How Internet of Things can influence the sustainability performance of logistics industries – A Chinese case study

The introduction of new information technologies has started reshaping global industrial sectors and supply chains. Due to the introduction of the Internet of Things (IoT) real-time management strategies have been adopted by the global logistics industry, turning the branch into an intelligent service supplier. This paper assesses the influence...

Temperature effects of bifacial modules: Hotter or cooler?

In this paper we show the results from indoor and outdoor measurements on solar cells and modules, manufactured with different bifacial and monofacial cell architectures and encapsulated in different configurations. Reflection/transmission, IV and IQE spectra of single-cell laminates were measured and used to determine the energy spectra for all...

Stabilization of beta-lactoglobulin by polyols and sugars against temperature-induced denaturation involves diverse and specific structural regions of the protein

Temperature sensitivity of bovine milk beta-lactoglobulin (BLG) was assessed in the presence/absence of non-reducing sugars (sucrose and trehalose) and polyols (glycerol and sorbitol). None of them affected the structural features of the protein at room temperature, where the only observed effect was an increased affinity towards hydrophobic...

Entropy of continuous maps on quasi-metric spaces

The category of metric spaces is a subcategory of quasi-metric spaces. In this paper the notion of entropy for the continuous maps of a quasi-metric space is extended via spanning and separated sets. Moreover, two metric spaces that are associated to a given quasi-metric space are introduced and the entropy of a map of a given quasi-metric space...

An entropy-based metric to quantify the robustness of power grids against cascading failures

The cascading failure phenomenon in a power grid is related to both the structural aspects (number and types of buses, density of transmission lines and interconnection of components), and the operative state (flow distribution and demand level). Existing studies most often focus on structural aspects, and not on operative states. This paper...

Client-Server Password Recovery

Human memory is not perfect – people constantly memorize new facts and forget old ones. One example is forgetting a password, a common problem raised at IT help desks. We present several protocols that allow a user to automatically recover a password from a server using partial knowledge of the password. These protocols can be easily adapted to...

Measuring concept relatedness using language models

Over the years, the notion of concept relatedness has attracted considerable attention. A variety of approaches, based on ontology structure, information content, association, or context have been proposed to indicate the relatedness of abstract ideas. We propose a method based on the cross entropy reduction between language models of concepts...

Statistical electromagnetics: Complex cavities

A selection of the literature on the statistical description of electromagnetic fields and complex cavities is concisely reviewed. Some essential concepts, for example, the application of the central limit theorem and the maximum entropy principle, are scrutinized. Implicit assumptions, biased choices of variables and constraints, and some...

Quantifying the intelligibility of speech in noise for non-native listeners

When listening to languages learned at a later age, speech intelligibility is generally lower than when listening to one's native language. The main purpose of this study is to quantify speech intelligibility in noise for specific populations of non-native listeners, only broadly addressing the underlying perceptual and linguistic processing. An...

Thermodynamics of micellization of nonionic saccharide-based N-acyl-N-alkylaldosylamine and N-acyl-N-alkylamino-1-deoxyalditol surfactants

Eight homologous series of nonionic carbohydrate-derived surfactants in which the alkyl chains are linked through N-acylated amine bonds were synthesized, and their critical micelle concentrations (cmc's) and standard enthalpies of micellization were determined using titration microcalorimetry. Gibbs energies of micellization (ΔmicG°) were...

On the reactivity of organophosphorus compounds. II: The effects of structural variations in the alkyl and alkoxy groups on the values of ΔH* and ΔS* for the alkaline hydrolysis of a number of organophosphorus esters

The second-order rate constants of the alkaline hydrolysis at different temperatures of a number of nitrophenyl phosphorus esters and the values of the quantities ΔH* and ΔS* at 25˚C are reported. The effect of structural changes on the values of ΔH* and ΔS* are considered and are compared with similar changes in other nucleophilic substitution...