Optical data processing using paraboloidal mirror segments

An optical data processing system using paraboloidal reflecting surfaces is disclosed. In the preferred embodiment the paraboloidal reflecting surfaces are segments of a paraboloidal mirror. A source of coherent light is in the focal plane of the first paraboloidal mirror segment which collimates the beam and reflects it toward a second paraboloidal mirror surface. The information to be analyzed, on a transparency for example, is placed in the collimated beam. The beam is reflected from the second paraboloidal mirror segment and focused on a Fourier transform plane. A photon detector could be placed in the Fourier transform plane or suitable spatial filters, with the filtered beam then being reflected from a third paraboloidal mirror segment to be focused on a reconstruction plane

Field and photon enhanced electron emission characteristics of cadmium sulphide field emitters

Field and photon enhanced electron emission characteristics of cadmium sulfide field emitter

Biopolymer-Based Materials from Polysaccharides: Properties, Processing, Characterization and Sorption Applications

Biopolymers are polymeric materials derived from biological sources. Due to their renewability, abundance, biodegradability and other unique properties such as high adsorption capabilities and ease of functionalization they have been investigated for several industrial applications including sorption. Polysaccharides especially cellulose, chitin and chitosan are important biopolymers because of their high abundance, wide distribution and low cost of production. This chapter provides an overview of properties, common processing methods, and material characterization of three commonly studied biopolymers namely cellulose, chitin and chitosan. It provides a thorough review on recent developments on utilization of cellulose, chitin, and chitosan-based materials for various sorption applications. Specifically, their application and efficiency in organic dye removal, heavy metals removal, oil and solvent spillage cleanup, and CO2 adsorption are presented and discussed

Performance management practices in humanitarian organisations

Purpose – We examine how design and implementation practices for supply chain performance management that have proven successful in commercial organisations apply to Humanitarian Organisations (HOs) to guide the process of designing and implementing performance management in humanitarian organisations. Design/methodology/approach – We identify from the literature 10 successful practices regarding the design and implementation of supply chain performance management in commercial businesses. We apply these, using action research over a four-year period, at Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) Belgium and draw conclusions from this. Findings – We find that tools and techniques, such as workshops and technical sheets, are essential in designing and implementing supply chain performance measurement projects at HOs. Furthermore, making a link to an IT project is crucial when implementing performance measurement systems at HOs. Overall, our case study shows that performance management practices used in business can be applied and are relevant for humanitarian supply chains. Originality/value – Previous research has argued that there are few empirical studies in the domain of performance management at humanitarian organisations. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first to provide a longitudinal understanding of the design and implementation of supply chain performance measurement at HOs

Well-M³N: A Maximum-Margin Approach to Unsupervised Structured Prediction

Unsupervised structured prediction is of fundamental importance for the clustering and classification of unannotated structured data. To date, its most common approach still relies on the use of structural probabilistic models and the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm. Conversely, structural maximum-margin approaches, despite their extensive success in supervised and semi-supervised classification, have not raised equivalent attention in the unsupervised case. For this reason, in this paper we propose a novel approach that extends the maximum-margin Markov networks (M3N) to an unsupervised training framework. The main contributions of our extension are new formulations for the feature map and loss function of M3N that decouple the labels from the measurements and support multiple ground-truth training. Experiments on two challenging segmentation datasets have achieved competitive accuracy and generalization compared to other unsupervised algorithms such as k-means, EM and unsupervised structural SVM, and comparable performance to a contemporary deep learning-based approach

ADMI: A Multi-Agent Architecture To Autonomously Generate Data Mining Servrces.

This paper presents a case for an intelligent agent based framework for knowledge discovery in a distributed environment comprising multiple heterogeneous data repositories

Controlling for openness in the male-dominated collaborative networks of the global film industry.

