Search results for: nonlinear enhancement

Authors: M. Tehranizadeh, E. Shoushtari Rezvani

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Seismic performance of steel moment-resisting frame structures is investigated considering nonlinear soil-structure interaction (SSI) effects. 10-, 15-, and 20-story planar building frames with aspect ratio of 3 are designed in accordance with current building codes. Inelastic seismic demands of the superstructure are considered using concentrated plasticity model. The raft foundation system is designed for different soil types. Beam-on-nonlinear Winkler foundation (BNWF) is used to represent dynamic impedance of the underlying soil. Two sets of pulse-like as well as no-pulse near-fault earthquakes are used as input ground motions. The results show that the reduction in drift demands due to nonlinear SSI is characterized by a more uniform distribution pattern along the height when compared to the fixed-base and linear SSI condition. It is also concluded that beneficial effects of nonlinear SSI on displacement demands is more significant in case of pulse-like ground motions and performance level of the steel moment-resisting frames can be enhanced.

Keywords: soil-structure interaction, uplifting, soil plasticity, near-fault earthquake, tall building

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Authors: H. Y. Jung, Ju H. Park, S. M. Lee

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A sampled-data controller is presented for solid oxide fuel cell systems which is expressed by a sector bounded nonlinear model. The sector bounded nonlinear systems, which have a feedback connection with a linear dynamical system and nonlinearity satisfying certain sector type constraints. Also, the sampled-data control scheme is very useful since it is possible to handle digital controller and increasing research efforts have been devoted to sampled-data control systems with the development of modern high-speed computers. The proposed control law is obtained by solving a convex problem satisfying several linear matrix inequalities. Simulation results are given to show the effectiveness of the proposed design method.

Keywords: sampled-data control, fuel cell, linear matrix inequalities, nonlinear control

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Authors: Manoj Kumar Gupta, Jayashree Bijwe

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Additives in lubricating oils are the focus of research attention since the further reduction in friction and wear properties of oils would lead to the further saving of tribo-materials and energy apart from improving their efficiency. Remarkable tribo-performance enhancement is reported in the literature due to addition of particles of solid lubricants in lubricating oils; especially that of nano-sizes. In the present work graphite nano-particles (NPs) in various amounts (1, 2, 3 and 4 wt. %) were used to explore the possible anti-wear (AW) performance enhancement in Group III oil. Polyisobutylene succinimide (PIBSI- 1 wt. %) was used as a dispersant for dispersing these NPs and to enhance the stability of these nano-suspensions. It was observed that PIBSI inclusion enhanced the stability of oil almost by eight times. NPs in all amounts enhanced the AW performance of oil considerably. The optimum amount was three wt. %, which led to the highest enhancement under all loads. The extent of benefits, however, were dependent on load. At the lowest (392 N) and highest loads (784 N), the benefits were not profound. At moderate load (588 N), highest improvement (around 60 %) was recorded. The SEM and AFM studies were done on the worn ball surfaces to reveal the detailed features of films transferred and proved useful to correlate the wear performance of oils.

Keywords: dispersant, graphite, nano-lubricant, anti-wear additive

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Authors: Gyu-Jin Kim, Hyo-Gyoung Kwak

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In this research, the effect of prestressing force on the nonlinearity of concrete was investigated by an experimental study. For the measurement of ultrasonic nonlinearity, a prestressed concrete beam was prepared and a nonlinear resonant ultrasound method was adopted. When the prestressing force changes, the stress state of the concrete inside the beam is affected, which leads to the occurrence of micro-cracks and changes in mechanical properties. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce nonlinear ultrasonic technology which sensitively reflects microstructural changes. Repetitive prestressing load history, including maximum levels of 45%, 60% and 75%, depending on the compressive strength, is designed to evaluate the impact of loading levels on the nonlinearity. With the experimental results, the possibility of ultrasonic nonlinearity as a trial indicator of stress was evaluated.

