Quantitative preparation of long chain thioethers from an oxo-trans-2-enoic ester and a 9,12-dioxo-trans-10-enoic acid

Branched-chain thioethers have been prepared from methyl 4-oxo-trans-2-hexadecenoate and 9,12-dioxo-trans-10-octadecenoic acid. The reagents involved in these preparations were mercaptoacetic and mercaptopropionic acids. The yields of these thioethers are almost quantitative.     

Spatio‐temporal geometry fusion for multiple hybrid cameras using moving least squares surfaces

Multi‐view reconstruction aims at computing the geometry of a scene observed by a set of cameras. Accurate 3D reconstruction of dynamic scenes is a key component for a large variety of applications, ranging from special effects to telepresence and medical imaging. In this paper we propose a method based on Moving Least Squares surfaces which robustly and efficiently reconstructs dynamic scenes captured by a calibrated set of hybrid color+depth cameras. Our reconstruction provides spatio‐temporal consistency and seamlessly fuses color and geometric information. We illustrate our approach on a variety of real sequences and demonstrate that it favorably compares to state‐of‐the‐art methods.     

Self-repair ability of evolved self-assembling systems in cellular automata

Self-repairing systems are those that are able to reconfigure themselves following disruptions to bring them back into a defined normal state. In this paper we explore the self-repair ability of some cellular automata-like systems, which differ from classical cellular automata by the introduction of a local diffusion process inspired by chemical signalling processes in biological development. The update rules in these systems are evolved using genetic programming to self-assemble towards a target pattern. In particular, we demonstrate that once the update rules have been evolved for self-assembly, many of those update rules also provide a self-repair ability without any additional evolutionary process aimed specifically at self-repair.     

Cloning SIM Cards Usability Reduction in Mobile Networks

This paper studies the probability of using cloning subscriber identity module (SIM) cards in Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems. It also explores how the mobile system can discover the cloning SIM cards as soon as possible and how to reduce the probability of using cloning SIM cards in mobile networks. The illegal mobile station attached to mobile networks can be detected by a Normal Location Area Update, a periodic area location update, and by outgoing calls that are issued from genuine mobiles. An analytical model is developed to investigate the effects of a location area update and outgoing calls issued by genuine mobiles on the use of illegal mobiles. Mobility management, such as registration, cancellation, and outgoing and incoming procedures for legal and illegal users are investigated and analysed. An analytical model to investigate the effect of outgoing call arrival rates, and location area residence time on the detected illegal user has been presented. This paper seeks to increase the security of communication by avoiding fraud of cloned mobile phones by proposing a solution to speed up the detection of cloning SIM cards.     

In situ esterification of rice bran oil with methanol and ethanol

In situ esterifications of high-acidity rice bran oil with methanol and ethanol and with sulfuric acid as catalyst were investigated. In the esterification with methanol, all free fatty acids (FFA) dissolved in methanol were interesterified within 15 min, and it was possible to obtain nearly pure methyl esters. The amount of methyl esters obtained from a given rice bran was dependent on the FFA content of the rice bran oil. In the esterification with ethanol, it was not possible to obtain pure esters as in methanol esterification, because the solubilities of oil components in ethanol were much higher than those in methanol.     

A Game Theoretical Approach for Improving the Operational Efficiencies of Less-than-truckload Carriers Through Load Exchanges

Less-than-truckload (LTL) transportation offers fast, flexible and relatively low-cost transportation services to shippers. In order to cope with the effects of economic recessions, the LTL industry implemented ideas such as reducing excess capacity and increasing revenues through better yield management. In this paper, we extend these initiatives beyond the reach of individual carriers and propose a collaborative framework that facilitates load exchanges to reduce the operational costs. Even though collective solutions are proven to provide benefits to the participants by reducing the inefficiencies using a system-wide perspective, such solutions are often not attainable in real-life as the negotiating parties are seeking to maximize their individual profits rather than the overall profit and also they are unwilling to share confidential information. Therefore, a mechanism that enables collaboration among the carriers should account for the rationality of the individual participants and should require minimal information transfer between participants. Having this in mind, we propose a mechanism that facilities collaboration through a series of load exchange iterations and identifies an equilibrium among selfish carriers with limited information transfer among the participants. Our time-efficient mechanism can handle large instances with thousands of loads as well as provide significant benefits over the non-collaborative management of LTL networks.

     

Influence of Atomizing Gases on the Oxide-Film Morphology and Thickness of Aluminum Powders

Fine powders of aluminum were produced in a pilot-plant, inert-gas atomizerwith a confined-design nozzle, which operated vertically upward. Argonand helium at 1.85 MPa and nitrogen at 1.56 MPa were used as the atomizingagent. The morphology of the powder particles was examined by SEM. Powderswere sieved dry and wet. The Sauter mean diameter of the powders varied from20.70 to 10.25 m depending on the atomizing gas. The distribution ofsizes was bimodal. The mean thickness of oxide on the surface of the powderwas calculated from the total oxygen contents of powder samples (determinedby a Leco analyzer). In addition, ESCA measurements and BET tests werecarried out for surface-oxide thickness and area measurements,respectively. The finest powder produced under helium incorporated thinnersurface-oxide layers than the coarser ones produced under argon andnitrogen. This was due to differences in physical properties (such asdensity, thermal conductivity) and flow properties (such as gasvelocity and relative velocity) of the atomizing gases used, i.e., helium,argon, and nitrogen. The oxide was very irregular in thickness in thecoarse-size range of the Al powders produced under argon and nitrogen. Thiswas presumably because of the high- and low-temperature oxidation ofaluminum droplets during the atomization and subsequent solidification andcooling periods leading to the rough surfaces observed with SEMinvestigation in the present work.     

Topology-Aware Multiple Routing Configurations for Fault Tolerant Networking

Real-time services require reliable and fault tolerant communication networks to support their stringent Quality of Service requirements. Multi Topology Routing based IP Fast Re-route (MT-IPFRR) technologies provide seamless forwarding of IP packets during network failures by constructing virtual topologies (VTs) to re-route the disrupted traffic. Multiple Routing Configurations (MRC) is a widely studied MT-IPFRR technique. In this paper, we propose two heuristics, namely mMRC-1 and mMRC-2, to reduce the number of VTs required by the MRC to provide full coverage for single link/node failures, and hence, to decrease its operational complexity. Both heuristics are designed to construct more robust VTs against network partitioning by taking their topological characteristics into consideration. We perform extensive experiments on 3200 topologies with diverse structural properties using our automated topology generation and analysis tool. Numerical results show that the amount of reductions in VT requirements get higher up to 31.84 %, as the networks tend to have more hub nodes whose degree is much higher than the rest of the network.     

Improved Quality Output through Computer‐Based Training: An Automotive Assembly Field Study

In this article, two field experiments, conducted in an automotive assembly plant, evaluate how computer‐based training of operational sequences and related quality information can support the assembly performance of the operators. The experiments were performed during the launch of a new vehicle. A comparison was made of learning progress and quality performance between a reference group of operators that only had regular training and a test group for which some of the regular training was replaced with individual computer‐based training. Both quantitative measures of the quality output and questionnaires and observations were used to evaluate the effects of computer‐based training. The results show a clear positive difference in learning progress and improvements in quality output for the test group compared with the reference group. This combined with positive attitudes expressed by the operators and their team leaders shows that this type of training is an effective way to train operators during launches of new vehicles in automotive production.