A new multi-DOF envelope forming process for fabricating spiral bevel gears with back taper tooth

Spiral bevel gears are critical transmission components,and are widely used in the aerospace field.This paper proposes a new multi-DOF envelope forming process for fabricating spiral bevel gears.Firstly,the multi-DOF envelope forming principle of spiral bevel gears is proposed.Secondly,the design methods for the envelope tool geometry and movement are proposed based on the envelope geometry and movement relationships.Thirdly,the metal flow and tooth filling laws are revealed through 3D FE simulation of the multi-DOF envelope forming process of a typical spiral bevel gear.Fourthly,a new method for separating the envelope tool and the formed spiral bevel gear with back taper tooth is proposed to avoid their interference.Finally,experiments on multi-DOF envelope forming of this typical spiral bevel gear are conducted using new heavy load multi-DOF envelope forming equipment.The simulation and experimental results show the feasibility of the proposed multi-DOF envelope forming process for fabricating spiral bevel gears with back taper tooth and the corresponding process design methods.

Calibration of Four Nonlinear Failure Envelopes from Triaxial Test Data and Influence of Nonlinearity on Geotechnical Computations

It is now recognized that many geomaterials have nonlinear failure envelopes. This non-linearity is most marked at lower stress levels, the failure envelope being of quasi-parabolic shape. It is not easy to calibrate these nonlinear failure envelopes from triaxial test data. Currently only the power-type failure envelope has been studied with an established formal procedure for its determination from triaxial test data. In this paper, a simplified procedure is evolved for the development of four different types of nonlinear envelopes. These are of invaluable assistance in the evaluation of true factors of safety in problems of slope stability and correct computation of lateral earth pressure and bearing capacity. The use of the Mohr-Coulomb failure envelopes leads to an overestimation of the factors of safety and other geotechnical quantities.

Trial application of the envelope method to the potential ambiguity problem

The optical potential ambiguity is a long-standing problem in the analysis of elastic scattering data.For a specific collid-ing system,ambiguous potential families can lead to different behaviors in the nearside and farside scattering components.By contrast,the envelope method can decompose the experimental data into two components with negative and positive deflection angles,respectively.Hence,a question arises as to whether the comparison between the calculated nearside(or farside)component and the derived positive-deflection-angle(or negative-deflection-angle)component can help analyze the potential ambiguity problem.In this study,we conducted a trial application of the envelope method to the potential ambiguity problem.The envelope method was improved by including uncertainties in the experimental data.The colliding systems of 16O+28Si at 215.2 MeV and 12C+12C at 1016 MeV were considered in the analyses.For each colliding system,the angular distribution experimental data were described nearly equally well by two potential sets,one of which is“surface transpar-ent”and the other is refractive.The calculated angular distributions were decomposed into nearside and farside scattering components.Using the improved envelope method,the experimental data were decomposed into the positive-deflection-angle and negative-deflection-angle components,which were then compared with the calculated nearside and farside components.The capability of the envelope method to analyze the potential ambiguities was also discussed.

A New Dynamic and Vertical Photovoltaic Integrated Building Envelope for High-Rise Glaze-Facade Buildings

Substantially glazed facades are extensively used in contemporary high-rise buildings to achieve attractive architectural aesthetics.Inherent conflicts exist among architectural aesthetics,building energy consumption,and solar energy harvesting for glazed facades.In this study,we addressed these conflicts by introducing a new dynamic and vertical photovoltaic integrated building envelope(dvPVBE)that offers extraordinary flexibility with weather-responsive slat angles and blind positions,superior architectural aesthetics,and notable energy-saving potential.Three hierarchical control strategies were proposed for different scenarios of the dvPVBE:power generation priority(PGP),natural daylight priority(NDP),and energy-saving priority(ESP).Moreover,the PGP and ESP strategies were further analyzed in the simulation of a dvPVBE.An office room integrated with a dvPVBE was modeled using EnergyPlus.The influence of the dvPVBE in improving the building energy efficiency and corresponding optimal slat angles was investigated under the PGP and ESP control strategies.The results indicate that the application of dvPVBEs in Beijing can provide up to 131%of the annual energy demand of office rooms and significantly increase the annual net energy output by at least 226%compared with static photovoltaic(PV)blinds.The concept of this novel dvPVBE offers a viable approach by which the thermal load,daylight penetration,and energy generation can be effectively regulated.

