Closed-loop control of a free shear flow: a framework using the parabolized stability equations

In this study the parabolized stability equations (PSE) are used to build reduced-order-models (ROMs) given in terms of frequency and time-domain transfer functions (TFs) for application in closed-loop control. The control law is defined in two steps; first it is necessary to estimate the open-loop behaviour of the system from measurements, and subsequently the response of the flow to an actuation signal is determined. The theoretically derived PSE TFs are used to account for both of these effects. Besides its capability to derive simplified models of the flow dynamics, we explore the use of the TFs to provide an a priori determination of adequate positions for efficiently forcing along the direction transverse to the mean flow. The PSE TFs are also used to account for the relative position between sensors and actuators which defines two schemes, feedback and feedforward, the former presenting a lower effectiveness. Differences are understood in terms of the evaluation of the causality of the resulting gain, which is made without the need to perform computationally demanding simulations for each configuration. The ROMs are applied to a direct numerical simulation of a convectively unstable 2D mixing layer. The derived feedforward control law is shown to lead to a reduction in the mean square values of the objective fluctuation of more than one order of magnitude, at the output position, in the nonlinear simulation, which is accompanied by a significant delay in the vortex pairing and roll-up. A study of the robustness of the control law demonstrates that it is fairly insensitive to the amplitude of inflow perturbations and model uncertainties given in terms of Reynolds number variations.     

Neutron resonance transmission analysis of cylindrical samples used for reactivity worth measurements

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry - Grafting of quaternary ammonium group is the main goal of this research for uranium recovery. The sorbent was investigated by FTIR, SEM–EDX,...     

Recovering convexity in non-associated plasticity

We quickly review two main non-associated plasticity models, the Armstrong–Frederick model of nonlinear kinematic hardening and the Drucker–Prager cap model. Non-associativity is commonly thought to preclude any kind of variational formulation, be it in a Hencky-type (static) setting, or when considering a quasi-static evolution because non-associativity destroys convexity. We demonstrate that such an opinion is misguided: associativity (and convexity) can be restored at the expense of the introduction of state variable-dependent dissipation potentials.     

Characterization of cardiac-related noise in fMRI of the cervical spinal cord

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has recently been applied to study spinal cord function in humans. However, spinal functional MRI (fMRI) encounters major technical challenges with cardiac noise being considered a major source of noise. The present study relied on echo-planar imaging of the cervical cord at short TR (TR=250 ms; TE=40 ms; flip=45 degrees), combined with plethysmographic recordings to characterize the spatiotemporal properties of cardiac-induced signal changes in spinal fMRI. Frequency-based analyses examining signal change at the cardiac frequency confirmed mean fluctuations of about 10% (relative to the mean signal) in the spinal cord and surrounding cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), with maximal responses reaching up to 66% in some voxels. A spatial independent component analysis (sICA) confirmed that cardiac noise is an important source of variance in spinal fMRI with several components showing a response coherent with the cardiac frequency spectrum. The time course of the main cardiac components approximated a sinusoidal function tightly coupled to the cardiac systole with at least one component showing a comparable temporal profile across runs and subjects. Spatially, both the frequency-domain analysis and the sICA demonstrated cardiac noise distributed irregularly along the full rostrocaudal extent of the segments scanned with peaks concentrated in the ventral part of the lateral slices in all scans and subjects, consistent with the major channels of CSF flow. These results confirm that cardiac-induced changes are a significant source of noise likely to affect the detection of spinal Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) responses. Most importantly, the complex spatiotemporal structure of cardiac noise is unlikely to be accounted for adequately by ad hoc linear methods, especially in data acquired using long TR (i.e. aliasing the cardiac frequency). However, the reliable spatiotemporal distribution of cardiac noise across scanning runs and within subjects may provide a valid means to identify and extract cardiac noise based on sICA methods.     

Tuning the fragility of a glass-forming liquid by curving space

We investigate the influence of space curvature, and of the associated frustration, on the dynamics of a model glass former: a monatomic liquid on the hyperbolic plane. We find that the system's fragility, i.e., the sensitivity of the relaxation time to temperature changes, increases as one decreases the frustration. As a result, curving space provides a way to tune fragility and make it as large as wanted. We also show that the nature of the emerging "dynamic heterogeneities", another distinctive feature of slowly relaxing systems, is directly connected to the presence of frustration-induced topological defects.     

Polarization dependence of electroluminescence from closely-stacked and columnar quantum dots

Quantum dots (QDs) have a potential for application in semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs), due to their high saturation power related to the low differential gain, fast gain recovery and wide gain spectrum compared to quantum wells. Besides all advantages, QDs realized by Stranski-Krastanov growth mode have a flat shape which leads to a gain anisotropy and a related transverse magnetic (TM) and -electric (TE) polarization dependence as compared to bulk material. This has so far prevented their applications in SOAs. It has been suggested that control of optical polarization anisotropy of the QD can be obtained through QD shape engineering, in closely stacked or columnar QDs (CQDs). To this aim, we have fabricated and tested SOA structures based on closely-stacked and columnar QDs. Closely-stacked InAs QDs with 4, 6 and 10 nm GaAs spacer showed a minor improvement in the ratio of TM and TE integrated electroluminescence (EL) over standard QDs along with a strong reduction in efficiency. In contrast, a large improvement was obtained in CQDs, depending on the number of stacked submonolayers which can be attributed to the more symmetric shape of columnar QDs. A relatively small spectral separation (ΔE ~ 21 meV) between TE- and TM-EL peaks has been observed showing that heavy- and light hole-like states, respectively are energetically close in these QDs. These results indicate that columnar QDs have a significant potential for polarization-independent QD SOA.     

Onsager molecules for the Yukawa potentials: Screening potentials and the Jancovici coefficient in strongly coupled electron-screened plasmas

Jancovici derived the exactr ² term in the expansion of the screening potential of the one-component plasma (OCP) around r = 0, which led to much improved analysis of the simulation data, but the correspondingly important term has never been calculated for electron-screened plasmas. The Onsager molecule approach provides the strong-coupling-limit result for the OCP screening potentials, features the exact Jancovici r2 term, and gives a comprehensive physical picture of the structure of strongly coupled plasmas. It is used here to derive the Strong-coupling screening potentials of electron-screened plasmas represented by the Yukawa potentials and, in particular, the corresponding Jancovicir ² term. On sabbatical leave from the Nuclear Research Center Negev, P.O. Box 9001, Beer-Sheva, 84190, Israel.     

Games with permission structures: The conjunctive approach

This paper is devoted to the game theoretic analysis of decision situations, in which the players have veto power over the actions undertaken by certain other players. We give a full characterization of the dividends in these games with a permission structure. We find that the collection of these games forms a subspace of the vector space of all games with side payments on a specified player set.Two applications of these results are provided. The first one deals with the projection of additive games on a permission structure. It is shown that the Shapley value of these projected games can be interpreted as an index that measures the power of the players in the permission structure. The second application applies the derived results on games, where the organization structure can be analysed separately from the production capacities of the participating players.     

L p -pinching and the geometry of compact Riemannian manifolds

We prove a Harnack-type inequality inf|S|/sup|S|>1?ε(W, M, V) satisfied by the sections of a Riemannian vector bundleW lying in the kernel of a Schrödinger operator ∨*∨+V underL ^p -pinching assumptions on the potentialV and derive various topological and geometric consequences. For instance, we prove a fibration theorem which gives a classification of almost non-negatively curved compact manifolds by the first Betti number. In the case of almost non-positively curved compact manifolds, we prove that the minimal volume must vanish whenever the isometry group is not finite and give conditions implying that it is abelian.