A comprehensive appraisal of perceptual visual complexity analysis methods in GUI design

Graphical or Visual User Interface (GUI) is recognized as one of the most important application components for safety critical and business oriented software systems. It is highly advantageous for GUI designers and application developers to analyze the visual complexity of a GUI and predict users’ perception and judgment during the design phase. Although in recent years, various methods have been developed for visual complexity analysis, these have not been widely used due to applicability, practicality and validity issues. In this respect, we have conducted a comprehensive review of studies and methods in visual complexity analysis. After identifying and analyzing 85 research studies, we grouped the visual complexity analysis methods and accordingly a taxonomy is presented. Furthermore, conceptual comparison of the methods is given and gap analysis as well as possible future directions are provided. According to the our findings, major gaps for each visual complexity analysis method may be stated as follows: 1) In metric-model based methods, there is a lack of information about the suitability of the metric-model created for analysis, since the extent to which each metric contributes to visual complexity analysis is still not known exactly. 2) In heuristic- based methods, the extracted rule set is not yet extendable enough beyond the use for specific GUIs. 3) While the visual complexity analysis could be considered as a kind of computer vision task, there exist limited studies that does so. Therefore, generalizable solutions based on machine learning techniques seem to be a promising research direction to develop efficient approaches.     

Experimental investigations and constitutive modeling of cyclic interface shearing between HDPE geomembrane and sandy gravel

This paper presents the results of experimental investigations and constitutive modeling of cyclic interface shearing between HDPE geomembrane and cohesionless sandy gravel. A series of cyclic interface shear tests was performed using a large-scale cyclic shear apparatus with servo controlled system. Particular attention was paid to the influences of the amount of shear-displacement amplitude, number of cycles, shear rate and the normal pressure on the mechanical response. The experimental results show that the path of the shear stress against the cyclic shear displacement is strongly non-linear and forms a closed hysteresis loop, which is pressure dependent, but almost independent of the shear rate. For small shear-displacement amplitudes, the obtained damping ratio is significantly greater than zero, which is different to the behavior usually observed for cyclic soil to soil shearing. In order to describe the pressure dependency of the hysteresis loop using a single set of constitutive parameters, new approximation functions are put forward and embedded into the concept of the Masing rule. Further, a new empirical function is proposed for the damping ratios to capture the experimental data for both small and large cyclic shear-displacement amplitudes. The included model parameters are easy to calibrate and the new functions may also be useful in developing enhanced constitutive models for the simulation of the cyclic interface shear behavior between other geosynthetics and soils.     

玻璃纤维增强建筑用聚乙烯树脂复合材料的性能

采用剥离测试方法来表征制得的玻璃纤维增强建筑用聚乙烯树脂复合材料的界面黏结强度,并对其进行红外光谱、接触角、微观组织测试与分析。研究结果表明:采用浸润剂处理可以使玻璃表面生成新基团;浸润剂能够提高玻璃表面接触角,从而更易与树脂形成浸润状态,由此改善玻璃和树脂的界面结合状态,实现界面黏结特性的显著优化。在剥离测试中发现经浸润剂处理后,玻璃可以和树脂之间形成更强的界面结合作用;树脂从玻璃表面发生剥离之后,形成了光滑的玻璃片,同时还有部分纵横交错的划痕。     

High-dose,intermediate-temperature neutron irradiation effects on silicon carbide composites with varied fiber/matrix interfaces

