Noncoding RNA

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Impact de l'urbanisation sur le cycle hydrologique dans un bassin versant periurbain. Application au bassin de l’Yzeron - ouest lyonnais, France

International audienceL’urbanisation croissante, en particulier dans les zones périphériques aux grandes villes (zones périurbaines) a des conséquences sur le cycle hydrologique en modifiant l’infiltrabilité des sols, la recharge des nappes, ainsi que les chemins naturels de l’eau via les différents réseaux (routiers, eau potable, assainissement). Une modélisation à l'aide du modèle hydrologique distribué J2000 est mise en ½uvre sur le bassin versant de l’Yzeron, en périphérie de Lyon, représentatif des bassins périurbains français. Nous montrons en particulier que l’urbanisation modifie les composantes des écoulements en accroissant le ruissellement de surface au détriment des écoulements de base ou de sub-surface (comparaison de simulations s’appuyant sur des cartes d’occupation du sol de 1990, 1999, 2008). La prise en compte des réseaux d’assainissement et des déversoirs d’orage dans la modélisation permettra d’améliorer la simulation des bilans hydrologiques dans le bassin. / Urban growth, in particular close to big cities impacts the hydrological cycle by modifying soil infiltration capacity, groundwater recharge, but also by modifying natural water pathways due to the various networks associated with urbanization (roads, drinkable and sewer networks). The distributed hydrological model J2000 is set up in the Yzeron catchment, close to Lyon city. We show that urban growth modifies the flow components by increasing surface runoff and decreasing base and sub-surface flows (comparison of simulations based on past land use mapping of 1990, 1999, 2008). The inclusion of sewer networks and sewer overflow devices in the model will improve the water balance simulations of the catchment

Quels liens entre climatologie, occupation des sols et inondations dans le bassin versant de l'Yzeron (ouest Lyonnais) ? Apport de l'analyse conjointe de données hydroclimatiques et d'images satellitaires très haute résolution

Le bassin versant de l'Yzeron, situé en périphérie immédiate de la ville de Lyon, est un bassin représentatif des bassins versants périurbains français. Il connaît, depuis les années 1970, une augmentation importante de son urbanisation. Ces dernières années, des crues importantes, entraînant des inondations à l'aval du bassin versant ont marqué les esprits, posant la question de l'impact des modifications de l'occupation des sols dans le bassin versant sur le régime des crues. Dans cet article, nous utilisons l'analyse combinée de données hydroclimatiques (pluie, température, évapotranspiration de référence -ET0, débits) et de cartes de l'occupation des sols dérivées d'images satellites SPOT à haute et très haute résolution pour aborder cette question. L'analyse des débits montre l'existence d'une évolution du régime des crues, avec une augmentation significative des crues sub -seuils pour des durées de 1,5h, 3h, 6h, 12h et 36h sur la période 1970-2010. L'analyse de l'échantillon de crues obtenue par cette analyse débit-durée-fréquence montre que les crues les plus importantes sont plutôt liées à des épisodes ayant conduit à un cumul de pluie important (> 80 mm en quelques jours). Une corrélation significative est aussi obtenue entre débit de base et coefficient de ruissellement, ce qui montre que ces crues peuvent être associées à des écoulements sur surfaces saturées. Les évolutions du climat (pluviométrie, température, ET0) ne permettent pas d'expliquer l'augmentation des crues observées. En revanche, l'occupation des sols entre 1990 et 2008 montre une augmentation des sur faces imperméables qui passent de 15,2 % de la surface totale du bassin en 1990 à 18,2 % en 1999 et 22,6 % en 2008. Cette évolution de l'imperméabilisation est mise en regard de l'accroissement de la population du bassin sur cette même période. Enfin, nous illustrons la réponse hydrologique du bassin versant avec deux épisodes pour lesquels le rôle de l'occupation des sols est différent. Le premier, celui du 02/12/2003 est typique d'une réponse par saturation du bassin, avec une contribution majeure des zon es rurales, suite à des cumuls pluviométriques importants. Le second, celui du 09/08/2009 représente un orage d'été, très court mais avec des intensités importantes, conduisant essentiellement à une réponse rapide des zones urbaines et pour lequel l'occupation des sols joue un rôle majeur

Investigating the impact of two decades of urbanization on the water balance of the Yzeron peri-urban catchment, France

International audienceThis paper addresses the impact of 18 years of urbanization (1990-2008) on the Yzeron meso-scale peri-urban catchment (150 km²), located close to Lyon, France. A simplified version of the distributed hydrological model J2000 was used to perform long term simulations at a daily time step for several land use scenarios. These scenarios were derived from satellite SPOT images from years 1990, 1999 and 2008. The corresponding land use maps were classified into 5 classes depending on the percentage of impervious surfaces and the dominant non-impervious land use (agriculture or forest). The paper presents the methodology for the model setup and the simulation results for the main water balance components of the catchment: total runoff, runoff components, evapotranspiration and soil moisture. The results highlight the change of the catchment seasonal response from 1990 to 2008, mainly due to a change of the respective contributions of groundwater flow / surface runoff (+ 92% / - 28%, respectively). Monthly mean summer discharge unexpectedly appears to be higher in summer. It is provided by intermittent surface runoff generated by summer storm events. As surface runoff generated on urban surfaces is likely to carry a wide range of contaminants, this has a potential large impact on water quality

