Generating Rare Association Rules Using the Minimal Rare Itemsets Family

Rare association rules correspond to rare, or infrequent, itemsets, as opposed to frequent ones that are targeted by conventional pattern miners. Rare rules reflect regularities of local, rather than global, scope that can nevertheless provide valuable insights to an expert, especially in areas such as genetics and medical diagnosis where some specific deviations/illnesses occur only in a small number of cases. The work presented here is motivated by the long-standing open question of efficiently mining strong rare rules, i.e., rules with high confidence and low support. We also propose an efficient solution for finding the set of minimal rare itemsets. This set serves as a basis for generating rare association rules.     

Grain velocity distribution in a mixed flow dryer

For corn drying one of the most popular possibilities in Europe is to use a mixed flow dryer. Large differences in the vertical grain particle velocity in this type of dryers are causing differences in the residence time. Hence, uneven drying occurs causing under-drying or over-drying of grain portions. To investigate the influences of the dryer walls and the air ducts on the particle velocity distribution experiments have been carried out in industrial and laboratory sized dryers and the measurements were compared with discrete element models. The particle flow velocity distribution between the air ducts is modelled analytically based on arching hypothesis. Using discrete element models the effects of different possible constructional modifications causing more even vertical grain particle velocity distribution were analyzed.     

Breed-Specific Detection of Mangalica Meat in Food Products

A fast and reliable diagnostic system has been developed for the detection of Mangalica meat in foods. This qualitative test is based on a recombinase polymerase amplification which can be performed on the field, in situ, where it may be necessary to determine Mangalica content in food products at once. The required equipments for the procedure are pipettes, a portable homogenizer and a portable thermostat. DNA amplification is carried out at a constant temperature, and the detection is based on antibody reaction. The detection limit is one copy of the target sequence in 1 μl reaction volume. The test can be used for uncovering falsification of local brands on the spot within a very short (25–45 min) period of time. The present approach can be adopted for the detection of other food ingredients, if the species-specific target DNA sequence is known, e.g. in case of chicken, turkey, horse, and cattle.     

Application of In Situ Neutron and X-Ray Measurements at High Temperatures in the Development of Co-Re-Based Alloys for Gas Turbines

Co-Re alloy development is prompted by the search for new materials for future gas turbines which can be used at temperatures considerably higher than the current day single crystal Ni-based superalloys. The Co-Re-based alloys have been designed to have very high melting range, and they are meant for application at +373 K (+100 °C) above Ni-superalloys. They are significantly different from the conventional Co-based alloys that are used in static components of today??s gas turbines, and the Co-Re alloys have never been used for structural applications before. The Co-Re-Cr system has complex microstructure with many different phases present. Phase transformations and stabilities of fine strengthening precipitates at high temperatures remain mostly unexplored in the Co-Re alloys, and to develop basic understanding, model ternary and quaternary compositions were studied within the alloy development program. In situ neutron and synchrotron measurements at high temperatures were extensively used for this purpose, and some recent results from the in situ measurements are presented. In particular, the effect of boron doping in Co-Re alloys and the stabilities of the fine TaC precipitates at high temperatures were investigated. A fine dispersion of TaC precipitates strengthens some Co-Re alloys, and their stabilities at the application temperatures are critical. In the beginning, the alloy development strategy is very briefly discussed.     

Densification and structural change of mechanically alloyed W-Cu composites

Fine-grained, high-density (97+ pct of theoretical density (TD)), 80W-20Cu wt pct (58W-42Cu at. pct) composites have been prepared using nonconventional alloying techniques. The W and Cu precursor powders were combined by a high-energy ball-milling procedure in air or hexane. The mechanically alloyed W+Cu powder mixtures were then cold pressed into green compacts and sintered at 1523 K. The milling medium and milling time were varied to increase product densities with a concomitant order-of-magnitude decrease in grain size. For densification, air was found to be a more effective medium than hexane. From microhardness measurements, it was concluded that the W-Cu alloys were dispersion and solution hardened, but were sensitive to entrapped residual impurities. X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and scanning electron micros-copy (SEM) analyses were used to demonstrate that the as-milled and sintered W-Cu alloy structures were metastable, decomposing into the starting W and Cu components upon heating at or above 723 K.     

Current and voltage based bit errors and their combined mitigation for the Kirchhoff-law–Johnson-noise secure key exchange

We classify and analyze bit errors in the current measurement mode of the Kirchhoff-law–Johnson-noise (KLJN) key distribution. The error probability decays exponentially with increasing bit exchange period and fixed bandwidth, which is similar to the error probability decay in the voltage measurement mode. We also analyze the combination of voltage and current modes for error removal. In this combination method, the error probability is still an exponential function that decays with the duration of the bit exchange period, but it has superior fidelity to the former schemes.     

Second allogeneic bone marrow transplantation in acute leukemia: a multicenter study from the Gruppo Italiano Trapianto Di Midollo Osseo (GITMO)

Thirty-eight second allogeneic bone marrow transplants (BMT) for acute leukemia relapsed after first BMT were performed in 13 Italian centers between 1987 and 1994. Twenty-one patients had acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), 17 acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL); at second BMT 24 patients were in complete remission (CR) and 14 in relapse. The median time to relapse after first BMT was 10 months (range 1-70). Grade II or greater acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) after second transplant occurred in 34.2% of patients and a chronic GVHD in 31.5% of patients. Twenty-four patients died: seven from early transplant-related mortality (TRM), 13 from relapse and four from late toxicity. As of 31 July 1996, at a median follow-up of 47 months (range 22-85), there are 14 survivors. The three-year probability of TRM, relapse and event-free survival (EFS) is 28%, 40% and 42% respectively. In 20 of 27 evaluable patients, remission duration after second BMT was longer than after the first BMT. A diagnosis of AML was correlated with a better outcome. These data support the usefulness of second allograft in selected patients with AML relapsing after a first BMT.     

Determination of stoichiometric association constants by a non-iterative computational method

Computational methods for the estimation of stoichiometric association constants for multiple-ligand binding systems are currently based on non-linear least-squares regression analysis. These computational methods require sophisticated, iterative algorithms to assure convergence to a solution, as well as initial parameter and error estimates. A simple procedure, called lambda-invariance testing (LIT), was developed that provides a single-pass (non-iterative) estimation of stoichiometric association constants. The LIT method was applied to simulated binding data containing Gaussian error and to real data drawn from the literature. This method provided parameter estimates essentially equivalent to those obtained by least-squares regression analysis, with no initial parameter or error estimates required.