SiC/SiC composites are promising structural candidate materials for various nuclear applications over the wide temperature range of 300–1000 °C. Accordingly, irradiation tolerance over this wide temperature range needs to be understood to ensure the performance of these composites. In this study, neutron irradiation effects on dimensional stability and mechanical properties to high doses (11–44 dpa) at intermediate irradiation temperatures (?600 °C) were evaluated for Hi-Nicalon Type-S or Tyranno-SA3 fiber–reinforced SiC matrix composites produced by chemical vapor infiltration. The influence of various fiber/matrix interfaces, such as a 50–120 nm thick pyrolytic carbon (PyC) monolayer interphase and 70–130 nm thick PyC with a subsequent PyC (?20 nm)/SiC (?100 nm) multilayer, was evaluated and compared with the previous results for a thin-layer PyC (?20 nm)/SiC (?100 nm) multilayer interphase. Four-point flexural tests were conducted to evaluate post-irradiation strength, and SEM and TEM were used to investigate microstructure. Regardless of the fiber type, monolayer composites showed considerable reduction of flexural properties after irradiation to 11–12 dpa at 450–500 °C; and neither type showed the deterioration identified at the same dose level at higher temperatures (>750 °C) in a previous study. After further irradiation to 44 dpa at 590–640 °C, the degradation was enhanced compared with conventional multilayer composites with a PyC thickness of ?20 nm. Multilayer composites have shown comparatively good strength retention for irradiation to ?40 dpa, with moderate mechanical property degradation beginning at 70–100 dpa. Irradiation-induced debonding at the F/M interface was found to be the major cause of deterioration of various composites.     

Preparation and properties of high-strength-high-modulus polyimide cords/natural rubber composites

High-strength-high-modulus polyimide (PI) cords reinforced natural rubber (NR) composites are prepared, and the PI cords are treated with resorcinol-formaldehyde-latex (RFL) adhesive to enhance the interfacial adhesion with NR matrix. The influence of RFL adhesive variables, such as the ratio of R/F and RF/L, on the adhesion between PI cords and NR is investigated. Furthermore, sorbitol glycidyl ether (SGE) and caprolactam blocked methylene diisocyanate (CBI) are adhered to the surface of the PI cords through a dip-coating procedure to introduce epoxy and NCO groups and graft with more RFL adhesive. The H pull-out force of SGE/CBI-RFL treated PI cords/NR composites reaches as high as 193.9 N, which is 580% higher than that of untreated PI ones. Additionally, the SGE/CBI-RFL treated PI cords/NR composites exhibit superior adhesion, aging, and fatigue resistance together with better mechanical properties as compared with SGE/CBI-RFL treated poly(para-phenylene terephtalamide) (PPTA) cords/NR composites.     

First-principles investigation on stability and electronic structure of Sc-doped θ′/Al interface in Al−Cu alloys

The properties of Sc-doped θ′ (Al₂Cu)/Al interface in Al−Cu alloys were investigated by first-principles calculations. Sc-doped semi-coherent and coherent θ′ (Al₂Cu)/Al interfaces (Sc doped in Al slab (S1 site), Sc doped in θ′ slab (S2 site)) were modeled based on calculated results and reported experiments. Through the analysis of interfacial bonding strength, it is revealed that the doping of Sc at S1 site can significantly decrease the interface energy and increase the work of adhesion. In particular, the doped coherent interface with Sc at S1 site which is occupied by interstitial Cu atoms has very good bonding strength. The electronic structure shows the strong Al—Cu bonds at the interfaces with Sc at S1 site, and the Al—Al bonds at the interfaces with Sc at S2 site are formed. The formation of strong Al—Cu and Al—Al bonds plays an important role in the enhancement of doped interface strength.     

高集成度射频收发器的差分正交调制解调测试与工程实现

针对高集成度射频收发器(AD9361)实现差分正交调制解调(DQPSK)收发过程中存在的工程实现问题,采用理论分析与硬件平台实现相结合的方法测试AD9361,验证DQPSK调制解调;先通过Serial Peripheral Interface(SPI)接口测试AD9361自发自收,采用点积叉积方法实现了DQPSK的调制解调;配置AD9361过程中,通过测试定位初始化后AD9361输出端无波形、通过示波器观察发现AD9361发射与接收本振时域波形扭曲、频谱仪观察AD9361输出端谐波分量严重、DQPSK解调时发射本振与接收本振存在随机相位误差4个疑难问题,分别通过采用降低SPI时钟频率为10 MHz、AD9361芯片的系统时钟更改设置为40 MHz、初始化过程中输出端频率设置为1.4 GHz、DQPSK的解调采用点积叉积方式进行解调4种方法予以解决;实验结果表明4个相关问题解决效果良好,所实现的DQPSK收发性能可靠。     