Keywords: micro crack, nonlinear ultrasonic resonant spectroscopy, prestressed concrete beam, prestressing force, ultrasonic nonlinearity

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Authors: Labane Chrif

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A nonlinear approach to the automatic pitch attitude control problem for aircraft transportation is presented. A nonlinear model describing the longitudinal equations of motion in strict feedback form is derived. Backstepping is utilized for the construction of a globally stabilizing controller with a number of free design parameters. The controller is evaluated using the aircraft transportation. The adaptation scheme proposed allowed us to design an explicit controller with a minimal knowledge of the aircraft aerodynamics. Finally, the simulation results will show that backstepping controller have better dynamic performance, simpler design, higher precision, easier implement, etc. At the same time, the control effect will be significantly improved. In addition, backstepping control is superior in short transition, good stability, anti-disturbance and good control.

Keywords: nonlinear control, backstepping, aircraft control, Lyapunov function, longitudinal model

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Authors: Maba Boniface Matadi

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This paper analyses the model of Malaria endemic from the point of view of the group theoretic approach. The study identified new independent variables that lead to the transformation of the nonlinear model. Furthermore, corresponding determining equations were constructed, and new symmetries were found. As a result, the findings of the study demonstrate of the integrability of the model to present an invariant solution for the Malaria model.

Keywords: group theory, lie symmetry, invariant solutions, malaria

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Authors: M. Z. Kurian, M. V. Chidananda Murthy, H. S. Guruprasad

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An approach to super-resolve the low-resolution (LR) image is presented in this paper which is very useful in multimedia communication, medical image enhancement and satellite image enhancement to have a clear view of the information in the image. The proposed Advanced B-Spline method generates a high-resolution (HR) image from single LR image and tries to retain the higher frequency components such as edges in the image. This method uses B-Spline technique and Crispening. This work is evaluated qualitatively and quantitatively using Mean Square Error (MSE) and Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR). The method is also suitable for real-time applications. Different combinations of decimation and super-resolution algorithms in the presence of different noise and noise factors are tested.

Keywords: advanced b-spline, image super-resolution, mean square error (MSE), peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR), resolution down converter

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Authors: Tarique Jamil Khan, Swapnil Pande

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The investigation deals with the study of heat transfer enhancement using protruded square fin. This study is enough to determine whether protrusion in forced convection is enough to enhance the rate of heat transfer. It includes the results after performing experiments by using a plane rectangular fin of aluminum material and the same dimension rectangular fin of the same material but having protruded circular shape extended normally. The fins made by a sand casting method. The results clearly mentioned that the protruded surface is effective enough to enhance the rate of heat transfer. This research investigates a modern fin topologies heat transfer characteristics that will clearly outdated the conventional fin to increase the rate of heat transfer. Protruded fins improve the rate of heat transfer compared to solid fin by varying shape of the protrusion in diameter and height.

Keywords: heat transfer enhancement, forced convection, protruted fin, rectangular fin

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Authors: Hossein Kabir, Mojtaba Sadeghi

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Finding the linear and nonlinear responses of a typical single-degree-of-freedom system (SDOF) is always being regarded as a time-consuming process. This study attempts to provide modifications in the renowned Newmark method in order to make it more time efficient than it used to be and make it more accurate by modifying the system in its own non-linear state. The efficacy of the presented method is demonstrated by assigning three base excitations such as Tabas 1978, El Centro 1940, and MEXICO CITY/SCT 1985 earthquakes to a SDOF system, that is, SDOF, to compute the strength reduction factor, yield pseudo acceleration, and ductility factor.

