L’harmonie introuvable : joie et inquiétude dans les cures du Chevalier de Barberin

Both a disciple of Doctor Deslon and close to Lyon’s illuminist circles, the chevalier de Barberin implements somnambulist cures that are not limited to only a therapeutic usage. Through the words of his female patients, he tries to unveil the mysteries of cosmic harmony, by remaining attentive to speeches that are deemed prophetic or divine. However, his treatment’s turbulent process presents a warped picture of an harmony that seems to slip away at every step. At the heart of what they consider a true vocation, he and his close associates try to find a more theosophical than scientific path towards reconciling man, as a patient and a sinner, with the divine

Suivi du devenir de l'eau et des nitrates sous culture de pommes de terre (Solanum tuberosum L.) à l'aide du traçage isotopique ¹⁸O, ²H et ¹⁵N et d'un échantillonnage représentatif de la microtopographie

La quantification du lessivage des engrais azotés en vue de réduire les pertes dans l’environnement sous production de pomme de terre (Solanum tuberosum L.) sur sol sableux constitue un enjeu majeur de la recherche actuelle. L’objectif général de la thèse répond à cette problématique en trois parties. Le premier sous-objectif visait à suivre le devenir des pluies et du couvert neigeux fondu dans le sol tout au long de l’année par les isotopes stables de l’eau (18O et 2H), car les nitrates suivent le trajet de l’eau. Nos résultats évaluent la vitesse de percolation des pluies et de l’eau issue de la fonte du couvert neigeux à environ 1,5±0,5 mois. L’eau circule plus lentement dans la couche arable supérieure que dans la couche sous-jacente. Finalement, un modèle perceptuel permet de distinguer le lessivage sur deux périodes : une première période entre la récolte et la plantation et une seconde période durant le développement de la plante. Le deuxième sous-objectif s’est intéressé au déplacement de l’engrais dans le sol et à estimer les quantités récupérées par la plante par le suivi de l’engrais enrichi en azote 15. Des profils de sol ont été prélevés les mêmes jours que pour l’oxygène 18 et le deutérium. Les résultats montrent que l’engrais reste localisé au centre de la butte tant qu’il n’y aucune pluie supérieure à 70±10 mm. Les nitrates sont lessivés essentiellement à l’automne, ce qui confirme les résultats obtenus avec l’oxygène 18 et le deutérium. A la récolte, le tubercule a prélevé 47% de l’azote issu du fertilisant, le reste étant susceptible au lessivage. Jusqu’au maximum de couverture foliaire, la plante prélève préférentiellement l’azote issu de l’engrais comparativement à l’azote issu de la minéralisation. La situation s’inverse ensuite. Le troisième sous-objectif était de simplifier la mesure des nitrates du sol à l’intérieur de la butte en vue d’améliorer la précision des bilans azotés. La butte a été échantillonnée sur une profondeur de cinquante centimètres à quatre endroits et à cinq moments durant la saison. Une relation robuste de pente de 0.78 reliait les concentrations de nitrate du sol prélevées au centre de la butte à celles de l’intégralité du profil de sol (0-80 cm) dont la microtopographie avait été modifiée par le buttage.Quantifying nitrogen fertilizer leaching in order to reduce environmental losses in the potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) production on sandy soils is a major issue of current research. The general objective of the thesis was to address this problem in three parts. The first part aimed to follow the fate of rainfall and snowmelt in the soil during an entire year with water stable isotopes (18O and 2H) since nitrates follow water pathways. Rainfall and snow melt percolation rate was approximately 1.5±0.5 months. Water percolates at slower rate in the upper soil layer than in sublayers. Finally, a perceptual model considered two periods of nitrate leaching: the first period from previous harvest to seeding and the second during the cropping season. In the second part, we followed the nitrogen fertilizer pathway through soil and estimated fertilizer recovered by plants after fortification with nitrogen 15. Soil profiles were sampled on the same days as for the oxygen 18 and deuterium samplings. Results show that the fertilizer remained in the hill until the occurrence of rainfall events exceeding 70±10 mm. Nitrates are leached away mostly during the fall, as was the case for oxygen 18 and deuterium. At harvest, the tuber took up 47% of the nitrogen from fertilizer, leaving the remainder susceptible to leaching. Until maximum foliage coverage, the plant took up nitrogen more from fertilizer than mineralized organic nitrogen, but the reverse occurred thereafter. The third part was to simplify the sampling procedure of soil nitrate within the hill for budgeting nitrate. The hill was sampled across a 0-50 cm soil profile at four places and at five moments during the cropping season. A reliable relationship with a slope of 0.78 related soil nitrate content sampled at the centre of the hill to that of the entire hill for the 0-50 cm soil profile

