The coral reefs are important ecosystems consisting of the richest biodiversity in all the oceans around the world, and provide abundant biological resources for food and recreation of the human kinds. Currently, in tropical areas, coral reefs are suffering from worldwide depletion due to unsustainable fisheries, coastline development, and also impact of global warming. It has been pointed out by many recent coral reef researches that the current status of critical functional groups needs to be reassessed urgently. In particular, little information about biodiversity of the reef-forming crustose coralline algae is known. Therefore, we propose to investigate the species diversity and distribution of the reef-forming, crustose coralline algae occurring in the western Pacific Ocean by a combination of DNA sequencing analyses and comparative morphological observations with an emphasis on the cystocarp development in their sexual life history within a 3-year period. We will investigate the well-developed coral reefs of the coasts of Taiwan, New Caledonia and Indonesia.In this study, four main areas will be investigated: (i)Species diversity survey: The systematics of the coralline algae is in a continuous state of flux and phylogenetic relationships among taxa are for the most part unresolved thus the goal is to investigate offshore and nearshore assemblages of the coralline algae and include both in-depth resolution of modern baseline measures of biodiversity and establishment of molecular protocols to measure the biodiversity of reef-forming coralline algae. Representative species of the major families and tribes are present in Taiwan, New Caledonia and Indonesia (Bali) and these three sites will be compared. (ii) To infer the phylogenetic relationships of the reef-forming coralline communities in the western Pacific Ocean: the coralline community of Taiwan, New Caledonia and Indonesia shares many common species and genera according to current knowledge. A joint assessment of phylogenetic relationships among the reef-forming coralline species of both sites will help us to understand the evolutionary histories and mechanism of speciation of different coralline lineages. (iii)To assess the biogeographic patterns of the reef-forming coralline algae in the western Pacific Ocean in order to understand their evolutionary histories. (iv)To provide baseline information on the key component of reef-forming coralline algae in coral reefs, and share our findings to the region as a way to strengthen and highlight the value and importance of the marine cooperative research.

Our goal is to combine advances in speech acoustics and language acquisition research to analyze the development of processing of spoken tone signals. The research program includes three studies, using behavioral methodologies adapted to the examination of auditory, perceptual and linguistic capacities in infants. These studies presented below form a coherent project, taking advantage of related scientific competencies and experimental procedures in two countries (France and Taiwan) whose languages (French and Mandarin Chinese) represent radically different families (syllabic and tone language respectively) and thus provide contrasting linguistic inputs to infants during a critical period of language development. Our project aims to relate auditory processing in terms of use of (Amplitude and Frequency) modulation cues in the speech signal to word acquisition abilities during infancy. This combination has the potential to result in a better understanding of the perceptual processing and weighting of acoustic temporal cues when infants are exposed to languages that do not use the same sound system to contrast meanings. The auditory processing aspects of these studies will be investigated by using vocoded speech signals, which allow selective degradation of temporal and spectral cues, and can be used to simulate the impoverished signal received via cochlear implant (CI) processors. Hearing French-learning and Mandarin Chinese-learning infants will participate during the same developmental period (6 to 20 months of age) in phonetic discrimination studies (Task 1) in order to explore whether (and how) infants’ auditory processing is modulated by the linguistic organization of the speech input. Specifically, lexical-tone contrasts (Mandarin and Thai tones) will be presented in two vocoded speech conditions (Intact: AM and FM cues are preserved; CI simulation: AM cues only [no FM cues] in a small number of frequency bands [8]). The word acquisition experiments (Task 2) will be run at NTU, in collaboration with H. Cheung, N. Li and T. Nazzi who started to investigate word acquisition by Mandarin-learning 20-month-olds. Infants will have to learn pairs of new words contrasting in tone information alone. Where possible, infants will be tested on both tasks in order to explore correlation between performance in discrimination and new word acquisition or, in other words, between use of AM and FM cues in simple discrimination and in lexical processing. In addition, deficits in lexical-tone perception and production have been repeatedly reported in tone-language speaking children who are deaf and equipped with CIs. One explanation is that tone perception relies mainly on the FM information, which is the most severely degraded in current CI processing strategies. The third study (Task 3) would be to examine how young deaf children who have been wearing CIs for at least 12 months are able to process tone contrasts in discrimination tasks and in the context of lexical acquisition. Mandarin-learning deaf children will participate in all parts of the third study, while the French-learning group will participate only in the discrimination experiments, allowing evaluation of auditory vs. linguistic components of tone processing via CIs. The members of the Taiwanese and French teams have conducted previous studies related to each part of this project. These previous results will serve as a base, both methodologically and theoretically. Research about development in lexical-tone perception is a growing field, but, to our knowledge, no study has used the multifaceted approach proposed here, which combines auditory and linguistic studies across developmental periods, from infancy through early childhood, and linguistic environments, using both natural and vocoded speech, and more importantly, has the possibility to validate results of CI simulation with young hearing children by testing CI-wearing deaf children of the same age.

