Improved Schedules by Using Data Collected Under Preventive Maintenance

Most preventive maintenance (PM) models require, as inputs, information on the behaviour of the equipment under failure-only maintenance (FM). Once a schedule of PM has been applied, data arising from failures are affected by the PM. Over life the behaviour that would occur under FM changes. But PM also tends to delay aging processes. This paper examines: 1) how data collected under four kinds of PM policy can be modified to re-assess the FM characteristics, and 2) how to tell whether an apparent change in them is important. The approach takes account of engineering as well as statistical factors. It concludes that: 1. Estimation of distributions and costs as they would be under FM from data collected under PM cannot be accurate but a suboptimal policy can be worse. 2. A different type of PM policy might be required following changes to costs and/or distribution. The optimum under one model might not be the overall optimum. 3. The solutions suggested in the paper remain unproved due to the ``data problem'. Mathematical research alone can never produce workable procedures. A viable methodology will need years of experimentation with real systems. 4. The potential savings are huge.     

Improved techniques for testing fats and oils by the oxygen bomb method

Summary The use of a dispersing agent to expand the surface area, thus providing an increase in reactivity of fats and oils under the conditions of the test, has been investigated. This dispersion technique permits the testing of a wider range of products, decreases the test time, and results in sharper end-points. These improvements should serve to increase the applicability of the Oxygen Bomb Method as a tool for oxidation studies and quality control in the food industry. A general comparison of the Oxygen Bomb Method with the AOM and Schaal Oven Method has been presented to illustrate the relationship between results obtained by these various methods. The dispersion technique has been combined with previously established bomb techniques, and procedures for testing a wide variety of fats, oils and food products by the Oxygen Bomb Method are suggested.     

Integrated Energy and Trust-Based Semi-Markov Prediction for Lifetime Maximization in Wireless Sensor Networks

Many of today’s computing and communication models are distributed systems that are composed of autonomous computational entities that communicate with each other, usually by passing messages. Distributed systems encompass a variety of applications and wireless sensor networks (WSN) is an important application of it. The tiny, multiple functionality and low power sensor nodes are considered to be interconnected in the WSN for efficient process of aggregating and transmitting the data to the base station. The clustering-based schemes of sensor networks are capable of organizing the network through the utilization of a specifically designated node termed as the cluster head for the objective of energy conservation and data aggregation. Further, the cluster head is responsible for conveying potential information collected by the cluster member nodes and aggregate them before transmitting it to the base station. In this paper, a Reliable Cluster Head Selection Technique using Integrated Energy and Trust-based Semi-Markov Prediction (RCHST-IETSMP) is proposed with the view to extend the lifetime of sensor networks. This proposed RCHST-IETSMP incorporated two significant parameters associated with energy and trust for effective selection of cluster head facilitated through the merits of Semi-Markoc prediction integrated with the Hyper Erlang distribution process. The simulation results of the proposed RCHST-IETSMP scheme is proving to be efficient in upholding the residual energy of the network and the throughput to a maximum level of 23% and 19% predominant to the trust and energy-based clustering schemes considered for investigation.

     

A diffraction-compensating 0-25 ns free space terahertz delay line for coherent quantum control

Free space delay lines provide pulses of variable time spacing for optical experiments such as pump-probe spectroscopy and coherent quantum control, including spin and photon echo techniques. However, in the terahertz region of the spectrum, beam divergence due to diffraction limits the useful length of traditional free space delay lines. We present a novel double-folded variable delay line for light in the frequency range 0.24-1.2 THz, which incorporates a symmetric arrangement of lenses whose spacing can be adjusted to compensate for diffraction at each delay. Scalable for use in other wavelength regimes, the design relays an input Gaussian beam waist to the output with up to 25 ns ( approximately 8 m) total delay and is enclosed in a desiccated volume of <0.5 m3. The delay line can deliver two or three pulses with relative amplitudes controlled via variable spacing silicon etalon beam splitters. Profiles of a 0.24 THz beam show good agreement with calculations at long delays, with insertion loss per delay stage of approximately 3 dB.     

