Development of magnetoelectric nanocomposite for soft technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bitla, Yugandhar; Chu, Ying-Hao

2018-06-01

The proliferation of flexible and stretchable electronics has led to substantial advancements in principles, material combinations and technologies. The integration of magnetoelectric systems in soft electronics is inevitable by virtue of their extensive applications. Recently, 2D layered materials have emerged as potential candidates due to their excellent flexibility and atomic-scale thickness scalability in addition to their interesting physics. This paper presents a new perspective on the development of magnetoelectric nanocomposites through materials engineering on a pliant mica with excellent mechanical, thermal and chemical stabilities. The unique features of 2D muscovite mica and the power of van der Waals epitaxy are expected to contribute significantly to the emerging transparent soft-technology research applications.

Development of DEMO-FNS tokamak for fusion and hybrid technologies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kuteev, B. V.; Azizov, E. A.; Alexeev, P. N.; Ignatiev, V. V.; Subbotin, S. A.; Tsibulskiy, V. F.

2015-07-01

The history of fusion-fission hybrid systems based on a tokamak device as an extremely efficient DT-fusion neutron source has passed through several periods of ample research activity in the world since the very beginning of fusion research in the 1950s. Recently, a new roadmap of the hybrid program has been proposed with the goal to build a pilot hybrid plant (PHP) in Russia by 2030. Development of the DEMO-FNS tokamak for fusion and hybrid technologies, which is planned to be built by 2023, is the key milestone on the path to the PHP. This facility is in the phase of conceptual design aimed at providing feasibility studies for a full set of steady state tokamak technologies at a fusion energy gain factor Q ˜ 1, fusion power of ˜40 MW and opportunities for testing a wide range of hybrid technologies with the emphasis on continuous nuclide processing in molten salts. This paper describes the project motivations, its current status and the key issues of the design.

Scientific and technological advancements in inertial fusion energy

DOE PAGES

Hinkel, D. E.

2013-09-26

Scientific advancements in inertial fusion energy (IFE) were reported on at the IAEA Fusion Energy Conference, October 2012. Results presented transect the different ways to assemble the fuel, different scenarios for igniting the fuel, and progress in IFE technologies. The achievements of the National Ignition Campaign within the USA, using the National Ignition Facility (NIF) to indirectly drive laser fusion, have found beneficial the achievements in other IFE arenas such as directly driven laser fusion and target fabrication. Moreover, the successes at NIF have pay-off to alternative scenarios such as fast ignition, shock ignition, and heavy-ion fusion as well asmore » to directly driven laser fusion. As a result, this synergy is summarized here, and future scientific studies are detailed.« less

Human Factors in Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance: Gaps for Soldiers and Technology Recommendations

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-07-01

technology work seeks to address gaps in the management, processing, and fusion of heterogeneous (i.e., soft and hard ) information to aid human decision...and bandwidth) to exploit the vast and growing amounts of data [16], [17]. There is also a broad research program on techniques for soft and hard ...Mott, G. de Mel, and T. Pham, “Integrating hard and soft information sources for D2D using controlled natural language,” in Proc. Information Fusion

Alveolar Soft Part Sarcoma.

PubMed

Jaber, Omar I; Kirby, Patricia A

2015-11-01

Alveolar soft part sarcoma is a rare neoplasm usually arising in the soft tissues of the lower limbs in adults and in the head and neck region in children. It presents primarily as a slowly growing mass or as metastatic disease. It is characterized by a specific chromosomal alteration, der(17)t(X:17)(p11:q25), resulting in fusion of the transcription factor E3 (TFE3) with alveolar soft part sarcoma critical region 1 (ASPSCR1) at 17q25. This translocation is diagnostically useful because the tumor nuclei are positive for TFE3 by immunohistochemistry. Real-time polymerase chain reaction to detect the ASPSCR1-TFE3 fusion transcript on paraffin-embedded tissue blocks has been shown to be more sensitive and specific than detection of TFE3 by immunohistochemical stain. Cathepsin K is a relatively recent immunohistochemical stain that can aid in the diagnosis. The recent discovery of the role of the ASPSCR1-TFE3 fusion protein in the MET proto-oncogene signaling pathway promoting angiogenesis and cell proliferation offers a promising targeted molecular therapy.

Embedded Empiricisms in Soft Soil Technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wijeyesekera, D. C.; John, L. M. S. Alvin; Adnan, Z.

2016-07-01

Civil engineers of today are continuously challenged by innovative projects that push further the knowledge boundaries with conceptual and/or ingenious solutions leading to the realization of that once was considered impossible in the realms of geotechnology. Some of the forward developments rely on empirical methods embedded within soft soil technology and the spectral realms of engineering in its entirety. Empiricisms unlike folklore are not always shrouded in mysticism but can find scientific reasoning to justify them being adopted in design and tangible construction projects. This lecture therefore is an outline exposition of how empiricism has been integrally embedded in total empirical beginnings in the evolution of soft soil technology from the Renaissance time, through the developments of soil mechanics in the 19th century which in turn has paved the way to the rise of computational soil mechanics. Developments in computational soil mechanics has always embraced and are founded on a wide backdrop of empirical geoenvironment simulations. However, it is imperative that a competent geotechnical engineer needs postgraduate training combined with empiricism that is based on years of well- winnowed practical experience to fathom the diverseness and complexity of nature. However, experience being regarded more highly than expertise can, perhaps inadvertently, inhibit development and innovation.

Technological aspects of GEM detector design and assembling for soft x-ray application

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kowalska-Strzeciwilk, E.; Chernyshova, M.

2016-09-01

Various types of Micro Pattern Gas Detectors (MPGDs) found applications as tracking detectors in high energy particle physics experiments and as well as imaging detectors, especially for soft X-rays. These detectors offer several advantages like high count rate capability, good spatial and energy resolution, low cost and possibility of constructing large area detectors with very small dead area. Construction, like the triple Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) detector has become a standard detector, which is widely used for different imaging applications. Some examples of such applications are: monitoring the impurity in plasma, imaging system for mapping of some parameters like pigment distributions using X-ray fluorescence technique[1], proton range radiography system for quality assurance in hadron therapy. Measuring of the Soft X-Ray (SXR) radiation of magnetic fusion plasma is a standard way of accessing valuable information, for example, about particle transport and MHD. The paper is focused on the design of GEM based soft Xray radiation detecting system which is under development. It is dedicated to study soft X-ray emission of plasma radiation with focus on tungsten emission lines energy region. The paper presents the designing, construction and assembling of a prototype of two triple-GEM detectors for soft-X ray application on the WEST device.

Mathematical Fundamentals of Probabilistic Semantics for High-Level Fusion

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-12-02

understanding of the fundamental aspects of uncertainty representation and reasoning that a theory of hard and soft high-level fusion must encompass...representation and reasoning that a theory of hard and soft high-level fusion must encompass. Successful completion requires an unbiased, in-depth...and soft information is the lack of a fundamental HLIF theory , backed by a consistent mathematical framework and supporting algorithms. Although there

The status of beryllium technology for fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scaffidi-Argentina, F.; Longhurst, G. R.; Shestakov, V.; Kawamura, H.

2000-12-01

Beryllium was used for a number of years in the Joint European Torus (JET), and it is planned to be used extensively on the lower heat-flux surfaces of the reduced technical objective/reduced cost international thermonuclear experimental reactor (RTO/RC ITER). It has been included in various forms in a number of tritium breeding blanket designs. There are technical advantages but also a number of safety issues associated with the use of beryllium. Research in a variety of technical areas in recent years has revealed interesting issues concerning the use of beryllium in fusion. Progress in this research has been presented at a series of International Workshops on Beryllium Technology for Fusion. The most recent workshop was held in Karlsruhe, Germany on 15-17 September 1999. In this paper, a summary of findings presented there and their implications for the use of beryllium in the development of fusion reactors are presented.

Analysis of prevertebral soft-tissue swelling and dysphagia in multilevel anterior cervical discectomy and fusion with recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein-2 in patients at risk for pseudarthrosis.

PubMed

Stachniak, Joseph B; Diebner, Jeffrey D; Brunk, Estee S; Speed, Shelley M

2011-02-01

The goal of this study was to demonstrate the incidence of fusion and soft-tissue swelling in multilevel anterior cervical discectomies and fusions (ACDFs) using polyetheretherketone (PEEK) spacers with recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein-2 (rhBMP-2) impregnated in a Type I collagen sponge and titanium plates. A single surgeon performed 30 multilevel ACDFs using PEEK spacers with an rhBMP-2 impregnated collagen sponge (0.4 ml, or the equivalent of 0.6 mg rhBMP-2). Soft-tissue swelling was assessed using cervical spine radiographs on postoperative Day 1 and at 2, 6, and 10 weeks and 6 months after surgery. Incidence of dysphagia was assessed with the Cervical Spine Research Society Swallowing-Quality of Life tool. Clinical success was evaluated with the Neck Disability Index, neck pain scores, and arm pain scores. Final fusion was assessed with CT by an independent neuroradiologist. Patients were followed for 6 months unless they had an incomplete fusion; those patients were reassessed at 9 months. Twenty-four patients underwent 2-level ACDFs and 6 underwent 3-level ACDFs were performed on patients with the following risk factors for pseudarthrosis: smoking (33%), diabetes (13%), and obesity (body mass index ≥ 30 [43%]). Seventeen percent of the patients had multiple risk factors. Soft-tissue swelling peaked at 2 weeks regardless of level of surgery or number of levels treated surgically and decreased to near preoperative levels by 6 months. At 2 weeks, Swallowing-Quality of Life evaluation showed 19% of patients frequently choking on food, 4.8% frequently choking when drinking, and 47.6% with frequent food sticking in the throat. Scores continued to improve, and at 6 months, 0% had frequent choking on food, 6.7% had frequent difficulty drinking, and 6.7% had frequent food sticking in the throat. The Neck Disability Index, neck pain, and arm pain scores all improved progressively over 6 months. Incidence of fusion was 95% at 6 months and 100% at 9 months

Commercial objectives, technology transfer, and systems analysis for fusion power development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dean, Stephen O.

1988-09-01

Fusion is an inexhaustible source of energy that has the potential for economic commercial applications with excellent safety and environmental characteristics. The primary focus for the fusion energy development program is the generation of central station electricity. Fusion has the potential, however, for many other applications. The fact that a large fraction of the energy released in a DT fusion reaction is carried by high energy neutrons suggests potentially unique applications. In addition, fusion R and D will lead to new products and new markets. Each fusion application must meet certain standards of economic and safety and environmental attractiveness. For this reason, economics on the one hand, and safety and environment and licensing on the other, are the two primary criteria for setting long range commercial fusion objectives. A major function of systems analysis is to evaluate the potential of fusion against these objectives and to help guide the fusion R and D program toward practical applications. The transfer of fusion technology and skills from the national labs and universities to industry is the key to achieving the long range objective of commercial fusion applications.

Commercial objectives, technology transfer, and systems analysis for fusion power development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dean, Stephen O.

1988-01-01

Fusion is an inexhaustible source of energy that has the potential for economic commercial applications with excellent safety and environmental characteristics. The primary focus for the fusion energy development program is the generation of central station electricity. Fusion has the potential, however, for many other applications. The fact that a large fraction of the energy released in a DT fusion reaction is carried by high energy neutrons suggests potentially unique applications. In addition, fusion R and D will lead to new products and new markets. Each fusion application must meet certain standards of economic and safety and environmental attractiveness. For this reason, economics on the one hand, and safety and environment and licensing on the other, are the two primary criteria for setting long range commercial fusion objectives. A major function of systems analysis is to evaluate the potential of fusion against these objectives and to help guide the fusion R and D program toward practical applications. The transfer of fusion technology and skills from the national labs and universities to industry is the key to achieving the long range objective of commercial fusion applications.

Soft Skills in the Technology Education Classroom: What Do Students Need?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harris, Kara S.; Rogers, George E.

2008-01-01

In this article, the authors examine which nontechnical competencies or soft skills related to technology education should be developed by high school students. Results clearly indicate that university-level engineering and engineering technology professors rate students' interpersonal, communication, and work ethic competencies as desired…

Technologies for Army Knowledge Fusion

DTIC Science & Technology

2004-09-01

interpret it in context and understand the implications (Alberts et al., 2002). Note that the knowledge / information fusion issue arises immediately here...Army Knowledge Fusion Richard Scherl Department of Computer Science Monmouth University Dana L. Ulery Computational and Information Sciences...civilian and military sources. Knowledge fusion, also called information fusion and multisensor data fusion, names the body of techniques needed to

Use of Soft Computing Technologies For Rocket Engine Control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Trevino, Luis C.; Olcmen, Semih; Polites, Michael

2003-01-01

The problem to be addressed in this paper is to explore how the use of Soft Computing Technologies (SCT) could be employed to further improve overall engine system reliability and performance. Specifically, this will be presented by enhancing rocket engine control and engine health management (EHM) using SCT coupled with conventional control technologies, and sound software engineering practices used in Marshall s Flight Software Group. The principle goals are to improve software management, software development time and maintenance, processor execution, fault tolerance and mitigation, and nonlinear control in power level transitions. The intent is not to discuss any shortcomings of existing engine control and EHM methodologies, but to provide alternative design choices for control, EHM, implementation, performance, and sustaining engineering. The approaches outlined in this paper will require knowledge in the fields of rocket engine propulsion, software engineering for embedded systems, and soft computing technologies (i.e., neural networks, fuzzy logic, and Bayesian belief networks), much of which is presented in this paper. The first targeted demonstration rocket engine platform is the MC-1 (formerly FASTRAC Engine) which is simulated with hardware and software in the Marshall Avionics & Software Testbed laboratory that

Evaluation of MRI-US Fusion Technology in Sports-Related Musculoskeletal Injuries.

PubMed

Wong-On, Manuel; Til-Pérez, Lluís; Balius, Ramón

2015-06-01

A combination of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with real-time high-resolution ultrasound (US) known as fusion imaging may improve visualization of musculoskeletal (MSK) sports medicine injuries. The aim of this study was to evaluate the applicability of MRI-US fusion technology in MSK sports medicine. This study was conducted by the medical services of the FC Barcelona. The participants included volunteers and referred athletes with symptomatic and asymptomatic MSK injuries. All cases underwent MRI which was loaded into the US system for manual registration on the live US image and fusion imaging examination. After every test, an evaluation form was completed in terms of advantages, disadvantages, and anatomic fusion landmarks. From November 2014 to March 2015, we evaluated 20 subjects who underwent fusion imaging, 5 non-injured volunteers and 15 injured athletes, 11 symptomatic and 4 asymptomatic, age range 16-50 years, mean 22. We describe some of the anatomic landmarks used to guide fusion in different regions. This technology allowed us to examine muscle and tendon injuries simultaneously in US and MRI, and the correlation of both techniques, especially low-grade muscular injuries. This has also helped compensate for the limited field of view with US. It improves spatial orientation of cartilage, labrum and meniscal injuries. However, a high-quality MRI image is essential in achieving an adequate fusion image, and 3D sequences need to be added in MRI protocols to improve navigation. The combination of real-time MRI and US image fusion and navigation is relatively easy to perform and is helping to improve understanding of MSK injuries. However, it requires specific skills in MSK imaging and still needs further research in sports-related injuries. Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation.

The Physical Behavior of Stabilised Soft Clay by Electrokinetic Stabilisation Technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Azhar, A. T. S.; Nordin, N. S.; Azmi, M. A. M.; Embong, Z.; Sunar, N.; Hazreek, Z. A. M.; Aziman, M.

2018-04-01

Electrokinetic Stabilisation (EKS) technology is the combination processes of electroosmosis and chemical grouting. This technique is most effective in silty and clayey soils where the hydraulic conductivity is very low. Stabilising agents will assist the EKS treatment by inducing it into soil under direct current. The movement of stabilising agents into soil is governed by the principle of electrokinetics. The aim of this study is to evaluate the physical behavior of soft soil using the EKS technology as an effective method to strengthen soft clay soils with calcium chloride (CaCl2) as the stabilising agent. Stainless steel plates were used as the electrodes, while 1.0 mol/l of CaCl2 was used as the electrolyte that fed at the anode compartment. Soft marine clay at Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia was used as the soil sample. The EKS treatment was developed at Research Centre for Soft Soil (RECESS), UTHM with a constant voltage gradient (50 V/m) in 21 days. The result shows that the shear strength of treated soil was increased across the soil sample. The treated soil near the cathode showed the highest value of shear strength (24.5 – 33 kPa) compared with the anode and in the middle of the soil sample.

[Magnetic resonance imaging in facial injuries and digital fusion CT/MRI].

PubMed

Kozakiewicz, Marcin; Olszycki, Marek; Arkuszewski, Piotr; Stefańczyk, Ludomir

2006-01-01

Magnetic resonance images [MRI] and their digital fusion with computed tomography [CT] data, observed in patients affected with facial injuries, are presented in this study. The MR imaging of 12 posttraumatic patients was performed in the same plains as their previous CT scans. Evaluation focused on quality of the facial soft tissues depicting, which was unsatisfactory in CT. Using the own "Dental Studio" programme the digital fusion of the both modalities was performed. Pathologic dislocations and injures of facial soft tissues are visualized better in MRI than in CT examination. Especially MRI properly reveals disturbances in intraorbital soft structures. MRI-based assessment is valuable in patients affected with facial soft tissues injuries, especially in case of orbita/sinuses hernia. Fusion CT/MRI scans allows to evaluate simultaneously bone structure and soft tissues of the same region.

Commercial objectives, technology transfer, and systems analysis for fusion power development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dean, Stephen O.

1988-03-01

Fusion is an essentially inexhaustible source of energy that has the potential for economically attractive commercial applications with excellent safety and environmental characteristics. The primary focus for the fusion-energy development program is the generation of centralstation electricity. Fusion has the potential, however, for many other applications. The fact that a large fraction of the energy released in a DT fusion reaction is carried by high-energy neutrons suggests potentially unique applications. These include breeding of fissile fuels, production of hydrogen and other chemical products, transmutation or “burning” of various nuclear or chemical wastes, radiation processing of materials, production of radioisotopes, food preservation, medical diagnosis and medical treatment, and space power and space propulsion. In addition, fusion R&D will lead to new products and new markets. Each fusion application must meet certain standards of economic and safety and environmental attractiveness. For this reason, economics on the one hand, and safety and environment and licensing on the other hand, are the two primary criteria for setting long-range commercial fusion objectives. A major function of systems analysis is to evaluate the potential of fusion against these objectives and to help guide the fusion R&D program toward practical applications. The transfer of fusion technology and skills from the national laboratories and universities to industry is the key to achieving the long-range objective of commercial fusion applications.

Critical Fusion--Technology and Equity in Secondary Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Magolda, Peter

2006-01-01

This manuscript reports on the first year of a formative, external program evaluation of the Critical Fusion Initiative (CFI), which involved a higher education institution, a public high school, a corporation, and two nonprofit organizations. The initiative fused technology and education to address the issue of equity by assisting 16 high school…

Soft Skills for Information Technology Professionals in Recruitment Advertisements: A Follow-up Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McMahon, Cynthia J. Moore

2013-01-01

The purpose of this research is to determine if the use of soft skills requirements in job posting advertisements for information technology professional positions has increased since the dissertation study by G. K. Tannnahill in 2007, titled "Study of Soft Skills for IT Workers in Recruitment Advertising," to support prior research…

Is the use of minimally invasive fusion technologies associated with improved outcomes after elective interbody lumbar fusion? Analysis of a nationwide prospective patient-reported outcomes registry.

PubMed

McGirt, Matthew J; Parker, Scott L; Mummaneni, Praveen; Knightly, John; Pfortmiller, Deborah; Foley, Kevin; Asher, Anthony L

2017-07-01

Over the last decade, clinical investigators and biomedical industry groups have used significant resources to develop advanced technologies that enable less invasive spine fusions. These minimally invasive surgery (MIS) technologies often require increased expenditures by hospitals and payers. Although several small single center studies have suggested MIS technologies decrease surgical morbidity and reduce hospital stay, evidence documenting benefit from a patient perspective remains limited. Furthermore, MIS outcomes have yet to be evaluated from the perspective of multiple practice types representing the broad spectrum of US spine surgery. This study aimed to examine a population of patients who underwent one- or two-level interbody lumbar fusion diagnosed with lumbar stenosis or Grade 1 spondylolisthesis in an observational, prospective national registry for the purposes of determining how MIS and traditional open technologies affect postsurgical and patient-reported outcomes (PROs). This study used observational analysis of prospectively collected data. The sample consisted of cases from the National Neurosurgery Quality and Outcomes Database (N 2 QOD). Numeric rating scale for back and leg pain, Oswestry Disability Index, EuroQol-5D, return to work, and perioperative morbidity were the outcome measures. The N 2 QOD is a prospective PROs registry enrolling patients undergoing elective spine surgery from 60 hospitals in 27 US states via representative sampling. We analyzed the N 2 QOD aggregate dataset (2010-2014) to identify one- and two-level lumbar interbody fusion procedures performed for lumbar stenosis or Grade 1 spondylolisthesis with 12 months' follow-up where surgical instrumentation and implant types were clearly identified. Perioperative and 1-year outcomes were compared between cases performed with MIS enabling technologies versus traditional open technologies before and after propensity matching. There were 467 (24%) patients who underwent

Soft Fusion Energy Path: Isotope Production in Energy Subcritical/Economy Hypercritical D +D Colliding-Beam Mini Fusion Reactor `Exyder'

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hester, Tim; Maglich, Bogdan; Calsec Collaboration

2015-03-01

Bethe1 and Sakharov2 argued for soft fusion energy path via isotope production, substantiated by Manheimer3. - Copious T and 3He production4 , 5 from D(d, p) T and D(d, n) 3He reactions in 725 KeV D +D colliding beams was measured in weak-focusing Self-Collider6 , 7 radius 0.15 m, in B = 3.12 T, non-linearly stabilized by electron cloud oscillations8 to confinement time = 24 s. Simulations6 predict that by switching to strong focusing9, 10 deuterons 0.75 MeV each, generate 1 3He +1T +1p + 1n at total input energy cost 10.72 MeV. Economic value of T and 3He is 65 and 120 MeV/atom, respectively. We obtain economic gain 205MeV/10.72 MeV ~ 2,000% i.e. 3He production funds cost of T. If first wall is made of Thorium n's will breed 233U releasing 200 MeV/fission, at neutron cost 5.36 MeV versus 160 MeV in beam on target, resulting in no cost 3He production, valued 75K/g. 1. Physics Today, May 1979, p.44; 2. Memoirs, Vintage Books, (1992); 3. Phys. Today, May 2012 p. 12; 4. Phys. Rev. Lett. 54, 796 (1985); 5. Bull. APS, 57, No. 3 (2012); 6. Part. Acc.1, (1970); 7. ANEUTRONIC FUSION NIM A 271 1-167 (1988); 8. Phys. Rev. Lett. 70, 1818 (1993); 9. Part. Acc. 34, 13 (1990).

Media analysis of the representations of fusion and other future energy technologies

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Delicado, Ana; Schmidt, Luisa; Pereira, Sergio

2015-07-01

Media representations of energy have a relevant impact on public opinion and public support for investment in new energy sources. Fusion energy is one among several emerging energy technologies that requires a strong public investment on its research and development. This paper aims to characterise and compare the media representations of fusion and other emerging energy technologies in Portugal and in Spain. The emerging energy technologies selected for analysis are wave and tidal power, hydrogen, deep sea offshore wind power, energy applications of nanotechnology, bio-fuels from microalgae and IV generation nuclear fission. This work covered the news published in amore » selection of newspapers in Portugal and Spain between January 2007 and June 2013. (authors)« less

Soft-Fault Detection Technologies Developed for Electrical Power Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Button, Robert M.

2004-01-01

The NASA Glenn Research Center, partner universities, and defense contractors are working to develop intelligent power management and distribution (PMAD) technologies for future spacecraft and launch vehicles. The goals are to provide higher performance (efficiency, transient response, and stability), higher fault tolerance, and higher reliability through the application of digital control and communication technologies. It is also expected that these technologies will eventually reduce the design, development, manufacturing, and integration costs for large, electrical power systems for space vehicles. The main focus of this research has been to incorporate digital control, communications, and intelligent algorithms into power electronic devices such as direct-current to direct-current (dc-dc) converters and protective switchgear. These technologies, in turn, will enable revolutionary changes in the way electrical power systems are designed, developed, configured, and integrated in aerospace vehicles and satellites. Initial successes in integrating modern, digital controllers have proven that transient response performance can be improved using advanced nonlinear control algorithms. One technology being developed includes the detection of "soft faults," those not typically covered by current systems in use today. Soft faults include arcing faults, corona discharge faults, and undetected leakage currents. Using digital control and advanced signal analysis algorithms, we have shown that it is possible to reliably detect arcing faults in high-voltage dc power distribution systems (see the preceding photograph). Another research effort has shown that low-level leakage faults and cable degradation can be detected by analyzing power system parameters over time. This additional fault detection capability will result in higher reliability for long-lived power systems such as reusable launch vehicles and space exploration missions.

Liquid lithium loop system to solve challenging technology issues for fusion power plant

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ono, M.; Majeski, R.; Jaworski, M. A.; Hirooka, Y.; Kaita, R.; Gray, T. K.; Maingi, R.; Skinner, C. H.; Christenson, M.; Ruzic, D. N.

2017-11-01

Steady-state fusion power plant designs present major divertor technology challenges, including high divertor heat flux both in steady-state and during transients. In addition to these concerns, there are the unresolved technology issues of long term dust accumulation and associated tritium inventory and safety issues. It has been suggested that radiation-based liquid lithium (LL) divertor concepts with a modest lithium-loop could provide a possible solution for these outstanding fusion reactor technology issues, while potentially improving reactor plasma performance. The application of lithium (Li) in NSTX resulted in improved H-mode confinement, H-mode power threshold reduction, and reduction in the divertor peak heat flux while maintaining essentially Li-free core plasma operation even during H-modes. These promising results in NSTX and related modeling calculations motivated the radiative liquid lithium divertor concept and its variant, the active liquid lithium divertor concept, taking advantage of the enhanced or non-coronal Li radiation in relatively poorly confined divertor plasmas. To maintain the LL purity in a 1 GW-electric class fusion power plant, a closed LL loop system with a modest circulating capacity of ~1 l s-1 is envisioned. We examined two key technology issues: (1) dust or solid particle removal and (2) real time recovery of tritium from LL while keeping the tritium inventory level to an acceptable level. By running the LL-loop continuously, it can carry the dust particles and impurities generated in the vacuum vessel to the outside where the dust/impurities can be removed by relatively simple dust filter, cold trap and/or centrifugal separation systems. With ~1 l s-1 LL flow, even a small 0.1% dust content by weight (or 0.5 g s-1) suggests that the LL-loop could carry away nearly 16 tons of dust per year. In a 1 GW-electric (or ~3 GW fusion power) fusion power plant, about 0.5 g s-1 of tritium is needed to maintain the fusion fuel cycle

Impact of physics and technology innovations on compact tokamak fusion pilot plants

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Menard, Jonathan

2016-10-01

For magnetic fusion to be economically attractive and have near-term impact on the world energy scene it is important to focus on key physics and technology innovations that could enable net electricity production at reduced size and cost. The tokamak is presently closest to achieving the fusion conditions necessary for net electricity at acceptable device size, although sustaining high-performance scenarios free of disruptions remains a significant challenge for the tokamak approach. Previous pilot plant studies have shown that electricity gain is proportional to the product of the fusion gain, blanket thermal conversion efficiency, and auxiliary heating wall-plug efficiency. In this work, the impact of several innovations is assessed with respect to maximizing fusion gain. At fixed bootstrap current fraction, fusion gain varies approximately as the square of the confinement multiplier, normalized beta, and major radius, and varies as the toroidal field and elongation both to the third power. For example, REBCO high-temperature superconductors (HTS) offer the potential to operate at much higher toroidal field than present fusion magnets, but HTS cables are also beginning to access winding pack current densities up to an order of magnitude higher than present technology, and smaller HTS TF magnet sizes make low-aspect-ratio HTS tokamaks potentially attractive by leveraging naturally higher normalized beta and elongation. Further, advances in kinetic stabilization and feedback control of resistive wall modes could also enable significant increases in normalized beta and fusion gain. Significant reductions in pilot plant size will also likely require increased plasma energy confinement, and control of turbulence and/or low edge recycling (for example using lithium walls) would have major impact on fusion gain. Reduced device size could also exacerbate divertor heat loads, and the impact of novel divertor solutions on pilot plant configurations is addressed. For

Application of Multimodality Imaging Fusion Technology in Diagnosis and Treatment of Malignant Tumors under the Precision Medicine Plan.

PubMed

Wang, Shun-Yi; Chen, Xian-Xia; Li, Yi; Zhang, Yu-Ying

2016-12-20

The arrival of precision medicine plan brings new opportunities and challenges for patients undergoing precision diagnosis and treatment of malignant tumors. With the development of medical imaging, information on different modality imaging can be integrated and comprehensively analyzed by imaging fusion system. This review aimed to update the application of multimodality imaging fusion technology in the precise diagnosis and treatment of malignant tumors under the precision medicine plan. We introduced several multimodality imaging fusion technologies and their application to the diagnosis and treatment of malignant tumors in clinical practice. The data cited in this review were obtained mainly from the PubMed database from 1996 to 2016, using the keywords of "precision medicine", "fusion imaging", "multimodality", and "tumor diagnosis and treatment". Original articles, clinical practice, reviews, and other relevant literatures published in English were reviewed. Papers focusing on precision medicine, fusion imaging, multimodality, and tumor diagnosis and treatment were selected. Duplicated papers were excluded. Multimodality imaging fusion technology plays an important role in tumor diagnosis and treatment under the precision medicine plan, such as accurate location, qualitative diagnosis, tumor staging, treatment plan design, and real-time intraoperative monitoring. Multimodality imaging fusion systems could provide more imaging information of tumors from different dimensions and angles, thereby offing strong technical support for the implementation of precision oncology. Under the precision medicine plan, personalized treatment of tumors is a distinct possibility. We believe that multimodality imaging fusion technology will find an increasingly wide application in clinical practice.

Liquid lithium loop system to solve challenging technology issues for fusion power plant

DOE PAGES

Ono, Masayuki; Majeski, Richard P.; Jaworski, Michael A.; ...

2017-07-12

Here, steady-state fusion power plant designs present major divertor technology challenges, including high divertor heat flux both in steady-state and during transients. In addition to these concerns, there are the unresolved technology issues of long term dust accumulation and associated tritium inventory and safety issues. It has been suggested that radiation-based liquid lithium (LL) divertor concepts with a modest lithium-loop could provide a possible solution for these outstanding fusion reactor technology issues, while potentially improving reactor plasma performance. The application of lithium (Li) in NSTX resulted in improved H-mode confinement, H-mode power threshold reduction, and reduction in the divertor peakmore » heat flux while maintaining essentially Li-free core plasma operation even during H-modes. These promising results in NSTX and related modeling calculations motivated the radiative liquid lithium divertor (RLLD) concept and its variant, the active liquid lithium divertor concept (ARLLD), taking advantage of the enhanced or non-coronal Li radiation in relatively poorly confined divertor plasmas. To maintain the LL purity in a 1 GW-electric class fusion power plant, a closed LL loop system with a modest circulating capacity of ~ 1 liter/second (l/sec) is envisioned. We examined two key technology issues: 1) dust or solid particle removal and 2) real time recovery of tritium from LL while keeping the tritium inventory level to an acceptable level. By running the LL-loop continuously, it can carry the dust particles and impurities generated in the vacuum vessel to the outside where the dust / impurities can be removed by relatively simple dust filter, cold trap and/or centrifugal separation systems. With ~ 1 l/sec LL flow, even a small 0.1% dust content by weight (or 0.5 g per sec) suggests that the LL-loop could carry away nearly 16 tons of dust per year. In a 1 GW-electric (or ~ 3 GW fusion power) fusion power plant, about 0.5 g / sec of

Liquid lithium loop system to solve challenging technology issues for fusion power plant

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ono, Masayuki; Majeski, Richard P.; Jaworski, Michael A.

Here, steady-state fusion power plant designs present major divertor technology challenges, including high divertor heat flux both in steady-state and during transients. In addition to these concerns, there are the unresolved technology issues of long term dust accumulation and associated tritium inventory and safety issues. It has been suggested that radiation-based liquid lithium (LL) divertor concepts with a modest lithium-loop could provide a possible solution for these outstanding fusion reactor technology issues, while potentially improving reactor plasma performance. The application of lithium (Li) in NSTX resulted in improved H-mode confinement, H-mode power threshold reduction, and reduction in the divertor peakmore » heat flux while maintaining essentially Li-free core plasma operation even during H-modes. These promising results in NSTX and related modeling calculations motivated the radiative liquid lithium divertor (RLLD) concept and its variant, the active liquid lithium divertor concept (ARLLD), taking advantage of the enhanced or non-coronal Li radiation in relatively poorly confined divertor plasmas. To maintain the LL purity in a 1 GW-electric class fusion power plant, a closed LL loop system with a modest circulating capacity of ~ 1 liter/second (l/sec) is envisioned. We examined two key technology issues: 1) dust or solid particle removal and 2) real time recovery of tritium from LL while keeping the tritium inventory level to an acceptable level. By running the LL-loop continuously, it can carry the dust particles and impurities generated in the vacuum vessel to the outside where the dust / impurities can be removed by relatively simple dust filter, cold trap and/or centrifugal separation systems. With ~ 1 l/sec LL flow, even a small 0.1% dust content by weight (or 0.5 g per sec) suggests that the LL-loop could carry away nearly 16 tons of dust per year. In a 1 GW-electric (or ~ 3 GW fusion power) fusion power plant, about 0.5 g / sec of

Echocardiographic and Fluoroscopic Fusion Imaging for Procedural Guidance: An Overview and Early Clinical Experience.

PubMed

Thaden, Jeremy J; Sanon, Saurabh; Geske, Jeffrey B; Eleid, Mackram F; Nijhof, Niels; Malouf, Joseph F; Rihal, Charanjit S; Bruce, Charles J

2016-06-01

There has been significant growth in the volume and complexity of percutaneous structural heart procedures in the past decade. Increasing procedural complexity and accompanying reliance on multimodality imaging have fueled the development of fusion imaging to facilitate procedural guidance. The first clinically available system capable of echocardiographic and fluoroscopic fusion for real-time guidance of structural heart procedures was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2012. Echocardiographic-fluoroscopic fusion imaging combines the precise catheter and device visualization of fluoroscopy with the soft tissue anatomy and color flow Doppler information afforded by echocardiography in a single image. This allows the interventionalist to perform precise catheter manipulations under fluoroscopy guidance while visualizing critical tissue anatomy provided by echocardiography. However, there are few data available addressing this technology's strengths and limitations in routine clinical practice. The authors provide a critical review of currently available echocardiographic-fluoroscopic fusion imaging for guidance of structural heart interventions to highlight its strengths, limitations, and potential clinical applications and to guide further research into value of this emerging technology. Copyright © 2016 American Society of Echocardiography. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Teaching Soft Skills Employers Need

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ellis, Maureen; Kisling, Eric; Hackworth, Robbie G.

2014-01-01

This study identifies the soft skills community colleges teach in an office technology course and determines whether the skills taught are congruent with the soft skills employers require in today's entry-level office work. A qualitative content analysis of a community college office technology soft skills course was performed using 23 soft skills…

Soft Toys as Instructional Technology in Higher Education: The Case of Llewelyn the Lynx

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Raye, Lee

2017-01-01

Scholarship on instructive technologies in higher education has emphasized the use of high-tech facilitative technologies for long-term use, and low-tech props to illustrate single topics. This paper, on the contrary, discusses the use of a long-term, low-tech instructional technology: Llewelyn the Lynx was a soft animal used to assist with…

The lucky image-motion prediction for simple scene observation based soft-sensor technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Yan; Su, Yun; Hu, Bin

2015-08-01

High resolution is important to earth remote sensors, while the vibration of the platforms of the remote sensors is a major factor restricting high resolution imaging. The image-motion prediction and real-time compensation are key technologies to solve this problem. For the reason that the traditional autocorrelation image algorithm cannot meet the demand for the simple scene image stabilization, this paper proposes to utilize soft-sensor technology in image-motion prediction, and focus on the research of algorithm optimization in imaging image-motion prediction. Simulations results indicate that the improving lucky image-motion stabilization algorithm combining the Back Propagation Network (BP NN) and support vector machine (SVM) is the most suitable for the simple scene image stabilization. The relative error of the image-motion prediction based the soft-sensor technology is below 5%, the training computing speed of the mathematical predication model is as fast as the real-time image stabilization in aerial photography.

Soft tissue angiofibroma: Clinicopathologic, immunohistochemical and molecular analysis of 14 cases.

PubMed

Bekers, Elise M; Groenen, Patricia J T A; Verdijk, Marian A J; Raaijmakers-van Geloof, Winny L; Roepman, Paul; Vink, Robert; Gilhuijs, Nathalie D B; van Gorp, Joost M; Bovée, Judith V M G; Creytens, David H; Flanagan, Adrienne M; Suurmeijer, Albert J H; Mentzel, Thomas; Arbajian, Elsa; Flucke, Uta

2017-10-01

Soft tissue angiofibroma is rare and has characteristic histomorphological and genetic features. For diagnostic purposes, there are no specific antibodies available. Fourteen lesions (6 females, 8 males; age range 7-67 years) of the lower extremities (12) and trunk (2) were investigated by immunohistochemistry, including for the first time NCOA2. NCOA2 was also tested in a control group of other spindle cell lesions. The known fusion-genes (AHRR-NCOA2 and GTF2I-NCOA2) were examined using RT-PCR in order to evaluate their diagnostic value. Cases in which no fusion gene was detected were additionally analysed by RNA sequencing. All cases tested showed nuclear expression of NCOA2. However, this was not specific since other spindle cell neoplasms also expressed this marker in a high percentage of cases. Other variably positive markers were EMA, SMA, desmin and CD34. STAT6 was negative in the cases tested. By RT-PCR for the most frequently observed fusions, an AHRR-NCOA2 fusion transcript was found in 9/14 cases. GTF2I-NCOA2 was not detected in the remaining cases (n = 3). RNA sequencing revealed three additional positive cases; two harbored a AHRR-NCOA2 fusion and one case a novel GAB1-ABL1 fusion. Two cases failed molecular analysis due to poor RNA quality. In conclusion, the AHRR-NCOA2 fusion is a frequent finding in soft tissue angiofibroma, while GTF2I-NCOA2 seems to be a rare genetic event. For the first time, we report a GAB1-ABL1 fusion in a soft tissue angiofibroma of a child. Nuclear expression of NCOA2 is not discriminating when compared with other spindle cell neoplasms. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Fusion or confusion: knowledge or nonsense?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rothman, Peter L.; Denton, Richard V.

1991-08-01

The terms 'data fusion,' 'sensor fusion,' multi-sensor integration,' and 'multi-source integration' have been used widely in the technical literature to refer to a variety of techniques, technologies, systems, and applications which employ and/or combine data derived from multiple information sources. Applications of data fusion range from real-time fusion of sensor information for the navigation of mobile robots to the off-line fusion of both human and technical strategic intelligence data. The Department of Defense Critical Technologies Plan lists data fusion in the highest priority group of critical technologies, but just what is data fusion? The DoD Critical Technologies Plan states that data fusion involves 'the acquisition, integration, filtering, correlation, and synthesis of useful data from diverse sources for the purposes of situation/environment assessment, planning, detecting, verifying, diagnosing problems, aiding tactical and strategic decisions, and improving system performance and utility.' More simply states, sensor fusion refers to the combination of data from multiple sources to provide enhanced information quality and availability over that which is available from any individual source alone. This paper presents a survey of the state-of-the- art in data fusion technologies, system components, and applications. A set of characteristics which can be utilized to classify data fusion systems is presented. Additionally, a unifying mathematical and conceptual framework within which to understand and organize fusion technologies is described. A discussion of often overlooked issues in the development of sensor fusion systems is also presented.

HaloTag technology for specific and covalent labeling of fusion proteins.

PubMed

Benink, Hélène A; Urh, Marjeta

2015-01-01

Appending proteins of interest to fluorescent protein tags such as GFP has revolutionized how proteins are studied in the cellular environment. Over the last few decades many varieties of fluorescent proteins have been generated, each bringing new capability to research. However, taking full advantage of standard fluorescent proteins with advanced and differential features requires significant effort on the part of the researcher. This approach necessitates that many genetic fusions be generated and confirmed to function properly in cells with the same protein of interest. To lessen this burden, a newer category of protein fusion tags termed "self-labeling protein tags" has been developed. This approach utilizes a single protein tag, the function of which can be altered by attaching various chemical moieties (fluorescent labels, affinity handles, etc.). In this way a single genetically encoded protein fusion can easily be given functional diversity and adaptability as supplied by synthetic chemistry. Here we present protein labeling methods using HaloTag technology; comprised of HaloTag protein and the collection of small molecules designed to bind it specifically and provide it with varied functionalities. For imaging purposes these small molecules, termed HaloTag ligands, contain distinct fluorophores. Due to covalent and rapid binding between HaloTag protein and its ligands, labeling is permanent and efficient. Many of these ligands have been optimized for permeability across cellular membranes allowing for live cell labeling and imaging analysis. Nonpermeable ligands have also been developed for specific labeling of surface proteins. Overall, HaloTag is a versatile technology that empowers the end user to label a protein of interest with the choice of different fluorophores while alleviating the need for generation of multiple genetic fusions.

Fusion Teaching: Utilizing Course Management Technology to Deliver an Effective Multimodal Pedagogy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Childs, Bradley D.; Cochran, Howard H.; Velikova, Marieta

2013-01-01

Fusion teaching merges several pedagogies into a coherent whole. Course management technology allows for the digitization and delivery of pedagogies in an effective and exciting manner. Online course management options more easily enable outcome assessment and monitoring for continuous improvement.

The Fusion of Learning Theory and Technology in an Online Music History Course Redesign

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scarnati, Blase; Garcia, Paula

2008-01-01

Teaching today's students requires an integration of learner-centered pedagogy with innovative technological resources. In this article, Blase Scarnati and Paula Garcia describe the redesign of a junior-level music history course guided by learner-centered principles and driven by a fusion of stimulating technology-based learning tools and…

Open-Loop Flight Testing of COBALT Navigation and Sensor Technologies for Precise Soft Landing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Carson, John M., III; Restrepo, Caroline I.; Seubert, Carl R.; Amzajerdian, Farzin; Pierrottet, Diego F.; Collins, Steven M.; O'Neal, Travis V.; Stelling, Richard

2017-01-01

An open-loop flight test campaign of the NASA COBALT (CoOperative Blending of Autonomous Landing Technologies) payload was conducted onboard the Masten Xodiac suborbital rocket testbed. The payload integrates two complementary sensor technologies that together provide a spacecraft with knowledge during planetary descent and landing to precisely navigate and softly touchdown in close proximity to targeted surface locations. The two technologies are the Navigation Doppler Lidar (NDL), for high-precision velocity and range measurements, and the Lander Vision System (LVS) for map-relative state esti- mates. A specialized navigation filter running onboard COBALT fuses the NDL and LVS data in real time to produce a very precise Terrain Relative Navigation (TRN) solution that is suitable for future, autonomous planetary landing systems that require precise and soft landing capabilities. During the open-loop flight campaign, the COBALT payload acquired measurements and generated a precise navigation solution, but the Xodiac vehicle planned and executed its maneuvers based on an independent, GPS-based navigation solution. This minimized the risk to the vehicle during the integration and testing of the new navigation sensing technologies within the COBALT payload.

The Use of Analytic Decision Game (ADG) Methods for Test and Evaluation of Hard and Soft Data Fusion Systems and Education of a New Generation of Data Fusion Analysts

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-10-01

education of a new generation of data fusion analysts Jacob L. Graham College of Information Sciences & Technology Pennsylvania State University...University Park, PA, U.S.A. jgraham@ist.psu.edu David L. Hall College of Information Sciences & Technology Pennsylvania State University...ELEMENT NUMBER 6. AUTHOR(S) 5d. PROJECT NUMBER 5e. TASK NUMBER 5f. WORK UNIT NUMBER 7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) College

Review of Fusion Systems and Contributing Technologies for SIHS-TD (Examen des Systemes de Fusion et des Technologies d’Appui pour la DT SIHS)

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-03-31

Unlimited, Nivisys, Insight technology, Elcan, FLIR Systems, Stanford photonics Hardware Sensor fusion processors Video processing boards Image, video...Engineering The SPIE Digital Library is a resource for optics and photonics information. It contains more than 70,000 full-text papers from SPIE...conditions Top row: Stanford Photonics XR-Mega-10 Extreme 1400 x 1024 pixels ICCD detector, 33 msec exposure, no binning. Middle row: Andor EEV iXon

Task toward a Realization of Commercial Tokamak Fusion Plants in 2050 -The Role of ITER and the Succeeding Developments- 4.Technology and Material Research in Fusion Power Plant Development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Akiba, Masato; Matsui, Hideki; Takatsu, Hideyuki; Konishi, Satoshi

Technical issues regarding the fusion power plant that are required to be developed in the period of ITER construction and operation, both with ITER and with other facilities that complement ITER are described in this section. Three major fields are considered to be important in fusion technology. Section 4.1 summarizes blanket study, and ITER Test Blanket Module (TBM) development that focuses its effort on the first generation power blanket to be installed in DEMO. ITER will be equipped with 6 TBMs which are developed under each party's fusion program. In Japan, the solid breeder using water as a coolant is the primary candidate, and He-cooled pebble bed is the alternative. Other liquid options such as LiPb, Li or molten salt are developed by other parties' initiatives. The Test Blanket Working Group (TBWG) is coordinating these efforts. Japanese universities are investigating advanced concepts and fundamental crosscutting technologies. Section 4.2 introduces material development and particularly, the international irradiation facility, IFMIF. Reduced activation ferritic/martensitic steels are identified as promising candidates for the structural material of the first generation fusion blanket, while and vanadium alloy and SiC/SiC composite are pursued as advanced options. The IFMIF is currently planning the next phase of joint activity, EVEDA (Engineering Validation and Engineering Design Activity) that encompasses construction. Material studies together with the ITER TBM will provide essential technical information for development of the fusion power plant. Other technical issues to be addressed regarding the first generation fusion power plant are summarized in section 4.3. Development of components for ITER made remarkable progress for the major essential technology also necessary for future fusion plants, however many still need further improvements toward power plant. Such areas includes; the divertor, plasma heating/current drive, magnets, tritium, and

Extreme Mechanics in Soft Pneumatic Robots and Soft Microfluidic Electronics and Sensors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Majidi, Carmel

2012-02-01

In the near future, machines and robots will be completely soft, stretchable, impact resistance, and capable of adapting their shape and functionality to changes in mission and environment. Similar to biological tissue and soft-body organisms, these next-generation technologies will contain no rigid parts and instead be composed entirely of soft elastomers, gels, fluids, and other non-rigid matter. Using a combination of rapid prototyping tools, microfabrication methods, and emerging techniques in so-called ``soft lithography,'' scientists and engineers are currently introducing exciting new families of soft pneumatic robots, soft microfluidic sensors, and hyperelastic electronics that can be stretched to as much as 10x their natural length. Progress has been guided by an interdisciplinary collection of insights from chemistry, life sciences, robotics, microelectronics, and solid mechanics. In virtually every technology and application domain, mechanics and elasticity have a central role in governing functionality and design. Moreover, in contrast to conventional machines and electronics, soft pneumatic systems and microfluidics typically operate in the finite deformation regime, with materials stretching to several times their natural length. In this talk, I will review emerging paradigms in soft pneumatic robotics and soft microfluidic electronics and highlight modeling and design challenges that arise from the extreme mechanics of inflation, locomotion, sensor operation, and human interaction. I will also discuss perceived challenges and opportunities in a broad range of potential application, from medicine to wearable computing.

Millimeter-wave imaging of magnetic fusion plasmas: technology innovations advancing physics understanding

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Y.; Tobias, B.; Chang, Y.-T.; Yu, J.-H.; Li, M.; Hu, F.; Chen, M.; Mamidanna, M.; Phan, T.; Pham, A.-V.; Gu, J.; Liu, X.; Zhu, Y.; Domier, C. W.; Shi, L.; Valeo, E.; Kramer, G. J.; Kuwahara, D.; Nagayama, Y.; Mase, A.; Luhmann, N. C., Jr.

2017-07-01

Electron cyclotron emission (ECE) imaging is a passive radiometric technique that measures electron temperature fluctuations; and microwave imaging reflectometry (MIR) is an active radar imaging technique that measures electron density fluctuations. Microwave imaging diagnostic instruments employing these techniques have made important contributions to fusion science and have been adopted at major fusion facilities worldwide including DIII-D, EAST, ASDEX Upgrade, HL-2A, KSTAR, LHD, and J-TEXT. In this paper, we describe the development status of three major technological advancements: custom mm-wave integrated circuits (ICs), digital beamforming (DBF), and synthetic diagnostic modeling (SDM). These have the potential to greatly advance microwave fusion plasma imaging, enabling compact and low-noise transceiver systems with real-time, fast tracking ability to address critical fusion physics issues, including ELM suppression and disruptions in the ITER baseline scenario, naturally ELM-free states such as QH-mode, and energetic particle confinement (i.e. Alfvén eigenmode stability) in high-performance regimes that include steady-state and advanced tokamak scenarios. Furthermore, these systems are fully compatible with today’s most challenging non-inductive heating and current drive systems and capable of operating in harsh environments, making them the ideal approach for diagnosing long-pulse and steady-state tokamaks.

Millimeter-wave imaging of magnetic fusion plasmas: technology innovations advancing physics understanding

DOE PAGES

Wang, Y.; Tobias, B.; Chang, Y. -T.; ...

2017-03-14

Electron cyclotron emission (ECE) imaging is a passive radiometric technique that measures electron temperature fluctuations; and microwave imaging reflectometry (MIR) is an active radar imaging technique that measures electron density fluctuations. The microwave imaging diagnostic instruments employing these techniques have made important contributions to fusion science and have been adopted at major fusion facilities worldwide including DIII-D, EAST, ASDEX Upgrade, HL-2A, KSTAR, LHD, and J-TEXT. In this paper, we describe the development status of three major technological advancements: custom mm-wave integrated circuits (ICs), digital beamforming (DBF), and synthetic diagnostic modeling (SDM). These also have the potential to greatly advance microwavemore » fusion plasma imaging, enabling compact and low-noise transceiver systems with real-time, fast tracking ability to address critical fusion physics issues, including ELM suppression and disruptions in the ITER baseline scenario, naturally ELM-free states such as QH-mode, and energetic particle confinement (i.e. Alfven eigenmode stability) in high-performance regimes that include steady-state and advanced tokamak scenarios. Furthermore, these systems are fully compatible with today's most challenging non-inductive heating and current drive systems and capable of operating in harsh environments, making them the ideal approach for diagnosing long-pulse and steady-state tokamaks.« less

Use of wound dressings with soft silicone adhesive technology.

PubMed

Morris, Clare; Emsley, Paulene; Marland, Elizabeth; Meuleneire, Frans; White, Richard

2009-04-01

To evaluate how pain, during and in-between dressing changes, is affected by the introduction of Mepilex Border Lite, a wound dressing manufactured by Mölnlycke Health Care using Safetac soft silicone adhesive technology, to the treatment of different types of paediatric wounds/skin injuries. Wounds/skin injuries that met the criteria for inclusion in the study were dressed with Mepilex Border Lite. Patients were followed for six weeks or until their wounds/skin injuries had healed, whichever occurred earlier. At each dressing change, pain severity before and during dressing removal was rated by the patient and the investigator on a scale from zero (no pain at all) to ten (worst pain ever). Other variables measured included: signs of trauma to wound/skin injury and surrounding skin, the proportion of viable/non-viable tissue, the quantity and appearance of exudate, odour, and clinical signs of infection. At the final dressing change, patients and investigators completed questionnaires to rate the dressing performance. Mean pain severity scores were significantly lower (p < or = 0.003) at the first dressing change than at baseline. Over 99.5 per cent of the Mepilex Border Lite dressing changes were reported to be atraumatic and more than half of the wounds healed within the study period. Conformability, ease of use, ease of removal, patient comfort, and overall experience with the dressing were rated as 'good' to 'very good' at the vast majority of final visit evaluations. This study provides further evidence of the ability of dressings with Safetac soft silicone adhesive technology to minimise trauma and pain and demonstrates the ability of Mepilex Border Lite to overcome the clinical challenges associated with the use of dressings on the wounds/skin injuries of paediatric patients.

Developing a multimodal biometric authentication system using soft computing methods.

PubMed

Malcangi, Mario

2015-01-01

Robust personal authentication is becoming ever more important in computer-based applications. Among a variety of methods, biometric offers several advantages, mainly in embedded system applications. Hard and soft multi-biometric, combined with hard and soft computing methods, can be applied to improve the personal authentication process and to generalize the applicability. This chapter describes the embedded implementation of a multi-biometric (voiceprint and fingerprint) multimodal identification system based on hard computing methods (DSP) for feature extraction and matching, an artificial neural network (ANN) for soft feature pattern matching, and a fuzzy logic engine (FLE) for data fusion and decision.

Soft Robotics.

PubMed

Whitesides, George M

2018-04-09

This description of "soft robotics" is not intended to be a conventional review, in the sense of a comprehensive technical summary of a developing field. Rather, its objective is to describe soft robotics as a new field-one that offers opportunities to chemists and materials scientists who like to make "things" and to work with macroscopic objects that move and exert force. It will give one (personal) view of what soft actuators and robots are, and how this class of soft devices fits into the more highly developed field of conventional "hard" robotics. It will also suggest how and why soft robotics is more than simply a minor technical "tweak" on hard robotics and propose a unique role for chemistry, and materials science, in this field. Soft robotics is, at its core, intellectually and technologically different from hard robotics, both because it has different objectives and uses and because it relies on the properties of materials to assume many of the roles played by sensors, actuators, and controllers in hard robotics. © 2018 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Research on the use of data fusion technology to evaluate the state of electromechanical equipment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lin, Lin

2018-04-01

Aiming at the problems of different testing information modes and the coexistence of quantitative and qualitative information in the state evaluation of electromechanical equipment, the paper proposes the use of data fusion technology to evaluate the state of electromechanical equipment. This paper introduces the state evaluation process of mechanical and electrical equipment in detail, uses the D-S evidence theory to fuse the decision-making layers of mechanical and electrical equipment state evaluation and carries out simulation tests. The simulation results show that it is feasible and effective to apply the data fusion technology to the state evaluation of the mechatronic equipment. After the multiple decision-making information provided by different evaluation methods are fused repeatedly and the useful information is extracted repeatedly, the fuzziness of judgment can be reduced and the state evaluation Credibility.

Application of data fusion technology based on D-S evidence theory in fire detection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cai, Zhishan; Chen, Musheng

2015-12-01

Judgment and identification based on single fire characteristic parameter information in fire detection is subject to environmental disturbances, and accordingly its detection performance is limited with the increase of false positive rate and false negative rate. The compound fire detector employs information fusion technology to judge and identify multiple fire characteristic parameters in order to improve the reliability and accuracy of fire detection. The D-S evidence theory is applied to the multi-sensor data-fusion: first normalize the data from all sensors to obtain the normalized basic probability function of the fire occurrence; then conduct the fusion processing using the D-S evidence theory; finally give the judgment results. The results show that the method meets the goal of accurate fire signal identification and increases the accuracy of fire alarm, and therefore is simple and effective.

Research on Equivalent Tests of Dynamics of On-orbit Soft Contact Technology Based on On-Orbit Experiment Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, F.; Dong, Z. H.; Ye, X.

2018-05-01

Currently, space robots have been become a very important means of space on-orbit maintenance and support. Many countries are taking deep research and experiment on this. Because space operation attitude is very complicated, it is difficult to model them in research lab. This paper builds up a complete equivalent experiment framework according to the requirement of proposed space soft-contact technology. Also, this paper carries out flexible multi-body dynamics parameters verification for on-orbit soft-contact mechanism, which combines on-orbit experiment data, the built soft-contact mechanism equivalent model and flexible multi-body dynamics equivalent model that is based on KANE equation. The experiment results approve the correctness of the built on-orbit soft-contact flexible multi-body dynamics.

