From Design to Production Control Through the Integration of Engineering Data Management and Workflow Management Systems

At a time when many companies are under pressure to reduce "times-to-market" the management of product information from the early stages of design through assembly to manufacture and production has become increasingly important. Similarly in the construction of high energy physics devices the collection of (often evolving) engineering data is central to the subsequent physics analysis. Traditionally in industry design engineers have employed Engineering Data Management Systems (also called Product Data Management Systems) to coordinate and control access to documented versions of product designs. However, these systems provide control only at the collaborative design level and are seldom used beyond design. Workflow management systems, on the other hand, are employed in industry to coordinate and support the more complex and repeatable work processes of the production environment. Commercial workflow products cannot support the highly dynamic activities found both in the design stages of product development and in rapidly evolving workflow definitions. The integration of Product Data Management with Workflow Management can provide support for product development from initial CAD/CAM collaborative design through to the support and optimisation of production workflow activities. This paper investigates this integration and proposes a philosophy for the support of product data throughout the full development and production lifecycle and demonstrates its usefulness in the construction of CMS detectors.Comment: 18 pages, 13 figure

Etude du paludisme à Edea et Mbebe : 1. Premiers résultats

International audienc

Recherche sur l'origine des fausses réactions positives dans le diagnostic sérologique de la péripneumonie contagieuse bovine

Des bovins ont été expérimentalement immunisés respectivement avec Mycoplasma (M) capricolum, M. mycoides subsp. mycoides (LC), M. mycoides subsp. capri, M. species groupe 7 de LEACH. Pendant 8 semaines ces animaux ont fait l'objet d'un suivi sérologique vis-à-vis de l'agent de la péripneumon ie contagieuse bovine (PPCB), par le test immunoenzymatique (ELISA), en fixation du complément (FC) et en hémagglutination passive (HAP), l'HAP étant effectuée également vis-à-vis des valences d'immunisation. En FC, utilisée selon la méthode standardisée, des réactions croisées, souvent transitoires, sont notées chez les bovins immunisés par le groupe 7 et les 2 "mycoides" caprins. Ce modèle experimental pourrait expliquer certaines réactions aspécifiques naturelles rencontrées exceptionnellement lors du diagnostic sérologique de la PPC

Extreme Mountain Ultra-Marathon Leads to Acute but Transient Increase in Cerebral Water Diffusivity and Plasma Biomarkers Levels Changes.

Background: Pioneer studies demonstrate the impact of extreme sport load on the human brain, leading to threatening conditions for athlete's health such as cerebral edema. The investigation of brain water diffusivity, allowing the measurement of the intercellular water and the assessment of cerebral edema, can give a great contribution to the investigation of the effects of extreme sports on the brain. We therefore assessed the effect of supra-physiological effort (extreme distance and elevation changes) in mountain ultra-marathons (MUMs) athletes combining for the first time brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and blood parameters. Methods:This longitudinal study included 19 volunteers (44.2 ± 9.5 years) finishing a MUM (330 km, elevation + 24000 m). Quantitative measurements of brain diffusion-weighted images (DWI) were performed at 3 time-points: Before the race, upon arrival and after 48 h. Multiple blood biomarkers were simultaneously investigated. Data analyses included brain apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and physiological data comparisons between three time-points. Results:The whole brain ADC significantly increased from baseline to arrival (p = 0.005) and then significantly decreased at recovery (p = 0.005) to lower values than at baseline (p = 0.005). While sodium, potassium, calcium, and chloride as well as hematocrit (HCT) changed over time, the serum osmolality remained constant. Significant correlations were found between whole brain ADC changes and osmolality (p = 0.01), cholesterol (p = 0.009), c-reactive protein (p = 0.04), sodium (p = 0.01), and chloride (p = 0.002) plasma level variations. Conclusions:These results suggest the relative increase of the inter-cellular volume upon arrival, and subsequently its reduction to lower values than at baseline, indicating that even after 48 h the brain has not fully recovered to its equilibrium state. Even though serum electrolytes may only indirectly indicate modifications at the brain level due to the blood brain barrier, the results concerning osmolality suggest that body water might directly influence the change in cerebral ADC. These findings establish therefore a direct link between general brain inter-cellular water content and physiological biomarkers modifications produced by extreme sport

Low-complexity transmit diversity scheme using moderate-sized signal constellations

In the conventional space-time coding technique [1], nT radio frequency (RF) chains are employed to transmit signals simultaneously from nT transmit antennas. In this Letter, a lowcomplexity transmit diversity scheme with nT = 2 transmit antennas is proposed. The proposed system employs only one RF chain as well as a low-complexity switch for transmission