Impact on peel strength, tensile strength and shear viscosity of the addition of functionalized low density polyethylene to a thermoplastic polyurethane sheet calendered on a polyester fabric

International audienc

The Exploration of Effects of Chinese Cultural Values on the Attitudes and Behaviors of Chinese Restaurateurs Toward Food Safety Training

Citation: Liu, P., & Kwon, J. (2013). The exploration of effects of Chinese cultural values on the attitudes and behaviors of Chinese restaurateurs toward food safety training. Journal of Environmental Health, 75(10), 38-46.Foodborne illness is a challenge in the production and service of ethnic foods. The purpose of the study described in this article was to explore variables influencing the behaviors of U.S. Chinese restaurant owners/operators regarding the provision of food safety training in their restaurants. Seventeen major Chinese cultural values were identified through individual interviews with 20 Chinese restaurant owners/operators. Most participants felt satisfied with their previous health inspections. Several expressed having difficulty, however, following the health inspectors’ instructions and in understanding the health inspection report. A few participants provided food safety training to their employees due to state law. Lack of money, time, labor/energy, and a perceived need for food safety training were recognized as major challenges to providing food safety training in Chinese restaurants. Videos, case studies, and food safety training handbooks were the most preferred food safety training methods of Chinese restaurant owners/operators, and Chinese was the preferred language in which to conduct the training

A chemical survey of exoplanets with ARIEL

Thousands of exoplanets have now been discovered with a huge range of masses, sizes and orbits: from rocky Earth-like planets to large gas giants grazing the surface of their host star. However, the essential nature of these exoplanets remains largely mysterious: there is no known, discernible pattern linking the presence, size, or orbital parameters of a planet to the nature of its parent star. We have little idea whether the chemistry of a planet is linked to its formation environment, or whether the type of host star drives the physics and chemistry of the planet’s birth, and evolution. ARIEL was conceived to observe a large number (~1000) of transiting planets for statistical understanding, including gas giants, Neptunes, super-Earths and Earth-size planets around a range of host star types using transit spectroscopy in the 1.25–7.8 μm spectral range and multiple narrow-band photometry in the optical. ARIEL will focus on warm and hot planets to take advantage of their well-mixed atmospheres which should show minimal condensation and sequestration of high-Z materials compared to their colder Solar System siblings. Said warm and hot atmospheres are expected to be more representative of the planetary bulk composition. Observations of these warm/hot exoplanets, and in particular of their elemental composition (especially C, O, N, S, Si), will allow the understanding of the early stages of planetary and atmospheric formation during the nebular phase and the following few million years. ARIEL will thus provide a representative picture of the chemical nature of the exoplanets and relate this directly to the type and chemical environment of the host star. ARIEL is designed as a dedicated survey mission for combined-light spectroscopy, capable of observing a large and well-defined planet sample within its 4-year mission lifetime. Transit, eclipse and phase-curve spectroscopy methods, whereby the signal from the star and planet are differentiated using knowledge of the planetary ephemerides, allow us to measure atmospheric signals from the planet at levels of 10–100 part per million (ppm) relative to the star and, given the bright nature of targets, also allows more sophisticated techniques, such as eclipse mapping, to give a deeper insight into the nature of the atmosphere. These types of observations require a stable payload and satellite platform with broad, instantaneous wavelength coverage to detect many molecular species, probe the thermal structure, identify clouds and monitor the stellar activity. The wavelength range proposed covers all the expected major atmospheric gases from e.g. H2O, CO2, CH4 NH3, HCN, H2S through to the more exotic metallic compounds, such as TiO, VO, and condensed species. Simulations of ARIEL performance in conducting exoplanet surveys have been performed – using conservative estimates of mission performance and a full model of all significant noise sources in the measurement – using a list of potential ARIEL targets that incorporates the latest available exoplanet statistics. The conclusion at the end of the Phase A study, is that ARIEL – in line with the stated mission objectives – will be able to observe about 1000 exoplanets depending on the details of the adopted survey strategy, thus confirming the feasibility of the main science objectives.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Frontal sinuses and human evolution

