The control of paracetamol particle size and surface morphology through crystallisation in a spray dryer

The parameters governing the crystallisation of paracetamol using various conventional techniques has been extensively studied, however the factors influencing the drug crystallisation using spray drying is not as well understood. The aim of this work was to investigate the crystallisation of an active pharmaceutical ingredient through evaporative crystallisation using a spray dryer to study the physicochemical properties of the drug and to use semi-empirical equations to gain insight into the morphology and particle size of the dried powder. Paracetamol solutions were spray dried at various inlet temperatures ranging from 60 °C to 120 °C and also from a series of inlet feed solvent compositions ranging from 50/50% v/v ethanol/water to 100% ethanol and solid-state characterisation was done. The size and morphology of the dried materials were altered with a change in spray drying parameters, with an increase in inlet temperature leading to an increase in particle Sauter mean diameter (from 3.0 to 4.4 µm) and a decrease in the particle size with an increase in ethanol concentration in the feed (from 4.6 to 4.4 µm) as a result of changes in particle density and atomised droplet size. The morphology of the dried particles consisted of agglomerates of individual crystallites bound together into larger semi-spherical agglomerates with a higher tendency for particles having crystalline ridges to form at higher ethanol concentrations of the feed.     

干湿联合冷却塔冷却节水分析软件开发及应用

为实现对干湿联合冷却塔冷却特性、节水特性的综合分析，编制干湿联合冷却塔校核计算流程，基于Visual Studio开发平台，本文开发了干湿联合冷却塔冷却节水特性分析优化软件。通过对某在运干湿联合冷却塔进行冷却节水特性计算，验证了所开发软件计算结果的准确性；在消雾节水计算结果基础上，对标干湿联合消雾冷却塔验收测试规程，生成其成雾频率曲线、耗水量曲线、塔雾指数、冷却特性曲线，综合分析其消雾特性、节水特性及冷却特性，从而确定了干湿联合冷却塔的最佳运行工况。同时运用所开发软件对比分析了某冷却塔设计干段散热面积对其消雾特性、节水特性及冷却特性的耦合影响，并分析了百叶窗开度对干湿联合冷却塔性能的影响，为干湿联合冷却塔的运行优化和设计优化提供了工具性软件支持。     

论三峡水库“蓄清排浑”运用方式及其优化

泥沙问题是三峡工程的关键技术问题之一,在三峡工程论证和初步设计阶段提出水库采取"蓄清排浑"的运用方式,可以解决泥沙问题。2003年水库蓄水运用以来的实践表明,水库基本遵循了"蓄清排浑"调度运用原则,并根据上游来水来沙减少等新情况对水库运用方式进行了优化调整。本文系统分析了三峡水库"蓄清排浑"运行方式及其优化调整的利弊,包括提前5年实施175 m试验性蓄水、汛期水位动态变化、汛末提前蓄水等对水库淤积和坝下游河道演变的影响,提出了进一步优化水库调度方式,形成"蓄清排浑"运用的新模式,保持水库长期使用的建议,试图为三峡水库科学高效安全运用提供科技支撑。     

建筑材料供应中断对承包商成本的冲击研究——基于鲁棒模型分析

为了揭示供应商与承包商为主体的二级供应链中，两者间耦合作用条件下发生的供应中断对供应商最优决策及对承包商成本的影响机制，且剖析供应中断对承包商成本的冲击效应，以供应商存在高退出风险为研究对象，在仅知产量均值与方差条件下，运用Scarf提出的“极大极小值”鲁棒决策方法，通过设定不同决策情况下的供应链系统反馈，分析了不同退出标准情况下二级供应链的博弈过程。基于理论支撑下的鲁棒模型数值仿真结果得出：在退出标准α为100时，中间变量在290~350范围内，供应商存在最优决策，但承包商最优决策无法确定；与α为0时相比，在订货量达到一定状态，即α为140时，承包商成本增加了1.5%，表明承包商成本与供应商退出标准呈正相关，退出标准越高，对承包商成本造成的冲击效应越大。此研究结论为供应链初期不稳定且信息不完整条件下发生的供应中断影响机理提供了新的视角。     

