Vitesses de réaction de dissolution et précipitation au voisinage de l'interface oxydo-réducteur dans un lac méromictique : le lac Pavin (Puy de Dôme, France)

Une étude à l'échelle centimétrique de l'interface redox situé à la limite entre mixolimnion et monimolimnion d'un lac méromictique (le lac Pavin) a permis d'observer très finement l'évolution de la concentration d'un certain nombre d'éléments chimiques. Nous avons choisi de présenter ici des résultats concernant 5 éléments qui présentent des comportements très contrastés : le rubidium, le fer, le baryum, le vanadium et le manganèse. La comparaison avec un élément conservatif, le sodium, montre que Rb est conservatif, que Fe, Ba et V sont précipités et que Mn est dissous dans cette zone.Une modélisation de ces concentrations en vue de préciser à quelle profondeur et avec quelle vitesse se produisent les réactions concernant ces éléments nécessite la détermination des paramètres de transport au voisinage de cet interface.Une représentation analytique des concentrations de sodium permet de calculer le coefficient de diffusion turbulente Kz en fonction de la profondeur. Au voisinage de l'interface redox, ce coefficient est très petit (0,0017m2/jour) et inférieur au coefficient de diffusion thermique moléculaire.Les concentrations des éléments étudiés ont pu être représentés avec précisions par des polynômes en fonction de la concentration en sodium.Cela permet d'estimer les vitesses des réactions de précipitation dissolution en fonction de la profondeur. Le rubidium n'est affecté par aucune réaction. Le fer précipite entre 63 et 65 m, le baryum entre 68 et 72 m tandis que le vanadium précipite à la fois dans ces 2 zones. Le manganèse réagit dans une zone très étroite : il est précipité entre 61,5 et 62 m et dissous entre 62,8 et 63,1 m.Une étude similaire de tous les éléments majeurs (y compris pH et COD) pourrait permettre d'élucider les processus qui conduisent à ces comportements complexes.Lake Pavin, French Massif Central, is the main meromictic lake in France and has been extensively studied from more than 50 years. The upper part (mixolimnion) at a depth of less than about 60 m behaves as an oligotrophic lake and is oxic during the major part of the year. The lower layer (monimolimnion) has a higher salinity and is permanently anoxic. Unlike the top of the mixolimnion, element concentrations in the monimolimnion can be considered at steady state. The boundary between mixolimnion and monimolimnion is a redox interface. At this interface, an important number of both chemical and biochemical reactions occur. This boundary, where element concentrations vary greatly, was studied at the centimeter scale between 58 and 64 m depth. The present paper is focused on five elements showing very different behaviour: rubidium, iron, manganese, vanadium and barium. Sodium was used as a reference element. Sodium and rubidium concentrations had similar patterns: a progressive increase began at 61 m depth and the maximal gradient was located at 63 m. They continue to increase towards the bottom of the lake. Iron concentrations were low (< 1 µmol/L) at a depth less than 62.8 m and increased very sharply below this depth. Manganese concentrations were very low in the mixolimnion(<0.01 µmol/L), exhibited a peak between 62.4 and 63.5 m depth (up to 60 µmol/L at 63 m) and reached a value of about 30 µmol/L at 85 m. Barium concentrations began to increase only at depths greater than 65-67 m. Vanadium concentrations in the mixolimnion were about 14 nmol/L, decreased to a minimum below the detection limit at 62.2 m and then increase drastically (150 nmol/L at 85 m).In order to derive the accurate location of the chemical reactions and an estimation of their rates from the concentration profiles, knowledge of the transport parameters was needed. As advection can be considered to be negligible, the major parameter of interest is the vertical eddy diffusion coefficient Kz. Na is assumed to be unreactive in the studied layer. Its concentrations can be represented by an analytical function      Cmax - Cmin                 Cmax + CminC = ___________ * th [P(z)] + ___________             2                                    2with P(z)=0.0016 * (z-zo)3 - 0.0493 * (z-zo)2 + 0.5735 * (z-zo) - 0.4811This allows the determination of the coefficient Kz.Kz = λ ch2 [P(z)]/ [P'(z)]λ is determined from the value of Kz at 85 m depth previously obtained from an hydrodynamic study of the lake (Aeshbach-Hertig et al., 1999). This coefficient is about 0.1 m2/day at the bottom of the monimolimnion. It is very low at the redox interface (0.0017 m2/day), far below the molecular thermal diffusion coefficient. It increases very sharply at the bottom of the mixolimnion. The Kz profile is in fair agreement with the results obtained from the earlier hydrodynamic study. A quantitative study of the dissolution-precipitation reactions at the center of the lake at depths between 55 and 85 m can then be undertaken. The 55 m limit corresponds to a depth where inputs of fresh water can occur. The 85 m limit is about 7 m above the bottom of the lake. Below this depth important inputs from the pore waters occur which are not taken into account by the present modeling. Concentrations of Rb, Fe, Ba and V can be accurately represented by polynomial functions of the Na concentration. The parameter u=th[P(z)] represents the concentrations of these 4 elements by polynomials :          NX(u) = Σ an * un          0The rate of dissolution-precipitation for each element as a function of depth can be derived.                                       NR = - λ [P'(z)] * ch-2[P(z)] Σ ann(n-1) * thn-2[P(z)]                                        0Rb concentrations are a linear function of the Na ones and therefore rubidium is not reactive. Fe concentrations can be related to sodium concentrations by a parabolic relationship. From this relationship, it can be derived that strong iron precipitation occurs in the 63 - 65 m depth layer. V concentrations are related to sodium ones by a 4th degree polynomial. It can be derived that V deposition occurs at depths of 63-65 m and at 70 m.Ba precipitates around 70 m depth. Mn concentrations are represented by [Mn]=a0 +a1 u + b1 exp[-(z-z°)2/z*2] and the derivation shows that Mn is strongly dissolved between 62.8 and 63 m and precipitated just above. These results are in good agreement with a previous study of particles fluxes derived from sediment trap analysis (Viollier et al, 1997).This study shows the complexity of this interface and more comprehensive studies including all major elements, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and pH are needed

