Development of superconducting power devices in Europe

Europe celebrated last year (2008) the 100-year anniversary of the first liquefaction of helium by H. Kammerling Onnes in Leiden. It led to the discovery of superconductivity in 1911. Europe is still active in the development of superconducting (SC) devices. The discovery of high critical temperature materials in 1986, again in Europe, has opened a lot of opportunities for SC devices by broking the 4 K cryogenic bottleneck.     

Shallow Water equations for Non-Newtonian fluids

The purpose of this paper is to provide a consistent thin layer theory for some Non-Newtonian fluids that are incompressible and flowing down an inclined plane under the effect of gravity. We shall provide a better understanding of the derivation of Shallow Water models in the case of power-law fluids and Bingham fluids. The method is based on asymptotic expansions of solutions of the Cauchy Momentum equations in the Shallow Water scaling and in the neighbourhood of steady solutions so that we can close the average equations on the fluid height h and the total discharge rate q. Such a method has been first introduced in the case of Newtonian fluids where the computations are proved to be rigorous (Vila, in preparation [20]; Bresch and Noble, 2007 [9]) whereas the more complex case of arbitrary topography has been treated formally (Boutounet et al., 2008 [5]). The well posedness of the free surface Cauchy Momentum equations for these Non-Newtonian fluids is still an open problem: the computations carried out here are only formal.     

High yielding microwave-assisted synthesis of tri-substituted 1,3,5-triazines using Pd-catalyzed aryl and heteroarylamination

A rapid and efficient Pd-catalyzed aryl and heteroarylamination under microwave irradiation has been developed for various tri-substituted triazines that can serve as versatile building blocks for both supramolecular and medicinal chemistry research. Particularly valuable features of this method included the short reaction time, good yield, and convenient operation.     

Sulfide determination in hydrothermal seawater samples using a vibrating gold micro-wire electrode in conjunction with stripping chronopotentiometry

A rapid electrochemical stripping chronopotentiometric procedure to determined sulfide in unaltered hydrothermal seawater samples is presented. Sulfide is deposited at −0.25 V (vs Ag/AgCl, KCl 3 M) at a vibrating gold microwire and then stripped through the application of a reductive constant current (typically −2 μA). The hydrodynamic conditions are modulated by vibration allowing a short deposition step, which is shown here to be necessary to minimize H₂S volatilization. The limit of detection (LOD) is 30 nM after a deposition step of 7 s. This LOD is in the same range as the most sensitive cathodic voltammetric technique using a mercury drop electrode and is well below those reported previously for other electrodes capable of being implemented in situ.     

The challenge in managing new financial risks: adopting an heuristic or theoretical approach

The financial crisis began with the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the subprime asset backed securities debacle. Credit risk was turned into liquidity risk, resulting in a lack of confidence among financial institutions. In this article, we will propose a way to model liquidity risk and the credit risk in best practices. We will show that liquidity risk is a new type of risk and the current way to deal with it is based solely on observed variables without any theoretical link. We propose an heuristic approach to combine the numerous liquidity risk indicators with a logistic regression for the first time. In regards to credit risk, several articles prove that the best practice is to use an option model to appreciate this risk. We will present our methodology using stochastic diffusion for the interest rate because currently the yield curves aren’t liquid. This approach is more relevant because the basis model in prior publications has a constant interest rate or a forward rate. Both models allow a better understanding of liquidity and credit risks and the further development of research deals with the link between these two financial risks.     

What is the mechanism of oriented crystal growth on rubbed polymer substrates? Topography vs epitaxy

From the oriented growth of p-nitroaniline crystals on various rubbed polymer substrates, the orientation mechanism was found to basically rely upon the formation of intermolecular interactions at the crystal/polymer interface. The observations also show that the surface topography only plays a minor role in the oriented nucleation.