Non-crossing Quantile Regression Neural Network as a Calibration Tool for Ensemble Weather Forecasts

Despite the maturity of ensemble numerical weather prediction(NWP),the resulting forecasts are still,more often than not,under-dispersed.As such,forecast calibration tools have become popular.Among those tools,quantile regression(QR)is highly competitive in terms of both flexibility and predictive performance.Nevertheless,a long-standing problem of QR is quantile crossing,which greatly limits the interpretability of QR-calibrated forecasts.On this point,this study proposes a non-crossing quantile regression neural network(NCQRNN),for calibrating ensemble NWP forecasts into a set of reliable quantile forecasts without crossing.The overarching design principle of NCQRNN is to add on top of the conventional QRNN structure another hidden layer,which imposes a non-decreasing mapping between the combined output from nodes of the last hidden layer to the nodes of the output layer,through a triangular weight matrix with positive entries.The empirical part of the work considers a solar irradiance case study,in which four years of ensemble irradiance forecasts at seven locations,issued by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts,are calibrated via NCQRNN,as well as via an eclectic mix of benchmarking models,ranging from the naïve climatology to the state-of-the-art deep-learning and other non-crossing models.Formal and stringent forecast verification suggests that the forecasts post-processed via NCQRNN attain the maximum sharpness subject to calibration,amongst all competitors.Furthermore,the proposed conception to resolve quantile crossing is remarkably simple yet general,and thus has broad applicability as it can be integrated with many shallow-and deep-learning-based neural networks.

Enhancing Low-Frequency Microwave Absorption Through Structural Polarization Modulation of MXenes

Two-dimensional carbon-based materials have shown promising electromagnetic wave absorption capabilities in mid-and high-frequency ranges,but face challenges in low-frequency absorption due to limited control over polarization response mecha-nisms and ambiguous resonance behavior.In this study,we pro-pose a novel approach to enhance absorption efficiency in aligned three-dimensional(3D)MXene/CNF(cellulose nanofibers)cavities by modifying polarization properties and manipulating resonance response in the 3D MXene architecture.This controlled polarization mechanism results in a significant shift of the main absorption region from the X-band to the S-band,leading to a remarkable reflection loss value of-47.9 dB in the low-frequency range.Furthermore,our findings revealed the importance of the oriented electromagnetic coupling in influencing electromagnetic response and microwave absorption properties.The present study inspired us to develop a generic strategy for low-frequency tuned absorption in the absence of magnetic element participation,while orientation-induced polarization and the derived magnetic resonance coupling are the key controlling factors of the method.

Low-frequency bandgap and vibration suppression mechanism of a novel square hierarchical honeycomb metamaterial

The suppression of low-frequency vibration and noise has always been an important issue in a wide range of engineering applications.To address this concern,a novel square hierarchical honeycomb metamaterial capable of reducing low-frequency noise has been developed.By combining Bloch’s theorem with the finite element method,the band structure is calculated.Numerical results indicate that this metamaterial can produce multiple low-frequency bandgaps within 500 Hz,with a bandgap ratio exceeding 50%.The first bandgap spans from 169.57 Hz to 216.42 Hz.To reveal the formation mechanism of the bandgap,a vibrational mode analysis is performed.Numerical analysis demonstrates that the bandgap is attributed to the suppression of elastic wave propagation by the vibrations of the structure’s two protruding corners and overall expansion vibrations.Additionally,detailed parametric analyses are conducted to investigate the effect ofθ,i.e.,the angle between the protruding corner of the structure and the horizontal direction,on the band structures and the total effective bandgap width.It is found that reducingθis conducive to obtaining lower frequency bandgaps.The propagation characteristics of elastic waves in the structure are explored by the group velocity,phase velocity,and wave propagation direction.Finally,the transmission characteristics of a finite periodic structure are investigated experimentally.The results indicate significant acceleration amplitude attenuation within the bandgap range,confirming the structure’s excellent low-frequency vibration suppression capability.

