Multi-levels internal quality control for monitoring of PCDD/F and DL-PCB in serum samples as a tool for trends analysis

in Organohalogen Compounds (2006), 68

Multi-method monitoring of odor emissions in agricultural biogas facilities.

in Proceedings of the 5th IWA conference on odours and air emissions, San Francisco, USA, March, 4-7, 2013 (2013, March)

The production of farm-based biogas and electricity is an area of alternative-energy interest to many livestock producers. However, it is still insignificant in comparison to the maximum potential of ... [more ▼]

The production of farm-based biogas and electricity is an area of alternative-energy interest to many livestock producers. However, it is still insignificant in comparison to the maximum potential of farms all over the world. Market penetration should involve better confidence in the technique and better understanding of its possible assets and limits. For instance, is the environmental impact of biomethanation positive or negative? What are the possible ways to avoid or to control process imbalances? In the context of a European project, the research group attempted to tackle those questions under the angle of gas emission and more particularly of odor annoyance. A multi-method approach was applied to monitor biogas and odor emissions, both at the laboratory level on pilot plants and at real scale in 4 agricultural biogas facilities, in Belgium, Luxembourg, France and Germany. Results show that digested material is generally less odorant than crude manure or slurry, while preserving all the amendment and fertilizing qualities of the original material. Possible annoyance of agricultural biogas facilities in the surroundings remains limited and can be solved through simple techniques. [less ▲]

Multi-national, Multi-cultural and Multi-levelled Brussels : National and Ethnic Politics in the « Capital of Europe »

in Fonseca, Maria-Lucinda (Ed.) Cities in Movement : Migrants and Urban Change (2008)

Multi-Objective Optimization of a Fan Blade by Coupling a Genetic Algorithm and a Parametric Flow Solver

in Proceedings of EUROGEN'05 (2005, September)

Multi-period vehicle loading with stochastic release dates

E-print/Working paper (2012)

This paper investigates a multi-period vehicle loading problem with stochastic information regarding the release dates of items to be transported. The deterministic version of the problem can be ... [more ▼]

This paper investigates a multi-period vehicle loading problem with stochastic information regarding the release dates of items to be transported. The deterministic version of the problem can be formulated as a large-scale set covering problem. Several heuristic algorithms are proposed to generate decision policies for the stochastic optimization model over a long rolling horizon. The resulting policies have been extensively tested on instances which display the main characteristics of the industrial case-study that motivated the research. The tests demonstrate the benefits of the multi-period stochastic model over simple myopic strategies. A simple and efficient heuristic is shown to deliver good policies and to be robust against errors in the estimation of the probability distribution of the release dates. [less ▲]

Multi-physics modeling

Scientific conference (2010, February)

Multi-row approaches to cutting plane generation

Doctoral thesis (2012)

This thesis focuses on the use of cutting-plane techniques to improve general-purpose mixed-integer linear programming solvers. The first topic covered here is a fast separation method for two-row cuts ... [more ▼]

This thesis focuses on the use of cutting-plane techniques to improve general-purpose mixed-integer linear programming solvers. The first topic covered here is a fast separation method for two-row cuts. Two-row cuts are intersection cuts from two rows of a simplex tableau describing the LP relaxation of the problem. This type of cuts recently gathered a lot of attention from the scientific community following a paper by Andersen, Louveaux, Weismantel and Wolsey describing the facets of the underlying two-row model and providing an intuitive geometric classification the the derived cuts. The specificity of the approach adopted here is that it does not rely on an "infinite relaxation" point of view and generate intersection cuts from fixed lattice-free sets. Instead, given a fractional point, it aims at always finding a most violated facet-defining inequality for the two-row model. This can be achieved by optimizing over the polar set of the integer hull of the model. A fast way of performing this is provided, by means of a polyhedron that is equivalent to the polar for that purpose, but has a more compact representation. Moreover, a row-generation algorithm is developed in order to avoid the costly computations of integer hulls of two-dimensional cones. An implementation of the resulting algorithm performs separation of two-row cuts in a few milliseconds on average, on the standard MIPLIB 3 and 2003 testsets. While this two-row separator is quick, the measurements of the computational usefulness of the cuts do not yield satisfactory results. Since all the cuts generated are facet-defining, this might suggest that the underlying two-row models are too weak. This observation prompted the second part of this thesis, an attempt to evaluate the strength of various multi-row relaxations, on small instances, using a generic separator. To that end, a separator is developed, which is able to compute facet-defining inequalities from arbitrary (yet reasonably small) mixed-integer sets. A row-generation approach is again adopted, but this time the slave part consists in the resolution of a mixed-integer problem instead of a closed-form oracle. Some interesting computational tricks are developed, in order to speedup the inherently hard computations. [less ▲]