Keywords: single-degree-of-freedom system (SDOF), linear acceleration method, nonlinear excited system, equivalent displacement method, equivalent energy method

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Authors: Motahar Reza, Rajni Chahal, Neha Sharma

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This article addresses the boundary layer flow and heat transfer of Casson fluid over a nonlinearly permeable stretching surface with chemical reaction in the presence of variable magnetic field. The effect of thermal radiation is considered to control the rate of heat transfer at the surface. Using similarity transformations, the governing partial differential equations of this problem are reduced into a set of non-linear ordinary differential equations which are solved by finite difference method. It is observed that the velocity at fixed point decreases with increasing the nonlinear stretching parameter but the temperature increases with nonlinear stretching parameter.

Keywords: boundary layer flow, nonlinear stretching, Casson fluid, heat transfer, radiation

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Authors: Hyun-Woo Cho

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Unexpected events may occur with serious impacts on industrial process. This work utilizes a data representation technique to model and to analyze process data pattern for the purpose of diagnosis. In this work, the use of triangular representation of process data is evaluated using simulation process. Furthermore, the effect of using different pre-treatment techniques based on such as linear or nonlinear reduced spaces was compared. This work extracted the fault pattern in the reduced space, not in the original data space. The results have shown that the non-linear technique based diagnosis method produced more reliable results and outperforms linear method.

Keywords: process monitoring, data analysis, pattern modeling, fault, nonlinear techniques

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Authors: Reza Soleimanpour, Ching Tai Ng

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Fibre-composites are widely used in various structures due to their attractive properties such as higher stiffness to mass ratio and better corrosion resistance compared to metallic materials. However, one serious weakness of this composite material is delamination, which is a subsurface separation of laminae. A low level of this barely visible damage can cause a significant reduction in residual compressive strength. In the last decade, the application of guided waves for damage detection has been a topic of significant interest for many researches. Among all guided wave techniques, nonlinear guided wave has shown outstanding sensitivity and capability for detecting different types of damages, e.g. cracks and delaminations. So far, most of researches on applications of nonlinear guided wave have been dedicated to isotropic material, such as aluminium and steel, while only a few works have been done on applications of nonlinear characteristics of guided waves in anisotropic materials. This study investigates the nonlinear interactions of the fundamental antisymmetric lamb wave (A0) with delamination in composite laminates using three-dimensional (3D) explicit finite element (FE) simulations. The nonlinearity considered in this study arises from interactions of two interfaces of sub-laminates at the delamination region, which generates contact acoustic nonlinearity (CAN). The aim of this research is to investigate the phenomena of CAN in composite laminated beams by a series of numerical case studies. In this study interaction of fundamental antisymmetric lamb wave with delamination of different sizes are studied in detail. The results show that the A0 lamb wave interacts with the delaminations generating CAN in the form of higher harmonics, which is a good indicator for determining the existence of delaminations in composite laminates.

Keywords: contact acoustic nonlinearity, delamination, fibre reinforced composite beam, finite element, nonlinear guided waves

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Authors: Hesham A. Elkaranshawy, Amr M. Abdelrazek, Hosam M. Ezzat

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The system of ordinary nonlinear differential equations describing sliding velocity during impact with friction for a three-dimensional rigid-multibody system is developed. No analytical solutions have been obtained before for this highly nonlinear system. Hence, a power series solution is proposed. Since the validity of this solution is limited to its convergence zone, a suitable time step is chosen and at the end of it a new series solution is constructed. For a case study, the trajectory of the sliding velocity using the proposed method is built using 6 time steps, which coincides with a Runge-Kutta solution using 38 time steps.

Keywords: impact with friction, nonlinear ordinary differential equations, power series solutions, rough collision

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Authors: Amira Amamou, Mnaouar Chouchane

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This paper investigates the bifurcation and nonlinear behavior of two degrees of freedom model of a symmetrical balanced rigid rotor supported by two identical journal bearings. The fluid film hydrodynamic reactions are modeled by applying both the short and the long bearing approximation and using half Sommerfeld solution. A numerical integration of equations of the journal centre motion is presented to predict the presence and the size of stable or unstable limit cycles in the neighborhood of the stability critical speed. For their stability margins, a continuation method based on the predictor-corrector mechanism is used. The numerical results of responses show that stability and bifurcation behaviors of periodic motions depend strongly on bearing parameters and its dynamic characteristics.

