Optimal charge rates for a lithium ion cell

The optimum charge rate for a lithium ion cell at each cycle is determined to maximize the useful life of the cell without using optimization algorithms. In previous work, we showed that by applying a dynamic optimization routine the number of cycles can be increased by approximately 29.4% with respect to the case with one optimal charge current [7]. The dynamic optimization results indicated that the optimum charge rates are the minimum currents at which the constraints for the useful life are satisfied. This is due to the minimum charge rate resulting in minimum side reaction rate and capacity fade. Useful cell life is defined as the number of cycles before the end of discharge voltage (EODV) drops below 3.0 V or the cell discharge capacity becomes less than 20% of the original discharge capacity. The new approach presented in this work is able to find the optimal charge rates in a few minutes while the previous optimization algorithm takes at least one day, and improves the useful cell life by approximately 41.6% with respect to using only one optimal charge current.     

BRIGADIER JOHN TILTMAN: ONE OF BRITAIN'S FINEST CRYPTOLOGISTS

Biography of Brigadier John Tiltman, who worked as a cryptologist for the British and American governments from 1920 to 1980.     

The photographer's eye: Henry James and the American scene

Abstract

It is little disputed that the invention of photography had a pervasive, jarring impact on society and culture during the years following its introduction to the world. The influence of the medium on visual artists has already been widely discussed, but study of its literary consequences has only recently begun. Photography did not go unnoticed by writers; commentary on the revolutionary medium appears frequently in journal entries, letters, essays, and fiction. Writers such as Emerson, Thoreau, Poe, Holmes, and Baudelaire responded to it with both delight and anger, lucidity and confusion. Occasionally, even, a writer such as Emile Zola took up the camera himself and made pictures, but the closest that most writers came to photographing was through their mode of writing - their journalism, travel literature, and realist fiction¹.     

Efficient real-time trajectory tracking

Moving objects databases (MOD) manage trajectory information of vehicles, animals, and other mobile objects. A crucial problem is how to efficiently track an object’s trajectory in real-time, in particular if the trajectory data is sensed at the mobile object and thus has to be communicated over a wireless network. We propose a family of tracking protocols that allow trading the communication cost and the amount of trajectory data stored at a MOD off against the spatial accuracy. With each of these protocols, the MOD manages a simplified trajectory that does not deviate by more than a certain accuracy bound from the actual movement. Moreover, the different protocols enable several trade-offs between computational costs, communication cost, and the reduction in the trajectory data: Connection-Preserving Dead Reckoning minimizes the communication cost using dead reckoning, a technique originally designed for tracking an object’s current position. Generic Remote Trajectory Simplification (GRTS) further separates between tracking of the current position and simplification of the past trajectory and can be realized with different line simplification algorithms. For both protocols, we discuss how to bound the space consumption and computing time at the moving object and thereby present an effective compression technique to optimize the reduction performance of real-time line simplification in general. Our evaluations with hundreds of real GPS traces show that a realization of GRTS with a simple simplification heuristic reaches 85–90% of the best possible reduction rate, given by retrospective offline simplification. A realization with the optimal line simplification algorithm by Imai and Iri even reaches more than 97% of the best possible reduction rate.     

Species-specific isotope dilution-based calibration for trace element speciation and its combined uncertainty evaluation: determination of tributyltin in sediment by HPLC-ICPMS

A method is described for the determination of tributyltin (TBT) in NRCC sediment CRM PACS-2 by isotope dilution (ID) analysis using HPLC-ICPMS. Reverse spike ID analysis was performed to determine the accurate concentration of a 117Sn-enriched TBT spike using a well-characterized natural abundance TBT standard. The accuracy of the latter is critical for obtaining reliable results. A unique approach, using hydride generation GC/MS, was developed to quantify the inorganic Sn and dibutyltin impurities in the natural abundance TBT standard. The true natural abundance TBT standard concentration was obtained following correction for these impurities. The total Sn concentration in the natural abundance TBT standard was determined by ID analysis using an enriched inorganic 117Sn following closed vessel mixed-acid digestion. Calibration of the enriched inorganic 117Sn standard was achieved by reverse ID analysis against a natural abundance inorganic tin standard prepared from the high-purity metal. An overall uncertainty associated with the present method was estimated, to which the uncertainties arising from measurement of the natural abundance TBT concentration, from the measurement of the isotope ratio in the spiked sample and in the reverse ID calibration solutions, and from estimation of the extraction efficiency were the main contributors. A concentration of 1.018 +/- 0.054 mg kg(-1) (expanded uncertainty, k = 2) as tin was obtained for TBT in PACS-2 using the present method, in excellent agreement with the certified value of 0.98 +/- 0.13 mg kg(-1) (95% confidence interval). A TBT concentration of 0.97 +/- 0.11 mg kg(-1) (expanded uncertainty, k = 2) as tin in PACS-2 was determined using the standard additions technique. Much smaller expanded uncertainty was obtained with ID, clearly demonstrating its superiority in providing more accurate and precise results over the method of additions. A detection limit (3sigma) of 0.02 mg kg(-1) for TBT, based on a 0.5-g subsample, was obtained.     

Synthesis and biological investigation of novel tricyclic benzodiazepinedione-based RGD analogues

Integrins, a widely expressed family of heterodimeric cell surface adhesion proteins, are expressed in a variety of cell types. They play a decisive role in cell-cell adhesion or cell to extracellular matrix adhesion events. Antagonists of alpha(v)beta(3) or alpha(IIb)beta(3) integrin may have a potential use in suppression of pathological processes. We present the synthesis of novel tricyclic benzodiazepinedione-based RGD analogues, which were subsequently tested in a solid-phase receptor assay in order to investigate their binding affinities towards alpha(v)beta(3) and alpha(IIb)beta(3) integrin.     

Acquiring Customers' Requirementsin Electronic Commerce

A key role for Artificial Intelligencetechnology in electronic commerce is in findingproducts and services that meet a user'srequirements. This may be implemented as athree-stage process of requirementselicitation, product search, and finallyproduct presentation. Alternatively the searchof the product space may happen in tandem withthe requirements elicitation process. It isalso possible to use product presentation as amechanism to focus and give context torequirements elicitation. A variety ofdifferent approaches to this issue of matchingproducts to requirements have been explored inAI research. Thus, while the focus in thispaper is on different approaches torequirements elicitation, these related issuesof product search and product presentation arealso discussed in detail. The paper concludesby placing the other papers in this specialissue in the context of this structuredoverview.     

Relaxation of extrinsic and intrinsic stresses in germanium substrates with silicon films

Si films were deposited on Ge substrates at 400°C by two different Physical Vapor Deposition techniques: (A) ion beam sputtering and (B) magnetron sputtering. The intrinsic stresses in the as-deposited films were measured to be compressive and much greater in samples (A), about −1500 to −2000 MPa than in samples (B), about −300 to −500 MPa. The substrates were subsequently exposed to thermal treatments for varying times at 800°C. In the lower stressed (B) samples, the films had relaxed and reduced the overall curvature of the structure whereas in the high stresses (A) samples, an irreversible large increase in the substrate curvature was found to occur. This indicated that plastic deformation in the Ge substrates itself had occurred.