Vapour – liquid equilibria of acetic acid + water and propanoic acid + water: experimental measurement and thermodynamic modelling

Vapour – liquid equilibria were measured for the acetic acid + water and the propanoic acid + water systems, in the temperature range of 412.6 to 483.2 K and pressures of 1.87 to 19.38 bar, over the entire range of concentrations. An experimental apparatus based on the static-analytical method with sampling of both phases was used with quantitative analysis by GC. A new experimental technique comprising positron emission particle tracking (PEPT) was developed and applied for the determination phase compositions and molar volumes for the acetic acid + water system at 412.6 K. The Peng-Robinson (PR), the Cubic Plus Association (CPA), the Perturbed Chain Statistical Associating Fluid Theory (PC-SAFT) and the PC-polar-SAFT (PCP-SAFT) equations modelled the data. The 1A and 2B association schemes for propanoic acid and the 2B, 3B and 4C for water, were evaluated. In CPA, the ECR and CR1 combining rules were also tested. A single binary interaction parameter was used in all models. PCP-SAFT presented higher predictive and correlative capabilities when the organic acid was modelled as 1A and water as 2B. The best association combination among CPA and PC-SAFT was 2B and 4C for the acid and water, respectively. CR1 accounted for lower errors in predictive mode while ECR in correlative mode. CPA performance was intermediate between the PC-SAFT and PCP-SAFT models and the PR equation. PR predictions were rather poor but correlations were better than those of CPA, at the expense of a larger binary interaction parameter

Optimal dynamic pricing for managed lanes with multiple entrances and exits

Dynamic pricing models are explored in this thesis for high-occupancy/toll (HOT) lanes, which are increasingly being considered as a means to relieve congestion by providing a reliable travel time alternative to travelers. The work is focused on two aspects of dynamic pricing: (a) utilizing real-time traffic measurements to inform parameters of the pricing model and (b) developing a optimal pricing formulation for managed lanes with multiple entrances and exits. The first part of the thesis develops a non-linear estimation model to determine the parameters of the value of time (VOT) distribution using real-time loop detector measurements. The estimation model is run on a HOT network with a single entrance and exit assuming the VOT has a Burr distribution. The estimation results show that the true parameter values of a VOT distribution for a population can be learned from loop detector readings measured before and after the toll gantry location. Differing toll profile predictions are observed for different choices of initial conditions. The observability of the collected measurements to estimate the parameters of the model is identified as a primary factor for the non-linear estimation to work in real-time. Further research areas are identified to extend the analysis of using real-time loop detector data for complex HOT networks and for different toll optimization objectives. The second part proposes a dynamic programming (DP) formulation to solve distance-based optimal tolling for HOT lanes with multiple entrances and exits (HOT-MEME) under deterministic demand conditions. The simplifying assumptions made to model HOT-MEME networks found in the literature are relaxed. Two objectives are considered for optimization: maximizing generated revenue and minimizing experienced total system travel time. A spatial queue model is used to capture the traffic dynamics and a multinomial logit model is used to simulate lane choice at each diverge. A backward recursion algorithm is applied, under simplifying assumptions for the definition of the state of the system, to solve for the optimal toll. The results indicate that the DP approach can theoretically determine optimal tolls for HOT lanes with multiple entrances and exits, but further research needs to be conducted for the algorithm to work practically for medium to large size networks. Recommendations are made in the conclusion about how advanced methods can be utilized to tackle the computational constraints.Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineerin

Proceedings of the tenth international conference Models in developing mathematics education: September 11 - 17, 2009, Dresden, Saxony, Germany

This volume contains the papers presented at the International Conference on “Models in Developing Mathematics Education” held from September 11-17, 2009 at The University of Applied Sciences, Dresden, Germany. The Conference was organized jointly by The University of Applied Sciences and The Mathematics Education into the 21st Century Project - a non-commercial international educational project founded in 1986. The Mathematics Education into the 21st Century Project is dedicated to the improvement of mathematics education world-wide through the publication and dissemination of innovative ideas. Many prominent mathematics educators have supported and contributed to the project, including the late Hans Freudental, Andrejs Dunkels and Hilary Shuard, as well as Bruce Meserve and Marilyn Suydam, Alan Osborne and Margaret Kasten, Mogens Niss, Tibor Nemetz, Ubi D’Ambrosio, Brian Wilson, Tatsuro Miwa, Henry Pollack, Werner Blum, Roberto Baldino, Waclaw Zawadowski, and many others throughout the world. Information on our project and its future work can be found on Our Project Home Page http://math.unipa.it/~grim/21project.htm It has been our pleasure to edit all of the papers for these Proceedings. Not all papers are about research in mathematics education, a number of them report on innovative experiences in the classroom and on new technology. We believe that “mathematics education” is fundamentally a “practicum” and in order to be “successful” all new materials, new ideas and new research must be tested and implemented in the classroom, the real “chalk face” of our discipline, and of our profession as mathematics educators. These Proceedings begin with a Plenary Paper and then the contributions of the Principal Authors in alphabetical name order. We sincerely thank all of the contributors for their time and creative effort. It is clear from the variety and quality of the papers that the conference has attracted many innovative mathematics educators from around the world. These Proceedings will therefore be useful in reviewing past work and looking ahead to the future

