Integrating Contractors into the Logistics Force

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Terrell, Ronald G

2006-01-01

... a panacea. For a combatant commander to effectively integrate them with his military force requires an understanding of the operational environment, contractor capabilities, acceptable levels of risk...

Integral force feedback control with input shaping: Application to piezo-based scanning systems in ECDLs

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Meng; Liu, Zhigang; Zhu, Yu; Bu, Mingfan; Hong, Jun

2017-07-01

In this paper, a hybrid control system is developed by integrating the closed-loop force feedback and input shaping method to overcome the problem of the hysteresis and dynamic behavior in piezo-based scanning systems and increase the scanning speed of tunable external cavity diode lasers. The flexible hinge and piezoelectric actuators are analyzed, and a dynamic model of the scanning systems is established. A force sensor and an integral controller are utilized in integral force feedback (IFF) to directly augment the damping of the piezoelectric scanning systems. Hysteresis has been effectively eliminated, but the mechanical resonance is still evident. Noticeable residual vibration occurred after the inflection points and then gradually disappeared. For the further control of mechanical resonance, based on the theory of minimum-acceleration trajectory planning, the time-domain input shaping method was developed. The turning sections of a scanning trajectory are replaced by smooth curves, while the linear sections are retained. The IFF method is combined with the input shaping method to control the non-linearity and mechanical resonance in high-speed piezo-based scanning systems. Experiments are conducted, and the results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control approach.

Integral force feedback control with input shaping: Application to piezo-based scanning systems in ECDLs.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Meng; Liu, Zhigang; Zhu, Yu; Bu, Mingfan; Hong, Jun

2017-07-01

In this paper, a hybrid control system is developed by integrating the closed-loop force feedback and input shaping method to overcome the problem of the hysteresis and dynamic behavior in piezo-based scanning systems and increase the scanning speed of tunable external cavity diode lasers. The flexible hinge and piezoelectric actuators are analyzed, and a dynamic model of the scanning systems is established. A force sensor and an integral controller are utilized in integral force feedback (IFF) to directly augment the damping of the piezoelectric scanning systems. Hysteresis has been effectively eliminated, but the mechanical resonance is still evident. Noticeable residual vibration occurred after the inflection points and then gradually disappeared. For the further control of mechanical resonance, based on the theory of minimum-acceleration trajectory planning, the time-domain input shaping method was developed. The turning sections of a scanning trajectory are replaced by smooth curves, while the linear sections are retained. The IFF method is combined with the input shaping method to control the non-linearity and mechanical resonance in high-speed piezo-based scanning systems. Experiments are conducted, and the results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control approach.

Nonlinear dynamic analysis of piping systems using the pseudo force method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Prachuktam, S.; Bezler, P.; Hartzman, M.

1979-01-01

Simple piping systems are composed of linear elastic elements and can be analyzed using conventional linear methods. The introduction of constraint springs separated from the pipe with clearance gaps to such systems to cope with the pipe whip or other extreme excitation conditions introduces nonlinearities to the system, the nonlinearities being associated with the gaps. Since these spring-damper constraints are usually limited in number, descretely located, and produce only weak nonlinearities, the analysis of linear systems including these nonlinearities can be carried out by using modified linear methods. In particular, the application of pseudo force methods wherein the nonlinearities are treated as displacement dependent forcing functions acting on the linear system were investigated. The nonlinearities induced by the constraints are taken into account as generalized pseudo forces on the right-hand side of the governing dynamic equilibrium equations. Then an existing linear elastic finite element piping code, EPIPE, was modified to permit application of the procedure. This option was inserted such that the analyses could be performed using either the direct integration method or via a modal superposition method, the Newmark-Beta integration procedure being employed in both methods. The modified code was proof tested against several problems taken from the literature or developed with the nonlinear dynamics code OSCIL. The problems included a simple pipe loop, cantilever beam, and lumped mass system subjected to pulsed and periodic forcing functions. The problems were selected to gage the overall accuracy of the method and to insure that it properly predicted the jump phenomena associated with nonlinear systems. (orig.)

Task force for integral test of High Energy nuclear data

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Oyama, Yukio [Japan Atomic Energy Research Inst., Tokai, Ibaraki (Japan). Tokai Research Establishment

1998-11-01

According to completion of the JENDL-High Energy file for neutron nuclear cross sections up to 50 MeV, a task force for integral test of high energy nuclear data was organized to discuss a guide line for integral test activities. A status of existing differential and integral experiments and how to perform such a test were discussed in the task force. Here the purpose and outline of the task force is explained with some future problems raised in discussion among the task member. (author)

Corrected direct force balance method for atomic force microscopy lateral force calibration

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Asay, David B.; Hsiao, Erik; Kim, Seong H.

2009-01-01

This paper reports corrections and improvements of the previously reported direct force balance method (DFBM) developed for lateral calibration of atomic force microscopy. The DFBM method employs the lateral force signal obtained during a force-distance measurement on a sloped surface and relates this signal to the applied load and the slope of the surface to determine the lateral calibration factor. In the original publication [Rev. Sci. Instrum. 77, 043903 (2006)], the tip-substrate contact was assumed to be pinned at the point of contact, i.e., no slip along the slope. In control experiments, the tip was found to slide along the slope during force-distance curve measurement. This paper presents the correct force balance for lateral force calibration.

Integration of sensory force feedback is disturbed in CRPS-related dystonia.

Science.gov (United States)

Mugge, Winfred; van der Helm, Frans C T; Schouten, Alfred C

2013-01-01

Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is characterized by pain and disturbed blood flow, temperature regulation and motor control. Approximately 25% of cases develop fixed dystonia. The origin of this movement disorder is poorly understood, although recent insights suggest involvement of disturbed force feedback. Assessment of sensorimotor integration may provide insight into the pathophysiology of fixed dystonia. Sensory weighting is the process of integrating and weighting sensory feedback channels in the central nervous system to improve the state estimate. It was hypothesized that patients with CRPS-related dystonia bias sensory weighting of force and position toward position due to the unreliability of force feedback. The current study provides experimental evidence for dysfunctional sensory integration in fixed dystonia, showing that CRPS-patients with fixed dystonia weight force and position feedback differently than controls do. The study shows reduced force feedback weights in CRPS-patients with fixed dystonia, making it the first to demonstrate disturbed integration of force feedback in fixed dystonia, an important step towards understanding the pathophysiology of fixed dystonia.

Integration of sensory force feedback is disturbed in CRPS-related dystonia.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Winfred Mugge

Full Text Available Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS is characterized by pain and disturbed blood flow, temperature regulation and motor control. Approximately 25% of cases develop fixed dystonia. The origin of this movement disorder is poorly understood, although recent insights suggest involvement of disturbed force feedback. Assessment of sensorimotor integration may provide insight into the pathophysiology of fixed dystonia. Sensory weighting is the process of integrating and weighting sensory feedback channels in the central nervous system to improve the state estimate. It was hypothesized that patients with CRPS-related dystonia bias sensory weighting of force and position toward position due to the unreliability of force feedback. The current study provides experimental evidence for dysfunctional sensory integration in fixed dystonia, showing that CRPS-patients with fixed dystonia weight force and position feedback differently than controls do. The study shows reduced force feedback weights in CRPS-patients with fixed dystonia, making it the first to demonstrate disturbed integration of force feedback in fixed dystonia, an important step towards understanding the pathophysiology of fixed dystonia.

Polymer micro-grippers with an integrated force sensor for biological manipulation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mackay, R E; Le, H R; Clark, S; Williams, J A

2013-01-01

The development of a novel micro-system integrating SU-8 polymer micro-grippers with a tensile force sensor for handling and characterizing the mechanical properties of delicate biological materials, such as fibrils, is presented. The micro-grippers are actuated by the electro-thermal effect and have gripping forces comparable to the common ‘hot-and-cold-arm’ grippers. A robust finite element model was developed to investigate system performance and validated experimentally. A new micro-mechanical calibration method using a piezoelectric manipulator with a micro-force measurement system was successfully applied to test the structure. Both FEA simulation and micro-mechanical testing results indicated that the system could fulfil the requirements for micro-object manipulation within a biological environment. (paper)

Accurate fluid force measurement based on control surface integration

Science.gov (United States)

Lentink, David

2018-01-01

Nonintrusive 3D fluid force measurements are still challenging to conduct accurately for freely moving animals, vehicles, and deforming objects. Two techniques, 3D particle image velocimetry (PIV) and a new technique, the aerodynamic force platform (AFP), address this. Both rely on the control volume integral for momentum; whereas PIV requires numerical integration of flow fields, the AFP performs the integration mechanically based on rigid walls that form the control surface. The accuracy of both PIV and AFP measurements based on the control surface integration is thought to hinge on determining the unsteady body force associated with the acceleration of the volume of displaced fluid. Here, I introduce a set of non-dimensional error ratios to show which fluid and body parameters make the error negligible. The unsteady body force is insignificant in all conditions where the average density of the body is much greater than the density of the fluid, e.g., in gas. Whenever a strongly deforming body experiences significant buoyancy and acceleration, the error is significant. Remarkably, this error can be entirely corrected for with an exact factor provided that the body has a sufficiently homogenous density or acceleration distribution, which is common in liquids. The correction factor for omitting the unsteady body force, {{{ {ρ f}} {1 - {ρ f} ( {{ρ b}+{ρ f}} )}.{( {{{{ρ }}b}+{ρ f}} )}}} , depends only on the fluid, {ρ f}, and body, {{ρ }}b, density. Whereas these straightforward solutions work even at the liquid-gas interface in a significant number of cases, they do not work for generalized bodies undergoing buoyancy in combination with appreciable body density inhomogeneity, volume change (PIV), or volume rate-of-change (PIV and AFP). In these less common cases, the 3D body shape needs to be measured and resolved in time and space to estimate the unsteady body force. The analysis shows that accounting for the unsteady body force is straightforward to non

A Force Method Model for Dynamic Analysis of Flat-Sag Cable Structures

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xing Ma

2009-01-01

Full Text Available A new force method is proposed for analysing the dynamic behaviour of oscillating cables with small sags. The accepted dynamic model of such cables reduces to a partial differential equation (the equation of motion and an integral equation (the compatibility equation. In the paper, D’Alembert’s travelling wave solution is applied to the partial differential equation (PDE. Substituting the solution into the compatibility and boundary conditions, the governing equation is obtained in terms of the dynamic tension increment. This equation has been named the force method dynamic equation (FMDE. In this way the infinite-degree-of-freedom dynamic system is effectively simplified to a system with only one unknown. Explicit solutions for both single-span and multi-span cable systems are derived. The natural frequencies obtained from the FMDE are shown to be identical to those deduced using the conventional displacement method (DM. Nonlinear governing equations are developed by considering the effect of quadratic and cubic displacement terms. Finally, two examples are presented to illustrate the accuracy of the proposed force method for single and multi-span cable systems subjected to harmonic forces.

Structural health monitoring methods for the evaluation of prestressing forces and pre-release cracks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hiba Abdel-Jaber

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Prestressed concrete bridges currently account for 45% of bridges built in the last five years in the United States. This has resulted in an increase in the number of deficient bridges composed of prestressed concrete, which requires a better understanding of the on-site performance of this building material. The use of new materials, such as high performance concrete, in conjunction with prestressing provides additional motivation for the creation of structural health monitoring (SHM methods for prestressed concrete. This paper identifies two parameters relevant to prestressed concrete, along with methods for their evaluation. The parameters evaluated are the prestressing force value at transfer and the width of pre-release cracks, both of which are indicators of structural performance. Improper transfer of the prestressing force can result in tensile stresses in the concrete that exceed capacity and result in cracks and/or excessive deflections. Pre-release cracks occur in the concrete prior to transfer of the prestressing force and are mainly caused by autogenous shrinkage and thermal gradients. Closure of the cracks is expected by virtue of prestressing force transfer. However, the extent of crack closure is important in order to guarantee durability and structural integrity. This paper presents an integral overview of two novel methods for the statistical evaluation of the two monitored parameters: prestressing forces and the width of pre-release cracks. Validation of the methods is performed through application to two structures, both of which are components of Streicker Bridge on the Princeton University campus. Uncertainties are evaluated and thresholds for unusual behavior are set through the application.

Method of Calibrating a Force Balance

Science.gov (United States)

Parker, Peter A. (Inventor); Rhew, Ray D. (Inventor); Johnson, Thomas H. (Inventor); Landman, Drew (Inventor)

2015-01-01

A calibration system and method utilizes acceleration of a mass to generate a force on the mass. An expected value of the force is calculated based on the magnitude and acceleration of the mass. A fixture is utilized to mount the mass to a force balance, and the force balance is calibrated to provide a reading consistent with the expected force determined for a given acceleration. The acceleration can be varied to provide different expected forces, and the force balance can be calibrated for different applied forces. The acceleration may result from linear acceleration of the mass or rotational movement of the mass.

Projection and nested force-gradient methods for quantum field theories

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shcherbakov, Dmitry

2017-07-26

For the Hybrid Monte Carlo algorithm (HMC), often used to study the fundamental quantum field theory of quarks and gluons, quantum chromodynamics (QCD), on the lattice, one is interested in efficient numerical time integration schemes which preserve geometric properties of the flow and are optimal in terms of computational costs per trajectory for a given acceptance rate. High order numerical methods allow the use of larger step sizes, but demand a larger computational effort per step; low order schemes do not require such large computational costs per step, but need more steps per trajectory. So there is a need to balance these opposing effects. In this work we introduce novel geometric numerical time integrators, namely, projection and nested force-gradient methods in order to improve the efficiency of the HMC algorithm in application to the problems of quantum field theories.

Hybrid viscous damper with filtered integral force feedback control

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Høgsberg, Jan; Brodersen, Mark L.

2016-01-01

In hybrid damper systems active control devices are usually introduced to enhance the performance of otherwise passive dampers. In the present paper a hybrid damper concept is comprised of a passive viscous damper placed in series with an active actuator and a force sensor. The actuator motion...... is controlled by a filtered integral force feedback strategy, where the main feature is the filter, which is designed to render a damper force that in a phase-plane representation operates in front of the corresponding damper velocity. It is demonstrated that in the specific parameter regime where the damper...

Integral bubble and jet models with pressure forces

Science.gov (United States)

Vulfson, A. N.; Nikolaev, P. V.

2017-07-01

Modifications of integral bubble and jet models including the pressure force are proposed. Exact solutions are found for the modified model of a stationary convective jet from a point source of buoyancy and momentum. The exact solutions are compared against analytical solutions of the integral models for a stationary jet that are based on the approximation of the vertical boundary layer. It is found that the modified integral models of convective jets retain the power-law dependences on the altitude for the vertical velocity and buoyancy obtained in classical models. For a buoyant jet in a neutrally stratified atmosphere, the inclusion of the pressure force increases the amplitude of buoyancy and decreases the amplitude of vertical velocity. The total amplitude change is about 10%. It is shown that in this model there is a dynamic invariant expressing the law of a uniform distribution of the potential and kinetic energy along the jet axis. For a spontaneous jet rising in an unstably stratified atmosphere, the inclusion of the pressure force retains the amplitude of buoyancy and increases the amplitude of vertical velocity by about 15%. It is shown that in the model of a spontaneous jet there is a dynamic invariant expressing the law of a uniform distribution of the available potential and kinetic energy along the jet axis. The results are of interest for the problems of anthropogenic pollution diffusion in the air and water environments and the formulation of models for statistical and stochastic ensembles of thermals in a mass-flux parameterization of turbulent moments.

An improved method for calculation of interface pressure force in PLIC-VOF methods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sefollahi, M.; Shirani, E.

2004-08-01

Conventional methods for the modeling of surface tension force in Piecewise Linear Interface Calculation-Volume of Fluid (PLIC-VOF) methods, such as Continuum Surface Force (CSF), Continuum Surface Stress (CSS) and also Meier's method, convert the surface tension force into a body force. Not only do they include the force in the interfacial cells but also in the neighboring cells. Thus they produce spurious currents. Also the pressure jump, due to the surface tension, is not calculated accurately in these methods. In this paper a more accurate method for the application of interface force in the computational modeling of free surfaces and interfaces which use PLIC-VOF methods is developed. This method is based on the evaluation of the surface tension force only in the interfacial cells and not the neighboring cells. Also the normal and the interface surface area needed for the calculation of the surface tension force is calculated more accurately. The present method is applied to a two-dimensional motionless drop of liquid and a bubble of gas as well as a non-circular two-dimensional drop, which oscillates due to the surface tension force, in an initially stagnant fluid with no gravity force. The results are compared with the results of the cases when CSF, CSS and Meier's methods are used. It is shown that the present method calculates pressure jump at the interface more accurately and produces less spurious currents comparing to CSS an CSF models. (author)

Space station operations task force. Panel 4 report: Management integration

Science.gov (United States)

1987-01-01

The Management Integration Panel of the Space Station Operations Task Force was chartered to provide a structure and ground rules for integrating the efforts of the other three panels and to address a number of cross cutting issues that affect all areas of space station operations. Issues addressed include operations concept implementation, alternatives development and integration process, strategic policy issues and options, and program management emphasis areas.

Full nonlinear treatment of the global thermospheric wind system. Part 1: Mathematical method and analysis of forces

Science.gov (United States)

Blum, P. W.; Harris, I.

1973-01-01

The equations of horizontal motion of the neutral atmosphere between 120 and 500 km are integrated with the inclusion of all the nonlinear terms of the convective derivative and the viscous forces due to vertical and horizontal velocity gradients. Empirical models of the distribution of neutral and charged particles are assumed to be known. The model of velocities developed is a steady state model. In part 1 the mathematical method used in the integration of the Navier-Stokes equations is described and the various forces are analysed.

Conservative multi-implicit integral deferred correction methods with adaptive mesh refinement

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Layton, A.T.

2004-01-01

In most models of reacting gas dynamics, the characteristic time scales of chemical reactions are much shorter than the hydrodynamic and diffusive time scales, rendering the reaction part of the model equations stiff. Moreover, nonlinear forcings may introduce into the solutions sharp gradients or shocks, the robust behavior and correct propagation of which require the use of specialized spatial discretization procedures. This study presents high-order conservative methods for the temporal integration of model equations of reacting flows. By means of a method of lines discretization on the flux difference form of the equations, these methods compute approximations to the cell-averaged or finite-volume solution. The temporal discretization is based on a multi-implicit generalization of integral deferred correction methods. The advection term is integrated explicitly, and the diffusion and reaction terms are treated implicitly but independently, with the splitting errors present in traditional operator splitting methods reduced via the integral deferred correction procedure. To reduce computational cost, time steps used to integrate processes with widely-differing time scales may differ in size. (author)

Evaluation of time integration methods for transient response analysis of nonlinear structures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Park, K.C.

1975-01-01

Recent developments in the evaluation of direct time integration methods for the transient response analysis of nonlinear structures are presented. These developments, which are based on local stability considerations of an integrator, show that the interaction between temporal step size and nonlinearities of structural systems has a pronounced effect on both accuracy and stability of a given time integration method. The resulting evaluation technique is applied to a model nonlinear problem, in order to: 1) demonstrate that it eliminates the present costly process of evaluating time integrator for nonlinear structural systems via extensive numerical experiments; 2) identify the desirable characteristics of time integration methods for nonlinear structural problems; 3) develop improved stiffly-stable methods for application to nonlinear structures. Extension of the methodology for examination of the interaction between a time integrator and the approximate treatment of nonlinearities (such as due to pseudo-force or incremental solution procedures) is also discussed. (Auth.)

Novel Door-opening Method for Six-legged Robots Based on Only Force Sensing

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Zhi-Jun; Gao, Feng; Pan, Yang

2017-09-01

Current door-opening methods are mainly developed on tracked, wheeled and biped robots by applying multi-DOF manipulators and vision systems. However, door-opening methods for six-legged robots are seldom studied, especially using 0-DOF tools to operate and only force sensing to detect. A novel door-opening method for six-legged robots is developed and implemented to the six-parallel-legged robot. The kinematic model of the six-parallel-legged robot is established and the model of measuring the positional relationship between the robot and the door is proposed. The measurement model is completely based on only force sensing. The real-time trajectory planning method and the control strategy are designed. The trajectory planning method allows the maximum angle between the sagittal axis of the robot body and the normal line of the door plane to be 45º. A 0-DOF tool mounted to the robot body is applied to operate. By integrating with the body, the tool has 6 DOFs and enough workspace to operate. The loose grasp achieved by the tool helps release the inner force in the tool. Experiments are carried out to validate the method. The results show that the method is effective and robust in opening doors wider than 1 m. This paper proposes a novel door-opening method for six-legged robots, which notably uses a 0-DOF tool and only force sensing to detect and open the door.

Performance of a forced convection solar drier integrated with gravel as heat storage material

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mohanraj, M. [Dr Mahalingam College of Engineering and Technology, Pollachi (India). Dept. of Mechanical Engineering; Chandrasekar, P. [Swinburne Univ. of Technology, Sarawak (Malaysia). School of Engineering Sciences

2009-07-01

Sun drying is the most common method used in India to dry agricultural products such as grains, fruits and vegetables. The rate of drying depends on solar radiation, ambient temperature, wind velocity, relative humidity, initial moisture content, type of crops, crop absorptivity and mass product per unit exposed area. However, this method of spreading the crop in a thin layer on the ground has several disadvantages. This paper reported on a study that focused on developing a forced convection solar drier integrated with heat storage materials for drying various agricultural crops. The indirect forced convection solar drier, integrated with gravel as a sensible heat material, was used to dry pineapple slices under conditions similar to those found in Pollachi, India. The performance of the system was discussed along with the drying characteristics, drying rate, and specific moisture extraction rate. The results showed that the moisture content (wet basis) of pineapple was reduced from about 87.5 to 14.5 per cent (equilibrium moisture content) in about 29 hours in the bottom tray and 32 hours in the top tray. The thermal efficiency of the solar air heater was also reviewed. 9 refs., 5 figs.

Method for lateral force calibration in atomic force microscope using MEMS microforce sensor.

Science.gov (United States)

Dziekoński, Cezary; Dera, Wojciech; Jarząbek, Dariusz M

2017-11-01

In this paper we present a simple and direct method for the lateral force calibration constant determination. Our procedure does not require any knowledge about material or geometrical parameters of an investigated cantilever. We apply a commercially available microforce sensor with advanced electronics for direct measurement of the friction force applied by the cantilever's tip to a flat surface of the microforce sensor measuring beam. Due to the third law of dynamics, the friction force of the equal value tilts the AFM cantilever. Therefore, torsional (lateral force) signal is compared with the signal from the microforce sensor and the lateral force calibration constant is determined. The method is easy to perform and could be widely used for the lateral force calibration constant determination in many types of atomic force microscopes. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

High-bandwidth piezoresistive force probes with integrated thermal actuation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Doll, Joseph C; Pruitt, Beth L

2012-01-01

We present high-speed force probes with on-chip actuation and sensing for the measurement of pN-scale forces at the microsecond timescale. We achieve a high resonant frequency in water (1–100 kHz) with requisite low spring constants (0.3–40 pN nm −1 ) and low integrated force noise (1–100 pN) by targeting probe dimensions on the order of 300 nm thick, 1–2 μm wide and 30–200 μm long. Forces are measured using silicon piezoresistors, while the probes are actuated thermally with an aluminum unimorph and silicon heater. The piezoresistive sensors are designed using the open-source numerical optimization code that incorporates constraints on operating temperature. Parylene passivation enables operation in ionic media and we demonstrate simultaneous actuation and sensing. The improved design and fabrication techniques that we describe enable a 10–20-fold improvement in force resolution or measurement bandwidth over prior piezoresistive cantilevers of comparable thickness. (paper)

High bandwidth piezoresistive force probes with integrated thermal actuation

Science.gov (United States)

Doll, Joseph C.; Pruitt, Beth L.

2012-01-01

We present high-speed force probes with on-chip actuation and sensing for the measurement of pN-scale forces at the microsecond time scale. We achieve a high resonant frequency in water (1–100 kHz) with requisite low spring constants (0.3–40 pN/nm) and low integrated force noise (1–100 pN) by targeting probe dimensions on the order of 300 nm thick, 1–2 μm wide and 30–200 μm long. Forces are measured using silicon piezoresistors while the probes are actuated thermally with an aluminum unimorph and silicon heater. The piezoresistive sensors are designed using open source numerical optimization code that incorporates constraints on operating temperature. Parylene passivation enables operation in ionic media and we demonstrate simultaneous actuation and sensing. The improved design and fabrication techniques that we describe enable a 10–20 fold improvement in force resolution or measurement bandwidth over prior piezoresistive cantilevers of comparable thickness. PMID:23175616

Hadronization of quark-diquark model for nucleon structure and nuclear force by path integral

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nagata, Keitaro

2003-01-01

One of the central issues of the hadron physics is how to interpret the properties and the origin of nuclear force. Nuclear force is in principle the manifestation of dynamics of quarks and gluons but no trial has been successful yet in describing the nuclear force by using QCD, the fundamental theory of the strong interactions. Phenomenon related to the chiral symmetry and the spontaneous breaking of the chiral symmetry is one of the important phenomena for the understanding of hadron physics. Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model is one of the quark system models to explain the phenomena concerning the chiral symmetry. Although the method to deduce the Lagrangian describing mesons by applying the path integral to NJL model has been well known as the bosonization, it has been difficult to extend it to baryons because baryons are three-body system. In this paper, a method is reported to deduce Lagrangian which describes baryon-meson from quark-diquark Lagrangian by assuming that baryons are the bound states of quark and diquark. (S. Funahashi)

Joint force protection advanced security system (JFPASS) "the future of force protection: integrate and automate"

Science.gov (United States)

Lama, Carlos E.; Fagan, Joe E.

2009-09-01

The United States Department of Defense (DoD) defines 'force protection' as "preventive measures taken to mitigate hostile actions against DoD personnel (to include family members), resources, facilities, and critical information." Advanced technologies enable significant improvements in automating and distributing situation awareness, optimizing operator time, and improving sustainability, which enhance protection and lower costs. The JFPASS Joint Capability Technology Demonstration (JCTD) demonstrates a force protection environment that combines physical security and Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosive (CBRNE) defense through the application of integrated command and control and data fusion. The JFPASS JCTD provides a layered approach to force protection by integrating traditional sensors used in physical security, such as video cameras, battlefield surveillance radars, unmanned and unattended ground sensors. The optimization of human participation and automation of processes is achieved by employment of unmanned ground vehicles, along with remotely operated lethal and less-than-lethal weapon systems. These capabilities are integrated via a tailorable, user-defined common operational picture display through a data fusion engine operating in the background. The combined systems automate the screening of alarms, manage the information displays, and provide assessment and response measures. The data fusion engine links disparate sensors and systems, and applies tailored logic to focus the assessment of events. It enables timely responses by providing the user with automated and semi-automated decision support tools. The JFPASS JCTD uses standard communication/data exchange protocols, which allow the system to incorporate future sensor technologies or communication networks, while maintaining the ability to communicate with legacy or existing systems.

Force feedback facilitates multisensory integration during robotic tool use

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sengül, A.; Rognini, G.; van Elk, M.; Aspell, J.E.; Bleuler, H.; Blanke, O.

2013-01-01

The present study investigated the effects of force feedback in relation to tool use on the multisensory integration of visuo-tactile information. Participants learned to control a robotic tool through a surgical robotic interface. Following tool-use training, participants performed a crossmodal

The general 2-D moments via integral transform method for acoustic radiation and scattering

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Jerry R.; Mirotznik, Mark S.

2004-05-01

The moments via integral transform method (MITM) is a technique to analytically reduce the 2-D method of moments (MoM) impedance double integrals into single integrals. By using a special integral representation of the Green's function, the impedance integral can be analytically simplified to a single integral in terms of transformed shape and weight functions. The reduced expression requires fewer computations and reduces the fill times of the MoM impedance matrix. Furthermore, the resulting integral is analytic for nearly arbitrary shape and weight function sets. The MITM technique is developed for mixed boundary conditions and predictions with basic shape and weight function sets are presented. Comparisons of accuracy and speed between MITM and brute force are presented. [Work sponsored by ONR and NSWCCD ILIR Board.

A general method for computing the total solar radiation force on complex spacecraft structures

Science.gov (United States)

Chan, F. K.

1981-01-01

The method circumvents many of the existing difficulties in computational logic presently encountered in the direct analytical or numerical evaluation of the appropriate surface integral. It may be applied to complex spacecraft structures for computing the total force arising from either specular or diffuse reflection or even from non-Lambertian reflection and re-radiation.

Air Force Integrated Personnel and Pay System (AFIPPS)

Science.gov (United States)

2016-03-01

Technical Guidance to include Information Technolgy (IT) Standards identified in the Technical View One (1) (TV-1) and implementation guidance of GIG...Compliant with Global Information Grid (GIG) Technical Guidance to include Information Technolgy (IT) Standards identified in the Technical View One...2016 Major Automated Information System Annual Report Air Force Integrated Personnel and Pay System (AFIPPS) Defense Acquisition Management

Resonant passive–active vibration absorber with integrated force feedback control

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Høgsberg, Jan; Brodersen, Mark L; Krenk, Steen

2016-01-01

A general format of a two-terminal vibration absorber is constructed by placing a passive unit in series with a hybrid unit, composed of an active actuator in parallel with a second passive element. The displacement of the active actuator is controlled by an integrated feedback control with the difference in force between the two passive elements as input. This format allows passive and active contributions to be combined arbitrarily within the hybrid unit, which results in a versatile absorber format with guaranteed closed-loop stability. This is demonstrated for resonant absorbers with inertia realized passively by a mechanical inerter or actively by the integrated force feedback. Accurate calibration formulae are presented for two particular absorber configurations and the performance is subsequently demonstrated with respect to both equal modal damping and effective response reduction. (technical note)

Prototyping of a highly performant and integrated piezoresistive force sensor for microscale applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Komati, Bilal; Agnus, Joël; Clévy, Cédric; Lutz, Philippe

2014-01-01

In this paper, the prototyping of a new piezoresistive microforce sensor is presented. An original design taking advantage of both the mechanical and bulk piezoresistive properties of silicon is presented, which enables the easy fabrication of a very small, large-range, high-sensitivity with high integration potential sensor. The sensor is made of two silicon strain gauges for which widespread and known microfabrication processes are used. The strain gauges present a high gauge factor which allows a good sensitivity of this force sensor. The dimensions of this sensor are 700 μm in length, 100 μm in width and 12 μm in thickness. These dimensions make its use convenient with many microscale applications, notably its integration in a microgripper. The fabricated sensor is calibrated using an industrial force sensor. The design, microfabrication process and performances of the fabricated piezoresistive force sensor are innovative thanks to its resolution of 100 nN and its measurement range of 2 mN. This force sensor also presents a high signal-to-noise ratio, typically 50 dB when a 2 mN force is applied at the tip of the force sensor. (paper)

Lateral force calibration in atomic force microscopy: A new lateral force calibration method and general guidelines for optimization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cannara, Rachel J.; Eglin, Michael; Carpick, Robert W.

2006-01-01

Proper force calibration is a critical step in atomic and lateral force microscopies (AFM/LFM). The recently published torsional Sader method [C. P. Green et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 75, 1988 (2004)] facilitates the calculation of torsional spring constants of rectangular AFM cantilevers by eliminating the need to obtain information or make assumptions regarding the cantilever's material properties and thickness, both of which are difficult to measure. Complete force calibration of the lateral signal in LFM requires measurement of the lateral signal deflection sensitivity as well. In this article, we introduce a complete lateral force calibration procedure that employs the torsional Sader method and does not require making contact between the tip and any sample. In this method, a colloidal sphere is attached to a 'test' cantilever of the same width, but different length and material as the 'target' cantilever of interest. The lateral signal sensitivity is calibrated by loading the colloidal sphere laterally against a vertical sidewall. The signal sensitivity for the target cantilever is then corrected for the tip length, total signal strength, and in-plane bending of the cantilevers. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this approach in comparison with the other established lateral force calibration techniques, and make a direct comparison with the 'wedge' calibration method. The methods agree to within 5%. The propagation of errors is explicitly considered for both methods and the sources of disagreement discussed. Finally, we show that the lateral signal sensitivity is substantially reduced when the laser spot is not centered on the detector

Pipeline integrity management: integration of geotechnical and mechanical assessment to control potential risks due to external forces

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Malpartida Moya, John E.; Sota, Giancarlo Massucco de la; Seri, Walter [Compania Operadora de Gas del Amazonas, Lima (Peru)

2009-07-01

Every pipeline integrity management system evaluates and controls various threats. On pipelines which have particular characteristics as it is the case of the Andean pipelines and pipelines crossing jungles, one of the main threats are the external forces. Even, this threat causes a greater number of failures than other threats like corrosion or the third part damage. Facing this situation, the pipeline integrity management system of TgP has achieved an important development in the use and suitable handling of the information provided by diverse techniques of pipeline mechanical inspection and geotechnical inspection of the right-of-way (ROW). This document presents our methodology, which interrelate information of the in-line inspection, information of geotechnical inspections of the ROW, instrumentation (Strain Gages), topographic monitoring, among others. All this information is supported in a Geographic Information System (GIS) which allows us to integrate the information. By means of the pipeline integrity management system we control potential risks due to external forces, we have been able to act before events become critical, with no occurrence of failures. This system allows us simultaneously to optimize efforts and preserve the mechanical integrity of our pipelines, not producing neither personal nor environmental nor economical affectation. (author)

[Visualisation methods for etheric formative forces].

Science.gov (United States)

Burkhard, B; Kittel, R

2009-09-01

Rudolf Steiner, the founder of anthroposophy, suggested the development of visualisation methods for "etheric formative forces". The essential methods, their "spiritual scientific" basis and indications are described and their claims critically tested. The methods are not validated, the key criteria for diagnostic tests (reproducibility, sensitivity, specifity) are not given.

A method for the on-site determination of prestressing forces using long-gauge fiber optic strain sensors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abdel-Jaber, H; Glisic, B

2014-01-01

Structural health monitoring (SHM) consists of the continuous or periodic measurement of structural parameters and their analysis with the aim of deducing information about the performance and health condition of a structure. The significant increase in the construction of prestressed concrete bridges motivated this research on an SHM method for the on-site determination of the distribution of prestressing forces along prestressed concrete beam structures. The estimation of the distribution of forces is important as it can give information regarding the overall performance and structural integrity of the bridge. An inadequate transfer of the designed prestressing forces to the concrete cross-section can lead to a reduced capacity of the bridge and consequently malfunction or failure at lower loads than predicted by design. This paper researches a universal method for the determination of the distribution of prestressing forces along concrete beam structures at the time of transfer of the prestressing force (e.g., at the time of prestressing or post-tensioning). The method is based on the use of long-gauge fiber optic sensors, and the sensor network is similar (practically identical) to the one used for damage identification. The method encompasses the determination of prestressing forces at both healthy and cracked cross-sections, and for the latter it can yield information about the condition of the cracks. The method is validated on-site by comparison to design forces through the application to two structures: (1) a deck-stiffened arch and (2) a curved continuous girder. The uncertainty in the determination of prestressing forces was calculated and the comparison with the design forces has shown very good agreement in most of the structures’ cross-sections, but also helped identify some unusual behaviors. The method and its validation are presented in this paper. (papers)

Electromagnetic reactions of few-body systems with the Lorentz integral transform method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Leidemann, W.

2007-01-01

Various electromagnetic few-body break-up reactions into the many-body continuum are calculated microscopically with the Lorentz integral transform (LIT) method. For three- and four-body nuclei the nuclear Hamiltonian includes two- and three-nucleon forces, while semirealistic interactions are used in case of six- and seven-body systems. Comparisons with experimental data are discussed. In addition various interesting aspects of the 4 He photodisintegration are studied: investigation of a tetrahedrical symmetry of 4 He and a test of non-local nuclear force models via the induced two-body currents

Sample preparation method for scanning force microscopy

CERN Document Server

Jankov, I R; Szente, R N; Carreno, M N P; Swart, J W; Landers, R

2001-01-01

We present a method of sample preparation for studies of ion implantation on metal surfaces. The method, employing a mechanical mask, is specially adapted for samples analysed by Scanning Force Microscopy. It was successfully tested on polycrystalline copper substrates implanted with phosphorus ions at an acceleration voltage of 39 keV. The changes of the electrical properties of the surface were measured by Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy and the surface composition was analysed by Auger Electron Spectroscopy.

An Integrated Strategy Framework (ISF) for Combining Porter's 5-Forces, Diamond, PESTEL, and SWOT Analysis

OpenAIRE

Anton, Roman

2015-01-01

INTRODUCTION Porter's Five-Forces, Porter's Diamond, PESTEL, the 6th-Forths, and Humphrey's SWOT analysis are among the most important and popular concepts taught in business schools around the world. A new integrated strategy framework (ISF) combines all major concepts. PURPOSE Porter's Five-Forces, Porter's Diamond, PESTEL, the 6th-Forths, and Humphrey's SWOT analysis are among the most important and popular concepts taught in business schools around the world. A new integrated strategy fr...

Development and Testing of an Integrated Rotating Dynamometer Based on Fiber Bragg Grating for Four-Component Cutting Force Measurement.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Mingyao; Bing, Junjun; Xiao, Li; Yun, Kang; Wan, Liang

2018-04-18

Cutting force measurement is of great importance in machining processes. Hence, various methods of measuring the cutting force have been proposed by many researchers. In this work, a novel integrated rotating dynamometer based on fiber Bragg grating (FBG) was designed, constructed, and tested to measure four-component cutting force. The dynamometer consists of FBGs that are pasted on the newly designed elastic structure which is then mounted on the rotating spindle. The elastic structure is designed as two mutual-perpendicular semi-octagonal rings. The signals of the FBGs are transmitted to FBG interrogator via fiber optic rotary joints and optical fiber, and the wavelength values are displayed on a computer. In order to determine the static and dynamic characteristics, many tests have been done. The results show that it is suitable for measuring cutting force.

An integrating factor matrix method to find first integrals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Saputra, K V I; Quispel, G R W; Van Veen, L

2010-01-01

In this paper we develop an integrating factor matrix method to derive conditions for the existence of first integrals. We use this novel method to obtain first integrals, along with the conditions for their existence, for two- and three-dimensional Lotka-Volterra systems with constant terms. The results are compared to previous results obtained by other methods.

Statistical Methods in Integrative Genomics

Science.gov (United States)

Richardson, Sylvia; Tseng, George C.; Sun, Wei

2016-01-01

Statistical methods in integrative genomics aim to answer important biology questions by jointly analyzing multiple types of genomic data (vertical integration) or aggregating the same type of data across multiple studies (horizontal integration). In this article, we introduce different types of genomic data and data resources, and then review statistical methods of integrative genomics, with emphasis on the motivation and rationale of these methods. We conclude with some summary points and future research directions. PMID:27482531

Integral methods in low-frequency electromagnetics

CERN Document Server

Solin, Pavel; Karban, Pavel; Ulrych, Bohus

2009-01-01

A modern presentation of integral methods in low-frequency electromagnetics This book provides state-of-the-art knowledge on integral methods in low-frequency electromagnetics. Blending theory with numerous examples, it introduces key aspects of the integral methods used in engineering as a powerful alternative to PDE-based models. Readers will get complete coverage of: The electromagnetic field and its basic characteristics An overview of solution methods Solutions of electromagnetic fields by integral expressions Integral and integrodifferential methods

Combat Pair: The Evolution of Air Force-Navy Integration in Strike Warfare

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Lambeth, Benjamin

2007-01-01

This report documents the exceptional cross-service harmony that the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy have steadily developed in their conduct of integrated strike operations since the first Persian Gulf War in 1991...

Methods for Force Analysis of Overconstrained Parallel Mechanisms: A Review

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Wen-Lan; Xu, Yun-Dou; Yao, Jian-Tao; Zhao, Yong-Sheng

2017-11-01

The force analysis of overconstrained PMs is relatively complex and difficult, for which the methods have always been a research hotspot. However, few literatures analyze the characteristics and application scopes of the various methods, which is not convenient for researchers and engineers to master and adopt them properly. A review of the methods for force analysis of both passive and active overconstrained PMs is presented. The existing force analysis methods for these two kinds of overconstrained PMs are classified according to their main ideas. Each category is briefly demonstrated and evaluated from such aspects as the calculation amount, the comprehensiveness of considering limbs' deformation, and the existence of explicit expressions of the solutions, which provides an important reference for researchers and engineers to quickly find a suitable method. The similarities and differences between the statically indeterminate problem of passive overconstrained PMs and that of active overconstrained PMs are discussed, and a universal method for these two kinds of overconstrained PMs is pointed out. The existing deficiencies and development directions of the force analysis methods for overconstrained systems are indicated based on the overview.

Quantum mechanical methods for calculation of force constants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mullally, D.J.

1985-01-01

The focus of this thesis is upon the calculation of force constants; i.e., the second derivatives of the potential energy with respect to nuclear displacements. This information is useful for the calculation of molecular vibrational modes and frequencies. In addition, it may be used for the location and characterization of equilibrium and transition state geometries. The methods presented may also be applied to the calculation of electric polarizabilities and infrared and Raman vibrational intensities. Two approaches to this problem are studied and evaluated: finite difference methods and analytical techniques. The most suitable method depends on the type and level of theory used to calculate the electronic wave function. Double point displacement finite differencing is often required for accurate calculation of the force constant matrix. These calculations require energy and gradient calculations on both sides of the geometry of interest. In order to speed up these calculations, a novel method is presented that uses geometry dependent information about the wavefunction. A detailed derivation for the analytical evaluation of force constants with a complete active space multiconfiguration self consistent field wave function is presented

Efficient forced vibration reanalysis method for rotating electric machines

Science.gov (United States)

Saito, Akira; Suzuki, Hiromitsu; Kuroishi, Masakatsu; Nakai, Hideo

2015-01-01

Rotating electric machines are subject to forced vibration by magnetic force excitation with wide-band frequency spectrum that are dependent on the operating conditions. Therefore, when designing the electric machines, it is inevitable to compute the vibration response of the machines at various operating conditions efficiently and accurately. This paper presents an efficient frequency-domain vibration analysis method for the electric machines. The method enables the efficient re-analysis of the vibration response of electric machines at various operating conditions without the necessity to re-compute the harmonic response by finite element analyses. Theoretical background of the proposed method is provided, which is based on the modal reduction of the magnetic force excitation by a set of amplitude-modulated standing-waves. The method is applied to the forced response vibration of the interior permanent magnet motor at a fixed operating condition. The results computed by the proposed method agree very well with those computed by the conventional harmonic response analysis by the FEA. The proposed method is then applied to the spin-up test condition to demonstrate its applicability to various operating conditions. It is observed that the proposed method can successfully be applied to the spin-up test conditions, and the measured dominant frequency peaks in the frequency response can be well captured by the proposed approach.