Target Fabrication Technology and New Functional Materials for Laser Fusion and Laser-Plasma Experiment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nagai, Keiji; Norimatsu, Takayoshi; Izawa, Yasukazu

Target fabrication technique is a key issue of laser fusion. We present a comprehensive, up-to-data compilation of laser fusion target fabrication and relating new materials. To achieve highly efficient laser implosion, organic and inorganic highly spherical millimeter-sized capsules and cryogenic hydrogen layers inside should be uniform in diameter and thickness within sub-micrometer ˜ nanometer error. Porous structured targets and molecular cluster targets are required for laser-plasma experiments and applications. Various technologies and new materials concerning above purposes are summarized including fast-ignition targets, equation-of-state measurement targets, high energy ion generation targets, etc.

Prostate seed implant quality assessment using MR and CT image fusion.

PubMed

Amdur, R J; Gladstone, D; Leopold, K A; Harris, R D

1999-01-01

After a seed implant of the prostate, computerized tomography (CT) is ideal for determining seed distribution but soft tissue anatomy is frequently not well visualized. Magnetic resonance (MR) images soft tissue anatomy well but seed visualization is problematic. We describe a method of fusing CT and MR images to exploit the advantages of both of these modalities when assessing the quality of a prostate seed implant. Eleven consecutive prostate seed implant patients were imaged with axial MR and CT scans. MR and CT images were fused in three dimensions using the Pinnacle 3.0 version of the ADAC treatment planning system. The urethra and bladder base were used to "line up" MR and CT image sets during image fusion. Alignment was accomplished using translation and rotation in the three ortho-normal planes. Accuracy of image fusion was evaluated by calculating the maximum deviation in millimeters between the center of the urethra on axial MR versus CT images. Implant quality was determined by comparing dosimetric results to previously set parameters. Image fusion was performed with a high degree of accuracy. When lining up the urethra and base of bladder, the maximum difference in axial position of the urethra between MR and CT averaged 2.5 mm (range 1.3-4.0 mm, SD 0.9 mm). By projecting CT-derived dose distributions over MR images of soft tissue structures, qualitative and quantitative evaluation of implant quality is straightforward. The image-fusion process we describe provides a sophisticated way of assessing the quality of a prostate seed implant. Commercial software makes the process time-efficient and available to any clinical practice with a high-quality treatment planning system. While we use MR to image soft tissue structures, the process could be used with any imaging modality that is able to visualize the prostatic urethra (e.g., ultrasound).

Soft Robotic Grippers.

PubMed

Shintake, Jun; Cacucciolo, Vito; Floreano, Dario; Shea, Herbert

2018-05-07

Advances in soft robotics, materials science, and stretchable electronics have enabled rapid progress in soft grippers. Here, a critical overview of soft robotic grippers is presented, covering different material sets, physical principles, and device architectures. Soft gripping can be categorized into three technologies, enabling grasping by: a) actuation, b) controlled stiffness, and c) controlled adhesion. A comprehensive review of each type is presented. Compared to rigid grippers, end-effectors fabricated from flexible and soft components can often grasp or manipulate a larger variety of objects. Such grippers are an example of morphological computation, where control complexity is greatly reduced by material softness and mechanical compliance. Advanced materials and soft components, in particular silicone elastomers, shape memory materials, and active polymers and gels, are increasingly investigated for the design of lighter, simpler, and more universal grippers, using the inherent functionality of the materials. Embedding stretchable distributed sensors in or on soft grippers greatly enhances the ways in which the grippers interact with objects. Challenges for soft grippers include miniaturization, robustness, speed, integration of sensing, and control. Improved materials, processing methods, and sensing play an important role in future research. © 2018 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Paediatric and adult soft tissue sarcomas with NTRK1 gene fusions: a subset of spindle cell sarcomas unified by a prominent myopericytic/haemangiopericytic pattern.

PubMed

Haller, Florian; Knopf, Jasmin; Ackermann, Anne; Bieg, Matthias; Kleinheinz, Kortine; Schlesner, Matthias; Moskalev, Evgeny A; Will, Rainer; Satir, Ali Abdel; Abdelmagid, Ibtihalat E; Giedl, Johannes; Carbon, Roman; Rompel, Oliver; Hartmann, Arndt; Wiemann, Stefan; Metzler, Markus; Agaimy, Abbas

2016-04-01

Neoplasms with a myopericytomatous pattern represent a morphological spectrum of lesions encompassing myopericytoma of the skin and soft tissue, angioleiomyoma, myofibromatosis/infantile haemangiopericytoma and putative neoplasms reported as malignant myopericytoma. Lack of reproducible phenotypic and genetic features of malignant myopericytic neoplasms have prevented the establishment of myopericytic sarcoma as an acceptable diagnostic category. Following detection of a LMNA-NTRK1 gene fusion in an index case of paediatric haemangiopericytoma-like sarcoma by combined whole-genome and RNA sequencing, we identified three additional sarcomas harbouring NTRK1 gene fusions, termed 'spindle cell sarcoma, NOS with myo/haemangiopericytic growth pattern'. The patients were two children aged 11 months and 2 years and two adults aged 51 and 80 years. While the tumours of the adults were strikingly myopericytoma-like, but with clear-cut atypical features, the paediatric cases were more akin to infantile myofibromatosis/haemangiopericytoma. All cases contained numerous thick-walled dysplastic-like vessels with segmental or diffuse nodular myxohyaline myo-intimal proliferations of smooth muscle actin-positive cells, occasionally associated with thrombosis. Immunohistochemistry showed variable expression of smooth muscle actin and CD34, but other mesenchymal markers, including STAT6, were negative. This study showed a novel variant of myo/haemangiopericytic sarcoma with recurrent NTRK1 gene fusions. Given the recent introduction of a novel therapeutic approach targeting NTRK fusion-positive neoplasms, recognition of this rare but likely under-reported sarcoma variant is strongly encouraged. Copyright © 2016 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Classification of weld defect based on information fusion technology for radiographic testing system

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jiang, Hongquan; Liang, Zeming, E-mail: heavenlzm@126.com; Gao, Jianmin

Improving the efficiency and accuracy of weld defect classification is an important technical problem in developing the radiographic testing system. This paper proposes a novel weld defect classification method based on information fusion technology, Dempster–Shafer evidence theory. First, to characterize weld defects and improve the accuracy of their classification, 11 weld defect features were defined based on the sub-pixel level edges of radiographic images, four of which are presented for the first time in this paper. Second, we applied information fusion technology to combine different features for weld defect classification, including a mass function defined based on the weld defectmore » feature information and the quartile-method-based calculation of standard weld defect class which is to solve a sample problem involving a limited number of training samples. A steam turbine weld defect classification case study is also presented herein to illustrate our technique. The results show that the proposed method can increase the correct classification rate with limited training samples and address the uncertainties associated with weld defect classification.« less

Classification of weld defect based on information fusion technology for radiographic testing system.

PubMed

Jiang, Hongquan; Liang, Zeming; Gao, Jianmin; Dang, Changying

2016-03-01

Improving the efficiency and accuracy of weld defect classification is an important technical problem in developing the radiographic testing system. This paper proposes a novel weld defect classification method based on information fusion technology, Dempster-Shafer evidence theory. First, to characterize weld defects and improve the accuracy of their classification, 11 weld defect features were defined based on the sub-pixel level edges of radiographic images, four of which are presented for the first time in this paper. Second, we applied information fusion technology to combine different features for weld defect classification, including a mass function defined based on the weld defect feature information and the quartile-method-based calculation of standard weld defect class which is to solve a sample problem involving a limited number of training samples. A steam turbine weld defect classification case study is also presented herein to illustrate our technique. The results show that the proposed method can increase the correct classification rate with limited training samples and address the uncertainties associated with weld defect classification.

Project Icarus: Nuclear Fusion Propulsion Concept Comparison

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stanic, M.

Project Icarus will use nuclear fusion as the primary propulsion, since achieving breakeven is imminent within the next decade. Therefore, fusion technology provides confidence in further development and fairly high technological maturity by the time the Icarus mission would be plausible. Currently there are numerous (over 2 dozen) different fusion approaches that are simultaneously being developed around the World and it is difficult to predict which of the concepts is going to be the most successful one. This study tried to estimate current technological maturity and possible technological extrapolation of fusion approaches for which appropriate data could be found. Figures of merit that were assessed include: current technological state, mass and volume estimates, possible gain values, main advantages and disadvantages of the concept and an attempt to extrapolate current technological state for the next decade or two. Analysis suggests that Magnetic Confinement Fusion (MCF) concepts are not likely to deliver sufficient performance due to size, mass, gain and large technological barriers of the concept. However, ICF and PJMIF did show potential for delivering necessary performance, assuming appropriate techno- logical advances. This paper is a submission of the Project Icarus Study Group.

The curious ability of PEG-fusion technologies to restore lost behaviors after nerve severance

PubMed Central

Bittner, G.D.; Sengelaub, D.R.; Trevino, R.C.; Peduzzi, J.D.; Mikesh, M.; Ghergherehchi, C.L.; Schallert, T.; Thayer, W.P.

2016-01-01

Traumatic injuries to PNS and CNS axons are not uncommon. Restoration of lost behaviors following severance of mammalian peripheral nerve axons (PNAs) relies on regeneration by slow outgrowths and is typically poor or nonexistent if after ablation or injuries close to the soma. Behavioral recovery after severing spinal tract axons (STAs) is poor because STAs do not naturally regenerate. Current techniques to enhance PNA and/or STA regeneration have had limited success and do not prevent the onset of Wallerian degeneration of severed distal segments. This review describes the use of a recently-developed polyethylene glycol (PEG)-fusion technology combining concepts in biochemical engineering, cell biology and clinical microsurgery. Within minutes after micro-suturing carefully-trimmed cut ends and applying a well-specified sequence of solutions, PEG-fused axons exhibit morphological continuity (assessed by intra-axonal dye diffusion) and electrophysiological continuity (assessed by conduction of action potentials) across the lesion site. Wallerian degeneration of PEG-fused PNAs is greatly reduced as measured by counts of sensory and/or motor axons, and maintenance of axonal diameters and neuromuscular synapses. After PEG-fusion repair, cut- or crush-severed or ablated PNAs or crush-severed STAs rapidly (within days to weeks), more completely, and permanently restore PNA- or STA-mediated behaviors compared to non-treated or conventionally-treated animals. PEG-fusion success is enhanced or decreased by applying anti-oxidants or oxidants, trimming cut ends or stretching axons, exposure to Ca2+-free or - containing solutions, respectively. PEG-fusion technology employs surgical techniques and chemicals already used by clinicians and has the potential to produce a paradigm-shift in the treatment of traumatic injuries to PNAs and STAs. PMID:26525605

Fundamentals of soft robot locomotion

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

Soft robotics and its related technologies enable robot abilities in several robotics domains including, but not exclusively related to, manipulation, manufacturing, human–robot interaction and locomotion. Although field applications have emerged for soft manipulation and human–robot interaction, mobile soft robots appear to remain in the research stage, involving the somehow conflictual goals of having a deformable body and exerting forces on the environment to achieve locomotion. This paper aims to provide a reference guide for researchers approaching mobile soft robotics, to describe the underlying principles of soft robot locomotion with its pros and cons, and to envisage applications and further developments for mobile soft robotics. PMID:28539483

Fundamentals of soft robot locomotion.

PubMed

Calisti, M; Picardi, G; Laschi, C

2017-05-01

Soft robotics and its related technologies enable robot abilities in several robotics domains including, but not exclusively related to, manipulation, manufacturing, human-robot interaction and locomotion. Although field applications have emerged for soft manipulation and human-robot interaction, mobile soft robots appear to remain in the research stage, involving the somehow conflictual goals of having a deformable body and exerting forces on the environment to achieve locomotion. This paper aims to provide a reference guide for researchers approaching mobile soft robotics, to describe the underlying principles of soft robot locomotion with its pros and cons, and to envisage applications and further developments for mobile soft robotics. © 2017 The Author(s).

Nanobiotechnology: soft lithography.

PubMed

Mele, Elisa; Pisignano, Dario

2009-01-01

An entirely new scientific and technological area has been born from the combination of nanotechnology and biology: nanobiotechnology. Such a field is primed especially by the strong potential synergy enabled by the integration of technologies, protocols, and investigation methods, since, while biomolecules represent functional nanosystems interesting for nanotechnology, micro- and nano-devices can be very useful instruments for studying biological materials. In particular, the research of new approaches for manipulating matter and fabricating structures with micrometre- and sub-micrometre resolution has determined the development of soft lithography, a new set of non-photolithographic patterning techniques applied to the realization of selective proteins and cells attachment, microfluidic circuits for protein and DNA chips, and 3D scaffolds for tissue engineering. Today, soft lithographies have become an asset of nanobiotechnology. This Chapter examines the biological applications of various soft lithographic techniques, with particular attention to the main general features of soft lithography and of materials commonly employed with these methods. We present approaches particularly suitable for biological materials, such as microcontact printing (muCP) and microfluidic lithography, and some key micro- and nanobiotechnology applications, such as the patterning of protein and DNA microarrays and the realization of microfluidic-based analytical devices.

The Science and Technology Case for High-Field Fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Whyte, D.

2017-10-01

This review will focus on the origin, development and new opportunities of a strategy for fusion energy based on the high-field approach. In this approach confinement devices are designed at the maximum possible value of vacuum magnetic field strength, B. The integrated electrical, mechanical and cooling engineering challenges of high-field on coil (Bcoil) , large-bore electromagnets are examined for both copper and superconductor materials. These engineering challenges are confronted because of the profound science advantages provided by high-B, which are derived and reviewed: high fusion power density, B4, in compact devices, thermonuclear plasmas with significant stability margin, and, in tokamaks, access to higher plasma density. Two distinct high-field strategies emerged in the 1980's. The first was compact, cryogenically-cooled copper devices (BPX, IGNITOR, FIRE) with Bcoil>20 T, while the second was a large-volume, Nb3Sn superconductor device with Bcoil <12 T; with the second path exclusively chosen ca. 2000 with the ITER construction decision. The reasoning, advantages and challenges of that decision are discussed. Yet since that decision, a new opportunity has arisen: compact, Rare Earth Barium Copper Oxide (REBCO) superconductor-based devices with Bcoil >20 T; a strategy that essentially combines the best components of the two previous strategies. Recent activities examining the technology and science implications of this new strategy are reviewed. On the technology side, REBCO superconductors have now been used to produce Bcoil>40 T in small-bore electromagnets, enabled by rapid progress in manufactured REBCO conductor quality, coil modularity and flexible operating temperature range. Specific tokamak designs, over a range of aspect ratios, have been developed to take scientific advantage of these features in various ways, and will be described.

Review of the magnetic fusion program by the 1986 ERAB Fusion Panel

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Davidson, Ronald C.

1987-09-01

The 1986 ERAB Fusion Panel finds that fusion energy continues to be an attractive energy source with great potential for the future, and that the magnetic fusion program continues to make substantial technical progress. In addition, fusion research advances plasma physics, a sophisticated and useful branch of applied science, as well as technologies important to industry and defense. These factors fully justify the substantial expenditures by the Department of Energy in fusion research and development (R&D). The Panel endorses the overall program direction, strategy, and plans, and recognizes the importance and timeliness of proceeding with a burning plasma experiment, such as the proposed Compact Ignition Tokamak (CIT) experiment.

Statistical Relational Learning (SRL) as an Enabling Technology for Data Acquisition and Data Fusion in Video

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-05-02

REPORT Statistical Relational Learning ( SRL ) as an Enabling Technology for Data Acquisition and Data Fusion in Video 14. ABSTRACT 16. SECURITY...particular, it is important to reason about which portions of video require expensive analysis and storage. This project aims to make these...inferences using new and existing tools from Statistical Relational Learning ( SRL ). SRL is a recently emerging technology that enables the effective 1

3D printing for soft robotics - a review.

PubMed

Gul, Jahan Zeb; Sajid, Memoon; Rehman, Muhammad Muqeet; Siddiqui, Ghayas Uddin; Shah, Imran; Kim, Kyung-Hwan; Lee, Jae-Wook; Choi, Kyung Hyun

2018-01-01

Soft robots have received an increasing attention due to their advantages of high flexibility and safety for human operators but the fabrication is a challenge. Recently, 3D printing has been used as a key technology to fabricate soft robots because of high quality and printing multiple materials at the same time. Functional soft materials are particularly well suited for soft robotics due to a wide range of stimulants and sensitive demonstration of large deformations, high motion complexities and varied multi-functionalities. This review comprises a detailed survey of 3D printing in soft robotics. The development of key 3D printing technologies and new materials along with composites for soft robotic applications is investigated. A brief summary of 3D-printed soft devices suitable for medical to industrial applications is also included. The growing research on both 3D printing and soft robotics needs a summary of the major reported studies and the authors believe that this review article serves the purpose.

76 FR 49757 - Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-08-11

... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee AGENCY: Office of Science... Services Administration, notice is hereby given that the Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee will be... science, fusion science, and fusion technology related to the Fusion Energy Sciences program. Additionally...

Superconductivity and fusion energy—the inseparable companions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bruzzone, Pierluigi

2015-02-01

Although superconductivity will never produce energy by itself, it plays an important role in energy-related applications both because of its saving potential (e.g., power transmission lines and generators), and its role as an enabling technology (e.g., for nuclear fusion energy). The superconducting magnet’s need for plasma confinement has been recognized since the early development of fusion devices. As long as the research and development of plasma burning was carried out on pulsed devices, the technology of superconducting fusion magnets was aimed at demonstrations of feasibility. In the latest generation of plasma devices, which are larger and have longer confinement times, the superconducting coils are a key enabling technology. The cost of a superconducting magnet system is a major portion of the overall cost of a fusion plant and deserves significant attention in the long-term planning of electricity supply; only cheap superconducting magnets will help fusion get to the energy market. In this paper, the technology challenges and design approaches for fusion magnets are briefly reviewed for past, present, and future projects, from the early superconducting tokamaks in the 1970s, to the current ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) and W7-X projects and future DEMO (Demonstration Reactor) projects. The associated cryogenic technology is also reviewed: 4.2 K helium baths, superfluid baths, forced-flow supercritical helium, and helium-free designs. Open issues and risk mitigation are discussed in terms of reliability, technology, and cost.

The Fukushima nuclear disaster and its effects on media framing of fission and fusion energy technologies

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schmidt, Luisa; Horta, Ana; Pereira, Sergio

This paper presents results of a comparison of media coverage of fusion and fission energy technologies in three countries (Germany, Spain and Portugal) and in the English language international print media addressing transnational elite, from 2008 to 2012. The analysis showed that the accident in Fukushima in March 2010 did not have significant impact on media framing of nuclear fusion in the major part of print media under investigation. In fact, fusion is clearly dissociated from traditional nuclear (fission) energy and from nuclear accidents. It tends to be portrayed as a safe, clean and unlimited source of energy, although lessmore » credited when confronted with research costs, technological feasibility and the possibility to be achieved in a reasonable period of time. On the contrary, fission is portrayed as a hazardous source of energy, expensive when compared to research costs of renewables, hardly a long-term energy option, susceptible to contribute to the proliferation of nuclear weapons or rogue military use. Fukushima accident was consistently discussed in the context of safety problems of nuclear power plants and in many cases appeared not as an isolated event but rather as a reminder of previous nuclear disasters such as Three Miles Island and Chernobyl. (authors)« less

Peer Assessment of Soft Skills and Hard Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Aimao

2012-01-01

Both the information technology (IT) industry and the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) demand soft-skill training in higher education and require IT graduates to demonstrate competence in interpersonal communication, teamwork, and conflict management. Group projects provide teamwork environment for soft-skill training, but…

Fusion Imaging for Procedural Guidance.

PubMed

Wiley, Brandon M; Eleid, Mackram F; Thaden, Jeremy J

2018-05-01

The field of percutaneous structural heart interventions has grown tremendously in recent years. This growth has fueled the development of new imaging protocols and technologies in parallel to help facilitate these minimally-invasive procedures. Fusion imaging is an exciting new technology that combines the strength of 2 imaging modalities and has the potential to improve procedural planning and the safety of many commonly performed transcatheter procedures. In this review we discuss the basic concepts of fusion imaging along with the relative strengths and weaknesses of static vs dynamic fusion imaging modalities. This review will focus primarily on echocardiographic-fluoroscopic fusion imaging and its application in commonly performed transcatheter structural heart procedures. Copyright © 2017 Sociedad Española de Cardiología. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

The VISTA spacecraft: Advantages of ICF (Inertial Confinement Fusion) for interplanetary fusions propulsion applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Orth, Charles D.; Klein, Gail; Sercel, Joel; Hoffman, Nate; Murray, Kathy; Chang-Diaz, Franklin

1987-01-01

Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) is an attractive engine power source for interplanetary manned spacecraft, especially for near-term missions requiring minimum flight duration, because ICF has inherent high power-to-mass ratios and high specific impulses. We have developed a new vehicle concept called VISTA that uses ICF and is capable of round-trip manned missions to Mars in 100 days using A.D. 2020 technology. We describe VISTA's engine operation, discuss associated plasma issues, and describe the advantages of DT fuel for near-term applications. Although ICF is potentially superior to non-fusion technologies for near-term interplanetary transport, the performance capabilities of VISTA cannot be meaningfully compared with those of magnetic-fusion systems because of the lack of a comparable study of the magnetic-fusion systems. We urge that such a study be conducted.

A soft-hard combination-based cooperative spectrum sensing scheme for cognitive radio networks.

PubMed

Do, Nhu Tri; An, Beongku

2015-02-13

In this paper we propose a soft-hard combination scheme, called SHC scheme, for cooperative spectrum sensing in cognitive radio networks. The SHC scheme deploys a cluster based network in which Likelihood Ratio Test (LRT)-based soft combination is applied at each cluster, and weighted decision fusion rule-based hard combination is utilized at the fusion center. The novelties of the SHC scheme are as follows: the structure of the SHC scheme reduces the complexity of cooperative detection which is an inherent limitation of soft combination schemes. By using the LRT, we can detect primary signals in a low signal-to-noise ratio regime (around an average of -15 dB). In addition, the computational complexity of the LRT is reduced since we derive the closed-form expression of the probability density function of LRT value. The SHC scheme also takes into account the different effects of large scale fading on different users in the wide area network. The simulation results show that the SHC scheme not only provides the better sensing performance compared to the conventional hard combination schemes, but also reduces sensing overhead in terms of reporting time compared to the conventional soft combination scheme using the LRT.

Uncertainty-Sensitive Heterogeneous Information Fusion: Assessing Threat with Soft, Uncertain, and Conflicting Evidence

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-01-01

planning exercises and wargaming. Initial Experimentation Late in the research , the prototype platform and the various fusion methods came together. This...Chapter Four points to prior research 2 Uncertainty-Sensitive Heterogeneous Information Fusion in mind multimethod fusing of complex information...our research is assessing the threat of terrorism posed by individuals or groups under scrutiny. Broadly, the ultimate objec- tives, which go well

Data processing for soft X-ray diagnostics based on GEM detector measurements for fusion plasma imaging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Czarski, T.; Chernyshova, M.; Pozniak, K. T.; Kasprowicz, G.; Byszuk, A.; Juszczyk, B.; Wojenski, A.; Zabolotny, W.; Zienkiewicz, P.

2015-12-01

The measurement system based on GEM - Gas Electron Multiplier detector is developed for X-ray diagnostics of magnetic confinement fusion plasmas. The Triple Gas Electron Multiplier (T-GEM) is presented as soft X-ray (SXR) energy and position sensitive detector. The paper is focused on the measurement subject and describes the fundamental data processing to obtain reliable characteristics (histograms) useful for physicists. So, it is the software part of the project between the electronic hardware and physics applications. The project is original and it was developed by the paper authors. Multi-channel measurement system and essential data processing for X-ray energy and position recognition are considered. Several modes of data acquisition determined by hardware and software processing are introduced. Typical measuring issues are deliberated for the enhancement of data quality. The primary version based on 1-D GEM detector was applied for the high-resolution X-ray crystal spectrometer KX1 in the JET tokamak. The current version considers 2-D detector structures initially for the investigation purpose. Two detector structures with single-pixel sensors and multi-pixel (directional) sensors are considered for two-dimensional X-ray imaging. Fundamental output characteristics are presented for one and two dimensional detector structure. Representative results for reference source and tokamak plasma are demonstrated.

Present status and trends of image fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xiang, Dachao; Fu, Sheng; Cai, Yiheng

2009-10-01

Image fusion information extracted from multiple images which is more accurate and reliable than that from just a single image. Since various images contain different information aspects of the measured parts, and comprehensive information can be obtained by integrating them together. Image fusion is a main branch of the application of data fusion technology. At present, it was widely used in computer vision technology, remote sensing, robot vision, medical image processing and military field. This paper mainly presents image fusion's contents, research methods, and the status quo at home and abroad, and analyzes the development trend.

The use of soft robotics in cardiovascular therapy.

PubMed

Wamala, Isaac; Roche, Ellen T; Pigula, Frank A

2017-10-01

Robots have been employed in cardiovascular therapy as surgical tools and for automation of hospital systems. Soft robots are a new kind of robot made of soft deformable materials, that are uniquely suited for biomedical applications because they are inherently less likely to injure body tissues and more likely to adapt to biological environments. Awareness of the soft robotic systems under development will help promote clinician involvement in their successful clinical translation. Areas covered: The most advanced soft robotic systems, across the size scale from nano to macro, that have shown the most promise for clinical application in cardiovascular therapy because they offer solutions where a clear therapeutic need still exists. We discuss nano and micro scale technology that could help improve targeted therapy for cardiac regeneration in ischemic heart disease, and soft robots for mechanical circulatory support. Additionally, we suggest where the gaps in the technology currently lie. Expert commentary: Soft robotic technology has now matured from the proof-of-concept phase to successful animal testing. With further refinement in materials and clinician guided application, they will be a useful complement for cardiovascular therapy.

Remotely controlled fusion of selected vesicles and living cells: a key issue review

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bahadori, Azra; Moreno-Pescador, Guillermo; Oddershede, Lene B.; Bendix, Poul M.

2018-03-01

Remote control over fusion of single cells and vesicles has a great potential in biological and chemical research allowing both transfer of genetic material between cells and transfer of molecular content between vesicles. Membrane fusion is a critical process in biology that facilitates molecular transport and mixing of cellular cytoplasms with potential formation of hybrid cells. Cells precisely regulate internal membrane fusions with the aid of specialized fusion complexes that physically provide the energy necessary for mediating fusion. Physical factors like membrane curvature, tension and temperature, affect biological membrane fusion by lowering the associated energy barrier. This has inspired the development of physical approaches to harness the fusion process at a single cell level by using remotely controlled electromagnetic fields to trigger membrane fusion. Here, we critically review various approaches, based on lasers or electric pulses, to control fusion between individual cells or between individual lipid vesicles and discuss their potential and limitations for present and future applications within biochemistry, biology and soft matter.

A Summary of the NASA Fusion Propulsion Workshop 2000

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thio, Y. C. Francis; Turchi, Peter J.; Santarius, John F.; Schafer, Charles (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

A NASA Fusion Propulsion Workshop was held on Nov. 8 and 9, 2000 at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama. A total of 43 papers were presented at the Workshop orally or by posters, covering a broad spectrum of issues related to applying fusion to propulsion. The status of fusion research was reported at the Workshop showing the outstanding scientific research that has been accomplished worldwide in the fusion energy research program. The international fusion research community has demonstrated the scientific principles of fusion creating plasmas with conditions for fusion burn with a gain of order unity: 0.25 in Princeton TFTR, 0.65 in the Joint European Torus, and a Q-equivalent of 1.25 in Japan's JT-60. This research has developed an impressive range of physics and technological capabilities that may be applied effectively to the research of possibly new propulsion-oriented fusion schemes. The pertinent physics capabilities include the plasma computational tools, the experimental plasma facilities, the diagnostics techniques, and the theoretical understanding. The enabling technologies include the various plasma heating, acceleration, and the pulsed power technologies.

3D printing for soft robotics – a review

PubMed Central

Gul, Jahan Zeb; Sajid, Memoon; Rehman, Muhammad Muqeet; Siddiqui, Ghayas Uddin; Shah, Imran; Kim, Kyung-Hwan; Lee, Jae-Wook; Choi, Kyung Hyun

2018-01-01

Abstract Soft robots have received an increasing attention due to their advantages of high flexibility and safety for human operators but the fabrication is a challenge. Recently, 3D printing has been used as a key technology to fabricate soft robots because of high quality and printing multiple materials at the same time. Functional soft materials are particularly well suited for soft robotics due to a wide range of stimulants and sensitive demonstration of large deformations, high motion complexities and varied multi-functionalities. This review comprises a detailed survey of 3D printing in soft robotics. The development of key 3D printing technologies and new materials along with composites for soft robotic applications is investigated. A brief summary of 3D-printed soft devices suitable for medical to industrial applications is also included. The growing research on both 3D printing and soft robotics needs a summary of the major reported studies and the authors believe that this review article serves the purpose. PMID:29707065

Salvage of infected total knee fusion: the last option.

PubMed

Wiedel, Jerome D

2002-11-01

Currently the most common indication for an arthrodesis of the knee is a failed infected total knee prosthesis. Other causes of a failed total knee replacement that might necessitate a knee fusion include aseptic loosening, deficient extensor mechanism, poor soft tissues, and Charcot joint. Techniques available for achieving a knee fusion are external fixation and internal fixation methods. The external fixation compression devices have been the most widely used for knee fusion and have been successful until the indications for fusion changed to mostly failed prosthetic knee replacement. With failed total knee replacement, the problem of severe bone loss became an issue, and the external fixation compression devices, even including the biplane external fixators, have been the least successful method reported for gaining fusion. The Ilizarov technique has been shown to achieve rigid fixation despite this bone loss, and a review of reports are showing high fusion rates using this method. Internal fixation methods including plate fixation and intramedullary nails have had the best success in gaining fusion in the face of this bone loss and have replaced external fixation methods as the technique of choice for knee fusion when severe bone loss is present. A review of the literature and a discussion of different fusion techniques are presented including a discussion of the influence that infection has on the success of fusion.

Soft-Tissue Reconstruction of the Complicated Knee Arthroplasty: Principles and Predictors of Salvage.

PubMed

Colen, David L; Carney, Martin J; Shubinets, Valeriy; Lanni, Michael A; Liu, Tiffany; Levin, L Scott; Lee, Gwo-Chin; Kovach, Stephen J

2018-04-01

Total knee arthroplasty is a common orthopedic procedure in the United States and complications can be devastating. Soft-tissue compromise or joint infection may cause failure of prosthesis requiring knee fusion or amputation. The role of a plastic surgeon in total knee arthroplasty is critical for cases requiring optimization of the soft-tissue envelope. The purpose of this study was to elucidate factors associated with total knee arthroplasty salvage following complications and clarify principles of reconstruction to optimize outcomes. A retrospective review of patients requiring soft-tissue reconstruction performed by the senior author after total knee arthroplasty over 8 years was completed. Logistic regression and Fisher's exact tests determined factors associated with the primary outcome, prosthesis salvage versus knee fusion or amputation. Seventy-three knees in 71 patients required soft-tissue reconstruction (mean follow-up, 1.8 years), with a salvage rate of 61.1 percent, mostly using medial gastrocnemius flaps. Patients referred to our institution with complicated periprosthetic wounds were significantly more likely to lose their knee prosthesis than patients treated only within our system. Patients with multiple prior knee operations before definitive soft-tissue reconstruction had significantly decreased rates of prosthesis salvage and an increased risk of amputation. Knee salvage significantly decreased with positive joint cultures (Gram-negative greater than Gram-positive organisms) and particularly at the time of definitive reconstruction, which also trended toward an increased risk of amputation. In revision total knee arthroplasty, prompt soft-tissue reconstruction improves the likelihood of success, and protracted surgical courses and contamination increase failure and amputations. The authors show a benefit to involving plastic surgeons early in the course of total knee arthroplasty complications to optimize genicular soft tissues. Therapeutic

Application of data fusion techniques and technologies for wearable health monitoring.

PubMed

King, Rachel C; Villeneuve, Emma; White, Ruth J; Sherratt, R Simon; Holderbaum, William; Harwin, William S

2017-04-01

Technological advances in sensors and communications have enabled discrete integration into everyday objects, both in the home and about the person. Information gathered by monitoring physiological, behavioural, and social aspects of our lives, can be used to achieve a positive impact on quality of life, health, and well-being. Wearable sensors are at the cusp of becoming truly pervasive, and could be woven into the clothes and accessories that we wear such that they become ubiquitous and transparent. To interpret the complex multidimensional information provided by these sensors, data fusion techniques are employed to provide a meaningful representation of the sensor outputs. This paper is intended to provide a short overview of data fusion techniques and algorithms that can be used to interpret wearable sensor data in the context of health monitoring applications. The application of these techniques are then described in the context of healthcare including activity and ambulatory monitoring, gait analysis, fall detection, and biometric monitoring. A snap-shot of current commercially available sensors is also provided, focusing on their sensing capability, and a commentary on the gaps that need to be bridged to bring research to market. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Visualization of multi-INT fusion data using Java Viewer (JVIEW)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Blasch, Erik; Aved, Alex; Nagy, James; Scott, Stephen

2014-05-01

Visualization is important for multi-intelligence fusion and we demonstrate issues for presenting physics-derived (i.e., hard) and human-derived (i.e., soft) fusion results. Physics-derived solutions (e.g., imagery) typically involve sensor measurements that are objective, while human-derived (e.g., text) typically involve language processing. Both results can be geographically displayed for user-machine fusion. Attributes of an effective and efficient display are not well understood, so we demonstrate issues and results for filtering, correlation, and association of data for users - be they operators or analysts. Operators require near-real time solutions while analysts have the opportunities of non-real time solutions for forensic analysis. In a use case, we demonstrate examples using the JVIEW concept that has been applied to piloting, space situation awareness, and cyber analysis. Using the open-source JVIEW software, we showcase a big data solution for multi-intelligence fusion application for context-enhanced information fusion.

Carbon nanotubes and graphene towards soft electronics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chae, Sang Hoon; Lee, Young Hee

2014-04-01

Although silicon technology has been the main driving force for miniaturizing device dimensions to improve cost and performance, the current application of Si to soft electronics (flexible and stretchable electronics) is limited due to material rigidity. As a result, various prospective materials have been proposed to overcome the rigidity of conventional Si technology. In particular, nano-carbon materials such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene are promising due to outstanding elastic properties as well as an excellent combination of electronic, optoelectronic, and thermal properties compared to conventional rigid silicon. The uniqueness of these nano-carbon materials has opened new possibilities for soft electronics, which is another technological trend in the market. This review covers the recent progress of soft electronics research based on CNTs and graphene. We discuss the strategies for soft electronics with nano-carbon materials and their preparation methods (growth and transfer techniques) to devices as well as the electrical characteristics of transparent conducting films (transparency and sheet resistance) and device performances in field effect transistor (FET) (structure, carrier type, on/off ratio, and mobility). In addition to discussing state of the art performance metrics, we also attempt to clarify trade-off issues and methods to control the trade-off on/off versus mobility). We further demonstrate accomplishments of the CNT network in flexible integrated circuits on plastic substrates that have attractive characteristics. A future research direction is also proposed to overcome current technological obstacles necessary to realize commercially feasible soft electronics.

Carbon nanotubes and graphene towards soft electronics.

PubMed

Chae, Sang Hoon; Lee, Young Hee

2014-01-01

Although silicon technology has been the main driving force for miniaturizing device dimensions to improve cost and performance, the current application of Si to soft electronics (flexible and stretchable electronics) is limited due to material rigidity. As a result, various prospective materials have been proposed to overcome the rigidity of conventional Si technology. In particular, nano-carbon materials such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene are promising due to outstanding elastic properties as well as an excellent combination of electronic, optoelectronic, and thermal properties compared to conventional rigid silicon. The uniqueness of these nano-carbon materials has opened new possibilities for soft electronics, which is another technological trend in the market. This review covers the recent progress of soft electronics research based on CNTs and graphene. We discuss the strategies for soft electronics with nano-carbon materials and their preparation methods (growth and transfer techniques) to devices as well as the electrical characteristics of transparent conducting films (transparency and sheet resistance) and device performances in field effect transistor (FET) (structure, carrier type, on/off ratio, and mobility). In addition to discussing state of the art performance metrics, we also attempt to clarify trade-off issues and methods to control the trade-off on/off versus mobility). We further demonstrate accomplishments of the CNT network in flexible integrated circuits on plastic substrates that have attractive characteristics. A future research direction is also proposed to overcome current technological obstacles necessary to realize commercially feasible soft electronics.

The status of the federal magnetic fusion program, or fusion in transition: from science to technology

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kane, J.S.

1983-06-01

The current status of magnetic fusion is summarized. The science is in place; the application must be made. Government will have to underwrite the risk of the program, but the private sector must manage it. Government officials must be convinced fusion is in the interest of the taxpayer, private sector decision makers that it is commercial. Questions concerning reliability, availability, first cost, safety, environment, and sociology must be asked. Fusion energy is essentially inexhaustible, appears environmentally acceptable, and is one of a very short list of alternatives.

Magnetic-confinement fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ongena, J.; Koch, R.; Wolf, R.; Zohm, H.

2016-05-01

Our modern society requires environmentally friendly solutions for energy production. Energy can be released not only from the fission of heavy nuclei but also from the fusion of light nuclei. Nuclear fusion is an important option for a clean and safe solution for our long-term energy needs. The extremely high temperatures required for the fusion reaction are routinely realized in several magnetic-fusion machines. Since the early 1990s, up to 16 MW of fusion power has been released in pulses of a few seconds, corresponding to a power multiplication close to break-even. Our understanding of the very complex behaviour of a magnetized plasma at temperatures between 150 and 200 million °C surrounded by cold walls has also advanced substantially. This steady progress has resulted in the construction of ITER, a fusion device with a planned fusion power output of 500 MW in pulses of 400 s. ITER should provide answers to remaining important questions on the integration of physics and technology, through a full-size demonstration of a tenfold power multiplication, and on nuclear safety aspects. Here we review the basic physics underlying magnetic fusion: past achievements, present efforts and the prospects for future production of electrical energy. We also discuss questions related to the safety, waste management and decommissioning of a future fusion power plant.

Status and problems of fusion reactor development.

PubMed

Schumacher, U

2001-03-01

Thermonuclear fusion of deuterium and tritium constitutes an enormous potential for a safe, environmentally compatible and sustainable energy supply. The fuel source is practically inexhaustible. Further, the safety prospects of a fusion reactor are quite favourable due to the inherently self-limiting fusion process, the limited radiologic toxicity and the passive cooling property. Among a small number of approaches, the concept of toroidal magnetic confinement of fusion plasmas has achieved most impressive scientific and technical progress towards energy release by thermonuclear burn of deuterium-tritium fuels. The status of thermonuclear fusion research activity world-wide is reviewed and present solutions to the complicated physical and technological problems are presented. These problems comprise plasma heating, confinement and exhaust of energy and particles, plasma stability, alpha particle heating, fusion reactor materials, reactor safety and environmental compatibility. The results and the high scientific level of this international research activity provide a sound basis for the realisation of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), whose goal is to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of a fusion energy source for peaceful purposes.

Fusion Materials Research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Fiscal Year 2014

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wiffen, Frederick W.; Noe, Susan P.; Snead, Lance Lewis

2014-10-01

The realization of fusion energy is a formidable challenge with significant achievements resulting from close integration of the plasma physics and applied technology disciplines. Presently, the most significant technological challenge for the near-term experiments such as ITER, and next generation fusion power systems, is the inability of current materials and components to withstand the harsh fusion nuclear environment. The overarching goal of the ORNL fusion materials program is to provide the applied materials science support and understanding to underpin the ongoing DOE Office of Science fusion energy program while developing materials for fusion power systems. In doing so the programmore » continues to be integrated both with the larger U.S. and international fusion materials communities, and with the international fusion design and technology communities.« less

A Comparison of Accuracy of Image- versus Hardware-based Tracking Technologies in 3D Fusion in Aortic Endografting.

PubMed

Rolls, A E; Maurel, B; Davis, M; Constantinou, J; Hamilton, G; Mastracci, T M

2016-09-01

Fusion of three-dimensional (3D) computed tomography and intraoperative two-dimensional imaging in endovascular surgery relies on manual rigid co-registration of bony landmarks and tracking of hardware to provide a 3D overlay (hardware-based tracking, HWT). An alternative technique (image-based tracking, IMT) uses image recognition to register and place the fusion mask. We present preliminary experience with an agnostic fusion technology that uses IMT, with the aim of comparing the accuracy of overlay for this technology with HWT. Data were collected prospectively for 12 patients. All devices were deployed using both IMT and HWT fusion assistance concurrently. Postoperative analysis of both systems was performed by three blinded expert observers, from selected time-points during the procedures, using the displacement of fusion rings, the overlay of vascular markings and the true ostia of renal arteries. The Mean overlay error and the deviation from mean error was derived using image analysis software. Comparison of the mean overlay error was made between IMT and HWT. The validity of the point-picking technique was assessed. IMT was successful in all of the first 12 cases, whereas technical learning curve challenges thwarted HWT in four cases. When independent operators assessed the degree of accuracy of the overlay, the median error for IMT was 3.9 mm (IQR 2.89-6.24, max 9.5) versus 8.64 mm (IQR 6.1-16.8, max 24.5) for HWT (p = .001). Variance per observer was 0.69 mm(2) and 95% limit of agreement ±1.63. In this preliminary study, the error of magnitude of displacement from the "true anatomy" during image overlay in IMT was less than for HWT. This confirms that ongoing manual re-registration, as recommended by the manufacturer, should be performed for HWT systems to maintain accuracy. The error in position of the fusion markers for IMT was consistent, thus may be considered predictable. Copyright © 2016 European Society for Vascular Surgery. Published by

Magnetic resonance and computed tomography image fusion technology in patients with Parkinson's disease after deep brain stimulation.

PubMed

Xia, Jun; He, Pin; Cai, Xiaodong; Zhang, Doudou; Xie, Ni

2017-10-15

Electrode position after deep brain stimulation (DBS) for Parkinson's disease (PD) needs to be confirmed, but there are concerns about the risk of postoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) after DBS. These issues could be avoided by fusion images obtained from preoperative MRI and postoperative computed tomography (CT). This study aimed to investigate image fusion technology for displaying the position of the electrodes compared with postoperative MRI. This was a retrospective study of 32 patients with PD treated with bilateral subthalamic nucleus (STN) DBS between April 2015 and March 2016. The postoperative (same day) CT and preoperative MRI were fused using the Elekta Leksell 10.1 planning workstation (Elekta Instruments, Stockholm, Sweden). The position of the electrodes was compared between the fusion images and postoperative 1-2-week MRI. The position of the electrodes was highly correlated between the fusion and postoperative MRI (all r between 0.865 and 0.996; all P<0.001). The differences of the left electrode position in the lateral and vertical planes was significantly different between the two methods (0.30 and 0.24mm, respectively, both P<0.05), but there were no significant differences for the other electrode and planes (all P>0.05). The position of the electrodes was highly correlated between the fusion and postoperative MRI. The CT-MRI fusion images could be used to avoid the potential risks of MRI after DBS in patients with PD. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

3D printing of soft-matter to open a new era of soft-matter MEMS/robotics (Conference Presentation)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Furukawa, Hidemitsu

2017-04-01

3D printing technology is becoming useful and applicable by the progress of information and communication technology (ICT). It means 3D printer is a kind of useful robot for additive manufacturing and is controlled by computer with human-friendly software. Once user starts to use 3D printing of soft-matter, one can immediately understand computer-aided design (CAD) and engineering (CAE) technology will be more important and applicable for soft-matter systems. User can easily design soft-matter objects and 3D-print them. User can easily apply 3D-printed soft-matter objects to develop new research and application on MEMS and robotics. Here we introduce the recent progress of 3D printing (i.e. additive manufacturing), especially focusing on our 3D gel printing. We are trying to develop new advanced research and applications of 3D gel printer, including GEL-MECHANICS, GEL-PHOTONICS, and GEL-ROBOTICS. In the gel-mechanics, we are developing new gel materials for mechanical engineering. Some gels have high-mechanical strength and shape memory properties. In the gel-photonics. We are applying our original characterizing system, named `Scanning Microscopic Light Scattering (SMILS)', to analyze 3D printed gel materials. In the gel-robotics, we focus on 3D printing of soft parts for soft-robotics made form gel materials, like gel finger. Also we are challenging to apply 3D gel printing to start new company, to innovate new businesses in county side, and to create new 3D-printed foods.

Proposal for a novel type of small scale aneutronic fusion reactor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gruenwald, J.

2017-02-01

The aim of this work is to propose a novel scheme for a small scale aneutronic fusion reactor. This new reactor type makes use of the advantages of combining laser driven plasma acceleration and electrostatic confinement fusion. An intense laser beam is used to create a lithium-proton plasma with high density, which is then collimated and focused into the centre of the fusion reaction chamber. The basic concept presented here is based on the 7Li-proton fusion reaction. However, the physical and technological fundamentals may generally as well be applied to 11B-proton fusion. The former fusion reaction path offers higher energy yields while the latter has larger fusion cross sections. Within this paper a technological realisation of such a fusion device, which allows a steady state operation with highly energetic, well collimated ion beam, is presented. It will be demonstrated that the energetic break even can be reached with this device by using a combination of already existing technologies.

TBM/MTM for HTS-FNSF: An innovative testing strategy to qualify/validate fusion technologies for U.S. DEMO

DOE PAGES

El-Guebaly, Laila; Rowcliffe, Arthur; Menard, Jonathan; ...

2016-08-11

The qualification and validation of nuclear technologies are daunting tasks for fusion demonstration (DEMO) and power plants. This is particularly true for advanced designs that involve harsh radiation environment with 14 MeV neutrons and high-temperature operating regimes. This paper outlines the unique qualification and validation processes developed in the U.S., offering the only access to the complete fusion environment, focusing on the most prominent U.S. blanket concept (the dual cooled PbLi (DCLL)) along with testing new generations of structural and functional materials in dedicated test modules. The venue for such activities is the proposed Fusion Nuclear Science Facility (FNSF), whichmore » is viewed as an essential element of the U.S. fusion roadmap. A staged blanket testing strategy has been developed to test and enhance the DCLL blanket performance during each phase of FNSF D-T operation. A materials testing module (MTM) is critically important to include in the FNSF as well to test a broad range of specimens of future, more advanced generations of materials in a relevant fusion environment. Here, the most important attributes for MTM are the relevant He/dpa ratio (10–15) and the much larger specimen volumes compared to the 10–500 mL range available in the International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility (IFMIF) and European DEMO-Oriented Neutron Source (DONES).« less

A novel method for soft tissue retraction during periapical surgery using 3D technology: a case report.

PubMed

Patel, S; Aldowaisan, A; Dawood, A

2017-08-01

This case report describes a new approach to isolation and soft tissue retraction during endodontic surgery using cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT), computer-aided design (CAD) and three-dimensional (3D) printing. A 53-year-old patient presented for endodontic treatment of her maxillary left central incisor. It was decided to treat this tooth with a microsurgical approach. The data from the diagnostic CBCT scan were also used to make a physical model of the operative site, and CAD software was used to design a soft tissue retractor to be used during the patient's surgery. A custom retractor was then fabricated using a 3D printer. The custom-made retractor enhanced visualization and soft tissue handling during the patient's surgery. The patient was asymptomatic at a 1-year review. No abnormalities were detected during her clinical examination, and radiographic examination revealed complete healing of the surgical site. The significance of proper soft tissue retraction in periapical microsurgery is underemphasized. Geometric data from CBCT scans may be harvested for a variety of uses, adding value to the examination. 3D printing is a promising technology that may potentially have many uses in endodontic surgery. © 2016 International Endodontic Journal. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Current Trends of Blanket Research and Deveopment in Japan 4.Blanket Technology Development Using ITER for Demonstration and Commercial Fusion Power Plant

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Akiba, Masato; Jitsukawa, Shiroh; Muroga, Takeo

This paper describes the status of blanket technology and material development for fusion power demonstration plants and commercial fusion plants. In particular, the ITER Test Blanket Module, IFMIF, JAERI/DOE HFIR and JUPITER-II projects are highlighted, which have the important role to develop these technology. The ITER Test Blanket Module project has been conducted to demonstrate tritium breeding and power generation using test blanket modules, which will be installed into the ITER facility. For structural material development, the present research status is overviewed on reduced activation ferritic steel, vanadium alloys, and SiC/SiC composites.

Cluster-impact fusion, or beam-contaminant fusion? (abstract)a),b)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lo, Daniel H.; Petrasso, Richard D.; Wenzel, Kevin W.

1992-10-01

Beuhler, Friedlander, and Friedman (BFF) reported anomalously huge D-D fusion rates while bombarding deuterated targets with (D2O)N+ clusters (N˜25-1000) accelerated to ≊325 keV [R. J. Beuhler et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 63, 1292 (1989); R. J. Beuhler et al., J. Phys. Chem. 94, 7665 (1990)] [i.e., ≊0.3 keV lab energy for D in (D2O)100+]. However, from our analysis of BFF's fusion product spectra, we conclude that their D lab energy was ˜50 keV. Therefore, no gross anomalies exist. Also, from our analysis of the BFF beam-ranging experiments through 500 μg/cm2 of Au, we conclude that light-ion-beam contaminants (e.g., D+ of order 100 keV) have not been ruled out, and are the probable cause of their fusion reactions. This work was supported by LLNL Subcontract B116798, Department of Energy (DOE) Grant No. DE-FG02-91ER54109, DOE Magnetic Fusion Energy Technology Fellowship Program (D. H. Lo), and DOE Fusion Energy Postdoctoral Research Program (Kevin W. Wenzel).

Accelerators for Fusion Materials Testing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Knaster, Juan; Okumura, Yoshikazu

Fusion materials research is a worldwide endeavor as old as the parallel one working toward the long term stable confinement of ignited plasma. In a fusion reactor, the preservation of the required minimum thermomechanical properties of the in-vessel components exposed to the severe irradiation and heat flux conditions is an indispensable factor for safe operation; it is also an essential goal for the economic viability of fusion. Energy from fusion power will be extracted from the 14 MeV neutron freed as a product of the deuterium-tritium fusion reactions; thus, this kinetic energy must be absorbed and efficiently evacuated and electricity eventually generated by the conventional methods of a thermal power plant. Worldwide technological efforts to understand the degradation of materials exposed to 14 MeV neutron fluxes >1018 m-2s-1, as expected in future fusion power plants, have been intense over the last four decades. Existing neutron sources can reach suitable dpa (“displacement-per-atom”, the figure of merit to assess materials degradation from being exposed to neutron irradiation), but the differences in the neutron spectrum of fission reactors and spallation sources do not allow one to unravel the physics and to anticipate the degradation of materials exposed to fusion neutrons. Fusion irradiation conditions can be achieved through Li (d, xn) nuclear reactions with suitable deuteron beam current and energy, and an adequate flowing lithium screen. This idea triggered in the late 1970s at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) a campaign working toward the feasibility of continuous wave (CW) high current linacs framed by the Fusion Materials Irradiation Test (FMIT) project. These efforts continued with the Low Energy Demonstrating Accelerator (LEDA) (a validating prototype of the canceled Accelerator Production of Tritium (APT) project), which was proposed in 2002 to the fusion community as a 6.7MeV, 100mA CW beam injector for a Li (d, xn) source to bridge

Accelerators for Fusion Materials Testing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Knaster, Juan; Okumura, Yoshikazu

Fusion materials research is a worldwide endeavor as old as the parallel one working toward the long term stable confinement of ignited plasma. In a fusion reactor, the preservation of the required minimum thermomechanical properties of the in-vessel components exposed to the severe irradiation and heat flux conditions is an indispensable factor for safe operation; it is also an essential goal for the economic viability of fusion. Energy from fusion power will be extracted from the 14 MeV neutron freed as a product of the deuterium-tritium fusion reactions; thus, this kinetic energy must be absorbed and efficiently evacuated and electricity eventually generated by the conventional methods of a thermal power plant. Worldwide technological efforts to understand the degradation of materials exposed to 14 MeV neutron fluxes > 1018 m-2s-1, as expected in future fusion power plants, have been intense over the last four decades. Existing neutron sources can reach suitable dpa ("displacement-per-atom", the figure of merit to assess materials degradation from being exposed to neutron irradiation), but the differences in the neutron spectrum of fission reactors and spallation sources do not allow one to unravel the physics and to anticipate the degradation of materials exposed to fusion neutrons. Fusion irradiation conditions can be achieved through Li (d, xn) nuclear reactions with suitable deuteron beam current and energy, and an adequate flowing lithium screen. This idea triggered in the late 1970s at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) a campaign working toward the feasibility of continuous wave (CW) high current linacs framed by the Fusion Materials Irradiation Test (FMIT) project. These efforts continued with the Low Energy Demonstrating Accelerator (LEDA) (a validating prototype of the canceled Accelerator Production of Tritium (APT) project), which was proposed in 2002 to the fusion community as a 6.7MeV, 100mA CW beam injector for a Li (d, xn) source to bridge

Development scenario for laser fusion

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Maniscalco, J.A.; Hovingh, J.; Buntzen, R.R.

1976-03-30

This scenario proposes establishment of test and engineering facilities to (1) investigate the technological problems associated with laser fusion, (2) demonstrate fissile fuel production, and (3) demonstrate competitive electrical power production. Such facilities would be major milestones along the road to a laser-fusion power economy. The relevant engineering and economic aspects of each of these research and development facilities are discussed. Pellet design and gain predictions corresponding to the most promising laser systems are presented for each plant. The results show that laser fusion has the potential to make a significant contribution to our energy needs. Beginning in the earlymore » 1990's, this new technology could be used to produce fissile fuel, and after the turn of the century it could be used to generate electrical power.« less

Pain and functional improvement effects of methylene blue injection on the soft tissue around fusion site after traumatic thoracolumbar fixation: A double-blind, randomized placebo-controlled study.

PubMed

Farrokhi, Majid Reza; Yazdanpanah, Hamed; Gholami, Mehrnaz; Farrokhi, Farnaz; Mesbahi, Amir Reza

2016-11-01

Fractures of the thoracolumbar spine can cause pain, long-term reductions in quality of life (QOL), and neural deficits. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of methylene blue (MB) on preventing postoperative pain and improving QOL in patients with throracolumbar fractures undergoing posterior pedicle screw fixation. Fifty patients underwent standard posterior pedicular screw fixation for stabilization of the thoracolumbar fractures: 25 received 1ml of MB solution at a concentration of 0.5% and 25 received normal saline on the soft tissue around fusion site. Primary outcomes were the control of pain, evaluated at 48h, 2 and 6 months after surgery with the use of a visual analog scale (VAS), and the improvement of QOL, assessed 2 and 6 months postoperatively by means of Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) questionnaire. The mean VAS scores for pain were significantly lower in the MB group compared with the control group at 2 months (1.30±0.45 vs. 2.60±1.19, P<0.001) and 6 months (1.17±0.37 vs. 1.60±0.87; P=0.028) after treatment. At 2 months after the surgery, the mean ODI score was significantly lower in the MB-treated patients than the control group (20.4±10.92 vs. 34.8±15.11; P=0.001). The ODI score in the MB-treated patients was better than the control group at 6 months after the surgery (12.2±11.66 vs. 20.8±11.14; P=0.016). A single dose of MB on the soft tissue around fusion site shows promising results in terms of safety, reduction of postoperative pain, and functional results when compared with placebo 6 months after surgery. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Controlled Nuclear Fusion: Status and Outlook

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rose, David J.

1971-01-01

Presents the history, current concerns and potential developments of nuclear fusion as a major energy source. Controlled fusion research is summarized, technological feasibility is discussed and environmental factors are examined. Relationships of alternative energy sources as well as energy utilization are considered. (JM)

Fusion energy: Status and prospects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Salomaa, Rainer

A review of the present state of the international fusion research is given. In the largest tokamak devices (JET, TFTR, JT-60) fusion relevant temperatures are routinely obtained and the scientific feasibility of plasma confinement has been demonstrated. Plans concerning the next step are described. A critical view is presented on questions as to what extent the generic advantages of fusion (availability, sufficiency, safety, environmental acceptability, etc.) can be exploited in a practical power reactor where the formidable technological problems call for compromises.

