An ontological conceptualization approach for awareness in domain-independent collaborative modeling systems: Application to a model-driven development method

One of the most important aspects of collaborative systems is the concept of awareness, which refers to the perception and knowledge of the group and its activities. Support for the design and automatic development of awareness mechanisms within collaborative systems is hard to find. Furthermore, awareness conceptualizations are usually partial and differ greatly between the proposals of different authors. In response to these problems, we propose an awareness ontology that conceptualizes some of the most important aspects of awareness in a specific kind of system: collaborative systems for carrying out modeling activities. The awareness ontology brings together and extends a series of ontologies we have developed in the past. The ontology is prepared to better meet the specific implementation needs of a model-driven development approach. In order to validate the usefulness of this ontology, we relate its concepts to the awareness dimensions set out in Gutwin and Greenberg’s framework, and we apply the ontology to two systems presently in use.     

Modeling the Dehydration of Apple Slices by Deep Fat Frying

One of the objectives of immersion frying is to remove water from the food. Thus, predicting moisture loss is important when developing a model for that process. With the aim to model moisture transfer during apple frying, Granny Smith apple slabs were processed at 140, 150, 160, and 170°C. The moisture diffusivity was computed, ranging between 10.7 · 10^?9 and 17.7 · 10^?9 m² · s^?1. There was a close fit between the model and the experimental data (average %var 99.0). Model validation was carried out considering different slice thickness. Temperature influence was interpreted by the Arrhenius relationship with an activation energy of 25.4 kJ · mol^?1.     

Pressure Effect on Deep Fat Frying of Apple Chips

Predicting moisture loss is important when developing a model for vacuum frying, because one of its objectives is to remove food moisture. A diffusion model was considered to describe moisture transfer during vacuum frying. Granny Smith apple slabs were processed at 16.6, 13.3, and 8 kPa and between 80 and 120°C. Moisture diffusivity was determined, obtaining a close fit between the model and the experimental data. Diffusivity increased with temperature and decreased when pressure increased. A direct proportionality between heat and mass transfer was observed. Temperature influence was interpreted by the Arrhenius relationship and there was no observed effect of pressure on the activation energy.     

Synthesis and Properties of Cross-Linked Poly(vinylene-arsine)

Summary Cross-linked poly(vinylene-arsine)s (4) were synthesized by a free-radical terpolymerization of phenylacetylene (2), hexaphenylcyclohexaarsine (l), and p- or m-diethynylbenzene (p- or m-3) at different compositions in the presence of a catalytic amount of AIBN. The number-average molecular weights of the resulting polymers were a few thousands estimated by gel permeation chromatography (GPC) analysis. By gas chromatography (GC) analysis p-3 was found to be more reactive during the polymerization than m-3 and the resulting cross-linked polymer (p-4) showed lower solubility than that of m-4. The cross-linked poly(vinylene-arsine)s showed higher glass transition temperature in the measurement of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and more red-shifted emission in chloroform solution than that of the linear poly(vinylene-arsine). These properties could be tuned by varying the monomer feed ratio.     

Determining the limiting reaction in anaerobic digestion processes. How has this been tackled?

The rate‐limiting step concept has been widely used in anaerobic digestion processes as well as in many different biological processes. Sometimes it is described as part of the study introduction, but many times is used to support the specific objectives of the work. However, there is no clear consensus of how to define this step or how to determine it. This review presents a critical revision of several methods and procedures proposed to determine the rate‐limiting step in the anaerobic digestion field. The review is structured as follows: first, the justification of this revision is presented, followed by the very basic original definition and the latest applications in determining the rate‐limiting step. It ends with a discussion about the existing methodologies and the possible directions for addressing this issue. Different experimental approaches have been used for determining the rate‐limiting step which, in general terms, can be grouped into two procedures: steady states and batch test evaluation. Modeling applications have rarely been employed despite them allowing a more detailed picture of the anaerobic digestion system Copyright © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry     

