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N‐myc downstream‐regulated gene (NDRG)4 is widely expressed in human embryonic hearts. The p.T256M variant in NDRG4 resulted in G1 and G2 arrest of human cardiac myocytes, thereby impairing their proliferative ability, which likely contributes towards the pathogenesis of pulmonary atresia with ventricular septal defect and tetralogy of Fallot., Pulmonary atresia with ventricular septal defect (PA/VSD) is a rare congenital heart disease (CHD) characterized by a lack of luminal continuity and blood flow from either the right ventricle or the pulmonary artery, together with VSDs. The prevalence of PA/VSD is about 0.2% of live births and approximately 2% of CHDs. PA/VSD is similar to tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) in terms of structural and pathological characteristics. The pathogenesis of these two CHDs remains incompletely understood. It was previously reported that N‐myc downstream‐regulated gene (NDRG)4 is required for myocyte proliferation during early cardiac development. In the present study, we enrolled 80 unrelated patients with PA/VSD or TOF and identified a probably damaging variant p.T256M of NDRG4. The p.T256M variant impaired the proliferation ability of human cardiac myocytes (hCM). Furthermore, the p.T256M variant resulted in G1 and G2 arrest of hCM, followed by an increase in p27 and caspase‐9 expression. Our results provide evidence that the p.T256M variant in NDRG4 is a pathogenic variant associated with impaired hCM proliferation and cell‐cycle arrest and likely contributes towards the pathogenesis of PA/VSD and TOF.

In this paper, a real-time distributed path planning method is developed for cooperatively tracking ground moving target in urban by multiple fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). For reasons of changeable movement of target, the commanded speed and turning rate of each UAV are both taken as control input variables. In urban environment, buildings may occlude the line of sight of on-board sensor. Hence the target coverage degree is proposed as objective function instead of distance. To save energy of UAV system as much as possible, the control input cost and sensor energy consumption are also taken as objectives. For preemptive priority requirement, the objective functions are fuzzified and the satisfactory degree order is designed to model priority. To guarantee the feasibility of solution, the varying domain is introduced to replace the strict order constraint. On this basis, generalized varying domain (GVD) method is developed to balance optimization and priority. In terms of the maneuverability of UAVs, the diverse constraints are considered, including real speed and turning rate, control input saturation, collision avoidance between UAVs, and obstacle avoidance between UAV and buildings. Consequently, distributed model predictive control (DMPC) strategy is designed to calculate the optimal path of each UAV, where the state information in finite period of UAV is transferred to the adjacent ones. The simulations show the effectiveness of proposed method by comparing with hierarchical optimization (HO).

PurposeEmerging studies suggest that low-pass genome sequencing (GS) provides additional diagnostic yield of clinically significant copy-number variants (CNVs) compared with chromosomal microarray analysis (CMA). However, a prospective back-to-back comparison evaluating accuracy, efficacy, and incremental yield of low-pass GS compared with CMA is warranted.MethodsA total of 1023 women undergoing prenatal diagnosis were enrolled. Each sample was subjected to low-pass GS and CMA for CNV analysis in parallel. CNVs were classified according to guidelines of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics.ResultsLow-pass GS not only identified all 124 numerical disorders or pathogenic or likely pathogenic (P/LP) CNVs detected by CMA in 121 cases (11.8%, 121/1023), but also defined 17 additional and clinically relevant P/LP CNVs in 17 cases (1.7%, 17/1023). In addition, low-pass GS significantly reduced the technical repeat rate from 4.6% (47/1023) for CMA to 0.5% (5/1023) and required less DNA (50 ng) as input.ConclusionIn the context of prenatal diagnosis, low-pass GS identified additional and clinically significant information with enhanced resolution and increased sensitivity of detecting mosaicism as compared with the CMA platform used. This study provides strong evidence for applying low-pass GS as an alternative prenatal diagnostic test.