Evaluation of POE and instructor-led problem-solving approaches integrated into force and motion lecture classes using a model analysis technique

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rakkapao, S; Pengpan, T; Srikeaw, S; Prasitpong, S

2014-01-01

This study aims to investigate the use of the predict–observe–explain (POE) approach integrated into large lecture classes on forces and motion. It is compared to the instructor-led problem-solving method using model analysis. The samples are science (SC, N = 420) and engineering (EN, N = 434) freshmen, from Prince of Songkla University, Thailand. Research findings from the force and motion conceptual evaluation indicate that the multimedia-supported POE method promotes students’ learning better than the problem-solving method, in particular for the velocity and acceleration concepts. There is a small shift of the students’ model states after the problem-solving instruction. Moreover, by using model analysis instructors are able to investigate students’ misconceptions and evaluate teaching methods. It benefits instructors in organizing subsequent instructional materials. (paper)

Space station operations task force. Panel 3 report: User development and integration

Science.gov (United States)

1987-01-01

The User Development and Integration Panel of the Space Station Operations Task Force was chartered to develop concepts relating to the operations of the Space Station manned base and the platforms, user accommodation and integration activities. The needs of the user community are addressed in the context with the mature operations phase of the Space Station. Issues addressed include space station pricing options, marketing strategies, payload selection and resource allocation options, and manifesting techniques.

Brazilian Air Force aircraft structural integrity program: An overview

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alberto W. S. Mello Junior

2009-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents an overview of the activities developed by the Structural Integrity Group at the Institute of Aeronautics and Space - IAE, Brazil, as well as the status of ongoing work related to the life extension program for aircraft operated by the Brazilian Air Force BAF. The first BAF-operated airplane to undergo a DTA-based life extension was the F-5 fighter, in the mid 1990s. From 1998 to 2001, BAF worked on a life extension project for the BAF AT- 26 Xavante trainer. All analysis and tests were performed at IAE. The fatigue critical locations (FCLs were presumed based upon structural design and maintenance data and also from exchange of technical information with other users of the airplane around the world. Following that work, BAF started in 2002 the extension of the operational life of the BAF T-25 “Universal”. The T-25 is the basic training airplane used by AFA - The Brazilian Air Force Academy. This airplane was also designed under the “safe-life” concept. As the T-25 fleet approached its service life limit, the Brazilian Air Force was questioning whether it could be kept in flight safely. The answer came through an extensive Damage Tolerance Analysis (DTA program, briefly described in this paper. The current work on aircraft structural integrity is being performed for the BAF F-5 E/F that underwent an avionics and weapons system upgrade. Along with the increase in weight, new configurations and mission profiles were established. Again, a DTA program was proposed to be carried out in order to establish the reliability of the upgraded F-5 fleet. As a result of all the work described, the BAF has not reported any accident due to structural failure on aircraft submitted to Damage Tolerance Analysis.

Integration of a force feedback joystick with a VR system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Castro, A C [ENEA, Centro Ricerche Casaccia, S. Maria di Galeria, RM (Italy). Dipt. Innovazione

1999-07-01

The report shows the result carried out at the Robotics and Information Systems Division of ENEA (National Agency for New Technology, Energy and the Environment) in the Casaccia Centre (Rome). The study presents an approach to the problem of integrating force feedback with a complete real-time virtual environment system: in particular bulky computations for graphics or simulation require a decoupling of the haptic servo loop from the main application loop if high-quality forces are to be obtained. The control system has been developed for the force-feedback joystick Impulse 2000, from Immersion Co., and the integration of it to a virtual environment is presented here. Technical issues related to the development of control architectures for Internet-based exchange of haptic information, in a stable way are discussed. [Italian] Il presente rapporto descrive il lavoro eseguito nella divisione robotica e informatica del dipartimento innovazione dell'ENEA del centro ricerche della Casaccia (Roma): il sistema di controllo del dispositivo con ritorno di forza in un sistema RV (real-time virtual environment system) ed illustra l'approccio a questa problematica ed in particolare la lentezza di esecuzione del ciclo di calcoli per la resa delle immagini da parte del sistema grafico e del ciclio per la simulazione della dinamica di sistema. Viene descritto il sistema di controllo per il joystick con ritorno di forza Impulse 2000 (Immersion Co.) e la sua integrazione ad un ambiente virtuale. Sono inoltre discusse le problematiche connesse allo sviluppo di sistemi che consentano lo scambio dell'informazione tattile attraverso Internet.

Integration of a force feedback joystick with a VR system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Castro, A.C. [ENEA, Centro Ricerche Casaccia, S. Maria di Galeria, RM (Italy). Dipt. Innovazione

1999-07-01

The report shows the result carried out at the Robotics and Information Systems Division of ENEA (National Agency for New Technology, Energy and the Environment) in the Casaccia Centre (Rome). The study presents an approach to the problem of integrating force feedback with a complete real-time virtual environment system: in particular bulky computations for graphics or simulation require a decoupling of the haptic servo loop from the main application loop if high-quality forces are to be obtained. The control system has been developed for the force-feedback joystick Impulse 2000, from Immersion Co., and the integration of it to a virtual environment is presented here. Technical issues related to the development of control architectures for Internet-based exchange of haptic information, in a stable way are discussed. [Italian] Il presente rapporto descrive il lavoro eseguito nella divisione robotica e informatica del dipartimento innovazione dell'ENEA del centro ricerche della Casaccia (Roma): il sistema di controllo del dispositivo con ritorno di forza in un sistema RV (real-time virtual environment system) ed illustra l'approccio a questa problematica ed in particolare la lentezza di esecuzione del ciclo di calcoli per la resa delle immagini da parte del sistema grafico e del ciclio per la simulazione della dinamica di sistema. Viene descritto il sistema di controllo per il joystick con ritorno di forza Impulse 2000 (Immersion Co.) e la sua integrazione ad un ambiente virtuale. Sono inoltre discusse le problematiche connesse allo sviluppo di sistemi che consentano lo scambio dell'informazione tattile attraverso Internet.

The Use of Rapid Review Methods for the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.

Science.gov (United States)

Patnode, Carrie D; Eder, Michelle L; Walsh, Emily S; Viswanathan, Meera; Lin, Jennifer S

2018-01-01

Rapid review products are intended to synthesize available evidence in a timely fashion while still meeting the needs of healthcare decision makers. Various methods and products have been applied for rapid evidence syntheses, but no single approach has been uniformly adopted. Methods to gain efficiency and compress the review time period include focusing on a narrow clinical topic and key questions; limiting the literature search; performing single (versus dual) screening of abstracts and full-text articles for relevance; and limiting the analysis and synthesis. In order to maintain the scientific integrity, including transparency, of rapid evidence syntheses, it is imperative that procedures used to streamline standard systematic review methods are prespecified, based on sound review principles and empiric evidence when possible, and provide the end user with an accurate and comprehensive synthesis. The collection of clinical preventive service recommendations maintained by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, along with its commitment to rigorous methods development, provide a unique opportunity to refine, implement, and evaluate rapid evidence synthesis methods and add to an emerging evidence base on rapid review methods. This paper summarizes the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force's use of rapid review methodology, its criteria for selecting topics for rapid evidence syntheses, and proposed methods to streamline the review process. Copyright © 2018 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. All rights reserved.

Force Feedback Control Method of Active Tuned Mass Damper

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiuli Wang

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Active tuned mass dampers as vibration-control devices are widely used in many fields for their good stability and effectiveness. To improve the performance of such dampers, a control method based on force feedback is proposed. The method offers several advantages such as high-precision control and low-performance requirements for the actuator, as well as not needing additional compensators. The force feedback control strategy was designed based on direct-velocity feedback. The effectiveness of the method was verified in a single-degree-of-freedom system, and factors such as damping effect, required active force, actuator stroke, and power consumption of the damper were analyzed. Finally, a simulation study was performed by configuring a main complex elastic-vibration-damping system. The results show that the method provides effective control over modal resonances of multiple orders of the system and improves its dynamics performance.

Robust operation and performance of integrated carbon nanotubes atomic force microscopy probes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rius, G; Clark, I T; Yoshimura, M

2013-01-01

We present a complete characterization of carbon nanotubes-atomic force microscopy (CNT-AFM) probes to evaluate the cantilever operation and advanced properties originating from the CNTs. The fabrication consists of silicon probes tip-functionalized with multiwalled CNTs by microwave plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition. A dedicated methodology has been defined to evaluate the effect of CNT integration into the Si cantilevers. The presence of the CNTs provides enhanced capability for sensing and durability, as demonstrated using dynamic and static modes, e.g. imaging, indentation and force/current characterization.

Path integral methods via the use of the central limit theorem and application

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Thrapsaniotis, E G

2008-01-01

We consider a path integral in the phase space possibly with an influence functional in it and we use a method based on the use of the central limit theorem on the phase of the path integral representation to extract an equivalent expression which can be used in numerical calculations. Moreover we give conditions under which we can extract closed analytical results. As a specific application we consider a general system of two coupled and forced harmonic oscillators with coupling of the form x 1 x α 2 and we derive the relevant sign solved propagator

Integral equation methods for vesicle electrohydrodynamics in three dimensions

Science.gov (United States)

Veerapaneni, Shravan

2016-12-01

In this paper, we develop a new boundary integral equation formulation that describes the coupled electro- and hydro-dynamics of a vesicle suspended in a viscous fluid and subjected to external flow and electric fields. The dynamics of the vesicle are characterized by a competition between the elastic, electric and viscous forces on its membrane. The classical Taylor-Melcher leaky-dielectric model is employed for the electric response of the vesicle and the Helfrich energy model combined with local inextensibility is employed for its elastic response. The coupled governing equations for the vesicle position and its transmembrane electric potential are solved using a numerical method that is spectrally accurate in space and first-order in time. The method uses a semi-implicit time-stepping scheme to overcome the numerical stiffness associated with the governing equations.

Novel applications of the temporal kernel method: Historical and future radiative forcing

Science.gov (United States)

Portmann, R. W.; Larson, E.; Solomon, S.; Murphy, D. M.

2017-12-01

We present a new estimate of the historical radiative forcing derived from the observed global mean surface temperature and a model derived kernel function. Current estimates of historical radiative forcing are usually derived from climate models. Despite large variability in these models, the multi-model mean tends to do a reasonable job of representing the Earth system and climate. One method of diagnosing the transient radiative forcing in these models requires model output of top of the atmosphere radiative imbalance and global mean temperature anomaly. It is difficult to apply this method to historical observations due to the lack of TOA radiative measurements before CERES. We apply the temporal kernel method (TKM) of calculating radiative forcing to the historical global mean temperature anomaly. This novel approach is compared against the current regression based methods using model outputs and shown to produce consistent forcing estimates giving confidence in the forcing derived from the historical temperature record. The derived TKM radiative forcing provides an estimate of the forcing time series that the average climate model needs to produce the observed temperature record. This forcing time series is found to be in good overall agreement with previous estimates but includes significant differences that will be discussed. The historical anthropogenic aerosol forcing is estimated as a residual from the TKM and found to be consistent with earlier moderate forcing estimates. In addition, this method is applied to future temperature projections to estimate the radiative forcing required to achieve those temperature goals, such as those set in the Paris agreement.

Highly-Integrated Hydraulic Smart Actuators and Smart Manifolds for High-Bandwidth Force Control

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Victor Barasuol

2018-06-01

Full Text Available Hydraulic actuation is the most widely used alternative to electric motors for legged robots and manipulators. It is often selected for its high power density, robustness and high-bandwidth control performance that allows the implementation of force/impedance control. Force control is crucial for robots that are in contact with the environment, since it enables the implementation of active impedance and whole body control that can lead to a better performance in known and unknown environments. This paper presents the hydraulic Integrated Smart Actuator (ISA developed by Moog in collaboration with IIT, as well as smart manifolds for rotary hydraulic actuators. The ISA consists of an additive-manufactured body containing a hydraulic cylinder, servo valve, pressure/position/load/temperature sensing, overload protection and electronics for control and communication. The ISA v2 and ISA v5 have been specifically designed to fit into the legs of IIT’s hydraulic quadruped robots HyQ and HyQ-REAL, respectively. The key features of these components tackle 3 of today’s main challenges of hydraulic actuation for legged robots through: (1 built-in controllers running inside integrated electronics for high-performance control, (2 low-leakage servo valves for reduced energy losses, and (3 compactness thanks to metal additive manufacturing. The main contributions of this paper are the derivation of the representative dynamic models of these highly integrated hydraulic servo actuators, a control architecture that allows for high-bandwidth force control and their experimental validation with application-specific trajectories and tests. We believe that this is the first work that presents additive-manufactured, highly integrated hydraulic smart actuators for robotics.

Perspective: Ab initio force field methods derived from quantum mechanics

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Peng; Guidez, Emilie B.; Bertoni, Colleen; Gordon, Mark S.

2018-03-01

It is often desirable to accurately and efficiently model the behavior of large molecular systems in the condensed phase (thousands to tens of thousands of atoms) over long time scales (from nanoseconds to milliseconds). In these cases, ab initio methods are difficult due to the increasing computational cost with the number of electrons. A more computationally attractive alternative is to perform the simulations at the atomic level using a parameterized function to model the electronic energy. Many empirical force fields have been developed for this purpose. However, the functions that are used to model interatomic and intermolecular interactions contain many fitted parameters obtained from selected model systems, and such classical force fields cannot properly simulate important electronic effects. Furthermore, while such force fields are computationally affordable, they are not reliable when applied to systems that differ significantly from those used in their parameterization. They also cannot provide the information necessary to analyze the interactions that occur in the system, making the systematic improvement of the functional forms that are used difficult. Ab initio force field methods aim to combine the merits of both types of methods. The ideal ab initio force fields are built on first principles and require no fitted parameters. Ab initio force field methods surveyed in this perspective are based on fragmentation approaches and intermolecular perturbation theory. This perspective summarizes their theoretical foundation, key components in their formulation, and discusses key aspects of these methods such as accuracy and formal computational cost. The ab initio force fields considered here were developed for different targets, and this perspective also aims to provide a balanced presentation of their strengths and shortcomings. Finally, this perspective suggests some future directions for this actively developing area.

A Systematic Method to Analyze Force Majeure in Construction Claims

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Saud Alshammari

2017-12-01

Full Text Available In construction delay claims, force majeure is normally recognized as an excusable risk that entitles contractors only to time extensions, but neither of the contracting parties is entitled to monetary compensation to recover delay damages. However, there are instances where contractors are entitled to both time and cost compensations, as evidenced by some court cases relating to force majeure claims. Such instances involve attributing the occurrence of the force majeure to the effect of other prior delay events that pushed project performance into the period of the force majeure. Existing delay analysis methods are not capable of addressing this issue, as none take the impact of other delays into consideration when analyzing force majeure claims. Stimulated by this gap, this study proposes an improved and sound method for fairly analyzing the responsibility of force majeure delay claims amongst contracting parties. This method was implemented on a case project to help demonstrate its application and also ascertain its practicability. The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, it has highlighted the situation of force majeure delay that can be compensable, creating more awareness among researchers and industry practitioners. The second is a proposed systematic process to appropriately analyze its responsibility, which equitably addresses claims from such delays with little or no chance of dispute ensuing.

Comparison of Force Reconstruction Methods for a Lumped Mass Beam

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vesta I. Bateman

1997-01-01

Full Text Available Two extensions of the force reconstruction method, the sum of weighted accelerations technique (SWAT, are presented in this article. SWAT requires the use of the structure’s elastic mode shapes for reconstruction of the applied force. Although based on the same theory, the two new techniques do not rely on mode shapes to reconstruct the applied force and may be applied to structures whose mode shapes are not available. One technique uses the measured force and acceleration responses with the rigid body mode shapes to calculate the scalar weighting vector, so the technique is called SWAT-CAL (SWAT using a calibrated force input. The second technique uses the free-decay time response of the structure with the rigid body mode shapes to calculate the scalar weighting vector and is called SWAT-TEEM (SWAT using time eliminated elastic modes. All three methods are used to reconstruct forces for a simple structure.

Integral equation methods for electromagnetics

CERN Document Server

Volakis, John

2012-01-01

This text/reference is a detailed look at the development and use of integral equation methods for electromagnetic analysis, specifically for antennas and radar scattering. Developers and practitioners will appreciate the broad-based approach to understanding and utilizing integral equation methods and the unique coverage of historical developments that led to the current state-of-the-art. In contrast to existing books, Integral Equation Methods for Electromagnetics lays the groundwork in the initial chapters so students and basic users can solve simple problems and work their way up to the mo

Full non-linear treatment of the global thermospheric wind system. I - Mathematical method and analysis of forces. II - Results and comparison with observations

Science.gov (United States)

Blum, P. W.; Harris, I.

1975-01-01

The equations of horizontal motion of the neutral atmosphere between 120 and 500 km are integrated with the inclusion of all nonlinear terms of the convective derivative and the viscous forces due to vertical and horizontal velocity gradients. Empirical models of the distribution of neutral and charged particles are assumed to be known. The model of velocities developed is a steady state model. In Part I the mathematical method used in the integration of the Navier-Stokes equations is described and the various forces are analyzed. Results of the method given in Part I are presented with comparison with previous calculations and observations of upper atmospheric winds. Conclusions are that nonlinear effects are only significant in the equatorial region, especially at solstice conditions and that nonlinear effects do not produce any superrotation.

Diverse methods for integrable models

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Fehér, G.

2017-01-01

This thesis is centered around three topics, sharing integrability as a common theme. This thesis explores different methods in the field of integrable models. The first two chapters are about integrable lattice models in statistical physics. The last chapter describes an integrable quantum chain.

Force measuring valve assemblies, systems including such valve assemblies and related methods

Science.gov (United States)

DeWall, Kevin George [Pocatello, ID; Garcia, Humberto Enrique [Idaho Falls, ID; McKellar, Michael George [Idaho Falls, ID

2012-04-17

Methods of evaluating a fluid condition may include stroking a valve member and measuring a force acting on the valve member during the stroke. Methods of evaluating a fluid condition may include measuring a force acting on a valve member in the presence of fluid flow over a period of time and evaluating at least one of the frequency of changes in the measured force over the period of time and the magnitude of the changes in the measured force over the period of time to identify the presence of an anomaly in a fluid flow and, optionally, its estimated location. Methods of evaluating a valve condition may include directing a fluid flow through a valve while stroking a valve member, measuring a force acting on the valve member during the stroke, and comparing the measured force to a reference force. Valve assemblies and related systems are also disclosed.

An efficient implicit direct forcing immersed boundary method for incompressible flows

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cai, S-G; Ouahsine, A; Smaoui, H; Favier, J; Hoarau, Y

2015-01-01

A novel efficient implicit direct forcing immersed boundary method for incompressible flows with complex boundaries is presented. In the previous work [1], the calculation is performed on the Cartesian grid regardless of the immersed object, with a fictitious force evaluated on the Lagrangian points to mimic the presence of the physical boundaries. However the explicit direct forcing method [1] fails to accurately impose the non-slip boundary condition on the immersed interface. In the present work, the calculation is based on the implicit treatment of the artificial force while in an effective way of system iteration. The accuracy is also improved by solving the Navier-Stokes equation with the rotational incremental pressure- correction projection method of Guermond and Shen [2]. Numerical simulations performed with the proposed method are in good agreement with those in the literature

Localization and force analysis at the single virus particle level using atomic force microscopy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu, Chih-Hao; Horng, Jim-Tong; Chang, Jeng-Shian; Hsieh, Chung-Fan; Tseng, You-Chen; Lin, Shiming

2012-01-01

Highlights: ► Localization of single virus particle. ► Force measurements. ► Force mapping. -- Abstract: Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a vital instrument in nanobiotechnology. In this study, we developed a method that enables AFM to simultaneously measure specific unbinding force and map the viral glycoprotein at the single virus particle level. The average diameter of virus particles from AFM images and the specificity between the viral surface antigen and antibody probe were integrated to design a three-stage method that sets the measuring area to a single virus particle before obtaining the force measurements, where the influenza virus was used as the object of measurements. Based on the purposed method and performed analysis, several findings can be derived from the results. The mean unbinding force of a single virus particle can be quantified, and no significant difference exists in this value among virus particles. Furthermore, the repeatability of the proposed method is demonstrated. The force mapping images reveal that the distributions of surface viral antigens recognized by antibody probe were dispersed on the whole surface of individual virus particles under the proposed method and experimental criteria; meanwhile, the binding probabilities are similar among particles. This approach can be easily applied to most AFM systems without specific components or configurations. These results help understand the force-based analysis at the single virus particle level, and therefore, can reinforce the capability of AFM to investigate a specific type of viral surface protein and its distributions.

Lift force fluctuations of magnetically levitated vehicles with an integrated synchronous linear motor and their significance for the technical security

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mnich, P; Huebner, K D

1980-07-15

In this paper the influence of the motor current on the magnetic force is investigated by an analytical method. With the integrated synchronous linear motor the reactions of the current sheet on the excitation field are depending on the pole angle and the amplitude of the current sheet. For an undisturbed operation - current sheet and induction wave in phase - the influence of the motor current on the magnetic force can be neglected. In case of a disturbed performance, i.e. when the pole angle is changing periodically, fluctuations of the magnetic force will be found. This effect has to be compensated by a reserve magnetic force in the levitation control. With the technical data for the new magnetic levitation pilots plants (International Traffic Fair 1979 at Hamburg and Transrapid - Pilot Plant Emsland) the stated relations are evaluated. Approximated relations for the levitation force are derived. For comparison, a finite-difference computer programme from the 'Institut fuer elektrische Maschinen, Antriebe und Bahnen, Technische Universitaet Braunschweig' is applied. The approximated relations developed in this paper are verified - with a sufficient precision - by the numerical calculations.

Forcing scheme analysis for the axisymmetric lattice Boltzmann method under incompressible limit.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Liangqi; Yang, Shiliang; Zeng, Zhong; Chen, Jie; Yin, Linmao; Chew, Jia Wei

2017-04-01

Because the standard lattice Boltzmann (LB) method is proposed for Cartesian Navier-Stokes (NS) equations, additional source terms are necessary in the axisymmetric LB method for representing the axisymmetric effects. Therefore, the accuracy and applicability of the axisymmetric LB models depend on the forcing schemes adopted for discretization of the source terms. In this study, three forcing schemes, namely, the trapezium rule based scheme, the direct forcing scheme, and the semi-implicit centered scheme, are analyzed theoretically by investigating their derived macroscopic equations in the diffusive scale. Particularly, the finite difference interpretation of the standard LB method is extended to the LB equations with source terms, and then the accuracy of different forcing schemes is evaluated for the axisymmetric LB method. Theoretical analysis indicates that the discrete lattice effects arising from the direct forcing scheme are part of the truncation error terms and thus would not affect the overall accuracy of the standard LB method with general force term (i.e., only the source terms in the momentum equation are considered), but lead to incorrect macroscopic equations for the axisymmetric LB models. On the other hand, the trapezium rule based scheme and the semi-implicit centered scheme both have the advantage of avoiding the discrete lattice effects and recovering the correct macroscopic equations. Numerical tests applied for validating the theoretical analysis show that both the numerical stability and the accuracy of the axisymmetric LB simulations are affected by the direct forcing scheme, which indicate that forcing schemes free of the discrete lattice effects are necessary for the axisymmetric LB method.

AN INTELLIGENT NEURO-FUZZY TERMINAL SLIDING MODE CONTROL METHOD WITH APPLICATION TO ATOMIC FORCE MICROSCOPE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Seied Yasser Nikoo

2016-11-01

Full Text Available In this paper, a neuro-fuzzy fast terminal sliding mode control method is proposed for controlling a class of nonlinear systems with bounded uncertainties and disturbances. In this method, a nonlinear terminal sliding surface is firstly designed. Then, this sliding surface is considered as input for an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system which is the main controller. A proportinal-integral-derivative controller is also used to asist the neuro-fuzzy controller in order to improve the performance of the system at the begining stage of control operation. In addition, bee algorithm is used in this paper to update the weights of neuro-fuzzy system as well as the parameters of the proportinal-integral-derivative controller. The proposed control scheme is simulated for vibration control in a model of atomic force microscope system and the results are compared with conventional sliding mode controllers. The simulation results show that the chattering effect in the proposed controller is decreased in comparison with the sliding mode and the terminal sliding mode controllers. Also, the method provides the advantages of fast convergence and low model dependency compared to the conventional methods.

A modified precise integration method based on Magnus expansion for transient response analysis of time varying dynamical structure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yue, Cong; Ren, Xingmin; Yang, Yongfeng; Deng, Wangqun

2016-01-01

This paper provides a precise and efficacious methodology for manifesting forced vibration response with respect to the time-variant linear rotational structure subjected to unbalanced excitation. A modified algorithm based on time step precise integration method and Magnus expansion is developed for instantaneous dynamic problems. The iterative solution is achieved by the ideology of transition and dimensional increment matrix. Numerical examples on a typical accelerating rotation system considering gyroscopic moment and mass unbalance force comparatively demonstrate the validity, effectiveness and accuracy with Newmark-β method. It is shown that the proposed algorithm has high accuracy without loss efficiency.

Methodes de calcul des forces aerodynamiques pour les etudes des interactions aeroservoelastiques

Science.gov (United States)

Biskri, Djallel Eddine

L'aeroservoelasticite est un domaine ou interagissent la structure flexible d'un avion, l'aerodynamique et la commande de vol. De son cote, la commande du vol considere l'avion comme une structure rigide et etudie l'influence du systeme de commande sur la dynamique de vol. Dans cette these, nous avons code trois nouvelles methodes d'approximation de forces aerodynamiques: Moindres carres corriges, Etat minimal corrige et Etats combines. Dans les deux premieres methodes, les erreurs d'approximation entre les forces aerodynamiques approximees par les methodes classiques et celles obtenues par les nouvelles methodes ont les memes formes analytiques que celles des forces aerodynamiques calculees par LS ou MS. Quant a la troisieme methode, celle-ci combine les formulations des forces approximees avec les methodes standards LS et MS. Les vitesses et frequences de battement et les temps d'executions calcules par les nouvelles methodes versus ceux calcules par les methodes classiques ont ete analyses.

Interoperability, Integration, and Interdependence Between the United States and Canadian Forces: Recreating the Devil’s Brigade

Science.gov (United States)

2016-05-26

www.arcic.army.mil/Articles/cdd-Force-Design-in-a-Constrained­ Environment.aspx. 45 Tzu , Sun . The Art of War... Bibliography Army Capabilities Integration Center. “Force 2025 and Beyond.” US Army. February 18, 2016. Accessed February 20, 2016. http

Force prediction in cold rolling mills by polynomial methods

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nicu ROMAN

2007-12-01

Full Text Available A method for steel and aluminium strip thickness control is provided including a new technique for predictive rolling force estimation method by statistic model based on polynomial techniques.

Detent Force Calculations of a PMLSM Using the Finite Element Method

Science.gov (United States)

Remy, Ghislain; Krebs, Guillaume; Tounzi, Abdelmounaïm; Barre, Pierre-Jean

This paper presents a Finite Element Analysis of a Permanent Magnet Linear Synchronous Motor. The aim is to obtain an accurate estimation of the detent force without oversize computation. First, some usual techniques dedicated to the calculation of the forces in electromagnetic devices, such as the Virtual Work Method and the Maxwell Stress Tensor, are described. Some keypoints of the meshing method using a commercial FEM software are presented and used in order to improve the thrust computations. After that, the topology and features of the studied motor are described to highlight specific problems of the modelling process. In the 2D FEM case, new meshing techniques are proposed, according to the force calculations. The FEM results obtained from the different methods are analysed and compared with the experimental ones. Second, using FEM results, a study of the independence of the cogging and the end-effect forces is presented. Particularly, an original approach is suggested in order to compute the cogging force only, using the same mesh for each motion step. Then, the PMLSM geometry is adapted to calculate the end-effect forces only.

B-spline tight frame based force matching method

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Jianbin; Zhu, Guanhua; Tong, Dudu; Lu, Lanyuan; Shen, Zuowei

2018-06-01

In molecular dynamics simulations, compared with popular all-atom force field approaches, coarse-grained (CG) methods are frequently used for the rapid investigations of long time- and length-scale processes in many important biological and soft matter studies. The typical task in coarse-graining is to derive interaction force functions between different CG site types in terms of their distance, bond angle or dihedral angle. In this paper, an ℓ1-regularized least squares model is applied to form the force functions, which makes additional use of the B-spline wavelet frame transform in order to preserve the important features of force functions. The B-spline tight frames system has a simple explicit expression which is useful for representing our force functions. Moreover, the redundancy of the system offers more resilience to the effects of noise and is useful in the case of lossy data. Numerical results for molecular systems involving pairwise non-bonded, three and four-body bonded interactions are obtained to demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.

Localization and force analysis at the single virus particle level using atomic force microscopy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Liu, Chih-Hao [Institute of Applied Mechanics, Nation Taiwan University, Roosevelt Road, Taipei 10617, Taiwan (China); Horng, Jim-Tong [Department of Biochemistry, Chang Gung University, 259 Wen-Hwa First Road, Kweishan, Taoyuan 333, Taiwan (China); Chang, Jeng-Shian [Institute of Applied Mechanics, Nation Taiwan University, Roosevelt Road, Taipei 10617, Taiwan (China); Hsieh, Chung-Fan [Graduate Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Chang Gung University, Kweishan, Taoyuan 333, Taiwan (China); Tseng, You-Chen [Institute of Applied Mechanics, Nation Taiwan University, Roosevelt Road, Taipei 10617, Taiwan (China); Lin, Shiming, E-mail: til@ntu.edu.tw [Institute of Applied Mechanics, Nation Taiwan University, Roosevelt Road, Taipei 10617, Taiwan (China); Center for Optoelectronic Biomedicine, College of Medicine, Nation Taiwan University, 1-1 Jen-Ai Road, Taipei 10051, Taiwan (China)

2012-01-06

Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Localization of single virus particle. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Force measurements. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Force mapping. -- Abstract: Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a vital instrument in nanobiotechnology. In this study, we developed a method that enables AFM to simultaneously measure specific unbinding force and map the viral glycoprotein at the single virus particle level. The average diameter of virus particles from AFM images and the specificity between the viral surface antigen and antibody probe were integrated to design a three-stage method that sets the measuring area to a single virus particle before obtaining the force measurements, where the influenza virus was used as the object of measurements. Based on the purposed method and performed analysis, several findings can be derived from the results. The mean unbinding force of a single virus particle can be quantified, and no significant difference exists in this value among virus particles. Furthermore, the repeatability of the proposed method is demonstrated. The force mapping images reveal that the distributions of surface viral antigens recognized by antibody probe were dispersed on the whole surface of individual virus particles under the proposed method and experimental criteria; meanwhile, the binding probabilities are similar among particles. This approach can be easily applied to most AFM systems without specific components or configurations. These results help understand the force-based analysis at the single virus particle level, and therefore, can reinforce the capability of AFM to investigate a specific type of viral surface protein and its distributions.

[Comparison of cell elasticity analysis methods based on atomic force microscopy indentation].

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Zhe; Hao, Fengtao; Chen, Xiaohu; Yang, Zhouqi; Ding, Chong; Shang, Peng

2014-10-01

In order to investigate in greater detail the two methods based on Hertz model for analyzing force-distance curve obtained by atomic force microscopy, we acquired the force-distance curves of Hela and MCF-7 cells by atomic force microscopy (AFM) indentation in this study. After the determination of contact point, Young's modulus in different indentation depth were calculated with two analysis methods of "two point" and "slope fitting". The results showed that the Young's modulus of Hela cell was higher than that of MCF-7 cell,which is in accordance with the F-actin distribution of the two types of cell. We found that the Young's modulus of the cells was decreased with increasing indentation depth and the curve trends by "slope fitting". This indicated that the "slope fitting" method could reduce the error caused by the miscalculation of contact point. The purpose of this study was to provide a guidance for researcher to choose an appropriate method for analyzing AFM indentation force-distance curve.

A multi-axis MEMS sensor with integrated carbon nanotube-based piezoresistors for nanonewton level force metrology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cullinan, Michael A; Panas, Robert M; Culpepper, Martin L

2012-01-01

This paper presents the design and fabrication of a multi-axis microelectromechanical system (MEMS) force sensor with integrated carbon nanotube (CNT)-based piezoresistive sensors. Through the use of proper CNT selection and sensor fabrication techniques, the performance of the CNT-based MEMS force sensor was increased by approximately two orders of magnitude as compared to current CNT-based sensor systems. The range and resolution of the force sensor were determined as 84 μN and 5.6 nN, respectively. The accuracy of the force sensor was measured to be better than 1% over the device’s full range. (paper)

Scalable force directed graph layout algorithms using fast multipole methods

KAUST Repository

Yunis, Enas Abdulrahman; Yokota, Rio; Ahmadia, Aron

2012-01-01

We present an extension to ExaFMM, a Fast Multipole Method library, as a generalized approach for fast and scalable execution of the Force-Directed Graph Layout algorithm. The Force-Directed Graph Layout algorithm is a physics-based approach

A numerical integration-based yield estimation method for integrated circuits

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liang Tao; Jia Xinzhang

2011-01-01

A novel integration-based yield estimation method is developed for yield optimization of integrated circuits. This method tries to integrate the joint probability density function on the acceptability region directly. To achieve this goal, the simulated performance data of unknown distribution should be converted to follow a multivariate normal distribution by using Box-Cox transformation (BCT). In order to reduce the estimation variances of the model parameters of the density function, orthogonal array-based modified Latin hypercube sampling (OA-MLHS) is presented to generate samples in the disturbance space during simulations. The principle of variance reduction of model parameters estimation through OA-MLHS together with BCT is also discussed. Two yield estimation examples, a fourth-order OTA-C filter and a three-dimensional (3D) quadratic function are used for comparison of our method with Monte Carlo based methods including Latin hypercube sampling and importance sampling under several combinations of sample sizes and yield values. Extensive simulations show that our method is superior to other methods with respect to accuracy and efficiency under all of the given cases. Therefore, our method is more suitable for parametric yield optimization. (semiconductor integrated circuits)

A numerical integration-based yield estimation method for integrated circuits

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Liang Tao; Jia Xinzhang, E-mail: tliang@yahoo.cn [Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education for Wide Bandgap Semiconductor Materials and Devices, School of Microelectronics, Xidian University, Xi' an 710071 (China)

2011-04-15

A novel integration-based yield estimation method is developed for yield optimization of integrated circuits. This method tries to integrate the joint probability density function on the acceptability region directly. To achieve this goal, the simulated performance data of unknown distribution should be converted to follow a multivariate normal distribution by using Box-Cox transformation (BCT). In order to reduce the estimation variances of the model parameters of the density function, orthogonal array-based modified Latin hypercube sampling (OA-MLHS) is presented to generate samples in the disturbance space during simulations. The principle of variance reduction of model parameters estimation through OA-MLHS together with BCT is also discussed. Two yield estimation examples, a fourth-order OTA-C filter and a three-dimensional (3D) quadratic function are used for comparison of our method with Monte Carlo based methods including Latin hypercube sampling and importance sampling under several combinations of sample sizes and yield values. Extensive simulations show that our method is superior to other methods with respect to accuracy and efficiency under all of the given cases. Therefore, our method is more suitable for parametric yield optimization. (semiconductor integrated circuits)

Integrated pressure-force-kinematics measuring system for the characterisation of plantar foot loading during locomotion.

Science.gov (United States)

Giacomozzi, C; Macellari, V; Leardini, A; Benedetti, M G

2000-03-01

Plantar pressure, ground reaction force and body-segment kinematics measurements are largely used in gait analysis to characterise normal and abnormal function of the human foot. The combination of all these data together provides a more exhaustive, detailed and accurate view of foot loading during activities than traditional measurement systems alone do. A prototype system is presented that integrates a pressure platform, a force platform and a 3D anatomical tracking system to acquire combined information about foot function and loading. A stereophotogrammetric system and an anatomically based protocol for foot segment kinematics is included in a previously devised piezo-dynamometric system that combines pressure and force measurements. Experimental validation tests are carried out to check for both spatial and time synchronisation. Misalignment of the three systems is found to be within 6.0, 5.0 and 1.5 mm for the stereophotogrammetric system, force platform and pressure platform, respectively. The combination of position and pressure data allows for a more accurate selection of plantar foot subareas on the footprint. Measurements are also taken on five healthy volunteers during level walking to verify the feasibility of the overall experimental protocol. Four main subareas are defined and identified, and the relevant vertical and shear force data are computed. The integrated system is effective when there is a need for loading measurements in specific plantar foot subareas. This is attractive both in clinical assessment and in biomechanics research.

Recent Developments in Grid Generation and Force Integration Technology for Overset Grids

Science.gov (United States)

Chan, William M.; VanDalsem, William R. (Technical Monitor)

1994-01-01

Recent developments in algorithms and software tools for generating overset grids for complex configurations are described. These include the overset surface grid generation code SURGRD and version 2.0 of the hyperbolic volume grid generation code HYPGEN. The SURGRD code is in beta test mode where the new features include the capability to march over a collection of panel networks, a variety of ways to control the side boundaries and the marching step sizes and distance, a more robust projection scheme and an interpolation option. New features in version 2.0 of HYPGEN include a wider range of boundary condition types. The code also allows the user to specify different marching step sizes and distance for each point on the surface grid. A scheme that takes into account of the overlapped zones on the body surface for the purpose of forces and moments computation is also briefly described, The process involves the following two software modules: MIXSUR - a composite grid generation module to produce a collection of quadrilaterals and triangles on which pressure and viscous stresses are to be integrated, and OVERINT - a forces and moments integration module.

Systems Concepts for Integrated Air Defense of Multinational Mobile Crisis Reaction Forces (Concepts de systemes pour la defense aerienne integree de forces internationales mobiles d'intervention en situation de crise)

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

2001-01-01

The meeting proceedings from this symposium on System Concepts for Integrated Air Defense of Multinational Mobile Crisis Reaction Forces was organized and sponsored by the Systems Concepts and Integration (SCI...

Proteus: a direct forcing method in the simulations of particulate flows

Science.gov (United States)

Feng, Zhi-Gang; Michaelides, Efstathios E.

2005-01-01

A new and efficient direct numerical method for the simulation of particulate flows is introduced. The method combines desired elements of the immersed boundary method, the direct forcing method and the lattice Boltzmann method. Adding a forcing term in the momentum equation enforces the no-slip condition on the boundary of a moving particle. By applying the direct forcing scheme, Proteus eliminates the need for the determination of free parameters, such as the stiffness coefficient in the penalty scheme or the two relaxation parameters in the adaptive-forcing scheme. The method presents a significant improvement over the previously introduced immersed-boundary-lattice-Boltzmann method (IB-LBM) where the forcing term was computed using a penalty method and a user-defined parameter. The method allows the enforcement of the rigid body motion of a particle in a more efficient way. Compared to the "bounce-back" scheme used in the conventional LBM, the direct-forcing method provides a smoother computational boundary for particles and is capable of achieving results at higher Reynolds number flows. By using a set of Lagrangian points to track the boundary of a particle, Proteus eliminates any need for the determination of the boundary nodes that are prescribed by the "bounce-back" scheme at every time step. It also makes computations for particles of irregular shapes simpler and more efficient. Proteus has been developed in two- as well as three-dimensions. This new method has been validated by comparing its results with those from experimental measurements for a single sphere settling in an enclosure under gravity. As a demonstration of the efficiency and capabilities of the present method, the settling of a large number (1232) of spherical particles is simulated in a narrow box under two different boundary conditions. It is found that when the no-slip boundary condition is imposed at the front and rear sides of the box the particles motion is significantly hindered

An improved method for calculating force distributions in moment-stiff timber connections

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ormarsson, Sigurdur; Blond, Mette

2012-01-01

An improved method for calculating force distributions in moment-stiff metal dowel-type timber connections is presented, a method based on use of three-dimensional finite element simulations of timber connections subjected to moment action. The study that was carried out aimed at determining how...... the slip modulus varies with the angle between the direction of the dowel forces and the fibres in question, as well as how the orthotropic stiffness behaviour of the wood material affects the direction and the size of the forces. It was assumed that the force distribution generated by the moment action...

External force/velocity control for an autonomous rehabilitation robot

Science.gov (United States)

Saekow, Peerayuth; Neranon, Paramin; Smithmaitrie, Pruittikorn

2018-01-01

Stroke is a primary cause of death and the leading cause of permanent disability in adults. There are many stroke survivors, who live with a variety of levels of disability and always need rehabilitation activities on daily basis. Several studies have reported that usage of rehabilitation robotic devices shows the better improvement outcomes in upper-limb stroke patients than the conventional therapy-nurses or therapists actively help patients with exercise-based rehabilitation. This research focuses on the development of an autonomous robotic trainer designed to guide a stroke patient through an upper-limb rehabilitation task. The robotic device was designed and developed to automate the reaching exercise as mentioned. The designed robotic system is made up of a four-wheel omni-directional mobile robot, an ATI Gamma multi-axis force/torque sensor used to measure contact force and a microcontroller real-time operating system. Proportional plus Integral control was adapted to control the overall performance and stability of the autonomous assistive robot. External force control was successfully implemented to establish the behavioral control strategy for the robot force and velocity control scheme. In summary, the experimental results indicated satisfactorily stable performance of the robot force and velocity control can be considered acceptable. The gain tuning for proportional integral (PI) velocity control algorithms was suitably estimated using the Ziegler-Nichols method in which the optimized proportional and integral gains are 0.45 and 0.11, respectively. Additionally, the PI external force control gains were experimentally tuned using the trial and error method based on a set of experiments which allow a human participant moves the robot along the constrained circular path whilst attempting to minimize the radial force. The performance was analyzed based on the root mean square error (E_RMS) of the radial forces, in which the lower the variation in radial

Automatic numerical integration methods for Feynman integrals through 3-loop

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

De Doncker, E; Olagbemi, O; Yuasa, F; Ishikawa, T; Kato, K

2015-01-01

We give numerical integration results for Feynman loop diagrams through 3-loop such as those covered by Laporta [1]. The methods are based on automatic adaptive integration, using iterated integration and extrapolation with programs from the QUADPACK package, or multivariate techniques from the ParInt package. The Dqags algorithm from QuadPack accommodates boundary singularities of fairly general types. PARINT is a package for multivariate integration layered over MPI (Message Passing Interface), which runs on clusters and incorporates advanced parallel/distributed techniques such as load balancing among processes that may be distributed over a network of nodes. Results are included for 3-loop self-energy diagrams without IR (infra-red) or UV (ultra-violet) singularities. A procedure based on iterated integration and extrapolation yields a novel method of numerical regularization for integrals with UV terms, and is applied to a set of 2-loop self-energy diagrams with UV singularities. (paper)

Simultaneous measurement of dynamic force and spatial thin film thickness between deformable and solid surfaces by integrated thin liquid film force apparatus.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Xurui; Tchoukov, Plamen; Manica, Rogerio; Wang, Louxiang; Liu, Qingxia; Xu, Zhenghe

2016-11-09

Interactions involving deformable surfaces reveal a number of distinguishing physicochemical characteristics that do not exist in interactions between rigid solid surfaces. A unique fully custom-designed instrument, referred to as integrated thin liquid film force apparatus (ITLFFA), was developed to study the interactions between one deformable and one solid surface in liquid. Incorporating a bimorph force sensor with interferometry, this device allows for the simultaneous measurement of the time-dependent interaction force and the corresponding spatiotemporal film thickness of the intervening liquid film. The ITLFFA possesses the specific feature of conducting measurement under a wide range of hydrodynamic conditions, with a displacement velocity of deformable surfaces ranging from 2 μm s -1 to 50 mm s -1 . Equipped with a high speed camera, the results of a bubble interacting with hydrophilic and partially hydrophobic surfaces in aqueous solutions indicated that ITLFFA can provide information on interaction forces and thin liquid film drainage dynamics not only in a stable film but also in films of the quick rupture process. The weak interaction force was extracted from a measured film profile. Because of its well-characterized experimental conditions, ITLFFA permits the accurate and quantitative comparison/validation between measured and calculated interaction forces and temporal film profiles.

