A feasibility study on the use of anthropometric variables to make muscle–computer interface more practical

High classification accuracy has been achieved for muscle–computer interfaces (MCIs) based on surface electromyography (EMG) recognition in many recent works with an increasing number of discriminated movements. However, there are many limitations to use these interfaces in the real-world contexts. One of the major problems is compatibility. Designing and training the classification EMG system for a particular individual user is needed in order to reach high accuracy. If the system can calibrate itself automatically/semi-automatically, the development of standard interfaces that are compatible with almost any user could be possible. Twelve anthropometric variables, a measurement of body dimensions, have been proposed and used to calibrate the system in two different ways: a weighting factor for a classifier and a normalizing value for EMG features. The experimental results showed that a number of relationships between anthropometric variables and EMG time-domain features from upper-limb muscles and movements are statistically strong (average r=0.71?0.80) and significant (p<0.05). In this paper, the feasibility to use anthropometric variables to calibrate the EMG classification system is shown obviously and the proposed calibration technique is suggested to further improve the robustness and practical use of MCIs based on EMG pattern recognition.     

Mid-infrared spectroscopy as a tool for rapid determination of internal quality parameters in tomato

The objective of this study was to investigate the possibility of predicting the quality parameters of tomato by mid-infrared spectroscopy. For 2 years, tomato samples, representing a large variability in the chemical composition, were scanned using the attenuated total reflectance accessory of a Fourier transform spectrometer in the wavenumber region between 4000 and 400 cm⁻¹_. Calibration models were developed using partial least squares (PLS) regression method and were tested with internal validation sample set in the first year. Different spectral preprocessing techniques were investigated and different spectral regions were selected to optimise the calibration models. In addition, the models obtained in 2007 were used to predict the soluble solids, dry matter and total acidity in tomato harvested in 2008.     

Casein micelles as a vehicle for iron fortification of foods

Casein micelles were loaded with iron to create a dispersible delivery format for insoluble iron by exposing milk at chilled temperatures to a high concentration of soluble iron (up to 20 mmol kg⁻¹ ferrous and ferric chloride). The loading was maximised by applying a pH-cycle to the fortified milk by means of carbonation. Upon acidification of fortified milk, no release of iron was observed, except at the highest concentration. Changes in the buffering capacity as a function of pH confirmed the formation of colloidal iron phosphates. Overall, most properties of the micelles did not change: hydration, protein distribution between soluble and colloidal phase remained constant, but zeta potential decreased slightly and curd formation upon renneting became much slower. The renneting behaviour could be improved by carbonation or storage at 30 °C for a day. Iron-fortified milk samples were stable under heating, except when fortification was achieved by means of 20 mmol kg⁻¹ ferric chloride. The most obvious difference of iron-fortified milk is its appearance: samples fortified with ferrous chloride were darker than control, whereas samples fortified with ferric chloride were more red/yellow.     

High temperature lithium cells using conversion oxide electrodes

Oxidized stainless steel electrodes containing chromium oxides without any conducting additives or binder have been successfully cycled at high temperatures (up to 100 °C) in organic solvent-based electrolytes with high reversibility. Cycling at high temperature results in an enhancement of the capacity at lower voltages, which is maintained upon cycling. After studying different electrolyte candidates, the best results were obtained using lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (LiTFSI) dissolved in ethylene carbonate.     

Evaluation of the methods for calculating the concentration-dependent diffusivity in binary systems

Boltzmann and Matano developed a procedure for the solution to Fick’s second law when the diffusivity is a function of concentration. The procedure requires the determination of the so-called Matano interface. The accuracy of the resulting solution depends heavily on the precise location of the Matano interface, the determination of which is laborious and often inaccurate. Three alternative procedures by Sauer and Freise, Wagner, and den Broeder, modifications to the original Boltzmann-Matano (B-M) method, were developed such that the diffusivity can be calculated without having to determine the location of the Matano interface. However, none of these derivations quantifies the extent to which the modified methods arrive at the same result as that obtained from the standard B-M analysis. This article serves to apply the B-M method, and the modification suggested by den Broeder, to various analytical concentration profiles containing different degrees of noise and to compare the results quantitatively. In addition to these analytical functions, concentration profiles obtained from interdiffusion experiments were studied. The two methods are shown to be equivalent in terms of the accuracy of the result. The advantages or disadvantages of one method over the other are illustrated with examples.     

