A method for correcting radial distortion based on verifying the planarity of specimens

Image distortion is inevitable when an image is captured through a lens. While the digital image measurement technique is getting popular, image distortion problem can result in significant error. A new distortion correction method is proposed in this study. The proposed method is based on the fact that a flat surface should keep flat when it is measured using three-dimensional (3D) digital image measurement technique. The 3D digital image measurement technique adopted in this research is the simplified 3D digital image correlation (DIC) method. Because radial distortion has a more noticeable influence than other types of distortions, this method deals only with radial distortion. A few experiments are carried out in this study to verify the correctness of this method and its accuracy. Both simulated data and actual image data are adopted in these experiments. The results show that this method can achieve a good accuracy. The standard deviations caused by random errors are about the same order as the random errors. It also shows that this method is suitable for both large and small distortion conditions.     

On Modeling the Medical Care Insurance Data via a New Statistical Model

Proposing new statistical distributions which are more flexible than the existing distributions have become a recent trend in the practice of distribution theory. Actuaries often search for new and appropriate statistical models to address data related to financial and risk management problems. In the present study, an extension of the Lomax distribution is proposed via using the approach of the weighted T-X family of distributions. The mathematical properties along with the characterization of the new model via truncated moments are derived. The model parameters are estimated via a prominent approach called the maximum likelihood estimation method. A brief Monte Carlo simulation study to assess the performance of the model parameters is conducted. An application to medical care insurance data is provided to illustrate the potentials of the newly proposed extension of the Lomax distribution. The comparison of the proposed model is made with the (i) Two-parameter Lomax distribution, (ii) Three-parameter models called the half logistic Lomax and exponentiated Lomax distributions, and (iii) A four-parameter model called the Kumaraswamy Lomax distribution. The statistical analysis indicates that the proposed model performs better than the competitive models in analyzing data in financial and actuarial sciences.     

二烷基二硫代甲酸钼(MoDTC)摩擦改进剂对GF-3等级全配方发动机油摩擦学性能的影响

利用SRV高温摩擦磨损试验机研究了二烷基二硫代甲酸钼(MoDTC)对渗氮活塞环／铸铁缸套在ILSACGF-3发动机油润滑条件下的摩擦学性能的影响。结果表明，MoDTC能与GF-3全配方发动机油中的ZDTP／磺酸钙添加剂体系产生协同作用，在活塞环和缸套表面生成减摩和抗磨的摩擦反应膜，从而显著降低并在较长时间内保持低摩擦系数(最低0．03)，同时缸套的磨损降低50％以上。     

Adaptive fuzzy sliding mode control for an automatic arc welding system

This paper describes an automatic welding control system developed for alternating current shielded metal arc welding (SMAW). This method could replace manual operations which require a well-trained technician. We have derived a mathematical model of the welding control system and identified the system’s parameters. The sliding surface is used as the input variable to reduce the number of fuzzy reasoning rules, in comparison with the conventional two-dimensional fuzzy logic control (FLC) algorithm. An adaptive fuzzy sliding mode controller (AFSMC) consists of an equivalent control part and a hitting control part. An adaptive law derived from a Lyapunov function is used to obtain the FLC’s parameters, and is applied to approximate the equivalent control part of the sliding mode control (SMC), so that the system states can be forced to zero. By using three-rules FLC, the control part that satisfies the hitting conditions of the SMC can force the system’s states to reach and remain on the sliding surface. Therefore, the stability of the AFSMC can be guaranteed and can be used to modulate the rate of the electrode feeding mechanism that regulates the arc current of the SMAW. The simulation and the experimental results both show that this automatic welding control system, based on the AFSMC, can perform effectively.     

Synthesis,characterization, and drug release activity of structurally modified poly(vinyl alcohol)

The main aim of the present investigation is synthesis of drug‐grafted poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) for sustainable drug release in order to avoid bulk release and unwanted side effects. Here, the PVA was structurally modified with five different drug molecules in DMSO medium at 85 °C under N₂ atmosphere for 2 h. The structure of modified PVA was confirmed by FTIR and ¹H NMR spectra and further it was characterized by TGA, DSC, and SEM. The tensile strength and % elongation for the structurally modified PVA were determined. The FTIR spectrum showed peaks corresponding to the C?O and C? S stretching due to the grafted drug molecules. The ¹H NMR spectrum showed the acrylic CH₂ proton signal of PVA around 1.6 ppm. The SEM showed different surface morphology for the structurally modified PVA. The mechanical properties of the structurally modified PVA was found to be reduced due to the presence of traces of solvent molecules and the breaking of inter‐ and intramolecular hydrogen bonding. The sustainable drug release through hydrolysis mechanism was tested at the pH of 7.3. Generally, the drug release followed the Korsmeyer–Peppas model with Fickian drug transportation mechanism except Furosemide (Fur)‐grafted PVA system at the pH of 7.3. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018 , 135, 46620.     

