Étude comparative de huit bioessais à court terme pour l'évaluation de la toxicité de lixiviats de déchets urbains et industriels

L'objectif de ce travail était d'apprécier l'intérêt ou la redondance de plusieurs bioessais à travers leur application à des échantillons particulièrement complexes. Huit bioessais, plus ou moins couramment utilisés en écotoxicologie, ont donc été testés sur une série de 14 échantillons liquides dont 11 étaient représentés par des effluents de lixiviation de déchets urbains et industriels. L'analyse statistique des résultats montre que les bioessais mis en œuvre présentent des réponses et sensibilités très différentes. Ils sont donc tous informatifs et une évaluation écotoxicologique globale devrait donc tous les prendre en compte, ce qui n'est pas possible dans la réalité. Il apparaît cependant que, pour une surveillances de routine de milieux complexes, le test Microtox® est globalement sensible, facile à mettre en œuvre et applicable à de grandes séries d'échantillons. Il est néanmoins peu représentatif des milieux naturels et d'autres bioessais ne peuvent que le compléter utilement, en particulier celui visant à déterminer le caractère mutagène du milieu étudié.Eight ecotoxicological bioassays were evaluated using 14 highly complex liquid samples, including 11 effluents from urban waste and industrial waste lixiviation. Statistical analysis of results revealed that the bioassays have widely varying sensitivities. All were informative-ideally, general ecotoxicological evaluation should spare none. However for routine evaluation of complex liquid mixtures, the Microtox® test is sufficiently sensitive and easy to use and accommodates a large range of samples. Nevertheless Microtox® does not accurately represent natural media and other bioassays, particularly mutagenic tests, are useful complements

Surface Optical Waves at Air/Metal Interfaces: Surface Plasmon Polaritons

The surface plasmon resonance (SPR) phenomenon has been known for nearly five decades now; since then this method has made great advances in terms of instrumentation development and applications, and it still attracts researchers because of certain subtle issues that could benefit from it mainly detection and analysis of chemical and biochemical substances in different areas including medicine, environmental monitoring, biotechnology and drug and food monitoring. Our interest is focused on the use of this technique for studying thin coating and some application in nanophotonics. In this paper, we discuss the configuration of surface plasmons at air/metal interface by Atenuated total reflection (ATR) technique in the Kretchman configuration, and we present preliminary experimental results on surface plasmons at a Ag/air interface that we obtained in our laboratory.The surface plasmon resonance (SPR) phenomenon has been known for nearly five decades now; since then this method has made great advances in terms of instrumentation development and applications, and it still attracts researchers because of certain subtle issues that could benefit from it mainly detection and analysis of chemical and biochemical substances in different areas including medicine, environmental monitoring, biotechnology and drug and food monitoring. Our interest is focused on the use of this technique for studying thin coating and some application in nanophotonics. In this paper, we discuss the configuration of surface plasmons at air/metal interface by Atenuated total reflection (ATR) technique in the Kretchman configuration, and we present preliminary experimental results on surface plasmons at a Ag/air interface that we obtained in our laboratory

Light to Shape the Future: From Photolithography to 4D Printing

Over the last few decades, the demand of polymeric structures with well-defined features of different size, dimension, and functionality has increased from various application areas, including microelectronics, biotechnology, tissue engineering, and photonics, among others. The ability of light to control over space and time physicochemical processes is a unique tool for the structuring of polymeric materials, opening new avenues for technological progress in different fields of application. This article gives an overview of various photochemical reactions in polymers, photosensitive materials, and structuring techniques making use of light, and highlights most recent advances, emerging opportunities, and relevant applications

Exchange rate volatility and capital inflows: role of financial development

There is vast literature examining the impact of exchange rate volatility on various macroeconomic aggregates such as economic growth, trade flows, domestic investment, and more recently capital flows. However, these studies have ignored the role of financial development while examining the impact of exchange rate volatility on capital flows. This study aims to analyze the impact of exchange rate volatility on capital inflows towards developing countries by incorporating the role of financial development over the time period 1980–2013. In this regard, the behavior of two types of capital flows is examined: physical capital inflows measured as foreign direct investment, and financial inflows quantified through remittance inflows. The empirical investigation comprises the direct as well as indirect effect of exchange rate volatility on capital inflows. The study employs dynamic system GMM estimation technique to empirically estimate the effect of exchange rate volatility on capital inflows. The empirical results of the study identify that exchange rate volatility dampens both physical and financial inflows towards developing countries. The indirect impact of exchange rate volatility through financial development, however, turns out positive and statistically significant. This finding reflects that financial development helps in reduc- ing the harmful impact of exchange rate volatility on capital inflows. Hence, the study concludes that a developed financial system is an important channel through which developing countries may improve capital inflows in the long run.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

In Vivo Methods for the Assessment of Topical Drug Bioavailability

This paper reviews some current methods for the in vivo assessment of local cutaneous bioavailability in humans after topical drug application. After an introduction discussing the importance of local drug bioavailability assessment and the limitations of model-based predictions, the focus turns to the relevance of experimental studies. The available techniques are then reviewed in detail, with particular emphasis on the tape stripping and microdialysis methodologies. Other less developed techniques, including the skin biopsy, suction blister, follicle removal and confocal Raman spectroscopy techniques are also described

Drivers of Growth in Fast Emerging Economies: A Dynamic Instrumental Quantile Approach

This study complements the scarce literature on growth determinants in fast emerging economies of the BRICS and MINT by assessing the determinants throughout the conditional distributions of the growth rate and real GDP output for the period 2001-2011. An instrumenal variable (IV) quantile regression approach is complemented with Two-Stage-Least Squares and IV Least Absolute Deviations. The instrumentation process is dynamic. The following findings are established. First, while Gross FDI has a negative effect on economic growth, the impact of Net FDI is positive, with a higher magnitude in top quantiles of the distributions. Second, the positive effect of natural resources is more apparent in countries with low initial growth levels. Third, the impact of telecommunications infrastructure is not very significant. Fourth, whereas the incidence of bank credit is positive for GDP growth, it is negative for real GDP output. Fifth, while trade openness is positive in bottom quantiles of GDP growth, but for the highest quantile in real GDP output, it is consistently negative on real GDP output. Sixth, while the incidence of political stability is negative on GDP growth, it is positive on real GDP output, with the negative (positive) effect apparent only in top (bottom) quantiles of GDP growth (real GDP output). Policy implications are discussed