Keywords: hydrodynamic journal bearing, nonlinear stability, continuation method, bifurcations

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Authors: N. Manoj

Abstract:

The aeroelastic behavior of engine nacelle strake when subjected to unsteady aerodynamic flows is investigated in this paper. Geometric nonlinear characteristics and modal parameters of nacelle strake are studied when it is under dynamic loading condition. Here, an N-S based Finite Volume solver is coupled with Finite Element (FE) based nonlinear structural solver to investigate the nonlinear characteristics of nacelle strake over a range of dynamic pressures at various phases of flight like takeoff, climb, and cruise conditions. The combination of high fidelity models for both aerodynamics and structural dynamics is used to predict the nonlinearities of strake (chine). The methodology adopted for present aeroelastic analysis is partitioned-based time domain coupled CFD and CSD solvers and it is validated by the consideration of experimental and numerical comparison of aeroelastic data for a cropped delta wing model which has a proven record. The present strake geometry is derived from theoretical formulation. The amplitude and frequency obtained from the coupled solver at various dynamic pressures is discussed, which gives a better understanding of its impact on aerodynamic design-sizing of strake.

Keywords: aeroelasticity, finite volume, geometric nonlinearity, limit cycle oscillations, strake

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Authors: Biji Jacob

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Vector quantization algorithm which uses minimum distance calculation for codebook generation, a time consuming calculation performed on each pixel values leads to computation complexity. The codebook is updated by comparing the distance of each vector to their centroid vector and measure for their closeness. In this paper vector quantization is modified based on vector difference algorithm for image enhancement purpose. In the proposed scheme, vector differences between the vectors are considered as the new generation vectors or new codebook vectors. The codebook is updated by comparing the new generation vector with a threshold value having minimum error with the parent vector. The minimum error decides the fitness of each newly generated vector. Thus the codebook is generated in an adaptive manner and the fitness value is determined for the suppression of the degraded portion of the image and thereby leads to the enhancement of the image through the adaptive searching capability of the vector quantization through vector difference algorithm. Experimental results shows that the vector difference scheme efficiently modifies the vector quantization algorithm for enhancing the image with peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR), mean square error (MSE), Euclidean distance (E_dist) as the performance parameters.

Keywords: codebook, image enhancement, vector difference, vector quantization

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Authors: Maor Farid, Oleg Gendelman

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Equivalent mechanical model of liquid sloshing in partially-filled cylindrical vessel is treated in the cases of free oscillations and of horizontal base excitation. The model is designed to cover both the linear and essentially nonlinear sloshing regimes. The latter fluid behaviour might involve hydraulic impacts interacting with the inner walls of the tank. These impulsive interactions are often modeled by high-power potential and dissipation functions. For the sake of analytical description, we use the traditional approach by modeling the impacts with velocity-dependent restitution coefficient. This modelling is similar to vibro-impact nonlinear energy sink (VI NES) which was recently explored for its vibration mitigation performances and nonlinear response regimes. Steady-state periodic regimes and chaotic strongly modulated responses (CSMR) are detected. Those dynamical regimes were described by the system's slow motion on the slow invariant manifold (SIM). There is a good agreement between the analytical results and numerical simulations. Subsequently, Finite-Element (FE) method is used to determine and verify the model parameters and to identify dominant dynamical regimes, natural modes and frequencies. The tank failure modes are identified and critical locations are identified. Mathematical relation is found between degrees-of-freedom (DOFs) motion and the mechanical stress applied in the tank critical section. This is the prior attempt to take under consideration large-amplitude nonlinear sloshing and tank structure elasticity effects for design, regulation definition and resistance analysis purposes. Both linear (tuned mass damper, TMD) and nonlinear (nonlinear energy sink, NES) passive energy absorbers contribution to the overall system mitigation is firstly examined, in terms of both stress reduction and time for vibration decay.

