Applied Systems Analysis Research Articles

Accurate Determination of the Hydrogen-Water Viscosity in PEMFC

Transport properties of viscosity of hydrogen-water vapor systems are needed for engineering applications in PEMFC system analysis and design. For instance, transport properties are needed up to 500 K for hydrogen fuel cell operation using PEMs. The properties may be conveniently represented as a function of the quantity of moisture by weight in grams of water per kilogram of dry hydrogen. The most recent values of viscosity of hydrogen based on a full quantum-mechanical formalism as well as the viscosity of water based on a new international formulation were used to calculate the effective viscosity of hydrogen-water mixture for constant pressures of 0.1 MPa, 0.5 MPa and 1 MPa, respectively, in the temperature range from 340 K to 500 K and in the range of water vapor concentrations from 100 grams of water vapor per kilogram of dry hydrogen to 100 kilograms of water vapor per kilogram of dry hydrogen. The results show that the effective viscosity of a hydrogen-water vapor mixture is not sensitive to the changes in ambient pressure in a PEMFC system. Their relative standard uncertainties are shown to be 0.2 % of the values with a coverage factor k = 2 (confidence level of 95 %).

Times Matter!—Response to Wallington et al.

ADVERTISEMENT RETURN TO ISSUEPREVCorrespondence/Rebut...Correspondence/RebuttalNEXTTimes Matter!—Response to Wallington et al.Jens Borken-Kleefeld†*, Terje Berntsen‡, and Jan Fuglestvedt‡View Author Information† IIASA—International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Schlossplatz 1, 2361 Laxenburg, Austria‡ CICERO—Center for International Climate and Environmental Research−Oslo, P.O. Box 1129 Blindern, 0318 Oslo, Norway*Phone: +43 (2236) 870-570; fax: 870-530; e-mail [email protected]Cite this: Environ. Sci. Technol. 2011, 45, 7, 3167–3168Publication Date (Web):March 2, 2011Publication History Published online2 March 2011Published inissue 1 April 2011https://doi.org/10.1021/es200343nCopyright © 2011 American Chemical SocietyRIGHTS & PERMISSIONSArticle Views407Altmetric-Citations1LEARN ABOUT THESE METRICSArticle Views are the COUNTER-compliant sum of full text article downloads since November 2008 (both PDF and HTML) across all institutions and individuals. These metrics are regularly updated to reflect usage leading up to the last few days.Citations are the number of other articles citing this article, calculated by Crossref and updated daily. Find more information about Crossref citation counts.The Altmetric Attention Score is a quantitative measure of the attention that a research article has received online. Clicking on the donut icon will load a page at altmetric.com with additional details about the score and the social media presence for the given article. Find more information on the Altmetric Attention Score and how the score is calculated. Share Add toView InAdd Full Text with ReferenceAdd Description ExportRISCitationCitation and abstractCitation and referencesMore Options Share onFacebookTwitterWechatLinked InReddit PDF (643 KB) Get e-AlertsSUBJECTS:Climate,Climate change,Gases,Greenhouse gases,Optical properties Get e-Alerts

Contributors

Contributors

Application of systems analysis and operations research methodology in the execution and control of business logistics processes

This article outlines the analytical basis of logistics. The concept of logistics management is described in a business context, and its strategic, tactical and operational tiers are discussed. The relationship that exists between systems analysis and logistics management is indicated. The seven consecutive steps in the systems analysis process are outlined. The role and essence of operations research in systems analysis and business logistics decision-making are described. The most pertinent operations research applications in the field of logistics management, as well as the analytical competencies that a logistician should possess, are identified. The role that operations researchers can fulfil in the successful execution and control of business logistics processes are detailed.

