Caractérisation expérimentale en traction/compression/torsion d'un matériau biosourcé type PHA

National audienceDe nouveaux matériaux polymères biosourcés et biodégradables ont fait leur apparition depuis une dizaine d'années. Ces nouveaux matériaux sont une réponse intéressante aux problèmes de ressource et de recyclage-posés par les polymères classiques provenant de la pétrochimie. Ils présentent le double avantage d'être issus de la biomasse, mais également d'être compostables, c'est-à-dire qu'il ne génère aucun toxique en se dégradant, sous certaines conditions spécifiques d'humidité et de température. Nous nous intéressons dans ce travail à une classe particulière de ces nouveaux matériaux biopolymères produits par des micro-organismes : les PolyHydroxyAlkanoates (ou PHA). Les PHA sont des polymères biosourcés, produits par une grande variété de bactéries (Ralstonia, Pseudomonas,…) en tant que réserve énergétique intracellulaire. Ces matériaux présentent malgré tout un défaut important : leur élaboration reste encore souvent difficile à contrôler conduisant à un coût de production souvent prohibitif et limitant leur dissémination dans des secteurs plus conventionnels comme par exemple celui de l'emballage. Pour que ces matériaux aient une diffusion plus importante dans ce secteur, il s'avère nécessaire d'optimiser la forme et la tenue mécanique de ces produits d'emballage. Cela nécessite une bien meilleure connaissance de leur comportement mécanique encore peu connue pour l'instant. Dans ce contexte, cette étude a pour objectif de caractériser expérimentalement puis numériquement le comportement de nuances de PHA [1]. Le but est ensuite d'aboutir à un outil numérique de calcul, capable de dimensionner et simuler le comportement thermo-mécanique de pièces d'emballages en PHA telles que ceux produits par la société EUROPLASTIQUES, partenaire industriel de ce projet. Parallèlement à ce matériau biosourcé, nous étudions également un polymère plus classique, le polypropylène, avec deux objectifs. Tout d'abord l'idée est de valider la méthodologie d'essai, compte tenu du fait que l'on dispose déjà d'une identification partielle d'une nuance de polypropylène, le PPC7712 [2]. D'autre part, ce polypropylène étant également utilisé en emballage, il permettra des comparaisons finales sur les comportements de structures. Pour la caractérisation mécanique de ces matériaux, un dispositif original a été conçu permettant la réalisation d'essais de cycles multiaxiaux simultanés comprenant des phases de traction, torsion et de compression. Ce dispositif comprend une cellule de force à six axes et d'un montage spécifique pour le serrage et le maintien d'une éprouvette cylindrique (Figure 1). Cette éprouvette est obtenue par injection, elle se compose d'une partie cylindrique et de deux têtes hexagonales (Figure 2). Contrairement, aux essais classiques, où les éprouvettes sont maintenues et entraînées par serrage, l'éprouvette est ici liée par obstacle dans les deux sens des trois directions, sans serrage afin d'éviter, autant que possible, l'apparition de contraintes mécaniques initiales. Un système de mors comprenant des plateaux, des vis et des empreintes hexagonales permettent le blocage total de l'éprouvette, quel que soit l'essai envisagé. Le dispositif prend aussi en compte la dispersion prévisible des dimensions des têtes d'éprouvette par l'intermédiaire de lamelles flexibles entre l'accouplement au vérin et le blocage des têtes. Les déformations sont mesurées directement sur l'échantillon grâce à un dispositif de corrélation d'images en 3D (Aramis 4M, GOM), permettant également de vérifier l'homogénéité de la cinématique. Figure 2: Éprouvette de chargement multiaxial Figure 1: Dispositif d'essais multiaxiaux Ce montage original autorise des cycles de sollicitations successives ou combinées de traction, compression et de torsion (Figure 3), à partir d'une seule géométrie d'éprouvette. Dans la littérature, les essais de traction et de cisaillement sont réalisés habituellement avec des éprouvettes de géométrie spécifique à chaque essai. Dans ce cas, il est difficile d'être sûr d'étudier la même structure de matériau, celle-ci étant fortement dépendante du type d'élaboration et des cinétiques de refroidissement, elles-mêmes directement liées aux dimensions géométriques. Le dispositif expérimental développé ici permet d'effectuer des chemins complexes avec changements de direction et de cycles au cours d'un même essai et sur la même éprouvette, autorisant ainsi l'exploration de tout le plan déviatoire de déformation avec prise en compte de l'histoire du chargement. Pour la simulation du comportement de structures, nous utilisons un modèle de comportement 3D d'Hyper-Visco-Hystérésis (HVH) [2], implanté dans le code de calcul Herezh++ [3]. Il tient sa singularité au fait que le comportement du matériau est décomposé en une contribution additive. Tout en incluant un potentiel hyperélastique, cette loi permet de décrire le phénomène d'hystérésis non-visqueux ainsi qu'une dépendance au temps du matériau. Le protocole d'identification, permettant l'obtention des paramètres utiles à ce modèle, est simple et rapide car il ne nécessite qu'un unique type d'essais de traction/compression relaxation [4]

