Aircraft Structural Health Multi-Sensor Wireless Node Powered by Energy Harvesting

Recently list mode (event-by-event) data acquisition with positron emission tomography (PET) has been widely noticed because the list mode acquisition is superior to the conventional frame mode data acquisition in terms of (1) higher efficiency of data storage, (2) higher temporal resolution and (3) higher flexibility of data manipulation. The aim of this study is to investigate the performance of list mode data acquisition with ECAT HR and HR + PET scanners(CTI PET Systems). The cylindrical phantom (16 cm diameter and 16 cm long) filled with /sup 11/C solution for HR and /sup 15/O solution for HR+ was scanned several times varying the radioactivity with list mode and frame mode acquisitions. The scans with the septa (2D mode) and without the septa (3D mode) were also carried out in order to evaluate the effect of interplane septa on quality of the list mode data. The acquired list mode data were sorted to sinogram and reconstructed using filtered back-projection algorithm. The count rate performance of the list mode data was comparable to the frame mode data. However list mode acquisition could not be performed if radioactivity in the field-of-view was high (more than 3 mCi for 3D mode) due to lack of transfer speed for sending data from memory to hard disk. 10 replicated data set from one list mode data were generated to estimate the noise in the reconstructed image. The reconstructed images with 3D mode has more than 60% better signal-to-noise ratio compared to the image with 2D mode. Generated file size of list mode was also evaluated. In the case of HR+ with 3D list mode, list mode data with 2.31 MBytes/s for 1mCi injection were generated. Out results suggest that careful attention must be paid for protocol of the list mode data acquisition in order to obtain the highest performance of the PET scanner.

High-speed Nuclear Quality Pulse Height Analyzer for Synchrotron-based Applications J-F. Beche, J. J. Bucher, L. Fabris, V. J. Riot Abstract--A high throughput Pulse Height Analyzer system for synchrotron-based applications requiring high resolution, high processing speed and low dead time has been developed. The system is comprised of a 120ns 12-bit nuclear quality Analog to Digital converter with a self-adaptive fast peak detector- stretcher and a custom-made fast histogramming memory module that records and processes the digitized data. The histogramming module is packaged in a VME or VXI compatible interface. Data is transferred through a fast optical link from the memory interface to a computer. A dedicated data acquisition program matches the hardware characteristics of the histogramming memory module. The data acquisition system allows for two data collection modes: “standard” data acquisition mode where the data is accumulated and read in synchronization with an external trigger and “live” data acquisition mode where the system operates as a standard Pulse Height Analyzer. The acquisition, standard or live, can be performed on several channels simultaneously. A two-channel prototype has been demonstrated at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory accelerator in conjunction with an X-ray Fluorescence Absorption Spectroscopy experiment. A detailed description of the entire system is given and experimental data is shown. I. S UMMARY A fast high resolution and low dead time Pulse Height Analyzer (PHA) system for Synchrotron-based applications has been developed. This module is an addition to and completes the previously designed custom electronics for XAFS applications [1, 2]. The PHA system receives analog information from a low dead time pulse processing front-end section. The low dead time PHA system is comprised of a fast high resolution Analog to Digital Converter (ADC), a fast histogramming memory and a VME or VXI compatible interface. The VME-based system consists of one complete data acquisition channel. The VXI-based PHA system addresses the problem of simultaneous data acquisition from multiple channels. Both systems were tested at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory in conjunction with an X- ray Fluorescence Absorption Spectroscopy experiment. The block diagram of a single acquisition channel is shown in Fig. This work was supported by the Director, Office of Energy Research, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Chemical Science Division of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC03-76SF00098. J-F Beche, J. J. Bucher, L. Fabris and V. J. Riot are with E. O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720 USA (telephone: 510- 495-2327, e-mail: JFBeche@lbl.gov). The analog input section is built around a fast self-adaptive peak detector-stretcher described in [1]. The peak detector- stretcher includes all the necessary logic to provide pileup rejection and gating functions. The stretched signal is fed to a commercial ADC chosen to maximize throughput without compromising the differential non-linearity (DNL). This ADC is an 8Msps unit, providing 14 bit of resolution with no missing code over the full temperature range, and with an intrinsic DNL of ½ LSB. In order to improve the DNL (not adequate for nuclear spectroscopy applications), only the first 12 most significant bits are used. A 6-bit sliding scale correction [3] lowers the DNL to less than 1%. Including delays, the conversion time of the ADC is 120ns. The electronic pulse-processing amplifier, in its fastest version, shapes the energy events coming from the detector with a 250ns peaking time fourth-order, pseudo-gaussian shaping function. The conversion time of the ADC does not add to the dead time associated with the pulse-shaping amplifier. Data collection is either gated by an external synchronization signal such as an accelerator beam clock or a precise clock signal to time-stamp the data collection and measure count rates. After an analog to digital conversion has taken place, the ADC board control logic sends a request to the histogramming memory module. When the histogramming memory controller acknowledges the request, it uses the ADC data to increment by one the content of the corresponding address memory location. The entire operation lasts 130ns, which is less than the dead time of the pulse- processing amplifier. Therefore, the histogramming operation does not increase the overall event-by-event processing time of the entire system. The histogramming memory module is packaged in a VME or VXI compatible interface and is built around a dual-port static random access memory. One port is dedicated to data accumulation while the second port is mapped to the VME or VXI address and data buses. The transfer to the computer is controlled by either the synchronization signal in the form of an interrupt signal sent to the VME or VXI controller, or by the computer accessing the memory at regular time intervals. The former corresponds to the “standard” acquisition mode and the latter to the “live” mode. In standard mode the content of the histogramming memory must be erased (zeroed) before collecting any new data set.

