On the clear sky model of the ESRA — European Solar Radiation Atlas — with respect to the heliosat method

This paper presents a clear-sky model, which has been developed in the framework of the new digital European Solar Radiation Atlas (ESRA). This ESRA model is described and analysed with the main objective of being used to estimate solar radiation at ground level from satellite images with the Heliosat method. Therefore it is compared to clear-sky models that have already been used in the Heliosat method. The diffuse clear-sky irradiation estimated by this ESRA model and by other models has been also checked against ground measurements, for different ranges of the Linke turbidity factor and solar elevation. The results show that the ESRA model is the best one with respect to robustness and accuracy. The r.m.s. error in the estimation of the hourly diffuse irradiation ranges from 11 Wh m⁻² to 35 Wh m⁻² for diffuse irradiation up to 250 Wh m⁻². The good results obtained with such a model are due to the fact that it takes into account the Linke turbidity factor and the elevation of the site, two factors that influence the incoming solar radiation. In return, it implies the knowledge of these factors at each pixel of the satellite image for the application of the Heliosat method.     

Numerical and Experimental Analysis of Monostable Mini- and Micro-Oscillators

An asymmetric micro-oscillator design based on a monostable fluidic amplifier is proposed. Experimental data with various feedback loop configurations point out that the main effect responsible for the oscillation is a capacitive and not a propagative effect. Actually, sound propagation in the feedback loop only generates a secondary oscillation which is not strong enough to provoke the jet switching. Data from a hybrid simulation using a commercial CFD code and a simple analytical model are in good agreement with the experimental data. A more compact plane design with reduced feedback loop volumes is also studied through a fully CFD simulation that confirms the previous conclusions.     

Control of Lipase Enantioselectivity by Engineering the Substrate Binding Site and Access Channel

Lipase from Burkholderia cepacia (BCL) has proven to be a very useful biocatalyst for the resolution of 2‐substituted racemic acid derivatives, which are important chiral building blocks. Our previous work showed that enantioselectivity of the wild‐type BCL could be improved by chemical engineering of the substrate's molecular structure. From this earlier study, three amino acids (L17, V266 and L287) were proposed as targets for mutagenesis aimed at tailoring enzyme enantioselectivity. In the present work, a small library of 57 BCL single mutants targeted on these three residues was constructed and screened for enantioselectivity towards (R,S)‐2‐chloro ethyl 2‐bromophenylacetate. This led to the fast isolation of three single mutants with a remarkable tenfold enhanced or reversed enantioselectivity. Analysis of substrate docking and access trajectories in the active site was then performed. From this analysis, the construction of 13 double mutants was proposed. Among them, an outstanding improved mutant of BCL was isolated that showed an E value of 178 and a 15‐fold enhanced specific activity compared to the parental enzyme; thus, this study demonstrates the efficiency of the semirational engineering strategy.     

One‐Step Preparation of Biocompatible Gold Nanoplates with Controlled Thickness and Adjustable Optical Properties for Plasmon‐Based Applications

The ability to synthesize plasmonic nanomaterials with well‐defined structures and tailorable size is crucial for exploring their potential applications. Gold nanoplates (AuNPLs) exhibit appealing structural and optical properties, yet their applications are limited by difficulties in thickness control. Other challenges include a narrow range of tunability in size and surface plasmon resonance, combined with a synthesis conventionally involving cytotoxic cetyltrimethylammonium (CTA) halide surfactant. Here, a one‐step, high‐yield synthesis of single‐crystalline AuNPLs is developed, based on the combined use of two structure‐directing agents, methyl orange and FeBr₃, which undergo preferential adsorption onto different crystalline facets of gold. The obtained AuNPLs feature high shape homogeneity that enables mesoscopic self‐assembly, broad‐range tunability of dimensions (controlled thickness from ≈7 to ≈20 nm, accompanied by modulation of the edge length from ≈150 nm to ≈2 µm) and plasmonic properties. These merits, coupled with a preparation free of CTA‐halide surfactants, have facilitated the exploration of various uses, especially in bio‐related areas. For example, they are demonstrated as biocompatible photothermal agents for cell ablation in NIR I and NIR II windows. This work paves the way to the innovative fabrication of anisotropic plasmonic nanomaterials with desired attributes for wide‐ranging practical applications.     

