Aménagements hydro-agricoles et santé (vallée du fleuve Sénégal)

La ville de Richard-Toll offre sept types de points d'eau à sa population, allant du site ouvert non aménagé (fleuve) aux bornes offrant de l'eau canalisée. Les usagers y gèrent eux-mêmes leur réserve d'eau quotidienne. Pour évaluer l'effet du site d'approvisionnement et du comportement de l'usager sur la qualité de l'eau consommée, l'eau de 14 sites, représentant les sept types de points d'eau présents dans la ville, a été échantillonnée. De plus, quatre usagers ont été associés à chaque point d'eau, et leur eau a été analysée à domicile à trois reprises, soit après entreposage de moins d'une heure, de 8 heures et de 24 heures. Les analyses ont permis de déterminer la qualité bactériologique de l'eau (coliformes fécaux), qui s'est avérée être excellente (0-10 UCG par 100 ml) à 4 des 14 points d'eau, et mauvaise (101-500 UGC par 100 ml) ou très mauvaise (> 500 UGC par 100 ml) dans les autres cas. Après entreposage de moins d'une heure, l'eau à l'origine excellente a vu sa qualité se dégrader chez la moitié (8 des 16) des usagers, alors que l'eau de mauvaise et de très mauvaise qualité s'est améliorée chez 19 des 39 usagers. Durant l'entreposage quotidien normal de 24 heures, l'eau à l'origine d'excellente qualité s'est dégradée dans 14 des 16 cas, alors que l'eau à l'origine mauvaise ou très mauvaise, s'est améliorée de façon permanente dans 14 des 35 cas. La chloration de l'eau à domicile explique certaines améliorations (5 des 14 cas). Ces résultats démontrent que si la qualité dépend au départ du site d'approvisionnement, l'usager est en mesure de l'affecter de façon positive ou négative, et ce indépendamment de la situation de départ. (Résumé d'auteur

Protein-RNA linkage and post-translational modifications of two sobemovirus VPgs

Sobemoviruses possess a viral genome-linked protein (VPg) attached to the 5' end of viral RNA. VPg is processed from the viral polyprotein. In the current study, Cocksfoot mottle virus (CfMV) and Rice yellow mottle virus (RYMV) VPgs were purified from virions and analysed by mass spectrometry. The cleavage sites in the polyprotein and thereof the termini of VPg were experimentally proven. The lengths of the mature VPgs were determined to be 78 and 79 aa residues, respectively. The amino acid residues covalently linked to RNA in the two VPgs were, surprisingly, not conserved; it is a tyrosine at position 5 of CfMV VPg and serine at position 1 of RYMV VPg. Phosphorylations were identified in CfMV and RYMV VPgs with two positionally similar locations T20/S14 and S71/S72, respectively. RYMV VPg contains an additional phosphorylation site at S41

Prebiotic chemistry and atmospheric warming of early Earth by an active young Sun

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Nature Publishing Group via the DOI in this recordNitrogen is a critical ingredient of complex biological molecules. Molecular nitrogen, however, which was outgassed into the Earth's early atmosphere, is relatively chemically inert and nitrogen fixation into more chemically reactive compounds requires high temperatures. Possible mechanisms of nitrogen fixation include lightning, atmospheric shock heating by meteorites, and solar ultraviolet radiation. Here we show that nitrogen fixation in the early terrestrial atmosphere can be explained by frequent and powerful coronal mass ejection events from the young Sun - so-called superflares. Using magnetohydrodynamic simulations constrained by Kepler Space Telescope observations, we find that successive superflare ejections produce shocks that accelerate energetic particles, which would have compressed the early Earth's magnetosphere. The resulting extended polar cap openings provide pathways for energetic particles to penetrate into the atmosphere and, according to our atmospheric chemistry simulations, initiate reactions converting molecular nitrogen, carbon dioxide and methane to the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide as well as hydrogen cyanide, an essential compound for life. Furthermore, the destruction of N 2 , CO 2 and CH 4 suggests that these greenhouse gases cannot explain the stability of liquid water on the early Earth. Instead, we propose that the efficient formation of nitrous oxide could explain a warm early Earth.We thank three referees for constructive suggestions that improved the manuscript. This work was supported by NASA GSFC Science Task Group 263 funds. V. Airapetian performed the part of this work while staying at ELSI/Tokyo Tech

Detection of oxygen and carbon in the hydrodynamically escaping atmosphere of the extrasolar planet HD209458b

Four transits of the planet orbiting the star HD209458 were observed with the STIS spectrograph on board HST. The wavelength domain (1180-1710A) includes HI as well as CI, CII, CIV, NV, OI, SI, SiII, SiIII and SiIV lines. During the transits, absorptions are detected in HI, OI and CII (5+/-2%, 13+/-4.5% and 7.5+/-3.5%, respectively). No absorptions are detected for other lines. The 5% mean absorption over the whole HI Lyman alpha line is consistent with the previous detection at higher resolution (Vidal-Madjar et al. 2003). The absorption depths in OI and CII show that oxygen and carbon are present in the extended upper atmosphere of HD209458b. These species must be carried out up to the Roche lobe and beyond, most likely in a state of hydrodynamic escape.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, submitted to ApJ Letters, revised version with slightly revisited absorption depth estimate

