Monitoring of NO2 in the ambient air with passive samplers before and after a road reconstruction event

Nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) concentrations were used to evaluate the air quality before and after the infrastructural change of an important traffic artery in Mortsel, Antwerp (Belgium). During the reconstruction works two pairs of traffic lanes were reduced to one in each direction. Two sampling campaigns were conducted: the first one before the works in 2003 and the second one in 2005, after the road works were finished. Sampling was performed on a weekly base with the use of passive diffusion tubes on the streets, and also indoors in nearby houses. The samples were analyzed by ion chromatography, from which data the NO₂ concentrations in air could be calculated. These results were compared with NO₂ values from the air monitoring station 42R801 of the Flemish Environment Agency in Borgerhout, Antwerp. On the base of different NO₂ concentrations, correlated well with the traffic density, sampling locations were classified into three groups as follows: 1) ‘heavily polluted’ (heavy traffic); 2) ‘moderately polluted’ (medium traffic); or 3) ‘less polluted’ (low traffic density). Sampling sites located further from the road works, enclosed to the group ‘less polluted’, showed the lowest NO₂ concentrations. The highest NO₂ level was found for the locations close to reconstruction works, which belonged to the group ‘heavily polluted’. The contribution of NO₂ was at the same level before and after the road works. During the first campaign it ranged from 30 ± 7 µg/m³ to 71 ± 11 µg/m³ and during the second sampling it was between 36 ± 17 µg/m³ and 73 ± 17 µg/m³. These modernization works had no impact on preventing the traffic-related pollutant as NO₂ and as a consequence no significant effect on the air quality in the studied region. It has been proven that the impact of traffic on the air quality is unmistakably high and simply reduction of the number of the traffic lanes, intended to discourage the traffic flow, had apparently no environmentally advantageous effect.     

Combination of sorption properties of polydimethylsiloxane and solid‐phase extraction sorbents in a single composite material for the passive sampling of polar and apolar pesticides in water

Passive sampling techniques have been developed as an alternative method for in situ integrative monitoring of trace levels of neutral pesticides in environmental waters. The objective of this work was to develop a new receiving phase for pesticides with a wide range of polarities in a single step. We describe the development of three new composite silicone rubbers, combining polydimethylsiloxane mechanical and sorption properties with solid‐phase extraction sorbents, prepared as a receiving phase for passive sampling. A composite silicone rubber composed of polydimethylsiloxane/poly(divinylbenzene‐co‐N‐vinylpyrrolidone) was selected by batch experiments for its high sorption properties for pesticides with octanol‐water partition coefficients ranging from 2.3 to 5.5. We named this composite material “Polar/Apolar Composite Silicone Rubber”. A structural study by scanning electron microscopy confirmed the homogeneous dispersion of the sorbent particles and the encapsulation of particles within the polydimethylsiloxane matrix. We also demonstrate that this composite material is resistant to common solvents used for the back‐extraction of analytes and has a maximal resistance temperature of 350°C. Therefore, the characteristics of the “Polar/Apolar Composite Silicone Rubber” meet most of the criteria for use as a receiving phase for the passive sampling of pesticides.     

铜在碱性溶液中阳极过程的研究

用慢电势扫描和恒电流法研究铜在浓碱中的阳极过程,并用角分辨X射线光电子能谱测试了铜表面二次钝化膜。结果表明,该膜由内层Cu₂O和外层CuO-Cu(OH)₂组成,越靠近膜的表面,CuO/Cu(OH)₂含量比越小,吸附水越多。据此提出成膜的电化学氧化-表面转化历程。     

Mathematical modeling of TE CO2 laser with SF6 as a saturable absorber

A mathematical model describing the dynamic emission of a single mode TE CO₂ laser with saturable absorber has been adapted. A six-temperature model has been used to describe the amplifying medium, while a four-coupled energy level is used to describe the selective absorbing medium. The suggested mathematical model allows the investigation of the effects of the intracavity absorber on the mode characteristics of the TE CO₂ laser and, moreover, the study of the effect of the laser input parameters on the output laser pulse. The model simulates the passive Q-switch in both low- and high-pressure cases in the absorbing medium.

In addition, numerical solutions of a non-linear rate equation system of the suggested model are quantitatively discussed. The solutions describe the photon number density, the population inversion and the energy transfer processes of amplifying and absorbing media.     

