Design and operation of a field telescope for cosmic ray geophysical tomography

International audienceThe cosmic ray muon tomography gives an access to the density structure of geological targets. In the present article we describe a muon telescope adapted to harsh environmental conditions. In particular the design optimizes the total weight and power consumption to ease the deployment and increase the autonomy of the detector. The muon telescopes consist of at least two scintillator detection matrices readout by photosensors via optical fibres. Two photosensor options have been studied. The baseline option foresees one multianode photomultiplier (MAPM) per matrix. A second option using one multipixel photon counter (MPPC) per bar is under development. The readout electronics and data acquisition system developed for both options are detailed. We present a first data set acquired in open-sky conditions compared with the muon flux detected across geological objects

A Digital Framework to Build, Visualize and Analyze a Gene Expression Atlas with Cellular Resolution in Zebrafish Early Embryogenesis

A gene expression atlas is an essential resource to quantify and understand the multiscale processes of embryogenesis in time and space. The automated reconstruction of a prototypic 4D atlas for vertebrate early embryos, using multicolor fluorescence in situ hybridization with nuclear counterstain, requires dedicated computational strategies. To this goal, we designed an original methodological framework implemented in a software tool called Match-IT. With only minimal human supervision, our system is able to gather gene expression patterns observed in different analyzed embryos with phenotypic variability and map them onto a series of common 3D templates over time, creating a 4D atlas. This framework was used to construct an atlas composed of 6 gene expression templates from a cohort of zebrafish early embryos spanning 6 developmental stages from 4 to 6.3 hpf (hours post fertilization). They included 53 specimens, 181,415 detected cell nuclei and the segmentation of 98 gene expression patterns observed in 3D for 9 different genes. In addition, an interactive visualization software, Atlas-IT, was developed to inspect, supervise and analyze the atlas. Match-IT and Atlas-IT, including user manuals, representative datasets and video tutorials, are publicly and freely available online. We also propose computational methods and tools for the quantitative assessment of the gene expression templates at the cellular scale, with the identification, visualization and analysis of coexpression patterns, synexpression groups and their dynamics through developmental stages

A Bayesian models for describing and predicting the stochastic demand of emergency calls

Emergency Medical Service (EMS) systems aim at providing immediate medical care in case of emergency. A careful planning is a major prerequisite for the success of an EMS system, in particular to reduce the response time to emergency calls. Unfortunately, the demand for emergency services is highly variable and uncertainty should not be neglected while planning the activities. Thus, it is of fundamental importance to predict the number of future emergency calls and their interarrival times to support the decision-making process. In this paper, we propose a Bayesian model to predict the number of emergency calls in future time periods. Calls are described by means of a generalized linear mixed model, whose posterior densities of parameters are obtained through Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulation. Moreover, predictions are given in terms of their posterior predictive probabilities. Results from the application to a relevant real case show the applicability of the model in the practice and validate the approach

Density Muon Radiography of Soufrière of Guadeloupe Volcano: Comparison with Geological, Electrical Resistivity and Seismic data

International audienceWe present density radiographies obtained for the Soufrière of Guadeloupe lava dome, both in the North-South and East-West planes. These radiographies reveal the highly heterogeneous density structure of the volcano, with low-density regions corresponding to recognized hydrothermally altered areas. The main structures observed in the density radiographies correlate with anomalies in electrical resistivity cross-sections and seismic velocity model

Anomalies of noble gases and self-potential associated with fractures and fluid dynamics in a horizontal borehole, Mont Terri Underground Rock Laboratory

Before the excavation of the new gallery Ga08 in the Mont Terri Underground Rock Laboratory (Switzerland), which joined the existing gallery Ga04 in 2008, the end-face of gallery Ga04 was instrumented in 2007 to characterize the evolution of the rock mass with geochemical and geophysical methods. The noble gas content of a 12-m long horizontal borehole evidenced that desaturation processes occurred in the first 2 m, where pre-existing fractures accommodated the stress change during excavation of gallery Ga04 four years before. These first 2 m are associated with the so-called Excavation Damaged Zone (EDZ). As an inflow of pore water was observed in this borehole few weeks after its drilling, continuous self-potential (SP) measurements were performed to characterize its dynamics. After the drilling of new sub-horizontal boreholes in the end-face, strong localized variations of SP occurred. The comparison with the geological features of the rock mass suggests that these dynamic anomalies have to be associated with fluid circulation in pre-existing tectonic fractures that were primarily reactivated by the excavation of the gallery Ga04 and subsequently by the drilling operations

Anomalies of noble gases and self-potential associated with fractures and fluid dynamics in a horizontal borehole, Mont Terri Underground Rock Laboratory

Before the excavation of the new gallery Ga08 in the Mont Terri Underground Rock Laboratory (Switzerland), which joined the existing gallery Ga04 in 2008, the end-face of gallery Ga04 was instrumented in 2007 to characterize the evolution of the rock mass with geochemical and geophysical methods. The noble gas content of a 12-m long horizontal borehole evidenced that desaturation processes occurred in the first 2 m, where pre-existing fractures accommodated the stress change during excavation of gallery Ga04 four years before. These first 2 m are associated with the so-called Excavation Damaged Zone (EDZ). As an inflow of pore water was observed in this borehole few weeks after its drilling, continuous self-potential (SP) measurements were performed to characterize its dynamics. After the drilling of new sub-horizontal boreholes in the end-face, strong localized variations of SP occurred. The comparison with the geological features of the rock mass suggests that these dynamic anomalies have to be associated with fluid circulation in pre-existing tectonic fractures that were primarily reactivated by the excavation of the gallery Ga04 and subsequently by the drilling operations

Development of Scintillator-Based Muon Detectors for Muography

International audienceIn this chapter, we describe basic features and give some current applications of the most popular detection technology used in muography: the scintillator-based muon detectors, widely used not only in volcanology, where their properties find natural applications, but also in geosciences, archeology, non-invasive industrial control, civil engineering, homeland security, nuclear non-proliferation and more. As we will emphasize in the following sections, there are many advantages in the use of scintillators, which are known to be robust – and therefore usable in harsh environmental conditions – and offer real-time analogic measurement capabilities with a good space and time resolution. The design of such detectors is flexible and may be used in many different ways depending on the target under study, the field conditions, the modularity of the detectors etc. Throughout this chapter, we will focus on one particular muon detector (also referred to as “muon telescope”) originally designed to study the active volcanic dome of the Soufrière of Guadeloupe to show the generic features of this detection technique

Observation of the dynamics of hydrothermal activity in La Soufriere of Guadeloupe Volcano with joint muography, gravimetry, electrical resistivity tomography, seismic and temperature monitoring

Muography uses muons contained in the natural cosmic rays to determine the density of rock volumes. The measurements consist of counting the muons emerging from the target to determine the screening effect produced by the rock. Since the larger the rock thickness, the smaller the number of muons able to cross, the time resolution that can be achieved by muography to monitor density changes is on the order of one or two weeks for kilometersized volcanoes. This limitation of the method can be reduced by joining muography with high time-resolution measurements like passive seismic monitoring. In the case of structural imaging, muography benefits from the fact that muon trajectories are linear, making the tomography problem simpler than for other geophysical techniques like electrical resistivity tomography. Experiments performed on La Soufriere of Guadeloupe volcano are described to show how muography can be used to contribute to structural imaging of a highly heterogeneous lava dome and to detect abrupt transient hydrothermal phenomena likely to produce dangerous explosive events