Phlebotominae fauna (Diptera: Psychodidae) in an urban district of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, endemic for visceral leishmaniasis: Characterization of favored locations as determined by spatial analysis

Belo Horizonte, the capital of the southeastern state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, and the fourth-largest city in the country, has the highest incidence of human visceral leishmaniasis (VL) together with a high prevalence of canine VL. The Northeast Sanitary District (NSD) of Belo Horizonte has the largest historical average of human VL cases in the metropolitan region, and is classified as a priority area for epidemiological and entomological monitoring of the disease. The objectives of the present study were to determine the seasonal variation in phlebotomine fauna and to describe the environmental situations in the NSD through characterization of peri-domiciles and application of geographical information system analysis. Entomological captures were performed every two weeks during the period July 2006 to June 2007 using HP light traps placed at 16 locations where cases of human VL had been reported in 2005. The environmental characterization of these locations was accomplished using forms and photographic images. Spatial analyses was used to determine the influence of vegetation, hydrography, altitude and pockets of poverty on the occurrence of cases of human and canine VL, and of phlebotomine vectors. A total of 633 phlebotomines belonging to the subtribes Psychodopygina and Lutzomyina were captured and, of these, 75% were identified as Nyssomyia whitmani and 11% as Lutzomyia longipalpis. The majority of the studied peri-domiciles presented inadequate hygienic conditions that would favor the development of phlebotomines. No significant correlations could be established between biogeographical aspects and either the incidence of human and canine VL or the occurrence of phlebotomines. The proximity of areas with vegetation, villages, slums and open watercourses exerted little influence on the incidence of VL. These findings reinforce the urbanization of the VL profile since the disease occurred in locations where conditions that have been classically related to its prevalence were not present. The results reported herein will be important for implementing measures against VL in the study area.

About the Authors

About the Authors

A Geography of Logistics: Market Authority and the Security of Supply Chains

In recent years, U.S. military and civilian agencies have been rethinking security in the context of globalized production and trade. No longer lodged in a conflict between territorial borders and global flows, national security is increasingly a project of securing supranational systems. The maritime border has been a critical site for experimentation, and a spate of new policy is blurring “inside” and “outside” national space, reconfiguring border security, and reorganizing citizenship and labor rights. These programs seek to govern integrated economic space while they resurrect borders and sanction new forms of containment. Forces that disrupt commodity flows are cast as security threats with labor actions a key target of policy. Direct connections result between market rule created to secure logistic space and the broader project of neoliberalism. Even as neoliberalism is credited with expanding capitalist markets and market logics, it is logistics that have put the cold calculation of cost at the center of the production of space. Since World War II, logistics experts have conceptualized economy anew by spatializing cost–benefit analysis and applying systems analysis to distribution networks. The “revolution in logistics” has changed how space is conceived and represented, and transformed the practical management of supply chains. Historically a military technology of war and colonialism abroad, today logistics lead rather than support the strategies of firms and the security of nations across transnational space. These shifts have implications for the geopolitics of borders and security but also for social and political forms premised on the territory and ontology of national space.

Positive Hybrid Real-Trigonometric Polynomials and Applications to Adjustable Filter Design and Absolute Stability Analysis

The present paper points out that a class of positive polynomials deserves special attention due to several interesting applications in signal processing, system analysis and control. We consider positive hybrid polynomials with two variables, one real, the other complex, belonging to the unit circle. We present several theoretical results regarding the sum-of-squares representations of such polynomials, treating the cases where positivity occurs globally or on domains. We also give a specific Bounded Real Lemma. All the characterizations of positive hybrid polynomials are expressed in terms of positive semidefinite matrices and can be extended to polynomials with more than two variables. On the applicative side, we show how several problems are numerically tractable via semidefinite programming (SDP) algorithms. The first problem is the minimax design of adjustable FIR filters, using a modified Farrow structure. We discuss linear-phase and approximately linear-phase designs. The second is the absolute stability of time-delay feedback systems with unknown delay, for which we treat the cases of bounded and unbounded delay. Finally, we discuss the application of our methods to checking the stability of parameter-dependent systems. The design procedures are illustrated with numerical examples.

