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One unique architectural benefit of Named Data Networking (NDN) is adaptive forwarding, i.e., the forwarding plane is able to observe past data retrieval performance and use it to adjust forwarding decisions for future Interests. To be effective, adaptive forwarding assumes that Interest Routing Locality is related to Interests' common name prefix, meaning that Interests sharing the same prefix are likely to follow a similar forwarding path within a short period of time. Since Interests can have multiple common prefixes with different lengths, the real challenge is determining which prefix length should be used in adaptive forwarding to record path performance measurements - we refer to this as the Prefix Granularity Problem. The longer the common prefix is, the better the Interest Routing Locality, and the larger the forwarding table. Given the limited FIB size, route names are designed to be considerably shorter than Interest names. Existing adaptive forwarding designs use route names to record path performance measurements, which looses forwarding adaptability as it promises in the event of partial network failures. In this work, we propose to dynamically aggregate and de-aggregate name prefixes in the forwarding table in order to use the prefixes that are the most appropriate given current network situation. In addition, to reduce the overhead of adaptive forwarding, we propose mechanisms to minimize the use of the longest prefix matching in Data packet processing. Simulations demonstrate that the proposed techniques can result in better forwarding decisions in the event of partial network failures with significantly reduced overhead.

An efficient modes analyses technique for isotropic or anisotropic material filled 2D metallic waveguides with an arbitrary contour using the multifilament current method (MFCM) is presented. The ideal PEC boundary of a 2D waveguide is replaced by a shell with a high conductivity and electrical small thickness. The thin lossy shell not only can well approximate the boundary condition of PEC waveguide wall therefore without altering the initial waveguide modes, but also can let the external excitation penetrate through to excite the inside modes, resulting in a high internal field intensity at the frequency of each mode. In this case, the modes are revealed by the peaks of field intensity responses, and the spurious modes which existed in traditional source‐free modes determination techniques can be completely avoided. Based on this idea, a generalized impedance boundary condition (GIBC) is formulated to represent the lossy waveguide wall and further utilized in the MFCM for simulating the internal field intensity over frequency. Three different configurations of a 2D waveguide are considered. The computed modes are compared with that obtained from commercial software, and an excellent agreement is achieved, yet an competitive advantage on simulation performances is observed by using the proposed technique.

Background: The unprecedented disruption brought about by the global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic had produced tremendous influence on the practice of pharmacy. Sufficient knowledge of pharmacists was needed to deal with the epidemic situation; however, outbreak also aggravated psychological distress among health-care professionals. Therefore, this study aimed to determine knowledge about the pandemic and related factors, prevalence and factors associated with psychological distress among hospital pharmacists of Xinjiang Province, China. Methods: An anonymous online questionnaire-based cross-sectional study was conducted by means of WeChat, a popular social media platform in China, February 23-27, 2020, during the COVID-19 outbreak. The survey questionnaire consisted of 4 parts, including informed consent section, demographic section, knowledge about COVID-19, and assessment of overall mental health through World Health Organization’s Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20). A score of 8 or above on SRQ-20 was used as cutoff to classify the participant as in psychological distress. SRQ-20 score and related knowledge score were used as dependent variables, demographic characteristics (such as gender, age, monthly income, etc.) were used as independent variables, and univariate binary logistic regression was used to screen out the variables with P < 0.05. Then, the filtered variables were used as independent variables, and multivariate logistic regression models were used to analyze associations with sufficient knowledge of COVID-19 and psychological distress. Results: A total of 365 pharmacists participated in the survey, fewer than half (35.1%; n = 128) of pharmacists attained a score of 6 or greater (out of 10) in overall disease knowledge, and most were able to select effective disinfectants and isolation or discharge criteria. In the multivariable model, age ages 31-40 (odds ratio [OR] = 3.25; P < 0.05), ages 41-50 (OR = 2.96; P < 0.05) versus >50 (referent); primary place of practice in hospitals: drug supply (OR = 4.00; P < 0.01), inpatient pharmacy (OR = 2.06, P < 0.01), clinical pharmacy (OR = 2.17, P < 0.05) versus outpatient pharmacy (referent); monthly income Renminbi (RMB, China’s legal currency) 5000-10,000 (OR = 1.77; P < 0.05) versus < 5000 (referent); contact with COVID-19 patients or suspected cases (OR = 2.27; P < 0.01); access to COVID-19 knowledge remote work+ on-site work (OR = 6.07; P < 0.05), single on-site work (OR = 6.90; P < 0.01) versus remote work (referent) were related to better knowledge of COVID-19. Research found that 18.4% of pharmacists surveyed met the SRQ-20 threshold for distress. Self-reported history of mental illness (OR = 3.56; P < 0.05) and working and living in hospital versus delay in work resumption (OR = 2.87; P < 0.01) were found to be risk factors of psychological distress. Conclusions: Further training of COVID-19 knowledge was required for pharmacists. As specific pharmacist groups were prone to psychological distress, it was important for individual hospitals and government to consider and identify pharmacists’ needs and take steps to meet their needs with regard to pandemic and other work-related distress.