NASA Tech Briefs, November 2002

Topics include: a technology focus on engineering materials, electronic components and systems, software, mechanics, machinery/automation, manufacturing, bio-medical, physical sciences, information sciences book and reports, and a special section of Photonics Tech Briefs

The development of GIS to aid conservation of architectural and archaeological sites using digital terrestrial photogrammetry

This thesis is concerned with the creation and implementation of an Architectural/Archaeological information System (A/AIS) by integrating digital terrestrial photogrammetry and CAD facilities as applicable to the requirements of architects, archaeologists and civil engineers. Architects and archaeologists are involved with the measurement, analysis and recording of the historical buildings and monuments. Hard-copy photogrammetric methods supporting such analyses and documentation are well established. But the requirement to interpret, classify and quantitatively process photographs can be time consuming. Also, they have limited application and cannot be re-examined if the information desired is not directly presented and a much more challenging extraction of 3-D coordinates than in a digital photogrammetric environment. The A/AIS has been developed to the point that it can provide a precise and reliable technique for non-contact 3-D measurements. The speed of on-line data acquisition, high degree of automation and adaptability has made this technique a powerful measurement tool with a great number of applications for architectural or archaeological sites. The designed tool (A/AIS) has been successful in producing the expected results in tasks examined for St. Avit Senieur Abbey in France, Strome Castle in Scotland, Gilbert Scott Building of Glasgow University, Hunter Memorial in Glasgow University and Anobanini Rock in Iran. The goals of this research were: to extract, using digital photogrammetric digitising, 3-D coordinates of architectural/archaeological features, to identify an appropriate 3-D model, to import 3-D points/lines into an appropriate 3-D modeller, to generate 3-D objects. to design and implement a prototype architectural Information System using the above 3-D model, to compare this approach to traditional approaches of measuring and archiving required information. An assessment of the contribution of digital photogrammetry, GIS and CAD to the surveying, conservation, recording and documentation of historical buildings and cultural monuments include digital rectification and restitution, feature extraction for the creation of 3-D digital models and the computer visualisation are the focus of this research

Prediction and reduction of traffic pollution in urban areas

This thesis is the result of five years research into road traffic emissions of air pollutants. It includes a review of traffic pollution studies and models, and a description of the PREDICT model suite and PREMIT emissions model. These models were used to evaluate environmentally sensitive traffic control strategies, some of which were based on the use of Advanced Transport Telematics (ATT). This research has improved our understanding of traffic emissions. It studied emissions of the following pollutants: carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbons (He) and oxides of nitrogen (NOx). PREMIT modelled emissions from each driving mode (cruise, acceleration, deceleration and idling) and, consequently, predicted relatively complex emission characteristics for some scenarios. Results suggest that emission models should represent emissions by driving mode, instead of using urban driving cycles or average speeds. Emissions of NOx were more complex than those of CO and He. The change in NOx, caused by a particular strategy, could be similar or opposite to changes in CO and He. Similarly, for some scenarios, a reduction in stops and delay did not reduce emissions of NOx. It was also noted that the magnitude of changes in emissions of NOx were usually much less than the corresponding changes in CO and HC. In general, the traffic control strategies based on the adjustment of signal timings were not effective in reducing total network emissions. However, high emissions of pollutants on particular links could, potentially, be reduced by changing signal timings. For many links, mutually exclusive strategies existed for reducing emissions of CO and He, and emissions of NOx. Hence, a decision maker may have to choose which pollutants are to be reduced, and which can be allowed to increase. The environmental area licensing strategy gave relatively large reductions in emissions of all pollutants. This strategy was superior to the traffic signal timing strategies because it had no detrimental impact on the efficiency of the traffic network and gave simultaneous reductions in emissions of CO, He and NOx