The correlation between the interference colour and growth procedure of anodic titanium dioxide nanotube arrays

Titanium dioxide nanotube arrays were anodised from titanium foils in an aqueous electrolyte solution of hydrofluoric acid. The formed oxide showed visually different colours owing to light interference in the titanium dioxide layer. The behaviour of interference colour in anodic titanium dioxide film was investigated by varying anodisation parameters such as the applied voltage and the anodisation time. The morphologies and the crystalline phases of anodised samples were studied on a field emission scanning electron microscope and X‐ray diffractometer. The correlation between the interference colour and growth procedure of anodic titanium dioxide nanotube arrays was studied. The anodic films prepared under different conditions consisted of a compact oxide film with a nanoporous/tubular structure upon/beneath it. The crystalline phase of the anodic oxide layer was amorphous. The optical properties of the oxide film were investigated on a spectrophotometer. Optical interference could be detected in compact oxide layers when the thickness of the titanium dioxide was as small as 70 nm. In general, the interferences of the nanoporous/tubular structures were lower than those for compact structures. The empirical colour properties were estimated by the L*a*b* system. The relationships between the interference colour of anodic titanium dioxide film and its thickness and morphology are discussed.     

VISOR: Schema-based scene analysis with structured neural networks

A novel approach to object recognition and scene analysis based on neural network representation of visual schemas is described. Given an input scene, the VISOR system focuses attention successively at each component, and the schema representations cooperate and compete to match the inputs. The schema hierarchy is learned from examples through unsupervised adaptation and reinforcement learning. VISOR learns that some objects are more important than others in identifying the scene, and that the importance of spatial relations varies depending on the scene. As the inputs differ increasingly from the schemas, VISOR's recognition process is remarkably robust, and automatically generates a measure of confidence in the analysis.     

Indoor Climate and the Performance of Ventilation in Finnish Residences

The purpose of the study was to gather information about the actual ventilation and indoor air quality and to evaluate the differences between houses and apartments with different ventilation systems. A sample of 242 dwellings in the Helsinki metropolitan area was studied over periods of no weeks during the 1988-1989 heating season. The mean air-exchange rates had a high variation (average 0.52 l/h, range 0.07-1.55 l/h). The ASHRAE minimum value of 0.35 l/h was not achieved in 28% of the dwellings. The air-exchange rates were significantly her in the houses than in the apartments (averages 0.45/0.64 l/h, p < 0.001); in the natural ventilation systems they, were slightly her than in the mechanical systems. The average temperature in the bedrooms was approximately 22 °C (range 18–27 °C), slightly but significantly higher in the apartment than in the houses. The average dust depositions were higher in the balanced ventilation systems than in the other systems. The median radon concentration was 82 Bq/m³ (range 5-866 Bq/m³); the Finnish target value of 200 Bq/m³ was exceeded in 17% of the houses but in none of the apartment. The measurements indicate that the indoor air quality in Finnish dwellings is not always satisfactory with reference to human health and comfort.     

Measuring the safety effect of road measures at junctions

The effects of road measures implemented at main road junctions in 1984–1986 were studied on the basis of police-reported accidents that had occurred at the junctions in 1983–1987. The data were obtained from an extensive junction inventory performed by the District Offices of the Finnish National Road Administration in 1988. A total of 325 three-arm and 298 four-arm junctions were included in the study. The number and type of accidents were studied at each junction both before and after the implementation of the measure. The effects of the measure were determined by comparing the observed number of accidents after the measure with the number that would have been expected to occur at the junction if the measure had not been implemented. The expected number of accidents was calculated on the basis of the observed number of accidents in the before period and the expected number of accidents as predicted by an accident model, utilizing at the same time the information on the variation of the number of accidents at similar junctions revealed by the model. Likelihood functions determined for the effects of the measures were used for studying the accuracy of the estimates of the effects. The likelihood functions can also be utilized later when new before-and-after studies are performed. Road lighting, stop signs, signal control, and lowering of the speed limit value were found to decrease the number of accidents. Through-flow junction widenings, additional lanes for turning vehicles, and road widenings, however, did not seem to affect the safety at junctions to any marked extent. If we had not accounted for the regression-to-the-mean effect, these measures would have seemed to have a positive effect on safety. The study method also enabled us to quantify the regression-to-the-mean effect. The magnitude of the regression effect was on average 20%, i.e. the number of accidents would have decreased by 20% at the junctions studied even if the measures had not been implemented. The magnitude of the regression-to-the-mean varied greatly between the different measures.     

A time-to-amplitude converter with constant fraction timing discriminators for short time interval measurements

The construction and the performance of a time-to-amplitude converter equipped with constant fraction discriminators is described. The TAC consists of digital and analog parts which are constructed on two printed circuit boards, both of which are located in a single width NIM module. The dead time of the TAC for a start pulse which is not followed by a stop pulse within the time range of the device (～ 100 ns) is only ～ 100 ns, which enables one to avoid counting rate saturation even with a high random input signal rate.The differential and integral nonlinearities of the TAC are better than ± 1.5% and 0.0.5%, respectively. The resolution for input timing pulses of constant shape is 20 ps (fwhm), and less than 10 ps (fwhm) with a modification in the digital part. The walk error of the constant fraction timing discriminators is presented and various parameters affecting it are discussed. The effect of the various disturbances in linearity caused by the fast ECL logic and their minimization are also discussed.The time-to-amplitude converter has been used in positron lifetime studies and for laser range finding.     