Dynamic characteristics of coal specimens with varying static preloading levels under low-frequency disturbance load

The mechanical properties of residual coal pillars under the influence of upward mining disturbances significantly affect the safety of residual mining activities on working faces.This study conducted low-frequency disturbance dynamic uniaxial compression tests on coal specimens using a self-developed dynamic-static load coupling electro-hydraulic servo system,and studied the strength evolutions,surface deformations,acoustic emission(AE)characteristic parameters,and the failure modes of coal specimens with different static preloading levels were studied.The disturbance damage is positively correlated with the coal specimen static preload level.Specifically,the cumulative AE count rates of the initial accelerated damage stage for the coal specimens with static preloading level of 60%and 70%of the uniaxial compressive strength(UCS)were 2.66 and 3.19 times that of the 50%UCS specimens,respectively.Macroscopically,this behaviour manifested as a decrease in the compressive strength,and the mean strengths of the disturbance-damaged coal specimens with 60%and 70%of UCS static preloading decreased by 8.53%and 9.32%,respectively,compared to those of the specimens under pure static loading.The crack sources,such as the primary fissures,strongly control the dynamic response of the coal specimen.The difference between the dynamic responses of the coal specimens and that of dense rocks is significant.

A seismic elastic moduli module for the measurements of low-frequency wave dispersion and attenuation of fluid-saturated rocks under different pressures

Knowledge about the seismic elastic modulus dispersion,and associated attenuation,in fluid-saturated rocks is essential for better interpretation of seismic observations taken as part of hydrocarbon identification and time-lapse seismic surveillance of both conventional and unconventional reservoir and overburden performances.A Seismic Elastic Moduli Module has been developed,based on the forced-oscillations method,to experimentally investigate the frequency dependence of Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio,as well as the inferred attenuation,of cylindrical samples under different confining pressure conditions.Calibration with three standard samples showed that the measured elastic moduli were consistent with the published data,indicating that the new apparatus can operate reliably over a wide frequency range of f∈[1-2000,10^(6)]Hz.The Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio of the shale and the tight sandstone samples were measured under axial stress oscillations to assess the frequency-and pressure-dependent effects.Under dry condition,both samples appear to be nearly frequency independent,with weak pressure dependence for the shale and significant pressure dependence for the sandstone.In particular,it was found that the tight sandstone with complex pore microstructure exhibited apparent dispersion and attenuation under brine or glycerin saturation conditions,the levels of which were strongly influenced by the increased effective pressure.In addition,the measured Young's moduli results were compared with the theoretical predictions from a scaled poroelastic model with a reasonably good agreement,revealing that the combined fluid flow mechanisms at both mesoscopic and microscopic scales possibly responsible for the measured dispersion.

Low-frequency oscillation of train-network system considering traction power supply mode

The low-frequency oscillation(LFO)has occurred in the train-network system due to the introduction of the power electronics of the trains.The modeling and analyzing method in current researches based on electrified railway unilateral power supply system are not suitable for the LFO analysis in a bilateral power supply system,where the trains are supplied by two traction substations.In this work,based on the single-input and single-output impedance model of China CRH5 trains,the node admittance matrices of the train-network system both in unilateral and bilateral power supply modes are established,including three-phase power grid,traction transformers and traction network.Then the modal analysis is used to study the oscillation modes and propagation characteristics of the unilateral and bilateral power supply systems.Moreover,the influence of the equivalent inductance of the power grid,the length of the transmission line,and the length of the traction network are analyzed on the critical oscillation mode of the bilateral power supply system.Finally,the theoretical analysis results are verified by the time-domain simulation model in MATLAB/Simulink.

Suppression of low-frequency ultrasound broadband vibration using star-shaped single-phase metamaterials

In order to suppress the low-frequency ultrasound vibration in the broadband range of 20 k Hz—100 k Hz,this paper proposes and discusses an acoustic metamaterial with low-frequency ultrasound vibration attenuation properties,which is configured by hybrid arc and sharp-angle convergent star-shaped lattices.The effect of the dispersion relation and the bandgap characteristic for the scatterers in star-shaped are simulated and analyzed.The target bandgap width is extended by optimizing the geometry parameters of arc and sharp-angle convergent lattices.The proposed metamaterial configured by optimized hybrid lattices exhibits remarkable broad bandgap characteristics by bandgap complementarity,and the simulation results verify a 99%vibration attenuation amplitude can be obtained in the frequency of20 k Hz—100 k Hz.After the fabrication of the proposed hybrid configurational star-shaped metamaterial by 3D printing technique,the transmission loss experiments are performed,and the experimental results indicate that the fabricated metamaterial has the characteristics of broadband vibration attenuation and an amplitude greater than 85%attenuation for the target frequency.These results demonstrate that the hybrid configurational star-shaped metamaterials can effectively widen the bandgap and realize high efficiency attenuation,which has capability for the vibration attenuation in the application of highprecise equipment.

