Urban growth modeling of Kathmandu metropolitan region, Nepal

The complexity of urban system requires integrated tools and techniques to understand the spatial process of urban development and project the future scenarios. This research aims to simulate urban growth patterns in Kathmandu metropolitan region in Nepal. The region, surrounded by complex mountainous terrain, has very limited land resources for new developments. As similar to many cities of the developing world, it has been facing rapid population growth and daunting environmental problems. Three time series land use maps in a fine-scale (30 m resolution), derived from satellite remote sensing, for the last three decades of the 20th century were used to clarify the spatial process of urbanization. Based on the historical experiences of the land use transitions, we adopted weight of evidence method integrated in cellular automata framework for predicting the future spatial patterns of urban growth. We extrapolated urban development patterns to 2010 and 2020 under the current scenario across the metropolitan region. Depending on local characteristics and land cover transition rates, this model produced noticeable spatial pattern of changes in the region. Based on the extrapolated spatial patterns, the urban development in the Kathmandu valley will continue through both in-filling in existing urban areas and outward rapid expansion toward the east and south directions. Overall development will be greatly affected by the existing urban space, transportation network, and topographic complexity.     

Self-organizing maps with asymmetric neighborhood function

The self-organizing map (SOM) is an unsupervised learning method as well as a type of nonlinear principal component analysis that forms a topologically ordered mapping from the high-dimensional data space to a low-dimensional representation space. It has recently found wide applications in such areas as visualization, classification, and mining of various data. However, when the data sets to be processed are very large, a copious amount of time is often required to train the map, which seems to restrict the range of putative applications. One of the major culprits for this slow ordering time is that a kind of topological defect (e.g., a kink in one dimension or a twist in two dimensions) gets created in the map during training. Once such a defect appears in the map during training, the ordered map cannot be obtained until the defect is eliminated, for which the number of iterations required is typically several times larger than in the absence of the defect. In order to overcome this weakness, we propose that an asymmetric neighborhood function be used for the SOM algorithm. Compared with the commonly used symmetric neighborhood function, we found that an asymmetric neighborhood function accelerates the ordering process of the SOM algorithm, though this asymmetry tends to distort the generated ordered map. We demonstrate that the distortion of the map can be suppressed by improving the asymmetric neighborhood function SOM algorithm. The number of learning steps required for perfect ordering in the case of the one-dimensional SOM is numerically shown to be reduced from O(N(3)) to O(N(2)) with an asymmetric neighborhood function, even when the improved algorithm is used to get the final map without distortion.     

Simulation of postoperative 3D facial morphology using a physics-based head model

We propose a prototype of a facial surgery simulation system for surgical planning and the prediction of facial deformation. We use a physics-based human head model. Our head model has a 3D hierarchical structure that consists of soft tissue and the skull, constructed from the exact 3D CT patient data. Anatomic points measured on X-ray images from both frontal and side views are used to fire the model to the patient's head. The purposes of this research is to analyze the relationship between changes of mandibular position and facial morphology after orthognathic surgery, and to simulate the exact postoperative 3D facial shape. In the experiment, we used our model to predict the facial shape after surgery for patients with mandibular prognathism. Comparing the simulation results and the actual facial images after the surgery shows that the proposed method is practical.     

De Haas-van Alphen effect study of magnetic interaction in lead

Frequency and amplitude modulation (FM and AM) of a high-frequency (HF) de Haas-van Alphen oscillation due to magnetic interaction (MI) with a low-frequency (LF) oscillation in lead has been examined for field directions parallel to and close to 110, in the light of the old and of a new treatment of MI based on uniform and inhomogeneous inductions over the sample, respectively. The de Haas-van Alphen signals have been measured by the standard low-frequency field modulation method. The strength of AM and the sideband around HF have been examined as a function of the strength of FM and it is found that the experimental data deviate significantly from the prediction by the old treatment. Moreover, the deviation depends not only on the particular sample chosen to study, but also on the orientation, suggesting that the MI effect is influenced by the microscopic inhomogeneity of the sample. The absolute amplitude of LF also has been measured and is found again to deviate significantly from the prediction by the old treatment. However, the measured amplitude shows a satisfactory agreement with the prediction by the new treatment. In conclusion, the new treatment is a plausible theory which can describe all our experimental results, not only qualitatively but also quantitatively.     

