Algebraic decoding of (103, 52, 19) and (113, 57, 15) quadratic residue codes

In this paper, two algebraic decoders for the (103, 52, 19) and (113, 57, 15) quadratic residue codes, which have lengths greater than 100, are presented. The results have been verified by software simulation that programs in C++ language have been executed to check possible error patterns of both quadratic residue codes.     

A One-Dimensional Nonlocal Damage-Plasticity Model for Ductile Materials

This paper presents a new 1-D non-local damage-plasticity deformation model for ductile materials. It uses the thermodynamic framework described in Houlsby and Puzrin (2000) and holds, nevertheless, some similarities with Lemaitre’s (1971) approach. A 1D finite element (FE) model of a bar fixed at one end and loaded in tension at the other end is introduced. This simple model demonstrates how the approach can be implemented within the finite element framework, and that it is capable of capturing both the pre-peak hardening and post-peak softening (generally responsible for models instability) due to damage-induced stiffness and strength reduction characteristic of ductile materials. It is also shown that the approach has further advantages of achieving some degree of mesh independence, and of being able to capture deformation size effects. Finally, it is illustrated how the model permits the calculation of essential work of rupture (EWR), i.e. the specific energy per unit cross-sectional area that is needed to cause tensile failure of a specimen.     

Coating of carbon-fiber surface by silicon carbide via sol-gel mixtures of tetraethyl orthosilicate and phenolic resin

The preparation of a SiC coating on a carbon fiber surface using a sol-gel mixture of tetraethyl orthosilicat (TEOS) and phenolic resin was studied. FTIR and SEM investigations indicated that the SiC coating can be formed by carbothermal reduction of the sol-gel mixture at 1420°C for 15–20 min in an argon atmosphere. TGA of the coated fiber was also performed, showing that the SiC coating improves the thermooxidative stability of the carbon fiber. With the thickness of the obtained coating of 0.47 μm using a C/Si ratio of 4, this treatment does not affect the carbon fiber strength.     

Evaluation of the Nuclisens HIV-1 QT assay for quantitation of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 RNA levels in plasma

Nuclisens HIV-1 QT is a new version of the NASBA HIV-1 QT assay for quantitation of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) RNA in plasma. The specificity of this assay was 100% in one laboratory and 99%-with nonrepeatability of the initial false positive-in another. The test was linear between 2.0 and 6.0 log RNA copies per ml. According to the input HIV-1 RNA concentration, accuracy varied from -0.11 to +0.10 log RNA copy per ml and precision varied from 0.66 to 0.14 log RNA copy per ml. Reproducibility decreased when the HIV-1 RNA level was near the lower limit of quantitation of the test. HIV-1 RNA could be quantitated by Nuclisens HIV-1 QT in 36% (laboratory 1) and 24% (laboratory 2) of clinical samples with HIV-1 RNA levels lower than the lower limit of quantitation by NASBA HIV-1 QT. Nuclisens HIV-1 QT was not suitable for measurement of RNA from clade G and group O HIV-1 strains.     

Automated zebrafish chorion removal and single embryo placement: optimizing throughput of zebrafish developmental toxicity screens

The potential of the developing zebrafish model for toxicology and drug discovery is limited by inefficient approaches to manipulating and chemically exposing zebrafish embryos-namely, manual placement of embryos into 96- or 384-well plates and exposure of embryos while still in the chorion, a barrier of poorly characterized permeability enclosing the developing embryo. We report the automated dechorionation of 1600 embryos at once at 4 h postfertilization (hpf) and placement of the dechorionated embryos into 96-well plates for exposure by 6 hpf. The process removed ≥95% of the embryos from their chorions with 2% embryo mortality by 24 hpf, and 2% of the embryos malformed at 120 hpf. The robotic embryo placement allocated 6-hpf embryos to 94.7% ± 4.2% of the wells in multiple 96-well trials. The rate of embryo mortality was 2.8% (43 of 1536) from robotic handling, the rate of missed wells was 1.2% (18 of 1536), and the frequency of multipicks was <0.1%. Embryo malformations observed at 24 hpf occurred nearly twice as frequently from robotic handling (16 of 864; 1.9%) as from manual pipetting (9 of 864; 1%). There was no statistical difference between the success of performing the embryo placement robotically or manually.     

Scheduling Optimization Modelling: A Case Study of a Woven Label Manufacturing Company

Production scheduling involves all activities of building production schedules, including coordinating and assigning activities to each person, group of people, or machine and arranging work orders in each workplace. Production scheduling must solve all problems such as minimizing customer wait time, storage costs, and production time; and effectively using the enterprise’s human resources. This paper studies the application of flexible job shop modelling on scheduling a woven labelling process. The labelling process includes several steps which are handled in different work-stations. Each workstation is also comprised of several identical parallel machines. In this study, job splitting is allowed so that the power of work stations can be utilized better. The final objective is to minimize the total completion time of all jobs. The results show a significant improvement since the new planning may save more than 60% of lead time compared to the current schedule. The contribution of this research is to propose a flexible job shop model for scheduling a woven labelling process. The proposed approach can also be applied to support complex production scheduling processes under fuzzy environments in different industries. A practical case study demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed model.     

