Exponential stability of impulsive stochastic fuzzy cellular neural networks with mixed delays and reaction–diffusion terms

The problem of mean square exponential stability for a class of impulsive stochastic fuzzy cellular neural networks with distributed delays and reaction–diffusion terms is investigated in this paper. By using the properties of M-cone, eigenspace of the spectral radius of nonnegative matrices, Lyapunov functional, Itô’s formula and inequality techniques, several new sufficient conditions guaranteeing the mean square exponential stability of its equilibrium solution are obtained. The derived results are less conservative than the results recently presented in Wang and Xu (Chaos Solitons Fractals 42:2713–2721, 2009), Zhang and Li (Stability analysis of impulsive stochastic fuzzy cellular neural networks with time varying delays and reaction–diffusion terms. World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology 2010), Huang (Chaos Solitons Fractals 31:658–664, 2007), and Wang (Chaos Solitons Fractals 38:878–885, 2008). In fact, the systems discussed in Wang and Xu (Chaos Solitons Fractals 42:2713–2721, 2009), Zhang and Li (Stability analysis of impulsive stochastic fuzzy cellular neural networks with time varying delays and reaction–diffusion terms. World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology 2010), Huang (Chaos Solitons Fractals 31:658–664, 2007), and Wang (Chaos Solitons Fractals 38:878–885, 2008) are special cases of ours. Two examples are presented to illustrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the results.     

A patterning technique of lead zirconate titanate thin film by ultraviolet-light

The patterning technique of Pb(Zr, Ti)O₃ (PZT) thin film is an essential process in device fabrication processes for application in microsensors and microactuators. In this paper, a novel pattern technique is proposed for PZT thin film by UV photolysis processes. PZT thin films were first spin coated on the substrate and exposed by UV light for photolysis step. The UV photolysis step defined exposed and unexposed area by mask, and the pattern will be transferred to PZT thin film. After photolysis, PZT films were placed in non-ionic surfactant to remove unexposed area. Finally, PZT films were sintered at 650 °C in the furnace for crystallization. Experimental results showed that remnant polarization of patterned PZT film by UV photolysis was 21.4 μc cm^?2, which was compared to 17.24 μc cm^?2 by hot plate prolysis. Coercive fields were 45 and 104 kV cm^?1 by UV photolysis and hot plate prolysis, respectively. Dielectric loss was 0.027 by UV photolysis which was much smaller than 0.043 by hot plate prolysis. PZT thin films patterned by UV photolysis showed satisfactory geometries.     

A multi-stage learning framework for intelligent system

As information technologies advance and user-friendly interfaces develop, the interaction between humans and computers, information devices, and new consumer electronics is increasingly gaining attention. One example that most people can relate to is Apple’s innovation in human–computer interaction which has been used on many products such as iPod and iPhone. Siri, the intelligent personal assistant, is a typical application of machine-learning human–computer interaction.Algorithms in machine learning have been employed in many disciplines, including gesture recognition, speaker recognition, and product recommendation systems. While the existing learning algorithms compute and learn from a large quantity of data, this study proposes an improved learning to rank algorithm named MultiStageBoost. In addition to ranking data through multiple stages, the MultiStageBoost algorithm significantly improves the existing algorithms in two ways. Firstly, it classifies and filters data to small quantities and applies the Boosting algorithm to achieve faster ranking performance. Secondly, it enhances the original binary classification by using the reciprocal of fuzzily weighted membership as the ranking distance.The importance of data is revealed in their ranked positions. Usually data ranked in the front are given more attention than those ranked in the middle. For example, after ranking 10,000 pieces of data, the top 10, or at most 100, are the most important and relevant. Whether the data after the top ones are ranked precisely does not really matter. Due to this reason, this study has made improvement on the conventional methods of the pair-wise ranking approach. Not only are data classified and ranked binarily, they are also given different weights depending on whether they are concordant or discordant. Incorporating the concept of weighting into the ranking distance allows us to increase the precision of ranking. Results from experiments demonstrate that our proposed algorithm outperforms the conventional methods in three evaluation measures: P@n, MAP, and NDCG. MultiStageBoost was then applied to speech recognition. However, we do not aim to improve the technology of speech recognition, but simply hope to provide evidences that MultiStageBoost can be used in the classification and ranking in speech recognition. Experiments show that the recognition optimization procedures established by this study are able to increase the recognition rate to over 95% in the personal computing device and industrial personal computer. It is expected that in the future this voice management system will accurately and effectively identify speakers answering the voice response questionnaire and will successfully carry out the functions in the choice of answers, paying the way for the formation of a virtual customer service person.     

