Bioactivity behaviour of biodegradable material comprising bioactive glass

Biocomposite of bioactive glass (BG) with chitosan polymer (CH) is prepared by freeze-drying technique. Obtained material is investigated by using several physico-chemical methods. The XRD and FTIR show the interface bonding interactions between glass and polymer. The specific surface and porosity of biocomposite were determined. In vitro assays were employed to evaluate the effect of chitosan addition on the glass by studying the chemical reactivity and bioactivity of the BG and BG/CH biocomposite after soaking in a simulated body fluid (SBF). The obtained results show the formation of a bioactive hydroxycarbonate apatite (HCA) layer and highlight the bioactivity and the kinetics of chemical reactivity of bioactive glass, particularly after association with chitosan. The BG/CH biocomposite has excellent ability to form an apatite layer. Inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) highlights the negative effect of chitosan on the silicon release toward the SBF of bioactive glass when in vitro assays.     

ARIANEXPERT: A knowledge based system to analyze ARIANE's mission data

The ARIANE launcher post mission analysis is done at ARIANESPACE. This activity is called the ‘level 0 post flight analysis’ (PFA) and is carried out after each launch by about 60 engineers who are working together under the leadership of ARIANESPACE.

The PFA is one of the most critical of ARIANE operations, for several reasons:

• - The launch rate (8 a year for ARIANE 4) leaves a very short time to carry out all the verification work. Moreover, the PFA is a mandatory step before authorizing the next launch.

• - The complexity of the ARIANE launcher results in a very high demand on the PFA engineers. Moreover, there are problems of availability of people with relevant expert knowledge (characterized by a substantial staff turn-over during the 10 year life duration of ARIANE 4) which could potentially result in errors or omissions.

It is very important to be able to take into account the experience of the preceding flights and to record the results and the knowledge accumulated for each launch.

• - The quality and the reliability of the PFA mainly depends on the accessibility of data and on the used methodology.

Because the PFA is still largely done manually, and does not benefit from improved methodologies and advanced technologies providing computerized support for data processing and diagnosis, ARIANESPACE has sponsored MATRA ESPACE for the development of a knowledge based system, called ARIANEXPERT, for supporting the PFA activity. This system combines AI techniques and numerical analysis techniques, together with advanced graphical capabilities.

A prototype has been delivered in April 1990 and has been used since 6 months by ARIANESPACE during real PFAs. Several lessons have been drawn from this operational experience and are described in this paper. They concern:

• - The utility and justification of the use of AI techniques mostly coming from the explanation capabilities and the stress put on capturing the expert knowledge.

• - The difficulties associated with the integration of such systems in the exploitation of ARIANE due to the introduction of very new tasks.

• - The user point of view which evolved from reluctant to convinced.

     

A double linear driving force approximation for non-isothermal mass transfer modeling through bi-disperse adsorbents

The aim of this paper is to derive a double LDF non-isothermal model to describe mass transfer through a fixed bed of bi-disperse adsorbent pellets. Firstly, we perform an analysis concerning the different way the composition within the pellets can be described and the consequence on the model structure and compactness. Secondly, we present a bed model including a simplified intra-particle model that is based on a double LDF approximation. This bi-disperse pellet model reduces the number of variables and parameters that are needed. This simplified model is used to simulate breakthroughs of a methane/carbon dioxide mixture over a 5 A zeolite and of a 2,2-dimethylbutane/2-methylpentane mixture over a silicalite molecular sieve. It is also compared with a more detailed model based on Stefan-Maxwell theory that we have previously developed.     

Development of a universal modeling tool for rechargeable lithium batteries

An interesting universal modeling tool for rechargeable lithium batteries is presented in this paper. The generic model is based on an equivalent circuit technique commonly used in electrochemical impedance characterization. Therefore, the parameters used in the model can be easily parameterized from the electrochemical impedance derivations, which provide a convenient integration with experimental cell characterizations. Such integration offers the universality in this modeling approach.     

