Forecasting the 10‐year US Treasury rate

This study compares the performance of two forecasting models of the 10‐year Treasury rate: a random walk (RW) model and an augmented‐autoregressive (A‐A) model which utilizes the information in the expected inflation rate. For 1993–2008, the RW and A‐A forecasts (with different lead times and forecast horizons) are generally unbiased and accurately predict directional change under symmetric loss. However, the A‐A forecasts outperform the RW, suggesting that the expected inflation rate (as a leading indicator) helps improve forecast accuracy. This finding is important since bond market efficiency implies that the RW forecasts are optimal and cannot be improved. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

小型无人直升机纵向和横向动力学的鲁棒反推控制(英文)

研究了阵风情况下悬停飞行模式中的无人直升机的纵向与横向位置的稳定性问题.由于通用的线性模型成功地描述了大多数小型直升机的行为,其被用来设计控制器.基于控制Lyapunov方法,一种递归(反推)设计流程被用来设计纵向和横向动力学的鲁棒控制器.为了比较,我们基于线性二次调节器(LQR)准则设计了另一种控制器.仿真结果表明,所提出的反馈控制器能有效地减弱阵风的影响,在阵风下能够实现纵向和横向位置的快速、准确跟踪.     

Effects of copper content on microstructure and mechanical properties of open-cell steel foams

The effects of copper content on the microstructural and mechanical properties of steel foams are investigated. Spherical urea granules, used as a water-leachable space holder, were coated with a mixture of iron, ultrafine carbon, and different amounts of copper powders. After the mixture was compacted and the space holder was removed by leaching, a sintering process was performed under an atmosphere of thermally dissociated ammonia. Microstructural evaluations of the cell walls were carried out using optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy in conjunction with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. In addition, compression tests were conducted to investigate the mechanical properties of the manufactured steel foams. The results showed that the total porosity decreases from 77.2% to 71.9% with increasing copper content in the steel foams. In the foams' microstructure, copper islands are mostly distributed in pearlite and intergranular carbide phases are formed in the grain boundaries. When the copper content was increased from 0 to 4 wt%, the elastic modulus, plateau stress, fracture stress, and fracture strain of manufactured steel foams improved 4.5, 6, 6.4, and 2.5 times, respectively.     

Effects of sphere size on the microstructure and mechanical properties of ductile iron–steel hollow sphere syntactic foams

The effects of sphere size on the microstructural and mechanical properties of ductile iron–steel hollow sphere (DI–SHS) syntactic foams were investigated in this study. The SHSs were manufactured by fluidized-bed coating via the Fe-based commercial powder–binder suspension onto expanded polystyrene spheres (EPSs). Afterwards, the DI–SHS syntactic foams were produced via a sand-mold casting process. The microstructures of specimens were investigated by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy- dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The microscopic evaluations of specimens reveal distinct regions composed of the DI matrix, SHS shells, and compatible interface. As a result, the microstructures and graphite morphologies of the DI matrix depend on sphere size. When the sphere size decreases, the area fractions of cementite and graphite phases are observed to increase and decrease, respectively. Compression tests were subsequently conducted at ambient temperature on the DI–SHS syntactic foams. The results reveal that the compression behavior of the syntactic foams is enhanced with increasing sphere size. Furthermore, the compressed specimens demonstrate that microcracks start and grow from the interface region.     

Kinetics and mechanism of titanium hydride powder and aluminum melt reaction

Based on the measurement of the released hydrogen gas pressure (P_H2), the reaction kinetics between TiH₂ powder and pure aluminum melt was studied at various temperatures. After cooling the samples, the interface of TiH₂ powder and aluminum melt was studied. The results show that the 2 H P_H2-time curves have three regions; in the first and second regions, the rate of reaction conforms zero and one order, respectively; in the third region, the hydrogen gas pressure remains constant and the rate of reaction reaches zero. The main factors that control the rate of reaction in the first and second regions are the penetration of hydrogen atoms in the titanium lattice and the chemical reaction between molten aluminum and titanium, respectively. According to the main factors that control the rate of reaction, three temperature ranges are considered for the reaction mechanism:(a) 700-750℃, (b) 750-800℃, and (c) 800-1000℃. In the first temperature range, the reaction is mostly under the control of chemical reaction; at the temperature range of 750 to 800℃, the reaction is controlled by the diffusion and chemical reaction; at the third temperature range (800-1000℃), the dominant controlling mechanism is diffusion.     

