An Analytical Approach to the Concept of Counter-UA Operations (CUAOPS)

Unmanned Aircraft (UA) have become an integral part of the present-day joint air operations. UA have potential to be employed across the full spectrum of Air Force functions. On the other hand, UA technology could be a subject of an asymmetric use by state actors in high or low density conflict, and/or by non-state actors in many ways including terrorism, drug smuggling, and limited attack with unconventional payloads i.e. biological or chemical agents. Therefore countering the threat associated with the hostile UA use could be necessary in the future. First part of the research revealed that UA can be a threat in the future. In the second part of the research, the SWOT (Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats) analysis supplemented with the Tree analysis (SWOT+Tree) provided a broader look for investigating the factors related to hostile UA use analytically. In literature, there is little information about the concepts for CUAOPS. The final goal of the paper is to find possible solutions and means for a better understanding of the nature of CUAOPS.     

Towards occupant-centric simulation-aided building design: a case study

ABSTRACT

This paper aims at illustrating the importance of occupant modelling for decision-making during the building design process. It identifies the energy implications of conventional ways of modelling occupants for the design of office buildings. Furthermore, it presents a step towards bridging the gap between the research efforts and conventional practices within the field of building performance simulation (BPS) aided design. The paper first describes occupant-related assumptions that were made during the design process of a case study office building, obtained via stakeholder interviews. Then, the impact of these assumptions on the design decisions is examined through a simulation-based investigation. The stakeholder interviews revealed that professionals from each design discipline made significantly different assumptions about occupants. The simulation results showed that assumptions about occupants and their behaviour impacted predicted energy savings of some design decisions by a factor of five or more.     

Evaluation of pre-treatment processes for HRS (hot rolled steel) in powder coating

Hot rolled steel (HRS) is used extensively in the automotive, agricultural and appliance industries. The corrosive response of HRS was investigated after it had been exposed to various surface treatments, prior to powder coating. The behaviour of three conversion coatings: zinc phosphate (ZnP), iron phosphate (FeP) and zirconium (Zr)-based nano-scaled, on HRS was studied. HRS is naturally covered with iron oxide scale and this was removed from the surface by mechanical and chemical processes, prior to the application of surface treatment and organic coatings. The following tests on differently treated panels were conducted to evaluate corrosion performance: adhesion tests such as, crosshatch, pull-off, and conical bending, SEM, XPS, salt spray and electro-chemical impedance studies were also performed. Good correlations were recorded showing that zinc phosphate conversion coating gave the best performance, and zirconium-based nano-structured conversion coating, was superior to that of iron phosphate conversion coatings on HRS.     

Heat pipes thermoelectric solar collectors for energy applications

This study investigates the load characteristics of heat pipe thermoelectric solar collector (HPTSC) in practice. Heat pipe thermoelectric solar collector converts the heat generated by the Sun directly into electrical energy and produces hot water as well. The maximum power in HPTSC is obtained when the internal resistance of the thermoelectric module is equal to the load resistance. It has been observed to be possible to produce both hot water and electricity by improving available solar collectors or producing new generation HPTSC. While it is possible to generate an electrical power of 160 W from a HPTSC of one square meter using the thermoelectric method, the power produced with an average photovoltaic panel with the same area is only 132 W. Accordingly, HPTSC is a superior alternative not only to available solar collectors, but also to available PV panels. HPTSC, involving three different technologies, is environmentally friendly and certainly a product that allows for more efficient use of solar energy.     

Evaluation of counterions for electrospray ionization mass spectral analysis of a highly sulfated carbohydrate,sucrose octasulfate

A systematic approach was used to evaluate the electrospray ionization mass spectral (ESI-MS) analysis of sucrose octasulfate (SOS), an important pharmaceutical agent. SOS represents a model for other suffated carbohydrates, such as heparin and glycosaminoglycan-derived oligosaccharides that also are highly sulfated and pose difficult analytical problems. A survey of ammonium counterions showed that 1 degree, 2 degrees, and 3 degrees ammonium salts of SOS gave substantial fragmentation as a result of sulfate loss. In contrast, quaternary ammonium and phosphonium salts gave excellent ESI spectra, particularly in the positive ion mode. This represents the first report of the ESI-MS analysis of sulfated carbohydrates in the positive ion mode.     

