General solutions for coupled three dimensional equations of piezoelectric media were used in this work to obtain some analytical solutions for free vibration of piezoelectric annular plates. These solutions not only satisfy the governing equations at every point in the concerned region but also satisfy the prescribed boundary conditions at every point on the boundaries. Therefore, they are three-dimensional exact. Numerical results are finally tabulated.

Mechanical properties and low cycle fatigue are two factors that must be considered in developing new type steel for shock absorption. Process capability and process control are significant factors in achieving the purpose of research and development programs. Often-used evaluation methods failed to measure process yield and process centering; so this paper uses Taguchi loss function as basis to establish an evaluation method and the steps for assessing the quality of mechanical properties and process control of an iron and steel manufacturer. The establishment of this method can serve the research and development and manufacturing industry and lay a foundation in enhancing its process control ability to select better manufacturing processes that are more reliable than decision making by using the other commonly used methods.

Axisymmetric fundamental solutions that are applied in the consolidation calculations of a finite clay layer with impeded boundaries were derived. Laplace and Hankel integral transforms were utilized with respect to time and radial coordinates, respectively in the analysis. The derivation of fundamental solutions considers two boundary-value problems involving unit point loading and ring loading in the vertical. The solutions are extended to circular distributed and strip distributed normal load. The computation and analysis of settlements, vertical total stress and excess pore pressure in the consolidation layer subject to circular loading are presented.

The structural features of fiber suspensions are dependent on the fiber alignment in the flows. In this work the orientation distribution function and orientation tensors for semi-concentrated fiber suspensions in converging channel flow were calculated, and the evolutions of the fiber alignment and the bulk effective viscosity were analyzed. The results showed that the bulk stress and the effective viscosity were functions of the rate-of-strain tensor and the fiber orientation state; and that the fiber suspensions evolved to steady alignment and tended to concentrate to some preferred directions close to but not same as the directions of local streamlines. The bulk effective viscosity depended on the product of Reynolds number and time. The decrease of effective viscosity near the boundary benefited the increase of the rate of flow. Finally when the fiber alignment went into steady state, the structural features of fiber suspensions were not dependent on the Reynolds number but on the converging channel angle.

The low frequency oscillatory flow in a rotating curved pipe was studied by using the method of bi-parameter perturbation. Perturbation solutions up to the second order were obtained and the effects of rotation on the low frequency oscillatory flow were examined in detail. The results indicated that there exists evident difference between the low frequency oscillatory flow in a rotating curved pipe and in a curved pipe without rotation. During a period, four secondary vortexes may exist on the circular cross-section and the distribution of axial velocity and wall shear stress are related to the ratio of the Coriolis force to centrifugal force and the axial pressure gradient.

The main thrust of this paper is application of a novel data mining approach on the log of user\'s feedback to improve web multimedia information retrieval performance. A user space model was constructed based on data mining, and then integrated into the original information space model to improve the accuracy of the new information space model. It can remove clutter and irrelevant text information and help to eliminate mismatch between the page author\'s expression and the user\'s understanding and expectation. User space model was also utilized to discover the relationship between high-level and low-level features for assigning weight. The authors proposed improved Bayesian algorithm for data mining. Experiment proved that the authors\' proposed algorithm was efficient.

This paper presents a new kind of image retrieval system which obtains the feature vectors of images by estimating their fractal dimension; and at the same time establishes a tree-structure image database. After preprocessing and feature extracting, a given image is matched with the standard images in the image database using a hierarchical method of image indexing.

A new kind of fuzzy control scheme, based on the identification of the signal\'s main frequency and the behavior of the ER damper, is proposed to control the semi-active suspension system. This method adjusts the fuzzy controller to achieve the best isolation effect by analyzing the main frequency\'s characters and inspecting the change of system parameters. The input of the fuzzy controller is the main frequency and the optimal damping ratio is the output. Simulation results indicated that the proposed control method is very effective in isolating the vibration.

The State Transition Equation (STE) based method to automatically generate the parallel CRC circuits for any generator polynomial or required amount of parallelism is presented. The parallel CRC circuit so generated is partially optimized before being fed to synthesis tools and works properly in our LAN transceiver. Compared with the cascading method, the proposed method gives better timing results and significantly reduces the synthesis time, in particular.

