1,4-Dihydropyridine-3-carboxylate derivatives are produced having vasodilating and hypotensive action.

Antivirally active compounds of formula (I), wherein R1 is hydrogen, hydroxy, mercapto or amino; R2 is hydrogen, hydroxy, fluoro, chloro or amino; R3 and R4 are independently selected from (II), (III), amino, hydroxy or an ether or ester residue thereof, or R3 together with R4 is (IV), wherein M is hydrogen or a pharmaceutically acceptable counterion; and n is 1 or 2; with the proviso that, when R2 is amino and R3 and R4 are hydroxy, R1 is not hydroxy and in addition, when n=1, R1 is not hydrogen, and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof; processes for preparation of said compounds, a pharmaceutical composition comprising said compounds, methods for treatments of virus infections as well as use of compounds of formula (I) without the proviso for the manufacture of a medicament for treatment of AIDS. ##STR1##

A method of producing a bis(2-carboxyethyl)-alkyl phosphine oxide represented by the following general formula (1) is disclosed. ##STR1## The method comprises the following Steps 1-4: step 1 wherein phosphine is reacted with acrylonitrile to produce bis(2-cyanoethyl)phosphine and then, in step 2, reacted with an alkene to produce a bis(2-cyanoethyl)alkyl phosphine, and in step 3, reacted with an oxidizing agent to produce a bis(2-cyanoethyl)alkyl phosphine oxide, and in step 4, said bis(2-cyanoethyl)alkyl phosphine oxide is reacted with water or a lower alcohol to give a bis(2-carboxyethyl)alkyl phosphine oxide or a derivative thereof.

A class of pyridine phosphonate compounds is disclosed that are useful as ligands in the one manufacture of oxidation-reduction catalysts. In particular, pyridine-2,6-disphosphonic acid is a specie of the pyridine phosphonate ligands that can be combined with a polyvalent metal to produce a catalyst to convert hydrogen sulfide to solid sulfur.

An alumino-borosilicate glass for the confinement, isolation of a radioactive liquid effluent of medium activity, and a method for treating a radioactive liquid effluent of medium activity, wherein calcination of said effluent is carried out in order to obtain a calcinate, and a vitrification adjuvant is added to said calcinate.

According to one embodiment, a glass container may include a body formed from a Type I, Class B glass composition according to ASTM Standard E438-92. The body may have an inner surface, an outer surface and a wall thickness extending between the outer surface and the inner surface. The body may also include a compressively stressed layer extending into the wall thickness from at least one of the outer surface and the inner surface. A lubricous coating may be positioned on at least a portion of the outer surface of the body, wherein the outer surface of the body with the lubricous coating has a coefficient of friction less than or equal to 0.7.

A lubricating oil composition for an internal combustion engine contains: a base oil including a component (A) of a polyalphaolefin having a kinematic viscosity at 100 degrees C. of 5.5 mm2/s or less, a CCS viscosity at −35 degrees C. of 3000 mPa·s or less and a NOACK of 12 mass % or less and a component (B) of a mineral oil having a viscosity index of 120 or more; and polyisobutylene having a mass average molecular weight of 500,000 or more. A content of the composition (A) is 25 mass % or more of a total amount of a lubricating oil.

A lubricating oil composition for an internal combustion engine contains a component (A) of a polyalphaolefin having a kinematic viscosity at 100 degrees C. of 5.5 mm2/s or less, a CCS viscosity at −35 degrees C. of 3000 mPA·s or less and a NOACK of 12 mass % or less, and a component (B) of a mineral oil having a viscosity index of 120 or more. The component (A) is contained at a content of 10 mass % or more of a total amount of the composition.

A process is presented for the increasing the yields of aromatics from reforming a hydrocarbon feedstream. The process includes splitting a naphtha feedstream into a light hydrocarbon stream, and a heavier stream having a relatively rich concentration of naphthenes. The heavy stream is reformed to convert the naphthenes to aromatics and the resulting product stream is further reformed with the light hydrocarbon stream to increase the aromatics yields. The catalyst is passed through the reactors in a sequential manner.

A method for controlling 2-isomer content in linear alkylbenzene obtained by alkylating benzene with olefins and catalyst used in the method.

A process according to various approaches includes flushing an intermediate transfer line between a raffinate stream transfer line and a desorbent stream transfer line away from the adsorptive separation chamber to remove residual fluid including desorbent from intermediate transfer line. The process may include directing the residual fluid flushed from the intermediate transfer line to a recycle stream to introduce the residual fluid into the adsorptive separation chamber.

