Coil‐Type Asymmetric Supercapacitor Electrical Cables

Cable‐shaped supercapacitors (SCs) have recently aroused significant attention due to their attractive properties such as small size, lightweight, and bendability. Current cable‐shaped SCs have symmetric device configuration. However, if an asymmetric design is used in cable‐shaped supercapacitors, they would become more attractive due to broader cell operation voltages, which results in higher energy densities. Here, a novel coil‐type asymmetric supercapacitor electrical cable (CASEC) is reported with enhanced cell operation voltage and extraordinary mechanical‐electrochemical stability. The CASECs show excellent charge–discharge profiles, extraordinary rate capability (95.4%), high energy density (0.85 mWh cm⁻³), remarkable flexibility and bendability, and superior bending cycle stability (≈93.0% after 4000 cycles at different bending states). In addition, the CASECs not only exhibit the capability to store energy but also to transmit electricity simultaneously and independently. The integrated electrical conduction and storage capability of CASECS offer many potential applications in solar energy storage and electronic gadgets.     

Semantically enriched Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) platform

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are becoming an essential source of information for both students and teachers. Noticeably, MOOCs have to adapt to the fast development of new technologies; they also have to satisfy the current generation of online students. The current MOOCs’ Management Systems, such as Coursera, Udacity, edX, etc., use content management platforms where content are organized in a hierarchical structure. We envision a new generation of MOOCs that support interpretability with formal semantics by using the SemanticWeb and the online social networks. Semantic technologies support more flexible information management than that offered by the current MOOCs’ platforms. Annotated information about courses, video lectures, assignments, students, teachers, etc., can be composed from heterogeneous sources, including contributions from the communities in the forum space. These annotations, combined with legacy data, build foundations for more efficient information discovery in MOOCs’ platforms. In this article we review various Collaborative Semantic Filtering technologies for building Semantic MOOCs’ management system, then, we present a prototype of a semantic middle-sized platform implemented at Western Kentucky University that answers these aforementioned requirements.     

Decomposition of first-order hybrid Petri nets for hierarchical control of manufacturing systems

Although hybrid Petri net (HPN) is a popular formalism in modelling hybrid production systems, the HPN model of large scale systems gets substantially complicated for analysis and control due to large dimensionality of such systems. To overcome this problem, a typical approach is to decompose the net into subnets and then control the plant through hierarchical or decentralized structures. Although this concept has been widely discussed in the literature for discrete PNs, there is a lack of research for HPNs. In this paper, a new method of decomposition of first-order hybrid Petri nets (FOHPNs) is proposed first and then the hierarchical control of the subnets through a coordinator is introduced. The advantage of using the proposed approach is validated by an existing example. A sugar milling case study is analysed by using a decomposed FOHPN model and the optimization results are compared against the results of the approaches presented in other papers. Simulation results show not only an improvement in production rate, but also show the ability to control the plant online. In addition, by using the hierarchical control structure for an FOHPN model, it is possible to reduce the cost of communication links, improve the reliability of the system, maintain the plant locally, and partially redesign the system.     

Event-triggered variable horizon Supervisory Predictive control of hybrid power plants

The supervision of a hybrid power plant, including solar panels, a gas microturbine and a storage unit operating under varying solar power profiles is considered. The Economic Supervisory Predictive controller assigns the power references to the controlled subsystems of the hybrid cell using a financial criterion. A prediction of the renewable sources power is embedded into the supervisor. Results deteriorate when the solar power is unsteady, owing to the inaccuracy of the predictions for a long-range horizon of 10 s. The receding horizon is switched between an upper and a lower value according to the amplitude of the solar power trend. Theoretical results show the relevance of horizon switching, according to a tradeoff between performance and prediction accuracy. Experimental results, obtained in a Hardware In the Loop (HIL) framework, show the relevance of the variable horizon approach. Power amplifiers allow us to simulate virtual components, such as a gas microturbine, and to blend their powers with that of real devices (storage unit, real solar panels). In this case, fuel savings, reaching 15%, obtained under unsteady operating conditions lead to a better overall performance of the hybrid cell. The overall savings obtained in the experiments amount to 12%.     

