Surface tension as a limiting factor for aerobic n-alkane biodegradation

A new mathematical model for n-alkane biodegradation in crude oil, heavy oil and paraffinic mixtures is described. The pattern of n-alkane degradation as a function of the inverse of hydrocarbon chain length reported in this paper can be considered as general behaviour for many aerobic n-alkane biodegradation processes. A new interpretation of n-alkane biodegradation as a function of surface tension, is given. A mathematical expression was obtained starting from the degradation values of n-alkane and relative surface tension, which is a parameter independent of fermentation conditions. An interesting parameter, b, was identified which represented the accelerating conversion factor for n-alkane biodegradation. The findings suggested that the n-alkane biodegradation. The findings suggested that he n-alkane biodegradation rate may be affected by the fermentation condition (agitation, aeration, etc.) and by the strain of microorganism, while the behaviour pattern of n-alkane degradation was essentially linked to the substrate characteristics (molecular structure, molecular weight and density).     

Fine coal desulphurization by leaching with bromine containing hydrobromic acid

Sulphur extraction from coal by leaching with bromine-containing aqueous hydrobromic acid has been investigated in the temperature range from ambient to 120 °C. This procedure was found to be selective for the removal of high levels of sulphate and pyritic sulphur within a few minutes of leaching, while no significant reduction of the organic sulphur could be observed. Leaching led to an appreciable reduction of the ash yield and the up-take of substantial quantities of bromine. The bromine can be removed as hydrogen bromide by thermal treatment under nitrogen, without significant loss of volatile matter; for reduction of the bromine level to below 0.1 wt%, treatment for at least 1 h at ≈ 500 °C was needed.     

Straightforward modeling of dynamic I–V characteristics for microwave FETs

This work presents a straightforward approach aimed at modeling the dynamic I–V characteristics of microwave active solid‐state devices. The drain‐source current generator represents the most significant source of nonlinearity in a transistor and, therefore, its correct modeling is fundamental to predict accurately the current and voltage waveforms under large‐signal operation. The proposed approach relies on using a small set of low‐frequency time‐domain waveform measurements combined with numerical optimization‐based estimation of the nonlinear model parameters. The procedure is applied to a gallium nitride HEMT and silicon FinFET. The effectiveness of the modeling procedure in terms of prediction accuracy and generalization capability is demonstrated by validation of the extracted models under operating conditions different than the ones used for the parameters estimation. Good agreement between measurements and model simulations is achieved for both technologies and in both low‐ and high‐frequency range. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 24:109–116, 2014.     

Black‐box position and attitude tracking for underwater vehicles by second‐order sliding‐mode technique

In this work we address the tracking control problems for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). The proposed solution is based on the variable structure systems (VSS) theory and, in particular, on the second‐order sliding‐mode (2‐SM) methodology. The tuning of the controller is carried out via black‐box approach, dispensing with the knowledge of the actual AUV parameters, by simply progressively increasing a single gain parameter. The presented stability analysis includes explicitly the unmodelled actuator dynamics and the presence of external uncertain disturbances. The good performance of the proposed scheme is verified by means of simulations on a 6‐DOF AUV. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Survey of Airworthiness and Certification for UAS

The Italian SMAT project is a civilian program supported by Piemonte Region developed for the territorial monitoring and surveillance and for the prevention of natural hazards. In a different way from the previous surveillance programs, the SMAT project is based on the use of several unmanned platforms that are able to cooperate through ground coordination and control station. The flight in non-segregated airspace, needed in order to accomplish the territorial monitoring mission, is a main issue to be investigated and defined, because of the current lack of a common consensus and agreement on the regulations of UAS. The present work outlines the international initiatives that deal with the development of the regulatory framework on airworthiness and certification of UAS and their potential impact on the SMAT project.     

On the second-order sliding mode control of nonlinear systems with uncertain control direction

This note deals with the implementation of a second-order sliding mode control algorithm for a class of nonlinear systems in which the sign of the high-frequency gain, though constant, is unknown. A specific second-order sliding mode control algorithm, the “Suboptimal” algorithm, is properly modified in order to face the uncertainty in the control direction. It is shown that after a finite time the uncertain sign is identified and the standard finite time convergence takes place from that time on. Simulation results are provided.     

A hypergraph model for constraint logic programming and applications to bus drivers' scheduling

In a previous paper, a hypergraph model for the satisfiability of Datalog formulas was proposed. Here, we extend that approach in order to deal with a class ofconstraint logic programming (CLP) formulas, that is, Datalog formulas in the presence of constraints. A CLP formula is represented by means of a weighted hypergraph and the problem of evaluating this formula is reduced to a sequence of shortest path computations on hypergraphs. To evaluate the performance of this approach, the bus drivers' scheduling problem is formulated as the problem of checking the satisfiability of a CLP formula and it is solved by means of the hypergraph-based algorithm embedded within a local search procedure. Preliminary experimental results are quite encouraging and suggest that the proposed approach may provide an efficient way to tackle hard real-life combinatorial problems.This research was partially supported by the Progetto Finalizzato Trasporti 2 of the Italian National Research Council, under Contract No. 91.02479.PF74.     

Introducing QoS awareness in distributed programming: QTcl

A number of distributed applications require communication services with quality of service (QoS) guarantees. Building global‐scale distributed systems with predictable properties is one of the great challenges for computer systems engineering in the new century. Work undertaken within the Internet Engineering Task Force has led to the definition of novel architectural models for the Internet with QoS support. According to these models, the network has to be appropriately configured in order to provide applications with the required performance guarantees. In next‐generation networks, enabling applications to interact with the underlying QoS services is of primary importance. Hence, several special‐purpose application programming interfaces (APIs) have been defined to let applications negotiate QoS parameters across QoS‐capable networks. However, so far, none of these APIs are available in different operating environments. We believe that such features should be embedded in programming environments for distributed applications. In this work we present how we included QoS control features in Tcl, a programming language that has been widely adopted for the development of distributed multimedia applications. Our work has led to the implementation of QTcl, an extended Tcl interpreter that provides programmers with a new set of primitives, in full compliance with the standard SCRAPI programming interface for the RSVP protocol. QTcl in highly portable, in that it enables standard QoS negotiation to be performed in a seamless fashion on the most common operating systems. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Focusing qualitative simulation using temporal logic: theoretical foundations

We illustrate TeQsim, a qualitative simulator for continuous dynamical systems that combines the expressive power of qualitative differential equations with temporal logic to constrain and refine the resulting predicted behaviors. Temporal logic is used to specify constraints that restrict the simulation to a region of the state space and to specify trajectories for input variables. A propositional linear‐time temporal logic is adopted, which is extended to a three valued logic that allows a formula to be conditionally entailed when quantitative information specified in the formula can be applied to a behavior to refine it. We present a formalization of the logic with correctness and completeness results for the adopted model checking algorithm. We show an example of the simulation of a non‐autonomous dynamical system and illustrate possible application tasks, ranging from simulation to monitoring and control of continuous dynamical systems, where TeQsim can be applied. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.