Using symmetries in the eigenvalue method for polynomial systems

One way of solving polynomial systems of equations is by computing a Gröbner basis, setting up an eigenvalue problem and then computing the eigenvalues numerically. This so-called eigenvalue method is an excellent bridge between symbolic and numeric computation, enabling the solution of larger systems than with purely symbolic methods. We investigate the case that the system of polynomial equations has symmetries. For systems with symmetry, some matrices in the eigenvalue method turn out to have special structure. The exploitation of this special structure is the aim of this paper. For theoretical development we make use of SAGBI bases of invariant rings. Examples from applications illustrate our new approach.     

Epoxidized natural rubber/dicarboxylic acid self-vulcanized blends

Curing behaviour as well as mechanical properties of binary blends of epoxidized natural rubber (ENR) and dodecanedioic acid (DA) were investigated for development of self-vulcanizable elastomer blends. Cross-linking reaction at 180 °C of reactive functional rubber containing 25 and 10 mol% epoxide groups was followed by rheology. The properties of the cured materials were studied by dynamic mechanical analysis, stress-strain experiments, and DSC measurements. It was shown that a specific ratio ENR/DA gave rise to optimum mechanical properties. This ratio decreases together with the epoxidation level of the rubber. DSC measurements revealed that the glass transition temperature of the cured material increases nonlinearly at high concentrations of cross-linking agent. By comparing cross-linking with DA and reaction with monofunctional lauric acid, this behaviour was attributed to polar interactions due to free carboxylic groups of pending diacid grafts.     

Non-linear optical and electrical properties of ZnO doped Ni Thin Films obtained using spray ultrasonic technique

In the present study zinc oxide doped Nickel thin films (ZnO:Ni) were deposited on glass substrates using a chemical spray ultrasonic technique. The effect of Ni concentration on the structural, electrical, optical, and non-linear optical (NLO) properties of the ZnO:Ni thin films was investigated. The films were analyzed using X-ray diffraction (XRD), profilometry and optical transmittance. A polycrystalline structure with a preferential growth along the ZnO (002) plane was found, the optical transmittance was found to be higher than 80% and the band gap (E_g) varied from 3.19 to 3.27 eV. The value of the electrical conductivity was found. Moreover, the effective non-linear quadratic and cubic electronic susceptibilities of thin film samples were determined by the SHG and THG techniques, working at 1064 nm.     

Head of the line arbitration of packet switches with combined input and output queueing

A single-stage non-blocking N × N packet switch is considered. Data units may be stored before switching at the inputs as well as after switching at the outputs. Some output buffering capacity is intended to achieve high throughput, whereas an additional input buffering capacity keeps losses due to input-buffer overflow reasonably low. The paper studies the impact on performance of the head of the line arbitration policy, i.e. the sequence which is used to transfer data units from the heads of input queues to each output queue. The investigation is based on two performance measures: the average delay and the maximum throughput of the switch. Closed-form expressions for the FCFS, LCFS and the ROS policies are obtained. The result of the average delay with the FCFS policy leads to a lower bound, and that with the LCFS policy to an upper bound for the average delay, corresponding to an arbitrary symmetric policy which does not use information related to the state of the input queues. It is shown that the maximum throughput does not depend on the head of the line arbitration policy. It depends only on the output-buffer size and the packet-size distribution. The cases of fixed and exponentially distributed packet sizes are studied. The effects of asymmetric policies which result in different behaviours of some of the input queues is also considered.     

Industrial espionage

The rapid developments in micro-electronics technology have opened the way to an unprecedented increase in commercial and industrial espionage. Electronic devices are capable of eavesdropping on private conversation between people and people, people and computers, computer and computer. These devices are hard to detect thus resulting in an invasion of privacy and the theft of priviledged information.It is widely recognized that information is a resource with economic value. Information processing crimes highlight the need to accept the existence of these crimes, to analyze the risks, and to apply the techniques and technology available to combat industrial/commercial espionage and computer crime.     

EGF and EGF-r immunoexpression in Sj?gren's syndrome secondary to rheumatoid arthritis. Correlation with EBV expression?

