Effects of potential and heat treatment on phase transition of alumina dielectric layer

The characteristics and growth behaviors of alumina dielectric layer formed by anodic oxidation were investigated. The aluminum oxide layer anodized at 400 V was predominantly amorphous alumina, but at the applied potentials more than 500 V, amorphous and crystalline γ-alumina were existed in anodic oxide layer and the ratio of γ-alumina increased with the increasing applied potential. During the heat treatment at 600^°C or higher temperature, amorphous alumina layer was transformed into the crystalline γ-alumina. The phase transition of anodic amorphous alumina into crystalline depends on anodic applied potentials and heat-treatment temperatures.     

Effects of tube rupture modeling and the parameters on the analysis of multiple steam generator tube rupture event progression in APR1400

A multiple steam generator tube rupture (MSGTR) event in APR1400 has been investigated using the best estimate thermal hydraulic system code, MARS1.4. The effects of the parameters such as the number of ruptured tubes, rupture location, affected steam generator on the analysis of the MSGTR event in APR1400 are examined. In particular, tube rupture modeling methods, single tube modeling (STM) and double tube modeling (DTM), are compared. The APR1400 is found to have the capability of allowing more than 30 min to operators for the MSGTR event of five tubes. The effects of rupture location on the MSSV lift time is not significant in the case of STM, but the MSSV lift time for tube-top rupture is found to be 25.3% larger than that for rupture at the hot-leg side tube sheet in the case of DTM. The MSSV lift time for the cases that both steam generators are affected (4C5x, 4C23x) are found to be larger than that of the single steam generator cases (4A5x, 4B5x) due to a bifurcation of the primary leak flow. The discharge coefficient of Cd is found to affect the MSSV lift time only for a smaller value of 0.5. It is found that the most dominant parameter governing the MSSV lift time is the leak flow rate. Whether any modeling method is used, it gives the similar MSSV lift time if the leak flow rate is close, except in the case where both steam generators are affected. Therefore, the system performance and the MSSV lift time of the APR1400 are strongly dependent on the break flow model used in the best estimate system code.     

Capacitor coupled converter (C3) for high power DCconversion

The bang-bang controlled capacitor coupled converter (C³) is described in this paper. Due to the converter's inherent commutating property, the C³ can accommodate thyristors as well as high-power gate turn-off switches, due to zero-current switching transitions. The zero-current switching is achieved at no current stress increase, therefore, the topology is considered appropriate for high-power processing. DC and small signal AC models are derived for the bang-bang controlled C³, a design procedure is proposed, and simulation results are discussed. Finally, oscillograms from a proof of principle prototype circuit are presented     

The PBD-Closure of Constant-Composition Codes

We show an interesting pairwise balanced design (PBD)-closure result for the set of lengths of constant-composition codes whose distance and size meet certain conditions. A consequence of this PBD-closure result is that the size of optimal constant-composition codes can be determined for infinite families of parameter sets from just a single example of an optimal code. As an application, the sizes of several infinite families of optimal constant-composition codes are derived. In particular, the problem of determining the size of optimal constant-composition codes having distance four and weight three is solved for all lengths sufficiently large. This problem was previously unresolved for odd lengths, except for lengths seven and eleven.     

Three cases of tuberculosis after heart transplantation in Spain

The fibrinolytic capacity of patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is known to be impaired. The primary regulatory element of the fibrinolytic system is plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI). It has been previously observed that there are 2 peaks in the plasma PAI level of AMI patients at 4h and 16h after thrombolytic therapy with recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rtPA). Lanoteplase/SUN9216 is a mutant tPA with a biological half-life longer than that of rtPA. Thrombolytic therapy with mutant tPA or rtPA was carried out consecutively in 21 patients with AMI (8 patients as the mutant tPA group, and 13 patients as the rtPA group). The recanalization time of the mutant tPA group was significantly faster than that of the rtPA group (16.1 +/- 3.9 min vs 39.6 +/- 4.8 min, p<0.01). The PAI activity at 4h after the initiation of thrombolysis was significantly lower in the mutant tPA group than in the rtPA group (8.74 +/- 5.46IU/L vs 26.74 +/- 3.35 IU/L, p<0.01). There was a one mild peak in serial plasma PAI activity levels 24h after the initiation of thrombolysis. The results suggest that thrombolytic therapy with mutant tPA reduced the impairment of fibrinolytic capacity. The mutant tPA gives faster recanalization and lower PAI activity after successful thrombolysis, compared with rtPA.     

