Image analysis of atmospheric corrosion of field exposure high strength aluminium alloys

The corrosion morphology image acquisition system which can be used in the field was established. In Beijing atmospheric corrosion exposure station, the image acquisition system was used to capture the early stage corrosion morphology of five types of high strength aluminium alloy specimens. After the denoise treatment, wavelet-based image analysis method was applied to decompose the improved images and energies of sub-images were extracted as character information. Based on the variation of image energy values, the corrosion degree of aluminium alloy specimens was qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed. The conclusion was basically identical with the result based on the corrosion weight loss. This method is supposed to be effective to analysis and quantify the corrosion damage from image of field exposure aluminium alloy specimens.     

Concurrent correction of geometric distortion and motion using the map-slice-to-volume method in echo-planar imaging

The accuracy of measuring voxel intensity changes between stimulus and rest images in fMRI echo-planar imaging (EPI) data is severely degraded in the presence of head motion. In addition, EPI is sensitive to susceptibility-induced geometric distortions. Head motion causes image shifts and associated field map changes that induce different geometric distortion at different time points. Conventionally, geometric distortion is "corrected" with a static field map independently of image registration. That approach ignores all field map changes induced by head motion. This work evaluates the improved motion correction capability of mapping slice to volume with concurrent iterative field corrected reconstruction using updated field maps derived from an initial static field map that has been spatially transformed and resampled. It accounts for motion-induced field map changes for translational and in-plane rotation motion. The results from simulated EPI time series data, in which motion, image intensity and activation ground truths are available, show improved accuracy in image registration, field corrected image reconstruction and activation detection.     

Changes in Objective Acoustic Measurements and Subjective Voice Complaints in Call Center Customer-Service Advisors During One Working Day

SUMMARY: The aim of this study was to investigate how different acoustic parameters, extracted both from speech pressure waveforms and glottal flows, can be used in measuring vocal loading in modern working environments and how these parameters reflect the possible changes in the vocal function during a working day. In addition, correlations between objective acoustic parameters and subjective voice symptoms were addressed. The subjects were 24 female and 8 male customer-service advisors, who mainly use telephone during their working hours. Speech samples were recorded from continuous speech four times during a working day and voice symptom questionnaires were completed simultaneously. Among the various objective parameters, only F0 resulted in a statistically significant increase for both genders. No correlations between the changes in objective and subjective parameters appeared. However, the results encourage researchers within the field of occupational voice use to apply versatile measurement techniques in studying occupational voice loading.     

场发射栅孔阵列的制备

 采用硅的局部氧化技术以及湿法刻蚀技术,利用2.6 μm的光刻掩模板在n型硅片上形成了栅极孔径为1 μm的场发射阴极的栅极空腔阵列,实现了用大阵点尺寸的栅极掩模板制备较小尺寸栅孔阵列。硅的湿法刻蚀溶液采用各向同性的硝酸和氢氟酸混合溶液,刻蚀后空腔的深度和宽度均随刻蚀时间线性增加。同时,由于刻蚀溶液具有较高的Si/SiO₂ 刻蚀选择比,栅极孔径随刻蚀时间增大的速度远低于深度和宽度增大的速度,栅极孔径主要取决于掩模的尺寸和氧化层的厚度。通过选择掩模板的尺寸以及氧化层的厚度,采用局部氧化技术和湿法刻蚀技术能够制备出微米或亚微米的场发射阴极的栅极空腔阵列。     

一种新的空间域图像错误掩盖方法

提出了空间域图像错误掩盖方法.在信道丢包率较高时,采用场编码交织技术将图像按像素行分为两个场,并分别独立编码和传输.当某个场中的图像数据在网络传输过程中丢失时,用相邻场的像素值通过插值的方法恢复丢失数据.实验结果表明,掩盖效果明显优于现有的空间域错误掩盖方法,即使在图像数据丢失一半的情况下,恢复图像主观上仍可接受,测试图像的PSNR增益可达2.77~7.24 dB.     

