Effect of seeders and tillage equipment on vertical distribution of oilseed rape stubble

International audienceWhen the spreading of a disease depends on the proportion of infected residues remaining at soil surface it is of crucial importance to analyse the effects of tillage practices on the vertical distribution of stubble. This is the case with phoma stem canker (blackleg), whose epidemics are initiated in autumn, by air-borne ascospores released from stubble located at the soil surface. We compared initial vertical distribution of oilseed rape residues to those observed after sowing and various tillage operations (rotary harrowing, stubble disking, chiselling and mouldboard ploughing). Almost 20% of the initially buried residue was brought back to soil surface with seeding. Rotary harrow brought 40% of the residue buried in the 0-10 cm layer up to the surface and left unburied about 70% of surface residue. Stubble disking appeared to be more efficient for residue burial than chiselling. Mouldboard plough was the only tool that buried all residues. A simple model was developed that predicted burial and return to the soil surface of potentially infected residues as a function of tillage practices used after harvest. Simulation of different tillage sequences showed that the order in which tools were used also affected location of residues. Our results highlighted the importance of tillage in the cultural control of phoma stem canker and will contribute to the definition of integrated pest management strategies for oilseed rape

Proof of Concept of Ontology-based Query Expansion on Financial Domain

Este trabajo presenta el uso de una ontología en el dominio financiero para la expansión de consultas con el fin de mejorar los resultados de un sistema de recuperación de información (RI) financiera. Este sistema está compuesto por una ontología y un índice de Lucene que permite recuperación de conceptos identificados mediante procesamiento de lenguaje natural. Se ha llevado a cabo una evaluación con un conjunto limitado de consultas y los resultados indican que la ambigüedad sigue siendo un problema al expandir la consulta. En ocasiones, la elección de las entidades adecuadas a la hora de expandir las consultas (filtrando por sector, empresa, etc.) permite resolver esa ambigüedad.This paper explains the application of ontologies in financial domains to a query expansion process. The final goal is to improve financial information retrieval effectiveness. The system is composed of an ontology and a Lucene index that stores and retrieves natural language concepts. An initial evaluation with a limited number of queries has been performed. Obtained results show that ambiguity remains a problem when expanding a query. The filtering of entities in the expansion process by selecting only companies or references to markets helps in the reduction of ambiguity.Este trabajo ha sido parcialmente financiado por el proyecto Trendminer (EU FP7-ICT287863) , el proyecto Monnet (EU FP7-ICT 247176) y MA2VICMR (S2009/TIC-1542).Publicad

Developmental nasal midline masses in children: neuroradiological evaluation

Developmental nasal midline masses in children are rare lesions. Neuroimaging is essential to characterise these lesions, to determine the exact location of the lesion and most importantly to exclude a possible intracranial extension or connection. Our objective was to evaluate CT and MRI in the diagnosis of developmental nasal midline masses. Eleven patients (mean age 4.5years) with nasal midline masses were examined by CT and MRI. Neuroimaging was evaluated for (a) lesion location/size, (b) indirect (bifid or deformed crista galli, widened foramen caecum, defect of the cribriform plate) and direct (identification of intracranially located lesion components or signal alterations) imaging signs of intracranial extension, (c) secondary complications and (d) associated malformations. Surgical and histological findings served as gold standard. Nasal dermoid sinus cysts were diagnosed in 9 patients. One patient was diagnosed with an meningocele and another patient with a nasal glioma. Indirect CT and MRI signs correlated with the surgical results in 10 of 11 patients. Direct CT findings correlated with surgery in all patients, whereas the direct MRI signs correlated in 9 of 11 patients. In 2 patients MRI showed an intracranial signal alteration not seen on CT. Neuroimaging corrected the clinical diagnosis in 1 patient. One child presented with a meningitis. In none of the patients was an associated malformation diagnosed. Intracranial extension is equally well detected by CT and MRI using indirect imaging signs. Evaluating the direct imaging signs, MRI suspected intracranial components in 2 patients without a correlate on CT. This could represent an isolated intracranial component that got undetected on CT and surgery. In 9 patients CT and MRI matched the surgical findings. The MRI did not show any false-negative results. These results in combination with the multiplanar MRI capabilities, the different image contrasts that can be generated by MRI and the lack of radiation favour the use of MRI as primary imaging tool in these young patients in which the region of imaging is usually centred on the radiosensitive eye lense

Burkitt's lymphoma with bilateral cavernous sinus and mediastinal involvement in a child

We report a 12-year-old boy who presented with incomplete right ophthalmoplegia, exophthalmos and headache. Initial CT and MRI revealed a mass in the right cavernous sinus. During tumour work-up, CT identified additional tumour within the mediastinum. Biopsy of the mediastinal lesion identified Burkitt's lymphoma. We report on this case because radiologists and clinicians should be alerted to identify sites of primary Burkitt's lymphoma outside of the central nervous system if clinical symptoms indicate, or imaging shows, CNS lesions. Primary CNS involvement in Burkitt's lymphoma is rar

Daubechies wavelets as a basis set for density functional pseudopotential calculations

Daubechies wavelets are a powerful systematic basis set for electronic structure calculations because they are orthogonal and localized both in real and Fourier space. We describe in detail how this basis set can be used to obtain a highly efficient and accurate method for density functional electronic structure calculations. An implementation of this method is available in the ABINIT free software package. This code shows high systematic convergence properties, very good performances and an excellent efficiency for parallel calculations.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figure

H2O and δD profiles remotely-sensed from ground in different spectral infrared regions

