A New Era for Applications of Vibrational Spectroscopy in Industry

Relatively recent developments in vibrational spectroscopy are impacting all areas of typical industrial R&D. These include Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, computerized Raman spectroscopy, micro techniques, combined techniques (including separation and thermal methods with spectroscopy), and a plethora of novel and effective sampling handling devices. Of greatest importance among these developments, however, is the dramatic increase in in-situ methods for examining materials or following reactions. Whether in catalysis, polymer chemistry, corrosion or petroleum research, the use of vibrational spectroscopy for real-time experiments is opening a new era of impressive applications. Examples of analytical problem solving in this new era of applications will be given to illustrate the above points

Sustainable management of biomass energy in rural and urban context

The most sustainable energy is the energy not used. Best way to (not) use energy is the proper design of a facility or an energy consuming system. The remaining energy needs have to be covered with energy utilisation of waste materials, renewable energy sources and, until the previous solutions are not sufficient to satisfy the energy demands, the last is the use of conventional fossil and nuclear energy sources. In terms of renewable energy, biomass has an important role today. However, there is a difference between available inputs and utilisation when considering biomass energy possibilities in rural and urban context. This paper suggests biomass energy possibilities that are recommendable in rural context: possibilities of solid biomass combustion, of liquid biofuels and of anaerobe digestion. Also important are possibilities of solid biomass combustion and wet biomass digestion for urban energy production, although with some remarks on system considerations of urban biomass. Most advanced solutions for sustainable management of biomass energy include circular systems, both in rural and urban context, as recommended

Granular Rheology in Zero Gravity

We present an experimental investigation on the rheological behavior of model granular media made of nearly elastic spherical particles. The experiments are performed in a cylindrical Couette geometry and the experimental device is placed inside an airplane undergoing parabolic flights to cancel the effect of gravity. The corresponding curves, shear stress versus shear rate, are presented and a comparison with existing theories is proposed. The quadratic dependence on the shear rate is clearly shown and the behavior as a function of the solid volume fraction of particles exhibits a power law function. It is shown that theoretical predictions overestimate the experiments. We observe, at intermediate volume fractions, the formation of rings of particles regularly spaced along the height of the cell. The differences observed between experimental results and theoretical predictions are discussed and related to the structures formed in the granular medium submitted to the external shear.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures to be published in Journal of Physics : Condensed Matte

Strong solutions to nonlocal 2D Cahn--Hilliard--Navier--Stokes systems with nonconstant viscosity, degenerate mobility and singular potential

We consider a nonlinear system which consists of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations coupled with a convective nonlocal Cahn-Hilliard equation. This is a diffuse interface model which describes the motion of an incompressible isothermal mixture of two (partially) immiscible fluids having the same density. We suppose that the viscosity depends smoothly on the order parameter as well as the mobility. Moreover, we assume that the mobility is degenerate at the pure phases and that the potential is singular (e.g. of logarithmic type). This system is endowed with no-slip boundary condition for the (average) velocity and homogeneous Neumann boundary condition for the chemical potential. Thus the total mass is conserved. In the two-dimensional case, this problem was already analyzed in some joint papers of the first three authors. However, in the present general case, only the existence of a global weak solution, the (conditional) weak-strong uniqueness and the existence of the global attractor were proven. Here we are able to establish the existence of a (unique) strong solution through an approximation procedure based on time discretization. As a consequence, we can prove suitable uniform estimates which allow us to show some smoothness of the global attractor. Finally, we discuss the existence of strong solutions for the convective nonlocal Cahn-Hilliard equation, with a given velocity field, in the three dimensional case as well

Filling a silo with a mixture of grains: Friction-induced segregation

We study the filling process of a two-dimensional silo with inelastic particles by simulation of a granular media lattice gas (GMLG) model. We calculate the surface shape and flow profiles for a monodisperse system and we introduce a novel generalization of the GMLG model for a binary mixture of particles of different friction properties where, for the first time, we measure the segregation process on the surface. The results are in good agreement with a recent theory, and we explain the observed small deviations by the nonuniform velocity profile.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, to be appear in Europhys. Let

On the characterisation of paired monotone metrics

Hasegawa and Petz introduced the notion of dual statistically monotone metrics. They also gave a characterisation theorem showing that Wigner-Yanase-Dyson metrics are the only members of the dual family. In this paper we show that the characterisation theorem holds true under more general hypotheses.Comment: 12 pages, to appear on Ann. Inst. Stat. Math.; v2: changes made to conform to accepted version, title changed as wel

Poster: Continual Network Learning

We make a case for in-network Continual Learning as a solution for seamless adaptation to evolving network conditions without forgetting past experiences. We propose implementing Active Learning-based selective data filtering in the data plane, allowing for data-efficient continual updates. We explore relevant challenges and propose future research directions