Keywords: nonlinear energy sink (NES), reduced-order modelling, liquid sloshing, vibration mitigation, vibro-impact dynamics

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Authors: Ilya Simanovskii

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Nonlinear convective flows developed under the joint action of buoyant and thermo-capillary effects in a two-layer system with periodic boundary conditions on the lateral walls have been investigated. The influence of an interfacial heat release on oscillatory regimes has been studied. The computational regions with different lengths have been considered. It is shown that the development of oscillatory instability can lead to the appearance of different no steady flows.

Keywords: interface, instabilities, two-layer systems, bioinformatics, biomedicine

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Authors: Chang-Hsing Lee, Cheng-Chang Lien, Chin-Chuan Han

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In this paper, an edge-strength guided multiscale retinex (EGMSR) approach will be proposed for color image contrast enhancement. In EGMSR, the pixel-dependent weight associated with each pixel in the single scale retinex output image is computed according to the edge strength around this pixel in order to prevent from over-enhancing the noises contained in the smooth dark/bright regions. Further, by fusing together the enhanced results of EGMSR and adaptive multiscale retinex (AMSR), we can get a natural fused image having high contrast and proper tonal rendition. Experimental results on several low-contrast images have shown that our proposed approach can produce natural and appealing enhanced images.

Keywords: image enhancement, multiscale retinex, image fusion, EGMSR

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Authors: N. Kaewpraek, W. Assawinchaichote

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This paper considers an H_∞ TS fuzzy state-derivative feedback controller for a class of nonlinear dynamical systems. A Takagi-Sugeno (TS) fuzzy model is used to approximate a class of nonlinear dynamical systems. Then, based on a linear matrix inequality (LMI) approach, we design an H_∞ TS fuzzy state-derivative feedback control law which guarantees L₂-gain of the mapping from the exogenous input noise to the regulated output to be less or equal to a prescribed value. We derive a sufficient condition such that the system with the fuzzy controller is asymptotically stable and H_∞ performance is satisfied. Finally, we provide and simulate a numerical example is provided to illustrate the stability and the effectiveness of the proposed controller.

Keywords: h-infinity fuzzy control, an LMI approach, Takagi-Sugano (TS) fuzzy system, the photovoltaic systems

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Authors: Ahmad Forouzantabar, Mohammad Azadi, Alireza Alesaadi

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This paper describes a sliding mode controller for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). The dynamic of AUV model is highly nonlinear because of many factors, such as hydrodynamic drag, damping, and lift forces, Coriolis and centripetal forces, gravity and buoyancy forces, as well as forces from thruster. To address these difficulties, a nonlinear sliding mode controller is designed to approximate the nonlinear dynamics of AUV and improve trajectory tracking. Moreover, the proposed controller can profoundly attenuate the effects of uncertainties and external disturbances in the closed-loop system. Using the Lyapunov theory the boundedness of AUV tracking errors and the stability of the proposed control system are also guaranteed. Numerical simulation studies of an AUV are included to illustrate the effectiveness of the presented approach.

Keywords: lyapunov stability, autonomous underwater vehicle, sliding mode controller, electronics engineering

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Authors: Nicolò Vaiana, Filip C. Filippou, Giorgio Serino