Nitrogen and phosphorus effluent loads from a paddy-field district adopting collective crop rotation

Japanese paddy rice systems commonly adopt the rotation of vegetables, wheat and soybeans with paddy rice. Crop rotation may, however, increase the nutrient load in effluent discharged from the district because more fertilizer is applied to the rotation crops than is applied to paddy crops. We investigated a paddy-field district subject to collective crop rotation and quantified the annual nutrient load of effluent from the district in three consecutive years. The total annual exports of nitrogen and phosphorus over the investigation period ranged from 30.3 to 40.6 kg N ha(-1) and 2.62 to 3.13 kg P ha(-1). The results suggest that rotation cropping increases the effluent nutrient load because applied fertilizer is converted to nitrate, and surface runoff is increased due to the absence of shuttering boards at the field outlets.     

薄壁曲线箱梁材料非线性分析的内力塑性系数法

目的 研究薄壁曲线箱梁考虑剪力滞效应和材料非线性的计算方法.方法 基于势能变分原理,推导了薄壁曲线箱梁的刚度方程.采用变刚度初法应力法,并结合截面内力塑性系数修正刚度系数,对薄壁曲线箱梁的材料非线性问题进行了求解.结果 通过算例计算,得到了曲线箱梁顶底板的应力分布以及挠度和扭转角的变化曲线.结论 笔者的计算结果与试验值整体吻合较好.对于薄壁曲线箱梁,悬臂板、顶板和底板,分别取三个不同的剪力滞翘曲位移函数的结果,精度优于三者取一个统一的剪力滞翘曲位移函数;随荷载的增加,弯曲剪力滞效应系数较挠度和扭转角更早进入非线性状态,翼缘截面上的应力分布逐渐趋于均匀,上翼缘应力的这种变化趋势要略滞后于下翼缘,而中支座截面翼缘应力的这种变化趋势则略快于左跨跨中和右跨跨中截面.     

基于6-DOF解耦操作臂的空间遥操作控制及运动学分析

针对由6-DOF解耦操作臂及其末端手爪组成的操作臂系统,设计了符合工程实际的遥操作控制策略,并提出了一种简单的运动学解算方法.采用Motoman工业操作臂,对提出的方法进行了实验验证.实验结果证明了所提方法的可行性.     

Agglomeration control of hydroxyapatite nano-crystals grown in phase-separated microenvironments

Materials synthesis processes that require high temperatures consume large quantities of energy that generate an environmental burden. We attempted to synthesize hydroxyapatite (HAp) nano-crystals without firing or melting. “Water in oil” (W/O) emulsions were employed as microreactors for HAp formation. The surfactant-bounded water mediated HAp crystal nucleation, and HAp nano-crystallites were obtained. The obtained particles were aggregates composed of plate-like nano-crystals and monodisperse tiny crystals. Utilization of the W/O emulsions resulted in tunable nucleation frequency and the reactant provision, and yielded HAp nano-crystals with characteristic agglomeration properties.     

Helium gas permeability of montmorillonite/epoxy nanocomposites

Helium gas permeability of silicate clay (montmorillonite) particles/epoxy nanocomposites was examined. The incorporation of increasing amounts of montmorillonite particles reduced the helium gas permeability. Based on Fick’s law, gas permeation behavior of the nanocomposite was evaluated. With the increase of montmorillonite loading, gas diffusivity decreased, while gas solubility increased. Helium diffusion behavior is in agreement to the numerical results based on the Hatta–Taya–Eshelby theory. It has been revealed that dispersion of nanoscale platelets in polymer is effective in improving gas barrier property.     

Surface modification of biodegradable plastics by ion beams

Biodegradable plastics can be used as conventional plastics, while on disposal they decompose to water and carbon dioxide by microorganisms existing in natural environment. Products using biodegradable plastics have recently been developed in many companies pursuing ecology. In this study, surface modification of biodegradable plastics was carried out by inert ion beams for improvement of photo deterioration under an ultraviolet ray. The hardness of biodegradable plastics tended generally to decrease with irradiation of an ultraviolet ray. In this method, the hardness of ion-bombarded biodegradable plastics was kept at an initial value under an ultraviolet ray, because the modified layer by ion bombardment intercepted an ultraviolet ray. The hardness of He⁺ ion-bombarded biodegradable plastics showed larger value than that of Ar⁺ ion bombardment. He⁺ ion bombardment at ion energy of 10 keV produced the suitable property with both of high transmittance of a visible ray and high interception of an ultraviolet ray in a surface layer of biodegradable plastics.