Engineering knowledge formalization and proposition for informatics development towards a CAD-integrated DfX system for product design

Target design methodologies (DfX) were developed to cope with specific engineering design issues such as cost-effectiveness, manufacturability, assemblability, maintainability, among others. However, DfX methodologies are undergoing the lack of real integration with 3D CAD systems. Their principles are currently applied downstream of the 3D modelling by following the well-known rules available from the literature and engineers’ know-how (tacit internal knowledge).This paper provides a method to formalize complex DfX engineering knowledge into explicit knowledge that can be reused for Advanced Engineering Informatics to aid designers and engineers in developing mechanical products. This research work wants to define a general method (ontology) able to couple DfX design guidelines (engineering knowledge) with geometrical product features of a product 3D model (engineering parametric data). A common layer for all DfX methods (horizontal) and dedicated layers for each DfX method (vertical) allow creating the suitable ontology for the systematic collection of the DfX rules considering each target. Moreover, the proposed framework is the first step for developing (future work) a software tool to assist engineers and designers during product development (3D CAD modelling).A design for assembly (DfA) case study shows how to collect assembly rules in the given framework. It demonstrates the applicability of the CAD-integrated DfX system in the mechanical design of a jig-crane. Several benefits are recognized: (i) systematic collection of DfA rules for informatics development, (ii) identification of assembly issues in the product development process, and (iii) reduction of effort and time during the design review.     

On a marching level-set method for extended discontinuous Galerkin methods for incompressible two-phase flows: Application to two-dimensional settings

In this work a solver for two-dimensional, instationary two-phase flows on the basis of the extended discontinuous Galerkin (extended DG/XDG) method is presented. The XDG method adapts the approximation space conformal to the position of the interface. This allows a subcell accurate representation of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations in their sharp interface formulation. The interface is described as the zero set of a signed-distance level-set function and discretized by a standard DG method. For the interface, resp. level-set, evolution an extension velocity field is used and a two-staged algorithm is presented for its construction on a narrow-band. On the cut-cells a monolithic elliptic extension velocity method is adapted and a fast-marching procedure on the neighboring cells. The spatial discretization is based on a symmetric interior penalty method and for the temporal discretization a moving interface approach is adapted. A cell agglomeration technique is utilized for handling small cut-cells and topology changes during the interface motion. The method is validated against a wide range of typical two-phase surface tension driven flow phenomena in a 2D setting including capillary waves, an oscillating droplet and the rising bubble benchmark.     

A novel set-up and a CFD approach to study the biofilm dynamics as a function of local flow conditions encountered in fresh-cut food processing equipments

The hydrodynamic conditions as well as design and surface properties within fresh-cut food processing equipment create a complex environment for biofilms. A new experimental approach was thus proposed to identify those physical parameters impacting biofilm development in such conditions. A set-up comprising original mock-ups mimicking generic features of washing tanks (e.g. welds, folds, flat surfaces, air/liquid/wall interface) was designed. The flow pattern therein was characterized using two computational fluid dynamic calculation approaches. Full trials were run for 48 h at 10 °C with a Pseudomonas fluorescens strain to identify the preferential biofilm formation areas. As in current industrial systems, the pilot rig had recirculation areas and low wall shear stress rates (τ_w < 0.1 Pa) in corners and angles. These were identified as critical areas with Surface Microbial Loads (SML) over 5 Log₁₀/cm². However, τ_w alone failed to explain why SML in areas under unidirectional flow was higher than in the mock-ups. Lastly, air/liquid/wall interface conditions were more critical than immersed surfaces. This study validated the possibility of using CFD methods to understand the way in which flow pattern influences biofilm formation. The methodology proposed would be helpful in quantifying equipment components criticality based on biofilm growth parameters.