Collection efficiency of liquid‐based samplers for fungi in indoor air

This study assessed the collection efficiency (CE) of two popularly used sampling devices (BioSampler and Coriolis sampler) for fungal aerosols. Phosphate‐buffered saline (PBS) supplemented with or without surfactant (Tween‐20, Tween‐80, or Triton X‐100) and antifoam agent was prepared and used as collection liquids. The agar impactor (BioStage) was simultaneously operated with liquid‐based samplers to collect fungi from seven sites located at a university building, public library, and animal farming. Fungal concentrations determined by liquid samplers were divided by those by BioStage, and the ratio values represented CE. Results indicate that the CE of BioSampler was superior to that of Coriolis (P = 0.0001) and the PBS containing surfactant collected fungi better than that without surfactant (P < 0.0001), whereas antifoam agent showed no influence (P = 0.8). Moreover, fungal concentrations determined by BioSampler with surfactant‐added PBS were statistically indifferent from those by BioStage (P > 0.05) with a Spearman correlation coefficient of 0.81‐0.83 (P < 0.01). In addition to sampler and collection liquid, sampling location was also identified as a significant CE factor (P = 0.006), implying potential influences by fungal genera in the studied fields. Overall, BioSampler with surfactant‐supplemented PBS (eg, Triton X‐100) is recommended considering the great CE and compatibility with a variety of analytical assays.     

Frequency Insertion Strategy for Channel Assignment Problem

This paper presents a new heuristic method for quickly finding a good feasible solution to the channel assignment problem (CAP). Like many other greedy-type heuristics for CAP, the proposed method also assigns a frequency to a call, one at a time. Hence, the method requires computational time that increases only linear to the number of calls. However, what distinguishes the method from others is that it starts with a narrow enough frequency band so as to provoke violations of constraints that we need to comply with in order to avoid radio interference. Each violation is then resolved by inserting frequencies at the most appropriate positions so that the band of frequencies expands minimally. An extensive computational experiment using a set of randomly generated problems as well as the Philadelphia benchmark instances shows that the proposed method perform statistically better than existing methods of its kind and even yields optimum solutions to most of Philadelphia benchmark instances among which two cases are reported for the first time ever, in this paper. Won-Young Shin was born in Busan, Korea in 1978. He received B.S. in industrial engineering from Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) in 2001 and M.S in operation research and applied statistics from POSTECH in 2003. Since 2003 he has been a researcher of Agency for Defense Development (ADD) in Korea. He is interested in optimization of communication system and applied statistics. Soo Y. Chang is an associate professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, Korea. He teaches linear programming, discrete optimization, network flows and operations research courses. His research interests include mathematical programming and scheduling. He has published in several journals including Discrete Applied Mathematics, Computers and Mathematics with Application, IIE Transactions, International Journal of Production Research, and so on. He is a member of Korean IIE, and ORMSS. Jaewook Lee is an assistant professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, Korea. He received the B.S. degree in mathematics with honors from Seoul National University, and the Ph.D. degree from Cornell University in applied mathematics in 1993 and 1999, respectively. He is currently an assistant professor in the department of industrial engineering at the Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH). His research interests include nonlinear systems, neural networks, nonlinear optimization, and their applications to data mining and financial engineering. Chi-Hyuck Jun was born in Seoul, Korea in 1954. He received B.S. in mineral and petroleum engineering from Seoul National University in 1977, M.S. in industrial engineering from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in 1979 and Ph.D. in operations research from University of California, Berkeley, in 1986. Since 1987 he has been with the department of industrial engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) and he is now a professor and the department head. He is interested in performance analysis of communication and production systems. He has published in several journals including IIE Transactions, IEEE Transactions, Queueing Systems and Chemometrics and Intelligent Laboratory Systems. He is a member of IEEE, INFORMS and ASQ.     

Structure, properties, and thermal stability of nanocrystallite Fe-Ti-N soft magnetic films

We deposited Fe-Ti-N magnetic films with a high sputtering power of 7 W/cm/sup 2/. When the composition of the films was in the range of Fe-Ti(3.9 at.%)-N(8.8 at.%) to Fe-Ti(3.3 at.%)-N(13.5 at.%), the films were composed of /spl alpha/' and Ti/sub 2/N precipitates. With the addition of nitrogen, 4/spl pi/M/sub s/ became higher than that of pure iron, reaching a maximum of 23.8 kG. At the same time, H/sub c/ was reduced to a minimum of 1.12 Oe. The best films can meet the needs of the recording head in dual-element giant magnetoresistive/inductive heads, yielding high storage density (10 Gb/in/sup 2/). The incorporation of N in /spl alpha/-Fe brought about the /spl alpha/' phase with its higher saturation magnetization. Ti additions inhibited the equilibrium decomposition /spl alpha/'/spl rarr//spl alpha/+/spl gamma/'. Because H/sub C//sup D//spl prop/D/sup 6/, where D is average grain diameter, grain size control is very important. The nitrogen induces severe distortion of the /spl alpha/' lattice, which can cause the grains to break into pieces and reduce the grain size. High sputtering power also led to the formation of fine grains, with diameter in the order of 14 nm. Probably Ti/sub 2/N is preferentially precipitated on the grain boundary, pinning the grain boundary and stabilizing the grain size during high-temperature heat treatment. The temperature limit for stability of the structure and its associated low coercivity was not less than 520/spl deg/C.     

