The International Technology Alliance in Network and Information Sciences

In May 2006, the US Army Research Laboratory and UK Ministry of Defense created the international technology alliance. The consortium of 26 partners including the ARL and MoD offers an open research environment in which leading US and UK companies and universities can collaborate (see table 1). It will also fuse the best aspects of the US Army's Collaborative Technology Alliances and UK MoD's Defense Technology Centers on an international scale. The ITA aims to develop flexible, distributed, and secure decision-making procedures to improve networked coalition operations. Network science is a young discipline we have limited information models and network theories to describe the behavior and scaling of large, complex mobile ad hoc networks.1 moreover, you can't understand a coalition network's performance without understanding its cognitive and sociocultural aspects and physical characteristics. A key ITA goal is to perform basic research in network-centric coalition decision making across four technical areas: network theory, security across a system of systems, sensor information processing and delivery, and distributed coalition planning and decision making, 2. we focus on the last area because this is where intelligent systems will play the biggest role.     

A monotone multigrid solver for two body contact problems in biomechanics

The purpose of the paper is to apply monotone multigrid methods to static and dynamic biomechanical contact problems. In space, a finite element method involving a mortar discretization of the contact conditions is used. In time, a new contact-stabilized Newmark scheme is presented. Numerical experiments for a two body Hertzian contact problem and a biomechanical application are reported. This work was supported by the DFG Research Center Matheon.     

Optimized video streaming over 802.11 by cross-layer signaling

Seamless video streaming over wireless links imposes strong demands on video codecs and the underlying network. It is not sufficient that only the video codec or only the radio adapts to changes in the wireless link quality; efforts should be applied in both layers, and - if possible - synchronized. Also, the disturbing effect of possible background traffic over the same shared medium has to be taken into account. In this article we present a communication architecture for video streaming over 802.11 that is capable of adapting to changes in the link quality and sharing of the wireless channel in various use scenarios. Experimental results show that substantial improvements in the quality of the video can be obtained by applying link adaptation and cross-layer signaling techniques.     

Simulation of the slug flow of a gas-liquid system in capillaries

A mathematical model for the gas-liquid slug flow in a capillary is developed. The velocity profiles in the bubble, film, and interbubble liquid are calculated. The calculated results are in good agreement with the experimental data of other researchers. The experimentally found bifurcational behavior of the slip velocity of bubbles relative to the two-phase mixture reported in the literature is described and supported by the theory. The reasons for which the bubble can stop in a small-diameter dead-end capillary are discussed.     

Use of zeolite-rich rocks and waste materials for the production of structural lightweight concretes

This paper aims at testing the use of mixtures constituted by natural zeolitized products and SiC-bearing industrial wastes (sludge deriving from polishing of porcelain stoneware tiles, hereafter DPM) for the production of lightweight expanded aggregates as constituents of structural and/or thermo-insulating lightweight concretes. Two commercial products have been used as zeolite natural source: Cab70 (Yellow facies of Campanian Ignimbrite) and IZclino (Turkish clinoptilolite-rich epiclastite). Different amounts of a calcareous material (Pozzano limestones — hereafter CP) from the Sorrento peninsula (Naples — Italy) were also added to a Cab70–DPM mixture. All raw materials were characterized by means of mineralogical (XRPD) and chemical (XRF) analyses. All the products and mixtures were tested from a technological point of view by means of fusibility and firing tests in order to evaluate the expanding properties. It was evidenced that the expansion of the mixture was deeply depending on the occurrence of SiC in the industrial waste. The addition of CP (10 wt.%) to the mixtures accounts for an even increased expansion, though this is accompanied by a worsening of the mechanical features of the material.These results along with literature data allowed to select 3 mixtures (70% Cab70–30% DPM, 70% IZclino–30% DPM, 60% Cab70–30% DPM–10% CP) and each of them was used for the preparation of 5 l of lightweight aggregates afterward employed for the manufacture of lightweight concretes. It was remarked that natural zeolitized materials mixed with DPM (30 wt.%) can provide lightweight aggregates with densities ranging between 0.8 and 1.0 g/cm³ suitable for the preparation of structural lightweight concretes. The addition to the mixture of CP (10 wt.%) produces less dense aggregates (0.6–0.7 g/cm³) potentially useful for the manufacture of thermo insulating lightweight concretes.     

Diesel fuel oxidation in storage

Diesel fuel should satisfy the European standards of quality even after long-term storage. The oxidation of diesel fuel, factors affecting this process, and their interaction mechanisms were studied in this work. Based on the results, conditions for the long-term storage of diesel fuel, including the type of storage tanks, can be determined.