72 research outputs found
Towards optimal control of fuel cell hybrid electric vehicles
Global warming, the decline of natural resources as well as the strengthening of emission regulations have led to a research focus in new drive
technologies. Within the group of alternative propulsion systems, fuel
cell hybrid electric vehicle (FHEV) are considered especially promising.
Since system efficiency as well as the operation characteristics are determined by the chosen energy management system (EMS) scheme, an
optimal approach is a key aspect to guarantee optimal system operation
in terms of power and energy efficiency, as well as component lifetime
and costs. Existing research efforts mostly focus on the optimisation of
the hydrogen consumption, while neglecting component degradation as
additional important part of total system and operation cost. Furthermore,
almost no published work considers the thermal management of a FHEV.
Therefore, the presented work propose a novel model predictive control
based energy management approach with a special focus on preventing
fuel cell (FC) and battery (BAT) degradation and the vehicle’s thermal
management. In order to minimise component ageing and degradation,
the objective function which is used in the developed method, includes
cost which account for both decreasing BAT state of health as well as
FC operation conditions which accelerate the degradation of the FC. To
be able to test the developed EMS, a model and a hardware based test
environment were developed. Since there are no thermal management
systems for FHEV presented in literature, a new concept with a hierarchical control scheme was designed. Because the newly developed energy
management shall be tested based on real world data, a method to generate test cases representing typical driving scenarios based on real world
driving data was developed and implemented. Finally, the hardware system was used to validate the simulation model and vice versa, the model
based approach was validated on real hardware
Quantitative Stain-free and Continuous Multimodal Monitoring of Wound Healing in vitro with Digital Holographic Microscopy
Impaired epithelial wound healing has significant pathophysiological implications in several conditions including gastrointestinal ulcers, anastomotic leakage and venous or diabetic skin ulcers. Promising drug candidates for accelerating wound closure are commonly evaluated in in vitro wound assays. However, staining procedures and discontinuous monitoring are major drawbacks hampering accurate assessment of wound assays. We therefore investigated digital holographic microscopy (DHM) to appropriately monitor wound healing in vitro and secondly, to provide multimodal quantitative information on morphological and functional cell alterations as well as on motility changes upon cytokine stimulation. Wound closure as reflected by proliferation and migration of Caco-2 cells in wound healing assays was studied and assessed in time-lapse series for 40 h in the presence of stimulating epidermal growth factor (EGF) and inhibiting mitomycin c. Therefore, digital holograms were recorded continuously every thirty minutes. Morphological changes including cell thickness, dry mass and tissue density were analyzed by data from quantitative digital holographic phase microscopy. Stimulation of Caco-2 cells with EGF or mitomycin c resulted in significant morphological changes during wound healing compared to control cells. In conclusion, DHM allows accurate, stain-free and continuous multimodal quantitative monitoring of wound healing in vitro and could be a promising new technique for assessment of wound healing
Handlungsfelder der gestaltungsorientierten Wirtschaftsinformatik im Kontext der Digitalen Fabrik
In Wissenschaft und Praxis beschäftigen sich unterschiedliche Disziplinen mit Methoden, Konzepten und Werkzeugen zur Verbesserung der Leistungsfähigkeit industrieller Unternehmen. Hierfür hat sich der Begriff der Digitalen Fabrik interdisziplinär etabliert, wobei festzustellen ist, dass ein einheitliches und disziplinübergreifendes Verständnis bisher nicht
existiert. In diesem Beitrag werden daher die verschiedenen Definitionen für die Digitale Fabrik aufgezeigt sowie deren Bestandteile strukturiert dargestellt. Darauf aufbauend erfolgt die forschungstheoretisch begründete Zuordnung derjenigen Teilgebiete, die zu den Handlungsfeldern der gestaltungsorientierten Wirtschaftsinformatik gehören. Basierend auf der Erkenntnis, dass die Digitale Fabrik bisher ingenieurswissenschaftlich getrieben ist, werden für die identifizierten Felder Handlungsempfehlungen für die Wirtschaftsinformatik abgeleitet
Impact of a Glycolic Acid-Containing pH 4 Water-in-Oil Emulsion on Skin pH
The skin pH is crucial for physiological skin functions. A decline in stratum corneum acidity, as observed in aged or diseased skin, may negatively affect physiological skin functions. Therefore, glycolic acid-containing water-in-oil (W/O) emulsions adjusted to pH 4 were investigated regarding their effect on normal or increased skin pH. A pH 4 W/O emulsion was applied on three areas with pathologically increased skin surface pH in diabetics (n = 10). Further, a 28-day half-side trial (n = 30) was performed to test the long-term efficacy and safety of a pH 4 W/O emulsion (n = 30). In summary, the application of a pH 4 W/O emulsion reduced the skin pH in healthy, elderly and diabetic subjects, which may improve epidermal barrier functions
Optical constants of silicon carbide for astrophysical applications. II. Extending optical functions from IR to UV using single-crystal absorption spectra
Laboratory measurements of unpolarized and polarized absorption spectra of
various samples and crystal stuctures of silicon carbide (SiC) are presented
from 1200--35,000 cm ( 8--0.28 m) and used to improve
the accuracy of optical functions ( and ) from the infrared (IR) to the
ultraviolet (UV). Comparison with previous 6--20 m
thin-film spectra constrains the thickness of the films and verifies that
recent IR reflectivity data provide correct values for in the IR region. We
extract and needed for radiative transfer models using a new
``difference method'', which utilizes transmission spectra measured from two
SiC single-crystals with different thicknesses. This method is ideal for
near-IR to visible regions where absorbance and reflectance are low and can be
applied to any material. Comparing our results with previous UV measurements of
SiC, we distinguish between chemical and structural effects at high frequency.
