Characterization of Jatropha curcas oils and their derived fatty acid ethyl esters obtained from two different plantations in Cuba

The scope of this work is to evaluate some properties of the oils and derived fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEE) from two different Jatropha Curcas species planted in Cuba. The properties that were determined include the acid value, peroxide value, p-anisidine value and fatty acid ethyl esters composition. In order to study the influence of the genus species and geographic conditions on the fuel properties, the oils from Jatropha Curcas planted in two regions of Cuba and their derived FAEE were analyzed and compared. The two plantations were in San José (SJ) and Guantanamo (Gt) representing respectively the western and eastern part of the island.The analyses indicated that the FAEE obtained from Guantanamo has a higher acid value and peroxide value compared with the FAEE from San José. The p-anisidine values did not show a clear trend and the results of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry indicated a similar FAEE composition. The results obtained by gas chromatography are in good agreements with previous reports.     

基于谐波的乐纹提取和音乐检索

提出了一种基于节拍内音乐谐波特性的乐纹特征提取方法,首先求得每帧音乐的谐波信息,再利用跟踪得到的节拍,计算节拍内所有帧的谐波信息的均值,构成此节拍的乐纹特征矩阵。为了提高音乐检索的效率,设计了一个二级音乐检索算法：根据节拍信息,将与查询音乐片段的每分钟节拍数相近的音乐作为候选音乐,再逐节拍计算所查询音乐的乐纹和候选音乐乐纹的相似度,选择相似度最高的音乐作为检索结果。实验结果表明,提出的乐纹特征和音乐检索算法有效地提高了检索准确率和检索效率。     

Multi-objective optimal control of an air-to-water heat pump for residential heating

The current study investigates the optimal operation of an air-to-water heat pump system. To this end, the control problem is formulated as a classic optimal control or dynamic optimization problem. As conflicting objectives arise, namely, minimizing energy cost while maximizing thermal comfort, the optimization problem is tackled from a multi-objective optimization perspective. The adopted system model incorporates the building dynamics and the heat pump characteristics. Because of the state-dependency of the coefficient of performance (COP), the optimal control problem (OCP) is nonlinear. If the COP is approximated by a constant value, the OCP becomes convex, which is easier to solve. The current study investigates how this approximation affects the control performance. The optimal control problems are solved using the freely available Automatic Control And Dynamic Optimization toolkit ACADO. It is found that the lower the weighting factor for thermal discomfort is, the higher the discrepancy is between the nonlinear and convex OCP formulations. For a weighting factor resulting in a quadratic mean difference of 0.5°C between the zone temperature and its reference temperature, the difference in electricity cost amounts to 4% for a first scenario with fixed electricity price, and up to 6% for a second scenario with a day and night variation in electricity price.     

Local heat flux measurements in a hydrogen and methane spark ignition engine with a thermopile sensor

This paper describes an experimental investigation of heat transfer inside a CFR spark ignition engine operated at a constant engine speed of 600 rpm. The heat flux is directly measured under motored and fired conditions with a commercially available thermopile sensor. The heat transfer during hydrogen and methane combustion is compared examining the effects of the compression ratio, ignition timing and mixture richness. Less cyclic and spatial variation in the heat flux traces are observed when burning hydrogen, which can be correlated to the faster burn rate. The peak heat flux increases with the compression ratio, but the total cycle heat loss can decrease due to less heat transfer at the end of the expansion stroke. An advanced spark timing and increased mixture richness cause an increased and advanced peak in the heat flux trace. Hydrogen combustion gives a heat flux peak which is three times as high as the one of methane for the same engine power output.     

Surface plasmon resonance evaluation of various aminoglycoside-RNA hairpin interactions reveals low degree of selectivity

Aminoglycoside antibiotics, which are able to selectively bind to RNA, are considered to be an important lead in RNA-targeting drug discovery. In this study, surface plasmon resonance (SPR) was employed to explore the interaction of aminoglycosides with known tobramycin-binding RNA hairpins (aptamers) and an unrelated RNA hairpin. It was established that aminoglycosides have multiple interactions with RNA hairpins. Unexpectedly, the different hairpins showed comparable affinity for a set of related aminoglycosides. The observed absence of selectivity presents an extra hurdle in the discovery of novel aminoglycosides as specific drugs that target defined RNA hairpins.     

