Impacts des effluents liquides industriels sur l’environnement urbain d’Abidjan - Côte D’Ivoire

Au cours de ces dernières années, les pouvoirs publics ivoiriens ont fait de l’industrialisation l’un des maillons essentiels du développement, après le succès de l’agriculture. Mais la mise en oeuvre de cette politique pose parfois des problèmes d’environnement à Abidjan. La présente étude a pour objectif principal d’évaluer à travers six paramètres (T °C, pH, DCO, DBO5, MES et MGT), les impacts environnementaux négatifs des effluents industriels dans le milieu urbain d’Abidjan. Pour ce faire, des analyses physico-chimiques de 36 échantillons de rejets industriels, ont été réalisées. A l’exception du pH et de la température, les valeurs extrêmes des paramètres de pollution (DCO, DBO5, MES et MGT respectivement de 1392,83 mg O2/l, 910,03 mg O2/l, 231,53 mg/l et 332,67 mg/l) sont largement supérieures à la norme ivoirienne. Ce qui indique que la zone urbaine d’Abidjan est polluée. Par ailleurs, l’activité industrielle a favorisé aux alentours des zones industrielles d’Abidjan (Yopougon et Port-Bouët), des habitats précaires avec leurs corolaires de maladies (paludisme (68,4%), fièvre typhoïde (12,2%), etc.) et les mauvaises conditions de vie (53,4%). Au regard de ce qui précède, il serait recommandable aux industriels de mettre l’accent sur l’abattement des paramètres en deçà des normes. Les structures de contrôle étatique devraient assurer leur rôle régalien au sein des zones industrielles. © 2013 International Formulae Group. All rights reserved.Mots clés: Entreprises industrielles, Abidjan, paramètres physico-chimiques, Environnement, Impacts, pollution

Fabrication and operation of a two-dimensional ion-trap lattice on a high-voltage microchip

Microfabricated ion traps are a major advancement towards scalable quantum computing with trapped ions. The development of more versatile ion-trap designs, in which tailored arrays of ions are positioned in two dimensions above a microfabricated surface, will lead to applications in fields as varied as quantum simulation, metrology and atom–ion interactions. Current surface ion traps often have low trap depths and high heating rates, because of the size of the voltages that can be applied to them, limiting the fidelity of quantum gates. Here we report on a fabrication process that allows for the application of very high voltages to microfabricated devices in general and use this advance to fabricate a two-dimensional ion-trap lattice on a microchip. Our microfabricated architecture allows for reliable trapping of two-dimensional ion lattices, long ion lifetimes, rudimentary shuttling between lattice sites and the ability to deterministically introduce defects into the ion lattice

Neutrino Mass and μ→e+γ\mu \rightarrow e + \gamma from a Mini-Seesaw

The recently proposed "mini-seesaw mechanism" combines naturally suppressed Dirac and Majorana masses to achieve light Standard Model neutrinos via a low-scale seesaw. A key feature of this approach is the presence of multiple light (order GeV) sterile-neutrinos that mix with the Standard Model. In this work we study the bounds on these light sterile-neutrinos from processes like \mu ---> e + \gamma, invisible Z-decays, and neutrinoless double beta-decay. We show that viable parameter space exists and that, interestingly, key observables can lie just below current experimental sensitivities. In particular, a motivated region of parameter space predicts a value of BR(\mu ---> e + \gamma) within the range to be probed by MEG.Comment: 1+26 pages, 7 figures. v2 JHEP version (typo's fixed, minor change to presentation, results unchanged

Digitoxin medication and cancer; case control and internal dose-response studies

BACKGROUND: Digitoxin induces apoptosis in different human malignant cell lines in vitro. In this paper we investigated if patients taking digitoxin for cardiac disease have a different cancer incidence compared to the general population. METHODS: Computer stored data on digitoxin concentrations in plasma from 9271 patients with cardiac disease were used to define a user population. Age and sex matched controls from the Norwegian Cancer Registry were used to calculate the number of expected cancer cases. RESULTS: The population on digitoxin showed a higher incidence of cancer compared to the control population. However, an additional analysis showed that the population on digitoxin had a general increased risk of cancer already, before the start on digitoxin. Leukemia/lymphoma were the cancer types which stood out with the highest risk in the digitoxin population before starting on digitoxin. This indicates that yet unknown risk factors exist for cardiovascular disease and lymphoproliferative cancer. An internal dose-response analysis revealed a relationship between high plasma concentration of digitoxin and a lower risk for leukemia/lymphoma and for cancer of the kidney/urinary tract. CONCLUSION: Morbidity and mortality are high in the population on digitoxin, due to high age and cardiac disease.These factors disturb efforts to isolate an eventual anticancer effect of digitoxin in this setting. Still, the results may indicate an anticancer effect of digitoxin for leukemia/lymphoma and kidney/urinary tract cancers. Prospective clinical cancer trials have to be done to find out if digitoxin and other cardiac glycosides are useful as anticancer agents

Evaluation of the current knowledge limitations in breast cancer research: a gap analysis

