Sputtering of Surfaces of the Solid Hydrogens

Sputtering of the solid hydrogens by electrons and ions exhibits features that may be related to quantum properties of these solids, i.e. a drastic enhancement of the yield for electron–bombarded thick deuterium films and a thermal peak at low ejection energies in the energy distribution of the sputtered particles.     

Interpolating optimizing process control

A new model-based optimizing controller for a set of nonlinear systems is proposed. The nonlinear model set is based on a convex combination of two bounding linear models. An optimal control sequence is computed for each of the two bounding models. The proposed control algorithm is based on a convex combination of the two control sequences. A novel feature in these two optimizations is an added constraint related to the feasibility of the ‘other’ bounding model. The control algorithm can for example be used in model predictive control. We provide robust feasibility guarantees and an upper bound on the optimal criterion if the bounding models are linear FIR models. Further, simulation examples demonstrate significant feasibility improvements in the case where the bounding models are general linear state-space models. The proposed method guarantees robust feasibility for a 1-step ahead prediction in the general case. This can be of interest in MPC applications.     

A long-term seal- and cod-liver-oil supplementation in hypercholesterolemic subjects

In this long-term study, we wanted to explore the effect of dietary supplementation of seal oil (SO) as compared cod-liver oil (CLO) on subjects with moderate hypercholesterolemia. The test parameters included fatty acid composition in serum, blood lipids, platelet aggregation, and the activity of blood monocytes. After a run-in period of 6 mon, 120 clinically healthy hypercholesterolemic (7.0–9.5 mmol/L; 270–366 mg/dL) subjects were randomly selected to consume either 15 mL of SO or CLO daily for 14 mon followed by a 4-mon wash-out period. A third group was not given any dietary supplement (control). Consumption of marine oils (SO and CLO) changed the fatty acid composition of serum significantly. Maximal levels were achieved after 10 mon. No further changes were seen after 14 mon. A wash-out period of 4 mon hardly altered the level of n−3 fatty acids in serum. Addition of SO gave 30% higher level of eicosapentaenoic acid, as compared to CLO. Subjects taking SO or CLO had lower whole-blood platelet aggregation than the control group. Neither SO nor CLO had any effects on the levels of serum total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, postprandial triacylglycerol, apolipoproteins A1 and B100, lipoprotein (a), monocyte function expressed as monocyte-derived tissue factor expression, and tumor necrosis factor.     

Effect of marine oils supplementation on coagulation and cellular activation in whole blood

A study was performed to explore the effects of supplemental intake of various marine oils known to be part of the Eskimo diet. Healthy men and women (134) were randomly selected to consume 15 mL/d of oil from blubber of seal, cod liver, seal/cod liver, blubber of Minke whale, or no oil for ten weeks. Total cholesterol was unchanged in the oil groups, whereas high density lipoprotein cholesterol increased 7% in the seal/cod liver oil (CLO) group (P<0.05) and 11% in the whale oil group (P<0.005). Triacylglycerol was significantly reduced in the CLO group only. The concentration of prothrombin fragment 1+2 was reduced 25% (P<0.05) after whale oil supplementation. No change in fibrinogen or factor VIIc was detected. Tumor necrosis factor generation in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated blood was 30% reduced after whale oil (P<0.05), but was unaffected by intake of seal or CLO. The LPS-induced tissue factor activity in monocytes was reduced to a significant degree only in the seal/CLO group (34%) and whale oil group (35%) (P<0.05). The most dramatic change in thromboxane B₂ in LPS-stimulated blood was seen after whale oil intake with 44% reduction (P<0.01). Supplementation of a regular diet with a combination of seal oil and CLO and especially with whale oil seems to have beneficial effects on several products thought to be associated with cardiovascular and thrombotic diseases.     

