Microstrip circular phased array design and development using microwave antenna CAD tools

The complex design and development of a planar multilayer phased array antenna in microstrip technology can be simplified using two commercially available design tools 1) Ansoft Ensemble and 2) HP-EEsof Touchstone. In the approach presented here, Touchstone is used to design RF switches and phase shifters whose scattering parameters are incorporated in Ensemble simulations using its black box tool. Using this approach, Ensemble is able to fully analyze the performance of radiating and beamforming layers of a phased array prior to its manufacturing. This strategy is demonstrated in a design example of a 12-element linearly-polarized circular phased array operating at L band. A comparison between theoretical and experimental results of the array is demonstrated.

Identification of MIMO Hammerstein systems using cardinal spline functions

A new approach to identify multivariable Hammerstein systems is proposed in this paper. By using cardinal cubic spline functions to model the static nonlinearities, the proposed method is effective in modelling processes with hard and/or coupled nonlinearities. With an appropriate transformation, the nonlinear models are parameterized such that the nonlinear identification problem is converted into a linear one. The persistently exciting condition for the transformed input is derived to ensure the estimates are consistent with the true system. A simulation study is performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method compared with the existing approaches based on polynomials. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Biocompatible properties of surgical mesh using an animal model

To study the biocompatibility of surgical meshes for use in pelvic reconstructive surgery using an animal model. Eight different types of mesh: Atrium, Dexon, Gynemesh, IVS tape, Prolene, SPARC tape, TVT tape and Vypro II, were implanted into the abdominal walls of rats for 3 months' duration. Explanted meshes were assessed, using light microscopy, for parameters of rejection and incorporation. Type 1 (Atrium, Gynemesh, Prolene, SPARC and TVT) and type 3 (Vypro II, Dexon and IVS) meshes demonstrated different biocompatible properties. Inflammatory cellular response and fibrosis at the interface of mesh and host tissue was most marked with Vypro II and IVS. All type 1 meshes displayed similar cellular responses despite markedly different mesh architecture. The inflammatory response and fibrous reaction in the non-absorbable type 3 meshes tested (IVS and Vypro II) was more marked than the type 1 meshes. The increased inflammatory and fibrotic response may be because of the multifilamentous polypropylene components of these meshes. Material and filament composition of mesh is the main factor in determining cellular response.

Direct mesh: A multiresolution approach to terrain visualization

Terrain can be approximated by a triangular mesh consisting millions of 3D points. Multiresolution triangular mesh (MTM) structures are designed to support applications that use terrain data at variable levels of detail (LOD). Typically, an MTM adopts a tree structure where a parent node represents a lower-resolution approximation of its descendants. Given a region of interest (ROI) and a LOD, the process of retrieving the required terrain data from the database is to traverse the MTM tree from the root to reach all the nodes satisfying the ROI and LOD conditions. This process, while being commonly used for multiresolution terrain visualization, is inefficient as either a large number of sequential I/O operations or fetching a large amount of extraneous data is incurred. Various spatial indexes have been proposed in the past to address this problem, however level-by-level tree traversal remains a common practice in order to obtain topological information among the retrieved terrain data. A new MTM data structure called direct mesh is proposed. We demonstrate that with direct mesh the amount of data retrieval can be substantially reduced. Comparing with existing MTM indexing methods, a significant performance improvement has been observed for real-life terrain data.

Performance analysis of multi-radio AODV in hybrid wireless mesh networks

Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs), based on commodity hardware, present a promising technology for a wide range of applications due to their self-configuring and self-healing capabilities, as well as their low equipment and deployment costs. One of the key challenges that WMN technology faces is the limited capacity and scalability due to co-channel interference, which is typical for multi-hop wireless networks. A simple and relatively low-cost approach to address this problem is the use of multiple wireless network interfaces (radios) per node. Operating the radios on distinct orthogonal channels permits effective use of the frequency spectrum, thereby, reducing interference and contention. In this paper, we evaluate the performance of the multi-radio Ad-hoc On-demand Distance Vector (AODV) routing protocol with a specific focus on hybrid WMNs. Our simulation results show that under high mobility and traffic load conditions, multi-radio AODV offers superior performance as compared to its single-radio counterpart. We believe that multi-radio AODV is a promising candidate for WMNs, which need to service a large number of mobile clients with low latency and high bandwidth requirements.

Computationally efficient solution techniques for adsorption problems involving steep gradients in bidisperse particles

A piecewise uniform fitted mesh method turns out to be sufficient for the solution of a surprisingly wide variety of singularly perturbed problems involving steep gradients. The technique is applied to a model of adsorption in bidisperse solids for which two fitted mesh techniques, a fitted-mesh finite difference method (FMFDM) and fitted mesh collocation method (FMCM) are presented. A combination (FMCMD) of FMCM and the DASSL integration package is found to be most effective in solving the problems. Numerical solutions (FMFDM and FMCMD) were found to match the analytical solution when the adsorption isotherm is linear, even under conditions involving steep gradients for which global collocation fails. In particular, FMCMD is highly efficient for macropore diffusion control or micropore diffusion control. These techniques are simple and there is no limit on the range of the parameters. The techniques can be applied to a variety of adsorption and desorption problems in bidisperse solids with non-linear isotherm and for arbitrary particle geometry.

From Midden to Sieve: The Impact of Differential Recovery and Quantification Techniques on Interpretations of Shellfish Remains in Australian Coastal Archaeology

Experimental mechanical sieving methods are applied to samples of shellfish remains from three sites in southeast Queensland, Seven Mile Creek Mound, Sandstone Point and One-Tree, to test the efficacy of various recovery and quantification procedures commonly applied to shellfish assemblages in Australia. There has been considerable debate regarding the most appropriate sieve sizes and quantification methods that should be applied in the recovery of vertebrate faunal remains. Few studies, however, have addressed the impact of recovery and quantification methods on the interpretation of invertebrates, specifically shellfish remains. In this study, five shellfish taxa representing four bivalves (Anadara trapezia, Trichomya hirsutus, Saccostrea glomerata, Donax deltoides) and one gastropod (Pyrazus ebeninus) common in eastern Australian midden assemblages are sieved through 10mm, 6.3mm and 3.15mm mesh. Results are quantified using MNI, NISP and weight. Analyses indicate that different structural properties and pre- and postdepositional factors affect recovery rates. Fragile taxa (T. hirsutus) or those with foliated structure (S. glomerata) tend to be overrepresented by NISP measures in smaller sieve fractions, while more robust taxa (A. trapezia and P. ebeninus) tend to be overrepresented by weight measures. Results demonstrate that for all quantification methods tested a 3mm sieve should be used on all sites to allow for regional comparability and to effectively collect all available information about the shellfish remains.