Feasibility study of a magnetic fusion production reactor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moir, R. W.

1986-12-01

A magnetic fusion reactor can produce 10.8 kg of tritium at a fusion power of only 400 MW —an order of magnitude lower power than that of a fission production reactor. Alternatively, the same fusion reactor can produce 995 kg of plutonium. Either a tokamak or a tandem mirror production plant can be used for this purpose; the cost is estimated at about 1.4 billion (1982 dollars) in either case. (The direct costs are estimated at 1.1 billion.) The production cost is calculated to be 22,000/g for tritium and 260/g for plutonium of quite high purity (1%240Pu). Because of the lack of demonstrated technology, such a plant could not be constructed today without significant risk. However, good progress is being made in fusion technology and, although success in magnetic fusion science and engineering is hard to predict with assurance, it seems possible that the physics basis and much of the needed technology could be demonstrated in facilities now under construction. Most of the remaining technology could be demonstrated in the early 1990s in a fusion test reactor of a few tens of megawatts. If the Magnetic Fusion Energy Program constructs a fusion test reactor of approximately 400 MW of fusion power as a next step in fusion power development, such a facility could be used later as a production reactor in a spinoff application. A construction decision in the late 1980s could result in an operating production reactor in the late 1990s. A magnetic fusion production reactor (MFPR) has four potential advantages over a fission production reactor: (1) no fissile material input is needed; (2) no fissioning exists in the tritium mode and very low fissioning exists in the plutonium mode thus avoiding the meltdown hazard; (3) the cost will probably be lower because of the smaller thermal power required; (4) and no reprocessing plant is needed in the tritium mode. The MFPR also has two disadvantages: (1) it will be more costly to operate because it consumes rather than sells

BCOR-CCNB3 Fusions Are Frequent in Undifferentiated Sarcomas of Male Children

PubMed Central

Peters, Tricia L.; Kumar, Vijetha; Polikepahad, Sumanth; Lin, Frank Y.; Sarabia, Stephen F.; Liang, Yu; Wang, Wei-Lien; Lazar, Alexander J.; Doddapaneni, Harsha Vardhan; Chao, Hsu; Muzny, Donna M.; Wheeler, David A.; Okcu, M. Fatih; Plon, Sharon E.; Hicks, M. John; López-Terrada, Dolores; Parsons, D. Williams; Roy, Angshumoy

2014-01-01

The BCOR-CCNB3 fusion gene, resulting from a chromosome X paracentric inversion, was recently described in translocation-negative ‘Ewing-like’ sarcomas arising in bone and soft tissue. Genetic subclassification of undifferentiated unclassified sarcomas may potentially offer markers for reproducible diagnosis and substrates for therapy. Using whole transcriptome paired end RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) we unexpectedly identified BCOR-CCNB3 fusion transcripts in an undifferentiated spindle cell sarcoma. RNA-seq results were confirmed through direct RT-PCR of tumor RNA and cloning of the genomic breakpoints from tumor DNA. Five additional undifferentiated sarcomas with BCOR-CCNB3 fusions were identified in a series of 42 pediatric and adult unclassified sarcomas. Genomic breakpoint analysis demonstrated unique breakpoint locations in each case at the DNA level even though the resulting fusion mRNA was identical in all cases. All patients with BCOR-CCNB3 sarcoma were males diagnosed in mid-childhood (7-13 years of age). Tumors were equally distributed between axial and extra-axial locations. Five of the six tumors were soft tissue lesions with either predominant spindle cell morphology or spindle cell areas interspersed with ovoid to round cells. CCNB3 immunohistochemistry showed strong nuclear positivity in 5 tumors prior to oncologic therapy, but was patchy to negative in post-treatment tumor samples. An RT-PCR assay developed to detect the fusion transcript in archival formalin-fixed tissue was positive in all 6 cases, with high sensitivity and specificity in both pre- and post-treated samples. This study adds to recent reports on the clinicopathologic spectrum of BCOR-CCNB3 fusion-positive sarcomas, a newly-emerging entity within the undifferentiated unclassified sarcoma category, and describes a simple RT-PCR assay that in conjunction with CCNB3 immunohistochemistry can be useful in diagnosing these tumors. PMID:25360585

Design and Implementation of a Smart Home System Using Multisensor Data Fusion Technology.

PubMed

Hsu, Yu-Liang; Chou, Po-Huan; Chang, Hsing-Cheng; Lin, Shyan-Lung; Yang, Shih-Chin; Su, Heng-Yi; Chang, Chih-Chien; Cheng, Yuan-Sheng; Kuo, Yu-Chen

2017-07-15

This paper aims to develop a multisensor data fusion technology-based smart home system by integrating wearable intelligent technology, artificial intelligence, and sensor fusion technology. We have developed the following three systems to create an intelligent smart home environment: (1) a wearable motion sensing device to be placed on residents' wrists and its corresponding 3D gesture recognition algorithm to implement a convenient automated household appliance control system; (2) a wearable motion sensing device mounted on a resident's feet and its indoor positioning algorithm to realize an effective indoor pedestrian navigation system for smart energy management; (3) a multisensor circuit module and an intelligent fire detection and alarm algorithm to realize a home safety and fire detection system. In addition, an intelligent monitoring interface is developed to provide in real-time information about the smart home system, such as environmental temperatures, CO concentrations, communicative environmental alarms, household appliance status, human motion signals, and the results of gesture recognition and indoor positioning. Furthermore, an experimental testbed for validating the effectiveness and feasibility of the smart home system was built and verified experimentally. The results showed that the 3D gesture recognition algorithm could achieve recognition rates for automated household appliance control of 92.0%, 94.8%, 95.3%, and 87.7% by the 2-fold cross-validation, 5-fold cross-validation, 10-fold cross-validation, and leave-one-subject-out cross-validation strategies. For indoor positioning and smart energy management, the distance accuracy and positioning accuracy were around 0.22% and 3.36% of the total traveled distance in the indoor environment. For home safety and fire detection, the classification rate achieved 98.81% accuracy for determining the conditions of the indoor living environment.

Design and Implementation of a Smart Home System Using Multisensor Data Fusion Technology

PubMed Central

Chou, Po-Huan; Chang, Hsing-Cheng; Lin, Shyan-Lung; Yang, Shih-Chin; Su, Heng-Yi; Chang, Chih-Chien; Cheng, Yuan-Sheng; Kuo, Yu-Chen

2017-01-01

This paper aims to develop a multisensor data fusion technology-based smart home system by integrating wearable intelligent technology, artificial intelligence, and sensor fusion technology. We have developed the following three systems to create an intelligent smart home environment: (1) a wearable motion sensing device to be placed on residents’ wrists and its corresponding 3D gesture recognition algorithm to implement a convenient automated household appliance control system; (2) a wearable motion sensing device mounted on a resident’s feet and its indoor positioning algorithm to realize an effective indoor pedestrian navigation system for smart energy management; (3) a multisensor circuit module and an intelligent fire detection and alarm algorithm to realize a home safety and fire detection system. In addition, an intelligent monitoring interface is developed to provide in real-time information about the smart home system, such as environmental temperatures, CO concentrations, communicative environmental alarms, household appliance status, human motion signals, and the results of gesture recognition and indoor positioning. Furthermore, an experimental testbed for validating the effectiveness and feasibility of the smart home system was built and verified experimentally. The results showed that the 3D gesture recognition algorithm could achieve recognition rates for automated household appliance control of 92.0%, 94.8%, 95.3%, and 87.7% by the 2-fold cross-validation, 5-fold cross-validation, 10-fold cross-validation, and leave-one-subject-out cross-validation strategies. For indoor positioning and smart energy management, the distance accuracy and positioning accuracy were around 0.22% and 3.36% of the total traveled distance in the indoor environment. For home safety and fire detection, the classification rate achieved 98.81% accuracy for determining the conditions of the indoor living environment. PMID:28714884

Observations of sacrocaudal fusion in Greyhounds and other dogs.

PubMed

Oheida, Aiman H; Philip, Christopher J; Yen, Hung-Hsun; Davies, Helen M S

2016-01-01

To describe the incidence and forms of nonpathological sacrocaudal fusion in racing Greyhounds and compare them with those in a variety of other domestic dog breeds. This retrospective observational study used archived anatomical specimens from 81 racing Greyhounds and 10 Beagles, and archived clinical radiographs from 81 non-Greyhound dogs representing 37 other breeds. Dogs less than two years of age and dogs with evidence of soft tissue or osseous pathology involving the sacrocaudal region were excluded. The incidence of osseous sacrocaudal fusion (any type and complete fusion) was compared between Greyhounds and all of the other dogs combined, using the Fisher's exact test. Sacrocaudal fusion of some type was found in 33 (41%) of 81 Greyhounds but in only 14 (15%) of 91 non-Greyhound dogs (p <0.01). Complete fusion (osseous fusion of vertebral bodies and both transverse and articular processes) between the sacrum and the first caudal vertebra was the most common form in Greyhounds, found in 27 (33%) of 81 Greyhounds, but in only three (3.3%) of 91 non-Greyhound dogs (p <0.01). Sacrocaudal fusion appears to be more prevalent in Greyhounds than in other domestic dog breeds and may be attributable to selection pressure for speed on a region of the spine that is naturally prone to variation. Its significance for performance and soundness requires further study.

Integrative Multi-Spectral Sensor Device for Far-Infrared and Visible Light Fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qiao, Tiezhu; Chen, Lulu; Pang, Yusong; Yan, Gaowei

2018-06-01

Infrared and visible light image fusion technology is a hot spot in the research of multi-sensor fusion technology in recent years. Existing infrared and visible light fusion technologies need to register before fusion because of using two cameras. However, the application effect of the registration technology has yet to be improved. Hence, a novel integrative multi-spectral sensor device is proposed for infrared and visible light fusion, and by using the beam splitter prism, the coaxial light incident from the same lens is projected to the infrared charge coupled device (CCD) and visible light CCD, respectively. In this paper, the imaging mechanism of the proposed sensor device is studied with the process of the signals acquisition and fusion. The simulation experiment, which involves the entire process of the optic system, signal acquisition, and signal fusion, is constructed based on imaging effect model. Additionally, the quality evaluation index is adopted to analyze the simulation result. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed sensor device is effective and feasible.

Entirely soft dielectric elastomer robots

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Henke, E.-F. Markus; Wilson, Katherine E.; Anderson, Iain A.

2017-04-01

Multifunctional Dielectric Elastomer (DE) devices are well established as actuators, sensors and energy har- vesters. Since the invention of the Dielectric Elastomer Switch (DES), a piezoresistive electrode that can directly switch charge on and off, it has become possible to expand the wide functionality of DE structures even more. We show the application of fully soft DE subcomponents in biomimetic robotic structures. It is now possible to couple arrays of actuator/switch units together so that they switch charge between them- selves on and off. One can then build DE devices that operate as self-controlled oscillators. With an oscillator one can produce a periodic signal that controls a soft DE robot - a DE device with its own DE nervous system. DESs were fabricated using a special electrode mixture, and imprinting technology at an exact pre-strain. We have demonstrated six orders of magnitude change in conductivity within the DES over 50% strain. The control signal can either be a mechanical deformation from another DE or an electrical input to a connected dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA). We have demonstrated a variety of fully soft multifunctional subcomponents that enable the design of autonomous soft robots without conventional electronics. The combination of digital logic structures for basic signal processing, data storage in dielectric elastomer flip-flops and digital and analogue clocks with adjustable frequencies, made of dielectric elastomer oscillators (DEOs), enables fully soft, self-controlled and electronics-free robotic structures. DE robotic structures to date include stiff frames to maintain necessary pre-strains enabling sufficient actuation of DEAs. Here we present a design and production technology for a first robotic structure consisting only of soft silicones and carbon black.

Multi-energy SXR cameras for magnetically confined fusion plasmas (invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Delgado-Aparicio, L. F.; Maddox, J.; Pablant, N.; Hill, K.; Bitter, M.; Rice, J. E.; Granetz, R.; Hubbard, A.; Irby, J.; Greenwald, M.; Marmar, E.; Tritz, K.; Stutman, D.; Stratton, B.; Efthimion, P.

2016-11-01

A compact multi-energy soft x-ray camera has been developed for time, energy and space-resolved measurements of the soft-x-ray emissivity in magnetically confined fusion plasmas. Multi-energy soft x-ray imaging provides a unique opportunity for measuring, simultaneously, a variety of important plasma properties (Te, nZ, ΔZeff, and ne,fast). The electron temperature can be obtained by modeling the slope of the continuum radiation from ratios of the available brightness and inverted radial emissivity profiles over multiple energy ranges. Impurity density measurements are also possible using the line-emission from medium- to high-Z impurities to separate the background as well as transient levels of metal contributions. This technique should be explored also as a burning plasma diagnostic in-view of its simplicity and robustness.

Multi-energy SXR cameras for magnetically confined fusion plasmas (invited).

PubMed

Delgado-Aparicio, L F; Maddox, J; Pablant, N; Hill, K; Bitter, M; Rice, J E; Granetz, R; Hubbard, A; Irby, J; Greenwald, M; Marmar, E; Tritz, K; Stutman, D; Stratton, B; Efthimion, P

2016-11-01

A compact multi-energy soft x-ray camera has been developed for time, energy and space-resolved measurements of the soft-x-ray emissivity in magnetically confined fusion plasmas. Multi-energy soft x-ray imaging provides a unique opportunity for measuring, simultaneously, a variety of important plasma properties (T e , n Z , ΔZ eff , and n e,fast ). The electron temperature can be obtained by modeling the slope of the continuum radiation from ratios of the available brightness and inverted radial emissivity profiles over multiple energy ranges. Impurity density measurements are also possible using the line-emission from medium- to high-Z impurities to separate the background as well as transient levels of metal contributions. This technique should be explored also as a burning plasma diagnostic in-view of its simplicity and robustness.

Soft 2D nanoarchitectonics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ariga, Katsuhiko; Watanabe, Shun; Mori, Taizo; Takeya, Jun

2018-04-01

Nanoarchitectonics is a new paradigm to combine and unify nanotechnology with other sciences and technologies, such as supramolecular chemistry, self-assembly, self-organization, materials technology for manipulation of the size of material objects, and even biotechnology for hybridization with bio-components. The nanoarchitectonic concept leads to the synergistic combination of various methodologies in materials production, including atomic/molecular-level control, self-organization, and field-controlled organization. The focus of this review is on soft 2D nanoarchitectonics. Scientific views on soft 2D nanomaterials are not fully established compared with those on rigid 2D materials. Here, we collect recent examples of 2D nanoarchitectonic constructions of functional materials and systems with soft components. These examples are selected according to the following three categories on the basis of 2D spatial density and motional freedom: (i) well-packed and oriented organic 2D materials with rational design of component molecules and device applications, (ii) well-defined assemblies with 2D porous structures as 2D network materials, and (iii) 2D control of molecular machines and receptors on the basis of certain motional freedom confined in two dimensions.

Soft connectedness of soft topological space

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mishra, Sanjay

2017-07-01

Recently, Shabir and Naz in [4] introduced the notion of Soft Topological Spaces (STS). They defined and studied about soft topology on the collection τ of soft sets over X. After the initiation of soft topological space many researcher developed its basic theory as like soft continuity, soft compactness and soft countability. Our main objective in this paper is to study the soft connectedness properties of soft topological space and also establish relations of soft connectedness with other properties of STS.

Using Online Project-Based Capstone Experiences to Enhance Soft Skills Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Britton, Gwendolyn Suzanne

2013-01-01

Employers of newly minted information technology graduates are concerned that students graduating with information technology degrees offered in online environments are lacking critical noncomputing skills (soft skills). Further, it is unclear whether online environments have the capacity to foster the "soft skills" necessary for…

Hot and dense plasma probing by soft X-ray lasers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Krůs, M.; Kozlová, M.; Nejdl, J.; Rus, B.

2018-01-01

Soft X-ray lasers, due to their short wavelength, its brightness, and good spatial coherence, are excellent sources for the diagnostics of dense plasmas (up to 1025 cm-3) which are relevant to e.g. inertial fusion. Several techniques and experimental results, which are obtained at the quasi-steady state scheme being collisionally pumped 21.2 nm neon-like zinc laser installed at PALS Research Center, are presented here; among them the plasma density measurement by a double Lloyd mirror interferometer, deflectometer based on Talbot effect measuring plasma density gradients itself, with a following ray tracing postprocessing. Moreover, the high spatial resolution (nm scale) plasma images can be obtained when soft X-ray lasers are used.

Deep learning decision fusion for the classification of urban remote sensing data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abdi, Ghasem; Samadzadegan, Farhad; Reinartz, Peter

2018-01-01

Multisensor data fusion is one of the most common and popular remote sensing data classification topics by considering a robust and complete description about the objects of interest. Furthermore, deep feature extraction has recently attracted significant interest and has become a hot research topic in the geoscience and remote sensing research community. A deep learning decision fusion approach is presented to perform multisensor urban remote sensing data classification. After deep features are extracted by utilizing joint spectral-spatial information, a soft-decision made classifier is applied to train high-level feature representations and to fine-tune the deep learning framework. Next, a decision-level fusion classifies objects of interest by the joint use of sensors. Finally, a context-aware object-based postprocessing is used to enhance the classification results. A series of comparative experiments are conducted on the widely used dataset of 2014 IEEE GRSS data fusion contest. The obtained results illustrate the considerable advantages of the proposed deep learning decision fusion over the traditional classifiers.

Approaching soft X-ray wavelengths in nanomagnet-based microwave technology

PubMed Central

Yu, Haiming; d' Allivy Kelly, O.; Cros, V.; Bernard, R.; Bortolotti, P.; Anane, A.; Brandl, F.; Heimbach, F.; Grundler, D.

2016-01-01

Seven decades after the discovery of collective spin excitations in microwave-irradiated ferromagnets, there has been a rebirth of magnonics. However, magnetic nanodevices will enable smart GHz-to-THz devices at low power consumption only, if such spin waves (magnons) are generated and manipulated on the sub-100 nm scale. Here we show how magnons with a wavelength of a few 10 nm are exploited by combining the functionality of insulating yttrium iron garnet and nanodisks from different ferromagnets. We demonstrate magnonic devices at wavelengths of 88 nm written/read by conventional coplanar waveguides. Our microwave-to-magnon transducers are reconfigurable and thereby provide additional functionalities. The results pave the way for a multi-functional GHz technology with unprecedented miniaturization exploiting nanoscale wavelengths that are otherwise relevant for soft X-rays. Nanomagnonics integrated with broadband microwave circuitry offer applications that are wide ranging, from nanoscale microwave components to nonlinear data processing, image reconstruction and wave-based logic. PMID:27063401

Rheology of Soft Materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Daniel T. N.; Wen, Qi; Janmey, Paul A.; Crocker, John C.; Yodh, Arjun G.

2010-04-01

Research on soft materials, including colloidal suspensions, glasses, pastes, emulsions, foams, polymer networks, liquid crystals, granular materials, and cells, has captured the interest of scientists and engineers in fields ranging from physics and chemical engineering to materials science and cell biology. Recent advances in rheological methods to probe mechanical responses of these complex media have been instrumental for producing new understanding of soft matter and for generating novel technological applications. This review surveys these technical developments and current work in the field, with partial aim to illustrate open questions for future research.

Larotrectinib in Treating Patients With Relapsed or Refractory Advanced Solid Tumors, Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, or Histiocytic Disorders With NTRK Fusions (A Pediatric MATCH Treatment Trial)

ClinicalTrials.gov

2018-06-25

Advanced Malignant Solid Neoplasm; Ann Arbor Stage III Childhood Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma; Ann Arbor Stage IV Childhood Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma; Malignant Glioma; NTRK1 Fusion Positive; NTRK2 Fusion Positive; NTRK3 Fusion Positive; Recurrent Central Nervous System Neoplasm; Recurrent Childhood Ependymoma; Recurrent Childhood Malignant Germ Cell Tumor; Recurrent Childhood Medulloblastoma; Recurrent Childhood Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma; Recurrent Childhood Rhabdomyosarcoma; Recurrent Childhood Soft Tissue Sarcoma; Recurrent Ewing Sarcoma; Recurrent Glioma; Recurrent Hepatoblastoma; Recurrent Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis; Recurrent Malignant Solid Neoplasm; Recurrent Neuroblastoma; Recurrent Osteosarcoma; Recurrent Peripheral Primitive Neuroectodermal Tumor; Refractory Central Nervous System Neoplasm; Refractory Childhood Malignant Germ Cell Tumor; Refractory Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis; Refractory Malignant Solid Neoplasm; Refractory Neuroblastoma; Refractory Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma; Rhabdoid Tumor; Stage III Osteosarcoma AJCC v7; Stage III Soft Tissue Sarcoma AJCC v7; Stage IV Osteosarcoma AJCC v7; Stage IV Soft Tissue Sarcoma AJCC v7; Stage IVA Osteosarcoma AJCC v7; Stage IVB Osteosarcoma AJCC v7; Wilms Tumor

Fusion interfaces for tactical environments: An application of virtual reality technology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Haas, Michael W.

1994-01-01

The term Fusion Interface is defined as a class of interface which integrally incorporates both virtual and nonvirtual concepts and devices across the visual, auditory, and haptic sensory modalities. A fusion interface is a multisensory virtually-augmented synthetic environment. A new facility has been developed within the Human Engineering Division of the Armstrong Laboratory dedicated to exploratory development of fusion interface concepts. This new facility, the Fusion Interfaces for Tactical Environments (FITE) Facility is a specialized flight simulator enabling efficient concept development through rapid prototyping and direct experience of new fusion concepts. The FITE Facility also supports evaluation of fusion concepts by operation fighter pilots in an air combat environment. The facility is utilized by a multidisciplinary design team composed of human factors engineers, electronics engineers, computer scientists, experimental psychologists, and oeprational pilots. The FITE computational architecture is composed of twenty-five 80486-based microcomputers operating in real-time. The microcomputers generate out-the-window visuals, in-cockpit and head-mounted visuals, localized auditory presentations, haptic displays on the stick and rudder pedals, as well as executing weapons models, aerodynamic models, and threat models.

Task toward a Realization of Commercial Tokamak Fusion Plants in 2050 -The Role of ITER and the Succeeding Developments- 5.Challenge to Innovative Technologies and the Expected Market Appeal

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tobita, Kenji; Konishi, Satoshi; Tokimatsu, Koji; Nishio, Satoshi; Hiwatari, Ryoji

This section describes the future of fusion energy in terms of its impact on the global energy supply and global warming mitigation, the possible entry scenarios of fusion into future energy market, and innovative technologies for deploying and expanding fusion's share in the market. Section 5.1 shows that fusion energy can contribute to the stabilization of atmospheric CO2 concentration if fusion is introduced into the future energy market at a competitive price. Considerations regarding fusion's entry scenarios into the energy market are presented in Sec. 5.2, suggesting that fusion should replace fossil energy sources and thus contribute to global warming mitigation. In this sense, first generation fusion power plants should be a viable energy source with global appeal and be so attractive as to be employed in developing countries rather than in developed countries. Favorable factors lending to this purpose are fusion's stability as a power source, and its security, safety, and environmental frendliness as well as its cost-of-electricity. The requirements for core plasma to expand the share of fusion in the market in the latter half of this century are given in Sec.5.3, pointing out the importance of high beta access with low aspect ratio and plasma profile control. From this same point of view, innovative fusion technologies worthy of further development are commented on in Sec. 5.4, addressing the high temperature blanket, hydrogen production, high temperature superconductors, and hot cell maintenance.

Editorially Speaking - Fusion Power: Reasons for Higher Priority

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lippincott, William T.

1973-01-01

Discusses current research trends in the use of laser-fusion technology in combustion chambers to eradicate energy shortages. Indicates that fusion power could be made available at a relatively low expense. (CC)

Multi-energy SXR cameras for magnetically confined fusion plasmas (invited)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Delgado-Aparicio, L. F.; Maddox, J.; Pablant, N.

A compact multi-energy soft x-ray camera has been developed for time, energy and space-resolved measurements of the soft-x-ray emissivity in magnetically confined fusion plasmas. Multi-energy soft x-ray imaging provides a unique opportunity for measuring, simultaneously, a variety of important plasma properties (T e, n Z, ΔZ eff, and n e,fast). The electron temperature can be obtained by modeling the slope of the continuum radiation from ratios of the available brightness and inverted radial emissivity profiles over multiple energy ranges. Impurity density measurements are also possible using the line-emission from medium- to high-Z impurities to separate the background as well asmore » transient levels of metal contributions. As a result, this technique should be explored also as a burning plasma diagnostic in-view of its simplicity and robustness.« less

Multi-energy SXR cameras for magnetically confined fusion plasmas (invited)

DOE PAGES

Delgado-Aparicio, L. F.; Maddox, J.; Pablant, N.; ...

2016-11-14

A compact multi-energy soft x-ray camera has been developed for time, energy and space-resolved measurements of the soft-x-ray emissivity in magnetically confined fusion plasmas. Multi-energy soft x-ray imaging provides a unique opportunity for measuring, simultaneously, a variety of important plasma properties (T e, n Z, ΔZ eff, and n e,fast). The electron temperature can be obtained by modeling the slope of the continuum radiation from ratios of the available brightness and inverted radial emissivity profiles over multiple energy ranges. Impurity density measurements are also possible using the line-emission from medium- to high-Z impurities to separate the background as well asmore » transient levels of metal contributions. As a result, this technique should be explored also as a burning plasma diagnostic in-view of its simplicity and robustness.« less

Use of Soft Computing Technologies for a Qualitative and Reliable Engine Control System for Propulsion Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Trevino, Luis; Brown, Terry; Crumbley, R. T. (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

The problem to be addressed in this paper is to explore how the use of Soft Computing Technologies (SCT) could be employed to improve overall vehicle system safety, reliability, and rocket engine performance by development of a qualitative and reliable engine control system (QRECS). Specifically, this will be addressed by enhancing rocket engine control using SCT, innovative data mining tools, and sound software engineering practices used in Marshall's Flight Software Group (FSG). The principle goals for addressing the issue of quality are to improve software management, software development time, software maintenance, processor execution, fault tolerance and mitigation, and nonlinear control in power level transitions. The intent is not to discuss any shortcomings of existing engine control methodologies, but to provide alternative design choices for control, implementation, performance, and sustaining engineering, all relative to addressing the issue of reliability. The approaches outlined in this paper will require knowledge in the fields of rocket engine propulsion (system level), software engineering for embedded flight software systems, and soft computing technologies (i.e., neural networks, fuzzy logic, data mining, and Bayesian belief networks); some of which are briefed in this paper. For this effort, the targeted demonstration rocket engine testbed is the MC-1 engine (formerly FASTRAC) which is simulated with hardware and software in the Marshall Avionics & Software Testbed (MAST) laboratory that currently resides at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, building 4476, and is managed by the Avionics Department. A brief plan of action for design, development, implementation, and testing a Phase One effort for QRECS is given, along with expected results. Phase One will focus on development of a Smart Start Engine Module and a Mainstage Engine Module for proper engine start and mainstage engine operations. The overall intent is to demonstrate that by

Soft tissue wound healing at teeth, dental implants and the edentulous ridge when using barrier membranes, growth and differentiation factors and soft tissue substitutes.

PubMed

Vignoletti, Fabio; Nunez, Javier; Sanz, Mariano

2014-04-01

To review the biological processes of wound healing following periodontal and periimplant plastic surgery when different technologies are used in a) the coverage of root and implant dehiscences, b) the augmentation of keratinized tissue (KT) and c) the augmentation of soft tissue volume. An electronic search from The National Library of Medicine (MEDLINE-PubMed) was performed: English articles with research focus in oral soft tissue regeneration, providing histological outcomes, either from animal experimental studies or human biopsy material were included. Barrier membranes, enamel matrix derivatives, growth factors, allogeneic and xenogeneic soft tissue substitutes have been used in soft tissue regeneration demonstrating different degrees of regeneration. In root coverage, these technologies were able to improve new attachment, although none has shown complete regeneration. In KT augmentation, tissue-engineered allogenic products and xenogeneic collagen matrixes demonstrated integration within the host connective tissue and promotion of keratinization. In soft tissue augmentation and peri-implant plastic surgery there are no histological data currently available. Soft tissue substitutes, growth differentiation factors demonstrated promising histological results in terms of soft tissue regeneration and keratinization, whereas there is a need for further studies to prove their added value in soft tissue augmentation. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

3D printing of soft robotic systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wallin, T. J.; Pikul, J.; Shepherd, R. F.

2018-06-01

Soft robots are capable of mimicking the complex motion of animals. Soft robotic systems are defined by their compliance, which allows for continuous and often responsive localized deformation. These features make soft robots especially interesting for integration with human tissues, for example, the implementation of biomedical devices, and for robotic performance in harsh or uncertain environments, for example, exploration in confined spaces or locomotion on uneven terrain. Advances in soft materials and additive manufacturing technologies have enabled the design of soft robots with sophisticated capabilities, such as jumping, complex 3D movements, gripping and releasing. In this Review, we examine the essential soft material properties for different elements of soft robots, highlighting the most relevant polymer systems. Advantages and limitations of different additive manufacturing processes, including 3D printing, fused deposition modelling, direct ink writing, selective laser sintering, inkjet printing and stereolithography, are discussed, and the different techniques are investigated for their application in soft robotic fabrication. Finally, we explore integrated robotic systems and give an outlook for the future of the field and remaining challenges.

Elastic Inflatable Actuators for Soft Robotic Applications.

PubMed

Gorissen, Benjamin; Reynaerts, Dominiek; Konishi, Satoshi; Yoshida, Kazuhiro; Kim, Joon-Wan; De Volder, Michael

2017-11-01

The 20th century's robotic systems have been made from stiff materials, and much of the developments have pursued ever more accurate and dynamic robots, which thrive in industrial automation, and will probably continue to do so for decades to come. However, the 21st century's robotic legacy may very well become that of soft robots. This emerging domain is characterized by continuous soft structures that simultaneously fulfill the role of robotic link and actuator, where prime focus is on design and fabrication of robotic hardware instead of software control. These robots are anticipated to take a prominent role in delicate tasks where classic robots fail, such as in minimally invasive surgery, active prosthetics, and automation tasks involving delicate irregular objects. Central to the development of these robots is the fabrication of soft actuators. This article reviews a particularly attractive type of soft actuators that are driven by pressurized fluids. These actuators have recently gained traction on the one hand due to the technology push from better simulation tools and new manufacturing technologies, and on the other hand by a market pull from applications. This paper provides an overview of the different advanced soft actuator configurations, their design, fabrication, and applications. © 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Application of the JDL data fusion process model for cyber security

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Giacobe, Nicklaus A.

2010-04-01

A number of cyber security technologies have proposed the use of data fusion to enhance the defensive capabilities of the network and aid in the development of situational awareness for the security analyst. While there have been advances in fusion technologies and the application of fusion in intrusion detection systems (IDSs), in particular, additional progress can be made by gaining a better understanding of a variety of data fusion processes and applying them to the cyber security application domain. This research explores the underlying processes identified in the Joint Directors of Laboratories (JDL) data fusion process model and further describes them in a cyber security context.

Intense fusion neutron sources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kuteev, B. V.; Goncharov, P. R.; Sergeev, V. Yu.; Khripunov, V. I.

2010-04-01

The review describes physical principles underlying efficient production of free neutrons, up-to-date possibilities and prospects of creating fission and fusion neutron sources with intensities of 1015-1021 neutrons/s, and schemes of production and application of neutrons in fusion-fission hybrid systems. The physical processes and parameters of high-temperature plasmas are considered at which optimal conditions for producing the largest number of fusion neutrons in systems with magnetic and inertial plasma confinement are achieved. The proposed plasma methods for neutron production are compared with other methods based on fusion reactions in nonplasma media, fission reactions, spallation, and muon catalysis. At present, intense neutron fluxes are mainly used in nanotechnology, biotechnology, material science, and military and fundamental research. In the near future (10-20 years), it will be possible to apply high-power neutron sources in fusion-fission hybrid systems for producing hydrogen, electric power, and technological heat, as well as for manufacturing synthetic nuclear fuel and closing the nuclear fuel cycle. Neutron sources with intensities approaching 1020 neutrons/s may radically change the structure of power industry and considerably influence the fundamental and applied science and innovation technologies. Along with utilizing the energy produced in fusion reactions, the achievement of such high neutron intensities may stimulate wide application of subcritical fast nuclear reactors controlled by neutron sources. Superpower neutron sources will allow one to solve many problems of neutron diagnostics, monitor nano-and biological objects, and carry out radiation testing and modification of volumetric properties of materials at the industrial level. Such sources will considerably (up to 100 times) improve the accuracy of neutron physics experiments and will provide a better understanding of the structure of matter, including that of the neutron itself.

Soft pneumatic grippers embedded with stretchable electroadhesion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guo, J.; Elgeneidy, K.; Xiang, C.; Lohse, N.; Justham, L.; Rossiter, J.

2018-05-01

Current soft pneumatic grippers cannot robustly grasp flat materials and flexible objects on curved surfaces without distorting them. Current electroadhesive grippers, on the other hand, are difficult to actively deform to complex shapes to pick up free-form surfaces or objects. An easy-to-implement PneuEA gripper is proposed by the integration of an electroadhesive gripper and a two-fingered soft pneumatic gripper. The electroadhesive gripper was fabricated by segmenting a soft conductive silicon sheet into a two-part electrode design and embedding it in a soft dielectric elastomer. The two-fingered soft pneumatic gripper was manufactured using a standard soft lithography approach. This novel integration has combined the benefits of both the electroadhesive and soft pneumatic grippers. As a result, the proposed PneuEA gripper was not only able to pick-and-place flat and flexible materials such as a porous cloth but also delicate objects such as a light bulb. By combining two soft touch sensors with the electroadhesive, an intelligent and shape-adaptive PneuEA material handling system has been developed. This work is expected to widen the applications of both soft gripper and electroadhesion technologies.

ITER Fusion Energy

ScienceCinema

Holtkamp, Norbert

2018-01-09

ITER (in Latin “the way”) is designed to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy. Fusion is the process by which two light atomic nuclei combine to form a heavier over one and thus release energy. In the fusion process two isotopes of hydrogen – deuterium and tritium – fuse together to form a helium atom and a neutron. Thus fusion could provide large scale energy production without greenhouse effects; essentially limitless fuel would be available all over the world. The principal goals of ITER are to generate 500 megawatts of fusion power for periods of 300 to 500 seconds with a fusion power multiplication factor, Q, of at least 10. Q ? 10 (input power 50 MW / output power 500 MW). The ITER Organization was officially established in Cadarache, France, on 24 October 2007. The seven members engaged in the project – China, the European Union, India, Japan, Korea, Russia and the United States – represent more than half the world’s population. The costs for ITER are shared by the seven members. The cost for the construction will be approximately 5.5 billion Euros, a similar amount is foreseen for the twenty-year phase of operation and the subsequent decommissioning.

77 FR 38770 - Notice of Consortium on “nSoft Consortium”

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-06-29

... DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE National Institute of Standards and Technology Notice of Consortium on ``n...: NIST will form the ``nSoft Consortium'' to advance and transfer neutron based measurement methods for soft materials manufacturing. The goals of nSoft are to develop neutron- based measurements that...

Fusion for Space Propulsion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thio, Y. C. Francis; Schmidt, George R.; Santarius, John F.; Turchi, Peter J.; Siemon, Richard E.; Rodgers, Stephen L. (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

The need for fusion propulsion for interplanetary flights is discussed. For a propulsion system, there are three important system attributes: (1) The absolute amount of energy available, (2) the propellant exhaust velocity, and (3) the jet power per unit mass of the propulsion system (specific power). For efficient and affordable human exploration of the solar system, propellant exhaust velocity in excess of 100 km/s and specific power in excess of 10 kW/kg are required. Chemical combustion obviously cannot meet the requirement in propellant exhaust velocity. Nuclear fission processes typically result in producing energy in the form of heat that needs to be manipulated at temperatures limited by materials to about 2,800 K. Using the fission energy to heat a low atomic weight propellant produces propellant velocity of the order of 10 kinds. Alternatively the fission energy can be converted into electricity that is used to accelerate particles to high exhaust velocity. However, the necessary power conversion and conditioning equipment greatly increases the mass of the propulsion system. Fundamental considerations in waste heat rejection and power conditioning in a fission electric propulsion system place a limit on its jet specific power to the order of about 0.2 kW/kg. If fusion can be developed for propulsion, it appears to have the best of all worlds - it can provide the largest absolute amount of energy, the propellant exhaust velocity (> 100 km/s), and the high specific jet power (> 10 kW/kg). An intermediate step towards fusion propulsion might be a bimodal system in which a fission reactor is used to provide some of the energy to drive a fusion propulsion unit. There are similarities as well as differences between applying fusion to propulsion and to terrestrial electrical power generation. The similarities are the underlying plasma and fusion physics, the enabling component technologies, the computational and the diagnostics capabilities. These physics and

Polymer-cushioned bilayers. II. An investigation of interaction forces and fusion using the surface forces apparatus.

PubMed Central

Wong, J Y; Park, C K; Seitz, M; Israelachvili, J

1999-01-01

We have created phospholipid bilayers supported on soft polymer "cushions" which act as deformable substrates (see accompanying paper, Wong, J. Y., J. Majewski, M. Seitz, C. K. Park, J. N. Israelachvili, and G. S. Smith. 1999. Biophys. J. 77:1445-1457). In contrast to "solid-supported" membranes, such "soft-supported" membranes can exhibit more natural (higher) fluidity. Our bilayer system was constructed by adsorption of small unilamellar dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC) vesicles onto polyethylenimine (PEI)-supported Langmuir-Blodgett lipid monolayers on mica. We used the surface forces apparatus (SFA) to investigate the long-range forces, adhesion, and fusion of two DMPC bilayers both above and below their main transition temperature (T(m) approximately 24 degrees C). Above T(m), hemi-fusion activation pressures of apposing bilayers were considerably smaller than for solid-supported bilayers, e.g., directly supported on mica. After separation, the bilayers naturally re-formed after short healing times. Also, for the first time, complete fusion of two fluid (liquid crystalline) phospholipid bilayers was observed in the SFA. Below T(m) (gel state), very high pressures were needed for hemi-fusion and the healing process became very slow. The presence of the polymer cushion significantly alters the interaction potential, e.g., long-range forces as well as fusion pressures, when compared to solid-supported systems. These fluid model membranes should allow the future study of integral membrane proteins under more physiological conditions. PMID:10465756

Energy Logic (EL): a novel fusion engine of multi-modality multi-agent data/information fusion for intelligent surveillance systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rababaah, Haroun; Shirkhodaie, Amir

2009-04-01

The rapidly advancing hardware technology, smart sensors and sensor networks are advancing environment sensing. One major potential of this technology is Large-Scale Surveillance Systems (LS3) especially for, homeland security, battlefield intelligence, facility guarding and other civilian applications. The efficient and effective deployment of LS3 requires addressing number of aspects impacting the scalability of such systems. The scalability factors are related to: computation and memory utilization efficiency, communication bandwidth utilization, network topology (e.g., centralized, ad-hoc, hierarchical or hybrid), network communication protocol and data routing schemes; and local and global data/information fusion scheme for situational awareness. Although, many models have been proposed to address one aspect or another of these issues but, few have addressed the need for a multi-modality multi-agent data/information fusion that has characteristics satisfying the requirements of current and future intelligent sensors and sensor networks. In this paper, we have presented a novel scalable fusion engine for multi-modality multi-agent information fusion for LS3. The new fusion engine is based on a concept we call: Energy Logic. Experimental results of this work as compared to a Fuzzy logic model strongly supported the validity of the new model and inspired future directions for different levels of fusion and different applications.

Strategy for D/He-3 fusion development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Santarius, John F.

1988-01-01

It is concluded that Deuterium/Helium-3 fusion faces a more difficult physics development path but an easier technology development path than does Deuterium/Tritium. Early D/He-3 tests in next generation D/T fusion experiments might provide a valuable D/He-3 proof-of-principle at modest cost. At least one high leverage alternate concept should be vigorously pursued. Space applications of D/He-3 fusion are critically important to large scale development.

Lunar Helium-3 and Fusion Power

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1988-01-01

The NASA Office of Exploration sponsored the NASA Lunar Helium-3 and Fusion Power Workshop. The meeting was held to understand the potential of using He-3 from the moon for terrestrial fusion power production. It provided an overview, two parallel working sessions, a review of sessions, and discussions. The lunar mining session concluded that mining, beneficiation, separation, and return of He-3 from the moon would be possible but that a large scale operation and improved technology is required. The fusion power session concluded that: (1) that He-3 offers significant, possibly compelling, advantages over fusion of tritium, principally increased reactor life, reduced radioactive wastes, and high efficiency conversion, (2) that detailed assessment of the potential of the D/He-3 fuel cycle requires more information, and (3) D/He-3 fusion may be best for commercial purposes, although D/T fusion is more near term.

Soft, flexible micromanipulators comprising polypyrrole trilayer microactuators

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khaldi, Alexandre; Maziz, Ali; Alici, Gursel; Spinks, Geoffrey M.; Jager, Edwin W. H.

2015-04-01

Within the areas of cell biology, biomedicine and minimal invasive surgery, there is a need for soft, flexible and dextrous biocompatible manipulators for handling biological objects, such as single cells and tissues. Present day technologies are based on simple suction using micropipettes for grasping objects. The micropipettes lack the possibility of accurate force control, nor are they soft and compliant and may thus cause damage to the cells or tissue. Other micromanipulators use conventional electric motors however the further miniaturization of electrical motors and their associated gear boxes and/or push/pull wires has reached its limits. Therefore there is an urgent need for new technologies for micromanipulation of soft biological matter. We are developing soft, flexible micromanipulators such as micro- tweezers for the handling and manipulation of biological species including cells and surgical tools for minimal invasive surgery. Our aim is to produce tools with minimal dimensions of 100 μm to 1 mm in size, which is 1-2 orders of magnitude smaller than existing technology. We present newly developed patterning and microfabrication methods for polymer microactuators as well as the latest results to integrate these microactuators into easy to use manipulation tools. The outcomes of this study contribute to the realisation of low-foot print devices articulated with electroactive polymer actuators for which the physical interface with the power source has been a significant challenge limiting their application. Here, we present a new bottom-up microfabrication process. We show for the first time that such a bottom-up fabricated actuator performs a movement in air. This is a significant step towards widening the application areas of the soft microactuators.

Objective quality assessment for multiexposure multifocus image fusion.

PubMed

Hassen, Rania; Wang, Zhou; Salama, Magdy M A

2015-09-01

There has been a growing interest in image fusion technologies, but how to objectively evaluate the quality of fused images has not been fully understood. Here, we propose a method for objective quality assessment of multiexposure multifocus image fusion based on the evaluation of three key factors of fused image quality: 1) contrast preservation; 2) sharpness; and 3) structure preservation. Subjective experiments are conducted to create an image fusion database, based on which, performance evaluation shows that the proposed fusion quality index correlates well with subjective scores, and gives a significant improvement over the existing fusion quality measures.

[Application of 3D virtual reality technology with multi-modality fusion in resection of glioma located in central sulcus region].

PubMed

Chen, T N; Yin, X T; Li, X G; Zhao, J; Wang, L; Mu, N; Ma, K; Huo, K; Liu, D; Gao, B Y; Feng, H; Li, F

2018-05-08

Objective: To explore the clinical and teaching application value of virtual reality technology in preoperative planning and intraoperative guide of glioma located in central sulcus region. Method: Ten patients with glioma in the central sulcus region were proposed to surgical treatment. The neuro-imaging data, including CT, CTA, DSA, MRI, fMRI were input to 3dgo sczhry workstation for image fusion and 3D reconstruction. Spatial relationships between the lesions and the surrounding structures on the virtual reality image were obtained. These images were applied to the operative approach design, operation process simulation, intraoperative auxiliary decision and the training of specialist physician. Results: Intraoperative founding of 10 patients were highly consistent with preoperative simulation with virtual reality technology. Preoperative 3D reconstruction virtual reality images improved the feasibility of operation planning and operation accuracy. This technology had not only shown the advantages for neurological function protection and lesion resection during surgery, but also improved the training efficiency and effectiveness of dedicated physician by turning the abstract comprehension to virtual reality. Conclusion: Image fusion and 3D reconstruction based virtual reality technology in glioma resection is helpful for formulating the operation plan, improving the operation safety, increasing the total resection rate, and facilitating the teaching and training of the specialist physician.

Gene Fusion Markup Language: a prototype for exchanging gene fusion data.

PubMed

Kalyana-Sundaram, Shanker; Shanmugam, Achiraman; Chinnaiyan, Arul M

2012-10-16

An avalanche of next generation sequencing (NGS) studies has generated an unprecedented amount of genomic structural variation data. These studies have also identified many novel gene fusion candidates with more detailed resolution than previously achieved. However, in the excitement and necessity of publishing the observations from this recently developed cutting-edge technology, no community standardization approach has arisen to organize and represent the data with the essential attributes in an interchangeable manner. As transcriptome studies have been widely used for gene fusion discoveries, the current non-standard mode of data representation could potentially impede data accessibility, critical analyses, and further discoveries in the near future. Here we propose a prototype, Gene Fusion Markup Language (GFML) as an initiative to provide a standard format for organizing and representing the significant features of gene fusion data. GFML will offer the advantage of representing the data in a machine-readable format to enable data exchange, automated analysis interpretation, and independent verification. As this database-independent exchange initiative evolves it will further facilitate the formation of related databases, repositories, and analysis tools. The GFML prototype is made available at http://code.google.com/p/gfml-prototype/. The Gene Fusion Markup Language (GFML) presented here could facilitate the development of a standard format for organizing, integrating and representing the significant features of gene fusion data in an inter-operable and query-able fashion that will enable biologically intuitive access to gene fusion findings and expedite functional characterization. A similar model is envisaged for other NGS data analyses.

Gene Fusion Markup Language: a prototype for exchanging gene fusion data

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background An avalanche of next generation sequencing (NGS) studies has generated an unprecedented amount of genomic structural variation data. These studies have also identified many novel gene fusion candidates with more detailed resolution than previously achieved. However, in the excitement and necessity of publishing the observations from this recently developed cutting-edge technology, no community standardization approach has arisen to organize and represent the data with the essential attributes in an interchangeable manner. As transcriptome studies have been widely used for gene fusion discoveries, the current non-standard mode of data representation could potentially impede data accessibility, critical analyses, and further discoveries in the near future. Results Here we propose a prototype, Gene Fusion Markup Language (GFML) as an initiative to provide a standard format for organizing and representing the significant features of gene fusion data. GFML will offer the advantage of representing the data in a machine-readable format to enable data exchange, automated analysis interpretation, and independent verification. As this database-independent exchange initiative evolves it will further facilitate the formation of related databases, repositories, and analysis tools. The GFML prototype is made available at http://code.google.com/p/gfml-prototype/. Conclusion The Gene Fusion Markup Language (GFML) presented here could facilitate the development of a standard format for organizing, integrating and representing the significant features of gene fusion data in an inter-operable and query-able fashion that will enable biologically intuitive access to gene fusion findings and expedite functional characterization. A similar model is envisaged for other NGS data analyses. PMID:23072312

Possible application of electromagnetic guns to impact fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kostoff, R. N.; Peaslee, A. T., Jr.; Ribe, F. L.

1982-01-01

The possible application of electromagnetic guns to impact fusion for the generation of electric power is discussed, and advantages of impact fusion over the more conventional inertial confinement fusion concepts are examined. It is shown that impact fusion can achieve the necessary high yields, of the order of a few gigajoules, which are difficult to achieve with lasers except at unrealistically high target gains. The rail gun accelerator is well adapted to the delivery of some 10-100 megajoules of energy to the fusion target, and the electrical technology involved is relatively simple: inductive storage or rotating machinery and capacitors. It is concluded that the rail gun has the potential of developing into an impact fusion macroparticle accelerator.

Nuclear Fusion prize laudation Nuclear Fusion prize laudation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burkart, W.

2011-01-01

Clean energy in abundance will be of critical importance to the pursuit of world peace and development. As part of the IAEA's activities to facilitate the dissemination of fusion related science and technology, the journal Nuclear Fusion is intended to contribute to the realization of such energy from fusion. In 2010, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the IAEA journal. The excellence of research published in the journal is attested to by its high citation index. The IAEA recognizes excellence by means of an annual prize awarded to the authors of papers judged to have made the greatest impact. On the occasion of the 2010 IAEA Fusion Energy Conference in Daejeon, Republic of Korea at the welcome dinner hosted by the city of Daejeon, we celebrated the achievements of the 2009 and 2010 Nuclear Fusion prize winners. Steve Sabbagh, from the Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics, Columbia University, New York is the winner of the 2009 award for his paper: 'Resistive wall stabilized operation in rotating high beta NSTX plasmas' [1]. This is a landmark paper which reports record parameters of beta in a large spherical torus plasma and presents a thorough investigation of the physics of resistive wall mode (RWM) instability. The paper makes a significant contribution to the critical topic of RWM stabilization. John Rice, from the Plasma Science and Fusion Center, MIT, Cambridge is the winner of the 2010 award for his paper: 'Inter-machine comparison of intrinsic toroidal rotation in tokamaks' [2]. The 2010 award is for a seminal paper that analyzes results across a range of machines in order to develop a universal scaling that can be used to predict intrinsic rotation. This paper has already triggered a wealth of experimental and theoretical work. I congratulate both authors and their colleagues on these exceptional papers. W. Burkart Deputy Director General Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna

INTRODUCTION: Status report on fusion research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burkart, Werner

2005-10-01

members' personal views on the latest achievements in fusion research, including magnetic and inertial confinement scenarios. The report describes fusion fundamentals and progress in fusion science and technology, with ITER as a possible partner in the realization of self-sustainable burning plasma. The importance of the socio-economic aspects of energy production using fusion power plants is also covered. Noting that applications of plasma science are of broad interest to the Member States, the report addresses the topic of plasma physics to assist in understanding the achievements of better coatings, cheaper light sources, improved heat-resistant materials and other high-technology materials. Nuclear fusion energy production is intrinsically safe, but for ITER the full range of hazards will need to be addressed, including minimising radiation exposure, to accomplish the goal of a sustainable and environmentally acceptable production of energy. We anticipate that the role of the Agency will in future evolve from supporting scientific projects and fostering information exchange to the preparation of safety principles and guidelines for the operation of burning fusion plasmas with a Q > 1. Technical progress in inertial and magnetic confinement, as well as in alternative concepts, will lead to a further increase in international cooperation. New means of communication will be needed, utilizing the best resources of modern information technology to advance interest in fusion. However, today the basis of scientific progress is still through journal publications and, with this in mind, we trust that this report will find an interested readership. We acknowledge with thanks the support of the members of the IFRC as an advisory body to the Agency. Seven chairmen have presided over the IFRC since its first meeting in 1971 in Madison, USA, ensuring that the IAEA fusion efforts were based on the best professional advice possible, and that information on fusion developments has

A survey on dielectric elastomer actuators for soft robots.

PubMed

Gu, Guo-Ying; Zhu, Jian; Zhu, Li-Min; Zhu, Xiangyang

2017-01-23

Conventional industrial robots with the rigid actuation technology have made great progress for humans in the fields of automation assembly and manufacturing. With an increasing number of robots needing to interact with humans and unstructured environments, there is a need for soft robots capable of sustaining large deformation while inducing little pressure or damage when maneuvering through confined spaces. The emergence of soft robotics offers the prospect of applying soft actuators as artificial muscles in robots, replacing traditional rigid actuators. Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) are recognized as one of the most promising soft actuation technologies due to the facts that: i) dielectric elastomers are kind of soft, motion-generating materials that resemble natural muscle of humans in terms of force, strain (displacement per unit length or area) and actuation pressure/density; ii) dielectric elastomers can produce large voltage-induced deformation. In this survey, we first introduce the so-called DEAs emphasizing the key points of working principle, key components and electromechanical modeling approaches. Then, different DEA-driven soft robots, including wearable/humanoid robots, walking/serpentine robots, flying robots and swimming robots, are reviewed. Lastly, we summarize the challenges and opportunities for the further studies in terms of mechanism design, dynamics modeling and autonomous control.

Generic Stellarator-like Magnetic Fusion Reactor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sheffield, John; Spong, Donald

2015-11-01

The Generic Magnetic Fusion Reactor paper, published in 1985, has been updated, reflecting the improved science and technology base in the magnetic fusion program. Key changes beyond inflation are driven by important benchmark numbers for technologies and costs from ITER construction, and the use of a more conservative neutron wall flux and fluence in modern fusion reactor designs. In this paper the generic approach is applied to a catalyzed D-D stellarator-like reactor. It is shown that an interesting power plant might be possible if the following parameters could be achieved for a reference reactor: R/ < a > ~ 4 , confinement factor, fren = 0.9-1.15, < β > ~ 8 . 0 -11.5 %, Zeff ~ 1.45 plus a relativistic temperature correction, fraction of fast ions lost ~ 0.07, Bm ~ 14-16 T, and R ~ 18-24 m. J. Sheffield was supported under ORNL subcontract 4000088999 with the University of Tennessee.

Test technology on divergence angle of laser range finder based on CCD imaging fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shi, Sheng-bing; Chen, Zhen-xing; Lv, Yao

2016-09-01

Laser range finder has been equipped with all kinds of weapons, such as tank, ship, plane and so on, is important component of fire control system. Divergence angle is important performance and incarnation of horizontal resolving power for laser range finder, is necessary appraised test item in appraisal test. In this paper, based on high accuracy test on divergence angle of laser range finder, divergence angle test system is designed based on CCD imaging, divergence angle of laser range finder is acquired through fusion technology for different attenuation imaging, problem that CCD characteristic influences divergence angle test is solved.

Progress in the Science and Technology of Direct Drive Laser Fusion with the KrF Laser

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-12-01

important parameters KrF technology leads) Direct Laser Drive is a better choice for Energy Indirect Drive (initial path for NIF ) Laser Beams x-rays Hohlraum...Pellet Direct Drive (IFE) Laser Beams Pellet .. • ID Ignition being explored on NIF • Providing high enough gain for pure fusion energy is...challenging. • DD Ignition physics can be explored on NIF . • More efficient use of laser light, and greater flexibility in applying drive provides potential for

Soft Robotic Grippers for Biological Sampling on Deep Reefs.

PubMed

Galloway, Kevin C; Becker, Kaitlyn P; Phillips, Brennan; Kirby, Jordan; Licht, Stephen; Tchernov, Dan; Wood, Robert J; Gruber, David F

2016-03-01

This article presents the development of an underwater gripper that utilizes soft robotics technology to delicately manipulate and sample fragile species on the deep reef. Existing solutions for deep sea robotic manipulation have historically been driven by the oil industry, resulting in destructive interactions with undersea life. Soft material robotics relies on compliant materials that are inherently impedance matched to natural environments and to soft or fragile organisms. We demonstrate design principles for soft robot end effectors, bench-top characterization of their grasping performance, and conclude by describing in situ testing at mesophotic depths. The result is the first use of soft robotics in the deep sea for the nondestructive sampling of benthic fauna.

Soft Robotic Grippers for Biological Sampling on Deep Reefs

PubMed Central

Galloway, Kevin C.; Becker, Kaitlyn P.; Phillips, Brennan; Kirby, Jordan; Licht, Stephen; Tchernov, Dan; Gruber, David F.

2016-01-01

Abstract This article presents the development of an underwater gripper that utilizes soft robotics technology to delicately manipulate and sample fragile species on the deep reef. Existing solutions for deep sea robotic manipulation have historically been driven by the oil industry, resulting in destructive interactions with undersea life. Soft material robotics relies on compliant materials that are inherently impedance matched to natural environments and to soft or fragile organisms. We demonstrate design principles for soft robot end effectors, bench-top characterization of their grasping performance, and conclude by describing in situ testing at mesophotic depths. The result is the first use of soft robotics in the deep sea for the nondestructive sampling of benthic fauna. PMID:27625917

Influence of incomplete fusion on complete fusion at energies above the Coulomb barrier

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shuaib, Mohd; Sharma, Vijay R.; Yadav, Abhishek; Sharma, Manoj Kumar; Singh, Pushpendra P.; Singh, Devendra P.; Kumar, R.; Singh, R. P.; Muralithar, S.; Singh, B. P.; Prasad, R.

