Computer Aided Aroma Design. II. Quantitative structure-odour relationship

Computer Aided Aroma Design (CAAD) is likely to become a hot issue as the REACH EC document targets many aroma compounds to require substitution. The two crucial steps in CAMD are the generation of candidate molecules and the estimation of properties, which can be difficult when complex molecular structures like odours are sought and their odour quality are definitely subjective or their odour intensity are partly subjective as stated in Rossitier’s review (1996). The CAAD methodology and a novel molecular framework were presented in part I. Part II focuses on a classification methodology to characterize the odour quality of molecules based on Structure – Odour Relation (SOR). Using 2D and 3D molecular descriptors, Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) and Artificial Neural Network are compared in favour of LDA. The classification into balsamic / non balsamic quality was satisfactorily solved. The classification among five sub notes of the balsamic quality was less successful, partly due to the selection of the Aldrich’s Catalog as the reference classification. For the second case, it is shown that the sweet sub note considered in Aldrich’s Catalog is not a relevant sub note, confirming the alternative and popular classification of Jaubert et al., (1995), the field of odours

Carbon epoxy composites thermal conductivity at 80 K and 300 K

The in-plane and in-depth thermal conductivities of epoxy-carbon fiber composites have been measured at 77 K and 300 K. The experimental technique rests on the hot disk method. The two thermal conductivities as well as the thermal contact resistance between the probe and the composite materials are estimated from measurement data and an analytical heat transfer model within the experimental configuration. The results obtained at 77 K explained well the ignition test results performed on the composites at 77 K with regards to liquid oxygen storage

Do strategic partnerships create value? "The empirical case of SBF 250 firms"

Strategic partnerships are theoretically now considered as real levers of value creation. This value creation takes different forms . The objective of our research, after analyzing the results of empirical works focused on the acquisitions announcements impact on the stock market performance and also their actual value creation in the long-term, is to check if strategic partnerships create market value and the actual value. Our final results show that in the short term the announcement of a strategic partnership has a negative impact on performance as opposed to the announcement of a merger-acquisition, while other hand on the long-term, there is no positive impact (neutral impact) of strategic partnerships on financial performance. We explain this result by the phenomenon of "creation of compensatory value" in the context of a strategic and financial planLes partenariats stratégiques sont considérés aujourd'hui comme des leviers de création de valeur. Une création de valeur selon la perception des managers notamment la création de valeur stratégique, la création de valeur substantielle, la création de valeur institutionnelle ou la création de valeur financière (actionnariale) et c'est cette dernière qui attire notre attention. L'objectif de ce travail de recherche, après avoir analysé les résultats des travaux empiriques réalisés sur l'impact des annonces d'acquisitions sur la performance boursière, est de répondre aux deux questions suivantes. La première question : à un horizon plus ou moins lointain, la performance boursière des partenariats stratégiques coïnciderait-elle avec la performance réelle ? La deuxième question : est-ce que la confirmation des hypothèses formulées et vérifiées par les auteurs reste valide pour le cas des partenariats stratégiques? Nos résultats montent sur le court terme que l'annonce d'un partenariat sur la performance à court terme à un impact négatif, sur le long terme, nous constatons qu'il n'y a aucun impact du partenariat stratégique sur la performance financière, nous pouvons expliquer ce résultat que par ce qu'on peut appeler " la création de valeur compensatoire

Performance of socially responsible investment funds in China: A comparison with traditional funds

This paper empirically examines and compares social responsibility investment funds to traditional funds, and explores the performance of the existing social responsibility investment funds in China. Based on 64 social responsibility investment funds (SRI Funds) and 64 traditional funds, this paper extracts the data of the sample fund from the fourth quarter of 2016 to the fourth quarter of 2019 as sample data to conduct a comparative analysis of the difference between the SRI fund and the traditional fund in terms of return and risk, and to then empirically study the performance of the funds. The results show that the difference between the return of China’s socially responsible investment funds and the traditional funds is insignificant, and the risk of socially responsible investment funds is significantly lower than that of traditional funds. The regression analysis is also carried out on a model of social responsibility as a factor affecting the performance of the funds. Subsequently, the results show that social responsibility has a significant positive impact on the fund’s return in the Chinese market

Contribution to the Control of Doubly Fed Induction Machine DFIM

-IIAbstract Currently, doubly fed induction generators (DFIGs) are widely used for wind turbines. Compared to other variable-speed generators; the main advantage of the DFIG is that the power electronic devices must deal with only about a third of the generator power, compared to full power converters used in synchronous generators . This difference reduces the costs and losses in the power electronic components, rather than other solutions, such as fully converting systems; finally, the overall efficiency is improved. Furthermore, among all the induction generator configurations for generation systems the use of (DFIG) configuration with back to back pulse width modulated voltage source converters (VSC) is one of the best topologies available and it is suitable for both grid connected systems as well as standalone systems. Here only stand-alone application of DFIG is considered. In this thesis, mathematical modelling of doubly fed induction machine is presented. Two control approaches are proposed to improve the control of the rotor side converter which give the best solution to overcome the drawbacks of the recent control methods and provide a high performance stator- voltage magnitude and frequency regulation for all possible operation scenarios (voltage magnitude, load, and rotor speed variations). Various aspects of standalone DFIG generation system such as stator-voltage magnitude and frequency regulation, computational requirement minimization, sensors number reduction, from rotor side converter control is carried out. All proposed control methods have been verified in both simulation and 3 kW DFIG laboratory experimental bench

