Automated composite ellipsoid modelling for high frequency GTD analysis

The preliminary results of a scheme currently being developed to fit a composite ellipsoid to the fuselage of a helicopter in the vicinity of the antenna location are discussed under the assumption that the antenna is mounted on the fuselage. The parameters of the close-fit composite ellipsoid would then be utilized as inputs into NEWAIR3, a code programmed in FORTRAN 77 for high frequency Geometrical Theory of Diffraction (GTD) Analysis of the radiation of airborne antennas

Frailty, malnutrition and heart failure

Heart failure (HF) is a common medical condition with significant morbidity and mortality. As the population ages, the prevalence of HF increases. Elderly patients with HF have different characteristics compared to younger patients; with increasing co- morbidities and diminished physiological reserves. However, most clinical trials in HF do not include patients who are elderly and management of these patients remain a medical challenge. Frailty and malnutrition appear to be common in elderly patients, but their role in HF management is currently unknown.This thesis describes a series of studies which examined in detail frailty and malnutrition in patients with HF. I first studied the prevalence of frailty and malnutrition in different populations of HF patients (acute versus chronic HF; HF with reduced versus normal ejection fraction). I then explored the clinical correlates of frailty and malnutrition, focusing on their relation to age, gender, HF symptoms and severity. Next, in order to identify the best tool to measure frailty and malnutrition in patients with HF, I performed comprehensive frailty and malnutrition evaluations using 18 commonly used tools. I compared the agreement, classification performance and prognostic value of screening versus assessment tools; simple versus multi-dimensional tools and combination scores versus single physical or laboratory tests. Finally, I attempted to explore the underlying pathophysiology of frailty and malnutrition by studying their relation to congestion and sympathetic activation.I found that frailty and malnutrition are common in patients with HF. They correlate with older age, higher co-morbidity burden, worse symptoms and severity of HF. Furthermore, I demonstrated that frailty and malnutrition, regardless of the tool used, are both independent predictors of a worse prognosis. These findings support routine evaluation of frailty and malnutrition in clinical practice when managing patients with HF. Future studies should focus on interventions targeting frailty and malnutrition in patients with HF

Unification of bulk and interface electroresistive switching in oxide systems

We demonstrate that the physical mechanism behind electroresistive switching in oxide Schottky systems is electroformation, as in insulating oxides. Negative resistance shown by the hysteretic current-voltage curves proves that impact ionization is at the origin of the switching. Analyses of the capacitance-voltage and conductance-voltage curves through a simple model show that an atomic rearrangement is involved in the process. Switching in these systems is a bulk effect, not strictly confined at the interface but at the charge space region.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, accepted in PR

Nonequilibrium Green's-Function Approach to the Suppression of Rectification at Metal--Mott-Insulator Interfaces

Suppression of rectification at metal--Mott-insulator interfaces, which is previously shown by numerical solutions to the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation and experiments on real devices, is reinvestigated theoretically by nonequilibrium Green's functions. The one-dimensional Hubbard model is used for a Mott insulator. The effects of attached metallic electrodes are incorporated into the self-energy. A scalar potential originating from work-function differences and satisfying the Poisson equation is added to the model. For the electron density, we decompose it into three parts. One is obtained by integrating the local density of states over energy to the midpoint of the electrodes' chemical potentials. The others, obtained by integrating lesser Green's functions, are due to the couplings with the electrodes and correspond to an inflow and an outflow of electrons. In Mott insulators, incoming electrons and holes are extended over the whole system, avoiding further accumulation of charge relative to the case without bias. This induces collective charge transport and results in the suppression of rectification.Comment: 18 pages, Figs. 1(b), 2, and 8 replaced. Corrected typo

Effect of inclined quantum wells on macroscopic capacitance-voltage response of Schottky contacts: Cubic inclusions in hexagonal SiC

Finite-element calculations of Schottky diode capacitance-voltage (C-V) curves show that an array of subsurface inclined quantum wells (QWs) produce negligible change in shape and slope of C-V curves, but significantly reduce the intercept voltage. This is particularly important for hexagonal SiC, in which current- or process-induced cubic inclusions are known to behave as electron QWs. These calculations naturally explain the surprisingly large effect of cubic inclusions on the apparent 4H-SiC Schottky barrier determined by C-V measurements, and together with the measured C-V data indicate the QW subband energy in the inclusions to be ~0.51 eV below the host 4H-SiC conduction band.open151

The Helicopter Antenna Radiation Prediction Code (HARP)