Fast handoff with reducing waste rate approach for wireless resources management in UMTS mobile networks

3G Wideband CDMA systems adopt the Orthogonal Variable Spreading Factor code tree as the channelization codes management for achieving high data rate transmission in personal multimedia communications. It assigns a single channelization code for each accepted connection. Nevertheless, it wastes the system capacity when the required rate is not powers of two of the basic rate. One good solution is to assign multiple codes for each accepted connection but it causes two inevitable drawbacks: long handoff delay and new call setup delay due to high complexity of processing with multiple channelization codes, and high cost of using more number of rake combiners. Especially, long handoff delay may result in more call dropping probability and higher Grade of Service, which will degrade significantly the utilization and revenue of the 3G cellular systems. Therefore, we propose herein an adaptive efficient codes determination algorithm based on the Markov Decision Process analysis approach to reduce the waste rate and reassignments significantly while providing fast handoff. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed approach yields several advantages, including the lowest GOS, the least waste rate, and the least number of reassignments. Meanwhile, the optimal number of rake combiners is also analyzed in this paper. This research was supported in part by the National Science Council of Taiwan, ROC, under contract NSC-93-2213-E-324-018.     

变频电子阻垢技术的工业应用

中国大唐发电有限责任公司徐塘分公司利用变频电磁阻垢技术在4号发电机组循环冷却水系统进行了成功应用.从理论上比较了物理法与化学法水处理技术的差异.工业应用结果表明,变频电磁技术不仅阻垢效果明显,而且具有安装维护简便,适应性广,运行费用低,对水体无污染等特点.可以替代化学阻垢法.     

关于天然气水合物钻采工艺技术进展的研究

目前全球正面临着前所未有的能源危机，天然气水合物由于储量大、能量密度高而将成为一种诱人的新型能源。天然气水合物主要存在于冻土带和海洋，在地下处于低温和高压状态，以现有的技术，钻井和开采都存在很大的困难。简要介绍了天然气水合物的性质及储量，阐述了天然气水合物钻井的六个挑战及目前国外天然气水合物的两种钻探方法；同时阐述了以热力法、降压法和化学试剂注入法为主的天然气水合物开采方法，并针对天然气水合物钻采技术现状指出了下一步的研究方向。     

Effects of genotype and treatment on the antioxidant activity of sweet potato in Taiwan

Six genotypes of sweet potato commercially available in Taiwan, including TNG57, TNG66, TNG68, TYY1, RP and WP, were used as samples in this study of the effects of steaming and kneading with pre-steaming treatments on the antioxidant components and antioxidant properties of methanolic extracts. Steam treatment increased the total phenols contents of all genotypes (2–13 times), flavonoids content of RP (1.3 times) and anthocyanins contents of RP and WP (5–6 times). Steam treatment also increased the reducing power and scavenging DPPH radical effect of sweet potato flours. For the methanolic extracts of steamed and kneaded flours, reducing powers were 0.02–1.70 at 5.0 mg ml⁻¹ and the scavenging effects on DPPH radicals were 19–92% at 2.5 mg ml⁻¹. Both showed the order of RP > WP > TYY1 and TNG66 > TNG57 and TNG68. However, the chelating effect of the six genotypes at 1.0 mg ml⁻¹ ranged from 50% to 73%. Contents of total phenols, flavonoids, and anthocyanins of sweet potato flours were significantly positively correlated with the reducing power and scavenging DPPH radical effects. After steaming and kneading treatments, RP showed the highest increase in the contents of total phenols, flavonoids and anthocyanins among the six genotypes studied.     

单螺杆空气压缩机核心技术的突破

空缩机是煤矿重要基础设备。与传统的往复式缩压机不同,单螺杆压缩机具有技术含量高、可靠性好、噪音低等特点,需求量越来越大。上海飞和实业集团有限公司坚持自主创新,打破国外技术封锁,在单螺杆压缩机的设计与制造核心技术方面均取得重大突破,拥有完全自主的知识产权,成为我国以单螺杆压缩机为主体的强力生产基地。     

一种PD雷达动目标模拟与微波测控系统

介绍了一种基于PC／104总线，具有GPIB程控功能，采用无内部微波源体制，通过在雷达载频上调制多普勒频率模型目标速度信息，延迟雷达发射机触发脉冲模拟目标距离信息并具有微波功率精确定标与衰减功能的PD雷达动目标模拟与微波测控系统。     

A novel compact ring dual-mode filter with adjustable second-passband for dual-band applications

In this letter, a novel compact ring dual-mode with adjustable second-passband for dual-band applications are presented. A ring resonator with two different geometric dimensions are derived and designed to have identical fundamental and the first higher-order resonant frequencies, and to establish appropriate couplings in the structure. Moreover, the proposed filter has smaller size as compared with the basic topology of stopband filters and stepped-impedance-resonator (SIR) filters. The measured filter performance is in good agreement with the simulated response.