Empirical assessment of generating adversarial configurations for software product lines

Software product line (SPL) engineering allows the derivation of products tailored to stakeholders’ needs through the setting of a large number of configuration options. Unfortunately, options and their interactions create a huge configuration space which is either intractable or too costly to explore exhaustively. Instead of covering all products, machine learning (ML) approximates the set of acceptable products (e.g., successful builds, passing tests) out of a training set (a sample of configurations). However, ML techniques can make prediction errors yielding non-acceptable products wasting time, energy and other resources. We apply adversarial machine learning techniques to the world of SPLs and craft new configurations faking to be acceptable configurations but that are not and vice-versa. It allows to diagnose prediction errors and take appropriate actions. We develop two adversarial configuration generators on top of state-of-the-art attack algorithms and capable of synthesizing configurations that are both adversarial and conform to logical constraints. We empirically assess our generators within two case studies: an industrial video synthesizer (MOTIV) and an industry-strength, open-source Web-app configurator (JHipster). For the two cases, our attacks yield (up to) a 100% misclassification rate without sacrificing the logical validity of adversarial configurations. This work lays the foundations of a quality assurance framework for ML-based SPLs

Electrical detection of spin accumulation in a p-type GaAs quantum well

We report on experiments in which a spin-polarized current is injected from a $GaMnAs$ ferromagnetic electrode into a $GaAs$ quantum well through an AlAs barrier. The resulting spin polarization in the GaAs well is detected by measuring how the current, tunneling to a second $GaMnAs$ ferromagnetic electrode, depends on the orientation of its magnetization. Our results can be accounted for the non-relaxed spin splitting of the chemical potential, that is spin accumulation, in the $GaAs$ well. We discuss the conditions on the hole spin relaxation time in GaAs that are required to obtain the large effects we observe.Comment: 4 pages - 2 figues; one added note; some numbers corrected on page

ATLAS Distributed Data management Operations

ATLAS Distributed Data Management (DDM) service is developed for data transfer between ATLAS sites and for data cataloguing. The Data Management Software (SW) is based on DQ2 and end-users tools (aka dq2_get package). In this paper we address the issue of DDM day-by-day operation, DDM operations team organization, roles and responsibilities of Tier-1s and Tier-2s DDM coordinators

Les turbo-codes à roulettes

é - Le problème majeur dans l'implémentation matérielle d'un turbo-décodeur réside dans le manque de parallélisme des algorithmes de décodage MAP. Cet article propose un nouveau procédé de turbo-codage basé sur deux idées: le codage de chaque dimension par P codes convolutifs récursifs circulaires indépendants et des contraintes sur la structure de l'entrelaceur qui permet de décoder en parallèle les P codes convolutifs dans chaque dimension. La construction des codes constituants et de l'entrelaceur est décrite et analysée. Un haut degré de parallélisme est obtenu avec des performances équivalentes ou meilleures que les meilleurs turbo-codes connus. L'architecture parallèle du décodeur permet de réduire la complexité du turbo-décodeur pour des applications à très hauts débits

