DYNAMIC 3D MODELING OF A CANAL-TUNNEL USING PHOTOGRAMMETRIC AND BATHYMETRIC DATA

This contribution introduces an original method for dynamically surveying the vault and underwater parts of a canal-tunnel for 3D modeling. The recording system, embedded on a barge, is composed of cameras that provide images of the above-water part of the tunnel, and a sonar that acquires underwater 3D profiles. In this contribution we propose to fully exploit the capacities of photogrammetry to deal with the issue of geo-referencing data in the absence of global positioning system (GPS) data. More specifically, we use it both for reconstructing the vault and side walls of the tunnel in 3D and for estimating the trajectory of the boat, which is necessary to rearrange sonar profiles to form the 3D model of the canal. We report on a first experimentation carried out inside a canal-tunnel and show promising preliminary results that illustrate the potentialities of the proposed approach

Holistic optimisation of noise reducing devices

International audienceThe work presented in this paper is part of the QUIESST European project, in which one of the objective is to perform multi-objective holistic optimisations of noise reducing devices. We present here optimisation results concerning the extrinsic performances of noise barriers. The performances under interest are acoustical, economical and environmental. The variety of noise barriers considered is very wide, ranging from straight and flat barriers, to rough or capped barriers. A total number of nine noise reducing device families are optimised. Acoustical performances are obtained from numerical calculations: the Boundary Element Method (in 2D) is used to obtain relative sound pressure levels at a set of receivers in different situations. Theses situations include road and rail sources; rural and urban cases; flat, embanked and depressed topographies. The economical performance is calculated according to the maintenance cost of the different materials in use in the barrier. Four environmental performances indicators are considered; their calculation is based on a life-cycle assessment analysis. All performances are expressed as a gain (or loss) relative to a reference screen. It is shown that the optimisation procedure allows one to obtain a wide variety of optimised noise reducing devices, and hence provides a helpful design tool by allowing one to focus on specific parameters

English Language Policy as Ideology in Multilingual Khorog, Tajikistan

This chapter explores English language policy as ideology in multilingual Khorog, Tajikistan. English has steadily grown in importance in Khorog since the late 1990s, and particularly as a result of efforts by the spiritual leader of the transnational Ismaili community, the Aga Khan IV, to promote English among his local followers who form a majority in Khorog. Ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Khorog shows that ideologies of English closely interact with ideologies of Tajik, Russian and Shughni. In this chapter, I will analyse the discursive construction and co-construction of ideologies of English, Tajik, Russian and Shughni by drawing on transcriptions of interviews and particularly a group discussion in which I asked my interlocutors to take on the role of language policy makers for Tajikistan. I will thereby show that issues of language policy and ideology in Khorog need to be explored against the backdrop of both national and transnational policy making efforts, notably attempts on the part of President Emomali Rahmon to forge a closer union between the official language Tajik and the nation-state of Tajikistan; and of the Aga Khan to promote English

LC-MS/MS method for the simultaneous quantification of artesunate and its metabolites dihydroartemisinin and dihydroartemisinin glucuronide in human plasma

Artesunate (AS), a hemisuccinate derivative of artemisinin, is readily soluble in water and can easily be used in formulations for parenteral treatment of severe malaria. AS is rapidly hydrolyzed to the active metabolite dihydroartemisinin (DHA) and primarily eliminated by biliary excretion after glucuronidation. To investigate systematically the AS metabolism and pharmacokinetics, a novel liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method for the simultaneous quantification of AS and its metabolites DHA and DHA glucuronide (DHAG) in human plasma samples was developed. Compared to previous methods, our method includes for the first time the quantification of the glucuronide metabolite using a newly synthesized stable isotope-labeled analogue as internal standard. Sample preparation was performed with only 50 μL plasma by high-throughput solid-phase extraction in the 96-well plate format. Separation of the analytes was achieved on a Poroshell 120 EC-C18 column (50*2.1 mm, 2.7 μm, Agilent Technologies, Waldbronn, Germany). The method was validated according to FDA guidelines. Calibration curves were linear over the entire range from 1 to 2,500 nM (0.4–961.1 ng/mL), 165 to 16,500 nM (46.9–4,691.8 ng/mL), and 4 to 10,000 nM (1.8–4,604.7 ng/mL) for AS, DHA, and DHAG, respectively. Intra- and interbatch accuracy, determined as a deviation between nominal and measured values, ranged from −5.7 to 3.5 % and from 2.7 to 5.8 %, respectively. The assay variability ranged from 1.5 to 10.9 % for intra- and interbatch approaches. All analytes showed extraction recoveries above 85 %. The method was successfully applied to plasma samples from patients under AS treatment

Revisiting the Mamlūk empire : political action, relationships of power, entangled networks, and the sultanate of Cairo in late medieval Syro-Egypt

This chapter’s questions the commonly assumed link between political practices of integration and integrity on the one hand – which appear as empirical realities from many sources and studies – and the Syro-Egyptian Sultanate of Cairo (13th-16th centuries) as a dominant, autonomous and imperial historical actor on the other. It problematizes in particular the holistic nature of these assumptions, their merely descriptive value for understanding the region’s history, and the potentially misleading consequences of their normative character. At the same time, this chapter proposes to reflect further on the powerful idea of the Sultanate as an empire. It actually considers this notion of “empire” as a useful way out of this predicament, because it invites to engage with insights from other fields of historical research and to define valuable analytical tools, including from social network theory, to further and refine current assumptions about and understandings of late medieval Syro-Egyptian political action. Confronting such tools with various cases from the center and the peripheries of that Syro-Egyptian political action, this chapter argues that the imperial appearances of the Syro-Egyptian Sultanate were always constructed in the micro-history of people and their negotiation of particular cultural, socio-economic and political relationships, which were extremely fluid and multivalent, permeable, and continuously organized around the court in Cairo