A multi-scale approach to facultative paedomorphosis of European newts (Salamandridae) in the Montenegrin karst: Distribution pattern, environmental variables, and conservation

in Biological Conservation (2009), 142(3), 509-517

Facultative paedomorphosis, a process in which newt larvae can opt for reproduction before or after metamorphosis, is geographically heterogeneous. Despite numerous ecological studies and recent evidence ... [more ▼]

Facultative paedomorphosis, a process in which newt larvae can opt for reproduction before or after metamorphosis, is geographically heterogeneous. Despite numerous ecological studies and recent evidence of declines in paedomorphic populations, however, no attempt to model environmental variables that explain the presence of paedomorphs has been made at a multi-scale level. Our aim was to fill this gap in studying three newt species (Lissotriton vulgaris, Mesotriton alpestris, and Triturus macedonicus) of the Montenegrin karst as model species. To this end, we used multivariate analysis on three scales of habitat: the breeding pond, the land use and the climatologic features. Results show that the study area is both an important hotspot for paedomorphosis and where intraspecific diversity is quickly disappearing (20-47% extirpation) because of fish introductions. Other habitat variables (water permanency, PH or the habitat origin) were shown to act on paedomorphosis but not consistently across species, confirming complexity of the evolutionary and ecological processes. This study appeals for more long-term and detailed landscape studies of polyphenisms, a neglected but promising topic, to better understand and protect alternative modes of development. Particularly, measures should be taken to identify hotspots of intraspecific diversity at a global scale and stop fish introductions before we reach a point of no-return. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. [less ▲]

Multi-scale computational homogenization analysis of foams with micro-buckling

Conference (2012, July)

When studying the behavior of foams by multi-scale computational homogenization procedure, the micro-buckling may occur at the cell walls and edges and reduces the effective stiffness of the structures at ... [more ▼]

When studying the behavior of foams by multi-scale computational homogenization procedure, the micro-buckling may occur at the cell walls and edges and reduces the effective stiffness of the structures at macro-scale. This instability can be enhanced by plastic deformation at micro-scale. At sufficiently large value of macro-strain, even if the micro-tangent moduli of micro-material is still elliptic, the homogenized tangent moduli at macro-scale can lose its ellipticity that implies the localization occurs at macro-scale. When localization occurs, the characteristic size of macro- scopic deformation is the same order of the microscopic size. The assumption of material action in standard multi-scale computational homogenization approach where the stress only depends on the strain at this point is no-longer suitable. And the material behavior at given point depends also on the neighborhood of this point. To cover this problem, the second-order multi-scale computational homogenization is suitably used. At macroscopic problem, the high-order stress and the high-order strain are enhanced to the standard formulation by using the Discontinuous-Galerkin formulation while at the micro-scale, the standard continuum formulation is still used. By this procedure, the influence of micro-buckling of foams on structural behaviour is studied. [less ▲]

Multi-scale effect of landscape processes and habitat quality on newt abundance: Implications for conservation

in Biological Conservation (2006), 130(4), 495-504

Recent studies in population dynamics suggest that landscape processes and habitat quality act at different scales on population abundances, but very few have modelled their simultaneous effects. However ... [more ▼]

Recent studies in population dynamics suggest that landscape processes and habitat quality act at different scales on population abundances, but very few have modelled their simultaneous effects. However, at a time of large declines in natural populations, it is essential to understand such multivariate components. We tested the hypothesis that natural populations of palmate newts (Triturus helveticus) are affected on three scales: breeding patch (pond), habitat complementation (terrestrial cover), and metapopulation. structure (density of ponds, surrounding populations). We conducted our survey in 130 ponds from southern France (Larzac) and analysed data with generalized additive models (GAM). Two main novel results emerge from these models: (1) the three landscape scales have significant effects on newt abundance, with more newts in deep, vegetated ponds, devoid of fish and surrounded by wooded areas and inhabited ponds; (2) the quality of the surrounding breeding patches is of primary importance in determining the abundance at core sites in a complex way: high abundances are associated positively with high densities of inhabited ponds, but negatively with the number of surrounding ponds. Deforestation, invasive species and abandonment of ponds all have negative impacts on the persistence of palmate newt populations. Future studies should encompass landscapes at different scales and incorporate the habitat quality in surrounding sites to better understand population dynamics and. provide adequate conservation measures. [less ▲]