Variability in the passive ranging of acoustic sources in air using a wavefront curvature technique

Simultaneous time delay measurements from two adjacent pairs of sensors are used to estimate the "instantaneous" range and bearing of both stationary and moving broadband sources of continuous sound in air. The random fluctuations in the estimated source position are due to random errors in the time delay measurements. The variances of both the short time-scale and long time-scale random errors in the time delay estimates are quantified for different sensor separation distances and for different source positions. After normalization, the observed variances of the short time-scale random errors in the bearing and range estimates are found to agree with the theoretical results predicted for various sensor-source configurations where the independent variable is the length of the effective intersensor baseline. Increasing the intersensor separation distance by an order of magnitude reduces the bearing error variance by two orders of magnitude and the range error variance by four orders of magnitude.     

基于红外差分检测的甲烷气体传感器

鉴于红外吸收法检测甲烷气体浓度时,误差的补偿是提高检测精度的核心。通常采用各种差分吸收技术来进行误差的补偿,减少各种干扰。基于红外差分检测原理,设计一种双波长差分甲烷传感器。利用旋转滤光盘控制滤波和光的通过,使测量光和参考光分时通过光路,实现了单光源单光路单探测器结构,消除了光源功率波动、光路损耗以及探测器的不稳定带来的误差,提高了检测精度。实验表明,在0～6%浓度范围内,该传感器最大相对误差小于1%。     

Measurement of counting statistics of electron transport in a tunnel junction

We present measurements of the time-dependent fluctuations of electrical current in a voltage-biased tunnel junction. We were able to simultaneously extract the first three moments of the current counting statistics. Detailed comparison of the second and the third moments reveals that the statistics is accurately described as Poissonian, expected for spontaneous current fluctuations due to electron charge discreteness, realized in tunneling transport at negligible coupling to environment.     

Modeling and simulation of polarization errors in Sagnac fiber optic current sensor

Sagnac fiber optic current sensor (S-FOCS) is a kind of optical interferometer based on Sagnac structure, optical polarization states of sensing light wave in Sagnac fiber optic current sensor are limited. However, several factors induce optical polarization error, and non-ideal polarized light waves cause the interference signal crosstalk in sensor, including polarizer, quarter-wave retarder, splice angular, birefringence and so on. With these errors, linearly polarized light wave in PM fiber and circularly polarized light wave in sensing fiber become elliptically polarized light wave, then, nonreciprocal phase shift induced by magnetic field of the current is interrupted by wrong polarization state. To clarify characteristics of optical polarization error in fiber optic current sensor, we analyze the evolution process of random optical polarization state, linear optical polarization state and circular optical polarization state in Sagnac fiber optic current sensor by using Poincare sphere, then, build optical polarization error models by using Jones matrix. Based on models of polarization state in Sagnac fiber optic current sensor, we investigate the influence of several main error factors on optical polarization error characteristics theoretically, including extinction ratio in polarizer, phase delay in quarter-wave retarder, splice angular between quarter-wave retarder and polarization maintaining fiber. Finally, we simulate and quantify nonreciprocal phase shift to be detected in fiber optic current sensor related with optical polarization errors. In the end, we demonstrate S-FOCS in test. The results show that transfer matrix errors are induced by inaccurate polarization properties during polarization state conversion, then, the stability and accuracy of the S-FOCS are affected, and it is important to control the polarization properties at each step of the polarization state conversion precisely.     

Error analysis of a practical energy density sensor

The investigation of an active control system based on acoustic energy density has led to the analysis and development of an inexpensive three-axes energy density sensor. The energy density sensor comprises six electret microphones mounted on the surface of a 0.025-m (1 in.) radius sphere. The bias errors for the potential, kinetic, and total energy density as well as the magnitude of intensity of a spherical sensor are compared to a sensor comprising six microphones suspended in space. Analytical, computer-modeled, and experimental data are presented for both sensor configurations in the case of traveling and standing wave fields, for an arbitrary incidence angle. It is shown that the energy density measurement is the most nearly accurate measurement of the four for the conditions presented. Experimentally, it is found that the spherical energy density sensor is within +/- 1.75 dB compared to reference measurements in the 110-400 Hz frequency range in a reverberant enclosure. The diffraction effects from the hard sphere enable the sensor to be made more compact by a factor of 3 compared to the sensor with suspended microphones.     

Improvement of measurement range of optical fiber displacement sensor based on neutral network

By studying the output characteristics of random type optical fiber displacement sensor and semicircular type optical fiber displacement sensor, a sensor of new structure was designed. Using the ratio of the two output signals as the output of the whole system, the measurement range was enlarged, the linearity was improved, and the errors of reflective and absorbent changing in target surface are automatically compensated. Meantime, an optical fiber sensor model of correcting static error and linearizing the output curve based on BP artificial neural network was set up. The intrinsic errors such as fluctuations in the light, circuit excursion, the intensity losses in the fiber lines and the additional losses in the receiving fiber caused by bends were eliminated. By discussing in theory and experiment, the error of nonlinear is 2.9%, the measurement range reaches to 3.0 mm and the relative accuracy is 2%. This kind of sensor offers such advantages as no electromagnetic interference, simple construction, high sensitivity, good accuracy and stability.     