Large low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations provide low-latency and high-bandwidth Internet connectivity at the global scale. One major challenge is to handle frequent satellite handovers. Named Data Networking (NDN) adopts a pull-based communication model, which allows users to retrieve data that fail to come back because of satellite handovers by retransmitting the corresponding requests, hence simplifying mobility management when retrieving data. However, we find that relying on such retransmissions alone can be highly inefficient in typical LEO satellite constellations. Specifically, typical inter-satellite topologies and satellite handover strategies may produce bad cases for retransmissions, generating a significant amount of additional traffic. Motivated by this observation, this paper attempts to consolidate NDN's advantage in mobility management with the Data Recovery Link Service (DRLS), a shim layer service operating between the network and link layer in the NDN protocol stack. DRLS hides recurring satellite handovers from forwarding by recovering data from the previously connected satellite via alternative paths, thus ensuring the bidirectional request-response exchange of NDN without retransmitting requests. A prototype of DRLS is implemented in the reference NDN software forwarder and evaluated through simulations. Results prove the efficacy of the proposed mechanism at reducing the overall traffic volume.

Large low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations are intended to provide global low-latency high-bandwidth Internet connectivity. Due to their large scale and high mobility nature, networking is a big challenge. In this paper, we investigate applying Named Data Networking (NDN) to this scenario. Specifically, we discuss that NDN's architectural benefits, such as adaptive forwarding, in-network caching, off-the-grid communication, data mule service, in-network/edge computing, mobility support, and data-centric security, make it a promising candidate. Moreover, we focus on studying NDN's consumer mobility support. Specifically, NDN's in-network Interest retransmission can quickly react to satellite handovers. However, we make an observation that Interest routing paths before and after satellite handover may not overlap, hence underusing NDN's in-network caching. Therefore, we direct retransmitted Interests due to handovers to the previous connected satellite via forwarding hint. Simulation results show that the studied approaches can decently improve the consumers' performance and reduce the network traffic, achieving better consumer mobility support.

One unique architectural benefit of Named Data Networking (NDN) is adaptive forwarding, i.e., the forwarding plane is able to observe data retrieval performance of past Interests and use it to adjust forwarding decisions for future Interests. To be effective, adaptive forwarding assumes Interest Routing Locality, meaning that Interests sharing the same prefix are likely to follow a similar forwarding path within a short period of time. Therefore, past observations can provide insight into how forwarding will likely perform for the same prefix in the near future. Since Interests can have multiple common prefixes with different lengths, the real challenge is determining which prefix length should be used in adaptive forwarding to record path measurements - we refer to this as the Prefix Granularity Problem. The longer the common prefix is, the better Interest Routing Locality. However, finer grained-prefixes cover fewer Interests each and require a larger forwarding table. Existing adaptive forwarding designs use a static prefix length, which is known to encounter issues in the event of partial network failures. In this work, we propose to dynamically aggregate and de-aggregate name prefixes in the forwarding table in order to use the prefixes that are the most appropriate given current network situation. In addition, to reduce the overhead of adaptive forwarding, we propose mechanisms to minimize the use of longest prefix matching during the processing of Data packets. Simulations demonstrate that the proposed techniques can result in better forwarding decisions in the event of partial network failures with significantly reduced overhead.

