<Emphasis Type="Italic">Sphagnum</Emphasis> Species Modulate their Phenolic Profiles and Mycorrhizal Colonization of Surrounding <Emphasis Type="Italic">Andromeda polifolia</Emphasis> along Peatland Microhabitats

Sphagnum mosses mediate long-term carbon accumulation in peatlands. Given their functional role as keystone species, it is important to consider their responses to ecological gradients and environmental changes through the production of phenolics. We compared the extent to which Sphagnum phenolic production was dependent on species, microhabitats and season, and how surrounding dwarf shrubs responded to Sphagnum phenolics. We evaluated the phenolic profiles of aqueous extracts of Sphagnum fallax and Sphagnum magellanicum over a 6-month period in two microhabitats (wet lawns versus dry hummocks) in a French peatland. Phenolic profiles of water-soluble extracts were measured by UHPLC-QTOF-MS. Andromeda polifolia mycorrhizal colonization was quantified by assessing the intensity of global root cortex colonization. Phenolic profiles of both Sphagnum mosses were species-, season- and microhabitat- dependant. Sphagnum-derived acids were the phenolics mostly recovered; relative quantities were 2.5-fold higher in S. fallax than in S. magellanicum. Microtopography and vascular plant cover strongly influenced phenolic profiles, especially for minor metabolites present in low abundance. Higher mycorrhizal colonization of A. polifolia was found in lawns as compared to hummocks. Mycorrhizal abundance, in contrast to environmental parameters, was correlated with production of minor phenolics in S. fallax. Our results highlight the close interaction between mycorrhizae such as those colonizing A. polifolia and the release of Sphagnum phenolic metabolites and suggest that Sphagnum-derived acids and minor phenolics play different roles in this interaction. This work provides new insight into the ecological role of Sphagnum phenolics by proposing a strong association with mycorrhizal colonization of shrubs.     

Geometric reasoning for mill-turn machining process planning

An integrated system to support both product and manufacturing process design should be such that (1) the part design can be evaluated and redesigned based on manufacturability analysis and (2) the manufacturing processes can be selected efficiently and flexibly exploiting product information provided by part design representations.

In this paper, we describe the feature-based geometric reasoning system for part modeling and process planning as applied to mill-turn machined parts. The feature recognition system based on convex decomposition and the mapping method to relate the negative feature volumes to machining process classes are applied to mill-turn parts. Also, the geometry-based machining precedence relations have been generated for various alternative machining feature decompositions. The above geometric information is input to mill-turn machining process planning to determine machining process sequences and assignment to multiple spindles and turrets.     

Modeling and implementation of 5G edge caching over satellite

The fifth‐generation (5G) wireless networks have to deal with the high data rate and stringent latency requirements due to the massive invasion of connected devices and data‐hungry applications. Edge caching is a promising technique to overcome these challenges by prefetching the content closer to the end users at the edge node's local storage. In this paper, we analyze the performance of edge caching 5G networks with the aid of satellite communication systems. First, we investigate the satellite‐aided edge caching systems in two promising use cases: (a) in dense urban areas and (b) in sparsely populated regions, eg, rural areas. Second, we study the effectiveness of satellite systems via the proposed satellite‐aided caching algorithm, which can be used in three configurations: (a) mono‐beam satellite, (b) multi‐beam satellite, and (c) hybrid mode. Third, the proposed caching algorithm is evaluated by using both empirical Zipf‐distribution data and the more realistic Movielens dataset. Last but not least, the proposed caching scheme is implemented and tested by our developed demonstrators which allow real‐time analysis of the cache hit ratio and cost analysis.     

