A 3-D Enlarged Cell Technique (ECT) for the Conformal FDTD Method

In this paper, we present an enlarged cell technique (ECT) to avoid the time step reduction encountered in the conformal finite-difference time-domain (CFDTD) method due to small irregular cells truncated by metallic boundaries. We focus our efforts on the discussion of the accuracy and stability of the ECT and its comparison with other conformal methods, especially the one called the uniformly stable conformal (USC) method. We also provide a simplified ECT, which is much easier to implement. In the ECT, a stability criterion is first constructed to identify instable irregular cells, i.e., those having so small an area to cause instability. Those instable cells are then enlarged into their adjacent cells to obtain a large, stable area. Careful treatment is performed on the communication between the intruding and intruded cells in terms of electromotive force by keeping the total electromotive force conservative. This technique is verified by several 3-D numerical experiments. Results show that the ECT is second-order accurate and numerically stable at the regular Courant time step limit.     

Novel tiO2 nanocatalysts for wastewater purification: tapping energy from the sun.

Water treatment using TiO2 semiconductor as a durable heterogeneous photocatalyst has been the focus of environmentalists in recent years. Currently, we developed an inexpensive and highly efficient approach for synthesizing nitrogen-doped TiO2 with lower band-gap energy that can respond to visible light. Doping on the molecular scale led to an enhanced nitrogen concentration of up to 21.8%. Reflectance measurements showed the synthesized N-doped TiO2 nanoparticles are catalytically active with the absorbance that extends into the visible region up to 600 nm. The water purification potential of this new class of compound was evaluated by studying the photodegradation of Acid Orange 7 (AO7) and E. coli. Experiments were conducted to compare the photocatalytic activities of N-doped TiO2 nanocatalysts and commercially available Degussa P25 power under identical solar light exposure. N-doped TiO2 demonstrated superior photocatalytic activities in both chemical compound degradation and bactericidal reactions. The result of this study shows the potential of applying new generations of catalyst for wastewater purification and disinfection.     

Modeling wireless fading channels via stochastic differential equations: identification and estimation based on noisy measurements

This paper is concerned with modeling and identification of wireless channels using noisy measurements. The models employed are governed by stochastic differential equations (SDEs) in state space form, while the identification method is based on the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm and Kalman filtering. The algorithm is tested against real channel measurements. The results presented include state space models for the channels, estimates of inphase and quadrature components, and estimates of the corresponding Doppler power spectral densities (DPSDs), from sample noisy measurements. Based on the available measurements, it is concluded that state space models of order two are sufficient for wireless flat fading channel characterization.     

Investigation of Mechanical and Electrical Characteristics for Cracked Conductive Particle in Anisotropic Conductive Adhesive (ACA) Assembly

In an anisotropic conductive adhesive (ACA) assembly, the electrical conduction is usually achieved with the conductive particles between the bumps of integrated circuit (IC) and corresponding conductive tracks on the glass substrate. Fully understanding of the mechanical and electrical characteristics of ACA particles can help to optimize the assembly process and improve the reliability of ACA interconnection. Most conductive particles used in the ACA assembly are with cracks in the metal coating of the particles after the ACA bonding. This paper introduced the fracture analysis by applying the cohesive elements in the numerical model of the nickel-coated polymer particle and further simulating the cracks initiation and propagation in the nickel coating during the ACA bonding. The simulation results showed that the stress distribution on the nickel-coated particle with cracks was significantly different from that on the nickel-coated particle without crack, indicating that the stress analysis by taking the crack into consideration is very important for the reliability assessment of the ACA interconnection. The stress analysis of cohesive elements indicated that the cracks initiated at the central area of the nickel coating and propagated to the polar area. Furthermore, by the introduction of a new parameter of the virtual resistance, a mathematical model was established to describe the electrical characteristics of the nickel-coated particle with cracks. The particle resistance of the nickel-coated particle with cracks was found to be much higher than that of the particle without crack in the optimized bonding pressure range, indicating that it is necessary to take the crack into consideration for the particle conduction analysis as well. Therefore, the fracture analysis on the conductive particle by taking the crack into consideration could accurately evaluate the reliability of ACA interconnection and avoid serious reliability issues.     

镍氢电池负极用低成本储氢合金的研究

研究了ABS型储氢合金在低Co含量条件下，随B组元替代元素Co，Al，Si等含量的变化对合金电化学性能的影响规律，同时研究了A组元中不同La／Ce比对合金电化学性能的影响情况。结果表明，随合金中Co含量的降低，合金的活化性能和放电容量得以改善，但合金的循环寿命下降也比较明显；在试验范围内，随Al元素的加入，合金的循环寿命得以改善，但材料的放电容量和活化性能均有所下降；随合金La／Ce比的降低，合金的放电容量略有下降，但其循环寿命和放电电压平台有较大提高。     

Identifiability of nonlinear systems with application to HIV/AIDS models

In this note, we investigate different concepts of nonlinear identifiability in the generic sense. We work in the linear algebraic framework. Necessary and sufficient conditions are found for geometrical identifiability, algebraic identifiability and identifiability with known initial conditions. Relationships between different concepts are characterized. Constructive procedures are worked out for both generic geometrical and algebraic identifiability of nonlinear systems. As an application of the theory developed, we study the identifiability properties of a four dimensional model of HIV/AIDS. The questions answered in this study include the minimal number of measurement of the variables for a complete determination of all parameters and the best period of time to make such measurements. This information will be useful in formulating guidelines for clinical practice.     

A novel distributed approach to robust fault detection and identification

In this paper, we propose a novel distributed robust fault detection and identification (RFDI) scheme for a class of nonlinear systems. Firstly, a detection and identification estimator—robust fault tracking approximator (RFTA) is designed for online health monitoring. A novel feature of the RFTA is that it can simultaneously detect and accurately identify the shape and magnitude of the fault and disturbance. Moreover, it takes less online training time compared with the traditional neural network based fault diagnosis schemes. For some distributed systems, a network of distributed estimators is constructed where the RFTA is embedded into each estimator. Then we use consensus filter to filter the outputs of each estimator. One of the most important merits of the consensus filter is that its outputs can dramatically improve the accuracy of fault detection and identification. Next, the stability of the distributed RFDI scheme is rigorously investigated. Finally, two numerical examples are given to illustrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

重视过程控制工程安装材料的选择

本文结合工程介绍了自动化仪表工程设计中常用安装材料的正确选择方法和选择不当可能造成的危害。     

High-Tc dc-SQUID magnetometer and its application in eddy current non-destructive evaluation

We have fabricated and tested a high-T_c dc-SQUID magnetometer patterned on a YBCO thin film deposited on a SrTiO₃ bicrystal substrate. The measurement of noise spectrum at 77 K showed that the magnetometer has a white noise of 333 fT/Hz^1/2 without superconducting shield, corresponding to a flux sensitivity of 14.5 μΦ₀/Hz^1/2. We constructed a test system for eddy current non-destructive evaluation of conducting aluminum plates by using the magnetometer. Flaws over 10 mm below the surface can be clearly identified. By mapping the magnetic field distribution, we can locate the flaw position. The signals caused by flaw were expanded due to the use of double-D type driving coil with a wider central slit. The experimental results confirmed that this test system could operate in a magnetic unshielded environment.