BACKGROUND A gap analysis was conducted to determine which areas of breast cancer research, if targeted by researchers and funding bodies, could produce the greatest impact on patients. METHODS Fifty-six Breast Cancer Campaign grant holders and prominent UK breast cancer researchers participated in a gap analysis of current breast cancer research. Before, during and following the meeting, groups in seven key research areas participated in cycles of presentation, literature review and discussion. Summary papers were prepared by each group and collated into this position paper highlighting the research gaps, with recommendations for action. RESULTS Gaps were identified in all seven themes. General barriers to progress were lack of financial and practical resources, and poor collaboration between disciplines. Critical gaps in each theme included: (1) genetics (knowledge of genetic changes, their effects and interactions); (2) initiation of breast cancer (how developmental signalling pathways cause ductal elongation and branching at the cellular level and influence stem cell dynamics, and how their disruption initiates tumour formation); (3) progression of breast cancer (deciphering the intracellular and extracellular regulators of early progression, tumour growth, angiogenesis and metastasis); (4) therapies and targets (understanding who develops advanced disease); (5) disease markers (incorporating intelligent trial design into all studies to ensure new treatments are tested in patient groups stratified using biomarkers); (6) prevention (strategies to prevent oestrogen-receptor negative tumours and the long-term effects of chemoprevention for oestrogen-receptor positive tumours); (7) psychosocial aspects of cancer (the use of appropriate psychosocial interventions, and the personal impact of all stages of the disease among patients from a range of ethnic and demographic backgrounds). CONCLUSION Through recommendations to address these gaps with future research, the long-term benefits to patients will include: better estimation of risk in families with breast cancer and strategies to reduce risk; better prediction of drug response and patient prognosis; improved tailoring of treatments to patient subgroups and development of new therapeutic approaches; earlier initiation of treatment; more effective use of resources for screening populations; and an enhanced experience for people with or at risk of breast cancer and their families. The challenge to funding bodies and researchers in all disciplines is to focus on these gaps and to drive advances in knowledge into improvements in patient care

The muscle protein dysferlin accumulates in the Alzheimer brain

Dysferlin is a transmembrane protein that is highly expressed in muscle. Dysferlin mutations cause limb-girdle dystrophy type 2B, Miyoshi myopathy and distal anterior compartment myopathy. Dysferlin has also been described in neural tissue. We studied dysferlin distribution in the brains of patients with Alzheimer disease (AD) and controls. Twelve brains, staged using the Clinical Dementia Rating were examined: 9 AD cases (mean age: 85.9 years and mean disease duration: 8.9 years), and 3 age-matched controls (mean age: 87.5 years). Dysferlin is a cytoplasmic protein in the pyramidal neurons of normal and AD brains. In addition, there were dysferlin-positive dystrophic neurites within Aβ plaques in the AD brain, distinct from tau-positive neurites. Western blots of total brain protein (RIPA) and sequential extraction buffers (high salt, high salt/Triton X-100, SDS and formic acid) of increasing protein extraction strength were performed to examine solubility state. In RIPA fractions, dysferlin was seen as 230–272 kDa bands in normal and AD brains. In serial extractions, there was a shift of dysferlin from soluble phase in high salt/Triton X-100 to the more insoluble SDS fraction in AD. Dysferlin is a new protein described in the AD brain that accumulates in association with neuritic plaques. In muscle, dysferlin plays a role in the repair of muscle membrane damage. The accumulation of dysferlin in the AD brain may be related to the inability of neurons to repair damage due to Aβ deposits accumulating in the AD brain

Systematisation of spatial uncertainties for comparison between a MR and a CT-based radiotherapy workflow for prostate treatments

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In the present work we compared the spatial uncertainties associated with a MR-based workflow for external radiotherapy of prostate cancer to a standard CT-based workflow. The MR-based workflow relies on target definition and patient positioning based on MR imaging. A solution for patient transport between the MR scanner and the treatment units has been developed. For the CT-based workflow, the target is defined on a MR series but then transferred to a CT study through image registration before treatment planning, and a patient positioning using portal imaging and fiducial markers.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>An "open bore" 1.5T MRI scanner, Siemens Espree, has been installed in the radiotherapy department in near proximity to a treatment unit to enable patient transport between the two installations, and hence use the MRI for patient positioning. The spatial uncertainty caused by the transport was added to the uncertainty originating from the target definition process, estimated through a review of the scientific literature. The uncertainty in the CT-based workflow was estimated through a literature review.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The systematic uncertainties, affecting all treatment fractions, are reduced from 3-4 mm (1Sd) with a CT based workflow to 2-3 mm with a MR based workflow. The main contributing factor to this improvement is the exclusion of registration between MR and CT in the planning phase of the treatment.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Treatment planning directly on MR images reduce the spatial uncertainty for prostate treatments.</p

Comparative quantification of health risks: Conceptual framework and methodological issues

Reliable and comparable analysis of risks to health is key for preventing disease and injury. Causal attribution of morbidity and mortality to risk factors has traditionally been conducted in the context of methodological traditions of individual risk factors, often in a limited number of settings, restricting comparability. In this paper, we discuss the conceptual and methodological issues for quantifying the population health effects of individual or groups of risk factors in various levels of causality using knowledge from different scientific disciplines. The issues include: comparing the burden of disease due to the observed exposure distribution in a population with the burden from a hypothetical distribution or series of distributions, rather than a single reference level such as non-exposed; considering the multiple stages in the causal network of interactions among risk factor(s) and disease outcome to allow making inferences about some combinations of risk factors for which epidemiological studies have not been conducted, including the joint effects of multiple risk factors; calculating the health loss due to risk factor(s) as a time-indexed "stream" of disease burden due to a time-indexed "stream" of exposure, including consideration of discounting; and the sources of uncertainty

Search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at √ s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses 20.3 fb−1 of √ s = 8 TeV data collected in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are required to have at least one jet with pT > 120 GeV and no leptons. Nine signal regions are considered with increasing missing transverse momentum requirements between Emiss T > 150 GeV and Emiss T > 700 GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model expectations. The results are translated into exclusion limits on models with either large extra spatial dimensions, pair production of weakly interacting dark matter candidates, or production of very light gravitinos in a gauge-mediated supersymmetric model. In addition, limits on the production of an invisibly decaying Higgs-like boson leading to similar topologies in the final state are presente