Factual Causation: The Missing Link in Hydraulic Fracture—Groundwater Contamination Litigation

A speech-based material that early can assess a child's hearing is needed to provide an indication of a hearing impaired child's language development. Being able to identify and discriminate between different sounds is a requirement for interpreting speech. Hearing assessments that examine speech perception can therefore, unlike, for example, pure tone audiometry, examine a hearing impaired child's perceptual language skills and provide a basis for intervention. The purpose of this work is to evaluate a new auditory material on 3-year-old children. The auditory material is based on the Ling-6-sounds and the main question was which of the sounds in the test were adequate for test of discrimination. Furthermore, it was investigated how the test works with children aged 3:0–3:11 years and how age and gender affect the result. Twenty-four children aged 3:0–3:11 years were tested using a computer based test. The goal  for the child was to discriminate between pairs of sounds and react to an odd pair. Several instruction techniques were tested by two different test administrators. The results of the tests indicated that equal pairs of sounds (/do/-/do/, /s/-/s/) gave more correct responses. The test section where only two different pairs were used generated more adequate responses than the test section with six different pairs. Differences in age influenced the outcome more than sex and different instructions. There is also a need for improved instructions and sounds. Generally, children became more involved in the test when given instructions that were short and direct

Investigation of the effect of aggregates' morphology on concrete creep properties by numerical simulations

International audiencePrestress losses due to creep of concrete is a matter of interest for long-term operations of nuclear power plants containment buildings. Experimental studies by Granger (1995) have shown that concretes with similar formulations have different creep behaviors. The aim of this paper is to numerically investigate the effect of size distribution and shape of elastic inclusions on the long-term creep of concrete. Several microstructures with prescribed size distribution and spherical or polyhedral shape of inclusions are generated. By using the 3D numerical homogenization procedure for viscoelastic microstructures proposed by Šmilauer and Bažant (2010), it is shown that the size distribution and shape of inclusions have no measurable influence on the overall creep behavior. Moreover, a mean-field estimate provides close predictions. An Interfacial Transition Zone was introduced according to the model of Nadeau (2003). It is shown that this feature of concrete's microstructure can explain differences between creep behaviors

Analyse de sensibilité globale d'un modèle spatialisé pour l'évaluation économique du risque d'inondation

L'analyse de sensibilité globale peine à se développer dans le champ de la modélisation environnementale. Dans sa formulation initiale, elle est limitée à l'étude de modèles Y = f (X1; : : : ;Xp) où les variables d'entrée Xj et la sortie Y sont scalaires, alors que nombre de modèles environnementaux incluent une dimension spatiale marquée, soit qu'ils fassent appel à des cartes comme variables d'entrée, soit que leurs sorties soient distribuées spatialement. Au travers d'une étude de cas détaillée, nous présentons dans cet article une extension de l'analyse de sensibilité globale à l'étude de modèles spatialisés. Le modèle étudié, nommé ACB-DE, est un outil d'évaluation économique du risque d'inondation. Il est ici appliqué sur la basse-vallée de l'Orb (Hérault). Des spécifications spatialisées de l'incertitude sont utilisées pour générer un nombre fini de réalisations aléatoires équiprobables des variables d'entrée qui sont des cartes : les effets de structure spatiale ou d'auto-corrélation dans ces cartes peuvent ainsi être pris en compte. La réalisation de cartes d'indices de sensibilité permet ensuite d'étudier les sorties spatialisées du modèle ACB-DE et de rendre compte de la variabilité spatiale des indices de Sobol. L'influence relative des variables d'entrée à différentes échelles d'étude est analysée par la réalisation de cartes d'indices de sensibilité de résolution croissante. L'analyse réalisée permet d'identifier les variables d'entrée incertaines qui expliquent la plus grande part de la variabilité de l'indicateur économique fourni par le modèle ACB-DE ; elle apporte un éclairage nouveau sur le choix de l'échelle adéquate de représentation spatialisée de cet indicateur selon la précision des variables d'entrée. L'approche proposée pourrait être aisément appliquée à d'autres modèles spatialisés peu coûteux en temps de calcul. / Variance-based Sobol' global sensitivity analysis (GSA) was initially designed for the study of models with scalar inputs and outputs, while many models in the environmental field are spatially explicit. As a result, GSA is not a common practise in environmental modelling. In this paper we describe a detailed case study where GSA is performed on a spatially dependent model for flood risk economic assessment on the Orb valley (southeast France). Spatial input factors are handled by associating randomly generated map realizations to scalar values sampled from discrete uniform distributions. The realisations of random input maps can be generated by any method including geostatistical simulation techniques, allowing for spatial structure and auto-correlation to be taken into account. The estimation of sensitivity indices on ACB-DE spatial outputs makes it possible to produce maps of sensitivity indices. These maps describe the spatial variability of Sobol' indices. Sensitivity maps of different resolutions are then compared to discuss the relative influence of uncertain input factors at different scales