Background Advances have been made in identifying genetic etiologies and maternal risk factors of congenital heart defects (CHDs), while few literatures are available regarding paternal risk factors for CHDs. Thus, we aim to conduct a meta‐analysis and systematic review about the non‐genetic paternal risk factors for CHDs. Methods We searched the PubMed, MEDLINE, and Cochrane Library online databases and identified 31 studies published between 1990 and 2018 according to the inclusion criteria. Paternal risk factors were divided into subgroups, and summarized odd ratios (OR) were calculated. Results Paternal age between 24 and 29 years decreased the risk of CHDs in the offspring (OR = 0.90 [0.82, 0.98]), while paternal age ≥ 35 years old increased the risk of CHDs (35‐39 years old: OR = 1.14 [1.09, 1.19], and ≥ 40 years: OR = 1.27 [1.14, 1.42]). Paternal cigarette smoking increased the risk of CHDs in a dose‐dependent way. Paternal wine drinking (OR = 1.47 [1.05, 2.07]) and exposure to chemical agents or drugs (OR = 2.15 [1.53, 3.02]) also increased the risk of CHDs. Some specific paternal occupations were also associated with increased risk for CHDs or CHD subtypes including factory workers, janitors, painters, and plywood mill workers. Conclusions This meta‐analysis and systematic review suggested that advanced paternal age, cigarette smoking, wine drinking, exposure to chemical agents or drugs and some specific occupations were associated with an increased risk of CHDs. More measures should be taken to reduce occupational and environment exposures. At the same time, fertility at certain age and establishment of healthy life habits are strongly recommended.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the utility of expanded non-invasive prenatal screening (NIPS), compared with chromosomal microarray analysis (CMA), for the detection of chromosomal abnormalities in high-risk pregnancies. METHODS This was a multicenter retrospective study of singleton pregnancies at high risk for chromosomal abnormality. Patients who underwent expanded NIPS and CMA sequentially during pregnancy from 2015 to 2019 were included in the analysis. Pregnancies with a positive result for sex chromosome aneuploidy were excluded as the full details could not be retrieved. The utility of expanded NIPS and CMA for detection of chromosomal abnormalities in this cohort was compared by assessing the concordance between the results. RESULTS Of the 774 included high-risk pregnancies, 550 (71.1%) had a positive NIPS result, while a positive CMA result was detected in 308 (39.8%) cases. The rate of full or partial concordance between NIPS and CMA was 82.2%, 59.6% and 25.0% for trisomies 21, 18 and 13, respectively. For rare aneuploidies and segmental imbalances, NIPS and CMA results were fully or partially concordant in 7.5% and 33.3% of cases, respectively. Copy-number variants

Background Somatic mutations are an important prognostic factor in chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML). However, limited data are available regarding their impact on outcomes after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). In this registry analysis conducted via the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR) as well as its sample repository, we analyzed the landscape of somatic mutations in patients with CMML and their impact on post-HCT outcomes. Methods Using the CIBTMR database, adult patients with CMML who underwent HCT from 2001-2017 with an available specimen in the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) repository were identified; samples were collected prior to the start of conditioning. Patients who received umbilical cord blood, syngeneic, or haploidentical HCT or patients with disease transformation to acute myeloid leukemia prior to HCT were excluded. The primary endpoint was overall survival (OS); secondary endpoints included disease-free survival (DFS), relapse/progression, treatment-related mortality (TRM); survival outcomes were calculated from time of HCT. A mutation analysis for 131 genes recurrently mutated in myeloid disorders was performed. Results We identified 313 patients across 78 centers who met inclusion criteria with available samples. The median age was 64, and 69% were male. By World Health Organization (WHO) criteria, 53%, 20%, and 9% of patients had CMML-0, -1, and -2, respectively. By French-American-British (FAB) criteria, 76% of patients had dysplastic (MD)-CMML and 24% had proliferative (MP)-CMML. The majority (61%) had received hypomethylating therapy prior to HCT, and 76% of HCT were from a matched unrelated donor. Distribution of patients by CMML-specific prognostic scoring system (CPSS) score was 29% low, 25% intermediate-1, 31% intermediate-2, and 4% high (11% missing). Distribution of patients by clinical/molecular CPSS (CPSS-Mol) score was 12% low, 17% intermediate-1, 38% intermediate-2, and 25% high (8% missing). Of the 313 patients studied, 290 (93%) had 1+ pathogenic mutation identified, and the median number of mutations was 3. The most frequently mutated genes were ASXL1 (62%), TET2 (35%), KRAS/NRAS (33% combined), and SRSF2 (31%); TP53 was mutated in 3% of patients (Figure 1). U2AF1 mutations were significantly correlated with MD-CMML, and ASXL1, EZH2, KIT, and SRSF2 mutations were significantly correlated with MP-CMML. The CPSS score was correlated with OS and DFS on univariate analysis, and the CPSS-Mol score was correlated with OS and TRM (Figure 2). Neither scoring system was predictive for progression/relapse. In multivariable analysis, as compared to a CPSS score of low, intermediate-2 (hazard ratio [HR]=1.46, p=0.049) or high (HR=3.22, p=0.0004) correlated significantly with overall survival (OS) (table 1a). When CPSS-Mol was applied, a high score (HR=2, p=0.0079) correlated significantly with OS (table 1b). In multivariable analysis, DNMT3A and TP53 mutations were associated with decreased OS (HR=1.70, p=0.0147; and HR=2.72, p=0.0042, respectively) while DNMT3A, JAK2, and TP53 mutations were associated with decreased DFS (HR=1.66, p=0.0138; HR=1.79, p=0.0293; and HR=2.94, p=0.0018, respectively). The only mutation associated with increased relapse was TP53 (HR =2.94, p=0.0201). DNMT3A was associated with increased TRM(HR=1.89, p=0.0388) and PTPN11 was associated with decreased TRM (HR=0.205, p=0.0300). Goodness of fit was calculated by Harrell's C-index for CPSS and CPSS-Mol for OS, DFS, relapse, and TRM. For CPSS, the results were 0.56, 0.55, 0.52, and 0.56, respectively while for the CPSS-Mol they were 0.57, 0.55, 0.55, and 0.58, respectively. Conclusion Our study is the largest analysis of CMML patients who underwent HCT with paired mutation analysis. Via registry data we have provided the mutational landscape in patients with CMML who underwent HCT and demonstrated a strong association between CPSS-Mol and transplant outcomes although without major improvement in the risk prediction beyond the CPSS. Figure 1 Figure 1. Disclosures Mei: TG Therapeutics: Research Funding; EUSA: Honoraria; Epizyme: Research Funding; BMS: Research Funding; Morphosys: Research Funding; Janssen: Honoraria; Beigene: Research Funding. Sobecks: CareDX: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Scott: Bristol Myers Squibb: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding. Saber: Govt. COI: Other.

