A Novel Conflict Management Method Based on Uncertainty of Evidence and Reinforcement Learning for Multi-Sensor Information Fusion

Dempster–Shafer theory (DST), which is widely used in information fusion, can process uncertain information without prior information; however, when the evidence to combine is highly conflicting, it may lead to counter-intuitive results. Moreover, the existing methods are not strong enough to process real-time and online conflicting evidence. In order to solve the above problems, a novel information fusion method is proposed in this paper. The proposed method combines the uncertainty of evidence and reinforcement learning (RL). Specifically, we consider two uncertainty degrees: the uncertainty of the original basic probability assignment (BPA) and the uncertainty of its negation. Then, Deng entropy is used to measure the uncertainty of BPAs. Two uncertainty degrees are considered as the condition of measuring information quality. Then, the adaptive conflict processing is performed by RL and the combination two uncertainty degrees. The next step is to compute Dempster’s combination rule (DCR) to achieve multi-sensor information fusion. Finally, a decision scheme based on correlation coefficient is used to make the decision. The proposed method not only realizes adaptive conflict evidence management, but also improves the accuracy of multi-sensor information fusion and reduces information loss. Numerical examples verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

与非平衡问题相关的尺度效应:场与微粒

纳米技术的出现,使我们有必要更好地了解,在原子水平上材料微结构的变化是如何影响和控制着材料的宏观性能.这一挑战涉及到许多以前不曾考虑和不曾了解的现象.其中,位错理论的基础现在知道是有问题的.宏观尺度下采用的简化假设,也许不能用于微观和纳米尺度.尺度效应的含义,涉及到物理系统的非均质和非平衡特性.宏观尺度下的均匀与平衡特性,在材料的物理尺度减少到微米量级时就不再保持了.这些基本观点不能够为了方便而随意到处使用,因为这会改变预测的结果.更令人不满的是在建立物理模型时缺乏一致性.由此产生的问题是在确定制造过程中的有关参数时无能为力,导致由于成本过高而不切实际的终端产品.先进的复合材料和陶瓷材料就存在这样的问题.本文将要讨论的是在原子尺度与连续介质尺度下应用理论模型时存在的潜在问题,而不是去揭示自然的真相.主要讨论微粒,均匀连续介质或者两者的结合.尺度效应问题当前的发展趋势,趋向于在有或者没有时间效应的情况下寻找材料微结构的不同特征尺寸.从原子模拟模型中将了解到许多情况,原子模拟计算将揭示计算结果如何随着边界条件和尺度变化而不同.量子力学,连续介质力学和宇宙模型证明,没有普遍适用的方法.当前的主要兴趣也许是针对多尺度物理问题在技术上建立更高的精度,以得到一个更好的表达结果.      

无机晶须材料的合成与应用

本文综述了无机晶须材料的合成与应用研究现状.近年来我国在这一研究领域取得了很大发展,以"硼酸铝晶须产业化"项目为代表的无机晶须材料的工业化生产,无疑将对我国高技术新材料的发展起极大的促进作用.本文还对几种典型的无机晶须材料--SiC晶须、Al18B4O33晶须、K2Ti6O13晶须、CaCO3晶须、Mg2B2O5晶须、莫来石晶须的合成与应用研究现状作了概述,并就其研究前景作了展望.     

Circular Delaminations - the Effect of Thermal Strains on the Strain Energy Release Rate

The analysis presented focuses on the extent to which the thermal loading resulting from a difference between the curing and service temperatures and from variations in the thermal-expansion coefficients from layer to layer can affect the growth of delaminations. Square laminate plates containing circular delaminations are examined. The reinforcement combinations for the delaminated layer and the core plate considered are [0°]/[90°], [90°]/[0°], [0°]/[±45°] _s , and [±45°] _s /[0°]. The analysis is carried out using the FEM. The strain energy release rate components are calculated using the modified crack-closure integral method. The results obtained show that, for all the reinforcement combinations studied, with the exception of [±45°] _s /[0°], a temperature drop considerably reduces all the strain energy release rate components, but only minor changes in their proportion occur. In the case of the [±45°] _s /[0°] plates, all these components increase, and noticeable changes in their proportion are also observed.     

Semi‐interpenetrating polymer networks composed of poly(N‐isopropyl acrylamide) and polyacrylamide hydrogels

Three series of semi‐interpenetrating polymer networks, based on crosslinked poly(N‐isopropyl acrylamide) (PNIPA) and 1 wt % nonionic or ionic (cationic and anionic) linear polyacrylamide (PAAm), were synthesized to improve the mechanical properties of PNIPA gels. The effect of the incorporation of linear polymers into responsive networks on the temperature‐induced transition, swelling behavior, and mechanical properties was studied. Polymer networks with four different crosslinking densities were prepared with various molar ratios (25:1 to 100:1) of the monomer (N‐isopropyl acrylamide) to the crosslinker (methylenebisacrylamide). The hydrogels were characterized by the determination of the equilibrium degree of swelling at 25 °C, the compression modulus, and the effective crosslinking density, as well as the ultimate hydrogel properties, such as the tensile strength and elongation at break. The introduction of cationic and anionic linear hydrophilic PAAm into PNIPA networks increased the rate of swelling, whereas the presence of nonionic PAAm diminished it. Transition temperatures were significantly affected by both the crosslinking density and the presence of linear PAAm in the hydrogel networks. Although anionic PAAm had the greatest influence on increasing the transition temperature, the presence of nonionic PAAm caused the highest dimensional change. Semi‐interpenetrating polymer networks reinforced with cationic and nonionic PAAm exhibited higher tensile strengths and elongations at break than PNIPA hydrogels, whereas the presence of anionic PAAm caused a reduction in the mechanical properties. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 42: 3987–3999, 2004     

