Influence of temperature on acoustic emission source location accuracy in underground structure

An acoustic emission (AE) experiment was carried out to explore the AE location accuracy influenced by temperature. A hollow hemispherical specimen was used to simulate common underground structures. In the process of heating with the flame, the pulse signal of constant frequency was stimulated as an AE source. Then AE signals received by each sensor were collected and used for comparing localization accuracy at different temperatures. Results show that location errors of AE keep the same phenomenon in the early and middle heating stages. In the later stage of heating, location errors of AE increase sharply due to the appearance of cracks. This provides some beneficial suggestions on decreasing location errors of structural cracks caused by temperature and improves the ability of underground structure disaster prevention and control.     

Reproductive tract disease in Irish grazing dairy cows: Retrospective observational study examining its association with reproductive performance and accuracy of 2 diagnostic tests

The detection of reproductive tract disease (RTD) 3 wk postpartum is important because of its effect on subsequent reproductive outcomes. Numerous methods for the diagnosis of RTD are described, some of which are more practical and instantaneous in terms of diagnosis. Two of these methods involve identification of purulent vaginal discharge (PVD) and evidence of ultrasonographic uterine changes indicative of endometritis (UE). The objectives of our retrospective observational study were (1) to assess the association of PVD or UE score at the prebreeding examination (PBE) with the hazard of pregnancy within the subsequent breeding season; (2) to determine the test sensitivity (Se) and specificity (Sp) at the point of sampling of both tests using a Bayesian latent class model; and (3) to determine the effect of varying positivity thresholds on test accuracy. To achieve these objectives, we analyzed an initial data set of 5,049 PBE from 2,460 spring-calved cows in 8 herds between 2014 and 2018. Each PBE was conducted once between 25 and 86 d in milk. At each PBE, vaginal discharge was obtained with a Metricheck device (Simcro) whereas uterine contents were assessed using transrectal ultrasonography. Purulent vaginal discharge was scored on a scale of 0 to 3 depending on discharge character, and UE was scored on a scale of 0 to 4 depending on the presence and consistency of intraluminal fluid. Cows with scores of ≥2 in either test had received treatment. Fertility data were available from 4,756 PBE after data exclusion. The association between PVD or UE score at the PBE and subsequent hazard of pregnancy was analyzed using a Cox proportional hazards model. Cows with a PVD score of 2 or 3 were less likely to conceive than cows with a PVD score 0 [score 2 hazard ratio (HR) = 0.74; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.59–0.94; score 3 HR = 0.65; 95% CI: 0.51–0.84]. Cows with a UE score of 1, 2, 3, or 4 were less likely to conceive than cows with a UE score of 0 (score 1 HR = 0.82; 95% CI: 0.73–0.93; score 2 HR = 0.79; 95% CI: 0.62–1.00; score 3 HR = 0.43; 95% CI: 0.43–0.90; score 4 HR = 0.39; 95% CI: 0.26–0.58). To determine the Se and Sp of PVD or UE score for diagnosis of RTD at the time of PBE, a Bayesian latent class model was fitted on 2,460 individual cow PBE. Flat priors were used for the Se and Sp of UE, whereas informative priors were used for PVD Se (mode = 65%, 5th percentile = 45%) and Sp (mode = 90%, 5th percentile = 80%) and RTD prevalence (mode = 20%, 5th percentile = 10%). Posterior estimates (median and 95% Bayesian probability intervals; BPI) were obtained using ‘rjags' (R Studio). The optimal test thresholds (PVD and UE score ≥1) were selected by assessing the effect of different thresholds on test estimates and using a misclassification cost analysis. Based on these, median (95% BPI) Se for PVD and UE score ≥1 were 44% (29–60%) and 67% (33–100%), respectively. Median Sp for PVD and UE score ≥1 were 90% (86–93%) and 91% (86–93%), respectively. Higher scores in both tests were associated with impaired fertility, and UE scoring with a threshold of ≥1 had the highest test Se and Sp estimates although test Se was conditional on days in milk when the PBE occurred.     

