Collision Avoidance in Bi-Directional AGV Systems

The use of a bi-directional, as opposed to a one-way, transportation system, can increase the operational efficiency of automated guided vehicles in both manufacturing and warehousing environments. However, the full potential will only be realized if the routeing algorithms pay particular attention to the problem of collision avoidance. This paper is concerned with the development of such an algorithm. The method is based on the use of delays and deviations to avoid collisions that could arise when using the shortest routes for each vehicle, and is applicable to any transportation system which can be represented as a network with known travel times.     

Emergence of self-replicating structures in a cellular automata space

Past cellular automata models of self-replication have always been initialized with an original copy of the structure that will replicate, and have been based on a transition function that only works for a single, specific structure. This article demonstrates for the first time that it is possible to create cellular automata models in which a self-replicating structure emerges from an initial state having a random density and distribution of individual components. These emergent self-replicating structures employ a fairly general rule set that can support the replication of structures of different sizes and their growth from smaller to larger ones. This rule set also allows “random” interactions of self-replicating structures with each other and with other structures within the cellular automata space. Systematic simulations show that emergence and growth of replicants occurs often and is essentially independent of the cellular space size, initial random pattern of components, and initial density of components, over a broad range of these parameters. The number of replicants and the total number of components they incorporate generally approach quasi-stable values with time.     

Investigation of the fundamental properties of a Coulombian plasma by the method of many-particle dynamics

It is shown that a completely ionized, classical, Coulombian plasma, placed in an adiabatic enclosure, possesses a stationary state. At the same time, a plasma placed in a thermostat recombines through triple collisions, with a velocity satisfactorily accounted for by well-known theoretical results. The results obtained by numerical modeling have shown that, for a plasma placed in an adiabatic enclosure, the ergodic assumption is not valid. Various possible kinetic mechanisms, ensuring the existence of a stationary state of the adiabatically enclosed plasma, are considered.Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 11, pp. 3–34, November, 1991.     

In vivo NMR in pharmaceutical research.

In vivo NMR techniques are currently well established in pharmaceutical research and will likely become increasingly important in the future, as they procure noninvasively morphological, physiological, and biochemical information. The status of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and spectroscopy (MRS) in drug development is discussed on the basis of the characterization and evaluation of a rat model of ischemic stroke and the development and profiling of drugs for cerebral ischemia in this model. It can be concluded that MRI is well suited for drug screening (quantitative determination of lesion size), while dynamic MRI and MRS techniques provide relevant information on the mechanism of drug actions. The possibility to follow changes, pathological and therapeutic, in the same individual is important from two points of view. First, variations due to interindividual differences may be eliminated, increasing the statistical power of the results. Second, dose and/or time dependence of a drug can be explored in the same individual. As a result, the number of animals required for a study will be reduced, which from both ethical and economic aspects is highly desirable.     

On the design of broadband quasioptical systems for submillimeter-wave radio-astronomy receivers

In this paper, we summarize the issues that should be considered when designing broadband quasioptical systems for submillimetre-wave radioastronomy receivers. We cover topics such as bandwidth, cross-talk, truncation, and aberrations, and we argue that it should be possible to manufacture high-efficiency systems that have several octaves of bandwidth. A key feature of the paper is that we use the language of multimode Gaussian optics throughout, and in this way, we emphasize that a receiver is a diffraction-limited imaging system rather than just a collection of components for guiding Gaussian beams. The whole discussion is conducted in terms of a particular system we are constructing for the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii.     

Manifolds with invariant semi-Riemannian almost product structure

A manifold M with semi-Riemannian almost product structure invariant relative to a transformation group G is considered. A connection with special G-invariance property is constructed in the corresponding bundle of frames.Translated from Ukrainskii Matematicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 44, No. 7, pp. 926–931, July, 1992.     

某些查耳酮化合物的发光

本文叙述了两个同质查耳酮系列的合成.一个带有查耳酮中心链(系列Ⅰ),另一个是系列Ⅰ的酯类(系列Ⅱ).研究了每个系列中三种化合物的发光,发现两个系列的所有化合物都能见到发光.系列Ⅰ中的化合物在峰值为360nm处可见到发光,而系Ⅱ列中的化合物未能观测到这一波长的发光.然而,在峰值为470nm处两者均可见到发光.得出的结论是,消除非键电子微扰作用的氢键是系列Ⅰ中的化合物在360nm处出现发光的原因.     

Magnetic resonance findings in sarcoidosis of the thorax.

Fifteen patients with sarcoidosis underwent thoracic MRI examinations. The T2 signal intensity of lymphadenopathy varied, with no characteristic pattern noted. Three of four patients with bright lymph nodes on T2 images had stage I sarcoidosis, but low intensity nodes were also seen in stage I patients. Coronal images were complementary to axial images and better depicted subcarinal adenopathy. MRI does not distinguish the lymphadenopathy of sarcoidosis from other entities, but is useful for defining the anatomic extent of disease and differentiating pulmonary artery enlargement from adenopathy.     

Optical diagnostics of dispersing He plasma

An experimental study has been made of the characteristics of radiation from a dispersing helium plasma. From measurements of the space-time dependence of the line intensities of the helium 2³P — n³D series we obtained the distribution of the populations of the n³D levels for n=3–10. The study has shown that over a wide range of conditions the high-lying levels (n=5–10) are in equilibrium with electrons while a substantial deviation from equilibrium is observed for levels n=3, 4. From the energy distribution of the populations of the upper levels we determined the space-time dependence of the electron temperature, which reflects the process of effective electron cooling during dispersal of the plasma. The gas temperature was estimated from the populations of helium singlet and triplet levels with n=5. The time distribution of the electron density in the plasma was found from the Stark broadening of the spectral lines.Deceased.V. D. Kuznetsov Siberian Physicotechnical Institute, Tomsk State University. Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 11, pp. 15–19, November, 1992.