The frontal sinuses are cavities inside the frontal bone located at the junction between the face and the cranial vault and close to the brain. Despite a long history of study, understanding of their origin and variation through evolution is limited. This work compares most hominin species’ holotypes and other key individuals with extant hominids. It provides a unique and valuable perspective of the variation in sinuses position, shape, and dimensions based on a simple and reproducible methodology. We also observed a covariation between the size and shape of the sinuses and the underlying frontal lobes in hominin species from at least the appearance of Homo erectus. Our results additionally undermine hypotheses stating that hominin frontal sinuses were directly affected by biomechanical constraints resulting from either chewing or adaptation to climate. Last, we demonstrate their substantial potential for discussions of the evolutionary relationships between hominin species

Quelques discours de distribution de prix (suite)

Lamirand Jean-Baptiste, Léger Louis. Quelques discours de distribution de prix (suite). In: Revue internationale de l'enseignement, tome 56, Juillet-Décembre 1908. pp. 425-432

Intelligent maintenance systems: a survey regarding systems engineering aspects

International audienceIndustrial automation systems are intensively embedding Infotronics and Mechatronics Technology (IMT) in order to fulfil complex applications required by the increasing customization of both services and goods (Stark J., 1989)(Dorf et al., 1994)(Ollero et al., 2002; Nof et al., 2006; Morel et al., 2007). Maintainability of manufacturing systems formerly delegated to skilled human operators has increasingly shifted into “intelligent maintenance systems” that now “close the loop” from the shop floor level to the business level for management, engineering and maintenance processes, as an outgrowth of the technological deployment of information-intensive systems and the economical pressure for cost-effective operation (Erbe, 2003). However, this responsibility shift from the human operator to the automation software and the related rapid growth in software complexity of these supporting systems could threaten the availability (Johnson, 2007) of the primary system they should sustain. So, maintainability (Foster et al., 1981) is first viewed in this survey within the integrative engineering framework of dependability (fig. 1) to cope with the chain of Fault-Error-Failure threats (Laprie, 1992). This integrative approach combines a set of means related to fault prevention, fault tolerance, fault removal and fault forecasting (IEEE, 1990) in order to sustain operational the primary system for delivering the correct service that can justifiably be trusted by all stakeholders in the automated process. Trends towards safe engineering for safe operation address the emphasis on the correct definition of the missions of the primary system and of its enabling systems through operational scenarios from the earlier elicitation on the stakeholders needs to the formal requirements for the system architect

An integrated strategy for efficient business plan and maintenance plan for systems with a dynamic failure distribution

International audienceThe purpose of this study is to propose an integrated strategy to determine jointly efficient business and maintenance plans. The studied system is subject to random failures with a dynamic failure law. It must perform a set of missions (among M possible missions) over a finite planning horizon. Each mission may have different characteristics that depend on operational and environmental conditions. The determination of a business plan consists in choosing and scheduling the missions to be performed. To maximize the net profit (profits generated by the achievement of missions minus maintenance costs), two meta-heuristics based on genetic algorithms are developed. The first genetic algorithm is used to determine the business plan and the second one generates an efficient maintenance plan. Two maintenance policies are studied: a minimalist policy which involves only corrective maintenance actions and another policy, called sequential, which involves several imperfect preventive maintenance activities performed at predetermined times. Two cases are studied for the latter strategy. The first one considers the maintenance effectiveness factor as being the same for all preventive maintenance actions and we search for the best factor. In the second case, we consider maintenance actions with different efficiency factors and we look for the optimal value of each factor. Finally, a numerical example illustrates the proposed approach and the difference between the maintenance policies

Efficient Solution of Business and Maintenance Plans under Adaptive Failure Law

International audienc

Détermination conjointe de plans efficaces d'exploitation et de maintenance soumis à une loi de défaillance dynamique

International audienc

Contribution for an Optimal Choice of Business and Maintenance Plans, Based on an Adaptive Failure Law

International audienceIn this paper, an adaptive failure law model is proposed. It considers operational and environmental conditions which may change over time. It is based on the Cox model where the parameters are estimated from fuzzy logic reasoning. The objective of this article is to determine an optimal business plan, a set of missions, where two maintenance policies are studied