Search results for: Jean Marriz M. Manzano
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 273

Search results for: Jean Marriz M. Manzano

243 Accessibility of the Labor Market in Indonesian Cities

Authors: Hananto Prakoso, Jean-Pierre Orfeuil

Abstract:

The relationship between city size, urban transport efficiency (speed), employment proximity (distance) and accessibility of labour market is rarely examined especially in developing countries. This paper reveals the relationship using 2 points of views (active population and company). Then the analysis is divided according to 3 transport modes (car, public transport and motorcycle) and takes into account the vehicle ownership rate. We employ data across 111 districts in 4 big cities of Indonesia. In our result, speed indicator contributed positively to accessibility of labour market while distance elasticity is negative. In absolute value, elasticity of speed indicator is higher than that of distance.

Keywords: labour market, travel time, travel cost threshold, transportation

Procedia PDF Downloads 346
242 Parallel 2-Opt Local Search on GPU

Authors: Wen-Bao Qiao, Jean-Charles Créput

Abstract:

To accelerate the solution for large scale traveling salesman problems (TSP), a parallel 2-opt local search algorithm with simple implementation based on Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) is presented and tested in this paper. The parallel scheme is based on technique of data decomposition by dynamically assigning multiple K processors on the integral tour to treat K edges’ 2-opt local optimization simultaneously on independent sub-tours, where K can be user-defined or have a function relationship with input size N. We implement this algorithm with doubly linked list on GPU. The implementation only requires O(N) memory. We compare this parallel 2-opt local optimization against sequential exhaustive 2-opt search along integral tour on TSP instances from TSPLIB with more than 10000 cities.

Keywords: parallel 2-opt, double links, large scale TSP, GPU

Procedia PDF Downloads 594
241 Multi-Objective Optimization of the Thermal-Hydraulic Behavior for a Sodium Fast Reactor with a Gas Power Conversion System and a Loss of off-Site Power Simulation

Authors: Avent Grange, Frederic Bertrand, Jean-Baptiste Droin, Amandine Marrel, Jean-Henry Ferrasse, Olivier Boutin

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CEA and its industrial partners are designing a gas Power Conversion System (PCS) based on a Brayton cycle for the ASTRID Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor. Investigations of control and regulation requirements to operate this PCS during operating, incidental and accidental transients are necessary to adapt core heat removal. To this aim, we developed a methodology to optimize the thermal-hydraulic behavior of the reactor during normal operations, incidents and accidents. This methodology consists of a multi-objective optimization for a specific sequence, whose aim is to increase component lifetime by reducing simultaneously several thermal stresses and to bring the reactor into a stable state. Furthermore, the multi-objective optimization complies with safety and operating constraints. Operating, incidental and accidental sequences use specific regulations to control the thermal-hydraulic reactor behavior, each of them is defined by a setpoint, a controller and an actuator. In the multi-objective problem, the parameters used to solve the optimization are the setpoints and the settings of the controllers associated with the regulations included in the sequence. In this way, the methodology allows designers to define an optimized and specific control strategy of the plant for the studied sequence and hence to adapt PCS piloting at its best. The multi-objective optimization is performed by evolutionary algorithms coupled to surrogate models built on variables computed by the thermal-hydraulic system code, CATHARE2. The methodology is applied to a loss of off-site power sequence. Three variables are controlled: the sodium outlet temperature of the sodium-gas heat exchanger, turbomachine rotational speed and water flow through the heat sink. These regulations are chosen in order to minimize thermal stresses on the gas-gas heat exchanger, on the sodium-gas heat exchanger and on the vessel. The main results of this work are optimal setpoints for the three regulations. Moreover, Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) control setting is considered and efficient actuators used in controls are chosen through sensitivity analysis results. Finally, the optimized regulation system and the reactor control procedure, provided by the optimization process, are verified through a direct CATHARE2 calculation.