An envelope-based machine learning workflow for locating earthquakes in the southern Sichuan Basin

The development of machine learning technology enables more robust real-time earthquake monitoring through automated implementations. However, the application of machine learning to earthquake location problems faces challenges in regions with limited available training data. To address the issues of sparse event distribution and inaccurate ground truth in historical seismic datasets, we expand the training dataset by using a large number of synthetic envelopes that closely resemble real data and build an earthquake location model named ENVloc. We propose an envelope-based machine learning workflow for simultaneously determining earthquake location and origin time. The method eliminates the need for phase picking and avoids the accumulation of location errors resulting from inaccurate picking results. In practical application, ENVloc is applied to several data intercepted at different starting points. We take the starting point of the time window corresponding to the highest prediction probability value as the origin time and save the predicted result as the earthquake location. We apply ENVloc to observed data acquired in the southern Sichuan Basin, China, between September 2018 and March 2019. The results show that the average difference with the catalog in latitude, longitude, depth, and origin time is 0.02°,0.02°, 2 km, and 1.25 s, respectively. These suggest that our envelope-based method provides an efficient and robust way to locate earthquakes without phase picking, and can be used in earthquake monitoring in near-real time.

Hepatitis B surface antigen-negative but hepatitis B envelope antigen-positive false occult hepatitis B virus infection:A case report

BACKGROUND Occult hepatitis B infection(OBI)is characterized by the detection of hepatitis B virus(HBV)DNA in serum(usually HBV DNA<200 IU/mL)or the liver but negativity for hepatitis B surface antigen(HBsAg).The diagnosis of OBI relies on the sensitivity of assays used in the detection of HBV DNA and HBsAg.HBsAg assays with inadequate sensitivity or inability to detect HBV S variants may lead to misdiagnosis of OBI in people with overt HBV infection.CASE SUMMARY We report a HBsAg-negative but hepatitis B envelope antigen-positive patient who had a significant HBV DNA level.The patient was initially diagnosed as having OBI.However,sequence analysis revealed a unique insertion of amino acid residues at positions 120-124 in the S protein,which affects the formation of a disulfide bond that is associated with the formation of a loop.It is well known that there is an overlap between the S protein and Pol protein.We found that this new insertion site occurred in polymerase/reverse transcriptase domain,indi-cating that this insertion might be involved in HBV pathogenicity.The patient was finally diagnosed with a false OBI.CONCLUSION An insertion of amino acid residues at positions 120-124 of the S protein affects the formation of immunodominant epitopes and results in negative HBsAg levels.

Comparative Studies on the Fine Structure and Elemental Composition of Envelopes of Trachelomonas and Strombomonas (Euglenophyta)

Fine structure and elemental composition of envelopes of 10 taxa of Trachelomonas and Strombomonas from natural freshwater bodies in China were studied and phylogeny of both genera were discussed. The results indicate that iron (Fe) and silicon (Si) are the primary mineral elements of the envelopes. Composition of mineral elements was uncorrelated with envelope color, however, it was highly correlated with the microarchitecture of the envelopes. Content of Si was higher than that of Fe in all species of Strombomonas and some species of Trachelomonas with rough surface. In most species of Trachelomonas, especially those with dense and smoothy surface, content of Fe was higher than that of Si. Based on the above results, we propose to assign those species of Strombomonas into Trachelomonas and consider them as a group of the latter. These species were the most primitive among the group with envelopes in Euglenaceae.

Elastic envelope inversion using multicomponent seismic data with filtered-out low frequencies

The absence of low-frequency information in seismic data is one of the most difficult problems in elastic full waveform inversion. Without low-frequency data, it is difficult to recover the long-wavelength components of subsurface models and the inversion converges to local minima. To solve this problem, the elastic envelope inversion method is introduced. Based on the elastic envelope operator that is capable of retrieving low- frequency signals hidden in multicomponent data, the proposed method uses the envelope of multicomponent seismic signals to construct a misfit function and then recover the long- wavelength components of the subsurface model. Numerical tests verify that the elastic envelope method reduces the inversion nonlinearity and provides better starting models for the subsequent conventional elastic full waveform inversion and elastic depth migration, even when low frequencies are missing in multicomponent data and the starting model is far from the true model. Numerical tests also suggest that the proposed method is more effective in reconstructing the long-wavelength components of the S-wave velocity model. The inversion of synthetic data based on the Marmousi-2 model shows that the resolution of conventional elastic full waveform inversion improves after using the starting model obtained using the elastic envelope method. Finally, the limitations of the elastic envelope inversion method are discussed.

