WebWork: METEOR2's Web-Based Workflow Management System

METEOR₂ workflow management systems consist of both (1) design/build-time and (2) run-time/enactment components for implementing workflow applications. An enactment system provides the command, communication and control for the individual tasks in the workflow. Tasks are the run-time instances of intra- or inter-enterprise applications. We are developing three implementations of the METEOR₂ model: WebWork, OrbWork and NeoWork. This paper discusses WebWork, an implementation relying solely on Web technology as the infrastructure for the enactment system. WebWork supports a distributed implementation with participation of multiple Web servers. It also supports automatic code generation of workflow applications from design specifications produced by a comprehensive graphical designer. WebWork has been developed as a complement of its more heavyweight counterparts (OrbWork and NeoWork), with the goal of providing ease of workflow application development, installation, use and maintenance. At the time of this writing, WebWork has been installed by several of the LSDIS Lab's industrial partners for testing, evaluation and building workflow applications.     

Synthesis of ethyl propionate catalyzed by poly(N‐AEAAm‐co‐AAc)‐cl‐MBAm hydrogel‐immobilized lipase of Bacillus coagulans MTCC‐6375

A purified alkaline thermotolerant bacterial lipase of Bacillus coagulans MTCC‐6375 was efficiently immobilized onto poly(N‐AEAAm‐co‐AAc‐cl‐MBAm)‐hydrogel at pH 8.5 and at temperature 55°C in 16 h. The hydrogel‐bound matrix possessed 1.04 U/g (matrix) lipase activity with a specific activity of 1.8 U/mg of protein. The immobilized lipase resulted in formation of 52.5 mM of ethyl propionate (52% conversion) at 55°C in 9 h in n‐nonane. Ethanol and propionic acid when used in a ratio of 300 : 100 mM, respectively, in n‐nonane along with 10 mg of hydrogel‐bound lipase resulted in optimal synthesis of ethyl propionate (82.5 mM). Addition of molecular sieves (3 Å, 0.7 g/reaction volume) further enhanced the conversion rate to 82.4% resulting in 83.5 mM of ethyl propionate. Incubation temperature below or above 55°C had a marked effect on the synthesis of ethyl propionate. However, esterification performed in n‐heptane at 65°C resulted in 87.5 mM of ethyl propionate with a conversation rate of 89.3%. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 2007     

Process Design Aspects of Jet Mixers

In the present work, mixing time measurements have been made with jet mixers over a wide range of jet velocities, liquid levels and tank sizes. The nozzle was kept along the axis of the vessel and the nozzle clearance was varied over a wide range. It was observed that the mixing time decreases with an increase in the jet path length (nozzle clearance) for a given tank size and given amount of liquid. The reasons for this behaviour are explained with the help of CFD modelling. The effect of tank diameter has been studied independent of the jet path length. A correlation has been developed for process design. Jet mixers have been compared with impeller‐stirred tanks in terms of their energy efficiency. Reasons for the observed behaviour have been provided.     

On Scene Segmentation and Histograms-Based Curve Evolution

We consider curve evolution based on comparing distributions of features, and its applications for scene segmentation. In the first part, we promote using cross-bin metrics such as the Earth Mover's Distance (EMD), instead of standard bin-wise metrics as the Bhattacharyya or Kullback-Leibler metrics. To derive flow equations for minimizing functionals involving the EMD, we employ a tractable expression for calculating EMD between one-dimensional distributions. We then apply the derived flows to various examples of single image segmentation, and to scene analysis using video data. In the latter, we consider the problem of segmenting a scene to spatial regions in which different activities occur. We use a nonparametric local representation of the regions by considering multiple one-dimensional histograms of normalized spatiotemporal derivatives. We then obtain semisupervised segmentation of regions using the flows derived in the first part of the paper. Our results are demonstrated on challenging surveillance scenes, and compare favorably with state-of-the-art results using parametric representations by dynamic systems or mixtures of them.     

