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A European consortium consisting of four major steel manufacturers and ten academic technology institutes has conducted a research and development project, called “Product Uniformity Control“ (PUC) in the period 2013 to 2017. This project aimed to develop and improve non-destructive (inline) measurement techniques to characterise the (uniformity of the) microstructure of steel strip products. In this project, a multitude of strip steel samples from various stages of production have been collected from the four participating steel manufacturers. The samples have been characterised in various ways, namely on their (1) non-destructive measurement parameters using different techniques suited for inline evaluation, (2) fundamental ultrasonic and electromagnetic properties (wave speed, ultrasonic attenuation, magnetisation loops, coercive field), (3) tensile properties (stress-strain curves) and (4) microstructure (by optical micrographs and EBSD images). The correlations between these different characterisations will be addressed. Besides the experimental characterisation, a strong accent has been on modelling activities: during the project, fundamental models have been developed to describe, starting from 2D and 3D microstructures, the ultrasonic and magnetic properties, which are next used as input to sensor models that predict the output of the inline measurement systems. This contribution will present the recent results of both the experimental and the modelling work, and underline their mutual importance in the interpretation of the measured data for the benefit of inline characterisation of the mechanical properties complementary to traditional destructive tensile testing.

Background Mycobacterium ulcerans infection is the third most common mycobacterial disease in the world after tuberculosis and leprosy. To date, transmission pathways from its environmental reservoir to humans are still unknown. In South America, French Guiana has the highest reported number of M ulcerans infections across the continent. This empirical study aimed to characterise the epidemiology of M ulcerans infection in French Guiana between 1969 and 2013. Methods: Data were collected prospectively mainly by two dermatologists at Cayenne Hospital's dermatology department between Jan 1, 1969, and Dec 31, 2013, for age, date of diagnosis, sex, residence, location of the lesion, type of lesion, associated symptoms, and diagnostic method (smear, culture, PCR, or histology) for all confirmed and suspected cases of M ulcerans. We obtained population data from censuses. We calculated mean M ulcerans infection incidences, presented as the number of cases per 100 000 person-years. Findings: 245 patients with M ulcerans infections were reported at Cayenne Hospital's dermatology department during the study period. M ulcerans infection incidence decreased over time, from 6·07 infections per 100 000 person-years (95% CI 4·46–7·67) in 1969–83 to 4·77 infections per 100 000 person-years (3·75–5·79) in 1984–98 and to 3·49 infections per 100 000 person-years (2·83–4·16) in 1999–2013. The proportion of children with infections also declined with time, from 42 (76%) of 55 patients in 1969–83 to 26 (31%) of 84 in 1984–98 and to 22 (21%) of 106 in 1999–2013. Most cases occurred in coastal areas surrounded by marshy savannah (incidence of 21·08 per 100 000 person-years in Sinnamary and 21·18 per 100 000 person-years in Mana). Lesions mainly affected limbs (lower limbs 161 [66%] patients; upper limbs 60 [24%] patients). We diagnosed no bone infections. Interpretation: The decrease of M ulcerans infection incidence and the proportion of children with infections over a 45 year period in this ultra-peripheral French territory might have been mostly driven by improving living conditions, prophylactic recommendations, and access to health care.

International audience

International audience; In the context of the RHEA European project addressing site-specific weeding on arable crops, a complete aerial image acquisition chain has been developed, providing a geo-referenced multispectral image of a total parcel with 1 cm spatial resolution. Robust automatic ground control point detection and near infrared - visible sensor image registration modules have been implemented and associated with the MicMac photogrammetric software suite to provide a fully automatized mosaicking procedure. This procedure has been successfully applied on various maize and wheat crops for weed patch detection, but could be extended to other precision agriculture applications, especially those requiring a very high spatial resolution.

Publis013-agap-082; absent

International audience; Dans le cadre du programme de recherche INTERMOPES1, des investigations ont été menées sur les technologies qui permettraient d’améliorer la caractérisation d’habitat d’espèces afin de développer des méthodes et outils d’objectivation écologiques du territoire. Le poster que nous proposons présentera les résultats d’une expérimentation réalisée avec un LIDAR terrestre dans le but d’analyser et de cartographier finement les hauteurs de végétation et de relier les informations acquises avec la présence de mâles ou de femelles d’Outardes canepetière. L’objectif de ces travaux est d’affiner les connaissances sur la répartition de l’oiseau dans le paysage de la Zone de Protection Spéciale des Costières de Nîmes (France) et de développer une méthode généralisable d’analyse instrumentée des potentialités écologiques d’un paysage.

International audience; Les images multispectrales incluant une bande rouge et une bande infrarouge ont prouvé leur efficacité pour la discrimination entre sol et végétation et le suivi cultural en télédétection. Mais elles restent rarement utilisées pour l'imagerie au sol ou par drone, du fait de la non disponibilité de capteurs adaptés. Nous proposons ici une solution originale pour obtenir simultanément les bandes rouge et infrarouge à partir d'un appareil photographique couleur ordinaire, après avoir retiré le filtre interne bloquant l'infrarouge. Nous décrivons d'abord l'approche théorique, ainsi que des résultats simulés sur un jeu de données spectrales, pour deux types d'appareils. Des exemples d'acquisition sur le terrain en conditions réelles sont ensuite présentés, et comparés à une acquisition couleur standard pour la discrimination sol/plantes. Dans la plupart des cas notre approche apporte une amélioration significative, ouvrant de nouvelles opportunités pour les applications de suivi de culture. / Multispectral images including red and near-infrared bands have proved their efficiency for vegetation-soil discrimination and agricultural monitoring in remote sensing applications. But they remain rarely used in ground and UAV imagery, due to a limited availability of adequate 2D imaging devices. In this paper, we propose and evaluate an original solution to obtain simultaneously the near-infrared and red bands from a standard RGB camera, after having removed the near-infrared blocking filter inside. First, the theoretical approach is described, as well as simulated results on a set of soil and vegetation luminance spectra with two different still cameras (Canon 500D and Sigma SD14). Then examples of images obtained in real field conditions are given, and compared with standard colour image acquisition for pixel-based plant/soil discrimination, using an automatic thresholding method. It appears that in most cases our new acquisition procedure brings a significative improvement, opening new opportunities for crop monitoring applications.

Because domestic heating appliances have the advantage to reduce emissions of greenhouse gas, their use is increasing and largely recommended by European governments. Some recent studies revealed that they are source of near a hundred of other chemical compounds. One of the most important challenges today is to optimize combustion processes in order to reduce gaseous pollutants and particles in the fumes. In this study, two optimized combustion chambers are presented and tested. The first one is the ILOT stove, commercialized by D2I/INVICTA, which is working on the principle of reverse combustion. The second one is the XP68 insert, commercialized by LORFLAM, in which flow rate of hot air is directly controlled and injected in the flame. Tested at normal heat output, these fireplaces present concentrations of CO and TSP far below the limits defined by the French quality mark 'Flamme Verte'. Mean concentrations of CO in the exhaust are 0.08 % and 0.17 % for ILOT and XP68, respectively, ¬3 ¬3 while mean amounts of TSP are respectively 13 mg.Nm and 24 mg.Nm. PM0.1 fraction constitutes 85 % of the total number of particles for XP68 inset, while a partition 50/50 is observed for PM0.1¬1 and PM0.1 fractions for ILOT stove., Proceedings of the 20th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 18-22 June 2012, Milan, Italy, pp. 728-731