Keywords: gas power conversion system, loss of off-site power, multi-objective optimization, regulation, sodium fast reactor, surrogate model

Procedia PDF Downloads 280
240 Introduction of the Fluid-Structure Coupling into the Force Analysis Technique

Authors: Océane Grosset, Charles Pézerat, Jean-Hugh Thomas, Frédéric Ablitzer

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This paper presents a method to take into account the fluid-structure coupling into an inverse method, the Force Analysis Technique (FAT). The FAT method, also called RIFF method (Filtered Windowed Inverse Resolution), allows to identify the force distribution from local vibration field. In order to only identify the external force applied on a structure, it is necessary to quantify the fluid-structure coupling, especially in naval application, where the fluid is heavy. This method can be decomposed in two parts, the first one consists in identifying the fluid-structure coupling and the second one to introduced it in the FAT method to reconstruct the external force. Results of simulations on a plate coupled with a cavity filled with water are presented.

Keywords: aeroacoustics, fluid-structure coupling, inverse methods, naval, turbulent flow

Procedia PDF Downloads 484
239 Numerical Simulation and Laboratory Tests for Rebar Detection in Reinforced Concrete Structures using Ground Penetrating Radar

Authors: Maha Al-Soudani, Gilles Klysz, Jean-Paul Balayssac

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The aim of this paper is to use Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) as a non-destructive testing (NDT) method to increase its accuracy in recognizing the geometric reinforced concrete structures and in particular, the position of steel bars. This definition will help the managers to assess the state of their structures on the one hand vis-a-vis security constraints and secondly to quantify the need for maintenance and repair. Several configurations of acquisition and processing of the simulated signal were tested to propose and develop an appropriate imaging algorithm in the propagation medium to locate accurately the rebar. A subsequent experimental validation was used by testing the imaging algorithm on real reinforced concrete structures. The results indicate that, this algorithm is capable of estimating the reinforcing steel bar position to within (0-1) mm.

Keywords: GPR, NDT, Reinforced concrete structures, Rebar location.

Procedia PDF Downloads 477
238 A Proof of the N. Davydov Theorem for Douglis Algebra Valued Functions

Authors: Jean-Marie Vilaire, Ricardo Abreu-Blaya, Juan Bory-Reyes

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The classical Beltrami system of elliptic equations generalizes the Cauchy Riemann equation in the complex plane and offers the possibility to consider homogeneous system with no terms of zero order. The theory of Douglis-valued functions, called Hyper-analytic functions, is special case of the above situation. In this note, we prove an analogue of the N. Davydov theorem in the framework of the theory of hyperanalytic functions. The used methodology contemplates characteristic methods of the hypercomplex analysis as well as the singular integral operators and elliptic systems of the partial differential equations theories.

Keywords: Beltrami equation, Douglis algebra-valued function, Hypercomplex Cauchy type integral, Sokhotski-Plemelj formulae

Procedia PDF Downloads 221
237 Access Control System for Big Data Application

Authors: Winfred Okoe Addy, Jean Jacques Dominique Beraud

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Access control systems (ACs) are some of the most important components in safety areas. Inaccuracies of regulatory frameworks make personal policies and remedies more appropriate than standard models or protocols. This problem is exacerbated by the increasing complexity of software, such as integrated Big Data (BD) software for controlling large volumes of encrypted data and resources embedded in a dedicated BD production system. This paper proposes a general access control strategy system for the diffusion of Big Data domains since it is crucial to secure the data provided to data consumers (DC). We presented a general access control circulation strategy for the Big Data domain by describing the benefit of using designated access control for BD units and performance and taking into consideration the need for BD and AC system. We then presented a generic of Big Data access control system to improve the dissemination of Big Data.

Keywords: access control, security, Big Data, domain

Procedia PDF Downloads 106
236 Optimal Number of Reconfigurable Robots in a Transport System

Authors: Mari Chaikovskaia, Jean-Philippe Gayon, Alain Quilliot

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We consider a fleet of elementary robots that can be connected in different ways to transport loads of different types. For instance, a single robot can transport a small load, and the association of two robots can either transport a large load or two small loads. We seek to determine the optimal number of robots to transport a set of loads in a given time interval, with or without reconfiguration. We show that the problem with reconfiguration is strongly NP-hard by a reduction to the bin-packing problem. Then, we study a special case with unit capacities and derive simple formulas for the minimum number of robots, up to 3 types of loads. For this special case, we compare the minimum number of robots with or without reconfiguration and show that the gain is limited in absolute value but may be significant for small fleets.