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The solution of the nonlinear dynamic equilibrium equations of base-isolated structures adopting a conventional monolithic solution approach, i.e. an implicit single-step time integration method employed with an iteration procedure, and the use of existing nonlinear analytical models, such as differential equation models, to simulate the dynamic behavior of seismic isolators can require a significant computational effort. In order to reduce numerical computations, a partitioned solution method and a one dimensional nonlinear analytical model are presented in this paper. A partitioned solution approach can be easily applied to base-isolated structures in which the base isolation system is much more flexible than the superstructure. Thus, in this work, the explicit conditionally stable central difference method is used to evaluate the base isolation system nonlinear response and the implicit unconditionally stable Newmark’s constant average acceleration method is adopted to predict the superstructure linear response with the benefit in avoiding iterations in each time step of a nonlinear dynamic analysis. The proposed mathematical model is able to simulate the dynamic behavior of seismic isolators without requiring the solution of a nonlinear differential equation, as in the case of widely used differential equation model. The proposed mixed explicit-implicit time integration method and nonlinear exponential model are adopted to analyze a three dimensional seismically isolated structure with a lead rubber bearing system subjected to earthquake excitation. The numerical results show the good accuracy and the significant computational efficiency of the proposed solution approach and analytical model compared to the conventional solution method and mathematical model adopted in this work. Furthermore, the low stiffness value of the base isolation system with lead rubber bearings allows to have a critical time step considerably larger than the imposed ground acceleration time step, thus avoiding stability problems in the proposed mixed method.

Keywords: base-isolated structures, earthquake engineering, mixed time integration, nonlinear exponential model

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Authors: Subha D. Puthankattil, Paul K. Joseph

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Analyzing brain signals of the patients suffering from the state of depression may lead to interesting observations in the signal parameters that is quite different from a normal control. The present study adopts two different methods: Time frequency domain and nonlinear method for the analysis of EEG signals acquired from depression patients and age and sex matched normal controls. The time frequency domain analysis is realized using wavelet entropy and approximate entropy is employed for the nonlinear method of analysis. The ability of the signal processing technique and the nonlinear method in differentiating the physiological aspects of the brain state are revealed using Wavelet entropy and Approximate entropy.

Keywords: EEG, depression, wavelet entropy, approximate entropy, relative wavelet energy, multiresolution decomposition

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Authors: Anton S. Perin, Vladimir M. Shandarov

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Compensation for the nonlinear diffraction of narrow laser beams with wavelength of 532 and the formation of photonic waveguides and waveguide circuits due to the contribution of pyroelectric effect to the nonlinear response of lithium niobate crystal have been experimentally demonstrated. Complete compensation for the linear and nonlinear diffraction broadening of light beams is obtained upon uniform heating of an undoped sample from room temperature to 55 degrees Celsius. An analysis of the light-field distribution patterns and the corresponding intensity distribution profiles allowed us to estimate the spacing for the channel waveguides. The observed behavior of bright soliton beams may be caused by their coherent interaction, which manifests itself in repulsion for anti-phase light fields and in attraction for in-phase light fields. The experimental results of this study showed a fundamental possibility of forming optically complex waveguide structures in lithium niobate crystals with pyroelectric mechanism of nonlinear response. The topology of these structures is determined by the light field distribution on the input face of crystalline sample. The optical induction of channel waveguide elements by interacting spatial solitons makes it possible to design optical systems with a more complex topology and a possibility of their dynamic reconfiguration.

Keywords: self-action, soliton, lithium niobate, piroliton, photorefractive effect, pyroelectric effect

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Authors: Shilpa Khobragade, Carlos Da Silva Granja, Niklas Sandström, Igor Efimov, Victor P. Ostanin, Wouter van der Wijngaart, David Klenerman, Sourav K. Ghosh

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Rapid, label-free and direct detection of pathogenic bacteria is critical for the prevention of disease outbreaks. This paper for the first time attempts to probe the nonlinear acoustic response of quartz crystal resonator (QCR) functionalized with specific DNA aptamers for direct detection and quantification of viable E. coli KCTC 2571 bacteria. DNA aptamers were immobilized through biotin and streptavidin conjugation, onto the gold surface of QCR to capture the target bacteria and the detection was accomplished by shift in amplitude of the peak 3f signal (3 times the drive frequency) upon binding, when driven near fundamental resonance frequency. The developed nonlinear acoustic aptasensor system demonstrated better reliability than conventional resonance frequency shift and energy dissipation monitoring that were recorded simultaneously. This sensing system could directly detect 10⁽⁵⁾ cells/mL target bacteria within 30 min or less and had high specificity towards E. coli KCTC 2571 bacteria as compared to the same concentration of S.typhi bacteria. Aptasensor response was observed for the bacterial suspensions ranging from 10⁽⁵⁾-10⁽⁸⁾ cells/mL. Conclusively, this nonlinear acoustic aptasensor is simple to use, gives real-time output, cost-effective and has the potential for rapid, specific, label-free direction detection of bacteria.

