Identification of the adverse effect of nitrate on the phosphate release rate and improvement of EBPR process models.

The adverse effect of nitrate on the phosphate release rate in the anaerobic phase was observed and was hardly explainable with conventional EBPR process models. Four possible mechanisms were proposed including substrate competition, reduced fermentation, parallel reaction and sequential reaction. Batch experiments were designed and conducted to identify the dominant mechanism. Results showed that the sequential reaction was the only possible mechanism where only denitrification occurred if any nitrate existed in the anaerobic phase. Then the phosphate release following after the nitrate was completely removed. Nitrate inhibition effect was added into the PHA storage rate to incorporate the sequential reaction in the conventional ASM3 plus EAWAG bio-P module (ASM3 + P). Nitrate inhibition coefficient, K(I,NO,PAO) was found to be as low as 0.05 mg/L. This correlated well with experimental observation where no also meant that the anaerobic compartment of a continuous flow reactor could be seriously affected by the residual nitrate contained in the sludge recycle flow. This phenomenon caused overestimation of the phosphate uptake rate and consequently underestimation of PO4(3-) -P concentration. This problem was resolved by incorporation of a nitrate inhibition term in the ASM3 + P for more accurate simulation of the EBPR process.     

Optically preamplified receiver performance due to VSB filtering for 40-Gb/s optical signals modulated with various formats

Optically preamplified receiver performance according to the vestigial sideband (VSB) filtering has been numerically investigated for 40-Gb/s optical signals modulated with nonreturn-to-zero, duobinary nonreturn-to-zero (NRZ), return-to-zero (RZ), carrier-suppressed RZ, and duobinary carrier-suppressed RZ formats. The VSB filtering enables the spectral widths of NRZ, duobinary NRZ, and RZ signals to be reduced without severe power penalties at the receiver. On the other hand, carrier-suppressed RZ and duobinary carrier-suppressed RZ signals have no large advantages over VSB filtering because of the characteristics of their signals. Our results suggest that RZ signals are the most suitable modulation format for VSB filtering, without considering the filter loss, because of the tolerance of the intersymbol interference and a large spectral width. However, duobinary NRZ signals are the most suitable modulation format for VSB filtering, considering the filter loss, because of their narrow spectral width.     

Studies on high density polyethylene (HDPE) functionalized by ultraviolet irradiation and its application

The structure and properties of high density polyethylene (HDPE) functionalized by ultraviolet irradiation at different light intensities in air were studied by electron analysis, FTIR spectroscopy, contact angle with water, differential scanning calorimetry and mechanical properties measurement. The results show that oxygen‐containing groups such as C?O, C—O and C(?O)O were introduced onto the molecular chain of HDPE following irradiation, and the rate and efficiency of HDPE functionalization increased with enhancement of irradiation intensity. After irradiation, the melting temperature, contact angle with water and notched impact strength of HDPE decreased, the degree of crystallinity increased, and their variation amplitude increased with irradiation intensity. Compared with HDPE, the yield strength of HDPE irradiated at lower light intensity (32 W m^?2 and 45 W m^?2) increases monotonically with irradiation time, and the yield strength of HDPE irradiated at higher light intensity (78 W m^?2) increases up to 48 h and then decreased with further increase in irradiation time. The irradiated HDPE behaved as a compatibilizer in HDPE/polycarbonate (PC) blends, and the interface bonding between HDPE and PC was ameliorated. After adding 20 wt% HDPE irradiated at 78 W m^?2 irradiation intensity for 24 h to HDPE/PC blends, the tensile yield strength and notched Izod impact strength of the blend were increased from 26.3 MPa and 51 J m^?1 to 30.2 MPa and 158 J m^?1, respectively. Copyright © 2003 Society of Chemical Industry     

Comparison of total and faecal coliforms as faecal indicator in eutrophicated surface water.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of total coliforms (TC) and faecal coliforms (FC) using a membrane filtration method for precise monitoring of faecal pollution in Korean surface water. The samples were collected in Korea from both main rivers and their tributaries. Presumptive TC * FC were enumerated. The ratios of presumptive FC to TC were not constant, but varied widely, and TC were difficult to enumerate because of overgrowth by background colonies. For FC this was not the case. Seven hundred and three purified strains of presumptive TC * FC and their background colonies were biotyped using API 20E. Among 272 presumptive TC, non-faecal related species, Aeromonas hydrophila dominated (34.6%) and E. coli accounted for only 5.1%. In contrast, E. coli made up 89% of the 209 presumptive FC. Furthermore, of 164 background colonies on Endo Agar LES, 54.9% was A. hydrophila, while background colonies on m-FC Agar were few (58 strains), and despite their atypical colony appearance, most of them were biotyped as enteric bacteria. These results reveal that the detection of FC rather than TC using m-FC Agar is more appropriate for faecal pollution monitoring in eutrophicated surface water located in a temperate region.     

