Autonomous system for data collection: Location and mapping issues in post-disaster environment

Disaster relief requires many resources. Depending on the circumstances of each event, it is important to rapidly choose the suitable means to respond to the emergency intervention. A brief review of the conditions and means demonstrated the usefulness of an autonomous stand-alone machine for these missions. If many techniques and technologies exist, their relevant combination to achieve such a system presents several challenges. This communication tries to outline the possible achievement of an autonomous vehicle under these particular circumstances. This paper focuses on the specific working conditions and welcomes future contributions from robotics and artificial intelligence.In the necessarily limited scope of this article, the authors focus on a particularly critical aspect: location. Indeed, this machine is intended to evolve in heterogeneous and dangerous environment and without any outside contacts that could last up to several days. This blackout, due to the propagation difficulties of electromagnetic waves in the ground, induces an independence of the localisation process and makes the use of any radio navigation support system (GNSS), most of the time, impossible. The knowledge of the position of the system, both for navigation of the autonomous system (Rover) and location of targets (victims buried under debris) must be able to be estimated without contributions from external systems. Inertial classical techniques, odometer, etc., have to be adapted to these conditions during a long period without external support. These techniques also have to take into account that energy optimisation requests the use of low-power processors. Consequently, only poor computing capacity is available on-board.The article starts with a presentation of the context of a post-disaster situation as well as the main missions of Search and Rescue (SaR). It is followed by the analysis of autonomous navigation located in a post-earthquake situation. We will then discuss means to determine the attitude of the autonomous system and its position. The interest of hybridisation with external systems – whenever possible –, will be evaluated with a view to correcting deviations suffered by the system during its mission. Finally, prospects and future work are presented.     

Using the gradients of temperature and internal parameters in Continuum ThermodynamicsIntroduction des gradients de température et de paramètres internes en Thermodynamique des Milieux Continus

In this paper, the possibility of using the gradients of the temperature and of the internal parameters as additional state variables in Continuum Thermodynamics is considered. The expressions of the two principles are discussed and Clausius–Duhem inequality is derived under an appropriate statement of the internal entropy production. Several formulations are proposed and compared to existing results in the literature. To cite this article: P. Ireman, Q.S. Nguyen, C. R. Mecanique 332 (2004).     

Modélisation du champ des vitesses de l'urine dans un bolus urétéralModelling of urine flow in an ureteral bolus

Urine transport is made from the kidney to the bladder through the ureter by isolated pockets called bolus. To determine the urine flow in a bolus, we use an adherence condition on the interface urine/wall. It gives us an infinite linear system verified by a set of parameters. An iterative and convergent algorithm allows us to solve this system and to determine analytically the components of the velocity vector in the bolus. To cite this article: A. Vogel et al., C. R. Mecanique 332 (2004).     

Modèles entiers des courbes hyperelliptiques sur un corps de valuation discrète

Let be a hyperelliptic curve of genus over a discrete valuation field . In this article we study the models of over the ring of integers of . To each Weierstrass model (that is a projective model arising from a hyperelliptic equation of with integral coefficients), one can associate a (valuation of) discriminant. Then we give a criterion for a Weierstrass model to have minimal discriminant. We show also that in the most cases, the minimal regular model of over dominates every minimal Weierstrass model. Some classical facts concerning Weierstrass models over of elliptic curves are generalized to hyperelliptic curves, and some others are proved in this new setting.

     

ESR study of monoalkylzinc-2,2′-bipyridine complexes RZn · Bipy

Paramagnetic species are formed when LiBipy is treated with various alkylzinc halides at ?100°C and the ESR spectra are discussed. The observation that the half-life times of the radical species appear to depend only on the nature of the alkyl group bound to zinc proves that monoalkylzinc-2,2′-bipyridine complexes are formed. The nature of the bonding between zinc and 2,2′-bipyridine is discussed.     

The thermoelectric working fluid: Thermodynamics and transport

Thermoelectric devices are heat engines, which operate as generators or refrigerators using the conduction electrons as a working fluid. The thermoelectric heat-to-work conversion efficiency has always been typically quite low, but much effort continues to be devoted to the design of new materials boasting improved transport properties that would make them of the electron crystal–phonon glass type of systems. On the other hand, there are comparatively few studies where a proper thermodynamic treatment of the electronic working fluid is proposed. The present article aims at contributing to bridge this gap by addressing both the thermodynamic and transport properties of the thermoelectric working fluid covering a variety of models, including interacting systems.     

