Imaging liquids using microfluidic cells

Chemistry occurring in the liquid and liquid surface is important in many applications. Chemical imaging of liquids using vacuum-based analytical techniques is challenging due to the difficulty in working with liquids with high volatility. Recent development in microfluidics enabled and increased our capabilities to study liquid in situ using sensitive techniques such as electron microscopy and spectroscopy. Due to its small size, low cost, and flexibility in design, liquid cells based on microfluidics have been increasingly used in studying and imaging complex phenomena involving liquids. This paper presents a review of microfluidic cells that were developed to adapt to electron microscopes and various spectrometers for in situ chemical analysis and imaging of liquids. The following topics will be covered, including cell designs, fabrication techniques, unique technical features for vacuum compatible cells (e.g., detection windows, device materials), and imaging with electron microscopy and spectroscopy. Challenges are summarized and recommendations for future development priority are proposed.     

Moments and error expressions in polynomial minimum mean square estimatior

The mathematical complexity of the minimum mean square estimators made inevitable the consideration of suboptimal solutions, such as the linear minimum mean square (m.m.s.) estimators. The compromise between performance and complexity can be, in general, less serious if the estimator that will substitute the optimum one is polynomial. If the minimum mean square estimator happens to be equal to a polynomial one, the polynomial substitution does not involve any compromise with respect to performance. Balakrishnan found a necessary and sufficient condition satisfied by the joint characteristic functions of observations and variable to be estimated, so that the m.m.s. estimate is a polynomial. The equivalent moment relationships in this case were found in the present paper. A matrix expression of the error difference from two different m.m.s. polynomial estimators was also found. This form involves much fewer calculations than required for finding separately the two errors.     

基于积分图像的灰度分布标准化快速算法*

在积分图像基础上提出和应用平方积分图像,实现了一种计算速度与图像窗口大小无关的快速灰度均值和方差算法.应用该算法,结合对灰度分布标准化近似计算公式的变换,实现了图像窗口灰度分布标准化的快速计算.实验证明,当需要对一幅图像的大量图像窗口进行灰度分布标准化时,这种算法对提高计算速度十分有效.     

Investigating the use of moving windows to improve software effort prediction: a replicated study

To date most research in software effort estimation has not taken chronology into account when selecting projects for training and validation sets. A chronological split represents the use of a project’s starting and completion dates, such that any model that estimates effort for a new project p only uses as its training set projects that have been completed prior to p’s starting date. A study in 2009 (“S3”) investigated the use of chronological split taking into account a project’s age. The research question investigated was whether the use of a training set containing only the most recent past projects (a “moving window” of recent projects) would lead to more accurate estimates when compared to using the entire history of past projects completed prior to the starting date of a new project. S3 found that moving windows could improve the accuracy of estimates. The study described herein replicates S3 using three different and independent data sets. Estimation models were built using regression, and accuracy was measured using absolute residuals. The results contradict S3, as they do not show any gain in estimation accuracy when using windows for effort estimation. This is a surprising result: the intuition that recent data should be more helpful than old data for effort estimation is not supported. Several factors, which are discussed in this paper, might have contributed to such contradicting results. Some of our future work entails replicating this work using other datasets, to understand better when using windows is a suitable choice for software companies.     

可乐瓶口缺陷快速检测系统的研制

可乐瓶在灌装前必须经过多种指标检验.针对实际工程需要,设计并实现了一套操作简单,高识别率的空瓶瓶口图像检测系统;图像经过初步处理后,去除噪声,边缘检测,将所要处理的图像有效部分与背景区分开来,如此可大大减少后续算法的计算量,从而有利于提高处理速度,较好地解决了,实时性与准确性之间的矛盾;采用基于最小二乘法的椭圆拟合方法对轮廓进行拟合,确定出椭圆的参数,并对内外圆的圆心取平均值,定为共同的圆心;经实践证明分辨力小于0.5mm,正确识别率达到99.9%以上,满足实际生产要求。     

适于人脸检测的模板匹配快速算法

为提高人脸检测中模板匹配的速度,在积分图像基础上,提出和应用平方积分图像,实现了一种计算速度与图像窗口大小无关的快速灰度均值和方差算法。应用这种快速算法,结合对灰度分布标准化近似计算公式、相关系数和平均偏差计算公式的变换,以及灰度分布标准化处理时省略拷贝图像窗口及窗口灰度值变换等不必要的步骤,大大提高了模板匹配速度。人脸检测实验证明了这种算法的有效性。     

