Towards deterministic downscaling of SMOS soil moisture using MODIS derived soil evaporative efficiency

A deterministic approach for downscaling ～ 40 km resolution Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) observations is developed from 1 km resolution MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data. To account for the lower soil moisture sensitivity of MODIS surface temperature compared to that of L-band brightness temperature, the disaggregation scale is fixed to 10 times the spatial resolution of MODIS thermal data (10 km). Four different analytic downscaling relationships are derived from MODIS and physically-based model predictions of soil evaporative efficiency. The four downscaling algorithms differ with regards to i) the assumed relationship (linear or nonlinear) between soil evaporative efficiency and near-surface soil moisture, and ii) the scale at which soil parameters are available (40 km or 10 km). The 1 km resolution airborne L-band brightness temperature from the National Airborne Field Experiment 2006 (NAFE'06) are used to generate a time series of eleven clear sky 40 km by 60 km near-surface soil moisture observations to represent SMOS pixels across the three-week experiment. The overall root mean square difference between downscaled and observed soil moisture varies between 1.4% v/v and 1.8% v/v depending on the downscaling algorithm used, with soil moisture values ranging from 0 to 15% v/v. The accuracy and robustness of the downscaling algorithms are discussed in terms of their assumptions and applicability to SMOS.     

Ingenious golden section search MPPT algorithm for PEM fuel cell power system

Neural Computing and Applications - Among several types of fuel cells available in the market, proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is characterized by low operating temperature, high...     

Benchmarking flexible job-shop scheduling and control systems

Benchmarking is comparing the output of different systems for a given set of input data in order to improve the system’s performance. Faced with the lack of realistic and operational benchmarks that can be used for testing optimization methods and control systems in flexible systems, this paper proposes a benchmark system based on a real production cell. A three-step method is presented: data preparation, experimentation, and reporting. This benchmark allows the evaluation of static optimization performances using traditional operation research tools and the evaluation of control system's robustness faced with unexpected events.     

Serine Protease Inhibitors as Good Predictors of Meat Tenderness: Which Are They and What Are Their Functions?

Since years, serine proteases and their inhibitors were an enigma to meat scientists. They were indeed considered to be extracellular and to play no role in postmortem muscle proteolysis. In the 1990's, we observed that protease inhibitors levels in muscles are a better predictor of meat tenderness than their target enzymes. From a practical point of view, we therefore choose to look for serine protease inhibitors rather than their target enzymes, i.e. serine proteases and the purpose of this report was to overview the findings obtained. Fractionation of a muscle crude extract by gel filtration revealed three major trypsin inhibitory fractions designed as F1 (Mr:50–70 kDa), F2 (Mr:40–60 kDa) and F3 (Mr:10–15kD) which were analyzed separately. Besides antithrombin III, an heparin dependent thrombin inhibitor, F1 and F2 comprised a large set of closely related trypsin inhibitors encoded by at least 8 genes bovSERPINA3-1 to A3-8 and able to inhibit also strongly initiator and effector caspases. They all belong to the serpin superfamily, known to form covalent complexes with their target enzymes, were located within muscle cells and found in all tissues and fluids examined irrespective of the animal species. Potential biological functions in living and postmortem muscle were proposed for all of them. In contrast to F1 and F2 which have been more extensively investigated only preliminary findings were provided for F3. Taken together, these results tend to ascertain the onset of apoptosis in postmortem muscle. However, the exact mechanisms driving the cell towards apoptosis and how apoptosis, an energy dependent process, can be completed postmortem remain still unclear.     

Design of New Cardanol Derivative: Synthesis and Application as Potential Biobased Plasticizer for Poly(lactide)

A novel biobased plasticizer made of cardanol is designed for poly(lactide) (PLA). This cardanol‐derived plasticizer, i.e., methoxylated hydroxyethyl cardanol (MeCard), is synthesized through methoxylation of the double bonds on the side chain of cardanol, and characterized by ¹H NMR and mass spectrometry. The plasticization effect of MeCard on the molecular structure, morphology, thermal and mechanical properties of PLA is evaluated and compared to that of a commercial cardanol, i.e., hydroxyethyl cardanol (pCard). The plasticization efficiency of MeCard is demonstrated by a substantial decrease of the glass transition temperature and storage modulus together with a significant increase of the elongation at break as compared to neat PLA. Moreover, MeCard exhibits higher plasticization performance than pCard toward PLA. Such behavior is related to a higher miscibility and compatibility between PLA and MeCard thanks to the methoxylation of the double bonds on the side chain of cardanol as shown by SEM micrographs.

