Ultrasonic Lamb wave based monitoring of corrosion type of damage in plate using a circular array of piezoelectric transducers

In this paper we propose a concept and report experimental results based on a circular array of Piezoelectric Wafer Active Sensors (PWASs) for rapid localization and parametric identification of corrosion type damage in metallic plates. Implementation of this circular array of PWASs combines the use of ultrasonic Lamb wave propagation technique and an algorithm based on symmetry breaking in the signal pattern to locate and monitor the growth of a corrosion pit on a metallic plate. Wavelet time-frequency maps of the sensor signals are employed to obtain an insight regarding the effect of corrosion growth on the Lamb wave transmission in time-frequency scale. We present here a method to eliminate the time scale, which helps in identifying easily the signature of damage in the measured signals. The proposed method becomes useful in determining the approximate location of the damage with respect to the location of three neighboring sensors in the circular array. A cumulative damage index is computed from the wavelet coefficients for varying damage sizes and the results appear promising. Damage index is plotted against the damage parameters for frequency sweep of the excitation signal (a windowed sine signal). Results of corrosion damage are compared with circular holes of various sizes to demonstrate the applicability of present method to different types of damage. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Channel Precoding for STBCs from Generalized Pseudo Orthogonal Designs

Statistical information about the wireless channel can be used at the transmitter side to enhance the performance of MIMO systems. This paper addresses how the concept of channel precoding can be used to enhance the performance of STBCs from Generalized Pseudo Orthogonal Designs which were first introduced by Zhu and Jafarkhani. Such designs include some important classes of STBCs that are directly derivable from Quasi-Orthogonal Designs and Co-ordinate Interleaved Orthogonal Designs.

Optimality of orthogonal sequences with multi-dimensional signaling

The sum capacity on a symbol-synchronous CDMA system having processing gain N and supporting K power constrained users is achieved by employing any set of N orthogonal sequences if a few users are allowed to signal along multiple dimensions. Analogously, the minimum received power (energy-per-chip) on the symbolsynchronous CDMA system supporting K users that demand specified data rates is attained by employing any set of N orthogonal sequences. At most (N - 1) users need to be split and if there are no oversized users, these split users need to signal only in two dimensions each. These results show that sum capacity or minimum sum power can be achieved with minimal downlink signaling.

Exact controllability of generalized Hammerstein type equation

In this article, we study the exact controllability of an abstract model described by the controlled generalized Hammerstein type integral equation $$ x(t) = int_0^t h(t,s)u(s)ds+ int_0^t k(t,s,x)f(s,x(s))ds, quad 0 leq t leq T less than infty, $$ where, the state $x(t)$ lies in a Hilbert space $H$ and control $u(t)$ lies another Hilbert space $V$ for each time $t in I=[0,T]$, $T$ greater than 0. We establish the controllability result under suitable assumptions on $h, k$ and $f$ using the monotone operator theory.

Synthesis, Characterization, and Electronic Structure of New Type of Heterometallic Boride Clusters