Hyperspectral imaging based on diffused laser light for prediction of astaxanthin coating concentration

We present a study on predicting the concentration level of synthetic astaxanthin in fish feed pellet coating using multi- and hyperspectral image analysis. This was done in parallel using two different vision systems. A new instrument for hyperspectral imaging, the SuperK setup, using a super-continuum laser as the light source was introduced. Furthermore, a parallel study with the commercially available multispectral VideometerLab imaging system was performed. The SuperK setup used 113 spectral bands (455–1,015 nm), and the VideometerLab used 20 spectral bands (385–1,050 nm). To predict the astaxanthin concentration from the spectral image data, the synthetic astaxanthin content in the pellets was measured with the established standard technique; high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC). Regression analysis was done using partial least squares regression (PLSR) and the sparse regression method elastic net (EN). The ratio of standard error of prediction (RPD) is the ratio between the standard deviation of the reference values and the prediction error, and for both PLSR and EN both devices gave RPD values between 4 and 24, and with mean prediction error of 1.4–8.0 parts per million of astaxanthin concentration. The results show that it is possible to predict the synthetic astaxanthin concentration in the coating well enough for quality control using both multi- and hyperspectral image analysis, while the SuperK setup performs with higher accuracy than the VideometerLab device for this particular problem. The spectral resolution made it possible to identify the most significant spectral regions for detection of astaxanthin. The results also imply that the presented methods can be used in general for quality inspection of various coating substances using similar coating methods.     

Modelling the regional economic effects of the Danish Great Belt link

Different approaches to modelling the impact of transport infrastructure investment on regional economic development are examined, including production function and economic potential approaches. An integrated modelling approach involving both transport costs and models of regional and interregional economic structure is advocated. This approach is applied to the question of forecasting the regional economic effects of the Danish Great Belt link, a major Danish infrastructure investment, due to open in 1997. These effects are shown to be modest.     

Information Foraging—A Model for Exploration Breadth and Depth

The optimal path choice theory from biology implies that foragers should evaluate all sites before selecting something feasible when site relocation costs are low and there are few sites to explore. In internet information foraging, although the cost of moving to another site is negligible, the number of relevant sites can be large and exploration costs vary. We examine human internet information foraging behaviors and propose a model relating them to established cognitive measures.     

On monitoring industrial processes under feedback control

The concurrent use of statistical process control and engineering process control involves monitoring manipulated and controlled variables. One multivariate control chart may handle the statistical monitoring of all variables, but observing the manipulated and controlled variables in separate control charts may improve understanding of how disturbances and the controller performance affect the process. In this article, we illustrate how step and ramp disturbances manifest themselves in a single-input–single-output system by studying their resulting signatures in the controlled and manipulated variables. The system is controlled by variations of the widely used proportional-integral-derivative(PID) control scheme. Implications for applying control charts for these scenarios are discussed.     

Design and evaluation of C++ open multi-methods

Multiple dispatch-the selection of a function to be invoked based on the dynamic type of two or more arguments-is a solution to several classical problems in object-oriented programming. Open multi-methods generalize multiple dispatch towards open-class extensions, which improve separation of concerns and provisions for retroactive design. We present the rationale, design, implementation, performance, programming guidelines, and experiences of working with a language feature, called open multi-methods, for C++. Our open multi-methods support both repeated and virtual inheritance. Our call resolution rules generalize both virtual function dispatch and overload resolution semantics. After using all information from argument types, these rules can resolve further ambiguities by using covariant return types. Care was taken to integrate open multi-methods with existing C++ language features and rules. We describe a model implementation and compare its performance and space requirements to existing open multi-method extensions and work-around techniques for C++. Compared to these techniques, our approach is simpler to use, catches more user mistakes, and resolves more ambiguities through link-time analysis, is comparable in memory usage, and runs significantly faster. In particular, the runtime cost of calling an open multi-method is constant and less than the cost of a double dispatch (two virtual function calls). Finally, we provide a sketch of a design for open multi-methods in the presence of dynamic loading and linking of libraries.     

Towards Improved Analysis Methods for Two‐Level Factorial Experiments with Time Series Responses

Dynamic processes exhibit a time delay between the disturbances and the resulting process response. Therefore, one has to acknowledge process dynamics, such as transition times, when planning and analyzing experiments in dynamic processes. In this article, we explore, discuss, and compare different methods to estimate location effects for two‐level factorial experiments where the responses are represented by time series. Particularly, we outline the use of intervention‐noise modeling to estimate the effects and to compare this method by using the averages of the response observations in each run as the single response. The comparisons are made by simulated experiments using a dynamic continuous process model. The results show that the effect estimates for the different analysis methods are similar. Using the average of the response in each run, but removing the transition time, is found to be a competitive, robust, and straightforward method, whereas intervention‐noise models are found to be more comprehensive, render slightly fewer spurious effects, find more of the active effects for unreplicated experiments and provide the possibility to model effect dynamics. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.