PATTERN RECOGNITION IN MAINTAINING RELIABILITY

In the paper a feedback control scheme for running and maintenance of industrial equipments is developed, where only input and output signals of the control loop are observable, the actual state of the system will be estimated from the output signals using pattern recognition. Technical and statistical expertise in the control loop are separated, therefore appropriate statistical tools and problems (classification, feature extraction, life statistics) can be individually accessed. The phenomenon of aging is modelled by random transitions among parameter classes with different failure rates. Optimization is reduced to a Markovian decision process. Concrete technical examples illustrate the relevance of the model

RELIABILITY OF INTEGRATED MATERIAL AND DATA PROCESSING SYSTEMS (IMDP)

The reliability estimation of Integrated and Data Processing Systems because of their complexity and costs requires special methods. In this paper the possibilities to increase reliability, optimum maintenance strategies, real-time monitoring problems are discussed. The general principle of a reliability prediction procedure using mathematical pattern recognition methods is given

On submanifolds with tamed second fundamental form

We show that a complete submanifold $M$ with tamed second fundamental form in a complete Riemannian manifold $N$ with sectional curvature $K_{N}\leq \kappa \leq 0$ are proper, (compact if $N$ is compact). In addition, if $N$ is Hadamard then $M$ has finite topology. We also show that the fundamental tone is an obstruction for a Riemannian manifold to be realized as submanifold with tamed second fundamental form of a Hadamard manifold with sectional curvature bounded below.Comment: 10 page

Feather growth rate and mass in nearctic passerines with variablemigratory behavior and molt pattern

Bird species vary greatly in the duration of their annual complete feather molt. However, such variation is not well documented in birds from many biogeographic areas, which restricts our understanding of the diversification of molt strategies. Recent research has revealed that molt duration can be estimated in passerines from ptilochronology-based measurements of the growth rate of their tail feathers. We used this approach to explore how molt duration varied in 98 Nearctic species that have different migratory strategies and molt patterns. As previously documented for Palearctic species, migration was associated with a shortening of molt duration among species that molted during summer on their breeding range. However, molts of winter-molting migratory species were as long as those of summer-molting sedentary species, which suggests that winter molt also allows Nearctic migrants to avoid the temporal constraints experienced during summer. Our results also suggest that migratory species that undergo a stopover molt within the Mexican monsoon region have the shortest molt duration among all Nearctic passerines. Interestingly, and contrary to expectations from a potential tradeoff between molt duration and feather quality, observed variation in feather growth rate was positively correlated with differences in tail feather mass, which may be caused by differences among groups in the availability of resources for molting. We encourage the use of similar approaches to study the variation in molt duration in other geographic areas where knowledge of the evolution of molt is limited.

Performance of Sweetpotato for Bioregenerative Life Support

Sweetpotato was successfully grown to harvest maturity in a large-scale atmospherically-closed controlled environment chamber. Yield of edible biomass and capacity for contributing to air revitalization and water recovery were documented. Yield was slightly less than that found in smaller-scale studies, but this is not unusual (Wheeler 1999). Continued work is suggested to improve control of storage root initiation, bulking and vine growth