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Vine is produced at least four times a year with the object of providing up‐to‐date news of work being done in the automation of housekeeping processes, principally in the UK. It is produced and substantially written by the Editor who is based at the Polytechnic of Central London and supported by a grant from the British Library Board and opinions expressed in VINE do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the British Library. The subscription for 1984 to VINE is: £23 for UK subscribers, £26 to overseas subscribers (including airmail delivery). Second and subsequent copies to the same address are charged at £14 for UK and £16 for overseas. VINE is available on either paper or microfiche copy and all back issues are available on microfiche.

Existing devices such as robots and machine tools rely on motion generators that have been developed almost entirely from existing technology, e.g. electric motors, hydraulic/pneumatic cylinders. Consequently, modern machines are attempting to perform increasingly complicated tasks by relying on ever more complex computer programs to compensate for the deficiencies of the device actually performing the task. In chemical plants, for example, sophisicated control software is still directing valves designed and built at the inception of the plant process. Similarly, today's factory automation systems are aiming to achieve more and more difficult tasks on the assumption that a suitable “intelligent” computer program will enable existing devices to perform these tasks efficiently.

The prototype model (the implementation of a skeletal system that is enhanced during interaction with users) represents a major change in the software development process. This change is in direct response to higher costs, greater expectations of online systems users, new technologies for development, and the more challenging problems posed by online, interactive systems. The “traditional systems development methodologies tend to evolve toward increasing control and specificity, especially when confronted by higher uncertainty.” In contrast, new methodologies, such as prototyping, exploit the dynamic process of change and variability in both the user and system environments.

This study aims to provide an insight into the relationship between design parameters and thermal performance of plate fin heat sinks (PFHSs) incorporating longitudinal vortex generators (VGs) inside a PFHS channel.

A computational fluid dynamics model of a delta winglet pair VG mounted inside a PFHS geometry is detailed, and the model is validated by comparison with experimental data. The validated model is used to perform a virtual design of experiments study of the heat sink with bottom plate and vertical plate mounted VGs. Data from this study is used to regress a response surface enabling the influence of each of the assessed design variables on thermal performance and flow resistance to be determined.

The results of this study show that the thermal hydraulic performances of a PFHS with bottom plate mounted VG and vertical plate fin mounted VG are, respectively, 1.12 and 1.17 times higher than the baseline PFHS. Further, the performance variation of the heat sink with VG, relative to delta winglet’s arrangement (common flow up and common flow down), trailing edge gap length and Reynolds number were also evaluated and reported.

For the first time, performance characteristics of delta winglet VGs mounted inside the PFHS are evaluated against different design variables and a polynomial regression model is developed. The developed regression model and computed results can be used to design high performance PFHSs mounted with delta winglet VGs.

To provide a general framework for the electromagnetic analysis of axial flux motors and generators.

The procedure is based on the solution of Maxwell's equation in a cylindrical frame. All field sources (permanent magnets, windings) are subdivided into filamentary windings. The expansion of the 2D air‐gap magnetic field into a Fourier series is computed at every radius. The contributions of the harmonics are then added to achieve the expressions of the stator and rotor flux densities, back emf and developed torque. Slotting and skewing are taken into account also.

The model can be written in a compact form by introducing a generalisation of the space vectors theory. The analysis is proved to be in accordance both with the finite element analysis and with experimental data.

The model does not take into account eddy‐currents and non‐linearities. It does not take into account also specifically 3D phenomena, as the radial components of the flux densities.

The analysis is of practical interest from the standpoint both of control and of machine design. In this latter occurrence, it represents a valid alternative over computationally heavier 3D finite elements models.

Although the procedure is partly based on previous analyses, it is original in the way it exploits the basic theory in order to introduce skewing, slotting, and finite length of the iron. With respect to other models introduced so far, the present one is more compact in the end, its parameters can be easily computed and their physical meaning is easily understood.

Enterprise application integration (EAI) aims to integrate various enterprise applications, such as legacy systems, enterprise resource planning systems, and best‐of‐breed business applications, to aid in promoting organizational goals. EAI is a relatively new area of concern for researchers and practitioners and research on its adoption by organizations remain to be examined.

This paper extends prior research by providing a systematic examination of both generic and specific dimensions of facilitators and inhibitors for the adoption of EAI technology. A rigorous validation of these factors was established. A case study was conducted to refine the developed instrument.

The results indicate that EAI adoption is facilitated by generic as well as specific factors to this technology.

Several limitations of the study need to be mentioned at this stage. First, the research design of this study has incorporated only one site to examine and enrich the list of facilitators and inhibitors of EAI adoption. It is not known whether these results would apply to other organizations, other technologies and whether the project size has some influence on the results. More empirical work is needed to increment the developed instrument. The results of this study have three specific implications for future research. First, this study can be replicated to examine the effect of these facilitators on EAI project performance. Second, more research can be conducted to validate dimensions identified in this study. A survey may strengthen the validation process of the developed instrument and the structure of the dimensions and constructs used. Finally, the results of this study and the developed instrument can be applied on other technologies such as web services, etc.