Charge Carrier Extraction in Organic Solar Cells Governed by Steady-State Mobilities

Charge transport in organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices is often characterized by steady-state mobilities. However, the suitability of steady-state mobilities to describe charge transport has recently been called into question, and it has been argued that dispersion plays a significant role. In this paper, the importance of the dispersion of charge carrier motion on the performance of organic photovoltaic devices is investigated. An experiment to measure the charge extraction time under realistic operating conditions is set up. This experiment is applied to different blends and shows that extraction time is directly related to the geometrical average of the steady-state mobilities. This demonstrates that under realistic operating conditions the steady-state mobilities govern the charge extraction of OPV and gives a valuable insight in device performance

Detection of selective sweeps in structured populations : a comparison of recent methods

This work was supported by the Marie-Curie Initial Training Network INTERCROSSING (European Commission FP7). OEG was further supported by the MASTS pooling initiative (The Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland). Date of Acceptance: 25/08/2015Identifying genomic regions targeted by positive selection has been a longstanding interest of evolutionary biologists. This objective was difficult to achieve until the recent emergence of Next Generation Sequencing, which is fostering the development of large-scale catalogs of genetic variation for increasing number of species. Several statistical methods have been recently developed to analyze these rich datasets but there is still a poor understanding of the conditions under which these methods produce reliable results. This study aims at filling this gap by assessing the performance of genome-scan methods that consider explicitly the physical linkage among SNPs surrounding a selected variant. Our study compares the performance of seven recent methods for the detection of selective sweeps (iHS, nSL, EHHST, xp-EHH, XP-EHHST, XPCLR and hapFLK). We use an individual-based simulation approach to investigate the power and accuracy of these methods under a wide range of population models under both hard and soft sweeps. Our results indicate that XPCLR and hapFLK perform best and can detect soft sweeps under simple population structure scenarios if migration rate is low. All methods perform poorly with moderate to high migration rates, or with weak selection and very poorly under a hierarchical population structure. Finally, no single method is able to detect both starting and nearly completed selective sweeps. However, combining several methods (XPCLR or hapFLK with iHS or nSL) can greatly increase the power to pinpoint the selected region.PostprintPeer reviewe

A Demonstrator for the ATLAS Level-1 Muon to Central Trigger Processor Interface (MUCTPI)

The Level-1 Muon Trigger Interface (MUCTPI) to the Central Trigger Processor (CTP) receives trigger information from the detector- specific logic of the muon trigger. This information contains up to two muon-track candidates per sector. The MUCTPI combines the information of all sectors and calculates total multiplicity values for each of six programmable pT thresholds. It avoids double counting of single muons by taking into account the fact that some of the trigger sectors overlap. The MUCTPI sends the multiplicity values to the CTP which takes the final Level-1 decision. For every Level-1 Accept (L1A) the MUCTPI sends region-of-interest (RoI) information to the Level-2 trigger and event data to the data acquisition system. A demonstrator of the MUCTPI has been built which has the performance of the final system but has limited flexibility for calculating the overlap. The functionality and the performance of the demonstrator are presented

The contamination of the surface of Vesta by impacts and the delivery of the dark material

The Dawn spacecraft observed the presence of dark material, which in turn proved to be associated with OH and H-rich material, on the surface of Vesta. The source of this dark material has been identified with the low albedo asteroids, but it is still a matter of debate whether the delivery of the dark material is associated with a few large impact events, to micrometeorites or to the continuous, secular flux of impactors on Vesta. The continuous flux scenario predicts that a significant fraction of the exogenous material accreted by Vesta should be due to non-dark impactors likely analogous to ordinary chondrites, which instead represent only a minor contaminant in the HED meteorites. We explored the continuous flux scenario and its implications for the composition of the vestan regolith, taking advantage of the data from the Dawn mission and the HED meteorites. We used our model to show that the stochastic events scenario and the micrometeoritic flux scenario are natural consequences of the continuous flux scenario. We then used the model to estimate the amounts of dark and hydroxylate materials delivered on Vesta since the LHB and we showed how our results match well with the values estimated by the Dawn mission. We used our model to assess the amount of Fe and siderophile elements that the continuous flux of impactors would mix in the vestan regolith: concerning the siderophile elements, we focused our attention on the role of Ni. The results are in agreement with the data available on the Fe and Ni content of the HED meteorites and can be used as a reference frame in future studies of the data from the Dawn mission and of the HED meteorites. Our model cannot yet provide an answer to the fate of the missing non-carbonaceous contaminants, but we discuss possible reasons for this discrepancy.Comment: 31 pages, 7 figures, 4 tables. Accepted for publication on the journal ICARUS, "Dark and Bright Materials on Vesta" special issu

