Influence of Reinforcement Content and Matrix Composition on the Oxidation Resistance of Aluminum-Matrix Composites (A3xx.x/SiCp)

A study was made on the influence of the SiCp proportion and the matrix concentration of four composites (A360/SiC/10p, A360/SiC/20p, A380/SiC/10p, A380/SiC/20p) on their oxidation behavior. Gravimetric tests were used in a kinetics study of the corrosion process at different temperatures (350, 400, 450, and 500°C). The influence of corrosion on mechanical properties was evaluated by hardness measurements. The nature of corrosion products and the influence of the microstructure on the morphology and growth of the oxidation layer were analyzed by SEM and low-angle XRD. The extent of the damage due to oxidation for Al/SiCp composites increases with the SiCp concentration due to the increase of nucleation sites. One of these nucleation sites is in the interface region between the matrix and the particles. Oxidation was influenced more by the percentage of alloy elements in the matrix than by the proportion of SiCp reinforcement. The presence of Cu and Ni in the matrix favors the oxidation process through the formation of different intermetallic compounds.     

Dual–primal proximal point algorithms for extended convex programming

This paper presents a class of dual–primal proximal point algorithms (PPAs) for extended convex programming with linear constraints. By choosing appropriate proximal regularization matrices, the application of the general PPA to the equivalent variational inequality of the extended convex programming with linear constraints can result in easy proximal subproblems. In theory, the sequence generated by the general PPA may fail to converge since the proximal regularization matrix is asymmetric sometimes. So we construct descent directions derived from the solution obtained by the general PPA. Different step lengths and descent directions are chosen with the negligible additional computational load. The global convergence of the new algorithms is proved easily based on the fact that the sequences generated are Fejér monotone. Furthermore, we provide a simple proof for the O(1/t) convergence rate of these algorithms.     

A new high accuracy method for two-dimensional biharmonic equation with nonlinear third derivative terms: application to Navier–Stokes equations of motion

In this paper, we propose a new compact fourth-order accurate method for solving the two-dimensional fourth-order elliptic boundary value problem with third-order nonlinear derivative terms. We use only 9-point single computational cell in the scheme. The proposed method is then employed to solve Navier–Stokes equations of motion in terms of streamfunction–velocity formulation, and the lid-driven square cavity problem. We describe the derivation of the method in details and also discuss how our streamfunction–velocity formulation is able to handle boundary conditions in terms of normal derivatives. Numerical results show that the proposed method enables us to obtain oscillation-free high accuracy solution.     

Assessing the effects of gamification in the classroom: A longitudinal study on intrinsic motivation,social comparison,satisfaction, effort,and academic performance

Gamification, the application of game elements to non-game settings, continues to grow in popularity as a method to increase student engagement in the classroom. We tested students across two courses, measuring their motivation, social comparison, effort, satisfaction, learner empowerment, and academic performance at four points during a 16-week semester. One course received a gamified curriculum, featuring a leaderboard and badges, whereas the other course received the same curriculum without the gamified elements. Our results found that students in the gamified course showed less motivation, satisfaction, and empowerment over time than those in the non-gamified class. The effect of course type on students' final exam scores was mediated by students' levels of intrinsic motivation, with students in the gamified course showing less motivation and lower final exam scores than the non-gamified class. This suggests that some care should be taken when applying certain gamification mechanics to educational settings.     

线性时滞系统稳定性分析综述

时滞在工程领域广泛存在,对此综述了线性时滞系统的稳定性研究方法.从频域和时域两个角度详细介绍了各种方法的特点,着重讨论基于线性矩阵不等式(LMI)的分析方法,指出保守性是分析的重点.对现有结果的保守性进行比较和评述,并提出了改进的思路.     

Exponential stability for uncertain neutral systems with Markov jumps

This paper deals with the global exponential stability problems for stochastic neutral Markov jump systems （MJSs） with uncertain parameters and multiple time-delays. The delays are respectively considered as constant and time varying cases, and the uncertainties are assumed to be norm bounded. By selecting appropriate Lyapunov-Krasovskii functions, it gives the sufficient condition such that the uncertain neutral MJSs are globally exponentially stochastically stable for all admissible uncertainties. The stability criteria are formulated in the form of linear matrix inequalities （LMIs）, which can be easily checked in practice. Finally, two numerical examples are exploited to illustrate the effectiveness of the developed techniques.     

Stability analysis of neutral systems with distributed delays

The stability of neutral systems with distributed delays is investigated in this paper. A modified Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional is constructed to study this class of systems. The proposed stability criterion is discrete-, distributed- and neutral-delay-dependent. In addition, by this method one can study the case when the coefficient matrix of the neutral delay term is time-varying uncertain. The reduced conservatism is illustrated in a numerical example.