Influence of the size of membrane foulants on the filterability of WWTP-effluent.

The application of membrane filtration for the polishing of wastewater treatment plant (wwtp) effluent is more and more widely used. However, fouling problems are still not well understood. In order to investigate the role of particles in dead-end ultrafiltration of wwtp-effluent, Roorda studied the influence of pre-filtrated wwtp-effluent on the filterability. In addition this research investigates the relation between the filterability of the different fractions in the wwtp-effluent and the amount of organic foulants in these fractions. The results show a relation between the filterability and supra-dissolved particles in the fractions < 0.45 and < 0.2 microm. The amount of COD, colour, proteins and polysaccharides in these fractions are found of minor importance. A significant increase in filterability is found between the fractions < 0.2 and < 0.1 microm as well as a significant decrease in amount of polysaccharides. It is suggested that an essential feature in understanding membrane fouling during ultrafiltration of wwtp-effluent is to investigate the influence of supra-dissolved particles on the filterability as well as the influence of the amount of organic foulants (total organic carbon, proteins, polysaccharides, colour and humic substances) on the reversibility.     

Evaluating the Costs and Benefits of Salt Management Strategies at Mine Sites Using a Systems Model

Unprecedented expansion of coal mining in Australia is occurring within the context of a severe ongoing drought. This has induced more companies to adopt improved water management strategies, such as water reuse. A direct consequence of this is an increase in the salt concentration of the water, which affects in turn the efficiency of the coal preparation processes, the quality of the coal product, and the level of required equipment maintenance. There are three strategies that can be adopted with respect to salt management: accept the elevated salt concentrations and increase spending on equipment maintenance; remove the salt by desalination; and dilute the salt by importing more water. A tool is required to predict the salt concentrations arising from water reuse and to simulate the impact of potential management strategies. This paper presents a systems approach to the modelling of coupled mine site water and salt balances to assist with understanding the implications of implementing desalination or dilution and with assessing the costs and benefits of each option.     

Anomalous Hc in CoCr-films: surface and bulkmeasurements

The major and minor loops of RF sputtered CoCr films in the thickness range of 20-1000 nm and the concentration range of 19-24 at.% Cr were measured by Kerr tracer and VSM. Differences between bulk and surface magnetic data are most likely due to a thickness-dependent surface chemical composition. The maximum anomality of the minor loop coercivity, which depends strongly on the film thickness, appears to be larger at the surface than in the bulk. The anomalous coercivity of the minor loop, which is related to a domain pattern change, could be caused by repulsive forces between domain walls. It can be concluded that study of the minor loop coercivities is an interesting research tool for micromagnetic behavior     

A new adaptive backstepping control algorithm for motion control systems — an implicit and symbolic computation approach

A new adaptive integral backstepping control algorithm for motion control systems is proposed. The design approach is non‐conventional in that it only implicitly incorporates error states into a design Lyapunov function and computes time derivative of the Lyapunov function symbolically to the point of getting parameter estimate update laws on which desirable structures are imposed. The closed‐loop error system turns out to be linear and time‐varying and can be reformulated as a linear–non‐linear cascade system. Uniform exponential stability or absolute stability can be achieved. The design is robust against system parameter variations. The effectiveness and robustness of the control algorithm are verified by numerical examples. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On the properness condition for modal analysis of non-symmetric second-order systems

Non-symmetric second-order systems can be found in several engineering contexts, including vibroacoustics, rotordynamics, or active control. In this paper, the notion of properness for complex modes is extended to the case of non-self-adjoint problems. The properness condition is related to the ability of a set of complex modes to represent in an exact way the behavior of a physical second-order system, meaning that the modes are the solutions of a quadratic eigenvalue problem whose matrices are those of a physical system. This property can be used to identify the damping matrices which may be difficult to obtain with mathematical modeling techniques. The first part of the paper demonstrates the properness condition for non symmetric systems in general. In the second part, the authors propose a methodology to enforce that condition in order to perform an optimal reconstruction of the “closest” physical system starting from a given basis complex modes. The last part is dedicated to numerical and experimental illustrations of the proposed methodology. A simulated academic test case is first used to investigate the numerical aspects of the method. A physical application is then considered in the context of rotordynamics. Finally, an experimental test case is presented using a structure with an active control feedback. An extension of the LSCF identification technique is also introduced to identify both left and right complex mode shapes from measured frequency response functions.     

Acute autoimmune sensorineural hearing loss associated with Crohn's disease

We report the sudden onset of bilateral hearing loss in a patient with Crohn's disease while the intestinal disease was quiescent. Antibodies directed against collagen type II were detected in the serum. Dramatic improvement of his hearing was observed under corticosteroid therapy. Diagnosis of autoimmune sensorineural hearing loss was established. This condition could be considered as an extraintestinal manifestation of Crohn's disease. Early diagnosis is mandated, as prompt and intensive treatment with corticosteroids and/or immunosuppressive drugs is effective and could prevent irreversible hearing loss.