Information-intensive systems interfaces

The low resolution mass spectrum of calcitriol is shown in Figure 4 (4). The spectrum was obtained using a Varian MAT CH5 spectrometer, which was interfaced with a Varian data system 620 I. The data system accepts the output of the spectrometer, calculates the masses, compares the intensities to the base peak, and plots this information as a series of lines whose heights are proportional to the intensities. 

We propose signal processing of the UVP output. The gas-liquid interface is detected without using the echo intensity or any optical information. The method presented in this section represents an intermediate and necessary step in the development of an ultrasound-based sensor for reducing frictional drag. In the near future, a complete monitoring system for a bubbly two-phase boundary layer is to be developed. The system is to be applied to ships and pipelines. 

Unmanned satellite laboratories are a possible alternative to a central laboratory facility. To demonstrate the practicality of such an approach, investigators at the University of Virginia have developed remote automated laboratory systems- (RALS) designed to automate POCT in hospital intensive care units. The results from the analytical instruments in each RALS are sent to a central monitoring workstation several floors away from the satellite laboratory by a network interface, where results are viewed and either accepted or rejected by a trained medical technologist before being released for clinical use. Error codes built into the analytical instruments are also passed to the main laboratory by the computer netw ork. Technologists in the control center can also shut down the satellite laboratory when necessary, as in the case of instrument failure. Patient information is downloaded from the hospital information system in real time so that users can select their patients and the tests to perform from a fist presented on the computer touchscreen. 

Spectroscopic studies of liquid interfaces provide important information about the composition and structure of the interfacial region. Early work was mainly carried out at the solid liquid interface and involved techniques such as neutron and X-ray diffraction, and reflection FTIR spectroscopy. More recently, powerful techniques have been developed to study the liquid liquid and liquid gas interfaces. These studies are especially important because of their relevance to biological systems such as cell membranes. The techniques described here are second-harmonic generation (SHG) and vibrational sum frequency spectroscopy (VSFS). They are both second-order non-linear optical techniques which are specific to the interfacial region. Since the second-order effects involve signals of low intensity, they rely on high-power lasers. 

In Chapter 4, Professor Donald W. Brenner and his co-workers Olga A. Shenderova and Denis A. Areshkin explore density functional theory and quantum-based analytic interatomic forces as they pertain to simulations of materials. The study of interfaces, fracture, point defects, and the new area of nanotechnology can be aided by atomistic simulations. Atom-level simulations require the use of an appropriate force field model because quantum mechanical calculations, although useful, are too compute-intensive for handling large systems or long simulation times. For these cases, analytic potential energy functions can be used to provide detailed information. Use of reliable quantum mechanical models to derive the functions is explained in this chapter. 

During the past decade, synchrotron-based XAFS spectroscopy has been used in simple model sorption systems to provide detailed information on the molecular-scale speciation of metal ions sorbed at submonolayer coverages at metal oxide-aqueous solution interfaces [see references in (9-14)]. Intense, wavelength-tunable... 

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