New force replica exchange method and protein folding pathways probed by force-clamp technique.

Science.gov (United States)

Kouza, Maksim; Hu, Chin-Kun; Li, Mai Suan

2008-01-28

We have developed a new extended replica exchange method to study thermodynamics of a system in the presence of external force. Our idea is based on the exchange between different force replicas to accelerate the equilibrium process. This new approach was applied to obtain the force-temperature phase diagram and other thermodynamical quantities of the three-domain ubiquitin. Using the C(alpha)-Go model and the Langevin dynamics, we have shown that the refolding pathways of single ubiquitin depend on which terminus is fixed. If the N end is fixed then the folding pathways are different compared to the case when both termini are free, but fixing the C terminal does not change them. Surprisingly, we have found that the anchoring terminal does not affect the pathways of individual secondary structures of three-domain ubiquitin, indicating the important role of the multidomain construction. Therefore, force-clamp experiments, in which one end of a protein is kept fixed, can probe the refolding pathways of a single free-end ubiquitin if one uses either the polyubiquitin or a single domain with the C terminus anchored. However, it is shown that anchoring one end does not affect refolding pathways of the titin domain I27, and the force-clamp spectroscopy is always capable to predict folding sequencing of this protein. We have obtained the reasonable estimate for unfolding barrier of ubiquitin, using the microscopic theory for the dependence of unfolding time on the external force. The linkage between residue Lys48 and the C terminal of ubiquitin is found to have the dramatic effect on the location of the transition state along the end-to-end distance reaction coordinate, but the multidomain construction leaves the transition state almost unchanged. We have found that the maximum force in the force-extension profile from constant velocity force pulling simulations depends on temperature nonlinearly. However, for some narrow temperature interval this dependence becomes

Forced Responses of the Parametric Vibration System for the Electromechanical Integrated Magnetic Gear

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiu-hong Hao

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Considering the magnetic fields modulating in the electromechanical integrated magnetic gear (EIMG, the electromagnetic coupling stiffnesses vary periodically and the expressions are given by the finite element method. The parametric vibration model and the dynamic differential equations are founded. The expressions of forced responses of EIMG system are deduced when the main resonances and the combination resonances occur. And then, the time and frequency responses are figured out. The dynamic characteristics of EIMG system are discussed. The results show that the dominant frequencies in the resonances are always the natural frequency of EIMG system. The relative amplitudes of the components have great difference and the components amplitudes of the main resonances are much bigger than the components amplitudes of the combination resonances. The time-varying meshing stiffness wave between the inner stator and the inner ferromagnetic pole-pieces has little influence on EIMG system.

In vivo recording of aerodynamic force with an aerodynamic force platform: from drones to birds.

Science.gov (United States)

Lentink, David; Haselsteiner, Andreas F; Ingersoll, Rivers

2015-03-06

Flapping wings enable flying animals and biomimetic robots to generate elevated aerodynamic forces. Measurements that demonstrate this capability are based on experiments with tethered robots and animals, and indirect force calculations based on measured kinematics or airflow during free flight. Remarkably, there exists no method to measure these forces directly during free flight. Such in vivo recordings in freely behaving animals are essential to better understand the precise aerodynamic function of their flapping wings, in particular during the downstroke versus upstroke. Here, we demonstrate a new aerodynamic force platform (AFP) for non-intrusive aerodynamic force measurement in freely flying animals and robots. The platform encloses the animal or object that generates fluid force with a physical control surface, which mechanically integrates the net aerodynamic force that is transferred to the earth. Using a straightforward analytical solution of the Navier-Stokes equation, we verified that the method is accurate. We subsequently validated the method with a quadcopter that is suspended in the AFP and generates unsteady thrust profiles. These independent measurements confirm that the AFP is indeed accurate. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the AFP by studying aerodynamic weight support of a freely flying bird in vivo. These measurements confirm earlier findings based on kinematics and flow measurements, which suggest that the avian downstroke, not the upstroke, is primarily responsible for body weight support during take-off and landing.

Influences of rolling method on deformation force in cold roll-beating forming process

Science.gov (United States)

Su, Yongxiang; Cui, Fengkui; Liang, Xiaoming; Li, Yan

2018-03-01

In process, the research object, the gear rack was selected to study the influence law of rolling method on the deformation force. By the mean of the cold roll forming finite element simulation, the variation regularity of radial and tangential deformation was analysed under different rolling methods. The variation of deformation force of the complete forming racks and the single roll during the steady state under different rolling modes was analyzed. The results show: when upbeating and down beating, radial single point average force is similar, the tangential single point average force gap is bigger, the gap of tangential single point average force is relatively large. Add itionally, the tangential force at the time of direct beating is large, and the dire ction is opposite with down beating. With directly beating, deformation force loading fast and uninstall slow. Correspondingly, with down beating, deformat ion force loading slow and uninstall fast.

Choosing the forcing terms in an inexact Newton method

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Eisenstat, S.C. [Yale Univ., New Haven, CT (United States); Walker, H.F. [Utah State Univ., Logan, UT (United States)

1994-12-31

An inexact Newton method is a generalization of Newton`s method for solving F(x) = 0, F: {Re}{sup n} {r_arrow} {Re}{sup n}, in which each step reduces the norm of the local linear model of F. At the kth iteration, the norm reduction is usefully expressed by the inexact Newton condition where x{sub k} is the current approximate solution and s{sub k} is the step. In many applications, an {eta}{sub k} is first specified, and then an S{sub k} is found for which the inexact Newton condition holds. Thus {eta}{sub k} is often called a {open_quotes}forcing term{close_quotes}. In practice, the choice of the forcing terms is usually critical to the efficiency of the method and can affect robustness as well. Here, the authors outline several promising choices, discuss theoretical support for them, and compare their performance in a Newton iterative (truncated Newton) method applied to several large-scale problems.

Scalable force directed graph layout algorithms using fast multipole methods

KAUST Repository

Yunis, Enas Abdulrahman

2012-06-01

We present an extension to ExaFMM, a Fast Multipole Method library, as a generalized approach for fast and scalable execution of the Force-Directed Graph Layout algorithm. The Force-Directed Graph Layout algorithm is a physics-based approach to graph layout that treats the vertices V as repelling charged particles with the edges E connecting them acting as springs. Traditionally, the amount of work required in applying the Force-Directed Graph Layout algorithm is O(|V|2 + |E|) using direct calculations and O(|V| log |V| + |E|) using truncation, filtering, and/or multi-level techniques. Correct application of the Fast Multipole Method allows us to maintain a lower complexity of O(|V| + |E|) while regaining most of the precision lost in other techniques. Solving layout problems for truly large graphs with millions of vertices still requires a scalable algorithm and implementation. We have been able to leverage the scalability and architectural adaptability of the ExaFMM library to create a Force-Directed Graph Layout implementation that runs efficiently on distributed multicore and multi-GPU architectures. © 2012 IEEE.

Integral Equation Methods for Electromagnetic and Elastic Waves

CERN Document Server

Chew, Weng; Hu, Bin

2008-01-01

Integral Equation Methods for Electromagnetic and Elastic Waves is an outgrowth of several years of work. There have been no recent books on integral equation methods. There are books written on integral equations, but either they have been around for a while, or they were written by mathematicians. Much of the knowledge in integral equation methods still resides in journal papers. With this book, important relevant knowledge for integral equations are consolidated in one place and researchers need only read the pertinent chapters in this book to gain important knowledge needed for integral eq

Consistent forcing scheme in the cascaded lattice Boltzmann method.

Science.gov (United States)

Fei, Linlin; Luo, Kai Hong

2017-11-01

In this paper, we give an alternative derivation for the cascaded lattice Boltzmann method (CLBM) within a general multiple-relaxation-time (MRT) framework by introducing a shift matrix. When the shift matrix is a unit matrix, the CLBM degrades into an MRT LBM. Based on this, a consistent forcing scheme is developed for the CLBM. The consistency of the nonslip rule, the second-order convergence rate in space, and the property of isotropy for the consistent forcing scheme is demonstrated through numerical simulations of several canonical problems. Several existing forcing schemes previously used in the CLBM are also examined. The study clarifies the relation between MRT LBM and CLBM under a general framework.

Consistent forcing scheme in the cascaded lattice Boltzmann method

Science.gov (United States)

Fei, Linlin; Luo, Kai Hong

2017-11-01

In this paper, we give an alternative derivation for the cascaded lattice Boltzmann method (CLBM) within a general multiple-relaxation-time (MRT) framework by introducing a shift matrix. When the shift matrix is a unit matrix, the CLBM degrades into an MRT LBM. Based on this, a consistent forcing scheme is developed for the CLBM. The consistency of the nonslip rule, the second-order convergence rate in space, and the property of isotropy for the consistent forcing scheme is demonstrated through numerical simulations of several canonical problems. Several existing forcing schemes previously used in the CLBM are also examined. The study clarifies the relation between MRT LBM and CLBM under a general framework.

Detection of forced oscillations in power systems with multichannel methods

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Follum, James D. [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

2015-09-30

The increasing availability of high fidelity, geographically dispersed measurements in power systems improves the ability of researchers and engineers to study dynamic behaviors in the grid. One such behavior that is garnering increased attention is the presence of forced oscillations. Power system engineers are interested in forced oscillations because they are often symptomatic of the malfunction or misoperation of equipment. Though the resulting oscillation is not always large in amplitude, the root cause may be serious. In this report, multi-channel forced oscillation detection methods are developed. These methods leverage previously developed detection approaches based on the periodogram and spectral-coherence. Making use of geographically distributed channels of data is shown to improved detection performance and shorten the delay before an oscillation can be detected in the online environment. Results from simulated and measured power system data are presented.

Evaluation of methods to assess push/pull forces in a construction task

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hoozemans, M J; Van Der Beek, Allard J.; Frings-Dresena, M H; Van der Molen, Henk F.

2001-01-01

The objective of the present study was to determine the validity of methods to assess push/pull forces exerted in a construction task. Forces assessed using a hand-held digital force gauge were compared to those obtained using a highly accurate measuring frame. No significant differences were found

Analysis of Electromagnetic Attractive Force : Examination by Magnetic Circuit, Finite Element Method and Experiment

OpenAIRE

薮野, 浩司; 大和田, 竜太郎; 青島, 伸治; Hiroshi, YABUNO; Ryotaro, OOWADA; Nobuharu, AOSHIMA; 筑波大学; 筑波大学院; 筑波大学

1998-01-01

This paper presents the limitation of the magnetic circuit method. The force between magnetic bodies can be approximated accurately by the magnetic circuit method. Therefore this method has been used widely for the estimation of magnetic force. However this method is limited by the magnetic leakage and can be not used in the case when the gap between the magnetic bodies is wide. It is very important to clarify the limitation of the magnetic circuit method. In this research, the force of an el...

Modeling Enzymatic Transition States by Force Field Methods

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Mikkel Bo; Jensen, Hans Jørgen Aagaard; Jensen, Frank

2009-01-01

The SEAM method, which models a transition structure as a minimum on the seam of two diabatic surfaces represented by force field functions, has been used to generate 20 transition structures for the decarboxylation of orotidine by the orotidine-5'-monophosphate decarboxylase enzyme. The dependence...... of the TS geometry on the flexibility of the system has been probed by fixing layers of atoms around the active site and using increasingly larger nonbonded cutoffs. The variability over the 20 structures is found to decrease as the system is made more flexible. Relative energies have been calculated...... by various electronic structure methods, where part of the enzyme is represented by a force field description and the effects of the solvent are represented by a continuum model. The relative energies vary by several hundreds of kJ/mol between the transition structures, and tests showed that a large part...

Subdomain Precise Integration Method for Periodic Structures

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

F. Wu

2014-01-01

Full Text Available A subdomain precise integration method is developed for the dynamical responses of periodic structures comprising many identical structural cells. The proposed method is based on the precise integration method, the subdomain scheme, and the repeatability of the periodic structures. In the proposed method, each structural cell is seen as a super element that is solved using the precise integration method, considering the repeatability of the structural cells. The computational efforts and the memory size of the proposed method are reduced, while high computational accuracy is achieved. Therefore, the proposed method is particularly suitable to solve the dynamical responses of periodic structures. Two numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method through comparison with the Newmark and Runge-Kutta methods.

Classical Wigner method with an effective quantum force: application to reaction rates.

Science.gov (United States)

Poulsen, Jens Aage; Li, Huaqing; Nyman, Gunnar

2009-07-14

We construct an effective "quantum force" to be used in the classical molecular dynamics part of the classical Wigner method when determining correlation functions. The quantum force is obtained by estimating the most important short time separation of the Feynman paths that enter into the expression for the correlation function. The evaluation of the force is then as easy as classical potential energy evaluations. The ideas are tested on three reaction rate problems. The resulting transmission coefficients are in much better agreement with accurate results than transmission coefficients from the ordinary classical Wigner method.

A simple method of equine limb force vector analysis and its potential applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sarah Jane Hobbs

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Background Ground reaction forces (GRF measured during equine gait analysis are typically evaluated by analyzing discrete values obtained from continuous force-time data for the vertical, longitudinal and transverse GRF components. This paper describes a simple, temporo-spatial method of displaying and analyzing sagittal plane GRF vectors. In addition, the application of statistical parametric mapping (SPM is introduced to analyse differences between contra-lateral fore and hindlimb force-time curves throughout the stance phase. The overall aim of the study was to demonstrate alternative methods of evaluating functional (asymmetry within horses. Methods GRF and kinematic data were collected from 10 horses trotting over a series of four force plates (120 Hz. The kinematic data were used to determine clean hoof contacts. The stance phase of each hoof was determined using a 50 N threshold. Vertical and longitudinal GRF for each stance phase were plotted both as force-time curves and as force vector diagrams in which vectors originating at the centre of pressure on the force plate were drawn at intervals of 8.3 ms for the duration of stance. Visual evaluation was facilitated by overlay of the vector diagrams for different limbs. Summary vectors representing the magnitude (VecMag and direction (VecAng of the mean force over the entire stance phase were superimposed on the force vector diagram. Typical measurements extracted from the force-time curves (peak forces, impulses were compared with VecMag and VecAng using partial correlation (controlling for speed. Paired samples t-tests (left v. right diagonal pair comparison and high v. low vertical force diagonal pair comparison were performed on discrete and vector variables using traditional methods and Hotelling’s T2 tests on normalized stance phase data using SPM. Results Evidence from traditional statistical tests suggested that VecMag is more influenced by the vertical force and impulse, whereas

Integration of force reflection with tactile sensing for minimally invasive robotics-assisted tumor localization.

Science.gov (United States)

Talasaz, A; Patel, R V

2013-01-01

Tactile sensing and force reflection have been the subject of considerable research for tumor localization in soft-tissue palpation. The work presented in this paper investigates the relevance of force feedback (presented visually as well as directly) during tactile sensing (presented visually only) for tumor localization using an experimental setup close to one that could be applied for real robotics-assisted minimally invasive surgery. The setup is a teleoperated (master-slave) system facilitated with a state-of-the-art minimally invasive probe with a rigidly mounted tactile sensor at the tip and an externally mounted force sensor at the base of the probe. The objective is to capture the tactile information and measure the interaction forces between the probe and tissue during palpation and to explore how they can be integrated to improve the performance of tumor localization. To quantitatively explore the effect of force feedback on tactile sensing tumor localization, several experiments were conducted by human subjects to locate artificial tumors embedded in the ex vivo bovine livers. The results show that using tactile sensing in a force-controlled environment can realize, on average, 57 percent decrease in the maximum force and 55 percent decrease in the average force applied to tissue while increasing the tumor detection accuracy by up to 50 percent compared to the case of using tactile feedback alone. The results also show that while visual presentation of force feedback gives straightforward quantitative measures, improved performance of tactile sensing tumor localization is achieved at the expense of longer times for the user. Also, the quickness and intuitive data mapping of direct force feedback makes it more appealing to experienced users.

Intelligent tuning method of PID parameters based on iterative learning control for atomic force microscopy.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Hui; Li, Yingzi; Zhang, Yingxu; Chen, Yifu; Song, Zihang; Wang, Zhenyu; Zhang, Suoxin; Qian, Jianqiang

2018-01-01

Proportional-integral-derivative (PID) parameters play a vital role in the imaging process of an atomic force microscope (AFM). Traditional parameter tuning methods require a lot of manpower and it is difficult to set PID parameters in unattended working environments. In this manuscript, an intelligent tuning method of PID parameters based on iterative learning control is proposed to self-adjust PID parameters of the AFM according to the sample topography. This method gets enough information about the output signals of PID controller and tracking error, which will be used to calculate the proper PID parameters, by repeated line scanning until convergence before normal scanning to learn the topography. Subsequently, the appropriate PID parameters are obtained by fitting method and then applied to the normal scanning process. The feasibility of the method is demonstrated by the convergence analysis. Simulations and experimental results indicate that the proposed method can intelligently tune PID parameters of the AFM for imaging different topographies and thus achieve good tracking performance. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A new image correction method for live cell atomic force microscopy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shen, Y; Sun, J L; Zhang, A; Hu, J; Xu, L X

2007-01-01

During live cell imaging via atomic force microscopy (AFM), the interactions between the AFM probe and the membrane yield distorted cell images. In this work, an image correction method was developed based on the force-distance curve and the modified Hertzian model. The normal loading and lateral forces exerted on the cell membrane by the AFM tip were both accounted for during the scanning. Two assumptions were made in modelling based on the experimental measurements: (1) the lateral force on the endothelial cells was linear to the height; (2) the cell membrane Young's modulus could be derived from the displacement measurement of a normal force curve. Results have shown that the model could be used to recover up to 30% of the actual cell height depending on the loading force. The accuracy of the model was also investigated with respect to the loading force and mechanical property of the cell membrane

Force-free magnetic fields - The magneto-frictional method

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, W. H.; Sturrock, P. A.; Antiochos, S. K.

1986-01-01

The problem under discussion is that of calculating magnetic field configurations in which the Lorentz force j x B is everywhere zero, subject to specified boundary conditions. We choose to represent the magnetic field in terms of Clebsch variables in the form B = grad alpha x grad beta. These variables are constant on any field line so that each field line is labeled by the corresponding values of alpha and beta. When the field is described in this way, the most appropriate choice of boundary conditions is to specify the values of alpha and beta on the bounding surface. We show that such field configurations may be calculated by a magneto-frictional method. We imagine that the field lines move through a stationary medium, and that each element of magnetic field is subject to a frictional force parallel to and opposing the velocity of the field line. This concept leads to an iteration procedure for modifying the variables alpha and beta, that tends asymptotically towards the force-free state. We apply the method first to a simple problem in two rectangular dimensions, and then to a problem of cylindrical symmetry that was previously discussed by Barnes and Sturrock (1972). In one important respect, our new results differ from the earlier results of Barnes and Sturrock, and we conclude that the earlier article was in error.

Numerical methods for engine-airframe integration

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Murthy, S.N.B.; Paynter, G.C.

1986-01-01

Various papers on numerical methods for engine-airframe integration are presented. The individual topics considered include: scientific computing environment for the 1980s, overview of prediction of complex turbulent flows, numerical solutions of the compressible Navier-Stokes equations, elements of computational engine/airframe integrations, computational requirements for efficient engine installation, application of CAE and CFD techniques to complete tactical missile design, CFD applications to engine/airframe integration, and application of a second-generation low-order panel methods to powerplant installation studies. Also addressed are: three-dimensional flow analysis of turboprop inlet and nacelle configurations, application of computational methods to the design of large turbofan engine nacelles, comparison of full potential and Euler solution algorithms for aeropropulsive flow field computations, subsonic/transonic, supersonic nozzle flows and nozzle integration, subsonic/transonic prediction capabilities for nozzle/afterbody configurations, three-dimensional viscous design methodology of supersonic inlet systems for advanced technology aircraft, and a user's technology assessment

Method to Increase the Coupling Force in a Construction Machine

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tsipurskij Il’ja

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This paper discusses a possible method to increase the coupling tractive force track-wheel locomotion of construction machines. Sufficient tractive coupling force allows organizing translational displacement of the machine under above-medium load modes during operation of overburden chain excavators, tower cranes and gantry cranes in outdoors environments. A mechanism is examined to convert rotary motion into rectilinear motion using the example of a gear and rail, with kinematic calculations quoted. Analysis of the “force couple” system is proposed to identify free traction forces. Factors are established that influence the machine’s working movements. Equations to calculate tractive forces in track-wheel locomotion are described. A laboratory complex is presented where students of mechanical engineering gain practical skills in mastering the production process of soil excavation and the influence of the coupling tractive force during the machine’s operation. As practical recommendation, the paper describes a device made of a balancing lever, drive cogwheel and tractive chain to implement the required tractive force of the trolley in coupling; this solution’s efficiency is demonstrated for experimental works on hard soils with high coefficient of difficulty.

Optical forces, torques, and force densities calculated at a microscopic level using a self-consistent hydrodynamics method

Science.gov (United States)

Ding, Kun; Chan, C. T.

2018-04-01

The calculation of optical force density distribution inside a material is challenging at the nanoscale, where quantum and nonlocal effects emerge and macroscopic parameters such as permittivity become ill-defined. We demonstrate that the microscopic optical force density of nanoplasmonic systems can be defined and calculated using the microscopic fields generated using a self-consistent hydrodynamics model that includes quantum, nonlocal, and retardation effects. We demonstrate this technique by calculating the microscopic optical force density distributions and the optical binding force induced by external light on nanoplasmonic dimers. This approach works even in the limit when the nanoparticles are close enough to each other so that electron tunneling occurs, a regime in which classical electromagnetic approach fails completely. We discover that an uneven distribution of optical force density can lead to a light-induced spinning torque acting on individual particles. The hydrodynamics method offers us an accurate and efficient approach to study optomechanical behavior for plasmonic systems at the nanoscale.

A numerical method for resonance integral calculations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tanbay, Tayfun; Ozgener, Bilge

2013-01-01

A numerical method has been proposed for resonance integral calculations and a cubic fit based on least squares approximation to compute the optimum Bell factor is given. The numerical method is based on the discretization of the neutron slowing down equation. The scattering integral is approximated by taking into account the location of the upper limit in energy domain. The accuracy of the method has been tested by performing computations of resonance integrals for uranium dioxide isolated rods and comparing the results with empirical values. (orig.)

Flight Dynamics of Flexible Aircraft with Aeroelastic and Inertial Force Interactions

Science.gov (United States)

Nguyen, Nhan T.; Tuzcu, Ilhan

2009-01-01

This paper presents an integrated flight dynamic modeling method for flexible aircraft that captures coupled physics effects due to inertial forces, aeroelasticity, and propulsive forces that are normally present in flight. The present approach formulates the coupled flight dynamics using a structural dynamic modeling method that describes the elasticity of a flexible, twisted, swept wing using an equivalent beam-rod model. The structural dynamic model allows for three types of wing elastic motion: flapwise bending, chordwise bending, and torsion. Inertial force coupling with the wing elasticity is formulated to account for aircraft acceleration. The structural deflections create an effective aeroelastic angle of attack that affects the rigid-body motion of flexible aircraft. The aeroelastic effect contributes to aerodynamic damping forces that can influence aerodynamic stability. For wing-mounted engines, wing flexibility can cause the propulsive forces and moments to couple with the wing elastic motion. The integrated flight dynamics for a flexible aircraft are formulated by including generalized coordinate variables associated with the aeroelastic-propulsive forces and moments in the standard state-space form for six degree-of-freedom flight dynamics. A computational structural model for a generic transport aircraft has been created. The eigenvalue analysis is performed to compute aeroelastic frequencies and aerodynamic damping. The results will be used to construct an integrated flight dynamic model of a flexible generic transport aircraft.

Review of Statistical Learning Methods in Integrated Omics Studies (An Integrated Information Science).

Science.gov (United States)

Zeng, Irene Sui Lan; Lumley, Thomas

2018-01-01

Integrated omics is becoming a new channel for investigating the complex molecular system in modern biological science and sets a foundation for systematic learning for precision medicine. The statistical/machine learning methods that have emerged in the past decade for integrated omics are not only innovative but also multidisciplinary with integrated knowledge in biology, medicine, statistics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. Here, we review the nontrivial classes of learning methods from the statistical aspects and streamline these learning methods within the statistical learning framework. The intriguing findings from the review are that the methods used are generalizable to other disciplines with complex systematic structure, and the integrated omics is part of an integrated information science which has collated and integrated different types of information for inferences and decision making. We review the statistical learning methods of exploratory and supervised learning from 42 publications. We also discuss the strengths and limitations of the extended principal component analysis, cluster analysis, network analysis, and regression methods. Statistical techniques such as penalization for sparsity induction when there are fewer observations than the number of features and using Bayesian approach when there are prior knowledge to be integrated are also included in the commentary. For the completeness of the review, a table of currently available software and packages from 23 publications for omics are summarized in the appendix.

k-OptForce: integrating kinetics with flux balance analysis for strain design.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anupam Chowdhury

2014-02-01

Full Text Available Computational strain design protocols aim at the system-wide identification of intervention strategies for the enhanced production of biochemicals in microorganisms. Existing approaches relying solely on stoichiometry and rudimentary constraint-based regulation overlook the effects of metabolite concentrations and substrate-level enzyme regulation while identifying metabolic interventions. In this paper, we introduce k-OptForce, which integrates the available kinetic descriptions of metabolic steps with stoichiometric models to sharpen the prediction of intervention strategies for improving the bio-production of a chemical of interest. It enables identification of a minimal set of interventions comprised of both enzymatic parameter changes (for reactions with available kinetics and reaction flux changes (for reactions with only stoichiometric information. Application of k-OptForce to the overproduction of L-serine in E. coli and triacetic acid lactone (TAL in S. cerevisiae revealed that the identified interventions tend to cause less dramatic rearrangements of the flux distribution so as not to violate concentration bounds. In some cases the incorporation of kinetic information leads to the need for additional interventions as kinetic expressions render stoichiometry-only derived interventions infeasible by violating concentration bounds, whereas in other cases the kinetic expressions impart flux changes that favor the overproduction of the target product thereby requiring fewer direct interventions. A sensitivity analysis on metabolite concentrations shows that the required number of interventions can be significantly affected by changing the imposed bounds on metabolite concentrations. Furthermore, k-OptForce was capable of finding non-intuitive interventions aiming at alleviating the substrate-level inhibition of key enzymes in order to enhance the flux towards the product of interest, which cannot be captured by stoichiometry-alone analysis

A highly accurate boundary integral equation method for surfactant-laden drops in 3D

Science.gov (United States)

Sorgentone, Chiara; Tornberg, Anna-Karin

2018-05-01

The presence of surfactants alters the dynamics of viscous drops immersed in an ambient viscous fluid. This is specifically true at small scales, such as in applications of droplet based microfluidics, where the interface dynamics become of increased importance. At such small scales, viscous forces dominate and inertial effects are often negligible. Considering Stokes flow, a numerical method based on a boundary integral formulation is presented for simulating 3D drops covered by an insoluble surfactant. The method is able to simulate drops with different viscosities and close interactions, automatically controlling the time step size and maintaining high accuracy also when substantial drop deformation appears. To achieve this, the drop surfaces as well as the surfactant concentration on each surface are represented by spherical harmonics expansions. A novel reparameterization method is introduced to ensure a high-quality representation of the drops also under deformation, specialized quadrature methods for singular and nearly singular integrals that appear in the formulation are evoked and the adaptive time stepping scheme for the coupled drop and surfactant evolution is designed with a preconditioned implicit treatment of the surfactant diffusion.

A new image correction method for live cell atomic force microscopy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shen, Y; Sun, J L; Zhang, A; Hu, J; Xu, L X [College of Life Science and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030 (China)

2007-04-21

During live cell imaging via atomic force microscopy (AFM), the interactions between the AFM probe and the membrane yield distorted cell images. In this work, an image correction method was developed based on the force-distance curve and the modified Hertzian model. The normal loading and lateral forces exerted on the cell membrane by the AFM tip were both accounted for during the scanning. Two assumptions were made in modelling based on the experimental measurements: (1) the lateral force on the endothelial cells was linear to the height; (2) the cell membrane Young's modulus could be derived from the displacement measurement of a normal force curve. Results have shown that the model could be used to recover up to 30% of the actual cell height depending on the loading force. The accuracy of the model was also investigated with respect to the loading force and mechanical property of the cell membrane.

Efficient orbit integration by manifold correction methods.

Science.gov (United States)

Fukushima, Toshio

2005-12-01

Triggered by a desire to investigate, numerically, the planetary precession through a long-term numerical integration of the solar system, we developed a new formulation of numerical integration of orbital motion named manifold correct on methods. The main trick is to rigorously retain the consistency of physical relations, such as the orbital energy, the orbital angular momentum, or the Laplace integral, of a binary subsystem. This maintenance is done by applying a correction to the integrated variables at each integration step. Typical methods of correction are certain geometric transformations, such as spatial scaling and spatial rotation, which are commonly used in the comparison of reference frames, or mathematically reasonable operations, such as modularization of angle variables into the standard domain [-pi, pi). The form of the manifold correction methods finally evolved are the orbital longitude methods, which enable us to conduct an extremely precise integration of orbital motions. In unperturbed orbits, the integration errors are suppressed at the machine epsilon level for an indefinitely long period. In perturbed cases, on the other hand, the errors initially grow in proportion to the square root of time and then increase more rapidly, the onset of which depends on the type and magnitude of the perturbations. This feature is also realized for highly eccentric orbits by applying the same idea as used in KS-regularization. In particular, the introduction of time elements greatly enhances the performance of numerical integration of KS-regularized orbits, whether the scaling is applied or not.

Mining method selection by integrated AHP and PROMETHEE method.

Science.gov (United States)

Bogdanovic, Dejan; Nikolic, Djordje; Ilic, Ivana

2012-03-01

Selecting the best mining method among many alternatives is a multicriteria decision making problem. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the implementation of an integrated approach that employs AHP and PROMETHEE together for selecting the most suitable mining method for the "Coka Marin" underground mine in Serbia. The related problem includes five possible mining methods and eleven criteria to evaluate them. Criteria are accurately chosen in order to cover the most important parameters that impact on the mining method selection, such as geological and geotechnical properties, economic parameters and geographical factors. The AHP is used to analyze the structure of the mining method selection problem and to determine weights of the criteria, and PROMETHEE method is used to obtain the final ranking and to make a sensitivity analysis by changing the weights. The results have shown that the proposed integrated method can be successfully used in solving mining engineering problems.

Response statistics of rotating shaft with non-linear elastic restoring forces by path integration

Science.gov (United States)

Gaidai, Oleg; Naess, Arvid; Dimentberg, Michael

2017-07-01

Extreme statistics of random vibrations is studied for a Jeffcott rotor under uniaxial white noise excitation. Restoring force is modelled as elastic non-linear; comparison is done with linearized restoring force to see the force non-linearity effect on the response statistics. While for the linear model analytical solutions and stability conditions are available, it is not generally the case for non-linear system except for some special cases. The statistics of non-linear case is studied by applying path integration (PI) method, which is based on the Markov property of the coupled dynamic system. The Jeffcott rotor response statistics can be obtained by solving the Fokker-Planck (FP) equation of the 4D dynamic system. An efficient implementation of PI algorithm is applied, namely fast Fourier transform (FFT) is used to simulate dynamic system additive noise. The latter allows significantly reduce computational time, compared to the classical PI. Excitation is modelled as Gaussian white noise, however any kind distributed white noise can be implemented with the same PI technique. Also multidirectional Markov noise can be modelled with PI in the same way as unidirectional. PI is accelerated by using Monte Carlo (MC) estimated joint probability density function (PDF) as initial input. Symmetry of dynamic system was utilized to afford higher mesh resolution. Both internal (rotating) and external damping are included in mechanical model of the rotor. The main advantage of using PI rather than MC is that PI offers high accuracy in the probability distribution tail. The latter is of critical importance for e.g. extreme value statistics, system reliability, and first passage probability.

Integrated circuit and method of arbitration in a network on an integrated circuit.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

2011-01-01

The invention relates to an integrated circuit and to a method of arbitration in a network on an integrated circuit. According to the invention, a method of arbitration in a network on an integrated circuit is provided, the network comprising a router unit, the router unit comprising a first input

An integration weighting method to evaluate extremum coordinates

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ilyushchenko, V.I.

1990-01-01

The numerical version of the Laplace asymptotics has been used to evaluate the coordinates of extrema of multivariate continuous and discontinuous test functions. The performed computer experiments demonstrate the high efficiency of the integration method proposed. The saturating dependence of extremum coordinates on such parameters as a number of integration subregions and that of K going /theoretically/ to infinity has been studied in detail for the limitand being a ratio of two Laplace integrals with exponentiated K. The given method is an integral equivalent of that of weighted means. As opposed to the standard optimization methods of the zero, first and second order the proposed method can be successfully applied to optimize discontinuous objective functions, too. There are possibilities of applying the integration method in the cases, when the conventional techniques fail due to poor analytical properties of the objective functions near extremal points. The proposed method is efficient in searching for both local and global extrema of multimodal objective functions. 12 refs.; 4 tabs

Human Factors methods concerning integrated validation of nuclear power plant control rooms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oskarsson, Per-Anders; Johansson, Bjoern J.E.; Gonzalez, Natalia

2010-02-01

The frame of reference for this work was existing recommendations and instructions from the NPP area, experiences from the review of the Turbic Validation and experiences from system validations performed at the Swedish Armed Forces, e.g. concerning military control rooms and fighter pilots. These enterprises are characterized by complex systems in extreme environments, often with high risks, where human error can lead to serious consequences. A focus group has been performed with representatives responsible for Human Factors issues from all Swedish NPP:s. The questions that were discussed were, among other things, for whom an integrated validation (IV) is performed and its purpose, what should be included in an IV, the comparison with baseline measures, the design process, the role of SSM, which methods of measurement should be used, and how the methods are affected of changes in the control room. The report brings different questions to discussion concerning the validation process. Supplementary methods of measurement for integrated validation are discussed, e.g. dynamic, psychophysiological, and qualitative methods for identification of problems. Supplementary methods for statistical analysis are presented. The study points out a number of deficiencies in the validation process, e.g. the need of common guidelines for validation and design, criteria for different types of measurements, clarification of the role of SSM, and recommendations for the responsibility of external participants in the validation process. The authors propose 12 measures for taking care of the identified problems

On deriving the Maxwell stress tensor method for calculating the optical force and torque on an object in harmonic electromagnetic fields

Science.gov (United States)

Ye, Qian; Lin, Haoze

2017-07-01

Though extensively used in calculating optical force and torque acting on a material object illuminated by laser, the Maxwell stress tensor (MST) method follows the electromagnetic linear and angular momentum balance that is usually derived in most textbooks for a continuous volume charge distribution in free space, if not resorting to the application of Noether’s theorem in electrodynamics. To cast the conservation laws into a physically appealing form involving the current densities of linear and angular momentum, on which the MST method is based, the divergence theorem is employed to transform a volume integral into a surface integral. When a material object of finite volume is put into the field, it brings about a discontinuity of field across its surface, due to the presence of induced surface charge and surface current. Ambiguity arises among students in whether the divergence theorem can still be directly used without any justification. By taking into account the effect of the induced surface charge and current, we present a simple pedagogical derivation for the MST method for calculating the optical force and torque on an object immersed in monochromatic optical field, without resorting to Noether’s theorem. Although the results turn out to be identical to those given in the standard textbooks, our derivation avoids the direct use of the divergence theorem on a discontinuous function.

On deriving the Maxwell stress tensor method for calculating the optical force and torque on an object in harmonic electromagnetic fields

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ye, Qian; Lin, Haoze

2017-01-01

Though extensively used in calculating optical force and torque acting on a material object illuminated by laser, the Maxwell stress tensor (MST) method follows the electromagnetic linear and angular momentum balance that is usually derived in most textbooks for a continuous volume charge distribution in free space , if not resorting to the application of Noether’s theorem in electrodynamics. To cast the conservation laws into a physically appealing form involving the current densities of linear and angular momentum, on which the MST method is based, the divergence theorem is employed to transform a volume integral into a surface integral. When a material object of finite volume is put into the field, it brings about a discontinuity of field across its surface, due to the presence of induced surface charge and surface current. Ambiguity arises among students in whether the divergence theorem can still be directly used without any justification. By taking into account the effect of the induced surface charge and current, we present a simple pedagogical derivation for the MST method for calculating the optical force and torque on an object immersed in monochromatic optical field, without resorting to Noether’s theorem. Although the results turn out to be identical to those given in the standard textbooks, our derivation avoids the direct use of the divergence theorem on a discontinuous function. (paper)

Forced oscillation of hyperbolic equations with mixed nonlinearities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yutaka Shoukaku

2012-04-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we consider the mixed nonlinear hyperbolic equations with forcing term via Riccati inequality. Some sufficient conditions for the oscillation are derived by using Young inequality and integral averaging method.

A simple method of equine limb force vector analysis and its potential applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Hobbs, Sarah Jane; Robinson, Mark A; Clayton, Hilary M

2018-01-01

Ground reaction forces (GRF) measured during equine gait analysis are typically evaluated by analyzing discrete values obtained from continuous force-time data for the vertical, longitudinal and transverse GRF components. This paper describes a simple, temporo-spatial method of displaying and analyzing sagittal plane GRF vectors. In addition, the application of statistical parametric mapping (SPM) is introduced to analyse differences between contra-lateral fore and hindlimb force-time curves throughout the stance phase. The overall aim of the study was to demonstrate alternative methods of evaluating functional (a)symmetry within horses. GRF and kinematic data were collected from 10 horses trotting over a series of four force plates (120 Hz). The kinematic data were used to determine clean hoof contacts. The stance phase of each hoof was determined using a 50 N threshold. Vertical and longitudinal GRF for each stance phase were plotted both as force-time curves and as force vector diagrams in which vectors originating at the centre of pressure on the force plate were drawn at intervals of 8.3 ms for the duration of stance. Visual evaluation was facilitated by overlay of the vector diagrams for different limbs. Summary vectors representing the magnitude (VecMag) and direction (VecAng) of the mean force over the entire stance phase were superimposed on the force vector diagram. Typical measurements extracted from the force-time curves (peak forces, impulses) were compared with VecMag and VecAng using partial correlation (controlling for speed). Paired samples t -tests (left v. right diagonal pair comparison and high v. low vertical force diagonal pair comparison) were performed on discrete and vector variables using traditional methods and Hotelling's T 2 tests on normalized stance phase data using SPM. Evidence from traditional statistical tests suggested that VecMag is more influenced by the vertical force and impulse, whereas VecAng is more influenced by the

Integrating financial theory and methods in electricity resource planning

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Felder, F.A. [Economics Resource Group, Cambridge, MA (United States)

1996-02-01

Decision makers throughout the world are introducing risk and market forces in the electric power industry to lower costs and improve services. Incentive based regulation (IBR), which replaces cost of service ratemaking with an approach that divorces costs from revenues, exposes the utility to the risk of profits or losses depending on their performance. Regulators also are allowing for competition within the industry, most notably in the wholesale market and possibly in the retail market. Two financial approaches that incorporate risk in resource planning are evaluated: risk adjusted discount rates (RADR) and options theory (OT). These two complementary approaches are an improvement over the standard present value revenue requirement (PVRR). However, each method has some important limitations. By correctly using RADR and OT and understanding their limitations, decision makers can improve their ability to value risk properly in power plant projects and integrated resource plans. (Author)

Evaluation of integration methods for hybrid simulation of complex structural systems through collapse

Science.gov (United States)

Del Carpio R., Maikol; Hashemi, M. Javad; Mosqueda, Gilberto

2017-10-01

This study examines the performance of integration methods for hybrid simulation of large and complex structural systems in the context of structural collapse due to seismic excitations. The target application is not necessarily for real-time testing, but rather for models that involve large-scale physical sub-structures and highly nonlinear numerical models. Four case studies are presented and discussed. In the first case study, the accuracy of integration schemes including two widely used methods, namely, modified version of the implicit Newmark with fixed-number of iteration (iterative) and the operator-splitting (non-iterative) is examined through pure numerical simulations. The second case study presents the results of 10 hybrid simulations repeated with the two aforementioned integration methods considering various time steps and fixed-number of iterations for the iterative integration method. The physical sub-structure in these tests consists of a single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) cantilever column with replaceable steel coupons that provides repeatable highlynonlinear behavior including fracture-type strength and stiffness degradations. In case study three, the implicit Newmark with fixed-number of iterations is applied for hybrid simulations of a 1:2 scale steel moment frame that includes a relatively complex nonlinear numerical substructure. Lastly, a more complex numerical substructure is considered by constructing a nonlinear computational model of a moment frame coupled to a hybrid model of a 1:2 scale steel gravity frame. The last two case studies are conducted on the same porotype structure and the selection of time steps and fixed number of iterations are closely examined in pre-test simulations. The generated unbalance forces is used as an index to track the equilibrium error and predict the accuracy and stability of the simulations.

A Training Method to Improve Police Use of Force Decision Making

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Judith P. Andersen

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Police safety and use of force decisions during critical incidents are an ongoing source of concern for both police practitioners and the public. Prior research in the area of police performance reveals that psychological and physiological stress responses during critical incidents can shape the outcome of the incident, either positively or negatively. The goal of this study was to test a training method to improve use of force decision making among police. This randomized controlled pilot study consisted of training officers to apply techniques to enhance psychological and physiological control during stressful critical incidents. Of a pool of 80 police officers, potential participants were invited based on equivalent age, years of experience, physiological characteristics (i.e., body mass index [BMI] and cardiovascular reactivity, and expertise. Results revealed that the intervention group displayed significantly better physiological control, situational awareness, and overall performance, and made a greater number of correct use of force decisions than officers in the control group (all ps < .01. The relevant improvements in use of force decision-making found in this pilot study indicate that this training method warrants further investigation. Improved use of force decision making directly translates into potential lifesaving decisions for police and the civilians they are working with.

Selective Integration in the Material-Point Method

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Lars; Andersen, Søren; Damkilde, Lars

2009-01-01

The paper deals with stress integration in the material-point method. In order to avoid parasitic shear in bending, a formulation is proposed, based on selective integration in the background grid that is used to solve the governing equations. The suggested integration scheme is compared...... to a traditional material-point-method computation in which the stresses are evaluated at the material points. The deformation of a cantilever beam is analysed, assuming elastic or elastoplastic material behaviour....

