Previous studies done elsewhere have shown that Eucalyptus poles treated with chromated copper arsenate (CCA) can last over 30 years. Kenya is exceptional because in some eco-regions, the Eucalyptus poles’ life span ...Previous studies done elsewhere have shown that Eucalyptus poles treated with chromated copper arsenate (CCA) can last over 30 years. Kenya is exceptional because in some eco-regions, the Eucalyptus poles’ life span has greatly reduced to 5 years. The current study was designed to evaluate wood deteriorating agents of CCA-treated Eucalyptus poles and variability in four eco-regions of Kenya, namely, dryland, coastal, highland and humid lake. A total of 360 Eucalyptus pole samples were used for this experiment. Three CCA treatments were used to treat transmission poles at 20 kg/cm3 fencing posts samples at 6 kg/cm3, and a control group. Results indicated that termites and wood-decay fungi attacks caused wood deterioration in the four eco-regions. The proportion of power transmission pole degradation by wood deteriorating agents varied across eco-regions, between treatments and control and between time after treatments. Dryland eco-regions had the highest termite-related degradation (41.82%) while wood-decay fungi attack was highest in the highland eco-regions (9.20%). Samples treated with 6 kg/cm3 recorded the lowest level of wood deterioration, manifested by minimal superficial termite and wood-decay fungi attack. Samples treated with 20 kg/cm3 were characterized by moderate termite and wood-decay fungi attacks observed around the heartwood region, unlike sapwood. This study concluded that the deterioration of Eucalyptus CCA-treated poles is a question of climatic variability and hence, to increase the poles’ lifespan, CCA treatment should be tailored according to the characteristics of the ecoregion of use. Further investigations will inform the diversity of termites and decay-fungi across different eco-regions.展开更多
Straight-line compliant mechanisms are important building blocks to design a linear-motion stage, which is very useful in precision applications. However, only a few configurations of straight-line compliant mechanism...Straight-line compliant mechanisms are important building blocks to design a linear-motion stage, which is very useful in precision applications. However, only a few configurations of straight-line compliant mechanisms are applicable. To construct more kinds of them, an approach to design large-displacement straight-line flexural mechanisms with rotational flexural joints is proposed, which is based on a viewpoint that the straight-line motion is regarded as a compromise of rigid and compliant parasitic motion of a rotational flexural joint. An analytical design method based on the Taylor series expansion is proposed to quickly obtain an approximate solution. To illustrate and verify the proposed method, two kinds of flexural joints, cross-axis hinge and leaf-type isosceles-trapezoidal flexural(LITF) pivot are used to reconstruct straight-line flexural mechanisms. Their performances are obtained by analytic and FEA method respectively. The comparisons of the results show the accuracy of the approach. Both examples show that the proposed approach can convert a large-deflection flexural joint into approximate straight-line mechanism with a high linearity that is higher than 5 000 within 5 man displacement. This can lead to a new way to design, analyze or optimize straight-line flexure mechanisms.展开更多
In order to solve four-bar straight-line guidance mechanism synthesis problem for the arbitrarily given straight-line’s"angle requirement"and"point-position requirement",a numerical comparison syn...In order to solve four-bar straight-line guidance mechanism synthesis problem for the arbitrarily given straight-line’s"angle requirement"and"point-position requirement",a numerical comparison synthesis method for single and double straight-line guidance mechanism is presented,which is convenient to realize by computer program.The basic idea of this method is:to select a four-bar linkage whose relative bar length of crank is 1 as a basic four-bar linkage.Then the other three relative bars’length is changed,and a lot of basic four-bar linkage can be obtained.There are many single and double ball-points of each basic four-bar linkage.With the motion of a basic four-bar linkage,there is straight-line segment of each Ball-point’s path.The data of these basic four-bar linkages is saved to a database.When designing a four-bar straight-line guidance mechanism,the design data is compared with the data in database and a satisfactory four-bar linkage can be obtained.The method effectively solves the straight-line guidance mechanism synthesis problem.展开更多