A real-time calibration method based on time-to-digital converter for accelerator timing system

The high-intensity heavy-ion accelerator facility(HIAF)is a scientific research facility complex composed of multiple cas-cade accelerators of different types,which pose a scheduling problem for devices distributed over a certain range of 2 km,involving over a hundred devices.The white rabbit,a technology-enhancing Gigabit Ethernet,has shown the capability of scheduling distributed timing devices but still faces the challenge of obtaining real-time synchronization calibration param-eters with high precision.This study presents a calibration system based on a time-to-digital converter implemented on an ARM-based System-on-Chip(SoC).The system consists of four multi-sample delay lines,a bubble-proof encoder,an edge controller for managing data from different channels,and a highly effective calibration module that benefits from the SoC architecture.The performance was evaluated with an average RMS precision of 5.51 ps by measuring the time intervals from 0 to 24,000 ps with 120,000 data for every test.The design presented in this study refines the calibration precision of the HIAF timing system.This eliminates the errors caused by manual calibration without efficiency loss and provides data support for fault diagnosis.It can also be easily tailored or ported to other devices for specific applications and provides more space for developing timing systems for particle accelerators,such as white rabbits on HIAF.

Current optimization-based control of dual three-phase PMSM for low-frequency temperature swing reduction

In this paper,a control scheme based on current optimization is proposed for dual three-phase permanent-magnet synchronous motor(DTP-PMSM)drive to reduce the low-frequency temperature swing.The reduction of temperature swing can be equivalent to reducing maximum instantaneous phase copper loss in this paper.First,a two-level optimization aiming at minimizing maximum instantaneous phase copper loss at each electrical angle is proposed.Then,the optimization is transformed to a singlelevel optimization by introducing the auxiliary variable for easy solving.Considering that singleobjective optimization trades a great total copper loss for a small reduction of maximum phase copper loss,the optimization considering both instantaneous total copper loss and maximum phase copper loss is proposed,which has the same performance of temperature swing reduction but with lower total loss.In this way,the proposed control scheme can reduce maximum junction temperature by 11%.Both simulation and experimental results are presented to prove the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed control scheme for low-frequency temperature swing reduction.

High-order Bragg forward scattering and frequency shift of low-frequency underwater acoustic field by moving rough sea surface

Acoustic scattering modulation caused by an undulating sea surface on the space-time dimension seriously affects underwater detection and target recognition.Herein,underwater acoustic scattering modulation from a moving rough sea surface is studied based on integral equation and parabolic equation.And with the principles of grating and constructive interference,the mechanism of this acoustic scattering modulation is explained.The periodicity of the interference of moving rough sea surface will lead to the interference of the scattering field at a series of discrete angles,which will form comb-like and frequency-shift characteristics on the intensity and the frequency spectrum of the acoustic scattering field,respectively,which is a high-order Bragg scattering phenomenon.Unlike the conventional Doppler effect,the frequency shifts of the Bragg scattering phenomenon are multiples of the undulating sea surface frequency and are independent of the incident sound wave frequency.Therefore,even if a low-frequency underwater acoustic field is incident,it will produce obvious frequency shifts.Moreover,under the action of ideal sinusoidal waves,swells,fully grown wind waves,unsteady wind waves,or mixed waves,different moving rough sea surfaces create different acoustic scattering processes and possess different frequency shift characteristics.For the swell wave,which tends to be a single harmonic wave,the moving rough sea surface produces more obvious high-order scattering and frequency shifts.The same phenomena are observed on the sea surface under fully grown wind waves,however,the frequency shift slightly offsets the multiple peak frequencies of the wind wave spectrum.Comparing with the swell and fully-grown wind waves,the acoustic scattering and frequency shift are not obvious for the sea surface under unsteady wind waves.

