Water quality assessment of a recently refilled reservoir: The case of Bütgenbach Reservoir, Belgium

Bütgenbach Reservoir is situated in the High Ardennes plateau in eastern Belgium (50°25′N; 6°13′E). It is used principally for flood control and for production of hydroelectric energy. It has been subjected to a previous series of studies because of its eutrophication problems and their impacts on the local economy. Bütgenbach Reservoir was emptied during spring 2004 for dam restoration, being refilled in mid‐September of the same year. Selected physicochemical and biological parameters (temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, inorganic and organic nutrients, chlorophyll‐a) were measured fortnightly during the lake's productive season (mid‐April to mid‐October 2005) at three sampling sites throughout the water column. The water quality conditions after refilling of the lake were compared to previous studies accomplished at the same sampling sites (prior to emptying the lake). The actual trophic status was mesotrophic to eutrophic, based on the combination of total phosphorous and chlorophyll‐a concentrations, as well as water transparency. Bütgenbach Reservoir generally exhibits good water quality, based on the French water quality system SEQ‐eau. A longitudinal decrease in water quality was observed from upstream to downstream, because mainly of the differences in lake bottom morphology and water residence time, and their impacts on nutrient distribution in the lake.     

Étude de la distorsion d’amplitude dans une bande de 1 GHz en période de trajets multiples: diversité de fréquence

In order to evaluate the possibility of using frequency diversity to counteract selective effects due to multipath propagation, the signal amplitude behavior has been investigated on a 1 GHz — wide frequency band. The analysis shows a great variability accross the band-width and suggests a possible improvement of the availability of a line of sight link by implementing frequency diversity devices.     

Assessing and interpreting personality change and continuity in patients treated for major depression.

Structural, mean- and individual-level, differential, and ipsative personality continuity were examined in 599 patients treated for major depression assigned to 1 of 6 forms of a 6-month pharmaco-psychotherapy program. Covariation among traits from the Five Factor model remained invariant across treatment, and patients described themselves as slightly more extraverted, open to experience, agreeable and conscientious, and substantially more emotional stable after treatment. Trait changes were only to a small extent explained by changes in depression severity. There was evidence for differential, individual-level, and ipsative stability, with stable personality profiles in terms of shape and to a lesser extent in terms of scatter and elevation. Traits remain relatively stable, except for emotional stability, despite the depressive state and the psychopharmacological interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stability analysis of bilinear systems under aperiodic sampled-data control

This note considers the problem of local stability of bilinear systems with aperiodic sampled-data linear state feedback control. The sampling intervals are time-varying and upper bounded. It is shown that the feasibility of some linear matrix inequalities (LMIs), implies the local asymptotic stability of the sampled-data system in an ellipsoidal region containing the equilibrium. The method is based on the analysis of contractive invariant sets, and it is inspired by the dissipativity theory. The results are illustrated by means of numerical examples.     

Testing usability and trainability of indirect touch interaction: perspective for the next generation of air traffic control systems

This study aims to determine whether indirect touch device can be used to interact with graphical objects displayed on another screen in an air traffic control (ATC) context. The introduction of such a device likely requires an adaptation of the sensory-motor system. The operator has to simultaneously perform movements on the horizontal plane while assessing them on the vertical plane. Thirty-six right-handed participants performed movement training with either constant or variable practice and with or without visual feedback of the displacement of their actions. Participants then performed a test phase without visual feedback. Performance improved in both practice conditions, but accuracy was higher with visual feedback. During the test phase, movement time was longer for those who had practiced with feedback, suggesting an element of dependency. However, this ‘cost’ of feedback did not extend to movement accuracy. Finally, participants who had received variable training performed better in the test phase, but accuracy was still unsatisfactory. We conclude that continuous visual feedback on the stylus position is necessary if tablets are to be introduced in ATC.     

Nanomaterials based on phosphorus dendrimers

Dendrimers constitute an increasingly important field of research in chemistry for more than 15 years. After pioneering works concerning synthesis, the interest in dendrimers is now mainly driven by their properties and applications. This Account will emphasize the properties of a special class of dendrimers, that is, phosphorus-containing dendritic macromolecules, as tools for the elaboration of nanomaterials. Indeed, these dendrimers can be considered themselves as materials, or they can be used as an intrinsic constituent of a material or as a modifier of the surface of a material. In this latter case, a fundamental work about surfaces covalently modified by dendrimers recently opened the way to the elaboration of DNA chips.     

Aerosols sampling using a new cryogenic instrument

A new cryogenic instrument was designed for the trapping of aerosols such as cigarette mainstream smoke at low temperature. The technique enabled the trapping of the mainstream smoke of a single cigarette and the particulate and vapor phases were trapped simultaneously. 2R4F reference cigarettes were smoked under International Standard Organization (ISO) regime and trapped at low temperature using the cryogenic instrument. After trapping, the mainstream smoke of the 2R4F reference cigarette was diluted with a solvent and selected smoke components could be quantified using gas-mass spectrometry (GCMS) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The capability of the instrument for trapping the mainstream smoke was demonstrated. The feasibility of the procedure for the detection and the quantification of a large range of smoke components including carbonyls, alkaloids and organic volatile compounds (VOC) in the mainstream of a single cigarette was also shown.     

Sensorless fault tolerant control for induction motors

In this paper, a sensorless fault tolerant controller for induction motors is developed. In the proposed approach, a robust controller based on backstepping strategy is designed in order to compensate for both the load torque disturbance and the rotor resistance variation caused by the broken rotor bars faults. The proposed approach needs neither fault detection and isolation schemes nor controller re-design. Moreover, to avoid the use of speed and flux sensors, a second order sliding mode observer is introduced to estimate the flux and the speed. The observer converges in a finite time and leads to good estimates of the flux and the speed even in the presence of the rotor resistance variation and the load torque disturbance. Since the observer converges in the finite time, the stability of the closed-loop system (controller with observer) is shown in two steps. First, the boundedness of the closed-loop system trajectories before the convergence of the observer is proved. Second, the convergence of the closed-loop system trajectories is proved after the convergence of the observer. To highlight the efficiency and applicability of the proposed control scheme, simulation and experimental results are conducted for a 1.5 kW induction motor.