Personal Exposure in Displacement Ventilated Rooms

Personal exposure in a displacement ventilated room is examined. The stratified flow and the considerable concentration gradients necessitate an improvement of the widely used fully mixing compartmental approach. The exposure of a seated and a standing person in proportion to the stratification height is examined by means of full-scale measurements. A breathing thermal manikin is used to simulate a person. It is found that the flow in the boundary layer around a person is able to a great extent to entrain and transport air from below the breathing zone. In the case of non-passive, heated contaminant sources, this entrainment improves the indoor air quality. Measurements of exposure due to a passive contaminant source show a significant dependence on the flow field as well as on the contaminant source location. Poor system performance is found in the case of a passive contaminant released in the lower part of the room close to the occupant. A personal exposure model for displacement ventilated rooms is proposed. The model takes the influence of gradients and the human thermal boundary layer into account. Two new quantities describing the interaction between a person and the ventilation are defined.     

An algorithm for the three-dimensional packing problem with asymptotic performance analysis

The three-dimensional packing problem can be stated as follows. Given a list of boxes, each with a given length, width, and height, the problem is to pack these boxes into a rectangular box of fixed-size bottom and unbounded height, so that the height of this packing is minimized. The boxes have to be packed orthogonally and oriented in all three dimensions. We present an approximation algorithm for this problem and show that its asymptotic performance bound is between 2.5 and 2.67. This result answers a question raised by Li and Cheng [5] about the existence of an algorithm for this problem with an asymptotic performance bound less than 2.89. This research was partially supported by FAPESP (proc. 93/0603-1) and by CNPq/ProTeM-CC, project ProComb (proc. 680065/94-6).     

Fracture mechanics global approach concepts applied to creep slow crack growth in a medium density polyethylene (MDPE)

Creep fracture by slow crack growth is studied in a medium density polyethylene at 60 °C and 80 °C. Whereas elastic-plastic fracture mechanics load parameters fail to provide a unique temperature-independent correlation, that of the fracture mechanics for creeping solids C^∗ is proved to be relevant since this parameter correlates very well with the time to failure. Correlation established on both full notched creep tensile and double edge notched tensile tests was validated on cracked gas-pipe samples tested under hydrostatic pressure, extending the use of time to failure versus C^∗ diagram to predict lifetime of engineering components.     

Tributary use and large-scale movements of grass carp in Lake Erie

Infrequent captures of invasive, non-native grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) have occurred in Lake Erie over the last 30+ years, with recent evidence suggesting wild reproduction in the lake’s western basin (WB) is occurring. Information on grass carp movements in the Laurentian Great Lakes is lacking, but an improved understanding of large-scale movements and potential areas of aggregation will help inform control strategies and risk assessment if grass carp spread to other parts of Lake Erie and other Great Lakes. Twenty-three grass carp captured in Lake Erie’s WB were implanted with acoustic transmitters and released. Movements were monitored with acoustic receivers deployed throughout Lake Erie and elsewhere in the Great Lakes. Grass carp dispersed up to 236 km, with approximately 25% of fish dispersing greater than 100 km from their release location. Mean daily movements ranged from <0.01 to 2.49 km/day, with the highest daily averages occurring in the spring and summer. The Sandusky, Detroit, and Maumee Rivers, and Plum Creek were the most heavily used WB tributaries. Seventeen percent of grass carp moved into Lake Erie’s central or eastern basins, although all fish eventually returned to the WB. One fish emigrated from Lake Erie through the Huron-Erie Corridor and into Lake Huron. Based on our results, past assessments may have underestimated the potential for grass carp to spread in the Great Lakes. We recommend focusing grass carp control efforts on Sandusky River and Plum Creek given their high use by tagged fish, and secondarily on Maumee and Detroit Rivers.     

