The use of the Novosol process for the treatment of polluted marine sediment

The work presented in this article concerns polluted marine sediments. The article is divided into three parts. The first part discusses existing industrial procedures of treatment. The second part introduces the Novosol((R)) process, which was used for the treatment of polluted marine sediments. This process is based on the stabilization of heavy metals in the solid matrix by phosphatation and the destruction of organic matter by calcination. Finally, after a comparison had been made between environmental results obtained on both polluted marine sediments and inert ones, treated sediments were introduced in the production of clay bricks. The results obtained show that the Novosol process leads to the immobilization of most heavy metals and can be considered as an efficient tool for the stabilisation of polluted marine sediment. Thus, the results of physical and mechanical tests as compressive strength and water absorption indicate that performances obtained were comparable to standard brick values. These results confirm that, once treated, polluted sediments can be recycled.     

Computer simulation of reflective volume grating holographic data storage

The shift selectivity of a reflective-type spherical reference wave volume hologram is investigated using a nonparaxial numerical modeling based on a multiple-thin-layer implementation of a volume integral equation. The method can be easily parallelized on multiple computers. According to the results, the falloff of the diffraction efficiency due to the readout shift shows neither Bragg zeros nor oscillation with our parameter set. This agrees with our earlier study of smaller and transmissive holograms. Interhologram cross talk of shift-multiplexed holograms is also modeled using the same method, together with sparse modulation block coding and correlation decoding of data. Signal-to-noise ratio and raw bit error rate values are calculated.     

A poly(cyclopentadithiophene) matrix suitable for electrochemically controlled DNA delivery

A conducting polymer is tested for DNA delivery trials. The conducting matrix used is successful for electrochemical delivery of DNA accumulated by covalent immobilization. The electrochemical process consists of the reduction of arylsulfonamide moieties, which occur as linker groups. The specific design of the polymer allows the electronic properties to be promoted, making available the cleavage potential in physiological media. The amount of DNA released from a modified platinum electrode is investigated by quartz crystal microbalance. The released species used to prove the system performance are long sequences of DNA strands, which are amplified by PCR after liberation and identified by electrophoresis migration.     

Research Regarding Heat Exchange Through Nanometric Polysynthetic Thermal Compound to Cooler–CPU Interface

This article documents some of the factors that influence the heat transfer through polysynthetic thermal compounds at the central processing unit (CPU)/heat sink interface. First, special attention is paid to assessing the effect of mechanical and thermal properties of the contacting bodies, applied contact pressures, and surface roughness characteristics, as well as the use of different thermal interface materials on the maximum temperature experienced by the CPU. Second, it can be appreciated that good wetting of the mating surfaces and the retention of asperity micro-contacts can become critical elements in effectively removing the heat generated by the CPU. This study uses the Holman model for calculating the heat transfer, indicating the role of thermal contact resistance. The mathematical results clearly indicate that any strain in the interface material leads to a change in thermal contact resistance, with an effect on CPU overheating. Experimentally obtained images with an atomic force microscope clearly revealed that eliminating micro-gaps using thermal interface materials can facilitate the heat transfer by significantly lowering the thermal contact resistance of the CPU/heat sink assembly. This effect is amplified by the plastic deformation of micro-contacts due to high contact pressures and lower micro-hardness levels.     

On a Thermodynamic Theory of Porous Cosserat Elastic Shells

This paper presents a theory for porous thermoelastic shells using the model of Cosserat surfaces and the Nunziato–Cowin theory for materials with voids. To describe the porosity of the thin body, we introduce two scalar fields: one field accounts for the changes in volume fraction along the middle surface of the shell, and the other field characterizes the porosity variations along the shell's thickness. First, we postulate the principles of thermodynamics for these two-dimensional continua and we obtain the equations of the nonlinear theory. Then, we consider the linearized theory and prove the uniqueness of solution to the boundary initial value problem with no definiteness assumption on the constitutive coefficients. Finally, we consider the deformation of isotropic and homogeneous shells and determine the constitutive coefficients for Cosserat surfaces, by comparison with the results obtained from the three-dimensional approach to shell theory.     