EJS-Based Laboratory for Learning the Function of the Cardiovascular System

One of the career areas included in the field of Biomedical Engineering is the application of engineering system analysis: physiological modelling, simulation and control. This paper describes a Virtual Laboratory for the analysis and the study of Human circulatory system. The Virtual Laboratory is based on the compilation of several mathematical models described in the literature. Presented application has been build using MATLAB/Simulink and EJS, so it combines good computation capabilities and it is completely interactive. The Virtual Laboratory is designed in order to understand the operation of the circulatory system under normal conditions, and to predict circulatory variables at different levels of stimuli and conditions.

The Application of Measurement System Analysis in the Experimental Platform of Large Electronic Current

The article discusses the application of MSA in the process of quality control of production, under the relevant requirements in ISO/TS16949. With DWST experimental platform of large electronic current as an example, it analyzes the data achievement, the application of statistics and the methods of analysis report in the evaluation of variations on bias, stability, linearity, repeatability and reproducibility. The research gives a guide to the effective implement of MSA in the production and manufacture.

Global health research strategies

The application of health systems analysis points to the need to specify theoretically the circumstances under which health disparities exist in the USA as well as in other countries. This paper highlights the importance of developing major themes in global health research and formulating research strategies to investigate the dynamic forces of health status change and human adaptation in small geographical areas. The concepts based on systems theory are used to build a theoretically informed framework to guide ecological research on global health. The use of advanced statistical and dynamic modelling techniques enables researchers to better understand the determinants and consequences of global health and population change. The research foci should be extended beyond the conventional bounds of health disparity studies. Intervention research should be designed and executed to produce new knowledge for improving medical practice and global health.

Viewing Systems as Services: A Fresh Approach in the IS Field

Despite wide agreement that we are in a service-dominated economy, there has been little movement toward treating service and service metaphors as core aspects of the IS field. This tutorial proposes that viewing systems as services is a potentially fruitful but generally unexplored approach for thinking about systems in organizations, systems analysis, and numerous applications of IT. An extension of past research in several areas, viewing systems as services proves to be an umbrella for developing new systems analysis and design methods, improving business/IT communication, and finding practical paths toward greater relevance and significance in business and society.

Comments on: Optimization and data mining in biomedicine

In this review paper, Pardalos et al. discuss selected applications of operation research and system analysis in biomedicine. Some of the results presented in this paper, such as consistent biclustering and seizure prediction algorithms, are developed by Pardalos and his research group. As for the material included in each of the sections, I believe that it is an excellent primer for young researchers who seek for introductory literature on applying optimization to solving problems in biomedicine. The part on radiation therapy introduces the background on the application and the underlying optimization techniques with references to the medical instrumentation. Then models and solution approaches are presented and discussed. The theoretical results discussed by Busygin et al. for consistent biclustering are of particular importance since, in general, there are not many papers discussing the theoretical foundations of biclustering. The third application presents an alternative and innovative use of operations research in the electrode selection problem of EEG for improving the epileptic seizure prediction algorithm based on nonlinear dynamic time series analysis. This application shows how a formulation that is typically applied to problems of industrial interest can be modified and applied in a totally new framework. The inclusion of EEG source localization problem in this survey is also a nice addition to the paper since the algorithms developed in this field are mainly based on signal processing approaches. An operations research point of view may give some more insight and new ideas for this inverse problem. This paper is a good reference paper for operational researchers and mathematicians and I believe it will be well received by the readers of TOP.

Distributed Transient Stability Simulation of Power Systems Based on a Jacobian-Free Newton-GMRES Method

As power systems becoming more closely interconnected and are being deregulated in energy markets, distributed simulations among different dispatch centers are highly required for online full system analysis and control applications. In this paper a new algorithm for distributed transient stability simulation of interconnected power systems is presented. Based on a Jacobian-free Newton-GMRES(m) method, this algorithm requires only exchanges of states of boundary buses among different regions. Therefore, it has strong scalability in distributed computing environments built on heterogeneous computing resources. Moreover, several accelerating methods are developed to enhance its efficiency, including continuous preconditioning with adaptive preconditioners, predicting boundary conditions and multistep coordination. The standard IEEE 39-bus system and a real power system with 1165 buses were used as test systems. The test results show that these accelerating methods greatly enhance the convergence rate of the proposed algorithm and reduce communication costs remarkably, which proves the novel algorithm is feasible and can be adopted in wide area networks with high-latency.

