Supplemental Data - Bioremediation of polluted air from an industrial plant using rotating biofilter reactor-based technology

Two microbial isolates (HDB, Hydrogen-Degrading Bacteria) obtained from industrial wastewater were inoculated into the rotating biofilter reactor 'Biowheel 2.0' and tested for the ability to purify gaseous flows containing benzene and non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs) released at an industrial plant. Different classes of gaseous flow were tested, namely 'cold box', 'in shell', and 'mix', all of them associated with the industrial process of 'mold-casting'. A significant increase in Removal Efficiency (RE) was recorded for benzene and NMVOCs in the inoculated 'Biowheel 2.0' biofilter, compared to uninoculated control. For each type of gaseous flow, odor impact was evaluated in the inlet and outlet flows at the industrial plant, using the test panel method and electronic nose technology. A significant drop in the amount of Olfactometric Units (O.U.) m-3 occurred in the gaseous flows treated with the bacterial consortium. The reported data demonstrate the ability of the consortium to degrade hydrocarbons, revealing its potential for bioremediation of polluted air emissions occurring at industrial plants.

Myanmar Sugar SMEs: History, Technology, Location and Government Policy

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) engaged in sugar processing in Myanmar appeared in the last decade of the socialist era. An acute sugar deficit, restricted trade in white sugar, and high demand from the conventional dairy business led to the growth of sugar SMEs by appropriate blending of semi-finished products (syrup) in the fields, which were then processed in vacuum pans and centrifugals to obtain white sugar. This became a tradable commodity and sugar SMEs grew in clusters in big cities. They are family-owned businesses. However, they lack the bagasse-based power generation. In recent years, large modern sugar factories operated by private and military companies have emerged as key players. The current shortage of fuel feedstock and competition for raw materials have become driving forces that shift sugar SMEs from market-oriented to raw material-oriented locations. Internal competition among key players made sugar price highly volatile, too. Being placed on a level playing field, the whole industry should be upgraded in terms of price and quality to become export-oriented.

Knowledge Management and Information Systems based on Workflow Technology

Knowledge management is critical for the success of virtual communities, especially in the case of distributed working groups. A representative example of this scenario is the distributed software development, where it is necessary an optimal coordination to avoid common problems such as duplicated work. In this paper the feasibility of using the workflow technology as a knowledge management system is discussed, and a practical use case is presented. This use case is an information system that has been deployed within a banking environment. It combines common workflow technology with a new conception of the interaction among participants through the extension of existing definition languages.

Semantic Technology Recommendation Based on the Analytic Network Process

Semantic technologies have become widely adopted in recent years, and choosing the right technologies for the problems that users face is often a difficult task. This paper presents an application of the Analytic Network Process for the recommendation of semantic technologies, which is based on a quality model for semantic technologies. Instead of relying on expert-based comparisons of alternatives, the comparisons in our framework depend on real evaluation results. Furthermore, the recommendations in our framework derive from user quality requirements, which leads to better recommendations tailored to users’ needs. This paper also presents an algorithm for pairwise comparisons, which is based on user quality requirements and evaluation results.

Upper Limb Portable Motion Analysis System Based on Inertial Technology for Neurorehabilitation Purposes

Here an inertial sensor-based monitoring system for measuring and analyzing upper limb movements is presented. The final goal is the integration of this motion-tracking device within a portable rehabilitation system for brain injury patients. A set of four inertial sensors mounted on a special garment worn by the patient provides the quaternions representing the patient upper limb’s orientation in space. A kinematic model is built to estimate 3D upper limb motion for accurate therapeutic evaluation. The human upper limb is represented as a kinematic chain of rigid bodies with three joints and six degrees of freedom. Validation of the system has been performed by co-registration of movements with a commercial optoelectronic tracking system. Successful results are shown that exhibit a high correlation among signals provided by both devices and obtained at the Institut Guttmann Neurorehabilitation Hospital.

A Recommendation Framework Based on the Analytic Network Process and its Application in the Semantic Technology Domain

When users face a certain problem needing a product, service, or action to solve it, selecting the best alternative among them can be a dicult task due to the uncertainty of their quality. This is especially the case in the domains where users do not have an expertise, like for example in Software Engineering. Multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) methods are methods that help making better decisions when facing the complex problem of selecting the best solution among a group of alternatives that can be compared according to different conflicting criteria. In MCDM problems, alternatives represent concrete products, services or actions that will help in achieving a goal, while criteria represent the characteristics of these alternatives that are important for making a decision.

Cognitive neurorehabilitation based on interactive video technology

Cognitive impairment is the main cause of disability in developed societies. New interactive technologies help therapists in neurorehabilitation in order to increase patients’ autonomy and quality of life. This work proposes Interactive Video (IV) as a technology to develop cognitive rehabilitation tasks based on Activities of Daily Living (ADL). ADL cognitive task has been developed and integrated with eye-tracking technology for task interaction and patients’ performance monitoring.

