Abstract: The invention relates to a non-invasive process for evaluating the quality of one or more dense connective tissue(s) in a patient, comprising the following steps: a) Analyzing the profile of the microrelief of a cutaneous replica of a portion of the skin of said patient by at least one of the following step: a1. visually assessing on picture(s) of said cutaneous replica the line shape and the anisotropy of the lines; and/or a2. Determining, on picture(s) of said cutaneous replica, the roughness index of the microrelief with an optical sensor, b) identifying cutaneous replica of “stage 1”, representative of healthy skins, and cutaneous replica of “stage 2” representative of altered skins, a cutaneous replica of stage 2 being indicative of low quality of the one or more dense connective tissue(s) in the patients body.

Abstract: The present invention concerns an in vitro process for diagnosing joint disease in a mammal and/or determining the type of joint disease and/or determining the stage of said disease and/or predicting the course of said disease, comprising the following steps: a) depositing a drop of a synovial fluid sample from said mammal onto a flat substrate made of an inorganic material, such as glass; b) drying the drop deposited in step a); c) measuring at least one parameter indicative of the morphological features of the drop dried in step b), whereby a value for said parameter is obtained, and d) comparing each value measured in step c) with a reference value representative of a reference synovial fluid, characterized in that said parameter is selected from (i) the maximum height (H) of the bead formed on the surface of the drop, (ii) the area of the drop and (iii) the surface profile (Z) of the drop.

Abstract: A method of fabricating submicron objects that includes the following steps: depositing a void layer on a support, depositing a transfer layer on the void layer, producing the objects in the transfer layer, producing a hard mask on a portion of the transfer layer to delimit a region comprising a portion of the objects, and etching the combination formed by the hard mask, the transfer layer and the void layer to eliminate the hard mask and the portion of the transfer layer in the region and to open up the portion of the void layer under the region so that the objects are suspended, the rate of etching the void layer being greater than the rate of etching the transfer layer and the hard mask.

Abstract: A method of fabricating submicron objects that includes the following steps: depositing a void layer on a support, depositing a transfer layer on the void layer, producing the objects in the transfer layer, producing a hard mask on a portion of the transfer layer to delimit a region comprising a portion of the objects, and etching the combination formed by the hard mask, the transfer layer and the void layer to eliminate the hard mask and the portion of the transfer layer in the region and to open up the portion of the void layer under the region so that the objects are suspended, the rate of etching the void layer being greater than the rate of etching the transfer layer and the hard mask.