Different Thermal Stabilities of Cation Point Defects in LaAlO_3 Bulk and Films

Using the first-principles method, we investigate the thermal stability of cation point defects in LaAlO3 bulk and films. The calculated densities of states indicate that cation vacancies and antisites act as acceptors. The formation energies show that cation vacancies are energetically favorable in bulk LaAIO3 under O-rich conditions, while the AILa antisites are stable in reducing atmosphere. However, the same behavior does not appear in the case of LaAlO3 films. For LaO-terminated LaAlOa fihns, La or AI vacancies remain energetically favorable under O-rich and O-deficient conditions. For an AlO2-terminated surface, under O-rich condition the La interstitial atom is repelled from the outmost layer after optimization, which releases more stress leading to the decrease of total energy of the system. An AI interstitial atom has a smaller radius so that it can stay in distorted films and becomes more stable under O-deficient conditions, and the Al interstitial atoms can be another possible carrier source contribution to the conductivity of n-type interface under an ultrahigh vacuum. La and Al antisites have similar formation energy regardless of oxygen pressure. The results would be helpful to understand the defect structures of LaAlOa-related materials.

Surface crack imaging based on delayed temperature difference at symmetric points by laser spot thermography

Laser spot thermography is a novel technique for the detection of surface cracks with a laser to heat sample locally and with an IR camera to record the surface temperature distribution. Common methods to characterize cracks are only suitable for the situation that the laser scanning path is vertical to the crack. But due to the randomness of cracks,when the scanning path is parallel to the crack,surface cracks cannot be detected by these methods. To tackle this problem,a method is presented which is suitable for the situation that the scanning path is parallel to crack. The main idea is to evaluate the crack-caused asymmetries of the surface temperature distribution. The effect of temperature gradient and the maximum scanning interval are analyzed by a 2D simulation. A new crack imaging technique is presented that is based on delayed temperature difference at symmetric points to characterize the crack in the thermal image. Compared well with those obtained by the spatial first derivative method,experimental results are shown to efficiently prove this method.

Storage stability of SBS modified bitumen based on mixed-level orthogonal array design

The styrene-butadiene-styrene（SBS） modified bitumens with different contents of SBS modifiers are stored in different conditions to study the storage stability of SBS modified bitumen.Mixed-level orthogonal array design（OAD） is used and factors such as SBS modifier content,storage time,storage temperature and container size are chosen in a mixed-level OAD with an OA16（31×44） matrix.Parameters like the separation softening point difference（the separation difference of the ring and ball softening point of the top and bottom samples） and the average softening point（the arithmetic mean of the softening points of the top and bottom samples） are proposed to evaluate the separation and the ageing of modified bitumen during storage in this experiment,respectively.The results reveal that the separation and the ageing during storage exhibit a complicated variation for storage temperature and time.The separation softening point difference decreases with the storage temperature rising from 20 to 120 ℃ and increases with the temperature exceeding 120 ℃,and the average softening point drops with the storage time being prolonged.Different storage conditions have various effects on the storage stability of SBS modified bitumen.

Best bounds on the distance between 3-direction quartic box spline surface and its control net

We present the best bounds on the distance between 3-direction quartic box spline surface patch and its control net by means of analysis and computing for the basis functions of 3-direction quartic box spline surface.Both the local bounds and the global bounds are given by the maximum norm of the first differences or second differences or mixed differences of the control points of the surface patch.

Estimating the Baseline Error of Wide-Swath Altimeters Using Nadir Altimeters via Numerical Simulation

The baseline roll and length errors for wide-swath altimeters are major error sources in sea surface measurements that exhibit strong spatial characteristics in the cross-track direction.These errors can be identified and estimated in accordance with height differences at crossover points generated with nadir altimeters after excluding the interference from other error sources.Most of the wide-swath altimeter baseline estimation methods considered only the roll error in previous studies.A numerical simulation was conducted in this study using nadir altimeters to estimate the roll and length errors simultaneously to provide a selectable scheme for baseline error estimation and correction for future wide-swath altimeters.Results based on the parameters of the surface water and ocean topography mission and Sentinel-3A show that the correlation coefficient of the roll error between the estimated and simulated values is 0.89,while the correlation coefficient of the length error is 0.85.The sea surface height root mean square error(RMSE)can be reduced from 12.18 cm to 6.45 cm based on the two estimated results.The estimation effect can be increased by using multiple nadir altimeters to form an observation constellation.The numerical simulation of the five nadir altimeter constellation shows that the correlation coefficients of the roll and length errors would increase to 0.97,which reduces the sea surface height RMSE to 2.88 cm.In addition,the stability of this method is indicated in simulation experiments,which introduce different degrees of sea state errors.

Optimization of acupuncture treatment programs for facial paralysis

Objective To optimize acupuncture treatment programs for facial paralysis.Methods Sixty-three cases of facial paralysis were randomly grouped according to orthogonal design L9（3）4 table,and treated by different combined programs of 4 factors,A（acupuncture opportunity）,B（combination of points）,C（stimulating quantity）,D（electroacupuncture time） and 3 levels,and changes of the functional score of the facial nerve were observed,and the different combined programs of the 4 factors,A（acupuncture opportunity）,B（combination of point）,C（stimulating quantity）,D（electroacupuncture time） and 3 levels influencing acupuncture therapeutic effect on facial paralysis were optimized.Results B（combination of points） and D（electroacupuncture time） were obvious factors（P0.05）,among them,B（combination of points） was the most main influencing factor;among the 3 levels of B（combination of points） and D（electroacupuncture time）,B3 （alternately needling two groups of acupoints） and D3 （electroacupuncture treatment at sparse-dense wave for 30 min） were the best.Conclusion Electroacupuncture at sparse-dense wave for 30 min,alternately needling two groups of acupoints is the best program for treatment of facial paralysis.