A numerical study on heat transfer performances of horizontal ground heat exchangers in ground-source heat pumps.

Horizontal ground heat exchangers (HGHEs) have advantages such as convenient construction and low cost; however, their application and popularization are restricted owing to traditional linear HGHEs occupying large space and presenting low total heat transfer capacity. Spiral-coil and slinky-coil HGHEs have been proposed, but currently a comprehensive comparison and evaluation for these types of HGHEs are still needed. In this study, a three-dimensional heat transfer model of the three types of HGHEs for ground source heat pumps (GSHPs) was established. Based on the simulation results, the long-term heat transfer performances were investigated, including the temperature field of surrounding energy-storage soils, outlet working fluid temperature, coefficient of performance (COP) of units, and surplus temperature of the energy-storage soils. A new concept named heat transfer capacity per heat-affected area was proposed in this paper. It is found that the spiral-coil HGHEs have the best performances in terms of working-fluid outlet temperature, unit COP, total heat transfer capacity, heat transfer rate heat-affected area. The linear HGHEs shows the best performances in terms of mitigating heat imbalance risk and heat transfer rate per length. The results provide a reliable basis for selection of HGHE types in engineering practice and improvement guide in the future.

Comparison of optical projection tomography and light-sheet fluorescence microscopy.

We present a numerical analysis and experimental characterisation of spatial resolution in optical projection tomography (OPT) and light-sheet fluorescence microscopy (LSFM) using their 'standard' systems. Although both techniques provide spatial resolution at the micrometre scale for mesoscopic (millimetre to centimetre) samples, LSFM provides higher lateral (∼3 µm, ∼34% of OPT) but lower axial (∼25.8 µm, 295% of OPT) resolution as compared to OPT (∼8.75 µm, 100%) when imaging the same sample (∼2 mm). Moreover, OPT provides isotropic spatial resolution due to its rotational scanning which may reduce the ambiguity in 3D analysis, so it is more practically appropriate for relatively large samples. We also demonstrate the application performances of both techniques by imaging various biological tissues, illustrating their imaging ability at different spatial scales. LAY DESCRIPTION: Optical projection tomography (OPT) and light-sheet fluorescence microscopy (LSFM) are generally used to extract 3D information from relatively large biological tissues/organs/embryos or even some small animals. Both techniques have made a great progress in recent decades and have been widely applied in life science, medical research and so on. The different implementation features of these two techniques results in isotropic and anisotropic spatial resolution respectively, making a dilemma for the researchers to choose the appropriate system when imaging the samples with different size. So far, there is no study to numerically discuss the differences between their image formation properties and to adequately quantify their own strengths and limitations. In our work, we quantified the imaging behaviour in 'standard' OPT and LSFM using both numerical analysis and experimental characterisations, showing the relationship between spatial resolution and sample size in each system. We also demonstrated the detailed structure differences when imaging various biological tissues. We believe this work will be useful and can provide a reference for the 3D fluorescence-imaging-based researchers.

How Can Single-Case Data Be Analyzed? Software Resources, Tutorial, and Reflections on Analysis.

The present article aims to present a series of software developments in the quantitative analysis of data obtained via single-case experimental designs (SCEDs), as well as the tutorial describing these developments. The tutorial focuses on software implementations based on freely available platforms such as R and aims to bring statistical advances closer to applied researchers and help them become autonomous agents in the data analysis stage of a study. The range of analyses dealt with in the tutorial is illustrated on a typical single-case dataset, relying heavily on graphical data representations. We illustrate how visual and quantitative analyses can be used jointly, giving complementary information and helping the researcher decide whether there is an intervention effect, how large it is, and whether it is practically significant. To help applied researchers in the use of the analyses, we have organized the data in the different ways required by the different analytical procedures and made these data available online. We also provide Internet links to all free software available, as well as all the main references to the analytical techniques. Finally, we suggest that appropriate and informative data analysis is likely to be a step forward in documenting and communicating results and also for increasing the scientific credibility of SCEDs.

Attenuation of reflected waves in man during retrograde propagation from femoral artery to proximal aorta.

