Contribution des fillers calcaires à l’adhérence pâte-granulat. Exemples tunisiens

This article presents compressive test results carried out on a series of hydraulic concrete mixes without admixtures based on Tunisian limestones aggregates. Their estimated strength was calculated with the French model of LCPC (Laboratoire Central des Ponts et Chaussées), which takes into account the effect of bond to the paste and the ceiling effect of the aggregates. To check the experimental values, the parameter of bond had to be associated the content of fillers aggregates, because the performances predicted by the model are lower than the measurements, at least beyond 10% of fillers. The assumption is that the presence of these fine elements, of comparable nature that the aggregates, improves adherence or linking between paste and aggregate, thanks to bringing together the properties of rigidity of the two materials and to a better homogeneity of the system. The relationship found between the calcareous filler ratio and the bond coefficient then makes it possible to extend the forecasts of the model to the hydraulic mixtures containing aggregates crushed limestones, naturally rich in fillers.      

Modélisation du traitement de purification de l'acide phosphorique de voie humide par la méthylisobutylcétone

The present paper reports results for the purification of phosphoric acid by liquid—liquid extraction with methylisobutylketone. The simultaneous effect of some operating parameters, namely concentration of the feed acid, massic ratio of solvent to feed, temperature and number of theoretical stages, on the performances of the extraction step has been examined using a factorial design 2⁴. The established models allowed us to forecast the experimental conditions required to obtain a given yield of P₂O₅ and/or a well‐defined quality of the stripped acid. The optimal conditions have been determined by using a desirability function.     

Gray-level grouping (GLG): an automatic method for optimized image contrast enhancement--Part I: the basic method.

Contrast enhancement has an important role in image processing applications. Conventional contrast enhancement techniques either often fail to produce satisfactory results for a broad variety of low-contrast images, or cannot be automatically applied to different images, because their parameters must be specified manually to produce a satisfactory result for a given image. This paper describes a new automatic method for contrast enhancement. The basic procedure is to first group the histogram components of a low-contrast image into a proper number of bins according to a selected criterion, then redistribute these bins uniformly over the grayscale, and finally ungroup the previously grouped gray-levels. Accordingly, this new technique is named gray-level grouping (GLG). GLG not only produces results superior to conventional contrast enhancement techniques, but is also fully automatic in most circumstances, and is applicable to a broad variety of images. An extension of GLG, selective GLG (SGLG), and its variations will be discussed in Part II of this paper. SGLG selectively groups and ungroups histogram components to achieve specific application purposes, such as eliminating background noise, enhancing a specific segment of the histogram, and so on. The extension of GLG to color images will also be discussed in Part II.     

On the controllability of linear juggling mechanical systems

This paper deals with the controllability of a class of nonsmooth complementarity mechanical systems. Due to their particular structure they can be decomposed into an “object” and a “robot”, consequently they are named juggling systems. It is shown that the accessibility of the “object” can be characterized by nonlinear constrained equations, or generalized equations. Examples are presented, including a simple model of backlash. The main focus of the work is about linear jugglers.     

Infinite words and biprefix codes

Let A be an alphabet and ƒ be a right infinite word on A. If ƒ is not ultimately periodic then there exists an infinite set {v_ii0} of (finite) words on A such that ƒ=v₀v₁…v_i…, {v_ii1} is a biprefix code and v_i≠v_j for positive integers i≠j.     

Infinitary tree languages recognized by ω-automata

We define top-down infinite tree automata (ω-automata) which is an extension of Rabin's automata to infinite Σ-tress. We prove that each ω-automaton can be completed to an equivalent one and that non-deterministic ω-automata have more power than deterministic ω-automata. We study the difference between ω-languages and deterministic ω-languages by using AFL-like operations.     

Enhancement in Magnetic Properties of Mg-Doped Strontium-Substituted Bismuth Ferrite Prepared by Solid-State and Sol-Gel Methods

We report a potential way to effectively improve the magnetic properties of BiSrFeO3 (BSFO) through Mg ²⁺ ion substitution at the Fe sites of BFO lattice. Polycrystalline Bi_0.95Sr_0.05Fe_0.98Mg_0.02 O ₃ (BSFMO) powder was prepared through optimized solid-state (SS) and sol-gel (SG) reaction methods. The effect of preparation routes on the crystal purity and multiferroic properties of the BSFMO was investigated. The purity and structural changes induced by Mg doping are confirmed by X-ray powder diffractometer and IR spectra. Enhanced magnetic properties are observed in Mg-substituted samples, which simultaneously exhibit ferromagnetic and superparamagnetic properties at room temperature. The improved magnetic properties and soft nature obtained by Mg doping in BSFO particles demonstrate the possibility of BFO particles to practical applications.     

Image Processing-Based Mine Detection Techniques: A Review

Various mine detection techniques are reviewed with particular emphasis on signal and image processing methods. Based on the target, mines are classified into two types; anti-tank mine (ATM) and anti-personnel mine (APM). Because of the variety of mine types, current mine detection techniques are diversified. The assumption is made that most mine detection techniques consist of sensor, signal processing, and decision processes. For the sensor part, ground penetration radar (GPR), infrared (IR), and ultrasound (US) sensors are reviewed and their characteristics are summarized for the corresponding output signals. For the signal processing and decision parts, a set of image processing techniques including filtering, enhancement, feature extraction, and segmentation are surveyed. Segmentation is used to extract mine signal from various competing signals. For most image processing techniques covered by this paper, mine detection related experimental results are included or reproduced from existing works.     

Erasure coding for reliable adaptive retransmission in wireless broadcast/multicast systems

In this paper, we present new adaptive automatic repeat request (ARQ) schemes for wireless broadcast/multicast combining erasure coding (EC) and packet retransmission. Traditional approaches rely on retransmitting the lost packets in a point-to-point or point-to-multipoint mode. The main idea behind the presented protocols is to retransmit adaptive combinations of the lost packets using EC, which can help several receivers to recover the lost information with fewer retransmission attempts. We propose two versions of EC-based ARQ protocols, and investigate theoretically the corresponding transmission bandwidths in different contexts. We show through simulation results the efficiency of the proposed protocols with respect to conventional ARQ strategies and new published ARQ works for broadcast/multicast. Finally, a new sliding window NACK feedback policy is presented for the case of a high number of receivers to avoid the feedback implosion problem.     

Camera handoff with adaptive resource management for multi-camera multi-object tracking

Camera handoff is a crucial step to obtain a continuously tracked and consistently labeled trajectory of the object of interest in multi-camera surveillance systems. Most existing camera handoff algorithms concentrate on data association, namely consistent labeling, where images of the same object are identified across different cameras. However, there exist many unsolved questions in developing an efficient camera handoff algorithm. In this paper, we first design a trackability measure to quantitatively evaluate the effectiveness of object tracking so that camera handoff can be triggered timely and the camera to which the object of interest is transferred can be selected optimally. Three components are considered: resolution, distance to the edge of the camera’s field of view (FOV), and occlusion. In addition, most existing real-time object tracking systems see a decrease in the frame rate as the number of tracked objects increases. To address this issue, our handoff algorithm employs an adaptive resource management mechanism to dynamically allocate cameras’ resources to multiple objects with different priorities so that the required minimum frame rate is maintained. Experimental results illustrate that the proposed camera handoff algorithm can achieve a substantially improved overall tracking rate by 20% in comparison with the algorithm presented by Khan and Shah.