Analysis of operating limits and combustion state regulation for low-calorific value gases in industrial burners

The effective and efficient utilization of low-calorific value (LCV) gases has gained increasing attention in scientific research and industrial fields. In this study, the combustion characteristics of three LCV gases in practical devices are analyzed by using a nonadiabatic perfectly stirred reactor model. The complete steady-state solution in the temperature-residence time parameter space is obtained with arc-length continuation. The stable operation region is quantified by the eigenvalue analysis. The transition of solution curves is quantified with heat loss coefficient. Five key system parameters are systematically investigated on their effects on stability limits. With the combustion performance being quantified by a combustion state index, a combustion state regulation method is proposed to find the optimal regulation path of system parameters. Active subspace method is further applied to shorten the regulation step by identifying the active direction. The proposed method and findings are useful for optimal regulation of burning LCV gases in industrial burners.     

Transgenerational Effects of Di(2-Ethylhexyl) Phthalate on Anogenital Distance,Sperm Functions and DNA Methylation in Rat Offspring

Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) is widely used as a plasticizer in the manufacture of polyvinylchloride plastics and has been associated with concerns regarding male reproductive toxicity. In this study, we hypothesized that maternal exposure to DEHP induces transgenerational inheritance of adult-onset adverse reproductive outcomes through the male germline in the F1, F2, and F3 generations of male offspring. Pregnant rats were treated with 5 or 500 mg of DEHP/kg/day through gavage from gestation day 0 to birth. The offspring body weight, anogenital distance (AGD), anogenital index (AGI), sperm count, motility, and DNA fragmentation index (DFI) were measured for all generations. Methyl-CpG binding domain sequencing was performed to analyze sperm DNA methylation status in the F3. DEHP exposure at 500 mg/kg affected AGD, AGI, sperm count, mean DFI, and %DFI in the F1; AGD, sperm count, and mean DFI in the F2; and AGD, AGI, mean DFI, and %DFI in the F3. DEHP exposure at 5 mg/kg affected AGD, AGI, sperm count, and %DFI in the F1; sperm count in the F2; and AGD and AGI in F3. Compared with the control group, 15 and 45 differentially hypermethylated genes were identified in the groups administered 5 mg/kg and 500 mg/kg DEHP, respectively. Moreover, 130 and 6 differentially hypomethylated genes were observed in the groups administered 5 mg/kg and 500 mg/kg DEHP. Overall, these results demonstrated that prenatal exposure to DEHP caused transgenerational epigenetic effects, which may explain the observed phenotypic changes in the male reproductive system.     

Adaptive GLR-, Rao- and Wald-based CFAR detectors for a subspace signal embedded in structured Gaussian interference

The problem of detecting a subspace signal embedded in subspace Gaussian interference and thermal noise is studied in this paper. In this problem, both the signal-independent and signal-dependent interferences are assumed to be present, therefore the overall interference subspace covers the signal subspace. The approach of this paper extends previous works involving either of those two kinds of interferences. A set of secondary data containing only interference plus noise is employed to estimate the interference covariance matrix and the noise power. Three new detectors are designed via the generalized likelihood ratio (GLR), Rao and Wald tests, respectively. Their probabilities of false alarms (PFAs) and detections are analytically derived. The PFAs show that the new detectors have the constant false alarm rate (CFAR) property against the interference and noise. Numerical results show that the new detectors outperform their counterparts for the studied problem. Furthermore, the new detectors are less sensitive to the secondary data size and to the mismatched subspace signal than some other detectors, such as the GLR detector (GLRD), the adaptive matched filter (AMF), the adaptive subspace detector (ASD), etc.     

A hybrid homogeneously weighted moving average control chart for process monitoring

Several modifications and enhancements to control charts in increasing the performance of small and moderate process shifts have been introduced in the quality control charting techniques. In this paper, a new hybrid control chart for monitoring process location is proposed by combining two homogeneously weighted moving average (HWMA) control charts. The hybrid homogeneously weighted moving average (HHWMA) statistic is derived using two smoothing constants λ₁ and λ₂ . The average run length (ARL) and the standard deviation of the run length (SDRL) values of the HHWMA control chart are obtained and compared with some existing control charts for monitoring small and moderate shifts in the process location. The results of study show that the HHWMA control chart outperforms the existing control charts in many situations. The application of the HHWMA chart is demonstrated using a simulated data.     

