Point availability of Gaver’s duplex system supervised by a safety device unit

We analyse the point availability of Gaver’s parallel system supervised by a safety device. For safety reasons, no unit is allowed to operate without supervision. The entire system is attended by two heterogeneous repairmen. Our methodology is based on the theory of sectionally holomorphic functions combined with the notion of dual transforms. As an application we consider Coxian repair time distributions.     

BAMLSS: Bayesian Additive Models for Location,Scale, and Shape (and Beyond)

Bayesian analysis provides a convenient setting for the estimation of complex generalized additive regression models (GAMs). Since computational power has tremendously increased in the past decade, it is now possible to tackle complicated inferential problems, for example, with Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation, on virtually any modern computer. This is one of the reasons why Bayesian methods have become increasingly popular, leading to a number of highly specialized and optimized estimation engines and with attention shifting from conditional mean models to probabilistic distributional models capturing location, scale, shape (and other aspects) of the response distribution. To embed many different approaches suggested in literature and software, a unified modeling architecture for distributional GAMs is established that exploits distributions, estimation techniques (posterior mode or posterior mean), and model terms (fixed, random, smooth, spatial,…). It is shown that within this framework implementing algorithms for complex regression problems, as well as the integration of already existing software, is relatively straightforward. The usefulness is emphasized with two complex and computationally demanding application case studies: a large daily precipitation climatology, as well as a Cox model for continuous time with space-time interactions. Supplementary material for this article is available online.     

修理设备可更换且修理有延迟的两不同型部件并联可修系统

假定部件的寿命服从指数分布,其修理延迟时间和修理时间均服从一般分布,并且修理设备的寿命服从指数分布,其更换时间服从一般分布,利用马尔可夫更新过程理论和一种新的分解方法,研究了修理设备可更换且修理有延迟的两不同型部件并联可修系统,求得了系统和修理设备有关可靠性指标的一系列结果.     

Enantiomeric Cyclic Peptides with Different Caco‐2 Permeability Suggest Carrier‐Mediated Transport

Recently, oral absorption of cyclic hexapeptides was improved by N‐methylation of their backbone amides. However, the number and position of N‐methylations or of solvent exposed NHs did not correlate to intestinal permeability, measured in a Caco‐2 model. In this study, we investigate enantiomeric pairs of three polar and two lipophilic peptides to demonstrate the participation of carrier‐mediated transporters. As expected, all the enantiomeric peptides exhibited identical lipophilicity (logD_7.4) and passive transcellular permeability determined by the parallel artificial membrane permeability assay (PAMPA). However, the enantiomeric polar peptides exhibited different Caco‐2 permeability (P_app) in both directions a–b and b–a. The same trend was observed for one of the lipophilic peptide, whereas the second lipophilic enantiomer pair showed identical Caco‐2 permeability (within the errors). These findings provide the first evidence for the involvement of carrier‐mediated transport for peptides, especially for those of polar nature.     

An approach to deciding the observational equivalence of Algol-like languages

We prove that the observational equivalence of third-order finitary (i.e. recursion-free) Idealized Algol (IA) is decidable using Game Semantics. By modelling the state explicitly in our games, we show that the denotation of a term M of this fragment of IA is a compactly innocent strategy-with-state, i.e. the strategy is generated by a finite view function f_M. Given any such f_M, we construct a real-time deterministic pushdown automaton (DPDA) that recognizes the complete plays of the knowing-strategy denotation of M. Since such plays characterize observational equivalence, and there is an algorithm for deciding whether any two DPDAs recognize the same language, we obtain a procedure for deciding the observational equivalence of third-order finitary IA. Restricted to second-order terms, the DPDA representation cuts down to a deterministic finite automaton; thus our approach gives a new proof of Ghica and McCusker’s regular-expression characterization for this fragment. Our algorithmic representation of program meanings, which is compositional, provides a foundation for model-checking a wide range of behavioural properties of IA and other cognate programming languages. Another result concerns second-order IA with full recursion: we show that observational equivalence for this fragment is undecidable.     

