L'acoustique passive appliquée à l'étude du comportement des corégones (Coregonus sp. et C. Lavaretus) durant la reproduction en milieu naturel

L'acoustique passive (étude des bruits propres du milieu environnant) constitue une méthode simple, sinon facile, d'étude de l'activité et du comportement de la faune aquatique.Nous décrivons ici les systèmes de prise de son et d'analyse utilisés à cet effet à l'Institut de Limnologie (Thonon-les-Bains) et rapportons certains résultats d'observations réalisées sur les zones de fraie des corégones (Coregonus lavaretus) du lac d'Aiguebelette et des ombles chevaliers (Salvelinus alpinus du lac d'Annecy : l'activité de fraie des corégones est caractérisée par des bruits brefs (0,5 à 2 s) de type "stridulation"; certains bruits de "fouille" sur substrat d'une omblière semblent directement associés à l'activité prédatrice des lottes (Lota lota) sur la ponte.Listening to underwater sound is a simple way of studying the activity and behaviour of aquatic fauna.The material used in the Institute of Limnology (Thonon-les-Bains) for recording and analysing sounds is described (figure 2). Experiments have been performed on the spawning sites of coregonids (Coregonus lavaretus) in Lake Aiguebelette and of charrs (Salvelinus alpinus) in Lake Annecy. This paper refers mainly to observations made in December 1987 on the site of "Roc de Chère" in Lake Annecy; this is where the charrs spawn and the site is easy to survey (figure 1). Most of the work consisted in continuous visual and acoustical observations, in order to determine the origin of the sounds recorded. A great part of the period was noisy because of water disturbance (wind-induced waves).The most interesting aspect is the study of sounds produced by fish (figure 3). We could not record the activity of the charrs, because of the inconvenient area studied : the observation field was limited to 1 sq.metre, which is very small in comparison to the spawning zone (figure 1). The presence of burbot (Lota lota) in the field of the video camera suggested that these fish came and ate the charr eggs which had been deposited on the bottom. This hypothesis was confirmed by the continuous digging activity (which was heard and recorded) due to the burbot feeding and by an analysis of the stomacal content of specimens, caught white SCUBA diving, which contained fertile eggs. Though acoustically evident, burbot activity was not analysed.The coregonids found in Lake Annecy (1987) (C. species) have the same behaviour as those found in Lake Aiguebelette (1986) (C. lavaretus, a different species). Typical, short (0.5-2 s) stridulating noises are produced during courtship, when the male and the female rub against each other; these noises, nearly always the same, have been analysed (figure 4). The loudest sounds emitted are in the 100-300 Hz range.Another aspect of fish activity has been studied : the noise made by coregonids swimming (figure 4). During courtship, fish is very active and swims energetically. The low frequency of the sound has been recorded by using a special electronic device.All these observations are in accordance with the results presented in the literature. Acoustical observation is an interesting method which should be developed

Examination of silver-graphite lithographically printed resistive strain sensors

This paper reports the design and manufacture of three differing types of resistive strain sensitive structures fabricated using the Conductive Lithographic Film (CLF) printing process. The structures, utilising two inks prepared with silver and graphite particulates as the conductive phase, have been analysed to determine electrical and mechanical properties with respect to strain, temperature and humidity when deposited on four alternative substrate materials (GlossArt, PolyArt, Teslin and Melinex)

Effect of a model consultation informed by guideline on recorded quality of care of osteoarthritis (MOSAICS): a cluster randomised controlled trial in primary care

Objective To determine the effect of a model osteoarthritis (OA) consultation (MOAC) informed by National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommendations compared with usual care on recorded quality of care of clinical OA in general practice. Design Two-arm cluster randomised controlled trial. Setting Eight general practices in Cheshire, Shropshire, or Staffordshire UK. Participants General practitioners and nurses with patients consulting with clinical OA. Intervention Following six-month baseline period practices were randomised to intervention (n = 4) or usual care (n = 4). Intervention practices delivered MOAC (enhanced initial GP consultation, nurse-led clinic, OA guidebook) to patients aged ≥45 years consulting with clinical OA. An electronic (e-)template for consultations was used in all practices to record OA quality care indicators. Outcomes Quality of OA care over six months recorded in the medical record. Results 1851 patients consulted in baseline period (1015 intervention; 836 control); 1960 consulted following randomisation (1118 intervention; 842 control). At baseline wide variations in quality of care were noted. Post-randomisation increases were found for written advice on OA (4–28%), exercise (4–22%) and weight loss (1–15%) in intervention practices but not controls (1–3%). Intervention practices were more likely to refer to physiotherapy (10% vs 2%, odds ratio 5.30; 95% CI 2.11, 13.34), and prescribe paracetamol (22% vs 14%, 1.74; 95% CI 1.27, 2.38). Conclusions The intervention did not improve all aspects of care but increased core NICE recommendations of written advice on OA, exercise and weight management. There remains a need to reduce variation and uniformly enhance improvement in recorded OA care

Electrostatic considerations affecting the calculated HOMO-LUMO gap in protein molecules.

