Towards a new definition of EPOC parameters for anionic electrochemical catalysts: case of propene combustion

The electrochemical promotion of catalysis (EPOC) of propene combustion was investigated using Pt sputtered thin film on an O²⁻ conductor, 8 mol% Y₂O₃-stabilized-ZrO₂ (YSZ). In order to separate the influence of the thermal migration of the O²⁻ oxide ions from the electrolyte to the catalyst surface and the impact of an electrical polarization on the catalytic activity, several light-off experiments (cool down and heat up procedures) were successively performed under different polarizations, i.e. OCV, +2 and −2 V. These experiments have clearly shown that the presence of O²⁻ (thermally or electrochemically induced) inhibits the catalytic activity of the platinum for the propene deep oxidation. These results demonstrate the importance to define a normalized rate enhancement ratio, ρ _n , from a reference value of the catalytic rate corresponding to a Pt surface state free of O²⁻ ions.     

Very Long SiC‐Based Coaxial Nanocables with Tunable Chemical Composition

We present a simple process for the fabrication of very long SiC‐based coaxial nanocables (NCs). The versatility of this technique is confirmed by the ability to change the chemical composition of the NC outer layers from silica to carbon and boron nitride. The NCs consist of a SiC core approximately 30 nm in diameter with lengths up to several hundred of nanometers. The thickness of the coating is in the range 2–10 nm. The morphology and structural characterization of the NCs is investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and high‐resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), respectively, and their chemical composition is probed by electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS). A vapor–solid growth mechanism is proposed to explain the growth of SiC‐based NCs of various chemical compositions, depending on the chemical nature of the vapor phase. Because of the large quantity of very long and interlaced NCs produced during the synthesis, the macroscopic aspect of the as‐grown material is like a self‐supported felt.     

A 3D analysis of the joint torques developed during driver's ingress–egress motion

Providing an easy ingress–egress (I/E) movement remains a challenge for car designers. I/E has been largely studied in kinematics, but not in dynamics. This study proposes: (1) to evaluate and describe the motor torques developed in the lower limbs and lumbar joints during I/E motions and (2) to analyse the influence of the car geometry and subject anthropometry. An experiment was performed to observe 15 subjects of three anthropometrical groups getting in and out of a car mock-up simulating three different vehicle configurations. Motor torques were extracted using an inverse dynamics analysis. Both ingress and egress motions were primarily characterised by large torques. Overall, the taller a subject and the lower the seat of the vehicle were, the larger the peak torques were. Moreover, peak torques were higher for egress than ingress. These results are discussed in regard to the current knowledge on I/E ergonomics.     

Extracting Microfacet‐based BRDF Parameters from Arbitrary Materials with Power Iterations

We introduce a novel fitting procedure that takes as input an arbitrary material, possibly anisotropic, and automatically converts it to a microfacet BRDF. Our algorithm is based on the property that the distribution of microfacets may be retrieved by solving an eigenvector problem that is built solely from backscattering samples. We show that the eigenvector associated to the largest eigenvalue is always the only solution to this problem, and compute it using the power iteration method. This approach is straightforward to implement, much faster to compute, and considerably more robust than solutions based on nonlinear optimizations. In addition, we provide simple conversion procedures of our fits into both Beckmann and GGX roughness parameters, and discuss the advantages of microfacet slope space to make our fits editable. We apply our method to measured materials from two large databases that include anisotropic materials, and demonstrate the benefits of spatially varying roughness on texture mapped geometric models.     

Static Strategies for Worksharing with Unrecoverable Interruptions

One has a large workload that is “divisible”—its constituent work’s granularity can be adjusted arbitrarily—and one has access to p remote worker computers that can assist in computing the workload. How can one best utilize the workers? Complicating this question is the fact that each worker is subject to interruptions (of known likelihood) that kill all work in progress on it. One wishes to orchestrate sharing the workload with the workers in a way that maximizes the expected amount of work completed. Strategies are presented for achieving this goal, by balancing the desire to checkpoint often—thereby decreasing the amount of vulnerable work at any point—vs. the desire to avoid the context-switching required to checkpoint. Schedules must also temper the desire to replicate work, because such replication diminishes the effective remote workforce. The current study demonstrates the accessibility of strategies that provably maximize the expected amount of work when there is only one worker (the case p=1) and, at least in an asymptotic sense, when there are two workers (the case p=2); but the study strongly suggests the intractability of exact maximization for p≥2 computers, as work replication on multiple workers joins checkpointing as a vehicle for decreasing the impact of work-killing interruptions. We respond to that challenge by developing efficient heuristics that employ both checkpointing and work replication as mechanisms for decreasing the impact of work-killing interruptions. The quality of these heuristics, in expected amount of work completed, is assessed through exhaustive simulations that use both idealized models and actual trace data.     

VPSPACE and a Transfer Theorem over the Reals

We introduce a new class VPSPACE of families of polynomials. Roughly speaking, a family of polynomials is in VPSPACE if its coefficients can be computed in polynomial space. Our main theorem is that if (uniform, constant-free) VPSPACE families can be evaluated efficiently then the class \sf PAR_{\mathbb R}\sf {PAR}_{\mathbb {R}} of decision problems that can be solved in parallel polynomial time over the real numbers collapses to \sfP_{\mathbb R}\sf{P}_{\mathbb {R}}. As a result, one must first be able to show that there are VPSPACE families which are hard to evaluate in order to separate \sfP_{\mathbb R}\sf{P}_{\mathbb {R}} from \sfNP_{\mathbb R}\sf{NP}_{\mathbb {R}}, or even from \sfPAR_{\mathbb R}\sf{PAR}_{\mathbb {R}}.     

Designing and evaluating an energy efficient Cloud

Cloud infrastructures have recently become a center of attention. They can support dynamic operational infrastructures adapted to the requirements of distributed applications. As large-scale distributed systems reach enormous sizes in terms of equipment, the energy consumption issue becomes one of the main challenges for large-scale integration. Like any other large-scale distributed system, Clouds face an increasing demand in energy. In this paper, we explore the energy issue by analyzing how much energy virtualized environments cost. We provide an energy-efficient framework dedicated to Cloud architectures and we validate it through different experimentations on a modern multicore platform. We show on a realistic example that our infrastructure could save 25% of the Cloud nodes’ electrical consumption.     

A comparison of techniques to mitigate Simulator Adaptation Syndrome

We investigated the effectiveness of galvanic cutaneous stimulation (GCS) and auditory stimulation in mitigating simulator adaptation syndrome (SAS). Fifteen drivers (9 men; M age = 23.2 years) participated in a driving simulation experiment comparing three different stimulation conditions (GCS, auditory stimulation and no stimulation as a base line condition) in curves on a virtual urban circuit. GCS and auditory stimulation decreased SAS by reducing head sway. Both sources of stimulation can be recommended as countermeasures against SAS. We encourage the use of stimuli which influence the balancing ability to the design of future simulator protocols and devices to mitigate SAS.