574 research outputs found
Study and modelling of the effect of herbicides pulse exposure on freshwater microalgae
De plus en plus de substances chimiques sont émises et détectées dans l'environnement.Parmi ces substances, on trouve les herbicides qui sont utilisés en agriculture pour luttercontre la présence des mauvaises herbes. Après leur application sur les sols, les herbicidespeuvent être entrainés par les eaux de pluie jusque dans les ruisseaux et les rivières. Lesconcentrations de ces substances varient donc de manière importante dans les systèmesaquatiques en période de pluie ou en période de temps sec. Des pics élevés de concentrationssont suivis de période de concentrations très faibles ou nulles. Les herbicides présents dans lescours d'eau peuvent engendrer des effets toxiques sur les algues et les plantes aquatiques. Orles tests classiques d'écotoxicologie effectués en laboratoire sont réalisés en exposant lesespèces vivantes à des polluants de manière continue. Ils ne permettent donc pas d'évaluer leseffets des concentrations fluctuantes comme celles des herbicides. Le but de cette thèse estd'étudier et de modéliser les effets des concentrations fluctuantes d'herbicide sur les espècesde microalgues vertes Scenedesmus vacuolatus et Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata. Desexpériences en laboratoire ont également été effectuées dans le but de valider le modèle.Quatre herbicides ont été testés. Il s'agit de l'atrazine (utilisé jusqu'à récemment pour lemaïs), du diuron (utilisé dans la vigne), de l'isoproturon (utilisé pour les céréales) et du Smétolachlore(utilisé pour le maïs). Les résultats de ce travail de thèse indiquent que les effetsdes concentrations fluctuantes d'herbicide peuvent être modélisés sur des algues d'eau douce.Le modèle est relativement simple pour les inhibiteurs de la photosynthèse tels que l'atrazine,le diuron ou l'isoproturon. Il nécessite la connaissance de deux paramètres, le taux decroissance de l'algue sans polluant et la courbe dose-réponse pour chaque substance.Cependant, des expériences supplémentaires doivent être réalisées si la substance étudiéeinduit un délai de l'effet et du rétablissement ou si une algue est cultivée avec une autre alguedans le même milieu de croissance. Le modèle pourrait également être adapté pour tenircompte des mélanges de substances. Appliqué pour prédire les effets sur les algues descénarios réels, le modèle montre que les longs pics de concentrations jouent le rôle le plusimportant. Il est donc crucial de les mesurer lors du monitoring des cours d'eau. D'autre part,une évaluation du risque effectuée avec ce modèle montre que l'impact des pics deconcentrations sur les espèces les plus sensibles est total. Cela met en évidence, une fois deplus, l'importance de tenir compte de ces concentrations fluctuantes dans l'évaluation durisque environnemental des herbicides, mais également des autres polluants
Integrability as a consequence of discrete holomorphicity: the Z_N model
It has recently been established that imposing the condition of discrete
holomorphicity on a lattice parafermionic observable leads to the critical
Boltzmann weights in a number of lattice models. Remarkably, the solutions of
these linear equations also solve the Yang-Baxter equations. We extend this
analysis for the Z_N model by explicitly considering the condition of discrete
holomorphicity on two and three adjacent rhombi. For two rhombi this leads to a
quadratic equation in the Boltzmann weights and for three rhombi a cubic
equation. The two-rhombus equation implies the inversion relations. The
star-triangle relation follows from the three-rhombus equation. We also show
that these weights are self-dual as a consequence of discrete holomorphicity.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, some clarifications and a reference adde
OASIS High-Resolution Integral Field Spectroscopy of the SAURON Ellipticals and Lenticulars
We present a summary of high-spatial resolution follow-up observations of the
elliptical (E) and lenticular (S0) galaxies in the SAURON survey using the
OASIS integral field spectrograph. The OASIS observations explore the central
8x10" regions of these galaxies using a spatial sampling four times higher than
SAURON, often revealing previously undiscovered features. Around 75% (31/48) of
the SAURON E/S0s with central velocity dispersion >= 120 km/s were observed
with OASIS, covering well the original SAURON representative sample. We present
here an overview of this follow-up survey, and some preliminary results on
individual objects, including a previously unreported counter-rotating core in
NGC 4382; the decoupled stellar and gas velocity fields of NGC 2768; and the
strong age gradient towards the centre of NGC 3489.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in Astron. Nachr. as
refereed proceedings of Euro3D Science Workshop, IoA Cambridge, May 200
The Nearby Supernova Factory
The Nearby Supernova Factory (SNfactory) is an ambitious project to find and
study in detail approximately 300 nearby Type Ia supernovae (SNe~Ia) at
redshifts 0.03<z<0.08. This program will provide an exceptional data set of
well-studied SNe in the nearby smooth Hubble flow that can be used as
calibration for the current and future programs designed to use SNe to measure
the cosmological parameters. The first key ingredient for this program is a
reliable supply of Hubble-flow SNe systematically discovered in unprecedented
numbers using the same techniques as those used in distant SNe searches. In
2002, 35 SNe were found using our test-bed pipeline for automated SN search and
discovery. The pipeline uses images from the asteroid search conducted by the
Near Earth Asteroid Tracking group at JPL. Improvements in our subtraction
