Calf massager: Intervention for body muscle discomfort during prolonged standing

Many occupations require workers to stand for long periods of time without proper interventions, which causes discomfort in the back and lower limbs. Therefore, this study aims to assess the effectiveness in alleviating body muscle discomfort during prolonged standing through the use of a calf massager. This study was conducted among male workers at a manufacturer with production line workers and the list was obtained from the HR Department and simple random sampling was done by number categorization. A total of 100 respondents (50 respondents for both the control and the experimental groups) participated in this study. The experiment took place in a room with a similar setup for the production line. Each respondent was requested to perform the simulated task for 2 hr. For the experimental group, the calf massager was turned on every 15 min. At every 15‐min interval after turning on the calf massager, respondents from both groups were required to evaluate their discomfort level on a Borg's scale CR‐10 questionnaire. The results showed that the level of body discomfort among respondents in the experimental group reduced (20–30%) compared with that of the control group. Multivariate analysis results revealed that the discomfort rating for the lower back, knees, thighs, calves, and feet was significantly lower (p < .05) among the experimental group compared with the control group. For lower body parts, the lower back region was statistically significant (p < .05) at the 90th, 105th, and 120th min; the thigh region was statistically significant (p < .05) at the 120th min; the knee region was statistically significant (p < .05) at the 105th and 120th min; the calf region was statistically significant (p < .05) at all minute intervals except the 15th and 45th min, while the feet region, was statistically significant at the 105th and 120th min. Therefore, this study indicates that calf massage treatment is capable of reducing body muscle discomfort during prolonged standing and highlights the significance of calf massage.     

Effect of coupling agent content on properties of composites made from polylactic acid and chrysanthemum waste

Chrysanthemum flower is among one of the highly sought after and widely planted flower crops, in particular for cultural and religious ceremonies. However, the chrysanthemum stem and stalk have little value and usually discard as by‐product waste from floristry. The objective of this research is to investigate the potential value of utilizing chrysanthemum stem and stalk as reinforcing fillers for thermoplastic composites. In this study, 2‐mm thick composite sheet containing predefined formulations of polylactic acid (PLA), chrysanthemum waste filler (CWF) ranging from 15 to 60 phr, and maleated polyethylene (MAPE) coupling agent up to 5 phr were prepared with the aid of Haake internal mixer and compression molding. The effect of MAPE loading on tensile, thermal, and morphological properties of PLA/CWF composites was investigated. The findings revealed that PLA/CWF composite attained improved tensile modulus compared to the neat PLA, and the tensile modulus increases with higher concentration of CWF. However, both tensile strength and elongation at break reduces with increase loading of CWF. Overall, PLA/CWF composites with MAPE shows better performance compared to those without MAPE, where an optimum strength of 21.8 MPa can be achieved with 60 phr CW and 3 phr MAPE. The measured tensile strength is comparable to alternatives natural fiber thermoplastic composites demonstrating its potential to be used in non‐structurally demanding application. J. VINYL ADDIT. TECHNOL., 26:10–16, 2020. © 2019 Society of Plastics Engineers     

圆环扫描速高比计研究

介绍了圆环扫描速高比计(V/H计)的工作原理。给出了理论分析和实验结果。讨论了影响精度的原因和今后改进的方法。     

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文章旨在通过沉积相的研究，弄清孔雀河斜坡储盖组合，解决长期以来勘探成功率极低，在油气源充足的情况条件下找不到大油气田的问题。利用单井沉积相分析、典型井岩心分析、野外剖面资料和地震测线资料研究结果，得出了塔里木盆地孔雀河地区志留系沉积特点、演化特征及平面展布规律，指出该区在志留纪的沉积是以滨海—浅海为主的海陆过渡相，在北部区域发育有三角洲；结合单井试油试气资料，研究认为该区的浅海沉积物几乎全部是砂岩，缺少泥岩盖层，因而以前所钻4口探井都以失利告终，这也是长期在该区找不到油气田的症结，而孔雀河1井正好钻在位于北部的三角洲沉积区域，该区地层具有砂、泥互层的特点，具备了较好的储集层和局部盖层，试油结果表明有24个气层，该井的东部及东北部的三角洲区域是今后勘探的有利区域。     

An altruistic differentiated service protocol in dynamic cognitive radio networks against selfish behaviors

Cognitive Radio (CR), first proposed by Mitola, has the potential to improve spectrum utilization by allowing secondary transmission in licensed primary networks, as long as the secondary transmissions do not interfere with the operation of the primary users (PUs) in the primary network. Although it is fundamental to the viability of this burgeoning technology, security aspects of CR have so far received scant attention from researchers. Initial research on CR has largely focused on the issues of resource allocation, spectrum sensing and management while security considerations are often added as an afterthought. As a result, many proposed solutions for CR, have introduced significant security gaps, intensifying the effects of selfishness, inequity, unavailability, or even malicious behaviors. This has posed challenges to quality-of-service (QoS) provisioning in Cognitive Radio Network (CRN) in the face of various network attacks like node masquerading, packet mislabeling and deliberate packet dropping. Since existing routing protocols assume that nodes will forward packets in good faith, the presence of selfish nodes coupled with the dynamic behavior of PUs can lead to excessive packet losses, high delays or even the complete failure of routing protocols in secondary networks. In this paper, we propose a cross-layer Altruistic Differentiated Service Protocol (ADSP) for the dynamic CRNs to address the QoS provisioning issue in CRNs with selfish nodes coexistence. Simulation results demonstrate that the ADSP can achieve much better performance in terms of lower delay, higher throughput and better delivery ratio for the traffic originating from collaborative nodes compared to other cognitive routing protocols in the presence of selfish nodes.     

