Experimental Investigation on the Properties of a Recycled Aggregate Concrete Based on Waste of the Industrial Mineral Additions

This study investigates the possible effects of incorporating different industry wastes during manufacturing of concrete, with percentages ranging from 0% to 30%, and assesses the influence of these combinations (mineral additions and recycled aggregates) on the properties of a recycled concrete comprised of these two main constituents products. Recycled concrete samples with different combinations of mineral additions at various dosages were used to determine these properties in the fresh and hardened states. The ”Design-expert” methodology was used to analyse the results after 7, 14 and 28 days, identifying correlations and the effects of the different variables. The results obtained showed the advantageous effect of incorporating the pozzolana and slag into the concrete mixture at dosages of 15% and 30%, they also demonstrated the low optimal percentage of marble fillers of 5%. These findings suggest that replacing clinker with industrial waste could limit the dust and CO2 emissions into the atmosphere during concrete manufacture, offering environmental advantages as well as conserving the natural resources of aggregate recovery from C&D wastes. Keywords: environmental concrete, mineral additions, recycled aggregate, design expert method

Exact Methods and Heuristics for Order Acceptance Scheduling Problem under Time-of-Use Costs and Carbon Emissions

International audienceThis research focuses on an Order Acceptance Scheduling (OAS) problem on a single machine under time-of-use (TOU) tariffs and taxed carbon emissions periods with the objective to maximize total profit minus tardiness penalties and environmental costs. Due to the NP-hardness of the considered problem especially in presence of sequence-dependent setup-times, two fix-and-relax (FR) heuristics based on different time-indexed (TI) formulations are proposed. A metaheuristic based on the Dynamic Island Model (DIM) framework is also employed to tackle this optimization problem. These approached methods show promising results both in terms of solution quality and solving time compared to state-of-the-art exact solving approaches

TIME-INDEXED FORMULATIONS FOR THE ORDER ACCEPTANCE SCHEDULING PROBLEM UNDER ENERGY ASPECTS

International audienceTo comply with the new challenges of sustainability, the industrial sector is revising its means of supply and production. This entails, for instance, optimizing energy consumption and costs at the operational level. In this vein, this research presents an Order Acceptance Scheduling problem (OAS) on a single machine under electricity time-of-use tariffs and taxed carbon emission periods. The objective is to maximize the total profit. This problem arises when a company decides to select and process a subset of orders only if it is possible within a predetermined time-window. Therefore, the number of possible schedules grow at a factorial rate. To tackle this NP-hard problem, two time-indexed formulations are provided. Finally, to assess the performance of the proposed models, a comparative analysis against a classical formulation is conducted

Simple intra-cavity beam shaping for generating a shape-invariant flat-top laser beam

International audienceFor laser users, the usual Gaussian beam (GB) may not always be the best intensity profile. Often, a preferred option is a Flat-Top (FT) beam which is generally obtained by using diffractive optics in a reshaping operation. In this case, the resulting FT profile occurs only in the focal plane of the focusing lens, and its vicinity. We consider here the generation of a shape-invariant FT laser beam resulting from the incoherent weighted (50%-50% in power) mixing of LG00 (GB) and LG01 (doughnut) beams. For that we consider the insertion inside the laser cavity of a diaphragm and an absorbing ring, and optimising their sizes makes possible the simultaneous oscillation on LG00 and LG01 modes allowing the generation of a shape-invariant laser beam

Artificial neural network modeling of cefixime photodegradation by synthesized CoBi(2)O(4) nanoparticles

International audienceCoBi(2)O(4) (CBO) nanoparticles were synthesized by sol-gel method using polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as a complexing reagent. For a single phase with the spinel structure, the formed gel was dried and calcined at four temperatures stages. Various methods were used to identify and characterize the obtained spinel, such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron micrograph (SEM-EDX), transmission electron microscope (TEM), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), Raman, and UV-Vis spectroscopies. The photocatalytic activity of CBO was examined for the degradation of a pharmaceutical product cefixime (CFX). Furthermore, for the prediction of the CFX degradation rate, an artificial neural network model was used. The network was trained using the experimental data obtained at different pH with different CBO doses and initial CFX concentrations. To optimize the network, various algorithms and transfer functions for the hidden layer were tested. By calculating the mean square error (MSE), 13 neurons were found to be the optimal number of neurons and produced the highest coefficient of correlation R(2) of 99.6%. The relative significance of the input variables was calculated, and the most impacting input was proved to be the initial CFX concentration. The effects of some scavenging agents were also studied. The results confirmed the dominant role of hydroxyl radical OH(•) in the degradation process. With the novel CoBi(2)O(4)/ZnO hetero-system, the photocatalytic performance has been enhanced, giving an 80% degradation yield of CFX (10 mg/L) at neutral pH in only 3 h

Pancreatic surgery outcomes: multicentre prospective snapshot study in 67 countries

Background: Pancreatic surgery remains associated with high morbidity rates. Although postoperative mortality appears to have improved with specialization, the outcomes reported in the literature reflect the activity of highly specialized centres. The aim of this study was to evaluate the outcomes following pancreatic surgery worldwide.Methods: This was an international, prospective, multicentre, cross-sectional snapshot study of consecutive patients undergoing pancreatic operations worldwide in a 3-month interval in 2021. The primary outcome was postoperative mortality within 90 days of surgery. Multivariable logistic regression was used to explore relationships with Human Development Index (HDI) and other parameters.Results: A total of 4223 patients from 67 countries were analysed. A complication of any severity was detected in 68.7 percent of patients (2901 of 4223). Major complication rates (Clavien-Dindo grade at least IIIa) were 24, 18, and 27 percent, and mortality rates were 10, 5, and 5 per cent in low-to-middle-, high-, and very high-HDI countries respectively. The 90-day postoperative mortality rate was 5.4 per cent (229 of 4223) overall, but was significantly higher in the low-to-middle-HDI group (adjusted OR 2.88, 95 per cent c.i. 1.80 to 4.48). The overall failure-to-rescue rate was 21 percent; however, it was 41 per cent in low-to-middle-compared with 19 per cent in very high-HDI countries.Conclusion: Excess mortality in low-to-middle-HDI countries could be attributable to failure to rescue of patients from severe complications. The authors call for a collaborative response from international and regional associations of pancreatic surgeons to address management related to death from postoperative complications to tackle the global disparities in the outcomes of pancreatic surgery (NCT04652271; ISRCTN95140761)