Temperature Dependence of the Phototransport Properties in C60 films

Solid C₆₀ is a semiconductor with very special properties which are sensitive to its preparation conditions. Very little is known about the forbidden gap states and about the recombination centers in this material. An attempt is made in this paper to deduce information on the latter from the temperature dependences of the photoconductivity and the corresponding light intensity exponent that were measured on C₆₀ films. This attempt combines a comparison of the experimental results with numerical simulation of a simple model. It is concluded that oxygen centers play a major role in the electronic structure of solid C₆₀ These centers are acceptor-like, they act as compensators to the shallow donors and they result in recombination centers which lie 0.3 eV below the conduction band edge. It is further concluded that the oxygen suppresses the well-known phase transition that occurs around 260°C by prohibiting the expansion of the lattice upon the increase of temperature.     

Multitask learning for health condition identification and remaining useful life prediction: deep convolutional neural network approach

Predicting remaining useful life (RUL) is crucial for system maintenance. Condition monitoring makes not only degradation data available for RUL estimation but also categorized health status data for health state identification. However, RUL prediction has been treated as an independent process in most cases even though potential relevance exists with health status detection process. In this paper, we propose a convolution neural network based multi-task learning method to reflect the relatedness of RUL estimation with health status detection process. The proposed method applied to the C-MAPSS dataset for aero-engine unit prognostics supported superior performances to existing baseline models.

     

Customer entrepreneurship on digital platforms: Challenges and solutions for platform business models

Drawing on the mixed methods of qualitative research and agent‐based simulation, this study examines: (a) how end‐users use digital platforms to become customer–entrepreneurs undertaking commercial activities on platforms; and (b) how platform providers can convert this customer entrepreneurship into a revenue stream. Considering that end‐users have traditionally been defined as passive and uncharged actors in platform business models, an in‐depth understanding of their commercial activities and the viable revenue model to monetize this emerging customer practice is warranted. Our qualitative study reveals that customer–entrepreneurs make substantial use of platform offerings to advertise their products; communicate with end‐consumers; and accept payments. These commercial activities are largely exercised for free on platforms, even though they could otherwise serve as a source of revenue. On this point, our simulation results identify two pricing models achieving the generation of nearly identical revenues over time. First, platform providers may charge both advertising and transaction fees, which maximize the survival of professional customer–entrepreneurs. Second, platform businesses may levy advertising fees only, which maximizes the survival of informal customer–entrepreneurs operating on a micro‐scale and part‐time basis. This study offers theoretical, methodological, and managerial implications for platform studies.     

Signal tracking method of GNSS receivers for spinning vehicles

A signal tracking method of GNSS receivers for spinning vehicles is proposed in order to eliminate the influence of spinning to the GNSS signal of a vehicle. In the proposed method, a rotation tracking loop is added into the carrier tracking loop of a conventional GNSS receiver. The proposed method was verified through computer simulations and an experiment for live GPS signals. The results show that the proposed method gives an accurate tracking performance.     

Senescence Marker Protein 30 (SMP30): A Novel Pan-Species Diagnostic Marker for the Histopathological Diagnosis of Breast Cancer in Humans and Animals

Senescence marker protein 30 (SMP30) is a cell survival factor playing an important role in vitamin C synthesis and antiapoptosis. Moreover, its cytoprotective role suggests a possibility to be related to cancer cell survival. Mammary carcinoma is a common cancer in both humans and animals. Because of its histopathological diversity, especially in the early stage, histopathological diagnosis may be complicated; therefore, a diagnostic marker is helpful for confirmation. The present study analyzed the expression pattern of SMP30 in mammary carcinoma in humans, dogs, and cats. Immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence, and western blot analysis were used to investigate SMP30 expression patterns. The expression was specifically observed in neoplastic glandular epithelial cells. The expression increased with the malignancy of glandular epithelial cells with a highly proliferative status. However, SMP30 expression was low in normal mammary gland tissues or well-differentiated adenoma tissues. The patterns were consistently reproduced in canine primary mammary carcinoma cells and MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 human carcinoma cell lines. This study provides useful information to understand SMP30 expression in various stages of mammary carcinoma and to suggest its utility as a pan-species diagnostic marker, thereby helping to establish strategies for diagnosing mammary carcinoma in several species.