Distributed Learning for Planning Under Uncertainty Problems with Heterogeneous Teams

This paper considers the problem of multiagent sequential decision making under uncertainty and incomplete knowledge of the state transition model. A distributed learning framework, where each agent learns an individual model and shares the results with the team, is proposed. The challenges associated with this approach include choosing the model representation for each agent and how to effectively share these representations under limited communication. A decentralized extension of the model learning scheme based on the Incremental Feature Dependency Discovery (Dec-iFDD) is presented to address the distributed learning problem. The representation selection problem is solved by leveraging iFDD’s property of adjusting the model complexity based on the observed data. The model sharing problem is addressed by having each agent rank the features of their representation based on the model reduction error and broadcast the most relevant features to their teammates. The algorithm is tested on the multi-agent block building and the persistent search and track missions. The results show that the proposed distributed learning scheme is particularly useful in heterogeneous learning setting, where each agent learns significantly different models. We show through large-scale planning under uncertainty simulations and flight experiments with state-dependent actuator and fuel-burn- rate uncertainty that our planning approach can outperform planners that do not account for heterogeneity between agents.     

Studies on urethane–allophanate networks based on hydroxyl‐terminated polybutadiene: Modeling of network parameters and correlation to mechanical properties

Hydroxyl‐terminated polybutadiene (HTPB)‐based allophanate–urethane networks were prepared by reacting HTPB with di‐isocyanates, such as toluene–di‐isocyanate (TDI), isophorone–di‐isocyanate (IPDI), and 4,4′‐di(socyanatocyclohexyl)methane (H₁₂MDI) at stoichiometric ratios (r‐values) ranging from 1.0 to 1.5. The networks were characterized for mechanical and swell properties. The network parameters, such as “X,” which is the fraction of urethane groups involved in the allophanate formation, and effective chain length (L_x) were calculated from experimental crosslink density values determined from swell data, using α‐model equations developed by Marsh. Excellent linear correlations were obtained between mechanical properties and the calculated network parameters. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 101: 2986–2994, 2006     

Effects of environmental temperature and humidity on thermal flying height adjustment

Thermal actuated sliders are being widely used in today’s hard disk drive industry for its advantages of easier control of flying height (FH) and less risk of contacts with the disk. This article uses a coupled-field analysis method, which includes an air bearing model, a heat transfer model and a thermal-structural finite element model to investigate the FH changes of thermal actuated sliders at various environmental conditions. The mechanism of water vapour’s contribution to air bearing pressure loss is explained and a new humidity model is proposed to calculate this pressure loss. The temperature effects are also considered in the simulation models. It is observed that the environmental temperature and humidity have significant effects on slider’s FH changes, but their effects on the thermal protrusion height are limited. A humidity sensitivity study is also made and the results are discussed. It is found that the slider with thermal protrusion on its trailing pad will be more sensitive to the humidity. Besides air bearing stiffness, some other factors such as peak pressure, protrusion shape and air bearing surface (ABS) design will also contribute to the slider’s humidity sensitivity.     

Analysis of improved signcryption scheme with key privacy

In this paper, we analyse the Yang-Wong-Deng signcryption scheme [G. Yang, D.S. Wong, X. Deng, Analysis and improvement of a signcryption scheme with key privacy, in: Information Security Conference—ISC'05, in: Lecture Notes in Comput. Sci., vol. 3650, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2005, pp. 218-232] proposed in ISC'05, which is the improvement and enhancement of the security of Libert-Quisquater signcryption scheme [B. Libert, J.J. Quisquater, Efficient signcryption with key privacy from gap Diffie-Hellman groups, in: Public Key Cryptography—PKC'04, in: Lecture Notes in Comput. Sci., vol. 2947, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2004, pp. 187-200]. Although Yang et al. [G. Yang, D.S. Wong, X. Deng, Analysis and improvement of a signcryption scheme with key privacy, in: Information Security Conference—ISC'05, in: Lecture Notes in Comput. Sci., vol. 3650, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2005, pp. 218-232] proved that their scheme is secure against adaptive chosen ciphertext attacks and achieves ciphertext anonymity (which is also called key privacy) in the random oracle model; we disprove all their claims and show that their scheme is not semantically secure and does not achieve ciphertext anonymity.