Kinematic process and mechanism of the two slope failures at Baige Village in the upper reaches of the Jinsha River,China

Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment - On Oct. 10 and Nov. 3, 2018, two landslides, i.e., the “10.10” and “11.3” rockslides, occurred successively at Baige...     

Effect of simulated acidic and salty fermentation conditions on kinetic growth parameters and probiotic potential of Lactobacillus acidipiscis and Lactobacillus pentosus

The technological stress during food processing may alter the beneficial interactions of food-associated Lactobacillus on the host. The effect of initial combined acidic (pH 5.0) and osmotic stress (NaCl 5 %, w/v with or without CaCl₂ 0.02 %, w/v) typically present in vegetable fermentations and cheesemaking were investigated. The growth kinetics prediction, hydrophobicity, auto-aggregation, in vitro survival and adhesion were determined in Lactobacillus acidipiscis and Lactobacillus pentosus isolated from a Mexican salty cheese. The growth was modelled with the modified Gompertz equation (R > 0.99; RMSE < 0.01). The lag phase increased (>10 h), and auto-aggregation was reduced. Hydrophobicity and S-layer total proteins varied. Gut survival reduced >4 log 10 units compared to the initial intake. Nevertheless, adhesion remained the same. Hence, combined stress affected the technological and physiological properties of both strains negatively. Further research is needed to identify the effect of the combined stress on the potential bioactivity of the strains.     

The effects of laser patterning 10CeTZP-Al2O3 nanocomposite disc surfaces: Osseous differentiation and cellular arrangement in vitro

Customized square grid arrangements of different groove depths (1.0, 1.5 and 3.0?µm) and separations (10 and 30?µm) were successfully laser patterned, using a nanosecond pulsed fibre laser, on the surface of 10?mol% ceria-stabilized zirconia and alumina (10CeTZP-Al₂O₃) nanocomposite discs (diameter: 10?mm; thickness: 1.5?mm). The patterned surfaces and the in vitro biological response of osteoblasts (SAOS-2) towards them were thoroughly analysed. In terms of composition, the laser treatment was found to cause superficial monoclinic-tetragonal zirconia phase transformation and alumina evaporation. In vitro, the most effective grid configuration for osseous differentiation was found to be 1.5?µm groove depth and 10?µm groove separation, and confocal microscopy revealed that the cells show a tendency to be sorted as groove depth increases. It is thought that custom-made patterns could be produced to guide cell attachment in vivo, which could favour implant integration and reduce healing time.     

Hindi CCGbank: A CCG treebank from the Hindi dependency treebank

In this paper, we present an approach for automatically creating a combinatory categorial grammar (CCG) treebank from a dependency treebank for the subject–object–verb language Hindi. Rather than a direct conversion from dependency trees to CCG trees, we propose a two stage approach: a language independent generic algorithm first extracts a CCG lexicon from the dependency treebank. An exhaustive CCG parser then creates a treebank of CCG derivations. We also discuss special cases of this generic algorithm to handle linguistic phenomena specific to Hindi. In doing so we extract different constructions with long-range dependencies like coordinate constructions and non-projective dependencies resulting from constructions like relative clauses, noun elaboration and verbal modifiers.     

PERFORMANCE OF A MYOPIC LOT SIZE POLICY WITH LEARNING IN SETUPS

We consider the problem of lot sizing when learning results in decreasing setup costs. Finding optimal lot sizes requires information about future setup costs and also the horizon length, which can be difficult to forecast. We analyze an intuitively appealing and well known myopic policy (Part Period Balancing). This policy sets the current lot size such that the current setup cost equals the holding cost for the current lot. It is easy to implement and does not require information on future setup costs. It is shown that the number of setups in the myopic policy is at most one greater than the optimal number of setups. Using this bound, we show that the myopic policy costs no more than 6/(3 + min(l, 1.5R)) times the optimal cost, where R is the ratio of the minimum setup cost to the initial setup cost. Computational experiments show that its average performance is good even for horizons as short as eight times the initial reorder interval. Further, our study shows that the average performance improves with R.     

Optimum size of base load generators for growing demand

The price per unit generated electrical energy decreases with increasing size of the generator, which implies longer transmission line and hence larger transmission losses. Considering both these facts the optimum size of thermal power station for growing demand has been obtained by using life-cycle costing analysis. The demand may be met by (1) a combination of base load and peak load generators (Sodha and Chandra, 1992) and (2) by a combination of base load generators only. The second option has been analysed in this paper. The dependence of investment ratio (the ratio of present worth of net income to the capital investment) on relevant parameters has been studied. It is seen that there exists a particular pattern (optimum combination) of base load generators. The effect of electricity price, coal price and escalation rates on the optimum configuration has also been investigated. The cost data from recent study in India have been used.     

Biomaterials in the reconstruction of the human middle ear

The use of biomaterials for reconstruction of the ossicular chain in middle ear involves a different approach from that associated with other regions of the organism. The features of the implantation site and the composition of the prosthesis are responsible for functional failures that result from deterioration or extrusion of the implant. Since the fifties, different types of materials, both biological and synthetic, have been employed in the attempt to achieve the ideal middle ear prosthesis. We present a reprospective study of 166 patients who underwent ossicular chain reconstruction involving autografts and homografts of cartilage or auditory ossicle (n=104) or synthetic prostheses (n=62). We compare prostheses of different compositions on the basis of the cases of extrusion and the histological deterioration encountered with each. In our experience, polymers are associated with frequent extrusion and deterioration of the biomaterial, while the results are better with biological implants and those made of hydroxyapatite.     

Audio visual interaction in multimedia

Audio-visual interaction is a very important issue in personal communication applications. The research and development of multimedia communication systems should account for this interaction. In this paper, we address a number of areas related to audio-visual interaction, such as automatic lipreading, speech-driven talking heads, and lip synchronization. In particular, we will discuss a new trend in video coding research: joint audio-video coding. Given that mouth movements are very difficult to code because of its rapid, complex, and non-rigid motion (so conventional block-based motion-compensation methods fail), we will explain how having extra help from the acoustic signal can enable us to code the mouth movements more efficiently