A multicenter community study on the efficacy of double-fortified salt

BACKGROUND: Iron and iodine deficiencies affect more than 30% of the world's population. Typical Indian diets contain adequate amounts of iron, but the bioavailability is poor. This serious limiting factor is caused by low intake of meat products rich in heme iron and intake of phytates in staple foods in the Indian diet, which inhibits iron absorption. OBJECTIVE: To test the stability of double-fortified salt (DFS) during storage and to assess its efficacy in improving the iron and iodine status of the communities. METHODS: The stability of both iodized salt and DFS during storage for a 2-year period was determined. The bioefficacy of DFS was assessed in communities covering three states of the country for a period of 1 year. This was a multicenter, single-blind trial covering seven clusters. The experimental group used DFS and the control group used iodized salt. The salts were used in all meals prepared for family members, but determination of hemoglobin by the cyanmethemoglobin method was performed in only two or three members per family, and not in children under 10 years of age (n = 393 and 436 in the experimental and control groups, respectively). The family size was usually four or five, with a male: female ratio of 1:1, consisting of two parents with two or three children. Hemoglobin was measured at baseline, 6 months (midpoint), and 12 months (endpoint). Urinary iodine was measured in only one cluster at baseline and endpoint. All the participants were dewormed at baseline, 6 months, and 12 months. RESULTS: The iron and iodine in the DFS were stable during storage for 2 years. Over a period of 1 year, there was an increase of 1.98 g/dL of hemoglobin in the experimental group and 0.77 g/dL of hemoglobin in the control group; the latter increase may have been due to deworming. The median urinary iodine changed from 200 microg/dL at baseline to 205 microg/dL at the end of the study in the experimental group and from 225 microg/dL to 220 microg/dL in the control group. There was a statistically significant (p < .05) improvement in the median urinary iodine status of subjects who were iodine deficient (urinary iodine < 100 microg/L) in both the experimental and the control groups, a result showing that DFS was as efficient as iodized salt in increasing urinary iodine from a deficient to sufficient status. There was a statistically significant increase (p < .05) in hemoglobin in all seven clusters in the experimental group compared with the control. CONCLUSIONS: The iron and iodine in the DFS are stable in storage for 2 years. The DFS has proved beneficial in the delivery of bioavailable iron and iodine.     

An object-based coding scheme for frontal surface of defective fluted ingot

A novel image-based defect identification and coding technique has been proposed for fluted ingots, which are used for the production of locomotive wheels. The edge density map has been used for defect identification and an object-based coding approach has been applied for the storage of defective ingots. The complete scheme has been implemented in one of the integrated steel plants of India.     

Pseudoelasticity of Metal Nanoparticles Is Caused by Their Ultrahigh Strength

An assembly of hemispherical Ag nanoparticles is prepared by solid‐state dewetting of thin Ag film deposited on the sapphire substrate. The in situ nanomechanical compression testing of the particles with a flat diamond punch inside the scanning electron microscope demonstrates the deformation behavior typical for the nucleation‐controlled plasticity: high elastic deformation followed by an abrupt particles collapse. The latter is associated with the dislocations nucleation in otherwise pristine particle. The average contact pressure in the contact zone at the onset of dislocation‐controlled plasticity is about 8 GPa, and does not depend on particle size. This observation supports the hypothesis that the pseudoelasticity of much smaller Ag nanoparticles is intrinsically related to their ultrahigh strength. A stress‐induced diffusion along the particle–substrate and particle–punch interfaces is identified as a factor controlling the pseudoelastic deformation. The corresponding diffusion model allows estimating the room‐temperature self‐diffusion coefficient of Ag along the Ag–W and Ag–zirconia interfaces, which is quite close to the estimated value of the grain boundary self‐diffusion coefficient in Ag. Based on this finding, the map of pseudoelastic deformation of crystalline materials is proposed.     

Water transport in cellular tissues during thermal processing

Accurate modeling of water transport in food materials requires knowledge of how transport properties depend on the material structure. Water transport in a cellular tissue depends on its pathway (intracellular versus extracellular), which in turn depends on temperature. Using a combination of permeability measurement, pore‐size distribution analysis and bioimpedance analysis, it is shown that water in a cellular tissue (e.g., potatoes) is mostly intracellular at lower temperatures at which cell membranes are intact. During drying at high‐temperatures, cell membranes in potatoes are damaged, and the moisture transport pathway is primarily extracellular (through intercellular spaces and the lacunae created by the killed cells), with a much lower resistance to water transport. The difference in moisture diffusivity in potatoes for the two pathways has been estimated to be three orders of magnitude. Therefore, transport properties measured or predicted at low temperatures cannot be used for high temperatures because they correspond to different moisture migration pathways. © 2010 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2011     

Preliminary investigation of the impact of polymer composition on electrochemical properties of coatings as determined by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy

The influence of structural and systematic compositional variations in glycidyl carbamate (GC) functional polymers on the electrochemical properties of their coatings was studied. There are few reports which focus on the correlation of structural and compositional variations in polymer films with their electrochemical barrier properties, diffusion properties with regards to water and aqueous electrolytes, and corrosion performance. To begin to fill this knowledge gap, two sets of GC functional polymers were studied. The polymer compositions were designed to vary the extent of polar hydrophilic groups, non-polar hydrophobic groups, and reactive epoxy groups in the final coatings. Impedance responses of the coatings were found to be closely related to the structural and compositional variations of these GC polymer films. In addition, single frequency EIS experiments were used in an attempt to understand the water uptake behavior of these polymer films using NaCl solution and ionic liquid under immersed condition. The resulting transport property data of the films was correlated to their polymer structure and composition. Moreover, a novel attempt at ranking the stability of coating using capacitance measurement during a cyclic wetting–drying condition was also attempted. The information obtained from this work can potentially be used to optimize the polymer for the specific performance properties needed in the protective coating applications, saving significant time and effort in the research and development stage.