Comparison of two nanofiltration membrane reactors for a model reaction of olefin metathesis achieved in toluene

International audienceThe recent commercialisation of nanofiltration membranes resistant toward organic solvents is a real opportunity for fine chemistry. This study deals with different ways of integration of organic solvent nanofiltration for a specific type of reactions known as olefin metathesis and shows the use of two nanofiltration membrane reactors both running in cross-flow filtration mode (0.1 m s- 1). They are used either in semi-continuous or continuous mode. A model ring closing metathesis reaction is chosen for the demonstration. A commercially available pre-catalyst, namely Grubbs-Hoveyda II, as well as a commercial polyimide membrane (Starmem 122, MWCO 220 g mol- 1) are used. Firstly, nanofiltration of the single pre-catalyst allows establishing that the highest retention is obtained with a 40 bar pressure. Secondly, this pressure is used with the two membrane reactors before testing other conditions. Finally, interests and limitations of the two reactors are discussed

The Value of Extended Reality Techniques to Improve Remote Collaborative Maintenance Operations: A User Study

In the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) sector, data extracted from building information modelling (BIM) can be used to create a digital twin (DT). The algorithms of a BIM-based DT can facilitate the retrieval of information, which can then be used to improve building operation and maintenance procedures. However, with the increased complexity and automation of the building, maintenance operations are likely to become more complex and may require expert intervention. Collaboration and interaction between the operator and the expert may be limited as the latter may not be on site or within the company. Recently, extended reality (XR) technologies have proven to be effective in improving collaboration during maintenance operations,through data display and shared interactions. This paper presents a new collaborative solution using these technologies to enhance collaboration during remote maintenance operations. The proposed approach consists of a mixed reality (MR) set-up for the operator, a virtual reality (VR) set-up for the remote expert and a shared Digital Model of a heat exchanger. The MR set-up is used for tracking and displaying specific information, provided by the VR module. A user study was carried out to compare the efficiency of our solution with a standard audio-video collaboration. Our approach demonstrated substantial enhancements in collaborative inspection, resulting in a significative reduction in both the overall completion time of the inspection and the frequency of errors committed by the operators

13C—methyl formate : observations of a sample of high mass starforming regions including Orion—KL and spectroscopic characterization

We have surveyed a sample of massive star-forming regions located over a range of distances from the Galactic centre for methyl formate, HCOOCH3, and its isotopologues H13COOCH3 and HCOO13CH3. The observations were carried out with the APEX telescope in the frequency range 283.4-287.4 GHz. Based on the APEX observations, we report tentative detections of the 13C-methyl formate isotopologue HCOO13CH3 towards the following four massive star-forming regions: Sgr B2(N-LMH), NGC 6334 IRS 1, W51 e2 and G19.61-0.23. In addition, we have used the 1 mm ALMA science verification observations of Orion-KL and confirm the detection of the 13C-methyl formate species in Orion-KL and image its spatial distribution. Our analysis shows that the 12C/13C isotope ratio in methyl formate toward Orion-KL Compact Ridge and Hot Core-SW components (68.4±10.1 and 71.4±7.8, respectively) are, for both the 13C-methyl formate isotopologues, commensurate with the average 12C/13C ratio of CO derived toward Orion-KL. Likewise, regarding the other sources, our results are consistent with the 12C/13C in CO. We also report the spectroscopic characterization, which includes a complete partition function, of the complex H13COOCH3 and HCOO13CH3 species. New spectroscopic data for both isotopomers H13COOCH3 and HCOO13CH3, presented in this study, has made it possible to measure this fundamentally important isotope ratio in a large organic molecule for the first time.This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under grant 1008800. We are grateful to the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad of Spain for the financial support through grant No. FIS2011-28738-C02-02 and to the French Government through grant No. ANR-08-BLAN-0054 and the French PCMI (Programme National de Physique Chimie du Milieu Interstellaire). This paper makes use of the following ALMA data: ADS/JAO. ALMA#2011.0.00009.SV.ALMAis a partnership of ESO (representing its member states), NSF (USA), and NINS (Japan), together with NRC (Canada) and NSC and ASIAA (Taiwan), in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. The Joint ALMA Observatory is operated by ESO, AUI/NRAO, and NAOJ. C.F. thanks Dahbia Talbi, Eric Herbst, and Anthony Remijan for enlightening discussions. Finally, we thank the anonymous referee for helpful comments

PLM adoption in SMEs context

The increasing market needs and technologies evolution, push companies to develop competitive advantages based on adequate and intensive use of information technology and communication (ICT). However, SMEs do not realize the importance of ICT adoption, which becomes vital for the development, and are not always well equipped to adopt and integrate them to their activities. The paper focused on issues regarding the ICT adoption, especially PLM solutions by SMEs. By analyzing the PLM definitions and works done, we explored indicators that impact positively or negatively ICT and PLM adoption. This paper proposes a model, currently theoretical, with empirical validation proposal through a survey

Investigation into current industrial practices relating to product lifecycle management in a multi-national manufacturing company

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems have gained growing acceptance for managing all information relating to products throughout their full lifecycle, from idea conceptualisation through operations to servicing and disposal. This paper, through an in-depth exploratory study into a leading power generation manufacturing organisation, presents current PLM issues experienced by manufacturing companies, exploring three separate topics: 1) PLM, 2) Knowledge Management and Lessons Learnt and 3) Product Servicing and Maintenance. Following a review of published literature, results of the investigation are presented, analysing the responses of 17 employees interviewed. With respect to Product Development, it was found that information traceability is time consuming and change management requests take too long to complete. Results relating to knowledge management indicate that the Company operates a ‘who you know’ culture, but do aim to capture lessons learned on the manufacturing shop floor and assembly lines. Therefore, a prototype design is proposed to integrate the capturing of lessons learnt within the existing PLM system

