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1 In this paper results obtained with different particulate matter (PM) reduction technologies are presented. Diesel oxidation catalysts (DOC) are well known as a reliable PM reduction technology which can efficiently remove the soluble organic fraction (SOF) but which has no effect on the solid particles in PM. A drawback is that in combination with high sulfur fuel, oxidation of SO2 to SO3 by the DOC can occur, resulting in an increase of PM emissions. An alternative technology that is proven to significantly reduce soot emissions comprises diesel particulate wall-flow filters. High filtration efficiencies of up to 90% and beyond are feasible. The main obstacle is the combustion of the trapped soot. As shown in this paper, the application of a catalyst coating to the filter aids the filter regeneration by lowering the balance-point temperature. The main disadvantages of wall-flow filters are an increase in back-pressure and possible plugging caused by oil-ash accumulations.

Liquid Crystal Displays have been applied in automotive vehicles as instrument panels, clocks and other indicators. The negative and transflective mode with color filters and a backlighting system is a typical usage of twist nematic LCD's for these applications. This paper describes important parameters to improve the legibility of the TN-LCD's on color display informations. In order to optimize each parameter, theoretical analyses are made and some of these results are compared with experimental results. The considerations of the legibility in various ambient luminances are also presented.

A reliability analysis was conducted by means of the failure mode effect analysis technique on the catalytic converter which has been adopted in the 1975 Toyota models. A series of vehicle tests was conducted to determine the failure modes criticality. The study was performed on a precious metal pelleted catalyst. Critical durability failure modes to the durability of the catalytic converter and their criticality were classified and substantiated through this study. The results are presented and discussed. The results obtained by this analysis are useful for improving the reliability of the catalytic converter.