techniques and analysis have allowed us to increase our effective SN discovery
rate to ~12 SNe/month in 2003.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures to be published in New Astronomy Review
Galactic Globular Cluster Metallicity Scale from the Ca II Triplet. I. Catalog
We have obtained 2640 CCD spectra with resolution ~4 Angstrom in the region
7250-9000 Angstroms for 976 stars lying near the red giant branches in
color-magnitude diagrams of 52 Galactic globular clusters. Radial velocities of
~16 km/second accuracy per star determined from the spectra are combined with
other criteria to assess quantitative membership probabilities. Measurements of
the equivalent widths of the infrared calcium triplet lines yield a relative
metal-abundance ranking with a precision that compares favorably to other
techniques. Regressions between our system and those of others are derived. Our
reduction procedures are discussed in detail, and the resultant catalog of
derived velocities and equivalent widths is presented. The metal abundances
derived from these data will be the subject of a future paper.Comment: To appear in August 1997 PASP. Also available at
http://www.hia.nrc.ca/eprints.htm
The critical fugacity for surface adsorption of self-avoiding walks on the honeycomb lattice is
In 2010, Duminil-Copin and Smirnov proved a long-standing conjecture of
Nienhuis, made in 1982, that the growth constant of self-avoiding walks on the
hexagonal (a.k.a. honeycomb) lattice is A key identity
used in that proof was later generalised by Smirnov so as to apply to a general
O(n) loop model with (the case corresponding to SAWs).
We modify this model by restricting to a half-plane and introducing a surface
fugacity associated with boundary sites (also called surface sites), and
obtain a generalisation of Smirnov's identity. The critical value of the
surface fugacity was conjectured by Batchelor and Yung in 1995 to be This value plays a crucial role in our generalized
identity, just as the value of growth constant did in Smirnov's identity.
For the case , corresponding to \saws\ interacting with a surface, we
prove the conjectured value of the critical surface fugacity. A crucial part of
the proof involves demonstrating that the generating function of self-avoiding
bridges of height , taken at its critical point , tends to 0 as
increases, as predicted from SLE theory.Comment: Major revision, references updated, 25 pages, 13 figure
Self-avoiding walks and connective constants
The connective constant of a quasi-transitive graph is the
asymptotic growth rate of the number of self-avoiding walks (SAWs) on from
a given starting vertex. We survey several aspects of the relationship between
the connective constant and the underlying graph .
We present upper and lower bounds for in terms of the
vertex-degree and girth of a transitive graph.
We discuss the question of whether for transitive
cubic graphs (where denotes the golden mean), and we introduce the
Fisher transformation for SAWs (that is, the replacement of vertices by
triangles).
We present strict inequalities for the connective constants
of transitive graphs , as varies.
As a consequence of the last, the connective constant of a Cayley
graph of a finitely generated group decreases strictly when a new relator is
added, and increases strictly when a non-trivial group element is declared to
be a further generator.
We describe so-called graph height functions within an account of
"bridges" for quasi-transitive graphs, and indicate that the bridge constant
equals the connective constant when the graph has a unimodular graph height
function.
A partial answer is given to the question of the locality of
connective constants, based around the existence of unimodular graph height
functions.
Examples are presented of Cayley graphs of finitely presented
groups that possess graph height functions (that are, in addition, harmonic and
unimodular), and that do not.
The review closes with a brief account of the "speed" of SAW.Comment: Accepted version. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with
arXiv:1304.721
Type Ia Supernova Hubble Residuals and Host-Galaxy Properties
Kim et al. (2013) [K13] introduced a new methodology for determining
peak-brightness absolute magnitudes of type Ia supernovae from multi-band light
curves. We examine the relation between their parameterization of light curves
and Hubble residuals, based on photometry synthesized from the Nearby Supernova
Factory spectrophotometric time series, with global host-galaxy properties. The
K13 Hubble residual step with host mass is mag for a supernova
subsample with data coverage corresponding to the K13 training; at , the step is not significant and lower than previous measurements.
Relaxing the data coverage requirement the Hubble residual step with host mass
is mag for the larger sample; a calculation using the modes of
the distributions, less sensitive to outliers, yields a step of 0.019 mag. The
analysis of this article uses K13 inferred luminosities, as distinguished from
previous works that use magnitude corrections as a function of SALT2 color and
stretch parameters: Steps at significance are found in SALT2 Hubble
residuals in samples split by the values of their K13 and
light-curve parameters. affects the light-curve width and color around
peak (similar to the and stretch parameters), and
affects colors, the near-UV light-curve width, and the light-curve decline 20
to 30 days after peak brightness. The novel light-curve analysis, increased
parameter set, and magnitude corrections of K13 may be capturing features of
SN~Ia diversity arising from progenitor stellar evolution.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures. Accepted by Astrophysical Journa
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