On 2D elliptic discontinuous Galerkin methods

We discuss the discretization using discontinuous Galerkin (DG) formulation of an elliptic Poisson problem. Two commonly used DG schemes are investigated: the original average flux proposed by Bassi and Rebay (J. Comput. Phys. 1997; 131 :267) and the local discontinuous Galerkin (LDG) (SIAM J. Numer. Anal. 1998; 35 :2440–2463) scheme. In this paper we expand on previous expositions (Discontinuous Galerkin Methods: Theory, Computation and Applications. Springer: Berlin, 2000; 135–146; SIAM J. Sci. Comput. 2002; 24 (2):524–547; Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engng. 2003; 58 (2): 1119–1148) by adopting a matrix based notation with a view to highlighting the steps required in a numerical implementation of the DG method. Through consideration of standard C⁰‐type expansion bases, as opposed to elementally orthogonal expansions, with the matrix formulation we are able to apply static condensation techniques to improve efficiency of the direct solver when high order expansions are adopted. The use of C⁰‐type expansions also permits the direct enforcement of Dirichlet boundary conditions through a ‘lifting’ approach where the LDG flux does not require further stabilization. In our construction we also adopt a formulation of the continuous DG fluxes that permits a more general interpretation of their numerical implementation. In particular it allows us to determine the conditions under which the LDG method provides a near local stencil. Finally a study of the conditioning and the size of the null space of the matrix systems resulting from the DG discretization of the elliptic problem is undertaken. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Optical scattering and backscattering by organic and inorganic particulates in U.S. coastal waters

We present the results of a study of optical scattering and backscattering of particulates for three coastal sites that represent a wide range of optical properties that are found in U.S. near-shore waters. The 6000 scattering and backscattering spectra collected for this study can be well approximated by a power-law function of wavelength. The power-law exponent for particulate scattering changes dramatically from site to site (and within each site) compared with particulate backscattering where all the spectra, except possibly the very clearest waters, cluster around a single wavelength power-law exponent of -0.94. The particulate backscattering-to-scattering ratio (the backscattering ratio) displays a wide range in wavelength dependence. This result is not consistent with scattering models that describe the bulk composition of water as a uniform mix of homogeneous spherical particles with a Junge-like power-law distribution over all particle sizes. Simultaneous particulate organic matter (POM) and particulate inorganic matter (PIM) measurements are available for some of our optical measurements, and site-averaged POM and PIM mass-specific cross sections for scattering and backscattering can be derived. Cross sections for organic and inorganic material differ at each site, and the relative contribution of organic and inorganic material to scattering and backscattering depends differently at each site on the relative amount of material that is present.     

IEEE 1394标准单/双端口 FireWire保护电路

经过大量测试后,MAX5943A单端口和MAX5944双端口 FireWire限流器以及低压降"或"逻辑开关控制器已在Underwriters Laboratories,Inc的元件认证流程下通过UL认证,也就是说,该电路(不是电路中的元件)已通过UL认证.     

Phospholipid biosynthetic enzymes in human brain

Growing evidence suggests an involvement of brain membrane phospholipid metabolism in a variety of neurodegenerative and psychiatric conditions. This has prompted the use of drugs (e.g., CDPcholine) aimed at elevating the rate of neural membrane synthesis. However, no information is available regarding the human brain enzymes of phospholipid synthesis which these drugs affect. Thus, the objective of our study was to characterize the enzymes involved, in particular, whether differences existed in the relative affinity of substrates for the enzymes of phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) compared to those of phosphatidylcholine (PC) synthesis. The concentration of choline in rapidly frozen human brain biopsies ranged from 32–186 nmol/g tissue, a concentration similar to that determined previously for ethanolamine. Since human brain ethanolamine kinase possessed a much lower affinity for ethanolamine (K _m=460 μM) than choline kinase did for choline (K _m=17 μM), the activity of ethanolamine kinase in vivo may be more dependent on substrate availability than that of choline kinase. In addition, whereas ethanolamine kinase was inhibited by choline, and to a lesser extent by phosphocholine, choline kinase activity was unaffected by the presence of ethanolamine, or phosphoethanolamine, and only weakly inhibited by phosphocholine. Phosphoethanolamine cytidylyl-transferase (PECT) and phosphocholine cytidylyltransferase (PCCT) also displayed dissimilar characteristics, with PECT and PCCT being located predominantly in the cytosolic and particulate fractions, respectively. Both PECT and PCCT exhibited a low affinity for CTP (K_m approximately 1.2 mM), suggesting that the activities of these enzymes, and by implication, the rate of phospholipid synthesis, are highly dependent upon the cellular concentration of CTP. In conclusion, our data indicate different regulatory properties of PE and PC synthesis in human brain, and suggest that the rate of PE synthesis may be more dependent upon substrate (ethanolamine) availability than that of PC synthesis.