The Dwarf Spheroidal Companions to M31: WFPC2 Observations of Andromeda I

Images have been obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 camera of Andromeda I, a dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxy that lies in the outer halo of M31. The resulting color-magnitude diagrams reveal for the first time the morphology of the horizontal branch in this system. We find that, in a similar fashion to many of the galactic dSph companions, the horizontal branch (HB) of And~I is predominantly red. Combined with the metal abundance of this dSph, this red HB morphology indicates that And I can be classified as a ``second parameter'' system in the outer halo of M31. This result then supports the hypothesis that the outer halo of M31 formed in the same extended chaotic manner as is postulated for the outer halo of the Galaxy.Comment: 26 pages using aas2pp4.sty, including 2 tables and 7 figures, to be published in AJ. Figure 1 is in gif form. To include in main ps file, use xv to create a ps file called Da_Costa.fig1.ps and uncomment appropriate lines in .tex fil

eCHASE: Sustainable Exploitation of Electronic Cultural Heritage

Europe’s digital cultural heritage content has tremendous exploitation potential in applications such as Education, Publishing, e-Commerce, Public Access and Tourism. Value is hugely amplified if the content can be aggregated, repurposed and distributed at a European level. The eCHASE project seeks to demonstrate that public-private partnerships between content holders and commercial service providers can create new services and a sustainable business based on access and exploitation of digital cultural heritage content. This paper describes these issues and introduces the eCHASE architecture that is being developed to showcase the business models created for the project

Traces of the (m)other: deconstructing hegemonic historical narrative in Teat(r)o Oficina Uzyna Uzona's Os Sertões

This article focuses on the way in which renowned São Paulo-based theatre company Teat(r)o Oficina Uzyna Uzona deconstructs hegemonic historical narrative in their 2000 - 2007 25 hour-long production of Euclides da Cunha’s seminal Brazilian novel Os sertões (“Rebellion in the Backlands”), an account of the War of Canudos (1896-1897), the first major act of State terrorism carried out by the nascent Brazilian Federal Government on the country’s subaltern population. The Teat(r)o Oficina’s epic adaptation fuses events from the colonial period, the military dictatorship and contemporary 21st Century São Paulo to relate the repetitive cycles of misappropriation, oppression and resistance that have characterized the history of Brazil and its people over the centuries. However, any fatalistic view of victimhood as an essential aspect of Brazilian subjectivity is radically challenged by the vibrant, rhythmic, material impact of the theatrical super-signs underpinning the performance text. Drawing on Julia Kristeva’s notion of the semiotic - the pre-linguistic, illogical, rhythmical materialism of language intimately related to a primordial relationship with the abject mother – I shall suggest that it is the rhythmic, libidinal force of the performance and its extensive use of the cultural manifestations of Brazil’s subaltern population that imbues Os Sertões with the silent presence-as-absence of the abject Brazilian (M)Other – the Black, Indigenous and Mestiza matriarchal line whose alternative discourse is often barred from hegemonic accounts of Brazilian historiography. Her silent heritage is embodied on stage by the members of the Oficina, who reclaim an alienating national heritage for themselves by transforming the often tragic tale of Brazil’s past into a joyous celebration of tenacious vitality

Using numerical plant models and phenotypic correlation space to design achievable ideotypes

Numerical plant models can predict the outcome of plant traits modifications resulting from genetic variations, on plant performance, by simulating physiological processes and their interaction with the environment. Optimization methods complement those models to design ideotypes, i.e. ideal values of a set of plant traits resulting in optimal adaptation for given combinations of environment and management, mainly through the maximization of a performance criteria (e.g. yield, light interception). As use of simulation models gains momentum in plant breeding, numerical experiments must be carefully engineered to provide accurate and attainable results, rooting them in biological reality. Here, we propose a multi-objective optimization formulation that includes a metric of performance, returned by the numerical model, and a metric of feasibility, accounting for correlations between traits based on field observations. We applied this approach to two contrasting models: a process-based crop model of sunflower and a functional-structural plant model of apple trees. In both cases, the method successfully characterized key plant traits and identified a continuum of optimal solutions, ranging from the most feasible to the most efficient. The present study thus provides successful proof of concept for this enhanced modeling approach, which identified paths for desirable trait modification, including direction and intensity.Comment: 25 pages, 5 figures, 2017, Plant, Cell and Environmen

