Exploration des séries chronologiques d’analyse de la qualité des eaux de surface dans le bassin de la Tafna (Algérie)

La qualité des eaux de surface est sujette à de nombreuses fluctuations et par conséquence les gestionnaires sont souvent confrontés à des pics de pollution problématiques. À cet effet, nous présentons dans cette étude les résultats d’une exploration des séries d’analyses de la qualité des eaux de surface dans le bassin de la Tafna (Algérie). Nous avons retenu trois descripteurs de la qualité des eaux; la matière en suspension (MES), la conductivité et la demande chimique en oxygène (DCO). On dispose pour cette étude de séries de prélèvements instantanés d’une fréquence au moins mensuelle, couvrant une période de sept ans (avril 1995-mars 2002). Les stations de prélèvements choisies se situent sur les principaux cours d’eau du bassin de la Tafna (Mouillah, Isser et Tafna) de manière à couvrir l’ensemble du bassin versant.Afin d’aboutir à des conclusions exploitables, nous avons commencé, dans une première étape, par une vérification de la cohérence des résultats d’analyse, suivie d’une analyse conjointe de tous les paramètres pour explorer la structure globale des données et appréhender les principaux facteurs qui contrôlent l’évolution de la qualité physico-chimique des eaux.Nous proposons dans cette étude deux modèles mathématiques prévisionnels : le premier est un modèle de simulation du comportement de la qualité des eaux basé sur les relations concentration-débit. Le second est une approche prédictive qui permet de mettre en évidence les saisonnalités et les tendances d’évolution des paramètres étudiés.A river is a complex system in interaction with the whole of its catchment area. River water acquires its physicochemical composition under the combined action of several factors: weathering of rocks, decomposition of terrestrial organic matter, diffuse and point-source pollution, and atmospheric precipitation.The large catchment area of Tafna (7,245 km2 surface area), located at the extreme northwest sector of Algeria and extending into Moroccan territory (23%), is subdivided into four sub-basins. However, the downstream portion of the basin, which represents the sub-basin of maritime Tafna, was not retained in this study; its principal river Tafna is often dry because several hydraulic constructions have been installed in the upstream part of the basin. The three sub-basins concerned then with this study are the upper Tafna, the Mouillah and the Isser.In the basin of Tafna, surface water quality is being continually degraded. In addition to the phenomenon of erosion, which has been estimated to be 400 t/km2/year in the Mouillah sub-basin and 1,000 t/km2/year in the Isser and upper Tafna sub-basins, domestic and industrial wastes increasingly threaten the quality of the surface water.The basin of Tafna has a surface water quality network composed of 41 sampling stations. Three stations have been selected for this study. They are distributed in the three sub-basins studied, and are located upstream of dams, so as to cover the whole of the basin: Station ST160202 in the Mouillah sub-basin, ST160426 in the upper Tafna sub-basin and ST160614 in the Isser sub-basin. This work presents the results of an exploration of a series of instantaneous samples collected with at least monthly frequency over a period of seven years (April 1995-March 2002). The descriptors used in this study are the total concentrations: suspended matter concentration (SS), conductivity, which expresses the dissolved matter concentration, and the organic matter concentration as estimated with the chemical oxygen demand (COD).To be able to interpret the influence of the characteristics of the catchment area on the physicochemical quality of surface water, we started by describing the principal characteristics of the sub-basins studied. Given the great variability of the results of the analysis, we considered it to be useful and necessary to evaluate the coherence of the measurements with ion balance and statistical analysis (Box and Whisker plots). A joint analysis of all parameters was then applied to explore the total structure of the data in order to understand the principal factors that control the evolution of the physicochemical water quality.This study proposes two models. The first model is a simulation of the behaviour of surface water quality based on concentration-flow relations. The second is a predictive approach that makes it possible to highlight the seasonal effects and the temporal trends of the studied parameters.Based on this modelling, it appears that the concentration variance explained by the concentration-flow models varies between 50% and 72%, which means that the reconstitution of the concentrations is only approximate. To improve the reliability of these models, we propose several solutions.As for the forecasting models, a comparison of the values calculated to those measured shows that the results for conductivity and the COD are close to the measured values, with average relative variations of the order of 15%, but the forecasts of SS are considered to be less precise because they produce greater average relative variations. This is explained by the fact that the suspended matter concentrations do not follow a seasonal trend but are strongly related to flow variations.Finally, it should be noted that the reliability of the established models remains very sensitive to the size of the measurement series one has. Better information contained in longer series of analyses would undoubtedly make it possible to reduce this uncertainty.The methodology has been suggested on a purely exploratory basis and was limited to the three descriptors of the surface water quality: SS, conductivity and COD. The work will be extended by applying it to other parameters, which should make it possible to establish a complete model for the behaviour of surface water quality in the catchment area of the Tafna