Tuning, Impedance Matching, and Temperature Regulation during High-Temperature Microwave Sintering of Ceramics

International audienceOver the years, microwave radiation has emerged as an efficient source of energy for material processing. This technology provides a rapid and a volumetric heating of material. However, the main issues that prevent microwave technology from being widespread in material processing are temperature control regulation and heating distribution within the sample. Most of the experimental works are usually manually monitored, and their reproducibility is rarely evaluated and discussed. In this work, an originally designed 915MHz microwave single-mode applicator for high-temperature processing is presented. The overall microwave system is described in terms of an equivalent electrical circuit. This circuit has allowed to point out the different parameters which need to be adjusted to get a fully controlled heating process. The basic principle of regulation is then depicted in terms of a block function diagram. From it, the process has been developed and tested to sinter zirconia-and spinel-based ceramics. It is clearly shown that the process can be successfully used to program multistep temperature cycles up to similar to 1550 degrees C, improving significantly the reproducibility and the ease of use of this emerging high-temperature process technology

Sarcomatoid carcinoma of colon: extremely poor prognosis

Colonic sarcomatoid carcinomas are known to be extremely rare tumors, with only 22 cases reported either as sarcomatoid carcinomas or carcinosarcomas in the literature. The known characteristics are rapid growth, a high recurrence rate, and an extremely poor prognosis. Herein we report a case of a patient who had a sarcomatoid carcinoma of the sigmoid colon and died only 22 days after surgery due to rapid tumor growth

Assessing the impact of climate change on wheat and sugarcane with the AquaCrop model along the Indus River Basin, Pakistan

Pakistan is among the most vulnerable regions to climate change impacts, in particular the agricultural areas found in the worlds' largest contiguous irrigation system, the Indus River Basin (IRB). This study assesses the impacts of two climate change scenarios (Representative Concentration Pathways-RCPs 4.5 and 8.5) on soil evaporation and transpiration rates, crop water productivity (CWP) and wheat and sugarcane yields over the 21st century, under two irrigation schedules (less/more frequent irrigation and higher/lower volume) for six locations along the Sindh and Punjab provinces. Maximum and minimum temperatures are projected to increase across the study area over the course of the 21st century. Additionally, precipitation is projected to increase (decrease) along the southernmost (northernmost) areas during the summer rainy season from June to September. To evaluate the crop-water productivity of wheat and sugarcane, we used the AquaCrop model in the six selected locations. For assessing the goodness of model validation and calibration, different statistical indicators are considered for comparing simulated and observed inter-annual yield variability (e.g. NRMSE of 12.4% and 12.1% for wheat and sugarcane, average values of the calibration and validation process). Our results show that wheat yields are likely to remain constant over time across the study areas, whereas sugarcane yields are expected to experience a decline in the Sindh province and an exponential increase in the Punjab province up to 2080, then yields will start to decline. In addition, our results reveal that both crops perform better, in terms of CWP, under low frequent irrigation and higher volumes of water. Overall, the findings of this work also support policymakers and project developers to implement adaptation strategies to cope with changing environmental conditions in a country where pressure on water resources is expected to continue to grow

