Performance of the Potenlialy Leachable Nitrogen indicator for assessing the management of nitrate in agriculture and the risk to water quality

Depuis la fin du siècle dernier, la concentration en nitrate dans les eaux souterraines a régulièrement augmenté en Wallonie comme dans d’autres régions d’Europe et singulièrement dans des régions où l’agriculture est pratiquée de manière intensive. En réponse à ce constat, l’Europe a élaboré en 1991 une directive ‘Nitrates’ que chaque état membre a transcrite dans sa législation. En région wallonne, cette transcription a pris la forme d’un Programme de Gestion Durable de l’Azote (PGDA). Ce programme prévoit entre autres un contrôle des exploitations agricoles par l’analyse du reliquat azoté dans des parcelles, en automne, début de la période de lixiviation du nitrate. Cette mesure est communément dénommée APL pour Azote Potentiellement Lessivable. L’évaluation du résultat se fait par comparaison à des références établies annuellement sur base d’observations réalisées dans des parcelles où le PGDA est appliqué et qui font l’objet d’un conseil de fertilisation sur base du bilan prévisionnel. En cas de résultats non conformes, l’agriculteur concerné est contraint à un programme d’observation, voire à une sanction financière. L’objectif de la thèse est d’évaluer la performance de l’APL en tant qu’indicateur agronomique (reflet de la gestion de l’azote pratiquée par l’agriculteur) et environnemental (risque ‘nitrate’ pour la qualité des eaux souterraines). Sur le volet agronomique, au travers d’expérimentations ou du traitement de résultats de contrôles APL, il a été démontré que l’indicateur était bien corrélé aux pratiques de fertilisation ainsi qu’à la gestion de l’interculture. La performance de l’indicateur en tant que tel a donc pu être validée. Quelques facteurs d’incertitudes (variabilité intraparcellaire, variabilité temporelle, densité apparente, charge caillouteuse) ont été quantifiés. Enfin, l’influence de propriétés physico-chimique du sol sur l’APL a été étudiée et discutée. La performance du contrôle APL a également été examinée et des améliorations ont été proposées. Sur le volet environnemental, grâce à des observations réalisées pendant une dizaine d’années dans des parcelles équipées d’un lysimètre ou à l’échelle d’un petit bassin versant, la dépendance de la concentration en nitrate dans l’eau (base de la zone racinaire ou aquifère) à l’APL a pu être montrée. Il apparait donc que l’APL peut être utilisé pour d’une part évaluer la réalité de la mise en oeuvre d’une gestion durable de l’azote dans les exploitations contrôlées et d’autre part valider ou le cas échéant compléter le PGDA afin de le rendre plus efficient pour la préservation/restauration de la qualité de l’eau.Since the end of last century, the nitrate concentration in groundwater has steadily increased in Wallonia as in other parts of Europe, particularly in regions where agriculture is intensively practised. In response to this, Europe developed a ' Nitrates ' directive in 1991 that each member state had to transcribe in its legislation. In the Walloon region, the transcription took the form of a Sustainable Nitrogen Management Program (PGDA). This program provides among others control of farms through the analysis of nitrate nitrogen soil residue, in autumn, the beginning of the leaching period of nitrate. This measure is commonly referred to as APL for ‘Potentially Leachable Nitrogen’. The results are assessed by comparison to references established annually based on observations in plots where PGDA is applied and where fertilization recommendations are based on nitrogen balance. In case of non -compliance, the farmer has to follow an observation program, or even to pay a fine. The aim of the thesis is to evaluate the performance of the APL as agronomic (nitrogen management) and environmental indicator (risk to groundwater quality). On the agronomic side, through experimentations or treatment of field APL controls, it has been demonstrated that the indicator was well correlated with fertilization practices and intercrop management. The performance of the indicator has been validated. Some uncertainty factors (intra-plot variability, temporal variability, bulk density, stone content) were quantified. Finally, the influence of soil physicochemical properties on the APL was studied and discussed. The performance of the APL control was also discussed and improvements to regulation have been proposed. On the environmental side, through observations made during a decade in plots equipped with a lysimiter or in a small watershed, the dependence of the nitrate concentration in water (at the base of the root zone or in aquifer) to the APL has been demonstrated. It therefore appears that the APL can be used to firstly assess the reality of the sustainable nitrogen management in controlled farms and also to validate or, if necessary, complete the PGDA to make it more efficient for water quality preservation / restoration

Fe/Co Alloys for the Catalytic Chemical Vapor Deposition Synthesis of Single- and Double-Walled Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs). 2. The CNT−Fe/Co−MgAl2O4 System