Partially integrable systems in multi-dimensions by a variant of the dressing method: part 1

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zenchuk, A I; Santini, P M

2006-01-01

In this paper we construct nonlinear partial differential equations in more than three independent variables, possessing a manifold of analytic solutions with high, but not full, dimensionality. For this reason we call them 'partially integrable'. Such a construction is achieved using a suitable modification of the classical dressing scheme, consisting in assuming that the kernel of the basic integral operator of the dressing formalism be nontrivial. This new hypothesis leads to the construction of (1) a linear system of compatible spectral problems for the solution U(λ; x) of the integral equation in three independent variables each (while the usual dressing method generates spectral problems in one or two dimensions); (2) a system of nonlinear partial differential equations in n dimensions (n > 3), possessing a manifold of analytic solutions of dimension (n - 2), which includes one largely arbitrary relation among the fields. These nonlinear equations can also contain an arbitrary forcing

True Concurrent Thermal Engineering Integrating CAD Model Building with Finite Element and Finite Difference Methods

Science.gov (United States)

Panczak, Tim; Ring, Steve; Welch, Mark

1999-01-01

Thermal engineering has long been left out of the concurrent engineering environment dominated by CAD (computer aided design) and FEM (finite element method) software. Current tools attempt to force the thermal design process into an environment primarily created to support structural analysis, which results in inappropriate thermal models. As a result, many thermal engineers either build models "by hand" or use geometric user interfaces that are separate from and have little useful connection, if any, to CAD and FEM systems. This paper describes the development of a new thermal design environment called the Thermal Desktop. This system, while fully integrated into a neutral, low cost CAD system, and which utilizes both FEM and FD methods, does not compromise the needs of the thermal engineer. Rather, the features needed for concurrent thermal analysis are specifically addressed by combining traditional parametric surface based radiation and FD based conduction modeling with CAD and FEM methods. The use of flexible and familiar temperature solvers such as SINDA/FLUINT (Systems Improved Numerical Differencing Analyzer/Fluid Integrator) is retained.

Force level of small diameter nickel-titanium orthodontic wires ligated with different methods

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rodrigo Hitoshi Higa

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The aim of this study was to compare the deflection force in conventional and thermally activated nickel-titanium (NiTi wires in passive (Damon Q and active (Bioquick self-ligating brackets (SLB and in conventional brackets (CB tied by two different methods: elastomeric ligature (EL and metal ligature (ML. Methods Two wire diameters (0.014 and 0.016 in. and 10 specimens per group were used. The specimens were assembled in a clinical simulation device and tested in an Instron Universal Testing Machine, with a load cell of 10 N. For the testing procedures, the acrylic block representative of the right maxillary central incisor was palatally moved, with readings of the force at 0.5, 1, 2, and 3 mm, at a constant speed of 2 mm/min and temperature of 36.5 °C. Results The conventional NiTi released higher forces than the thermally activated NiTi archwires in large deflections. In general, the SLB showed lower forces, while the ML had higher forces, with both showing a similar force release behavior, constantly decreasing as the deflection decreased. The EL showed an irregular behavior. The active SLB showed smaller forces than passive, in large deflections. Conclusions The SLB and the ML exhibit standard force patterns during unloading, while the elastomeric ligatures exhibit a randomly distributed force release behavior.

Dynamic steering beams for efficient force measurement in optical manipulation

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Xiaocong Yuan; Yuquan Zhang; Rui Cao; Xing Zhao; Jing Bu; Siwei Zhu

2011-01-01

@@ An efficient and inexpensive method that uses a glass plate mounted onto a motorized rotating stage as a beam-steering device for the generation of dynamic optical traps is reported.Force analysis reveals that there are drag and trapping forces imposed on the bead in the opposite directions, respectively, in a viscous medium.The trapped bead will be rotated following the beam's motion before it reaches the critical escape velocity when the drag force is equal to the optical trapping force.The equilibrium condition facilitates the experimental measurement of the drag force with potential extensions to the determination of the viscosity of the medium or the refractive index of the bead.The proposed technique can easily be integrated into conventional optical microscopic systems with minimum modifications.%An efficient and inexpensive method that uses a glass plate mounted onto a motorized rotating stage as a beam-steering device for the generation of dynamic optical traps is reported. Force analysis reveals that there are drag and trapping forces imposed on the bead in the opposite directions, respectively, in a viscous medium. The trapped bead will be rotated following the beam's motion before it reaches the critical escape velocity when the drag force is equal to the optical trapping force. The equilibrium condition facilitates the experimental measurement of the drag force with potential extensions to the determination of the viscosity of the medium or the refractive index of the bead. The proposed technique can easily be integrated into conventional optical microscopic systems with minimum modifications.

Investigation of Unbalanced Magnetic Force in Magnetic Geared Machine Using Analytical Methods

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zhang, Xiaoxu; Liu, Xiao; Chen, Zhe

2016-01-01

The electromagnetic structure of the magnetic geared machine (MGM) may induce a significant unbalanced magnetic force (UMF). However, few methods have been developed to theoretically reveal the essential reasons for this issue in the MGM. In this paper, an analytical method based on an air....... Second, the magnetic field distribution in the MGM is modeled by an exact subdomain method, which allows the magnetic forces to be calculated quantitatively. The magnetic forces in two MGMs are then studied under no-load and full-load conditions. Finally, the finite-element calculation confirms......-gap relative permeance theory is first developed to qualitatively study the origins of the UMF in the MGM. By means of formula derivations, three kinds of magnetic field behaviors in the air gaps are found to be the potential sources of UMF. It is also proved that the UMF is possible to avoid by design choices...

The West-African Special Operations Forces: Development and Integration in the Context of the Sub-Saharan Growing Threats

Science.gov (United States)

2016-06-10

Consequently, criminal groups and armed militant gangs have engaged in kidnappings, extortion, car bombings, murder, and other forms of violent attacks...under severe financial constraints, limiting their access to late-model, “high- tech ” weapons and to substantial quantities of materiel. The example...tool, the Special Forces “the fact Special Forces proved today”: the 2014- 2019 military planning law takes it into account, by integrating it into

Digital phase-shifting atomic force microscope Moire method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu Chiaming; Chen Lienwen

2005-01-01

In this study, the digital atomic force microscope (AFM) Moire method with phase-shifting technology is established to measure the in-plane displacement and strain fields. The Moire pattern is generated by the interference between the specimen grating and the virtual reference grating formed by digital image processes. The overlapped image is filtered by two-dimensional wavelet transformation to obtain the clear interference Moire patterns. The four-step phase-shifting method is realized by translating the phase of the virtual reference grating from 0 to 2π. The principle of the digital AFM Moire method and the phase-shifting technology are described in detail. Experimental results show that this method is convenient to use and efficient in realizing the microscale measurement

A study of existing experimental data and validation process for evaluated high energy nuclear data. Report of task force on integral test for JENDL High Energy File in Japanese Nuclear Data Committee

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oyama, Yukio; Baba, Mamoru; Watanabe, Yukinobu

1998-11-01

JENDL High Energy File (JENDL-HE) is being produced by Japanese Nuclear Data Committee (JNDC) to provide common fundamental nuclear data in the intermediate energy region for many applications concerning a basic research, an accelerator-driven nuclear waste transmutation, a fusion material study, and medical applications like the radiation therapy. The first version of JENDL-HE, which contains the evaluated nuclear data up to 50 MeV, is planned to release in 1998. However, a method of integral test with which we can validate the high-energy nuclear data file has not been established. The validation of evaluated nuclear data through the integral tests is necessary to promote utilization of JENDL-HE. JNDC set up a task force in 1997 to discuss the problems concerning the integral tests of JENDL-HE. The task force members have surveyed and studied the current status of the problems for a year to obtain a guideline for development of the high-energy nuclear database. This report summarizes the results of the survey and study done by the task force for JNDC. (author)

Achieving Integration in Mixed Methods Designs—Principles and Practices

Science.gov (United States)

Fetters, Michael D; Curry, Leslie A; Creswell, John W

2013-01-01

Mixed methods research offers powerful tools for investigating complex processes and systems in health and health care. This article describes integration principles and practices at three levels in mixed methods research and provides illustrative examples. Integration at the study design level occurs through three basic mixed method designs—exploratory sequential, explanatory sequential, and convergent—and through four advanced frameworks—multistage, intervention, case study, and participatory. Integration at the methods level occurs through four approaches. In connecting, one database links to the other through sampling. With building, one database informs the data collection approach of the other. When merging, the two databases are brought together for analysis. With embedding, data collection and analysis link at multiple points. Integration at the interpretation and reporting level occurs through narrative, data transformation, and joint display. The fit of integration describes the extent the qualitative and quantitative findings cohere. Understanding these principles and practices of integration can help health services researchers leverage the strengths of mixed methods. PMID:24279835

Integrated Data Collection Analysis (IDCA) Program - SSST Testing Methods

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sandstrom, Mary M. [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Brown, Geoffrey W. [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Preston, Daniel N. [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Pollard, Colin J. [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Warner, Kirstin F. [Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC), Indian Head, MD (United States). Indian Head Division; Remmers, Daniel L. [Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC), Indian Head, MD (United States). Indian Head Division; Sorensen, Daniel N. [Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC), Indian Head, MD (United States). Indian Head Division; Whinnery, LeRoy L. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States); Phillips, Jason J. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States); Shelley, Timothy J. [Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), Huntsville, AL (United States); Reyes, Jose A. [Applied Research Associates, Tyndall AFB, FL (United States); Hsu, Peter C. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Reynolds, John G. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

2013-03-25

The Integrated Data Collection Analysis (IDCA) program is conducting a proficiency study for Small- Scale Safety and Thermal (SSST) testing of homemade explosives (HMEs). Described here are the methods used for impact, friction, electrostatic discharge, and differential scanning calorimetry analysis during the IDCA program. These methods changed throughout the Proficiency Test and the reasons for these changes are documented in this report. The most significant modifications in standard testing methods are: 1) including one specified sandpaper in impact testing among all the participants, 2) diversifying liquid test methods for selected participants, and 3) including sealed sample holders for thermal testing by at least one participant. This effort, funded by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is putting the issues of safe handling of these materials in perspective with standard military explosives. The study is adding SSST testing results for a broad suite of different HMEs to the literature. Ultimately the study will suggest new guidelines and methods and possibly establish the SSST testing accuracies needed to develop safe handling practices for HMEs. Each participating testing laboratory uses identical test materials and preparation methods wherever possible. The testing performers involved are Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Indian Head Division, Naval Surface Warfare Center, (NSWC IHD), Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), and Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL/RXQL). These tests are conducted as a proficiency study in order to establish some consistency in test protocols, procedures, and experiments and to compare results when these testing variables cannot be made consistent.

Numerical method of singular problems on singular integrals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhao Huaiguo; Mou Zongze

1992-02-01

As first part on the numerical research of singular problems, a numerical method is proposed for singular integrals. It is shown that the procedure is quite powerful for solving physics calculation with singularity such as the plasma dispersion function. Useful quadrature formulas for some class of the singular integrals are derived. In general, integrals with more complex singularities can be dealt by this method easily

Numerical integration methods and layout improvements in the context of dynamic RNA visualization.

Science.gov (United States)

Shabash, Boris; Wiese, Kay C

2017-05-30

RNA visualization software tools have traditionally presented a static visualization of RNA molecules with limited ability for users to interact with the resulting image once it is complete. Only a few tools allowed for dynamic structures. One such tool is jViz.RNA. Currently, jViz.RNA employs a unique method for the creation of the RNA molecule layout by mapping the RNA nucleotides into vertexes in a graph, which we call the detailed graph, and then utilizes a Newtonian mechanics inspired system of forces to calculate a layout for the RNA molecule. The work presented here focuses on improvements to jViz.RNA that allow the drawing of RNA secondary structures according to common drawing conventions, as well as dramatic run-time performance improvements. This is done first by presenting an alternative method for mapping the RNA molecule into a graph, which we call the compressed graph, and then employing advanced numerical integration methods for the compressed graph representation. Comparing the compressed graph and detailed graph implementations, we find that the compressed graph produces results more consistent with RNA drawing conventions. However, we also find that employing the compressed graph method requires a more sophisticated initial layout to produce visualizations that would require minimal user interference. Comparing the two numerical integration methods demonstrates the higher stability of the Backward Euler method, and its resulting ability to handle much larger time steps, a high priority feature for any software which entails user interaction. The work in this manuscript presents the preferred use of compressed graphs to detailed ones, as well as the advantages of employing the Backward Euler method over the Forward Euler method. These improvements produce more stable as well as visually aesthetic representations of the RNA secondary structures. The results presented demonstrate that both the compressed graph representation, as well as the Backward

Validity of a Simple Method for Measuring Force-Velocity-Power Profile in Countermovement Jump.

Science.gov (United States)

Jiménez-Reyes, Pedro; Samozino, Pierre; Pareja-Blanco, Fernando; Conceição, Filipe; Cuadrado-Peñafiel, Víctor; González-Badillo, Juan José; Morin, Jean-Benoît

2017-01-01

To analyze the reliability and validity of a simple computation method to evaluate force (F), velocity (v), and power (P) output during a countermovement jump (CMJ) suitable for use in field conditions and to verify the validity of this computation method to compute the CMJ force-velocity (F-v) profile (including unloaded and loaded jumps) in trained athletes. Sixteen high-level male sprinters and jumpers performed maximal CMJs under 6 different load conditions (0-87 kg). A force plate sampling at 1000 Hz was used to record vertical ground-reaction force and derive vertical-displacement data during CMJ trials. For each condition, mean F, v, and P of the push-off phase were determined from both force-plate data (reference method) and simple computation measures based on body mass, jump height (from flight time), and push-off distance and used to establish the linear F-v relationship for each individual. Mean absolute bias values were 0.9% (± 1.6%), 4.7% (± 6.2%), 3.7% (± 4.8%), and 5% (± 6.8%) for F, v, P, and slope of the F-v relationship (S Fv ), respectively. Both methods showed high correlations for F-v-profile-related variables (r = .985-.991). Finally, all variables computed from the simple method showed high reliability, with ICC >.980 and CV push-off distance, and jump height are known.

Numerov iteration method for second order integral-differential equation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zeng Fanan; Zhang Jiaju; Zhao Xuan

1987-01-01

In this paper, Numerov iterative method for second order integral-differential equation and system of equations are constructed. Numerical examples show that this method is better than direct method (Gauss elimination method) in CPU time and memoy requireing. Therefore, this method is an efficient method for solving integral-differential equation in nuclear physics

A nondestructive, reproducible method of measuring joint reaction force at the distal radioulnar joint.

Science.gov (United States)

Canham, Colin D; Schreck, Michael J; Maqsoodi, Noorullah; Doolittle, Madison; Olles, Mark; Elfar, John C

2015-06-01

To develop a nondestructive method of measuring distal radioulnar joint (DRUJ) joint reaction force (JRF) that preserves all periarticular soft tissues and more accurately reflects in vivo conditions. Eight fresh-frozen human cadaveric limbs were obtained. A threaded Steinmann pin was placed in the middle of the lateral side of the distal radius transverse to the DRUJ. A second pin was placed into the middle of the medial side of the distal ulna colinear to the distal radial pin. Specimens were mounted onto a tensile testing machine using a custom fixture. A uniaxial distracting force was applied across the DRUJ while force and displacement were simultaneously measured. Force-displacement curves were generated and a best-fit polynomial was solved to determine JRF. All force-displacement curves demonstrated an initial high slope where relatively large forces were required to distract the joint. This ended with an inflection point followed by a linear area with a low slope, where small increases in force generated larger amounts of distraction. Each sample was measured 3 times and there was high reproducibility between repeated measurements. The average baseline DRUJ JRF was 7.5 N (n = 8). This study describes a reproducible method of measuring DRUJ reaction forces that preserves all periarticular stabilizing structures. This technique of JRF measurement may also be suited for applications in the small joints of the wrist and hand. Changes in JRF can alter native joint mechanics and lead to pathology. Reliable methods of measuring these forces are important for determining how pathology and surgical interventions affect joint biomechanics. Copyright © 2015 American Society for Surgery of the Hand. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The extended wedge method: atomic force microscope friction calibration for improved tolerance to instrument misalignments, tip offset, and blunt probes.

Science.gov (United States)

Khare, H S; Burris, D L

2013-05-01

One of the major challenges in understanding and controlling friction is the difficulty in bridging the length and time scales of macroscale contacts and those of the single asperity interactions they comprise. While the atomic force microscope (AFM) offers a unique ability to probe tribological surfaces in a wear-free single-asperity contact, instrument calibration challenges have limited the usefulness of this technique for quantitative nanotribological studies. A number of lateral force calibration techniques have been proposed and used, but none has gained universal acceptance due to practical considerations, configuration limitations, or sensitivities to unknowable error sources. This paper describes a simple extension of the classic wedge method of AFM lateral force calibration which: (1) allows simultaneous calibration and measurement on any substrate, thus eliminating prior tip damage and confounding effects of instrument setup adjustments; (2) is insensitive to adhesion, PSD cross-talk, transducer/piezo-tube axis misalignment, and shear-center offset; (3) is applicable to integrated tips and colloidal probes; and (4) is generally applicable to any reciprocating friction coefficient measurement. The method was applied to AFM measurements of polished carbon (99.999% graphite) and single crystal MoS2 to demonstrate the technique. Carbon and single crystal MoS2 had friction coefficients of μ = 0.20 ± 0.04 and μ = 0.006 ± 0.001, respectively, against an integrated Si probe. Against a glass colloidal sphere, MoS2 had a friction coefficient of μ = 0.005 ± 0.001. Generally, the measurement uncertainties ranged from 10%-20% and were driven by the effect of actual frictional variation on the calibration rather than calibration error itself (i.e., due to misalignment, tip-offset, or probe radius).

Force estimation from OCT volumes using 3D CNNs.

Science.gov (United States)

Gessert, Nils; Beringhoff, Jens; Otte, Christoph; Schlaefer, Alexander

2018-05-04

Estimating the interaction forces of instruments and tissue is of interest, particularly to provide haptic feedback during robot-assisted minimally invasive interventions. Different approaches based on external and integrated force sensors have been proposed. These are hampered by friction, sensor size, and sterilizability. We investigate a novel approach to estimate the force vector directly from optical coherence tomography image volumes. We introduce a novel Siamese 3D CNN architecture. The network takes an undeformed reference volume and a deformed sample volume as an input and outputs the three components of the force vector. We employ a deep residual architecture with bottlenecks for increased efficiency. We compare the Siamese approach to methods using difference volumes and two-dimensional projections. Data were generated using a robotic setup to obtain ground-truth force vectors for silicon tissue phantoms as well as porcine tissue. Our method achieves a mean average error of [Formula: see text] when estimating the force vector. Our novel Siamese 3D CNN architecture outperforms single-path methods that achieve a mean average error of [Formula: see text]. Moreover, the use of volume data leads to significantly higher performance compared to processing only surface information which achieves a mean average error of [Formula: see text]. Based on the tissue dataset, our methods shows good generalization in between different subjects. We propose a novel image-based force estimation method using optical coherence tomography. We illustrate that capturing the deformation of subsurface structures substantially improves force estimation. Our approach can provide accurate force estimates in surgical setups when using intraoperative optical coherence tomography.

Achieving integration in mixed methods designs-principles and practices.

Science.gov (United States)

Fetters, Michael D; Curry, Leslie A; Creswell, John W

2013-12-01

Mixed methods research offers powerful tools for investigating complex processes and systems in health and health care. This article describes integration principles and practices at three levels in mixed methods research and provides illustrative examples. Integration at the study design level occurs through three basic mixed method designs-exploratory sequential, explanatory sequential, and convergent-and through four advanced frameworks-multistage, intervention, case study, and participatory. Integration at the methods level occurs through four approaches. In connecting, one database links to the other through sampling. With building, one database informs the data collection approach of the other. When merging, the two databases are brought together for analysis. With embedding, data collection and analysis link at multiple points. Integration at the interpretation and reporting level occurs through narrative, data transformation, and joint display. The fit of integration describes the extent the qualitative and quantitative findings cohere. Understanding these principles and practices of integration can help health services researchers leverage the strengths of mixed methods. © Health Research and Educational Trust.

Casimir Force Between Quantum Plasmas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Buenzli, P.

2005-01-01

Field fluctuations are responsible for an attractive force - the Casimir force - between two parallel (globally neutral) metallic plates separated by a distance d. At high temperature, or equivalently large d, this force is known to exhibit a classical and universal character (independent of the material constitution of the plates). In a recent work, we have displayed the microscopic mechanisms responsible for this universality within a classical model. The plates consist of slabs containing classical charged particles in fluid phase and thermal equilibrium (plasmas). The universality of the force proves to originate from screening sum rules satisfied by the charge correlations. Here we show how this result is altered when the quantum-mechanical nature of the particles is taken into account. It turns out that in addition to the classical result, the asymptotic force for large d comprises a non-universal quantum correction, which is, however, small at high temperature. The method relies on an exact representation of the charge correlations by quantum Mayer graphs, based on the Feynman-Kac path integral formalism. (author)

Integral Methods in Science and Engineering

CERN Document Server

Constanda, Christian

2011-01-01

An enormous array of problems encountered by scientists and engineers are based on the design of mathematical models using many different types of ordinary differential, partial differential, integral, and integro-differential equations. Accordingly, the solutions of these equations are of great interest to practitioners and to science in general. Presenting a wealth of cutting-edge research by a diverse group of experts in the field, Integral Methods in Science and Engineering: Computational and Analytic Aspects gives a vivid picture of both the development of theoretical integral techniques

ASPECTS OF INTEGRATION MANAGEMENT METHODS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Artemy Varshapetian

2015-10-01

Full Text Available For manufacturing companies to succeed in today's unstable economic environment, it is necessary to restructure the main components of its activities: designing innovative product, production using modern reconfigurable manufacturing systems, a business model that takes into account the global strategy and management methods using modern management models and tools. The first three components are discussed in numerous publications, for example, (Koren, 2010 and is therefore not considered in the article. A large number of publications devoted to the methods and tools of production management, for example (Halevi, 2007. On the basis of what was said in the article discusses the possibility of the integration of only three methods have received in recent years, the most widely used, namely: Six Sigma method - SS (George et al., 2005 and supplements its-Design for six sigm? - DFSS (Taguchi, 2003; Lean production transformed with the development to the "Lean management" and further to the "Lean thinking" - Lean (Hirano et al., 2006; Theory of Constraints, developed E.Goldratt - TOC (Dettmer, 2001. The article investigates some aspects of this integration: applications in diverse fields, positive features, changes in management structure, etc.

Moving force identification based on modified preconditioned conjugate gradient method

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Zhen; Chan, Tommy H. T.; Nguyen, Andy

2018-06-01

This paper develops a modified preconditioned conjugate gradient (M-PCG) method for moving force identification (MFI) by improving the conjugate gradient (CG) and preconditioned conjugate gradient (PCG) methods with a modified Gram-Schmidt algorithm. The method aims to obtain more accurate and more efficient identification results from the responses of bridge deck caused by vehicles passing by, which are known to be sensitive to ill-posed problems that exist in the inverse problem. A simply supported beam model with biaxial time-varying forces is used to generate numerical simulations with various analysis scenarios to assess the effectiveness of the method. Evaluation results show that regularization matrix L and number of iterations j are very important influence factors to identification accuracy and noise immunity of M-PCG. Compared with the conventional counterpart SVD embedded in the time domain method (TDM) and the standard form of CG, the M-PCG with proper regularization matrix has many advantages such as better adaptability and more robust to ill-posed problems. More importantly, it is shown that the average optimal numbers of iterations of M-PCG can be reduced by more than 70% compared with PCG and this apparently makes M-PCG a preferred choice for field MFI applications.

Experimental results and validation of a method to reconstruct forces on the ITER test blanket modules

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zeile, Christian; Maione, Ivan A.

2015-01-01

Highlights: • An in operation force measurement system for the ITER EU HCPB TBM has been developed. • The force reconstruction methods are based on strain measurements on the attachment system. • An experimental setup and a corresponding mock-up have been built. • A set of test cases representing ITER relevant excitations has been used for validation. • The influence of modeling errors on the force reconstruction has been investigated. - Abstract: In order to reconstruct forces on the test blanket modules in ITER, two force reconstruction methods, the augmented Kalman filter and a model predictive controller, have been selected and developed to estimate the forces based on strain measurements on the attachment system. A dedicated experimental setup with a corresponding mock-up has been designed and built to validate these methods. A set of test cases has been defined to represent possible excitation of the system. It has been shown that the errors in the estimated forces mainly depend on the accuracy of the identified model used by the algorithms. Furthermore, it has been found that a minimum of 10 strain gauges is necessary to allow for a low error in the reconstructed forces.

Proposal of evaluation method of tsunami wave pressure using 2D depth-integrated flow simulation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Arimitsu, Tsuyoshi; Ooe, Kazuya; Kawasaki, Koji

2012-01-01

To design and construct land structures resistive to tsunami force, it is most essential to evaluate tsunami pressure quantitatively. The existing hydrostatic formula, in general, tended to underestimate tsunami wave pressure under the condition of inundation flow with large Froude number. Estimation method of tsunami pressure acting on a land structure was proposed using inundation depth and horizontal velocity at the front of the structure, which were calculated employing a 2D depth-integrated flow model based on the unstructured grid system. The comparison between the numerical and experimental results revealed that the proposed method could reasonably reproduce the vertical distribution of the maximum tsunami pressure as well as the time variation of the tsunami pressure exerting on the structure. (author)

Forced harmonic oscillations of the Euler-Bernoulli beam with resistance forces

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yuriy S. Krutiy

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The important issue in the oscillation theory is the study of resistance impact on oscillatory processes. Unlike the calculations of free oscillations, that reside in determination of natural frequencies and waveshapes and unlike the calculations of forced oscillations far away from resonance, that are performing without reference to friction, the oscillations researches in vicinity of resonance need accounting of friction forces. Special attention is paid to forced transverse fluctuations in beams as an important technical problem for engineering and building. Aim: The aim of the work is constructing of analytical solution of the problem of forced transverse vibrations of a straight rod with constant cross-section, which is under the influence of the harmonic load taking into account external and internal resistances. Materials and Methods: The internal resistance is taken into account using the corrected hypothesis of Kelvin-Voigt which reflects the empirically proven fact about the frequency-independent internal friction in the material. The external friction is also considered as frequency-independent. Results: An analytical solution is built for the differential equation of forced transverse oscillations of a straight rod with constant cross-section which is under the influence of the harmonic load taking into account external and internal resistances. As a result, analytically derived formulae are presented which describe the forced dynamic oscillations and the dynamic internal forces due to the harmonic load applied to the rod thus reducing the problem with any possible fixed ends to the search of unknown integration constants represented in a form of initial parameters.

Structural reliability calculation method based on the dual neural network and direct integration method.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Haibin; He, Yun; Nie, Xiaobo

2018-01-01

Structural reliability analysis under uncertainty is paid wide attention by engineers and scholars due to reflecting the structural characteristics and the bearing actual situation. The direct integration method, started from the definition of reliability theory, is easy to be understood, but there are still mathematics difficulties in the calculation of multiple integrals. Therefore, a dual neural network method is proposed for calculating multiple integrals in this paper. Dual neural network consists of two neural networks. The neural network A is used to learn the integrand function, and the neural network B is used to simulate the original function. According to the derivative relationships between the network output and the network input, the neural network B is derived from the neural network A. On this basis, the performance function of normalization is employed in the proposed method to overcome the difficulty of multiple integrations and to improve the accuracy for reliability calculations. The comparisons between the proposed method and Monte Carlo simulation method, Hasofer-Lind method, the mean value first-order second moment method have demonstrated that the proposed method is an efficient and accurate reliability method for structural reliability problems.

Prestressing force monitoring method for a box girder through distributed long-gauge FBG sensors

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Shi-Zhi; Wu, Gang; Xing, Tuo; Feng, De-Cheng

2018-01-01

Monitoring prestressing forces is essential for prestressed concrete box girder bridges. However, the current monitoring methods used for prestressing force were not applicable for a box girder neither because of the sensor’s setup being constrained or shear lag effect not being properly considered. Through combining with the previous analysis model of shear lag effect in the box girder, this paper proposed an indirect monitoring method for on-site determination of prestressing force in a concrete box girder utilizing the distributed long-gauge fiber Bragg grating sensor. The performance of this method was initially verified using numerical simulation for three different distribution forms of prestressing tendons. Then, an experiment involving two concrete box girders was conducted to study the feasibility of this method under different prestressing levels preliminarily. The results of both numerical simulation and lab experiment validated this method’s practicability in a box girder.

A double-integration hypothesis to explain ocean ecosystem response to climate forcing

Science.gov (United States)

Di Lorenzo, Emanuele; Ohman, Mark D.

2013-01-01

Long-term time series of marine ecological indicators often are characterized by large-amplitude state transitions that can persist for decades. Understanding the significance of these variations depends critically on the underlying hypotheses characterizing expected natural variability. Using a linear autoregressive model in combination with long-term zooplankton observations off the California coast, we show that cumulative integrations of white-noise atmospheric forcing can generate marine population responses that are characterized by strong transitions and prolonged apparent state changes. This model provides a baseline hypothesis for explaining ecosystem variability and for interpreting the significance of abrupt responses and climate change signatures in marine ecosystems. PMID:23341628

Thermal imbalance force modelling for a GPS satellite using the finite element method

Science.gov (United States)

Vigue, Yvonne; Schutz, Bob E.

1991-01-01

Methods of analyzing the perturbation due to thermal radiation and determining its effects on the orbits of GPS satellites are presented, with emphasis on the FEM technique to calculate satellite solar panel temperatures which are used to determine the magnitude and direction of the thermal imbalance force. Although this force may not be responsible for all of the force mismodeling, conditions may work in combination with the thermal imbalance force to produce such accelerations on the order of 1.e-9 m/sq s. If submeter accurate orbits and centimeter-level accuracy for geophysical applications are desired, a time-dependent model of the thermal imbalance force should be used, especially when satellites are eclipsing, where the observed errors are larger than for satellites in noneclipsing orbits.

A nonlinear boundary integral equations method for the solving of quasistatic elastic contact problem with Coulomb friction

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Yurii M. Streliaiev

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Three-dimensional quasistatic contact problem of two linearly elastic bodies' interaction with Coulomb friction taken into account is considered. The boundary conditions of the problem have been simplified by the modification of the Coulomb's law of friction. This modification is based on the introducing of a delay in normal contact tractions that bound tangent contact tractions in the Coulomb's law of friction expressions. At this statement the problem is reduced to a sequence of similar systems of nonlinear integral equations describing bodies' interaction at each step of loading. A method for an approximate solution of the integral equations system corresponded to each step of loading is applied. This method consists of system regularization, discretization of regularized system and iterative process application for solving the discretized system. A numerical solution of a contact problem of an elastic sphere with an elastic half-space interaction under increasing and subsequently decreasing normal compressive force has been obtained.

A parallel direct-forcing fictitious domain method for simulating microswimmers

Science.gov (United States)

Gao, Tong; Lin, Zhaowu

2017-11-01

We present a 3D parallel direct-forcing fictitious domain method for simulating swimming micro-organisms at small Reynolds numbers. We treat the motile micro-swimmers as spherical rigid particles using the ``Squirmer'' model. The particle dynamics are solved on the moving Larangian meshes that overlay upon a fixed Eulerian mesh for solving the fluid motion, and the momentum exchange between the two phases is resolved by distributing pseudo body-forces over the particle interior regions which constrain the background fictitious fluids to follow the particle movement. While the solid and fluid subproblems are solved separately, no inner-iterations are required to enforce numerical convergence. We demonstrate the accuracy and robustness of the method by comparing our results with the existing analytical and numerical studies for various cases of single particle dynamics and particle-particle interactions. We also perform a series of numerical explorations to obtain statistical and rheological measurements to characterize the dynamics and structures of Squirmer suspensions. NSF DMS 1619960.

Investigation of Calibrating Force Transducer Using Sinusoidal Force

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang Li; Wang Yu; Zhang Lizhe

2010-01-01

Sinusoidal force calibration method was studied several years before at Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB). A similar dynamic force calibration system is developed at Changcheng Institute of Metrology and Measurement (CIMM). It uses electro-dynamic shakers to generate dynamic force in the range from 1 N to 20 kN, and heterodyne laser interferometers are used for acceleration measurement. The force transducer to be calibrated is mounted on the shaker, and a mass block is screwed on the top of force transducer, the sinusoidal forces realized by accelerated load masses are traceable to acceleration and mass according to the force definition. The methods of determining Spatial-dependent acceleration on mass block and measuring the end mass of force transducer in dynamic force calibration are discussed in this paper.

Casimir forces and geometry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Buescher, R.

2005-01-01

Casimir interactions are interactions induced by quantum vacuum fluctuations and thermal fluctuations of the electromagnetic field. Using a path integral quantization for the gauge field, an effective Gaussian action will be derived which is the starting point to compute Casimir forces between macroscopic objects analytically and numerically. No assumptions about the independence of the material and shape dependent contributions to the interaction are made. We study the limit of flat surfaces in further detail and obtain a concise derivation of Lifshitz' theory of molecular forces. For the case of ideally conducting boundaries, the Gaussian action will be calculated explicitly. Both limiting cases are also discussed within the framework of a scalar field quantization approach, which is applicable for translationally invariant geometries. We develop a non-perturbative approach to calculate the Casimir interaction from the Gaussian action for periodically deformed and ideally conducting objects numerically. The obtained results reveal two different scaling regimes for the Casimir force as a function of the distance between the objects, their deformation wavelength and -amplitude. The results confirm that the interaction is non-additive, especially in the presence of strong geometric deformations. Furthermore, the numerical approach is extended to calculate lateral Casimir forces. The results are consistent with the results of the proximity-force approximation for large deformation wavelengths. A qualitatively different behaviour between the normal and lateral force is revealed. We also establish a relation between the boundary induced change of the of the density of states for the scalar Helmholtz equation and the Casimir interaction using the path integral method. For statically deformed boundaries, this relation can be expressed as a novel trace formula, which is formally similar to the so-called Krein-Friedel-Lloyd formula. While the latter formula describes the

Mixed methods in psychotherapy research: A review of method(ology) integration in psychotherapy science.

Science.gov (United States)

Bartholomew, Theodore T; Lockard, Allison J

2018-06-13

Mixed methods can foster depth and breadth in psychological research. However, its use remains in development in psychotherapy research. Our purpose was to review the use of mixed methods in psychotherapy research. Thirty-one studies were identified via the PRISMA systematic review method. Using Creswell & Plano Clark's typologies to identify design characteristics, we assessed each study for rigor and how each used mixed methods. Key features of mixed methods designs and these common patterns were identified: (a) integration of clients' perceptions via mixing; (b) understanding group psychotherapy; (c) integrating methods with cases and small samples; (d) analyzing clinical data as qualitative data; and (e) exploring cultural identities in psychotherapy through mixed methods. The review is discussed with respect to the value of integrating multiple data in single studies to enhance psychotherapy research. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Methods for enhancing numerical integration

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Doncker, Elise de

2003-01-01

We give a survey of common strategies for numerical integration (adaptive, Monte-Carlo, Quasi-Monte Carlo), and attempt to delineate their realm of applicability. The inherent accuracy and error bounds for basic integration methods are given via such measures as the degree of precision of cubature rules, the index of a family of lattice rules, and the discrepancy of uniformly distributed point sets. Strategies incorporating these basic methods often use paradigms to reduce the error by, e.g., increasing the number of points in the domain or decreasing the mesh size, locally or uniformly. For these processes the order of convergence of the strategy is determined by the asymptotic behavior of the error, and may be too slow in practice for the type of problem at hand. For certain problem classes we may be able to improve the effectiveness of the method or strategy by such techniques as transformations, absorbing a difficult part of the integrand into a weight function, suitable partitioning of the domain, transformations and extrapolation or convergence acceleration. Situations warranting the use of these techniques (possibly in an 'automated' way) are described and illustrated by sample applications

Force feedback in a piezoelectric linear actuator for neurosurgery.

Science.gov (United States)

De Lorenzo, Danilo; De Momi, Elena; Dyagilev, Ilya; Manganelli, Rudy; Formaglio, Alessandro; Prattichizzo, Domenico; Shoham, Moshe; Ferrigno, Giancarlo

2011-09-01

Force feedback in robotic minimally invasive surgery allows the human operator to manipulate tissues as if his/her hands were in contact with the patient organs. A force sensor mounted on the probe raises problems with sterilization of the overall surgical tool. Also, the use of off-axis gauges introduces a moment that increases the friction force on the bearing, which can easily mask off the signal, given the small force to be measured. This work aims at designing and testing two methods for estimating the resistance to the advancement (force) experienced by a standard probe for brain biopsies within a brain-like material. The further goal is to provide a neurosurgeon using a master-slave tele-operated driver with direct feedback on the tissue mechanical characteristics. Two possible sensing methods, in-axis strain gauge force sensor and position-position error (control-based method), were implemented and tested, both aimed at device miniaturization. The analysis carried out was aimed at fulfilment of the psychophysics requirements for force detection and delay tolerance, also taking into account safety, which is directly related to the last two issues. Controller parameters definition is addressed and consideration is given to development of the device with integration of a haptic interface. Results show better performance of the control-based method (RMSE sensors. Force feedback in minimally invasive surgery allows the human operator to manipulate tissues as if his/her hands were in contact with the patient organs. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Momentum integral network method for thermal-hydraulic transient analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Van Tuyle, G.J.

1983-01-01

A new momentum integral network method has been developed, and tested in the MINET computer code. The method was developed in order to facilitate the transient analysis of complex fluid flow and heat transfer networks, such as those found in the balance of plant of power generating facilities. The method employed in the MINET code is a major extension of a momentum integral method reported by Meyer. Meyer integrated the momentum equation over several linked nodes, called a segment, and used a segment average pressure, evaluated from the pressures at both ends. Nodal mass and energy conservation determined nodal flows and enthalpies, accounting for fluid compression and thermal expansion

Revised Chapman-Enskog analysis for a class of forcing schemes in the lattice Boltzmann method.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Q; Zhou, P; Yan, H J

2016-10-01

In the lattice Boltzmann (LB) method, the forcing scheme, which is used to incorporate an external or internal force into the LB equation, plays an important role. It determines whether the force of the system is correctly implemented in an LB model and affects the numerical accuracy. In this paper we aim to clarify a critical issue about the Chapman-Enskog analysis for a class of forcing schemes in the LB method in which the velocity in the equilibrium density distribution function is given by u=∑_{α}e_{α}f_{α}/ρ, while the actual fluid velocity is defined as u[over ̂]=u+δ_{t}F/(2ρ). It is shown that the usual Chapman-Enskog analysis for this class of forcing schemes should be revised so as to derive the actual macroscopic equations recovered from these forcing schemes. Three forcing schemes belonging to the above class are analyzed, among which Wagner's forcing scheme [A. J. Wagner, Phys. Rev. E 74, 056703 (2006)10.1103/PhysRevE.74.056703] is shown to be capable of reproducing the correct macroscopic equations. The theoretical analyses are examined and demonstrated with two numerical tests, including the simulation of Womersley flow and the modeling of flat and circular interfaces by the pseudopotential multiphase LB model.

A Force Sensorless Method for CFRP/Ti Stack Interface Detection during Robotic Orbital Drilling Operations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Qiang Fang

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Drilling carbon fiber reinforced plastics and titanium (CFRP/Ti stacks is one of the most important activities in aircraft assembly. It is favorable to use different drilling parameters for each layer due to their dissimilar machining properties. However, large aircraft parts with changing profiles lead to variation of thickness along the profiles, which makes it challenging to adapt the cutting parameters for different materials being drilled. This paper proposes a force sensorless method based on cutting force observer for monitoring the thrust force and identifying the drilling material during the drilling process. The cutting force observer, which is the combination of an adaptive disturbance observer and friction force model, is used to estimate the thrust force. An in-process algorithm is developed to monitor the variation of the thrust force for detecting the stack interface between the CFRP and titanium materials. Robotic orbital drilling experiments have been conducted on CFRP/Ti stacks. The estimate error of the cutting force observer was less than 13%, and the stack interface was detected in 0.25 s (or 0.05 mm before or after the tool transited it. The results show that the proposed method can successfully detect the CFRP/Ti stack interface for the cutting parameters adaptation.

Integrals of Frullani type and the method of brackets

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Bravo Sergio

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The method of brackets is a collection of heuristic rules, some of which have being made rigorous, that provide a flexible, direct method for the evaluation of definite integrals. The present work uses this method to establish classical formulas due to Frullani which provide values of a specific family of integrals. Some generalizations are established.

Internal force corrections with machine learning for quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics simulations.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Jingheng; Shen, Lin; Yang, Weitao

2017-10-28

Ab initio quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) molecular dynamics simulation is a useful tool to calculate thermodynamic properties such as potential of mean force for chemical reactions but intensely time consuming. In this paper, we developed a new method using the internal force correction for low-level semiempirical QM/MM molecular dynamics samplings with a predefined reaction coordinate. As a correction term, the internal force was predicted with a machine learning scheme, which provides a sophisticated force field, and added to the atomic forces on the reaction coordinate related atoms at each integration step. We applied this method to two reactions in aqueous solution and reproduced potentials of mean force at the ab initio QM/MM level. The saving in computational cost is about 2 orders of magnitude. The present work reveals great potentials for machine learning in QM/MM simulations to study complex chemical processes.

Are the force characteristics of synchronous handcycling affected by speed and the method to impose power?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Arnet, U.; van Drongelen, S.V.; van der Woude, L.H.V.; Veeger, H.E.J.

2012-01-01

Objective: To investigate the influence of exercise conditions (speed and method to impose power) on the applied force, force effectiveness and distribution of work during handcycling. Method: Ten able-bodied men performed handcycling on a treadmill. To test the effect of speed, subjects propelled

Are the force characteristics of synchronous handcycling affected by speed and the method to impose power?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Arnet, Ursina; van Drongelen, Stefan; Veeger, DirkJan H. E. J.; van der Woude, Lucas H. V.

Objective: To investigate the influence of exercise conditions (speed and method to impose power) on the applied force, force effectiveness and distribution of work during handcycling. Method: Ten able-bodied men performed handcycling on a treadmill. To test the effect of speed, subjects propelled

Alternative containment integrity test methods, an overview of possible techniques

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Spletzer, B.L.

1986-01-01

A study is being conducted to develop and analyze alternative methods for testing of containment integrity. The study is focused on techniques for continuously monitoring containment integrity to provide rapid detection of existing leaks, thus providing greater certainty of the integrity of the containment at any time. The study is also intended to develop techniques applicable to the currently required Type A integrated leakage rate tests. A brief discussion of the range of alternative methods currently being considered is presented. The methods include applicability to all major containment types, operating and shutdown plant conditions, and quantitative and qualitative leakage measurements. The techniques are analyzed in accordance with the current state of knowledge of each method. The bulk of the techniques discussed are in the conceptual stage, have not been tested in actual plant conditions, and are presented here as a possible future direction for evaluating containment integrity. Of the methods considered, no single method provides optimum performance for all containment types. Several methods are limited in the types of containment for which they are applicable. The results of the study to date indicate that techniques for continuous monitoring of containment integrity exist for many plants and may be implemented at modest cost

Satellite methods underestimate indirect climate forcing by aerosols

Science.gov (United States)

Penner, Joyce E.; Xu, Li; Wang, Minghuai

2011-01-01

Satellite-based estimates of the aerosol indirect effect (AIE) are consistently smaller than the estimates from global aerosol models, and, partly as a result of these differences, the assessment of this climate forcing includes large uncertainties. Satellite estimates typically use the present-day (PD) relationship between observed cloud drop number concentrations (Nc) and aerosol optical depths (AODs) to determine the preindustrial (PI) values of Nc. These values are then used to determine the PD and PI cloud albedos and, thus, the effect of anthropogenic aerosols on top of the atmosphere radiative fluxes. Here, we use a model with realistic aerosol and cloud processes to show that empirical relationships for ln(Nc) versus ln(AOD) derived from PD results do not represent the atmospheric perturbation caused by the addition of anthropogenic aerosols to the preindustrial atmosphere. As a result, the model estimates based on satellite methods of the AIE are between a factor of 3 to more than a factor of 6 smaller than model estimates based on actual PD and PI values for Nc. Using ln(Nc) versus ln(AI) (Aerosol Index, or the optical depth times angstrom exponent) to estimate preindustrial values for Nc provides estimates for Nc and forcing that are closer to the values predicted by the model. Nevertheless, the AIE using ln(Nc) versus ln(AI) may be substantially incorrect on a regional basis and may underestimate or overestimate the global average forcing by 25 to 35%. PMID:21808047

Approximation of the exponential integral (well function) using sampling methods

Science.gov (United States)

Baalousha, Husam Musa

2015-04-01

Exponential integral (also known as well function) is often used in hydrogeology to solve Theis and Hantush equations. Many methods have been developed to approximate the exponential integral. Most of these methods are based on numerical approximations and are valid for a certain range of the argument value. This paper presents a new approach to approximate the exponential integral. The new approach is based on sampling methods. Three different sampling methods; Latin Hypercube Sampling (LHS), Orthogonal Array (OA), and Orthogonal Array-based Latin Hypercube (OA-LH) have been used to approximate the function. Different argument values, covering a wide range, have been used. The results of sampling methods were compared with results obtained by Mathematica software, which was used as a benchmark. All three sampling methods converge to the result obtained by Mathematica, at different rates. It was found that the orthogonal array (OA) method has the fastest convergence rate compared with LHS and OA-LH. The root mean square error RMSE of OA was in the order of 1E-08. This method can be used with any argument value, and can be used to solve other integrals in hydrogeology such as the leaky aquifer integral.