Experimental Verification of Rate Flexibility and Probabilistic Shaping by 4D Signaling

The rate flexibility and probabilistic shaping gain of $4$-dimensional signaling is experimentally tested for short-reach, unrepeated transmission. A rate granularity of 0.5 bits/QAM symbol is achieved with a distribution matcher based on a simple look-up table.Comment: Presented at OFC'18, San Diego, CA, US

Torrefaction behaviour of various biomass types: kinetics of solid mass loss and release of volatiles

Feedstock variability is a crucial issue for industrialization of biomass conversion processes. Indeed, this variability may imply large differences of chemical reaction rates and products yields and therefore differences of reactors design. In this context, the present study, which is part of the French-Brazilian ANR-FINEP project AMAZON, aims at characterising the behaviours of various biomass types during torrefaction in terms of solid mass loss kinetics and volatiles release. This should enable (i) to draw conclusions regarding their use in a process and (ii) to develop predictive kinetic models valid for various biomass feedstocks. The experiments are performed on 17 biomass including different kinds of wood (French woods: beech, pine, eucalyptus, false acacia and poplar Short Rotation Coppice (SRC) and Short Rotation Forestry (SRF); Brazilian woods: angelim, faveira, maçaramduba) and agricultural biomass (wheat straw, immature annual crop: triticale, forage grass : tall fescue and perennial herbaceous crops harvested dry in late winter: :miscanthus, switchgrass;). For study of solid mass loss kinetics, TGA experiments are performed during several hours at three final temperatures (230; 250 ; 280°C). For study of volatiles release, experiments are carried out at 250°C in a lab-scale reactor in which it is possible to close the mass balance during torrefaction of several grams of biomass. Gaseous species are continuously quantified thanks to a ?GC, and condensable species contents are measured using a GC-MS analyser. Three different kinetic behaviours can be observed depending on the species and their chemical composition, notably their hemicelluloses / xylose content. Mass loss is relatively slow for mature woods during the first hour, but then keeps on being significant even for very long durations. Initial mass loss is very sharp for the straw, the annual crop and the forage grass but then attains a plateau. Perennials and SRF/SRC exhibit the same behaviour, with an intermediate mass loss between mature wood and the other group of agricultural biomasses during the first hour and then a significant mass loss for long duration. These behaviours can be successfully modelled with the Di Blasi-Lanzetta scheme 1, based on two successive steps constituted of two parallel reactions, and able to describe the influence of temperature on solid yield. In a process viewpoint, to keep a reasonable mass loss, these results imply that agricultural biomass must be torrefied under less severe conditions than wood. Regarding gas release, contents and distribution of water, condensable species and non condensable species depend on the type of biomass and their chemical composition. The same previous three main families can be observed. In particular, for condensable species, acid fraction is low for wood, more important for perennials, and is the major part for the straw, annual and forage crops family. Some products are typically found in significant amounts in one family (formaldehyde in wood; formic acid in perennials crops and glycoaldehydedimer in straw, annual and forage crops family). In a process viewpoint, this means that cleaning step and further products recovery may be different according to the biomass type. (Résumé d'auteur

Physiological responses of diploid and doubled diploid 'Rangpur' lime under water deficit

In citrus, the use of rootstocks promotes productivity, improves fruit quality and may confer resistance or tolerance to biotic and abiotic stress. 'Rangpur' lime (Citrus limonia, Osbeck) is one of the most tolerant rootstock to drought and is largely used by the Brazilian citrus industry. Previous studies have shown that, when grafted with a variety citrus doubled diploid (4x) 'Rangpur' lime rootstock is more tolerant to drought stress than the respective diploid (2x). In the present study, we characterized the water deficit tolerance in 2x and 4x 'Rangpur' lime seedlings. Water deficit was applied respectively for 21 days, followed by recovery irrigation. Physiological and biochemical parameters were measured periodically during the experiment and samples were collected for biochemical analysis. Doubled diploid seedlings were showed to be more water deficit tolerant than 2x. Water deficit caused a greater reduction in stomatal conductance in 2x compared to 4x. The 21st day of stress, leaf water potential in 2x was lower. Analyses of the activity of enzymes involved in detoxification process suggest that the better tolerance of 4x genotypes may be related to better scavenging of reactive oxygen species. (Résumé d'auteur