High octane unleaded aviation fuel compositions having high aromatics content and a CHN content of at least 97.2 wt %, less than 2.8 wt % of oxygen content, a T10 of at most 75° C., T40 of at least 75° C., a T50 of at most 105° C., a T90 of at most 135° C., a final boiling point of less than 190° C., an adjusted heat of combustion of at least 43.5 MJ/kg, a vapor pressure in the range of 38 to 49 kPa, freezing point is less than −58° C. is provided.

Methods for the synthesis of metal quantum clusters within the framework of a porous gel matrix are described. For example, Ag25(glutathione)18 quantum clusters are synthesized in a cross-linked polyacrylamide gel matrix. The methods can be performed on large-scale and yields monodispersed metal quantum clusters.

Amphiphilic biomimetic phosphorylcholine-containing silicone compounds for use in both topical and internal applications as components in biomedical devices. The silicone compounds, which include zwitterionic phosphorylcholine groups, may be polymerizable or non-polymerizable. Specific examples of applications include use as active functional components in ophthalmic lenses, ophthalmic lens care solutions, liquid bandages, wound dressings, and lubricious and anti-thrombogenic coatings.

A system, method and computer program product for avoiding a processing flaw in a computer processor triggered by a predetermined sequence of hardware events. The system may include a detecting unit and a power-on reset unit. The detecting unit detects that the predetermined sequence of hardware events is going to occur at the computer processor. The power-on reset unit initializes the computer processor to a state stored in computer memory in response to detecting the sequence of hardware events.

Embodiments of the present invention relate to an apparatus, method, and/or sequence for a distributed ECC that may be used in a storage system. In another embodiment of the invention, an apparatus for handling distributed error correction code (ECC) operations, includes: a plurality of ECC engines configured to perform ECC operations in parallel on multiple data parts; the plurality of ECC engines distributed in parallel to receive some of the multiple data parts that are read from storage media devices and to receive some of the other multiple data parts that are to be written to the storage media devices; and the plurality of ECC engines configured to use respective ECC bytes corresponding to respective ones of the multiple data parts.

The present invention intends to provide a method for removing radioactive cesium, or radioactive iodine and radioactive cesium that is simple and low-cost, further does not require an energy source such as electricity, moreover can take in and stably immobilize the removed radioactive substances within a solid, and can reduce the volume of radioactive waste as necessary, and to provide a hydrophilic resin composition using for the method for removing radioactive cesium, or radioactive iodine and radioactive cesium, and the object of the present invention is achieved by using a hydrophilic resin composition containing: at least one hydrophilic resin selected from the group consisting of a hydrophilic polyurethane resin, a hydrophilic polyurea resin, and a hydrophilic polyurethane-polyurea resin each having at least a hydrophilic segment; and a zeolite dispersed therein in a ratio of at least 1 to 200 mass parts relative to 100 mass parts of the hydrophilic resin.

A continuous process for the thermal treatment of a refinery sludge, comprising the following operations: a. drying of the refinery sludge, possibly mixed with pet-coke, at a temperature ranging from 110 to 120° C.; b. gasification of the dried sludge, at a temperature ranging from 750 to 950° C., for a time of 30 to 60 minutes, in the presence of a gas containing oxygen and water vapour, with the associated production of synthesis gas (CO+H2) and a solid residue; c. combustion of the synthesis gas at a temperature ranging from 850 to 1,200° C. and recycling of the combustion products for the drying and gasification phases; and d. inertization of the solid residue, at a temperature ranging from 1,300 to 1,500° C., by vitrification with plasma torches.

A method and apparatus for the stabilization and safe removal of buried waste that is tested and classified as being transuranic or not transuranic waste and disposed accordingly. The buried waste (usually in vertical pipe units) is enclosed in a casing and ground and mixed with the surrounding soil. This process allows for chemical reactions to occur that stabilizes the mixture. The entire process is contained within the casing to avoid contamination. In situ or external testing is done for radio isotopes to classify the waste. If it is classified as transuranic the waste is removed in a controlled way into a retrieval enclosure and disposed off in drums. If the waste is not transuranic then grout is introduced into the mixture, allowed to set and the resulting monolith is removed and buried in trenches.

