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Serious wear phenomena occur in mining machinery under complex working conditions, and the wear of machine parts is primarily caused by the synergistic effect of adhesive wear, abrasive wear, corrosive wear, etc. However, the existing friction and wear testing equipment cannot be used to carry out wear tests under complex working conditions. To simultaneously meet the test requirements of adhesive wear, abrasive wear, and corrosive wear, a novel sliding friction and wear tester that can simulate complex working conditions was developed in the present research. The tester is composed of a loading mechanism, a speed-regulating mechanism, a corrosion chamber, and a control and display system. Wear tests of the middle plate of a scraper conveyor, a key equipment of coal mining, were carried out to verify the consistency and effectiveness of the tester. The test results were consistent, and those under the same test conditions were similar with a maximum standard deviation of 2.4 mg. The wear condition of the middle plate specimens was close to the actual wear condition of the middle plate. Moreover, the surfaces of the middle plate specimens after grinding exhibited obvious adhesive, abrasive, and corrosive wear characteristics, and the wear degrees of the specimens under the same test conditions were similar. The quality loss of the middle plate specimens was found to increase with the increase of coal gangue percentage, and the main wear mechanism was the synergistic action of abrasive, adhesive, and corrosive wear.

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease that threatens >10 million people annually. Despite advances in TB diagnostics, patients continue to receive an insufficient diagnosis as TB symptoms are not specific. Many existing biodiagnostic tests are slow, have low clinical performance, and can be unsuitable for resource‐limited settings. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a rapid, sputum‐free, and cost‐effective triage test for real‐time detection of TB is urgently needed. This article reports on a new diagnostic pathway enabling a noninvasive, fast, and highly accurate way of detecting TB. The approach relies on TB‐specific volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that are detected and quantified from the skin headspace. A specifically designed nanomaterial‐based sensors array translates these findings into a point‐of‐care diagnosis by discriminating between active pulmonary TB patients and controls with sensitivity above 90%. This fulfills the WHO's triage test requirements and poses the potential to become a TB triage test., A noninvasive method for tuberculosis (TB) detection from skin is introduced in this paper. The method harnesses nanomaterial‐based sensors that are sensitive to patterns of volatile biomarkers that are linked with the illness. The results present TB‐related changes in the pattern with above 90% sensitivity detecting active TB patients with the sensors, demonstrating the potential to evolve into a new TB triage test.

The actual road diesel emissions of heavy-duty vehicle is very high, which has been a concern around the world. In 2018, Chinese government promulgated the "China VI" regulations containing real-driving emission test requirements and limits, requiring vehicle manufacturers to effectively control vehicle emissions to meet the requirements of China VI. This article takes a heavy-duty tractor equipped with a "China VI" engine as the research object, and performs actual road emission tests after loading 10%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% respectively. The results show that NOx emissions are higher at low loads and PN emissions are higher at high loads, and CO emissions are not sensitive to load changes.

The buried oil and gas pipeline is a linear structure with infinite length. In the shaking table test of its seismic response, it is necessary to input the spatially related multipoint seismic wave considering the propagation characteristics of ground motion. The multipoint seismic excitation shaking table tests and loading scheme of buried oil and gas pipelines are designed and formulated. The synthesis method of spatial correlation multipoint seismic wave for the buried oil and gas pipeline test is proposed in this study. The values of relevant parameters are analyzed, and corresponding program is compiled by MATLAB. The results show that the developed multipoint excitation shaking table seismic wave input scheme is reasonable. At the same time, the synthesized multipoint seismic wave based on the actual seismic record and artificial random simulation seismic wave can meet the test requirements, which suggests the testing effect is good.

International audience; Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) substantially cost society as a result of increases in disease and disability but—unlike other toxicant classes such as carcinogens—have yet to be codified into regulations as a hazard category. This Series paper examines economic, regulatory, and policy approaches to limit human EDC exposures and describes potential improvements. In the EU, general principles for EDCs call for minimisation of human exposure, identification as substances of very high concern, and ban on use in pesticides. In the USA, screening and testing programmes are focused on oestrogenic EDCs exclusively, and regulation is strictly risk-based. Minimisation of human exposure is unlikely without a clear overarching definition for EDCs and relevant pre-marketing test requirements. We call for a multifaceted international programme (eg, modelled on the International Agency for Research in Cancer) to address the effects of EDCs on human health—an approach that would proactively identify hazards for subsequent regulation.

