Impact of measurement error on container inspection policies at port-of-entry

Containers arriving at a port-of-entry are inspected using sensors and devices to detect drugs, weapons, nuclear materials and other illegal cargo. Measurement errors associated with the inspection process may result in higher misclassification of containers. In this paper, we propose and formulate three inspection policies for containers at port-of-entry assuming the presence of sensor measurement errors. The optimization of the policies is carried out and the performance of each in terms of misclassification probabilities is compared. In each of the policies, the optimum settings are determined by minimizing the probability of false rejection while limiting the probability of false acceptance to a specified tolerance level. The results show that repeat inspections improve performance in terms of correct container classification. Expressions are presented for container misclassification in a single station, as well as in systems with several inspection stations arranged in different configurations such as series, parallel, series-parallel and parallel-series.     

Liquid‐Phase Enantioselective Chromatographic Resolution Using Interpenetrated,Homochiral Framework Materials

Effective separation of mixtures of enantiomers is of continuing interest in analytical and preparative chromatography, with new materials frequently designed and tested. We report two new enantiomerically pure 2D→3D interpenetrated materials used as stationary liquid chromatographic (LC) phases that are shown to resolve selected racemic mixtures with enantiomeric and chemical selectivity. Dicarboxylate ligands derived from amino acids on naphthalene and perylene cores form 2D frameworks that interpenetrate to give 3D structures. Selectivity is initially tested by uptake from solution; subsequent LC methods show that the materials exhibit resolution of racemic analytes in ‘micro‐columns’ and that the two closely related materials show markedly different selectivity for different analytes with much greater activity than the ligands alone. Comparison with a close‐packed analogue suggests that the separation activity is largely due to surface effects.     

Interferometric measurement of density in nonstationary shock wave reflection flow and comparison with CFD

We present density measurements from the application of interferometry and Fourier transform fringe analysis to the problem of nonstationary shock wave reflection over a semicircular cylinder and compare our experimental measurements to theoretical results from a CFD simulation of the same problem. The experimental results demonstrate our ability to resolve detailed structure in this complex shock wave reflection problem, allowing visualization of multiple shocks in the vicinity of the triple point, plus visualization of the shear layer and an associated vortical structure. Comparison between CFD and experiment show significant discrepancies with experiment producing a double Mach Reflection when CFD predicts a transitional Mach reflection.Received: 12 November 2003, Accepted: 21 October 2004, Published online: 31 March 2005[/PUBLISHED]PACS: 47.40.-x, 42.40.Kw     

A novel all-solid-state thin-film-type lithium-ion battery with in situ prepared positive and negative electrode materials

A novel all-solid-state thin-film-type rechargeable lithium-ion battery employing in situ prepared both positive and negative electrode materials is proposed. A lithium-ion conducting solid electrolyte sheet of Li₂O–Al₂O₃–TiO₂–P₂O₅-based glass–ceramic manufactured by OHARA Inc. (OHARA sheet) was used as the solid electrolyte, which was sandwiched by Cu and Mn metal films. The Cu/OHARA sheet/Mn layer became an all-solid-state lithium-ion battery after applying d.c. 16 V to the layer, and the resultant battery operated at 0.3–0.8 V with reversible capacity of 0.45 μAh cm^?2. High voltage battery was successfully prepared by applying the d.c. high voltage to a five-series of Cu/OHARA sheet/Mn layer, resulting in all-solid-state battery operating at 1.5–4.0 V. The proposed fabrication process will become a new technology to develop advanced all-solid-state rechargeable lithium-ion batteries.     

Analyzing consumers’ shopping behavior using RFID data and pattern mining

The development of sensor networks has enabled detailed tracking of customer behavior in stores. Shopping path data which records each customer??s position and time information is attracting attention as new marketing data. However, there are no proposed marketing models which can identify good customers from huge amounts of time series data on customer movement in the store. This research aims to use shopping path data resulting from tracking customer behavior in the store, using information on the sequence of visiting each product zone in the store and staying time at each product zone, to find how they affect purchasing. To discover useful knowledge for store management, shopping paths data has been transformed into sequence data including information on visit sequence and staying times in the store, and LCMseq has been applied to them to extract frequent sequence patterns. In this paper, we find characteristic in-store behavior patterns of good customers by using actual data of a Japanese supermarket.     

Laser-induced trench etching of GaAs in aqueous KOH solution

Maskless etching of n-type GaAs in a KOH aqueous solution by irradiation of an argonion laser has been investigated to obtain high etching rates and aspect-ratios of etched grooves. High etching rates of up to 805 m/s and an aspect ratio of 8 have been achieved by a single scan of a laser beam. Microprobe photoluminescence (PL), Raman scattering, and Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) measurements were carried out on the trench surface to characterize damage induced by laser wet etching.