Design and Implementation of a Method Base Management System for a Situational CASE Environment

Situational method engineering focuses on configuration of system development methods (SDMs) tuned to the situation of a project at hand. Situational methods are assembled from parts of existing SDMs, so called method fragments, that are selected to match the project situation. The complex task of selecting appropriate method fragments and assembling them into a method requires effective automated support. The paper describes the architecture of a tool prototype offering such support. We present the structure of its central repository, a method base containing method fragments. The functions to store, select and assemble these method fragments are offered by a stratified method base management system tool component, which is described as wel

Literature review of physical and chemical pretreatment processes for lignocellulosic biomass

Different pretreatment technologies published in public literature are described in terms of the mechanisms involved, advantages and disadvantages, and economic assessment. Pretreatment technologies for lignocellulosic biomass include biological, mechanical, chemical methods and various combinations thereof. The choice of the optimum pretreatment process depends very much on the objective of the biomass pretreatment, its economic assessment and environmental impact. Only a small number of pretreatment methods has been reported as being potentially cost-effective thus far. These include steam explosion, liquid hot water, concentrated acid hydrolysis and dilute acid pretreatments

Parenteral vaccination of mammalian livestock with Newcastle disease virus-based vector vaccines offers optimal efficacy and safety

Newcastle disease virus (NDV) is an avian virus that is being evaluated as a vaccine vector for the delivery of foreign genes in mammals. The use of NDV as a vaccine vector in these species offers two major advantages. First, NDV is highly attenuated in mammals, rendering its use inherently safe. Second, mammals lack pre-existing NDV immunity, which minimizes the risk of vaccination failure. NDV-vector vaccines are generally administered to mammals via the respiratory route. We recently showed that intramuscular vaccination with NDV-based Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) vaccines provides complete protection in mice and induces neutralizing antibodies in sheep and cattle, the main target species of RVFV. Here, we discuss the use of NDV as a vaccine vector for applications in mammalian livestock with an emphasis on the vaccination route. We also report the results of novel experiments that underscore our notion that vaccination via a parenteral route is more effective than immunization via the respiratory route

Background information and biorefinery status, potential and Sustainability: Task 2.1.2 Market and Consumers; Carbohydrates

This report was produced to give an overview of present and future market for biorefinery products based on carbohydrates. Various studies show that there is a wealth of possible molecules and products that can be produced from carbohydrates. Carbohydrates already find significant application in starch products and cellulose plastics and fibres. However, for a biorefinery to operate in an economically sustainable way, applications for (preferably all) biomass ingredients need to be found. Presumably the optimal mix of applications will be a combination of larger volume/smaller value and smaller volume/higher value applications. For this study we therefore have taken a molecular approach. Looking at the size of possible end markets for the molecules that can be based on carbohydrates a number of main products come into view: dialcohols, dioic acids, 2,5 furan dicarboxylic acid and ethanol. These molecules with a wide application range can serve as basis targets for the carbohydrate stream of a biorefinery, provided the production processes are optimised to make them competitive to the petrochemical counterparts. Speciality applications for the resulting side streams will then need to be found on a case by case basis

Conditional Spectrum Computation Incorporating Multiple Causal Earthquakes and Ground‐Motion Prediction Models

The Conditional Spectrum (CS) is a target spectrum (with conditional mean and conditional standard deviation) that links seismic hazard information with ground motion selection for nonlinear dynamic analysis. Probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) estimates the ground motion hazard by incorporating the aleatory uncertainties in all earthquake scenarios and resulting ground motions as well as the epistemic uncertainties in ground motion prediction models (GMPMs) and seismic source models. Typical CS calculations to date are produced for a single earthquake scenario using a single GMPM, but more precise use requires consideration of at least multiple causal earthquakes and multiple GMPMs that are often considered in a PSHA computation. This paper presents the mathematics underlying these more precise CS calculations. Despite requiring more effort to compute than approximate calculations using a single causal earthquake and GMPM, the proposed approach produces an exact output that has a theoretical basis. To demonstrate the results of this approach and compare the exact and approximate calculations, several example calculations are performed for real sites in the western U.S. (WUS). The results also provide some insights regarding the circumstances under which approximate results are likely to closely match more exact results. To facilitate these more precise calculations for real applications, the exact CS calculations can now be performed for real sites in the U.S. using new deaggregation features in the U.S. Geological Survey hazard mapping tools. Details regarding this implementation are discussed in this paper