Evolutionary Spectra Estimation of Field Measurement Typhoon Processes Using Wavelets

This paper presents a wavelet-based method for estimating evolutionary power spectral density (EPSD) of nonstationary stochastic oscillatory processes and its application to field measured typhoon processes. The EPSD, which is deduced in a closed form based on the definition of the EPSD and the algorithm of the continuous wavelet transform, can be formulated as a sum of squared moduli of the wavelet functions in time domain modulated by frequency-dependent coefficients that relate to the squared values of wavelet coefficients and two wavelet functions with different time shifts. A parametric study is conducted to examine the efficacy of the wavelet-based estimation method and the accuracy of different wavelets. The results indicate that all of the estimated EPSDs have acceptable accuracy in engineering application and the Morlet transform can provide desirable estimations in both time and frequency domains. Finally, the proposed method is adopted to investigate the time-frequency characteristics of the Typhoon Matsa measured in bridge site. The nonstationary energy distribution and stationary frequency component during the whole process are found. The work in this paper may promote an improved understanding of the nonstationary features of typhoon winds

Wavelet-Based Methodology for Evolutionary Spectra Estimation of Nonstationary Typhoon Processes

Closed-form expressions are proposed to estimate the evolutionary power spectral density (EPSD) of nonstationary typhoon processes by employing the wavelet transform. Relying on the definition of the EPSD and the concept of the wavelet transform, wavelet coefficients of a nonstationary typhoon process at a certain time instant are interpreted as the Fourier transform of a new nonstationary oscillatory process, whose modulating function is equal to the modulating function of the nonstationary typhoon process multiplied by the wavelet function in time domain. Then, the EPSD of nonstationary typhoon processes is deduced in a closed form and is formulated as a weighted sum of the squared moduli of time-dependent wavelet functions. The weighted coefficients are frequency-dependent functions defined by the wavelet coefficients of the nonstationary typhoon process and the overlapping area of two shifted wavelets. Compared with the EPSD, defined by a sum of the squared moduli of the wavelets in frequency domain in literature, this paper provides an EPSD estimation method in time domain. The theoretical results are verified by uniformly modulated nonstationary typhoon processes and non-uniformly modulated nonstationary typhoon processes

Failure Characteristics and Scale in a Sandstone Joint Subjected to Direct Shear Testing: Experimental Investigation with Acoustic Emission Monitoring

AbstractAn in-depth recognition of the failure characteristics and scale of joints is of great significance for the stability assessment in rock engineering. Unfortunately, due to the close fitting of the upper and lower blocks of the joint under direct shear tests, the shear failure of joints are difficult to observe directly during the shear process. Thus, in this work, direct shear tests were carried out on sandstone joints subjected to three levels of normal stress while the acoustic emission (AE) in the rock is synchronously monitored. The failure characteristics of rock joints were then investigated by calibrating the AE system and combining them with the AE location results and shear load curves. A method was established to determine the failure scale of the rock joint that uses the AE moment tensor and first law of thermodynamics. The results show that the degree of failure of the rock joints increases as the normal stress increases. Also, the shear failure of the rock joints is localized and occurs synchronously, rather than sequentially in different areas. The average length of the microfractures formed in the shear process correlates with the average mineral grain size. On the other hand, the maximum length of the microfractures appears to have different values depending on the normal stress present. Our results have significant reference value for the precursory identification of shear disaster in engineering rock masses

Rotational symmetry breaking in superconducting nickelate Nd0.8Sr0.2NiO2 films

The infinite-layer nickelates, isostructural to the high-Tc superconductor cuprates, have risen as a promising platform to host unconventional superconductivity and stimulated growing interests in the condensed matter community. Despite numerous researches, the superconducting pairing symmetry of the nickelate superconductors, the fundamental characteristic of a superconducting state, is still under debate. Moreover, the strong electronic correlation in the nickelates may give rise to a rich phase diagram, where the underlying interplay between the superconductivity and other emerging quantum states with broken symmetry is awaiting exploration. Here, we study the angular dependence of the transport properties on the infinite-layer nickelate Nd0.8Sr0.2NiO2 superconducting films with Corbino-disk configuration. The azimuthal angular dependence of the magnetoresistance (R({\phi})) manifests the rotational symmetry breaking from isotropy to four-fold (C4) anisotropy with increasing magnetic field, revealing a symmetry breaking phase transition. Approaching the low temperature and large magnetic field regime, an additional two-fold (C2) symmetric component in the R({\phi}) curves and an anomalous upturn of the temperature-dependent critical field are observed simultaneously, suggesting the emergence of an exotic electronic phase. Our work uncovers the evolution of the quantum states with different rotational symmetries and provides deep insight into the global phase diagram of the nickelate superconductors

Path-Following Control of Wheeled Planetary Exploration Robots Moving on Deformable Rough Terrain

The control of planetary rovers, which are high performance mobile robots that move on deformable rough terrain, is a challenging problem. Taking lateral skid into account, this paper presents a rough terrain model and nonholonomic kinematics model for planetary rovers. An approach is proposed in which the reference path is generated according to the planned path by combining look-ahead distance and path updating distance on the basis of the carrot following method. A path-following strategy for wheeled planetary exploration robots incorporating slip compensation is designed. Simulation results of a four-wheeled robot on deformable rough terrain verify that it can be controlled to follow a planned path with good precision, despite the fact that the wheels will obviously skid and slip

MRI of Neuronal Recovery After Low-Dose Methamphetamine Treatment of Traumatic Brain Injury in Rats

We assessed the effects of low dose methamphetamine treatment of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in rats by employing MRI, immunohistology, and neurological functional tests. Young male Wistar rats were subjected to TBI using the controlled cortical impact model. The treated rats (n = 10) received an intravenous (iv) bolus dose of 0.42 mg/kg of methamphetamine at eight hours after the TBI followed by continuous iv infusion for 24 hrs. The control rats (n = 10) received the same volume of saline using the same protocol. MRI scans, including T2-weighted imaging (T2WI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), were performed one day prior to TBI, and at 1 and 3 days post TBI, and then weekly for 6 weeks. The lesion volumes of TBI damaged cerebral tissue were demarcated by elevated values in T2 maps and were histologically identified by hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining. The fractional anisotropy (FA) values within regions-of-interest (ROI) were measured in FA maps deduced from DTI, and were directly compared with Bielschowsky’s silver and Luxol fast blue (BLFB) immunohistological staining. No therapeutic effect on lesion volumes was detected during 6 weeks after TBI. However, treatment significantly increased FA values in the recovery ROI compared with the control group at 5 and 6 weeks after TBI. Myelinated axons histologically measured using BLFB were significantly increased (p,0.001) in the treated group (25.8461.41%) compared with the control group (17.0562.95%). Significant correlations were detected between FA and BLFB measures in the recovery ROI (R = 0.54, p,0.02). Methamphetamine treatment significantly reduced modified neurological severity scores from 2 to 6 weeks (p,0.05) and foot-fault errors from 3 days to 6 weeks (p,0.05) after TBI. Thus, the FA data suggest that methamphetamine treatment improves white matter reorganization from 5 to 6 weeks after TBI in rats compared with saline treatment, which may contribute to the observed functional recovery