboratory analysis. A mathematical model is being devised to interpret the nuclear track detector response. This model is performed according to the device characteristics: type of detectors, shape and size of cells and whether a membrane is used or not. In addition to the theoritical study, experimental radon concentration measurements will be reported. (author).
We report on the first measurements of the z-dependent evolution of electron-beam microbunching as revealed through coherent transition radiation (CTR) measurements in a visible self-amplified spontaneous emission free-electron laser experiment. The increase in microbunching was detected by tracking the growth of the visible CTR signals as generated from insertable metal mirrors/foils after each of the last three undulators. The same optical imaging diagnostics that were used to track the z-dependent intensity of the undulator radiation (UR) were also used to track the electron beam/CTR information. Angular distribution, beam size, and intensity data were obtained after each of the last three undulators in the five-undulator series, and spectral information was obtained after the last undulator. The exponential growth rate of the CTR was found to be very similar to that of the UR and consistent with ...
We report on the first measurements of the z-dependent evolution of electron-beam microbunching as revealed through coherent transition radiation (CTR) measurements in a visible self-amplified spontaneous emission free-electron laser experiment. The increase in microbunching was detected by tracking the growth of the visible CTR signals as generated from insertable metal mirrors/foils after each of the last three undulators. The same optical imaging diagnostics that were used to track the z-dependent intensity of the undulator radiation (UR) were also used to track the electron beam/CTR information. Angular distribution, beam size, and intensity data were obtained after each of the last three undulators in the five-undulator series, and spectral information was obtained after the last undulator. The exponential growth rate of the CTR was found to be very similar to that of the UR and consistent with ...
Lanthanide-ion doped oxide nanoparticles were functionalized for use as fluorescent biological labels. These nanoparticles are synthesized directly in water which facilitates their functionalization, and are very photostable without emission intermittency. Nanoparticles functionalized with guanidinium groups act as artificial toxins and specifically target sodium channels. They are individually detectable in cardiac myocytes, revealing a heterogeneous distribution of sodium channels. Functionalized oxide nanoparticles appear as a novel tool particularly well adapted to long-term single-molecule tracking.
...Track haulage roads. (a) The speed at which haulage equipment is operated should be determined by the condition...elements of the track and the type and condition of the haulage equipment. (b) Track haulage roads should...
This thesis reports on the fabrication and test of a new gaseous detector with a very large number of readout channels. This detector is intended for measuring the tracks of charged particles with an unprecedented sensitivity to single electrons of almost 100 %. It combines a metal grid for signal amplification called the Micromegas with a pixel readout chip as signal collecting anode and is dubbed GridPix. GridPix is a potential candidate for a sub-detector at a future electron linear collider (ILC) foreseen to work in parallel with the LHC around 2020--2030. The tracking capability of GridPix is best exploited if the Micromegas is integrated on the pixel chip. This integrated grid is called InGrid and is precisely fabricated by wafer post-processing. The various steps of the fabrication process and the measurements of its gain, energy resolution and ion back-flow property are reported in this document. Studies of the response of the complete ...
The CMS detector (Compact Muon Solenoid) is under construction at one of the four proton-proton interaction points of the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Geneva, Switzerland). The inner tracking system of the CMS experiment consisting of silicon detectors will have a diameter of 2.4 m and a length of 5.4 m representing the largest silicon tracker ever. About 15000 silicon strip modules create an active silicon area of 200 m2 to detect charged particles from proton collisions. They are placed on a rigid carbon fibre structure, providing stability within the working conditions of a 4 T solenoid magnetic field at ?10oC. Knowledge of the position of the silicon detectors at the level of 100 ?m is needed for an efficient pattern recognition of charged particle tracks. Metrology methods are used to survey tracker subdetectors and the integrated Laser Alignment System (LAS) ...
The feasibility of containing genetically engineered bacteria with enhanced dehalogenating properties for in situ bioremediation was investigated. (1) An agarose matrix microbead protocol and a detection system for contained microorganisms or DNA were developed. Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) allowed tracking of a consortium of encapsulated organisms or several gene targets from a single species. Gene sequences encoding the enzymes responsible for initiating the biodegradation of toluene, octane, and 2,4-D were detected by multiplex PCR and nucleic acid probes from similar to 1-10 biodegradative cells/g soil. Improved DNA extraction methods resulted in PCR reactions detecting similar to 6 cells/g soil. (2) The pcpB gene (for the broad-spectrum detoxicant pentachlorophenol (PCP) hydroxylase) isolated from Flavobacterium sp. strain ATCC 39723 was used in attempts to develop an improved ...
The BESS detector is a new type of balloon-borne spectrometer which utilizes various technologies recently developed for collider experiments. The principal scientific objectives include a measurement of cosmic-ray antiproton spectrum, search for anti-nuclei in cosmic radiation, and precise measurements of cosmic-ray primaries. A thin superconducting solenoidal coil produces a uniform magnetic field of 1 T. Cylindrical drift chambers are located inside and outside the coil and perform continuous tracking. The momentum resolution is 0.5% at 1 GeV/c. i.e., the maximum detectable rigidity is 200 GV. Scintillation counter hodoscopes, placed above and below the solenoid, provide timing and dE/dx measurements and trigger generation. The timing resolution is 80 ps/counter. This cylindrical configuration achieves a large geometrical acceptance of 0.35 m{sup 2} sr which is essential to detect rare cosmic-ray particles. In order to ...
RFID technology is gaining adoption on an increasing scale for tracking and monitoring purposes. Wide deployments of RFID devices will soon generate an unprecedented volume of data. Emerging applications require the RFID data to be filtered and correlated for complex pattern detection and transformed to events that provide meaningful, actionable information to end applications. In this work, we design and develop SASE, a com-plex event processing system that performs such data-information transformation over real-time streams. We design a complex event language for specifying application logic for such transformation, devise new query processing techniques to effi-ciently implement the language, and develop a comprehensive system that collects, cleans, and processes RFID data for deliv-ery of relevant, timely information as well as storing necessary data for future querying. We demonstrate an initial prototype of SASE through a real-world ...
Environmental radon monitoring activities at the DOE Fernald Environmental Management Project (FEMP) have been conducted extensively since the early 1980`s. Monitoring has been conducted at ambient concentration levels (< 1 pCi/L Rn-222), inside buildings, and at significantly elevated levels (hundreds of thousands pCi/L Rn-222) within the K-65 silo that store concentrated radium bearing wastes. The purpose of this paper/presentation is to present and discuss some of the difficulties encountered/solutions (e.g. reliability, detection limits, affects of environmental factors, data transfer, etc.) that have been discovered while taking measurements using both alpha track-etch passive integrating detectors and alpha scintillation real-time detectors. A short summary and conclusion section is provided following each topic presented.
There is a rapidly growing need to evaluate sensor network functionality and performance in the context of the larger environment of infrastructure and applications in which the sensor network is organically embedded. This need, which is motivated by complex applications related to national security operations, leads to a paradigm fundamentally different from that of traditional data networks. In the sensor networks of interest to us, the network dynamics depend strongly on sensor activity, which in turn is triggered by events in the environment. Because the behavior of sensor networks is sensitive to these driving phenomena, the integrity of the sensed observations, measurements and resource usage by the network can widely vary. It is therefore imperative to accurately capture the environmental phenomena, and drive the simulation of the sensor network operation by accounting fully for the environment effects. In this paper, we illustrate the strong, intimate coupling between the ...
A detailed discussion of airborne CO{sub 2}, DIAL measurements obtained from the first joint N-ABLE field campaign at INEL is presented. System performance characteristics, including return signal strength, averaging statistics, and temporal correlation as well as multi-line DIAL spectral data are discussed. In particular, we review data acquisition and analysis strategies pertinent to chemical detection from a moving platform, such as range determination and correction, and return signal processing (waveform vs. box-car integration, baseline correction). We also report observed effects and variations due to near-field light scattering, pointing and tracking stability, and stack-release plume dynamics.
We report on aging measurements of a photon detector candidate for the HERA-B RICH. The prototype, a proportional wire chamber operated with TMAE, was mounted on an argon filled test-beam RICH and was aged by UV light at rates we expect in HERA-B. We monitored gain and current continuously, and checked the chamber with Cherenkov photons at regular intervals. The number of detected photons/track (projected to 2.75 m C sub 4 F sub 1 sub 0 in HERA-B) dropped from 26 to 11 after two days of aging - well below the 20 required for pi/K separation. Based on these results, HERA-B decided to use multi-anode PMTs as photon detectors in the RICH.
Since the commissioning of the first 10 strings of the AMANDA neutrino telescope, more than nine years of data has been collected. The proof of principle of high-energy neutrino detection in ice is established. No positive signal of an extra-terrestrial high-energy neutrino flux have been found so far. However, the most stringent upper limits to the flux of cosmic neutrinos-respectively, diffuse, point like or associated with gamma-ray bursts-have been presented. A sample of 3329 up-going muon tracks, representing the largest statistics ever of high-energy neutrino induced events, has been collected between 2000 and 2003. A coincidence of neutrino with an anomalous high-energy gamma-ray flare has been observed from the direction of the Blazar 1ES1959+650-although the observation were not conclusive. Selected results of data taken with the AMANDA detector are here reported.
For the study of radiation biology and its application to radiotherapy, the double differential cross section of electron emission from water vapor induced by 6.0 MeV alpha particle beam is measured. The energy spectra of electrons ranging 7- 10000 eV are detected by the electrostatic analyzer and micro channel plate. The measurements are made at angles between 20 and 160 degrees. With use of this data set, the radial dose distribution in water is calculated by using KURBUC code. It is the Monte Carlo type code of the electron transport process, where the track of the electron is simulated through each individual interactions including elastic scattering, ionization cross section and total excitation cross section in case that electrons with certain energy are put in the liquid-density water. In order to understand the effect of radiation when the particle flux is injected in the human body like radiotherapy using accelerator beam, the dose ...
Flying insects use visual cues to stabilize their heading in a wind stream. Many animals additionally track odors carried in the wind. As such, visual stabilization of upwind tracking directly aids...Full Text Available
1. The relation of V̇O2 and speed was measured on seven athletes running on a cinder track and an all-weather track. The results were compared...Full Text Available
Motivation: Cell tracking is an important method to quantitatively analyze time-lapse microscopy data. While numerous methods and tools exist for tracking cells in 2D time-lapse images,...Full Text Available
A new technique for radon measurement in the natural environment was investigated. It is based on the use of activated charcoal and a track-etch detector. The charcoal acts as a radon collector from the air and the track-etch detector as a recorder of the alpha particles emitted by radon and its decay products. Our preliminary results show that the response of the new dosimeter to radon, using Deodorant activated charcoal (TOK, Yugoslavia) and a CR-39 track-etch detector, is 1.4 tracks cm{sup -2}/Bqm{sup -3}d, which is about eight times higher than that obtained with a standard track-etch dosimeter. (author).
The CDF II eXtremely Fast Tracker (XFT) is the trigger processor which reconstructs charged particle tracks in the CDF II central outer tracking chamber. The XFT tracks are also extrapolated to the electromagnetic calorimeter and muon chambers and are associated to electromagnetic clusters and muon stubs to generate trigger electron and muon candidates. The steady increase of the Tevatron instantaneous luminosity and the resulting higher occupancy of the chamber demanded an upgrade of the original system, which performed tracking only in the transverse plane of the chamber and was consequently affected by a significant level of fake tracks. In the upgraded XFT, tracking is reinforced by using additional data from the stereo layers of the chamber to reduce the level of fake tracks and to perform three-dimensional track ...
A Bragg curve counter equipped with an internal production target was developed for the measurements of double-differential cross-sections of fragment production induced by neutrons at energies of tens of MeV. The internal target permitted a large detection solid angle and thus the registration of processes at low production rates. In this specific geometry, the detection solid angle depends on the emission angle and the range of the particle. Therefore the energy, atomic number, and angle of trajectory of the particle have to be taken into account for the determination of the solid angle. For the selection of events with tracks confined within a defined cylindrical volume around the detector axis, a segmented anode was applied. The double-differential cross-sections for neutron-induced production of lithium, beryllium, and boron fragments from a carbon target were measured at 0 deg. for 65 MeV neutrons. The results are in ...
Detecting a camouflaged target in a visually noisy background depends on the ability of the observer to discriminate the target from the surrounding terrain. Visible laser irradiation at less than damage levels can act as a masking source by compromising or reducing the observer's ability to resolve differences in the visual scene. Previous research has examined this concept by investigating laser flash effects on: acuity (size discrimination); tracking (motion discrimination); visual sensitivity (color); and contrast sensitivity functions (luminance contrast). In all cases, flashes from continuous-wave (CW) sources have proven more effective visually than pulsed (Q-switched) sources, when compared on peak-energy criteria (i.e., MPE), even though Q-switched lasers induce damage at lower energy doses. Additionally, the inherent safety of ultra-short laser pulses has been questioned. Past animal research has shown that, on the measures ...
We present a simple and intuitive derivation of the track parameter covariance matrix due to multiple Coulomb scattering for use in track fitting with the Kalman filter. We derive all the covariance matrix elements for two experimentally relevant track parameterizations (i.e. x and y slopes and intercepts, and direction cosines and intercepts) in the presence of thin scatterers and absence of magnetic fields. We further comment on how to account for thick and/or continuous scattering centers.
Sandia National Laboratories has recently developed two major field test capabilities for unattended ground sensor systems at the Department of energy`s Nevada Test Site (NTS). The first capability utilizes the NTS large area, varied terrain, and intrasite communications systems for testing sensors for detecting and tracking vehicular traffic. Sensor and ground truth data can be collected at either of two secure control centers. This system also includes an automated ground truth capability that consists of differential Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) receivers on test vehicles and live TV coverage of critical road sections. Finally there is a high-speed, secure computer network link between the control centers and the Air Force`s Theater Air Command and Control Simulation Facility in Albuquerque NM. The second capability is Bunker 2-300. It is a facility for evaluating advanced sensor systems for monitoring activities in underground ...
A new type of passive integrating cup monitors was developed to measure indoor thoron("2"2"0Rn) and radon("2"2"2Rn) concentrations. By placing a pair of cup monitors with different size a air exchange windows in the same place during a sufficient period of time the concentrations of both gases can be assessed from the alpha track densities on the CN films of the two monitors. The lower detection limit with a 3 months measurement period is for "2"2"0Rn 26.1 Bq*m"-"3 and is for "2"2"2Rn 6.1 Bq*m"-"3. Radon-220 and "2"2"2Rn concentrations have been measured in about 20 different types of dwellings around the Nagoya area with these monitors. The results suggest that the "2"2"0Rn concentrations were rather high in traditional Japanese dwellings made of a timber frame and mud. (orig.). (4 refs., 4 figs.).
The US Department of Energy (DOE) sponsors an extensive research program to improve the methods, dosimeters, and instruments available to DOE facilities for measuring neutron dose and assessing its effects on the work force. The Total Dose Meter was recently developed for measuring in real time the adsorbed dose of mixed neutron and gamma radiation and for calculating the dose equivalent. The Field Neutron Spectrometer was developed to provide a portable instrument for determining neutron spectra in the workplace for flux-to-dose equivalent conversion and quality factor calculation. The Combination Thermoluminescence/Track Etch Dosimeter (TLD/TED) was developed to extend the effective neutron energy range of the conventional TLDs to improve detection of fast-energy neutrons. An Optically Stimulated Luminescence Dosimeter is presently being developed for application to gamma, neutron, and beta radiation. An Effective Dose Equivalent System is ...
Purpose: The authors have developed a novel technique using an electronic portal imaging device (EPID) to verify the geometrical accuracy of delivery of dose-rate-regulated tracking (DRRT)....Full Text Available
This poster describes single-molecule tracking and total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy. It discusses whether the carbohydrate-binding module (CBM) moves on cellulose, how the CBM binds to cellulose, and the mechanism of cellulosome assembly.
When choosing an electromagnetic tracking system (EMTS) for image-guided procedures several factors must be taken into consideration. Among others these include the system’s refresh rate, the...Full Text Available
Fate maps are generated by marking and tracking cells in vivo to determine how progenitors contribute to specific structures and cell types in developing and adult tissue. An advance in this...Full Text Available
The reliability of outdoor radon concentration measurements using the track-etch technique is affected by the environmental conditions. Studies have been made to improve stability of nuclear tracks in detector material and to achieve a stable dosemeter response. A dosemeter was developed utilizing chemically etched MA-ND/alpha (CR-39) detector which is thermally insulated and protected against solar irradiation. The calibration showed that its response amounts to 0.21 {plus minus} 0.03 tracks m{sup -2}/Bqm{sup -3} day and was found to be in good agreement with theoretical prediction. (author).
System). From collecting terabytes of video footage to tracking the movements of the submarines, this software is essential to the science team as they explore unique structures on...
... and airborne sensors to track incoming ICBMs. The experiment was designed to determine how the intentional release of rocket propellants from an incoming ...
A semiautomatic system for measurements of nuclear tracks in nuclear emulsion is described. The microscopic image of a particle track is picked up by a video camera. The video picture is digitized in real time. The picture analysis is done via software. The microscope is equipped with a stepping motor driven stage which is also computer-controlled.
This report is a brief review of biological and medical applications of ion-track membranes. The review aims at informing nuclear physicists about alternative (i.e. non-fundamental-science) use of heavy ion accelerators such as production of micro- and nano-porous materials. The ion-track membranes produced this way are employed in life sciences and numerous technological applications. The author focuses on recent results from the Flerov laboratory in co-operation with other scientific institutions and industrial partners.
In this paper a prototype of Requirement Tracking and Verification System(RTVS) for a Distributed Control System was implemented and tested. The RTVS is a software design and verification tool. The main functions required by the RTVS are managing, tracking and verification of the software requirements listed in the documentation of the DCS. The analysis of DCS software design procedures and interfaces with documents were performed to define the user of the RTVS, and the design requirements for RTVS were developed. 4 refs., 3 figs. (Author)
The proton beam has an advantage of the sharp dose falloff in dose distribution called Bragg peak while conventional radiation therapy modalities such as photons exhibit considerable amount of exit dose. To take advantage of this property it is important to know the exact location of the distal dose falloff. An error can cause overdose to the normal tissue or underdose to the tumor volume. The only way of finding out the dose distribution in-situ in particle therapy is to measure the gammas produced by nuclear reactions with tissue materials. Two kinds of gammas can be used: one is prompt gamma and the other is coincident gamma from the positron-emission isotopes. We chose to detect prompt gammas, and developed a prompt gamma scanning system (PGS). The proton beams of the proton therapy facility at National Cancer Center were used. The gamma distribution was compared to the dose distribution measured by an ionization chamber at three different energies of 100, 150, ...
The energy deposited by the passage of a single, energetic, heavy-ion through a semiconductor produces dense electron-hole (eh) pair concentrations near the ion trajectory. The size, shape, and charge density of an ion track represent critical parameters for many models of single event phenomena. The authors describe the design and uses of possible semiconductor test structures for measuring the initial radial distribution of charge and subsequent charge transport in a high energy, heavy-ion track. Numerical simulations show how the test structure can resolve different radial distributions of charge within an ion track. The test structure simulations also show the importance of accurately representing ion track structure in single event effects simulations.
Summary Solid state nuclear track detectors are used to determine the concentration of a particles in the environment. The standard method for assessing exposed detectors involves 2D image analysis. However 3D imaging has the potential to provide additional information relating to angle as well as to differentiate clustered hit sequences and possibly energy of a particles but this could be time consuming. Here we describe a new method for rapid high-resolution 3D imaging of solid state nuclear track detectors. A `LEXT' OLS3100 confocal laser scanning microscope (Olympus Corporation, Tokyo, Japan) was used in confocal mode to successfully obtain 3D image data on four CR-39 plastic detectors. Three-dimensional visualization and image analysis enabled characterization of track features. This ...
The effect of 50 Hz and 60 Hz (frequencies of current distribution) and 20 kHz to 50 kHz (frequencies of induction cooktop) magnetic interference on implanted pacemakers have been assessed with the present generation of device technology. Sixty patients implanted in 1998 and 1999 with dual chamber pacemakers from 9 different manufacturers were monitored with telemetry while passing through, and standing between a system of two coils. They generated a 50 Hz or a 60 Hz magnetic field at 50 microT. Then, patients used a cooktop at different power. The recordings were made with the standard setting of "medically correct" sensing parameters chosen for the patients. Then pacemakers were reprogrammed to the unipolar mode, with the highest atrial (A) and ventricular (V) sensitivity that did not induce muscular inhibition while moving. Between each exposure (50 Hz, 60 Hz or 20 kHz to 50 kHz), the pacemaker programmation was controlled. At the end of the tests, pacemakers will be reprogrammed ...
A new three-dimensional (3D) acoustic modelling method was developed using a first-order hyperbolic wave system which was solved with explicit finite dfferences. The numerical solution of the 3D wave system provides a useful method for simulating evolution of a pressure field corresponding to compressional type waves. Existing two-dimensional (2D) elastic modelling algorithms were modified and fine-tuned for computationally efficient and realistic wave propagation simulations in complex structures. An original formulation of the 3D reverse time migration method was developed which is very accurate, does not suffer from unwanted evenescent energy, can image dips beyond 90{degree}, and does not generate multiple energy. Two case studies were performed that involved steam stimulation projects in the Cold Lake deposit. Simulations were performed during different phases of the steam stimulation process to examine the relation between reservoir properties and conditions with seismic ...
The Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) is a liquid-metal-cooled, fast neutron test reactor located on the Hanford Site. A dual computer system has been developed to monitor the reactor cover gas to detect and characterize any fuel or test pin fission gas releases. The system acquires gamma spectra data, identifies isotopes, calculates specific isotope and overall cover gas activity, presents control room alarms and displays, and records and prints data and analysis reports. The Fission Gas Monitor System (FGMS) integrates commercially available hardware and software, providing a reliable and easily maintained system. The design provides extensive automation of previous manual operations, reducing the need for operator training and minimizing the potential for operator error. The dual nature of the system allows either system A or B to be taken out of service for periodic tests or maintenance without interrupting the overall system performance. A control room color ...
A technique has been developed for high resolution alpha particle spectroscopy from track length determination in CR-39 plastic. On individual tracks an energy resolution deltaE close to the range straggling limit is obtainable. For 6 MeV alpha-particle deltaE is proportional 35 keV on individual particles and for groups of particles deltaE proportional 20 keV can be achieved using certain data selection criteria. At 100 keV on individual particles deltaE is proportional 20 keV. The analysis requires 1) a knowledge of the track-etch rate (Vsub(T))-range relationship and 2) a theoretical understanding of alpha-particle track structure in CR-39 as a function of particle energy, dip angle and degree of etching. The structure of alpha-particle etched tracks in CR-39 is described and two methods of analysis discussed. Examples are given of the resolution attainable on ...
The effect of atmospheric pressure on tracking resistance of organic insulating materials were investigated in the range of 500 to 1007 hPa. The tracking resistance for Polycarbonate (PC), Modified Polyphenylene Oxide (M-PPO) and Paper Base Phenolic Resin Laminate (PL) increase with the decrease in atmospheric pressure. The scintillating discharges on these samples surface lead to the ignition. The tracking failure on these results from the ignition on the surface. For Polybutylene Terephthalate (PBT) and Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), the tracking resistance decrease with the decrease in atmospheric pressure. The discharges observed on the these surface are the glow-like. The discharge area spreads on the surface between the electrodes at the lower pressure. The failure on this group results from the carbonization by the discharges on the surface. However, the tracking ...
An average of 9 million gallons per day of oil-contaminated ballast water off loaded from tankers are treated at the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company Ballast Water Treatment Facility at the terminus of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline in Port Valdez, Alaska. This paper focuses on the results of 2 Prince William Sound Regional Citizens' Advisory Council monitoring programs which detail changes in the chemical composition of treated ballast water as it moves from tankers through the facility and subsequently traces the effluent hydrocarbons into the receiving environment of Port Valdez. The treatment facility involves gravity separation tanks, dissolved air flotation cells and biological treatment tanks. Effluent containing traces of volatile aromatics, including benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes, low levels of oil, saturated hydrocarbons and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons is being continuously discharged to Port Valdez. Because of the extremely large average flow rate, low ...