Studies of gender inequality in film industries have noted the persistence of male domination in creative roles (usually defined as director, producer, writer) and the slow pace of reform. Typical policy remedies are premised on aggregate counts of women as a proportion of overall industry participation. Network science offers an alternative way of identifying and proposing change mechanisms, as it puts emphasis on relationships instead of individuals. Preliminary work on applying network analysis to understand inequality in the film industry has been undertaken. However, in this study we offer a comprehensive approach that enables us to not only understand what inequality in the film industry looks like through the lens of network science but also how we can attempt to address this issue. We offer a data-driven simulation framework that investigates various what-if scenarios when it comes to network evolution. We then assess each of these scenarios with respect to its potential to address gender inequality in the film industry. As suggested by previous studies, inequality is exacerbated when industry networks are most closed. We review evidence from three different national film industries on network relationships in creative teams and identify a high proportion of men who only work with other men. In response to this observation, we test several mechanisms through which industry structures may generate higher levels of openness. Our results reveal that the most critical factor for improving network openness is not simply the statistical improvement of the number of women in a network, nor the removal of men who do not work with women. The most likely behavioural changes to a network will involve the production of connections between women and powerful men

Étude de la performance de la STEP du centre emplisseur de la société Salam Gaz – Skhirat, Maroc

Le présent travail a pour but de vérifier l’efficacité du fonctionnement de la STEP de la société Salam Gaz. Les eaux traitées sont réutilisées durant le procédé de production de la société. Les résultats de la caractérisation physicochimique des eaux usées brutes ont montré que les paramètres analysés dépassent les valeurs limites de rejets directes ou indirectes. Les valeurs moyennes en MES, DBO5 et DCO de l’eau brute sont respectivement 3429, 447 et 698 mg/L. Les rendements d’éliminations des paramètres MES, DCO et DBO5 par la STEP sont respectivement 99%, 86%, et 84% alors que l’abattement de la teneur en chrome, cuivre, cadmium et plomb dépasse 90%. Ceci montre que la STEP fonctionne correctement. Toutefois, des améliorations sont nécessaires pour améliorer d’avantages la performance de la STEP. En outre, les eaux usées épurées ont montré un pH acide variant autour de 5 ce qui nécessite une optimisation de la dose du coagulant injecté et une neutralisation avant rejet des eaux traitées dans le milieu récepteur.Mots-clés : eaux usées, diagnostic, performances, recyclage, Salam Gaz – Skhirat, Maroc.Study of the performance of the WWTP filling station company Salam Gas - Skhirat MoroccoThe present work designed to verify the operating effectiveness of society Step Salam Gas. The treated water is reused in the production process of the company. The characterization results at selected tapping points show that the majority of the analyzed parameters exceed the limit values for discharges. The mean values of TSS, BOD5 and COD of raw water are respectively 3429, 447 and 698 mg/l. Yields eliminations parameters TSS, COD and BOD5 by STEP are respectively 99%, 86% and 84% while the reduction of chromium, copper, cadmium and lead in excess of 90%. This shows that STEP is working properly. However, improvements are needed to improve the performance benefits of STEP. In addition, the treated wastewater showed an acidic pH ranging around 5 which requires an optimization of the dose of coagulant injection and neutralization prior to discharge treated wastewater into the receiving environment.Keywords : Wastewater, diagnostic, performance, recycling performance, Salam Gaz – Skhirat, Morocco

Development of chitosan-gelatin nanofibers with cellulose nanocrystals for skin protection applications

In this work, natural-based and biodegradable nanofibers were produced by electrospinning for drug delivery and wound dressing applications, using gelatin (Gel), chitosan (CS), cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) and natural propolis extract. The polymeric formulations and electrospinning parameters were optimized, resulting in the development of Gel/CS nanofibers with mean diameters of 97 nm. CNC were successfully introduced into the optimized Gel/CS solution and the viscosity and conductivity values were recorded. The developed nanofibers were characterized using FESEM, ATR-FTIR, TGA and WCA. The incorporation of different CNC concentrations improved the solutions’ electrospinnability and the membranes’ physical integrity. Defect-free and uniform Gel/CS/CNC nanofibers were observed by FESEM images, and the fibers’ diameters slight increased. The hydrophilic character was maintained after the CNC incorporation. Finally, Gel/CS/CNC/Propolis nanofibers demonstrated antibacterial activity against both Gram-negative (E. coli) and Gram-positive (S. aureus) bacteriaThe authors are thankful to TSSiPRO project, operation code NORTE01-0145-FEDER-000015. The authors are also grateful to FCT, Portugal for financial support through national funds FCT/MCTES to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020) and to 2C2T (UID/CTM/00264/2019). D. P. Ferreira thank the national funding by FCT through the individual scientific employment program-contract (CEECIND/02803/2017) and S. M. Costa thank the FCT PhD Scholarship (SFRH/BD/147517/2019)