The Internal Pressure Test in Experiment and Simulation—Influence of the Wall Thickness Variation and the Change of the Packaging Behavior after the Impact of Standard Liquids

The effect of the wall thickness variation of blow‐moulded bodies made of high‐density polyethylene on an internal pressure test after prestoring the packaging with standard liquids was evaluated in experiments and simulations. The objects of the investigation were jerrycans used for the transportation and storage of dangerous goods. The wall thickness was determined using two alternative methods to the magnetostatic measurement. These alternative methods are used for research purpose to get a volumetric model of the jerrycan wall as a geometric model for the simulation. The comparison of the experiments and the simulations of the internal pressure test were performed using the digital image correlation method. The integral strain and deformation of the whole jerrycan was detected by measuring the total mass of the jerrycan being filled with water during the internal pressure test. This is a suitable alternative to the optical measurements of local deformation by the digital image correlation method. Prestorage at 40 °C without the influence of chemicals strengthens the jerrycan, whereas the swelling effect of butyl acetate and hydrocarbon mixture softens the jerrycan. The comparison with the experiment is necessary to verify the accuracy of the simulation. It shows that the deformation can be simulated more precisely by using the actual measured geometry. The weakening of the high‐density polyethylene caused by a hydrocarbon mixture can be simulated using the Arrhenius equation. The aim of the simulation was to discover whether it is possible to use specimens to predict the behaviour of a packaging both after the influence of standard liquids. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Finite multidimensional behaviors

We study finitely generated and finite systems defined by linear partial difference equations with constant coefficients in a Noetherian ring. The two notions coincide for finite rings, and we show that all finite systems exhibit certain periodicity properties. For the particular case of systems over the ring of integers modulo m?>?1, which is important in coding theory, a method is given for determining the number of trajectories, using Gr?bner basis techniques.     

Rate-Controlling Mechanisms in the Photo-degradation of 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural

Rate-controlling mechanisms in the photo-degradation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) were studied applying kinetic and thermodynamic compensations. Aqueous solutions of HMF were prepared at a concentration of 100 mg L^?1 and at pH values of 3, 3.4, 4, and 5. The UV irradiation of samples was performed in an installation consisting of a black chamber containing the reactor and a mid-pressure mercury lamp with emission wavelengths between 250 and 740 nm. Every sample was irradiated at 12, 25, 35, and 45 °C for 120 min, analyzing their HMF content each 10 min. The photo-degradation data fitted well to zero-order kinetic model, and the constant values were used to study whether the kinetic and thermodynamic compensation could be applied. The isokinetic temperature was very similar for kinetic compensation (T_B?=?278.0 K) and thermodynamic compensation (T_B?=?277.8 K). Applying the Leffler’s criterion, the HMF photo-degradation was entropically controlled, probably as a consequence of hydrophobic interactions. In order to check the entropical control, two experiments were repeated at pH 3 but avoiding agitation. As the new obtained kinetic constants were highly different from the values previously obtained using agitation, it can be concluded that the HMF photo-degradation is an entropy-controlled process and can be speeded up by changing non-thermal parameters, like agitation.     

Temporal contexts: Effective text classification in evolving document collections

The management of a huge and growing amount of information available nowadays makes Automatic Document Classification (ADC), besides crucial, a very challenging task. Furthermore, the dynamics inherent to classification problems, mainly on the Web, make this task even more challenging. Despite this fact, the actual impact of such temporal evolution on ADC is still poorly understood in the literature. In this context, this work concerns to evaluate, characterize and exploit the temporal evolution to improve ADC techniques. As first contribution we highlight the proposal of a pragmatical methodology for evaluating the temporal evolution in ADC domains. Through this methodology, we can identify measurable factors associated to ADC models degradation over time. Going a step further, based on such analyzes, we propose effective and efficient strategies to make current techniques more robust to natural shifts over time. We present a strategy, named temporal context selection, for selecting portions of the training set that minimize those factors. Our second contribution consists of proposing a general algorithm, called Chronos, for determining such contexts. By instantiating Chronos, we are able to reduce uncertainty and improve the overall classification accuracy. Empirical evaluations of heuristic instantiations of the algorithm, named WindowsChronos and FilterChronos, on two real document collections demonstrate the usefulness of our proposal. Comparing them against state-of-the-art ADC algorithms shows that selecting temporal contexts allows improvements on the classification accuracy up to 10%. Finally, we highlight the applicability and the generality of our proposal in practice, pointing out this study as a promising research direction.     

Unseen science? Representation of BRICs in global science

A survey of scientific periodical publications (or venues-as distinct from articles) from BRIC country practitioners counted more than 15,000 national publications. Data collected from and about Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRIC countries) show that 495 venues, or about 3%, are listed in the Science Citation Index Expanded^© (SCIE^©) in 2010. Contrary to our expectation of under-representation overall and coverage limitation of SCIE, the average percentage of SCIE-listed venues for the BRICs is about the same as that for advanced countries. China has the lowest representation of national venues in SCIE at 2% of all publications; Russia has the highest at about 8%. India has about 6% of venues in SCIE; Brazil has about 4%. In other words, SCIE includes about the same percentage of high quality science from these four countries as for North America and Europe, meaning that these countries are not under-represented in SCIE. Moreover, the number of national venues available as outlets suggests that national scientists in these countries have good access to publications and venues. Some of the BRIC national publications are difficult to “see” at the global level because of language barriers, diverse publication formats, and lack of digitization. Other national differences represent historical traditions surrounding publication.     

Cost-benefit analysis for disruption prevention in low-volume assembly

Manufacturing companies face rising pressure due to increased competition. Traditionally, companies have merely concentrated on offering impeccable, cost-efficient products. Today, however, flexibility and on-time delivery are additional requirements to satisfy the customers. At the same time, disruptions in production, especially in low-volume assembly, still frequently occur, leading to economic losses and delayed customer deliveries. The approach proposed in this paper strives for improving the disruption situation in low-volume assemblies. A detailed disruption management methodology has been developed, aiming at realizing an efficient reduction of disruptions, while at the same time considering the specific characteristics of low-volume assembly. The methodology is supported by a catalog of pre-emptive measures. These measures are known to reduce the disruptions’ occurrence or to diminish their consequences. In general, the approach pursues the basic idea to implement particularly those measures, which have the best cost-benefit-ratio. Based on the analysis of the cost-benefit-ratio of each measure, the developed methodology aims at improving the disruption situation in assembly and thus providing a high on-time delivery rate. The usability of the methodology for the low-volume assembly context has been confirmed by assembly experts on the basis of an application of the methodology in an exemplary case study.     

Minimization of the Ohmic Loss of Grooved Polarizer Mirrors in High-Power ECRH Systems

A set of two corrugated polarizer mirrors is typically used in high-power electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) systems to provide the required polarization of the ECRH output beam. The ohmic losses of these mirrors can significantly exceed the losses of plane mirrors depending on the polarization of the incident beam with respect to the orientation of the grooves. Since polarizer mirrors incorporated into miter bends of a corrugated waveguide line are limited in size, active water cooling can become critical in high-power cw systems like the one for ITER. The ohmic loss of polarizer mirrors has been investigated experimentally at high power. A strategy to minimize the losses for given mirror geometries has been found.