Failure mechanism and practical load-carrying capacity calculation method of welded hollow spherical joints connected with circular steel tubes

p. 2679-2691According to the ultimate load-carrying capacity obtained from finite element analysis, data point is designed based on orthogonal method, utilizing F-inspection from mathematical statistics to perform multi-parameter and single-factor significance analysis of compressive load capacity. The result indicates that yield strength of spherical material fy are the critical factor that influence the load carrying capacity of hollow spherical joint, as well as wall thickness t, outer diameter of sphere D and outer diameter of steel tube d. Comparatively destructive experiments on 8 typical full-scale joints made from two different graded material, Q235B and Q345B, were conducted to understand directly the structural behavior and the collapse mechanism of the joint, and also to validate the finite element analysis and parameter study. Finally, the simplified theoretical solution is also derived for the loading-carrying capacity of the joint based on the punching shear failure model, and the basic form for the design equation is obtained. By applying the results from the simplified theoretical solution, finite element analysis and experimental study, and utilizing the theory of mathematic statistics and regression analysis, the practical calculation method is established for the load-carrying capacity of the joints subjected to axial compressive forces. By the check of large amount of experiment data, the calculation result obtained from this formula is consistent with experiment result, and the practical formula has safety reserve meeting the regulation in national codes. The achievements from this study can be applied for direct design , and also provide a reference for the revision of relevant design codes.Xue, W.; Yang, L.; Zhang, Q.; Wang, P. (2009). Failure mechanism and practical load-carrying capacity calculation method of welded hollow spherical joints connected with circular steel tubes. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/660

Elastic-plastic endochronic constitutive model of 0Crl7Ni4Cu4Nb stainless steels

We presented an elastic-plastic endochronic constitutive model of 0Crl7Ni4Cu4Nb stainless steel based on the plastic endochronic theory (which does not need the yield surface) and experimental stress-strain curves. The key feature of the model is that it can precisely describe the relation of stress and strain under various loading histories, including uniaxial tension, cyclic loading-unloading, cyclic asymmetric-stress axial tension and compression, and cyclic asymmetric-stress axial tension and compression. The effects of both mean stress and amplitude of stress on hysteresis loop based on the elastic-plastic endochronic constitutive model were investigated. Compared with the experimental and calculated results, it is demonstrated that there was a good agreement between the model and the experiments. Therefore, the elastic-plastic endochronic constitutive model provides a method for the accurate prediction of mechanical behaviors of 0Crl7Ni4Cu4Nb stainless steel subjected to various loadings

Study on the key issues of beam string structures

p. 2814-2825Parameter analysis is made on the beam string structure in six aspects which are respectively vector height, sag, prestress, number of strut, stiffness of upper chord and the arrangement of struts in the paper. The influence mode and effect on the mechanical properties of beam string structures due to these parameters are studied and the suggested values in practical engineering are presented then, which can provide the reference for design and type selection.Tian, W.; Yang, L.; Cui, J.; Li, C. (2009). Study on the key issues of beam string structures. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/664

Hallucinating very low-resolution and obscured face images

Most of the face hallucination methods are designed for complete inputs. They will not work well if the inputs are very tiny or contaminated by large occlusion. Inspired by this fact, we propose an obscured face hallucination network(OFHNet). The OFHNet consists of four parts: an inpainting network, an upsampling network, a discriminative network, and a fixed facial landmark detection network. The inpainting network restores the low-resolution(LR) obscured face images. The following upsampling network is to upsample the output of inpainting network. In order to ensure the generated high-resolution(HR) face images more photo-realistic, we utilize the discriminative network and the facial landmark detection network to better the result of upsampling network. In addition, we present a semantic structure loss, which makes the generated HR face images more pleasing. Extensive experiments show that our framework can restore the appealing HR face images from 1/4 missing area LR face images with a challenging scaling factor of 8x.Comment: 20 pages, Submitted to Pattern Recognition Letter

Topologically protected Mach-Zehnder interferometer

As photonic integration continues to evolve, compact and low loss Mach–Zehnder interferometers (MZI) have been an area of significant research in recent years. Here, we propose a valley-Hall effect based topologically protected Mach–Zehnder interferometer (TPMZI). Our simulations show that the TPMZI is efficient and stable even in complex situations. Sharp waveguide bending and defects such as obstructions and epitaxial disorders, do not affect the propagation of photons along the interface, which guarantees the TPMZI high output power. In addition, the TPMZI yields excellent sensitivity, extinction ratio and modulation depths, making it advantageous over existing systems when applied to optical communication, biochemical sensing, spectrometer analysis and measurement systems, etc