Characterization of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Ficus sycomorus</Emphasis> tannin using ATR-FT MIR,MALDI-TOF MS and <Superscript>13</Superscript>C NMR methods

The Ficus sycomorus bark tannin was extracted and characterized using Attenuated Total Reflectance Fourier Transform Middle Infrared (ATR-FT MIR) spectra in the 1800 and 600 cm^?1 range, Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionisation Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) and Carbon-13 Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (¹³C NMR) spectroscopy methods. Ficus sycomorus species have a very high percentage (46%) yield of tannin. These three characterization methods have shown that the Ficus sycomorus bark tannin is condensed and particularly a procyanidin type. It is composed of quercetin, apigenin, fisetinidin, catechin, gallocatechin, chalcone, radicinin, catechin gallate units with the presence of carbohydrates, quinone and gallic acid residues. The analysis results revealed that quercetin are the major constituents of Ficus sycomorus bark tannin. This procyanidin type tannin can give good wood adhesives.     

Simulating Meteosat-7 broadband radiances using two visible channels of Meteosat-8

This paper addresses the conversion of narrow-to-broadband radiances in the special case of the sensor SEVIRI onboard the satellite Meteosat-8 of the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG). The advent of this new program poses the problem of the transfer of operational procedures from the previous satellite Meteosat-7 to MSG. Among these operational procedures are several different implementations of the Heliosat method to convert Meteosat data into irradiance maps. An easy-to-implement fast-running method is proposed that combines the radiances of the two narrow visible bands of SEVIRI to produce broadband radiances that are almost identical to those observed in the broadband channel of Meteosat-7. A comparison between Meteosat-7 actual radiances and these simulated-radiances shows errors with a negligible bias and a relative root mean square error (RMSE) of 6%. After combination with the uncertainties found in the calibration procedures (10–13%), the total relative RMSE on the radiances amounts to 12–14%. It is concluded that the Meteosat-8 images may be used in operational procedures currently applied to Meteosat-7 images.     

A unified framework for peak detection and alignment: application to HR-MAS 2D NMR spectroscopy

In this paper, we propose a new scheme to detect and align simultaneously peaks that correspond to different metabolites within a biopsy. The proposed peak detection and alignment scheme is based on the use of evidence theory, which is well suited to model uncertainty and imprecision characterizing the 2D NMR HR-MAS spectra. Consequently, we propose the coupling use of Bayesian and fuzzy set theories to model and quantify the imprecision degree, which is then exploited to define the mass function. We particularly show that our new mass function definition and the use of evidence theory for peak detection and alignment achieve consistently high performance compared to a Bayesian scheme on both synthetic and real spectra. The high quality of peak alignment precision reached by the use of evidence theory allows us to efficiently detect reliable biomarkers, which is an essential step for a better therapeutic and human complement system management in case of multiple sclerosis disease, cancer, etc.     

垂直Cu2ZnSnS4纳米线太阳能电池吸收层的研究与制备

采用两步电化学沉积法制备了CZTS薄膜和CZTS纳米线阵列,对450～650℃硫化温度下的CZTS薄膜的形貌和物相结构进行了分析,结果表明:在550℃硫化条件下可以获得锌黄锡矿相的CZTS.以阳极氧化铝(AAO)作为模板,采用了"先硫化,后移除AAO模板"和"先移除AAO模板,后硫化"两种方式对Cu-Zn-Sn预制层进行处理,得到了垂直形貌的CZTS纳米线,保证了纳米线的完整性和较好的垂直度.在0.2～2μm入射光波范围,与CZTS薄膜相比,CZTS纳米线平均反射率降低20％,展现了良好的减反射特性,有利于增大吸收层的吸收;同时也通过优化硫化工艺顺序为制备垂直的CZTS纳米线提供了新思路.