Keywords: fleet sizing, reconfigurability, robots, transportation

Procedia PDF Downloads 57
235 Reflections on Lyotard's Reading of the Kantian Sublime and Its Political Import

Authors: Tugba Ayas Onol

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The paper revisits Jean-François Lyotard’s interpretation of the Kantian Sublime as a tool for understanding politics after modernity. In 1985 Lyotard announces the end of rational politics based on consensus and claims that new strategies are urged to recognize the political imperatives of marginalized groups. The charm of the sublime as a reflective judgment is grounded on the fact that the judgment of sublime is free from any notion of consensus or common sense in particular. Lyotard interprets this feature of the sublime as a respect for heterogeneity and for him aesthetic judgments can be a model for understanding justice in postmodern times, in which it seems hard to follow a single universal law among different phrase regimes. More importantly, the Kantian sublime speaks to what Lyotard addresses as the incommensurability of phase genres. The present paper shall try to evaluate Lyotard’s employment of the Kantian notion of the sublime in relation to its possible political import.

Keywords: Kant, Lyotard, sublime, politics

Procedia PDF Downloads 348
234 A Neural Approach for the Offline Recognition of the Arabic Handwritten Words of the Algerian Departments

Authors: Salim Ouchtati, Jean Sequeira, Mouldi Bedda

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In this work we present an off line system for the recognition of the Arabic handwritten words of the Algerian departments. The study is based mainly on the evaluation of neural network performances, trained with the gradient back propagation algorithm. The used parameters to form the input vector of the neural network are extracted on the binary images of the handwritten word by several methods: the parameters of distribution, the moments centered of the different projections and the Barr features. It should be noted that these methods are applied on segments gotten after the division of the binary image of the word in six segments. The classification is achieved by a multi layers perceptron. Detailed experiments are carried and satisfactory recognition results are reported.

Keywords: handwritten word recognition, neural networks, image processing, pattern recognition, features extraction

Procedia PDF Downloads 482
233 Inspection of Railway Track Fastening Elements Using Artificial Vision

Authors: Abdelkrim Belhaoua, Jean-Pierre Radoux

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In France, the railway network is one of the main transport infrastructures and is the second largest European network. Therefore, railway inspection is an important task in railway maintenance to ensure safety for passengers using significant means in personal and technical facilities. Artificial vision has recently been applied to several railway applications due to its potential to improve the efficiency and accuracy when analyzing large databases of acquired images. In this paper, we present a vision system able to detect fastening elements based on artificial vision approach. This system acquires railway images using a CCD camera installed under a control carriage. These images are stitched together before having processed. Experimental results are presented to show that the proposed method is robust for detection fasteners in a complex environment.

Keywords: computer vision, image processing, railway inspection, image stitching, fastener recognition, neural network

Procedia PDF Downloads 421
232 Analysis and Design of Simultaneous Dual Band Harvesting System with Enhanced Efficiency

Authors: Zina Saheb, Ezz El-Masry, Jean-François Bousquet

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This paper presents an enhanced efficiency simultaneous dual band energy harvesting system for wireless body area network. A bulk biasing is used to enhance the efficiency of the adapted rectifier design to reduce Vth of MOSFET. The presented circuit harvests the radio frequency (RF) energy from two frequency bands: 1 GHz and 2.4 GHz. It is designed with TSMC 65-nm CMOS technology and high quality factor dual matching network to boost the input voltage. Full circuit analysis and modeling is demonstrated. The simulation results demonstrate a harvester with an efficiency of 23% at 1 GHz and 46% at 2.4 GHz at an input power as low as -30 dBm.

Keywords: energy harvester, simultaneous, dual band, CMOS, differential rectifier, voltage boosting, TSMC 65nm

Procedia PDF Downloads 374
231 Comparison of Machine Learning and Deep Learning Algorithms for Automatic Classification of 80 Different Pollen Species

Authors: Endrick Barnacin, Jean-Luc Henry, Jimmy Nagau, Jack Molinie

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Palynology is a field of interest in many disciplines due to its multiple applications: chronological dating, climatology, allergy treatment, and honey characterization. Unfortunately, the analysis of a pollen slide is a complicated and time consuming task that requires the intervention of experts in the field, which are becoming increasingly rare due to economic and social conditions. That is why the need for automation of this task is urgent. A lot of studies have investigated the subject using different standard image processing descriptors and sometimes hand-crafted ones.In this work, we make a comparative study between classical feature extraction methods (Shape, GLCM, LBP, and others) and Deep Learning (CNN, Autoencoders, Transfer Learning) to perform a recognition task over 80 regional pollen species. It has been found that the use of Transfer Learning seems to be more precise than the other approaches