Two methods (equivalent force method and segmental mode assuming method) of calculating the natural frequencies and mode shapes of a free-free-multi-supported beam subjected to an axial load is found, considering the structure characteristic of the guide bar, which has long length but small section, and supported by many bearings. The calculation shows that these two methods are convenient for computer programing and have the same results in obtaining the natural frequencies and mode shapes of a free-free-multi-supported beam subjected to an axial load, solving the problem that the vibration function of this kind of beam is hard to deal with because it cannot be simplified with the boundary condition of two ends. Then the segmental mode assuming method is used to analyze the impact of the support location on the natural frequencies and mode shapes of the guide bar. The relation graphs of the natural frequencies with support location, as well as the support locations where the natural frequencies reached the maximum and the minimum are found, providing a reference for the support location selection for the guide bar. The changing curves of the mode shapes with support location are plotted, which show that the bending deformation is homogeneous when the length of each segment is approximately equal, avoiding the phenomenon that bending stresses concentrates at the large-amplitude segments and cause breakage while less stress exists in small-amplitude segments and hinder the exploiting of their performance, providing a reference for the structure design of the guide bar.

Chronic Heart Failure (CHF) is a complex clinical syndrome with a high incidence worldwide. Although various types of pharmacological and device therapies are available for CHF, the prognosis is not ideal, for which, the control of increased Heart Rate (HR) is critical. Recently, a bradycardic agent, ivabradine, is found to reduce HR by inhibiting the funny current (If). The underlying mechanism states that ivabradine can enter the Hyperpolarization-activated Cyclic Nucleotide-gated (HCN) channels and bind to the intracellular side, subsequently inhibiting the If. This phenomenon can prolong the slow spontaneous phase in the diastolic depolarization, and thus, reduce HR. The clinical trials demonstrated the significant effects of the drug on reducing HR and improving the symptoms of CHF with fewer adverse effects. This review primarily introduces the chemical features and pharmacological characteristics of ivabradine and the mechanism of treating CHF. Also, some expected therapeutic effects on different diseases were also concluded. However, ivabradine, as a typical If channel inhibitor, necessitates additional research to verify its pharmacological functions.

Bifurcation and chaos characteristics of single phase power converter in switched reluctance motor (SRM) drive system are studied by establishing its corresponding discrete iterative map model in this article. The discrete iterative map model of the converter is first derived. The stability theoretical analysis shows that the system may lose stability as the variation of system parameters in periodic-1 operation. With the bifurcation diagrams and Lyapunov exponents’ analyses, the operation state regions of current-controlled single phase of SRM drive can shift among stable periodic-1 region, chaos region and multi-periodic region. To verify the theoretical analysis results, time-domain waveforms and power spectra of current-controlled single phase of SRM drive are obtained by Runge–Kutta algorithm. Moreover, theoretical analysis and simulation results are verified by experimental circuit.

Aiming at reducing the energy-consumption of ammonia recycling system, we presented floating condensing temperature control to maximize the coefficient of performance (COP) of the system. Firstly, thermodynamic models for the compressor and evaporative condenser were developed respectively. Then, an evaluation index and a solution scheme were proposed to determine the optimal set point of condensing temperature and the corresponding compressor speed. It is found that the system COP can be maximized by controlling the compressor speed to adjust the set point based on any given operating conditions. When the wet-bulb temperature is 22 °C, the system COP could be improved by 19.2–27.6% under floating condensing temperature control.