Removing data and using metafounders alleviates biases for all traits in Lacaune dairy sheep predictions

Bias in dairy genetic evaluations, when it exists, has to be understood and properly addressed. The origin of biases is not always clear. We analyzed 40 yr of records from the Lacaune dairy sheep breeding program to evaluate the extent of bias, assess possible corrections, and emit hypotheses on its origin. The data set included 7 traits (milk yield, fat and protein contents, somatic cell score, teat angle, udder cleft, and udder depth) with records from 600,000 to 5 million depending on the trait, ～1,900,000 animals, and ～5,900 genotyped elite artificial insemination rams. For the ～8% animals with missing sire, we fit 25 unknown parent groups. We used the linear regression method to compare “partial” and “whole” predictions of young rams before and after progeny testing, with 7 cut-off points, and we obtained estimates of their bias, (over)dispersion, and accuracy in early proofs. We tried (1) several scenarios as follows: multiple or single trait, the “official” (routine) evaluation, which is a mixture of both single and multiple trait, and “deletion” of data before 1990; and (2) several models as follows: BLUP and single-step genomic (SSG)BLUP with fixed unknown parent groups or metafounders, where, for metafounders, their relationship matrix gamma was estimated using either a model for inbreeding trend, or base allele frequencies estimated by peeling. The estimate of gamma obtained by modeling the inbreeding trend resulted in an estimated increase of inbreeding, based on markers, faster than the pedigree-based one. The estimated genetic trends were similar for most models and scenarios across all traits, but were shrunken when gamma was estimated by peeling. This was due to shrinking of the estimates of metafounders in the latter case. Across scenarios, all traits showed bias, generally as an overestimate of genetic trend for milk yield and an underestimate for the other traits. As for the slope, it showed overdispersion of estimated breeding values for all traits. Using multiple-trait models slightly reduced the overestimate of genetic trend and the overdispersion, as did including genomic information (i.e., SSGBLUP) when the gamma matrix was estimated by the model for inbreeding trend. However, only deletion of historical data before 1990 resulted in elimination of both kind of biases. The SSGBLUP resulted in more accurate early proofs than BLUP for all traits. We considered that a snowball effect of small errors in each genetic evaluation, combined with selection, may have resulted in biased evaluations. Improving statistical methods reduced some bias but not all, and a simple solution for this data set was to remove historical records.     

Graduate Student Literature Review: Considerations for nutritional grouping in dairy farms

Each cow in a group has different nutritional requirements even if the group is formed by cows of similar age, number of lactations, and lactation stage. Common dairy farm management setup does not support formulating a diet that accurately matches individual nutritional requirements for each cow; therefore, a proportion of cows in the group will be overfed and another proportion underfed. Overfeeding and underfeeding cows increases the risk of metabolic diseases, decreases milk production, and increases nutrient waste. Consequently, profitability of dairy farms and the environment are negatively affected. Nutritional grouping is a management strategy that aims to allocate lactating cows homogeneously according to their nutritional requirements. Groups of cows with more uniform nutritional requirements facilitates the formulation of more accurate diets for the group. Current availability of large data streams on dairy farms facilitates the design of algorithms to implement nutritional grouping. Our review summarizes important factors to consider when grouping cows, describes nutritional grouping approaches, and summarizes benefits of implementing nutritional grouping in dairy farms.     

Digital twin-based analysis of volumetric error mapping procedures

The evaluation of the volumetric accuracy of a machine tool is an open challenge in the industry, and a wide variety of technical solutions are available in the market and at research level. All solutions have advantages and disadvantages concerning which errors can be measured, the achievable uncertainty, the ease of implementation, possibility of machine integration and automation, the equipment cost and the machine occupation time, and it is not always straightforward which option to choose for each application. The need to ensure accuracy during the whole lifetime of the machine and the availability of monitoring systems developed following the Industry 4.0 trend are pushing the development of measurement systems that can be integrated in the machine to perform semi-automatic verification procedures that can be performed frequently by the machine user to monitor the condition of the machine. Calibrated artefact based calibration and verification solutions have an advantage in this field over laser based solutions in terms of cost and feasibility of machine integration, but they need to be optimized for each machine and customer requirements to achieve the required calibration uncertainty and minimize machine occupation time.This paper introduces a digital twin-based methodology to simulate all relevant effects in an artefact-based machine tool calibration procedure, from the machine itself with its expected error ranges, to the artefact geometry and uncertainty, artefact positions in the workspace, probe uncertainty, compensation model, etc. By parameterizing all relevant variables in the design of the calibration procedure, this simulation methodology can be used to analyse the effect of each design variable on the error mapping uncertainty, which is of great help in adapting the procedure to each specific machine and user requirements. The simulation methodology and the analysis possibilities are illustrated by applying it on a 3-axis milling machine tool.     