Injective Envelopes of a Hilbert C~*Module

As in homology, the notion of injectivity is introduced in the category whose objects are Hilbert C * module over a C * algebra and whose morphism are bounded module operators. The definition of injective envelopes of an extension of a Hilbert C * modules over a C * algebra is introduced, and is characterized in terms of the injectivity and essence. It is shown that every Hilbert C * module has a unique (up to H isometrics) injective envelope if it exists. It is also shown that an extension of a Hilbert C * module is an injective envelope if and only if it is an injective and essential extension. Moreover, every Hilbert C * module over a W * algebra has a unique (up to H isometrics) injective envelope and the injective envelope of a Hilbert C * module H is maximal essential extension of H .

Enveloping algebras of generalized H-Hom-Lie algebras

Let H be a Hopf algebra and HYD the Yetter- Drinfeld category over H. First, the enveloping algebra of generalized H-Hom-Lie algebra L, i.e., Hom-Lie algebra L H in the category HYD, is constructed. Secondly, it is obtained that U（L） = T（ L）/L where I is the Hom-ideal of T（L） generated by {ll＇-l_（（-1））·l＇l_0-[l,l＇]｜l,l＇∈L}, and u： L,T（L）/I is the canonical map. Finally, as the applications of the result, the enveloping algebras of generalized H-Lie algebras, i.e., the Lie algebras in the category MyDn and the Hom-Lie algebras in the category of left H-comodules are presented, respectively.

Data envelopment analysis for scale elasticity measurement in the stochastic case:with an application to Indian banking

In the nonparametric data envelopment analysis literature,scale elasticity is evaluated in two alternative ways:using either the technical efficiency model or the cost efficiency model.This evaluation becomes problematic in several situations,for example(a)when input proportions change in the long run,(b)when inputs are heterogeneous,and(c)when firms face ex-ante price uncertainty in making their production decisions.To address these situations,a scale elasticity evaluation was performed using a value-based cost efficiency model.However,this alternative value-based scale elasticity evaluation is sensitive to the uncertainty and variability underlying input and output data.Therefore,in this study,we introduce a stochastic cost-efficiency model based on chance-constrained programming to develop a value-based measure of the scale elasticity of firms facing data uncertainty.An illustrative empirical application to the Indian banking industry comprising 71 banks for eight years(1998–2005)was made to compare inferences about their efficiency and scale properties.The key findings are as follows:First,both the deterministic model and our proposed stochastic model yield distinctly different results concerning the efficiency and scale elasticity scores at various tolerance levels of chance constraints.However,both models yield the same results at a tolerance level of 0.5,implying that the deterministic model is a special case of the stochastic model in that it reveals the same efficiency and returns to scale characterizations of banks.Second,the stochastic model generates higher efficiency scores for inefficient banks than its deterministic counterpart.Third,public banks exhibit higher efficiency than private and foreign banks.Finally,public and old private banks mostly exhibit either decreasing or constant returns to scale,whereas foreign and new private banks experience either increasing or decreasing returns to scale.Although the application of our proposed stochastic model is illustrative,it can be potentially applied to all firms in the information and distribution-intensive industry with high fixed costs,which have ample potential for reaping scale and scope benefits.

INVESTIGATION OF AIR FLOW ON FLIGHT DECK AND SHIPBOARD OPERATION ENVELOPE

The Shipboard Operation Envelope(SOE) is the safe boundary of the helicopter/ship dynamic interface. The night deck on a ship is usually behind the hangar, where the airflow is turbulent due to the influence of the upper structure, wind and ship speed. The turbulent airnow is the major adverse factor for the safety of shipboard operations. In this paper, the night deck abbot is analysed as the superposition of two penyndicular 2-D airflows.N-S equations are used to calculate the velocity field and the range of turbulent airflow using finite element method. The result is correspondent well with test. Incorporating the influence of the airflow and giving some restrictions on the movements of the ship and on the control margin of the helicopter, the operation envelopes are calculated. The operation envelopes include three types for hovering over the deck, taking-off from and landing on ship, and landing with a landing-aid system. These results are helpful to the pilot training and night safety.