Accurate lung tumor tracking in real time is a keystone to image-guided radiotherapy of lung cancers. Existing lung tumor tracking approaches can be roughly grouped into three categories: (1) deriving tumor position from external surrogates; (2) tracking implanted fiducial markers fluoroscopically or electromagnetically; (3) fluoroscopically tracking lung tumor without implanted fiducial markers. The first approach suffers from insufficient accuracy, while the second may not be widely accepted due to the risk of pneumothorax. Previous studies in fluoroscopic markerless tracking are mainly based on template matching methods, which may fail when the tumor boundary is unclear in fluoroscopic images. In this paper we propose a novel markerless tumor tracking algorithm, which employs the correlation between the tumor position and surrogate anatomic features in the ...
Polymer insulating materials used in radioactive environments are subjected to a risk of surface degradation caused by tracking. The tracking behavior becomes more complex with the presence of magnetic field. This paper presents investigation of tracking failure of gamma-ray irradiated polybutylene naphthalate (PBN) and polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) under magnetic field. The samples were irradiated in air up to 100 kGy and then up to 1000 kGy with dose rate of 10 kGy/h by using a 60Co gamma-source. Magnetic field Formula Not Shown with flux density of 250 mT was assembled perpendicularly to electric field Formula Not Shown , which gave rise to relative angle between Formula Not Shown and surface normal vector Formula Not Shown of 0degree, 90degree and 180degree, respectively. The experi...
The spread spectrum acquisition and tracking performance for the Shuttle S-band and Ku-band communication links are analyzed and compared to test results. The S-band link requirements are more severe than those of the Ku-band links, hence, different despreader designs were developed for the two systems. The S-band despreader acquires pseudonoise code lock by examining all possible code phases in half chip steps while the Ku-band despreader acquires pseudonoise code lock by continuously sweeping a tau-jitter loop. Both despreaders employ a tau-jitter loop for code tracking. The code tracking performance is computed for the tau-jitter loop and compared to that of the more complex delay lock loop.
Summary. Abstract: This theme is for tracking of the BLM timber sale program in the western ... manages for wildlife, recreation, timber harvest, livestock grazing, ...
Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved catabolic process that involves the invagination and degradation of cytoplasmic components through an autophagosomelysosome track. Autophagy functions...Full Text Available
The DN-tracking method is used to prove the existence of a closed trajectory in a quadratic system of ordinary differential equations in three dimensions.
Geometrical shapes and diameter of nuclear tracks changes continuously during the process of etching for various incident angles. Besides, there is also a marked difference amongst their profiles, as evidenced by the SEM analysis, when the incoming particles fall on the detector at different angles of incidence. This work outlines this aspect of fission fragment tracks in a glass detector and has set out a few empirical relationships between the mean track diameter, d-bar and the etching time, t, within experimental limits. This study, therefore, sheds some light in the follow up the origins and characteristics of heavy ions in some terrestrial and extra-terrestrial materials and also in studying the collimation accuracy of heavy ion bombardments. The implications of the results in discerning the measurements of incident angles of various types of ions are described in detail in the paper.
The values of X = 0.77, Z = 0.035, and Y = 0.195 and the stage of evolution of Procyon are determined from the evolutionary tracks and the results of an analysis of the chemical composition of the atmosphere.
Solid state nuclear track detectors (SSNTD) are widely used for radon measurements and CR-39 is one of the most popular SSNTD. In this work it was determined the calibration factor for radon concentration measurements through the passive method with CR-39 detectors. The detectors were put in a proper device (an adapted Lucas cell) and exposed to the standard radon concentration through the Pylon Model RN-150 flow through radon gas source. After exposure, the detectors were etched for 5.5 hours in a KOH solution at 80 deg C in a bath at a constant temperature. The track density was read in an Axiolab-Zeiss optical microscope, with nominal magnification of X10 connected to a video camera and to a personal computer. The calibration factor was obtained through the relation between standard radon concentration, track density and exposure time. (author)
Solid state nuclear track detectors (SSNTD) are widely used for radon measurements and CR-39 is one of the most popular SSNTD. In this work it was determined the calibration factor for radon concentration measurements through the passive method with CR-39 detectors. The detectors were put in a proper device (an adapted Lucas cell) and exposed to the standard radon concentration through the Pylon Model RN-150 flow through radon gas source. After exposure, the detectors were etched for 5.5 hours in a KOH solution at 80 deg C in a bath at a constant temperature. The track density was read in an Axiolab-Zeiss optical microscope, with nominal magnification of X10 connected to a video camera and to a personal computer. The calibration factor was obtained through the relation between standard radon concentration, track density and exposure time. (author)
CR-39 detectors have been exposed to a 5.9-MeV antiproton beam using the low energy antiproton ring (LEAR) facility at CERN. At this energy, tracks of antiprotons appear in a CR-39 detector after 135 min of etching in 6 M NaOH at 70C. Fluence of the antiproton beam has been determined using track density. We have also found tracks in the etched CR-39 detector at different depths (250-500 mum). These tracks have resulted from the annihilation of antiprotons with the constituents (H, C and O) of the CR-39 detector. The goal of the experiment is to develop a simple and low-cost method to study properties of antiparticles and those formed after annihilation of these particles with the target matter.
A new numerical technique called the convolution-based particle tracking (CBPT) method is developed to simulate resident or flux-averaged solute concentrations in groundwater models. The method is valid for steady-state flow and linear transport processes such as sorption with a linear sorption isotherm and first-order decay. The CBPT method uses particle tracking to take advantage of the ability of particle-based approaches to maintain sharp fronts for advection-dominated transport problems common in groundwater modeling and because of the flexibility of the random walk method to simulate a wide range of possible forms of the dispersion tensor. Furthermore, the algorithm for carrying out the convolution and superposition calculation from particle tracking results is very efficient. We sho...
Since nuclear terrorism has been identified as a real threat, the Korean government has earnestly developed elementary technologies and sub-systems for establishing an integrated defensive system against nuclear terrorism, which is based on the concept of defense-in-depth. This paper introduces the gist and implications of the studies that have been conducted in building the national nuclear material tracking system for preventing and intercepting the illicit trafficking and transporting of nuclear material in Korea. (orig.)
Uses a survey of educational attainment in urban Taiwan to explore the effects of ability grouping. Argues that because of the nature of educational institutionalization in Taiwan (universal basic education, a national curriculum, entrance examinations governing access to postcompulsory schooling) tracking reduces rather than accentuates the influence of family background. (MJP)
The internal-tracking-system (ITS) of the ALICE detector at LHC, consists of six concentrical barrels of silicon detectors. The outmost two layers are made of double-sided strip detectors (SSD). In the framework of a R and D, the characteristics and performances of these devices, manufactured by two different companies, associated with their designed read-out electronics, have been studied off- and in-beam at the SPS (CERN). The results are presented and discussed.
This paper describes New York State Electric and Gas Corporation`s concept for a comprehensive, centrally located data system for management of their continuous emission monitoring systems (CEMS) data. The topics of the paper include the power system`s mix of generating units; data reporting requirements; data base management; nitrogen oxides compliance tracking; sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon dioxide and flow monitoring; and allowance tracking.
This paper proposes a novel control strategy for tracking peak power in a wind or wave energy system using a squirrel cage induction generator. It eliminates wind speed measurement or estimation and uses a simple scalar technique by exploiting the cubic nature of the power curve. The method works even when air velocity is varying dynamically. (author)
It has often been proposed that track diameter in etched detectors can be used for energy spectrometry. To test this proposition, the relationship between track diameter and energy of alpha particles, in the range 0.1-5.5 MeV, incident on CR-39 was studied. Two sets of detectors were irradiated by a collimated normally-incident beam of {alpha}-particles of different energies, using an Am-241 source. Different foils of the first set were etched for variable lengths of time in such a way that, in each case, the etchant reached the end of the latent track. Foils in the second set were etched for a fixed 'short' time of 2 h, for all {alpha}-energies. The linear rate of energy loss as well as the residual range of {alpha}-particles was determined by using Henke and Benton's computer program. It is found that, for 'short' etching times, the track diameter mimics ...
The thermal spike model has been successfully applied to track formation by swift heavy ions in insulators. Arguments are given supporting the assumption that the thermal spike mechanism is also valid for the anisotropic growth. The glass transition temperature is used as the main thermal parameter of the amorphous solids. Experimental results on the track formation in {alpha}-quartz and in crystalline Ni{sub 3}B and also on the anisotropic growth in Pyrex and Synsil glasses, in amorphous Pd{sub 80}Si{sub 20}, Ni{sub 3}B and Fe{sub 85}B{sub 15} are discussed. Good agreement is found with the predictions of the thermal spike model. (orig.).
The Authenticated Tracking and Monitoring System (ATMS) has been designed to address the need for global monitoring of the status and location of proliferation-sensitive items. Conceived to utilize the proposed Global Verification and Location System (GVLS) satellite link, ATMS could use the existing International Maritime Satellite commercial communication system until GVLS is operational. The ATMS concept uses sensor packs to monitor items and environmental conditions, collects a variety of events data through a sensor processing unit, and transmits the data to a satellite, which then sends data to ground stations. Authentication and encryption algorithms will be used to secure the data. A typical ATMS application would be to track and monitor the safety and security of a number of items in transit along a scheduled shipping route. This paper also discusses a possible proof-of-concept system demonstration.
Synthesis of protein molecules in a cell are carried out by ribosomes. A ribosome can be regarded as a molecular motor which utilizes the input chemical energy to move on a messenger RNA (mRNA) track that also serves as a template for the polymerization of the corresponding protein. The forward movement, however, is characterized by an alternating sequence of translocation and pause. Using a quantitative model, which captures the mechanochemical cycle of an individual ribosome, we derive an {\\it exact} analytical expression for the distribution of its dwell times at the successive positions on the mRNA track. Inverse of the average dwell time satisfies a ``Michaelis-Menten-like'' equation and is consistent with the general formula for the average velocity of a molecular motor with an unbranched mechano-chemical cycle. Extending this formula appropriately, we also derive the exact force-velocity relation for a ribosome. Often many ribosomes ...
Experiments have been performed to study the usefulness of several types of plastic foils as filter to separate radon and thoron. Time-integrated alpha-activity measurements have been carried out by using the so-called ''can-technique'' equipped with both LR-115 and CR-39 track detectors. The track density observed on the detectors, taken as a measure of radon activity concentration, has been determined as a function of the thickness of filter foils. The radon permeability and the thoron separation factors have been determined. It is shown that various plastic foils exhibit considerable differences in radon diffusion coefficient owing to their different chemical structures. Among the plastic foils investigated the polyethylene proved to have the highest gas diffusion coefficient.
This paper discusses a new control strategy for photovoltaic power generation systems with consideration of dynamic characteristics of the photovoltaic cells. The controller estimates internal currents of an equivalent circuit for the cells. This estimated, or the virtual current and the actual voltage of the cells are fed to a conventional Maximum-Power-Point-Tracking (MPPT) controller. Consequently, this MPPT controller still tracks the optimum point even though it is so designed that the seeking speed of the operating point is extremely high. This system may suit for applications, which are installed in rapidly changeable insolation and temperature-conditions e.g. automobiles, trains, and airplanes. The proposed method is verified by experiment with a combination of this estimating function and the modified Boehringer's MPPT algorithm.
An indoor radioactive survey is being conducted in an Italian district. Preliminary results identified a zone with significant radioactive levels, in which a new specific survey has been planned. In this paper attention is dedicated mainly to radon measurement technique and results.
Meso- and submesoscales (fronts, eddies, filaments) in surface ocean flow have a crucial influence on marine ecosystems. Their dynamics partly control the foraging behavior and the displacement of marine...Full Text Available
BackgroundOne of the more common behavioral manifestations of dementia-related disorders is severe problems with out-of-home mobility. Various efforts have been attempted to attain...Full Text Available
Aerosol Polarimetry Sensor (APS) + Continuous along-track scanning ... side of the spacecraft and faces outward, measures the intensity of incoming solar ... on a larger rocket, and faced slightly different conditions in spaceinto Glory wasn't ...
BackgroundHigh throughput sequencing has become an increasingly important tool for biological research. However, the existing software systems for managing and processing these data...Full Text Available
This report presents the full texts of the allocution delivered during the colloquium on the renewable energies and the public policies. It takes stock on the strategical environment and the political will of the renewable energies, the tracks of development in France and the necessity of a law on the renewable energies. (A.L.B.)
The results of the radon concentration measurements in dwellings in Belgrade were shown in this paper. The measurements were done using long term method with diffusion cups equipped with solid state nuclear track detector LR-115-II or CR-39. (author).
Mar 2, 2011 ... CCT's software is capable of simultaneously handling incoming ... has been using CCTK to automate its remote control rocket cryogenic fueling systems. ... seismic, infrared, and proximity sensor data with auto-tracking ...
A voice-tracking algorithm was developed and tested for the purposes of electronically separating the voice signals of simultaneous talkers. Many individuals suffer from hearing disorders that often inhibit their ability to focus on a single speaker in a multiple speaker environment (the cocktail party effect). Digital hearing aid technology makes it possible to implement complex algorithms for speech processing in both the time and frequency domains. In this work, an average magnitude difference function (AMDF) was performed on mixed voice signals in order to determine the fundamental frequencies present in the signals. A time prediction neural network was trained to recognize normal human voice inflection patterns, including rising, falling, rising-falling, and falling-rising patterns. The neural network was designed to track the fundamental frequency of a single talker based on the training procedure. The output of the neural network can be ...
car running down the track." Choosing to focus on the design of a hydrogen fuel cell model car rather than a solar race car was a deliberate decision for team, "Larry the...
A measurement of the t{bar t} production cross section at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV in the dilepton final states using a lepton+track selection and secondary vertex b-tagging is presented. One of the two leptons from the decay of the t{bar t} pair is allowed to be identified only as an isolated track to improve the selection efficiency. The result is combined with a measurement in the t{bar t} {yields} e{mu} final state. The measurements are based on 370 pb{sup -1} of data collected with the D0 experiment at the Tevatron collider. The preliminary cross section obtained in the combined lepton+track and e{mu} channel is: {sigma}{sub t{bar t}} = 8.6{sub -1.7}{sup +1.9}(stat) {+-} 1.1(syst) {+-} 0.6(lumi) pb.
End binding proteins (EBs) are highly conserved core components of microtubule plus-end tracking protein networks. Here we investigated the roles of the three mammalian EBs in controlling microtubule...Full Text Available
In this paper, some results of the indoor radon concentration measurements are presented. Kodac track detectors LR 115, bare and in a cup were used for these measurements. Average winter/summer ratio was determined for the town of interest. (author). 5 refs, 1 fig., 1 tab.
Some results of the indoor radon measurements are presented in this paper. Kodac track detectors LR-115 were used for these measurements. Average winter/spring ratio for indoor radon concentration was determined from the results obtained and is presented in this paper. (author).
An unexpectedly high probability of collisions between the fission particles and the atoms in an ionization chamber along the entire particle track causes a strong fluctuation of the shapes of the Bragg curves. This fluctuation imposes an upper limit of the charge resolution ..delta..Z/Z which can be achieved.
Overhead persistent surveillance systems are becoming more capable at acquiring wide-field image sequences for long time-spans. The need to exploit this data is becoming ever greater. The ability to track a single vehicle of interest or to track all the observable vehicles, which may number in the thousands, over large, cluttered regions while they persist in the imagery is very desirable. Typically, this imagery has many thousands of pixels on a side and is characterized by lower resolutions (e.g. {approx}0.5 meters/pixel to {approx}2.0 meters/pixel) and lower frame rates (e.g. {approx} sub-Hz to several Hz). We describe our ultra-scale capable implementation of a multiple-vehicle tracking algorithm for overhead persistent surveillance imagery. This work builds upon an earlier report, where now the algorithm has been modified for improved performance and has been substantially improved to handle much larger datasets in a ...
Bubbly and slug flows have been analyzed using the afore-mentioned techniques. An image series of bubbly-slug flow is shown. The image separation time is 17 ms, and the total flow length is {approx} 10 cm. A circular eddy pattern that follows the slug can be readily seen and tracked, although reliability is low due to motion in the transverse direction. This motion also adds considerable error to the velocity measurements using image recognition technique. This will increase the reliability and accuracy of the tracking method.
Indoor radon is a potential health hazard for the general public, especially in buildings with poor ventilation. A variety of dosemeters have been developed and used in surveys of radon concentration measurements. In this article the passive dosemeters which are based on solid state nuclear track detectors are reviewed. The principle of passive dosimetry and the factors affecting their performance are discussed. The characteristics of SSNTD materials in relation to their behaviour under different environmental conditions are tabulated and discussed. Results of radon surveys from selected studies are also presented. (Author).
A modified variable structure interacting multiple model (M-VSIMM) estimator for complex hybrid maneuver target tracking is presented. The M-VSIMM could potentially be applied to fire control systems (FCS) used on warships. Target model groups were designed using 3D dimensional dynamic target models. Optimal model group selection logic was proposed, contrary to the activation and termination logic in the original VSIMM. The system will respond faster with optimal model group selection logic. After performing simulations, the tracking performances of the Kalman, ?-?(-?), VDIE, IMM and M-VSIMM filters were compared under various maneuvering conditions.
Major contributions during this contract period have been in developing an analytical procedure for Pu measurement, and in applying the developed procedures to determining the plutonium concentration and distribution in coral from the Bikini Atoll. In conjunction with these contributions, measurements using the fission-track method have been made of the uranium distribution and concentrations in several carbonate samples from drill cores obtained from the Runit Island Enewetak Atoll. Petrographic studies on these drill core samples have been made to correlate the uranium data with the mineralogical data.
Major contributions during this contract period have been in developing an analytical procedure for Pu measurement, and in applying the developed procedures to determining the plutonium concentration and distribution in coral from the Bikini Atoll. In conjunction with these contributions, measurements using the fission-track method have been made of the uranium distribution and concentrations in several carbonate samples from drill cores obtained from the Runit Island Enewetak Atoll. Petrographic studies on these drill core samples have been made to correlate the uranium data with the mineralogical data. (auth)
In an ideal system the surface of the dish is perfectly parabolic (no contour flaws are present), and the sun rays fall on the dish surface parallel to the focal axis (no sun tracking flaws are present). These two conditions are not realizable in practice; in this case, the parabolic dish system is called real system. In this paper a procedure for analysing the flux distribution on the receiver internal surfaces is presented for a cavity receiver with a real parabolic dish collector. First, the theoretical principles are discussed. Then the effect of the inaccuracy in the collector and in the sun tracking on the insolation pattern is described using an example.
An analysis of the current state of track-laying operations in open-cut mines is given and their labor intensive nature is noted. The lag in the technological development of mechanization equipment for track laying and repair operations is noted. Results are given from developments by the Scientific Research Institute of Open-Pit Mining Operations in the field of mobile transportation technology and promising modular route design. Also examined are the problems of improving the routing bases in the industry. The absence of factories for manufacturing transportation technology and equipment is reflected most evidently in the technical and cost characteristics of coal production by an open-cut method and requires immediate solution.
A variety of surveillance operations require the ability to track vehicles over a long period of time using sequences of images taken from a camera mounted on an airborne or similar platform. In order to be able to see and track a vehicle for any length of time, either a persistent surveillance imager is needed that can image wide fields of view over a long time-span or a highly maneuverable smaller field-of-view imager is needed that can follow the vehicle of interest. The algorithm described here was designed for the persistence surveillance case. In turns out that most vehicle tracking algorithms described in the literature[1,2,3,4] are designed for higher frame rates (> 5 FPS) and relatively short ground sampling distances (GSD) and resolutions ({approx} few cm to a couple tens of cm). But for our datasets, we are restricted to lower resolutions and GSD's ({ge}0.5 m) and limited frame-rates ({le}2.0 Hz). ...
We present a thorough analysis of single atom detection using optical cavities. The large set of parameters that influence the signal-to-noise ratio for cavity detection is considered, with an emphasis on detunings, probe power, cavity finesse and photon detection schemes. Real device operating restrictions for single photon counting modules and standard photodiodes are included in our discussion, with heterodyne detection emerging as the clearly favourable technique, particularly for detuned detection at high power.
The history of explosives vapor detection includes almost every detection strategy known to man. Initial attempts to utilize these techniques were dismal failures. However, with the development of the Electron Capture Detector (ECD), the first promising detection of explosives vapors became possible. The present commercial explosives detectors detect the higher vapor pressure materials but not the whole spectrum. This paper describes the basic properties of explosives molecules and our research to utilize these properties for increased detection sensitivity.
The US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Remedial Action and Waste Technology established the Technical Measurements Center (TMC) at the DOE Grand Junction Projects Office (GJPO) in Grand Junction, Colorado, to standardize, calibrate, and compare measurements made in support of DOE remedial action programs. Outdoor radon concentration measurements were made by the TMC in Shiprock, New Mexico, to compare two different methods of measuring radon in an attempt to determine the feasibility of using passive alpha-track detectors to assess the adequacy of remedial action undertaken at the Shiprock uranium mill tailings pile. The results of the first three quarters of monitoring have been detailed in previous reports. An analysis of the data from the fourth quarter of monitoring at Shiprock reveals a somewhat poorer correlation between the two sets of measurements than was seen in the third quarter of this study, but a better correlation than was found for the first ...
Track analysis of medium energy #alpha# particle trajectories recorded in fine grain nuclear emulsion submitted to specific intensifying treatments led to the observation of strong ionizing events (SIE) sticking out of the primary's track core. Preliminary determinations showed that the number of SIEs increases with the primary's energy, and that their production is of more than one order of magnitude higher than the number of Rutherford recoils. The presence of SIEs on monoenergetic #alpha# tracks also has a significant influence on the measured range distribution, which, expressed in terms of energy loss, results in a mean contribution to the total energy loss of far reaching (SIEs (radial spread >= 0.458 #mu#m) of proportional 25 keV per 13.6 MeV #alpha# particle, instead of 0.75 keV in the case where only the Rutherford interactions are taken into account. Measurements carried out in detectors enriched with gelatin ...
In the last 30 years high energy physics could write an impressive story of success. Since the introduction of the Standard Model (SM), it has met every experimental test. However the final confirmation has to prove the mechanism of electroweak symmetry breaking, which could not be confirmed yet. The most favored theory, which includes the introduction of a Higgs field, could not be verified experimentally. Furthermore there is clear evidence, that the SM is only a low energy description of nature and its principles, as the SM describes only 4 % of the known matter in the universe. There are two different approaches in accelerator driven high energy physics to clarify the open questions. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have a good opportunity to measure some of the missing pieces with its high center of mass energy. The International Linear Collider (ILC) will then measure their parameters with high precision. To guarantee this high precision the detectors have to be able to identify ...
First results are presented from an analysis of data from the DRIFT-IIa and DRIFT-IIb directional dark matter detectors at Boulby Mine in which alpha particle tracks were reconstructed and used to characterise detector performance--an important step towards optimising directional technology. The drift velocity in DRIFT-IIa was [59.3 +/- 0.2 (stat) +/- 7.5 (sys)] m/s based on an analysis of naturally-occurring alpha-emitting background. The drift velocity in DRIFT-IIb was [57 +/- 1 (stat) +/- 3 (sys)] m/s determined by the analysis of alpha particle tracks from a Po-210 source. 3D range reconstruction and energy spectra were used to identify alpha particles from the decay of Rn-222, Po-218, Rn-220 and Po-216. This study found that (22 +/- 2)% of Po-218 progeny (from Rn-222 decay) are produced with no net charge in 40 Torr CS2. For Po-216 progeny (from Rn-220 decay) the uncharged fraction is (100 +0 -35)%.