Containers and methods for disposing unused pharmaceutical product are disclosed. Each container (100, 200, 300) may include a container body (104, 204, 304) with an internal chamber (116, 216, 316) for storing pharmaceutical product, along with a cover (124, 224, 324) for selectively limiting access to the chamber (116, 216, 316). An encapsulation component (128, 228, 328) may be selectively disposable within the chamber (116, 216, 316), and may be operable to encapsulate the pharmaceutical product within the container (100, 200, 300). For instance, the encapsulation component (128, 228, 328) may melt and/or flow into contact with the pharmaceutical product and thereafter solidify to encapsulate the pharmaceutical product. The encapsulation component (128, 228, 328) may melt and thereafter solidify between the cover (124, 224, 324) and shell (104, 204, 304) to limit removal of the cover (124, 224, 324) from the shell (104, 204, 304).

A treatment process of persistent organic pollutants contained in particles is provided. Said process includes reacting persistent organic pollutant in particles under hydrothermal conditions in the presence of Fe2+ and Fe3+. Several beneficial effects can be achieved, including 1) no other additive is needed during the reaction process; 2) Fe2+ and Fe3+ are safe, cheap and extensive sources; 3) because Fe2+ and Fe3+ are dissolved, they can fully disperse into particles, and fully contact can be achieved, thus obtaining a decomposition rate no less than 70% of the persistent organic pollutants is under subcritical conditions.

Apparatus comprising an input connected to receive an input signal, a lookup table comprising a plurality of input entries and first and second output entries for each input entry. The look up table receives the input signal and returns a lower input entry, an upper input entry, the second output entry for the lower input entry, and the first output entry for the upper input entry. A first subtractor subtracts the lower input entry from the input signal to produce a first difference. A second subtractor subtracts the input signal from the upper input entry to produce a second difference. First and second multipliers multiply the first and second differences by the first output entry for the upper input entry and the second output entry for the lower input entry, respectively, to produce first and second products. An adder adds the first and second products to produce an output signal.

A circuit arrangement and method couple a hardware-based pseudorandom number generator (PRNG) to an execution unit in such a manner that pseudorandom numbers generated by the PRNG may be selectively output to the execution unit for use as an operand during the execution of instructions by the execution unit. A PRNG may be coupled to an input of an operand multiplexer that outputs to an operand input of an execution unit so that operands provided by instructions supplied to the execution unit are selectively overridden with pseudorandom numbers generated by the PRNG. Furthermore, overridden operands provided by instructions supplied to the execution unit may be used as seed values for the PRNG.

An independently functioning or centrally controlled wall light switch is configured to operate in normal mode and a Jewish holiday mode wherein the state of the light is fixed, regardless of the user's physical manipulation of the light switch. The control system automatically activates holiday mode by combining a geographically determined Jewish religious clock executed by software and hardware that utilizes the current time, date and geographical location of the apparatus in accordance with the Jewish definition of time and laws for calculating numerous religiously significant shifting daily points in time. The control system further incorporates several energy saving and preference modes by utilizing a particular day's calculated religious points in time in conjunction with holiday behavior patterns common to most Jewish families to provide the user with a greatly simplified means of programming an automatically adjusting on/off light timer and dimming overlay functionality during holiday mode.

A recursive type-IV discrete cosine transform system includes a first permutation device, a recursive type-III discrete cosine/sine transform device, a cosine/sine factor generation device, a recursive type-II discrete cosine/sine transform device, a second permutation device. The first permutation device performs two-dimensional order permutation operation on N digital signals for generating N two-dimensional first temporal signals. The recursive type-III discrete cosine/sine transform device repeats a type-III discrete cosine/sine transform for generating second temporal signals. The cosine/sine factor generation device sequentially performs cosine/sine factor multiplication and corresponding addition operations for generating third temporal signals. The recursive type-II discrete cosine/sine transform device repeats a type-II discrete cosine/sine transform for generating fourth temporal signals. The second permutation device performs a one-dimensional order permutation operation for generating N one-dimensional output signals. The N one-dimensional output signals are obtained by performing a type-IV discrete cosine transform on the N digital input signals.

Apparatus and method for processing linear systems of equations and finding a n×1 vector x satisfying Ax=b where A is a symmetric, positive-definite n×n matrix corresponding to n×n predefined high-precision elements and b is an n1 vector corresponding to n predefined high-precision elements. A first iterative process generates n low-precision elements corresponding to an n×1 vector xl satisfying Alxl=bl where Al, bl are elements in low precision. The elements are converted to high-precision data elements to obtain a current solution vector x. A second iterative process generates n low-precision data elements corresponding to an n×1 correction vector dependent on the difference between the vector b and the vector product Ax. Then there is produced from the n low-precision data elements of the correction vector respective high-precision data elements of an n×1 update vector u. The data elements of the current solution vector x are updated such that x=x+u.

