Dynamic Modeling and Simulation of a Commercial Naphtha Catalytic Reforming Process

A first principles-based dynamic model for a continuous catalyst regeneration (CCR) platforming process, the UOP commercial naphtha catalytic reforming process, is developed in this paper. The lumping details of the naphtha feed and reaction scheme of the reaction model are given. The process model is composed of the reforming reaction model with catalyst deactivation, the furnace model and the separator model, which is capable of capturing the major dynamics that occurs in this process system. Dynamic simulations are performed based on Gear numerical algorithm and method of lines (MOL), a numerical technique dealing with partial differential equations (PDEs). The results of simulation are also presented. Dynamic responses caused by disturbances in the process system can be correctly predicted through simulations.

COMPUTATIONAL AND ALGORITHMIC ASPECTS OF CARDINAL SPLINE-WAVELETS

Pascal triangles are formulated for computing the coefficients of the B-spline series representation of the compactly supported spline-wavelets with minimum support and their derivatives.It is shown that with the al- ternating signs removed,all these sequences are totally positive.On the other hand,truncations of the recipro- cal Euler-Frobenius polynomials lead to finite sequences for orthogonal wavelet decompositions.For this pur- pose,sharp estimates are given in terms of the exact reconstruction of these approximate decomposed compo- nents.

CD4＋VEGFR1HIGH T cell as a novel Treg subset regulates inflammatory bowel disease in lymphopenic mice

Regulatory T cells （Tregs） are a specialized subpopulation of T cells that control the immune response and thereby maintain immune system homeostasis and tolerance to self-antigens. Many subsets of CD4＋ Tregs have been identified, including Foxp3~, Trl, Th3, and Foxp3neg iT（R）35 cells. In this study, we identified a new subset of CD4＋VEGFR1high Tregs that have immunosuppressive capacity. CD4＋VEGFRlhigh T cells, which constitute approximately 1.0% of CD4＋ T cells, are hyporesponsive to T-cell antigen receptor stimulation. Surface marker and FoxP3 expression analysis revealed that CD4＋VEGFR1high T cells are distinct from known Tregs. CD4＋VEGFR1high T cells suppressed the proliferation of CD4＋CD25- T cell as efficiently as CD4＋CD25high natural Tregs in a contact-independent manner. Furthermore, adoptive transfer of CD4＋VEGFR1＋ T cells from wild type to RAG-2-deficient C57BL/6 mice inhibited effector T-cell-mediated inflammatory bowel disease. Thus, we report CD4＋ VEGFR1high T cells as a novel subset of Tregs that regulate the inflammatory response in the intestinal tract.

Impact of hospital size on healthcare information system effectiveness: evidence from healthcare data analytics

With the rapid development of information technology, the increasing use ofmobile digital devices and efforts from the whole society, the healthcareinformation systems (HISs) are moving towards a new era. However, there isstill a lack of clear understanding of the benefits of HIS at the hospital leveland the influential factors for HIS effectiveness. In this study, we propose aresearch framework to explain how HIS implementation improves hospitalperformance. Our results reinforce the positive effect of HIS on hospitalperformance. In particular, we found that HIS implementation increases boththe cost and revenue of the hospitals, but the increasing effect in revenue ismuch bigger than the increasing effect in cost. We also found that althoughboth small and big hospitals benefit from the implementation of HIS, the effectof size is different. Size has a positive effect on hospital performance for smallhospitals but has a negative effect on big hospitals. This indicates that thecompetitive advantage of economies of scale disappears for big hospitalsbecause the level of information transparency becomes lower and transactioncosts become higher as size increases.