Identification problems and analysis of the limit current in fuel cells

This paper presents our analysis of the mass transfer phenomena in fuel cells. Our attention was specifically focused on the parameter identification problems (briefly identification problems) related to the interpretation of the experimental data on the limit current.     

Using twentieth century masterworks in school

This paper describes methods of learning based on the use of architectural masterpieces of the first half of the twentieth century. A particular case, involving the rehabilitation of Le Corbusier's Unite d'Habitation in Firminy, is presented in detail to demonstrate that the benefits of such methods encompass more than learning technology and detailing, and to show that such student work may have an intrinsic interest beyond the pedagogical. This is followed by a discussion of the more general ideas underlying such teaching methods.     

Properties and applications of supports for enzyme‐mediated transformations in solid phase synthesis

With the increasing interest in automated synthesis and screening protocols, solid supported chemistry and biochemistry have become attractive technologies. Furthermore, the use of enzymes in solid phase synthesis has opened the route to selective and mild processes. The efficiency of enzymes in transforming substrates that are bound on solid supports is strictly related to the availability of polymers endowed with specific properties, above all permeability to enzymes. This review describes how the recent developments of this rapidly evolving area have made possible novel challenging applications of enzymes in solid phase synthesis. Copyright © 2006 Society of Chemical Industry     

Mobeyes: smart mobs for urban monitoring with a vehicular sensor network

Vehicular sensor networks are emerging as a new network paradigm of primary relevance, especially for proactively gathering monitoring information in urban environments. Vehicles typically have no strict constraints on processing power and storage capabilities. They can sense events (e.g., imaging from streets), process sensed data (e.g., recognizing license plates), and route messages to other vehicles (e.g., diffusing relevant notification to drivers or police agents). In this novel and challenging mobile environment, sensors can generate a sheer amount of data, and traditional sensor network approaches for data reporting become unfeasible. This article proposes MobEyes, an efficient lightweight support for proactive urban monitoring based on the primary idea of exploiting vehicle mobility to opportunistically diffuse summaries about sensed data. The reported experimental/analytic results show that MobEyes can harvest summaries and build a low-cost distributed index with reasonable completeness, good scalability, and limited overhead     

An enhanced beam-theory model of the asymmetric double cantilever beam (ADCB) test for composite laminates

The paper introduces a mechanical model of the asymmetric double cantilever beam (ADCB) test, usable to assess the mixed-mode interlaminar fracture toughness of composite laminates. The laminated specimen is represented as an assembly of sublaminates, each of which is modelled as an elastic beam partly connected to the other by a deformable interface, in turn considered to be a continuous distribution of elastic-brittle springs. Based on Timoshenko’s beam theory, a set of six differential equations, accompanied by suitable boundary conditions, governs the problem. By adopting the interfacial stresses as the main unknowns, the differential problem is solved analytically, and the contributions of the opening and sliding fracture modes are evaluated directly. Moreover, explicit expressions are determined for the interfacial stresses, internal forces, and displacements, as well as for the compliance, energy release rate, and mode-mixity angle. The predictions of the model are to some extent similar to those of analogous mechanical models in the literature and appear in good agreement with both numerical and experimental results.     

The <Emphasis Type="Italic">POINT</Emphasis> approach to represent <Emphasis Type="Italic">now</Emphasis> in bitemporal databases

Most modern database applications involve a significant amount of time dependent data and a significant portion of this data is now-relative. Now-relative data are a natural and meaningful part of every temporal database as well as being the focus of most queries. Previous studies indicate that the choice of the representation of now significantly influences the efficiency of accessing bitemporal data. In this paper we propose and experimentally evaluate a novel approach to represent now that we termed the POINT approach, in which now-relative facts are represented as points on the transaction-time and/or valid-time line. Furthermore, in the POINT approach we propose a logical query transformation that relies on the above representation and on the geometry features of spatial access methods. Such a logical query transformation enables off-the-shelf spatial indexes to be used. We empirically prove that the POINT approach is efficient on now-relative bitemporal data, outperforming the maximum timestamp approach that has been proven to the best approach to now-relative data in the literature, independently of the indexing methodology (B ⁺- tree vs R ^*- tree) being used. Specifically, if spatial indexing is used, the POINT approach outperforms the maximum timestamp approach to the extent of factor more than 10, both in number of disk accesses and CPU usage.