Integration of a data acquisition system based on FlexRIO technology with EPICS

EPICS (Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System) lies in a set of software tools and applications which provide a software infrastructure for building distributed data acquisition and control systems. Currently there is an increase in use of such systems in large Physics experiments like ITER, ESS, and FREIA. In these experiments, advanced data acquisition systems using FPGA-based technology like FlexRIO are more frequently been used. The particular case of ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor), the instrumentation and control system is supported by CCS (CODAC Core System), based on RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) operating system, and by the plant design specifications in which every CCS element is defined either hardware, firmware or software. In this degree final project the methodology proposed in Implementation of Intelligent Data Acquisition Systems for Fusion Experiments using EPICS and FlexRIO Technology Sanz et al. [1] is used. The final objective is to provide a document describing the fulfilled process and the source code of the data acquisition system accomplished. The use of the proposed methodology leads to have two diferent stages. The first one consists of the hardware modelling with graphic design tools like LabVIEWFPGA which later will be implemented in the FlexRIO device. In the next stage the design cycle is completed creating an EPICS controller that manages the device using a generic device support layer named NDS (Nominal Device Support). This layer integrates the data acquisition system developed into CCS (Control, data access and communication Core System) as an EPICS interface to the system. The use of FlexRIO technology drives the use of LabVIEW and LabVIEW FPGA respectively. RESUMEN. EPICS (Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System) es un conjunto de herramientas software utilizadas para el desarrollo e implementación de sistemas de adquisición de datos y control distribuidos. Cada vez es más utilizado para entornos de experimentación física a gran escala como ITER, ESS y FREIA entre otros. En estos experimentos se están empezando a utilizar sistemas de adquisición de datos avanzados que usan tecnología basada en FPGA como FlexRIO. En el caso particular de ITER, el sistema de instrumentación y control adoptado se basa en el uso de la herramienta CCS (CODAC Core System) basado en el sistema operativo RHEL (Red Hat) y en las especificaciones del diseño del sistema de planta, en la cual define todos los elementos integrantes del CCS, tanto software como firmware y hardware. En este proyecto utiliza la metodología propuesta para la implementación de sistemas de adquisición de datos inteligente basada en EPICS y FlexRIO. Se desea generar una serie de ejemplos que cubran dicho ciclo de diseño completo y que serían propuestos como casos de uso de dichas tecnologías. Se proporcionará un documento en el que se describa el trabajo realizado así como el código fuente del sistema de adquisición. La metodología adoptada consta de dos etapas diferenciadas. En la primera de ellas se modela el hardware y se sintetiza en el dispositivo FlexRIO utilizando LabVIEW FPGA. Posteriormente se completa el ciclo de diseño creando un controlador EPICS que maneja cada dispositivo creado utilizando una capa software genérica de manejo de dispositivos que se denomina NDS (Nominal Device Support). Esta capa integra la solución en CCS realizando la interfaz con la capa EPICS del sistema. El uso de la tecnología FlexRIO conlleva el uso del lenguaje de programación y descripción hardware LabVIEW y LabVIEW FPGA respectivamente.

Design of equalized ROADMs devices with flexible bandwidth based on LCoS technology

This paper describes the theory, design, applications and performance of a new Reconfigurable Add-drop Multiplexer (ROADM) with flexible bandwidth allocation. The device can address several wavelengths at the input to four output fibers, according to the holograms stored in a SLM (Spatial Light Modulator), where all the outputs are equalized in power. All combinations of the input wavelengths are possible at the different output fibers. Each fiber has assigned all the signals with the same bandwidth; the possible bandwidths are 12.5GHz, 25GHz, 50GHz and 100GHz, according to ITU-T 694.1 Recommendation. It is possible to route several signals with different bandwidth in real time thanks to Liquid Crystal over Silicon (LCoS) technology.

Glue Technology: A Blueprint for Cultural Integration

Despite the gargantuan stakes that mergers and acquisitions represent, global companies' success rate at integrating organizations has been dismal, incurring billions of dollars in lost shareholder value. International human resources' handling of the cultural integration process is the principal differentiator between success and failure. This Capstone project proposes a process for developing cultural integration mechanisms, known as glue technology, and provides a step-by-step process map for execution through four phases. During planning, the need for glue technology is defined. Through analysis, rewards systems are assessed, and a strategy is chosen. In implementation planning, unanimous executive commitment must be secured. Last is measurement based on the integration plan's objectives. Enabling mechanisms such as removing negative influencers, speed, and communication are discussed.

The Big BIM battle: BIM adoption in the UK for large and small companies

As BIM adoption continues, the goal of a totally collaborative model with multiple contributors is attainable. Many initiatives such as the 2016 UK government level 2 BIM deadline are putting pressure on the construction industry to speed up the changeover. Clients and collaborators have higher expectations of using digital 3D models to communicate design ideas and solve practical problems. Contractors and clients are benefitting from cost saving scheduling and clash detection offered by BIM. Effective collaboration on the project will also give speed and efficiency gains. Despite this, many businesses of varying sizes are still having problems. The cost of the software and the training provides an obvious barrier for micro-enterprises and could explain a delay in adoption. Many studies have looked at these problems faced by SME and micro-enterprises. Larger companies have different problems. The efforts made by government to encourage them are quite comprehensive, but is anything being done to help smaller sectors and keep the industry cohesive? This limited study examines several companies of varying size and varying project type: architectural design businesses, main contractor, structural engineer and building consultancy. The study examines the barriers to a truly collaborative BIM workflow facing different specialities on a larger project and a contrasting small/medium project. The findings will establish that different barriers for each sector are actually pushing further apart, thus potentially creating a BIM-only construction elite, leaving the small companies remaining on 2D based drawing.

Making low-carbon technology support smarter. Bruegel Policy Brief 2015/02, 18 August 2015

This Policy Brief describes the interaction between three approaches that are effective in driving innovation in low-carbon technologies. Based on that, the author provides four recommendations for making low-carbon technology support smarter. THE ISSUE Combating climate change on the global level will be much easier when abundant low-carbon technologies that are competitive in their cost and capabilities are available. But private companies underinvest in low-carbon innovation because they cannot capture the climate benefits. There are three policies to address this issue: pricing carbon, supporting deployment of as-yet uncompetitive technologies and supporting research and development.

PSPLINE: Stata module providing a penalized spline scatterplot smoother based on linear mixed model technology

Pspline uses xtmixed to fit a penalized spline regression and plots the smoothed function. Additional covariates can be specified to adjust the smooth and plot partial residuals.

Catalogs of Michigan-based automobile companies.

Mode of access: Internet.