By extensive use of product metrology data, traditional Statistical Process Control (SPC) is performed to ensure an in-control process and thus quality products. As the feature size of the high-tech products is getting smaller and lighter, the manufacturing processes, such as IC fabrication processes, are becoming very sensitive to disturbances and variations. Various advanced control methods, e.g., Advanced Process Control Advanced Equipment Control (AEC) and Fault Detection and Classification (FDC), have been therefore developed to further monitor tool parameters for a better control of the delicate processes, in particular, the technology node under 90nm. To achieve effective control, it is critical to base these control algorithms and models on the knowledge of the process physics. Compared to other industries, it must be noted that the current availability and reliability of semiconductor production tools are yet to be improved to a satisfactory level. Equipment utilization has to be optimized in terms of production throughput and product quality, or to a greater extent, in terms of the overall equipment efficiency, measured by the total number of hours a tool is up and running within a certain normalized timeframe. OEE even worsens in production lines having a high mix of products and technologies that have to be processed on the same equipment set. Scheduling consists in optimally assigning resources to a set of tasks, in order to perform all these tasks under imposed constraints and to optimize indicators. Scheduling and control are interdependent. For example, control requires information from scheduling (where jobs are processed) to sample the better lots that bring information on tools.To improve the current availability and reliability of the production tools, it is necessary to move beyond the present APC and FDC capabilities towards a predictive approach. The first task of the project is to develop an Equipment Health Index model for Predictive Equipment Behavior and the second task is how to use EHI in sampling strategies and scheduling to guide the lots which are more reliable in the production and metrology line.The EHIS3 project is an industrial research project that aims at proposing novel models and algorithms based on the tool parameters and the underneath failure mechanisms to better describe the behavior of the process equipment. The objective is to develop an Equipment Health Index (EHI) for failure identification and to integrate the EHI into the production decision system for taking better decisions for sampling, scheduling on metrology and process tool and make preventive maintenance. It will enable engineers to align the manufacturing plans in accordance with the real "health" state of the equipment. The Equipment Health Index for Predictive Equipment Behavior will directly contribute to the OEE by improving equipment availability and predictability. With the failure predictability at the equipment level, process excursions can be greatly minimized and the unscheduled downtime can be cleverly reduced. The capability to integrate these new features together with existing production control systems will further reduce the variability of both equipment availability and performance and in turn improve the production yield and cycle time.In particular, an EHI is based on actual measurements of lots on metrology tools. Thus, important questions are how to sample lots and schedule them on metrology tools in order to ensure that the EHI remains relevant. It is also crucial to increase the number of measurements when a process tool is at risk, i.e. to sample more lots processed on the tool when its EHI indicates that the probability of failures is increasing. Hence, to meet the two previous objectives, the EHIS3 project will also aim at developing new strategies and algorithms for sampling lots and scheduling them on metrology tools.

