Solar hard X-ray imaging by means of Compressed Sensing and Finite Isotropic Wavelet Transform

This paper shows that compressed sensing realized by means of regularized deconvolution and the Finite Isotropic Wavelet Transform is effective and reliable in hard X-ray solar imaging. The method utilizes the Finite Isotropic Wavelet Transform with Meyer function as the mother wavelet. Further, compressed sensing is realized by optimizing a sparsity-promoting regularized objective function by means of the Fast Iterative Shrinkage-Thresholding Algorithm. Eventually, the regularization parameter is selected by means of the Miller criterion. The method is applied against both synthetic data mimicking the Spectrometer/Telescope Imaging X-rays (STIX) measurements and experimental observations provided by the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI). The performances of the method are compared with the results provided by standard visibility-based reconstruction methods. The results show that the application of the sparsity constraint and the use of a continuous, isotropic framework for the wavelet transform provide a notable spatial accuracy and significantly reduce the ringing effects due to the instrument point spread functions

Adsorbent filled membranes for gas separation. Part 1. Improvement of the gas separation properties of polymeric membranes by incorporation of microporous adsorbents

The effect of the introduction of specific adsorbents on the gas separation properties of polymeric membranes has been studied. For this purpose both carbon molecular sieves and zeolites are considered. The results show that zeolites such as silicate-1, 13X and KY improve to a large extent the separation properties of poorly selective rubbery polymers towards a mixture of carbon dioxide/methane. Some of the filled rubbery polymers achieve intrinsic separation properties comparable to cellulose acetate, polysulfone or polyethersulfone. However, zeolite 5A leads to a decrease in permeability and an unchanged selectivity. This is due to the impermeable character of these particles, i.e. carbon dioxide molecules cannot diffuse through the porous structure under the conditions applied. Using silicate-1 also results in an improvement of the oxygen/nitrogen separation properties which is mainly due to a kinetic effect. Carbon molecular sieves do not improve the separation performances or only to a very small extent. This is caused by a mainly dead-end (not interconnected) porous structure which is inherent to their manufacturing process

Estimation of dynamic rotor loads for the rotor systems research aircraft: Methodology development and validation

The Rotor Systems Research Aircraft uses load cells to isolate the rotor/transmission systm from the fuselage. A mathematical model relating applied rotor loads and inertial loads of the rotor/transmission system to the load cell response is required to allow the load cells to be used to estimate rotor loads from flight data. Such a model is derived analytically by applying a force and moment balance to the isolated rotor/transmission system. The model is tested by comparing its estimated values of applied rotor loads with measured values obtained from a ground based shake test. Discrepancies in the comparison are used to isolate sources of unmodeled external loads. Once the structure of the mathematical model has been validated by comparison with experimental data, the parameters must be identified. Since the parameters may vary with flight condition it is desirable to identify the parameters directly from the flight data. A Maximum Likelihood identification algorithm is derived for this purpose and tested using a computer simulation of load cell data. The identification is found to converge within 10 samples. The rapid convergence facilitates tracking of time varying parameters of the load cell model in flight

The symmetries of the Manton superconductivity model

The symmetries and conserved quantities of Manton's modified superconductivity model with non-relativistic Maxwell-Chern-Simons dynamics (also related to the Quantized Hall Effect) are obtained in the ``Kaluza-Klein type'' framework of Duval et al.Comment: 24 pages, Plain TEX, no figure

FUZZY LOGIC AND COMPROMISE PROGRAMMING IN PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT

The objective of this paper is to develop a portfolio optimization technique that is simple enough for an individual with little knowledge of economic theory to systematically determine his own optimized portfolio. A compromise programming approach and a fuzzy logic approach are developed as alternatives to the traditional EV model.Agricultural Finance,

Wigner-Souriau translations and Lorentz symmetry of chiral fermions

Chiral fermions can be embedded into Souriau's massless spinning particle model by "enslaving" the spin, viewed as a gauge constraint. The latter is not invariant under Lorentz boosts; spin enslavement can be restored, however, by a subsequent Wigner-Souriau (WS) translation, analogous to a compensating gauge transformation. The combined transformation is precisely the recently uncovered twisted boost, which we now extend to finite transformations. WS-translations are identified with the stability group of a motion acting on the right on the Poincare group, whereas the natural Poincare action corresponds to action on the left. The relation to non-commutative mechanics is explained.Comment: v3: a new Section explaining the relation to non-commutativity is added. 14 pages, 2 figure

Projectively and conformally invariant star-products

We consider the Poisson algebra S(M) of smooth functions on T^*M which are fiberwise polynomial. In the case where M is locally projectively (resp. conformally) flat, we seek the star-products on S(M) which are SL(n+1,R) (resp. SO(p+1,q+1))-invariant. We prove the existence of such star-products using the projectively (resp. conformally) equivariant quantization, then prove their uniqueness, and study their main properties. We finally give an explicit formula for the canonical projectively invariant star-product.Comment: 37 pages, Latex; minor correction

Thermal and solutal convection with conduction effects inside a rectangular enclosure

We numerically investigate the effects of various boundary conditions on the flow field characteristics of the physical vapor transport process. We use a prescribed temperature profile as boundary condition on the enclosure walls, and we consider parametric variations applicable to ground-based and space microgravity conditions. For ground-based applications, density gradients in the fluid phase generate buoyancy-driven convection which in turn disrupts the uniformity of the mass flux at the interface depending on the orientation. Heat conduction in the crystal can affect the fluid flow near the interface of the crystal. When considering isothermal source and sink at the interfaces, we observe a diffusive mode and three modes (i.e., thermal, solutal, and thermo-solutal). The convective modes show opposing flow field trends between thermal and solutal convection; theoretically, these trends can be used to achieve a uniform mass flux near the crystal. However, under the physical conditions chosen, the mathematical condition necessary for uniform mass flux cannot be satisfied because of thermodynamic restrictions. When a longitudinal thermal gradient is prescribed on the boundary of the crystal, a non-uniform interface temperature results, which induces a symmetrical fluid flow near the interface for the vertical case. For space microgravity applications, we show that the flow field is dominated by the Stefan wind and a uniform mass flux results at the interface