基于极限学习机的堤防工程多元风险指标评价方法

为提高堤防工程风险评价的准确性,提出了基于极限学习机的堤防工程多元风险指标评价方法。首先,综合考虑影响堤防风险的28个评价指标,利用层次分析法从预警系统、堤防工程系统、环境系统和社会经济系统这4个方面建立了堤防工程多元风险评价指标体系。接着,基于极限学习机算法对28个指标进行标准化处理及分级标准构建,以风险指标作为输入量,分级隶属度作为输出量,划分风险等级,量化评价指标,估计多元风险评价指标值和判断风险的严重程度。最后,依托鄱阳湖重点堤防——康山大堤,构建多元风险评价指标体系,运用极限学习机算法计算多元风险评价指标值。评价结果表明:康山大堤目前处于基本安全水平,符合康山大堤经过两次加固后的工程实际情况,并与其他方法进行对比,验证了提出方法的可靠性和有效性。该方法可拓展应用到其他重要水工结构工程风险评估中。     

电力工程中的地质灾害危险性评估

我国幅员辽阔,地质环境条件多样且复杂,导致了地质灾害发育强烈,种类繁多、危害较大。地质灾害与工程建设活动密切相关,既相互作用,相互依存,又相互影响[1]。电力工程项目遍布全国,特别是输电线路大多为人烟稀少的山区分布,线路长,跨越的地质地貌区域复杂,存在的地质灾害多种多样,或多或少面临着各种地质灾害的严重威胁[2]。通过电力工程地质灾害危险性评估工作的现状及评估工作流程的介绍,进一步分析电力工程地质灾害的危险性评估工作中存在的问题并提出了相应的看法。     

Fast calculation of computer generated hologram based on single Fourier transform for holographic three-dimensional display

We present an efficient method for the fast calculation of computer generated hologram (CGH). The 3D object is split into sub-layers according to its depth information. A 2D all-in-focus image is generated by sequential tiling all the layers in one plane. A Fourier hologram that contains all the information of 3D object is calculated from the fast Fourier transform (FFT) of the reassembled 2D image. By multiplying a pre-calculated multifocal off-axis digital phase mask (DPM) to the Fourier hologram, the content of each layer is axially relocated to different depth in the Fourier transform optical system to reconstruct the 3D object. The computation speed of the proposed method is greatly improved with only single FFT calculation process. Both of simulation and experimental results proves the validation of the proposed method.     

No-reference stereoscopic image quality assessment using quaternion wavelet transform and heterogeneous ensemble learning

As the demand for high-quality stereo images has grown in recent years, stereoscopic image quality assessment (SIQA) has become an important research area in modern image processing technology.In this paper, we propose a no-reference stereoscopic image quality assessment (NR-SIQA) model using heterogeneous ensemble learning ‘quality-aware’ features from luminance image, chrominance image, disparity and cyclopean images via quaternion wavelet transform (QWT). Firstly, luminance image and chrominance image are generated by CIELAB color space as monocular perception, and the novel disparity and cyclopean images are utilized to complement with monocular information. Then, a number of ‘quality-aware’ features in the quaternion wavelet domain are discovered, including entropy, texture features, energy features, energy differences features and MSCN coefficients of high frequency sub-band. Finally, a heterogeneous ensemble model via support vector regression (SVR) & extreme learning machine (ELM) & random forest (RF) is proposed to predict quality score, and bootstrap sampling and rotated feature space are used to increase the diversity of data distribution. Comparing with the state-of-the-art NR-SIQA models, experimental results on four public databases prove the accuracy and robustness of the proposed model.     

Maximizing learning without sacrificing the fun: Stealth assessment,adaptivity and learning supports in educational games

In this study, we investigated the validity of a stealth assessment of physics understanding in an educational game, as well as the effectiveness of different game-level delivery methods and various in-game supports on learning. Using a game called Physics Playground, we randomly assigned 263 ninth- to eleventh-grade students into four groups: adaptive, linear, free choice and no-treatment control. Each condition had access to the same in-game learning supports during gameplay. Results showed that: (a) the stealth assessment estimates of physics understanding were valid—significantly correlating with the external physics test scores; (b) there was no significant effect of game-level delivery method on students' learning; and (c) physics animations were the most effective (among eight supports tested) in predicting both learning outcome and in-game performance (e.g. number of game levels solved). We included student enjoyment, gender and ethnicity in our analyses as moderators to further investigate the research questions.     

基于SPOT-5多光谱影像的矿区塌塘水体提取方法研究

针对基于遥感影像的水体提取方法存在水体提取不完整和误提的现象,提出了一种基于SPOT-5多光谱影像的矿区塌塘水体提取方法。在利用波段合成增加一个可用波段的基础上对已有的水体提取方法进行适当的改进,并基于决策树分类器和改进后的方法进行矿区水体的四级提取,保证了水体提取的完整性,同时减少了误提率;最后利用实测数据对水体提取的精度进行了评定。试验结果表明,基于决策树分类器的水体提取方法具有较高的精度,能满足矿区实际应用的需要。