Experimental study of the viscoelastic properties of green poplar wood during maturation

During the radial growth of trees, internal stresses are created because of wood-cell maturation. Biomechanical models can compute these stresses, but they are currently limited by a lack of knowledge about the viscoelastic behavior of green wood. The aim of the present paper is to study the viscoelastic behavior of green wood and to obtain measurements of viscoelastic parameters. In order to accomplish this, the effect of internal maturation stresses on the studied samples was first eliminated by studying viscoelastic phenomena. Creep tests were then performed on small slats of wood using a cantilever bending test. It is shown that green wood viscoelastic behavior can be modeled with Burgers’ model. The corresponding parameters are estimated with respect to the wood-cells age. No significant difference between tension wood and normal wood is revealed, but it appears that green wood tends to lose its viscoelastic behavior with maturation.     

The extended resource task network: a framework for the combined scheduling of batch processes and CHP plants

The issue of energy has emerged as one of the greatest challenges facing mankind. In an industrial perspective, the development of site utility systems (generally combined heat and power (CHP) systems) for the generation and management of utilities provides a great potential source for energy savings. However, in most industrial sites, a master–slave relationship usually governs this kind of system and limits the potential operating capacity of CHP. To improve the decision-making process, Agha et al. (2010. Integrated production and utility system approach for optimising industrial unit operation. Energy, 35, 611–627) have proposed an integrated approach that carries out simultaneous and consistent scheduling of batch production plants and site utility systems. The modelling of the problem relies on a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) formulation. Nevertheless, although it is a powerful mathematical tool, it still remains difficult to use for non-expert engineers. In this framework, a graphical formalism based on existing representations (STN, RTN) has been developed: the extended resource task network (ERTN). Combined with an efficient and generic MILP formulation, it permits various kinds of industrial problems, including production and consumption of utility flows to be modelled homogenously. This paper focuses on the semantic elements of the ERTN formalism and illustrates their use through representative examples.     

A Low-Complexity Hybrid Framework for Combining-Type Non-regenerative MIMO Relaying

Combining-type relay systems can benefit from distributed array gain if the signals retransmitted from different relays are superimposed coherently at the destination. For this purpose, we propose a low-complexity hybrid framework in which the non-regenerative multiple-input-multiple-output relaying matrix at each relay is generated by cascading two substructures, akin to an equalizer for the backward channel and a precoder for the forward channel. For each of these two substructures, we introduced two one-dimensional parametric families of candidate matrix transformations. The first family, non-cooperative by nature, depends only on the backward or forward channel of the same relay. The second (cooperative) family also makes use of information derived from the channels of other relays. This hybrid framework allows for the classification and comparison of all possible combinations of these substructures, including several previously investigated methods and their generalizations. The design parameters can be optimized based on individual channel realizations or on channel statistics; in the latter case, the optimum parameters can be well approximated by linear functions of the signal-to-noise ratios. The proposed methods achieve a good balance between performance and complexity: they outperform existing low-complexity strategies by a large margin in terms of both capacity and bit-error rate, and at the same time, are significantly simpler than previous near-optimal iterative algorithms.     

A living cell quartz crystal microbalance biosensor for continuous monitoring of cytotoxic responses of macrophages to single-walled carbon nanotubes

Background  

Numerous engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) exist and new ENMs are being developed. A challenge to nanotoxicology and environmental health and safety is evaluating toxicity of ENMs before they become widely utilized. Cellular assays remain the predominant test platform yet these methods are limited by using discrete time endpoints and reliance on organic dyes, vulnerable to interference from ENMs. Label-free, continuous, rapid response systems with biologically meaningful endpoints are needed. We have developed a device to detect and monitor in real time responses of living cells to ENMs. The device, a living cell quartz crystal microbalance biosensor (QCMB), uses macrophages adherent to a quartz crystal. The communal response of macrophages to treatments is monitored continuously as changes in crystal oscillation frequency (Δf). We report the ability of this QCMB to distinguish benign from toxic exposures and reveal unique kinetic information about cellular responses to varying doses of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs).