Heterogeneous azeotropic distillation is a widely used technique to separate binary azeotropic mixtures into their components. One of its most important applications is the dehydration of ethanol, which is blended with gasoline to obtain automobile fuel. Among all the compounds…

Design and optimization of distillation columns for ethanol dehydration, using a hydrocarbon as entrainer, implies a good knowledge of vapor-liquid (VLE), liquid-liquid (LLE) and vapor-liquid-liquid equilibrium (VLLE). Chemical process simulation programs always require the use of a thermodynamic model that…

This paper proposes a process management system that enables new dynamic manufacturing models to be implemented. This system facilitates the automation of process modelling, thus reducing the workload for process engineers. To this end, it focuses on the incorporation of…

The maturity of IT, in conjunction with certain modern theories about Business Processes Management (BPM), has propitiated an appropriate scenario for meeting the needs of new business models, which are increasingly centred on mass customization. Integration solutions provided within the…

In this paper, a restricted domain question answering (QA) system is described. The design architecture of this QA system and the features that allow the adaptation of the QA system to the medical domain are also presented. The advantages of…

The chemical effects of acoustic cavitation are obtained in sono-reactors built-up from a vessel and an ultrasonic
source. In this paper, simulations of an existing sono-reactor are carried out, using a linear acoustics model, accounting
for the vibrations of the…

Diagnosis is an important process in patient care. A suitable diagnosis helps a physician determine a precise treatment. Physicians also have a tendency to seek collaboration from other colleagues and expert systems for better confidence in their decision. The sources…

Ensuring environmental sustainability is the aim of the seventh Millennium Development Goal (MDG7). United Nations data shows insufficient progress, especially in developing countries. In order to generate new information about this progress and the main barriers that hinder it, we…

Social knowledge is one of the key aspects of MAS in order to face complex problems in dynamical environments. However, it is usually incorporated without specific support on behalf of the platform and that does not let agents take all…

This paper describes the development of an image retrieval
system that combines probabilistic and ontological information1. The
process is divided in two different stages: indexing and retrieval. Three
information flows have been created with different kind of information
each one:…