Electronic non-adiabatic transitions derivation of the general adiabatic-diabatic transformation matrix

Simulations generating a statistical ensemble of configurations of a molecular system provide information to derive entropy. For cases where the spatial distribution is bounded, the entropy can be derived from the average of the logarithm of the spatial probability density, but will be subject to systematic errors due to statistical fluctuations. A method is given to eliminate these errors by using different interval sizes and fitting the results to a simple theoretical expression. The method is feasible when the multidimensional case can be broken up into a sum of low dimensional contributions. The validity of the latter approximation and ways to correct for correlations are discussed.     

Fresnel-reflection-based fiber sensor for on-line measurement of ambient temperature

A fiber sensor with a simple structure for measuring the environment temperature is presented. The sensor uses only a diode laser as light source, three couplers, two photodetectors and two sensing fiber ends with protective cladding. One of the sensing fiber ends is covered by solidified epoxy resin with a metal cover. The measurement principle is based on relative Fresnel reflective intensity. Various ambient temperatures are measured in the setup. The measured data is fitted to linear equation very well with the value of R² of 0.9982. Applying the relative technique, the errors resulted from fluctuation of light source and other influences of environment are effectively eliminated, and the stability for long time measurement can be improved.     

Mesoscopic full counting statistics and exclusion models

We calculate the distribution of current fluctuations in two simple exclusion models. Although these models are classical, we recover even for small systems such as a simple or a double barrier, the same distibution of current as given by traditional formalisms for quantum mesoscopic conductors. Due to their simplicity, the full counting statistics in exclusion models can be reduced to the calculation of the largest eigenvalue of a matrix, the size of which is the number of internal configurations of the system. As examples, we derive the shot noise power and higher order statistics of current fluctuations (skewness, full counting statistics, ....) of various conductors, including multiple barriers, diffusive islands between tunnel barriers and diffusive media. A special attention is dedicated to the third cumulant, which experimental measurability has been demonstrated lately.     

Parametric instability of a magnetic junction under modulated spin-polarized current

The stability is analyzed of the magnetic junction collinear configurations against small fluctuations under amplitude-modulated current with current-perpendicular-to-plane mode. High spin injection is assumed. Under parametric resonance conditions, with the modulation frequency twice the precession frequency, instability is possible of one, or another, or both the collinear configurations. When the direct component of the current density exceeds the instability threshold of the antiparallel configuration, the parametric instability is suppressed by nonparametric one which is induced by the direct current. The parametric instability manifests itself as lowering the threshold of the direct current density in the presence of the high-frequency current; such an effect has been observed in experiments repeatedly.     

A statistical assessment of ambient electromagnetic field using body-worn multiaxial sensors

The electromagnetic field exposure of the population due to wireless communications originates from both down-link and up-link emissions. Although the main contribution comes generally from the latter (e.g., higher by three to five orders of magnitude for the 2G), the former must be considered as well, because they are continual, and as contributions can be competitive for some cases (e.g., in femtocells). Sensor and exposimeter networks (NW) can be deployed by the operators themselves (to enrich feedback information from their own NW) or by independent external stakeholders such as regulatory agencies or local authorities. When sensors are directly worn by a user, body proximity effects – notably the masking effect – can introduce significant errors in the ambient field measurement. A methodology of the statistical assessment of this harmful effect is proposed in this article. It is mainly based on electromagnetic simulations (and partly on measurements) of a triaxial sensor – composed of three orthogonal wideband probes devoted to the evaluation of the field components – placed at different positions of a set of whole body phantoms. The main original contribution of the proposed approach is that both the isolated sensor calibration procedure and the assessment of the measurement errors are based on statistical analyses accounting for the propagation environment. The quantitative results are obtained using statistical channel models for polarimetric and non-polarimetric measurements in various propagation scenarios. Some quantitative results examples are presented. Eventually, preliminary corrections schemes are proposed.     

Zero-point fluctuations and the quenching of the persistent current in normal metal rings

The ground state of a phase-coherent mesoscopic system is sensitive to its environment. We investigate the persistent current of a ring with a quantum dot which is capacitively coupled to an external circuit with a dissipative impedance. At zero temperature, zero-point quantum fluctuations lead to a strong suppression of the persistent current with decreasing external impedance. We emphasize the role of displacement currents in the dynamical fluctuations of the persistent current and show that with decreasing external impedance the fluctuations exceed the average persistent current.     