For high-speed data acquisition and real-time transmission and processing requirements of ultrasonic measurement system, a wireless USB-based ultrasonic data transmission method was presented, combining wireless communication technology with the advantages of USB interface technology. The system consists of ultrasonic signal acquisition module, data transmission module, data acquisition module and the computer. The system uses Cypress Semiconductor's PSoC CYRF69213 chip for wireless data transmission and the chip microcomputer inside as the main control unit. This chip recorded data to the computer and displayed through USB interface. The system is a single-chip USB interface design with very few external components. The system has an USB interface advantages such supporting hot-swappable, plug and play features and the realization of wireless transmission of data without the need for layout of communications cables. The transmission system has good stability, small size, low power, high-performance features, which has a good application prospects.

Four-dimensional (4D) CT imaging is a central part of current treatment planning workflows in 4D radiotherapy (RT). However, clinical 4D CT image data often suffer from severe artifacts caused by insufficient projection data coverage due to the inability of current commercial 4D CT imaging protocols to adapt to breathing irregularity. We propose an intelligent sequence mode 4D CT imaging protocol (i4DCT) that builds on online breathing curve analysis and respiratory signal-guided selection of beam on/off periods during scan time in order to fulfill projection data coverage requirements. i4DCT performance is evaluated and compared to standard clinical sequence mode 4D CT (seq4DCT) and spiral 4D CT (spiral4DCT) approaches. i4DCT consists of three main blocks: (a) an initial learning period to establish a patient-specific reference breathing cycle representation for data-driven i4DCT parameter selection, (b) online respiratory signal-guided sequence mode scanning (i4DCT core), (c) rapid breathing record analysis and quality control after scanning to trigger potential local rescanning (i4DCT rescan). Based on a phase space representation of the patient's breathing signal, i4DCT core implements real-time analysis of the signal to appropriately switch on and off projection data acquisition even during irregular breathing. Performance evaluation was based on 189 clinical breathing records acquired during spiral 4D CT scanning for RT planning (data acquisition period: 2013-2017; Siemens Somatom with Varian RPM system). For each breathing record, i4DCT, seq4DCT, and spiral4DCT scanning protocol variants were simulated. Evaluation measures were local projection data coverage ; number of local projection data coverage failures; and number of patients with coverage failures; average beam on time as a surrogate for imaging dose and total patient on table time as the time between first and last beam on signal. Using i4DCT, mean inhalation and exhalation projection data coverage increased significantly compared to standard spiral 4D CT scanning as applied for the original clinical data acquisition and conventional 4D CT sequence scanning modes. The improved projection data coverage translated into a reduction of coverage failures by 89% without and 93% when allowing for a rescanning at up to five z-positions compared to spiral scanning and between 76% and 82% without and 85% and 89% with rescanning when compared to seq4DCT. Similar numbers were observed for . Simultaneously, i4DCT (without rescanning) reduced the beam on time on average by 3%-17% compared to standard spiral 4D CT. In turn, the patient on table time increased by between 35% and 66%. Allowing for rescanning led on average to additional 5.9 s beam on and 10.6 s patient on table time. i4DCT outperformed currently implemented clinical fixed beam on period 4D CT scanning approaches by means of a significantly smaller data coverage failure rate without requiring additional beam on time compared to, for example, conventional spiral 4D CT protocols.