A detailed 57Fe Mössbauer study of the Mg(0.8)Fe(0.2-y)Co(y)Al2O4 (y = 0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.15, 0.2) solid solutions and of the CNT-Fe/Co-MgAl2O4 nanocomposite powders prepared by reduction in H2-CH4 has allowed characterization of the different iron phases involved in the catalytic process of carbon nanotube (CNT) formation and to correlate these results with the carbon and CNT contents. The oxide precursors consist of defective spinels of general formulas (Mg(1-x-y)(2+)Fe(x-3alpha)(2+)Fe(2alpha)(3+)[symbol: see text](alpha)Co(y)(2+)Al2(3+))O4(2-) . The metallic phase in the CNT-Fe/Co-MgAl2O4 nanocomposite powders is mostly in the form of the ferromagnetic alpha-Fe/Co alloy with the desired composition. For high iron initial proportions, the additional formation of Fe3C and gamma-Fe-C is observed while for high cobalt initial proportions, the additional formation of a gamma-Fe/Co-C phase is favored. The higher yield of CNTs is observed for postreaction alpha-Fe(0.50)Co(0.50) catalytic particles, which form no carbide and have a narrow size distribution. Alloying is beneficial for this system with respect to the formation of CNTs

Replacing vascular corrosion casting by in-vivo micro-CT imaging for building 3D cardiovascular models in mice

The purpose of this study was to investigate if in vivo micro-computed tomography (CT) is a reliable alternative to micro-CT scanning of a vascular corrosion cast. This would allow one to study the early development of cardiovascular diseases. Datasets using both modalities were acquired, segmented, and used to generate a 3D geometrical model from nine mice. As blood pool contrast agent, Fenestra VC-131 was used. Batson's No. 17 was used as casting agent. Computational fluid dynamics simulations were performed on both datasets to quantify the difference in wall shear stress (WSS). Aortic arch diameters show 30% to 40% difference between the Fenestra VC-131 and the casted dataset. The aortic arch bifurcation angles show less than 20% difference between both datasets. Numerically computed WSS showed a 28% difference between both datasets. Our results indicate that in vivo micro-CT imaging can provide an excellent alternative for vascular corrosion casting. This enables follow-up studies

Seizure onset zone localization from ictal high-density EEG in five patients

Rationale Because epilepsy is a network disease, localization of the exact seizure onset zone (SOZ) is difficult because the epileptic activity can spread to other regions within milliseconds. Functional connectivity metrics quantify how the activity in different brain regions is interrelated. In the past, it has been shown that functional connectivity analysis of ictal intracranial EEG (icEEG) recordings can help with SOZ localization in patients with focal epilepsy (van Mierlo et al., 2014). However, it would be of high clinical value to be able to localize the SOZ based on non-invasive ictal EEG recordings to optimize the icEEG implantation scheme or to avoid invasive monitoring and improve surgical outcome. In this work, we propose an approach to localize the SOZ based on non-invasive ictal high-density EEG (hd-EEG) recordings. Methods We considered retrospective ictal epochs of 2.4 s up to 10 s recorded with hd-EEG (256 electrodes) in five patients who were rendered seizure free after surgery. From the 256 electrodes, the facial electrodes were removed, resulting in a subset of 204 electrodes. A 28-channel subset was constructed to mimic a low-density (ld) electrode setup used in clinical practice. EEG source imaging (ESI) was performed in the CARTOOL software using an individual head model (LSMAC) to calculate the forward model (Brunet et al., 2011). We considered sources uniformly distributed in the brain with a spacing of 5 mm. LORETA (Pascal-Marqui et al., 1994) was used as inverse solution method. In each cluster of activity, we determined a central source based on the criterion that there was no higher power in its neighborhood. The time-varying connectivity pattern between the time series of these sources was calculated using Granger causality (van Mierlo et al., 2013). This was done in the frequency band containing the fundamental seizure frequency, 3-30Hz. The outdegree of each selected dipole was determined as the sum over time of all outgoing connections. Around the dipole with the highest outdegree, we determined a region of dipoles that had a power that was at least 90% of the power of the center dipole. This region was then considered as the SOZ. Results We were able to successfully localize the driver in the resected zone for all patients based on ESI followed by connectivity analysis of the hd-EEG (mean localization error (LE) = 0 mm). If we chose the cluster with the highest power as driver, the mean LE was 59.69 mm. For the ld-EEG, ESI followed by connectivity analysis resulted in a mean LE of 23.30 mm and when selecting the cluster with the highest power as driver, the mean LE was 31.21 mm. Conclusions ESI in combination with connectivity analysis can successfully localize the SOZ in non-invasive ictal hd-EEG recordings and greatly outperforms localization based on power. For ld-EEG recordings, the localization error remains significant but still outperforms localization based on power. This could have important clinical relevance for the presurgical evaluation in focal epilepsy