Control of (max, +)-linear systems minimizing delays

In this paper, we develop a new control technique for discrete event dynamic systems subject to synchronization phenomena. We propose a feedback controller for (max,?+?)-linear systems which delays input events as little as possible while constraints on internal or output events are satisfied. The synthesis is mainly based on new results about fixed points of antitone (i.e., order reversing) mappings.     

The Role of Semiochemicals in Short-Range Location of Aggregation Sites in Adalia bipunctata (Coleoptera, Coccinellidae)

To survive unfavorable periods, ladybird beetles form conspicuous aggregations in specific microsites, with these locations remaining the same year after year. This constancy of location leads to the hypothesis that semiochemicals are involved in the attraction and aggregation of ladybirds to the microsite. In this study, we identified two types of semiochemicals that could play key roles in the attraction and aggregation formation of the two-spotted ladybird, Adalia bipunctata. We first isolated and identified three alkylmethoxypyrazines from A. bipunctata and tested the behavioral responses of diapausing ladybirds to these chemicals in a four-way olfactometer. This revealed that 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, on its own or as part of a two-component mixture with 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, elicited a positive behavioral response, causing arrestment of diapausing A. bipunctata. As ladybirds are in contact with each other in aggregations, we investigated the role of cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) in driving the cohesion and maintenance of aggregation. When an extract of CHCs from diapausing ladybirds was deposited near an alkylmethoxypyrazine source, ladybirds spent more time in the vicinity of the source. We identified a set of CHCs specific to diapausing A. bipunctata. Alkylmethoxyyrazines and CHCs thus deliver information to diapausing ladybirds searching for an aggregation site, as well as mediating several other behaviors throughout the ladybird’s life cycle. Chemical parsimony is discussed.     

Flux pinning effect of cubic equiaxed morphology and its Ti stabilizing in Nb<Subscript>3</Subscript>Sn superconductors

Two sets of internal-Sn Nb3Sn superconducting strands were fabricated through RRP method, one with 2 wt% of Ti alloyed in Sn core and the other just pure Sn. Four reaction temperatures of 650℃, 675℃, 700℃ and 725℃ and 128 h duration were applied for A15 phase formation heat treatment after Cu-Sn alloying procedure of 210℃/50 h + 340℃/25 h. For the heat-treated coil samples, transport non-Cu JC was examined through standard 4-probe technique and phase microstructure was observed by means of Field Emission Sc...     

A land cover classification product over France at 1 km resolution using SPOT4/VEGETATION data

The present study focuses on the development of a new land cover classification product over France at 1 km resolution. It is based on data sets from the Earth observing system SPOT4/VEGETATION. The satellite measurements are aimed at supporting regional efforts to set up global mosaics on new land cover products. They have been acquired in the frame of the Global Land Cover 2000 project. The instrument design relies on advanced technology, which leads to an improved radiometric and geometric resolution data. Such characteristics allow taking full benefit of the daily repetitiveness of the VEGETATION wide field-of-view sensor without the drawback of a variable pixel size on the image edge. Several physical processing steps are successively operated to the images on a per-pixel basis to remove detector blindness, to filter cloud contamination, and finally to correct both atmospheric and surface anisotropy effects. A new thematic map using the K-means clustering method has been built. First, the results of the satellite-based land cover classification has been successfully compared with the Coordination of Information on the Environment (CORINE) database which serves as a reference to appraise the reliability of the study. Then, it has been inter-compared with land cover products derived from MODIS and AVHRR sensors. For this, an aggregative scheme particularly focused on major land units (forest, grassland, cropland) adopted in order to yield a whole mapping at the same geographic projection and space resolution. The discrepancies between maps enhance the quality of the proposed product, thanks to the use of advanced data processing and a more appropriate method.     