Aiming at improving heat utilization of the evaporative condenser in the equipment of flax fiber modification, we proposed a new method to control the main factors that affect the heat exchange of the evaporative condenser. Firstly, a steady-state mathematical model was developed to evaluate the heat exchange of evaporative condenser after analyzing the heat exchange process of ammonia recovery system in the modification equipment and the thermal mass transfer process of evaporative condenser on details. Then, the thermal load of evaporative condenser was computed and analyzed through the numerical simulation. It is found that the suction pressure of compressor has obvious influence on the thermal load of evaporative condenser. Besides, under the maximum suction pressure, the thermal load is 291.4 kW, and the corresponding air speed and spraying water volumetric flow rate are 2.5 m/s and 12 m 3 /h, respectively. When the thermal load decreases, the air speed and spraying water volumetric flow rate are adjusted accordingly.

Solar cell model is used in various studies of photovoltaic system. Different methods have been developed to determine model parameters. In this paper, an optimization technique based on cat swarm optimization (CSO) algorithm is proposed to estimate the unknown parameters of single and double diode models. To investigate the effectiveness of proposed approach, comparative studies with other techniques are presented. The evaluation for the quality of identified parameters is also given. Results demonstrate the high performance of developed approach, high accuracy of estimated parameters, and calculated I–V curve is in good agreement with experimental I–V data. In addition, the sensitivity of performance to control parameter of CSO is also investigated. Results show the proposed CSO algorithm can be an effective tool to solve the optimization problem of parameter identification of solar cell models.

A high precision time delay calibration system based on optical fiber switches and fiber coils network for the satellite range measurement system is proposed in this paper. To reach the high time delay precision, the Phase Stabilized Optical Fiber (PSOF), is proposed to use as time delay component instead of the Single Mode Fiber (SMF) to minimize the temperature dependence of transmission delay time. In order to verify the time delay precision, a low coherence interferometry which contains a Michelson interferometer and a Mach-Zehnder interferometer is used to measure the thermal coefficient of delay of the PSOF compared with the SMF from −20 to 60℃. The result showed that by using the PSOF, the temperature error can be decreased by 4.15 times compared with using the standard SMF in the fiber based range measurement system.

The objective is to explore the feasibility of ultrasound technology for quantitative analysis of wool in blended fabrics with chemical dissolution. Two varieties of mixture fabric with wool content of 45.1 and 16.7% were employed and were dissolved in solution of sodium hypochlorite with ultrasound assistance at different frequencies of 20, 28 and 40 kHz. By statistical method, the data for both blends indicated that there were no significant difference among the three ultrasound frequencies when applied to textile quantitative chemical analysis. For evaluation of ultrasound reliability, two insoluble materials were dissolved in sodium hypochlorite. Relative errors showed that ultrasound has little impact on the quality of insoluble fibers as well as mechanical stirring. Compared with mechanical agitation, wool was dissolved completely in a short time and at low liquor ratio when assisted with ultrasound. The results suggested that it was feasible to quantitatively analyze the wool in blended fabrics wit...

We report the first study of using optical coherence tomography (OCT) to inspect the winding quality of fiber optical gyro coils. We use a swept-source OCT system to scan a quadrupole-wind fiber coil for obtaining its two-dimensional and three-dimensional (3D) tomographic images. The defects beneath the surface of the fiber coil, which otherwise are invisible by video inspection, can be clearly identified with such tomographic images. The winding quality of each layer can also be independently visualized with the reconstructed 3D images from different angles or in different sections. We believe that the proposed method will be useful to ensuring the quality production of each and every fiber gyro coil.

We present methods and processes of using a ghost-peak-free distributed polarization crosstalk analyzer (DPXA) to accurately obtain all polarization related parameters of polarization-maintaining (PM) fibers. We show that by first inducing a series equidistant periodic polarization crosstalk peaks along a PM fiber and then measuring the positions and the widths of these peaks using the analyzer, all birefringence related parameters of the PM fiber, including group birefringence, group birefringence variation along the fiber, group birefringence dispersion, and group birefringence temperature coefficient , can be accurately obtained. We further show that the DPXA has the ability to identify and eliminate polarization crosstalk contributions of connectors or splices in the measurement system and therefore can be used to obtain high accuracy measurement of the polarization extinction ratio (PER) of PM fibers. Finally, we propose a set of parameters based on the distributed polarization analysis to quantitatively evaluate the quality of PM fibers. We believe that the methods and processes described in this paper can be widely applied in the industry for the complete characterization of PM optical fibers.

A new technology of lattice distortion modification of cotton/linen fiber and yarn is introduced in this paper. The process parameters and control requirements in the lattice distortion modification processing are analyzed for designing its control system, The hardware system is designed using the Omron PLC as control core and the human-computer interaction interface is built by using configuration software. At last, a real time accurate program on fuzzy compensated decoupling control of the temperature and pressure in the modification process is presented. The test production results show that the control system designed totally meets the production requirements of the lattice distortion modification of cotton/linen fiber and yarn.

