Two-Way Protocol with Imperfect Devices

The security of a deterministic quantum scheme for communication, namely the LM05 [1], is studied in presence of a lossy channel under the assumption of imperfect generation and detection of single photons. It is shown that the scheme allows for a rate of distillable secure bits higher than that pertaining to BB84 [2]. We report on a first implementation of LM05 with weak pulses.     

Techniques for the mechanical characterisation of civil structures

Broadly speaking, structural defects include all those changes affecting a structure so that its behaviour is no longer in keeping with its intended use characteristics or differs from the behaviour it was originally designed for. In recent years, damage recognition and location methods, relying on the measurement of parameters that are indicative of a structure's mechanical behaviour, have benefitted from the introduction of innovative approaches, which make it possible to process and correlate an unprecedented wealth of measurble data. The aim of this work is to illustrate the basic problems associated with the different methods used for structural identification (parametric and non-parametric, linear and non-linear, with known and unknown inputs, etc.) and to report on some interesting applications for civil structural diagnosis.     

Study of the hinge thickness deviation for a 316L parallelogram flexure mechanism fabricated via selective laser melting

3D printing offers great potential for developing complex flexure mechanisms. Recently, thickness-correction factors (TCFs) were introduced to correct the thickness and stiffness deviations of powder-based metal 3D printed flexure hinges during design and analysis. However, the reasons for the different TCFs obtained in each study are not clear, resulting in a limited value of these TCFs for future design and fabrication. Herein, the influence of the porous layer of 3D printed flexure hinges on the hinge thickness is investigated. Samples of parallelogram flexure mechanisms (PFMs) were 3D printed using selective laser melting (SLM) and 316L stainless steel powder. A 3D manufacturing error analysis was completed for each PFM sample via 3D scanning, surface roughness measurement and morphological observation. The thickness of the porous layer of the flexure hinge was independent of the designed hinge thickness and remained close to the average powder particle diameter. The effective hinge thickness could be estimated by subtracting twice the value of the porous layer thickness from the designed value. Guidelines based on finite element analysis and stiffness experiments are proposed. The limitations of the presented method for evaluating the effective hinge thickness of flexure hinges 3D printed via SLM are also discussed.

     

On the multi‐input second‐order sliding mode control of nonlinear uncertain systems

This note addresses the multi‐input second‐order sliding mode control design for a class of nonlinear multivariable uncertain dynamics. Among the most important peculiarities of the considered control problem, the considered sliding vector variable has a uniform vector relative degree [2,2, … ,2] with respect to the vector control variable, and only the sign of the sliding vector and of its derivative are available for feedback. Additionally, the symmetric part of the state‐dependent control matrix is supposed to be positive definite. Under some further mild restrictions on the uncertain system's dynamics, a control algorithm that realizes a multi‐input version of the ‘twisting’ second‐order sliding mode control algorithm is suggested. Simple controller tuning conditions are derived by means of a constructive Lyapunov analysis, which demonstrates that the suggested control algorithm guarantees the semiglobal asymptotic convergence to the sliding manifold. Simulation results, which confirm the good performance of the proposed scheme and investigate the actual accuracy obtained under the discrete‐time implementation effects, are given. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fast support vector machines for convolution tree kernels

Feature engineering is one of the most complex aspects of system design in machine learning. Fortunately, kernel methods provide the designer with formidable tools to tackle such complexity. Among others, tree kernels (TKs) have been successfully applied for representing structured data in diverse domains, ranging from bioinformatics and data mining to natural language processing. One drawback of such methods is that learning with them typically requires a large number of kernel computations (quadratic in the number of training examples) between training examples. However, in practice substructures often repeat in the data which makes it possible to avoid a large number of redundant kernel evaluations. In this paper, we propose the use of Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs) to compactly represent trees in the training algorithm of Support Vector Machines. In particular, we use DAGs for each iteration of the cutting plane algorithm (CPA) to encode the model composed by a set of trees. This enables DAG kernels to efficiently evaluate TKs between the current model and a given training tree. Consequently, the amount of total computation is reduced by avoiding redundant evaluations over shared substructures. We provide theory and algorithms to formally characterize the above idea, which we tested on several datasets. The empirical results confirm the benefits of the approach in terms of significant speedups over previous state-of-the-art methods. In addition, we propose an alternative sampling strategy within the CPA to address the class-imbalance problem, which coupled with fast learning methods provides a viable TK learning framework for a large class of real-world applications.     

Characterisation of mortar morphology in thin sections by digital image processing

A digital imaging approach was applied to investigate mortar morphology in thin sections; in particular, the binder/aggregate ratio and the grading curve of five mortar bars were attained by digital image processing (DIP), using the Image Pro Plus 4.1 software package. The imaging procedure employed image segmentation, to extract mortar aggregate, and image filtering, to fix grain boundaries. The results show that digital image processing may be considered as an alternative method to mechanical sieving for the characterisation of mortar morphology, as it appears to be quicker and more accurate than the traditional method. However, digital image processing exhibits limits, which are discussed in the text.     

Selective Complexation and Membrane Transport of Guanidinium Salts by Calix[6]arene Amides

The p-tert-butylcalix[6]arene hexamide 2 and syn-1,3,5–trimethoxy-2,4,6-triamide 4 were synthesized by reaction of α-chloro-N,N-diethylacetamide and the corresponding calix[6]arenes 1 and 3 , respectively. ¹H NMR spectroscopy shows that 2 is a mixture of different conformations whereas 4 is fixed in a cone conformation. Extraction experiments, (S-L) and (H₂O–CDCl₃) with picrate salts, indicate that 2 complexes both alkali metal (1:2 complex) and guanidinium salts (1:1 complex) but 4 complexes only guanidinium (1:1 complex). Incorporated in supported liquid membranes (Accurel^® / o-nitrophenyl n-octyl ether) the calixarenes 2 and 4 transport guanidinium salts. The hexamide 2 is a more efficient carrier of guanidinium but the syn-1,3,5-trimethoxy-2,4,6-triamide 4 is much more selective. Both 2 and 4 are sufficiently lipophilic to give membranes that are stable over longer periods (weeks).