基于仿生鱼群优化方法的机器人队形控制

本文利用人工鱼群优化（AFSO）方法研究了多机器人的队形控制问题。机器人编队可视为寻迹问题,而编队寻迹是不断减小机器人与其期望编队位置之间的平移和角度误差的优化过程。每一个机器人的控制指令可看做是人工鱼群,通过一系列的控制实现期望队形。队形控制策略中包含机器人间的冲突规避行为。本文利用Matlab中的多机器人仿真器MRsim工具进行了仿真,结果表明本文提出的方法具有很高的有效性和效率,适用于各种形式的队形,可以被广泛应用在没有精确系统模型的无线传感器网络中。     

克里雅河流域水资源利用及其生态环境响应研究

克里雅河是和田地区于田县最大的河流,也是历史上曾经注入塔里木河、横穿塔克拉玛干大沙漠的绿色走廊之一。克里雅河流域人口与经济发展而带来的水土资源开发利用程度的增加,对流域生态环境产生了重大的影响。由于中上游水土资源开发面积急剧增加,导致下游输水逐年减少、年内分配趋于集中,导致下游河段断流,生态环境恶化等现象。克里雅河流域水土资源开发引起的环境响应有积极建设性的一面,也有消极的破坏原有生态环境的一面。前者主要表现在：①绿洲内部水资源利用量逐年增长,绿洲环境逐步改善,②提高了绿洲土地生产能力,③已形成引、蓄、输、排为一体的网络,提高了抗旱能力和水资源的利用效益。后者主要表现在：地表水流程缩短,下游生态环境恶化；土壤次生盐渍化严重,影响了土地生产力；绿洲外围小气候的恶化、生态环境的破坏威胁着绿洲的稳定性。在流域水土资源开发的同时重视生态环境建设与调控具有重要意义。图2,表3,参7。     

A Comparative Study of the Application of Electronic Data Interchange and Internet Technology to Business Process Reengineering

This study investigates the role of information technology in business process reengineering (BPR) implementation. To increase the prospects of successful BPR implementation, the role of information technology in BPR should be thoroughly investigated to find the logical relationships between information technology and BPR. This study used a survey methodology to gather information from 72 BPR programs. The results show that different information technologies, such as those examined in this study, electronic data interchange (EDI) and Internet, provide different capabilities and can be useful in different ways and for different purposes. Lack of attention to these relationships may be due to the unacceptable high implementation failure rate in the previous BPR efforts,     

Evaluation of charge storage ability of chrome doped Mn2O3 nanostructures derived by cathodic electrodeposition

A facile synthetic route has been proposed to prepare cauliflower-like nanostructures of Cr doped Mn2O3. The synthesis was carried out by constant current cathodic electrodeposition from Mn2+ nitrate solutions containing minor amounts of dichromate. It was found that the presence of Cr mediates the formation of cathodic MnO2 which then reacts with the excess Mn2+ species to form Mn2O3 nanostructures. X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Differential Thermal Analysis (DTA) were used to characterize the nanostructures. The storage ability of the obtained nanostructures was investigated by cyclic voltammetry (CV) in 0.5 M Na2SO4 solution. The results indicated that the Cr doped manganese oxide material shows better performance than the non-doped one, and the charge capacity (SC) of doped manganese oxide (218 F/g) was higher than pure manganese oxide (208 F/g).