Distribution of dissolved green-house gases (CO2, CH4, N2O) in Lakes Edward and George: Results from the first field cruise of the HIPE project

Inland waters (streams, rivers, lakes, reservoirs) are quantitatively important components of the global budgets of atmospheric emissions of long-lived greenhouse gases (GHGs) (CO2, CH4, N2O). Available data indicate that a very large fraction of CO2 and CH4 emissions from rivers and reservoirs occurs at tropical latitudes. Data on GHGs at tropical latitudes from lakes however are much more scarse, and the relative importance of emissions, in particular in Africa, remains to be determined. Large tropical lakes are net autotrophic (hence potentially sinks for atmospheric CO2) due generally low dissolved organic carbon concentrations, seasonally near constant light and temperature conditions, and generally deep water columns favourable for export of organic matter to depth. This sharply contrasts with their much better documented temperate and boreal counterparts, usually considered as CO2 sources to the atmosphere sustained by net heterotrophy. Here, we report a data-set of issolved CO2, CH4, N2O obtained in October 2016 in Lakes Edward and George and adjacent streams and cater lakes in he frame of Belgian Science Policy (BELSPO) HIPE (Human impacts on ecosystem health and resources of ake Edward, http://www.co2.ulg.ac.be/hipe/) project. Lake George and part of Lake Edward were sinks for tmospheric CO2 and N2O due to high primary production and denitrification in sediments, respectively, and modest ources of CH4 to the atmosphere. Sampled rivers and streams were oversaturated in CO2 and CH4 and close to tmospheric equilibrium with regards to N2O. Spatial variations within rivers and streams were related to elevation and vegetation characteristics on the catchments (savannah versus forest). Levels of CO2, CH4, and N2O were within the range of those we reported in other African rivers. Crater lakes acted as sinks for atmospheric CO2 and N2O but were extremely over-saturated in CH4, due to intense primary production sustained by cyanobacteria. These CH4 levels were much higher than what we have reported in other lakes and reservoirs elsewhere in Sub- Saharan Africa

News-induced style seasonality

This paper posits a new methodological approach to test how specialized media could influence the information transmission channels towards investors. We contribute to the literature on the role of media on investor limited attention, on seasonal effects in market anomalies and on the impact of news on market anomalies. Our approach is somewhat different from the current literature as we determine whether we can detect any seasonality in the news coverage of recommendations, analyses or opinions on investment styles provided by specialized press to institutional investors. Our paper not only contributes to the literature on market anomalies and seasonality effects in financial markets but also aligns itself with a new strand of research involving the application of text mining in finance. First, our text corpus gathers articles from specialized press targeting institutional investors. Such a corpus is unique and has never been investigated. Second, we build our own dictionaries from several statistical methods to extract style information from news flow. The method is innovative and our study is the first to investigate the seasonality in the underlying information channel. At this stage, the paper is mainly methodological and centered on small and large styles. Results will be extended to other investment styles in the near future and completed with statistical test of cyclicality and trend analysis

Custom-Shaped Carbon Xerogel Materials by 3D Printing

peer reviewedSol–gel-based carbon xerogels possess very promising properties for pollution abatement, using processes that associate adsorption and on-site electrochemical oxidation. However, combining a high exterior surface area (for efficient diffusion) and a monolithic shape (necessary for electrochemical processes) poses challenges. In this work, the shape of monolithic carbon xerogels was contrived by the use of 3D-printed molds. Several parameters were optimized: the choice of mold design, the choice of plastic, the 3D printer parameters, the solvent, and the process of dissolving the plastic. A design combining fine sticks and plates made of ABS was printed; a sol–gel carbon xerogel monolith was synthesized in it, and the mold was removed by using a combination of acetone and pyrolysis. Dissolving the plastic could be carried out by placing the material on a metallic net and leaving the dissolved ABS to settle. The resulting carbon material exhibits a high exterior surface area and good strength, leading to potential uses in the aforementioned process. The research shows that 3D printing is an efficient method of parameter optimization in pre-industrialization research, thanks to its flexibility, low cost, and ease of use

