Variability and classification of remote sensing reflectance spectra in the eastern English Channel and southern North Sea

During spring and summer 2004, intensive field bio-optical campaigns were conducted in the eastern English Channel and southern North Sea to assess the mechanisms regulating the ocean color variability in a complex coastal environment. The bio-optical properties of the sampled waters span a wide range of variability, due to the various biogeochemical and physical processes occurring in this area. In-water hyperspectral remote sensing reflectances (R_rs) were acquired simultaneously with measurements of optically significant parameters at 93 stations. An empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis indicates that 74% of the total variance of R_rs is partly explained by particulate backscattering (b_bp), while particulate and dissolved absorption only explain 15% of the ocean color variability. These results confirm, for the first time from in situ backscattering measurements, previous studies performed in other coastal environments. Whereas the amplitude factors of the first EOF mode are well correlated (r = 0.75) with the particulate backscattering coefficient (b_bp), the highest correlation (r = 0.83) is found with the particulate backscattering ratio (b_bp/b_p). This result highlights the fundamental role of the nature of the bulk particulate assemblage in the ocean color variability.An unsupervised hierarchical cluster analysis applied to our data set of normalized R_rs spectra, leads to five spectrally distinct classes. We show that the class-specific mean R_rs spectra significantly differ from one another by their bio-optical properties. Three classes particularly stand out: one class corresponds to a Phaeocystis globosa bloom situation, whereas the two others are associated with water masses dominated by mineral and non-living particles, respectively. Among the different bio-optical parameters, the particulate backscattering ratio, the chlorophyll concentration, and the particulate organic carbon to chlorophyll ratio, are the most class-specific ones. These different results are very encouraging for the inversion of bio-optical parameters from class-specific algorithms.     

Physics of direct bonding: Applications to 3D heterogeneous or monolithic integration

Direct wafer bonding and thinning technologies are now extensively used in combination to produce SOI wafers (silicon-on-insulators) or innovative engineered substrates. Emerging demands of new functionalities at the material or device level for 3D integration have allowed increasing the level of maturity of these technologies. This paper will review the physics of wafer direct bonding and its implementation for vertical integration devices of processed strata with vertical interconnects.     

User,Use & Utility Research

Business and Information Systems Engineering (BISE) is at a turning point. Planning, designing, developing and operating IT used to be a management task of a few elites in public administrations and corporations. But the continuous digitization of nearly all areas of life changes the IT landscape fundamentally. Success in this new era requires putting the human perspective – the digital user – at the very heart of the new digitized service-led economy. BISE faces not just a temporary trend but a complex socio-technical phenomenon with far-reaching implications. The challenges are manifold and have major consequences for all stakeholders, both in information systems and management research as well as in practice. Corporate processes have to be re-designed from the ground up, starting with the user’s perspective, thus putting usage experience and utility of the individual center stage. The digital service economy leads to highly personalized application systems while organizational functions are being fragmented. Entirely new ways of interacting with information systems, in particular beyond desktop IT, are being invented and established. These fundamental challenges require novel approaches with regards to innovation and development methods as well as adequate concepts for enterprise or service system architectures. Gigantic amounts of data are being generated at an accelerating rate by an increasing number of devices – data that need to be managed. In order to tackle these extraordinary challenges we introduce ‘user, use & utility’ as a new field of BISE that focuses primarily on the digital user, his or her usage behavior and the utility associated with system usage in the digitized service-led economy. The research objectives encompass the development of theories, methods and tools for systematic requirement elicitation, systems design, and business development for successful Business and Information Systems Engineering in a digitized economy – information systems that digital users enjoy using. This challenge calls for leveraging insights from various scientific disciplines such as Design, Engineering, Computer Science, Psychology and Sociology. BISE can provide an integrated perspective, thereby assuming a pivotal role within the digitized service led economy.     

Stainless Steels for Exhaust Lines

Exhaust lines of cars have been strongly evolving during the last decade to meet the various requirements of the automotive industry and the new environment regulations. This development tends to favour stainless steel grades to replace cast iron for the exhaust manifold and aluminized low carbon steel for pipes and mufflers. Among the various stainless steel grades, the proportion of ferritic grade increases for the hot part of the exhaust system as its price is lower and more stable than austenitic or refractory grades, and as it exhibits a better resistance to cyclic oxidation. A large and rapid development of stainless ferritic grades has been based on Ti and Nb stabilization. Adding niobium presents many advantages for corrosion resistance, deep‐drawability, and mainly creep resistance at high temperature. The paper is focused on stainless steel with 14 wt% chromium, stabilized with Nb. Intermetallic precipitation is studied after a 100 h holding time at different temperatures (sag tests). It is shown that, depending on the test temperature and on the chemical composition of the steel, Fe₂Nb or Fe₂Nb₃ intermetallic particles can precipitate, which affects the creep resistance: Fe₂Nb₃ being more stable at higher temperature. Some impacts on the alloy design dedicated to exhaust line application are presented as a conclusion of the study.     

