Mining predecessor–successor rules from DAG data

Data mining extracts implicit, previously unknown, and potentially useful information from databases. Many approaches have been proposed to extract information, and one of the most important ones is finding association rules. Although a large amount of research has been devoted to this subject, none of it finds association rules from directed acyclic graph (DAG) data. Without such a mining method, the hidden knowledge, if any, cannot be discovered from the databases storing DAG data such as family genealogy profiles, product structures, XML documents, task precedence relations, and course structures. In this article, we define a new kind of association rule in DAG databases called the predecessor–successor rule, where a node x is a predecessor of another node y if we can find a path in DAG where x appears before y. The predecessor–successor rules enable us to observe how the characteristics of the predecessors influence the successors. An approach containing four stages is proposed to discover the predecessor–successor rules. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Int Syst 21: 621–637, 2006.     

Holographic polymer‐dispersed liquid crystal fabrication under electric field

The transmission mode of holographic polymer‐dispersed liquid crystals (HPDLCs) was developed an under electric field. It is reported that orientation of LC molecules under an electric field induces orientation of oligomer molecules giving rise to low off‐state diffraction and small grating shrinkage. Copyright © 2005 Society of Chemical Industry     

Synthesis and characterization of poly(siloxane-urethane)s

A series of polyurethane block copolymers based on hydroxy-terminated polydimethylsiloxane and poly(propylene glycol) soft segments of molecular weights 1818 and 2000, respectively, were synthesized. The hard segments consisted of 4,4′-diphenylnethane diisocyanate and 1,4-butanediol as the chain extender. Samples with different molar ratios were prepared. We tried to synthesize polydimethylsiloxane-based polyurethanes (PDMS-PU) containing a hard block as major fraction and a soft block as minor fraction for preparing toughened rigid systems. After a study of the pure polydimethylsiloxane-based polyurethane and poly(propylene glycol)-based polyurethane (PPG-PU), (mixed polyol)-based block copolymers and blends of PDMS-PU and PPG-PU were synthesized, and characterized by means of differential scanning calorimetry, tensile testing and scanning electron microscopy. In (mixed polyol)-based copolymers and lower hard-segment content blends, macro-phase separation occurred, but blends with higher hard-segment contents showed significant reduction in amounts of phase separation.     

Manufacturing and structural safety evaluation of a composite train carbody

This paper explains the manufacturing process of a composite train carbody with a sandwich composite structure for bodyshell and a stainless steel structure for the under frame. In addition, the structural behavior and safety of the composite carbody of the Korean tilting train was investigated by the static load tests. From the test results, the stiffness of the composite carbody met the specified design. In the aspect of strength, the maximum stress of the composite bodyshell was of 12.2% of strength of CF1263 carbon/epoxy.     

An interactive multiple-response simulation optimization method

This study proposes a new interactive multicriteria method for determining the best levels of the decision variables needed to optimize a stochastic computer simulation with multiple response variables. The method, called the Pairwise Comparison Stochastic Cutting Plane (PCSCP) method, combines good features from interactive multiple objective mathematical programming and response surface methodology. The major characteristics of the PCSCP method are: (1) it interacts progressively with the decision-maker (DM) to obtain her preferences, (2) it uses experimental design to explore the decision space adequately while reducing the burden on the DM, and (3) it uses the preference information provided by the DM and the sampling error in the responses to reduce the decision space. The mechanics of the method are illustrated with a numerical example. Some computational studies evaluating the method are also reported.     

Parasitic Bipolar Junction Transistors in a Floating-Gate MOSFET for Fluorescence Detection

In this letter, we examined whether the parasitic bipolar junction transistors (BJTs) in the MOSFET fabricated by the standard CMOS process can play a role as a fluorescence detector. To suppress the action of two vertical parasitic BJTs, the gate and n-well were tied in the parasitic BJTs, and the body node was connected to the drain. The proposed device was compared with the inherent and the parasitic diodes in the MOSFET. It had 100 times higher photocurrents than the diodes in the MOSFET. In addition, it was applied for the detection of the fluorescent signal, and could detect near 10 nM of Alexa 546. Therefore, CMOS-process-compatible parasitic BJTs can be used as a photodetector in an integrated fluorescence detector.     

Study of the Interfacial Reaction of Styrene/Maleic Anhydride Copolymerand (Amine)-Terminated Butadiene-Acrylonitrile Copolymer Using FTIR Imaging Techniques

The interfacial reaction between styrene/maleic anhydride copolymer (SMA) and amine-terminated butadiene-acrylonitrile copolymer (ATBA) was observed using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) imaging spectroscopy. The anhydride and amine reacted to form an imide. Each component was detected using a characteristic wavenumber, which was 1601 cm -1 for SMA, 2237 cm -1 for ATBA, and 1701 cm -1 for the imide. FTIR images were taken as the reaction proceeded at 150, 160, 170, and 180°C. At low temperatures (150 and 160°C), diffusion-controlled kinetics were observed since interdiffusion between the reactants did not appear in the images. On the other hand, both the diffusion front and the reaction front are observed in the images at high reaction temperatures (170 and 180°C), which indicates that the kinetics became reaction-controlled rather than diffusion-controlled. Absorbance profiles were extracted from the images and used for the calculation of the extent of reaction. The data were analyzed using the Frederickson and Milner theory based on the assumption of diffusion-controlled kinetics, and this theory fit the low reaction temperature data.     

Robust Geodesic Regression

International Journal of Computer Vision - This paper studies robust regression for data on Riemannian manifolds. Geodesic regression is the generalization of linear regression to a setting with a...     

Development of a sequential robust–tolerance design model for a destructive quality characteristic

Robust design (RD) and tolerance design (TD) have received much attention from researchers and practitioners for more than two decades, and a number of methodologies for modeling and optimizing the RD and TD processes have been studied. However, there is ample room for improvement. Because most existing research considers RD and TD as separate research fields, the primary objective of this paper is to develop a sequential robust–tolerance design method to jointly determine the best factor settings and the closed-form solutions for the optimal specification limits. We then apply the proposed method to a destructive quality characteristic. Finally, a case study and sensitivity analyses are performed for verification purposes, and further studies are discussed.