Subsecond voltammetric separation between dopamine and serotonin in the presence of ascorbate

Although voltammetry has proved an important tool for unraveling the dynamics of specific neurotransmitter molecules during the past decade, it has been very difficult to monitor more than one neurotransmitter simultaneously. In this work, we present a voltammetric methodology that allows discrimination between dopamine and serotonin, two important neurotransmitter molecules with very similar electrochemical properties, in the presence of high concentrations of ascorbate. We combined the application of a novel large-amplitude/high-frequency voltage excitation with signal processing techniques valid for the analysis of nonstationary and nonlinear phenomena. This allows us to minimize the contribution from capacitance and preserve the faradaic features of the voltammetric response providing us with excellent voltammetric detail. Using appropriate voltage excitation parameters and defining specific regions in the voltage space, so-called voltage windows, we can measure the concentrations of dopamine and serotonin separately or independently in mixed solutions even in the presence of high concentrations of ascorbate. Because of the enhanced voltammetric detail of this new technique, it is also possible to explore effects attributed to interfacial phenomena such as adsorption/desorption and electrode fouling.     

Modeling lateral control in driving studies

In driving studies based on simulators and instrumented vehicles, specific models are needed to capture key aspects of driving data such as lateral control. We propose a model that uses weighted polynomial projections to predict each data point from the previous three time points, and accommodates the attempts of the drivers to re-center the vehicle before crossing the borders of the traffic lane. Our model also allows the possibility that average position within the lane may vary from driver to driver. We demonstrate how to fit the model using standard statistical procedures available in software packages such as SAS. We used a fixed-base driving simulator to obtain data from 67 drivers with Alzheimer's disease and 128 elderly drivers without dementia. Using these data, we estimated the subject-specific parameters of our model, and we compared the two groups with respect to these parameters. We found that the parameters based on our model were able to distinguish between the groups in an interpretable manner. Hence, this model may be a useful tool to define outcome measures for observational and interventional driving studies.     

Upgraded sublimation energy determination procedure for icy films

A method to determine the sublimation energy of a bulk ice in high vacuum systems, allowing other simultaneous analysis techniques, is presented. Variation in frequency of a quartz crystal microbalance, due to sublimating material, during a zeroth-order desorption consents to obtain this energy. CO₂ sublimation energy is obtained to check this method, its value is coherent with that reported in the literature. Our method permits to simplify the setup used so far by other authors, and to obtain relevant parameters for ices simultaneously. The procedure explained here corrects the temperature frequency dependence of the microbalance and the effect of contaminants by using a unique microbalance.     

Evaluation of a maintenance strategy by the analysis of the rate of repair

The evaluation of maintenance strategies is a problem which has been widely tackled. However, it remains a topic worthy of consideration since the economic stakes peculiar to this activity are huge. The work presented in this paper deals with this problem under the point of view of data feedback. A statistical analysis is made from the examination of the forms of the failure rate distribution. The laws resulting from the implementation of a given maintenance strategy inform us about the relevance of the choices representative of this strategy. The construction of these laws from a raw time of repair is a global approach which tends to hide the induced phenomenon. A decomposition of the repair process into phases allows us to better identify the influence of the strategy parameters. The analysis of each elementary phase distribution is interesting since it givesinformation about the performance of the implemented maintenance strategy. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

蓄冷空调小型化研究

本文简要介绍了蓄冷空调国内外研究现状，从技术角度阐述了小型化的可行性和所存在问题，并就小型蓄冷空调在我国的发展提出建议。认为随着蓄冷介质、系统优化控制、换热设备等方面技术的不断提高，小型蓄冷空调的开发应用已成为可能，并有着广泛的市场前景。     

Water in star- and planet-forming regions

In this paper, we discuss the astronomical search for water vapour in order to understand the disposition of water in all its phases throughout the processes of star and planet formation. Our ability to detect and study water vapour has recently received a tremendous boost with the successful launch and operation of the Herschel Space Observatory. Herschel spectroscopic detections of numerous transitions in a variety of astronomical objects, along with previous work by other space-based observatories, will be threaded throughout this paper. In particular, we present observations of water tracing the earliest stage of star birth where it is predominantly frozen as ice. When a star is born, the local energy release by radiation liberates ices in its surrounding envelope and powers energetic outflows that appear to be water factories. In these regions, water plays an important role in the gas physics. Finally, we end with an exploration of water in planet-forming discs surrounding young stars. The availability of accurate molecular data (frequencies, collisional rate coefficients and chemical reaction rates) is crucial to analyse the observations at each of these steps.     

