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The benefits of the complex microscopic and industrially important group of microalgae such as diatoms is not hidden and have lately surprised the scientific community with their industrial potential. The ability to survive in harsh conditions and the presence of different pore structures and defined cell walls have made diatoms ideal cell machinery to produce a variety of industrial products. The prospect of using a diatom cell for industrial application has increased significantly in synch with the advances in microscopy, metabarcoding, analytical and genetic tools. Furthermore, it is well noted that the approach of industry and academia to the use of genetic tools has changed significantly, resulting in a well-defined characterization of various molecular components of diatoms. It is possible to conduct the primary culturing, harvesting, and further downstream processing of diatom culture in a cost-effective manner. Diatoms hold all the qualities to become the alternative raw material for pharmaceutical, nanotechnology, and energy sources leading to a sustainable economy. In this review, an attempt has been made to gather important progress in the different industrial applications of diatoms such as biotechnology, biomedical, nanotechnology, and environmental technologies.

A general three-dimensional micromechanical model pertaining to smart composite layers with wavy boundaries is applied to the case of thin smart plates reinforced with a network of generally orthotropic bars that may also exhibit piezoelectric behavior. The method used for the development of the structural model is that of asymptotic homogenization, which reduces the original boundary value problem into a set of three decoupled problems, each problem being characterized by two differential equations. These three sets of differential equations, referred to as 'unit cell problems', deal, independently, with the elastic, piezoelectric, and thermal expansion behavior of the network-reinforced smart composite plates. The solution of the unit cell problems yields expressions for effective elastic, piezoelectric and thermal expansion coefficients which, as a consequence of their universal nature, can be used to study a wide variety of boundary value problems associated with a smart structure of a given geometry. The model can be used to customize the effective properties of a smart structure by changing some material or geometric parameters such as the size or nature of the reinforcements. The developed general methodology is applied to smart network-reinforced composite structures with generally orthotropic reinforcements and actuators. As particular examples, spatial rectangular, triangular, and rhombic smart network plates are analyzed. The general orthotropy of materials is very important from the practical viewpoint and this orthotropy makes micromechanical modeling significantly more complex. In the limiting case of isotropic reinforcements and absence of actuators, the above general orthotropic micromechanical model converges to results that are consistent with those of previous models obtained by either asymptotic homogenization, or stress-strain relationships in the isotropic reinforcements.

Im vorangehenden Kapitel wurden die Ergebnisse der Studie NewProd III vorgestellt. Eine wichtige Erkenntnis war, das die prozesbezogenen Erfolgsfaktoren dominieren. Die tiefergehende Analyse zeigte, das die Prozesqualitat haufig unbefriedigend war: Es wurden Aktivitaten ubersprungen oder sehr oberflachlich ausgefuhrt. Die befragten Manager sagten selbst, das viele Aktivitaten stark verbesserungsbedurftig sind.

International audience

There are competing forces affecting university credibility. On the one hand there is credibility in the competitive academic environment that results in the expansion of the curriculum. And on the other hand there are the increasing pressures from outside the academy for university graduates to have economically relevant workplace skills. In this paper I analyze some of the difficulties that result from these competing pressures and speculate on how they might be resolved. The example of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology is used as a new university in attempting to establish its credibility. I suggest that collegial review processes and culture will expand academic requirements to fill the available time and resources in the curriculum. I also point to a problem with innovation in curricula if the benchmark for program structures and quality assurance is a generalized university standard. If universities are to add additional components to degrees this will put pressure on the amount of time available for core academic programming as well as on the structure of that programming. Without a clear mandate and support structures to the contrary the most likely result is expanded programming for degrees.

In order to provide the context for an incubator case study, this paper provides a brief overview of the support mechanisms for Canadian university-based innovation and commercialization, especially regarding government (federal, provincial, municipal). It then proceeds to describe OCAD University’s specialized commercialization and incubator unit, the Imagination Catalyst, which supports talent

In this paper, a scheduling protocol for electric vehicle (EV) home charging with time of use pricing is introduced. This work addresses the problem of EVs charging at home by adopting an appropriate charging process protocol over Power Line Communications (PLC). The scheduling protocol is aimed at minimizing peak loads on distribution feeders due to multiple EVs charging while using a time-of-use pricing policy. Energy efficiency and performance are both taken into account. An appropriate analytical formulation of the scheduling problem is given together with the proposed scheduling protocol. Simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach in minimizing peak loads while satisfying the defined constraints.

BACKGROUND: The fifth Millennium Development Goal (MDG 5) established the goal of a 75% reduction in the maternal mortality ratio (MMR; number of maternal deaths per 100,000 livebirths) between 1990 and 2015. We aimed to measure levels and track trends in maternal mortality, the key causes contributing to maternal death, and timing of maternal death with respect to delivery.METHODS: We used robust statistical methods including the Cause of Death Ensemble model (CODEm) to analyse a database of data for 7065 site-years and estimate the number of maternal deaths from all causes in 188 countries between 1990 and 2013. We estimated the number of pregnancy-related deaths caused by HIV on the basis of a systematic review of the relative risk of dying during pregnancy for HIV-positive women compared with HIV-negative women. We also estimated the fraction of these deaths aggravated by pregnancy on the basis of a systematic review. To estimate the numbers of maternal deaths due to nine different causes, we identified 61 sources from a systematic review and 943 site-years of vital registration data. We also did a systematic review of reports about the timing of maternal death, identifying 142 sources to use in our analysis. We developed estimates for each country for 1990-2013 using Bayesian meta-regression. We estimated 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs) for all values.FINDINGS: 292,982 (95% UI 261,017-327,792) maternal deaths occurred in 2013, compared with 376,034 (343,483-407,574) in 1990. The global annual rate of change in the MMR was -0·3% (-1·1 to 0·6) from 1990 to 2003, and -2·7% (-3·9 to -1·5) from 2003 to 2013, with evidence of continued acceleration. MMRs reduced consistently in south, east, and southeast Asia between 1990 and 2013, but maternal deaths increased in much of sub-Saharan Africa during the 1990s. 2070 (1290-2866) maternal deaths were related to HIV in 2013, 0·4% (0·2-0·6) of the global total. MMR was highest in the oldest age groups in both 1990 and 2013. In 2013, most deaths occurred intrapartum or postpartum. Causes varied by region and between 1990 and 2013. We recorded substantial variation in the MMR by country in 2013, from 956·8 (685·1-1262·8) in South Sudan to 2·4 (1·6-3·6) in Iceland.INTERPRETATION: Global rates of change suggest that only 16 countries will achieve the MDG 5 target by 2015. Accelerated reductions since the Millennium Declaration in 2000 coincide with increased development assistance for maternal, newborn, and child health. Setting of targets and associated interventions for after 2015 will need careful consideration of regions that are making slow progress, such as west and central Africa.FUNDING: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.