穆格莱德盆地A区块构造特征对油气分布的影响

由于穆格莱德盆地A区块构造位置特殊、断裂特征复杂、构造样式多,现有的研究成果不能满足A区块勘探、开发需求。为此,对研究区重新划分构造分区、深入研究断裂活动期次、对比不同构造单元之间活动差异性、恢复构造演化史,并分析构造演化与油气成藏的关系。结果表明：①A区块构造演化过程经历前裂谷期、同裂谷期和后裂谷期,同裂谷期又进一步划分为三个构造阶段,即早白垩世—晚白垩世、晚白垩世—古新世、始新世—上新世,分别控制烃源岩、构造圈闭、油气分布。②A区块从东向西可以划分为继承稳定型和持续活动型两种构造分区。前者以凯康东部斜坡和凯康西部斜坡为典型,在演化阶段构造活动强度具有“强—强—弱”的特征;后者以凯康槽为典型,在演化阶段构造活动强度具有“强—强—最强”的特征。③A区块存在“断裂活动减弱型深层”和“断裂活动持续型的晚期调整多层系”两种油气成藏模式。前者多见于凯康东部斜坡和凯康西部斜坡,后者常见于凯康槽。上述认识对类似地质条件盆地的油气勘探具有参考价值。     

Conducting banding analysis with trained networks of sigmoid units

Berkeley et al. (1995, Connection Science, 7: 167–186) introduced a novel technique for analysing the hidden units of connectionist networks that had been trained using the backpropagation learning procedure. The literature concerning banding analysis is equivocal with respect to the kinds of processing units this technique can be used on. In this paper, it will be shown that, contrary to the claims in some published sources, banding analysis can be conducted on networks that use standard processing units that have a sigmoid activation function. The analytic process is then illustrated and the potential benefits of this kind of technique are discussed.     

Room-Temperature Mid-, and Far-Infrared Absorption and Electrical Properties of Intercalated GaSe and TlInS<Subscript>2</Subscript> Crystals

We report room-temperature measurements of the mid- and far-IR absorption throughout the 400 – 4000 cm^?1 and 10 – 700 cm^?1 spectral ranges and the resistivity of layered p-GaSe and p-TlInS2 intercalated with Li⁺. Intercalation was performed by immersing Bridgman grown crystals in 0.5 M solutions of LiCl in distilled water at ambient conditions. The crystal structure and the stoichiometry of the grown crystals were determined by X-ray diffraction and XRF methods. It is shown that intercalation does not change the frequency of the IR-, and Raman active low-frequency“rigid layer” mode (GaSe), the space symmetry group or the lattice parameters of the crystals. It was found that for both crystals, the resistivity versus time dependencies are nearly the same. Three ranges in the resistivity-intercalation time dependencies were explained qualitatively. The resistivity increase due to intercalation was explained by assuming that the intercalated lithium ions act as ionized donors and compensate the host p-type crystal. The highest degree of compensation for GaSe and TlInS₂ crystals was achieved after intercalation during 12 and 10 days, respectively.     

Buckling lengths of irregular frame columns

In several design codes and specifications, simplified formulae and diagrams are given for determining the buckling lengths of frame columns. It is shown that these formulae may yield rather erroneous results, especially for irregular frames. This is due to the fact that the code formulae utilise only local stiffness distributions. In this paper, a simplified procedure for determining approximate values for the buckling loads of both regular and irregular frames is developed. The procedure utilises lateral load analysis of frames and yields errors on the order of 5%, which may be considered suitable for design purposes. The proposed procedure is applied to several numerical examples and it is shown that all the errors are in the acceptable range and on the safe side.     

Effect of fiber orientation on viscoelastic properties of polymer matrix composites subjected to thermal cycles

Fibers in polymer composites can be designed in various orientations for their usage in service life. Various fiber orientated polymer composites, which are used in aeroplane and aerospace applications, are frequently subjected to thermal cycles because of the changes in body temperatures at a range of −60 to 150°C during flights. It is an important subject to investigate the visco‐elastic properties of the thermal cycled polymer composite materials which have various fiber orientations during service life. Continuous fiber reinforced composites with a various fiber orientations are subjected to 1,000 thermal cycles between the temperatures of 0 and 100°C. Dynamic mechanic thermal analysis (DMTA) experiments are carried out by TA Q800 type equipment. The changes in glass transition temperature (T_g), storage modulus (E′), loss modulus (E′′) and loss factor (tan δ) are inspected as a function of thermal cycles for different fiber orientations. It was observed that thermal and dynamic mechanical properties of the polymer composites were remarkably changed by thermal cycles. It was also determined that the composites with [45°/−45°]_s fiber orientation presented the lowest dynamic mechanical properties. POLYM. COMPOS., 2010. © 2009 Society of Plastics Engineers