Efficient scheme for passive decoy-state reference-frame-independent quantum key distribution

Reference-frame-independent quantum key distribution (RFI-QKD) has been demonstrated to be reliable and useful both in theories and experiments, which is intrinsically robust against slowly varying reference frames. In this paper, we propose an efficient scheme of passive decoy-state RFI-QKD based on the parametric down-conversion source, where a beam splitter splits the idler pulses into four local detection events to improve the performance of RFI-QKD systems. In addition, we demonstrate the worst relative rotation of reference frames in our scheme. Simulation results show that our scheme can achieve good performance even at the worst-case scenario.     

Influence of Cr on the Electronic Properties of Passive Film on B30 Alloy in NaOH Solution

The influence of Cr on the electronic properties of the passive film on B30 alloy in NaOH solution was studied via electrochemical impedance spectra(EIS), potentiodynamic curve and Mott-Schottky plot. The Cr doped in the passive film on B30 alloy was detected by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS). XPS results show that Cr₂O₃ appeared on the passive film, which implied the enhanced anti-corrosion of B30 alloy. The passive film showed a p-type semi-conductive character. The acceptor density(N_A) was in an order of magnitude of 10²² cm^-3, and N_A decreased with the increment of Cr. EIS results show that the film resistance(R_f) increased with increasing the amount of Cr. The diffusion coefficient(D₀) was calculated to be in a range of 10^-16-10^-17 cm^-2/s on the basement of point defect model(PDM).     

Periodic orbits, damped transitions and targeted energy transfers in oscillators with vibro-impact attachments

We study complex damped and undamped dynamics and targeted energy transfers (TETs) in systems of coupled oscillators, consisting of single-degree-of-freedom primary linear oscillators (LOs) with vibro-impact attachments, acting, in essence, as vibro-impact nonlinear energy sinks (VI NESs). First, the complicated dynamics of such VI systems is demonstrated by computing the VI periodic orbits of underlying Hamiltonian systems and depicting them in appropriate frequency–energy plots (FEPs). Then, VI damped transitions and distinct ways of passive TETs from the linear oscillators to the VI attachments for various parameter ranges and initial conditions are investigated. As in the case of smooth stiffness nonlinearity [Y. Lee, G. Kerschen, A. Vakakis, P. Panagopoulos, L. Bergman, D.M. McFarland, Complicated dynamics of a linear oscillator with a light, essentially nonlinear attachment, Physica D 204 (1–2) (2005) 41–69], both fundamental and subharmonic TET can be realized in the VI systems under consideration. It is found that the most efficient mechanism for VI TET is through the excitation of highly energetic VI impulsive orbits (IOs), i.e., of periodic or quasiperiodic orbits corresponding to zero initial conditions except for the initial velocities of the linear oscillators. In contrast to NESs with smooth essential nonlinearities considered in previous works, VI NESs are capable of passively absorbing and locally dissipating significant portions of the energies of the primary systems to which they are attached, at fast time scale. This renders such devices suitable for applications, like seismic mitigation, where dissipation of vibration energy in the early, highly energetic regime of the motion is a critical requirement.     

双足模型步行中的倍周期步态和混沌步态现象

被动行走模型只依赖重力可以在斜坡上形成自然的周期步态.当模型参数改变时,步态随之改变.应用胞映射方法与Newton-Raphson迭代结合来获取被动行走模型周期步态的不动点,消除了迭代方法在初值选取上的随机性,并获得了模型的吸引盆.通过对不同参数的模型的仿真,讨论了参数变化对步态的影响.结果表明,转动惯量增大会导致倍周期步态到混沌步态的产生,足半径减小和质心位置降低也会导致分岔的出现. 关键词： 胞映射 双足步行 倍周期 混沌     

Utilization of four WDM channels with signal remodulation of OFDM-QAM for 10 Gb/s uplink passive optical networks

In this investigation, we experimentally investigate an extended reach (ER) time-division-multiplexed passive optical network (TDM-PON) using four wavelength-multiplexed channels to achieve 16 Gb/s downlink and 10 Gb/s uplink traffic. Each downlink signal uses the highly spectral efficient 4 Gb/s OFDM-QAM, and each uplink signal is generated by signal remodulating the downlink signal via a reflective semiconductor amplifier (RSOA) at 2.5 Gb/s non-return-to-zero (NRZ). In addition, the performance of the proposed ER TDM-PON has also been analyzed and discussed.     

基于加权最小二乘法的红外多站定位的研究

基于加权最小二乘法,建立了红外多站无源系统定位算法的数学模型,给出了方程的求解过程,并讨论了算法的实现.采用加权最小二乘法可有效的融合多个站点的信息,从而可提高系统的定位精度和可靠性.仿真结果表明:定位时所使用的站点数目越多,定位目标与站点的相对位置越好,距离越近,定位精度就越高,这对近程高精度定位的研究具有借鉴作用.