Equal Strain Consolidation by Vertical Drains

This paper shows the development of a series of closed-form solutions of equal strain consolidation in the presence of a vertical drain with smear and well resistance. Using an approach that considers the effects of both the radial and vertical drainage in a fully coupled fashion, solutions are obtained for the excess pore pressure and the degree of consolidation in the compressible soil subjected to a step- or ramp-loading situation. The closed-form solutions in the present paper may be evaluated in an electronic spreadsheet on a standard personal computer.     

国外有机硅树枝状化合物的应用进展

有机硅树枝状化合物是以Si-O、Si-C、Si-Si等键为骨架，具有三维立体结构类似于树枝形状的化合物。结合当今国外该领域的最新进展系统地介绍了国外有机硅树枝状化合物的最新应用。     

以参加数模竞赛为契机提高学员的综合素质

我院首次参加全国大学生数学建模竞赛就获得了优异成绩。本文总结了去年的一些经验和做法,阐述了通过参加这项活动,从5个方面确实能够提高学员的综合素质;并且为了搞好今年的竞赛工作,介绍了一些具体的做法和措施。     

Transformations in machining. Part 1. enhancement of wavelet transformation neural network (WT-NN) combination with a preprocessor

Properly selected transformation methods obtain the most significant characteristics of metal cutting data efficiently and simplify the classification. Wavelet Transformation (WT) and Neural Networks (NN) combination was used to classify the experimental cutting force data of milling operations previously. Preprocessing (PreP) of the approximation coefficients of the WT is proposed just before the classification by using the Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART2) type NNs. Genetic Algorithm (GA) was used to estimate the weights of each coefficient of the PreP. The WT-PreP-NN (ART2) combination worked at lower vigilances by creating only a few meaningful categories without any errors. The WT-NN (ART2) combination could obtain the same error rate only if very high vigilances are used and many categories are allowed.     

High accuracy path tracking for vehicles in presence of sliding: Application to farm vehicle automatic guidance for agricultural tasks

When designing an accurate automated guidance system for vehicles, a major problem is sliding and pseudo-sliding effects. This is especially the case in agricultural applications, where five-centimetre accuracy with respect to the desired trajectory is required, although the vehicles are moving on slippery ground. It has been established that RTK GPS was a very suitable sensor to achieve automated guidance with such high precision: several control laws have been designed for vehicles equipped with this sensor, and provide the expected guidance accuracy as long as the vehicles do not slide. In previous work, further control developments have been proposed to take sliding into account: guidance accuracy in slippery environments has been shown to be preserved, except transiently at the beginning/end of curves. In this paper, the design of this control law is first recalled and discussed. A Model Predictive Control method is then applied in order to preserve accuracy of guidance even during these curvature transitions. Finally, the overall control scheme is implemented, and improvements with respect to previous guidance laws are demonstrated through full-scale experiments.     

Multifunctional hydrogels that promote osteogenic hMSC differentiation through stimulation and sequestering of BMP2

The extracellular environment controls many cellular activities thereby linking external material cues to internal cell function. By better understanding these processes, synthetic extracellular material niches can be tailored to present cells with highly regulated physical and/or chemical cues that promote or suppress selected cell functions. Here, poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) hydrogels were functionalized with fluvastatin-releasing grafts and growth factor binding heparin domains to enable the dynamic exchange of information between the material and cells from the outside-in and inside-out (i.e., bidirectional signaling). By incorporating a fluvastatin-releasing graft and carefully controlling the dose and temporal release, materials were designed to promote bone morphogenic protein (BMP2) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) production by human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs). When the release of fluvastatin was controlled to occur over 2 weeks, BMP2 and ALP production was increased 2.2-fold and 1.7-fold, respectively, at day 28 compared to hMSCs cultured in the absence of fluvastatin. By introducing a heparin functionality into the gel to sequester and localize the hMSC-produced BMP2, the osteogenic differentiation of hMSCs was further augmented over fluvastatin delivery alone. Osteopontin and core binding factor α1 gene expression was 6-fold and 4-fold greater for hMSCs exposed to fluvastatin in the presence of the heparin functionalities, respectively. These results demonstrate how multifunctional gels that interact with cells in a bidirectional manner can efficiently promote selected cell functions, such as the osteogenic differentiation of hMSCs.     

Response time variability

Response time variability is a new optimization problem with a broad range of applications and a distinctive number of theoretic flavour. The problem occurs whenever events, jobs, clients or products need to be sequenced so as to minimize the variability of time for which they wait for the next turn in obtaining the resources necessary for their advance. The problem has numerous real-life applications. We study its computational complexity, present efficiency, polynomial time algorithms for some cases, and the NP-hardness proof for a general problem. We propose a position exchange heuristic and apply it to improve the total response time variability of an initial sequence. The latter is the optimum bottleneck sequence, Webster or Jefferson sequence of the apportionment, or a random sequence. We report on computational experiments with the heuristic.     

Aspen plus软件及其在燃煤发电工程中的应用

介绍了ASPEN PLUS软件的基本流程模拟和功能。结合该软件在我国燃煤发电工程中的应用．指出了该软件的应用方向，为燃煤发电工程的研究和技术的应用提供参考。