Measuring of the partial discharge (PD) parameters of the insulating systems is very important. The prompt insulating system estimation and its remaining life time give the great savings. The new, complex PD measuring methods are now developed in the world because conventional methods do not give valid information of the insulating system conditions. The goal of this paper is to show one of the new approaches in the data acquisition about PD and the measuring system performance. The measuring system consist of a few blocks: measuring bridge, multichannel analyzer (ND60), oscilloscope and personal computer (PC). The components of the measuring bridge are corresponding filters and charge calibrators. For the signal analyzer of PD we apply the ND60 (made by Nuclear Data Inc. USA). The ND60 is a multichannel pulse analyzer, including built-in charge preamplifier, amplifier, 50MHZ analog to digital converter (ADC), monitor, 2048 channel memory and serial and parallel I/O interface. ND60 realize two data acquisition modes: pulse height analysis (amplitude analysis) and multichannel scaling (time analysis). The voltage impulse of PD represents the input in the charge amplifier (the impulse integrator-signal output is proportional to the charge transfer). Analysis of signal on a time basis enables the acquisition of data (input signal) vs. arrival time. With an ability of a usage the external sweep trigger it is possible to analyze the PD as a function of phase of input voltage (power source). The PC enables the measuring system management, data acquisition from the memory of the ND60 and its processing according to the certain algorithms.

Positron emission tomography (PET) has now gained a place in the management of patients with cancer, including those with Hodgkin's disease and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Restaging studies and those addressing the monitoring of response to treatment are especially in focus. Most of the knowledge gained has been achieved with dedicated BGO-based PET technology, but there are a number of developments that will impact on the use of this metabolic imaging technique in the investigation of patients with lymphoma. The challenges ahead are determined by the need for high-quality whole-body imaging associated with increased patient throughput and the need to investigate the role of new labelled ligands. The latter are likely to yield new insights into tumour cell characterisation, tumour behaviour and tumour outcome assessment. The study of new radiolabelled ligands will impose further demands for rapid dynamic data acquisition and accurate tracer quantification. Current and future developments in PET technology range from the use of new detector materials to different detector geometries and data acquisition modes. The search for alternatives to BGO scintillation materials for PET has led to the development of PET instruments utilising new crystals such as LSO and GSO. The use of these new detectors and the increased sensitivity achieved with 3D data acquisitions represent the most significant current developments in the field. With the increasing demands imposed on the clinical utilisation of PET, issues such as study cost and patient throughput will emerge as significant future factors. As a consequence, low-cost units are being offered by the manufacturers through the utilisation of gamma camera-based SPET systems for PET coincidence imaging. Unfortunately, clinical studies in lymphoma and other cancers have already demonstrated the limitations of this technology, with 20% of lesions <15 mm in size escaping detection. On the other hand, the recent development of combined PET/CT devices attempts to address the lack of anatomical information inherent with PET images, taking advantage of further improvement in patient throughput and hence cost-effectiveness. Preliminary studies using this multimodality imaging approach have already demonstrated the potential of the technique. Although the potential exists, certain technical issues with PET/CT require refinement of the methodology. Such issues include organ movement (such as respiratory motion), which strongly influences the image fusion of a rapidly acquired CT scan with the slower acquisition of a PET dataset, and the derivation of CT-based attenuation coefficients in the presence of contrast agents or metallic implants. The application of the technology for radiotherapy planning also poses a number of associated challenges. Finally, the development of dedicated PET systems based on planar detector arrangements with new detector components has the potential to improve clinical throughput by over 100%, but clinical trials using such systems have still to be carried out in order to establish the associated whole-body image quality.

In order to make data collection more convenient, quick and accurate in working site in the existing wireless data acquisition system, one kind of multi-function handheld terminal is designed which combines the wireless and wired data acquisition.The paper adopts Atmega128 of ATMEL as microcontroller, nRF905 of Nordic as data transmission module.It designs power management, liquid-crystal display and data storage circuits.The results of practical test show that the handheld terminal can be applied to all kinds of wireless data acquisition networks, and it has several advantages like easy to carry, large data storage capacity, rich function and low cost.

