Local and Global Properties of the World

The essence of the method of physics is inseparably connected with the problem of interplay between local and global properties of the universe. In the present paper we discuss this interplay as it is present in three major departments of contemporary physics: general relativity, quantum mechanics and some attempts at quantizing gravity (especially geometrodynamics and its recent successors in the form of various pregeometry conceptions). It turns out that all big interpretative issues involved in this problem point towards the necessity of changing from the standard space-time geometry to some radically new, most probably non-local, generalization. We argue that the recent noncommutative geometry offers attractive possibilities, and gives us a conceptual insight into its algebraic foundations. Noncommutative spaces are, in general, non-local, and their applications to physics, known at present, seem very promising. One would expect that beneath the Planck threshold there reigns a ``noncommutative pregeometry'', and only when crossing this threshold the usual space-time geometry emerges.Comment: 43 pages, latex, no figures, changes: authors and abstract added to the body of pape

When Markets are Unfamiliar: Comparing the Market for Presentation Technology in the French and U.S. Legal Systems

When examining new markets for technologies, we must always remember that cultures, governments and enterprises that we encounter may be very different from those of our existing markets. If a saturation of certain technologies within certain geographical or national markets exists, exploration into yet-untapped new markets may indeed lie in areas that are unlike those with which we are most familiar.market technology ; France ; US

On Simulation of Manifold Indexed Fractional Gaussian Fields

To simulate fractional Brownian motion indexed by a manifold poses serious numerical problems: storage, computing time and choice of an appropriate grid. We propose an effective and fast method, valid not only for fractional Brownian fields indexed by a manifold, but for any Gaussian fields indexed by a manifold. The performance of our method is illustrated with different manifolds (sphere, hyperboloid).

New methods for the enantiomeric excess determination using NMR

The synthesis of enantiomerically pure compounds is an important objective of the organic chemistry. Especially in the field of medicine and pesticides, mostly one enantiomer is responsible for the biological activity. Certain examples are known where the other enantiomer is more than isomerical balast, and its presence gives rise to side-effects. It is not surprising that the regulatory authorities in Europe and the United States usually impose that chiral compounds are marketed as single enantiomers. Growing interest and improvement in enantioselective synthesis leads to an increased demand for accurate, reliable and convenient methods of measuring the enantiomeric composition. A large number of methods for the determination of the enantiomeric excess (e.e.) of regardless which chiral substrate have been developed over the years. A popular, accurate, and moreover, fast method for the determination of the enantiomeric composition is to make use of NMR techniques (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance). This thesis describes the research carried out towards the development of new methods for enantiorneric excess determination of amino acids and not naturally occuring α-alkylated amino acids by means of NMR techniques.

When Markets are Unfamiliar: Comparing the Market for Presentation Technology in the French and U.S. Legal Systems

National audienceWhen examining new markets for technologies, we must always remember that cultures, governments and enterprises that we encounter may be very different from those of our existing markets. If a saturation of certain technologies within certain geographical or national markets exists, exploration into yet-untapped new markets may indeed lie in areas that are unlike those with which we are most familiar

2500 years from dendrochronology back to ancient French human biotopes. Trees studied: low altitude oaks

We propose an experimental method, using curvilinear regressions, called corridor method, for dating and building a global useful signal based on oak ring widths in northern and eastern France. The resulting signal seems to be more useful than others to progress in the domains of ancient climate and ancient environments: dendrodating, dendroclimatology, dendroecology and, of course, human history (Lambert, 2002, Houbrechts and Lambert, 2004, Durost, 2005). However, we were lead to adapt or reconsider several basic mathematical functions, meteorological indexes or common dendrochronological definitions. We are currently working towards the publication of a large Data Base (web-DB). A first element of this DB can be consulted on the website of the ChronoEcology laboratory (French keywords: chrono-Ecologie, dendrochronologie). A discussion has opened about the participation of private contributors to such a public DB. The private contributors to this note agreed to show a part of their data without rights (money) and to justify explicitly their owndating procedures