Keywords: acoustic, aptasensor, detection, nonlinear

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Authors: Norbert W. Paul

Abstract:

Since a number of years, scientific interest in human resilience is rapidly increasing especially in psychology and more recently and highly visible in neurobiological research. Concepts of resilience are regularly discussed in the light of liminal experiences and existential challenges in human life. Resilience research is providing both, explanatory models and strategies to promote or foster human resilience. Surprisingly, these approaches attracted little attention so far in philosophy in general and in ethics in particular. This is even more astonishing given the fact that the neurosciences as such have been and still are of major interest to philosophy and ethics and even brought about the specialized field of neuroethics, which, however, is not concerned with concepts of resilience, so far. As a result of the little attention given to the topic of resilience, the whole concept has to date been a philosophically under-theorized. This abstinence of ethics and philosophy in resilience research is lamentable because resilience as a concept as well as resilience interventions based on neurobiological findings do undoubtedly pose philosophical, social and ethical questions. In this paper, we will argue that particular notions of resilience are crossing the sometimes fine line between maintaining a person’s mental health despite the impact of severe psychological or physical adverse events and ethically more debatable discourses of enhancement. While we neither argue for or against enhancement nor re-interpret resilience research and interventions by subsuming them strategies of psychological and/or neuro-enhancement, we encourage those who see social or ethical problems with enhancement technologies should also take a closer look on resilience and the related neurobiological concepts. We will proceed in three steps. In our first step, we will describe the concept of resilience in general and its neurobiological study in particular. Here, we will point out some important differences in the way ‘resilience’ is conceptualized and how neurobiological research understands resilience. In what follows we will try to show that a one-sided concept of resilience – as it is often presented in neurobiological research on resilience – does pose social and ethical problems. Secondly, we will identify and explore the social and ethical challenges of (neurobiological) enhancement. In the last and final step of this paper, we will argue that a one-sided reading of resilience can be understood as latent form of enhancement in transition and poses ethical questions similar to those discussed in relation to other approaches to the biomedical enhancement of humans.

Keywords: resilience, neurosciences, epistemology, bioethics

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Authors: Merfat Algethami, Anton Blencowe, Bryce Feltis, Stephen Best, Moshi Geso

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Nano-materials with high atomic number atoms have been demonstrated to enhance the effective radiation dose and thus potentially could improve therapeutic efficacy in radiotherapy. The optimal nanoparticulate agents require high X-ray absorption coefficients, low toxicity, and should be cost effective. The focus of our research is the development of a nanoparticle therapeutic agent that can be used in radiotherapy to provide optimal enhancement of the radiation effects on the target. In this study, we used bismuth (Bi) nanoparticles coated with starch and bismuth sulphide nanoparticles (Bi2S3) coated with polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP). These NPs are of low toxicity and are one of the least expensive heavy metal-based nanoparticles. The aims of this study were to synthesise Bi2S3 and Bi NPs, and examine their cytotoxicity to human lung adenocarcinoma epithelial cells (A549). The dose enhancing effects of NPs on A549 cells were examined at both KV and MV energies. The preliminary results revealed that bismuth based nanoparticles show increased radio-sensitisation of cells, displaying dose enhancement with KV X-ray energies and to a lesser degree for the MV energies. We also observed that Bi NPs generated a greater dose enhancement effect than Bi2S3 NPs in irradiated A549 cells. The maximum Dose Enhancement Factor (DEF) was obtained at lower energy KV range when cells treated with Bi NPs (1.5) compared to the DEF of 1.2 when cells treated with Bi2S3NPs. Less radiation dose enhancement was observed when using high energy MV beam with higher DEF value of Bi NPs treatment (1.26) as compared to 1.06 DEF value with Bi2S3 NPs. The greater dose enhancement was achieved at KV energy range, due the effect of the photoelectric effect which is the dominant process of interaction of X-ray. The cytotoxic effect of Bi NPs on enhancing the X-ray dose was higher due to the higher amount of elemental Bismuth present in Bi NPs compared to Bi2S3 NPs. The results suggest that Bismuth based NPs can be considered as valuable dose enhancing agents when used in clinical applications.