The straight-line method in computing for depreciation expense is the prevailing method used in the Philippines. This paper aims to determine the rationale behind the use of this method. The objective of the study is ...The straight-line method in computing for depreciation expense is the prevailing method used in the Philippines. This paper aims to determine the rationale behind the use of this method. The objective of the study is to determine the length of time within which the depreciation method is used, reasons in using the method, the rate of depreciation used by the companies, and the effects of the depreciation expense on their operating expenses. It also determines if the companies' decisions to use the straight-line method are influenced by the factors mentioned by Reynolds (196 I)----expected amount of services over the life of assets, the amount and timing of operating costs, the decline in the physical efficiency of the assets, and the rate of return--and if they considered capital investments and tax reduction in using this method. The study shows that companies and educational institutions use the straight-line method of computing depreciation expenses, because it is easy to use in computing the depreciation expenses, in comparing with previous years' computations, and in keeping track of the expenses. It is also convenient for tax administration and financial reporting. The rate of depreciation used varies, because the companies and educational institutions use their past experiences in determining the life of fixed assets. The percentage of depreciation to the operating expenses also varies. The companies and educational institutions adhered to the factors mentioned by Reynolds (1961) in choosing the straight-line method of depreciation. The companies did not consider reduction of tax in using the straight-line method.展开更多
Permanent magnet claw pole machine(PMCPM) is a special kind of transverse flux permanent magnet machine. Compared with other electrical machines, it has the advantages of high torque density and high efficiency for hi...Permanent magnet claw pole machine(PMCPM) is a special kind of transverse flux permanent magnet machine. Compared with other electrical machines, it has the advantages of high torque density and high efficiency for high speed operation. However, because of its complex irregular structure, the manufacturing process using silicon sheets is complicated. Soft magnetic composite material(SMC) is manufactured by powder metallurgy technology, which can produce various shapes of stator core structures, so it is easier to produce various irregular shapes of the stator core. However, the raw SMC material is relatively expensive, and the mechanical strength of SMC is weak. In this paper, a PMCPM with hybrid cores is proposed. With the adoption of hybrid silicon sheet-SMC cores and amorphous alloy-SMC cores, the torque ability of PMCPM can be improved greatly and it can have higher efficiency for more wide operation frequency. Meanwhile, its mechanical strength has been improved and it can be designed for high torque direct drive applications as it is a modular machine. Furthermore, three methods are proposed to reduce the additional eddy current loss which resulted from the employment of hybrid cores in PMCPM.展开更多
Objective:To evaluate the long-term stone-free rate(SFR)of retrograde intrarenal surgery(RIRS)in the treatment of lower pole renal calculi using only basket relocation and identify independent predictors of stone-free...Objective:To evaluate the long-term stone-free rate(SFR)of retrograde intrarenal surgery(RIRS)in the treatment of lower pole renal calculi using only basket relocation and identify independent predictors of stone-free status.Methods:All consecutive patients undergoing RIRS lower pole renal calculi at a single highvolume tertiary center were analyzed retrospectively.Lower pole stones were relocated to the upper pole,where laser lithotripsy was performed.All patients were followed up in the clinic following the surgery and yearly thereafter.The stone-free status was assessed with a combination of an abdominal ultrasound and abdominal X-ray,or an abdominal non-contrast computed tomography if the stones were known to be radiolucent.Results:A total of 480 consecutive patients who underwent RIRS for treatment of lower pole renal calculi,between January 2012 and December 2018,were analyzed from a prospectively maintained database of 3000 ureteroscopies.With a median follow-up time of 18.6 months,the mean SFR was 94.8%.The procedures were unsuccessful in 26(5.4%)patients due to unreachable stones.The median stone size of the unreachable stones was 12 mm(range 10e30 mm).Multivariable logistic regression analysis revealed two predictors of SFR for lower pole stones:a small cumulative stone burden(odds ratio[OR]:0.903,95%confidence interval[CI]:0.867e0.941,p<0.0001)and preoperative ureteral stent insertion(OR:0.515,95%CI:0.318e0.835,pZ0.007).Conclusion:The long-term SFR of RIRS for the treatment of lower pole stones with basket displacement with appropriate patient selection is high.展开更多
Soft magnetic composite(SMC)material is an ideal soft magnetic material employed for developing 3D magnetic flux electromagnetic equipment,due to its advantages of 3D magnetic isotropy characteristic,low eddy current ...Soft magnetic composite(SMC)material is an ideal soft magnetic material employed for developing 3D magnetic flux electromagnetic equipment,due to its advantages of 3D magnetic isotropy characteristic,low eddy current loss,and simple manufacturing process.The permanent magnet claw pole machine(PMCPM)with SMC cores is a good case that the SMC to be adopted for developing 3D flux electrical machines.In this paper,a novel axial-radial flux permanent magnet claw pole machine(ARPMCPM)with SMC cores and ferrite magnets is proposed.Compared with the traditional PMCPM,the proposed ARPMCPM is designed with only one spoke PM rotor and its whole structure is quite compact.For the performance prediction,the 3D finite element method(FEM)is used.Meanwhile,for the performance evaluation,a previously developed axial flux claw pole permanent magnet machine(AFCPM)is employed as the benchmark machine and all these machines are optimized by using the combined multilevel robust Taguchi method.It can be seen that the proposed ARPMCPM is with higher torque/weight density and operation efficiency.展开更多
