Pilot interministerial operation for remote sensing

Advantages and disadvantages of traditional methods of obtaining required information for land and resources management and the possibilities of remote sensing are discussed. The services available, organization and objectives of the pilot operation are presented. Emphasis is placed on multidisciplinary dialog among designers, builders, operators, interpreters and users in all phases. The principles, operation and practical applications of remote sensing systems and processing systems under the pilot operation are presented

The sizes of the exchangeable pools of selenium in elderly women and their relation to institutionalization

Exchangeable pools of Se after an intravenous injection of 74Se-enriched isotope as sodium selenite were measured in two groups (n 9) of elderly women (free-living aged 64-82 years and institutionalized aged 68-82 years), and a comparison group (n 9) of young women aged 31-40 years to evaluate the effect of age and institutionalization on Se reserves. Dietary Se intake was not different among the three groups. Plasma Se and glutathione peroxidase (EC 1.11.1.9) levels were significantly lower in the institutionalized elderly women (P < 0.05). In each of the three groups, two pools were determined from our model. The size of the first pool and the sum of the two pools were lower in the group of institutionalized elderly women than in the other two groups. The significant correlation between plasma Se level and total Se pool size (r 0.66, P < 0.01) indicated that this last variable could serve as a new marker of Se status. Finally, these data suggest that the Se status of elderly women is more related to lifestyle, in terms of institutionalization or not, than to age per s

Effect of dietary phytic acid on zinc absorption in the healthy elderly, as assessed by serum concentration curve tests

Zn absorption was investigated in healthy elderly subjects aged 71-78 years and in young subjects aged 23-43 years using serum concentration curve (SCC) tests. Both groups had similar Zn and protein status. The increase in serum Zn was monitored for 180 min after ingestion of 200ml of soya milk enriched with 50mg of Zn. Three levels of phytic acid were used: 0g/200ml (totally dephytinized soya milk), 0.13 g/200ml (half dephytinized), and 0.26 g/200ml (natural phytic acid content). In a first study the effect of 0 v. 0.26 g/200 ml phytic acid was compared in 10 elderly and 10 young subjects, each subject receiving both treatments. In a second study soya milks with 0 and 0.13 g/200ml were tested in nine elderly and ten young subjects, again receiving both treatments. Mean areas under the curve of the SCC tests conducted with the 0 g/200 ml soya milk were found to be the same in both studies. Phytic acid strongly depressed Zn absorption in both studies (P ≤ 0.05), but to a greater extent at the 0.26 g/200ml level. No difference was found between the groups of young and elderly subjects. Therefore, no significant effect of aging on Zn absorption, as evaluated by the SCC test, or on the inhibitory effect of phytic acid was detecte

Exploring Entrepreneurial Skills and Competencies in Farm Tourism

Diversification to farm tourism is increasingly seen as a viable development strategy to promote a more diverse and sustainable rural economy and to counter declining farm incomes. However, our understanding of the dynamics of the modern farm tourism business and the entrepreneurial and competitive skills farmers require in making the transition from agriculture to a diversified - and service based - enterprise remains limited. Hence, the aim of this paper is to explore the range of skills and competencies that farmers in the North West of England identify as important when adopting a diversification strategy to farm tourism. With the findings indicating that that whilst a range of managerial skills are valued by farmers, they lack many of the additional business and entrepreneurial competencies required for success. Moreover, this paper acknowledges the need to generate consensus on the requisite skill-set that farm tourism operators require, along with a need for a currently fragmented rural tourism literature to acknowledge the significance of rural entrepreneurship and the characteristics of successful farmers and farm tourism ventures

Initial Assessment of the Impact of Modern Taxiing Techniques on Airport Ground Control

Project Modern Taxiing (MoTa) studies the impact of future taxiing technologies such as Datalink and autonomous taxiing tugs on airport taxiing operations and air traffic controller workload. Seven air traffic controllers were asked to manage ground traffic in two scenarios that imposed medium and high levels of workload with three different degrees of automated technology assistance: paper strips; Datalink and path suggestion; Datalink, path suggestion, and tugs. Initial results indicate that participants were able to manage more traffic when using either just the interface or interface and tugs, but the inclusion of tugs also resulted in an increase in self-reported workload. Participants were divided on technology acceptance with no one rejecting completely the new technology

An efficient iterative solution method for the Chebyshev collocation of advection-dominated transport problems

A new Chebyshev collocation algorithm is proposed for the iterative solution of advection-diffusion problems. The main features of the method lie in the original way in which a finite-difference preconditioner is built and in the fact that the solution is collocated on a set of nodes matching the standard Gauss-Lobatto-Chebyshev set only in the case of pure diffusion problems. The key point of the algorithm is the capability of the preconditioner to represent the high-frequency modes when dealing with advection-dominated problems. The basic idea is developed for a one-dimensional case and is extended to two-dimensional problems. A series of numerical experiments is carried out to demonstrate the efficiency of the algorithm. The proposed algorithm can also be used in the context of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations

The Subarcsecond Mid-Infrared View of Local Active Galactic Nuclei. IV. The L- and M-band Imaging Atlas

We present the largest currently existing subarcsecond 3-5 $\mu$m atlas of 119 local ($z < 0.3$) active galactic nuclei (AGN). This atlas includes AGN of 5 subtypes: 22 are Seyfert 1; 5 are intermediate Seyferts; 46 are Seyfert 2; 26 are LINERs; and 20 are composites/starbursts. Each AGN was observed with VLT ISAAC in the $L$- and/or $M$-bands between 2000 and 2013. We detect at 3$\sigma$ confidence 92 sources in the $L$-band and 83 sources in the $M$-band. We separate the flux into unresolved nuclear flux and resolved flux through two-Gaussian fitting. We report the nuclear flux, extended flux, apparent size, and position angle of each source, giving $3\sigma$ upper-limits for sources which are undetected. Using WISE W1- and W2-band photometry we derive relations predicting the nuclear $L$ and $M$ fluxes for Sy1 and Sy2 AGN based on their W1-W2 color and WISE fluxes. Lastly, we compare the measured mid-infrared colors to those predicted by dusty torus models SKIRTOR, CLUMPY, CAT3D, and CAT3D-WIND, finding best agreement with the latter. We find that models including polar winds best reproduce the 3-5$\mu$m colors, indicating that winds are an important component of dusty torus models. We find that several AGN are bluer than models predict. We discuss several explanations for this and find that it is most plausibly stellar light contamination within the ISAAC $L$-band nuclear fluxes.Comment: Main Text: 22 pages, 9 figures, 3 tables. Accepted by Ap

Activite physique et metabolisme du zinc chez l'homme et le rat

SIGLECNRS T Bordereau / INIST-CNRS - Institut de l'Information Scientifique et TechniqueFRFranc