Analysis of hepatitis C virus RNA dimerization and core–RNA interactions

The core protein of hepatitis C virus (HCV) has been shown previously to act as a potent nucleic acid chaperone in vitro, promoting the dimerization of the 3′-untranslated region (3′-UTR) of the HCV genomic RNA, a process probably mediated by a small, highly conserved palindromic RNA motif, named DLS (dimer linkage sequence) [G. Cristofari, R. Ivanyi-Nagy, C. Gabus, S. Boulant, J. P. Lavergne, F. Penin and J. L. Darlix (2004) Nucleic Acids Res., 32, 2623–2631]. To investigate in depth HCV RNA dimerization, we generated a series of point mutations in the DLS region. We find that both the plus-strand 3′-UTR and the complementary minus-strand RNA can dimerize in the presence of core protein, while mutations in the DLS (among them a single point mutation that abolished RNA replication in a HCV subgenomic replicon system) completely abrogate dimerization. Structural probing of plus- and minus-strand RNAs, in their monomeric and dimeric forms, indicate that the DLS is the major if not the sole determinant of UTR RNA dimerization. Furthermore, the N-terminal basic amino acid clusters of core protein were found to be sufficient to induce dimerization, suggesting that they retain full RNA chaperone activity. These findings may have important consequences for understanding the HCV replicative cycle and the genetic variability of the virus

Limited evolutionary rescue of locally adapted populations facing climate change

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Role of brachytherapy in the treatment of cancers of the anal canal. Long-term follow-up and multivariate analysis of a large monocentric retrospective series.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: There are few data on long-term clinical results and tolerance of brachytherapy in anal canal cancer. We present one of the largest retrospective analyses of anal canal cancers treated with external beam radiotherapy with/without (±) chemotherapy followed by a brachytherapy boost. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed a retrospective analysis of clinical results in terms of efficacy and toxicity. The impact of different clinical and therapeutic variables on these outcomes was studied. RESULTS: From May 1992 to December 2009, 209 patients received brachytherapy after external beam radiotherapy ± chemotherapy. Of these patients, 163 were stage II or stage IIIA (UICC 2002) and 58 were N1-3. According to age, ECOG performance status (PS), and comorbidities, patients received either radiotherapy alone (58/209) or radiochemotherapy (151/209). The median follow-up was 72.8 months. The 5- and 10-year local control rates were 78.6 and 73.9 %, respectively. Globally, severe acute and late G3-4 reactions (NCI-CTC scale v. 4.0) occurred in 11.2 and 6.3 % of patients, respectively. Univariate analysis showed the statistical impact of the pelvic treatment volume (p = 0.046) and of the total dose (p = 0.02) on the risk of severe acute and late toxicities, respectively. Only six patients required permanent colostomy because of severe late anorectal toxicities. CONCLUSION: After a long follow-up time, brachytherapy showed an acceptable toxicity profile and high local control rates in patients with anal canal cancer

Statut démographique et biologie de la reproduction d'une espèce endémique menacée de l'île de la Réunion: Lomatophyllum macrum (Haw.) Salm-Dyck (Siliacées)

Knowledge of the demography and of the reproductive biology of endangered plant species is crucial for the establishment of an efficient conservation strate gy. The authors show that Lomatophyllum macrum, an endangered lily endemic to La Réunion island, is represented by less than 15 populations of extremely reduced size. The analysis of fecundity in natural conditions shows that the fructification rate is no more than 20 %. The breeding system study, performed on 9 cultivated plants in the greenhouse, reveals that the species is partially self-compatible but poorly self-fertile. In the light of these results, the survival of these populations is questioned. Future studies are proposed to improve the basic knowledge of the biology of this species for a long term conservation strategy of its populations in the wildLa connaissance du statut démographique et de la biologie reproductive des plantes en voie d'extinction est une étape cruciale, incontournable pour la mise en place de stratégies de conservation des espèces. Les auteurs montrent que Lomatophyllum macrum n'est aujourd'hui plus représentée que par quelques populations de taille extrêmement réduite. L'analyse de la fécondité en conditions naturelles montre que le taux de fructification ne dépasse pas 20 %. L'étude du système de reproduction à partir de 9 plantes multipliées en serre met en évidence que l'espèce est partiellement autocompatible mais très faiblement autofertile. Des perspectives d'études sont proposées afin d'enrichir les connaissances de la biologie de cette espèce dans le but d'élaborer un plan de conservation efficace de ses populations dans la nature