The association between ambient temperature and antimicrobial resistance of Klebsiella pneumoniae in China: a difference-in-differences analysis

IntroductionAntimicrobial resistance (AMR) of Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae) poses a significant global public health threat and is responsible for a high prevalence of infections and mortality. However, knowledge about how ambient temperature influences the AMR of K. pneumoniae is limited in the context of global warming.MethodsAMR data of 31 Chinese provinces was collected from the China Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System (CARSS) between 2014 and 2020. Socioeconomic and meteorological data were collected from the China Statistical Yearbook during the same period. A modified difference-in-differences (DID) approach was applied to estimate the association between ambient temperature and third-generation cephalosporin-resistant K. pneumoniae (3GCRKP) and carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae (CRKP). Furthermore, moderating effects of socioeconomic factors were also evaluated.ResultsEvery 1°C increase in annual average temperature was associated with a 4.7% (relative risk (RR):1.047, 95% confidence intervals (CI): 1.031–1.082) increase in the detection rate of 3GCRKP, and a 10.7% (RR:1.107, 95% CI: 1.011–1.211) increase in the detection rate of CRKP. The relationships between ambient temperature and 3GCRKP and CRKP were found to be moderated by socioeconomic status (GDP per capita, income per capita, and consumption per capita; the interaction p-values <0.05), where higher economic status was found to strengthen the effects of temperature on the detection rate of 3GCRKP and weaken the effects on the detection rate of CRKP.DiscussionAmbient temperature was found to be positively associated with AMR of K. pneumoniae, and this association was moderated by socioeconomic status. Policymakers should consider the impact of global warming and high temperatures on the spread of 3GCRKP and CRKP when developing strategies for the containment of AMR

The impact of the 2016 flood event in Anhui Province, China on infectious diarrhea disease: An interrupted time-series study.

Climate change may bring more frequent and severe floods which will heighten public health problems, including an increased risk of infectious diarrhea in susceptible populations. Affected by heavy rainfall and an El Niño event, a destructive flood occurred in Anhui province, China on 18th June 2016. This study investigates the impact of this severe flood on infectious diarrhea at both city-level and provincial level, and further to identify modifying factor. We obtained information on infectious diarrheal cases during 2013-2017 from the National Disease Surveillance System. An interrupted time-series design was used to estimate effects of the flood event on diarrhea in 16 cities. Then we applied a meta-analysis to estimate the area-level pooled effects of the flood in both flooded areas and non-flooded areas. Finally, a meta-regression was applied to determine whether proximity to flood was a predictor of city-level risks. Stratified analyses by gender and age group were also conducted for flooded areas. A significant increase in infectious diarrhea risk (RR = 1.11, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.23) after the flood event was found in flooded area with variation in risks across cities, while there was no increase in non-flooded areas. Diarrheal risks post-flood was progressively higher in cities with greater proximity to the Yangtze River. Children aged 5-14 were at highest risk of diarrhea post-flood in the flooded areas. Our study provides strong evidence that the 2016 severe flood significantly increased infectious diarrheal risk in exposed populations. Local public health agencies are advised to develop intervention programs to prevent and control infectious diarrhea risk when a major flood occurs, especially in areas close to water bodies and among vulnerable populations

Co-optimization method to improve lateral resolution in photoacoustic computed tomography

In biomedical imaging, photoacoustic computed tomography (PACT) has recently gained increased interest as this imaging technique has good optical contrast and depth of acoustic penetration. However, a spinning blur will be introduced during the image reconstruction process due to the limited size of the ultrasonic transducers (UT) and a discontinuous measurement process. In this study, a damping UT and adaptive back-projection co-optimization (CODA) method is developed to improve the lateral spatial resolution of PACT. In our PACT system, a damping aperture UT controls the size of the receiving area, which suppresses image blur at the signal acquisition stage. Then, an innovative adaptive back-projection algorithm is developed, which corrects the undesirable artifacts. The proposed method was evaluated using agar phantom and ex-vivo experiments. The results show that the CODA method can effectively compensate for the spinning blur and eliminate unwanted artifacts in PACT. The proposed method can significantly improve the lateral spatial resolution and image quality of reconstructed images, making it more appealing for wider clinical applications of PACT as a novel, cost-effective modality