Demonstration of a tool for automatic learning and re-use of knowledge in the activated sludge process.

Wastewater treatment plant operators encounter complex operational problems related to the activated sludge process and usually respond to these by applying their own intuition and by taking advantage of what they have learnt from past experiences of similar problems. However, previous process experiences are not easy to integrate in numerical control, and new tools must be developed to enable re-use of plant operating experience. The aim of this paper is to investigate the usefulness of a case-based reasoning (CBR) approach to apply learning and re-use of knowledge gained during past incidents to confront actual complex problems through the IWA/COST Benchmark protocol. A case study shows that the proposed CBR system achieves a significant improvement of the benchmark plant performance when facing a high-flow event disturbance.     

Benchmark simulation Model no 2 in Matlab-simulink: towards plant-wide WWTP control strategy evaluation.

In this paper, implementation of the Benchmark Simulation Model No 2 (BSM2) within Matlab-Simulink is presented. The BSM2 is developed for plant-wide WWTP control strategy evaluation on a long-term basis. It consists of a pre-treatment process, an activated sludge process and sludge treatment processes. Extended evaluation criteria are proposed for plant-wide control strategy assessment. Default open-loop and closed-loop strategies are also proposed to be used as references with which to compare other control strategies. Simulations indicate that the BM2 is an appropriate tool for plant-wide control strategy evaluation.     

WWTP dynamic disturbance modelling--an essential module for long-term benchmarking development.

Intensive use of the benchmark simulation model No. 1 (BSM1), a protocol for objective comparison of the effectiveness of control strategies in biological nitrogen removal activated sludge plants, has also revealed a number of limitations. Preliminary definitions of the long-term benchmark simulation model No. 1 (BSM1_LT) and the benchmark simulation model No. 2 (BSM2) have been made to extend BSM1 for evaluation of process monitoring methods and plant-wide control strategies, respectively. Influent-related disturbances for BSM1_LT/BSM2 are to be generated with a model, and this paper provides a general overview of the modelling methods used. Typical influent dynamic phenomena generated with the BSM1_LT/BSM2 influent disturbance model, including diurnal, weekend, seasonal and holiday effects, as well as rainfall, are illustrated with simulation results. As a result of the work described in this paper, a proposed influent model/file has been released to the benchmark developers for evaluation purposes. Pending this evaluation, a final BSM1_LT/BSM2 influent disturbance model definition is foreseen. Preliminary simulations with dynamic influent data generated by the influent disturbance model indicate that default BSM1 activated sludge plant control strategies will need extensions for BSM1_LT/BSM2 to efficiently handle 1 year of influent dynamics.     

Design and performance evaluation of a banyan network basedinterconnection structure for ATM switches

This paper presents a new self-routing packet network called the plane interconnected parallel network (PIPN). In the proposed design, the traffic arriving at the network is shaped and routed through two banyan network based interconnected planes. The interconnections between the planes distribute the incoming load more homogeneously over the network. The throughput of the network under uniform and heterogeneous traffic requirements is studied analytically and by simulation. The results are compared with the results of the baseline network and another banyan network based parallel interconnection network. It is shown that, for the proposed design, a higher degree of heterogeneity results in better performance     

DQ-haplotype analysis in rhesus macaques: implications for the evolution of these genes

The DQA1 and DQB1 alleles of 258 rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) of different origin were typed by PCR-RFLP. Five novel MamuDQA1 and five novel -DQB1 alleles were detected and 15 Mamu-DQA1-DQB1 haplotypes were identified. Haplotype analysis confirmed the conservation of the DQA1*01-DQB1 *06 haplotypes in evolution. The most conspicuous finding was the tight linkage between the Mamu-DQA1 and -DQB1 alleles. Almost in every case the Mamu-DQA1 allele was linked to only one particular Mamu-DQB1 allele. Although there also are constraints in the formation of DQ haplotypes in humans, such tight linkages are not observed. These findings support the hypothesis of some kind of co-evolution between DQA1 and DQB1 alleles and may reflect a stronger force of natural selection in macaques than in humans.     

