Prediction of Flooding in Packed Liquid-Liquid and High-Pressure Extraction Columns Using a Gaussian Process

Reliable prediction of flooding conditions is needed for sizing and operating packed extraction columns. Due to the complex interplay of physicochemical properties, operational parameters and the packing-specific properties, it is challenging to develop accurate semi-empirical or rigorous models with a high validity range. State of the art models may therefore fail to predict flooding accurately. To overcome this problem, a data-driven model based on Gaussian processes is developed to predict flooding for packed liquid-liquid and high-pressure extraction columns. The optimized Gaussian process for the liquid-liquid extraction column results in an average absolute relative error (AARE) of 15.23 %, whereas the algorithm for the high-pressure extraction column results in an AARE of 13.68 %. Both algorithms can predict flooding curves for different packing geometries and chemical systems precisely.     

No-reference quality assessment of dynamic sports videos based on a spatiotemporal motion model

This paper proposes an approach to improve the performance of no-reference video quality assessment for sports videos with dynamic motion scenes using an efficient spatiotemporal model. In the proposed method, we divide the video sequences into video blocks and apply a 3D shearlet transform that can efficiently extract primary spatiotemporal features to capture dynamic natural motion scene statistics from the incoming video blocks. The concatenation of a deep residual bidirectional gated recurrent neural network and logistic regression is used to learn the spatiotemporal correlation more robustly and predict the perceptual quality score. In addition, conditional video block-wise constraints are incorporated into the objective function to improve quality estimation performance for the entire video. The experimental results show that the proposed method extracts spatiotemporal motion information more effectively and predicts the video quality with higher accuracy than the conventional no-reference video quality assessment methods.     

Efficient Flexible M-Tree Bulk Loading Using FastMap and Space-Filling Curves

Many database applications currently deal with objects in a metric space. Examples of such objects include unstructured multimedia objects and points of interest (POIs) in a road network. The M-tree is a dynamic index structure that facilitates an efficient search for objects in a metric space. Studies have been conducted on the bulk loading of large datasets in an M-tree. However, because previous algorithms involve excessive distance computations and disk accesses, they perform poorly in terms of their index construction and search capability. This study proposes two efficient M-tree bulk loading algorithms. Our algorithms minimize the number of distance computations and disk accesses using FastMap and a space-filling curve, thereby significantly improving the index construction and search performance. Our second algorithm is an extension of the first, and it incorporates a partitioning clustering technique and flexible node architecture to further improve the search performance. Through the use of various synthetic and real-world datasets, the experimental results demonstrated that our algorithms improved the index construction performance by up to three orders of magnitude and the search performance by up to 20.3 times over the previous algorithm.     

Effect of a sweeping air stream and gas–phase aspect ratio of an isothermal Stefan diffusion column on the experimental estimation of binary gas diffusivities

The Stefan column consists of liquid A evaporating into an inert/stagnant gas B with a sweeping B stream at the top. It was designed to estimate binary gas diffusivities, D_AB’s, but “end effects” such as gas mixing at the top and interfacial curvature have been either ignored or uncorrelated to the operational settings. This study’s hypothesis is that gas mixing at the top and the gas–phase aspect ratio affect D_AB estimation in the acetone (A)-ambient air (B) system at 50?°C. The sweeping stream Reynolds number (Re) and the gas–phase aspect ratio (AR?=?initial gas phase height to column internal diameter) were the variables tested. Isothermal evaporation-diffusion experiments were conducted in which the temporal interfacial descent was tracked. The settings were 492 ≤ Re ≤ 5378 and AR between 5 and 15. A 1D transport model allowed determination of the experimental diffusivity, D_AB,exp, by nonlinear regression. For Re < 600, the D_AB,exp errors relative to D_AB,CE (predicted by the Chapman–Enskog kinetic theory for low-density gases) were small and unrelated to AR, while for Re > 600 the errors increased considerably with Re and were inversely proportional to AR. This study is the first to relate the column’s operational settings to the D_AB estimation errors. The column should be operated at low sweeping gas Re and large AR for accurate D_AB,exp’s. The low Re region deserves further study, while the present transport model may have to be replaced by computational fluid dynamics simulations to account for the multidimensional gas flow patterns.     

