A connection between the Cantor–Bendixson derivative and the well-founded semantics of finite logic programs

Results of Schlipf (J Comput Syst Sci 51:64?C86, 1995) and Fitting (Theor Comput Sci 278:25?C51, 2001) show that the well-founded semantics of a finite predicate logic program can be quite complex. In this paper, we show that there is a close connection between the construction of the perfect kernel of a $\Pi^0_1$ class via the iteration of the Cantor?CBendixson derivative through the ordinals and the construction of the well-founded semantics for finite predicate logic programs via Van Gelder??s alternating fixpoint construction. This connection allows us to transfer known complexity results for the perfect kernel of $\Pi^0_1$ classes to give new complexity results for various questions about the well-founded semantics ${\mathit{wfs}}(P)$ of a finite predicate logic program P.     

The effect of hydrogen on the fracture toughness of alloy X-750

The effect of hydrogen on the fracture toughness behavior of a nickel-base superalloy, Alloy X-750, in the solutionized and aged condition was investigated. Notched bend specimens were tested to determine if the fracture process was stress or strain controlled. The fracture was observed to initiate at a distance between the location of maximum stress and maximum strain, suggesting that fracture required both a critical stress and strain. The effect of hydrogen was further investigated and modeled using fracture toughness testing and fractographic examination. The fracture toughness of the non-charged specimen was 147 . Charging with hydrogen decreased the fracture toughness, K _lc, to 52 at a rapid loading rate and further decreased the toughness to 42 for a slow loading rate. This is consistent with the rate-limiting step forthe embrittlement process being hydrogen diffusion. The fracture morphology for the hydrogen-charged specimens was intergranular ductile dimple, while the fracture morphology of noncharged specimens was a mixture of large transgranular dimples and fine intergranular dimples. The intergranular failure mechanism in Alloy X-750 was a microvoid initiation process at grain boundary carbides followed by void growth and coalescence. One role of hydrogen was to reduce the void initiation strain for the fine intergranular carbides. Hydrogen may have also increased the rate of void growth. The conditions ahead of a crack satisfy the critical stress criterion at a much lower applied stress intensity factor than for the critical fracture strain criterion. A model based on a critical fracture strain criterion is shown to predict the fracture behavior.     

NN-based Prediction Interval for Nonlinear Processes Controller

Neural networks (NNs) are extensively used in modelling, optimization, and control of nonlinear plants. NN-based inverse type point prediction models are commonly used for nonlinear process control. However, prediction errors (root mean square error (RMSE), mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) etc.) significantly increase in the presence of disturbances and uncertainties. In contrast to point forecast, prediction interval (PI)-based forecast bears extra information such as the prediction accuracy. The PI provides tighter upper and lower bounds with considering uncertainties due to the model mismatch and time dependent or time independent noises for a given confidence level. The use of PIs in the NN controller (NNC) as additional inputs can improve the controller performance. In the present work, the PIs are utilized in control applications, in particular PIs are integrated in the NN internal model-based control framework. A PI-based model that developed using lower upper bound estimation method (LUBE) is used as an online estimator of PIs for the proposed PI-based controller (PIC). PIs along with other inputs for a traditional NN are used to train the PIC to predict the control signal. The proposed controller is tested for two case studies. These include, a chemical reactor, which is a continuous stirred tank reactor (case 1) and a numerical nonlinear plant model (case 2). Simulation results reveal that the tracking performance of the proposed controller is superior to the traditional NNC in terms of setpoint tracking and disturbance rejections. More precisely, 36% and 15% improvements can be achieved using the proposed PIC over the NNC in terms of IAE for case 1 and case 2, respectively for setpoint tracking with step changes.

     

Ignitable Liquid Classification and Identification Using the Summed-Ion Mass Spectrum

Abstract

The mass spectra calculated by summing the intensities of each nominal mass over all chromatographic times, the summed ion spectra, were calculated for a set of 440 commercially available ignitable liquids that had been analyzed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. Each ignitable liquid is generally comprised of a mixture of chemicals, and the mixtures may be very complex in some cases, e.g., petroleum distillates, gasoline, etc. The summed ion spectra were evaluated to determine if they contained sufficient information content to allow their use for rapid and accurate identification of the ignitable liquid in a database or library. The summed ion nominal mass spectra were encoded in one bit per channel at 1% transition intensity and a set of 96,580 unique pairwise comparisons were made between spectra, resulting in an average of approximately 50 differing channels per comparison. A subset of 62 summed ion spectra were further compared by a similarity metric and found by cluster analysis to group closely along the ASTM ignitable liquid classification scheme. Receiver operator characteristic analysis of the use of the similarity index in combination with the summed ion spectra was shown to provide 99% probability of correct liquid identification and 95% probability of correct ASTM classification by primary and sub-class. Interlaboratory tests found 95% probability of correct liquid identification and 85% probability of correct ASTM classification at the primary class level. These results demonstrate the use of the summed ion spectrum as a first step in the rapid identification of an ignitable liquid by database or library searching.     

