Methods of long chain branching detection in PE by triple‐detector gel permeation chromatography

Long chain branching (LCB) in polyethylene is one of the key microstructures that controls processing and final properties. Gel permeation chromatography (GPC) with viscometer (IV) and/or light scattering (LS) has been intensely used to quantify LCB. The widespread method to quantify LCB from GPC with IV or LS is the method of LCB frequency (LCBf) based on the Zimm–Stockmayer (ZS) random branching model. In this work, the conventional approach was compared with the recently developed method, called gpcBR. The comparison of the sensitivity of both methods is made on highly branched polymer, that is, various grades of commercial LDPE and also on polymer with very low level of LCB, that is, a commercial HDPE with no LCB, converted into several branched test samples of gradually increasing LCB by multiple extrusion. Finally, the linkages of LCB quantities from both methods to the rheological data and processing properties are illustrated. The new gpcBR index can access lower LCB level and shows obviously better relationship with both rheological data and processing properties than LCBf from the conventional ZS model. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015 , 132, 42222.     

Support for situation awareness in trustworthy ubiquitous computing application software

Due to the dynamic and ephemeral nature of ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) environments, it is especially important that the application software in ubicomp environments is trustworthy. In order to have trustworthy application software in ubicomp environments, situation‐awareness (SAW) in the application software is needed to enforce flexible security policies and detect violations of security policies. In this paper, an approach is presented to provide development and runtime support to incorporate SAW in trustworthy ubicomp application software. The development support is to provide SAW requirement specification and automated code generation to achieve SAW in trustworthy ubicomp application software, and the runtime support is for context acquisition, situation analysis and situation‐aware communication. To realize our approach, the improved Reconfigurable Context‐Sensitive Middleware (RCSM) is developed to provide the above development and runtime support. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An inverse design of an open,head/neck RF coil for MRI

Radio-frequency (RF) coils are a necessary component of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems. When used in transmit operation, they act to generate a homogeneous RF magnetic field within a volume of interest and when in receive operation, they act to receive the nuclear magnetic resonance signal from the RF-excited specimen. This paper outlines a procedure for the design of open RF coils using the time-harmonic inverse method. This method entails the calculation of an ideal current density on a multipaned planar surface that would generate a specified magnetic field within the volume of interest. Because of the averaging effect of the regularization technique in the matrix solution, the specified magnetic field is shaped within an iterative procedure until the generated magnetic field matches the desired magnetic field. The stream-function technique is used to ascertain conductor positions and a method of moments package is then used to finalize the design. An open head/neck coil was designed to operate in a clinical 2T MRI system and the presented results prove the efficacy of this design methodology.     

A zero-inflated Poisson mixed model to analyze diagnosis related groups with majority of same-day hospital stays

With increasing trend of same-day procedures and operations performed for hospital admissions, it is important to analyze those Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGs) consisting of mainly same-day separations. A zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP) mixed model is presented to identify health- and patient-related characteristics associated with length of stay (LOS) and to model variations in LOS within such DRGs. Random effects are introduced to account for inter-hospital variations and the dependence of clustered LOS observations via the generalized linear mixed models (GLMM) approach. Parameter estimation is achieved by maximizing an appropriate log-likelihood function using the EM algorithm to obtain approximate residual maximum likelihood (REML) estimates. An S-Plus macro is developed to provide a unified ZIP modeling approach. The determination of pertinent factors would benefit hospital administrators and clinicians to manage LOS and expenditures efficiently.     

Multilevel survival modelling of recurrent urinary tract infections

A multilevel survival frailty model is presented for analyzing clustered and recurrent urinary tract infections among elderly women residing in aged-care institutions. At the subject level, serial dependence is expected between recurrent events recorded on the same individual. At the cluster level, correlations of observations within the same institution are present due to the inherent residential environment and hierarchical setting. Two random components are therefore incorporated explicitly within the survival frailty model to account for the simultaneous heterogeneity and autoregressive structure. A Splus computer program is developed for the estimation of fixed effect and variance component parameters.     

