Characterization of the 6'-N-aminoglycoside acetyltransferase gene aac(6')-Iq from the integron of a natural multiresistance plasmid

The nucleotide sequence of a newly identified amikacin resistance gene, aac(6')-Iq (551 bp), is reported. It has 68.4 and 94.4% homology with the aac(6')-Ia gene and the recently described aac(6')-Ip gene, respectively. Analysis of its flanking sequences indicated that it is in the first cassette of a class I integron and has an attC site (59-base element) 108 bp in length.     

Determination of fracture toughness parameter of quasi-brittle materials with laboratory-size specimens

An experimental technique based on four-point bend specimens has been developed for indirect determination of the tension-softening curve, which is suggested to be a sizeindependent fracture parameter for quasi-brittle materials. The technique was applied to fibrereinforced mortar. Good agreement between results from this indirect test and those from the direct tension test was obtained.     

An analysis of moving-bed flow of solids down standpipes and side valves

A method of analysing solids downflow through standpipe and slide valve in the moving bed mode is presented. The method is based on combining Yoon and Kunii equations for moving-bed flow with a proposed modified orifice equation for gas—solid flow. The analysis correctly predicts the observed trend of the effects of gas injection into the standpipe. It also provides quantitative prediction of the conditions for transition from moving-bed flow to dense phase fluidized solids flow and to lean phase “streaming flow”. The latter flow pattern refers to solids streaming down a tube at high voidage typified by the discharge of solid down a tube with no constriction at the lower end of the tube. Further work is required to test the general applicability of the present analysis and to extend the analysis to yield a generalized quantitative flow regime diagram for downflow of solids in a pipe.     

A one-shot bargaining strategy for dealing with multifarious opponents

Bargaining is an effective paradigm to solve the problem of resource allocation. The consideration of factors such as bounded rationality of negotiators, time constraints, incomplete information, and complexity of dynamic environment make the design of optimal strategy for one-shot bargaining much tougher than the situation that all bargainers are assumed to be absolutely rational. Lots of prediction-based strategies have been explored either based on assuming a finite number of models for opponents, or focusing on the prediction of opponent’s reserve price, deadline, or the probabilities of different behaviors. Following the methods of estimating opponent’s private information, this paper gives a strategy which improves the BLGAN strategy to adapt to various possible bargaining situations and deal with multifarious opponents. In addition, this paper compares the improved BLGAN strategy with related work. Experimental results show that the improved BLGAN strategy can outperform related ones when faced with various opponents, especially the agents who frequently change their strategies for anti-learning.     

Profiling selected paths with loops

Path profiling records the frequency of each path in an executed program.To accomplish profiling,probes are instrumented in the program and executed as the program runs.So,the number of probes has a significant impact on the efficiency of a profiling technique.By profiling only the interesting paths,existing techniques try to improve the profiling efficiency by reducing the number of probes and optimize path encodings for efficient storage.However,they lack accuracy,waste time on running uninteresting paths,and can mainly deal with acyclic paths.In this article,a novel technique called Profiling Selected Paths(PSP)is introduced to profile selected paths,which enables custom selection for both acyclic and cyclic paths and increases the execution efficiency by early termination on uninteresting paths.Theoretical analysis and experimental evaluation indicate that PSP performs better than existing techniques.     

Metalloorganic solution deposition of ferroelectric PZT films

The metallo-organic solution deposition (MOSD or sol-gel) technique can be used for preparing lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramics with a wide range of compositions and crystal structures for electrooptical applications. Film morphology is affected by the stoichiometry of the film, hydrolysis and polymerization of the sol-gel solution, and thermal treatment of the deposited material. The lattice parameter decreases with the amount of titanium in the PZT, in agreement with ceramic data. A slight initial excess of lead in the coating solution is found to improve film morphology. Unlike traditional powder ceramic processing techniques, MOSD permits the growth of small uniform grains that are conducive to achieving consistent electronic and optical properties. Results show that the properties of films prepared by the MOSD process can be tailored to meet the needs of device applications.     

Open-cell polyvinylidene fluoride foams as carriers to promote biofilm growth for biological wastewater treatment

This article reports the design and fabrication of open-cell polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) foams as carriers that can promote biofilm growth and organic removal efficiency for biological wastewater treatment in attached growth bioreactors. Open-cell PVDF foams were fabricated by a manufacturing approach that integrated compression molding and particulate leaching. PVDF carriers were structured with two governing factors of leaching agent types (e.g., sodium chloride [NaCl] and sodium acetate [NaOAc]) and contents (e.g., 80 and 90 wt%). Open-cell PVDF foams possessed high porosity and high protected surface area (i.e., more than ×10 to ×20 of the areas of commercialized carriers), which promoted biofilm growth in these carriers. As a successful advantage, PVDF carriers used in the moving bed biofilm reactors (MBBR) were entirely covered by biofilm in both interior and exterior parts without clogging. This provides strong evidence of the bacterial compatibility of the fabricated open-cell PVDF foam carriers. Moreover, the specific morphology of the PVDF carriers in this article provided superior biofilm protection from the detachment in MBBR. Experimental results revealed that PVDF open-cell foams fabricated by 80 wt% of NaCl demonstrated higher mechanical strength with an organic removal efficiency of 77% ± 7% in the corresponding bioreactor containing them.     

On Generalized Fuzzy Belief Functions in Infinite Spaces

Determined by a fuzzy implication operator, a general type of fuzzy belief structure and its induced dual pair of fuzzy belief and plausibility functions in infinite universes of discourse are first defined. Relationship between the belief-structure-based and the belief-space-based fuzzy Dempster-Shafer models is then established. It is shown that the lower and upper fuzzy probabilities induced by the fuzzy belief space yield a dual pair of fuzzy belief and plausibility functions. For any fuzzy belief structure, there must exist a fuzzy belief space such that the fuzzy belief and plausibility functions defined by the given fuzzy belief structure are just the lower and upper fuzzy probabilities induced by the fuzzy belief space, respectively. Essential properties of the fuzzy belief and plausibility functions are also examined. The fuzzy belief and plausibility functions are, respectively, a fuzzy monotone Choquet capacity and a fuzzy alternating Choquet capacity of infinite order.