2017-10-01

In the present work, excitation functions of several reaction residues in the system 19F+169Tm, populated via the complete and incomplete fusion processes, have been measured using off-line γ-ray spectroscopy. The analysis of excitation functions has been done within the framework of statistical model code pace4. The excitation functions of residues populated via xn and pxn channels are found to be in good agreement with those estimated by the theoretical model code, which confirms the production of these residues solely via complete fusion process. However, a significant enhancement has been observed in the cross-sections of residues involving α-emitting channels as compared to the theoretical predictions. The observed enhancement in the cross-sections has been attributed to the incomplete fusion processes. In order to have a better insight into the onset and strength of incomplete fusion, the incomplete fusion strength function has been deduced. At present, there is no theoretical model available which can satisfactorily explain the incomplete fusion reaction data at energies ≈4-6 MeV/nucleon. In the present work, the influence of incomplete fusion on complete fusion in the 19F+169Tm system has also been studied. The measured cross-section data may be important for the development of reactor technology as well. It has been found that the incomplete fusion strength function strongly depends on the α-Q value of the projectile, which is found to be in good agreement with the existing literature data. The analysis strongly supports the projectile-dependent mass-asymmetry systematics. In order to study the influence of Coulomb effect ({Z}{{P}}{Z}{{T}}) on incomplete fusion, the deduced strength function for the present work is compared with the nearby projectile-target combinations. The incomplete fusion strength function is found to increase linearly with {Z}{{P}}{Z}{{T}}, indicating a strong influence of Coulomb effect in the incomplete fusion reactions.

Softly, Softly

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Diamond, Abigail

2008-01-01

The term "soft skills" encompasses a cluster of personality traits, language abilities, personal habits and, ultimately, values and attitudes. Soft skills complement "harder", more technical, skills, such as being able to read or type a letter, but they also have a significant impact on the ability of people to do their jobs…

Temperature Measurements in Compressed and Uncompressed SPECTOR Plasmas at General Fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Young, William; Carter, Neil; Howard, Stephen; Carle, Patrick; O'Shea, Peter; Fusion Team, General

2017-10-01

Accurate temperature measurements are critical to establishing the behavior of General Fusion's SPECTOR plasma injector, both before and during compression. As compression tests impose additional constraints on diagnostic access to the plasma, a two-color, filter-based soft x-ray electron temperature diagnostic has been implemented. Ion Doppler spectroscopy measurements also provide impurity ion temperatures on compression tests. The soft x-ray and ion Doppler spectroscopy measurements are being validated against a Thomson scattering system on an uncompressed version of SPECTOR with more diagnostic access. The multipoint Thomson scattering diagnostic also provides up to a six point temperature and density profile, with the density measurements validated against a far infrared interferometer. Temperatures above 300 eV have been demonstrated to be sustained for over 500 microseconds in uncompressed plasmas. Optimization of soft x-ray filters is ongoing, in order to balance blocking of impurity line radiation with signal strength.

Fusion for Space Propulsion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thio, Y. C. Francis; Schafer, Charles (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

somewhat different from those for terrestrial electrical power generation. Thus fusion schemes that are initially attractive for electrical power generation might not necessarily be attractive also for propulsion and vice versa, though the underlying fusion science and engineering enjoy much overlap. Parallel efforts to develop these qualitatively differently fusion schemes for the two applications could benefit greatly from each other due to the synergy in the underlying physics and engineering. Pulsed approaches to fusion have not been explored to the same degree as steady-state or long-pulse approaches to fusion in the fusion power research program. The concerns early on were several. One was that the pulsed power components might not have the service lifetimes meeting the requirements of a practical power generating plant. Another was that, for many pulsed fusion schemes, it was not clear whether the destruction of hardware per pulse could be minimized or eliminated or recycled to such an extent as to make economical electrical power generation feasible, Significant development of the underlying pulsed power component technologies have occurred in the last two decades because of defense and other energy requirements. The state of development of the pulsed power technologies are sufficiently advanced now to make it compelling to visit or re-visit pulsed fusion approaches for application to propulsion where the cost of energy is not so demanding a factor as in the case of terrestrial power application. For propulsion application, the overall mass of the fusion system is the critical factor. Producing fusion reactions require extreme states of matter. Conceptually, these extreme states of matter are more readily realizable in the pulsed states, at least within appropriate bounds, than in the steady states. Significant saving in system mass may result in such systems. Magnetic fields are effective in confining plasma energy, whereas inertial compression is an effective way

Demonstration of array eddy current technology for real-time monitoring of laser powder bed fusion additive manufacturing process

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Todorov, Evgueni; Boulware, Paul; Gaah, Kingsley

2018-03-01

Nondestructive evaluation (NDE) at various fabrication stages is required to assure quality of feedstock and solid builds. Industry efforts are shifting towards solutions that can provide real-time monitoring of additive manufacturing (AM) fabrication process layer-by-layer while the component is being built to reduce or eliminate dependence on post-process inspection. Array eddy current (AEC), electromagnetic NDE technique was developed and implemented to directly scan the component without physical contact with the powder and fused layer surfaces at elevated temperatures inside a LPBF chamber. The technique can detect discontinuities, surface irregularities, and undesirable metallurgical phase transformations in magnetic and nonmagnetic conductive materials used for laser fusion. The AEC hardware and software were integrated with the L-PBF test bed. Two layer-by-layer tests of Inconel 625 coupons with AM built discontinuities and lack of fusion were conducted inside the L-PBF chamber. The AEC technology demonstrated excellent sensitivity to seeded, natural surface, and near-surface-embedded discontinuities, while also detecting surface topography. The data was acquired and imaged in a layer-by-layer sequence demonstrating the real-time monitoring capabilities of this new technology.

Fusion Materials Research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Fiscal Year 2015

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wiffen, F. W.; Katoh, Yutai; Melton, Stephanie G.

The realization of fusion energy is a formidable challenge with significant achievements resulting from close integration of the plasma physics and applied technology disciplines. Presently, the most significant technological challenge for the near-term experiments such as ITER, and next generation fusion power systems, is the inability of current materials and components to withstand the harsh fusion nuclear environment. The overarching goal of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) fusion materials program is to provide the applied materials science support and understanding to underpin the ongoing Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science fusion energy program while developing materials for fusionmore » power systems. In doing so the program continues to be integrated both with the larger United States (US) and international fusion materials communities, and with the international fusion design and technology communities.This document provides a summary of Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 activities supporting the Office of Science, Office of Fusion Energy Sciences Materials Research for Magnetic Fusion Energy (AT-60-20-10-0) carried out by ORNL. The organization of this report is mainly by material type, with sections on specific technical activities. Four projects selected in the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) solicitation of late 2011 and funded in FY2012-FY2014 are identified by “FOA” in the titles. This report includes the final funded work of these projects, although ORNL plans to continue some of this work within the base program.« less

Image fusion and navigation platforms for percutaneous image-guided interventions.

PubMed

Rajagopal, Manoj; Venkatesan, Aradhana M

2016-04-01

Image-guided interventional procedures, particularly image guided biopsy and ablation, serve an important role in the care of the oncology patient. The need for tumor genomic and proteomic profiling, early tumor response assessment and confirmation of early recurrence are common scenarios that may necessitate successful biopsies of targets, including those that are small, anatomically unfavorable or inconspicuous. As image-guided ablation is increasingly incorporated into interventional oncology practice, similar obstacles are posed for the ablation of technically challenging tumor targets. Navigation tools, including image fusion and device tracking, can enable abdominal interventionalists to more accurately target challenging biopsy and ablation targets. Image fusion technologies enable multimodality fusion and real-time co-displays of US, CT, MRI, and PET/CT data, with navigational technologies including electromagnetic tracking, robotic, cone beam CT, optical, and laser guidance of interventional devices. Image fusion and navigational platform technology is reviewed in this article, including the results of studies implementing their use for interventional procedures. Pre-clinical and clinical experiences to date suggest these technologies have the potential to reduce procedure risk, time, and radiation dose to both the patient and the operator, with a valuable role to play for complex image-guided interventions.

Data Fusion Based on Optical Technology for Observation of Human Manipulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Falco, Pietro; De Maria, Giuseppe; Natale, Ciro; Pirozzi, Salvatore

2012-01-01

The adoption of human observation is becoming more and more frequent within imitation learning and programming by demonstration approaches (PbD) to robot programming. For robotic systems equipped with anthropomorphic hands, the observation phase is very challenging and no ultimate solution exists. This work proposes a novel mechatronic approach to the observation of human hand motion during manipulation tasks. The strategy is based on the combined use of an optical motion capture system and a low-cost data glove equipped with novel joint angle sensors, based on optoelectronic technology. The combination of the two information sources is obtained through a sensor fusion algorithm based on the extended Kalman filter (EKF) suitably modified to tackle the problem of marker occlusions, typical of optical motion capture systems. This approach requires a kinematic model of the human hand. Another key contribution of this work is a new method to calibrate this model.

Fusion energy science: Clean, safe, and abundant energy through innovative science and technology

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

None

Fusion energy science combines the study of the behavior of plasmas--the state of matter that forms 99% of the visible universe--with a vision of using fusion--the energy source of the stars--to create an affordable, plentiful, and environmentally benign energy source for humankind. The dual nature of fusion energy science provides an unfolding panorama of exciting intellectual challenge and a promise of an attractive energy source for generations to come. The goal of this report is a comprehensive understanding of plasma behavior leading to an affordable and attractive fusion energy source.

Fusion policy advisory committee named

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

Department of Energy Secretary James Watkins has announced the formation of new Fusion Policy Advisory Committee which will recommend a policy for conducting DOE's fusion energy research program. Issues that will be considered by the committee include the balance of research activities within the programs, the timing of experiments to test the burning of plasma fuel, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, and the development of laser technologies, DOE said. Watkins said that he would be entirely open to the committee's advice.

Fusion Energy Division progress report, 1 January 1990--31 December 1991

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sheffield, J.; Baker, C.C.; Saltmarsh, M.J.

1994-03-01

The Fusion Program of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), a major part of the national fusion program, encompasses nearly all areas of magnetic fusion research. The program is directed toward the development of fusion as an economical and environmentally attractive energy source for the future. The program involves staff from ORNL, Martin Marietta Energy systems, Inc., private industry, the academic community, and other fusion laboratories, in the US and abroad. Achievements resulting from this collaboration are documented in this report, which is issued as the progress report of the ORNL Fusion Energy Division; it also contains information from componentsmore » for the Fusion Program that are external to the division (about 15% of the program effort). The areas addressed by the Fusion Program include the following: experimental and theoretical research on magnetic confinement concepts; engineering and physics of existing and planned devices, including remote handling; development and testing of diagnostic tools and techniques in support of experiments; assembly and distribution to the fusion community of databases on atomic physics and radiation effects; development and testing of technologies for heating and fueling fusion plasmas; development and testing of superconducting magnets for containing fusion plasmas; development and testing of materials for fusion devices; and exploration of opportunities to apply the unique skills, technology, and techniques developed in the course of this work to other areas (about 15% of the Division`s activities). Highlights from program activities during 1990 and 1991 are presented.« less

Two conceptual designs of helical fusion reactor FFHR-d1A based on ITER technologies and challenging ideas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sagara, A.; Miyazawa, J.; Tamura, H.; Tanaka, T.; Goto, T.; Yanagi, N.; Sakamoto, R.; Masuzaki, S.; Ohtani, H.; The FFHR Design Group

2017-08-01

The Fusion Engineering Research Project (FERP) at the National Institute for Fusion Science (NIFS) is conducting conceptual design activities for the LHD-type helical fusion reactor FFHR-d1A. This paper newly defines two design options, ‘basic’ and ‘challenging.’ Conservative technologies, including those that will be demonstrated in ITER, are chosen in the basic option in which two helical coils are made of continuously wound cable-in-conduit superconductors of Nb3Sn strands, the divertor is composed of water-cooled tungsten monoblocks, and the blanket is composed of water-cooled ceramic breeders. In contrast, new ideas that would possibly be beneficial for making the reactor design more attractive are boldly included in the challenging option in which the helical coils are wound by connecting high-temperature REBCO superconductors using mechanical joints, the divertor is composed of a shower of molten tin jets, and the blanket is composed of molten salt FLiNaBe including Ti powers to increase hydrogen solubility. The main targets of the challenging option are early construction and easy maintenance of a large and three-dimensionally complicated helical structure, high thermal efficiency, and, in particular, realistic feasibility of the helical reactor.

Soft translations and soft extensions of BCI/BCK-algebras.

PubMed

Sultana, Nazra; Rani, Nazia; Ali, Muhammad Irfan; Hussain, Azhar

2014-01-01

The concept of soft translations of soft subalgebras and soft ideals over BCI/BCK-algebras is introduced and some related properties are studied. Notions of Soft extensions of soft subalgebras and soft ideals over BCI/BCK-algebras are also initiated. Relationships between soft translations and soft extensions are explored.

Future Directions for Fusion Propulsion Research at NASA

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Adams, Robert B.; Cassibry, Jason T.

2005-01-01

Fusion propulsion is inevitable if the human race remains dedicated to exploration of the solar system. There are fundamental reasons why fusion surpasses more traditional approaches to routine crewed missions to Mars, crewed missions to the outer planets, and deep space high speed robotic missions, assuming that reduced trip times, increased payloads, and higher available power are desired. A recent series of informal discussions were held among members from government, academia, and industry concerning fusion propulsion. We compiled a sufficient set of arguments for utilizing fusion in space. .If the U.S. is to lead the effort and produce a working system in a reasonable amount of time, NASA must take the initiative, relying on, but not waiting for, DOE guidance. Arguments for fusion propulsion are presented, along with fusion enabled mission examples, fusion technology trade space, and a proposed outline for future efforts.

Soft Translations and Soft Extensions of BCI/BCK-Algebras

PubMed Central

Sultana, Nazra; Rani, Nazia; Ali, Muhammad Irfan

2014-01-01

The concept of soft translations of soft subalgebras and soft ideals over BCI/BCK-algebras is introduced and some related properties are studied. Notions of Soft extensions of soft subalgebras and soft ideals over BCI/BCK-algebras are also initiated. Relationships between soft translations and soft extensions are explored. PMID:25298968

Inertial Fusion Power Plant Concept of Operations and Maintenance

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Anklam, T.; Knutson, B.; Dunne, A. M.

2015-01-15

Parsons and LLNL scientists and engineers performed design and engineering work for power plant pre-conceptual designs based on the anticipated laser fusion demonstrations at the National Ignition Facility (NIF). Work included identifying concepts of operations and maintenance (O&M) and associated requirements relevant to fusion power plant systems analysis. A laser fusion power plant would incorporate a large process and power conversion facility with a laser system and fusion engine serving as the heat source, based in part on some of the systems and technologies advanced at NIF. Process operations would be similar in scope to those used in chemical, oilmore » refinery, and nuclear waste processing facilities, while power conversion operations would be similar to those used in commercial thermal power plants. While some aspects of the tritium fuel cycle can be based on existing technologies, many aspects of a laser fusion power plant presents several important and unique O&M requirements that demand new solutions. For example, onsite recovery of tritium; unique remote material handling systems for use in areas with high radiation, radioactive materials, or high temperatures; a five-year fusion engine target chamber replacement cycle with other annual and multi-year cycles anticipated for major maintenance of other systems, structures, and components (SSC); and unique SSC for fusion target waste recycling streams. This paper describes fusion power plant O&M concepts and requirements, how O&M requirements could be met in design, and how basic organizational and planning issues can be addressed for a safe, reliable, economic, and feasible fusion power plant.« less

Inertial fusion power plant concept of operations and maintenance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Knutson, Brad; Dunne, Mike; Kasper, Jack; Sheehan, Timothy; Lang, Dwight; Anklam, Tom; Roberts, Valerie; Mau, Derek

2015-02-01

Parsons and LLNL scientists and engineers performed design and engineering work for power plant pre-conceptual designs based on the anticipated laser fusion demonstrations at the National Ignition Facility (NIF). Work included identifying concepts of operations and maintenance (O&M) and associated requirements relevant to fusion power plant systems analysis. A laser fusion power plant would incorporate a large process and power conversion facility with a laser system and fusion engine serving as the heat source, based in part on some of the systems and technologies advanced at NIF. Process operations would be similar in scope to those used in chemical, oil refinery, and nuclear waste processing facilities, while power conversion operations would be similar to those used in commercial thermal power plants. While some aspects of the tritium fuel cycle can be based on existing technologies, many aspects of a laser fusion power plant presents several important and unique O&M requirements that demand new solutions. For example, onsite recovery of tritium; unique remote material handling systems for use in areas with high radiation, radioactive materials, or high temperatures; a five-year fusion engine target chamber replacement cycle with other annual and multi-year cycles anticipated for major maintenance of other systems, structures, and components (SSC); and unique SSC for fusion target waste recycling streams. This paper describes fusion power plant O&M concepts and requirements, how O&M requirements could be met in design, and how basic organizational and planning issues can be addressed for a safe, reliable, economic, and feasible fusion power plant.

History of Nuclear Fusion Research in Japan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Iguchi, Harukazu; Matsuoka, Keisuke; Kimura, Kazue; Namba, Chusei; Matsuda, Shinzaburo

In the late 1950s just after the atomic energy research was opened worldwide, there was a lively discussion among scientists on the strategy of nuclear fusion research in Japan. Finally, decision was made that fusion research should be started from the basic, namely, research on plasma physics and from cultivation of human resources at universities under the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture (MOE). However, an endorsement was given that construction of an experimental device for fusion research would be approved sooner or later. Studies on toroidal plasma confinement started at Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI) under the Science and Technology Agency (STA) in the mid-1960s. Dualistic fusion research framework in Japan was established. This structure has lasted until now. Fusion research activities over the last 50 years are described by the use of a flowchart, which is convenient to glance the historical development of fusion research in Japan.

Lead (Pb) Hohlraum: Target for Inertial Fusion Energy

PubMed Central

Ross, J. S.; Amendt, P.; Atherton, L. J.; Dunne, M.; Glenzer, S. H.; Lindl, J. D.; Meeker, D.; Moses, E. I.; Nikroo, A.; Wallace, R.

2013-01-01

Recent progress towards demonstrating inertial confinement fusion (ICF) ignition at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) has sparked wide interest in Laser Inertial Fusion Energy (LIFE) for carbon-free large-scale power generation. A LIFE-based fleet of power plants promises clean energy generation with no greenhouse gas emissions and a virtually limitless, widely available thermonuclear fuel source. For the LIFE concept to be viable, target costs must be minimized while the target material efficiency or x-ray albedo is optimized. Current ICF targets on the NIF utilize a gold or depleted uranium cylindrical radiation cavity (hohlraum) with a plastic capsule at the center that contains the deuterium and tritium fuel. Here we show a direct comparison of gold and lead hohlraums in efficiently ablating deuterium-filled plastic capsules with soft x rays. We report on lead hohlraum performance that is indistinguishable from gold, yet costing only a small fraction. PMID:23486285

Lead (Pb) hohlraum: target for inertial fusion energy.

PubMed

Ross, J S; Amendt, P; Atherton, L J; Dunne, M; Glenzer, S H; Lindl, J D; Meeker, D; Moses, E I; Nikroo, A; Wallace, R

2013-01-01

Recent progress towards demonstrating inertial confinement fusion (ICF) ignition at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) has sparked wide interest in Laser Inertial Fusion Energy (LIFE) for carbon-free large-scale power generation. A LIFE-based fleet of power plants promises clean energy generation with no greenhouse gas emissions and a virtually limitless, widely available thermonuclear fuel source. For the LIFE concept to be viable, target costs must be minimized while the target material efficiency or x-ray albedo is optimized. Current ICF targets on the NIF utilize a gold or depleted uranium cylindrical radiation cavity (hohlraum) with a plastic capsule at the center that contains the deuterium and tritium fuel. Here we show a direct comparison of gold and lead hohlraums in efficiently ablating deuterium-filled plastic capsules with soft x rays. We report on lead hohlraum performance that is indistinguishable from gold, yet costing only a small fraction.

Exploring new technologies to facilitate laparoscopic surgery: creating intestinal anastomoses without sutures or staples, using a radio-frequency-energy-driven bipolar fusion device.

PubMed

Smulders, J F; de Hingh, I H J T; Stavast, J; Jackimowicz, J J

2007-11-01

Intestinal anastomotic healing requires apposition of the collagen containing submucosal layers of the opposing intestinal walls, which is traditionally achieved by staples or sutures. Recently, a feedback-controlled bipolar sealing system (LigaSure) has been successfully introduced to seal and transect vessels. Since this technology depends on fusion of collagen fibres which are abundantly present in the intestinal wall, the possibility to create intestinal anastomoses using this technology was investigated in the present study. For this purpose a new-generation radiofrequency (RF) generator and a prototype of the Ligasure Anastomotic Device (LAD) have been developed. The generator incorporates a closed loop control system which monitors tissue fusion, compares it with a mathematical model of ideal fusion based on the density and compliance of intestinal tissue and adjusts energy output accordingly. In total 8 anastomoses were created in a porcine model (4 pigs, 2 anastomoses each) and healing was assessed by macroscopic and histological examination. All seals were macroscopic intact both immediate after creation and at sacrifice at the 7th postoperative day. Between operations, pigs appeared healthy and had normal intestinal passage. Histological examination of the anastomoses revealed undisturbed healing with granulation tissue, newly synthesised collagen in the submucosa and re-epithelialization at the borders of the seals. These results confirm the feasibility to create experimental intestinal anastomoses using LigaSure technology. This may be an important step towards the development of new laparoscopic equipment combining dissecting and reconstructive properties within one single instrument.

Compact fusion energy based on the spherical tokamak

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sykes, A.; Costley, A. E.; Windsor, C. G.; Asunta, O.; Brittles, G.; Buxton, P.; Chuyanov, V.; Connor, J. W.; Gryaznevich, M. P.; Huang, B.; Hugill, J.; Kukushkin, A.; Kingham, D.; Langtry, A. V.; McNamara, S.; Morgan, J. G.; Noonan, P.; Ross, J. S. H.; Shevchenko, V.; Slade, R.; Smith, G.

2018-01-01

Tokamak Energy Ltd, UK, is developing spherical tokamaks using high temperature superconductor magnets as a possible route to fusion power using relatively small devices. We present an overview of the development programme including details of the enabling technologies, the key modelling methods and results, and the remaining challenges on the path to compact fusion.

A soft decoding algorithm and hardware implementation for the visual prosthesis based on high order soft demodulation.

PubMed

Yang, Yuan; Quan, Nannan; Bu, Jingjing; Li, Xueping; Yu, Ningmei

2016-09-26

High order modulation and demodulation technology can solve the frequency requirement between the wireless energy transmission and data communication. In order to achieve reliable wireless data communication based on high order modulation technology for visual prosthesis, this work proposed a Reed-Solomon (RS) error correcting code (ECC) circuit on the basis of differential amplitude and phase shift keying (DAPSK) soft demodulation. Firstly, recognizing the weakness of the traditional DAPSK soft demodulation algorithm based on division that is complex for hardware implementation, an improved phase soft demodulation algorithm for visual prosthesis to reduce the hardware complexity is put forward. Based on this new algorithm, an improved RS soft decoding method is hence proposed. In this new decoding method, the combination of Chase algorithm and hard decoding algorithms is used to achieve soft decoding. In order to meet the requirements of implantable visual prosthesis, the method to calculate reliability of symbol-level based on multiplication of bit reliability is derived, which reduces the testing vectors number of Chase algorithm. The proposed algorithms are verified by MATLAB simulation and FPGA experimental results. During MATLAB simulation, the biological channel attenuation property model is added into the ECC circuit. The data rate is 8 Mbps in the MATLAB simulation and FPGA experiments. MATLAB simulation results show that the improved phase soft demodulation algorithm proposed in this paper saves hardware resources without losing bit error rate (BER) performance. Compared with the traditional demodulation circuit, the coding gain of the ECC circuit has been improved by about 3 dB under the same BER of [Formula: see text]. The FPGA experimental results show that under the condition of data demodulation error with wireless coils 3 cm away, the system can correct it. The greater the distance, the higher the BER. Then we use a bit error rate analyzer to

Soft materials in neuroengineering for hard problems in neuroscience.

PubMed

Jeong, Jae-Woong; Shin, Gunchul; Park, Sung Il; Yu, Ki Jun; Xu, Lizhi; Rogers, John A

2015-04-08

We describe recent advances in soft electronic interface technologies for neuroscience research. Here, low modulus materials and/or compliant mechanical structures enable modes of soft, conformal integration and minimally invasive operation that would be difficult or impossible to achieve using conventional approaches. We begin by summarizing progress in electrodes and associated electronics for signal amplification and multiplexed readout. Examples in large-area, surface conformal electrode arrays and flexible, multifunctional depth-penetrating probes illustrate the power of these concepts. A concluding section highlights areas of opportunity in the further development and application of these technologies. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Novel kinase fusion transcripts found in endometrial cancer

PubMed Central

Tamura, Ryo; Yoshihara, Kosuke; Yamawaki, Kaoru; Suda, Kazuaki; Ishiguro, Tatsuya; Adachi, Sosuke; Okuda, Shujiro; Inoue, Ituro; Verhaak, Roel G. W.; Enomoto, Takayuki

2015-01-01

Recent advances in RNA-sequencing technology have enabled the discovery of gene fusion transcripts in the transcriptome of cancer cells. However, it remains difficult to differentiate the therapeutically targetable fusions from passenger events. We have analyzed RNA-sequencing data and DNA copy number data from 25 endometrial cancer cell lines to identify potential therapeutically targetable fusion transcripts, and have identified 124 high-confidence fusion transcripts, of which 69% are associated with gene amplifications. As targetable fusion candidates, we focused on three in-frame kinase fusion transcripts that retain a kinase domain (CPQ-PRKDC, CAPZA2-MET, and VGLL4-PRKG1). We detected only CPQ-PRKDC fusion transcript in three of 122 primary endometrial cancer tissues. Cell proliferation of the fusion-positive cell line was inhibited by knocking down the expression of wild-type PRKDC but not by blocking the CPQ-PRKDC fusion transcript expression. Quantitative real-time RT-PCR demonstrated that the expression of the CPQ-PRKDC fusion transcript was significantly lower than that of wild-type PRKDC, corresponding to a low transcript allele fraction of this fusion, based on RNA-sequencing read counts. In endometrial cancers, the CPQ-PRKDC fusion transcript may be a passenger aberration related to gene amplification. Our findings suggest that transcript allele fraction is a useful predictor to find bona-fide therapeutic-targetable fusion transcripts. PMID:26689674

Novel kinase fusion transcripts found in endometrial cancer.

PubMed

Tamura, Ryo; Yoshihara, Kosuke; Yamawaki, Kaoru; Suda, Kazuaki; Ishiguro, Tatsuya; Adachi, Sosuke; Okuda, Shujiro; Inoue, Ituro; Verhaak, Roel G W; Enomoto, Takayuki

2015-12-22

Recent advances in RNA-sequencing technology have enabled the discovery of gene fusion transcripts in the transcriptome of cancer cells. However, it remains difficult to differentiate the therapeutically targetable fusions from passenger events. We have analyzed RNA-sequencing data and DNA copy number data from 25 endometrial cancer cell lines to identify potential therapeutically targetable fusion transcripts, and have identified 124 high-confidence fusion transcripts, of which 69% are associated with gene amplifications. As targetable fusion candidates, we focused on three in-frame kinase fusion transcripts that retain a kinase domain (CPQ-PRKDC, CAPZA2-MET, and VGLL4-PRKG1). We detected only CPQ-PRKDC fusion transcript in three of 122 primary endometrial cancer tissues. Cell proliferation of the fusion-positive cell line was inhibited by knocking down the expression of wild-type PRKDC but not by blocking the CPQ-PRKDC fusion transcript expression. Quantitative real-time RT-PCR demonstrated that the expression of the CPQ-PRKDC fusion transcript was significantly lower than that of wild-type PRKDC, corresponding to a low transcript allele fraction of this fusion, based on RNA-sequencing read counts. In endometrial cancers, the CPQ-PRKDC fusion transcript may be a passenger aberration related to gene amplification. Our findings suggest that transcript allele fraction is a useful predictor to find bona-fide therapeutic-targetable fusion transcripts.

The High Field Path to Practical Fusion Energy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mumgaard, Robert; Whyte, D.; Greenwald, M.; Hartwig, Z.; Brunner, D.; Sorbom, B.; Marmar, E.; Minervini, J.; Bonoli, P.; Irby, J.; Labombard, B.; Terry, J.; Vieira, R.; Wukitch, S.

2017-10-01

We propose a faster, lower cost development path for fusion energy enabled by high temperature superconductors, devices at high magnetic field, innovative technologies and modern approaches to technology development. Timeliness, scale, and economic-viability are the drivers for fusion energy to combat climate change and aid economic development. The opportunities provided by high-temperature superconductors, innovative engineering and physics, and new organizational structures identified over the last few years open new possibilities for realizing practical fusion energy that could meet mid-century de-carbonization needs. We discuss re-factoring the fusion energy development path with an emphasis on concrete risk retirement strategies utilizing a modular approach based on the high-field tokamak that leverages the broader tokamak physics understanding of confinement, stability, and operational limits. Elements of this plan include development of high-temperature superconductor magnets, simplified immersion blankets, advanced long-leg divertors, a compact divertor test tokamak, efficient current drive, modular construction, and demountable magnet joints. An R&D plan culminating in the construction of an integrated pilot plant and test facility modeled on the ARC concept is presented.

Investigating the degree of "stigma" associated with nuclear energy technologies: A cross-cultural examination of the case of fusion power.

PubMed

Horlick-Jones, Tom; Prades, Ana; Espluga, Josep

2012-07-01

The extent to which nuclear energy technologies are, in some sense, "stigmatised" by historical environmental and military associations is of particular interest in contemporary debates about sustainable energy policy. Recent claims in the literature suggest that despite such stigmatisation, lay views on such technologies may be shifting towards a "reluctant acceptance," in the light of concerns about issues like anthropogenic climate change. In this paper, we report on research into learning and reasoning processes concerned with a largely unknown nuclear energy technology; namely fusion power. We focus on the role of the nuclear label, or "brand," in informing how lay citizens make sense of the nature of this technology. Our findings derive from a comparative analysis of data generated in Spain and Britain, using the same methodology.

Application of Fusion Gyrotrons to Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Woskov, P.; Einstein, H.; Oglesby, K.

2013-10-01

The potential size of geothermal energy resources is second only to fusion energy. Advances are needed in drilling technology and heat reservoir formation to realize this potential. Millimeter-wave (MMW) gyrotrons and related technologies developed for fusion energy research could contribute to enabling EGS. Directed MMW energy can be used to advance rock penetration capabilities, borehole casing, and fracking. MMWs are ideally suited because they can penetrate through small particulate extraction plumes, can be efficiently guided long distances in borehole dimensions, and continuous megawatt sources are commercially available. Laboratory experiments with a 10 kW, 28 GHz CPI gyrotron have shown that granite rock can be fractured and melted with power intensities of about 1 kW/cm2 and minute exposure times. Observed melted rock MMW emissivity and estimated thermodynamics suggest that penetrating hot, hard crystalline rock formations may be economic with fusion research developed MMW sources. Supported by USDOE, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and Impact Technologies, LLC.

A multi-frame soft x-ray pinhole imaging diagnostic for single-shot applicationsa)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wurden, G. A.; Coffey, S. K.

2012-10-01

For high energy density magnetized target fusion experiments at the Air Force Research Laboratory FRCHX machine, obtaining multi-frame soft x-ray images of the field reversed configuration (FRC) plasma as it is being compressed will provide useful dynamics and symmetry information. However, vacuum hardware will be destroyed during the implosion. We have designed a simple in-vacuum pinhole nosecone attachment, fitting onto a Conflat window, coated with 3.2 mg/cm2 of P-47 phosphor, and covered with a thin 50-nm aluminum reflective overcoat, lens-coupled to a multi-frame Hadland Ultra intensified digital camera. We compare visible and soft x-ray axial images of translating (˜200 eV) plasmas in the FRX-L and FRCHX machines in Los Alamos and Albuquerque.

Fusion Power—A Chemical Engineering View of the Integrated Enterprise

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Manganaro, James L.

2003-03-01

The purpose of this article was to achieve the beginning of an understanding of the integrated fusion enterprise from raw materials through power generation to decommissioning and waste disposal. The particular view point is that of a technically trained person who is only casually acquainted with the field. Emphasis is given to the chemical engineering aspects of controlled fusion power. It is concluded that there are indeed many areas in which the discipline of chemical engineering may contribute to the fusion effort. These areas include separation technology by physical and chemical means, heat and mass transfer in a packed bed blanket, tritium removal from molten coolants, distillation technology for isotope separation, and preparation of deuterium and lithium feed materials.

Open-Loop Flight Testing of COBALT GN&C Technologies for Precise Soft Landing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Carson, John M., III; Amzajerdian, Farzin; Seubert, Carl R.; Restrepo, Carolina I.

2017-01-01

A terrestrial, open-loop (OL) flight test campaign of the NASA COBALT (CoOperative Blending of Autonomous Landing Technologies) platform was conducted onboard the Masten Xodiac suborbital rocket testbed, with support through the NASA Advanced Exploration Systems (AES), Game Changing Development (GCD), and Flight Opportunities (FO) Programs. The COBALT platform integrates NASA Guidance, Navigation and Control (GN&C) sensing technologies for autonomous, precise soft landing, including the Navigation Doppler Lidar (NDL) velocity and range sensor and the Lander Vision System (LVS) Terrain Relative Navigation (TRN) system. A specialized navigation filter running onboard COBALT fuzes the NDL and LVS data in real time to produce a precise navigation solution that is independent of the Global Positioning System (GPS) and suitable for future, autonomous planetary landing systems. The OL campaign tested COBALT as a passive payload, with COBALT data collection and filter execution, but with the Xodiac vehicle Guidance and Control (G&C) loops closed on a Masten GPS-based navigation solution. The OL test was performed as a risk reduction activity in preparation for an upcoming 2017 closed-loop (CL) flight campaign in which Xodiac G&C will act on the COBALT navigation solution and the GPS-based navigation will serve only as a backup monitor.

Stretchable Materials for Robust Soft Actuators towards Assistive Wearable Devices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Agarwal, Gunjan; Besuchet, Nicolas; Audergon, Basile; Paik, Jamie

2016-09-01

Soft actuators made from elastomeric active materials can find widespread potential implementation in a variety of applications ranging from assistive wearable technologies targeted at biomedical rehabilitation or assistance with activities of daily living, bioinspired and biomimetic systems, to gripping and manipulating fragile objects, and adaptable locomotion. In this manuscript, we propose a novel two-component soft actuator design and design tool that produces actuators targeted towards these applications with enhanced mechanical performance and manufacturability. Our numerical models developed using the finite element method can predict the actuator behavior at large mechanical strains to allow efficient design iterations for system optimization. Based on two distinctive actuator prototypes’ (linear and bending actuators) experimental results that include free displacement and blocked-forces, we have validated the efficacy of the numerical models. The presented extensive investigation of mechanical performance for soft actuators with varying geometric parameters demonstrates the practical application of the design tool, and the robustness of the actuator hardware design, towards diverse soft robotic systems for a wide set of assistive wearable technologies, including replicating the motion of several parts of the human body.

Stretchable Materials for Robust Soft Actuators towards Assistive Wearable Devices.

PubMed

Agarwal, Gunjan; Besuchet, Nicolas; Audergon, Basile; Paik, Jamie

2016-09-27

Soft actuators made from elastomeric active materials can find widespread potential implementation in a variety of applications ranging from assistive wearable technologies targeted at biomedical rehabilitation or assistance with activities of daily living, bioinspired and biomimetic systems, to gripping and manipulating fragile objects, and adaptable locomotion. In this manuscript, we propose a novel two-component soft actuator design and design tool that produces actuators targeted towards these applications with enhanced mechanical performance and manufacturability. Our numerical models developed using the finite element method can predict the actuator behavior at large mechanical strains to allow efficient design iterations for system optimization. Based on two distinctive actuator prototypes' (linear and bending actuators) experimental results that include free displacement and blocked-forces, we have validated the efficacy of the numerical models. The presented extensive investigation of mechanical performance for soft actuators with varying geometric parameters demonstrates the practical application of the design tool, and the robustness of the actuator hardware design, towards diverse soft robotic systems for a wide set of assistive wearable technologies, including replicating the motion of several parts of the human body.

Soft Pneumatic Actuator Fascicles for High Force and Reliability

PubMed Central

Robertson, Matthew A.; Sadeghi, Hamed; Florez, Juan Manuel

2017-01-01

Abstract Soft pneumatic actuators (SPAs) are found in mobile robots, assistive wearable devices, and rehabilitative technologies. While soft actuators have been one of the most crucial elements of technology leading the development of the soft robotics field, they fall short of force output and bandwidth requirements for many tasks. In addition, other general problems remain open, including robustness, controllability, and repeatability. The SPA-pack architecture presented here aims to satisfy these standards of reliability crucial to the field of soft robotics, while also improving the basic performance capabilities of SPAs by borrowing advantages leveraged ubiquitously in biology; namely, the structured parallel arrangement of lower power actuators to form the basis of a larger and more powerful actuator module. An SPA-pack module consisting of a number of smaller SPAs will be studied using an analytical model and physical prototype. Experimental measurements show an SPA pack to generate over 112 N linear force, while the model indicates the benefit of parallel actuator grouping over a geometrically equivalent single SPA scale as an increasing function of the number of individual actuators in the group. For a module of four actuators, a 23% increase in force production over a volumetrically equivalent single SPA is predicted and validated, while further gains appear possible up to 50%. These findings affirm the advantage of utilizing a fascicle structure for high-performance soft robotic applications over existing monolithic SPA designs. An example of high-performance soft robotic platform will be presented to demonstrate the capability of SPA-pack modules in a complete and functional system. PMID:28289573

Soft Pneumatic Actuator Fascicles for High Force and Reliability.

PubMed

Robertson, Matthew A; Sadeghi, Hamed; Florez, Juan Manuel; Paik, Jamie

2017-03-01

Soft pneumatic actuators (SPAs) are found in mobile robots, assistive wearable devices, and rehabilitative technologies. While soft actuators have been one of the most crucial elements of technology leading the development of the soft robotics field, they fall short of force output and bandwidth requirements for many tasks. In addition, other general problems remain open, including robustness, controllability, and repeatability. The SPA-pack architecture presented here aims to satisfy these standards of reliability crucial to the field of soft robotics, while also improving the basic performance capabilities of SPAs by borrowing advantages leveraged ubiquitously in biology; namely, the structured parallel arrangement of lower power actuators to form the basis of a larger and more powerful actuator module. An SPA-pack module consisting of a number of smaller SPAs will be studied using an analytical model and physical prototype. Experimental measurements show an SPA pack to generate over 112 N linear force, while the model indicates the benefit of parallel actuator grouping over a geometrically equivalent single SPA scale as an increasing function of the number of individual actuators in the group. For a module of four actuators, a 23% increase in force production over a volumetrically equivalent single SPA is predicted and validated, while further gains appear possible up to 50%. These findings affirm the advantage of utilizing a fascicle structure for high-performance soft robotic applications over existing monolithic SPA designs. An example of high-performance soft robotic platform will be presented to demonstrate the capability of SPA-pack modules in a complete and functional system.

Gasdynamic Mirror (GDM) Fusion Propulsion Engine Experiment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1999-01-01

The Gasdynamic Mirror, or GDM, is an example of a magnetic mirror-based fusion propulsion system. Its design is primarily consisting of a long slender solenoid surrounding a vacuum chamber that contains plasma. The bulk of the fusion plasma is confined by magnetic field generated by a series of toroidal-shaped magnets in the center section of the device. the purpose of the GDM Fusion Propulsion Experiment is to confirm the feasibility of the concept and to demonstrate many of the operational characteristics of a full-size plasma can be confined within the desired physical configuration and still reman stable. This image shows an engineer from Propulsion Research Technologies Division at Marshall Space Flight Center inspecting solenoid magnets-A, an integrate part of the Gasdynamic Mirror Fusion Propulsion Engine Experiment.

Miniaturized soft bio-hybrid robotics: a step forward into healthcare applications.

PubMed

Patino, T; Mestre, R; Sánchez, S

2016-10-07

Soft robotics is an emerging discipline that employs soft flexible materials such as fluids, gels and elastomers in order to enhance the use of robotics in healthcare applications. Compared to their rigid counterparts, soft robotic systems have flexible and rheological properties that are closely related to biological systems, thus allowing the development of adaptive and flexible interactions with complex dynamic environments. With new technologies arising in bioengineering, the integration of living cells into soft robotic systems offers the possibility of accomplishing multiple complex functions such as sensing and actuating upon external stimuli. These emerging bio-hybrid systems are showing promising outcomes and opening up new avenues in the field of soft robotics for applications in healthcare and other fields.

Clinicopathological differences between variants of the NAB2-STAT6 fusion gene in solitary fibrous tumors of the meninges and extra-central nervous system.

PubMed

Nakada, Satoko; Minato, Hiroshi; Nojima, Takayuki

2016-07-01

Investigations on the NAB2-STAT6 fusion gene in solitary fibrous tumors (SFTs) and hemangiopericytomas (HPCs) have increased since its discovery in 2013. Although several SFTs reported without NAB2-STAT6 fusion gene analysis, we reviewed 546 SFTs/HPCs with NAB2-STAT6 fusion gene analysis in this study and investigated differences between the gene variants. In total, 452 cases tested positive for the NAB2-STAT6 fusion gene, with more than 40 variants being detected. The most frequent of these were NAB2 exon 6-STAT6 exon 16/17/18 and NAB2 exon 4-STAT6 exon 2/3, with the former occurring most frequently in SFTs in meninges, soft tissues, and head and neck; the latter predominated in SFTs in the pleura and lung. There was no difference between the histology of SFTs and fusion gene variants. A follow-up analysis of SFTs showed that 51 of 202 cases had a recurrence, with 18 of 53 meningeal SFTs having a local recurrence and/or metastasis within 0-19 years. In meninges and soft tissue, SFTs with the NAB2 exon 6-STAT6 exon 16/17/18 tended to recur more frequently than SFTs with the NAB2 exon 4-STAT6 exon 2/3. Clinicopathological data, including yearly follow-ups, are required for meningeal SFTs/HPCs to define the correlation of variants of NAB2-STAT6 fusion gene.

Sensor and information fusion for improved hostile fire situational awareness

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scanlon, Michael V.; Ludwig, William D.

2010-04-01

A research-oriented Army Technology Objective (ATO) named Sensor and Information Fusion for Improved Hostile Fire Situational Awareness uniquely focuses on the underpinning technologies to detect and defeat any hostile threat; before, during, and after its occurrence. This is a joint effort led by the Army Research Laboratory, with the Armaments and the Communications and Electronics Research, Development, and Engineering Centers (CERDEC and ARDEC) partners. It addresses distributed sensor fusion and collaborative situational awareness enhancements, focusing on the underpinning technologies to detect/identify potential hostile shooters prior to firing a shot and to detect/classify/locate the firing point of hostile small arms, mortars, rockets, RPGs, and missiles after the first shot. A field experiment conducted addressed not only diverse modality sensor performance and sensor fusion benefits, but gathered useful data to develop and demonstrate the ad hoc networking and dissemination of relevant data and actionable intelligence. Represented at this field experiment were various sensor platforms such as UGS, soldier-worn, manned ground vehicles, UGVs, UAVs, and helicopters. This ATO continues to evaluate applicable technologies to include retro-reflection, UV, IR, visible, glint, LADAR, radar, acoustic, seismic, E-field, narrow-band emission and image processing techniques to detect the threats with very high confidence. Networked fusion of multi-modal data will reduce false alarms and improve actionable intelligence by distributing grid coordinates, detection report features, and imagery of threats.

Critical-angle transmission grating technology development for high resolving power soft x-ray spectrometers on Arcus and Lynx

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heilmann, Ralf K.; Bruccoleri, Alexander R.; Song, Jungki; Kolodziejczak, Jeffery; Gaskin, Jessica A.; O'Dell, Stephen L.; Cheimetz, Peter; Hertz, Edward; Smith, Randall K.; Burwitz, Vadim; Hartner, Gisela; La Caria, Marlis-Madeleine; Schattenburg, Mark L.

2017-08-01

Soft x-ray spectroscopy with high resolving power (R = λ/Δλ) and large effective area (A) addresses numerous unanswered science questions about the physical laws that lead to the structure of our universe. In the soft x-ray band R > 1000 can currently only be achieved with diffraction grating-based spectroscopy. Criticalangle transmission (CAT) gratings combine the advantages of blazed reflection gratings (high efficiency, use of higher diffraction orders) with those of conventional transmission gratings (relaxed alignment tolerances and temperature requirements, transparent at higher energies, low mass), resulting in minimal mission resource requirements, while greatly improving figures of merit. Diffraction efficiency > 33% and R > 10, 000 have been demonstrated for CAT gratings. Last year the technology has been certified at Technology Readiness Level 4 based on a probe class mission concept. The Explorer-scale (A > 450 cm2 , R > 2500) grating spectroscopy Arcus mission can be built with today's CAT grating technology and has been selected in the current Explorer round for a Phase A concept study. Its figure of merit for the detection of weak absorption lines will be an order of magnitude larger than current instruments on Chandra and XMM-Newton. Further CAT grating technology development and improvements in the angular resolution of x-ray optics can provide another order of magnitude improvement in performance, as is envisioned for the X-ray Surveyor/Lynx mission concept currently under development for input into the 2020 Decadal Survey. For Arcus we have tested CAT gratings in a spectrometer setup in combination with silicon pore optics (SPO) and obtained resolving power results that exceed Arcus requirements before and after environmental testing of the gratings. We have recently fabricated the largest (32 mm x 32 mm) CAT gratings to date, and plan to increase grating size further. We mounted two of these large gratings to frames and aligned them in the

Fusion Safety Program annual report, fiscal year 1994

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Longhurst, Glen R.; Cadwallader, Lee C.; Dolan, Thomas J.; Herring, J. Stephen; McCarthy, Kathryn A.; Merrill, Brad J.; Motloch, Chester C.; Petti, David A.

1995-03-01

This report summarizes the major activities of the Fusion Safety Program in fiscal year 1994. The Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL) is the designated lead laboratory and Lockheed Idaho Technologies Company is the prime contractor for this program. The Fusion Safety Program was initiated in 1979. Activities are conducted at the INEL, at other DOE laboratories, and at other institutions, including the University of Wisconsin. The technical areas covered in this report include tritium safety, beryllium safety, chemical reactions and activation product release, safety aspects of fusion magnet systems, plasma disruptions, risk assessment failure rate data base development, and thermalhydraulics code development and their application to fusion safety issues. Much of this work has been done in support of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). Also included in the report are summaries of the safety and environmental studies performed by the Fusion Safety Program for the Tokamak Physics Experiment and the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor and of the technical support for commercial fusion facility conceptual design studies. A major activity this year has been work to develop a DOE Technical Standard for the safety of fusion test facilities.

Soft Robotics: New Perspectives for Robot Bodyware and Control

PubMed Central

Laschi, Cecilia; Cianchetti, Matteo

2014-01-01

The remarkable advances of robotics in the last 50 years, which represent an incredible wealth of knowledge, are based on the fundamental assumption that robots are chains of rigid links. The use of soft materials in robotics, driven not only by new scientific paradigms (biomimetics, morphological computation, and others), but also by many applications (biomedical, service, rescue robots, and many more), is going to overcome these basic assumptions and makes the well-known theories and techniques poorly applicable, opening new perspectives for robot design and control. The current examples of soft robots represent a variety of solutions for actuation and control. Though very first steps, they have the potential for a radical technological change. Soft robotics is not just a new direction of technological development, but a novel approach to robotics, unhinging its fundamentals, with the potential to produce a new generation of robots, in the support of humans in our natural environments. PMID:25022259

Soft Ultrathin Electronics Innervated Adaptive Fully Soft Robots.

PubMed

Wang, Chengjun; Sim, Kyoseung; Chen, Jin; Kim, Hojin; Rao, Zhoulyu; Li, Yuhang; Chen, Weiqiu; Song, Jizhou; Verduzco, Rafael; Yu, Cunjiang

2018-03-01

Soft robots outperform the conventional hard robots on significantly enhanced safety, adaptability, and complex motions. The development of fully soft robots, especially fully from smart soft materials to mimic soft animals, is still nascent. In addition, to date, existing soft robots cannot adapt themselves to the surrounding environment, i.e., sensing and adaptive motion or response, like animals. Here, compliant ultrathin sensing and actuating electronics innervated fully soft robots that can sense the environment and perform soft bodied crawling adaptively, mimicking an inchworm, are reported. The soft robots are constructed with actuators of open-mesh shaped ultrathin deformable heaters, sensors of single-crystal Si optoelectronic photodetectors, and thermally responsive artificial muscle of carbon-black-doped liquid-crystal elastomer (LCE-CB) nanocomposite. The results demonstrate that adaptive crawling locomotion can be realized through the conjugation of sensing and actuation, where the sensors sense the environment and actuators respond correspondingly to control the locomotion autonomously through regulating the deformation of LCE-CB bimorphs and the locomotion of the robots. The strategy of innervating soft sensing and actuating electronics with artificial muscles paves the way for the development of smart autonomous soft robots. © 2018 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

A Multi-Disciplinary University Research Initiative in Hard and Soft Information Fusion: Overview, Research Strategies and Initial Results

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-07-01

Multisource Information Fusion ( CMIF ) along with a team including the Pennsylvania State University (PSU), Iona College (Iona), and Tennessee State...License. 14. ABSTRACT The University at Buffalo (UB) Center for Multisource Information Fusion ( CMIF ) along with a team including the Pennsylvania...of CMIF current research on methods for Test and Evaluation ([7], [8]) involving for example large- factor-space experimental design techniques ([9

Diode laser soft-tissue surgery: advancements aimed at consistent cutting, improved clinical outcomes.

PubMed

Romanos, Georgios E

2013-01-01

Laser dentistry and soft-tissue surgery, in particular, have become widely adopted in recent years. Significant cost reductions for dental lasers and the increasing popularity of CADCAM, among other factors, have contributed to a substantial increase in the installed base of dental lasers, especially soft-tissue lasers. New development in soft-tissue surgery, based on the modern understanding of laser-tissue interactions and contact soft-tissue surgery mechanisms, will bring a higher quality and consistency level to laser soft-tissue surgery. Recently introduced diode-laser technology enables enhanced control of side effects that result from tissue overheating and may improve soft-tissue surgical outcomes.

High resolution array CGH and gene expression profiling of alveolar soft part sarcoma

PubMed Central

Selvarajah, Shamini; Pyne, Saumyadipta; Chen, Eleanor; Sompallae, Ramakrishna; Ligon, Azra H.; Nielsen, Gunnlaugur P.; Dranoff, Glenn; Stack, Edward; Loda, Massimo; Flavin, Richard

2014-01-01

Purpose Alveolar soft part sarcoma (ASPS) is a soft tissue sarcoma with poor prognosis, and little molecular evidence for its origin, initiation and progression. The aim of this study was to elucidate candidate molecular pathways involved in tumor pathogenesis. Experimental Design We employed high-throughput array comparative genomic hybridization and cDNA-Mediated Annealing, Selection, Ligation, and Extension Assay to profile the genomic and expression signatures of primary and metastatic ASPS from 17 tumors derived from 11 patients. We used an integrative bioinformatics approach to elucidate the molecular pathways associated with ASPS progression. Fluorescence in situ hybridization was performed to validate the presence of the t(X;17)(p11.2;q25) ASPL-TFE3 fusion and hence confirm the aCGH observations. Results FISH analysis identified the ASPL-TFE3 fusion in all cases. ArrayCGH revealed a higher number of numerical aberrations in metastatic tumors relative to primaries, but failed to identify consistent alterations in either group. Gene expression analysis highlighted 1,063 genes which were differentially expressed between the two groups. Gene set enrichment analysis identified 16 enriched gene sets (p < 0.1) associated with differentially expressed genes. Notable among these were several stem cell gene expression signatures and pathways related to differentiation. In particular, the paired box transcription factor PAX6 was up-regulated in the primary tumors, along with several genes whose mouse orthologs have previously been implicated in Pax6-DNA binding during neural stem cell differentiation. Conclusion In addition to suggesting a tentative neural line of differentiation for ASPS, these results implicate transcriptional deregulation from fusion genes in the pathogenesis of ASPS. PMID:24493828

Synchronized fusion development considering physics, materials and heat transfer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wong, C. P. C.; Liu, Y.; Duan, X. R.; Xu, M.; Li, Q.; Feng, K. M.; Zheng, G. Y.; Li, Z. X.; Wang, X. Y.; Li, B.; Zhang, G. S.

2017-12-01

Significant achievements have been made in the last 60 years in the development of fusion energy with the tokamak configuration. Based on the accumulated knowledge, the world is embarking on the construction and operation of ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) with a production of 500 MWf fusion power and the demonstration of physics Q  =  10. ITER will demonstrate D-T burn physics for a duration of a few hundred seconds to prepare for the next long-burn or steady state nuclear testing tokamak operating at much higher neutron fluence. With the evolution into a steady state nuclear device, such as the China Fusion Engineering Test Reactor (CFETR), it is necessary to examine the boundary conditions imposed by the combined development of tokamak physics, fusion materials and fusion technology for a reactor. The development of ferritic steel alloys as the structural material suitable for use at high neutron fluence leads to the use of helium as the most likely reactor coolant. This points to the fundamental technology limitation on the removal of chamber wall maximum heat flux at around 1 MW m-2 and an average heat flux of 0.1 MW m-2 for the next test reactor. Future reactor performance will then depend on the control of spatial and temporal edge heat flux peaking in order to increase the average heat flux to the chamber wall. With these severe material and technological limitations, system studies were used to scope out a few robust steady state synchronized fusion reactor (SFR) designs. As an example, a low fusion power design at 131.6 MWf, which can satisfy steady state design requirements, would have a major radius of 5.5 m and minor radius of 1.6 m. Such a design with even more advanced structural materials like W f/W composite could allow higher performance and provide a net electrical production of 62 MWe. These can be incorporated into the CFETR program.

An accelerated fusion power development plan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dean, Stephen O.; Baker, Charles C.; Cohn, Daniel R.; Kinkead, Susan D.

1991-06-01

Energy for electricity and transportation is a national issue with worldwide environmental and political implications. The world must have energy options for the next century that are not vulnerable to possible disruption for technical, environmental, public confidence, or other reasons. Growing concerns about the greenhouse effect and the safety of transporting oil may lead to reduced burning of coal and other fossil fuels, and the incidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, as well as nuclear waste storage problems, have eroded public acceptance of nuclear fission. Meeting future world energy needs will require improvements in energy efficiency and conservation. However, the world will soon need new central station power plants and increasing amounts of fuel for the transportation sector. The use of fossil fuels, and possibly even fission power, will very likely be restricted because of environmental, safety, and, eventually, supply considerations. Time is running out for policymakers. New energy technologies cannot be brought to the marketplace overnight. Decades are required to bring a new energy production technology from conception to full market penetration. With the added urgency to mitigate deleterious environmental effects of energy use, policymakers must act decisively now to establish and support vigorous energy technology development programs. The U.S. has invested 8 billion over the past 40 years in fusion research and development. If the U.S. fusion program proceeds according to its present strategy, an additional 40 years, and more money, will be expended before fusion will provide commercial electricity. Such an extended schedule is neither cost-effective nor technically necessary. It is time to launch a national venture to construct and operate a fusion power pilot plant. Such a plant could be operational within 15 years of a national commitment to proceed.

Recent advances and challenges for diode-pumped solid-state lasers as an inertial fusion energy driver candidate

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Payne, S.A.; Beach, R.J.; Bibeau, C.