Inhibitor development in non-severe haemophilia across Europe

Evidence about inhibitor formation in non-severe haemophilia and the potential role for clotting factor concentrate type is scant. It was the aim of this study to report inhibitor development in non-severe haemophilia patients enrolled in the European Haemophilia Safety Surveillance (EUHASS) study. Inhibitors are reported quarterly and total treated patients annually. Incidence rates and 95 % confidence intervals (95 % CI) were calculated according to diagnosis and concentrate used. Between 1–10–2008 and 31–12–2012, 68 centres reported on 7,969 patients with non-severe haemophilia A and 1,863 patients with non-severe haemophilia B. For haemophilia A, 37 inhibitors occurred in 8,622 treatment years, resulting in an inhibitor rate of 0.43/100 treatment years (95 % CI 0.30–0.59). Inhibitors occurred at a median age of 35 years, after a median of 38 exposure days (EDs; P25-P75: 20–80); with 72 % occurring within the first 50 EDs. In haemophilia B, one inhibitor was detected in 2,149 treatment years, resulting in an inhibitor rate of 0.05/100 years (95% CI 0.001–0.26). This inhibitor developed at the age of six years, after six EDs. The rate of inhibitors appeared similar across recombinant and plasma derived factor VIII (FVIII) concentrates. Rates for individual concentrates could not be calculated at this stage due to low number of events. In conclusion, inhibitors in non-severe haemophilia occur three times more frequently than in previously treated patients with severe haemophilia at a rate of 0.43/100 patient years (haemophilia A) and 0.05/100 years (haemophilia B). Although the majority of inhibitors developed in the first 50 EDs, inhibitor development continued with increasing exposure to FVIII

Le paysage pour aborder les interactions entre environnement alpin et sociétés

Depuis l’automne 2015, un module « Enjeux paysagers » a été introduit au premier semestre du master universitaire en sciences de l’environnement (MUSE), formation interdisciplinaire et interfacultaire de l’université de Genève (Suisse). Ce nouveau module intervient au cours d’une première étape d’initiation à l’interdisciplinarité et d’immersion aux thématiques de l’environnement. Ce texte revient sur cette expérience pédagogique, dans un esprit réflexif partagé par les auteurs, tous intervenants dans le MUSE, et issus de différentes disciplines. Le paysage est placé ici comme « notion-laboratoire » pour favoriser les ponts entre les disciplines enseignées et améliorer la mise en avant d’une interdisciplinarité, voire d’une transdisciplinarité, entre sciences de la société et sciences naturelles et exactes.In the autumn of 2015, a module entitled “Landscape Issues” (in French, “Enjeux paysagers”) was introduced in the first semester of the University Master of Environmental Sciences (in French, Master Universitaire en Sciences de l’Environnement, MUSE), an interdisciplinary and interfaculty training course at Geneva University (Switzerland). This new module is part of a first stage in the initiation to the interdisciplinary study of environmental themes. The article describes this teaching experiment in a reflective mode shared by the authors, all of whom are teachers of different disciplines and work in the MUSE programme. The landscape is positioned here as a “laboratory-concept” for fostering links between the disciplines taught and promoting interdisciplinarity, or transdisciplinarity, between social, natural and exact sciences

Use of neuraminidase inhibitors in primary health care during pandemic and seasonal influenza between 2009 and 2013: Outpatient influenza antiviral treatment

International audienceBACKGROUND:In a context of controversy about influenza antiviral treatments, this study assessed primary health-care physicians' prescription of neuraminidase inhibitors (NIs) in France during pandemic and seasonal influenza between 2009 and 2013.METHODS:This observational study, using data recorded in three national databases, estimated the rate of NI prescription among influenza-like illness (ILI) patients seen in GP and paediatrician consultations, and determined factors associated with this prescription according to a multivariate analysis. NI delivery by pharmacists was also evaluated.RESULTS:Rates of NI prescription were estimated to be 61.1% among ILI patients with a severe influenza risk factor seen in GP consultation during the A(H1N1)pdm2009 pandemic versus an average rate of 25.9% during the three following seasonal influenza epidemics. Factors associated with NI prescription were a chronic disease in patients under 65 years (OR 14.85; 95% CI 13.00, 16.97) and in those aged 65 and older (OR 7.54; 5.86, 9.70), an age ≥65 years in patients without chronic disease (OR 1.35; 1.04, 1.74), a pregnancy (OR 10.63; 7.67, 15.76), obesity (OR 4.67; 3.50, 6.22) and a consultation during the pandemic A(H1N1)pdm2009 (OR 3.19; 2.93, 3.48). The number of antiviral treatments delivered by pharmacists during the A(H1N1)pdm2009 pandemic was 835 per 100,000 inhabitants, and an average of 275 per 100,000 inhabitants during the three following seasonal influenza epidemics.CONCLUSIONS:Although physicians seem to follow the recommended indications for NIs in primary health-care practice, this study confirms the low rate of NI prescription to ILI patients with a severe influenza risk factor, especially during seasonal epidemics

Modeling pre-metastatic lymphvascular niche in the mouse ear sponge assay.