Active,passive and transpassive dissolution of a nickel base super alloy in concentrated acid mixture solution

The electrochemical and corrosion behaviour of a nickel base super alloy (C-263) has been investigated in the deaerated binary and ternary solution mixture of concentrated phosphoric acid, acetic acid, sulphuric acid, nitric acid or water using potentiostatic technique at 35°C. The possibilities of electropolishing of this alloy in these solution mixtures have been also explored. The alloy showed distinct active, passive and transpassive behaviour in the experimental solutions. The alloy remained active and turned passive in the negative potential region. Transpassive dissolution of the alloy is observed and electropolishing is achieved in this region. The best electropolishing is obtained in 50% H₃PO₄ + 40% CH₃COOH + 10% H₂SO₄. Higher content of water in the electrolytic solution is not useful for electropolishing of the alloy The experimental results also suggest that a current plateau in the transpassive potential region is not a sufficient condition to achieve electropolishing.     

Functional Properties and Food Applications of Rapeseed Protein Concentrate

Rapeseed protein concentrate (RC), prepared with 2% hexameta-phosphate, was tested for its functionality and performance in some foods. The RC had good nitrogen solubility, fat absorption, emulsification, and whipping capacities but poor water absorption and gelling properties. It increased the emulsion stability, and protein but lowered the fat content of wieners. It also increased the cooking yield, reduced the shrinkage and tenderized meat patties. Results were similar to soybean isolate except for the poorer color and flavor. The cooking yield of RC supplemented wieners was less than the all-meat control and soybean-supplemented wieners. A 9% RC dispersion mixed with an equal volume of eggwhite produced a meringue of comparable stability and texture to that of eggwhite alone.     

Systematic characterization of Cl2 reactive ion etchingfor improved ohmics in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs

Pre-metal-deposition reactive ion etching (RIE) was performed on an Al_0.3Ga_0.7N/AlN/GaN heterostructure in order to improve the metal-to-semiconductor contact resistance. An optimum AlGaN thickness for minimizing contact resistance was determined. An initial decrease in contact resistance with etching time was explained in terms of removal of an oxide surface layer and/or by an increase in tunnelling current with the decrease of the AlGaN thickness. The presence of a dissimilar surface layer was confirmed by an initial nonuniform etch depth rate. An increase in contact resistance for deeper etches was experienced. The increase was related to depletion of the two-dimensional (2-D) electron gas (2-DEG) under the ohmics. Etch depths were measured by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The contact resistance decreased from about 0.45 Ωmm for unetched ohmics to a minimum of 0.27 Ωmm for 70 Å etched ohmics. The initial thickness of the AlGaN layer was 250 Å. The decrease in contact resistance, without excessive complications on device processing, supports RIE etching as a viable solution to improve ohmic contact resistance in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs     

How Japan's Recently Amended Copyright Law Affects Software

Japan rejected a proposal to adopt a special software protection law and instead modified its copyright law to include software. This change may affect US firms doing business there.     

Low-Power VLSI Implementation of the Inner Receiver for OFDM-Based WLAN Systems

In this paper, we propose low-power designs for the synchronizer and channel estimator units of the Inner Receiver in wireless local area network systems. The objective of the work is the optimization, with respect to power, area, and latency, of both the signal processing algorithms themselves and their implementation. Novel circuit design strategies have been employed to realize optimal hardware and power efficient architectures for the fast Fourier transform, arc tangent computation unit, numerically controlled oscillator, and the decimation filters. The use of multiple clock domains and clock gating reduces the power consumption further. These blocks have been integrated into an experimental digital baseband processor for the IEEE 802.11a standard implemented in the 0.25mum- 5-metal layer BiCMOS technology from Institute for High Performance Microelectronics.