Emergence of a non-Fowler-Nordheim-type behavior for a general planar tunneling barrier

In this work we investigate a generalized tunneling barrier for planar emitters at zero-temperature. We present the evidence of the emergence of a non-Fowler-Nordheim-type general behavior for the field emission current density in the case that the Fermi energy (μ) is comparable with or smaller that the decay width ($d_F$). Therefore, for some non-metals or materials that have very small Fermi energy the standard Fowler-Nordheim-type theory may require a correction. In the opposite regime, i.e., for μ much larger that $d_F$, we confirm that the conventional theory is suitable for metals.     

Fast field analysis of short-chain aliphatic amines in water using solid-phase microextraction and a portable gas chromatograph

A novel method is firstly presented for field and rapid analysis of short-chain aliphatic amines in water as their pentafluorobenzaldehyde (PFBAY) derivative using solid-phase microextraction (SPME) and portable GC. In the proposed method, short-chain aliphatic amines in water rapidly reacted with PFBAY, and then were headspace extracted and concentrated by SPME. The formed amines derivatives were analyzed by portable GC. The SPME parameters of fiber selection, extraction temperature, extraction time, and stirring rate were studied. The method validations including LOD, recovery, precision, and linearity were studied. It was found that the proposed method required the whole analysis time 22 min, and provided low LOD of 1.2-4.6 ng/mL, good recovery of 91-106%, good precision of RSD value 3.5-9.3%, and linear range 20.0-500 ng/mL (r(2) >0.99). The obtained results demonstrated that the SPME-portable GC is a simple, rapid, and efficient method for the field analysis of short-chain aliphatic amines. Finally, the proposed method was further applied to the quantification of ethylamine, propylamine, and butylamine in environmental water.     

Enhancing Built-in Electric Fields for Efficient Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution by Encapsulating C60 Fullerene into Zirconium-Based Metal-Organic Frameworks

High-efficiency photocatalysts based on metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are often limited by poor charge separation and slow charge-transfer kinetics. Herein, a novel MOF photocatalyst is successfully constructed by encapsulating C₆₀ into a nano-sized zirconium-based MOF, NU-901. By virtue of host-guest interactions and uneven charge distribution, a substantial electrostatic potential difference is set-up in C₆₀@NU-901. The direct consequence is a robust built-in electric field, which tends to be 10.7 times higher in C₆₀@NU-901 than that found in NU-901. In the catalyst, photogenerated charge carriers are efficiently separated and transported to the surface. For example, photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaches 22.3 mmol g⁻¹ h⁻¹ for C₆₀@NU-901, which is among the highest values for MOFs. Our concept of enhancing charge separation by harnessing host-guest interactions constitutes a promising strategy to design photocatalysts for efficient solar-to-chemical energy conversion.     

Significant Acceleration of Photocatalytic CO2 Reduction at the Gas-Liquid Interface of Microdroplets**

Solar-driven CO₂ reduction reaction (CO₂RR) is largely constrained by the sluggish mass transfer and fast combination of photogenerated charge carriers. Herein, we find that the photocatalytic CO₂RR efficiency at the abundant gas-liquid interface provided by microdroplets is two orders of magnitude higher than that of the corresponding bulk phase reaction. Even in the absence of sacrificial agents, the production rates of HCOOH over WO₃ ⋅ 0.33H₂O mediated by microdroplets reaches 2536 μmol h⁻¹ g⁻¹ (vs. 13 μmol h⁻¹ g⁻¹ in bulk phase), which is significantly superior to the previously reported photocatalytic CO₂RR in bulk phase reaction condition. Beyond the efficient delivery of CO₂ to photocatalyst surfaces within microdroplets, we reveal that the strong electric field at the gas-liquid interface of microdroplets essentially promotes the separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. This study provides a deep understanding of ultrafast reaction kinetics promoted by the gas-liquid interface of microdroplets and a novel way of addressing the low efficiency of photocatalytic CO₂ reduction to fuel.