Lymphangiogenesis, the formation of new lymphatic vessels, occurs in primary tumors and in draining lymph nodes leading to pre-metastatic niche formation. Reliable in vivo models are becoming instrumental for investigating alterations occurring in lymph nodes before tumor cell arrival. In this study, we demonstrate that B16F10 melanoma cell encapsulation in a biomaterial, and implantation in the mouse ear, prevents their rapid lymphatic spread observed when cells are directly injected in the ear. Vascular remodeling in lymph nodes was detected two weeks after sponge implantation, while their colonization by tumor cells occurred two weeks later. In this model, a huge lymphangiogenic response was induced in primary tumors and in pre-metastatic and metastatic lymph nodes. In control lymph nodes, lymphatic vessels were confined to the cortex. In contrast, an enlargement and expansion of lymphatic vessels towards paracortical and medullar areas occurred in pre-metastatic lymph nodes. We designed an original computerized-assisted quantification method to examine the lymphatic vessel structure and the spatial distribution. This new reliable and accurate model is suitable for in vivo studies of lymphangiogenesis, holds promise for unraveling the mechanisms underlying lymphatic metastases and pre-metastatic niche formation in lymph nodes, and will provide new tools for drug testing

Adsorption process with carbon xerogel cylinders for Refractory Organic Compounds removal in water, coupled with innovative in situ regeneration by H2O2 electrogeneration

peer reviewe

Noncommutative Figa-Talamanca-Herz algebras for Schur multipliers

We introduce a noncommutative analogue of the Fig\'a-Talamanca-Herz algebra $A_p(G)$ on the natural predual of the operator space $\frak{M}_{p,cb}$ of completely bounded Schur multipliers on Schatten space $S_p$. We determine the isometric Schur multipliers and prove that the space $\frak{M}_{p}$ of bounded Schur multipliers on Schatten space $S_p$ is the closure in the weak operator topology of the span of isometric multipliers.Comment: 24 pages; corrected typo

Dissolved organic matter composition and reactivity in Lake Victoria, the World’s largest tropical lake

peer reviewedWe report a data set of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration and dissolved organic matter (DOM) composition (stable carbon isotope signatures, absorption and fluorescence properties) obtained from samples collected in Lake Victoria, a large lake in East Africa. Samples were collected in 2018-2019 along a bathymetric gradient (bays to open waters), during three contrasting seasons: long rainy, short rainy and dry, which corresponded to distinctly water column mixing regimes, respectively, stratified, semi-stratified and mixed regimes. Eight DOM components from parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) were identified based on three-dimensional excitation–emission matrices (EEMs), which were aggregated into three main groups of components (microbial humic-like, terrestrial humic-like, protein-like). Spatially, the more productive bays were characterized by higher DOM concentration than deeper more offshore waters (fluorescence intensity and DOC were ~80% and ~30% higher in bays, respectively). Seasonally, the DOM pool shifted from protein-like components during the mixed regime to microbial humic-like components during the semi-stratified regime and to terrestrial humic-like components during the stratified regime. This indicates that pulses of autochthonous DOM derived from phytoplankton occurred when the lake was mixing, which increased the availability of dissolved inorganic nutrients. Subsequently, this freshly produced autochthonous DOM was microbially processed during the following semi-stratified regime. In the open waters, during the stratified regime, only terrestrial refractory DOM components remained because the labile and fresh stock of DOM created during the preceding mixed season was consumed. In the bays, the high terrestrial refractory DOM during the stratified regime may be additionally due to the allochthonous DOM input from the runoff. At the scale of the whole lake, the background refractory DOM probably comes mainly from precipitation and followed by river inputs.LAVIGA