Scalable Realistic Rendering with Many‐Light Methods

Recent years have seen increasing attention and significant progress in many‐light rendering, a class of methods for efficient computation of global illumination. The many‐light formulation offers a unified mathematical framework for the problem reducing the full lighting transport simulation to the calculation of the direct illumination from many virtual light sources. These methods are unrivaled in their scalability: they are able to produce plausible images in a fraction of a second but also converge to the full solution over time. In this state‐of‐the‐art report, we give an easy‐to‐follow, introductory tutorial of the many‐light theory; provide a comprehensive, unified survey of the topic with a comparison of the main algorithms; discuss limitations regarding materials and light transport phenomena and present a vision to motivate and guide future research. We will cover both the fundamental concepts as well as improvements, extensions and applications of many‐light rendering.     

An analysis of muscles from ultrasound image using morphological information of fascia and thoracic vertebra

In this paper, we propose a new fully computerized image analysis method for measuring the thickness of muscles from ultrasound image obtained by muscle endurance test using morphological information of fascia and thoracic vertebra. Firstly, we divide the image into lumbar region and thoracolumbar region by the difference of density in image for measuring the thickness of muscles. In lumbar region, we notice that the intensity of fascia is relatively higher than other parts. Thus, we measure the thickness of muscles surrounding the fascia area. In the process, we apply median filter to candidate fascia areas for extracting candidate muscle layers between fascias. Then, the thickness of muscles we measure is that of the third layer. In thoracolumbar region, we apply region expansion method for classifying the region into subcutaneous fat part and part including thoracic vertebra. Then, we apply counting method and evolutionary computation search model to find the measuring location that is in between subcutaneous fat area and thoracic vertebra. In experiment, the proposed method is effective in measuring the thickness of muscles and avoids failures of previous studies. The performance of this approach is sufficiently comparable to that of medical experts.     

Synthesis and properties of acrylonitrile-CR-methyl methacrylate graft copolymer

Graft copolymerization of acrylonitrile (AN) and methyl methacrylate (MMA) onto polychloroprene (CR) was carried out using benzoyl peroxide as initiator. The effects of mole ratio of AN to MMA, reaction temperature, reaction time, solvent, and initiator concentration on the graft copolymerization were examined. It was found that the thermal stability and weatherability of the AN—CR—MMA graft copolymer (ACM) were considerably better than those of CR.     

Copolymerizations of ethylene with 1–decene over various ansa–metallocene complexes combined with Al( i-Bu) 3/ [CPh 3] [B(C 6F 5) 4] cocatalyst

Copolymerizations of ethylene with 1-decene were carried out with a series of stereospecific metallocene compounds, rac–(EBI)Zr(NMe₂)₂ [ 1, EBI = ethylene–1,2–bis( 1–indenyl)], rac–(EBI)Hf(NMe₂ (2), rac–Me₂Si( 1–C₅H₂–2–Me–4– ^t Bu)₂Zr(NMe₂)₂ (3), ethylidene(cyclopentadienyl)(9-fluorenyl)ZrMe2 [4, Et(Flu)(Cp)ZrMe2] and isopropylidene(cyclopentadienyl)(9–fluorenyl)ZrMe₂ [5, iPr(Flu)(Cp)ZrMe₂], combined with Al(i–Bu)₃/[CPh₃] [B(C₆F₅)₄] cocatalyst. All catalyst systems showed very high copolymerization rates and the 1–decene reactivity decreased in the order of 2 > 5 > 1 4 > 3. The reactivity product of ethylene and 1–decene (r _E x r _D) was below 1 except 3 catalyst, corresponding to random copolymer structures with an alternating character. The melting point (T_m), crystallinity (X_C), intrinsic viscosity ([] and density of the 1–decene/ethylene copolymers decreased markedly with an increase in the 1–decene content, regardless of the type of catalytic system.     

Advanced underfill for high thermal reliability

The key to the success of flip‐chip technology lies in the availability of sucessful underfill materials. However, the reliability of flip‐chip technology using current underfill materials is generally found to be lower than that of conventional wire‐bond connection packaging materials such as epoxy molding compound (EMC) because of the high coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE) and moisture absorption of cured underfill material. In this study desbimide (DBMI), which has a low melting point (about 80°C), was used in the underfill materials as a cohardener. As a result, DBMI‐added underfill can show excellent thermal reliability, which is due to the superior properties of the CTE, the elastic modulus, and water resistance. When the properties of a 2 wt % DBMI‐added underfill were compared with those of a typical underfill (epoxy/anhydride), the CTE value was reduced to less than one‐half at the solder reflow temperature (about 200°C), the elastic modulus was reduced to less than one‐half in the temperature region below the glass‐transition temperature, and the water resistance was improved twofold. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 83: 2617–2624, 2002     

