Pollution in the open oceans: 2009-2013

This review of pollution in the open oceans updates a report on this topic prepared by GESAMP five years previously (Reports and Studies No. 79, GESAMP, 2009). The latter report, the first from GESAMP focusing specifically on the oceans beyond the 200 m depth contour, was prepared for purposes of the Assessment of Assessments, the preparatory phase of a regular process for assessing the state of the marine environment, led jointly by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (UNESCO-IOC)

Jet milling effect on wheat flour characteristics and starch hydrolysis

The interest for producing wheat flour with health promoting effect and improved functionality has led to investigate new milling techniques that can provide finer flours. In this study, jet milling treatment was used to understand the effect of ultrafine size reduction onto microstructure and physicochemical properties of wheat flour. Three different conditions of jet milling, regarding air pressure (4 or 8 bars) feed rate and recirculation, were applied to obtain wheat flours with different particle size (control, F1, F2 and F3 with d50 127.45, 62.30, 22.94 and 11.4 μm, respectively). Large aggregates were gradually reduced in size, depending on the intensity of the process, and starch granules were separated from the protein matrix. Damaged starch increased while moisture content decreased because of milling intensity. Notable changes were observed in starch hydrolysis kinetics, which shifted to higher values with milling. Viscosity of all micronized samples was reduced and gelatinization temperatures (To, Tp, Tc) for F2 and F3 flours increased. Controlling jet milling conditions allow obtaining flours with different functionality, with greater changes at higher treatment severity that induces large particle reduction.Part of this work was financed through the project “IKY Scholarships” from resources of operational program (OP) “Education and Lifelong Learning”, the European Social Fund (ESF) of the (National Strategic Reference Framework NSRF) 2007-2013-WP2-SHORT TERMS-19078. Financial support of Spanish Scientific Research Council (CSIC) and Generalitat Valenciana (Spain, Project Prometeo 2012/064) is acknowledged.Peer reviewe

Predicting Multimedia Traffic in Wireless Networks: A Performance Evaluation of Cognitive Techniques

Traffic engineering in networking is defined as the process that incorporates sophisticated methods in order to ensure optimization and high network performance. One of the most constructive tools employed by the traffic engineering concept is the traffic prediction. Having in mind the heterogeneous traffic patterns originated by various modern services and network platforms, the need of a robust, cognitive, and error-free prediction technique becomes even more pressing. This work focuses on the prediction concept as an autonomous, functional, and efficient process, where multiple cutting-edge methods are presented, modeled, and thoroughly assessed. To this purpose, real traffic traces have been captured, including multiple multimedia traffic flows, so as to comparatively assess widely used methods in terms of accuracy

Predicting Multimedia Traffic in Wireless Networks: A Performance Evaluation of Cognitive Techniques

Traffic engineering in networking is defined as the process that incorporates sophisticated methods in order to ensure optimization and high network performance. One of the most constructive tools employed by the traffic engineering concept is the traffic prediction. Having in mind the heterogeneous traffic patterns originated by various modern services and network platforms, the need of a robust, cognitive, and error-free prediction technique becomes even more pressing. This work focuses on the prediction concept as an autonomous, functional, and efficient process, where multiple cutting-edge methods are presented, modeled, and thoroughly assessed. To this purpose, real traffic traces have been captured, including multiple multimedia traffic flows, so as to comparatively assess widely used methods in terms of accuracy

A new doubly discrete analogue of smoke ring flow and the real time simulation of fluid flow

Modelling incompressible ideal fluids as a finite collection of vortex filaments is important in physics (super-fluidity, models for the onset of turbulence) as well as for numerical algorithms used in computer graphics for the real time simulation of smoke. Here we introduce a time-discrete evolution equation for arbitrary closed polygons in 3-space that is a discretisation of the localised induction approximation of filament motion. This discretisation shares with its continuum limit the property that it is a completely integrable system. We apply this polygon evolution to a significant improvement of the numerical algorithms used in Computer Graphics.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figure

Relation between Reactive Surface Sites and Precursor Choice for Area-Selective Atomic Layer Deposition Using Small Molecule Inhibitors

Implementation of vapor/phase dosing of small molecule inhibitors (SMIs) in advanced atomic layer deposition (ALD) cycles is currently being considered for bottom-up fabrication by area-selective ALD. When SMIs are used, it can be challenging to completely block precursor adsorption due to the inhibitor size and the relatively short vapor/phase exposures. Two strategies for precursor blocking are explored: (i) physically covering precursor adsorption sites, i.e., steric shielding, and (ii) eliminating precursor adsorption sites from the surface, i.e., chemical passivation. In this work, it is determined whether steric shielding is enough for effective precursor blocking during area-selective ALD or whether chemical passivation is required as well. At the same time, we address why some ALD precursors are more difficult to block than others. To this end, the blocking of the Al precursor molecules trimethylaluminum (TMA), dimethylaluminum isopropoxide (DMAI), and tris(dimethylamino)aluminum (TDMAA) was studied by using acetylacetone (Hacac) as inhibitor. It was found that DMAI and TDMAA are more easily blocked than TMA because they adsorb on the same surface sites as Hacac, while TMA is also reactive with other surface sites. This work shows that chemical passivation plays a crucial role for precursor blocking in concert with steric shielding. Moreover, the reactivity of the precursor with the surface groups on the non-growth area dictates the effectiveness of blocking precursor adsorption