BACKGROUND: Wave reflection may be an important influence on blood pressure, but the extent to which reflections undergo attenuation during retrograde propagation has not been studied. We quantified retrograde transmission of a reflected wave created by occlusion of the left femoral artery in man. METHODS: 20 subjects (age 31-83 years; 14 male) underwent invasive measurement of pressure and flow velocity with a sensor-tipped intra-arterial wire at multiple locations distal to the proximal aorta before, during and following occlusion of the left femoral artery by thigh cuff inflation. A numerical model of the circulation was also used to predict reflected wave transmission. Wave reflection was measured as the ratio of backward to forward wave energy (WRI) and the ratio of peak backward to forward pressure (Pb/Pf). RESULTS: Cuff inflation caused a marked reflection which was largest at 5-10 cm from the cuff (change (Δ) in WRI=0.50 (95% CI 0.38, 0.62); p<0.001, ΔPb/Pf=0.23 (0.18-0.29); p<0.001). The magnitude of the cuff-induced reflection decreased progressively at more proximal locations and was barely discernible at sites>40 cm from the cuff including in the proximal aorta. Numerical modelling gave similar predictions to those observed experimentally. CONCLUSIONS: Reflections due to femoral artery occlusion are markedly attenuated by the time they reach the proximal aorta. This is due to impedance mismatches of bifurcations traversed in the backward direction. This degree of attenuation is inconsistent with the idea of a large discrete reflected wave arising from the lower limb and propagating back into the aorta.

Solving Single Machine Total Weighted Tardiness Problem with Unequal Release Date Using Neurohybrid Particle Swarm Optimization Approach.

A particle swarm optimization algorithm (PSO) has been used to solve the single machine total weighted tardiness problem (SMTWT) with unequal release date. To find the best solutions three different solution approaches have been used. To prepare subhybrid solution system, genetic algorithms (GA) and simulated annealing (SA) have been used. In the subhybrid system (GA and SA), GA obtains a solution in any stage, that solution is taken by SA and used as an initial solution. When SA finds better solution than this solution, it stops working and gives this solution to GA again. After GA finishes working the obtained solution is given to PSO. PSO searches for better solution than this solution. Later it again sends the obtained solution to GA. Three different solution systems worked together. Neurohybrid system uses PSO as the main optimizer and SA and GA have been used as local search tools. For each stage, local optimizers are used to perform exploitation to the best particle. In addition to local search tools, neurodominance rule (NDR) has been used to improve performance of last solution of hybrid-PSO system. NDR checked sequential jobs according to total weighted tardiness factor. All system is named as neurohybrid-PSO solution system.

Numerical models to evaluate the temperature increase induced by ex vivo microwave thermal ablation.

Microwave thermal ablation (MTA) therapies exploit the local absorption of an electromagnetic field at microwave (MW) frequencies to destroy unhealthy tissue, by way of a very high temperature increase (about 60 °C or higher). To develop reliable interventional protocols, numerical tools able to correctly foresee the temperature increase obtained in the tissue would be very useful. In this work, different numerical models of the dielectric and thermal property changes with temperature were investigated, looking at the simulated temperature increments and at the size of the achievable zone of ablation. To assess the numerical data, measurement of the temperature increases close to a MTA antenna were performed in correspondence with the antenna feed-point and the antenna cooling system, for increasing values of the radiated power. Results show that models not including the changes of the dielectric and thermal properties can be used only for very low values of the power radiated by the antenna, whereas a good agreement with the experimental values can be obtained up to 20 W if water vaporization is included in the numerical model. Finally, for higher power values, a simulation that dynamically includes the tissue's dielectric and thermal property changes with the temperature should be performed.

Analytical and numerical investigations into hemisphere-shaped electrostatic sensors.

Electrostatic sensors have been widely used in many applications due to their advantages of low cost and robustness. Their spatial sensitivity and time-frequency characteristics are two important performance parameters. In this paper, an analytical model of the induced charge on a novel hemisphere-shaped electrostatic sensor was presented to investigate its accurate sensing characteristics. Firstly a Poisson model was built for electric fields produced by charged particles. Then the spatial sensitivity and time-frequency response functions were directly derived by the Green function. Finally, numerical calculations were done to validate the theoretical results. The results demonstrate that the hemisphere-shaped sensors have highly 3D-symmetrical spatial sensitivity expressed in terms of elementary function, and the spatial sensitivity is higher and less homogeneous near the hemispherical surface and vice versa. Additionally, the whole monitoring system, consisting of an electrostatic probe and a signal conditioner circuit, acts as a band-pass filter. The time-frequency characteristics depend strongly on the spatial position and velocity of the charged particle, the radius of the probe as well as the equivalent resistance and capacitance of the circuit.

