On‐Line Detection Of State‐Of‐Charge In Lead Acid Battery Using Radial Basis Function Neural Network

To realize a stable supply of electric power in an automobile, an accurate and reliable detection method of SOC (state‐of‐charge) in a lead acid battery is required. However the dynamics of the battery is very complicated. The characteristics of the battery greatly change due to its degradation. Moreover a automobile has many driving patterns, which are unknown beforehand. Thus it is not easy to detect the SOC analytically. In this paper, to overcome this problem, a new on‐line SOC detection method with a radial basis function neural network is proposed. In order to increase the detection accuracy of degraded batteries, physical values related to the degradation degree are used as input signal in the neural network. The detection accuracies for different sized batteries and various degradation states are investigated.     

Relationship between seizure frequency and costs and quality of life of outpatients with partial epilepsy in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom

PURPOSE: The relationship between seizure frequency and both health care costs and quality of life (QOL) was investigated in a retrospective, cross-sectional, multicenter study in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. METHODS: Three hundred outpatients with stable partial epilepsy were approximately evenly distributed among five seizure-frequency groups, ranging from seizure-free in the last 3 months (group 1) to daily seizures (group 5). Economic data, obtained through patient interviews and record abstraction, comprised direct medical costs, direct nonmedical costs, and indirect costs for the preceding 3 months. Total societal costs in the three countries were pooled and converted to United States dollar equivalents. QOL was assessed through a self-administered questionnaire, the Functional Status Questionnaire (FSQ). RESULTS: Mean total costs increased from $780 in group 1 to $2,171 in group 5 (p = 0.0001), with significant increases in each cost category as seizure frequency increased. Greater seizure frequency also significantly (p = 0.0270) correlated with lower employment rates, which ranged from 57% in group 1 to 30% in group 5. QOL declined as seizure frequency increased. Particularly affected were basic and intermediate activities of daily living (ADL), mental health, social activity, and feeling about health. CONCLUSIONS: The study results show that higher seizure frequencies are associated with higher direct and indirect costs and with reduced QOL for patients with epilepsy.     

A randomized algorithm for natural object colorization

Natural objects often contain vivid color distribution with wide variety of colors. Conventional colorization techniques, on the other hand, produce colors that are relatively flat with little color variation. In this paper, we introduce a randomized algorithm which considers not only the value of target color but also the distribution of target color. In essence, our algorithm paints a color distribution to a region which synthesizes color distribution of a natural object. Our approach models the correlation between intensity and color in HSV color space in terms of H – S, H – V and S – V joint histogram. During the colorization process, we randomly swap and reassign color of a pixel to minimize a cost function that measures color consistency to its neighborhood and intensity‐to‐color correlation captured in the joint histogram. We tested our algorithm extensively on many natural objects and our user study confirms that our results are more vivid and natural compared to results from previous techniques.     

Ergonomics solution for crossing collisions based on field assessment of visual environment at urban intersections in Japan

This paper aims to assess quantitatively the actual visual environment of uncontrolled urban downtown intersections in Japan in relation to frequently occurring crossing collisions and to discuss the safety countermeasures for them. In Field Study 1 dealing with direct visibility, our ultra-wide-angle photograph analysis revealed that most of the right/left-ward visible range at 11 intersections were insufficient to check safety, and the quality of direct visibility was closely associated with causing crossing collisions. The countermeasures to reduce a blind area were determined to be a top priority. In Field Study 2 dealing with indirect visibility, more than half of the 25 traffic convex mirrors had marked shortcomings for preventive safety, and ergonomics guidelines ensuring indirect visibility were proposed for installing traffic convex mirrors. Low-cost/low-technology-oriented countermeasures are highly recommended to obtain clear/sufficient images of crucial information satisfying drivers' requirements on traffic convex mirrors in accordance with those ergonomics guidelines was highly recommended. Crossing collisions could be prevented by improvement of poor direct and indirect visibility.     

网络并行计算平台新架构*

网络并行计算的编程要求设计者对任务的分解、分配及子任务间的交互等问题有更高的技术。给出了在网络并行计算的一种新平台,用户只需提交数据和对它的操作即可。     

Structural approach to nanoscience: a case study of complex and cluster formation in ZnBr2–ZnCl2 melts

Although the melt structure of glass-forming ZnCl₂ has so far been well studied, there exists quite little information on the structural change due to anion-substitution. In the present work, the short-range structure of ZnCl₂–ZnBr₂ mixture melts was analyzed systematically by time-of-flight pulsed neutron diffraction techniques, Raman spectroscopy, molecular orbital calculations, and molecular dynamics simulations. According to radial distribution analysis, it was found that there were tetrahedral structural units of ligand-substituted [ZnCl_nBr_4−n]²⁻ (n=0–4) in these melts, not implying the simple mixing of [ZnCl₄]²⁻ and [ZnBr₄]²⁻ units. Further detailed estimation indicated that the ligand-substituted complex anions were linked with each other by sharing a common anion.     

On the natural structure of thermodynamic potentials and fluxes in the theory of chemically non-reacting binary mixtures

A theory describing the behavior of chemically non-reacting binary mixtures can be based on a detailed formulation of the governing equations for the individual components of the mixture or on treating the mixture as a single homogenized continuous medium. We argue that if we accept that both approaches can be used to describe the behavior of the given mixture, then the requirement on the equivalence of these approaches places restrictions on the possible structure of the internal energy, entropy, Helmholtz potential, and also of the diffusive, energy, and entropy fluxes. (The equivalence of the approaches is understood in the sense that the quantities used in one approach can be interpreted in terms of the quantities used in the other approach and vice versa. Further, both approaches must lead to the same predictions concerning the evolution of the physical system under consideration). In the case of a general chemically non-reacting binary mixture of components at the same temperature, we show that these restrictions can indeed be obtained by purely algebraic manipulations. An important outcome of this analysis is, for example, a general form of the evolution equation for the diffusive flux. The restrictions can be further exploited in the specification of thermodynamically consistent constitutive relations for quantities such as the interaction (drag) force or the Cauchy stress tensor. As an example of the application of the current framework, we derive, among others, a generalization of Fick’s law and we recover several non-trivial results obtained by other techniques. The qualitative features of the derived generalization of Fick’s law are demonstrated by a numerical experiment.     

Mechanisms of reduction in hole concentration in Al-doped 4H-SiC by electron irradiation

From the temperature dependence of the hole concentration in unirradiated lightly Al-doped 4H-SiC epilayers, an Al acceptor with E_V + 0.2 eV, which is an Al atom (Al_Si) at a Si sublattice site, and an unknown deep acceptor with E_V + 0.35 eV are found, where E_V is the top of the valence band. Both the densities are similar. With irradiation of 0.2 MeV electrons the Al acceptor density is reduced, while the unknown deep acceptor density is increased. Judging from the minimum electron energy required to displace a substitutional C atom (C_s) or the Al_Si, the bond between the Al_Si and its nearest neighbor C_s is broken due to the displacement of the C_s by this irradiation. Moreover, the displacement of the C_s results in the creation of a complex (Al_Si-V_C) of Al_Si and a carbon vacancy (V_C), indicating that the possible origin of the deep acceptor with E_V + 0.35 eV is Al_Si-V_C.