Modeling and compensation of the machine directional register in roll-to-roll printing

For mass manufacturing of printed electronics using roll-to-roll printing, high-resolution register control among multi-layers is required. A mathematical model of a machine directional (MD) register was derived, where the compensation method was proposed to cancel out the upstream disturbance of the MD register. The proposed MD register model and compensator could be used to improve the performance of the MD register controller in multi-layer roll-to-roll printed electronics. The proposed compensator was experimentally verified at various operating conditions. The results show that the proposed compensator improves the control performance of the MD register in overcoming upstream disturbances     

Moving‐image‐sticking phenomenon induced by an outside force in liquid‐crystal displays

Abstract— Image deformation caused by an outside force is observed to remain for hours at high gray levels for liquid‐crystal displays (LCDs) in the multi‐domain (MD) vertical‐alignment (VA) mode. This so‐called moving‐image‐sticking phenomenon demonstrated a non‐symmetric luminance profile for the left and right viewing direction for MDVA‐mode LCDs which have original symmetric viewing‐angle characteristics. The generation of a stable reverse‐tilt domain by an outside force was assumed to be the cause of this phenomenon, and the stability of a reverse‐tilt domain under an electric fringe field was calculated by changing the electric‐fringe‐field distribution which determines the LC tilt direction. The domain of a given tilt direction is calculated to change to other tilt direction induced by a fringe field at a low gray condition, but to remain unchanged at a high gray condition. This agrees with the observed trends of duration time of the moving‐image‐sticking phenomenon.     

Robust Autonomous Robot Localization Using Interval Analysis

This paper deals with the determination of the position and orientation of a mobile robot from distance measurements provided by a belt of onboard ultrasonic sensors. The environment is assumed to be two-dimensional, and a map of its landmarks is available to the robot. In this context, classical localization methods have three main limitations. First, each data point provided by a sensor must be associated with a given landmark. This data-association step turns out to be extremely complex and time-consuming, and its results can usually not be guaranteed. The second limitation is that these methods are based on linearization, which makes them inherently local. The third limitation is their lack of robustness to outliers due, e.g., to sensor malfunctions or outdated maps. By contrast, the method proposed here, based on interval analysis, bypasses the data-association step, handles the problem as nonlinear and in a global way and is (extraordinarily) robust to outliers.Luc Jaulin: on leave from Laboratoire d'Ingénierie des Systèmes Automatisés, Université d'Angers, 2 bd Lavoisier, 49045 Angers, FranceLuc Jaulin: on leave from Laboratoire d'Ingénierie des Systèmes Automatisés, Université d'Angers, 2 bd Lavoisier, 49045 Angers, FranceLuc Jaulin: on leave from Laboratoire d'Ingénierie des Systèmes Automatisés, Université d'Angers, 2 bd Lavoisier, 49045 Angers, France     

Estimation of planes of a rock mass in a gallery wall from point cloud data based on MD PSO

LiDAR (laser imaging detection and ranging) has been developed to measure the distance of the mesh of points on an object with a high level of accuracy. It provides high-resolution point cloud data as a result of distance measurement. Detailed 3D shapes of objects can be estimated from point cloud data. LiDAR has been used to identify discontinuities in a rock mass of a tunnel gallery wall. To identify discontinuities, it is necessary to approximate the rock mass surface with small planes. Normal vectors of the planes are important to identify discontinuities. We developed an algorithm for estimation of planes based on multi-dimensional particle swarm optimization (MD PSO) from point cloud data. Point cloud data were segmented into bounding boxes and grouped into clusters by MD PSO. Planes were estimated using the least squares method for point cloud data in the respective clusters. The newly developed algorithm based on MD PSO was evaluated using point cloud data obtained from a gallery wall. Evaluation was carried out in comparison with the previous developed variable-box segmentation (VBS) algorithm. The MD PSO-based algorithm showed a 7% higher accuracy than that of the VBS algorithm.     

