The automotive industry is in a state of flux at the moment. Traditional combustion engine technologies are becoming challenged by newer, more efficient and environmentally friendly propulsion methods. These include bio-fuel, hybrid, and hydrogen fuel-cell technologies. Propulsion alone, however, is not the only area where improvements can be made in vehicle efficiency. Current vehicle research and development focuses heavily on propulsion systems with relatively few resources dedicated to auxiliary systems. These auxiliary systems, however, can have a significant impact on overall vehicle efficiency and fuel economy. The objective of this work is to improve the efficiency of a Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle (FCEV) through intelligent auxiliary system control. The analysis contained herein is applicable to all types of vehicles and may find applications in many vehicle architectures. A survey is made of the various types of alternative fuels and vehicle architectures from conventional gasoline vehicles to hybrids and fuel cells. Trends in auxiliary power systems and previous papers on control of these systems are discussed. The FCEV developed by the University of Waterloo Alternative Fuels Team (UWAFT) is outlined and the design process presented. Its powertrain control strategy is analyzed with a proposal for modifications as well as the addition of an auxiliary control module to meet the aforementioned objectives. Simulations are performed to predict the efficiency and fuel economy gains that can potentially be realized using these proposed techniques. These gains prove to be significant, with an almost 2% improvement realized through intelligent control of the air conditioning compressor, and further gains possible through other auxiliary power reduction techniques.

The automotive industry is in a state of flux at the moment. Traditional combustion engine technologies are becoming challenged by newer, more efficient and environmentally friendly propulsion methods. These include bio-fuel, hybrid, and hydrogen fuel-cell technologies. Propulsion alone, however, is not the only area where improvements can be made in vehicle efficiency. Current vehicle research and development focuses heavily on propulsion systems with relatively few resources dedicated to auxiliary systems. These auxiliary systems, however, can have a significant impact on overall vehicle efficiency and fuel economy. The objective of this work is to improve the efficiency of a Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle (FCEV) through intelligent auxiliary system control. The analysis contained herein is applicable to all types of vehicles and may find applications in many vehicle architectures. A survey is made of the various types of alternative fuels and vehicle architectures from conventional gasoline vehicles to hybrids and fuel cells. Trends in auxiliary power systems and previous papers on control of these systems are discussed. The FCEV developed by the University of Waterloo Alternative Fuels Team (UWAFT) is outlined and the design process presented. Its powertrain control strategy is analyzed with a proposal for modifications as well as the addition of an auxiliary control module to meet the aforementioned objectives. Simulations are performed to predict the efficiency and fuel economy gains that can potentially be realized using these proposed techniques. These gains prove to be significant, with an almost 2% improvement realized through intelligent control of the air conditioning compressor, and further gains possible through other auxiliary power reduction techniques.

Orthoses and auxiliaries are important to the people with lower limb disabled in their daily lives. The purpose of this study is to survey and discuss the existing walking auxiliary mechanism for the lower limb disabled people, and to design a new walking auxiliary mechanism to improve their walking gesture. In order to develop a new auxiliary mechanism for the people with lower limb disabled, commercial orthoses and patents are colleted, analyzed, classified, and compared to each others. Several interviews with a lower limb disablement are arranged and understand what they need. After integrating all the collected information as the design input, theories of mechanism structure synthesis, dimension synthesis, mechanism analysis are utilized to develop a mechanism design of auxiliary for lower limb disabled people to walk, to go up and down the stair. The Pro-Engineering, a CAD software, is used for solid modeling and the Visual Nastran, a CAE software, is applied for motion simulation. The results of computer simulations of walking and climbing up stairs are compared to that of video taken from the interviewed people.

The main aim of this study is to extending the holographic interferometry technique to measure the out-of-plane displacement of an object subjected to both temperature and displacement field. It is noted that both the out-of-plane displacement and the ambient temperature change can cause image fringes. Therefore, an auxiliary object is used to identify the fringe numbers caused by the ambient temperature change during the experiment. The warpage measurement of a PBGA package is used as an example. It can be shown that the proposed method works

The share of insurance market in Taiwan used to be retained solely by 8 local corporations. Since Taiwan opened its insurance market to American incorporations in 1986 and to local companies, as well as the Special Examination for Insurance Personnel for legal Insurance Auxiliary in 1992, the insurance industry in Taiwan has stepped into the era of fierce competition. By October 2007, companies registered under the Insurance Brokerage Association of Taiwan (IBAT) had reached 562. From 1997 to 2007, the share of life insurance premium had increased from 0.6% to 7.43%. However, the number of selling personnel in insurance companies has decreased over these years, while that of insurance brokers and agencies have increased. Compared to insurance corporations, insurance brokerages are limited in size, finance and resources. Consequentially, the key to maintaining compatibility is the management of selling personnel. The following are the conclusions made after three case studies of major insurance brokers in Taiwan, insightful interviews and careful analysis. 1. Compared to other channels of selling, the advantage of selling personnel is the unbending trust built through one-on-one selling. 2. The advantage of unbending trust is established upon the reinforcement of educational training for selling personnel, especially interactive training. 3. In order to encourage re-purchasing, good after-market services are necessary, which are the combined efforts of the selling personnel and the company. 4. In order to attract talent, it is essential to maintain advantages six aspects of competitive sales: ¡]1¡^Morality ¡]2¡^Capability¡]3¡^Vantage ¡]4¡^Preparedness ¡]5¡^Motivation¡]6¡^Equipment The following are the suggestions for different stakeholders. 1. For insurance brokerages: ¡]1¡^Large corporations could establish inclusive information network. ¡]2¡^Small companies could unite resources through inter network. ¡]3¡^Improvement in the management of selling personnel so as to build fine working ethics should be taken into consideration. 2. For insurance brokerage unions: ¡]1¡^Conducting analysis of selling records is encouraged. ¡]2¡^Setting up loan CRM system to member companies is suggested. 3. For associated governmental organizations: ¡]1¡^Enhance the status and professional images of insurance brokerages. ¡]2¡^Denoting that the income of selling personnel is the income of executing sales is recommended.

