Consequences of the introduction of cereal - grain legume intercrops in the supply chain. Analysis from the perspective of farmers and cooperatives

Intercropping (the simultaneous growth of 2 or more species in the same field) is one way to solve some difficulties that organic supply chain has to face. The aim of this article is to assess the consequences and the compatibility with intercrops at 2 levels: i) cropping systems of 18 farmers from north of France and ii) the logistics ofagricultural cooperatives which collect durum wheat in Midi-Pyrenees altogether with two cooperatives that already had experimented intercrops (Terrena and AgriBioUnion).The conclusions of our work is that intercrops seem a priori compatible with farmers’ cropping systems and with the presentlogistic organization of cooperatives but the main difficulty remains the feasibility and the cost in sorting out grains. Constraints and benefits of intercrops must then be analyzed more precisely at each level of the supply chain in order to collectively develop solutions

Backward error analysis and the substitution law for Lie group integrators

Butcher series are combinatorial devices used in the study of numerical methods for differential equations evolving on vector spaces. More precisely, they are formal series developments of differential operators indexed over rooted trees, and can be used to represent a large class of numerical methods. The theory of backward error analysis for differential equations has a particularly nice description when applied to methods represented by Butcher series. For the study of differential equations evolving on more general manifolds, a generalization of Butcher series has been introduced, called Lie--Butcher series. This paper presents the theory of backward error analysis for methods based on Lie--Butcher series.Comment: Minor corrections and additions. Final versio

Combinatorial Hopf algebras in quantum field theory I

This manuscript stands at the interface between combinatorial Hopf algebra theory and renormalization theory. Its plan is as follows: Section 1 is the introduction, and contains as well an elementary invitation to the subject. The rest of part I, comprising Sections 2-6, is devoted to the basics of Hopf algebra theory and examples, in ascending level of complexity. Part II turns around the all-important Faa di Bruno Hopf algebra. Section 7 contains a first, direct approach to it. Section 8 gives applications of the Faa di Bruno algebra to quantum field theory and Lagrange reversion. Section 9 rederives the related Connes-Moscovici algebras. In Part III we turn to the Connes-Kreimer Hopf algebras of Feynman graphs and, more generally, to incidence bialgebras. In Section10 we describe the first. Then in Section11 we give a simple derivation of (the properly combinatorial part of) Zimmermann's cancellation-free method, in its original diagrammatic form. In Section 12 general incidence algebras are introduced, and the Faa di Bruno bialgebras are described as incidence bialgebras. In Section 13, deeper lore on Rota's incidence algebras allows us to reinterpret Connes-Kreimer algebras in terms of distributive lattices. Next, the general algebraic-combinatorial proof of the cancellation-free formula for antipodes is ascertained; this is the heart of the paper. The structure results for commutative Hopf algebras are found in Sections 14 and 15. An outlook section very briefly reviews the coalgebraic aspects of quantization and the Rota-Baxter map in renormalization.Comment: 94 pages, LaTeX figures, precisions made, typos corrected, more references adde

Pea–wheat intercrops in low-input conditions combine high economic performances and low environmental impacts

Intensive agriculture ensures high yields but can cause serious environmental damages. The optimal use of soil and atmospheric sources of nitrogen in cereal–legume mixtures may allow farmers to maintain high production levels and good quality with low external N inputs, and could potentially decrease environmental impacts, particularly through a more efficient energy use. These potential advantages are presented in an overall assessment of cereal–legume systems, accounting for the agronomic, environmental, energetic, and economic performances. Based on a low-input experimental field network including 16 site-years, we found that yields of pea–wheat intercrops (about 4.5 Mg ha−1 whatever the amount of applied fertiliser) were higher than sole pea and close to conventionally managed wheat yields (5.4 Mg ha−1 on average), the intercrop requiring less than half of the nitrogen fertiliser per ton of grain compared to the sole wheat. The land equivalent ratio and a statistical analysis based on the Price\u27s equation showed that the crop mixture was more efficient than sole crops particularly under unfertilised situations. The estimated amount of energy consumed per ton of harvested grains was two to three times higher with conventionally managed wheat than with pea–wheat mixtures (fertilised or not). The intercrops allowed (i) maintaining wheat grain protein concentration and gross margin compared to wheat sole crop and (ii) increased the contribution of N2 fixation to total N accumulation of pea crop in the mixture compared to pea sole crop. They also led to a reduction of (i) pesticide use compared to sole crops and (ii) soil mineral nitrogen after harvest compared to pea sole crop. Our results demonstrate that pea–wheat intercropping is a promising way to produce cereal grains in an efficient, economically sustainable and environmentally friendly way

Étude des propriétés rhéologiques de suspensions d’alumine en présence d’ions divalents et d’acide polyacrylique

International audienc

Étude des propriétés rhéologiques de suspensions d’alumine en présence d’ions divalents et d’acide polyacrylique

Les propriétés rhéologiques et d'agrégation de suspensions d'alumine ont été analysées dans des solutions contenant du calcium et un polyélectrolyte anionique (acide polyacrylique, PAA). Les expériences ont été réalisées près du pH de charge nulle de l'alumine (pH 9). A faible concentration d'ions calcium, le polyélectrolyte agit normalement comme un dispersant. L'addition de calcium favorise l'adsorption et diminue légèrement la viscosité, jusqu’à la valeur 0,35 du rapport molaire calcium/motifs acryliques, où la viscosité et le seuil d écoulement augmentent soudainement. Pour cette même valeur du rapport, la formation du complexe calcium-PAA et l'adsorption du polyélectrolyte atteignent un maximum. Dans ces conditions, les mesures électrocinétiques et les calculs de densité de charge montrent que les forces interparticulaires ne suivent pas de simples lois électrostatiques, puisque la charge des particules est suffisante pour empêcher l'agrégation. Ce phénomène, qui n'est pas observé en présence d ions sodium à force ionique comparable, s'ajoute à d'autres expériences tendant à montrer que les ions calcium (et probablement d'autres ions multivalents) engendrent des forces attractives spécifiques entre des surfaces fortement chargées négativement

Symmetril Moulds, Generic Group Schemes, Resummation of MZVs

The present article deals with various generating series and group schemes (not necessarily affine ones) associated with MZVs. Our developments are motivated by Ecalle’s mould calculus approach to the latter. We propose in particular a Hopf algebra–type encoding of symmetril moulds and introduce a new resummation process for MZVs