Guest Editorial

The UK-China Research Network on Intelligent Automation, Computing and Manufacturing has been established since September 2004 by grants from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) of the UK and the National Natural Science Foundation of China. The initiative of the network is motivated by the last visit of the UK Science Minister Lord Sainsbury to China to open the first UK-China Hi-Tech Forum and by the current EPSRC initiative to set up specific network programmes in collaboration with partners in China.     

燃煤电站锅炉排烟中潜热的回收

提高燃烧效率和(或者)从排烟中回收余热都能够改善锅炉效率。目前的研究是确定同时回收潜热和显热时热和烟的收益比率。通过在一个350MW热电站中的一台交叉流管状换热器传热和传质的数学模拟,获得了理论结果。这一结果表明,在烟气温度为150℃时,由于从排烟中回收潜热,锅炉效率可以提高5—6％。对换热器表面的最大腐蚀率做了予测。     

Nd3+ Doped Silicate Glass Photonic Crystal Fiber with Random Hole Distributions

The fabrication of one kind of large core area Nd3 doped silicate glass photonic crystal fiber, and demonstration of the fiber's waveguidence properties were reported. This fiber owns a random air hole distribution in the cladding. The measured minimum loss of this kind of fiber is 10 dB·m-1 at 660 nm. These fibers can sustain only a single mode at least over wavelength ranging from 660 nm to 980 nm.     

LASER CLADDED TiCN COATINGS ON THE SURFACE OF TTTANIUM

Laser cladded coatings of TiCN were produced on the surface of titanium. To obtain the optimal techniques, several conditions were tested by varying the laser scanning rate. The choice of shielding gas was also studied. The cladded coatings were then evaluated from the surface mechanics point of view based on their microhardness. The microstructure of some interesting samples was investigated by optical micrographs （OM）. The results showed that under the condition of fixed pulse frequency and pulse width, the laser scanning rate and the shielding gas are the main factors influencing the components of coatings. TiCN coatings were decompounded and oxidized during the cladding process in the condition of no shielding gas of N2. X-ray diffraction results indicated that the composite coatings composed of TiCN, TiC, Ti2N, and TiO2 were produced using appropriate techniques. The results indicated that the best condition in terms of the surface microhardness is obtained when the scanning rate is 1.5mm/s, the pulse frequency is 15Hz, the pulse width is 3.0ms, and N2 is chosen as the shielding gas. The microhardness of the composite coatings is about 1331kg · mm^-2, which is about 4 times that of the substrate. The optical micrographs indicated that the cladding zone is made up of TiCN, TiO2 and some interdendritic Ti, but the diffusion zone mainly consists of the dendrites phase, and the cladded depth is about 80μm, which is more than 2 times that of the laser nitrided sample. There were no microcracks or air bubbles in the cladded sample, which was cladded using the above optimal techniques.     

NANO-MULTILAYERS WITH HIGH PERPENDICULAR ANISOTROPY FOR MAGNETIC RECORDING

(FePt/Ag)n nano-multilayers were deposited on MgO (100) single crystal with laser ablation and then subjected to annealing. FePt L1o grains with (001) texture and thus a large perpendicular magnetic anisotropy constant Ku of the order of 106 J/m3 were formed. A thick Ag layer is found to be favorable for decreasing the dispersion of the easy axis for magnetization. The measurement of time decay of magnetization gave rise to a small activation volume of the order of 10-25m3, showing the promising of being the recording medium for future high density perpendicular recording.     

Improved Computational Model of Grid Cells Based on Column Structure

To simulate the firing pattern of biological grid cells, this paper presents an improved computational model of grid cells based on column structure. In this model, the displacement along different directions is processed by modulus operation, and the obtained remainder is associated with firing rate of grid cell. Compared with the original model, the improved parts include that: the base of modulus operation is changed, and the firing rate in firing field is encoded by Gaussian-like function. Simulation validates that the firing pattern generated by the improved computational model is more consistent with biological characteristic than original model. Besides, the firing pattern is badly influenced by the cumulative positioning error, but the computational model can also generate the regularly hexagonal firing pattern when the real-time positioning results are modified.     

Joint relay selection and power allocation for amplify-and-forward two-path relaying networks

This paper presents a joint relay selection and power allocation scheme for amplify-and-forward two-path relaying networks,in which diferent relay nodes forward information symbols alternatively in adjacent time slots.Our approach is based on the maximization of the received signal-to-noise ratio under total power consumption by the transmission of the symbol.We show that in spite of inter-relay interferences,the maximization problem has a closed-form solution.Simulation results explicitly indicate that the performance of proposed approach outmatches the existing methods including equal power allocation and one-path relaying.     

Cryo-EM image alignment based on nonuniform fast Fourier transform

In single particle analysis, two-dimensional (2-D) alignment is a fundamental step intended to put into register various particle projections of biological macromolecules collected at the electron microscope. The efficiency and quality of three-dimensional (3-D) structure reconstruction largely depends on the computational speed and alignment accuracy of this crucial step. In order to improve the performance of alignment, we introduce a new method that takes advantage of the highly accurate interpolation scheme based on the gridding method, a version of the nonuniform fast Fourier transform, and utilizes a multi-dimensional optimization algorithm for the refinement of the orientation parameters. Using simulated data, we demonstrate that by using less than half of the sample points and taking twice the runtime, our new 2-D alignment method achieves dramatically better alignment accuracy than that based on quadratic interpolation. We also apply our method to image to volume registration, the key step in the single particle EM structure refinement protocol. We find that in this case the accuracy of the method not only surpasses the accuracy of the commonly used real-space implementation, but results are achieved in much shorter time, making gridding-based alignment a perfect candidate for efficient structure determination in single particle analysis.     

Diffractive-phase-element design that implements several optical functions

A scheme for the design of diffractive phase elements (DPE's) that integrates several optical functions is presented in a consistent sense based on the general theory of amplitude-phase retrieval and the Yang-Gu algorithm [Appl. Opt. 33, 209 (1994)]. We extend the original Yang-Gu algorithm to treat a system illuminated by a beam of incident light whose components are at different wavelengths, and a set of equations for determining the phase distribution of the DPE is derived. The profile of a surface-relief DPE can be designed with an iterative algorithm. Numerical simulations are carried out for the design of one-dimensional DPE's capable of both demultiplexing different wavelength components and focusing each partial wave at predetermined positions. The influence of the extension of sampling points in the DPE's from ideal geometric points to physical spots on design results is also investigated. The numerical simulation results show that the new algorithm can be used successfully to design the desired DPE's. It is therefore expected to be useful in the design of DPE's for micro-optical systems.