A graph-based ant colony optimization approach for process planning.

The complex process planning problem is modeled as a combinatorial optimization problem with constraints in this paper. An ant colony optimization (ACO) approach has been developed to deal with process planning problem by simultaneously considering activities such as sequencing operations, selecting manufacturing resources, and determining setup plans to achieve the optimal process plan. A weighted directed graph is conducted to describe the operations, precedence constraints between operations, and the possible visited path between operation nodes. A representation of process plan is described based on the weighted directed graph. Ant colony goes through the necessary nodes on the graph to achieve the optimal solution with the objective of minimizing total production costs (TPC). Two cases have been carried out to study the influence of various parameters of ACO on the system performance. Extensive comparative experiments have been conducted to demonstrate the feasibility and efficiency of the proposed approach.

Development of a numerical simulator of human swallowing using a particle method (part 1. Preliminary evaluation of the possibility of numerical simulation using the MPS method).

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the possibility of numerical simulation of the swallowing process using a moving particle simulation (MPS) method, which defined the food bolus as a number of particles in a fluid, a solid, and an elastic body. In order to verify the accuracy of the simulation results, a simple water bolus falling model was solved using the three-dimensional (3D) MPS method. We also examined the simplified swallowing simulation using a two-dimensional (2D) MPS method to confirm the interactions between the liquid, solid, elastic bolus, and organ structure. In a comparison of the 3D MPS simulation and experiments, the falling time of the water bolus and the configuration of the interface between the liquid and air corresponded exactly to the experimental measurements and the visualization images. The results showed that the accuracy of the 3D MPS simulation was qualitatively high for the simple falling model. Based on the results of the simplified swallowing simulation using the 2D MPS method, each bolus, defined as a liquid, solid, and elastic body, exhibited different behavior when the organs were transformed forcedly. This confirmed that the MPS method could be used for coupled simulations of the fluid, the solid, the elastic body, and the organ structures. The results suggested that the MPS method could be used to develop a numerical simulator of the swallowing process.

Development of a numerical simulator of human swallowing using a particle method (Part 2. Evaluation of the accuracy of a swallowing simulation using the 3D MPS method).

The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate the accuracy of a three-dimensional (3D) numerical simulator of the swallowing action using the 3D moving particle simulation (MPS) method, which can simulate splashes and rapid changes in the free surfaces of food materials. The 3D numerical simulator of the swallowing action using the MPS method was developed based on accurate organ models, which contains forced transformation by elapsed time. The validity of the simulation results were evaluated qualitatively based on comparisons with videofluorography (VF) images. To evaluate the validity of the simulation results quantitatively, the normalized brightness around the vallecula was used as the evaluation parameter. The positions and configurations of the food bolus during each time step were compared in the simulated and VF images. The simulation results corresponded to the VF images during each time step in the visual evaluations, which suggested that the simulation was qualitatively correct. The normalized brightness of the simulated and VF images corresponded exactly at all time steps. This showed that the simulation results, which contained information on changes in the organs and the food bolus, were numerically correct. Based on these results, the accuracy of this simulator was high and it could be used to study the mechanism of disorders that cause dysphasia. This simulator also calculated the shear rate at a specific point and the timing with Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids. We think that the information provided by this simulator could be useful for development of food products, medicines, and in rehabilitation facilities.

A neuromorphic VLSI design for spike timing and rate based synaptic plasticity.