Rectangular Section Control Technology for Silicon Steel Rolling

Rectangular section control technology(RSCT)was introduced to achieve high-precision profile control during silicon steel rolling.The RSCT principle and method were designed,and the whole RSCT control strategy was developed.Specifically,RSCT included roll contour design,rolling technology optimization,and control strategy development,aiming at both hot strip mills(HSMs)and cold strip mills(CSMs).Firstly,through the high-performance variable crown(HVC)work roll optimization design in the upper-stream stands and the limited shifting technology for schedule-free rolling in the downstream stands of HSMs,a hot strip with a stable crown and limited wedge,local spot,and single wave was obtained,which was suitable for cold rolling.Secondly,an approximately rectangular section was obtained by edge varying contact(EVC)work roll contour design,edge-drop setting control,and closed loop control in the upper-stream stands of CSMs.Moreover,complex-mode flatness control was realized by coordinating multiple shape-control methods in the downstream stands of CSMs.In addition,the RSCT approach was applied in several silicon-steel production plants,where an outstanding performance and remarkable economic benefits were observed.     

Effects of SO2 on selective catalytic reduction of NO with NH3 over a TiO2 photocatalyst

The effect of SO₂ gas was investigated on the activity of the photo-assisted selective catalytic reduction of nitrogen monoxide (NO) with ammonia (NH₃) over a TiO₂ photocatalyst in the presence of excess oxygen (photo-SCR). The introduction of SO₂ (300 ppm) greatly decreased the activity of the photo-SCR at 373 K. The increment of the reaction temperature enhanced the resistance to SO₂ gas, and at 553 K the conversion of NO was stable for at least 300 min of the reaction. X-ray diffraction, FTIR spectroscopy, thermogravimetry and differential thermal analysis, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), elemental analysis and N₂ adsorption measurement revealed that the ammonium sulfate species were generated after the reaction. There was a strong negative correlation between the deposition amount of the ammonium sulfate species and the specific surface area. Based on the above relationship, we concluded that the deposition of the ammonium sulfate species decreased the specific surface area by plugging the pore structure of the catalyst, and the decrease of the specific surface area resulted in the deactivation of the catalyst.     

Friction compensation controller for load varying machine tool feed drive

The load applied to a machine tool feed drive changes during the machining process as material is removed. This load change alters the Coulomb friction of the feed drive. Because Coulomb friction accounts for a large part of the total friction the friction compensation control accuracy of the feed drives is limited if this nonlinear change in the applied load is not considered. This paper presents a new friction compensation method that estimates the machine tool load in real time and considers its effect on friction characteristics. A friction observer based on a Kalman filter with load estimation is proposed for friction compensation control considering the applied load change. A specially designed feed drive testbed that enables the applied load to be modified easily was constructed for experimental verification. Control performance and friction estimation accuracy are demonstrated experimentally using the testbed.     

核算前移在冶炼企业优化成本控制中的应用

针对国际黄金价格的走低,黄金冶炼企业如何在激烈的市场竞争中寻求更大的利润空间,优化成本控制显得尤为重要。以某冶炼厂为例,阐述核算前移在优化企业成本控制中的应用,以达到降本增效的目的,实现企业利润的最大化。     

An adaptive local search algorithm for vehicle routing problem with simultaneous and mixed pickups and deliveries

The Vehicle Routing Problem with Simultaneous Pickup and Delivery (VRPSPD) is an extension to the classical Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP), where customers may both receive and send goods simultaneously. The Vehicle Routing Problem with Mixed Pickup and Delivery (VRPMPD) differs from the VRPSPD in that the customers may have either pickup or delivery demand. However, the solution approaches proposed for the VRPSPD can be directly applied to the VRPMPD. In this study, an adaptive local search solution approach is developed for both the VRPSPD and the VRPMPD, which hybridizes a Simulated Annealing inspired algorithm with Variable Neighborhood Descent. The algorithm uses an adaptive threshold function that makes the algorithm self-tuning. The proposed approach is tested on well-known VRPSPD and VRPMPD benchmark instances derived from the literature. The computational results indicate that the proposed algorithm is effective in solving the problems in reasonable computation time.