Working in partnership with industry, the US Department of Energy`s (DOE`s) Office of Industrial Technologies (OIT) is helping reduce industrial energy use, emissions, and waste while boosting productivity. Operating within the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EE), OIT conducts research, development, demonstration, and technology transfer efforts that are producing substantial, measurable benefits to industry. This document summarizes some of the impacts of OIT`s programs through 1997. OIT tracks energy savings as well as other benefits associated with the successfully commercialized technologies resulting from OIT-supported research partnerships. Specifically, a chart shows current and cumulative energy savings as well as cumulative reductions of various air pollutants including particulates, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), nitrogen oxides (NO{sub x}), sulfur oxides (SO{sub x}), and the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide (CO{sub 2}). The bulk of ...
Objective: Traditional nasolacrimal duct stenting possesses some shortcoming including difficulty of pulling ball head guide wire from the nasal cavity with turbinate hypertrophy and nasal septal deviation. The new method of nose-oral tube track establishment can overcome the forementioned and increase the successful rate. Methods: 5 F catheter and arterial sheath were modified to be nasolacrimal duct stent delivery device respectively. Antegrade dacryocystography was taken firstly to display the obstructed site and followed by the modified protocol of inserting the guide wire through nasolacrimal duct and nasal cavity, and establishing the stent delivery track for retrograde stent placement. Results: 5 epiphora patients with failure implantation by traditional method were all succeeded through the modified stenting (100%). During 6-mouth follow-up, no serious complications and reocclusion occurred. Conclusion: The establishment of ...
The reinforced concrete artificial iced course, constructed first in Japan as a bobsleigh and luge track for the Nagano Olympic Games, has a total extension of 1,700 m and an altitude difference of 113 m. It contains 15 curves and 2 up-grades and is divided into 43 blocks with spans ranging from 20 m to 80 m, all of which consist of lightwall RC members supported by pile foundations. The surface is cooled to -15 centigrade by the cooling pipes embedded in concrete and is iced by spraying water, and iced surface is shaved to make a course. Since the course scarcely has same profiles, the finished wall thickness is secured by fixing wire gauzes on the required positions without using shutterings. As there is not existed concrete satisfying all the required quality, two kinds of concrete were selected for filling in the arrangement of reinforcement and pipes and for surface finishing. Special notice was taken of the accuracy of finished surface. For the construction ...
It is proved that the mid-point grid, which is composed of samples obtained at ground track locations midway between crossover points (thus a subset of the full sampling), has the same resolving power as the full set; i.e., they resolve the same three-dimensional spectral space. The resolving power of the mid-point grid as derived previously by Tai (1995, 1998) is characterized by the Nyquist frequency ? c=? /T (where T is the repeat period of the exact-repeat satellite), and by (in local Cartesian coordinates) the zonal and meridional Nyquist wavenumber kc=2? /X and lc=2? /Y respectively (where X and Y are the east-west and north-south separation between adjacent parallel ground tracks). Here we re-derive this result in simplified terms. First, it is shown through the sampling theorem as demonstrated previously by Tai (1999) that even though samples of the real mid-point grid are not taken simultaneously, they resolve the same frequency range ...
The Education for All-Fast Track Initiative (FTI) grew out of the "New Focus on Education for All" communique of the G-8 when Canada hosted the summit in 2002 at Kananaskis. As Canada prepares again to host the G-8, and Korea assumes leadership of the newly-empowered G-20, it is a valuable moment to revisit and re-think the current global education architecture. By adopting some of the recommendations from the recent independent evaluation of the FTI and borrowing some lessons from global partnerships in other sectors, the FTI could set a new course toward the achievement of universal basic education. The FTI should broaden and strengthen the role of diverse stakeholders from developing countries and civil society in its governance structure in order to fully harness the energies of these stakeholders in resource mobilization and effective implementation. (Contains 9 endnotes.)
Ethnopharmacological relevance: Ethnobotanically driven drug-discovery programs include data related to many aspects of the preparation of botanical medicines, from initial plant collection to chemical extraction and fractionation. The Traditional Medicine Collection Tracking System (TM-CTS) was created to organize and store data of this type for an international collaborative project involving the systematic evaluation of commonly used Traditional Chinese Medicinal plants. Materials and methods: The system was developed using domain-driven design techniques, and is implemented using Java, Hibernate, PostgreSQL, Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools (BIRT), and Apache Tomcat. Results: The TM-CTS relational database schema contains over 70 data types, comprising over 500 data fields. Th...
Riparian agricultural environments in eastern Australia are widely used for cattle grazing, but are also preferred habitat for native, soil-disturbing mammals such as the bare-nosed wombat (Vombatus ursinus). We examined the effects of mound construction by wombats, and track development by cattle and wombats, on soil displacement in a riparian landscape at high and low levels of cattle usage. Splash erosion was measured on mounds and inter-mounds with splashboards, and changes in the profiles of cattle-wombat tracks were assessed using a profilemeter. Twice as much soil was detached by splash erosion from mounds than inter-mounds, irrespective of cattle usage, and about three-times more coarse sand and 40% more fine sand was detached from mounds and inter-mounds at the high cattle sites. ...
The intermediate silicon layers detector (ISL) was proposed as a part of the upgraded CDF detector at the RUN-II of the Tevatron mean value of pp collider at Fermilab, scheduled to start in year 2000. The ISL is a large-radius (20-30 cm) silicon tracker with a total active area of about 3.5 m. Located in the region between the silicon vertex detector and the central outer tracker, the ISL will allow tracking in the forward region and significantly improve it in the central area. Together with the SVX II the ISL forms a standalone, 3D silicon tracker. The challenge is to build a low-cost device which provides precise 3 D tracking in a approximately equal to 2 m long area with a minimal amount of material for the supporting structure. The conceptual design and the status of the project are reviewed.
We have searched for neutron-antineutron oscillations using the 5.56 fiducial kiloton-year exposure of the Soudan 2 iron tracking calorimeter. We require candidate n-nbar occurrences to have .GE. 4 prongs (tracks and showers) and to have kinematics compatible with nbar-N annihilation within a nucleus. We observe five candidate events, with an estimated background from atmospheric neutrino and cosmic ray induced events of 4.5 \\pm 1.2 events. Previous experiments with smaller exposures observed no candidates, with estimated background rates similar to this experiment. We set a lifetime lower limit for oscillation time in iron: T_A(Fe) > 7.2x10^{31} years. The corresponding lower limit for oscillation of free neutrons is \\tau_{n-nbar} > 1.3x10^8 seconds.
The Bragg Curve Spectrometer (BCS) is an ionization chamber long enough to stop particles of interest. Particles enter through the cathode window and leave an ionization track parallel to the electric field. The ionization electrons drift through a Frisch grid and are collected on an anode. The anode current, as a function of time, is proportional to the specific ionization along the track. The preamp output is split and used as input for two amplifiers, one with a long integration time constant for energy measurement, and one with a short time constant to pick off the maximum ionization or Bragg peak. The Bragg peak, which is proportional to the nuclear charge, is used for particle identification. Several versions of the BCS have been constructed and tested. Test results, detector characteristics and some design problems are discussed.
Radon appears mainly by diffusion processes from the point of origin following #alpha#- decay of "2"2"6Ra in underground soil and building materials used, in the construction of floors, walls, and ceiling. The transport phenomenon of radon through diffusion is a significant contributor to indoor radon entry. In the present study radon diffusion through sand, cement, mixtures of sand + cement (1:1), sand + cement (2:1), sand + cement (3:1), sand + cement (4:1) has been carried out using LR-115 type II solid state nuclear track detectors (SSNTDs). The radon diffusion coefficient and diffusion lengths have been calculated for different materials. The effect of compaction, which changes the porosity and permeability of the materials, on radon diffusion has also been studied. (author)
To understand dynamic developmental processes, living tissues must be imaged frequently and for extended periods of time. Root development is extensively studied at cellular resolution to understand basic mechanisms underlying pattern formation and maintenance in plants. Unfortunately, ensuring continuous specimen access, while preserving physiological conditions and preventing photo-damage, poses major barriers to measurements of cellular dynamics in indeterminately growing organs such as plant roots. We present a system that integrates optical sectioning through light sheet fluorescence microscopy with hydroponic culture that enables us to image at cellular resolution a vertically growing Arabidopsis root every few minutes and for several consecutive days. We describe novel automated routines to track the root tip as it grows, track cellular nuclei and identify cell divisions. We demonstrate the system's capabilities by collecting data on ...
A fine-grained photosensitive layer was prepared for electron- microscopic radioautography. The layer was obtained by evaporating Ag at low pressure and temperature on electron microscope grids and sensitizing the silvered grids with Br/sub 2/. The resulting particles had an average diameter of -- 100 A. The sensitivity of the layer to ionizing radiation was tested by sprinkling the grids with fine uranium aeetate particles and examining the processed grids in an electron microscope. Shont tracks and side spurs were observed which are probably due to alpha radiation from U/sup 235/ and secondary electrons scattered from the silver, respectively. Tests with P/sup 32/- phosphate are also described. (D.L.C.)
The Hazardous Materials Control Module (HMC) is one module of four for the Industrial Health component. The HMC module was designed to inform employees of health and safety hazards in the workplace and to track the movement of hazardous materials through the facility. The module performs these functions by maintaining health and safety data on hazardous materials used in the facility, and by tracking who requests information about any hazardous materials. The HMC module gets its information from two sources. The first one is the Hazardous Materials Information System (HMIS), this is a national system that is used by the Department of Defense. It is loaded on to the system via tapes that contain all safety, health and transportation information about a particular product. The second is Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) that are procured by a particular site. This information is manually entered into their own personal system, which they give a ...
Abstract Smoke is a mixture of toxic gases and suspended particulate matter of solids and liquids that evolves from a fire of flammable materials. This article presents real-time consequence modeling to track the concentration of individual species in smoke as well as its soot deposition. In the modeling process presented, the burning rate or vapor mass is fed into a combustion model in which the combustion of products has been identified and quantified along with the temperature of the fire. The output of the combustion model is the smoke that will be dispersed into the ambient. The fire geometry, which depends on the type of fire (e.g., pool or flare), is identified. A dispersion model with the capability of determining particulate deposition is then used for tracking the smoke plume. Th...
A passive dosemeter, based on a Makrofol ED track detector covered with aluminized Mylar, enclosed in diffusion chamber, has been used for radon concentration studies. Detectors have been irradiated, using a {sup 241}Am source, at different energies and fluences in order to obtain the electrochemical etching conditions that allow the optimum registration of alpha particles having energies over 3 MeV. Thirty dosemeters have been sent to the UK National Radiation Protection Board (NRPB) Radon Environmental Chamber for calibration. The sensitivity of the dosemeter has been calculated. Several dosemeters have also been exposed in houses and dwellings in the Barcelona and Madrid areas for monitoring. Values for radon concentration in the areas under study are presented. (author).
A passive dosemeter, based on a Makrofol ED track detector covered with aluminized Mylar, enclosed in diffusion chamber, has been used for radon concentration studies. Detectors have been irradiated, using a "2"4"1Am source, at different energies and fluences in order to obtain the electrochemical etching conditions that allow the optimum registration of alpha particles having energies over 3 MeV. Thirty dosemeters have been sent to the UK National Radiation Protection Board (NRPB) Radon Environmental Chamber for calibration. The sensitivity of the dosemeter has been calculated. Several dosemeters have also been exposed in houses and dwellings in the Barcelona and Madrid areas for monitoring. Values for radon concentration in the areas under study are presented. (author).
This paper presents a study involving prediction of a complicated maneuvering target, with the aim of improving the tracking performance of a fire control system (FCS). In this study, we predict the position of a complicated maneuvering target 5 s in advance using the information up to the current time. Because of the large error caused by the complicated maneuvers and the long prediction time interval, the mechanical system of the fire control system will take a heavy load. In order to cope with this problem, several approaches to decreasing the prediction error have been proposed including the prediction algorithms based on the multiple model(MM) filter, interacting multiple model (IMM) filter, and variable dimension with input estimation (VDIE) filter. Finally, comparative simulation re...
A multivariate bioprocess control approach, capable of tracking a pre-set process trajectory correlated to the biomass or product concentration in the bioprocess is described. The trajectory was either a latent variable derived from multivariate statistical process monitoring (MSPC) based on partial least squares (PLS) modeling, or the absolute value of the process variable. In the control algorithm the substrate feed pump rate was calculated from on-line analyzer data. The only parameters needed were the substrate feed concentration and the substrate yield of the growth-limiting substrate. On-line near-infrared spectroscopy data were used to demonstrate the performance of the control algorithm on an Escherichia coli fed-batch cultivation for tryptophan production. The controller showed good ability to track a defined biomass trajectory during varying process dynamics. The robustness of the control was high, despite significant external ...
Behavioral detection of a low-frequency (40 Hz) vibratory dipole at source distances of 1.5–24 cm was measured by classically conditioned respiratory suppression in goldfish (Carassius...Full Text Available
Bone metastases of an Ewing's sarcoma were detected by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), when bone scan, CT and plain films were still normal. This is due to the ability of MRI to detect intramedullary metastases before involvement of the cortex. (Auth.).
Since current microbiology methods are not suitable to detect Clostridium perfringens in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue samples, we developed a PCR assay to detect toxin-encoding...Full Text Available
Denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC) has been used extensively to detect genetic variation. We used this method to detect and identify Yersinia pestis KIM5 ciprofloxacin-resistant...Full Text Available
Several systems have been developed to accomplish vehicle location. The systems consist of three types: Dead Reckoning, Satellite, and LORAN C. If the information is to be sent back to a central location, some type of radiocommunication system is needed. One can use the existing voice radio or add a radio system just for transmitting the data.
Apatite fission track analysis, vitrinite reflectance data, and K-Ar dating of Permian-Carboniferous and Mesozoic core samples have been successfully integrated to reconstruct the thermal and tectonic history of the Ordos basin, China. Apatite fission track ages of Carboniferous-Jurassic sedimentary rocks range between 3 and 137 Ma, and are significantly younger than the stratigraphic ages. Confined fission track lengths demonstrate exclusively mixed length distribution, indicating complex thermal history. The data suggest that the samples must have all experienced higher paleotemperatures in the past. Mean virtinite reflectance values (R{sub o}) of the Triassic rocks range from 0.61 to 1.06%, giving a high coalification gradient of 0.36%/km and suggesting a high paleothermal gradient of 57{degrees}C/km. Permian-Carboniferous rocks have R{sub o} values on the order of 1.0-3.0%, and locally up to 4.0-6.0%. Some high R{sub o} ...
Three types of drift chambers are being constructed for the Fermilab D/O/ experiment. The construction and readout of these chambers stress good spatial resolution, good two hit separation, and dE/dx. A 106 MHz FADC system with hardware zero suppression is being constructed to readout this system. 8 refs., 12 figs., 1 tab.
A radon detector with LR-115 nuclear track film was constructed for radon concentration measurements in soil. Temporal radon variations, as well as the barometric pressure, precipitation and temperature were measured for two years. Negative correlation between radon concentration in soil and barometric pressure was found. For some of the recorded earthquakes that occurred during the observation period, soil radon anomalies may be noticed one month before the quakes.
The author gives an account of tests with the X-phone system. The aim of the tests was to establish the reliability and behaviour of the apparatus mounted on a winning machine and to investigate the possibility of setting up a radio link, without laying an extra wire, between the foot of the tubbing-lined roadway and the winning machine on a steep face. The author describes the face and the test conditions and presents details of the satisfactory test results.
The effect of open pit mine motor transport with ICE on the air basin is examined using the example of shale mines and open pits of the production association ''Estonslanets''. Efficient areas of use of different types of open pit mine motor transport, diesel-trolley tracks and electric cars are determined based on technical-economic and ecologic feasibility.
α7 neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (α7-nAChR) form Ca2+-permeable homopentameric channels modulating cortical network activity and cognitive processing....Full Text Available
A reliable inventory control system was developed at the Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) to keep track of the occupancy of 900 refueling facility locations, to compile historical data on the movement of each reactor assembly, and to simulate assembly moves. The simulate capability is valuable because it allows verification of documents before they are issued for use in the plant, and eliminates the possibility of planning illegal or impossible moves. The system is installed on a UNIVAC 1100 computer and is maintained using a data base management system by Sperry Univac called MAPPER.
In the present work, range and energy loss rate of "2"8Si in four dielectric track detectors viz: Makrofol-KG (MFKG), Makrofol-G (MFG), Triafol-BN (TBN) and LR-115 (cellulose nitrate) have been measured. To calculate these parameters, a curve fitting method was proved to be very useful and easier with more accuracy. (author)
Radon concentration measurements were made in the interior of the great pyramid of ''Cheops'' at Giza. Measurements were carried out using CR-39 as a solid state nuclear track detector. The CR-39 sheets were placed inside the Queen's and King's chambers and along the ascending corridor leading to them. An evaluation of the radon concentration is presented and discussed. (author).
Radon concentration measurements were made in the interior of the great pyramid of ''Cheops'' at Giza. Measurements were carried out using CR-39 as a solid state nuclear track detector. The CR-39 sheets were placed inside the Queen's and King's chambers and along the ascending corridor leading to them. An evaluation of the radon concentration is presented and discussed. (author).
This quality assurance plan (QAP) is designed ensure that the methodologies and the data used for environmental cleanup and treatment studies at the Nevada Test Site are both usable and defensible. The QAP serves two purposes in this regard: (1) to guide the preparation of procedures for carrying out the tasks of the Basic Environmental compliance and Monitoring program (BECAMP); and (2) to help management track the progress of those tasks.
Orbital elements are derived from new spectroscopic and photometric observations. The masses and radii are inconsistent with evolutionary tracks for single stars, but neither star fills its Roche lobe. Analysis of the circumstellar Balmer emission lines indicates that the primary is surrounded by an extensive, highly flattened disk of nonuniform density. The velocity gradient in the disk is steeper than that expected from Keplerian motion.
Middleware deployed to help TCP performance over links with large ... Boeing Connex (Ku-Band); INMARSAT Swift 64; TrackNet" 2.0 (Ku-Band); G2.5/G3/G4. General ... Incremental deployment may be difficult; High Link budgets; Link Delay ...
... One 20 litre and one 15 litre removable bins Quick and easy installation Slides in and out on ball bearing track W248 x D455 x H485mm In Stock Email a Friend Quantity : 㿝.95 inc VAT Segregated Bins Stacked Bins Built-In Bins Office Bins Can Crushers Bags and Liners Accessories ...
Assisted users with expired passwords Closed 233 NCICB Support Wizard Accounts Tickets Set up Resource Accounts for individual developers to control and track access on QA Application servers Maintained daily account synchronization between GForge project developers and CVS write access accounts Created FTP and SFTP user accounts for TCGA test, analysis datasets downloads and analysis datasets management.
Implementation of an adaptive power system stabilizer (PSS) based on linear optimal control is described in this paper. The generator is identified in real time, and a special 3rd order discrete Riccati equation is solved in each sample interval. Because the output of the generator is fed back directly, the controller can track the system very fast. Experimental studies on a physical model of a power system demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed adaptive optimal controller.
To meet growth in the fast developing Pearl River Delta economic zone in China`s Guangdong province, a 270 MW oil-fired combined cycle at Foshan was built and commissioned in only 22 months from financial closure. This article describes the Foshan power station, specifications, design, procurement, construction and operating concerns. 5 figs.
The implementation of information technology will continue to have important effects on the practice of emergency medicine. Patient registration and tracking systems, telemedicine electronic order entry systems, and the advent of electronic health records are some examples of applications that influence patient care in emergency departments. We review the literature regarding information technology advances in emergency medicine and outline the important role that emergency physicians play in developing and implementing a national health information technology strategy. PMID:16712540
The harmful effects of high-intensity electric fields on human beings are discussed. Formulas for determining the field strength of high voltage transmission lines and track lines and experimental data of these effects on mice are given. Protective measures from these hazards are introduced. 18 references, 7 figures, 5 tables.
A method is described to smear extremely thin layers of nuclear emulsion on labeled electron microscope preparations and to measure the thicknesses of these layers, Without further separation, preparation and emulsion can be observed after exposure and development in an electron microscope. The source of the tracks formed in the emulsion can be exactly identified and the size and structure determined. This method finds applications in dust research and also in the analysis of medical and biological sections. Further information can be obtained about properties of different emulsions. (auth)
This paper describes the approach taken to the XML Mining track at INEX 2008 by a group at the Queensland University of Technology. We introduce the K-tree clustering algorithm in an Information Retrieval context by adapting it for document clustering. Many large scale problems exist in document clustering. K-tree scales well with large inputs due to its low complexity. It offers promising results both in terms of efficiency and quality. Document classification was completed using Support Vector Machines.
Despite the long track record of the technology, wood composite has rarely been applied to blades of this scale or for tip braked stall-regulated rotors. This paper describes how the design has been taken successfully from the concept to design through structural testing, certification and operational testing of the prototype set. (orig.)
Recent developments in the knowledge of Delta Scuti stars in relation to stellar evolution are reviewed. The stability of periods and amplitudes is examined, and a working hypothesis suggested. Furthermore, the systematics of the observed long-term period changes are compared with the computed evolutionary tracks, suggesting a severe disagreement for the evolved stars if the period changes are caused by radius changes resulting from stellar evolution. 30 refs.
The linear/supralinear behaviour of the TL dose response in LiF:Mg,Ti (TLD-100) and its dependence on ionisation density is a fairly unique phenomenon which cannot be explained by conventional atomic 'conduction band/valence band' kinetic models. The Track Interaction Model (TIM) provides the microscopic framework which, when coupled with other appropriate physical mechanisms (spatial localisation of traps and recombination centres, competing centres, variations in the capture cross sections with temperature, etc.) can be used to describe all the dominant features of the TL supralinearity of LiF:Mg,Ti and similar TL systems. The unique feature of the TIM applied to alpha particles is that it is an integral approach with only one free parameter, the average charge carrier migration distance in the luminescence recombination stage. Although the TIM provides a comprehensive description of the mechanisms underlying supralinearity in TLD-100, ...
Here we describe the fabrication, optimization, and application of a microfluidic device that integrates microdialysis (MD) sampling, microchip electrophoresis (ME), and electrochemical detection...Full Text Available
on this technology has beenproposedas a payload on SpaceStation Freedom to be launched in the near future [1]. Direct detection 4-ary pulse position modula- ...
Due to the serovar diversity in Haemophilus (H.) parasuis, it is difficult to develop a universal serological method for detection of this pathogen....Full Text Available
Microcalcifications in mammogram have been mainly targeted as a reliable earliest sign of breast cancer and their early detection is vital to improve its prognosis. Since their size is very small and may be easily overlooked by the examining radiologist, computer-based detection output can assist the radiologist to improve the diagnostic accuracy. In this paper, we have proposed an algorithm for detecting microcalcification in mammogram. The proposed microcalcification detection algorithm involves mammogram quality enhancement using multirresolution analysis based on the dyadic wavelet transform and microcalcification detection by fuzzy shell clustering. It may be possible to detect nodular components such as microcalcification accurately by introducing shape information. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm for microcalcification ...
Palladium chloride films have been found to be useful as ... when suitably prepared palladium chlo- ride films are exposed ... Like the palladium chloride ( PdCl2) ...
BackgroundAutofluorescence bronchoscopy is more sensitive than conventional bronchoscopy for detecting early airway mucosal lesions. Decreased specificity can lead...Full Text Available
The nature and relationship of methane to coal mines is discussed and sources of information are outlined. Methods of gas analysis in general and methods for the detection of methane in use in coal mines are described. Methods of remote detection of gases and those that have application for use in underground coal mining operations are discussed. The report represents recommendations on remote methane detection systems that may find application in underground coal mines. (20 refs.)
Samples of fat coal-E, its roof sandstone-A and blind coal-W from two coal mines in Hebei Province of China were brought to the laboratory to study the features of infrared thermal images and radiation temperature in the course of uni-axial load and uni-axial cycle load. To check the results of infrared remote sensing detection, two other methods, acoustic emission detection and electrical resistance detection were also used. The AGA-782 thermalvision detected change of the temperature field of the samples` surfaces. The study showed that: (1) coal rocks and sandstone in the course of loading have three types of infrared thermal image features and three types of infrared radiation temperature features; (2) infrared detection is comparable with acoustic emission detection and electrical resistance detection. Generally, the infrared ...
