Heavy rare earths,permanent magnets,and renewable energies: An imminent crisis

This article sounds the alarm that a significant build-out of efficient lighting and renewable energy technologies may be endangered by shortages of rare earths and rare earth permanent magnets. At the moment, China is the predominant supplier of both and its recent rare earth industrial policies combined with its own growing demand for rare earths have caused widespread concern. To diversify supplies, new mining—outside of China—is needed. But what many observers of the “rare earth problem” overlook is that China also dominates in (1) the processing of rare earths, particularly the less abundant heavy rare earths, and (2) the supply chains for permanent magnets. Heavy rare earths and permanent magnets are critical for many renewable energy technologies, and it will require decades to develop new non-Chinese deposits, processing capacity, and supply chains. This article clarifies several misconceptions, evaluates frequently proposed solutions, and urges policy makers outside of China to undertake measures to avert a crisis, such as greater support for research and development and for the cultivation of intellectual capital.     

Challenges in the CO2 emissions of the Turkish power sector: Evidence from a two-level decomposition approach

Decarbonization of the energy system is urgent to avert the disruptions in the climate. Considering its share, the low carbon transition of the power sector is pivotal. Growing electricity demand poses unique challenges for Turkey to enact deep decarbonization. It is vital to uncover the contributing causes of emissions to provide strategic oversight for carbon management activities. This study investigates key drivers of CO₂ emissions from the power sector using the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index decomposition method. While efficiency improvement contributes to sustainable yet minor mitigation, changes in the fossil-fuel share indicate a cycling but significant overall impact.     

Compiler compatible 5.66 Mb/mm2 8T 1R1W register file in 14 nm FinFET technology

1-read/1-write (1R1W) register file (RF) is a popular memory configuration in modern feature rich SoCs requiring significant amount of embedded memory. A memory compiler is constructed using the 8T RF bitcell spanning a range of instances from 32 b to 72 Kb. An 8T low-leakage bitcell of 0.106 μm² is used in a 14 nm FinFET technology with a 70 nm contacted gate pitch for high-density (HD) two-port (TP) RF memory compiler which achieves 5.66 Mb/mm² array density for a 72 Kb array which is the highest reported density in 14 nm FinFET technology. The density improvement is achieved by using techniques such as leaf-cell optimization (eliminating transistors), better architectural planning, top level connectivity through leaf-cell abutment and minimizing the number of unique leaf-cells. These techniques are fully compatible with memory compiler usage over the required span. Leakage power is minimized by using power-switches without degrading the density mentioned above. Self-induced supply voltage collapse technique is applied for write and a four stack static keeper is used for read Vmin improvement. Fabricated test chips using 14 nm process have demonstrated 2.33 GHz performance at 1.1 V/25 °C operation. Overall V_min of 550 mV is achieved with this design at 25 °C. The inbuilt power-switch improves leakage power by 12x in simulation. Approximately 8% die area of a leading 14 nm SoC in commercialization is occupied by these compiled RF instances.     

An architecture to support scalable distributed virtual environment systems on grid

A Distributed Virtual Environment (DVE) system offers a computer-generated virtual world in which individuals located at different places in the physical world can interact with one another. In order to achieve real-time response for a large user base, DVE systems need to have a scalable architecture. In this paper, we present the design of a grid-enabled service oriented framework for facilitating the construction of scalable DVE systems on computing grids. A service component called “gamelet” is proposed, whose distinctive mark is its high mobility for supporting dynamic load sharing. We propose a gamelet migration protocol which can ensure the transparency and efficiency of gamelet migration, and an adaptive gamelet load-balancing (AGLB) algorithm for making gamelet redistribution decisions at runtime. The algorithm considers both the synchronization costs of the DVE system and network latencies inherent in the grid nodes. The activities of the users and the heterogeneity of grid resources are also considered in order to carry out load sharing more effectively. We evaluate the performance of the proposed mechanisms through a multiplayer online game prototype implemented using the Globus toolkit. The results show that our approach can achieve faster response times and higher throughputs than some existing approaches. This research is supported in part by the China National Grid project (863 program) and the HKU Foundation Seed Grant 28506002.     

中国首例缓倾铋铜金矿脉--曙光(小西南岔)铜金矿床研究新进展

据现场深入研究，结合多年生产实践，首次系统地描述了小西南岔矿床北山矿段缓倾斜铋铜金支矿脉的地质产状、规模、铜和金品位、自然铋与自然金的交生关系。在此基础上，进一步阐述了缓倾铋铜金矿脉对理论、应用研究及矿山确保铜和金入选品位的重要意义。     

网格资源管理系统模型研究

网格资源管理系统是网格计算系统的重要组成部分。文章分析了网格资源管理系统的功能需求，具体论述了该模型的原型系统，最后介绍了相关研究工作。     

面向应用的无线传感器网络

结合具体的应用环境分析了无线传感器网络发展到第二阶段需要考虑的重点问题；探讨了基于上述应用需求的无线传感器网络的协议栈结构和今后的研究方向。     

加强电站无功管理

加强电站无功管理，不但能改善供电质量，满足电网的要求，提高单位的经济效益，而且使设备的安全运行得到了保障。     

用MATLAB进行三相交-交变频电源的仿真设计

三相交－交变频电源在低频拖动控制中有广泛的应用，通过晶闸管设计的静止式变频电源具有效率高，无噪声的优点，但却存在设计复杂、成本高，高速困难等缺点，而利用MATLAB软件中的Simlink仿真工具来实现三相交－交变频电源的仿真设计和分析，能做到省时，省成本，易于操作，在静止式变频电源设计中有很好的使用价值。采用MATLAB仿真工具完成了一个全数字控制的三相交－交变频电源的设计。     

Joint scheduling and power control supporting multicasting in wireless ad hoc networks

This paper addresses the problem of power control in a multihop wireless network supporting multicast traffic. We face the problem of forwarding packet traffic to multicast group members while meeting constraints on the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) at the intended receivers. First, we present a distributed algorithm which, given the set of multicast senders and their corresponding receivers, provides an optimal solution when it exists, which minimizes the total transmit power. When no optimal solution can be found for the given set of multicast senders and receivers, we introduce a distributed, joint scheduling and power control algorithm which eliminates the weak connections and tries to maximize the number of successful multicast transmissions. The algorithm allows the other senders to solve the power control problem and minimize the total transmit power. We show that our distributed algorithm converges to the optimal solution when it exists, and performs close to centralized, heuristic algorithms that have been proposed to address the joint scheduling and power control problem.