Triplet-based Spike Timing Dependent Plasticity (TSTDP) is a powerful synaptic plasticity rule that acts beyond conventional pair-based STDP (PSTDP). Here, the TSTDP is capable of reproducing the outcomes from a variety of biological experiments, while the PSTDP rule fails to reproduce them. Additionally, it has been shown that the behaviour inherent to the spike rate-based Bienenstock-Cooper-Munro (BCM) synaptic plasticity rule can also emerge from the TSTDP rule. This paper proposes an analogue implementation of the TSTDP rule. The proposed VLSI circuit has been designed using the AMS 0.35 µm CMOS process and has been simulated using design kits for Synopsys and Cadence tools. Simulation results demonstrate how well the proposed circuit can alter synaptic weights according to the timing difference amongst a set of different patterns of spikes. Furthermore, the circuit is shown to give rise to a BCM-like learning rule, which is a rate-based rule. To mimic an implementation environment, a 1000 run Monte Carlo (MC) analysis was conducted on the proposed circuit. The presented MC simulation analysis and the simulation result from fine-tuned circuits show that it is possible to mitigate the effect of process variations in the proof of concept circuit; however, a practical variation aware design technique is required to promise a high circuit performance in a large scale neural network. We believe that the proposed design can play a significant role in future VLSI implementations of both spike timing and rate based neuromorphic learning systems.

Computing 2D constrained delaunay triangulation using the GPU.

We propose the first graphics processing unit (GPU) solution to compute the 2D constrained Delaunay triangulation (CDT) of a planar straight line graph (PSLG) consisting of points and edges. There are many existing CPU algorithms to solve the CDT problem in computational geometry, yet there has been no prior approach to solve this problem efficiently using the parallel computing power of the GPU. For the special case of the CDT problem where the PSLG consists of just points, which is simply the normal Delaunay triangulation (DT) problem, a hybrid approach using the GPU together with the CPU to partially speed up the computation has already been presented in the literature. Our work, on the other hand, accelerates the entire computation on the GPU. Our implementation using the CUDA programming model on NVIDIA GPUs is numerically robust, and runs up to an order of magnitude faster than the best sequential implementations on the CPU. This result is reflected in our experiment with both randomly generated PSLGs and real-world GIS data having millions of points and edges.

Numerical simulation of nonlinear field distributions in two-dimensional optical superlattices.

A finite difference method in real space is presented for calculating nonlinear optical processes in two-dimensional optical superlattices. The focused second-harmonic generation under the local quasi-phase-matched condition is calculated as an example. The field distribution of both the fundamental and the harmonic wave can be simulated well using this method, and the result agrees well with previous theoretical predictions and experimental studies. It is shown that this method is a simple and rapid technique to analysis nonlinear processes in optical superlattices.

Use of numerical orthogonal transformation for the Zernike analysis of lateral shearing interferograms.

A numerical orthogonal transformation method for reconstructing a wavefront by use of Zernike polynomials in lateral shearing interferometry is proposed. The difference fronts data in two perpendicular directions are fitted to numerical orthonormal polynomials instead of Zernike polynomials, and then the orthonormal coefficients are used to evaluate the Zernike coefficients of the original wavefront by use of a numerical shear matrix. Due to the fact that the dimensions of the shear matrix are finite, the high-order terms of the original wavefront above a certain order have to be neglected. One of advantages of the proposed method is that the impact of the neglected high-order terms on the outcomes of the lower-order terms can be decreased, which leads to a more accurate reconstruction result. Another advantage is that the proposed method can be applied to reconstruct a wavefront on an aperture of arbitrary shape from its difference fronts. Theoretical analysis and numerical simulations shows that the proposed method is correct and its reconstruction error is obviously smaller than that of Rimmer-Wyant method.

Numerical optimization of a three-channel radiofrequency coil for open, vertical-field, MR-guided, focused ultrasound surgery using the hybrid method of moment/finite difference time domain method.

The numerical optimization of a three-channel radiofrequency (RF) coil with a physical aperture for the open, vertical-field, MR-guided, focused ultrasound surgery (MRgFUS) system using the hybrid method of moment (MoM)/finite difference time domain (FDTD) method is reported. The numerical simulation of the current density distribution on an RF coil with a complicated irregular structure was performed using MoM. The electromagnetic field simulation containing the full coil-tissue interactions within the region of interest was accomplished using the FDTD method. Huygens' equivalent box with six surfaces smoothly connected the MoM and FDTD method. An electromagnetic model of the human pelvic region was reconstructed and loaded in the FDTD zone to optimize the three-channel RF coil and compensate for the lower sensitivity at the vertical field. In addition, the numerical MoM was used to model the resonance, decoupling and impedance matching of the RF coil in compliance with engineering practices. A prototype RF coil was constructed to verify the simulation results. The results demonstrate that the signal-to-noise ratio and the homogeneity of the B(1) field were both greatly improved compared with previously published results.

Development of a ReaxFF reactive force field for glycine and application to solvent effect and tautomerization.

Tautomerization of amino acids between the neutral form (NF) and the zwitterionic form (ZW) in water has been extensively studied, often using glycine as a model to understand this fundamental process. In spite of many advanced studies, the tautomerization reaction remains poorly understood because of the intrinsic complexities of the system, including multiple accessible reaction pathways, charge transfer, and variations of solvation structure. To establish an accurate model that can be used for molecular dynamics simulations, a ReaxFF reactive force field has been developed for glycine. A training set for the ReaxFF hydrocarbon potential was augmented with several glycine conformers and glycine-water complexes. The force field parameters were optimized to reproduce the quantum mechanically derived energies of the species in the training set. The optimized potential could accurately describe the properties of gas-phase glycine. It was applied to investigate the effect of solvation on the conformational distribution of glycine. Molecular dynamics simulations indicated significant differences in the dominant conformers in the gas phase and in water. This suggests that the tautomerization of glycine occurs through a conformational isomerization followed by the proton transfer event. The direct reaction mechanism of the NF → ZW proton transfer reaction in water, as well as mechanisms mediated by one or two water molecules, were investigated using molecular dynamics simulations. The results suggest that the proton transfer reaction is most likely mediated by a single water molecule. The ReaxFF potential developed in this work provides an accurate description of proton transfer in glycine and thus provides a useful methodology for simulating proton transfer reactions in organic molecules in the aqueous environment.

Efficient 3D geometric and Zernike moments computation from unstructured surface meshes.

This paper introduces and evaluates a fast exact algorithm and a series of faster approximate algorithms for the computation of 3D geometric moments from an unstructured surface mesh of triangles. Being based on the object surface reduces the computational complexity of these algorithms with respect to volumetric grid-based algorithms. In contrast, it can only be applied for the computation of geometric moments of homogeneous objects. This advantage and restriction is shared with other proposed algorithms based on the object boundary. The proposed exact algorithm reduces the computational complexity for computing geometric moments up to order N with respect to previously proposed exact algorithms, from N(9) to N(6). The approximate series algorithm appears as a power series on the rate between triangle size and object size, which can be truncated at any desired degree. The higher the number and quality of the triangles, the better the approximation. This approximate algorithm reduces the computational complexity to N(3). In addition, the paper introduces a fast algorithm for the computation of 3D Zernike moments from the computed geometric moments, with a computational complexity N(4), while the previously proposed algorithm is of order N(6). The error introduced by the proposed approximate algorithms is evaluated in different shapes and the cost-benefit ratio in terms of error, and computational time is analyzed for different moment orders.

Learning a family of detectors via multiplicative kernels.

Object detection is challenging when the object class exhibits large within-class variations. In this work, we show that foreground-background classification (detection) and within-class classification of the foreground class (pose estimation) can be jointly learned in a multiplicative form of two kernel functions. Model training is accomplished via standard SVM learning. When the foreground object masks are provided in training, the detectors can also produce object segmentations. A tracking-by-detection framework to recover foreground state in video sequences is also proposed with our model. The advantages of our method are demonstrated on tasks of object detection, view angle estimation, and tracking. Our approach compares favorably to existing methods on hand and vehicle detection tasks. Quantitative tracking results are given on sequences of moving vehicles and human faces.

[The encoding and reconstruction of parallel MRI].

The advent of parallel MRI over recent years has prompted a variety of techniques for performing parallel imaging. The main distinguishing feature among these is the specific way of solving the problem of image reconstruction from undersampled multiple-coil data. The clearest distinction in this respect is that between k-space method and image-domain method. The present paper reviews the basic reconstruction approaches, aiming to emphasize the common principles along with actual differences. To this end the treatment starts with an elaboration of the encoding mechanisms and sampling strategies that define the reconstruction task. Based on these considerations, the distinction between k-space and image-domain approaches is given. At the close of this paper are presented discussioins concerning noise propagation and control in parallel imaging and an outlook upon key issues to be addressed in the future.