Shielded Micro-Coplanar CRLH TL Zeroth-Order Resonator Antenna: Critical Performance Evaluation

The attention of this paper is focused on the four unit cell zeroth-order resonator antenna (ZORA), manufactured on a shielded micro-coplanar composite right/left-handed (CRLH) transmission line structure. The antenna was designed to achieve a broadside patch-type radiation pattern. The dimensions of the antenna element follow: 15.6 x 9.35 x 3.1 mm (i.e. 0.27 x 0.16 x 0.05 λ0 at the measured zeroth-order resonance f0 = 5.14 GHz) with the shielded plane of the size of 60 x 40 mm (approx. 1.0 x 0.7 λ0). The measured gain and the antenna efficiency are equal to 4.6 dBi and 48 %, respectively. The performance of the proposed ZORA is subject to critical evaluation based on the comparison with the reference quarter-wavelength patch antenna (QWPA) that has the same dimensions. It has been found that ZORA provides comparable or even better parameters to those of QWPA, except of the bandwidth, which is much narrower in case of ZORA. In comparison to QWPA, the main advantage of the proposed ZORA might be then seen in the possibility to produce the entire ZORA structure by means of the integrated microstrip technology with air bridges. In contrary to it, the fabrication of the QWPA requires the use of either the foam substrate or plastic support pins or the application of ridged self-supporting metal plates

Microwave Drying of Textile Materials and Optimization of a Resonant Applicator

The principal aim of this work was to design and optimize the applicator for microwave drying. Our applicator is derived from the Fabry-Perrot resonator, which is an open type resonator.The whole system works at frequency 2.45 GHz and the magnetron that we used delivers power 800 W. This machine is intended for use in drying in factory production of fabrics. After identifying of the basic arrangement of the microwave drying machine, the next step in the design was the use of the electromagnetic field simulator. We determined the position of the magnetron and found the distribution of the electric field strength in drying textiles in this way. In parallel, we analyzed the drying system with analytical calculations. We created a diagram of the EM waves inside this structure and reached the resulting expression for use in calculating the strenght of the electric field in the plane of the drying textile. This quantity depends on the electrical characteristics of wet textiles, e.g. the permittivity and the loss factor. Measurements of these dielectric properties for the coburg is complicated, and this method makes it possible to solve our problem with dielectric parameters. We have SAR distribution results (by simulation and also by measurement), results of measurements of the moisture content in the dried textile with respect to time. These results are important for subsequent optimization of the efficiency of the whole machine.

The Bak-Sneppen Model on Scale-Free Networks

We investigate by numerical simulations and analytical calculations the Bak-Sneppen model for biological evolution in scale-free networks. By using large scale numerical simulations, we study the avalanche size distribution and the activity time behavior at nodes with different connectivities. We argue the absence of a critical barrier and its associated critical behavior for infinite size systems. These findings are supported by a single site mean-field analytic treatment of the model.Comment: 5 pages and 3 eps figures. Final version appeared in Europhys. Let

A Machine Learning Approach for Gearbox System Fault Diagnosis

This study proposes a fully automated gearbox fault diagnosis approach that does not require knowledge about the specific gearbox construction and its load. The proposed approach is based on evaluating an adaptive filter's prediction error. The obtained prediction error's standard deviation is further processed with a support-vector machine to classify the gearbox's condition. The proposed method was cross-validated on a public dataset, segmented into 1760 test samples, against two other reference methods. The accuracy achieved by the proposed method was better than the accuracies of the reference methods. The accuracy of the proposed method was on average 9% higher compared to both reference methods for different support vector settings

Assessment of the thermal tissue models for the head and neck hyperthermia treatment planning

Purpose: To compare different thermal tissue models for head and neck hyperthermia treatment planning, and to assess the results using predicted and measured applied power data from clinical treatments. Methods: Three commonly used temperature models from literature were analysed: “constant baseline”, “constant thermal stress” and “temperature dependent”. Power and phase data of 93 treatments of 20 head and neck patients treated with the HYPERcollar3D applicator were used. The impact on predicted median temperature T50 inside the target region was analysed with maximum allowed temperature of 44 °C in healthy tissue. The robustness of predicted T50 for the three models against the influence of blood perfusion, thermal conductivity and the assumed hotspot temperature level was analysed. Results: We found an average predicted T50 of 41.0 ± 1.3 °C (constant baseline model), 39.9 ± 1.1 °C (constant thermal stress model) and 41.7 ± 1.1 °C (temperature dependent model). The constant thermal stress model resulted in the best agreement between the predicted power (P = 132.7 ± 45.9 W) and the average power measured during the hyperthermia treatments (P = 129.1 ± 83.0 W). Conclusion: The temperature dependent model predicts an unrealistically high T50. The power values for the constant thermal stress model, after scaling simulated maximum temperatures to 44 °C, matched best to the average measured powers. We consider this model to be the most appropriate for temperature predictions using the HYPERcollar3D applicator, however further studies are necessary for developing of robust temperature model for tissues during heat stress.</p

