Energy efficiency is regarded as an important objective in a world of limited resources. The sustainable use of energy is necessary for the continuity of life styles that do not jeopardize the future. Nevertheless, due to poor information about the impact of human actions on the environment, it is hard to promote and warn for sustainability. This work focuses on the use of ambient intelligence ...

Two complementary studies were conducted. In Study 1 (categorical perception of alerts), a series of experiments examined the key parameters that result in listeners perceiving a given sound as an urgent warning versus other less urgent message categories. Initial perceptual sorting experiments identified the most significant parameters and subsequent driving simulator experiments confirmed and...

Among the many input parameters of a forging process (for a multi-stage process one can count more than 200 different inputs!) the following important inputs shall be mentioned: Forging Material characteristics (flow curve = f(temperature, strain, strain rate, micro-structure) Influence of heat coefficients Friction type and friction value as well as lubrication Heat transfer Ambient media and ...

The current study discovers that uniaxial compression under ambient condition can directly cause strong bonding in ultra-dry montmorillonite, which is attributed to the secondary molecular interaction other than hydrogen bonding. The strength of so-processed material is sensitive to the lateral confinement condition of loading. Similar compaction pressure produces equally strong solids between ...

A Kleinian group Γ < Isom(H) is called convex cocompact if any orbit of Γ in H is quasiconvex or, equivalently, Γ acts cocompactly on the convex hull of its limit set in ∂H. Subgroup stability is a strong quasiconvexity condition in finitely generated groups which is intrinsic to the geometry of the ambient group and generalizes the classical quasiconvexity condition above. Importantly, it coin...

Power transformers are important and expensive components in the electric power system. The knowledge of the actual status of the transformer insulation behavior, load tap changer performance, temperature, and load condition is necessary in order to evaluate the service performance concerning reliability, availability and safety. Systems abnormalities, loading, switching and ambient condition n...

cold hardiness is one of the most common adaptations of insects at low temperatures. to understand the cold hardiness strategy of beet armyworm, spodoptera exigua (hübner), six temperature treatments were tested on the last instar larvae. supercooling points of treatments were not significantly different. two sugars, glucose and trehalose, as well as three polyols, myo-inositol, glycerol and so...

the effect of hydraulic retention time in a range from 1.0-5.5 days was evaluated in a laboratoryscaleanaerobic fixed bed reactor packed with a hybrid material composed of tire rubber and zeolite. underthese conditions, cod removal efficiencies varied from 28.3% to 82.1%, respectively. over the more than 6months of operation, no clogging was observed. the results obtained demonstrated that this...

Ground transportation of pigs at early ages is typical in modern swine production because the young animals are often produced in one part of the country and finished in another. One challenge associated with this practice is the profit-stripping incidence of mortality and compromised animal welfare due to stress stemming from unfavorable transporting conditions. The objective of this study was...