Keywords: pollens identification, features extraction, pollens classification, automated palynology

Procedia PDF Downloads 102
230 Integration of Knowledge and Metadata for Complex Data Warehouses and Big Data

Authors: Jean Christian Ralaivao, Fabrice Razafindraibe, Hasina Rakotonirainy

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This document constitutes a resumption of work carried out in the field of complex data warehouses (DW) relating to the management and formalization of knowledge and metadata. It offers a methodological approach for integrating two concepts, knowledge and metadata, within the framework of a complex DW architecture. The objective of the work considers the use of the technique of knowledge representation by description logics and the extension of Common Warehouse Metamodel (CWM) specifications. This will lead to a fallout in terms of the performance of a complex DW. Three essential aspects of this work are expected, including the representation of knowledge in description logics and the declination of this knowledge into consistent UML diagrams while respecting or extending the CWM specifications and using XML as pivot. The field of application is large but will be adapted to systems with heteroge-neous, complex and unstructured content and moreover requiring a great (re)use of knowledge such as medical data warehouses.

Keywords: data warehouse, description logics, integration, knowledge, metadata

Procedia PDF Downloads 104
229 Associations Between Executive Function and Physical Fitness in Preschool Children

Authors: Aleksander Veraksa, Alla Tvardovskaya, Margarita Gavrilova, Vera Yakupova, Martin Musálek

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Considering the current agreement on the significance of executive functions, there is growing interest in determining factors that contribute to the development of these skills, especially during the preschool period. Although multiple studies have been focusing on links between physical activity, physical fitness and executive functions, this topic was more investigated in schoolchildren and adults than in preschoolers. The aim of the current study was to identify different levels of physical fitness among pre-schoolers, followed by an analysis of differences in their executive functions. Participants were 261 5-6-years old children. Inhibitory control and working memory were positively linked with physical fitness. Cognitive flexibility was not associated with physical fitness. The research findings are considered from neuropsychological grounds, Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development, and the cultural-historical approach.

Keywords: cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control, physical activity, physical fitness, working memory.

Procedia PDF Downloads 68
228 An Optimized RDP Algorithm for Curve Approximation

Authors: Jean-Pierre Lomaliza, Kwang-Seok Moon, Hanhoon Park

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It is well-known that Ramer Douglas Peucker (RDP) algorithm greatly depends on the method of choosing starting points. Therefore, this paper focuses on finding such starting points that will optimize the results of RDP algorithm. Specifically, this paper proposes a curve approximation algorithm that finds flat points, called essential points, of an input curve, divides the curve into corner-like sub-curves using the essential points, and applies the RDP algorithm to the sub-curves. The number of essential points play a role on optimizing the approximation results by balancing the degree of shape information loss and the amount of data reduction. Through experiments with curves of various types and complexities of shape, we compared the performance of the proposed algorithm with three other methods, i.e., the RDP algorithm itself and its variants. As a result, the proposed algorithm outperformed the others in term of maintaining the original shapes of the input curve, which is important in various applications like pattern recognition.

Keywords: curve approximation, essential point, RDP algorithm

Procedia PDF Downloads 504
227 Application of Sorptive Passive Panels for Reducing Indoor Formaldehyde Level: Effect of Environmental Conditions

Authors: Mitra Bahri, Jean Leopold Kabambi, Jacqueline Yakobi-Hancock, William Render, Stephanie So

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Reducing formaldehyde concentration in residential buildings is an important challenge, especially during the summer. In this study, a ceiling tile was used as a sorptive passive panel for formaldehyde removal. The performance of this passive panel was evaluated under different environmental conditions. The results demonstrated that the removal efficiency is comprised between 40% and 71%. Change in the level of relative humidity (30%, 50%, and 75%) had a slight positive effect on the sorption capacity. However, increase in temperature from 21 °C to 26 °C led to approximately 7% decrease in the average formaldehyde removal performance. GC/MS and HPLC analysis revealed the formation of different by-products at low concentrations under extreme environmental conditions. These findings suggest that the passive panel selected for this study holds the potential to be used for formaldehyde removal under various conditions.