Complimentary Force Allocation Control for a Dual-Mover Linear Switched Reluctance Machine

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. F. Pan

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This paper inspects the complementary force allocation control schemes for an integrated, dual-mover linear switched reluctance machine (LSRM. The performance of the total force is realized by the coordination of the two movers. First, the structure and characteristics of the LSRM are investigated. Then, a complimentary force allocation control scheme for the two movers is proposed. Next, three force allocation methods—constant proportion, constant proportion with a saturation interval and error compensation, and the variable proportion allocation strategies—are proposed and analyzed, respectively. Experimental results demonstrate that the complimentary force interaction between the two movers can effectively reduce the total amount of force ripples from each method. The results under the variable proportion method also show that dynamic error values falling into 0.044 mm and −0.04 mm under the unit ramp force reference can be achieved. With the sinusoidal force reference with an amplitude of 60 N and a frequency of 0.5 Hz, a dynamic force control precision of 0.062 N and 0.091 N can also be obtained.

Sources of spurious force oscillations from an immersed boundary method for moving-body problems

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Jongho; Kim, Jungwoo; Choi, Haecheon; Yang, Kyung-Soo

2011-04-01

When a discrete-forcing immersed boundary method is applied to moving-body problems, it produces spurious force oscillations on a solid body. In the present study, we identify two sources of these force oscillations. One source is from the spatial discontinuity in the pressure across the immersed boundary when a grid point located inside a solid body becomes that of fluid with a body motion. The addition of mass source/sink together with momentum forcing proposed by Kim et al. [J. Kim, D. Kim, H. Choi, An immersed-boundary finite volume method for simulations of flow in complex geometries, Journal of Computational Physics 171 (2001) 132-150] reduces the spurious force oscillations by alleviating this pressure discontinuity. The other source is from the temporal discontinuity in the velocity at the grid points where fluid becomes solid with a body motion. The magnitude of velocity discontinuity decreases with decreasing the grid spacing near the immersed boundary. Four moving-body problems are simulated by varying the grid spacing at a fixed computational time step and at a constant CFL number, respectively. It is found that the spurious force oscillations decrease with decreasing the grid spacing and increasing the computational time step size, but they depend more on the grid spacing than on the computational time step size.

Gender Integration and the Swedish Armed Forces

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gustafsson, Daniel Marcus Sunil

This paper discusses different gender aspects of the Swedish Armed Forces with specific references to sexual harassment and prostitution. By using the concept of Hegemonic Masculinity, sexual harassment of the women in the Swedish Armed Forces is explained in terms of a need of the men within...... the organisation to reinforce the notion of women as inferior and subordinate to men, whereby the external hegemony is believed to be restored. Likewise, male Swedish peacekeepers’ demand for prostitution during international peacekeeping missions is explained in terms of a need to confirm manhood and as homo...

A modeling perspective on cloud radiative forcing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Potter, G.L.; Corsetti, L.; Slingo, J.M.

1993-02-01

Radiation fields from a perpetual July integration of a T106 version of the ECM-WF operational model are used to identify the most appropriate way to diagnose cloud radiative forcing in a general circulation model, for the purposes of intercomparison between models. Differences between the Methods I and II of Cess and Potter (1987) and a variant method are addressed. Method I is shown to be the least robust of all methods, due to the potential uncertainties related to persistent cloudiness, length of the sampling period and biases in retrieved clear-sky quantities due to insufficient sampling of the diurnal cycle. Method II is proposed as an unambiguous way to produce consistent radiative diagnostics for intercomparing model results. The impact of the three methods on the derived sensitivities and cloud feedbacks following an imposed change in sea surface temperature is discussed. The sensitivity of the results to horizontal resolution is considered by using the diagnostics from parallel integrations with T21 version of the model

Climate forcing and infectious disease transmission in urban landscapes: integrating demographic and socioeconomic heterogeneity.

Science.gov (United States)

Santos-Vega, Mauricio; Martinez, Pamela P; Pascual, Mercedes

2016-10-01

Urbanization and climate change are the two major environmental challenges of the 21st century. The dramatic expansion of cities around the world creates new conditions for the spread, surveillance, and control of infectious diseases. In particular, urban growth generates pronounced spatial heterogeneity within cities, which can modulate the effect of climate factors at local spatial scales in large urban environments. Importantly, the interaction between environmental forcing and socioeconomic heterogeneity at local scales remains an open area in infectious disease dynamics, especially for urban landscapes of the developing world. A quantitative and conceptual framework on urban health with a focus on infectious diseases would benefit from integrating aspects of climate forcing, population density, and level of wealth. In this paper, we review what is known about these drivers acting independently and jointly on urban infectious diseases; we then outline elements that are missing and would contribute to building such a framework. © 2016 New York Academy of Sciences.

Nonsmooth Newton method for Fischer function reformulation of contact force problems for interactive rigid body simulation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Silcowitz, Morten; Niebe, Sarah Maria; Erleben, Kenny

2009-01-01

contact response. In this paper, we present a new approach to contact force determination. We reformulate the contact force problem as a nonlinear root search problem, using a Fischer function. We solve this problem using a generalized Newton method. Our new Fischer - Newton method shows improved...... qualities for specific configurations where the most widespread alternative, the Projected Gauss-Seidel method, fails. Experiments show superior convergence properties of the exact Fischer - Newton method....

Hamiltonian theory of vacuum helical torus lines of magnetic force

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gnudi, Giovanni; Hatori, Tadatsugu

1994-01-01

For making plasma into equilibrium state, the lines of magnetic force must have magnetic surfaces. However in a helical system, space is divided into the region having magnetic surface structure and the region that does not have it. Accordingly, it is an important basic research for the plasma confinement in a helical system to examine where is the boundary of both regions and how is the large area structure of the lines of magnetic force in the boundary region. The lines of magnetic force can be treated as a Hamilton mechanics system, and it has been proved that the Hamiltonian for the lines of magnetic force can be expressed by a set of canonical variables and the function of time. In this research, the Hamiltonian that describes the lines of magnetic force of helical system torus coordination in vacuum was successfully determined concretely. Next, the development of new linear symplectic integration method was carried out. The important supports for the theory of determining Hamiltonian are Lie transformation and paraxial expansion. The procedure is explained. In Appendix, Lie transformation, Hamiltonian for the lines of magnetic force, magnetic potential, Taylor expansion of the potential, cylindrical limit approximation, helical toroidal potential and integrable model are described. (K.I.)

Direct integration multiple collision integral transport analysis method for high energy fusion neutronics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koch, K.R.

1985-01-01

A new analysis method specially suited for the inherent difficulties of fusion neutronics was developed to provide detailed studies of the fusion neutron transport physics. These studies should provide a better understanding of the limitations and accuracies of typical fusion neutronics calculations. The new analysis method is based on the direct integration of the integral form of the neutron transport equation and employs a continuous energy formulation with the exact treatment of the energy angle kinematics of the scattering process. In addition, the overall solution is analyzed in terms of uncollided, once-collided, and multi-collided solution components based on a multiple collision treatment. Furthermore, the numerical evaluations of integrals use quadrature schemes that are based on the actual dependencies exhibited in the integrands. The new DITRAN computer code was developed on the Cyber 205 vector supercomputer to implement this direct integration multiple-collision fusion neutronics analysis. Three representative fusion reactor models were devised and the solutions to these problems were studied to provide suitable choices for the numerical quadrature orders as well as the discretized solution grid and to understand the limitations of the new analysis method. As further verification and as a first step in assessing the accuracy of existing fusion-neutronics calculations, solutions obtained using the new analysis method were compared to typical multigroup discrete ordinates calculations

Magnetic force micropiston: An integrated force/microfluidic device for the application of compressive forces in a confined environment

Science.gov (United States)

Fisher, J. K.; Kleckner, N.

2014-02-01

Cellular biology takes place inside confining spaces. For example, bacteria grow in crevices, red blood cells squeeze through capillaries, and chromosomes replicate inside the nucleus. Frequently, the extent of this confinement varies. Bacteria grow longer and divide, red blood cells move through smaller and smaller passages as they travel to capillary beds, and replication doubles the amount of DNA inside the nucleus. This increase in confinement, either due to a decrease in the available space or an increase in the amount of material contained in a constant volume, has the potential to squeeze and stress objects in ways that may lead to changes in morphology, dynamics, and ultimately biological function. Here, we describe a device developed to probe the interplay between confinement and the mechanical properties of cells and cellular structures, and forces that arise due to changes in a structure's state. In this system, the manipulation of a magnetic bead exerts a compressive force upon a target contained in the confining space of a microfluidic channel. This magnetic force microfluidic piston is constructed in such a way that we can measure (a) target compliance and changes in compliance as induced by changes in buffer, extract, or biochemical composition, (b) target expansion force generated by changes in the same parameters, and (c) the effects of compression stress on a target's structure and function. Beyond these issues, our system has general applicability to a variety of questions requiring the combination of mechanical forces, confinement, and optical imaging.

Monitoring Method of Cutting Force by Using Additional Spindle Sensors

Science.gov (United States)

Sarhan, Ahmed Aly Diaa; Matsubara, Atsushi; Sugihara, Motoyuki; Saraie, Hidenori; Ibaraki, Soichi; Kakino, Yoshiaki

This paper describes a monitoring method of cutting forces for end milling process by using displacement sensors. Four eddy-current displacement sensors are installed on the spindle housing of a machining center so that they can detect the radial motion of the rotating spindle. Thermocouples are also attached to the spindle structure in order to examine the thermal effect in the displacement sensing. The change in the spindle stiffness due to the spindle temperature and the speed is investigated as well. Finally, the estimation performance of cutting forces using the spindle displacement sensors is experimentally investigated by machining tests on carbon steel in end milling operations under different cutting conditions. It is found that the monitoring errors are attributable to the thermal displacement of the spindle, the time lag of the sensing system, and the modeling error of the spindle stiffness. It is also shown that the root mean square errors between estimated and measured amplitudes of cutting forces are reduced to be less than 20N with proper selection of the linear stiffness.

Achieving Integration in Mixed Methods Designs—Principles and Practices

OpenAIRE

Fetters, Michael D; Curry, Leslie A; Creswell, John W

2013-01-01

Mixed methods research offers powerful tools for investigating complex processes and systems in health and health care. This article describes integration principles and practices at three levels in mixed methods research and provides illustrative examples. Integration at the study design level occurs through three basic mixed method designs—exploratory sequential, explanatory sequential, and convergent—and through four advanced frameworks—multistage, intervention, case study, and participato...

Modified multiple time scale method for solving strongly nonlinear damped forced vibration systems

Science.gov (United States)

Razzak, M. A.; Alam, M. Z.; Sharif, M. N.

2018-03-01

In this paper, modified multiple time scale (MTS) method is employed to solve strongly nonlinear forced vibration systems. The first-order approximation is only considered in order to avoid complexicity. The formulations and the determination of the solution procedure are very easy and straightforward. The classical multiple time scale (MS) and multiple scales Lindstedt-Poincare method (MSLP) do not give desire result for the strongly damped forced vibration systems with strong damping effects. The main aim of this paper is to remove these limitations. Two examples are considered to illustrate the effectiveness and convenience of the present procedure. The approximate external frequencies and the corresponding approximate solutions are determined by the present method. The results give good coincidence with corresponding numerical solution (considered to be exact) and also provide better result than other existing results. For weak nonlinearities with weak damping effect, the absolute relative error measures (first-order approximate external frequency) in this paper is only 0.07% when amplitude A = 1.5 , while the relative error gives MSLP method is surprisingly 28.81%. Furthermore, for strong nonlinearities with strong damping effect, the absolute relative error found in this article is only 0.02%, whereas the relative error obtained by MSLP method is 24.18%. Therefore, the present method is not only valid for weakly nonlinear damped forced systems, but also gives better result for strongly nonlinear systems with both small and strong damping effect.

Cell force mapping using a double-sided micropillar array based on the moiré fringe method

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, F.; Anderson, S.; Zheng, X.; Roberts, E.; Qiu, Y.; Liao, R.; Zhang, X.

2014-07-01

The mapping of traction forces is crucial to understanding the means by which cells regulate their behavior and physiological function to adapt to and communicate with their local microenvironment. To this end, polymeric micropillar arrays have been used for measuring cell traction force. However, the small scale of the micropillar deflections induced by cell traction forces results in highly inefficient force analyses using conventional optical approaches; in many cases, cell forces may be below the limits of detection achieved using conventional microscopy. To address these limitations, the moiré phenomenon has been leveraged as a visualization tool for cell force mapping due to its inherent magnification effect and capacity for whole-field force measurements. This Letter reports an optomechanical cell force sensor, namely, a double-sided micropillar array (DMPA) made of poly(dimethylsiloxane), on which one side is employed to support cultured living cells while the opposing side serves as a reference pattern for generating moiré patterns. The distance between the two sides, which is a crucial parameter influencing moiré pattern contrast, is predetermined during fabrication using theoretical calculations based on the Talbot effect that aim to optimize contrast. Herein, double-sided micropillar arrays were validated by mapping mouse embryo fibroblast contraction forces and the resulting force maps compared to conventional microscopy image analyses as the reference standard. The DMPA-based approach precludes the requirement for aligning two independent periodic substrates, improves moiré contrast, and enables efficient moiré pattern generation. Furthermore, the double-sided structure readily allows for the integration of moiré-based cell force mapping into microfabricated cell culture environments or lab-on-a-chip devices.

A universal access layer for the Integrated Tokamak Modelling Task Force

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Manduchi, G.; Iannone, F.; Imbeaux, F.; Huysmans, G.; Lister, J.B.; Guillerminet, B.; Strand, P.; Eriksson, L.-G.; Romanelli, M.

2008-01-01

The Integrated Tokamak Modelling (ITM) Task Force aims at providing a suite of codes for preparing and analyzing future ITER discharges. In the framework of the ITM, the universal access layer (UAL) provides the capability of storing and retrieving data involved in simulation. The underlying data structure is hierarchical and the granularity in data access is given by the definition of a set of consistent physical objects (CPOs). To describe the data structure of the overall ITM database, the XML schema description (XSD) has been used. Originally intended to describe the structure of XML documents, XSD is used here to provide an unambiguous way of describing how data are structured, regardless of the actual implementation of the underlying database. The MDSplus-based UAL implementation is currently under test and other prototypes for investigating alternative data storage systems are foreseen

Ab initio nonequilibrium quantum transport and forces with the real-space projector augmented wave method

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Chen, Jingzhe; Thygesen, Kristian S.; Jacobsen, Karsten W.

2012-01-01

We present an efficient implementation of a nonequilibrium Green's function method for self-consistent calculations of electron transport and forces in nanostructured materials. The electronic structure is described at the level of density functional theory using the projector augmented wave method...... over k points and real space makes the code highly efficient and applicable to systems containing several hundreds of atoms. The method is applied to a number of different systems, demonstrating the effects of bias and gate voltages, multiterminal setups, nonequilibrium forces, and spin transport....

Validation of engineering methods for predicting hypersonic vehicle controls forces and moments

Science.gov (United States)

Maughmer, M.; Straussfogel, D.; Long, L.; Ozoroski, L.

1991-01-01

This work examines the ability of the aerodynamic analysis methods contained in an industry standard conceptual design code, the Aerodynamic Preliminary Analysis System (APAS II), to estimate the forces and moments generated through control surface deflections from low subsonic to high hypersonic speeds. Predicted control forces and moments generated by various control effectors are compared with previously published wind-tunnel and flight-test data for three vehicles: the North American X-15, a hypersonic research airplane concept, and the Space Shuttle Orbiter. Qualitative summaries of the results are given for each force and moment coefficient and each control derivative in the various speed ranges. Results show that all predictions of longitudinal stability and control derivatives are acceptable for use at the conceptual design stage.

Uncertainties in forces extracted from non-contact atomic force microscopy measurements by fitting of long-range background forces

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adam Sweetman

2014-04-01

Full Text Available In principle, non-contact atomic force microscopy (NC-AFM now readily allows for the measurement of forces with sub-nanonewton precision on the atomic scale. In practice, however, the extraction of the often desired ‘short-range’ force from the experimental observable (frequency shift is often far from trivial. In most cases there is a significant contribution to the total tip–sample force due to non-site-specific van der Waals and electrostatic forces. Typically, the contribution from these forces must be removed before the results of the experiment can be successfully interpreted, often by comparison to density functional theory calculations. In this paper we compare the ‘on-minus-off’ method for extracting site-specific forces to a commonly used extrapolation method modelling the long-range forces using a simple power law. By examining the behaviour of the fitting method in the case of two radically different interaction potentials we show that significant uncertainties in the final extracted forces may result from use of the extrapolation method.

Finite difference computation of Casimir forces

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pinto, Fabrizio

2016-01-01

In this Invited paper, we begin by a historical introduction to provide a motivation for the classical problems of interatomic force computation and associated challenges. This analysis will lead us from early theoretical and experimental accomplishments to the integration of these fascinating interactions into the operation of realistic, next-generation micro- and nanodevices both for the advanced metrology of fundamental physical processes and in breakthrough industrial applications. Among several powerful strategies enabling vastly enhanced performance and entirely novel technological capabilities, we shall specifically consider Casimir force time-modulation and the adoption of non-trivial geometries. As to the former, the ability to alter the magnitude and sign of the Casimir force will be recognized as a crucial principle to implement thermodynamical nano-engines. As to the latter, we shall first briefly review various reported computational approaches. We shall then discuss the game-changing discovery, in the last decade, that standard methods of numerical classical electromagnetism can be retooled to formulate the problem of Casimir force computation in arbitrary geometries. This remarkable development will be practically illustrated by showing that such an apparently elementary method as standard finite-differencing can be successfully employed to numerically recover results known from the Lifshitz theory of dispersion forces in the case of interacting parallel-plane slabs. Other geometries will be also be explored and consideration given to the potential of non-standard finite-difference methods. Finally, we shall introduce problems at the computational frontier, such as those including membranes deformed by Casimir forces and the effects of anisotropic materials. Conclusions will highlight the dramatic transition from the enduring perception of this field as an exotic application of quantum electrodynamics to the recent demonstration of a human climbing

[Development method of healthcare information system integration based on business collaboration model].

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Shasha; Nie, Hongchao; Lu, Xudong; Duan, Huilong

2015-02-01

Integration of heterogeneous systems is the key to hospital information construction due to complexity of the healthcare environment. Currently, during the process of healthcare information system integration, people participating in integration project usually communicate by free-format document, which impairs the efficiency and adaptability of integration. A method utilizing business process model and notation (BPMN) to model integration requirement and automatically transforming it to executable integration configuration was proposed in this paper. Based on the method, a tool was developed to model integration requirement and transform it to integration configuration. In addition, an integration case in radiology scenario was used to verify the method.

Explicit integration of extremely stiff reaction networks: partial equilibrium methods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guidry, M W; Hix, W R; Billings, J J

2013-01-01

In two preceding papers (Guidry et al 2013 Comput. Sci. Disc. 6 015001 and Guidry and Harris 2013 Comput. Sci. Disc. 6 015002), we have shown that when reaction networks are well removed from equilibrium, explicit asymptotic and quasi-steady-state approximations can give algebraically stabilized integration schemes that rival standard implicit methods in accuracy and speed for extremely stiff systems. However, we also showed that these explicit methods remain accurate but are no longer competitive in speed as the network approaches equilibrium. In this paper, we analyze this failure and show that it is associated with the presence of fast equilibration timescales that neither asymptotic nor quasi-steady-state approximations are able to remove efficiently from the numerical integration. Based on this understanding, we develop a partial equilibrium method to deal effectively with the approach to equilibrium and show that explicit asymptotic methods, combined with the new partial equilibrium methods, give an integration scheme that can plausibly deal with the stiffest networks, even in the approach to equilibrium, with accuracy and speed competitive with that of implicit methods. Thus we demonstrate that such explicit methods may offer alternatives to implicit integration of even extremely stiff systems and that these methods may permit integration of much larger networks than have been possible before in a number of fields. (paper)

Development of plant dynamic analysis code for integrated self-pressurized water reactor (ISPDYN), and comparative study of pressure control methods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kusunoki, Tsuyoshi; Yokomura, Takeyoshi; Nabeshima, Kunihiko; Shimazaki, Junya; Shinohara, Yoshikuni.

1988-01-01

This report describes the development of plant dynamic analysis code (ISPDYN) for integrated self-pressurized water reactor, and comparative study of pressure control methods with this code. ISPDYN is developed for integrated self-pressurized water reactor, one of the trial design by JAERI. In the transient responses, the calculated results by ISPDYN are in good agreement with the DRUCK calculations. In addition, this report presents some sensitivity studies for selected cases. Computing time of this code is very short so as about one fifth of real time. The comparative study of self-pressurized system with forced-pressurized system by this code, for rapid load decrease and increase cases, has provided useful informations. (author)

Bioactive conformational generation of small molecules: A comparative analysis between force-field and multiple empirical criteria based methods

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jiang Hualiang

2010-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Conformational sampling for small molecules plays an essential role in drug discovery research pipeline. Based on multi-objective evolution algorithm (MOEA, we have developed a conformational generation method called Cyndi in the previous study. In this work, in addition to Tripos force field in the previous version, Cyndi was updated by incorporation of MMFF94 force field to assess the conformational energy more rationally. With two force fields against a larger dataset of 742 bioactive conformations of small ligands extracted from PDB, a comparative analysis was performed between pure force field based method (FFBM and multiple empirical criteria based method (MECBM hybrided with different force fields. Results Our analysis reveals that incorporating multiple empirical rules can significantly improve the accuracy of conformational generation. MECBM, which takes both empirical and force field criteria as the objective functions, can reproduce about 54% (within 1Å RMSD of the bioactive conformations in the 742-molecule testset, much higher than that of pure force field method (FFBM, about 37%. On the other hand, MECBM achieved a more complete and efficient sampling of the conformational space because the average size of unique conformations ensemble per molecule is about 6 times larger than that of FFBM, while the time scale for conformational generation is nearly the same as FFBM. Furthermore, as a complementary comparison study between the methods with and without empirical biases, we also tested the performance of the three conformational generation methods in MacroModel in combination with different force fields. Compared with the methods in MacroModel, MECBM is more competitive in retrieving the bioactive conformations in light of accuracy but has much lower computational cost. Conclusions By incorporating different energy terms with several empirical criteria, the MECBM method can produce more reasonable conformational

Using optical tweezers for measuring the interaction forces between human bone cells and implant surfaces: System design and force calibration

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Andersson, Martin; Madgavkar, Ashwin; Stjerndahl, Maria; Wu, Yanrong; Tan, Weihong; Duran, Randy; Niehren, Stefan; Mustafa, Kamal; Arvidson, Kristina; Wennerberg, Ann

2007-01-01

Optical tweezers were used to study the interaction and attachment of human bone cells to various types of medical implant materials. Ideally, the implant should facilitate cell attachment and promote migration of the progenitor cells in order to decrease the healing time. It is therefore of interest, in a controlled manner, to be able to monitor the cell adhesion process. Results from such studies would help foresee the clinical outcome of integrating medical implants. The interactions between two primary cell culture models, human gingival fibroblasts and bone forming human osteoblast cells, and three different implant materials, glass, titanium, and hydroxyapatite, were studied. A novel type of optical tweezers, which has a newly designed quadrant detector and a powerful 3 W laser was constructed and force calibrated using two different methods: one method in which the stiffness of the optical trap was obtained by monitoring the phase lag between the trap and the moved object when imposing a forced oscillation on the trapped object and another method in which the maximum trapping force was derived from the critical velocity at which the object escapes the trap. Polystyrene beads as well as cells were utilized for the calibrations. This is the first time that cells have been used directly for these types of force calibrations and, hence, direct measurements of forces exerted on cells can be performed, thus avoiding the difficulties often encountered when translating the results obtained from cell measurements to the calibrations obtained with reference materials. This more straightforward approach represents an advantage in comparison to established methods

Local and integral disruption forces on the tokamak wall

Science.gov (United States)

Pustovitov, V. D.; Kiramov, D. I.

2018-04-01

The disruption-induced forces on the tokamak wall are evaluated analytically within the standard large-aspect-ratio model that implies axisymmetry, circular plasma and wall, and absence of halo currents. Additionally, the ideal-wall reaction is assumed. The disruptions are modelled as rapid changes in the plasma pressure (thermal quench (TQ)) and net current (current quench (CQ)). The force distribution over the poloidal angle is found as a function of these inputs. The derived formulas allow comparison of the TQ- and CQ-produced forces calculated differently, with and without account of the poloidal current induced in the wall. The latter variant represents the inherent property of the codes treating the wall as a set of toroidal filaments. It is proved here that such a simplification leads to unacceptably large errors in the simulated forces for both TQs and CQs. It is also shown that the TQ part of the force must prevail over that due to CQ in the high-β scenarios developed for JT-60SA and ITER.

An integral nodal variational method for multigroup criticality calculations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lewis, E.E.; Tsoulfanidis, N.

2003-01-01

An integral formulation of the variational nodal method is presented and applied to a series of benchmark critically problems. The method combines an integral transport treatment of the even-parity flux within the spatial node with an odd-parity spherical harmonics expansion of the Lagrange multipliers at the node interfaces. The response matrices that result from this formulation are compatible with those in the VARIANT code at Argonne National Laboratory. Either homogeneous or heterogeneous nodes may be employed. In general, for calculations requiring higher-order angular approximations, the integral method yields solutions with comparable accuracy while requiring substantially less CPU time and memory than the standard spherical harmonics expansion using the same spatial approximations. (author)

Knowledge-Based Trajectory Error Pattern Method Applied to an Active Force Control Scheme

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Endra Pitowarno, Musa Mailah, Hishamuddin Jamaluddin

2012-08-01

Full Text Available The active force control (AFC method is known as a robust control scheme that dramatically enhances the performance of a robot arm particularly in compensating the disturbance effects. The main task of the AFC method is to estimate the inertia matrix in the feedback loop to provide the correct (motor torque required to cancel out these disturbances. Several intelligent control schemes have already been introduced to enhance the estimation methods of acquiring the inertia matrix such as those using neural network, iterative learning and fuzzy logic. In this paper, we propose an alternative scheme called Knowledge-Based Trajectory Error Pattern Method (KBTEPM to suppress the trajectory track error of the AFC scheme. The knowledge is developed from the trajectory track error characteristic based on the previous experimental results of the crude approximation method. It produces a unique, new and desirable error pattern when a trajectory command is forced. An experimental study was performed using simulation work on the AFC scheme with KBTEPM applied to a two-planar manipulator in which a set of rule-based algorithm is derived. A number of previous AFC schemes are also reviewed as benchmark. The simulation results show that the AFC-KBTEPM scheme successfully reduces the trajectory track error significantly even in the presence of the introduced disturbances.Key Words:  Active force control, estimated inertia matrix, robot arm, trajectory error pattern, knowledge-based.

A piezo motor based on a new principle with high output force, rigidity and integrity: The Tuna Drive

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Xiaolong; Lu, Qingyou

2012-11-01

We present a linear piezoelectric motor as simple as one piezoelectric scanner tube (PST) spring-clamping a central shaft at both ends with roughly equal clamping forces. The clamping points are aligned with ±X electrodes at one end and ±Y electrodes at the other end. Thus, the ±X (or ±Y) push-pull motions of the PST can cause the push-pull motions of the clamping points on the shaft (called push-pull rubbing), which reduces the total dynamic friction force at one (or the other) end of the PST. This new piezo motor advances one step by fast push-pull rubbing at one end while slowly retracting the PST followed by fast push-pull rubbing at the other end while slowly elongating the PST. Apart from the obvious advantages of simplicity, rigidity, integrity, etc., we will also show that this motor can produce a large output force, which we believe is because of the huge drop of the clamping friction force when the push-pull rubbing occurs.

Three-body forces for electrons by the S-matrix method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Margaritelli, R.

1989-01-01

A electromagnetic three-body potential between eletrons is derived by the S-matrix method. This potential can be compared up to a certain point with other electromagnetic potentials (obtained by other methods) encountered in the literature. However, since the potential derived here is far more complete than others, this turns direct comparison with the potentials found in the literature somewhat difficult. These calculations allow a better understanding of the S-matrix method as applied to problems which involve the calculations of three-body nuclear forces (these calculations are performed in order to understand the 3 He form factor). Furthermore, these results enable us to decide between two discrepant works which derive the two-pion exchange three-body potential, both by the S-matrix method. (author) [pt

BFPTool: a software tool for analysis of Biomembrane Force Probe experiments.

Science.gov (United States)

Šmít, Daniel; Fouquet, Coralie; Doulazmi, Mohamed; Pincet, Frédéric; Trembleau, Alain; Zapotocky, Martin

2017-01-01

The Biomembrane Force Probe is an approachable experimental technique commonly used for single-molecule force spectroscopy and experiments on biological interfaces. The technique operates in the range of forces from 0.1 pN to 1000 pN. Experiments are typically repeated many times, conditions are often not optimal, the captured video can be unstable and lose focus; this makes efficient analysis challenging, while out-of-the-box non-proprietary solutions are not freely available. This dedicated tool was developed to integrate and simplify the image processing and analysis of videomicroscopy recordings from BFP experiments. A novel processing feature, allowing the tracking of the pipette, was incorporated to address a limitation of preceding methods. Emphasis was placed on versatility and comprehensible user interface implemented in a graphical form. An integrated analytical tool was implemented to provide a faster, simpler and more convenient way to process and analyse BFP experiments.

A combination method of the theory and experiment in determination of cutting force coefficients in ball-end mill processes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yung-Chou Kao

2015-10-01

Full Text Available In this paper, the cutting force calculation of ball-end mill processing was modeled mathematically. All derivations of cutting forces were directly based on the tangential, radial, and axial cutting force components. In the developed mathematical model of cutting forces, the relationship of average cutting force and the feed per flute was characterized as a linear function. The cutting force coefficient model was formulated by a function of average cutting force and other parameters such as cutter geometry, cutting conditions, and so on. An experimental method was proposed based on the stable milling condition to estimate the cutting force coefficients for ball-end mill. This method could be applied for each pair of tool and workpiece. The developed cutting force model has been successfully verified experimentally with very promising results.

An Energy Conservative Ray-Tracing Method With a Time Interpolation of the Force Field

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yao, Jin [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

2015-02-10

A new algorithm that constructs a continuous force field interpolated in time is proposed for resolving existing difficulties in numerical methods for ray-tracing. This new method has improved accuracy, but with the same degree of algebraic complexity compared to Kaisers method.

Numerical method for wave forces acting on partially perforated caisson

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Feng; Tang, Xiao-cheng; Jin, Zhao; Zhang, Li; Chen, Hong-zhou

2015-04-01

The perforated caisson is widely applied to practical engineering because of its great advantages in effectively wave energy consumption and cost reduction. The attentions of many scientists were paid to the fluid-structure interaction between wave and perforated caisson studies, but until now, most concerns have been put on theoretical analysis and experimental model set up. In this paper, interaction between the wave and the partial perforated caisson in a 2D numerical wave flume is investigated by means of the renewed SPH algorithm, and the mathematical equations are in the form of SPH numerical approximation based on Navier-Stokes equations. The validity of the SPH mathematical method is examined and the simulated results are compared with the results of theoretical models, meanwhile the complex hydrodynamic characteristics when the water particles flow in or out of a wave absorbing chamber are analyzed and the wave pressure distribution of the perforated caisson is also addressed here. The relationship between the ratio of total horizontal force acting on caisson under regular waves and its influence factors is examined. The data show that the numerical calculation of the ratio of total horizontal force meets the empirical regression equation very well. The simulations of SPH about the wave nonlinearity and breaking are briefly depicted in the paper, suggesting that the advantages and great potentiality of the SPH method is significant compared with traditional methods.

Determination of electrostatic force and its characteristics based on phase difference by amplitude modulation atomic force microscopy

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Kesheng; Cheng, Jia; Yao, Shiji; Lu, Yijia; Ji, Linhong; Xu, Dengfeng

2016-12-01

Electrostatic force measurement at the micro/nano scale is of great significance in science and engineering. In this paper, a reasonable way of applying voltage is put forward by taking an electrostatic chuck in a real integrated circuit manufacturing process as a sample, applying voltage in the probe and the sample electrode, respectively, and comparing the measurement effect of the probe oscillation phase difference by amplitude modulation atomic force microscopy. Based on the phase difference obtained from the experiment, the quantitative dependence of the absolute magnitude of the electrostatic force on the tip-sample distance and applied voltage is established by means of theoretical analysis and numerical simulation. The results show that the varying characteristics of the electrostatic force with the distance and voltage at the micro/nano scale are similar to those at the macroscopic scale. Electrostatic force gradually decays with increasing distance. Electrostatic force is basically proportional to the square of applied voltage. Meanwhile, the applicable conditions of the above laws are discussed. In addition, a comparison of the results in this paper with the results of the energy dissipation method shows the two are consistent in general. The error decreases with increasing distance, and the effect of voltage on the error is small.

Human Factors methods concerning integrated validation of nuclear power plant control rooms; Metodutveckling foer integrerad validering

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Oskarsson, Per-Anders; Johansson, Bjoern J.E.; Gonzalez, Natalia (Swedish Defence Research Agency, Information Systems, Linkoeping (Sweden))

2010-02-15

The frame of reference for this work was existing recommendations and instructions from the NPP area, experiences from the review of the Turbic Validation and experiences from system validations performed at the Swedish Armed Forces, e.g. concerning military control rooms and fighter pilots. These enterprises are characterized by complex systems in extreme environments, often with high risks, where human error can lead to serious consequences. A focus group has been performed with representatives responsible for Human Factors issues from all Swedish NPP:s. The questions that were discussed were, among other things, for whom an integrated validation (IV) is performed and its purpose, what should be included in an IV, the comparison with baseline measures, the design process, the role of SSM, which methods of measurement should be used, and how the methods are affected of changes in the control room. The report brings different questions to discussion concerning the validation process. Supplementary methods of measurement for integrated validation are discussed, e.g. dynamic, psychophysiological, and qualitative methods for identification of problems. Supplementary methods for statistical analysis are presented. The study points out a number of deficiencies in the validation process, e.g. the need of common guidelines for validation and design, criteria for different types of measurements, clarification of the role of SSM, and recommendations for the responsibility of external participants in the validation process. The authors propose 12 measures for taking care of the identified problems

An ab initio approach to free-energy reconstruction using logarithmic mean force dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nakamura, Makoto; Obata, Masao; Morishita, Tetsuya; Oda, Tatsuki

2014-01-01

We present an ab initio approach for evaluating a free energy profile along a reaction coordinate by combining logarithmic mean force dynamics (LogMFD) and first-principles molecular dynamics. The mean force, which is the derivative of the free energy with respect to the reaction coordinate, is estimated using density functional theory (DFT) in the present approach, which is expected to provide an accurate free energy profile along the reaction coordinate. We apply this new method, first-principles LogMFD (FP-LogMFD), to a glycine dipeptide molecule and reconstruct one- and two-dimensional free energy profiles in the framework of DFT. The resultant free energy profile is compared with that obtained by the thermodynamic integration method and by the previous LogMFD calculation using an empirical force-field, showing that FP-LogMFD is a promising method to calculate free energy without empirical force-fields

A dynamic integrated fault diagnosis method for power transformers.

Science.gov (United States)

Gao, Wensheng; Bai, Cuifen; Liu, Tong

2015-01-01

In order to diagnose transformer fault efficiently and accurately, a dynamic integrated fault diagnosis method based on Bayesian network is proposed in this paper. First, an integrated fault diagnosis model is established based on the causal relationship among abnormal working conditions, failure modes, and failure symptoms of transformers, aimed at obtaining the most possible failure mode. And then considering the evidence input into the diagnosis model is gradually acquired and the fault diagnosis process in reality is multistep, a dynamic fault diagnosis mechanism is proposed based on the integrated fault diagnosis model. Different from the existing one-step diagnosis mechanism, it includes a multistep evidence-selection process, which gives the most effective diagnostic test to be performed in next step. Therefore, it can reduce unnecessary diagnostic tests and improve the accuracy and efficiency of diagnosis. Finally, the dynamic integrated fault diagnosis method is applied to actual cases, and the validity of this method is verified.

A Dynamic Integrated Fault Diagnosis Method for Power Transformers

Science.gov (United States)

Gao, Wensheng; Liu, Tong

2015-01-01

In order to diagnose transformer fault efficiently and accurately, a dynamic integrated fault diagnosis method based on Bayesian network is proposed in this paper. First, an integrated fault diagnosis model is established based on the causal relationship among abnormal working conditions, failure modes, and failure symptoms of transformers, aimed at obtaining the most possible failure mode. And then considering the evidence input into the diagnosis model is gradually acquired and the fault diagnosis process in reality is multistep, a dynamic fault diagnosis mechanism is proposed based on the integrated fault diagnosis model. Different from the existing one-step diagnosis mechanism, it includes a multistep evidence-selection process, which gives the most effective diagnostic test to be performed in next step. Therefore, it can reduce unnecessary diagnostic tests and improve the accuracy and efficiency of diagnosis. Finally, the dynamic integrated fault diagnosis method is applied to actual cases, and the validity of this method is verified. PMID:25685841

Measurement correction method for force sensor used in dynamic pressure calibration based on artificial neural network optimized by genetic algorithm

Science.gov (United States)

Gu, Tingwei; Kong, Deren; Shang, Fei; Chen, Jing

2017-12-01

We present an optimization algorithm to obtain low-uncertainty dynamic pressure measurements from a force-transducer-based device. In this paper, the advantages and disadvantages of the methods that are commonly used to measure the propellant powder gas pressure, the applicable scope of dynamic pressure calibration devices, and the shortcomings of the traditional comparison calibration method based on the drop-weight device are firstly analysed in detail. Then, a dynamic calibration method for measuring pressure using a force sensor based on a drop-weight device is introduced. This method can effectively save time when many pressure sensors are calibrated simultaneously and extend the life of expensive reference sensors. However, the force sensor is installed between the drop-weight and the hammerhead by transition pieces through the connection mode of bolt fastening, which causes adverse effects such as additional pretightening and inertia forces. To solve these effects, the influence mechanisms of the pretightening force, the inertia force and other influence factors on the force measurement are theoretically analysed. Then a measurement correction method for the force measurement is proposed based on an artificial neural network optimized by a genetic algorithm. The training and testing data sets are obtained from calibration tests, and the selection criteria for the key parameters of the correction model is discussed. The evaluation results for the test data show that the correction model can effectively improve the force measurement accuracy of the force sensor. Compared with the traditional high-accuracy comparison calibration method, the percentage difference of the impact-force-based measurement is less than 0.6% and the relative uncertainty of the corrected force value is 1.95%, which can meet the requirements of engineering applications.

14th International Conference on Integral Methods in Science and Engineering

CERN Document Server

Riva, Matteo; Lamberti, Pier; Musolino, Paolo

2017-01-01

This contributed volume contains a collection of articles on the most recent advances in integral methods.  The first of two volumes, this work focuses on the construction of theoretical integral methods. Written by internationally recognized researchers, the chapters in this book are based on talks given at the Fourteenth International Conference on Integral Methods in Science and Engineering, held July 25-29, 2016, in Padova, Italy. A broad range of topics is addressed, such as: • Integral equations • Homogenization • Duality methods • Optimal design • Conformal techniques This collection will be of interest to researchers in applied mathematics, physics, and mechanical and electrical engineering, as well as graduate students in these disciplines, and to other professionals who use integration as an essential tool in their work.

Cultural adaptation and translation of measures: an integrated method.

Science.gov (United States)

Sidani, Souraya; Guruge, Sepali; Miranda, Joyal; Ford-Gilboe, Marilyn; Varcoe, Colleen

2010-04-01

Differences in the conceptualization and operationalization of health-related concepts may exist across cultures. Such differences underscore the importance of examining conceptual equivalence when adapting and translating instruments. In this article, we describe an integrated method for exploring conceptual equivalence within the process of adapting and translating measures. The integrated method involves five phases including selection of instruments for cultural adaptation and translation; assessment of conceptual equivalence, leading to the generation of a set of items deemed to be culturally and linguistically appropriate to assess the concept of interest in the target community; forward translation; back translation (optional); and pre-testing of the set of items. Strengths and limitations of the proposed integrated method are discussed. (c) 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

A Simple Method for Assessing Upper-Limb Force-Velocity Profile in Bench Press.

Science.gov (United States)

Rahmani, Abderrahmane; Samozino, Pierre; Morin, Jean-Benoit; Morel, Baptiste

2018-02-01

To analyze the reliability and validity of a field computation method based on easy-to-measure data to assess the mean force ([Formula: see text]) and velocity ([Formula: see text]) produced during a ballistic bench-press movement and to verify that the force-velocity profile (F-v) obtained with multiple loaded trials is accurately described. Twelve participants performed ballistic bench presses against various lifted mass from 30% to 70% of their body mass. For each trial, [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] were determined from an accelerometer (sampling rate 500 Hz; reference method) and a simple computation method based on upper-limb mass, barbell flight height, and push-off distance. These [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] data were used to establish the F-v relationship for each individual and method. A strong to almost perfect reliability was observed between the 2 trials (ICC > .90 for [Formula: see text] and .80 for [Formula: see text], CV%  .80, P push-off distance).

PERFORMANCE OF A FORCED CONVECTION SOLAR DRIER INTEGRATED WITH GRAVEL AS HEAT STORAGE MATERIAL FOR CHILI DRYING

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. MOHANRAJ

2009-09-01

Full Text Available An indirect forced convection solar drier integrated with different sensible heat storage maternal has been developed and tested its performance for drying chili under the metrological conditions of Pollachi, India. The system consists of a flat plate solar air heater with heat storage unit, a drying chamber and a centrifugal blower. Drying experiments have been performed at an air flow rate of 0.25 kg/s. Drying of chili in a forced convection solar drier reduces the moisture content from around 72.8% (wet basis to the final moisture content about 9.1% in 24 h. Average drier efficiency was estimated to be about 21%. The specific moisture extraction rate was estimated to be about 0.87 kg/kWh.

