A neurophysiologically‐based analysis of lightness and brightness perception

Psychophysical, achromatic luminance threshold, and scaling data have been analyzed and found to follow from nonlinear, hyperbolic responses of retinal cones. For short (0.1 s) stimulus duration, a stable state of visual adaptation could explain the threshold response, but for longer durations a change of adaptation had to be considered. This resulted in a contrast sensitivity that increased when the stimulus duration increased and became constant for higher test field luminances. Threshold and scaling data can thus be traced back to cone‐specific responses over a much larger range of stimulus intensity than has been anticipated earlier. The experimental results, including those for lightness and brightness scaling, have been compared with the CIELAB and the CIEDE2000 color formulas. The idea of combining cone responses with adaptive changes to describe luminance responses resulted in a common cone‐based response formula for describing both luminance thresholds and scaling data. Adaptive changes explain the reason why both Weber–Fechner and Stevens’ laws are valid. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 41, 339–351, 2016     

On the relationship between wavelength and perceived hue

Unlike in the case of sound where there is a compressed but straightforward relationship between frequency of sound waves and the perceived pitch, in the case of color the relationship is highly nonlinear, as first pointed out by Ostwald in 1916. In this article, the relationship between the perceptual Munsell hue scale and the related dominant wavelengths of the color chips involved is investigated. A hypothesis is proposed according to which the immediate cause of the nonlinearity can be found in the relative activation of the kinds of chromatically opponent functions shown to exist in neurons of the lateral geniculate nuclei. However, at this time, the relationship is only correlational, given the lack of deeper understanding of the relationship between the physiological operation of the color vision system and conscious experiences of color. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 2011;     

The orbital minimization method for electronic structure calculations with finite-range atomic basis sets

The implementation of the orbital minimization method (OMM) for solving the self-consistent Kohn–Sham (KS) problem for electronic structure calculations in a basis of non-orthogonal numerical atomic orbitals of finite-range is reported. We explore the possibilities for using the OMM as an exact cubic-scaling solver for the KS problem, and compare its performance with that of explicit diagonalization in realistic systems. We analyze the efficiency of the method depending on the choice of line search algorithm and on two free parameters, the scale of the kinetic energy preconditioning and the eigenspectrum shift. The results of several timing tests are then discussed, showing that the OMM can achieve a noticeable speedup with respect to diagonalization even for minimal basis sets for which the number of occupied eigenstates represents a significant fraction of the total basis size (>15%). We investigate the hard and soft parallel scaling of the method on multiple cores, finding a performance equal to or better than diagonalization depending on the details of the OMM implementation. Finally, we discuss the possibility of making use of the natural sparsity of the operator matrices for this type of basis, leading to a method that scales linearly with basis size.     

An approach for measuring the FRF of machine tool structure without knowing any input force

Measuring the dynamics of a machine tool is important for improving its processing or design. In general, the dynamics of the machine tool structure is identified by the experimental modal analysis approaches that require the measurement of both the input loadings and the corresponding structural responses. However, the primary limitation for this method is that the input loadings are difficult or impossible to be measured when the machine tool is under operational conditions. In this paper, a method that is based on random decrement technology was used to identify the operational modal parameters of a machine tool without the knowledge of any of the inputs. To estimate the frequency response functions, FRFs, a structural change method was proposed. The approach is based on the sensitivity of the eigenproperties to structural modifications caused by the drive positions. The proposed method was verified experimentally by traditional hammer tests. Because no elaborate excitation equipment is used, the dynamics of the machine tool structure with arbitrarily feed rate or working position can be easily identified using the proposed active excitation modal analysis method.     

加热速度对冷轧双相钢组织性能的影响

通过模拟连续退火研究了不同加热速度对冷轧双相钢组织性能的影响。研究发现,快速加热可以明显地细化晶粒,但组织的遗传性导致微观组织中有不同程度的带状组织,材料的加热速度不宜超过100℃/s;材料的加工硬化速率及加工硬化指数对冷速的增加呈规律变化。     

Design and Analysis of Experiments on Nonconvex Regions

Modeling a response over a nonconvex design region is a common problem in diverse areas such as engineering and geophysics. The tools available to model and design for such responses are limited and have received little attention. We propose a new method for selecting design points over nonconvex regions that is based on the application of multidimensional scaling to the geodesic distance. Optimal designs for prediction are described, with special emphasis on Gaussian process models, followed by a simulation study and an application in glaciology. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.     

Dynamic modelling of PEM fuel cell system for simulation and sizing of marine power systems

This article presents a model of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) system for marine power systems. PEMFC in marine hybrid power sources can have various power ranges and capacities in contrast with vehicle applications. Investigating PEMFCs behaviour and performance for various conditions and configurations is demanded for proper sizing and feasibility studies. Hence, modelling and simulation facilitate understanding the performance of the PEMFC behaviour with various sizes and configurations in power systems. The developed model in this work has a system level fidelity with real time capabilities, which can be utilized for simulator approaches besides quasi-static studies with a power-efficiency curve. Moreover, the model can be used for scaling the PEMFC power range by considering transient responses and corresponding efficiencies. The Bond graph approach as a multi-disciplinary energy based modelling strategy is employed for the PEMFC as a multi domains system. In the end, various PEMFC cell numbers and compressor sizes have been compared with power-efficiency curves and transient responses in a benchmark.     

Flame morphology and self-acceleration of syngas spherically expanding flames

The self-acceleration of spherically expanding flames were investigated using a constant volume combustion chamber for CO/H₂/O₂/N₂ mixtures over a wide range of initial pressure from 0.2 to 0.6 MPa, CO/H₂ ratio from 50/50 to 10/90 and equivalence ratio from 0.4 to 1.5. The adiabatic flame temperature was kept constant by adjusting O₂/N₂ ratio at different equivalence ratios. Schlieren images were recorded to investigate the flame front evolution of spherically expanding flames. Local acceleration exponents were extracted using a proper equation to study the process of flame self-acceleration. Results show that the flame cells develop on the smooth flame fronts and finally reach fractal-like structures due to the hydrodynamic and diffusional-thermal instabilities, resulting in flame self-accelerative propagation. The critical Peclet number corresponding to the onset of self-acceleration, Pe_cr increases nonlinearly with the Markstein length, Ma. The observation further reveals that the onset of self-acceleration is mainly controlled by the diffusional-thermal effect. There exists two distinct flame propagation regimes in the self-acceleration, namely quick transition accelerative and quasi self-similar accelerative regimes. The quick transition regime is controlled by the destabilization effect of hydrodynamic perturbation and stabilization effect of flame stretch. While the quasi self-similar regime is primarily affected by the cascading process of flame front cells controlled by hydrodynamic instability. The self-similar acceleration exponent, α_s varies with the initial pressure and Lewis number, Le. The values of α_s are measured to be 1.1–1.25 (smaller than 1.5), indicating the flame dose not attain self-turbulization.     

MCMC algorithms for Subset Simulation

Subset Simulation is an adaptive simulation method that efficiently solves structural reliability problems with many random variables. The method requires sampling from conditional distributions, which is achieved through Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms. This paper discusses different MCMC algorithms proposed for Subset Simulation and introduces a novel approach for MCMC sampling in the standard normal space. Two variants of the algorithm are proposed: a basic variant, which is simpler than existing algorithms with equal accuracy and efficiency, and a more efficient variant with adaptive scaling. It is demonstrated that the proposed algorithm improves the accuracy of Subset Simulation, without the need for additional model evaluations.