Privacy protection vs. utility in visual data

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Ubiquitous and networked sensors impose a huge challenge for privacy protection which has become an emerging problem of modern society. Protecting the privacy of...     

Coordinating control of production-inventory systems

In most cases real world subsystems for inventory and production control are designed according to very elementary control principles. In order to control the total system, some kind of coordinating control of the subsystems is needed. The approach pursued in this paper is to control the over-all-system by varying different control-parameters of the subsystems. The control system is therefore regarded as a two-level hierarchical system. Coordinating control is carried out with the aid of simple dynamic models based on aggregate terms. Problems concerning the identification of inventory-dynamics ore highlighted. In order to show how the models developed can be used efficiently for coordinating the control of an integrated production-inventory system, a simple control principle is applied to a simulated system.     

Exergy analysis of the diesel pre-reforming solid oxide fuel cell system with anode off-gas recycling in the SchIBZ project. Part I: Modeling and validation

Solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) systems with anode off-gas recirculation (AGR) and diesel pre-reforming are advantageous because they can operate with the current fuel infrastructure. In the SchIBZ-project, the prototype of such a SOFC system for maritime applications has already been commissioned. In this first paper, we model the system devices to conduct an exergy analysis of this real SOFC plant and validate them with experimental values from experiments in laboratory scale. The results of our simulation agree well with the experimental values. The calculations with the validated results may be closer to the real thermodynamic behavior of such system components than previous literature.     

Study of nanofiber scaffolds of PAA,PAA/CS,and PAA/ALG for its potential use in biotechnological applications

In recent times, electrospun nanofibers have been widely studied from several biotechnological approaches; in this work, poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) solutions mixed with chitosan and alginate were electrospun and characterized to determine the behavior of these fibers when used in combination with bacteria, different samples were incubated with the bacterial strains: Streptomyces spp., Micromonospora spp., and Escherichia coli and a OD600 test was performed. The formation of nanofibers via electrospinning and the physicochemical properties of the obtained fibers were evaluated. Results showed that the presence of chitosan enhanced the thermal stability of PAA, since PAA/alginate fibers lost 5% of their mass at 41°C, whereas PAA/chitosan lost this amount at around 125°C. The fibers demonstrated suitable characteristics to be used as a bacteria bioreactor.