Relationship between ankle brachial index and arterial remodeling in pseudoxanthoma elasticum

ObjectivesPseudoxanthoma elasticum (PXE) is an inherited metabolic disease characterized by elastic fiber fragmentation and calcification in the cutaneous, ophthalmologic, and vascular tissues. Cardiovascular manifestations such as peripheral arterial disease (PAD) are frequent in PXE. Because of the changes in the elastic properties and medial calcification of the arterial wall in PXE, the impact of the arterial remodeling on the ankle brachial index (ABI), a well-established diagnostic method for the detection and follow-up of PAD, remains to be determined in this disease. Methods This was a cross-sectional, comparative, open study, which took place at the PXE Consultation Center, University Hospital of Angers. The subjects were 53 patients (mean age, 49 ± 14 years; 35 females) with PXE clinically proven on the basis of established criteria (skin changes, angioid streaks, and skin biopsy). The ABI at rest, symptoms of intermittent claudication (IC), carotid intima-media thickness (IMT), carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (c-f PWV), compliance (CC), and β stiffness index were measured in a single-center cohort. Results Forty-five percent of the PXE patients had an ABI ≤0.90, but only one patient had an ABI >1.40. IC was found in 23% of the patients with an ABI ≤0.90. There were no significant differences between the patients with a low and normal ABI in terms of IMT (P = .566) or β stiffness index (P = .194), but differences were significant for c-f PWV (P = .010) and CC (P = .011). Adjusted multivariate linear regression for the Framingham-Laurier score showed that patients with a low ABI had less compliant carotid arteries (B = 0.318, P = .039). Conclusions PAD detected by a low ABI is very frequent in PXE, although with limited prevalence of symptomatic claudication. Unexpectedly, ABI was low in such calcifying PAD and associated with lower CC, independently of atherosclerosis risk factors. These findings demonstrate that PXE represents a unique monogenic model of PAD in which the specific arterial wall remodeling could change the diagnostic value of the ABI to detect PAD

EVALUATION OF THE NEWLY FORMED BONE IN IRRADIATED AREAS BY ADDITION OF MESENCHYMAL STEM CELLS TO THE ASSOCIATION OF BIPHASIC CALCIUM PHOSPHATE AND TOTAL BONE MARROW

Oral Communication presented at the ";Forum des Jeunes Chercheurs";, Brest (France) 2011

The triangular nasal notch sign in patients with Crohn's disease treated with tumor necrosis factor inhibitors

Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors are used to treat a range of chronic inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and psoriasis. Some of the cutaneous side effects of these drugs are well documented, such as infections, skin carcinomas, palmoplantar and skinfold pustulosis, psoriasis-like or eczema-like lesions. We are not aware of TNF inhibitor-induced nasal lesions in the literature. We report a case series demonstrating a specific pattern of cicatricial nasal fissure (triangular nasal notch) following nasal dermatitis episodes in patients treated with TNF inhibitors. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Delivery of Dark Material to Vesta via Carbonaceous Chondritic Impacts

NASA's Dawn spacecraft observations of asteroid (4) Vesta reveal a surface with the highest albedo and color variation of any asteroid we have observed so far. Terrains rich in low albedo dark material (DM) have been identified using Dawn Framing Camera (FC) 0.75 {\mu}m filter images in several geologic settings: associated with impact craters (in the ejecta blanket material and/or on the crater walls and rims); as flow-like deposits or rays commonly associated with topographic highs; and as dark spots (likely secondary impacts) nearby impact craters. This DM could be a relic of ancient volcanic activity or exogenic in origin. We report that the majority of the spectra of DM are similar to carbonaceous chondrite meteorites mixed with materials indigenous to Vesta. Using high-resolution seven color images we compared DM color properties (albedo, band depth) with laboratory measurements of possible analog materials. Band depth and albedo of DM are identical to those of carbonaceous chondrite xenolith-rich howardite Mt. Pratt (PRA) 04401. Laboratory mixtures of Murchison CM2 carbonaceous chondrite and basaltic eucrite Millbillillie also show band depth and albedo affinity to DM. Modeling of carbonaceous chondrite abundance in DM (1-6 vol%) is consistent with howardite meteorites. We find no evidence for large-scale volcanism (exposed dikes/pyroclastic falls) as the source of DM. Our modeling efforts using impact crater scaling laws and numerical models of ejecta reaccretion suggest the delivery and emplacement of this DM on Vesta during the formation of the ~400 km Veneneia basin by a low-velocity (<2 km/sec) carbonaceous impactor. This discovery is important because it strengthens the long-held idea that primitive bodies are the source of carbon and probably volatiles in the early Solar System.Comment: Icarus (Accepted) Pages: 58 Figures: 15 Tables: