Production of fungal lipases using wheat bran and soybean bran and incorporation of sugarcane bagasse as a co-substrate in solid-state fermentation

Fungal strains were screened for lipase producing activities and 10 strains were classified as good producers. Aspergillus sp., Fusarium sp., and Penicillium sp. exhibited the highest activities when fermented in wheat bran (WB) and soybean bran (SB). No fungal growth was observed using sugarcane bagasse (CB). An experimental design was applied to incorporate CB into the fermentation process for lipase production by Aspergillus sp. and Penicillium sp., and to evaluate the best moisture content for the substrate. Strains studied achieved maximum lipase activities with 25% CB combined with 75% WB or SB at 40% moisture content. The highest lipase activities were observed for WB and SB, and for SB combined with CB using Aspergillus sp. Fermentation of 96 h was the optimum period for enzyme production.     

Study of ITER equatorial port plug handling system and vacuum sealing interface

In the field of the ITER port plug engineering and integration task, CEA has contributed to define proposals concerning the port plugs vacuum sealing interface with the vessel flange and the equatorial plug handling.The 2001 baseline vacuum flange sealing consisted of TIG welding of a 316L strip plate on to U shapes. This arrangement presented some issues like welding access, implementation of tools, lip consumption, complex local leak test, continuous leak checking. Therefore, an alternate sealing solution based on the use of metallic gaskets is proposed. The different technical aspects are discussed to explain how this design can simplify the maintenance and deal with safety and vacuum requirements.The design of the mechanical attachment and vacuum sealing of the plug has constantly evolved, but the associated remote handling equipment was not systematically reviewed. An update of the cask and maintenance procedure was studied in order to design it in accordance with the last generic plug flange design. This includes a concept of a gripping system that uses the plug flange bolting area and, to help the remote handling process, a cantilever assisting system is suggested to increase the reliability of the transfer operation between vacuum vessel and cask.     

Intangible Asset Dynamics and Firm Behaviour

We study the adoption of different patterns of intangible asset (IA) accumulation in manufacturing firms. Contrary to most of the previous literature, we find such patterns to be highly differentiated. In particular, we identify three types of firm behaviour: high and persistent, low and persistent, and discontinuous. We link the capability-based view of the firm to theories of asset complementarities and market signalling to explain how firm-specific traits affect such behaviours. We obtain the following results: first, the persistent accumulation of IAs is favoured by the internal availability of highly skilled personnel; second, firms with (a) large IA base and (b) high propensity to exploit complementarities in the asset stocks are more likely to persistently accumulate IAs than to discontinuously or never accumulate IAs and third, the adoption of quality management standards facilitates the accumulation of IAs, especially if this is done discontinuously. This paper adds to the previous literature in two ways: first, it highlights the existence of great heterogeneity in the dynamics of IA accumulation and, second, it provides an explanation for such heterogeneity.     

Inductive System for Reliable Magnesium Level Detection in a Titanium Reduction Reactor

Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B - The determination of the Magnesium level in a Titanium reduction retort by inductive methods is often hampered by the formation of Titanium sponge rings...     

Nonsimple isotropic incompressible linear fluids surrounding one-dimensional structures

We introduce a model of fluid which has four main features: it readily emerges by a general continuum mechanical framework; it is a generalization maintaining most of the physical features of incompressible Newtonian fluids; it can model adherence interactions with one-dimensional structures surrounded by the fluid; the associated initial boundary-value problem is well-posed on three-dimensional domains.     

Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Particles studies from space: , a possible next-generation experiment

After the Pierre Auger Observatory, it is likely that space-based experiments might be required for next-generation studies of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Particles. An overview of this challenging task is presented, emphasizing the main design issues, the criticalities and the intermediate steps required to make this challenging task a reality.