We discuss how solid-state laser technology can serve in the interests of fusion energy beyond the goals of the National Ignition Facility (NIF), which is now being constructed to ignite a deuterium-tritium target to fusion conditions in the laboratory for the first time. We think that advanced solid-state laser technology can offer the repetition-rate and efficiency needed to drive a fusion power plant, in contrast to the single-shot character of NIF. As discuss below, we propose that a gas-cooled, diode-pumped Yb:S-FAP laser can provide a new paradigm for fusion laser technology leading into the next century.

Principles of definitive soft tissue coverage with flaps.

PubMed

Levin, L Scott

2008-01-01

Despite the emergence of negative pressure wound therapy with reticulated open cell foam (NPWT/ROCF) as delivered by V.A.C.(R) Therapy (KCI, San Antonio, TX) for orthopaedic trauma, vascularized tissue transfer whether it be pedicle, free, or tissue transfer using the operating microscope or as an island, remains the mainstay of soft tissue reconstruction for orthopaedic traumatology. The critisism of microvascular procedures has been that they are lengthy, costly, and required technical expertise to perform. While technical skills are required, microsurgical care has evolved into a routine operation with high degrees of success in experienced hand. The problem that still remains is access to surgeons who are interested in soft tissue reconstruction and can perform definitive coverage with flaps. There is a need in the orthopaedic community to solve the problem of lack of flap surgeons and as a result, NPWT/ROCF has been touted as the answer to flap reconstruction. NPWT/ROCF is an important addition to soft tissue reconstruction but it serves as a bridge rather than definitive coverage in many hands. Just as wound technology is evolving with tissue substitutes, growth factors and NPWT/ROCF flaps technology continues to advance with new perforator flaps and local regional flaps, particularly the sural flap, coming on line as mainstays of soft tissue reconstruction.

Revisions to the JDL data fusion model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Steinberg, Alan N.; Bowman, Christopher L.; White, Franklin E.

1999-03-01

The Data Fusion Model maintained by the Joint Directors of Laboratories (JDL) Data Fusion Group is the most widely-used method for categorizing data fusion-related functions. This paper discusses the current effort to revise the expand this model to facilitate the cost-effective development, acquisition, integration and operation of multi- sensor/multi-source systems. Data fusion involves combining information - in the broadest sense - to estimate or predict the state of some aspect of the universe. These may be represented in terms of attributive and relational states. If the job is to estimate the state of a people, it can be useful to include consideration of informational and perceptual states in addition to the physical state. Developing cost-effective multi-source information systems requires a method for specifying data fusion processing and control functions, interfaces, and associate databases. The lack of common engineering standards for data fusion systems has been a major impediment to integration and re-use of available technology: current developments do not lend themselves to objective evaluation, comparison or re-use. This paper reports on proposed revisions and expansions of the JDL Data FUsion model to remedy some of these deficiencies. This involves broadening the functional model and related taxonomy beyond the original military focus, and integrating the Data Fusion Tree Architecture model for system description, design and development.

Soft Robotics Commercialization: Jamming Grippers from Research to Product

PubMed Central

Cheng, Nadia; Fakhouri, Sami; Culley, Bill

2016-01-01

Abstract Recent work in the growing field of soft robotics has demonstrated a number of very promising technologies. However, to make a significant impact in real-world applications, these new technologies must first transition out of the laboratory through successful commercialization. Commercialization is perhaps the most critical future milestone facing the field of soft robotics today, and this process will reveal whether the apparent impact we now perceive has been appropriately estimated. Since 2012, Empire Robotics has been one of the first companies to attempt to reach this milestone through our efforts to commercialize jamming-based robotic gripper technology in a product called VERSABALL®. However, in spring 2016 we are closing our doors, having not been able to develop a sustainable business around this technology. This article presents some of the key takeaways from the technical side of the commercialization process and lessons learned that may be valuable to others. We hope that sharing this information will provide a frame of reference for technology commercialization that can help others motivate research directions and maximize research impact. PMID:28078197

A multi-frame soft x-ray pinhole imaging diagnostic for single-shot applications

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wurden, G. A.; Coffey, S. K.

2012-10-15

For high energy density magnetized target fusion experiments at the Air Force Research Laboratory FRCHX machine, obtaining multi-frame soft x-ray images of the field reversed configuration (FRC) plasma as it is being compressed will provide useful dynamics and symmetry information. However, vacuum hardware will be destroyed during the implosion. We have designed a simple in-vacuum pinhole nosecone attachment, fitting onto a Conflat window, coated with 3.2 mg/cm{sup 2} of P-47 phosphor, and covered with a thin 50-nm aluminum reflective overcoat, lens-coupled to a multi-frame Hadland Ultra intensified digital camera. We compare visible and soft x-ray axial images of translating ({approx}200more » eV) plasmas in the FRX-L and FRCHX machines in Los Alamos and Albuquerque.« less

Image fusion based on millimeter-wave for concealed weapon detection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhu, Weiwen; Zhao, Yuejin; Deng, Chao; Zhang, Cunlin; Zhang, Yalin; Zhang, Jingshui

2010-11-01

This paper describes a novel multi sensors image fusion technology which is presented for concealed weapon detection (CWD). It is known to all, because of the good transparency of the clothes at millimeter wave band, a millimeter wave radiometer can be used to image and distinguish concealed contraband beneath clothes, for example guns, knives, detonator and so on. As a result, we adopt the passive millimeter wave (PMMW) imaging technology for airport security. However, in consideration of the wavelength of millimeter wave and the single channel mechanical scanning, the millimeter wave image has law optical resolution, which can't meet the need of practical application. Therefore, visible image (VI), which has higher resolution, is proposed for the image fusion with the millimeter wave image to enhance the readability. Before the image fusion, a novel image pre-processing which specifics to the fusion of millimeter wave imaging and visible image is adopted. And in the process of image fusion, multi resolution analysis (MRA) based on Wavelet Transform (WT) is adopted. In this way, the experiment result shows that this method has advantages in concealed weapon detection and has practical significance.

Revitalizing Fusion via Fission Fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Manheimer, Wallace

2001-10-01

Existing tokamaks could generate significant nuclear fuel. TFTR, operating steady state with DT might generate enough fuel for a 300 MW nuclear reactor. The immediate goals of the magnetic fusion program would necessarily shift from a study of advanced plasma regimes in larger sized devices, to mostly known plasmas regimes, but at steady state or high duty cycle operation in DT plasmas. The science and engineering of breeding blankets would be equally important. Follow on projects could possibly produce nuclear fuel in large quantity at low price. Although today there is strong opposition to nuclear power in the United States, in a 21st century world of 10 billion people, all of whom will demand a middle class life style, nuclear energy will be important. Concern over greenhouse gases will also drive the world toward nuclear power. There are studies indicating that the world will need 10 TW of carbon free energy by 2050. It is difficult to see how this can be achieved without the breeding of nuclear fuel. By using the thorium cycle, proliferation risks are minimized. [1], [2]. 1 W. Manheimer, Fusion Technology, 36, 1, 1999, 2.W. Manheimer, Physics and Society, v 29, #3, p5, July, 2000

Z-Pinch fusion-based nuclear propulsion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miernik, J.; Statham, G.; Fabisinski, L.; Maples, C. D.; Adams, R.; Polsgrove, T.; Fincher, S.; Cassibry, J.; Cortez, R.; Turner, M.; Percy, T.

2013-02-01

Fusion-based nuclear propulsion has the potential to enable fast interplanetary transportation. Due to the great distances between the planets of our solar system and the harmful radiation environment of interplanetary space, high specific impulse (Isp) propulsion in vehicles with high payload mass fractions must be developed to provide practical and safe vehicles for human space flight missions. The Z-Pinch dense plasma focus method is a Magneto-Inertial Fusion (MIF) approach that may potentially lead to a small, low cost fusion reactor/engine assembly [1]. Recent advancements in experimental and theoretical understanding of this concept suggest favorable scaling of fusion power output yield [2]. The magnetic field resulting from the large current compresses the plasma to fusion conditions, and this process can be pulsed over short timescales (10-6 s). This type of plasma formation is widely used in the field of Nuclear Weapons Effects testing in the defense industry, as well as in fusion energy research. A Z-Pinch propulsion concept was designed for a vehicle based on a previous fusion vehicle study called "Human Outer Planet Exploration" (HOPE), which used Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF) [3] propulsion. The reference mission is the transport of crew and cargo to Mars and back, with a reusable vehicle. The analysis of the Z-Pinch MIF propulsion system concludes that a 40-fold increase of Isp over chemical propulsion is predicted. An Isp of 19,436 s and thrust of 3812 N s/pulse, along with nearly doubling the predicted payload mass fraction, warrants further development of enabling technologies.

Magnetized Target Fusion: Prospects for Low-Cost Fusion Energy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Siemon, Richard E.; Turchi, Peter J.; Barnes, Daniel C.; Degnan, James; Parks, Paul; Ryutov, Dmitri D.; Thio, Y. C. Francis; Schafer, Charles (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF) has attracted renewed interest in recent years because it has the potential to resolve one of the major problems with conventional fusion energy research - the high cost of facilities to do experiments and in general develop practical fusion energy. The requirement for costly facilities can be traced to fundamental constraints. The Lawson condition implies large system size in the case of conventional magnetic confinement, or large heating power in the case of conventional inertial confinement. The MTF approach is to use much higher fuel density than with conventional magnetic confinement (corresponding to megabar pressures), which results in a much-reduced system size to achieve Lawson conditions. Intrinsically the system must be pulsed because the pressures exceed the strength of any known material. To facilitate heating the fuel (or "target") to thermonuclear conditions with a high-power high-intensity source of energy, magnetic fields are used to insulate the high-pressure fuel from material surroundings (thus "magnetized target"). Because of magnetic insulation, the required heating power intensity is reduced by many orders of magnitude compared to conventional inertial fusion, even with relatively poor energy confinement in the magnetic field, such as that characterized by Bohm diffusion. In this paper we show semi-quantitatively why MTF-should allow fusion energy production without costly facilities within the same generally accepted physical constraints used for conventional magnetic and inertial fusion. We also briefly discuss potential applications of this technology ranging from nuclear rockets for space propulsion to a practical commercial energy system. Finally, we report on the exploratory research underway, and the interesting physics issues that arise in the MTF regime of parameters. Experiments at Los Alamos are focused on formation of a suitable plasma target for compression, utilizing the knowledge base for compact

Final Technical Report for "Nuclear Technologies for Near Term Fusion Devices"

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wilson, Paul P.H.; Sawan, Mohamed E.; Davis, Andrew

Over approximately 18 years, this project evolved to focus on a number of related topics, all tied to the nuclear analysis of fusion energy systems. For the earliest years, the University of Wisconsin (UW)’s effort was in support of the Advanced Power Extraction (APEX) study to investigate high power density first wall and blanket systems. A variety of design concepts were studied before this study gave way to a design effort for a US Test Blanket Module (TBM) to be installed in ITER. Simultaneous to this TBM project, nuclear analysis supported the conceptual design of a number of fusion nuclearmore » science facilities that might fill a role in the path to fusion energy. Beginning in approximately 2005, this project added a component focused on the development of novel radiation transport software capability in support of the above nuclear analysis needs. Specifically, a clear need was identified to support neutron and photon transport on the complex geometries associated with Computer-Aided Design (CAD). Following the initial development of the Direct Accelerated Geoemtry Monte Carlo (DAGMC) capability, additional features were added, including unstructured mesh tallies and multi-physics analysis such as the Rigorous 2-Step (R2S) methodology for Shutdown Dose Rate (SDR) prediction. Throughout the project, there were also smaller tasks in support of the fusion materials community and for the testing of changes to the nuclear data that is fundamental to this kind of nuclear analysis.« less

Fusion energy division annual progress report, period ending December 31, 1980

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

1981-11-01

The ORNL Program encompasses most aspects of magnetic fusion research including research on two magnetic confinement programs (tokamaks and ELMO bumpy tori); the development of the essential technologies for plasma heating, fueling, superconducting magnets, and materials; the development of diagnostics; the development of atomic physics and radiation effect data bases; the assessment of the environmental impact of magnetic fusion; the physics and engineering of present-generation devices; and the design of future devices. The integration of all of these activities into one program is a major factor in the success of each activity. An excellent example of this integration is themore » extremely successful application of neutral injection heating systems developed at ORNL to tokamaks both in the Fusion Energy Division and at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL). The goal of the ORNL Fusion Program is to maintain this balance between plasma confinement, technology, and engineering activities.« less

Stretchable Materials for Robust Soft Actuators towards Assistive Wearable Devices

PubMed Central

Agarwal, Gunjan; Besuchet, Nicolas; Audergon, Basile; Paik, Jamie

2016-01-01

Soft actuators made from elastomeric active materials can find widespread potential implementation in a variety of applications ranging from assistive wearable technologies targeted at biomedical rehabilitation or assistance with activities of daily living, bioinspired and biomimetic systems, to gripping and manipulating fragile objects, and adaptable locomotion. In this manuscript, we propose a novel two-component soft actuator design and design tool that produces actuators targeted towards these applications with enhanced mechanical performance and manufacturability. Our numerical models developed using the finite element method can predict the actuator behavior at large mechanical strains to allow efficient design iterations for system optimization. Based on two distinctive actuator prototypes’ (linear and bending actuators) experimental results that include free displacement and blocked-forces, we have validated the efficacy of the numerical models. The presented extensive investigation of mechanical performance for soft actuators with varying geometric parameters demonstrates the practical application of the design tool, and the robustness of the actuator hardware design, towards diverse soft robotic systems for a wide set of assistive wearable technologies, including replicating the motion of several parts of the human body. PMID:27670953

Human-in-the-loop development of soft wearable robots

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Walsh, Conor

2018-06-01

The field of soft wearable robotics offers the opportunity to wear robots like clothes to assist the movement of specific body parts or to endow the body with functionalities. Collaborative efforts of materials, apparel and robotics science have already led to the development of wearable technologies for physical therapy. Optimizing the human-robot system by human-in-the-loop approaches will pave the way for personalized soft wearable robots for a variety of applications.

Combined use of iterative reconstruction and monochromatic imaging in spinal fusion CT images.

PubMed

Wang, Fengdan; Zhang, Yan; Xue, Huadan; Han, Wei; Yang, Xianda; Jin, Zhengyu; Zwar, Richard

2017-01-01

Spinal fusion surgery is an important procedure for treating spinal diseases and computed tomography (CT) is a critical tool for postoperative evaluation. However, CT image quality is considerably impaired by metal artifacts and image noise. To explore whether metal artifacts and image noise can be reduced by combining two technologies, adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction (ASIR) and monochromatic imaging generated by gemstone spectral imaging (GSI) dual-energy CT. A total of 51 patients with 318 spinal pedicle screws were prospectively scanned by dual-energy CT using fast kV-switching GSI between 80 and 140 kVp. Monochromatic GSI images at 110 keV were reconstructed either without or with various levels of ASIR (30%, 50%, 70%, and 100%). The quality of five sets of images was objectively and subjectively assessed. With objective image quality assessment, metal artifacts decreased when increasing levels of ASIR were applied (P < 0.001). Moreover, adding ASIR to GSI also decreased image noise (P < 0.001) and improved the signal-to-noise ratio (P < 0.001). The subjective image quality analysis showed good inter-reader concordance, with intra-class correlation coefficients between 0.89 and 0.99. The visualization of peri-implant soft tissue was improved at higher ASIR levels (P < 0.001). Combined use of ASIR and GSI decreased image noise and improved image quality in post-spinal fusion CT scans. Optimal results were achieved with ASIR levels ≥70%. © The Foundation Acta Radiologica 2016.

Demonstration of radiation pulse shaping with nested-tungsten-wire-array pinches for high-yield inertial confinement fusion.

PubMed

Cuneo, M E; Vesey, R A; Sinars, D B; Chittenden, J P; Waisman, E M; Lemke, R W; Lebedev, S V; Bliss, D E; Stygar, W A; Porter, J L; Schroen, D G; Mazarakis, M G; Chandler, G A; Mehlhorn, T A

2005-10-28

Nested wire-array pinches are shown to generate soft x-ray radiation pulse shapes required for three-shock isentropic compression and hot-spot ignition of high-yield inertial confinement fusion capsules. We demonstrate a reproducible and tunable foot pulse (first shock) produced by interaction of the outer and inner arrays. A first-step pulse (second shock) is produced by inner array collision with a central CH2 foam target. Stagnation of the inner array at the axis produces the third shock. Capsules optimized for several of these shapes produce 290-900 MJ fusion yields in 1D simulations.

Current situation: New enthusiasm. [Nuclear fusion

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

For decades the costly field of controlled nuclear fusion has been rocked by ups and downs, promise and problems. In spite of the many setbacks, scientists and DOE officials are determined to push ahead. [open quotes]We are very confident that by some time after the first decade of the next century, we will have a clear demonstration [of the technology] to give us unlimited energy....We are very excited about it,[close quotes] Energy Secretary Watkins said last spring in proposing a $360 million fusion energy budget for fiscal 1993. This article cites recent hey developments in terms of technical accomplishments, fundingmore » decisions, policy decisions, and efforts to collaborate internationally on controlled nuclear fusion. The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor is discussed also.« less

Assessment of NDE Methods to Detect Lack of Fusion in HDPE Butt Fusion Joints

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Crawford, Susan L.; Doctor, Steven R.; Cinson, Anthony D.

2011-07-31

Studies at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland, Washington, were conducted to evaluate nondestructive examinations (NDE) coupled with mechanical testing of butt fusion joints in high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipe for assessing lack of fusion. The work provided information to the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on the effectiveness of volumetric inspection techniques of HDPE butt fusion joints in Section III, Division 1, Class 3, buried piping systems in nuclear power plants. This paper describes results from assessments using ultrasonic and microwave nondestructive techniques and mechanical testing with the high-speed tensile impact test and the side-bend test formore » determining joint integrity. A series of butt joints were fabricated in 3408, 12-inch (30.5-cm) IPS DR-11 HDPE material by varying the fusion parameters to create good joints and joints containing a range of lack-of-fusion conditions. Six of these butt joints were volumetrically examined with time-of-flight diffraction (TOFD), phased-array (PA) ultrasound, and the Evisive microwave system. The outer diameter (OD) weld beads were removed for microwave evaluation and the pipes ultrasonically re-evaluated. In two of the six pipes, both the outer and inner diameter (ID) weld beads were removed and the pipe joints re-evaluated. Some of the pipes were sectioned and the joints destructively evaluated with the high-speed tensile test and the side-bend test. The fusion parameters, nondestructive and destructive evaluation results have been correlated to validate the effectiveness of what each NDE technology detects and what each does not detect. There was no single NDE method that detected all of the lack-of-fusion flaws but a combination of NDE methods did detect most of the flaws.« less

Enhanced chemical weapon warning via sensor fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Flaherty, Michael; Pritchett, Daniel; Cothren, Brian; Schwaiger, James

2011-05-01

Torch Technologies Inc., is actively involved in chemical sensor networking and data fusion via multi-year efforts with Dugway Proving Ground (DPG) and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). The objective of these efforts is to develop innovative concepts and advanced algorithms that enhance our national Chemical Warfare (CW) test and warning capabilities via the fusion of traditional and non-traditional CW sensor data. Under Phase I, II, and III Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) contracts with DPG, Torch developed the Advanced Chemical Release Evaluation System (ACRES) software to support non real-time CW sensor data fusion. Under Phase I and II SBIRs with DTRA in conjunction with the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC), Torch is using the DPG ACRES CW sensor data fuser as a framework from which to develop the Cloud state Estimation in a Networked Sensor Environment (CENSE) data fusion system. Torch is currently developing CENSE to implement and test innovative real-time sensor network based data fusion concepts using CW and non-CW ancillary sensor data to improve CW warning and detection in tactical scenarios.

HEDP and new directions for fusion energy

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kirkpatrick, Ronald C

2009-01-01

The Quest for fusion energy has a long history and the demonstration of thermonuclear energy release in 1951 represented a record achievement for high energy density. While this first demonstration was in response to the extreme fears of mankind, it also marked the beginning of a great hope that it would usher in an era of boundless cheap energy. In fact, fusion still promises to be an enabling technology that can be compared to the prehistoric utilization of fire. Why has the quest for fusion energy been so long on promises and so short in fulfillment? This paper briefly reviewsmore » past approaches to fusion energy and suggests new directions. By putting aside the old thinking and vigorously applying our experimental, computational and theoretical tools developed over the past decades we should be able to make rapid progress toward satisfying an urgent need. Fusion not only holds the key to abundant green energy, but also promises to enable deep space missions and the creation of rare elements and isotopes for wide-ranging industrial applications and medical diagnostics.« less

Information fusion based optimal control for large civil aircraft system.

PubMed

Zhen, Ziyang; Jiang, Ju; Wang, Xinhua; Gao, Chen

2015-03-01

Wind disturbance has a great influence on landing security of Large Civil Aircraft. Through simulation research and engineering experience, it can be found that PID control is not good enough to solve the problem of restraining the wind disturbance. This paper focuses on anti-wind attitude control for Large Civil Aircraft in landing phase. In order to improve the riding comfort and the flight security, an information fusion based optimal control strategy is presented to restrain the wind in landing phase for maintaining attitudes and airspeed. Data of Boeing707 is used to establish a nonlinear mode with total variables of Large Civil Aircraft, and then two linear models are obtained which are divided into longitudinal and lateral equations. Based on engineering experience, the longitudinal channel adopts PID control and C inner control to keep longitudinal attitude constant, and applies autothrottle system for keeping airspeed constant, while an information fusion based optimal regulator in the lateral control channel is designed to achieve lateral attitude holding. According to information fusion estimation, by fusing hard constraint information of system dynamic equations and the soft constraint information of performance index function, optimal estimation of the control sequence is derived. Based on this, an information fusion state regulator is deduced for discrete time linear system with disturbance. The simulation results of nonlinear model of aircraft indicate that the information fusion optimal control is better than traditional PID control, LQR control and LQR control with integral action, in anti-wind disturbance performance in the landing phase. Copyright © 2014 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Fusion and quality analysis for remote sensing images using contourlet transform

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Choi, Yoonsuk; Sharifahmadian, Ershad; Latifi, Shahram

2013-05-01

Recent developments in remote sensing technologies have provided various images with high spatial and spectral resolutions. However, multispectral images have low spatial resolution and panchromatic images have low spectral resolution. Therefore, image fusion techniques are necessary to improve the spatial resolution of spectral images by injecting spatial details of high-resolution panchromatic images. The objective of image fusion is to provide useful information by improving the spatial resolution and the spectral information of the original images. The fusion results can be utilized in various applications, such as military, medical imaging, and remote sensing. This paper addresses two issues in image fusion: i) image fusion method and ii) quality analysis of fusion results. First, a new contourlet-based image fusion method is presented, which is an improvement over the wavelet-based fusion. This fusion method is then applied to a case study to demonstrate its fusion performance. Fusion framework and scheme used in the study are discussed in detail. Second, quality analysis for the fusion results is discussed. We employed various quality metrics in order to analyze the fusion results both spatially and spectrally. Our results indicate that the proposed contourlet-based fusion method performs better than the conventional wavelet-based fusion methods.

Integrating soft sensor systems using conductive thread

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Teng, Lijun; Jeronimo, Karina; Wei, Tianqi; Nemitz, Markus P.; Lyu, Geng; Stokes, Adam A.

2018-05-01

technologies like virtual reality, or in soft-medical devices such as exoskeletal rehabilitation robots.

Study on the multi-sensors monitoring and information fusion technology of dangerous cargo container

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Shibo; Zhang, Shuhui; Cao, Wensheng

2017-10-01

In this paper, monitoring system of dangerous cargo container based on multi-sensors is presented. In order to improve monitoring accuracy, multi-sensors will be applied inside of dangerous cargo container. Multi-sensors information fusion solution of monitoring dangerous cargo container is put forward, and information pre-processing, the fusion algorithm of homogenous sensors and information fusion based on BP neural network are illustrated, applying multi-sensors in the field of container monitoring has some novelty.

Optically-Induced Cell Fusion on Cell Pairing Microstructures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Po-Fu; Wang, Chih-Hung; Lee, Gwo-Bin

2016-02-01

Cell fusion is a critical operation for numerous biomedical applications including cell reprogramming, hybridoma formation, cancer immunotherapy, and tissue regeneration. However, unstable cell contact and random cell pairings have limited efficiency and yields when utilizing traditional methods. Furthermore, it is challenging to selectively perform cell fusion within a group of cells. This study reports a new approach called optically-induced cell fusion (OICF), which integrates cell-pairing microstructures with an optically-induced, localized electrical field. By projecting light patterns onto a photoconductive film (hydrogen-rich, amorphous silicon) coated on an indium-tin-oxide (ITO) glass while an alternating current electrical field was applied between two such ITO glass slides, “virtual” electrodes could be generated that could selectively fuse pairing cells. At 10 kHz, a 57% cell paring rate and an 87% fusion efficiency were successfully achieved at a driving voltage of 20  Vpp, suggesting that this new technology could be promising for selective cell fusion within a group of cells.

A Follow up: Developing Growing Need for Soft-Skills in IT Professionals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Swanson, Dewey A.; Phillips, Julie

2004-01-01

In this paper we follow up "Developing Growing Need for Soft-Skills in IT Professionals," a paper from the 2003 ASCUE Conference. In that paper we examined the need for "soft-skills" by information technology professionals. In the current economic climate, IT outsourcing is becoming increasingly popular. Our Columbus, Indiana…

Cell-assisted lipotransfer in the clinical treatment of facial soft tissue deformity

PubMed Central

Ma, Li; Wen, Huicai; Jian, Xueping; Liao, Huaiwei; Sui, Yunpeng; Liu, Yanping; Xu, Guizhen

2015-01-01

Cosmetic surgeons have experimented with a variety of substances to improve soft tissue deformities of the face. Autologous fat grafting provides significant advantages over other modalities because it leaves no scar, is easy to use and is well tolerated by most patients. Autologous fat grafting has become one of the most popular techniques in the field of facial plastic surgery. Unfortunately, there are still two major problems affecting survival rate and development: revascularization after transplantion; and cell reservation proliferation and survival. Since Zuk and Yosra developed a technology based on adipose-derived stem cells and cell-assisted lipotrophy, researchers have hoped that this technology would promote the survival and reduce the absorption of grafted fat cells. Autologous adipose-derived stem cells may have great potential in skin repair applications, aged skin rejuvenation and other aging-related skin lesion treatments. Recently, the study of adipose-derived stem cells has gained increased attention. More researchers have started to adopt this technology in the clinical treatment of facial soft tissue deformity. The present article reviews the history of facial soft tissue augmentation and the advent of adipose-derived stem cells in the area of the clinical treatment of facial soft tissue deformity. PMID:26361629

Frontiers in propulsion research: Laser, matter-antimatter, excited helium, energy exchange thermonuclear fusion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Papailiou, D. D. (Editor)

1975-01-01

Concepts are described that presently appear to have the potential for propulsion applications in the post-1990 era of space technology. The studies are still in progress, and only the current status of investigation is presented. The topics for possible propulsion application are lasers, nuclear fusion, matter-antimatter annihilation, electronically excited helium, energy exchange through the interaction of various fields, laser propagation, and thermonuclear fusion technology.

Comparative study of multimodal biometric recognition by fusion of iris and fingerprint.

PubMed

Benaliouche, Houda; Touahria, Mohamed

2014-01-01

This research investigates the comparative performance from three different approaches for multimodal recognition of combined iris and fingerprints: classical sum rule, weighted sum rule, and fuzzy logic method. The scores from the different biometric traits of iris and fingerprint are fused at the matching score and the decision levels. The scores combination approach is used after normalization of both scores using the min-max rule. Our experimental results suggest that the fuzzy logic method for the matching scores combinations at the decision level is the best followed by the classical weighted sum rule and the classical sum rule in order. The performance evaluation of each method is reported in terms of matching time, error rates, and accuracy after doing exhaustive tests on the public CASIA-Iris databases V1 and V2 and the FVC 2004 fingerprint database. Experimental results prior to fusion and after fusion are presented followed by their comparison with related works in the current literature. The fusion by fuzzy logic decision mimics the human reasoning in a soft and simple way and gives enhanced results.

Comparative Study of Multimodal Biometric Recognition by Fusion of Iris and Fingerprint

PubMed Central

Benaliouche, Houda; Touahria, Mohamed

2014-01-01

This research investigates the comparative performance from three different approaches for multimodal recognition of combined iris and fingerprints: classical sum rule, weighted sum rule, and fuzzy logic method. The scores from the different biometric traits of iris and fingerprint are fused at the matching score and the decision levels. The scores combination approach is used after normalization of both scores using the min-max rule. Our experimental results suggest that the fuzzy logic method for the matching scores combinations at the decision level is the best followed by the classical weighted sum rule and the classical sum rule in order. The performance evaluation of each method is reported in terms of matching time, error rates, and accuracy after doing exhaustive tests on the public CASIA-Iris databases V1 and V2 and the FVC 2004 fingerprint database. Experimental results prior to fusion and after fusion are presented followed by their comparison with related works in the current literature. The fusion by fuzzy logic decision mimics the human reasoning in a soft and simple way and gives enhanced results. PMID:24605065

Twitter web-service for soft agent reporting in persistent surveillance systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rababaah, Haroun; Shirkhodaie, Amir

2010-04-01

Persistent surveillance is an intricate process requiring monitoring, gathering, processing, tracking, and characterization of many spatiotemporal events occurring concurrently. Data associated with events can be readily attained by networking of hard (physical) sensors. Sensors may have homogeneous or heterogeneous (hybrid) sensing modalities with different communication bandwidth requirements. Complimentary to hard sensors are human observers or "soft sensors" that can report occurrences of evolving events via different communication devices (e.g., texting, cell phones, emails, instant messaging, etc.) to the command control center. However, networking of human observers in ad-hoc way is rather a difficult task. In this paper, we present a Twitter web-service for soft agent reporting in persistent surveillance systems (called Web-STARS). The objective of this web-service is to aggregate multi-source human observations in hybrid sensor networks rapidly. With availability of Twitter social network, such a human networking concept can not only be realized for large scale persistent surveillance systems (PSS), but also, it can be employed with proper interfaces to expedite rapid events reporting by human observers. The proposed technique is particularly suitable for large-scale persistent surveillance systems with distributed soft and hard sensor networks. The efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed technique is measured experimentally by conducting several simulated persistent surveillance scenarios. It is demonstrated that by fusion of information from hard and soft agents improves understanding of common operating picture and enhances situational awareness.

A visual analytic framework for data fusion in investigative intelligence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cai, Guoray; Gross, Geoff; Llinas, James; Hall, David

2014-05-01

Intelligence analysis depends on data fusion systems to provide capabilities of detecting and tracking important objects, events, and their relationships in connection to an analytical situation. However, automated data fusion technologies are not mature enough to offer reliable and trustworthy information for situation awareness. Given the trend of increasing sophistication of data fusion algorithms and loss of transparency in data fusion process, analysts are left out of the data fusion process cycle with little to no control and confidence on the data fusion outcome. Following the recent rethinking of data fusion as human-centered process, this paper proposes a conceptual framework towards developing alternative data fusion architecture. This idea is inspired by the recent advances in our understanding of human cognitive systems, the science of visual analytics, and the latest thinking about human-centered data fusion. Our conceptual framework is supported by an analysis of the limitation of existing fully automated data fusion systems where the effectiveness of important algorithmic decisions depend on the availability of expert knowledge or the knowledge of the analyst's mental state in an investigation. The success of this effort will result in next generation data fusion systems that can be better trusted while maintaining high throughput.

TFG-MET fusion in an infantile spindle cell sarcoma with neural features.

PubMed

Flucke, Uta; van Noesel, Max M; Wijnen, Marc; Zhang, Lei; Chen, Chun-Liang; Sung, Yun-Shao; Antonescu, Cristina R

2017-09-01

An increasing number of congenital and infantile sarcomas displaying a primitive, monomorphic spindle cell phenotype have been characterized to harbor recurrent gene fusions, including infantile fibrosarcoma and congenital spindle cell rhabdomyosarcoma. Here, we report an unusual spindle cell sarcoma presenting as a large and infiltrative pelvic soft tissue mass in a 4-month-old girl, which revealed a novel TFG-MET gene fusion by whole transcriptome RNA sequencing. The tumor resembled the morphology of an infantile fibrosarcoma with both fascicular and patternless growth, however, it expressed strong S100 protein immunoreactivity, while lacking SOX10 staining and retaining H3K27me3 expression. Although this immunoprofile suggested partial neural/neuroectodermal differentiation, overall features were unusual and did not fit into any known tumor types (cellular schwannoma, MPNST), raising the possibility of a novel pathologic entity. The TFG-MET gene fusion expands the genetic spectrum implicated in the pathogenesis of congenital spindle cell sarcomas, with yet another example of kinase oncogenic activation through chromosomal translocation. The discovery of this new fusion is significant since the resulting MET activation can potentially be inhibited by targeted therapy, as MET inhibitors are presently available in clinical trials. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Diagnosis of extraskeletal myxoid chondrosarcoma in the thigh using EWSR1-NR4A3 gene fusion: a case report.

PubMed

Kobayashi, Hiroki; Kikuta, Kazutaka; Sekita, Tetsuya; Susa, Michiro; Nishimoto, Kazumasa; Sasaki, Aya; Kameyama, Kaori; Sugita, Shintaro; Hasegawa, Tadashi; Nakamura, Masaya; Matsumoto, Morio; Morioka, Hideo

2016-11-10

Extraskeletal myxoid chondrosarcoma is a rare soft tissue sarcoma that has unusual ultrastructural and molecular features. However, unlike other soft tissue sarcomas, it does not have specific clinical symptoms or radiological features, which can make its diagnosis difficult. Nevertheless, extraskeletal myxoid chondrosarcoma has a rare gene fusion (EWSR1-NR4A3) that is useful for making a differential diagnosis. A 43-year-old Japanese man presented with a soft tissue mass in his right thigh. A physical examination and radiography revealed a large soft tissue mass. During magnetic resonance imaging, the mass exhibited isointensity on T1-weighted images and high intensity on T2-weighted images, as well as gadolinium enhancement at the side edge of the partition structure. Thus, we considered a possible diagnosis of a malignant myxoid soft tissue tumor, such as myxoid liposarcoma, myxofibrosarcoma, or metastatic carcinomas, including myoepithelial tumor and neuroendocrine tumor, and performed an incisional biopsy to make a definitive diagnosis. The pathological findings revealed a lobulated tumor with a myxoid structure and atypical spindle-shaped cells that created eosinophilic cord-like forms. Immunohistochemistry revealed that the tumor was positive for S-100 and negative for synaptophysin, chromogranin A, and pan keratin (AE1/AE3). The percentage of Ki-67 was 10 % in the hot spot area. Based on these clinicopathological findings, we initially considered the possibility of a myxoid liposarcoma, although we did not observe any lipoblasts. Therefore, we considered the possibility of an extraskeletal myxoid chondrosarcoma. As this tumor is very rare, we searched for the EWSR1-NR4A3 gene fusion using fluorescence in situ hybridization, which confirmed the diagnosis of extraskeletal myxoid chondrosarcoma. Positron emission tomography-computed tomography did not identify any obvious metastases, and we performed radical resection of our patient's vastus medialis and

Application of Magnetized Target Fusion to High-Energy Space Propulsion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thio, Y. C. F.; Schmidt, G. R.; Kirkpatrick, R. C.; Rodgers, Stephen L. (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

Most fusion propulsion concepts that have been investigated in the past employ some form of inertial or magnetic confinement. Although the prospective performance of these concepts is excellent, the fusion processes on which these concepts are based still require considerable development before they can be seriously considered for actual applications. Furthermore, these processes are encumbered by the need for sophisticated plasma and power handling systems that are generally quite inefficient and have historically resulted in large, massive spacecraft designs. Here we present a comparatively new approach, Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF), which offers a nearer-term avenue for realizing the tremendous performance benefits of fusion propulsion'. The key advantage of MTF is its less demanding requirements for driver energy and power processing. Additional features include: 1) very low system masses and volumes, 2) high gain and relatively low waste heat, 3) substantial utilization of energy from product neutrons, 4) efficient, low peak-power drivers based on existing pulsed power technology, and 5) very high Isp, specific power and thrust. MTF overcomes many of the problems associated with traditional fusion techniques, thus making it particularly attractive for space applications. Isp greater than 50,000 seconds and specific powers greater than 50 kilowatts/kilogram appear feasible using relatively near-term pulse power and plasma gun technology.

Spatial imaging in the soft x-ray region (20--304 A) utilizing the astigmatism of a grazing incidence concave grating

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Nudelfuden, A.; Solanki, R.; Moos, H.W.

1985-03-15

Soft x-ray (20--304--A) astigmatic line shapes were measured in order to evaluate the spatial imaging properties of a Rowland mounted concave grating in grazing incidence. The practicability of coarse 1-D spatial imaging in the soft x-ray region is demonstrated. Spatial resolution equivalent to approx.4 cm at a source distance of 2 m can be achieved with practical parameters (e.g., sensitivity and time resolution) for a fusion diagnostic spectrograph. The results are compared to computer-generated ray tracings and found to be in good agreement. The ray tracing program which models the grazing incidence optics is discussed.

Fusion plasma theory project summaries

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

1993-10-01

This Project Summary book is a published compilation consisting of short descriptions of each project supported by the Fusion Plasma Theory and Computing Group of the Advanced Physics and Technology Division of the Department of Energy, Office of Fusion Energy. The summaries contained in this volume were written by the individual contractors with minimal editing by the Office of Fusion Energy. Previous summaries were published in February of 1982 and December of 1987. The Plasma Theory program is responsible for the development of concepts and models that describe and predict the behavior of a magnetically confined plasma. Emphasis is given to the modelling and understanding of the processes controlling transport of energy and particles in a toroidal plasma and supporting the design of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). A tokamak transport initiative was begun in 1989 to improve understanding of how energy and particles are lost from the plasma by mechanisms that transport them across field lines. The Plasma Theory program has actively participated in this initiative. Recently, increased attention has been given to issues of importance to the proposed Tokamak Physics Experiment (TPX). Particular attention has been paid to containment and thermalization of fast alpha particles produced in a burning fusion plasma as well as control of sawteeth, current drive, impurity control, and design of improved auxiliary heating. In addition, general models of plasma behavior are developed from physics features common to different confinement geometries. This work uses both analytical and numerical techniques. The Fusion Theory program supports research projects at U.S. government laboratories, universities and industrial contractors. Its support of theoretical work at universities contributes to the office of Fusion Energy mission of training scientific manpower for the U.S. Fusion Energy Program.

Complications with axial presacral lumbar interbody fusion: A 5-year postmarketing surveillance experience

PubMed Central

Gundanna, Mukund I.; Miller, Larry E.; Block, Jon E.

2011-01-01

Background Open and minimally invasive lumbar fusion procedures have inherent procedural risks, with posterior and transforaminal approaches resulting in significant soft-tissue injury and the anterior approach endangering organs and major blood vessels. An alternative lumbar fusion technique uses a small paracoccygeal incision and a presacral approach to the L5-S1 intervertebral space, which avoids critical structures and may result in a favorable safety profile versus open and other minimally invasive fusion techniques. The purpose of this study was to evaluate complications associated with axial interbody lumbar fusion procedures using the Axial Lumbar Interbody Fusion (AxiaLIF) System (TranS1, Wilmington, North Carolina) in the postmarketing period. Methods Between March 2005 and March 2010, 9,152 patients underwent interbody fusion with the AxiaLIF System through an axial presacral approach. A single-level L5-S1 fusion was performed in 8,034 patients (88%), and a 2-level (L4-S1) fusion was used in 1,118 (12%). A predefined database was designed to record device- or procedure-related complaints via spontaneous reporting. The complications that were recorded included bowel injury, superficial wound and systemic infections, transient intraoperative hypotension, migration, subsidence, presacral hematoma, sacral fracture, vascular injury, nerve injury, and ureter injury. Results Complications were reported in 120 of 9,152 patients (1.3%). The most commonly reported complications were bowel injury (n = 59, 0.6%) and transient intraoperative hypotension (n = 20, 0.2%). The overall complication rate was similar between single-level (n = 102, 1.3%) and 2-level (n = 18, 1.6%) fusion procedures, with no significant differences noted for any single complication. Conclusions The 5-year postmarketing surveillance experience with the AxiaLIF System suggests that axial interbody lumbar fusion through the presacral approach is associated with a low incidence of complications

A Quatro-Based 65-nm Flip-Flop Circuit for Soft-Error Resilience

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Y.-Q.; Wang, H.-B.; Liu, R.; Chen, L.; Nofal, I.; Shi, S.-T.; He, A.-L.; Guo, G.; Baeg, S. H.; Wen, S.-J.; Wong, R.; Chen, M.; Wu, Q.

2017-06-01

A flip-flop circuit hardened against soft errors is presented in this paper. This design is an improved version of Quatro for further enhanced soft-error resilience by integrating the guard-gate technique. The proposed design, as well as reference Quatro and regular flip-flops, was implemented and manufactured in a 65-nm CMOS bulk technology. Experimental characterization results of their alpha and heavy ions soft-error rates verified the superior hardening performance of the proposed design over the other two circuits.

An overview of optical diagnostics developed for the Lockheed Martin compact fusion reactor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sommers, Bradley; Raymond, Anthony; Gucker, Sarah; Lockheed Martin Compact Fusion Reactor Team

2017-10-01

The T4B experiment is a linear, encapsulated ring cusp confinement device, designed to develop a physics and technology basis for a follow-on high beta machine as part of the compact fusion reactor program. Toward this end, a collection of non-invasive optical diagnostics have been developed to investigate confinement, neutral beam heating, and source behavior on the T4B device. These diagnostics include: (1) a multipoint Thomson scattering system employing a 532 nm Nd:YAG laser and high throughput spectrometer to measure 1D profiles of electron density and temperature, (2) a dispersion interferometer utilizing a continuous-wave CO2 laser (10.6 μm) to measure time resolved, line-integrated electron density, and (3) a bolometer suite utilizing four AXUV photodiodes with 64 lines of sight to generate 2D reconstructions of total radiative power and soft x-ray emission (via beryllium filters). An overview of design methods, including laser systems, detection schemes, and data analysis techniques is presented as well as results to date.

Path to bio-nano-information fusion.

PubMed

Chen, Jia Ming; Ho, Chih-Ming

2006-12-01

This article will discuss the challenges in a new convergent discipline created by the fusion of biotechnology, nanotechnology, and information technology. To illustrate the research challenges, we will begin with an introduction to the nanometer-scale environment in which biology resides, and point out the many important behaviors of matters at that scale. Then we will describe an ideal model system, the cell, for bio-nano-information fusion. Our efforts in advancing this field at the Institute of Cell Mimetic Space Exploration (CMISE) will be introduced here as an example to move toward achieving this goal.

Soft microfluidic assemblies of sensors, circuits, and radios for the skin.

PubMed

Xu, Sheng; Zhang, Yihui; Jia, Lin; Mathewson, Kyle E; Jang, Kyung-In; Kim, Jeonghyun; Fu, Haoran; Huang, Xian; Chava, Pranav; Wang, Renhan; Bhole, Sanat; Wang, Lizhe; Na, Yoon Joo; Guan, Yue; Flavin, Matthew; Han, Zheshen; Huang, Yonggang; Rogers, John A

2014-04-04

When mounted on the skin, modern sensors, circuits, radios, and power supply systems have the potential to provide clinical-quality health monitoring capabilities for continuous use, beyond the confines of traditional hospital or laboratory facilities. The most well-developed component technologies are, however, broadly available only in hard, planar formats. As a result, existing options in system design are unable to effectively accommodate integration with the soft, textured, curvilinear, and time-dynamic surfaces of the skin. Here, we describe experimental and theoretical approaches for using ideas in soft microfluidics, structured adhesive surfaces, and controlled mechanical buckling to achieve ultralow modulus, highly stretchable systems that incorporate assemblies of high-modulus, rigid, state-of-the-art functional elements. The outcome is a thin, conformable device technology that can softly laminate onto the surface of the skin to enable advanced, multifunctional operation for physiological monitoring in a wireless mode.

CONFERENCE REPORT: Summary of the 8th IAEA Technical Meeting on Fusion Power Plant Safety

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Girard, J. Ph.; Gulden, W.; Kolbasov, B.; Louzeiro-Malaquias, A.-J.; Petti, D.; Rodriguez-Rodrigo, L.

2008-01-01

Reports were presented covering a selection of topics on the safety of fusion power plants. These included a review on licensing studies developed for ITER site preparation surveying common and non-common issues (i.e. site dependent) as lessons to a broader approach for fusion power plant safety. Several fusion power plant models, spanning from accessible technology to more advanced-materials based concepts, were discussed. On the topic related to fusion-specific technology, safety studies were reported on different concepts of breeding blanket modules, tritium handling and auxiliary systems under normal and accident scenarios' operation. The testing of power plant relevant technology in ITER was also assessed in terms of normal operation and accident scenarios, and occupational doses and radioactive releases under these testings have been determined. Other specific safety issues for fusion have also been discussed such as availability and reliability of fusion power plants, dust and tritium inventories and component failure databases. This study reveals that the environmental impact of fusion power plants can be minimized through a proper selection of low activation materials and using recycling technology helping to reduce waste volume and potentially open the route for its reutilization for the nuclear sector or even its clearance into the commercial circuit. Computational codes for fusion safety have been presented in support of the many studies reported. The on-going work on establishing validation approaches aiming at improving the prediction capability of fusion codes has been supported by experimental results and new directions for development have been identified. Fusion standards are not available and fission experience is mostly used as the framework basis for licensing and target design for safe operation and occupational and environmental constraints. It has been argued that fusion can benefit if a specific fusion approach is implemented, in particular

Fusion 2.0: The Next Generation of Fusion in California: Aligning State and Regional Fusion Centers

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-03-01

bible ” for fusion center management, as evidenced by the theme of the 2009 National Fusion Center Conference; appropriately called “Achieving Baseline...NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA THESIS FUSION 2.0: THE NEXT GENERATION OF FUSION IN CALIFORNIA: ALIGNING STATE AND...Master’s Thesis 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Fusion 2.0: The Next Generation of Fusion in California: Aligning State and Regional Fusion

Density and glass forming ability in amorphous atomic alloys: The role of the particle softness

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Douglass, Ian; Hudson, Toby; Harrowell, Peter

A key property of glass forming alloys, the anomalously small volume difference with respect to the crystal, is shown to arise as a direct consequence of the soft repulsive potentials between metals. This feature of the inter-atomic potential is demonstrated to be responsible for a significant component of the glass forming ability of alloys due to the decrease in the enthalpy of fusion and the associated depression of the freezing point.

A robust color image fusion for low light level and infrared images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Chao; Zhang, Xiao-hui; Hu, Qing-ping; Chen, Yong-kang

2016-09-01

The low light level and infrared color fusion technology has achieved great success in the field of night vision, the technology is designed to make the hot target of fused image pop out with intenser colors, represent the background details with a nearest color appearance to nature, and improve the ability in target discovery, detection and identification. The low light level images have great noise under low illumination, and that the existing color fusion methods are easily to be influenced by low light level channel noise. To be explicit, when the low light level image noise is very large, the quality of the fused image decreases significantly, and even targets in infrared image would be submerged by the noise. This paper proposes an adaptive color night vision technology, the noise evaluation parameters of low light level image is introduced into fusion process, which improve the robustness of the color fusion. The color fuse results are still very good in low-light situations, which shows that this method can effectively improve the quality of low light level and infrared fused image under low illumination conditions.

Orbital transfer rocket engine technology program: Soft wear ring seal technology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lariviere, Brian W.

1992-01-01

Liquid oxygen (LOX) compatibility tests, including autogenous ignition, promoted ignition, LOX impact tests, and friction and wear tests on different PV products were conducted for several polymer materials as verification for the implementation of soft wear ring seals in advanced rocket engine turbopumps. Thermoplastics, polyimide based materials, and polyimide-imide base materials were compared for oxygen compatibility, specific wear coefficient, wear debris production, and heat dissipation mechanisms. A thermal model was generated that simulated the frictional heating input and calculated the surface temperature and temperature distribution within the seal. The predictions were compared against measured values. Heat loads in the model were varied to better match the test data and determine the difference between the measured and the calculated coefficients of friction.

Interplanetary propulsion using inertial fusion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Orth, C. D.; Hogan, W. J.; Hoffman, N.; Murray, K.; Klein, G.; Diaz, F. C.

1987-01-01

Inertial fusion can be used to power spacecraft within the solar system and beyond. Such spacecraft have the potential for short-duration manned-mission performance exceeding other technologies. We are conducting a study to assess the systems aspects of inertial fusion as applied to such missions, based on the conceptual engine design of Hyde (1983) we describe the required systems for an entirely new spacecraft design called VISTA that is based on the use of DT fuel. We give preliminary design details for the power conversion and power conditioning systems for manned missions to Mars of total duration of about 100 days. Specific mission performance results will be published elsewhere, after the study has been completed.

Precharged Pneumatic Soft Actuators and Their Applications to Untethered Soft Robots.

PubMed

Li, Yunquan; Chen, Yonghua; Ren, Tao; Li, Yingtian; Choi, Shiu Hong

2018-06-20

The past decade has witnessed tremendous progress in soft robotics. Unlike most pneumatic-based methods, we present a new approach to soft robot design based on precharged pneumatics (PCP). We propose a PCP soft bending actuator, which is actuated by precharged air pressure and retracted by inextensible tendons. By pulling or releasing the tendons, the air pressure in the soft actuator is modulated, and hence, its bending angle. The tendons serve in a way similar to pressure-regulating valves that are used in typical pneumatic systems. The linear motion of tendons is transduced into complex motion via the prepressurized bent soft actuator. Furthermore, since a PCP actuator does not need any gas supply, complicated pneumatic control systems used in traditional soft robotics are eliminated. This facilitates the development of compact untethered autonomous soft robots for various applications. Both theoretical modeling and experimental validation have been conducted on a sample PCP soft actuator design. A fully untethered autonomous quadrupedal soft robot and a soft gripper have been developed to demonstrate the superiority of the proposed approach over traditional pneumatic-driven soft robots.

Biomechanical study of tarsometatarsal joint fusion using finite element analysis.

PubMed

Wang, Yan; Li, Zengyong; Zhang, Ming

2014-11-01

Complications of surgeries in foot and ankle bring patients with severe sufferings. Sufficient understanding of the internal biomechanical information such as stress distribution, contact pressure, and deformation is critical to estimate the effectiveness of surgical treatments and avoid complications. Foot and ankle is an intricate and synergetic system, and localized intervention may alter the functions to the adjacent components. The aim of this study was to estimate biomechanical effects of the TMT joint fusion using comprehensive finite element (FE) analysis. A foot and ankle model consists of 28 bones, 72 ligaments, and plantar fascia with soft tissues embracing all the segments. Kinematic information and ground reaction force during gait were obtained from motion analysis. Three gait instants namely the first peak, second peak and mid-stance were simulated in a normal foot and a foot with TMT joint fusion. It was found that contact pressure on plantar foot increased by 0.42%, 19% and 37%, respectively after TMT fusion compared with normal foot walking. Navico-cuneiform and fifth meta-cuboid joints sustained 27% and 40% increase in contact pressure at second peak, implying potential risk of joint problems such as arthritis. Von Mises stress in the second metatarsal bone increased by 22% at midstance, making it susceptible to stress fracture. This study provides biomechanical information for understanding the possible consequences of TMT joint fusion. Copyright © 2014 IPEM. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Inertial-Electrostatic Confinement (IEC) Fusion for Space Propulsion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nadler, Jon

1999-01-01

An Inertial-Electrostatic Confinement (IEC) device was assembled at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Propulsion Research Center (PRC) to study the possibility of using EEC technology for deep space propulsion and power. Inertial-Electrostatic Confinement is capable of containing a nuclear fusion plasma in a series of virtual potential wells. These wells would substantially increase plasma confinement, possibly leading towards a high-gain, breakthrough fusion device. A one-foot in diameter IEC vessel was borrowed from the Fusion Studies Laboratory at the University of Illinois@Urbana-Champaign for the summer. This device was used in initial parameterization studies in order to design a larger, actively cooled device for permanent use at the PRC.

Inertial-Electrostatic Confinement (IEC) Fusion For Space Propulsion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nadler, Jon

1999-01-01

An Inertial-Electrostatic Confinement (IEC) device was assembled at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Propulsion Research Center (PRC) to study the possibility of using IEC technology for deep space propulsion and power. Inertial-Electrostatic Confinement is capable of containing a nuclear fusion plasma in a series of virtual potential wells. These wells would substantially increase plasma confinement, possibly leading towards a high-gain, breakthrough fusion device. A one-foot in diameter IEC vessel was borrowed from the Fusion Studies Laboratory at the University of Illinois @ Urbana-Champaign for the summer. This device was used in initial parameterization studies in order to design a larger, actively cooled device for permanent use at the PRC.

FT-Raman and NIR spectroscopy data fusion strategy for multivariate qualitative analysis of food fraud.

PubMed

Márquez, Cristina; López, M Isabel; Ruisánchez, Itziar; Callao, M Pilar

2016-12-01

Two data fusion strategies (high- and mid-level) combined with a multivariate classification approach (Soft Independent Modelling of Class Analogy, SIMCA) have been applied to take advantage of the synergistic effect of the information obtained from two spectroscopic techniques: FT-Raman and NIR. Mid-level data fusion consists of merging some of the previous selected variables from the spectra obtained from each spectroscopic technique and then applying the classification technique. High-level data fusion combines the SIMCA classification results obtained individually from each spectroscopic technique. Of the possible ways to make the necessary combinations, we decided to use fuzzy aggregation connective operators. As a case study, we considered the possible adulteration of hazelnut paste with almond. Using the two-class SIMCA approach, class 1 consisted of unadulterated hazelnut samples and class 2 of samples adulterated with almond. Models performance was also studied with samples adulterated with chickpea. The results show that data fusion is an effective strategy since the performance parameters are better than the individual ones: sensitivity and specificity values between 75% and 100% for the individual techniques and between 96-100% and 88-100% for the mid- and high-level data fusion strategies, respectively. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Multi-focus image fusion using a guided-filter-based difference image.

PubMed

Yan, Xiang; Qin, Hanlin; Li, Jia; Zhou, Huixin; Yang, Tingwu

2016-03-20

The aim of multi-focus image fusion technology is to integrate different partially focused images into one all-focused image. To realize this goal, a new multi-focus image fusion method based on a guided filter is proposed and an efficient salient feature extraction method is presented in this paper. Furthermore, feature extraction is primarily the main objective of the present work. Based on salient feature extraction, the guided filter is first used to acquire the smoothing image containing the most sharpness regions. To obtain the initial fusion map, we compose a mixed focus measure by combining the variance of image intensities and the energy of the image gradient together. Then, the initial fusion map is further processed by a morphological filter to obtain a good reprocessed fusion map. Lastly, the final fusion map is determined via the reprocessed fusion map and is optimized by a guided filter. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method does markedly improve the fusion performance compared to previous fusion methods and can be competitive with or even outperform state-of-the-art fusion methods in terms of both subjective visual effects and objective quality metrics.

Lunar He-3, fusion propulsion, and space development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Santarius, John F.

1992-01-01

The recent identification of a substantial lunar resource of the fusion energy fuel He-3 may provide the first terrestrial market for a lunar commodity and, therefore, a major impetus to lunar development. The impact of this resource-when burned in D-He-3 fusion reactors for space power and propulsion-may be even more significant as an enabling technology for safe, efficient exploration and development of space. One possible reactor configuration among several options, the tandem mirror, illustrates the potential advantages of fusion propulsion. The most important advantage is the ability to provide either fast, piloted vessels or high-payload-fraction cargo vessels due to a range of specific impulses from 50 sec to 1,000,000 sec at thrust-to-weight ratios from 0.1 to 5x10(exp -5). Fusion power research has made steady, impressive progress. It is plausible, and even probable, that fusion rockets similar to the designs presented here will be available in the early part of the twenty-first century, enabling a major expansion of human presence into the solar system.

