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Leadership, certainly effective leadership, is all about making good choices. When the stakes are high and a consequential decision required, business leaders place a greater reliance on logical processes than on instinct and intuition. Diving headlong into the fray fits the leader-hero image but is rarely practiced in modern business. A more accurate image may be the jet liner pilot who relies on a standard process involving flight charts, electronic instrumentation, a copilot, and a navigator.

This chapter describes electronic instrumentation. By the term instrumentation, we mean the equipment and devices that measure engine and other vehicle variables and parameters for control or to display their status to the driver.

This paper proposes a method for impedance measurements based on a closed-loop implementation of CMOS circuits. The proposed system has been conceived for alternate current excited systems, performing simultaneously driving and measuring functions, thanks to feedback. The system delivers magnitude and phase signals independently, which can be optimized separately, and can be applied to any kind of load (resistive and capacitive). Design specifications for CMOS circuit blocks and trade-offs for system accuracy and loop stability have been derived. Electrical simulation results obtained for several loads agree with the theory, enabling the proposed method to any impedance measurement problem, in special, to bio-setups including electrodes., This work was in part supported by the Spanish founded Project: TEC2007-68072, Técnicas para mejorar la calidad del test y las prestaciones del diseño en tecnologías CMOS submicrométricas.

This paper presents a new system for determining yarn hairiness and diameter using a CMOS linear array together with a data acquisition board and custom developed software. The final image is generated using coherent optical signal processing with a Fourier high-pass spatial filter. The system was previously tested and validated in simulation using an image analysis line profile tool. Several analyses were performed in a laboratorial environment testing different yarns. Finally, the results obtained with this new system are compared to those obtained previously using a simple photodiode in place of the linear photodiode array. The new system is more precise although the data processing requires significant computational effort.

In electrical and control engineering education the stochastic signal theory is gradually evolving to a middle-undergraduate level. During pre- and early-university training the student has been exposed predominantly to deterministic thinking. This implies that for numerous students the mastering of stochastic concepts is quite a difficult assignment.

This paper summarizes the pioneering work leading to the development of scientific studies of the physics of shock-compressed matter at Los Alamos and culminating in the publication of the article “Compression of Solids by Strong Shock Waves,” by M. H. Rice, R. G. McQueen, and J. M. Walsh, Solid State Physics, Vol. VI, 1958. The work had its beginning during World War II when it became clear that development of a plutonium weapon would probably require the use of high explosives. It was immediately obvious to the staff that an entirely new level of sophistication in explosives technology would be required and that the equations of state of metals must be thoroughly understood. Following a suggestion by C. Critchfield, R. W. Goranson started a program to obtain equation-of-state data from shock-wave experiments. This program, begun late in 1944 and made possible only by the current and subsequent developments in explosive fabrication technology and electronic instrumentation, was continued after the war by Goranson and his successors. Nevertheless, the program remained relatively fallow until about 1950 when an influx of enthusiastic young staff were able to take advantage of a maturity of technical facilities. Centrally important to the new thrust were, (1) an optical diagnostics group which had developed a thorough familiarity with the technique in studies of shocked gases, (2) a charter to “work in various aspects of hydrodynamics in unusual areas,” and (3) the overall supervision which, in consonance with general Laboratory policy, looked favorably on research without restriction. In the summer of 1952, J. M. Walsh with M. H. Rice and C. M. Fowler, developed the flash-gap technique that made possible rapid and ultimately essential mass production of shot assemblies. Their recognition of the potential of impedance-matching techniques enabled them to begin a highly efficient major experimental program. The investigations of R. G. Shreffler and W. E. Deal on explosively driven plates prompted the group, strengthened by R. G. McQueen and S. P. Marsh, to expand the work into the megabar region over the next few years. Meanwhile, a discrepancy between flash-gap data and older pin data prompted D. Bancroft, E. Peterson, and F. S. Minshall to investigate iron in detail and discover the 130-kbar phase transition. Also at that time, relaxed security restrictions made publication possible. Prominent in the early work was the involvement of D. S. Hughes from the University of Texas and the reinvention of the dc capacitor by M. H. Rice. This capacitor permitted improved velocity resolution over that of pins and required less assembly time.

Publisher Summary This chapter describes various aspects of electronic instrumentation for oceanography. Electronic instrumentation, because of its ability to make measurements and analyze data rapidly, is becoming progressively more important, in oceanographic research in spite of its limitations. Its utility lies in its ability to do sophisticated tasks which, by their nature, require complicated equipment. Careful engineering is required to make such equipment reliable and rugged enough for use at sea. The desirability of a wave recorder which can be mounted on a ship at sea is apparent, both for research into the generation and propagation of waves and for the study of ship motion due to the waves. Telemetering wave-measuring buoys have an advantage over the self-recording buoys because their operation can continually be monitored and most malfunctions can be recognized as soon as they occur, thus minimizing questionable or lost data. It is found that the successful use of resistance wires for the measurement of waves requires careful design of the measuring circuits and knowledge of the electrical behavior of the wires in the water.

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses counting and sizing micro-organisms with the coulter counter. Routine application to sizing of micro-organisms is facilitated by the development of large-capacity, transistorized electronic instrumentation. Accurate and rapid measurement of complete cell volume distributions requires a multichannel analyzer with large-capacity analyzers, both cell volumes and cell concentrations can be determined far more rapidly and accurately than by other techniques; micro-organisms can be counted at rates of about 50,000 cells/min with some instruments, and complete cell-size distributions can be determined within 10 sec. Thus, both cell numbers and cell volumes can be determined continuously during the course of growth of even the most rapidly growing cultures. These characteristics make Coulter counter-analyzer systems especially valuable for studies of synchronous cell cultures. The chapter further sample preparation and operational procedures.