Méthode de mesure basée sur une ligne triplaque asymétrique pour la caractérisation électromagnétique des métamatériaux

National audienceUne méthode large bande en ligne triplaque pour mesurer des propriétés électromagnétiques (permittivité e et perméabilité μ complexes) des métamatériaux est présentée. La bande de fréquence, la géométrie et la configuration des champs électromagnétiques de la ligne utilisée sont bien adaptées à la caractérisation de ce type de matériaux. La description de la cellule, les conditions nécessaires pour garantir la validité des mesures et quelques résultats expérimentaux sont présentés

Contribution of reactive and proactive control to children's working memory performance:Insight from item recall durations in response sequence planning

The present study addressed whether developmental improvement in working memory span task performance relies upon a growing ability to proactively plan response sequences during childhood. Two hundred thirteen children completed a working memory span task in which they used a touchscreen to reproduce orally presented sequences of animal names. Children were assessed longitudinally at 7 time points between 3 and 10 years of age. Twenty-one young adults also completed the same task. Proactive response sequence planning was assessed by comparing recall durations for the 1st item (preparatory interval) and subsequent items. At preschool age, the preparatory interval was generally shorter than subsequent item recall durations, whereas it was systematically longer during elementary school and in adults. Although children mostly approached the task reactively at preschool, they proactively planned response sequences with increasing efficiency from age 7 on, like adults. These findings clarify the nature of the changes in executive control that support working memory performance with age

Asymmetrical Stripline Based Method for the Electromagnetic Characterization of Metamaterials

International audienceAn experimental method for obtaining the effective electromagnetic parameters of metamaterials is presented. The measurement cell consists in an asymmetric stripline which satisfies certain conditions required for the characterization of this type of materials. The advantages of this cell, its electromagnetic analysis and preliminary experimental and simulated results are shown

Caractérisation expérimentale de métamatériaux en utilisant une ligne triplaque à hauteur variable

National audienceNous présentons une méthode de caractérisation expérimentale des propriétés électromagnétiques des métamatériaux dans la bande (1-6 GHz). Cette technique se base sur la mesure des paramètres de répartition d'une ligne triplaque à hauteur variable permettant ainsi de caractériser des métamatériaux dont le nombre de cellules peut varier suivant plusieurs directions. Cette possibilité d'augmenter le nombre de cellules est nécessaire pour l'étude de la réponse asymptotique des métamatériaux. Nous présentons la cellule de mesure, la procédure expérimentale et les premiers résultats expérimentaux

The temporal dynamic of response inhibition in early childhood: An ERP study of partial and successful inhibition

Event-related potentials were recorded while five-year-old children completed a Go/No-Go task that distinguished between partial inhibition (i.e., response is initiated but cancelled before completion) and successful inhibition (i.e., response is inhibited before it is initiated). Partial inhibition trials were characterized by faster response initiation and later latency of the lateral frontal negativity (LFN) than successful Go and successful inhibition trials. The speed of response initiation was influenced by the response speed on previous trials and influenced the response speed on subsequent trials. Response initiation and action decision dynamically influenced each other, and their temporal interplay determined response inhibition success

Asymmetrical stripline based method for retrieving the electromagnetic properties of metamaterials

International audienceAn experimental characterization technique for determining the electromagnetic properties of metamaterials in the microwave frequency band is presented. The method consists in measuring the S-parameters of an asymmetrical stripline partially filled with the sample to be characterized. For retrieving the characteristic parameters, two different approaches based on quasi-static approximations are compared. This measurement cell allows an "in situ" characterization because it reproduces the electromagnetic environment frequently found in planar technologies for microwave applications of metamaterials. The whole sample is uniformly excited in magnitude and direction by the interacting electromagnetic field which guarantees representativeness of extracted permittivity and permeability and avoids possible inconsistencies due to anisotropy and heterogeneity of metamaterials

Simultaneous Triggered Collapse of the Presolar Dense Cloud Core and Injection of Short-Lived Radioisotopes by a Supernova Shock Wave

Cosmochemical evidence for the existence of short-lived radioisotopes (SLRI) such as $^{26}$Al and $^{60}$Fe at the time of the formation of primitive meteorites requires that these isotopes were synthesized in a massive star and then incorporated into chondrites within $\sim 10^6$ yr. A supernova shock wave has long been hypothesized to have transported the SLRI to the presolar dense cloud core, triggered cloud collapse, and injected the isotopes. Previous numerical calculations have shown that this scenario is plausible when the shock wave and dense cloud core are assumed to be isothermal at $\sim 10$ K, but not when compressional heating to $\sim 1000$ K is assumed. We show here for the first time that when calculated with the FLASH2.5 adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) hydrodynamics code, a 20 km/sec shock wave can indeed trigger the collapse of a 1 $M_\odot$ cloud while simultaneously injecting shock wave isotopes into the collapsing cloud, provided that cooling by molecular species such as H$_2$O, CO$_2$, and H$_2$ is included. These calculations imply that the supernova trigger hypothesis is the most likely mechanism for delivering the SLRI present during the formation of the solar system.Comment: 12 pages, 4 color figures. Astrophysical Journal Letters (in press

