An experiment for showing some kind of artificial understanding

In this paper we design an experiment which can be depicted as a simple scenario, a very limited 'world'. In this world, there are an actor that can pursue a project and an observer that is keeping its eyes on the actor. We try to show in the experiment that the observer can to some degree understand the actor based on its knowledge and some metaphors, i.e. understand what the actor is doing and why. As the conclusion of this experiment, we try to show some features of 'understanding'. These are (1) that 'understanding' has to be based on some preliminary knowledge; (2) that 'understanding' is a process of incremental learning; (3) that, as for symbolic systems, some metaphors are necessary for mapping real entities into concepts in mind.     

Bite and unconfirmed failures

Electronic BITE is poor at identifying hardware failure and in present design approaches tends to create the reviled ‘unconfirmed failure’. A different approach to BITE and unconfirmed failure could improve both operational performance and the cost of maintenance.     

Effective lightning protection schemes for distribution line

The causes of lightning outage are subdivided into direct lightning strokes and induced lightning strokes, which are identified by the characteristics of the lightning overvoltage. In the past, lightning protection devices were directed mainly toward the latter, and attention has been focused on the installation of lightning protection devices, ground wires, and reinforcement of insulators. However, lightning outages continue to occur. Thus it is extremely important to clarify the fault characteristics of lightning surges and to study the effectiveness of various lightning protection devices by considering both direct lightning stroke and induced lightning stroke in order to prevent lightning outage in the future. In this research, the electromagnetic transients program (EMTP) has been applied to the direct lightning stroke, and the induced lightning outage analysis program for multiple conductor systems has been applied to the induced lightning stroke to study the effectiveness of lightning protection devices provided by combination of various lightning protection devices. The most effective lightning protection schemes are analyzed and evaluated based on verification tests on the full scale models as well as economic considerations.     

面流消能近底紊动流速特性的研究(面流消能试验研究之一)

本文主要论述了面流消能五种典型流态近底紊动流速特性,总结出了近底时均流速和紊动强度沿程变化规律,提出了近底紊动流速可能出现的最大瞬时值及相应位置的计算公式。面流消能工程的下游防冲设计中考虑的主要水力参数之一是,消能段近底流速紊动可能出现的最大瞬时值及其相应的部位,但目前国内外研究成果较少。笔者通过水工模型试验重点研究了面流消能各典型流态近底流速及其紊动纵向分量沿程的变化规律,并提出了计算公式,为优化面流设计提供科学依据。     

A new voltage control equipment using fuzzy inference

Power system control equipment needs higher sensitivity and operational reliability. Advanced voltage control equipment is needed for reducing the frequency of tap changes and improving the characteristics (the relationship between the actual voltage and reference voltage) of the voltage to meet today's power system requirements. However, these objectives are in a trade-off relationship. Studies of voltage control derived from a knowledge base suitable for electric power systems can satisfy these objectives using fuzzy inference. Compared with corresponding conventional equipment, the new equipment improved the deviation of 30 min average voltage of 30 percent. This paper describes the design concept of new voltage control equipment using fuzzy inference. In addition, field test results are described along with rules of fuzzy inference, membership functions, and the deviation of 30 min average voltage through detailed simulation.     

Targets and methods for the detection of processed animal proteins in animal feedstuffs

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or ‘mad cow disease’, is one of several transmissable spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) known to affect certain mammals and is spread through the ingestion of infected animal tissue. It is believed that the inadvertent contamination of meat and bone meal (MBM) with infected animal tissue and the subsequent use of this material as a feed supplement contributed to the spread of the disease in cattle. As a result, the use of processed animal proteins (PAPs) in animal feeds is regulated in many parts of the world. Although feed testing is the only definitive means to certify compliance, regulatory compliance often relies solely on paper certification. Recently, rapid methods have become available that can be used by regulators to determine compliance during routine inspections. We describe a rapid, immunochromatographic strip test that can detect 0.1% MBM in animal feed. The test takes 15 min to perform and large numbers of samples can be screened for PAPs simultaneously.     

Effects of different cooking methods on the formation of food mutagens in meat

Hamburgers and chicken fillets were cooked in convection ovens, deep‐fried or contact fried and analysed for mutagenic activity using the Ames test. For the three different convection ovens, the cooking parameters studied included the presence of steam, air velocity, air temperature and holding time. For deep‐frying and contact frying, the cooking parameters included cooking temperature and cooking time. In cooked hamburgers, mutagenic activity was only detected in those that had been deep‐fried. In chicken fillets, mutagenic activity was detected in samples prepared with all cooking methods, being highest in the deep‐fried samples. Factorial analysis indicated that heat transfer was the most important factor affecting mutagenic activity. High temperature and high air velocity in the convection ovens enhanced mutagenic activity. The presence of steam reduced the mutagenic activity, except when high temperature was used in combination with high air velocity. In chicken fillets, high mutagenic activity correlated to high weight loss during cooking. Pan‐fried chicken fillets were analysed using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and the mutagenic/carcinogenic heterocyclic amines 2‐amino‐3,8‐dimethylimidazo[4,5‐f ]‐quinoxaline (MeIQx), 2‐amino‐1‐methyl‐6‐phenylimidazo‐[4,5‐b]‐pyridine (PhIP) and the co‐mutagenic heterocyclic amine Norharman (9H‐pyrido[3,4‐b]‐indole) were identified. The HPLC fractions were tested for mutagenic activity and, apart from the mutagenic fractions corresponding to MeIQx and PhIP, several mutagenic fractions were detected that did not correspond to known heterocyclic amines.     

A weighted multivariate Fuzzy C-Means method in interval-valued scientific production data

Clustering is the process of organizing objects into groups whose members are similar in some way. Most of the clustering methods involve numeric data only. However, this representation may not be adequate to model complex information which may be: histogram, distributions, intervals. To deal with these types of data, Symbolic Data Analysis (SDA) was developed. In multivariate data analysis, it is common some variables be more or less relevant than others and less relevant variables can mask the cluster structure. This work proposes a clustering method based on fuzzy approach that produces weighted multivariate memberships for interval-valued data. These memberships can change at each iteration of the algorithm and they are different from one variable to another and from one cluster to another. Furthermore, there is a different relevance weight associated to each variable that may also be different from one cluster to another. The advantage of this method is that it is robust to ambiguous cluster membership assignment since weights represent how important the different variables are to the clusters. Experiments are performed with synthetic data sets to compare the performance of the proposed method against other methods already established by the clustering literature. Also, an application with interval-valued scientific production data is presented in this work. Clustering quality results have shown that the proposed method offers higher accuracy when variables have different variabilities.