In order to meet the technical production requirements of the ammonia modification equipment, this paper develops a set of electrical control system based on Omron CJ2M Series PLC, including the configuration of the hardware and software, the assignment of the input/output, and the design of communication system. The control system provides a perfect human-machine interaction and realizes the automation control of the devices.Through actual application, this control system can meet the control requirements of the ammonia modification production and raise the production automation level of the factory and increase labor productivity.

This paper provides a method of multi-sensor data detection and fusion, aims to resolve the data measurement inaccurate problem in the process variable control system of the ammonia modification equipment. First, it establishes the sensor data measurement model and calculates mutual support level of the multiple sensors, using boundary value judgment method to produce the multiple-sensor mutual support level matrix, the total number of mutual support level for one sensor in the matrix is the weight value of this sensor, and finally the normalized weighted average data fusion (NWADF) method is used for data process.Experimental results show that the proposed method for multi-sensor data fusion can effectively be used to identify the abnormal data in multi-sensor measurement system and improve the accuracy and stability of the process variable data measurement.

In this paper, a comprehensive modeling and parameters extraction method is proposed to describe the current–voltage and power–voltage characteristic of photovoltaic cells. This method is based on data commonly issued by commercial photovoltaic data sheet. By using Lambert W function, the improved model of solar cells is given. Meanwhile, the current–voltage and power–voltage curves of photovoltaic cells are calculated. To extract the model parameters from only three state points at standard test conditions, an optimized approach using iterative method and approximate method is presented. Compared to the popular R p model and experimental data, the proposed method shows excellent agreement between the current–voltages points. It is found that the proposed modeling and parameters extraction method has less error at the maximum power point state. Moreover, the proposed model is more realistic when subjected to ideality factors variations.

Noninvasive glucose monitoring (NIGM) techniques based on optical coherence tomography (OCT) are affected by several perturbing factors, including variation of tissue temperature. We first design a temperature control module integrated with an optical scanning probe to precisely control the temperature of skin tissues. We investigate the influence of temperature on NIGM with OCT by correlation analysis at different depths of in vivo human skin. On average, the relative changes in attenuation coefficient (µt) per 1 °C of temperature lead to 0.30 ± 0.097 mmol/L prediction error of blood glucose concentration. For NIGM measurement methods using optical properties of the tissues, this effect can be taken into account.

The type of Solar panels in photovoltaic power generating system is generally photovoltaic array. On the basis of the photovoltaic array mathematical model for engineering , using the mathematical software MATLAB Simulink tool to build a photovoltaic array simulation model and utilizing monitoring data acquired by the detection system-Sunny Sensor Box-for Donghua University photovoltaic power generating system, the mathematical model of the PV array for engineering is optimized and the optimization includes linear and natural exponential optimization. Furthermore, higher accuracy of the optimized models is validated.

Tufted carpet is one of the most used carpets. The penetration force of needle is an important factor in tufting process. Few know how to calculate the penetration force during the tufting, although the principle is one of the least understood processes. This paper presents our research on using finite element method (FEM) to study the penetration force of needle during tufting. In this study, the model is developed using ABAQUS software, and the material properties of nonwoven fabric are approximately modeled by linear elastic orthogonal anisotropic continuum. The required engineering constants were obtained from experimental test. A user-defined subroutine VUMAT for characterizing the constitutive relationship of the orthogonal anisotropy nonwoven fabric and the damage evolution was compiled and connected with a commercial software package ABAQUS/Explicit to calculate the penetration force. At the same time, needle penetration force was tested by sensor mounted on needle bar of tufting machine. It was f...

We present a novel method to significantly extend the measurement range of an optical frequency domain reflectometry (OFDR) beyond the laser coherence length for both discrete reflection (such as Fresnel reflection) and Rayleigh backscattering measurements. A key to the method is to increase the laser frequency tuning speed while measuring the phase noise of the reflected optical signal that carries the location and reflectivity information. Using this technique in a conventional OFDR with a noise floor of -120ndB and a dynamic range of 53 dB, we achieved a measurable distance of 170 km for Fresnel reflection and 120 km for Rayleigh backscattering using a laser with a coherence length of only 13.6 km.

For a determination of the system’s efficiency and decrease the cost, a low cost system for measuring solar irradiance is designed. By analyzing the influence of solar irradiance and temperature to solar cell, we have found that in case of different temperatures the variation of short-circuit current (Isc) in function of solar irradiation incident (E) is always linear. Then the read-out circuitry is designed to measure and convert the signal which is detected by the photoelectric cell and thermocouples. At last, the software is developed to compensate the temperature and make sure the device work normally. The results of detecting the system show that it’s effective and reliable.