Arsenic speciation and identification of monomethylarsonous acid and monomethylthioarsonic acid in a complex matrix

Anion-exchange chromatography was utilized for speciation of arsenite (As(III)), arsenate (As(V)), dimethylarsinic acid (DMA(V)), monomethylarsonic acid (MMA(V)), monomethylarsonous acid (MMA(III)), and the new As species monomethylthioarsonic acid (MMTA), using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometric (ICPMS) detection. MMA(III) and MMTA were identified for the first time in freeze-dried carrot samples that were collected over 25 years ago as part of a joint U.S. EPA, U.S. FDA, and USDA study on trace elements in agricultural crops. The discovery of MMA(III) and MMTA in terrestrial foods necessitated the analytical characterization of synthetic standards of both species, which were used for standard addition in carrot extracts. The negative ion mode, high-resolution electrospray mass spectrometry (HR-ESI-MS) data produced molecular ions of m/z 122.9418 and 154.9152 for MMA(III) and MMTA, respectively. However, ESI-MS was not sensitive enough to directly identify MMA(III) and MMTA in the carrot extracts. Therefore, to further substantiate the identification of MMA(III) and MMTA, two additional separations using an Ion-120 column were developed using the more sensitive ICPMS detection. The first separation used 20 mM tetramethylammonium hydroxide at pH 12.2 with MMA(III) eluting in less than 7 min. In the second separation, MMTA eluted at 11.2 min by utilizing 40 mM ammonium carbonate at pH 9.0. Oxidation of MMA(III) and MMTA to MMA(V) with hydrogen peroxide was observed for standards and carrot extracts alike. Several samples of carrots collected from local markets in 2006 were also analyzed and found to contain low levels of inorganic arsenic species.     

Real-time detection and identification of aqueous chlorine transformation products using QTOF MS

A screening technique has been developed that allows the rapid, real-time detection and identification of major transformation products of organic contaminants during aqueous oxidation experiments. In this technique, a target contaminant is dissolved in buffered water and chlorinated by the addition of sodium hypochlorite to give a free chlorine residual of 3 mg/L. Solution from the reaction vessel is combined with methanol and pumped directly into the electrospray ionization source of a quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometer (QTOF MS). The real-time decay of the target contaminant and the formation/decay of transformation products are then monitored using the QTOF MS. Subsequently, accurate mass measurements with internal mass calibration (<5 ppm mass error) and product ion scans are employed to identify these transformation products. Unlike other techniques, it requires no liquid chromatography, derivatization, or quenching of residual chlorine, all of which can interfere with transformation product analysis. To validate the technique, aqueous chlorination experiments were performed on triclosan, a previously studied environmental contaminant. Earlier research showing that triclosan underwent chlorine addition to form mono- and dichlorinated transformation products was successfully reproduced, demonstrating the feasibility of the technique. In addition, the technique revealed the formation of a stable oxygen radical-containing transformation product resulting from the oxidation of either mono- or dichlorinated triclosan. This triclosan transformation product was determined to have an empirical formula of C12H4O3Cl4 with 3.9 ppm mass error. Furthermore, atorvastatin, a commonly prescribed medication and environmental contaminant, was subjected to aqueous chlorination and studied with the technique. Atorvastatin underwent hydroxylation to form two transformation products with the empirical formulas C33H34FN2O6 (1.8 ppm mass error) and C26H29O5NF (2.9 ppm mass error).     

Two-photon absorption and degenerate four-wave mixing studies of sulfide semiconductor nanoparticles in polymeric solutions

The two-photon absorption coefficients (beta) and the third-order nonlinear susceptibilities (chi(3)) of several semiconductor nanoparticles (CdS, Cd(x)Ag(1-x)S, and core-shell CdS/Ag2S) that are confined and stabilized by random and block ionomers have been measured by nonlinear transmission and degenerate four-wave mixing techniques using 21 picosecond laser pulses at near-infrared spectral region. The imaginary part of the third-order nonlinear susceptibility that is related to the two-photon absorption coefficient was then calculated. The absorptive nonlinearity of the nanoparticles (2 approximately 9 nm) was found to be dependent on the particle size, composition and wavelength, i.e., larger CdS particles exhibit higher two-photon absorption coefficients and the presence of Ag improves two-photon absorption of CdS nanoparticles. The obtained two-photon absorption coefficients of nanoparticles corrected for their volume fraction in solution are significantly greater that those of corresponding bulk semiconductors.     

Dynamic microcantilever sensors for discerning biomolecular interactions

Response of a conductive micromechanical cantilever placed in close proximity to a surface undergoing electrical excitation near the resonance frequency of the cantilever is influenced by the presence of microscopic dielectrics in the gap between the cantilever and the sample surface. The variations of the resonance response of unmodified cantilevers at gap distances below a few hundred nanometers are used to discern biomolecular differences of oligomeric nucleic acids in an array format without the use of extrinsic labels. The resonance response variation paves the way for the development of high throughput detection of biomolecular reactions, such as DNA hybridization reactions or antibody-antigen interactions without the use of external labels, in which the need is only to see the presence or absence of interaction. This dynamic method is simple, does not require immobilizing individual elements on a cantilever array, and is compatible with current generation DNA chips in which DNA spots are deposited in micro- and nanoarray format.     

The Random Members of a Π 1 0 ${\Pi }_{1}^{0}$ Class

Theory of Computing Systems - We examine several notions of randomness for elements in a given ${\Pi }_{1}^{0}$ class $\mathcal {P}$ . Such an effectively closed subset $\mathcal {P}$ of 2 ω...