Keywords: formaldehyde, indoor air quality, passive panel, removal efficiency, sorption

Procedia PDF Downloads 172
226 Liver Lesion Extraction with Fuzzy Thresholding in Contrast Enhanced Ultrasound Images

Authors: Abder-Rahman Ali, Adélaïde Albouy-Kissi, Manuel Grand-Brochier, Viviane Ladan-Marcus, Christine Hoeffl, Claude Marcus, Antoine Vacavant, Jean-Yves Boire

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In this paper, we present a new segmentation approach for focal liver lesions in contrast enhanced ultrasound imaging. This approach, based on a two-cluster Fuzzy C-Means methodology, considers type-II fuzzy sets to handle uncertainty due to the image modality (presence of speckle noise, low contrast, etc.), and to calculate the optimum inter-cluster threshold. Fine boundaries are detected by a local recursive merging of ambiguous pixels. The method has been tested on a representative database. Compared to both Otsu and type-I Fuzzy C-Means techniques, the proposed method significantly reduces the segmentation errors.

Keywords: defuzzification, fuzzy clustering, image segmentation, type-II fuzzy sets

Procedia PDF Downloads 454
225 Integrating Human Preferences into the Automated Decisions of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Authors: Arwa Khannoussi, Alexandru-Liviu Olteanu, Pritesh Narayan, Catherine Dezan, Jean-Philippe Diguet, Patrick Meyer, Jacques Petit-Frere

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Due to the nature of autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) missions, it is important that the decisions of a UAV stay consistent with the priorities of an operator, while at the same time allowing them to be easily audited and explained. We propose a multi-layer decision engine that integrates the operator (human) preferences by using the Multi-Criteria Decision Aiding (MCDA) methods. A software implementation of a UAV simulator and of the decision engine is presented to highlight the advantage of using such techniques on high-level decisions. We demonstrate that, with such a preference-based decision engine, the decisions of the UAV are compatible with the priorities of the operator, which in turn increases her/his confidence in its autonomous behavior.

Keywords: autonomous UAV, multi-criteria decision aiding, multi-layers decision engine, operator's preferences, traceable decisions, UAV simulation

Procedia PDF Downloads 226
224 Analysis of the Volatile Organic Compounds of Tillandsia Flowers by HS-SPME/GC-MS

Authors: Alexandre Gonzalez, Zohra Benfodda, David Bénimélis, Jean-Xavier Fontaine, Roland Molinié, Patrick Meffre

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Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by flowers play an important role in plant ecology. However, the Tillandsia genus has been scarcely studied according to the VOCs emitted by flowers. Tillandsia are epiphytic flowering plants belonging to the Bromeliaceae family. The VOCs composition of twelve unscented and two faint-scented Tillandsia species was studied. The headspace solid phase microextraction coupled with gas chromatography combined with mass spectrometry method was used to explore the chemical diversity of the VOCs. This study allowed the identification of 65 VOCs among the fourteen species, and between six to twenty-five compounds were identified in each of the species.

Keywords: tillandsia, headspace solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME), gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), scentless flowers, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), PCA analysis, heatmap

Procedia PDF Downloads 89
223 Segmentation of Gray Scale Images of Dropwise Condensation on Textured Surfaces

Authors: Helene Martin, Solmaz Boroomandi Barati, Jean-Charles Pinoli, Stephane Valette, Yann Gavet

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In the present work we developed an image processing algorithm to measure water droplets characteristics during dropwise condensation on pillared surfaces. The main problem in this process is the similarity between shape and size of water droplets and the pillars. The developed method divides droplets into four main groups based on their size and applies the corresponding algorithm to segment each group. These algorithms generate binary images of droplets based on both their geometrical and intensity properties. The information related to droplets evolution during time including mean radius and drops number per unit area are then extracted from the binary images. The developed image processing algorithm is verified using manual detection and applied to two different sets of images corresponding to two kinds of pillared surfaces.