Triggering Collapse of the Presolar Dense Cloud Core and Injecting Short-Lived Radioisotopes with a Shock Wave. I. Varied Shock Speeds

The discovery of decay products of a short-lived radioisotope (SLRI) in the Allende meteorite led to the hypothesis that a supernova shock wave transported freshly synthesized SLRI to the presolar dense cloud core, triggered its self-gravitational collapse, and injected the SLRI into the core. Previous multidimensional numerical calculations of the shock-cloud collision process showed that this hypothesis is plausible when the shock wave and dense cloud core are assumed to remain isothermal at ~10 K, but not when compressional heating to ~1000 K is assumed. Our two-dimensional models (Boss et al. 2008) with the FLASH2.5 adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) hydrodynamics code have shown that a 20 km/sec shock front can simultaneously trigger collapse of a 1 solar mass core and inject shock wave material, provided that cooling by molecular species such as H2O, CO, and H2 is included. Here we present the results for similar calculations with shock speeds ranging from 1 km/sec to 100 km/sec. We find that shock speeds in the range from 5 km/sec to 70 km/sec are able to trigger the collapse of a 2.2 solar mass cloud while simultaneously injecting shock wave material: lower speed shocks do not achieve injection, while higher speed shocks do not trigger sustained collapse. The calculations continue to support the shock-wave trigger hypothesis for the formation of the solar system, though the injection efficiencies in the present models are lower than desired.Comment: 39 pages, 14 figures. in press, Ap

A preparação das unidades hoteleiras com classificação de 4 e 5 estrelas para a obtenção do certificado de qualidade: o caso de Portugal continental

A certificação pela ISO 9000 é um tema que ao longo dos últimos anos tem recebido maior atenção no setor da hotelaria, embora muitas das empresas não retirem benefícios económicos dessa certificação. Baseado numa revisão da literatura, este estudo sugere que a existência de uma pré-preparação para a certificação é um fator-chave para o sucesso da sua implementação e, nesse sentido, propõe-se um modelo que engloba um conjunto de iniciativas que as empresas podem desenvolver antes de iniciarem o processo de certificação ISO 9000. Para responder à questão «de que forma é que os hotéis de 4 e 5 estrelas se preparam para a obtenção da Certificação da Qualidade?», foram desenvolvidas quatro hipóteses de estudo e, como forma de se conseguir verificar ou refutar as mesmas, foram enviados questionários via correio eletrónico aos hotéis de 4 e 5 estrelas em Portugal Continental. Após a recolha dos dados procedeu-se à sua análise com o recurso a métodos estatísticos, utilizando essencialmente técnicas de análise de dados não paramétricas. Foram realizados testes às quatro hipóteses de estudo (testes binominais), foi feito um teste ao enviesamento por não resposta (teste de Mann-Whitney) e um teste à aleatoriedade da amostra (teste de Wald–Wolfowitz). Após a análise dos resultados obtidos constatou-se que apenas uma das quatro hipóteses não foi rejeitada, evidenciado este resultado que a maior parte das empresas da população em estudo não procede a todas as iniciativas contidas no modelo para terem uma adequada pré-preparação antes do início do processo de certificação.Universidade do Algarve, Faculdade de Economi

Pan-Cancer Analysis of lncRNA Regulation Supports Their Targeting of Cancer Genes in Each Tumor Context

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are commonly dys-regulated in tumors, but only a handful are known toplay pathophysiological roles in cancer. We inferredlncRNAs that dysregulate cancer pathways, onco-genes, and tumor suppressors (cancer genes) bymodeling their effects on the activity of transcriptionfactors, RNA-binding proteins, and microRNAs in5,185 TCGA tumors and 1,019 ENCODE assays.Our predictions included hundreds of candidateonco- and tumor-suppressor lncRNAs (cancerlncRNAs) whose somatic alterations account for thedysregulation of dozens of cancer genes and path-ways in each of 14 tumor contexts. To demonstrateproof of concept, we showed that perturbations tar-geting OIP5-AS1 (an inferred tumor suppressor) andTUG1 and WT1-AS (inferred onco-lncRNAs) dysre-gulated cancer genes and altered proliferation ofbreast and gynecologic cancer cells. Our analysis in-dicates that, although most lncRNAs are dysregu-lated in a tumor-specific manner, some, includingOIP5-AS1, TUG1, NEAT1, MEG3, and TSIX, synergis-tically dysregulate cancer pathways in multiple tumorcontexts