Expert systems as a tool for statistics: A review

The current state of using expert system (ES) techniques for statistics is expounded through the difficulties of defining the notion of statistical expert system (SES) and through several well-known examples. The main characteristics of statistical expertise, and particularly the important concept of strategy are emphasized. The current state of SESs is seen in the context of the global trend of the evolution of ES, i.e. within the growth of second generation expert system (SGESs). The knowledge base of these ESs represent an attempt to represent not only experts' knowledge but also the way experts acquire their expertise, thanks to the existence of an underlying model. We show through many examples how far SESs are and/or will be able to be SGESs.     

Practical stopping criteria for validating safety-critical software by estimating impartial reliability

In this research, we investigate stopping rules for software testing and propose two stopping rules from the aspect of software reliability testing based on the impartial reliability model. The impartial reliability difference (IRD-MP) rule considers the difference between the impartial transition-probability reliabilities estimated for both software developer and consumers at their predetermined prior information levels. The empirical–impartial reliability difference (EIRD-MP) rule suggests stopping a software test when the computed empirical transition reliability is tending to its estimated impartial transition reliability. To insure the high-standard requirement for safety-critical software, both rules take the maximum probability (MP) of untested paths into account.     

Polynuclear manganese grids and clusters—A magnetic perspective

High nuclearity paramagnetic, spin-coupled transition metal clusters and grids are fascinating chemists and physicists partly because of their structural beauty, and the challenge of creating them, but also because of their novel physical properties. Magnetic interactions between the spin centers are a primary focus. This review will examine a selection of Mn(II) polynuclear grids and clusters, with nuclearities in the range Mn₄ to Mn₉. Theoretical treatments of the magnetic properties are discussed, and approaches to solving the exchange problem for ‘large’ spin systems related to computational difficulties. A freely available software package (MAGMUN4.1) is presented as a means of dealing simply with spin-coupled clusters in general, and symmetry reduction methods are discussed briefly as a means of dealing with ‘large’ spin systems.     

New tools: Expert systems for uncertainty budgets

An important part of quality assurance in any analytical laboratory is the production of comprehensive results integrating uncertainty measurements. Many testing laboratories face the problem that the expenditure required to evaluate small uncertainties (high precision and high accuracy) is often uneconomic. In most cases an uncertainty of high reliability has to be calculated from only a few data (one calibration, few replications, etc.). This problem can be solved by an expert system. To achieve this the analytical procedure has to be structured into a dialouge and divided into parts. The uncertainty has to be calculated for each part of the procedure. Addition of the individual uncertainties results in the combined and expanded uncertainty. During the dialouge the system should advise the analyst how to get an efficient and effective calculation of uncertainty. All calculations, mathematical and statistical procedures have to be surveyable but running the system should not be too time consuming for economic reasons. Within the scope of the EURECA-project initiated by the Eidgenössische Materialprüfungs- und Forschungsanstalt (EMPA), St. Gallen, Switzerland, expert system software is being developed in cooperation with other research institutes and manufacturers of analytical instruments. Using this software it will be possible to calculate the uncertainty for analytical procedures such as titration, atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) and gas- and liquid chromatography (GC, HPLC).     

The solubility of an hydroxyaluminosilicate

Hydroxyaluminosilicates (HAS) are critical secondary mineral phases in the biogeochemical cycle of aluminium. They are formed from the reaction of silicic acid (Si(OH)₄) with an aluminium hydroxide template and act as a geochemical control of the biological availability of Al. There are two main forms of HAS which we have called HAS_A and HAS_B and which of these will predominate will depend upon the Si(OH)₄ to Al ratio in any one environment. In all but the most heavily weathered environments or those undergoing a progressive acidification Si(OH)₄ will be present in significant excess to Al and HAS_B will be the dominant secondary mineral phase. We have tried to determine the solubility of HAS_B(s) so that its contribution to Al solubility control might be compared with other secondary minerals such as Al(OH)_3(gibbsite). In preliminary experiments, the dissolution of HAS_B(s) was found to be non-congruent with almost no Al being released during 18 months ageing. We then demonstrated that HAS_B(s) was significantly less soluble than Al(OH)_3(s) prepared under identical experimental conditions. We have used this information to describe a solubility expression for HAS_B(s) at a predefined quasi-equibrium and to calculate a solubility constant.

K^*Al₂Si₂O₅(OH)₄=[Al₂O⁴⁺][SiO₂]²[OH^-]⁴