Solution‐Processed High‐Performance Tetrathienothiophene‐Based Small Molecular Blends for Ambipolar Charge Transport

Four soluble dialkylated tetrathienoacene ( TTAR) ‐based small molecular semiconductors featuring the combination of a TTAR central core, π‐conjugated spacers comprising bithiophene ( bT ) or thiophene ( T ), and with/without cyanoacrylate ( CA ) end‐capping moieties are synthesized and characterized. The molecule DbT‐TTAR exhibits a promising hole mobility up to 0.36 cm² V^?1 s^?1 due to the enhanced crystallinity of the microribbon‐like films. Binary blends of the p‐type DbT‐TTAR and the n‐type dicyanomethylene substituted dithienothiophene‐quinoid ( DTTQ‐11 ) are investigated in terms of film morphology, microstructure, and organic field‐effect transistor (OFET) performance. The data indicate that as the DbT‐TTAR content in the blend film increases, the charge transport characteristics vary from unipolar (electron‐only) to ambipolar and then back to unipolar (hole‐only). With a 1:1 weight ratio of DbT‐TTAR DTTQ‐11 in the blend, well‐defined pathways for both charge carriers are achieved and resulted in ambipolar transport with high hole and electron mobilities of 0.83 and 0.37 cm² V^?1 s^?1, respectively. This study provides a viable way for tuning microstructure and charge carrier transport in small molecules and their blends to achieve high‐performance solution‐processable OFETs.     

Conception of Stretchable Resistive Memory Devices Based on Nanostructure‐Controlled Carbohydrate‐block‐Polyisoprene Block Copolymers

It is discovered that the memory‐type behaviors of novel carbohydrate‐block ‐polyisoprene (MH‐b ‐PI) block copolymers‐based devices, including write‐once‐read‐many‐times, Flash, and dynamic‐random‐access‐memory, can be easily controlled by the self‐assembly nanostructures (vertical cylinder, horizontal cylinder, and order‐packed sphere), in which the MH and PI blocks, respectively, provide the charge‐trapping and stretchable function. With increasing the flexible PI block length, the stretchability of the designed copolymers can be significantly improved up to 100% without forming cracks. Thus, intrinsically stretchable resistive memory devices (polydimethylsiloxane(PDMS)/carbon nanotubes(CNTs)/MH‐b ‐PI thin film/Al) using the MH‐b ‐PI thin film as an active layer is successfully fabricated and that using the MH‐b ‐PI_12.6k under 100% strain exhibits an excellent ON/OFF current ratio of over 10⁶ (reading at ?1 V) with stable V _set around ?2 V. Furthermore, the endurance characteristics can be maintained over 500 cycles upon 40% strain. This work establishes and represents a novel avenue for the design of green carbohydrate‐derived and stretchable memory materials.     

Energy-efficient transceiver designs for multiuser MIMO cognitive radio networks via interference alignment

This paper studies the transceiver design for multiuser multiple-input multiple-output cognitive radio networks. Different from the conventional methods which aim at maximizing the spectral efficiency, this paper focuses on maximizing the energy efficiency (EE) of the network. First, we formulate the precoding and decoding matrix designs as optimization problems which maximize the EE of the network subject to per-user power and interference constraints. With a higher priority in accessing the spectrum, the primary users (PUs) can design their transmission strategies without awareness of the secondary user (SU) performance. Thus, we apply a full interference alignment technique to eliminate interference between the PUs. Then, the EE maximization problem for the primary network can be reformulated as a tractable concave-convex fractional program which can be solved by the Dinkelbach method. On the other hand, the uncoordinated interference from the PUs to the SUs cannot be completely eliminated due to a limited coordination between the PUs with the SUs. The secondary transceivers are designed to optimize the EE while enforcing zero-interference to the PUs. Since the EE maximization for the secondary network is an intractable fractional programming problem, we develop an iterative algorithm with provable convergence by invoking the difference of convex functions programming along with the Dinkelbach method. In addition, we also derive closed-form expressions for the solutions in each iteration to gain insights into the structures of the optimal transceivers. The simulation results demonstrate that our proposed method outperforms the conventional approaches in terms of the EE.