Suppression of the α → β-nickel hydroxide transformation in concentrated alkali: Role of dissolved cations

The presence of dissolved cations such as Al and Zn in alkaline electrolyte (6 M KOH) suppresses the -nickel hydroxide transformation. The uptake of Al (10 mol%) and Zn (30 mol%) exhibited by the active material likely stabilizes the -phase. Dissolved Al is deleterious to the performance of the nickel hydroxide electrode, whereas, dissolved Zn enhances the specific discharge capacity of nickel hydroxide by approximately 25% showing that the mode of metal uptake is different in the two cases.     

Faceless identification based on temporal strips

This paper first presents a novel approach for modelling facial features, Local Directional Texture (LDT), which exploits the unique directional information in image textures for the problem of face recognition. A variant of LDT with privacy-preserving temporal strips (TS) is then considered to achieve faceless recognition with a higher degree of privacy while maintaining high accuracy. The TS uses two strips of pixel blocks from the temporal planes, XT and YT, for face recognition. By removing the reliance on spatial context (i.e., XY plane) for this task, the proposed method withholds facial appearance information from public view, where only one-dimensional temporal information that varies across time are extracted for recognition. Thus, privacy is assured, yet without impeding the facial recognition task which is vital for many security applications such as street surveillance and perimeter access control. To validate the reliability of the proposed method, experiments were carried out using the Honda/UCSD, CK+, CAS(ME)² and CASME II databases. The proposed method achieved a recognition rate of 98.26% in the standard video-based face recognition database, Honda/UCSD. It also offers a 81.92% reduction in the dimension length required for storing the extracted features, in contrast to the conventional LBP-TOP.

     

Inventory and flow control of the IGCC process with CO2 recycles

We present control strategies for an Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) power plant with CO₂ recycles. One recycle allows for composition control and is useful when the side objective is to produce synthesis gas for chemicals. The second recycle enables temperature control in the gas turbine by using CO₂ as a diluent. The main advantages of the second recycle are that NO_x is not produced and that CO₂/H₂O separation is significantly easier than CO₂/N₂ separation, which reduces cost if the CO₂ is to be sequestered. Models and control systems are developed using process network theory. We introduce a novel method for controlling quality variables and functions of inventories. Dynamic simulations using MATLAB/Simulink models show the response to step changes in setpoints and disturbances. The inventory control method is derived from conservation laws and the second law and it is applicable to process system models of any degree of complexity. A steady-state sensitivity analysis is performed, examining the effect of changing the temperature and C:O ratio within the gasifier on the power production.     

A survey and taxonomy on energy efficient resource allocation techniques for cloud computing systems

In a cloud computing paradigm, energy efficient allocation of different virtualized ICT resources (servers, storage disks, and networks, and the like) is a complex problem due to the presence of heterogeneous application (e.g., content delivery networks, MapReduce, web applications, and the like) workloads having contentious allocation requirements in terms of ICT resource capacities (e.g., network bandwidth, processing speed, response time, etc.). Several recent papers have tried to address the issue of improving energy efficiency in allocating cloud resources to applications with varying degree of success. However, to the best of our knowledge there is no published literature on this subject that clearly articulates the research problem and provides research taxonomy for succinct classification of existing techniques. Hence, the main aim of this paper is to identify open challenges associated with energy efficient resource allocation. In this regard, the study, first, outlines the problem and existing hardware and software-based techniques available for this purpose. Furthermore, available techniques already presented in the literature are summarized based on the energy-efficient research dimension taxonomy. The advantages and disadvantages of the existing techniques are comprehensively analyzed against the proposed research dimension taxonomy namely: resource adaption policy, objective function, allocation method, allocation operation, and interoperability.     

Interaction dynamics of a spherical particle with a suspended liquid film

Hydrodynamics of collision interactions between a particle and gas‐liquid interface such as droplet/film is of keen interest in many engineering applications. The collision interaction between a suspended liquid (water) film of thickness 3.41 ± 0.04 mm and an impacting hydrophilic particle (glass ballotini) of different diameters (1.1–3.0 mm) in low particle impact Weber number ( ) range (1.4–33) is reported. Two distinct outcomes were observed—particle retention in the film at lower Weber number and complete penetration of the film toward higher Weber number cases. A collision parameter was defined based on energy balance approach to demarcate these two interaction regimes which agreed reasonably well with the experimental outcomes. It was shown that the liquid ligament forming in the complete penetration cases breaks up purely by “dripping/end pinch‐off” mechanism and not due to capillary wave instability. An analytical model based on energy balance approach was proposed to determine the liquid mass entrainment associated with the ligament which compared well with the experimental measurements. A good correlation between the %film mass entrained and the particle Bond number ( ) was obtained which indicated a dependency of Bo^1.72. Computationally, a three‐dimensional CFD model was developed to simulate these interactions using different contact angle boundary conditions which in general showed reasonable agreement with experiment but also indicated deficiency of a constant contact angle value to depict the interaction physics in entirety. The computed force profiles from computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model suggest dominance of the pressure force over the viscous force almost by an order of magnitude in all the Weber number cases studied. © 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 62: 295–314, 2016     