Imputation of Missing Data in Industrial Databases

A limiting factor for the application of IDA methods in many domains is the incompleteness of data repositories. Many records have fields that are not filled in, especially, when data entry is manual. In addition, a significant fraction of the entries can be erroneous and there may be no alternative but to discard these records. But every cell in a database is not an independent datum. Statistical relationships will constrain and, often determine, missing values. Data imputation, the filling in of missing values for partially missing data, can thus be an invaluable first step in many IDA projects. New imputation methods that can handle the large-scale problems and large-scale sparsity of industrial databases are needed. To illustrate the incomplete database problem, we analyze one database with instrumentation maintenance and test records for an industrial process. Despite regulatory requirements for process data collection, this database is less than 50% complete. Next, we discuss possible solutions to the missing data problem. Several approaches to imputation are noted and classified into two categories: data-driven and model-based. We then describe two machine-learning-based approaches that we have worked with. These build upon well-known algorithms: AutoClass and C4.5. Several experiments are designed, all using the maintenance database as a common test-bed but with various data splits and algorithmic variations. Results are generally positive with up to 80% accuracies of imputation. We conclude the paper by outlining some considerations in selecting imputation methods, and by discussing applications of data imputation for intelligent data analysis.     

Collective-reward based approach for detection of semi-transparent objects in single images

Most computer and robot vision algorithms, be it for object detection, recognition, or reconstruction, are designed for opaque objects. Non-opaque objects have received less attention, although various special cases have been the subject of research efforts, especially the case of specular objects. The main objective of this paper is to provide a research work in the case of semi-transparent objects, i.e. objects that are transparent but also reflect light, typically objects made of glass. They are rather omnipresent in man-made environments (especially, windows and doors). Detection of these objects provides important information that can be used in a robot’s navigational strategies such as obstacle avoidance, detection of oil/water spills on the floor, localization, etc. In order to achieve the detection of semi-transparent objects we developed a novel approach using a collective-reward based technique on an image captured by an uncalibrated camera. Several experiments were conducted over different scenarios to test the efficacy of the algorithm.     

Filling of very deep, wide trenches by BenzoCycloButene polymer

A process for deep trench filling by BenzoCycloButene (BCB) polymer is explored. Deep trenches with 100-μm depth and different aspect ratios from 1.4 to 20 have been successfully filled by BCB. Besides, chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) of BCB is studied with the main goals of smoothing surface topography of substrate after BCB filling and removing excess BCB coating which may be necessary in some applications. Removal rate for BCB, V _RR, of about 0.24 μm/min has been achieved for hard cured BCB films using acid slurry. After CMP, the BCB layer showed a roughness of about 1.36 nm (Rq, measured by atomic force microscopy, AFM).     

网络（远程）教学系统的模式及构建

网络教学就是利用计算机网络技术、先进的流媒体技术等手段进行的一种新型教学模式.它使得受教育者可以获得更多学习的相关信息资源,可以不受时间和空间的约束进行学习.本文对网络教学系统的几种教学模式进行了分析,着重讨论了网络教学的特点、功能及软件的开发技术,结合本单位的实际情况说明了基于windwos2000的Intemet应用开发环境.     

网络(远程)教学系统的模式及构建

网络教学就是利用计算机网络技术、先进的流媒体技术等手段进行的一种新型教学模式。它使得受教育者可以获得更多学习的相关信息资源,可以不受时间和空间的约束进行学习。本文对网络教学系统的几种教学模式进行了分析,着重讨论了网络教学的特点、功能及软件的开发技术,结合本单位的实际情况说明了基于wind-wos2000的Internet应用开发环境。     

Valves for autonomous capillary systems

Autonomous capillary systems (CSs) are microfluidic systems inside which liquids move owing to capillary forces. CSs can in principle bring the high-performances of microfluidic-based analytical devices to near patient and environmental testing applications. In this paper, we show how wettable capillary valves can enhance CSs with novel functionalities, such as delaying and stopping liquids in microchannels. The valves employ an abruptly changing geometry of the flow path to delay a moving liquid filling front in a wettable microchannel. We show how to combine delay valves with capillary pumps, prevent shortcuts of liquid along the corners of microfluidic channels, stop liquids filling microchannels from a few seconds to over 30 min, trigger valves using two liquid fronts merging, and time a liquid using parallel microfluidic paths converging to a trigger valve. All together, these concepts should add functionality to passive microfluidic systems without departing from their initial simplicity of use. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Comparison of Oceansat-2 scatterometer- to buoy-recorded winds and spatial distribution over the Arabian Sea during the monsoon period