The paper extends King and Teo's list to include EAI‐specific factors. Second, it validates the instrument through the card sorting procedure and a case study. The identified dimensions can be used in future research on EAI adoption. The results have also important managerial implications. Managers who are planning to adopt EAI technology can use the developed instrument to assess systematically the facilitators and inhibitors of this technology in their organizational context.

This study extends and accumulates on Teo's framework for inhibitors and facilitators of IT adoption in the EAI context.

Wind energy has matured to a level of development at which it is ready to become a generally accepted power generation technology. The aim of this paper is to provide a brief review of the state of the art in the area of electrical machines and power‐electronic systems for high‐power wind energy generation applications. As the first part of this paper, latest market penetration, current technology and advanced electrical machines are addressed.

After a short description of the latest market penetration of wind turbines with various topologies globally by the end of 2010 is provided, current wind power technology, including a variety of fixed‐ and variable‐speed (in particular with doubly‐fed induction generator (DFIG) and permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) supplied with partial‐ and full‐power converters, respectively) wind power generation systems, and modern grid codes, is presented. Finally, four advanced electrical‐machine systems, viz., brushless DFIG, open winding PMSG, dual/multi 3‐phase stator‐winding PMSG and magnetic‐gear outer‐rotor PMSG, are identified with their respective merits and challenges for future high‐power wind energy applications.

For the time being, the gear‐drive DFIG‐based wind turbine is significantly dominating the markets despite its defect caused by mechanical gears, slip rings and brush sets. Meanwhile, direct‐drive synchronous generator, especially utilizing permanent magnets on its rotor, supplied with a full‐capacity power converter has become a more effective solution, particularly in high‐power offshore wind farm applications.

This first part of the paper reviews the latest market penetration of wind turbines with a variety of mature topologies, by summarizing their advantages and disadvantages. Four advanced electrical‐machine systems are selected and identified by distinguishing their respective merits and challenges for future high‐power wind energy applications.

This purpose of this paper is to present ISML-MDE, a model-driven environment that includes ISML, a platform-independent modeling language for enterprise applications; ISML-GEN, a code generation framework to automatically generate code from models; and LionWizard, a tool to automatically integrate different components into a unified codebase.

The development comprises five stages: standardizing architecture; refactoring and adapting existing components; automating their integration; developing a modeling language; and creating code generators. After development, model-to-code ratios in ISML-MDE are measured for different applications.

The average model-to-code ratio is approximately 1:4.6 when using the code generators from arbitrary models. If a model transformation is performed previously to the code generation, this ratio raises to 1:115. The current validation efforts show that ISML properly supports several DSL essential characteristics described by Kahraman and Bilgen (2015).

ISML-MDE was tested on relatively small applications. Further validation of the approach requires measurement of development times and their comparison with previous similar projects, to determine the gains in productivity.

The value of ISML-MDE can be summarized as follows: ISML-MDE has the potential to significantly reduce development times, because of an adequate use of models and transformations. The design of ISML-MDE addresses real-world development requirements, obtained from a tight interaction between the researchers and the software development company. The underlying process has been thoroughly documented and it is believed it can be used as a reference for future developments of MDE tools under similar conditions.

The purpose of the paper is to present an analysis of an influence of shape and material of rotor bars on the process of self-excitation and performance characteristics of single-phase, self-excited induction generator (SP-SEIG).

The presented analysis is based on the results of transient simulations of SP-SEIG performed with the use of field-circuit model of the machine. Four various shapes of the rotor bars and two different conductor materials were investigated. The results for the base model with rounded trapezoidal rotor slots were validated by measurements.

An improvement of the performance characteristics – the extension of the stable operating range of the generator – was obtained for rectangular copper rotor bars. The improvement is the result of strong skin effect in the squirrel rotor cage. Application of round rotor slots results in shorter time of voltage build-up during the self-excitation of the generator caused by less apparent deep bar effect in round bars.

The originality of the paper is the application of the copper rotor cage in the single-phase, self-excited induction generator. Its use is beneficial, as it allows for extension of the range of stable operating range. The results may be used for designing new constructions of the single-phase, self-excited induction generators, as well as the constructions based on general purpose single-phase induction motors.

XML semantic query optimization (XSQO) is an important area in eXtensible Markup Language (XML) query processing. However, the experiments evaluating semantic optimization methods often suffer because of the lack of suitable data sets. To evaluate XSQO methods it is necessary to be able to build datasets with specific characteristics. In particular, it is necessary to be able to set: selectivity of embedded elements, selectivity of values of elements, depth, fan‐out and size. The aim of this paper is to describe the requirements of such a generator, and the challenges of building the generator.

The paper considers that there is currently no generator that gives this flexibility, so the paper discusses the design and building of such a generator.

The main characteristic of the generator is that it is possible to adapt existing XML documents, including XML benchmarks, for experiments that evaluate XSQO methods. With the generator, users are able to modify not only the structure of XML documents but also content quickly and directly.

The paper provides information of value to information technology professionals.