The new chaos control method presented in this paper is useful for taking advantage of chaos. Based on sliding mode control theory, this paper provides a switching manifold controlling strategy of chaotic system, and also gives a kind of adaptive parameters estimated method to estimate the unknown systems\' parameters by which chaotic dynamical system can be synchronized. Taking the Lorenz system as example, and with the help of this controlling strategy, we can synchronize chaotic systems with unknown parameters and different initial conditions.

Kinetic knowledge is of great importance in achieving good control of the pyrolysis and gasification process and optimising system design. An overall kinetic pyrolysis scheme is therefore addressed here. The kinetic modelling incorporates the following basic steps: the degradation of the virgin biomass materials into primary products (tar, gas and semi-char), the decomposition of primary tar into secondary products and the continuous interaction between primary gas and char. The last step is disregarded completely by models in the literature. Analysis and comparison of predicted results from different kinetic schemes and experimental data on our fixed bed pyrolyser yielded very positive evidence to support our kinetic scheme.

Hierarchical Bayesian method for estimating the failure probability p_i under DOOF by taking the quasi-Beta distribution B(p_i-1,1,1,b) as the prior distribution is proposed in this paper. The weighted Least Squares Estimate method was used to obtain the formula for computing reliability distribution parameters and estimating the reliability characteristic values under DOOF. Taking one type of aerospace electrical connector as an example, the correctness of the above method through statistical analysis of electrical connector accelerated life test data was verified.

This paper presents an analysis of the effects of the Hangzhou-Ningbo Expressway (in Zhejiang Province of the People\'s Republic of China) on the region\'s economic development. An econometric model shows the estimated contributions attributable to the expressway have increased year by year. And statistical data indicate that the Hangzhou-Ningbo Expressway has promoted to some extent the region\'s economic development in various aspects.

With the use of a seed washing technique, more than 4000 Gram negative bacteria were isolated by two improved isolation methods from 446 batches of 1 kg rice seed samples obtained from 22 provinces in the Philippines. They were initially characterized on the basis of colony morphology and results of biochemical and pathogenicity tests. Six hundred and fifty-two strains were further identified by Biolog, from which 133 were selected for fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) analysis together with 80 standard reference!strains. Sixteen species or types of Pseudomonas and 17 genera of non-pseudomonads were identified, more than one third of which have not been recorded in rice. The most predominant species observed were P. putida and P. fulva. About 17% of the strains of Pseudomonas and 2% of the non-pseudomonads were antagonistic to one or more fungal or bacterial pathogens of rice. Rice seed is an important source of biological control agents.

Understanding the growth and physiological responses of rice to upland conditions would be helpful for designing treatments to improve the tolerance of rice under a rainfed system. The objective of this study was to investigate the initiation,elongation and membrane stability of seminal, lateral and adventitious roots of upland rice after 9-d upland condition treatment. Compared with control roots under waterlogged conditions, upland water deficiency conditions favor seminal and lateral root growth over adventitious root growth by accelerating seminal root elongation, promoting lateral root initiation and elongation, and reducing the elongation and number of adventitious roots. Enhanced total root number and length resulted in increase of total root dry weight and thereby increasing the root-to-shoot ratio. Organic compound leakage from seminal root tips and adventitious roots increased progressively to some extent with upland culture duration, while significant increases in seminal root tips were the consequence of loss of membrane integrity caused by the upland-condition enhanced growth.

Lead concentrations in roots, stems and leaves of accumulating and non-accumulating ecotypes of Sedum alfredii (Hance) were studied through a hydroponic experiment with different Pb concentrations supplied as Pb(NO₃)₂. Lead concentrations in leaves and stems of the accumulating ecotype were 4-9 times and 3-5 times those of the non-accumulating ecotype, and Pb-accumulated amounts in stems and leaves of the accumulating ecotype were 4-9 times and 8-11 times higher than those of the non-accumulating ecotype, respectively. The results indicated that the accumulating ecotype had better ability to transport Pb from roots to shoots. The subcellular distributions of Pb in the root, stem and leaf tissues were studied using sucrose differential centrifugation. Approximately 50% of Pb contents was found to be associated with the cell wall fraction in stems of the accumulating ecotype and the percentage increased to 80% both in roots and leaves, no matter when plants were grown with different levels of Pb. The results indicated that the distribution of Pb on cell walls of the accumulating ecotype could mainly account for the high tolerance to Pb.