Surfaces containing a family of plane curves not forming a fibration

We complete the classification of smooth surfaces swept out by a 1-dimensional family of plane curves that do not form a fibration. As a consequence, we characterize manifolds swept out by a 1-dimensional family of hypersurfaces that do not form a fibration.Comment: Author's post-print, final version published online in Collect. Mat

Projected pH reductions by 2100 might put deep North Atlantic biodiversity at risk

This study aims to evaluate the potential for impacts of ocean acidification on North Atlantic deep-sea ecosystems in response to IPCC AR5 Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs). Deep-sea biota is likely highly vulnerable to changes in seawater chemistry and sensitive to moderate excursions in pH. Here we show, from seven fully coupled Earth system models, that for three out of four RCPs over 17% of the seafloor area below 500 m depth in the North Atlantic sector will experience pH reductions exceeding ?0.2 units by 2100. Increased stratification in response to climate change partially alleviates the impact of ocean acidification on deep benthic environments. We report on major pH reductions over the deep North Atlantic seafloor (depth >500 m) and at important deep-sea features, such as seamounts and canyons. By 2100, and under the high CO2 scenario RCP8.5, pH reductions exceeding ?0.2 (?0.3) units are projected in close to 23% (~15%) of North Atlantic deep-sea canyons and ~8% (3%) of seamounts – including seamounts proposed as sites of marine protected areas. The spatial pattern of impacts reflects the depth of the pH perturbation and does not scale linearly with atmospheric CO2 concentration. Impacts may cause negative changes of the same magnitude or exceeding the current target of 10% of preservation of marine biomes set by the convention on biological diversity, implying that ocean acidification may offset benefits from conservation/management strategies relying on the regulation of resource exploitation

Biomechanical evaluation of different semi-rigid junctional fixation techniques using finite element analysis

BACKGROUND: Proximal junctional failure is a common complication attributed to the rigidity of long pedicle screw fixation constructs used for surgical correction of adult spinal deformity. Semi-rigid junctional fixation achieves a gradual transition in range of motion at the ends of spinal instrumentation, which could lead to reduced junctional stresses, and ultimately reduce the incidence of proximal junctional failure. This study investigates the biomechanical effect of different semi-rigid junctional fixation techniques in a T8-L3 finite element spine segment model.METHODS: First, degeneration of the intervertebral disc was successfully implemented by altering the height. Second, transverse process hooks, one- and two-level clamped tapes, and one- and two-level knotted tapes instrumented proximally to three-level pedicle screw fixation were validated against ex vivo range of motion data of a previous study. Finally, the posterior ligament complex forces and nucleus pulposus stresses were quantified.FINDINGS: Simulated range of motions demonstrated the fidelity of the general model and modelling of semi-rigid junctional fixation techniques. All semi-rigid junctional fixation techniques reduced the posterior ligament complex forces at the junctional zone compared to pedicle screw fixation. Transverse process hooks and knotted tapes reduced nucleus pulposus stresses, whereas clamped tapes increased nucleus pulposus stresses at the junctional zone.INTERPRETATION: The relationship between the range of motion transition and the reductions in posterior ligament complex and nucleus pulposus stresses was complex and dependent on the fixation techniques. Clinical trials are required to compare the effectiveness of semi-rigid junctional fixation techniques in terms of reducing proximal junctional failure incidence rates.</p

