SESAME-S: Semantic Smart Home System for Energy Efficiency

As the urgent need for efficient and sustainable energy usage becomes ever more apparent, interest in Smart Homes is on the rise. The SESAME-S project (SEmantic SmArt Metering – Services for Energy Efficient Houses) uses semantically linked data to actively assist end-consumers in making well-informed decisions and controlling their energy consumption. By integrating smart metering and home automation functionality, SESAME-S works to effectively address the potential mass market of end-consumers with an easily customizable solution that can be widely implemented in domestic or business environments, with expected savings of over 20?% from the total energy bill. The developed system is a basis for conceptualizing, demonstrating, and evaluating a variety of innovative end-consumer services and their user interface paradigms. In this paper, we present the SESAME-S system as a whole and discuss the semantically enabled services, demonstrating that such systems may have broad acceptance in the future. The data obtained through such systems will be invaluable for future global energy-efficiency strategies and businesses.     

New modelling approach to liquid–solid reaction kinetics: From ideal particles to real particles

Typical features of liquid–solid reactions were reviewed: reaction kinetics, mass transfer effects and particle morphology. It was concluded that classical liquid–solid models based on ideal, non-porous geometries (sphere, infinite cylinder, slab) cannot satisfactorily describe real reactive solid particles with various surface defects, such as cracks, craters and limited porosity. Typically a too low reaction order for the reactive solid is predicted by the classical models. The surface morphology can be revealed by electron microscopy, which gives inspiration to develop new mathematical models for reactive solids.     

Cold Model Investigations of Melting of Ice in a Gas-Stirred Vessel

The melting of steel scrap in high temperature liquid iron melt is investigated by conducting cold model experiments of the melting of ice sample of different geometries and sizes in an argon-stirred vessel containing water. The melting process of ice samples is observed using a high-speed camera. Design of experiments is based on similarity criteria. The relationships between non-dimensional groups related to heat transfer (Nu, Re, Pr, and Gr) are derived for different experimental conditions. The results are compared with those reported in the literature. The heat transfer coefficient is estimated as a function of mixing power and is found to be in good agreement with the calculated values obtained by using reported relationships in literature.     

Effect of Unsteady Forces on the Stability of Non-Isothermal Particulate Flow under Finite-Frequency Vibrations

We study two-phase flow in a tall vertical slot differently heated from the side walls and subjected to finite-frequency horizontal vibrations along the layer. One of the phases is fluid and another phase consists of the small solid particles. We show that there is the maximum vibration frequency higher which the unsteady forces, such as the Basset history force and virtual mass effect, may, generally, be of great importance and have to be taken into account. By using the asymptotic expansion technique we derive the set of governing equations describing the dynamics of such a system within the framework of the generalized Boussinesq approximation. The pulsed base flow is obtained and its linear stability is analysed. The comparison with the recent experimental data is made.     

Parameters of cache systems based on a Zipf-like distribution

The object of this paper is to explain a system of Internet traffic caching. The task is to create an analytical model of a cache system linking its size with other parameters by boundary conditions. A definition of a dynamic cache model is introduced. The parameters of a cache system are calculated using the Zipf's first law and Zipf-like distribution. The correspondence between size of a cache system and aggregated bandwidth of external links is derived.     

Speckle-contrast monitoring of tissue thermal modification

Measurements of the contrast value of time-averaged speckle-modulated images of cartilage tissue are used to study tissue thermal modification in the case of laser-light treatment. This modification is related to thermally induced internal stress relaxation in the matrix of the treated tissue. The specific feature of the evolution of time-averaged speckle contrast with a change in the current temperature of modified collagen tissue is the typical looplike form of the contrast-temperature dependencies associated with irreversible changes in tissue structure and correlated with changes in the tissue diffuse transmittance and the tissue internal stress mentioned by other researchers.