Disclosed is a resin precursor composition including a bifunctional (meth)acrylate containing a fluorine atom, a bifunctional (meth)acrylate having a fluorene structure, and a photopolymerization initiator, the resin precursor composition in which the formation of precipitates during its storage is suppressed; and a resin obtained from the same. Specifically disclosed is a resin precursor composition that contains a bifunctional fluorine-containing (meth)acrylate (component A); a (meth)acrylate having a fluorene structure (component B); and a photopolymerization initiator (component C), wherein the component B includes a bifunctional (meth)acrylate having a fluorene structure (b-1) and a monofunctional (meth)acrylate having a fluorene structure (b-2) at a molar ratio (b-1):(b-2) of 90:10 to 70:30.

The invention pertains to an oligomer or polymer substituted by one or more bisacylphosphine oxide moieties, characterized in that said bisacylphosphine oxide moiety is linked via the phosphorous atom, optionally via a spacer group, to the oligomer or polymer backbone; as well as to specifically functionalized bisacylphosphine oxides, suitable to prepare said polymers or oligomers.

The present invention relates to a process comprising the steps of reacting a reactive mixture comprising at least one silicone-containing component, at least one hydrophilic component, and at least one diluent to form an ophthalmic device having an advancing contact angle of less than about 80°; and contacting the ophthalmic device with an aqueous extraction solution at an elevated extraction temperature, wherein said at least one diluent has a boiling point at least about 10° higher than said extraction temperature.

The present invention provides a process for producing electret fine particles or coarse powder that can be uniformly electrified and exhibits excellent electrophoretic properties. Specifically, the present invention relates to the production processes (1) and (2) below:(1) A process for producing electret fine particles, comprising emulsifying a fluorine-containing material that contains a vinylidene fluoride-hexafluoropropylene-tetrafluoroethylene terpolymer in a liquid that is incompatible with the fluorine-containing material to obtain emulsified particles; and subjecting the emulsified particles to electron ray irradiation, radial ray irradiation, or corona discharge treatment.(2) A process for producing electret coarse powder, comprising subjecting a resin sheet containing a vinylidene fluoride-hexafluoropropylene-tetrafluoroethylene terpolymer to electron ray irradiation, radial ray irradiation, or corona discharge treatment to process the resin sheet into an electret resin sheet; and pulverizing the electret resin sheet.

A cloud system may create physical resource tags to store relationships between cloud computing offerings, such as computing service offerings, storage offerings, and network offerings, and the specific physical resources in the cloud computing environment. Cloud computing offerings may be presented to cloud customers, the offerings corresponding to various combinations of computing services, storage, networking, and other hardware or software resources. After a customer selects one or more cloud computing offerings, a cloud resource manager or other component within the cloud infrastructure may retrieve a set of tags and determine a set of physical hardware resources associated with the selected offerings. The physical hardware resources associated with the selected offerings may be subsequently used to provision and create the new virtual machine and its operating environment.

A system, method and computer program product for allocating shared resources. Upon receiving requests for resources, the cost of bundling software in a virtual machine (VM) image is automatically generated. Software is selected by the cost for each bundle according to the time required to install it where required, offset by the time to uninstall it where not required. A number of VM images having the highest software bundle value (i.e., highest cost bundled) is selected and stored, e.g., in a machine image store. With subsequent requests for resources, VMs may be instantiated from one or more stored VM images and, further, stored images may be updated selectively updated with new images.

A server computer system determines that configuring a first virtual machine in a cloud depends on a configuration result of configuring a second virtual machine. The server computer system configures the second virtual machine in the cloud and configures the first virtual machine in the cloud using the configuration result of the second virtual machine.

A system and method for reconfiguring a computing environment comprising a consumption analysis server, a placement server, an infrastructure management client and a data warehouse in communication with a set of data collection agents and a database. The consumption analysis server operates on measured resource utilization data to yield a set of resource consumptions in regularized time blocks, collects host and virtual machine configurations from the computing environment and determines available capacity for a set of target hosts. The placement server assigns a set of target virtual machines to the target set of hosts in a new placement. In one mode of operation the new placement is nearly optimal. In another mode of operation, the new placement is “good enough” to achieve a threshold score based on an objective function of resource capacity headroom. The new placement is implemented in the computing environment.

