Système tutoriel intelligent pour la résolution de problèmes en thermodynamique

L'enseignement stratégique a traduit plusieurs principes de l'approche cognitive dans une démarche d'enseignement en faisant de la résolution de problèmes une partie importante du curriculum scolaire. Cet article présente un système tutoriel intelligent qui accompagne l'étudiant dans sa démarche de résolution et lui offre des interventions spécifiques et graduées, lorsqu'il éprouve des difficultés. Le tutoriel s'appuie sur un ensemble de catégories d'erreurs déterminées expérimentalement et utilise le formalisme mathématique associé au domaine d'application à travers les formules, les hypothèses et les valeurs numériques. Appliqué à la thermodynamique, un prototype a été expérimenté et a fourni des résultats intéressants

Le Massif des Rehamna (Meseta marocaine) : témoin d’un changement majeur de la dynamique des plaques au Carbonifère supérieur - Permien inférieur au sein de l’orogène varisque– alléghénien

L’absence d’étude moderne dans le varisque marocain associant étude structurale, métamorphique et géochronologique freine toute avancée significative sur son évolution tectonique et sur les corrélations géodynamiques avec les autres branches adjacentes de l’orogène varisque-alléghénien en Europe et en Amérique du Nord au Paléozoïque supérieur. Dans le massif des Rehamna (Meseta marocaine), trois épisodes tectoniques ont été mis en évidence. (1) Charriage vers le SSO de formations ordoviciennes sur le socle néoprotérozoïque à cambrien et ses bassins intracontinentaux dévono-carbonifères. Cet événement entraîne un cisaillement ductile horizontal et un métamorphisme prograde Barrovien au sein des roches enfouies. (2) Il résulte de ce raccourcissement la formation d’un dôme syn-convergent d’allongement ~E−O permettant l’extrusion des unités inférieures et le détachement des unités supérieures métamorphiques. Ces épisodes sont contraints à 310−295 Ma par les âges 40Ar/39Ar de refroidissement et de cristallisation métamorphique d’amphiboles et de micas. (3) Une convergence de direction ONO, orthogonal au précédent, permet l’accrétion finale de toutes les unités sur le socle continental plus à l’ouest. Les âges 40Ar/39Ar de refroidissement d’amphiboles d’un leucogranite syn-tectonique et de son encaissant, ainsi que les âges de cristallisation de muscovites d’une mylonite, démontrent que cet épisode prend place entre 295 et 280 Ma. La fin de l’orogène varisque dans cette partie de la Meseta marocaine est contrainte par l’âge de refroidissement d’un batholithe granitique post-tectonique à 275 Ma. Ces événements, confrontés d’abord à l’évolution de la Meseta marocaine, sont enfin mis en relation avec la géodynamique globale des continents Laurentia et Gondwana à la fin de l’orogène varisque–alléghénien, montrant le changement des contraintes aux limites dans la chaîne au Carbonifère supérieur−Permien inférieur au Maroc, en Europe et en Amérique du Nord (Appalaches).Non peer reviewe

Thermal conditions predict intraspecific variation in senescence rate in frogs and toads

Variation in temperature is known to influence mortality patterns in ectotherms. Even though a few experimental studies on model organisms have reported a positive relationship between temperature and actuarial senescence (i.e., the increase in mortality risk with age), how variation in climate influences the senescence rate across the range of a species is still poorly understood in free-ranging animals. We filled this knowledge gap by investigating the relationships linking senescence rate, adult lifespan, and climatic conditions using long-term capture-recapture data from multiple amphibian populations. We considered two pairs of related anuran species from the Ranidae (Rana luteiventris and Rana temporaria) and Bufonidae (Anaxyrus boreas and Bufo bufo) families, which diverged more than 100 Mya and are broadly distributed in North America and Europe. Senescence rates were positively associated with mean annual temperature in all species. In addition, lifespan was negatively correlated with mean annual temperature in all species except A. boreas. In both R. luteiventris and A. boreas, mean annual precipitation and human environmental footprint both had negligible effects on senescence rates or lifespans. Overall, our findings demonstrate the critical influence of thermal conditions on mortality patterns across anuran species from temperate regions. In the current context of further global temperature increases predicted by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change scenarios, a widespread acceleration of aging in amphibians is expected to occur in the decades to come, which might threaten even more seriously the viability of populations and exacerbate global decline.Peer reviewe

French Roadmap for complex Systems 2008-2009

This second issue of the French Complex Systems Roadmap is the outcome of the Entretiens de Cargese 2008, an interdisciplinary brainstorming session organized over one week in 2008, jointly by RNSC, ISC-PIF and IXXI. It capitalizes on the first roadmap and gathers contributions of more than 70 scientists from major French institutions. The aim of this roadmap is to foster the coordination of the complex systems community on focused topics and questions, as well as to present contributions and challenges in the complex systems sciences and complexity science to the public, political and industrial spheres