For cotton/linen fibers, yarns and other textile raw materials have natural weak points such as rough, easy to wrinkle and shrink, poor dyeability and so on, which are bad for clothing, this paper develops a lattice distortion modification processing technology of cotton/linen fibers and yarns, including the modification equipment and the process flow. After processed by this new modification technology, the performances of cotton/linen fibers and yarns, like softness, smoothness, fluffiness and dyeing properties improved significantly, which meet the product's quality requirements. Therefore, this lattice distortion processing technology can be popularized as a basic technology in the textile field.

Focusing on the residual amount of liquid ammonia in modified cotton yarn, this paper presents a new method of drying the liquid ammonia by microwave. An experimental system is designed to find whether this new method is correct and to analyse the effect of microwave drying on the dyeing rate of cutton yarn. Firstly, the microwave drying experiment is carried out to prove that this new drying method is better than the traditional steam drying way. Then, another contrast experiment on the dyeing rate confirms the good effect of microwave drying. So it is concluded that microwave drying is an efficient and energy-saving way to remove the remaining liquid ammonia. Meanwhile, the experimental results provide the relevant data to make guiding sense to engineering application.

Based on the theory of structure impact dynamic and numerical optimization, application of SQP algorithm in nonlinear parameter inversion is demonstrated in this paper by combining the optimization software and finite element software. Parameter inversion of thin-walled cylinder subjected to axial impact load is studied. The material parameters of thin-walled cylinder are obtained from inversion; besides, the whole process of numerical optimization parameter inversed method is demonstrated.

The yarn tension is a key factor to accurately control carpet pile height, which changes with the yarn path and the path flexing. The purpose of this paper is to find the relationship between yarn path and yarn tension and provide a basis for the yarn tension controller design. Firstly, tufting equipment system components and basic principle of tufting carpet is introduced. Then, the yarn path during weaving tufting carpet including yarn feeding parts, yarn guiders and tufting needle is constructed and yarn flexing in the yarn path is analyzed. After discussing yarn tension change caused by the path flexing, it is concluded that yarn tension changes with the tufting needle position and periodic change with the yarn flexing periodic change.

Through collocating colorized yarns and patterning weaving, a variety patterns of tufting carpet are realized. Patterning system is the core in tufting carpet machine; its performance determines the whole machine’s performance and weaving quality. In this paper, the patterning principle of single electronic-roller such as electromagnetic clutch type, servo motor type and step motor type, and the mulriple patterning principle such as two types or more than two types Electronic-Roller, was researched, the corresponding patterning mechanisms was designed, the approach realizing various patterning ways in mulriple patterning was exposited. The patterning principle exposited in this paper solves the general problem in designing patterning mechanism. The patterning systems developped on this principle have been applied in a variety of tufting carpet machines, and a variety of high precision carpet products have been woven.

Precise pile height is an essential quality measurement for sculptured-style jacquard carpet. Correct yarn tension analysis is the key to accurately control carpet pile height during manufacturing carpet. This paper described a standard tufting equipment system with essential components in the yarn path. The relationship of pile height and pile tension is formulated. The А.П.МИНаКОВ’s Euler formula is introduced into yarn tension modeling which including the yarn guides, sub-line frame, and puller rollers parts. Finally, this tension model is validated by comparing yarn tension simulation result data and experimental measuring data.

In this paper, the non-linear tranverse vibration of an axially moving pile-yarn with time-dependent tension are investigated. The pile-yarn material is modeled as Kelvin-Voigt element. A partial-differential equation governing the transverse vibration is derived from the Newton’s second law. The Galerkin method and the fourth order Runge-Kutta method are used to solve the governing non-linear differential equation. The effects of the transport speed, the tension perturbation amplitude and the damping coefficient on the dynamic behaviour of the system are numerically investigated.

During weaving tufting carpet, the improper stop position of tufting machine will result in stop mark, which influences the carpet quality. In this thesis, through theory analysis and experiment research, the influence rule on the stop position of tufting machine to loop yarn tension and to loop-height has been obtained, and a method of eliminating stop mark by stopping machine in high has been put forward. The technology experiment has proved that when it overlaps partly with high position signal, a fixed position of stopping tufting machine in high has been realized by sending out stop instruction and stopping the tufting machine by a brake cylinder, and the best result of eliminating stop mark has achieved.

The tension of warp and weft run through the whole weaving process in knitted carpet weaving equipment. The performance of delivering warp mechanism and guiding weft mechanism in this kind of equipment influences the quality of carpet directly. A self-adjusting delivering warp mechanism is designed in this thesis, which is used in knitted carpet weaving equipment or other textile equipment that delivers warp by warp-spindle and demands even warp tension. The self-adjusting delivering warp mechanism consists of the device for setting and detecting warp tension, the device for driving warp-spindle in different speed, and the device for transmitting warp-spindle movement. The device for setting and detecting warp tension can determine initialization tension of warp, according to the technical requirements, can detect and feed back warp tension in real time. The device for driving warp-spindle in different speed makes the rotating speed of warp-spindle change according to the warp tension. The self-adjusting delivering warp mechanism realizes the function on controlling the rotating speed of warp-spindle in closed loop, and on stabilizing delivering warp tension.