We find that for all spectral regions, 3C (-SiC) and the polarization of 6H (a type of -SiC) have almost identical
optical functions that can be substituted for each other in modeling
astronomical environments. Optical functions for of 6H SiC
have peaks shifted to lower frequency, permitting identification of this
structure below m. The onset of strong UV absorption for pure
SiC occurs near 0.2 m, but the presence of impurities redshifts the rise
to 0.33 m. Optical functions are similarly impacted. Such large
differences in spectral characteristics due to structural and chemical effects
should be observable and provide a means to distinguish chemical variation of
SiC dust in space.Comment: 46 pages inc. 8 figures and 2 full tables. Also 6 electronic-only
data files. Accepted by Ap
Finding Optimal Timetables for Edinburgh Bus Routes
AbstractWe present a novel application of stochastic simulation and model-checking methods to determining whether bus services are fulfilling their service-level agreement to provide on-time departures of buses from stops sufficiently often. We use open data on predicted bus arrival times to parameterise a stochastic model of a particular bus route from Edinburgh city centre out to suburban and rural areas to the south of the city. We validate and then analyse our stochastic model using both simulation and model-checking methods. Finally, we complete an optimisation study on the model and discover a better timetable for the service which would expose the bus service operator to less financial risk of penalties being applied by the regulatory authorities which define standards for bus service, punctuality and reliability
The INF Treaty of 1987
Der von Ronald Reagan und Michail Gorbatschow am 8. Dezember 1987 unterzeichnete »Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty«, kurz INF-Vertrag, stellte einen Meilenstein der nuklearen Abrüstungsverhandlungen zwischen den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika und der Sowjetunion dar. Im Jahr 2019 wurde er von Russland und den USA gekündigt. Der englischsprachige Band untersucht die Vorgeschichte des Abkommens, dessen Implementierung und Folgen sowohl in den beiden Supermächten als auch in den mit ihnen verbündeten Staaten. Er ist damit die erste umfassende Darstellung eines der wichtigsten Abrüstungsabkommen der jüngsten Zeit
Разработка нейросетевого подхода сегментации и распознавания номерных знаков автомобилей на изображениях реальных сцен
Объектом исследования являются методы искусственного интеллекта, используемые в алгоритмах сегментации и распознавания автомобильных номерных знаков. Целью работы является разработка и реализация алгоритма детектирования и распознавания автомобильных номерных знаков на изображениях реальных сцен с применением аппарата искусственных нейронных сетейThe object of research is the artificial intelligence methods used in the segmentation and recognition of automobile license plates. The aim of the work is to develop and implement an algorithm for detecting and recognizing car license plates on images of real scenes using the apparatus of artificial neural network
Properties of dust in the Galactic center region probed by AKARI far-infrared spectral mapping - detection of a dust feature
We investigate the properties of interstellar dust in the Galactic center
region toward the Arches and Quintuplet clusters. With the Fourier Transform
Spectrometer of the AKARI/Far-Infrared Surveyor, we performed the far-infrared
(60 - 140 cm^-1) spectral mapping of an area of about 10' x 10' which includes
the two clusters to obtain a low-resolution (R = 1.2 cm^-1) spectrum at every
spatial bin of 30" x 30". We derive the spatial variations of dust continuum
emission at different wavenumbers, which are compared with those of the [O III]
88 micron (113 cm^-1) emission and the OH 119 micron (84 cm^-1) absorption. The
spectral fitting shows that two dust modified blackbody components with
temperatures of ~20 K and ~50 K can reproduce most of the continuum spectra.
For some spectra, however, we find that there exists a significant excess on
top of a modified blackbody continuum around 80 - 90 cm^-1 (110 - 130 microns).
The warmer dust component is spatially correlated well with the [O III]
emission and hence likely to be associated with the highly-ionized gas locally
heated by intense radiation from the two clusters. The excess emission probably
represents a dust feature, which is found to be spatially correlated with the
OH absorption and a CO cloud. We find that a dust model including micron-sized
graphite grains can reproduce the observed spectrum with the dust feature
fairly well.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in A&
Excitation of H in photodissociation regions as seen by Spitzer
We present spectroscopic observations obtained with the infrared Spitzer
Space Telescope, which provide insight into the H physics and gas
energetics in photodissociation Regions (PDRs) of low to moderate
far-ultraviolet (FUV) fields and densities. We analyze data on six well known
Galactic PDRs (L1721, California, N7023E, Horsehead, rho Oph, N2023N), sampling
a poorly explored range of excitation conditions (), relevant
to the bulk of molecular clouds in galaxies. Spitzer observations of H
rotational lines are complemented with H data, including ro-vibrational
line measurements, obtained with ground-based telescopes and ISO, to constrain
the relative contributions of ultraviolet pumping and collisions to the H
excitation. The data analysis is supported by model calculations with the
Meudon PDR code. The observed column densities of rotationally excited H
are observed to be much higher than PDR model predictions. In the lowest
excitation PDRs, the discrepancy between the model and the data is about one
order of magnitude for rotational levels 3. We discuss whether an
enhancement in the H formation rate or a local increase in photoelectric
heating, as proposed for brighter PDRs in former ISO studies, may improve the
data-model comparison. We find that an enhancement in the H formation rates
reduces the discrepancy, but the models still fall short of the data. This
large disagreement suggests that our understanding of the formation and
excitation of H and/or of PDRs energetics is still incomplete. We discuss
several explanations, which could be further tested using the Herschel Space
TelescopeComment: A&A in pres
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