EPICURE : A Partitioning and CoDesign Framework For Reconfigurable Computing

This paper presents a new global design methodology capable to bridge the gap between an abstract specification level and a heterogeneous reconfigurable architecture level. The Epicure contribution is the result of a joint study on abstraction/refinement methods and a smart reconfigurable architecture within the formal Esterel design tools suite. The original points of this work are : i) a generic HW/SW interface model, ii) a specification methodology that handles the control, includes efficient verification and HW/SW synthesis capabilities, iii) a method for parallelism exploration based on abstract resources/performance estimation expressed in terms of area/delay tradeoffs, iv) a HW/SW partitioning approach that refines the specification into explicit HW configurations and the associated SW control. The Epicure framework shows how a cooperation of complementary methodologies and CAD tools associated with a relevant architecture can significantly improve the designer productivity, especially in the context of reconfigurable architectures

Cell coverage analysis of a low altitude aerial base station in wind perturbations

The use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) as Aerial Base Station (ABSs) is emerging as an effective technique to provide high capacity wireless networks to ground users. In this paper, cell coverage of a low altitude UAV is investigated for supporting such networks. An analytical framework for cell coverage area of an ABS is provided for Suburban, Urban and Urban high rise environments using a solid angle approach including radio link propagation effects in air- to-ground channel obtained from ray tracing simulations. Here, we account for the change in Euler angles such as roll, pitch and yaw due to perturbations by wind gusts or intentional maneuvers which leads to an increase in the geometrical coverage area by approximately 40-50 %, given same transmission power and antenna gain of the ABS

A comparative study of MEA and DEA for post-combustion CO2 capture with different process configurations

This paper presented a comparative study of monoethanolamine (MEA) and diethanolamine (DEA) for post-combustion CO2 capture (PCC) process with different process configurations to study the interaction effect between solvent and process. The steady state process model of the conventional MEA-based PCC process was developed in Pro/II® and was validated with the experimental data. Then ten different process configurations were simulated for both MEA and DEA. Their performances in energy consumption were compared in terms of reboiler duty and total equivalent work. The results show that DEA generally has better thermal performances than MEA for all these ten process configurations. Seven process configurations provide 0.38%–4.61% total energy saving compared with the conventional PCC process for MEA, and other two configurations are not favourable. For DEA, except one configuration, other process configurations have 0.27%–4.50% total energy saving. This work also analyzed the sensitivities of three key parameters (amine concentration, stripper pressure and lean solvent loading) in conventional process and five process modifications to show optimization strategy

Interference-Aware Radio Resource Allocation for 5G Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communication

Ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) is one of the main challenges faced by future 5G networks to enable mission-critical IoT use-case scenarios. High reliability can be achieved by reducing the requirement of achievable rates, therefore, results in reduced spectral efficiency. Retransmission has been introduced for 5G or beyond, to achieve reliability with improved spectral efficiency at the cost of increased packet latency. Keeping in mind, the trade-off between reliability and latency, in this paper, we have proposed an interference-aware radio resource (IARR) allocation for uplink transmission by formulating a sum-rate maximization problem. The aim of the proposed algorithm is to improve the link quality to achieve high reliability for future 5G networks resulting in reduced retransmissions and packet latency. To reduce the computation complexity of the maximization problem in achieving the globally optimal solution, we propose a progressive interference-aware heuristic solution. The proposed solution is then investigated to evaluate the impact of retransmission and inter-cell interference on the average information rate and latency of the considered multi-cell cellular network. The performance of IARR algorithm is then compared with the conventional round-robin scheduling (RRS). Significant improvement in the link reliability along with the reduction in latency has been observed with IARR algorithm. The results illustrate that the IARR algorithm improves the average rate by 7% and latency by 10% compared to RRS

Comparison of systemic, compartmental and CFD modelling approaches: Application to the simulation of a biological reactor of wastewater treatment

Nowadays there exist two main approaches to simulate the hydrodynamics of chemical reactors: the systemic method, based on the description of a given reactor as a limited number of elementary reactors, and the more theoretical CFD approach, based on the resolution of the Navier-Stokes equations in a large number of computing cells. This work describes another recent modelling approach based on the description of the reactor as a network of both structural and functional compartments. The complete methodology to build such a model, using CFD simulations, tracer experiments, mass transfer and chemical processes, is described. The simulation results with such a model are then compared to those obtained with the systemic and CFD models in the case of a biological gas-liquid reactor for wastewater treatment, involving oxygen transfer and complex biological kinetics. This work shows that the compartmental model gives results very similar to those of a full CFD simulation but with lower calculation time (10 times in most cases) with the advantage of remaining almost as simple to manipulate as the systemic approach

Exposure of Paris taxi drivers to automobile air pollutants within their vehicles

OBJECTIVES—To study the exposure of Parisian taxi drivers to automobile air pollutants during their professional activity.
METHODS—A cross sectional study was carried out from 27 January to 27 March 1997, with measurements performed in the vehicles of 29( )randomly selected drivers. Carbon monoxide (CO) content was measured over an 8 hour period by a CO portable monitor. The fine suspended particles were measured according to the black smoke index (BS), with a flow controlled portable pump provided with a cellulose filter. The nitrogen oxides, NO and NO(2) were measured with a passive sampler.
RESULTS—These drivers are exposed during their professional activity to relatively high concentrations of pollutants (mean, median (SD) 3.8, 2 (1.7) ppm for CO, 168, 164 (53) µg/m(3) for BS, 625, 598 (224) µg/m(3) for NO, and 139, 131 (43) µg/m(3) for NO(2).) For CO the concentrations were clearly lower than the threshold values recommended by the World Health Organisation. The situation is less satisfactory for the other pollutants, especially for the BS index. All concentrations of pollutants recorded were noticeably higher than concentrations in air recorded by the ambient Parisian air monitoring network and were close to, or slightly exceeded, the concentrations measured at the fixed stations close to automobile traffic. Pollutant concentrations were also influenced greatly by weather conditions.
CONCLUSION—This first French study conducted in taxi drivers shows that they are highly exposed to automobile pollutants. The results would justify a medical follow up of this occupational group.


Keywords: taxi drivers; exposure assessmen