Study on reproductive endocrinology of human placenta (III)--Hormonal regulation of progesterone production by trophoblast tissue of first trimester.

The effect of hormones on progesterone secretion by 6-8 week human trophoblast tissue cultured in serum-free medium has been investigated. GnRH at low concentration (10(-10)-10(-8) mol/L) stimulated progesterone secretion, while high dose (10(-6)-10(-5) mol/L) produced inhibitory effect. The progesterone secretion could be significantly decreased by addition of anti-hCG antiserum or monoclonal anti-hCG IgG in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Various concentrations of TRH, PGE2, PGF2 alpha, testosterone and estradiol were found to be ineffective. These data indicate clearly that progesterone production by human trophoblast tissue at early gestation stage is under the modulation of GnRH and hCG.     

Slow cyclotron instability in a high-power backward-wave oscillator

The linear dispersion relation of a backward-wave oscillator (BWO), derived earlier by the authors, is modified to include effects of RF surface current at the beam-vacuum interface. This modified dispersion relation results in an unstable interaction between the slow cyclotron mode (SCM) and the structure mode in addition to the conventional Cherenkov instability caused by the slow space charge mode. Numerical analysis is then carried out using parameters of a BWO experiment at University of Maryland. Fine structure of the SCM instability is elucidated. The analysis indicates that BWO radiation would not be suppressed near cyclotron absorption in an infinitely long system.     

Multi-H phase-coded modulations with asymmetric modulationindexes

Multi-H phase-coded modulation (MHPM) is a bandwidth-efficient modulation scheme which offers substantial coding gain over conventional digital modulation schemes. MHPM with asymmetric modulation indices corresponding to the bipolar data +1 and -1 is considered, and numerical results for the minimum Euclidean distances are provided. It is shown that performance improvements on the error probability over conventional MHPM are gained with essentially the same bandwidth and a very slight modification in implementation. The upper bounds on the error probabilities as functions of observation intervals and received E_b/N₀ are also investigated in detail. It is concluded that the concept of asymmetric modulation indices for MHPM is attractive for bandwidth and power-efficient modulation     

Stagnation flow on a cylinder with partial slip--an exact solution of the Navier-Stokes equations

The stagnation slip flow on an axially moving cylinder is studied.The Navier–Stokes and energy equations reduce to nonlinearordinary differential equations under a similarity transform.For large slip, the flow field decays exponentially into potentialflow. The heat transfer can be expressed as an incomplete gammafunction. In general, the heat transfer increases with slip,Prandtl number and Reynolds number.     

Multichip Differential Phase-Shift-Keyed Transmission Over (Non)Linear Optical Channels

The recently introduced multichip differential phase-shift keying (MC-DPSK) optical transmission format, entailing the modulation of relative phases over a moving transmission window of successive chip intervals, is analytically and numerically analyzed. The maximum-likelihood optimal MC-DPSK receiver is derived and synthesized using integrated-optic Mach-Zehnder delay interferometers, whose electrical outputs are interpreted as generalized Stokes' parameters. The MC-DPSK performance over a nonlinear fiber channel, limited by the combination of amplified spontaneous emission noise and self-phase modulation, is further derived and simulated, demonstrating that the lowest complexity three-chip binary-phase MC-DPSK receiver provides an ~1-dB Q-factor advantage over conventional DPSK.     

High-speed, polyimide-based semi-insulating planar buried heterostructures

We describe planar buried heterostructure lasers which have low capacitance (lpF), large bandwidth (19GHz), high power (>20mW/facet) and high temperature operation (100°C). These lasers are very suitable for long-distance, highspeed digital and analogue signal transmission.     

Integrated optical devices of InGaAsP/InP heterojunction phototransistor and inner stripe light-emitting diode

New integrated optical devices combining an InGaAsP/InP HPT and an inner-stripe LED are proposed and their fabrication processes are described. The device functions of light amplification, optical bistability, and optical switching are demonstrated in the 1-μm wavelength region.     

Improved coupled-mode theory of anisotropic optical waveguides

A coupled-mode equation for anisotropic waveguide systems of arbitrary cross section and general dielectric distribution is derived. Numerical results comparing the exact calculations to those of the method of Hardy et al. (Opt. Lett., vol.11, 742-4, 1986) show that the same accuracy can be obtained not only for TE, but also for TM mode coupling in the case of anisotropic waveguides, and the improved coupled-mode theory is applicable to the situation when moderately strong coupling occurs under the condition where the edge-to-edge separation of two coupled guides D₂ is about 0.1 μm     

Numerical study on performance of disk MHD generator using frozen inert gas plasma

In an magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) generator using a frozen inert gas plasma (FIP), the availability of a frozen argon plasma, the influence of plasma uniformity at the generator inlet on the performance, and the feasibility of a large-scale generator are numerically examined by /spl gamma/-/spl theta/ two-dimensional simulation. The FIP is produced by pre-ionizing inert gas without an alkali metal seed at the generator inlet, then the ionization degree of the plasma is kept almost constant in the whole of the channel because of considerable slow recombination of the inert gas just like frozen reaction plasma. It is found that not only helium, but also argon frozen plasma MHD generation is realized, although highly accurate control of inlet ionization degree is necessary for argon. It is important to reduce the nonuniformity of plasma properties at the generator inlet in order to raise the maximum enthalpy extraction ratio. Even for the large-scale generator with 1000-MW thermal input, the ionization degree is kept almost constant in the whole of the channel and the high performance is obtainable. This result is extremely attractive for the FIP MHD generator.     

A randomized voltage vector switching scheme for three-level powerinverters

In this paper, a feasibility study of a randomized space vector switching scheme for three-level inverters is reported. Based on the traditional space vector concept for pulse width modulation (PWM) inverters, the sequence of the space vector is randomized in this scheme. The overall vector, resulting from the randomization, is mathematically identical to that of the traditional space vector. It has been found that the randomized scheme can effectively spread the switching noise over a wide frequency range and at the same time keep the steady-state link capacitor voltage balanced. The proposed scheme has been implemented in real time in a digital controller and its features have been experimentally confirmed