Pure Chitosan Biomedical Textile Fibers from Mixtures of Low- and High-Molecular Weight Bidisperse Polymer Solutions: Processing and Understanding of Microstructure–Mechanical Properties’ Relationship

Natural polymers, as extracted from biomass, may exhibit large macromolecular polydispersity. We investigated the impact of low molar mass chitosan (LMW, DP_w~115) on the properties of chitosan fibers obtained by wet spinning of chitosan solutions with bimodal distributions of molar masses. The fiber crystallinity index (CrI) was assessed by synchrotron X-ray diffraction and the mechanical properties were obtained by uniaxial tensile tests. The LMW chitosan showed to slightly increase the crystallinity index in films which were initially processed from the bimodal molar mass chitosan solutions, as a result of increased molecular mobility and possible crystal nucleating effects. Nevertheless, the CrI remained almost constant or slightly decreased in stretched fibers at increasing content of LMW chitosan in the bidisperse chitosan collodion. The ultimate mechanical properties of fibers were altered by the addition of LMW chitosan as a result of a decrease of entanglement density and chain orientation in the solid state. An increase of crystallinity might not be expected from LMW chitosan with a still relatively high degree of polymerization (DPw ≥ 115). Instead, different nucleation agents—either smaller molecules or nanoparticles—should be used to improve the mechanical properties of chitosan fibers for textile applications.     

Is there functional vascular information in anatomical MR sequences? A preliminary in vivo study

According to the type of sequences used, either morphological or dynamic functional study can be performed using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The aim of this study is to find out if vascular information found, in dynamic MR sequences, already exists in anatomical MR sequences in the particular case of Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease (LCPD). LCPD is due to a loss of circulation to the femoral head in a growing child resulting in avascular necrosis and leading to possible distortion of size and shape of the proximal femur. MRI acquisitions consist in performing two anatomical sequences and one dynamic sequence with a gadolinium-diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid (Gd-DTPA) injection. Five new parametric images characterizing hyper- and hypo-vascularized areas are computed from the dynamic MR sequence. For each new image, the two corresponding anatomical images are found and registered. Then, four types of regions of interest (ROIs) are extracted: healthy hyper- and hypo-vascularized areas and pathological hyper- and hypo-vascularized areas. First-order statistical parameters and texture parameters (Haralick's method, run length method, fractal parameters, autoregressive factors and Laws' texture energy method) are computed in each ROI. Then, a statistical study based on a T test is performed. Results show that some parameters could discriminate the four ROI types. Hence, dynamic vascular image and intrinsic anatomical image characteristics seem to be correlated. Finally, the disease can be evaluated with objective parameters using only anatomical sequences.     

Toward two-dimensional self-organization of nanostructures using wafer bonding and nanopatterned silicon surfaces

The structure of ultrathin silicon layers obtained by molecular hydrophobic bonding is investigated. The twist and tilt angles between the two crystals are accurately controlled. The buried Si|Si interface is observed by transmission electron microscopy and by grazing incidence X-ray techniques. For low twist angle values (/spl psi/<5/spl deg/) plane view observations reveal well-defined dislocation networks. Cross-section observations give evidence that the dislocation networks are localized at the bonding interfacial plane with no threading dislocation. Grazing incidence small angle X-ray scattering measurements confirm the good quality of the bonding interface as well as the quality of the dislocation networks. Grazing incidence X-ray diffraction is also used and shows the long-range order of the periodic strain field in the silicon layer. It shows, especially, the interaction between the dislocations. X-ray reflectivity was employed and estimated that the interfacial thickness (i.e., thickness of the bonding) lower than 1 nm decreases when the twist angle increases. The nanopatterned surface is then investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy and X-ray methods. To validate these substrates for long-range order self-organization, the growth of Si and Ge quantum dots is finally achieved.     

