A refined invariant subspace method and applications to evolution equations

The invariant subspace method is refined to present more unity and more diversity of exact solutions to evolution equations. The key idea is to take subspaces of solutions to linear ordinary differential equations as invariant subspaces that evolution equations admit. A two-component nonlinear system of dissipative equations was analyzed to shed light on the resulting theory, and two concrete examples are given to find invariant subspaces associated with 2nd-order and 3rd-order linear ordinary differential equations and their corresponding exact solutions with generalized separated variables.Comment: 16 page

An advanced fuzzy Bayesian-based FMEA approach for assessing maritime supply chain risks

This paper aims to develop a novel model to assess the risk factors of maritime supply chains by incorporating a fuzzy belief rule approach with Bayesian networks. The new model, compared to traditional risk analysis methods, has the capability of improving result accuracy under a high uncertainty in risk data. A real case of a world leading container shipping company is investigated, and the research results reveal that among the most significant risk factors are transportation of dangerous goods, fluctuation of fuel price, fierce competition, unattractive markets, and change of exchange rates in sequence. Such findings will provide useful insights for accident prevention

A novel phase-aligned analysis on motion patterns of table tennis strokes

© 2016, Routledge. All rights reserved. A wide range of human motion represent repetitive patterns particularly in racket sports. Quantitative analysis of the continuous variables during the different phases of the motion cycle helps to investigate more deeply the specific movement of the racket or player. Table tennis biomechanics research to date lacks the necessary detail of phase decomposition and phase-based quantitative analysis. Therefore, this study proposes a novel velocity-based piecewise alignment method to identify the different phases of a table tennis forehand stroke. A controlled experiment was conducted on a number of players of two differing ability levels (experts vs. novices) to implement this novel methodology. Detailed results are shown for the quantitative analysis on multiple strokes of the two groups of participants. Significant differences were found in both the displacement and velocity of the racket movement in the backswing, forward swing and follow-through phases. For example, it is clear that experts’ strokes show higher racket resultant velocity than novices during both the forward swing and follow-through phases by up to a factor of two. Furthermore, the phase-based approach to analysing racket motions leads to interrogation over a greater duration than the traditional time-based method which is generally only concerned with impact ±0.25s

Shoulder joint angle errors caused by marker offset

Crown Copyright © 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license. The International Society of Biomechanics (ISB) has recommended a standardization of the definition of the joint coordinate system (JCS) and use of a sequential rotation to describe human shoulder joint rotation. Markers attached to the surface of the body may move during the process of motion data capture, resulting in an offset from their initial location. This leads to a change of the JCS and therefore affects the calculated shoulder joint angles. In this research study, we presented a simple marker offset model to quantify the shoulder joint errors for both static poses and dynamic activities. Specific conditions of different offsets and elbow flexion angles were studied. Results showed that the errors should not be neglected when the shoulder elevation angle was near -90° and 90°, or elbow flexion was very small. Attention should be paid to these errors for such activities especially walking and throwing

Fe-doping induced superconductivity in charge-density-wave system 1T-TaS2

We report the interplay between charge-density-wave (CDW) and superconductivity of 1$T$-Fe$_{x}$Ta$_{1-x}$S$_{2}$ ($0\leq x \leq 0.05$) single crystals. The CDW order is gradually suppressed by Fe-doping, accompanied by the disappearance of pseudogap/Mott-gap as shown by the density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The superconducting state develops at low temperatures within the CDW state for the samples with the moderate doping levels. The superconductivity strongly depends on $x$ within a narrow range, and the maximum superconducting transition temperature is 2.8 K as $x=0.02$. We propose that the induced superconductivity and CDW phases are separated in real space. For high doping level ($x>0.04$), the Anderson localization (AL) state appears, resulting in a large increase of resistivity. We present a complete electronic phase diagram of 1$T$-Fe$_{x}$Ta$_{1-x}$S$_{2}$ system that shows a dome-like $T_{c}(x)$

Push-out tests and bond strength of rectangular CFST columns

Push-out tests have been conducted on 18 rectangular concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) columns with the aim of studying the bond behaviour between the steel tube and the concrete infill. The obtained load-slip response and the distribution of the interface bond stress along the member length and around the cross-section for various load levels, as derived from measured axial strain gradients in the steel tube, are reported. Concrete compressive strength, interface length, cross-sectional dimensions and different interface conditions were varied to assess their effect on the ultimate bond stress. The test results indicate that lubricating the steel-concrete interface always had a significant adverse effect on the interface bond strength. Among the other variables considered, concrete compressive strength and cross-section size were found to have a pronounced effect on the bond strength of non-lubricated specimens for the range of cross-section geometries considered, which is not reflected in the European structural design code for composite structures, EN 1994-1-1 (2004). Finally, based on nonlinear regression of the test data generated in the present study, supplemented by additional data obtained from the literature, an empirical equation has been proposed for predicting the average ultimate bond strength for SHS and RHS filled with normal strength concrete