Commitment-based device-pairing protocol with synchronized drawings and comparison metrics

This article presents a new method for pairing devices securely. The commitment-based authentication uses a fuzzy secret that the devices only know approximately. Its novel feature is time-based opening of commitments in a single round. We also introduce a new source for the fuzzy secret: synchronized drawing with two fingers of the same hand on two touch screens or surfaces. The drawings are encoded as strings and compared with an edit-distance metric. A prototype implementation of this surprisingly simple and natural pairing mechanism shows that it accurately differentiates between true positives and man-in-the-middle attackers.     

In vivo Kinetic Biodistribution of Nano‐Sized Outer Membrane Vesicles Derived from Bacteria

Evaluation of kinetic distribution and behaviors of nanoparticles in vivo provides crucial clues into their roles in living organisms. Extracellular vesicles are evolutionary conserved nanoparticles, known to play important biological functions in intercellular, inter‐species, and inter‐kingdom communication. In this study, the first kinetic analysis of the biodistribution of outer membrane vesicles (OMVs)—bacterial extracellular vesicles—with immune‐modulatory functions is performed. OMVs, injected intraperitoneally, spread to the whole mouse body and accumulate in the liver, lung, spleen, and kidney within 3 h of administration. As an early systemic inflammation response, increased levels of TNF‐α and IL‐6 are observed in serum and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. In addition, the number of leukocytes and platelets in the blood is decreased. OMVs and cytokine concentrations, as well as body temperature are gradually decreased 6 h after OMV injection, in concomitance with the formation of eye exudates, and of an increase in ICAM‐1 levels in the lung. Following OMV elimination, most of the inflammatory signs are reverted, 12 h post‐injection. However, leukocytes in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid are increased as a late reaction. Taken together, these results suggest that OMVs are effective mediators of long distance communication in vivo.     

Reducing the complexity of distance measurement methods for circular turbo codes that use structured interleavers

The knowledge of turbo code's minimum Hamming distance (d_min) and its corresponding codeword multiplicity (A_min) is of a great importance because the error correction capability of a code is strongly tied to the values of d_min and A_min. Unfortunately, the computational complexity associated with the search for d_min and A_min can be very high, especially for a turbo code that has high d_min value. This paper introduces some useful properties of turbo codes that use structured interleavers together with circular encoding. These properties allow for a significant reduction of search space and thus reduce significantly the computational complexity associated with the determination of d_min and A_min values. © 2014 The Authors. International Journal of Communication Systems published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于Internet的远程教育系统模型研究

随着计算机网络技术的发展，远程教学系统的结构发生了重大的变化，逐步由原来的客户机／服务器(C／S)结构转变为基于Internet的浏览器／服务器(B／S)结构。本文提出了基于CORBA技术的B／S结构系统模型。分析了其运行过程，并与传统的结构进行了比较，指明了其优越性。在本文的结尾。指出了使用这种技术的一个具体例子。     

以一种新的距离度量作为反馈的相关跟踪方法

基于相关的模板匹配方法在图像跟踪中得到了广泛的应用,但是这种方法的主要缺点是对图像噪声非常敏感,而且由这种方法得出的相关曲面比较平坦。为了有效抑制噪声和局部遮挡对图像的影响,提出用鲁棒统计中的一个值代替相关值作为距离度量。它不是计算两幅图像的对应像素差值,而是计算两幅图像中差别不大的对应像素对的个数。实验证明这样得到的曲面相对　　收稿日期:2003 08 31;　修订日期:2003 10 28作者简介:张桂林(1944 ),男,天津人,教授,博士生导师,主要研究方向为自动识别、人体生物统计特征识别、图像处理算法与系统性能评估等。　　　　　　　要尖锐得多。当上述的距离度量应用于跟踪过程中时,模板的合理更新对跟踪非常重要。基于上述的距离度量方法,提出了一种新的模板更新策略。利用两幅图像中近似像素在整修匹配模板像素中所占的比例大小决定加权系数。这种加权策略可以自适应地根据图像序列的变化选择更新相关模板,同时在一定程度上减小模板漂移的危险。