An Analytical Approach to Creating Multitouch Gesture Vocabularies in Mobile Devices: A Case Study for Mobile Web Browsing Gestures

This study proposes an analytical approach to the creation of multitouch control-gesture vocabularies applicable to mobile devices. The approach consists of four steps: (a) identifying target commands, (b) extracting gesture features of the target commands, (c) analyzing usage patterns based on elements that consist of multitouch gestures, and (d) creating gesture vocabularies based on the gesture features and elements. Usefulness and practicality of the proposed approach were validated in a case study. The case study created 11 mobile web browsing gestures to improve short-cut interactions. Six volunteers created gestures based on systematic procedures and practical methods. A total of 314 gestures were created in the case study, and the results were compared with those of a previous study that used an empirical approach to design control gestures. The proposed approach helped designers to create appropriate gestures for various commands on mobile devices. It was very practicable for all designers, including even novice users.     

Interaction of CETP inhibitory peptide and lipoprotein substrates in cholesteryl ester transfer assay: relationship between association properties and inhibitory activities

In a previous study, CETP inhibitory peptide (3 kDa) was isolated from hog plasma. The peptide, synthesized chemically according to the amino acid sequence of the 3-kDa peptide (designated P₂₈), showed CETP inhibitory activity both in vitro and in vivo [Cho et al. (1998) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1391, 133–144]. We report herein further unique features of P₂₈ when it was associated with the cholesteryl ester (CE)-donor and-acceptor lipoproteins. Lipoprotein substrates with P₂₈ present in both HDL (as a CE-donor) and LDL (as a CE-acceptor) served as poor substrates, with CE-transfer activity decreased up to 60% compared to normal substrates without P₂₈. P₂₈ was found to be located in HDL fractions of hog plasma and showed the same electromobility as that visualized by PAGE on 7% polyacrylamide gel under nondenaturing conditions. Addition of apolipoprotein A-1 (apoA-1) or apoB antibody to a normal CE-transfer mixture did not alter CE-transfer activity. However, addition of apoA-1 or −B antibody to a CETP-inhibition mixture decreased the inhibitory activity of P₂₈ by ca. 20%. Western blot analysis revealed that P₂₈ was associated only with human and hog HDL among several lipoproteins purified from human, hog, and rabbit. CFTP-inhibition assays with various lipoprotein substrates revealed that P₂₈ exhibited substrate-specific inhibitory activity. The inhibitory activity of P₂₈ was highly dependent on the type of lipoprotein substrate (whether CE-donor or-acceptor); P₂₈ inhibited CE transfer from HDL to LDL, but it did not inhibit CE transfer from HDL to HDL.     

Experiments of a prototype wind-driven reverse osmosis desalination system with feedback control

A prototype wind-powered reverse osmosis desalination system was constructed and tested on Coconut Island off the northern coast of Oahu, Hawaii, for brackish water desalination. The system has four major subsystems: a multi-vaned windmill/pump, a flow/pressure stabilizer, a reverse osmosis module, and a control mechanism. The feedback control mechanism, developed by this study, allowed this prototype system to be operated satisfactorily under mild ambient wind of 5 m/s or less. No auxiliary power source was needed. The system operational data showed that at an average wind speed of 5 m/s, brackish feedwater at a total dissolved solids concentration of 3000 mg/1 and at a flow rate of 13 1/min could be processed by this system. The average rejection rate of this prototype system was 97% and the average recovery ratio was 20%. The energy efficiency of the system was measured at 3 5%, which is comparable to the typical energy efficiency of well-operated multi-vaned windmills. Generally, the system's energy efficiency decreases as wind speed increases.     

Effects of rosemary extracts and major constituents on lipid oxidation and soybean lipoxygenase activity

Rosemary (Rosemarinus officinalis L.) leaves were extracted with three different solvents, namely hexane, acetone and methanol. A reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography system in combination with a mass detector was used to quantitate the content of carnosol, carnosic acid and ursolic acid in the rosemary extracts. All rosemary extracts showed strong inhibitory effects on lipid oxidation and soybean lipoxygenase activity.     

Dissipative structures of autocatalytic reactions in tubular flow reactors

Dissipative structures of autocatalytic reactions with initially uniform concentrations are studied in tubular flow reactors. A unique steady state exists in a continuous stirred tank reactor. Linear stability analysis predicts either a stable node, a focus or an unstable saddle-focus. Sustained oscillations around the unstable focus can occur for high values of Damköhler number. In distributed parameter systems, travelling, standing or complex oscillatory waves are detected. For low values of Damköhler number, travelling waves with pseudo-constant patterns are observed. With intermediate values of Damköhler number, single or multiple standing waves are obtained. The temporal behavior indicates also the appearance of retriggering or echo waves. For high values of Damköhler number, both single peak and complex multipeak oscillations are found. In the cell model, both regular oscillations near the inlet and chaotic behavior downstream are observed. In the dispersion model, higher Peclet numbers eliminate the oscillations. The spatial profile shows a train of pulsating waves for the discret model and a single pulsating or solitary wave for the continuous model.     

Fluidized bed combustion of high ash anthracite: Analysis of combustion efficiency and particle size distribution

Fluidized bed combustion of high ash anthracite (HAA) was experimentally studied. The combustor consists of 0.25 m ID bed, and auxiliary equipments for coal feeding, ash removal, lemperature control, etc. Experimental results elucidate main cause of fuel loss to be elutriation of fines (i.e., flyash) containing unburned carbon. However, detailed balances of particle size distribution show majority of carbon in flyash comes from fines contained in the feed instead of attrition of coarse particles. The latter is the main source of flyash for conventional coal. The difference is due to much smaller attrition rate of HAA; feed HAA particles do not shrink much in size by combustion and attrition.     

Effect of surface coating on the screw loosening of dental abutment screws

Regardless of the type of performed restoration, in most cases, a screw connection is employed between the abutment and implant. For this reason, implant screw loosening has remained a problem in restorative practices. The purpose of this study was to compare the surface of coated/plated screws with titanium and gold alloy screws and to evaluate the physical properties of coated/plated material after scratch tests via FE-SEM (field emission scanning electron microscopy) investigation. GoldTite, titanium screws provided by 3i (Implant Innovation, USA) and TorqTite, titanium screws by Steri-Oss (Nobel Biocare, USA) and gold screws and titanium screws by AVANA (Osstem Implant, Korea) were selected for this study. The surface, crest, and root of the abutment screws were observed by FE-SEM. A micro-diamond needle was also prepared for the scratch test. Each abutment screw was fixed, and a scratch on the surface of the head region was made at constant load and thereafter the fine trace was observed with FE-SEM. The surface of GoldTite was smoother than that of other screws and it also had abundant ductility and malleability compared with titanium and gold screws. The scratch tests also revealed that teflon particles were exfoliated easily in the screw coated with teflon. The titanium screw had rough surface and low ductility. The clinical use of gold-plated screws is recommended as a means of preventing screw loosening.     

An adaptive discrete-time ILC strategy using fuzzy systems for iteration-varying reference trajectory tracking

In this article, a novel fuzzy systems based on adaptive Iterative Learning Control (ILC) strategy is presented to deal with a class of non-parametric nonlinear discrete-time systems which perform iteration-varying reference trajectory tracking. Using the technique of fuzzy systems to compensate for the non-parametric uncertainty of the discrete-time system dynamics, the proposed adaptive ILC scheme can well track the iteration-varying reference trajectory beyond the initial time points. The convergence of the fuzzy systems based adaptive ILC algorithm is guaranteed by theoretical analysis, and a numerical example is given to illustrate the effectiveness of the adaptive ILC scheme.