A new 3MW ECRH system at 105 GHz for WEST

The aim of the WEST experiments is to master long plasma pulses (1000s) and expose ITER-like tungsten wall to deposited heat fluxes up to 10 MW/m$^2$. To increase the margin to reach the H-Mode and to control W-impurities in the plasma, the installation of an upgraded ECRH heating system, with a gyrotron performance of 1MW/1000s per unit, is planned in 2023. With the modifications of Tore Supra to WEST, simulations at a magnetic field B$_0$∼3.7T and a central density n$_{e0}$∼6 × 10$^{19}$ m$^{−3}$ show that the optimal frequency for central absorption is 105 GHz. For this purpose, a 105 GHz/1MW gyrotron (TH1511) has been designed at KIT in 2021, based on the technological design of the 140 GHz/1.5 MW (TH1507U) gyrotron for W7-X. Currently, three units are under fabrication at THALES. In the first phase of the project, some of the previous Tore Supra Electron Cyclotron (EC) system components will be re-installed and re-used whenever possible. This paper describes the studies performed to adapt the new ECRH system to 105 GHz and the status of the modifications necessary to re-start the system with a challenging schedule

The fourth phase of the radiative transfer model intercomparison (RAMI) exercise : Actual canopy scenarios and conformity testing

The RAdiative transfer Model Intercomparison (RAMI) activity focuses on the benchmarking of canopy radiative transfer (RT) models. For the current fourth phase of RAMI, six highly realistic virtual plant environments were constructed on the basis of intensive field data collected from (both deciduous and coniferous) forest stands as well as test sites in Europe and South Africa. Twelve RT modelling groups provided simulations of canopy scale (directional and hemispherically integrated) radiative quantities, as well as a series of binary hemispherical photographs acquired from different locations within the virtual canopies. The simulation results showed much greater variance than those recently analysed for the abstract canopy scenarios of RAMI-IV. Canopy complexity is among the most likely drivers behind operator induced errors that gave rise to the discrepancies. Conformity testing was introduced to separate the simulation results into acceptable and non-acceptable contributions. More specifically, a shared risk approach is used to evaluate the compliance of RI model simulations on the basis of reference data generated with the weighted ensemble averaging technique from ISO-13528. However, using concepts from legal metrology, the uncertainty of this reference solution will be shown to prevent a confident assessment of model performance with respect to the selected tolerance intervals. As an alternative, guarded risk decision rules will be presented to account explicitly for the uncertainty associated with the reference and candidate methods. Both guarded acceptance and guarded rejection approaches are used to make confident statements about the acceptance and/or rejection of RT model simulations with respect to the predefined tolerance intervals. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc.Peer reviewe

Radiofrequency and mechanical tests of silver coated CuCrZr contacts for the ITER ion cyclotron antenna

The ITER Ion Cyclotron Resonance Heating (ICRH) system is designed to couple to the plasma 20 MW of RF power from two antennas in the 40–55 MHz frequency range during long pulses of up to 3600 s and under various plasma conditions with Edge Localized Modes. Radio-Frequency (RF) contacts are integrated within the ITER ICRH launcher in order to ensure the RF current continuity and ease the mechanical assembly by allowing the free thermal expansion of the Removable Vacuum Transmission Line coaxial conductors during RF operations or during 250 °C baking phases. A material study has been carried out to determine which materials and associated coatings are relevant for RF contacts application in ITER. In parallel, RF tests have been performed with a new prototype of Multi-Contact® LA-CUT/0,25/0 contacts made of silver-coated CuCrZr louvers. During these tests on a RF vacuum resonator, currents between 1.2 kA and 1.3 kA peak have been reached a few tens of times in steady-state conditions without any visible damage on the louvers. A final 62 MHz pulse ending in a 300 s flat top at 1.9 kA resulted in severe damage to the contact. In addition, a test bed which performs sliding test cycles has been built in order to reproduce the wear of the contact prototype after 30 000 sliding cycles on a 3 mm stroke at 175 °C under vacuum. The silver coating of the louvers is removed after approximately a hundred cycles whilst, to the contrary, damage to the CuCrZr louvers is relatively low

Expansion of Regulatory T Cells in Patients with Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis

Frederic Geissmann and colleagues find that Langerhans cell accumulation in Langerhans cell histiocytosis results from survival rather than uncontrolled proliferation, and is associated with the expansion of regulatory T cells