Cracking Go

Many of the early computer-chess researchers hailed from the fields of psychology or artificial intelligence and believed that chess programs should mimic human thinking. Specifically, they wanted computers to examine only playing sequences that were meaningful according to some human reasoning process. In computer chess this policy, known as selective search, never really made progress. The reason is that humans are extremely good at recognizing patterns; it is one of the things that we do best. The article focuses on weiqi, an ancient Chinese board game, better known in the West by the Japanese name of Go, whose combinatorial complexity is many orders of magnitude greater than that of chess. Go is played on a board crisscrossed by 19 vertical and 19 horizontal lines whose 361 points of intersection constitute the playing field. The object is to conquer those intersection points.     

Application of SVR,Taguchi loss function,and the artificial bee colony algorithm to resolve multiresponse parameter design problems: a case study on optimizing the design of a TIR lens

Multiresponse parameter design problems have become increasingly important and have received considerable attention from both researchers and practitioners since there are usually several quality characteristics that must be optimized simultaneously in most modern products/processes. This study applies support vector regression (SVR), Taguchi loss function, and the artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm to develop a six-staged procedure that resolves these common and complicated parameter design problems. SVR is used to model the mathematical relationship between input control factors and output responses, and the ABC algorithm is used to find the optimal control factor settings by searching the well-constructed SVR models in which the Taguchi loss function is applied to evaluate the overall performance of a product/process. The feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed approach are demonstrated via a case study in which the design of a total internal reflection (TIR) lens is optimized while fabricating an MR16 light-emitting diode lamp. Experimental results indicate that the proposed solution procedure can provide highly robust design parameter settings for TIR lenses that can be directly applied in real manufacturing processes. Comparisons with the Taguchi method reveal that the Taguchi method is an undesirable and inappropriate method for resolving multiple-response parameter design problems, while the ABC algorithm can search the solution spaces in continuous domains modeled via SVR instead of in the limited discrete experiment levels, thus finding a more robust design than that obtained by the traditional analysis of variance. Consequently, the proposed integrated approach in this study can be considered feasible and effective and can be popularized as a useful tool for resolving general multiresponse parameter design problems in the real world.     

Vibrational spectroscopic characterization of rigid rod polymers: 3. Microstructural changes in stressed polymers

Highly oriented poly(p-phenylene benzobisthiazole) films were stressed in a miniature hydraulic tensile tester interfaced to a fast scanning Fourier transform infra-red spectrometer. The changes in relative intensity, polarization, frequency and shape of infrared bands have been useful in the elucidation of microstructures. With the short time resolution achievable, vibrational bandshape and frequency have been shown to change at different rates when an external stress was applied.     

TRANSIENT ANALYSIS OF CRYSTALLIZATION: EFFECT OF THE SIZE DEPENDENT GROWTH RATE

The dynamics of the crystal size distribution in a continuous mixed suspension, mixed product removal crystallizer is modeled stochastically. The model is fairly general in that it involves a size-dependent growth rate function: this size-dependent growth rate as a possible cause of deviation on the behavior of the crystallizer from that of an idealized or simplified counterpart has been investigated based upon the model.     

A Truncated Sum of Processing‐Times–Based Learning Model for a Two‐Machine Flowshop Scheduling Problem

Scheduling with learning effects has gained increasing attention in recent years. A well‐known learning model is called “sum‐of‐processing‐times‐based learning” in which the actual processing time of a job is a nonincreasing function of the jobs already processed. However, the actual processing time of a given job drops to zero precipitously when the normal job processing times are large. Moreover, the concept of learning process is relatively unexplored in a flowshop environment. Motivated by these observations, this article addresses a two‐machine flowshop problem with a truncated learning effect. The objective is to find an optimal schedule to minimize the total completion time. First, a branch‐and‐bound algorithm incorporating with a dominance property and four lower bounds is developed to derive the optimal solution. Then three simulated annealing algorithms are also proposed for near‐optimal solution. The experimental results indicated that the branch‐and‐bound algorithm can solve instances up to 18 jobs, and the proposed simulated annealing algorithm performs well in item of CPU time and error percentage. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Engineering Analysis and Design with ALE-VMS and Space–Time Methods

