Averaging scheme for atomic resolution off-axis electron holograms

All micrographs are limited by shot-noise, which is intrinsic to the detection process of electrons. For beam insensitive specimen this limitation can in principle easily be circumvented by prolonged exposure times. However, in the high-resolution regime several instrumental instabilities limit the applicable exposure time. Particularly in the case of off-axis holography the holograms are highly sensitive to the position and voltage of the electron-optical biprism. We present a novel reconstruction algorithm to average series of off-axis holograms while compensating for specimen drift, biprism drift, drift of biprism voltage, and drift of defocus, which all might cause problematic changes from exposure to exposure. We show an application of the algorithm utilizing also the possibilities of double biprism holography, which results in a high quality exit-wave reconstruction with 75 pm resolution at a very high signal-to-noise ratio.     

Golf ball-assisted electrospray ionization of mass spectrometry for the determination of trace amino acids in complex samples

During the electrospray ionization (ESI) process, ions move through a heated capillary aperture to be detected on arrival at a mass analyzer. However, the ESI process creates an ion plume, which expands into an ion cloud with an area larger than that of the heated capillary aperture, significantly contributing to an ion loss of 50% due to coulombic repulsion. The use of DC and RF fields to focus ions from the ion source into the vacuum chamber has been proposed in the literature, but the improvement of ion transmission efficiency is limited. To improve ion transmission, in this study we propose a novel method using a home-made golf ball positioned between the ion source and the inlet of the mass analyzer to hydrodynamically focus the ions passing through the golf ball. The ion plume produced by the ESI process passes through the golf ball will reduce the size of the ion cloud then be focused and most of them flowed into the mass analyzer. Therefore, the sensitivity will be improved, the aim of this investigation is to study the enhancing of the signal using golf ball-assisted electrospray ionization liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) to determine 20 trace amino acids in complex samples, including tea, urine and serum. The results showed that the analytical performance of the determination of the 20 amino acids in tea, urine and serum samples using the home-made golf ball-assisted ESI source is better than that of a commercial ESI source. The signal intensities of the 20 amino acids were enhanced by factors of 2–2700, 11–2525, and 31–342680 in oolong tea, urine and serum analyses, respectively. The precision of the proposed method ranged from 1–9%, 0.4–9% and 0.4–8% at low, medium and high concentration levels of amino acids, respectively. The home-made golf ball-assisted ESI source effectively increased the signal intensity and enhanced the ion transmission efficiency and is also an easy, convenient and economical device. This technique can be applied to the analysis of trace compounds in complex matrices.     

梁柱简化模型在自立塔塔线体系动态响应中的适用性研究

对输电塔进行合理简化可以提高塔线体系动力学仿真的效率。本文给出自立塔梁柱简化模型的计算方法,并提出利用梁柱简化模型计算方法建立自立塔塔线体系整体模型,同时采用桁梁混合模型建立精细化塔线体系整体模型,对两种模型塔线体系静力特性及振型和固有频率等动力特性进行对比分析。以脱冰工况为例,采用生死单元技术将施加在输电线节点上的集中质量单元杀死来模拟脱冰,实现对塔线体系动力学响应的有限元模拟,研究塔线体系简化模型在动态响应中的适用性。结果表明,两种模型弯曲变形误差小,低阶的振型相同,固有频率值误差小,动力特性基本相同;脱冰工况下,自立塔节点位移和塔材内力时程曲线一致,在提高计算效率的情况下,能有效保证计算精度。     

Gear shifting multi-objective optimization to improve vehicle performance,fuel consumption,and engine emissions

In the present work, the Adaptive-Weight Genetic Algorithm was employed in order to determine the gear shifting strategies that allow an automobile to work in the best compromise among fuel consumption, engine emissions, and vehicle performance. For the assessment of each of the three objective functions, a simulation model based on engine data and on the well-established equations of the longitudinal dynamics was developed. The driving cycle chosen for the calculations was the FTP-75, which takes into account both cold and hot starts, meaning that the transient operation during the warm-up of the catalyst is also considered.     

Asymmetrical solitary waves in coupled nonlinear transmission lines

Asymmetrical solitary waves are characterized in symmetrical, capacitively coupled transmission lines, called coupled nonlinear transmission lines (NLTLs), which are periodically loaded with Schottky varactors, in order to amplify short electrical pulses. In this work, the transmission equations of coupled NLTLs are numerically solved, using two symmetrical Korteweg–de Vries (KdV) systems with linear dispersionless coupling, to show that the lines exhibit symmetry breaking in order to support asymmetrical solitary waves. In particular, two interacting solitary waves with different polarities are investigated. The KdV systems show that the polarities of the preceding and the subsequent waves in coupled NLTLs are interchanged through colliding interactions. The process is quantified in the framework of reduction theory, assuming small velocity differences and interaction strength between the two waves. In addition, results show that the leading wave gains amplitude via collision, which means that coupled NLTLs provide good platforms for amplifying short electrical pulses.     

