Testing Fuel Efficiency of a Tractor with a Continuously Variable Transmission

A John Deere 8530 IVT tractor (Waterloo, Iowa) with a continuously variable transmission (CVT) that could be operated in automatic (CVT) or manual (fixed gear ratio) mode was tested for fuel consumption at a setpoint travel speed of 9 km·h‐1 with 17 different drawbar loads. Linear regression analysis results showed that with the throttle set to maximum in both transmission modes, operating the tractor with the transmission in the automatic mode was more fuel efficient than operating with the transmission in the manual mode when the drawbar power was approximately 78%, or less, of maximum power. When load transition portions of the data were filtered out, there was no significant effect of load sequencing in the remaining data. On the other hand, there was a noticeable effect of travel direction which could occur due to a minor slope of the test track in the direction of travel. Testing of more tractor models from different manufacturers and at different travel speeds is needed to determine if these results can be applied to different tractor models produced by the same and/or other manufacturers

Normal forms and entanglement measures for multipartite quantum states

A general mathematical framework is presented to describe local equivalence classes of multipartite quantum states under the action of local unitary and local filtering operations. This yields multipartite generalizations of the singular value decomposition. The analysis naturally leads to the introduction of entanglement measures quantifying the multipartite entanglement (as generalizations of the concurrence and the 3-tangle), and the optimal local filtering operations maximizing these entanglement monotones are obtained. Moreover a natural extension of the definition of GHZ-states to e.g. $2\times 2\times N$ systems is obtained.Comment: Proof of uniqueness of normal form adde

Evaluation of a linear shredder considering energy and material activity access

A leachate ion conductivity test was used to evaluate the activity access of mechanically processed whole-plant corn and corn stover. The test procedure was refined with regard to material loading and incubation time to yield a rapid (10 minutes) procedure for detecting differences among mechanical treatments. Conductivity increased with material loading and showed only limited saturation at loadings up to 0.108 g sample/mL water; however, low sample bulk density limited practical material loading to 0.042 g sample/mL water when using unground samples (which had particles larger than 19 mm). Abrasive cyclone milling with a 1 mm screen produced small enough particles to achieve near ultimate conductivity with less than 6 h of incubation. Conductivity of leachate from biomass processed with different mechanical treatments was divided by the conductivity of leachate from cyclone milled biomass to compute an index (0 to 1 scale) which normalizes results for actual chemical composition and indicates access to plant constituents in the processed biomass. Limited data suggests that conductivity index may be related to glucose conversion during enzyme hydrolysis. A prototype linear shredder was used to shred rehydrated dry corn stover; shredding energy and the activity access of the shredded material were recorded. Shredding process variables were machine compressive pressure (7 to 12 kPa), shredding cycles (resulting in motion of 1.22 to 3.66 m), and stover moisture content (15 and 30%, wet basis). Specific shredding energy ranged from 20 kJ kg-1 DM to 106 kJ kg-1 DM; this is 0.11% to 0.60% of the corn stover\u27s gross heating value. Material conductivity index ranged from 0.36 to 0.81. Regression models for specific shredding energy and material conductivity index were generated and may have value for optimizing mechanical pre-processing treatments of biomass. Generally, high compressive force and wetter material yielded more efficient mechanical processing

Testing Fuel Efficiency of a Tractor with a Continuously Variable Transmission

A John Deere 8530 IVT tractor (Waterloo, Iowa) with a continuously variable transmission (CVT) that could be operated in automatic (CVT) or manual (fixed gear ratio) mode was tested for fuel consumption at a setpoint travel speed of 9 km·h‐1 with 17 different drawbar loads. Linear regression analysis results showed that with the throttle set to maximum in both transmission modes, operating the tractor with the transmission in the automatic mode was more fuel efficient than operating with the transmission in the manual mode when the drawbar power was approximately 78%, or less, of maximum power. When load transition portions of the data were filtered out, there was no significant effect of load sequencing in the remaining data. On the other hand, there was a noticeable effect of travel direction which could occur due to a minor slope of the test track in the direction of travel. Testing of more tractor models from different manufacturers and at different travel speeds is needed to determine if these results can be applied to different tractor models produced by the same and/or other manufacturers

An expressive framework for verifying deadlock freedom

10.1007/978-3-319-02444-8_21Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)8172 LNAI287-30

Polymeric multilayer capsule-mediated vaccination induces protective immunity against cancer and viral infection

Recombinant antigens hold high potential to develop vaccines against lethal intracellular pathogens and cancer. However, they are poorly immunogenic and fail to induce potent cellular immunity. In this paper, we demonstrate that polymeric multilayer capsules (PMLC) strongly increase antigen delivery toward professional antigen-presenting cells in vivo, including dendritic cells (DCs), macrophages, and B cells, thereby enforcing antigen presentation and stimulating T cell proliferation. A thorough analysis of the T cell response demonstrated their capacity to induce IFN-gamma secreting CD4 and CD8 T cells, in addition to follicular T-helper cells, a recently identified CD4 T cell subset supporting antibody responses. On the B cell level, PMLC-mediated antigen delivery promoted the formation of germinal centers, resulting in increased numbers of antibody-secreting plasma cells and elevated antibody titers. The functional relevance of the induced immune responses was validated in murine models of influenza and melanoma. On a mechanistic level, we have demonstrated the capacity of PMLC to activate the NALP3 inflammasome and trigger the release of the potent pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-1 beta. Finally, using DC-depleted mice, we have identified DCs as the key mediators of the immunogenic properties of PMLC