Weighted sparse simplex representation: a unified framework for subspace clustering,constrained clustering,and active learning

Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery - Spectral-based subspace clustering methods have proved successful in many challenging applications such as gene sequencing, image recognition, and motion...     

Staff dosimetry in interventional cardiology: survey on methods and level of exposure

In interventional cardiac procedures, staff operates near the patient in a non-uniformly scattered radiation field. Consequently, workers may receive, over a period, relatively high radiation doses. The measurement of individual doses to personnel becomes critical due to the use of protective devices and, as a consequence of the large number of methods proposed to assess the effective dose, great variability in monitoring programmes is expected among European countries. SENTINEL consortium has conducted a survey on staff dosimetry methods and on the level of staff exposure in 12 European cardiac centres demonstrating the urgent need to harmonise dosimetry methods. From the dosimetry survey, constraint annual effective dose of 1.4 mSv and H(p)(0.07) over the protective apron of 14 mSv are proposed for the optimisation the exposure the most-exposed operator.     

Conversion of oxygenated and hydrocarbon molecules to particulate matter using stable isotopes as tracers

Fuels are continuing to be derived from fossil sources, but as production technology improves, biofuels and synthetic fuels are expected to emerge as scalable long-term sources of liquid fuels. Efforts are being made to ensure that this next-generation of fuels is cleaner burning than the last. In order to inform the production and processing of cleaner burning fuels, more needs to be known about how molecular structure influences the formation of pollutant emissions. Reducing airborne quantities of particulate matter (PM) is of particular interest for human health and the environment. This publication presents a ¹³C labelling technique, which has been developed and applied to identify the influence of local molecular structure on the formation of PM. The paper applied the technique based on the ¹³C stable isotope to trace the conversion of individual carbon atoms to PM in the case of several oxygenated and hydrocarbon molecules. A laminar tube reactor facility has been used for generating and collecting samples of PM under pyrolysis conditions. A number of single-component oxygenated and hydrocarbons (ethanol, propanol, pentanol, cyclopentanol, ethyl acetate, and toluene) have been enriched with ¹³C at specific carbon atom locations and the ¹³C/¹²C isotope ratios of PM were measured. The contribution to PM of particular carbon atoms within a molecule was evaluated, and the results shed new light of how individual carbon atoms in a molecule convert to PM. It was found that the conversion to PM of different atoms within a molecule varies widely, depending on the identity of their neighbouring moiety. Furthermore, it was shown that oxygen-containing functional groups have a significant influence on the formation of particulates, partly through a reduction in the conversion to PM of carbon atoms, which are adjacent to oxygen atoms.     

Modeling and control of film porosity in thin film deposition

Systematic methodologies are developed for modeling and control of film porosity in thin film deposition. The deposition process is modeled via kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC) simulation on a triangular lattice. The microscopic events involve atom adsorption and migration and allow for vacancies and overhangs to develop. Appropriate definitions of film site occupancy ratio (SOR), i.e., fraction of film sites occupied by particles over total number of film sites, and its fluctuations are introduced to describe film porosity. Deterministic and stochastic ordinary differential equation (ODE) models are also derived to describe the time evolution of film SOR and its fluctuation. The coefficients of the ODE models are estimated on the basis of data obtained from the kMC simulator of the deposition process using least-square methods and their dependence on substrate temperature is determined. The developed ODE models are used as the basis for the design of model predictive control (MPC) algorithms that include penalty on the film SOR and its variance to regulate the expected value of film SOR at a desired level and reduce run-to-run fluctuations. Simulation results demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed film porosity modeling and control methods in the context of the deposition process under consideration.     

Minimum thickness of elliptical masonry arches

In this paper, we compute the minimum thickness and the location of the imminent intrados hinge of symmetric elliptical masonry arches when subjected to their weight. While this problem (Couplet’s problem) was solved rigorously for semicircular arches more than a century ago, no results have been available for elliptical arches. Motivated from the recent growing interest in identifying the limit equilibrium states of historic structures, this paper first computes two neighboring physically admissible thrust-lines which can just be located in elliptical arches by adopting either a polar or a cartesian coordinate system. These two distinguishable, physically admissible thrust-lines are neighboring thrust-lines to Hooke’s catenary which is not a physically admissible thrust-line as has been shown recently. Accordingly, the paper shows that the answer for the minimum thickness of symmetric elliptical masonry arches is not unique and that it depends on the coordinate system adopted and the associated stereotomy exercised. This result is confirmed by developing a variational formulation after selecting the appropriate directions of the rupture that initiates at the intrados hinge. The paper concludes that Hooke’s limiting catenary, although not a physically admissible thrust-line, offers a conservative value for the minimum thickness in most practical configurations.     

Sequential and iterative architectures for distributed model predictive control of nonlinear process systems

In this work, we focus on distributed model predictive control of large scale nonlinear process systems in which several distinct sets of manipulated inputs are used to regulate the process. For each set of manipulated inputs, a different model predictive controller is used to compute the control actions, which is able to communicate with the rest of the controllers in making its decisions. Under the assumption that feedback of the state of the process is available to all the distributed controllers at each sampling time and a model of the plant is available, we propose two different distributed model predictive control architectures. In the first architecture, the distributed controllers use a one‐directional communication strategy, are evaluated in sequence and each controller is evaluated only once at each sampling time; in the second architecture, the distributed controllers utilize a bi‐directional communication strategy, are evaluated in parallel and iterate to improve closed‐loop performance. In the design of the distributed model predictive controllers, Lyapunov‐based model predictive control techniques are used. To ensure the stability of the closed‐loop system, each model predictive controller in both architectures incorporates a stability constraint which is based on a suitable Lyapunov‐based controller. We prove that the proposed distributed model predictive control architectures enforce practical stability in the closed‐loop system and optimal performance. The theoretical results are illustrated through a catalytic alkylation of benzene process example. © 2010 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2010     

Monitoring and handling of actuator faults in two-tier control systems for nonlinear processes

This work focuses on the monitoring and reconfiguration of two-tier control systems applied to general nonlinear processes in the presence of control actuator faults. Specifically, a general class of nonlinear process systems is first considered and is controlled by a two-tier control system integrating a local control system using continuous sensing/actuation with a networked control system using asynchronous sensing/actuation. To deal with control actuator faults that may occur in the closed-loop system and eliminate the ability of the two-tier control system to stabilize the process, a fault detection and isolation (FDI) and fault-tolerant control (FTC) system is designed which detects and isolates actuator faults and determines how to reconfigure the two-tier control system to handle the actuator faults and ensure closed-loop stability. The FDI/FTC system uses continuous measurements of process variables like temperature and asynchronous measurements of variables like species concentrations. We develop reconfiguration-based FTC schemes that effectively deal with faults in the actuators of both the local and networked control systems. A detailed mathematical analysis is carried out to determine precise conditions for the stabilizability of the FDI/FTC system. The method is demonstrated using a reactor-separator process consisting of two continuously stirred tank reactors and a flash tank separator with recycle stream.     

The Citizen Health System (CHS): a modular medical contact center providing quality telemedicine services.

In the context of the Citizen Health System (CHS) project, a modular Medical Contact Center (MCC) was developed, which can be used in the monitoring, treatment, and management of chronically ill patients at home, such as diabetic or congestive heart failure patients. The virtue of the CHS contact center is that, using any type of communication and telematics technology, it is able to provide timely and preventive prompting to the patients, thus, achieving better disease management. In this paper, we present the structure of the CHS system, describing the modules that enable its flexible and extensible architecture. It is shown, through specific examples, how quality of healthcare delivery can be increased by using such a system.