     

Biomarkers of meat tenderness: Present knowledge and perspectives in regards to our current understanding of the mechanisms involved

Biomarkers of the meat quality are of prime importance for meat industry, which has to satisfy consumers' expectations and, for them, meat tenderness is and will remain the primary and most important quality attribute. The tenderization of meat starts immediately after animal death with the onset of apoptosis followed by a cooperative action of endogenous proteolytic systems. Before consideration of the biomarkers identified so far, we present here some new features on the apoptotic process. Among them, the most important is the recent discovery of a complex family of serpins capable to inhibit, in a pseudo-irreversible manner, caspases, the major enzymes responsible of cell dismantling during apoptosis. The biomarkers so far identified have been then sorted and grouped according to their common biological functions. All of them refer to a series of biological pathways including glycolytic and oxidative energy production, cell detoxification, protease inhibition and production of Heat Shock Proteins. Some unusual biomarkers are also presented: annexins, galectins and peroxiredoxins. On this basis, a detailed analysis of these metabolic pathways allowed us to identify some domains of interest for future investigations. It was thus emphasized that mitochondria, an important organelle in the production of energy from carbohydrates, lipids and proteins are a central element in the initiation and development of apoptosis. It was therefore stressed forward that, in fact, very little is known about the postmortem fate of these organelles and their multiple associated activities. Other topics discussed here would provide avenues for the future in the context of identifying reliable predictors of the ultimate meat tenderness.     

Communication capabilities of product networks

Instead of providing separate solutions for each individual network, a unified theory is desirable to cover the study of a class of networks. Cartesian product graphs provide a common framework to investigate the performance of several individual networks. This paper addresses communication capabilities of product networks. Communication cost is generally characterized by the diameter, the average distance, the total number of paths, the traffic intensity, the saturation level, the queue length in each node, the communication delay and the network throughput. The diameter and average distance of product networks have been studied. However, no work has addressed the remaining measures for product networks. This paper presents a unified theory to evaluate the traffic intensity and the saturation level of product networks. We have theoretically computed the traffic intensity and the saturation level. Intensive simulations have been conducted to validate the analytical results and to compute the other measures for different workloads, different networks, and different network sizes. Examples of product networks that have been investigated are multidimensional meshes, multidimensional toruses, and r‐ary n‐cube networks. We have also shown that the structure (geometry) of a network is a primary factor for network high performance. For meshes and toruses, square networks present an optimal structure. While in case of an r‐ary n‐cubes, networks with higher radix outperform those with smaller radix. In particular, cross‐cubes (4‐ary n‐cube) are shown to perform better than binary cubes. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Chemical sensor based on a novel capacitive microwave flexible transducer with polymer nanocomposite-carbon nanotube sensitive film

Microsystem Technologies - This study presents the results on the feasibility of a resonant planar chemical capacitive sensor in the microwave frequency range suitable for gas detection and...     

Dynamic scheduling for multi-site companies: a decisional approach based on reinforcement multi-agent learning

In recent years, most companies have resorted to multi-site or supply-chain organization in order to improve their competitiveness and adapt to existing real conditions. In this article, a model for adaptive scheduling in multi-site companies is proposed. To do this, a multi-agent approach is adopted in which intelligent agents have reactive learning capabilities based on reinforcement learning. This reactive learning technique allows the agents to make accurate short-term decisions and to adapt these decisions to environmental fluctuations. The proposed model is implemented on a 3-tier architecture that ensures the security of the data exchanged between the various company sites. The proposed approach is compared to a genetic algorithm and a mixed integer linear program algorithm to prove its feasibility and especially, its reactivity. Experimentations on a real case study demonstrate the applicability and the effectiveness of the model in terms of both optimality and reactivity.