ARIMA uses present and past values as the dependent variable. The accuracy of the ARIMA forecasting method results is good to be used to obtain short-term forecasts. Compared to other time series methods, the advantage of ARIMA method is that it can be used in the percentage of unmet needs data in East Java Province since ARIMA method does not require any specific data motives. Unmet need is a group of women who do not want to have any more children or want to minimize their pregnancy but refuse to use contraception to prevent pregnancy. This study aims to determine the percentage of unmet needs in East Java Province in the future. This study will analyze the value of forecasting and determine the best model for ARIMA. The data used is the monthly data of unmet needs percentage of East Java Province starting from January 2014 to April 2019 (64 data plots). The results showed that the percentage of the number of unmet needs in East Java Province can be predicted using ARIMA model (12,1,0) without constant. The model is based on ARIMA (12,1,0) diagnostic test without constant meeting all the test requirements. The results of forecasting held a MAPE value of 2.369% and MAE of 0.26%. Based on MAPE and MAE, the model has a very good forecasting ability with a fairly small error value. Forecasting results indicated fluctuations in unmet needs data, where from December 2019 to February 2020 there was an increase in number of unmet needs in East Java Province. In the interim, starting in March 2020, the data needs in East Java Province tend to be constant at a higher position than the previous increase.

Test case is an important basis for correctness and safety verification of Chinese Train Control System (CTCS). Focusing on the test cases generation method of UPPAAL which is widely used in CTCS testing activity, the problems are analyzed, and an improved test cases generation method for CTCS is proposed. First, the process and characteristics of UPPAAL test cases generation method are analyzed; then the test requirements of CTCS are studied, and a test cases generation method based on UPPAAL query file is proposed. Finally, taking the level transition function of CTCS as an example, test cases are generated by the proposed method, which shows that this method can meet the test requirements of CTCS.

Context: Regression testing is an important activity that allows ensuring the correct behavior of a system after changes. As the system grows, the time and resources to perform regression testing increase. Test Suite Reduction (TSR) approaches aim to speed up regression testing by removing obsolete or redundant test cases. These approaches can be classified as adequate or inadequate. Adequate TSR approaches reduce test suites and completely preserve test requirements (e.g., covered statements) of the original test suites. Inadequate TSR approaches do not preserve test requirements. The percentage of satisfied test requirements indicates the inadequacy level. Objective: We compare some state-of-the-art adequate and inadequate TSR approaches with respect to the size of reduced test suites and their fault-detection capability. We aim to increase our body of knowledge on TSR approaches by comparing: (i) well-known traditional adequate TSR approaches; (ii) their inadequate variants; and (iii) several variants of a novel Clustering-Based (CB) approach for (adequate and inadequate) TSR. Method: We conducted an experiment to compare adequate and inadequate TSR approaches. This comparison is founded on a public dataset containing information on real faults. Results: The most important findings from our experiment can be summarized as follows: (i) there is not an inadequate TSR approach that outperforms the others; (ii) some inadequate variants of the CB approach, and few traditional inadequate approaches, outperform the adequate ones in terms of reduction in test suite size with a negligible effect on fault-detection capability; and (iii) the CB approach is less sensitive than the other inadequate approaches, that is, variations in the inadequacy level have small effect on reduction in test suite size and on loss in fault-detection capability. Conclusions: These findings imply that inadequate TSR approaches and especially the CB approach might be appealing because they lead to a greater reduction in test suite size (with respect to the adequate ones) at the expense of a small loss in fault-detection capability.

