Solid state reactions between SiC and Ir

Reactivity between SiC and Ir as a function of SiC-crystallinity was investigated by diffusion bonding technique under a vacuum and over the temperature range of 1200–1450 °C. As reaction products, various Ir-silicides and free unreacted-C were detected. Reactivity is strongly affected by the temperature and SiC-crystallinity involving a series of interactions, from “no reaction” to “massive exothermic reactions”. In particular, interfacial phenomena are more pronounced by the presence of defects and grain boundaries.Solid state reactions result in formation of fine C-precipitates rearranged in a quasi-periodic microstructure. On the contrary, clustering of highly ordered C-precipitates (C-graphitized) occurs after “massive reactions” take place.A relationship between the degree of graphitization (from 1 to multi-layers of graphene), temperature and SiC crystallinity was found by Raman spectroscopy. 2D-layering phenomenon is enhanced in polycrystalline SiC at high temperature.     

Playing with Maude

This paper is an introduction to rule-based programming in Maude. We illustrate in particular the use of operator attributes to structure the state of a system, and the difference between equations and rules. We use well-known mathematical games and puzzles for our examples illustrating the expressive power of Maude.     

An adaptive, real-time, traffic monitoring system

In this paper we describe a computer vision-based traffic monitoring system able to detect individual vehicles in real-time. Our fully integrated system first obtains the main traffic variables: counting, speed and category; and then computes a complete set of statistical variables. The objective is to investigate some of the difficulties impeding existing traffic systems to achieve balanced accuracy in every condition; i.e. day and night transitions, shadows, heavy vehicles, occlusions, slow traffic and congestions. The system we present is autonomous, works for long periods of time without human intervention and adapts automatically to the changing environmental conditions. Several innovations, designed to deal with the above circumstances, are proposed in the paper: an integrated calibration and image rectification step, differentiated methods for day and night, an adaptive segmentation algorithm, a multistage shadow detection method and special considerations for heavy vehicle identification and treatment of slow traffic. A specific methodology has been developed to benchmark the accuracy of the different methods proposed.     

Biodiesel production from waste coconut oil by esterification with ethanol: The effect of water removal by adsorption

The production of biodiesel by esterification with ethanol using waste oil generated in the refining of coconut oil was investigated in this study. The reaction was performed with and without adsorption of water in order to verify the effect of removing water on the reaction conversion. Methanol was also evaluated as an esterification agent. For both ethanol and methanol, conversions over 99% mol were observed. Simultaneous water adsorption allowed the use of lower alcohol/oil molar ratios thus enabling better economics to a possible industrial process.     

An integration architecture for the automation of a continuous production complex

The development of integrated automation systems for continuous production plants is a very complicated process. A variety of factors must be taken into account, such as their different components (e.g., production units control systems, planning systems, financial systems, etc.), the interaction among them, and their different behavior (continuous or discrete). Moreover, the difficulty of this process is increased by the fact that each component can be viewed in a different way depending on the kind of decisions to be made, and its specific behavior. Modeling continuous production complexes as a composition of components, where, in turn, each component may also be a composite, appears to be the simplest and safest way to develop integrated automation systems. In order to provide the most versatile way to develop this kind of system, this work proposes a new approach for designing and building them, where process behavior, operation conditions and equipment conditions are integrated into a hierarchical automation architecture.     

Improved background modeling for real-time spatio-temporal non-parametric moving object detection strategies

Answering to the growing demand of machine vision applications for the latest generation of electronic devices endowed with camera platforms, several moving object detection strategies have been proposed in recent years. Among them, spatio-temporal based non-parametric methods have recently drawn the attention of many researchers. These methods, by combining a background model and a foreground model, achieve high-quality detections in sequences recorded with non-completely static cameras and in scenarios containing complex backgrounds. However, since they have very high memory and computational associated costs, they apply some simplifications in the background modeling process, therefore decreasing the quality of the modeling.     

Pressureless infiltration versus wetting in AlSi/graphite system

The aim of this investigation is to study the mechanism of spontaneous infiltration of AlSi alloys into porous graphite with emphasis on the role of the reaction of carbide formation in the infiltration process. Results are obtained using the sessile drop technique that enables the variation of the infiltration depth with time to be monitored in situ. In addition to the infiltration data, this method provides quantitative information on wetting thus allowing the values of wetting and infiltration rates measured in the same experiment to be compared.     

Immersive $$360^{\circ }$$ video user experience: impact of different variables in the sense of presence and cybersickness

Universal Access in the Information Society - Virtual Reality (VR) has been recently gaining interest from researchers and companies, contributing to the development of the associated technologies...     

Wetting and capillarity in the Sn/graphite system

Aiming to investigate the role of wettability in the infiltration of tin into graphite particle compacts, sessile drop and infiltration experiments have been carried out at temperatures in the range of 300–700 °C. The surface tension of liquid tin and the contact angle at the tin/graphite interface have been measured in an argon atmosphere by means of the sessile drop technique, while pressure infiltration of Sn into compacts of graphite particles (27.2 μm of average diameter) has been carried out in air. The results indicate that the threshold pressure for infiltration is proportional to the work of immersion, as predicted by the capillary law. The particle geometric factor derived from the slope of the straight line is similar to that obtained previously from infiltration of aluminum. Although these results may indicate that the oxide layer that covers the tin surface plays a minor role in the infiltration process, a definitive conclusion may require a more detailed analysis of this interesting system.