Replacement of beef fat in Frankfurters by interesterified palm,cottonseed and olive oils

Three interesterified vegetable oils (IVOs) prepared from palm, cottonseed, and olive oil, respectively, have been studied for application to Frankfurters. Beef fat (10%) was replaced by one of the IVOs at 20, 60 or 100%. Fatty acid composition of the lipid fraction in the Frankfurters and saturated/unsaturated ratios were established for all batches. We found that total or partial replacement of beef fat by IVOs did not lead to significant changes in appearance, colour, texture, flavour or sensory score. We conclude that IVOs may be successfully applied as beef fat substitutes in Frankfurters.     

Classification of hand postures against complex backgrounds using elastic graph matching

A system for person-independent classification of hand postures against complex backgrounds in video images is presented. The system employs elastic graph matching, which has already been successfully applied for object and face recognition. We use the bunch graph technique to model variance in hand posture appearance between different subjects and variance in backgrounds. Our system does not need a separate segmentation stage but closely integrates finding the object boundaries with posture classification.     

The organisational learning effects of management accounting information under advanced manufacturing technology

This study empirically examined the organisational learning effects of the nonfinancial performance information provided by management accounting information systems (MAISs) under advanced manufacturing technology (AMT). In this study, a target costing system and the frequent and quick reporting of information were considered the facilitators of learning. First, we examined the relationships between AMT level and the amount of nonfinancial performance information produced by MAISs. The empirical results showed that there are significant positive relationships between the level of AMT and nonfinancial performance information. With a systems approach, we also proved the impact of the relationships among AMT levels, nonfinancial performance information and learning facilitators on the organisational performance of a firm. The results of our research suggest that under a high level of AMT, for the provision of information to result in an increase of performance through organisational learning, a target costing system must be introduced and a large amount of information should be provided frequently and quickly. The results of this study also showed that although AMT level may be low, fairly well-arranged facilitators and a moderately large amount of information may be necessary for the improvement of performance. In conclusion, effective organisational learning depends on the provision of relevant information as well as efficient learning support mechanisms.     

Quantum and Classical Correlations of Spatial and Spin Degrees of Freedom in Quantum Rings

A one-dimensional mesoscopic ring with one input and two output leads acts as a spintronic beam splitter. The spatial degree of freedom, i.e., the presence of two different possible output channels, gets intertwined with the spin direction as a consequence of quantum interference and spin-orbit interaction. We investigate this kind of spatial-spin correlation, and show that the output density operator contains no quantum entanglement in the important special case when the device polarizes a perfectly random input spin state. However, the correlations are in general not purely classical, we also present specific input states with maximal spatial-spin entanglement after the ring.     

Automatic conversion from lexical words to prosodic words for mandarin text-to-speech system

In real speech, not like lexical words (LWs), prosodic words (PWs) are basic rhythmic units. The naturalness of a Text-to-Speech (TTS) system is directly influenced by the segmentation of the PWs. Most of the PWs are the combination of several LWs. In this paper, three Lexical Combination Models are proposed to combine LWs into PWs, including a Directed Acyclic Graph Model, a Segmentation Model and a Markov Model (MM). To cope with the situation where some long LWs should be segmented into two or more PWs, a Lexical Split Model (LSM) is applied to the long LWs. Experimental results prove that relatively constant results with various training data can be obtained from a MM. The Transformation-Based Error Driven Learning (TBED) algorithm, for its high performance of individual property, is applied in combination with the MM to improve the precision of PW segmentation. Experiments show that among the three proposed models, the MM combined with TBED and LSM, leads to the best performance, in which a precision of 93.00% and a recall of 93.23% are achieved. The perception test indicates that by using PWs as the lowest prosodic units a speech sounds more natural and acceptable than by using LWs. This paper is supported by NSFC Project (60503071); 973 Natural Basic Research Program of China (2004CB318102); Postdoctor Science Foundation of P. R. China (20070420275).     

A Constraint-based Approach for Annotating Music Scores with Gestural Information

The physical gestures that operate music instruments are responsible for the qualities of the sound being produced in a performance. Gestural information is thereby crucial for a model of music performance, paired with a model of sound synthesis where this information is applied. The highly constrained nature of performers gestures makes this task suitable to be modeled via a constraint-based approach, coupled with a strategy aimed at maximizing the gestural comfort of performers. We illustrate the problem representation, the search strategy and a validation of the model against human performance.     

Multibody simulation tool for the calculation of lashing loads on RoRo ships

Approximately 80% of the international transport of goods is carried on by means of ships. A large portion of the transport capacity is represented by Roll-on-Roll-off (RoRo) ships. Especially in Europe this is a relevant potential for the RoRo segment. Consequently, the design and construction of RoRo ships plays an increasing role for German shipyards and their suppliers. In order to make the loading and unloading procedure of trailer economically more competitive, ship owners would like to improve the lashing of trailers on the ship. On the basis of a multibody system formalism, a software tool has been developed which allows for an optimization of the loading of trailers on RoRo ships. Commemorative Contribution.     

Formulation for Reliable Analysis of Structural Frames

Structural engineers use design codes formulated to consider uncertainty for both reinforced concrete and structural steel design. For a simple one-bay structural steel frame, we survey typical uncertainties and compute an interval solution for displacements and forces. The naive solutions have large over-estimations, so we explore the Mullen-Muhanna assembly strategy, scaling, and constraint propagation to achieve tight enclosures of the true ranges for displacements and forces in a fraction of the CPU time typically used for simulations. That we compute tight enclosures, even for large parameter uncertainties used in practice, suggests the promise of interval methods for much larger structures.