This chapter discusses cost modeling for 2.5D/3D‐stacked integrated circuits (2.5D/3D‐SICs) and presents a tool that considers all costs involved in the whole production chain, including design, manufacturing, test, packaging, and logistics. The tool provides the estimated overall cost for 2.5D/3D‐SICs and its cost breakdown for a given input parameter set consisting of test flows, die yield, stack yield, etc. The chapter defines test flows and highlights the importance of testing. In order to determine the most cost‐effective test flow, test requirements should be specified. However, taking only the test cost into consideration is not sufficient to provide a fair evaluation and/or comparison; a test flow does not only impact test cost but also design and manufacturing cost. The chapter defines and classifies the different costs involved in designing and manufacturing 2.5D/3D‐SICs. It also presents the 3D‐COSTAR cost model. It shows the crucial importance of 3D‐COSTAR by analyzing trade‐offs for several test optimization problems.

The paper contains exhaust emission results for an RDE test drive of a passenger vehicle with a spark ignition bi-fuel engine fuelled with LPG. The tests were performed in accordance with the RDE test requirements, and their results were compared to the emission limits of the applicable EURO norm. The aim of the paper is to investigate the discrepancies in the real exhaust emissions between the gasoline-specific emission norms and real values from vehicle use when powered by LPG.

Lazy and helpless, indifferent and standing against teachers is part of the learning problems of students. The problem tendency not all students can complete in itself. Teachers contribute to help solve the problems faced by students, the teacher's role is needed by learners, the diagnosis aims to determine where lies the learning difficulties faced by the students as well as to find solutions. If the students' learning difficulties is allowed, then the learning objectives will not be achieved well. To overcome these difficulties, the students need help, both in digesting the teaching materials as well as in overcoming other barriers. Students' learning difficulties should be identified and can be addressed as early as possible, so that the instructional goals can be achieved with good. It is necessary to diagnosis of the implementation of this diagnosis helps students to acquire maximum learning results. To conduct the diagnosis of learning difficulties must be taken several phases of activities such as 1) Identify students who are expected to have learning difficulties; 2) localizes learning difficulties; 3) Determine the factors that cause learning difficulties; 4) Estimate of alternative aid; 5) Establish the possibility of how to overcome them; and 6) Follow-up. The diagnosis of learning difficulties do with the testing techniques and nontes. The technique can be used by teachers to diagnose learning difficulties, among others: the test requirements (prerequisite knowledge, skill prerequisites), diagnostic tests, interviews and observations.

Case study projects based on Digitally Fabricated Concrete (DFC) are presented in an increasing pace around the globe. Generally, though, it is not reported what structural requirements (if any) these structures meet and how compliance to these requirements was established. Published material research is often not connected to the presented case studies, and even when it is, it is not necessarily obvious their small scale results can be applied to full scale structures as some scale effects should be anticipated. Caution is required as DFC related material tests are still under development and scale effects in DFC have hardly been studied. Therefore, it is recommendable to perform large scale testing, in the range of 1:5 to 1:1, if DFC is applied to actual use structures. This paper presents such testing for two projects, a pavilion in Denmark (not realized) and a bridge in the Netherlands (realized). In both cases, elements printed with the 3D Concrete Printing facility of the Eindhoven University of Technology were intended for actual load bearing performance. The conservative designs past the test requirements, but nevertheless some important findings with regard to element manufacturing and structural behaviour were experienced. It is concluded that large scale testing remains advisable for DFC structures as long as not all relevant aspects of the technology are quantitatively understood, at least when new concepts are being applied.

Objective: We studied how representative cytologically abnormal women (“referral populations”) are with respect to uncovering differences between human papillomavirus (HPV) assays in the primary screening where most women are cytologically normal. Methods: A total of 4997 women were tested with SurePath® cytology, and Hybrid Capture 2 (HC2), cobas, CLART and APTIMA HPV assays. Women with positive test results were offered a follow-up. For all detected HPV infections and HPV-positive high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (≥CIN2), we studied the distributions of assay-specific signal strengths in the baseline samples as documented by the assays’ automatically generated reports. We calculated the likelihood of test result discordance as the proportion of HPV-positive samples that were not confirmed by all four assays. Results: Median signal strengths for HPV infections were weaker in normal than abnormal cytology (P