Methods and apparatus are provided for evaluating potential resource capacity in a system where there is elasticity and competition between a plurality of containers. A dynamic potential capacity is determined for at least one container in a plurality of containers competing for a total capacity of a larger container. A current utilization by each of the plurality of competing containers is obtained, and an equilibrium capacity is determined for each of the competing containers. The equilibrium capacity indicates a capacity that the corresponding container is entitled to. The dynamic potential capacity is determined based on the total capacity, a comparison of one or more of the current utilizations to one or more of the corresponding equilibrium capacities and a relative resource weight of each of the plurality of competing containers. The dynamic potential capacity is optionally recalculated when the set of plurality of containers is changed or after the assignment of each work element.

The present invention relates to 1,4-diethynylbenzene derivatives having substituents in the 2,3-position (cf. formula I, Claims), to the use thereof for high-frequency components, to liquid-crystalline media comprising the compounds, and to high-frequency components, in particular antennae, especially for the gigahertz range, comprising these media. The liquid-crystalline media serve, for example, for the phase shifting of microwaves for tuneable ‘phased-array’ antennae.

Process for producing silica-comprising dispersions comprising a polyetherol or a polyether amine, which comprises the steps of (i) admixing an aqueous silica sol (K) having an average particle diameter of from 1 to 150 nm and a silica content, calculated as SiO2, of from 1 to 60% by weight and a pH of from 1 to 6 with at least one polyetherol (b1) and/or polyether amine (b2) based on ethylene oxide and/or propylene oxide and having an average OH or amine functionality of from 2 to 6 and a number average molecular weight of from 62 to 6000 g/mol,(ii) distilling off at least part of the water,(iii) admixing the dispersion with at least one compound (S) having at least one at least monoalkoxylated silyl group and at least one alkyl, cycloalkyl or aryl substituent, where this substituent may have groups which are reactive toward an alcohol, an amine or an isocyanate in an amount of from 0.1 to 20 μmol of (S) per m2 of surface area of (K), where steps (i) and (iii) can be carried out simultaneously or in succession in any order, (iv) optionally adjusting the pH of the silica-comprising dispersions obtained to a value of from 7 to 12 by adding a basic compound, where step (iv) can also be carried out between steps (ii) and (iii).

Particular aspects provide compositions comprising an electrokinetically altered oxygenated aqueous fluid, wherein the oxygen in the fluid is present in an amount of at least 25 ppm. In certain aspects, the electrokinetically altered oxygenated aqueous fluid comprises electrokinetically modified or charged oxygen species present in an amount of at least 0.5 ppm. In certain aspects the electrokinetically altered oxygenated aqueous fluid comprises solvated electrons stabilized by molecular oxygen, and wherein the solvated electrons present in an amount of at least 0.01 ppm. In certain aspects, the fluid facilitates oxidation of pyrogallol to purpurogallin in the presence of horseradish peroxidase enzyme (HRP) in an amount above that afforded by a control pressure pot generated or fine-bubble generated aqueous fluid having an equivalent dissolved oxygen level, and wherein there is no hydrogen peroxide, or less than 0.1 ppm of hydrogen peroxide present in the electrokinetic oxygen-enriched aqueous fluid.

An object of the present invention is to provide a method for producing a conductive material that allows a low electric resistance to be generated, and that is obtained by using an inexpensive and stable conductive material composition containing no adhesive. The conductive material can be provided by a producing method that includes the step of sintering a first conductive material composition that contains silver particles having an average particle diameter (median diameter) of 0.1 μm to 15 μm, and a metal oxide, so as to obtain a conductive material. The conductive material can be provided also by a method that includes the step of sintering a second conductive material composition that contains silver particles having an average particle diameter (median diameter) of 0.1 μm to 15 μm in an atmosphere of oxygen or ozone, or ambient atmosphere, at a temperature in a range of 150° C. to 320° C., so as to obtain a conductive material.

A method for producing an emulsion is provided. At least a fluid to be processed that forms continuous phase and a fluid to be processed that forms dispersed phase are mixed in a thin film fluid formed between processing surfaces arranged to be opposite to each other so as to be able to approach to and separate from each other, at least one of which rotates relative to the other, whereby the emulsion having variation coefficient of 0.3 to 30% in a particle size distribution is obtained.

