Nonlinear control and active damping of a forced-feedback metering poppet valve

The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file.Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on January 31, 2008)Vita.Thesis (Ph. D.) University of Missouri-Columbia 2007.For a metering poppet valve which was developed at the University of Missouri (MU valve), the valve can be configured for performance at the cost of stability. It is desirable to achieve both performance and stability using electronic control. Presently, in the MU valve, the pilot poppet motion is damped by the flow of hydraulic fluid through a channel or orifice running through the poppet. In this research, it is proposed that the solenoid be used to provide damping (active damping) to the pilot poppet. The damping input signal to the solenoid is determined as a function of the pilot poppet velocity. In practice, the velocity is difficult to measure due to the MU valve's configuration and it is estimated according to the self-sensing actuator concept. Theoretical results demonstrated that a valve actuator could be designed with an emphasis on high speed performance while an electronic control system is used to damp unwanted oscillations. For flow control, several researchers have used feedback linearization to cancel part of a hydraulic system's nonlinearities in spool valves. In the case of the metering poppet valve, feedback linearization is an attractive approach since experimental studies have shown that poppet instabilities are caused by nonlinear mechanisms like flow forces. In this work, nonlinearities are cancelled in the input-output relationship of the metering poppet valve. The controller was shown to achieve robust tracking of a reference trajectory.Includes bibliographical reference

Transient domain walls and lepton asymmetry in the Left-Right symmetric model

It is shown that the dynamics of domain walls in Left-Right symmetric models, separating respective regions of unbroken SU(2)_L and SU(2)_R in the early universe, can give rise to baryogenesis via leptogenesis. Neutrinos have a spatially varying complex mass matrix due to CP-violating scalar condensates in the domain wall. The motion of the wall through the plasma generates a flux of lepton number across the wall which is converted to a lepton asymmetry by helicity-flipping scatterings. Subsequent processing of the lepton excess by sphalerons results in the observed baryon asymmetry, for a range of parameters in Left-Right symmetric models.Comment: v2 version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. D. Discussion in Introduction and Conclusion sharpened. Equation (12) corrected. 16 pages, 3 figure files, RevTeX4 styl

GUT, Neutrinos, and Baryogenesis

It is an exciting time for flavor physics. In this talk, I discuss recent topics in baryogenesis and leptogenesis in light of new data, and implications in B and neutrino physics. I also discuss current situation of grand unified theories concerning coupling unification, proton decay, and indirect consequences in lepton flavor violation and B physics. I explain attempts to understand the origin of flavor based on flavor symmetry, in particular "anarchy" in neutrinos.Comment: Talk presented at 5th KEK Topical Conference: Frontiers In Flavor Physics, 20-22 Nov 2001, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan. Includes comments on SUSY GUT contribution to B->phi K

Protecting the Baryon Asymmetry with Thermal Masses

We consider the evolution of baryon number $B$ in the early universe under the influence of rapid sphaleron interactions and show that $B$ will remain nonzero at all times even in the case of $B-L = 0$. This result arises due to thermal Yukawa interactions that cause nonidentical dispersion relations (thermal masses) for different lepton families. We point out the relevance of our result to the Affleck-Dine type baryogenesis.Comment: 11pp., plain tex, UMN-TH-1248/94, CfPA-TH-94-1

Preserving the Lepton Asymmetry in the Brane World

In models where the Standard Model spectrum is localized on a brane embedded in a higher dimensional spacetime, we discuss the lepton number violation induced by the emission of right-handed neutrinos from the brane. We show that quite generically the presence of the right-handed neutrinos in the bulk leads to rapid lepton number violating processes which above the electroweak scale would wash away any prior lepton or baryon asymmetry. In order to preserve the lepton asymmetry, the brane-bulk couplings for at least one lepton flavor must be extremely suppressed. We show that this has a natural interpretation in the brane world.Comment: 13 pages, latex, 2 eps figure clarifications and reference adde

Protecting the Primordial Baryon Asymmetry From Erasure by Sphalerons

If the baryon asymmetry of the universe was created at the GUT scale, sphalerons together with exotic sources of $(B-L)$-violation could have erased it, unless the latter satisfy stringent bounds. We elaborate on how the small Yukawa coupling of the electron drastically weakens previous estimates of these bounds.Comment: 41 pp., 4 latex figures included and 3 uuencoded or postscript figures available by request, UMN-TH-1213-9

Towards automating underwater measurement of fish length: a comparison of semi-automatic and manual stereo–video measurements

Underwater stereo–video systems are widely used for counting and measuring fish in aquaculture, fisheries, and conservation management. Length measurements are generated from stereo–video recordings by a software operator using a mouse to locate the head and tail of a fish in synchronized pairs of images. This data can be used to compare spatial and temporal changes in the mean length and biomass or frequency distributions of populations of fishes. Since the early 1990s stereo–video has also been used for measuring the lengths of fish in aquaculture for quota and farm management. However, the costs of the equipment, software, the time, and salary costs involved in post processing imagery manually and the subsequent delays in the availability of length information inhibit the adoption of this technology. We present a semi-automatic method for capturing stereo–video measurements to estimate the lengths of fish. We compare the time taken to make measurements of the same fish measured manually from stereo–video imagery to that measured semi-automatically. Using imagery recorded during transfers of Southern Bluefin Tuna (SBT) from tow cages to grow out cages, we demonstrate that the semi-automatic algorithm developed can obtain fork length measurements with an error of less than 1% of the true length and with at least a sixfold reduction in operator time in comparison to manual measurements. Of the 22 138 SBT recorded we were able to measure 52.6% (11 647) manually and 11.8% (2614) semi-automatically. For seven of the eight cage transfers recorde,d there were no statistical differences in the mean length, weight, or length frequency between manual and semi-automatic measurements. When the data were pooled across the eight cage transfers, there was no statistical difference in mean length or weight between the stereo–video-based manual and semi-automated measurements. Hence, the presented semi-automatic system can be deployed to significantly reduce the cost involved in adoption of stereo–video technology

On the Erasure and Regeneration of the Primordial Baryon Asymmetry by Sphalerons

We show that a cosmological baryon asymmetry generated at the GUT scale, which would be destroyed at lower temperatures by sphalerons and possible new B- or L-violating effects, can naturally be preserved by an asymmetry in the number of right-handed electrons. This results in a significant softening of previously derived baryogenesis-based constraints on the strength of exotic B- or L-violating interactions.Comment: 10 pp. LaTex (2 figures, included) UMN-TH-1201/9

Nonsurgical Transurethral Radiofrequency Collagen Denaturation: Results at Three Years after Treatment

Objective. To assess treatment efficacy and quality of life in women with stress urinary incontinence 3 years after treatment with nonsurgical transurethral radiofrequency collagen denaturation. Methods. This prospective study included 139 women with stress urinary incontinence due to bladder outlet hypermobility. Radiofrequency collagen denaturation was performed using local anesthesia in an office setting. Assessments included incontinence quality of life (I-QOL) and urogenital distress inventory (UDI-6) instruments. Results. In total, 139 women were enrolled and 136 women were treated (mean age, 47 years). At 36 months, intent-to-treat analysis (n = 139) revealed significant improvements in quality of life. Mean I-QOL score improved 17 points from baseline (P = .0004), while mean UDI-6 score improved (decreased) 19 points (P = .0005). Conclusions. Transurethral collagen denaturation is a low-risk, office-based procedure that results in durable quality-of-life improvements in a significant proportion of women for as long as 3 years