Human-robot synchrony: flexible assistance using adaptive oscillators

We propose a novel method for movement assistance that is based on adaptive oscillators, i.e., mathematical tools that are capable of extracting the high-level features (amplitude, frequency, and offset) of a periodic signal. Such an oscillator acts like a filter on these features, but keeps its output in phase with respect to the input signal. Using a simple inverse model, we predicted the torque produced by human participants during rhythmic flexion-extension of the elbow. Feeding back a fraction of this estimated torque to the participant through an elbow exoskeleton, we were able to prove the assistance efficiency through a marked decrease of the biceps and triceps electromyography. Importantly, since the oscillator adapted to the movement imposed by the user, the method flexibly allowed us to change the movement pattern and was still efficient during the nonstationary epochs. This method holds promise for the development of new robot-assisted rehabilitation protocols because it does not require prespecifying a reference trajectory and does not require complex signal sensing or single-user calibration: the only signal that is measured is the position of the augmented joint. In this paper, we further demonstrate that this assistance was very intuitive for the participants who adapted almost instantaneously.     

Un environnement de conception de systèmes distribués basé sur UML

This paper introduces a new environment for developing distributed systems. It is based on theTurtle uml profile. Analysis and design phases, described in previous papers, have been extended with an additional deployment phase. In this new step,Turtle components are deployed over hardware execution nodes, and nodes are connected together throughout links,Turtle deployment diagrams are given a formal semantics inRt-lotos, therefore following the approach used forTurtle analysis and design diagrams. Moreover, the paper presents a Java code generator which outputs appropriate Java code forTurtle deployment diagrams. This code is automatically deployable on networks because it implements node communication using network protocols such asUdp orRmi. ttool, the turtle toolkit has been extended to support these new diagrams and code generators. The attack of protected data exchanged throughout securedHttp sessions serves as example.     

A box constrained gradient projection algorithm for compressed sensing

A new algorithm is presented which aims to solve problems from compressed sensing - under-determined problems where the solution vector is known a priori to be sparse. Upper bounds on the solution vector are found so that the problem can be reformulated as a box-constrained quadratic programme. A sparse solution is sought using a Barzilai-Borwein type projection algorithm. New insight into the choice of step length is provided through a study of the special structure of the underlying problem together with upper bounds on the step length. Numerical experiments are conducted and results given, comparing this algorithm with a number of other current algorithms.     

Ka and Q band propagation experiments in Toulouse using ASTRA 3B and ALPHASAT satellites

From January 2008 to March 2011, ONERA operated in Toulouse, France, a beacon receiver able to collect the 19.7‐GHz beacon signal of the HotBird 6 satellite. In March 2011, the radio frequency chain was modified to be able to receive the 20.2‐GHz ASTRA 3B beacon to benefit from a higher Equivalent Isotropically Radiated Power of the satellite. Since June 2015, a second beacon receiver has been installed and is able to record the 39.4‐GHz beacon signal of the Alphasat satellite. The objective of this paper is to present the results of the first 2 years of measurements (June 2015 to May 2017) of the Q‐band Alphasat propagation experiment in Toulouse, as well as concurrent measurements collected at Ka‐band with ASTRA 3B. First of all, the propagation experiments are briefly described. Second, the results of the statistical analysis are highlighted. Finally, a deep analysis of the performances of the 2 frequency scaling prediction methods recommended in ITU‐R P.618‐13 is performed.     

Patch-Based Nonlocal Functional for Denoising Fluorescence Microscopy Image Sequences

We present a nonparametric regression method for denoising 3-D image sequences acquired via fluorescence microscopy. The proposed method exploits the redundancy of the 3-D+time information to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of images corrupted by Poisson-Gaussian noise. A variance stabilization transform is first applied to the image-data to remove the dependence between the mean and variance of intensity values. This preprocessing requires the knowledge of parameters related to the acquisition system, also estimated in our approach. In a second step, we propose an original statistical patch-based framework for noise reduction and preservation of space-time discontinuities. In our study, discontinuities are related to small moving spots with high velocity observed in fluorescence video-microscopy. The idea is to minimize an objective nonlocal energy functional involving spatio-temporal image patches. The minimizer has a simple form and is defined as the weighted average of input data taken in spatially-varying neighborhoods. The size of each neighborhood is optimized to improve the performance of the pointwise estimator. The performance of the algorithm (which requires no motion estimation) is then evaluated on both synthetic and real image sequences using qualitative and quantitative criteria.