Interfacial reaction in ASZ/A384 Al composite and its influence on mechanical properties

In an ASZ/A384 Al composite, the interfacial reaction was observed to take place between the SiO₂ binder layer and Mg within the matrix to form MgAl₂O₄ at the interface. Formation of MgAl₂O₄ at the interface between ASZ short fibers and the Al matrix alloy is believed to enhance the interfacial bonding strength, resulting in improved composite strength. However, the interfacial reaction in the ASZ/A384 Al proceeds at the expense of Mg in the matrix, resulting in a composite devoid of Mg bearing precipitates such as Al₂CuMg and Mg₂Si.     

Nitrogen removal using recycled polystyrene bottles as biofilm media

The performance of an attached growth wastewater treatment process was investigated in an effort to improve nitrogen removal efficiency. Recycled Yakult (lactic acid fermentation drink) bottles made of polystyrene were used as a biofilm media. The use of Yakult bottles as a biofilm media has been attempted by numerous researchers in Japan for the removal of solids and organics. However, these studies focused only on the removal of solids and organics. This study extended their application to the removal of nitrogen for domestic sewage treatment. Yakult media was placed in a reactor with 70% apparent reactor volume in a conventional A/O process. The bottom of the Yakult media was removed, and randomly filled Yakult media were effectively able to reduce the flow in tanks, resulting in an increase in the contact time between pollutants and microorganisms. With higher HRT, the nitrogen removal efficiency was increased by up to 83% with 12 hr of HRT. Nitrification appeared to be the limiting factor of nitrogen removal at an HRT that is less than 12 hr, indicating that the Yakult process requires more retention time to achieve nitrification compared to other biofilm processes. The removal efficiencies of organics and solids were high regardless of the change of operational parameters. This article is based on a presentation in “The 7th Korea-China Workshop On Advanced Materials” organized by the Korea-China Advanced Materials Cooperation Center and the China-Korea Advanced Materials Cooperation Center, held at Ramada Plaza Jeju Hotel, Jeju Island, Korea on August 24–27, 2003.     

Effects of Rare Earth Metal addition on the cavitation erosion-corrosion resistance of super duplex stainless steels

Austenitic stainless steels such as AISI 316L have been used in equipment in which fluid flows at high speeds which can induce cavitation erosion on metallic surfaces due to the collapse of cavities, where the collapse is caused by the sudden change of local pressure within the liquid. Usually AISI 316L is susceptible to cavitation erosion. This research focuses on developing a better material to replace the AISI 316L used in equipment with high speed fluid flow, such as impellers. The effects of Rare Earth Metal (REM) additions on the cavitation erosion-corrosion resistance of duplex stainless steels were studied using metallographic examination, the potentiodynamic anodic polarization test, the tensile test, the X-ray diffraction test and the ultrasonic cavitation erosion test. The experimental alloys were found to have superior mechanical properties due to interstitial solid solution strengthening, by adding high nitrogen (0.4%), as well as by the refinement of phases and grains induced by fine REM oxides and oxy-sulfides. Corrosion resistance decreases in a gentle gradient as the REM content increases. However, REM containing alloys show superior corrosion resistance compared with that of other commercial alloys (SAF 2507, AISI 316L). Owing to their excellent mechanical properties and corrosion resistance, the alloys containing REM have high cavitation erosion-corrosion resistance.     

A note on the differential regulator equation for non-minimum phase linear systems with time-varying exosystems

Some control problems in practice are often formulated as a linear output regulation problem with time-varying exosystems. Although this problem has been studied recently, an explicit and constructive solution has been given only for minimum phase systems. This paper presents a solution for non-minimum phase systems whose zero dynamics is hyperbolic (or has an exponentially dichotomic split in the case of time-varying zero dynamics). The idea is inspired by the non-causal stable inversion.     

A novel iterative shape from focus algorithm based on combinatorial optimization

Shape from focus (SFF) is a technique to estimate the depth and 3D shape of an object from a sequence of images obtained at different focus settings. In this paper, the SFF is presented as a combinatorial optimization problem. The proposed algorithm tries to find the combination of pixel frames which produces maximum focus measure computed over pixels lying on those frames. To reduce the high computational complexity, a local search method is proposed. After the estimate of the initial depth map solution of an object, the neighborhood is defined, and an intermediate image volume is generated from the neighborhood. The updated depth map solution is found from the intermediate image volume. This update process of the depth map solution continues until the amount of improvement is negligible. The results of the proposed SFF algorithm have shown significant improvements in both the accuracy of the depth map estimation and the computational complexity, with respect to the existing SFF methods.     

A new vertical‐alignment LC mode with high‐transmittance and fast‐response‐time features

Abstract— A novel pixel design for vertical‐alignment LCDs with superior transmittance has been developed. The new liquid‐crystal mode, refered to as the hole‐induced vertical‐alignment mode (Hi‐VA), uses a via hole of an organic layer on a TFT substrate to achieve multi‐domain alignment. Compared to the conventional design, the Hi‐VA mode has a transmittance of up to 135% with a contrast ratio of 2000:1. Moreover, the new structure is free from ITO patterning or protrusion on the color‐filter side, which makes the fabrication process simple and low cost.     

A two-stage heuristic for single machine capacitated lot-sizing and scheduling with sequence-dependent setup costs

This paper considers a single machine capacitated lot-sizing and scheduling problem. The problem is to determine the lot sizes and the sequence of lots while satisfying the demand requirements and the machine capacity in each period of a planning horizon. In particular, we consider sequence-dependent setup costs that depend on the type of the lot just completed and on the lot to be processed. The setup state preservation, i.e., the setup state at the end of a period is carried over to the next period, is also considered. The objective is to minimize the sum of setup and inventory holding costs over the planning horizon. Due to the complexity of the problem, we suggest a two-stage heuristic in which an initial solution is obtained and then it is improved using a backward and forward improvement method that incorporates various priority rules to select the items to be moved. Computational tests were done on randomly generated test instances and the results show that the two-stage heuristic outperforms the best existing algorithm significantly. Also, the heuristics with better priority rule combinations were used to solve case instances and much improvement is reported over the conventional method as well as the best existing algorithm.     

Chaotic exploration and learning of locomotion behaviors

We present a general and fully dynamic neural system, which exploits intrinsic chaotic dynamics, for the real-time goal-directed exploration and learning of the possible locomotion patterns of an articulated robot of an arbitrary morphology in an unknown environment. The controller is modeled as a network of neural oscillators that are initially coupled only through physical embodiment, and goal-directed exploration of coordinated motor patterns is achieved by chaotic search using adaptive bifurcation. The phase space of the indirectly coupled neural-body-environment system contains multiple transient or permanent self-organized dynamics, each of which is a candidate for a locomotion behavior. The adaptive bifurcation enables the system orbit to wander through various phase-coordinated states, using its intrinsic chaotic dynamics as a driving force, and stabilizes on to one of the states matching the given goal criteria. In order to improve the sustainability of useful transient patterns, sensory homeostasis has been introduced, which results in an increased diversity of motor outputs, thus achieving multiscale exploration. A rhythmic pattern discovered by this process is memorized and sustained by changing the wiring between initially disconnected oscillators using an adaptive synchronization method. Our results show that the novel neurorobotic system is able to create and learn multiple locomotion behaviors for a wide range of body configurations and physical environments and can readapt in realtime after sustaining damage.