Simple coupling of gas chromatography to electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

A simple method for direct coupling of gas chromatography (GC) with electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI/MS) has been developed. The outlet of the GC capillary column was placed between the ESI needle and the atmospheric pressure ionization (API) source of a mass spectrometer. The ionization occurs via dissolution of neutral compounds into the charged ESI droplet followed by ion evaporation or via a gas-phase proton transfer reaction between a protonated solvent molecule and an analyte. The mass spectra of organic volatile compounds showed abundant protonated molecules with little fragmentation, being very similar to those produced by normal liquid ESI. The quantitative performance of the system was evaluated by determining the limit of detection (LOD), linearity ( r (2)), and repeatability (RSD). The GC-ESI/MS method was shown to be stable, providing high sensitivity and good quantitative performance.     

The Effect of On-Off Scheduling to the Required Transmit Power in Systems with Fast Power Control

Physical layer channel-aware scheduling may significantly improve coverage and throughput of IP based services in wireless cellular networks, and the feasibility of such schedulers is actively studied within 3G and 4G systems. A channel-aware scheduler requires access to instantaneous channel state information in order to direct transmission to users with favorable channel conditions. In frequency division duplex (FDD) systems, this requires a fast feedback channel between mobile and base stations, and the overhead of the feedback control channel should be kept as low as possible.In this paper, we study the effect of control channel overhead to on-off scheduling (OOS) when fast transmit power control is applied in data and control channels. On-off scheduling is a simple channel-aware scheduling algorithm, where transmission to a user is suspended if the transmit power exceeds a given threshold. On-off scheduling is applied on the data channel while control channel is always on so that the scheduler is able to obtain channel state information from active users. The gain of OOS strongly depends on the power ratio between control and data channels, and increased interference due to control signaling and decreased interference due to channel-aware scheduling should be jointly considered in system design. Gains in the required transmit power are translated into gains in coverage and capacity assuming WCDMA parameters, and the results can be applied, e.g., when designing scheduling algorithms and corresponding signaling formats for WCDMA uplink.     

Die bestimmung des Schwefels im Sprit nach der Verbrennungsmethode

Zusammenfassung Die Lampen-Methode von American Society of Testing Materials (A. S. T. M.) zur Bestimmung des Schwefelgehaltes in Erdölprodukten wurde für die Bestimmung von kleinen im Sprit als Verunreinigung vorkommenden Schwefelmengen modifiziert. Für die Bestimmung wurde eine Apparatur entworfen und ausgeführt, in der der Sprit in einem entschwefelten Luftstrom verbrannt und der schwefelenthaltende Teil der Verbrennungsgase quantitativ absorbiert wird. Der Aufbau und die Anwendung der Apparatur werden eingehend beschrieben. Mit der Apparatur können gleichzeitig drei Doppelbestimmungen durchgeführt werden.Der zu Schwefeldioxyd oxydierte Schwefel wird in ammoniakalischer Wasserstoffperoxydlösung absorbiert und der gebildete Sulfatschwefel in einer alkoholhaltigen Lösung als Benzidinsulfat gefällt. Die Benzidin- (Schwefel-) Menge wird spektrophotometrisch bei der Wellenlänge 250 mµ (2500 Å) bestimmt.Der totale Erfassungsbereich der Methode bei Verbrennung von etwa 20 g Sprit beträgt 0,015–6,0 mg Schwefel in 100 ml Sprit. Nach den durchgeführten Probebestimmungen bei Schwefelgehalten von 2,1 und 0,77 mg in 100 ml war die Streuung etwa 0,09 und der mittlere Fehler etwa 0,04. Bei den Schwefelgehalten unter 0,2 mg in 100 ml müssen die Resultate als halbquantitativ behandelt werden. Durch Vergrößerung der verbrannten Spritmenge ist es möglich, die Methode empfindlicher zu machen.Die Methode ist auch für die Bestimmung des Schwefelgehaltes in Methanol und anderen Alkoholen geeignet.     

Planning for multiple measurement channels in a continuous-state POMDP

Continuous-state partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs) are an intuitive choice of representation for many stochastic planning problems with a hidden state. We consider a continuous-state POMDPs with finite action and observation spaces, where the POMDP is parametrised by weighted sums of Gaussians, or Gaussian mixture models (GMMs). In particular, we study the problem of optimising the selection of measurement channel in such a framework. A new error bound for a point-based value iteration algorithm is derived, and a method for constructing a subset of belief states that attempts to reduce the error bound is implemented. In the experiments, applying continuous-state POMDPs for optimal selection of the measurement channel is demonstrated, and the performance of three GMM simplification methods is compared. Convergence of a point-based value iteration algorithm is investigated by considering various metrics for the obtained control policies.     

Energy-efficient control strategy for variable speed-driven parallel pumping systems

The article aims to find a solution for the energy efficiency improvements in variable speed-controlled parallel pumping systems with lesser initial data and without additional flow metering and start-up measurements. This paper introduces a new control strategy for variable speed-controlled parallel pumps based on flow rate estimation and pump operation analysis utilizing variable speed drives. The energy-saving potential of the new control strategy is studied with simulations and laboratory measurements. The energy consumption of the parallel pumps using the new control strategy is compared with the traditional rotational speed control strategy of parallel pumps. The benefit of the new control strategy is the opportunity to operate variable speed-controlled parallel pumps in a region which suggests improved energy efficiency and lower risk of mechanical failure of the controlled pumps compared with traditional control. The article concludes by discussing the implications of the findings for different applications and varying system conditions.