Adaptive finite-time tracking control for parameterized nonlinear systems with full state constraints

In this article, the issue of adaptive finite-time dynamic surface control (DSC) is discussed for a class of parameterized nonlinear systems with full state constraints. Using the property of logarithmic function, a one-to-one nonlinear mapping is constructed to transform a constrained system into an unconstrained system with the same structure. The nonlinear filter is constructed to replace the first-order linear filter in the traditional DSC, and the demand on the filter time constant is reduced. Based on finite-time stable theory and using modified DSC, the finite-time controller is designed via DSC. Theoretical analysis shows that all the signals in the closed-loop system are semiglobal practical finite-time stable. Furthermore, none of the states are outside the defined open set. In the end, simulation results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control schemes with both linear filters and nonlinear filters.     

Strategic environmental assessment in Romania: between benefits and constraints

This paper offers an overall picture of the importance of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) in Romania and its opportunities and constraints. The role, scope and effectiveness of SEA in Romania are presented in two good practice examples and examined in order to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the procedure at national and local scale. In practice, the number of SEA procedures is very high due to the legislation in force, and it is increasingly effective in decision-making about programmes and plans. SEA can be viewed as a great opportunity for the implementation of sustainable development in practice. It also continues to be an important procedural and decisional instrument for management and monitoring of socioeconomic development, spatial planning and environmental protection in Romania.     

Distance and similarity measures of Pythagorean fuzzy sets based on the Hausdorff metric with application to fuzzy TOPSIS

Pythagorean fuzzy sets (PFSs) were proposed by Yager in 2013 to treat imprecise and vague information in daily life more rigorously and efficiently with higher precision than intuitionistic fuzzy sets. In this paper, we construct new distance and similarity measures of PFSs based on the Hausdorff metric. We first develop a method to calculate a distance between PFSs based on the Hasudorff metric, along with proving several properties and theorems. We then consider a generalization of other distance measures, such as the Hamming distance, the Euclidean distance, and their normalized versions. On the basis of the proposed distances for PFSs, we give new similarity measures to compute the similarity degree of PFSs. Some examples related to pattern recognition and linguistic variables are used to validate the proposed distance and similarity measures. Finally, we apply the proposed methods to multicriteria decision-making by constructing a Pythagorean fuzzy Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution and then present a practical example to address an important issue related to social sector. Numerical results indicate that the proposed methods are reasonable and applicable and also that they are well suited in pattern recognition, linguistic variables, and multicriteria decision-making with PFSs.     

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。     

QuEChERS结合GC-MS/MS法测定果蔬汁中21种农药残留

建立一种采用QuEChERS前处理结合Quick Pro净化柱-气相色谱串联质谱（GC-MS/MS）法测定果蔬汁中的21种农药残留量的方法。样品采用乙腈提取，EN方法盐包盐析，经Quick Pro净化柱净化，DB-35MS UI色谱柱分离，采用选择离子监测（SIM）模式扫描，外标法定量。在质量浓度0.01～0.50 μg/mL范围内相关系数（R）均＞0.995，样品在0.01 mg/kg、0.02 mg/kg、0.10 mg/kg的添加水平下，21种农药的回收率在75.2%～117.8%之间，回收率实验结果相对标准偏差（RSD）在1.9%～11.5%之间。该方法操作简便，分析时间短，精密度好，适用于果蔬汁中多种农药残留的检测。     

TLCD基础隔震框架结构的减振控制研究

为了避免和减轻由过大隔震层位移引起的损害,对基础隔震框架结构装设调频液柱阻尼器(tuned liquid column damper,简称TLCD)后混合系统的减振效果进行研究。建立了单层和多层混合控制系统在地震作用下的运动方程,采用TLCD-结构体系转化为调频质量阻尼器(tuned mass damper,简称TMD)-结构体系的等效方法,利用TMD参数优化公式,得到单个TLCD初始设计参数,并采用状态空间方程得到多个TLCD最优设计参数。通过对某8层基础隔震结构进行模拟,证明了该理论设计方法的合理性。该混合结构不仅可以减小隔震层位移和加速度,而且对上部结构位移和加速度反应都能更有效的控制。