Teff (Eragrostis tef) processing,utilization and future opportunities: a review

The demand for food production has been constantly increasing due to rising population. In developed countries, for example, the emergence of regional production of old grains that are rarely utilized, along with the production of commonly consumed grains, has gained importance in recent years. These grains, known collectively as ancient or heirloom grains, have offered both farmers and consumers novel ways of cultivation and products with interesting taste, characteristics and nutritional value. Among the 30 000 plant species known, only five cereals currently provide more than 50% of the world's energy intake – bread wheat (Triticum aestivum), rice (Oryza sativa), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), millets (Panicum sp.) and maize (Zea mays). The excessive utilization of these selected species has a great potential to cause genetic losses and difficulty in bridging future agricultural demands. Teff (Eragrostis tef), an ancient grain extensively cultivated in countries like Eritrea and Ethiopia, provides promising alternatives for new food uses since its nutritional value is significantly higher than most others cereal grains. The absence of gluten allows flexibility in food utilization since it can be directly substituted to gluten-containing products. The grain also offers an excellent balance of essential amino acids and minerals, which can fulfil the recommended daily intake and eliminates the need for fortification and enrichment. This review provides a general overview of the physical properties and nutritional composition of teff grains related to processing and applications in the food and feed industries. The current status of teff utilization, as well as the challenges in production and commercialization, and future opportunities is presented and discussed.     

Encapsulation of PV modules using ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer as a pottant: A critical review

The primary purpose of this work is to review the literature about what is and is not known about using ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA0 copolymer as the encapsulant (or pottant) material in photovoltaic (PV) modules. Secondary purposes include elucidating the complexity of the encapsulation problem, providing an overview about encapsulation of PV cells and modules, providing a historical overview of the relevant research and development on EVA, summarizing performance losses reported for PV systems deployed since ca. 1981, and summarizing the general problems of polymer stability in a solar environment. We also provide a critical review of aspects of reported work for cases that we believe are important.Failure modes resolved in the early work to establish reliability of deployed modules and the purposes and properties of pottants, are summarized. Typical performance losses in large field-deployed, large-scale systems ranging from 1% to 10% per year are given quantitatively, and qualitative reports of EVA discoloration are summarized with respect to ultraviolet (UV), world-wide location and site dependence.The general stability of polymers and their desirable bulk properties for solar utilization are given. The stabilization formulation for EVA, its effectiveness, and changes in it during degradation are discussed. The degradation mechanisms for the base resin, e.g., unstabilized Elvax 150^TM, and stabilized EVA are indicated for literature dating to the early 1950s, and the role played by unsaturated chromophores is indicated. The limited number of studies relating discoloration and PV cell efficiency are summarized.Observed degradation of EVA or the unstabilized base resin in the laboratory and examples used to measure the degradation are summarized in sections entitled: (1) thermally-induced degradation; (2) photodegradation and photothermal degradation of EVA in different temperature regimes; (3) photobleaching and photodegradation of the UV absorber and cross-linking agent; (4) acetic acid and metal and metal-oxide catalyzed oxidative degradation; and (5) discolaration and PV cell efficiency losses.Processing effects/influences on EVA stability are discussed in sections entitled: (1) EVA raw materials and extruded, uncured films; (2) thermal encapsulation processes; (3) effects of lamination, curing, and curing peroxide on gel content and chromophores formed; and (4) incomplete shielding of curing-generated chromophores. A summary is given for the limited number of accelerated lifetime testing efforts and examples of erroneous service lifetime predictions for EVA are discussed. The known factors that effect the discoloration rate of several EVA formulations are discussed in which the reduction in rate by using UV-absorbing superstrates is a prime example. A summary is given of what is and is not known about EVA degradation mechanisms, degradation from exposures in field-deployed modeules and/or laboratory testing, and factors that contribute to EVA stability or degradation. Finally, conclusions about using Elvax 150 in EVA formulations are summarized, and future prospects for developing the next-generation pottant for encapsulating PV modules are discussed.     