The first nine months effort in the development of a user oriented computer code, referred to as the HARP code, for analyzing the radiation from helicopter antennas is described. The HARP code uses modern computer graphics to aid in the description and display of the helicopter geometry. At low frequencies the helicopter is modeled by polygonal plates, and the method of moments is used to compute the desired patterns. At high frequencies the helicopter is modeled by a composite ellipsoid and flat plates, and computations are made using the geometrical theory of diffraction. The HARP code will provide a user friendly interface, employing modern computer graphics, to aid the user to describe the helicopter geometry, select the method of computation, construct the desired high or low frequency model, and display the results

Large-Scale Surface Shape Sensing with Learning-Based Computational Mechanics

Proprioception, the ability to perceive one's own configuration and movement in space, enables organisms to safely and accurately interact with their environment and each other. The underlying sensory nerves that make this possible are highly dense and use sophisticated communication pathways to propagate signals from nerves in muscle, skin, and joints to the central nervous system wherein the organism can process and react to stimuli. In a step forward to realize robots with such perceptive capability, a flexible sensor framework that incorporates a novel modeling strategy, taking advantage of computational mechanics and machine learning, is proposed. The sensor framework on a large flexible sensor that transforms sparsely distributed strains into continuous surface is implemented. Finite element (FE) analysis is utilized to determine design parameters, while an FE model is built to enrich the morphological data used in the supervised training to achieve continuous surface reconstruction. A mapping between the local strain data and the enriched surface data is subsequently trained using ensemble learning. This hybrid approach enables real time, robust, and high‐order surface reconstruction. The sensing performance is evaluated in terms of accuracy, repeatability, and feasibility with numerous scenarios, which has not been demonstrated on such a large‐scale sensor before

Evaluation of Chemical Constituents and Important Mechanism of Pharmacological Biology in Dendrobium Plants

published_or_final_versio

Graphene field-effect-transistors with high on/off current ratio and large transport band gap at room temperature

Graphene is considered to be a promising candidate for future nano-electronics due to its exceptional electronic properties. Unfortunately, the graphene field-effect-transistors (FETs) cannot be turned off effectively due to the absence of a bandgap, leading to an on/off current ratio typically around 5 in top-gated graphene FETs. On the other hand, theoretical investigations and optical measurements suggest that a bandgap up to a few hundred meV can be created by the perpendicular E-field in bi-layer graphenes. Although previous carrier transport measurements in bi-layer graphene transistors did indicate a gate-induced insulating state at temperature below 1 Kelvin, the electrical (or transport) bandgap was estimated to be a few meV, and the room temperature on/off current ratio in bi-layer graphene FETs remains similar to those in single-layer graphene FETs. Here, for the first time, we report an on/off current ratio of around 100 and 2000 at room temperature and 20 K, respectively in our dual-gate bi-layer graphene FETs. We also measured an electrical bandgap of >130 and 80 meV at average electric displacements of 2.2 and 1.3 V/nm, respectively. This demonstration reveals the great potential of bi-layer graphene in applications such as digital electronics, pseudospintronics, terahertz technology, and infrared nanophotonics.Comment: 3 Figure

Bromine-Chlorine Coupling in the Antarctic Ozone Hole

The contribution from the chlorine and bromine species in the formation of the Antarctic ozone hole is evaluated. Since chlorine and bromine compounds are of different industrial origin, it is desirable, from a policy point of view, to be able to attribute chlorine-catalyzed loss of ozone with those reactions directly involving chlorine species, and likewise for bromine-catalyzed loss. In the stratosphere, however, most of the chemical families are highly coupled, and, for example, changes in the chlorine abundance will alter the partitioninig in other families and thus the rate of ozone loss. This modeling study examines formation of the Antarctic ozone hole for a wide range of bromine concentrations (5 - 25 pptv) and for chlorine concentrations typical of the last two decades (1.5, 2.5 and 3.5 ppbv). We follow the photochemical evolution of a single parcel of air, typical of the inner Antarctic vortex (50 mbar, 70 deg. S, NO(sub y) = 2 ppbv, with Polar Stratospheric Clouds(PSC)) from August 1 to November 1. For all of these ranges of chlorine and bromine loading, we would predict a substantial ozone hole (local depletion greater than 90%) within the de-nitrified, PSC- perturbed vortex. The contributions of the different catalytic cycles responsible for ozone loss are tabulated. The deep minimum in ozone is driven primarily by the chlorine abundance. As bromine levels decrease, the magnitude of the chlorine-catalyzed ozone loss increases to take up the slack. This is because bromine suppresses ClO by accelerating the conversion of ClO an Cl2O2 back to HCI. For this range of conditions, the local relative efficiency of ozone destruction per bromine atom to that per chlorine atom (alpha-factor) ranges from 33 to 55, decreasing with increase of bromine