Robotic systems have shown capabilities to perform inspection tasks in dangerous and difficult-to-access environments, such as those found in different components of power plants. However, most of the current robotic inspection technology is designed for specific components. Aerial robots, commonly termed as Drones, have raised an option to inspect a wider range of structural components. Nevertheless, current aerial inspecting technology still relies on a human pilot with limited line of sight, field of view and a reduced perception as the drone flies away, which prevents performing close-quarter inspection in intricate, structurally complex and GPS-denied environments. This work introduces offline inspection path generation methods based on robotics-integrated to manufacturing techniques. One method uses computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) techniques and the other an additive manufacturing (AM) approach to generate the flight path. That is to say, the drone would fly along the path described by a 3D (Three Dimensional) printer’s extruder or a CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machining tool, enabling to fly very close the structure even in physical structures with a complex geometry. Once the trajectories are generated, they are introduced for its validation in the Gazebo robotics simulator. Simulation results demonstrate the proper performance of the method and confirm that this approach can be used for close inspection of structuralcomponents.

The concept of the appliance we describe in this article is based on a number of technological advances. The brackets, created in accordance with CAD/CAM are the product of an original process that makes them resistant to de-bonding providing a high resistance to bracket loss. They are also compatible with the use of a veritable straight wire enabling the use of prefabricated standard wires. The manufacturing process uses a maximum of digitized resources to elaborate a numerical set-up usable by the practitioners. A 3D computerised treatment control is performed from the beginning to the end of the assembly line and warrants a perfect precision of the bonding placement.

Appliances are completely personalized for each patient taking into account particular anatomic features as well as the prescriptions of practitioners. As a result practitioners will benefit from a number of theoretical advantages making treatment more pleasant and functionally smoother at every phase of therapy. Managing the Lingualjet appliance is simple and transforms straight wire lingual therapy into a procedure comparable in every way to traditional use of the straight wire in buccally bonded attachments.

Clinical depression is the most prevalent psychiatric disorder amongst cancer patients and is associated with significant functional impairment, although often under-diagnosed and untreated. In one study, only 6% of patients with clinical depression were identified by their oncologists. The detection of and intervention for anxiety and depression in oncology is widely debated in the literature. Diagnosing clinically significant distress amongst cancer patients requires sensitivity as many symptoms of depression are very similar to those of some cancers themselves. The two detection methods discussed in the literature are either self report questionnaires (i.e., HADS) and diagnostic clinical interviews. There are several techniques described in the literature that have shown to be effective in reducing anxiety and depression in oncology. These can be broken down into four main categories, namely, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), counselling, drug therapy and complementary therapies, and it is acknowledged that patients receiving any type of intervention generally cope better than those who receive none at all. The effective management of anxiety and depression is dependent on the ability of health professionals to establish a rapport with patients and pick up on cues, regardless of whether intervention is necessary. However, an obvious lack of time and resources within the NHS can be a limiting factor, thus all health care professionals must take more responsibility for the detection of anxiety and depression, followed by the appropriate referral.

Aechmea magdalenae is a terrestrial bromeliad that dominates areas of forest understorey on Barro Colorado Island, Panama. Nocturnal CO2 uptake via crassulacean acid metabolism was the primary means of carbon gain under well-watered conditions and all light regimes. The ability to maintain a positive carbon balance under conditions of very low light was demonstrated by laboratory measurements of photosynthesis and forest measurements of growth. Low-light-grown juvenile rosettes had the same daily net assimilation whether tested at photon flux densities of 15 or 300 μmol m−2 s−1 Growth rates of rosettes in treefall gaps were similar to those of plants in closed canopy forest. Growth rates of forest plants were increasingly correlated with canopy openness as the wet season progressed due to increased growth by gap plants, suggesting that water availability rather than light may limit growth during the annual dry season.

