Hydrophobic double walled carbon nanotubes interaction with phopholipidic model membranes: 1H-, 2H-, 31P NMR and ESR study

The interactions of carbon nanotubes synthesized by catalytic chemical vapour deposition with phospholipidic bilayers, mimicking biological membranes, have been investigated using solid state 31P- and 2H NMR, 1H- and 31P NMR in liquids and ESR studies. It was found that carbon nanotubes can integrate the bilayer, depending on the overall cohesion of the membrane used. Whereas no direct interaction can be observed in small unilamellar vesicles or directly in the presence of short-chained phospholipids, carbon nanotubes incorporate into the membrane of multibilayers. The result is a significant 2–3 K lowering of the transition temperature in multibilayers of dimyristoyl lecithins, which is more markedly associated with increased fluidity in the most superficial part of the membrane below the transition temperature (292–300 K range). However, no ionophoric property was found on large unilamellar vesicles

The integrated use of enterprise and system dynamics modelling techniques in support of business decisions

Enterprise modelling techniques support business process re-engineering by capturing existing processes and based on perceived outputs, support the design of future process models capable of meeting enterprise requirements. System dynamics modelling tools on the other hand are used extensively for policy analysis and modelling aspects of dynamics which impact on businesses. In this paper, the use of enterprise and system dynamics modelling techniques has been integrated to facilitate qualitative and quantitative reasoning about the structures and behaviours of processes and resource systems used by a Manufacturing Enterprise during the production of composite bearings. The case study testing reported has led to the specification of a new modelling methodology for analysing and managing dynamics and complexities in production systems. This methodology is based on a systematic transformation process, which synergises the use of a selection of public domain enterprise modelling, causal loop and continuous simulationmodelling techniques. The success of the modelling process defined relies on the creation of useful CIMOSA process models which are then converted to causal loops. The causal loop models are then structured and translated to equivalent dynamic simulation models using the proprietary continuous simulation modelling tool iThink

Carbon Catcher Design Report

Overview. The design of the overall Carbon Catcher project can be separated into four distinct systems, each of which is assigned a specialized committee. The committee names and responsibilities are listed below: Air Mover The overall goal for the Air Mover committee is the design of the turbine assembly. As the overall goal of the project is to collect and separate carbon dioxide from the air, one of the most important parts is to actually get the air to pass through the carbon-catching membrane. Passive air would not give a significant enough yield rate to make the carbon dioxide collection rate impactful, thus air must be sucked through a vacuum/turbine. Membrane The goal of Membrain is to create a membrane that can filter out CO2 through various methods. These methods are limited, due to there being such variety, to certain techniques and membrane material types that have been decided, prior, by the committee. Most membranes will be geared towards utilizing temperature and pressure along with gaseous speed and flow rate. In addition, examining certain treatments, such as regeneration of material, and replacements will be looked into as well, to see how it fares in sustainability. Carbon Storer The Carbon Storer committee will design a store and transport system for fluid CO2 after it is extracted from the atmosphere. Primary considerations include geological solutions, cost-effective materials, and analysis methods to improve overall capacity and efficiency. Additionally, the committee will select an environmentally and economically sustainable method of recycling the captured CO2. PyControl The PyControl committee will design a series of sensors and actuators, which will primarily support the sequestration and pipeline systems present in the Carbon Storer Committee and direct air capture system in Air Mover. The design can be broken into four control layers: Input/Output, Field Controllers, Data, and Supervisory. Goal The overarching goal of Carbon Catcher is to design a cost-effective, scalable atmospheric carbon dioxide removal system that is capable of being deployed in a variety of urban environments and may fit a variety of different customer requirements or requests

A behaviour-based control architecture for heterogeneous modular, multi-configurable, chained micro-robots

This article presents a new control architecture designed for heterogeneous modular, multi-configurable, chained micro-robots. This architecture attempts to fill the gap that exists in heterogeneous modular robotics research, in which little work has been conducted compared to that in homogeneous modular robotics studies. The architecture proposes a three-layer structure with a behaviour-based, low-level embedded layer, a half-deliberative half-behaviour-based high layer for the central control, and a heterogeneous middle layer acting as a bridge between these two layers. This middle layer is very important because it allows the central control to treat all modules in the same manner, facilitating the control of the robot. A communication protocol and a module description language were also developed for the control architecture to facilitate communication and information flow between the heterogeneous modules and the central control. Owing to the heterogeneous behaviour of the architecture, the system can automatically reconfigure its actions to adapt to unpredicted events (such as actuator failure). Several behaviours (at low and high levels) are also presented here.The research leading to these results has received funding from RoboCity2030-II-CM (S2009/DPI-1559), funded by Programas de Actividades I+D en la Comunidad de Madrid and cofunded by Structural Funds os the EUPublicad

newYAWL : achieving comprehensive patterns support in workflow for the control-flow, data and resource perspectives

The Workflow Patterns provide a conceptual foundation for the control-flow, data and resource perspectives of process-aware information systems (PAIS). In this paper we present newYAWL, a reference language for PAIS based on the workflow patterns. newYAWL radically extends previous work undertaken on the YAWL language and provides a comprehensive formal description of how the complete set of workflow patterns can be realized and integrated in the context of an operational PAIS