The Brown Dwarf Kinematics Project (BDKP). III. Parallaxes for 70 Ultracool Dwarfs

We report parallax measurements for 70 ultracool dwarfs (UCDs). Using both literature values and our sample, we report new polynomial relations between spectral type and M$_{JHK}$. Including resolved L/T transition binaries in the relations, we find no reason to differentiate between a "bright" (unresolved binary) and "faint" (single source) sample across the L/T boundary. Isolating early T dwarfs, we find that the brightening of T0-T4 sources is prominent in M$_{J}$ where there is a [1.2 - 1.4] magnitude difference. A similar yet dampened brightening of [0.3 - 0.5] magnitude happens at M$_{H}$ and a plateau or dimming of [-0.2 - -0.3] magnitude is seen in M$_{K}$. Comparing with evolutionary models that vary gravity, metallicity, and cloud thickness we find that a near constant temperature of 1200 $\pm$100 K along a narrow spectral subtype of T0-T4 is required to account for the brightening and color magnitude diagram of the L-dwarf/T-dwarf transition. Furthermore, there is a significant population of both L and T dwarfs which are red or potentially "ultra-cloudy" compared to the models, many of which are known to be young indicating a correlation between enhanced photospheric dust and youth. For the low surface-gravity or young companion L dwarfs we find that 8 out of 10 are at least [0.2-1.0] magnitude underluminous in M$_{JH}$ and/or M$_{K}$ compared to equivalent spectral type objects. We speculate that this is a consequence of increased dust opacity and conclude that low-surface gravity L dwarfs require a completely new spectral-type/absolute magnitude polynomial for analysis.Comment: 65 pages, Accepted for publication to Ap

Adaptive multi-agent system for a washing machine production line

This paper describes the implementation of a multi-agent system in a real industrial washing machine production line aiming to integrate process and quality control, allowing the establishment of feedback control loops to support adaptation facing condition changes. For this purpose, the agent-based solution was implemented using the JADE framework, being the shared knowledge structured using a proper ontology, edited and validated in Protégé and posteriorly integrated in the multi-agent system. The solution was intensively tested using historical real production data and it is now being installed in the real production line. The preliminary results confirm the initial expectations in terms of improvement of process performance and product quality

A 10-micron Search for Inner-Truncated Disks Among Pre-Main-Sequence Stars With Photometric Rotation Periods

We use mid-IR (primarily 10 $\mu$m) photometry as a diagnostic for the presence of disks with inner cavities among 32 pre-main sequence stars in Orion and Taurus-Auriga for which rotation periods are known and which do not show evidence for inner disks at near-IR wavelengths. Disks with inner cavities are predicted by magnetic disk-locking models that seek to explain the regulation of angular momentum in T Tauri stars. Only three stars in our sample show evidence for excess mid-IR emission. While these three stars may possess truncated disks consistent with magnetic disk-locking models, the remaining 29 stars in our sample do not. Apparently, stars lacking near-IR excesses in general do not possess truncated disks to which they are magnetically coupled. We discuss the implications of this result for the hypothesis of disk-regulated angular momentum. Evidently, young stars can exist as slow rotators without the aid of present disk-locking, and there exist very young stars already rotating near breakup velocity whose subsequent angular momentum evolution will not be regulated by disks. Moreover, we question whether disks, when present, truncate in the manner required by disk-locking scenarios. Finally, we discuss the need for rotational evolution models to take full account of the large dispersion of rotation rates present at 1 Myr, which may allow the models to explain the rotational evolution of low-mass pre-main sequence stars in a way that does not depend upon braking by disks.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figure

Observational constraints on the afterglow of GRB 020531

We present the data acquired by the TAROT automated observatory on the afterglow of GRB 020531. Up to now, no convincing afterglow emission has been reported for this short/hard GRB at any wavelength, including X-ray and optical. The combination of our early limits, with other published data allows us to put severe constraints on the afterglow magnitude and light curve. The limiting magnitude is 18.5 in R band, 88 minutes after the GRB, and the decay slope power law index could be larger than 2.2.Comment: 4 pages, submitted to A&A (letter