Investigation of Tension Forces in A Stay Cable System of A Road Bridge Using Vibration Methods

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hawryszków Paweł

2015-01-01

Full Text Available In the article author presents method of investigation of tension forces in stay cable systems using dynamical methods. Research was carried out during stay cable system installation on WN-24 viaduct near Poznań, that is way it was possible to compare tension forces indicated directly by devices using for tensioning of cable-stayed bridges with results achieved indirectly by means of dynamical methods. Discussion of results was presented. Advantages of dynamical methods and possible fields of application was described. This method, which has been rarely used before, may occur interesting alternative in diagnostics of bridges in comparison to traditional methods.

Measuring system and method of determining the Adaptive Force

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Laura Schaefer

2017-07-01

Full Text Available The term Adaptive Force (AF describes the capability of adaptation of the nerve-muscle-system to externally applied forces during isometric and eccentric muscle action. This ability plays an important role in real life motions as well as in sports. The focus of this paper is on the specific measurement method of this neuromuscular action, which can be seen as innovative. A measuring system based on the use of compressed air was constructed and evaluated for this neuromuscular function. It depends on the physical conditions of the subject, at which force level it deviates from the quasi isometric position and merges into eccentric muscle action. The device enables – in contrast to the isokinetic systems – a measure of strength without forced motion. Evaluation of the scientific quality criteria of the devices was done by measurements regarding the intra- and interrater-, the test-retest-reliability and fatiguing measurements. Comparisons of the pneumatic device with a dynamometer were also done. Looking at the mechanical evaluation, the results show a high level of consistency (r²=0.94 to 0.96. The parallel test reliability delivers a very high and significant correlation (ρ=0.976; p=0.000. Including the biological system, the concordance of three different raters is very high (p=0.001, Cronbachs alpha α=0.987. The test retest with 4 subjects over five weeks speaks for the reliability of the device in showing no statistically significant differences. These evaluations indicate that the scientific evaluation criteria are fulfilled. The specific feature of this system is that an isometric position can be maintained while the externally impacting force rises. Moreover, the device can capture concentric, static and eccentric strength values. Fields of application are performance diagnostics in sports and medicine.

Force reconstruction from tapping mode force microscopy experiments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Payam, Amir F; Martin-Jimenez, Daniel; Garcia, Ricardo

2015-01-01

Fast, accurate, and robust nanomechanical measurements are intensely studied in materials science, applied physics, and molecular biology. Amplitude modulation force microscopy (tapping mode) is the most established nanoscale characterization technique of surfaces for air and liquid environments. However, its quantitative capabilities lag behind its high spatial resolution and robustness. We develop a general method to transform the observables into quantitative force measurements. The force reconstruction algorithm has been deduced on the assumption that the observables (amplitude and phase shift) are slowly varying functions of the tip–surface separation. The accuracy and applicability of the method is validated by numerical simulations and experiments. The method is valid for liquid and air environments, small and large free amplitudes, compliant and rigid materials, and conservative and non-conservative forces. (paper)

ARE METHODS USED TO INTEGRATE STANDARDIZED MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS A CONDITIONING FACTOR OF THE LEVEL OF INTEGRATION? AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Merce Bernardo

2011-09-01

Full Text Available Organizations are increasingly implementing multiple Management System Standards (M SSs and considering managing the related Management Systems (MSs as a single system.The aim of this paper is to analyze if methods us ed to integrate standardized MSs condition the level of integration of those MSs. A descriptive methodology has been applied to 343 Spanish organizations registered to, at least, ISO 9001 and ISO 14001. Seven groups of these organizations using different combinations of methods have been analyzed Results show that these organizations have a high level of integration of their MSs. The most common method used, was the process map. Organizations using a combination of different methods achieve higher levels of integration than those using a single method. However, no evidence has been found to confirm the relationship between the method used and the integration level achieved.

Fusion of intraoperative force sensoring, surface reconstruction and biomechanical modeling

Science.gov (United States)

Röhl, S.; Bodenstedt, S.; Küderle, C.; Suwelack, S.; Kenngott, H.; Müller-Stich, B. P.; Dillmann, R.; Speidel, S.

2012-02-01

Minimally invasive surgery is medically complex and can heavily benefit from computer assistance. One way to help the surgeon is to integrate preoperative planning data into the surgical workflow. This information can be represented as a customized preoperative model of the surgical site. To use it intraoperatively, it has to be updated during the intervention due to the constantly changing environment. Hence, intraoperative sensor data has to be acquired and registered with the preoperative model. Haptic information which could complement the visual sensor data is still not established. In addition, biomechanical modeling of the surgical site can help in reflecting the changes which cannot be captured by intraoperative sensors. We present a setting where a force sensor is integrated into a laparoscopic instrument. In a test scenario using a silicone liver phantom, we register the measured forces with a reconstructed surface model from stereo endoscopic images and a finite element model. The endoscope, the instrument and the liver phantom are tracked with a Polaris optical tracking system. By fusing this information, we can transfer the deformation onto the finite element model. The purpose of this setting is to demonstrate the principles needed and the methods developed for intraoperative sensor data fusion. One emphasis lies on the calibration of the force sensor with the instrument and first experiments with soft tissue. We also present our solution and first results concerning the integration of the force sensor as well as accuracy to the fusion of force measurements, surface reconstruction and biomechanical modeling.

INTEGRATED FUSION METHOD FOR MULTIPLE TEMPORAL-SPATIAL-SPECTRAL IMAGES

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H. Shen

2012-08-01

Full Text Available Data fusion techniques have been widely researched and applied in remote sensing field. In this paper, an integrated fusion method for remotely sensed images is presented. Differently from the existed methods, the proposed method has the performance to integrate the complementary information in multiple temporal-spatial-spectral images. In order to represent and process the images in one unified framework, two general image observation models are firstly presented, and then the maximum a posteriori (MAP framework is used to set up the fusion model. The gradient descent method is employed to solve the fused image. The efficacy of the proposed method is validated using simulated images.

The geometry of generalized force matching and related information metrics in coarse-graining of molecular systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kalligiannaki, Evangelia; Harmandaris, Vagelis; Katsoulakis, Markos A.; Plecháč, Petr

2015-01-01

Using the probabilistic language of conditional expectations, we reformulate the force matching method for coarse-graining of molecular systems as a projection onto spaces of coarse observables. A practical outcome of this probabilistic description is the link of the force matching method with thermodynamic integration. This connection provides a way to systematically construct a local mean force and to optimally approximate the potential of mean force through force matching. We introduce a generalized force matching condition for the local mean force in the sense that allows the approximation of the potential of mean force under both linear and non-linear coarse graining mappings (e.g., reaction coordinates, end-to-end length of chains). Furthermore, we study the equivalence of force matching with relative entropy minimization which we derive for general non-linear coarse graining maps. We present in detail the generalized force matching condition through applications to specific examples in molecular systems

The geometry of generalized force matching and related information metrics in coarse-graining of molecular systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kalligiannaki, Evangelia, E-mail: ekalligian@tem.uoc.gr [Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, University of Crete, 70013 Heraklion (Greece); Harmandaris, Vagelis, E-mail: harman@uoc.gr [Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, University of Crete, 70013 Heraklion (Greece); Institute of Applied and Computational Mathematics (IACM), Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas (FORTH), IACM/FORTH, GR-71110 Heraklion (Greece); Katsoulakis, Markos A., E-mail: markos@math.umass.edu [Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003 (United States); Plecháč, Petr, E-mail: plechac@math.udel.edu [Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware 19716 (United States)

2015-08-28

Using the probabilistic language of conditional expectations, we reformulate the force matching method for coarse-graining of molecular systems as a projection onto spaces of coarse observables. A practical outcome of this probabilistic description is the link of the force matching method with thermodynamic integration. This connection provides a way to systematically construct a local mean force and to optimally approximate the potential of mean force through force matching. We introduce a generalized force matching condition for the local mean force in the sense that allows the approximation of the potential of mean force under both linear and non-linear coarse graining mappings (e.g., reaction coordinates, end-to-end length of chains). Furthermore, we study the equivalence of force matching with relative entropy minimization which we derive for general non-linear coarse graining maps. We present in detail the generalized force matching condition through applications to specific examples in molecular systems.

Force Structure. DOD Needs to Integrate Data into Its Force Identification Process and Examine Options to Meet Requirements for High-Demand Support Forces

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

2006-01-01

...) will continue to meet its requirements using an all-volunteer force. The Army, in particular, has faced continuing demand for large numbers of forces, especially for forces with support skills...

Application of heat-balance integral method to conjugate thermal explosion

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Novozhilov Vasily

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Conjugate thermal explosion is an extension of the classical theory, proposed and studied recently by the author. The paper reports application of heat-balance integral method for developing phase portraits for systems undergoing conjugate thermal explosion. The heat-balance integral method is used as an averaging method reducing partical differential equation problem to the set of first-order ordinary differential equations. The latter reduced problem allows natural interpretation in appropriately chosen phase space. It is shown that, with the help of heat-balance integral technique, conjugate thermal explosion problem can be described with a good accuracy by the set of non-linear first-order differential equations involving complex error function. Phase trajectories are presented for typical regimes emerging in conjugate thermal explosion. Use of heat-balance integral as a spatial averaging method allows efficient description of system evolution to be developed.

A novel method for non-parametric identification of nonlinear restoring forces in nonlinear vibrations from noisy response data: A conservative system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jang, T. S.; Kwon, S. H.; Han, S. L.

2009-01-01

A novel procedure is proposed to identify the functional form of nonlinear restoring forces in the nonlinear oscillatory motion of a conservative system. Although the problem of identification has a unique solution, formulation results in a Volterra-type of integral equation of the 'first' kind: the solution lacks stability because the integral equation is the 'first' kind. Thus, the new problem at hand is ill-posed. Inevitable small errors during the identification procedure can make the prediction of nonlinear restoring forces useless. We overcome the difficulty by using a stabilization technique of Landweber's regularization in this study. The capability of the proposed procedure is investigated through numerical examples

An integrated lean-methods approach to hospital facilities redesign.

Science.gov (United States)

Nicholas, John

2012-01-01

Lean production methods for eliminating waste and improving processes in manufacturing are now being applied in healthcare. As the author shows, the methods are appropriate for redesigning hospital facilities. When used in an integrated manner and employing teams of mostly clinicians, the methods produce facility designs that are custom-fit to patient needs and caregiver work processes, and reduce operational costs. The author reviews lean methods and an approach for integrating them in the redesign of hospital facilities. A case example of the redesign of an emergency department shows the feasibility and benefits of the approach.

Method of manufacturing Josephson junction integrated circuits

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jillie, D.W. Jr.; Smith, L.N.

1985-01-01

Josephson junction integrated circuits of the current injection type and magnetically controlled type utilize a superconductive layer that forms both Josephson junction electrode for the Josephson junction devices on the integrated circuit as well as a ground plane for the integrated circuit. Large area Josephson junctions are utilized for effecting contact to lower superconductive layers and islands are formed in superconductive layers to provide isolation between the groudplane function and the Josephson junction electrode function as well as to effect crossovers. A superconductor-barrier-superconductor trilayer patterned by local anodization is also utilized with additional layers formed thereover. Methods of manufacturing the embodiments of the invention are disclosed

Design of a new torque standard machine based on a torque generation method using electromagnetic force

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nishino, Atsuhiro; Ueda, Kazunaga; Fujii, Kenichi

2017-01-01

To allow the application of torque standards in various industries, we have been developing torque standard machines based on a lever deadweight system, i.e. a torque generation method using gravity. However, this method is not suitable for expanding the low end of the torque range, because of the limitations to the sizes of the weights and moment arms. In this study, the working principle of the torque generation method using an electromagnetic force was investigated by referring to watt balance experiments used for the redefinition of the kilogram. Applying this principle to a rotating coordinate system, an electromagnetic force type torque standard machine was designed and prototyped. It was experimentally demonstrated that SI-traceable torque could be generated by converting electrical power to mechanical power. Thus, for the first time, SI-traceable torque was successfully realized using a method other than that based on the force of gravity. (paper)

Criteria for quantitative and qualitative data integration: mixed-methods research methodology.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Seonah; Smith, Carrol A M

2012-05-01

Many studies have emphasized the need and importance of a mixed-methods approach for evaluation of clinical information systems. However, those studies had no criteria to guide integration of multiple data sets. Integrating different data sets serves to actualize the paradigm that a mixed-methods approach argues; thus, we require criteria that provide the right direction to integrate quantitative and qualitative data. The first author used a set of criteria organized from a literature search for integration of multiple data sets from mixed-methods research. The purpose of this article was to reorganize the identified criteria. Through critical appraisal of the reasons for designing mixed-methods research, three criteria resulted: validation, complementarity, and discrepancy. In applying the criteria to empirical data of a previous mixed methods study, integration of quantitative and qualitative data was achieved in a systematic manner. It helped us obtain a better organized understanding of the results. The criteria of this article offer the potential to produce insightful analyses of mixed-methods evaluations of health information systems.

Bimanual elbow robotic orthoses: preliminary investigations on an impairment force feedback rehabilitation method

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gil eHerrnstadt

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Modern rehabilitation practices have begun integrating robots, recognizing their significant role in recovery. New and alternative stroke rehabilitation treatments are essential to enhance efficacy and mitigate associated health costs. Today’s robotic interventions can play a significant role in advancing rehabilitation. In addition, robots have an inherent ability to perform tasks accurately and reliably and are typically well suited to measure and quantify performance.Most rehabilitation strategies predominantly target activation of the paretic arm. However, bimanual upper limb rehabilitation research suggests potential in enhancing functional recovery. Moreover studies suggest limb coordination and synchronization can improve treatment efficacy.In this preliminary study, we aimed to investigate and validate our user-driven bimanual system in a reduced intensity rehab practice. A Bimanual Wearable Robotic Device (BWRD with a Master-Slave configuration for the elbow joint was developed to carry out the investigation. The BWRD incorporates position and force sensors for which respective control loops are implemented, and offers varying modes of operation ranging from passive to active training. The proposed system enables the perception of the movements, as well as the forces applied by the hemiparetic arm, with the non-hemiparetic arm. Eight participants with chronic unilateral stroke were recruited to participate in a total of three one-hour sessions per participant, delivered in a week. Participants underwent pre and post training functional assessments along with proprioceptive measures. The post assessment was performed at the end of the last training session.The protocol was designed to engage the user in an assortment of static and dynamic arm matching and opposing tasks. The training incorporates force feedback movements, force feedback positioning, and force matching tasks with same and opposite direction movements. We are able to

Integrative methods for analyzing big data in precision medicine.

Science.gov (United States)

Gligorijević, Vladimir; Malod-Dognin, Noël; Pržulj, Nataša

2016-03-01

We provide an overview of recent developments in big data analyses in the context of precision medicine and health informatics. With the advance in technologies capturing molecular and medical data, we entered the area of "Big Data" in biology and medicine. These data offer many opportunities to advance precision medicine. We outline key challenges in precision medicine and present recent advances in data integration-based methods to uncover personalized information from big data produced by various omics studies. We survey recent integrative methods for disease subtyping, biomarkers discovery, and drug repurposing, and list the tools that are available to domain scientists. Given the ever-growing nature of these big data, we highlight key issues that big data integration methods will face. © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Active design method for the static characteristics of a piezoelectric six-axis force/torque sensor.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Jun; Li, Min; Qin, Lan; Liu, Jingcheng

2014-01-02

To address the bottleneck issues of an elastic-style six-axis force/torque sensor (six-axis force sensor), this work proposes a no-elastic piezoelectric six-axis force sensor. The operating principle of the piezoelectric six-axis force sensor is analyzed, and a structural model is constructed. The static-active design theory of the piezoelectric six-axis force sensor is established, including a static analytical/mathematical model and numerical simulation model (finite element model). A piezoelectric six-axis force sensor experimental prototype is developed according to the analytical mathematical model and numerical simulation model, and selected static characteristic parameters (including sensitivity, isotropic degree and cross-coupling) are tested using this model with three approaches. The measured results are in agreement with the analytical results from the static-active design method. Therefore, this study has successfully established a foundation for further research into the piezoelectric multi-axis force sensor and an overall design approach based on static characteristics.

A Multi-Objective Optimization Method to integrate Heat Pumps in Industrial Processes

OpenAIRE

Becker, Helen; Spinato, Giulia; Maréchal, François

2011-01-01

Aim of process integration methods is to increase the efficiency of industrial processes by using pinch analysis combined with process design methods. In this context, appropriate integrated utilities offer promising opportunities to reduce energy consumption, operating costs and pollutants emissions. Energy integration methods are able to integrate any type of predefined utility, but so far there is no systematic approach to generate potential utilities models based on their technology limit...

An Accurate Integral Method for Vibration Signal Based on Feature Information Extraction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yong Zhu

2015-01-01

Full Text Available After summarizing the advantages and disadvantages of current integral methods, a novel vibration signal integral method based on feature information extraction was proposed. This method took full advantage of the self-adaptive filter characteristic and waveform correction feature of ensemble empirical mode decomposition in dealing with nonlinear and nonstationary signals. This research merged the superiorities of kurtosis, mean square error, energy, and singular value decomposition on signal feature extraction. The values of the four indexes aforementioned were combined into a feature vector. Then, the connotative characteristic components in vibration signal were accurately extracted by Euclidean distance search, and the desired integral signals were precisely reconstructed. With this method, the interference problem of invalid signal such as trend item and noise which plague traditional methods is commendably solved. The great cumulative error from the traditional time-domain integral is effectively overcome. Moreover, the large low-frequency error from the traditional frequency-domain integral is successfully avoided. Comparing with the traditional integral methods, this method is outstanding at removing noise and retaining useful feature information and shows higher accuracy and superiority.

Resolution Enhancement Method Used for Force Sensing Resistor Array

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Karen Flores De Jesus

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Tactile sensors are one of the major devices that enable robotic systems to interact with the surrounding environment. This research aims to propose a mathematical model to describe the behavior of a tactile sensor based on experimental and statistical analyses and moreover to develop a versatile algorithm that can be applied to different tactile sensor arrays to enhance the limited resolution. With the proposed algorithm, the resolution can be increased up to twenty times if multiple measurements are available. To verify if the proposed algorithm can be used for tactile sensor arrays that are used in robotic system, a 16×10 force sensing array (FSR is adopted. The acquired two-dimensional measurements were processed by a resolution enhancement method (REM to enhance the resolution, which can be used to improve the resolution for single image or multiple measurements. As a result, the resolution of the sensor is increased and it can be used as synthetic skin to identify accurate shapes of objects and applied forces.

Tau method approximation of the Hubbell rectangular source integral

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kalla, S.L.; Khajah, H.G.

2000-01-01

The Tau method is applied to obtain expansions, in terms of Chebyshev polynomials, which approximate the Hubbell rectangular source integral:I(a,b)=∫ b 0 (1/(√(1+x 2 )) arctan(a/(√(1+x 2 )))) This integral corresponds to the response of an omni-directional radiation detector situated over a corner of a plane isotropic rectangular source. A discussion of the error in the Tau method approximation follows

Integration of rock typing methods for carbonate reservoir characterization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aliakbardoust, E; Rahimpour-Bonab, H

2013-01-01

Reservoir rock typing is the most important part of all reservoir modelling. For integrated reservoir rock typing, static and dynamic properties need to be combined, but sometimes these two are incompatible. The failure is due to the misunderstanding of the crucial parameters that control the dynamic behaviour of the reservoir rock and thus selecting inappropriate methods for defining static rock types. In this study, rock types were defined by combining the SCAL data with the rock properties, particularly rock fabric and pore types. First, air-displacing-water capillary pressure curues were classified because they are representative of fluid saturation and behaviour under capillary forces. Next the most important rock properties which control the fluid flow and saturation behaviour (rock fabric and pore types) were combined with defined classes. Corresponding petrophysical properties were also attributed to reservoir rock types and eventually, defined rock types were compared with relative permeability curves. This study focused on representing the importance of the pore system, specifically pore types in fluid saturation and entrapment in the reservoir rock. The most common tests in static rock typing, such as electrofacies analysis and porosity–permeability correlation, were carried out and the results indicate that these are not appropriate approaches for reservoir rock typing in carbonate reservoirs with a complicated pore system. (paper)

A New Scale Factor Adjustment Method for Magnetic Force Feedback Accelerometer

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Xiangqing Huang

2017-10-01

Full Text Available A new and simple method to adjust the scale factor of a magnetic force feedback accelerometer is presented, which could be used in developing a rotating accelerometer gravity gradient instrument (GGI. Adjusting and matching the acceleration-to-current transfer function of the four accelerometers automatically is one of the basic and necessary technologies for rejecting the common mode accelerations in the development of GGI. In order to adjust the scale factor of the magnetic force rebalance accelerometer, an external current is injected and combined with the normal feedback current; they are then applied together to the torque coil of the magnetic actuator. The injected current could be varied proportionally according to the external adjustment needs, and the change in the acceleration-to-current transfer function then realized dynamically. The new adjustment method has the advantages of no extra assembly and ease of operation. Changes in the scale factors range from 33% smaller to 100% larger are verified experimentally by adjusting the different external coefficients. The static noise of the used accelerometer is compared under conditions with and without the injecting current, and the experimental results find no change at the current noise level, which further confirms the validity of the presented method.

A New Scale Factor Adjustment Method for Magnetic Force Feedback Accelerometer.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Xiangqing; Deng, Zhongguang; Xie, Yafei; Li, Zhu; Fan, Ji; Tu, Liangcheng

2017-10-27

A new and simple method to adjust the scale factor of a magnetic force feedback accelerometer is presented, which could be used in developing a rotating accelerometer gravity gradient instrument (GGI). Adjusting and matching the acceleration-to-current transfer function of the four accelerometers automatically is one of the basic and necessary technologies for rejecting the common mode accelerations in the development of GGI. In order to adjust the scale factor of the magnetic force rebalance accelerometer, an external current is injected and combined with the normal feedback current; they are then applied together to the torque coil of the magnetic actuator. The injected current could be varied proportionally according to the external adjustment needs, and the change in the acceleration-to-current transfer function then realized dynamically. The new adjustment method has the advantages of no extra assembly and ease of operation. Changes in the scale factors range from 33% smaller to 100% larger are verified experimentally by adjusting the different external coefficients. The static noise of the used accelerometer is compared under conditions with and without the injecting current, and the experimental results find no change at the current noise level, which further confirms the validity of the presented method.

Indirect methods for wake potential integration

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zagorodnov, I.

2006-05-01

The development of the modern accelerator and free-electron laser projects requires to consider wake fields of very short bunches in arbitrary three dimensional structures. To obtain the wake numerically by direct integration is difficult, since it takes a long time for the scattered fields to catch up to the bunch. On the other hand no general algorithm for indirect wake field integration is available in the literature so far. In this paper we review the know indirect methods to compute wake potentials in rotationally symmetric and cavity-like three dimensional structures. For arbitrary three dimensional geometries we introduce several new techniques and test them numerically. (Orig.)

Variational method for integrating radial gradient field

Science.gov (United States)

Legarda-Saenz, Ricardo; Brito-Loeza, Carlos; Rivera, Mariano; Espinosa-Romero, Arturo

2014-12-01

We propose a variational method for integrating information obtained from circular fringe pattern. The proposed method is a suitable choice for objects with radial symmetry. First, we analyze the information contained in the fringe pattern captured by the experimental setup and then move to formulate the problem of recovering the wavefront using techniques from calculus of variations. The performance of the method is demonstrated by numerical experiments with both synthetic and real data.

The capillary adhesion technique: a versatile method for determining the liquid adhesion force and sample stiffness

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniel Gandyra

2015-01-01

Full Text Available We report a novel, practical technique for the concerted, simultaneous determination of both the adhesion force of a small structure or structural unit (e.g., an individual filament, hair, micromechanical component or microsensor to a liquid and its elastic properties. The method involves the creation and development of a liquid meniscus upon touching a liquid surface with the structure, and the subsequent disruption of this liquid meniscus upon removal. The evaluation of the meniscus shape immediately before snap-off of the meniscus allows the quantitative determination of the liquid adhesion force. Concurrently, by measuring and evaluating the deformation of the structure under investigation, its elastic properties can be determined. The sensitivity of the method is remarkably high, practically limited by the resolution of the camera capturing the process. Adhesion forces down to 10 µN and spring constants up to 2 N/m were measured. Three exemplary applications of this method are demonstrated: (1 determination of the water adhesion force and the elasticity of individual hairs (trichomes of the floating fern Salvinia molesta. (2 The investigation of human head hairs both with and without functional surface coatings (a topic of high relevance in the field of hair cosmetics was performed. The method also resulted in the measurement of an elastic modulus (Young’s modulus for individual hairs of 3.0 × 105 N/cm2, which is within the typical range known for human hair. (3 Finally, the accuracy and validity of the capillary adhesion technique was proven by examining calibrated atomic force microscopy cantilevers, reproducing the spring constants calibrated using other methods.

First integral method for an oscillator system

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiaoqian Gong

2013-04-01

Full Text Available In this article, we consider the nonlinear Duffing-van der Pol-type oscillator system by means of the first integral method. This system has physical relevance as a model in certain flow-induced structural vibration problems, which includes the van der Pol oscillator and the damped Duffing oscillator etc as particular cases. Firstly, we apply the Division Theorem for two variables in the complex domain, which is based on the ring theory of commutative algebra, to explore a quasi-polynomial first integral to an equivalent autonomous system. Then, through solving an algebraic system we derive the first integral of the Duffing-van der Pol-type oscillator system under certain parametric condition.

Inferring Interaction Force from Visual Information without Using Physical Force Sensors.

Science.gov (United States)

Hwang, Wonjun; Lim, Soo-Chul

2017-10-26

In this paper, we present an interaction force estimation method that uses visual information rather than that of a force sensor. Specifically, we propose a novel deep learning-based method utilizing only sequential images for estimating the interaction force against a target object, where the shape of the object is changed by an external force. The force applied to the target can be estimated by means of the visual shape changes. However, the shape differences in the images are not very clear. To address this problem, we formulate a recurrent neural network-based deep model with fully-connected layers, which models complex temporal dynamics from the visual representations. Extensive evaluations show that the proposed learning models successfully estimate the interaction forces using only the corresponding sequential images, in particular in the case of three objects made of different materials, a sponge, a PET bottle, a human arm, and a tube. The forces predicted by the proposed method are very similar to those measured by force sensors.

A modified synthetic driving force method for molecular dynamics simulation of grain boundary migration

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yang, Liang; Li, Saiyi

2015-01-01

The synthetic driving force (SDF) molecular dynamics method, which imposes crystalline orientation-dependent driving forces for grain boundary (GB) migration, has been considered deficient in many cases. In this work, we revealed the cause of the deficiency and proposed a modified method by introducing a new technique to distinguish atoms in grains and GB such that the driving forces can be imposed properly. This technique utilizes cross-reference order parameter (CROP) to characterize local lattice orientations in a bicrystal and introduces a CROP-based definition of interface region to minimize interference from thermal fluctuations in distinguishing atoms. A validation of the modified method was conducted by applying it to simulate the migration behavior of Ni 〈1 0 0〉 and Al 〈1 1 2〉 symmetrical tilt GBs, in comparison with the original method. The discrepancies between the migration velocities predicted by the two methods are found to be proportional to their differences in distinguishing atoms. For the Al 〈1 1 2〉 GBs, the modified method predicts a negative misorientation dependency for both the driving pressure threshold for initiating GB movement and the mobility, which agree with experimental findings and other molecular dynamics computations but contradict those predicted using the original method. Last, the modified method was applied to evaluate the mobility of Ni Σ5 〈1 0 0〉 symmetrical tilt GB under different driving pressure and temperature conditions. The results reveal a strong driving pressure dependency of the mobility at relatively low temperatures and suggest that the driving pressure should be as low as possible but large enough to trigger continuous migration.

Influence of experimental methods on crossing in magnetic force-gap hysteresis curve of HTS maglev system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lu Yiyun, E-mail: luyiyun6666@vip.sohu.co [Luoyang Institute of Science and Technology, Luoyang, Henan 471023 (China); Qin Yujie; Dang Qiaohong [Luoyang Institute of Science and Technology, Luoyang, Henan 471023 (China); Wang Jiasu [Applied Superconductivity Laboratory, Southwest Jiaotong University, P.O. Box 152, Chengdu, Sichuan 610031 (China)

2010-12-01

The crossing in magnetic levitation force-gap hysteresis curve of melt high-temperature superconductor (HTS) vs. NdFeB permanent magnet (PM) was experimentally studied. One HTS bulk and PM was used in the experiments. Four experimental methods were employed combining of high/low speed of movement of PM with/without heat insulation materials (HIM) enclosed respectively. Experimental results show that crossing of the levitation force-gap curve is related to experimental methods. A crossing occurs in the magnetic force-gap curve while the PM moves approaching to and departing from the sample with high or low speed of movement without HIM enclosed. When the PM is enclosed with HIM during the measurement procedures, there is no crossing in the force-gap curve no matter high speed or low speed of movement of the PM. It was found experimentally that, with the increase of the moving speed of the PM, the maximum magnitude of levitation force of the HTS increases also. The results are interpreted based on Maxwell theories and flux flow-creep models of HTS.

Influence of experimental methods on crossing in magnetic force-gap hysteresis curve of HTS maglev system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lu Yiyun; Qin Yujie; Dang Qiaohong; Wang Jiasu

2010-01-01

The crossing in magnetic levitation force-gap hysteresis curve of melt high-temperature superconductor (HTS) vs. NdFeB permanent magnet (PM) was experimentally studied. One HTS bulk and PM was used in the experiments. Four experimental methods were employed combining of high/low speed of movement of PM with/without heat insulation materials (HIM) enclosed respectively. Experimental results show that crossing of the levitation force-gap curve is related to experimental methods. A crossing occurs in the magnetic force-gap curve while the PM moves approaching to and departing from the sample with high or low speed of movement without HIM enclosed. When the PM is enclosed with HIM during the measurement procedures, there is no crossing in the force-gap curve no matter high speed or low speed of movement of the PM. It was found experimentally that, with the increase of the moving speed of the PM, the maximum magnitude of levitation force of the HTS increases also. The results are interpreted based on Maxwell theories and flux flow-creep models of HTS.

Examination of biogenic selenium-containing nanosystems based on polyelectrolyte complexes by atomic force, Kelvin probe force and electron microscopy methods

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sukhanova, T. E., E-mail: tat-sukhanova@mail.ru; Vylegzhanina, M. E.; Valueva, S. V.; Volkov, A. Ya.; Kutin, A. A. [Institute of Macromolecular Compounds RAS, 199004 Bolshoy Pr., 31, St.-Petersburg (Russian Federation); Temiryazeva, M. P.; Temiryazev, A. G. [Kotel’nikov Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics (Fryazino Branch) Russian Academy of Sciences, Fryazino, Moscow region, 141190 (Russian Federation)

2016-06-17

The morphology and electrical properties of biogenic selenium-containing nanosystems based on polyelectrolyte complexes (PECs) were examined using AFM, Kelvin Probe Force and electron microscopy methods. It has been found, that prepared nanostructures significantly differed in their morphological types and parameters. In particular, multilayers capsules can be produced via varying synthesis conditions, especially, the selenium–PEC mass ratio ν. At the “special point” (ν = 0.1), filled and hollow nano- and microcapsules are formed in the system. The multilayer character of the capsules walls is visible in the phase images. Kelvin Probe Force images showed the inhomogeneity of potential distribution in capsules and outside them.

New method for calculation of integral characteristics of thermal plumes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zukowska, Daria; Popiolek, Zbigniew; Melikov, Arsen Krikor

2008-01-01

A method for calculation of integral characteristics of thermal plumes is proposed. The method allows for determination of the integral parameters of plumes based on speed measurements performed with omnidirectional low velocity thermoanemometers. The method includes a procedure for calculation...... of the directional velocity (upward component of the mean velocity). The method is applied for determination of the characteristics of an asymmetric thermal plume generated by a sitting person. The method was validated in full-scale experiments in a climatic chamber with a thermal manikin as a simulator of a sitting...

Analysis of initial prestress force of spatial tendon prestressed concrete containment structures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shiau, H.-S.

1975-01-01

A theoretical investigation is presented of the initial stage of prestressed tendon and prestressed concrete before and after jacking force of tendon anchorage released. A method is developed that is applicable to any kind of spatial tendon considering frictional loss due to length and curvature effects. A triple integral equation of one independent variable and jacking force is derived to represent an exact solution of tendon force along the whole tendon which may have reverse curvatures. In order to analyze the stress response of concrete due to this prestress force by using existing finite element computer program or any other kind of computer program, a systematic method is suggested to obtain tendon force components, which are represented by a series of equations of one independent variable, in any coordinate system as external force applied on the concrete. The resulting systems of the equations are then solved by numerical mathematic and computer techniques. Two numerical examples are represented. The first example is, dome prestress analysis of containment building by the proposed method and Kalnins' computer program for shell of revolution. Results are discussed. The second example is picked from prestress analysis for personnel air lock of containment building by using proposed method and FELAP finite element Computer program. It includes two different tendon arrangements around the opening. The results of these two different arrangements are compared and discussed

Young ethnic German late resettlers from Poland – “(quasi-forced nature of migration” vs. success of integration

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Magdalena Tomaszewska

2010-12-01

Full Text Available “(Late resettlers”, or to put it in simple terms, people of German ancestry who came to Germany from Eastern Europe after World War II, constitute a peculiar case within the spectrum of German migration. On one hand, they are distinct from foreigners, on the other hand, despite having German citizenship, they stand out from the native German population. L. Wilkiewicz refers to this category as “quasi-forced resettlers”. The forced nature of the young resettlers migration may then be seen as doubly strengthened by the fact that they had no impact on their parents decision to leave the country. They were, in a sort of way, uprooted from their original environment and planted into a new, alien one. Having accepted German citizenship and having been attributed the purpose of “living as Germans among Germans”, the resettlers were expected to show a higher degree of integration with local society than “ordinary” migrants. In this study, I shall confine myself to a few selected aspects affecting the success of integration. Presented below are some of the memories that the young resettlers have of the moment of their “(quasi-forced” migration, of their early days in Germany, of Poland as the country of their childhood, of the reasons for departure as given by their parents, and of the main factors – apart from those personality-related such as intelligence – that contributed to their successful integration.

A computed torque method based attitude control with optimal force distribution for articulated body mobile robots

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fukushima, Edwardo F.; Hirose, Shigeo

2000-01-01

This paper introduces an attitude control scheme based in optimal force distribution using quadratic programming which minimizes joint energy consumption. This method shares similarities with force distribution for multifingered hands, multiple coordinated manipulators and legged walking robots. In particular, an attitude control scheme was introduced inside the force distribution problem, and successfully implemented for control of the articulated body mobile robot KR-II. This is an actual mobile robot composed of cylindrical segments linked in series by prismatic joints and has a long snake-like appearance. These prismatic joints are force controlled so that each segment's vertical motion can automatically follow the terrain irregularities. An attitude control is necessary because this system acts like a system of wheeled inverted pendulum carts connected in series, being unstable by nature. The validity and effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by computer simulation and experiments with the robot KR-II. (author)

Quadriceps force and anterior tibial force occur obviously later than vertical ground reaction force: a simulation study

OpenAIRE

Ueno, Ryo; Ishida, Tomoya; Yamanaka, Masanori; Taniguchi, Shohei; Ikuta, Ryohei; Samukawa, Mina; Saito, Hiroshi; Tohyama, Harukazu

2017-01-01

Background: Although it is well known that quadriceps force generates anterior tibial force, it has been unclear whether quadriceps force causes great anterior tibial force during the early phase of a landing task. The purpose of the present study was to examine whether the quadriceps force induced great anterior tibial force during the early phase of a landing task. Methods: Fourteen young, healthy, female subjects performed a single-leg landing task. Muscle force and anterior tibial force w...

Reliable and Accurate Release of Micro-Sized Objects with a Gripper that Uses the Capillary-Force Method

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Suzana Uran

2017-06-01

Full Text Available There have been recent developments in grippers that are based on capillary force and condensed water droplets. These are used for manipulating micro-sized objects. Recently, one-finger grippers have been produced that are able to reliably grip using the capillary force. To release objects, either the van der Waals, gravitational or inertial-forces method is used. This article presents methods for reliably gripping and releasing micro-objects using the capillary force. The moisture from the surrounding air is condensed into a thin layer of water on the contact surfaces of the objects. From the thin layer of water, a water meniscus between the micro-sized object, the gripper and the releasing surface is created. Consequently, the water meniscus between the object and the releasing surface produces a high enough capillary force to release the micro-sized object from the tip of the one-finger gripper. In this case, either polystyrene, glass beads with diameters between 5–60 µm, or irregularly shaped dust particles of similar sizes were used. 3D structures made up of micro-sized objects could be constructed using this method. This method is reliable for releasing during assembly and also for gripping, when the objects are removed from the top of the 3D structure—the so-called “disassembling gripping” process. The accuracy of the release was lower than 0.5 µm.

Forced and free convection flow with viscous dissipation effects: The method of parametric differentiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hossain, M.A.; Arbad, O.

1988-07-01

Effect of buoyancy force in a laminar uniform forced convection flow past a semi-infinite vertical plate has been analyzed near the leading edge, taking into account the viscous dissipation. The coupled non-linear locally similar equations, which govern the flow, are solved by the method of parametric differentiation. Effects of the buoyancy force and the heat due to viscous dissipation on the flow and the temperature fields as well as on the wall shear-stress and the heat transfer at the surface of the plate are shown graphically for the values of the Prandtl number σ ranging from 10 -1 to 1.0. (author). 20 refs, 3 figs, 2 tabs

A splitting integration scheme for the SPH simulation of concentrated particle suspensions

Science.gov (United States)

Bian, Xin; Ellero, Marco

2014-01-01

Simulating nearly contacting solid particles in suspension is a challenging task due to the diverging behavior of short-range lubrication forces, which pose a serious time-step limitation for explicit integration schemes. This general difficulty limits severely the total duration of simulations of concentrated suspensions. Inspired by the ideas developed in [S. Litvinov, M. Ellero, X.Y. Hu, N.A. Adams, J. Comput. Phys. 229 (2010) 5457-5464] for the simulation of highly dissipative fluids, we propose in this work a splitting integration scheme for the direct simulation of solid particles suspended in a Newtonian liquid. The scheme separates the contributions of different forces acting on the solid particles. In particular, intermediate- and long-range multi-body hydrodynamic forces, which are computed from the discretization of the Navier-Stokes equations using the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method, are taken into account using an explicit integration; for short-range lubrication forces, velocities of pairwise interacting solid particles are updated implicitly by sweeping over all the neighboring pairs iteratively, until convergence in the solution is obtained. By using the splitting integration, simulations can be run stably and efficiently up to very large solid particle concentrations. Moreover, the proposed scheme is not limited to the SPH method presented here, but can be easily applied to other simulation techniques employed for particulate suspensions.

A Methodology for Conducting Integrative Mixed Methods Research and Data Analyses

Science.gov (United States)

Castro, Felipe González; Kellison, Joshua G.; Boyd, Stephen J.; Kopak, Albert

2011-01-01

Mixed methods research has gained visibility within the last few years, although limitations persist regarding the scientific caliber of certain mixed methods research designs and methods. The need exists for rigorous mixed methods designs that integrate various data analytic procedures for a seamless transfer of evidence across qualitative and quantitative modalities. Such designs can offer the strength of confirmatory results drawn from quantitative multivariate analyses, along with “deep structure” explanatory descriptions as drawn from qualitative analyses. This article presents evidence generated from over a decade of pilot research in developing an integrative mixed methods methodology. It presents a conceptual framework and methodological and data analytic procedures for conducting mixed methods research studies, and it also presents illustrative examples from the authors' ongoing integrative mixed methods research studies. PMID:22167325

A systematic and efficient method to compute multi-loop master integrals

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Xiao; Ma, Yan-Qing; Wang, Chen-Yu

2018-04-01

We propose a novel method to compute multi-loop master integrals by constructing and numerically solving a system of ordinary differential equations, with almost trivial boundary conditions. Thus it can be systematically applied to problems with arbitrary kinematic configurations. Numerical tests show that our method can not only achieve results with high precision, but also be much faster than the only existing systematic method sector decomposition. As a by product, we find a new strategy to compute scalar one-loop integrals without reducing them to master integrals.

Computation of rectangular source integral by rational parameter polynomial method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Prabha, Hem

2001-01-01

Hubbell et al. (J. Res. Nat Bureau Standards 64C, (1960) 121) have obtained a series expansion for the calculation of the radiation field generated by a plane isotropic rectangular source (plaque), in which leading term is the integral H(a,b). In this paper another integral I(a,b), which is related with the integral H(a,b) has been solved by the rational parameter polynomial method. From I(a,b), we compute H(a,b). Using this method the integral I(a,b) is expressed in the form of a polynomial of a rational parameter. Generally, a function f (x) is expressed in terms of x. In this method this is expressed in terms of x/(1+x). In this way, the accuracy of the expression is good over a wide range of x as compared to the earlier approach. The results for I(a,b) and H(a,b) are given for a sixth degree polynomial and are found to be in good agreement with the results obtained by numerically integrating the integral. Accuracy could be increased either by increasing the degree of the polynomial or by dividing the range of integration. The results of H(a,b) and I(a,b) are given for values of b and a up to 2.0 and 20.0, respectively

A study of compositional verification based IMA integration method

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Hui; Zhang, Guoquan; Xu, Wanmeng

2018-03-01

The rapid development of avionics systems is driving the application of integrated modular avionics (IMA) systems. But meanwhile it is improving avionics system integration, complexity of system test. Then we need simplify the method of IMA system test. The IMA system supports a module platform that runs multiple applications, and shares processing resources. Compared with federated avionics system, IMA system is difficult to isolate failure. Therefore, IMA system verification will face the critical problem is how to test shared resources of multiple application. For a simple avionics system, traditional test methods are easily realizing to test a whole system. But for a complex system, it is hard completed to totally test a huge and integrated avionics system. Then this paper provides using compositional-verification theory in IMA system test, so that reducing processes of test and improving efficiency, consequently economizing costs of IMA system integration.

A novel AFM based method for force measurements between individual hair strands

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Max, Eva; Haefner, Wolfgang; Wilco Bartels, Frank; Sugiharto, Albert; Wood, Claudia; Fery, Andreas

2010-01-01

Interactions between hairs and other natural fibers are of broad interest for both applications and fundamental understanding of biological interfaces. We present a novel method, that allows force measurements between individual hair strands. Hair fragments can be laser-cut without altering their surface chemistry. Subsequently, they are glued onto Atomic force microscopy (AFM) cantilevers. This allows carrying out measurements between the hair fragment and surface immobilized hair in a well-defined crossed-cylinder geometry. Both force-distance and friction measurements are feasible. Measurements in air with controlled humidity and in aqueous environment show clear differences which can be explained by the dominating role of capillary interactions in air. Friction is found to be anisotropic, reflecting the fine structure of hair cuticula. While the investigations are focused on the particular example of human hair, we expect that the approach can be extended to other animal/plant fibers and thus offers perspectives for broad spectrum systems.