Learning Respiratory System Function in BME Studies by Means of a Virtual Laboratory: RespiLab

One of the career areas included in the field of Biomedical Engineering (BME) is the application of engineering system analysis: physiologic modeling, simulation, and control. This paper describes a virtual laboratory and related practical sessions designed for the analysis and the study of the human respiratory system. The laboratory is based on the compilation of several models described in the literature. Presented application has been built using MATLAB/Simulink and Easy Java Simulations (EJS), combining good computation capabilities that are completely interactive. The virtual laboratory is designed in order to understand the operation of the respiratory system under normal conditions and pathological situations, and to predict respiratory variables at different levels of ventilator stimuli and conditions. The presented virtual laboratory has been used and evaluated by students of the Master of Science degree on BME. Experience has shown that this virtual laboratory is a very useful tool for learning the complex response of the human respiratory system.

The Early Statistical Years: 1947–1967. A Conversation with Howard Raiffa

Howard Raiffa earned his bachelor's degree in mathematics, his master's degree in statistics and his Ph.D. in mathematics at the University of Michigan. Since 1957, Raiffa has been a member of the faculty at Harvard University, where he is now the Frank P. Ramsey Chair in Managerial Economics (Emeritus) in the Graduate School of Business Administration and the Kennedy School of Government. A pioneer in the creation of the field known as decision analysis, his research interests span statistical decision theory, game theory, behavioral decision theory, risk analysis and negotiation analysis. Raiffa has supervised more than 90 doctoral dissertations and written 11 books. His new book is Negotiation Analysis: The Science and Art of Collaborative Decision Making. Another book, Smart Choices, co-authored with his former doctoral students John Hammond and Ralph Keeney, was the CPR (formerly known as the Center for Public Resources) Institute for Dispute Resolution Book of the Year in 1998. Raiffa helped to create the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis and he later became its first Director, serving in that capacity from 1972 to 1975. His many honors and awards include the Distinguished Contribution Award from the Society of Risk Analysis; the Frank P. Ramsey Medal for outstanding contributions to the field of decision analysis from the Operations Research Society of America; and the Melamed Prize from the University of Chicago Business School for The Art and Science of Negotiation. He earned a Gold Medal from the International Association for Conflict Management and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution. He holds honorary doctor's degrees from Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Michigan, Northwestern University, Ben Gurion University of the Negev and Harvard University. The latter was awarded in 2002.

Prediction of drill-bit breakage from degradation signals using Mahalanobis-Taguchi system analysis

Drilling is a widely used machining process. As the hole drilling operation progresses, a drill-bit gradually degrades until it breaks at the end of its life. Replacing a drill-bit after it is breakage can be costly in certain special applications. At the same time an early tool replacement decision may lead to lower tool life utilisation. This calls for methods that enable accurate prediction of tool failures. In such situations degradation signals using appropriate features are utilised to arrive at the tool replacement decision. In this paper we study two such degradation signals viz., thrust force and torque using 20 derived features (10 features per degradation signal). The methodology used involves a successful application of Mahalanobis-Taguchi System (MTS) analysis that enables an accurate prediction of drill-bit breakage ensuring high tool life utilisation.