Identification of design motifs with pattern matching algorithms

Design patterns are important in software maintenance because they help in understanding and re-engineering systems. They propose design motifs, solutions to recurring design problems. The identification of occurrences of design motifs in large systems consists of identifying classes whose structure and organization match exactly or approximately the structure and organization of classes as suggested by the motif. We adapt two classical approximate string matching algorithms based on automata simulation and bit-vector processing to efficiently identify exact and approximate occurrences of motifs. We then carry out two case studies to show the performance, precision, and recall of our algorithms. In the first case study, we assess the performance of our algorithms on seven medium-to-large systems. In the second case study, we compare our approach with three existing approaches (an explanation-based constraint approach, a metric-enhanced explanation-based constraint approach, and a similarity scoring approach) by applying the algorithms on three small-to-medium size systems, JHotDraw, Juzzle, and QuickUML. Our studies show that approximate string matching based on bit-vector processing provides efficient algorithms to identify design motifs.     

Effect of the incorporation of a low amount of carbohydrate-containing monomer on the swelling properties of polyacrylamide hydrogels

In this work, the influence of the incorporation of a small amount of carbohydrate-containing monomer N-acryloyllactosylamine (LAM) on the swelling behavior of covalently-crosslinked polyacrylamide hydrogels in water has been reported. The incorporation of LAM into the copolymer was assessed by ATR–FTIR and thermogravimetric experiments. The main result is that the equilibrium water uptake was significantly decreased as soon as the hydrogel contained LAM considering a constant amount of crosslinking agent. The greatest difference of water uptakes between carbohydrate-free hydrogel and carbohydrate-containing hydrogel occurred for the lowest crosslinker amount of 1 mol%. In that case, the value of the water uptake reached 56-fold for the carbohydrate-free hydrogel and decreased down to 41-fold for the 10 mol% LAM hydrogel. Additional NMR experiments were used to measure the amount of non-crystallizable water which was higher for carbohydrate-free hydrogel than that for lactose-containing hydrogel confirming the water uptake results.     

Net N immobilisation during the biodegradation of mucilage in soil as affected by repeated mineral and organic fertilisation

Repeated fertilisation of crops with manure commonly increases both the amount and the quality of soil organic matter, the mineralisation of which strongly determines the availability of N to plants. In the rhizosphere, the microbial mineralisation/immobilisation of N is enhanced due to rhizodeposition (release of organic compounds from roots). In this work, we studied N transformations during incubation of maize root mucilage in soils that had been previously fertilized with composted pig manure or with ammonium nitrate for 7 years. Our work revealed mucilage was rapidly mineralised (average half-life of 3 days), inducing a rapid N immobilisation of 94 mg N g⁻¹ of mucilage C, followed by a slow remineralisation. Fertilisation with manure induced a persistent stimulation of the soil organic matter mineralisation, leading to an enhanced content of soil inorganic N (+23% in 58 days of incubation). Due to this stimulation of microbial activity in the soil fertilized with manure, the decrease in inorganic N during the biodegradation of mucilage lasted a shorter time as compared to the mineral fertilisation. However, the type of fertilisation did not significantly change the amount of N immobilised.     

BRIDGING CAPITAL GAPS TO PROMOTE INNOVATION IN FRANCE

With the withdrawal of state ascendancy over the financial sector, the national system of financing has taken a new turn in France. This paper deals with the capacity of this new system to promote innovation and argues that the capacity of French banks to finance innovation is now limited. In this context the supply of equity to firms is a critical factor. For small firms, however, there was a critical shortage in equity supply right up to the mid-1990s. Since then new policies and institutional reforms have been launched to cope with French financial gaps and to financially promote innovation. Amongst these institutional innovations the paper mentions the Nouveau Marché; the Development Bank for SMEs; and the impetus given the venture capital industry by earmarking a proportion of funds from the privatization of France Telecom to support innovative small enterprises.