The idea of research started with a crazy imaginary theory in the field of astrogeography, saying: We often taught ourselves and then convinced the students that the planet Earth moves despite not feeling the vibratio...The idea of research started with a crazy imaginary theory in the field of astrogeography, saying: We often taught ourselves and then convinced the students that the planet Earth moves despite not feeling the vibrations of traffic, and we listed successive scientific confirmations to indicate the rotation of the planet in a regular movement around its axis once every 24 hours, and it is running in another second movement around the sun once every 365¼ days, so are they only two movements, no more?! Is it possible for him to run at a regular speed in an additional direction?展开更多
文摘Previous studies done elsewhere have shown that Eucalyptus poles treated with chromated copper arsenate (CCA) can last over 30 years. Kenya is exceptional because in some eco-regions, the Eucalyptus poles’ life span has greatly reduced to 5 years. The current study was designed to evaluate wood deteriorating agents of CCA-treated Eucalyptus poles and variability in four eco-regions of Kenya, namely, dryland, coastal, highland and humid lake. A total of 360 Eucalyptus pole samples were used for this experiment. Three CCA treatments were used to treat transmission poles at 20 kg/cm3 fencing posts samples at 6 kg/cm3, and a control group. Results indicated that termites and wood-decay fungi attacks caused wood deterioration in the four eco-regions. The proportion of power transmission pole degradation by wood deteriorating agents varied across eco-regions, between treatments and control and between time after treatments. Dryland eco-regions had the highest termite-related degradation (41.82%) while wood-decay fungi attack was highest in the highland eco-regions (9.20%). Samples treated with 6 kg/cm3 recorded the lowest level of wood deterioration, manifested by minimal superficial termite and wood-decay fungi attack. Samples treated with 20 kg/cm3 were characterized by moderate termite and wood-decay fungi attacks observed around the heartwood region, unlike sapwood. This study concluded that the deterioration of Eucalyptus CCA-treated poles is a question of climatic variability and hence, to increase the poles’ lifespan, CCA treatment should be tailored according to the characteristics of the ecoregion of use. Further investigations will inform the diversity of termites and decay-fungi across different eco-regions.
基金supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.51275552)Foundation for the Author of National Excellent Doctoral Dissertation of China(Grant No.201234)
文摘Straight-line compliant mechanisms are important building blocks to design a linear-motion stage, which is very useful in precision applications. However, only a few configurations of straight-line compliant mechanisms are applicable. To construct more kinds of them, an approach to design large-displacement straight-line flexural mechanisms with rotational flexural joints is proposed, which is based on a viewpoint that the straight-line motion is regarded as a compromise of rigid and compliant parasitic motion of a rotational flexural joint. An analytical design method based on the Taylor series expansion is proposed to quickly obtain an approximate solution. To illustrate and verify the proposed method, two kinds of flexural joints, cross-axis hinge and leaf-type isosceles-trapezoidal flexural(LITF) pivot are used to reconstruct straight-line flexural mechanisms. Their performances are obtained by analytic and FEA method respectively. The comparisons of the results show the accuracy of the approach. Both examples show that the proposed approach can convert a large-deflection flexural joint into approximate straight-line mechanism with a high linearity that is higher than 5 000 within 5 man displacement. This can lead to a new way to design, analyze or optimize straight-line flexure mechanisms.
文摘In order to solve four-bar straight-line guidance mechanism synthesis problem for the arbitrarily given straight-line’s"angle requirement"and"point-position requirement",a numerical comparison synthesis method for single and double straight-line guidance mechanism is presented,which is convenient to realize by computer program.The basic idea of this method is:to select a four-bar linkage whose relative bar length of crank is 1 as a basic four-bar linkage.Then the other three relative bars’length is changed,and a lot of basic four-bar linkage can be obtained.There are many single and double ball-points of each basic four-bar linkage.With the motion of a basic four-bar linkage,there is straight-line segment of each Ball-point’s path.The data of these basic four-bar linkages is saved to a database.When designing a four-bar straight-line guidance mechanism,the design data is compared with the data in database and a satisfactory four-bar linkage can be obtained.The method effectively solves the straight-line guidance mechanism synthesis problem.