Investigation of Pb(II) adsorption onto natural and synthetic polymers

Adsorption of toxic metal ion Pb(II) onto two different insoluble humic acids (IHAs) obtained from Beysehir (BIHA) and Ermenek (EIHA) low grade lignites and two synthesized terpolymers: styrene-divinylbenzene-methacrylic acid (SDBM) and styrene-divinylbenzene allylmethacrylate (SDBAM) were investigated and compared with commercial activated carbon (AC). The synthesized polymers were characterized by FTIR. Effects of pH (in neutral and acidic range), time, and initial metal concentration on the effectiveness of IHAs and terpolymers were determined. All synthesized adsorbents could adsorb Pb(II) with much higher capacity at half of the retention of AC in acidic medium. The adsorption capacities varied in the range of 51–76 mg g⁻¹. The affinity order of polymers in acidic medium for Pb(II) ions was observed as: SDBAM>SDBM>BIHA≈EIHA>AC. IHAs fit Freundlich model while SDB polymers were fitting Langmuir isotherm. The maximum adsorption capacities in neutral medium were 48 mg g⁻¹ for SDBM and 15 mg g⁻¹ for BIHA. Desorption studies for the polymer of highest performance indicated that about 90% desorption was achieved at 5 h by using EDTA regenerant solution. The polymer can be used repeatedly in Pb(II) adsorption with close capacities to initial use. The higher selectivity of SDBAM to Pb(II) ions in multimetal solution was also indicated in the study. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012     

An architecture for attacking the communication bottleneck in P systems

The distributed implementation of P systems on a cluster of processors has met with a bottleneck communications problem. When the number of membranes grows in the system, the network gets congested and the time taken to execute an evolution step degrades. In this article, we suggest a software architecture denominated “partially parallel evolution with partially parallel communication”, where some membranes are located in each processor, proxies are used to communicate with membranes located in different processors, and a policy of access control to the communications network is mandatory. With all this, we get a certain parallelism in the system and an acceptable functioning in communications. In addition to this, it establishes a series of equations that allows us to determine in the architecture the optimum number of processors needed, the time required to execute an evolution step, the number of membranes to be located in each processor, and the conditions to determine when it is best to use the distributed solution or the sequential one. This work was presented in part at the 12th International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, Oita, Japan, January 25–27, 2007     

Virtual Blocks: a serious game for spatial ability improvement on mobile devices

This paper presents a novel spatial instruction system for improving spatial abilities of engineering students. A 3D mobile game application called Virtual Blocks has been designed to provide a 3D virtual environment to build models with cubes that help students to perform visualization tasks to promote the development of their spatial ability during a short remedial course. A validation study with 26 freshman engineering students at La Laguna University (Spain) has concluded that the training had a measurable and positive impact on students’ spatial ability. In addition, the results obtained using a satisfaction questionnaire show that Virtual Blocks is considered an easy to use and stimulating application.     

Awareness marks: adaptive services through user interactions with augmented objects

The ambient intelligence paradigm involves one important challenge: to be adaptive to users and context through simple and natural interactions. To meet this goal, it is important to associate data with relevant everyday objects in the environment, including users themselves, and to enable interaction mechanisms between these objects. Following this premise, in this paper, we present a conceptual model to link contextual information with augmented elements acquired from user interactions in an implicit and transparent way. In this way, it is possible to personalize and enhance offered services in order to facilitate daily user activities. We call this contextual data “awareness marks”, and these awareness marks make it possible to offer novel services adapted from past events that were captured as they happened. Moreover, we have developed and evaluated a set of prototypes using Near Field Communication technology, which follows the presented model.     

Eruption of the permanent upper canine: a radiologic study

Fibroblast-seeded collagen scaffolds or ligament analogs are potentially useful for reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament of the knee. To provide lasting benefits, the seeded cells must survive implantation within the harsh synovial environment of the knee joint. Our objective was to determine the in vivo fate of autogenous fibroblast-seeded ligament analogs as a function of fibroblast source (anterior cruciate ligament or skin), implantation site (knee joint or subcutaneous space), and time after implantation (1, 2, 4, 6, or 8 weeks). Before implantation, fibroblasts were labeled with PKH26-GL, a fluorescent membrane dye. Immediately after retrieval of the implant, the viability of the labeled seeded cells was assessed under a fluorescent microscope. Viable seeded fibroblasts remained attached to the collagen fibers within the ligament analogs for at least 4 weeks (skin fibroblasts) or 6 weeks (anterior cruciate ligament fibroblasts) after implantation. A larger number of viable seeded cells were consistently observed in the subcutaneous space than in the knee joint. Scaffold resorption prevented observation at the 8-week time period. Fibroblast-seeded ligament analogs remained viable for prolonged periods in the knee joint and therefore have the potential to influence the formation and remodeling of neoligament tissue after reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament.