A New Hand-Held Microsystem Architecture for Biological Analysis

This paper presents a hand-held microsystem based on new fully integrated magnetoresistive biochips for biomolecular recognition (DNA hybridization, antibody antigen interaction, etc.). Magnetoresistive chip surfaces are chemically treated, enabling the immobilization of probe biomolecules such as DNA or antibodies. Fluid handling is also integrated in the biochip. The proposed microsystem not only integrates the biochip, which is an array of 16times16 magnetoresistive sensors, but it also provides all the electronic circuitry for addressing and reading out each transducer. The proposed architecture and circuits were specifically designed for achieving a compact, programmable and portable microsystem. The microsystem also integrates a hand-held analyzer connected through a wireless channel. A prototype of the system was already developed and detection of magnetic nanoparticles was obtained. This indicates that the system may be used for magnetic label based bioassays     

Learning in multiple model adaptive control switch

Including a learning mechanism in SMMAC (switched, multiple-model adaptive control) avoids the need for a priori knowledge of the model set of the plant to control and leads to a significant performance improvement with respect to the sole inclusion of an adaptive control channel in combination with switched fixed local controllers.     

An invitation to fiberwise topology: The general framework for multicolored images in pattern recognition and some of its artificial intelligence aspects

We present a short and rather informal account concerning a problem we posed in earlier work, recall our conjecture at the time, and report on our answer today. Specifically, our purpose is to draw attention to fiberwise topology as a possible mathematical tool for formalizing multi-colored images and other complex signals met in pattern recognition (P.R.), to provide some information concerning the mathematical background of the fiber topological machinery, and indicate how to use it. For a detailed technical study as well as a tentative hierarchical classification of topological images in growing order of complexity and the corresponding topological processing methods, the readers may consult Pavel [5]. The paper ends by mentioning some artificial intelligence (A.I.) aspects of the fiberwise imagery.     

Determining the core of journals of a research centre: The example of researchers from the Department of Rural Economy and Sociology of the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique,France

This paper analyses the determination of visibility of journals in which researchers of INRA (National Institute for Agricultural Research) publish. The corpus is comprised of 671 articles published over a period of four years in 258 journals. The advantage of the method applied for determining the visibility of journals is that it combines two approaches: a) bibliometric indicators (coverage by the ISI-publications and by two specific French databases) and b) experts' opinions (10 economists and sociologists). The main results are: a) There is a convergence between the opinion of the experts and «visibility» in the databases, b) The impact factor confirms the main opinions of the experts. The first journals ranked by the experts and JCR Social Sciences are the same but represent only 40 per cent of the total journals analysed. The other journals were revealed by the experts and French databases.«Whoever seeks to pass a balanced but lucid judgement on the general trends of the activity carried out by the profession to which he belongs, is liable to say either banalities or to hurt his colleagues»The notion which we retain of core is that which is successively and conjointly validated by the experts and by the major databases representative of the field.This study was financed by the Department of Rural Economy and Sociology of INRA.     

Effects of irradiation in combination with waxing on the essential oils in orange peel

The study evaluated the effects of waxing, irradiation dose and post‐irradiation storage time on the essential oils in orange peel. Mature oranges (Maroc late) waxed or unwaxed were treated with 1 or 2 kGy radiation and stored for 9 weeks at 20 °C and 40–50% RH. Essential oils from the peel were extracted and analysed by GC. Results showed that D ‐limonene was significantly lower in waxed oranges; levels in samples treated with 2 kGy were higher than those in non‐irradiated or treated with 1 kGy. Linalool, methyl anthranilate and 3,7‐dimethyl‐2,6‐octadienal decreased as the dose increased. Levels of linalool increased with storage time but D ‐limonene was unaffected. These results may aid in guaranteeing the quality of orange essential oils during storage time. Copyright © 2004 Society of Chemical Industry     

Immune-Inspired Adaptable Error Detection for Automated Teller Machines

This paper presents an immune-inspired adaptable error detection (AED) framework for automated teller machines (ATMs). This framework has two levels: one is local to a single ATM, while the other is network-wide. The framework employs vaccination and adaptability analogies of the immune system. For discriminating between normal and erroneous states, an immune-inspired one-class supervised algorithm was employed, which supports continual learning and adaptation. The effectiveness of the proposed approach was confirmed in terms of classification performance and impact on availability. The overall results are encouraging as the downtime of ATMs can de reduced by anticipating the occurrence of failures before they actually occur.     