Cooperative Learning and Soft Skills Training in an IT Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Aimao

2012-01-01

Pedagogy of higher education is shifting from passive to active and deep learning. At the same time, the information technology (IT) industry and the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) are demanding soft skills training. Thus, in designing an IT course, we devised group teaching projects where students learn to work with…

Progress and Opportunities in Soft Photonics and Biologically Inspired Optics.

PubMed

Kolle, Mathias; Lee, Seungwoo

2018-01-01

Optical components made fully or partially from reconfigurable, stimuli-responsive, soft solids or fluids-collectively referred to as soft photonics-are poised to form the platform for tunable optical devices with unprecedented functionality and performance characteristics. Currently, however, soft solid and fluid material systems still represent an underutilized class of materials in the optical engineers' toolbox. This is in part due to challenges in fabrication, integration, and structural control on the nano- and microscale associated with the application of soft components in optics. These challenges might be addressed with the help of a resourceful ally: nature. Organisms from many different phyla have evolved an impressive arsenal of light manipulation strategies that rely on the ability to generate and dynamically reconfigure hierarchically structured, complex optical material designs, often involving soft or fluid components. A comprehensive understanding of design concepts, structure formation principles, material integration, and control mechanisms employed in biological photonic systems will allow this study to challenge current paradigms in optical technology. This review provides an overview of recent developments in the fields of soft photonics and biologically inspired optics, emphasizes the ties between the two fields, and outlines future opportunities that result from advancements in soft and bioinspired photonics. © 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Soft electronics for soft robotics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kramer, Rebecca K.

2015-05-01

As advanced as modern machines are, the building blocks have changed little since the industrial revolution, leading to rigid, bulky, and complex devices. Future machines will include electromechanical systems that are soft and elastically deformable, lending them to applications such as soft robotics, wearable/implantable devices, sensory skins, and energy storage and transport systems. One key step toward the realization of soft systems is the development of stretchable electronics that remain functional even when subject to high strains. Liquid-metal traces embedded in elastic polymers present a unique opportunity to retain the function of rigid metal conductors while leveraging the deformable properties of liquid-elastomer composites. However, in order to achieve the potential benefits of liquid-metal, scalable processing and manufacturing methods must be identified.

Gene fusions AHRR-NCOA2, NCOA2-ETV4, ETV4-AHRR, P4HA2-TBCK, and TBCK-P4HA2 resulting from the translocations t(5;8;17)(p15;q13;q21) and t(4;5)(q24;q31) in a soft tissue angiofibroma

PubMed Central

Panagopoulos, Ioannis; Gorunova, Ludmila; Viset, Trond; Heim, Sverre

2016-01-01

We present an angiofibroma of soft tissue with the karyotype 46,XY,t(4;5)(q24;q31),t(5;8;17)(p15;q13;q21) [8]/46,XY,t(1;14)(p31;q32)[2]/46,XY[3]. RNA-sequencing showed that the t(4;5)(q24;q31) resulted in recombination of the genes TBCK on 4q24 and P4HA2 on 5q31.1 with generation of an in-frame TBCK-P4HA2 and the reciprocal but out-of-frame P4HA2-TBCK fusion transcripts. The putative TBCK-P4HA2 protein would contain the kinase, the rhodanese-like domain, and the Tre-2/Bub2/Cdc16 (TBC) domains of TBCK together with the P4HA2 protein which is a component of the prolyl 4-hydroxylase. The t(5;8;17)(p15;q13;q21) three-way chromosomal translocation targeted AHRR (on 5p15), NCOA2 (on 8q13), and ETV4 (on 17q21) generating the in-frame fusions AHRR-NCOA2 and NCOA2-ETV4 as well as an out-of-frame ETV4-AHRR transcript. In the AHRR-NCOA2 protein, the C-terminal part of AHRR is replaced by the C-terminal part of NCOA2 which contains two activation domains. The NCOA2-ETV4 protein would contain the helix-loop-helix, PAS_9 and PAS_11, CITED domains, the SRC-1 domain of NCOA2 and the ETS DNA-binding domain of ETV4. No fusion gene corresponding to t(1;14)(p31;q32) was found. Our findings indicate that, in spite of the recurrence of AHRR-NCOA2 in angiofibroma of soft tissue, additional genetic events (or fusion genes) might be required for the development of this tumor. PMID:27633981

Gene fusions AHRR-NCOA2, NCOA2-ETV4, ETV4-AHRR, P4HA2-TBCK, and TBCK-P4HA2 resulting from the translocations t(5;8;17)(p15;q13;q21) and t(4;5)(q24;q31) in a soft tissue angiofibroma.

PubMed

Panagopoulos, Ioannis; Gorunova, Ludmila; Viset, Trond; Heim, Sverre

2016-11-01

We present an angiofibroma of soft tissue with the karyotype 46,XY,t(4;5)(q24;q31),t(5;8;17)(p15;q13;q21)[8]/46,XY,t(1;14)(p31;q32)[2]/46,XY[3]. RNA‑sequencing showed that the t(4;5)(q24;q31) resulted in recombination of the genes TBCK on 4q24 and P4HA2 on 5q31.1 with generation of an in‑frame TBCK‑P4HA2 and the reciprocal but out‑of‑frame P4HA2‑TBCK fusion transcripts. The putative TBCK‑P4HA2 protein would contain the kinase, the rhodanese‑like domain, and the Tre‑2/Bub2/Cdc16 (TBC) domains of TBCK together with the P4HA2 protein which is a component of the prolyl 4‑hydroxylase. The t(5;8;17)(p15;q13;q21) three‑way chromosomal translocation targeted AHRR (on 5p15), NCOA2 (on 8q13), and ETV4 (on 17q21) generating the in‑frame fusions AHRR‑NCOA2 and NCOA2‑ETV4 as well as an out‑of‑frame ETV4‑AHRR transcript. In the AHRR‑NCOA2 protein, the C‑terminal part of AHRR is replaced by the C‑terminal part of NCOA2 which contains two activation domains. The NCOA2‑ETV4 protein would contain the helix‑loop‑helix, PAS_9 and PAS_11, CITED domains, the SRC‑1 domain of NCOA2 and the ETS DNA‑binding domain of ETV4. No fusion gene corresponding to t(1;14)(p31;q32) was found. Our findings indicate that, in spite of the recurrence of AHRR‑NCOA2 in angiofibroma of soft tissue, additional genetic events (or fusion genes) might be required for the development of this tumor.

confFuse: High-Confidence Fusion Gene Detection across Tumor Entities.

PubMed

Huang, Zhiqin; Jones, David T W; Wu, Yonghe; Lichter, Peter; Zapatka, Marc

2017-01-01

Background: Fusion genes play an important role in the tumorigenesis of many cancers. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies have been successfully applied in fusion gene detection for the last several years, and a number of NGS-based tools have been developed for identifying fusion genes during this period. Most fusion gene detection tools based on RNA-seq data report a large number of candidates (mostly false positives), making it hard to prioritize candidates for experimental validation and further analysis. Selection of reliable fusion genes for downstream analysis becomes very important in cancer research. We therefore developed confFuse, a scoring algorithm to reliably select high-confidence fusion genes which are likely to be biologically relevant. Results: confFuse takes multiple parameters into account in order to assign each fusion candidate a confidence score, of which score ≥8 indicates high-confidence fusion gene predictions. These parameters were manually curated based on our experience and on certain structural motifs of fusion genes. Compared with alternative tools, based on 96 published RNA-seq samples from different tumor entities, our method can significantly reduce the number of fusion candidates (301 high-confidence from 8,083 total predicted fusion genes) and keep high detection accuracy (recovery rate 85.7%). Validation of 18 novel, high-confidence fusions detected in three breast tumor samples resulted in a 100% validation rate. Conclusions: confFuse is a novel downstream filtering method that allows selection of highly reliable fusion gene candidates for further downstream analysis and experimental validations. confFuse is available at https://github.com/Zhiqin-HUANG/confFuse.

Burning high-level TRU waste in fusion fission reactors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shen, Yaosong

2016-09-01

Recently, the concept of actinide burning instead of a once-through fuel cycle for disposing spent nuclear fuel seems to get much more attention. A new method of burning high-level transuranic (TRU) waste combined with Thorium-Uranium (Th-U) fuel in the subcritical reactors driven by external fusion neutron sources is proposed in this paper. The thorium-based TRU fuel burns all of the long-lived actinides via a hard neutron spectrum while outputting power. A one-dimensional model of the reactor concept was built by means of the ONESN_BURN code with new data libraries. The numerical results included actinide radioactivity, biological hazard potential, and much higher burnup rate of high-level transuranic waste. The comparison of the fusion-fission reactor with the thermal reactor shows that the harder neutron spectrum is more efficient than the soft. The Th-U cycle produces less TRU, less radiotoxicity and fewer long-lived actinides. The Th-U cycle provides breeding of 233U with a long operation time (>20 years), hence significantly reducing the reactivity swing while improving safety and burnup.

Individual headless compression screws fixed with three-dimensional image processing technology improves fusion rates of isolated talonavicular arthrodesis.

PubMed

Xie, Mei-Ming; Xia, Kang; Zhang, Hong-Xin; Cao, Hong-Hui; Yang, Zhi-Jin; Cui, Hai-Feng; Gao, Shang; Tang, Kang-Lai

2017-01-23

Screw fixation is a typical technique for isolated talonavicular arthrodesis (TNA), however, no consensus has been reached on how to select most suitable inserted position and direction. The study aimed to present a new fixation technique and to evaluate the clinical outcome of individual headless compression screws (HCSs) applied with three-dimensional (3D) image processing technology to isolated TNA. From 2007 to 2014, 69 patients underwent isolated TNA by using double Acutrak HCSs. The preoperative three-dimensional (3D) insertion model of double HCSs was applied by Mimics, Catia, and SolidWorks reconstruction software. One HCS oriented antegradely from the edge of dorsal navicular tail where intersected interspace between the first and the second cuneiform into the talus body along the talus axis, and the other one paralleled the first screw oriented from the dorsal-medial navicular where intersected at the medial plane of the first cuneiform. The anteroposterior and lateral X-ray examinations certified that the double HCSs were placed along the longitudinal axis of the talus. Postoperative assessment included the American Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society hindfoot (AOFAS), the visual analogue scale (VAS) score, satisfaction score, imaging assessments, and complications. At the mean 44-months follow-up, all patients exhibited good articular congruity and solid bone fusion at an average of 11.26 ± 0.85 weeks (range, 10 ~ 13 weeks) without screw loosening, shifting, or breakage. The overall fusion rates were 100%. The average AOFAS score increased from 46.62 ± 4.6 (range, 37 ~ 56) preoperatively to 74.77 ± 5.4 (range, 64-88) at the final follow-up (95% CI: -30.86 ~ -27.34; p < 0.001). The mean VAS score decreased from 7.01 ± 1.2 (range, 4 ~ 9) to 1.93 ± 1.3 (range, 0 ~ 4) (95% CI: 4.69 ~ 5.48; p < 0.001). One cases (1.45%) and three cases (4.35%) experienced wound infection and adjacent arthritis

EDITORIAL: The Nuclear Fusion Award The Nuclear Fusion Award

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kikuchi, M.

2011-01-01

The Nuclear Fusion Award ceremony for 2009 and 2010 award winners was held during the 23rd IAEA Fusion Energy Conference in Daejeon. This time, both 2009 and 2010 award winners were celebrated by the IAEA and the participants of the 23rd IAEA Fusion Energy Conference. The Nuclear Fusion Award is a paper prize to acknowledge the best distinguished paper among the published papers in a particular volume of the Nuclear Fusion journal. Among the top-cited and highly-recommended papers chosen by the Editorial Board, excluding overview and review papers, and by analyzing self-citation and non-self-citation with an emphasis on non-self-citation, the Editorial Board confidentially selects ten distinguished papers as nominees for the Nuclear Fusion Award. Certificates are given to the leading authors of the Nuclear Fusion Award nominees. The final winner is selected among the ten nominees by the Nuclear Fusion Editorial Board voting confidentially. 2009 Nuclear Fusion Award nominees For the 2009 award, the papers published in the 2006 volume were assessed and the following papers were nominated, most of which are magnetic confinement experiments, theory and modeling, while one addresses inertial confinement. Sabbagh S.A. et al 2006 Resistive wall stabilized operation in rotating high beta NSTX plasmas Nucl. Fusion 46 635-44 La Haye R.J. et al 2006 Cross-machine benchmarking for ITER of neoclassical tearing mode stabilization by electron cyclotron current drive Nucl. Fusion 46 451-61 Honrubia J.J. et al 2006 Three-dimensional fast electron transport for ignition-scale inertial fusion capsules Nucl. Fusion 46 L25-8 Ido T. et al 2006 Observation of the interaction between the geodesic acoustic mode and ambient fluctuation in the JFT-2M tokamak Nucl. Fusion 46 512-20 Plyusnin V.V. et al 2006 Study of runaway electron generation during major disruptions in JET Nucl. Fusion 46 277-84 Pitts R.A. et al 2006 Far SOL ELM ion energies in JET Nucl. Fusion 46 82-98 Berk H.L. et al 2006

Hybrid-fusion SPECT/CT systems in parathyroid adenoma: Technological improvements and added clinical diagnostic value.

PubMed

Wong, K K; Chondrogiannis, S; Bowles, H; Fuster, D; Sánchez, N; Rampin, L; Rubello, D

Nuclear medicine traditionally employs planar and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging techniques to depict the biodistribution of radiotracers for the diagnostic investigation of a range of disorders of endocrine gland function. The usefulness of combining functional information with anatomy derived from computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and high resolution ultrasound (US), has long been appreciated, either using visual side-by-side correlation, or software-based co-registration. The emergence of hybrid SPECT/CT camera technology now allows the simultaneous acquisition of combined multi-modality imaging, with seamless fusion of 3D volume datasets. Thus, it is not surprising that there is growing literature describing the many advantages that contemporary SPECT/CT technology brings to radionuclide investigation of endocrine disorders, showing potential advantages for the pre-operative locating of the parathyroid adenoma using a minimally invasive surgical approach, especially in the presence of ectopic glands and in multiglandular disease. In conclusion, hybrid SPECT/CT imaging has become an essential tool to ensure the most accurate diagnostic in the management of patients with hyperparathyroidism. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier España, S.L.U. y SEMNIM. All rights reserved.

Fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Herman, Robin

1990-10-01

The book abounds with fascinating anecdotes about fusion's rocky path: the spurious claim by Argentine dictator Juan Peron in 1951 that his country had built a working fusion reactor, the rush by the United States to drop secrecy and publicize its fusion work as a propaganda offensive after the Russian success with Sputnik; the fortune Penthouse magazine publisher Bob Guccione sank into an unconventional fusion device, the skepticism that met an assertion by two University of Utah chemists in 1989 that they had created "cold fusion" in a bottle. Aimed at a general audience, the book describes the scientific basis of controlled fusion--the fusing of atomic nuclei, under conditions hotter than the sun, to release energy. Using personal recollections of scientists involved, it traces the history of this little-known international race that began during the Cold War in secret laboratories in the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union, and evolved into an astonishingly open collaboration between East and West.

Research on multi-source image fusion technology in haze environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ma, GuoDong; Piao, Yan; Li, Bing

2017-11-01

In the haze environment, the visible image collected by a single sensor can express the details of the shape, color and texture of the target very well, but because of the haze, the sharpness is low and some of the target subjects are lost; Because of the expression of thermal radiation and strong penetration ability, infrared image collected by a single sensor can clearly express the target subject, but it will lose detail information. Therefore, the multi-source image fusion method is proposed to exploit their respective advantages. Firstly, the improved Dark Channel Prior algorithm is used to preprocess the visible haze image. Secondly, the improved SURF algorithm is used to register the infrared image and the haze-free visible image. Finally, the weighted fusion algorithm based on information complementary is used to fuse the image. Experiments show that the proposed method can improve the clarity of the visible target and highlight the occluded infrared target for target recognition.

Chemical formation of soft metal electrodes for flexible and wearable electronics.

PubMed

Wang, Dongrui; Zhang, Yaokang; Lu, Xi; Ma, Zhijun; Xie, Chuan; Zheng, Zijian

2018-06-18

Flexible and wearable electronics is one major technology after smartphones. It shows remarkable application potential in displays and informatics, robotics, sports, energy harvesting and storage, and medicine. As an indispensable part and the cornerstone of these devices, soft metal electrodes (SMEs) are of great significance. Compared with conventional physical processes such as vacuum thermal deposition and sputtering, chemical approaches for preparing SMEs show significant advantages in terms of scalability, low-cost, and compatibility with the soft materials and substrates used for the devices. This review article provides a detailed overview on how to chemically fabricate SMEs, including the material preparation, fabrication technologies, methods to characterize their key properties, and representative studies on different wearable applications.

A plant-inspired robot with soft differential bending capabilities.

PubMed

Sadeghi, A; Mondini, A; Del Dottore, E; Mattoli, V; Beccai, L; Taccola, S; Lucarotti, C; Totaro, M; Mazzolai, B

2016-12-20

We present the design and development of a plant-inspired robot, named Plantoid, with sensorized robotic roots. Natural roots have a multi-sensing capability and show a soft bending behaviour to follow or escape from various environmental parameters (i.e., tropisms). Analogously, we implement soft bending capabilities in our robotic roots by designing and integrating soft spring-based actuation (SSBA) systems using helical springs to transmit the motor power in a compliant manner. Each robotic tip integrates four different sensors, including customised flexible touch and innovative humidity sensors together with commercial gravity and temperature sensors. We show how the embedded sensing capabilities together with a root-inspired control algorithm lead to the implementation of tropic behaviours. Future applications for such plant-inspired technologies include soil monitoring and exploration, useful for agriculture and environmental fields.

Can soft biometric traits assist user recognition?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jain, Anil K.; Dass, Sarat C.; Nandakumar, Karthik

2004-08-01

Biometrics is rapidly gaining acceptance as the technology that can meet the ever increasing need for security in critical applications. Biometric systems automatically recognize individuals based on their physiological and behavioral characteristics. Hence, the fundamental requirement of any biometric recognition system is a human trait having several desirable properties like universality, distinctiveness, permanence, collectability, acceptability, and resistance to circumvention. However, a human characteristic that possesses all these properties has not yet been identified. As a result, none of the existing biometric systems provide perfect recognition and there is a scope for improving the performance of these systems. Although characteristics like gender, ethnicity, age, height, weight and eye color are not unique and reliable, they provide some information about the user. We refer to these characteristics as "soft" biometric traits and argue that these traits can complement the identity information provided by the primary biometric identifiers like fingerprint and face. This paper presents the motivation for utilizing soft biometric information and analyzes how the soft biometric traits can be automatically extracted and incorporated in the decision making process of the primary biometric system. Preliminary experiments were conducted on a fingerprint database of 160 users by synthetically generating soft biometric traits like gender, ethnicity, and height based on known statistics. The results show that the use of additional soft biometric user information significantly improves (approximately 6%) the recognition performance of the fingerprint biometric system.

Raman spectroscopic evidence of tissue restructuring in heat-induced tissue fusion.

PubMed

Su, Lei; Cloyd, Kristy L; Arya, Shobhit; Hedegaard, Martin A B; Steele, Joseph A M; Elson, Daniel S; Stevens, Molly M; Hanna, George B

2014-09-01

Heat-induced tissue fusion via radio-frequency (RF) energy has gained wide acceptance clinically and here we present the first optical-Raman-spectroscopy study on tissue fusion samples in vitro. This study provides direct insights into tissue constituent and structural changes on the molecular level, exposing spectroscopic evidence for the loss of distinct collagen fibre rich tissue layers as well as the denaturing and restructuring of collagen crosslinks post RF fusion. These findings open the door for more advanced optical feedback-control methods and characterization during heat-induced tissue fusion, which will lead to new clinical applications of this promising technology. Copyright © 2014 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Potential for immunotherapy in soft tissue sarcoma

PubMed Central

Tseng, William W; Somaiah, Neeta; Engleman, Edgar G

2015-01-01

Soft tissue sarcomas (STS) are rare, heterogeneous tumors of mesenchymal origin. Despite optimal treatment, a large proportion of patients will develop recurrent and metastatic disease. For these patients, current treatment options are quite limited. Significant progress has been made recently in the use of immunotherapy for the treatment of other solid tumors (e.g. prostate cancer, melanoma). There is a strong rationale for immunotherapy in STS, based on an understanding of disease biology. For example, STS frequently have chromosomal translocations which result in unique fusion proteins and specific subtypes have been shown to express cancer testis antigens. In this review, we discuss the current status of immunotherapy in STS, including data from human studies with cancer vaccines, adoptive cell therapy, and immune checkpoint blockade. Further research into STS immunology is needed to help design logical, subtype-specific immunotherapeutic strategies. PMID:25625925

Prospects for Attractive Fusion Power

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Najmabadi, Farrokh

2006-10-01

During the past ten years, the ARIES Team, a national team involving universities, national laboratories, and industry, has studied a variety of magnetic fusion power plants (tokamaks, stellarators, ST, and RFP). In this paper, we present the top-level requirements and goals for commercial fusion power plants developed with consultation with US utilities and industry. We will review several ARIES designs and discuss the candidate options for physics operation regime as well engineering design of various components (e.g., choice of structural material, coolant, breeder). For each option, we will discuss (1) the potential to satisfy the requirements and goals, and (2) the critical R&D needs. In particular, we will discuss fusion R&D issues which are similar to those of advanced fission systems. For tokamaks, our results indicate that dramatic improvement over first-stability operation can be obtained through either utilization of high-field magnets (e.g., high-temperature superconductors) or operation in advanced-tokamak modes (e.g., reversed-shear). In particular, if full benefits of reversed-shear operation are realized, as is assumed in ARIES-AT, tokamak power plants will have a cost of electricity competitive with other sources of electricity. Emerging technologies such as advanced Baryon cycle, high-temperature superconductor, and advanced manufacturing techniques can improve the cost and attractiveness of fusion plants.

Soft Robotic Manipulator for Improving Dexterity in Minimally Invasive Surgery.

PubMed

Diodato, Alessandro; Brancadoro, Margherita; De Rossi, Giacomo; Abidi, Haider; Dall'Alba, Diego; Muradore, Riccardo; Ciuti, Gastone; Fiorini, Paolo; Menciassi, Arianna; Cianchetti, Matteo

2018-02-01

Combining the strengths of surgical robotics and minimally invasive surgery (MIS) holds the potential to revolutionize surgical interventions. The MIS advantages for the patients are obvious, but the use of instrumentation suitable for MIS often translates in limiting the surgeon capabilities (eg, reduction of dexterity and maneuverability and demanding navigation around organs). To overcome these shortcomings, the application of soft robotics technologies and approaches can be beneficial. The use of devices based on soft materials is already demonstrating several advantages in all the exploitation areas where dexterity and safe interaction are needed. In this article, the authors demonstrate that soft robotics can be synergistically used with traditional rigid tools to improve the robotic system capabilities and without affecting the usability of the robotic platform. A bioinspired soft manipulator equipped with a miniaturized camera has been integrated with the Endoscopic Camera Manipulator arm of the da Vinci Research Kit both from hardware and software viewpoints. Usability of the integrated system has been evaluated with nonexpert users through a standard protocol to highlight difficulties in controlling the soft manipulator. This is the first time that an endoscopic tool based on soft materials has been integrated into a surgical robot. The soft endoscopic camera can be easily operated through the da Vinci Research Kit master console, thus increasing the workspace and the dexterity, and without limiting intuitive and friendly use.

Monte Carlo simulation of ion-material interactions in nuclear fusion devices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nieto Perez, M.; Avalos-Zuñiga, R.; Ramos, G.

2017-06-01

One of the key aspects regarding the technological development of nuclear fusion reactors is the understanding of the interaction between high-energy ions coming from the confined plasma and the materials that the plasma-facing components are made of. Among the multiple issues important to plasma-wall interactions in fusion devices, physical erosion and composition changes induced by energetic particle bombardment are considered critical due to possible material flaking, changes to surface roughness, impurity transport and the alteration of physicochemical properties of the near surface region due to phenomena such as redeposition or implantation. A Monte Carlo code named MATILDA (Modeling of Atomic Transport in Layered Dynamic Arrays) has been developed over the years to study phenomena related to ion beam bombardment such as erosion rate, composition changes, interphase mixing and material redeposition, which are relevant issues to plasma-aided manufacturing of microelectronics, components on object exposed to intense solar wind, fusion reactor technology and other important industrial fields. In the present work, the code is applied to study three cases of plasma material interactions relevant to fusion devices in order to highlight the code's capabilities: (1) the Be redeposition process on the ITER divertor, (2) physical erosion enhancement in castellated surfaces and (3) damage to multilayer mirrors used on EUV diagnostics in fusion devices due to particle bombardment.

Laser-induced tissue fluorescence in radiofrequency tissue-fusion characterization.

PubMed

Su, Lei; Fonseca, Martina B; Arya, Shobhit; Kudo, Hiromi; Goldin, Robert; Hanna, George B; Elson, Daniel S

2014-01-01

Heat-induced tissue fusion is an important procedure in modern surgery and can greatly reduce trauma, complications, and mortality during minimally invasive surgical blood vessel anastomosis, but it may also have further benefits if applied to other tissue types such as small and large intestine anastomoses. We present a tissue-fusion characterization technology using laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy, which provides further insight into tissue constituent variations at the molecular level. In particular, an increase of fluorescence intensity in 450- to 550-nm range for 375- and 405-nm excitation suggests that the collagen cross-linking in fused tissues increased. Our experimental and statistical analyses showed that, by using fluorescence spectral data, good fusion could be differentiated from other cases with an accuracy of more than 95%. This suggests that the fluorescence spectroscopy could be potentially used as a feedback control method in online tissue-fusion monitoring.

EDITORIAL: Safety aspects of fusion power plants

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kolbasov, B. N.

2007-07-01

This special issue of Nuclear Fusion contains 13 informative papers that were initially presented at the 8th IAEA Technical Meeting on Fusion Power Plant Safety held in Vienna, Austria, 10-13 July 2006. Following recommendation from the International Fusion Research Council, the IAEA organizes Technical Meetings on Fusion Safety with the aim to bring together experts to discuss the ongoing work, share new ideas and outline general guidance and recommendations on different issues related to safety and environmental (S&E) aspects of fusion research and power facilities. Previous meetings in this series were held in Vienna, Austria (1980), Ispra, Italy (1983), Culham, UK (1986), Jackson Hole, USA (1989), Toronto, Canada (1993), Naka, Japan (1996) and Cannes, France (2000). The recognized progress in fusion research and technology over the last quarter of a century has boosted the awareness of the potential of fusion to be a practically inexhaustible and clean source of energy. The decision to construct the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) represents a landmark in the path to fusion power engineering. Ongoing activities to license ITER in France look for an adequate balance between technological and scientific deliverables and complying with safety requirements. Actually, this is the first instance of licensing a representative fusion machine, and it will very likely shape the way in which a more common basis for establishing safety standards and policies for licensing future fusion power plants will be developed. Now that ITER licensing activities are underway, it is becoming clear that the international fusion community should strengthen its efforts in the area of designing the next generations of fusion power plants—demonstrational and commercial. Therefore, the 8th IAEA Technical Meeting on Fusion Safety focused on the safety aspects of power facilities. Some ITER-related safety issues were reported and discussed owing to their potential

Medical ultrasound: imaging of soft tissue strain and elasticity

PubMed Central

Wells, Peter N. T.; Liang, Hai-Dong

2011-01-01

After X-radiography, ultrasound is now the most common of all the medical imaging technologies. For millennia, manual palpation has been used to assist in diagnosis, but it is subjective and restricted to larger and more superficial structures. Following an introduction to the subject of elasticity, the elasticity of biological soft tissues is discussed and published data are presented. The basic physical principles of pulse-echo and Doppler ultrasonic techniques are explained. The history of ultrasonic imaging of soft tissue strain and elasticity is summarized, together with a brief critique of previously published reviews. The relevant techniques—low-frequency vibration, step, freehand and physiological displacement, and radiation force (displacement, impulse, shear wave and acoustic emission)—are described. Tissue-mimicking materials are indispensible for the assessment of these techniques and their characteristics are reported. Emerging clinical applications in breast disease, cardiology, dermatology, gastroenterology, gynaecology, minimally invasive surgery, musculoskeletal studies, radiotherapy, tissue engineering, urology and vascular disease are critically discussed. It is concluded that ultrasonic imaging of soft tissue strain and elasticity is now sufficiently well developed to have clinical utility. The potential for further research is examined and it is anticipated that the technology will become a powerful mainstream investigative tool. PMID:21680780

Soft lubrication

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Skotheim, Jan; Mahadevan, Laksminarayanan

2004-11-01

We study the lubrication of fluid-immersed soft interfaces and show that elastic deformation couples tangential and normal forces and thus generates lift. We consider materials that deform easily, due to either geometry (e.g a shell) or constitutive properties (e.g. a gel or a rubber), so that the effects of pressure and temperature on the fluid properties may be neglected. Four different system geometries are considered: a rigid cylinder moving tangentially to a soft layer coating a rigid substrate; a soft cylinder moving tangentially to a rigid substrate; a cylindrical shell moving tangentially to a rigid substrate; and finally a journal bearing coated with a thin soft layer, which being a conforming contact allows us to gauge the influence of contact geometry. In addition, for the particular case of a soft layer coating a rigid substrate we consider both elastic and poroelastic material responses. Finally, we consider the role of contact geometry in the context of the journal bearing, a conforming contact. For all these cases we find the same generic behavior: there is an optimal combination of geometric and material parameters that maximizes the dimensionless normal force as a function of the softness.

Utilization of robotic-arm assisted total knee arthroplasty for soft tissue protection.

PubMed

Sultan, Assem A; Piuzzi, Nicolas; Khlopas, Anton; Chughtai, Morad; Sodhi, Nipun; Mont, Michael A

2017-12-01

Despite the well-established success of total knee arthroplasty (TKA), iatrogenic ligamentous and soft tissue injuries are infrequent, but potential complications that can have devastating impact on clinical outcomes. These injuries are often related to technical errors and excessive soft tissue manipulation, particularly during bony resections. Recently, robotic-arm assisted TKA was introduced and demonstrated promising results with potential technical advantages over manual surgery in implant positioning and mechanical accuracy. Furthermore, soft tissue protection is an additional potential advantage offered by these systems that can reduce inadvertent human technical errors encountered during standard manual resections. Therefore, due to the relative paucity of literature, we attempted to answer the following questions: 1) does robotic-arm assisted TKA offer a technical advantage that allows enhanced soft tissue protection? 2) What is the available evidence about soft tissue protection? Recently introduced models of robotic-arm assisted TKA systems with advanced technology showed promising clinical outcomes and soft tissue protection in the short- and mid-term follow-up with results comparable or superior to manual TKA. In this review, we attempted to explore this dimension of robotics in TKA and investigate the soft tissue related complications currently reported in the literature.

Spindle Cell Rhabdomyosarcoma of Bone with FUS-TFCP2 Fusion: Confirmation of a Very Recently Described Rhabdomyosarcoma Subtype.

PubMed

Dashti, Nooshin K; Wehrs, Rebecca N; Thomas, Brittany C; Nair, Asha; Davila, Jaime; Buckner, Jan C; Martinez, Anthony P; Sukov, William R; Halling, Kevin C; Howe, Benjamin M; Folpe, Andrew L

2018-05-14

Rhabdomyosarcomas of bone are extremely rare, with fewer than 10 reported cases. A very rare subtype of spindle cell/sclerosing rhabdomyosarcoma harboring a FUS-TFCP2 fusion and involving both soft tissue and bone locations has very recently been reported. We report only the fourth case of this unusual, clinically aggressive rhabdomyosarcoma. A previously-well 72-year old male presented with a destructive lesion of the mandible. Morphological and immunohistochemical study of a needle biopsy and the subsequent resection showed a spindle cell rhabdomyosarcoma. RNA-seq, RT-PCR and FISH confirmed the presence of the FUS-TFCP2 fusion. Spindle cell rhabdomyosarcomas carrying the FUS-TFCP2 fusion are very rare rhabdomyosarcoma variants with osseous predilection. The classification and differential diagnosis of this unusual molecular variant of spindle cell/ sclerosing rhabdomyosarcoma are discussed. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

The Soft-Skills Learning Triangle: A Learning Model for Supporting Online Management & Leadership Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adams, Jean

2010-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to present the Soft-skills Learning Triangle (SLT)--a model created to help coaches, mentors, and educators understand how web-technologies can be used to support management learning and soft-skills development. SLT emerged as part of a larger action-learning research project--the NewMindsets Management Education…

General software design for multisensor data fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Junliang; Zhao, Yuming

1999-03-01

In this paper a general method of software design for multisensor data fusion is discussed in detail, which adopts object-oriented technology under UNIX operation system. The software for multisensor data fusion is divided into six functional modules: data collection, database management, GIS, target display and alarming data simulation etc. Furthermore, the primary function, the components and some realization methods of each modular is given. The interfaces among these functional modular relations are discussed. The data exchange among each functional modular is performed by interprocess communication IPC, including message queue, semaphore and shared memory. Thus, each functional modular is executed independently, which reduces the dependence among functional modules and helps software programing and testing. This software for multisensor data fusion is designed as hierarchical structure by the inheritance character of classes. Each functional modular is abstracted and encapsulated through class structure, which avoids software redundancy and enhances readability.

Active Surfaces and Interfaces of Soft Materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Qiming

A variety of intriguing surface patterns have been observed on developing natural systems, ranging from corrugated surface of white blood cells at nanometer scales to wrinkled dog skins at millimeter scales. To mimetically harness functionalities of natural morphologies, artificial transformative skin systems by using soft active materials have been rationally designed to generate versatile patterns for a variety of engineering applications. The study of the mechanics and design of these dynamic surface patterns on soft active materials are both physically interesting and technologically important. This dissertation starts with studying abundant surface patterns in Nature by constructing a unified phase diagram of surface instabilities on soft materials with minimum numbers of physical parameters. Guided by this integrated phase diagram, an electroactive system is designed to investigate a variety of electrically-induced surface instabilities of elastomers, including electro-creasing, electro-cratering, electro-wrinkling and electro-cavitation. Combing experimental, theoretical and computational methods, the initiation, evolution and transition of these instabilities are analyzed. To apply these dynamic surface instabilities to serving engineering and biology, new techniques of Dynamic Electrostatic Lithography and electroactive anti-biofouling are demonstrated.

An Analytical Framework for Soft and Hard Data Fusion: A Dempster-Shafer Belief Theoretic Approach

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-08-01

fusion. Therefore, we provide a detailed discussion on uncertain data types, their origins and three uncertainty pro- cessing formalisms that are popular...suitable membership functions corresponding to the fuzzy sets. 3.2.3 DS Theory The DS belief theory, originally proposed by Dempster, can be thought of as... originated and various imperfections of the source. Uncertainty handling formalisms provide techniques for modeling and working with these uncertain data types

Color image fusion for concealed weapon detection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Toet, Alexander

2003-09-01

Recent advances in passive and active imaging sensor technology offer the potential to detect weapons that are concealed underneath a person's clothing or carried along in bags. Although the concealed weapons can sometimes easily be detected, it can be difficult to perceive their context, due to the non-literal nature of these images. Especially for dynamic crowd surveillance purposes it may be impossible to rapidly asses with certainty which individual in the crowd is the one carrying the observed weapon. Sensor fusion is an enabling technology that may be used to solve this problem. Through fusion the signal of the sensor that depicts the weapon can be displayed in the context provided by a sensor of a different modality. We propose an image fusion scheme in which non-literal imagery can be fused with standard color images such that the result clearly displays the observed weapons in the context of the original color image. The procedure is such that the relevant contrast details from the non-literal image are transferred to the color image without altering the original color distribution of this image. The result is a natural looking color image that fluently combines all details from both input sources. When an observer who performs a dynamic crowd surveillance task, detects a weapon in the scene, he will also be able to quickly determine which person in the crowd is actually carrying the observed weapon (e.g. "the man with the red T-shirt and blue jeans"). The method is illustrated by the fusion of thermal 8-12 μm imagery with standard RGB color images.

High Level Information Fusion (HLIF) with nested fusion loops

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Woodley, Robert; Gosnell, Michael; Fischer, Amber

2013-05-01

Situation modeling and threat prediction require higher levels of data fusion in order to provide actionable information. Beyond the sensor data and sources the analyst has access to, the use of out-sourced and re-sourced data is becoming common. Through the years, some common frameworks have emerged for dealing with information fusion—perhaps the most ubiquitous being the JDL Data Fusion Group and their initial 4-level data fusion model. Since these initial developments, numerous models of information fusion have emerged, hoping to better capture the human-centric process of data analyses within a machine-centric framework. 21st Century Systems, Inc. has developed Fusion with Uncertainty Reasoning using Nested Assessment Characterizer Elements (FURNACE) to address challenges of high level information fusion and handle bias, ambiguity, and uncertainty (BAU) for Situation Modeling, Threat Modeling, and Threat Prediction. It combines JDL fusion levels with nested fusion loops and state-of-the-art data reasoning. Initial research has shown that FURNACE is able to reduce BAU and improve the fusion process by allowing high level information fusion (HLIF) to affect lower levels without the double counting of information or other biasing issues. The initial FURNACE project was focused on the underlying algorithms to produce a fusion system able to handle BAU and repurposed data in a cohesive manner. FURNACE supports analyst's efforts to develop situation models, threat models, and threat predictions to increase situational awareness of the battlespace. FURNACE will not only revolutionize the military intelligence realm, but also benefit the larger homeland defense, law enforcement, and business intelligence markets.

Soft Congruence Relations over Rings

PubMed Central

Xin, Xiaolong; Li, Wenting

2014-01-01

Molodtsov introduced the concept of soft sets, which can be seen as a new mathematical tool for dealing with uncertainty. In this paper, we initiate the study of soft congruence relations by using the soft set theory. The notions of soft quotient rings, generalized soft ideals and generalized soft quotient rings, are introduced, and several related properties are investigated. Also, we obtain a one-to-one correspondence between soft congruence relations and idealistic soft rings and a one-to-one correspondence between soft congruence relations and soft ideals. In particular, the first, second, and third soft isomorphism theorems are established, respectively. PMID:24949493

Improving nondestructive characterization of dual phase steels using data fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kahrobaee, Saeed; Haghighi, Mehdi Salkhordeh; Akhlaghi, Iman Ahadi

2018-07-01

The aim of this paper is to introduce a novel methodology for nondestructive determination of microstructural and mechanical properties (due to the various heat treatments), as well as thickness variations (as a result of corrosion effect) of dual phase steels. The characterizations are based on the variations in the electromagnetic properties extracted from magnetic hysteresis loop and eddy current methods which are coupled with a data fusion system. This study was conducted on six groups of samples (with different thicknesses, from 1 mm to 4 mm) subjected to the various intercritical annealing processes to produce different fractions of martensite/ferrite phases and consequently, changes in hardness, yield strength and ultra tensile strength (UTS). This study proposes a novel soft computing technique to increase accuracy of nondestructive measurements and resolving overlapped NDE outputs related to the various samples. The empirical results indicate that applying the proposed data fusion technique on the two electromagnetic NDE data sets nondestructively, causes an increase in the accuracy and reliability of determining material features including ferrite fraction, hardness, yield strength, UTS, as well as thickness variations.

A high fusion power gain tandem mirror

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fowler, T. K.; Moir, R. W.; Simonen, T. C.

2017-10-01

Utilizing advances in high field superconducting magnet technology and microwave gyrotrons we illustrate the possibility of a high power gain (Q = 10-20) tandem mirror fusion reactor. Inspired by recent Gas Dynamic Trap (GDT) achievements we employ a simple axisymmetric mirror magnet configuration. We consider both DT and cat. DD fuel options that utilize existing as well as future technology development. We identify subjects requiring further study such as hot electron physics, trapped particle modes and plasma startup.

Design of a Soft Robot with Multiple Motion Patterns Using Soft Pneumatic Actuators

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miao, Yu; Dong, Wei; Du, Zhijiang

2017-11-01

Soft robots are made of soft materials and have good flexibility and infinite degrees of freedom in theory. These properties enable soft robots to work in narrow space and adapt to external environment. In this paper, a 2-DOF soft pneumatic actuator is introduced, with two chambers symmetrically distributed on both sides and a jamming cylinder along the axis. Fibers are used to constrain the expansion of the soft actuator. Experiments are carried out to test the performance of the soft actuator, including bending and elongation characteristics. A soft robot is designed and fabricated by connecting four soft pneumatic actuators to a 3D-printed board. The soft robotic system is then established. The pneumatic circuit is built by pumps and solenoid valves. The control system is based on the control board Arduino Mega 2560. Relay modules are used to control valves and pressure sensors are used to measure pressure in the pneumatic circuit. Experiments are conducted to test the performance of the proposed soft robot.

Different source image fusion based on FPGA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luo, Xiao; Piao, Yan

2016-03-01

The fusion technology of video image is to make the video obtained by different image sensors complementary to each other by some technical means, so as to obtain the video information which is rich in information and suitable for the human eye system. Infrared cameras in harsh environments such as when smoke, fog and low light situations penetrating power, but the ability to obtain the details of the image is poor, does not meet the human visual system. Single visible light imaging can be rich in detail, high resolution images and for the visual system, but the visible image easily affected by the external environment. Infrared image and visible image fusion process involved in the video image fusion algorithm complexity and high calculation capacity, have occupied more memory resources, high clock rate requirements, such as software, c ++, c, etc. to achieve more, but based on Hardware platform less. In this paper, based on the imaging characteristics of infrared images and visible light images, the software and hardware are combined to obtain the registration parameters through software matlab, and the gray level weighted average method is used to implement the hardware platform. Information fusion, and finally the fusion image can achieve the goal of effectively improving the acquisition of information to increase the amount of information in the image.

Miniature fiber Fabry-Perot sensors based on fusion splicing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhu, Jia-li; Wang, Ming; Yang, Chun-di; Wang, Ting-ting

2013-03-01

Fiber-optic Fabry-Perot (F-P) sensors are widely investigated because they have several advantages over conventional sensors, such as immunity to electromagnetic interference, ability to operate under bad environments, high sensitivity and the potential for multiplexing. A new method to fabricate micro-cavity Fabry-Perot interferometer is introduced, which is fusion splicing a section of conventional single-mode fiber (SMF) and a section of hollow core or solid core photonic crystal fiber (PCF) together to form a micro-cavity at the splice joint. The technology of fusion splicing is discussed, and two miniature optical fiber sensors based on Fabry-Perot interference using fusion splicing are presented. The two sensors are completely made of fused silica, and have good high-temperature capability.

Molecular cytogenetic analysis for TFE3 rearrangement in Xp11.2 renal cell carcinoma and alveolar soft part sarcoma: validation and clinical experience with 75 cases.

PubMed

Hodge, Jennelle C; Pearce, Kathryn E; Wang, Xiaoke; Wiktor, Anne E; Oliveira, Andre M; Greipp, Patricia T

2014-01-01

Renal cell carcinoma with TFE3 rearrangement at Xp11.2 is a distinct subtype manifesting an indolent clinical course in children, with recent reports suggesting a more aggressive entity in adults. This subtype is morphologically heterogeneous and can be misclassified as clear cell or papillary renal cell carcinoma. TFE3 is also rearranged in alveolar soft part sarcoma. To aid in diagnosis, a break-apart strategy fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) probe set specific for TFE3 rearrangement and a reflex dual-color, single-fusion strategy probe set involving the most common TFE3 partner gene, ASPSCR1, were validated on formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues from nine alveolar soft part sarcoma, two suspected Xp11.2 renal cell carcinoma, and nine tumors in the differential diagnosis. The impact of tissue cut artifact was reduced through inclusion of a chromosome X centromere control probe. Analysis of the UOK-109 renal carcinoma cell line confirmed the break-apart TFE3 probe set can distinguish the subtle TFE3/NONO fusion-associated inversion of chromosome X. Subsequent extensive clinical experience was gained through analysis of 75 cases with an indication of Xp11.2 renal cell carcinoma (n=54), alveolar soft part sarcoma (n=13), perivascular epithelioid cell neoplasms (n=2), chordoma (n=1), or unspecified (n=5). We observed balanced and unbalanced chromosome X;17 translocations in both Xp11.2 renal cell carcinoma and alveolar soft part sarcoma, supporting a preference but not a necessity for the translocation to be balanced in the carcinoma and unbalanced in the sarcoma. We further demonstrate the unbalanced separation is atypical, with TFE3/ASPSCR1 fusion and loss of the derivative X chromosome but also an unanticipated normal X chromosome gain in both males and females. Other diverse sex chromosome copy number combinations were observed. Our TFE3 FISH assay is a useful adjunct to morphologic analysis of such challenging cases and will be applicable to

Research Technology

NASA Image and Video Library

1999-05-12

The Gasdynamic Mirror, or GDM, is an example of a magnetic mirror-based fusion propulsion system. Its design is primarily consisting of a long slender solenoid surrounding a vacuum chamber that contains plasma. The bulk of the fusion plasma is confined by magnetic field generated by a series of toroidal-shaped magnets in the center section of the device. the purpose of the GDM Fusion Propulsion Experiment is to confirm the feasibility of the concept and to demonstrate many of the operational characteristics of a full-size plasma can be confined within the desired physical configuration and still reman stable. This image shows an engineer from Propulsion Research Technologies Division at Marshall Space Flight Center inspecting solenoid magnets-A, an integrate part of the Gasdynamic Mirror Fusion Propulsion Engine Experiment.

Fusion of imaging and nonimaging data for surveillance aircraft

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shahbazian, Elisa; Gagnon, Langis; Duquet, Jean Remi; Macieszczak, Maciej; Valin, Pierre

1997-06-01

This paper describes a phased incremental integration approach for application of image analysis and data fusion technologies to provide automated intelligent target tracking and identification for airborne surveillance on board an Aurora Maritime Patrol Aircraft. The sensor suite of the Aurora consists of a radar, an identification friend or foe (IFF) system, an electronic support measures (ESM) system, a spotlight synthetic aperture radar (SSAR), a forward looking infra-red (FLIR) sensor and a link-11 tactical datalink system. Lockheed Martin Canada (LMCan) is developing a testbed, which will be used to analyze and evaluate approaches for combining the data provided by the existing sensors, which were initially not designed to feed a fusion system. Three concurrent research proof-of-concept activities provide techniques, algorithms and methodology into three sequential phases of integration of this testbed. These activities are: (1) analysis of the fusion architecture (track/contact/hybrid) most appropriate for the type of data available, (2) extraction and fusion of simple features from the imaging data into the fusion system performing automatic target identification, and (3) development of a unique software architecture which will permit integration and independent evolution, enhancement and optimization of various decision aid capabilities, such as multi-sensor data fusion (MSDF), situation and threat assessment (STA) and resource management (RM).

Soft-Collinear Mode for Jet Rates in Soft-Collinear Effective Theory

DOE PAGES

Chien, Yang-Ting; Lee, Christopher; Hornig, Andrew

2016-01-29

We propose the addition of a new "soft-collinear" mode to soft collinear effective theory (SCET) below the usual soft scale to factorize and resum logarithms of jet radii R in jet cross sections. We consider exclusive 2-jet cross sections in e +e - collisions with an energy veto Λ on additional jets. The key observation is that there are actually two pairs of energy scales whose ratio is R: the transverse momentum QR of the energetic particles inside jets and their total energy Q, and the transverse momentum ΛR of soft particles that are cut out of the jet cones and their energy Λ. The soft-collinear mode is necessary to factorize and resum logarithms of the latter hierarchy. We show how this factorization occurs in the jet thrust cross section for cone and k T-type algorithms at O(α s) and using the thrust cone algorithm at O(αmore » $$2\\atop{s}$$). We identify the presence of hard-collinear, in-jet soft, global (veto) soft, and soft-collinear modes in the jet thrust cross section. We also observe here that the in-jet soft modes measured with thrust are actually the "csoft" modes of the theory SCET +. We dub the new theory with both csoft and soft-collinear modes "SCET ++". We go on to explain the relation between the "unmeasured" jet function appearing in total exclusive jet cross sections and the hard-collinear and csoft functions in measured jet thrust cross sections. We do not resum logs that are non-global in origin, arising from the ratio of the scales of soft radiation whose thrust is measured at Q$${{\\tau}}$$/R and of the soft-collinear radiation at 2ΛR. Their resummation would require the introduction of additional operators beyond those we consider here. The steps we outline here are a necessary part of summing logs of R that are global in nature and have not been factorized and resummed beyond leading-log level previously.« less

Soft-Collinear Mode for Jet Rates in Soft-Collinear Effective Theory

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chien, Yang-Ting; Lee, Christopher; Hornig, Andrew

We propose the addition of a new "soft-collinear" mode to soft collinear effective theory (SCET) below the usual soft scale to factorize and resum logarithms of jet radii R in jet cross sections. We consider exclusive 2-jet cross sections in e +e - collisions with an energy veto Λ on additional jets. The key observation is that there are actually two pairs of energy scales whose ratio is R: the transverse momentum QR of the energetic particles inside jets and their total energy Q, and the transverse momentum ΛR of soft particles that are cut out of the jet cones and their energy Λ. The soft-collinear mode is necessary to factorize and resum logarithms of the latter hierarchy. We show how this factorization occurs in the jet thrust cross section for cone and k T-type algorithms at O(α s) and using the thrust cone algorithm at O(αmore » $$2\\atop{s}$$). We identify the presence of hard-collinear, in-jet soft, global (veto) soft, and soft-collinear modes in the jet thrust cross section. We also observe here that the in-jet soft modes measured with thrust are actually the "csoft" modes of the theory SCET +. We dub the new theory with both csoft and soft-collinear modes "SCET ++". We go on to explain the relation between the "unmeasured" jet function appearing in total exclusive jet cross sections and the hard-collinear and csoft functions in measured jet thrust cross sections. We do not resum logs that are non-global in origin, arising from the ratio of the scales of soft radiation whose thrust is measured at Q$${{\\tau}}$$/R and of the soft-collinear radiation at 2ΛR. Their resummation would require the introduction of additional operators beyond those we consider here. The steps we outline here are a necessary part of summing logs of R that are global in nature and have not been factorized and resummed beyond leading-log level previously.« less

ESWR1-CREM Fusion in an Intracranial Myxoid Angiomatoid Fibrous Histiocytoma-Like Tumor: A Case Report and Literature Review.

PubMed

Gareton, Albane; Pierron, Gaëlle; Mokhtari, Karima; Tran, Suzanne; Tauziède-Espariat, Arnault; Pallud, Johan; Louvel, Guillaume; Meary, Eric; Capelle, Laurent; Chrétien, Fabrice; Varlet, Pascale

2018-05-19

Gene fusions of EWSR1 with members of the CREB family of transcription factors (CREB1, ATF1, and CREM) have recently been described in exceptional intracranial myxoid mesenchymal tumors. Although this is a known gene fusion found in various mesenchymal tumors, EWSR1 fusion with CREM has only been observed in 3 intracranial myxoid tumors. In this paper, we present 1 such tumor with in-depth histopathological description and long-term follow-up. There is controversy regarding whether these tumors represent a novel entity or simply an intracranial localization of the myxoid variant of angiomatoid fibrous histiocytoma, a rare soft tissue tumor of the extremities. Out of 11 cases mentioned in the literature, the 3 isolated case reports by Dunham et al, Ochalski et al, and Alshareef et al are designated as angiomatoid fibrous histiocytoma, whereas the others are defined as a novel tumoral entity called intracranial myxoid mesenchymal tumor with EWSR1-CREB fusion. We believe the vast morphological and immunohistochemical spectrum of angiomatoid fibrous histiocytoma makes it difficult to dismiss this diagnosis.

Image fusion in craniofacial virtual reality modeling based on CT and 3dMD photogrammetry.

PubMed

Xin, Pengfei; Yu, Hongbo; Cheng, Huanchong; Shen, Shunyao; Shen, Steve G F

2013-09-01

The aim of this study was to demonstrate the feasibility of building a craniofacial virtual reality model by image fusion of 3-dimensional (3D) CT models and 3 dMD stereophotogrammetric facial surface. A CT scan and stereophotography were performed. The 3D CT models were reconstructed by Materialise Mimics software, and the stereophotogrammetric facial surface was reconstructed by 3 dMD patient software. All 3D CT models were exported as Stereo Lithography file format, and the 3 dMD model was exported as Virtual Reality Modeling Language file format. Image registration and fusion were performed in Mimics software. Genetic algorithm was used for precise image fusion alignment with minimum error. The 3D CT models and the 3 dMD stereophotogrammetric facial surface were finally merged into a single file and displayed using Deep Exploration software. Errors between the CT soft tissue model and 3 dMD facial surface were also analyzed. Virtual model based on CT-3 dMD image fusion clearly showed the photorealistic face and bone structures. Image registration errors in virtual face are mainly located in bilateral cheeks and eyeballs, and the errors are more than 1.5 mm. However, the image fusion of whole point cloud sets of CT and 3 dMD is acceptable with a minimum error that is less than 1 mm. The ease of use and high reliability of CT-3 dMD image fusion allows the 3D virtual head to be an accurate, realistic, and widespread tool, and has a great benefit to virtual face model.

Uninstrumented Posterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion: Have Technological Advances in Stabilizing the Lumbar Spine Truly Improved Outcomes?

PubMed

Prolo, Laura M; Oklund, Sally A; Zawadzki, Nadine; Desai, Manisha; Prolo, Donald J

2018-04-06

Since the 1980s, numerous operations have replaced posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF) with human bone. These operations often involve expensive implants and complex procedures. Escalating expenditures in lumbar fusion surgery warrant re-evaluation of classical PLIF with allogeneic ilium and without instrumentation. The purpose of this study was to determine the long-term fusion rate and clinical outcomes of PLIF with allogeneic bone (allo-PLIF). Between 1981 and 2006, 321 patients aged 12-80 years underwent 339 1-level or 2-level allo-PLIFs for degenerative instability and were followed for 1-28 years. Fusion status was determined by radiographs and as available, by computed tomography scans. Clinical outcome was assessed by the Economic/Functional Outcome Scale. Of the 321 patients, 308 were followed postoperatively (average 6.7 years) and 297 (96%) fused. Fusion rates were lower for patients with substance abuse (89%, P = 0.007). Clinical outcomes in 87% of patients were excellent (52%) or good (35%). Economic/Functional Outcome Scale scores after initial allo-PLIF on average increased 5.2 points. Successful fusion correlated with nearly a 2-point gain in outcome score (P = 0.001). A positive association between a patient characteristic and outcome was observed only with age 65 years and greater, whereas negative associations in clinical outcomes were observed with mental illness, substance abuse, heavy stress to the low back, or industrial injuries. The total complication rate was 7%. With 3 decades of follow-up, we found that successful clinical outcomes are highly correlated with solid fusion using only allogeneic iliac bone. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Modeling and analysis of tritium dynamics in a DT fusion fuel cycle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kuan, William

1998-11-01

A number of crucial design issues have a profound effect on the dynamics of the tritium fuel cycle in a DT fusion reactor, where the development of appropriate solutions to these issues is of particular importance to the introduction of fusion as a commercial system. Such tritium-related issues can be classified according to their operational, safety, and economic impact to the operation of the reactor during its lifetime. Given such key design issues inherent in next generation fusion devices using the DT fuel cycle development of appropriate models can then lead to optimized designs of the fusion fuel cycle for different types of DT fusion reactors. In this work, two different types of modeling approaches are developed and their application to solving key tritium issues presented. For the first approach, time-dependent inventories, concentrations, and flow rates characterizing the main subsystems of the fuel cycle are simulated with a new dynamic modular model of a fusion reactor's fuel cycle, named X-TRUFFLES (X-Windows TRitiUm Fusion Fuel cycLE dynamic Simulation). The complex dynamic behavior of the recycled fuel within each of the modeled subsystems is investigated using this new integrated model for different reactor scenarios and design approaches. Results for a proposed fuel cycle design taking into account current technologies are presented, including sensitivity studies. Ways to minimize the tritium inventory are also assessed by examining various design options that could be used to minimize local and global tritium inventories. The second modeling approach involves an analytical model to be used for the calculation of the required tritium breeding ratio, i.e., a primary design issue which relates directly to the feasibility and economics of DT fusion systems. A time-integrated global tritium balance scheme is developed and appropriate analytical expressions are derived for tritium self-sufficiency relevant parameters. The easy exploration of the large

Development of a fusion approach selection tool

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pohl, C.; Zeng, Y.

