The use of the stable oxygen isotope (18O) to trace the distribution and uptake of water in riparian woodlands

Streamside vegetation forming narrow "corridors" in temperate regions, is typically dominated by deciduous tree species reflecting strong influences by human activities. Riparian woodlands depend on hydrological resources and have to adapt to rapid changes in water levels and soil moisture conditions. Three main water sources are typically present in the riparian zone: river water originating in the mountains, ground water and rainfall. Stable isotopes, such as oxygen-18, are useful tools which allow for water movement to be traced within the riparian zone and which help to identify water sources utilised by the trees growing in these areas

Ontopy : programmation orientée ontologie en Python

Ontopy a par la suite été renommé Owlready ; le contenu du module reste identique.International audienceLes ontologies et les modèles objets partagent un vocabulaire commun mais diffèrent dans leurs utilisations : l'ontologie permet d'effectuer des inférences et les modèles objets sont utilisés pour la programmation. Il est souvent nécessaire d'interfacer ontologie et programme objet. Plusieurs approches ont été proposées, de OWL API à la programmation orientée ontologie. Dans cet article, nous présentons Ontopy, un module de programmation orientée ontologie dynamique en Python, et nous prendrons pour exemple la comparaison des contre-indications des médicaments

Analyse de la relation entre le revenu et la mortalité : un commentaire méthodologique

La région urbaine de l’Outaouais (Gatineau) a un revenu moyen plus élevé que le Québec urbain; cependant, ses indicateurs de santé sont moins favorables. Cette situation, contraire à ce que l’on retrouve le plus souvent au niveau de la santé des populations, est désignée par l’expression « paradoxe outaouais ». Nous avons pu analyser l’impact des choix méthodologiques sur l’évaluation de la relation entre le revenu et la santé, au niveau de la ville et au niveau du quintile de revenu. Selon que l’unité de référence est le Québec urbain ou la RMR Ottawa-Gatineau, le paradoxe se réalise ou disparaît. Selon la partition utilisée, le gradient de l’espérance de vie ainsi que l’écart entre Ottawa et Gatineau varient de manière appréciable. Nos résultats montrent que les choix méthodologiques jouent un rôle important et doivent par conséquent être faits avec soin.The Outaouais urban area (Gatineau) has a higher average income compared to the rest of urban Quebec, but its health indicators are less favourable. This situation, contrary to what is usually expected for population health, has been called “the Outaouais paradox”. We have been able to analyse the impact of methodological choices on the evaluation of the relationship between income and health, at the city level and at the income quintile level. If the reference unit is urban Quebec the paradox appears, but if the reference unit is the Ottawa-Gatineau CMA, the paradox disappears. Depending on the partition used, the life expectancy gradient as well as the gap between Ottawa and Gatineau differ substantially. Our results show that methodological choices play an important role and must thus be done cautiously

The use of the stable oxygen isotope (180) to trace the distribution and uptake of water riparian woodlands

Streamside vegetation forming narrow “corridors” in temperate regions, is typically dominated by deciduous tree species reflecting strong influences by human activities. Riparian woodlands depend on hydrological resources and have to adapt to rapid changes in water levels and soil moisture conditions. Three main water sources are typically present in the riparian zone: river water originating in the mountains, ground water and rainfall. Stable isotopes, such as oxygen 18, are useful tools which allow for water movement to be traced within the riparian zone and which help to identify water sources utilised by the trees growing in these areas

The use of the stable oxygen isotope (180) to trace the distribution and uptake of water in riparian woodlands

International audienceStreamside vegetation forming narrow “corridors” in temperate regions, is typically dominated by deciduous tree species reflecting strong influences by human activities. Riparian woodlands depend on hydrological resources and have to adapt to rapid changes in water levels and soil moisture conditions. Three main water sources are typically present in the riparian zone: river water originating in the mountains, ground water and rainfall. Stable isotopes, such as oxygen 18, are useful tools which allow for water movement to be traced within the riparian zone and which help to identify water sources utilised by the trees growing in these areas

Rainbow boxes: a technique for visualizing overlapping sets and an application to the comparison of drugs properties

International audienceOverlapping set visualization is a well-known problem in information visualization. This problem considers elements and sets containing all or part of the elements, a given element possibly belonging to more than one set. A typical example is the properties of the 20 amino-acids. A more complex application is the visual comparison of the contraindications or the adverse effects of several similar drugs. The knowledge involved is voluminous, each drug has many contraindications and adverse effects, some of them are shared with other drugs.In this paper, we present rainbow boxes, a novel technique for visualizing overlapping sets, and its application to the properties of amino-acids and to the comparison of drug properties. We also describe a user study comparing rainbow boxes to tables and showing that the former allowed physicians to find information significantly faster. We finally discuss the limits and the perspectives of rainbow boxes

Le choix du prénom. Des régularités statistiques aux mécanismes cognitifs

Philippe Besnard se félicitait d’avoir écrit l’un des best-sellers de la sociologie française. À bon droit. Ironiquement, il savait que la majeure partie des sociologues l’ignorait, si ce n’est peut-être ceux qui, un jour de désarroi, avaient acheté le Besnard-Desplanque avant d’affronter le Laurence Pernoud. La méconnaissance est encouragée par le livre qui annonce la cote des prénoms et permet à chacun, au prix de quelques calculs élémentaires, de savoir si son choix (ou celui de ses parent..