The Influence of Activity Quality Teacher Organization toward Economic Teachers Profesionalism at Public Senior High School in Jakarta.This research conducted to describe the activity quality teacher organization toward economic teachers profesionalism at public senior high school in Jakarta. This research was conducted during two months from May to June 2012. This research used survey method with the corelational approach. The observation using 20% from reach population to become sample. Data recording questionnaire are research technique. Before use, test the validity of the constructs (constructs validity) through a validation process is the calculation of correlation coefficient score points with the total score and the test of reliability with Cronbach alpha formula. Results instrument reliability variable X (Activity Quality teacher organization) of 0.919, while for variable Y ( teacher profesionalism) of 0.860. test requirements analysis is to find the regression equation obtained was Ŷ = 49.13 + 0.558 X. result of normality test resulted liliefors Laccount= 0.128 while for n=30, at the level of significance (α = 0.05) is 0.161. Because LaccountFtable (4.12) which means significant regression equation. Linierity test F values of regression produce Faccount (-0.47) ttable (1.70). the result of product moment correlation coefficient quality teacher organization have positive and significant influence on the teacher profesionalism at public senior high school in Jakarta.Keyword : Activity quality teacher organization, teacher profesionalismshows tha the activity

This study demonstrates that both the clinical sensitivity and specificity of the Cervista HPV HR test for high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) detection are not inferior to those of the Hybrid Capture 2 (HC2) test. The intra- and interlaboratory reproducibilities of Cervista were 92.0% (kappa, 0.83) and 90.4% (kappa, 0.80), respectively. The Cervista HPV HR test fulfills all the international HPV test requirements for cervical primary screening purposes.

Introduction The aim was to assess the performance of two commercial assays for the detection of high-risk human papillomavirus (hrHPV): Aptima HPV Assay (Hologic, Inc., Marlborough, MA, USA) which detects mRNA of 14 different hrHPV types, and Hybrid Capture 2 HPV DNA test (HC2; Qiagen, Gaithersburg, MD, USA), which detects the DNA of 13 different hrHPV types. Test performance was compared in the settings of a standard colposcopy clinic, among the regular patient flow. Material and methods Two separate cervical cell samples for Aptima and HC2 testing were collected from women referred to colposcopy or a cervical follow-up visit. Altogether, 481 paired samples were analyzed and all positive samples were also tested using the Aptima HPV 16 18/45 Genotype Assay. Results from the two assays were compared directly and with stratification by histology and cytology from the same sampling visit. Results The overall agreement between HC2 and Aptima assays was 92.9% (Kappa coefficient of 0.855). The sensitivity and specificity of the assays in detecting CIN2+ were 92.5 and 58.2% for HC2, and 94.0 and 59.3% for Aptima, respectively. No significant differences between the assays were found (p-values >0.5). Both assays detected all CIN3 (n = 30) and carcinoma (n = 2) cases. Conclusions The mRNA-based Aptima assay and the extensively studied DNA-based HC2 test performed equally well in detecting high-grade cervical lesions. Our data contribute to the growing evidence base indicating that the mRNA-based Aptima assay could be used for the triage of patients with HPV-associated cervical disease.

Background Anyplex™ II HPV HR Detection (Seegene, Seoul, Korea) is a multiplex real-time PCR using tagging oligonucleotide cleavage and extension (TOCE) technology for simultaneous detection and genotyping of 14 high-risk (HR) HPV types, including HPV16 and HPV18. Objectives To evaluate whether the clinical performance and reproducibility of Anyplex™ II HPV HR Detection meet the international consensus guidelines for HPV test requirements for cervical cancer screening [1]. Study design The clinical performance of Anyplex™ II HPV HR Detection for detecting cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 2 or worse (CIN2+) was determined relative to that of the reference assay, i.e., HR HPV GP5+/6+-PCR-EIA, by analysis of a total of 879 cervical liquid based cytology (LBC) specimens from a screening population, of which 60 were from women with CIN2+. The intra-laboratory reproducibility and inter-laboratory agreement were determined on 509 LBC samples, of which 172 were positive by the reference assay. Results Anyplex™ II HPV HR Detection showed a clinical sensitivity for CIN2+ of 98.3% (59/60; 95% CI: 89.1–99.8) and a clinical specificity for CIN2+ of 93.6% (764/816; 95% CI: 89.8–96.1). The clinical sensitivity and specificity were non-inferior to those of HR HPV GP5+/6+-PCR-EIA (non-inferiority score test: P = 0.005 and P = 0.023, respectively). Both intra-laboratory reproducibility (96.8%; 95% CI: 95.3–98.1; kappa value of 0.93) and inter-laboratory agreement (96.0%; 95% CI: 94.3–97.4; kappa value of 0.91) were high. Conclusions Anyplex™ II HPV HR Detection performs clinically non-inferior to HR HPV GP5+/6+-PCR-EIA. Anyplex™ II HPV HR Detection complies with international consensus validation metrics for HPV DNA tests for cervical cancer screening [1].

