Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles were synthesized by injecting ferrocene vapor and oxygen into an argon/helium DC thermal plasma. Size distributions of particles in the reactor exhaust were measured online using an aerosol extraction probe interfaced to a scanning mobility particle sizer, and particles were collected on transmission electron microscopy (TEM) grids and glass fiber filt...

Conic optimization is the minimization of a differentiable convex objective function subject to conic constraints. We propose novel primal–dual first-order method for optimization, named proportional–integral projected gradient (PIPG). PIPG ensures that both gap and constraint violation converge zero at rate O(1/k), where k number iterations. If strongly convex, improves convergence O(1/k2). Fu...

The Pioneer Saturn vector helium magnetometer has detected a bow shock and magnetopause at Saturn and has provided an accurate characterization of the planetary field. The equatorial surface field is 0.20 gauss, a factor of 3 to 5 times smaller than anticipated on the basis of attempted scalings from Earth and Jupiter. The tilt angle between the magnetic dipole axis and Saturn's rotation axis i...

A new method to fit specific types of conics to scattered data points is introduced. Direct, specific fitting of ellipses and hyperbolae is achieved by imposing a quadratic constraint on the conic coefficients, whereby an improved partitioning of the design matrix is devised so as to improve computational efficiency and numerical stability by eliminating redundant aspects of the fitting procedu...

We present a method for on-orbit, attitudeindependent magnetometer calibration that includes the effect of time-varying bias due to electronics on-board a spacecraft. The calibration estimates magnetometer scale factors, mis-alignments, and constant as well as time-varying bias. Timevarying effects are mitigated by including spacecraft telemetry in the measurement model and estimating constant ...

The research presented in this report focuses on the Whorl II spacecraft simulator in Virginia Tech’s Space Systems Simulation Laboratory (SSSL). The goal of this research is to improve the reliability and accuracy of the magnetometer aboard Whorl II that is used for attitude determination. Magnetic interference surrounding the simulator causes unacceptable margins of error its perceived attitu...

abstract background: the current practice to measure rv is either by bpg or helium dilution methods which may not be available in all clinics due to their cost. methods: this paper outlines a method for both direct and indirect calculation of rv via pft with acceptable sensitivity (81 %, 60% ), specificity (71 %, 94%) and validity (76%, 78%) for obstructive and restrictive lung disease respecti...