For this wind resource assessment (WRA) study, wind speed and direction are the fundamental inputs. Also, these studies are data driven and require large historical wind speed data sets available on the site. This work explores the application of space-based scatterometer winds for assimilation into WRA studies towards the development of offshore wind energy. This article focuses on estimating the performance of Oceansat-2 scatterometer (OSCAT)-derived wind vector using in situ data from buoys at different locations in the Arabian Sea. A comparative study between three methods for estimating the equivalent neutral winds (ENW) for buoys is carried out. OSCAT winds were closest to ENW estimated by the Liu–Katsaros–Businger (LKB) method. The spatial and temporal windows for comparison were 0.5° and ±60 minutes, respectively. The monsoon months (June–September) of 2011 were selected for study. The root mean square deviation for wind speed is less than 2.5 m s^?1 and wind direction is less than 20°, and a small positive bias is observed in the OSCAT wind values. From the analysis, the OSCAT wind values are consistent with in situ-observed values. Furthermore, wind atlas maps were developed with OSCAT winds, representing the spatial distribution of winds at a height of 10 m over the Arabian Sea.     

基于积分图像的快速模板匹配

人脸检测中,模板匹配前往往需要对图像窗口进行灰度分布标准化,而灰度分布标准化则要先算出图像窗口的灰度均值及方差。在积分图像基础上,提出和应用平方积分图像,实现了一种计算速度与图像窗口大小无关的快速灰度均值和方差算法。应用这种快速算法,结合对灰度分布标准化近似计算公式、相关系数和平均偏差计算公式的变换,以厦灰度分布标准化处理时省略拷贝图像窗口及窗口灰度值变换等不必要的步骤,大大提高了模板匹配速度。人脸检测实验证明这种快速模板匹配算法是有效的。     

A fast parallel algorithm for blind estimation of noise variance

A blind noise variance algorithm that recovers the variance of noise in two steps is proposed. The sample variances are computed for square cells tessellating the noise image. Several tessellations are applied with the size of the cells increasing fourfold for consecutive tessellations. The four smallest sample variance values are retained for each tessellation and combined through an outlier analysis into one estimate. The different tessellations thus yield a variance estimate sequence. The value of the noise variance is determined from this variance estimate sequence. The blind noise variance algorithm is applied to 500 noisy 256×256 images. In 98% of the cases, the relative estimation error was less than 0.2 with an average error of 0.06. Application of the algorithm to differently sized images is also discussed     

The experimental investigation of the effects of uncoated,PVD- and CVD-coated cemented carbide inserts and cutting parameters on surface roughness in CNC turning and its prediction using artificial neural networks

In this study the machining of AISI 1030 steel (i.e. orthogonal cutting) uncoated, PVD- and CVD-coated cemented carbide insert with different feed rates of 0.25, 0.30, 0.35, 0.40 and 0.45 mm/rev with the cutting speeds of 100, 200 and 300 m/min by keeping depth of cuts constant (i.e. 2 mm), without using cooling liquids has been accomplished. The surface roughness effects of coating method, coating material, cutting speed and feed rate on the workpiece have been investigated. Among the cutting tools—with 200 mm/min cutting speed and 0.25 mm/rev feed rate—the TiN coated with PVD method has provided 2.16 μm, TiAlN coated with PVD method has provided 2.3 μm, AlTiN coated with PVD method has provided 2.46 μm surface roughness values, respectively. While the uncoated cutting tool with the cutting speed of 100 m/min and 0.25 mm/rev feed rate has yielded the surface roughness value of 2.45 μm. Afterwards, these experimental studies were executed on artificial neural networks (ANN). The training and test data of the ANNs have been prepared using experimental patterns for the surface roughness. In the input layer of the ANNs, the coating tools, feed rate (f) and cutting speed (V) values are used while at the output layer the surface roughness values are used. They are used to train and test multilayered, hierarchically connected and directed networks with varying numbers of the hidden layers using back-propagation scaled conjugate gradient (SCG) and Levenberg–Marquardt (LM) algorithms with the logistic sigmoid transfer function. The experimental values and ANN predictions are compared by statistical error analyzing methods. It is shown that the SCG model with nine neurons in the hidden layer has produced absolute fraction of variance (R²) values about 0.99985 for the training data, and 0.99983 for the test data; root mean square error (RMSE) values are smaller than 0.00265; and mean error percentage (MEP) are about 1.13458 and 1.88698 for the training and test data, respectively. Therefore, the surface roughness value has been determined by the ANN with an acceptable accuracy.     

