Two-dimensional elastoplasticity: Approximation by mixed finite elements

Two-dimensional elastoplastic problems are used to assess the performance of a family of mixed finite elements in the non-linear regime. In particular, four-node bilinear quadrilateral elements that exhibit high accuracy in coarse meshes are used to simulate plane stress, plane strain, axisymmetric and (shear-deformable) plate bending problems. The excellent performance of these elements is demonstrated with a number of discriminating examples selected from the literature. In addition, agreement is observed in the limit load predicted by the axisymmetric solid and plate bending elements.     

Mass transfer and reaction kinetics in the ozone/tap water system

The mass transfer and the reaction kinetics of ozone in tap water were examined. The contacting system was a well-mixed reactor with perpendicular jets. The ozone residual range was the lowest detectable range. A simple mathematical model was proposed to describe the mechanism of the ozone in the reactor and was checked over the range of water flow rates from 2.170 to 3.080 l min⁻¹, gas flow rates from 0.667 to 1.333 l min⁻¹ and different temperature conditions. The proposed model describes quite accurately the mass-transfer behavior in the reactor and determines the operational parameters which control the reactor operation. There is a linear relationship between the ozone feed rate and ozone residual. Zero order kinetics best describe the autodecomposition of ozone in plain tap water. The mass transfer coefficient is about 1.14 min⁻¹. Without use of agitation, there is a large decrease in the value of the mass transfer coefficient, to about 0.250 min⁻¹. The magnitude of the reactor rate constant is between 0.05 and 0.13 mg min⁻¹ l.     

Self-stabilizing extensions for meassage-passing systems

Summary A self-stabilizing program eventually resumes normal behavior even if excution begins in, an abnormal initial state. In this paper, we explore the possibility of extending an arbitrary program into a self-stabilizing one. Our contributions are: (1) a formal definition of the concept of one program being aself-stabilizing extension of another; (2) a characterization of what properties may hold in such extensions; (3) a demonstration of the possibility of mechanically creating such extensions. The computtional model used is that of an asynchronous distributed message-passing system whose communication topology is an arbitrary graph. We contrast the difficulties of self-stabilization in thismodel with those of themore common shared-memory models. Shmuel Katz received his B.A. in Mathematics and Englisch Literature from U.C.L.A., and his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Computer Science (1976) from the Weizmann Institute in Rechovot, Israel. From 1976 to 1981 he was a research at the IBM Israel Scientific Center. Presently, he is an Associate Professor in the Computer Science Department at the Technion in Haifa, Israel. In 1977–78 he visited for a year at the University of California, Berkeley, and in 1984–85 was at the University of Texas at Austin. He has been a consultant and vistor at the MCC Software Technology Program, and in 1988–89 was a visiting scientist at the IBM Watson Research Center. His research interests include the methodology of programming, specification methods, program verification and semantics, distributed programming, data structure, and programming languages. Kenneth J. Pery has performed research in the area of distributed computing since obtaining Masters and Doctorate degrees in Computer Science from Cornell Univesity. His current interest is in studying problems of a partical nature in a formal context. He was graduated from Princeton University in 1979 with a B.S.E. degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.The Research of this author was partially supported by Research Grant 120-749 and the Argentinian Research Fund at the Technion     

FTIR Microscopic Studies on Normal, Polyp, and Malignant Human Colonic Tissues

Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) employs a unique approach tooptical diagnosis of tissue pathology based on the characteristic molecularvibrational spectra of the tissue. The biomolecular changes in the cellularand sub-cellular levels developing in abnormal tissue, including a majorityof cancer forms, manifest themselves in different optical signatures, whichcan be detected in infrared microspectroscopy. This report has two parts. Inthe first part, we report studies on normal, premalignant (polyp) andmalignant human colonic tissues from three patients with different stages ofmalignancy. Our method is based on microscopic infrared study (FTIR-microscopy)of thin tissue specimens and a direct comparison with traditional histopathologicalanalysis, which serves as a gold reference. The limited dataavailable showed normal colonic tissue has a stronger absorption thanpolypoid tumor and cancerous types over a wide region in a total of 100measurements. Detailed analysis showed that there is a significant decreasein total carbohydrate, phosphate and possibly creatine contents for polyp andcancerous tissue types in comparison to the controls. The same trend is maintainedin seven other patients studied. The second part consists of an analysis showingthe influence of various independent factors such as age, sex and grade of malignancy. Ourpreliminary results suggest that among the above three factors, age and gradeof malignancy have significant effect on the metabolites level, but sex has onlyminor effect on the measured spectra. Initial results on Linear DiscriminantAnalysis (LDA) showed good classification between normal and malignant cellsof human colonic tissues.     

