Effect of nonsolvent additives on PES ultrafiltration membrane pore structure

Different nonsolvent additives, namely, diethylene glycol, n-butyl alcohol (NBA), and ethylene glycol monomethyl ether, were added into the casting solution (polyethersulfone/dimethylformamide/lithium chloride) to prepare ultrafiltration (UF) membrane via phase inversion. The effects of different additives and their concentration on the pore structure of the prepared UF membrane were studied. The cross-sectional morphology of the membrane was observed via scanning electron microscopy. The addition of nonsolvent additives improved the large-cavity structure of the membrane. When the additive was low-content NBA (1–3 wt %), the membrane pore structure transformed from large-cavity structure to fully sponge-like structure. When the content of additive NBA was 3 wt %, the flux of the prepared UF membrane was 130.45 L (m⁻² h⁻¹), the rejection of PEG20000 was 95.54% and the flux remained high at 4 bar in long-term stability test. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136, 47525.     

Manpower supply planning for aircraft line maintenance under stochastic incidents

We plan the manpower supply for aircraft line maintenance, taking into account two types of stochastic incidents: manpower demands for a flight and the number of aircraft needing to be serviced at one time. The problem is solved to find the shift and maintenance group combinations best suited for the given airline. The optimal aircraft maintenance certification for a crew is also analyzed to improve the entire manpower structure. In addition, the addition of temporary manpower required for actual daily operations is also considered as a part of understanding the total manpower utilized in actual operations. An integrated method including scenario generation and a stochastic model is developed to deal with the problem. Finally, we perform a case study based on operating data obtained from a major airline in Taiwan. The results and findings are compared with the airline’s current manpower plan in the discussion, and suggestions for improvement are made.     

采用信道估计法的基站VSWR实时检测

为解决无线基站宽带工作频带内电压驻波比(Voltage Standing Wave Ratio,VSWR)的实时测量，提出了一种采用信道估计法的测量方案。该方案实现简单，在基带处理单元高速率位置发送数据，依次抓取射频通道反馈和反射数据，分别求取信道响应序列，结合工厂装备测试数据，计算驻波反射系数和反射点位置。发送信号采用宽带正交频分复用信号，能检测到工作频段内任何频点处的驻波异常。有用信号前加循环前缀，并引入峰值抵消核，能正确检测到多个反射点驻波。仿真结果表明，该方案驻波测量精度和单回波点位置精度达到预期，多回波点测量能抓准外部主要故障点，在基站VSWR实时测量中具有良好的应用前景。     

Field‐based robotic phenotyping of sorghum plant architecture using stereo vision

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) is known as a major feedstock for biofuel production. To improve its biomass yield through genetic research, manually measuring yield component traits (e.g. plant height, stem diameter, leaf angle, leaf area, leaf number, and panicle size) in the field is the current best practice. However, such laborious and time‐consuming tasks have become a bottleneck limiting experiment scale and data acquisition frequency. This paper presents a high‐throughput field‐based robotic phenotyping system which performed side‐view stereo imaging for dense sorghum plants with a wide range of plant heights throughout the growing season. Our study demonstrated the suitability of stereo vision for field‐based three‐dimensional plant phenotyping when recent advances in stereo matching algorithms were incorporated. A robust data processing pipeline was developed to quantify the variations or morphological traits in plant architecture, which included plot‐based plant height, plot‐based plant width, convex hull volume, plant surface area, and stem diameter (semiautomated). These image‐derived measurements were highly repeatable and showed high correlations with the in‐field manual measurements. Meanwhile, manually collecting the same traits required a large amount of manpower and time compared to the robotic system. The results demonstrated that the proposed system could be a promising tool for large‐scale field‐based high‐throughput plant phenotyping of bioenergy crops.     

Porous polyurethane film fabricated via the breath figure approach for sustained drug release

The breath figure (BF) method is an effective process for fabricating porous polymeric films. In this study, we fabricated porous polymer films from thermoplastic polyurethane (PU) through static BF with CHCl₃ as a solvent under 55–80% relative humidity. The porous PU films were prepared within various pore structures and sizes, which were adjustable, depending on the fabrication conditions. The humidity and exposure time were examined as variable parameters affecting the surface morphology, wettability, and cytotoxicity. Atorvastatin calcium, a hyperlipidemic agent, was loaded into the porous films during the casting process, and the drug-loading and drug-releasing behaviors of the porous PU membranes were evaluated. Approximately 60–80% of the drug was released in 14 days. The films exhibited sustained drug-release performances because of the hydrophobicity and nonbiodegradable nature of PU for perivascular drug administration. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136, 47658.     

基于Fusion Compute虚拟化平台的HIRFL数据库迁移及性能优化

为解决兰州重离子加速器（HIRFL）数据中心资源利用率低下、硬件和维护成本较高等问题，HIRFL数据中心正在向虚拟化集群模式进行迁移。本文以华为Fusion Compute虚拟化平台为基础，构建了HIRFL数据库的迁移方案。通过物理主机、虚拟机计算资源、内存、存储和网络资源性能优化，提出了1套完整的HIRFL数据库虚拟机性能优化方案。采用业界主流的数据库性能测试工具Benchmark Factory对迁移前后的数据库进行了测试，对比实验表明，本文提出的方案具有有效性和可行性，降低了数据中心的运行和维护成本，提升了HIRFL数据库系统的安全性和稳定性。     

ATSP:时态网络可视化的自适应时间片划分方法

现有的时态网络可视化方法大多采用等量时间片来可视化网络的演变，不利于时态模式的快速挖掘和发现。为此，根据时态网络固有的特征提出自适应时间片划分方法（Adaptive Time Slice Partition method，ATSP）。在时态网络的两种表示方式（基于事件的表示方式和基于快照的表示方式）的基础上，构建了ATSP的基础模型，同时提出了一种改进模型用来描述事件间隔时间服从长尾分布的时态网络。为了实现时间片的不等量划分，针对探索任务的不同提出了基于时态模式的ATSP规则和基于中心节点的ATSP规则，并提出了实现算法--层次划分算法（Hierarchical Partition algorithm，HP）和增量划分算法（Incremental Partition algorithm，IP）。实验结果表明，ATSP方法比传统的时间片划分方法更能准确地表示网络的时态特征，且该方法应用于可视化时，能有效归纳并展示网络的特征，明显提高了视觉分析的效率。     

基于改进粗糙集理论的SAR图像目标增强

图像增强在提高SAR图像舰船目标检测精度方面具有十分重要的意义。由于传统算法不能很好地对SAR图像进行目标增强，提出了基于改进粗糙集理论和引力场强度的目标增强算法。通过借鉴引力场相关理论知识，将粗糙集条件属性集中的梯度属性改进为引力场强度属性，从而实现对原图像的目标增强。与其他算法进行了实验比较，结果表明提出的改进算法相比于其他算法更适用于SAR图像特性，能更好地对舰船目标像素进行针对性增强，具备一定的工程应用价值。