文摘The straight-line method in computing for depreciation expense is the prevailing method used in the Philippines. This paper aims to determine the rationale behind the use of this method. The objective of the study is to determine the length of time within which the depreciation method is used, reasons in using the method, the rate of depreciation used by the companies, and the effects of the depreciation expense on their operating expenses. It also determines if the companies' decisions to use the straight-line method are influenced by the factors mentioned by Reynolds (196 I)----expected amount of services over the life of assets, the amount and timing of operating costs, the decline in the physical efficiency of the assets, and the rate of return--and if they considered capital investments and tax reduction in using this method. The study shows that companies and educational institutions use the straight-line method of computing depreciation expenses, because it is easy to use in computing the depreciation expenses, in comparing with previous years' computations, and in keeping track of the expenses. It is also convenient for tax administration and financial reporting. The rate of depreciation used varies, because the companies and educational institutions use their past experiences in determining the life of fixed assets. The percentage of depreciation to the operating expenses also varies. The companies and educational institutions adhered to the factors mentioned by Reynolds (1961) in choosing the straight-line method of depreciation. The companies did not consider reduction of tax in using the straight-line method.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under project 52007047the Outstanding Youth Innovation Project funded by State Key Laboratory of Reliability and Intelligence of Electrical Equipment EERI_OY2021005。
文摘Permanent magnet claw pole machine(PMCPM) is a special kind of transverse flux permanent magnet machine. Compared with other electrical machines, it has the advantages of high torque density and high efficiency for high speed operation. However, because of its complex irregular structure, the manufacturing process using silicon sheets is complicated. Soft magnetic composite material(SMC) is manufactured by powder metallurgy technology, which can produce various shapes of stator core structures, so it is easier to produce various irregular shapes of the stator core. However, the raw SMC material is relatively expensive, and the mechanical strength of SMC is weak. In this paper, a PMCPM with hybrid cores is proposed. With the adoption of hybrid silicon sheet-SMC cores and amorphous alloy-SMC cores, the torque ability of PMCPM can be improved greatly and it can have higher efficiency for more wide operation frequency. Meanwhile, its mechanical strength has been improved and it can be designed for high torque direct drive applications as it is a modular machine. Furthermore, three methods are proposed to reduce the additional eddy current loss which resulted from the employment of hybrid cores in PMCPM.
文摘Objective:To evaluate the long-term stone-free rate(SFR)of retrograde intrarenal surgery(RIRS)in the treatment of lower pole renal calculi using only basket relocation and identify independent predictors of stone-free status.Methods:All consecutive patients undergoing RIRS lower pole renal calculi at a single highvolume tertiary center were analyzed retrospectively.Lower pole stones were relocated to the upper pole,where laser lithotripsy was performed.All patients were followed up in the clinic following the surgery and yearly thereafter.The stone-free status was assessed with a combination of an abdominal ultrasound and abdominal X-ray,or an abdominal non-contrast computed tomography if the stones were known to be radiolucent.Results:A total of 480 consecutive patients who underwent RIRS for treatment of lower pole renal calculi,between January 2012 and December 2018,were analyzed from a prospectively maintained database of 3000 ureteroscopies.With a median follow-up time of 18.6 months,the mean SFR was 94.8%.The procedures were unsuccessful in 26(5.4%)patients due to unreachable stones.The median stone size of the unreachable stones was 12 mm(range 10e30 mm).Multivariable logistic regression analysis revealed two predictors of SFR for lower pole stones:a small cumulative stone burden(odds ratio[OR]:0.903,95%confidence interval[CI]:0.867e0.941,p<0.0001)and preoperative ureteral stent insertion(OR:0.515,95%CI:0.318e0.835,pZ0.007).Conclusion:The long-term SFR of RIRS for the treatment of lower pole stones with basket displacement with appropriate patient selection is high.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under project 52007047in part by the Outstanding Youth Innovation Project funded by State Key Laboratory of Reliability and Intelligence of Electrical Equipment EERI_OY2021005,and EERI_KF2021014。
文摘Soft magnetic composite(SMC)material is an ideal soft magnetic material employed for developing 3D magnetic flux electromagnetic equipment,due to its advantages of 3D magnetic isotropy characteristic,low eddy current loss,and simple manufacturing process.The permanent magnet claw pole machine(PMCPM)with SMC cores is a good case that the SMC to be adopted for developing 3D flux electrical machines.In this paper,a novel axial-radial flux permanent magnet claw pole machine(ARPMCPM)with SMC cores and ferrite magnets is proposed.Compared with the traditional PMCPM,the proposed ARPMCPM is designed with only one spoke PM rotor and its whole structure is quite compact.For the performance prediction,the 3D finite element method(FEM)is used.Meanwhile,for the performance evaluation,a previously developed axial flux claw pole permanent magnet machine(AFCPM)is employed as the benchmark machine and all these machines are optimized by using the combined multilevel robust Taguchi method.It can be seen that the proposed ARPMCPM is with higher torque/weight density and operation efficiency.
文摘The idea of research started with a crazy imaginary theory in the field of astrogeography, saying: We often taught ourselves and then convinced the students that the planet Earth moves despite not feeling the vibrations of traffic, and we listed successive scientific confirmations to indicate the rotation of the planet in a regular movement around its axis once every 24 hours, and it is running in another second movement around the sun once every 365¼ days, so are they only two movements, no more?! Is it possible for him to run at a regular speed in an additional direction?