A detailed study of energy differences between the highest occupied and lowest unoccupied molecular orbitals (HOMO-LUMO gaps) in protein systems and water clusters is presented. Recent work questioning the applicability of Kohn-Sham density-functional theory to proteins and large water clusters (E. Rudberg, J. Phys.: Condens. Mat. 2012, 24, 072202) has demonstrated vanishing HOMO-LUMO gaps for these systems, which is generally attributed to the treatment of exchange in the functional used. The present work shows that the vanishing gap is, in fact, an electrostatic artefact of the method used to prepare the system. Practical solutions for ensuring the gap is maintained when the system size is increased are demonstrated. This work has important implications for the use of large-scale density-functional theory in biomolecular systems, particularly in the simulation of photoemission, optical absorption and electronic transport, all of which depend critically on differences between energies of molecular orbitals.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure

Surface topography of hydroxyapatite affects ROS17/2.8 cells response

Hydroxyapatite (HA) has been used in orthopedic, dental, and maxillofacial surgery as a bone substitute. The aim of this investigation was to study the effect of surface topography produced by the presence of microporosity on cell response, evaluating: cell attachment, cell morphology, cell proliferation, total protein content, and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity. HA discs with different percentages of microporosity (< 5%, 15%, and 30%) were confected by means of the combination of uniaxial powder pressing and different sintering conditions. ROS17/2.8 cells were cultured on HA discs. For the evaluation of attachment, cells were cultured for two hours. Cell morphology was evaluated after seven days. After seven and fourteen days, cell proliferation, total protein content, and ALP activity were measured. Data were compared by means of ANOVA and Duncan’s multiple range test, when appropriate. Cell attachment (p = 0.11) and total protein content (p = 0.31) were not affected by surface topography. Proliferation after 7 and 14 days (p = 0.0007 and p = 0.003, respectively), and ALP activity (p = 0.0007) were both significantly decreased by the most irregular surface (HA30). These results suggest that initial cell events were not affected by surface topography, while surfaces with more regular topography, as those present in HA with 15% or less of microporosity, favored intermediary and final events such as cell proliferation and ALP activity

Measurement of the cross-section and charge asymmetry of WW bosons produced in proton-proton collisions at s=8\sqrt{s}=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents measurements of the $W^+ \rightarrow \mu^+\nu$ and $W^- \rightarrow \mu^-\nu$ cross-sections and the associated charge asymmetry as a function of the absolute pseudorapidity of the decay muon. The data were collected in proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC and correspond to a total integrated luminosity of 20.2~\mbox{fb^{-1}}. The precision of the cross-section measurements varies between 0.8% to 1.5% as a function of the pseudorapidity, excluding the 1.9% uncertainty on the integrated luminosity. The charge asymmetry is measured with an uncertainty between 0.002 and 0.003. The results are compared with predictions based on next-to-next-to-leading-order calculations with various parton distribution functions and have the sensitivity to discriminate between them.Comment: 38 pages in total, author list starting page 22, 5 figures, 4 tables, submitted to EPJC. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/STDM-2017-13

Search for chargino-neutralino production with mass splittings near the electroweak scale in three-lepton final states in √s=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for supersymmetry through the pair production of electroweakinos with mass splittings near the electroweak scale and decaying via on-shell W and Z bosons is presented for a three-lepton final state. The analyzed proton-proton collision data taken at a center-of-mass energy of √s=13  TeV were collected between 2015 and 2018 by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139  fb−1. A search, emulating the recursive jigsaw reconstruction technique with easily reproducible laboratory-frame variables, is performed. The two excesses observed in the 2015–2016 data recursive jigsaw analysis in the low-mass three-lepton phase space are reproduced. Results with the full data set are in agreement with the Standard Model expectations. They are interpreted to set exclusion limits at the 95% confidence level on simplified models of chargino-neutralino pair production for masses up to 345 GeV

Search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at √ s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses 20.3 fb−1 of √ s = 8 TeV data collected in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are required to have at least one jet with pT > 120 GeV and no leptons. Nine signal regions are considered with increasing missing transverse momentum requirements between Emiss T > 150 GeV and Emiss T > 700 GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model expectations. The results are translated into exclusion limits on models with either large extra spatial dimensions, pair production of weakly interacting dark matter candidates, or production of very light gravitinos in a gauge-mediated supersymmetric model. In addition, limits on the production of an invisibly decaying Higgs-like boson leading to similar topologies in the final state are presente

The potential of imogolite nanotubes as (co-)photocatalysts : a linear-scaling density functional theory study

We report a linear-scaling density functional theory (DFT) study of the structure, wall-polarization absolute band-alignment and optical absorption of several, recently synthesized, open-ended imogolite (Imo) nanotubes (NTs), namely single-walled (SW) aluminosilicate (AlSi), SW aluminogermanate (AlGe), SW methylated aluminosilicate (AlSi-Me), and double-walled (DW) AlGe NTs. Simulations with three different semi-local and dispersion-corrected DFT-functionals reveal that the NT wall-polarization can be increased by nearly a factor of four going from SW-AlSi-Me to DW-AlGe. Absolute vacuum alignment of the NT electronic bands and comparison with those of rutile and anatase TiO2 suggest that the NTs may exhibit marked propensity to both photo-reduction and hole-scavenging. Characterization of the NTs' band-separation and optical properties reveal the occurrence of (near-)UV inside–outside charge-transfer excitations, which may be effective for electron–hole separation and enhanced photocatalytic activity. Finally, the effects of the NTs' wall-polarization on the absolute alignment of electron and hole acceptor states of interacting water (H2O) molecules are quantified and discussed