The reaction of [Cp*TaCl(4)], 1 (Cp* = eta(5)-C(5)Me(5)), with [LiBH(4)center dot THF] at -78 degrees C, followed by thermolysis in the presence of excess [BH(3)center dot THF], results in the formation of the oxatantalaborane cluster [(Cp*Ta)(2)B(4)H(10)O], 2 in moderate yield. Compound 2 is a notable example of an oxatantalaborane cluster where oxygen is contiguously bound to both the metal and boron. Upon availability of 2, a room temperature reaction was performed with [Fe(2)(CO)(9)], which led to the isolation of [(Cp*Ta)(2)B(2)H(4)O{H(2)Fe(2)(CO)(6)BH} ] 3. Compound 3 is an unusual heterometallic boride cluster in which the [Ta(2)Fe(2)] atoms define a butterfly framework with one boron atom lying in a semi-interstitial position. Likewise, the diselenamolybdaborane, [(Cp*Mo)(2)B(4)H(4)Se(2)], 4 was treated with an excess of [Fe(2)(CO)(9)] to afford the heterometallic boride cluster [(Cp*MoSe)(2)Fe(6)(CO)(13)B(2)(BH)(2)], 5. The cluster core of 5 consists of a cubane [Mo(2)Se(2)Fe(2)B(2)] and a tricapped trigonal prism [Fe(6)B(3)] fused together with four atoms held in common between the two subclusters. In the tricapped trigonal prism subunit, one of the boron atoms is completely encapsulated and bonded to six iron and two boron atoms. Compounds 2, 3, and 5 have been characterized by mass spectrometry, IR, (1)H, (11)B, (13)C NMR spectroscopy, and the geometric structures were unequivocally established by crystallographic analysis. The density functional theory calculations yielded geometries that are in close agreement with the observed structures. Furthermore, the calculated (11)B NMR chemical shifts also support the structural characterization of the compounds. Natural bond order analysis and Wiberg bond indices are used to gain insight into the bonding patterns of the observed geometries of 2, 3, and 5.

Degrees of freedom of relay aided MIMO X network with orthogonal components

We consider the one-way relay aided MIMO X fading Channel where there are two transmitters and two receivers along with a relay with M antennas at every node. Every transmitter wants to transmit messages to every other receiver. The relay broadcasts to the receivers along a noisy link which is independent of the transmitters channel. In literature, this is referred to as a relay with orthogonal components. We derive an upper bound on the degrees of freedom of such a network. Next we show that the upper bound is tight by proposing an achievability scheme based on signal space alignment for the same for M = 2 antennas at every node.

Investigation on the High Vacuum Tribological Characteristics of Surface Treated Nuclear Grade Stainless Steel Type AISI 316 LN at 25 to 500 degrees C

Although some researchers have published friction and wear data of Plasma Nitride (PN) coatings, the tribological behavior of PN/PN Pairs in high vacuum environment has not been published so far In order to bridge this knowledge gap, tribological tests under dry conditions have been conducted on PN/PN Pairs for varying temperatures of 25, 200, 400 and 500 degrees C in high vacuum (1.6 x 10(-4) bar) environment. The PN coatings showed good wear resistance layer on the ring surface. The PN coatings were removed only from the pin surface for all the tests since it contacts at a point. The friction and wear were low at lower temperatures and it eliminated adhesion between the contact surfaces until the coating was completely removed from the pin surface. (C) 2011 Journal of Mechanical Engineering. All rights reserved.

Inhibition of type IA topoisomerase by a monoclonal antibody through perturbation of DNA cleavage-religation equilibrium

Type IA DNA topoisomerases, typically found in bacteria, are essential enzymes that catalyse the DNA relaxation of negative supercoils. DNA gyrase is the only type II topoisomerase that can carry out the opposite reaction (i.e. the introduction of the DNA supercoils). A number of diverse molecules target DNA gyrase. However, inhibitors that arrest the activity of bacterial topoisomerase I at low concentrations remain to be identified. Towards this end, as a proof of principle, monoclonal antibodies that inhibit Mycobacterium smegmatis topoisomerase I have been characterized and the specific inhibition of Mycobacterium smegmatis topoisomerase I by a monoclonal antibody, 2F3G4, at a nanomolar concentration is described. The enzyme-bound monoclonal antibody stimulated the first transesterification reaction leading to enhanced DNA cleavage, without significantly altering the religation activity of the enzyme. The stimulated DNA cleavage resulted in perturbation of the cleavagereligation equilibrium, increasing single-strand nicks and proteinDNA covalent adducts. Monoclonal antibodies with such a mechanism of inhibition can serve as invaluable tools for probing the structure and mechanism of the enzyme, as well as in the design of novel inhibitors that arrest enzyme activity.