Monte Carlo simulation of gas phase polymerization of 1,3‐butadiene. Part II: Kinetics optimization and confirmation

Studies on the deactivations and initiations of gas phase polymerizations of 1,3‐butadiene have been achieved by Monte Carlo simulation. Initiation and deactivation control the reaction before and after the peak of the polymerization rate, respectively. The influence of polymerization temperature has been studied. Monte Carlo modeling of polymerization kinetics and mechanism was confirmed by the agreement of experimental data and simulation results of polymerizations run with a temporary evacuation of monomer. The balance of catalysts and active chains is established by both initiation and chain transfer reactions with cocatalyst, which causes a ‘pseudo‐stability’ stage. © 2003 Society of Chemical Industry     

Hydrogen annealing effect on DC and low-frequency noise characteristics in CMOS FinFETs

The hydrogen annealing process has been used to improve surface roughness of the Si-fin in CMOS FinFETs for the first time. Hydrogen annealing was performed after Si-fin etch and before gate oxidation. As a result, increased saturation current with a lowered threshold voltage and a decreased low-frequency noise level over the entire range of drain current have been attained. The low-frequency noise characteristics indicate that the oxide trap density is reduced by a factor of 3 due to annealing. These results suggest that hydrogen annealing is very effective for improving device performance and for attaining a high-quality surface of the etched Si-fin.     

Abnormal junction profile of silicided p+/n shallowjunctions: a leakage mechanism

The leakage mechanism in p⁺/n shallow junctions fabricated using Co silicidation and shallow trench isolation processes has been investigated using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) combined with selective chemical etching. TEM and TSUPREM-4 simulation results show that dopant profiles bend upward near the edge of the active region. The formation of the abnormal profile is attributed to transient enhanced diffusion induced by source/drain implantation. Based on the TEM and simulation results, it is suggested that the shallower junctions formed near the active edge can serve as a source for leakage current in the silicided p+ /n shallow junctions     

隧道挖掘中采用补偿灌浆的实例

在英国伦敦多克兰斯轻便铁路刘易舍姆延长线（DLR－LWE）双隧道掘进工程中，在敏感建筑物下进行了补偿灌浆，以防止隧道开挖引起的过度沉降。但是，过度灌浆也会对隧道下部施加超越。介绍了由隧道掘进承包商所编辑的关于地面和建筑物沉降以及由补偿灌浆引起的隧道衬砌变形的详细现场监测数据。     

Principle and applications of retroreflective vision sensing for discrete part-presentation

For flexible manufacturing of short production runs where a large variety of product sizes, component types, and surface reflectance characteristics are encountered, it is desirable to build flexible computer-controlled systems for feeding parts into machine tools or assembly processes that combine maximum flexibility and reliability with minimum cost and cycle-time. This is not a general bin-picking problem; the parts are assumed to be propositioned approximately in totes/pallets/kits with regularly spaced locations. This article presents a machine vision technique based on the principle of retroreflective vision sensing for part-presentation. Since retroreflective material has a distinctive surface reflectance that is not commonly found in natural or man-made objects, the use of retroreflective surfaces enables reliable high object-to-background contrast images to be obtained for a wide variety of objects. Unlike conventional machine vision techniques, which rely on the variance of the surface reflectance of the objects to generate detailed images, retroreflective vision sensing aims at generating a reliable two-dimensional digital object silhouettes so that the location and orientation of the part can be reliably determined. Two application examples, machine loading and assembly, are illustrated.     

Performance engineering and topological design of metro WDM opticalnetworks using computer simulation

This paper demonstrates the use of computer simulation for topological design and performance engineering of transparent wavelength-division multiplexing metropolitan-area networks. Engineering of these networks involves the study of various transport-layer impairments such as amplifier noise, component ripple, chirp/dispersion, optical crosstalk, waveform distortion due to filter concatenation, fiber nonlinearities, and polarization effects. A computer simulation methodology composed of three main simulation steps is derived and implemented. This methodology obtains performance estimations by applying efficient wavelength-domain simulations on the entire network topology, followed by time-/frequency-domain simulations on selected paths of the network and finally Q-budgeting on an identified worst case path. The above technique provides an efficient tool for topological design and network performance engineering. Accurate simulation models are presented for each of the performance impairments, and the computer simulation methodology is used for the design and engineering of a number of actual metro network architectures