Protecting a lens with air

A novel design is the concept of preventing the camera lens from contamination of the particles by using "airwall." An experimental wireless video camera debris deflecting system was realized and performed to verify the concept. Functional tests have been successfully verified.     

Method of inequalities-based multiobjective genetic algorithm for optimizing a cart-double-pendulum system

This article presents a multiobjective approach to the design of the controller for the swing-up and handstand control of a general cart-double-pendulum system （CDPS）. The designed controller, which is based on the human-simulated intelligent control （HSIC） method, builds up different control modes to monitor and control the CDPS during four kinetic phases consisting of an initial oscillation phase, a swing-up phase, a posture adjustment phase, and a balance control phase. For the approach, the original method of inequalities-based （MoI） multiobjective genetic algorithm （MMGA） is extended and applied to the case study which uses a set of performance indices that includes the cart displacement over the rail boundary, the number of swings, the settling time, the overshoot of the total energy, and the control effort. The simulation results show good responses of the CDPS with the controllers obtained by the proposed approach.     

A pilot study of intracavitary hyperthermia combined with radiation in the treatment of oesophageal carcinoma

The possibility that the experiences of the "hidden" child survivors of the Holocaust (those who survived outside of the concentration camps during the Nazi occupation) had a pathological effect on their offspring was examined by comparing volunteer, matched samples of adult children of "hidden" child survivors of the Holocaust with adult children of nontraumatized U.S.-born Jewish parents on personality variables measured by the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (Cattell, Eber, & Tatsuoka, 1970). The MANOVA results indicated that there were no differences in the personality characteristics of the two groups.     

Electromagnetic imaging for a conducting cylinder buried in a slab medium by the genetic algorithm

This article presents a computational approach to the imaging of a perfectly conducting cylinder buried in a slab. A conducting cylinder of unknown shape buried in a slab scatters the incident wave from outside. The scattered field is recorded outside the slab. Based on the boundary condition and the measured scattered field, a set of nonlinear integral equations is derived, and the imaging problem is reformulated into an optimization problem. The genetic algorithm is then employed to determine global extreme solution of the cost function. Numerical results demonstrated that, even when the initial guess is far removed from the exact one, good reconstruction can be obtained. In such a case, the gradient‐based methods often are trapped in a local extreme. In addition, the effect of Gaussian noise on the reconstruction is investigated. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol 14, 1–7, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/ima.20000     

Effect of Preparation Methods on Hydriding Properties of La1.5Mg17 Ni0.5 Composite Materials

La1.5Mg17Ni0.5 hydrogen storage materials were prepared by hydriding combustion synthesis (HCS) and mechanical alloying (MA) method respectively. The experimental results show that the hydrogen absorption properties of La1.5Mg17Nio.5 prepared by MA are better than that by HCS. La1.5Mg17Nio.5 prepared by MA can absorb 6.73 mass% hydrogen at 523 K within 1 min, and 4.92 mass% hydrogen at 423 K. The improvement of hydriding properties of La1.5Mg17Ni0.5alloy prepared by MA can be ascribed to the formation of nano-crystalline and defects during the mechanical alloying.     

Stages of Change Among Chinese People With Mental Illness: A Preliminary Study.

Objective: To determine the effect of self-efficacy and outcome expectancy on the readiness for rehabilitation among Chinese people with mental illness. Participants: Fifty-eight men and 62 women with chronic mental illness. Outcome Measures: Change Assessment Questionnaire for People With Severe and Persistent Mental Illness, Task-Specific Self-Efficacy Scale for People With Mental Illness, and Outcome-Expectancy Scale for People With Mental Illness. Results: Chinese people with mental illness can be meaningfully classified into 4 stages of change (SOC) groups: precontemplation, contemplation, ambivalent-conforming, and action-maintenance. SOCs are related to self-efficacy in interpersonal, symptoms management, and help-seeking skills as well as expectations about the benefit of social and coping skills. Conclusion: The SOC concept is useful for tailoring culturally sensitive psychiatric rehabilitation interventions for Chinese people with mental illness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An interactive grading and learning system for chinese calligraphy

Chinese calligraphy is an oriental art. In this paper, an interactive calligraphic guiding system is first proposed to grade the score of written characters by using the image processing and the fuzzy inference techniques. The written documents are automatically segmented. Three quantized features, the center, the size and the projections of each written character, are extracted to measure the score of calligraphy. The system also gives some improving instructions for users. Some experimental results are given to show the validity and effectiveness of our proposed system. Through this useful system, users could learn and practice Chinese calligraphy at home.     

A systematic methodology for the creation of Six Sigma projects: A case study of semiconductor foundry

Nowadays, Six Sigma has been widely adopted in a variety of industries in the world and it has become one of the most important subjects of debate in quality management. Six Sigma is a well-structured methodology that can help a company achieve expected goal through continuous project improvement. Some challenges, however, have emerged with the execution of the Six Sigma. For examples, how are feasible projects generated? How are critical Six Sigma projects selected given the finite resources of the organization? This study aims to develop a novel approach to create critical Six Sigma projects and identify the priority of these projects. Firstly, the projects are created from two aspects, namely, organization’s business strategic policies and voice of customer. Secondly, an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) model is implemented to evaluate the benefits of each project and; a hierarchical failure mode effects analysis (FMEA) is also developed to evaluate the risk of each project; and from which the priority of Six Sigma projects can be determined. Finally, based on the project benefits and risk, projects can be defined as Green Belt, Black Belt, or others types of projects. An empirical case study of semiconductor foundry will be utilized to explore the effectiveness of our proposed approach.     

Adaptive feedforward and feedback control of non-linear time-varying uncertain systems

An adaptive regulation scheme is proposed for a class of non-linear time-varying systems with parametric uncertainties. The proposed approach is based upon a combination of the adaptive backstepping design method and a feedforward control scheme to design a non-linear adaptive feedforward and feedback controller, such that robust output tracking can be achieved even in the presence of structured uncertainties, as well as time-varying, measurable disturbances. Although the systematic design procedure does not a priori satisfy the feedback linearizable system with triangular structures, however, the constructed condition must be satisfied to ensure that the control scheme has a stable inversion. Under the feasibility condition, the states of the resulting closed-loop system would be guaranteed boundedness and converge to a bounded set. Finally, the proposed methodology is illustrated by a chemical reactor example.