Development and operation of a balloon-borne telescope for fir imaging, radiometry and spectrometry of the galactic cygnus region

We have designed and built a balloon-borne far-infrared 60 cm telescope equipped with He-cooled filters and a composite silicon bolometer with an NEP of 1.3·10^–14 W/Hz^1/2 for imaging, radiometry and spectroscopy of the Cygnus region at wavelengths up to 330 m. A test flight took place at the CNES balloon station at Aire/Adour, F, on May 8, 1989. The balloon stayed 4_1/2 h at the observation height of 39 km. Tests and results are discussed.     

Analysis of several subcycling schemes in partitioned simulations of a strongly coupled fluid-structure interaction

Fluid-structure interaction (FSI) simulations are used extensively to calculate the vibration of structures subjected to an internal or external flow. In the case of partitioned FSI simulations, separate flow and structure solvers are used, which requires some kind of coupling between both. The time step in both solvers is typically taken the same, but this unnecessarily leads to long calculation times when the time step is small due to stability reasons in one of the two solvers. Subcycling, the procedure where the time step of one solver is chosen smaller than the time step used in the other solver, may reduce the computational cost of the FSI simulation. The subcycling procedure can be either explicit or implicit, the latter implying the use of coupling iterations in each time step. Contrary to explicit subcycling, no stability analyses of implicit subcycling schemes are found in the literature. In this paper, the temporal stability of the implicit subcycling procedure is investigated. The one-dimensional flow in an elastic cylindrical tube is studied analytically. The results of this analysis are subsequently compared to a partitioned two-dimensional axisymmetric FSI calculation with implicit coupling between the flow and structure solvers.     

Interpreting technical evidence from spectral imaging of paintings by Édouard Manet in the Courtauld Gallery

The paintings by Édouard Manet in The Courtauld Gallery Déjeuner sur l'herbe (1863–68), Marguerite de Conflans en Toilette de Bal (1870–1880), Banks of the Seine at Argenteuil (1874), and A Bar at the Folies–Bergère (1882) were investigated for the first time using a range of non-invasive in situ analyses. The aims of the study were to investigate the painting techniques and materials used for this group of works and to critically evaluate the technical evidence derived from the integrated use of imaging techniques and portable spectroscopic methods in this context. The paintings were investigated by means of macro X-ray fluorescence (MA-XRF), reflection spectral imaging, portable UV–Vis–NIR spectroscopy, portable Raman spectroscopy, and reflection FTIR. MA-XRF and reflection spectral imaging allowed visualising elements in the compositions that were not visible using traditional methods of technical study. For example, MA-XRF analysis of Déjeuner sur l'herbe revealed elements of the development of the composition that provided new evidence to consider its relationship to other versions of the composition. The study also highlighted questions about the interpretation of elemental distribution maps and spectral images that did not correspond to the reworking visible in X-radiographs. For example, in A Bar at the Folies–Bergère Manet made numerous changes during painting, which were not clearly visualised with any of the techniques used. The research has wider implications for the study of Impressionist paintings, as the results will support technical studies of works by other artists of the period who used similar materials and painting methods.     

A modified HOL priority scheduling discipline: Performance analysis

In this paper, we introduce and analyze a modified HOL (head-of-the-line) priority scheduling discipline. The modification is incorporated to cope with the so-called starvation problem of regular HOL priority queues. We consider a discrete-time single-server queueing system with two priority queues of infinite capacity and with the introduced priority scheme. We show that the use of probability generating functions is suitable for analyzing the system contents and the packet delay. Some performance measures (such as means and variances) of these stochastic quantities will be derived. Furthermore, approximate expressions of the tail probabilities are obtained from the probability generating functions, by means of the dominant-singularity method. These expressions, together with their characteristics, constitute one of the main contributions of this paper. Finally, the impact and significance of the m-HOL (modified HOL) priority scheduling on these performance measures is illustrated by some numerical examples.     

On the nonexistence of certain Hughes generalized quadrangles

In this paper, we prove that the Hermitian quadrangle is the unique generalized quadrangle Γ of order (q ², q ³) containing some subquadrangle of order (q ², q) isomorphic to such that every central elation of the subquadrangle is induced by a collineation of Γ. Dedicated to Dan Hughes on the occasion of his 80th birthday.     

