On the crucial influence of some supporting electrolytes during electrocoagulation in the presence of aluminum electrodes

The influence of some supporting electrolytes on aluminum electrode oxidation and pH variation during electrocoagulation of an unskimmed milk sample and a cutting oil emulsion has been investigated. Among the electrolytes studied, sulfate anions were found to be quite harmful both for electrical consumption and electrocoagulation efficiency. At the opposite, chloride and ammonium ionswere particularly benefic respectively for aluminum corrosion and pH regulation, whereas sodium cations were observed to have a neutral role. The results indicate that electrocoagulation can be realized at lowanodic potential even in the presence of sulfate ions when the [Cl−]/[SO4 2−] ratio is around or greater than 1/10. The detrimental effect of sulfates on electrocoagulation efficiency can be thwarted by the use of the ammonium salt thanks to its related buffer effect

Hierarchy construction schemes within the Scale set framework

Segmentation algorithms based on an energy minimisation framework often depend on a scale parameter which balances a fit to data and a regularising term. Irregular pyramids are defined as a stack of graphs successively reduced. Within this framework, the scale is often defined implicitly as the height in the pyramid. However, each level of an irregular pyramid can not usually be readily associated to the global optimum of an energy or a global criterion on the base level graph. This last drawback is addressed by the scale set framework designed by Guigues. The methods designed by this author allow to build a hierarchy and to design cuts within this hierarchy which globally minimise an energy. This paper studies the influence of the construction scheme of the initial hierarchy on the resulting optimal cuts. We propose one sequential and one parallel method with two variations within both. Our sequential methods provide partitions near the global optima while parallel methods require less execution times than the sequential method of Guigues even on sequential machines

Global Carbon Cycle

The European Union of Geosciences held its 9th biannual meeting in Strasbourg, March 23–27, 1997. During this meeting, Symposium N8 18, Global carbon Cycle, was held under the sponsorship of the IGCP 1 n8404 on the «Terrestrial Carbon in the past 125 Ka», the INQUA 2 Carbon Commission and the ESCOBA-Biosphere 3 project of the EC Environment and Climate Programme. The «Global Carbon Cycle» Symposium attracted 28 oral and poster presentations and about one hundred participants, reflecting the interest of the Earth Sciences community in the global carbon cycle

The global carbon cycle and its changes over glacial–interglacial cycles

Carbon is an essential element for life, food and energy. It is also a key component of greenhouse gases and, thus, plays an important role in past and present climatic changes

APC Communiqué

This is the archive of the summer 2012 APC Communiqué, a bi-annual newsletter, which features a special report entitled, "President Rupiah Banda defends democracy in Zambia and Africa". Banda was APC's eighth President-in-Residence

Innovation, investment and regulation : What are the options for regulation in the near future ?.

This paper addresses the question of what options are available to regulate the sector in the near future. In order to answer this question, the paper focuses on the problem of investment and innovation in an ex ante regulated sector. Relying on existing literature, we argue that ex ante regulation could represent a danger for the long-term development of the sector by delaying or cancelling investment projects, especially (but not only) concerning the construction of new infrastructures. We also argue that ex ante regulation is distorting investment itself: incremental investment is privileged as opposed to radical investment. In this context, we identify three possible options for regulation in the near future: 1) continuing ex ante regulation, 2) substituting ex post regulation for ex ante regulation and 3) implementing an industrial policy for macro-strategic reasons. After describing a few major mutations in the sector that must be taken into account by regulators and presenting the major dilemmas that the latter are facing, we propose two possible solutions inspired by foreign policy. The first solution consists of offering investors regulation holidays, with regular reviews to deem whether these holidays should be prolonged or not. The second solution consists of implementing an industrial policy that could take the form of a contract negotiated between the regulator and operators. This would guarantee the absence of ex ante regulation if the conditions of the contract (in terms of regional planning, price, quality of service, types of investment…) are met.Industrial Policy; Investment; Innovation; Regulation;

Innovation, Investment and Regulation: What are the Options for Regulation in the Near Future?

This paper addresses the question of what options are available to regulate the sector in the near future. In order to answer this question, the paper focuses on the problem of investment and innovation in an ex ante regulated sector. Relying on existing literature, we argue that ex ante regulation could represent a danger for the long-term development of the sector by delaying or cancelling investment projects, especially (but not only) concerning the construction of new infrastructures. We also argue that ex ante regulation is distorting investment itself: incremental investment is privileged as opposed to radical investment. In this context, we identify three possible options for regulation in the near future: 1) continuing ex ante regulation, 2) substituting ex post regulation for ex ante regulation and 3) implementing an industrial policy for macro-strategic reasons. After describing a few major mutations in the sector that must be taken into account by regulators and presenting the major dilemmas that the latter are facing, we propose two possible solutions inspired by foreign policy. The first solution consists of offering investors regulation holidays, with regular reviews to deem whether these holidays should be prolonged or not. The second solution consists of implementing an industrial policy that could take the form of a contract negotiated between the regulator and operators. This would guarantee the absence of ex ante regulation if the conditions of the contract (in terms of regional planning, price, quality of service, types of investment…) are met.regulation; innovation; investment and industrial policy