Joint routing and location-based service in VANETs

Geographic routing protocols use location information when they need to route packets. In the meantime, location information are maintained by location-based services provided by network nodes in a distributed manner. Routing and location services are very related but are used separately. Therefore, the overhead of the location-based service is not considered when we evaluate the geographic routing overhead. Our aim is to combine routing protocols with location-based services in order to reduce communication establishment latency and routing overhead.     

An efficient image-mosaicing method based on multifeature matching

Mosaicing is connecting two or more images and making a new wide area image with no visible seam-lines. Several algorithms have been proposed to construct mosaics from image sequence where the camera motion is more or less complex. Most of these methods are based either on the interest points matching or on theoretical corner models. This paper describes a fully automated image-mosaicing method based on the regions and the Harris points primitives. Indeed, in order to limit the search window of potential homologous points, for each point of interest, regions segmentation and matching steps are being performed. This enables us to improve the reliability and the robustness of the Harris points matching process by estimating the camera motion. The main originality of the proposed system resides in the preliminary manipulation of regions matching, thus making it possible to estimate the rotation, the translation and the scale factor between two successive images of the input sequence. This estimation allows an initial alignment of the images along with the framing of the interest points search window, and therefore reducing considerably the complexity of the interest points matching algorithm. Then, the resolution of a minimization problem, altogether considering the couples of matched-points, permits us to perform the homography. In order to improve the mosaic continuity around junctions, radiometric corrections are applied. The validity of the herewith described method is illustrated by being tested on several sequences of complex and challenging images captured from real-world indoor and outdoor scenes. These simulations proved the validity of the proposed method against camera motions, illumination variations, acquirement conditions, moving objects and image noise. To determine the importance of the regions matching stage in motion estimation, as well as for the framing of the search window associated to a point of interest, we compared the matching points results of this described method with those produced using the zero-mean normalized cross correlation score (without regions matching). We made this comparison in the case of a simple motion (without the presence of a rotation around optical axis and/or a scale factor), in the case of a rotation and in the general case of an homothety. For justifying the effectiveness of this method, we proposed an objective assessment by defining a reconstruction error.

The effects of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin exposure in primary rat astroglia: identification of biochemical and cellular targets

This paper reports the results from in vitro experiments utilizing vital fluorescent probes and biochemical assays to examine the effects of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (2,3,7,8-TCDD) and related compounds in primary rat astroglia in an effort to identify the cellular site(s) involved in toxicity. Application of 100 nM 2,3,7,8-TCDD, a strong Ah receptor agonist, resulted in altered astroglial intracellular Ca2+, a significant decrease in glutathione, a disrupted mitochondrial membrane potential, a significant decrease in glutamine synthetase immunoreactivity and eventual loss of pH maintenance. In contrast, application of 10 microM 1,2,3,4-TCDD, a weak Ah receptor agonist, had no effect on any parameters measured. These findings, coupled with the identification of the 9-10S cytosolic Ah receptor in cultured rat astroglia, are consistent with typical structure-activity relationships observed for other Ah receptor mediated responses. However, the time course of the Ca2+, as well as other responses observed in this study, suggest that the above effects may not necessarily involved the formation of the nuclear Ah receptor complex.     

Use of gold tracer in the study of atmospheric oxidation of sulfur dioxide

A technique using gold particles as a conserved tracer has been developed in an effort to determine experimentally the oxidation of sulfur dioxide in sour gas plant plumes. A helicopter was used for plume sampling at distances up to 4 km downwind of the stack. The concentration of sulfur dioxide gas in the plume sample was determined by the West-Gaeke method. Neutron activation analysis was used to determine the concentration of gold particles in the plume sample. Since gold particles do not react chemically with plume gases, any decrease in their concentration along the plume path was due to turbulent dispersion. This parameter allowed an accurate estimation to be made of the decrease in the sulfur dioxide concentration within the plume sample that had occured due to physical dilution alone. Any further decrease in concentration could therefore be attributed to loss by chemical reaction. The experimental results indicated that, within the range studied, there is no measurable oxidation of sulfur dioxide in sour gas plant plumes.     