LINEAR OPTIMAL FEEDBACK AND LOAD‐DECOUPLED CONTROL OF A BUCK DC‐DC CONVERTER

This paper describes a new controller design procedure and tuning method for a PWM buck dc‐dc converter. First, linear optimal feedback is designed using the LQR approach. Then the designed control law is implemented using a PID controller incorporated with a load‐decoupled PD compensator. The PID controller is tuned to achieve the optimal design based on the output error voltage directly, instead of using an estimator. When the proposed PD compensator is used, the converter is robust with respect to the input voltage and output current changes and the parameter perturbations. We also provide the conditions for the robust stability assurance of the closed‐loop system.     

Self-Tandem Bio-Heterojunctions Empower Orthopedic Implants with Amplified Chemo-Photodynamic Anti-Pathogenic Therapy and Boosted Diabetic Osseointegration

Hyperglycemic microenvironment in diabetes mellitus inevitably stalls the normal orchestrated course of bone regeneration and encourages pathogenic multiplication. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) and chemo-dynamic therapy (CDT) are extensively harnessed to combat pathogens, yet deep-seated diabetic bone defect has difficulty in supplying sufficient oxygen (O₂) and hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) stocks, resulting in inferior therapeutic efficiency. To address the tough plaguing, the self-tandem bio-heterojunctions (bio-HJs) consisting of molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂), graphene oxide (GO), and glucose oxidase (GOx) are constructed on orthopedic polyetheretherketone (PEEK) implants (SP-Mo/G@GOx) for amplified chemo-photodynamic anti-pathogenic therapy and boosted osseointegration in the deep-seated diabetic micromilieu. In this system, GOx exhausts glucose to generate H₂O₂, which provides an abundant stock for CDT. Besides, the bio-HJs produce hyperthermia upon near-infrared light (NIR) to accelerate the dynamic process, which amplifies the antibacterial potency of PDT by promoting the vast yield of singlet oxygen (¹O₂) in a self-tandem manner. More importantly, in vivo and in vitro assays demonstrate that the engineered implants exert a captivated bactericidal ability and significantly boost osseointegration in an infectious diabetic bone defect model. As envisaged, this study furnishes a novel tactic to arm orthopedic implants with self-tandem capability for the remedy of infectious diabetic bone defects.     

Classification of finite-dimensional estimation algebras of maximal rank with arbitrary state–space dimension and mitter conjecture

In the late seventies, the concept of the estimation algebra of a filtering system was introduced. It was proven to be an invaluable tool in the study of non-linear filtering problems. In the early eighties, Brockett proposed to classify finite dimensional estimation algebras and Mitter conjectured that all functions in finite dimensional estimation algebras are necessarily polynomials of total degree at most one. Despite the massive effort in understanding the finite dimensional estimation algebras, the 20 year old problem of Brockett and Mitter conjecture remains open. In this paper, we give a classification of finite dimensional estimation algebras of maximal rank and solve the Mitter conjecture affirmatively for finite dimensional estimation algebras of maximal rank. In particular, for an estimation algebra E of maximal rank, we give a necessary and sufficient conditions for E to be finite dimensional in terms of the drift f_i (x) and observation h_j (x). As an important corollary, we show that the number of statistics needed to compute the conditional density of the state given the observation {y(s):0?≤?s?≤?t} by the algebraic method is n where n is the dimension of the state.     

天广直流输电对广东220kV电网电压谐波的影响

通过对天广直流输电产生的电力谐波进行测试,分析其对广东220kV电网电压谐波产生的影响,并从降低不利影响的目的出发,对天广直流的运行方式提出建议。     

金属管道缺陷的微波检测

本文提出了一种用微波来检测金属管道裂纹、裂缝和表面金属异物等缺陷的一种新方法。文中详细介绍了微波检测金属管道裂纹、裂缝的原理和特征信号的提取方法，并用实验验证了该方法的正确性。