Research on Optimal Placement of Actuators of High-Rise Buildings Considering the Influence of Seismic Excitation on Structural Modes

Presently, most of the common placement methods of actuators are based on the structural response and system energy to select the optimal locations. In these methods, the contribution of controllability and the energy of seismic excitations to each mode of the structure are not considered, and a large number of cases need to be calculated. To solve this problem, the Clough–Penzien spectral model is combined with the Luenberger observable normal form of the system to calculate the energy of each state. The modal disturbance degree, considering modal energy and controllability, is defined by using the controllability gramian matrix and PBH system controllability index, and the modes are divided into the main disturbance modes (MDMs) and the secondary disturbance modes (SDMs). A novel optimal placement method of actuators based on modal controllability degree is proposed, which uses MDMs as the main control modes. The optimal placement of actuators and the vibration control simulation of a 20-story building model are carried out. The results show that the vibration reduction effect of the proposed placement method is significantly better than that of the method of uniformly distributed actuators (Uniform method) and the classical placement method of actuators based on the system controllability gramian matrix (Classical method).

An adaptive spot placement method on Cartesian grid for pencil beam scanning proton therapy

Pencil beam scanning (PBS) proton radiotherapy (RT) offers flexible proton spot placement near treatment targets for delivering tumoricidal radiation dose to tumor targets while sparing organs-at-risk (OAR). Currently the spot placement is mostly based on a non-adaptive sampling (NS) strategy on a Cartesian grid. However, the spot density or spacing during NS is a constant for the Cartesian grid that is independent of the geometry of tumor targets, and thus can be suboptimal in terms of plan quality (e.g., target dose conformality) and delivery efficiency (e.g., number of spots). This work develops an adaptive sampling (AS) spot placement method on the Cartesian grid that fully accounts for the geometry of tumor targets. Compared with NS, AS places (1) a relatively fine grid of spots at the boundary of tumor targets to account for the geometry of tumor targets and treatment uncertainties (setup and range uncertainty) for improving dose conformality, and (2) a relatively coarse grid of spots in the interior of tumor targets to reduce the number of spots for improving delivery efficiency and robustness to the minimum-minitor-unit (MMU) constraint. The results demonstrate that (1) AS achieved comparable plan quality with NS for regular MMU and substantially improved plan quality from NS for large MMU, using merely about 10% of spots from NS, where AS was derived from the same Cartesian grid as NS; (2) on the other hand, with similar number of spots, AS had better plan quality than NS consistently for regular and large MMU.

Long-term evaluation of factors affecting removal torque of microimplants

Background The current study aimed to evaluate factors affecting the long-term stability of microimplants using removal torque and the correlation between removal torque and clinical variables. Materials and methods This research evaluated 703 microimplants placed in 354 patients (mean age: 30.4 ± 12.1 years). The removal torque was evaluated according to various clinical variables including sex, age, placement site, microimplant size, and placement method (self-drilling versus pre-drilling). Pearson correlation and stepwise multiple linear regression analyses were performed to investigate different variables and their association with removal torque. Results The mean removal torque was significantly higher in the mandible (4.46 N cm) than in the maxilla (3.73 N cm). The values in the posterior teeth/retromolar areas were significantly higher than those in the anterior teeth area. There were no significant difference in terms of sex. Teenagers had a lower removal torque than older adults in the mandible, but not in the maxilla. Microimplants with a greater length and diameter, except for those with a greater diameter in the maxilla, was associated with a higher removal torque. Regardless of placement torque, the removal torque convergently reached approximately 4 N cm in both placement methods. The removal torque was significantly correlated with screw length in the self-drilling group and with diameter in the pre-drilling group. Conclusions Removal torque was related with placement site, age, placement method, and length and diameter of microimplants.

Water-Saving Irrigation and Nitrogen Fertilizer Use Efficiency for Irrigated Rice in the Red River Delta, Vietnam

The objective of this research was to quantify the effects of water-saving regimes and fertilizer application improvement on water productivity, N-use efficiency, and rice yield. The results showed that the tested water treatments did not have significant effects on the growth and development, yield components, and final grain yield, but water productivity was significantly increased from 1.28 kg grain m-3 (W0) water to 1.74 kg grain m-3 water (W1) and 1.94 kg grain m-3 water (W2). In addition, the percentage of total irrigation water saved from W1 and W2 were 25.24-44.52% compared to continuous flooding. Fertilizer deep placement (FDP) combined with organic compost significantly increased the grain yield of the tested hybrid rice variety. Average grain yield increased quickly from 2847 kg ha-1 with 0 kg N ha-1 to 5263 kg ha-1 with 120 kg N ha-1 under the fertilizer deep placement method. The highest total nitrogen uptake, agronomic nitrogen efficiency (ANE), and nitrogen uptake efficiency (NUE) were obtained from alternate wetting and drying at a -20cm water depth and the fertilizer deep placement method (W1N2). In addition, it also gave the highest income in comparison with the other treatments. Therefore, alternate wetting and drying at a -20cm water depth and fertilizer deep placement method should be encouraged for implementation in other regions of Vietnam.