Modeling and control of a plastic film manufacturing web process

This paper is concerned with the modelling of aplastic film manufacturing process and the development and implementation of a model-based Cross-Directional (CD) controller. The model is derived from first-principles and some empirical relationships. The final validated nonlinear model could provide a useful off-line platform for developing control and monitoring algorithms.A new controller is designed which has a similar structureto that of Internal Model Control (IMC) with the addition ofan observer whose gain is designed to minimise process andmodel mis-match. The observer gain is obtained by solving amulti-objective optimisation problem through the application of a genetic algorithm. The controller is applied to the nonlinear model and simulation results are presented demonstrating improvements that can be achieved by the proposed controller over two existing CD controllers

Envelope-kinetic analysis of the electron kinetic effects on Raman backscatter and Raman backward laser amplification

The electron kinetic effects on Raman backscattering and Raman backward laser amplification were analyzed. The analysis is based on the envelope-kinetic equations of a plasma wave, which are composed of the conventional envelope equation of a fluid plasma and the kinetic term. One major goal of this paper is to close the envelope-kinetic model by analyzing the kinetic term, which was not fully covered in the previous work [M. S. Hur et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 115003 (2005)]. It was found that the closed envelope-kinetic equation in the nontrapping regime takes the same form as the envelope equation of the fluid plasma used in the three-wave model. For the closure in the trapping-dominant regime, the test particle technique is employed to calculate the kinetic term. Results from the full kinetic and test particle simulations agree well with each other, while the latter has a great advantage in computation speed. The frequency shift and resonance breaking by the trapped particles are discussed with the help of a new diagnostic inserted in the full kinetic averaged particle-in-cell code.open5

Influence of strain and oxygen vacancies on the magnetoelectric properties of multiferroic bismuth ferrite

The dependencies on strain and oxygen vacancies of the ferroelectric polarization and the weak ferromagnetic magnetization in the multiferroic material bismuth ferrite, BiFeO_3, are investigated using first principles density functional theory calculations. The electric polarization is found to be rather independent of strain, in striking contrast to most conventional perovskite ferroelectrics. It is also not significantly affected by oxygen vacancies, or by the combined presence of strain and oxygen vacancies. The magnetization is also unaffected by strain, however the incorporation of oxygen vacancies can alter the magnetization slightly, and also leads to the formation of Fe^{2+}. These results are discussed in light of recent experiments on epitaxial films of BiFeO_3 which reported a strong thickness dependence of both magnetization and polarization.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure

Distracted by pleasure: effects of positive versus negative valence on emotional capture under load

We report 3 experiments examining the effects of positive versus negative valence and perceptual load in determining attention capture by irrelevant emotional distractors. Participants performed a letter search task searching for 1 of 2 target letters (X or N) in conditions of either low perceptual load (circular nontarget letters) or high perceptual load (angular nontarget letters that are similar to the target letters). On 25% of the trials an irrelevant emotional distractor was presented at the display center and participants were instructed to ignore it. The distractor stimulus was either positive or negative and was selected from 3 different classes: IAPS pictures of erotica or mutilated bodies (Experiment 1), happy or angry faces (Experiment 2), and faces associated with gain or loss in a prior value-learning phase involving a betting game (Experiment 3). The results showed a consistent pattern of interaction of load and valence across the 3 experiments. Irrelevant emotional distractors produced interference effects on search reaction time (RT) in conditions of low load, with no difference between negative and positive valence. High perceptual load, however, consistently reduced interference from the negative-valence distractors, but had no effect on the positive-valence distractors. As these results were consistently found across 3 different categories of emotional distractors, they suggest the general conclusion that attentional capture by irrelevant emotional distractors depends on both their valence and the level of perceptual load in the task and highlight the special status of distractors associated with pleasure

Effects of the frequency detuning in Raman backscattering of infinitely long laser pulses in plasmas

Raman backscattering (RBS) in an infinite homogeneous laser-plasma system was investigated with the three-wave fluid model and averaged particle-in-cell (aPIC) simulations in the nonrelativistic and low temperature regime. It was found that the periodic boundary condition for the electrostatic potential, which is commonly used in an infinite homogeneous plasma, induces a numerical frequency shift of the plasma wave. The initial frequency detuning between the three waves is modified by the frequency shift, leading to a significantly wrong result in the RBS system. An alternative boundary condition based on the Maxwell equation is presented. The aPIC simulations with the modified boundary condition show that the pump depletion level depends sensitively on the frequency mismatch between the three waves. This sensitivity is closely related with the erroneous RBS: the numerical frequency shift is very minor (a few percent of the plasma frequency or less than that) but RBS can be greatly affected even by such a small frequency change. Analytic formulas for the pump depletion time and level is derived and compared to the aPIC simulations with the modified boundary condition, showing an excellent agreement.open2

Plasma density measurements using chirped pulse broad-band Raman amplification

Stimulated Raman backscattering is used as a non-destructive method to determine the density of plasma media at localized positions in space and time. By colliding two counter-propagating, ultra-short laser pulses with a spectral bandwidth larger than twice the plasma frequency, amplification occurs at the Stokes wavelengths, which results in regions of gain and loss separated by twice the plasma frequency, from which the plasma density can be deduced. By varying the relative delay between the laser pulses, and therefore the position and timing of the interaction, the spatio-temporal distribution of the plasma density can be mapped out

The Hyperfine Molecular Hubbard Hamiltonian

An ultracold gas of heteronuclear alkali dimer molecules with hyperfine structure loaded into a one-dimensional optical lattice is investigated. The \emph{Hyperfine Molecular Hubbard Hamiltonian} (HMHH), an effective low-energy lattice Hamiltonian, is derived from first principles. The large permanent electric dipole moment of these molecules gives rise to long range dipole-dipole forces in a DC electric field and allows for transitions between rotational states in an AC microwave field. Additionally, a strong magnetic field can be used to control the hyperfine degrees of freedom independently of the rotational degrees of freedom. By tuning the angle between the DC electric and magnetic fields and the strength of the AC field it is possible to control the number of internal states involved in the dynamics as well as the degree of correlation between the spatial and internal degrees of freedom. The HMHH's unique features have direct experimental consequences such as quantum dephasing, tunable complexity, and the dependence of the phase diagram on the molecular state