The EPQ model under conditions of two levels of trade credit and limited storage capacity in supply chain management

An inventory problem involves a lot of factors influencing inventory decisions. To understand it, the traditional economic production quantity (EPQ) model plays rather important role for inventory analysis. Although the traditional EPQ models are still widely used in industry, practitioners frequently question validities of assumptions of these models such that their use encounters challenges and difficulties. So, this article tries to present a new inventory model by considering two levels of trade credit, finite replenishment rate and limited storage capacity together to relax the basic assumptions of the traditional EPQ model to improve the environment of the use of it. Keeping in mind cost-minimisation strategy, four easy-to-use theorems are developed to characterise the optimal solution. Finally, the sensitivity analyses are executed to investigate the effects of the various parameters on ordering policies and the annual total relevant costs of the inventory system.     

The frequency-domain analysis of discrete variable structure control and chattering-free criteria

Conventionally, the discrete variable structure control always suffers from the chattering phenomenon. Therefore, in this paper, we shall show that, for the discrete variable structure control, there always exist a limit cycle if the traditional nonlinearity of the sign function is used. This limit cycle behaviour is just the chattering phenomenon in the variable structure control theory. In particular, the frequency of this limit cycle is identical to the Nyquist frequency in the sampling theorem. In addition, a theorem related to the chattering-free design for the multiple-input multiple-output variable structure control is proposed. If the nonlinear function is memoryless and belongs to the sector [0,2), the chattering phenomenon can be eliminated. If the width of the boundary layer is enough, the reaching condition as well as chattering-free design can be attained; otherwise, it will result in the chattering phenomenon.     

Remote sensing of suspended sediment concentrations of large rivers using multi-temporal MODIS images: an example in the Middle and Lower Yangtze River,China

Conventional measurements of suspended sediment concentration (SSC) are expensive, especially for large river systems. This study aims to examine the potential of estimating SSC of large rivers using high temporal resolution Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data. In contrast to a small number of the samples used by previous studies on remote sensing of SSC, a large number of samples (n?=?153) obtained on 63 dates at five sites across the entire Middle and Lower Yangtze River were employed to investigate the relationship between SSC and the water reflectance of MODIS images. The water reflectance difference between Bands 2 and 5 provided a relatively accurate SSC estimate after atmospheric correction, with 25% mean absolute relative error and 29.7% relative root mean square error. The errors were lower for larger SSC values. Thus, there is a potential that the Terra MODIS could be employed to estimate SSC frequently for large turbid river systems.     

Photoreaction of gold ions from potassium gold cyanide wastewater using solution-combusted ZnO nanopowders

Photoreduction of gold ions from potassium gold cyanide wastewater was tried using the ZnO nanopowder which was synthesized by a unique solution combustion method (SCM). The SCM produced instantaneous high pressure and high temperature (1500–1800 °C) conditions which are desirable to obtain high quality ZnO nanopowders, even though it was not intentionally heated at higher than 100 °C during the synthesis reaction. The high crystalline quality of the ZnO nanopowder seemed to result in high efficiency of gold recovery compared to other commercial photocatalysts such as P-25 TiO₂ nanopowder (Degussa). The wastewater contains many kinds of ions such as K, P, Au, Na, Ni, Cu and Zn ions. Only the gold ions were selectively recovered out of these ions. The gold recovery efficiency of the SCM ZnO nanopowder was about 8.6 folds higher than that of the P-25 TiO₂ nanopowder. The very high selectivity of Au³⁺ ions could be explained by the reduction potential which is placed near the edge of valence band.     

Earthquake resistance of sandy soils

The need to have reliable foundations for potentially vulnerable installations like nuclear power stations has renewed interest in a particularly hazardous phenomenon of some earthquakes. This is when a saturated level sandy soil can behave almost like a liquid as a result of the severe ground motion. A new approach to determining this liquefaction potential, using cyclic strain-controlled tests, is presented in this article from the USA.     

Damage monitoring of cement paste by electrical resistance measurement

Electrical resistance measurement is effective for monitoring damage (due to damage infliction and subsequent microcrack opening) and healing (due to microcrack closing) of cement pastes (plain, with silica-fume, and with latex) in real time during repeated compressive loading. Damage causes the resistance to increase; healing causes the resistance to decrease.