Representing Animations by Principal Components

In this paper, we present a representation for three-dimensional geometric animation sequences. Different from standard key-frame techniques, this approach is based on the determination of principal animation components and decouples the animation from the underlying geometry. The new representation supports progressive animation compression with spatial, as well as temporal, level-of-detail and high compression ratios. The distinction of animation and geometry allows for mapping animations onto other objects.     

Maximal Pairs of Computably Enumerable Sets in the Computably Lipschitz Degrees

A set A is computably Lipschitz or cl-reducible, for short, to a set B if A is Turing reducible to B by an oracle Turing machine with use function ? such that ? is bounded by the identity function up to an additive constant, i.e., ?(n)??n+O(1). In this paper we study maximal pairs of computably enumerable (c.e.) cl-degrees or maximal pairs, for short, i.e., pairs of c.e. cl-degrees such that there is no c.e. cl-degree that is above both cl-degrees in this pair. Our main results are as follows. (1) A c.e. Turing degree contains a c.e. cl-degree that is half of a maximal pair if and only if this Turing degree contains a maximal pair if and only if this Turing degree is array noncomputable. (2) The cl-degrees of all weak truth-table complete sets are halves of maximal pairs while there is a Turing complete set A such that the cl-degree of A is not half of any maximal pair. In fact, any high c.e. Turing degree contains a c.e. cl-degree that is not half of a maximal pair. (3) Above any c.e. cl-degree there is a maximal pair. (4) There is a maximal pair which at the same time is a minimal pair. (5) There is a pair of c.e. cl-degrees that is not maximal and does not possess a least upper bound. Moreover, we make some observations on the structure of the c.e. cl-degrees in general. For instance, we give a very simple proof of the fact that there are no maximal c.e. cl-degrees.     

Antibiotic susceptibility of Bifidobacterium thermophilum and Bifidobacterium pseudolongum isolates from animal sources

The widespread use of antimicrobial substances has led to resistant populations of microorganisms in several ecosystems. In animal husbandry, the application of antibiotics has contributed to resistance development in pathogenic and commensal bacteria. These strains or their resistance genes can be spread along several ecological routes, including the food chain. Antibiotic resistance is important in terms of the safety of industrial strains, such as probiotics for food and feed. Bifidobacterium thermophilum and Bifidobacterium pseudolongum are known to comprise the major part of the bifidobacterial microbiota in the gut and feces of cattle and pigs. In this study, the antimicrobial susceptibility in bifidobacterial isolates of these species was investigated. Isolates from the beef and pork production chain were identified and typed to strain level, and the antimicrobial susceptibility level was tested to a set of antibiotics. Isolates with low susceptibility levels were screened by PCR for already described resistance genes. Strains atypically resistant to clindamycin, erythromycin, and tetracycline were determined. The resistance genes tet(O), tet(W), and erm(X) were detected in the bifidobacterial species that were examined.     

小麦籽粒品质与馒头品质关系的研究

馒头是我国主要食品之一，消费量和面条相当，且南方的消费量还在逐年增长。21世纪以前，国内学者对制做馒头小麦粉品质的要求，馒头品质的评价方法，馒头品质与小麦品种籽粒品质的关系所能提供的研究资料十分有限。国外学者从70年代起就一直注意跟踪和研究这些问题。由于馒头的地域种类较多，不同人群对馒头的喜好不同，评价馒头品质指标的标准化程度不够，使不同结果之间有一定的差异，或完全相反。作者通过对小麦品种籽粒品质的分析，制作馒头面团发酵特性和油炸结果测定，馒头品质的评价认为：馒头对小麦粉品质的要求范围较大，从中筋到弱筋小麦品种都可以制作馒头；筋力愈高，面团的发酵时间愈长，馒头的弹性愈高；小麦品种小偃107制作的馒头色白，体积较大；小偃107的发酵面团在油炸过程中体积增加，有可能表现出吸油率低的特点。     

