Henri Dou

Changes in the chemical structure of low rank coal after low temperature oxidation or demineralization by acid treatment: Analysis by FT-i.r. and u.v. fluorescence☆

The studies have been conducted on low rank coal: Flambant de Provence, France, PRV=0.44 FTIR and UV synchronous fluorescence spectroscopy are used to study structural changes in low rank coal after natural oxidation or acid (HCl/HF) demineralization. The observed variations deal mainly with a decrease in aliphatic structures and an increase in the oxygenated species. A quantitative oxidation study of the effect of temperature, time, mineral matter and oxygen concentrations has been conducted by FTIR. An attempt to describe the oxygenated species by FTIR and to compare their evolution has been conducted. Various oxidation mechanisms are proposed according to the results.

Global characterization of the chemical constituents of coal by X scanner, UV fluorescence spectroscopy and FTIR spectroscopy

Abstract A global characterization of a French coal with 5–6% of organic sulfur has been made employing different techniques (FTIR, UV fluorescence spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, ash organics content). For sample selection an X scanner was used. The analysis focused on mineral content, PAH, and macromolecular repartition of inorganics in large coal samples.

Relationship between hydrocarbons and bacterial activity in mediterranean sediments: Part 2—hydrocarbon degrading activity of bacteria from sediments

Abstract In marine sediments from the Mediterranean coast polluted by oil spills (Etang de Berre) high bacterial activity is responsible for self-purification, samples collected from these areas showing a bacterial density several orders of magnitude higher than samples from non-polluted areas (Isle des Embiez). Between 60 and 80 % of the heterotrophic bacteria in the polluted areas are hydrocarbon-degrading, compared with 0.01 % in the non-polluted area. Several strains of hydrocarbon utilisers were isolated, a mixture of strains from each biotope was taken to represent a ‘biotope population’ and their activity towards different types of hydrocarbons (n-alkanes, iso-alkanes, cycloalkanes, aromatics) was determined. With ammonia as the nitrogen source the ‘biotope population’ from the polluted area degraded hydrocarbons much more readily than the ‘biotope population’ from the non-polluted area. With nitrate as the nitrogen source the degradation was much reduced, and, for some hydrocarbons, ceased in both ‘populations’. Individual hydrocarbons encouraged the growth of individual strains in the ‘biotope population’. In natural mixtures of hydrocarbons all strains grew well and degraded aliphatics. There was a good correlation between the respiratory activity of the ‘biotope population’ and the ability of the ‘population’ to utilise hydrocarbons for growth.

On the significance of data bases keywords for alarge scale bibliometric investigation in fundamental physics

We present an automatized bibliometric investigation applied to the field of fundamental research in physics. We briefly describe the scientific context motivating this study and the statistical method used for analyzing the data. We discuss in more detail how we adapted our investigation to the questions motivating this study, namely the identification of relevant groups working in a well defined subfield of physics. We next present the results of our investigation. We particularly focus on an analysis of Index and Free terms, as obtained from the INSPEC data base we used for performing the bibliometric investigation. We discuss the relevance of Index and Free terms by means of a separation between “Noise”, “Interesting” and “Trivial” entries. We show that Index and Free terms exhibit somewhat different behaviors when considered as distributions in terms of frequencies of occurrence in the references. We show the particular relevance of Free terms in this analysis. This may be connected to the emerging nature of the subfield of physics under consideration. This shed an interesting light on the respective importance of Index and Free terms, as entries of data bases, in particular in the case of rapidly evolving scientific domains.

A NEW METHOD FOR ANALYSING DOWNLOADED DATA FOR STRATEGIC DECISION

Technology assessment survey is nowadays a specific and scientific subject that any manufacture needs for increasing productivity. This function was initially reserved to experts of the studied field. But the increase of information volume has called for a change. Now, we need specialists of technology assessment survey which know about sophisticated methods to extract strategic information from downloaded data. We will explain how to build strategic information. We present here a new and original method of data analysis. This Factorial Relational Analysis is born after 15 years of IBM France mathematics research center works on qualitative data analysis. The method is based on Relational Analysis. The particularity of this method is to work with sparse matrices and to obtain the best classification without anya priori fixation of number of classes. Relational Analysis is used in other sectors than the analysis of matrices issued from downloaded data. For example it is also used in computational lexicography or in credit scoring or in any domain where classification is concerned. Here we choose to present an example of an application in patent analysis.

The scientific dynamics of a city: A study of chemistry in Marseille from 1981 to the present

In a study of scientific publications originating from laboratories in the city of Marseille, we look at both the quantitative evolution of these publications over time and their thematic development. Using the section headings of the Chemical Abstract database we identify the principal research poles of the city and their relationships.

Competitive Technology Assessment. Strategic Patent. Clusters Obtained with Non-boolean Logic. New Applications of the GET Command

Most of the online searches process through combinations made with boolean operators. We wish to show, in this paper, that it is very easy to search online databases differently. This concept involved searches grounded to non-boolean concepts.

Mapping the scientific network of patent and non-patent documents from chemical abstracts for a fast scientific analysis

Patent literature is a unique source of information. In research management, it is often important to compare the best research areas in which a fit exists between academic scientific production and applied research. Comparison between different sets of patents is also useful. The purpose of this paper is to provide a fast and efficient way to achieve this goal by automatically mapping the research network of the set of references to be examined.

Analysis of Hydrocarbons by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy

Abstract This work presents the results of the determination of total hydrocarbons in marine samples using conventional infrared grating spectrometers and Fourier transform infrared spectrometers. These results given by the two methods are compared and discussed. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy allows many difficult measurements to be made much more easily. The importance of this technique is pointed out as regards the detection threshold of the hydrocarbons, the accuracy, the sensitivity and the considerable time saving. By Fourier transform spectroscopy using reflexion techniques (ATR: attenuated total reflectance or MIR: multiple internal reflexions) oil slicks on surface waters can also be analyzed directly without any previous chemical treatment. Other examples are also discussed and demonstrate the powerful tool of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy for the analysis of hydrocarbons in the marine environment.

Relationship between hydrocarbons and bacterial activity in mediterranean sediments: Part 1—nature and concentration of the hydrocarbons in the sediments

Abstract The presence of hydrocarbons in marine sediments of the Mediterranean coast was studied by two different but complementary methods. Results obtained through a technique especially adapted to sediments are given; this leads to a relatively accurate and reproducible determination of the hydrocarbon concentrations in sediments collected at many sites of the Mediterranean coast, polluted or not, by chronic petroleum input (Brusc lagoon, zones of Embiez, Fos, Carry-le-Rouet and Etang de Berre). The hydrocarbon concentrations in the non-polluted sediments are always less than 300mg/kg of dry sediment, with important variations according to season. In the polluted sediments the hydrocarbon concentrations are more than 300ppm, with variations difficult to interpret. The analytical profile of these hydrocarbons shows considerable differences from that for the hydrocarbon fraction extracted from the non-polluted sediments. These differences principally relate to concentrations of odd and even carbon numbered hydrocarbons and the presence of aromatic or polyaromatic compounds specific of petroleum fractions.