Wolfgang Lutz, Rudolf Richter and Chris Wilson (Eds.). THE NEW GENERATIONS OF EUROPEANS: DEMOGRAPHY AND FAMILIES IN THE ENLARGED EUROPEAN UNION

Wolfgang Lutz, Rudolf Richter and Chris Wilson (Eds.). THE NEW GENERATIONS OF EUROPEANS: DEMOGRAPHY AND FAMILIES IN THE ENLARGED EUROPEAN UNION London and Sterling, VA: Earthscan, 2006.374 pp. Price: UK £24.95. ISBN: 9781844073511.Reviewed by: MARCTE PARKER*For anyone with a global perspective on families and an understanding of the importance of demographic trends as they impact the future, this is an important new. Lutz is leader of the World Population Program at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis or HAS A and Director of the Vienna Institute of Demography; Richter is Professor of Sociology and Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Vienna and Wilson in Senior Research Scholar at TTASA. The book is not only edited by leading demographers and sociologists but is also made up of contributions from well-respected researchers in the fields of population and society from many different parts of Europe. Presented are the results of over five years of research by the European Observatory on the Social Situation, Demography and the Family.This publication, which is very dense and rich, is based on articles and contributions presented during the closing conference of the European Observatory on Demography, the Social Situation and Family that took place from September 27-28, 2004. The Observatory was entirely funded by the European Commission. As the Editors explain, Europe today is characterized by aging populations, changing family practices and patterns, sharply dropping fertility rates and mass migrations. These rapidly accelerating trends have huge implications for social structures, healthcare systems, pensions, housing, transportation, family relations, employment and more.The New Generations of Europeans assesses with it means to be a citizen of the new European Union, which just this past January added Romania and Bulgaria to its ranks and which Turkey is eager to join. European leaders and decision makers have many important demographic, social and economic issues to face in light of the changes which are occurring. Part I of the book consists of an introduction and overview as well as the social situation in the European Union, 2004. Part II looks at fertility trends in an enlarged European Union, including low fertility and the scope for social policy, childbearing behavior in the new EU Member States, and alternative paths for future European fertility and whether the birth rate will recover or continue to decline. Part III focuses on family forms and the young generation in an Enlarged Union [Europe's coming generations and the influence of the past; youth transitions and family support in a transforming social context with reflections from the New Member States; and family forms and the young generation in the New Europe with a look at future trends and scenarios]. Part IV looks at migration developments in an Enlarged European Union [migration, migrants and their families in the EU15 Member States; international migration patterns in the new EU Member States; and the future European Union facing migration]. Part V focuses on family and health in an Enlarged European Union [family and health; the Polish health system in Europe: its situation, reforms and challenges; and issues for the future of health care in an enlarged EU]. Part VI parses out the challenges ahead for the European Union [e.g., civic society and the family and the formation of social capital in Europe, as well as Europe's future generations and closing thoughts].The book also includes a 3-page list of acronyms used throughout, over one hundred graphs, charts and tables, and a full discussion of how numerous, how fertile and how longlived the new generations of European citizens might be. The overall theme of the book looks at the state of families, immigration, and health and what challenges might be posed for maintaining social cohesion in light of all these changes. As the Editors point out, one crucial over-arching question is how demographic changes will impact Europe's socioeconomic infrastructure. …

Afghanistan Digital Library Initiative: Revitalizing an Integrated Library System

This paper describes an Afghanistan digital library initiative of building an integrated library system (ILS) for Afghanistan universities and colleges based on open-source software. As one of the goals of the Afghan eQuality Digital Libraries Alliance, the authors applied systems analysis approach, evaluated different open-source ILSs, and customized the selected software to accommodate users’ needs. Improvements include Arabic and Persian language support, user interface changes, call number label printing, and ISBN-13 support. To our knowledge, this ILS is the first at a large academic library running on open-source software.

Current Status of Transport Properties of Hydrogen

This article contains a survey of experimental data for the thermal conductivity and viscosity of hydrogen, which are needed for many applications in system analysis and design. It includes an analysis of the current standard models for thermal conductivity and viscosity of normal hydrogen and parahydrogen, which are based on measurement and correlation work done before the mid1980s. Properties calculated with these models are analyzed and compared to all available experimental data for normal hydrogen and parahydrogen. Finally, recommendations for future work, including new experimental measurements to enable the development of improved transport property formulations for hydrogen, are provided.