Study and Comparison of Surface Roughness Measurements

National audienceThis survey paper focus on recent researches whose goal is to optimize treatments on 3D meshes, thanks to a study of their surface features, and more precisely their roughness and saliency. Applications like watermarking or lossy compression can benefit from a precise roughness detection, to better hide the watermarks or quantize coarsely these areas, without altering visually the shape. Despite investigations on scale dependence leading to multi-scale approaches, an accurate roughness or pattern characterization is still lacking, but challenging for those treatments. We think there is still room for investigations that could benefit from the power of the wavelet analysis or the fractal models. Furthermore only few works are now able to differentiate roughness from saliency, though it is essential for faithfully simplifying or denoising a 3D mesh. Hence we have investigated roughness quantification methods for analog surfaces, in several domains of physics. Some roughness parameters used in these fields and the additionnal information they bring are finally studied, since we think an adaptation for 3D meshes could be beneficial

TGF-b2 induction regulates invasiveness of theileria-transformed leukocytes and disease susceptibility

Theileria parasites invade and transform bovine leukocytes causing either East Coast fever (T. parva), or tropical theileriosis (T. annulata). Susceptible animals usually die within weeks of infection, but indigenous infected cattle show markedly reduced pathology, suggesting that host genetic factors may cause disease susceptibility. Attenuated live vaccines are widely used to control tropical theileriosis and attenuation is associated with reduced invasiveness of infected macrophages in vitro. Disease pathogenesis is therefore linked to aggressive invasiveness, rather than uncontrolled proliferation of Theileria-infected leukocytes. We show that the invasive potential of Theileria-transformed leukocytes involves TGF-b signalling. Attenuated live vaccine lines express reduced TGF-b2 and their invasiveness can be rescued with exogenous TGF-b. Importantly, infected macrophages from disease susceptible Holstein-Friesian (HF) cows express more TGF-b2 and traverse Matrigel with great efficiency compared to those from disease-resistant Sahiwal cattle. Thus, TGF-b2 levels correlate with disease susceptibility. Using fluorescence and time-lapse video microscopy we show that Theileria-infected, disease-susceptible HF macrophages exhibit increased actin dynamics in their lamellipodia and podosomal adhesion structures and develop more membrane blebs. TGF-b2-associated invasiveness in HF macrophages has a transcription-independent element that relies on cytoskeleton remodelling via activation of Rho kinase (ROCK). We propose that a TGF-b autocrine loop confers an amoeboid-like motility on Theileria-infected leukocytes, which combines with MMP-dependent motility to drive invasiveness and virulence

Deletion of Murine SMN Exon 7 Directed to Skeletal Muscle Leads to Severe Muscular Dystrophy

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is characterized by degeneration of motor neurons of the spinal cord associated with muscle paralysis and caused by mutations of the survival motor neuron gene (SMN). To determine whether SMN gene defect in skeletal muscle might have a role in SMA pathogenesis, deletion of murine SMN exon 7, the most frequent mutation found in SMA, has been restricted to skeletal muscle by using the Cre-loxP system. Mutant mice display ongoing muscle necrosis with a dystrophic phenotype leading to muscle paralysis and death. The dystrophic phenotype is associated with elevated levels of creatine kinase activity, Evans blue dye uptake into muscle fibers, reduced amount of dystrophin and upregulation of utrophin expression suggesting a destabilization of the sarcolemma components. The mutant mice will be a valuable model for elucidating the underlying mechanism. Moreover, our results suggest a primary involvement of skeletal muscle in human SMA, which may contribute to motor defect in addition to muscle denervation caused by the motor neuron degeneration. These data may have important implications for the development of therapeutic strategies in SMA

Integrating Environmental Assessment Methods: Development of a New Approach

International audienceHuman activities generate local environmental impacts (on the quality of water, air and soil), as well as global impacts affecting the ecological carrying capacities at world level. The proposed methodology aims at representing both local and global impacts of a given activity, taking into account both direct and indirect impacts. The final objective is to establish an environmental dashboard based on a set of relevant indicators, in order to assess local and global environmental impacts caused by a given activity. This paper will present the details of this methodology

Impacts locaux ou planétaires, aspects directs ou indirects : Définitions, Limites et prise en compte dans l'évaluation environnementale

http://www.iseor.com/upload/aom-ISEOR_juin09/Programme%20FR%20synoptique%2006-06-09.pdfInternational audienc

Towards the Integration of Local and Global Environmental Assessment Methods: Application to Computer System Power Management

International audienceThe 21st century is characterized by the increase of information technologies, whose environmental impacts are now well documented. The consequences of these impacts, their nature but also the difficulty for the users to identify them make IT services to be an interesting case study for environmental assessments. The proposed methodology aims at retrieving both local and global effects of a given IT activity, taking into account both the direct and indirect impacts. The final objective is to establish an environmental dashboard based on a set of indicators, in order to assess environmental impacts of a service-based activity at different scales

L'évaluation environnementale au service de l'efficacité énergétique Application aux TIC

http://fayol.mines-stetienne.fr/sites/default/files/contribution/12.%20FAYOL/Departements/PIESO/IMT_Poster_ValentineMoreau_v2.pdfNational audienceReprésenter les impacts environnementaux d'un parc informatique sur la base d'un inventaire des équipements présents et de leur utilisation (consommations énergétiques)

