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The present study constructs a servo&ndash, hydraulic system to simulate the filling and packing processes of an injection molding machine. Experiments are performed to evaluate the velocity and position control of the system in the filling stage and the pressure control in the packing stage. The results demonstrate that the proposed system meets the required performance standards when operated with the proportional-integral&ndash, derivative (PID) controller under a sampling frequency of 1000 Hz.

Background Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) has been categorized into seven different categories according to the International League of Associations for Rheumatology (ILAR) criteria. Enthesitis-related arthritis (ERA) was found to represent the largest category in a Taiwanese cohort study. The aim in this study was to compare the clinical characteristics, treatments, and outcomes of ERA in a single tertiary center in Taiwan, as compared to those of other categories of JIA. Furthermore, we determined patients’ characteristics and risk factors that can help assess the outcomes in ERA. Methods A retrospective chart review of all patients with JIA referred to a pediatric rheumatology clinic in the National Taiwan University Hospital between 1993 and 2018 were identified according to ILAR criteria. Outcomes were assessed based on the Wallace criteria to categorize patients into active and non-active, including inactive, remission on medication, and remission off medication, groups. A subset of samples was further tested by DNA sequencing to identify HLA-B27 subtypes. Results One-hundred and eighty-three patients were included in the study, with a mean of 8 years’ follow-up. ERA was the single largest category of JIA (39.9%); psoriasis and undifferentiated JIA were both the least common type (0.5%). ERA was male predominant (86%), had a late age of onset (11.0 ± 3.2 years), and the majority of ERA patients was HLA-B27-positive (97%). Of 25 HLA-B27-positive ERA patients checked by HLA-B27 sequencing, 23 were B*27:04 and 2 were B*27:05. ERA patients were significantly less likely to achieve non-active status compared to patients with persistent oligoarthritis (P = 0.036). In terms of treatment response to TNF-α inhibitors in methotrexate-refractory ERA, 26 patients remained active and only 11 patients (30%) achieved a non-active status. Sacroiliitis was a risk factor contributing to poorer treatment response in ERA (P = 0.006). Conclusion ERA represented the most common category of JIA in Taiwan. Those ERA patients with sacroiliitis were likely to have persistent active disease and may require a more aggressive treatment strategy to improve their outcomes.

Vacancy defects of the particle deposition patterns were demonstrated for a sedimentation process and can be reduced using a two-zeta potential ( η ) stage control strategy revealed from the Kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) simulation results. The KMC approach is a statistical-based algorithm to simulate the moving steps of particles in a solution during the sedimentation based on the thermodynamic theory. The vacancy distribution of the deposition pattern was predicted by the KMC simulation. Results show that the vacancy distribution was greatly influenced by the presence of the η value in the particle solution. For the η = 0 mV case, the particles were aggregated and deposited in the center to form an “island-like” (convex) structure due to the Van der Waal attractive forces among these particles. However, the particles were moved away from the center to the edge areas for the η = 10 mV case due to strong electrostatic forces among the particles in the solution. The particles were stacked to generate a “valley-like” (concave) pattern after reaching to a steady state. Moreover, the vacancy of the deposition pattern in the bottom layer can be greatly reduced using the two- η -stage control strategy during the sedimentation process.

Presented is a microelectromechanical system-based thermal actuating image stabiliser. The proposed stage has dimensions of 14.9×14.9×0.2 mm3 and contains a four-axis decoupling XY stage used for anti-shaking. The processes used to fabricate the stabiliser include silicon on isolator process, inductively coupled plasma process and flip-chip bonding technique. The maximum actuating distance of the stage is larger than 25 µm, which is sufficient to resolve the shaking problem in 3× optical zoom condition. According to the experiment results, the supplied voltage for the 25 µm moving distance is lower than 20 V, and the dynamic resonant frequency of the actuating device is 4.7 kHz.