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Fatigue life curves of butt joints, transverse stiffeners and sample components with tube-clevis connections, manufactured by active gas metal arc welding (GMAW) of S960QL, S960M and S1100QL high-strength steels, show a linear extension into the low cycle fatigue (LCF) regime with a constant slope up to the yield strength of the material. An extended S-N design curve based on fatigue class FAT 160 (k = 5) gives conservative results for high quality butt welds below the ultimate tensile strength. In comparison to high frequency hammer peening and grinding, TIG dressing of S1100QL butt joints is most favorable for the increase of fatigue life. The effective notch stress approach with rref = 1.00 mm and measured radii of post treated welds leads to a reliable fatigue assessment up to at least N = 5 BL 103 cycles to failure, which confirms FAT 225. The stress averaging approach using the microstructural support increases the assessment quality. A similar assessment reliability for damage parameter Wöhler lines, derived from elastic-plastic FE-analysis, is achieved, if support effects are considered.

Background:Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) with an inadequate response to TNF antagonists (aTNFs) may switch to an alternative aTNF or start treatment from a different class of drugs, such as rituximab (RTX). It remains unclear in which clinical settings these therapeutic strategies offer most benefit.Objective:To analyse the effectiveness of RTX versus alternative aTNFs on RA disease activity in different subgroups of patients.Methods:A prospective cohort study of patients with RA who discontinued at least one aTNF and subsequently received either RTX or an alternative aTNF, nested within the Swiss RA registry (SCQM-RA) was carried out. The primary outcome, longitudinal improvement in 28-joint count Disease Activity Score (DAS28), was analysed using multivariate regression models for longitudinal data and adjusted for potential confounders.Results:Of the 318 patients with RA included; 155 received RTX and 163 received an alternative aTNF. The relative benefit of RTX varied with the type of prior aTNF failure: when the motive for switching was ineffectiveness to previous aTNFs, the longitudinal improvement in DAS28 was significantly better with RTX than with an alternative aTNF (p = 0.03; at 6 months, −1.34 (95% CI −1.54 to −1.15) vs −0.93 (95% CI −1.28 to −0.59), respectively). When the motive for switching was other causes, the longitudinal improvement in DAS28 was similar for RTX and alternative aTNFs (p = 0.40). These results were not significantly modified by the number of previous aTNF failures, the type of aTNF switches, or the presence of co-treatment with a disease-modifying antirheumatic drug.Conclusion:This observational study suggests that in patients with RA who have stopped a previous aTNF treatment because of ineffectiveness changing to RTX is more effective than switching to an alternative aTNF.

Deterioration of historic building materials has become more and more important since climate change has worsened the natural decay and the impact of atmospheric pollution. On the basis of these premises, the three-year European Collaborative Project NANOMATCH addresses this issue through the development of innovative consolidants specifically designed to meet the requirements of the historic building substrates, especially focusing on stone, wall paintings, wood and glass, and integrated in high performance products to renovate the market dedicated to the conservation of the built heritage.

As joint, combined and Civil-Military exercises are becoming increasingly common, the need for security in collective mission simulation is growing. SISO has developed the Distributed Simulation Engineering and Execution Process (DSEEP) standard that provides a recommended process for development, integration and execution of federated simulations. Security aspects need to be managed throughout the DSEEP process. This paper offers three perspectives on this, based on the NATO MSG-080 work: • A holistic approach, mapped to DSEEP, is presented. It discusses how training goals and security goals may conflict. It discusses possible resolutions as well as situations where security concerns may limit the training that can be provided. • A real-life use case where a UK integration into the US Joint Training and Experimentation Network (JTEN), including security aspects, is mapped to DSEEP. This provides a deeper insight into the issues real federations may encounter and presents experiences and some advice. • Finally a closer look at security and DSEEP is given. The focus is to support the selection and deployment of security procedures and technical security measures with focus on DSEEP step three and four. These perspectives are presented as input to the SISO community in general and the SISO Security in Simulation (SiS) study group in particular.

A number of approaches are currently in use to allow limited sharing of data between simulations running at different native classification levels, but each have their associated issues which prevent full interoperability. This presents users and accreditors alike with a unique set of challenges. Building on the work presented to recent SIWs by NATO MSG 080 (Security in Collective Mission Simulation) the Security in Simulation Standing Study Group has been considering the role standards might play in making progress towards a Cross Domain Solution. This presentation summarises the work of the SSG showing how it has built on past papers and the work of NATO MSG-080 to identify where standards might contribute to - if not a full Cross Domain Solution - at least to making progress in this area. The SSG members propose to draw on national use cases to create a set of guidelines for best practice, to create a taxonomy of terms commonly in use and to create a Security overlay for DSEEP. The paper will examine some of the use cases to consider how they might be applied across the various approaches, where they highlight common challenges and what this might mean for the proposed product nomination. SISO cannot expect to influence the policies and processes of individual nations, but engagement with their accreditors is an important factor and it is hoped this paper will provide sufficient material to stimulate engagement and obtain their buy-in.

