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Le marquage alimentaire géographique a souvent été perçu comme une forme de protection contre les copies et, d'une manière générale, la mauvaise qualité. Ce qu'il a été en son temps. Mais on n'a jamais bien perçu, qu'en réalité, derrière ce système, ce n'était pas le passé, la "tradition", l'histoire qui étaient mis en valeur. Ce système a joué le rôle d'une forme de capitalisation des savoir-faire, formulés par le législateur, pour inscrire le produit dans la durée, autant dans le passé que dans le futur. Comment la géographie a-t-elle pu jouer ce rôle capitalistique ? Par le jeu des échelles. En agrandissant les marchés, en mondialisant les produits, la qualité a été renforcée par la rareté, l’unicité (qu'il a fallu parfois combattre, les Champenois le savent bien) et, finalement, l’inaliénabilité des produits et des mets. Ainsi, la géographie qui devait se fondre dans le temps tourbillonnant du capitalisme et du libéralisme, est-elle devenue une des marques de fabrique les plus sûres qui soient. Geographical food labeling was often perceived as a form of protection against counterfeiting and, generally speaking, lower quality. Which was the case in its time. However, it was never well understood that in reality, behind this system, it was not the past, the “tradition, the history that were emphasized. This system has played the role of a form of capitalization of know-how, as expressed by the regulator, to consider the products in the long-term perspective, as much the past than the future. How geography managed to play this capitalizing role? By the means of scales. By enlarging markets, globalizing products, it was reinforced by its scarcity, its uniqueness (which sometimes had to be fought, the Champagne producers know it well) and finally its inalienability. Thus, geography, which was to blend in the whirl of capitalism and liberalism, became one of the most trustworthy trade marks.

In the present work, an experimental study on a lab-scale adsorption refrigerator, based on activated carbon/ethanol working pair is reported. An extensive testing campaign has been carried out at the CNR ITAE laboratory, with multiple aims. First, the performance has been evaluated in terms of both COP and Specific Cooling Power (SCP), under different boundary conditions, including both air conditioning and refrigeration applications. Attractive SCPs, up to 180 W/kg and 70 W/kg for air conditioning and refrigeration, respectively, were measured. Under the same conditions, COP between 0.17 and 0.08 were obtained. In addition, different management strategies, namely, heat recovery between adsorbers and re-allocation of phase durations, were evaluated to identify their influence on the system. Both strategies confirmed the possibility of increasing COP and SCP up to 40% and 25%, respectively. Moreover, a design analysis based on the experimental results has been carried out, to suggest possible improvements of the system. The obtained results demonstrated the possibility of employing a non-toxic refrigerant like ethanol reaching performance comparable with other harmful refrigerants like ammonia and methanol.

Abstract Fruit and vegetables are stored for up to several months in large bin stacks in refrigerated rooms. Gaps between the bins and bin wall openings should allow the circulation of cooling air to remove field and respiration heat from produce. In an industrial apple store, the effects of the stacking array, fan position and number on airflow distribution in vertical gaps and inside plastic bins were investigated using stepwise reduction of fan revolution. At 100% fan power, the average air velocity in vertical gaps between bin rows in the main flow direction increased with reducing total cross section of the gaps. In contrast, the number of vertical gaps between bin rows had little effect on the average air speed between fruit inside the bins, probably due to additional flow paths in the horizontal gaps. The lowest air speed was measured when bins were stacked in one block without vertical gaps and a distance to the side walls of only 10 cm. A stacking arrangement with only one central vertical gap between four bin rows or with a large distance (> 1 m) between the wall opposite to the fans and the bins enhanced flow uniformity. Three fans situated above the vertical gaps was more effective for the ventilation of bins than four fans above the bin rows.

Abstract In the production process of pharmaceutical pellets with a narrow size distribution and a high sphericity, a combined extrusion-spheronization technique is frequently used. The rounding of the wet cylindrical extrudates in the spheronizer after the extrusion step is influenced by various interfering mechanisms, in particular plastic deformation, breakage, attrition and coalescence. Due to the complexity of these mechanisms which depend on the particle dynamics, there is no sufficient description of the particle rounding process in the spheronizer. In this study, the Discrete Element Method (DEM) which runs on the micro scale is coupled with a Particle Shape Evolution (PSE) model on the macro scale to describe how the particle shape changes due to collisions. For the DEM simulation a new contact model was used which was developed to capture the cyclic, dominant visco plastic deformation behaviour. Based on the DEM collision data, the changing particle shape was described in the PSE model by applying the proposed submodels for the different formation mechanisms. The resulting particle shapes obtained with this simulation framework are in a good agreement with experimental data.