A low-frequency pure metal metamaterial absorber with continuously tunable stiffness

To address the incompatibility between high environmental adaptability and deep subwavelength characteristics in conventional local resonance metamaterials,and overcome the deficiencies in the stability of existing active control techniques for band gaps,this paper proposes a design method of pure metal vibration damping metamaterial with continuously tunable stiffness for wideband elastic wave absorption.We design a dual-helix narrow-slit pure metal metamaterial unit,which possesses the triple advantage of high spatial compactness,low stiffness characteristics,and high structural stability,enabling the opening of elastic flexural band gaps in the low-frequency range.Similar to the principle of a sliding rheostat,the introduction of continuously sliding plug-ins into the helical slits enables the continuous variation of the stiffness of the metamaterial unit,achieving a continuously tunable band gap effect.This successfully extends the effective band gap by more than ten times.The experimental results indicate that this metamaterial unit can be used as an additional vibration absorber to absorb the low-frequency vibration energy effectively.Furthermore,it advances the metamaterial absorbers from a purely passive narrowband design to a wideband tunable one.The pure metal double-helix metamaterials retain the subwavelength properties of metamaterials and are suitable for deployment in harsh environments.Simultaneously,by adjusting its stiffness,it substantially broadens the effective band gap range,presenting promising potential applications in various mechanical equipment operating under adverse conditions.

Altered spontaneous brain activity patterns in hypertensive retinopathy using fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations:a functional magnetic resonance imaging study

AIM:To study functional brain abnormalities in patients with hypertensive retinopathy(HR)and to discuss the pathophysiological mechanisms of HR by fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations(fALFFs)method.METHODS:Twenty HR patients and 20 healthy controls(HCs)were respectively recruited.The age,gender,and educational background characteristics of the two groups were similar.After functional magnetic resonance imaging(fMRI)scanning,the subjects’spontaneous brain activity was evaluated with the fALFF method.Receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve analysis was used to classify the data.Further,we used Pearson’s correlation analysis to explore the relationship between fALFF values in specific brain regions and clinical behaviors in patients with HR.RESULTS:The brain areas of the HR group with lower fALFF values than HCs were the right orbital part of the middle frontal gyrus(RO-MFG)and right lingual gyrus.In contrast,the values of fALFFs in the left middle temporal gyrus(MTG),left superior temporal pole(STP),left middle frontal gyrus(MFG),left superior marginal gyrus(SMG),left superior parietal lobule(SPL),and right supplementary motor area(SMA)were higher in the HR group.The results of a t-test showed that the average values of fALFFs were statistically significantly different in the HR group and HC group(P<0.001).The fALFF values of the left middle frontal gyrus in HR patients were positively correlated with anxiety scores(r=0.9232;P<0.0001)and depression scores(r=0.9682;P<0.0001).CONCLUSION:fALFF values in multiple brain regions of HR patients are abnormal,suggesting that these brain regions in HR patients may be dysfunctional,which may help to reveal the pathophysiological mechanisms of HR.

Wavelength calibration and spectral analysis of vacuum ultraviolet spectroscopy in EAST

A vacuum ultraviolet(VUV)spectroscopy with a focal length of 1 m has been engineered specifically for observing edge impurity emissions in Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak(EAST).In this study,wavelength calibration for the VUV spectroscopy is achieved utilizing a zinc lamp.The grating angle and charge-coupled device(CCD)position are carefully calibrated for different wavelength positions.The wavelength calibration of the VUV spectroscopy is crucial for improving the accuracy of impurity spectral data,and is required to identify more impurity spectral lines for impurity transport research.Impurity spectra of EAST plasmas have also been obtained in the wavelength range of 50–300 nm with relatively high spectral resolution.It is found that the impurity emissions in the edge region are still dominated by low-Z impurities,such as carbon,oxygen,and nitrogen,albeit with the application of fulltungsten divertors on the EAST tokamak.