托卡马克中等离子体的平衡重建

本文描述了用外部磁测量信号,和等离子体总电流,以及角向β_p的测量值,重建托卡马克中等高子体半衡的方法。对圆截面、非圆截面和偏滤器位形;对不同的电流分布分别作了重建计算。数值研究了测量误差、探针布置对重建结果的影响。     

Electric current measurement using fiber-optic curvature sensor

A novel fiber-optic curvature sensor, which can measure curvature directly, has been developed in recent years. The electric current measurements system based on fiber-optic curvature sensor and electromagnetic principle is developed. A fiber-optic curvature sensor is bonded to a thin-walled cantilever and two circular magnet targets with the same parameters are configured at the tip of the cantilever symmetrically. In this case, the throughput of the sensor will be changed due to the bending deformation of cantilever, which is proportional to the electromagnetic force caused by measured electric current. Direct and alternate characteristics of the proposed measurement system are studied experimentally. The results show that the measurement errors are within the range of ±5.5 mA and the corresponding accuracy is within 1% at the current measurement range from −300 mA to 300 mA, which indicate the feasibility of the proposed measurement system.     

A Theoretical Study of a Single-Walled ZnO Nanotube as a Sensor for H_2 O Molecules

We have studied the property of single-walled ZnO nanotubes with adsorbed water molecules, and theoretically designed a new sensor for detecting water molecules using single-walled ZnO nanotubes using a combination of density functional theory and the non-equilibrium Green's function method. Details of the geometric structures and adsorption energies of the H 2 O molecules on the ZnO nanotube surface have been investigated. Our computational results demonstrate that the formation of hydrogen bonding between the H 2 O molecules and the ZnO nanotube, and adsorption energies of the H 2 O molecules on the ZnO nanotube are larger than the adsorption energies of other gas molecules present in the atmospheric environment. Moreover, the current-voltage curves of the ZnO nanotube with and without H 2 O molecules adsorbed on its surface are calculated, the results of which showed that the H 2 O molecules form stable adsorption configurations that could lead to the decrease in current. These results suggest that the single-walled ZnO nanotubes are able to detect and monitor the presence of H 2 O molecules by applying bias voltages.     

Infrared radiation detector interrogated by optical frequency-domain reflectometer

We experimentally demonstrated a fast infrared (IR) radiation sensor. It is capable of measuring IR radiation independently from the environmental temperature fluctuations. Experimental work shows that this IR detection prototype have strong conveniences (fast response and reliability in harsh environment) compared to previous detectors which makes it a very good option for early fire detection systems.     

Radiation Properties of Systems of Three and Four Continuously Pumped Atoms

Radiation properties of three and four atoms continuously pumped by an incoherent excitation mechanism are investigated by using Lehmberg's master equation and the quantum fluctuation-regression theorem. For proper configurations we found in comparison with independent atoms simultaneously (i) an enlargement of the radiation rate, (ii) a spectral narrowing and (iii) a reduction of intensity fluctuations.     

A numerical source of small-scale number-density fluctuations in Eulerian–Lagrangian simulations of multiphase flows

Eulerian–Lagrangian simulations of multiphase flow are known to suffer from two errors that can introduce small-scale fluctuations in the number-density of the dispersed phase. These errors can be reduced by increasing the number of particles in the simulation. Here, we present results to demonstrate that a third error exists that can also generate small-scale number-density fluctuations. In contrast to the two known errors, this error cannot be lowered by increasing the number of particles. Analysis shows that this error is caused by spatial variation at the subgrid scale in the interpolation error of the fluid velocity to the particle location. If the particle velocity divergence is zero, the particle concentration error remains at the subgrid scale. However, if particles preferentially accumulate either due to their inertia or due to divergence of the underlying fluid-velocity field, this error manifests as number-density fluctuations on the grid scale. The only mechanism of reducing these errors is through higher-order accurate interpolation. By studying two model problems, estimates for the errors are derived. These estimates are shown to be quite accurate for simulations of shock and expansion waves interacting with particles.     

Eccentricity fluctuations are not the only source of elliptic flow fluctuations in a multiphase transport model

Sources of event-by-event elliptic flow fluctuations in relativistic heavy-ion collisions are investigated in a multiphase parton transport model(AMPT).Besides the well-known initial eccentricity fluctuations,several other sources of elliptic flow dynamical fluctuations are identified.One is fluctuations in initial parton configurations at a given eccentricity.Configuration fluctuations are found to be as important as eccentricity fluctuations in elliptic flow development.A second is quantum fluctuations in parton-parton interactions during system evolution.A third is fluctuations caused by hadronization and final-state hadronic scatterings.The magnitudes of these fluctuations are investigated relative to the eccentricity fluctuations and the average elliptic flow magnitude.The fluctuations from the latter two sources are found to be negative.The results may have important implications for the interpretation of elliptic flow data.     

A parallel-multipoint fiber-optic temperature sensor based on Fresnel reflection

A parallel-multipoint fiber-optic temperature sensor for monitoring ambient temperature with a measured temperature resolution of approximately 0.03 °C is presented. The sensor relies on the temperature-dependent Fresnel reflection from each interface between a sensing fiber tip and a thermo-optic medium. An arrayed waveguide grating is used to achieve wavelength-division multiplexed-multipoint sensing. Applying the relative-intensity technique, the errors resulting from fluctuation of the light source and other influences of the environment are eliminated, and the stability for long time measurement can be improved.