The Alphasat satellite was launched on 25 July 2013. The Aldo Paraboni technology demonstration payload, funded by ASI under ESA's ARTES Programme, was embarked as an hosted payload on Alphasat. This Technology Demonstration Payload (identified as TDP5 and recently renamed “Aldo Paraboni”) was implemented under an ESA contract awarded in co-contractorship to Space Engineering and Thales Alenia Space Italia (TAS-I) which conceived the experimental mission and industrialised the subsystems. The Aldo mission is composed of two main elements: a Communication Experiment mission, which aims at assessing the performance of communication links at Q/V Bands; and a Scientific Experiment mission implemented through two beacons at Ka and Q Bands, which aims at characterizing propagation phenomena at these frequencies. During the In Orbit Test campaign of the above two mission components, TDP5 demonstrated compliance to the requirements and the nominal conditions of the Payload. The main topics of this paper are the description of the In Orbit Test requirements and the discussion of tests results. The good health of the Payload is demonstrated by the agreement of the results with the predictions that were calculated on the basis of the results of the on ground test campaign. The Commissioning and IOT campaign of Aldo Paraboni was performed over 3 distinct sessions: • Commissioning: 17–18 September 2013 • IOT Part 1: 10–18 October 2013 • IOT Part 2: 4–8 November 2013 This work is only related to the verification of the performance of the space segment, the Q/V-Band Payload, also referred to as the TDP5. TDP5 stands for Technical Demonstrator Payload #5 and it is formally the 5th experimental (i.e. technological demonstrator) hosted payload of the Alphasat programme.

From a clinical point of view, testing for a broad spectrum of high-risk human papillomavirus (hrHPV) is only useful when a positive hrHPV test result is informative about the presence of high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia or cervical cancer (CIN 2 or worse). Two hrHPV tests, i.e. HC2 and GP5+/6+, have shown in large clinical trials that they perform better in the detection of CIN 2+/CIN 3+ lesions than cytology and thus have been clinically validated. Consequently these tests are now considered as alternative screening tools for cytology in cervical screening. Candidate hrHPV tests to be used for cervical screening should have a similar balance between sensitivity and specificity for CIN 2+ lesions as these two clinically validated hrHPV tests in order to prevent redundant or excessive follow-up procedures for women with transient hrHPV infections or hrHPV-positive women without cervical lesions. The data from these large prospective clinical studies can be used to set standards for the clinical performance and characteristics of the candidate hrHPV test. To prevent costly validation trajects of candidate hrHPV tests and based on the available data from large clinical studies we demonstrate how guidelines for hrHPV test requirements and guidelines for clinical validation of candidate hrHPV tests have been developed, and how these guidelines should be used in cervical screening. It is expected that the use of these guidelines will facilitate implementation of hrHPV testing in primary cervical screening.

Conference Code:112251; International audience; In software testing, coverage criteria specify the requirements to be covered by the test cases. However, in practice such criteria are limited due to the well-known infeasibility problem, which concerns elements/requirements that cannot be covered by any test case. To deal with this issue we revisit and improve state-of-the-art static analysis techniques, such as Value Analysis and Weakest Precondition calculus. We propose a lightweight greybox scheme for combining these two techniques in a complementary way. In particular we focus on detecting infeasible test requirements in an automatic and sound way for condition coverage, multiple condition coverage and weak mutation testing criteria. Experimental results show that our method is capable of detecting almost all the infeasible test requirements, 95% on average, in a reasonable amount of time, i.e., less than 40 seconds, making it practical for unit testing.

Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) is endemic in the bovine populations of many countries and can cause a significant reduction in animal welfare and production efficiency making control desirable. Effective control has proved very difficult to achieve despite multiple regionally coordinated programmes being in existence since the 1920s. The international community increasingly recognises the value in learning from the collective experiences of existing programmes to improve the effectiveness of control. The aim of this review is to outline key aspects of bovine Johne's disease control activities across 6 endemically infected countries to facilitate comparison of current international practice. The background, control activities and monitoring components of programmes in Australia, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States of America were individually reviewed. Factual accuracy of each review was checked by individuals involved in the respective programmes before the reviews were condensed and combined into a single document presented here, with the complete reviews of each programme available as supplementary material. There was considerable heterogeneity in key aspects of control activity design including goals, responses to declining participation, herd classification, recommended control measures and associated test requirements. The data presented will be of interest to organisations that are involved in developing new or existing regionally coordinated BJD control activities. Animal Health Ireland

Symbolic execution has been used in software testing as a effective technique to automatically generate test data. Most of approaches are based only on control-flow criteria and generate input data only for a whole program or function. However, testers may want to generate test data for covering data-flow criteria and also for satisfying specific test requirements. This paper presents an approach for generating test data to cover only test requirements selected by users, considering both control- and data-flow criteria. A prototype was implemented to support test data generation for Java programs and to perform a preliminary evaluation of the approach. The results, although in a limited context, are encouraging and motivate future experiments.

We present case studies which show how the paradigm of learning-based testing (LBT) can be successfully applied to black-box requirements testing of industrial reactive systems. For this, we apply a new testing tool LBTest, which combines algorithms for incremental black-box learning of Kripke structures with model checking technology. We show how test requirements can be modeled in propositional linear temporal logic extended by finite data types.We then provide benchmark performance results for LBTest applied to three industrial case studies. QC 20140320

Creep-fatigue data of low allow steels were compiled from international sources, and trends in creep-fatigue behavior were identified in Paper I. This paper reviews the methods of creep-fatigue life prediction that were assessed from the compiled data. The methods reviewed in this paper are phenomenological in nature. However, an empirical method has also been discussed which offers very high reliability of the prediction capability. Various test requirements, from which material parameters are determined for each method, have been tabulated. No single method has been generalized as a best method of life prediction for all types of creep-fatigue test conditions

The standard IEC 60060-1:2010 "High-Voltage Test Techniques - Part 1: General definitions and test requirements" defines a parameter called "time to peak". In addition it describes a method for evaluating the time to peak of switching-impulses. This method suffers from two problems. Firstly, the method is only to be applied to so-called standard switching-impulses. That is impulses essentially equivalent to two super-imposed exponential curves. Secondly, the results given by the method only agree with the definition for standard switching-impulses that have certain combinations of rise times and fall times. This paper proposes an alternative, more general and robust method for determining the time to peak.

Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are used to specify the negotiated conditions between the provider and the consumer of services. In this paper we present a stepwise method to identify and categorize a set of test requirements that represent the potential situations that can be exercised regarding the specification of each isolated guarantee term of an SLA. This identification is addressed by means of devising a set of coverage levels that allow grading the thoroughness of the tests. The utilization of these test requirements would focus on twofold objectives: (1) the generation of a test suite that allows exercising the situations described in the test requirements and (2) the support for the derivation of a monitoring plan that checks the compliance of these requirements at runtime. The approach is illustrated over an eHealth case study.

In September 2007, a Plasma Wind Tunnel (PWT) Test was performed in the CIRA SCIROCCO facility on the FLPP Snecma Propulsion Solide (SPS) Thermal Protection System (TPS) demonstrator (Barreteau et al., 2008). Aim of the test was to verify, in a space qualifying environment, the behaviour of a large assembly constituted by Ceramic Matrix Composite (CMC) shingles, one curved and two flat panels, the same elements which will be part of the next ESA Intermediate Experimental Vehicle (IXV) thermal protection system. The focus of this chapter is the description of the CFD activities carried out in order to realize and support the plasma wind tunnel test, both in the phase of test definition and for the post test analysis. During the pre-test CFD activity the test condition, previously defined by a simplified two dimensional methodology (Rufolo et al., 2008), has been verified by means of three dimensional simulations, and the final PWT test condition has been defined. Then, the posttest CFD rebuilding activity has allowed the analysis of results and the comparison with experimental measurements. In addition, an assessment of the uncertainty level related to the satisfaction of the test requirements, in terms of heat flux and pressure to be realized over the test article, has been provided by analyzing the sources of error linked to both design and testing phases.

