Modeling of Temperature–Frequency Correlation Using Combined Principal Component Analysis and Support Vector Regression Technique

A good understanding of environmental effects on structural modal properties is essential for reliable performance of vibration-based damage diagnosis methods. In this paper, a method of combining principal component analysis (PCA) and support vector regression (SVR) technique is proposed for modeling temperature-caused variability of modal frequencies for structures instrumented with long-term monitoring systems. PCA is first applied to extract principal components from the measured temperatures for dimensionality reduction. The predominant feature vectors in conjunction with the measured modal frequencies are then fed into a support vector algorithm to formulate regression models that may take into account thermal inertia effect. The research is focused on proper selection of the hyperparameters to obtain SVR models with good generalization performance. A grid search method with cross validation and a heuristic method are utilized for determining the optimal values of SVR hyperparameters. The proposed method is compared with the method directly using measurement data to train SVR models and the multivariate linear regression (MLR) method through the use of long-term measurement data from a cable-stayed bridge. It is shown that PCA-compressed features make the training and validation of SVR models more efficient in both model accuracy and computational costs, and the formulated SVR model performs much better than the MLR model in generalization performance. When continuously measured data is available, the SVR model formulated taking into account thermal inertia effect can achieve more accurate prediction than that without considering thermal inertia effect.     

Reliability Analysis of Single-Degree-of-Freedom Elastoplastic Systems. II: Suboptimal Excitations

A method for constructing an approximation of the critical excitation that drives an elastoplastic system from rest to a target threshold at a specified time instant, referred to as the “suboptimal excitation,” is presented in this paper. It is based on the observations gained from study of the critical excitations in the companion paper. Essentially, for the usual case of interest where the failure time is not small compared to the natural period, the duration of the positive and negative pulses of the critical excitation are roughly equal to half of the natural period. This consideration allows for a simple intuitive approximation of the critical excitation. The amplitudes of the positive and negative pulses are obtained in closed forms using energy balance. Numerical investigations show that the critical excitations are well approximated by the suboptimal excitations.     

Free-Edge and Ply Cracking Effect in Angle-Ply Laminated Composites Subjected to In-Plane Loads

This paper presents a semianalytical method for the prediction of interlaminar stresses and displacements near the free edges and ply cracks in general angle-ply laminates subjected to biaxial extensions and/or in plane shear deformation. The method is based on a state space representation of the three-dimensional equations of elasticity. Numerical solutions are obtained by using layer refinement in the through thickness direction and Fourier series expansion in the other directions. By this approach, an angle-ply laminate may be composed of an arbitrary number of monoclinic layers and each layer may have different material property and thickness. This method guarantees continuous fields of all interlaminar stresses across interfaces between material layers. Numerical results are compared with those obtained from other methods. It is found that the theory provides a satisfactory approximation to the stress singularities near the free edges and ply cracks. Numerical solutions for antisymmetric laminates under extension and general laminates under shearing are new in the literature and can be used as benchmarks for validating new models.     

Variation de la plombemie en fonction de la contamination par le plomb de l'eau livree a la consommation: Variation of the blood lead level as a result of lead contamination of the subjects drinking water

The combination of the chemical aggressivity of water and lead piping, as is well known, can cause severe cases of lead poisoning in those who consume such water. After a great number of observations and epidemiological studies which have strongly incriminated this metal in a wide range of pathologic conditions, other materials have been gradually substituted for lead; however, the problem remains.In compliance with a European Directive to survey the risk of lead poisoning (Council Directive, 1977), a random sample of 321 residents was selected from the Vosgian Mountains of France. This region is noted for its high incidence of cases of lead poisoning: 150 reported during 8 months in 1983 (Barbier et al., 1983).During the course of a health evaluation, a blood sample was taken from each subject for lead analysis. At the same time, a sample of tap-water (after running for 5 s) was taken from each subject home. Both lead analyses (blood and water) were performed by electrothermal atomization-atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Because of the log-normality of the distributions of the blood lead levels and the concentrations of lead in the drinking water, a logarithmic transformation was performed so that the results are expressed as the geometric mean, which for the amount of lead in the drinking water of our sample was found to be 0.16 mg l^?1.Among the subjects of this study, 28% are served by water containing more than 0.10 mg l^?1 of lead (the standard for France) and 48% by water containing more than 0.05 mg l^?1 (the European and WHO standard). In concurrence with numerous authors, our study indicates that, among our subjects, the blood lead level is much higher in men than in women (geometric means 22.9 and 15.0 μg dl^?1 respectively); this difference is highly significant (t-test:P < 0.001). Table 1 summarizes the results, by sex, obtained in this region compared with those from a study (Huel, 1982) concerning an urban French population whose geometric mean blood lead levels were 15.9 μg dl^?1 for men and 11.4 μg dl^?1 for women. The irrespective of sex, is highly significant (P < 0.001). Table 2 shows the significance of the relation between these subjects, high blood lead levels and the concentration of lead in their drinking water, while Fig. 1 shows that for contamination levels up to 0.02 mg l^?1 of lead in water, the blood lead level remains relatively stable, while above this apparent “threshold” value, the blood lead level begins to increase finally reaching quite high values in response to high contamination levels, suggesting a direct translation of increases in the water above the 0.02 mg l^?1 level to increases in the blood.     

Peripheral nerve injury as a complication from orthopedic operation

We report a case of pulmonary carcinosarcoma. Surgery is required for this rare mixed type, biphasic tumor. It is generally considered to be a malignant formation issuing from a single cell line but with a two-way differentiation into epithelial and conjunctive components. There is a differentiation continuum between spindle-cell carcinomas (also called monophasic sarcomatoid carcinoma) and carcinosarcoma (or biphasic sarcomatoid carcinoma) leading to debate concerning the immunohistochemical and ultrastructural features.     

The new parameters of motor unit potential in the diagnosis of neurogenic lesions in spike-triggered averaging electromyography

The chronic Pseudomonas aeruginosa lung infection in cystic fibrosis (CF) is characterized by a pronounced antibody response and microcolonies surrounded by numerous polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN). Poor prognosis is correlated with a high antibody response to P. aeruginosa antigens. An animal model of this infection was established in two strains of mice: C3H/HeN and BALB/c, generally known as Th1 and Th2 responders, respectively, which were challenged with alginate-embedded P. aeruginosa. Mortality was significantly lower in C3H/HeN compared to BALB/c mice (p < 0.025). P. aeruginosa was cleared more efficiently in C3H/HeN mice and significantly more C3H/HeN mice showed normal lung histopathology (p < 0.02), and we found significantly fewer microabscesses in C3H/HeN mice than in BALB/c mice (p < 0.005). In supernatants from P. aeruginosa antigen and concanavalin A-stimulated spleen cells from the two strains of mice, the interferon-(IFN-) gamma levels were higher, whereas IL-4 levels were lower in C3H/HeN mice than in BALB/c mice. The implications of these findings for CF patients with chronic P. aeruginosa lung infection are discussed.