Advancing controlled release packaging through smart blending

Researchers from Rutgers University and Clemson University have collaborated to develop a concept of using smart blending to generate functional packaging films for the controlled release of active compounds such as antimicrobials, antioxidants and flavour compounds to extend the shelf‐life of food. In this paper, literature results are reviewed to justify the significance of controlled release packaging (CRP) and the research gaps for further development are identified. A major research gap is the lack of packaging materials that can provide the release of active compounds at rates suitable for a wide range of food packaging applications. Smart blending is a promising technology for bridging this research gap. To fully realize the potentials of smart blending, a systematic approach for developing CRP using smart blending is also presented. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Generalized Transfer Subspace Learning Through Low-Rank Constraint

It is expensive to obtain labeled real-world visual data for use in training of supervised algorithms. Therefore, it is valuable to leverage existing databases of labeled data. However, the data in the source databases is often obtained under conditions that differ from those in the new task. Transfer learning provides techniques for transferring learned knowledge from a source domain to a target domain by finding a mapping between them. In this paper, we discuss a method for projecting both source and target data to a generalized subspace where each target sample can be represented by some combination of source samples. By employing a low-rank constraint during this transfer, the structure of source and target domains are preserved. This approach has three benefits. First, good alignment between the domains is ensured through the use of only relevant data in some subspace of the source domain in reconstructing the data in the target domain. Second, the discriminative power of the source domain is naturally passed on to the target domain. Third, noisy information will be filtered out during knowledge transfer. Extensive experiments on synthetic data, and important computer vision problems such as face recognition application and visual domain adaptation for object recognition demonstrate the superiority of the proposed approach over the existing, well-established methods.     

Robust finite-time boundedness of multi-agent systems subject to parametric uncertainties and disturbances

In this paper, we consider finite-time control problems for linear multi-agent systems subject to exogenous constant disturbances and impulses. Some sufficient conditions are obtained to ensure the finite-time boundedness of the multi-agent systems, which could be then reduced to a feasibility problem involving linear matrix inequalities. Numerical examples are given to illustrate the results.     

On the two-degree-of-freedom Wiener–Hopf optimal design with tracking and disturbance rejection constraints

In this paper, the design of the two-degree-of-freedom optimal Wiener–Hopf controller with asymptotic tracking and disturbance rejection constraints is studied. Based on the solvability conditions and the solution parameterization of Diophantine equations over the stable rational fractional ring M(s), the disturbance rejection problem in the general case is solved. A simple cost function is defined to reflect the transient performance of control signal caused by deterministic signals. Finally, the design of the two-degree-of-freedom optimal Wiener–Hopf controller is presented.     

Exploring Two-Wave Reciprocal Structural Relations Among Orthographic Knowledge, Phonological Sensitivity, and Reading and Spelling of English Words by Chinese Students.

In a 2-wave study of a cohort of 108 Chinese students (10- to 11-year-olds) learning English as a second language, the authors examined the relative effects of three Time 1 latent constructs-- orthographic knowledge, phonological sensitivity, and word identification (reading and spelling of regular and exception words)--on the respective Time 2 performance. The authors posited autoregressive effects, in which Time 1 constructs affected their matching Time 2 performance (e.g., Time 1 orthographic knowledge on Time 2 orthographic knowledge), as well as reciprocal cross-domain effects (e.g., orthographic knowledge on word identification and vice versa). The model converged to a proper solution with reasonably good fit. The results suggest (a) strong stability in the children's word identification and phonological sensitivity, (b) substantial effects of word identification on subsequent orthographic knowledge and phonological sensitivity, particularly the former; and (c) greater variations in individuals' growth of orthographic knowledge. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluation of the durability of a pipe of oil pipeline with surface crack under biaxial block loading

We propose an energy approach to the evaluation of the residual service life of structural elements with cracks for the two-frequency loading mode of biaxial tension-compression. This approach is applied to a pipe of oil pipeline containing a crack on its inner surface. The pipe is regarded as an infinite plate with surface semicircular crack loaded by longitudinal tension-compression caused by the processes of heating and cooling of the pipe. The pipe is also squeezed by the soil and subjected to the action of internal pressure formed in the process of pumping of oil. The two-frequency variations of pressure in the pipe are caused by the turbulence of the flow of oil (high frequency), opening and closing of the gate valves, and the shutdowns of the pumps (low frequency). It is shown that if we neglect the longitudinal tension-compression of the pipe and the oscillations of pressure of oil in the evaluation of durability of the pipes of oil pipelines, then we can get strongly overestimated predictions of the residual service life.Translated from Fizyko-Khimichna Mekhanika Materialiv, Vol. 40, No. 3, pp. 103–108, May–June, 2004.     

Scaling Conditional Random Fields by One-Against-the-Other Decomposition

As a powerful sequence labeling model, conditional random fields （CRFs） have had successful applications in many natural language processing （NLP） tasks. However, the high complexity of CRFs training only allows a very small tag （or label） set, because the training becomes intractable as the tag set enlarges. This paper proposes an improved decomposed training and joint decoding algorithm for CRF learning. Instead of training a single CRF model for all tags, it trains a binary sub-CRF independently for each tag. An optimal tag sequence is then produced by a joint decoding algorithm based on the probabilistic output of all sub-CRFs involved. To test its effectiveness, we apply this approach to tackling Chinese word segmentation （CWS） as a sequence labeling problem. Our evaluation shows that it can reduce the computational cost of this language processing task by 40-50% without any significant performance loss on various large-scale data sets.     

目标与机会平衡规划法

提出一种目标与机会平衡规划法．基于待决策问题的有效决策前沿曲线形状的全局信息,通过权衡决策目标收益和实现机会两个因素的数值关系以及二者沿有效决策前沿曲线变化速度的对比关系,最大限度地提高决策效用．该方法能以更合理、更全面、更灵活的方式分析处理随机优化问题,有效解决期望值模型、机会约束规划法和相关机会规划法之间的矛盾．最后通过算例表明了所提出方法的主要特点和有效性．     

Comparison and Characterization of Compounds with Antioxidant Activity in Lycium barbarum Using High‐Performance Thin Layer Chromatography Coupled with DPPH Bioautography and Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Methanol extracts from 50 batches of Lycium barbarum (L. barbarum, wolfberry) in China were compared and characterized using high‐performance thin‐layer chromatography coupled with 2,2‐diphenyl‐1‐picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) bioautography (HPTLC‐DPPH) and electrospray ionization quadrupole time‐of‐flight tandem mass spectrometry (ESI‐Q‐TOF‐MS/MS), respectively. Results showed that similar components occupying the major antioxidant activity existed in L. barbarum collected from different origins. However, the average antioxidant capacities of methanol extracts of L. barbarum collected in Ningxia were significantly higher than those of Qinghai, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, and Gansu, which may contribute to rational use of L. barbarum in China. Furthermore, the chemical structure of compound with the highest antioxidant capacity was tentatively identified as 2‐O‐β‐d ‐glucopyranosyl‐l ‐ascorbic acid using ESI‐Q‐TOF‐MS/MS analysis, which possessed high potentials to be used as an antioxidant biomarker for the quality control of L. barbarum. Results are helpful for the bioactivity‐based quality control of L. barbarum, and beneficial for the improvement of their performance in functional/health foods area, suggesting that HPTLC‐DPPH bioautography with ESI‐Q‐TOF‐MS/MS could be used as a routine approach for quality control of antioxidant components in L. barbarum.