2015-06-01

During the last decades number and quality of available remote sensing satellite sensors for Earth observation has grown significantly. The amount of available multi-sensor images along with their increased spatial and spectral resolution provides new challenges to Earth scientists. With a Fusion Approach Selection Tool (FAST) the remote sensing community would obtain access to an optimized and improved image processing technology. Remote sensing image fusion is a mean to produce images containing information that is not inherent in the single image alone. In the meantime the user has access to sophisticated commercialized image fusion techniques plus the option to tune the parameters of each individual technique to match the anticipated application. This leaves the operator with an uncountable number of options to combine remote sensing images, not talking about the selection of the appropriate images, resolution and bands. Image fusion can be a machine and time-consuming endeavour. In addition it requires knowledge about remote sensing, image fusion, digital image processing and the application. FAST shall provide the user with a quick overview of processing flows to choose from to reach the target. FAST will ask for available images, application parameters and desired information to process this input to come out with a workflow to quickly obtain the best results. It will optimize data and image fusion techniques. It provides an overview on the possible results from which the user can choose the best. FAST will enable even inexperienced users to use advanced processing methods to maximize the benefit of multi-sensor image exploitation.

The attitudes of science policy, environmental, and utility leaders on US energy issues and fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miller, J. D.

1986-11-01

One example of basic and applied research at LLNL that has produced major, highly visible scientific and engineering advances has been the research related to controlled fusion energy. Continuing experimentation at LLNL and elsewhere is likely to demonstrate that fusion is a viable, inexhaustible alternative source of energy. Having conducted major fusion energy experiments for over 30 years at LLNL, it scientists and engineers recognized the enormous challenges that lay ahead in this important endeavor. To be successful, it was clear that collaborative efforts with universities, private industry, and other national laboratories would need to be greatly expanded. Along with invention and scientific discovery would come the challenge of transferring the myriad of new technologies from the laboratories to the private sector for commercialization of the fusion energy process and the application of related technologies to yet unimagined new industries and products. Therefore, using fusion energy research as the focus, the Laboratory's Technology Transfer Initiatives Program contracted with the Public Opinion Laboratory to conduct a survey designed to promote a better understanding of effective technology transfer. As one of the recognized authorities on scientific surveys, Dr. Jon Miller of the POL worked with Laboratory scientists to understand the objectives of the survey. He then formulated the questions, designed the survey, and derived his survey sample from a qualified list developed at the POL, which has formed the basis for other survey panels. This report, prepared by Dr. Miller, describes the basis and methodology of this survey process and then presents the survey findings and some conclusions.

Fusion/Astrophysics Teacher Research Academy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Correll, Donald

2005-10-01

In order to engage California high school science teachers in the area of plasma physics and fusion research, LLNL's Fusion Energy Program has partnered with the UC Davis Edward Teller Education Center, ETEC (http://etec.ucdavis.edu), the Stanford University Solar Center (http://solar-center.stanford.edu) and LLNL's Science / Technology Education Program, STEP (http://education.llnl.gov). A four-level ``Fusion & Astrophysics Research Academy'' has been designed to give teachers experience in conducting research using spectroscopy with their students. Spectroscopy, and its relationship to atomic physics and electromagnetism, provides for an ideal plasma `bridge' to the CA Science Education Standards (http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/scphysics.asp). Teachers attend multiple-day professional development workshops to explore new research activities for use in the high school science classroom. A Level I, 3-day program consists of two days where teachers learn how plasma researchers use spectrometers followed by instructions on how to use a research grade spectrometer for their own investigations. A 3rd day includes touring LLNL's SSPX (http://www.mfescience.org/sspx/) facility to see spectrometry being used to measure plasma properties. Spectrometry classroom kits are made available for loaning to participating teachers. Level I workshop results (http://education.llnl.gov/fusion&_slash;astro/) will be presented along with plans being developed for Level II (one week advanced SKA's), Level III (pre-internship), and Level IV (summer internship) research academies.

Fusion breeder

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Moir, R.W.

1982-02-22

The fusion breeder is a fusion reactor designed with special blankets to maximize the transmutation by 14 MeV neutrons of uranium-238 to plutonium or thorium to uranium-233 for use as a fuel for fission reactors. Breeding fissile fuels has not been a goal of the US fusion energy program. This paper suggests it is time for a policy change to make the fusion breeder a goal of the US fusion program and the US nuclear energy program. The purpose of this paper is to suggest this policy change be made and tell why it should be made, and to outlinemore » specific research and development goals so that the fusion breeder will be developed in time to meet fissile fuel needs.« less

Fusion breeder

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Moir, R.W.

1982-04-20

The fusion breeder is a fusion reactor designed with special blankets to maximize the transmutation by 14 MeV neutrons of uranium-238 to plutonium or thorium to uranium-233 for use as a fuel for fission reactors. Breeding fissile fuels has not been a goal of the US fusion energy program. This paper suggests it is time for a policy change to make the fusion breeder a goal of the US fusion program and the US nuclear energy program. The purpose of this paper is to suggest this policy change be made and tell why it should be made, and to outlinemore » specific research and development goals so that the fusion breeder will be developed in time to meet fissile fuel needs.« less

Soft X-ray imaging of thick carbon-based materials using the normal incidence multilayer optics.

PubMed

Artyukov, I A; Feschenko, R M; Vinogradov, A V; Bugayev, Ye A; Devizenko, O Y; Kondratenko, V V; Kasyanov, Yu S; Hatano, T; Yamamoto, M; Saveliev, S V

2010-10-01

The high transparency of carbon-containing materials in the spectral region of "carbon window" (lambda approximately 4.5-5nm) introduces new opportunities for various soft X-ray microscopy applications. The development of efficient multilayer coated X-ray optics operating at the wavelengths of about 4.5nm has stimulated a series of our imaging experiments to study thick biological and synthetic objects. Our experimental set-up consisted of a laser plasma X-ray source generated with the 2nd harmonics of Nd-glass laser, scandium-based thin-film filters, Co/C multilayer mirror and X-ray film UF-4. All soft X-ray images were produced with a single nanosecond exposure and demonstrated appropriate absorption contrast and detector-limited spatial resolution. A special attention was paid to the 3D imaging of thick low-density foam materials to be used in design of laser fusion targets.

Viral membrane fusion

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Harrison, Stephen C., E-mail: harrison@crystal.harvard.edu

2015-05-15

Membrane fusion is an essential step when enveloped viruses enter cells. Lipid bilayer fusion requires catalysis to overcome a high kinetic barrier; viral fusion proteins are the agents that fulfill this catalytic function. Despite a variety of molecular architectures, these proteins facilitate fusion by essentially the same generic mechanism. Stimulated by a signal associated with arrival at the cell to be infected (e.g., receptor or co-receptor binding, proton binding in an endosome), they undergo a series of conformational changes. A hydrophobic segment (a “fusion loop” or “fusion peptide”) engages the target-cell membrane and collapse of the bridging intermediate thus formedmore » draws the two membranes (virus and cell) together. We know of three structural classes for viral fusion proteins. Structures for both pre- and postfusion conformations of illustrate the beginning and end points of a process that can be probed by single-virion measurements of fusion kinetics. - Highlights: • Viral fusion proteins overcome the high energy barrier to lipid bilayer merger. • Different molecular structures but the same catalytic mechanism. • Review describes properties of three known fusion-protein structural classes. • Single-virion fusion experiments elucidate mechanism.« less

Inertial confinement fusion for energy: overview of the ongoing experimental, theoretical and numerical studies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jacquemot, S.

2017-10-01

This paper provides an overview of the results presented at the 26th IAEA Fusion Energy Conference in the field of inertial confinement fusion for energy, covering its various experimental, numerical/theoretical and technological facets, as well as the different paths towards ignition that are currently followed worldwide.

Performance and economics analysis of several laser fusion breeder fueled electricity generation systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berwald, D. H.; Maniscalco, J. A.

1981-01-01

The paper evaluates the potential of several future electricity generating systems composed of laser fusion-driven breeder reactors that provide fissile fuel for current technology light water fission power reactors (LWRs). The performance and economic feasibility of four fusion breeder blanket technologies for laser fusion drivers, namely uranium fast fission (UFF) blankets, uranium-thorium fast fission (UTFF) blankets, thorium fast fission (TFF) blankets and thorium-suppressed fission (TSF) blankets, are considered, including design and costs of two kinds, fixed (indirect) costs associated with plant capital and variable (direct) costs associated with fuel processing and operation and maintenance. Results indicate that the UTFF and TFF systems produce electricity most inexpensively and that any of the four breeder blanket concepts, including the TSF and UFF systems, can produce electricity for about 25 to 33% above the cost of electricity produced by a new LWR operating on the current once-through cycle. It is suggested that fusion breeders could supply most or all of our fissile fuel makeup requirements within about 20 years after commercial introduction.

Paramyxovirus fusion: Real-time measurement of parainfluenza virus 5 virus-cell fusion

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Connolly, Sarah A.; Lamb, Robert A.

2006-11-25

Although cell-cell fusion assays are useful surrogate methods for studying virus fusion, differences between cell-cell and virus-cell fusion exist. To examine paramyxovirus fusion in real time, we labeled viruses with fluorescent lipid probes and monitored virus-cell fusion by fluorimetry. Two parainfluenza virus 5 (PIV5) isolates (W3A and SER) and PIV5 containing mutations within the fusion protein (F) were studied. Fusion was specific and temperature-dependent. Compared to many low pH-dependent viruses, the kinetics of PIV5 fusion was slow, approaching completion within several minutes. As predicted from cell-cell fusion assays, virus containing an F protein with an extended cytoplasmic tail (rSV5 F551)more » had reduced fusion compared to wild-type virus (W3A). In contrast, virus-cell fusion for SER occurred at near wild-type levels, despite the fact that this isolate exhibits a severely reduced cell-cell fusion phenotype. These results support the notion that virus-cell and cell-cell fusion have significant differences.« less

Advanced hole patterning technology using soft spacer materials (Conference Presentation)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Park, Jong Keun; Hustad, Phillip D.; Aqad, Emad; Valeri, David; Wagner, Mike D.; Li, Mingqi

2017-03-01

A continuing goal in integrated circuit industry is to increase density of features within patterned masks. One pathway being used by the device manufacturers for patterning beyond the 80nm pitch limitation of 193 immersion lithography is the self-aligned spacer double patterning (SADP). Two orthogonal line space patterns with subsequent SADP can be used for contact holes multiplication. However, a combination of two immersion exposures, two spacer deposition processes, and two etch processes to reach the desired dimensions makes this process expensive and complicated. One alternative technique for contact hole multiplication is the use of an array of pillar patterns. Pillars, imaged with 193 immersion photolithography, can be uniformly deposited with spacer materials until a hole is formed in the center of 4 pillars. Selective removal of the pillar core gives a reversal of phases, a contact hole where there was once a pillar. However, the highly conformal nature of conventional spacer materials causes a problem with this application. The new holes, formed between 4 pillars, by this method have a tendency to be imperfect and not circular. To improve the contact hole circularity, this paper presents the use of both conventional spacer material and soft spacer materials. Application of soft spacer materials can be achieved by an existing coating track without additional cost burden to the device manufacturers.

Optimization of the SHX Fusion Powered Transatmospheric Propulsion Concept

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Adams, Robert B.; Landrum, D. Brian

2001-01-01

Existing propulsion technology has not achieved cost effective payload delivery rates to low earth orbit. A fusion based propulsion system, denoted as the Simultaneous Heating and eXpansion (SHX) engine, has been proposed in earlier papers. The SHX couples energy generated by a fusion reactor to the engine flowpath by use of coherent beam emitters. A quasi-one-dimensional flow model was used to quantify the effects of area expansion and energy input on propulsive efficiency for several beam models. Entropy calculations were included to evaluate the lost work in the system.

Spinal fusion surgery: A historical perspective.

PubMed

Tarpada, Sandip P; Morris, Matthew T; Burton, Denver A

2017-03-01

The vast majority of technological advances in spinal fusion surgery have occurred within the past 50 years. Despite this, there existed a rich history of innovation, ingenuity, and resourcefulness among the spine surgeons of centuries before. Here, we pay tribute to this history, highlighting the important characters, their devices, and their thoughts, as they sought to alleviate human suffering from spinal deformity.

Electrically Driven Microengineered Bioinspired Soft Robots.

PubMed

Shin, Su Ryon; Migliori, Bianca; Miccoli, Beatrice; Li, Yi-Chen; Mostafalu, Pooria; Seo, Jungmok; Mandla, Serena; Enrico, Alessandro; Antona, Silvia; Sabarish, Ram; Zheng, Ting; Pirrami, Lorenzo; Zhang, Kaizhen; Zhang, Yu Shrike; Wan, Kai-Tak; Demarchi, Danilo; Dokmeci, Mehmet R; Khademhosseini, Ali

2018-03-01

To create life-like movements, living muscle actuator technologies have borrowed inspiration from biomimetic concepts in developing bioinspired robots. Here, the development of a bioinspired soft robotics system, with integrated self-actuating cardiac muscles on a hierarchically structured scaffold with flexible gold microelectrodes is reported. Inspired by the movement of living organisms, a batoid-fish-shaped substrate is designed and reported, which is composed of two micropatterned hydrogel layers. The first layer is a poly(ethylene glycol) hydrogel substrate, which provides a mechanically stable structure for the robot, followed by a layer of gelatin methacryloyl embedded with carbon nanotubes, which serves as a cell culture substrate, to create the actuation component for the soft body robot. In addition, flexible Au microelectrodes are embedded into the biomimetic scaffold, which not only enhance the mechanical integrity of the device, but also increase its electrical conductivity. After culturing and maturation of cardiomyocytes on the biomimetic scaffold, they show excellent myofiber organization and provide self-actuating motions aligned with the direction of the contractile force of the cells. The Au microelectrodes placed below the cell layer further provide localized electrical stimulation and control of the beating behavior of the bioinspired soft robot. © 2018 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

The intriguing history of vertebral fusion anomalies: the Klippel-Feil syndrome.

PubMed

Saker, Erfanul; Loukas, Marios; Oskouian, Rod J; Tubbs, R Shane

2016-09-01

Our knowledge and understanding of vertebral fusion, defined and eponymously known as Klippel-Feil syndrome in the early 1900s, have a long history. This uncommon finding has been identified as early as 500 B.C. in an Egyptian mummy. Many more examples of spinal vertebra fusion have been described by Greek historians and recovered by archeologists demonstrating this entity's rich history. Klippel-Feil syndrome is a rare skeletal anomaly characterized by abnormal fusion of two or more vertebrae. With the advent of newer molecular technology and genetic discoveries, we now have a better understanding of the etiology and possible pathogenesis of this disease.

Soft Technologies, Hard Choices. Worldwatch Paper 21.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Norman, Colin

The infusion of technology into society has created social and environmental problems as well as benefits. Four concerns linked with technology are discussed in this paper: rising unemployment, growing social inequalities, dwindling oil and gas reserves, and potential long-term ecological problems. Indiscriminate transfer of modern labor-saving…

Multimodality imaging of reporter gene expression using a novel fusion vector in living cells and animals

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gambhir, Sanjiv; Pritha, Ray

Novel double and triple fusion reporter gene constructs harboring distinct imagable reporter genes are provided, as well as applications for the use of such double and triple fusion constructs in living cells and in living animals using distinct imaging technologies.

Multimodality imaging of reporter gene expression using a novel fusion vector in living cells and animals

DOEpatents

Gambhir, Sanjiv; Pritha, Ray

2015-07-14

Novel double and triple fusion reporter gene constructs harboring distinct imagable reporter genes are provided, as well as applications for the use of such double and triple fusion constructs in living cells and in living animals using distinct imaging technologies.

Studies of breakeven prices and electricity supply potentials of nuclear fusion by a long-term world energy and environment model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tokimatsu, K.; Asaoka, Y.; Konishi, S.; Fujino, J.; Ogawa, Y.; Okano, K.; Nishio, S.; Yoshida, T.; Hiwatari, R.; Yamaji, K.

2002-11-01

In response to social demand, this paper investigates the breakeven price (BP) and potential electricity supply of nuclear fusion energy in the 21st century by means of a world energy and environment model. We set the following objectives in this paper: (i) to reveal the economics of the introduction conditions of nuclear fusion; (ii) to know when tokamak-type nuclear fusion reactors are expected to be introduced cost-effectively into future energy systems; (iii) to estimate the share in 2100 of electricity produced by the presently designed reactors that could be economically selected in the year. The model can give in detail the energy and environment technologies and price-induced energy saving, and can illustrate optimal energy supply structures by minimizing the costs of total discounted energy systems at a discount rate of 5%. The following parameters of nuclear fusion were considered: cost of electricity (COE) in the nuclear fusion introduction year, annual COE reduction rates, regional introduction year, and regional nuclear fusion capacity projection. The investigations are carried out for three nuclear fusion projections one of which includes tritium breeding constraints, four future CO2 concentration constraints, and technological assumptions on fossil fuels, nuclear fission, CO2 sequestration, and anonymous innovative technologies. It is concluded that: (1) the BPs are from 65 to 125 mill kW-1 h-1 depending on the introduction year of nuclear fusion under the 550 ppmv CO2 concentration constraints; those of a business-as-usual (BAU) case are from 51 to 68 mill kW-1h-1. Uncertainties resulting from the CO2 concentration constraints and the technological options influenced the BPs by plus/minus some 10 30 mill kW-1h-1, (2) tokamak-type nuclear fusion reactors (as presently designed, with a COE range around 70 130 mill kW-1h-1) would be favourably introduced into energy systems after 2060 based on the economic criteria under the 450 and 550 ppmv CO2

Higgs boson gluon-fusion production beyond threshold in N 3LO QCD

DOE PAGES

Anastasiou, Charalampos; Duhr, Claude; Dulat, Falko; ...

2015-03-18

In this study, we compute the gluon fusion Higgs boson cross-section at N 3LO through the second term in the threshold expansion. This calculation constitutes a major milestone towards the full N 3LO cross section. Our result has the best formal accuracy in the threshold expansion currently available, and includes contributions from collinear regions besides subleading corrections from soft and hard regions, as well as certain logarithmically enhanced contributions for general kinematics. We use our results to perform a critical appraisal of the validity of the threshold approximation at N 3LO in perturbative QCD.

Fully Soft 3D-Printed Electroactive Fluidic Valve for Soft Hydraulic Robots.

PubMed

Zatopa, Alex; Walker, Steph; Menguc, Yigit

2018-06-01

Soft robots are designed to utilize their compliance and contortionistic abilities to both interact safely with their environment and move through it in ways a rigid robot cannot. To more completely achieve this, the robot should be made of as many soft components as possible. Here we present a completely soft hydraulic control valve consisting of a 3D-printed photopolymer body with electrorheological (ER) fluid as a working fluid and gallium-indium-tin liquid metal alloy as electrodes. This soft 3D-printed ER valve weighs less than 10 g and allows for onboard actuation control, furthering the goal of an entirely soft controllable robot. The soft ER valve pressure-holding capabilities were tested under unstrained conditions, cyclic valve activation, and the strained conditions of bending, twisting, stretching, and indentation. It was found that the max holding pressure of the valve when 5 kV was applied across the electrodes was 264 kPa, and that the holding pressure deviated less than 15% from the unstrained max holding pressure under all strain conditions except for indentation, which had a 60% max pressure increase. In addition, a soft octopus-like robot was designed, 3D printed, and assembled, and a soft ER valve was used to stop the fluid flow, build pressure in the robot, and actuate six tentacle-like soft bending actuators.

Printed soft-electronics for remote body monitoring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mantysalo, Matti; Vuorinen, Tiina; Jeihani, Vala; Vehkaoja, Antti

2017-08-01

Wearable electronics has emerged into the consumer markets over the past few years. Wrist worn and textile integrated devices are the most common apparatuses for unobtrusive monitoring in sports and wellness sectors. Disposable patches and bandages, however, represent the new era of wearable electronics. Soft and stretchable electronics is the enabling technology of this paradigm shift. It can conform to temporary transfer tattoo and deform with the skin without detachment or fracture. In this paper, we focus on screen-printed soft-electronics for remote body monitoring. We will present a fabrication process of a skin conformable electrode bandage designed for long-term outpatient electrocardiography (ECG) monitoring. The soft bandage is designed to be attached to the patient chest and miniaturized data collection device is connected to the bandage via Micro-USB connector. The fabricated bandage is tested in short exercise as well as continued long-term (72 hours) monitoring during normal daily activities. The attained quality of the measured ECG signals is fully satisfactory for rhythm-based cardiac analysis also during moderate-intensity exercise. After pre-processing, the signals could be used also for more profound morphological analysis of ECG wave shapes.

A. Sakharov and Fusion Research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Coppi, Bruno

2012-02-01

In the landmark paper by Tamm and Sakharov [1], a controlled nuclear fusion reactor based on an axisymmetric magnetic confinement configuration whose principles remain valid to this day, was proposed. In the light of present understanding of plasma physics the virtues (e.g. that of considering the D-D reaction) and the shortcomings of this paper are pointed out. In fact, relatively recent results of theoretical plasma physics (e.g. discovery of the so called second stability region) and advances in high field magnet technology have made it possible to identify the parameters of meaningful experiments capable of exploring D-D and D-^3He burn conditions. At the same time an experimental program (IGNIR) has been undertaken through a (funded) collaboration between Italy and Russia to investigate D-T plasmas close to ignition conditions based on an advanced high field toroidal confinement configuration. A. Sakharov envisioned a bolder approach to fusion research than that advocated by some of his contemporaries. The time taken to design and decide to fabricate the first experiment capable of reaching ignition conditions is due in part to the problem of gaining an adequate understanding the expected physics of fusion burning plasmas. However, most of the relevant financial effort has gone in the pursuit of slow and indirect enterprises complying with the ``playing it safe'' tendencies of large organizations or motivated by the purpose to develop technologies or maintain a high level of expertise in plasma physics to the expected benefit of other kinds of endeavors. The creativity demonstrated by A. Sakharov in dealing with civil rights and disarmament issues is needed, while maintaining our concerns for energy and the environment on a global scale, to orient the funding for fusion research toward a direct and well based scientific effort on concepts for which a variety of developments can be envisioned. These can span from uncovering new physics relevant, for instance

Soft buckling actuators

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Yang, Dian; Whitesides, George M.

A soft actuator is described, including: a rotation center having a center of mass; a plurality of bucklable, elastic structural components each comprising a wall defining an axis along its longest dimension, the wall connected to the rotation center in a way that the axis is offset from the center of mass in a predetermined direction; and a plurality of cells each disposed between two adjacent bucklable, elastic structural components and configured for connection with a fluid inflation or deflation source; wherein upon the deflation of the cell, the bucklable, elastic structural components are configured to buckle in the predeterminedmore » direction. A soft actuating device including a plurality of the soft actuators and methods of actuation using the soft actuator or soft actuating device disclosed herein are also described.« less

Beryllium for fusion application - recent results

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khomutov, A.; Barabash, V.; Chakin, V.; Chernov, V.; Davydov, D.; Gorokhov, V.; Kawamura, H.; Kolbasov, B.; Kupriyanov, I.; Longhurst, G.; Scaffidi-Argentina, F.; Shestakov, V.

2002-12-01

The main issues for the application of beryllium in fusion reactors are analyzed taking into account the latest results since the ICFRM-9 (Colorado, USA, October 1999) and presented at 5th IEA Be Workshop (10-12 October 2001, Moscow Russia). Considerable progress has been made recently in understanding the problems connected with the selection of the beryllium grades for different applications, characterization of the beryllium at relevant operational conditions (irradiation effects, thermal fatigue, etc.), and development of required manufacturing technologies. The key remaining problems related to the application of beryllium as an armour in near-term fusion reactors (e.g. ITER) are discussed. The features of the application of beryllium and beryllides as a neutron multiplier in the breeder blanket for power reactors (e.g. DEMO) in pebble-bed form are described.

Flexible Fusion Structure-Based Performance Optimization Learning for Multisensor Target Tracking

PubMed Central

Ge, Quanbo; Wei, Zhongliang; Cheng, Tianfa; Chen, Shaodong; Wang, Xiangfeng

2017-01-01

Compared with the fixed fusion structure, the flexible fusion structure with mixed fusion methods has better adjustment performance for the complex air task network systems, and it can effectively help the system to achieve the goal under the given constraints. Because of the time-varying situation of the task network system induced by moving nodes and non-cooperative target, and limitations such as communication bandwidth and measurement distance, it is necessary to dynamically adjust the system fusion structure including sensors and fusion methods in a given adjustment period. Aiming at this, this paper studies the design of a flexible fusion algorithm by using an optimization learning technology. The purpose is to dynamically determine the sensors’ numbers and the associated sensors to take part in the centralized and distributed fusion processes, respectively, herein termed sensor subsets selection. Firstly, two system performance indexes are introduced. Especially, the survivability index is presented and defined. Secondly, based on the two indexes and considering other conditions such as communication bandwidth and measurement distance, optimization models for both single target tracking and multi-target tracking are established. Correspondingly, solution steps are given for the two optimization models in detail. Simulation examples are demonstrated to validate the proposed algorithms. PMID:28481243

Leveraging M and S in Soft Skills Training for the DoD

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cimino, James D.

2011-01-01

Soft skills, also called "people skills," are typically hard to observe, quantify and measure. These skills have to do with how we relate to each other; communicating, listening, engaging in dialogue, giving feedback, cooperating as a team member, solving problems and resolving conflicts. Most of the soft skills training is scenario based, utilizing written or video-based scenarios. with limited or no branching, as well as quantitative feedback. This paper will outline a game-based approach to configurable, scenario-based, soft skills training. The paper will discuss the application of realistic visual behavior cues (e.g. body language, vocal inflection, facial expressions) and how these can benefit the learner. Using the concept of a "virtual vignette" this paper will discuss a prototype system intended to leach suicide prevention and provide qualitative feedback to the learner. The paper will also explore other soft skills training applications for this technology

Concept of DT fuel cycle for a fusion neutron source

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Anan'ev, S.; Spitsyn, A.V.; Kuteev, B.V.

2015-03-15

A concept of DT-fusion neutron source (FNS) with the neutron yield higher than 10{sup 18} neutrons per second is under design in Russia. Such a FNS is of interest for many applications: 1) basic and applied research (neutron scattering, etc); 2) testing the structural materials for fusion reactors; 3) control of sub-critical nuclear systems and 4) nuclear waste processing (including transmutation of minor actinides). This paper describes the fuel cycle concept of a compact fusion neutron source based on a small spherical tokamak (FNS-ST) with a MW range of DT fusion power and considers the key physics issues of thismore » device. The major and minor radii are ∼0.5 and ∼0.3 m, magnetic field ∼1.5 T, heating power less than 15 MW and plasma current 1-2 MA. The system provides the fuel mixture with equal fractions of D and T (D:T = 1:1) for all FNS technology systems. (authors)« less

Distributed Multisensor Data Fusion under Unknown Correlation and Data Inconsistency

PubMed Central

Abu Bakr, Muhammad; Lee, Sukhan

2017-01-01

The paradigm of multisensor data fusion has been evolved from a centralized architecture to a decentralized or distributed architecture along with the advancement in sensor and communication technologies. These days, distributed state estimation and data fusion has been widely explored in diverse fields of engineering and control due to its superior performance over the centralized one in terms of flexibility, robustness to failure and cost effectiveness in infrastructure and communication. However, distributed multisensor data fusion is not without technical challenges to overcome: namely, dealing with cross-correlation and inconsistency among state estimates and sensor data. In this paper, we review the key theories and methodologies of distributed multisensor data fusion available to date with a specific focus on handling unknown correlation and data inconsistency. We aim at providing readers with a unifying view out of individual theories and methodologies by presenting a formal analysis of their implications. Finally, several directions of future research are highlighted. PMID:29077035

SDIA: A dynamic situation driven information fusion algorithm for cloud environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guo, Shuhang; Wang, Tong; Wang, Jian

2017-09-01

Information fusion is an important issue in information integration domain. In order to form an extensive information fusion technology under the complex and diverse situations, a new information fusion algorithm is proposed. Firstly, a fuzzy evaluation model of tag utility was proposed that can be used to count the tag entropy. Secondly, a ubiquitous situation tag tree model is proposed to define multidimensional structure of information situation. Thirdly, the similarity matching between the situation models is classified into three types: the tree inclusion, the tree embedding, and the tree compatibility. Next, in order to reduce the time complexity of the tree compatible matching algorithm, a fast and ordered tree matching algorithm is proposed based on the node entropy, which is used to support the information fusion by ubiquitous situation. Since the algorithm revolve from the graph theory of disordered tree matching algorithm, it can improve the information fusion present recall rate and precision rate in the situation. The information fusion algorithm is compared with the star and the random tree matching algorithm, and the difference between the three algorithms is analyzed in the view of isomorphism, which proves the innovation and applicability of the algorithm.

Analysis of Impact of 3D Printing Technology on Traditional Manufacturing Technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Niyan; Chen, Qi; Liao, Linzhi; Wang, Xin

With quiet rise of 3D printing technology in automobile, aerospace, industry, medical treatment and other fields, many insiders hold different opinions on its development. This paper objectively analyzes impact of 3D printing technology on mold making technology and puts forward the idea of fusion and complementation of 3D printing technology and mold making technology through comparing advantages and disadvantages of 3D printing mold and traditional mold making technology.

Deuterium-lithium plasma as a source of fusion neutrons

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chirkov, A. Yu; Vesnin, V. R.

2017-11-01

The concepts of deuterium-tritium (D-T) fusion neutron source are currently developed for hybrid fusion-fission systems and the waste transmutation ones. The need to use tritium technologies is a deterrent factor in this promising direction of energy production. Potential possibilities of using systems that do not require tritium developments are of a significant interest. A deuterium-deuterium (D-D) reaction is considered for the use in demonstration fusion neutron sources. The product of this reaction is tritium, which will burn in the plasma with the emission of fast neutrons. D-D reaction is significantly slower then D-T reaction. Present study shows an increase in neutron yield using a powerful injection of the beam of deuterium atoms. The reactions of the deuterium with lithium isotopes are considered. In some of these reactions, fast neutrons can be obtained. The results of the calculation of the neutron yield from the deuterium lithium plasma are discussed. The estimates of the parameters needed for the realization of a source of fusion neutrons are presented.

Image Fusion During Vascular and Nonvascular Image-Guided Procedures☆

PubMed Central

Abi-Jaoudeh, Nadine; Kobeiter, Hicham; Xu, Sheng; Wood, Bradford J.

2013-01-01

Image fusion may be useful in any procedure where previous imaging such as positron emission tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, or contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) defines information that is referenced to the procedural imaging, to the needle or catheter, or to an ultrasound transducer. Fusion of prior and intraoperative imaging provides real-time feedback on tumor location or margin, metabolic activity, device location, or vessel location. Multimodality image fusion in interventional radiology was initially introduced for biopsies and ablations, especially for lesions only seen on arterial phase CT, magnetic resonance imaging, or positron emission tomography/CT but has more recently been applied to other vascular and nonvascular procedures. Two different types of platforms are commonly used for image fusion and navigation: (1) electromagnetic tracking and (2) cone-beam CT. Both technologies would be reviewed as well as their strengths and weaknesses, indications, when to use one vs the other, tips and guidance to streamline use, and early evidence defining clinical benefits of these rapidly evolving, commercially available and emerging techniques. PMID:23993079

Building on knowledge base of sodium cooled fast spectrum reactors to develop materials technology for fusion reactors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Raj, Baldev; Rao, K. Bhanu Sankara

2009-04-01

The alloys 316L(N) and Mod. 9Cr-1Mo steel are the major structural materials for fabrication of structural components in sodium cooled fast reactors (SFRs). Various factors influencing the mechanical behaviour of these alloys and different modes of deformation and failure in SFR systems, their analysis and the simulated tests performed on components for assessment of structural integrity and the applicability of RCC-MR code for the design and validation of components are highlighted. The procedures followed for optimal design of die and punch for the near net shape forming of petals of main vessel of 500 MWe prototype fast breeder reactor (PFBR); the safe temperature and strain rate domains established using dynamic materials model for forming of 316L(N) and 9Cr-1Mo steels components by various industrial processes are illustrated. Weldability problems associated with 316L(N) and Mo. 9Cr-1Mo are briefly discussed. The utilization of artificial neural network models for prediction of creep rupture life and delta-ferrite in austenitic stainless steel welds is described. The usage of non-destructive examination techniques in characterization of deformation, fracture and various microstructural features in SFR materials is briefly discussed. Most of the experience gained on SFR systems could be utilized in developing science and technology for fusion reactors. Summary of the current status of knowledge on various aspects of fission and fusion systems with emphasis on cross fertilization of research is presented.

Rho GTPase activity modulates paramyxovirus fusion protein-mediated cell-cell fusion

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schowalter, Rachel M.; Wurth, Mark A.; Aguilar, Hector C.

2006-07-05

The paramyxovirus fusion protein (F) promotes fusion of the viral envelope with the plasma membrane of target cells as well as cell-cell fusion. The plasma membrane is closely associated with the actin cytoskeleton, but the role of actin dynamics in paramyxovirus F-mediated membrane fusion is unclear. We examined cell-cell fusion promoted by two different paramyxovirus F proteins in three cell types in the presence of constitutively active Rho family GTPases, major cellular coordinators of actin dynamics. Reporter gene and syncytia assays demonstrated that expression of either Rac1{sup V12} or Cdc42{sup V12} could increase cell-cell fusion promoted by the Hendra ormore » SV5 glycoproteins, though the effect was dependent on the cell type expressing the viral glycoproteins. In contrast, RhoA{sup L63} decreased cell-cell fusion promoted by Hendra glycoproteins but had little affect on SV5 F-mediated fusion. Also, data suggested that GTPase activation in the viral glycoprotein-containing cell was primarily responsible for changes in fusion. Additionally, we found that activated Cdc42 promoted nuclear rearrangement in syncytia.« less

Lenr and "cold Fusion" Excess Heat:. Their Relation to Other Anomalous Microphysical Energy Experiments and Emerging New Energy Technologies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mallove, Eugene F.

2005-12-01

During the past 15 years, indisputable experimental evidence has built up for substantial excess heat (far beyond ordinary chemical energy) and low-energy nuclear reaction phenomena in specialized heavy hydrogen and ordinary hydrogen-containing systems.1 The primary theorists in the field that is properly designated Cold Fusion/LENR have generally assumed that the excess heat phenomena is commensurate with nuclear ash (such as helium), whether already identified or presumed to be present but not yet found. That was an excellent initial hypothesis. However, the commensurate nuclear ash hypothesis has not been proved, and appears to be approximately correct in only a few experiments. During this same period, compelling evidence although not as broadly verified as data from cold fusion/LENR has also emerged for other microphysical sources of energy that were previously unexpected by accepted physics. The exemplar of this has been the "hydrino" physics work of Dr. Randall Mills and his colleagues at Black-Light Power Corporation, which was a radical outgrowth from the cold fusion field that emerged publicly in May 1991.2 Even more far-reaching is the work in vacuum energy extraction pioneered by Dr. Paulo and Alexandra Correa, which first became public in 1996.3 This vacuum energy experimentation began in the early 1980s and has been reduced to prototype technological devices, such as the patented PAGDTM (pulsed abnormal glow discharge) electric power generator, as well as many published experiments that can be performed in table-top fashion to verify the Correa Aetherometry (non-luminiferous or non-electromagnetic aether measurement science).4 In an era when mainstream science and its media is all agog about dark matter and dark energy composing the vast bulk of the universe, there is a great need to reconcile, if possible, the significant bodies of evidence from these three major experimental and theoretical streams: cold fusion/LENR, hydrino physics, and

Radar image and data fusion for natural hazards characterisation

USGS Publications Warehouse

Lu, Zhong; Dzurisin, Daniel; Jung, Hyung-Sup; Zhang, Jixian; Zhang, Yonghong

2010-01-01

Fusion of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images through interferometric, polarimetric and tomographic processing provides an all - weather imaging capability to characterise and monitor various natural hazards. This article outlines interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) processing and products and their utility for natural hazards characterisation, provides an overview of the techniques and applications related to fusion of SAR/InSAR images with optical and other images and highlights the emerging SAR fusion technologies. In addition to providing precise land - surface digital elevation maps, SAR - derived imaging products can map millimetre - scale elevation changes driven by volcanic, seismic and hydrogeologic processes, by landslides and wildfires and other natural hazards. With products derived from the fusion of SAR and other images, scientists can monitor the progress of flooding, estimate water storage changes in wetlands for improved hydrological modelling predictions and assessments of future flood impacts and map vegetation structure on a global scale and monitor its changes due to such processes as fire, volcanic eruption and deforestation. With the availability of SAR images in near real - time from multiple satellites in the near future, the fusion of SAR images with other images and data is playing an increasingly important role in understanding and forecasting natural hazards.

Soft, thin skin-mounted power management systems and their use in wireless thermography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Jung Woo; Xu, Renxiao; Lee, Seungmin; Jang, Kyung-In; Yang, Yichen; Banks, Anthony; Yu, Ki Jun; Kim, Jeonghyun; Xu, Sheng; Ma, Siyi; Jang, Sung Woo; Won, Phillip; Li, Yuhang; Kim, Bong Hoon; Choe, Jo Young; Huh, Soojeong; Kwon, Yong Ho; Huang, Yonggang; Paik, Ungyu; Rogers, John A.

2016-05-01

Power supply represents a critical challenge in the development of body-integrated electronic technologies. Although recent research establishes an impressive variety of options in energy storage (batteries and supercapacitors) and generation (triboelectric, piezoelectric, thermoelectric, and photovoltaic devices), the modest electrical performance and/or the absence of soft, biocompatible mechanical properties limit their practical use. The results presented here form the basis of soft, skin-compatible means for efficient photovoltaic generation and high-capacity storage of electrical power using dual-junction, compound semiconductor solar cells and chip-scale, rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, respectively. Miniaturized components, deformable interconnects, optimized array layouts, and dual-composition elastomer substrates, superstrates, and encapsulation layers represent key features. Systematic studies of the materials and mechanics identify optimized designs, including unusual configurations that exploit a folded, multilayer construct to improve the functional density without adversely affecting the soft, stretchable characteristics. System-level examples exploit such technologies in fully wireless sensors for precision skin thermography, with capabilities in continuous data logging and local processing, validated through demonstrations on volunteer subjects in various realistic scenarios.

Soft, thin skin-mounted power management systems and their use in wireless thermography.

PubMed

Lee, Jung Woo; Xu, Renxiao; Lee, Seungmin; Jang, Kyung-In; Yang, Yichen; Banks, Anthony; Yu, Ki Jun; Kim, Jeonghyun; Xu, Sheng; Ma, Siyi; Jang, Sung Woo; Won, Phillip; Li, Yuhang; Kim, Bong Hoon; Choe, Jo Young; Huh, Soojeong; Kwon, Yong Ho; Huang, Yonggang; Paik, Ungyu; Rogers, John A

2016-05-31

Power supply represents a critical challenge in the development of body-integrated electronic technologies. Although recent research establishes an impressive variety of options in energy storage (batteries and supercapacitors) and generation (triboelectric, piezoelectric, thermoelectric, and photovoltaic devices), the modest electrical performance and/or the absence of soft, biocompatible mechanical properties limit their practical use. The results presented here form the basis of soft, skin-compatible means for efficient photovoltaic generation and high-capacity storage of electrical power using dual-junction, compound semiconductor solar cells and chip-scale, rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, respectively. Miniaturized components, deformable interconnects, optimized array layouts, and dual-composition elastomer substrates, superstrates, and encapsulation layers represent key features. Systematic studies of the materials and mechanics identify optimized designs, including unusual configurations that exploit a folded, multilayer construct to improve the functional density without adversely affecting the soft, stretchable characteristics. System-level examples exploit such technologies in fully wireless sensors for precision skin thermography, with capabilities in continuous data logging and local processing, validated through demonstrations on volunteer subjects in various realistic scenarios.

Soft, thin skin-mounted power management systems and their use in wireless thermography

PubMed Central

Lee, Jung Woo; Xu, Renxiao; Lee, Seungmin; Jang, Kyung-In; Yang, Yichen; Banks, Anthony; Yu, Ki Jun; Kim, Jeonghyun; Xu, Sheng; Ma, Siyi; Jang, Sung Woo; Won, Phillip; Li, Yuhang; Kim, Bong Hoon; Choe, Jo Young; Huh, Soojeong; Kwon, Yong Ho; Huang, Yonggang; Paik, Ungyu; Rogers, John A.

2016-01-01

Power supply represents a critical challenge in the development of body-integrated electronic technologies. Although recent research establishes an impressive variety of options in energy storage (batteries and supercapacitors) and generation (triboelectric, piezoelectric, thermoelectric, and photovoltaic devices), the modest electrical performance and/or the absence of soft, biocompatible mechanical properties limit their practical use. The results presented here form the basis of soft, skin-compatible means for efficient photovoltaic generation and high-capacity storage of electrical power using dual-junction, compound semiconductor solar cells and chip-scale, rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, respectively. Miniaturized components, deformable interconnects, optimized array layouts, and dual-composition elastomer substrates, superstrates, and encapsulation layers represent key features. Systematic studies of the materials and mechanics identify optimized designs, including unusual configurations that exploit a folded, multilayer construct to improve the functional density without adversely affecting the soft, stretchable characteristics. System-level examples exploit such technologies in fully wireless sensors for precision skin thermography, with capabilities in continuous data logging and local processing, validated through demonstrations on volunteer subjects in various realistic scenarios. PMID:27185907

The software-defined fast post-processing for GEM soft x-ray diagnostics in the Tungsten Environment in Steady-state Tokamak thermal fusion reactor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Krawczyk, Rafał Dominik; Czarski, Tomasz; Linczuk, Paweł; Wojeński, Andrzej; Kolasiński, Piotr; GÄ ska, Michał; Chernyshova, Maryna; Mazon, Didier; Jardin, Axel; Malard, Philippe; Poźniak, Krzysztof; Kasprowicz, Grzegorz; Zabołotny, Wojciech; Kowalska-Strzeciwilk, Ewa; Malinowski, Karol

2018-06-01

This article presents a novel software-defined server-based solutions that were introduced in the fast, real-time computation systems for soft X-ray diagnostics for the WEST (Tungsten Environment in Steady-state Tokamak) reactor in Cadarache, France. The objective of the research was to provide a fast processing of data at high throughput and with low latencies for investigating the interplay between the particle transport and magnetohydrodynamic activity. The long-term objective is to implement in the future a fast feedback signal in the reactor control mechanisms to sustain the fusion reaction. The implemented electronic measurement device is anticipated to be deployed in the WEST. A standalone software-defined computation engine was designed to handle data collected at high rates in the server back-end of the system. Signals are obtained from the front-end field-programmable gate array mezzanine cards that acquire and perform a selection from the gas electron multiplier detector. A fast, authorial library for plasma diagnostics was written in C++. It originated from reference offline MATLAB implementations. They were redesigned for runtime analysis during the experiment in the novel online modes of operation. The implementation allowed the benchmarking, evaluation, and optimization of plasma processing algorithms with the possibility to check the consistency with reference computations written in MATLAB. The back-end software and hardware architecture are presented with data evaluation mechanisms. The online modes of operation for the WEST are discussed. The results concerning the performance of the processing and the introduced functionality are presented.

Information fusion for diabetic retinopathy CAD in digital color fundus photographs.

PubMed

Niemeijer, Meindert; Abramoff, Michael D; van Ginneken, Bram

2009-05-01

The purpose of computer-aided detection or diagnosis (CAD) technology has so far been to serve as a second reader. If, however, all relevant lesions in an image can be detected by CAD algorithms, use of CAD for automatic reading or prescreening may become feasible. This work addresses the question how to fuse information from multiple CAD algorithms, operating on multiple images that comprise an exam, to determine a likelihood that the exam is normal and would not require further inspection by human operators. We focus on retinal image screening for diabetic retinopathy, a common complication of diabetes. Current CAD systems are not designed to automatically evaluate complete exams consisting of multiple images for which several detection algorithm output sets are available. Information fusion will potentially play a crucial role in enabling the application of CAD technology to the automatic screening problem. Several different fusion methods are proposed and their effect on the performance of a complete comprehensive automatic diabetic retinopathy screening system is evaluated. Experiments show that the choice of fusion method can have a large impact on system performance. The complete system was evaluated on a set of 15,000 exams (60,000 images). The best performing fusion method obtained an area under the receiver operator characteristic curve of 0.881. This indicates that automated prescreening could be applied in diabetic retinopathy screening programs.

Fusion Advanced Design Studies

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

El-Guebaly, Laila; Henderson, Douglass; Wilson, Paul

2017-03-24

During the January 1, 2013 – December 31, 2015 contract period, the UW Fusion Technology Institute personnel have actively participated in the ARIES-ACT and FESS-FNSF projects, led the nuclear and thermostructural tasks, attended several project meetings, and participated in all conference calls. The main areas of effort and technical achievements include updating and documenting the nuclear analysis for ARIES-ACT1, performing nuclear analysis for ARIES-ACT2, performing thermostructural analysis for ARIES divertor, performing disruption analysis for ARIES vacuum vessel, and developing blanket testing strategy and Materials Test Module for FNSF.

ECH Technology Development

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Temkin, Richard

2014-12-24

Electron Cyclotron Heating (ECH) is needed for plasma heating, current drive, plasma stability control, and other applications in fusion energy sciences research. The program of fusion energy sciences supported by U. S. DOE, Office of Science, Fusion Energy Sciences relies on the development of ECH technology to meet the needs of several plasma devices working at the frontier of fusion energy sciences research. The largest operating ECH system in the world is at DIII-D, consisting of six 1 MW, 110 GHz gyrotrons capable of ten second pulsed operation, plus two newer gyrotrons. The ECH Technology Development research program investigated themore » options for upgrading the DIII-D 110 GHz ECH system. Options included extending present-day 1 MW technology to 1.3 – 1.5 MW power levels or developing an entirely new approach to achieve up to 2 MW of power per gyrotron. The research consisted of theoretical research and designs conducted by Communication and Power Industries of Palo Alto, CA working with MIT. Results of the study would be validated in a later phase by research on short pulse length gyrotrons at MIT and long pulse / cw gyrotrons in industry. This research follows a highly successful program of development that has led to the highly reliable, six megawatt ECH system at the DIII-D tokamak. Eventually, gyrotrons at the 1.5 megawatt to multi-megawatt power level will be needed for heating and current drive in large scale plasmas including ITER and DEMO.« less

Exploring lower-cost pathways to economical fusion power

DOE PAGES

Hsu, Scott C.

2017-08-04

This project, the Plasma Liner Experiment–ALPHA (PLX-α)5,is one of nine projects supported by the ALPHA Program6 of the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). We use innovative, low-cost coaxial plasma guns (Fig. 1), developed and built by partner HyperV Technologies Corp.7, to launch a spherically converging array of supersonic plasma jets toward the middle of a large, spherical vacuum chamber (Fig. 2). A key near-term goal of PLX-α is to merge up to 60 plasma jets to form a spherically imploding plasma liner, as a low-cost, high-shot-rate driver for compressing magnetised target plasmas tomore » fusion conditions. Our approach is known as plasma-jet-driven MIF (or PJMIF)8. A new startup company HyperJet Fusion Corporation (which recently received seed funding from Strong Atomics, LLC, a new fusion venture fund) aims to develop PJMIF under continued public and private sponsorship.« less

Exploring lower-cost pathways to economical fusion power

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hsu, Scott C.

This project, the Plasma Liner Experiment–ALPHA (PLX-α)5,is one of nine projects supported by the ALPHA Program6 of the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). We use innovative, low-cost coaxial plasma guns (Fig. 1), developed and built by partner HyperV Technologies Corp.7, to launch a spherically converging array of supersonic plasma jets toward the middle of a large, spherical vacuum chamber (Fig. 2). A key near-term goal of PLX-α is to merge up to 60 plasma jets to form a spherically imploding plasma liner, as a low-cost, high-shot-rate driver for compressing magnetised target plasmas tomore » fusion conditions. Our approach is known as plasma-jet-driven MIF (or PJMIF)8. A new startup company HyperJet Fusion Corporation (which recently received seed funding from Strong Atomics, LLC, a new fusion venture fund) aims to develop PJMIF under continued public and private sponsorship.« less

Be Bold : An Alternative Plan for Fusion Research

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wurden, Glen Anthony

Government sponsored magnetic fusion energy research in the USA has been on downward trajectory since the early 1990’s. The present path is unsustainable. Indeed, our research community and national research facilities are withering from old-age and lack of investment. The present product (tokamak-centric production of electricity) does not yet work, will not be economic, and is clearly not valued or needed by our society. Even if a prototype existed at any cost, DT-based fusion energy would come too late to significantly impact the reduction of CO 2 emissions in this century. This white paper outlines what “being bold” could meanmore » with respect to the invention and application of nuclear fusion technologies, and how the USA could once again set a visionary example for the world. I present the discussion in two parts, reflecting on the NAS panel two-part assignment of a plan “with” and “without” ITER.« less

Modeling for free surface flow with phase change and its application to fusion technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luo, Xiaoyong

The development of predictive capabilities for free surface flow with phase change is essential to evaluate liquid wall protection schemes for various fusion chambers. With inertial fusion energy (IFE) concepts such as HYLIFE-II, rapid condensation into cold liquid surfaces is required when using liquid curtains for protecting reactor walls from blasts and intense neutron radiation. With magnetic fusion energy (MFE) concepts, droplets are injected onto the free surface of the liquid to minimize evaporation by minimizing the surface temperature. This dissertation presents a numerical methodology for free surface flow with phase change to help resolve feasibility issues encountered in the aforementioned fusion engineering fields, especially spray droplet condensation efficiency in IFE and droplet heat transfer enhancement on free surface liquid divertors in MFE. The numerical methodology is being conducted within the framework of the incompressible flow with the phase change model. A new second-order projection method is presented in conjunction with Approximate-Factorization techniques (AF method) for incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. A sub-cell conception is introduced and the Ghost Fluid Method in extended in a modified mass transfer model to accurately calculate the mass transfer across the interface. The Crank-Nicholson method is used for the diffusion term to eliminate the numerical viscous stability restriction. The third-order ENO scheme is used for the convective term to guarantee the accuracy of the method. The level set method is used to capture accurately the free surface of the flow and the deformation of the droplets. This numerical investigation identifies the physics characterizing transient heat and mass transfer of the droplet and the free surface flow. The results show that the numerical methodology is quite successful in modeling the free surface with phase change even though some severe deformations such as breaking and merging occur. The

Solar Energy Technology Office Portfolio Review: Promotion of PV Soft Cost Reductions in the Southeastern US

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Fox, E.

From 2016-2021, the installed solar capacity in South Carolina will mushroom from less than 20 megawatts to more than 300 megawatts. Concurrently, the number of customer-sited, load-centered solar generation is expected to grow from less than 500 statewide to as many as 10,000 by 2021. This growth is anticipated to be the direct result of a landmark state policy initiative, Act 236, passed by the South Carolina General Assembly and signed into law by the Governor in June of 2014. Local policy makers in South Carolina are ill-equipped to handle the onslaught of solar permitting and zoning requests expected overmore » the next five years. Similarly, the state’s building inspectors, first responders, and tax assessors know little about photovoltaic (PV) technology and best practices. Finally, South Carolina’s workforce and workforce trainers are underprepared to benefit from the tremendous opportunity created by the passage of Act 236. Each of these deficits in knowledge of and preparedness for solar PV translates into higher “soft costs” of installed solar PV in South Carolina. Currently, we estimate that the installed costs of residential rooftop solar are as much as 25 percent higher than the national average. The Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL), together with almost a dozen electricity stakeholders in the Southeast, proposes to create a replicable model for solar PV soft cost reduction in South Carolina through human capacity-building at the local level and direct efforts to harmonize policy at the inter-county or regional level. The primary goal of this effort is to close the gap between South Carolina installed costs of residential rooftop solar and national averages. The secondary goal is to develop a portable and replicable model that can be applied to other jurisdictions in the Southeastern US.« less

The Fusion Gain Analysis of the Inductively Driven Liner Compression Based Fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shimazu, Akihisa; Slough, John

2016-10-01

An analytical analysis of the fusion gain expected in the inductively driven liner compression (IDLC) based fusion is conducted to identify the fusion gain scaling at various operating conditions. The fusion based on the IDLC is a magneto-inertial fusion concept, where a Field-Reversed Configuration (FRC) plasmoid is compressed via the inductively-driven metal liner to drive the FRC to fusion conditions. In the past, an approximate scaling law for the expected fusion gain for the IDLC based fusion was obtained under the key assumptions of (1) D-T fuel at 5-40 keV, (2) adiabatic scaling laws for the FRC dynamics, (3) FRC energy dominated by the pressure balance with the edge magnetic field at the peak compression, and (4) the liner dwell time being liner final diameter divided by the peak liner velocity. In this study, various assumptions made in the previous derivation is relaxed to study the change in the fusion gain scaling from the previous result of G ml1 / 2 El11 / 8 , where ml is the liner mass and El is the peak liner kinetic energy. The implication from the modified fusion gain scaling on the performance of the IDLC fusion reactor system is also explored.

Fully Convolutional Network-Based Multifocus Image Fusion.

PubMed

Guo, Xiaopeng; Nie, Rencan; Cao, Jinde; Zhou, Dongming; Qian, Wenhua

2018-07-01

As the optical lenses for cameras always have limited depth of field, the captured images with the same scene are not all in focus. Multifocus image fusion is an efficient technology that can synthesize an all-in-focus image using several partially focused images. Previous methods have accomplished the fusion task in spatial or transform domains. However, fusion rules are always a problem in most methods. In this letter, from the aspect of focus region detection, we propose a novel multifocus image fusion method based on a fully convolutional network (FCN) learned from synthesized multifocus images. The primary novelty of this method is that the pixel-wise focus regions are detected through a learning FCN, and the entire image, not just the image patches, are exploited to train the FCN. First, we synthesize 4500 pairs of multifocus images by repeatedly using a gaussian filter for each image from PASCAL VOC 2012, to train the FCN. After that, a pair of source images is fed into the trained FCN, and two score maps indicating the focus property are generated. Next, an inversed score map is averaged with another score map to produce an aggregative score map, which take full advantage of focus probabilities in two score maps. We implement the fully connected conditional random field (CRF) on the aggregative score map to accomplish and refine a binary decision map for the fusion task. Finally, we exploit the weighted strategy based on the refined decision map to produce the fused image. To demonstrate the performance of the proposed method, we compare its fused results with several start-of-the-art methods not only on a gray data set but also on a color data set. Experimental results show that the proposed method can achieve superior fusion performance in both human visual quality and objective assessment.

SNARE-mediated Fusion of Single Proteoliposomes with Tethered Supported Bilayers in a Microfluidic Flow Cell Monitored by Polarized TIRF Microscopy

PubMed Central

Nikolaus, Joerg; Karatekin, Erdem

2016-01-01

In the ubiquitous process of membrane fusion the opening of a fusion pore establishes the first connection between two formerly separate compartments. During neurotransmitter or hormone release via exocytosis, the fusion pore can transiently open and close repeatedly, regulating cargo release kinetics. Pore dynamics also determine the mode of vesicle recycling; irreversible resealing results in transient, "kiss-and-run" fusion, whereas dilation leads to full fusion. To better understand what factors govern pore dynamics, we developed an assay to monitor membrane fusion using polarized total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy with single molecule sensitivity and ~15 msec time resolution in a biochemically well-defined in vitro system. Fusion of fluorescently labeled small unilamellar vesicles containing v-SNARE proteins (v-SUVs) with a planar bilayer bearing t-SNAREs, supported on a soft polymer cushion (t-SBL, t-supported bilayer), is monitored. The assay uses microfluidic flow channels that ensure minimal sample consumption while supplying a constant density of SUVs. Exploiting the rapid signal enhancement upon transfer of lipid labels from the SUV to the SBL during fusion, kinetics of lipid dye transfer is monitored. The sensitivity of TIRF microscopy allows tracking single fluorescent lipid labels, from which lipid diffusivity and SUV size can be deduced for every fusion event. Lipid dye release times can be much longer than expected for unimpeded passage through permanently open pores. Using a model that assumes retardation of lipid release is due to pore flickering, a pore "openness", the fraction of time the pore remains open during fusion, can be estimated. A soluble marker can be encapsulated in the SUVs for simultaneous monitoring of lipid and soluble cargo release. Such measurements indicate some pores may reseal after losing a fraction of the soluble cargo. PMID:27585113

Novel cooperative neural fusion algorithms for image restoration and image fusion.