Cette communication présente une étude sur l'adaptation des trajets d'usinage au processus de fabrication par UGV. La définition d'un processus performant passe par la sélection conjointe d'une stratégie d'usinage et de conditions de coupe associées. Lors de la programmation d'un trajet d'usinage, le programmeur doit choisir une stratégie d'usinage et un mode de calcul des trajets adapté à la pièce à réaliser et qui n'introduit pas de phénomènes perturbateurs sur les éléments clés de la productivité du processus de fabrication : le comportement cinématique de la machine et le comportement mécanique de l'outil. Pour réduire l'influence de ces phénomènes, les éditeurs de FAO proposent de nombreuses solutions et options. Il devient alors difficile de choisir et de paramétrer une opération d'usinage. Après avoir analysé l'ensemble des difficultés posées par l'usinage de ce type de pièce, nous présentons une classification des problèmes. Selon le besoin, cette grille d'analyse facilite le choix de la stratégie d'usinage.

Changes in leaf water content, night-time accumulation of malic (Δ-malate) and citric acid (Δ-citrate) and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC, EC 4 . 1 . 1 . 31) activity were followed for 60 d after germination in well watered and salt-stressed plants of the facultatively halophytic ephemeral Mesembryanthemum crystallinum L. To separate the effects of development, salt stress and water deficit on crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) induction plants were stressed initially 10 d after germination and then successively at 1-wk intervals (five sets). Related to dry mass or organic matter (i.e. dry mass corrected for the mass of inorganic ions) water content started to decrease during the late embryonal phase of the life cycle. Water content on a dry mass basis was always lower in salt-stressed than in well watered individuals. However, on an organic matter basis no difference was detectable. This indicated that salt treatment did not reduce leaf water content but falsified the basis (dry mass). Increases in leaf succulence and in pressure potential prevented long-term water deficit in well watered and in salt-stressed plants. Instead, these changes displayed enhanced vacuolisation, which is an essential prerequisite for the development of CAM. The end of that differentiation process might allow the initiation of nocturnal malic acid accumulation in a threshold response. At the onset of each salt treatment, short-term water deficits occurred due to an incomplete osmotic adaptation independent of plant age. As Δ-malate only appeared when plants were c. 35 d old this water deficit was unlikely to be a decisive CAM-inducing factor. About 2 wk after germination water content began to decline during the light periods in plants of all treatments. This pattern disappeared again when CAM had been fully established. Daytime transpirational water loss is therefore unlikely to be the decisive factor because it failed to induce the metabolic shift in young plants. Environmental stress (e.g. salt or drought) can therefore only induce Δ-malate when leaf and plant differentiation has reached a certain stage.

The spatially fixed sporophyte body of vascular land plants has to be adapted to both atmospheric and substrate environments. Potentially almost all stages in the life cycle of a land plant are fossilisable and the physiological adaptations to these environments are reflected in the morphology, anatomy, and chemistry of the plant. Although solutions to the plant's physiological problems have been refined through evolution, the basic responses to fundamental environmental parameters such as temperature, water availability, nutrient supply, gas exchange and light, evolved early in land plant history. These taxon-independent solutions can be used qualitatively, and sometimes quantitatively, to track changes in atmospheric and edaphic conditions throughout much of the Phanerozoic. Increase in body size and height in Middle and Late Devonian times was coupled with intense demand for light, nutrients and water supply and with elaborations of vascular systems, photosynthetic surfaces, organ abscission and ‘root’ organisation. During the Carboniferous extreme adaptations to substrate waterlogging evolved. Mycorrhizal associations and “phi” layers in Triassic roots represent early aspects of modern root physiology. From the mid-Cretaceous, angiosperms exhibit leaf architectural characteristics which in modern plants relate qualitatively to moisture and light, and quantitatively to temperature, while vessel size and distribution in trunk wood is related to water stress and susceptibility to freezing. The relative proportion of plants utilising C3, CAM, and C4 photosynthetic pathways varies with environment. Isotopic analysis of plant fossils may demonstrate changing relative frequencies of photosynthetic pathways through time in relation to atmospheric composition and temperature.