Phosphogypsum (PG) is the solid waste product of phosphate fertilizer production and is characterized by high concentrations of salts, heavy metals, and certain natural radionuclides. The work reported in this paper examined the influence of PG amendment on soil physicochemical proprieties, along with its potential impact on several physiological traits of sunflower seedlings grown under controlled conditions. Sunflower seedlings were grown on agricultural soil substrates amended with PG at rates of 0, 2.5, and 5 %. The pH of the soil decreased but electrical conductivity and organic matter, calcium, phosphorus, sodium, and heavy metal contents increased in proportion to PG concentration. In contrast, no variations were observed in magnesium content and small increases were recorded in potassium content. The effects of PG on sunflower growth, leaf chlorophyll content, nutritional status, osmotic regulator content, heavy metal accumulation, and antioxidative enzymes were investigated. Concentrations of trace elements in sunflower seedlings grown in PG-amended soil were considerably lower than ranges considered phytotoxic for vascular plants. The 5 % PG dose inhibited shoot extension and accumulation of biomass and caused a decline in total protein content. However, chlorophyll, lipid peroxidation, proline and sugar contents, and activities of antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase and catalase increased. Collectively, these results strongly support the hypothesis that enzymatic antioxidation capacity is an important mechanism in tolerance of PG salinity in sunflower seedlings.

Power flow partitioning is a topic of interest for European transmission system operators because of the increasing amount of Unscheduled Flows, which can cause congestions. Unscheduled Flows are caused by the transition to more and more renewable energy sources and the rising complexity of the European transnational energy market with insufficient price signals. To identify different flow types, the Full Line Decomposition (FLD) method can be used. The trend of grid extension goes more towards flexible AC transmission systems (FACTS) which have to be considered in a special way, since the actively changed power flow cannot be identified by FLD. New methods have to be developed. This publication presents a way to calculate and to classify partial power flows caused by FACTS, especially by high voltage DC (HVDC) transmission systems using the proportional sharing principle.

The aim of this study was to compare the effect of extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) in patients with chronically painful proximal plantar fasciitis with a further conventional conservative treatment. Forty-seven patients (49 feet) with a previously unsuccessful nonsurgical treatment of at least 6 months were randomized to two groups. Heel cups had to be worn throughout the study. Group 1 (25 heels) was treated immediately with three sessions of ESWT (3000 shock waves/session of 0.2 mJ/mm 2 ) at weekly intervals. The patients of group 2 (24 heels) continued nonsurgical treatment (iontophoresis with diclofenac and an oral nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug) for 12 weeks. After this period they were treated using the protocol of group 1. No significant difference of pain and walking time after further nonsurgical treatment (3 months) was seen in group 2. At 12 weeks after ESWT, the pain estimation on the visual analogue scale (VAS) for activities of daily living diminished significantly by 62.9% in group 1 and by 63.0% in group 2. The comfortable walking time had increased significantly in both groups. Two years after ESWT, pain during activities of daily living decreased by 94% in group 1 and by 90% in group 2 on the VAS and the comfortable walking time had increased significantly in both groups.

Boron (B) toxicity symptoms are visible in the form of necrotic spots and may worsen the oxidative stress caused by salinity. Hence, the interactive effects of combined salinity and B toxicity stress on antioxidative activities (TAC, LUPO, SOSA, CAT, and GR) were investigated by novel luminescence assays and standard photometric procedures. Wheat plants grown under hydroponic conditions were treated with 2.5 μM H₃BO₃ (control), 75 mM NaCl, 200 μM H₃BO₃, or 75 mM NaCl + 200 μM H₃BO₃, and analysed 6 weeks after germination. Shoot fresh weight (FW), shoot dry weight (DW), and relative water content (RWC) were significantly reduced, whereas the antioxidative activity of all enzymes was increased under salinity compared with the control. High B application led to necrotic leaf spots but did not influence growth parameters. Following NaCl + B treatment, shoot DW, RWC, SOSA, GR, and CAT activities remained the same compared with NaCl alone, whereas the TAC and LUPO activities were increased under the combined stress compared with NaCl alone. However, shoot FW was significantly reduced under NaCl + B compared with NaCl alone, as an additive effect of combined stress. Thus, we found an adjustment of antioxidative enzyme activity to the interactive effects of NaCl and high B. The stress factor "salt" mainly produced more oxidative stress than that of the factor "high B". Furthermore, addition of higher B in the presence of NaCl increases TAC and LUPO demonstrating that increased LUPO activity is an important physiological response in wheat plants against multiple stresses.