A one-class peeling method for multivariate outlier detection with applications in phase I SPC

In phase I of statistical process control (SPC), control charts are often used as outlier detection methods to assess process stability. Many of these methods require estimation of the covariance matrix, are computationally infeasible, or have not been studied when the dimension of the data, $p$, is large. We propose the one-class peeling (OCP) method, a flexible framework that combines statistical and machine learning methods to detect multiple outliers in multivariate data. The OCP method can be applied to phase I of SPC, does not require covariance estimation, and is well suited to high-dimensional data sets with a high percentage of outliers. Our empirical evaluation suggests that the OCP method performs well in high dimensions and is computationally more efficient and robust than existing methodologies. We motivate and illustrate the use of the OCP method in a phase I SPC application on a $N=354$, $p=1917$ dimensional data set containing Wikipedia search results for National Football League (NFL) players, teams, coaches, and managers. The example data set and R functions, OCP.R and OCPLimit.R, to compute the respective OCP distances and thresholds are available in the supplementary materials.     

羊场湾煤矿软岩底板炉渣混凝土加固技术

为提高软岩底板强度而供无轨胶轮车等大型车辆行驶，结合羊场湾煤矿16206机巷软岩底板地质条件，研究了炉渣混凝土底板加固技术，确定了合理的配比方案，并对机巷现场进行混凝土地坪铺设应用。研究与应用结果表明：炉渣混凝土底板强度可满足大型车辆连续运输所需，极大地提高了底板承载能力，防止底鼓，为长距离巷道实现连续运输提供了基础保障。     

近距离煤层煤柱下应力分布和巷道支护技术

针对和尚嘴煤业近距离煤层煤柱下掘进巷道变形大的问题,在介绍地质力学特征的基础上,采用数值模拟分析上部煤层不同方式采动后,采空区和煤柱在下部煤层的应力分布情况。分析煤柱下巷道变形特点和支护要点,结合高预应力强力锚杆支护理论,提出合理的锚网与锚索联合支护设计,现场试验效果明显。     

Exchanging social support on online teacher groups: Relation to teacher self-efficacy

The present study explored the relation between exchanging social support on online teacher groups and teacher self-efficacy. An online survey was conducted inside a massive Facebook teacher group, and 584 elementary school teachers provided information regarding Facebook use, self-efficacy for creative teaching, and the extent to which they provided and received support on the online teacher group. Results showed that teacher self-efficacy varied as a function of years of teaching experience, length of group membership, and the extent to which teachers provided and received social support on the online teacher group. Furthermore, the providing of online support predicted teacher self-efficacy after taking into account the effects of teaching experience and group membership. The findings are discussed in terms of the features and importance of social support exchange on online teacher support groups.     

Wind power and photovoltaic power: How to improve the accommodation capability of renewable electricity generation in China?

China's wind curtailment and photovoltaic curtailment was one of the prominent issues in 2014, and the renewable curtailment worsened in 2015. With the rapid growth of renewables, the phenomenon of the insufficiency in renewable accommodation capability is becoming more and more serious in 2016. In that case, the problem of the insufficient accommodation capability is pointed out by analyzing China's development requirements. The renewable power generation scale, the renewable power consumption, and the restrictions on the renewable electricity generation are discussed from the China's market perspective. Meanwhile, the legal environment, the planning requirement, the institutional setting, and the policy tools are introduced from the perspective of governmental regulation. An empirical analysis, a cause analysis and a trend analysis are illustrated before explaining the problem of renewable curtailment and proposing a solution for enhancing the accommodation capability. According to the analysis results, the solution for addressing the wind curtailment and PV curtailment is offered with respect to the technology, the institution, the legislation, and the political aspect. Through the research, the research conclusions are drew finally and the corresponding policy recommendations are put forward.     

Hydrogen production employing Cu(BDC) metal–organic framework support in methanol steam reforming process within monolithic micro-reactors