Model independent assertions for integration of heterogeneous schemas

Due to the proliferation of database applications, the integration of existing databases into a distributed or federated system is one of the major challenges in responding to enterprises' information requirements. Some proposed integration techniques aim at providing database administrators (DBAs) with a view definition language they can use to build the desired integrated schema. These techniques leave to the DBA the responsibility of appropriately restructuring schema elements from existing local schemas and of solving inter-schema conflicts. This paper investigates theassertion-based approach, in which the DBA's action is limited to pointing out corresponding elements in the schemas and to defining the nature of the correspondence in between. This methodology is capable of: ensuring better integration by taking into account additional semantic information (assertions about links); automatically solving structural conflicts; building the integrated schema without requiring conforming of initial schemas; applying integration rules to a variety of data models; and performing view as well as database integration. This paper presents the basic ideas underlying our approach and focuses on resolution of structural conflicts.     

Analytical models of composite material drilling

Drilling of composite material structures is widely used for aeronautical assemblies. When drilling, damage to the composite laminate is directly related to the cutter geometry and the cutting conditions. Delamination of the composite materials at the hole exit as directly related to the axial force (F _Z) of the cutter is considered to be the major such defect. To address this issue, an orthotropic analytical model is developed in order to calculate the critical force of delamination during drilling and a number of hypotheses for loading are proposed. This critical axial load is related to the delamination conditions (propagation of cracks in the last layers) and the mechanical characteristics of the composite material machined. A numerical model is also drawn up to allow for numerical validation of the analytical approach. A comparison between these analytical and numerical modellings and experimental results from quasi-static punch tests led to the choice of the loading hypothesis closest to the experimental conditions. The selection of corresponding load permits to model the drilling critical thrust force on delamination and then to optimise the cutting conditions. The dimensions and geometrical shape of the cutter are of considerable importance when it comes to choosing this load. The present article focuses on the case of the twist drill, which is commonly used to drill thick plates. However, this work can be adapted to different cutter geometries.     

Inductive modeling of lithium-ion cells

Sandia National Laboratories has conducted a sequence of studies on the performance of lithium ion and other types of electrochemical cells using inductive models. The objectives of some of these investigations are: (1) to develop procedures to rapidly determine performance degradation rates while these cells undergo life tests; (2) to model cell voltage and capacity in order to simulate cell output under variable load and temperature conditions; (3) to model rechargeable battery degradation under conditions of cyclic charge/discharge, and many others. Among the uses for the models are: (1) to enable efficient predictions of battery life; (2) to characterize system behavior.

Inductive models seek to characterize system behavior using experimentally or analytically obtained data in an efficient and robust framework that does not require phenomenological development. There are certain advantages to this. Among these advantages is the ability to avoid making measurements of hard to determine physical parameters or having to understand cell processes sufficiently to write mathematical functions describing their behavior. We have used artificial neural networks (ANNs) for inductive modeling, along with ancillary mathematical tools to improve their accuracy.

This paper summarizes efforts to use inductive tools for cell and battery modeling. Examples of numerical results are presented.     

Synthesis and magnetic properties of an iron 1,2-bisthienyl perfluorocyclopentene photochromic coordination compound

The coordination compound Fe(BM-4-PTP)₂(NCS)₂⋅2MeOH (1) including the photoisomerizable ligand BM-4-PTP (1,2-bis(2′-methyl-5′-(pyrid-4″-yl)thien-3′-yl)perfluorocyclopentene) was obtained as an orange powder. The powder turns blue upon photocyclization of the 1,2-bisthienyl photochromic ligand induced by UV light irradiation at room temperature. Photocycloreversion is obtained by visible light irradiation of the material in the solid state. The orange and blue powders were investigated over the temperature range (5-293 K) and pressure range (1 bar-12 kbar) by magnetic susceptibility measurements and variable temperature ⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy. The photo-induced colour change is accompanied by a distinct magnetic variation at room temperature. Potentialities of this functional optical material for display and data recording are introduced.