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In this paper, experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of ultrasound irradiation on the co-pigmentation of caffeic acid added in wine and the coloration of wine during storage. The wine color, chroma, level of the monomeric, combined and polymerized anthocyanins and the concentrations of malvidin-3-O-glucoside and syringic acid in wines were determined by the high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, respectively. The results indicate that ultrasound irradiation could definitely affect the color characteristic of wine to a certain extent. Compared with the wine without addition of caffeic acid, the co-pigmentation effects of wine added with caffeic acid could be significantly promoted by ultrasound irradiation, such as the wine color, color density and the polymerized anthocyanins. Furthermore, ultrasound irradiation had a continuous effect on the co-pigmentation of caffeic acid and wine coloration with the extended storage time. In summary, ultrasound could significantly modify the color properties of wine by enhancing the co-pigmentation between caffeic acid and monomeric anthocyanins in the wine, resulting in the improvement of wine quality.

The application of Computer Aided Design and Engineering has been very popular in the engineering industry recently due to its usefulness in significantly reducing the time-to-market and cost involved within the design lifecycle of an engineering product. Despite the extensive availability of step-by-step manuals and tutorials to learn such tools, the emphasis of synergic utilization of such tools within the engineering design process has not been effectively addressed. Students often pay attention to learn how to use the tools instead of why to use such tools. In this paper, we present an innovative engineering education framework with various collaborative and interactive in-class activities and Web 2.0 tools to address the above issues in a senior undergraduate/graduate level CAD/CAE Applications course offered in University at Buffalo. Specifically, we categorize the approaches based the following components: (a) traditional lecture and computer labs, (b) team-based projects, (c) in-class activities, and (d) online course management tools. We show how the proposed approaches can be merged to the existing course syllabus in a synergic manner based on our experience. We also describe the rationale of the approaches and the expected outcome/improvements.

Factors of Aircraft cabin configuration, passenger/crew characteristics, human behaviors, and fire hazards in fire emergency can independently or interactively affect the evacuation efficiency of the Aircraft Evacuation System. Real experiments and computer evacuation simulations have been conducted to study the effects of cabin configuration and passenger/crew characteristics on evacuation efficiency. However, effects of human behaviors on evacuation efficiency, especially behaviors that have been identified in historical accidents, such as group evacuation and helping disabled, are rarely studied. Using an aircraft evacuation simulation model, VacateAir, this paper studies how critical human behaviors, such as group evacuation by following a leader and helping disabled evacuee, can interact with physical factors, such as fuselage width and seat arrangement, and therefore affect cabin configuration design. Taguchi Design of Experiments is then used to find optimal cabin configuration based on human behavior effects.

This paper introduces a PC-based simulation and visualization tool, VacateAir, which incorporates a modified Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) as a path finding algorithm, to simulate the evacuation of passengers on commercial aircraft in certification tests or lifethreatening scenarios. In VacateAir, the Cabin Configuration System (CCS) is used to monitor the dynamic changes of the cabin configuration (such as the availability of exits due to the blocking effects from fire hazards). The Fire Hazard Model in Aircraft Evacuation (FHMAE) is used to supply the dynamic fire hazard information and provide the human tenability analysis in fire. The Human Behavior System in Aircraft Evacuation (HBSAE) is used to predict the pre-evacuation time, exit selection of passengers and individual behavior, and the dynamic passenger moving speed. The Behavior Simulation System in Aircraft Evacuation (BSSAE) is PSO driven and used to simulate the predicted passenger behaviors. VacateAir is validated against real tests conducted on a narrow bodied cabin simulator B737200 with various aisle configurations and lighting conditions under different evacuation scenarios. Simulation data demonstrates that VacateAir can be used to provide reliable and realistic human behaviors for multiple scenarios. Aircraft designers and engineers can use VacateAir during the design process to find optimal cabin configurations by investigating large numbers of evacuation ‘what-if’ scenarios.