Introducing Multi-Core at Automotive Engine Systems

International audienceWith the introduction of the new Euro 6, and Euro 7 emission standards for passenger cars, the combustion process of Engine Management Systems (EMS) needs to be controlled with an increased precision.In addition, new vehicle architectures are introduced (increased integration of functions inside an Engine Management System), as well as new SW architectures concepts like AUTOSAR or the support of ISO26262

Dissimilarity in the Folding of Human Cytosolic Creatine Kinase Isoenzymes

Creatine kinase (CK, EC 2.7.3.2) plays a key role in the energy homeostasis of excitable cells. The cytosolic human CK isoenzymes exist as homodimers (HMCK and HBCK) or a heterodimer (MBCK) formed by the muscle CK subunit (M) and/or brain CK subunit (B) with highly conserved three-dimensional structures composed of a small N-terminal domain (NTD) and a large C-terminal domain (CTD). The isoforms of CK provide a novel system to investigate the sequence/structural determinants of multimeric/multidomain protein folding. In this research, the role of NTD and CTD as well as the domain interactions in CK folding was investigated by comparing the equilibrium and kinetic folding parameters of HMCK, HBCK, MBCK and two domain-swapped chimeric forms (BnMc and MnBc). Spectroscopic results indicated that the five proteins had distinct structural features depending on the domain organizations. MBCK BnMc had the smallest CD signals and the lowest stability against guanidine chloride-induced denaturation. During the biphasic kinetic refolding, three proteins (HMCK, BnMc and MnBc), which contained either the NTD or CTD of the M subunit and similar microenvironments of the Trp fluorophores, refolded about 10-fold faster than HBCK for both the fast and slow phase. The fast folding of these three proteins led to an accumulation of the aggregation-prone intermediate and slowed down the reactivation rate thereby during the kinetic refolding. Our results suggested that the intra- and inter-subunit domain interactions modified the behavior of kinetic refolding. The alternation of domain interactions based on isoenzymes also provides a valuable strategy to improve the properties of multidomain enzymes in biotechnology

Uranium adsorption from sulfuric acid media using silica materials functionalised with amide and phosphorous ligands

International audienceVarious functionalised silica materials have been investigated as uranium extractants from sulfuric acid solutions. Silica was grafted with zero, one or two amido and phosphonate groups either directly or by peptide coupling. The role of the residual functions (silanol, amine and amide) was evaluated. Our results show that the uranium extraction efficiency of materials bearing residual Ol or Am groups may be affected by the presence of molybdenum. Comparing the performance of materials with different numbers of phosphonic acids on the phosphonate group revealed that only those with a monoacid function extract uranium efficiently. Among these materials, those with a diamido phosphonate ligand were more efficient than those with a monoamido phosphonate function. Adjusting the length and steric hindrance of the alkyls chains of the amido and the phosphonate group, the best extraction capacity and selectivity versus iron was achieved with a butyl group on the phosphonate and an ethyl group on the ternary amide of the diamido phosphonate ligand. Finally, the (ligand)-(U) ratio was found not to vary with bridge length between the carbamoyl monophosphonate extracting group and the amidopropyl anchor to the silica, suggesting that the extraction mechanism remains unchanged

Élaboration de silices hybrides pour la récupération de l'uranium

International audienc

Synergism by Coassembly at the Origin of Ion Selectivity in Liquid–Liquid Extraction

In liquid–liquid extraction, synergism emerges when for a defined formulation of the solvent phase, there is an increase of distribution coefficients for some cations in a mixture. To characterize the synergistic mechanisms, we determine the free energy of mixed coassembly in aggregates. Aggregation in any point of a phase diagram can be followed not only structurally by SANS, SAXS, and SLS, but also thermodynamically by determining the concentration of monomers coexisting with reverse aggregates. Using the industrially used couple HDEHP/TOPO forming mixed reverse aggregates, and the representative couple U/Fe, we show that there is no peculiarity in the aggregates microstructure at the maximum of synergism. Nevertheless, the free energy of aggregation necessary to form mixed aggregates containing extracted ions in their polar core is comparable to the transfer free energy difference between target and nontarget ions, as deduced from the synergistic selectivity peak

Searching and browsing in historical documents ::state of the art and novel approaches for template-based keyword spotting

In many public and private institutions, the digitalization of handwritten documents has progressed greatly in recent decades. As a consequence, the number of handwritten documents that are available digitally is constantly increasing. However, accessibility to these documents in terms of browsing and searching is still an issue as automatic full transcriptions are often not feasible. To bridge this gap, Keyword Spotting (KWS) has been proposed as a flexible and error-tolerant alternative to full transcriptions. KWS provides unconstrained retrievals of keywords in handwritten documents that are acquired either online or offline. In general, offline KWS is regarded as the more difficult task when compared to online KWS where temporal information on the writing process is also available. The focus of this chapter is on handwritten historical documents and thus on offline KWS. In particular, we review and compare different state-of-the-art as well as novel approaches for template-based KWS. In contrast to learning-based KWS, template-based KWS can be applied to documents without any a priori learning of a model and is thus regarded as the more flexible approach