空气源热泵蒸发器表面霜层生长特性实验研究

在室外环境空气温度-15℃~5℃、相对湿度65%~90%范围内,对一台空气源热泵室外换热器表面霜层生长特性及热泵系统动态性能进行了实验研究。实验结果表明,翅片表面霜层厚度呈分段增长模式,在结霜初始段,霜层主要由粒状冰晶组成,并逐渐形成柱状冰晶,其厚度增长较快;在第二阶段为柱状冰晶主要在其半径方向生长,霜层厚度增长速度减慢;而在第三阶段,柱状冰晶主要在其高度方向生长,逐渐形成针状冰晶,霜层厚度增长速度迅速增大至第二阶段的3~5.8倍。对实验结果的分析表明,热泵机组性能恶化主要是由于蒸发器表面温度下降、霜晶形态变化引起霜层厚度快速增长及空气流动阻力增加导致风机流量下降三个因素之间形成的恶性循环所致,其中换热器表面温度下降引起的霜晶形态变化起到了至关重要的作用。     

A simulation based approach to analyse the effects of job release on the performance of a multi-stage job-shop with processing flexibility

Workload control concepts are advocated as one of the new production planning and control methods. In its elaborated form, workload control includes three major decision levels: job entry, job release and priority dispatching. In each decision level, several decision points which have significant impact on the effectiveness of the production planning and control are defined (i.e., acceptance/rejection, due date assignment, etc.). Workload control systems should consider all of these decision points simultaneously in order to improve the effectiveness of production planning and control. In addition to these decision levels, flexibility of the shop can also be included as the fourth decision level which allows the shop capacity to be adjusted as new orders enter the system and as they are released to the shop floor. In this study, simulation models which enable the effect of each decision level within a workload control concept to be explored are developed and tested. The results reveal that simultaneous consideration of decision levels is critical and can improve the effectiveness of production planning and control.     

装药位置对冰凌爆破效果影响的数值模拟

目前对冰凌的定点爆破方式主要有水下药包爆破、冰中钻孔爆破及冰上裸露药包爆破,使用大型有限元软件ANSYS/LS-DYNA模拟了3种爆破方式冰层中压碎区及裂隙区的生成过程,对冰层的破坏半径、碎冰的飞散特点和水中冲击波强度进行了定量比较分析,分析结果显示水下药包爆破破坏半径是其他爆破方式的1.2至2.0倍,生成水中冲击波强度是其他爆破方式的近14倍。数值模拟结果与以往工程实践相互印证,对爆破法防凌具有一定参考意义。     

Numerical and experimental studies of the riveting process

As one of important mechanical joining methods, rivet joints are widely used in buildings, bridges, aircrafts and automotives and in many other fields. Many variables have influences on the response of the rivet joints, such as the geometry of the joints, the material parameters of the parts, the clearance of the assembly, etc. In this paper, a finite element numerical model is developed for the analysis and optimization of the riveting process. Our approach is three-dimensional in order to be able to model non axisymmetric situations of riveting and testing of the joint strength. Four different sizes of solid rivets are considered for simulation and experimental study of the process. The comparison of the results between the numerical simulations and the experiments allows us to validate our approach.     

Measuring the optical properties of astrophysical dust analogues: instrumentation and methods

Dust is found throughout the universe and plays an important role for a wide range of astrophysical phenomena. In recent years, new IR facilities have provided powerful new data for understanding these phenomena. However, interpretation of these data is often complicated by a lack of complementary information about the optical properties of astronomically relevant materials. The Optical Properties of Astronomical Silicates with Infrared Techniques (OPASI-T) program at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center is designed to provide new high-quality laboratory data from which we can derive the optical properties of astrophysical dust analogues. This program makes use of multiple instruments, including new equipment designed and built specifically for this purpose. The suite of instruments allows us to derive optical properties over a wide wavelength range, from the near-IR through the millimeter, also providing the capability for exploring how these properties depend upon the temperature of the sample. In this paper, we discuss the overall structure of the research program, describe the new instruments that have been developed to meet the science goals, and demonstrate the efficacy of these tools.     

大型常压低温液体贮槽的设计及发展

从工艺流程、结构设计、力学计算、技术要领等方面阐明了大型常压低温液体贮槽设计、制造的诸多问题 ,特别是就如何保证大型常压低温液体贮槽的可靠性、先进性的关键问题作了一些分析。并简述了发展前景     

Time-between-events monitoring using nonhomogeneous Poisson process with power law intensity

The traditional process monitoring techniques used to study high-quality processes have several demerits, that is, high-false alarm rate and poor detection, etc. A recent and promising idea to monitor such processes is the use of time-between-events (TBE) control charts. However, the available TBE control charts have been developed in a nonadaptive fashion assuming the Poisson process. There are many situations where we need adaptive monitoring, for example, health, flood, food, system, or terrorist surveillance. Therefore, the existing control charts are not useful, especially in sequential monitoring. This article introduces new adaptive TBE control charts for high-quality processes based on the nonhomogeneous Poisson process by assuming the power law intensity. In particular, probability control limits are used to develop control charts. The proposed methodology allows us to get control limits that are dynamic and suitable for online process monitoring with an additional advantage to monitor a process where we believe the underlying failure rate may be changing over time. The average run length and coefficient of variation of the run length distribution are used to assess the performance of the proposed control charts. Besides simulation studies, we also discuss three examples to highlight the application of the proposed charts.     

