Recipes of the self. Moroccan women and culinary practices in migration context.

Scientific conference (2013, August)

This paper aims at exploring the culinary practices exerted by Moroccan women living in Milan's (Italy) hinterland, highlighting their role in the definition of one’s own identity in the context of ... [more ▼]

This paper aims at exploring the culinary practices exerted by Moroccan women living in Milan's (Italy) hinterland, highlighting their role in the definition of one’s own identity in the context of migration. The analysis will focus on the praxeological and material basis of female agency and on the role of the concept of “style” in the dynamics and processes studied. In the context of the everyday life of some Moroccan women living in a city of the province of Milan (Italy), cooking practices play a fundamental role, because of their importance in the construction of personal and collective identities. The ethnographic work reveals that the choice of the used objects and the performing of precise gestures reflect a dynamical positioning between two poles. On the one hand a commitment to the home country’s culinary traditions is needed to overcome a state of disorientation due to being perceived as a foreigner in Italy as in Morocco; on the other hand taking a distance of these same practices is functional to adhere to the "modernity" rules or the dietary ones. Within these processes, the active dialogue with the concept of Moroccan “style”, defined locally as transnationally, results as a crucial factor. The life stories collected and the material culture analyzed reveal in fact singular strategies of self-definition, which allow women to exercise their own agency both in the family context and in public spaces. [less ▲]

Comparison of three NDT techniques for the inspection of aeronautic composite structures

Conference (2013, July 28)

Franz Thedieck (1900-1995): Zur Biographie eines "rationalen Propagandisten" im 20. Jahrhundert

Scientific conference (2013, July 17)

Epigenetic regulation of angiogenesis

Doctoral thesis (2013)

Analysis of solar air-conditioning systems and their integration in buildings

Doctoral thesis (2013)

Due to economical and environmental concerns, the energy e fficiency of buildings nowadays has proven to play an increasingly important role. To satisfy the occupants comfort, the cooling of buildings ... [more ▼]

Due to economical and environmental concerns, the energy e fficiency of buildings nowadays has proven to play an increasingly important role. To satisfy the occupants comfort, the cooling of buildings generally involves a considerable consumption of electricity. Solar radiation, which is a free and renewable resource, is linked to the cooling needs of buildings. This work consists in the evaluation, from an energy-saving and economical point of view, of a potential use of solar energy for air-conditioning in residential and o ffice buildings. It includes an integral approach of solar air-conditioning, involving the analysis of the buildings cooling needs, the cold production devices, the solar collector fields and climates. This analysis is supported by simulations and experimental setups. The study of solar air-conditioning systems already available on the market or in laboratories reveals their operational principles as well as their main performance indicators. Two main solar cooling paths are investigated: a thermal and a photovoltaic conversion of solar energy. Besides this, the performance of the entire air-conditioning system broadens the question of the energy performance to the interactions between the diff erent parts of the system. The building thermal loads (heating, cooling, domestic hot water) of some theoretical residential and o ffice buildings are computed in a part of this work dealing with the influence of the comfort model, the building energy performance level and the climate. What comes across through this analysis is that, the location of the buildings put aside, the cooling load is greatly influenced by the envelope thermal performance and the internal gains. The cooling systems involving absorption or adsorption or vapour compression chiller cooling machines are simulated for the previously defi ned building cases. The use of solar energy through thermal collectors for heating meets higher primary energy savings than for cooling. In all cases, the thermally driven system achieves a lower energy and economical performance than a vapour compression chiller partially supplied with a photovoltaic field. Some real scale testing of solar air-conditioning systems was carried out in Arlon (Belgium). A thermally driven adsorption chiller and a vapour compression chiller with a photovoltaic grid-connected fi eld were operated during the cooling season. The measurements made during this experiment and their analysis manage to discover every thermal and electrical energy flows of the systems leading to a new adsorption chiller model. Concerning the comparison with the simulations, the main point of interest is the consumption of electricity dedicated to thermally driven systems, which is two times higher in real scale conditions. The results obtained from the monitoring campaigns corroborate the simulation results about system comparison. [less ▲]

Optimalisation de la radiosynthèse et production au niveau de la curie d'acides aminés aromatiques marqués au fluor-18

Doctoral thesis (2013)

6-[18F]fluoro-L-dopa (FDOPA) and 2-[18F]fluoro-L-tyrosine (FTYR) are useful radiopharmaceuticals for evaluation by positron emission tomography (PET) of the dopaminergic function and oncological studies ... [more ▼]

