Dynamic Intelligent Scheduling in Low-Carbon Heterogeneous Distributed Flexible Job Shops with Job Insertions and Transfers.

With the rapid development of economic globalization and green manufacturing, traditional flexible job shop scheduling has evolved into the low-carbon heterogeneous distributed flexible job shop scheduling problem (LHDFJSP). Additionally, modern smart manufacturing processes encounter complex and diverse contingencies, necessitating the ability to address dynamic events in real-world production activities. To date, there are limited studies that comprehensively address the intricate factors associated with the LHDFJSP, including workshop heterogeneity, job insertions and transfers, and considerations of low-carbon objectives. This paper establishes a multi-objective mathematical model with the goal of minimizing the total weighted tardiness and total energy consumption. To effectively solve this problem, diverse composite scheduling rules are formulated, alongside the application of a deep reinforcement learning (DRL) framework, i.e., Rainbow deep-Q network (Rainbow DQN), to learn the optimal scheduling strategy at each decision point in a dynamic environment. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, this paper extends the standard dataset to adapt to the LHDFJSP. Evaluation results confirm the generalization and robustness of the presented Rainbow DQN-based method.

A study on cuff pressure of laryngeal mask for airway management of child patients undergoing operation.

BACKGROUND: To investigate the cuff pressure of laryngeal mask for airway management of child patients undergoing operations. METHODS: One hundred thirty-eight children who underwent general anesthesia in our hospital from June 2014 to May 2017 were enrolled, 46 children from June 2014 to September 2014 were selected as group A (20 cmH2O pressure group). 46 patients from October 2014 to January 2015 were selected as group B (40 cmH2O pressure group), and 46 patients from February 2015 to May 2015 were selected as group C (60 cmH2O pressure group). The pressure of all child patients was adjusted to the appointed pressure by using cuff pressure gauge. The operation situation, insertion of laryngeal mask, oropharyngeal leakage pressure(OLP), airway peak pressure(Ppeak), difference value of exhaled tidal volume(∆VT) and adverse reactions of the child patients from three groups were compared. RESULTS: The differences in anesthesia time, recovery time, insertion time of laryngeal mask, removal time of laryngeal mask, operation duration and Ppeak showed no statistical significance (P>0.05); the successful rates of first insertion of laryngeal mask of group A, group B and group C were 89.13%, 100.00% and 93.47%, respectively. The OLPs of Group B and C were higher than that of Group A, and that of Group C was higher than Group B. ∆VT of Group B and C were lower than that of Group A, and that of Group B was lower than that of Group C. The total incidence rates of adverse reactions of three groups were 39.11%, 15.21% and 28.23%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The optimum cuff pressure of laryngeal mask is 40 cmH2O for child patients during the airway management, which can effectively increase OLP, decrease ∆VT and incidence rate of adverse reactions, worthy of further recommendation and application in clinical practices.

Electrode Coverage Optimization for Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting from Tip Excitation.

Piezoelectric energy harvesting using cantilever-type structures has been extensively investigated due to its potential application in providing power supplies for wireless sensor networks, but the low output power has been a bottleneck for its further commercialization. To improve the power conversion capability, a piezoelectric beam with different electrode coverage ratios is studied theoretically and experimentally in this paper. A distributed-parameter theoretical model is established for a bimorph piezoelectric beam with the consideration of the electrode coverage area. The impact of the electrode coverage on the capacitance, the output power and the optimal load resistance are analyzed, showing that the piezoelectric beam has the best performance with an electrode coverage of 66.1%. An experimental study was then carried out to validate the theoretical results using a piezoelectric beam fabricated with segmented electrodes. The experimental results fit well with the theoretical model. A 12% improvement on the Root-Mean-Square (RMS) output power was achieved with the optimized electrode converge ratio (66.1%). This work provides a simple approach to utilizing piezoelectric beams in a more efficient way.

Intense 2.89 µm emission from Dy³âº/Yb³âº-codoped PbF2 crystal by 970 nm laser diode pumping.

A novel Dy(3+)/Yb(3+) co-doped PbF2 mid-IR laser crystal was successfully grown using the vertical Bridgman method. Efficient emission at around 3 µm from the crystal was observed under excitation of a conventional 970 nm laser diode (LD). The energy transfer efficiency from Yb(3+) to Dy(3+) in Dy(3+)/Yb(3+):PbF2 crystal is as high as (97.7±0.3)%. It is also found that the Dy(3+)/Yb(3+):PbF2 crystal possesses long fluorescence lifetime (15.4±0.2) ms, high quantum efficiency (95.0±0.3)%, and large emission cross section (1.37±0.11)×10(-20) cm2 corresponding to the stimulated emission of Dy(3+):(6)H(13/2)→(6)H(15/2) transition. Additionally, the phonon energy of the crystal was analyzed by the Raman spectrum. These results indicate that Dy(3+)/Yb(3+):PbF2 crystal may become a promising material for 3 µm solid state lasers under a conventional 970 nm LD pump.

Electrochemical Immunoassay of Escherichia coli O157:H7 Using Ag@SiO2 Nanoparticles as Labels.

Silica coated silver (Ag@SiO2) nanoparticles were prepared and characterized by transmission electron microscope (TEM) and UV-vis absorption, and the nanoparticles were used as labels in sandwich-type immunosensor of Escherichia coli O157:H7 (E. coli O157:H7). The labels involved in immunoreaction were dissolved by mixed acid of hydrofluoric acid and nitric acid, and the released Ag(+) ions were electrochemical stripping analyzed (via differential pulse voltammetry, DPV) at poly(acrylic acid)/poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride)/carbon nanotubes (PAA/PDCNT) modified glass carbon electrode (GCE), which obviously enhanced the signal of Ag(+) stripping. Then, the number of E. coli O157:H7 could be indirectly reflected by the signal intensity of labeled Ag(+). And the results showed that the DPV signals were proportional to the logarithm of the E. coli O157:H7 concentration in the range from 20 cfu/mL to 8.0 × 10(3) cfu/mL with the detection limit of 13 cfu/mL.