Thermoelastoplastic deformation of complexly reinforced shells

The problem on the elastoplastic deformation of reinforced shells of variable thickness under thermal and force loadings is formulated. A qualitative analysis of the problem is carried out and its linearization is indicated. Calculations of isotropic and metal composite cylindrical shells have shown that the load-carrying capacity of shell structures under elastoplastic deformations is several times (sometimes by an order of magnitude) higher than under purely elastic ones; the heating of shells with certain patterns of reinforcement sharply reduces their resistance to elastic deformations, but only slightly affects their resistance to elastoplastic ones; not always does the reinforcement in the directions of principal stresses and strains provide the greatest load-carrying capacity of a shell; there are reinforcement schemes that ensure practically the same resistance of shells at different types of their fastening. __________ Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 42, No. 6, pp. 707–728, November–December, 2006.     

Rational Profiling of Equal-Stress-Reinforced Plates Subjected to Elastoplastic Transverse Bending

The problem of rational profiling of equal-stress-reinforced Kirchhoff plates subjected to purely elastic and elastoplastic transverse bending is formulated. A qualitative analysis of the systems of resolving equations is carried out. It is found that the problem can have two possible solutions, which can be controlled. By particular calculations, it is shown that, through rational profiling of the bent plates, the consumption of phase materials in them can be reduced greatly compared with that in traditional ones, or the load-carrying capacity of the plates can be raised significantly at a fixed consumption of phase materials.     

Lattice Boltzmann simulation of particles agglomeration and rheology in a particulate flow

The dynamics and rheology of particles in a Newtonian fluid subjected to shear are simulated using Lattice Boltzmann Method. A computationally-efficient Smoothed Profile Method is used to resolve fluid-solid interactions, and the Lennard-Jones inter-particle potential is implemented to account for inter-particle forces. The use of a bi-periodic computational domain with Lees-Edward boundary conditions allows simulation for systems consisting of a large number of particles under shear. The method is validated for single and dual particle problems and an analysis is performed for multi-particle problems under a range of shear rates and particle fractions. The introduction of particle-particle interactions, which are physically important in many engineering processes, is found to have a considerable impact on the dynamics, agglomeration and rheology. The total stress exhibits high unsteadiness primarily due to the solid component contribution, at higher particle fractions. The simulations underscore the complex interplay between shear, interparticle forces and agglomeration and the complex dependencies of the rheological properties.     

Nanocellulose reinforced as green agent in polymer matrix composites applications

Owing to their abundance, high strength and stiffness, and low weight and biodegradability, nanocellulose (NC) is regarded as a promising candidate for the preparation of green composites. The high reinforcing effect assigned to the mechanical percolation phenomenon of NC is due to the stiff continuous networks of cellulosic nanoparticles linked via hydrogen bonding. Compared to nanocrystalline cellulose, NC fibers result in more significant improvement to the modulus, stiffness, and strength as aspect ratio NC fiber is higher compared to NC crystal. Indeed, in the case of biopolymer composites, the reinforcement effect of NC is attributed to the NC‐polymer interactions and the reinforcing effect occurring through effective stress transfer at the NC‐polymer interface. The NC‐reinforced composites tend to become more brittle as the concentration of the reinforcing particles increase up to the saturated level, due to the reduction in surface adhesion between filler and matrix. Due to its promising mechanical and structural stability, NC composites have been used widely in many industrial applications such as food packaging, electronic applications, and tissue engineering.     

Trace metals (Cu, Pb, Zn, Cd, Al, Li, Fe, Mn, Ni, Co) in marine suspended particulate matter: an international ICES intercomparison exercise

 The aim of this intercomparison exercise was to assess the comparability of trace metal analyses of blank filters and of marine suspended particulate matter (SPM) on filters performed by laboratories in ICES member countries. Fifteen experts from the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, and the United States were invited to participate in this exercise for trace metal analyses of Cu, Pb, Zn, Cd, Al, Li, Fe, Mn, Ni and Co (tentative) in SPM. Each filter analysed in this project was an individual sample, the absolute loadings on the filters varying from 0.8 to 2 mg of SPM. The inter-laboratory means and the relative standard deviations (RSD) from the grand mean for the metals determined were: Al 67.5 mg/g, 8.3%, Fe 51.7 mg/g, 10.9%, Cd 1.5 μg/g, 22.7%, Cu 39 μg/g, 13.3%, Pb 38 μg/g, 34.7%, Mn 1060 μg/g, 13%, Ni 49.2 μg/g, 29%, Zn 182 μg/g, 32.5%, Li 52.8 μg/g, 26.1%, Co 15.4 μg/g, 23.6%. In general, the exercise demonstrated that it is possible for the various participants to collect very small amounts of SPM and analyse it by the different determination techniques. Compared to earlier exercises, comparability between laboratories was still difficult to achieve and limited. Received: 27 June 1996 Accepted: 15 August 1996