Keywords: dropwise condensation, textured surface, image processing, watershed

Procedia PDF Downloads 193
222 Evolution under Length Constraints for Convolutional Neural Networks Architecture Design

Authors: Ousmane Youme, Jean Marie Dembele, Eugene Ezin, Christophe Cambier

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In recent years, the convolutional neural networks (CNN) architectures designed by evolution algorithms have proven to be competitive with handcrafted architectures designed by experts. However, these algorithms need a lot of computational power, which is beyond the capabilities of most researchers and engineers. To overcome this problem, we propose an evolution architecture under length constraints. It consists of two algorithms: a search length strategy to find an optimal space and a search architecture strategy based on a genetic algorithm to find the best individual in the optimal space. Our algorithms drastically reduce resource costs and also keep good performance. On the Cifar-10 dataset, our framework presents outstanding performance with an error rate of 5.12% and only 4.6 GPU a day to converge to the optimal individual -22 GPU a day less than the lowest cost automatic evolutionary algorithm in the peer competition.

Keywords: CNN architecture, genetic algorithm, evolution algorithm, length constraints

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221 Effect of Time on Stream on the Performances of Plasma Assisted Fe-Doped Cryptomelanes in Trichloroethylene (TCE) Oxidation

Authors: Sharmin Sultana, Nicolas Nuns, Pardis Simon, Jean-Marc Giraudon, Jean-Francois Lamonior, Nathalie D. Geyter, Rino Morent

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Environmental issues, especially air pollution, have become a huge concern of environmental legislation as a consequence of growing awareness in our global world. In this regard, control of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emission has become an important issue due to their potential toxicity, carcinogenicity, and mutagenicity. The research of innovative technologies for VOC abatement is stimulated to accommodate the new stringent standards in terms of VOC emission. One emerging strategy is the coupling of 2 existing complementary technologies, namely here non-thermal plasma (NTP) and heterogeneous catalysis, to get a more efficient process for VOC removal in air. The objective of this current work is to investigate the abatement of trichloroethylene (TCE-highly toxic chlorinated VOC) from moist air (RH=15%) as a function of time by combined use of multi-pin-to-plate negative DC corona/glow discharge with Fe-doped cryptomelanes catalyst downstream i.e. post plasma-catalysis (PPC) process. For catalyst alone case, experiments reveal that, initially, Fe doped cryptomelane (regardless the mode of Fe incorporation by co-precipitation (Fe-K-OMS-2)/ impregnation (Fe/K-OMS-2)) exhibits excellent activity to decompose TCE compared to cryptomelane (K-OMS-2) itself. A maximum obtained value of TCE abatement after 6 min is as follows: Fe-KOMS-2 (73.3%) > Fe/KOMS-2 (48.5) > KOMS-2 (22.6%). However, with prolonged operation time, whatever the catalyst under concern, the abatement of TCE decreases. After 111 min time of exposure, the catalysts can be ranked as follows: Fe/KOMS-2 (11%) < K-OMS-2 (12.3%) < Fe-KOMS-2 (14.5%). Clearly, this phenomenon indicates catalyst deactivation either by chlorination or by blocking the active sites. Remarkably, in PPC configuration (energy density = 60 J/L, catalyst temperature = 150°C), experiments reveal an enhanced performance towards TCE removal regardless the type of catalyst. After 6 min time on stream, the TCE removal efficiency amount as follows: K-OMS-2 (60%) < Fe/K-OMS-2 (79%) < Fe-K-OMS-2 (99.3%). The enhanced performances over Fe-K-OMS-2 catalyst are attributed to its high surface oxygen mobility and structural defects leading to high O₃ decomposition efficiency to give active species able to oxidize the plasma processed hazardous\by-products and the possibly remaining VOC into CO₂. Moreover, both undoped and doped catalysts remain strongly capable to abate TCE with time on stream. The TCE removal efficiencies of the PPC processes with Fe/KOMS-2 and KOMS-2 catalysts are not affected by time on stream indicating an excellent catalyst stability. When using the Fe-K-OMS-2 as catalyst, TCE abatement slightly reduces with time on stream. However, it is noteworthy to stress that still a constant abatement of 83% is observed during at least 30 minutes. These results prove that the combination of NTP with catalysts not only increases the catalytic activity but also allows to avoid, to some extent, the poisoning of catalytic sites resulting in an enhanced catalyst stability. In order to better understand the different surface processes occurring in the course of the total TCE oxidation in PPC experiments, a detailed X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and Time of Flight-Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) study on the fresh and used catalysts is in progress.

