Mn-containing catalytic materials for the total combustion of toluene: The role of Mn localisation in the structure of LDH precursor

Mg/Mn/Al mixed oxide systems of similar atomic ratios close to 2/0.5/1 were obtained by calcination of Mg,Al layered double hydroxide (LDH) type precursors containing Mn either in the cationic form within the brucite layer or as permanganate anions in the interlayer. The materials were characterised with PXRD, thermal analysis, XPS, ESR, TPR and BET. In mixed oxides derived from interlayer-doped precursor PXRD identified MgO–MnO solid solution and poorly crystalline Al-rich spinel phase, while those obtained from layer-doped LDH contained a better crystalline Mn-rich spinel. Surface of both materials was covered with poorly crystalline and/or amorphous Mn⁴⁺-containing phases. Higher reducibility of this surface coat in calcined layer-doped catalyst, as compared to interlayer-doped one, was attributed to the differences in the nature of underlying crystalline phases, and was considered the chief reason for the higher catalytic activity of this catalyst in the total oxidation of toluene.     

IGES Model Comparison System: A Tool for Tsting and Validating IGES Processors

The IGES Model Comparison System (IMCOS) is the first test tool to allow an easy and automatic semantic comparison of CAD models represented in IGES format. By systematically analyzing and comparing entity data and structures of generated and exchanged IGES models, it detects loss of information and functionality resulting from model exchange via IGES processors. IMCOS was designed and implemented as a tabledriven IGES processor to allow external control of the comparison process and full coverage of the current version of IGES (Version 3.0) and future versions. This article presents the basic concepts of IMCOS. The great interest in and discussion of IMCOS have shown the importance of such a test tool. IMCOS may be used as one of several test tools within an overall IGES verification program.     

Homodyne detection and positive operator-valued measures

We describe the homodyne detector in terms of positive operator-valued measures (POV-measures) and show that in the limit the homodyne detector reproduces the detector of quadrature phase amplitude of a signal field.Work supported in part by The State Committee for Scientific Research, under the project no. 2 0227 91 01.     

Laminated ferrite modular memory for 150-250-ns cycle operation

The small element dimensions obtainable with laminated (monolithic) ferrite memory arrays suggest common packaging of the magnetic and semiconductor components to form compact self-contained modules. Coupling the modules with additional integrated circuit nets makes possible memories of megabit capacity with cycle times in the range of 150 to 250 ns. The modular system is described and evaluated for a 512-word 64-bit-per-word test module. Module operation is 2D, two storage intersections per bit. All circuitry is transformerless to facilitate circuit integration. Word currents are supplied by a diode matrix-complementary bi-polar transistor circuit in each module. Bipolar transistor digit-sense circuitry is shared between modules. A nonreturn-to-zero mode of digiting is utilized to maximize sense signal and minimize cycle time. Factors determining access and cycle times are discussed. Operation uniformity and margin data are given.     

Quantifying the evolution of TTCN-3 as a language

Ten years of maintenance, nine published revisions of the standards for the Testing and Test Control Notation version 3 (TTCN-3), more than 500 change requests since 2006, and 10 years of activity on the official TTCN-3 mailing list add up to a rich history, not unlike that of many successful Open Source Software (OSS) projects. In this article, we contemplate TTCN-3 in the context of software evolution and examine its history quantitatively. We mined the changes in the textual content of the standards, the data in change requests from the past 5 years, and the mailing list archives from the past 10 years. In addition, to characterize the use of the TTCN-3 we investigated the meta-data of the contributions at the TTCN-3 User Conference, and the use of language constructs in a large-scale TTCN-3 test suite. Based on these data sets, we first analyze the amount, density, and location of changes within the different parts of the standard. Then, we analyze the activity and focus of the user community and the maintenance team in both the change request management system and the official TTCN-3 mailing list. Finally, we analyze the distribution of contributions at the TTCN-3 User Conference across different topics over the past 8 years and construct use anomalies during the development of a large-scale test suite. Our findings indicate that the TTCN-3 is becoming increasingly stable as the overall change density and intensity, as well as the number of change requests are decreasing, despite the monotonous increase in the size of the standards.     

Range mode and range median queries in constant time and sub-quadratic space

Given a list of n items and a function defined over sub-lists, we study the space required for computing the function for arbitrary sub-lists in constant time.For the function mode we improve the previously known space bound O(n²/logn) to O(n²loglogn/log²n) words.For median the space bound is improved to O(n²loglog²n/log²n) words from O(n²⋅log(k)n/logn), where k is an arbitrary constant and log(k) is the iterated logarithm.     

An approach to quality engineering of TTCN-3 test specifications

Experience with the development and maintenance of large test suites specified using the Testing and Test Control Notation (TTCN-3) has shown that it is difficult to construct tests that are concise with respect to quality aspects such as maintainability or usability. The ISO/IEC standard 9126 defines a general software quality model that substantiates the term “quality” with characteristics and subcharacteristics. The domain of test specifications, however, requires an adaption of this general model. To apply it to specific languages such as TTCN-3, it needs to be instantiated. In this paper, we present an instantiation of this model as well as an approach to assess and improve test specifications. The assessment is based on metrics and the identification of code smells. The quality improvement is based on refactoring. Example measurements using our TTCN-3 tool TRex demonstrate how this procedure is applied in practise. B. Zeiss is supported by a Ph.D. scholarship from Siemens AG, Corporate Technology.     

Model-based cloud resource management with TOSCA and OCCI

Software and Systems Modeling - With the advent of cloud computing, different cloud providers with heterogeneous cloud services (compute, storage, network, applications, etc.) and their related...     

Evaluation of quadratic cost functionals for neutral systems: the frequency-domain approach

As shown in Grabowski (1983), the problem of evaluation of the quadratic performance index for delay-differential systems of neutral type can be effectively solved by the use of Lyapunov functionals. In this paper another solution to that problem, based on the frequency-domain approach, is proposed. With the use of Plancherel's theorem and other tools of complex analysis, this task is reduced to a Riemann-Hilbert problem, an explicit solution to which is found by elementary methods. Our results can be regarded as a generalization of those due to Walton and Marshall (1984, 1987). Two simple examples of application are also provided.     

Innovation and the growth of service companies: the variety of firm activities and industry effects

This paper examines the relationship between innovation performance and employment growth in firms by taking a closer look at specific innovation activities and industry effects in the context of the services sector. Firm-level CIS data on Polish services firms in 2004–2009 are analysed using robust M-estimation. The results indicate that the effects of product, process and organisational innovations depend strongly on the level of technological opportunities in the industry in question. Given the widely acknowledged role of marketing innovations in services, possible synergies between innovations in the form of new products and new marketing techniques are also analysed. We demonstrate that marketing innovations are conducive to firm growth if they complement product innovations, but they are less likely to foster growth when applied in isolation.