Minor labial salivary gland biopsies from 25 patients with secondary Sj?gren's syndrome (SS) suffering from rheumatoid arthritis and from 11 patients complaining of ocular dryness associated with rheumatoid arthritis without proven SS, were studied for the immunohistochemical expression of Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF) and its receptor (EGF-r). Minor labial salivary glands from 11 healthy individuals were used as the control. Furthermore, the results were correlated with data retrieved from a previous study on EBV expression by the in situ hybridization method in the same specimens. In 16/25 cases of secondary SS the epithelial duct cells expressed both EGF and EGF-r, particularly in the areas of lymphoepithelial lesion and tissue destruction. Eleven of these cases expressed a positive EBV hybridization signal. In contrast, only 3/11 patients with ocular dryness and 2/11 cases from the group of healthy individuals showed immunoreactivity for EGF/EGF-r. A positive EBV signal was detected in 3/11 and 1/11 of these cases, respectively. These results indicate that EGF and EGF-r may play a crucial role in the evolution of the disease under the constant influence of EBV, which seems to up-regulate the expression of the EGF/EGF-r system.     

Power Efficient Video Multipath Transmission over Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks

This paper proposes a power efficient multipath video packet scheduling scheme for minimum video distortion transmission (optimised Video QoS) over wireless multimedia sensor networks. The transmission of video packets over multiple paths in a wireless sensor network improves the aggregate data rate of the network and minimizes the traffic load handled by each node. However, due to the lossy behavior of the wireless channel the aggregate transmission rate cannot always support the requested video source data rate. In such cases a packet scheduling algorithm is applied that can selectively drop combinations of video packets prior to transmission to adapt the source requirements to the channel capacity. The scheduling algorithm selects the less important video packets to drop using a recursive distortion prediction model. This model predicts accurately the resulting video distortion in case of isolated errors, burst of errors and errors separated by a lag. Two scheduling algorithms are proposed in this paper. The Baseline scheme is a simplified scheduler that can only decide upon which packet can be dropped prior to transmission based on the packet’s impact on the video distortion. This algorithm is compared against the Power aware packet scheduling that is an extension of the Baseline capable of estimating the power that will be consumed by each node in every available path depending on its traffic load, during the transmission. The proposed Power aware packet scheduling is able to identify the available paths connecting the video source to the receiver and schedule the packet transmission among the selected paths according to the perceived video QoS (Peak Signal to Noise Ratio—PSNR) and the energy efficiency of the participating wireless video sensor nodes, by dropping packets if necessary based on the distortion prediction model. The simulation results indicate that the proposed Power aware video packet scheduling can achieve energy efficiency in the wireless multimedia sensor network by minimizing the power dissipation across all nodes, while the perceived video quality is kept to very high levels even at extreme network conditions (many sensor nodes dropped due to power consumption and high background noise in the channel).     

Gradient-based Pareto front approximation applied to turbomachinery shape optimization

Engineering with Computers - Multi-objective optimization has been rising in popularity, especially within an industrial environment, where several cost functions often need to be considered during...     

A parametric investigation on seat/occupant contact forces and their relationship with initially perceived discomfort using a configurable seat

The present work investigates the contact forces between sitters and seat as well as their correlations with perceived discomfort. Twelve different economy class aeroplane seat configurations were simulated using a multi-adjustable experimental seat by varying seat pan and backrest angles, as well as seat pan compressed surface. Eighteen males and 18 females, selected by their body mass index and stature, tested these configurations for two sitting postures. Perceived discomfort was significantly affected by seat parameters and posture and correlated both with normal force distribution on the seat-pan surface and with normal forces at the lumbar and head supports. Lower discomfort ratings were obtained for more evenly distributed normal forces on the seat pan. Shear force at the seat pan surface was at its lowest when sitters were allowed to self-select their seat-pan angle, supporting that a shear force should be reduced but not zeroed to improve seating comfort.

Practitioner Summary: The effects of seat-pan and backrest angle, anthropometric dimensions and sitting posture on contact forces and perceived discomfort were investigated using a multi-adjustable experimental seat. In addition to preferred seat profile parameters, the present work provides quantitative guidelines on contact force requirement for improving seating comfort.