Positive interpolation with rational quadratic splines

A necessary and sufficient criterion is presented under which the property of positivity carry over from the data set to rational quadratic spline interpolants. The criterion can always be satisfied if the occuring parameters are properly chosen.     

Decision support for AIDS control programmes in Eastern Africa

The Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) constitutes the worst hazard to health care systems in Eastern Africa. Misallocation of scarce resources of AIDS Control Programmes will unavoidably lead to additional infections and casualties. The following paper discusses a system dynamics model which allows to assess the impact of different interventions on a pattern population in Eastern Africa. It becomes obvious that short- and long-term consequences of these programmes differ significantly. The optimal allocation of resources, therefore, is highly complex and calls for decision support systems to sustain AIDS control programmes.     

Influence of inulin modification and flour type on the sensory quality of prebiotic wafer crackers

An inulin syrup made from Jerusalem artichoke tubers, either in its commercial form or after ultrafiltration, was freeze-dried and used as a prebiotic ingredient in the small-scale manufacture of wafer crackers. The flours used for the preparation of wafer batters were from wheat, rye or spelt wheat, or 1:1 combinations of wheat flour and rye flour or wheat flour and spelt wheat flour. Batter viscosity was strongly influenced by the selection of the flour type, but remained within technologically acceptable limits. The ultrafiltration of the inulin syrup, using a 1 kDa membrane, resulted in a significant reduction of the content of free sugars and minerals which, in turn, had a significant impact on the CIE-Lab color values of the wafer crackers. Using spelt wheat flour instead of wheat flour significantly increased wafer cracker firmness measured by penetration, as did the incorporation of ultrafiltered freeze-dried instead of native freeze-dried Jerusalem artichoke syrup. Sensory analysis revealed a significant influence of product formulation on appearance, flavor and texture of the wafer crackers. It can be concluded from quality scores, which were calculated by using weighting factors assigned to the sensory attributes, that wheat flour may be partially replaced by rye flour or spelt wheat flour without negatively affecting the sensory properties of the wafer crackers.     

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Patent information in a large electrical company, exemplified by the situation at Siemens

The special situation of patent information is dealt with against the background of the general problems of information provision. The role of the Patent Department of Siemens as a user of patent information and in the distribution of patent information within the company is discussed. Finally, the present system of current patent information on granted patents and first publications is outlined and an outlook on future developments given.     

Uniaxial compression of Swiss-type cheese at different strain rates

Rheological behaviour of 48 Swiss-type cheese samples in lubricated uniaxial compression was evaluated at three initial strain rates ranging from 4·76 × 10⁻³ to 7·62 × 10⁻² s⁻¹. Modulus, apparent fracture stress and apparent fracture strain increased significantly with increasing strain rate, which is attributed to the viscoelastic nature of cheese. The influence of strain rate on apparent fracture strain strongly depended on the shape of the stress-strain curves. The relationship between the rheological parameters evaluated at different strain rates proved to be significant. The strain rate dependency of the apparent fracture strain is further explained by the contribution of elastic and viscous components, which was evaluated in relaxation experiments in the linear viscoelastic region.     

Microcalorimetry for characterization of film formation and cure of coatings and adhesives

A new microcalorimeter with eight parallel channels using robust, low cost sensors for characterization of coatings and adhesives is described and first experiments on coatings and adhesives are presented. The calorimetric sensors are based on thin glass plates (20 mm × 20 mm, thickness 150 μm) with heater and thermocouple sputtered on the surfaces (calorimetric active area of about 9 mm²). The setup allows heating and cooling experiments as well as isothermal measurements in the temperature-modulated mode with up to eight sensors in parallel. The measured quantities are the real (C^′_p) and imaginary part (C^″_p) of the complex heat capacity (), the related absolute value of the heat capacity () and the heat flow . An industrial computer (NI PXI system) with specific software for calibration and data recording controls the electronic components. Sensors can be embedded in a temperature controlled oven (heating and cooling by Peltier elements) or alternatively in a climatic cabinet with controlled temperature and humidity.

The method has been applied successfully to monitoring of film formation of aqueous polymer dispersions (styrene-acrylate copolymer) and curing of coatings.     

Refactoring and converting a TTCN-2 test suite

When deploying TTCN-3 at Nokia, we converted two TTCN-2 test systems to TTCN-3. We explain to which extend we have been able to do the conversion automatically. The conversion tool used provided a syntactically and semantically correct conversion of the TTCN-2 code. We define some improvements made on the tool to increase readability and maintainability of the resulting code. We cover aspects of converting also the non-TTCN-2 parts and describe the experiences we made as a set of lessons learnt.