Proteomic Helicobacter pylori biomarkers discriminative of low-grade gastric MALT lymphoma and duodenal ulcer

To date no reliable diagnostic method exists to predict, among the very large and clinically heterogeneous group of Helicobacter pylori‐infected patients, the extremely small group at risk for developing low‐grade gastric MALT lymphoma (LG‐MALT). Search of proteomic biomarkers holds promise for the classification of the H. pylori strains with regard to this severe clinical outcome. In the present study 69 H. pylori strains isolated from patients with two different H. pylori‐associated diseases, duodenal ulcer (DU, n=29) and LG‐MALT (n=40) were used. Protein expression patterns of the strains were analyzed by using the high‐throughput methodology SELDI. Selected proteins were purified by means of chromatographic and electrophoretic methods in view of further sequencing by LC‐MS/MS. Univariate analysis (Mann–Whitney test) of the protein expression patterns generated nine significant biomarkers that can discriminate between H. pylori strains from patients with DU and LG‐MALT. These biomarkers are of low molecular weight, ranging from 6 to 26.6 kDa. Among them, two are overexpressed in LG‐MALT strains and seven – in DU strains. Two biomarker proteins, one overexpressed in LG‐MALT strains (13.2 kDa) and another one – overexpressed in DU strains (26.6 kDa), were purified to homogeneity and identified by using LC‐MS/MS as a 50S ribosomal protein L7/L12 and a urease subunit, respectively. These biomarkers can be included in novel protein arrays for the differential diagnosis of H. pylori‐associated clinical outcomes.     

Automatic image analysis and morphology of fibre reinforced concrete

Automatic image analysis is an efficient tool to quantify the morphology of materials. Moreover, it can aid to understand their mechanical behaviour. Several applications of automatic methods are presented to investigate concrete reinforced by ribbon shaped amorphous cast iron fibres. Introducing ribbons into the plain matrix entrapped air voids. This affected the workability and, later on, the compressive strength of the fibre reinforced concrete (FRC). Both were improved by additions of superplasticizer in order to keep the water to cement ratio constant. The influence of the superplasticizer and fibre contents on the compactness of the FRC was characterized by the dimensional and the spatial distributions of the air voids. The orientations of fibres and microcracks were quantified by Fourier image transforms. Due to the casting procedure of the FRC, the fibres were located in “horizontal layers”, perpendicular to the casting axis. Whatever the direction of compression with respect to the layers of fibres, the microcrack network was getting more and more oriented in the direction of compression as stresses increased. The analysis of fibre and microcrack orientations suggests that, under uniaxial compression, the inelastic strain domain should be characterized by an anisotropic biaxial damage model, whose principal axes are the orthogonal and parallel directions to the layers of fibres.     

Type-based Initialization Analysis of a Synchronous Data-flow Language

One of the appreciated features of the synchronous data-flow approach is that a program defines a perfectly deterministic behavior. But the use of the delay primitive leads to undefined values at the first cycle; thus a data-flow program is really deterministic only if it can be shown that such undefined values do not affect the behavior of the system.This paper presents an initialization analysis that guarantees the deterministic behavior of programs. This property being undecidable in general, the paper proposes a safe approximation of the property, precise enough for most data-flow programs. This analysis is a one-bit analysis — expressions are either initialized or uninitialized — and is defined as an inference type system with sub-typing constraints. This analysis has been implemented in the Lucid Synchrone compiler and in a new Scade-Lustre prototype compiler. It gives very good results in practice.     

Interactions magnetiques intra- et interclusters dans les pentafluorures RuF5 et OsF5

The nature of the magnetic interactions in RuF₅ and OsF₅ has been investigated using neutron diffraction and magnetic measurements under high applied fields. RuF₅ and OsF₅ are magnetically ordered at respectively T_N = 5 and 6 K. The magnetic structures have been determined. A model based on isolated tetranuclear clusters M₄F₂₀ (M = Ru or Os) has been applied to explain the magnetic behavior above the Néel temperature. The intracluster exchange interactions are antiferromagnetic. The fitting of the magnetization data leads to an exchange constant of $\text{J}\text{k}\text{= ?7.7}\text{K}$ for RuF₅, in good agreement with that calculated from the thermal variation of the magnetic susceptibility.     

Practical issues on the projection of polyhedral sets

Projection of polyhedral sets is a fundamental operation in both geometry and symbolic computation. In most cases, however, it is not practically feasible to generate projections as the size of the output can be exponential in the size of the input. Even when the size of the output is manageable, we still face two serious problems: overwhelming redundancy and degeneracy. Here, we address these problems from a practical point of view. We discuss three algorithms based on algebraic and geometric techniques and we compare their performance in order to assess the feasibility of these approaches.     

Libre parcours moyen dans la phase solide des materiaux frittés

A simple mathematical model is used to predict the evolution of the mean free path in the solid phase in a sintered material. The knowledge of the volume fraction of the solid phase and of the particle coordination number are only required. Good agreement is observed between experimental data and the purposed relationship.