Named Data Networking (NDN) changes the network communication paradigm from address-centric in TCP/IP to data-centric. This architectural change extends capabilities of the network's forwarding plane, enabling more efficient and adaptive data retrieval. However, it is unclear how to utilize forwarding behaviors, and reduce the deployment complexity of NDN at edge networks. In fact, to run NDN applications between just two nodes involves decent knowledge of the software forwarder (NFD) and non-trivial network configuration. This paper designs self-configured adaptive forwarding plane for NDN at edge networks, to improve data retrieval efficiency and minimize deployment complexity. The designed functionalities are implemented in NFD and tested on real devices. Results show that NFD is able to run out-of-the-box with different applications. More specifically, the new forwarding strategy is able to learn and utilize multiple faces and routes, and to better handle NACK and link failure, achieving good performance.

This paper presents a simplified procedure for predicting the seismic slip of a vegetated slope. This is important for more precise estimation of the hazard associated with seismic landslip of naturally vegetated slopes, and also as a design tool for determining performance improvement when planting is to be used as a protective measure. The analysis procedure consists of two main components. Firstly, Discontinuity Layout Optimisation (DLO) analysis is used to determine the critical seismic slope failure mechanism and estimate the corresponding yield acceleration of a given slope. In DLO analysis, a modified rigid perfectly plastic (Mohr–Coulomb) model is employed to approximate small permanent deformations which may accrue in non-associative materials when subjected to ground motions with relatively low peak ground acceleration. The contribution of the vegetation to enhancing the yield acceleration is obtained via subtraction of the fallow slope yield acceleration. The second stage of the analysis incorporates the vegetation contribution to the slope's yield acceleration from DLO into modified limit equilibrium equations to further account for the geometric hardening of the slope under increasing soil movement. Thereby, the method can predict the permanent settlement at the crest of the slope via a slip-dependent Newmark sliding block approach. This procedure is validated against a series of centrifuge tests to be highly effective for both fallow and vegetated slopes and is subsequently used to provide further insights into the stabilising mechanisms controlling the seismic behaviour of vegetated slopes.

A major challenge to potential ICN/NDN deployment is the requirement of application support, namely, applications need to be rewritten or modified in order to run on NDN networks and receive the full benefits. Using a proxy to translate between an application-level protocol and NDN offers a viable solution that balances between development cost and architectural benefits. In this paper, we study on the questions of how to facilitate and incentivize the development and deployment of such protocol translation proxies. We propose to enable existing applications to communicate "off the grid", i.e., using only local network connectivity without the global Internet, by translating between conventional clientserver protocols and NDN. This provides deployment incentives by enabling a useful feature with no or minimal changes to existing applications. By giving the experience of a few protocols, we hope to abstract out some common design patterns that can be reused in developing other application-level proxies. This paper reports our work on IMAP/NDN translation for local email access and XMPP/NDN translation for local group chat. Based on this work, we identify and discuss a number of common design issues including application-level framing, namespace design, application protocol semantics, multiparty synchronization, security and privacy, and real-world deployment challenges.

Most of today's applications require an Internet connection to reach cloud servers essential for their functioning. However, in many scenarios, such connectivity is unavailable, such as when a user is in a remote location with no cellular coverage or during a natural disaster. In these situations, nearby devices can still connect to each other, and the applications running on each device can have data useful to each other; however, the applications are unable to exchange data directly between themselves. In this paper, we describe mechanisms to enable off-the- grid communication for existing applications, allowing them to directly exchange data between themselves. To achieve this goal, an application should be capable of discovering, fetching, and verifying data without the help of a server. We believe that Named Data Networking (NDN) can provide an application with these abilities. We utilize email access as a study case and propose mailSync, a framework to the goal of app-to-app communication for this application via NDN. Meanwhile, we identify the various differences between TCP/IP and NDN applications, and we generalize several steps to "NDNize" an existing application, including protocol translation, application layer framing, naming, data discovery and security management. We implemented a prototype of mailSync in Java on laptop and Android as a proof of concept.

