Recognition of Adulterated Oils by Direct Analysis of the Minor Components

Recognition of adulteration by other oils via direct analysis of the minor components (“sterol fraction”) is shown for olive oil. 10 % of various oils were admixed, the free alcohols silylated and the minor components analyzed by on-line coupled LC-GC-FID. For most oils, even smaller additions can be recognized. Admixed oils can no longer be determined, however, if their minor components have been removed by strong raffination. Bleaching of rapeseed oil with 7% of earth at 180 °C, in fact, completely removed free and esterified sterols.     

A comparison between wet and cryogenic drilling of CFRP/Ti stacks

This paper compares conventional and cryogenic cooling in the deep hole drilling of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP)/Ti stacks. Various parameters are taken into account to find if the use of cryogenic coolant is justified by the improvement of the final results. Both the thrust and the torque were acquired continuously during the machining operations and compared both in average and distribution. The use of a cryogenic coolant brings a reduction in thrust force and torque without any sensible drawback. Overall the results prove that cryogenic drilling is a suitable technology for CFRP/Ti stack drill.     

A computational study of parametric tabu search for 0–1 mixed integer programs

We present a computational study of parametric tabu search for solving 0–1 mixed integer programming (MIP) problems, a generic heuristic for general MIP problems proposed by Glover [Glover F. Parametric tabu-search for mixed integer programs. Computers and Operations Research 2006; 33: 2449–94.]. This approach solves a series of linear programming problems by incorporating branching inequalities as weighted terms in the objective function. New strategies are proposed for uncovering feasible and high-quality solutions and extensive computational tests are performed on instances from the literature.     

Personalized detection of user intentions

Interface agents are strategic software components for improving the quality of services to users. In order to be accepted by users, interface agents need to make useful suggestions always in the context of the user’s intention. The user’s intention should be detected as soon as possible so that the agent can define a way to collaborate with the user. Plan recognition can be applied to identify the user’s goal based on his or her actions in the environment. However, classical approaches to plan recognition fail in two main aspects that make them unsuitable for being used by interface agents: the lack of personalization and the lack of consideration of the transition between different goals pursued by the user. We propose an approach to capture intentions taking into account the variables involved in the application domain that represent the user preferences. Experimental evaluations show us that we have found a way for early detection of intentions.     

Matrix-Based Discrete Event Control for Surveillance Mobile Robotics

This paper focuses on the control system for an autonomous robot for the surveillance of indoor environments. Our approach proposes a matrix-based formalism which allows us to merge in a single framework discrete-event supervisory control, conflict resolution and reactive control. As a consequence, the robot is able to autonomously handle high level tasks as well as low-level behaviors, solving control and decision-making issues simultaneously. Moreover, the matrix-based controller is modular and can be easily reconfigured if mission characteristics or robot hardware configuration change. An illustrative example and a report on experimental investigations are provided to illustrate the main features of the proposed approach.     

An hp finite element adaptive scheme to solve the Laplace model for fluid–solid vibrations

In this paper we introduce an hp finite element method to solve a two-dimensional fluid–structure spectral problem. This problem arises from the computation of the vibration modes of a bundle of parallel tubes immersed in an incompressible fluid. We prove the convergence of the method and a priori error estimates for the eigenfunctions and the eigenvalues. We define an a posteriori error estimator of the residual type which can be computed locally from the approximate eigenpair. We show its reliability and efficiency by proving that the estimator is equivalent to the energy norm of the error up to higher order terms, the equivalence constant of the efficiency estimate being suboptimal in that it depends on the polynomial degree. We present an hp adaptive algorithm and several numerical tests which show the performance of the scheme, including some numerical evidence of exponential convergence.     

Tabu search for scheduling on identical parallel machines to minimize mean tardiness

This paper presents a tabu search approach for scheduling jobs on identical parallel machines with the objective of minimizing the mean tardiness. Initially, we consider a basic tabu search that uses short term memory only. Local search is performed on a neighborhood defined by two types of moves. Insert moves consist of transferring each job from one machine to another and swap moves are those obtained by exchanging each pair of jobs between two machines. Next, we analyze the incorporation of two diversification strategies with the aim of exploring unvisited regions of the solution space. The first strategy uses long term memory to store the frequency of the moves executed throughout the search and the second makes use of influential moves. Computational tests are performed on problems with up to 10 machines and 150 jobs. The heuristic performance is evaluated through a lower bound given by Lagrangean relaxation. A comparison is also made with respect to the best constructive heuristic reported in the literature.     

Finite element shakedown analysis of two‐dimensional structures

In the present paper, the formulation proposed by Casciaro and Garcea (Comput. Meth. Appl. Mech. Eng., 2002; 191 :5761–5792) and applied to the shakedown analysis of plane frames, is extended to the analysis of two‐dimensional flat structures in both the cases of plane‐stress and plane‐strain. The discrete formulation is obtained using a mixed finite element in which both stress and displacement fields are interpolated. The material is assumed to be elasto‐plastic and a linearization of the elastic domain is performed. The result is a versatile iterative scheme well suited to implementation in general purpose FEM codes. An extensive series of numerical tests is presented showing the reliability of the proposed formulation. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

New Insights into the Decisional Use of Process Capability Indices via Hypothesis Testing

Process capability indices C_p, C_pk, and C_pm are still nowadays widely used in industry—thanks to their easy formulation and implementation. This paper aims to give new mathematical insights in order to support their use in decision‐making via hypothesis testing. The minimum sample size usually needed in the applications to achieve fixed significance level and power is reported in light of the new mathematical aspects for C_pk and C_pm, which avoid misleading conclusions and the use of extensive numerical experiments. In addition, power curves for C_pk and C_pm, which have not previously appeared in the literature before, are also presented. Lastly, easy‐to‐follow diagrams for hypothesis testing with C_pk and C_pm and two critical scenarios for C_pm are included in the paper to facilitate the applicative use and the comprehension of the novel inferential aspects. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Reduced Levels of ABCA1 Transporter Are Responsible for the Cholesterol Efflux Impairment in β-Amyloid-Induced Reactive Astrocytes: Potential Rescue from Biomimetic HDLs

The cerebral synthesis of cholesterol is mainly handled by astrocytes, which are also responsible for apoproteins’ synthesis and lipoproteins’ assembly required for the cholesterol transport in the brain parenchyma. In Alzheimer disease (AD), these processes are impaired, likely because of the astrogliosis, a process characterized by morphological and functional changes in astrocytes. Several ATP-binding cassette transporters expressed by brain cells are involved in the formation of nascent discoidal lipoproteins, but the effect of beta-amyloid (Aβ) assemblies on this process is not fully understood. In this study, we investigated how of Aβ_1-42-induced astrogliosis affects the metabolism of cholesterol in vitro. We detected an impairment in the cholesterol efflux of reactive astrocytes attributable to reduced levels of ABCA1 transporters that could explain the decreased lipoproteins’ levels detected in AD patients. To approach this issue, we designed biomimetic HDLs and evaluated their performance as cholesterol acceptors. The results demonstrated the ability of apoA-I nanodiscs to cross the blood–brain barrier in vitro and to promote the cholesterol efflux from astrocytes, making them suitable as a potential supportive treatment for AD to compensate the depletion of cerebral HDLs.