Fertilization Effects on the Chemical Composition and In Vitro Organic Matter Digestibility of Semi-natural Meadows as Predicted by NIR Spectrometry

in Notulae Botanicae Horti Agrobotanici Cluj-Napoca (2013), 41(1), 42-48

Management of livestock grazing in highly-productive mountain meadows is an important aspect for the economic viability and the environmental impact of a grassland-based farm. The main aim of this study ... [more ▼]

Management of livestock grazing in highly-productive mountain meadows is an important aspect for the economic viability and the environmental impact of a grassland-based farm. The main aim of this study was to build near infrared models to determine the chemical composition and in vitro organic matter digestibility of Romanian meadow forages. The treatments were organic and mineral fertilizer combinations, and forage samples were obtained from three fertilization experiments conducted in the Apuseni Mountains; these samples were analysed using classical and NIR methods. The samples were scanned in the NIR wavelength band. The CRA-W Gembloux ‘local’ calibration models were validated with Romanian meadow forages and then used in order to predict the forage quality of samples. A second objective of the study was to determine the effects of fertilization on forage quality. The results showed a decrease in crude protein content from the NPK treatment (150:75:75), which can be explained by a reduction of Fabaceae plants with this treatment from 17.25% of the populations in the control (semi-natural meadow not fertilized) to 6.25% in the fertilized plots. The decrease in protein content and in vitro organic matter digestibility was related to a reduced Fabaceae presence. Our recommendation is to use mineral fertilization with NPK doses less than 100:50:50 to improve meadow productivity; meanwhile organic fertilization can also be used to complement and maintain biodiversity and forage quality. [less ▲]

Women in the Top Management of Belgian Family Business : Obstacles, Contributions and Advantages

Poster (2013, May)

Le pape François se trompe-t-il ?

E-print/Working paper (2013)

La crise de panique généralisée à laquelle nous avons assisté depuis 2007/2008 – pour reprendre l’analyse qu’en fait l’homme le mieux informé du monde, Ben Bernanke –, n’est rien d’autre que le double ... [more ▼]

La crise de panique généralisée à laquelle nous avons assisté depuis 2007/2008 – pour reprendre l’analyse qu’en fait l’homme le mieux informé du monde, Ben Bernanke –, n’est rien d’autre que le double d’une crise de confiance trouvant son origine dans l’accélération de l’information et la difficulté du pouvoir politique à en percevoir et à en accepter les conséquences. [less ▲]

Efficient database pruning for large-scale cover song recognition

in International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP) (2013, May)

This paper focuses on cover song recognition over a large dataset, potentially containing millions of songs. At this time, the problem of cover song recognition is still challenging and only few methods ... [more ▼]

This paper focuses on cover song recognition over a large dataset, potentially containing millions of songs. At this time, the problem of cover song recognition is still challenging and only few methods have been proposed on large scale databases. We present an efficient method for quickly extracting a small subset from a large database in which a correspondence to an audio query should be found. We make use of fast rejectors based on independent audio features. Our method mixes independent rejectors together to build composite ones. We evaluate our system with the Million Song Dataset and we present composite rejectors offering a good trade-off between the percentage of pruning and the percentage of loss. [less ▲]

Biotechnology, Controversy, and Policy: Challenges of the Bioeconomy in Latin America

in Technology in Society (2013)

This special issue explores cases from Latin American countries, studied in comparison to global trends in the arenas of public participation, scientific knowledge production, regulation and governance ... [more ▼]

This special issue explores cases from Latin American countries, studied in comparison to global trends in the arenas of public participation, scientific knowledge production, regulation and governance. The authors demonstrate the complexity of these cases, both in terms of regional differences and the different spaces of public, policy, and scientific knowledge production into which such innovations are inserted. The articles are based on rich empirical data collected in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Paraguay. Authors show that the top-down circulation of policy narratives on biotechnology is challenged, complemented and even partly undermined by local bottom-up dynamics. Conversely, articles also focus on those grassroots dynamics and the ways they are influenced and conditioned by macro-sociological and political economic factors. Lastly, a great deal of attention is paid to the ways states and national actors actively contribute to their own insertion in globalized markets where bioengineered living resources are increasingly tasked with solving the most pressing economic and social issues. We believe that this collection of works challenges scholars, intellectuals, policy-makers and relevant stakeholders to open up their views of biotechnology as a dynamic construct that interacts with local situations in a variety of ways. From a more distanced perspective, the aggregated findings of the contributors to this special issue suggest that the important tasks for scholarly work on bioeconomy today become (1) to observe and critically assess the de-localization and re-localization of the concept of bioeconomy in Latin America where biological resources have become increasingly strategic over the last decades; (2) to analyze the bioeconomy as a site of struggles among countries and/or social groups who articulate strategic visions as part of narrating activities. [less ▲]

Study of interface trap density in a GeSn MOS structure by numerical simulation of the electrical characteristics

Conference (2013, May)

The semiconducting alloy germanium tin (GeSn) is expected to play an important role in the development of high mobility channel materials for next generation CMOS and optoelectronic devices. The two most ... [more ▼]

