An indirect method for transfer function estimation from closed loop data

An indirect method is introduced that is able to estimate consistently the transfer function of a linear plant on the basis of data obtained from closed loop experiments, even in the situation where the model of the noise disturbance on the data is not accurate. Moreover, the method allows approximate identification of the open loop plant with an explicit and tunable expression for the bias distribution of the resulting model.     

Private financing in the dutch public housing sector: The rise and fall of the accumulative loan

The author wishes to thank miss Barbara den Boer for her translation.     

Study of a new energy efficient process for French fries production

A new, energy efficient production process for French fries was developed and evaluated. Superheated steam (SHS) was used for evaporation of water instead of pre-drying with air and par-frying with oil. The product was frozen by vacuum cooling. Unfortunately, with this process it was not possible to reach the quality of conventional French fries. Sensory analysis indicated that the main quality defect was a tough crust with a fatty appearance. Confocal Scanning Laser Microscopy showed that this was caused by skin formation on the surface during both SHS drying and vacuum cooling. A frying step was necessary to obtain a porous crust. A satisfactory product quality was feasible after drying with SHS instead of air. Due to the concessions made for the product quality, the final energy reduction was limited. Nevertheless, this study has gained more insight into how processing affects potato tissue on micro-scale and it has shown that a porous structure is essential for good quality French fries.     

Tailoring C60 for Efficient Inorganic CsPbI2Br Perovskite Solar Cells and Modules

Although inorganic perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are promising in thermal stability, their large open-circuit voltage (V_OC) deficit and difficulty in large-area preparation still limit their development toward commercialization. The present work tailors C₆₀ via a codoping strategy to construct an efficient electron-transporting layer (ETL), leading to a significant improvement in V_OC of the inverted inorganic CsPbI₂Br PSC. Specifically, tris(pentafluorophenyl)borane (TPFPB) is introduced as a dopant to lower the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) level of the C₆₀ layer by forming a Lewis acidic adduct. The enlarged free energy difference provides a favorable enhancement in electron injection and thereby reduces charge recombination. Subsequently, a nonhygroscopic lithium salt (LiClO₄) is added to increase electron mobility and conductivity of the film, leading to a reduction in the device hysteresis and facilitating the fabrication of a large-area device. Finally, the as-optimized inorganic CsPbI₂Br PSCs gain a champion power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 15.19%, with a stabilized power output (SPO) of 14.21% (0.09 cm²). More importantly, this work also demonstrates a record PCE of 14.44% for large-area inorganic CsPbI₂Br PSCs (1.0 cm²) and reports the first inorganic perovskite solar module with the excellent efficiency exceeding 12% (10.92 cm²) by a self-developed quasi-curved heating method.     

A journey in structure-based drug discovery: from designed peptides to protein surface topomimetics as antibiotic and antiangiogenic agents

Most biological events are mediated through molecular interactions by proteins, and because proteins are composed of structural units like helices, beta-sheets and turns, small peptides and peptidomimetics may be used to mimic their biological effects and even as therapeutic agents in the clinic. Here, we present a structure-based, scaffold-driven approach to design bioactive peptides and peptidomimetics. Initially, we designed a novel series of beta-sheet-forming peptides that mimic the activities of both antibiotic bacterial membrane disrupting peptides and antiangiogenic proteins. We subsequently used structure-activity relationships to reduce the design to partial peptide mimetics and then to fully nonpeptide topomimetics. Some of these agents are currently in extensive preclinical studies for further development as drug candidates against infectious disease and cancer.     

Monitoring Fluidization by Dynamic Pressure Analysis

In industrial practice, it is important to have a method for early detection of changes in fluidized bed behaviour, e.g., to warn about upcoming bed agglomeration. Recently, a number of new monitoring methods based on observing the non-linear dynamics of measured pressure fluctuations have been reported. In this paper, these methods for monitoring fluidization are discussed and the expected future developments are described.     

Towards monitoring electrostatics in gas–solid fluidized beds

The electrostatic charge distribution in a lab‐scale 2‐D fluidized bed of 900 µm glass beads was determined using arrays of induction probes, and the influence of relative humidity and superficial gas velocity was examined. The bubble presence, relative humidity, and superficial gas velocity were found to influence charge separation. Bipolar charging was observed; the net charge build‐up was found to be negligible. Moreover, the system was monitored by applying the attractor comparison method to the electrostatic charge signals from an induction probe. It was concluded that this approach can indeed be used to monitor changes in the electrostatic behaviour.