Chemotherapeutic agents. XII [1]. Synthesis of Pyrimidines and Fused Pyrimidines as leishmanicides and herbicides

Various bicyclic ( 2 , 3 ) and tricyclic ( 4 , 5 ) heterocycles were prepared by the reaction of 1a , c with dihaloalkanes and polynitrohalobenzene separately. Electrophilic substitution on 1a–c with different alkyl halides yielded mono and dialkyl pyrimidiens ( 6–20 ). Nucleophilic substitution reactions on 18 and 21 with amine and hydrazine separately yielded 22–31 , 21a , b and 41c . Reaction of 25a with ethyl ethoxymethylenecyanoacetate and chloroacetyl chloride separately provided bicyclic compounds 32 and 33 . Condensation-cyclization of 25a with formic, acetic and nitrous acid separately yielded 34a , b and 35 . Reaction of 26a with ethylthiocylycolate and thiourea separately provided 36a and 39 . The latter was alkylated with methyl iodide to 40 . An attempt to cyclize 29a and 30a with thionyl chloride provided bicyclic compounds 37a , b and an uncyclic product 38 . Some of the compounds were screened for leishmanicidal and herbicidal activities and a few of them exhibited significant activity. Leishmaniasis is considered to be one of the most devastating diseases and is ominous to tropical countries. The high toxicity of leishmanicidal drugs in current use, aroused considerable interest to develop new safer and effective chemotherapeutic agents. The only drug pyrimethamine [2] is the representative of pyrimidine derivatives, known as leishmanicides but low order of activity at high dose failed to retain in the clinic. Based on our past experiences in rational designing of leishmanicidal pyrimidine analogs, incorporation of levamisole pharmacophore either in flexible or rigid forms is indispensable for potential activity [1,3] against visceral leishmaniasis. These observations induced an impetus to synthesize pyrimidine analogs as potential leishmanicides.     

Moisture diffusion through (hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide ‐ Indian bentonite)/(vinylester) nanocomposites in artificial seawater and demineralized water

This paper compares the moisture diffusion properties of organomodified (Indian Bentonite nanoclay)/vinylester containing different amounts of nanoclay on exposure to demineralized water and artificial seawater at room temperature. Moisture uptake behavior of (Indian Bentonite)/vinylester was investigated and compared with that of neat vinylester. Addition of 5 wt% nanoclay decreased the diffusivity and permeability of vinylester in artificial seawater medium, but these diffusion parameters increased in demineralized water medium. Degradation in glass transition temperature and microhardness of the nanocomposites were much greater in specimens aged in demineralized water than in those in artificial seawater medium. Moisture diffusion behavior of the specimens was analyzed by Fick's law and the Langmuir model. The aged specimens were chemically analyzed by using infrared spectroscopy after aging for 146 days. A significant amount of leached organic species was detected in the demineralized water–aged specimens but the same was absent in those aged in artificial seawater. J. VINYL ADDIT. TECHNOL., 22:441–451, 2016. © 2015 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Can Agile and Traditional Systems Development Approaches Coexist? An Ambidextrous View

Emerging evidence seems to indicate that most systems development organizations are attempting to utilize both agile and traditional approaches. This study aims to understand the reasons organizations feel the need for this unlikely juxtaposition and the organizational challenges in sustaining the opposing cultures. Drawing on the extensive literature in organizational theory and management, we advocate ambidexterity as a viable solution to systems development organizations attempting to harness the benefits of both agile and traditional development.     

A survey on resource allocation in high performance distributed computing systems

An efficient resource allocation is a fundamental requirement in high performance computing (HPC) systems. Many projects are dedicated to large-scale distributed computing systems that have designed and developed resource allocation mechanisms with a variety of architectures and services. In our study, through analysis, a comprehensive survey for describing resource allocation in various HPCs is reported. The aim of the work is to aggregate under a joint framework, the existing solutions for HPC to provide a thorough analysis and characteristics of the resource management and allocation strategies. Resource allocation mechanisms and strategies play a vital role towards the performance improvement of all the HPCs classifications. Therefore, a comprehensive discussion of widely used resource allocation strategies deployed in HPC environment is required, which is one of the motivations of this survey. Moreover, we have classified the HPC systems into three broad categories, namely: (a) cluster, (b) grid, and (c) cloud systems and define the characteristics of each class by extracting sets of common attributes. All of the aforementioned systems are cataloged into pure software and hybrid/hardware solutions. The system classification is used to identify approaches followed by the implementation of existing resource allocation strategies that are widely presented in the literature.