Diagnosing ratio of electron density to collision frequency of plasma surrounding scaled model in a shock tube using low-frequency alternating magnetic field phase shift

A non-contact low-frequency(LF)method of diagnosing the plasma surrounding a scaled model in a shock tube is proposed.This method utilizes the phase shift occurring after the transmission of an LF alternating magnetic field through the plasma to directly measure the ratio of the plasma loop average electron density to collision frequency.An equivalent circuit model is used to analyze the relationship of the phase shift of the magnetic field component of LF electromagnetic waves with the plasma electron density and collision frequency.The applicable range of the LF method on a given plasma scale is analyzed.The upper diagnostic limit for the ratio of the electron density(unit:m^(-3))to collision frequency(unit:Hz)exceeds 1×10^(11),enabling an electron density to exceed 1×10^(20)m^(-3)and a collision frequency to be less than 1 GHz.In this work,the feasibility of using the LF phase shift to implement the plasma diagnosis is also assessed.Diagnosis experiments on shock tube equipment are conducted by using both the electrostatic probe method and LF method.By comparing the diagnostic results of the two methods,the inversion results are relatively consistent with each other,thereby preliminarily verifying the feasibility of the LF method.The ratio of the electron density to the collision frequency has a relatively uniform distribution during the plasma stabilization.The LF diagnostic path is a loop around the model,which is suitable for diagnosing the plasma that surrounds the model.Finally,the causes of diagnostic discrepancy between the two methods are analyzed.The proposed method provides a new avenue for diagnosing high-density enveloping plasma.

A Weakly-Supervised Crowd Density Estimation Method Based on Two-Stage Linear Feature Calibration

In a crowd density estimation dataset,the annotation of crowd locations is an extremely laborious task,and they are not taken into the evaluation metrics.In this paper,we aim to reduce the annotation cost of crowd datasets,and propose a crowd density estimation method based on weakly-supervised learning,in the absence of crowd position supervision information,which directly reduces the number of crowds by using the number of pedestrians in the image as the supervised information.For this purpose,we design a new training method,which exploits the correlation between global and local image features by incremental learning to train the network.Specifically,we design a parent-child network(PC-Net)focusing on the global and local image respectively,and propose a linear feature calibration structure to train the PC-Net simultaneously,and the child network learns feature transfer factors and feature bias weights,and uses the transfer factors and bias weights to linearly feature calibrate the features extracted from the Parent network,to improve the convergence of the network by using local features hidden in the crowd images.In addition,we use the pyramid vision transformer as the backbone of the PC-Net to extract crowd features at different levels,and design a global-local feature loss function(L2).We combine it with a crowd counting loss(LC)to enhance the sensitivity of the network to crowd features during the training process,which effectively improves the accuracy of crowd density estimation.The experimental results show that the PC-Net significantly reduces the gap between fullysupervised and weakly-supervised crowd density estimation,and outperforms the comparison methods on five datasets of Shanghai Tech Part A,ShanghaiTech Part B,UCF_CC_50,UCF_QNRF and JHU-CROWD++.

A new calibration method for radon detector in seismic systems

Radon observation is an important measurement item of seismic precursor network observation.The radon detector calibration is a key technical link for ensuring radon observation accuracy.At present,the radon detector calibration in seismic systems in China is faced with a series of bottleneck problems,such as aging and scrap,acquisition difficulties,high supervision costs,and transportation limitations of radon sources.As a result,a large number of radon detectors cannot be accurately calibrated regularly,seriously affecting the accuracy and reliability of radon observation data in China.To solve this problem,a new calibration method for radon detectors was established.The advantage of this method is that the dangerous radioactive substance,i.e.,the radon source,can be avoided,but only“standard instruments”and water samples with certain dissolved radon concentrations can be used to realize radon detector calibration.This method avoids the risk of radioactive leakage and solves the current widespread difficulties and bottleneck of radon detector calibration in seismic systems in China.The comparison experiment with the traditional calibration method shows that the error of the calibration coefficient obtained by the new method is less than 5%compared with that by the traditional method,which meets the requirements of seismic observation systems,confirming the reliability of the new method.This new method can completely replace the traditional calibration method of using a radon source in seismic systems.

Kinematic calibration under the expectation maximization framework for exoskeletal inertial motion capture system

This study presents a kinematic calibration method for exoskeletal inertial motion capture (EI-MoCap) system with considering the random colored noise such as gyroscopic drift.In this method, the geometric parameters are calibrated by the traditional calibration method at first. Then, in order to calibrate the parameters affected by the random colored noise, the expectation maximization (EM) algorithm is introduced. Through the use of geometric parameters calibrated by the traditional calibration method, the iterations under the EM framework are decreased and the efficiency of the proposed method on embedded system is improved. The performance of the proposed kinematic calibration method is compared to the traditional calibration method. Furthermore, the feasibility of the proposed method is verified on the EI-MoCap system. The simulation and experiment demonstrate that the motion capture precision is significantly improved by 16.79%and 7.16%respectively in comparison to the traditional calibration method.

