Open annotations on multimedia Web resources

Many Web portals allow users to associate additional information with existing multimedia resources such as images, audio, and video. However, these portals are usually closed systems and user-generated annotations are almost always kept locked up and remain inaccessible to the Web of Data. We believe that an important step to take is the integration of multimedia annotations and the Linked Data principles. We present the current state of the Open Annotation Model, explain our design rationale, and describe how the model can represent user annotations on multimedia Web resources. Applying this model in Web portals and devices, which support user annotations, should allow clients to easily publish and consume, thus exchange annotations on multimedia Web resources via common Web standards.     

Struktur und eigenschaften von ABS-polymeren. IX. Quantitative untersuchungen zur morphologie von ABS-polymerisaten

The technological properties of ABS polymers largely depend on the structure of the elastomer phase as well as on the elastomer/thermoplast interface. The morphological structure of such polymers can be determined from electron micrographs of ultramicrotome sections – after selective contrasting of the polybutadiene phase – or of replicas of fracture surfaces after selective chemical degradation. The various ABS polymers are classified by their manufacturing processes and their morphologies and characterized by electron micrographs. The degree and place of grafting are of particular importance. The quantitative determination of the surface- and internal grafting is achieved by combining the determination of the degree of grafting (extraction), the evaluation of the results obtained on particle counting, and a morphometric process. It is demonstrated that the morphometric process can in general be applied for the quantitative determination of the contrastable component in two-phase polymers.     

Lifetime assessment of epoxies by the kinetics of thermal degradation

The kinetics of thermal degradation of 4,4′‐diaminodiphenylsulfone (DDS)‐cured glycidylethers (DGBA) and glycidylamines (TGDDM) have been studied by isothermal annealing. Thermal degradation proceeds via first‐order kinetics with activation energies of 138 (DGBA/DDS) and 95 kJ/mol (TGDDM/DDS). From these data the temperature‐dependent lifetime can be calculated. Based on the heat distortion temperature and 20 years' service as criteria, the upper service temperature is found to be around 115–120°C. In spite of the different activation energies and bond stabilities, only marginal differences in the upper allowed service temperatures between these resins were found. Only slight improvements can be expected by optimizing the cure conditions. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 91: 1881–1886, 2004     

Organolithium route to poly(arylsilane)s

Various poly(arylsilane)s The poly(carbosilane)s prepared in this way are of higher molecular weight than when prepared by the Wurtz-type condensation route previously reported. TG shows 40–50% overll weight loss attained at 500–600°C.     

β-Carotene transport in human lipoproteins. Comparisons with a-tocopherol

The purpose of this study was to investigate the temporal relationships of the transport of β-carotene in human lipoproteins. We administered 60 mg β-carotene with breakfast to nine fasting subjects, then blood samples were collected at intervals of up to 75 h, lipoproteins were isolated, and β-carotene was quantitated. β-Carotene concentrations in chylomicrons and very low density lipoproteins (VLDL) peaked at 6 and 9 h, respectively. Nonetheless, at all time points the majority of plasma β-carotene was contained in low density lipoproteins (LDL), while high density lipoproteins (HDL) carried a smaller portion (at 24 h, 73±8% in LDL as compared with 23±5% in HDL). In three subjects, transport of β-carotene was compred with the results of earlier studies on the transport of stereoisomers of α-tocopherol. Unlike plasmaRRR-α-tocopherol concentrations, which are maintained by the preferential incorporation ofRRR-α-tocopherol into VLDL by the liver, β-carotene increased and decreased in VLDL similarly toSRR-α-tocopherol, a stereoisomer whose concentrations are not maintained in plasma. In conclusion, β-carotene is primarily transported in the plasma in LDL, but its incorporation by the liver into lipoproteins does not appear to be enhanced.     

Gewinnung von Brennstoff für Kraftwerke aus Klärschlamm

Production of a combustible for coal-fired power stations based on sewage sludge . This article describes various means of achieving more extensive mechanical dewatering of sewage sludges. The heat content of the sludge solids can become available for combustion processes. The sludge filter cakes obtained by the “CarboSed” process can be disposed of with minimum energy consumption by fluidized bed combustion or be used after appropriate work-up as a combustible in coal-fired power stations with full exploitation of their heat content for generation of steam and electric current. Partial substitution of primary energy sources such as coal and fuel oil by sludge filter cake is feasible in all cases. The processes thus make a contribution to the saving of energy resources and the disposal of sludge.     

A relational–XML data warehouse for data aggregation with SQL and XQuery

Integrating information from multiple data sources is becoming increasingly important for enterprises that partner with other companies for e‐commerce. However, companies have their internal business applications deployed on diverse platforms and no standard solution for integrating information from these sources exists. To support business intelligence query activities, it is useful to build a data warehouse on top of middleware that aggregates the data obtained from various heterogeneous database systems. Online analytical processing (OLAP) can then be used to provide fast access to materialized views from the data warehouse. Since extensible markup language (XML) documents are a common data representation standard on the Internet and relational tables are commonly used for production data, OLAP must handle both relational and XML data. SQL and XQuery can be used to process the materialized relational and XML data cubes created from the aggregated data. This paper shows how to handle the two kinds of data cubes from a relational–XML data warehouse using extract, transformation and loading. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Zeolite based trace humidity sensor for high temperature applications in hydrogen atmosphere

We present a humidity sensor based on H-ZSM-5 type zeolite that is suitable to detect traces of humidity (10–110 ppm_V) under harsh conditions, e.g. reducing atmosphere (H₂) and high temperature (up to 600 °C). By means of complex impedance spectroscopy (IS) we show that the zeolite sensor responds linearly towards minimal changes in humidity. Therefore this result indicates that the zeolite sensor is capable to detect traces of humidity in processes where high temperatures in a hydrogen environment are required.     

Financial time-series analysis with rough sets

We investigate the use of the rough set model for financial time-series data analysis and forecasting. The rough set model is an emerging technique for dealing with vagueness and uncertainty in data. It has many advantages over other techniques, such as fuzzy sets and neural networks, including attribute reduction and variable partitioning of data. These characteristics can be very useful for improving the quality of results from data analysis. We demonstrate a rough set data analysis model for the discovery of decision rules from time series data for example, the New Zealand stock exchanges. Rules are generated through reducts and can be used for future prediction. A unique ranking system for the decision rules based both on strength of the rule and stability of the rule is used in this study. The ranking system gives the user confidence regarding their market decisions. Our experiment results indicate that the forecasting of future stock index values using rough sets obtains decision ruleswith high accuracy and coverage.