Urban stream stabilization using regional hydraulic geometry curves for bankfull floodplain design

The objective of this thesis was to determine the effectiveness of hydraulic geometry curves for designing bankfull floodplains to stabilize urban streams. In stable streams bankfull discharge is contained within the stream\u27s banks. Higher flows spread out onto the floodplain where the water\u27s velocity drops due to the increase in area and vegetation. This dissipation of energy promotes sediment deposition, decreases flow velocity, and reduces channel erosion. In cases like Galbraith Drain where historical gage data are not available and bankfull indicators are not present, a degraded stream\u27s bankfull depth may be estimated with hydraulic geometry curves. Over forty cross sections were taken at fifteen rivers and streams within the region of Galbraith Drain. These data were processed, and the resultant hydraulic geometry curves developed through linear regression were used to design the study reach\u27s channel and floodplain geometry. Suspended solids concentration (SSC) was selected as the parameter by which the effectiveness of the design was measured. Optical meters were installed at the upstream and downstream ends of the study reach to continuously record stage and turbidity. Turbidity was converted to SSC from regression analysis of laboratory tested SSC samples collected at each meter location. Data collected from cross sections and slope profiles taken at the meter locations were used with Manning\u27s equation to convert stage data to flowrates. Two methodologies were utilized to analyze the percent difference in SSC from the upstream to downstream meter. In the mass versus mass analysis, all pre- and post-construction data were plotted as SSC (kg) versus volume (ft3), from which linear regression equations were obtained. By entering the largest common volume into these equations, decreases in SSC of 2.4% and 29.9% were calculated for the pre- and post-construction conditions, respectively. For the statistical analysis, an Analysis of Covariance was performed with SAS software. When the mean SSC value (as concentration) was entered into the SAS-generated equations, an SSC increase of 29.4% resulted for pre-construction, while a decrease of 25.3% resulted for post-construction. Thus, the improvement resulting from the construction of the bankfull floodplain, as demonstrated by both analysis methodologies, is definitive and significant

The Spatial and Temporal Ecology of Seed Dispersal by Gorillas in Lopé National Park, Gabon: Linking Patterns of Disperser Behavior and Recruitment in an Afrotropical Forest

Western lowland gorillas: Gorilla g. gorilla) consume large quantities of fruit and disperse a great number of seeds. The majority these seeds are dispersed intact and viable in the dung. Dung is often deposited around the rim of a night nest or at a nest-site. Gorillas often construct nests in areas that have a sparse canopy, flattening the ground vegetation. These locations can be beneficial to the growth and survival of the seed species they disperse. Thus, not only are gorillas effective in terms of depositing seeds great distances from parent plants, away from the highest seed rain densities, they are also effective in directing seeds to potentially beneficial microsites. The objective of this research was to develop an understanding of the spatial and temporal patterns in fruit availability, seed deposition, and adult plants, and to test whether these patterns relate to the ecology of seed dispersal by gorillas. Results suggest that gorilla foraging and nesting behavior in particular, impose both spatial and temporal limitations to the distribution of dispersed seeds. In addition, temporal variation in the gorilla diet and factors that affect defecation rates and locations promote variation in the combinations: composition and abundance) of the seed species dispersed to different microsites. The clustered distribution of nest-sites leads to clumped and spatially restricted seed deposition patterns. Recruitment in gorilla-dispersed seed species corresponds with the aggregated: clumped) distribution of nest-sites. Gorillas have a long-lasting effect on the spatial structure and floristic composition of the forests they inhabit, particularly in large-seeded species

François de Moulins de Rochefort, Maître d'école de François Ier.

National audienceTous ceux qui se sont intéressés à François Ier ont fatalement rencontré le nom de François de Moulins. Or, nous ne savons que peu de choses sur ce personnage, en dehors du fait qu'il est l'auteur d'une abondante production manuscrite, destinée au roi ou à sa mère, Louise de Savoie. Mieux qu'un proche, de Moulins était un intime du roi depuis sa tendre enfance, puisqu'il fut son maître d'école puis son grand aumônier et enfin le chef de sa chapelle, prodiguant ses conseils au monarque, tel une véritable « éminence grise » avant l'heure. Nous proposons ici un nouvel éclairage sur l'homme et sur son milieu

Qu'est-ce que Chambord ? étude du décor sculpté et nouvelles interprétations.

National audiencePartant du constat qu'aucun relevé exhaustif du décor sculpté de Chambord n'avait jamais été effectué, nous avons entrepris un travail de recensement qui a permis la mise en évidence de thèmes ornementaux originaux et d'un décor clairement soumis à un programme. Nous en sommes venus à proposer une nouvelle lecture de Chambord qui met en valeur le caractère éminemment religieux et politique de l'édifice

Comparison of Zgoubi and S-Code regarding the FFAG muon acceleration

The high flux accelerator based neutrino source is foreseen as one the next generation facilities of particle physics. Called Neutrino Factory (NuFact), it will be based on a muon storage ring where muons will decay, creating high flux neutrino beams. Muons are supposed to be accelerated from 5 to 20 GeV before being injected into the storage ring. In that purpose, Fixed Field Alternating Gradient accelerators (FFAG) are one of the possibilities. Cell designs have been done and tracking studies are on their way using codes such as MAD, S-Code or Zgoubi. In order to cross-check results so obtained, we have performed comparisons between S-Code and Zgoubi at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. The present report will explain the different simulations done and the results

Dual Mutation Events in the Haemagglutinin-Esterase and Fusion Protein from an Infectious Salmon Anaemia Virus HPR0 Genotype Promote Viral Fusion and Activation by an Ubiquitous Host Protease

Funding: The Scottish Government funded this work, as part of their global budget on aquaculture research. The funder had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Use of a structural alphabet for analysis of short loops connecting repetitive structures

BACKGROUND: Because loops connect regular secondary structures, analysis of the former depends directly on the definition of the latter. The numerous assignment methods, however, can offer different definitions. In a previous study, we defined a structural alphabet composed of 16 average protein fragments, which we called Protein Blocks (PBs). They allow an accurate description of every region of 3D protein backbones and have been used in local structure prediction. In the present study, we use this structural alphabet to analyze and predict the loops connecting two repetitive structures. RESULTS: We first analyzed the secondary structure assignments. Use of five different assignment methods (DSSP, DEFINE, PCURVE, STRIDE and PSEA) showed the absence of consensus: 20% of the residues were assigned to different states. The discrepancies were particularly important at the extremities of the repetitive structures. We used PBs to describe and predict the short loops because they can help analyze and in part explain these discrepancies. An analysis of the PB distribution in these regions showed some specificities in the sequence-structure relationship. Of the amino acid over- or under-representations observed in the short loop databank, 20% did not appear in the entire databank. Finally, predicting 3D structure in terms of PBs with a Bayesian approach yielded an accuracy rate of 36.0% for all loops and 41.2% for the short loops. Specific learning in the short loops increased the latter by 1%. CONCLUSION: This work highlights the difficulties of assigning repetitive structures and the advantages of using more precise descriptions, that is, PBs. We observed some new amino acid distributions in the short loops and used this information to enhance local prediction. Instead of describing entire loops, our approach predicts each position in the loops locally. It can thus be used to propose many different structures for the loops and to probe and sample their flexibility. It can be a useful tool in ab initio loop prediction