Multi-fuel operation of modern engines; on board fuel identification

Modern engines require enhancement of electronic controls to achieve better fuel economy, higher power density and satisfactory emissions levels while operating safely. Military vehicles should be capable to run safely and efficiently on any fuel available in the field, therefore on-board fuel identification and adaptation of engine controls to the type of fuel becomes extremely important. In these conditions, the use of an inexpensive, nonintrusive sensor is highly desirable. The development of a technique based on the measurement of the instantaneous crankshaft speed and engine dynamics could be a convenient solution. Several such methods have been elaborated at the Center for Automotive Research (CAR) in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Wayne State University. Each of these methods yields plausible results regarding on-board fuel identification

FIM-SIM: Fault Injection Module for CloudSim Based on Statistical Distributions, Journal of Telecommunications and Information Technology, 2014, nr 4

The evolution of ICT systems in the way data is accessed and used is very fast nowadays. Cloud computing is an innovative way of using and providing computing resources to businesses and individuals and it has gained a faster popularity in the last years. In this context, the user’s expectations are increasing and cloud providers are facing huge challenges. One of these challenges is fault tolerance and both researchers and companies have focused on finding and developing strong fault tolerance models. To validate these models, cloud simulation tools are used as an easy, flexible and fast solution. This paper proposes a Fault Injector Module for CloudSim tool (FIM-SIM) for helping the cloud developers to test and validate their infrastructure. FIM-SIM follows the event- driven model and inserts faults in CloudSim based on statistical distributions. The authors have tested and validated it by conducting several experiments designed to highlight the statistical distribution influence on the failures generated and to observe the CloudSim behavior in its current state and implementation

Biomimetic Calcium Phosphates Derived from Marine and Land Bioresources

This chapter aims to establish the key factors for technological optimization of biogenic calcium phosphate synthesis from marine and land resources. Three natural calcium sources—marble, seashell and bovine bone—were considered as raw materials. The proposed materials are suitable candidates for the synthesis of bone substitutes similar to the inorganic bone component. The synthesis processes were developed based on the investigations of thermal phenomena (TGA-DSC analysis) that can occur during thermal treatments. By this method, we were able to determine the optimum routes and temperatures for the complete dissociation of calcium carbonate as well as risk-free deproteinization of bovine bone. An exhaustive characterization, performed with modern and complementary techniques such as morphology (SEM), composition (EDS, XRF) and structure (FT-IR, XRD), is presented for each precursor. The final chemical composition of ceramic products can be modulated through a careful control of the key parameters involved in the conversion, in order to create long-term performant biphasic apatite biomaterials, with broad medical applicability. Identifying the suitable strategies for this modulation contributes to an appreciable advance in orthopedic tissue engineering

Testing campaign for ECRIDA: the UV resin 3D printer flying on REXUS

ECRIDA is a student project participating in the REXUS/BEXUS campaign that develops a UV resin 3D printer device capable of working in the low-gravity environment offered by the REXUS rocket flight. Our main objective is to describe the impact of low gravity on the UV resin 3D printing process by comparing samples printed on Earth with samples printed in space. Due to the requirements of the host vehicle and driven by the novel design of our device, a thorough testing campaign must be planned and completed to qualify the device for flight and maximise the success of the scientific objectives. This paper describes the requirements that the device must fulfil and goes into the design of our test plan describing the procedures and the results. Vacuum, vibration, pressure, and functional tests were performed and described together with our learned lessons and conclusions in our will to help student teams with their testing activitie

Facile synthesis and characterization of hydroxyapatite particles for high value nanocomposites and biomaterials

Lately Hydroxyapatite has gained a lot of research interest and intense focus due to its structural as well as compositional similarity to the components of human bone mineral. The conversion of calcium-rich precursors to hydroxyapatite could lead to the development of a new sustainable alternative with a valuable environmental and socio-economically impact. Still, current approaches faces lots of challenges in terms of synthesis parameters compatible to a reproducible route for calcium phosphates (hydroxyapatite included) synthesis. The optimization of Rathje synthesis route and characterization of biogenic derived calcium phosphates from dolomitic marble and Mytilus galloprovincialis seashells, constitutes the main goals of this study. The synthesized materials were characterized using FTIR, SEM coupled with EDS, and X-ray diffraction at all synthesis stages. Precursors were also subjected to thermal analysis and differential scanning calorimetry for thermal transformations investigations and dissociation temperature setting. This study suggests that acid quantity and magnetic stirring are the key-factors for Ca/P molar ratio adjustment, hence for the amount of naturally-derived hydroxyapatite. This research also contributes to the development of new strategies for further optimization of the conversion procedure and removal of residual components

