Effects of Y and Ce on Microstructures and Properties of Nb-Si System Composites

The effects of yttrium and cerium on microstructures and properties of Nb-Si system composites were investigated by scanning electron microscopy( SEM), energy dispersive spectrum(EDS), X-ray diffraction(XRD) and high temperature oxidation experiments.It is found that the coarse primary silicide phase became finer and more homogeneous with Y and Ce addition.The results of high temperature oxidation experiments show that the oxidation rates of NbSi system composites with an appropriate amount of Y and Ce decrease compared with those of alloys without Y or Ce addition, and oxidation products mainly distribute along the phase boundaries between the Nb solid solution and silicide.     

A distributed adverse drug reaction detection system using intelligent agents with a fuzzy recognition‐primed decision model

Discovering unknown adverse drug reactions (ADRs) in postmarketing surveillance as early as possible is highly desirable. Nevertheless, current postmarketing surveillance methods largely rely on spontaneous reports that suffer from serious underreporting, latency, and inconsistent reporting. Thus these methods are not ideal for rapidly identifying rare ADRs. The multiagent systems paradigm is an emerging and effective approach to tackling distributed problems, especially when data sources and knowledge are geographically located in different places and coordination and collaboration are necessary for decision making. In this article, we propose an active, multiagent framework for early detection of ADRs by utilizing electronic patient data distributed across many different sources and locations. In this framework, intelligent agents assist a team of experts based on the well‐known human decision‐making model called Recognition‐Primed Decision (RPD). We generalize the RPD model to a fuzzy RPD model and utilize fuzzy logic technology to not only represent, interpret, and compute imprecise and subjective cues that are commonly encountered in the ADR problem but also to retrieve prior experiences by evaluating the extent of matching between the current situation and a past experience. We describe our preliminary multiagent system design and illustrate its potential benefits for assisting expert teams in early detection of previously unknown ADRs. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Int Syst 22: 827–845, 2007.     

分置式牛津型斯特林制冷机的数值分析与实验验证

对分置式牛津型斯特林制冷机进行了数值计算 ,介绍了计算模型考虑到的众多不可逆因素。通过对计算结果与实验结果的对比 ,验证了本文数值计算的准确性 ,说明本文计算模型与数值处理方法是切实可行的     

Treatment of low turbidity water by sweep coagulation using bentonite

A novel strategy of sweep coagulation to treat low turbidity water is presented herein. Study findings demonstrated that an Na⁺‐saturated bentonite with medium cation exchange capacity (CEC) resulted in significant turbidity removal at a bentonite dosage of 30 mg dm^?3. Bentonite dispersion with fully delaminated platelets tended to undergo a more porous type of coagulation with intense face‐to‐face interactions of platelets and effectively entrapped TiO₂ particles in band‐type structures. This type of coagulation usually results in a large volume of settled flocs with a fluffy structure and excellent turbidity removal efficiency for sweep coagulation. The sign and magnitude of electrical charge on TiO₂ particles has a minor effect on the efficiency of sweep coagulation. Copyright © 2005 Society of Chemical Industry     

Two‐phase production of cyclohexene and cyclooctene oxides in water as an approach to pollution prevention

Liquid–liquid two‐phase epoxidation from cyclohexene and cyclooctene in aqueous potassium peroxymonosulfate (commercially available as Oxone^®) solution was studied as an application in pollution prevention. To avoid potential emissions of volatile organic compounds an aqueous solution was employed to replace the usual chlorinated solvents used in epoxide production. A droplet column reactor and stirred tank reactor were used to investigate two‐phase synthesis of epoxide. An aqueous Oxone^® solution was used to oxidize a dispersion of alkene droplets and form epoxide. The study of aqueous epoxidation in both reactors showed that the epoxidation of alkenes can be represented as a first order reaction with respect to alkene. The salting out effect of Oxone^® concentration was studied in both reactors and found to be very similar at optimal conditions. In comparing the two reactors, it was found that the droplet column reactor produces larger quantities of product per unit reactor volume for the same reaction time. The objective of this study is to provide an alternative reactor design and synthesis route that can meet pollution prevention goals. Copyright © 2004 Society of Chemical Industry     

Mapping rule-based systems onto multicomputers using simulated annealing

In this paper, we present a static load balancing method for mapping production rules in an expert system onto processors of a message-passing multicomputer. The method uses simulated annealing to achieve a nearly optimal allocation of production rules onto processor nodes. The approach balances the initial rule distribution to avoid higher communication demand among processor nodes at run time. A formal mapping model is developed and a new cost function is defined for the annealing process. New heuristic swap functions and cooling policies are provided to ensure the quality of the annealing process. A software load balancing package, SIMAL, was implemented on a SUN workstation to carry out the benchmark experiments. The overhead associated with this mapping method is O(m In m), where m is the number of rules in the production system. Two benchmark production systems, Toru-waltz and Tourney, are mapped onto a hypercube computer with 32 nodes. Experimental benchmark results verify the effectiveness of the rule mapping method. The method can be applied for distributed artificial intelligence processing or for the parallel execution of cooperating expert systems on a message-passing multicomputer.     

Study of the morphology and mechanical properties of polypropylene composites with silica or rice‐husk

The mechanical, morphological behavior and water absorption characteristics of polypropylene (PP) and silica, or PP and rice‐husk, composites have been studied. The silica used in this study as filler was a commercial type produced from soluble glass or rice husks. The compatibilizing effect of PP grafted with monomethyl itaconate (PP‐g‐MMI) and/or with vinyltriethoxysilane (PP‐g‐VTES) as polar monomers on the mechanical properties and water absorption was also investigated. In general, a high loading of the studied fillers in the polymer matrix increases the stiffness and the water absorption capacity. This effect is more noticeable in the tensile modulus of the PP/silica composite with PP‐g‐VTES as compatibilizer. However, the increase of the rice‐husk charge as a natural filler in the PP matrix decreases the stiffness, and in the presence of PP‐g‐MMI as compatibilizer in PP/rice‐husk, the tensile modulus and water absorption of the composite were improved. The better adhesion and phase continuity in the PP/silica and PP/rice‐husk composites with different compatibilizers was confirmed by the morphological study. Copyright © 2004 Society of Chemical Industry     

Stabilization Methods for Spectral Element Computations of Incompressible Flows

A stabilization method for the spectral element computation of incompressible flow problems is investigated. It is based on a filtering procedure which consists in filtering the velocity field by a spectral vanishing Helmholtz-type operator at each time step. Relationship between this filtering procedure and SVV-stabilization method, introduced recently in [JCP, 2004, 196(2), p680], is established. A number of numerical examples are presented to show the accuracy and stabilization capability of the method.