Search

This study tested the validity of the mathematic subtest of the Canadian Achievement Test – Second Edition (CAT/2; Canadian Test Centre, 1992) for 10 year olds, adapted from the original version administered at age 8. The analyses showed satisfactory internal consistency of the adapted version at age 10, and slightly higher internal consistency than that of the original version at age 8 (.81 vs .76). The total scores distribution of the age 10 version were slightly negatively skewed, suggesting that the tool is sensitive to assess children with lower mathematic abilities. Using a correlational design, the results showed substantial cross-age convergent validity between the age 8 and age 10 versions (.49, p < .001), and cross-measure convergent and discriminant validity of this adapted version. We conclude that the adapted mathematics subtest of the Canadian Achievement Test could be used to reliably measure children’s computational skills at age 10.

Background: Based on previously reported changes in muscle metabolism that could increase susceptibility to fatigue, we speculated that patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have reduced quadriceps endurance and that this will be correlated with the proportion of type I muscle fibres and with the activity of oxidative enzymes. Methods: The endurance of the quadriceps was evaluated during an isometric contraction in 29 patients with COPD (mean (SE) age 65 (1) years; forced expiratory volume in 1 second 37 (3)% predicted) and 18 healthy subjects of similar age. The electrical activity of the quadriceps was recorded during muscle contraction as an objective index of fatigue. The time at which the isometric contraction at 60% of maximal voluntary capacity could no longer be sustained was used to define time to fatigue (TF). Needle biopsies of the quadriceps were performed in 16 subjects in both groups to evaluate possible relationships between TF and markers of muscle oxidative metabolism (type I fibre proportion and citrate synthase activity). Results: TF was lower in patients with COPD than in controls (42 (3) v 80 (7) seconds; mean difference 38 seconds (95% CI 25 to 50), p

A MYB factor, identified through expression quantitative locus mapping, negatively regulates the proanthocyanidin pathway in grape berry.. COST Action FA1106 "QualityFruit" - 2 nd Annual Conference Fleshy Fruit Development & Ripening

International audience; With the increasing complexity of aerospace systems, it has become more and more necessary to adopt a global, integrated approach from the very early steps and throughout the design process. Tightly coupling aerodynamics, propulsion, structure, trajectory, guidance and navigation, while also taking into account environmental and societal constraints, as well as manufacturability, reliability and maintainability, is a huge challenge. The field of Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) provides some answers on how to integrate increasing knowledge into the design process, while reducing the design cycles. It consists in a core of key methodologies, such as multi-disciplinary problem formulation and decomposition, optimization under uncertainties and surrogate based high-fidelity tool integration, which are validated and enriched through confrontation with various kinds of design studies.The aim of this paper is, on the one hand, to give a clear view of the challenges at stake and the key difficulties that must be overcome and, on the other hand, to focus on some significant studies and achievements at Onera over the past decade, either on tools and methods, or on dedicated applications, illustrating the progress made and the challenges to come.

Through multiple vegetative propagation cycles, clones accumulate mutations in somatic cells that are at the origin of clonal phenotypic diversity in grape. Clonal diversity provided clones such as Cabernet-Sauvignon N degrees 470, Chardonnay N degrees 548 and Pinot noir N degrees 777 which all produce wines of superior quality. The economic impact of clonal selection is therefore very high: since approx. 95% of the grapevines produced in French nurseries originate from the French clonal selection. In this study we provide the first broad description of polymorphism in different clones of a single grapevine cultivar, Pinot noir, in the context of vegetative propagation. Genome sequencing was performed using 454 GS-FLX methodology without a priori, in order to identify and quantify for the first time molecular polymorphisms responsible for clonal variability in grapevine. New generation sequencing (NGS) was used to compare a large portion of the genome of three Pinot noir clones selected for their phenotypic differences. Reads obtained with NGS and the sequence of Pinot noir ENTAV-INRA (R) 115 sequenced by Velasco et al., were aligned on the PN40024 reference sequence. We then searched for molecular polymorphism between clones. Three types of polymorphism (SNPs, Indels, mobile elements) were found but insertion polymorphism generated by mobile elements of many families displayed the highest mutational event with respect to clonal variation. Mobile elements inducing insertion polymorphism in the genome of Pinot noir were identified and classified and a list is presented in this study as potential markers for the study of clonal variation. Among these, the dynamic of four mobile elements with a high polymorphism level were analyzed and insertion polymorphism was confirmed in all the Pinot clones registered in France.