Open problems in pluripotential theory

We propose a list of open problems in pluripotential theory partially motivated by their applications to complex differential geometry. The list includes both local questions as well as issues related to the compact complex manifold setting.     

The Lp dual Minkowski problem for p > 1 and q > 0

General $L_p$ dual curvature measures have recently been introduced by Lutwak, Yang and Zhang [24]. These new measures unify several other geometric measures of the Brunn–Minkowski theory and the dual Brunn–Minkowski theory. $L_p$ dual curvature measures arise from qth dual intrinsic volumes by means of Alexandrov-type variational formulas. Lutwak, Yang and Zhang [24] formulated the $L_p$ dual Minkowski problem, which concerns the characterization of $L_p$ dual curvature measures. In this paper, we solve the existence part of the $L_p$ dual Minkowski problem for $p>1$ and $q>0$, and we also discuss the regularity of the solution.     

Quantum simulation of zero-temperature quantum phases and incompressible states of light via non-Markovian reservoir engineering techniques

We review recent theoretical developments on the stabilization of strongly correlated quantum fluids of light in driven-dissipative photonic devices through novel non-Markovian reservoir engineering techniques. This approach allows one to compensate losses and refill selectively the photonic population so as to sustain a desired steady state. It relies in particular on the use of a frequency-dependent incoherent pump, which can be implemented, e.g., via embedded two-level systems maintained at a strong inversion of population. As specific applications of these methods, we discuss the generation of Mott Insulator (MI) and Fractional Quantum Hall (FQH) states of light. As a first step, we present the case of a narrowband emission spectrum and show how this allows for the stabilization of MI and FQH states under the condition that the photonic states are relatively flat in energy. As soon as the photonic bandbwidth becomes comparable to the emission linewidth, important non-equilibrium signatures and entropy generation appear, and a novel dissipative phase transition from a Mott Insulating state toward a superfluid (SF) phase is unveiled. As a second step, we review a more advanced configuration based on reservoirs with a broadband frequency distribution, and we highlight the potential of this configuration for the quantum simulation of equilibrium quantum phases at zero temperature with tunable chemical potential. As a proof of principle, we establish the applicability of our scheme to the Bose–Hubbard model by confirming the presence of a perfect agreement with the ground-state predictions both in the Mott insulating and superfluid regions, and more generally in all parts of the parameter space. Future prospects towards the quantum simulation of more complex configurations are finally outlined, along with a discussion of our scheme as a concrete realization of quantum annealing.     

Dephosphatation under UV light of water by Ti-PILC with activation by secondary species (La,Se, and Rb)

Me/Ti-PILC catalysts (Me: La, Se, Rb) were prepared with 60% in weight of Ti-species and 3% in weight of Me-secondary species added under ultrasounds. All materials were characterized by XRF, XPS, XRD, BET, HR-TEM/EDS, FEG-SEM and UV-vis. Three kinds of Ti-oxide nanoparticles were identified: (1) Ti-pillars within the clay layers, (2) rutile nanoflowers, and (3) anatase. In UV-vis spectra, no significant change in the band-gap was observed. In La and Se samples, small variations of the anatase XRD lines are associated with cationic diffusion after deposition of secondary species and calcination. An O1s XPS-peak (533.5 eV) is attributed to oxygen vacancies generated by this diffusion. Phosphate photo-removal in water was studied using phosphoric acid solution (75.97 g L⁻¹). Dephosphatation is significantly improved in the presence of Me-species as La/Ti-PILC > Se/Ti-PILC > Rb/Ti-PILC > Ti-PILC. Partial dephosphatation by adsorption is possible in the dark but is strongly improved by UV irradiation. With a La catalyst and under UV irradiation, phosphates (6.6 × 10⁻³ mol L⁻¹) were recovered in less than 70 min. Therefore, Me/Ti-PILC have a great potential as photocatalysts for the treatment of wastewaters and the recovery of phosphates.