Factors Affecting Hydrogen Production from Food Wastes by Clostridium-Rich Composts

This study used the technique of response surface approach to analyze the combined effects of heat-shocking temperature and time on anaerobic grass composts. Results indicate that the grass composts under heat-shocking temperature and time of 80°C and 3?h, respectively, could yield high populations of hydrogen-producing microorganisms. Metabolic results demonstrate that the composts are reliable, having considerable hydrogen-producing Clostridia. The multivariate analysis with response surface by considering specific hydrogen-producing potential and rate simultaneously indicate that the cultural media with Fe2+ = 132?mg/L; NH4+ = 537?mg/L; and PO43? = 1,331?mg/L were optimal for the hydrogen-producing Clostridia-rich composts using high-solids food wastes. The specific hydrogen production potential and rate were 77±3?mL?H2/gTVS and 520±20?mL?H2/g?TVS/day, respectively. The former was 38% of theoretical hydrogen-producing potential of Clostridium sp. using glucose. Of these factors, ammonium and phosphate are nutrients for the hydrogen-producing Clostridia growth while iron exerts a synergistic influence on them in the conversion of the food wastes into hydrogen.     

Leak behavior of SCC degraded steam generator tubings of nuclear power plant

A forced outage due to a steam generator tube leak in a Korean nuclear power plant has been reported [Kim, J.S., Hwang, S.S., et al., 1999. KAERI Internal Report (Korean). Destructive analysis on pulled tubes from Ulchin unit 1. Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute]. Primary water stress corrosion cracking has occurred in many tubes in the plant, and they were repaired using sleeves or plugs. In order to develop proper repair criteria, it is necessary to understand the leak behavior of the tubes containing stress corrosion cracks. Cracked specimens were prepared using a room temperature cracking technique, and the leak rates and burst pressures of the degraded tubes were determined both at room temperature and at a high temperature. Some tubes with 100% through wall cracks did not show a leakage at 10.8 MPa, which is the typical pressure difference of the pressurized water reactors (PWRs) during a normal operation. In some tests, the leak rates of the tubes increased with time at a constant pressure. In a high temperature pressure test at 282 °C one specimen showed a very small leakage at 18.6 MPa, which stopped after a small increase in the test pressure. Because stress corrosion cracks can develop at relatively low stresses, even 100% through wall cracks can be so tight that they will not leak at a normal operating pressure.     

Multiscale Analysis of Fracture of Carbon Nanotubes Embedded in Composites

Due to the enormous difference in the scales involved in correlating the macroscopic properties with the micro- and nano-physical mechanisms of carbon nanotube-reinforced composites, multiscale mechanics analysis is of considerable interest. A hybrid atomistic/continuum mechanics method is established in the present paper to study the deformation and fracture behaviors of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in composites. The unit cell containing a CNT embedded in a matrix is divided in three regions, which are simulated by the atomic-potential method, the continuum method based on the modified Cauchy–Born rule, and the classical continuum mechanics, respectively. The effect of CNT interaction is taken into account via the Mori–Tanaka effective field method of micromechanics. This method not only can predict the formation of Stone–Wales (5-7-7-5) defects, but also simulate the subsequent deformation and fracture process of CNTs. It is found that the critical strain of defect nucleation in a CNT is sensitive to its chiral angle but not to its diameter. The critical strain of Stone–Wales defect formation of zigzag CNTs is nearly twice that of armchair CNTs. Due to the constraint effect of matrix, the CNTs embedded in a composite are easier to fracture in comparison with those not embedded. With the increase in the Young’s modulus of the matrix, the critical breaking strain of CNTs decreases.     

A reinforcement discrete neuro-adaptive control for unknown piezoelectric actuator systems with dominant hysteresis

The theoretical and experimental studies of a reinforcement discrete neuro-adaptive control for unknown piezoelectric actuator systems with dominant hysteresis are presented. Two separate nonlinear gains, together with an unknown linear dynamical system, construct the nonlinear model (NM) of the piezoelectric actuator systems. A nonlinear inverse control (NIC) according to the learned NM is then designed to compensate the hysteretic phenomenon and to track the reference input without the risk of discontinuous response. Because the uncertainties are dynamic, a recurrent neural network (RNN) with residue compensation is employed to model them in a compact subset. Then, a discrete neuro-adaptive sliding-mode control (DNASMC) is designed to enhance the system performance. The stability of the overall system is verified by Lyapunov stability theory. Comparative experiments for various control schemes are also given to confirm the validity of the proposed control.     