EOS Technologies has been commissioned to design and build a unique 2.4m astronomical telescope for the Magdalena Ridge Observatory. This telescope utilizes a high quality primary mirror and cell from a now decommissioned military application. This paper describes the project and gives an overview of the telescope design. The Magdalena Ridge Observatory (MRO) 2.4 meter telescope will be primarily utilized to observe, track, and characterize solar system astronomical targets, Earth satellites, space vehicles, and terrestrial military targets. The telescope's rapid tracking (slew rates are 10o/sec) will allow it to move to any target and acquire data within one minute of receipt of notice. In this way, the telescope will be used to capitalize on targets of opportunity that occur in asteroid studies (e.g., Near Earth Objects) and in astrophysics, such as gamma ray bursts and other transient phenomena. Planned instrumentation includes a CCD imager, ...
Use of an adaptive optimal control algorithm for two realtime control applications, optimal excitation control of a synchronous generator (OEC) and power system stabilizer (PSS) is described in this paper. Experimental studies on a physical model of a power system show that the proposed OEC and PSS can track the controlled system by parameter identification at different operating conditions. The proposed control algorithm is based on the linear optimal control theory and a special 5th order discrete Riccati equation is solved in each sampling period. The proposed OEC and PSS can always guarantee that in closed loop the controlled system is stable based on the identified parameters. As the actual output of the controlled system and control are directly used in the controller, no observer is required. Also, the proposed OEC and PSS can track the controlled system very fast. A number of tests have been performed. All show satisfactory results.
Inhalation of radon and its daughter products makes the major contribution to the total exposure of the population to natural radiations. In implementing a complex ecological survey, concentrations of radon and its daughter products were measured in different regions of Russia, namely, in the St. Petersburg Region, the Central Territories and the Altay Territory. Two suitable low price versions of the dosemeters for measuring environmental radon concentrations based on track-etch and activated-charcoal detectors were used. The radon daughter product activity and the effective dose equivalents were calculated with an equilibrium factor of 0.5 and a recommended effective dose equivalent factor of 0.061 mSv (Bq m{sup -3}){sup -1}. Indoor measurements were taken in more than 1000 dwellings and public and industrial buildings of 21 towns and villages. The track chambers were exposed for about 2-3 months and the charcoal detectors for 6-10 days, ...
Inhalation of radon and its daughter products makes the major contribution to the total exposure of the population to natural radiations. In implementing a complex ecological survey, concentrations of radon and its daughter products were measured in different regions of Russia, namely, in the St. Petersburg Region, the Central Territories and the Altay Territory. Two suitable low price versions of the dosemeters for measuring environmental radon concentrations based on track-etch and activated-charcoal detectors were used. The radon daughter product activity and the effective dose equivalents were calculated with an equilibrium factor of 0.5 and a recommended effective dose equivalent factor of 0.061 mSv (Bq m"-"3)"-"1. Indoor measurements were taken in more than 1000 dwellings and public and industrial buildings of 21 towns and villages. The track chambers were exposed for about 2-3 months and the charcoal detectors for 6-10 days, mainly ...
Effects of winter seismic exploration on arctic tundra were evaluated on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, four to five growing seasons after disturbance. Plant cover, active layer depths, and track depression were measured at plots representing major tundra plant communities and different levels of initial disturbance. Results are compared with the initial effects reported earlier. Little resilience was seen in any vegetation type, with no clearly decreasing trends in community dissimilarity. Active layer depths remained greater on plots in all nonriparian vegetation types, and most plots still had visible trails. Decreases in plant cover persisted on most plots, although a few species showed recovery or increases in cover above predisturbance level. Moist sedge-shrub tundra and dryas terraces had the largest community dissimilarities initially, showing the least resistance to high levels of winter vehicle disturbance. Community ...
Sudden changes in the temperature of flowing liquids can result in transient buoyancy forces which strongly impact the flow hydrodynamics via flow stratification. These effects have been studied for the case of potential flow of stratified liquids to line sinks, but not for moderator flow in SRS reactors. Standard codes, such as TRAC and COMMIX, do not have the capability to capture the stratification effect, due to strong numerical diffusion which smears away the hot/cold fluid interface. A related problem with standard codes is the inability to track plumes injected into the liquid flow, again due to numerical diffusion. The combined effects of buoyant stratification and plume dispersion have been identified as being important in operation the Supplementary Safety System which injects neutron-poison ink into SRS reactors to provide safe shutdown in the event of safety rod failure. The MODFLOW code discussed here provides transient moderator flow pattern ...
Sudden changes in the temperature of flowing liquids can result in transient buoyancy forces which strongly impact the flow hydrodynamics via flow stratification. These effects have been studied for the case of potential flow of stratified liquids to line sinks, but not for moderator flow in SRS reactors. Standard codes, such as TRAC and COMMIX, do not have the capability to capture the stratification effect, due to strong numerical diffusion which smears away the hot/cold fluid interface. A related problem with standard codes is the inability to track plumes injected into the liquid flow, again due to numerical diffusion. The combined effects of buoyant stratification and plume dispersion have been identified as being important in operation the Supplementary Safety System which injects neutron-poison ink into SRS reactors to provide safe shutdown in the event of safety rod failure. The MODFLOW code discussed here provides transient moderator flow pattern ...
The oil production is largely transported in pipelines operating in two-phase flow regime. The predominant flow pattern is the slug flow, which is characterized by intermittent succession of liquid slugs followed by long gas bubbles. This paper addresses specifically to the capture of the intermittently feature of slug flows using a compressible slug tracking model. The intermittency rules the bubble to bubble interactions, defines the bubble coalescence rate, changes the size of the bubbles, alters the pressure drop among other flow properties. The inlet sizes and velocities of the bubbles and slugs are estimated based on experimentally determined distributions characterized by its mean value and standard deviation. The inlet intermittency, transmitted through the inlet boundary condition, results in a better match of the fluctuating flow properties along the pipe. The simulations are carried out with air-water flow and the results present good agreement with ...
Acute pneumothorax is a frequent complication after percutaneous pulmonary radiofrequency (RF) ablation. In this study we present three cases showing delayed development of pneumothorax after pulmonary RF ablation in 34 patients. Our purpose is to draw attention to this delayed complication and to propose a possible approach to avoid this major complication. These three cases occurred subsequent to 44 CT-guided pulmonary RF ablation procedures (6.8%) using either internally cooled or multitined expandable RF electrodes. In two patients, the pneumothorax, being initially absent at the end of the intervention, developed without symptoms. One of these patients required chest drain placement 32 h after RF ablation, and in the second patient therapy remained conservative. In the third patient, a slight pneumothorax at the end of the intervention gradually increased and led into tension pneumothorax 5 days after ablation procedure. Underlying bronchopleural fistula along the coagulated ...
Swift heavy ion-solid interaction leads in volume to track creation and on the surface to the ejection of particles into the vacuum. To learn more about initial mechanisms of track formation, we are focused on the sputtering of uranium dioxide by fast heavy ions. This present study is exclusively devoted to the influence of the electronic stopping power on the emission of neutral particles and especially on their angular distribution. These measurements are completed by those of the ions emitted from UO{sub 2} targets bombarded with swift heavy ions. The whole experimental results give access to: i) the nature of the sputtered particles; ii) the charge state of the emitted particles; iii) the direction of ejection of the sputtered particles ; iv) the sputtering yields deduced from the angular distributions. These results are compared to the prediction of the sputtering models proposed in the literature and it seems that the supersonic gas flow ...
This paper proposes a high accuracy numerical method to model oil spill trajectories using a particle-tracking algorithm. The Euler method, used to calculate oil trajectories, can give adequate solutions in most open ocean applications. However, this method may not predict accurate particle trajectories in certain highly non-uniform velocity fields near coastal zones or in river problems. Simple numerical experiments show that the Euler method may also introduce artificial numerical dispersion that could lead to overestimation of spill areas. This article proposes a fourth-order Runge-Kutta method with fourth-order velocity interpolation to calculate oil trajectories that minimise these problems. The algorithm is implemented in the OilTrack model to predict oil trajectories following the 'Nissos Amorgos' oil spill accident that occurred in the Gulf of Venezuela in 1997. Despite lack of adequate field information, model results ...
We review visually guided behaviors in larval zebrafish and summarise what is known about the neural processing that results in these behaviors, paying particular attention to the progress made in the last 2 years. Using the examples of the optokinetic reflex, the optomotor response, prey tracking and the visual startle response, we illustrate how the larval zebrafish presents us with a very promising model vertebrate system that allows neurocientists to integrate functional and behavioral studies and from which we can expect illuminating insights in the near future.
This document presents the current status of SiD's effort to develop an optimized design for an experiment at the International Linear Collider. It presents detailed discussions of each of SiD's various subsystems, an overview of the full GEANT4 description of SiD, the status of newly developed tracking and calorimeter reconstruction algorithms, studies of subsystem performance based on these tools, results of physics benchmarking analyses, an estimate of the cost of the detector, and an assessment of the detector R&D needed to provide the technical basis for an optimised SiD.
The Bragg Curve Spectrometer (BCS) is an ionization chamber long enough to stop particles of interest. Particles enter through the cathode window and leave an ionization track parallel to the electric field. The ionization electrons drift through a Frisch grid and are collected on an anode. The anode current, as a function of time, is split and used as input for two amplifiers, one with a long integration time constant for energy measurement, and one with a short time constant to pick off the maximum ionization or Bragg peak. The Bragg peak, which is proportional to the nuclear charge, is used for particle identification. We have constructed and tested several versions of the BCS. The results are described.
The Bragg Curve Spectrometer (BCS) is an ionization chamber long enough to stop particles of interest. Particles enter through the cathode window and leave an ionization track parallel to the electric field. The ionization electrons drift through a Frisch grid and are collected on an anode. The anode current, as a function of time, is split and used as input for two amplifiers, one with a long integration time constant for energy measurement, and one with a short time constant to pick off the maximum ionization or Bragg peak. The Bragg peak, which is proportional to the nuclear charge, is used for particle identification. We have constructed and tested several versions of the BCS. The results are described.
The results of weekly radon concentration measurements in an office environment using a novel envelope-type radon monitor for short-term exposure periods are presented. The commercially available LR-115 damage track detectors are used and the chemically etched sheets are spark counted. The measurements were made over a period of one year. The indoor radon concentration varies from {approx} 20 Bq.m{sup -3} to {approx} 300 Bq.m{sup -3} with the average of 130, 81 and 73 Bq.m{sup -3} for three different rooms resulting in the annual dose of 4.5, 2.8 and 2.5 mSv, respectively. (author)
The purpose of the meeting was to bring together a number of scientists active in the development and use of passive radon monitoring instrumentation, primarily activated charcoal detectors and alpha track detectors. Many of those present expressed a desire to receive copies of the viewgraphs and other materials presented. Most have supplied extended abstracts or complete reports. These materials are reproduced here as a Technical Measurements Center Report for the benefit of those attending the meeting and for others interested in passive radon monitoring. Individual papers were processed separately for the data base.
The fission fragments from spontaneous fission of 252Cf have been measured with the spectrometric and position-sensitive semiconductor pixel detector Medipix2. Fragments are identified by pattern recognition of clusters generated in the Medipix2 pixel matrix sensor upon heavy particle hit. From analysis of cluster area, the distribution of kinetic energy of fission fragments is obtained. Together with a novel USB readout interface, the Medipix2/USB system operates as active nuclear emulsion in single-quantum and on-line tracking mode.
Arrays of CdS:Mn{sup 2+}:Cu{sup +} micro- and nanowires grown in polycarbonate ion-track templates exhibit photoluminescence in the spectral domain ranging from 500 to 800 nm at room temperature. A comparison with similar CdS and CdS:Mn{sup 2+} wire arrays is presented. The individual contributions to the emission spectra of Cu{sup +} and Mn{sup 2+} ions in the CdS matrix are explained using their energy level schemes. Also SEM, EDX and EPR data are given for these wires. (copyright 2005 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH and Co. KGaA, Weinheim) (orig.)
Arrays of CdS:Mn"2"+:Cu"+ micro- and nanowires grown in polycarbonate ion-track templates exhibit photoluminescence in the spectral domain ranging from 500 to 800 nm at room temperature. A comparison with similar CdS and CdS:Mn"2"+ wire arrays is presented. The individual contributions to the emission spectra of Cu"+ and Mn"2"+ ions in the CdS matrix are explained using their energy level schemes. Also SEM, EDX and EPR data are given for these wires. (copyright 2005 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH and Co. KGaA, Weinheim) (orig.)
We present radial velocity and photometry for four early-type, massive double-lined spectroscopic binaries in the R136 cluster. Three of these systems are eclipsing, allowing orbital inclinations to be determined. One of these systems, R136-38 (O3 V + O6 V), has one of the highest masses ever measured, 57 Mo, for the primary. Comparison of our masses with those derived from standard evolutionary tracks shows excellent agreement. We also identify five other light variables in the R136 cluster which are worthy of follow-up study.
The effects of automation and optimization on the day-to-day activities of oil field operators are sketched in this lead-in editorial comment on a series of articles designed to provide an overview of the revolution that computers have brought to the petroleum industry. The articles that follow detail the role of databases in tracking production information, new system architectures based on common integrated data repositories that provide corporation-wide access, the way video and single-site supervisory control and data acquisition are combined to control wellsite production, and a case study about the integrated processes introduced by Wascana Energy to automate its fields.
Information glut is one of the primary characteristics of the electronic age. Managing such large volumes of information (e.g., keeping track of the types, where they are, their relationships, who controls them, etc.) can be done efficiently with an intelligent, user-oriented information management system. The purpose of this paper is to describe a concept for managing information resources based on an intelligent information technology system developed by the Argonne National Laboratory for managing digital libraries. The Argonne system, Intelligent Query (IQ), enables users to query digital libraries and view the holdings that match the query from different perspectives.
EXPLORES! (EXPloring and Learning the Operations and Resources of Environmental Satellites!) is an educational outreach program developed at Florida State University with the intention of introducing weather satellite receiving technology into the primary and secondary school classrooms. The website furnishes real time high resolution imagery and tropical updates. Visitors can find historical accounts of the civilian weather satellites launched by the United States. Educators can discover kindergarten through twelfth grade resources and curriculum. Users can learn how to become a part of the WXSAT-L community email list where weather satellite professionals, amateurs, and hobbyists converse about scientific, tracking, launching, and operations information.
Recent surveys of supergiants stars in the LMC indicate that the post-main-sequence region of the colour-magnitude diagram is well populated, although numerical evolution of massive stars with normal surface hydrogen indicates to the contrary. Supergiant stars having surface enrichment of helium acquired for example from a previous phase of accretion from a binary companion, however, evolve in a way so that the evolved models and observed data are consistent. We compare the available data with computed evolutionary tracks of massive stars of metallicity relevant to the LMC with and without helium-enriched envelopes and conclude that a large fraction of supergiant stars may occur in binaries. (author).
Power supply ripple at frequencies of 720 Hz and its harmonies is expected to affect the motion of particles in the collider. These ripple frequencies are nearly resonant with the betatron frequencies. To estimate the tolerable ripple levels, we have tracked particles through the complete nonlinear lattice for 10[sup 4] turns with ripple fed from 10 different power stations and including up to 7 different ripple frequencies. We presently estimate that relative ripple amplitudes must be below the 10[sup 8] level for there to be no significant impact on the emittance over the short term.
Power supply ripple at frequencies of 720 Hz and its harmonies is expected to affect the motion of particles in the collider. These ripple frequencies are nearly resonant with the betatron frequencies. To estimate the tolerable ripple levels, we have tracked particles through the complete nonlinear lattice for 10{sup 4} turns with ripple fed from 10 different power stations and including up to 7 different ripple frequencies. We presently estimate that relative ripple amplitudes must be below the 10{sup 8} level for there to be no significant impact on the emittance over the short term.
A compact medical synchrotron is being developed which aims to promote the advanced radiotherapy based on the accelerator. As it is small-sized, a high field dipole magnet of 3 T at 200 kA is used. It is excited by the discharge current of the capacitor bank of which waveform is half sinusoidal. To provide with the flat field of 10 - 20 #mu#s duration for the multi-turn injection an additional power supply is developed. For the quadrupole magnet a 100 kHz switch-mode power supply is adopted as it requires the fine tuning and accurate field tracking to the dipole field. (author)
This paper will track the design and results of an injection molding tool developed to manufacture microfluidic chips. The mold design and injection molding process was complicated by the presence of integrated capillary fluidic interconnects. We determined that design of the runner and gate system responsible for delivering molten plastic to the cavity had a significant impact on the quality of parts produced by the mold and the size of the process window. Numerical results confirm our findings that reducing gate lengths and increasing part thickness dramatically improved the filling profile and lowered injection pressures by 37%. Finally, the influence of gate location on part shrinkage is analyzed and discussed.
ARIES Baker-Nunn Schmidt telescope project is converting a Baker-Nunn satellite tracking camera for Astronomical research. Original Baker-Nunn camera produces an extremely large (5X30 degree) curved focal plane at the prime focus for photographic imaging. We present here the re-designing of the camera produces a wide (4 X 4 degree) flat field of view for CCD imaging observations, which have many scientific potentials in Astronomy. Imaging performance of the CCD camera is also estimated.
The cubature Kalman filter (CKF) is a relatively new addition to derivative-free approximate Bayesian filters built under the Gaussian assumption. This paper extends the CKF theory to address nonlinear smoothing problems; the resulting state estimator is named the fixed-interval cubature Kalman smoother (FI-CKS). Moreover, the FI-CKS is reformulated to propagate the square-root error covariances. Although algebraically equivalent to the FI-CKS, the square-root variant ensures reliable implementation when committed to embedded systems with fixed precision or when the inference problem itself is ill-conditioned. Finally, to validate the formulation, the square-root FI-CKS is applied to track a ballistic target on reentry.
...American Journal of Kidney Diseases-The American Journal of Kidney Diseases (AJKD), the official journal of the National Kidney Foundation, is ... American Journal of Kidney Diseases - Elsevier Home Products User Resources About Us Support & Contact Elsevier Websites Advanced Product ...Search Browse Journals American Journal of Kidney Diseases American Journal of Kidney Diseases Official Journal of the National Kidney Foundation Additional Information Related Publications ...Article Tracking for Editors Reviewers Advertisers/Sponsors Advertisers Media Kit Societies National Kidney Foundation ISSN: 0272-6386 Imprint: SAUNDERS Actions Submit ...
This research validates a novel approach for source tracking based on denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) analysis of DNA extracted from Escherichia coli isolates. Escherichia coli from different animal sources and from river samples upstream from, at, and downstream of a combined sewer overflow were subjected to DGGE to determine sequence variations within the 16S-23S intergenic spacer region (ISR) of the rrnB ribosomal operon. The ISR was analyzed to determine if E. coli isolates from various animal sources could be differentiated from each other. DNA isolated from the E. coli animal sources was PCR amplified to isolate the rrnB operon. To prevent amplification of all 7 E. coli ribosomal operons by PCR amplification using universal primers, sequence-specific primers were utilized for the rrnB operon. Another primer set was then used to prepare samples of the 16S-23S ISR for DGGE. Comparison of PCR-DGGE results between human and animal sources revealed ...
Production of porous membranes using heavy ion bombardment and subsequent chemical etching of poly(vinylidene difluoride) (PVDF) films has been reported several years ago. However, porous membranes with pore diameter in the nanometer scale requires a better understanding of the chemical etching mechanism. In this work PVDF foils irradiated with Sn ions (2.85 MeV per nucleon) were exposed to several etching conditions which involved permanganate oxidation in different alkaline environments. The solution of KOH 9 mol L{sup -1} and saturated in KMnO{sub 4} was the best etching reactant for PVDF. Functional groups created in the alkaline and oxidative attack by permanganate were studied by FT-IR and UV-vis spectroscopy. The spectroscopic data reveals that the formation of pores occurs by a two-step mechanism: (i) double bonds as a result of dehydrofluorination induced by alkaline media and (ii) oxidation of these double bonds in permanganate solution. The etching temperature and time can ...
A technique involving shifting of core fuel loadings was investigated as a method for reducing the neutron flux at points of high damage accumulation in the pressure vessel wall of a light water reactor. Calculations were run for six types of commercial generic PWR. Information is provided on the progress being made to develop and apply the Solid State Track Recorder (SSTR) method for in-situ in- and ex-vessel measurements of neutron exposure parameter values, such as fluence (E > 1.0 MeV) and dpa in iron. A new technique of quantitative track counting, the Buffon needle method, is advanced. It is based on random sampling of the SSTR surface. A desensitized etching technique was developed that resulted in an excellent differential energy response for alpha particles in the 3- to 14-MeV energy range. The optical efficiency of Muscovite mica for manual fission track counting is being redetermined to form a data base for ...
A new surveillance system for Oil-Filled cable, which can provide continuous monitoring, using a newly developed optical gas sensor that can detect the concentration of the gas dissolved in the oil with extremely high sensitivity has been developed. It was proved that the degree of deterioration of the insulating oil can be detected by measuring C{sub 2}H{sub 2} and CH{sub 4} by investigating the relation between the degree of deterioration and amount of combustible gas generated. In order to detect extremely small amounts of gas, a new gas detecting method using absorption line of the gas using a frequency modulated technique has been developed. The gas detection ability was also confirmed by examination using a 66 kV of cable and the possibility of detection at an early stage is expected.
BackgroundEpilepsy is a common neurological disorder characterized by recurrent electrophysiological activities, known as seizures. Without the appropriate detection strategies,...Full Text Available
A commercially available synthetic nucleic acid probe (SNAP) conjugated to alkaline phosphatase was compared with standard culture techniques for detecting Campylobacter species. The SNAP was able to...Full Text Available
This paper discusses the possible detection of magnetic monopoles and monopole tachyons. Topics considered include insects, astrophysics, general relativity theory, plants, and biotechnology. The paper was presented at an international symposium on non-conventional energy technology.
To understand the function of edges in perception of moving objects, we defined four questions to answer. Is the focus point in visual motion detection of a moving object: (1) the body or the edge of...Full Text Available
The W-259 project will provide upgrades to the 2706-T/TA Facility to comply with Federal and State of Washington environmental regulations for secondary containment and leak detection. The project provides decontamination activities supporting the environmental restoration mission and waste management operations on the Hanford Site.
Dental caries continues to be a common chronic disease among various population groups. Patient care can be improved with detection at the earliest stage. However, current techniques do not...Full Text Available
PurposeSatisfaction of search (SOS) occurs when an abnormality is missed because another abnormality has been detected. This research studied whether the severity...Full Text Available
A rapid, sensitive, and simple method was developed to detect the sapstain fungi Ophiostoma piceae and O. quercus in stained wood. By using microwave heating for DNA...Full Text Available
We have evaluated the performance of two rapid, low-cost methods for the detection of ofloxacin (OFX) resistance with 95 Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates from countries with high...Full Text Available
Data on a technique for the detection of antigen from arthropod vectors in a dot immunobinding assay are presented. In this system, antigen present in the vector was first solubilized in sodium dodecyl...Full Text Available
Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis and the PCR assay were used in combination with dilution plating on a semiselective medium to detect and enumerate propagules of Trichoderma...Full Text Available
... detected (and reported) as a by-product of MRM screening (MS/MS) targeted by Law or Rule ... detected (and reported) as a by-product of MRM screening (MS/MS) targeted by Law or Rule ...