SDS-PAGE under focusing conditions: an electrokinetic transport phenomenon based on charge compensation

A novel method is reported for mass separation of proteins, based on sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). Unlike conventional SDS-PAGE, in which separation by mass of SDS-laden polypeptide chains is obtained in constant concentration or porosity gradient gels, the present method, called "SDS-PAGE focusing", exploits a "steady-state" process by which the SDS-protein micelles are driven to stationary zones along the migration path against a gradient of positive charges affixed to the neutral polyacrylamide matrix. As the total negative surface charge of such complexes matches the surrounding charge density of the matrix, the SDS-protein complex stops migrating and remains stationary, as typical of steady-state separation techniques. As a result of this mechanism, the proteins are separated in an unorthodox way, with the smaller proteins/peptides staying closer to the application point and larger proteins migrating further down toward the anodic gel end. This results in a positive slope of the Mr vs migration plot, vs a negative slope in conventional SDS-PAGE. Moreover, such a plot is linear (by design), whereas in standard SDS-PAGE it is semi- or even double logarithmic. Particularly advantageous appears the ability of the present method to fine-tune the separation of small-size fragments and tryptic digests, where conventional SDS-PAGE usually fails. Additionally, by exploiting constant plateaus of charges, rather than gradients, it is possible to amplify the separation between species having closely spaced Mr values, down to a limit of approximately 150 Da. This increases the resolution by at least 1 order of magnitude as compared with standard SDS-PAGE, where for a proper separation of two adjacent species, an Mr increment of approximately 3000 Da is needed.     

Succession of hide–seek and pursuit–evasion at heterogeneous locations

Many interactions between searching agents and their elusive targets are composed of a succession of steps, whether in the context of immune systems, predation or counterterrorism. In the simplest case, a two-step process starts with a search-and-hide phase, also called a hide-and-seek phase, followed by a round of pursuit–escape. Our aim is to link these two processes, usually analysed separately and with different models, in a single game theory context. We define a matrix game in which a searcher looks at a fixed number of discrete locations only once each searching for a hider, which can escape with varying probabilities according to its location. The value of the game is the overall probability of capture after k looks. The optimal search and hide strategies are described. If a searcher looks only once into any of the locations, an optimal hider chooses it''s hiding place so as to make all locations equally attractive. This optimal strategy remains true as long as the number of looks is below an easily calculated threshold; however, above this threshold, the optimal position for the hider is where it has the highest probability of escaping once spotted.     

Toward Automatic Concurrent Debugging Via Minimal Program Mutant Generation with AspectJ

Debugging is one of the most time-consuming activities in program design. Work on automatic debugging has received a great deal of attention and there are a number of symposiums dedicated to this field. Automatic debugging is usually invoked when a test fails in one situation, but succeeds in another. For example, a test fails in one version of the program (or scheduler), but succeeds in another. Automatic debugging searches for the smallest difference that causes the failure. This is very useful when working to identify and fix the root cause of the bug.A new testing method instruments concurrent programs with schedule-modifying instructions to reveal concurrent bugs. This method is designed to increase the probability of concurrent bugs (such as races, deadlocks) appearing. This paper discusses integrating this new testing technology with automatic debugging. Instead of just showing that a bug exists, we can pinpoint its location by finding the minimal set of instrumentations that reveal the bug.In addition to explaining a methodology for this integration, we show an AspectJ-based implementation. We discuss the implementation in detail as it both demonstrates the advantage of the adaptability of open source tools and how our specific change can be used for other testing tools.     

Efficient elections in chordal ring networks

We study the message complexity of the problem of distributively electing a leader in chordal rings. Such networks consist of a basic ring with additional links, the extreme cases being the oriented ring and the complete graph with a full sense of direction. We present a general election algorithm for these networks, and prove its optimality. As a corollary, we show thatO(logn) chords at each processor suffice to obtain an algorithm that uses at mostO(n) messages; this improves and extends a previous work, where an algorithm, also usingO(n) messages, was suggested for the case where alln-1 chords exist (the oriented complete network).     

A parallel implementation of Flat Concurrent Prolog

Flat Concurrent Prolog is a simple, practical, concurrent programming language which has an efficient uniprocessor implementation. This paper describes an initial parallel implementation of the language; it consists of an interpreter implemented on an Intel iPSC Hypercube. The parallel execution of concurrent logic programming languages involves many nontrivial implementation problems. Some of these problems are well known and have been treated extensively in the literature. The most difficult task is to integrate problem solutions in a coherent and efficient manner. The algorithm presented has been useful in providing insights into the major problems and includes a number of novel ideas to simplify implementation. It does not attempt to solve all the problems involved but rather provides a workable basis for current and future research. The algorithm is under ongoing refinement, simplification and improvement.     

Multiway merge with constant delay in Concurrent Prolog

Multiway dynamic mergers with constant delay are an essential component of a parallel logic programming language. Previous attempts to defined efficient mergers have required complex optimising compilers and run-time support. This paper proposes a simple technique to implement mergers efficiently. The technique requires an additional data type and the definition of an operation on it. The operation allows multiple processes to access a stream without incurring the cost of searching for the end of stream. It is specified in Concurrent Prolog and is used to define multiple assignment variables using a monitor. The technique forms the basis for stream merging in Logix, a practical programming environment written in Flat Concurrent Prolog.