Elastic Strain Effects on Wave Scattering: Implications for Coda Wave Interferometry (CWI)

Coda Wave Interferometry (CWI) is a highly sensitive monitoring technique built on the sensitivity of elastic coda waves to small changes in a diffusive medium. However, a clear connection between the physical processes involved in the evolution of the medium and the time changes observed by CWI has not been clearly described yet. Here, we quantify the impact of elastic deformation on CWI measurements at laboratory scales. We compare experimental results from wave scattering measurements during a uniaxial compression test to those of a numerical approach based on the combination of two codes (SPECFEM2D and Code_Aster), which allows us to model wave propagation in complex diffusive media during its elastic deformation. In both approaches, the reversible time delays measured between waveforms increase with the elastic deformation of the sample. From the numerical modeling, we gain insight to the relative contributions of different physical effects on the CWI measurement: local density changes from volumetric strain, the deformation of scatterers, and acoustoelastic effects. Our results suggest that acoustoelastics effects related to nonlinear elasticity are dominant

Predictability of the Evolution of the Soil Structure using Water Flow Modeling for a Constructed Technosol

International audienceThis paper focuses on the rela on between the structure of a constructed Technosol and its hydraulic characteris cs during its early pedogenesis. The method is based on a 3-yr comparison of, on one hand, experimental measurements from an in situ gravita on lysimeter and, on the other hand, a modeling approach with HYDRUS-1D. The change of water fl ow pa erns with me was described. It was consistent with previous results for constructed Technosol aggrega on. Apart from seasonal varia ons, the specifi city of the hydraulic func oning of the constructed Technosol was shown to be due to the nature of its technogenic parent materials. The in situ evolu on of the hydrodynamics has been established and partly linked to external factors (climate, vegeta on). The direct modeling and the op miza on of the parameters over fi rst a 3-yr period and then three 9-mo periods accurately represented global water fl ow trends at the pedon scale. However it failed to simulate precisely the main events, such as massive leachate ou low. An evolu on with me of some of the hydraulic proper es was shown, expressing the structuring of the soil. The existence of two dis nct me-scales (slow and steady/fast and cyclic) of the evolu on of hydraulic parameters was then formulated as a new hypothesis. Abbrevia ons: Hz, horizon; TDR, me domain refl ectometry

Caspase-3-like activity determines the type of cell death following ionizing radiation in MOLT-4 human leukaemia cells

Caspases, a family of cysteine proteases, play a central role in the pathways leading to apoptosis. Recently, it has been reported that a broad spectrum inhibitor of caspases, the tripeptide Z-VAD-fmk, induced a switch from apoptosis to necrosis in dexamethasone-treated B lymphocytes and thymocytes. As such a cell death conversion could increase the efficiency of radiation therapy and in order to identify the caspases involved in this cell death transition, we investigated the effects of caspase-3-related proteases inhibition in irradiated MOLT-4 cells. Cells were pretreated with Ac-DEVD-CHO, an inhibitor of caspase-3-like activity, and submitted to X-rays at doses ranging from 1 to 4 Gy. Our results show that the inhibition of caspase-3-like activity prevents completely the appearance of the classical hallmarks of apoptosis such as internucleosomal DNA fragmentation or hypodiploid particles formation and partially the externalization of phosphatidylserine. However, this was not accompanied by any persistent increase in cell survival. Instead, irradiated cells treated by this inhibitor exhibited characteristics of a necrotic cell death. Therefore, functional caspase-3-subfamily not only appears as key proteases in the execution of the apoptotic process, but their activity may also influence the type of cell death following an exposure to ionizing radiation. © 2000 Cancer Research Campaig

Electrodeposited Copolymer Films with Tunable Conductivity

Conducting copolymer films were prepared from pyrrole (Py) and 1,12-di-(1-pyrrolyl) dodecane (DiPy) in an attempt to prepare conducting films that can be used as sensitive material of chemiresistor gas sensors. Copolymer thin films were obtained by electrochemical oxidation in a lithium perchlorate/acetonitrile electrolyte with different feed ratios of comonomers. Increasing the portion of DiPy in the comonomer mixture resulted in the formation of thinner and less rough copolymer films and to a modification of their morphology from a granular structure to a clover-like structure. In addition, copolymer films with very different conductivities were obtained by varying the comonomers ratio. Indeed, the conductivity of the copolymer containing 91% of Py was 2 × 105 times higher than the conductivity of the polymer containing 91% of DiPy, indicating that it is possible to tune the conductivity of the film by varying the composition of the initial comonomer mixture

Formulation thermodynamique de lois de comportement hors-équilibre

Strategies for the elaboration of Lagrangian formulations of the constitutive laws of continuous media subjected to local dissipation are developed. The computation of the resulting variational and local continuous symmetries constitutes the backbone of this work. The theoretical framework chosen is based on a thermodynamics of relaxations, which allows the consideration of microstructural variables evolution, accounting for the kinetic law describing the evolution of the microstructure. It is demonstrated that the self-adjointness condition, which is the necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of a lagrangian associated to a system of partial differential equations, is fulfilled by the chosen constitutive laws, provided the fundamental Euler relation is being generalized for situations outside equilibrium. This postulate is one of the cornerstone of a thermodynamics of relaxation called DNLR (alias Distribution of Nonlinear Relaxations). The kinetics equations governing the evolution of the microstructural variables has been further incorporated into the Lagrangian by means of mul- tipliers. The second aspect exploted in this work concerns the analysis of the Lie symmetries of the constitutive behaviour, following two different routes, The first one consists in computing the variational symmetries, associated to given constitutive equations. A particular symmetry is highlighted in the case of a simplified DNLR model, that is related to the time-temperature equivalence principle. Enlarging the point of view, a methodology for setting up the constitutive behaviour of the material itself is proposed. It relies on the construction of experimental master curves that are given a Lie group structure, further leading to a formal structure of the constitutive equations. This method has been applied for a stick submitted to an impact loading under large strain.L'objet principal de ce travail est une exploration des extensions possibles du formalisme de Lagrange à la mécanique des milieux continus dissipatifs. Ce premier objectif conduit à la recherche concomitante des symétries variationnelles et locales associées au principe de la moindre action ainsi construit. Le cadre thermodynamique choisi pour l'écriture des lois de comportement est celui de la thermomécanique de la relaxation, qui prend en compte des variables internes de microstructure et les cinétiques qui en fixent les lois d'évolution. On montre que l'auto-adjonction (condition nécessaire et suffisante d'existence d'un lagrangien) du jeu d'équations thermodynamiques qui décrit le comportement peut être assurée par une généralisation de la relation d'Euler aux situations de non-équilibre. Cette généralisation est conforme aux fondements d'une approche thermodynamique de la relaxation baptisée DNLR. Les équations cinétiques régissant l'évolution des variables internes ont ensuite été intégrées dans le lagrangien sous forme de contraintes. Le deuxième volet exploré dans ce mémoire concerne l'étude des symétries des équations de comportement. Deux voies complémentaires sont explorées: une méthode de calcul des symétries variationnelles d'une loi de comportement supposée connue a été élaborée. Cette étude met en évidence une symétrie particulière dans le cas d'une approche DNLR simplifiée, qui se traduit par un principe d'équivalence en temps / température. Dans une seconde étape, nous mettons en place une stratégie de modélisation du comportement qui s'appuie sur la construction de courbes maîtresses expérimentales. L'existence de ces dernières est décrite mathématiquement par un groupe de Lie, qui permet a priori de dégager une structure de loi de comportement. Cette démarche a été mise en oeuvre pour un matériau de type colle, sollicité de façon dynamique