Hybrid observer design for linear switched system via Differential Petri Nets

The aim of this paper is to propose a hybrid observer design for linear switched systems modelled either via Differential Petri Nets (DPN) or via Timed Differential Petri Nets (TDPN). The switched systems, herein, considered are characterized by switching laws that can depend on the continuous states or on both of a given dwell time and the continuous states. In addition, the structure of the proposed observers is based on a discrete observer and a continuous observer on interaction. The discrete observer reconstructs the discrete mode, by estimating both of the discrete marking and the firing vector. Once, the active mode is obtained, the continuous states are estimated. Finally, the outputs of the continuous observer are used to update the marking and the firing vector. At the end of the paper, several simulation results are presented to illustrate the proposed approach.     

Transfer matrix modeling of the vibroacoustic response of multi-materials structures under mechanical excitation

In several automotive and aircraft applications there is a need for simple tools to assess quickly and accurately the performance of sound packages. Statistical energy analysis (SEA) and the transfer matrix method (TMM) are examples of such methods. The used methodology (for modeling sound packages) is well validated for acoustic excitations (airborne). However, a simple and reliable methodology is still lacking for mechanical excitations (structure-borne). This work concentrates on the latter. It presents and compares three different simple approaches to model the vibration and acoustic response of a mechanically excited structure with an added noise control treatment. Various examples are presented to confirm their relevance and accuracy in comparison to more exact and costly methods, such as the finite element method. In particular, it is shown that the TMM with a size correction (FTMM) is accurate enough to eliminate the classical assumption of low coupling classically assumed in SEA modeling of sound packages and/or compute efficiently the structure-borne insertion loss of sound packages used in SEA and FEM models.     

Effect of biopolymer blends on physical and Acoustical properties of biocomposite foams

Bio‐based foams are the solution to environmental concerns raised by petrochemical‐based open cell foams used in various industries for sound absorption. While conventional petrochemical‐based polymers take centuries to degrade or may not degrade at all, bio‐based polymers decompose to biomass, water, and carbon dioxide in a matter of months when exposed to proper environment. To increase the potential of replacing current petrochemical foams, mechanical as well as acoustic characteristics of bio‐based foams need to be improved. This article studies the effect of blending two bio‐based polymers and physics of the blends on acoustic and mechanical properties of resulting polymer composite foams. Different blends of polylactide with three grades of polyhydroxyalkanoates were foamed and characterized based on acoustic and mechanical performance. Rheological properties of pure polymers as well as their blends were studied and effect of polymer blends on acoustic absorption of the resulting foams was investigated. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2014 , 52, 1002–1013     

Fluorene‐based rib waveguides with optimized geometry for long‐term amplified spontaneous emission stability

Amongst the different optoelectronic applications of conjugated polymers, waveguide amplifiers and optically pumped lasers are those requiring larger photochemical stability, owing to the large irradiation conditions under operation. In this context, suitable waveguide optimization enabling the reduction of amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) threshold values appears as important as synthetic chemistry protocols to promote polymer robustness against photo‐oxidation. In this work, we develop rib waveguides with different geometries based on four different fluorene‐based compounds and assess the influence of rib confinement on ASE properties. We observe ASE threshold values as low as 8.9 × 10^?4 mJ cm^?2, being among the lowest threshold values reported so far on blue emitting polymer/oligomer waveguides. We demonstrate that the enhanced ASE efficiency on some of these rib waveguides leads to a fivefold increase in operation lifetime respect to spin‐coated slab waveguides, thus confirming the impact of waveguide geometry on ASE operation stability. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2015 , 53, 1040–1045     

Fast geometry optimizationin self-cosistent reaction field computations on solvated molecules

The free energy gradient or Hessian of a molecule interacting with a liquid represented by a dielectric continuum is derived in the self-consistent reaction field formalism. An ellipsoidal approximation of the cavity is proposed with an algorithm to automatically define the ellipsoid from the nuclear coordinates of the atoms. With this approximation, geometry optimization of the solvated molecule becomes very fast. This method has been implemented in some standard ab initio or semiempirical computational codes. As a first test of the method, full geometry optimization of formamide in a high dielectric constant medium reveals that the CPU time needed for one optimization cycle is less than 3% longer for a solvated species than for the corresponding free molecule.     

