239 research outputs found
A piezoelectric microvalve for compact high frequency high differential pressure micropumping systems
A piezoelectrically driven hydraulic amplification microvalve for use in compact high-performance hydraulic pumping systems was designed, fabricated, and experimentally characterized. High-frequency, high-force actuation capabilities were enabled through the incorporation of bulk piezoelectric material elements beneath a micromachined annular tethered-piston structure. Large valve stroke at the microscale was achieved with an hydraulic amplification mechanism that amplified (40/spl times/-50/spl times/) the limited stroke of the piezoelectric material into a significantly larger motion of a micromachined valve membrane with attached valve cap. These design features enabled the valve to meet simultaneously a set of high frequency (/spl ges/1 kHz), high pressure(/spl ges/300 kPa), and large stroke (20-30 /spl mu/m) requirements not previously satisfied by other hydraulic flow regulation microvalves. This paper details the design, modeling, fabrication, assembly, and experimental characterization of this valve device. Fabrication challenges are detailed
A family of integrable maps associated with the Volterra lattice
Recently Gubbiotti, Joshi, Tran and Viallet classified birational maps in four dimensions admitting
two invariants (first integrals) with a particular degree structure, by considering recurrences of fourth order with a certain symmetry. The last three of the maps so obtained were shown to be Liouville integrable, in the sense of admitting a non-degenerate Poisson bracket with two first integrals in involution. Here we show how the first of these three Liouville integrable maps corresponds to genus 2 solutions of the infinite Volterra lattice, being the g = 2 case of a family of maps associated with the Stieltjes continued fraction expansion of a certain function on a hyperelliptic curve of genus g ⩾ 1. The continued fraction method provides explicit Hankel determinant formulae for tau functions of the solutions, together with an algebro-geometric description via a Lax representation for each member of the family, associating it with an algebraic completely integrable system. In particular, in the elliptic case (g = 1), as a byproduct we obtain Hankel determinant expressions for the solutions of the Somos-5 recurrence, but different to those previously derived by Chang, Hu and Xin. By applying contraction to the Stieltjes fraction, we recover integrable maps associated with Jacobi continued fractions on hyperelliptic curves, that one of us considered previously, as well as the Miura-type transformation between the Volterra and Toda lattices
Integrable maps in 4D and modified Volterra lattices
In recent work, we presented the construction of a family of difference equations associated with the Stieltjes continued fraction expansion of a certain function on a hyperelliptic curve of genus g. As well as proving that each such discrete system is an integrable map in the Liouville sense, we also showed it to be an algebraic completely integrable system. In the discrete setting, the latter means that the generic level set of the invariants is an affine part of an abelian variety, in this case the Jacobian of the hyperelliptic curve, and each iteration of the map corresponds to a translation by a fixed vector on the Jacobian. In addition, we demonstrated that, by combining the discrete integrable dynamics with the flow of one of the commuting Hamiltonian vector fields, these maps provide genus g algebro-geometric solutions of the infinite Volterra lattice, which justified naming them Volterra maps, denoted V_g.
The original motivation behind our work was the fact that, in the particular case g=2, we could recover an example of an integrable symplectic map in four dimensions found by Gubbiotti, Joshi, Tran and Viallet, who classified birational maps in 4D admitting two invariants (first integrals) with a particular degree structure, by considering recurrences of fourth order with a certain symmetry. Hence, in this particular case, the map V_2 yields genus two solutions of the Volterra lattice. The purpose of this note is to point out how two of the other 4D integrable maps obtained in the classification of Gubbiotti et al. correspond to genus two solutions of two different forms of the modified Volterra lattice, being related via a Miura-type transformation to the g=2 Volterra map V_2.
We dedicate this work to a dear friend and colleague, Decio Levi
Testing the SOC hypothesis for the magnetosphere
As noted by Chang, the hypothesis of Self-Organised Criticality provides a
theoretical framework in which the low dimensionality seen in magnetospheric
indices can be combined with the scaling seen in their power spectra and the
recently-observed plasma bursty bulk flows. As such, it has considerable
appeal, describing the aspects of the magnetospheric fuelling:storage:release
cycle which are generic to slowly-driven, interaction-dominated, thresholded
systems rather than unique to the magnetosphere. In consequence, several recent
numerical "sandpile" algorithms have been used with a view to comparison with
magnetospheric observables. However, demonstration of SOC in the magnetosphere
will require further work in the definition of a set of observable properties
which are the unique "fingerprint" of SOC. This is because, for example, a
scale-free power spectrum admits several possible explanations other than SOC.