Development of a commercially viable piezoelectric force sensor system for static force measurement

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Jun; Luo, Xinwei; Liu, Jingcheng; Li, Min; Qin, Lan

2017-09-01

A compensation method for measuring static force with a commercial piezoelectric force sensor is proposed to disprove the theory that piezoelectric sensors and generators can only operate under dynamic force. After studying the model of the piezoelectric force sensor measurement system, the principle of static force measurement using a piezoelectric material or piezoelectric force sensor is analyzed. Then, the distribution law of the decay time constant of the measurement system and the variation law of the measurement system’s output are studied, and a compensation method based on the time interval threshold Δ t and attenuation threshold Δ {{u}th} is proposed. By calibrating the system and considering the influences of the environment and the hardware, a suitable Δ {{u}th} value is determined, and the system’s output attenuation is compensated based on the Δ {{u}th} value to realize the measurement. Finally, a static force measurement system with a piezoelectric force sensor is developed based on the compensation method. The experimental results confirm the successful development of a simple compensation method for static force measurement with a commercial piezoelectric force sensor. In addition, it is established that, contrary to the current perception, a piezoelectric force sensor system can be used to measure static force through further calibration.

Unorthodox theoretical methods

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nedd, Sean [Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA (United States)

2012-01-01

The use of the ReaxFF force field to correlate with NMR mobilities of amine catalytic substituents on a mesoporous silica nanosphere surface is considered. The interfacing of the ReaxFF force field within the Surface Integrated Molecular Orbital/Molecular Mechanics (SIMOMM) method, in order to replicate earlier SIMOMM published data and to compare with the ReaxFF data, is discussed. The development of a new correlation consistent Composite Approach (ccCA) is presented, which incorporates the completely renormalized coupled cluster method with singles, doubles and non-iterative triples corrections towards the determination of heats of formations and reaction pathways which contain biradical species.

Higher-Order Integral Equation Methods in Computational Electromagnetics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jørgensen, Erik; Meincke, Peter

Higher-order integral equation methods have been investigated. The study has focused on improving the accuracy and efficiency of the Method of Moments (MoM) applied to electromagnetic problems. A new set of hierarchical Legendre basis functions of arbitrary order is developed. The new basis...

How mothers mediate the social integration of their children conceived of forced marriage within the Lord's Resistance Army.

Science.gov (United States)

Shanahan, Fiona; Veale, Angela

2016-01-01

This article aims to understand how formerly abducted young mothers mediate the social integration of their children conceived of forced marriage and sexual violence within the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in northern Uganda. Interviews and photographic methods were used in six Internally Displaced Persons Camps in northern Uganda. This article draws on data derived from ten mothers of thirteen children who were conceived in the LRA, five boys and eight girls. The analytic approach used was Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (Smith & Osborn, 2008). The analysis identified turning points of sites of action where young formerly abducted mothers used diverse strategies to support the reintegration of their children born or conceived within the LRA. Six key turning points are identified, these are (a) participating in rituals and ceremonies, (b) naming, (c) adapting to changing family structures, (d) responding to discrimination against boys (e) managing disclosure and (f) sharing positive memories and identities. Formerly abducted young mothers mediate the social integration of their children by engaging in strategies to support and foster their wellbeing and social relationships. However, the contexts in which they are operating are highly constrained and the relational identities of children born in the LRA are fluid and potentially insecure within communities of return. Implications for policy and programming are discussed. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The flow measurement methods for the primary system of integral reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, J.; Seo, J. K.; Lee, D. J.

2001-01-01

It is the common features of the integral reactors that the main components of the primary system are installed within the reactor vessel, and so there are no any flow pipes connecting the reactor coolant pumps or steam generators. Due to no any flow pipes, it is impossible to measure the differential pressure at the primary system of the integral reactors, and it also makes impossible measure the primary coolant flow rate. The objective of the study is to draw up the flow measurement methods for the primary system of integral reactors. As a result of the review, we have made a selection of the flow measurement method by pump speed, bt HBM, and by pump motor power as the flow measurement methods for the primary system of integral reactors. Peculiarly, we did not found out a precedent which the direct pump motor power-flow rate curve is used as the flow measurement method in the existing commercial nuclear power reactors. Therefore, to use this method for integral reactors, it is needed to bear the follow-up measures in mind. The follow-up measures is included in this report

A systematic and efficient method to compute multi-loop master integrals

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiao Liu

2018-04-01

Full Text Available We propose a novel method to compute multi-loop master integrals by constructing and numerically solving a system of ordinary differential equations, with almost trivial boundary conditions. Thus it can be systematically applied to problems with arbitrary kinematic configurations. Numerical tests show that our method can not only achieve results with high precision, but also be much faster than the only existing systematic method sector decomposition. As a by product, we find a new strategy to compute scalar one-loop integrals without reducing them to master integrals.

Electrostatic force microscopy as a broadly applicable method for characterizing pyroelectric materials

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Martin-Olmos, Cristina; Gimzewski, James K; Stieg, Adam Z

2012-01-01

A general method based on the combination of electrostatic force microscopy with thermal cycling of the substrate holder is presented for direct, nanoscale characterization of the pyroelectric effect in a range of materials and sample configurations using commercial atomic force microscope systems. To provide an example of its broad applicability, the technique was applied to the examination of natural tourmaline gemstones. The method was validated using thermal cycles similar to those experienced in ambient conditions, where the induced pyroelectric response produced localized electrostatic surface charges whose magnitude demonstrated a correlation with the iron content and heat dissipation of each gemstone variety. In addition, the surface charge was shown to persist even at thermal equilibrium. This behavior is attributed to constant, stochastic cooling of the gemstone surface through turbulent contact with the surrounding air and indicates a potential utility for energy harvesting in applications including environmental sensors and personal electronics. In contrast to previously reported methods, ours has a capacity to carry out such precise nanoscale measurements with little or no restriction on the sample of interest, and represents a powerful new tool for the characterization of pyroelectric materials and devices. (paper)

Handbook of force transducers

CERN Document Server

Stefanescu, Dan Mihai

2011-01-01

Part I introduces the basic ""Principles and Methods of Force Measurement"" acording to a classification into a dozen of force transducers types: resistive, inductive, capacitive, piezoelectric, electromagnetic, electrodynamic, magnetoelastic, galvanomagnetic (Hall-effect), vibrating wires, (micro)resonators, acoustic and gyroscopic. Two special chapters refer to force balance techniques and to combined methods in force measurement. Part II discusses the ""(Strain Gauge) Force Transducers Components"", evolving from the classical force transducer to the digital / intelligent one, with the inco

Method of mechanical quadratures for solving singular integral equations of various types

Science.gov (United States)

Sahakyan, A. V.; Amirjanyan, H. A.

2018-04-01

The method of mechanical quadratures is proposed as a common approach intended for solving the integral equations defined on finite intervals and containing Cauchy-type singular integrals. This method can be used to solve singular integral equations of the first and second kind, equations with generalized kernel, weakly singular equations, and integro-differential equations. The quadrature rules for several different integrals represented through the same coefficients are presented. This allows one to reduce the integral equations containing integrals of different types to a system of linear algebraic equations.

A moving control volume method for smooth computation of hydrodynamic forces and torques on immersed bodies

Science.gov (United States)

Nangia, Nishant; Patankar, Neelesh A.; Bhalla, Amneet P. S.

2017-11-01

Fictitious domain methods for simulating fluid-structure interaction (FSI) have been gaining popularity in the past few decades because of their robustness in handling arbitrarily moving bodies. Often the transient net hydrodynamic forces and torques on the body are desired quantities for these types of simulations. In past studies using immersed boundary (IB) methods, force measurements are contaminated with spurious oscillations due to evaluation of possibly discontinuous spatial velocity of pressure gradients within or on the surface of the body. Based on an application of the Reynolds transport theorem, we present a moving control volume (CV) approach to computing the net forces and torques on a moving body immersed in a fluid. The approach is shown to be accurate for a wide array of FSI problems, including flow past stationary and moving objects, Stokes flow, and high Reynolds number free-swimming. The approach only requires far-field (smooth) velocity and pressure information, thereby suppressing spurious force oscillations and eliminating the need for any filtering. The proposed moving CV method is not limited to a specific IB method and is straightforward to implement within an existing parallel FSI simulation software. This work is supported by NSF (Award Numbers SI2-SSI-1450374, SI2-SSI-1450327, and DGE-1324585), the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, ASCR (Award Number DE-AC02-05CH11231), and NIH (Award Number HL117163).

Assessing Backwards Integration as a Method of KBO Family Finding

Science.gov (United States)

Benfell, Nathan; Ragozzine, Darin

2018-04-01

The age of young asteroid collisional families can sometimes be determined by using backwards n-body integrations of the solar system. This method is not used for discovering young asteroid families and is limited by the unpredictable influence of the Yarkovsky effect on individual specific asteroids over time. Since these limitations are not as important for objects in the Kuiper belt, Marcus et al. 2011 suggested that backwards integration could be used to discover and characterize collisional families in the outer solar system. But various challenges present themselves when running precise and accurate 4+ Gyr integrations of Kuiper Belt objects. We have created simulated families of Kuiper Belt Objects with identical starting locations and velocity distributions, based on the Haumea Family. We then ran several long-term test integrations to observe the effect of various simulation parameters on integration results. These integrations were then used to investigate which parameters are of enough significance to require inclusion in the integration. Thereby we determined how to construct long-term integrations that both yield significant results and require manageable processing power. Additionally, we have tested the use of backwards integration as a method of discovery of potential young families in the Kuiper Belt.

Variational method for infinite nuclear matter with noncentral forces

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Takano, M.; Yamada, M.

1998-01-01

Approximate energy expressions are proposed for infinite zero-temperature nuclear matter by taking into account noncentral forces. They are explicitly expressed as functionals of spin- (isospin-) dependent radial distribution functions, tensor distribution functions and spin-orbit distribution functions, and can be used conveniently in the variational method. A notable feature of these expressions is that they automatically guarantee the necessary conditions on the spin-isospin-dependent structure functions. The Euler-Lagrange equations are derived from these energy expressions and numerically solved for neutron matter and symmetric nuclear matter. The results show that the noncentral forces bring down the total energies too much with too dense saturation densities. Since the main reason for these undesirable results seems to be the long tails of the noncentral distribution functions, an effective theory is proposed by introducing a density-dependent damping function into the noncentral potentials to suppress the long tails of the non-central distribution functions. By adjusting the value of a parameter included in the damping function, we can reproduce the saturation point (both the energy and density) of symmetric nuclear matter with the Hamada-Johnston potential. (Copyright (1998) World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd)

A novel method of evaluating the lift force on the bluff body based on Noca’s flux equation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sui Xiang-Kun; Jiang Nan

2015-01-01

The influence of experimental error on lift force evaluated by Noca’s flux equation is studied based on adding errors into the direct numerical simulation data for flow past cylinder at Re = 100. As Noca suggested using the low-pass filter to get rid of the high-frequency noise in the evaluated lift force, we verify that his method is inapplicable for dealing with the dataset of 1% experimental error, although the precision is acceptable in practice. To overcome this defect, a novel method is proposed in this paper. The average of the lift forces calculated by using multiple control volume is taken as the evaluation before applying the low-pass filter. The method is applied to an experimental data for flow past a cylinder at approximately Re = 900 to verify its validation. The results show that it improves much better on evaluating the lift forces. (paper)

Deterministic factor analysis: methods of integro-differentiation of non-integral order

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Valentina V. Tarasova

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Objective to summarize the methods of deterministic factor economic analysis namely the differential calculus and the integral method. nbsp Methods mathematical methods for integrodifferentiation of nonintegral order the theory of derivatives and integrals of fractional nonintegral order. Results the basic concepts are formulated and the new methods are developed that take into account the memory and nonlocality effects in the quantitative description of the influence of individual factors on the change in the effective economic indicator. Two methods are proposed for integrodifferentiation of nonintegral order for the deterministic factor analysis of economic processes with memory and nonlocality. It is shown that the method of integrodifferentiation of nonintegral order can give more accurate results compared with standard methods method of differentiation using the first order derivatives and the integral method using the integration of the first order for a wide class of functions describing effective economic indicators. Scientific novelty the new methods of deterministic factor analysis are proposed the method of differential calculus of nonintegral order and the integral method of nonintegral order. Practical significance the basic concepts and formulas of the article can be used in scientific and analytical activity for factor analysis of economic processes. The proposed method for integrodifferentiation of nonintegral order extends the capabilities of the determined factorial economic analysis. The new quantitative method of deterministic factor analysis may become the beginning of quantitative studies of economic agents behavior with memory hereditarity and spatial nonlocality. The proposed methods of deterministic factor analysis can be used in the study of economic processes which follow the exponential law in which the indicators endogenous variables are power functions of the factors exogenous variables including the processes

A Force Balanced Fragmentation Method for ab Initio Molecular Dynamic Simulation of Protein

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mingyuan Xu

2018-05-01

Full Text Available A force balanced generalized molecular fractionation with conjugate caps (FB-GMFCC method is proposed for ab initio molecular dynamic simulation of proteins. In this approach, the energy of the protein is computed by a linear combination of the QM energies of individual residues and molecular fragments that account for the two-body interaction of hydrogen bond between backbone peptides. The atomic forces on the caped H atoms were corrected to conserve the total force of the protein. Using this approach, ab initio molecular dynamic simulation of an Ace-(ALA9-NME linear peptide showed the conservation of the total energy of the system throughout the simulation. Further a more robust 110 ps ab initio molecular dynamic simulation was performed for a protein with 56 residues and 862 atoms in explicit water. Compared with the classical force field, the ab initio molecular dynamic simulations gave better description of the geometry of peptide bonds. Although further development is still needed, the current approach is highly efficient, trivially parallel, and can be applied to ab initio molecular dynamic simulation study of large proteins.

Implementation of a variable-step integration technique for nonlinear structural dynamic analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Underwood, P.; Park, K.C.

1977-01-01

The paper presents the implementation of a recently developed unconditionally stable implicit time integration method into a production computer code for the transient response analysis of nonlinear structural dynamic systems. The time integrator is packaged with two significant features; a variable step size that is automatically determined and this is accomplished without additional matrix refactorizations. The equations of motion solved by the time integrator must be cast in the pseudo-force form, and this provides the mechanism for controlling the step size. Step size control is accomplished by extrapolating the pseudo-force to the next time (the predicted pseudo-force), then performing the integration step and then recomputing the pseudo-force based on the current solution (the correct pseudo-force); from this data an error norm is constructed, the value of which determines the step size for the next step. To avoid refactoring the required matrix with each step size change a matrix scaling technique is employed, which allows step sizes to change by a factor of 100 without refactoring. If during a computer run the integrator determines it can run with a step size larger than 100 times the original minimum step size, the matrix is refactored to take advantage of the larger step size. The strategy for effecting these features are discussed in detail. (Auth.)

Force Protection Common Operational Picture/Common Tactical Picture

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Peter, Russell

1998-01-01

... has taken an integrated approach to Force Protection. There is a recognition that Force Protection is not a Security Police operation; but is a Security Force oDeration. This exemplifies a mindset change and a movement away from pure.

Virtual photons in imaginary time: Computing exact Casimir forces via standard numerical electromagnetism techniques

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rodriguez, A.; Ibanescu, M.; Iannuzzi, D.; Joannopoulos, J. D.; Johnson, S.T.

2007-01-01

We describe a numerical method to compute Casimir forces in arbitrary geometries, for arbitrary dielectric and metallic materials, with arbitrary accuracy (given sufficient computational resources). Our approach, based on well-established integration of the mean stress tensor evaluated via the

Force modulation for improved conductive-mode atomic force microscopy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Koelmans, W.W.; Sebastian, Abu; Despont, Michel; Pozidis, Haris

We present an improved conductive-mode atomic force microscopy (C-AFM) method by modulating the applied loading force on the tip. Unreliable electrical contact and tip wear are the primary challenges for electrical characterization at the nanometer scale. The experiments show that force modulation

Measurement method for determining the magnetic hysteresis effects of reluctance actuators by evaluation of the force and flux variation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vrijsen, N.H.; Jansen, J.W.; Compter, J.C.; Lomonova, E.

2013-01-01

A measurement method is presented which identifies the magnetic hysteresis effects present in the force of linear reluctance actuators. The measurement method is applied to determine the magnetic hysteresis in the force of an E-core reluctance actuator, with and without pre-biasing permanent magnet.

Self-consistent gravitational self-force

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pound, Adam

2010-01-01

I review the problem of motion for small bodies in general relativity, with an emphasis on developing a self-consistent treatment of the gravitational self-force. An analysis of the various derivations extant in the literature leads me to formulate an asymptotic expansion in which the metric is expanded while a representative worldline is held fixed. I discuss the utility of this expansion for both exact point particles and asymptotically small bodies, contrasting it with a regular expansion in which both the metric and the worldline are expanded. Based on these preliminary analyses, I present a general method of deriving self-consistent equations of motion for arbitrarily structured (sufficiently compact) small bodies. My method utilizes two expansions: an inner expansion that keeps the size of the body fixed, and an outer expansion that lets the body shrink while holding its worldline fixed. By imposing the Lorenz gauge, I express the global solution to the Einstein equation in the outer expansion in terms of an integral over a worldtube of small radius surrounding the body. Appropriate boundary data on the tube are determined from a local-in-space expansion in a buffer region where both the inner and outer expansions are valid. This buffer-region expansion also results in an expression for the self-force in terms of irreducible pieces of the metric perturbation on the worldline. Based on the global solution, these pieces of the perturbation can be written in terms of a tail integral over the body's past history. This approach can be applied at any order to obtain a self-consistent approximation that is valid on long time scales, both near and far from the small body. I conclude by discussing possible extensions of my method and comparing it to alternative approaches.

Integrals of random fields treated by the model correction factor method

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Franchin, P.; Ditlevsen, Ove Dalager; Kiureghian, Armen Der

2002-01-01

The model correction factor method (MCFM) is used in conjunction with the first-order reliability method (FORM) to solve structural reliability problems involving integrals of non-Gaussian random fields. The approach replaces the limit-state function with an idealized one, in which the integrals ...

Ground reaction force comparison of controlled resistance methods to isoinertial loading of the squat exercise - biomed 2010.

Science.gov (United States)

Paulus, David C; Reynolds, Michael C; Schilling, Brian K

2010-01-01

The ground reaction force during the concentric (raising) portion of the squat exercise was compared to that of isoinertial loading (free weights) for three pneumatically controlled resistance methods: constant resistance, cam force profile, and proportional force control based on velocity. Constant force control showed lower ground reaction forces than isoinertial loading throughout the range of motion (ROM). The cam force profile exhibited slightly greater ground reaction forces than isoinertial loading at 10 and 40% ROM with fifty-percent greater loading at 70% ROM. The proportional force control consistently elicited greater ground reaction force than isoinertial loading, which progressively ranged from twenty to forty percent increase over isoinertial loading except for being approximately equal at 85% ROM. Based on these preliminary results, the proportional control shows the most promise for providing loading that is comparable in magnitude to isoinertial loading. This technology could optimize resistance exercise for sport-specific training or as a countermeasure to atrophy during spaceflight.

Iterative algorithm for the volume integral method for magnetostatics problems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pasciak, J.E.

1980-11-01

Volume integral methods for solving nonlinear magnetostatics problems are considered in this paper. The integral method is discretized by a Galerkin technique. Estimates are given which show that the linearized problems are well conditioned and hence easily solved using iterative techniques. Comparisons of iterative algorithms with the elimination method of GFUN3D shows that the iterative method gives an order of magnitude improvement in computational time as well as memory requirements for large problems. Computational experiments for a test problem as well as a double layer dipole magnet are given. Error estimates for the linearized problem are also derived

Permutation statistical methods an integrated approach

CERN Document Server

Berry, Kenneth J; Johnston, Janis E

2016-01-01

This research monograph provides a synthesis of a number of statistical tests and measures, which, at first consideration, appear disjoint and unrelated. Numerous comparisons of permutation and classical statistical methods are presented, and the two methods are compared via probability values and, where appropriate, measures of effect size. Permutation statistical methods, compared to classical statistical methods, do not rely on theoretical distributions, avoid the usual assumptions of normality and homogeneity of variance, and depend only on the data at hand. This text takes a unique approach to explaining statistics by integrating a large variety of statistical methods, and establishing the rigor of a topic that to many may seem to be a nascent field in statistics. This topic is new in that it took modern computing power to make permutation methods available to people working in the mainstream of research. This research monograph addresses a statistically-informed audience, and can also easily serve as a ...

Coulomb replica-exchange method: handling electrostatic attractive and repulsive forces for biomolecules.

Science.gov (United States)

Itoh, Satoru G; Okumura, Hisashi

2013-03-30

We propose a new type of the Hamiltonian replica-exchange method (REM) for molecular dynamics (MD) and Monte Carlo simulations, which we refer to as the Coulomb REM (CREM). In this method, electrostatic charge parameters in the Coulomb interactions are exchanged among replicas while temperatures are exchanged in the usual REM. By varying the atom charges, the CREM overcomes free-energy barriers and realizes more efficient sampling in the conformational space than the REM. Furthermore, this method requires only a smaller number of replicas because only the atom charges of solute molecules are used as exchanged parameters. We performed Coulomb replica-exchange MD simulations of an alanine dipeptide in explicit water solvent and compared the results with those of the conventional canonical, replica exchange, and van der Waals REMs. Two force fields of AMBER parm99 and AMBER parm99SB were used. As a result, the CREM sampled all local-minimum free-energy states more frequently than the other methods for both force fields. Moreover, the Coulomb, van der Waals, and usual REMs were applied to a fragment of an amyloid-β peptide (Aβ) in explicit water solvent to compare the sampling efficiency of these methods for a larger system. The CREM sampled structures of the Aβ fragment more efficiently than the other methods. We obtained β-helix, α-helix, 3(10)-helix, β-hairpin, and β-sheet structures as stable structures and deduced pathways of conformational transitions among these structures from a free-energy landscape. Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Force-activatable biosensor enables single platelet force mapping directly by fluorescence imaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yongliang; LeVine, Dana N; Gannon, Margaret; Zhao, Yuanchang; Sarkar, Anwesha; Hoch, Bailey; Wang, Xuefeng

2018-02-15

Integrin-transmitted cellular forces are critical for platelet adhesion, activation, aggregation and contraction during hemostasis and thrombosis. Measuring and mapping single platelet forces are desired in both research and clinical applications. Conventional force-to-strain based cell traction force microscopies have low resolution which is not ideal for cellular force mapping in small platelets. To enable platelet force mapping with submicron resolution, we developed a force-activatable biosensor named integrative tension sensor (ITS) which directly converts molecular tensions to fluorescent signals, therefore enabling cellular force mapping directly by fluorescence imaging. With ITS, we mapped cellular forces in single platelets at 0.4µm resolution. We found that platelet force distribution has strong polarization which is sensitive to treatment with the anti-platelet drug tirofiban, suggesting that the ITS force map can report anti-platelet drug efficacy. The ITS also calibrated integrin molecular tensions in platelets and revealed two distinct tension levels: 12-54 piconewton (nominal values) tensions generated during platelet adhesion and tensions above 54 piconewton generated during platelet contraction. Overall, the ITS is a powerful biosensor for the study of platelet mechanobiology, and holds great potential in antithrombotic drug development and assessing platelet activity in health and disease. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Integration of equations of parabolic type by the method of nets

CERN Document Server

Saul'Yev, V K; Stark, M; Ulam, S

1964-01-01

International Series of Monographs in Pure and Applied Mathematics, Volume 54: Integration of Equations of Parabolic Type by the Method of Nets deals with solving parabolic partial differential equations using the method of nets. The first part of this volume focuses on the construction of net equations, with emphasis on the stability and accuracy of the approximating net equations. The method of nets or method of finite differences (used to define the corresponding numerical method in ordinary differential equations) is one of many different approximate methods of integration of partial diff

An integrated development environment for PMESII model authoring, integration, validation, and debugging

Science.gov (United States)

Pioch, Nicholas J.; Lofdahl, Corey; Sao Pedro, Michael; Krikeles, Basil; Morley, Liam

2007-04-01

To foster shared battlespace awareness in Air Operations Centers supporting the Joint Forces Commander and Joint Force Air Component Commander, BAE Systems is developing a Commander's Model Integration and Simulation Toolkit (CMIST), an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for model authoring, integration, validation, and debugging. CMIST is built on the versatile Eclipse framework, a widely used open development platform comprised of extensible frameworks that enable development of tools for building, deploying, and managing software. CMIST provides two distinct layers: 1) a Commander's IDE for supporting staff to author models spanning the Political, Military, Economic, Social, Infrastructure, Information (PMESII) taxonomy; integrate multiple native (third-party) models; validate model interfaces and outputs; and debug the integrated models via intuitive controls and time series visualization, and 2) a PMESII IDE for modeling and simulation developers to rapidly incorporate new native simulation tools and models to make them available for use in the Commander's IDE. The PMESII IDE provides shared ontologies and repositories for world state, modeling concepts, and native tool characterization. CMIST includes extensible libraries for 1) reusable data transforms for semantic alignment of native data with the shared ontology, and 2) interaction patterns to synchronize multiple native simulations with disparate modeling paradigms, such as continuous-time system dynamics, agent-based discrete event simulation, and aggregate solution methods such as Monte Carlo sampling over dynamic Bayesian networks. This paper describes the CMIST system architecture, our technical approach to addressing these semantic alignment and synchronization problems, and initial results from integrating Political-Military-Economic models of post-war Iraq spanning multiple modeling paradigms.

The 3D Lagrangian Integral Method. Henrik Koblitz Rasmussen

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rasmussen, Henrik Koblitz

2003-01-01

. This are processes such as thermo-forming, gas-assisted injection moulding and all kind of simultaneous multi-component polymer processing operations. Though, in all polymer processing operations free surfaces (or interfaces) are present and the dynamic of these surfaces are of interest. In the "3D Lagrangian...... Integral Method" to simulate viscoelastic flow, the governing equations are solved for the particle positions (Lagrangian kinematics). Therefore, the transient motion of surfaces can be followed in a particularly simple fashion even in 3D viscoelastic flow. The "3D Lagrangian Integral Method" is described...

Global Format for Conservative Time Integration in Nonlinear Dynamics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Krenk, Steen

2014-01-01

The widely used classic collocation-based time integration procedures like Newmark, Generalized-alpha etc. generally work well within a framework of linear problems, but typically may encounter problems, when used in connection with essentially nonlinear structures. These problems are overcome....... In the present paper a conservative time integration algorithm is developed in a format using only the internal forces and the associated tangent stiffness at the specific time integration points. Thus, the procedure is computationally very similar to a collocation method, consisting of a series of nonlinear...... equivalent static load steps, easily implemented in existing computer codes. The paper considers two aspects: representation of nonlinear internal forces in a form that implies energy conservation, and the option of an algorithmic damping with the purpose of extracting energy from undesirable high...

Integrated Process Design and Control of Multi-element Reactive Distillation Processes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mansouri, Seyed Soheil; Sales-Cruz, Mauricio; Huusom, Jakob Kjøbsted

2016-01-01

In this work, integrated process design and control of reactive distillation processes involving multi-elements is presented. The reactive distillation column is designed using methods and tools which are similar in concept to non-reactive distillation design methods, such as driving force approach....... The methods employed in this work are based on equivalent element concept. This concept facilitates the representation of a multi-element reactive system as equivalent binary light and heavy key elements. First, the reactive distillation column is designed at the maximum driving force where through steady...

Dual-force ISOMAP: a new relevance feedback method for medical image retrieval.

Science.gov (United States)

Shen, Hualei; Tao, Dacheng; Ma, Dianfu

2013-01-01

With great potential for assisting radiological image interpretation and decision making, content-based image retrieval in the medical domain has become a hot topic in recent years. Many methods to enhance the performance of content-based medical image retrieval have been proposed, among which the relevance feedback (RF) scheme is one of the most promising. Given user feedback information, RF algorithms interactively learn a user's preferences to bridge the "semantic gap" between low-level computerized visual features and high-level human semantic perception and thus improve retrieval performance. However, most existing RF algorithms perform in the original high-dimensional feature space and ignore the manifold structure of the low-level visual features of images. In this paper, we propose a new method, termed dual-force ISOMAP (DFISOMAP), for content-based medical image retrieval. Under the assumption that medical images lie on a low-dimensional manifold embedded in a high-dimensional ambient space, DFISOMAP operates in the following three stages. First, the geometric structure of positive examples in the learned low-dimensional embedding is preserved according to the isometric feature mapping (ISOMAP) criterion. To precisely model the geometric structure, a reconstruction error constraint is also added. Second, the average distance between positive and negative examples is maximized to separate them; this margin maximization acts as a force that pushes negative examples far away from positive examples. Finally, the similarity propagation technique is utilized to provide negative examples with another force that will pull them back into the negative sample set. We evaluate the proposed method on a subset of the IRMA medical image dataset with a RF-based medical image retrieval framework. Experimental results show that DFISOMAP outperforms popular approaches for content-based medical image retrieval in terms of accuracy and stability.

Fluids with highly directional attractive forces. IV. Equilibrium polymerization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wertheim, M.S.

1986-01-01

The author investigates approximation methods for systems of molecules interacting by core repulsion and highly directional attraction due to several attraction sites. The force model chosen imitates a chemical bond by providing for bond saturation when binding occurs. The dense fluid is an equilibrium mixture of s-mers with mutual repulsion. The author uses a previously derived reformulation of statistical thermodynamics in which the particle species are monomeric units with a specified set of attraction sites bonded. Thermodynamic perturbation theory (TPT) and integral equations of two types are derived. The use of TPT is illustrated by explicit calculation for a molecular model with two attraction sites capable of forming chain and ring polymers. Successes and defects of TPT are discussed. The integral equations for pair correlations between particles of specified bonding include calculation of self-consistent densities of species. Methods of calculating thermodynamic properties from the solutions of integral equations are given

Streamwise-body-force-model for rapid simulation combining internal and external flow fields

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cui Rong

2016-10-01

Full Text Available A streamwise-body-force-model (SBFM is developed and applied in the overall flow simulation for the distributed propulsion system, combining internal and external flow fields. In view of axial stage effects, fan or compressor effects could be simplified as body forces along the streamline. These body forces which are functions of local parameters could be added as source terms in Navier-Stokes equations to replace solid boundary conditions of blades and hubs. The validation of SBFM with uniform inlet and distortion inlet of compressors shows that pressure performance characteristics agree well with experimental data. A three-dimensional simulation of the integration configuration, via a blended wing body aircraft with a distributed propulsion system using the SBFM, has been completed. Lift coefficient and drag coefficient agree well with wind tunnel test results. Results show that to reach the goal of rapid integrated simulation combining internal and external flow fields, the computational fluid dynamics method based on SBFM is reasonable.

An improved method to determine neuromuscular properties using force laws - From single muscle to applications in human movements.

Science.gov (United States)

Siebert, T; Sust, M; Thaller, S; Tilp, M; Wagner, H

2007-04-01

We evaluate an improved method for individually determining neuromuscular properties in vivo. The method is based on Hill's equation used as a force law combined with Newton's equation of motion. To ensure the range of validity of Hill's equation, we first perform detailed investigations on in vitro single muscles. The force-velocity relation determined with the model coincides well with results obtained by standard methods (r=.99) above 20% of the isometric force. In addition, the model-predicted force curves during work loop contractions very well agree with measurements (mean difference: 2-3%). Subsequently, we deduce theoretically under which conditions it is possible to combine several muscles of the human body to model muscles. This leads to a model equation for human leg extension movements containing parameters for the muscle properties and for the activation. To numerically determine these invariant neuromuscular properties we devise an experimental method based on concentric and isometric leg extensions. With this method we determine individual muscle parameters from experiments such that the simulated curves agree well with experiments (r=.99). A reliability test with 12 participants revealed correlations r=.72-.91 for the neuromuscular parameters (p<.01). Predictions of similar movements under different conditions show mean errors of about 5%. In addition, we present applications in sports practise and theory.

Systematization of simplified J-integral evaluation method for flaw evaluation at high temperature

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Miura, Naoki; Takahashi, Yukio; Nakayama, Yasunari; Shimakawa, Takashi

2000-01-01

J-integral is an effective inelastic fracture parameter for the flaw evaluation of cracked components at high temperature. The evaluation of J-integral for an arbitrary crack configuration and an arbitrary loading condition can be generally accomplished by detailed numerical analysis such as finite element analysis, however, it is time-consuming and requires a high degree of expertise for its implementation. Therefore, it is important to develop simplified J-integral estimation techniques from the viewpoint of industrial requirements. In this study, a simplified J-integral evaluation method is proposed to estimate two types of J-integral parameters. One is the fatigue J-integral range to describe fatigue crack propagation behavior, and the other is the creep J-integral to describe creep crack propagation behavior. This paper presents the systematization of the simplified J-integral evaluation method incorporated with the reference stress method and the concept of elastic follow-up, and proposes a comprehensive evaluation procedure. The verification of the proposed method is presented in Part II of this paper. (author)

Real-time hybrid simulation using the convolution integral method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Sung Jig; Christenson, Richard E; Wojtkiewicz, Steven F; Johnson, Erik A

2011-01-01

This paper proposes a real-time hybrid simulation method that will allow complex systems to be tested within the hybrid test framework by employing the convolution integral (CI) method. The proposed CI method is potentially transformative for real-time hybrid simulation. The CI method can allow real-time hybrid simulation to be conducted regardless of the size and complexity of the numerical model and for numerical stability to be ensured in the presence of high frequency responses in the simulation. This paper presents the general theory behind the proposed CI method and provides experimental verification of the proposed method by comparing the CI method to the current integration time-stepping (ITS) method. Real-time hybrid simulation is conducted in the Advanced Hazard Mitigation Laboratory at the University of Connecticut. A seismically excited two-story shear frame building with a magneto-rheological (MR) fluid damper is selected as the test structure to experimentally validate the proposed method. The building structure is numerically modeled and simulated, while the MR damper is physically tested. Real-time hybrid simulation using the proposed CI method is shown to provide accurate results

Integration of the Forced-Choice Questionnaire and the Likert Scale: A Simulation Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yue Xiao

2017-05-01

Full Text Available The Thurstonian item response theory (IRT model allows estimating the latent trait scores of respondents directly through their responses in forced-choice questionnaires. It solves a part of problems brought by the traditional scoring methods of this kind of questionnaires. However, the forced-choice designs may still have their own limitations: The model may encounter underidentification and non-convergence and the test may show low test reliability in simple test designs (e.g., test designs with only a small number of traits measured or short length. To overcome these weaknesses, the present study applied the Thurstonian IRT model and the Graded Response Model to a different test format that comprises both forced-choice blocks and Likert-type items. And the Likert items should have low social desirability. A Monte Carlo simulation study is used to investigate how the mixed response format performs under various conditions. Four factors are considered: the number of traits, test length, the percentage of Likert items, and the proportion of pairs composed of items keyed in opposite directions. Results reveal that the mixed response format can be superior to the forced-choice format, especially in simple designs where the latter performs poorly. Besides the number of Likert items needed is small. One point to note is that researchers need to choose Likert items cautiously as Likert items may bring other response biases to the test. Discussion and suggestions are given to construct personality tests that can resist faking as much as possible and have acceptable reliability.

MEMS Bragg grating force sensor

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Reck, Kasper; Thomsen, Erik Vilain; Hansen, Ole

2011-01-01

We present modeling, design, fabrication and characterization of a new type of all-optical frequency modulated MEMS force sensor based on a mechanically amplified double clamped waveguide beam structure with integrated Bragg grating. The sensor is ideally suited for force measurements in harsh...... environments and for remote and distributed sensing and has a measured sensitivity of -14 nm/N, which is several times higher than what is obtained in conventional fiber Bragg grating force sensors. © 2011 Optical Society of America....

Fluid-Induced Vibration Analysis for Reactor Internals Using Computational FSI Method

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Moon, Jong Sung; Yi, Kun Woo; Sung, Ki Kwang; Im, In Young; Choi, Taek Sang [KEPCO E and C, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2013-10-15

This paper introduces a fluid-induced vibration analysis method which calculates the response of the RVI to both deterministic and random loads at once and utilizes more realistic pressure distribution using the computational Fluid Structure Interaction (FSI) method. As addressed above, the FIV analysis for the RVI was carried out using the computational FSI method. This method calculates the response to deterministic and random turbulence loads at once. This method is also a simple and integrative method to get structural dynamic responses of reactor internals to various flow-induced loads. Because the analysis of this paper omitted the bypass flow region and Inner Barrel Assembly (IBA) due to the limitation of computer resources, it is necessary to find an effective way to consider all regions in the RV for the FIV analysis in the future. Reactor coolant flow makes Reactor Vessel Internals (RVI) vibrate and may affect the structural integrity of them. U. S. NRC Regulatory Guide 1.20 requires the Comprehensive Vibration Assessment Program (CVAP) to verify the structural integrity of the RVI for Fluid-Induced Vibration (FIV). The hydraulic forces on the RVI of OPR1000 and APR1400 were computed from the hydraulic formulas and the CVAP measurements in Palo Verde Unit 1 and Yonggwang Unit 4 for the structural vibration analyses. In this method, the hydraulic forces were divided into deterministic and random turbulence loads and were used for the excitation forces of the separate structural analyses. These forces are applied to the finite element model and the responses to them were combined into the resultant stresses.

Mathematical methods linear algebra normed spaces distributions integration

CERN Document Server

Korevaar, Jacob

1968-01-01

Mathematical Methods, Volume I: Linear Algebra, Normed Spaces, Distributions, Integration focuses on advanced mathematical tools used in applications and the basic concepts of algebra, normed spaces, integration, and distributions.The publication first offers information on algebraic theory of vector spaces and introduction to functional analysis. Discussions focus on linear transformations and functionals, rectangular matrices, systems of linear equations, eigenvalue problems, use of eigenvectors and generalized eigenvectors in the representation of linear operators, metric and normed vector

The integrated circuit IC EMP transient state disturbance effect experiment method investigates

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li Xiaowei

2004-01-01

Transient state disturbance characteristic study on the integrated circuit, IC, need from its coupling path outset. Through cable (aerial) coupling, EMP converts to an pulse current voltage and results in the impact to the integrated circuit I/O orifice passing the cable. Aiming at the armament system construction feature, EMP effect to the integrated circuit, IC inside the system is analyzed. The integrated circuit, IC EMP effect experiment current injection method is investigated and a few experiments method is given. (authors)

Nonlinear Fredholm Integral Equation of the Second Kind with Quadrature Methods

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Jafari Emamzadeh

2010-06-01

Full Text Available In this paper, a numerical method for solving the nonlinear Fredholm integral equation is presented. We intend to approximate the solution of this equation by quadrature methods and by doing so, we solve the nonlinear Fredholm integral equation more accurately. Several examples are given at the end of this paper

Research on micromanipulator’s clamping force sensing based on static wirerope tension of a surgical robot

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lingtao Yu

2015-04-01

Full Text Available The micromanipulator’s force feedback is one of the key research contents of minimally invasive surgical robotic system. Because the micromanipulator is a kind of compact construction which is suitable for valve installation with small space in surgery, especially for the influence of disinfection method, there are major difficulties and limitations to integrate compact sensors in the end of micromanipulator. This article focuses on the 3-degree-of-freedom micromanipulator’s clamping force sensing, and these three joints are actuated by wirerope driving. A clamping force sensing method is proposed based on static tension of wirerope driving, and a static model between the clamping force and wirerope’s static tension is established considering the influence of real friction resistance in the mechanical system. Finally, an equivalent experimental test platform for 3-degree-of-freedom micromanipulator’s clamping force sensing is set up, and then a series of experiments of the clamping force are studied. The frictional resistances of wirerope between the guide plate and guide pulley mechanism are tested, and a calibration and correction method of the experimental clamping force is proposed. The final experiment results show that the total average accuracy of experimental clamping force is about 78.3%, and it can be the basic measurement force to realize micromanipulator’s clamping force feedback of a minimally invasive surgical robot.

Embryo mechanics: balancing force production with elastic resistance during morphogenesis.

Science.gov (United States)

Davidson, Lance A

2011-01-01

Morphogenesis requires the spatial and temporal control of embryo mechanics, including force production and mechanical resistance to those forces, to coordinate tissue deformation and large-scale movements. Thus, biomechanical processes play a key role in directly shaping the embryo. Additional roles for embryo mechanics during development may include the patterning of positional information and to provide feedback to ensure the success of morphogenetic movements in shaping the larval body and organs. To understand the multiple roles of mechanics during development requires familiarity with engineering principles of the mechanics of structures, the viscoelastic properties of biomaterials, and the integration of force and stress within embryonic structures as morphogenesis progresses. In this chapter, we review the basic engineering principles of biomechanics as they relate to morphogenesis, introduce methods for quantifying embryo mechanics and the limitations of these methods, and outline a formalism for investigating the role of embryo mechanics in birth defects. We encourage the nascent field of embryo mechanics to adopt standard engineering terms and test methods so that studies of diverse organisms can be compared and universal biomechanical principles can be revealed. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Quadratic algebras in the noncommutative integration method of wave equation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Varaksin, O.L.

1995-01-01

The paper deals with the investigation of applications of the method of noncommutative integration of linear differential equations by partial derivatives. Nontrivial example was taken for integration of three-dimensions wave equation with the use of non-Abelian quadratic algebras

Optical Near-field Interactions and Forces for Optoelectronic Devices

Science.gov (United States)

Kohoutek, John Michael

Throughout history, as a particle view of the universe began to take shape, scientists began to realize that these particles were attracted to each other and hence came up with theories, both analytical and empirical in nature, to explain their interaction. The interaction pair potential (empirical) and electromagnetics (analytical) theories, both help to explain not only the interaction between the basic constituents of matter, such as atoms and molecules, but also between macroscopic objects, such as two surfaces in close proximity. The electrostatic force, optical force, and Casimir force can be categorized as such forces. A surface plasmon (SP) is a collective motion of electrons generated by light at the interface between two mediums of opposite signs of dielectric susceptibility (e.g. metal and dielectric). Recently, surface plasmon resonance (SPR) has been exploited in many areas through the use of tiny antennas that work on similar principles as radio frequency (RF) antennas in optoelectronic devices. These antennas can produce a very high gradient in the electric field thereby leading to an optical force, similar in concept to the surface forces discussed above. The Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) was introduced in the 1980s at IBM. Here we report on its uses in measuring these aforementioned forces and fields, as well as actively modulating and manipulating multiple optoelectronic devices. We have shown that it is possible to change the far field radiation pattern of an optical antenna-integrated device through modification of the near-field of the device. This modification is possible through change of the local refractive index or reflectivity of the "hot spot" of the device, either mechanically or optically. Finally, we have shown how a mechanically active device can be used to detect light with high gain and low noise at room temperature. It is the aim of several of these integrated and future devices to be used for applications in molecular sensing

Integral methods of solving boundary-value problems of nonstationary heat conduction and their comparative analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Kot, V. A.