Novel Estimation and Detection Techniques for 5G Networks

The thesis presents several detection and estimation techniques that can be incorporated into the fifth-generation (5G) networks. First, the thesis presents a novel system for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) to estimate the channel blindly. The system is based on modulating particular pairs of subcarriers using amplitude shift keying (ASK) and phase-shift keying (PSK) adjacent in the frequency domain, which enables the realization of a decision-directed (DD) one-shot blind channel estimator (OSBCE). The performance of the proposed estimator is evaluated in terms of the mean squared error (MSE), where an accurate analytical expression is derived and verified using Monte Carlo simulation under various channel conditions. The system has also extended to exploits the channel correlation over consecutive OFDM symbols to estimate the channel parameters blindly. Furthermore, a reliable and accurate approach has been introduced to evaluate the spectral efficiency of various communications systems. The metric takes into consideration the system dynamics, QoS requirements, and design constraints. Next, a novel efficient receiver design for wireless communication systems that incorporate OFDM transmission has been proposed. The proposed receiver does not require channel estimation or equalization to perform coherent data detection. Instead, channel estimation, equalization, and data detection are combined into a single operation, and hence, the detector performs a direct data detector (D3). The performance of the proposed D3 is thoroughly analyzed theoretically in terms of bit error rate (BER), where closed-form accurate approximations are derived for several cases of interest, and validated by Monte Carlo simulations. The computational complexity of D3 depends on the length of the sequence to be detected. Nevertheless, a significant complexity reduction can be achieved using the Viterbi algorithm (VA). Finally, the thesis proposes a low-complexity algorithm for detecting anomalies in industrial steelmaking furnaces operation. The algorithm utilizes the vibration measurements collected from several built-in sensors to compute the temporal correlation using the autocorrelation function (ACF). Furthermore, the proposed model parameters are tuned by solving multi-objective optimization using a genetic algorithm (GA). The proposed algorithm is tested using a practical dataset provided by an industrial steelmaking plant

Numerical Simulation of Thermal Stresses in Prismatic Concrete Beams Reinforced with FRP Bars under Low Temperatures

The thermal properties of fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) bars particularly in the transverse direction are higher than those of hardened concrete and steel bars. The difference in transverse thermal characteristics between FRP bar and concrete generates radial tensile stresses within concrete at the interface of FRP bars/concrete under low temperatures. These thermal stresses may cause circumferential cracks in concrete at the interface and eventually the reduction of the bond that can affect significantly the serviceability of reinforced concrete structures. This paper presents a nonlinear numerical simulation of thermal stresses in prismatic concrete beams reinforced with glass FRP (GFRP) bars submitted to low temperatures when the confining action of concrete is asymmetric. The non linear numerical analysis shows that the first circumferential cracks start to develop within concrete at FRP bar/concrete interface at a temperature decrease DTcr varied between -30°C and -25°C for prismatic concrete beams reinforced with GFRP bars having a ratio of concrete cover thickness to FRP bar diameter (c/db) varied from 1.0 to 3.2. Furthermore, the depths of circumferential cracks propagated from the interface through the concrete cover increase with the decrease of the thermal load DT (from -25 °C to -50 °C). These depths did not reach the outer surface of the concrete cover under low temperatures up to -50 °C. Also, the radial tensile stress at FRP bar/concrete interface increases with the increase in the ratio c/db. The cracking thermal loads and thermal stresses predicted from nonlinear finite element model are compared to those evaluated with analytical models. Comparisons between numerical and analytical results in terms of cracking thermal loads and thermal stresses are presented

La modalisation autonymique dans les manifestations dialogiques : hétérolinguisme dans Origines d’Amin Maalouf

Le présent travail tente d’explorer l’hétérolinguisme dans l’œuvre (auto)biographique d’Amin Maalouf Origines (Maalouf, 2006). Ce phénomène est appréhendé comme manifestation dialogique qui opte pour la modalisation autonymique comme forme d’expression et qui laisse entrevoir deux types de dialogisme : un dialogisme interactionnel et un dialogisme interdiscursif. Aussi, il sera question d’une autre manifestation de l’hétérolinguisme : le bilinguisme littéraire pour dévoiler, enfin, les différentes motivations de ce phénomène dans le contexte de ce roman.The present work attempts to explore heterolinguism in the work (auto) biography of Amin Maalouf Origins (Maalouf, 2006). This phenomenon is apprehended as a dialogic demonstration that opts for autonymic modalisation as a form of expression and which suggests two types of dialogism: an interactional dialogism and an interdiscursive dialogism. It will also present another manifestation of heterolinguism: literary bilingualism to reveal, finally, the different motivations of this phenomenon in the context of this novel