pH sensitive phosphate crosslinked films of starch-carboxymethyl cellulose

This work aims to develop hydrogel films of starch and carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) crosslinked with sodium trimetaphosphate (STMP) and to characterize some of their properties. Starch and STMP (S/T), starch and CMC (S/C), and mixed (S/T/C) films were prepared by casting. The degree of substitution, morphology, swelling degree, FTIR, mechanical properties, and sorption isotherms were studied. Reticulated samples (S/T and S/T/C) showed the same degree of substitution (0.050 ± 0.001). All films presented homogeneous morphology, but the mixed film showed greater roughness. Crosslinking increased the swelling capacity of the mixed hydrogel at pH 7, although it remained decreased concerning the S/T hydrogel. However, this property was sensitive to pH variations. The mixed film (S/T/C) showed greater mechanical resistance. The casting process was efficient to produce hydrogel films of starch/CMC crosslinked with STMP and the general results demonstrated the advantages of the mixed hydrogel.     

Adaptive infill sampling criterion for multi-fidelity optimization based on Gappy-POD

This paper presents a reformulation of the “Gappy Proper Orthogonal Decomposition” (Gappy-POD) multi-fidelity modeling approach and proposes an enrichment criterion associated with an adaptive infill algorithm. The latter is here applied to the study of the flight domain of the RAE-2822 transonic airfoil at two different levels of accuracy to demonstrate its ability to detect areas in a two-dimensional design space where the surrogate model needs improvement to better drive the optimization process.     

Design and construction of an experimental pervious paved parking area to harvest reusable rainwater

Pervious pavements are sustainable urban drainage systems already known as rainwater infiltration techniques which reduce runoff formation and diffuse pollution in cities. The present research is focused on the design and construction of an experimental parking area, composed of 45 pervious pavement parking bays. Every pervious pavement was experimentally designed to store rainwater and measure the levels of the stored water and its quality over time. Six different pervious surfaces are combined with four different geotextiles in order to test which materials respond better to the good quality of rainwater storage over time and under the specific weather conditions of the north of Spain. The aim of this research was to obtain a good performance of pervious pavements that offered simultaneously a positive urban service and helped to harvest rainwater with a good quality to be used for non potable demands.     

Making a Clean Sweep of Cultural Heritage

Digitization brings about new ways of analyzing data from cultural heritage areas. Automatic error detection, as input to semiautomatic error correction, is one type of analysis that can be found high on the priority list of cultural heritage data managers and researchers. We describe a general approach to cleaning cultural heritage databases. We present four case studies on databases from different cultural heritage institutions, and describe an information system in which we embed our error detector in a larger framework, enabling researchers to access, check, and correct their data more easily than before.     

Electro-optic high-resolution Fabry-Perot spectrometer

A single-crystal lithium niobate dtalon suitable for high-spectral-resolution studies has been operated successfully. This étalon with a 5-cm clear diameter and a gap equivalent to 2 cm in air has been found to have very linear response in wave number as a function of voltage. The combined advantages of adjustment-free operation, linearity in operation, and high luminosity in a small size (as a result of the μ(2) gain in the instrumental throughput caused by the large index of refraction of the lithium niobate substrate) make for a rugged instrument that is ideal for long-term unattended field operation.     

Analyzing the metallurgical and cultural backgrounds of two Han-dynasty bronze-mirror fragments

Chinese TLV-bronze mirrors dating to the Han dynasty (206 B.C.-220 A.D.) were popular objects of everyday life as well as highly esteemed works of art. The decorated back of the mirror characterizes the culture of this period as well as the excellent early Chinese casting techniques.     

‘There was a lot of learning going on’ Using a digital medium to support learning in a professional course for new HE lecturers

This small scale action research study investigated the experiences of learners over two iterations as they completed a patchwork text assignment within the digital medium of a personal learning system (PLS). The aim was to investigate the extent to which using a PLS can facilitate formative and collaborative feedback to assist student learning. A secondary question, linked to the course being a post graduate Certificate for new HE teachers within a geographically dispersed university, was to examine if using a PLS in the programme would influence their interest in using it with their own students in the future. This question is of particular importance for the tutors of this programme, as the university attracts mainly part-time students who are studying at a distance from the university campus. The study was carried out as part of the JISC funded Flourish Project, whose overall aim was to examine the use of a PLS to support the development of academic staff.     

Improving the yield of NoC-based systems through fault diagnosis and adaptive routing

We propose an effective and low cost method to increase the yield and the lifetime of torus NoCs. The method consists in detecting and diagnosing NoC interconnect faults using BIST structures and activating alternative paths for the faulty links. Alternative paths use the inherent redundancy of the torus topology, thus leading to minimal performance, area, and power overhead. We assume an extended interconnect fault model comprising stuck-at and pairwise shorts within a single link or between any two links in the network. Experimental results for a 3×3 NoC show that the proposed approach can correctly diagnose 93% of all possible interconnect faults and can mitigate 42% of those faults (representing 94.4% of the solvable faults) with a worst case performance penalty of 8% and 1% of area overhead. We also demonstrate the scalability of the method by presenting its application to larger NoCs.     

Hybrid learning for interval type-2 fuzzy logic systems based on orthogonal least-squares and back-propagation methods

This paper presents a novel learning methodology based on a hybrid algorithm for interval type-2 fuzzy logic systems. Since only the back-propagation method has been proposed in the literature for the tuning of both the antecedent and the consequent parameters of type-2 fuzzy logic systems, a hybrid learning algorithm has been developed. The hybrid method uses a recursive orthogonal least-squares method for tuning the consequent parameters and the back-propagation method for tuning the antecedent parameters. Systems were tested for three types of inputs: (a) interval singleton, (b) interval type-1 non-singleton, and (c) interval type-2 non-singleton. Experiments were carried out on the application of hybrid interval type-2 fuzzy logic systems for prediction of the scale breaker entry temperature in a real hot strip mill for three different types of coil. The results proved the feasibility of the systems developed here for scale breaker entry temperature prediction. Comparison with type-1 fuzzy logic systems shows that hybrid learning interval type-2 fuzzy logic systems provide improved performance under the conditions tested.     

A comprehensive quality model for service-oriented systems

In a service-oriented system, a quality (or Quality of Service) model is used (i) by service requesters to specify the expected quality levels of service delivery; (ii) by service providers to advertise quality levels that their services achieve; and (iii) by service composers when selecting among alternative services those that are to participate in a service composition. Expressive quality models are needed to let requesters specify quality expectations, providers advertise service qualities, and composers finely compare alternative services. Having observed many similarities between various quality models proposed in the literature, we review these and integrate them into a single quality model, called QVDP. We highlight the need for integration of priority and dependency information within any quality model for services and propose precise submodels for doing so. Our intention is for the proposed model to serve as a reference point for further developments in quality models for service-oriented systems. To this aim, we extend the part of the UML metamodel specialized for Quality of Service with QVDP concepts unavailable in UML.