Perimeter control in the bidirectional evolutionary optimization method

As an extension of the Evolutionary Structural Optimization [ESO] method, the bidirectional ESO [BESO] method has effectively addressed various topology optimization problems. It is observed in ESO/BESO applications that the optimal solution obtained strongly depends on the finite element mesh. This paper presents an improved BESO methodology incorporating a means of controlling the optimization process in order to satisfy a constraint on structural perimeter and thus to solve this size effect problem. Numerical tests are conducted on three examples at different levels of finite element discretization. Solutions convergent with respect to the grid refinement are obtained, especially when the perimeter bound is sufficiently low. Simpler topologies consisting of fewer and larger structural members and holes are generated when a more restricting constraint is imposed. Therefore, it is concluded that BESO combined with perimeter control is capable of suppressing mesh dependency and controlling the structural complexity for topology optimization problems.     

Persistent acute renal failure with renal artery stenosis: cure following reconstructive arterial operation

A case of acute renal failure is reported in which renal function returned after surgical correction of renal artery stenosis to the sole functioning kidney. Acute renal failure associated with renal vascular lesions is reviewed. Although often clinically apparent vascular obstruction may be asymptomatic and should be considered in cases of prolonged acute renal failure.     

The development of a human auditory localization response: A U-shaped function.

A review of recent research on the neonatal head-turn response to off-centered rattle sounds identifies conditions that influence the probability of eliciting a correct response. The existence of a U-shaped developmental function was confirmed in a study of 104 infants (aged 3 days to 7 mo), using a tape-recorded version of the rattle sound. Ss who reliably oriented toward single source stimuli at birth failed to do so when presented with precedence effect stimuli. For both stimuli, responding during the transition period was equally poor and improved between 3–5 mo of age. The U-shaped function seems to reflect a maturational shift in locus of control from subcortical to cortical structures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Speaker identification for security systems usingreinforcement-trained pRAM neural network architectures

Speaker identification may be employed as part of a security system requiring user authentication. In this case, the claimed identity of the user is known from a magnetic card and PIN number, for example, and an utterance is requested to confirm the identity of the user. A fast response is necessary in the confirmation phase and a fast registration process for new users is desirable. The time encoded signal processing and recognition (TESPAR) digital language is used to preprocess the speech signal. A speaker cannot be identified directly from the single TESPAR vector since there is a highly nonlinear relationship between the vector's components such that vectors are not linearly separable. Therefore the vector and its characteristics suggest that classification using a neural network will provide an effective solution. Good classification performance has been achieved using a probabilistic RAM (pRAM) neuron. Four probabilistic pRAM neural network architectures are presented. A performance of approximately 97% correct classifications has been obtained, which is similar to results obtained elsewhere (M. Sharma and R.J. Mammone, 1996), and slightly better than a MLP network. No speech recognition stage was used in obtaining these results, so the performance relates only to identifying a speaker's voice and is therefore independent of the spoken phrase. This has been achieved in a hardware-realizable system which may be incorporated into a smart-card or similar application     

Low-complexity Low-PAR transmission for MIMO-DSL

This letter considers clip-limited transmission over multiple-input multiple-output digital subscriber lines (MIMO-DSL). We show that a recent low complexity, low peak-to-average-ratio (PAR) single-input modulation technique can be applied to the case of multiple cross-talking channels in a bonded-DSL system. Unfortunately however the direct initialization procedure is computationally infeasible. In this paper, we provide a novel low-complexity initialization procedure. Simulations confirm that the proposed approach has superior performance in clip-limited conditions, compared with both discrete matrix multitone and vectored discrete multitone.     

High-Power Broadband Ytterbium-Doped Helical-Core Fiber Superfluorescent Source

Highly efficient operation of a double-clad ytterbium-doped helical-core fiber in a superfluorescent (nonlasing) configuration has been demonstrated. The fiber was cladding-pumped by a diode-stack at 976 nm and yielded 107 W of amplified spontaneous emission from the two ends of the fiber for 168 W of absorbed pump power in an output beam with a beam propagation factor (M²) of 2.8. At pump powers over 40 W, the slope efficiency with respect to the absorbed pump power was 76%. The emission spectrum spanned the wavelength range from 1030 to 1160 nm and the bandwidth (full-width at half-maximum) was 37 nm     

Plasma zinc and jejunal mucosal zinc in gastric carcinoma

The plasma zinc in both gastric carcinoma and in other malignancy requiring surgical treatment was significantly higher than in patients with non-malignant disease but there was no difference between the gastric carcinoma and other malignancy levels. The jejunal mucosal zinc levels showed similar results with both gastric carcinoma and other malignancy requiring surgery being higher than non malignant disease but no difference between them. It was not possible to correlate plasma and jejunal mucosal zinc levels overall. This increased level of body zinc does not appear to be specific to gastric carcinoma and may be associated with non specific mucin changes.