Eleven red soils varying in land use and fertility status were used to examine the effect of land use on microbial biomass -C, -N and -P. Microbial biomass-C in the red soils ranged from about 68 mg C/kg to 225 mg C/kg, which is generally lower than that reported from other types of soil, probably because of low organic matter and high acidity in the red soils. Land use had considerable effects on the amounts of soil C_mic. The C_mic was the lowest in eroded fallow land, followed by woodland, tea garden, citrus grove and fallow grassland, and the highest in vegetable and paddy fields. There was significant correlation between C_mic and organic matter content, suggesting that the influence of land use on C_mic is mainly related to the input and accumulation of organic matter. Microbial biomass-N in the soils ranged from 12.1 Nmg/kg to 31.7 Nmg/kg and was also affected by land use. The change of N_mic with land use was similar to that of C_mic. The microbial C/N ratio ranged from 5.2 to 9.9 and averaged 7.6. The N_mic was significantly correlated with soil total N and available N. Microbial biomass-P in the soils ranged from 4.5 mg P/kg to 52.3 mg P/kg. The microbial C/P ratio was in the range of 4-23. The P_mic was relatively less affected by land use due to differences in fertilization practices for various land use systems.

Use and effects of liver specific antigen in orthotopic liver transplantations were researched in this study. Group I:syngeneic control (Wistar-to-Wistar); Group II:acute rejection (SD-to-Wistar); Group III: Thymic inoculation of SD rat LSA day 7 before transplantation. The observation of common situation and survival time, rejection grades, NF-кB activity of splenocytes and IL-2mRNA expression of grafted liver were used to analyze acute rejection severity and immune state of animals in different groups. The common situation of group I was very well after transplantation and no signs of rejection were found. Recipients of group II lost body weight progressively. All dead within day 9 to day 13 posttransplantation; median survival time was 10.7±0.51 days. It was an optimal acute rejection control. As for group III, 5 out of 6 recipients survived for a long time and common situation was remarkably better than that of group II. Its rejection grades were significantly lower than that of group II(P<0.05). NF-кB activity was only detected in group I at day 5 and day 7 after transplantation, whereas high activity of NF-кB was detected at all time points in groupII and the low NF-кB activity detected in group III was significantly lower than that of group II (P<0.05). No IL-2mRNA expression was detected at any time point in group I,whereas high level expression was detected at all time points in group II and the low level expression only detected at day 3 in group III was significantly lower than that of group II (P<0.05). Conclusion: LSA is an important transplantation antigen which is involved directly in the immunorejection of liver transplantation. We report here for the first time that intrathymic inoculation of LSA can alleviate the rejection of liver allotransplantation; and that grafts can survive for a long time thereby, thus leading to a novel way to achieve liver transplantation immunotolerance.

This study aimed to explore the molecular mechanism in tumor invasion and metastasis. The expression of matrix metalloproteinase-2,-9 (MMP-2, MMP-9), tissue inhibitor-1 of matrix metalloproteinase (TIMP-1), cell adhesion molecule 44 variant 6 (CD44v6), HER2/neu and p53 was investigated in 154 patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) by ABC and ImmunoMax immunohistochemical method. Their clinical relevance and correlation were analysed. The expression of MMP-2, MMP-9, TIMP-1, CD44v6, HER2/neu and p53 was found in cancer cells in 87.01%, 85.71%, 68.18%, 98.05%, 55.19% and 50.65% cases respectively. Linear regression and correlation analysis revealed that there was close positive relationship (P<0.05) between the expression of MMP-2 and MMP-9, TIMP-1 and CD44v6, HER2/neu and MMP-9, MMP-2 and p53. Up-regulation of MMP-2 was accompanied by advanced T stage (P<0.01). There was also a trend of MMP-2 expression being related with tumor metastasis. Increased expression of HER2/neu was found in patients with tumor recurrence (P<0.05). The expression of TIMP-1 was higher in laryngeal cancer than that in pharyngeal cancer, and higher in keratinizing and non-keratinizing SCC than that in basaloid SCC (P<0.05). These findings suggested that MMP-2 and MMP-9, HER2/neu and MMP-9, MMP-2 and p53 had a coordinate function in aggression of tumor; that MMP-2 had a more important function than MMP-9 in tumor invasion and metastasis; and that HER2/neu might serve as a biomarker for poor prognosis in HNSCC.