Simulated annealing for missile optimization: Developing method and formulation techniques

Hide-and-seek is a continuous simulated annealing algorithm that uses an adaptive cooling schedule. A number of improvements are proposed for the global optimum estimation required for the cooling schedule. To handle equality constraints, two approaches are examined: the rejection method and augmentation of constraints to cost using penalty coefficients. It is demonstrated that a faster convergence is possible if, in the penalty coefficients approach, equality constraints are replaced with tight inequality constraints. The missile trajectory optimization problem is formulated using nodes equally spaced in time until burnout and equally spaced in energy consumption after burnout. This approach is shown to be superior to the use of all nodes equally spaced in time. Also investigated is the effect of node number on the performance of the algorithm. The problem of combined optimization of design and control variables is also addressed. For this purpose a two-loop approach, where each loop has its own temperature and cooling schedule, is proposed, and its effectiveness is demonstrated

Turkish Small Satellite Program: Goals and policies

Information Technologies and Electronics Research Institute (BILTEN) has initiated a low-earth orbit small satellite project in Turkey. This project is part of a program to achieve expertise on satellite related technologies. The main goal of the project is to transfer technology on building small satellites. For the realization of the project an international contractor will be named. The contractor will be responsible of a technology transfer program as well as manufacture and launch of a small satellite with prescribed missions. The details of this program is given and explained. Information regarding BILTEN is also given, (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved

Nonlinear tracking attitude control of spacecraft on time dependent trajectories

The spacecraft attitude control is carried out using the to-go quatemion. A derivative of the to-go quaternion is derived where the desired attitude is a time dependent function. Based on this new attitude formulation, a proper state dependent coefficient matrix expression is obtained. Then the nonlinear tracking attitude control is realized using the state dependent Riccati equation method. The simulation results are given and discussed

Spontaneous Neonatal Chylothorax Treated With Octreotide In Turkey: A Case Report

Scopu

Serum malondialdehyde concentration in babies with hyperbilirubinaemia

AIM—To determine lipid peroxide concentrations in the first 10 days of life.
METHODS—Malondialdehyde concentrations were investigated in neonates with or without hyperbilirubinaemia during the first 10 days of life.
RESULTS—Serum malondialdehyde concentrations were higher in infants with hyperbilirubinaemia than in controls. A positive correlation was found between malondialdehyde and bilirubin concentrations in the study group. When the study group was categorised according to the presence of haemolysis, a significant correlation was found between malondialdehyde and bilirubin concentrations in those infants with hyperbilirubinaemia due to haemolysis. There was no such correlation in those without haemolysis.
CONCLUSION—Exchange transfusion rapidly produces variable changes in pro-oxidant and antioxidant plasma concentrations in neonates, which may be responsible for free radical metabolism. The fall in malondialdehyde concentration is probably directly related to its exogenous removal by exchange transfusion.


A MPEG-7 compliant video management system: BilVMS

In the recent years, there has been a growing interest towards the management of multimedia data. Recently, ISO MPEG organization has finished establishing a new standard, MPEG-7, for describing audio-visual data for interoperable indexing, searching and browsing purposes. Following this standard, a state-of-the-art video management system has been designed and implemented. The system is capable of temporally segmenting video into shots, as well as obtaining a semantically meaningful group of shots, i.e. scenes. The scene decomposition is achieved using a HMM-based formulation by multimodal features. Keyframes are used as shot representatives and their visual descriptions are utilized to make similarity queries. Moreover, these low-level descriptors are also used to reach a number of semantic visual classes using support vector machines. Finally, automatic detection of human faces via skin color filtering and videotext recognition increase the indexing capabilities of the BilVMS system