We address the methodology and hardware design for detecting defects on a steel surface. The goal of this work is to develop a surface inspection system for defects with three-dimensional (3-D) characteristics on planar steel surface using multispectral photometric stereo technique. First, the reflections of multispectral illuminations from a steel surface are captured by a multi-channel camera system. Then, a 3-D reconstructed surface profile is extracted from estimated gradient fields. The developed system is applied to real steel specimens and the experimental results show that it can reliably detect tiny defects on the surface. © 2013 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) Fig. 3 Side view of the reconstructed surfaces using various algorithms: (a) top view of the surface defect, (b) the presented method, (c) Frankot-Chellappa, 14 (d) shapelet, 15 (e) affine transformation, 16 and (f) least-squares. 17 Optical Engineering 039701-3 March 2013/Vol. 52(3) Kang, Jang, and Won: Development of an inspection system for planar steel surface. . . Downloaded From: http://opticalengineering.spiedigitallibrary.org/ on 05/16/2015 Terms of Use: http://spiedl.org/terms Fig. 7 Reconstruction result of the steel surface. Optical Engineering 039701-6 March 2013/Vol. 52(3) Kang, Jang, and Won: Development of an inspection system for planar steel surface. . . Downloaded From: http://opticalengineering.spiedigitallibrary.org/ on 05/16/2015 Terms of Use: http://spiedl.org/terms

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Nanotoxicology is an emerging branch of toxicology that concerns about the detrimental health issues associated with nanoparticles (NPs) through nanotoxicological studies in biological organisms and the environment [1]. NPs may exert toxicity in several ways, e.g., by interacting with biological fluids or penetrating the central nervous system, leading to cardiac or cerebral dysfunction [2]. NPs may also interact with mediators to result in inflammatory response activation, release ions as breakdown products inducing cellular oxidative stress, or interact with genetic materials and eventually damage DNA, directly or indirectly [2]. These phenomena may lead to increased cancer risks. Of concern, the complex issues of NP-based toxicity may include genotoxicity, molec-ular determinants, physicochemical determinants, exposure routes, biodistribution and biotransformation, and regulations in different sectors.NPs offer new opportunities for industrial, medical, and commercial products. Today, their utilization and global market become exponentially increasing [3]; however, it remains unclear how they affect biological organisms and a poor understanding of their biological effects may lead to unexpected, deleterious health consequences. Although the amount of research assessing the environmental impacts of NPs has increased over past decades, information on the environmental fate, transport, transformation, bioavailability, and relevant toxicity of a variety of nanomaterials is still uncertain. NPs may carry potential risks to human health and the environment through their bulk production, usage, and environmental

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In hot rolling processes, the rough rolling process is an essential step for making the medium size bar for final strip products. After rough rolling, the bar usually has longitudinal bending called camber owing to several reasons. Camber should be reduced because it may cause various problems including clogging of finishing mill and strip edge folds. The difficulties to designing a camber-reducing controller are to have a good mathematical model of the rolling process and, consequently, lack of an appropriate validation scheme of the designed control algorithm before applying it to a real system. In this paper, a threedimensional simulator for the rough rolling process using FEM (Finite Element Method) is constructed. An output feedback fuzzy controller that does not require a mathematical model is then designed to reduce camber including the lateral bar movement called side-slipping by tilting the roll. A FEM simulation combined with the proposed controller is carried out to show the effectiveness of this scheme. The results show that camber and side-slipping can be effectively reduced while achieving a reasonable wedge profile.

No abstract

In this paper, we propose a non-interactive looper and strip tension control method for a hot finishing mill based on the nonlinear dynamic model. Using the NDOB (nonlinear disturbance observer), the nonlinear looper-tension dynamic system is decoupled into two independent SISO (single-input, single-output) subsystems, and moreover, the model uncertainties and the external disturbances generated from forward slip, strip thickness variation and outgoing strip speed are compensated. A modified TSM (terminal sliding mode) controller is utilized to control the looper angle while the output-feedback controller regulates the strip tension by adjusting the incoming roll speed. Hardware experiment with the 2-stand hardware looper simulator was performed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach.KEY WORDS: hot finishing mill; looper tension control; nonlinear disturbance observer; non-interactive control.

Formaldehyde is a colorless, pungent, highly reactive, and toxic environmental pollutant used in various industries and products. Inhaled formaldehyde is a human and animal carcinogen that causes genotoxicity, such as reactive oxygen species formation and DNA damage. This study aimed to identify the toxic effects of inhaled formaldehyde through an integrated toxicogenomic approach utilizing database information. Microarray datasets (GSE7002 and GSE23179) were collected from the Gene Expression Omnibus database, and differentially expressed genes were identified. The network analyses led to the construction of the respiratory system-related biological network associated with formaldehyde exposure, and six upregulated hub genes (AREG, CXCL2, HMOX1, PLAUR, PTGS2, and TIMP1) were identified. The expression levels of these genes were verified via qRT-PCR in 3D reconstructed human airway tissues exposed to aerosolized formaldehyde. Furthermore, NRARP was newly found as a potential gene associated with the respiratory and carcinogenic effects of formaldehyde by comparison with human in vivo and in vitro formaldehyde-exposure data. This study improves the understanding of the toxic mechanism of formaldehyde and suggests a more applicable analytic pipeline for predicting the toxic effects of inhaled toxicants.