Safe and time-optimized power transfer between two induction loadssupplied by a single generator

The paper deals with the problem of transferring power between different induction loads supplied by the same current generator, in as short a time as possible. In the reference solution, the system is completely stopped: it needs a long time for the current to reach zero and, afterwards, its new value, because the DC link inductance must be demagnetized and remagnetized; moreover an auxiliary starter is needed. In the proposed solution, the input of the current inverter is short-circuited whenever a transfer must be performed; the inductance remains magnetized and the current at the output of the inverter varies very quickly. The transfer time is minimal, and no starter is needed; the specific inverter control laws used to insure natural commutation are described. The paper also, presents control models of the system, obtained by using the first harmonic modeling method     

Experimental validation of the distillation module of a desalination station using the SMCEC principle

This paper presents the simulation and the experimental validation of the distillation module of a desalination unit, currently operating in Sfax, Tunisia. The desalination process is based on the Solar Multiple Condensation Evaporation Cycle (SMCEC) principle.The work presented in this paper focuses on modelling the desalination module as it is supplied with either water heated by solar energy or geothermal water. Geothermal water resources are abundant in Tunisia with salinity levels of 1–50 g/l. The simulation of the dynamic behaviour of the desalination module with and without disturbances on the inlet temperature was carried out to predict the variations of key output variables subjected to thermal variations. Such variables include water temperature, air temperature, humidity in the evaporation and condensation chambers and the amount of produced distilled water. To validate the dynamic model of the distillation module, a series of experiments was conducted. Experimental results were compared with the simulation results. It was shown that the developed model is able to predict accurately the trends of the heat and mass characteristics of the evaporation and condensation chambers. As a result, the proposed model can be used to design and test the behaviour of such a type of desalination unit.     

The Impact of a Ketogenic Diet and Liver Dysfunction on Serum Very Long-Chain Fatty Acids Levels

Peroxisomes play an essential role in mammalian cellular metabolism, particularly in oxidation fatty acid pathways. Serum very long-chain fatty acids (VLCFA), the main biochemical diagnostic parameters for peroxisomal disorders, were examined in 25 neurological patients with epilepsy on a ketogenic diet and 27 patients with liver dysfunction. The data show that patients on a ketogenic diet have increased levels of C22:0 and C24:0, but not C26:0, and normal C24:0/C22:0 and C26:0/C22:0. Patients with liver insufficiency showed a slightly elevated level of C26:0, a normal level of C24:0 and a decreased level of C22:0; thus in 21/27 the ratio of C24:0/C22:0 was increased and 15/27 the ratio of C26:0/C22:0 was increased.     

Radio resource management for vehicular communication via cellular device to device links: review and challenges

Telecommunication Systems - The vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications, as enabled by cellular device-to-device (D2D) links, has recently gained greater attention owing to the remarkable...     

Practical Application of Fractional Order Controllers to a Delay Thermal System

This paper provides an application of Fractional Model Predictive Control (FMPC) and fractional-order Proportional Integral controller (P I^λ) on a thermal system with time delay.The first controller is based on Grünwald-Letnikov’s method to predict the future dynamic behavior of the system. This method consists in replacing the non-integer derivation operator of the adopted system representation by a discrete approximation. Therefore, this controller is developed on the basis of a fractional order model. However, the second controller is founded on an extended version of Hermite-Biehler theorem to determine the complete set stabilizing P I^λ parameters Experiment results onto a time delay thermal system are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the developed strategies.     

Architecturing large integrated complex information systems: an application to healthcare

The global enterprise-wide approaches help organizations to model and understand the enterprise key components and their relationships and manage the organizations’ transformations and change. However, many of these approaches lack of insights into how to manage complexities related to the multitude of applications developed in silos such as the various systems in health organizations that were designed independently from each other. This paper contributes to the solutions addressing this issue by proposing a methodology and tools to create foundations based on key components to help develop the information architecture at the heart of the enterprise architecture that can guarantee the evolution of the organization. These core components are a set of reusable Field Actions representing the non-contextual persistent information, a common canonical Corporate Conceptual Data Model capturing all the vital data in the organization, and Views or sub-schema of this global data model that represent information for different stakeholders in the organization. To show the effectiveness of the proposed approach and to gain more insights into its practical value, the architecturing approach is applied in the healthcare domain to create the information architecture and the enterprise architecture for the Quebec healthcare network.     

Accelerated liver tumor segmentation in four-phase computed tomography images

Segmentation and volume measurement of liver tumor are important tasks for surgical planning and cancer follow-up. In this work, a segmentation method from four-phase computed tomography images is proposed. It is based on the combination of the Expectation-Maximization algorithm and the Hidden Markov Random Fields. The latter considers the spatial information given by voxel neighbors of two contrast phases. The segmentation algorithm is applied on a volume of interest that decreases the number of processed voxels. To accelerate the classification steps within the segmentation process, a Bootstrap resampling scheme is also adopted. It consists in selecting randomly an optimal representative set of voxels. The experimental results carried out on three clinical datasets show the performance of our liver tumor segmentation method. It has been notably observed that the computing time of the classification algorithm is reduced without any significant impact on the segmentation accuracy.     

Dynamic study of a new design of a tanks based on metallic hydrides

It is known that the hydrogen has a very high mass energy density, in fact, that it is a lightest gas; therefore, its storage is a great problem. The aim of the hydrogen storage technologies is thus to reduce the volume that hydrogen occupies in its thermodynamically stable state under conditions close to ambient salt. Recent work on hydrogen storage is mainly based on the use of metal hydrides. These metal hydrides have a high capacity for the hydrogen storage in the operating conditions. The effecting parameters on the performance of such a metal-hydrogen reactor are its design and configuration. In this case, there are a number of problems that need to be considered in designing a reactor. Among these parameters are the reactor configuration, the thermal and the mechanical strength, the kinetics of hydrogen storage and the security. Our study is concentrated on the problem of the thermal and the mechanical strength while focusing on the nature of the metal makes the reactor. In this work, the experimental studies of the hydrogen absorption phenomenon in different reactors, based on metal hydrides, were evaluated. The characteristics of the reaction kinetics in three different reactors using the same measurement conditions were compared. A numerical model describing the reaction kinetic of the H₂ absorption by LaNi₅ alloy validates the results were obtained. Of these results, it is found that the rate constant varies from one reactor to another. Moreover, the activation energy of the absorption kinetics were identified.     

Development and application of an interface constitutive model for fully grouted rock-bolts and cable-bolts

This paper proposes a new interface constitutive model for fully grouted rock-bolts and cable-bolts based on pull-out test results.A database was created combining published experimental data with in-house tests.By means of a comprehensive framework,a Coulomb-type failure criterion accounting for friction mobilization was defined.During the elastic phase,in which the interface joint is not yet created,the proposed model provides zero radial displacement,and once the interface joint is created,interface dilatancy is modeled using a non-associated plastic potential inspired from the behavior of rock joints.The results predicted by the proposed model are in good agreement with experimental results.The model has been implemented in a finite element method(FEM) code and numerical simulations have been performed at the elementary and the structural scales.The results obtained provide confidence in the ability of the new model to assist in the design and optimization of bolting patterns.