原油含水在线检测影响因素的研究

微波法作为原油开采过程中最常用的含水率检测方式,其检测效果极易受到实际开采环境中多因素影响从而产生检测误测。试验分析了矿化度以及温度两种实际开采环境下存在的因素对于微波实时检测含水率精度的影响。通过对试验数据的处理,运用二次拟合有效得出含水检测值伴随矿化度(矿化度组分:CaCl_2)的变化规律。利用试验所得规律,可有效将微波含水传感器精度提高,为提高微波含水检测精度的研究提供了校正参数和理论依据。     

A Tradeoff Between Accuracy and Speed for K-Means Seed Determination

With a sharp increase in the information volume, analyzing and retrieving this vast data volume is much more essential than ever. One of the main techniques that would be beneficial in this regard is called the Clustering method. Clustering aims to classify objects so that all objects within a cluster have similar features while other objects in different clusters are as distinct as possible. One of the most widely used clustering algorithms with the well and approved performance in different applications is the k-means algorithm. The main problem of the k-means algorithm is its performance which can be directly affected by the selection in the primary clusters. Lack of attention to this crucial issue has consequences such as creating empty clusters and decreasing the convergence time. Besides, the selection of appropriate initial seeds can reduce the cluster’s inconsistency. In this paper, we present a new method to determine the initial seeds of the k-mean algorithm to improve the accuracy and decrease the number of iterations of the algorithm. For this purpose, a new method is proposed considering the average distance between objects to determine the initial seeds. Our method attempts to provide a proper tradeoff between the accuracy and speed of the clustering algorithm. The experimental results showed that our proposed approach outperforms the Chithra with 1.7% and 2.1% in terms of clustering accuracy for Wine and Abalone detection data, respectively. Furthermore, achieved results indicate that comparing with the Reverse Nearest Neighbor (RNN) search approach, the proposed method has a higher convergence speed.     

旋流分级柱的连续分级试验与机理研究

现有分级/筛分设备都存在不同的优缺点。为提高分级作业的精度和效率,发明一种具有旋流、高速、柱形特征结构的颗粒分级设备——旋流分级柱。通过连续分级试验研究表明该设备的分级精度和效率都比较高。在筛网孔径为350μm、分级浓度35%、中心轴转速1 000 r/min的条件下,当加矿速度为2. 0、3. 0、4. 0和4. 6 kg/min时,E_(量-350μm)=E_(质-350μm),分别达到97. 23%、93. 17%、87. 46%和82. 53%;相同浓度条件下,分级时间与量效率呈正相关,不同浓度下,相同分级时间下的分级效率没有可比性;当E_(量-350μm)等于80%时,通过二项式拟合发现20%和35%浓度条件的加矿速度分别达到4. 75和4. 89kg/min,分级时间分别为2. 29和4. 39 min。试验研究表明,为提高加矿速度(处理量)和分级效率,可以增加柱形筛网面积(分级有效面积)和柱体有效分级长度。     

网格划分对喷雾造粒塔数值模拟精度的影响

为了研究网格模型简化形式和网格分块策略对模拟精度的影响，对喷雾造粒塔进行了多组网格划分并将数值模拟结果与实验结果进行了对比。结果表明：采用简化的网格模型得到的模拟结果无论是数值大小还是变化趋势与实验结果偏差较大；采用无简化喷嘴网格模型(喷嘴出口网格垂直映射)得到的模拟结果有所改善，而建模时考虑了射流方向和物理耗散的无简化喷嘴网格模型得到的模拟结果效果最佳。因此在网格模型简化后需要对模拟结果进行对比验证，而且不能忽视网格分块策略对模拟精度的影响。     

在轨维修后端模块接口机构的研究

在轨维修可以大大的延长空间科学仪器的使用寿命,节省大量的经济成本。为了实现空间望远镜后端模块的在轨操作和更换,设计了一套与之对应的接口机构,能够解决在轨快速定位与安装。根据321运动学定位准则,详细介绍了该接口机构的内部组成和工作原理;然后把该接口机构与后端模块进行组件级有限元仿真,仿真结果表明一阶模态远高于整机基频可以有效地避免发射时候的共振;设计了一套平面内的工装来模拟后端模块,利用等效质量法对整个机构进行重力卸载;搭建实验平台,利用激光跟踪仪来测量整个后端模块的重复定位安装精度,实验数据表明,X,Y,Z 3个方向的重复平移定位误差分别为±5.58μm,±3.24μm及±3.63μm,优于总体指标±10μm;热实验结果表明整个机构可以完全释放由于温度变化产生的形变,具有很高的热稳定性;使入射光线和靶面的相对位置持续稳定,保证了较高的成像质量。为其他空间在轨维护装置提供强有力的参考价值。