结合深度学习与支持向量机的金属零件识别

目的 在视觉引导的工业机器人自动拾取研究中，关键技术难点之一是机器人抓取目标区域的识别问题。特别是金属零件，其表面的反光、随意摆放时相互遮挡等非结构化因素都给抓取区域的识别带来巨大的挑战。因此，本文提出一种结合深度学习和支持向量机的抓取区域识别方法。方法 分别提取抓取区域的方向梯度直方图（HOG）和局部二进制模式（LBP）特征，利用主成分分析法（PCA）对融合后的特征进行降维，以此来训练支持向量机（SVM）分类器。通过训练Mask R-CNN（regions with convolutional neural network）神经网络完成抓取区域的初步分割。然后利用SVM对Mask R-CNN识别的抓取区域进行二次分类，完成对干扰区域的剔除。最后计算掩码完成实例分割，以此达到对抓取区域的精确识别。结果 对于随机摆放的铜质金属零件，本文算法与单一的Mask R-CNN及多特征融合的SVM算法就识别准确率、错检率、漏检率3个指标进行了比较，结果表明本文算法在识别准确率上较Mask R-CNN和SVM算法分别提高了7%和25%，同时有效降低了错检率与漏检率。结论 本文算法结合了Mask R-CNN与SVM两种方法，对于反光和遮挡情况具有一定的鲁棒性，同时有效地提升了目标识别的准确率。     

基于改进雷达图的配电系统电能质量评估方法

本文针对配电系统电能质量综合评估存在的评估指标权重分配过于主观或客观的问题,提出一种基于改进雷达图法的配电系统电能质量评估方法。该方法利用最小偏差组合权重法计算各评估指标的最优组合权重。并在传统雷达图的基础上对各指标轴间夹角值的确定和特征向量的选取两方面做了进一步的改进。首先采用扇形区域取代原始的三角形区域,并利用最小偏差组合权重法计算各指标轴间夹角值。其次选择新的特征向量构造评估函数对配电系统电能质量进行综合评估。最后通过对某钢铁厂棒材变电站10kV配电系统电能质量进行综合评估,验证了该方法的可行性和合理性。较传统雷达图而言,改进雷达图法解决了传统雷达图法中各指标间信息共用以及评估结果不唯一的问题,使评估结果更加准确合理。     

Robustness of asymptotic accelerated life test plans to small‐sample settings

Much of the statistical literature on optimal test planning for accelerated life testing utilize asymptotic methods to derive optimal test plans. While sufficient effort is made to assess the robustness of these test plans to the choice of design parameters and distribution assumptions, there is very little literature on the performance of asymptotic test plans relative to small samples (on the order of 10‐15 samples). An alternative concern is that the asymptotic test plans may not necessarily be the true “optimal” test plan for a given sample size. The purpose of this research is to present exact or “near‐exact” methods for developing test plans and compare the performance of these test plans with corresponding asymptotic test plans in small‐sample settings. The optimal location of design points and sample allocation is determined using each method for lognormal and Weibull lifetime distributions with both complete and Type 1 right‐censored data under two selected acceleration factor models. The investigations reveal that asymptotic test plans tend to corroborate quite well with exact test plans and thus are suitably robust to small‐sample settings in terms of optimal variance.     

Order-of-addition experiments: A review and some new thoughts

Abstract

The study of order-of-addition (OofA) experiments is prevalent in many scientific and industrial areas. The statistical design of experiments (DOE) will considerably improve the efficiency of OofA experiments. Designing and modeling the OofA experiments have increasingly received a great deal of attention. In this article, we review the latest work on the design and model of OofA experiments, and introduce some new thoughts. We believe that this article will motivate fruitful applications in real OofA experiments as well as future developments in the methodology.