On the characterisation of paired monotone metrics

Hasegawa and Petz introduced the notion of paired monotone metrics. They also gave a characterisation theorem showing that Wigner-Yanase-Dyson metrics are the only members of the paired family. In this paper we show that the characterisation theorem holds true under hypotheses that are more general than those used in the above quoted references.     

Compositions for health products obtained by treatment of tomato with beta-cyclodextrin

The aim of this work was to produce lycopene-containing powders from tomato products by a solvent-free method making use of β-cyclodextrin (βCD). Powders were prepared by spray-drying a tomato concentrate (TC), one of the most bioavailable form of lycopene, after mechanical treatment with βCD in different weight ratios. The obtained product was centrifuged to eliminate partly food matrix and characterized for the amount of lycopene hydrodispersed/hydrosolubilized in the aqueous fraction. The chemical antioxidant activity of sera was evaluated too. Powders obtained by spray-drying sera exhibited good flow properties, a lycopene content between 0.4 and 1.09 mg/g and excellent water dispersability. The process developed, which makes use of βCD for the treatment of tomato products, turns to be of great interest to obtain a bulk material for nutraceuticals displaying superior biovailability of lycopene.     

A kinetic Monte Carlo method on super-lattices for the study of the defect formation in the growth of close packed structures

A modified Kinetic Lattice Monte Carlo model has been developed to predict growth rate regimes and defect formation in the case of the homo-epitaxial growth of close packed crystalline structures. The model is an improvement over standard Monte Carlo algorithms, which usually retain fixed atom positions and bond partners indicative of perfect crystal lattices. Indeed, we extend the concepts of Monte Carlo growth simulations on super-lattices containing additional sites (defect sites) with respect to those of the reference material. This extension implies a reconsideration of the energetic mapping, which is extensively presented, and allows to describe a complex phenomenology that is out of accessibility of standard stochastic approaches. Results obtained using the Kawasaki and the Bond-Counting rules for the transition probability of the Monte Carlo event are discussed in details. These results demonstrate how the defect types (local or extended), the formation mechanisms and the defect generation regimes can be characterized using our approach.     

Crystallographic report: Crystal structure of tetra(4‐methyl‐5‐imidazole‐carboxyaldehyde)zinc(II) diperchlorate

The central zinc(II) atom in the title complex is tetrahedrally coordinated by four nitrogen atoms derived from 4‐methyl‐5‐imidazolecarboxyaldehyde ligands with Zn? N in the range 2.007(3) to 2.026(4) Å. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Crystallographic report: Crystal structure of a one‐dimensional zinc(II) coordination polymer containing 4,4′‐biphenyldicarboxylate hemihydrate

A one‐dimensional zinc(II) coordination polymer has been constructed from zinc(II), 4,4′‐biphenyldicarboxylate and pyridine in which each zinc(II) atom is coordinated by two pyridine ligands and two monodentate 4,4′‐biphenyldicarboxylate ligands that define a distorted tetrahedral geometry. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Lower Bounds for the Height and Size of the Ideal Class Group in CM-Fields

 We prove that, under the assumption of the Generalized Riemann Hypothesis, the exponent of the ideal class group of a CM-field goes to infinity with its absolute discriminant. This gives a positive answer to a question raised by Louboutin and Okazaki [4]. Received September 10, 2001; in revised form April 5, 2002     

The effect of high electric fields on the structure and dielectric properties of the B2 phase

Dielectric studies are presented of a banana-shaped compound that exhibits the antiferroelectric B₂ phase. Upon application and subsequent removal of strong electric fields the textures and dielectric properties of the phase drastically change. Most notable is the huge increase of the low frequency permittivity. This behaviour would suggest the induction of ferroelectricity by the electric field.     

Microwave radiometry of forests

Microwave remote sensing observations provide all weather, day/night monitoring of the earth's surface and make it possible to probe forest vegetation at various depths by operating at different frequencies. Significant progress in microwave radiometry of land surfaces has been made by using advanced airborne and spaceborne instruments and by developing physical and statistical models needed for interpreting the data. At present, a new multi-frequency scanning radiometer, launched in 2002 is providing global observations of the earth's surface at a relatively high resolution, and collected data are currently under study. This paper provides a review of experimental and theoretical investigations carried out in recent years to study the relationships between microwave emission and forest features at regional and global scale. It is shown that, despite the relatively small amount of experimental data currently available, microwave radiometry has proved to be an efficient technique in monitoring forest environments, and in particular in separating forest types, estimating woody biomass and, in some cases, assessing soil surface properties.     

Computation of the Maslov index and the spectral flow via partial signatures

Given a smooth Lagrangian path, both in the finite and in the infinite dimensional (Fredholm) case, we introduce the notion of partial signatures at each isolated intersection of the path with the Maslov cycle. For real-analytic paths, we give a formula for the computation of the Maslov index using the partial signatures; a similar formula holds for the spectral flow of real-analytic paths of Fredholm self-adjoint operators on real separable Hilbert spaces. As applications of the theory, we obtain a semi-Riemannian version of the Morse index theorem for geodesics with possibly conjugate endpoints, and we prove a bifurcation result at conjugate points along semi-Riemannian geodesics. To cite this article: R. Giambò et al., C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 338 (2004).