Nutritional quality of important food legumes

The proximate composition, mineral constituents and amino acid profile of four important legumes (chickpea, lentil, cowpea and green pea) were studied in order to evaluate their nutritional performance. Significant (P < 0.05) variations existed among the legumes with respect to their proximate composition, mineral constituent and amino acid profile. Lentil was found to be a good source of protein, while cowpea was good in ash among the grain legumes tested. All four types of legumes were also better suppliers of mineral matter, particularly potassium, phosphorus, calcium, copper, iron, and zinc. However, the concentrations of various mineral constituents was not in good nutritional balance. It was concluded that the four legumes tested were rich in lysine, leucine and arginine and can fulfil the essential amino acid requirement of human diet except for S-containing amino acids and tryptophan. In order to make good, the deficiency of certain essential amino acids in legume protein, they must be supplemented with other vegetables, meat and dairy products (e.g., Whey, yogurt).     

Blocking probability evaluation of end-to-end dynamic WDM networks

Two mathematical methods for blocking probability evaluation of end-to-end dynamic WDM networks are proposed. The first method can be applied to networks operating with static (fixed) routes. By diminishing the impact of the link independence assumption, the method proposed improves a recently proposed mathematical procedure that assumes link blocking independency and non-Poisson traffic. To do so, the so-called streamline effect is taken into account in the equations. As a result, values closer to that of simulation are obtained. The second method applies to networks operating with alternate routing. In this case, the method simultaneously relaxes three non-realistic assumptions of previous works: the link blocking independence, the Poisson traffic arrival and the homogeneity of the traffic load offered to the network links. Both methods were applied to different network topologies, and their results were compared to those of simulation. Results show that the match between simulation and the proposed methods is excellent, and better than assuming link blocking independence, in all the topologies studied.     

Bayesian approach with hidden Markov modeling and mean field approximation for hyperspectral data analysis

The main problems in hyperspectral image analysis are spectral classification, segmentation, and data reduction. In this paper, we propose a Bayesian estimation approach which gives a joint solution for these problems. The problem is modeled as a blind sources separation (BSS). The data are M hyperspectral images and the sources are K < M images which are composed of compact homogeneous regions and have mutually disjoint supports. The set of all these regions cover the total surface of the observed scene. To insure these properties, we propose a hierarchical Markov model for the sources with a common hidden classification field which is modeled via a Potts-Markov field. The joint Bayesian estimation of the hidden variable, sources, and the mixing matrix of the BSS gives a solution for all three problems: spectra classification, segmentation, and data reduction of hyperspectral images. The mean field approximation (MFA) algorithm for the posterior laws is proposed for the effective Bayesian computation. Finally, some results of the application of the proposed methods on simulated and real data are given to illustrate the performance of the proposed method compared to other classical methods, such as PCA and ICA.     

High‐Conductivity Polymer Nanocomposites Obtained by Tailoring the Characteristics of Carbon Nanotube Fillers

We present a detailed study of the influence of carbon nanotube (CNT) characteristics on the electrical conductivity of polystyrene nanocomposites produced using a latex‐based approach. We processed both industrially‐produced multi‐wall CNT (MWCNT) powders and MWCNTs from vertically‐aligned films made in‐house, and demonstrate that while the raw CNTs are individualized and dispersed comparably within the polymer matrix, the electrical conductivity of the final nanocomposites differs significantly due to the intrinsic characteristics of the CNTs. Owing to their longer length after dispersion, the percolation threshold observed using MWCNTs from vertically‐aligned films is five times lower than the value for industrially‐produced MWCNT powders. Further, owing to the high structural quality of the CNTs from vertically‐aligned films, the resulting composite films exhibit electrical conductivity of 10³ S m^?1 at 2 wt% CNTs. On the contrary, composites made using the industrially‐produced CNTs exhibit conductivity of only tens of S m^?1. To our knowledge, the measured electrical conductivity for CNT/PS composites using CNTs from vertically‐aligned films is by far the highest value yet reported for CNT/PS nanocomposites at this loading.     

Multicore and Manycore Implementations of ADMM-based Decoders for LDPC Decoding

The alternate direction method of multipliers (ADMM) algorithm has recently been proposed for LDPC decoding based on linear programming (LP) techniques. Even though it improves the error rate performance compared with usual message passing (MP) techniques, it shows a higher computation complexity. However, a significant step towards LP LDPC decoding scalability and optimization is made possible since the ADMM algorithm acts as an MP decoding one. In this paper, an overview of the ADMM approach and its error correction performances is provided. Then, its computation and memory complexities are evaluated. Finally, optimized software implementations of the decoder to take advantage of multi/many-core device features are described. Optimization choices are discussed and justified according to execution profiling figures and the algorithm’s parallelism levels. Experimentation results show that this LP based decoding technique can reach WiMAX and WRAN standards real time throughput requirements on mid-range devices.     

Hierarchical Cross-Linked Carbon Aerogels with Transition Metal-Nitrogen Sites for Highly Efficient Industrial-Level CO2 Electroreduction

Developing highly efficient carbon aerogels (CA) electrocatalysts based on transition metal-nitrogen sites is critical for the CO₂ electroreduction reaction (CO₂RR). However, simultaneously achieving a high current density and high Faradaic efficiency (FE) still remains a big challenge. Herein, a series of unique 3D hierarchical cross-linked nanostructured CA with metal-nitrogen sites (M N, M = Ni, Fe, Co, Mn, Cu) is developed for efficient CO₂RR. An optimal CA/N-Ni aerogel, featured with unique hierarchical porous structure and highly exposed M-N sites, exhibits an unusual CO₂RR activity with a CO FE of 98% at −0.8 V. Notably, an industrial current density of 300 mA cm⁻² with a high FE of 91% is achieved on CA/N-Ni aerogel in a flow-cell reactor, which outperforms almost all previously reported M-N/carbon based catalysts. The CO₂RR activity of different CA/N-M aerogels can be arranged as Ni, Fe, Co, Mn, and Cu from high to low. In situ spectroelectrochemistry analyses validate that the rate-determining step in the CO₂RR is the formation of *COOH intermediate. A Zn CO₂ battery is further assembled with CA/N-Ni as the cathode, which shows a maximum power density of 0.5 mW cm⁻² and a superior rechargeable stability.     

New efficient cross‐layer and multihoming mechanisms at layer 2 for inter‐radio access technology handover between UMTS and WiMAX

Next generation mobile networks will provide seamless mobility between existing cellular systems and other wireless access technologies. To realize a seamless vertical handover (inter‐radio access technology handover) among these different access technologies, a multi‐interfaced mobile station (i.e., multihomed) is a good approach to provide better handover performance in terms of packet loss rate and handover latency. In this article, we propose a novel layer 2 multihoming approach for inter‐radio access technology handover between Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) and Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) in both integrated and tight coupling architectures. This layer 2 multihoming approach has the ability of enabling either soft handover or make‐before‐break handover to adapt to mobility scenarios for the sake of a lossless and short latency handover procedure. Our simulation results show that, in case of handover from UMTS to WiMAX for transmission control protocol (TCP) traffics, the layer 2 multihoming approach can achieve a lossless and zero latency handover procedure by enabling soft handover. In case of handover from WiMAX to UMTS, because of the fact that the performance gain of soft handover is more affected by the differences of bandwidth and transmission delay between these wireless links, the make‐before‐break handover is preferred to achieve lossless and short latency handover procedure. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Drying of sardine muscles: Experimental and mathematical investigations

The aim of this work was to study the effect of air drying process on the dehydration kinetics of sardine muscles (Sardina pilchardus). Experimental drying kinetics were measured at five air temperatures (40, 50, 60, 70 and 80 °C), two relative humidity and at a constant air velocity of 1.5 m/s. The sardine drying kinetics were accelerated by increasing air temperature and were showed down when increasing air humidity. Moisture desorption isotherms of sardine muscles were determined at three temperatures (40, 50 and 70 °C) by using the static gravimetric method. The equilibrium moisture contents of sardine muscles were used to treat mathematically the experimental drying kinetics. Experimental drying kinetics and desorption isotherms of sardine muscles were described by using empiric models available in the literature. Eight models (GAB, BET, Henderson–Thompson, Modified Chung & Pfost, Modified Halsey, Oswin, Peleg and Adam & Shove models) were compared in order to describe the desorption isotherms. The Peleg model showed the best fitting of experimental data. For the drying kinetics, the Page model allowed a better fitting than the Newton and the Henderson and Pabis models. The Page model was thus used for simulating the drying kinetics of sardine muscles between 40 and 80 °C.     

The Current Impact Factor and the long-term impact of scientific journals by discipline: A logistic diffusion model estimation

Summary This paper estimates the long-term impact of journals aggregated in 24 different fields, using a simple logistic diffusion model, and relates the results to the current impact factor. Results show that while the current and the long-term impact factors have a high correlation coefficient, some fields are systematically slower-moving than others, as they often differ in the proportion of the overall impact through time that occurs in the short term.     

Aspect-oriented design and implementation of context-aware pervasive applications

Pervasive applications must be aware of the contexts where they are executed. These contexts may vary greatly and change quickly. Two main problems are associated with this issue: (1) context-awareness is a crosscutting concern that cannot be well-encapsulated in a single module using traditional technologies, thus hindering software maintenance and reusability; and (2) reasoning about application design correctness can be complex due to the number and diversity of potential contexts where a pervasive application could be executed. In order to overcome these problems, we present a process for the design and implementation of context-aware pervasive applications that uses aspect-orientation and executable modelling in order to overcome these shortcomings. Aspect-oriented techniques contribute to the encapsulation of crosscutting concerns, such as context-awareness, into well-localized modules. Executable modelling helps engineers to reason about application design by executing the design models in different contexts and situations. Pervasive applications are modelled using the aspect-oriented executable modelling UML 2.0 profile, executed at the modelling level for testing purposes, and then mapped into an aspect-oriented middleware platform for pervasive applications. This process is illustrated using a location-aware intelligent transportation system consisting of a set of cooperating sentient vehicles. This work has been supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnologa (MCYT) Project TIN2005-09405-C02-01 and the European Commission Grant IST-2-004349-NOE AOSD-Europe and the European Commission STREP Project AMPLE IST-033710.