Many natural and man-made slopes are planted with vegetation, and it is known that this can increase the stability of slopes under static conditions. There is anecdotal evidence that vegetated slopes also perform better than fallow slopes during earthquakes. However, the study of the dynamic behaviour of slopes planted with species having dichotomous (‘woody’) roots is relatively rare owing to the extreme expense and difficulty involved in conducting full-scale dynamic testing on shrubs and trees. In this paper, dynamic centrifuge testing and supporting numerical modelling have been conducted to study this problem. In the centrifuge modelling, ABS plastic rods are used to simulate repeatably the mechanical properties of real roots. The numerical modelling work consisted of two parts. First, a computationally-efficient beam-on-non-linear-Winkler-foundation (BNWF) model using existing p–y formulations from piling engineering was employed to produce a macro-element describing the individual root and soil interaction both pre- and post-failure. By adding contributions from the different root analogues of different diameters, smeared continuum properties were derived that could be included in a fully dynamic, plane-strain continuum, finite-element model in a straightforward way. The BNWF approach was validated against large direct shear tests having stress conditions simulating those in the centrifuge at different potential slip plane depths. The conversion to smeared properties for global time-history analysis of the slope was validated by comparing the continuum finite-element results with the centrifuge test data in terms of both the dynamic response and permanent deformations at the crest, and these demonstrated good agreement. Owing to the simplicity of the BNWF approach and its ability to consider variable root geometries and properties, along with variation of soil properties with depth, it is suggested that the validated approach described will be useful in linking individual root–soil interaction characteristics (root strength and stiffness, diameter variation, root spacing and so on) to global slope behaviour.

This paper reviews the study of wind induced vibration of transmission power tower-line system. Each fields of research of transmission power tower-line system —analysis model, dynamic characteristic, wind response and vibration control —are systematically introduced. the problem that exist in this stage and the development trend are summarized in the conclusions.

The impacts of wind disturbance on voltage regulation and frequency regulation of power system were studied. The opinion that the regulation of power flow on the tie lines between the grids constrains the integrated capacity of wind power was put forward. Based on the real condition of Inner Mongolia power grid, an engineering practical method was put forward to calculate the integrated capacity of wind power under this constraint. The relationship between wind power and spinning reserve and the impacts of other related factors on the capacity of wind power were studied as well. The impact of wind disturbance on voltage stability where the wind farms are located was studied.

With the advent of the era of knowledge economy, Chinese power enterprises realize that intellectual property is becoming an important intangible asset. How to optimize the management organizational structure of intellectual property right has received increasing attention. This article analyzes the present situation of Chinese power enterprises, sums up the characteristics of advanced enterprises’ management organization structure, and provides an idea of optimization.

In order to meet the need of production and promote the smelting efficiency of converter, Pangang Vanadium-extracting&Steel Making Plant optimized oxygen lance nozzle according to the situation of primary 120t converter semi-steel making and have inspected new oxygen lances smelting effect in industrial test. The test shows that the average oxygen blowing intensity raised 0.19m3/t·min with optimized nozzle, shortened oxygen blowing time by 56s,total iron in final slag reduced 0.7%, dephosphorizing rate rose to 82.10% from 79.06%, which developed a good result.

In Named Data Networking (NDN) content consumers request data by names instead of sending requests to specific destination addresses. This fits shared media particularly well for benefits such as native multicast, mobility support, and fault tolerance. However, since current network interface cards only filter packets based on destination addresses, all NDN packets have to be delivered to software for name-based filtering, resulting in significant CPU overhead. We propose NDN-NIC, a network interface card that filters packets based on their content names, to minimize the CPU overhead while running NDN over shared media. This paper tackles NDN-NIC's main research challenge: using the limited amount of on-chip memory (in tens of kilobytes) to support packet filtering based on a large number of rulesets (in hundreds of thousands). We use Bloom filters to store various name tables on NDN-NIC, and design a number of mechanisms to further adjust the name prefixes that go into the Bloom filters, minimizing false positives under given memory limit. Using traffic traces collected from a department network, simulations show that NDN-NIC with 16KB of memory can filter out 96.30% of all received packets and reduce the main CPU usage by 95.92%.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a vision for interconnecting all of the world's "things" -- from vehicles to diet scales, smart homes and electrical grids -- through a common set of networking technologies. Realizing this vision using a host-to-host communication paradigm, such as that of the Internet Protocol (IP), is challenging in the context of highly heterogeneous, constrained devices that connect intermittently to one or more networks, often using multiple interfaces, communicate within various security regimes, and require both local and global communication capability. Using IP and similar protocols as the narrow waist of interoperability for IoT requires managing data exchange and security in terms that are largely orthogonal to application semantics, while simultaneously needing to minimize resource usage. This paper explores how Named Data Networking (NDN), a proposed future Internet architecture, addresses the root causes of these challenges and can help achieve the IoT vision in a more secure, straightforward, and innovation-friendly manner. NDN's data-centric communication model aligns network and application semantics, enabling developers to work with "things" and their data directly, and for IoT networks to be deployed and configured easily. To substantiate the high-level discussion, we give examples of ongoing design and implementation work in IoT over NDN and compare the architecture to well-known existing protocols and frameworks. Finally, we discuss short-and long-term scenarios for employing NDN to enable the Internet of Things.