EMC-signatures of microcontrollers under thermal stress analyzed by FSV

The EMC-signature of devices containing microcontrollers can differ due to thermal or mechanical stress. Research is presented to prove the feature selective validation method (FSV) to be sensitive enough to analyze differences in signatures

Oscillatory activity in the infant brain and the representation of small numbers

Gamma-band oscillatory activity (GBA) is an established neural signature of sustained occluded object representation in infants and adults. However, it is not yet known whether the magnitude of GBA in the infant brain reflects the quantity of occluded items held in memory. To examine this, we compared GBA of 6–8 month-old infants during occlusion periods after the representation of two objects vs. that of one object. We found that maintaining a representation of two objects during occlusion resulted in significantly greater GBA relative to maintaining a single object. Further, this enhancement was located in the right occipital region, which is consistent with previous object representation research in adults and infants. We conclude that enhanced GBA reflects neural processes underlying infants’ representation of small numbers

EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION ON THE POWER ELECTRONIC TRANSISTOR PARAMETERS INFLUENCE TO THE NEAR-FIELD RADIATION FOR THE EMC APPLICATIONS

Abstract—With the increases of the module integration density and complexity in electrical and power electronic systems, serious problems related to electromagnetic interference (EMI) and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) can occur. For the safety, these disturbing effects must be considered during the electronic equipment design process. One of the concerns on EMC problems is induced by unintentional near-field (NF) radiations. The modeling and measurement of EM NF radiations is one of the bottlenecks which must be overcome by electronic engineers. To predict the unwanted different misbehaviors caused by the EM radiation, NF test benches for the reconstitution of scanning maps at some millimeters of electrical/electronic circuits under test were developed at the IRSEEM laboratory. Due to the difficulty of the design with commercial simulators, the prediction of EM NF emitted by active electronic systems which are usually based on the use of transistors necessitates more relevant and reliable analysis techniques. For this reason, the main focus of this article is on the experimental analysis of EM NF radiated by an MOSFET transistor with changing electrical parameters. Descriptions of the experimental test bench for the EM map scan of transistors radiation are provided. This experimental setup allows not only to detect the EM NF emission but also to analyze the influence of the excitation signal parameter

A Variability-Based Testing Approach for Synthesizing Video Sequences

A key problem when developing video processing software is the di culty to test di erent input combinations. In this paper, we present VANE, a variability-based testing approach to derive video sequence variants. The ideas of VANE are i) to encode in a variability model what can vary within a video sequence; ii) to exploit the variability model to generate testable con gurations; iii) to synthesize variants of video sequences corresponding to con gurations. VANE computes T-wise covering sets while optimizing a function over attributes. Also, we present a preliminary validation of the scalability and practicality of VANE in the context of an industrial project involving the test of video processing algorithms.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2012-32273Junta de Andalucía TIC-5906Junta de Andalucía P12-TIC-186

Variability Management in Domain-Specific Languages

International audienceDomain-specific languages (DSLs) allow domain experts to express solutions directly in terms of relevant domain concepts and, for example, use generative mechanisms to transform DSL' specifications into software artifacts (e.g. code, configuration files or documentation). Thus, abstracting away from the complexity of the rest of the system and the intricacies of its implementation. As a result, the construction of DSLs is becoming a recurrent activity during the development of software intensive systems. However, the construction of DSLs is a challenging task due to the specialized knowledge it requires; in order to successfully perform such activity, an engineer must own not only quite solid modeling skills but also the technical expertise for conducting the definition of specific artifacts such as grammars, metamodels, compilers, interpreters, among others. The situation becomes even more challenging in the context of multi-domain companies (e.g. Thales) where several domains coexist across the business units and, consequently, there is a need to deal with families of DSLs. A family of DSLs is a set of DSLs that share some commonalities and that differ by some variability that, in turn, is materialized in certain variation points existing at three different dimensions: functional, syntactical and semantical. Functional variation points refer to the capability of creating DSLs including only a subset of constructs of the whole language so it is possible to create stakeholder-specific DSLs while maintaining them as simpler as possible. Syntactic variation points refers to different representations of the same concept (e.g., graphical and textual representation). Finally, semantic variation points refer to different interpretation to the same concept by two members of the family (e.g., the concept \textit{fork} in the case of the state machines can be interpreted as a concurrency point where all the output transitions are dispatched simultaneously or simply as a bifurcation point where the output transitions are dispatched sequentially). Recent research works have demonstrated the benefits of the use of software product lines engineering (SPLE) in the construction of families DSLs. All of these works agree on the need of a modularization approach that enables the decomposition of a DSL into independent modules and a variability management mechanism for effectively dealing with the differences and commonalities among the DSLs members of the family.The research summarized in this document is aimed to contribute to this study. Concretely speaking, we work on the formalization of the alignment between the modularization approach and the variability management mechanism taking into account the three dimensions of the variability. Our preliminary results suggest the need of the definition of language interfaces for addressing each variability realization technique for the particular case of DSLs. In addition, an strategy should be conceived for modeling the multi-dimensional variability existing in families DSLs in such a way that facilitates the configuration and derivation of DSLs according to the specific needs of the users. As part of the validation process, we are applying all these ideas in a real word industrial case study in the context of Thales Group