Improvement of levitation characteristics in a magnetic bearing system using HTSC‐permanent magnet hybrid structure

Magnetic bearing using pinning force of a permanent magnet and a high‐temperature superconductor has been developed. Additional permanent magnet is introduced to increase the levitation force of the magnetic bearing. In this hybrid magnetic bearing system, levitation force is mainly given by the repulsive force of the permanent magnets, and stability for the lateral direction is given by pinning force of the superconductor. The experimental device is developed. A ring‐type superconductor and a bulk one are examined. Levitation characteristics of the hybrid magnetic bearing are measured. The bulk superconductor shows better characteristics of both levitation and lateral stability than the ring one. Levitation force of the hybrid system becomes about twice as large as that of the nonhybrid one. Although, the repulsive force of the permanent magnet decreases the lateral stability of the system, its influence becomes small by choosing an adequate position of the permanent magnets and the superconductor. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 150(1): 71–77, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.10350     

Development of an undergraduate course – Internet-based instrumentation and control

The objective, strategy, and implementation details of a new undergraduate course, Internet-based Instrumentation and Control, are presented. The course has a companion laboratory that is supported by the National Science Foundation and industry. The combination is offered to senior-level undergraduate engineering students interested in sensing, instrumentation, control, and web programming that want to learn more about the integration of these technologies for solving real-world engineering problems. The course will also be offered to gifted high school seniors with similar interests and can serve as a vehicle to attract them to engineering disciplines. Preliminary assessment of the first offering of the course is encouraging and has shown that the course has achieved success in helping students understand concepts and master basic technologies for developing Internet-based automatic systems.     

Theoretical Investigation of Time Suboptimal Control of Industrial Manipulators Along Specified Paths

A method for the time suboptimal control of an industrial manipulator from an initial position and orientation to a final position and orientation as it moves along a specified path is proposed. Nonlinear system equations that describe the manipulator motion are linearized at each time step along the path. A method which gives the control inputs (joint angular velocities) for time suboptimal control of the manipulator is developed. In the formulation, joint angular velocity and acceleration limitations are also taken into consideration. A six degree of freedom elbow type manipulator is used in numerical examples to verify the method developed.     

The Role of Acceptance and Job Control in Mental Health, Job Satisfaction, and Work Performance.

Acceptance, the willingness to experience thoughts, feelings, and physiological sensations without having to control them or let them determine one's actions, is a major individual determinant of mental health and behavioral effectiveness in a more recent theory of psychopathology. This 2-wave panel study examined the ability of acceptance also to explain mental health, job satisfaction, and performance in the work domain. The authors hypothesized that acceptance would predict these 3 outcomes 1 year later in a sample of customer service center workers in the United Kingdom (N = 412). Results indicated that acceptance predicted mental health and an objective measure of performance over and above job control, negative affectivity, and locus of control. These beneficial effects of having more job control were enhanced when people had higher levels of acceptance. The authors discuss the theoretical and practical relevance of this individual characteristic to occupational health and performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Necessary optimality conditions in a nonsmooth control problem with variable structure

An optimal control problem with nonsmooth performance criterion described by a system of ordinary differential equations is considered. Necessary first-order optimality conditions are obtained.     

Cyclamate intake and cyclohexylamine excretion are not related to male fertility in humans

Cyclamate and its metabolite cyclohexylamine affect male fertility in high dose animal studies, but this affect has not been investigated in epidemiological studies. This paper reports the first epidemiological study designed to investigate the possibility of a relationship between cyclamate and cyclohexylamine and male fertility in humans, in which 405 cases of clinically defined infertility in men and 379 controls were surveyed. Semen evaluation, urine analysis for cyclamate and cyclohexylamine and dietary questionnaires were compared between cases and controls. No evidence was found of a significant association between cyclamate intake and male infertility; neither high cyclamate nor high cyclohexylamine excretion were associated with elevated risk. The lack of association remained after adjusting by age, area of residence, education, total energy intake and other variables. No significant correlations were observed between cyclamate intake, metabolism or excretion, and sperm count and motility. The results demonstrate no effect of cyclamate or cyclohexylamine on male fertility at the present levels of cyclamate consumption.     

陕西南部路基病害分布特征及主要控制因素探讨

在统计分析的基础上,归纳总结了陕西南部各类路基病害的分布特征,并从自然因素和人为因素两个方面分析了各类路基病害发生的主要控制因素。     

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可燃气体在运输、储存、加工和使用过程中，因可燃气体泄漏而形成的气云爆炸事故，常常会造成巨大的人员伤亡和财产损失。研究气云爆炸的特性和威力，可防范事故，减小损失。中采用有限差分方法编制了求解可燃气云爆炸过程的定解方程的数值模拟程序。方程组中的源项由能量均匀加入法处理，爆炸场中的间断问题通过人工黏性模型处理。经开敞空间乙炔——空气气云爆炸实验结果检验，数值计算结果的偏差在13％以内。计算结果表明，气云半径越大，爆炸最大压力和压力增加速率越大；气云爆热越大，爆炸最大压力和压力增加速率越大。     

屏蔽电泵运行中存在问题的分析与改进

对屏蔽电泵在非设计流量下工作存在较大的轴向力不平衡，造成前端轴承磨损严重进行了分析。在不降低效率的情况下，在屏蔽电泵的泵头加入平衡盘使轴向力得到平衡，并取得了满意的效果。     

Symbolic control of visual attention: The role of working memory and attentional control settings.

This study examined how 1 symbol is selected to control the allocation of attention when several symbols appear in the visual field. In Experiments 1-3, the critical target feature was color, and it was found that uninformative central arrows that matched the color of the target were selected and produced unintentional shifts of attention (i.e., involuntary, initiated slowly, producing long-lasting facilitatory effects). Experiment 4 tested whether such selection is the result of an attentional filter or of a competition bias due to a match of incoming information against integrated object representations stored in working memory. Here, the critical feature was shape and color was irrelevant, but matching color arrows were still selected. Thus, features of objects in working memory will bias the selection of symbols in the visual field, and such selected symbols are capable of producing unintentional shifts of attention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)