Assessment of factors considered to be important in handling tasks by expert handlers

Twenty-eight experienced handlers, considered the best in two transport companies, were interviewed using a questionnaire consisting of partially closed-ended questions. They had to assess 20 videotape handling sequences showing two different handling methods to determine, for 10 factors and overall, which one was the best. They were asked about the inportance of these factors in their choices of the best method. The aims of the study were to verify whether there was a consensus among experienced handlers as to what was a good handling method and to identify the factors taken into consideration by them. Results show the lack of consensus on the best methods. Handlers favor different strategies depending on the worjk context and their own priorities.     

Identifying the criterion spontaneously minimized during the take-off phase of a sub-maximal long jump through optimal synthesis

Optimal synthesis of human movement or the prediction of the kinematics of a new movement require not only that the multi-body system be modeled but also that a performance criterion is specified. For sub-maximal movements the selection of a suitable performance criterion, able to generate realistic dynamic behavior is difficult. A two-dimensional simulation model of the take-off phase of a sub-maximal long jump was developed to study the effect of criterion choice on the realism of simulated movements. A parametric optimization technique was employed to obtain solutions to the constrained equations of motion. Seven different criteria were evaluated, by comparing simulated movements with an actual performance, to identify the criterion which most closely approximated that spontaneously minimized by the athlete. Synthesis of the take-off phase of a sub-maximal long jump was found to be sensitive to the chosen criterion, with a criterion based on minimizing joint intersegmental forces found to perform well.     

Secondary Metabolic Profile as a Tool for Distinction and Characterization of Cultivars of Black Pepper (Piper nigrum L.) Cultivated in Pará State,Brazil

This study evaluated the chemical compositions of the leaves and fruits of eight black pepper cultivars cultivated in Pará State (Amazon, Brazil). Hydrodistillation and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry were employed to extract and analyze the volatile compounds, respectively. Sesquiterpene hydrocarbons were predominant (58.5–90.9%) in the cultivars “Cingapura”, “Equador”, “Guajarina”, “Iaçará”, and “Kottanadan”, and “Bragantina”, “Clonada”, and “Uthirankota” displayed oxygenated sesquiterpenoids (50.6–75.0%). The multivariate statistical analysis applied using volatile composition grouped the samples into four groups: γ-Elemene, curzerene, and δ-elemene (“Equador”/“Guajarina”, I); δ-elemene (“Iaçará”/“Kottanadan”/“Cingapura”, II); elemol (“Clonada”/“Uthirankota”, III) and α-muurolol, bicyclogermacrene, and cubebol (“Bragantina”, IV). The major compounds in all fruit samples were monoterpene hydrocarbons such as α-pinene, β-pinene, and limonene. Among the cultivar leaves, phenolics content (44.75–140.53 mg GAE·g⁻¹ FW), the enzymatic activity of phenylalanine-ammonia lyase (20.19–57.22 µU·mL⁻¹), and carotenoids (0.21–2.31 µg·mL⁻¹) displayed significant variations. Due to black pepper’s susceptibility to Fusarium infection, a molecular docking analysis was carried out on Fusarium protein targets using each cultivar’s volatile components. F. oxysporum endoglucanase was identified as the preferential protein target of the compounds. These results can be used to identify chemical markers related to the susceptibility degree of black pepper cultivars to plant diseases prevalent in Pará State.