Cu(BDC) metal–organic framework (MOF) was used as a support for the copper (Cu) catalyst applied in the methanol steam reforming (MSR) process at low temperatures (130–250 °C) with a feed WHSV = 9.2 h^?1 within the monolithic reactor. Also, the effects of diverse promoters were examined on the catalytic activities of the Cu/X–Cu(BDC) (X = Ce, Zn, Gd, Sm, La, Y, Pr) catalysts. Results showed that the Ce/Sm–Cu(BDC) supports exhibited highest activities, lowest reduction temperatures and largest specific surface areas, which caused highest distributions of the active copper metal nanoparticles on the supports. The reactor tests displayed that the activities of Cu/X–Cu(BDC) (X = Ce, Zn, Gd, Sm, La, Y, Pr) catalysts followed the order X = Ce > Sm > Y > La > Pr > Cu(BDC) > Zn > Gd. The highest activities of Ce and Sm containing catalysts were attributed to the presence of CeO₂ and Sm₂O₃ caused the oxygen vacancies on the catalyst surface which had positive effects on the methanol reforming process. The time-on-stream stability tests showed the highest resistance of the Cu/Ce–Cu(BDC) catalyst to the carbon formation during 32 h. Consequently, the Cu/Ce–Cu(BDC) with the highest stability, methanol conversion and carbon monoxide selectivity could be used in practical industrial applications.     

Intensification of hydrogen production from methanol steam reforming by catalyst segmentation and metallic foam insert

This paper is a numerical study about the catalyst morphology CuO/ZnO/Al₂O₃ effects on the hydrogen production from methanol steam reforming, for proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PMEFC). The study is focused on the influences of the metal foam insert, catalyst layer segmentation, and metal foam as catalyst support on the reactor performance: hydrogen yield and methanol conversion. According to the carried simulations, it is found that these configurations improve the reformer performances compared to the continuous catalyst layer configuration. The insertion of metal foam increases the efficiency of up to 75.41% at 525 K. Also, at this reaction temperature, the segmentation of the catalyst layer in similar parts increases the reformer efficiency by 2.11%, 4.23%, 6.77%, and 8.6% for 2, 4, 8, and 16 identical parts, respectively. As well as, the metal foam as catalyst support is more efficient compared to the other configurations, the efficiency is equal to 64% at T = 495 k.     

A voltage support control strategy based on three-port flexible multi-state switch in distribution networks

Voltage sags in power system may lead to serious problems such as the off-grid of distributed generation and electrical equipment failures. As a novel type of power electronic equipment, a flexible multi-state switch (FMSS) is capable to support the voltage during the grid faults. In this paper, a voltage control strategy to support the voltage in a distribution network is proposed by introducing three-port FMSS. The positive–negative-sequence compensation (PNSC) scheme is adopted to control the active and reactive current. This control scheme eliminates active power oscillations at the port of voltage sags and reduces coupling oscillations of other ports. Based on the characteristics of the voltage support under PNSC scheme, two voltage support strategies are proposed. A proportional-integral controller is introduced to provide the reactive power references, which eliminates the errors when estimating the grid voltage and impedance. A current limiting scheme is adopted to keep the port current in a safe range by adjusting the active and reactive power references. The voltage support strategies in two different voltage sags are simulated, and results show the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed control strategies.     

An Innovative Non-Pillar Coal-Mining Technology with Automatically Formed Entry: A Case Study

A non-pillar coal-mining technology with an automatically formed entry is proposed, which reduces the waste of coal resources and the underground entry drivage workload. Three key techniques in this technology cooperate to achieve automatic formation and retaining of the gob-side entry, and to realize non-pillar mining. Constant-resistance large deformation (CRLD) support ensures the stability of the entry roof; directional presplitting blasting (DPB) separates the entry roof and the gob roof; and a blocking-gangue support system (BGSS) integrates the caved rock material as an effective entry rib. An industrial test was conducted to verify the engineering effects of these key techniques. The field application results showed that the retained entry was under the pressure-relief zone due to the broken-expansion nature of the caved rock mass within the DPB height. After going through a provisional dynamic pressure-bearing zone, the retained entry entered the stability zone. The final stable entry meets the requirements of safety and production. The research results demonstrate the good engineering applicability of this technology. By taking the framework of the technology design principles into consideration and adjusting the measures according to different site conditions, it is expected that the proposed non-pillar coal-mining technology can be popularized on a large scale.     

Sensei: Enforcing secure coding guidelines in the integrated development environment

We discuss the potential benefits, requirements, and implementation challenges of a security-by-design approach in which an integrated development environment plugin assists software developers to write code that complies with secure coding guidelines. We discuss how such a plugin can enable a company's policy-setting security experts and developers to pass their knowledge on to each other more efficiently, and to let developers more effectively put that knowledge into practice. This is achieved by letting the team members develop customized rule sets that formalize coding guidelines and by letting the plugin check the compliance of code being written to those rule sets in real time, similar to an as-you-type spell checker. Upon detected violations, the plugin suggests options to quickly fix them and offers additional information for the developer. We share our experience with proof-of-concept designs and implementations rolled out in multiple companies, and present some future research and development directions.