In order to promote the fusion of lime in semi-steelmaking, fluorite was used in converter steelmaking to improve the melting slag ratio, while fluorite is very harmful. In order to make best use of the metallurgical slag and improve the scorification problems in semi-steelmaking, PANGGANG Research Institute developed a new type high alumina composite slag, and accomplished industrial application which also achieved good results. They found that this new type slag can improve the melting slag ratio greatly and decrease the times of “re-drying” and “slopping” throughout the converter steelmaking, the slag sate can be good controlled, at the same time the content radio of TFe decreased significantly.

Steelmaking Plant of PZH Steel improves the hitting ratio of independent converter model, by optimizing the terminal controlling model of molten steel, stabilizing the charging load in BOF, accelerating the turnover rapid of ladle, improving the quality of semi-steel into the furnace and optimizing the management of production organization. So the ratio of the direct-tapping is improved and increases to more than 50% now from 25% on average in 2011.

Focus on such problems as low supplying capacity, short furnace life and poor smelting effect during extracting vanadium using combined blowing converter, the structure optimization of bottom blowing brick used to ventilating was studied, the system used to supplying gas was implemented, and the crafts of extracting vanadium with combined blowing technology was developed as well as the protecting technology of brick used to ventilating was applied. The results show that strength of gas supplying of BOF is increased to at least 0.10m3/ (min•t). The combined blowing lifetime is extended, especially reaches to 7455 heats. The proportion of multiple blowing is reached to 100%. The quality o f vanadium slag is improving obviously.

To solve the problems appeared in the initial operation period of 200t BOF such as low heating velocity, high TFe content in final slag, severe lining erosion, etc, optimization of steelmaking process is carried out. Metallurgical effects are greatly improved after optimization: slag-forming time is shortened by 0.9min; oxygen consumption is lowered by 1.5 m3 per ton steel; carbon content of aimed molten iron is increased by 0.031% while oxygen activity of which is decreased by 206ppm. TFe content of BOF slag is reduced by 0.84% on average.

This study investigated the classification error rate of eleven flaws commonly occurred in copper foil. The goal was to online identify the type of the flaw being discovered in order to trace the source of the flaw and act correspondingly. The misclassification rates of four popular classifiers were investigated and compared. The results indicated that the best classification rate can be obtained by choosing Support Vector Machines as the classifier and employing all the ten features. The resulting low classification error rate of 4.41% proved the effectiveness of the derived classifier as well as the suitability of the chosen features.

The objective of this study is to measure flank wear of dry milling 6061 aluminum alloy of different PVD (Physical Vapour Deposition) multilayer coatings (including TiN, TiCN, and TiAlN) single edge rhombus micro-end-milling tools. All of the experiments were designed using the Taguchi method in order to obtain robust results. In order to realize the level of importance of each machining parameter, the L9(34) orthogonal array, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio were determined. The tool wear images are captured using a machine vision system incorporated with an effective corner detection algorithm. During the milling test, we fixed spindle speed at 6000 rpm and feed rate at 0.0125 mm/rev to investigate the correlation between side clearance angle and coating materials. The experimental results show that TiCN-coating mills generate minimum flank wear and longest tool life.