Power management unit chip design for automobile active-matrix organic light-emitting diode display module

A power management unit (PMU) chip supplying dual panel supply voltage, which has a low electro-magnetic interference (EMI) characteristic and is favorable for miniaturization, is designed. A two-phase charge pump circuit using external pumping capacitor increases its pumping current and works out the charge-loss problem by using bulk-potential biasing circuit. A low-power start-up circuit is also proposed to reduce the power consumption of the band-gap reference voltage generator. And the ring oscillator used in the ELVSS power circuit is designed with logic devices by supplying the logic power supply to reduce the layout area. The PMU chip is designed with MagnaChip’s 0.25 μm high-voltage process. The driving currents of ELVDD and ELVSS are more than 50 mA when a SPICE simulation is done.     

Design of small-area multi-bit antifuse-type 1 kbit OTP memory

A multi-bit antifuse-type one-time programmable (OTP) memory is designed, which has a smaller area and a shorter programming time compared with the conventional single-bit antifuse-type OTP memory. While the conventional antifuse-type OTP memory can store a bit per cell, a proposed OTP memory can store two consecutive bits per cell through a data compression technique. The 1 kbit OTP memory designed with Magnachip 0.18 μm CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) process is 34% smaller than the conventional single-bit antifuse-type OTP memory since the sizes of cell array and row decoder are reduced. And the programming time of the proposed OTP memory is nearly 50% smaller than that of the conventional counterpart since two consecutive bytes can be compressed and programmed into eight OTP cells at once. The layout area is 214 μm × 327 μm, and the read current is simulated to be 30.4 μA. Foundation item: Project supported by the 2nd Stage of Brain Korea; Project supported by the Korea Research Foundation     

Adhesion properties of UV crosslinked polystyrene-block-polybutadiene-block-polystyrene copolymer and tackifier mixture

The peel and tack properties of mixtures of polystyrene-block-polybutadiene-block-polystyrene (SBS) and a tackifier were investigated after these were crosslinked by ultraviolet (UV) irradiation at various amounts of benzophenone (BP) as a photoinitiator and trimethylolpropane mercaptopropionate (TRIS) as a crosslinking agent.The degree of crosslinking of polybutadiene (PB) block in the SBS mixture was qualitatively estimated from the amount of gel fraction as well as the change in the glass transition temperature of the PB block. The crosslinking of the PB block was done within 3 min after UV irradiation and the peel strength of crosslinked specimens was as low as 45[percnt] of specimens without crosslinking. Nano-tack and bulk tack properties as well as the surface tension of mixtures were measured depending upon amounts of BP and TRIS.     

沧州市2006~2016年春季大到暴雨特征分析

根据沧州市92个雨量监测站2006~2016年间的春季大到暴雨资料,研究了11年来沧州市春季大到暴雨的特征指标、时间变化规律以及空间变化趋势.研究发现:沧州市11年间春季大到暴雨强度(站点数)的时间变化呈抛物线趋势,与沧州市年降水量变化趋势非常接近;沧州市春季大到暴雨的空间分布情况为各县市均有发生,但分布不均匀,子牙新河沿岸出现高值区,以子牙新河为界,向两侧递减.     

Temperature and grain size dependence of superplasticity in a Zn−0.3wt.%Al alloy

The superplastic deformation behavior of quasi-single phase Zn-0.3 wt. %Al was investigated. A series of load relaxation and tensile tests was conducted at various temperatures ranging from RT (20 °C) to 200 °C. The recently proposed internal variable theory of structural superplasticity was applied. The flow curves obtained from load relaxation tests were shown to consist of contributions from interface sliding (IS) and accommodating plastic deformation. In the case of quasi-single phase Zn-0.3 wt.% Al alloy with an average agrain size of 1 μm, the IS behavior could be described as a viscous flow process characterized by a power index of M_g=0.5. A large elongation of about 1400% was obtained at room temperature and the strain rate sensitivity parameter was about 0.4. Although relatively large-grained (10 μm) single phase alloy showed a high value of strain rate sensitivity comparable to that of fine-grained alloy at very low strain rate range, IS was not expected from the analysis based on the internal variable theory of structural superplasticity at room temperature. As the temperature increased above 100 °C, however, the contribution from IS was observed at a very low strain rate range. A high elongation of ∼400% was obtained in a specimen of 10-μm-grain-size at 200 °C under a strain rate of 2×10⁻⁴/sec. Jointly appointed at Center for Advanced Aerospace Materials (CAAM)