Selective maintenance for multi-state series-parallel systems under economic dependence

YesThis paper presents a study on selective maintenance for multi-state series-parallel systems with economically dependent components. In the selective maintenance problem, the maintenance manager has to decide which components should receive maintenance activities within a finite break between missions. All the system reliabilities in the next operating mission, the available budget and the maintenance time for each component from its current state to a higher state are taken into account in the optimization models. In addition, the components in series-parallel systems are considered to be economically dependent. Time and cost savings will be achieved when several components are simultaneously repaired in a selective maintenance strategy. As the number of repaired components increases, the saved time and cost will also increase due to the share of setting up between components and another additional reduction amount resulting from the repair of multiple identical components. Different optimization models are derived to find the best maintenance strategy for multi-state series-parallel systems. A genetic algorithm is used to solve the optimization models. The decision makers may select different components to be repaired to different working states based on the maintenance objective, resource availabilities and how dependent the repair time and cost of each component are. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and Vietnam International Education Development (VIED

Surfaces of Revolution with Constant Gaussian Curvature in Four-Space

In this paper, we show that the constant property of the Gaussian curvature of surfaces of revolution in both $\mathbb R^4$ and $\mathbb R_1^4$ depend only on the radius of rotation. We then give necessary and sufficient conditions for the Gaussian curvature of the general rotational surfaces whose meridians lie in two dimensional planes in $\mathbb R^4$ to be constant, and define the parametrization of the meridians when both the Gaussian curvature is constant and the rates of rotation are equal.Comment: 8 paper

Long-lasting consequences of war on disability

This article investigates the impact of exposure to United States air force bombing during 1965–75 on the disability status of individuals in Vietnam in 2009. Using a combination of national census and US military data and an instrumental variable strategy which exploits the distance to the former North–South border as a quasi-experiment, the article finds a positive and significant impact of bombing exposure on district level disability rates 40 years after the war. The overall effect of bombing on the long-term disability rate among the Vietnamese population is highest among heavily bombed districts. Districts in the top bombing quintile experience a 25% relative increase in the rate of disability attributable to bombing compared with districts in the lowest bombing quintile. Effects are highest on the prevalence of severe disability and among cohorts before the war’s end. A smaller, yet significant, effect is found among cohorts born after the war. The article finds further evidence of indirect channels through which bombing may have impacted on long-term disability including adverse effects on nutritional environment and human capital attainment. These findings add to the evidence from Vietnam and indicate that wars inflict costs on the health of human populations that last longer than those relating to economic growth and welfare

Nova tehnologija proizvodnje magnezijevih traka i limova

A new production technology for magnesium strip, based on twin-roll-casting and strip rolling was developed in Freiberg Germany. By means of this economic method it is possible to produce strips in deep drawing quality with good forming properties in order to satisfy the request for low cost Mg sheets in the automotive and electronic industry. Both, coils as single sheets, were manufactured and rolled to a thickness of 1mm(0,5 mm). The technology of the new process and the properties of the twin-roll-casted material and the final sheets are presented.Nova tehnologija proizvodnje magnezijevih traka i limova. Nova tehnologija proizvodnje magnezijevih traka utemeljena dvostruko-valjanje-lijevanje i valjanje trake je razvijeno u Freibergu-Njemačka. Motri se, ovom ekonomičnom metodom je moguća proizvoditi trake za duboko izvlačenje, sa dobrim plastičnim svojstvima uz zadovoljavajući zahtjev za nisku cijenu Mg trake za automobilsku i elektronsku industriju. Oboje, svitak i pojedinačne trake su poizvedene i valjane do debljine stjenke 1mm(0,5 mm). Prikazuje se tehnologija novog postupka i svojstva dvostrukog valjanog-lijevačkog materijala i završnih traka

Nova tehnologija proizvodnje magnezijevih traka i limova

A new production technology for magnesium strip, based on twin-roll-casting and strip rolling was developed in Freiberg Germany. By means of this economic method it is possible to produce strips in deep drawing quality with good forming properties in order to satisfy the request for low cost Mg sheets in the automotive and electronic industry. Both, coils as single sheets, were manufactured and rolled to a thickness of 1mm(0,5 mm). The technology of the new process and the properties of the twin-roll-casted material and the final sheets are presented.Nova tehnologija proizvodnje magnezijevih traka i limova. Nova tehnologija proizvodnje magnezijevih traka utemeljena dvostruko-valjanje-lijevanje i valjanje trake je razvijeno u Freibergu-Njemačka. Motri se, ovom ekonomičnom metodom je moguća proizvoditi trake za duboko izvlačenje, sa dobrim plastičnim svojstvima uz zadovoljavajući zahtjev za nisku cijenu Mg trake za automobilsku i elektronsku industriju. Oboje, svitak i pojedinačne trake su poizvedene i valjane do debljine stjenke 1mm(0,5 mm). Prikazuje se tehnologija novog postupka i svojstva dvostrukog valjanog-lijevačkog materijala i završnih traka

