Comparison of spectral fluorescent signatures-based models to characterize DOM in treated water samples

Statistical procedures enable a multivariate analysis of the measurements to identify specific characteristics of the dissolved organic matter (DOM) fractions in raw natural water, including the concentrations. In this work, three already established models were used to predict the concentrations of fractions of DOM from spectral fluorescent signatures (SFSs): a general linear regression (GLR), loadings and scores of a principal components analysis (PCA), and a partial least squares regression (PLS). Details about the method undertaken to prepare the fractions were given. Water samples from surface water treatment plants in New Jersey were used for the testing. In all cases, PLS have shown much better biases and accuracies than GLR and PCA models. Hydrophilic neutral, however, showed poor performances (bias 33%) due to the isolation technique used. Recommendations were provided in order to improve the DOM characterization through SFS, which linked to PLS make a powerful and cost-effective surrogate parameter to characterize DOM.     

Snow metamorphism as revealed by scanning electron microscopy

Current theories of snow metamorphism indicate that sublimating snow crystals have rounded shapes, while growing crystals have shapes that depend on growth rates. At slow growth rates, crystals are rounded. At moderate rates, they have flat faces with rounded edges. At fast growth rates, crystals have flat faces with sharp edges, and they have hollow faces at very fast growth rates. The main growth/sublimation mechanism is thought to be by the homogeneous nucleation of new layers at or near crystal edges. It was also suggested that the equilibrium shape of snow crystals would be temperature dependent: rounded above -10.5 degrees C, and faceted below. To test these paradigms, we have performed SEM investigations of snow samples having undergone metamorphism under natural conditions, and of snow samples subjected to isothermal metamorphism at -4 degrees and -15 degrees C in the laboratory. In general, current theories predicting crystal shapes as a function of growth rates, and of whether crystals are growing or sublimating, are verified. However, the transition in equilibrium shapes from rounded to faceted at -10.5 degrees C is not observed in our isothermal experiments that reveal a predominance of rounded shapes after more than a month of metamorphism at -4 and -15 degrees C. Some small crystals with flat faces that also have sharp angles at -15 degrees C, are observed in our isothermal experiments. These faces are newly formed, and contradict current theory. Several hypotheses are proposed to explain their occurrence. One is that they are due to sublimation at emerging dislocations.     

Tamoxifen derivatives for delivery of the antitumoral (DACH)Pt group: selective synthesis by McMurry coupling,and biochemical behaviour

The goal of our study was to potentiate the effects of the ((R,R)-trans-1,2-diaminocyclohexane)-platinum(II) fragment [(DACH)Pt], known for its cytotoxic properties, either with tamoxifen (Tam), the most widely used antiestrogen in the treatment of hormone-dependent breast cancers, or with its active metabolite hydroxytamoxifen (hydroxy-Tam). We coupled Tam or hydroxy-Tam derivatives bearing a malonato group at the para position of the beta aromatic ring with the (DACH)Pt fragment. The malonato-Tam and malonato-hydroxy-Tam compounds were prepared through McMurry coupling of the appropriate ketones. The presence of the malonate group resulted in a pronounced stereospecificity in the reaction, since malonato-Tam was obtained only as the Z isomer, while malonato-hydroxy-Tam was obtained as an 80/20 E/Z mixture. Attribution of the isomeric structures was achieved by 2D NMR spectroscopy. The platinum complexes (DACH)Pt-malonato-Tam and (DACH)Pt-malonato-hydroxy-Tam were then prepared by coupling the barium salts derived from the malonato-Tam and malonato-hydroxy-Tam with the nitrate derived from (DACH)PtCl(2). Study of the biochemical properties of these two platinum complexes showed that, while the hydroxy-Tam complex is satisfactorily recognized by the estrogen receptor (relative binding affinity, RBA=6.4 %), the Tam complex is less well recognized (RBA=0.5 %). The effects of these complexes on two hormone-dependent breast cancer cell lines (MCF7 and MVLN) were studied in vitro. Both complexes showed an antiproliferative effect on MCF7 cells, and an antiestrogenic effect on MVLN cells. The observed effects appear to be essentially antihormonal, since incorporation of the (DACH)Pt fragment into the tamoxifen skeleton did not cause an increase in the cytotoxicity of the complexes.     

Electrodes modified by electrodeposition of CoTAA complexes as selective oxygen cathodes in a direct methanol fuel cell

The oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) at cobalt tetraazaanulene (CoTAA) modified electrodes was investigated. As a first approach, modified electrodes were prepared by electrodeposition of CoTAA on glassy carbon (GC). The modification of the GC surface was monitored by u.v.–vis. differential reflectance spectroscopy (UVDRS). The recorded spectra (i.e., absorbance as a function of wavelength and time) showed that the electrodeposition of CoTAA at 0.8 V vs Ag|AgCl, that is, at a potential where the TAA ligand is oxidized to TAA⁺, seems to produce a thin polymer film. Starting from these preliminary results, porous rotating disc electrodes (RDEs) were prepared by electrodeposition of CoTAA (0.8 V vs Ag|AgCl, 1 min) on graphite powder embedded in a recast Nafion^® film. The use of a porous RDE allowed comparison of the activity and selectivity of Pt nanoparticles and CoTAA for the ORR under experimental conditions close to those of a fuel cell cathode, that is, at the catalyst|Nafion^® interface. The activity towards the ORR of a porous electrode modified by electrodeposition of CoTAA is not affected when methanol is present in the electrolyte phase, whereas a noticeable decrease in the activity of Pt-based oxygen cathodes was observed under the same conditions. Half-cell life tests showed that CoTAA-modified electrodes and Pt-based electrodes have a comparable stability over a period of 90 min.     

