The Effects of Irradiation Technologies on Some Polymers commonly used in SUDs

Both gamma ray and electron beam irradiation are widely used as a means of medical device sterilisation. However, it is known that the radiation produced by both processes can lead to undesirable changes within biomedical polymers. This presentation will aim to explain the collaboration between a steriliser contractor and a university to carry out some comparative study on the two key radio-sterilisation methods (gamma ray and electron beam) in order to identify the more detrimental process in terms of the mechanical, structural, chemical and thermal properties of a common biomedical grade polymer, Poly (ether-block-amide) (PEBA). Therefore, this presentation will have two key elements: Part 1: The collaboration between industry and academia, Part 2: Presentation of the aforementioned study details, results and conclusions

Factors Influencing Farmer Uptake of Water Pollution Mitigation Measures: The Role of Farm Advice

Abstract A range of interventions are available to influence the uptake of farm practices which mitigate water pollution. Deciding which are the most appropriate for particular mitigation measures poses a challenge to policy makers. Whilst many measures remain voluntary, implementation will only be effective with the co-operation of stakeholders and evidence regarding the factors influencing measure uptake is crucial to aid policy design. The research conducted for this PhD explored the factors influencing farmer adoption of water pollution mitigation measures through three related surveys. Over two hundred farmers and farm advisors participated in interviews from three contrasting regions of England: the grassland dominated North West; the arable dominated East Anglia and the mixed and dairy farming of the South West. Results from the two farmer surveys provided a baseline of current agricultural practices, insights regarding farmer attitudes to the adoption of other mitigation measures in the future and understanding of the motivations and barriers to the adoption of specific measures. Results from the farm advisor interviews revealed the types of mitigation measures recommended by various advisors, which mechanisms (regulatory advice, financial incentives, signposting or voluntary approach) were being used to influence the uptake of measures, and whether differences occurred between sources of advice. The results illustrate the great diversity amongst the farming community, the range of factors influencing mitigation measure uptake and the differing complexities of farmers’ decisions to change their behaviour. Different combinations of interventions are required not only for each mitigation measures but also within the different regions surveyed. The importance of advice is illustrated but knowing which advisors are most suitable to deliver information and how is highlighted as being essential for policy design. Policy recommendations are provided as to what needs to change to influence adoption of specific mitigation measures to improve catchment management and advice provision

La place des femmes dans les médias français

La place des femmes dans les médias français est un sujet d'actualité en France. Pas une semaine ne se passe sans que le sujet soit traité d'une façon ou d'une autre : nominations, publications, pétitions, scandales... Ce choix de sujet n'est donc pas seulement théorique mais s'inscrit dans une réflexion plus large qui existe aujourd'hui au sein de la société française. Cette réflexion peut s'axer sur deux problématiques plus particulièrement. En effet, lorsque l'on parle de la place des femmes dans les médias que voulons nous dire exactement ? De quoi parle-t-on ? De la place des femmes dans les colonnes des journaux écrit ou web, sur les ondes des radios ou encore sur des images télévisées ? Où faisons nous référence aux femmes journalistes travaillants dans les médias ? Les deux problématiques sont évidemment pertinentes. C'est ainsi qu'une première partie de notre article concernera les femmes journalistes, leur présence dans les médias, leur pouvoir, c'est-à-dire le poste où elles exercent leurs activités, etc... Et une deuxième partie s'axera plus sur la place accordée dans ces mêmes médias aux femmes dans la prise de parole, l'interview, le portrait, etc... L'étude permet de conclure qu'il semble possible aujourd'hui de dire que la situation des femmes dans les médias quels qu'ils soient s'améliorent doucement. Que ce soit par rapport au nombre de journalistes en poste avec des responsabilités ou que ce soit la présence des femmes dans les médias. Le législateur a dû intervenir pour faire avancer la situation qui naturellement semblait ne pas pouvoir évoluer

Random Dilated Shapelet Transform: A New Approach for Time Series Shapelets

Shapelet-based algorithms are widely used for time series classification because of their ease of interpretation, but they are currently outperformed by recent state-of-the-art approaches. We present a new formulation of time series shapelets including the notion of dilation, and we introduce a new shapelet feature to enhance their discriminative power for classification. Experiments performed on 112 datasets show that our method improves on the state-of-the-art shapelet algorithm, and achieves comparable accuracy to recent state-of-the-art approaches, without sacrificing neither scalability, nor interpretability

Ditylenchus africanus sp. n. from South Africa : a morphological and molecular characterization

Une nouvelle espèce de #Ditylenchus parasite de l'arachide en Afrique du Sud est décrite en se fondant sur des caractères morphologiques et sur ceux provenant du polymorphisme des longueurs des fragments de restriction (RFLPs) de l'ADN ribosomal. La nouvelle espèce, #Ditylenchus africanus n. sp., diffère des deux espèces les plus proches, #D. destructor et #D. myceliophagus, par la combinaison de caractères suivante : RFLPs provenant de sept enzymes de restriction situées sur l'espaceur interne transcrit de rADN, stylet de longueur moyenne et relativement peu robuste (en comparaison de celui de #D. destructor$, longueur de la bursa (exprimée en pourcentage de la longueur de la queue) et longueur des spicules. (Résumé d'auteur

An evaluation of ground thermal properties measure accuracy by thermal response test of horizontal ground heat exchangers

International audienceThis study aims to present a comparison between temperature measurements relative to horizontal ground heat exchangers with predicted values using thermal response test. A scale 1 test facility of horizontal ground heat exchangers has been implemented in BRGM (Orleans - France) to test performances in real conditions. The heat exchanger is divided in four parts of 100 m² each with different characteristics: - a sunny grass - a shaded grass - a sunny car-park - a shaded car-park These different configurations have been chosen to compare the performances of ground heat exchangers in different environments (surface state, boundary conditions). Furthermore, the temperature in the soil is measured continuously at 3 different levels (-0.5 m, -1 m, -1.5 m). To cartography the temperature field at these 3 depths, optical fibers are distributed in the underground and the use of a distributed temperature sensor (DTS) allows to accurately measure the temperature in the soil surrounding the ground heat exchanger. A thermal response is carried out on the horizontal ground heat exchanger. A monitored constant heating power is injected at a constant mass flow. The temperature measurements at the 3 different levels of a threedimensional numerical model of ground heat exchanger. The thermal response test gives in particular the noticeable differences between the 4 different conditions of each part of the ground heat exchanger. The conclusion will give indications on the consequences of uncertainty about soil thermal properties on sizing