(Dimethylamino)borylene and Related Complexes of Electron-Rich Metal Fragments: Generation of Nucleophile-Resistant Cations by Spontaneous Halide Ejection

Spontaneous halide ejection from a three-coordinate Lewis acid has been shown to offer a remarkable new route to cationic metal complexes featuring a linear, multiply bonded boron-donor Ligand. The exploitation of electron-rich [CpM(PR3)(2)] fragments within boryl systems of the type LnMB(hal)NR2 leads to the spontaneous formation in polar solvents of chemically robust borylene complexes, [LnM(BNR2)](+), with exceptionally low electrophilicity and short M-B bonds. This is reflected by M-B distances (ca. 1.80 angstrom for FeB systems) which are more akin to alkyl-/aryl-substituted borylene complexes and, perhaps most strikingly, by the very low exothermicity associated with the binding of pyridine to the two-coordinate boron center (Delta H = -7.4 kcal mol(-1), cf. -40.7 kcal mol(-1) for BCl3). Despite the strong pi electron release from the metal fragment implied by this suppressed reactivity and by such short M-B bonds, the barrier to rotation about the Fe=B bond in the unsymmetrical variant [CpFe(dmpe)(BN{C6H4OMe-4}Me)](+) is found to be very small (ca. 2.9 kcal mol(-1)). This apparent contradiction is rationalized by the orthogonal orientations of the HOMO and HOMO-2 orbitals of the [CpML2](+) fragment, which mean that the M-B pi interaction does not fall to zero even in the highest energy conformation.

Mechanistic insights into type III restriction enzymes

Type III restriction-modification (R-M) enzymes need to interact with two separate unmethylated DNA sequences in indirectly repeated, head-to-head orientations for efficient cleavage to occur at a defined location next to only one of the two sites. However, cleavage of sites that are not in head-to-head orientation have been observed to occur under certain reaction conditions in vitro. ATP hydrolysis is required for the long-distance communication between the sites prior to cleavage. Type III R-M enzymes comprise two subunits, Res and Mod that form a homodimeric Mod(2) and a heterotetrameric Res(2)Mod(2) complex. The Mod subunit in M-2 or R2M2 complex recognizes and methylates DNA while the Res subunit in R2M2 complex is responsible for ATP hydrolysis, DNA translocation and cleavage. A vast majority of biochemical studies on Type III R-M enzymes have been undertaken using two closely related enzymes, EcoP1I and EcoP15I. Divergent opinions about how the long-distance interaction between the recognition sites exist and at least three mechanistic models based on 1D- diffusion and/or 3D-DNA looping have been proposed.

On the two dimensional effective electron mass in quantum wells, inversion layers and NIPI superlattices of Kane type semiconductors in the presence of strong light waves: Simplified theory and relative comparison

An attempt is made to study the two dimensional (2D) effective electron mass (EEM) in quantum wells (Qws), inversion layers (ILs) and NIPI superlattices of Kane type semiconductors in the presence of strong external photoexcitation on the basis of a newly formulated electron dispersion laws within the framework of k.p. formalism. It has been found, taking InAs and InSb as examples, that the EEM in Qws, ILs and superlattices increases with increasing concentration, light intensity and wavelength of the incident light waves, respectively and the numerical magnitudes in each case is band structure dependent. The EEM in ILs is quantum number dependent exhibiting quantum jumps for specified values of the surface electric field and in NIPI superlattices; the same is the function of Fermi energy and the subband index characterizing such 2D structures. The appearance of the humps of the respective curves is due to the redistribution of the electrons among the quantized energy levels when the quantum numbers corresponding to the highest occupied level changes from one fixed value to the others. Although the EEM varies in various manners with all the variables as evident from all the curves, the rates of variations totally depend on the specific dispersion relation of the particular 2D structure. Under certain limiting conditions, all the results as derived in this paper get transformed into well known formulas of the EEM and the electron statistics in the absence of external photo-excitation and thus confirming the compatibility test. The results of this paper find three applications in the field of microstructures. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.