2017-11-01

The modern state of approximate integral methods used in applications, where the processes of heat conduction and heat and mass transfer are of first importance, is considered. Integral methods have found a wide utility in different fields of knowledge: problems of heat conduction with different heat-exchange conditions, simulation of thermal protection, Stefantype problems, microwave heating of a substance, problems on a boundary layer, simulation of a fluid flow in a channel, thermal explosion, laser and plasma treatment of materials, simulation of the formation and melting of ice, inverse heat problems, temperature and thermal definition of nanoparticles and nanoliquids, and others. Moreover, polynomial solutions are of interest because the determination of a temperature (concentration) field is an intermediate stage in the mathematical description of any other process. The following main methods were investigated on the basis of the error norms: the Tsoi and Postol’nik methods, the method of integral relations, the Gudman integral method of heat balance, the improved Volkov integral method, the matched integral method, the modified Hristov method, the Mayer integral method, the Kudinov method of additional boundary conditions, the Fedorov boundary method, the method of weighted temperature function, the integral method of boundary characteristics. It was established that the two last-mentioned methods are characterized by high convergence and frequently give solutions whose accuracy is not worse that the accuracy of numerical solutions.

Measurement of dynamic bite force during mastication.

Science.gov (United States)

Shimada, A; Yamabe, Y; Torisu, T; Baad-Hansen, L; Murata, H; Svensson, P

2012-05-01

Efficient mastication of different types and size of food depends on fast integration of sensory information from mechanoreceptors and central control mechanisms of jaw movements and applied bite force. The neural basis underlying mastication has been studied for decades but little progress in understanding the dynamics of bite force has been made mainly due to technical limitations of bite force recorders. The aims of this study were to develop a new intraoral bite force recorder which would allow the study of natural mastication without an increase in the occlusal vertical dimension and subsequently to analyze the relation between electromyographic (EMG) activity of jaw-closing muscles, jaw movements and bite force during mastication of five different types of food. Customized force recorders based on strain gauge sensors were fitted to the upper and lower molar teeth on the preferred chewing side in fourteen healthy and dentate subjects (21-39 years), and recordings were carried out during voluntary mastication of five different kinds of food. Intraoral force recordings were successively obtained from all subjects. anova showed that impulse of bite force as well as integrated EMG was significantly influenced by food (Pmastication with direct implications for oral rehabilitation. We also propose that the control of bite force during mastication is achieved by anticipatory adjustment and encoding of bolus characteristics. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Combined Docking with Classical Force Field and Quantum Chemical Semiempirical Method PM7

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A. V. Sulimov

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Results of the combined use of the classical force field and the recent quantum chemical PM7 method for docking are presented. Initially the gridless docking of a flexible low molecular weight ligand into the rigid target protein is performed with the energy function calculated in the MMFF94 force field with implicit water solvent in the PCM model. Among several hundred thousand local minima, which are found in the docking procedure, about eight thousand lowest energy minima are chosen and then energies of these minima are recalculated with the recent quantum chemical semiempirical PM7 method. This procedure is applied to 16 test complexes with different proteins and ligands. For almost all test complexes such energy recalculation results in the global energy minimum configuration corresponding to the ligand pose near the native ligand position in the crystalized protein-ligand complex. A significant improvement of the ligand positioning accuracy comparing with MMFF94 energy calculations is demonstrated.

Combined Docking with Classical Force Field and Quantum Chemical Semiempirical Method PM7.

Science.gov (United States)

Sulimov, A V; Kutov, D C; Katkova, E V; Sulimov, V B

2017-01-01

Results of the combined use of the classical force field and the recent quantum chemical PM7 method for docking are presented. Initially the gridless docking of a flexible low molecular weight ligand into the rigid target protein is performed with the energy function calculated in the MMFF94 force field with implicit water solvent in the PCM model. Among several hundred thousand local minima, which are found in the docking procedure, about eight thousand lowest energy minima are chosen and then energies of these minima are recalculated with the recent quantum chemical semiempirical PM7 method. This procedure is applied to 16 test complexes with different proteins and ligands. For almost all test complexes such energy recalculation results in the global energy minimum configuration corresponding to the ligand pose near the native ligand position in the crystalized protein-ligand complex. A significant improvement of the ligand positioning accuracy comparing with MMFF94 energy calculations is demonstrated.

Cochrane Qualitative and Implementation Methods Group guidance series-paper 5: methods for integrating qualitative and implementation evidence within intervention effectiveness reviews.

Science.gov (United States)

Harden, Angela; Thomas, James; Cargo, Margaret; Harris, Janet; Pantoja, Tomas; Flemming, Kate; Booth, Andrew; Garside, Ruth; Hannes, Karin; Noyes, Jane

2018-05-01

The Cochrane Qualitative and Implementation Methods Group develops and publishes guidance on the synthesis of qualitative and mixed-method evidence from process evaluations. Despite a proliferation of methods for the synthesis of qualitative research, less attention has focused on how to integrate these syntheses within intervention effectiveness reviews. In this article, we report updated guidance from the group on approaches, methods, and tools, which can be used to integrate the findings from quantitative studies evaluating intervention effectiveness with those from qualitative studies and process evaluations. We draw on conceptual analyses of mixed methods systematic review designs and the range of methods and tools that have been used in published reviews that have successfully integrated different types of evidence. We outline five key methods and tools as devices for integration which vary in terms of the levels at which integration takes place; the specialist skills and expertise required within the review team; and their appropriateness in the context of limited evidence. In situations where the requirement is the integration of qualitative and process evidence within intervention effectiveness reviews, we recommend the use of a sequential approach. Here, evidence from each tradition is synthesized separately using methods consistent with each tradition before integration takes place using a common framework. Reviews which integrate qualitative and process evaluation evidence alongside quantitative evidence on intervention effectiveness in a systematic way are rare. This guidance aims to support review teams to achieve integration and we encourage further development through reflection and formal testing. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Integrating Expressive Methods in a Relational-Psychotherapy

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Richard G. Erskine

2011-06-01

Full Text Available Therapeutic Involvement is an integral part of all effective psychotherapy.This article is written to illustrate the concept of Therapeutic Involvement in working within a therapeutic relationship – within the transference -- and with active expressive and experiential methods to resolve traumatic experiences, relational disturbances and life shaping decisions.

Comparison the Students Satisfaction of Traditional and Integrated Teaching Method in Physiology Course

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Keshavarzi Z.

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Aims: Different education methods play crucial roles to improve education quality and students’ satisfaction. In the recent years, medical education highly changes through new education methods. The aim of this study was to compare medical students’ satisfaction in traditional and integrated methods of teaching physiology course. Instrument and Methods: In the descriptive analysis study, fifty 4th semester medical students of Bojnourd University of Medical Sciences were studied in 2015. The subjects were randomly selected based on availability. Data was collected by two researcher-made questionnaires; their validity and reliability were confirmed. Questionnaure 1 was completed by the students after presenting renal and endocrinology topics via traditional and integrated methods. Questionnaire 2 was only completed by the students after presenting the course via integrated method. Data was analyzed by SPSS 16 software using dependent T test. Findings: Mean score of the students’ satisfaction in traditional method (24.80±3.48 was higher than integrated method (22.30±4.03; p<0.0001. In the integrated method, most of the students were agreed and completely agreed on telling stories from daily life (76%, sitting mode in the classroom (48%, an attribution of cell roles to the students (60%, showing movies and animations (76%, using models (84%, and using real animal parts (72% during teaching, as well as expressing clinical items to enhance learning motivations (76%. Conclusion: Favorable satisfaction of the students in traditional lecture method to understand the issues, as well as their acceptance of new and active methods of learning, show effectiveness and efficiency of traditional method and the requirement of its enhancement by the integrated methods. 

13th International Conference on Integral Methods in Science and Engineering

CERN Document Server

Kirsch, Andreas

2015-01-01

This contributed volume contains a collection of articles on state-of-the-art developments on the construction of theoretical integral techniques and their application to specific problems in science and engineering.  Written by internationally recognized researchers, the chapters in this book are based on talks given at the Thirteenth International Conference on Integral Methods in Science and Engineering, held July 21–25, 2014, in Karlsruhe, Germany.   A broad range of topics is addressed, from problems of existence and uniqueness for singular integral equations on domain boundaries to numerical integration via finite and boundary elements, conservation laws, hybrid methods, and other quadrature-related approaches.   This collection will be of interest to researchers in applied mathematics, physics, and mechanical and electrical engineering, as well as graduate students in these disciplines and other professionals for whom integration is an essential tool.

Using indirect methods to understand the impact of forced migration on long-term under-five mortality.

Science.gov (United States)

Singh, Kavita; Karunakara, Unni; Burnham, Gilbert; Hill, Kenneth

2005-11-01

Despite the large numbers of displaced persons and the often-lengthy periods of displacement, little is known about the impact of forced migration on long-term under-five mortality. This paper looks at the Brass Method (and adaptations of this method) and the Preceding Birth Technique in combination with a classification of women by their migration and reproductive histories, in order to study the impact of forced migration on under-five mortality. Data came from the Demography of Forced Migration Project, a study on mortality, fertility and violence in the refugee and host populations of Arua District, Uganda and Yei River District, Sudan. Results indicate that women who did not migrate in a situation of conflict and women who repatriated before the age of 15, had children with the highest under-five mortality rates compared with women who were currently refugees and women who repatriated after the age of 15.

Cloud forcing: A modeling perspective

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Potter, G.L.; Mobely, R.L.; Drach, R.S.; Corsetti, T.G.; Williams, D.N.; Slingo, J.M.

1990-11-01

Radiation fields from a perpetual July integration of a T106 version of the ECMWF operational model are used as surrogate observations of the radiation budget at the top of the atmosphere to illustrate various difficulties that modellers might face when trying to reconcile cloud radiation forcings derived from satellite observations with model-generated ones. Differences between the so-called Methods 1 and 2 of Cess and Potter (1987) and a variant Method 3 are addressed. Method 1 is shown to be the least robust of all methods, due to potential uncertainties related to persistent cloudiness, length of the period over which clear-sky conditions are looked for, biases in retrieved clear-sky quantities due to an insufficient sampling of the diurnal cycle. We advocate the use of Method 2 as the only unambiguous one to produce consistent radiative diagnostics for intercomparing model results. Impact of the three methods on the derived sensitivities and cloud feedbacks following an imposed change in sea surface temperature (used as a surrogate climate change) is discussed. 17 refs., 12 figs., 1 tab

Indoor integrated navigation and synchronous data acquisition method for Android smartphone

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Chunsheng; Wei, Wenjian; Qin, Shiqiao; Wang, Xingshu; Habib, Ayman; Wang, Ruisheng

2015-08-01

Smartphones are widely used at present. Most smartphones have cameras and kinds of sensors, such as gyroscope, accelerometer and magnet meter. Indoor navigation based on smartphone is very important and valuable. According to the features of the smartphone and indoor navigation, a new indoor integrated navigation method is proposed, which uses MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit), camera and magnet meter of smartphone. The proposed navigation method mainly involves data acquisition, camera calibration, image measurement, IMU calibration, initial alignment, strapdown integral, zero velocity update and integrated navigation. Synchronous data acquisition of the sensors (gyroscope, accelerometer and magnet meter) and the camera is the base of the indoor navigation on the smartphone. A camera data acquisition method is introduced, which uses the camera class of Android to record images and time of smartphone camera. Two kinds of sensor data acquisition methods are introduced and compared. The first method records sensor data and time with the SensorManager of Android. The second method realizes open, close, data receiving and saving functions in C language, and calls the sensor functions in Java language with JNI interface. A data acquisition software is developed with JDK (Java Development Kit), Android ADT (Android Development Tools) and NDK (Native Development Kit). The software can record camera data, sensor data and time at the same time. Data acquisition experiments have been done with the developed software and Sumsang Note 2 smartphone. The experimental results show that the first method of sensor data acquisition is convenient but lost the sensor data sometimes, the second method is much better in real-time performance and much less in data losing. A checkerboard image is recorded, and the corner points of the checkerboard are detected with the Harris method. The sensor data of gyroscope, accelerometer and magnet meter have

Integral staggered point-matching method for millimeter-wave reflective diffraction gratings on electron cyclotron heating systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xia, Donghui; Huang, Mei; Wang, Zhijiang; Zhang, Feng; Zhuang, Ge

2016-01-01

Highlights: • The integral staggered point-matching method for design of polarizers on the ECH systems is presented. • The availability of the integral staggered point-matching method is checked by numerical calculations. • Two polarizers are designed with the integral staggered point-matching method and the experimental results are given. - Abstract: The reflective diffraction gratings are widely used in the high power electron cyclotron heating systems for polarization strategy. This paper presents a method which we call “the integral staggered point-matching method” for design of reflective diffraction gratings. This method is based on the integral point-matching method. However, it effectively removes the convergence problems and tedious calculations of the integral point-matching method, making it easier to be used for a beginner. A code is developed based on this method. The calculation results of the integral staggered point-matching method are compared with the integral point-matching method, the coordinate transformation method and the low power measurement results. It indicates that the integral staggered point-matching method can be used as an optional method for the design of reflective diffraction gratings in electron cyclotron heating systems.

Integral staggered point-matching method for millimeter-wave reflective diffraction gratings on electron cyclotron heating systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Xia, Donghui [State Key Laboratory of Advanced Electromagnetic Engineering and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 430074 Wuhan (China); Huang, Mei [Southwestern Institute of Physics, 610041 Chengdu (China); Wang, Zhijiang, E-mail: wangzj@hust.edu.cn [State Key Laboratory of Advanced Electromagnetic Engineering and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 430074 Wuhan (China); Zhang, Feng [Southwestern Institute of Physics, 610041 Chengdu (China); Zhuang, Ge [State Key Laboratory of Advanced Electromagnetic Engineering and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 430074 Wuhan (China)

2016-10-15

Highlights: • The integral staggered point-matching method for design of polarizers on the ECH systems is presented. • The availability of the integral staggered point-matching method is checked by numerical calculations. • Two polarizers are designed with the integral staggered point-matching method and the experimental results are given. - Abstract: The reflective diffraction gratings are widely used in the high power electron cyclotron heating systems for polarization strategy. This paper presents a method which we call “the integral staggered point-matching method” for design of reflective diffraction gratings. This method is based on the integral point-matching method. However, it effectively removes the convergence problems and tedious calculations of the integral point-matching method, making it easier to be used for a beginner. A code is developed based on this method. The calculation results of the integral staggered point-matching method are compared with the integral point-matching method, the coordinate transformation method and the low power measurement results. It indicates that the integral staggered point-matching method can be used as an optional method for the design of reflective diffraction gratings in electron cyclotron heating systems.

Provider accountability as a driving force towards physician–hospital integration: a systematic review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jeroen Trybou

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Background: Hospitals and physicians lie at the heart of our health care delivery system. In general, physicians provide medical care and hospitals the resources to deliver health care. In the past two decades many countries have adopted reforms in which provider financial risk bearing is increased. By making providers financially accountable for the delivered care integrated care delivery is stimulated.Purpose: To assess the evidence base supporting the relationship between provider financial risk bearing and physician–hospital integration and to identify the different types of methods used to measure physician–hospital integration to evaluate the functional value of these integrative models.Results: Nine studies met the inclusion criteria. The evidence base is mixed and inconclusive. Our methodological analysis of previous research shows that previous studies have largely focused on the formal structures of physician–hospital arrangements as an indicator of physician–hospital integration.Conclusion: The link between provider financial risk bearing and physician–hospital integration can at this time be supported merely on the basis of theoretical insights of agency theory rather than empirical research. Physician–hospital integration measurement has concentrated on the prevalence of contracting vehicles that enables joint bargaining in a managed care environment but without realizing integration and cooperation between hospital and physicians. Therefore, we argue that these studies fail to shed light on the impact of risk shifting on the hospital–physician relationship accurately.

Provider accountability as a driving force towards physician–hospital integration: a systematic review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jeroen Trybou

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Background: Hospitals and physicians lie at the heart of our health care delivery system. In general, physicians provide medical care and hospitals the resources to deliver health care. In the past two decades many countries have adopted reforms in which provider financial risk bearing is increased. By making providers financially accountable for the delivered care integrated care delivery is stimulated. Purpose: To assess the evidence base supporting the relationship between provider financial risk bearing and physician–hospital integration and to identify the different types of methods used to measure physician–hospital integration to evaluate the functional value of these integrative models. Results: Nine studies met the inclusion criteria. The evidence base is mixed and inconclusive. Our methodological analysis of previous research shows that previous studies have largely focused on the formal structures of physician–hospital arrangements as an indicator of physician–hospital integration. Conclusion: The link between provider financial risk bearing and physician–hospital integration can at this time be supported merely on the basis of theoretical insights of agency theory rather than empirical research. Physician–hospital integration measurement has concentrated on the prevalence of contracting vehicles that enables joint bargaining in a managed care environment but without realizing integration and cooperation between hospital and physicians. Therefore, we argue that these studies fail to shed light on the impact of risk shifting on the hospital–physician relationship accurately.

Lift, drag, and guidance forces on alternating polarity magnets, using loop guideways

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lindenbaum, S.D.; Lee, M.S.

1975-01-01

Exact solutions of track current, lift force, and drag force, together with their velocity dependence, have been computed for a vehicle carrying a finite number of fixed current alternating polarity superconducting magnets, suspended at various heights over structured track guideways of the single- and double-loop (''null'') types. Results for the double-loop case are compared with those of a previously reported approximate analysis. The analytical method is then applied to a study of a low-drag guidance loop guideway which is integrable with lift loop guideways utilizing a common set of vehicle magnets. Solutions are obtained for guidance track restoring forces, lateral destabilization forces, and lift force degradation as functions of lateral displacement from symmetry. The dependence of lift, drag, and lift-to-drag on track loop parameters is studied and the linear dependence of lift-to-drag on loop time constant confirmed. The contribution to the forces made by successive addition of alternating polarity magnets is calculated and the marked reduction in lift force pulsation noted

High-speed adaptive contact-mode atomic force microscopy imaging with near-minimum-force

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ren, Juan; Zou, Qingze, E-mail: qzzou@rci.rutgers.edu [Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Rutgers University, 98 Brett Rd, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854 (United States)

2014-07-15

In this paper, an adaptive contact-mode imaging approach is proposed to replace the traditional contact-mode imaging by addressing the major concerns in both the speed and the force exerted to the sample. The speed of the traditional contact-mode imaging is largely limited by the need to maintain precision tracking of the sample topography over the entire imaged sample surface, while large image distortion and excessive probe-sample interaction force occur during high-speed imaging. In this work, first, the image distortion caused by the topography tracking error is accounted for in the topography quantification. Second, the quantified sample topography is utilized in a gradient-based optimization method to adjust the cantilever deflection set-point for each scanline closely around the minimal level needed for maintaining stable probe-sample contact, and a data-driven iterative feedforward control that utilizes a prediction of the next-line topography is integrated to the topography feeedback loop to enhance the sample topography tracking. The proposed approach is demonstrated and evaluated through imaging a calibration sample of square pitches at both high speeds (e.g., scan rate of 75 Hz and 130 Hz) and large sizes (e.g., scan size of 30 μm and 80 μm). The experimental results show that compared to the traditional constant-force contact-mode imaging, the imaging speed can be increased by over 30 folds (with the scanning speed at 13 mm/s), and the probe-sample interaction force can be reduced by more than 15% while maintaining the same image quality.

High-speed adaptive contact-mode atomic force microscopy imaging with near-minimum-force

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ren, Juan; Zou, Qingze

2014-01-01

In this paper, an adaptive contact-mode imaging approach is proposed to replace the traditional contact-mode imaging by addressing the major concerns in both the speed and the force exerted to the sample. The speed of the traditional contact-mode imaging is largely limited by the need to maintain precision tracking of the sample topography over the entire imaged sample surface, while large image distortion and excessive probe-sample interaction force occur during high-speed imaging. In this work, first, the image distortion caused by the topography tracking error is accounted for in the topography quantification. Second, the quantified sample topography is utilized in a gradient-based optimization method to adjust the cantilever deflection set-point for each scanline closely around the minimal level needed for maintaining stable probe-sample contact, and a data-driven iterative feedforward control that utilizes a prediction of the next-line topography is integrated to the topography feeedback loop to enhance the sample topography tracking. The proposed approach is demonstrated and evaluated through imaging a calibration sample of square pitches at both high speeds (e.g., scan rate of 75 Hz and 130 Hz) and large sizes (e.g., scan size of 30 μm and 80 μm). The experimental results show that compared to the traditional constant-force contact-mode imaging, the imaging speed can be increased by over 30 folds (with the scanning speed at 13 mm/s), and the probe-sample interaction force can be reduced by more than 15% while maintaining the same image quality

Analysis Method for Integrating Components of Product

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Choi, Jun Ho [Inzest Co. Ltd, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Lee, Kun Sang [Kookmin Univ., Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

2017-04-15

This paper presents some of the methods used to incorporate the parts constituting a product. A new relation function concept and its structure are introduced to analyze the relationships of component parts. This relation function has three types of information, which can be used to establish a relation function structure. The relation function structure of the analysis criteria was established to analyze and present the data. The priority components determined by the analysis criteria can be integrated. The analysis criteria were divided based on their number and orientation, as well as their direct or indirect characteristic feature. This paper presents a design algorithm for component integration. This algorithm was applied to actual products, and the components inside the product were integrated. Therefore, the proposed algorithm was used to conduct research to improve the brake discs for bicycles. As a result, an improved product similar to the related function structure was actually created.

Analysis Method for Integrating Components of Product

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Choi, Jun Ho; Lee, Kun Sang

2017-01-01

This paper presents some of the methods used to incorporate the parts constituting a product. A new relation function concept and its structure are introduced to analyze the relationships of component parts. This relation function has three types of information, which can be used to establish a relation function structure. The relation function structure of the analysis criteria was established to analyze and present the data. The priority components determined by the analysis criteria can be integrated. The analysis criteria were divided based on their number and orientation, as well as their direct or indirect characteristic feature. This paper presents a design algorithm for component integration. This algorithm was applied to actual products, and the components inside the product were integrated. Therefore, the proposed algorithm was used to conduct research to improve the brake discs for bicycles. As a result, an improved product similar to the related function structure was actually created.

Approximate calculation method for integral of mean square value of nonstationary response

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aoki, Shigeru; Fukano, Azusa

2010-01-01

The response of the structure subjected to nonstationary random vibration such as earthquake excitation is nonstationary random vibration. Calculating method for statistical characteristics of such a response is complicated. Mean square value of the response is usually used to evaluate random response. Integral of mean square value of the response corresponds to total energy of the response. In this paper, a simplified calculation method to obtain integral of mean square value of the response is proposed. As input excitation, nonstationary white noise and nonstationary filtered white noise are used. Integrals of mean square value of the response are calculated for various values of parameters. It is found that the proposed method gives exact value of integral of mean square value of the response.

Analysis of force variance for a continuous miner drum using the Design of Experiments method

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

S. Somanchi; V.J. Kecojevic; C.J. Bise [Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA (United States)

2006-06-15

Continuous miners (CMs) are excavating machines designed to extract a variety of minerals by underground mining. The variance in force experienced by the cutting drum is a very important aspect that must be considered during drum design. A uniform variance essentially means that an equal load is applied on the individual cutting bits and this, in turn, enables better cutting action, greater efficiency, and longer bit and machine life. There are certain input parameters used in the drum design whose exact relationships with force variance are not clearly understood. This paper determines (1) the factors that have a significant effect on the force variance of the drum and (2) the values that can be assigned to these factors to minimize the force variance. A computer program, Continuous Miner Drum (CMD), was developed in collaboration with Kennametal, Inc. to facilitate the mechanical design of CM drums. CMD also facilitated data collection for determining significant factors affecting force variance. Six input parameters, including centre pitch, outer pitch, balance angle, shift angle, set angle and relative angle were tested at two levels. Trials were configured using the Design of Experiments (DoE) method where 2{sup 6} full-factorial experimental design was selected to investigate the effect of these factors on force variance. Results from the analysis show that all parameters except balance angle, as well as their interactions, significantly affect the force variance.

A Comparative Study on Evaluation Methods of Fluid Forces on Cartesian Grids

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Taku Nonomura

2017-01-01

Full Text Available We investigate the accuracy and the computational efficiency of the numerical schemes for evaluating fluid forces in Cartesian grid systems. A comparison is made between two different types of schemes, namely, polygon-based methods and mesh-based methods, which differ in the discretization of the surface of the object. The present assessment is intended to investigate the effects of the Reynolds number, the object motion, and the complexity of the object surface. The results show that the mesh-based methods work as well as the polygon-based methods, even if the object surface is discretized in a staircase manner. In addition, the results also show that the accuracy of the mesh-based methods is strongly dependent on the evaluation of shear stresses, and thus they must be evaluated by using a reliable method, such as the ghost-cell or ghost-fluid method.

Attractive forces study in macromolecules and critical systems; Etude des forces attractives dans les macromolecules et les systemes critiques

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Penninckx-Sans, A.

1995-07-10

The attractive forces effect is particularly interesting at the proximity of a critical point. In a liquid system, there are two kinds of attractive forces in presence : the forces bound to the solution volume and those generated by the presence of the solution surface or by a solution interface. In the first case, the attractive forces are the more important as the system is in a critical field. For this study, the selected example is a polymer solution in a two solvents mixture. A formulation in terms of way integrals as part of statistical physics has lead us to find again some known results on the polymer chain conformation in the presence of two solvents (collapse of the polymer on itself) far from the critical point and to extend these results to the critical field. In the case of attractive forces created by the surface in some critical systems (polymer of infinite size in solution and binary mixture near the de mixture point), the adsorption profile created by the attraction of one specie by the surface, follows a scale law. The optical methods usually used for the study of these systems do not give characteristic sign of concentration profile in power law. In the case where the interaction potential between radiation and matter is attractive, the reflectivity gives a separate mark of the existence of the scale law in the form of a resonance. After some theoretical forecasts, the author has used this method on the binary mixture methanol-cyclohexane in order to reveal experimentally a reflectivity pseudo-discontinuity and then the existence of the power law in the critical adsorption profile. (O.L.). 69 refs., 60 tabs.

A Modal-Based Substructure Method Applied to Nonlinear Rotordynamic Systems

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Helmut J. Holl

2009-01-01

Full Text Available The discretisation of rotordynamic systems usually results in a high number of coordinates, so the computation of the solution of the equations of motion is very time consuming. An efficient semianalytic time-integration method combined with a substructure technique is given, which accounts for nonsymmetric matrices and local nonlinearities. The partitioning of the equation of motion into two substructures is performed. Symmetric and linear background systems are defined for each substructure. The excitation of the substructure comes from the given excitation force, the nonlinear restoring force, the induced force due to the gyroscopic and circulatory effects of the substructure under consideration and the coupling force of the substructures. The high effort for the analysis with complex numbers, which is necessary for nonsymmetric systems, is omitted. The solution is computed by means of an integral formulation. A suitable approximation for the unknown coordinates, which are involved in the coupling forces, has to be introduced and the integration results in Green's functions of the considered substructures. Modal analysis is performed for each linear and symmetric background system of the substructure. Modal reduction can be easily incorporated and the solution is calculated iteratively. The numerical behaviour of the algorithm is discussed and compared to other approximate methods of nonlinear structural dynamics for a benchmark problem and a representative example.

New Approaches to Aluminum Integral Foam Production with Casting Methods

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Ahmet Güner

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Integral foam has been used in the production of polymer materials for a long time. Metal integral foam casting systems are obtained by transferring and adapting polymer injection technology. Metal integral foam produced by casting has a solid skin at the surface and a foam core. Producing near-net shape reduces production expenses. Insurance companies nowadays want the automotive industry to use metallic foam parts because of their higher impact energy absorption properties. In this paper, manufacturing processes of aluminum integral foam with casting methods will be discussed.

Discrete nodal integral transport-theory method for multidimensional reactor physics and shielding calculations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lawrence, R.D.; Dorning, J.J.

1980-01-01

A coarse-mesh discrete nodal integral transport theory method has been developed for the efficient numerical solution of multidimensional transport problems of interest in reactor physics and shielding applications. The method, which is the discrete transport theory analogue and logical extension of the nodal Green's function method previously developed for multidimensional neutron diffusion problems, utilizes the same transverse integration procedure to reduce the multidimensional equations to coupled one-dimensional equations. This is followed by the conversion of the differential equations to local, one-dimensional, in-node integral equations by integrating back along neutron flight paths. One-dimensional and two-dimensional transport theory test problems have been systematically studied to verify the superior computational efficiency of the new method

Comparison of Three Different Methods for Pile Integrity Testing on a Cylindrical Homogeneous Polyamide Specimen

Science.gov (United States)

Lugovtsova, Y. D.; Soldatov, A. I.

2016-01-01

Three different methods for pile integrity testing are proposed to compare on a cylindrical homogeneous polyamide specimen. The methods are low strain pile integrity testing, multichannel pile integrity testing and testing with a shaker system. Since the low strain pile integrity testing is well-established and standardized method, the results from it are used as a reference for other two methods.

Three-Dimensional Force Measurements During Rapid Palatal Expansion in Sus scrofa

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Kelly Goeckner

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Rapid palatal expansion is an orthodontic procedure widely used to correct the maxillary arch. However, its outcome is significantly influenced by factors that show a high degree of variability amongst patients. The traditional treatment methodology is based on an intuitive and heuristic treatment approach because the forces applied in the three dimensions are indeterminate. To enable optimal and individualized treatment, it is essential to measure the three-dimensional (3D forces and displacements created by the expander. This paper proposes a method for performing these 3D measurements using a single embedded strain sensor, combining experimental measurements of strain in the palatal expander with 3D finite element analysis (FEA. The method is demonstrated using the maxillary jaw from a freshly euthanized pig (Sus scrofa and a hyrax-design rapid palatal expander (RPE appliance with integrated strain gage. The strain gage measurements are recorded using a computer interface, following which the expansion forces and extent of expansion are estimated by FEA. A total activation of 2.0 mm results in peak total force of about 100 N—almost entirely along the direction of expansion. The results also indicate that more than 85% of the input activation is immediately transferred to the palate and/or teeth. These studies demonstrate a method for assessing and individualizing expansion magnitudes and forces during orthopedic expansion of the maxilla. This provides the basis for further development of smart orthodontic appliances that provide real-time readouts of forces and movements, which will allow personalized, optimal treatment.

A new integral method for solving the point reactor neutron kinetics equations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li Haofeng; Chen Wenzhen; Luo Lei; Zhu Qian

2009-01-01

A numerical integral method that efficiently provides the solution of the point kinetics equations by using the better basis function (BBF) for the approximation of the neutron density in one time step integrations is described and investigated. The approach is based on an exact analytic integration of the neutron density equation, where the stiffness of the equations is overcome by the fully implicit formulation. The procedure is tested by using a variety of reactivity functions, including step reactivity insertion, ramp input and oscillatory reactivity changes. The solution of the better basis function method is compared to other analytical and numerical solutions of the point reactor kinetics equations. The results show that selecting a better basis function can improve the efficiency and accuracy of this integral method. The better basis function method can be used in real time forecasting for power reactors in order to prevent reactivity accidents.

Force Measurement with a Piezoelectric Cantilever in a Scanning Force Microscope

OpenAIRE

Tansock, J.; Williams, C. C.

1992-01-01

Detection of surface forces between a tip and sample has been demonstrated with a piezoelectric cantilever in a scanning force microscope (SFM). The use of piezoelectric force sensing is particularly advantageous in semiconductor applications where stray light from conventional optical force-sensing methods can significantly modify the local carrier density. Additionally, the piezoelectric sensors are simple, provide good sensitivity to force, and can be batch fabricated. Our piezoelectric fo...

The Integrated Multi-Level Bilingual Teaching of "Social Research Methods"

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Yanhan; Ye, Jian

2012-01-01

"Social Research Methods," as a methodology course, combines theories and practices closely. Based on the synergy theory, this paper tries to establish an integrated multi-level bilingual teaching mode. Starting from the transformation of teaching concepts, we should integrate interactions, experiences, and researches together and focus…

Observers for vehicle tyre/road forces estimation: experimental validation

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Doumiati, M.; Victorino, A.; Lechner, D.; Baffet, G.; Charara, A.

2010-11-01

The motion of a vehicle is governed by the forces generated between the tyres and the road. Knowledge of these vehicle dynamic variables is important for vehicle control systems that aim to enhance vehicle stability and passenger safety. This study introduces a new estimation process for tyre/road forces. It presents many benefits over the existing state-of-art works, within the dynamic estimation framework. One of these major contributions consists of discussing in detail the vertical and lateral tyre forces at each tyre. The proposed method is based on the dynamic response of a vehicle instrumented with potentially integrated sensors. The estimation process is separated into two principal blocks. The role of the first block is to estimate vertical tyre forces, whereas in the second block two observers are proposed and compared for the estimation of lateral tyre/road forces. The different observers are based on a prediction/estimation Kalman filter. The performance of this concept is tested and compared with real experimental data using a laboratory car. Experimental results show that the proposed approach is a promising technique to provide accurate estimation. Thus, it can be considered as a practical low-cost solution for calculating vertical and lateral tyre/road forces.

Measurement of H'(0.07) with pulse height weighting integration method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liye, LIU; Gang, JIN; Jizeng, MA

2002-01-01

H'(0.07) is an important quantity for radiation field measurement in health physics. One of the plastic scintillator measurement methods is employing the weak current produced by PMT. However, there are some weaknesses in the current method. For instance: sensitive to environment humidity and temperature, non-linearity energy response. In order to increase the precision of H'(0.07) measurement, a Pulse Height Weighting Integration Method is introduced for its advantages: low noise, high sensitivity, data processable, wide measurement range. Pulse Height Weighting Integration Method seems to be acceptable to measure directional dose equivalent. The representative theoretical energy response of the pre-described method accords with the preliminary experiment result

Fibonacci-regularization method for solving Cauchy integral equations of the first kind

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Mohammad Ali Fariborzi Araghi

2017-09-01

Full Text Available In this paper, a novel scheme is proposed to solve the first kind Cauchy integral equation over a finite interval. For this purpose, the regularization method is considered. Then, the collocation method with Fibonacci base function is applied to solve the obtained second kind singular integral equation. Also, the error estimate of the proposed scheme is discussed. Finally, some sample Cauchy integral equations stem from the theory of airfoils in fluid mechanics are presented and solved to illustrate the importance and applicability of the given algorithm. The tables in the examples show the efficiency of the method.

Method for analyzing electromagnetic-force-induced vibration and noise analysis; Denjiryoku reiki ni yoru dendoki no shindo hoshaon kaisekiho

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shiohata, K.; Nemoto, K.; Nagawa, Y.; Sakamoto, S.; Kobayashi, T.; Ito, M.; Koharagi, H. [Hitachi, Ltd, Tokyo (Japan)

1998-11-01

In this analysis method, electromagnetic force calculated by 2-dimensional analysis is transformed into external force for 3-dimensional structural-vibration analysis. And a modeling procedure for a vibrating structure is developed. Further, a space-modal-resonance criteria which relates electromagnetic force to structural-vibration or noise is introduced. In the structural-vibration analysis, the finite element method is used; and in the noise analysis, the boundary element method is used. Finally, vibration and noise of an induction motor are calculated using this criteria. Consequently, high-accuracy modeling is achieved and noise the calculated by the simulation almost coincides with that obtained by experiments. And it is clarified that the-space-modal resonance criteria is effective in numerical simulation. 11 refs., 9 figs., 3 tabs.

Unmanned Ground Vehicles for Integrated Force Protection

Science.gov (United States)

2004-04-01

employed. 2 Force Protection 18 MAR 02 Security Posts Squad Laptop Fire Tm Ldr Wearable Computers OP/LP Def Fight Psn SRT Sensors USA, USMC, Allied...visual systems. Attaching sensors and response devices on a monorail proved to be much more technically challenging than expected. Film producers and...facilitate experimentation with weapon aiming and firing techniques from the MRHA. grated Marsupial Delivery System was developed to transport smaller

Collaborative teaching of an integrated methods course

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George Zhou

2011-03-01

Full Text Available With an increasing diversity in American schools, teachers need to be able to collaborate in teaching. University courses are widely considered as a stage to demonstrate or model the ways of collaboration. To respond to this call, three authors team taught an integrated methods course at an urban public university in the city of New York. Following a qualitative research design, this study explored both instructors‟ and pre-service teachers‟ experiences with this course. Study findings indicate that collaborative teaching of an integrated methods course is feasible and beneficial to both instructors and pre-service teachers. For instructors, this collaborative teaching was a reciprocal learning process where they were engaged in thinking about teaching in a broader and innovative way. For pre-service teachers, this collaborative course not only helped them understand how three different subjects could be related to each other, but also provided opportunities for them to actually see how collaboration could take place in teaching. Their understanding of collaborative teaching was enhanced after the course.

Integrated dynamic and static tactile sensor: focus on static force sensing

Science.gov (United States)

Wettels, Nicholas; Pletner, Baruch

2012-04-01

Object grasping by robotic hands in unstructured environments demands a sensor that is durable, compliant, and responsive to static and dynamic force conditions. In order for a tactile sensor to be useful for grasp control in these, it should have the following properties: tri-axial force sensing (two shear plus normal component), dynamic event sensing across slip frequencies, compliant surface for grip, wide dynamic range (depending on application), insensitivity to environmental conditions, ability to withstand abuse and good sensing behavior (e.g. low hysteresis, high repeatability). These features can be combined in a novel multimodal tactile sensor. This sensor combines commercial-off-the-shelf MEMS technology with two proprietary force sensors: a high bandwidth device based on PZT technology and low bandwidth device based on elastomers and optics. In this study, we focus on the latter transduction mechanism and the proposed architecture of the completed device. In this study, an embedded LED was utilized to produce a constant light source throughout a layer of silicon rubber which covered a plastic mandrel containing a set of sensitive phototransistors. Features about the contacted object such as center of pressure and force vectors can be extracted from the information in the changing patterns of light. The voltage versus force relationship obtained with this molded humanlike finger had a wide dynamic range that coincided with forces relevant for most human grip tasks.

An inverse method for determining the interaction force between the probe and sample using scanning near-field optical microscopy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chang, Win-Jin; Fang, Te-Hua

2006-01-01

This study proposes a means for calculating the interaction force during the scanning process using a scanning near-field optical microscope (SNOM) probe. The determination of the interaction force in the scanning system is regarded as an inverse vibration problem. The conjugate gradient method is applied to treat the inverse problem using available displacement measurements. The results show that the conjugate gradient method is less sensitive to measurement errors and prior information on the functional form of quality was not required. Furthermore, the initial guesses for the interaction force can be arbitrarily chosen for the iteration process

An Integrated Theory of Everything (TOE)

Science.gov (United States)

Colella, Antonio

2014-03-01

An Integrated TOE unifies all known physical phenomena from the Planck cube to the Super Universe (multiverse). Each matter/force particle is represented by a Planck cube string. Any Super Universe object is a volume of contiguous Planck cubes. Super force Planck cube string singularities existed at the start of all universes. An Integrated TOE foundations are twenty independent existing theories and without sacrificing their integrities, are replaced by twenty interrelated amplified theories. Amplifications of Higgs force theory are key to an Integrated TOE and include: 64 supersymmetric Higgs particles; super force condensations to 17 matter particles/associated Higgs forces; spontaneous symmetry breaking is bidirectional; and the sum of 8 permanent Higgs force energies is dark energy. Stellar black hole theory was amplified to include a quark star (matter) with mass, volume, near zero temperature, and maximum entropy. A black hole (energy) has energy, minimal volume (singularity), near infinite temperature, and minimum entropy. Our precursor universe's super supermassive quark star (matter) evaporated to a super supermassive black hole (energy). This transferred total conserved energy/mass and transformed entropy from maximum to minimum. Integrated Theory of Everything Book Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a1c9IvdoGY Research Article Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD-QoLeVbSY Research Article: http://toncolella.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/m080112.pdf.

New generation of docking programs: Supercomputer validation of force fields and quantum-chemical methods for docking.

Science.gov (United States)

Sulimov, Alexey V; Kutov, Danil C; Katkova, Ekaterina V; Ilin, Ivan S; Sulimov, Vladimir B

2017-11-01

Discovery of new inhibitors of the protein associated with a given disease is the initial and most important stage of the whole process of the rational development of new pharmaceutical substances. New inhibitors block the active site of the target protein and the disease is cured. Computer-aided molecular modeling can considerably increase effectiveness of new inhibitors development. Reliable predictions of the target protein inhibition by a small molecule, ligand, is defined by the accuracy of docking programs. Such programs position a ligand in the target protein and estimate the protein-ligand binding energy. Positioning accuracy of modern docking programs is satisfactory. However, the accuracy of binding energy calculations is too low to predict good inhibitors. For effective application of docking programs to new inhibitors development the accuracy of binding energy calculations should be higher than 1kcal/mol. Reasons of limited accuracy of modern docking programs are discussed. One of the most important aspects limiting this accuracy is imperfection of protein-ligand energy calculations. Results of supercomputer validation of several force fields and quantum-chemical methods for docking are presented. The validation was performed by quasi-docking as follows. First, the low energy minima spectra of 16 protein-ligand complexes were found by exhaustive minima search in the MMFF94 force field. Second, energies of the lowest 8192 minima are recalculated with CHARMM force field and PM6-D3H4X and PM7 quantum-chemical methods for each complex. The analysis of minima energies reveals the docking positioning accuracies of the PM7 and PM6-D3H4X quantum-chemical methods and the CHARMM force field are close to one another and they are better than the positioning accuracy of the MMFF94 force field. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Biodegradable Piezoelectric Force Sensor.

Science.gov (United States)

Curry, Eli J; Ke, Kai; Chorsi, Meysam T; Wrobel, Kinga S; Miller, Albert N; Patel, Avi; Kim, Insoo; Feng, Jianlin; Yue, Lixia; Wu, Qian; Kuo, Chia-Ling; Lo, Kevin W-H; Laurencin, Cato T; Ilies, Horea; Purohit, Prashant K; Nguyen, Thanh D

2018-01-30

Measuring vital physiological pressures is important for monitoring health status, preventing the buildup of dangerous internal forces in impaired organs, and enabling novel approaches of using mechanical stimulation for tissue regeneration. Pressure sensors are often required to be implanted and directly integrated with native soft biological systems. Therefore, the devices should be flexible and at the same time biodegradable to avoid invasive removal surgery that can damage directly interfaced tissues. Despite recent achievements in degradable electronic devices, there is still a tremendous need to develop a force sensor which only relies on safe medical materials and requires no complex fabrication process to provide accurate information on important biophysiological forces. Here, we present a strategy for material processing, electromechanical analysis, device fabrication, and assessment of a piezoelectric Poly-l-lactide (PLLA) polymer to create a biodegradable, biocompatible piezoelectric force sensor, which only employs medical materials used commonly in Food and Drug Administration-approved implants, for the monitoring of biological forces. We show the sensor can precisely measure pressures in a wide range of 0-18 kPa and sustain a reliable performance for a period of 4 d in an aqueous environment. We also demonstrate this PLLA piezoelectric sensor can be implanted inside the abdominal cavity of a mouse to monitor the pressure of diaphragmatic contraction. This piezoelectric sensor offers an appealing alternative to present biodegradable electronic devices for the monitoring of intraorgan pressures. The sensor can be integrated with tissues and organs, forming self-sensing bionic systems to enable many exciting applications in regenerative medicine, drug delivery, and medical devices.

Systems and methods for integrating ion mobility and ion trap mass spectrometers