Pseudoephedrine has been used as a chiral auxiliary in diastereoselective alkylation reactions, providing easy access to enantiomerically enriched carboxylic acids, alcohols, ketones, and aldehydes. Because pseudoephedrine can be transformed into methamphetamine and other illegal drugs, many countries restrict or ban its sale and distribution, which can complicate its use in academic and industrial settings. This thesis shows that (1S,2S)-2-methylamino-1,2-diphenylethanol and (1R,2R)-2-methylamino-1,2- diphenylethanol (synonymously, (1S,2S)- and (1R,2R)-pseudoephenamine 30, respectively) enable a broad range of utilities in asymmetric synthesis that meet or exceed those that previously characterized the pseudoephedrine system alone, with several advantages. First, these auxiliaries are free from regulatory restrictions and are not known to be transformable into illegal substances; second, asymmetric alkylation reactions that employ pseudoephenamine as a chiral auxiliary proceed with equal or greater diastereoselectivities than the corresponding reactions employing pseudoephedrine, with notable improvements in the selectivities of the alkylation reactions that form quaternary carbon stereocenters; and lastly, amides derived from pseudoephenamine exhibit a greater propensity to be crystalline compounds than the corresponding pseudoephedrine derivatives. / Chemistry and Chemical Biology

Pseudoephedrine is well established as a chiral auxiliary in the alkylation of amide enolates to form tertiary and quaternary carbon stereocenters. However, due to its facile transformation into the illegal narcotic methamphetamine, pseudoephedrine is either illegal or highly regulated in many countries, which limits its use in academic and industrial settings. To address this issue, pseudoephenamine has been developed as a replacement for pseudoephedrine in organic synthesis. This new auxiliary suffers no regulatory issues and exhibits several practical advantages over pseudoephedrine, including the high diastereoselectivities observed in alkylation reactions forming quaternary carbon stereocenters, the propensity for pseudoephenamine amides to be free-flowing crystalline solids, and the sharp, well-defined peaks that typically compose the 1H NMR spectra of these amides. / Chemistry and Chemical Biology

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

A numerical study was carried out to improve the design of an autothermal reformer for the onboard production of hydrogen to be used in fuel-cell- powered auxiliary power units (APU) to provide heating and electricity in long haul trucks when they are at rest. The development of these auxiliary power units is based upon the use of power generated by solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) system, instead of from a conventional gasoline engine. The present work was undertaken to improve the design of a prototype autothermal fuel reformer that had been developed by the Fuel Cell Research Centre (FCRC) at Queen’s University to convert liquid hydrocarbon truck fuel to a hydrogen rich product gas. In this development work and in the previous work iso-octane (C8H18) has been used as a surrogate fuel. Using this surrogate of gasoline, the reformer was simulated using various inlet steam/carbon (H2O/C), oxygen/carbon (O/C) molar ratios and gas-hourly-space-velocity (GHSV). In the reformer considered the reforming process is carried out in a compact tubular reactor with a centerline thermocouple tube using a 2% Pt-ZrCe based catalyst with a local porosity of 0.6. During the initial simulations, it was observed that near the start of the catalyst region there were large temperature gradients due to an exothermic partial oxidation reaction. In order to reduce the temperature gradients and facilitate heat transfer by conduction along the reformer, the central thermocouple tube was replaced with a central solid rod. The effects of variations in the thermal conductivity of central solid rod, of the reactor wall, of the catalyst bed, of the inert porous material near the inlet and the outlet of the catalyst bed, of the gas hourly space velocity, of the effectiveness factor of the chemical reaction mechanism on the performance of the reactor were studied. The results so obtained were analyzed to determine potential design improvements that would increase the hydrogen output. The results were compared with the previous numerical and experimental results obtained in the previous studies of the reformer and found to be in good agreement with the general trends of the temperature profiles as well as the outlet molar concentrations of product species. After the analysis and evaluation of all the results, it was found that by replacement of central thermocouple tube with central solid rod made of high conductivity material and by using material for inert porous region at the outlet that had a thermal conductivity equal to that of the catalyst bed led to more even temperature profiles within the catalyst region. It was also found that the hydrogen molar percentage output could be increased by approximately more than 25% and that the length of the reactor could be reduced by 20mm by incorporating these changes in the reformer design. / Thesis (Master, Mechanical and Materials Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2009-03-09 12:14:27.627

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