A topological Dirac insulator in a quantum spin Hall phase : Experimental observation of first strong topological insulator

When electrons are subject to a large external magnetic field, the conventional charge quantum Hall effect \cite{Klitzing,Tsui} dictates that an electronic excitation gap is generated in the sample bulk, but metallic conduction is permitted at the boundary. Recent theoretical models suggest that certain bulk insulators with large spin-orbit interactions may also naturally support conducting topological boundary states in the extreme quantum limit, which opens up the possibility for studying unusual quantum Hall-like phenomena in zero external magnetic field. Bulk Bi$_{1-x}$Sb$_x$ single crystals are expected to be prime candidates for one such unusual Hall phase of matter known as the topological insulator. The hallmark of a topological insulator is the existence of metallic surface states that are higher dimensional analogues of the edge states that characterize a spin Hall insulator. In addition to its interesting boundary states, the bulk of Bi$_{1-x}$Sb$_x$ is predicted to exhibit three-dimensional Dirac particles, another topic of heightened current interest. Here, using incident-photon-energy-modulated (IPEM-ARPES), we report the first direct observation of massive Dirac particles in the bulk of Bi$_{0.9}$Sb$_{0.1}$, locate the Kramers' points at the sample's boundary and provide a comprehensive mapping of the topological Dirac insulator's gapless surface modes. These findings taken together suggest that the observed surface state on the boundary of the bulk insulator is a realization of the much sought exotic "topological metal". They also suggest that this material has potential application in developing next-generation quantum computing devices.Comment: 16 pages, 3 Figures. Submitted to NATURE on 25th November(2007

Search for supersymmetry with a dominant R-parity violating LQDbar couplings in e+e- collisions at centre-of-mass energies of 130GeV to 172 GeV

A search for pair-production of supersymmetric particles under the assumption that R-parity is violated via a dominant LQDbar coupling has been performed using the data collected by ALEPH at centre-of-mass energies of 130-172 GeV. The observed candidate events in the data are in agreement with the Standard Model expectation. This result is translated into lower limits on the masses of charginos, neutralinos, sleptons, sneutrinos and squarks. For instance, for m_0=500 GeV/c^2 and tan(beta)=sqrt(2) charginos with masses smaller than 81 GeV/c^2 and neutralinos with masses smaller than 29 GeV/c^2 are excluded at the 95% confidence level for any generation structure of the LQDbar coupling.Comment: 32 pages, 30 figure

Hadron Energy Reconstruction for the ATLAS Calorimetry in the Framework of the Non-parametrical Method

This paper discusses hadron energy reconstruction for the ATLAS barrel prototype combined calorimeter (consisting of a lead-liquid argon electromagnetic part and an iron-scintillator hadronic part) in the framework of the non-parametrical method. The non-parametrical method utilizes only the known $e/h$ ratios and the electron calibration constants and does not require the determination of any parameters by a minimization technique. Thus, this technique lends itself to an easy use in a first level trigger. The reconstructed mean values of the hadron energies are within $\pm 1$ of the true values and the fractional energy resolution is $[(58\pm3)/\sqrt{E}+(2.5\pm0.3)$. The value of the $e/h$ ratio obtained for the electromagnetic compartment of the combined calorimeter is $1.74\pm0.04$ and agrees with the prediction that $e/h > 1.7$ for this electromagnetic calorimeter. Results of a study of the longitudinal hadronic shower development are also presented. The data have been taken in the H8 beam line of the CERN SPS using pions of energies from 10 to 300 GeV.Comment: 33 pages, 13 figures, Will be published in NIM

Measurements of Higgs boson production and couplings in diboson final states with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements are presented of production properties and couplings of the recently discovered Higgs boson using the decays into boson pairs, H →γ γ, H → Z Z∗ →4l and H →W W∗ →lνlν. The results are based on the complete pp collision data sample recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at centre-of-mass energies of √s = 7 TeV and √s = 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 25 fb−1. Evidence for Higgs boson production through vector-boson fusion is reported. Results of combined fits probing Higgs boson couplings to fermions and bosons, as well as anomalous contributions to loop-induced production and decay modes, are presented. All measurements are consistent with expectations for the Standard Model Higgs boson