Adaptive model-driven user interface development systems

Adaptive user interfaces (UIs) were introduced to address some of the usability problems that plague many software applications. Model-driven engineering formed the basis for most of the systems targeting the development of such UIs. An overview of these systems is presented and a set of criteria is established to evaluate the strengths and shortcomings of the state-of-the-art, which is categorized under architectures, techniques, and tools. A summary of the evaluation is presented in tables that visually illustrate the fulfillment of each criterion by each system. The evaluation identified several gaps in the existing art and highlighted the areas of promising improvement

Nucleation and crystallization in bio-based immiscible polyester blends

Bio-based thermoplastic polyesters are highly promising materials as they combine interesting thermal and physical properties and in many cases biodegradability. However, sometimes the best property balance can only be achieved by blending in order to improve barrier properties, biodegradability or mechanical properties. Nucleation, crystallization and morphology are key factors that can dominate all these properties in crystallizable biobased polyesters. Therefore, their understanding, prediction and tailoring is essential. In this work, after a brief introduction about immiscible polymer blends, we summarize the crystallization behavior of the most important bio-based (and immiscible) polyester blends, considering examples of double-crystalline components. Even though in some specific blends (e.g., polylactide/polycaprolactone) many efforts have been made to understand the influence of blending on the nucleation, crystallization and morphology of the parent components, there are still many points that have yet to be understood. In the case of other immiscible polyester blends systems, the literature is scarce, opening up opportunities in this environmentally important research topic.The authors would like to acknowledge funding by the BIODEST project ((RISE) H2020-MSCA-RISE-2017-778092

Economic Value of Tree Fruit Production in Jordan Valley from a Virtual Water Perspective

The continuous high demand of water resources for agricultural uses in Jordan is leading to a water crisis. A possible partial solution may be to import food which requires large amounts of water to grow instead of cultivating high water consuming crops. Crops such as banana and citrus cause a huge virtual water loss, which can be reduced by cultivating other less water-demanding crops. This paper focuses on analyzing the economic value of cultivating tree fruit from a virtual water perspective. The virtual water calculations in this study depend on the average rainfall, water quota, and the crops' water requirements (CWR). The gross profit to the water use ratio showed that banana has the lowest value 0.085 JD/m(3), while lemon has the highest value 1.65 JD/m(3). The calculations show that the average embedded water in fruits varies from about 470 m(3)/ton for grapes to about 2,500 m(3)/ton for dates. Banana and citrus plantations consume about 21 and 71 million cubic meters (MCM) annually, respectively, which represent about 85% of the total water consumption in fruit tree plantation. The virtual water flow estimation embedded in fruits shows that Jordan imports about 77 MCM per year. However it exports about 29 MCM per year. The results were analyzed from an integrated water resources management (IWRM) perspective. The analysis shows that a way to recover some of the water costs involved in, e.g., banana production would be to increase the fertilizer cost by about 10%. This would double the water cost and increase the banana production cost by about 6.8%. Using this alternative could be a way to better manage the huge losses in virtual water involved in banana production in the Jordan Valley

Effect of Dimethyl Terephthalate and Dimethyl Isophthalate on the Free Volume and Barrier Properties of Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET): Amorphous PET

The effect of blending two low molecular weight diluents (LMWD), dimethyl terephthalate (DMT) and dimethyl isophthalate (DMI), on the microstructure, free volume, and the barrier properties of poly­(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) was investigated. Incorporation of the additives at loadings up to 3 wt % led to a substantial improvement in the barrier properties of PET to oxygen, carbon dioxide, and helium. Although the additives have similar structures, DMI showed enhanced barrier improvement at similar loadings compared to PET/DMT samples. Positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy as well as density measurements indicated that there was a reduction in the fractional free volume of polymer upon incorporation of the LMWDs. Dynamic mechanical analysis disclosed that there was a reduction in the activation energy for mechanical relaxation due to a decrease in chain motion of PET in the presence of DMT or DMI. There was a reduction in permeability upon increase of LMWDs that was primarily due to the reduction in diffusivity which is consistent with decrease in free volume and chain mobility