On the optimization of two-class work-conserving parameterized scheduling policies

Numerous scheduling policies are designed to differentiate quality of service for different applications. Service differentiation can in fact be formulated as a generalized resource allocation optimization towards the minimization of some important system characteristics. For complex scheduling policies, however, optimization can be a demanding task, due to the difficult analytical analysis of the system at hand. In this paper, we study the optimization problem in a queueing system with two traffic classes, a work-conserving parameterized scheduling policy, and an objective function that is a convex combination of either linear, convex or concave increasing functions of given performance measures of both classes. In case of linear and concave functions, we show that the optimum is always in an extreme value of the parameter. Furthermore, we prove that this is not necessarily the case for convex functions; in this case, a unique local minimum exists. This information greatly simplifies the optimization problem. We apply the framework to some interesting scheduling policies, such as Generalized Processor Sharing and semi-preemptive priority scheduling. We also show that the well-documented \(c\mu \)-rule is a special case of our framework.     

A two-class discrete-time queueing model with two dedicated servers and global FCFS service discipline

This paper considers a simple discrete-time queueing model with two types (classes) of customers (types 1 and 2) each having their own dedicated server (servers A and B resp.). New customers enter the system according to a general independent arrival process, i.e., the total numbers of arrivals during consecutive time slots are i.i.d. random variables with arbitrary distribution. Service times are deterministically equal to 1 slot each. The system uses a “global FCFS” service discipline, i.e., all arriving customers are accommodated in one single FCFS queue, regardless of their types. As a consequence of the “global FCFS” rule, customers of one type may be blocked by customers of the other type, in that they may be unable to reach their dedicated server even at times when this server is idle, i.e., the system is basically non-workconserving. One major aim of the paper is to estimate the negative impact of this phenomenon on the queueing performance of the system, in terms of the achievable throughput, the system occupancy, the idle probability of each server and the delay. As it is clear that customers of different types hinder each other more as they tend to arrive in the system more clustered according to class, the degree of “class clustering” in the arrival process is explicitly modeled in the paper and its very direct impact on the performance measures is revealed. The motivation of our work are systems where this kind of blocking is encountered, such as input-queueing network switches or road splits.     

The discrete-time preemptive repeat identical priority queue

Priority queueing systems come natural when customers with diversified delay requirements have to wait to get service. The customers that cannot tolerate but small delays get service priority over customers which are less delay-sensitive. In this contribution, we analyze a discrete-time two-class preemptive repeat identical priority queue with infinite buffer space and generally distributed service times. Newly arriving high-priority customers interrupt the on-going service of a low-priority customer. After all high-priority customers have left the system, the interrupted service of the low-priority customer has to be repeated completely. By means of a probability generating functions approach, we analyze the system content and the delay of both types of customers. Performance measures (such as means and variances) are calculated and the impact of the priority scheduling is discussed by means of some numerical examples.     

Evaluation of process parameters of ultrasonic treatment of bacterial suspensions in a pilot scale water disinfection system

In this study, several process parameters that may contribute to the efficiency of ultrasound disinfection are examined on a pilot scale water disinfection system that mimics realistic circumstances as encountered in an industrial environment. The main parameters of sonication are: (i) power; (ii) duration of treatment; (iii) volume of the treated sample. The specific energy (E_s) is an indicator of the intensity of the ultrasound treatment because it incorporates the transferred power, the duration of sonication and the treated volume. In this study, the importance of this parameter for the disinfection efficiency was assessed through changes in volume of treated water, water flow rate and electrical power of the ultrasonic reactor. In addition, the influences of the initial bacterial concentration on the disinfection efficiency were examined. The disinfection efficiency of the ultrasonic technique was scored on a homogenous and on a mixed bacterial culture suspended in water with two different types of ultrasonic reactors (Telsonic and Bandelin). This study demonstrates that specific energy, treatment time of water with ultrasound and number of passages through the ultrasonic reactor are crucial influential parameters of ultrasonic disinfection of contaminated water in a pilot scale water disinfection system. The promising results obtained in this study on a pilot scale water disinfection system indicate the possible application of ultrasound technology to reduce bacterial contamination in recirculating process water to an acceptable low level. However, the energy demand of the ultrasound equipment is rather high and therefore it may be advantageous to apply ultrasound in combination with another treatment.