[en] The unconventional gas currently plays a major role in the debates about natural gas because of its penetration in the United States where production started in the 80's, after the American authorities decided to promote the exploitation of national gas resources particularly difficult to produce. Because of the low permeability of the reservoirs where unconventional gas is trapped, it generally requires fracturing and horizontal drilling to be produced. It is exploited significantly to date only in North America and is starting in Australia. Estimates of unconventional gas world reserves are currently subject to gross approximation and need to be refined. However, contribution of unconventional gas should make it possible to double world natural gas reserves at least. On the other hand, the impacts on the natural gas markets will be certainly different according to the areas: Australia could become one of the first exporters of LNG thanks to unconventional gases; less favorable conditions may not allow the production of unconventional gas in Europe to follow the American example; in Asia-Pacific, unconventional gas has high potential in China and in India but production will remain limited prior to 2020. (authors)

[en] Short communication

No abstract available

No abstract available

[en] Low density foams (in this work, foam density refers to apparent density) are materials of interest for fusion experiments. Low density poly(4-methyl-1-pentene)(commercial name TPX) foams have been produced for 30 years. TPX foams have been shown to have densities as low as 3 mg.cm^-3, which is very close to air density (1.2 mg.cm^-3). Around this density foams are very light and highly fragile. Their fabrication is thus a real technological challenge. However, shrinking always appears in ranges ranking from 25% to almost 200%. As a result, the apparent density of the final foam never matches the expected value given by the precursor solution concentration. Besides, even if the mold dimensions are precisely known, shrinkage is never linear, and foams have to be machined for precise density measurement. In our work we present a fabrication process for TPX foams and discuss machining and density measuring issues. Particularly, we have found that there are volume and weight limits for a determination of density within the range of 3% uncertainty. This raises the question whether density should rather be determined directly on millimeter-sized targets or should be performed on a bigger scale sample prepared from the same batch. (authors)

[en] Complete text of publication follows. An experimental investigation of the relaxational processes related to the glass transition in several glass formers with more or less complex molecular architecture is presented. This inelastic neutron scattering study concentrates on the region around 1.1 to 1.5 T_g where the two relaxation processes usually identified in most glass formers, the α and the β relaxations, are expected to merge or cross. A recent study comparing the dynamics of Sorbitol and Maltitol (two low molecular and complementary glasses) seems to show that the way on which the α and β processes merge depends on the differences in the chemical architecture of these polyols [1]. In the present work, linear diols, three-arm-star triols and crosslinked polyurethanes, synthesized from the latter are studied. This work is an extension of a previous study of the relaxational processes in cross-linked polyurethanes [2]. For such series of samples of similar chemical composition but with increasing complexity in the architecture, the influence of the molecular complexity on the type of merging between α and β processes is tested. This allows to discuss the α-β cross-over on molecular level. (author)

[en] Nude mice bearing TT xenografts of 200 mm³ TMC received 1.25 or 3 nmol of BsAb anti-ACE/anti-DTPA F6-734 or 37 and 92.5 MBq of Ab F6F (ab')₂-¹³¹I and after 48 hours 37 and 92.5 MBq of di-DTPA-¹³¹I hapten. The delays necessary to double the tumoral volume were 57, 86, 44, and 65 d, respectively. With 37 and 92.5 MBq of di-DTPA-¹³¹ I, the losses of weight recorded in animals were 5%, the leukocyte nadirs were 1640 ± 838 and 1560 ± 116/mm³, respectively and those of the platelets of 940 ± 371 and 590 ± 454 10³/mm³, respectively. With 37 and 92.5 MBq of F6F (ab')₂-¹³¹I, the losses in weights were 8 and 16%, respectively, the leukocyte nadirs, 50 ± 100 and 175 ± 50/mm³, respectively and those of platelets of 715 ± 184 and 477 ± 106 10³/mm³. The two-time targeting system was also efficient and significantly less toxic than the one-time system. In the framework of a I phase protocol of RIT, 16 patients afflicted with metastatic CMT were treated with 20 to 50 mg of BsAb F6-734 and 4d after with 1.5 and 3.7 GBq of di-DTPA-¹³¹I. The doses delivered to the tumor were comprised between 6.8 and 139 Gy. Four patients presented a grade-IV hemato-toxicity between the 30 D and 40 D. The efficiency was evaluated in 8 patients: a antalgic effect was detected in 3/6 patients which presented osseous pains, a diminution of the size of adenopathies in 2 cases of which in one was higher than 50%, a calcinotinin diminution in 3 cases of which in two cases it was higher than 50%, a progression of the disease in 4 patients which presented a diffuse metastatic dissemination

[en] Fourier transformed infrared microreflectance spectroscopy is used to probe and compare the consequences of thermal quenching or ionic implantation on the structure of silica. A linear change in the main structural feature associated with Si-O-Si vibration with fictive temperature (T_f) is observed up to T_f=1400 deg. C. Ionic implantation is shown to shift the frequency of the main IR Si-O-Si vibration toward much lower wavenumbers, for all deposited energies, indicating that a comparison can be drawn between fictive temperature and irradiation effects. Extrapolating the linear changes in the IR structural bands obtained as a function of T_f for the implanted samples, we show that two structural (ν_TO) and (ν_B) contributions are not affected by ionic implantation, as they would be by a unique very high T_f. In the case of ionic implantation, we also evidence the development of some specific structural contributions indicating a depolymerization of silica network.

[en] We computed a Lennard-Jones frozen liquid with a free surface using classical molecular dynamics. The structure factor curves on the free surface of this sample were calculated for different depths knowing that we have periodic boundary conditions on the other parts of the sample. The resulting structure factor curves show an horizontal shift of their first peak depending on how deep in the sample the curves are computed. We analyze our resulting curves in the light of spatial correlation functions during melting. The conclusion is that the differences between bulk and surface are quite small during melting and that at the end of melting, only the very surface happens to be less dense than the bulk. This result is intrinsic to the shape of the Lennard-Jones potential and does not depend on any other parameter.

[en] The cryogenic target assemblies (CTAs) designed for Laser Megajoule (LMJ) experiments have many functions and have to meet severe specifications imposed by implosion physics, the CTA thermal environment, and the CTA interfaces with the Megajoule laser cryogenic target positioner. Therefore, CTA fabrication uses many challenging materials and requires several technological studies. During the last 2 years, many developments have enabled better collection of comprehensive data on target constitutive materials and improvements in the fabrication of the CTA base, hohlraum, and aluminum turret. Studies have been carried out (a) to better characterize thermal properties of materials allowing optimization of the thermal simulation of the hohlraum, (b) to improve the CTA base fabrication process in order optimize thermal studies of the LMJ experimental filling station (EFS), and (c) to determine coatings on the polyimide membrane that may limit the 300 K thermal effect on the micro-shell and increase the deuterium-tritium fuel lifetime. CTAs have been produced to evaluate fabrication knowledge, to characterize CTAs, to study air tightness, and to study filling and D₂ ice layering on the EFS. An overview of the results that have been obtained during the past 2 years is presented in this paper. (authors)