Flow problems with moving boundaries and interfaces include fluid–structure interaction (FSI) and a number of other classes of problems, have an important place in engineering analysis and design, and offer some formidable computational challenges. Bringing solution and analysis to them motivated the Deforming-Spatial-Domain/Stabilized Space–Time (DSD/SST) method and also the variational multiscale version of the Arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian method (ALE-VMS). Since their inception, these two methods and their improved versions have been applied to a diverse set of challenging problems with a common core computational technology need. The classes of problems solved include free-surface and two-fluid flows, fluid–object and fluid–particle interaction, FSI, and flows with solid surfaces in fast, linear or rotational relative motion. Some of the most challenging FSI problems, including parachute FSI, wind-turbine FSI and arterial FSI, are being solved and analyzed with the DSD/SST and ALE-VMS methods as core technologies. Better accuracy and improved turbulence modeling were brought with the recently-introduced VMS version of the DSD/SST method, which is called DSD/SST-VMST (also ST-VMS). In specific classes of problems, such as parachute FSI, arterial FSI, ship hydrodynamics, fluid–object interaction, aerodynamics of flapping wings, and wind-turbine aerodynamics and FSI, the scope and accuracy of the FSI modeling were increased with the special ALE-VMS and ST FSI techniques targeting each of those classes of problems. This article provides an overview of the core ALE-VMS and ST FSI techniques, their recent versions, and the special ALE-VMS and ST FSI techniques. It also provides examples of challenging problems solved and analyzed in parachute FSI, arterial FSI, ship hydrodynamics, aerodynamics of flapping wings, wind-turbine aerodynamics, and bridge-deck aerodynamics and vortex-induced vibrations.     

Digital evidence discovery of networked multimedia smart devices based on social networking activities

Unquestionably, networked multimedia smart devices are commonly adopted in contemporary ubiquitous wireless computing era with unprecedented evolving pace in terms of mobility, portability, and pervasiveness. Regrettably, those technology-oriented gadgets are phenomenally exploited by cyber criminals or get involved in computer-related incidents unknowingly. Substantively, the detection, prevention, and the related digital forensics of the above scenarios are becoming tremendously urgent both in public and private sectors. Therefore, in this research, we investigate the scenario when state-of-the-art wireless communication technologies are integrated with the networked smart devices where digital evidences may exist and they could be disclosed when appropriate standard operating procedures are suitably applied. Accordingly, in this paper, a PDA with the built-in GPS navigation functionality via the ubiquitous Wi-Fi connection to a popular social networking platform (facebook) is cross examined concerning the related digital evidence collecting and discovering in terms of revealing previous facebook user accounts on the mobile device without shutting off the power. The research provides a generic framework for the digital forensics specialists to contemplate when the networked smart devices are involved in the related criminal investigation cases especially when omnipresent social networking platforms are becoming the new avenue for the escalating, stringent, and heinous cybercrimes.     

Multi-user web service selection based on multi-QoS prediction

In order to find best services to meet multi-user’s QoS requirements, some multi-user Web service selection schemes were proposed. However, the unavoidable challenges in these schemes are the efficiency and effect. Most existing schemes are proposed for the single request condition without considering the overload of Web services, which cannot be directly used in this problem. Furthermore, existing methods assumed the QoS information for users are all known and accurate, and in real case, there are always many missing QoS values in history records, which increase the difficulty of the selection. In this paper, we propose a new framework for multi-user Web service selection problem. This framework first predicts the missing multi-QoS values according to the historical QoS experience from users, and then selects the global optimal solution for multi-user by our fast match approach. Comprehensive empirical studies demonstrate the utility of the proposed method.     

Dehydrogenation of Cyclohexene on Platinum Nanoclusters on a Thin Film of Al2O3/NiAl(100)

Using a scanning-tunneling microscope, reflection high-energy electron diffraction and photoelectron spectra with synchrotron radiation, we investigated the temperature dependence of the dehydrogenation of cyclohexene (C₆H₁₀) adsorbed on Pt nanoclusters supported on an ultra-thin film of Al₂O₃/NiAl(100). The Pt clusters, grown by vapor deposition, are structurally ordered and exhibit a mean diameter 2.2 nm and height 0.4 nm. The progress of dehydrogenation was monitored through the temporal variation of C 1s photoelectron spectra; analysis of these features revealed that the dehydrogenation of cyclohexene with increasing sample temperature occurs as a sequential process beginning around 150 K, a temperature significantly less than that for Pt single-crystal surfaces. The dehydrogenation behavior, particularly the decomposition into elemental carbon, is found to vary with Pt coverage.