We have developed an innovative way to establish a functional bridge around a spinal lesion. We disconnected the T13 nerve from its muscle targets, leaving the proximal end intact. The cut end was inserted either into an intact spinal cord, to assess regeneration of T13 axons into the cord and synapse formation with spinal neurons, or caudal to a hemisection at L2/3, to assess restoration of function below the injury. Four to 28 weeks later, anterograde tracers indicated that axons from the inserted T13 nerve regenerated into the ventral horn, the intermediate zone, and dorsal horn base, both in intact and hemisected animals. Antibodies to cholinergic markers showed that many regenerating axons were from T13 motoneurons. Electrical stimulation of the T13 nerve proximal to the insertion site 4 weeks or more after insertion into the intact cord evoked local field potentials in the intermediate zone and ventral horn, which is where T13 axons terminated. Stimulation of T13 in 71% of the animals (8 hemisected, 7 intact) evoked contraction of the back or leg muscles, depending on the level of insertion. Animals in which T13 was inserted caudal to hemisection had significantly less spasticity and muscle wasting and greater mobility at the hip, knee, ankle, and digits in the ipsilateral hindlimb than did animals with a hemisection only. Thus, T13 motor axons form novel synapses with lumbosacral motor circuits. Because the T13 motor neurons retain their connections to the brain, these novel circuits might restore voluntary control to muscles paralyzed below a spinal lesion.

An adaptive speckle denoising method called Volume-BM3D is developed for optical coherence tomography (OCT) volume data processing, including an adaptive noise level estimation algorithm and a denoising strategy based on block-matching and filtering in a highly sparse local 3-D transform domain. Noise level estimation, an important step for denoising, is obtained from estimating signal fluctuations among neighboring A-Scans. Unlike 2-D denoising approaches, the Volume-BM3D considers the similarities of tissue structures either in a single 2-D image or in a volume data simultaneously. It not only effectively suppresses speckle noise, but also improves the visualization of small morphological features, such as sweat glands in finger images. Application of this proposed method to the OCT volume data of a human finger tip shows an 18.4-dB signal-to-noise ratio improvement in speckle noise reduction with little edge blurring. It outperforms other filtering methods in suppressing speckle noises and revealing attenuated subtle features.

This paper investigates the dynamic characteristics of magnetic shaft coupling by modelling and simulation. A dynamic model of magnetic shaft coupling is developed and simplified by linearisation at the equilibrium point of steady state. The simulation results indicate that magnetic shaft coupling could lessen mechanical shock during starting process. The linearisation error is computed and analysed. The dynamic block-diagram of the linearised model is simplified and arranged, and then a typical second order oscillating system is achieved. Further, the dynamic characteristics of the oscillating system are discussed.

We present a method to accurately measure the polarization parameters of high birefringence polarization-maintaining (PM) fibers using a distributed polarization analyzer. By measuring a equidistant periodic cross-talks peaks along the PM fiber induced by the pressure of an thin metal cylinder between the spool and the wound fiber, the group birefringence perturbations along the length of PM fiber can be accurately obtained. By finding the widths of measured cross-talk envelopes at known distances along the PM fiber, the birefringence dispersion variable of fiber can be obtained. By analyzing cross-talk peaks purposely induced at both ends of the PM fiber, the temperature coefficient of group birefringence can be accurately obtained.

This paper describes the combined use of computational intelligence procedures and materials data for monitoring and controlling the growth of thin films using molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). Given ellipsometry data (Ψ and Δ) at a specific wavelength, a genetic algorithm-like method is used to solve an inverse problem, and estimate values of the complex refractive index and the deposition rate. Using a set of such values at different wavelengths, and combining the use of multiwavelength spectroscopic materials data and computational intelligence procedures, it is then possible to provide an optimal estimate of the composition of the material being deposited. Control of the film growth is then accomplished through adjustments of cell temperatures. This procedure is described in this paper, and examples of monitoring and control results are reported for the system of AlxGa1−xAs film on GaAs substrate.

We describe a phenomenon called polarization-induced sidebands (PIS) in Rayleigh backscatter spectra (RBS) and discuss its deteriorating effects on the distributed strain measurement using an optical frequency-domain reflectometry. We propose using a special polarization diversity detection scheme to remove PIS and successfully demonstrate accurate distributed strain measurement in the range of 0.75 μɛ–225 μɛ in a 50 m standard single mode fiber, with a good linearity between the strain and the spectra shift in RBS.

