A Value-Driven System for Autonomous Information Gathering

This paper presents a system for autonomous information gathering in an information rich domain under time and monetary resource restrictions. The system gathers information using an explicit representation of the user's decision model and a database of information sources. Information gathering is performed by repeatedly selecting the query with the highest marginal value. This value is determined by the value of the information with respect to the decision being made, the responsiveness of the information source, and a given resource cost function. Finally, we compare the value-driven approach to several base-line techniques and show that the overhead of the meta-level control is made up for by the increased decision quality.     

Hurricane Katrina Storm Surge Reconnaissance

Hurricane Katrina (August 23–30, 2005) was one of the costliest and deadliest hurricanes to ever strike the United States, impacting low-lying coastal plains particularly vulnerable to storm surge flooding. Maximum storm surges, overland flow depths, and inundation distances were measured along the Gulf Coast of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. The vehicle-based survey was complemented by inspections with the reconnaissance boat along the Gulf Coast and the Mississippi Barrier Islands. The survey covered both the impact on the built and the natural environments. The storm surge peaked to the east of Katrina’s path exceeding 10?m in several locations along the Mississippi coastline. The storm surge measurements show that the lower floors of specially designed buildings were damaged by the surge of seawater and associated wave action, while the upper floors sustained minimal wind damage. The storm surge measurements along New Orleans Lakeshore allowed the investigators to exclude overtopping as failure mechanism for the 17th Street outfall canal levee. Hurricane Katrina’s storm surge distribution (Category 3 at landfall) is compared against Hurricane Camille’s storm surge distribution (Category 5 at landfall). The land loss on the barrier islands and the increased vulnerability of the US Gulf Coast to future hurricane storm surges is discussed.     

Fabrication of Ti3SiC2-based ceramic matrix composites by a powder-free SHS technique

A powder-free technique for fabrication of Ti₃SiC₂-based composite ceramics via self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS) is developed. The essence of the method is that the SHS-compaction of a multilayer stack comprised alternating layers of titanium foils and polymer films filled with either microsized silicon carbide particles or microsized silicon carbide particles mixed with charcoal particles. It is shown that SHS-compaction of non-powder materials can be used to synthesize dense particulate-reinforced ceramic matrix composites of Ti₃SiC₂TiSi₂SiC_p. Effects of the initial reactant composition and the synthesis conditions on the microstructure of the prepared materials are discussed.     

Exposure of engineered nanoparticles to human lung epithelial cells: influence of chemical composition and catalytic activity on oxidative stress

The chemical and catalytic activity of nanoparticles has strongly contributed to the current tremendous interest in engineered nanomaterials and often serves as a guiding principle for the design of functional materials. Since it has most recently become evident that such active materials can enter into cells or organisms, the present study investigates the level of intracellular oxidations after exposure to iron-, cobalt-, manganese-, and titania-containing silica nanoparticles and the corresponding pure oxides in vitro. The resulting oxidative stress was quantitatively measured as the release of reactive oxygen species (ROS). The use of thoroughly characterized nanoparticles of the same morphology, comparable size, shape, and degree of agglomeration allowed separation of physical (rate of particle uptake, agglomeration, sedimentation) and chemical effects (oxidations). Three sets of control experiments elucidated the role of nanoparticles as carriers for heavy metal uptake and excluded a potential interference of the biological assay with the nanomaterial. The present results indicate that the particles could efficiently enter the cells by a Trojan-horse type mechanism which provoked an up to eight times higher oxidative stress in the case of cobalt or manganese if compared to reference cultures exposed to aqueous solutions of the same metals. A systematic investigation on iron-containing nanoparticles as used in industrial fine chemical synthesis demonstrated that the presence of catalytic activity could strongly alter the damaging action of a nanomaterial. This indicates that a proactive development of nanomaterials and their risk assessment should consider chemical and catalytic properties of nanomaterials beyond a mere focus on physical properties such as size, shape, and degree of agglomeration.     

Minimally invasive method for treatment of supra-diacondylar femoral fractures

The "gold standard" treatment modality for extra-articular and combined intra-, extra-articular fracture of the distal femur is the condylar blade plate (CP). Large exposure of the distal femur with unavoidable iatrogenic trauma to the soft tissue surrounding the fracture site and perhaps the lack of stiffness of the eccentric lateral cortical location of the CP has been suggested to play a role in the high rate of infections and pseudarthrosis reported in the literature. In an effort to overcome some of the difficulties with the condylar blade plate and to reduce complications, an unreamed, titanium, solid nail, locked proximally with two locking screws and distally with a screw and twisted blade was developed (DFN). The nail was designed for minimal invasive reduction through a small median parapatellar arthrotomy of the articular fracture (percutaneous screw) and of the supracondylar fracture. The DFN is a modular system sharing many components and almost all instrumentation with the AO-UFN and it is expected that the nail is much better in axial stiffness and strength than the condylar blade plate. The treatment of supracondylar femoral fractures should be improved by providing early weight bearing and accelerated fracture healing with a reduced incidence of delayed unions and infections.     

Characterization of bread breakdown during mastication by image texture analysis

The methods currently used to characterise food breakdown during mastication are not easily applicable to cohesive and heterogeneous products such as white bread (baguettes). During this study, we investigated the applicability of image texture analysis to characterising the kinetics of bread bolus formation during chewing. Food boluses were collected from five subjects chewing four different breads after 10, 20 and 30 chewing cycles or at swallowing. Images were acquired and analysed using the Grey level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) method. Food boluses were successfully discriminated: 60–73% of the images were correctly classified into their respective chewing cycles. Incorrect classifications arose from overlapping between subsequent cycles. Among the texture features the contrast was identified as being the best marker of food degradation. Different kinetics of bolus formation were observed between breads. This method revealed specific patterns of food degradation between subjects, which could be explained by their mastication behaviour and chewing efficiency.     

Fabrication of Ti3SiC2/SiCp multiport minichannel plates for high-temperature applications

An innovative method for fabricating ceramic multiport minichannel plates (MMP) has been developed. The essence of the method is the combustion synthesis of Ti₃SiC₂/SiC_p ceramic matrix composite using sandwich assembly of titanium metal items, viz. rods and sheets, and tape-cast rubber films filled with SiC particles and TiC additive. The fabrication route consists of hot pressing of starting materials at 100 °C under 60 MPa in air into a single integrated unit followed by heat treatment at 1400 °C in a vacuum hot press furnace under small uniaxial load of 80 N. It is shown that the one-dimensional titanium metal items act as both reactants and channel-forming templates. The MMP prepared by the proposed method contains primarily of 45 vol.% Ti₃SiC₂ and 44 vol.% SiC, as well 11 vol.% TiSi₂ minor component. The material exhibits a composite microstructure consisting of a dense Ti₃SiC₂-based matrix and SiC particles uniformly embedded in it. The sample contains parallel-aligned hollow cylindrical channels of 0.8 mm in diameter distributed with a center-to-center spacing of 1.3 mm. The volume fracture of the channels is estimated to be about 19%.