A Stochastic Vehicle Routing Problem with Travel Time Uncertainty: Trade-Off Between Cost and Customer Service

On-time shipment delivery is critical for just-in-time production and quick response logistics. Due to uncertainties in travel and service times, on-time arrival probability of vehicles at customer locations can not be ensured. Therefore, on-time shipment delivery is a challenging job for carriers in congested road networks. In this paper, such on-time shipment delivery problems are formulated as a stochastic vehicle routing problem with soft time windows under travel and service time uncertainties. A new stochastic programming model is proposed to minimize carrier’s total cost, while guaranteeing a minimum on-time arrival probability at each customer location. The aim of this model is to find a good trade-off between carrier’s total cost and customer service level. To solve the proposed model, an iterated tabu search heuristic algorithm was developed, incorporating a route reduction mechanism. A discrete approximation method is proposed for generating arrival time distributions of vehicles in the presence of time windows. Several numerical examples were conducted to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed model and solution algorithm.     

An experimental investigation of two-phase coating flow within microchannels: the effect of coating fluid rheology

The study of multiphase flow within micro-scale geometries has garnered much attention in recent history. One system of interest is the flow of a low viscosity fluid thread, labeled as the coring fluid, through a much higher viscosity liquid, labeled the coating fluid. On the macro-scale, this process has shown great utility in the plastics industry, but it has yet to be completely characterized on the micro-scale. Detailed here is a set of experiments performed within square microchannels, of nominal area 250 μm by 250 μm, where the coring fluid was Newtonian and the coating fluid was either Newtonian or viscoelastic. Visual data were collected and subsequently analyzed to determine the thickness of coating fluid remaining on the walls of the microchannel after the coring fluid front passed. The results for flow through a Newtonian coating fluid show similarity to results for flow in macro-scale capillaries; the thickness of the coating fluid, after initial penetration by the coring fluid thread, follows the same dependence upon the velocity of the thread front as seen for the macro-scale. The case of a viscoelastic coating fluid in a microchannel, however, shows interesting differences to the macro-scale results. Most notably, the surface of the coring fluid thread was highly unstable and the entire thread migrated toward one wall.     

Manufacturing technologies for miniaturized interference filters

 Miniaturized interference filters were designed and fabricated using two different manufacturing technologies. Applying micromachined ceramic masks during the coating processes interference filters with 1 mm lateral feature size and an alignment accuracy of 50 μm were arranged in an array consisting of three different filters. The filter edge definition obtained by this method was smaller than 50 μm. By applying ion assisted deposition (IAD), a low-temperature coating process, the spectral sensitivity of receiver cells has been modified by coating the cells directly. A combination of coating processes, microlithographic masking procedures, and dry etching technologies made it possible to arrange three different stripe filters with minimum filter features of about 5 μm side by side. The accuracy during mask alignment and the filter edge definition was also within 1 and 2 μm, respectively. Received: 20 March 1999/Accepted: 12 April 1999     

Two-dimensional metallic photonic band-gap crystals fabricated by LIGA

 Two-dimensional metallic photonic band-gap crystals, consisting of square and triangular lattices of nickel pillars, were fabricated by the LIGA process. In particular, PMMA slabs with a thickness of up to 800 μm were irradiated with synchrotron radiation and the holes produced were then filled with nickel via electroforming. The lattice constant, i.e., the center-to-center distance between the pillars, is either 60 μm or 40 μm for the square and triangular structures respectively. The metal filling ratio is 10% for the square and 20% for the triangular structures. Transmission and reflection measurements demonstrate that the metallic photonic band-gap crystals show a cutoff frequency in the far infrared regime between 2 and 5 THz. It is concluded that LIGA is a promising method for the fabrication of 2-D metallic photonic band-gap structures, which could be potentially used as passive filters in THz devices. Received: 10 August 2001/Accepted: 24 September 2001