Contactless Transient THz Temperature Imaging by Thermo-transmittance Technique on Semi-transparent Materials

THz waves have shown to be effective for several applications, such as security, non-destructive testing, and water content monitoring for porous materials and food products. This study aims to highlight the use of THz radiation to measure temperature variations of thin insulating materials opaque in the visible or IR range (PVC, PTFE, PMMA, and wood) by using a spectral thermo-transmittance technique. THz wave optical transmittance in materials show high sensitivity to temperature variations. The goal of this paper is to demonstrate the transient temperature gradient dependence of THz transmitted signals inside materials to develop a new contactless method for measuring temperature of thin materials semi-transparent to THz radiation. The principle is based on synchronous detection, using an infrared camera coupled with a THz to infrared thermal converter (TTC) with modulated millimeter-scale waves (2.7 mm). The results show a correlation between the transient temperature and the optical transmittance coefficient. Several types of samples semi-transparent to THz radiation are tested, and the corresponding thermo-transmittance coefficients as reported for PVC, PTFE, PMMA, and wood are respectively 0.805, 0.395, 0.640, and 1.177 K^?1 m^?1.     

Experimental Study and Modeling of Essential Oil Extraction from Plants by Hydrodistillation

Hydrodistillation of essential oils from leaves of myrtle, rosemary, and sour orange was experimentally studied and the extraction process was modeled. A mass balance was carried out over an assumed flat leave particle and the use of Fick's second law of diffusion led to the mass transfer equation. Its resolution required adequate boundary and initial conditions. The model considered the effect of the main processing parameters on the overall essential oil extraction efficiency as well as the determination of the optimum conditions. To assess the reliability of the model, yield curves for all studied conditions and variation of the oil composition with time were compared with the experimentally obtained results for each plant leave. The agreement seems to be reasonable, although some refining of the model is necessary by taking into account both the diffusion and reaction contributions.     

Meetings scheduling solver enhancement with local consistency reinforcement

Meeting scheduling (MS) represents an important real-world group decision application that denotes one of the actual combinatorial problems. Solving this problem consists of scheduling all the meetings while satisfying all the constraints related to both the users and the meetings. However, given human nature, the solution is usually delineated by the encountering of conflicting preferences. Most of existing research efforts allow the relaxation of the users' preferences in order to reach an agreement between all the participants, which is not always possible. In addition, they do not deal with the achievement of any level of local consistency to enhance the efficiency of the solving process, and finally, they do not address the real difficulty of distributed systems, which is the complexity of message passing operations. Here we propose a new approach to facilitate and streamline the scheduling meetings process in any organization. This approach is based on the distributed reinforcement of arc consistency model, which takes into account the difficulties mentioned above. The present work focuses mainly on satisfying meetings hosts' preferences as much as possible, while taking into consideration all users' availability. The underlying selfish protocol is able to efficiently reach the best solution for the host of the meeting (according to the predefined criteria) whenever possible. This process is achieved with the minimal number of exchanged messages and while retaining as much of the privacy of the involved users as possible. An experimental comparative analysis divulges that our approach is scalable and worthwhile especially for strong constraints. Ahlem Ben Hassine received a B.S and M.S. degrees from the High Institute of Management of Tunis (ISG), in 1996 and 1999. She received her PhD degree in 2005 from the School of Knowledge Science at the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST). Her main research interests include artificial intelligence mainly for solving complex problems, constraint satisfaction problems, multi-agent systems, meeting scheduling problems. Takayuki Ito received a B.Eng., M.S., and PhD degrees from Nagoya Institute of Technology (NIT) in 1995, 1997 and 2000. He is an Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Engineering, NIT. His research interests include computational mechanism design, auction, agent-mediated electronic commerce, multi-agent negotiation, agent-based Tu Bao Ho received a B. Eng. degree from Hanoi University of Technology in 1978, M.S. and PhD. Degrees from University Paris 6, in 1984 and 1987, a Habilitation diploma in 1998 from University Paris Dauphine. He is currently a professor at School of Knowledge Science, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST). His research interests include artificial intelligence, machine learning, knowledge based systems, knowledge discovery and data mining.     

Microscopy and microanalysis study of the indium (In) behavior in the intestinal mucosa, the liver, the kidney and the testicle

Several studies have demonstrated that In used in medicine has several impacts on organs like spleen and lungs after its systemic administration. In the present study, ultrastructural and microanalytical methods were used to investigate the impact of the presence of this element in the intestinal mucosa, the liver, the kidney and the testicle after its administration in two ways. After intraperitoneal administration, In was selectively concentrated in the lysosomes of hepatocytes, of tubular proximal convoluted cells and of Sertoli and Leydig cells. After intragastric administration, ultrastructural study showed that this element was concentrated in the lysosomes of duodenal enterocytes. Microanalytical methods showed that In was precipitated in those organelles in the form of insoluble phosphate salts. Similarly to other studies, it seemed that since In is a foreign element for the organism, it was precipitated in lysosomes, very probably due to the activity of an intralysosomal enzyme the acid phosphatase, to avoid its invasion to organism via the blood. This mechanism of precipitation of the mineral elements is of great interest in the process of defensive reaction of the organism against intoxication by foreign elements.     

