Detection of Multiple Blockages in Parallelized Microreactors

In a plant consisting of parallelized microreactors (MRs), the product quality is lowered because of a lack of flow uniformity among them when blockage occurs. It is not practical to install sensors in every MR from the viewpoint of cost when detecting the blocked MRs. In the previous study, the multiple blockage detection (MBD) method using a small number of sensors was proposed, but its performance became low when the number of sensors decreased. Here, the conventional algorithm for MBD is improved by considering the process behavior on blockage occurrence, and the effectiveness of the improved algorithm is demonstrated through a numerical case study. The effects of flow distributor types and sensor types on the MBD performance are numerically investigated.     

Biodegradation of poly(lactic acid)—cassava bagasse composites produced by injection molding

Neat poly (lactic acid) (PLA) and PLA/cassava bagasse (CB) composites were used to produce seedling tubes by extrusion and injection molding. The tubes were buried in simulated soil, and their biodegradation was investigated by weight loss, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). After 180 days, the composites' biodegradation was higher than neat PLA material, and the higher the CB content, the higher the biodegradation, which caused fissures and voids in the material. The biodegradation of PLA/CB composites increased the phosphorus content in the soil after 180 days. Composites of PLA with CB, an abundant agro-industrial residue in Brazil, are promising because they can reduce the environmental impact due to CB's proper destination, and the composites' costs and biodegradation are faster than pure PLA material. Both the faster biodegradation of the tube and the higher P content are advantageous for seedling tubes.     

Software assurance practices for mobile applications

Mobile software applications have to cope with a particular environment that involves small size, limited resources, high autonomy requirements, competitive business models and many other challenges. To provide development guidelines that respond to these needs, several practices have been introduced; however, it is not clear how these guidelines may contribute to solve the issues present in the mobile domain. Furthermore, the rapid evolution of the mobile ecosystem challenges many of the premises upon which the proposed practices were designed. In this paper, we present a survey of the literature on software assurance practices for mobile applications, with the objective of describing them and assessing their contribution and success. We identified, organized and reviewed a body of research that spans in three levels: software development processes, software product assurance practices, and software implementation practices. By carrying out this literature survey, we reviewed the different approaches that researchers on Software Engineering have provided to address the needs that raise in the mobile software development arena. Moreover, we review the evolution of these practices, identifying how the constant changes and modernization of the mobile execution environment has impacted the methods proposed in the literature. Finally, we introduced discussion on the application of these practices in a real productive setting, opening an area for further research that may determine if practitioners have followed the proposed assurance paradigms.     

Intrinsic CFRP-metal-hybrids with rubber interface for the improvement of the damping behaviour

This paper presents an integrated passive damping approach in hybrid metal-CFRP parts for structural applications. In this concept a viscoelastic material is embedded in the joint zone of the hybrid component. To examine the connection strength single-lap-joint specimens were produced and tested and the influence of the used material combinations, different surface structures, and different process parameters i.e. the moment of cross-linking were evaluated. Afterwards, the metal-CFRP hybrids were tested in quasi-static tests to assess their connection strength and failure behaviour. Dynamic cyclic tensile tests with step-wise increased loading conditions were performed to determine the specimens damping behaviour and to estimate their fatigue performance. Finally, these results are compared to a state of the art metal-CFRP hybrid with rivets connecting both materials.     

On stochastic comparisons of finite mixtures for some semiparametric families of distributions

In this paper, we consider the classical finite mixture model, which is an effective tool for modeling lifetime distributions for random samples from heterogeneous populations. We discuss new results on stochastic comparison for two finite mixtures when each of them is drawn from one of the following semiparametric families, i.e., proportional hazards, accelerated lifetime and proportional reversed hazards.     

Is the List of Incomplete Open Cubes Complete?

Variations of Incomplete Open Cubes is the major project by the twentieth-century conceptual artist Sol LeWitt. In this paper we interpret the enumerative component of the project as embeddings of graphs. This formulation permits use of an algorithm to check the completeness of the list of the structures produced by the artist. Our conclusion is that the artist found the correct number of structures (that is, 122), but that his list contains a mistake in the presentation of a pair of incomplete cubes, a discovery that appears not to have been noted before.