Speciation of copper in the incineration fly ash of a municipal solid waste

The speciation of copper and zinc in the incineration fly ash of a municipal solid waste in Taiwan was investigated in the present work. By the least-squares fitted X-ray absorption near edge structural (XANES) spectroscopy, we found that CuCO3, CuOH2, and CuO (fractions of 0.09, 0.39 and 0.51, respectively) were the main copper species in the fly ash. Quantitative analysis of the extended X-ray absorption fine structural (EXAFS) spectra indicated that the bond distance of Cu-O in the fly ash was 1.96 A with a coordination number (CN) of 3.9 in the first shell of copper. In the second shell, the bond distance and CN of Cu-(O)-Cu were 2.91 A and 2.7, respectively. In addition, speciation of Zn was also examined in the same X-ray absorption energy (8780-9970 eV). The bond distance of Zn-O and Zn-O-Zn were 1.97 and 2.94 A, respectively. However, the Zn-O-Cu structure was not found because of the physically unreasonable sigma(2) (Debye-Waller factor) values in the EXAFS data fitting process.     

An asymmetric feeding X-band active frequency-scanning leaky-wave antenna

An asymmetric feeding X-band active leaky-wave antennas is developed, to excite the first high order mode of the microstrip leaky wave antenna. One is the asymmetric feeding leaky-wave antenna which integrated with a HEMT oscillator, and the other is the frequency-tuned leaky-wave antenna which integrated with a varactortuned HEMT VCO. The microstrip leaky-wave antenna is operated in the first higher mode. To excite the first higher mode, the microstrip leaky-wave antenna is fed asymmetrically. The dominant mode excitation has been successfully suppressed by adding a sequence of covered wire in the center of the microstrip leaky wave antenna. The design of these active leaky-wave antennas is discussed and the beam scanning phenomena of the antenna is presented. The HEMT oscillator frequency is controlled by tuning the varactor DC bias and the beam scanning is demonstrated. The measured scanning angle agree with prediction, it is close to 30° as the VCO frequency tuned from 8.06 GHz to 9GHz.     

Entropy Flux and Lagrange Multipliers: Information Theory and Thermodynamics

We analyze the relation between the nonequilibrium Lagrange multipliers used in information theory and those used in Liu's technique to exploit the entropy inequality. In particular, we deal with some of the subtleties found in the analysis of the entropy flux.     

Expression of Kv1.5 K+ channels in activated microglia in vivo

OBJECTIVES: This study evaluated postoperative weight gain in children who received albumin versus crystalloid prime for cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). DESIGN: A retrospective case-controlled study. Children whose extracorporeal (EC) circuit prime contained albumin (group 1) were matched with those whose prime contained only crystalloid (group 2) on the basis of age, weight, and surgical repair. SETTING: A university-based medical center. PARTICIPANTS: Seventy-six children (newborn to 4 years of age) who underwent CPB for correction of a congenital heart anomaly from 1993 to 1995. Group 1 underwent surgery from October 1994 to September 1995, and group 2 from February 1993 to September 1994. INTERVENTIONS: None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Group 1 had less weight gain on postoperative days (PODs) 1, 2 and 3 compared with group 2 (p = 0.04 on POD 1). Albumin (grams per milliliter) prime and prime volume in milliliters per kilogram were the best predictors of weight gain (p < 0.004), with prime volume being the more important. Children who weighed less than 7.5 kg received more prime volume and had greater weight gain than children who weighed 7.5 kg or greater on PODs 1, 2, and 3 (p < 0.02). CONCLUSION: Data suggest that adding albumin to the EC circuit prime and minimizing the prime volume will result in less postoperative weight gain. Further prospective study with a larger sample is warranted to determine whether albumin prime offers other clinical benefits.     

Low-power self-timed circuit design technique

An implementation of self-timed circuits whose hardware and control signals are significantly reduced is proposed. A globally asynchronous locally synchronous design using the proposed self-timed circuits is also demonstrated. A design example shows that in this implementation less power is consumed with only a small circuit overhead     

Fast-response power factor detector

In this paper, a new power factor measurement method is proposed. The proposed method is implemented by an analog electronic circuit. Its response time is less than a half-cycle. The test results show that it can measure the power factor of the measured load quickly and accurately, and its response time is superior to the conventional power factor measurement methods     

On circuit clustering for area/delay tradeoff under capacity andpin constraints

In this paper, we propose an iterative area/delay tradeoff algorithm to solve the circuit clustering problem under the capacity constraint. It first finds an initial delay-considered area-optimized clustering solution by a delay-oriented depth first-search procedure. Then, an iterative procedure consisting of several reclustering techniques is applied to gradually trade the area for the performance. We then show that this algorithm can be easily extended to solve the clustering problem subject to both capacity and pin constraints. Experimental results show that our algorithm can provide a complete set of clustering solutions from the area-optimized one to the delay-optimized one for a given circuit. Furthermore, compared to the existing delay-optimized algorithms, this algorithm achieves almost the same performance but with much less area overhead. Therefore, this algorithm is very useful for solving the timing-driven circuit clustering problem     

Knowledge kanban system for virtual research and development

Virtual research and development (R&D) is inevitable to reduce the product life cycle. Enterprises tend to rely on their foreign partners for supporting technology and knowledge acquisition to conduct and improve firms’ product development with low R&D risk. R&D is a highly creative and knowledge-intensive activity, Therefore, efficient knowledge flow, which transmits the right knowledge to the right people at the right time, is key to improving efficiency of the R&D process.     

Novel configuration for three-phase hybrid power filter

A novel configuration for the power converter of a three-phase hybrid power filter is proposed in this paper. This power converter uses only a two-arm bridge structure and a DC capacitor. The hybrid power filter is configured by the proposed power converter serially connected with a passive power filter set. The salient feature of this hybrid power filter is that it permits one of the power lines of the utility connected directly to the negative terminal of the DC capacitor located in the DC side of the power converter through the passive power filter set. Consequently, the power converter uses less number of power electronic switches to reduce the manufacturing cost. A three-phase prototype is developed and tested to verify the performance of the hybrid power filter using the proposed power converter. The experimental results show that the hybrid power filter using the proposed power converter can reach the expected performance.     

大尺寸TFT-LCD电视的彩色和图像增强

最近几年，薄膜晶体管液晶显示器（TFT-LCD）技术取得了快速而显著的．进步，其性能超过了PDP、CRT以及投影显示。毫无疑问，TFT-LCD已经成为高清电视应用的最佳实现方案。本文将介绍进一步增强大尺寸LCD电视的彩色和图像性能的技术。