In situ temperature measurements in microwave-heated gassolid catalytic systems. Detection of hot spots and solid-fluid temperature gradients in the ethylene epoxidation reaction

Infrared thermographic techniques have been used for the first time to determine real-time gas and solid temperatures, as well as gas- solid temperature gradients in microwave heated structured reactors. A special reactor vessel has been developed that allows direct observation of the catalyst under microwave heating, and an operating procedure is presented to obtain gas and solid apparent emissivities as a function of temperature. These values are thereafter used to calculate temperatures at any point in the gas and solid phases under reaction. The method has been used to obtain gas and solid temperatures during the ethylene epoxidation reaction carried out on a silver-copper oxide catalyst. The direct heating of the monolith walls produced a stable, large temperature gradient between the solid and the gas phase

Analysis of technical criticalities for GIS modelling an Urban noise map

This paper analyzes criticalities and strengthens of a procedure used to model the acoustic map of the vehicular traffic of an urban agglomeration. The research is based on a pilot project for the acoustic mapping of a portion of the city of Palermo (Italy). Simulations indicate that the acoustic climate was in line with expectations and with typical of large Italian cities. The most remarkable result was obtained by an increase in the number of reflections (from two to five), while the influence of the height of the building (from 9 to 18 meters) was negligible \u2013 on the order of a few points per thousand. Regarding the analysis conducted with the \u2018Gden Method\u2019, acoustic values do not diverge significantly from the other Italian cities, registering values that were, however, the highest in the investigated sample

Lepton Number Violating Radiative WW Decay in Models with R-parity Violation

Models with explicit R-parity violation can induce new rare radiative decay modes of the $W$ boson into single supersymmetric particles which also violate lepton number. We examine the rate and signature for one such decay, $W\rightarrow \tilde l\gamma$, and find that such a mode will be very difficult to observe, due its small branching fraction, even if the lepton number violating coupling in the superpotential is comparable in strength to electromagnetism. This parallels a similar result obtained earlier by Hewett in the case of radiative $Z$ decays.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures(available on request), LaTex, ANL-HEP-PR-92-8

perm mateda: A matlab toolbox of estimation of distribution algorithms for permutation-based combinatorial optimization problems

Permutation problems are combinatorial optimization problems whose solutions are naturally codified as permutations. Due to their complexity, motivated principally by the factorial cardinality of the search space of solutions, they have been a recurrent topic for the artificial intelligence and operations research community. Recently, among the vast number of metaheuristic algorithms, new advances on estimation of distribution algorithms (EDAs) have shown outstanding performance when solving some permutation problems. These novel EDAs implement distance-based exponential probability models such as the Mallows and Generalized Mallows models. In this paper, we present a Matlab package, perm mateda, for estimation of distribution algorithms on permutation problems, which has been implemented as an extension to the Mateda-2.0 toolbox of EDAs. Particularly, we provide implementations of the Mallows and Generalized Mallows EDAs under the Kendall’s-τ, Cayley, and Ulam distances. In addition, four classical permutation problems have been also implemented: Traveling Salesman Problem, Permutation Flowshop Scheduling Problem, Linear Ordering Problem, and Quadratic Assignment Problem

Neutrino masses from operator mixing

We show that in theories that reduce, at the Fermi scale, to an extension of the standard model with two doublets, there can be additional dimension five operators giving rise to neutrino masses. In particular there exists a singlet operator which can not generate neutrino masses at tree level but generates them through operator mixing. Under the assumption that only this operator appears at tree level we calculate the neutrino mass matrix. It has the Zee mass matrix structure and leads naturally to bimaximal mixing. However, the maximal mixing prediction for solar neutrinos is very sharp even when higher order corrections are considered. To allow for deviations from maximal mixing a fine tuning is needed in the neutrino mass matrix parameters. However, this fine tuning relates the departure from maximal mixing in solar neutrino oscillations with the neutrinoless double beta decay rate.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure, revte

Report on advances for pediatricians in 2018: allergy, cardiology, critical care, endocrinology, hereditary metabolic diseases, gastroenterology, infectious diseases, neonatology, nutrition, respiratory tract disorders and surgery.

This review reported notable advances in pediatrics that have been published in 2018. We have highlighted progresses in allergy, cardiology, critical care, endocrinology, hereditary metabolic diseases, gastroenterology, infectious diseases, neonatology, nutrition, respiratory tract disorders and surgery. Many studies have informed on epidemiologic observations. Promising outcomes in prevention, diagnosis and treatment have been reported. We think that advances realized in 2018 can now be utilized to ameliorate patient car

Corrosion and wear resistance of coatings produced on AZ31 Mg alloy by plasma electrolytic oxidation in silicate-based K2TiF6 containing solution: Effect of waveform

In this research, plasma electrolytic oxidation coatings were prepared on AZ31 Mg alloy in a silicate-based solution containing K2TiF6 using bipolar and soft sparking waveforms with 10, 20, and 30% cathodic duty cycles. The coatings displayed a net-like surface morphology consisted of irregular micro-pores, micro-cracks, fused oxide particles, and a sintered structure. Due to the incorporation of TiO2 colloidal particles and the cathodic pulse repair effect, most of the micro-pores were sealed. Long-term corrosion performance of the coatings was investigated using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy during immersion in 3.5 wt.% NaCl solution up to 14 days. The coating grown by the soft sparking waveform with a 20% cathodic duty cycle having the lowest porosity (6.2%) and a sharp layer concentrated in F element at the substrate/coating interface shows the highest corrosion resistance. The friction coefficient of this coating has remained stable during the sliding even under 5 N normal load, showing relatively higher wear resistance than other coatings. The coating produced using the equivalent unipolar waveform, as the reference specimen, showed the highest friction coefficient and the lowest wear resistance despite its highest micro-hardness