6-[18F]fluoro-L-dopa (FDOPA) and 2-[18F]fluoro-L-tyrosine (FTYR) are useful radiopharmaceuticals for evaluation by positron emission tomography (PET) of the dopaminergic function and oncological studies, respectively. In comparison to electrophilic synthesis, the no-carrier-added (nca) nucleophilic preparation of these 2 radiopharmaceuticals, described in 2004 by Lemaire et al, has several advantages such a high batch yield and high specific activity. However, this nca enantioselective synthesis using a chiral phase-transfer catalyst requires some chemicals (i.e. corrosive HBr gas) arduous to handle and store and reactions at low and high temperature (0°C, 200°C) difficult to implement into a commercially available synthesizer. Important chemical improvements, realized during this PhD thesis, having resulted in straightforward automation of FDOPA and FTYR synthesis, in a commercially available FASTLab module (GE healthcare) are presented. The first significant improvement to the synthesis has consisted in the development of a fast and reliable method suitable for the preparation of (substituted) [18F]fluorobenzyl halides from several [18F]fluorobenzaldehydes. Aromatic nucleophilic substitution of trimethylammonium benzaldehyde triflate and nitro precursors were realized with nca [18F]fluoride. After labeling, [18F]fluorobenzaldehydes were trapped on a Solid Phase Extraction (SPE) cartridge and the subsequent conversion (reduction and halogenation) into benzyl halides was directly realized, on-line, on the support. Reduction of the aldehydes and the following halogenation step were performed with an aqueous solution of NaBH4 and aqueous solutions of concentrated acid (HI, HBr, HCl), respectively. These two near-quantitative reactions proceed at room temperature within 2 minutes at high yields. The second improvement of the nca synthesis of FDOPA and FTYR has consisted in the enantioselective formation of a new carbon-carbon bond by phase-transfer catalysis in presence of a chiral phase-transfer catalyst (PTC) at RT rather than at 0°C. Seven chiral phase-transfer catalysts with a potential high enantioselectivity, at room temperature, for the asymmetric alkylation of a N-(diphenylmethylene)glycine tert-butyl ester have been prepared. Two of these catalysts affords high enantiomeric excess in FDOPA and FTYR (e.e. ≥ 95%) at room temperature and even at 75°C (e.e. ≥ 90%). One is readily available from a cinchona alkaloid and the other one from a biphenyl substrate. The third improvement concerned the hydrolysis step (200°C, 20 min). Different starting precursors with more labile protective groups than the methoxy were synthesized and evaluated. Among these compounds, the isopropyl ether protective group seems the more advantageous. By exploiting the advantages of the improvements to the chemistry described in this work and the potential of the nca approach, the synthesis of FDOPA and FTYR was automated in a FASTlab module with GMP single use cassettes. After 100 min of bombardment (167 GBq) and 63 min of synthesis, more than 50 GBq (1,35 Ci) of 6-[18F]fluoro-L-dopa (e.e. ≥ 96,3%) with a specific activity in excess of 0.75 TBq/µmol are routinely produced. For FTYR, slightly higher yield was obtained. With such reliable production, 6-[18F]fluoro-L-dopa and 2-[18F]fluoro-L-tyrosine are now available for clinical investigation. [less ▲]

Stratégies et représentations de l'apprentissage du français langue étrangère chez des lycéens vietnamiens : description et étude de leur rapport avec les compétences linguistiques

Doctoral thesis (2013)

Strategies that language learners use and their beliefs about language learning are fields that have interested many researchers in recent years. So, what are language learning strategies used by ... [more ▼]

Strategies that language learners use and their beliefs about language learning are fields that have interested many researchers in recent years. So, what are language learning strategies used by Vietnamese learners of French as foreign language? What are their beliefs concerning language learning? Is there any relationship between these elements and proficiency? This is what we propose to study in this doctoral work using quantitative approach with three main research tools: the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (Oxford, 1990), the Beliefs About Language Learning Inventory (Horwitz, 1988) and a linguistic test. We start this research by meeting the important requirement of the cross-cultural validation of the adopted questionnaires. Then, statistical analysis (descriptive and inferential) will allow us to answer to research questions. The results show that Vietnamese learners have limited and varied strategy use and they have different beliefs about the learning of French as a foreign language. Furthermore, the relationship between strategy use and representations, on the one hand, and between these elements and proficiency, on the other hand, is statistically significant. However, it is fairly complex. To conclude this thesis, we will try to provide possible explanations and point out implications. This discussion will lead to some recommendations aimed at different players involved in the teaching/learning of French in Vietnam. [less ▲]