Challenges in diagnosing scrub typhus among hospitalized patients with undifferentiated fever at a national tertiary hospital in northern Vietnam

BACKGROUND: Scrub typhus (ST) is a leading cause of non-malarial febrile illness in Southeast Asia, but evidence of its true disease burden is limited because of difficulties of making the clinical diagnosis and lack of adequate diagnostic tests. To describe the epidemiology and clinical characteristics of ST, we conducted an observational study using multiple diagnostic assays at a national tertiary hospital in Hanoi, Vietnam. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We enrolled 1,127 patients hospitalized with documented fever between June 2012 and May 2013. Overall, 33 (2.9%) patients were diagnosed with ST by PCR and/or screening of ELISA for immunoglobulin M (IgM) with confirmatory tests: 14 (42.4%) were confirmed by indirect immunoperoxidase assay (IIP), and 19 (57.6%) were by IIP and PCR. Living by farming, conjunctival injection, eschar, aspartate aminotransferase elevation, and alanine aminotransferase elevation were significantly associated with ST cases (adjusted odds ratios (aORs): 2.8, 3.07, 48.8, 3.51, and 4.13, respectively), and having a comorbidity and neutrophilia were significantly less common in ST cases (aORs: 0.29 and 0.27, respectively). The majority of the ST cases were not clinically diagnosed with rickettsiosis (72.7%). Dominant IIP reactions against a single antigen were identified in 15 ST cases, whereas indistinguishably high reactions against multiple antigens were seen in 11 ST cases. The most frequently observed dominant IIP reaction was against Karp antigen (eight cases) followed by Gilliam (four cases). The highest diagnostic accuracy of IgM ELISA in acute samples was 78%. In a phylogenetic analysis of the 56-kDa type-specific antigen gene, the majority (14 cases) were located in the Karp-related branch followed by the Gilliam-related (two cases), Kato-related (two cases), and TA763-related clades (one case). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Both the clinical and laboratory diagnoses of ST remain challenging at a tertiary hospital. Implementation of both serological and nucleic acid amplification assays covering endemic O. tsutsugamushi strains is essential

A Late Eocene- Oligocene through-flowing river between the Upper Yangtze and South China Sea

We test the hypothesis of a major Paleogene river draining the SE Tibetan Plateau and the central modern Yangtze Basin that then flowed South to the South China Sea. We test this model using U Pb dated detrital zircon grains preserved in Paleogene sedimentary rocks in northern Vietnam and SW China. We applied a series of statistical tests to compare the U-Pb age spectra of the rocks in order to highlight differences and similarities between them and with potential source bedrocks. Monte Carlo mixing models imply that erosion was dominantly derived from the Indochina and Songpan-Garzê Blocks and to a lesser extent the Yangtze Craton. Some of the zircon populations indicate local erosion and sedimentation, but others show close similarity both within northern Vietnam, as well as more widely in the Eocene Jianchuan, Paleocene-Oligocene Simao and Oligocene-Miocene Yuanjiang basins of China. The presence of younger (<200 Ma) zircons from the Qamdo Block of Tibet are less easily explicable in terms of recycling by erosion of older sedimentary rocks and imply a regional drainage linking SE Tibet and the South China Sea in the Late Eocene-Oligocene. Detrital zircons from offshore in the South China Sea showed initial local erosion, but with a connection to a river stretching to SE Tibet in the Late Oligocene. A change from regional to local sources in the Early Miocene in the Yuanjiang Basin indicates the timing of disruption of the old drainage driven by regional plateau uplift

Non-stoichiometric oxide and metal interfaces and reactions

We have employed a combination of experimental surface science techniques and density functional calculations to study the reduction of TiO2(110) surfaces through the doping with submonolayer transition metals. We concentrate on the role of Ti adatoms in self doping of rutile and contrast the behaviour to that of Cr. DFT+U calculations enable identification of probable adsorption structures and their spectroscopic characteristics. Adsorption of both metals leads to a broken symmetry and an asymmetric charge transfer localised around the defect site of a mixed localised/delocalised character. Charge transfer creates defect states with Ti 3d character in the band gap at similar to 1-eV binding energy. Cr adsorption, however, leads to a very large shift in the valence-band edge to higher binding energy and the creation of Cr 3d states at 2.8-eV binding energy. Low-temperature oxidation lifts the Ti-derived band-gap states and modifies the intensity of the Cr features, indicative of a change of oxidation state from Cr3+ to Cr4+. Higher temperature processing leads to a loss of Cr from the surface region, indicative of its substitution into the bulk