172,663 research outputs found
High-voltage spark carbon-fiber sticky-tape data analyzer
An efficient method for detecting carbon fibers collected on a stick tape monitor was developed. The fibers were released from a simulated crash fire situation containing carbon fiber composite material. The method utilized the ability of the fiber to initiate a spark across a set of alternately biased high voltage electrodes to electronically count the number of fiber fragments collected on the tape. It was found that the spark, which contains high energy and is of very short duration, is capable of partially damaging or consuming the fiber fragments. It also creates a mechanical disturbance which ejects the fiber from the grid. Both characteristics were helpful in establishing a single discharge pulse for each fiber segment
Design and analysis of a wire-driven flexible manipulator for bronchoscopic interventions
Bronchoscopic interventions are widely performed for the diagnosis and treatment of lung diseases. However, for most endobronchial devices, the lack of a bendable tip restricts their access ability to get into distal bronchi with complex bifurcations. This paper presents the design of a new wire-driven continuum manipulator to help guide these devices. The proposed manipulator is built by assembling miniaturized blocks that are featured with interlocking circular joints. It has the capability of maintaining its integrity when the lengths of actuation wires change due to the shaft flex. It allows the existence of a relatively large central cavity to pass through other instruments and enables two rotational degrees of freedom. All these features make it suitable for procedures where tubular anatomies are involved and the flexible shafts have to be considerably bent in usage, just like bronchoscopic interventions. A kinematic model is built to estimate the relationship between the translations of actuation wires and the manipulator tip position. A scale-up model is produced for evaluation experiments and the results validate the performance of the proposed mechanism
Antiferromagnetic Alignment and Relaxation Rate of Gd Spins in the High Temperature Superconductor GdBa_2Cu_3O_(7-delta)
The complex surface impedance of a number of GdBaCuO
single crystals has been measured at 10, 15 and 21 GHz using a cavity
perturbation technique. At low temperatures a marked increase in the effective
penetration depth and surface resistance is observed associated with the
paramagnetic and antiferromagnetic alignment of the Gd spins. The effective
penetration depth has a sharp change in slope at the N\'eel temperature, ,
and the surface resistance peaks at a frequency dependent temperature below 3K.
The observed temperature and frequency dependence can be described by a model
which assumes a negligibly small interaction between the Gd spins and the
electrons in the superconducting state, with a frequency dependent magnetic
susceptibility and a Gd spin relaxation time being a strong function
of temperature. Above , has a component varying as , while below it increases .Comment: 4 Pages, 4 Figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev.
Light Reflectance Characteristics and Remote Sensing of Waterlettuce
Waterlettuce (
Pistia stratiotes
L.) is a free-floating exotic
aquatic weed that often invades and clogs waterways in the
southeastern United States. A study was conducted to evaluate
the potential of using remote sensing technology to distinguish
infestations of waterlettuce in Texas waterways. Field
reflectance measurements showed that waterlettuce had
higher visible green reflectance than associated plant species.
Waterlettuce could be detected in both aerial color- infrared
(CIR) photography and videography where it had
light pink to pinkish-white image tonal responses. Computer
analysis of CIR photographic and videographic images had
overall accuracy assessments of 86% and 84%, respectively. (PDF contains 6 pages.
Quantum steering of electron wave function in an InAs Y-branch switch
We report experiments on gated Y-branch switches made from InAs ballistic
electron wave guides. We demonstrate that gating modifies the electron wave
functions as well as their interference pattern, causing the anti-correlated,
oscillatory transconductances. Such previously unexpected phenomenon provides
evidence of steering the electron wave function in a multi-channel transistor
structure.Comment: 15 pages, including 3 figure
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