Spatial power amplifier using a passive and active TEM waveguide concept

A new spatial power amplifier is presented in which power is spatially combined within a TEM waveguide using a low-loss transition array of E-plane integrated finlines to microstrip lines. The TEM-mode waveguide is implemented using a periodically patterned surface called a uniplanar compact electromagnetic bandgap (UC-EBG) structure. Our designed Ku-band back-to-back transition array demonstrates a maximum return loss of 17.5 dB and a maximum insertion loss of 0.65 dB. The TEM waveguide is found to have a 1-GHz bandwidth centered at 14.5 GHz. Tuning of the center frequency may be accomplished via an active UC-EBG structure that incorporates varactor diodes. The use of the UC-EBG surface allows more power cards to be inserted within the TEM waveguide since the amplifier cells saturate uniformly. The spatial power combiner is used to combine the output powers of 12 20-mW monolithic-microwave integrated-circuit amplifier chips. The designed power module yields an output power of 23.15 dBm and a combining efficiency of 86%. A comparison between the passive and active UC-EGB surfaces is experimentally demonstrated.     

Electrochemical treatment of olive mill wastewaters: Removal of phenolic compounds and decolourization

Olive mill wastewaters (OMW) characterized by their dark brown colour and their very high content of phenolic compounds constitute an environmental concern, particularly in Mediterranean countries where the production of olive oil is important. In this investigation, OMW were electrolyzed at platinized expanded titanium electrodes in a modified Grignard reactor divided into two cylindrical compartments separated by a cation-exchange membrane. Results show better than 90% decolourization and nearly 85% removal of phenols, as established by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, at high current intensity. This process can easily be monitored by cyclic voltammetry at a boron-doped diamond electrode. A significant reduction of chemical oxygen demand and total organic carbon was observed. The electrodes are not passivated and the ohmic potential drop is very low. Electrochemical oxidation in a modified Grignard reactor is a promising process for the destruction of phenolic compounds present in OMW.     

Adaptive vectorial lifting concept for convolutive blind source separation

This paper describes a new multi-resolution approach for the blind separation of convolutive image mixtures in transform domain. The proposed method uses an Adaptive Vectorial case of Quincunx Lifting Scheme (AVQLS), based on wavelet decomposition, and a geometric unmixing algorithm. It proceeds in three steps: first, the mixed images are decomposed by AVQLS. Then, the unmixing algorithm is applied to the more relevant component to get a transformed estimate of the original images. An inverse transform is, thereafter, applied to obtain an estimate of the original images. Experiments carried out on medical images showed that the proposed method yields better separation results than many widely used blind source separation algorithms.     

A novel approach for generic home emergency management and remote monitoring

This paper presents a novel home emergency management system (HEMS) for managing home emergency situations. The proposed solution is a generic and based on normalized technologies. First, we have identified a set of requirements that a robust HEMS should satisfy (interoperability, security, mobility, etc). Then, we have opted for an extended finite‐state machine to detect and manage emergency situations. We also adopted WebRTC to enable communication in an interoperable manner. For securing our HEMS, we have used HTTPS, password, contextual role–based access control, and we have finally installed all the public servers into a protected area. The result obtained from the test‐bed demonstrates that the proposed HEMS fills all the listed requirements. Furthermore, it gives very interesting results in terms of round‐trip delay time and scalability.     

Integrated active antenna array using unidirectional dielectricradiators

In this paper, design considerations and experimental investigations of an integrated active antenna for space power combining that makes use of unidirectional dielectric radiators (UDRs) are presented and discussed. Attractive electrical performance stemming from proprieties of nonradiating dielectric waveguide structures is used to design a prototype at a frequency of 14 GHz. A UDR feed circuit is implemented by microstrip lines and aperture-coupling is studied experimentally for arrays of two, four and eight radiators. Measurements show high coupling and radiation efficiencies of the proposed excitation method. A power-combining efficiency of 89% was measured and a gain of 23.1 dBi was achieved for an antenna with eight radiators and four amplifiers. It is also shown that such a circuit configuration allows the combination of planar Ku-band monolithic hybrid microwave integrated circuit and UDR components in flexible design of active array antennas     

A new multi-scale framework for convolutive blind source separation

This paper presents a new multi-scale decomposition algorithm which enables the blind separation of convolutely mixed images. The proposed algorithm uses a wavelet-based transform, called Adaptive Quincunx Lifting Scheme (AQLS), coupled with a geometric demixing algorithm called Deds. The resulting deconvolution process is made up of three steps. In the first step, the convolutely mixed images are decomposed by AQLS. Then, Deds is applied to the more relevant component to unmix the transformed images. The unmixed images are, thereafter, reconstructed using the inverse of the AQLS transform. Experiments carried out on images from various origins show the superiority of the proposed method over many widely used blind deconvolution algorithms.     

Resource‐constrained project scheduling through the goal programming model: integration of the manager's preferences

The aim of this paper is to present a multi‐objective project scheduling approach to help project managers when deciding on a baseline schedule. The concepts of satisfaction functions and goal programming are incorporated to generate this baseline schedule that represents the best compromise among a set of conflicting project objectives. An efficient computerized procedure based on the tabu search algorithm is proposed and enables the handling of large planning and scheduling projects.