The lance system is one of the important link of converter. Stable and secure of the system is a necessary condition for whole production system to function normally. The numerical simulation for a three-dimensional oxygen lance nozzle was carried out according to the fundamental parameters of PZH steel, the characteristics of the oxygen jet were analyzed and discussed. The oxygen lance nozzle with the optimum design has achieved good results in practice: the average formation time of early slag was reduced by 1 min and 23 seconds, the pure blowing time was reduced by 46 seconds, the oxygen consumption per ton steel decreased by 1.05 m3/t, the rate of dephosphorization was increased by 1.35%, the basicity of slag was reduced by 0.38, the phosphorus and sulfur distribution ratio between slag and liquid iron were also increased effectively.

To improve the production efficiency of converter smelting and keep stabled during refining in Panzhihua Steel, the original nozzle was optimized and industrial tests have been carried out. Results show that the optimized nozzle has a better metallurgical effect on the condition that corrosion of lining is normal, the average volume of oxygen and oxygen supply intensity were increased by 1040 m3/h and 0.27 m3/(t •min） respectively, oxygen consumption was reduced by 1.99m3/t, the blowing time was lowered by 1.06 minutes, TFe content in slag is 19.65%, which is 1.5 percentage point lower than that of the original one. So, a better dephosphorization effect was obtained and metal loss is controlled.

In order to solve the problem of long melting time and low yield rate of carbon while blind coal is used to recarburize, a new carburant is developed to replace blind coal. Experiment results show that compared with the blind coal, the new carbon-manganese alloy carburant obtains a high smelting velocity, and the average carbon yield rate is 92.95%, which increase by 7.67%, the yield rate of manganese is 93.31%, which a little higher than other normal manganese alloys. After carbon-manganese alloy is used to recarburize, logistics time and power consumption are saved and the cost of steel-making is reduced by 1.05 ¥/t. In addition, there is little effect on the quality of steel.

According to the structure of purging plugs, the limit gas flow is obtained through theoretical calculation or practical test, that the minimum gas flow is 45Nm3/h and the maximum gas flow is 200Nm3/h.Different bottom blowing patterns suitable for smelting system were established based on different gas supply conditions about two and four purging plugs, at the same time, the maintenance technology of purging plug is developed under the condition of semi-steel steelmaking, these technologies are technology that is effective to improve the service life of purging plugs. A good result has been obtained after the combined blowing technology was put into production. The life of combined blown converters were greatly improved, the average life of combined blown is over 7000 heats, the life of combined blown can be the same with that of converter, the TFe in the slag is lowered by 3.25%, the [O] in steel is decreased by103PPm, the measured [C]·[O] at the end point of smelting is as high as 0.0026, the yield of alloy is increased significantly.

PurposeThe detection of invisible micro cracks (μ‐cracks) in multi‐crystalline silicon (mc‐si) solar wafers is difficult because of the wafers' heterogeneously textured backgrounds. The difficulty is twofold. First, invisible μ‐cracks must be visualized to imaging devices. Second, an image processing sequence capable of extracting μ‐cracks from the captured images must be developed. The purpose of this paper is to reveal invisible μ‐cracks that lie beneath the surface of mc‐si solar wafers.Design/methodology/approachTo solve the problems, the authors first set up a near infrared (NIR) imaging system to capture images of interior μ‐cracks. After being able to see the invisible μ‐cracks, a region‐growing flaw detection algorithm was then developed to extract μ‐cracks from the captured images.FindingsThe experimental results showed that the proposed μ‐cracks inspection system is effective in detecting μ‐cracks. In addition, the system can also be used for the inspection of silicon solar wafers for stain, pinhole, inclusion and macro cracks. The overall accuracy of the defect detection system is 99.85 percent.Research limitations/implicationsAt present, the developed prototype system can detect μ‐crack down to 13.4 μm. The inspection resolution is high but the speed is low. However, the limitation on inspection speed can easily be lifted by choosing a higher resolution NIR camera.Practical implicationsGenerally, this paper is a great reference for researchers who are interested in developing automatic optical inspection systems for inspecting solar wafer for invisible μ‐cracks.Originality/valueThe research described in this paper makes a step toward developing an effective while low‐cost approach for revealing invisible μ‐crack of mc‐si solar wafers. The advantages provided by the proposed system include excellent crack detection sensitivity, capability of detecting hidden subsurface μ‐cracks, and low cost.

According to the actual characteristics of semi-steel steelmaking of PZH steel, a static model for prediction of the oxygen blow amount and consumption of auxiliary material is established, and an end-point prediction model based on carbon content and temperature of sublance is given. This paper introduced the calculating principle and basic structure about above two models detailed. The results show that, the static model has certain accuracy and reliability of these models are illustrated by actual application.The static model might provide immediately the predicting optimum auxiliary material amount and the oxygen blow amount for operator, which direct the operation in time. The end-point prediction model might give real time prediction for the carbon content and temperature on BOF Endpoint, which has high hitting ratio.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop an effective and reliable corner detection algorithm so as to extract all the desired corners successfully. In addition, the influences of edge detection method as well as smoothing technique on the overall performance of corner detection techniques are investigated.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper, an effective corner detection algorithm based on subpixel edge detector and Gaussian filter is presented. First, a subpixel accuracy edge detector is used rather than a pixel accuracy edge detector to detect edges. Second, B‐splines approximation technique is used to eliminate the staircase effect of a digital curve. Third, curvature curve derived from the edges is smoothed by a Gaussian filter. Finally, statistical process control technique is applied to detect vertices.FindingsThe results show that spatial‐moment outperforms chain code as an edge detector. Furthermore, the Gaussian filter should be used to smooth curvature curve instead of smoothing the profile of an object, because the former provides greater impact on the corner detection results.Originality/valueIn addition to object recognition, motion tracking and obstacle avoidance, the proposed method also has many important engineering and manufacturing applications such as dimensional measuring, reverse engineering, and machine vision‐based computer numerical control (CNC) machining of polygonal sheet metal parts.

This study proposes a tool wear automatic monitoring system based on multiple parameters analysis of cutting force and machine vision technique. A drilling model of cutting parameters (cutting force, coating layer, spindle speed and feed rate) and tool condition (focusing on tool flank wear measurement and analysis) was developed. The experimental design methods developed in this study can be used to optimize cutting parameters efficiently and reliably. The drilling model based on cutting parameters was constructed using Taguchi method. This method enabled evaluation of wear status based on the actual force obtained from a dynamometer. The derived relation is useful for in-process wear monitoring. Tool wear dynamics are extremely complex and not yet fully understood. Therefore, vision-based tool wear monitoring techniques can help elucidate wear progression. In this study, a drilling model based on the machine vision technique was used to establish a direct relation between cutting parameters and tool wear. The object of the experiments was to measure the flank wear of cutting tools with various coatings. The experimental results show that the monitoring system clarifies the relationships between cutting force and multiple cutting parameters.

The purpose of this paper is to monitor the tool wear based on the image data of cutting tool in the face milling operation. The surface images of the different coated inserted blade cutters are captured using a machine vision system incorporating with the mutual information and image similarity analysis technique for processing the images. The milling test is designed by using Taguchi’s method. The experimental results indicate that the coating layer factor is recognized to make the most significant contribution to the over all performance. The TiAlN-surface multilayer coated inserted blade cutter has the least wear rate amongst these coated milling cutters and has the longest tool life in this experiment.

Sixteen cases of tuberculosis of the knee treated by total knee arthroplasty with followup of 3.4 to 11 years were reviewed. Eight cases were treated with antituberculous chemotherapy for 2 to 20 months before and 1 year after the arthroplasty. Another 8 cases were not diagnosed primarily and therefore received only postoperative antituberculous chemotherapy. Five cases had a recurrence of tuberculosis. Four of these 5 cases did not receive preoperative antituberculous treatment. The infection in 1 case was controlled satisfactorily with chemotherapy alone, and for the other 3 cases, chemotherapy was supported by surgical debridements. The last case of recurrent infection occurred in a patient who had received long- standing corticosteroid therapy. He required an excisional arthroplasty to control the infection. The mean functional knee score was 30.5 points before surgery and 82.6 points at the time of the last followup. These results suggest that arthroplasty may be formed for knees badly damaged with tuberculous infection, and good results may be expected for those patients who have received effective antituberculous chemotherapy both before and after surgery. There is a substantial risk of reactivation of tuberculous infection for those patients not treated before surgery or for patients dependent on corticosteroids.