Production at the Curie Level of No-Carrier-Added 6-18F-Fluoro-L-Dopa

in Journal of Nuclear Medicine : Official Publication, Society of Nuclear Medicine (2013), 54(7),

6-18F-fluoro-L-dopa (18F-FDOPA) has proven to be a useful radiopharmaceutical for the evaluation of presynaptic dopaminergic function using PET. In comparison to electrophilic synthesis, the no-carrier ... [more ▼]

6-18F-fluoro-L-dopa (18F-FDOPA) has proven to be a useful radiopharmaceutical for the evaluation of presynaptic dopaminergic function using PET. In comparison to electrophilic synthesis, the no-carrier-added (NCA) nucleophilic method has several advantages. These include much higher available activity and specific activity. Recently, we have described an NCA enantioselective synthesis using a chiral phase-transfer catalyst. However, some chemicals were difficult to implement into a commercially available synthesizer, restricting access to this radiopharmaceutical to only a few PET centers. Methods: In this paper, 2 important chemical improvements are proposed to simplify production of 18F-FDOPA, resulting in straightforward automation of the synthesis in a commercially available module. Results: First, a fast, simple, and reliable synthesis of 2-18F-fluoro-4,5-dimethoxybenzyl iodide on a solid phase support was developed. Second, a phase-transfer catalyst alkylation of a glycine derivative at room temperature was used to enable enantioselective carbon–carbon bond formation. After hydrolysis and high-performance liquid chromatography purification, a high enantiomeric excess of 18F-FDOPA (~97%) was obtained using a chiral catalyst available from a biphenyl 3 substrate. The total synthesis time was 63 min, and the decay-corrected radiochemical yield was 36% +/- 3% (n = 8). Conclusion: By exploiting the advantages of this NCA approach, using a starting activity of 185 GBq of NCA 18F-fluoride, high activities of 18F-FDOPA (> 45 GBq) with high specific activity (>753 GBq/mmol) are now available at the end of synthesis for use in clinical investigations. [less ▲]

A multirate approach to combine electromagnetic transients and fundamental-frequency simulations

Conference (2013, July)

Abstract--- A new multi-rate technique is proposed to combine fundamental-frequency simulation (typical of stability studies) with electromagnetic transients simulation. The objective of this hybrid ... [more ▼]

Abstract--- A new multi-rate technique is proposed to combine fundamental-frequency simulation (typical of stability studies) with electromagnetic transients simulation. The objective of this hybrid approach is to obtain more accurate simulations than with the fundamental-frequency approximation, while saving computing time by applying the detailed model to a subsystem only, in some neighbourhood of the disturbance. It also allows to remove some limitations of fundamental-frequency simulation, such as the difficulty of simulating unbalanced faults. A relaxation technique is used to iterate between both models with simple interfacing. Preliminary results obtained with a 74-bus test system are presented, together with a comparison with full electromagnetic transients simulation. [less ▲]

Simulation and optimization of a CHP biomass plant and district heating network

Conference (2013, July)

Biomass Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plants connected to district heating (DH) networks are recognized nowadays as a very good opportunity to increase the share of renewable sources into energy systems ... [more ▼]

Biomass Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plants connected to district heating (DH) networks are recognized nowadays as a very good opportunity to increase the share of renewable sources into energy systems. However, as CHP plants are not optimized for electricity production, their operation is profitable only if a sufficient heat demand is available throughout the year. Most of the time, pre-feasibility studies are based on peak power demand and business plans only assume monthly or yearly consumption data. This approach usually turns out to overestimate the number of operating hours or oversize the plant capacity. This contribution presents a methodology intended to be simple and effective that provides accurate estimations of economical, environmental and energetic performances of CHP plants connected to district heating networks. A quasi-steady state simulation model of a CHP plant combined with a simulation model of the district heating network installed on the Campus of the University in Liège (Belgium) is used as an application framework to demonstrate the effectiveness of the selected approach. Based on the developed model and actual consumption data, several scenarios for energy savings are considered and ranked. The potential energy savings and resulting energy costs are estimated enabling more general conclusions to be drawn on the opportunity of using district heating networks in urban districts for Western Europe countries. [less ▲]