According to the present invention, a metal nanoparticle dispersion suitable to multiple layered coating by jetting in the form of fine droplets is prepared by dispersing metal nanoparticles having an average particle size of 1 to 100 nm in a dispersion solvent having a boiling point of 80° C. or higher in such a manner that the volume percentage of the dispersion solvent is selected in the range of 55 to 80% by volume and the fluid viscosity (20° C.) of the dispersion is chosen in the range of 2 mPa·s to 30 mPa·s, and then when the dispersion is discharged in the form of fine droplets by inkjet method or the like, the dispersion is concentrated by evaporation of the dispersion solvent in the droplets in the course of flight, coming to be a viscous dispersion which can be applicable to multi-layered coating.

Embodiments provide methods, apparatus, systems, and computer readable media associated with predicting predicates and branch targets during execution of programs using combined branch target and predicate predictions. The predictions may be made using one or more prediction control flow graphs which represent predicates in instruction blocks and branches between blocks in a program. The prediction control flow graphs may be structured as trees such that each node in the graphs is associated with a predicate instruction, and each leaf associated with a branch target which jumps to another block. During execution of a block, a prediction generator may take a control point history and generate a prediction. Following the path suggested by the prediction through the tree, both predicate values and branch targets may be predicted. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.

A computing machine is disclosed having a memory system for storing a collection of execution nodes, a head for reading a sequence of symbols in the execution nodes in the memory system, and writing a sequence of symbols in the memory system. The machine is configured to execute a computation with a collection of pairs of execution nodes. Each pair of execution nodes represents a machine instruction. One execution node in the pair represents input of the machine instruction represented by the execution nodes. Another execution node in the pair represents output of the machine instruction represented by the execution nodes. Each execution node has a state of the machine, a sequence of symbols and a number.

A command engine for an active memory receives high level tasks from a host and generates corresponding sets of either DCU commands to a DRAM control unit or ACU commands to a processing array control unit. The DCU commands include memory addresses, which are also generated by the command engine, and the ACU command include instruction memory addresses corresponding to an address in an array control unit where processing array instructions are stored.

In one embodiment, an optimization hint may be included in a business process flow. An executable process may be generated from the business process flow where the optimization hint is included in the executable process. While executing the executable process, the runtime engine encounters an optimization hint and determines an optimization to perform. The optimization hint may be related to an aspect of a business process being orchestrated by the business process flow. The optimization is then performed while executing the executable process. For example, the runtime engine may start pre-processing the branch while the condition is being evaluated. If the condition evaluates such that the pre-processed branch should be executed, then the runtime engine has already started processing of that branch. The processing is thus optimized in that the runtime engine is not sitting idle while waiting for the condition to be evaluated.

The present invention primarily concerns certain 4-alkyl pyridines of the following formula (I), wherein R is C8-C12 alkyl, odiferous substance mixtures and aromatic substance mixtures containing these 4-alkyl pyridines, the respective uses thereof as an odiferous or aromatic substance (mixture) and corresponding perfumed products.

The present invention relates to novel pyrimidine derivatives and their use in perfume compositions. The novel pyrimidine derivatives of the present invention are represented by the following formula: wherein m and n are integers of 0 or 1, with the proviso that when m is 0, n is 1 and when m is 1, n is 0; andwherein the dashed circle represents either single or double bonds.

A process for preparing isophorone (3,5,5-trimethyl-2-cyclohexen-1-one) is provided wherein distillation vapors from the work-up of product fractions are recycled to earlier stages of operation of the process.

Processes are disclosed for the conversion of a carbohydrate source to hexamethylenediamine (HMDA) and to intermediates useful for the production of hexamethylenediamine and other industrial chemicals. HMDA is produced by direct reduction of a furfural substrate to 1,6-hexanediol in the presence of hydrogen and a heterogeneous reduction catalyst comprising Pt or by indirect reduction of a furfural substrate to 1,6-hexanediol wherein 1,2,6-hexanetriol is produced by reduction of the furfural substrate in the presence of hydrogen and a catalyst comprising Pt and 1,2,6-hexanediol is then converted by hydrogenation in the presence of a catalyst comprising Pt to 1,6 hexanediol, each process then proceeding to the production of HMDA by known routes, such as amination of the 1,6 hexanediol. Catalysts useful for the direct and indirect production of 1,6-hexanediol are also disclosed.

A method for operating an internal combustion engine in which a speed-based feature of the internal combustion engine, which is correlated with an indicated mean effective pressure of the fuel, is determined during the warm-up of the internal combustion engine and an ideal fuel quantity, which is to be injected into at least one combustion chamber of the internal combustion engine during the warm-up, is ascertained therefrom.