Agent-Mediated Electronic Commerce

Electronic commerce has been one of the traditional arenas for agent technology. The complexity of these applications has been a challenge for researchers that have developed methodologies, products, and systems, having in mind the specificities of trade, the interaction particularities of commerce, the strict notion of commitment and contract, and the clearly shaped conventions and norms that structure the field. In this paper I survey some key areas for agent technology which, although general, are of special importance in electronic commerce, namely, solid development methodologies, negotiation technologies and trust-building mechanisms. I give examples of systems in which I have directly participated, although I also try to refer to the work of other AgentLink Special Interest Group members over the last few years.     

Emptiness and Finiteness for Tree Automata with Global Reflexive Disequality Constraints

In recent years, several extensions of tree automata have been considered. Most of them are related with the capability of testing equality or disequality of certain subterms of the term evaluated by the automaton. In particular, tree automata with global constraints are able to test equality and disequality of subterms depending on the state to which they are evaluated. The emptiness problem is known decidable for this kind of automata, but with a non-elementary time complexity, and the finiteness problem remains unknown. In this paper, we consider the particular case of tree automata with global constraints when the constraint is a conjunction of disequalities between states, and the disequality predicate is forced to be reflexive. This restriction is significant in the context of XML definitions with monadic key constraints. We prove that emptiness and finiteness are decidable in triple exponential time for this kind of automata.     

大规模MIMO系统上行链路时间-空间结构信道估计算法

针对大规模多入多出(MIMO)系统上行链路非平稳空间相关信道的估计问题,该文利用信道的时间-空间2维稀疏结构信息,应用狄利克雷过程(DP)和变分贝叶斯推理(VBI),设计了一种低导频开销和计算复杂度的信道估计迭代算法,提高了信道估计精度。由于平稳空间相关信道难以适用于大规模MIMO系统,该文借助于狄利克雷过程构建了非平稳空间相关信道先验模型,可将具有空间关联的多个物理信道映射为具有相同时延结构的概率信道,并应用变分贝叶斯推理设计了低导频开销和计算复杂度的信道估计迭代算法。实验结果验证了所提算法的有效性,且具有对系统关键参数鲁棒性的优点。

     

OPTIMALITY CHARACTERISTICS OF PI/PID CONTROLLERS: A COMBINED MIN-MAX/ISE INTERPRETATION

This communication addresses the tuning of PI and PID controllers on the basis of the IMC approach. The tuning is based upon a first order plus time delay (FOPTD) model and aims to achieve a step response specification. Through analysis it has been found that by using the IMC approach we get a PI or a PID depending on the rational approximation used for the time delay term. This article raises the question that the use of a PID instead of a PI controller should be based on another reason more related to the control objectives rather than the use of a better approximation for the time delay. An alternative tuning is presented here, from within the IMC formulation, based on a min-max optimization. From the tuning rule provided by this approach the optimum settings from an integral squared error criterion point of view are derived. The optimal controller results in being a PI controller. From this optimal controller as the starting point, the introduction of the derivative action can be seen as a detuning procedure that can increase the robustness of the controller. This approach provides further insight into the tuning of PI and PID controllers giving the (alternative) parameters a precise engineering meaning.     

Toward the prediction of porous membrane permeability from morphological data

One of the challenges in membrane technology is predicting permeability in porous membranes for liquid applications in an easy and inexpensive way. This is the aim of this work. To achieve this objective, several techniques can be considered. In this study, a morphological approach from two‐dimensional scanning electron micrographs is proposed. First, numerical membrane morphological parameters have been determined from micrographs by using the QUANTS tool, which applies a texture recognition process. Second, the obtained data have been fit to the Darcy's and Hagen–Poiseuille models to calculate permeations. The QUANTS results have also been compared with the ones obtained through a mercury porosimeter, which is a classic and well‐known methodology. Each parameter of the Hagen–Poiseuille model has been analyzed. A comparison between experimentally measured permeations and calculated ones has been performed. An even easier approach is proposed to predict flow rate with the only knowledge of membrane surface mean pore size. This method is based on cross‐section pore size interpolation by using function fits from surface mean pore sizes. The obtained results show a reasonable agreement between measured and computed results, making this technique a valid approach for predicting membrane permeability. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 56:118–124, 2016. © 2015 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Kinetics of the liquid phase dehydration of 1‐octanol to di‐n‐octyl ether on Amberlyst 70