Raman Mapping as a Tool for Evaluating the I2 and I3– Diffusion Over Single-Crystal UiO-67_NH2(M) (M = Zr, Zr/Hf, or Hf)

International audienceThe capture of gaseous iodine has been deeply studied for trying to mitigate the dangers of nuclear power energy. The UiO family of MOF materials is considered as one of the best candidates for such purpose since it couples high specific surface areas, facility to be chemically modified, great iodine adsorption capacity, and good stability under nuclear accidents conditions. UiO-66 was profoundly evaluated in several works for trapping I2 by using different linkers and metal contents. A transformation of the I2 molecule into I3– inside such porous systems was verified in other studies and is yet to be better elucidated. The comprehension of this transformation can improve the systems used to capture iodine species and guarantee a better stabilization of such pollutants in a long term. For this reason, three UiO-67_NH2 samples with different metal contents (Zr, Zr/Hf, and Hf) were employed to capture iodine and the signature of the different species were evaluated using Raman spectroscopy mappings in and out of resonance conditions (λex = 515, 633 and 785 nm). The UiO-67_NH2(Hf) compound demonstrated the best adsorption capacity after 48 h of contact with gaseous I2 under room temperature, capturing 3428 g.mol-1 of iodine. The other two samples, UiO-67_NH2(Zr/Hf) and UiO-67_NH2(Zr), adsorbed 2835 g.mol-1 and 1658 g.mol-1 in the same conditions, respectively. The I2 transformation into I3– was confirmed by the presence of bands related to “perturbed” I2 and I3– at about 170 and 107 cm-1, respectively. The Raman mapping demonstrated that both the monometallic UiO-67_NH2 samples displayed a homogeneous distribution of the two species after 48 hours of contact with the iodine gas flow, whereas the bimetallic sample exhibited zones with different concentrations of I2 and I3–. This effect was related to the I2 diffusion process through the UiO-67_NH2 crystallites, which could be faster in the monometallic UiO-67_NH2 samples because of their smaller crystal size ( 44 μm and ≈ 51 μm for UiO-67_NH2(Hf) and UiO-67_NH2(Zr), respectively) when compared to the UiO-67_NH2(Zr/Hf) sample (≈ 140 μm). This paper shows the spatial distribution of I2 and I3– along the crystals of UiO-67_NH2 materials and correlates this data with the diffusion process of both species, improving the understanding of the mechanism responsible for the iodine conversion and stabilization in UiO materialsLe captage de l'iode gazeux a été profondément étudié pour tenter de pallier les dangers de l'énergie nucléaire. La famille UiO de matériaux MOF est considérée comme l'un des meilleurs candidats à cet effet car elle couple des surfaces spécifiques élevées, une facilité à être modifiée chimiquement, une grande capacité d'adsorption d'iode et une bonne stabilité dans les conditions d'accidents nucléaires. UiO-66 a été profondément évalué dans plusieurs travaux pour piéger I2 en utilisant différents lieurs et teneurs en métaux. Une transformation de la molécule I2 en I3– à l'intérieur de tels systèmes poreux a été vérifiée dans d'autres études et reste encore à mieux élucider. La compréhension de cette transformation peut améliorer les systèmes utilisés pour capter les espèces iodées et garantir une meilleure stabilisation de ces polluants à long terme. Pour cette raison, trois échantillons UiO-67_NH2 avec différentes teneurs en métal (Zr, Zr/Hf et Hf) ont été utilisés pour capturer l'iode et la signature des différentes espèces a été évaluée à l'aide de cartographies par spectroscopie Raman dans et hors des conditions de résonance (λex = 515, 633 et 785 nm). Le composé UiO-67_NH2(Hf) a démontré la meilleure capacité d'adsorption après 48 h de contact avec de l'I2 gazeux à température ambiante en captant 3428 g.mol-1 d'iode. Les deux autres échantillons, UiO-67_NH2(Zr/Hf) et UiO-67_NH2(Zr), ont respectivement adsorbé 2835 g.mol-1 et 1658 g.mol-1 dans les mêmes conditions. La transformation de I2 en I3– a été confirmée par la présence de bandes liées à I2 et I3– « perturbées » à environ 170 et 107 cm-1, respectivement. La cartographie Raman a démontré que les deux échantillons monométalliques UiO-67_NH2 présentaient une distribution homogène des deux espèces après 48 heures de contact avec le flux de gaz iodé, tandis que l'échantillon bimétallique présentait des zones avec des concentrations différentes en I2 et I3–. Cet effet était lié au processus de diffusion de I2 à travers les cristallites UiO-67_NH2, qui pourrait être plus rapide dans les échantillons monométalliques UiO-67_NH2 en raison de leur taille de cristal plus petite (≈ 44 μm et ≈ 51 μm pour UiO-67_NH2(Hf) et UiO-67_NH2(Zr), respectivement) par rapport à l'échantillon UiO-67_NH2(Zr/Hf) (≈ 140 μm). Cet article montre la distribution spatiale de I2 et I3– le long des cristaux de matériaux UiO-67_NH2 et corrèle ces données avec le processus de diffusion des deux espèces, améliorant la compréhension du mécanisme responsable de la conversion et de la stabilisation de l'iode dans les matériaux UiO