Power Generation for a 2D Tethered Wing Model with a Variable Tether Length

Airborne wind energy systems consist of a lifting body and a tether. Several airborne wind energy systems have been created by others, but the most promising consists of a wing which translates through the air in a crosswind motion. Two computational models of a translating wing system were used to study the dynamics and performance of these systems. The rst model that was examined consists of a rigid connecting arm between a rotating base station and a wing. A study of this model showed that one can increase the power production of the system by changing the wing angle relative to the connecting arm during motion. Using a variable relative wing angle, an average power of 7:7W is generated which is an increase of 30% over the xed wing angle system. A second model was examined which used a exible tether that could change in length. For this system, power is generated as the tether is reeled o a drum at the base station when tether tension is high. The tether tension can be maximized by the optimal usage of the control parameters such as the reel-in and the bridle orientation of the kite-system. A study of this model showed that the system is capable of asymptotically stable periodic motions with a simple controller for tether length. In addition, this simple controller is able to achieve positive power production of 1:05kW in a 10m=s windspeed. The simple model demonstrates the concept that, for these types of systems, it may be possible to generate higher average cycle powersby strategically using energy to quickly accelerate the system at the ends of the stroke

Immunopathogenesis of Granulibacter bethesdensis, an opportunistic pathogen causing recurrent infection in immunocompromised patients

https://openworks.mdanderson.org/sumexp22/1151/thumbnail.jp

Gum arabic modified Fe3O4 nanoparticles cross linked with collagen for isolation of bacteria

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Multifunctional magnetic nanoparticles are important class of materials in the field of nanobiotechnology, as it is an emerging area of research for material science and molecular biology researchers. One of the various methods to obtain multifunctional nanomaterials, molecular functionalization by attaching organic functional groups to nanomagnetic materials is an important technique. Recently, functionalized magnetic nanoparticles have been demonstrated to be useful in isolation/detection of dangerous pathogens (bacteria/viruses) for human life. Iron (Fe) based material especially FePt is used in the isolation of ultralow concentrations (< 10²cfu/ml) of bacteria in less time and it has been demonstrated that van-FePt may be used as an alternative fast detection technique with respect to conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. However, still further improved demonstrations are necessary with interest to biocompatibility and green chemistry. Herein, we report the synthesis of Fe₃O₄nanoparticles by template medication and its application for the detection/isolation of <it>S. aureus </it>bacteria.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The reduction of anhydrous Iron chloride (FeCl₃) in presence of sodium borohydride and water soluble polyelectrolyte (polydiallyldimethyl ammonium chloride, PDADMAC) produces black precipitates. The X-ray diffraction (XRD), XPS and TEM analysis of the precipitates dried at 373 K demonstrated the formation of nanocrystalline Fe₃O₄. Moreover, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed isolated <it>staphylococcous aureus </it>(<it>S. aureus</it>) bacteria at ultralow concentrations using collagen coated gum arabic modified iron oxide nanoparticles (CCGAMION).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We are able to synthesize nanocrystalline Fe₃O₄and CCGAMION was able to isolate <it>S. aureus </it>bacteria at 8-10 cfu (colony forming units)/ml within ~3 minutes.</p

Feature Extraction Techniques in Medical Imaging: A Systematic Review

With the surge in the development of various applications in the field of Computer Vision and Digital Image Processing, a significant amount of medical pictures are being produced. Thus, the patient-specific scan pictures represent the boundless volume of data that requires careful organization and supervision to assist clinical decision support systems. Now that retrieval, classification, segmentation, and other procedures have been completed, these devices assist doctors to uncover serious illnesses including skin conditions, tumors, and cancer. This imaging largely depends on characteristics to detect the afflicted region and perform the diagnosis visually. The authors of this paper present an overview of numerous feature extraction approaches used to extract features from medical images obtained via different modalities, but only used a handful of these techniques for this job and provided the findings

Skip Training for Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning Controller for Industrial Wave Energy Converters

Recent Wave Energy Converters (WEC) are equipped with multiple legs and generators to maximize energy generation. Traditional controllers have shown limitations to capture complex wave patterns and the controllers must efficiently maximize the energy capture. This paper introduces a Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning controller (MARL), which outperforms the traditionally used spring damper controller. Our initial studies show that the complex nature of problems makes it hard for training to converge. Hence, we propose a novel skip training approach which enables the MARL training to overcome performance saturation and converge to more optimum controllers compared to default MARL training, boosting power generation. We also present another novel hybrid training initialization (STHTI) approach, where the individual agents of the MARL controllers can be initially trained against the baseline Spring Damper (SD) controller individually and then be trained one agent at a time or all together in future iterations to accelerate convergence. We achieved double-digit gains in energy efficiency over the baseline Spring Damper controller with the proposed MARL controllers using the Asynchronous Advantage Actor-Critic (A3C) algorithm.Comment: 2022 IEEE 18th International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE) August 20-24, 202

Phase messaging method for time-of-flight cameras

Ubiquitous light emitting devices and low-cost commercial digital cameras facilitate optical wireless communication system such as visual MIMO where handheld cameras communicate with electronic displays. While intensity-based optical communications are more prevalent in camera-display messaging, we present a novel method that uses modulated light phase for messaging and time-of-flight (ToF) cameras for receivers. With intensity-based methods, light signals can be degraded by reflections and ambient illumination. By comparison, communication using ToF cameras is more robust against challenging lighting conditions. Additionally, the concept of phase messaging can be combined with intensity messaging for a significant data rate advantage. In this work, we design and construct a phase messaging array (PMA), which is the first of its kind, to communicate to a ToF depth camera by manipulating the phase of the depth camera's infrared light signal. The array enables message variation spatially using a plane of infrared light emitting diodes and temporally by varying the induced phase shift. In this manner, the phase messaging array acts as the transmitter by electronically controlling the light signal phase. The ToF camera acts as the receiver by observing and recording a time-varying depth. We show a complete implementation of a 3×3 prototype array with custom hardware and demonstrating average bit accuracy as high as 97.8%. The prototype data rate with this approach is 1 Kbps that can be extended to approximately 10 Mbps.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (grant CNS-106546#