The semiconducting alloy germanium tin (GeSn) is expected to play an important role in the development of high mobility channel materials for next generation CMOS and optoelectronic devices. The two most interesting features of this material, which is compatible with mainstream Si technology, are its tunable direct band-gap and the possibility to induce strain due to the lattice mismatch with Ge and Si, thereby increasing the holes and electrons mobilities. It has been shown that the interface trap density can be under- or overestimated in Ge-channel MOSFETs when applying conventional measurement techniques such as the conductance method. As this effect is common in low band-gap materials, we expect that it also occurs for GeSn. Following our previous work on metal/GeSn/Ge structures, we have therefore applied our home-built numerical simulation software to a metal/oxide/GeSn MOS structure in order to investigate the result of the presence of such interface states. We discuss possible effects of the interface trap density, interface trap energy and temperature on the electrical characteristics. Successive simulations of both the steady-state and ac small-signal regimes give access to measurable quantities such as the admittance spectrum and the C-V curves. A physical interpretation can be attributed to their variations and an overall comparison can be made with results obtained from equivalent electrical circuit analysis. [less ▲]

Acteurs émergents. Perspectives pour la gouvernance mondiale

Book published by Presses Universitaires de Liège (2013)

L’émergence de « nouveaux » acteurs sur la scène internationale rappelle la diversité des défis mondiaux et les opportunités d’évolution de la gouvernance globale. Cet ouvrage ana¬lyse l’impact de leur ... [more ▼]

L’émergence de « nouveaux » acteurs sur la scène internationale rappelle la diversité des défis mondiaux et les opportunités d’évolution de la gouvernance globale. Cet ouvrage ana¬lyse l’impact de leur montée en puissance sur l’économie et la politique mondiales, ainsi que sur les relations Nord-Sud. Privilégiant les études empiriques et approches originales en termes de politique interne et/ou externe, il repose sur trois axes de recherche transver¬saux : le rôle des puissances « (ré)émergentes » dans la gouvernance économique mondiale à la lumière de la crise ; les enjeux d’une coopération Sud-Sud ; la nature de ces « nouveaux » acteurs et les opportunités stratégiques qu’ils offrent aux États. Dépassant les approches classiques de Science politique et Relations internationales en misant sur l’interdisciplinarité, cet ouvrage livre un regard neuf sur deux thématiques d’actualité. [less ▲]

Nonlinear guitar loudspeaker simulation

in Proceedings of the AES 134 th convention (2013, May)

Jean Baubérot : La laïcité au pluriel

in Politique : Revue de Débats (2013), 80

Le travail de Jean Baubérot autour de la laîcité française est à la fois celui d'un historien, d'un sociologue et d'un théoricien politique. L'article tente de synthétiser sa réflexion à partir de ses ... [more ▼]

Le travail de Jean Baubérot autour de la laîcité française est à la fois celui d'un historien, d'un sociologue et d'un théoricien politique. L'article tente de synthétiser sa réflexion à partir de ses principaux textes récents. Il met en évidence la "provincialisation" de la laïcité à la française, qui parcourt toute l'oeuvre du sociologue, où celui-ci développe l'idée que la France n'est qu'un modèle de laicité parmi bien d'autres. Par ailleurs, comme Baubérot y insiste, il faut faire une différence marquée entre la laïcité "narrative", à savoir les récits qui s'expriment dans le débat public, et les pratiques réelle, souvent plus accomodantes. Enfin, cette laïcité narrative tend à faire dériver la laïcité comme ensemble de principes politiques vers une conception "culturaliste" qui tendrait à en faire un marqueur identitaire français. [less ▲]

Comparison between Perkin-Elmer and Chromsytem Vitamin D kit on TQ 5500 from AB SCIEX

(2013, May)

Background: Twenty-five hydroxy-vitamin D (25(OH) D) determination is now routinely prescribed in the Laboratory. Recently, different new methods have been available for this determination. Among them ... [more ▼]

Background: Twenty-five hydroxy-vitamin D (25(OH) D) determination is now routinely prescribed in the Laboratory. Recently, different new methods have been available for this determination. Among them, LCMS/MS methods have emerged in some laboratories. However these methods are generally “home-brewed” and an important variability between them can be seen on different external quality controls, mainly due to a lack of standardization. Recently, Perkin-Elmer (PE) (Turku, Finland) and Chromsystem (CS) (Grafelfing, Germany) launched a standardised method for 25(OH )D determination on LCMS/MS. The aim of our study was to compare these methods on the AB SCIEX TQ5500 (Framingham, Massachusetts, USA) LCMS/MS to measure 25(OH) D3. Methods All the samples were treated according to our preanalyitical procedure: after sampling, they were spun at +4°c at 3500G, aliquoted and kept frozen at -20°c until determination. A method comparison was assessed with CS and PE for the measurement of the 25(OH)D3. We selected 110 remnant samples with 25(OH)D3 levels ranging from 1.6 to 136.7 ng/ml with the PE method to cover the range of usually values Slope and intercept were calculated using Passing and Bablock linear regression and we compared the methods with the Bland and Altman plots. Results For CS, the method is linear up to 250 µg/L, the LOQ is 3.6 µg/L, the intra-assay CV is < 5% and the inter-assay is < 7%. For PE, the method is linear up to 314 µg/L, the LOQ is 3.4 µg/L, the intra-assay CV is < 7.8% and the inter-assay is < 8.5%. On the whole range of measure (n=110), the regression equation is PE = 0.8521+0.9226 (CS) (95%CI of the intercept: (-0.0048;1.37) and 95% CI of the slope (0.89;0.95). The Bland and Altman plot does not show any bias between the two methods (mean difference CS-PE= -2.5 ng/ml) and the standard deviation of the mean is 3,98 ng/ml Conclusion: The performances of these methods are comparable on our new TQ 5500 from AB SCIEX. For now, there is no consensus on a “reference” method for vitamin D quantification. We notice only that the values obtained by CS are systematically a little bit lower than PE’s values, especially for results below 20 ng/ml. However, we have no clear explanation for such behaviour. [less ▲]