This report aims to facilitate the implementation of the Three Rs (reduction, refinement and replacement) in the testing of vaccines for regulatory and other purposes. The focus is predominantly on identification of reduction and refinement opportunities in batch potency testing but the principles described are widely applicable to other situations that involve experimental infections of animals. The report should also help to interpret the requirements of the European Pharmacopoeia with regard to the use of alternative tests, humane endpoints and other refinements. Two specific worked examples, for batch potency testing of Clostridium chauvoei and canine leptospira, with recommendations for harmonisation of international test requirements for these and other vaccines, are provided as appendices online.

In the present work, a second throat ejector using nitrogen as the primary fluid is considered for the creation of a low vacuum in a high-altitude testing facility for large-area-ratio rocket motors. Detailed numerical investigations have been carried out to evaluate the performance of the ejector for various operational conditions and geometric parameters during the nonpumping and pumping modesof operation.In the nonpumping mode, the lowest vacuum chamber pressure is attained when the primary jet just expands up to the mixer throat and the resulting single shock cell seals the throat against any backflow. The study illustrates how each geometric and operational parameter of the ejector can be optimized to meet the test requirements in a high-altitude testing facility by ensuring that the primary jet completely expands without a strong impact on the duct wall. When the rocket motor is fully started, due to the self-pumping action, the required vacuum is almost maintained by the exhaust flow itself and the external nitrogen ejector plays only a supplementary role. Numerical predictions for both nonpumping and pumping modes of operation have been validated with experimental data obtained from a scaled-down model of a high-altitude testing facility.

New electronic architectures and mechatronic integration in automotive and oil-field applications lead to increasing requirements concerning operating temperatures and vibration levels. At the same time, reliability and lifetime have to fulfil strong demands. In the European funded project PROCURE (Program for the development of passive devices used in rough environments) a generic spectrum of passive components needed for electronic control units has been developed. The failure mechanisms, the technological challenges, and the test requirements are highlighted below.

A flexible embedded test solution for high-speed analogue front-end subsystems is presented. A novel concept of a flexible test solution that addresses virtual component test requirements in particular is introduced. The integration and application of the non-invasive digital test solution is demonstrated for a representative design. Its area overhead is assessed for different depths in on-chip test evaluation.

The European Enhanced Vehicle-safety Committee (EEVC/WG10 and WG17) proposed three component subsystem tests for cars to assess pedestrian protection. The objective of this study is to develop computer simulation models of the EEVC pedestrian subsystem tests. These models are available to develop a car confirming the pedestrian subsystem test requirements. The pedestrian subsystem test models were developed and validated in this study. However, some improvements are still needed in these models to make them more reliable in simulating the pedestrian subsystem tests to develop a car confirming to the tests requirements

Recently, several manufacturers have proposed and developed prototypes of high-voltage direct current (HVDC) circuit breakers (CBs) based on various dc current interruption principles. However, due to a lack of operational experience with this type of equipment, no clearly defined requirements that these new developments should satisfy exist. To define and refine justified test requirements, a thorough understanding of the interactions between the internal components of the HVDC CBs and the stresses on these components is necessary. For this purpose, an experimental dc CB based on the active current injection technique is setup in a high-power laboratory. The contribution of this paper focuses on the performance of vacuum interrupters (VIs) for dc CB application. The performances of three different VIs, designed for ac application, are investigated. About 200 tests, under different test conditions, have been conducted in which up to 850 current zero crossings (CZCs) are created. The test results are analyzed and presented in detail along with statistical information obtained from the analysis of the measured parameters. The test results serve to identify the critical stages of current interruption process that need to be demonstrated during typical current interruption tests of HVDC CBs. It is found that the three types of VIs behave very differently; the rate-of-change of current near CZCs is not the only key parameter; and successful current interruptions can still be achieved after re-ignitions and re-strikes.