Optimal operation of large-scale power systems

A method for optimal operation of large-scale power systems is presented that it is similar to the one utilized by the Houston Lighting and Power Company. The main objective is to minimize the system fuel costs while maintaining an acceptable system performance in terms of limits on generator real and reactive power outputs, transformer tap settings, and bus voltage levels. Minimizing the fuel costs of such large-scale systems enhances the performance of optimal real power generator allocation and of optimal power flow that results in an economic dispatch. To handle large-scale systems of this nature, the problem is decomposed into a real and a reactive power optimization problem. The control variables are generator real power outputs for the real power optimization problem and generator reactive power outputs, compensating capacitors, and transformer tap settings for the reactive power optimization. The gradient projection method (GPM) is utilized to solve the optimization problems. It is an iterative procedure for finding an extremum of a function of several constraint variables without using penalty functions or Lagrange multipliers. Mathematical models are developed to represent the sensitivity relationships between dependent and control variables for both real and reactive-power optimization procedures and thus eliminate the use of B-coefficients     

Untertagevergasung tiefliegender Steinkohle

Bisherige Entwicklungen zur Untertagevergasung von Kohle. Neuere Überlegungen zur Untertagevergasung in Anlehnung an die Methoden bei der Gewinnung von Erdöl und Erdgas. Erörterung über die Verfahren des Bohrlochbergbaus im Durchdringungsverfahren, Kanalverfahren und Blockumströmungsverfahren. Beurteilung der Möglichkeiten der Untertagevergasung bei tiefliegenden Steinkohlelagerstätten. Bericht über die Aktivitäten einer Arbeitsgruppe des Instituts für Eisenhüttenkunde der Technischen Hochschule Aachen mit Angaben über Versuche im Autoklaven zur Simulation der Untertagevergasung und zur Ermittlung grundlegender Stoffdaten. Beurteilung der Zukunftsaussichten der Untertagevergasung.     

Modified insulator semiconductor electrode with functionalized nanoparticles for Proteus mirabilis bacteria biosensor development

The development of enzymatic sensors for biological purposes such as biomedicine, pharmacy, food industry, and environmental toxicity requires the purification step of the enzyme. To prevent the loss of the enzyme activity, a new strategy is held in order to immobilize the bacteria. It will constitute the biological sensing element leading to a high operational stability and multiple adaptations to various conditions such as temperature, pH and ionic strength changes. In this work we describe the development of a urea biosensor by immobilizing Proteus mirabilis bacteria onto an insulator–semiconductor electrode on functionalized Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles (NPs), using cationic, Poly (allylamine hydrochloride) then anionic, Poly (sodium 4-styrenesulfonate) polyelectrolytes, BSA (serum bovin albumin), and glutaraldehyde as a cross-linking agent. The response of P. mirabilis to urea addition is evaluated in homogeneous and heterogeneous phases. Before the immobilization step, the activity of urease produced from the P. mirabilis bacteria was attempted using the ion ammonium selective electrodes (ISEs). Adhesion of the bacteria cells on IS electrodes have been studied using contact angle measurements.After immobilization of the bacteria, on the (Si/SiO₂/Si₃N₄) and (Si/SiO₂) substrates, the relationship between the evolution of the flat band potential ?V_FB and the urea concentration is found to be linear for values ranging from 10^? 2 M to 10^? 5 M.     

Orientation-preserving transfer and directional light scattering from individual light-bending nanoparticles

A nanocup, or semishell, is an asymmetric plasmonic "Janus" nanoparticle with electric and magnetic plasmon modes; the latter scatters light in a direction controlled by nanoparticle orientation, making it the nanoscale analog of a parabolic antenna. Here we report a method for transferring nanocups from their growth substrate to oxide-terminated substrates that precisely preserves their three-dimensional orientation, enabling their use as nanophotonic components. This enables us to selectively excite and probe the electric and magnetic plasmon modes of individual nanocups, showing how the scattered light depends on the direction of incoming light and the orientation of this nanoparticle antenna.