E.ON Sverige is planning for a 200 MWgas bio­SNG (1,6 TWh/year) plant in southern Sweden based on thermal gasification of forest residues and other biomasses. The project is called Bio2G and has been developed during the past five years. Bio­SNG (biomethane) is a unique product which has a great potential on all fuel markets. It can be used as a transport fuel, for combined heat & power production, for domestic heating purposes as well as for industrial feedstock. It is fully compatible with natural gas and can be distributed by the same existing infrastructure. A project like Bio2G may even create the security of supply needed for the current natural gas supply which in Sweden is based on a single connection from Denmark. Bio­SNG may also be produced in liquefied state, LBG, and transported and sold in the same way as Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG).The location of the plant is not finally decided but an Environmental Impact Assessment has been performed for two alternative sites in the harbours of Landskrona and Malmö. The project has developed through pre­studies, conceptual studies and finally a pre­FEED (Front End Engineering and Design) for the plant and is now ready to submit the Environmental Permit application and start the final FEED and procurement phase. Start of operation is targeted to 2018. The time schedule is highly dependent on the market development for renewable transportation fuels that in turn is strongly dependant on political initiatives. In July 2012, the Swedish Government launched a public investigation which will propose the way forward and measures in order to achieve 10% renewable fuels in the Swedish transportation sector by 2020, an independence of fossil transportation fuels by 2030 and the more visionary target to have climate neutral transports by 2050. This work will be reported by the end of this year.The plant is designed for a production of 200 MWgas (1,6 TWh/year) gaseous and liquid bio­SNG, 16­24 MWe and up to 60 MWheat of district heating. The fuel supply is estimated to 345 MWth biomass, mainly forest residues, which corresponds to about one million tonnes wood chips per year. About 250 000 m2 land will be required for the process plant and the fuel yard and the fuel will be transported by trucks, trains and ships. The fuel will be dried before it is fed in to the pressurized fluidized bed gasifier (10bar/850°C) and converted into a product gas, which is cleaned from particulates and gaseous contaminants. Oxygen/steam will be used as gasification agent in order to minimise the content of nitrogen in the final product and an air separation unit will be included in the plant. The tar content in the gas is reduced in a catalytic reformer and the gas is further conditioned to clean synthesis gas before compression and methanation. Acid gases as H2S and CO2 are removed upstream the methanation and remaining CO2 and water are removed downstream the methanation. Finally, the bio­SNG is compressed to the required pressure of the existing natural gas transportation grid. The Bio2G plant will be the first of its kind, a reference plant, and in the future, thermal gasification of ligno­cellulosic fuels and methanation will offer bio­SNG yields in excess of 65%. The pre­FEED constituting a complete design as well as supporting test activities has been performed in close collaboration between E.ON Gasification Development AB, Carbona OY, Finland, a subsidiary to the Andritz Group and Haldor Topsoe A/S, Denmark., Proceedings of the 21st European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 3-7 June 2013, Copenhagen, Denmark, pp. 1597-1600

We introduce the framework of algebraic type systems, a generalisation of pure type systems with higher order rewriting a la Jouannaud-Okada, and initiate a generic study of the modular properties of these systems. We give a general criterion for one system of this framework to be strongly normalising. As an application of our criterion, we recover all previous strong normalisation results for algebraic type systems.

We never fight alone, so we should train together! With missions being joint and combined, we also need to train that way. Given limited budgets and available resources, distributed simulation is rapidly becoming a necessity for collective mission training. However, due to the characteristics of mission simulations the protection of classified information (e.g. scenarios, weapon and sensor capabilities or doctrines) becomes a serious security challenge. As part of the NATO RTO program a new modelling and simulation working group has been formed in 2010, MSG-080, to look at this topic. Members include Sweden, UK, Estonia, the Netherlands, Norway and the USA. This paper describes in detail the security challenges which we face and analyses the technical characteristics of simulators in relation to the information that needs to be protected. Based on these findings the effectiveness of different identified security solutions to the security challenges at hand can be further explored. Security solutions which are considered include data diodes, cross domain solutions (labelling and release mechanisms) and Multi-Level Security. The challenge is to prevent information leakage without compromising the primary training objectives. By approaching the stated security challenges in an integral manner we aim to find solutions which can provide adequate performance and which are also acceptable for accreditation authorities.

The Generic Methodology for Verification and Validation (GM-VV) is a generic methodology for VV&A to justify the acceptability of models, simulation, underlying data and results for an intended use. This methodology is currently in the processes of standardization within the SISO. The GM-VV attains its genericness from a framework approach, instead of trying to cover or merge all possible and existing VV&A methods into a single “one-size-fits-all” VV&A method implementation. This means that the GM-VV is not prescriptive in nature, nor directly tied to any specific M&S application domain, standard, technology, organization or other distinctive M&S context related implementation details for VV&A. The GM-VV’s technical framework provides common semantics, concepts and tailorable building blocks for VV&A, which aims to facilitate communication, understanding and implementation of VV&A across and between such different M&S contexts. Moreover, this framework also provides the tailoring principles and guidance to cost-efficiently develop and apply VV&A method instantiations from its technical framework, which support the individual M&S organization, project, technology or application domain needs and constrains. This paper demonstrates how the existing VV&A overlay to the FEDEP can be derived from the GM-VV. The illustration shows the mapping between the VV&A overlay terminology, definitions and concepts, and the generic ones provided by the GM-VV technical framework. The presented detailed mappings of the VV&A overlay roles, processes and products onto the GM-VV generic building blocks illustrates the tailoring of the GM-VV towards a VV&A method instance that fits a specific M&S technology (i.e. FEDEP). As such the paper provides readers with an educational example to help understand the GM-VV purpose, usage and relationship to other VV&A standards.