Unique en son genre dans sa conception et dans son contenu, Labo-Stat - Guide de validation des méthodes d'analyses présente une nouvelle stratégie de validation selon une démarche raisonnée fondée sur le profil d'exactitude. Les techniques statistiques adaptées y sont explicitées sous une forme didactique et les solutions possibles ainsi que les limites éventuelles de diverses normes existantes sont largement développées et illustrées d'exemples concrets directement exploitables. Les applications numériques, sous forme de feuilles de calcul modèles pour des tableurs et des petits scripts, sont téléchargeables en ligne. Complétée par les explications de cet ouvrage, elles permettent au non-statisticien d'accéder aisément à une interprétration graphique des résultats. Labo-Stat a été conçu pour pouvoir être facilement utilisé sur la paillasse du laboratoire et permettre à tout un chacun, responsable, ingénieur, chercheur, technicien ou étudiant, de s'approprier les techniques indispensables pour déboucher sur une conclusion claire et sans ambiguïté et mener la validation des méthodes dans un souci de contrôle des coûts.

Alkali-Aggregate Reaction in Concrete: A World Review is unique in providing authoritative and up to date expert information on the causes and effects of Alkali-Aggregate Reaction (AAR) in concrete structures worldwide. In 1992 a first edition entitled The Alkali-Silica Reaction in Concrete, edited by Professor Narayan Swamy, was published in a first attempt to cover this concrete problem from a global perspective, but the coverage was incomplete. This completely new edition offers a fully updated and more universal coverage of the world situation concerning AAR and includes a wealth of new evidence and research information that has accumulated in the intervening years. Although there are various textbooks offering readers sections that deal with AAR deterioration and damage to concrete, no other single book brings together the views of recognised international experts in the field, and the wealth of scattered research information that is available. It provides a ‘state of the art’ review and deals authoritatively with the mechanisms of AAR, its diagnosis and how to treat concrete affected by AAR. It is illustrated by numerous actual examples from around the world, and comprises specialist contributions provided by senior engineers and scientists from many parts of the world. The book is divided into two distinct but complementary parts. The first five chapters deal with the most recent findings concerning the mechanisms involved in the reaction, methods concerning its diagnosis, testing and evaluation, together with an appraisal of current methods used in its avoidance and in the remediation of affected concrete structures. The second part is divided into eleven chapters covering each region of the world in turn. These chapters have been written by experts with specialist knowledge of AAR in the countries involved and include an authoritative appraisal of the problem and its solution as it affects concrete structures in the region. Such an authoritative compilation of information on AAR has not been attempted previously on this scale and this work is therefore an essential source for practising and research civil engineers, consultant engineers and materials scientists, as well as aggregate and cement producers, designers and concrete suppliers, especially regarding projects outside their own region.

"Quality Control for Foods and Agricultural Products" is a single, complete, and practical reference to the wide variety of techniques for quality control in the production of food products. The book may also serve as a guidebook to other industries that are initiating or reviewing their quality control procedures. This title provides an overview of the tools available for quality control in the food industry. Among the quality control measures discused are practical methodology, sampling methods, measurement devices, sensors, computer analysis, data interpretation, reference materials, and standardization. "Quality Control for Foods and Agricultural Products" allows the reader to compare and contrast the advantages and disadvantages associated with a particular quality control method. Armed with this knowledge, the best possible quality control method may be chosen for a given product.

Jean-Claude Rambaud The place occupied today in basic and clinical research by intestinal disease related to Clostridium difficile is such that it is hard to remember that this range of disorders was completely identified only in 1977-1978, even though pieces of the puzzle had been identified much earlier. A brief historical review of the discovery of the enteropathogenicity of C. difficile in man might thus be useful. The bacterium was described in 1935 in the stools of infants, using the name Bacillus difficilis [7]. Until 1977, the microorganism, renamed C. difficile, considered to be of endogenous origin, was isolated only in rare cases of abscess or infection, most often unrelated to the digestive tract. Its role in genito-urinary infections [6] was not confirmed. However, the frequency of infant healthy carriers was recognized from the outset [7, 13]. Pseudo-membranous colitis (PMC) was described in 1883 following a gastroenterostomy. Many cases of this condition were published subsequently before the antibiotic era, describing various risk factors [4]. However the disease began to flourish only with the increasingly wide use of antibiotics. Antibiotic associated PMC was first described as an enterocolitis, though with little pathological evidence. It was principally related to the use of chloramphenicol and tetracyclines and attributed to proliferation of Staphylococcus au reus [ 11], a concept strengthened by the spectacular therapeutic action of vancomycin.