A more subtle problem is important for both simulations and data analysis
when dealing with multiscale and hence broadband phenomena such as SOC. This is
that finite length systems such as the magnetosphere or magnetotail will by
definition give information over a small range of orders of magnitude, and so
scaling will tend to be narrowband. Here we develop a simple framework in which
previous descriptions of magnetospheric dynamics can be described and
contrasted. We then review existing observations which are indicative of SOC,
and ask if they are sufficient to demonstrate it unambiguously, and if not,
what new observations need to be made?Comment: 29 pages, 0 figures. Based on invited talk at Spring American
Geophysical Union Meeting, 1999. Journal of Atmospheric and Solar Terrestrial
Physics, in pres
Rotation Curve of Galaxies by the Force Induced by Mass of Moving Particles
We suggest that there is a novel force which is generated by the mass of
relatively moving particles. The new force which we named Mirinae Force is a
counterpart of the magnetic force operating between electrically charged moving
particles. Instead of using the conventional dark matter, we applied the
mirinae force to a particular model system of the spiral galaxy in which most
of the galaxy's mass is located within the central region where some portion of
the inner mass is in revolving motion at a relativistic speed. The calculation
yielded three important results that illustrate the existence of mirinae force
and validate the proposed model: First, the mirinae force in this model
explains why most of the matters in the galactic disk are in the circular
motion which is similar to cycloid. Second, the mirinae force well explains not
only the flat rotation curve but also the varied slope of the rotation curve
observed in the spiral galaxies. Third, at the flat velocity of 220 Km/s, the
inner mass of the Milky Way calculated by using the proposed model is
6.0\times10^11 M\odot, which is very close to 5.5\times10^11 M\odot (r <50 Kpc,
including Leo I) estimated by using the latest kinematic information. This
means that the mirinae force well takes the place of the dark matter of the
Milky Way
Sensitivity of seed to desiccation in cupuassu (Theobroma grandiflorum (Willd. ex Spreng.) K. Schum. - sterculiaceae
Strange Hadronic Loops of the Proton: A Quark Model Calculation
Nontrivial sea effects have their origin in the low- dynamics
of strong QCD. We present here a quark model calculation of the contribution of
pairs arising from a {\it complete} set of OZI-allowed strong
hadronic loops to the net spin of the proton, to its charge radius,
and to its magnetic moment. The calculation is performed in an ``unquenched
quark model" which has been shown to preserve the spectroscopic successes of
the naive quark model and to respect the OZI rule. We speculate that an
extension of the calculation to the nonstrange sea will show that most of the
``missing spin" of the proton is in orbital angular momenta.Comment: revtex, 34 pages, 4 figure
Big GABA II: Water-referenced edited MR spectroscopy at 25 research sites
Accurate and reliable quantification of brain metabolites measured in vivo using 1H magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) is a topic of continued interest. Aside from differences in the basic approach to quantification, the quantification of metabolite data acquired at different sites and on different platforms poses an additional methodological challenge. In this study, spectrally edited γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) MRS data were analyzed and GABA levels were quantified relative to an internal tissue water reference. Data from 284 volunteers scanned across 25 research sites were collected using GABA+ (GABA + co-edited macromolecules (MM)) and MM-suppressed GABA editing. The unsuppressed water signal from the volume of interest was acquired for concentration referencing. Whole-brain T1-weighted structural images were acquired and segmented to determine gray matter, white matter and cerebrospinal fluid voxel tissue fractions. Water-referenced GABA measurements were fully corrected for tissue-dependent signal relaxation and water visibility effects. The cohort-wide coefficient of variation was 17% for the GABA + data and 29% for the MM-suppressed GABA data. The mean within-site coefficient of variation was 10% for the GABA + data and 19% for the MM-suppressed GABA data. Vendor differences contributed 53% to the total variance in the GABA + data, while the remaining variance was attributed to site- (11%) and participant-level (36%) effects. For the MM-suppressed data, 54% of the variance was attributed to site differences, while the remaining 46% was attributed to participant differences. Results from an exploratory analysis suggested that the vendor differences were related to the unsuppressed water signal acquisition. Discounting the observed vendor-specific effects, water-referenced GABA measurements exhibit similar levels of variance to creatine-referenced GABA measurements. It is concluded that quantification using internal tissue water referencing is a viable and reliable method for the quantification of in vivo GABA levels
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