Keywords: A549 lung cancer cells, Bi2S3 nanoparticles, dose enhancement effect, radio-sensitising agents

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Authors: Madhu Aneja, Sapna Sharma

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Thermal conductivity of ordinary heat transfer fluids is not adequate to meet today’s cooling rate requirements. Nanoparticles have been shown to increase the thermal conductivity and convective heat transfer to the base fluids. One of the possible mechanisms for anomalous increase in the thermal conductivity of nanofluids is the Brownian motions of the nanoparticles in the basefluid. In this paper, the natural convection of incompressible nanofluid over a nonlinear stretching sheet in the presence of magnetic field is studied. The flow and heat transfer induced by stretching sheets is important in the study of extrusion processes and is a subject of considerable interest in the contemporary literature. Appropriate similarity variables are used to transform the governing nonlinear partial differential equations to a system of nonlinear ordinary (similarity) differential equations. For computational purpose, Finite Element Method is used. The effective thermal conductivity and viscosity of nanofluid are calculated by KKL (Koo – Klienstreuer – Li) correlation. In this model effect of Brownian motion on thermal conductivity is considered. The effect of important parameter i.e. nonlinear parameter, volume fraction, Hartmann number, heat source parameter is studied on velocity and temperature. Skin friction and heat transfer coefficients are also calculated for concerned parameters.

Keywords: Brownian motion, convection, finite element method, magnetic field, nanofluid, stretching sheet

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Authors: W. Rashmi, M. Khalid, O. Seiksan, R. Saidur, A. F. Ismail

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Nanofluids have received much more attention since its discovery. They are believed to be promising coolants in heat transfer applications due to their enhanced thermal conductivity and heat transfer characteristics. In this study, the enhancement in heat transfer of CNT-nanofluids under turbulent flow conditions is investigated experimentally. Carbon nanotube (CNTs) concentration was varied between 0.051-0.085 wt%. The nanofluid suspension was stabilized by gum arabic (GA) through a process of homogenisation and sonication. The flow rates of cold fluid (water) is varied from 1.7-3 L/min and flow rates of the hot fluid is varied between 2-3.5 L/min. Thermal conductivity, density and viscosity of the nanofluids were also measured as a function of temperature and CNT concentration. The experimental results are validated with theoretical correlations for turbulent flow available in the literature. Results showed an enhancement in heat transfer range between 9-67% as a function of temperature and CNT concentration.

Keywords: nanofluids, carbon nanotubes (CNT), heat transfer enhancement, heat transfer

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Authors: Kazuma Okada, Tomoaki Hashimoto, Hirokazu Tahara

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Recently, the effectiveness of random dither quantization method for linear feedback control systems has been shown in several papers. However, the random dither quantization method has not yet been applied to nonlinear feedback control systems. The objective of this paper is to verify the effectiveness of random dither quantization method for nonlinear feedback control systems. For this purpose, we consider the attitude stabilization problem of satellites using discrete-level actuators. Namely, this paper provides a control method based on the random dither quantization method for stabilizing the attitude of satellites using discrete-level actuators.

Keywords: quantized control, nonlinear systems, random dither quantization

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