Investigation of long term drift of an intraocular pressure sensor

Microsystem Technologies - “Zero drift” behavior of an optical intraocular pressure sensor is studied using an analytical model based on the deflection of a circular membrane. Results...     

ANDES: efficient evaluation of NOT-twig queries in relational databases

Despite a large body of work on XPath query processing in relational environment, systematic study of queries containing not-predicates have received little attention in the literature. Particularly, several xml supports of industrial-strength commercial rdbms fail to efficiently evaluate such queries. In this paper, we present an efficient and novel strategy to evaluate not -twig queries in a tree-unaware relational environment. not -twig queries are XPath queries with ancestor–descendant and parent–child axis and contain one or more not-predicates. We propose a novel Dewey-based encoding scheme called Andes (ANcestor Dewey-based Encoding Scheme), which enables us to efficiently filter out elements satisfying a not-predicate by comparing their ancestor group identifiers. In this approach, a set of elements under the same common ancestor at a specific level in the xml tree is assigned same ancestor group identifier. Based on this scheme, we propose a novel sql translation algorithm for not-twig query evaluation. Experiments carried out confirm that our proposed approach built on top of an off-the-shelf commercial rdbms significantly outperforms state-of-the-art relational and native approaches. We also explore the query plans selected by a commercial relational optimizer to evaluate our translated queries in different input cardinality. Such exploration further validates the performance benefits of Andes.     

On enabling integrated process compliance with semantic constraints in process management systems

Key to broad use of process management systems (PrMS) in practice is their ability to foster and ease the implementation, execution, monitoring, and adaptation of business processes while still being able to ensure robust and error-free process enactment. To meet these demands a variety of mechanisms has been developed to prevent errors at the structural level (e.g., deadlocks). In many application domains, however, processes often have to comply with business level rules and policies (i.e., semantic constraints) as well. Hence, to ensure error-free executions at the semantic level, PrMS need certain control mechanisms for validating and ensuring the compliance with semantic constraints. In this paper, we discuss fundamental requirements for a comprehensive support of semantic constraints in PrMS. Moreover, we provide a survey on existing approaches and discuss to what extent they are able to meet the requirements and which challenges still have to be tackled. In order to tackle the particular challenge of providing integrated compliance support over the process lifecycle, we introduce the SeaFlows framework. The framework introduces a behavioural level view on processes which serves a conceptual process representation for constraint specification approaches. Further, it provides general compliance criteria for static compliance validation but also for dealing with process changes. Altogether, the SeaFlows framework can serve as formal basis for realizing integrated support of semantic constraints in PrMS.     

Na+ and/or Cl− Toxicities Determine Salt Sensitivity in Soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.), Mungbean (Vigna radiata (L.) R. Wilczek), Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.), and Common Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.)

Grain legumes are important crops, but they are salt sensitive. This research dissected the responses of four (sub)tropical grain legumes to ionic components (Na⁺ and/or Cl⁻) of salt stress. Soybean, mungbean, cowpea, and common bean were subjected to NaCl, Na⁺ salts (without Cl⁻), Cl⁻ salts (without Na⁺), and a “high cation” negative control for 57 days. Growth, leaf gas exchange, and tissue ion concentrations were assessed at different growing stages. For soybean, NaCl and Na⁺ salts impaired seed dry mass (30% of control), more so than Cl⁻ salts (60% of control). All treatments impaired mungbean growth, with NaCl and Cl⁻ salt treatments affecting seed dry mass the most (2% of control). For cowpea, NaCl had the greatest adverse impact on seed dry mass (20% of control), while Na⁺ salts and Cl⁻ salts had similar intermediate effects (~45% of control). For common bean, NaCl had the greatest adverse effect on seed dry mass (4% of control), while Na⁺ salts and Cl⁻ salts impaired seed dry mass to a lesser extent (~45% of control). NaCl and Na⁺ salts (without Cl⁻) affected the photosynthesis (P_n) of soybean more than Cl⁻ salts (without Na⁺) (50% of control), while the reverse was true for mungbean. Na⁺ salts (without Cl⁻), Cl⁻ salts (without Na⁺), and NaCl had similar adverse effects on P_n of cowpea and common bean (~70% of control). In conclusion, salt sensitivity is predominantly determined by Na⁺ toxicity in soybean, Cl⁻ toxicity in mungbean, and both Na⁺ and Cl⁻ toxicity in cowpea and common bean.