The traditional architecture of an urban intelligent transportation data network has a hierarchical distribution. In this architecture, organizations independently manage and upload data, thereby making data sharing difficult to achieve. To solve this problem, a big data platform of urban intelligent transportation was built in this paper by using blockchain technology. In this platform, block data are used as the core, thereby removing the centralized data management of each organization. This method also completely changes the modes of data acquisition, processing, analysis, and storage and fully realizes platform-based large data sharing, decentralization, and distributed computing of the multi-source system of urban intelligent transportation. The big data platform of urban intelligent transportation based on blockchain technology should also solve several key problems, including the unification of data from different sources, the unified supervision and operation of data, and the compatibility with other advanced technologies. To solve these problems, the key technologies for large data platforms were evaluated from a technical perspective. These technologies include the unified technology of each node, the supervision and operation of multi-technology sharing, and the technology compatibility with vehicle networking and vehicle-road collaboration. By taking the problem of traffic flow data loss in road networks under haze as a simulation case scenario, the application of block chain technology was described. By taking some road networks in Beijing as examples, the simulation results show that under the traditional intelligent transportation data network framework, given the limitations of equipment installation layouts and subordinate management organizations, the coverage of road networks for data acquisition is greatly affected by the objective environment, which may lead to data loss. The data acquisition system should also run independently, thereby preventing data sharing at the bottom of the network. The big data platform architecture of urban intelligent transportation based on blockchain technology addresses the limitations of various organizations, realizes data sharing in urban intelligent transportation, and solves the data loss problem under the traditional network architecture.

Quantitative models for detecting the presence of lead in turmeric using Raman spectroscopy

Data acquisition techniques for computer-based systems are discussed for making continuous pressure, temperature and flow measurements. To ensure that the data faithfully represent the essential signal content over the time interval of interest, the important considerations for each system are measurement resolution, signal bandwidth, sampling, filtering and aliasing. Key data transmission techniques are discussed, starting with downhole recorders that must be hauled out of the hole for data retrieval, to telemetry systems for sending real-time or bulk data transmissions to the surface. The important issues for downhole recorders are storage media and capacity. For signal transmission systems, the issues are information modulation, data and error rate, and signal-to-noise ratio.

This project designs a wireless charging and endurance platform for patrol UAV based on inductive power collection. The main function is to solve the problems of short dead time and continuous inspection of ordinary patrol UAV. The system is mainly composed of transmission line inductive energy taking coil, inductive power supply, energy storage battery module, wireless charging module, energy management module and patrol UAV with wireless charging function.

On the Benefits of Acquiring Peptide Fragment Ions at High Measured Mass Accuracy

Self-diffusion of nuclear spins has been suggested to cause edge enhancement in images especially on a microscopic scale. According to previously published work, theory suggests that edge enhancement is caused by motional narrowing due to the boundaries and spin self-diffusion during the data acquisition period. More careful examination reveals that edge enhancement due to motional narrowing develops only under a few specific conditions. This lack of generality of motional narrowing theory, as well as experimental observations, indicate that edge enhancement due to effects other than motional narrowing alone can exist. It is found that edge enhancement depends greatly on the data acquisition mode; therefore, the images obtained are different depending on the pulse sequence employed. For example, excessive attenuation of DC components due to diffusion can result in edge enhancement in the spin echo signal. However, in the case of FID-like signals, DC components are preserved while positive high frequency parts are attenuated, thereby degrading resolution. The new phenomenon observed has been termed selective spectral suppression since the observed edge enhancement results from the selective attenuation of certain frequency components in the nuclear signals due to diffusion-dependent signal attenuation for a given pulse sequence.

This article presents a system-on-a-chip (SoC) for pressure sensors in 180-nm CMOS technology. It can interface with a capacitive pressure sensor with an inductive wireless power supply and data transmission via load-shift keying (LSK). It integrates an analog front end (AFE), bandgap references (BGRs), delta-sigma ADC, I2C, RC oscillator, low-dropout regulators (LDOs), shorting control switches, and full-bridge rectifier (Rct). An external coil receives wireless power, which is rectified and regulated to 1.8 V by the full-bridge Rct and LDOs. The AFE samples the capacitance change of the pressure sensor to a voltage that is converted into 19-bit digital data by the delta-sigma ADC, which is then converted into 43 Hz per sample serial data by the I2C block. A temperature sensor is included, and 19-bit measurements are transmitted in serial with capacitance data. Serial data are transmitted wirelessly using LSK. This SoC has a measured accuracy of 1 mmHg between 575- and 900-mmHg absolute with a wireless power supply and wireless data transfer.

The utilization of wind and sun as renewable sources causes uncontrollable fluctuations in power generation. Furthermore, the ratio between peak power and average power is high for systems with a limited number of households. In small autonomous renewable energy systems (ARES), energy storage is needed; however, the use of Lead-acid batteries as energy buffers is problematic, since it is not possible to cover fast power fluctuations without dramatically reducing the batteries' lifetime. In this paper Super Capacitors are applied to relieve fast changes in the battery storage system. Batteries are used to meet the energy requirements and Super Capacitors are used to meet the instantaneous power demand. At the end of this paper, a sizing method is proposed for the Super Capacitor system.