Electron charge transport in non-peripherally substituted copper phthalocyanine

Bottom-gate, bottom-contact organic thin film transistors (OTFTs) were fabricated using solvent soluble copper-1,4,8,11,15,18,22,25-octakis(hexyl)phthalocyanine as the active semiconductor layer. The compound was deposited as 70 nm thick spin-coated films onto gold source-drain electrodes supported on octadecyltrichlorosilane treated 250 nm thick SiO2 gate insulator. The analysis of experimental results showed the n-type field effect behaviour. Devices annealed at 100 oC under vacuum were found to exhibit the field-effect mobility of 0.0989 cm2 V-1 s-1, with an on/off current modulation ratio of ∼106, a reduced threshold voltage of 0.7 V and a sub-threshold swing of 2.12 V decade-1. The variations in surface morphology of the devices are found reflected considerably in the electrical measurements. The device contact resistance was found to be decreased as the gate bias increased and also with the annealing

Neurobehavioral function and low-level exposure to brominated flame retardants in adolescents : a cross-sectional study

Background: Animal and in vitro studies demonstrated a neurotoxic potential of brominated flame retardants, a group of chemicals used in many household and commercial products to prevent fire. Although the first reports of detrimental neurobehavioral effects in rodents appeared more than ten years ago, human data are sparse. Methods: As a part of a biomonitoring program for environmental health surveillance in Flanders, Belgium, we assessed the neurobehavioral function with the Neurobehavioral Evaluation System (NES-3), and collected blood samples in a group of high school students. Cross-sectional data on 515 adolescents (13.6-17 years of age) was available for the analysis. Multiple regression models accounting for potential confounders were used to investigate the associations between biomarkers of internal exposure to brominated flame retardants [serum levels of polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) congeners 47, 99, 100, 153, 209, hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD), and tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA)] and cognitive performance. In addition, we investigated the association between brominated flame retardants and serum levels of FT3, FT4, and TSH. Results: A two-fold increase of the sum of serum PBDE's was associated with a decrease of the number of taps with the preferred-hand in the Finger Tapping test by 5.31 (95% CI: 0.56 to 10.05, p = 0.029). The effects of the individual PBDE congeners on the motor speed were consistent. Serum levels above the level of quantification were associated with an average decrease of FT3 level by 0.18 pg/mL (95% CI: 0.03 to 0.34, p = 0.020) for PBDE-99 and by 0.15 pg/mL (95% CI: 0.004 to 0.29, p = 0.045) for PBDE-100, compared with concentrations below the level of quantification. PBDE-47 level above the level of quantification was associated with an average increase of TSH levels by 10.1% (95% CI: 0.8% to 20.2%, p = 0.033), compared with concentrations below the level of quantification. We did not observe effects of PBDE's on neurobehavioral domains other than the motor function. HBCD and TBBPA did not show consistent associations with performance in the neurobehavioral tests. Conclusions: This study is one of few studies and so far the largest one investigating the neurobehavioral effects of brominated flame retardants in humans. Consistently with experimental animal data, PBDE exposure was associated with changes in the motor function and the serum levels of the thyroid hormones

Ecological Consequences of Shoreline Hardening: A Meta-Analysis

Protecting coastal communities has become increasingly important as their populations grow, resulting in increased demand for engineered shore protection and hardening of over 50% of many urban shorelines. Shoreline hardening is recognized to reduce ecosystem services that coastal populations rely on, but the amount of hardened coastline continues to grow in many ecologically important coastal regions. Therefore, to inform future management decisions, we conducted a meta-analysis of studies comparing the ecosystem services of biodiversity (richness or diversity) and habitat provisioning (organism abundance) along shorelines with versus without engineered-shore structures. Seawalls supported 23% lower biodiversity and 45% fewer organisms than natural shorelines. In contrast, biodiversity and abundance supported by riprap or breakwater shorelines were not different from natural shorelines; however, effect sizes were highly heterogeneous across organism groups and studies. As coastal development increases, the type and location of shoreline hardening could greatly affect the habitat value and functioning of nearshore ecosystems

Infected site-restricted Foxp3+ natural regulatory T cells are specific for microbial antigens

Natural regulatory T (T reg) cells are involved in control of the immune response, including response to pathogens. Previous work has demonstrated that the repertoire of natural T reg cells may be biased toward self-antigen recognition. Whether they also recognize foreign antigens and how this recognition contributes to their function remain unknown. Our studies addressed the antigenic specificity of natural T reg cells that accumulate at sites of chronic infection with Leishmania major in mice. Our results support the idea that natural T reg cells are able to respond specifically to foreign antigens in that they strongly proliferate in response to Leishmania-infected dendritic cells, they maintain Foxp3 expression, and Leishmania-specific T reg cell lines can be generated from infected mice. Surprisingly, the majority of natural T reg cells at the infected site are Leishmania specific. Further, we showed that parasite-specific natural T reg cells are restricted to sites of infection and that their survival is strictly dependent on parasite persistence

Creation of multiple nanodots by single ions

In the challenging search for tools that are able to modify surfaces on the nanometer scale, heavy ions with energies of several 10 MeV are becoming more and more attractive. In contrast to slow ions where nuclear stopping is important and the energy is dissipated into a large volume in the crystal, in the high energy regime the stopping is due to electronic excitations only. Because of the extremely local (< 1 nm) energy deposition with densities of up to 10E19 W/cm^2, nanoscaled hillocks can be created under normal incidence. Usually, each nanodot is due to the impact of a single ion and the dots are randomly distributed. We demonstrate that multiple periodically spaced dots separated by a few 10 nanometers can be created by a single ion if the sample is irradiated under grazing angles of incidence. By varying this angle the number of dots can be controlled.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure