This paper evaluates the potential of novel steel column bases to reduce residual drift risk buildings located at near-fault regions when installed post-tensioned self-centering moment-resisting frames (SC-MRFs). To this end, a prototype building is designed that consists either conventional (MRFs) or SC-MRFs equipped with base (SC-MRF-CBs). The MRFs and are used as benchmark frames. modelled i...

Nitroprusside was used to reduce afterload in 13 patients with isolated, severe aortic regurgitation. The drug significantly lowered mean aortic pressure, pulse pressure, left ventricular end-diastolic pressure and left ventricular volume. Total ventricular, or angiographic, cardiac index was generally unaffected, but forward cardiac index was improved significantly in 8 of 13 patients. Augment...

Particles acceleration triggered by relativistic laser pulses consisting of only a few optical cycles has been studied with 2D particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations. The electrons are accelerated predominantly in forward direction for preplasma longer than the pulse length. The most effective electron acceleration takes place when the preplasma scale length is comparable to the pulse-duration. The...

Thanks to resonant characteristics of metallic nanoparticles, optical waves scattered from plasmonic nanoantennae can be well tailored in both amplitude and phase. We numerically demonstrate that, by varying the lengths and the lateral positions of gold nanorods in vicinity of a silicon waveguide, unidirectional emissions with typical forward–backward contrast ratio of 15 dB and directivity of ...

The interaction between optical solitons and a forward Raman pump wave in fibers is investigated. It is found that when their relative velocity is small and the soliton pulse width is short, the soliton frequency is shifted by the interaction. Near zero relative velocity the pulse shape is distorted, in addition to having a frequency shift.

The computational evolution of gene networks functions like a forward genetic screen to generate, without preconceptions, all networks that can be assembled from a defined list of parts to implement a given function. Frequently networks are subject to multiple design criteria that cannot all be optimized simultaneously. To explore how these tradeoffs interact with evolution, we implement Pareto...

SUMMARY A directional array radiator is presented, the aim of which is to enhance the sound of the television in a particular direction and hence provide a volume boost to improve speech intelligibility for the hard of hearing. The sound radiated by the array in other directions is kept low, so as not to increase the reverberant level of sound in the listening room. The array uses 32 loudspeake...

Abstract—Radiation characteristics of a probe-excited rectangular ring antenna are investigated by using the dyadic Green’s function approach. The radiation characteristics, such as radiation pattern, beam-peak direction, half-power beamwidth and directivity, are analyzed. For the specified operating frequency, the ring width and ring height are selected as the same cross-sectional dimension of...

Sound sources in actual environments have no omni-directional feature, but they do have directivity in radiation. It is important to consider the directivity of a sound source when synthesizing a high-definition three-dimensional sound field. Therefore, we propose a simple but novel method to estimate the directivity of a sound source in a reverberant environment using a surrounding microphone ...