Considering the low efficiency during the process of traditional calibration for digital-display vibrometers, an automatic calibration system for vibrometers based on machine vision is developed. First, an automatic vibration control system is established on the basis of a personal computer, and the output of a vibration exciter on which a digital-display vibrometer to be calibrated is installed, is automatically adjusted to vibrate at a preset vibration level and a preset frequency. Then the display of the vibrometer is captured by a digital camera and identified by means of image recognition. According to the vibration level of the exciter measured by a laser interferometer and the recognized display of the vibrometer, the properties of the vibrometer are calculated and output by the computer. Image recognition algorithms for the display of the vibrometer with a high recognition rate are presented, and the recognition for vibrating digits and alternating digits is especially analyzed in detail. Experimental results on the built-up system show that the prposed image recognition methods are very effective and the system could liberate operators from boring and intense calibration work for digital-display vibrometers

There is an ongoing debate about the fundamental security of existing quantum key exchange schemes. This debate indicates not only that there is a problem with security but also that the meanings of perfect, imperfect, conditional and unconditional (information theoretic) security in physically secure key exchange schemes are often misunderstood. It has been shown recently that the use of two pairs of resistors with enhanced Johnsonnoise and a Kirchhoff-loop ‒ i.e., a Kirchhoff-Law-Johnson-Noise (KLJN) protocol ‒ for secure key distribution leads to information theoretic security levels superior to those of today’s quantum key distribution. This issue is becoming particularly timely because of the recent full cracks of practical quantum communicators, as shown in numerous peer-reviewed publications. The KLJN system is briefly surveyed here with discussions about the essential questions such as (i) perfect and imperfect security characteristics of the key distribution, and (ii) how these two types of securities can be unconditional (or information theoretical).

In order to control joints of manipulators with high precision, a position tracking control strategy combining fractional calculus with iterative learning control and sliding mode control is proposed for the control of a single joint of manipulators. Considering the coupling between joints of manipulators, a fractional-order iterative sliding mode cross-coupling control strategy is proposed and the theoretical proof of its progressive stability is given. The paper takes a two-joint manipulator as the research object to verify the control strategy of a single-joint manipulator. The results show that the control strategy proposed in this paper makes the two-joint mechanical arm chatter less and the tracking more accurate. The synchronous control of the manipulator is verified by a three-joint manipulator. The results show that the angular displacement adjustment times of the three-joint manipulator are 0.11 s, 0.31 s and 0.24 s, respectively. 3.25 s > 5 s, 3.15 s of a PD cross-coupling control strategy; 2.85 s, 2.32 s, 4.22 s of a PD iterative cross-coupling control strategy; 0.14 s, 0.33 s, 0.28 s of a fractional-order sliding mode cross-coupling control strategy. The root mean square error of the position error of the designed control strategy is 6.47 × 10-6 rad, 3.69 × 10-4 rad, 6.91 × 10-3 rad, respectively. The root mean square error of the synchronization error is 3.96 × 10-4 rad, 1.36 × 10-3 rad, 7.81 × 10-3 rad, superior to the other three control strategies. The results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control method.

Coexisting microorganisms are abundant in nature. Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) is a group of beneficial microorganism living around the roots of plants which are able to confer beneficial effects on plant growth. Streptomyces sp. is a gram-positive bacteria as PGPR that can promote plant growth and enhance tolerance in adverse environment. This research was aimed to study the effects of plant growth promotion and stress tolerance of Streptomyces sp. in Arabidopsis and Brassica sp. The amount of indole-acetic acid (IAA) and phosphate solubility were assessed from isolated bacterial. Plant growth promotion was examined in 10-days old seedling with three independent experiments. Our results showed that Streptomyces sp. produced moderate levels of IAA and it was able to solubilize phosphate. Inoculation of Streptomyces sp. enhanced lateral root number, fresh weight and chlorophyll content in Arabidopsis thaliana. Moreover, the inoculation of Streptomyces sp. significantly increased vegetative growth on Arabidopsis and Brassica sp. by producing higher fresh weight and chlorophyll content. Streptomyces sp. also enhanced tolerance to abiotic stress in Arabidopsis and Brassica sp. by increasing fresh weight under condition of salt and heat stress. Under salt stress, inoculation of Streptomyces sp. in Arabidopsis induced activity of catalase enzyme and decreased hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and malondialdehyde (MDA) production. In the molecular levels, Streptomyces sp. induced protein accumulations in Arabidopsis including nitrogen assimilation (GS1), carbohydrate metabolism (cFBPase), and the light-harvesting chlorophyll (Lhcb1) protein.

A hot compression test was conducted on a Gleeble-3500 thermo-simulation machine to study the critical conditions and kinetics of dynamic recrystallization in a high-carbon tool steel. The critical conditions for the initiation of dynamic recrystallization were determined using the working-hardening theory. The quantitative relationship between the critical characteristics of dynamic recrystallization and the hot deformation parameters were elucidated based on two different methods:the apparent method and physically based method. It was found that the two methods both have high applicability for the investigated steel, but the physically-based method needs less parameters and makes it possible to study the effect of different factors. A dynamic recrystallization kinetics model was used to calculate the recrystallization volume fraction under different conditions. The calculation results matched well with the data obtained from the flow curves.

The main purpose of the study is to investigate the mechanical properties around an underground gas storage cavern in bedded salt rock. Firstly, considering the characteristics of the salt rock formation in China, the mechanical model was simplified into a hollow cylinder, which containing non-salt interlayer. In terms of elastic theory, Love displacement function was developed, and the elastic general solution of stress and deformation components were obtained after determining the undetermined coefficients. Under the same condition, numerical simulation was carried out. The validity of the elastic general solution is verified by comparing to numerical simulation results. Furthermore, Based on the feasible general elastic solution, viscoelastic solution was obtained through Laplace transformation and inverse Laplace transform, which could provide reference for the study on the stability and tightness of underground gas storage carven during operation to some extent.

Nickel slag has a high-content iron and is a secondary utilization resource with great development potential. The coal-based direct reduction is an innovative technology that can be used to utilize the iron resources in nickel slag. The effect of the particle size of nickel slag on the strength and the reduction of nickel slag-coal composite briquettes were investigated. Four samples with particle size of 75~106 μm, 106~150 μm, 150~270 μm, and >270 μm were selected. The drop strength increased 9.4 times and the compressive strength reached 281.1 N when the nickel slag particle size decreased from >270 μm to 75~106 μm. The reduction degree determined by the data from the thermogravimetric experiment indicated that its maximum was 79.545%. The reduction experiments performed at 1200°C for 45 minutes indicated that the nickel slag with particle sizes between 75~106 µm were appropriate for the reduction of the nickel slag-coal composite briquettes.

The frictional resistance coefficient of ventilation of a roadway in a coal mine is a very important technical parameter in the design and renovation of mine ventilation. Calculations based on empirical formulae and field tests to calculate the resistance coefficient have limitations. An inversion method to calculate the mine ventilation resistance coefficient by using a few representative data of air flows and node pressures is proposed in this study. The mathematical model of the inversion method is developed based on the principle of least squares. The measured pressure and the calculated pressure deviation along with the measured flow and the calculated flow deviation are considered while defining the objective function, which also includes the node pressure, the air flow, and the ventilation resistance coefficient range constraints. The ventilation resistance coefficient inversion problem was converted to a nonlinear optimisation problem through the development of the model. A genetic algorithm (GA) was adopted to solve the ventilation resistance coefficient inversion problem. The GA was improved to enhance the global and the local search abilities of the algorithm for the ventilation resistance coefficient inversion problem.