Keywords: Fe doped cryptomelane, non-thermal plasma, plasma-catalysis, stability, trichloroethylene

Procedia PDF Downloads 182
220 Legal Basis for Water Resources Management in Brazil: Case Study of the Rio Grande Basin

Authors: Janaína F. Guidolini, Jean P. H. B. Ometto, Angélica Giarolla, Peter M. Toledo, Carlos A. Valera

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The water crisis, a major problem of the 21st century, occurs mainly due to poor management. The central issue that should govern the management is the integration of the various aspects that interfere with the use of water resources and their protection, supported by legal basis. A watershed is a unit of water interacting with the physical, biotic, social, economic and cultural variables. The Brazilian law recognized river basin as the territorial management unit. Based on the diagnosis of the current situation of the water resources of the Rio Grande Basin, a discussion informed in the Brazilian legal basis was made to propose measures to fight or mitigate damages and environmental degradation in the Basin. To manage water resources more efficiently, conserve water and optimize their multiple uses, the integration of acquired scientific knowledge and management is essential. Moreover, it is necessary to monitor compliance with environmental legislation.

Keywords: conservation of soil and water, environmental laws, river basin, sustainability

Procedia PDF Downloads 247
219 Creep Effect on Composite Beam with Perfect Steel-Concrete Connection

Authors: Souici Abdelaziz, Tehami Mohamed, Rahal Nacer, Said Mohamed Bekkouche, Berthet Jean-Fabien

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In this paper, the influence of the concrete slab creep on the initial deformability of a bent composite beam is modelled. This deformability depends on the rate of creep. This means the rise in value of the longitudinal strain ε c(x,t), the displacement D eflec(x,t) and the strain energy E(t). The variation of these three parameters can easily affect negatively the good appearance and the serviceability of the structure. Therefore, an analytical approach is designed to control the status of the deformability of the beam at the instant t. This approach is based on the Boltzmann’s superposition principle and very particularly on the irreversible law of deformation. For this, two conditions of compatibility and two other static equilibrium equations are adopted. The two first conditions are set according to the rheological equation of Dischinger. After having done a mathematical arrangement, we have reached a system of two differential equations whose integration allows to find the mathematical expression of each generalized internal force in terms of the ability of the concrete slab to creep.

Keywords: composite section, concrete, creep, deformation, differential equation, time

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218 Adjusted LOLE and EENS Indices for the Consideration of Load Excess Transfer in Power Systems Adequacy Studies

Authors: François Vallée, Jean-François Toubeau, Zacharie De Grève, Jacques Lobry

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When evaluating the capacity of a generation park to cover the load in transmission systems, traditional Loss of Load Expectation (LOLE) and Expected Energy not Served (EENS) indices can be used. If those indices allow computing the annual duration and severity of load non-covering situations, they do not take into account the fact that the load excess is generally shifted from one penury state (hour or quarter of an hour) to the following one. In this paper, a sequential Monte Carlo framework is introduced in order to compute adjusted LOLE and EENS indices. Practically, those adapted indices permit to consider the effect of load excess transfer on the global adequacy of a generation park, providing thus a more accurate evaluation of this quantity.

Keywords: expected energy not served, loss of load expectation, Monte Carlo simulation, reliability, wind generation

Procedia PDF Downloads 375
217 Limes Africanus: Tribes, Romans and Islamic Dynasties

Authors: Erika Mattio , Edoardo Casolo

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This project studies in a complete and innovative way the lesser known southern roman border: the limes africanus. In this work, thanks to the comparison of archaeological, historical and epigraphic sources, the evolution and changes that occurred in the cities and areas around the limes were analysed. As of now, there are many studies relative to the roman imperial period, however there are not that many analysing the evolution of the limes from the Islamic conquest to the modern day, comparing the ancient, byzantine, islamic and contemporary periods, understanding the significance of the limes, it s role and the cities and commerce that were defined by it in north Africa. Using modern methods of remote sensing and landscape archaeology, a georeferencing of the area documented in the thirties of the last century by French military aviation colonel Jean Baradez was created, showing that the limes africanus had survived the fall of the roman empire and continued to be important also for the Islamic dynasties that came later, even until the italo-turkish war and the Italian conquest of Libya. With this research we wish to demonstrate the continuation through time of the limes africanus and whether today it exists still or not.