The kinetics of the liquid phase dehydration of 1‐octanol to di‐n‐octyl ether (DNOE) over Amberlyst 70 was studied at 413–453 K. Mechanistic rate models assuming water and 1‐octanol adsorbed on the resin, and the free sites fraction negligible, were selected from 1‐octanol dehydration experiments. Next, the influence of DNOE, water, and 1,4‐dioxane (solvent) concentration was evaluated. DNOE and 1,4‐dioxane do not affect significantly the reaction rate, while water inhibits it strongly. Water effect was quantified by splitting the rate constant into a “true one” and a correction factor related to the fraction of active sites blocked by water. The best kinetic model stemmed from an Eley‐Rideal mechanism with water adsorbed onto the resin and DNOE released directly to the liquid phase, with a correction factor for water inhibitory effect based on a Freundlich isotherm‐like function; activation energy being 110 ± 5 kJ·mol^?1, in line with literature data on homologous reactions. © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 63: 3966–3978, 2017     

Adhesion of Ceramic Coating on Thin and Smooth Metal Substrate: A Novel Approach with a Nanostructured Ceramic Interlayer

The adhesion of plasma-sprayed coating is, to a large extent, controlled by the cleanness and roughness of the surface on which the coating is deposited. So, most of the plasma spray procedures involve surface pretreatment by grit-blasting to adapt the roughness of the surface to the size of the impacting particles. This preparation process brings about compressive stresses that make it inappropriate for thin substrates. The present works aim to elaborate a thick ceramic coating (about 0.5?mm thick) on a thin metal substrate (1?mm thick) with a smooth surface (Ra of about 0.4???m). The coating system is intended for use in a Generation-IV nuclear energy system. It must exhibit a good adhesion between the ceramic topcoat and the smooth metal substrate to meet the specifications of the application. Our approach consisted of depositing the ceramic topcoat by air plasma spraying on a few micrometers thick ceramic layer made by suspension plasma spraying. This nanostructured layer played the role of a bond coat for the topcoat and made it possible to deposit it on the as-received substrate. The adhesion of the nanostructured layer was measured by the Vickers indentation cracking technique and that of the ceramic duplex coating system by tensile test.     

HIx system thermodynamic model for hydrogen production by the Sulfur–Iodine cycle

The HI_x ternary system (H₂O–HI–I₂) is the latent source of hydrogen for the Sulfur–Iodine thermo-chemical cycle. After analysis of the literature data and models, a homogeneous approach with the Peng–Robinson equation of state used for both the vapor and liquid phase fugacity calculations is proposed for the first time to describe the phase equilibrium of this system. The MHV2 mixing rule is used, with UNIQUAC activity coefficient model combined with of hydrogen iodide solvation by water. This approach is theoretically consistent for HI_x separation processes operating above HI critical temperature. Model estimation is done on selected literature vapor–liquid, liquid–liquid, vapor–liquid–liquid and solid–liquid equilibrium data for the ternary system and the three binaries subsystems. Validation is done on the remaining literature data. Results agree well with the published data, but more experimental effort is needed to improve modeling of the HI_x system.     

Bunsen section thermodynamic model for hydrogen production by the sulfur–iodine cycle

A model for the Bunsen section of the Sulfur–Iodine thermo-chemical cycle is proposed, where sulfur dioxide reacts with excess water and iodine to produce two demixing liquid aqueous phases (H₂SO₄ rich and HI rich) in equilibrium. Considering the mild temperature and pressure conditions, the UNIQUAC activity coefficient model combined with Engels' solvation model is used. The complete model is discussed, with HI solvation by water and by iodine as well as H₂SO₄ solvation by water, leading to a very high complexity with almost hundred parameters to be estimated from experimental data. Taking into account the water excess, a successful reduced model with only 15 parameters is proposed after defining new apparent species. Acids total dissociation and total H⁺ solvation by water are the main assumptions. Results show a good agreement with published experimental data between 25 °C and 120 °C.