Effects of mutations on active site conformation and dynamics of RNA-dependent RNA polymerase from Coxsackievirus B3

Recent crystal structures of RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (3D^pol) from Coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) revealed that a tyrosine mutation at Phe364 (F364Y) resulted in structures with open active site whereas a hydrophobic mutation at Phe364 (F364A) led to conformations with closed active site. Besides, the crystal structures showed that the F364W mutation had no preference between the open and closed active sites, similar to wild-type. In this paper, we present a molecular dynamics (MD) study on CVB3 3D^pol in order to address some important questions raised by experiments. First, MD simulations of F364Y and F364A were carried out to explore how these mutations at Phe364 influence active site dynamics and conformations. Second, MD simulations of wild-type and mutants were performed to discover the connection between active site dynamics and polymerase function. MD simulations reveal that the effect of mutations on active site dynamics is associated with the interaction between the structural motifs A and D in CVB3 3D^pol. Interestingly, we discover that the active site state is influenced by the formation of a hydrogen bond between backbone atoms of Ala231 (in motif A) and Ala358 (in motif D), which has never been revealed before.     

An embedded simulation approach for modeling the thermal conductivity of 2D nanoscale material

The thermal property of single layer graphene sheet is investigated in this work by using an embedded approach of molecular dynamics (MD) and soft computing method. The effect of temperature and Stone–Thrower–Wales (STW) defects on the thermal conductivity of graphene sheet is first analyzed using MD simulation. The data obtained using the MD simulation is then fed into the paradigm of soft computing approach, multi-gene genetic programming (MGGP), which was specifically designed to model the response of thermal conductivity of graphene sheet with changes in system temperature and STW defect concentration. We find that our proposed MGGP model is able to model the thermal conductivity of graphene sheet very well which can be used to complement the analytical solution developed by MD simulation. Additionally, we also conducted sensitivity and parametric analysis to find out specific influence and variation of each of the input system parameters on the thermal conductivity of graphene sheet. It was found that the STW defects has the most dominating influence on the thermal conductivity of graphene sheet.     

Fabrication of layered polydimethylsiloxane/perfluoropolyether microfluidic devices with solvent compatibility and valve functionality

The development of multilayer soft lithography methodology has seen polydimethysiloxane (PDMS) as the preferred material for the fabrication of microfluidic devices. However, the functionality of these PDMS microfluidic chips is often limited by the poor chemical resistance of PDMS to certain solvents. Here, we propose the use of a photocurable perfluoropolyether (PFPE), specifically FOMBLIN^® MD40 PFPE, as a candidate material to provide a solvent-resistant buffer layer to make the device substantially impervious to chemically induced swelling. We first carried out a systematic study of the solvent resistance properties of FOMBLIN^® MD40 PFPE as compared with PDMS. The comparison presented here demonstrates the superiority of FOMBLIN^® MD40 PFPE over PDMS in this regard; moreover, the results permitted to categorize solvents in four different groups depending on their swelling ratio. We then present a step-by-step recipe for a novel fabrication process that uses multilayer lithography to construct a comprehensive solvent-resistant device with fluid and control channels integrated with a valve structure and also permitting easy establishment of outside connections.     

Molecular dynamics simulation of salt rejection through silicon carbide nanotubes as a nanostructure membrane

Salt rejection phenomenon was investigated using armchair silicon carbide (SiC) nanotubes under applied electric fields. The systems included the (7,7) and (8,8) SiC nanotubes surrounded by silicon nitride membrane immersed in a 0.4 mol/L aqueous solution of sodium chloride. Results of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations for selective separation of Na⁺ and Cl⁻ ions showed that the (7,7) SiC nanotube is suitable for separation of cations and the (8,8) SiC nanotube can be used for separating anions. The water desalination by SiC nanotubes was demonstrated by potential of mean force for Na⁺ and Cl⁻ ions in each SiC nanotube. Furthermore, the ionic current, ion residence time, and the radial distribution functions of species were measured to evaluate the properties of the system. Based on the results of this research, the studied SiC nanotubes can be recommended as a nanostructure model for water desalination.     