Tyrosine phosphorylation and association with phospholipase C gamma-1 of the GAP-associated 62-kD protein after CD2 stimulation of Jurkat T cell

Numerous substrates are tyrosine phosphorylated upon CD2 stimulation of human Jurkat T cells using a mitogenic pair of CD2 monoclonal antibodies, including the phospholipase C (PLC)gamma-1-p35/36 complex. Most of these substrates are identically tyrosine phosphorylated after CD3 ligation, suggesting that both stimuli share the same biochemical pathway. We show, however, in this report that a 63-kD protein is specifically phosphorylated on tyrosine residues after ligation of the CD2 molecule. The tyrosine phosphorylation of p63 can be induced independently of other substrates when using a single CD2 mAb recognizing the D66 epitope of the molecule. Importantly, this CD2-induced tyrosine phosphorylation of p63 can also occur in the absence of the CD3 zeta chain membrane expression, and is also distinct from the protein tyrosine kinases p56lck and p59fyn. We demonstrate, moreover, that p63 is physically linked with PLC gamma-1 and p35/36 upon CD2 stimulation. Finally, we also show that a 62-kD protein coimmunoprecipitating with the p21ras GTPase activating protein (GAP) is heavily tyrosine phosphorylated only after CD2 stimulation. This ultimately suggests that p63 may represent in fact the 62-kD protein that associates with GAP after tyrosine phosphorylation. Taken together, these results demonstrate the occurrence in Jurkat cells of a tyrosine kinase pathway specifically coupled to the CD2 molecule. They also suggest a function of the p62-GAP-associated protein as a link between PLC gamma-1 and p21ras activation pathways after CD2 activation.     

Utility of selected MMPI-2 scales in the outcome prediction for patients with chronic back pain.

The predictive utility of selected scales from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2; J. N. Butcher et al, 1989) was examined in relation to a number of physical and psychosocial measures of treatment outcome in patients reporting chronic back pain. MMPI-2 scales assessing manifestations of emotional distress were considered: anxiety (Scale 7 [Pt]: Anxiety [ANX] and Obsessiveness [OBS]), depression (Scale 2 [D]: Depression [DEP]), and somatic discomfort (Scale 1 [Hs]: Lassitude-Malaise [Hy3], Somatic Complaints [Hy4], and Health Concerns [HEA]). The outcome results at 6-month follow-up for 120 patients who participated in a 4-week outpatient multimodal treatment program were examined. Results showed several of the selected scales to be predictive of less improvement, depending on the outcome measures used. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Towards a traceability model in a MARTE-based methodology for real-time embedded systems

This paper addresses the traceability management in the context of Accord_|UML, a MARTE-based methodology for designing distributed real-time embedded systems. Our contribution is two fold: on the one hand, we propose to include directly requirements in the modeling process; on the other hand, we identify potential traceability links that we model by using the SysML requirement profile. We also present the toolbox that supports our contribution. This work is partly funded by the French Research Agency (ANR) in the context of the “Réseau National des Technologies Logicielles” support within both MeMVaTEx and Domino Projects.     

Effects of fermentation on the phytochemical composition and antioxidant properties of soy germ

Soy germ is a remarkable source of bioactive phytochemicals offering an interesting alternative as starting ingredient for fermented food. This work aimed to determine whether lactic acid bacteria fermentation of soy germ induces changes on its phytochemical composition. The antioxidant properties of fermented soy germ samples periodically taken during the fermentation process were evaluated and correlated with the concentration and structural modifications of isoflavones, saponins, phytosterols and tocopherols. Fermented soy germ extracts exhibited a higher inhibition effect against the superoxide anion radical, and lesser but significant ferric-reducing and DPPH radical scavenging effects compared with raw soy germ. By comparison to the traditional whole seed-based products, soy germ exhibits higher levels of isoflavones, saponins, phytosterols and tocopherols. All these phytochemicals contributed to the antioxidant capacity of soy germ and were conserved under lactic acid bacteria fermentation.     

Usefulness of X-ray lasers for science and technology

Recent realization of saturated X-ray lasers (XRL's) has considerably extended the range of optical properties of soft X-ray sources toward high brightness and large coherence length. Consequently, new results may be expected from studies previously experienced with traditional sources such as synchrotron radiation. On the other hand, XRL's open new fields of research owing to their high brightness. In this paper, we present some of the first experiments utilizing XRL sources     

A new supercritical co-injection process to coat microparticles

A new supercritical co-injection process has been developed to coat microparticles. The process was first set up with micron-sized glass beads as model particles and then applied to two powdered active pharmaceutical ingredients. A lipid was used as coating material. The mass balance core/shell in the obtained particles was performed using both differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and pycnometry measurements and showed a good reproducibility of the process when particles above 20 μm size were considered. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra and environmental scanning electronic microscope (ESEM) characterization were used to ensure that a shell of coating surrounded the raw particles. Both methods showed a different deposition mode of the lipid between the coated particles and a physical mixture of glass beads and lipid. Release tests in distilled water performed with coated active compounds showed a slowed down dissolution kinetics. The study of the polymorphism of the crystallized lipid revealed a solid/solid transition with time. The supercritical co-injection process is a promising way to discretely coat particles with relatively low diameters (20–50 μm) and is particularly suited to coat sensitive pharmaceutical molecules such as proteins.