Activity-based probes for the study of proteases: recent advances and developments

Proteases are important targets for the treatment of human disease. Several protease inhibitors have failed in clinical trials due to a lack of in vivo specificity, indicating the need for studies of protease function and inhibition in complex, disease-related models. The tight post-translational regulation of protease activity complicates protease analysis by traditional proteomics methods. Activity-based protein profiling is a powerful technique that can resolve this issue. It uses small-molecule tools-activity-based probes-to label and analyze active enzymes in lysates, cells, and whole animals. Over the last twelve years, a wide variety of protease activity-based probes have been developed. These synthetic efforts have enabled techniques ranging from real-time in vivo imaging of protease activity to high-throughput screening of uncharacterized proteases. This Review introduces the general principles of activity-based protein profiling and describes the recent advancements in probe design and analysis techniques, which have increased the knowledge of protease biology and will aid future protease drug discovery.     

Review of Semantic-Free Utterances in Social Human–Robot Interaction

As a young and emerging field in social human–robot interaction (HRI), semantic-free utterances (SFUs) research has been receiving attention over the last decade. SFUs are an auditory interaction means for machines that allow emotion and intent expression, which are composed of vocalizations and sounds without semantic content or language dependence. Currently, SFUs are most commonly utilized in animation movies (e.g., R2-D2, WALL-E, Despicable Me), cartoons (e.g., “Teletubbies,” “Morph,” “La Linea”), and computer games (e.g., The Sims) and hold significant potential for applications in HRI. SFUs are categorized under four general types: Gibberish Speech (GS), Non-Linguistic Utterances (NLUs), Musical Utterances (MU), and Paralinguistic Utterances (PU). By introducing the concept of SFUs and bringing multiple sets of studies in social HRI that have never been analyzed jointly before, this article addresses the need for a comprehensive study of the existing literature for SFUs. It outlines the current grand challenges, open questions, and provides guidelines for future researchers considering to utilize SFU in social HRI.     

一种用于说话人头部动画的Viseme语音识别系统

Viseme是在语音驱动说话人头部动画中一种常用的为口形建立的音频-视频模型。本文尝试建立viseme隐马尔可夫模型(HMM),用于驱动说话人头部的语音识别系统,称为前映射系统。为了得到更精确的模型以提高识别率,引入考虑发音口形上下文的Triseme模型。但是引入Triseme模型后,随着模型数量的急剧增加将导致训练数据的严重不足。本文使用决策树状态捆绑方法来缓解这一问题,同时引入了一种以口形相似度为基础的决策树视频问题设计方法。为了比较viseme系统的性能,本文也建立了一个以phoneme为基本HMM模型的语音识别系统。在评价准则上,使用了一种客观评价说话人头部动画的加权识别率。实验表明,以viseme为基本HMM模型的前映射系统可以为说话人头部提供更加合理的口形。     

4-Oxo-β-Lactams as Novel Inhibitors for Rhomboid Proteases

Intramembrane serine proteases (rhomboid proteases) are involved in a variety of biological processes and are implicated in several diseases. Here, we report 4-oxo-β-lactams as a novel scaffold for inhibition of rhomboids. We show that they covalently react with the active site and that the covalent bond is sufficiently stable for detection of the covalent rhomboid-lactam complex. 4-Oxo-β-lactams may therefore find future use as both inhibitors and activity-based probes for rhomboid proteases.     

A quasi-dimensional model for the power cycle of a hydrogen-fuelled ICE

There is a growing body of literature as well as increased demonstration of advanced hydrogen-fuelled internal combustion engines. These engines offer the potential of high power output, outperforming gasoline engines; high efficiency, approaching or bettering diesel engines; and very low emissions well within the most strict emission standards.