Homogeneous Liquid–Liquid Extraction of Rare Earths with the Betaine—Betainium Bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide Ionic Liquid System

Several fundamental extraction parameters such as the kinetics and loading were studied for a new type of metal solvent extraction system with ionic liquids. The binary mixture of the ionic liquid betainium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide and water shows thermomorphic behavior with an upper critical solution temperature (UCST), which can be used to avoid the slower mass transfer due to the generally higher viscosity of ionic liquids. A less viscous homogeneous phase and mixing on a molecular scale are obtained when the mixture is heated up above 55 °C. The influence of the temperature, the heating and cooling times, were studied for the extraction of neodymium(III) with betaine. A plausible and equal extraction mechanism is proposed in bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide, nitrate, and chloride media. After stripping of the metals from the ionic liquid phase, a higher recovery of the ionic liquid was obtained by salting-out of the ionic liquid fraction lost by dissolution in the aqueous phase. The change of the upper critical solution temperature by the addition of HCl or betaine was investigated. In addition, the viscosity was measured below and above the UCST as a function of the temperature.     

Benchmarking road safety: Lessons to learn from a data envelopment analysis

Road safety performance indicators (SPI) have recently been proposed as a useful instrument in comparing countries on the performance of different risk aspects of their road safety system. In this respect, SPIs should be actionable, i.e. they should provide clear directions for policymakers about what action is needed and which priorities should be set in order to improve a country’s road safety level in the most efficient way. This paper aims at contributing to this issue by proposing a computational model based on data envelopment analysis (DEA). Based on the model output, the good and bad aspects of road safety are identified for each country. Moreover, targets and priorities for policy actions can be set. As our data set contains 21 European countries for which a separate, best possible model is constructed, a number of country-specific policy actions can be recommended. Conclusions are drawn regarding the following performance indicators: alcohol and drugs, speed, protective systems, vehicle, infrastructure and trauma management. For each country that performs relatively poor, a particular country will be assigned as a useful benchmark.     

Landscape as framework for integrating local subsistence and ecotourism: a case study in Zimbabwe

Ecotourism can be a solution for mitigating the negative environmental and socio-economic impacts of new developments in fragile environments. Before planning an ecotourist project, it is necessary to consider an area that not only covers the margins of the development zone, but also a wider perimeter of physically and culturally related landscape parts. This paper describes an approach to the demarcation and analysis of an expanded zone around a new reservoir near Bulawayo, larger than an originally designated narrow natural fringe. The concept gains in many ways, in landscape diversity, in cultural assets and in interaction with local residents to whom ecotourisms should be profitable in the first place.     

Sub-pixel mapping and sub-pixel sharpening using neural network predicted wavelet coefficients

Sub-pixel mapping and sub-pixel sharpening are techniques for increasing the spatial resolution of sub-pixel image classifications. The proposed method makes use of wavelets and artificial neural networks. Wavelet multiresolution analysis facilitates the link between different resolution levels. In this work a higher resolution image is constructed after estimation of the detail wavelet coefficients with neural networks. Detail wavelet coefficients are used to synthesize the high-resolution approximation. The applied technique allows for both sub-pixel sharpening and sub-pixel mapping. An algorithm was developed on artificial imagery and tested on artificial as well as real synthetic imagery. The proposed method resulted in images with higher spatial resolution showing more spatial detail than the source imagery. Evaluation of the algorithm was performed both visually and quantitatively using established classification accuracy indices.     

VLES Modelling with the Renormalization Group

In a Very-Large-Eddy Simulation (VLES), the filterwidth-wavenumber can be outside the inertial range, and simple subgrid models have to be replaced by more complicated ('RANS-like') models which can describe the transport of the biggest eddies. One could approach this by using a RANS model in these regions, and modify the lengthscale in the model for the LES-regions[1-3]. The problem with these approaches is that these models are specifically calibrated for RANS computations, and therefore not suitable to describe inertial range quantities. We investigated the construction of subgrid viscosity and transport equations without any calibrated constants, but these are calculated directly form the Navier-Stokes equation by means of a Renormalization Group (RG) procedure. This leads to filterwidth dependent transport equations and effective viscosity with the right limiting behaviour (DNS and RANS limits).