Electronic protection and routing optimization of MANETs operating in an electronic warfare environment

Domination of the electromagnetic spectrum is a crucial component of the 21st century warfare. In the harsh electromagnetic environment of the modern battlefield, it is of the utmost importance to deny the opposing force the opportunity to attack or exploit the detection/interception of friendly communications assets through the deployment of electronic protection (EP) measures in order to attain low probability of detection (LPD), low probability of interception (LPI) and anti-jam (A/J). Given that directional antennas are a suitable means to achieve both extended range and LPD/LPI, this paper proposes mechanisms to optimize the trade-off between these capabilities, minimizing the number of hops and end-to-end delay when routing packets in a multi-hop ad-hoc network, while taking into account stealth requirements. The novel scheme is based on a variant of Fisheye State Routing, coupled with a power control algorithm to guarantee a LPD/LPI beyond the zone covered by the omni-directional radiation footprint of the network. The performance of the proposed scheme is evaluated through computer simulation.     

Catalysis, the turntable for a clean future

Upgrading the bottom of the barrel for clean fuel production, developing new engines with optimized catalytic posttreatments, implementing clean catalytic combustion technologies, improving the overall CO₂ balance via catalytic processes and, lastly, developing new water purification techniques represent major upheavals in catalysis linked to refining and environmental protection. This paper, thus, will focus on the determining contribution of catalysis to the most recent achievements in these domains. A technico-economic approach will follow, underlining their main incentives and drawbacks within the framework of future environmental constraints.     

浅析光纤通信技术及其发展趋势

光纤通信因其具有容量大、损耗低、抗电磁干扰能力强、体积小、重量轻、保密性能好等特点,在各个通信领域中得到了广泛的应用。本文首先分析了光纤通信技术及其特点,并对未来光纤通信技术的发展趋势进行了展望。     

关于计算机通讯技术若干问题的思考

计算机已经成为现代人生活、工作不可或缺的主要工具,随着科技的发展以及人民生活水平的提高,人们对于计算机网络通讯技术的要求也越来越高,计算机网络通讯技术面临着既良好又具挑战的发展机遇。     

数据库技术的应用与发展趋势

数据库技术是计算机科学中的一个重要的分支技术,随着信息时代的到来,数据库的建设规模以及信息量的大小就成为了衡量一个国家信息化程度的重要标准。本文主要是分析数据库技术的应用以及其发展趋势。     

A network-based mobility management scheme for future Internet

The current Internet was originally designed for “fixed” terminals and can hardly support mobility. It is necessary to develop new mobility management schemes for the future Internet. This paper proposes an Identifiers Separating and Mapping Scheme (ISMS), which is a candidate for the future Internet mobility management, and discusses the basic principles and detailed message flow. ISMS is a network-based mobility management scheme that takes advantage of the identity and location separation. The mobility entities in the core network are responsible for the location management. ISMS is designed to satisfy the requirements of faster handover, route optimism, advanced management, location privacy and security. The average handover delay of ISMS is on the order of milliseconds only, which is far smaller than that of Mobile IPv6. Analyses show that ISMS can reduce packet overhead on wireless channels. We build a prototype and perform some experiments. Results verify the feasibility of ISMS.     

融合内容和服务的未来网络体系架构

互联网难以适应其通信模式由主机为中心向以内容和服务为中心的转变,从而提出了融合内容和服务的未来网络体系架构(Content and Service Aware Network:CoreNet)。CoreNet基于面向内容和服务的设计理念,并通过灵活的协议栈"腰"设计允许应用显式地表达它们的通信意愿,使得网络能感知不同应用模式并进行优化处理。同时,通过网络内置缓存和高效任播路由,提升内容分发和服务获取的效率,适应未来人机物三元融合创新应用的需求。     

水声换能器及其研究和发展

阐述了水声换能器和频响特性、指向性及不同尺寸和频率范围的换能器的多种不同的校准方法，就其优缺点进行了比较。并具体介绍我国自声学院声学所成立以来水声换能器在换能材料和声学无源材料、换能吕和基陈以及水下电声测量等3个方面的取得的研究和成果。介绍了在压电陶瓷、吸声材料、换能器各种基阵等方面取得的国内外领先成果和应用现状。最后给出我国水声换能器的发展方向及动态，对其发展前景作了展望。