The evaluation of the student teachers’ attitudes toward Internet and democracy

The aims of this study are to find out (1) how student teachers’ attitudes toward Internet affect their attitudes toward democracy, (2) how student teachers’ attitudes toward democracy are in terms of their purpose of using Internet and (3) benefits provided by the Internet. The research is carried out in Ziya Gokalp Education Faculty at Dicle University during 2005–2006 academic year by the participation of 440 student teachers in total. “Likert Type Attitude Scale Toward the Use of Internet”, was used to determine the student teachers’ attitudes toward the Internet and “The Attitude Scale Toward Democracy” was used to find out the attitudes of the student teachers toward democracy. The data are analyzed by using variance analysis and correlation (Pearson) techniques. Scheffé test is used for significance test.     

Optimization of a robotized cell with redundant architecture

This article presents a multi-objective optimization approach used for redundancy resolution in a robotized cell. The cell is dedicated to finishing operations, by machining and polishing, on large cast aluminum parts. The objectives are to improve machine capability and kinematics capacity. We first formalize the main constraints related to the process and to the cell. We then describe our optimization, kinematics and precision criteria as well as the multi-objective method developed. This method has been verified by simulation and the results have been validated on industrial parts. The study was carried out in collaboration with the Société des Fonderies d'Ussel (SFU), part of the Alcan group, specialized in high technology aluminum molded parts. The applications relate mainly to aeronautical, energy and transport activities.     

Semi-automated and fully automated mammographic density measurement and breast cancer risk prediction

The task of breast density quantification is becoming increasingly relevant due to its association with breast cancer risk. In this work, a semi-automated and a fully automated tools to assess breast density from full-field digitized mammograms are presented. The first tool is based on a supervised interactive thresholding procedure for segmenting dense from fatty tissue and is used with a twofold goal: for assessing mammographic density (MD) in a more objective and accurate way than via visual-based methods and for labeling the mammograms that are later employed to train the fully automated tool. Although most automated methods rely on supervised approaches based on a global labeling of the mammogram, the proposed method relies on pixel-level labeling, allowing better tissue classification and density measurement on a continuous scale. The fully automated method presented combines a classification scheme based on local features and thresholding operations that improve the performance of the classifier. A dataset of 655 mammograms was used to test the concordance of both approaches in measuring MD. Three expert radiologists measured MD in each of the mammograms using the semi-automated tool (DM-Scan). It was then measured by the fully automated system and the correlation between both methods was computed. The relation between MD and breast cancer was then analyzed using a case–control dataset consisting of 230 mammograms. The Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) was used to compute reliability among raters and between techniques. The results obtained showed an average ICC = 0.922 among raters when using the semi-automated tool, whilst the average correlation between the semi-automated and automated measures was ICC = 0.838. In the case–control study, the results obtained showed Odds Ratios (OR) of 1.38 and 1.50 per 10% increase in MD when using the semi-automated and fully automated approaches respectively. It can therefore be concluded that the automated and semi-automated MD assessments present a good correlation. Both the methods also found an association between MD and breast cancer risk, which warrants the proposed tools for breast cancer risk prediction and clinical decision making. A full version of the DM-Scan is freely available.     