A latex agglutination (LA) test was evaluated for the detection of human rotaviruses in stool specimens. Both antiserum and immunoglobulin G (IgG)-sensitized latex particles were used, with IgG-coated...Full Text Available
A real-time immunoquantitative PCR (iqPCR) method for detection of Staphylococcus aureus enterotoxin B (SEB) was developed and evaluated using both pure cultures and foods. The assay...Full Text Available
PurposeThe aim of this investigation was to exploit lens-specific glycated crystallins as an immunogen to detect human glycated crystallins and their circulating autoantibodies in...Full Text Available
SynopsisEarly detection of late onset neonatal sepsis, prior to obvious and potentially catastrophic clinical signs, is an important goal in neonatal medicine. Sepsis causes a...Full Text Available
With the advent of dense maps of human genetic variation, it is now possible to detect positive natural selection across the human genome. Here we report an analysis of over 3 million polymorphisms...Full Text Available
The genetic systems of bacteria that have the ability to use organic pollutants as carbon and energy sources can be adapted to create bacterial biosensors for the detection of industrial pollution....Full Text Available
Bobbin-coil-type eddy current probes, which are conventionally used for nondestructive inspection of steam generator tubes in pressurized-water-type nuclear power plants, have poor detectability for circumferential flaws. Hence a new type of eddy current probe was proposed to detect effectively the magnetic flux component disturbed by a flaw and thus to eliminate the flaw direction dependency on the flaw detectability. In the course of development of the proposed method, structures of the probe were investigated based on the measurement of magnetic fields induced by exciting flat coils with several shapes. The new type of probe proposed here consists of differential pick-up coils detecting magnetic flux and exciting coils having a parallelogrammic shape, and its structure was fabricated experimentally in order to detect flaws independently of their directions. Nondestructive flaw ...
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the commercial microparticle enzyme immunoassay (MEIA), Abbott IMx Select Chlamydia, for the detection of Chlamydia trachomatis in women and to compare its performance with endocervical...Full Text Available
We compared MRSA Select to mannitol-salt agar with 8 μg/ml cefoxitin for the detection of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) from 6,199 clinical...Full Text Available
The aim of this study was to evaluate a nitrate reductase assay (NRA) performed on smear-positive sputa for the direct detection of rifampin resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis....Full Text Available
The direct detection of pyrazinamide resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis is sufficiently difficult that many laboratories do not attempt it. Most pyrazinamide resistance is caused...Full Text Available
Endocervical swabs from 212 women and urethral swabs from 100 men were tested by the routine methods for McCoy cell culture and simultaneously by a novel enzyme amplified immunoassay test to detect...Full Text Available
We have discovered interstellar rubidium by observing the resonance line of Rb I at 7800 A toward zeta Oph. This is the heaviest element yet detected within the interstellar medium, and our detection of this element is important for understanding the history of nucleosynthesis in the solar neighborhood.
Objectives. We investigated increases in diarrheal illness detected through syndromic surveillance after a power outage in New York City on August 14, 2003.Methods....Full Text Available
A serodiagnostic test has been developed for the detection of Plasmodium falciparum in infected blood. Using parasite antigens and infected red blood cells from in vitro...Full Text Available
A serological trapping technique for detecting rotaviruses is described which involves coating electron microscope grids with protein A and specific rotavirus antiserum. The presence of a layer of antibodies...Full Text Available
The dielectrophoretic (DEP) crossover method has been applied to the detection of cell responses to toxicants. Time and dose responses of the human cultured leukemia (HL-60) line were measured...Full Text Available
PCR was used with the primer pair VANS1-NS21 to detect the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus Glomus intraradices (commercial inoculum source) on roots of lettuce, zinnia, leek, pepper, and endive plants....Full Text Available
A sensitive assay based on the polymerase chain reaction for the detection of Ockelbo virus RNA was developed. Two primer pairs from the gene coding for the E2 glycoprotein were chosen. By use of a...Full Text Available
Colonies of toxin-producing Pasteurella multocida were detected with peroxidase-labeled monoclonal antibodies by a membrane assay. Examination of the specificity of the assay with 29 P. multocida cultures...Full Text Available
Since bearing is in wide use as basic parts for rotary machines, detection and diagnosis of its defects are important in practical use. To discriminate defect portions by early detection of roller bearing flaking, the conventional parameter method using peakedness is poor. Thus to directly obtain difference in waveform, the new method was applied to such detection which uses KDI as the scale of a difference in waveform, and a most neighborhood classification rule based on KDI. The detection and discrimination abilities of this method was studied mainly in experiment. The experiment used a bench scale rotor and a supporting bearing, and attempted detection and discrimination of no flaking, outer ring flaking and inner ring flaking. As a result, this method could detect and discriminate fine flaking which was never detected by conventional ...
Real-time PCR has the potential to streamline detection and identification of Cryptosporidium spp. in human clinical samples. In the present...Full Text Available
A nonmammalian test system for germ-cell mutagenesis has been developed by using the Japanese medaka fish. We describe a system for detecting DNA alterations in F1 progeny descended from the gamma-irradiated...Full Text Available
Background/AimsThe findings of several recent studies suggest that antinuclear antibodies (ANAs) are frequently detected in patients with acute hepatitis A (AHA). However, the clinical...Full Text Available
In this paper the authors prove a uniqueness theorem for the electric detection of cavities in a three dimensional solid from Cauchy data measured on the surface. The cavities, finite in number, are assumed to be insulating. The surfaces of the cavities are assumed to be smooth on the complement of a set that is, in some sense, negligible. (orig.)
Discrete masses are commonly detected during mammographic screening and most such lesions are benign. For lesions without pathognomonically benign imaging features that are still regarded likely to...Full Text Available
We prepared polyclonal antibody specific to Mycoplasma pneumoniae and examined the conditions influencing the ability of an indirect immunofluorescence test to detect the specific antigen in respiratory...Full Text Available
A sensitive and specific detection method was developed for Xanthomonas hyacinthi; this method was based on amplification of a subsequence of the type IV fimbrial-subunit gene fimA...Full Text Available
There is no gold standard diagnostic test for the detection of bovine cryptosporidiosis. Infection is usually highest in 2-week-old calves, and these calves also excrete high numbers of oocysts. These...Full Text Available
BackgroundThe commonest pathogenic DMD changes are intragenic deletions/duplications which make up to 78% of all cases and point mutations (roughly 20%) detectable...Full Text Available
We proposed a faster pedigree-based generalized multifactor dimensionality reduction algorithm, called PedG-MDR II (PII), to detect gene-gene interactions underlying complex traits. Inherited...Full Text Available
A duplex TaqMan real-time RT-PCR assay was developed for the detection of California (CAL) serogroup viruses and Cache Valley virus (CVV), for use in human surveillance. The targets selected...Full Text Available
Synthetic complementary oligonucleotides are useful hybridization probes for the detection of mRNAs and genes encoding proteins for which only a partial amino acid sequence is known. Usually this involves...Full Text Available
The design and material characteristics of garter spring were summarized and Nondestructive detection techniques of garter spring were also described. In particular, Eddy current testing of loose type garter spring was used in Wolsung unit 1 and was described in detail. The inspection technique of tight type garter spring has not been established and all candidated techniques were investigated in order to choose the possible detection technique. Candidated nondestructive techniques including RFEC, PEC, Magnetic technique using GMR sensor, AE, Guided Wave technique, and high frequency ultrasonic technique, are summarized for evaluating the detectability of tight garter spring.
Sep 16, 2010 ... Taking military operations as an example, there is evidence that stress-related behavioral disorders and mental conditions such as anxiety, ...
Thermal neutron beam from the TNRF of JRR-3M was utilized for detection of mice lung cancer in vivo. Both the static and real-time neutron imaging were tried. Very strong thermal neutron beam is necessary to detect lung cancers because small changes are hidden by the very large attenuation of thermal neutron beam by the hydrogens in the tissues. The detection was successfully performed. Especially, the Super Eye of Hamamatsu Photonics contributed very effectively. Bone marrows and cartilages were also shown clearly. If an efficient and compact neutron source will become available in future, this method will grow up as a powerful tool for biomedical application. (author).
This invention relates to new phosphor materials and to combinatorial methods of synthesizing and detecting the same. In addition, methods of using phosphors to generate luminescence are also disclosed.
In this paper, we first discuss the detection of supernova neutrino on Earth. Then we propose a possible method to acquire information about $\\theta_{13}$ smaller than $1.5^\\circ$ by detecting the ratio of the event numbers of different flavor supernova neutrinos. Such an sensitivity cannot yet be achieved by the Daya Bay reactor neutrino experiment.
The neutron detector is cased in a metal envelop and has one detector with a very sensitive fission chamber and a second detector with a fission chamber less sensitive that the first one and a boron coated ionisation chamber for reducing gamma radiation detection.
A method is provided for detecting pathological macromolecules in a patient. The method is comprised of the following: obtaining body fluid from the patient; pretreating the body fluid; subjecting the pretreated body fluid to size-exclusion chromatography to create an excluded fluid; and analyzing the excluded fluid to detect macromolecules having a predetermined molecular weight. The method also allows for comparing elution spectra with reference spectra of suspect pathologic proteins.
The indirect detection of particle dark matter (DM) is based on the search for anomalous components in cosmic rays (CRs) due to the annihilation of DM pairs in the galactic halo, on the top of the standard astrophysical production. These additional exotic components are potentially detectable at Earth as spectral distortions for the various cosmic radiations: $\\chi + \\chi \\to q \\bar{q}, W^+ W^-, ... \\to \\bar{p}, \\bar{D}, e^+ \\gamma and \
ORNL has developed the technology to detect hidden explosives in luggage using X ray and neutron detection devices. The Federal Aviation Administration has ordered the airlines to buy and install Thermal Neutron Analysis (TNA) units. The combined pulsed-neutron and X-ray interrogation inspection (CPNX) system developed at ORNL uses less radioactive materials as well as being more sensitive to weapons, electronic devices and plastic explosives.
We sequenced 16S rRNA genes from the vaginal swab contents of a postmenopausal woman with asymptomatic bacterial vaginosis (BV). Sequences from Atopobium vaginae were the most commonly detected. In a survey of 35 other postmenopausal women, this organism was detected in 44% with BV but not in any subjects deemed healthy. PMID:15071062
Surveillance of a population, such as a weapon stockpile, is needed to discover manufacturing defects as well as deterioration as the population ages. This article considers the risks of sampling rates for surveillance from three perspectives: detection probability of defects in a proportion of a population with pass/fail data, detection of a trend in a defective proportion of the population with pass/fail data, and detection of a trend with quantitative degradation measurements. Understanding of these risks will help the decision maker choose a sampling rate to protect against such problems of a specified size at a tolerable risk.
Remote detection of chemicals using LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) utilizing DIAL (Differential Absorption LIDAR) is now a standard detection technique for both military and civilian activities. We have developed a novel nonlinear optical phase conjugation system that can reduce the effects of speckle noise and atmospheric turbulence on DIAL remote detection systems. We have shown numerically and experimentally that it is possible to increase the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio for LIDAR systems under certain conditions using optical phase conjugation. This increase in S/N can result in more accurate detection of chemical effluents while simultaneously reducing the time necessary to acquire this information.
We investigated the presence of XMRV in a cohort of Quebec patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). DNA was purified from activated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and PCR was used to detect XMRV gag and env in 72 patients. Anti-XMRV antibodies were searched in sera of 62 patients by Western blot analysis. Attempts to detect XMRV antigens was made, using immunofluorescence with Gag anti-p30 antiserum on activated PBMC from 50 patients. Plasma viremia was measured by RT-PCR on 9 subjects. Finally, detection of infectious virus in 113 CFS subjects was made by co-culture of PHA+IL-2 activated PBMC with human LNCaP carcinoma cells, and by infecting the same susceptible cells with plasma, using a reverse transcriptase (RT) assay as a readout in both experiments. No detection of ...
Speech perception integrates auditory and visual information. This is evidenced by the McGurk illusion where seeing the talking face influences the auditory phonetic percept and by the audiovisual detection advantage where seeing the talking face influences the detectability of the acoustic speech signal. Here, we show that identification of phonetic content and detection can be dissociated as speech-specific and non-specific audiovisual integration effects. To this end, we employed synthetically modified stimuli, sine wave speech (SWS), which is an impoverished speech signal that only observers informed of its speech-like nature recognize as speech. While the McGurk illusion only occurred for informed observers, the audiovisual detection advantage occurred for na?ve observers as well. Thi...
A method and device have been provided for distinguishing Africanized honeybees from European honeybees. The method is based on the discovery of a distinct difference in the acoustical signatures of these two species of honeybees in flight. The European honeybee signature has a fundamental power peak in the 210 to 240 Hz range while the Africanized honeybee signature has a fundamental power peak in the 260 to 290 Hz range. The acoustic signal produced by honeybees is analyzed by means of a detecting device to quickly determine the honeybee species through the detection of the presence of frequencies in one of these distinct ranges. The device includes a microphone for acoustical signal detection which feeds the detected signal into a frequency analyzer which is designed to detect the presence of either of the known fundamental wingbeat frequencies unique to the acoustical signatures ...
Giant magnetoresistance (GMR) has been used with Eddy current testing to detect small defects not only in thin film structures but also in multilayered metallic structures. This work detected small scratches in the thin film under the surface where these defects were unable to be inspected or monitored by regular testing. In addition, rotational GMR magnetic sensor based Eddy current probes were used for detecting buried corner cracks at the edge of holes in metallic structures. The results of this study proved that giant magnetoresistance is very powerful and effective to sense the magnetic field, which is the result from the perturbation of the Eddy currents caused by a defect. This method can be used for quality control of metallization layers on silicon wafer and to detect cracks in thick structures such as cracks in aging aircraft.
A method is described for controlling fuel injection in a diesel engine having a fuel injection nozzle, comprising the steps of: detecting an idling state of the diesel engine and pressure in a combustion chamber; obtaining a pressure increment rate from the pressure detected by the detecting step; selecting a valve opening pressure of the fuel injection nozzle at a relatively low level when the idling state is detected by the detecting step, thereby setting a two peaks characteristics of a fuel injection rate; and controlling the fuel injection nozzle in response to the pressure increment rate so that the pressure increment rate in the combustion chamber is maintained within a predetermined value by changing a fuel injection quantity of a pilot injection from the fuel injection nozzle.
Fuji Computed Radiography (FCR) was evaluated for detection of intracardiac calcification as compared with conventional radiography in 77 patients. Intracardiac calcification was found in 37 patients (left coronary artery: 31, right coronary artery: 11, valve: 9) on cine-fluorography. The sensitivity for detecting these calcified foci with FCR was higher than conventional screen-film method. Especially, sensitivity for detecting left coronary artery calcification with FCR was significantly higher than conventional method (71 %, 32 %) (p < 0.01), Fine anatomical details of calcification were well shown on FCR. Chest radiography using FCR is of great use for detection of intracardiac calcification. (author).
The fault detection and diagnosis system for gas engines was developed to improve the reliability of cogeneration systems (CGS). Most of existing fault detection systems monitor the trend of each part condition of engines and diagnose faults based on trend change, resulting in slow detection. Although early detection systems are available, those are complex, expensive and poor in flexibility and applicability. Since CGSs combined with gas engines increased to 1/3 of the whole CGS, engine troubles cause possible serious faults. The fault diagnosis system was thus developed to prevent serious faults which can early detect, in particular, abnormal conditions of parts around a combustion chamber such as ignition plug, intake valve and exhaust valve by monitoring exhaust pressure waveforms in an exhaust collector. Since this system can detect progressive occurrence ...
Embedded systems have become integral parts of a diverse range of systems from automobiles to critical infrastructure applications such as gas and electric power distribution. Unfortunately, research on computer security in general and intrusion detection in particular, has not kept pace. Furthermore, embedded systems, by their very nature, are application specific and therefore frameworks for developing application-specific intrusion detection systems for distributed embedded systems must be researched, designed, and implemented. In this paper, we present a configurable middleware-based intrusion detection framework. In particular, this paper presents a system model and a concrete implementation of a highly configurable intrusion detection framework that is integrated into MicroQoSCORBA, a highly configurable middleware framework developed for embedded systems. By exploiting the application-specific ...
Drosophila melanogaster is a model organism rich in genetic tools to manipulate and identify neural circuits involved in specific behaviors. Here we present a technique for two-photon calcium imaging in the central brain of head-fixed Drosophila walking on an air-supported ball. The ball's motion is tracked at high resolution and can be treated as a proxy for the fly's own movements. We used the genetically encoded calcium sensor, GCaMP3.0, to record from important elements of the motion-processing pathway, the horizontal-system lobula plate tangential cells (LPTCs) in the fly optic lobe. We presented motion stimuli to the tethered fly and found that calcium transients in horizontal-system neurons correlated with robust optomotor behavior during walking. Our technique allows both behavior ...
The future use of single-molecule magnets in applications will require the ability to control and manipulate the spin state and magnetization of the magnets by external means. There are different approaches to this control, one being the modification of the magnets by adsorption of small ligand molecules. In this paper we use iron phthalocyanine supported by an Au(111) surface as a model compound and demonstrate, using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and density functional theory, that the spin state of the molecule can be tuned to different values (S #approx# 0, 1/2, 1) by adsorption of ammonia, pyridine, carbon monoxide or nitric oxide on the iron ion. The interaction also leads to electronic decoupling of the iron phthalocyanine from the Au(111) support. (fast track communication)
The adjoint of an ocean general circulation model is used as a tool for investigating the causes of changes in ENSO SST indices. We identify adjoint Kelvin and Rossby waves in the sensitivities to sea level and wind stress at earlier times, which can be traced back for more than a year through western and weak eastern boundary reflections. Depending on the thermocline depth the first and second baroclinic modes are excited. The sensitivities to the heat flux and SST are local and decay in about a month. The sensitivities to the fluxes are converted into the influence of SST using the adjoint of a statistical atmosphere model. Focusing on SST perturbations in the index region itself, we recover, up to a scale factor, the delayed oscillator concept.
A new methodology for three-dimensional (3-D) numerical modeling of the continuous steel casting process is presented and evaluated. The results are compared with available experimental data obtained in a water-oil mold model for various flow rates and immersion depths of the submerged entry nozzle. The water-oil interface pattern at the top of the mold is also investigated. Wave formation and evolution in time is simulated with a volume tracking method. The predicted flow field inside the mold exhibits quite satisfactory agreement with the corresponding measurements, whereas some quantitative differences are observed referring to the final wave amplitude at low casting speeds. Conclusions of scientific and engineering importance concerning both the computer algorithm and the mold performance are also drawn.
The recent advances in RFID offer vast opportunities for research, development and innovation in agriculture. The aim of this paper is to give readers a comprehensive view of current applications and new possibilities, but also explain the limitations and challenges of this technology. RFID has been used for years in animal identification and tracking, being a common practice in many farms. Also it has been used in the food chain for traceability control. The implementation of sensors in tags, make possible to monitor the cold chain of perishable food products and the development of new applications in fields like environmental monitoring, irrigation, specialty crops and farm machinery. However, it is not all advantages. There are also challenges and limitations that should be faced in the...
The diffuse morphology and transient nature of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) make them difficult to identify and track using traditional image processing techniques. We apply multiscale methods to enhance the visibility of the faint CME front. This enables an ellipse characterisation to objectively study the changing morphology and kinematics of a sample of events imaged by the Large Angle Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) and the Sun Earth Connection Coronal and Heliospheric Investigation (SECCHI) onboard the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO). The accuracy of these methods allows us to test the CMEs for non-constant acceleration and expansion. We exploit the multiscale nature of CMEs to extract structure with a multiscale decomposition, akin to a Canny edge detector. Spatio-temporal filtering highlights the CME front as it propagates in time. We apply an ellipse parameterisation of the front to ...
The measurements performed at CERN on prototypes and first pre-series main dipole magnets confirm the need of an active control of the Large Hadron Collider to compensate the dynamic field changes during the proton beam injection and acceleration. This control requires in turn an accurate forecast of the magnetic field in the accelerator. We plan to predict the field on the basis of two elements: theoretical field models tailored through the accumulated knowledge of the main magnets during series tests, and an on-line measurement system running on few reference magnets tracking the LHC current cycle. Data coming from this "Multipoles Factory" will result from the fusion of the two sources. Based on this system we foresee to deliver calibration information for pre-defined accelerator cycles as well as real time information for the active control. In this paper we report the conceptual design of the system, and we discuss the features and performance of the models ...
This report describes the status of nuclear safety and radiation protection in the facilities of the AREVA group and gives information on radiation protection in the service operations, as observed through the inspection programs and analyses carried out by the General Inspectorate in 2007. Having been submitted to the group's Supervisory Board, this report is sent to the bodies representing the personnel. Content: 1 - A look back at 2007 by the AREVA General Inspector: Visible progress in 2007, Implementation of the Nuclear Safety Charter, Notable events; 2 - Status of nuclear safety and radiation protection in the nuclear facilities and service operations: Personnel radiation protection, Event tracking, Service operations, Criticality control, Radioactive waste and effluent management; 3 - Performance improvement actions; 4 - Description of the General Inspectorate; 5 - Glossary.
A novel envelope-type radon monitor has been used for short-term (as little as 1 week) radon concentration measurements in a workplace environment. The commercially available LR-115 type II damage track detector was used in this study and the chemically etched sheets were spark counted. The measurements were made over a period of 1 year in a workplace consisting of three adjacent rooms situated in the lower ground level of multistorey office building in Rome, Italy. The variations of the radon concentration are from [approx] 20 to [approx] 300 Bq m[sup -3] with averages of 130,81 and 73 Bq m[sup -3] for the three different rooms resulting in annual doses of [approx] 3.8, [approx] 2.4 and [approx] 2.2 mSv, respectively. (author) 2 figs., 9 refs.
... The drop in pay, with mounting medical bills and a curve ball in their personal life, led Mr. Flake and his wife, Amy, to exhaust their savings. As they shifted spending to credit cards their debt mounted, and conversations about retirement ... In October 2008, they learned that a relative of hers with an 8-month-old son was going to prison. If the Flakes could not take the baby, he would be placed in foster care. The Flakes did some soul searching and decided to seek custody of ...) 1 2 Next Page »A version of this article appeared in print on March 24, 2011, on page F4 of the New York edition. Sign In to E-Mail Print Single Page Reprints Connect with The New York Times on Facebook. Get Free E-mail Alerts on These Topics Retirement Personal ...
The results of radon concentration measurements inside of the Gabriel caves of Mexico, during three consecutive two-month periods covering almost three seasons, are reported in the present work. The radio-ecological importance of this site is related to the radon and its concentration-dynamic behavior in the cave. Further interest in radiation safety motivated this initiative since routine biological field work is done, with people spending long periods of time there. CR-39 passive nuclear track detector was chosen for this survey. Radon concentration levels decrease during the rainy season and show different values depending on the ventilation and geometeorological structure. Measured values range between 956 and 4931Bqm{sup -3}, an indication that radon doses may exceed the allowed values for workers. This project is part of a larger study of indoor radon alpha emitters in Mexican caves.
The results of radon concentration measurements inside of the Gabriel caves of Mexico, during three consecutive two-month periods covering almost three seasons, are reported in the present work. The radio-ecological importance of this site is related to the radon and its concentration-dynamic behavior in the cave. Further interest in radiation safety motivated this initiative since routine biological field work is done, with people spending long periods of time there. CR-39 passive nuclear track detector was chosen for this survey. Radon concentration levels decrease during the rainy season and show different values depending on the ventilation and geometeorological structure. Measured values range between 956 and 4931Bqm-3, an indication that radon doses may exceed the allowed values for workers. This project is part of a larger study of indoor radon alpha emitters in Mexican caves.
It is concluded that the Department paid out over $16 million in the past two years for FTS service charges on telephone calls bearing no relationship to official Departmental business. When one adds in the costs of compensation paid to Departmental and contractor employees for the worktime spent making unauthorized FTS calls, the total costs to the Department due to FTS abuse exceeded $28 million for the fiscal years 1983 and 1984. These cost figures, moreover, fail to account for the effect of an annual loss of an estimated 40,000 man-days on the Department's productivity. It is recommended that the Assistant Secretary review the system to identify possible restrictions on usage of the lines by employees and to consider additional recording and accounting procedures to track FTS usage, especially when the lines are used for calls to telephones outside the FTS network.