强光一号加速器测量电缆补偿技术

 为满足快信号测试要求,提出了利用滤波器原理设计补偿器来提高传输线带宽,以减小信号在传输过程中的畸变和损失。针对强光一号加速器测试电缆特性,设计制作了小型化的带宽补偿器。通过采用该电缆补偿技术,强光一号加速器测量电缆补偿后的传输带宽达到200 MHz,幅度为原始信号的1/3,满足了强光一号加速器测试电缆快信号传输的要求。给出了原始信号、未补偿信号及补偿后信号的比较结果,证明补偿后的信号明显比未补偿信号更接近原始信号,原始信号经电缆传输后造成的前沿损失和波形畸变通过带宽补偿器后获到了明显的补偿和修复。编制了专用补偿器设计软件,使补偿器初期设计中的极零对寻找、元器件参数计算等工作实现自动化。     

Soft X-ray induced chemical modification of polysaccharides in vascular plant cell walls

Scanning transmission X-ray microscopy and micro carbon X-ray Absorption Near Edge Spectroscopy (C-XANES) can provide quantitative information regarding the distribution of the biopolymers cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin in vascular plant cell walls. In the case of angiosperms, flowering plants, C-XANES may also be able to distinguish variations in lignin monomer distributions throughout the cell wall. Polysaccharides are susceptible to soft X-ray irradiation induced chemical transformations that may complicate spectral analysis. The stability of a model polysaccharide, cellulose acetate, to variable doses of soft X-rays under conditions optimized for high quality C-XANES spectroscopy was investigated. The primary chemical effect of soft X-ray irradiation on cellulose acetate involves mass loss coincident with de-acetylation. A lesser amount of vinyl ketone formation also occurs. Reduction in irradiation dose via defocusing does enable high quality pristine spectra to be obtained. Radiation induced chemical modification studies of oak cell wall reveals that cellulose and hemicellulose are less labile to chemical modification than cellulose acetate. Strategies for obtaining pristine C-XANES spectra of polysaccharides are presented.     

E2SRT: enhanced event‐to‐sink reliable transport for wireless sensor networks

An event‐to‐sink reliable transport (ESRT) control scheme was recently proposed to address the event‐to‐sink reliability issues in wireless sensor network (WSN). In this paper, we study the performance of ESRT in the presence of ‘over‐demanding’ event reliability, using both the analytical and simulation approaches. We show that the ESRT protocol does not achieve optimum reliability and begins to fluctuate between two inefficient network states. With insights from update mechanism in ESRT, we propose a new algorithm, called enhanced ESRT (E²SRT), to solve the ‘over‐demanding’ event reliability problem and to stabilize the network. Simulation results show that E²SRT outperforms ESRT in terms of both reliability and energy consumption in the presence of ‘over‐demanding’ event reliability. Besides, it ensures robust convergence in the presence of dynamic network environments. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Electron attenuation anisotropy at crystal surfaces from LEED

Dynamical theory of electron scattering is used to describe the electron transport in the surface regions of crystals. The angle resolved attenuation length of electrons is derived from the transmitted LEED electron current decay. Electron attenuation length energy dependence and anisotropy in polar angle are found for crystalline Cu(1 1 1) for two high symmetry azimuths. Pronounced anisotropy in polar angle distributions of attenuation lengths is found to be in qualitative agreement with the results obtained from the photoelectron diffraction. Comparison with the attenuation lengths obtained from semiclassical simulations for amorphous copper is given. This comparison demonstrates that simple transfers of the smoothly behaving surface sensitivity from amorphous materials oversimplifies the electron attenuation process and can lead to incorrect results in quantitative analyses of crystalline surfaces.     

On a dual model with a dividend threshold

In insurance mathematics, a compound Poisson model is often used to describe the aggregate claims of the surplus process. In this paper, we consider the dual of the compound Poisson model under a threshold dividend strategy. We derive a set of two integro-differential equations satisfied by the expected total discounted dividends until ruin and show how the equations can be solved by using only one of the two integro-differential equations. The cases where profits follow an exponential or a mixture of exponential distributions are then solved and the discussion for the case of a general profit distribution follows by the use of Laplace transforms. We illustrate how the optimal threshold level that maximizes the expected total discounted dividends until ruin can be obtained, and finally we generalize the results to the case where the surplus process is a more general skip-free downwards Lévy process.