This study proposes a vision-based automatic raw fish handling system to speed up fish cleaning and weighing. The proposed fish weighing system used a camera to capture projected images of fishes. Applying image processing techniques, physical properties of fishes, such as length, width, perimeter and area were obtained. Followed by regression analysis, weight-length, weight-height, weight-perimeter and weight-area relationships were derived. Analysis results of fifty tilapias show that coefficient of determination of the regression equation relating weight and area is 0.9303. The high value suggests that a tilapia's weight is highly correlated with its projected area. Therefore, use a tilapia's area to estimate its weight is justifiable.

The vision-based of automated tool wear monitoring systems are very important and efficient for unmanned machining systems. This research is use the machine vision inspection technique to automatic tool wear monitoring measurement of different coated drills. The tool wear images are captured using a machine vision system incorporating with an effective extract vertex algorithm based on subpixel edge detector and Gaussian filter is presented. Finally, Statically Process Control (SPC) technique is applied to detect vertices. The results show that the proposed algorithm is an effective method for the different coated drilling factor is recognized to make the most significant contribution to the over all performance. The TiAlN-coated drilling has the least wear rate amongst these coated drilling cutters and has the longest tool life in this experiment.

The purpose of this research is to use the visual inspection technique for the automatic tool wear measurement of different coated drills. The tool wear images with the different coated drilling are captured using a machine vision system incorporating with an effective vertex detection algorithm based on subpixel edge detector and Gaussian filter is presented. The results show that the proposed algorithm is an effective method for the different coated drilling factor is recognized to make the most significant contribution to the over all performance. All drilling tests were carried out under dry cutting conditions without any coolant being used, The TiAlN-coated drilling has the least wear rate amongst these coated drilling cutters and has the longest tool life in this experiment

Mammogram registration is a critical step in automatic detection of breast cancer. Much research has been devoted to registering mammograms using either feature-matching or similarity measure. However, few studies have been done on combining these two methods. In this research, a hybrid mammogram registration method is developed by combining feature-based and intensity-based image registration techniques. Besides, internal and external features were used simultaneously during registration to obtain a global spatial transformation. The experimental results indicate that the similarity between the two mammograms increases significantly after a proper registration using the proposed registration procedures.

Hollow fiber membrane modules have their filaments randomly packed in the shell. The maldistribution of flow on the shell side leads to different mass transfer driving forces on the individual fibers. This makes the correct sizing of HFM contactors for process applications uncertain. By use of the method of Voronoi tessellations each fiber can be treated individually and the results summed. This puts us one step closer to an a priori design algorithm. The goal of this work is to develop a self-contained design procedure that will allow chemical process engineers to correctly predict the performance of the unit without the use of totally ad hoc methods.

This study assessed the healing potential of longitudinal or transverse incisions in the peripheral, central, and inner rim regions of rabbit medial menisci. Longitudinal and transverse incisions were made in 48 male New Zealand white rabbits. The incisions were either repaired with sutures or left open. The effect of joint motion on repair was also evaluated. In one group, longitudinal incisions were made in the peripheral, central, and inner rim regions of the meniscus. Some of these incisions were sutured, whereas others were not repaired. In another group, transverse incisions were made in the meniscus, extending from the inner rim to the middle of the meniscus or to the peripheral attachment (radial tear). Again, the lesions were left open or repaired. The effect of joint motion on healing was assessed by immobilizing several knees from each group with Kirschner wires temporarily for ten weeks. Suture of the meniscus incision did not substantially affect the rate of healing. When the healing rates of menisci at the periphery, body, and rim were compared, incisions at the periphery healed significantly better than incisions at the meniscal body and central rim regions. K-wire immobilization did not substantially affect the rate of healing. The difference in healing with regard to the type of incision, either longitudinal or transverse, was not statistically significant.

In our experience arthroscopy proved to be the most reliable method of evaluating internal derangement of the knee. Among 96 patients who underwent arthrotomy, the arthroscopic diagnosis was confirmed in 96 per cent. The combined anteromedial, anterolateral, and posteromedial approaches consistently demonstrated all intraarticular disorders. We found the posterolateral approach of little benefit.

This is a report of a subchondral cyst of the entire fibular head in a 24-year-old woman, and a survey of the literature including pathogenesis, histopathology, and management. Subchondral bone cyst in this location seems not to have been reported previously. The treatment was excision of the head of the fibula.