Dynamically modulated intensity interrogation scheme using waveguide coupled surface plasmon resonance sensors

An electro-optically modulated intensity interrogation method based on tunable waveguide coupled surface plasmon resonance sensors has been proposed. It has been theoretically and experimentally demonstrated that the proposed scheme can enable sensitive measurement of measurand variations. By modulating the refractive index in the waveguide layer, this interrogation method yields modulated signal whose amplitude is related to measurand's refractive index. This amplitude modulated signal offers a higher signal to noise ratio and eliminates additive noise in the sensor system. A preliminary investigation using saline buffers with different NaCl concentrations shows a resolution of 2.3 × 10^?6 refractive index unit by our approach. Resolution can be controlled by the amplitude of the applied modulation voltage and can be further enhanced by optimizing the device structure or improving the electro-optical (E-O) coefficient of the E-O material. This approach is simple, stable, and promising for low-cost or multi-channel SPR biosensor applications.     

A graph-based approach for assessing storm-induced coastal changes

Hurricanes and tropical storms are severe threats to coastal properties, settlements, and infrastructure. Airborne light detection and ranging (lidar) surveys conducted before and after storm events allow detailed analysis of coastal geomorphologic and sediment volumetric changes and have been proved very useful in the study of coastal changes. Traditionally, most studies use the pixel-based differencing method to quantify the spatial extent and magnitude of coastal changes based on sequential lidar surveys. This research presents a graph theory-based approach and associated software tools for representing and quantifying storm-induced damages to buildings, beaches and sand dunes, coastal vegetation canopy, and infrastructure. Generation of elevation difference grids, construction of local contour trees, and derivation of semantic properties are key components of the new algorithm for change object detection and extraction. An ontology and taxonomy are proposed to classify change objects into different types of coastal damages in terms of their semantic properties. This method has been successfully applied to assess damages of Hurricane Ike to the Bolivar Peninsula on the Texas Gulf Coast based on pre- and post-storm airborne lidar data and colour infrared aerial photographs.     

Development of a web-based insulin decision aid for the elderly: usability barriers and guidelines

Universal Access in the Information Society - In recent years, researchers have attempted to shift patient decision aids (PDAs) from paper-based to web-based to increase its accessibility. Insulin...     

交流阻抗法测定锂离子电池正极材料的导电率

采用交流阻抗法测定了3种锂离子电池正极材料LiCoO2,LiMn2O4和LiFePO4的电子导电率、离子导电率和材料电导率.结果表明,LiCoO2材料的电导率较高,含有聚阴离子基团LiFePO4材料的电子电导率和离子电导率均较低.     

An Internet-based negotiation server for e-commerce

This paper describes the design and implementation of a replicable, Internet-based negotiation server for conducting bargaining-type negotiations between enterprises involved in e-commerce and e-business. Enterprises can be buyers and sellers of products/services or participants of a complex supply chain engaged in purchasing, planning, and scheduling. Multiple copies of our server can be installed to complement the services of Web servers. Each enterprise can install or select a trusted negotiation server to represent his/her interests. Web-based GUI tools are used during the build-time registration process to specify the requirements, constraints, and rules that represent negotiation policies and strategies, preference scoring of different data conditions, and aggregation methods for deriving a global cost-benefit score for the item(s) under negotiation. The registration information is used by the negotiation servers to automatically conduct bargaining type negotiations on behalf of their clients. In this paper, we present the architecture of our implementation as well as a framework for automated negotiations, and describe a number of communication primitives which are used in the underlying negotiation protocol. A constraint satisfaction processor (CSP) is used to evaluate a negotiation proposal or counterproposal against the registered requirements and constraints of a client company. In case of a constraint violation, an event is posted to trigger the execution of negotiation strategic rules, which either automatically relax the violated constraint, ask for human intervention, invoke an application, or perform other remedial operations. An Event-Trigger-Rule (ETR) server is used to manage events, triggers, and rules. Negotiation strategic rules can be added or modified at run-time. A cost-benefit analysis component is used to perform quantitative analysis of alternatives. The use of negotiation servers to conduct automated negotiation has been demonstrated in the context of an integrated supply chain scenario. Received: 30 October 2000 / Accepted: 12 January 2001 Published online: 2 August 2001     

A Regression Approach to Music Emotion Recognition

Content-based retrieval has emerged in the face of content explosion as a promising approach to information access. In this paper, we focus on the challenging issue of recognizing the emotion content of music signals, or music emotion recognition (MER). Specifically, we formulate MER as a regression problem to predict the arousal and valence values (AV values) of each music sample directly. Associated with the AV values, each music sample becomes a point in the arousal-valence plane, so the users can efficiently retrieve the music sample by specifying a desired point in the emotion plane. Because no categorical taxonomy is used, the regression approach is free of the ambiguity inherent to conventional categorical approaches. To improve the performance, we apply principal component analysis to reduce the correlation between arousal and valence, and RReliefF to select important features. An extensive performance study is conducted to evaluate the accuracy of the regression approach for predicting AV values. The best performance evaluated in terms of the R ² statistics reaches 58.3% for arousal and 28.1% for valence by employing support vector machine as the regressor. We also apply the regression approach to detect the emotion variation within a music selection and find the prediction accuracy superior to existing works. A group-wise MER scheme is also developed to address the subjectivity issue of emotion perception.     

A low temperature preparation and photocatalytical activities of PDVB@TiO2 hybrid microspheres

The core/shell anatase TiO₂ encapsulated poly(divinylbenzene) (PDVB@TiO₂) hybrid microspheres were prepared by the two steps: (1) the copolymer particles (PDVB) were prepared by the radical precipitation copolymerization of divinylbenzene (DVB) and γ-[(methacryloxy)propyl]trimethoxysilane (KH-570); (2) tetrabutyl titanate (TBOT) was co-hydrolyzed with the trimethoxysilyl groups on the surfaces of the PDVB cores and then the amorphous TiO₂ shell obtained was phase transformed to anatase TiO₂ by acid peptization. The products were characterized by FT-IR, UV–vis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). Their photocatalytical activities were measured by the photo-degradation of methylene blue (MB). The polymer supported TiO₂ photocatalysts prepared at low temperature, had better repetition because of the coupled action of KH-570 between the PDVB core and TiO₂ shell. Furthermore, it could be easily separated from the solution by simple sedimentation.     

电力有源滤波器(APF)技术的探讨

随着大功率开关器件的广泛应用,电力系统谐波抑制及无功补偿问题变得日益迫切,电力有源滤波技术是解决上述问题的有效手段。首先简要介绍电力有源滤波技术的特点、基本原理,然后介绍APF的主要控制策略,最后对APF技术应用中应考虑的一些问题作简单介绍。     

Image segmentation via self-organising fusion

A method called self-organising fusion (SOF) for performing fast image segmentation is presented. The input image is divided into a set of small regions, each associated with a working feature. First, all regions are simultaneously updated and then a statistical process is applied to merge the qualified regions. The contours of objects are obtained by alternating the two processes of updating and merging until convergence. The concurrent updating creates a SOF behaviour that facilitates the identification of regions presumably comprising the same object. The method can save computation cost as both updating and merging are conducted in parallel fashion, and as parameter selection is done for local regions, it is able to deal with fairly complex images     

现代钢铁生产流程的优化与发展

现代钢铁生产流程进入新世纪后正加快优化的进程.紧凑、高效和智能化是主要发展方向;新流程发展和现有流程的改造相结合,是流程变革的主要特点;与多学科新技术的结合,将成为发展的主要特征;符合社会可持续发展的要求是钢铁流程优化最重要的目标.