Challenges to transforming IT win the US government

Nearly seven years ago, the US Congress passed the Clinger-Cohen Act (CCA) to revolutionize IT management in federal agencies. So, where is the e-government? This article describes how federal agencies currently incorporate CCA. It analyzes the Act's effectiveness, and proposes practices to improve its implementation. Ultimately, the success of IT transformation in the US government depends on IT governance within federal agencies and across the federal government.     

Adaptive polygonization of geometrically constrained surfaces

n -dimensional space, where n>3. This definition can be used for given surfaces that are implicit or parametric. This paper presents a robust, adaptive polygonization algorithm for evaluating and visualizing geometrically constrained surfaces. Let be the constrained surface, a 2-surface in n-space, and let π() be its projection into the subspace spanned by the first three coordinates. Our polygonization algorithm computes π(). The method works directly with the n-space representation, but performs all major computations in 3-space. Techniques for triangulation, polygon decimation, and local refinement are also presented.     

Stiffness-based optimal design of tall steel frameworks subject to lateral loading

This study presents an effective stiffness-based optimal design technique for planar tall steel building frameworks subject to lateral loading. An initial design under strength constraints is first performed, and then the lateral load resistant system is designed to control any lateral drift of the structure that yet exceeds the drift criteria. The rigid diaphragm effect of the floor slab is accounted for so as to reduce the degrees of freedom to three at each floor level. Design optimization based on a mathematical programming technique involves minimizing the lateral stiffness of the lateral load resistant system for the structure while satisfying specified drift constraints. Three steel frameworks with diagonal bracing systems are presented to illustrate the features of the design optimization method.     

Handling Updates and Crashes in VoD Systems

Though there have been several recent efforts to develop disk based video servers, these approaches have all ignored the topic of updates and disk server crashes. In this paper, we present a priority based model for building video servers that handle two classes of events: user events that could include enter, play, pause, rewind, fast-forward, exit, as well assystem events such as insert, delete, server-down, server-up that correspond to uploading new movie blocks onto the disk(s), eliminating existing blocks from the disk(s), and/or experiencing a disk server crash. We will present algorithms to handle such events. Our algorithms are provably correct, and computable in polynomial time. Furthermore, we guarantee that under certain reasonable conditions, continuing clients experience jitter free presentations. We further justify the efficiency of our techniques with a prototype implementation and experimental results.     

Smooth trajectory tracking of three-link robot: a self-organizingCMAC approach

A neuro fuzzy system which is embedded in the conventional control theory is proposed to tackle physical learning control problems. The control scheme is composed of two elements. The first element, the fuzzy sliding mode controller (FSMC), is used to drive the state variables to a specific switching hyperplane or a desired trajectory. The second one is developed based on the concept of the self organizing fuzzy cerebellar model articulation controller (FCMAC) and adaptive heuristic critic (AHC). Both compose a forward compensator to reduce the chattering effect or cancel the influence of system uncertainties. A geometrical explanation on how the FCMAC algorithm works is provided and some refined procedures of the AHC are presented as well. Simulations on smooth motion of a three-link robot is given to illustrate the performance and applicability of the proposed control scheme.     

A novel Takagi-Sugeno-based robust adaptive fuzzy sliding-mode controller

In this paper, a nonlinear dynamic system is first approximated by N fuzzy-based linear state-space subsystems. To track a trajectory dominant by a specific frequency, the reference models with desired amplitude and phase features are established by the same fuzzy sets of the system rule. Similarly, the same fuzzy sets of the system rule are employed to design robust fuzzy sliding-mode control (RFSMC) and adaptive fuzzy sliding-mode control (AFSMC). The difference between RFSMC and AFSMC is that AFSMC contains an updating law to learn system uncertainties and then an extra compensation is designed. It is different from the most previous papers to learn the whole nonlinear functions. As the norm of the sliding surface is inside of a defined set, the updating law starts; simultaneously, as it is outside of the other set, the updating law stops. For the purpose of smoothing the possibility of discontinuous control input, a transition between RFSMC and AFSMC is also assigned. Under the circumstances, the proposed control [robust adaptive fuzzy sliding-mode control (RAFSMC)] can automatically tune as a RFSMC or an AFSMC; then the advantages coming from the RFSMC and AFSMC are obtained. Finally, the stabilities of the overall system of RFSMC, AFSMC, and RAFSMC are verified by Lyapunov stability theory. The compared simulations among RFSMC, AFSMC, and RAFSMC are also carried out to confirm the usefulness of the proposed control scheme.