On the forced vibration of the fiber partially immersed in fluid

In this paper an experimental and theoretical investigation of the forced vibration of a partially immersed fiber has been carried out. An optical method utilizing a forward light scattering pattern has been used to detect a small (<1.0 μm) vibration amplitude of the fiber. The physical and mathematical model of the partially immersed fiber vibration has been put forward. Based on an analytical solution of the model, natural frequencies of the partially immersed fiber vibration have been found; they are consecutive positive roots of the transcendental equation. An “effective” speed of the wave propagation over the fiber has been introduced, which allows one to find the physical meaning of normal modes of the partially immersed fiber vibration. Theoretical predictions agree well with experimental data. The sensor exhibits an excellent sensitivity and could be used for measuring physical properties of fluids and liquid level.     

From MPEG-7 user interaction tools to hanging basket models: bridging the gap

The content–user gap is the difference between the limited range of content-relevant preferences that may be expressed using the MPEG-7 user interaction tools and the much wider range of metadata that may be represented using the MPEG-7 content tools. One approach for closing this gap is to make the user and content metadata isomorphic by using the existing MPEG-7 content tools to represent user (as well as content) metadata (Agius and Angelides 2006, 2007). Subsequently, user preferences may be specified for all content, without omission. Since there is a wealth of user preference and history metadata within the MPEG-7 user interaction tools that can usefully complement these specific content preferences, in this paper we develop a method by which all user and content metadata may be bridged.

Actual daily dietary intake of selenium in Belgium, using duplicate portion sampling

The dietary selenium (Se) intake in Belgium has been re-evaluated. Duplicate meal collection, wet acid destruction and flow injection hydride generation atomic absorption spectrometry were used as techniques. The daily intake ranged from 28.4 g (Liège, Walloon part of the country) to 61.1 g (Vilvoorde, central part of the country). Compared with intakes recently published for other countries, the actual Belgian value corresponds to intermediate ranges of Se intake.

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Die aktuelle tägliche Selen-Aufnahme durch die Nahrung in Belgien, bestimmt durch doppelte Probenahme

Zusammenfassung Die Selen-Aufnahme durch die Nahrung in Belgien wurde neu bestimmt. Als Technik diente die doppelte Probenahme von Mahlzeiten, deren nasser Aufschluß und die Fließ-Injektions AAS mit Hydridgeneration. Die tägliche Aufnahme schwankt zwischen 28,4 und 61, 1 g. Im Vergleich zu Daten, die neuerdings aus anderen Ländern publiziert wurden, liegen die derzeitigen Werte aus Belgien im Mittelbereich.

     

Nano-Engineered Carbon Fibre-Based Piezoelectric Smart Composites for Energy Harvesting and Self-Powered Sensing

The integration of piezoelectric materials onto carbon fiber (CF) can add energy harvesting and self-power sensing capabilities enabling great potential for “Internet of Things” (IoT) applications in motion tracking, environmental sensing, and personal portable electronics. Herein, a CF-based smart composite is developed by integrating piezoelectric poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT)/CuSCN-coated ZnO nanorods onto the CF surfaces with no detrimental effect on the mechanical properties of the composite, forming composites using two different polymer matrices: highly flexible polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and more rigid epoxy. The PDMS-coated piezoelectric smart composite can serve as an energy harvester and a self-powered sensor for detecting variations in impact acceleration with increasing output voltage from 1.4 to 7.6 V under impact acceleration from 0.1 to 0.4 m s⁻². Using epoxy as the matrix for a CF-reinforced plastic (CFRP) device with sensing and detection functions produces a voltage varying from 0.27 to 3.53 V when impacted at acceleration from 0.1 to 0.4 m s⁻², with a lower output compared to the PDMS-coated device attributed to the greater stiffness of the matrix. Finally, spatially sensitive detection is demonstrated by positioning two piezoelectric structures at different locations, which can identify the location as well as the level of the impacting force from the fabricated device.     

Learning parities in the mistake-bound model

We study the problem of learning parity functions that depend on at most k variables (k-parities) attribute-efficiently in the mistake-bound model. We design a simple, deterministic, polynomial-time algorithm for learning k-parities with mistake bound . This is the first polynomial-time algorithm to learn ω(1)-parities in the mistake-bound model with mistake bound o(n).Using the standard conversion techniques from the mistake-bound model to the PAC model, our algorithm can also be used for learning k-parities in the PAC model. In particular, this implies a slight improvement over the results of Klivans and Servedio (2004) [1] for learning k-parities in the PAC model.We also show that the time algorithm from Klivans and Servedio (2004) [1] that PAC-learns k-parities with sample complexity can be extended to the mistake-bound model.     

Sparse CCA using a Lasso with positivity constraints

Canonical correlation analysis (CCA) describes the relationship between two sets of variables by finding linear combinations of the variables with maximal correlation. A sparse version of CCA is proposed that reduces the chance of including unimportant variables in the canonical variates and thus improves their interpretation. A version of the Lasso algorithm incorporating positivity constraints is implemented in tandem with alternating least squares (ALS), to obtain sparse canonical variates. The proposed method is demonstrated on simulation studies and a data set from market basket analysis.     

Deciding k-Colorability of P 5-Free Graphs in Polynomial Time

The problem of computing the chromatic number of a P ₅-free graph (a graph which contains no path on 5 vertices as an induced subgraph) is known to be NP-hard. However, we show that for every fixed integer k, there exists a polynomial-time algorithm determining whether or not a P ₅-free graph admits a k-coloring, and finding one, if it does.