Rapid detection and characterization of minor reactive metabolites using stable-isotope trapping in combination with tandem mass spectrometry

Stable-isotope trapping combined with mass spectrometry (MS) neutral loss scanning has recently been developed as a high-throughput method for the in vitro screening of major reactive metabolites. In fact, detection and identification of minor reactive metabolites are equally important since the minor metabolites, even though at low levels, may be highly reactive and also play an important role in drug-induced adverse reactions. In this study, 2-acetylthiophene, clozapine, troglitazone and 7-methylindole were selected as model compounds to further validate the advantages of this method for rapid detection and structural characterization of minor glutathione (GSH) adducts derived from reactive metabolites. The utility of the current method was clearly demonstrated by successful identification of novel reactive metabolites at low levels and also minor ones either masked by non-specific responses or co-eluted with other conjugates. In comparison with existing methods, this method is sensitive, efficient, and suitable for rapid screening and more complete profiling of reactive metabolites.     

Chemical constituents of essential oil of endemic Rhanterium suaveolens Desf. growing in Algerian Sahara with antibiofilm,antioxidant and anticholinesterase activities

Twenty compounds were detected in the essential oil of Rhanterium suaveolens representing 98.01% of the total oil content. Perillaldehyde (45.79%), caryophyllene oxide (24.82%) and β-cadinol (5.61%) were identified as the main constituents. In β-carotene–linoleic acid assay, both the oil and the methanol extract exhibited good lipid peroxidation inhibition activity, with IC₅₀ values of 17.97 ± 5.40 and 11.55 ± 3.39 μg/mL, respectively. In DPPH and CUPRAC assays, however, the methanol extract exhibited a good antioxidant activity. The highest antibiofilm activity has been found 50.30% against Staphylococcus epidermidis (MU 30) at 20 μg/mL for essential oil and 58.34% against Micrococcus luteus (NRRL B-4375) at 25 mg/mL concentration for methanol extract. The in vitro anticholinesterase activity of methanol extract showed a moderate acetylcholinesterase inhibitory (IC₅₀ = 168.76 ± 0.62 μg/mL) and good butyrylcholinesterase inhibitory (IC₅₀ = 54.79 ± 1.89 μg/mL) activities. The essential oil was inactive against both enzymes.     

Bis(guanidinate) alkoxide complexes of lanthanides: synthesis, structures and use in immortal and stereoselective ring-opening polymerization of cyclic esters

A series of new bis(guanidinate) alkoxide Group 3 metal complexes [Ln((Me3Si)2NC(NiPr)2)2(OR)] (R=OtBu, Ln=Y, Nd, Sm, Lu; R=OiPr, Ln=Y, Nd, Lu) has been synthesized. X-ray structural determinations revealed that bis(guanidinate) tert-butoxides are monomeric complexes. The isopropoxide complex [Y((Me3Si)2NC(NiPr)2)2(OiPr)] undergoes slow decomposition in solution, to afford the unusual dimeric amido complex [(Y((Me3Si)2NC(NiPr)2)2(mu-N(iPr)C triple chemical bond N))2]. Complexes [Ln((Me3Si)2NC(NiPr)2)2(OR)] (R=OtBu, Ln=Y, Nd, Sm, Lu; R=OiPr, Ln=Y, Nd, Lu) are active catalysts/initiators for the ROP of rac-lactide and rac-beta-butyrolactone under mild conditions. Most of those polymerizations proceed with a significant degree of control. Bis(guanidinate) alkoxides appear to be well suited for achieving immortal polymerization of lactide, through the introduction of large amounts of isopropanol as a chain-transfer agent. The synthesized complexes are able to promote the stereoselective ROP of rac-beta-butyrolactone to afford syndiotactic poly(hydrobutyrate) through a chain-end control mechanism, while they are surprisingly non-stereoselective for the ROP of lactide under strictly similar conditions.     

Solving the incompressible fluid flows by a high-order mesh-free approach

In this paper, we propose for the first time to extend the application field of the high-order mesh-free approach to the stationary incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. This approach is based on a high-order algorithm, which combines a Taylor series expansion, a continuation technique, and a moving least squares (MLS) method. The Taylor series expansion permits to transform the nonlinear problem into a succession of continuous linear ones with the same tangent operator. The MLS method is used to transform the succession of continuous linear problems into discrete ones. The continuation technique allows to compute step-by-step the whole solution of the discrete problems. This mesh-free approach is tested on three examples: a flow around a cylindrical obstacle, a flow in a sudden expansion, and the standard benchmark lid-driven cavity flow. A comparison of the obtained results with those computed by the Newton-Raphson method with MLS, the high-order continuation with finite element method, and those of literature is presented.