Sensory lexicon and relationships among brown colour,saltiness perception and sensory liking evaluated by regular users and culinary chefs: a case of soy sauces

This study was performed to develop lexicon to describe soy sauces using regular users (consumers) vs. culinary chefs, to perform product grouping using a free-sorting task and to determine relationship among physicochemical properties (colour, %NaCl) and consumer perception of soy sauces. Both panels identified eighteen terms to describe soy sauces, of which eleven terms (light, medium and dark brown colour, weak, medium and strong saltiness, sweetness, saltiness–sweetness, tasty/umami, and soy sauce and fermented aroma) were similar. For culinary chefs, three distinctive soy sauce groups based on brown colour (light, medium and dark brown) were identified, while two groups (light and medium dark brown) for regular users. From free-sorting maps, both panels associated brown colour intensity with saltiness expectation/perception. From PCA biplots, both panels shared some similarities for sensory liking (colour, saltiness, flavour, overall liking) for soy sauces. This study suggested that brown colour intensities affected saltiness expectation/perception and were used for product grouping for soy sauces.     

Topological Patterns for Scalable Representation and Analysis of Dataflow Graphs

Tools for designing signal processing systems with their semantic foundation in dataflow modeling often use high-level graphical user interfaces (GUIs) or text based languages that allow specifying applications as directed graphs. Such graphical representations serve as an initial reference point for further analysis and optimizations that lead to platform-specific implementations. For large-scale applications, the underlying graphs often consist of smaller substructures that repeat multiple times. To enable more concise representation and direct analysis of such substructures in the context of high level DSP specification languages and design tools, we develop the modeling concept of topological patterns, and propose ways for supporting this concept in a high-level language. We augment the dataflow interchange format (DIF) language—a language for specifying DSP-oriented dataflow graphs—with constructs for supporting topological patterns, and we show how topological patterns can be effective in various aspects of embedded signal processing design flows using specific application examples.     

Scalable approach to uncertainty quantification and robust design of interconnected dynamical systems

Development of robust dynamical systems and networks such as autonomous aircraft systems capable of accomplishing complex missions faces challenges due to the dynamically evolving uncertainties coming from model uncertainties, necessity to operate in a hostile cluttered urban environment, and the distributed and dynamic nature of the communication and computation resources. Model-based robust design is difficult because of the complexity of the hybrid dynamic models including continuous vehicle dynamics, the discrete models of computations and communications, and the size of the problem. We will overview recent advances in methodology and tools to model, analyze, and design robust autonomous aerospace systems operating in uncertain environment, with stress on efficient uncertainty quantification and robust design using the case studies of the mission including model-based target tracking and search, and trajectory planning in uncertain urban environment. To show that the methodology is generally applicable to uncertain dynamical systems, we will also show examples of application of the new methods to efficient uncertainty quantification of energy usage in buildings, and stability assessment of interconnected power networks.     

Nanofluid Flow and Heat Transfer in Boundary Layers: The Influence of Concentration Diffusion on Heat Transfer Enhancement

ABSTRACT

The present work uses a perturbation procedure to deduce the small perturbation differential equations for velocity, temperature, and the diffusion equation for nanoparticle volume concentration. Thermophysical variables are obtained from conventional means (e.g., mixture and field theory estimates) for nanofluids consisting of alumina nanoparticles dispersed in water (alumina–water nanofluid) and gold nanoparticles dispersed in water (gold–water nanofluid), and, in the case of gold–water nanofluid, molecular dynamics results are used to estimate such properties, including the transport coefficients. The very thin diffusion layer, at large Schmidt numbers, is found to have a great impact on the velocity and temperature profiles, owing to the transport property dependency and has a profound influence on surface conduction heat transfer rate enhancement and skin friction suppression for the case of nanofluid concentration withdrawal at the wall. In this case, the diffusional heat transfer rate is negligible, again, owing to the large Schmidt numbers encountered. Possible experiments directed at this interesting phenomenon are discussed.     

Three-dimensional real-time imaging of bi-phasic flow through porous media

We present a scanning laser-sheet video imaging technique to image bi-phasic flow in three-dimensional porous media in real time with pore-scale spatial resolution, i.e., 35 μm and 500 μm for directions parallel and perpendicular to the flow, respectively. The technique is illustrated for the case of viscous fingering. Using suitable image processing protocols, both the morphology and the movement of the two-fluid interface, were quantitatively estimated. Furthermore, a macroscopic parameter such as the displacement efficiency obtained from a microscopic (pore-scale) analysis demonstrates the versatility and usefulness of the method.     

抗粘渣性铁水包浇注料的开发研究

针对梅钢铁水包包嘴粘渣的问题，对铁水包浇注料各组分与铁渣间相互作用的机理进行了研究，开发出抗粘渣性铁水包浇注料。经试验表明开发出的浇注料使铁水包粘渣减轻，使用寿命远长于原浇注料，同时解决了现场环境污染，并降低了工人的劳动强度。     

Performance assessment of HC-290 as a drop-in substitute to HCFC-22 in a window air conditioner

As per the Montreal Protocol, CFCs and HCFCs are being phased out. HCFC-22 is used in window air conditioners. This paper presents the experimental performance study of a window air conditioner with propane (HC-290), a natural refrigerant, as a drop-in substitute to HCFC-22. Experimental results showed that HC-290 had 6.6% lower cooling capacity for the lower operating conditions and 9.7% lower for the higher operating conditions with respect to HCFC-22. The coefficient of performance for HC-290 was 7.9% higher for the lower operating conditions and 2.8% higher for the higher operating conditions. The energy consumption of the unit with HC-290 was lower in the range 12.4–13.5% than HCFC-22. The discharge pressures for HC-290 were lower in the range 13.7–18.2% than HCFC-22. For HC-290, the pressure drop was lower than HCFC-22 in both heat exchangers.This paper also presents simulation results for the heat exchangers of an HCFC-22 window air conditioner with HC-290 as a drop-in substitute. The simulation has been carried out using EVAP-COND, a heat exchanger model developed by NIST [National Institute of Standards and Technology. EVAP-COND: simulation models for finned-tube heat exchangers, Maryland, USA (2003). http://www2.bfrl.nist.gov/software/evap-cond/ [18]]. The simulated evaporator capacities are within ±4% of the experimentally measured cooling capacities for both refrigerants. Simulation results for HC-290 and HCFC-22 are compared. The exit temperatures of HC-290 are lower by 0.3–1.2 °C in the condenser and are higher by 2.1–2.4 °C in the evaporator than HCFC-22. Evaporating pressures of HC-290 are lower by 2.1–3.3% as compared to HCFC-22. The pressure drops of HC-290 are lower in both the evaporator and the condenser as compared to HCFC-22. The outlet temperatures of air for HCFC-22 and HC-290 in both heat exchangers are nearly the same.     

Exploring and exploiting a historical corpus for Arabic

This paper presents a historical Arabic corpus named HAC. At this early embryonic stage of the project, we report about the design, the architecture and some of the experiments which we have conducted on HAC. The corpus, and accordingly the search results, will be represented using a primary XML exchange format. This will serve as an intermediate exchange tool within the project and will allow the user to process the results offline using some external tools. HAC is made up of Classical Arabic texts that cover 1600 years of language use; the Quranic text, Modern Standard Arabic texts, as well as a variety of monolingual Arabic dictionaries. The development of this historical corpus assists linguists and Arabic language learners to effectively explore, understand, and discover interesting knowledge hidden in millions of instances of language use. We used techniques from the field of natural language processing to process the data and a graph-based representation for the corpus. We provided researchers with an export facility to render further linguistic analysis possible.