Detecting feature interaction in CPL

This article addresses the problem of detecting feature interactions in the area of telephony systems design. The proposed approach consists of two phases: filtering and testing. The filtering phase detects possible interactions by identifying incoherencies in a logic specification of the main elements of the features, consisting of preconditions, triggers, results and constraints. If incoherencies are identified, then an interaction is suspected, test cases corresponding to the suspected interaction are generated and testing is applied to see if the interaction actually exists. Two case studies, carried out on established benchmarks, show that this approach gives good results in practice. Nicolas Gorse received a Master of Computer Science from the University of Ottawa, School of Information Technology and Engineering in 2001.He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Département d'Informatique et Recherche Opérationnelle of the Université de Montréal. His research interests relate to formal methods and their application in the design and verification of complex electronic systems at high levels of abstraction. Luigi Logrippo received a degree in law from the University of Rome (Italy) in 1961, and in the same year he started a career in computing. He worked for several computer companies and in 1969 he obtained a Master of Computer Science from the University of Manitoba, followed by a Ph.D. of Computer Science from the University of Waterloo in 1974.He was with the University of Ottawa for 29 years, where he was Chair of the Computer Science Department for 7 years. In 2002 he moved to the Université du Québec en Outaouais, Département d'Informatique et Ingénierie, while remaining associated with the University of Ottawa as an Adjunct Professor.His interest area is formal and logic-based methods and their applications in the design of communications systems. For a number of years he worked on the development of tools and methods for the language LOTOS. Current research deals with the formal analysis of advanced communications services made possible by internet telephony, of the policies that govern them, and of their interactions, in application areas such as presence features and e-commerce contracts. Jacques Sincennes is a research programmer/systems analyst at the University of Ottawa, School of Information Technology and Engineering. He has held this position for the past 17 years. He is coauthor of a number of papers and a patent application.An erratum to this article is available at .     

Paris Réseau, Paris network

Since 1994 the experimental art project, Paris-Réseau, has been a (net)work in progress. Texts, images and sounds gathered in various ways before, during and after a performance by the group Art-Réseaux at the Paris Video Library form different layers in the Paris-Réseau Archives, a hypermedia database. Paris-Réseau assembles photographs, sound samples, videos and texts to form a composite image of the city, combining digitised traces of physical places and people with information garnered from individual and collective memory.Paris-Réseau comprises at least five projects. It began very simply, gradually expanding to encompass different time frames and a very large number of paths throughout the city. Then in an effort to compose all this disparate information into a coherent whole, I began zooming in on selected itineraries. Here I will just sketch out the first phases of this project which have already been described at greater length in an article published in Leonardo. (O'Rourke 1996)     

Preface of the Editors

The Euromech Colloquium 467 on Turbulent Flow and Noise Generation was held from July 18th to 20th, 2005 at the Centre International des Rencontres Mathématiques (CIRM) in Marseille, France. This international conference was attended by 65 participants coming from 10 different countries; 39 presentations were given, including three invited lectures by renowned experts: Fang Q. Hu (Old Dominion University, USA), Sanjiva K. Lele (Stanford University, USA) and Philippe Spalart (Boeing Commercial Airplanes, USA).The colloquium was followed in the same place by a summer school entitled Computational Aeroacoustics and CFD in Turbulent Flows, organized under the auspices of the Centre d’Eté de Mathématique et de Recherche Avancée en Calcul Scientifique (CEMRACS 2005) from July 18th to August 26th, 2005, which attracted around one hundred participants. This was the largest number of participants in this series of CEMRACS summer schools since its foundation in 1996 by Yvon Maday. The success of these two coupled events is a clear indication of the vitality of the subject of noise generation by flows and of its appeal to a wide population of scientists from various origins: acousticians, specialists of fluid mechanics and turbulence, applied mathematicians and specialists of numerical analysis.The Euromech Colloquium 467 was organized in the frame of the French-German research group FOR 508 Noise Generation in Turbulent Flows, whose aim is to develop and to assess novel noise simulation concepts for turbulent flow. A special focus is on the noise generated by turbulent jets. The research group FOR 508 is composed of seven projects, each of which is executed in joint cooperation of a German and a French research institution. The participants on the French side are: Ecole Polytechnique, Ecole Normale Supérieure, LMFA-Ecole Centrale de Lyon, IMFT de Toulouse, Université de Poitiers, Université de Provence (Aix-Marseille I) and Université Louis Pasteur Strasbourg. The German members of the research group FOR 508 are from the following institutions: Universität Stuttgart, RWTH Aachen, Technische Universitäten München, Berlin and Darmstadt. The research group started its work in January 2002 with financial support from the German Research Foundation Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS).     

