An empirical analysis of spreadsheet calculation

Spreadsheet calculation is a powerful tool in simple administrative data processing. Formulae in spreadsheets have similar forms to expressions in traditional programming languages, but the implementation of control structures is totally different. This paper contains an analysis of 101 spreadsheets made and used in business and government. The analysis concerns general properties, such as cell contents and referencing, the role of input, output and computation, and the different ways iteration is implemented. Finally some effects of expertise are studied. The results show that less than half of the available functions are really used, only one cell in 25 contains computation, and iteration is implemented in at least four different ways. Formulae are found to differ in their contents from expressions of programming languages, as control structures are implemented differently in these systems. Summation with a constant skip is suggested to be included in the set of functions of spreadsheet calculation.     

Acid hydrolysis of glycosidic bonds in oat β‐glucan and development of a structured kinetic model

Homogeneous acid‐catalyzed hydrolysis of oat β‐glucan, which contains β‐(1,4) and β‐(1,3) glycosidic bonds in a nonrandom order, was studied at 353 K using HCl and H₂SO₄. A new structured kinetic model was developed that takes into account the difference in the reactivity of β‐(1,4) and β‐(1,3) glycosidic bonds as well as their positions in the polysaccharide chain. To minimize the correlation of adjustable parameters in the new model, the reactivities of these bonds were studied independently (T = 313…363 K; c_H+ = 0.1…2 mol/L) using cellobiose and laminaribiose. The difference in kinetic parameters (e.g., T = 338 K: k_β‐(1,4) = 0.693 × 10^?3 L/mol/min, k_β‐(1,3) = 1.027 × 10^?3 L/mol/min) was found to be statistically significant (P < 0.0001), which emphasizes the need for the structured model for oat β‐glucan hydrolysis. The simulation of β‐glucan hydrolysis with the new model was in good agreement with the experimental data and shows improvement over existing nonstructured models. © 2018 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 64: 2570–2580, 2018     

Data-driven and tool-supported elicitation of quality requirements in agile companies

Software Quality Journal - Quality requirements (QRs) are a key artifact needed to ensure the quality and success of a software system. Despite their importance, QRs rarely get the same degree of...     

Design and evaluation of mood pictures in social music discovery service

This paper describes the iterative design process and evaluation of mood pictures in a social music discovery service. The service enables users to consume and collaboratively create playlists based on the pictures. In total, 45 Finnish users took part in the qualitative evaluations. This paper presents the results regarding the preset mood picture design and introduces user-generated mood picture playlists. Based on the results, a set of design implications for mood pictures is introduced. In addition, the consistency of user responses from a quantitative picture–music association test shows the applicability of mood picture–music associations to a music discovery service.     

Li2MoO4‐based composite ceramics fabricated from temperature‐ and atmosphere‐sensitive MnZn ferrite at room temperature

The first magnetic ceramic composites manufactured, using the room‐temperature densification method are reported. The samples were prepared at room temperature using Li₂MoO₄ as a matrix and MnZn ferrite with loading levels of 10‐30 vol‐% followed by postprocessing at 120°C. The method utilizes the water solubility of the dielectric Li₂MoO₄ and compression pressure instead of high temperatures typical of conventional solid‐state sintering. Hence, composite manufacturing using temperature‐ and atmosphere‐sensitive materials is possible without special conditions. This was demonstrated with MnZn ferrite, which is prone to oxidation when heat treated in air. Samples manufactured with room‐temperature densification showed no signs of reactivity during processing, whereas reference samples sintered at 685°C suffered from oxidation and formation of an additional reaction phase. The densities achieved with different loading levels of MnZn ferrite with both methods were very similar. Measurements up to 1 GHz showed relatively high values of relative permittivity (21.7 at 1 GHz) and permeability (2.6 at 1 GHz) with 30 vol‐% loading of MnZn ferrite in the samples manufactured by room‐temperature densification. In addition, pre‐granulation is proposed to improve the processability of the composite powders in room‐temperature densification.     

Budget-bounded model-checking pushdown systems

We address the verification problem for concurrent programs modeled as multi-pushdown systems (MPDS). In general, MPDS are Turing powerful and hence come along with undecidability of all basic decision problems. Because of this, several subclasses of MPDS have been proposed and studied in the literature (Atig et al. in LNCS, Springer, Berlin, 2005; La Torre et al. in LICS, IEEE, 2007; Lange and Lei in Inf Didact 8, 2009; Qadeer and Rehof in TACAS, LNCS, Springer, Berlin, 2005). In this paper, we propose the class of bounded-budget MPDS, which are restricted in the sense that each stack can perform an unbounded number of context switches only if its depth is below a given bound, and a bounded number of context switches otherwise. We show that the reachability problem for this subclass is Pspace-complete and that LTL-model-checking is Exptime-complete. Furthermore, we propose a code-to-code translation that inputs a concurrent program \(P\) and produces a sequential program \(P'\) such that running \(P\) under the budget-bounded restriction yields the same set of reachable states as running \(P'\) . Moreover, detecting (fair) non-terminating executions in \(P\) can be reduced to LTL-Model-Checking of \(P'\) . By leveraging standard sequential analysis tools, we have implemented a prototype tool and applied it on a set of benchmarks, showing the feasibility of our translation.     

A new approach to obtain mesoporous-activated carbon via hydrothermal carbonization of Brazilian Cerrado biomass combined with physical activation for bisphenol-A removal

Abstract

The worrying hydric crisis and the increasing water contamination by emerging pollutants around the world stimulate the development of activated carbons (AC) for the removal of endocrine disruptors, including bisphenol-A (BPA). For this reason, a new approach for the synthesis of AC from hydrochar produced through hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) of Brazilian Cerrado biomass (Magonia pubescens–Sapindaceae) and physical activation using water vapor is highlighted. Compared to the traditional method of physical activation after pyrolysis, HTC was found to be better option to develop the specific surface area, porosity, and yield of the ACs, which presented mesoporous structure and carbon content higher than 80%. The BPA adsorption was evaluated by varying the contact time, BPA concentration, and pH. The Langmuir, Freundlich, and Redlich–Peterson isotherms were used to model the adsorption behavior. In the preliminary test to verify the adsorption efficiency, the AC obtained from hydrochar treated at 180?°C presented better results compared to commercial AC. The BPA adsorption data of the best treated hydrochar correlated well with the pseudo first-order model and the Langmuir isotherm (Q_max = 21.26?mg g^?1). The results of the studies indicated the combination of HTC and physical activation with steam to be an efficient way to prepare an ecologically sound adsorbent for removal of Bisphenol-A from water with lower temperature and without chemical reagents. The ACs obtained can also be potential materials for other applications, such as in the field of catalysis and environmental remediation.     

Model microemulsions containing vegetable oils 2. Ionic surfactant systems

The phase behavior and the structure of ionic microemulsions, stabilized by sodium oleate and different alcohol cosurfactants, containing fatty acid esters or triglycerides as lipophilic components, have been investigated. Microemulsions containing triglycerides display a smaller stability region than microemulsions containing hydrocarbons or fatty acid esters. From structural investigations, using the NMR FT pulsed gradient spin echo method for measuring self-diffusion coefficients, differences in the microstructure are revealed as well. Adding an ester (or a hydrocarbon) to a microemulsion containing sodium oleate/pentanol will at certain compositions lead to a gradual transition from a bicontinuous to an oilcontinuous system, while this behavior cannot be detected when adding a triglyceride. Instead, a phase-separation occurs, and it is suggested that the larger molecular size of the triglyceride is responsible for the difference.