Mapping the IEC 62264 models onto the Zachman framework for analysing products information traceability: a case study

In order to face new regulation directives regarding the environment and also for improving their customer relationship, enterprises have to increasingly be more able to manage their product information during the entire lifecycle. One of the objectives among others in this paper is to deal with product traceability along the product lifecycle. To meet this objective, the information system has to be designed and, further built in such a way all information regarding products is recorded. The IEC 62264 standards define generic logical models for exchanging product and process information between business and manufacturing levels of enterprise applications. Thus, it can be a base for product information traceability. However, its complexity comes from the fact it mixes conceptual and implementation details while no methodology exists that defines how to instantiate it. Product traceability is then needed to increase its abstraction level in order to concentrate on its concepts and managing its application by providing a methodology for its instantiation. In this paper, we propose to map the IEC 62264 standard models to a particular view of Zachman framework in order to make the framework concrete as a guideline for applying the standard and for providing the key players in information systems design with a methodology to use the standard for traceability purposes.     

Adaptive quality of service‐based routing approaches: development of neuro‐dynamic state‐dependent reinforcement learning algorithms

In this paper, we propose two adaptive routing algorithms based on reinforcement learning. In the first algorithm, we have used a neural network to approximate the reinforcement signal, allowing the learner to take into account various parameters such as local queue size, for distance estimation. Moreover, each router uses an online learning module to optimize the path in terms of average packet delivery time, by taking into account the waiting queue states of neighbouring routers. In the second algorithm, the exploration of paths is limited to N‐best non‐loop paths in terms of hops number (number of routers in a path), leading to a substantial reduction of convergence time. The performances of the proposed algorithms are evaluated experimentally with OPNET simulator for different levels of traffic's load and compared with standard shortest‐path and Q‐routing algorithms. Our approach proves superior to classical algorithms and is able to route efficiently even when the network load varies in an irregular manner. We also tested our approach on a large network topology to proof its scalability and adaptability. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Synergistic verification and validation of systems and software engineering models

In this paper, we present a unified approach for the verification and validation of software and systems engineering design models expressed in UML 2.0 and SysML 1.0. The approach is based on three well-established techniques, namely formal analysis, programme analysis and software engineering (SwE) techniques. More precisely, our contribution consists of the synergistic combination of model checking, static analysis and SwE metrics that enables the automatic and efficient assessment of design models from static and dynamic perspectives. Additionally, we present the design and implementation of an automated computer-aided assessing framework integrating the proposed approach. Moreover, we discuss the related technical details and the underlying synergism. Finally, we illustrate the proposed approach by assessing a design case study that is composed of state machine and sequence diagrams.     

Quantum speed-up for unsupervised learning

We show how the quantum paradigm can be used to speed up unsupervised learning algorithms. More precisely, we explain how it is possible to accelerate learning algorithms by quantizing some of their subroutines. Quantization refers to the process that partially or totally converts a classical algorithm to its quantum counterpart in order to improve performance. In particular, we give quantized versions of clustering via minimum spanning tree, divisive clustering and k-medians that are faster than their classical analogues. We also describe a distributed version of k-medians that allows the participants to save on the global communication cost of the protocol compared to the classical version. Finally, we design quantum algorithms for the construction of a neighbourhood graph, outlier detection as well as smart initialization of the cluster centres.     

Impact of morphological analysis and a large training corpus on the performances of Arabic diacritization

The absence of short vowels in Arabic texts is the source of some difficulties in several automatic processing systems of Arabic language. Several developed hybrid systems of automatic diacritization of the Arabic texts are presented and evaluated in this paper. All these approaches are based on three phases: a morphological step followed by statistical phases based on Hidden Markov Model at the word level and at the character level. The two versions of the morpho-syntactic analyzer Alkhalil were used and tested and the outputs of this stage are the different possible diacritizations of words. A lexical database containing the most frequent words in the Arabic language has been incorporated into some systems in order to make the system faster. The learning step was performed on a large Arabic corpus and the impact of the size of this learning corpus on the performance of the system was studied. The systems use smoothing techniques to circumvent the problem of missing transitions words and the Viterbi algorithm to select the optimal solution. Our proposed system that benefits from the wealth of morphological analysis and a large diacritized corpus presents interesting experimental results in comparison to other automatic diacritization systems known until now.