Cluster and Redundancy Analyses of Taiwan Upstream Watersheds Based on Monthly 30 Years AVHRR NDVI3g Data

The study uses 30 years of the third generation of Advanced Very-High-Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) NDVI3g monthly data from 1982 to 2012 to identify the natural clusters and important driving factors of the upstream watersheds in Taiwan through hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and redundancy analysis (RDA), respectively. Subsequently, as a result of HCA, six clusters were identified based on the 30 years of monthly NDVI data, delineating unique NDVI characteristics of the upstream watersheds. Additionally, based on the RDA results, environmental factors, including precipitation, temperature, slope, and aspect, can explain approximately 52% of the NDVI variance over the entire time series. Among environmental factors, nine factors were identified significantly through RDA analysis for explaining NDVI variance: average slope, temperature, flat slope, northeast-facing slope, rainfall, east-facing slope, southeast-facing slope, west-facing slope, and northwest-facing slope, which reflect an intimate connection between climatic and orthographic factors with vegetation. Furthermore, the rainfall and temperature represent different variations in all scenarios and seasons. With consideration of the characteristics of the clusters and significant environmental factors, corresponding climate change adaptation strategies are proposed for each cluster under climate change scenarios. Thus, the results provide insight to assess the natural clustering of the upstream watersheds in Taiwan, benefitting future sustainable watershed management.

A 2.6 ppm/°C 2.5 V Piece-Wise Compensated Bandgap Reference with Low Beta Bipolar

Traditional bandgap reference (BGR) is sensitive to process variation and is not suitable for mass production. Consequently, a stacked piece-wise compensated bandgap reference (SPWBGR) with low beta bipolar is proposed, designed and fabricated in the 0.18 μm high-voltage (HV) BCD process. Two stacked BGR (SBGR) cores make up the proposed BGR circuit. Through setting the target reference voltage near the output voltage of SBGR cores, the feedback resistor ratio is reduced and the base current side-effect is significantly decreased. Notably, the SBGR core is implemented by the low beta npn bipolar and it relaxes the requirement for the high beta bipolar. The two SBGR cores are almost identical except for the temperature slope and feedback ratio. The two cores have different zero temperature coefficient (TC) points, one is set at −5 °C, and the other is set at 60 °C, named as SBGRA and SBGRB, respectively. The SBGRA and SBGRB output the same voltage at their zero TC point. The higher voltage of SBGRA and SBGRB is the output voltage. Through the process of tracking the maximum value of different SBGR cores, the proposed SPWBGR achieves 2.6 ppm/°C TC from −40 to 100 °C. As a result, the average TC for five random samples is 5.3 ppm/°C. The line regulation is 2 mV/V from 4.5 to 5.5 V power supply. The current consumption is 6.8 µA. The active area of the proposed BGR is 0.075 mm2.

Experimental tests of fuzzy logical temperature controller of an electric resistance chamber furnace

The paper presents an innovated hardware and software platform for the implementation of the fuzzy controller fortemperature and temperature slope change in an electric resistance chamber furnace. The point of this paper is to present the modernhardware and software tools that we used to lift up the base for continuation of the research done in the laboratory for electricalheating of Faculty of electrical engineering, University of Belgrade, more than 15 years ago. In that period, also the robustness ofcontrol in respect to the amount of load in the furnace was investigated. This paper focuses to the further investigation of therobustness. More precisely, experiments were performed to study if the controller can be applied as "plug and play controller", i.e. ifthe controller can be applied without additional tuning on another furnace with the similar construction in respect to the one where thefuzzy controller is tuned. The tests on two electric chamber furnaces with different rated power and volumes confirm the "plug andplay controller" principal is realistic.

What Factors Affect Intrapartum Maternal Temperature? A Prospective Cohort Study

Background In recent years, several reports have indicated that maternal temperature elevations during labor may also be observed in the absence of an infection. Presumed noninfectious causes of maternal temperature elevations include epidural analgesia, endogenous heat production generated by the contracting uterus, and delivery in an overheated room. To investigate the potential causes of noninfectious maternal temperature changes during labor, we conducted a prospective cohort study in women scheduled for labor induction. Methods We recorded hourly oral temperatures from admission to delivery. We calculated whether temperature changed during labor in 81 women. We then determined if body mass index, and duration of labor, or time from rupture of amniotic sac to delivery, or oxytocin dose, would affect maternal temperature. To evaluate the possible role of epidural analgesia, we compared the temperature slope before and after starting epidural analgesia. Results We observed an overall significant linear trend of temperature over time with an estimated temperature slope of +0.017°C/h (P = 0.0093). Patients with a positive temperature trend had also a significantly longer time from rupture of membranes to delivery (P = 0.0077) and a higher body mass index (P = 0.0067). Epidural analgesia had no effect on the temperature trend. Conclusions In our cohort of patients, there was an overall significant linear trend of temperature over time after correcting for heterogeneity among patients. Temperature increase was associated with higher body mass index values and longer time from rupture of membranes to delivery. Epidural analgesia had no effect on maternal temperature.

Study on Al-4.5Cu-3Ce Alloy Semi-Solid Slurry Prepared by Slope Vibration Casting

Al-4.5Cu-3Ce alloy semi-solid slurry has been prepared by using slope vibration casting. The effects of the pouring temperature, slope length, vibration amplitude and vibration voltage on alloy solidification microstructure were researched. Experiments show that these parameters play a significant role on the alloy microstructure. The uniform, small equiaxed microstructure of Al-4.5Cu-3Ce alloy can be acquired by water-cooled copper mold casting at 680°C with slope length of 20cm, vibration amplitude of 2cm and vibration voltage of 80v. Its average grain diameter is 28.1um with average roundness coefficient of 0.82.