Frame Work of Data Envelopment Analysis—A Model to Evaluate the Environmental Efficiency of China'S Industrial Sectors

Objective To evaluate the environmental and technical efficiencies of China＇s industrial sectors and provide appropriate advice for policy makers in the context of rapid economic growth and concurrent serious environmental damages caused by industrial pollutants. Methods A data of envelopment analysis （DEA） framework crediting both reduction of pollution outputs and expansion of good outputs was designed as a model to compute environmental efficiency of China＇s regional industrial systems. Results As shown by the geometric mean of environmental efficiency, if other inputs were made constant and good outputs were not to be improved, the air pollution outputs would have the potential to be decreased by about 60% in the whole China. Conclusion Both environmental and technical efficiencies have the potential to be greatly improved in China, which may provide some advice for policy-makers.

Fuzzy data envelopment analysis approach based on sample decision making units

The conventional data envelopment analysis （DEA） measures the relative efficiencies of a set of decision making units with exact values of inputs and outputs. In real-world prob- lems, however, inputs and outputs typically have some levels of fuzziness. To analyze a decision making unit （DMU） with fuzzy input/output data, previous studies provided the fuzzy DEA model and proposed an associated evaluating approach. Nonetheless, numerous deficiencies must still be improved, including the α- cut approaches, types of fuzzy numbers, and ranking techniques. Moreover, a fuzzy sample DMU still cannot be evaluated for the Fuzzy DEA model. Therefore, this paper proposes a fuzzy DEA model based on sample decision making unit （FSDEA）. Five eval- uation approaches and the related algorithm and ranking methods are provided to test the fuzzy sample DMU of the FSDEA model. A numerical experiment is used to demonstrate and compare the results with those obtained using alternative approaches.

THE NOVEL ANNULAR ENVELOPE CYLINDRICAL WORM AND FUZZY OPTIMAL DESIGN OF ITS DRIVE

The cylindrical worm processed by annular grinding wheel envelope in two degree of freedom motion state is a novel worm. This paper explains the shaping principle of such a worm. To improve meshing quality and the properties of contact and lubrication, the multi objective optimization has been conducted for the first time to the parameters of such a worm pair by the fuzzy optimal method. The results show that, the shape of the contact line is visibly more sloped than before being optimized, lubrication angle is apparently bigger, and the distribution of contact lines is much improved.

Design of a memory polynomial predistorter for wideband envelope tracking amplifiers

Efficiency and linearity of the microwave power amplifier are critical elements for mobile communication systems. A memory polynomial baseband predistorter based on an indirect learning architecture is presented for improving the linearity of an envelope tracing （ET） amplifier with application to a wireless transmitter. To deal with large peak-to-average ratio （PAR） problem, a clipping procedure for the input signal is employed. Then the system performance is verified by simulation results. For a single carrier wideband code division multiple access （WCDMA） signal of 16-quadrature amplitude modulation （16-QAM）, about 2% improvement of the error vector magnitude （EVM） is achieved at an average output power of 45.5 dBm and gain of 10.6 dB, with adjacent channel leakage ratio （ACLR） of -64.55 dBc at offset frequency of 5 MHz. Moreover, a three-carrier WCDMA signal and a third-generation （3G） long term evolution （LTE） signal are used as test signals to demonstrate the performance of the proposed linearization scheme under different bandwidth signals.

Bootstrapping Data Envelopment Analysis of Efficiency and Productivity of County Public Hospitals in Eastern, Central, and Western China after the Public Hospital Reform

China implemented the public hospital reform in 2012. This study utilized bootstrapping data envelopment analysis（DEA） to evaluate the technical efficiency（TE） and productivity of county public hospitals in Eastern, Central, and Western China after the 2012 public hospital reform. Data from 127 county public hospitals（39, 45, and 43 in Eastern, Central, and Western China, respectively） were collected during 2012–2015. Changes of TE and productivity over time were estimated by bootstrapping DEA and bootstrapping Malmquist. The disparities in TE and productivity among public hospitals in the three regions of China were compared by Kruskal–Wallis H test and Mann–Whitney U test. The average bias-corrected TE values for the four-year period were 0.6442, 0.5785, 0.6099, and 0.6094 in Eastern, Central, and Western China, and the entire country respectively, with average non-technical efficiency, low pure technical efficiency（PTE）, and high scale efficiency found. Productivity increased by 8.12%, 0.25%, 12.11%, and 11.58% in China and its three regions during 2012–2015, and such increase in productivity resulted from progressive technological changes by 16.42%, 6.32%, 21.08%, and 21.42%, respectively. The TE and PTE of the county hospitals significantly differed among the three regions of China. Eastern and Western China showed significantly higher TE and PTE than Central China. More than 60% of county public hospitals in China and its three areas operated at decreasing return scales. There was a considerable space for TE improvement in county hospitals in China and its three regions. During 2012–2015, the hospitals experienced progressive productivity; however, the PTE changed adversely. Moreover, Central China continuously achieved a significantly lower efficiency score than Eastern and Western China. Decision makers and administrators in China should identify the causes of the observed inefficiencies and take appropriate measures to increase the efficiency of county public hospitals in the three areas of China, especially in Central China.

