Current Status and Future Perspectives of Mass Spectrometry Imaging

Mass spectrometry imaging is employed for mapping proteins, lipids and metabolites in biological tissues in a morphological context. Although initially developed as a tool for biomarker discovery by imaging the distribution of protein/peptide in tissue sections, the high sensitivity and molecular specificity of this technique have enabled its application to biomolecules, other than proteins, even in cells, latent finger prints and whole organisms. Relatively simple, with no requirement for labelling, homogenization, extraction or reconstitution, the technique has found a variety of applications in molecular biology, pathology, pharmacology and toxicology. By discriminating the spatial distribution of biomolecules in serial sections of tissues, biomarkers of lesions and the biological responses to stressors or diseases can be better understood in the context of structure and function. In this review, we have discussed the advances in the different aspects of mass spectrometry imaging processes, application towards different disciplines and relevance to the field of toxicology.     

Comparing simple and advanced tools for structural fire safety engineering

The present paper gives an overview of the actual tools available for the estimation of the fire development and of the resulting thermal actions on structural members. A case study is developed on the basis of the Fire Safety Engineering methodology, respectively with two different approaches, one based on ‘advanced’ tools and another one based on ‘simplified’ tools. Indeed, three categories of fire models are used in this study, each of which corresponding to a different level of precision and complexity: hand calculations, zone models, and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models. The case study is relative to the calculation of the heating of a portal frame in a gymnasium, under localised real fire conditions. It is shown through comparisons that, in this case, predictions of analytical methods are, to certain extent, in good agreement with predictions of the CFD model. In particular, it is demonstrated the relevance of using a simplified method of EN 1991‐1‐2 to predict thermal actions to vertical members. The obtained results also highlight the need to develop more relevant analytical methods in order to predict the temperature field during a fire in a large volume. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evaluation of the performance of catalytic oxidation of VOCs by a mixed oxide at a semi‐pilot scale†

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are one of the main contributors to air pollution. To reduce anthropogenic emissions, it is necessary to improve existing techniques such as catalytic oxidation through the development of new cost‐effective catalysts. Although many studies deal with the development and testing of new materials, most are performed at laboratory scale, of which only a few study mixtures of VOCs. To assess their viability for industrial applications, further tests are required, namely, mixture tests at intermediate scale in relevant environment and extrapolated on an industrial scale. In this work, the catalytic performance of a new mixed oxide Co‐Al‐Ce was investigated towards the oxidation of the n‐butanol and toluene on a semi‐pilot scale (TRL 4). Single component and mixture experiments were performed for several concentrations at a fixed flow rate. A commercial catalyst Pd/γ‐Al₂O₃ was used as the benchmark to evaluate the performance of the mixed oxide. The Co‐Al‐Ce catalyst enables complete oxidation of n‐butanol at the same temperature as the reference catalyst. Moreover, it provides a better selectivity for n‐butanol, while providing an equivalent one for the oxidation of toluene. In mixtures, the presence of n‐butanol promotes the oxidation of toluene for both catalysts but more significantly for the Co‐Al‐Ce catalyst. The presence of toluene inhibits the oxidation of n‐butanol for the Co‐Al‐Ce and promotes it for high conversions of n‐butanol for the Pd/γ‐Al₂O₃ catalyst.     

Effect of quenching on molten core-concrete interaction product

ABSTRACT

Characterization of fuel debris is required to develop fuel debris removal tools for decommissioning Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (1F). Especially, knowledge about the characteristics of molten core-concrete interaction (MCCI) product is needed because of the limited information available at present. Samples from a large-scale MCCI test performed under quenching conditions, VULCANO VW-U1 were analyzed to evaluate the characteristics of the surface of MCCI product. Four samples were selected from test sections at different locations. As a result, the characteristics of the samples were found to be similar. Several corium phases, such as cubic-(U,Zr)O₂ and tetragonal ZrO₂, were detected by X-ray diffraction (XRD), but concrete-based phases, such as the crystalline SiO₂ phase, were not detected by XRD because the quantity of the SiO₂ phase was too small to be measured. The Vickers hardness of each phase in these samples was higher than that of previously analyzed samples in another VULCANO test campaign, VBS-U4. Based on a comparison between MCCI product generated under quenching condition, such as VW-U1, and gently cooled MCCI product, such as VBS-U4, the MCCI product generated under quenching condition is more homogeneous, and its hardness is higher than that of the gently cooled MCCI product.     

Towards a human factors and ergonomics integration framework in the early product design phase: Function-Task-Behaviour

Considering the existing methodologies’ hysteresis and cost of the human factors and ergonomics (HF/E) integration in the design phase, this paper attempts to develop a time-saving, less expensive and standard approach for designers to integrate the HF/E from the early design phase. In this study, the HF/E information is embodied by a user manual, which will be continuously improved with the refinement of design. A Function-Task-Behaviour framework is proposed to restate the design process, which involves three steps: (1) Functional specification involves function definition and decomposition according to initial user manual and other requirements; (2) Embodiment refers to conducting task definition and planning to achieve the intended function. SysML is used for task definition and PERT method is applied for task planning; (3) Detailed design refers to the interactions analysis between user’s behaviour and product’s behaviour in the work area. A case study is shown at the end of this paper to illustrate the feasibility of the proposed method in integrating the HF/E from the early design phase to improve the final performance of both product and user.     

The Impact of the Substrate Material on the Optical Properties of 2D WSe<Subscript>2</Subscript> Monolayers

2D-materials, especially transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have drawn a lot of attention due to their remarkable characteristics rendering them a promising candidate for optical applications. While the basic properties are understood up to now, the influence of the environment has not been studied in detail, yet. Here we highlight a systematic comparison of the optical properties of tungsten diselenide monolayers on different substrates. Subtle changes in the emission spectrum and Raman signature have been found as well as surprisingly pronounced differences in the pump-power-dependent and time-resolved output at higher excitation densities. For all samples, exciton–exciton annihilation can be obtained. Nevertheless an analysis of different pump-dependent decay rates suggests substrate-dependent changes in the diffusion constant as well as exciton Bohr radius.     

A multidisciplinary design optimization approach for high temperature aircraft engine components

Rapid turn-around time for investigating new design concepts is a primary force driving design productivity initiatives across the industry. An integration framework focusing on the collaborative nature of rapid design automation at the preliminary and detailed design stage would ensure higher quality designs from the beginning of the product design cycle. As a result, producing reliable, robust optimum designs from the preliminary design phase would enable companies to reduce the overal design cycle time.The focus of the present work is to study the applicability of a Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) method called Concurrent SubSpace Optimization (CSSO) for the design and optimization of large scale real-life engineering systems. This work can be divided into three parts. The first part is the introduction and development of a benchmark MDO problem that simulates the design and optimization of high temperature engine components (e.g. turbines, compressors etc.). The design problem addressed herein is a stepped beam problem that couples multiple analysis codes using NASTRAN, PATRAN (The MacNeal Schwendler Corporation 1997a,b) and Response Surface Approximations (RSA). The second part focuses on the effectiveness of the polynomial based response surface approximations for capturing the temperature in a thin walled high temperature component. Specifically, quadratic response surface approximations are being investigated for their suitability. The third and the final part provides details of the generic implementation of CSSO within iSIGHT (Engenious Software Inc. 1997) and the results of testing this implementation in application to the benchmark problem mentioned above.