Modeling the multi-layer nature of the European Air Transport Network: Resilience and passengers re-scheduling under random failures

We study the dynamics of the European Air Transport Network by using a multiplex network formalism. We will consider the set of flights of each airline as an interdependent network and we analyze the resilience of the system against random flight failures in the passenger’s rescheduling problem. A comparison between the single-plex approach and the corresponding multiplex one is presented illustrating that the multiplexity strongly affects the robustness of the European Air Network.     

Gold-mediated synthesis of α-ionone

A simple and convenient synthesis of α-ionone, an important component of flowers and fragrances, is reported. The key step in the formation of the α,β-unsaturated ketone moiety involves an NHC-Au^I catalyzed Meyer-Schuster-like rearrangement of readily prepared propargylic esters. The complex [{Au(IPr)}₂(μ-OH)][BF₄] proved to be the most efficient catalyst leading to α-ionone in 70% yield from a propargylic benzoate. This optimized procedure represents a valuable and attractive alternative to classical methods leading to α,β-unsaturated ketones, such as the Wittig or aldol reactions.     

Optimization of membrane area and catalyst distribution in a permeative-stage membrane reactor for methane steam reforming

Methane steam reforming to produce high purity hydrogen is conveniently carried out in membrane reactors. The interest on this process has led to several studies about the influence of the key operating variables on the system performances. In the present paper we focus on the optimization of the catalyst and membrane area axial distribution by computer simulation. To this purpose, a numerical model of a permeative-stage membrane reactor (PSMR), a system composed of traditional reactive and membrane permeative stages laid out in alternated series, has been developed. This is based on 1D mass, momentum and energy balances including thermal effects on all the system properties. First, an equi-sized nine-stage PSMR is analyzed at various temperatures and membrane thicknesses, in comparison with a conventional membrane reactor, showing that improved performances, especially in terms of methane conversion, can be obtained. Then, considering the stage lengths as design variables, the optimal system performances are determined by maximizing two objective functions, namely the methane conversion and the hydrogen recovery factor. Different optimal length distributions are found utilizing the two criteria, corresponding to privileged kinetic or permeative aspects. In comparison to the conventional MR, the PSMR leads to a higher conversion and lower recovery factor when the conversion is maximized, whilst the opposite situation occurs when maximizing the recovery factor. Furthermore, the role of the heat exchange area between the furnace and the reactor is studied, considering a PSMR with adiabatic permeative stages. From this case, it is possible to see that the greater advantage of this apparatus (having the same membrane area, catalyst amount and heat-exchange area as the MR) consists in a much higher recovery factor (+21% ca.), which at the end demonstrates to be the most convenient objective function by means of the introduction of an overall performance index, identified as the hydrogen recovery yield. Therefore, the analysis proposed in the present paper shows that the reactive/permeative stage distribution has to be considered an important reactor design parameter, which can be opportunely modified to improve the performances of the process.     

Effects of multiple-stage membrane process designs on the achievable performance of automatic control

There is limited information from literature on the dynamic operability of membrane processes with multiple stages or loops. Such information is useful for assessing the performance achievable by an automatic controller proposed for a process design before the actual controller is implemented. Based on dynamic modeling of an industrial whey ultrafiltration process with an increasing number of stages up to a maximum of 12, the dynamic responses of the flowrate and concentration of the retentate were obtained. Features of the dynamic responses were used to determine the performance, in terms of quality and speed, that can be achieved by automatic controllers. In particular, limitations on the performance are indicated by features of dynamic responses such as effective time delay and inverse responses. Changes in effective time delay and inverse responses with the number of stages in the whey ultrafiltration process demonstrate a trade-off between process performance and control performance. This trade-off should be considered during process and controller design to maximize the economic return from the production of whey protein concentrates.     

Sample covariance shrinkage for high dimensional dependent data

For high dimensional data sets the sample covariance matrix is usually unbiased but noisy if the sample is not large enough. Shrinking the sample covariance towards a constrained, low dimensional estimator can be used to mitigate the sample variability. By doing so, we introduce bias, but reduce variance. In this paper, we give details on feasible optimal shrinkage allowing for time series dependent observations.     

An exact approach to sparse principal component analysis

We show a branch and bound approach to exactly find the best sparse dimension reduction of a matrix. We can choose between enforcing orthogonality of the coefficients and uncorrelation of the components, and can explicitly set the degree of sparsity. We suggest methods to choose the number of non-zero loadings for each component; illustrate and compare our approach with existing methods through a benchmark data set.     

Probabilistic approach for break-up and coalescence in bubbly-flow and coupling with CFD codes

In this paper, a CFD model for bubbly-flow including break-up and coalescence is discussed. The probabilistic method, developed according to this model, is tested for an industrial configuration: numerical bubble-size distributions are compared with those derived by experiments.