Rolling Bearing Feature Frequency Extraction using Extreme Average Envelope Decomposition

The vibration signal contains a wealth of sensitive information which reflects the running status of the equipment. It is one of the most important steps for precise diagnosis to decompose the signal and extracts the effective information properly. The traditional classical adaptive signal decomposition method, such as EMD, exists the problems of mode mixing, low decomposition accuracy etc. Aiming at those problems, EAED（extreme average envelope decomposition） method is presented based on EMD. EAED method has three advantages. Firstly, it is completed through midpoint envelopment method rather than using maximum and minimum envelopment respectively as used in EMD. Therefore, the average variability of the signal can be described accurately. Secondly, in order to reduce the envelope errors during the signal decomposition, replacing two envelopes with one envelope strategy is presented. Thirdly, the similar triangle principle is utilized to calculate the time of extreme average points accurately. Thus, the influence of sampling frequency on the calculation results can be significantly reduced. Experimental results show that EAED could separate out single frequency components from a complex signal gradually. EAED could not only isolate three kinds of typical bearing fault characteristic of vibration frequency components but also has fewer decomposition layers. EAED replaces quadratic enveloping to an envelope which ensuring to isolate the fault characteristic frequency under the condition of less decomposition layers. Therefore, the precision of signal decomposition is improved.

Efficiency assessment of coal mine safety input by data envelopment analysis

In recent years improper allocation of safety input has prevailed in coal mines in China, which resulted in the frequent accidents in coal mining operation. A comprehensive assessment of the input efficiency of coal mine safety should lead to improved efficiency in the use of funds and management resources. This helps government and enterprise managers better understand how safety inputs are used and to optimize allocation of resources. Study on coal mine＇s efficiency assessment of safety input was con- ducted in this paper. A C^2R model with non-Archimedean infinitesimal vector based on output is established after consideration of the input characteristics and the model properties. An assessment of an operating mine was done using a specific set of input and output criteria. It is found that the safety input was efficient in 2002 and 2005 and was weakly efficient in 2003. However, the efficiency was relatively low in both 2001 and 2004. The safety input resources can be optimized and adjusted by means of projection theory. Such analysis shows that, on average in 2001 and 2004, 45% of the expended funds could have been saved. Likewise, 10% of the safety management and technical staff could have been eliminated and working hours devoted to safety could have been reduced by 12%. These conditions could have Riven the same results.

Constant envelope FrFT OFDM: spectral and energy efficiency analysis

Constant envelope with a fractional Fourier transformorthogonal frequency division multiplexing(CE-FrFT-OFDM)is a special case of a constant envelope OFDM(CE-OFDM),both being energy efficient wireless communication techniques with a 0 dB peak to average power ratio(PAPR).However,with the proper selection of fractional order,the first technique has a high bit error rate(BER)performance in the frequency-time selective channels.This paper performs further analysis of CE-FrFT-OFDM by examining its spectral efficiency(SE)and energy efficiency(EE)and compare to the famous OFDM and FrFT-OFDM techniques.Analytical and comprehensive simulations conducted show that,the CE-FrFT-OFDM has five times the EE of OFDM and FrFT-OFDM systems with a slightly less SE.Increasing CE-FrFT-OFDM’s transmission power by increasing its amplitude to 1.7 increases its SE to match that of the OFDM and FrFT-OFDM systems while slightly reducing its EE by 20%to be four times that of OFDM and FrFTOFDM systems.OFDM and FrFT-OFDM’s amplitude fluctuations cause rapid changing output back-off(OBO)power requirements and further reduce power amplifier(PA)efficiency while CE-FrFTOFDM stable operational linear range makes it a better candidate and outperforms the other techniques when their OBO exceeds 1.7.Higher EE and low BER in time-frequency selective channel are attracting features for CE-FrFT-OFDM deployment in mobile devices.