Application of optimization techniques to vehicle design: A review

The work that has been done in the last decade or so in the application of optimization techniques to vehicle design is discussed. Much of the work reviewed deals with the design of body or suspension (chassis) components for reduced weight. Also reviewed are studies dealing with system optimization problems for improved functional performance, such as ride or handling. In reviewing the work on the use of optimization techniques, one notes the transition from the rare mention of the methods in the 70's to an increased effort in the early 80's. Efficient and convenient optimization and analysis tools still need to be developed so that they can be regularly applied in the early design stage of the vehicle development cycle to be most effective. Based on the reported applications, an attempt is made to assess the potential for automotive application of optimization techniques. The major issue involved remains the creation of quantifiable means of analysis to be used in vehicle design. The conventional process of vehicle design still contains much experience-based input because it has not yet proven possible to quantify all important constraints. This restraint on the part of the analysis will continue to be a major limiting factor in application of optimization to vehicle design

Geometric Morphology of Granular Materials

We present a new method to transform the spectral pixel information of a micrograph into an affine geometric description, which allows us to analyze the morphology of granular materials. We use spectral and pulse-coupled neural network based segmentation techniques to generate blobs, and a newly developed algorithm to extract dilated contours. A constrained Delaunay tesselation of the contour points results in a triangular mesh. This mesh is the basic ingredient of the Chodal Axis Transform, which provides a morphological decomposition of shapes. Such decomposition allows for grain separation and the efficient computation of the statistical features of granular materials.Comment: 6 pages, 9 figures. For more information visit http://www.nis.lanl.gov/~bschlei/labvis/index.htm

On Interval-Valued Intuitionistic Fuzzy Hyper BCK-Ideals of Hyper BCK Algebras

In this paper, we apply the concept of an interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy set to hyper BCK-ideals in hyper BCK-algebras. The notion of an interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzification of (strong, weak, s-weak) hyper BCK-ideals is introduced, and related properties are investigated. Characterizations of an interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzification of hyper BCK-ideals are established

Behaviour of Magnetic Tubes in Neutron Star's Interior

It is found from Maxwell's equations that the magnetic field lines are good analogues of relativistic strings. It is shown that the super-conducting current in the neutron star's interior causes local rotation of magnetic flux tubes carrying quantized flux.Comment: 6 pages, no figure

The age and mode of presentation of benign prostatic hyperplasia at Hubli in Karnataka

Background: The peculiarities of the prostate are that in old age when most of organ regresses in size it enlarges and causes trouble. By virtue of its position, it guards outlet of urinary bladder. It must be admitted that even today the extent nature of etiology, pathogenesis and diagnosis are all-debatable. Therefore, the present study was aimed at elucidating the age and mode of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia among the patients in and around Hubli, Karnataka.Methods: The study was conducted after the institutional ethical committee approval and written informed consent from all the patients. 21 cases of BPH were included in the present study. The signs and symptoms of mode of presentation were recorded. The urine was examined for the presence of albumin, pus cells, epithelial cells and RBCs.  Results: The maximum incidence of the disease was in the age group of 60-69 years. Majority of the patients had difficulty in micturition followed by increased frequency of micturition both during day and night Patient with retention usually had distension of bladder. These patients complained of dull aching pain in the suprapubic area and in the groin region. Burning micturition (14.28%), dribbling of urine (4.76%), urgency (4.76%), and haematuria (4.76%) were present. Routine urine examination showed albumin (28.56%), pus cells (23.80%), epithelial cells (19.04%) and haematuria (4.76%).  Conclusion: Incidence of BPH at Hubli region of Karnataka is 0.3001% of total hospital admission. The maximum age incidence of BPH is in the age group of 60-69 years. Majority of the patients had difficulty in micturition increased frequency of micturition both during day and night a large number of cases show association with presence of urinary tract infection.

Inductive algebras and homogeneous shifts

Inductive algebras for the irreducible unitary representations of the universal cover of the group of unimodular two by two matrices are classified. The classification of homogeneous shift operators is obtained as a direct consequence. This gives a new approach to the results of Bagchi and Misra

Stretching short biopolymers by fields and forces

We study the mechanical properties of semiflexible polymers when the contour length of the polymer is comparable to its persistence length. We compute the exact average end-to-end distance and shape of the polymer for different boundary conditions, and show that boundary effects can lead to significant deviations from the well-known long-polymer results. We also consider the case of stretching a uniformly charged biopolymer by an electric field, for which we compute the average extension and the average shape, which is shown to be trumpetlike. Our results also apply to long biopolymers when thermal fluctuations have been smoothed out by a large applied field or force.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure

Monopoles, Antimonopoles and Vortex Rings

We present a new class of static axially symmetric solutions of SU(2) Yang-Mills-Higgs theory, where the Higgs field vanishes on rings centered around the symmetry axis. Associating a magnetic dipole moment with each Higgs vortex ring, the dipole moments add for solutions in the trivial topological sector, whereas they cancel for magnetically charged solutions.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur