Energy-aware feedback control for a H.264 video decoder

Embedded devices using highly integrated chips must cope with conflicting constraints, while executing computationally demanding applications under limited energy storage. Automatic control and feedback loops appear to be an effective solution to simultaneously accommodate for performance uncertainties due to the tiny scale gates variability, varying and poorly predictable computing demands and limited energy storage constraints. This paper presents the example of an embedded video decoder controlled by several feedback loops to carry out the trade-off between decoding quality and energy consumption, exploiting the frequency and voltage scaling capabilities of the chip. The inner loop controls the dynamic voltage and frequency scaling through a fast predictive control strategy. The outer loop computes the scheduling set-points needed by the inner loop to process frames decoding. The feedback loops have been implemented on a stock PC and experimental results are provided.     

SMOS first data analysis for sea surface salinity determination

Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS), launched on 2 November 2009, is the first satellite mission addressing sea surface salinity (SSS) measurement from space. Its unique payload is the Microwave Imaging Radiometer using Aperture Synthesis (MIRAS), a new two-dimensional interferometer designed by the European Space Agency (ESA) and operating at the L-band frequency. This article presents a summary of SSS retrieval from SMOS observations and shows initial results obtained one year after launch. These results are encouraging, but also indicate that further improvements at various data processing levels are needed and hence are currently under investigation.     

On the control of uncertain impulsive systems: approximate stabilization and controlled invariance

The problems of stabilization and controlled invariance of a fairly wide class of uncertain hybrid systems is considered. Uncertainty enters in the form of a disturbance input that can affect both the continuous and the discrete dynamics. A method for designing piecewise constant, feedback controllers for this class of systems is developed. In the case of controlled invariance, the controller ensures that the state of the system remains arbitrarily close to a desired set over an arbitrarily long time horizon. In the case of stabilization, the controller ensures approximate exponential convergence of the runs of the closed loop system to the zero level set of a Lyapunov function.     

Controlling droplet size variability of a digital lab-on-a-chip for improved bio-assay performance

Although several applications of electrowetting on dielectric digital lab-on-a-chips are reported in literature, there is still a lack of knowledge about the influence of operational and design parameters on the performance of an analytical assay. This paper investigates how droplet size variability, introduced by droplet dispensing and splitting, influences the assay performance with respect to repeatability and accuracy and presents a novel method to reduce this variability. Both a theoretical and experimental approach were followed. Monte Carlo simulations were applied to study the cumulative effect of the variability caused by different droplet manipulations on the final assay performance. It is shown that a highly controllable droplet generation and manipulation is achieved with respect to droplet size variability through an accurate control of actuation voltage, activation time, relaxation time, and electrode size. As a case study, it is illustrated that through optimization of these parameters a complete on-chip calibration curve is obtained for a d-glucose assay with an average CV-value of 2%. These new insights aim to bring the digital lab-on-a-chip technology closer to researchers in the field of diagnostics offering them a valuable and accessible alternative to standard analysis platforms.     

Fullerene-functionalized carbon nanotubes as improved optical limiting devices

We report the synthesis, characterization and optical limiting behavior of a nanohybrid built by grafting C₆₀-fullerenes on carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The nonlinear optical limiting properties of the CNT-C₆₀ complex were investigated at wavelengths where C₆₀ does not absorb. We found that the nanohybrid had superior performances to those of CNTs and fullerenes, either taken individually or as a mixture. This enhanced optical limitation of the nanohybrid suggests not only cooperative but also synergistic effects between the two carbon forms. A mechanism involving higher excitonic states of the CNTs formed by Auger recombination of low energy excitons is proposed.     

Computer-aided education for magnetostatics

The authors present a computer-aided education (CAE) package allowing the visualization of the magnetostatic field in and around the magnetic circuit of a double-U shaped contactor. The modeling of this device is performed by solving, in real-time, a nonlinear finite-element problem. The implementation of this method is optimized greatly in order to allow the animation of field patterns in real-time in reaction to any user interaction. An evaluation of the improvements brought by this technique to the learning capabilities of students is presented     

Fundamentals and applications of immobilized microfluidic enzymatic reactors

OVERVIEW: Over the last decade, the utility of immobilized microfluidic enzyme reactors (IMERs) has been demonstrated in a wide variety of fields, including medical diagnostics and therapy, biosensors, organic synthesis, drug discovery and many other applications. Of particular interest to the pharmaceutical industry is the potential for high throughput experimentation afforded by these systems, with a view to combinatorial synthesis for drug discovery applications. This article will focus on the current state of IMER systems, including immobilization techniques and microchannel flow generation, with a particular emphasis on applications and future prospects in view of likely directions and market potential of this field. IMPACT: The numerous advantages of attaching enzymes to a solid support, such as reuse of a single batch of enzyme, improved stability and durability, the ability to stop the reaction rapidly by removing the product from the reaction solution and the absence of enzyme contamination of the product are some of the attractive features of such systems. There are, however, a number of issues requiring careful consideration when developing such microsystems, including, but not limited to, surface modifications and exact control of fluid behaviour in microchannels, detection limitations, increased integration, and the reusability of the chips. APPLICATIONS: IMERs have received wide, including commercial, application as diagnostic tools for point‐of‐care applications, and, increasingly, as analytical tools in early drug development. Furthermore, peptide mapping and proteomics have employed IMER systems extensively over the past decade and growth in these areas continues. Copyright © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry     

Oxidative dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene to styrene over ultra-dispersed diamond and onion-like carbon

The catalytic properties of sp³-hybridized ultra-dispersed diamond and sp²-hybridized onion-like carbon in the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene to styrene were investigated, highlighting the structure sensitivity of the reaction. The sp³-carbon led initially to C-C cleavage and benzene formation, while a switchover of the main reaction pathway into the styrene formation occurred with time on stream due to the formation of surface sp² carbon, required for the selective styrene formation. This was confirmed by the behavior and the high stable styrene selectivity shown by onion-like carbons. High temperature oxygen pre-treatment created catalytically active species at the sp² carbon surface, confirming that a high thermal stability carbon-oxygen complex was the active surface site for forming styrene.     

Validation of the CATHARE2 code against experimental data from Brayton-cycle plants

In recent years the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique (CEA) has commissioned a wide range of feasibility studies of future-advanced nuclear reactors, in particular gas-cooled reactors (GCR). The thermohydraulic behaviour of these systems is a key issue for, among other things, the design of the core, the assessment of thermal stresses, and the design of decay heat removal systems. These studies therefore require efficient and reliable simulation tools capable of modelling the whole reactor, including the core, the core vessel, piping, heat exchangers and turbo-machinery. CATHARE2 is a thermal-hydraulic 1D reference safety code developed and extensively validated for the French pressurized water reactors. It has been recently adapted to deal also with gas-cooled reactor applications. In order to validate CATHARE2 for these new applications, CEA has initiated an ambitious long-term experimental program. The foreseen experimental facilities range from small-scale loops for physical correlations, to component technology and system demonstration loops.In the short-term perspective, CATHARE2 is being validated against existing experimental data. And in particular from the German power plants Oberhausen I and II. These facilities have both been operated by the German utility Energie Versorgung Oberhausen (E.V.O.) and their power conversion systems resemble to the high-temperature reactor concepts: Oberhausen I is a 13.75-MWe Brayton-cycle air turbine plant, and Oberhausen II is a 50-MWe Brayton-cycle helium turbine plant. The paper presents these two plants, the adopted CATHARE2 modelling and a comparison between experimental data and code results for both steady state and transient cases.