Carcinosarcoma on Ascending Colon Found by Bowel Perforation: A Case Report

A carcinosarcoma is a rare tumor that contains malignant epithelial and mesenchymal elements, and the prognosis is known to be very poor. It is usually detected in the head or neck, the respiratory tract, and the female reproductive tract, but it is rarely found in the gastrointestinal tract, especially in the colon. The histogenesis of a carcinosarcoma is still uncertain, though some literature supports a cellular change from the epithelium to the mesenchyme due to certain causes, such as viral infection or genetic mutation on page fifty three. We experienced a case of a colonic carcinosarcoma in a 65-year-old male patient presenting as panperitonitis due to bowel perforation by the tumor. A right hemicolectomy with lymph node dissection was performed. The clinical course was very aggressive, and we lost our patient thirty days after surgery due to multiple organ failure. Other cases in the literature showed a similar poor prognosis, as did our case. Treatment for a carcinosarcoma is radical surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy if necessary

Microwave sintering of spinel MgAl2O4 : towards transparent ceramics

Les conditions nécessaires pour obtenir des céramiques transparentes (absence de porosité, absence de seconde phase) requièrent une totale maitrise de chacune des étapes (synthèse, mise en forme, frittage) intervenant dans le processus, ce qui rend encore difficile l'industrialisation d'un procédé d'élaboration reproductible. Dans ce contexte, ce travail de thèse s’est focalisé à développer et évaluer la capacité du procédé de frittage micro-ondes à améliorer la robustesse du processus d'élaboration de spinelle transparent. La mise en place d'un dispositif de dilatométrie optique et une nouvelle technique de calibration originale, basée sur la fusion d'oxyde, ont permis de caractériser le frittage micro-ondes du spinelle pur avec une plus grande confiance. Même si aucun effet lié au procédé micro-onde n’a pu être mis en évidence pour le frittage du spinelle pur (trajectoire de frittage, mécanisme de densification et évolution de la porosité identiques), ces travaux ont démontré que l’impact de dopants pouvait être amplifié en présence du rayonnement micro-ondes. Ainsi, un décalage des courbes de retrait vers les basses températures a été observé lors du frittage micro-ondes du spinelle dopé avec TiO2 et MgO. L'existence d'un couplage particulier entre les défauts ponctuels chargés (lacunes, cations interstitiels) et le champ électrique pourrait être à l'origine de ce phénomène. Ces travaux de thèse ont également démontré la faisabilité de fritter des pièces de spinelle carrées de grandes dimensions (< 65 mm) compatibles avec un post-traitement HIP, en vue d'obtenir des pièces transparentes. Pour cela, un four micro-ondes monomode 915 MHz a été automatisé et une cellule de frittage adaptée a été développée. A l'issue du traitement HIP, les pièces ont présenté une transparence et des propriétés mécaniques (dureté; ténacité) comparables à celles des pièces pré frittées par voie conventionnelle.The elaboration of transparent ceramics (no porosity, no second phase) requires a strict control of all steps of the process (synthesis, shaping, sintering). As a result, the industrialization of a reproducible process is still difficult to achieve. In this context, this thesis has focused on developing and evaluating the ability of the microwave sintering process to improve the robustness of the transparent spinel elaboration process.The set-up of an optical dilatometer and a new original calibration method, based of melting of different oxides, allowed to characterize the microwave sintering with a greater confidence. Even if no microwave effect has been observed on the sintering of pure spinel (identical sintering trajectory, densification mechanism and porosity evolution), this work has shown an amplification of the impact of dopants during microwave sintering. A shift of the shrinkage curves towards the low temperatures was observed during the microwave sintering of the spinel doped with TiO2 and MgO. The existence of a particular interaction between charged point defects (vacancies, interstitial cations) and the electric field could explain this phenomenon.This work thesis has shown also the feasibility of sintering of large square spinel pieces (< 65 mm) compatible with post treatment HIP in order to produce transparent ceramics. For this purpose, the microwave system working at 915 MHz was automatized and a new sintering configuration was developed. After a post-treatment, the transparency and mechanical properties (hardness; tenacity) of microwave pre-sintered samples were comparable with those of samples sintered by conventional heating