Electrocatalytic properties of Ti/Pt–IrO2 anode for oxygen evolution in PEM water electrolysis

A novel Pt–IrO₂ electrocatalyst was prepared using the dip-coating/calcinations method on titanium substrates. Titanium electrodes coated with oxides were investigated for oxygen evolution. Experimental results showed that Ti/Pt–IrO₂ electrode containing 30 mol% Pt in the coating exhibited significantly higher electrocatalytic activity for oxygen evolution compared to Ti/IrO₂ prepared by the same method, which is also supported by the electrochemical impedance data. Stability tests demonstrated Pt–IrO₂ electrocatalyst had a service cycle of 10,000 times in 0.1 M H₂SO₄ solution. And the anode surface had hardly discovered cracks and had compact structures, which contributed to stable nature of the electrode together with good conductivity and specific interaction between Pt and IrO₂ formed during the calcination. Furthermore, the enhanced catalytic activity for O₂ evolution at Ti/Pt–IrO₂ electrode is preliminarily discussed using the Mott–Schottky analysis.     

PAHs in sediments of the Black River and the Ashtabula River, Ohio: source apportionment by factor analysis

Sources of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the Black River and Ashtabula River sediments were apportioned using a factor analysis (FA) model with nonnegative constraints. Source profiles, contributions (microg/g) and percent contributions are determined with no prior knowledge of sources. The FA model includes scaling and backscaling of data with average PAH concentrations, without sample normalization. The present work is a follow-up to studies that used a chemical mass balance model to apportion sources to the same data sets. Literature source profiles, modified based on gas/particle partitioning of individual PAHs, from nine PAH sources were considered for comparison. FA results for a three-source solution indicate traffic (58%), coke oven (26%), and wood burning/coal tar (16%) are the primary PAH sources to Black River sediments. The primary PAH sources to the Ashtabula River sediments are traffic (51%), coke oven (44%), and wood burning (5%). This work supports the previous studies of Black River and Ashtabula River PAHs by CMB model. In addition, FA provides a more realistic fit to Ashtabula River model data by eliminating 100% contributions from one source.     

高精度伺服系统基于Pade近似的数字前馈控制器

针对指令超前信息未知的情况,提出一种基于Pade近似原理的数字前馈控制器。以某电机伺服系统为例进行仿真,结果表明了本控制器的有效性。     

The YouthMood Project: A cluster randomized controlled trial of an online cognitive behavioral program with adolescents.

The aim in the current study was to investigate the effectiveness of an online, self-directed cognitive–behavioral therapy program (MoodGYM) in preventing and reducing the symptoms of anxiety and depression in an adolescent school-based population. A cluster randomized controlled trial was conducted with 30 schools (N = 1,477) from across Australia, with each school randomly allocated to the intervention or wait-list control condition. At postintervention and 6-month follow-up, participants in the intervention condition had significantly lower levels of anxiety than did participants in the wait-list control condition (Cohen’s d = 0.15–0.25). The effects of the MoodGYM program on depressive symptoms were less strong, with only male participants in the intervention condition exhibiting significant reductions in depressive symptoms at postintervention and 6-month follow-up (Cohen’s d = 0.27–0.43). Although small to moderate, the effects obtained in the current study provide support for the utility of universal prevention programs in schools. The effectiveness of booster sessions should be explored in future research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Container loading with multi-drop constraints

In this paper, an algorithm for the container-loading problem (CLP) with multi-drop constraints is presented. When adding multi-drop constraints, we demand that the relevant boxes must be available, without rearranging others, when each drop-off point is reached. To make the solutions feasible in the real world, it is further demanded that all boxes are placed in a feasible manner with respect to load-bearing strength and with proper support from below. This makes it possible to load consignments originating from builder merchants. A heuristic based on a tree search framework is proposed. It uses greedy solutions to evaluate each choice taken. To make the framework more generic, a dynamic breadth is proposed. Based on problem characteristics and the time limit imposed, it will choose the breadth of the tree, making sure that the time is utilised most profitably. The algorithm is tested on new real-world data from a Danish company distributing construction products. For the solutions to these problems to be feasible in a real-world setting, both multi-drop and load-bearing strength constraints are essential. The obtained results show that the proposed model and algorithm are able to solve the new real-world problems in fractions of a second. Furthermore, results obtained on benchmark problems indicate that the algorithm performs comparably with other more specialised methods.     

Electrokinetic desalination of glazed ceramic tiles

Electrokinetic desalination is a method where an applied electric DC field is the driving force for removal of salts from porous building materials. In the present paper, the method is tested in laboratory scale for desalination of single ceramic tiles. In a model system, where a tile was contaminated with NaCl during submersion and subsequently desalinated by the method, the desalination was completed in that the high and problematic initial Cl⁻ concentration was reduced to an unproblematic concentration. Further conductivity measurements showed a very low conductivity in the tile after treatment, indicating that supply of ions from the poultice at the electrodes into the tile was limited. Electroosmotic transport of water was seen when low ionic content was reached. Experiments were also conducted with XVIII-century tiles, which had been removed from Palacio Centeno (Lisbon) during renovation due to damage of the glazing from the presence of salts. These tiles were severely contaminated with both chlorides and nitrates, and one of the tiles also contained sulphates though at a low concentration. The charge transfer was too low in the experiments to obtain full desalination, but promising results were obtained as significant decreases (>81% Cl⁻, ~59% NO₃ ⁻ and ~22% SO₄ ²⁻) were seen.     

A new analysis of the false positive rate of a Bloom filter

A Bloom filter is a space-efficient data structure used for probabilistic set membership testing. When testing an object for set membership, a Bloom filter may give a false positive. The analysis of the false positive rate is a key to understanding the Bloom filter and applications that use it. We show experimentally that the classic analysis for false positive rate is wrong. We formally derive a correct formula using a balls-and-bins model and show how to numerically compute the new, correct formula in a stable manner. We also prove that the new formula always results in a predicted greater false positive rate than the classic formula. This correct formula is numerically compared to the classic formula for relative error - for a small Bloom filter the prediction of false positive rate will be in error when the classic formula is used.     

New stability method applied to the stabilization of fuzzy control systems

This paper addresses stability analysis and stabilization for Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy systems via a new stability method previously developed and presented by the authors. The new stability method is here extended to fuzzy systems. In essence, the authors consider the stabilization of a fuzzy control system with parallel distributed compensation. This problem has been considered in detail previously by different authors using fuzzy Lyapunov function theory. However, in this paper the authors show that their new stability method presents a viable alternative to Lyapunov?s method for such control systems. This statement is confirmed by a demonstration that the new stability method always provides necessary and sufficient conditions, the satisfaction of which guarantees that the system in question will be asymptotically stable.     

Thermal effects in packaging high power light emitting diode arrays

The package and system level temperature distributions of a high power (>1 W) light emitting diode (LED) array have been investigated using numerical heat flow models. For this analysis, a thermal resistor network model was combined with a 3D finite element submodel of an LED structure to predict system and die level temperatures. The impact of LED array density, LED power density, and active versus passive cooling methods on device operation were calculated. In order to help understand the role of various thermal resistances in cooling such compact arrays, the thermal resistance network was analyzed in order to estimate the contributions from materials as well as active and passive cooling schemes. Finally, an analysis of a ceramic packaging architecture is performed in order to give insight into methods to reduce the packaging resistance for high power LEDs.