Determination of the absolute configurations of 4-mercapto-2-alkanones using the <Superscript>1</Superscript>H NMR anisotropy method and enzyme-catalyzed kinetic resolution of the corresponding 4-acetylthio-2-alkanones

To determine the capillary gas chromatographic (GC) elution order of the enantiomers of 4-mercapto-2-alkanones, racemic 4-acetylthio-2-alkanones were synthesized and hydrolyzed by lipases to get enantio-enriched 4-mercapto-2-alkanones that were resolved by capillary gas chromatography using a chiral stationary phase. The obtained enantio-enriched 4-mercapto-2-alkanones were esterified with (S)-2-methoxy-2-(1-naphthyl)propionic acid ((S)-MαNP acid), and the HPLC analysis of MαNP thioesters revealed the same isomeric ratios as the chiral GC analysis of the corresponding thiol enantiomers. The diastereoisomeric thioesters obtained were resolved by HPLC, and the absolute configurations were determined on the basis of ¹H NMR anisotropy effects. On the basis of these results, the GC elution order of the enantiomers of 4-mercapto-2-alkanones and of the corresponding 4-acetylthio-2-alkanones could be determined. The combination of enzymatic resolution and MαNP thioesterification proved to be a useful tool to determine the absolute configuration of secondary thiols.     

Non-uniformity issues and workarounds in bounded-size sampling

A variety of schemes have been proposed in the literature to speed up query processing and analytics by incrementally maintaining a bounded-size uniform sample from a dataset in the presence of a sequence of insertion, deletion, and update transactions. These algorithms vary according to whether the dataset is an ordinary set or a multiset and whether the transaction sequence consists only of insertions or can include deletions and updates. We report on subtle non-uniformity issues that we found in a number of these prior bounded-size sampling schemes, including some of our own. We provide workarounds that can avoid the non-uniformity problem; these workarounds are easy to implement and incur negligible additional cost. We also consider the impact of non-uniformity in practice and describe simple statistical tests that can help detect non-uniformity in new algorithms.     

Mikrostrukturielle Charakterisierung von ultra-hochfesten Schweißgütern

Welded steel structures are a crucial part of lightweight constructions in several industrial segments. The filler metal plays a vital role in optimizing the properties of welded joints. In this study different methods were used to characterize the microstructure of ultra-high strength all-weld metal samples with different chemical compositions. It was evaluated which method can be used to link the grain size of a sample to its toughness.     

Enhancement of limited water supply network data for deterioration modelling and determination of rehabilitation rate

In the past decades, the main focus of water supply management has moved from construction of new water supply networks to rehabilitation and adaptation of the existing infrastructure. The decision-making process for the rehabilitation management relies heavily on the quality of the applied deterioration model. A recurring problem in the application of such models relates to the quality and availability of network data. These data are often incomplete or unreliable because building measures and damages are only documented properly recently and the recovery of older data is difficult and expensive. A key point in rehabilitation planning is therefore data collection and data reconstruction. Consequently, the aim of this paper is to present a methodology for the enhancement of the available data of water supply networks and the prognosis of the necessary rehabilitation rates under limited data availability. Results indicate that the presented data reconstruction technique has advantages as compared to traditional data extrapolation. It also allows the reconstruction of fragmentary data about existing water supply and wastewater collection systems for the operating utilities. However, it cannot be used for reconstructing failure types as well as the whole information on pipes (e.g. more than two missing information).     

Damage phenomena in lubricated rolling-sliding wear of a gas carburised 0.85%Mo low-alloyed sintered steel: theoretical analysis and experimental verification

The resistance to surface and subsurface damage during lubricated rolling-sliding wear of a carburised low-alloy sintered steel and the effect of shot peening were investigated. The formation of both contact fatigue cracks and of brittle tensile cracks may be predicted by a theoretical model that was experimentally validated. Carburising is effective in increasing the resistance to contact fatigue, but pores in a hard and brittle matrix may act as pre-existing cracks. Shot peening increases the contact fatigue resistance since compressive residual stresses oppose the nucleation of surface cracks.