Nucleation in continuous flow cooling sonocrystallization for coiled capillary crystallizers

Nucleation in continuously operated capillary coiled cooling crystallizers is experimentally investigated under the influence of ultrasound. It was found that there is no sharp boundary but rather a transition zone for nucleation under sonication. For this purpose, a tube with an inner diameter of 1.6 mm and a length of 6 m was winded in a coiled flow inverter (CFI) design and immersed into a cooled ultrasonic bath (37 kHz). The CFI design was chosen for improved radial mixing and narrow residence time distribution, which is also investigated. Amino acid l-alanine dissolved in deionized water is employed in a supersaturation range of 1.10 to 1.46 under quiet and sonicated conditions. Nucleation is non-invasive detected using a flow cell equipped with a microscope and camera

Augmented Road Line Detection And Display System

An augmented road line display system that includes one or more sensors installed on a vehicle, one or more external databases, and processing circuitry. The processing circuitry is configured to receive inputs from the one or more databases, sensors of the vehicle, and a sub-system of the vehicle, build and validate a road line model to detect or predict a road line based on the inputs received, determine environmental conditions based on the inputs from one or more of the databases, and a sub-system of the vehicle, assign weights to the inputs received based on the environmental conditions to generate weighted inputs, and execute the road line model to determine the road line based on the weighted inputs.https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/patents/1157/thumbnail.jp

Structures and Practices Enabling Staff Nurses to Control Their Practice

This mixed-methods study uses interviews, participant observations, and the CWEQII empowerment tool to identify structures and attributes of structures that promote control over nursing practice (CNP). Nearly 3,000 staff nurses completed the Essentials of Magnetism (EOM), an instrument that measures CNP, one of the eight staff nurse-identified essential attributes of a productive work environment. Strategic sampling is used to identify 101 high CNP-scoring clinical units in 8 high-EOM scoring magnet hospitals. In addition to 446 staff nurses, managers, and physicians on these high-scoring units, chief nursing officers, chief operating officers, and representatives from other professional departments are interviewed; participant observations are made of all unit/departmental/hospital council and interdisciplinary meetings held during a 4 to 6 day site visit. Structures and components of viable shared governance structures that enabled CNP are identified through constant comparative analysis of interviews and observations, and through analysis of quantitative measures

Efficient short-cut method for determining the process window in stirred-pulsed extraction columns

Recent studies showed the superior separation performance of stirred‐pulsed columns of different diameters in liquid‐liquid extraction processes. Here, an efficient shortcut method will be presented, which is time and resource‐efficient as well as cost‐effective to determine the operational window of these columns for industrial separation tasks. Savings in time of less experiments and costs of materials consumption can be estimated with up to 30 %. The presented method is particularly suitable before the application of new chemical systems, which are particularly cost‐intensive and scarce in material supply

Identification of Supply Chain Performance Indicators: Case Study of Costa Rican Coffee Production

Background: coffee production is one of the most important agricultural products for Costa Rica, especially because of the large proportion of small and medium farmers involved. This research intends to provide the identification of performance indicators for coffee production using the Asociación de Productores Agropecuarios de las Comunidades de Acosta y Aserrí (ASOPROAAA), as case of study. Methods: 21 expert surveys were conducted, based on ASOPROAAA and its farmers. Results: indicators of performance were measured in each of the sustainability dimensions. Farmers’ record keeping was a problem; however, data was collected and double checked by participants. Conclusion: the identification of supply chain performance indicators was possible in all the sustainability dimensions, benchmarking of these results with other Costa Rican companies would require further research. The identified indicators can be used as a first approach for sustainable performance in coffee, since they were adapted to the production system and its specific characteristic.UCR::Vicerrectoría de Docencia::Ciencias Agroalimentarias::Facultad de Ciencias Agroalimentarias::Escuela de Economía Agrícola y Agronegocio