The First European Parabolic Flight Campaign with the Airbus A310 ZERO-G

Aircraft parabolic flights repetitively provide up to 23 seconds of reduced gravity during ballistic flight manoeuvres. Parabolic flights are used to conduct short microgravity investigations in Physical and Life Sciences and in Technology, to test instrumentation prior to space flights and to train astronauts before a space mission. The use of parabolic flights is complementary to other microgravity carriers (drop towers, sounding rockets), and preparatory to manned space missions on board the International Space Station and other manned spacecraft, such as Shenzhou and the future Chinese Space Station. After 17 years of using the Airbus A300 ZERO-G, the French company Novespace, a subsidiary of the ’Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales’ (CNES, French Space Agency), based in Bordeaux, France, purchased a new aircraft, an Airbus A310, to perform parabolic flights for microgravity research in Europe. Since April 2015, the European Space Agency (ESA), CNES and the ‘Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V.’ (DLR, the German Aerospace Center) use this new aircraft, the Airbus A310 ZERO-G, for research experiments in microgravity. The first campaign was a Cooperative campaign shared by the three agencies, followed by respectively a CNES, an ESA and a DLR campaign. This paper presents the new Airbus A310 ZERO-G and its main characteristics and interfaces for scientific experiments. The experiments conducted during the first European campaign are presented.     

A novel target detection algorithm combining foreground and background manifold-based models

This paper focuses on the detection of small objects—more precisely on vehicles in aerial images—on complex backgrounds such as natural backgrounds. A key contribution of the paper is to show that, in such situations, learning a target model and a background model separately is better than training a unique discriminative model. This contrasts with standard object detection approaches for which objects vs. background classifiers use the same model as well as the same types of visual features for both. The second contribution lies in the manifold learning approach introduced to build these models. The proposed detection algorithm is validated on the publicly available OIRDS dataset, on which we obtain state-of-the-art results.     

The Mechanisms through Which Certain Variables Influence Customer Loyalty: The Mediating Roles of Perceived Value and Satisfaction

This study surveyed 123 bank users who experienced problems with their banks’ online banking services, with the aim of understanding the mechanisms through which certain variables influence customer loyalty. Principally, the possible mediating roles of value and satisfaction on the relationships between recovery and loyalty and between ISO 9001 and loyalty were scrutinized. The dimensionalities of the scales were assessed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Thereafter, structural equation modeling and multiregression analyses were used to test the proposed model. The overall results showed that service recovery can be used to enhance customers’ satisfaction and perception of value and, therefore, customer loyalty. This study also confirmed the partial mediating roles of customers’ satisfaction and perception of value in the relationship between service recovery and loyalty. In contrast, ISO 9001 has no influence on perceived value, satisfaction, and loyalty; the mediating roles of both perceived value and satisfaction were not supported in the relationship between ISO 9001 and loyalty. In practice, even though ISO 9001 appeared to offer few extras to satisfy and retain customers, its use is still advisable because of the other potential benefits that it provides.     

Conformal Printing of Graphene for Single‐ and Multilayered Devices onto Arbitrarily Shaped 3D Surfaces

Printing has drawn a lot of attention as a means of low per‐unit cost and high throughput patterning of graphene inks for scaled‐up thin‐form factor device manufacturing. However, traditional printing processes require a flat surface and are incapable of achieving patterning onto 3D objects. Here, a conformal printing method is presented to achieve functional graphene‐based patterns onto arbitrarily shaped surfaces. Using experimental design, a water‐insoluble graphene ink with optimum conductivity is formulated. Then single‐ and multilayered electrically functional structures are printed onto a sacrificial layer using conventional screen printing. The print is then floated on water, allowing the dissolution of the sacrificial layer, while retaining the functional patterns. The single‐ and multilayer patterns can then be directly transferred onto arbitrarily shaped 3D objects without requiring any postdeposition processing. Using this technique, conformal printing of single‐ and multilayer functional devices that include joule heaters, resistive deformation sensors, and proximity sensors on hard, flexible, and soft substrates, such as glass, latex, thermoplastics, textiles, and even candies and marshmallows, is demonstrated. This simple strategy promises to add new device and sensing functionalities to previously inert 3D surfaces.