High resolution space-time rainfall estimation remains an open challenge for hydro-meteorologists. The overall purpose of this project is to improve the quality of radar rainfall estimation at high spatial and temporal resolutions and their applicability to urban storm water management. More specifically, the project will take advantage of two unique and innovative ground rainfall monitoring networks from two teams in France and Taiwan, respectively, to envisage the impacts of the following issues, which are seldom addressed in their whole complexity, in radar rainfall estimation: 1. The variability of rainfall drop size distributions (DSDs): the variability of DSDs will be characterised in both space and time at fine scales, and its impact on radar measurements will be quantified. 2. Wind drift effect: the advection of rain drops throughout their fall from radar observation elevations to the ground will be investigated, and its impact on radar rainfall estimation will be quantified. The investigation of the above two aspects will eventually contribute to the improvement of a 3D+1 (3D in space + 1D in time) model for rain drops fields. The subsequent impact of both aspects on storm water management will be quantified through urban hydro-dynamic modelling. Existing case studies with already calibrated models will be used with a focus on rainfall modelling. In addition to the ground rainfall networks, this project will utilise the complementary research strengths from each team. That is, the spatial and temporal rainfall modelling within a universal multifractal framework from the French team, and the rainfall object tracking using 3D+1 radar data from the Taiwan team. This cooperation will enable an in-depth research on the proposed work, and the diverse weather conditions from the two countries will enable development of a 'scale-able' tools that can provide robust solution to radar rainfall estimation.

The project addresses the study of mesophases constituted of molecules, hereafter called "carbo-mesogens", built around a C18 carbo-benzene core. This new type of core includes the following features: all-carbon composition, hexagonal symmetry, extended flatness, high magnetic aromaticity, "acetylenic" flexibility, hollow discotic character (diameter ˜ 0.8 nm). Seeking for new types of thermotropic liquid crystals (LCs), the study will focus on carbo-mesogens 1,10-D2-C18Ar4 or 1,7,13-D3-C18Ar3, bearing 2 or 3 dispersion groups in quadrupolar or octupolar symmetry, respectively, where D = 3,4,5-(RO)3-C6H2-C=C-, R is a more or less fluorinated aliphatic chain of length n = 8, and Ar = 4-X-C6H4, X = H, CF3, CmH2m+1, 5 = m = 8. Beyond its discotic character anticipated to favor columnar phases, the quadrupolar version could also lead to other less ordered mesophases, expected to be more smectic than nematic in nature because of the much larger extent of the core as compared to that of the two dispersion groups. The more general objective is the study of supramolecular assemblies under various conditions, using appropriate analysis tools: crystalline phases (XRD), 3D LC mesophases (POM, DSC, TGA, synchrotron beam PXRD), 2D layer on HOPG surface (STM), in solution (NMR), or in silico (DFT calculations). The work will be systematically conducted in two stages by resorting to the specific expertise of each partner: synthesis and characterization of carbo-mesogens in Toulouse, studies of 3D and 2D mesophases in Taipei. In each series, quadrupolar or octupolar, the effects of the variation of the R and Ar substituents of the carbo-benzene core will be scrutinized. The C18 macrocycle of the latter being more circular than discoid (inner hollow van der Waals diameter = 3.5 Å), inclusion compounds are also naturally envisaged: guest species being supposed to provide specific optical, electric or magnetic properties, metal ions will be more specifically considered. The relevance of both the project and partnership is based on first results recently published reporting the synthesis, thermotropic properties and 2D supramolecular assemblies of the carbo-mesogen Ar = Ph, R = n-C12H25, and evidencing a rectangular columnar discotic LC behavior at 115°C. Preliminary theoretical results also suggest the stability and structural features of carbo-benzene-transition metal cation host-guest associations. While addressing poorly explored fundamental aspects ("carbo-supramolecular" chemistry), the project relies on a rational use of analytical tools that have not been applied in the carbo-mer series yet. After non-linear optics and electrical conductivity (ANR project funded in 2011), a new field of application of functional carbo-meric materials is explored: the field of liquid crystals, which, beyond a use in many commercial devices (e.g. LCDs), must more than ever face specific challenges by the design of novel types of mesogenic structures. The progress of the project is directed toward 4 general objectives (synthesis of carbo-mesogens, delineation of structure-property relationships for 3D and 2D supramolecular assemblies, uncovering of novel types of LCs, appraisal of cooperative effects between carbo-mesogen inclusion complexes), and based on four particular tasks (optimization of quadrupolar carbo-mesogens by variation of the Ar and R groups, exemplification of octupolar carbo-mesogens, study of carbo-mesogen-transition metal inclusion complexes).