Calibration of CO and CO2 Monitors Used in Periodic Inspection of Vehicles at Fixed Stations for Environmental Control

Global efforts for environmental cleanliness through the control of gaseous emissions from vehicles are gaining momentum and attracting increasing attention. Calibration plays a crucial role in these efforts by ensuring the quantitative assessment of emissions for informed decisions on environmental treatments. This paper describes a method for the calibration of CO/CO2 monitors used for periodic inspections of vehicles in cites. The calibration was performed in the selected ranges: 900 - 12,000 µmol/mol for CO and 2000 - 20,000 µmol/mol for CO2. The traceability of the measurement results to the SI units was ensured by using certified reference materials from CO/N2 and CO2/N2 primary gas mixtures. The method performance was evaluated by assessing its linearity, accuracy, precision, bias, and uncertainty of the calibration results. The calibration data exhibited a strong linear trend with R² values close to 1, indicating an excellent fit between the measured values and the calibration lines. Precision, expressed as relative standard deviation (%RSD), ranged from 0.48 to 4.56% for CO and from 0.97 to 3.53% for CO2, staying well below the 5% threshold for reporting results at a 95% confidence level. Accuracy measured as percent recovery, was consistently high (≥ 99.1%) for CO and ranged from 84.90% to 101.54% across the calibration range for CO2. In addition, the method exhibited minimal bias for both CO and CO2 calibrations and thus provided a reliable and accurate approach for calibrating CO/CO2 monitors used in vehicle inspections. Thus, it ensures the effectiveness of exhaust emission control for better environment.

Parameter calibration of the tensile-shear interactive damage constitutive model for sandstone failure

The tensile-shear interactive damage(TSID)model is a novel and powerful constitutive model for rock-like materials.This study proposes a methodology to calibrate the TSID model parameters to simulate sandstone.The basic parameters of sandstone are determined through a series of static and dynamic tests,including uniaxial compression,Brazilian disc,triaxial compression under varying confining pressures,hydrostatic compression,and dynamic compression and tensile tests with a split Hopkinson pressure bar.Based on the sandstone test results from this study and previous research,a step-by-step procedure for parameter calibration is outlined,which accounts for the categories of the strength surface,equation of state(EOS),strain rate effect,and damage.The calibrated parameters are verified through numerical tests that correspond to the experimental loading conditions.Consistency between numerical results and experimental data indicates the precision and reliability of the calibrated parameters.The methodology presented in this study is scientifically sound,straightforward,and essential for improving the TSID model.Furthermore,it has the potential to contribute to other rock constitutive models,particularly new user-defined models.

Global Calibration Method for Monocular Multi-View System Using Rotational Dual-Target

To make the problems of existing high requirements of calibration tools, complex global calibration process addressed for monocular multi-view visual measurement system during measurement, in the paper, a global calibration method is proposed for the geometric properties of rotational correlation motion and the absolute orientation of the field of view without over lap. Firstly, a dual-camera system is constructed for photographing and collecting the rotating image sequence of two flat targets rigidly connected by a long rod at different positions, and based on the known parameters, such as, target feature image, world coordinates, camera internal parameters and so on, then the global PnP optimization method is used to solve the rotation axis and the reference point at different positions;Then, the absolute orientation matrix is constructed based on the parameters of rotation axis, reference point and connecting rod length obtained by this method. In the end, the singular value decomposition method is used to find the optimal rotation matrix, and then get the translation matrix. It’s shown based on simulation and actual tests that in comparison with the existing methods, the maximum attitude and pose errors is 0.0083˚ and 0.3657 mm, respectively, which improves the accuracy by 27.8% and 24.4%, respectively. The calibration device in this paper is simple, and there are no parallel, vertical and coplanar requirements between multiple rotating positions. At the same time, in view of the calibration accuracy, the accuracy requirements of most application scenarios can be met.