Historical Contingencies Modulate the Adaptability of Rice Yellow Mottle Virus

The rymv1-2 and rymv1-3 alleles of the RYMV1 resistance to Rice yellow mottle virus (RYMV), coded by an eIF(iso)4G1 gene, occur in a few cultivars of the Asiatic (Oryza sativa) and African (O. glaberrima) rice species, respectively. The most salient feature of the resistance breaking (RB) process is the converse genetic barrier to rymv1-2 and rymv1-3 resistance breakdown. This specificity is modulated by the amino acid (glutamic acid vs. threonine) at codon 49 of the Viral Protein genome-linked (VPg), a position which is adjacent to the virulence codons 48 and 52. Isolates with a glutamic acid (E) do not overcome rymv1-3 whereas those with a threonine (T) rarely overcome rymv1-2. We found that isolates with T49 had a strong selective advantage over isolates with E49 in O. glaberrima susceptible cultivars. This explains the fixation of the mutation T49 during RYMV evolution and accounts for the diversifying selection estimated at codon 49. Better adapted to O. glaberrima, isolates with T49 are also more prone than isolates with E49 to fix rymv1-3 RB mutations at codon 52 in resistant O. glaberrima cultivars. However, subsequent genetic constraints impaired the ability of isolates with T49 to fix rymv1-2 RB mutations at codons 48 and 52 in resistant O. sativa cultivars. The origin and role of the amino acid at codon 49 of the VPg exemplifies the importance of historical contingencies in the ability of RYMV to overcome RYMV1 resistance

Pattern recognition of chemical waves: finding the activation energy of the autocatalytic step in the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction

This is the final version. Available from the American Physical Society via the DOI in this record. The Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction is an example of a homogeneous, nonequilibrium reaction used commonly as a model for the study of biological structure and morphogenesis. We report the experimental effects of temperature on spontaneously nucleated trigger waves in a quasi-two-dimensional BZ reaction-diffusion system, conducted isothermally at temperatures between 9.9 and 43.3 °C. Novel application of filter-coupled circle finding and localized pattern analysis is shown to allow the highly accurate extraction of average radial wave velocity and nucleation period. Using this, it is possible to verify a strong Arrhenius dependence of average wave velocity with temperature, which is used to find the effective activation energy of the reaction in accordance with predictions elaborated from the widely used Oregonator model of the BZ reaction. On the basis of our experimental results and existing theoretical models, the value for activation energy of the important self-catalyzed step in the Oregonator model is determined to be 86.58 ± 4.86 kJ mol-1, within range of previous theoretical prediction

The Impact of Phase Equilibrium Cloud Models on GCM Simulations of GJ~1214b

We investigate the impact of clouds on the atmosphere of GJ~1214b using the radiatively-coupled, phase-equilibrium cloud model {\sc EddySed} coupled to the {\sc Unified Model} general circulation model. We find that, consistent with previous investigations, high metallicity ($100\times$ solar) and clouds with large vertical extents (a sedimentation factor of $f_\mathrm{sed} = 0.1$) are required to best match the observations, although metallicities even higher than those investigated here may be required to improve agreement further. We additionally find that in our case which best matches the observations ($f_\mathrm{sed}=0.1$), the velocity structures change relative to the clear sky case with the formation of a superrotating jet being suppressed, although further investigation is required to understand the cause of the suppression. The increase in cloud extent with $f_\mathrm{sed}$ results in a cooler planet due to a higher albedo, causing the atmosphere to contract. This also results in a reduced day-night contrast seen in the phase curves, although the introduction of cloud still results in a reduction of the phase offset. We additionally investigate the impact the the {\sc Unified Model}'s pseudo-spherical irradiation scheme on the calculation of heating rates, finding that the introduction of nightside shortwave heating results in slower mid-latitude jets compared to the plane parallel irradiation scheme used in previous works. We also consider the impact of a gamma distribution, as opposed to a log-normal distribution, for the distribution of cloud particle radii and find the impact to be relatively minor.Comment: Accepted to MNRA

First report of Rice yellow mottle virus on rice in the Democratic Republic of Congo

International audienc

Determining predictive uncertainties and global sensitivities for large parameter systems: A case study for N-butane oxidation

A global sampling approach based on low discrepancy sequences has been applied in order to propose error bars on simulations performed using a detailed kinetic model for the oxidation of n-butane (including 1111 reactions). A two parameter uncertainty factor has been assigned to each considered rate constant. The cases of ignition and oxidation in a jet-stirred reactor (JSR) have both been considered. For the JSR, not only the reactant mole fraction has been considered, but also that of some representative products. A temperature range from 500 to 1250 K has been studied, including the negative temperature coefficient (NTC) region where the predictive error bars have been found to be the largest. It is this temperature region where the highest number of reactions play a role in contributing to the overall output errors. A global sensitivity approach based on high dimensional model representations (HDMR) has then been applied in order to identify those reactions which make the largest contributions to the overall uncertainty of the simulated results. The HDMR analysis has been restricted to the most important reactions based on a non-linear screening method, using Spearman Rank Correlation Coefficients at all studied temperatures. The final global sensitivity analysis for predicted ignition delays illustrates that the key reactions are mainly included in the primary mechanism, for temperatures from 700 to 900 K, and in the C0single bondC2 reaction base at higher temperatures. Interestingly, for predicted butane mole fractions in the JSR, the key reactions are almost exclusively from the reaction base, whatever the temperature. The individual contribution of some key reactions is also discusse