Keywords: Limes Tripolitanus, Muslim, North Africa, Romans

Procedia PDF Downloads 171
216 Removal of an Acid Dye from Water Using Cloud Point Extraction and Investigation of Surfactant Regeneration by pH Control

Authors: Ghouas Halima, Haddou Boumedienne, Jean Peal Cancelier, Cristophe Gourdon, Ssaka Collines

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This work concerns the coacervate extraction of industrial dye, namely BezanylGreen - F2B, from an aqueous solution by nonionic surfactant “Lutensol AO7 and TX-114” (readily biodegradable). Binary water/surfactant and pseudo-binary (in the presence of solute) phase diagrams were plotted. The extraction results as a function of wt.% of the surfactant and temperature are expressed by the following four quantities: percentage of solute extracted, E%, residual concentrations of solute and surfactant in the dilute phase (Xs,w, and Xt,w, respectively) and volume fraction of coacervate at equilibrium (Фc). For each parameter, whose values are determined by a design of experiments, these results are subjected to empirical smoothing in three dimensions. The aim of this study is to find out the best compromise between E% and Фc. E% increases with surfactant concentration and temperature in optimal conditions, and the extraction extent of TA reaches 98 and 96 % using TX-114 and Lutensol AO7, respectively. The effect of sodium sulfate or cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) addition is also studied. Finally, the possibility of recycling the surfactant is proved.

Keywords: extraction, cloud point, non ionic surfactant, bezanyl green

Procedia PDF Downloads 94
215 Topical Delivery of Griseofulvin via Lipid Nanoparticles

Authors: Yann Jean Tan, Hui Meng Er, Choy Sin Lee, Shew Fung Wong, Wen Huei Lim

Abstract:

Griseofulvin is a long standing fungistatic agent against dermatophytosis. Nevertheless, it has several drawbacks such as poor and highly variable bio availability, long duration of treatment, systemic side effects and drug interactions. Targeted treatment for the superficial skin infection, dermatophytosis via topical route could be beneficial. Nevertheless, griseofulvin is only available in the form of oral preparation. Hence, it generates interest in developing a topical formulation for griseofulvin, by using lipid nano particle as the vehicle. Lipid nanoparticle is a submicron colloidal carrier with a core that is solid in nature (lipid). It has combined advantages of various traditional carriers and is a promising vehicle for topical delivery. The griseofulvin loaded lipid nano particles produced using high pressure homogenization method were characterized and investigated for its skin targeting effect in vitro. It has a mean particle size of 179.8±4.9 nm with polydispersity index of 0.306±0.011. Besides, it showed higher skin permeation and better skin targeting effect compared to the griseofulvin suspension.

Keywords: lipid nanoparticles, griseofulvin, topical, dermatophytosis

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214 Simulating the Unseen: David Cronenberg’s Body Horror through Baudrillard’s Lens

Authors: Mario G. Rodriguez

Abstract:

This paper undertakes an in-depth exploration of David Cronenberg's filmography through Jean Baudrillard's theory of simulacra and simulation. Little has been written to show how Cronenberg’s cinema exemplifies Baudrillard’s conceptualization of postmodernity. The study employs Baudrillard’s historical orders of simulacra, as well as his definitions of hyperreality and simulation, to recontextualize Cronenberg’s films in an era characterized by the increasing influence of media and technology and Cronenberg's oeuvre presents a compelling canvas for examining the interplay between the real and the simulated. Through films like "Videodrome" (1983), "The Fly" (1986), and "eXistenZ" (1999), Cronenberg navigates the complex terrain of the human body, technology, and societal perceptions, echoing Baudrillard's concerns about the hyperreal and the dissolution of reality. The study concludes with a consideration of the role of "body-horror" as it pertains to Baudrillard's theory. It sheds light on how fear of loss of bodily autonomy, the relationship between technology and the human body, and the intersection of science, medicine, and horror reflect the nature of hyperreality and simulation.

Keywords: Cronenberg, hyperreality, simulation, Baudrillard

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