Risk management capability model for the development of medical device software

Failure of medical device (MD) software can have potentially catastrophic effects, leading to injury of patients or even death. Therefore, regulators penalise MD manufacturers who do not demonstrate that sufficient attention is devoted to the areas of hazard analysis and risk management (RM) throughout the software lifecycle. This paper has two main objectives. The first objective is to compare how thorough current MD regulations are with relation to the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI^®) in specifying what RM practices MD companies should adopt when developing software. The second objective is to present a Risk Management Capability Model (RMCM) for the MD software industry, which is geared towards improving software quality, safety and reliability. Our analysis indicates that 42 RM sub-practices would have to be performed in order to satisfy MD regulations and that only an additional 8 sub-practices would be required in order to satisfy all the CMMI^® level 1 requirements. Additionally, MD companies satisfying the CMMI^® goals of the RM process area by performing the CMMI^® RM practices will not meet the requirements of the MD software RM regulations as an additional 20 MD-specific sub-practices have to be added to meet the objectives of RMCM.     

氨水溶液汽液界面微观结构的分子模拟

为研究吸收式制冷机常用工质对氨水溶液的微观形态,采用分子动力学方法:蛙跳法积分运动方程,Ewald加和方法计算库仑相互作用,分别对不同摩尔浓度的氨水溶液的汽液界面的微观结构、密度分布、界面厚度、界面张力进行r分析与计算,并拟合出界面厚度随氨水溶液摩尔浓度变化的线性关系式.结果表明:氨分子比水分子更容易吸附于汽液界面处,随着氨水溶液摩尔浓度的增加,汽液界面厚度增加,汽液界面张力减小,变化趋势与实验一致.界面张力的计算值从计算结果的量级和数量上看,与实验值接近.     

Molecular dynamics simulations with many-body potentials on multiple GPUs—The implementation,package and performance

Molecular dynamics (MD) is an important research tool extensively applied in materials science. Running MD on a graphics processing unit (GPU) is an attractive new approach for accelerating MD simulations. Currently, GPU implementations of MD usually run in a one-host-process-one-GPU (OHPOG) scheme. This scheme may pose a limitation on the system size that an implementation can handle due to the small device memory relative to the host memory. In this paper, we present a one-host-process-multiple-GPU (OHPMG) implementation of MD with embedded-atom-model or semi-empirical tight-binding many-body potentials. Because more device memory is available in an OHPMG process, the system size that can be handled is increased to a few million or more atoms. In comparison with the serial CPU implementation, in which Newton’s third law is applied to improve the computational efficiency, our OHPMG implementation has achieved a 28.9x–86.0x speedup in double precision, depending on the system size, the cut-off ranges and the number of GPUs. The implementation can also handle a group of small simulation boxes in one run by combining the small boxes into a large box. This approach greatly improves the GPU computing efficiency when a large number of MD simulations for small boxes are needed for statistical purposes.     

Sur diverses familles de langages fermées par transduction rationnelle

Summary The main theorem gives a sufficient condition for an AFL to be the closure under union of the set of images under rational transductions of any of its sets of generators. All the AFL's known to have this property satisfy the given condition. As an application we give a short proof of the fact that every generator of the AFL of algebraic (context-free) languages is a faithful generator, i.e. can be mapped onto every algebraic language by a faithful (& free) rational transduction.

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Les auteurs tiennent à remercier le professeur S. Ginsburg, de l'Univerité USC de Los Angeles, des fructueuses discussions qu'ils ont pu avoir avec lui Mai et Juillet 1971.Le deuxième auteur remercie très vivement l'Université de London (Ontario) et tout particulièrement le professeur Thierrin qui lui ont permis d'exposer ces résultats à l'Ecole d'Eté de Théorie des automates organisée par cette université de Mai à Juillet 1971.