Radon concentration in the bed rooms, kitchens, sitting rooms and TV lounges in some houses in the Lahore has been measured using CN-85 Solid State Nuclear Track Detectors in box type dosimeters. Maximum value of radon concentration is 93 Bq/m/sup 3/ in a bed room whereas the minimum value is 25 Bq/m/ sup 3/ in a TV lounge. The average value of radon concentration in bed rooms, kitchens, sitting rooms and TV lounges varies between 43 Bq/m/sup 3/ and 55 Bq/m/sup 3/. Comparison of radon concentration in the old and new houses has been done and no specific relationship has been observed. (author).
Radon measurements were carried out in Kozlu, Karadon and Uzulmez underground coal mines of Zonguldak bituminous coal basin in Turkey. Passive-time integrating method, which is the most widely used technique for the measurement of radon concentration in air, was applied by using nuclear etched track detectors (CR-39) in the study area. The radon concentration measurements were performed on a total of 42 points in those three mines. The annual exposure, the annual effective dose and lifetime fatality risk, which are the important parameters for the health of workers, were estimated based on chronic occupational exposure to the radon gas, which is calculated using UNCEAR-2000 and ICRP-65 models. The radon concentrations at several coal production faces are higher than the action level of 1000 Bq m{sup -3}. It is suggested that the ventilation rates should be rearranged to reduce the radon concentration.
Radon ({sup 222}Rn) is a naturally occurring radioactive gas and can be used as a tracer in hydrogeologic studies. Radon concentration measurements have been achieved in ground-air and in groundwater by means of nuclear track detectors to estimate long-term variations. Continuous measurements have been conducted using an electronic automatic probe, to evaluate short-term variations. The results obtained from bore-holes show a good correlation between the aquifer`s structural characteristics and the radon concentrations. The continuous measurements specify rainfall influence. (author). 10 refs., 7 figs., 2 tabs.
The existence of multipole components in the dipole and quadrupole magnets is one of the factors limiting the beam stability in the RHIC operations. So, a realistic non-linear model is crucial for understanding the beam behavior and to achieve the ultimate performance in RHIC. A procedure is developed to build a non-linear model using the available multipole component data obtained from measurements of RHIC magnets. We first discuss the measurements performed at different stages of manufacturing of the magnets in relation to their current state in RHIC. We then describe the procedure to implement these measurement data into tracking models, including the implementation of the multipole feed down effect due to the beam orbit offset from the magnet center. Finally, the field quality analysis in the RHIC interaction regions (IR) is presented.
In this paper the basic properties of non-rotating and slowly rotating protoneutron stars in the relativistic mean-field approach are discussed. The equation of state is the main input to the structure equations. The TM1 parameter set extended to the finite-temperature case is used to obtain the mass-radius relation for protoneutron stars. The occurrence of unstable branches in the mass-radius relation are presented. This allows for the existence of distinctively different evolution tracks for protoneutron stars. The low-density protoneutron star configurations are estimated. The stable configurations obtained for fixed lepton number Y{sub L}=0.4 are compared with those obtained for fixed proton fraction Y{sub P}=0.1776. (author)
A compilation of technical papers, from the 23rd annual Precise Time and Time Interval (PTTI) Applications and Planning Meeting, is presented. Papers were given in the following categories: (1) developments in rubidium, cesium, and hydrogen-based frequency standards, and in cryogenic and trapped-ion technology; (2) international and transnational applications of PTTI technology with emphasis on satellite laser tracking networks, GLONASS timing, comparison of national time scales and international communications; (3) applications of PTTI technology to the telecommunications, power distribution, platform positioning, and geophysical survey industries; (4) applications of PTTI technology to evolving military communications and navigation systems; and (5) dissemination of precise time and frequency by means of GPS, GLONASS, MILSTAR, Loran, and synchronous communications satellites.
This paper presents the test results of a research program to investigate the performance of polymeric insulators for 15-kV dead-end applications on distribution systems. The test program involved both new insulators from five different manufacturers and naturally-aged insulators removed from service on the distribution system of Pennsylvania Power and Light. The test series to evaluate the new insulators included: preconditioning treatments, salt fog and tracking wheel accelerated aging tests, electrical tests, and material and physical tests. The tests for the naturally-aged insulators were mainly limited to the electrical tests and the material and physical tests.
SUMMARY We construct a new class of granular landslide models in which avalanches are simulated with large numbers of independent particles moving under the influence of topographically derived gravitational and centripetal acceleration. Concurrently, the particles suffer deceleration due to basal and dynamic friction. The novel aspect of the calculation is that complex particle-to-particle interactions, fluctuating basal contacts, and unresolved topographic roughness within and below the deforming flow are mimicked by random perturbations in along-track and cross-slope acceleration. We apply the method to the 1980 May 18 Mount Saint Helens debris avalanche by constraining the initial geometry and structure of the slide mass from geological data, and the initial failure sequence from eyewi...
The RD50 collaboration has been exploring the development of radiation hard semiconductor devices for very high-luminosity colliders since 2002. The target fluence to qualify detectors set by the anticipated dose for the innermost tracking layers of the future upgrade of the CERN large hadron collider (LHC) is 1016 1 MeV neutron equivalent (neq) cm-2. This is about an order of magnitude higher than the maximum dose for the most exposed silicon detectors in the current machine. RD50 investigates the radiation hardening of silicon sensors from many angles: improvement of the intrinsic tolerance of the substrate material, optimisation of the readout geometry and study of novel design of detectors. A review of some of the recent activities within RD50 is here presented.
The RD50 collaboration has been exploring the development of radiation hard semiconductor devices for very high-luminosity colliders since 2002. The target fluence to qualify detectors set by the anticipated dose for the innermost tracking layers of the future upgrade of the CERN large hadron collider (LHC) is 1016 1MeV neutron equivalent (neq) cm-2. This is about an order of magnitude higher than the maximum dose for the most exposed silicon detectors in the current machine. RD50 investigates the radiation hardening of silicon sensors from many angles: improvement of the intrinsic tolerance of the substrate material, optimisation of the readout geometry and study of novel design of detectors. A review of some of the recent activities within RD50 is here presented.
Objectives The optimal timing of pyeloplasty for children diagnosed with ureteropelvic junction obstruction (UPJO) after workup for antenatal hydronephrosis is disputed. We sought to examine the potential costs and clinical outcomes of treatment protocols featuring different indications for pediatric pyeloplasty using Markov models. Methods Cost and outcomes analysis using Markov modeling was performed for three treatment algorithms: medical management, immediate pyeloplasty (during the first year of life), and pyeloplasty after no improvement on imaging. The costs were determined from the perspective of the medical institution. The variables tracked during Markov model simulation included age at resolution of UPJO, the proportion of patients with worsened hydronephrosis, the number of pye...
Nuclear reaction rates and opacity are important parameters in stellar evolution. The input physics in a stellar evolution code determines the main theoretical characteristics of the stellar structure, evolution and nucleosynthesis of a star. For different input physics, in this work we calculate stellar evolution models of very massive first stars during the hydrogen and helium burning phases. We have considered 100 and 200M_sun galactic and pregalactic stars with metallicity Z = 10"-"6 and 10"9, respectively. The results show important differences from old to new formulations for the opacity and nuclear reaction rates, in particular the evolutionary tracks are significantly affected, that indicates the importance of using up to date and reliable input physics. The triple alpha reaction activates sooner for pregalactic than for galactic stars.
We discuss an experimental technique aimed at tagging electron neutrinos in multi-GeV artificial sources on an event-by-event basis. It exploits in a novel manner calorimetric and tracking technologies developed in the framework of the LHC experiments and of rare kaon decay searches. The setup is based on an instrumented decay tunnel equipped with tagging units that intercept secondary and tertiary leptons from the bulk of undecayed pi+ and protons. We show that the taggers are able to reduce the nue contamination originating from K_e3 decays by about one order of magnitude. Only a limited suppression (~60%) is achieved for nue produced by the decay-in-flight of muons; for moderate beam powers, similar performance as for K_e3 can be reached supplementing the tagging system with an instrumented beam dump.
Background: Measurements from pressure biofeedback units (PBUs) can be used to evaluate the activity of the transversus abdominis (TrA) muscle indirectly. These measurements can classify patients or monitor the progress of treatment programmes for people with low back pain. Objective: To systematically review studies on the measurement properties of PBUs for the assessment of TrA activity. Data sources: Eligible studies were identified through searches of PUBMED, CINAHL and BIREME (1990 to 2009). In addition, hand searches of journals and citation tracking were performed. Study selection: Full-text studies involving any type of clinimetric tests of PBU measurement for the assessment of TrA activity were selected. Data extraction: Two independent reviewers selected the studies, extracted th...
Purpose We evaluated low-contrast injection protocols for coronary computed tomography angiography (CTA) using a 64-detector scanner and the test bolus technique. Materials and methods We randomly assigned 60 patients undergoing coronary CTA to one of two contrast material (CM) injection protocols. For the lowcontrast dose protocol (Plow), the patients received injections of iohexol-350 [0.7 ml/kg body weight (BW)] during 9 s, and the test-bolus technique was used. Under the conventional protocol (Pconv), they received iohexol-350 (1.0 ml/kg BW) during 15 s, and bolus tracking was used. We compared the protocols for attenuation values in the ascending aorta and coronary arteries and for the amount of CM required. Results There was no significant difference in the mean CT attenuation of the...
Effective localization of small magnets against a noisy, real world background can involve various methods to first identify the magnetic fields produced by the magnet of interest, then to filter out background noise, and then to analyze the available magnetic field data to localize the magnet. Here we discuss low cost techniques which allow localization of small magnets with field strengths in the milliGauss range against real world background fields in the range of hundreds of mG, which may be fluctuating by up to tens of mG. Such techniques allow magnet tracking to be used to localize catheters in place of more invasive and expensive methods, e.g. fluoroscopy, for a variety of applications, including drug infusion with peripherally inserted central catheters (PICCs), laser ablation (TMR, PTMR) and introduction of pacemaker leads.
Mapping the distribution of invasive alien plant species is significant for testing ecological hypotheses and for guiding effective management. Little is known about the distribution of invasive plants at landscape scale, and the factors controlling their dispersal and establishment are still poorly understood. This is the case for Rosa rugosa, an invasive shrub with negative effects on biodiversity in dune ecosystems of NW Europe. The aim of the study was to identify the factors which determine the distribution of R. rugosa in coastal dunes. In a large semi-natural dune area of NW Denmark (2364ha) all patches of the species (1321, 1.3-59.1m2) were GPS mapped. Patch distribution was GIS analysed, based on aerial photographs and vegetation maps. The distance of R. rugosa from the most consp...
The development of a twinned microstructure in hexagonal close-packed rolled magnesium compressed in the in-plane direction has been monitored in situ with neutron diffraction. The continuous conversion of the parent to daughter microstructure is tracked through the variation of diffraction peak intensities corresponding to each. Approximately 80% of the parent microstructure twins by 8% compression. Elastic lattice strain measurements indicate that the stress in the newly formed twins (daughters) is relaxed relative to the stress field in the surrounding matrix. However, since the daughters are in a plastically 'hard' deformation orientation, they quickly accumulate elastic strain as surrounding grains deform plastically. Polycrystal modeling of the deformation process provides insight about the crystallographic deformation mechanism involved.
Indoor and soil gas Radon (222Rn) concentration measurements were accomplished in two stages in Sivas, a central eastern city in Turkey. In the first stage, CR-39 passive nuclear track detectors supplied by the Turkish Atomic Energy Authority (TAEA) were placed in the selected houses throughout Sivas centrum in two seasons; summer and winter. Before the setup of detectors, a detailed questionnaire form was distributed to the inhabitants of selected houses to investigate construction parameters and properties of the houses, and living conditions of inhabitants. Detectors were collected back two months later and analysed at TAEA laboratories to obtain indoor 222Rn gas concentration values. In the second stage, soil gas 222Rn measurements were performed using an alphameter near the selected h...
This research aims to develop reliable, advanced system thermal-hydraulic computer code and to quantify the uncertainties of code to introduce the best estimate methodology of ECCS for LBLOCA. Although the one of best estimate code, RELAP5/MOD3.1 was introduced from USNRC, several deficiencies in its reflood model and some improvements have been made. The improvements consist of modification of reflood wall heat transfer package and adjusting the drop size in dispersed flow regime. The tome smoothing of wall vaporization and level tracking model are also added to eliminate the pressure spike and level oscillation. For the verification of improved model and quantification of associated uncertainty, the FLECHT-SEASET data were used and upper limit of uncertainty at 95% confidence level is evaluated. (Author) 30 refs., 49 figs., 2 tabs.
Two grades of WC-10wt.%Co cemented carbide with or without addition of Cr3C2/VC grain growth inhibitor during liquid phase sintering were produced with the goal to investigate their reciprocating sliding friction and wear behaviour against WC-6wt.%Co cemented carbide under unlubricated conditions. The tribological characteristics were obtained on a Plint TE77 tribometer using distinctive normal contact loads. The generated wear tracks were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy and quantified topographically using surface scanning equipment. The post-mortem obtained wear volumes were compared to the online assessed wear. Correlations between wear volume, wear rate and coefficient of friction on the one hand and sliding distance and microstructural properties on the other hand were determ...
Midway Labs currently produces a 335x concentrator module that has reached as high as 19{percent} active area efficiency in production. The current production module uses the single crystal silicon back contact SunPower cell. The National Renewable Energy Lab has developed a multi junction cell using GalnP/GaAs technologies. The high efficiency ({gt}30{percent}) and high cell voltage offer an opportunity for Midway Labs to develop a tracking concentrator module that will provide 24 volts in the 140 to 160 watt range. This voltage and wattage range is applicable to a range of small scale water pumping applications that make up the bulk of water pumping solar panel sales. {copyright} {ital 1997 American Institute of Physics.}
Negligent hazardous waste management has resulted in real threats to public health. The Federal Government has responded to the situation with laws and regulations aimed at the producers of hazardous waste, including clinical laboratories. The Resources Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) imposes controls on hazardous waste management through the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Transportation (DOT) regulate these activities through 40 CFR and 49 CFR. Most clinical laboratories can operate satellite accumulation points and accumulate, store, transport, and dispose of waste in accordance with EPA and DOT regulations. Regulations pertaining to infectious waste, sure to affect many clinical laboratories, are being developed now by he EPA. The cradle to grave tracking system mandated by the Federal Government can be supplemented by state and local authorities and poses a significant regulatory challenge ...
This report discusses the procedures that establish the configuration control processes for the Hanford Environmental Information System (HEIS) software. The procedures also provide the charter and function of the HEIS Configuration Control Board (CCB) for maintaining software. The software configuration control items covered under these procedures include the HEIS software and database structure. The configuration control processes include both administrative and audit functions. The administrative role includes maintaining the overall change schedule, ensuring consistency of proposed changes, negotiating change plan adjustments, setting priorities, and tracking the status of changes. The configuration control process audits to ensure that changes are performed to applicable standards.
The problem of electrical parameters identification in complex systems, and in particular in electric railway traction systems, is considered. Parameters are determined by an indirect approach: only the terminal variables (voltages and currents and, impedance and admittance, which can be readily calculated) are measured and the per-unit-length electrical parameters are determined using a multiconductor transmission line model of the track section under test. It will be shown that some parameters cannot be measured directly, that they are not constant with frequency and that they may depend on other external conditions. An indirect method for parameters identification is proposed through an adaptive algorithm (AA), so that the calculated terminal variables match the measured ones. The AA is...
In order to reduce the number of surface mining accidents related to low visibility conditions and blind spots of trucks and to provide 3D information for truck drivers and real time monitored truck information for the remote dispatcher, a 3D assisted driving system (3D-ADS) based on the GPS, mesh-wireless networks and the Google-Earth engine as the graphic interface and mine-mapping server, was developed at Virginia Tech. The research results indicate that this 3D-ADS system has the potential to increase reliability and reduce uncertainty in open pit mining operations by customizing the local 3D digital mining map, constructing 3D truck models, tracking vehicles in real time using a 3D interface and indicating available escape routes for driver safety.
The abstract is additional with repect to the paper published in JGCD. Ordinary Earth satellites are usually placed into five categories of special orbits: sun-synchronous orbits, orbits at the critical inclination, frozen orbits, repeating ground track orbits, and geostationary orbits. This paper investigates their counterparts around Mars and examines the basic nature of these orbits, which are of special interest for missions conducted around Mars, including Mars reconnaissance. Mars' gravity field is much more complicated, with relatively smaller J2, compared to Earth's, which makes the behaviors of these Martian orbits different from those of Earth. Analytical formulations and numerical simulations are used to analyze these Martian orbits and compare them with their Earth counterparts. First, mean element theory is employed to describe variations of orbital elements and give the constraint conditions for achieving these special orbits. Then, numerical ...
The reliability analysis of the Fast Flux Test Facility reactor shutdown system was reevaluated. Failure information based on five years of plant operating experience was used to verify original reliability numbers or to establish new ones. Also, system modifications made subsequent to performance of the original analysis were incorporated into the reevaluation. Reliability calculations and sensitivity analyses were performed using a commercially available spreadsheet on a personal computer. The spreadsheet was configured so that future failures could be tracked and compared with expected failures. A number of recommendations resulted from the reevaluation including both increased and decreased surveillance intervals. All recommendations were based on meeting or exceeding existing reliability goals. Considerable cost savings will be incurred upon implementation of the recommendations.
The reliability analysis of the Fast Flux Test Facility reactor shutdown system was reevaluated. Failure information based on five years of plant operating experience was used to verify original reliability numbers or to establish new ones. Also, system modifications made subsequent to performance of the original analysis were incorporated into the reevaluation. Reliability calculations and sensitivity analyses were performed using a commercially available spreadsheet on a personal computer. The spreadsheet was configured so that future failures could be tracked and compared with expected failures. A number of recommendations resulted from the reevaluation including both increased and decreased surveillance intervals. All recommendations were based on meeting or exceeding existing reliability goals. Considerable cost savings will be incurred upon implementation of the recommendations.
Coupled continuous time random walks (CTRWs) model normal and anomalous diffusion of random walkers by taking the sum of random jump lengths dependent on the random waiting times immediately preceding each jump. They are used to simulate diffusion-like processes in econophysics such as stock market fluctuations, where jumps represent financial market microstructure like log returns. In this and many other applications, the magnitude of the largest observations (e.g. a stock market crash) is of considerable importance in quantifying risk. We use a stochastic process called a coupled continuous time random maxima (CTRM) to determine the density governing the maximum jump length of a particle undergoing a CTRW. CTRM are similar to continuous time random walks but track maxima instead of sums....
In the PV system with storage batteries, as a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) device is used to enhance battery charging, the enhancement must be greater than the internal loss of the device itself, or there will be no net gain at all. To evaluate the MPPT device benefits under different climate, the theoretical calculation models have been constructed. By simulation, a comparative study between two types of PV charge controllers with and without a MPPT device under different atmospheric conditions was presented. The comparison was made by means of the energy production obtained from the PV generator of each system. The climatic conditions of Beijing and Guangzhou in China have been regarded. From the results obtained it can be concluded that the effectiveness of the MPPT device in Guangzhou is not very obvious, however the MPPT device did greatly enhance the output in Beijing in the winter. (author)
The biota of the Mississippi River in an ecological recovery zone near Red Wing, MN was studied before and after start-up of a nuclear plant to acquire baseline data and to estimate changes due to thermal addition. Thermal addition produced significant decreases in primary production in a plant region during summer month periods when water temperatures were near 36C. Extensive fisheries studies and sonar tagging/tracking of S. vitreum were performed. Comparison of fisheries results with other riverine, lake, and pond studies indicated a favorable environment for the success of the fish species studied. Qualitative macroinvertebrate surveys were conducted.
A sensitivity study that used the particle tracking code PARMELA was performed on the Advanced Free-Electron Laser (AFEL). The tolerances on the alignment of the beam-line elements and the magnetic-field strengths were examined. Two base-line configurations were determined at the beginning of the study. The electron beam was then matched into the wiggler. The optimized beam-line parameters were varied independently and their sensitivities were judged with the criterion that the free-electron laser (FEL) effective-detuning parameter should not fluctuate more than 10%. The results of this study set the specifications for the alignment, for the sensitivity of the steering magnets, and for the accuracy of the magnetic field in the quadrupoles and dipoles. 5 figs., 3 figs., 3 tabs.
The economic benefits of supplemental fuel injections depend, in part, on the coke replacement ratio. An assessment of the accuracy with which blast furnace coke rate may be measured and a determination of the key drivers of coke rate uncertainty are offered, to provide guidance for experiments in high-rate gas injection. Using statistical analysis tools, an expression for the measurement error associated with the various terms of blast furnace carbon balance is developed. Coke rate calculations based on the material balance are most sensitive to coke carbon content and to proper tracking of hot metal tapping schedule.
A new magnet power supply system for J-PARC 50GeV Synchrotron is proposed as solutions both in the power capacity and in the precision at the same time. The developed 10MW class magnet power supply consists of the advanced self-commutated current-source type converter (ACSC) using the new device IEGT rated at 4500V-2100A and the ''hybrid filter'' including the variable impedance filter with the equivalent 16 kHz switching. With 1/16 scale-model system using a prototype bending magnet, the experimental results showed the current ripple less than 1 x 10"-"6 and the tracking error less than #+-#0.5 x 10"-"4. (author)
To investigate the 2D/1D fusion core analysis method, a 1D neutron transport problem solver, PEACH-ID, is developed. It is a code of method of characteristics (MOC), both the usual fiat-source step characteristics (SC) scheme and linear source (LS) approximation scheme are adopted for tracking calculation along the neutron flying trajectory. Exponential function interpolation table and fission source extrapolation are adopted as two major methods to accelerate the computational process. Numerical results demonstrate that PEACH-1D is accurate and efficient, and the proposed LS scheme is able to handle quite larger mesh division and deserves much more application in the MOC codes. (authors)
A non-contact method, using magnetic drag force principle, was proposed to design the braking systems to improve the shortcomings of the conventional braking systems. The extensive literature detailing all aspects of the magnetic braking is briefly reviewed, however little of this refers specifically to upright magnetic braking system, which is useful for industries. One of the major issues to design upright magnetic system is to find out the magnetic flux. The changing magnetic flux induces eddy currents in the conductor. These currents dissipate energy in the conductor and generate drag force to slow down the motion. Therefore, a finite element model is developed to analyze the phenomena of magnetic flux density when air gap and materials of track are varied. The verification shows the predicted magnetic flux is within acceptable range with the measured value. The results will facilitate the design of magnetic braking systems.
An algorithm for solving the extended security constrained economic dispatch (ESCED) problem with real-time economic dispatch grade speed and reliability is presented. The ESCED problem is formulated by adding regulating margin and ramp rate constraints to the network security constrained economic dispatch problem previously solved by the CEDC algorithm. Starting with Newton`s method to optimize the Lagrangian, the ESCED is developed by superimposing on Newton`s method eight major components called Tracking Start Initialization, Hessian Pre-Elimination, Implicit Dual Variable Calculations, Regulating Margin Sensitivity Coefficient Calculations, Traumatic Event Evaluation, Constraint Relaxation, Implicit Ramp Rate Constraint Implementation, and Relaxed Incremental Cost Calculations. Test results are also presented.
Radon concentration measurements were performed for one year in 12 different boron, chromium and coal underground mines in Western Turkey. Lucas cells and nuclear track detectors were used for the measurements of radon and its decay products. The effects of parameters, such as type of mine, gallery depth and ventilation rate, on the radon concentration in mine air were examined. The radiation exposure doses of miners due to the inhalation of radon and radon daughters were determined. Gamma survey measurements were also realized together with radon measurements and the total effective dose equivalents in mSv y{sup -1} were estimated.
A-posteriori probability (APP) receivers operating over multiple-input, multiple-output channels provide enhanced performance at the cost of increased complexity. However, employing full APP processing over favorable transmission environments, where less efficient approaches may already provide the required performance at a reduced complexity, results in waste of resources (e.g, processing energy/power). Therefore, for slowly varying channel statistics, substantial complexity savings can be achieved by simple adaptive schemes which perform performance tracking and adjust the complexity of the soft output sphere decoder by adaptively setting the related log-likelihood ratio (LLR) clipping value.