We introduce a parameter called pointing error thermal sensitivity (PETS) for quantitatively determining the quality of a quadrupolar (QAD) fiber coil under radial temperature variations. We show both analytically and experimentally that the pointing error of a fiber gyro incorporating the fiber coil is linearly proportional to the final radial thermal gradient on the coil, with PETS as the proportional constant. We further show that PETS is linearly proportional to another parameter called effective asymmetric length of the coil. By thermally inducing different radial thermal gradients on the fiber coil and measuring the corresponding pointing errors in a gyroscopic measurement setup, we can confidently determine the PETS of the fiber coil and its associated effective asymmetric length caused by imperfections in coil winding. Consequently, we are able to precisely trim the coil to achieve best thermal performance.

We present several advanced techniques for evaluating the quality of fiber gyro coils, including characterizing the temperature and vibration transient characteristics of fiber coils, monitoring polarization-maintaining fiber (PMF) coil winding quality using distributed polarization crosstalk analyzer (DPXA) during production, and the defect detection of fiber coil using optical coherence tomography (OCT). To the best of authors' knowledge, this is the first report of using OCT for fiber coil inspection. The use of these new techniques can effectively improve and guarantee the quality of the fiber gyro coils.

We present a method to accurately measure the group birefringence variation with temperature in high-birefringence polarization-maintaining (PM) fibers using a distributed polarization analyzer. By analyzing polarization cross-talk peaks purposely induced at both ends of a PM fiber, the temperature coefficient of group birefringence can be accurately obtained. We confirm the theoretical prediction that the group birefringence of PANDA and TIGER PM fibers decrease linearly with temperature from -40 °C to 80 °C, and find that the temperature coefficients are -5.93 × 10(-7) °C(-1) and -5.29 × 10(-7) °C(-1) for two types of PANDA fibers, and -5.36 × 10(-7) °C(-1) for a TIGER fiber.

A new approach to dimension-reduction mapping of multidimensional pattern data is presented. The motivation for this work is to provide a computationally efficient method for visualizing large bodies of complex multidimensional data as a relatively "topologically correct" lower dimensional approximation. Examples of the use of this approach in obtaining meaningful two-dimensional (2-D) maps and comparisons with those obtained by the self-organizing map (SOM) and the neural-net implementation of Sammon's approach are also presented and discussed. In this method, the mapping equalizes and orthogonalizes the lower dimensional outputs by reducing the covariance matrix of the outputs to the form of a constant times the identity matrix. This new method is computationally efficient and "topologically correct" in interesting and useful ways.

This paper presents a new method to measure the characteristic parameter of the laser holographic anti-counterfeiting label, with less dependency on the stability of source light. The He-Ne laser, having 5% relative instability, was used as the light source. Based on the nature that one beam of light can be divided into two beams at a fixed ratio, the source light was divided into the reflex and the transmission at the fixed ratio by a piece of glass. As the label was scanned automatically, the intensities of the reflex and the diffraction were measured online and in real time to get the SNR. The data table for contrast was given, which showed the differences between the real value and the calculated value of the intensity of the transmission as the incident beam. The measurement results of the SNR of 8 different versions of labels were also listed. The experimental data demonstrate that the relative error of the transmission intensity is not more than 0.29%, and that of the SNR is less than 2.0%, which is approximately half the error of the original method.

We present detailed measurement results of optical attenuation’s thermal coefficients (referenced to the temperature of the skin surface) in different depth regions of in vivo human forearm skins using optical coherence tomography (OCT). We first design a temperature control module with an integrated optical probe to precisely control the surface temperature of a section of human skin. We propose a method of using the correlation map to identify regions in the skin having strong correlations with the surface temperature of the skin and find that the attenuation coefficient in these regions closely follows the variation of the surface temperature without any hysteresis. We observe a negative thermal coefficient of attenuation in the epidermis. While in dermis, the slope signs of the thermal coefficient of attenuation are different at different depth regions for a particular subject, however, the depth regions with a positive (or negative) slope are different in different subjects. We further find that the magnitude of the thermal coefficient of attenuation coefficient is greater in epidermis than in dermis. We believe the knowledge of such thermal properties of skins is important for several noninvasive diagnostic applications, such as OCT glucose monitoring, and the method demonstrated in this paper is effective in studying the optical and biological properties in different regions of skin.

This paper provides a perspective for understanding the role of neural-net computing in signal and image understanding and also presents new results in the matter of dimension reduction for facilitating that task. Neural-net signal processing is viewed from the perspective of function estimation. In that practice, a critical step is the choice of an (approximate) basis for spanning the function space. The image of the input data in that function space is also an "internal representation" of the data. Once generated, the basis can be improved through regularization, SVD conditioning and so on. This paper describes a nonlinear variance-constrained transformation of the input data which can result in dimension reduction and has characteristics similar to principal component extraction or conditioning. An application of the method to optimization is also described.