Comparative techno-economic assessment of a large-scale hydrogen transport via liquid transport media

A large-scale point to point hydrogen transport is one strategy for a prospective energy import scenario for certain countries. The case for a hydrogen transport from Australia to Japan has been addressed in several studies. However, most studies lack transparency and detailed insights into the made assumptions thus a fair evaluation of different transport pathways is challenging. To address this issue, we developed a model where a large-scale point to point hydrogen transport of liquid hydrogen is compared with the transport via liquid organic hydrogen carrier (LOHC), namely via methyl cyclohexane and hydrogenated dibenzyl toluene. We analyzed, where energy is required along the different pathways, where hydrogen losses do occur and how the costs are put together. Furthermore, the influence of hydrogen feed costs is also considered. For hydrogen production costs of 5 €₂₀₁₈/kg_H2 the total delivery costs are in the range of 6.40– 8.10 €₂₀₁₈/kg_H2.     

New CAMAC based data acquisition and beam control system for Lund nuclear microprobe

A new CAMAC based data acquisition system has been installed at the Lund Nuclear Microprobe facility. This paper reports on the development and present status of the data acquisition system. The system is a true multiparameter CAMAC based system with fast Fera bus readout and in crate memory buffer. The user interface is based on Sparrow Kmax software for a Power Macintosh platform. The system read out and tag the event data with position on-line, which make fast on-line monitoring of spectra or element maps possible.Simultaneously, all data can be saved event by event for off-line analysis. The beam scanning part is software controlled through a timed D/A converter, this allows fast scanning of the beam. With a CCD-camera and video card the area to be analysed could be defined directly from the image, and the sample position can be moved. Any kind of irregular scan patterns could be defined.     

A 100-GOPS programmable processor for vehicle vision systems

New generations of automobiles will include driver assistance systems requiring powerful, low-cost processors to handle video/camera applications and to enable fast, convenient application development. Shrinking feature sizes on processors already in development will bring substantial increases in system speed and functionality.     

An Extended Replication of an Experiment for Assessing Methods for Software Requirements Inspections

We have performed an extended replication of the Porter-Votta-Basili experiment comparing the Scenario method and the Checklist method for inspecting requirements specifications using identical instruments. The experiment has been conducted in our educational context represented by a more general definition of a defect compared to the original defect list. Our study involving 24 undergraduate students manipulated three independent variables: detection method, requirements specification, and the order of the inspections. The dependent variable measured is the defect detection rate. We found the requirements specification inspected and not the detection method to be the most probable explanation for the variance in defect detection rate. This suggests that it is important to gather knowledge of how a requirements specification can convey an understandable view of the product and to adapt inspection methods accordingly. Contrary to the original experiment, we can not significantly support the superiority of the Scenario method. This is in accordance with a replication conducted by Fusaro, Lanubile and Visaggio, and might be explained by the lack of individual defect detection skill of our less experienced subjects.     

Majority gates vs. general weighted threshold gates

In this paper we study small depth circuits that contain threshold gates (with or without weights) and parity gates. All circuits we consider are of polynomial size. We prove several results which complete the work on characterizing possible inclusions between many classes defined by small depth circuits. These results are the following:

The effect of specific β‐nucleation on morphology and mechanical behavior of isotactic polypropylene

The commercial grade of isotactic polypropylene was modified by a specific β‐nucleating agent in a broad concentration range. The supermolecular structure of the specimens prepared by injection molding was characterized by X‐ray scattering and correlated with mechanical behavior. It was found that at a critical nucleant concentration of 0.03 wt % the content of the β‐modification virtually reaches a saturation level. With further addition of the nucleant, the β‐phase content increases only slightly. The long period passes through a distinct maximum at the same nucleant concentration. This singularity in structure remarkably correlates with a minimum of the yield stress and maxima of strain at break and fracture toughness. Such general behavior is also reflected in the correlation between the β‐phase concentration and fracture toughness profiles along the injection‐molded bars. It is suggested that in the critically nucleated material an optimum thickness of the amorphous interlayer with connecting chains between the β‐crystallites is established, rendering the material the highest possible ductility and toughness. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 85: 1174–1184, 2002     

Unsaturated para-linked aromatic LC polyesters: Thermotropic and lyotropic systems

Liquid-crystalline thermosets (LCT) are a new class of materials which combine typical properties of LC polymers with those of conventional thermosets. This article reports on the development of a lyotropic LC thermoset (LLCT) in which the solvent is a vinyl monomer. Such an LLCT is expected to have several advantages compared to conventional unsaturated polyester resins. The synthesis and characterization of a variety of novel substituted para-linked aromatic polyesters and copolyesters containing unsaturated fumaroyl units is presented. The thermal and liquid crystal properties were investigated. It is demonstrated that it is possible to prepare a lyotropic LC solution in styrene. These lyotropic solutions are capable of thermal crosslinking by the addition of a free-radical initiator. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Coordination between strategic forest management and tactical logistic and production planning in the forestry supply chain

In this paper, we study the coordination mechanism in the forestry supply chain between strategic forest management and tactical production planning. We first formulate an integrated model to establish a theoretical benchmark for performance of the entire supply chain. It is a mixed integer programming model that involves harvesting, bucking, transportation, production, and sales decisions for both tactical and strategic planning levels. We then present two sequential approaches S‐A and S‐B where the coordination is done through internal pricing. S‐A is the approach currently used in practice where harvesting in the forest is the main driver of the supply chain activities and internal pricing is introduced to control bucking decision in a separate stage. In contrast, S‐B takes downstream demand information into consideration and internal pricing directly influences harvesting decision in the first stage. In order to find the appropriate setting of internal pricing that leads to the system optimum, we suggest two heuristics H‐I and H‐II. The internal pricing in H‐I is based on dual values and in H‐II, it is derived from a Lagrangian decomposition. A real‐life case study in the Chilean forestry industry is used to compare the results of different approaches. It is shown that the new sequential approach S‐B generates as good feasible solution as that obtained from the integrated approach but in much less time. Both heuristics H‐I and H‐II bring about near‐optimal feasible solutions. H‐II also provides optimistic bound of the optimal objective function value, which can be used as a measure of the solution quality.