A Look at 25 Years of Data

Is 25 years enough time to build up a coherent body of knowledge that can help point to useful principles? As a testbed for helping us answer this question, software testing techniques are a good place to start. Few software practices are as important as testing, and testing techniques are amenable to measurement and reasoning about their effectiveness. Because they're aimed at removing faults, measuring the number and type of such removed faults seems like a natural part of applying these techniques. To make sense of this data, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid researchers have spent some time worrying about how to put 25 years' worth of work together usefully.     

Simulation and Experiment of the Homogeneously Catalyzed Production of Terpenyl Amine

Continuous terpenyl amine production via a homogeneously catalyzed hydroamination is presented. For the recycling of the catalyst a liquid‐liquid system combined with a subsequent acid complexation as capturing step for the terpenyl amine was used. The whole process was run in pilot plant scale. At first, batch experiments were conducted to determine reaction equilibria of the hydroamination and the acid complexation. On this, a process model was developed which is based on equilibrium stages. This process model was validated by running the continuous process and was able to predict the continuous process in good agreement with experimental data. So, it allows a reduction of the experimental effort.     

Ambulance transport rates after motor vehicle collision for older vs. younger adults: A population-based study

Older adults are at greater risk than younger adults for life-threatening injury after motor vehicle collision (MVC). Among those with life-threatening injury, older adults are also at greater risk of not being transported by emergency medical services (EMS) to an emergency department. Despite the greater risk of serious injury and non-transportation among older adults, little is known about the relationship between patient age and EMS transportation rates for individuals experiencing MVC. We describe transport rates across the age-span for adults seen by EMS after experiencing MVC using data reported to the North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles between 2008 and 2011. Of all adults aged 18 years and older experiencing MVC and seen by EMS (n = 484,310), 36.3% (n = 175,768) were transported to an emergency department. Rates of transport for individuals seen by EMS after MVC increased only a small amount with increasing patient age. After adjusting for potential confounders of the relationship between patient age and the decision to transport (patient gender, patient race, air bag deployment, patient trapped or ejected, and injury severity), transport rates were: age 18–64 = 36.0% (95% confidence interval [CI], 35.9–36.2%); age 65–74 = 36.6% (95% CI, 36.0–37.1%); age 75–84 = 37.3% (95% CI, 36.5–38.1%), and age 85–94 = 38.2% (95% CI, 36.7–39.8%). In North Carolina between 2008 and 2011, the transportation rate was only slightly higher for older adults than for younger adults, and most older adults experiencing MVC and seen by EMS were not transported to the emergency department. These findings have implications for efforts to improve the sensitivity of criteria used by EMS to determine the need for transport for older adults experiencing MVC.     

Sliding mode control of switched systems: A geometric algebra approach

Geometric algebra (GA) is proposed as a mathematical framework for revisiting fundamental aspects of sliding mode control (SMC) in nonlinear, switch-controlled, single input systems. Sliding mode existence conditions, the switching policy, the invariance conditions, the associated equivalent control, and the characterization of ideal sliding dynamics, are all re-examined using a geometric algebra (GA) standpoint. Two illustrative examples, from switched power electronics, are presented using the GA language.