Statistical abstraction and model-checking of large heterogeneous systems

We propose a new simulation-based technique for verifying applications running within a large heterogeneous system. Our technique starts by performing simulations of the system to learn the context in which the application is used. Then, it creates a stochastic abstraction for the application, which considers the context information. This smaller model can be verified using efficient techniques such as statistical model checking. We have applied our technique to an industrial case study: the cabin communication system of an airplane. We use the BIP toolset to model and simulate the system. We have conducted experiments to verify the clock synchronization protocol i.e., the application used to synchronize the clocks of all computing devices within the system.     

A new approach for $$H_{\infty }$$ H ∞ deconvolution filtering of 2D systems described by the Fornasini–Marchesini and discrete moments

Pattern Analysis and Applications - This study proposes a new approach of $$H_{\infty }$$ deconvolution filtering of 2D system described by Fornasini–Marchesini model and Tchebichef moments....     

Terahertz Measurement of the Water Content Distribution in Wood Materials

Recently, THz waves have been shown to be an effective technique for investigating the water diffusion within porous media, such as biomaterial or insulation materials. This applicability is due to the sufficient resolution for such applications and the safe levels of radiation. This study aims to achieve contactless absolute water content measurements at a steady state case in semi-transparent solids (wood) using a transmittance THz wave range setup. First, a calibration method is developed to validate an analytical model based on the Beer-Lambert law, linking the absorption coefficient, the density of the solid, and its water content. Then, an estimation of the water content on a local scale in a transient-state case (drying) is performed. This study shows that THz waves are an effective contactless, safe, and low-cost technique for the measurement of water content in a porous medium, such as wood.     

5-Nitro-1,2,4-triazole-3-one: A review of recent advances（英）

The 3-Nitro-1,2,4-triazole-5-one (NTO) is a high energydensity materials of keen interest for both commercial and scientific worlds owing to its reduced sensitivity, better thermal stability and high performances. It plays a significant role to replace the current energetic ingredients. In this review, we summarize various strategies involved in the synthesis of NTO as well as the existing approaches to tailor its particle morphology and sizes. The most prominent properties of NTO, such as insensitivity and performance, which are usually required to produce efficient formulations,have been concisely discussed. In addition, this overview reports on some newer forms of NTO including derivatives and co-crystals available inthe literature, which can enhance the NTO features and extend its applications. The advantages and shortcomings of various NTO forms for specific and potential use are also highlighted together with the attempts made to overcome these issues. Therefore, efforts will certainly continue to improve characteristics and performances of NTO either by chemical modification or by co-crystallization in order to produce promisingformulations for widespread applications in the near future.     

Pd–Ce interactions and adsorption properties of palladium: CO and NO TPD studies over Pd–Ce/Al2O3 catalysts

We have examined the adsorption of CO and NO on powder Pd/Al₂O₃, Pd–Ce/Al₂O₃ and CeO₂/Al₂O₃ catalysts, using temperature-programmed desorption (TPD). For CO adsorption on oxidized and pre-reduced Pd–Ce/Al₂O₃ TPD profiles are identical to those observed for Pd/Al₂O₃, suggesting that interactions between ceria and Pd have a negligible effect on the adsorption properties of CO. It does, however, affect the oxidation state of the palladium particles. For NO, there are differences between Pd/Al₂O₃ and Pd–Ce/Al₂O₃. On oxidized catalysts, Pd/Al₂O₃ is more efficient for NO dissociation. However, pre-reduction increases the amount of NO that can adsorb on Pd–Ce/Al₂O₃ and react to N₂O and N₂. In comparison with Pd/Al₂O₃, reduced Pd–Ce/Al₂O₃catalysts dissociate NO at relatively high temperatures but they are more reactive and favor N₂ over N₂O.     

Crystal structure, thermal analysis and IR spectrometric investigation of bis(o-anisidinium) sulfate (C7H10NO)2SO4

Chemical preparation, X-ray single-crystal, thermal behaviour, and IR spectroscopy investigations are given for a new organic cation sulfate (C₇H₁₀NO)₂SO₄ (denoted BOAS) in the solid state. This compound crystallizes in the monoclinic space group P2₁/c. The unit cell dimensions are: a = 7.010(3) Å, b = 11.142(5) Å, c = 20.770(8) Å, β = 95.27(3)° with V = 1615.4(12) Å³ and Z = 4. The structure has been solved using a direct method and refined to a reliability R factor of 0.047. The title compound consists of a framework of isolated SO₄ tetrahedral interleaved with organic molecules, so as to build isolated ribbons parallel to a-axis. In the present work, we describe the crystal structure, thermal behaviour and IR analysis of this new compound.