Characterization of poly(vinyl pyrrolidone‐co‐isobutylstyryl polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane) nanocomposites

Poly(vinyl pyrrolidone‐co‐isobutyl styryl polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane)s (PVP–POSS) were synthesized by one‐step polymerization and characterized using FTIR, high‐resolution ¹H‐NMR, solid‐state ¹³C‐NMR, ²⁹Si‐NMR, GPC, and DSC. The POSS content can be controlled by varying the POSS feed ratio. The T_g of the PVP–POSS hybrid is influenced by three main factors: (1) a diluent role of the POSS in reducing the self‐association of the PVP; (2) a strong interaction between the POSS siloxane and the PVP carbonyl, and (3) physical aggregation of nanosized POSS. At a relatively low POSS content, the role as diluent dominates, resulting in a decrease in T_g. At a relatively high POSS content, the last two factors dominate and result in T_g increase of the PVP–POSS hybrid. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 91: 2208–2215, 2004     

Measuring virtual experience in a three-dimensional virtual reality interactive simulator environment: a structural equation modeling approach

With the rapid development of the VR market, virtual experience has increasingly been the object of study in recent years. A growing number of studies have reported the positive effect that virtual experience can have on a user’s mood and loyalty. However, few studies have investigated the influence of the mechanism of virtual experience on users’ mood and loyalty. To compensate for this research gap, this study aims to evaluate consumers’ virtual experience by examining the flow state in a virtual environment. A total of 368 valid questionnaires were collected, and a structural equation modeling approach was employed in the data analysis. The study reveals that forming flow involves many factors: the intrinsic characteristics of the mediated environment, the consumer’s assumptions and perceptions prior to entering the flow state, the stage at which the customer enters the flow state, and the consequences of the flow experience.     

An expert system for fault diagnosis in internal combustion engines using probability neural network

An expert system for fault diagnosis in internal combustion engines using adaptive order tracking technique and artificial neural networks is presented in this paper. The proposed system can be divided into two parts. In the first stage, the engine sound emission signals are recorded and treated as the tracking of frequency-varying bandpass signals. Ordered amplitudes can be calculated with a high-resolution adaptive filter algorithm. The vital features of signals with various fault conditions are obtained and displayed clearly by order figures. Then the sound energy diagram is utilized to normalize the features and reduce computation quantity. In the second stage, the artificial neural network is used to train the signal features and engine fault conditions. In order to verify the effect of the proposed probability neural network (PNN) in fault diagnosis, two conventional neural networks that included the back-propagation (BP) network and radial-basic function (RBF) network are compared with the proposed PNN network. The experimental results indicated that the proposed PNN network achieved the best performance in the present fault diagnosis system.     

Optimal expansion of competence sets with multilevel skills

The purpose of competence set expansion is to find an optimal expansion process at the minimal cost and then obtain the required competence set from the acquired competence set to solve a problem. Several models have been proposed to address the competence set expansion problem of only a single decision maker or multiple decision makers without considering multilevel skills. However, a practical competence set expansion model should involve multiple decision makers and multilevel skills. This study discusses an optimal expansion model of incorporating competence sets of group decision makers with multilevel skills. The proposed method not only obtains the optimal competence set expansion of all decision makers with the maximal total benefit but finds all optimal alternatives of the competence set expansion model. A cooperative alliance problem is solved to illustrate the usefulness of the proposed method.     

IP／DWDM光因特网中一种基于人工免疫算法的QOS组播路由算法

本文提出了一种IP／DWDM光因特网中基于人工免疫算法的QoS组播路由算法，当QoS组播请求和需求区间给定时，能够找到一棵基于QoS的柔性费用近优组播路由树。该算法基于人工免疫算法构造QoS组播路由树，并基于波长图对树进行波长分配，将路由和波长分配集成到一个过程中，同时考虑了负载平衡。仿真结果表明，算法为IP／DWDM光因特网中的组播应用构造的QoS组播路由树是可行和有效的。     

Identification of tuna species by a real-time polymerase chain reaction technique

Tuna are highly priced fishes that are often used in processed products. For effective fishery management and protection of consumers’ rights, it is important to develop a molecular method to identify the species of the tuna products. In this study we have developed a molecular method based on real-time polymerase chain reaction (real-time PCR) technology for the rapid identification of four tuna species. Four species-specific TaqMan probes were designed to identify bigeye tuna (Thunnus obesus), Pacific bluefin tuna (Thunnus orientalis), southern bluefin tuna (Thunnus maccoyii), and yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares). A SYBR green system was also designed to enhance the authentication of T. obesus. Both systems can distinguish target species from others in an efficient and high-throughput manner and can be applied to species identification of tuna products.     

A sorbent of expanded rice husk powder for removal of uranyl ion from aqueous solution

A novel sorbent for the removal of uranyl ion was prepared by expanded rice husk powder. Batch adsorption experiments were performed on factors of p H,temperature, initial uranyl ion concentration, adsorbent dosage and contact time to evaluate the adsorption capacity. The results show that the saturation adsorption capacity is 5.7 mgág~(-1) using expanded rice husk powder treating uranyl ion aqueous solution(80 mgáL~(-1)) for 24 h at 25 °C with initial pH3. Adsorption process could be well described by Langmuir isotherm model. The adsorption kinetic data are fitted well with pseudo-second-order model. The results obtained show that expanded rice husk adsorbent is a promising adsorbent for the removal of uranium from aqueous solutions.     

Transverse phase space reconstruction study in Shanghai soft X-ray FEL facility

Phase space is one of the most important parameters used to describe beam properties. Computer tomography, as a method for reconstructing phase space and measuring beam emittance, has been used in many accelerators over the past few decades. In this paper, we demonstrate a transverse phase space reconstruction study in the Shanghai soft X-ray free electron laser facility. First,we discuss the basic principles of phase space reconstruction and the advantage of reconstructing beam distribution in normalized phase space. Then, the phase space reconstruction results by different computer tomography methods based on the maximum entropy(MENT) algorithm and the filtered back projection algorithm in normalized phase space are presented. The simulation results indicate that,with proper configuration of the phase advance between adjacent screens, the MENT algorithm is feasible and has good efficiency. The beam emittance and Twiss parameters are also calculated using the reconstructed phase space.     

A fast algorithm to calculate the Euler number for binary images

A parallel localized algorithm to calculate the Euler number of a given binary image on a square grid, is presented. The algorithm is proven by employing graph theory. Examples are given to show the validity of the algorithm.     

Grain growth and crystallinity of ultrafine barium titanate particles prepared by various routes

Variations in tetragonal distortion and the degree of crystallinity of ultrafine BaTiO₃ particles—both industrially applied criteria qualifying their polar characteristics—upon growth during annealing were studied on powders, prepared by the hydrothermal synthesis and by the oxalate route respectively. Regardless of the synthetic route both these properties were found to develop approximately to the same extent with increasing primary particle size. The degree of crystallinity was detectable only above a critical value of c/a=1.007 at an average particle size of around 120 nm. Intragranular porosity in hydrothermal powders and the stoichiometric Ba/Ti-ratio are of minor influence. However, distinct differences in particle growth behavior for both powders were observed. This discrepancy is ascribed to a special morphology of the hydrothermal product, where enhanced particle growth was found to be governed by oriented attachment of individual crystallites and by the motion of solid–solid interfaces.