Almost perfect linear Lee codes of packing radius 2 only exist for small dimensions

It is conjectured by Golomb and Welch around half a century ago that there is no perfect Lee codes $C$ of packing radius $r$ in $\mathbb{Z}^{n}$ for $r\geq2$ and $n\geq 3$. Recently, Leung and the second author proved this conjecture for linear Lee codes with $r=2$. A natural question is whether it is possible to classify the second best, i.e., almost perfect linear Lee codes of packing radius $2$. We show that if such codes exist in $\mathbb{Z}^n$, then $n$ must be $1,2, 11, 29, 47, 56, 67, 79, 104, 121, 134$ or $191$

Cloud 'shrinking' and 'optical thinning' in the 'dimming' period and a subsequent recovery in the 'brightening' period over China

There was a dramatic increase in aerosol loading in China after the 1960s due to rapid industrialization, followed by a gradual reduction due to improvements in air quality since the early 2000s. They are deemed to be the main cause of 'dimming' and 'brightening' in China, respectively. China, therefore, provides an ideal testbed to investigate the multi-decadal evolution of clouds under a background of large variations in the amount of atmospheric aerosols. We used a unique combination of long-term in-situ observational records combined with a radiative transfer model to investigate the changes in clouds and aerosols over the last 60 years (1958–2018) over China. We found during the dimming period, the clouds over China shrunk in area steadily, gradually thinned in terms of optical depth, and thereby blocked less and less solar radiation. This situation reversed during the brightening period. The clouds over China showed a quick expansion in extent and thickening in terms of optical depth, and accordingly the amounts of solar radiation blocked by clouds recovered rapidly. It is observationally demonstrated that high levels of pollution and the associated amount of aerosols cause a suppression of cloud growth and a reduction of optical depth.ISSN:1748-9326ISSN:1748-931

Hybrid intelligent control scheme of a polymerization kettle for ACR production

Fujian Natural Science Foundation [2009J01303]; Key Science & Technology Planning Project of Fujian Province [2009H0044]; Special Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education [20090121110022]; Fundamental Research Funds for the Xiamen UniverPolymerization kettle is the key controlled plant in ACR (Acrylate Copolymer Resin) production, which is a nonlinear time-delay system with parametric variance. However, modeling difficulties make the plant dynamic model poorly defined. A hybrid intelligent control scheme including an intelligent predictor is designed for this complex plant based on time-delay compensation theory. It consists of a Smith neural-network predictor and a self-adjusting-scaling-factor fuzzy logic controller. The simulation experiments verified the performance of our proposed system in two scenarios: one with invariant parameters and the other with time-varying parameters. Moreover, the comparison to other three typical control methods including Smith PID, Smith neural-network PID and Smith fuzzy logic control is also presented, which demonstrates that the proposed control scheme has satisfactory effect. Even when the system parameters vary with time, the proposed system still gives superior performance and improved robustness. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

The Influence of Texture on Co/SBA–15 Catalyst Performance for Fischer–Tropsch Synthesis

The influence of the Co/SBA⁻15 catalyst texture, such as pore size and pore length on Fischer⁻Tropsch (FT) Synthesis, was investigated in this paper. The morphology, structure, and microstructures of Co/SBA⁻15 catalysts were characterized by SEM, Brunauer⁻Emmett⁻Teller (BET), TPR, HRTEM, and XRD. The experimental results indicated that the increase of pore size could improve the activity of the Co/SBA⁻15 catalyst, and the further increase of pore size could not significantly promote the activity. Moreover, it was also found that the pore length of the Co/SBA⁻15 catalyst played a key role in the catalytic activity. CO2 and C4+ selectivity were 2.0% and 74% during the simulated syngas (64% H2: 32% CO: balanced N2) FT over the Co/SBA⁻15 catalysts, and CO conversion rate and CH4 selectivity were 10.8% and 15.7% after 100 h time on stream

Coexistence of binocular integration and suppression determined by surface border information

The visual system relies on both the integration and interocular inhibitory processes to achieve single vision from different images in the two eyes. It is generally assumed that the integration process first searches for matching local features between the two eyes. If the matching fails, an interocular inhibitory process is triggered to suppress the image representation of one eye, leading to visual perception that is essentially contributed by the other eye. Here, using a stimulus comprising of binocularly corresponding features (vertical gratings) but incompatible surface border information, we found evidence to the contrary. In one half-image, a circular patch of vertical grating was phase-shifted relative to the surrounding vertical grating to create a circular, monocular boundary contour (MBC), while the other half-image had a similar vertical grating. The two half-images had a binocular disparity at the circular grating patch area, leading to the percept of a disc in depth. Concurrent with the stereo percept, threshold for detecting a Gabor probe on the half-image without the MBC was higher than that on the corresponding area with the grating disc, indicating binocular suppression. These findings reveal that when we perceive depth, which requires the integration process to obtain binocular disparity from the two eyes, one eye's image could simultaneously be suppressed from visual awareness by the interocular inhibitory process. Our study also presents a provocative example of where the brain selectively binds some, but not all, features of the images from the two eyes for visual perception

Theoretical study of stress and strain distribution in coupled pyramidal InAs quantum dots embedded in GaAs by finite element method

Stress and strain distributions in and around a single or two-coupled pyramidal InAs quantum dots (QDs) embedded in GaAs are calculated by finite element methods according to the continuum elasticity theory. By changing the quantum dot spacing and thickness of cap layer, the results about strain and stress distributions show compressive strain and stress distribution in the QDs and relaxation undergoes two stages with different speeds for different quantum dot height, quantum width and thickness of cap layer. The stress and strain distributions of pyramidal QDs would not vary monotonously with geometric dimensions. The height of quantum dot and cap layer thickness can effectively adjust the vertical correlation of self-assembly QDs according to the calculation. The shape of stress distribution at surface of cap layer can be tuned from a quadrangle into a circle by increasing the thickness of cap layer or decreasing the height of quantum dot. Also, a new approach to grow quantum ring is found in this paper. The calculations of two-coupled QDs show that the self-assembly technology might fail if the horizontal distance between two QDs is not large enough. The stress induced by upper QDs will be relaxed to zero with a longer distance downwards is found in this paper