To buy or not to buy-evaluating commercial AI solutions in radiology (the ECLAIR guidelines).

Artificial intelligence (AI) has made impressive progress over the past few years, including many applications in medical imaging. Numerous commercial solutions based on AI techniques are now available for sale, forcing radiology practices to learn how to properly assess these tools. While several guidelines describing good practices for conducting and reporting AI-based research in medicine and radiology have been published, fewer efforts have focused on recommendations addressing the key questions to consider when critically assessing AI solutions before purchase. Commercial AI solutions are typically complicated software products, for the evaluation of which many factors are to be considered. In this work, authors from academia and industry have joined efforts to propose a practical framework that will help stakeholders evaluate commercial AI solutions in radiology (the ECLAIR guidelines) and reach an informed decision. Topics to consider in the evaluation include the relevance of the solution from the point of view of each stakeholder, issues regarding performance and validation, usability and integration, regulatory and legal aspects, and financial and support services. KEY POINTS: • Numerous commercial solutions based on artificial intelligence techniques are now available for sale, and radiology practices have to learn how to properly assess these tools. • We propose a framework focusing on practical points to consider when assessing an AI solution in medical imaging, allowing all stakeholders to conduct relevant discussions with manufacturers and reach an informed decision as to whether to purchase an AI commercial solution for imaging applications. • Topics to consider in the evaluation include the relevance of the solution from the point of view of each stakeholder, issues regarding performance and validation, usability and integration, regulatory and legal aspects, and financial and support services

Two images of Nantes as a ‘Green Model’ of Urban Planning and Governance: The ‘Collaborative City’ Versus the ‘Slow City’

This article examines how the city of Nantes, European Green Capital in 2013, came to promote plans for a new international airport at Notre-Dame-des-Landes. Deploying poststructuralist discourse theory, it analyses how the highly politicised struggle against the airport reveals the limits of the Nantes model of urban sustainability and collaboration, giving rise to a counter model, which we provisionally characterise as the ‘slow city’. While the struggle against the airport can be understood as a rural social movement, we show how its ideals and logics have been progressively displaced to Nantes itself, disclosing new images and possibilities of urban governance

Adherence measurements and corrosion resistance in primer/hot-dip galvanized steel systems

This paper focuses on the adherence during ageing of a primer (made of polyester resins crosslinked with melamine) applied onto hot-dip galvanized (HDG) steel for coil coating application and its influence on corrosion protection. A chromium-free surface treatment, composed of fluorotitanic acid, phosphoric acid, manganese phosphate, and vinylphenol was applied on the HDG steel to obtain high corrosion resistance and high adherence of a polyester and melamine primer. The influence of the manganese phosphate on the corrosion and adherence was investigated. To measure the adherence between the metal and the primer, a three-point flexure test was set up. The adherence was then linked with corrosion resistance during ageing, using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy

Stroke volume variation and indexed stroke volume measured using bioreactance predict fluid responsiveness in postoperative children †

International audienc

Calibration of a probabilistic model of oilseed rape fertility to analyze the inter-variety variability in number of seeds

With the objective of using plant models as predictive tools scaling from genotype to phenotype, model parameters should have a strong genetic determinant. For this purpose, the modeling process involves assessing the differences in model parameters between varieties. In this study, a model of flower fertility is used to explain the observed behaviors and to identify the variety related parameters relevant to seed production. The model simulates the steps of seed production: ovule formation, landing of pollen grains on a flower, fertilization of ovule by pollen grains, possible abortion of the fertilized ovules. The aims of this study are to assess the differences of estimated parameters and identify the factors that can explain observed differences among varieties in the number of seeds per pod. Four varieties of oilseed rape (Mendel, Gamin, Exocet and Pollen) were grown at the experimental station of Grignon, France. Ten plants were marked and 15 pods from rank 11 to 40 (to eliminate the effect of position) on the main stem were collected on each plant for each variety. The numbers of seeds and aborted seeds were recorded. The total seed dry weight for each plant was measured. The maximum number of ovules per flower is different among the four varieties with the range of 36-45. The landing of pollen grains on a flower was significantly different among the varieties, although they were grown in the same field. The estimation result of model allows us to conclude that pollination and resource competition have the similar impact on the ovule and seed abortion. However, for the variety Gamin, the probability of fertilized ovules to abort was quite large in agreement with the smaller number of seeds measured but mean seed weight was higher than others (P<0.001, ANOVA). The data analysis indicated that the small number of seeds per pod was compensated by a higher seed weight. The abortion of seeds could result from insufficient pollination and resource competition. Current work aims at quantifying more precisely the roles of these factors and investigating other ones. We intend to use the model to distinguish the effects of different factors on seed production, such as the plant architecture. One way is to compare the behaviors of the main stem, the ramifications and the plants

Light-independent phospholipid scramblase activity of bacteriorhodopsin from Halobacterium salinarum.

The retinylidene protein bacteriorhodopsin (BR) is a heptahelical light-dependent proton pump found in the purple membrane of the archaeon Halobacterium salinarum. We now show that when reconstituted into large unilamellar vesicles, purified BR trimers exhibit light-independent lipid scramblase activity, thereby facilitating transbilayer exchange of phospholipids between the leaflets of the vesicle membrane at a rate >10,000 per trimer per second. This activity is comparable to that of recently described scramblases including bovine rhodopsin and fungal TMEM16 proteins. Specificity tests reveal that BR scrambles fluorescent analogues of common phospholipids but does not transport a glycosylated diphosphate isoprenoid lipid. In silico analyses suggest that membrane-exposed polar residues in transmembrane helices 1 and 2 of BR may provide the molecular basis for lipid translocation by coordinating the polar head-groups of transiting phospholipids. Consistent with this possibility, extensive coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations of a BR trimer in an explicit phospholipid membrane revealed water penetration along transmembrane helix 1 with the cooperation of a polar residue (Y147 in transmembrane helix 5) in the adjacent protomer. These results suggest that the lipid translocation pathway may lie at or near the interface of the protomers of a BR trimer

Technologies of Democracy: Experiments and Demonstrations

International audienceTechnologies of democracy are instruments based on material apparatus, social practices and expert knowledge that organize the participation of various publics in the definition and treatment of public problems. Using three examples related to the engagement of publics in nanotechnology in France (a citizen conference, a series of public meetings, and an industrial design process), the paperargues that Science and Technology Studies provide useful tools and methods for the analysis of technologies of democracy. Operations of experiments and public demonstrations can be described, as well as controversies about technologies of democracy giving rise to counter-experiments and counter-demonstrations. The political value of the analysis of public engagement lies in the description of processes of stabilization of democratic orders and in the display of potential alternative political arrangements