Optimization is used at all stages of aircraft design. In the early phases (also called preliminary or conceptual design) multicriteria Pareto optimization based on heuristic laws is carried out. Conversely, in the late design phases, accurate structural and aerodynamics predictions are required to steer small changes of a baseline shape through mono-objective optimization. This article is devoted to the local and global optimization methods actually used during this second part of the design process. Through discretization, parametrization, and numerical simulation, the design problem can be formulated mathematically as a finite-dimensional optimization. Hence a good knowledge of global and local optimization algorithms is important to aerodynamic design engineers. The classical algorithms which are currently used at Onera for shape design are presented. Besides, many local optimization algorithms require the gradient of the functions of interest with respect to the design parameters. The different ways to compute those derivatives - often called “sensitivities” - are also described. Numerous 2D and 3D applications were dealt with at Onera using the methods described; they are presented in a companion article and also briefly described in a course., Journal Aerospace Lab, Issue 2, March 2011; ISSN: 2107-6596

This issue of the Aerospace Lab review is dedicated to Computational Fluid Dynamics. Recent advances allowing improvements in terms of performance prediction and design capabilities for aircraft and propulsion systems applications are described. A large panel of applications illustrate the state of the art in both domains thanks to the "elsA" and "CEDRE" CFD platforms that are considered as the reference by the French and the European aerospace industry, and by the research community., Journal Aerospace Lab, Issue 2, March 2011; ISSN: 2107-6596

A conceptual study is here presented and discussed on the possibility to transport 200 passengers over a distance of about 7000km in a nominal point-to-point mission through the Atlantic (either London-New York or London-Rio) at a cruise Mach number of 6 and an altitude about 30km. The aim of the study is not to design a specific airplane but to explore today's state of the art technology limits to realize such kind of concept, i.e. to identify if such a mission could succeed today. Because of the challenge the mission poses, its is being optimised with the major disciplines involved by means of Multi-Disciplinary Optimisation (MDO) tools as a way to realize an optimum integrated airframe/propulsion aircraft. The environmental impact is being analysed in terms of the resulting sonic boom. No experimental data but CFD results by means of independent assessments has been generated. The study indicates that today the available technology provides with sufficient maturity to accomplish with the mission in areas like aerodynamic and thermal resistance materials but in others like sonic boom mitigation it is required a deeper insight in the physics. Finally while the present investigation clear identify that complex designs involving large amount of variables from different disciplines could be only possible via MDO/MDA strategies, today such processes still suffer on lack of robustness of the involved tools. Copyright © 2009 by DLR. ispartof: 47th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting including the New Horizons Forum and Aerospace Exposition ispartof: AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting location:Orlanda, USA date:Jan - Jan 2009 status: published

Serial measurements of serum lipid 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) concentrations in 36 adults from Seveso, Italy, and three patients from Vienna, Austria, with initial serum lipid TCDD concentrations ranging from 130 to 144,000 ppt, were modeled using a modified version of a previously published toxicokinetic model for the distribution and elimination of dioxins. The original model structure accounted for a concentration-dependent increase in overall elimination rate for TCDD due to nonlinear distribution of TCDD to the liver ( secondary to induction of the binding protein CYP1A2), from which elimination takes place via a first-order process. The original model structure was modified to include elimination due to lipid partitioning of TCDD from circulation into the large intestine, based on published human data. We optimized the fit of the modified model to the data by varying the hepatic elimination rate parameter for each of the 39 people. The model fits indicate that there is significant interindividual variability of TCDD elimination efficiency in humans and also demonstrate faster elimination in men compared to women, and in younger vs. older persons. The data and model results indicate that, for males, the mean apparent half-life for TCDD ( as reflected in changes in predicted serum lipid TCDD level) ranges from less than 3 years at serum lipid levels above 10,000 ppt to over 10 years at serum lipid levels below 50 ppt. Application of the model to serum sampling data from the cohort of US herbicide-manufacturing workers assembled by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) indicates that previous estimates of peak serum lipid TCDD concentrations in dioxin-exposed manufacturing workers, based on first-order back-extrapolations with half-lives of 7 - 9 years, may have underestimated the maximum concentrations in these workers and other occupational cohorts by several-fold to an order of magnitude or more. Such dose estimates, based on a single sampling point decades after last exposure, are highly variable and dependent on a variety of assumptions and factors that cannot be fully determined, including interindividual variations in elimination efficiency. Dose estimates for these cohorts should be re-evaluated in light of the demonstration of concentration-dependent elimination kinetics for TCDD, and the large degree of uncertainty in back-calculated dose estimates should be explicitly incorporated in quantitative estimates of TCDD's carcinogenic potency based on such data