A new subcarrier combining technique is proposed for MC -CDMA receiver in mobile Rayleigh fading channel. It exploits the structure formed by repeating spreading sequences of users on different subcarriers to simultaneously suppress multiple access interference (MAI) and provide implicit channel tracking without any knowledge of the channel amplitudes or training sequences. This is achieved by adaptively weighting each subcarrier in each symbol period by employing a simple gradient descent algorithm to meet the constant modulus (CM) criterion with judicious selection of step-size. Improved BER and user capacity performance are shown with similar complexity in order of O(N) compared with conventional maximum ratio combining and equal gain combining techniques even under high channel Doppler rates.
A large hadron machine like the LHC with its high track multiplicities always asks for powerful tools that drastically reduce the large background while selecting signal events efficiently. Actually such tools are widely needed and used in all parts of particle physics. Regarding the huge amount of data that will be produced at the LHC, the process of training as well as the process of applying these tools to data, must be time efficient. Such tools can be multivariate analysis -- also called data mining -- tools. In this contribution we present the results for the application of the multivariate analysis, rule growing algorithm RIPPER on a problem of particle selection. It turns out that the meta-methods bagging and cost-sensitivity are essential for the quality of the outcome. The results are compared to other multivariate analysis techniques.
At Super-LHC luminosity it is expected that the standard suite of L1 triggers for CMS will saturate. Information from the tracker will be needed to reduce trigger rates to satisfy the L1 bandwidth. Tracking trigger modules which correlate information from closely-spaced sensor layers to form an on-detector momentum filter are being developed by several groups. We report on a trigger module design which utilizes three dimensional IC technology to incorporate chips which are connected both to the top and bottom sensor, providing the ability to filter information locally. A demonstration chip, the VICTR, has been submitted to the Chartered/Tezzaron two-tier 3D run coordinated by Fermilab. We report on the 3D design concept, the status of the VICTR chip and associated sensor integration utilizing oxide bonding.
The local Yb3+ magnetic susceptibility tensor was recently measured in the frustrated pyrochlore compound Yb2Ti2O7 by means of in-field polarized neutron scattering in a single crystal. A very anisotropic effective exchange tensor was derived for the Yb3+ ion. Using this result, we reinterpret here the data for the powder susceptibility in Yb2Ti2O7. We show that, in the case of a well-isolated Kramers doublet with anisotropic g and exchange tensors, the inverse susceptibility for a powder sample does not strictly obey a Curie-Weiss law at low temperature. We discuss the consequences regarding the paramagnetic Curie temperature, usually taken as a measure of the exchange/dipolar interaction, and the exotic 'slow fluctuation' ground state of Yb2Ti2O7. (fast track communication)
A novel adaptive stabilizer, called an Adaptive Governor Power System Stabilizer (AGPSS), which operated on the governor turbine system, was described. There has been extensive research on adaptive excitation control of generators in power systems with the goal of achieving better dynamic performance. AGPSS tracks the frequency and damping of oscillations in a power system, and adjusts to ensure that there is always sufficient damping in the system. There is no interaction between stabilizers on different generating units, and each one acts independently, consuming oscillation energy locally. These stabilizers are easy to design and this facilitates their use in multimachine systems. Results obtained by nonlinear simulation of a single-machine and a three-machine power system were discussed, illustrating the effectiveness of the stabilizers in supplying damping and improving stability. It was pointed out that the operation of AGPSS does not conflict with that of ...
Adaptive radiation therapy for liver cancer has the potential to reduce normal tissue complications and enable dose escalation, allowing the potential for tumor control in this challenging site. Using adaptive techniques to tailor treatment margins to reflect patient-specific breathing motions and image-guidance techniques can reduce the high dose delivered to surrounding normal tissues while ensuring that the prescription dose is delivered to the tumor. Several treatment planning and delivery techniques have been developed for use in the liver, including a margin to encompass the full breathing motion, mean position techniques, which evaluate the probability of tumor location during breathing, breath hold, gating, and tracking. Patient selection, clinical workflow, and quality assurance m...
I describe a search for anomalous production of Z pairs through a new massive resonance X in 2.5-2.9 fb{sup -1} of p{bar p} collisions at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV using the CDFII Detector at the Fermilab Tevatron. I reconstruct Z pairs through their decays to electrons, muons, and quarks. To achieve perhaps the most efficient lepton reconstruction ever used at CDF, I apply a thorough understanding of the detector and new reconstruction software heavily revised for this purpose. In particular, I have designed and employ new general-purpose algorithms for tracking at large {eta} in order to increase muon acceptance. Upon analyzing the unblinded signal samples, I observe no X {yields} ZZ candidates and set upper limits on the production cross section using a Kaluza-Klein graviton-like acceptance.
An evaporative cooling system developed for operation and qualification testing of silicon pixel and microstrip detectors for the inner tracking detector of the CERN ATLAS spectrometer is described. Silicon detector substrates must be continuously operated between 0 and ???7?C in the high radiation environment near the circulating beams at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). This requirement imposes unusual constraints on the cooling system and has led to the choice of perfluoro-n-propane (C3F8) refrigerant, which combines good chemical stability under ionizing radiation with high dielectric strength and nonflammability. Since the silicon detectors must also be of extremely light construction to minimize undesirable physics background, coolant tubes are of thin (200 ?m) aluminum wall, wh...
A novel multilevel hierarchical Kohonen Net (K-Map) for an intrusion detection system is presented. Each level of the hierarchical map is modeled as a simple winner-take-all K-Map. One significant advantage of this multilevel hierarchical K-Map is its computational efficiency. Unlike other statistical anomaly detection methods such as nearest neighbor approach, K-means clustering or probabilistic analysis that employ distance computation in the feature space to identify the outliers, our approach does not involve costly point-to-point computation in organizing the data into clusters. Another advantage is the reduced network size. We use the classification capability of the K-Map on selected dimensions of data set in detecting anomalies. Randomly selected subsets that contain both attacks and normal records from the KDD Cup 1999 benchmark data are used to train the hierarchical net. We use a confidence measure to label the ...
Detection of fatigue damage cracks in aircraft skin structures is an ongoing NDT challenge. Cracks growing rate is difficult to predict, and for this reason, it is important to detect them as soon as possible to avoid a catastrophic break. Eddy current methods are known and well-accepted techniques which are relatively simple to carry out. However, with conventional inspection of airframe structures using standard driver-pickup eddy current probes, it is difficult to detect small fatigue cracks initiated in the second layer of the skin and in the shadow region at fastener holes. Such difficulty is related to fasteners length and their spacing which reduces test sensitivity. This report explains the development of improved eddy current probe/technique to detect and visualize fatigue cracks in fasteners. In this study, an eddy current array probe was evaluated and new coil design was suggested. Several ...
To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of Fuji computed radiography (FCR) in the detection of interstitial pulmonary infiltrates, FCR life-size images at a pixel size of 0.1 mm were compared with conventional radiographs taken on the same day. Seventeen radiologists assessed the radiographs and FCR images of 56 cases, including 39 cases of various interstitial lung diseases such as interstitial pneumonia, pulmonary abnormalities associated with collagen disease, sarcoidosis, multiple pulmonary metastases, diffuse panbronchiolitis and pulmonary emphysema, and 17 normal controls. All of the pulmonary abnormalities were confirmed by high resolution CT. Observer performance tests were carried out using receiver operating characteristic analysis. In 21 cases of increased pulmonary density revealed by high resolution CT, FCR was significantly superior to conventional radiographs in the detection of reticular or linear shadows. In 11 cases of subtle ...
To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of Fuji computed radiography (FCR) in the detection of interstitial pulmonary infiltrates, FCR life-size images at a pixel size of 0.1 mm were compared with conventional radiographs taken on the same day. Seventeen radiologists assessed the radiographs and FCR images of 56 cases, including 39 cases of various interstitial lung diseases such as interstitial pneumonia, pulmonary abnormalities associated with collagen disease, sarcoidosis, multiple pulmonary metastases, diffuse panbronchiolitis and pulmonary emphysema, and 17 normal controls. All of the pulmonary abnormalities were confirmed by high resolution CT. Observer performance tests were carried out using receiver operating characteristic analysis. In 21 cases of increased pulmonary density revealed by high resolution CT, FCR was significantly superior to conventional radiographs in the detection of reticular or linear shadows. In 11 cases of subtle ...
To improve the detection rate of lung cancer, we have introduced low-dose CT and CR technique into a population-based annual mass screening. From December 1999, 3868 and 12618 individuals participated in this screening program with CT and with CR, respectively. Primary lung cancer was detected in 15 (0.39%) by CT and 8 (0.06%) by CR. This results show high detection rate of primary lung cancer as had been previously reported. (author)
Methods and apparatus for detecting the presence of explosives by analyzing a vapor sample from the suspect vicinity utilize at least one microcantilever. Explosive gas molecules which have been adsorbed onto the microcantilever are subsequently heated to cause combustion. Heat, along with momentum transfer from combustion, causes bending and a transient resonance response of the microcantilever which may be detected by a laser diode which is focused on the microcantilever and a photodetector which detects deflection of the reflected laser beam caused by heat-induced deflection and resonance response of the microcantilever. 2 figs.
An accelerator experiment was performed using a low-energy antiproton beam to measure antiproton detection efficiency of BESS, a balloon-borne spectrometer with a superconducting solenoid. Measured efficiencies showed good agreement with calculated ones derived from the BESS Monte Carlo simulation based on GEANT/GHEISHA. With detailed verification of the BESS simulation, the relative systematic error of detection efficiency derived from the BESS simulation has been determined to be {+-}5%, compared with the previous estimation of {+-}15% which was the dominant uncertainty for measurements of cosmic-ray antiproton flux.
A Si array neutron detector is proposed based on commercial CCD and CMOS sensor technology coupled with a thin film neutron conversion coating. System sensitivity is estimated for a baseline device containing a single array and various schemes to increase detection probability by simple area scaling and stacking are discussed. Some possible use scenarios are discussed involving static and moving sources. Likely neutron source fluxes for weapons grade and commercial grade nuclear material are estimated along with expected intensities of cosmic background neutrons which would establish a noise floor to detection limits.
There is a general concern with insiders smuggling bomb quantities of explosives into sensitive facilities such as nuclear facilities. At this time, there is no single explosives detection device that is suitable for monitoring personnel and their packages for explosives in an operational facility environment. However, there are techniques combining available commercial technologies with procedures and threat analysis that can significantly increase the insiders risk and reduce the population of adversaries. This paper describes the available applicable explosives detection technologies and discusses the techniques that could be implemented on an interim basis. It is important that these techniques be considered, so that some interim level of security against the explosives threat can be established until more sophisticated equipment that is under development becomes available.
The capability of screen-film combinations of detection and representation of information is described by the detective quantum efficiency (DQE). The DQE may be calculated from the sensitivity, the gradient of the characteristic curve, the modulation transfer function and the Wiener spectrum. These parameters have been determined for fourteen screen-film combinations and the DQE's have been calculated. It is shown that the low frequency region the DQE does not depend on spatial frequency. This constant level of DQE is mostly dependent on the absorbance of the screens. Consequences from this fact, as well for the manufacturer as for the user of the screens, are discussed.
The capability of screen-film combinations of detection and representation of information is described by the detective quantum efficiency (DQE). The DQE may be calculated from the sensitivity, the gradient of the characteristic curve, the modulation transfer function and the Wiener spectrum. These parameters have been determined for fourteen screen-film combinations and the DQE's have been calculated. It is shown that the low frequency region the DQE does not depend on spatial frequency. This constant level of DQE is mostly dependent on the absorbance of the screens. Consequences from this fact, as well for the manufacturer as for the user of the screens, are discussed. (orig.).
This paper describes detection of electro-discharged machine (EDM) defects in magnetic steam generator (SG) tubes of Monju fast breeder reactor (FBR). The EDM defects are located under support plate (SP), on the outer tube surface and they are detected by a remote field eddy current probe. Using the experimental measurements and a multi frequency algorithm, the defect signal can be extracted from the SP signal. The parameters of the multi-frequency algorithm were calculated by comparing SP measurements with two-dimensional finite element simulations (FEM). (author)
An accelerator beam experiment was performed using a low-energy antiproton beam to measure antiproton detection efficiency of the BESS detector. Measured and calculated efficiencies derived from the BESS Monte Carlo simulation based on GRANT/GHEISHA showed good agreement. With detailed verification of the BESS simulation, the relative systematic error of detection efficiency derived from the BESS simulation has been determined to be {+-}5%, compared with the previous estimation of {+-}15% which was the dominant uncertainty for measurements of cosmic-ray antiproton flux. (author)
A large scintillation chamber of 6.7 l volume for direct radon concentration measurements in gas is presented. With two 5 in. photomultipliers on opposite sides, working in coincidence, a concentration as low as about 0.5 mBq/l is detectable with 10% standard deviation after 1000 min measuring time. With the achieved background count rate of 0.42 counts/min and the counting efficiency of 0.607 for [sup 222]Rn and its progenies the absolute minimal detectable specific activity is reached with 0.17 mBq/l at about 12 000 min. The method to determine this minimum detectable activity is outlined. ((orig.))
Currently there are four different concept studies trying to optimise the detector for the requirements at the ILC. In three of these detector concepts a time projection chamber (TPC) is foreseen as the main tracking device. To achieve the intended spatial resolution of 100 {mu}m, micro pattern gas detectors (MPGD) are considered for gas amplification. The two different MPGDs discussed for the ILC TPC are Micro-Mesh Gaseous Detectors (Micromegas) and Gas Electron Multiplier foils (GEMs). The current thesis shows resolution studies with a TPC prototype equipped with a triple GEM readout structure. A hodoscope made up of silicon strip sensors gives a precision reference track, allowing an unbiased measurement of the spatial resolution. High statistics measurements have been conducted at the DESY test beam facility, which provides positrons with a tunable energy between 1 GeV and 6 GeV. Using the independent measurement of the hodoscope allows ...
Fission-track age of a bentonitized volcanic ash bed occurring in the middle part of Nagrota Formation. Upper Siwalik, north of Uttarbaini, Jammu district, Jammu and Kashmir, has been determined to be 1.6 #+-# 0.2 m.y. B.P. The radiometric age obtained for the sample roughly coincides with the Olduvai Event (1.6-1.8 m.y.). However, the lithological and paleoclimatic changes in the Upper Siwalik success ion are indicated at the contact between Parmandal Sandstone and Nagrota Formation, i.e. about 1100 m below the 1.6 #+-# 0.2 m.y. datum line in this part. Vertebrat e fauna was studied from 16 sites beneath and 12 above the volcanic ash bed to interpret the biological and palaeoenvironmental aspects of the Nagrota Formation. The assemblage represented in the collection is similar to that of the Pinjor Biozone (Villafranchian) and is assigned a probable age ranging from about 2.9 m.y. to 1.0 m.y. B.P. The stratigraphic interval from the base of Nagrota Formation ...
The absorption of solar heat and the attendant thermal and mechanical loadings on the tubes of cavity receivers depend predominantly on the flux distribution of the incident solar radiation. For an axially symmetric cavity receiver with a parabolic dish collector, it is simple to determine the insolation pattern on the receiver internal surfaces if the system is ideal. In such a system the surface of the dish is perfectly parabolic (no contour flaws are present), and the sun's central ray impinges on the dish surface parallel to the focal axis (no sun tracking flaws are present). These two conditions cannot be achieved in practice, and therefore the feasible parabolic dish system is referred to as a real system although, in actual fact, it is only an approximation to any actual system. The purpose of this paper is to devise calculation principles which permit analysis of a receiver designed for ideal conditions to verify its structural adequacy under the ...
The DNA double-strand break (DSB) damage response induced by high energy charged particles on lung fibroblast cells embedded in a 3-dimensional (3-D) collagen tissue equivalents was investigated using antibodies to the DNA damage response proteins gamma-histone 2AX (#gamma#-H2AX) and phosphorylated DNA-PKcs (p-DNA-PKcs). 3-D tissue equivalents were irradiated in positions across the linear distribution of the Bragg curve profiles of 307.7 MeV/nucleon, 556.9 MeV/nucleon, or 967.0 MeV/nucleon "5"6Fe ions at a dose of 0.30 Gy. Patterns of discrete DNA damage streaks across nuclei or saturated nuclear damage were observed, with saturated nuclear damage being more predominant as samples were positioned closer to the physical Bragg peak. Quantification of the DNA damage signal intensities at each distance for each of the examined energies revealed a biological Bragg curve profile with a pattern of DNA damage intensity similar to the physical Bragg curve for the particular energy. ...
Sudden changes in the temperature of flowing liquids can result in transient buoyancy forces which strongly impact the flow hydrodynamics via flow stratification. These effects have been studied for the case of potential flow of stratified liquids to line sinks, but not for moderator flow in SRS reactors. Standard codes, such as TRAC and COMMIX, do not have the capability to capture the stratification effect, due to strong numerical diffusion which smears away the hot/cold fluid interface. A related problem with standard codes is the inability to track plumes injected into the liquid flow, again due to numerical diffusion. The combined effects of buoyant stratification and plume dispersion have been identified as being important in operation of the Supplementary Safety System which injects neutron-poison ink into SRS reactors to provide safe shutdown in the event of safety rod failure. The MODFLOW code discussed here provides transient moderator flow pattern ...
Sudden changes in the temperature of flowing liquids can result in transient buoyancy forces which strongly impact the flow hydrodynamics via flow stratification. These effects have been studied for the case of potential flow of stratified liquids to line sinks, but not for moderator flow in SRS reactors. Standard codes, such as TRAC and COMMIX, do not have the capability to capture the stratification effect, due to strong numerical diffusion which smears away the hot/cold fluid interface. A related problem with standard codes is the inability to track plumes injected into the liquid flow, again due to numerical diffusion. The combined effects of buoyant stratification and plume dispersion have been identified as being important in operation of the Supplementary Safety System which injects neutron-poison ink into SRS reactors to provide safe shutdown in the event of safety rod failure. The MODFLOW code discussed here provides transient moderator flow pattern ...
Seven generic types of collectors, together with associated subsystems for electric power generation, were considered. The collectors can be classified into three categories: (1) two-axis tracking (with compound-curvature reflecting surfaces); (2) one-axis tracking (with single-curvature reflecting surfaces); and (3) nontracking (with low-concentration reflecting surfaces). All seven collectors were analyzed in conceptual system configurations with Rankine-cycle engines. In addition, two of the collectors were analyzed with Brayton-cycle engines, and one was analyzed with a Stirling-cycle engine. With these engine options, and the consideration of both thermal and electrical storage for the Brayton-cycle central receiver, 11 systems were formulated for analysis. Conceptual designs developed for the 11 systems were based on common assumptions of available technology in the 1990 to 2000 time frame. No attempt was made to perform a detailed ...
The helicase action of the Escherichia coli UvrAB complex on a covalently closed circular DNA template was monitored using bacterial DNA topoisomerase I, which specifically removes negative supercoils. In the presence of E. coli DNA topoisomerase I and ATP, the UvrAB complex gradually introduced positive supercoils into the input relaxed plasmid DNA template. Positive supercoils were not produced when E. coli DNA topoisomerase I was replaced by eukaryotic DNA topoisomerase I or when both E. coli and eukaryotic DNA topoisomerases I were added simultaneously. These results suggest that like other DNA helix-tracking processes, the ATP-dependent action of the UvrAM complex on duplex DNA simultaneously generates both positive and negative supercoils, which are not constrained by protein binding but are torsionally strained. The supercoiling activity of UvrAB on UV-damaged DNA was also studied using UV-damaged plasmid DNA and a mutant UvrA protein that lacks the 40 ...
analysis of NaMBT in ethylene glycol-water solutions with high accuracy. It reduces analysis time, requires smaller samples, and is able to detect extremely ...
integrates multiple fisheries information systems to obtain a view of U.S. freshwater fish distribution. Information about NFDI National Framework for Early Detection, Rapid...
Trinitrotoluene (TNT) absorption was assessed in groups of workers at two explosives factories by measuring the urinary concentrations of dinitroaminotoluene (DNAT) metabolites. DNAT was detected in...Full Text Available
The vomeronasal organ is the primary olfactory organ that detects sexual pheromones in mammals. We investigated the anatomy of the vomeronasal organ of the tammar wallaby (Macropus eugenii),...Full Text Available
Described as the body's largest organ, the skin is strategically located at the interface with the external environment where it has evolved to detect, integrate and respond to a diverse range...Full Text Available
The purpose of the recommendation is to prevent, to detect, and to remove soiling of guide and retrating blades of steam turbines, e.g. on account of foreign matter in steam dissolved. (TK/LN).
BackgroundOrthology analysis is an important part of data analysis in many areas of bioinformatics such as comparative genomics and molecular phylogenetics. The ever-increasing flood...Full Text Available
For some neurotoxic chemicals, neurobehavioral effects are now considered to be among the most sensitive end points yet detected, particularly if exposures occur during critical windows of vulnerability....Full Text Available
Although many studies have examined the performance of animals in detecting a frequency change in a sequence of tones, few have measured animals' discrimination of the fundamental frequency...Full Text Available
Tumour hypoxia represents a significant challenge to the curability of human tumours leading to treatment resistance and enhanced tumour progression. Tumour hypoxia can be detected by non-invasive and...Full Text Available
There is a mismatch between the documentation of the visually guided behaviors and visual physiology of decapods (Malacostraca, Crustacea) and knowledge about the neural architecture of their...Full Text Available
The detection of explosives is a notoriously difficult problem, especially at stand-off distances, due to their (generally) low vapor pressure, environmental and matrix interferences, and packaging. We are exploring optimal dynamic detection to exploit the best capabilities of recent advances in laser technology and recent discoveries in optimal shaping of laser pulses for control of molecular processes to significantly enhance the standoff detection of explosives. The core of the ODD-Ex technique is the introduction of optimally shaped laser pulses to simultaneously enhance sensitivity of explosives signatures while reducing the influence of noise and the signals from background interferents in the field (increase selectivity). These goals are being addressed by operating in an optimal nonlinear fashion, typically with a single shaped laser pulse inherently containing within it coherently locked control and probe ...
Earth degassing specifically of carbon dioxide CO2 is of increasing interest with respect to the global carbon budget, related climate effects, earthquake and volcano eruption mechanisms, as well as plant physiological reactions in gas-rich environments. Investigations in all of these disciplines require the detection of surface CO2 degassing structures and quantification of their emissions. We introduce minimal thermal change detection based on infrared imaging as a new remote sensing tool for the detection of earth surface thermal anomalies suiting among others to discover earth degassing locations of any origin. The method allows for seamless areal search and monitoring of degassing structures in any terrain. As proof of concept infrared imaging measurements were performed at the Bossol...
Nato SCI-12 on Camouflage Evaluation Workshop on Search and Target Acquisition The Netherlands, June 1999. Image Discrimination Models for Object Detection ...
With the improvements accomplished during the past 15 years in detection techniques and instrumentation and with the opening of space exploration, molecular spectroscopy has become a very efficient way to probe planetary atmospheres.
We present a new modular traffic signs recognition system, successfully applied to both American and European speed limit signs. Our sign detection step is based only on shape-detection (rectangles or circles). This enables it to work on grayscale images, contrary to most European competitors, which eases robustness to illumination conditions (notably night operation). Speed sign candidates are classified (or rejected) by segmenting potential digits inside them (which is rather original and has several advantages), and then applying a neural digit recognition. The global detection rate is ~90% for both (standard) U.S. and E.U. speed signs, with a misclassification rate 150 minutes of video. The system processes in real-time ~20 frames/s on a standard high-end laptop.
Encapsulation of a unique isotopic blend of krypton and xenon gas employs a special application of laser technology. The encapsulated gas is then used as the primary medium for detection and identification of failed nuclear fuel rods. The use of gas tagging as a means of detecting and identifying failed nuclear fuel rods has been successfully demonstrated and used by the Argonne National Laboratory, Experimental Breeder Reactor (EBR-2) Project, and the Westinghouse Hanford Company (WHC), Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) Fast Breeder Reactor Program. The Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corporation (PNC) of Japan has selected this leak detection system for use in their MONJU Prototype Reactor fuel assemblies. The MONJU reactor is almost identical in design to the highly successful FFTF reactor, which is currently in standby status.
Nov 12, 2010 ... The adaptive, nonparametric matched filter algorithm suggested by Kay ... For the point design of a 4 sigma single event SNR the combined NR ...
Tumour hypoxia represents a significant challenge to the curability of human tumours leading to treatment resistance and enhanced tumour progression. Tumour hypoxia can be detected by non-invasive and...Full Text Available
Current Intrusion Detection System (IDS) technology is not suited to be widely deployed inside a Supervisory, Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) environment. Anomaly- and signature-based IDS technologies have developed methods to cover information technology-based networks activity and protocols effectively. However, these IDS technologies do not include the fine protocol granularity required to ensure network security inside an environment with weak protocols lacking authentication and encryption. By implementing a more specific and more intelligent packet inspection mechanism, tailored traffic flow analysis, and unique packet tampering detection, IDS technology developed specifically for SCADA environments can be deployed with confidence in detecting malicious activity.
The potential of radiolabelled phenylpiperazines as agents for the detection and therapy of tumours of neural crest origin was evaluated by in vitro pharmacological studies with human neuroblastoma...Full Text Available
Given a set of users, their friend relationships, and a distance threshold per friend pair, the proximity detection problem is to find each pair of friends such that the Euclidean distance between them is within the given threshold. This problem plays an essential role in friend-locator applications and massively multiplayer online games. Existing proximity detection solutions either incur substantial location update costs or their performance does not scale well to a large number of users. Motivated by this, we present a centralized proximity detection solution that assigns each mobile client with a mobile region. We then design a self-tuning policy to adjust the radius of the region automatically, in order to minimize communication cost. In addition, we analyze the communication cost of our solutions, and provide valuable insights on their behaviors. Extensive experiments suggest that our proposed solution is efficient ...
PurposeEarly detection of appendicitis has increased due to development of computed tomography and ultrasonography, yet we are frequently meeting complicated appendicitis, including...Full Text Available
In recent years, Clostridium species have rapidly reemerged as human and animal pathogens. The detection and identification of pathogenic Clostridium species...Full Text Available
Ether extracts of cultures of 29 strains representing 6 species of Bacillus, and of individual strains of Escherichia coli, Aerobacter aerogenes, and Pseudomonas...Full Text Available
Purpose: To secure the reactor operation safety by the provision of a fluid pressure detecting section for control rod driving fluid and a control rod interlock at the midway of the flow pass for supplying driving fluid to the control rod drives. Constitution: Between a driving line and a direction control valve are provided a pressure detecting portion, an alarm generating device, and a control rod inhibition interlock. The driving fluid from a driving fluid source is discharged by way of a pump and a manual valve into the reactor in which the control rods and reactor fuels are contained. In addition, when the direction control valve is switched and the control rods are inserted and extracted by the control rod drives, the pressure in the driving line is always detected by the pressure detection section, whereby if abnormal pressure is resulted, the alarm generating device is actuated to warn the ...
Direct plating, selective enrichment, and cold enrichment followed by secondary selective enrichment procedures were compared for detecting and enumerating Listeria monocytogenes in chopped cabbage stored at 5 degrees C for up to 64 days. Addition of Fe3+ to solid media enhanced detection of the organism. Cold enrichment (5 degrees C) in nutrient broth and brain heart infusion broth followed by secondary enrichment (48 h, 30 degrees C) in Trypticase soy-yeast extract-antibiotic broth and thiocyanate-nalidixic acid broth and plating on selective agar media (Doyle and Schoeni selective enrichment agar [minus acriflavin hydrochloride, supplemented with 5 micrograms of Fe3+/ml] and McBride Listeria agar) resulted in the detection of highest populations. PMID:3111369
Abstract In 46 febrile neutropenic patients who had undergone haematopoietic stem cell transplantation, the fluorescence in situ hybridisation using peptide nucleic acid probes (PNA FISH), Gram stain/acridine orange leukocyte cytospin (Gram/AOLC), and differential time to positivity (DTP) methods were performed for detection of catheter related bloodstream infections (CRBSIs). As compared with the DTP method (which detected 11 patients with CRBSI), the PNA FISH and the Gram/AOLC methods detected ten of 11 CRBSI patients, resulting in a sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value and positive predictive value of 91%, 100%, 97% and 100%, respectively, for the PNA FISH method as well as for the Gram/AOLC method.
... experts agree-- a colonoscopy is the most accurate test to detect the cancer, but because of cost ... method. Dr. Randall Burt: Colonoscopy is the best test. The question is therefore shouldn't everyone, since ...
evaluation, novelty detection, resource discovery, interfaces and visualization, digital libraries, computational social science, and cross-lingual information retrieval. The CIIR...
Vibrios are ubiquitous and abundant in the aquatic environment. A high abundance of vibrios is also detected in tissues and/or organs of various marine algae and animals, e.g., abalones, bivalves, corals,...Full Text Available
The bacterium Serratia marcescens produces a plethora of multicellular shapes of different colorations on solid substrates, allowing immediate visual detection of varieties. Such a...Full Text Available
Real-time object detection is one of the core problems in computer vision. The cascade boosting framework proposed by Viola and Jones has become the standard for this problem. In this framework, the learning goal for each node is asymmetric, which is required to achieve a high detection rate and a moderate false positive rate. We develop new boosting algorithms to address this asymmetric learning problem. We show that our methods explicitly optimize asymmetric loss objectives in a totally corrective fashion. The methods are totally corrective in the sense that the coefficients of all selected weak classifiers are updated at each iteration. In contract, conventional boosting like AdaBoost is stage-wise in that only the current weak classifier's coefficient is updated. At the heart of the totally corrective boosting is the column generation technique. Experiments on face detection show that our methods outperform the ...
SummaryBackgroundMalaria, a non-fatal disease if detected promptly and treated properly, still causes many deaths in malaria-endemic countries with...Full Text Available
Waveform correlation detectors compare a signal template with successive windows of a continuous data stream and report a detection when the correlation coefficient, or some comparable detection statistic, exceeds a specified threshold. Since correlation detectors exploit the fine structure of the full waveform, they are exquisitely sensitive when compared to power (STA/LTA) detectors. The drawback of correlation detectors is that they require complete knowledge of the signal to be detected, which limits such methods to instances of seismicity in which a very similar signal has already been observed by every station used. Such instances include earthquake swarms, aftershock sequences, repeating industrial seismicity, and many other forms of controlled explosions. The reduction in the detection threshold is even greater when the techniques are applied to arrays since stacking can be performed on the ...
IntroductionThe development of novel diagnostic agents for the detection of breast cancer microcalcifications requires a reliable animal model. Based on previous...Full Text Available
feature similar to the face detection in Intel's OpenCV library, implement it in Matlab code, and test the performance of the new ROI detector against the ...
The focus of this study is on the preparatory detection of uncertain net greenhouse gas (GHG) emission changes (also termed emission signals) under the Kyoto Protocol. The crucial question to be addressed is: How well do we need to know net emissions if we want to detect a specified emission signal after a given time? No restrictions exist as to what concerns the net emitter, which may be any GHG source or sink. Annex I countries are chosen as net emitters, simply for reasons of data availability and because of the excellent possibility of comparing net emitters (inter-country comparison). The countries' emissions - in an increasing number of cases even their uncertainties - are available permitting the application of preparatory signal detection techniques, which are suited to address the aforementioned question. We currently discuss four hierarchically-ordered detection concepts to assess ...
PCR detection of genetic material of the parasites present in faeces may be an alternative for microscopic and serological tests routinely used for diagnosing parasitic enteral infections. However, small amount of target DNA combined with low efficiency of total DNA extraction, and presence of PCR inhibitors in the samples to be amplified, may cause false negative detection results. The aim of this work was to evaluate the impact of DNA isolation procedure used on the amplification of DNA fragments from the genomes of protozoan Cryptosporidium parvum and the nematode Trichinella spiralis. Two methods based on different principles of biological material lysis were evaluated; NucliSENS miniMAG employing simultaneously applied chemical lysis and mechanical disruption or mechanical disruption followed by enzymatic lysis in case of QIAamp DNA Stool Mini Kit. Both of the analyzed systems for nucleic acids purification allowed isolation of DNA from ...
The objectives of this project are to detect and characterize fractures in a naturally fractured tight gas reservoir, using surface seismic methods, borehole imaging logs, and in-situ stress field data. Further, the project aims to evaluate the various seismic methods as to their effectiveness in characterizing the fractures, and to formulate the optimum employment of the seismic methods as regards fracture characterization.
It is shown that a cosmic gamma-ray telescope made of a multilayer silicon tracker and a imaging CsI calorimeter, is capable of identifying cosmic ray nuclei. The telescope charge resolution is estimated around 4% independently of charge. Simulation methods are used to determine the telescope properties for nuclei detection.
In embodiments, spectroscopic monitor monitors modulated light signals to detect low levels of contaminants and other compounds in the presence of background interference. The monitor uses a spectrometer that includes a transmissive modulator capable of causing different frequency ranges to move onto and off of the detector. The different ranges can include those with the desired signal and those selected to subtract background contributions from those with the desired signal. Embodiments of the system are particularly useful for monitoring metal concentrations in combustion effluent.
The feasibility of performing a multiplex assay for the detection of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNAs and hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA is demonstrated. This...Full Text Available
An antibody capture enzyme immunoassay (EIA) was adapted for the detection of immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibody to Sindbis (SIN) virus. Sera from humans with a febrile illness characterized by rash and...Full Text Available
A small cholangiocarcinoma was detected at autopsy in a patient with thorotrastosis who died from the rupture of esophageal varices at the esophagogastric junction. Prior to the advent of recent diagnostic imaging technique, a correct antemortem diagnosis could only be obtained from tumor markers. However, the tendency for the opacity of the liver to decrease slowly with time and develop uneven trabeculation suggests that small tumors may be difficult to detect against such a non-homogeneous background. (author).
...notice de en es fr it nl European Commission Research Index aeronews All keywords Index feedback The number of documents that contain the keyword aeronews is: 1 EU Transport lsquo;AERONEWSrsquo; -good news for early detection of microdamage European Commission - lsquo;AERONEWSrsquo; -good news for early detection of microdamage ...
For rapid and low-cost detection of multidrug-resistant (MDR) Mycobacterium tuberculosis, we applied the nitrate reductase assay (NRA) using a liquid medium directly to sputum samples....Full Text Available
It may be necessary to reduce microbiological contamination of crude drugs (medicinal plants or their parts like roots, leaves, flowers). This can be done by treating the drugs with ionizing radiation. Meethods for detection of such an irradiation were developed. It could be pointed out that measurements of luminescence, viscosity and electron spin resonance were suitable for specific drugs, but not for all drugs. (orig.).
Papers are presented under the following topics: machine control and automation; rock drilling; cutting and fragmentation; rock characterization, remote sensing and interface detection; artificial intelligence and mine monitoring systems; computer applications; mechanical excavators; material handling; surface and underground mining; innovative mining systems; new developments in mechanical miners; ground hazard detection and control; ground support; and extraterrestrial mining.
We describe a large-scale application of methods for finding plagiarism in research document collections. The methods are applied to a collection of 284,834 documents collected by arXiv.org over a 14 year period, covering a few different research disciplines. The methodology efficiently detects a variety of problematic author behaviors, and heuristics are developed to reduce the number of false positives. The methods are also efficient enough to implement as a real-time submission screen for a collection many times larger.
A new article identification method based on the measurement of Bragg-curve centroids using a gas-filled ionization chamber has been improved for detection of low-energy particles around 1 MeV per nucleon by introducing a nonuniform distribution of resistance on the anode electrode. Almost the same quality of Z-resolutions as in the conventional ..delta..E-E method could be obtained up to Z=19.
Described herein is an optical probe (120) for use in characterizing surface defects in wafers, such as semiconductor wafers. The optical probe (120) detects laser light reflected from the surface (124) of the wafer (106) within various ranges of angles. Characteristics of defects in the surface (124) of the wafer (106) are determined based on the amount of reflected laser light detected in each of the ranges of angles. Additionally, a wafer characterization system (100) is described that includes the described optical probe (120).
A multi-spectral Schottky barrier infrared detector array in which individual pixels of radiation from a remote radiating object are detected by two or more Schottky barrier infrared radiation detectors each having a different spectral response so as to provide a ''color'' discrimination for the array.
A multi-spectral Schottky barrier infrared detector array in which individual pixels of radiation from a remote radiating object are detected by two or more Schottky barrier infrared radiation detectors each having a different spectral response so as to provide a ''color'' discrimination for the array.
This report describes our initial attempts at the molecular characterization of a maize controlling element. We have prepared a cDNA probe and used it to detect changes at a locus where Ds elements are found. Evidence of their presence are indicated by changes in the restriction patterns, but there is as yet no information on the physical nature of the controlling elements nor on the kinds of rearrangements they cause.
A method and apparatus is provided for detecting explosives by thermal imaging. The explosive material is subjected to a high energy wave which can be either a sound wave or an electromagnetic wave which will initiate a chemical reaction in the explosive material which chemical reaction will produce heat. The heat is then sensed by a thermal imaging device which will provide a signal to a computing device which will alert a user of the apparatus to the possibility of an explosive device being present.
The NSABP B-32 trial is examining whether patients with initially negative sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs) who have occult metastases detected on deeper levels and cytokeratin immunohistochemistry...Full Text Available
A large inguino-scrotal hernia was detected in the early phase of a radionuclide bone scan performed for evaluation of a femoral neck fracture not visualized on plain x-rays. The patient was administered 1 GBq of Scrotal scintigraphy using "9"9"mTc-MDP and a regional three-phase bone scan of the pelvis, hips and proximal femora was obtained on the gamma camera. Copyright (1999) Blackwell Science Pty Ltd
This patent describes a {gamma}-ray detector. It comprises: a dislocation-free single crystal having an input surface and a transmission surface at opposite ends thereof; an active shield surrounding the crystal and functioning as an anticoincidence counter; and {gamma}-ray detector means disposed adjacent the transmission surface of the crystal for receiving and detecting {gamma}-rays of a predetermined wavelength incident on the input surface of the crystal at a specific Bragg angle and transmitted through the crystal.
We have investigated the detection performance of GaAs detectors made with different thickness and contact geometries. A comparison is made between these detection capabilities and the imaging requirements for the following medical applications: digital mammography, digital chest radiography and nuclear medicine. Experimental results and preliminary images are presented and discussed. (author)
The prediction of faults on high voltage transmission lines requires the detection of incipient faults, which is implemented by detection of the radio noise due to contaminated insulators, insulation deterioration, and improver connections. It is shown that the radio noise due to incipient faults is separable and identifiable from normal transmission line radio noise, hence faults can be predicted.
Over the past ten years face segmentation has developed rapidly and various algorithms have been proposed. In this paper we will demonstrate a face detection system based on skin color and the spaces RGB, normalized RGB, HSV and YCbCr are concentrated here. Through combing them the more accurate face region will be detected.
The sensitivity and specificity of the MGIT TBc identification (TBc ID) test for Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTC) detection in positive Bactec MGIT cultures were 95.2% and 99.2%, respectively. When MTC-positive results obtained from two additional molecular methods were included, the sensitivity of the MGIT TBc ID test was 85.4%, while that of culture was 95.7%. PMID:21450949
We calculated the matter effect, including both the Earth and supernova, on the detection of neutrinos from type II supernovae at the proposed Daya Bay reactor neutrino experiment. It is found that apart from the dependence on the flip probability P_H inside the supernova and the mass hierarchy of neutrinos, the amount of the Earth matter effect depends on the direction of the incoming supernova neutrinos, and reaches the biggest value when the incident angle of neutrinos is around 93^\\circ. In the reaction channel \\bar{\
It was the aim of this study to specifically detect the DNA sequences for the bphC gene, the meta-cleavage enzyme of the aerobic catabolic pathway for biphenyl and polychlorinated biphenyl degradation, in aquatic sediments without prior cultivation of microorganisms by using extraction of total DNA, PCR amplification of bphC sequences, and detection with specific gene probes. The direct DNA extraction protocol used was modified to enhance lysis efficiency. Crude extracts of DNA were further purified by gel filtration, which yielded DNA that could be used for the PCR. PCR primers were designed for conserved regions of the bphC gene from a sequence alignment of five known sequences. The specificity of PCR amplification was verified by using digoxigenin-labeled DNA probes which were located internal to the amplified gene sequence. The detection limit for the bphC gene of Pseudomonas paucimobilis Q1 and Pseudomaonas sp. strain ...
A two-step polymerase chain reaction (PCR) procedure with two nested pairs of primers specific for the yadA gene of Yersinia enterocolitica was developed. The PCR assay identified all common pathogenic...Full Text Available
In this study the development of a methodology to detect illicit drugs and plastic explosives is described with the objective of being applied in the realm of public security. For this end, non-destructive assay with neutrons was used and the technique applied was the real time neutron radiography together with computerized tomography. The system is endowed with automatic responses based upon the application of an artificial intelligence technique. In previous tests using real samples, the system proved capable of identifying 97% of the inspected materials.
Infections of aortoarterial prostheses are serious, difficult to detect, and difficult to treat. Scintigraphy with indium-111 labeled autologous leukocytes is an accurate noninvasive method of assessing the presence and extent of such an infection. In three cases of aorto-arterial bypass graft infections, the leukocyte study was successful in establishing the diagnosis and in assessing the extent of infection. Other noninvasive diagnostic techniques are useful, but all have serious limitations. The leukocyte study alone appears to be free of likely sources of error.
The purpose of this prospective study was to compare two different milk preparation methods to assay for the presence of Mycobacterium bovis by PCR. Detection by a C18-carboxypropylbetaine...Full Text Available
Forty-four patients with small cell carcinoma of the bronchus underwent CT and MR studies of the brain to detect cerebral metastases. All patients were studied with contrast-enhanced CT scans, short (T1-weighted) and long (T2-weighted), spin-echo (SE) and FLASH 90 grades sequences were also obtained. A quantitative comparison of the results was carried out to assess the sensitivity of the different techniques in the detection of brain metastases according to lesion diameter. Metastases were identified in 19/44 patients (43%). All techniques detected the lesions >2 cm; of the metastases <2 cm, 63/124 (51%) were detected only by GdDTPA SE-T1 and FLASH sequences and 11 more (9%) only by Gd-DTPA SE-T1 scans. All the lesions identified oh enhanced CT scans or on T2-weighted images were easily detected by Gd-DTPA scans. CT sensitivity was higher than that of pre-contrast SE-T1 and ...
Radioimmunoassays for detecting cell-associated or released virus are described using either 125I- or [3H]acetate-labeled antibodies. In the first assay system, antigen-antibody...Full Text Available
The performance of the leukocyte test area of the new multiple urine test strip, Multistix-10-SG, was evaluated in both field trials and model experiments. The detection limit was found to be adequate for routine purposes. Unspecific reactions are rare and generally indicated by the results of the other test areas. PMID:3572312
A microemulsion comprised of water, Brij 78, pentanol and styrene into which PPO and bis-MSB had been dissolved was prepared. Polymerization of the styrene resulted in a suspension of fluor-containing polystyrene nanoparticles (<100 nm). After a concentration step, the aqueous nanosuspension was able to detect {sup 14}C with counting efficiencies over 50% of those of a commercially available scintillation cocktail. Monte Carlo calculations demonstrated that the size and concentration of the nanoparticles were appropriate for optimum detection efficiency.
We identify emission lines of post-iron peak elements in very high signal-to-noise spectra of a sample of planetary nebulae. Analysis of lines from ions of Kr and Xe reveals enhancements in most of the PNe, in agreement with the theories of s-process in AGB star. Surprisingly, we did not detect lines from Br even though s-process calculations indicate that it should be produced with Kr at detectable levels.
DNA isolation procedures significantly influence the outcome of PCR-based detection of human pathogens. Unlike clinical samples, DNA isolation from food samples such as fresh and fresh-cut produce has remained a formidable task and has hampered the sensitivity and accuracy of molecular methods. We...
A time coincidence long baseline (250 km) cosmic ray detection system has been developed to search for bursts of high energy #gamma#-rays (E_0>= 10"1"3 eV) of extra-terrestrial origin. The system design incorporates the possibility of simultaneous observation over a variety of time scales between 1 #mu#s and 10 s. (Auth.).
The surveillance systems have been widely used in automatic teller machines (ATMs), banks, convenient stores, etc. For example, when a customer uses the ATM, the surveillance systems will record his/her face information. The information will help us understand and trace who withdrew money. However, when criminals use the ATM to withdraw illegal money, they usually block their faces with something (in Taiwan, criminals usually use safety helmets or masks to block their faces). That will degrade the purpose of the surveillance system. In previous work, we already proposed a technology for safety helmet detection. In this paper, we propose a mask detection technology based upon automatic face recognition methods. We use the Gabor filters to generate facial features and utilize geometric analysis algorithms for mask detection. The technology can give an early warning to save-guards when any "customer" or "intruder" blocks ...
Steam Generator (SG) tubes in PWR plant are periodically inspected using eddy current testing (ECT) method. In Japan, bobbin coil type dual function probe is used for full length inspection, but the detectability for circumferential crack is very poor, and to improve detectability for circumferential crack and supplement regular ECT, various kinds of multi segment eddy current probes and multi transducer ultrasonic testing (UT) method have been developed. ECT probes are constructed of multiple surfaceriding special winding differential type coils and UT probe consists of 16 transducers which are spaced equally around the probe circumference for 360deg wall coverage. Both of those EC and UT probes are designed effective to detect circumferential crack. On the other hand, various kinds of laboratory induced circumferential cracks have been made and destroyed to prove the detectability of these probes. ...
Because the number of neutrons and gamma rays and the energy spectrum of particles from spontaneous fission are well characterized for {sup 252}Cf, it can be used as a timed source of fission neutrons and gamma rays. The first such usage incorporated a {sup 252}Cf source into gas scintillators. This paper describes a timed source of neutrons and gamma rays made by depositing {sup 252}Cf on one electrode of a parallel plate ionization chamber that can then be used for determining detection-system characteristics. The emission time of neutrons from spontaneous fission has also been determined by recording the emission time of prompt gamma rays from a {sup 252}Cf source (not incorporated into a detector) adjacent to the surface of a solid or liquid scintillator. This well characterized source of neutrons can thus be used as a randomly pulsed source for a variety of applications. This paper illustrates the use of this type of source to determine the time resolution of ...
An analyser for detecting explosives has at least one neutron source and a plurality of gamma ray detectors. An article to be analysed is moved adjacent the source and detectors and is subjected to neutrons which generate gamma rays from any nitrogen in the article. The gamma rays are detected and analysed to determine the nitrogen concentration within the article. In order to achieve an area of uniform detection there are a plurality of detectors equidistant both from the or each source and from the article to be analysed. In order to avoid a decrease in sensitivity away from the source(s) and detectors there may be a second opposing array of source(s) and detectors on the opposite side of the article. For greatest uniformity of detection, a source in one array opposes a detector in the other array and vice versa. Transmission of radiation from the analyser is kept at safe levels by enclosing the ...
A statistical method is presented for detecting quantitative trait loci (QTLs), based on the linear model. Unlike methods able to detect a few well separated QTLs and to estimate their effects and positions, this method considers the genome as a whole and enables the detection of chromosomal segments involved in the differences between two homozygous lines, and their backcross, doubled haploid, or F[sub 2] progenies, for a quantitative trait. Genetic markers must be codominant, but missing markers are accepted, provided they are missing independently from the experiment. Asymptotic properties, which are of practical use, are developed. This method does not rely on strong genetic hypotheses, and thus does not permit any precise genetic analysis of the trait under study, but it does assess which regions of the genome are involved, whatever the complexity of the genetic determinism (number, effects and interactions among ...