A DFD Based Approach to Model Data Processing Solutions

This paper introduces procedures, which facilitate the development of as well as the linking between modular data processing processes into different and versatile system solutions. Based on the concept of data flow diagrams (Yourdon 1989), processes and data flows are used. With the ability of a process to harness any amount of in- and outputs with different sources and destinations, it is possible to model any conceivable data processing problem. By aggregating a diagram as a new process, it becomes possible to outsource partial process chains to different abstraction levels. As a result, even very complex solutions can be modeled and explained in a clear way. The introduced uniform termination flow while traversing the graph creates a good readability, which also makes it possible to quickly detect weaknesses. Moreover, this solution is comprehensive and advances the cooperation in teams and development.In diesem Beitrag wird ein Verfahren vorgestellt, welches die Entwicklung und Verknüpfung modularer Datenverarbeitungsprozesse zu beliebigen, unterschiedlichen Gesamtlösungen ermöglicht. Aufbauend auf dem Konzept der Datenflussdiagramme (Yourdon 1989) kommen Prozesse und Datenströme zum Einsatz. Dabei kann ein Prozess beliebig viele Inputs und Outputs mit unterschiedlichen Quellen und Senken haben und jedes denkbare Datenverarbeitungsproblem modelliert werden. Durch das verschachtelte Modellieren dieser Diagramme und deren Aggregation zu neuen Prozessen können Teilprozessketten auf unterschiedlichen Abstraktionsebenen ausgelagert werden. So lassen sich auch äußerst komplexe Lösungen übersichtlich modellieren, darstellen und erklären. Eine einheitliche Ablaufregel bei der Traversierung macht dieses Verfahren gut lesbar und lässt gegebenenfalls vorhandene Schwachstellen schnell erkennen. Zudem ist es verständlich und fördert die Zusammenarbeit sowie die gemeinsame Entwicklung

High resolution Doppler collision avoidance radar

An example radar apparatus has a transmission frequency modulated by a chirp waveform having three chirp segments, including increasing, decreasing, and a constant frequency segments. The chirp waveform may extend over the full revisit time of the radar beam. The frequency difference between the transmitted and echo signals are determined at least once per chirp segment. Example apparatus include a Doppler radar for vehicle use.https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/patents/1001/thumbnail.jp

Clinically Competent Peers and Support for Education: Structures and Practices that Work

The preceding excerpts from interviews with staff nurses in magnet hospitals reflect the key messages reported in this article. (Unless otherwise stated, all excerpts are from staff nurses who were interviewed for this study. The professional role of the speaker is cited for physicians [MDs] and nurse managers [NMs].) Competency is multifaceted and evident through actions. Clinically competent peers is all about competent performance, not the potential for performance. Both performance and potential are important for quality patient care, but here we focus solely on what others see or hear that leads to the judgment or conclusion that nurses on the front line in acute care hospitals are clinically competent

Where to focus efforts to improve overall ratings of care and willingness to return: The case of Tuscan emergency departments.

Objectives: Both regression and optimization models were used to identify an efficient combination of aspects of care (e.g., comfort of waiting room) necessary to improve global emergency department (ED) patient satisfaction. The approach, based on patient survey data, tends to favor aspects of care with large regression coefficients and those whose current performance is low, because improvements produce a greater effect on global satisfaction. Methods: The authors used ED patient satisfaction survey data collected between September and October 2007 from a random sample of 5,277 adult patients who visited 43 EDs in Tuscany, Italy. Ordinal logistic regression models were run to predict overall ratings of care and willingness to return using 20 independent variables (i.e., aspects of care). An optimization model was run to increase these two global items to a maximum of 15%. This model minimizes the total combined percentage increase of the aspects of care. Models using all cases (n = 5,277), cases from local hospitals (n = 4,264), and cases from teaching hospitals (n = 1,013) were run. Results: Four aspects selected by the optimization algorithm were in all models: ‘‘satisfaction with waiting time,’’ ‘‘comfort of the waiting room,’’ ‘‘professionalism of physicians’’ (technical skills), and ‘‘level of collaboration between physicians and nursing staff.’’ Most aspects needed a 15% increase to comply with the percentage increases set for the global satisfaction items. The model found that to increase overall ratings of care by 1, 2, or 8%, hospitals would need to focus only on one aspect: ‘‘level of collaboration between physicians and nursing staff.’’ The total number of variables increased to six when the improvement in overall ratings of care was set at 15%. To increase 3 or 5% willingness to return, the optimization algorithm found that 6 or 14 aspects, respectively, are needed. An increase of 6% or more was unfeasible. Conclusions: This approach is only somewhat efficient, as a cost structure is absent. The optimization model assumes that the cost to increase each aspect by 1% is equivalent. By applying this modeling technique we have demonstrated that, at least, two elements are important to consider when developing efficient improvement strategies to increase global satisfaction: 1) the current level of satisfaction of the aspects of care and 2) the importance ascribed to the aspects of care. A third element, the cost to increase the aspects of care, might also be important. However, the impact of this element on the optimal solution is currently unknown. ACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE 2009; 16:136–144 ª 2008 by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Keywords: patient satisfaction, emergency services, quality assuranc