Automated liquid injection field desorption/ionization for Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry

We describe automation of liquid injection field desorption/ionization (LIFDI) for reproducible sample application, improved spectral quality, and high-throughput analyses. A commercial autosampler provides reproducible and unattended sample application. A custom-built field desorption (FD) controller allows data station or front panel control of source parameters including high-voltage limit/ramp rate, emitter heating current limit/ramp rate, and feedback control of emitter heating current based on ion current measurement. Automated LIFDI facilitates ensemble averaging of hundreds of Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectra for increased dynamic range, mass accuracy, and S/N ratio relative to single-application FD experiments, as shown here for a South American crude oil. This configuration can be adapted to any mass spectrometer with an LIFDI probe.     

Benefits and limitations of porous substrates as biosensors for protein adsorption

Porous substrates have gained widespread interest for biosensor applications based on molecular recognition. Thus, there is a great demand to systematically investigate the parameters that limit the transport of molecules toward and within the porous matrix as a function of pore geometry. Finite element simulations (FES) and time-resolved optical waveguide spectroscopy (OWS) experiments were used to systematically study the transport of molecules and their binding on the inner surface of a porous material. OWS allowed us to measure the kinetics of protein adsorption within porous anodic aluminum oxide membranes composed of parallel-aligned, cylindrical pores with pore radii of 10-40 nm and pore depths of 0.8-9.6 μm. FES showed that protein adsorption on the inner surface of a porous matrix is almost exclusively governed by the flux into the pores. The pore-interior surface nearly acts as a perfect sink for the macromolecules. Neither diffusion within the pores nor adsorption on the surface are rate limiting steps, except for very low rate constants of adsorption. While adsorption on the pore walls is mainly governed by the stationary flux into the pores, desorption from the inner pore walls involves the rate constants of desorption and adsorption, essentially representing the protein-surface interaction potential. FES captured the essential features of the OWS experiments such as the initial linear slopes of the adsorption kinetics, which are inversely proportional to the pore depth and linearly proportional to protein concentration. We show that protein adsorption kinetics allows for an accurate determination of protein concentration, while desorption kinetics could be used to capture the interaction potential of the macromolecules with the pore walls.     

Optimal computer simulation of single electron device response

Recently the control of single electrons by Coulomb blockade could be achieved up to high temperatures with small multidot arrays. The size of the dots must lie in the nanometer range; up to now, it is not possible to realize regular lattice of metallic dots on insulators with these dimensions, and the arrays are necessarily highly disordered, with a very large range of tunnel junction resistances. Monte Carlo or rate equation techniques lead to cumbersome calculations for more than two dots. We will show how we are able to reduce drastically the computation time by optimal procedures. This allows us to increase the size of the arrays we can handle. Our target has been to identify the critical parameters which determine the dispersion of the disordered array response, a crucial parameter for device application. First results will be shown.     

Ultrafast surface enhanced resonance Raman scattering detection in droplet-based microfluidic systems

The development of ultrafast Raman-based detection is one of the most interesting challenges underpinning the application of droplet-based microfluidics. Herein, we describe the use of surface-enhanced resonance Raman spectroscopy (SERRS) with submillisecond time resolution as a powerful detection tool in microdroplet reactors. Individual droplets containing silver nanoparticle aggregates functionalized with Raman reporters are interrogated and characterized by full spectra acquisitions with high spatial resolution in real time. Whereas previous works coupling SERRS with droplet-based microfluidics acquire a single spectrum over single or multiple droplets, we build upon these results by increasing our temporal resolution by 2 orders of magnitude. This allows us to interrogate multiple points within one individual droplet. The SERRS signals emitted from the aggregates are utilized to access the influence of flow rate on droplet size and throughput. Accordingly, our approach allows for high-throughput analysis that facilitates the study of other biological assays or molecular interactions.     

Numerical modelling and data assimilation of the Larsen B ice shelf, Antarctic Peninsula

In this study, the flow and rheology of pre-collapse Larsen B ice shelf are investigated by using a combination of flow modelling and data assimilation. Observed shelf velocities from satellite interferometry are used to constrain an ice shelf model by using a data assimilation technique based on the control method. In particular, the ice rheology field and the velocities at the inland shelf boundary are simultaneously optimized to get a modelled flow and stress field that is consistent with the observed flow. The application to the Larsen B ice shelf shows that a strong weakening of the ice in the shear zones, mostly along the margins, is necessary to fit the observed shelf flow. This pattern of bands with weak ice is a very robust feature of the inversion, whereas the ice rheology within the main shelf body is found to be not well constrained. This suggests that these weak zones play a major role in the control of the flow of the Larsen B ice shelf and may be the key to understanding the observed pre-collapse thinning and acceleration of Larsen B. Regarding the sensitivity of the stress field to rheology, the consistency of the model with the observed flow seems crucial for any further analysis such as the application of fracture mechanics or perturbation model experiments.