PubMed

Xia, Youshen; Kamel, Mohamed S

2007-02-01

To deal with the problem of restoring degraded images with non-Gaussian noise, this paper proposes a novel cooperative neural fusion regularization (CNFR) algorithm for image restoration. Compared with conventional regularization algorithms for image restoration, the proposed CNFR algorithm can relax need of the optimal regularization parameter to be estimated. Furthermore, to enhance the quality of restored images, this paper presents a cooperative neural fusion (CNF) algorithm for image fusion. Compared with existing signal-level image fusion algorithms, the proposed CNF algorithm can greatly reduce the loss of contrast information under blind Gaussian noise environments. The performance analysis shows that the proposed two neural fusion algorithms can converge globally to the robust and optimal image estimate. Simulation results confirm that in different noise environments, the proposed two neural fusion algorithms can obtain a better image estimate than several well known image restoration and image fusion methods.

Soft Pion Processes

DOE R&D Accomplishments Database

Nambu, Y.

1968-01-01

My talk is concerned with a review, not necessarily of the latest theoretical developments, but rather of an old idea which has contributed to recent theoretical activities. By soft pion processes I mean processes in which low energy pions are emitted or absorbed or scattered, just as we use the word soft photon in a similar context. Speaking more quantitatively, we may call a pion soft if its energy is small compared to a natural scale in the reaction. This scale is determined by the particular dynamics of pion interaction, and one may roughly say that a pion is soft if its energy is small compared to the energies of the other individual particles that participate in the reaction. It is important to note at this point that pion is by far the lightest member of all the hadrons, and much of the success of the soft pion formulas depends on this fact.

Necrotizing soft tissue infection

MedlinePlus

Necrotizing fasciitis; Fasciitis - necrotizing; Flesh-eating bacteria; Soft tissue gangrene; Gangrene - soft tissue ... Many different types of bacteria can cause this infection. A very severe and usually deadly form of necrotizing soft tissue infection is due to the ...

Reliability of Measured Data for pH Sensor Arrays with Fault Diagnosis and Data Fusion Based on LabVIEW

PubMed Central

Liao, Yi-Hung; Chou, Jung-Chuan; Lin, Chin-Yi

2013-01-01

Fault diagnosis (FD) and data fusion (DF) technologies implemented in the LabVIEW program were used for a ruthenium dioxide pH sensor array. The purpose of the fault diagnosis and data fusion technologies is to increase the reliability of measured data. Data fusion is a very useful statistical method used for sensor arrays in many fields. Fault diagnosis is used to avoid sensor faults and to measure errors in the electrochemical measurement system, therefore, in this study, we use fault diagnosis to remove any faulty sensors in advance, and then proceed with data fusion in the sensor array. The average, self-adaptive and coefficient of variance data fusion methods are used in this study. The pH electrode is fabricated with ruthenium dioxide (RuO2) sensing membrane using a sputtering system to deposit it onto a silicon substrate, and eight RuO2 pH electrodes are fabricated to form a sensor array for this study. PMID:24351636

Reliability of measured data for pH sensor arrays with fault diagnosis and data fusion based on LabVIEW.

PubMed

Liao, Yi-Hung; Chou, Jung-Chuan; Lin, Chin-Yi

2013-12-13

Fault diagnosis (FD) and data fusion (DF) technologies implemented in the LabVIEW program were used for a ruthenium dioxide pH sensor array. The purpose of the fault diagnosis and data fusion technologies is to increase the reliability of measured data. Data fusion is a very useful statistical method used for sensor arrays in many fields. Fault diagnosis is used to avoid sensor faults and to measure errors in the electrochemical measurement system, therefore, in this study, we use fault diagnosis to remove any faulty sensors in advance, and then proceed with data fusion in the sensor array. The average, self-adaptive and coefficient of variance data fusion methods are used in this study. The pH electrode is fabricated with ruthenium dioxide (RuO2) sensing membrane using a sputtering system to deposit it onto a silicon substrate, and eight RuO2 pH electrodes are fabricated to form a sensor array for this study.

TFE3-Fusion Variant Analysis Defines Specific Clinicopathologic Associations Among Xp11 Translocation Cancers

PubMed Central

Argani, Pedram; Zhong, Minghao; Reuter, Victor E.; Fallon, John T.; Epstein, Jonathan I.; Netto, George J.; Antonescu, Cristina R.

2016-01-01

Xp11 translocation cancers include Xp11 translocation renal cell carcinoma (RCC), Xp11 translocation perivascular epithelioid cell tumor (PEComa), and melanotic Xp11 translocation renal cancer. In Xp11 translocation cancers, oncogenic activation of TFE3 is driven by the fusion of TFE3 with a number of different gene partners, however, the impact of individual fusion variant on specific clinicopathologic features of Xp11 translocation cancers has not been well defined. In this study, we analyze 60 Xp11 translocation cancers by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) using custom BAC probes to establish their TFE3 fusion gene partner. In 5 cases RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) was also used to further characterize the fusion transcripts. The 60 Xp11 translocation cancers included 47 Xp11 translocation RCC, 8 Xp11 translocation PEComas, and 5 melanotic Xp11 translocation renal cancers. A fusion partner was identified in 53/60 (88%) cases, including 18 SFPQ (PSF), 16 PRCC, 12 ASPSCR1 (ASPL), 6 NONO, and 1 DVL2. We provide the first morphologic description of the NONO-TFE3 RCC, which frequently demonstrates sub-nuclear vacuoles leading to distinctive suprabasal nuclear palisading. Similar sub-nuclear vacuolization was also characteristic of SFPQ-TFE3 RCC, creating overlapping features with clear cell papillary RCC. We also describe the first RCC with a DVL2-TFE3 gene fusion, in addition to an extrarenal pigmented PEComa with a NONO-TFE3 gene fusion. Furthermore, among neoplasms with the SFPQ-TFE3, NONO-TFE3, DVL2-TFE3 and ASPL-TFE3 gene fusions, the RCC are almost always PAX8-positive, cathepsin K-negative by immunohistochemistry, whereas the mesenchymal counterparts (Xp11 translocation PEComas, melanotic Xp11 translocation renal cancers, and alveolar soft part sarcoma) are PAX8-negative, cathepsin K-positive. These findings support the concept that despite an identical gene fusion, the RCCs are distinct from the corresponding mesenchymal neoplasms, perhaps due to the

The NASA-Lewis program on fusion energy for space power and propulsion, 1958-1978

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schulze, Norman R.; Roth, J. Reece

1990-01-01

An historical synopsis is provided of the NASA-Lewis research program on fusion energy for space power and propulsion systems. It was initiated to explore the potential applications of fusion energy to space power and propulsion systems. Some fusion related accomplishments and program areas covered include: basic research on the Electric Field Bumpy Torus (EFBT) magnetoelectric fusion containment concept, including identification of its radial transport mechanism and confinement time scaling; operation of the Pilot Rig mirror machine, the first superconducting magnet facility to be used in plasma physics or fusion research; operation of the Superconducting Bumpy Torus magnet facility, first used to generate a toroidal magnetic field; steady state production of neutrons from DD reactions; studies of the direct conversion of plasma enthalpy to thrust by a direct fusion rocket via propellant addition and magnetic nozzles; power and propulsion system studies, including D(3)He power balance, neutron shielding, and refrigeration requirements; and development of large volume, high field superconducting and cryogenic magnet technology.

Biomedical applications of soft robotics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cianchetti, Matteo; Laschi, Cecilia; Menciassi, Arianna; Dario, Paolo

2018-06-01

Soft robotics enables the design of soft machines and devices at different scales. The compliance and mechanical properties of soft robots make them especially interesting for medical applications. Depending on the level of interaction with humans, different levels of biocompatibility and biomimicry are required for soft materials used in robots. In this Review, we investigate soft robots for biomedical applications, including soft tools for surgery, diagnosis and drug delivery, wearable and assistive devices, prostheses, artificial organs and tissue-mimicking active simulators for training and biomechanical studies. We highlight challenges regarding durability and reliability, and examine traditional and novel soft and active materials as well as different actuation strategies. Finally, we discuss future approaches and applications in the field.

SoftLab: A Soft-Computing Software for Experimental Research with Commercialization Aspects

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Akbarzadeh-T, M.-R.; Shaikh, T. S.; Ren, J.; Hubbell, Rob; Kumbla, K. K.; Jamshidi, M

1998-01-01

SoftLab is a software environment for research and development in intelligent modeling/control using soft-computing paradigms such as fuzzy logic, neural networks, genetic algorithms, and genetic programs. SoftLab addresses the inadequacies of the existing soft-computing software by supporting comprehensive multidisciplinary functionalities from management tools to engineering systems. Furthermore, the built-in features help the user process/analyze information more efficiently by a friendly yet powerful interface, and will allow the user to specify user-specific processing modules, hence adding to the standard configuration of the software environment.

Overview of the Fusion Z-Pinch Experiment FuZE

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Weber, T. R.; Shumlak, U.; Nelson, B. A.; Golingo, R. P.; Claveau, E. L.; McLean, H. S.; Tummel, K. K.; Higginson, D. P.; Schmidt, A. E.; UW/LLNL Team

2016-10-01

Previously, the ZaP device, at the University of Washington, demonstrated sheared flow stabilized (SFS) Z-pinch plasmas. Instabilities that have historically plagued Z-pinch plasma confinement were mitigated using sheared flows generated from a coaxial plasma gun of the Marshall type. Based on these results, a new SFS Z-pinch experiment, the Fusion Z-pinch Experiment (FuZE), has been constructed. FuZE is designed to investigate the scaling of SFS Z-pinch plasmas towards fusion conditions. The experiment will be supported by high fidelity physics modeling using kinetic and fluid simulations. Initial plans are in place for a pulsed fusion reactor following the results of FuZE. Notably, the design relies on proven commercial technologies, including a modest discharge current (1.5 MA) and voltage (40 kV), and liquid metal electrodes. Supported by DoE FES, NNSA, and ARPA-E ALPHA.

Collaborative Information Technologies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meyer, William; Casper, Thomas

1999-11-01

Significant effort has been expended to provide infrastructure and to facilitate the remote collaborations within the fusion community and out. Through the Office of Fusion Energy Science Information Technology Initiative, communication technologies utilized by the fusion community are being improved. The initial thrust of the initiative has been collaborative seminars and meetings. Under the initiative 23 sites, both laboratory and university, were provided with hardware required to remotely view, or project, documents being presented. The hardware is capable of delivering documents to a web browser, or to compatible hardware, over ESNET in an access controlled manner. The ability also exists for documents to originate from virtually any of the collaborating sites. In addition, RealNetwork servers are being tested to provide audio and/or video, in a non-interactive environment with MBONE providing two-way interaction where needed. Additional effort is directed at remote distributed computing, file systems, security, and standard data storage and retrieval methods. This work supported by DoE contract No. W-7405-ENG-48

Elemental mercury oxidation in an electrostatic precipitator enhanced with in situ soft X-ray irradiation.

PubMed

Jing, He; Wang, Xiaofei; Wang, Wei-Ning; Biswas, Pratim

2015-04-01

Corona discharge based techniques are promising approaches for oxidizing elemental mercury (Hg0) in flue gas from coal combustion. In this study, in-situ soft X-rays were coupled to a DC (direct current) corona-based electrostatic precipitator (ESP). The soft X-rays significantly enhanced Hg0 oxidation, due to generation of electrons from photoionization of gas molecules and the ESP electrodes. This coupling technique worked better in the positive corona discharge mode because more electrons were in the high energy region near the electrode. Detailed mechanisms of Hg0 oxidation are proposed and discussed based on ozone generation measurements and Hg0 oxidation behavior observations in single gas environments (O2, N2, and CO2). The effect of O2 concentration in flue gas, as well as the effects of particles (SiO2, TiO2, and KI) was also evaluated. In addition, the performance of a soft X-rays coupled ESP in Hg0 oxidations was investigated in a lab-scale coal combustion system. With the ESP voltage at +10 kV, soft X-ray enhancement, and KI addition, mercury oxidation was maximized. Mercury is a significant-impact atmospheric pollutant due to its toxicity. Coal-fired power plants are the primary emission sources of anthropogenic releases of mercury; hence, mercury emission control from coal-fired power plant is important. This study provides an alternative mercury control technology for coal-fired power plants. The proposed electrostatic precipitator with in situ soft X-rays has high efficiency on elemental mercury conversion. Effects of flue gas conditions (gas compositions, particles, etc.) on performance of this technology were also evaluated, which provided guidance on the application of the technology for coal-fired power plant mercury control.

SOFT ROBOTICS. A 3D-printed, functionally graded soft robot powered by combustion.

PubMed

Bartlett, Nicholas W; Tolley, Michael T; Overvelde, Johannes T B; Weaver, James C; Mosadegh, Bobak; Bertoldi, Katia; Whitesides, George M; Wood, Robert J

2015-07-10

Roboticists have begun to design biologically inspired robots with soft or partially soft bodies, which have the potential to be more robust and adaptable, and safer for human interaction, than traditional rigid robots. However, key challenges in the design and manufacture of soft robots include the complex fabrication processes and the interfacing of soft and rigid components. We used multimaterial three-dimensional (3D) printing to manufacture a combustion-powered robot whose body transitions from a rigid core to a soft exterior. This stiffness gradient, spanning three orders of magnitude in modulus, enables reliable interfacing between rigid driving components (controller, battery, etc.) and the primarily soft body, and also enhances performance. Powered by the combustion of butane and oxygen, this robot is able to perform untethered jumping. Copyright © 2015, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

FuzzyFusion: an application architecture for multisource information fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fox, Kevin L.; Henning, Ronda R.

2009-04-01

The correlation of information from disparate sources has long been an issue in data fusion research. Traditional data fusion addresses the correlation of information from sources as diverse as single-purpose sensors to all-source multi-media information. Information system vulnerability information is similar in its diversity of sources and content, and in the desire to draw a meaningful conclusion, namely, the security posture of the system under inspection. FuzzyFusionTM, A data fusion model that is being applied to the computer network operations domain is presented. This model has been successfully prototyped in an applied research environment and represents a next generation assurance tool for system and network security.

Inertial Confinement Fusion Annual Report 1997

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Correll, D

The ICF Annual Report provides documentation of the achievements of the LLNL ICF Program during the fiscal year by the use of two formats: (1) an Overview that is a narrative summary of important results for the fiscal year and (2) a compilation of the articles that previously appeared in the ICF Quarterly Report that year. Both the Overview and Quarterly Report are also on the Web at http://lasers.llnl.gov/lasers/pubs/icfq.html. Beginning in Fiscal Year 1997, the fourth quarter issue of the ICF Quarterly was no longer printed as a separate document but rather included in the ICF Annual. This change providedmore » a more efficient process of documenting our accomplishments with-out unnecessary duplication of printing. In addition we introduced a new document, the ICF Program Monthly Highlights. Starting with the September 1997 issue and each month following, the Monthly Highlights will provide a brief description of noteworthy activities of interest to our DOE sponsors and our stakeholders. The underlying theme for LLNL's ICF Program research continues to be defined within DOE's Defense Programs missions and goals. In support of these missions and goals, the ICF Program advances research and technology development in major interrelated areas that include fusion target theory and design, target fabrication, target experiments, and laser and optical science and technology. While in pursuit of its goal of demonstrating thermonuclear fusion ignition and energy gain in the laboratory, the ICF Program provides research and development opportunities in fundamental high-energy-density physics and supports the necessary research base for the possible long-term application of inertial fusion energy for civilian power production. ICF technologies continue to have spin-off applications for additional government and industrial use. In addition to these topics, the ICF Annual Report covers non-ICF funded, but related, laser research and development and associated applications

Living technology: exploiting life's principles in technology.

PubMed

Bedau, Mark A; McCaskill, John S; Packard, Norman H; Rasmussen, Steen

2010-01-01

The concept of living technology-that is, technology that is based on the powerful core features of life-is explained and illustrated with examples from artificial life software, reconfigurable and evolvable hardware, autonomously self-reproducing robots, chemical protocells, and hybrid electronic-chemical systems. We define primary (secondary) living technology according as key material components and core systems are not (are) derived from living organisms. Primary living technology is currently emerging, distinctive, and potentially powerful, motivating this review. We trace living technology's connections with artificial life (soft, hard, and wet), synthetic biology (top-down and bottom-up), and the convergence of nano-, bio-, information, and cognitive (NBIC) technologies. We end with a brief look at the social and ethical questions generated by the prospect of living technology.

Soft-Bake Purification of SWCNTs Produced by Pulsed Laser Vaporization

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yowell, Leonard; Nikolaev, Pavel; Gorelik, Olga; Allada, Rama Kumar; Sosa, Edward; Arepalli, Sivaram

2013-01-01

The "soft-bake" method is a simple and reliable initial purification step first proposed by researchers at Rice University for single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) produced by high-pressure carbon mon oxide disproportionation (HiPco). Soft-baking consists of annealing as-produced (raw) SWCNT, at low temperatures in humid air, in order to degrade the heavy graphitic shells that surround metal particle impurities. Once these shells are cracked open by the expansion and slow oxidation of the metal particles, the metal impurities can be digested through treatment with hydrochloric acid. The soft-baking of SWCNT produced by pulsed-laser vaporization (PLV) is not straightforward, because the larger average SWCNT diameters (.1.4 nm) and heavier graphitic shells surrounding metal particles call for increased temperatures during soft-bake. A part of the technology development focused on optimizing the temperature so that effective cracking of the graphitic shells is balanced with maintaining a reasonable yield, which was a critical aspect of this study. Once the ideal temperature was determined, a number of samples of raw SWCNT were purified using the soft-bake method. An important benefit to this process is the reduced time and effort required for soft-bake versus the standard purification route for SWCNT. The total time spent purifying samples by soft-bake is one week per batch, which equates to a factor of three reduction in the time required for purification as compared to the standard acid purification method. Reduction of the number of steps also appears to be an important factor in improving reproducibility of yield and purity of SWCNT, as small deviations are likely to get amplified over the course of a complicated multi-step purification process.

Fusion reactions initiated by laser-accelerated particle beams in a laser-produced plasma.

PubMed

Labaune, C; Baccou, C; Depierreux, S; Goyon, C; Loisel, G; Yahia, V; Rafelski, J

2013-01-01

The advent of high-intensity-pulsed laser technology enables the generation of extreme states of matter under conditions that are far from thermal equilibrium. This in turn could enable different approaches to generating energy from nuclear fusion. Relaxing the equilibrium requirement could widen the range of isotopes used in fusion fuels permitting cleaner and less hazardous reactions that do not produce high-energy neutrons. Here we propose and implement a means to drive fusion reactions between protons and boron-11 nuclei by colliding a laser-accelerated proton beam with a laser-generated boron plasma. We report proton-boron reaction rates that are orders of magnitude higher than those reported previously. Beyond fusion, our approach demonstrates a new means for exploring low-energy nuclear reactions such as those that occur in astrophysical plasmas and related environments.

Subleading soft theorem for multiple soft gravitons

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chakrabarti, Subhroneel; Kashyap, Sitender Pratap; Sahoo, Biswajit; Sen, Ashoke; Verma, Mritunjay

2017-12-01

We derive the subleading soft graviton theorem in a generic quantum theory of gravity for arbitrary number of soft external gravitons and arbitrary number of finite energy external states carrying arbitrary mass and spin. Our results are valid to all orders in perturbation theory when the number of non-compact space-time dimensions is six or more, but only for tree amplitudes for five or less non-compact space-time dimensions due to enhanced contribution to loop amplitudes from the infrared region.

Hendra virus fusion protein transmembrane domain contributes to pre-fusion protein stability

PubMed Central

Webb, Stacy; Nagy, Tamas; Moseley, Hunter; Fried, Michael; Dutch, Rebecca

2017-01-01

Enveloped viruses utilize fusion (F) proteins studding the surface of the virus to facilitate membrane fusion with a target cell membrane. Fusion of the viral envelope with a cellular membrane is required for release of viral genomic material, so the virus can ultimately reproduce and spread. To drive fusion, the F protein undergoes an irreversible conformational change, transitioning from a metastable pre-fusion conformation to a more thermodynamically stable post-fusion structure. Understanding the elements that control stability of the pre-fusion state and triggering to the post-fusion conformation is important for understanding F protein function. Mutations in F protein transmembrane (TM) domains implicated the TM domain in the fusion process, but the structural and molecular details in fusion remain unclear. Previously, analytical ultracentrifugation was utilized to demonstrate that isolated TM domains of Hendra virus F protein associate in a monomer-trimer equilibrium (Smith, E. C., Smith, S. E., Carter, J. R., Webb, S. R., Gibson, K. M., Hellman, L. M., Fried, M. G., and Dutch, R. E. (2013) J. Biol. Chem. 288, 35726–35735). To determine factors driving this association, 140 paramyxovirus F protein TM domain sequences were analyzed. A heptad repeat of β-branched residues was found, and analysis of the Hendra virus F TM domain revealed a heptad repeat leucine-isoleucine zipper motif (LIZ). Replacement of the LIZ with alanine resulted in dramatically reduced TM-TM association. Mutation of the LIZ in the whole protein resulted in decreased protein stability, including pre-fusion conformation stability. Together, our data suggest that the heptad repeat LIZ contributed to TM-TM association and is important for F protein function and pre-fusion stability. PMID:28213515

Multigait soft robot

PubMed Central

Shepherd, Robert F.; Ilievski, Filip; Choi, Wonjae; Morin, Stephen A.; Stokes, Adam A.; Mazzeo, Aaron D.; Chen, Xin; Wang, Michael; Whitesides, George M.

2011-01-01

This manuscript describes a unique class of locomotive robot: A soft robot, composed exclusively of soft materials (elastomeric polymers), which is inspired by animals (e.g., squid, starfish, worms) that do not have hard internal skeletons. Soft lithography was used to fabricate a pneumatically actuated robot capable of sophisticated locomotion (e.g., fluid movement of limbs and multiple gaits). This robot is quadrupedal; it uses no sensors, only five actuators, and a simple pneumatic valving system that operates at low pressures (< 10 psi). A combination of crawling and undulation gaits allowed this robot to navigate a difficult obstacle. This demonstration illustrates an advantage of soft robotics: They are systems in which simple types of actuation produce complex motion. PMID:22123978

Atlantoaxial Fusion Using C1 Sublaminar Cables and C2 Translaminar Screws.

PubMed

Larsen, Alexandra M Giantini; Grannan, Benjamin L; Koffie, Robert M; Coumans, Jean-Valéry

2018-06-01

Atlantoaxial instability, which can arise in the setting of trauma, degenerative diseases, and neoplasm, is often managed surgically with C1-C2 arthrodesis. Classical C1-C2 fusion techniques require placement of instrumentation in close proximity to the vertebral artery and C2 nerve root. To report a novel C1-C2 fusion technique that utilizes C2 translaminar screws and C1 sublaminar cables to decrease the risk of injury to the vertebral artery and C2 nerve root. To facilitate fixation to the atlas, while minimizing the risk of injury to the vertebral artery and to the C2 nerve root, we sought to determine the feasibility of using a soft cable around the C1 arch and affixing it to a rod connected to C2 laminar screws. We reviewed our experience in 3 patients. We used this technique in patients in whom we anticipated difficult C1 screw placement. Three patients were identified through a review of the senior author's cases. Atlantoaxial instability was associated with trauma in 2 patients and chronic degenerative changes in 1 patient. Common symptoms on presentation included pain and limited range of motion. All patients underwent C1-C2 fusion with C2 translaminar screws with sublaminar cable harnessing of the posterior arch of C1. There were no reports of postoperative complications or hardware failure. We demonstrate a novel, technically straightforward approach for C1-C2 fusion that minimizes risk to the vertebral artery and to the C2 nerve root, while still allowing for semirigid fixation in instances of both traumatic and chronic degenerative atlantoaxial instability.

Characterization of fusion genes and the significantly expressed fusion isoforms in breast cancer by hybrid sequencing

PubMed Central

Weirather, Jason L.; Afshar, Pegah Tootoonchi; Clark, Tyson A.; Tseng, Elizabeth; Powers, Linda S.; Underwood, Jason G.; Zabner, Joseph; Korlach, Jonas; Wong, Wing Hung; Au, Kin Fai

2015-01-01

We developed an innovative hybrid sequencing approach, IDP-fusion, to detect fusion genes, determine fusion sites and identify and quantify fusion isoforms. IDP-fusion is the first method to study gene fusion events by integrating Third Generation Sequencing long reads and Second Generation Sequencing short reads. We applied IDP-fusion to PacBio data and Illumina data from the MCF-7 breast cancer cells. Compared with the existing tools, IDP-fusion detects fusion genes at higher precision and a very low false positive rate. The results show that IDP-fusion will be useful for unraveling the complexity of multiple fusion splices and fusion isoforms within tumorigenesis-relevant fusion genes. PMID:26040699

Integrated process modeling for the laser inertial fusion energy (LIFE) generation system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meier, W. R.; Anklam, T. M.; Erlandson, A. C.; Miles, R. R.; Simon, A. J.; Sawicki, R.; Storm, E.

2010-08-01

A concept for a new fusion-fission hybrid technology is being developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The primary application of this technology is base-load electrical power generation. However, variants of the baseline technology can be used to "burn" spent nuclear fuel from light water reactors or to perform selective transmutation of problematic fission products. The use of a fusion driver allows very high burn-up of the fission fuel, limited only by the radiation resistance of the fuel form and system structures. As a part of this process, integrated process models have been developed to aid in concept definition. Several models have been developed. A cost scaling model allows quick assessment of design changes or technology improvements on cost of electricity. System design models are being used to better understand system interactions and to do design trade-off and optimization studies. Here we describe the different systems models and present systems analysis results. Different market entry strategies are discussed along with potential benefits to US energy security and nuclear waste disposal. Advanced technology options are evaluated and potential benefits from additional R&D targeted at the different options is quantified.

The study on facial soft tissue thickness using Han population in Xinjiang.

PubMed

Wang, Jierui; Zhao, Xi; Mi, Congbo; Raza, Iqbal

2016-09-01

Facial profile is an important aspect in physical anthropology, forensic science, and cosmetic research. Thus, facial soft tissue measurement technology plays a significant role in facial restoration. A considerable amount of work has investigated facial soft tissue thickness, which significantly varies according to gender, age, and race. However, only few studies have considered the nutritional status of the investigated individuals. Moreover, no sufficient research among Chinese ethnic groups, particularly Xinjiang population in China, is currently available. Hence, the current study investigated the adaptability of facial soft tissue to the underlying hard tissue among young adults of Han population in Xinjiang, China; the analysis was performed on the basis of gender, skeletal class, and body mass index (BMI). Measurements were obtained from the lateral cephalometric radiographs of 256 adults aged 18-26 years old. Differences in soft tissue thickness were observed between genders and among skeletal classes. With regard to gender, significant differences in soft tissue thickness were found at rhinion, glabella, subnasale, stomion, labrale superius, pogonion, and gnathion among different BMI groups. Thus, nutritional status should be considered when reconstructing an individual's facial profile. Results showed that the thinnest and thickest craniofacial soft tissues existed in rhinion and lip regions, respectively. Overall, this research provides valuable data for forensic facial reconstruction and identification of young adults in Xinjiang, China. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Use of the Nanofitin Alternative Scaffold as a GFP-Ready Fusion Tag

PubMed Central

Huet, Simon; Gorre, Harmony; Perrocheau, Anaëlle; Picot, Justine; Cinier, Mathieu

2015-01-01

With the continuous diversification of recombinant DNA technologies, the possibilities for new tailor-made protein engineering have extended on an on-going basis. Among these strategies, the use of the green fluorescent protein (GFP) as a fusion domain has been widely adopted for cellular imaging and protein localization. Following the lead of the direct head-to-tail fusion of GFP, we proposed to provide additional features to recombinant proteins by genetic fusion of artificially derived binders. Thus, we reported a GFP-ready fusion tag consisting of a small and robust fusion-friendly anti-GFP Nanofitin binding domain as a proof-of-concept. While limiting steric effects on the carrier, the GFP-ready tag allows the capture of GFP or its blue (BFP), cyan (CFP) and yellow (YFP) alternatives. Here, we described the generation of the GFP-ready tag from the selection of a Nanofitin variant binding to the GFP and its spectral variants with a nanomolar affinity, while displaying a remarkable folding stability, as demonstrated by its full resistance upon thermal sterilization process or the full chemical synthesis of Nanofitins. To illustrate the potential of the Nanofitin-based tag as a fusion partner, we compared the expression level in Escherichia coli and activity profile of recombinant human tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) constructs, fused to a SUMO or GFP-ready tag. Very similar expression levels were found with the two fusion technologies. Both domains of the GFP-ready tagged TNFα were proved fully active in ELISA and interferometry binding assays, allowing the simultaneous capture by an anti-TNFα antibody and binding to the GFP, and its spectral mutants. The GFP-ready tag was also shown inert in a L929 cell based assay, demonstrating the potent TNFα mediated apoptosis induction by the GFP-ready tagged TNFα. Eventually, we proposed the GFP-ready tag as a versatile capture and labeling system in addition to expected applications of anti-GFP Nanofitins (as

Use of the Nanofitin Alternative Scaffold as a GFP-Ready Fusion Tag.

PubMed

Huet, Simon; Gorre, Harmony; Perrocheau, Anaëlle; Picot, Justine; Cinier, Mathieu

2015-01-01

With the continuous diversification of recombinant DNA technologies, the possibilities for new tailor-made protein engineering have extended on an on-going basis. Among these strategies, the use of the green fluorescent protein (GFP) as a fusion domain has been widely adopted for cellular imaging and protein localization. Following the lead of the direct head-to-tail fusion of GFP, we proposed to provide additional features to recombinant proteins by genetic fusion of artificially derived binders. Thus, we reported a GFP-ready fusion tag consisting of a small and robust fusion-friendly anti-GFP Nanofitin binding domain as a proof-of-concept. While limiting steric effects on the carrier, the GFP-ready tag allows the capture of GFP or its blue (BFP), cyan (CFP) and yellow (YFP) alternatives. Here, we described the generation of the GFP-ready tag from the selection of a Nanofitin variant binding to the GFP and its spectral variants with a nanomolar affinity, while displaying a remarkable folding stability, as demonstrated by its full resistance upon thermal sterilization process or the full chemical synthesis of Nanofitins. To illustrate the potential of the Nanofitin-based tag as a fusion partner, we compared the expression level in Escherichia coli and activity profile of recombinant human tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) constructs, fused to a SUMO or GFP-ready tag. Very similar expression levels were found with the two fusion technologies. Both domains of the GFP-ready tagged TNFα were proved fully active in ELISA and interferometry binding assays, allowing the simultaneous capture by an anti-TNFα antibody and binding to the GFP, and its spectral mutants. The GFP-ready tag was also shown inert in a L929 cell based assay, demonstrating the potent TNFα mediated apoptosis induction by the GFP-ready tagged TNFα. Eventually, we proposed the GFP-ready tag as a versatile capture and labeling system in addition to expected applications of anti-GFP Nanofitins (as

Muon Catalyzed Fusion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Armour, Edward A.G.

2007-01-01

Muon catalyzed fusion is a process in which a negatively charged muon combines with two nuclei of isotopes of hydrogen, e.g, a proton and a deuteron or a deuteron and a triton, to form a muonic molecular ion in which the binding is so tight that nuclear fusion occurs. The muon is normally released after fusion has taken place and so can catalyze further fusions. As the muon has a mean lifetime of 2.2 microseconds, this is the maximum period over which a muon can participate in this process. This article gives an outline of the history of muon catalyzed fusion from 1947, when it was first realised that such a process might occur, to the present day. It includes a description of the contribution that Drachrnan has made to the theory of muon catalyzed fusion and the influence this has had on the author's research.

Multiscale infrared and visible image fusion using gradient domain guided image filtering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhu, Jin; Jin, Weiqi; Li, Li; Han, Zhenghao; Wang, Xia

2018-03-01

For better surveillance with infrared and visible imaging, a novel hybrid multiscale decomposition fusion method using gradient domain guided image filtering (HMSD-GDGF) is proposed in this study. In this method, hybrid multiscale decomposition with guided image filtering and gradient domain guided image filtering of source images are first applied before the weight maps of each scale are obtained using a saliency detection technology and filtering means with three different fusion rules at different scales. The three types of fusion rules are for small-scale detail level, large-scale detail level, and base level. Finally, the target becomes more salient and can be more easily detected in the fusion result, with the detail information of the scene being fully displayed. After analyzing the experimental comparisons with state-of-the-art fusion methods, the HMSD-GDGF method has obvious advantages in fidelity of salient information (including structural similarity, brightness, and contrast), preservation of edge features, and human visual perception. Therefore, visual effects can be improved by using the proposed HMSD-GDGF method.

Hendra virus fusion protein transmembrane domain contributes to pre-fusion protein stability.

PubMed

Webb, Stacy; Nagy, Tamas; Moseley, Hunter; Fried, Michael; Dutch, Rebecca

2017-04-07

Enveloped viruses utilize fusion (F) proteins studding the surface of the virus to facilitate membrane fusion with a target cell membrane. Fusion of the viral envelope with a cellular membrane is required for release of viral genomic material, so the virus can ultimately reproduce and spread. To drive fusion, the F protein undergoes an irreversible conformational change, transitioning from a metastable pre-fusion conformation to a more thermodynamically stable post-fusion structure. Understanding the elements that control stability of the pre-fusion state and triggering to the post-fusion conformation is important for understanding F protein function. Mutations in F protein transmembrane (TM) domains implicated the TM domain in the fusion process, but the structural and molecular details in fusion remain unclear. Previously, analytical ultracentrifugation was utilized to demonstrate that isolated TM domains of Hendra virus F protein associate in a monomer-trimer equilibrium (Smith, E. C., Smith, S. E., Carter, J. R., Webb, S. R., Gibson, K. M., Hellman, L. M., Fried, M. G., and Dutch, R. E. (2013) J. Biol. Chem. 288, 35726-35735). To determine factors driving this association, 140 paramyxovirus F protein TM domain sequences were analyzed. A heptad repeat of β-branched residues was found, and analysis of the Hendra virus F TM domain revealed a heptad repeat leucine-isoleucine zipper motif (LIZ). Replacement of the LIZ with alanine resulted in dramatically reduced TM-TM association. Mutation of the LIZ in the whole protein resulted in decreased protein stability, including pre-fusion conformation stability. Together, our data suggest that the heptad repeat LIZ contributed to TM-TM association and is important for F protein function and pre-fusion stability. © 2017 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

FusionAnalyser: a new graphical, event-driven tool for fusion rearrangements discovery

PubMed Central

Piazza, Rocco; Pirola, Alessandra; Spinelli, Roberta; Valletta, Simona; Redaelli, Sara; Magistroni, Vera; Gambacorti-Passerini, Carlo

2012-01-01

Gene fusions are common driver events in leukaemias and solid tumours; here we present FusionAnalyser, a tool dedicated to the identification of driver fusion rearrangements in human cancer through the analysis of paired-end high-throughput transcriptome sequencing data. We initially tested FusionAnalyser by using a set of in silico randomly generated sequencing data from 20 known human translocations occurring in cancer and subsequently using transcriptome data from three chronic and three acute myeloid leukaemia samples. in all the cases our tool was invariably able to detect the presence of the correct driver fusion event(s) with high specificity. In one of the acute myeloid leukaemia samples, FusionAnalyser identified a novel, cryptic, in-frame ETS2–ERG fusion. A fully event-driven graphical interface and a flexible filtering system allow complex analyses to be run in the absence of any a priori programming or scripting knowledge. Therefore, we propose FusionAnalyser as an efficient and robust graphical tool for the identification of functional rearrangements in the context of high-throughput transcriptome sequencing data. PMID:22570408

FusionAnalyser: a new graphical, event-driven tool for fusion rearrangements discovery.

PubMed

Piazza, Rocco; Pirola, Alessandra; Spinelli, Roberta; Valletta, Simona; Redaelli, Sara; Magistroni, Vera; Gambacorti-Passerini, Carlo

2012-09-01

Gene fusions are common driver events in leukaemias and solid tumours; here we present FusionAnalyser, a tool dedicated to the identification of driver fusion rearrangements in human cancer through the analysis of paired-end high-throughput transcriptome sequencing data. We initially tested FusionAnalyser by using a set of in silico randomly generated sequencing data from 20 known human translocations occurring in cancer and subsequently using transcriptome data from three chronic and three acute myeloid leukaemia samples. in all the cases our tool was invariably able to detect the presence of the correct driver fusion event(s) with high specificity. In one of the acute myeloid leukaemia samples, FusionAnalyser identified a novel, cryptic, in-frame ETS2-ERG fusion. A fully event-driven graphical interface and a flexible filtering system allow complex analyses to be run in the absence of any a priori programming or scripting knowledge. Therefore, we propose FusionAnalyser as an efficient and robust graphical tool for the identification of functional rearrangements in the context of high-throughput transcriptome sequencing data.

Cell-cycle dependent expression of a translocation-mediated fusion oncogene mediates checkpoint adaptation in rhabdomyosarcoma.

PubMed

Kikuchi, Ken; Hettmer, Simone; Aslam, M Imran; Michalek, Joel E; Laub, Wolfram; Wilky, Breelyn A; Loeb, David M; Rubin, Brian P; Wagers, Amy J; Keller, Charles

2014-01-01

Rhabdomyosarcoma is the most commonly occurring soft-tissue sarcoma in childhood. Most rhabdomyosarcoma falls into one of two biologically distinct subgroups represented by alveolar or embryonal histology. The alveolar subtype harbors a translocation-mediated PAX3:FOXO1A fusion gene and has an extremely poor prognosis. However, tumor cells have heterogeneous expression for the fusion gene. Using a conditional genetic mouse model as well as human tumor cell lines, we show that that Pax3:Foxo1a expression is enriched in G2 and triggers a transcriptional program conducive to checkpoint adaptation under stress conditions such as irradiation in vitro and in vivo. Pax3:Foxo1a also tolerizes tumor cells to clinically-established chemotherapy agents and emerging molecularly-targeted agents. Thus, the surprisingly dynamic regulation of the Pax3:Foxo1a locus is a paradigm that has important implications for the way in which oncogenes are modeled in cancer cells.

Characterization of fusion genes and the significantly expressed fusion isoforms in breast cancer by hybrid sequencing.

PubMed

Weirather, Jason L; Afshar, Pegah Tootoonchi; Clark, Tyson A; Tseng, Elizabeth; Powers, Linda S; Underwood, Jason G; Zabner, Joseph; Korlach, Jonas; Wong, Wing Hung; Au, Kin Fai

2015-10-15

We developed an innovative hybrid sequencing approach, IDP-fusion, to detect fusion genes, determine fusion sites and identify and quantify fusion isoforms. IDP-fusion is the first method to study gene fusion events by integrating Third Generation Sequencing long reads and Second Generation Sequencing short reads. We applied IDP-fusion to PacBio data and Illumina data from the MCF-7 breast cancer cells. Compared with the existing tools, IDP-fusion detects fusion genes at higher precision and a very low false positive rate. The results show that IDP-fusion will be useful for unraveling the complexity of multiple fusion splices and fusion isoforms within tumorigenesis-relevant fusion genes. © The Author(s) 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.

Fusion of Synthetic and Enhanced Vision for All-Weather Commercial Aviation Operations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bailey, Randall E.; Kramer, Lynda J.; Prinzel, Lawrence, III

2007-01-01

NASA is developing revolutionary crew-vehicle interface technologies that strive to proactively overcome aircraft safety barriers that would otherwise constrain the full realization of the next-generation air transportation system. A piloted simulation experiment was conducted to evaluate the complementary use of Synthetic and Enhanced Vision technologies. Specific focus was placed on new techniques for integration and/or fusion of Enhanced and Synthetic Vision and its impact within a two-crew flight deck during low visibility approach and landing operations. Overall, the experimental data showed that significant improvements in situation awareness, without concomitant increases in workload and display clutter, could be provided by the integration and/or fusion of synthetic and enhanced vision technologies for the pilot-flying and the pilot-not-flying. During non-normal operations, the ability of the crew to handle substantial navigational errors and runway incursions were not adversely impacted by the display concepts although the addition of Enhanced Vision did not, unto itself, provide an improvement in runway incursion detection.

Identification of a novel FN1-FGFR1 genetic fusion as a frequent event in phosphaturic mesenchymal tumour.

PubMed

Lee, Jen-Chieh; Jeng, Yung-Ming; Su, Sheng-Yao; Wu, Chen-Tu; Tsai, Keh-Sung; Lee, Cheng-Han; Lin, Chung-Yen; Carter, Jodi M; Huang, Jenq-Wen; Chen, Shu-Hwa; Shih, Shyang-Rong; Mariño-Enríquez, Adrián; Chen, Chih-Chi; Folpe, Andrew L; Chang, Yih-Leong; Liang, Cher-Wei

2015-03-01

Phosphaturic mesenchymal tumours (PMTs) are uncommon soft tissue and bone tumours that typically cause hypophosphataemia and tumour-induced osteomalacia (TIO) through secretion of phosphatonins including fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF23). PMT has recently been accepted by the World Health Organization as a formal tumour entity. The genetic basis and oncogenic pathways underlying its tumourigenesis remain obscure. In this study, we identified a novel FN1-FGFR1 fusion gene in three out of four PMTs by next-generation RNA sequencing. The fusion transcripts and proteins were subsequently confirmed with RT-PCR and western blotting. Fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis showed six cases with FN1-FGFR1 fusion out of an additional 11 PMTs. Overall, nine out of 15 PMTs (60%) harboured this fusion. The FN1 gene possibly provides its constitutively active promoter and the encoded protein's oligomerization domains to overexpress and facilitate the activation of the FGFR1 kinase domain. Interestingly, unlike the prototypical leukaemia-inducing FGFR1 fusion genes, which are ligand-independent, the FN1-FGFR1 chimeric protein was predicted to preserve its ligand-binding domains, suggesting an advantage of the presence of its ligands (such as FGF23 secreted at high levels by the tumour) in the activation of the chimeric receptor tyrosine kinase, thus effecting an autocrine or a paracrine mechanism of tumourigenesis. Copyright © 2014 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Fusion for Space Propulsion and Plasma Liner Driven MTF

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thio, Y.C. Francis; Rodgers, Stephen L. (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

in the light of significant development of the enabling pulsed power component technologies that have occurred in the last two decades because of defense and other energy requirements. The extreme states of matter required to produce fusion reactions may be more readily realizable in the pulsed states with less system mass than in steady states. Significant saving in system mass may result in pulsed fusion systems using plasmas in the appropriate density regimes. Magnetized target fusion, which attempts to combine the favorable attributes of magnetic confinement and inertial compression-containment into one single integrated fusion scheme, appears to have benefits that are worth exploring for propulsion application.

The State of Simulations: Soft-Skill Simulations Emerge as a Powerful New Form of E-Learning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aldrich, Clark

2001-01-01

Presents responses of leaders from six simulation companies about challenges and opportunities of soft-skills simulations in e-learning. Discussion includes: evaluation metrics; role of subject matter experts in developing simulations; video versus computer graphics; technology needed to run simulations; technology breakthroughs; pricing;…

Children’s Oncology Group’s 2013 Blueprint for Research: Soft Tissue Sarcomas

PubMed Central

Hawkins, Douglas S.; Spunt, Sheri L.; Skapek, Stephen X.

2013-01-01

In the US, approximately 850-900 children are diagnosed each year with soft tissue sarcomas (STS). Key findings from recent clinical trials include safe reduction in therapy for low risk rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), validation of FOXO1 fusion as a prognostic factor, a modest improvement in outcome for high-risk RMS, and a biologically-designed non-cytotoxic therapy for pediatric desmoid tumor. Planned Phase 2 trials include targeted agents for VEGF/PDGF, mTOR, and IGF-1R for children with RMS and VEGF for children with non-RMS STS (NRSTS). For RMS, COG Phase 3 trials potentially will explore VEGF/mTOR inhibition or chemotherapy interval compression. For NRSTS, a COG Phase 3 trial will explore VEGF inhibition. PMID:23255356

Measuring time of flight of fusion products in an inertial electrostatic confinement fusion device for spatial profiling of fusion reactions

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Donovan, D. C.; Boris, D. R.; Kulcinski, G. L.

2013-03-15

A new diagnostic has been developed that uses the time of flight (TOF) of the products from a nuclear fusion reaction to determine the location where the fusion reaction occurred. The TOF diagnostic uses charged particle detectors on opposing sides of the inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) device that are coupled to high resolution timing electronics to measure the spatial profile of fusion reactions occurring between the two charged particle detectors. This diagnostic was constructed and tested by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Fusion Group in the IEC device, HOMER, which accelerates deuterium ions to fusion relevant energies inmore » a high voltage ({approx}100 kV), spherically symmetric, electrostatic potential well [J. F. Santarius, G. L. Kulcinski, R. P. Ashley, D. R. Boris, B. B. Cipiti, S. K. Murali, G. R. Piefer, R. F. Radel, T. E. Radel, and A. L. Wehmeyer, Fusion Sci. Technol. 47, 1238 (2005)]. The TOF diagnostic detects the products of D(d,p)T reactions and determines where along a chord through the device the fusion event occurred. The diagnostic is also capable of using charged particle spectroscopy to determine the Doppler shift imparted to the fusion products by the center of mass energy of the fusion reactants. The TOF diagnostic is thus able to collect spatial profiles of the fusion reaction density along a chord through the device, coupled with the center of mass energy of the reactions occurring at each location. This provides levels of diagnostic detail never before achieved on an IEC device.« less

A new method of Quickbird own image fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Han, Ying; Jiang, Hong; Zhang, Xiuying

2009-10-01

With the rapid development of remote sensing technology, the means of accessing to remote sensing data become increasingly abundant, thus the same area can form a large number of multi-temporal, different resolution image sequence. At present, the fusion methods are mainly: HPF, IHS transform method, PCA method, Brovey, Mallat algorithm and wavelet transform and so on. There exists a serious distortion of the spectrums in the IHS transform, Mallat algorithm omits low-frequency information of the high spatial resolution images, the integration results of which has obvious blocking effects. Wavelet multi-scale decomposition for different sizes, the directions, details and the edges can have achieved very good results, but different fusion rules and algorithms can achieve different effects. This article takes the Quickbird own image fusion as an example, basing on wavelet transform and HVS, wavelet transform and IHS integration. The result shows that the former better. This paper introduces the correlation coefficient, the relative average spectral error index and usual index to evaluate the quality of image.

Triboelectric-Nanogenerator-Based Soft Energy-Harvesting Skin Enabled by Toughly Bonded Elastomer/Hydrogel Hybrids.

PubMed

Liu, Ting; Liu, Mengmeng; Dou, Su; Sun, Jiangman; Cong, Zifeng; Jiang, Chunyan; Du, Chunhua; Pu, Xiong; Hu, Weiguo; Wang, Zhong Lin

2018-03-27

A major challenge accompanying the booming next-generation soft electronics is providing correspondingly soft and sustainable power sources for driving such devices. Here, we report stretchable triboelectric nanogenerators (TENG) with dual working modes based on the soft hydrogel-elastomer hybrid as energy skins for harvesting biomechanical energies. The tough interfacial bonding between the hydrophilic hydrogel and hydrophobic elastomer, achieved by the interface modification, ensures the stable mechanical and electrical performances of the TENGs. Furthermore, the dehydration of this toughly bonded hydrogel-elastomer hybrid is significantly inhibited (the average dehydration decreases by over 73%). With PDMS as the electrification layer and hydrogel as the electrode, a stretchable, transparent (90% transmittance), and ultrathin (380 μm) single-electrode TENG was fabricated to conformally attach on human skin and deform as the body moves. The two-electrode mode TENG is capable of harvesting energy from arbitrary human motions (press, stretch, bend, and twist) to drive the self-powered electronics. This work provides a feasible technology to design soft power sources, which could potentially solve the energy issues of soft electronics.

Novel on-demand bioadhesion to soft tissue in wet environments.

PubMed

Mogal, Vishal; Papper, Vladislav; Chaurasia, Alok; Feng, Gao; Marks, Robert; Steele, Terry

2014-04-01

Current methods of tissue fixation rely on mechanical-related technologies developed from the clothing and carpentry industries. Herein, a novel bioadhesive method that allows tuneable adhesion and is also applicable to biodegradable polyester substrates is described. Diazirine is the key functional group that allows strong soft tissue crosslinking and on-demand adhesion based on a free radical mechanism. Plasma post-irradiation grafting makes it possible to graft diazirine onto PLGA substrates. When the diazirine-PLGA films, placed on wetted ex vivo swine aortas, are activated with low intensity UV light, lap shear strength of up to 450 ± 50 mN cm(-2) is observed, which is one order of magnitude higher than hydrogel bioadhesives placed on similar soft tissues. The diazirine-modified PLGA thin films could be added on top of previously developed technologies for minimally invasive surgeries. The present work is focused on the chemistry, grafting, and lap shear strength of the alkyl diazirine-modified PLGA bioadhesive films. © 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Spinal Fusion

MedlinePlus

... concept of fusion is similar to that of welding in industry. Spinal fusion surgery, however, does not ... bone taken from the patient has a long history of use and results in predictable healing. Autograft ...

Social Media Integration into State-Operated Fusion Centers and Local Law Enforcement: Potential Uses and Challenges

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-12-01

NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA THESIS Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited SOCIAL MEDIA...DATE December 2010 3. REPORT TYPE AND DATES COVERED Master’s Thesis 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Social Media Integration into State-Operated Fusion...technologies, particularly social media, within fusion centers and local law enforcement entities could enable a more expedient exchange of information among

Review of fusion synfuels

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Fillo, J.A.

1980-01-01

Thermonuclear fusion offers an inexhaustible source of energy for the production of hydrogen from water. Depending on design, electric generation efficiencies of approx. 40 to 60% and hydrogen production efficiencies by high-temperature electrolysis of approx. 50 to 65% are projected for fusion reactors using high-temperatures blankets. Fusion/coal symbiotic systems appear economically promising for the first generation of commercial fusion synfuels plants. Coal production requirements and the environmental effects of large-scale coal usage would be greatly reduced by a fusion/coal system. In the long term, there could be a gradual transition to an inexhaustible energy system based solely on fusion.

Overview of the US Fusion Materials Sciences Program

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zinkle, Steven

2004-11-01

The challenging fusion reactor environment (radiation, heat flux, chemical compatibility, thermo-mechanical stresses) requires utilization of advanced materials to fulfill the promise of fusion to provide safe, economical, and environmentally acceptable energy. This presentation reviews recent experimental and modeling highlights on structural materials for fusion energy. The materials requirements for fusion will be compared with other demanding technologies, including high temperature turbine components, proposed Generation IV fission reactors, and the current NASA space fission reactor project to explore the icy moons of Jupiter. A series of high-performance structural materials have been developed by fusion scientists over the past ten years with significantly improved properties compared to earlier materials. Recent advances in the development of high-performance ferritic/martensitic and bainitic steels, nanocomposited oxide dispersion strengthened ferritic steels, high-strength V alloys, improved-ductility Mo alloys, and radiation-resistant SiC composites will be reviewed. Multiscale modeling is providing important insight on radiation damage and plastic deformation mechanisms and fracture mechanics behavior. Electron microscope in-situ straining experiments are uncovering fundamental physical processes controlling deformation in irradiated metals. Fundamental modeling and experimental studies are determining the behavior of transmutant helium in metals, enabling design of materials with improved resistance to void swelling and helium embrittlement. Recent chemical compatibility tests have identified promising new candidates for magnetohydrodynamic insulators in lithium-cooled systems, and have established the basic compatibility of SiC with Pb-Li up to high temperature. Research on advanced joining techniques such as friction stir welding will be described. ITER materials research will be briefly summarized.

Computational Modeling for Enhancing Soft Tissue Image Guided Surgery: An Application in Neurosurgery.

PubMed

Miga, Michael I

2016-01-01

With the recent advances in computing, the opportunities to translate computational models to more integrated roles in patient treatment are expanding at an exciting rate. One area of considerable development has been directed towards correcting soft tissue deformation within image guided neurosurgery applications. This review captures the efforts that have been undertaken towards enhancing neuronavigation by the integration of soft tissue biomechanical models, imaging and sensing technologies, and algorithmic developments. In addition, the review speaks to the evolving role of modeling frameworks within surgery and concludes with some future directions beyond neurosurgical applications.

Conference Report on the 3rd International Symposium on Lithium Application for Fusion Devices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mazzitelli, G.; Hirooka, Y.; Hu, J. S.; Mirnov, S. V.; Nygren, R.; Shimada, M.; Ono, M.; Tabares, F. L.

2015-02-01

The third International Symposium on Lithium Application for Fusion Device (ISLA-2013) was held on 9-11 October 2013 at ENEA Frascati Centre with growing participation and interest from the community working on more general aspect of liquid metal research for fusion energy development. ISLA-2013 has been confirmed to be the largest and the most important meeting dedicated to liquid metal application for the magnetic fusion research. Overall, 45 presentation plus 5 posters were given, representing 28 institutions from 11 countries. The latest experimental results from nine magnetic fusion devices were presented in 16 presentations from NSTX (PPPL, USA), FTU (ENEA, Italy), T-11M (Trinity, RF), T-10 (Kurchatov Institute, RF), TJ-II (CIEMAT, Spain), EAST(ASIPP, China), HT-7 (ASIPP, China), RFX (Padova, Italy), KTM (NNC RK, Kazakhstan). Sessions were devoted to the following: (I) lithium in magnetic confinement experiments (facility overviews), (II) lithium in magnetic confinement experiments (topical issues), (III) special session on liquid lithium technology, (IV) lithium laboratory test stands, (V) Lithium theory/modelling/comments, (VI) innovative lithium applications and (VII) special Session on lithium-safety and lithium handling. There was a wide participation from the fusion technology communities, including IFMIF and TBM communities providing productive exchange with the physics oriented magnetic confinement liquid metal research groups. This international workshop will continue on a biennial basis (alternating with the Plasma-Surface Interactions (PSI) Conference) and the next workshop will be held at CIEMAT, Madrid, Spain, in 2015.

Arthroscopic partial wrist fusion.

PubMed

Ho, Pak-Cheong

2008-12-01

The wide intraarticular exposure of the wrist joint under arthroscopic view provides an excellent ground for various forms of partial wrist fusion. Combining with percutaneous fixation technique, arthroscopic partial wrist fusion can potentially generate the best possible functional outcome by preserving the maximal motion pertained with each type of partial wrist fusion because the effect of extraarticular adhesion associated with open surgery can be minimized. From November 1997 to May 2008, the author had performed 12 cases of arthroscopic partial wrist fusion, including scaphotrapeziotrapezoid fusion in 3, scaphoidectomy and 4-corner fusion in 4, radioscapholunate fusion in 3, radiolunate fusion in 1, and lunotriquetral fusion in 1 case. Through the radiocarpal or midcarpal joint, the corresponding articular surfaces were denuded of cartilage using arthroscopic burr and curette. Carpal bones involved in the fusion process were then transfixed with K wires percutaneously after alignment corrected and confirmed under fluoroscopic control. Autogenous cancellous bone graft or bone substitute were inserted and impacted to the fusion site through cannula under direct arthroscopic view. Final fixation could be by multiple K wires or cannulated screw system. Early mobilization was encouraged. Surgical complications were minor, including pin tract infection, skin burn, and delay union in 1 case. Uneventful radiologic union was obtained in 9 cases, stable fibrous union in 2, and nonunion in 1. The average follow-up period was 70 months. Symptom was resolved or improved, and functional motion was gained in all cases. All surgical scars were almost invisible, and aesthetic outcome was excellent.