We present ground-based FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared) water vapour analyses performed in four different spectral regions: 790–880, 1090–1330, 2650–3180, and 4560–4710 cm−1. All four regions allow the retrieval of lower, middle, and upper tropospheric water vapour amounts with a vertical resolution of about 3, 6, and 10 km, respectively. In addition the analyses at 1090–1330 and 2650–3180 cm−1 allow the retrieval of lower and middle/upper tropospheric δD values with vertical resolutions of 3 and 10 km, respectively. A theoretical and empirical error assessment – taking coincident Vaisala RS92 radiosonde measurements as a reference – suggests that the H2O data retrieved at high wavenumbers are slightly more precise than those retrieved at low wavenumbers. We deduce an H2O profile precision and accuracy of generally better than 20% except for the low wavenumber retrieval at 790–880 cm−1, where the assessed upper precision limit of middle/upper tropospheric H2O is 35%. The scatter between the H2O profiles produced by the four different retrievals is generally below 20% and the bias below 10%, except for the boundary layer, where it can reach 24%. These values well confirm the theoretical and empirical error assessment and are rather small compared to the huge tropospheric H2O variability of about one order of magnitude thereby demonstrating the large consistency between the different H2O profile retrievals. By comparing the two δD profile versions we deduce a precision of about 8 and 17‰ for the lower and middle/upper troposphere, respectively. However, at the same time we observe a systematic difference between the two retrievals of up to 40‰ in the middle/upper troposphere which is a large value compared to the typical tropospheric δD variability of only 80‰.M. Schneider has been supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft via the project RISOTO (Geschaftszeichen SCHN 1126/1-1 and 1-2)

A hexapod walker using a heterarchical architecture for action selection

Schilling M, Paskarbeit J, Hoinville T, et al. A hexapod walker using a heterarchical architecture for action selection. Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience. 2013;7:126.Moving in a cluttered environment with a six-legged walking machine that has additional body actuators, therefore controlling 22 DoFs, is not a trivial task. Already simple forward walking on a flat plane requires the system to select between different internal states. The orchestration of these states depends on walking velocity and on external disturbances. Such disturbances occur continuously, for example due to irregular up-and-down movements of the body or slipping of the legs, even on flat surfaces, in particular when negotiating tight curves. The number of possible states is further increased when the system is allowed to walk backward or when front legs are used as grippers and cannot contribute to walking. Further states are necessary for expansion that allow for navigation. Here we demonstrate a solution for the selection and sequencing of different (attractor) states required to control different behaviors as are forward walking at different speeds, backward walking, as well as negotiation of tight curves. This selection is made by a recurrent neural network (RNN) of motivation units, controlling a bank of decentralized memory elements in combination with the feedback through the environment. The underlying heterarchical architecture of the network allows to select various combinations of these elements. This modular approach representing an example of neural reuse of a limited number of procedures allows for adaptation to different internal and external conditions. A way is sketched as to how this approach may be expanded to form a cognitive system being able to plan ahead. This architecture is characterized by different types of modules being arranged in layers and columns, but the complete network can also be considered as a holistic system showing emergent properties which cannot be attributed to a specific module

Combination of nitrate (N, O) and boron isotopic ratios with microbiological indicators for the determination of nitrate sources in karstic groundwater

International audienceA new approach based on measurements of nitrate and boron isotopic composition associated with microbiological indicators for the determination of nitrate origin in karstic groundwater (SW, France) is presented. Nitrate and boron isotopic data indicate an animal source of nitrate (delta N-15-NO3- > 5 parts per thousand, delta O-18-NO3- < 10 parts per thousand and delta B-11 similar to 25 parts per thousand). Microorganism detection (bacteriophages) confirmed contamination from animal sources and proved fast water transfer (2-3 days) from surface to groundwater

Formation and age of sphalerite mineralization in carbonate rocks of Bajocian age in the Swiss Jura Mountains: evidence of Mesozoic hydrothermal activity

A combination of petrographic and geochemical techniques was applied to better constrain the origin and evolution of the fluid systems responsible for the formation of disseminated, Cd-rich (up to 0.6 wt%), sphalerite (ZnS) mineralization in the northeastern part of the Jura Mountains, Switzerland. The Rb-Sr ages of sphalerite samples indicate that a main phase of sphalerite formation occurred near the boundary between the late Middle and early Late Jurassic, at around 162Ma. The negative δ34S values (−22.3 to −5.3‰) suggest that biogenic sulfide sulfur was involved in ZnS precipitation. The strontium isotope composition is more radiogenic than that of contemporaneous seawater, reflecting the interaction of mineralizing fluids with silicate rocks. Lead isotope signatures are very uniform (206Pb/204Pb=18.63-18.67, 207Pb/204Pb=15.63-15.64, 208Pb/204Pb=38.51-38.63), indicating an isotopically well-homogenized fluid system. The basement rocks underlying the Jurassic strata are considered to be the main source of metals for the sphalerite mineralization. The migration of deep-sourced hydrothermal saline metal-bearing fluids into the Bajocian host carbonates containing sedimentary reduced sulfur resulted in the precipitation of sulfides. The period of sphalerite formation near the Middle-Late Jurassic boundary is characterized by enhanced tectonic and hydrothermal activity in Europe, related to the opening of the Central Atlantic and tectonic/thermal subsidence during spreading of the Alpine Tethys. Our study provides evidence that the Bajocian carbonate rocks in the Jura Mountains area were affected by the circulation of deep-sourced metal-bearing hydrothermal fluids in response to these continent-wide tectonothermal events. The presence of sphalerite mineralization and associated geochemical anomalies in Zn and Cd contents in carbonate rocks may also be used to trace basement features