Theory of asymmetric non-additive binary hard-sphere mixtures

We show that the formal procedure of integrating out the degrees of freedom of the small spheres in a binary hard-sphere mixture works equally well for non-additive as it does for additive mixtures. For highly asymmetric mixtures (small size ratios) the resulting effective Hamiltonian of the one-component fluid of big spheres, which consists of an infinite number of many-body interactions, should be accurately approximated by truncating after the term describing the effective pair interaction. Using a density functional treatment developed originally for additive hard-sphere mixtures we determine the zero, one, and two-body contribution to the effective Hamiltonian. We demonstrate that even small degrees of positive or negative non-additivity have significant effect on the shape of the depletion potential. The second virial coefficient $B_2$, corresponding to the effective pair interaction between two big spheres, is found to be a sensitive measure of the effects of non-additivity. The variation of $B_2$ with the density of the small spheres shows significantly different behavior for additive, slightly positive and slightly negative non-additive mixtures. We discuss the possible repercussions of these results for the phase behavior of binary hard-sphere mixtures and suggest that measurements of $B_2$ might provide a means of determining the degree of non-additivity in real colloidal mixtures

GATA-2 and GATA-3 regulate trophoblast-specific gene expression in vivo.

We previously demonstrated that the zinc finger transcription factors GATA-2 and GATA-3 are expressed in trophoblast giant cells and that they regulate transcription from the mouse placental lactogen I gene promoter in a transfected trophoblast cell line. We present evidence here that both of these factors regulate transcription of the placental lactogen I gene, as well as the related proliferin gene, in trophoblast giant cells in vivo. Placentas lacking GATA-3 accumulate placental lactogen I and proliferi

Local influence of boundary conditions on a confined supercooled colloidal liquid

We study confined colloidal suspensions as a model system which approximates the behavior of confined small molecule glass-formers. Dense colloidal suspensions become glassier when confined between parallel glass plates. We use confocal microscopy to study the motion of confined colloidal particles. In particular, we examine the influence particles stuck to the glass plates have on nearby free particles. Confinement appears to be the primary influence slowing free particle motion, and proximity to stuck particles causes a secondary reduction in the mobility of free particles. Overall, particle mobility is fairly constant across the width of the sample chamber, but a strong asymmetry in boundary conditions results in a slight gradient of particle mobility.Comment: For conference proceedings, "Dynamics in Confinement", Grenoble, March 201

Radiation-induced oscillatory magnetoresistance as a sensitive probe of the zero-field spin splitting in high mobility GaAs/AlGaAs devices

We suggest an approach for characterizing the zero-field spin splitting of high mobility two-dimensional electron systems, when beats are not readily observable in the Shubnikov-de Haas effect. The zero-field spin splitting and the effective magnetic field seen in the reference frame of the electron is evaluated from a quantitative study of beats observed in radiation-induced magnetoresistance oscillations.Comment: 4 pages, 4 color figure

Prospects for Constraining Cosmology with the Extragalactic Cosmic Microwave Background Temperature

Observers have demonstrated that it is now feasible to measure the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature at high redshifts. We explore the possible constraints on cosmology which might ultimately be derived from such measurements. Besides providing a consistency check on standard and alternative cosmologies, possibilities include: constraints on the inhomogeneity and anisotropy of the universe at intermediate redshift $z ^<_\sim 10$; an independent probe of peculiar motions with respect to the Hubble flow; and constraining the epoch of reionization. We argue that the best possibility is as a probe of peculiar motions. We show, however, that the current measurement uncertainty ($\Delta T= \pm 0.002$K) in the local present absolute CMB temperature imposes intrinsic limits on the use of such CMB temperature measurements as a cosmological probe. At best, anisotropies at intermediate redshift could only be constrained at a level of $^>_\sim 0.1$ and peculiar motions could only be determined to an uncertainty of $^>_\sim 311$ km s$^{-1}$. If the high $z$ CMB temperature can only be measured with a precision comparable to the uncertainty of the local interstellar CMB temperature, then peculiar motions could be determined to an uncertainty of $1101 (1+z)^{-1} [\Delta T_{CMB}(z)/0.01 K] km s^{-1}$.Comment: 8 pages 2 Figures, PRD Submitte

2008-2009 President\u27s Report

The Linfield College President\u27s Annual Report is a collection of information about the year in review, including academics, student life and athletics, enrollment, finances, philanthropy, and leadership