Analysis of power consumption in heterogeneous virtual machine environments

Reduction of energy consumption in Cloud computing datacenters today is a hot a research topic, as these consume large amounts of energy. Furthermore, most of the energy is used inefficiently because of the improper usage of computational resources such as CPU, storage and network. A good balance between the computing resources and performed workload is mandatory. In the context of data-intensive applications, a significant portion of energy is consumed just to keep alive virtual machines or to move data around without performing useful computation. Moreover, heterogeneity of resources increases the difficulty degree, when trying to achieve energy efficiency. Power consumption optimization requires identification of those inefficiencies in the underlying system and applications. Based on the relation between server load and energy consumption, we study the efficiency of data-intensive applications, and the penalties, in terms of power consumption, that are introduced by different degrees of heterogeneity of the virtual machines characteristics in a cluster

Analysis of power consumption in heterogeneous virtual machine environments

Reduction of energy consumption in Cloud computing datacenters today is a hot a research topic, as these consume large amounts of energy. Furthermore, most of the energy is used inefficiently because of the improper usage of computational resources such as CPU, storage and network. A good balance between the computing resources and performed workload is mandatory. In the context of data-intensive applications, a significant portion of energy is consumed just to keep alive virtual machines or to move data around without performing useful computation. Moreover, heterogeneity of resources increases the difficulty degree, when trying to achieve energy efficiency. Power consumption optimization requires identification of those inefficiencies in the underlying system and applications. Based on the relation between server load and energy consumption, we study the efficiency of data-intensive applications, and the penalties, in terms of power consumption, that are introduced by different degrees of heterogeneity of the virtual machines characteristics in a cluster

The effects of 6-weeks program of physical therapeutic exergames on cognitive flexibility focused by reaction times in relation to manual and podal motor abilities

The main purpose of the study was to identify the level of improvement in cognitive flexi-bility manifested by choice and cognition reaction times in relation to manual and podal skills as a result of the implementation of a program of therapeutic exergame exercises, for a time interval of 6 weeks at the level of students. 511 students participated in the cross-sectional study, of which 279 male (54.6%) and 232 female (45.4%), divided into two groups: the experimental group 266 (521%) subjects and the control group 245 (48%) sub-jects. The implementation of the experimental program comprising of 8 physical thera-peutic exergames took place for 6 weeks, in one session per week, within the physical edu-cation lessons, only for the male and female experimental groups. In the initial and final testing session, 2 standardized tests were applied: TMT part A, B and 2 tests adapted for this study: Square Test and 25 Squares Test. The progress registered by the male and fe-male experimental groups was statistically significant. In all tests, the experimental groups showed higher progress compared to the control groups. Depending on the gender differences, it was found that the male experimental and control groups made better pro-gress compared to the female groups in the following tests: TMT part A, Square Test, 25 Squares Tests. The implementation of a physical therapeutic exergame program deter-mined the improvement of cognitive flexibility man-ifested by choice and cognitive reac-tion times in conditions of manual and podal motor skills, demonstrating the effective-ness of exergame technologies adapted and implemented for prophy-lactic purpose

Exploring the Knowledge Management Impact on Business Education

Knowledge management developed in the last decades as a dynamic symbiosis between science and art with significant implications on business and business education. Knowledge management operates within the organizational management, but it focuses on intangible resources, which are distinguished from the tangible ones as a result of their abstraction, metaphorical semantic, and nonlinearity. The purpose of the present paper is to explore the impact of knowledge management on business education through the mediation of academic curriculum and the influence of the business environment. The methodology is based on both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The qualitative phase focuses on a critical literature search and a semantic analysis of the main concepts and ideas, which allowed us to construct the research model and design a questionnaire addressed to business students and professors. The quantitative approach uses the statistical software packages SPSS 26.0 version, including the PROCESS macro for SPSS version 3.5 and the known reliability, validation, and interpretation criteria. Findings show that knowledge management impacts business education through the mediation of the academic curriculum and the influence of the business environment. The originality of the present research comes from the dynamics between knowledge management and business education and the research model’s design

Energy Performance of a Kalina Cycle based CHP plant driven by low-enthalpy geothermal sources

The low-enthalpy geothermal sources can be efficiently exploited for heat and power cogeneration by using the KCS-34 Kalina cycle systems. The maximum power for given heat source temperature and cooling temperature is obtained for a certain value of the ammonia-water solution concentration and turbine exit pressure. The Cycle-Tempo simulation software is a very useful tool to investigate variation of some cycle parameters in order to obtain the maximum energy efficiency. In this paper the performance of a KCS-34 Kalina cycle based CHP plant is investigated to exploit a geothermal source with 120°C temperature present in North-West of Romania. It was found that by using the heat and power cogeneration the energy efficiency can be increased from 16.76% to 57.86% in winter and to 33.44% in summer