Les enjeux de l’équivalence écologique pour la conception et le dimensionnement de mesures compensatoires d’impacts sur la biodiversité et les milieux naturels,

L’évolution du contexte réglementaire a renforcé l’obligation de compenser " en nature " les impacts sur la biodiversité qui n’ont pas pu être évités ou réduits. Dans ce contexte, l’évaluation de l’équivalence entre les pertes causées par ces impacts et les gains de biodiversité attendus des actions de compensation suscite des questions scientifiques et techniques quant aux concepts et connaissances à mobiliser et aux méthodes d’évaluation à développer et mettre en ½uvre. On y trouve en particulier l'identification des éléments de biodiversité à considérer, le développement d’indicateurs appropriés permettant de comparer pertes et gains, la sélection d’un état de référence pour le calcul des pertes et gains, et la prise en compte des dynamiques écologiques et des incertitudes dans l’évaluation du devenir des sites de compensation. Par ces questions, l'équivalence écologique donne un cadre de raisonnement explicite à la conception et au dimensionnement de la compensation qui est appropriable par chacun des acteurs concernés. / Since 2007 France has seen a radical strengthening of its legislation concerning the mitigation of development impacts on biodiversity and ecosystems. Under pressure from the European Union and as an outcome of a national consultative process called the “Grenelle de l’Environnement”, the scope of the mitigation hierarchy of avoiding, reducing and offsetting impacts of plans, programs and projects has been expanded. It now includes stronger requirements in terms of monitoring and effective implementation. These changes – which have strong financial and legal implications for developers - have revealed the lack of technical guidelines for designing and sizing offsets. Assessing the ecological equivalence between losses caused by impacts and the gains expected from offset actions raises scientific and technical issues that remain unresolved. These include the identification of relevant components of biodiversity, the development of appropriate indicators, the identification of reference states and the incorporation of ecological dynamics and uncertainties into offset design and sizing

Modelling of a Solenoid Injector for Internal Combustion Engines and Simulation Using the Bond Graph Methodology

In internal combustion engines, fuel injection timing, injection rate and pressure is optimized to ensure suitable combustion and reduce emissions. Injectors are complex systems where mechanical, electromagnetic, and fluid dynamics interact together. Numerical model development of injectors allows for investigating different conditions, as well as optimization of the system in a safe manner. In this study, a 1-dimensional (1D) mathematical model of a direct gasoline injector (GDI) is presented, supported by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in-nozzle flow simulations. The described system is a commercially available injector where the internal geometry was captured using silicone molds of the nozzle. The model includes the representation and interaction of the different components across several domains using the bond graph methodology. In the injector, the needle is magnetic and is lifted when an electromagnetic field is activated. When the magnetic force becomes stronger than the spring force and the fuel’s pressure pushing the needle downward, the needle lifts and fuel flows through the nozzle and out of the injector. These motions are described by the mathematical model, for which the magnetic signal serves as input. The model output provides the needle lift and information on the fluid flow, including the pressure, temperature, and mass flow rate. Gaseous methane and liquid ammonia injection are investigated in separate models where the thermofluid part of the model is changed to account for a compressible gas, which in turn follows the perfect gas law in one case, and an incompressible liquid in the other case. Comparison with literature shows that the model captures the dynamics of the needle lift well, and the mass flow is accurately predicted.acceptedVersio

Intrinsic instabilities of hydrogen and hydrogen/ammonia premixed flames: Influence of equivalence ratio, fuel composition and pressure

Premixed lean hydrogen-air flames exhibit instabilities due to hydrodynamic instabilities but also thermo-diffusive instabilities. However, in the case of ammonia/hydrogen blends, the effect of ammonia addition on instabilities is still unclear. To investigate intrinsic instabilities in premixed ammonia/hydrogen-air flames, a parametric study of laminar premixed flames is performed for different fuel contents, from pure hydrogen (H) to a blend of 40% of H and 60% of ammonia (NH ) in volume, equivalence ratios (0.4 to 1.0) and pressures (1 and 10 bar) to investigate thermo-diffusive instabilities. Numerical simulations using detailed chemistry are performed where an initial perturbation is set to disturb the planar flame front and to compute its growth rate. During the initial linear phase, the perturbation’s amplitude grows or decreases depending on the flame’s mixture propensity to be unstable or stable, respectively. At small times, the linear growth rate of the perturbation can be estimated and compared to theory. As expected, the maximum growth rate obtained in the linear phase depends on the mixture’s equivalence ratio, fuel ratio, and pressure. Ammonia addition leads to a reduced peak growth rate, likely due to lower reactivity leading to a higher Zel’dovich number. Very lean mixtures (equivalence ratios of 0.4 and 0.5) are thermo-diffusively unstable, regardless of the ammonia content, due to hydrogen’s preferential diffusionpublishedVersio

DNS of Turbulent Premixed Ammonia/Hydrogen Flames: The Impact of Thermo-Diffusive Effects

Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS) of three-dimensional premixed turbulent hydrogen-air flames enriched with 19%, 36%, 44% and 57% of NH (in volume) are performed. Starting from an equivalence ratio of 0.44 for the case with 19% of NH, richer mixtures of 0.54, 0.69 and 0.95 are considered when increasing NH concentration to obtain comparable laminar flame speeds, i.e., 0.17 m/s for 19% and 36 % NH enriched case, and 0.30 m/s when NH concentration is increased to 44 and 57%. The composition and characteristics of the studied mixtures enable to investigate the effects of thermo-diffusivity in a turbulent flow and the role of chemistry and stretch effects in the development of the flames. Given a composition of ammonia and hydrogen and an equivalence ratio, a predictive method is described to identify compositions where thermo-diffusive effects impact the flame and predict the stretch factors. Two maps are proposed to achieve this: the first one is based on the Markstein number and the second one is based on the ratio of consumption speed of strained flames over the laminar unstretched flame speed. This prediction can guide model selection and help manufacturers and experimentalists identify relevant operating points based on desired energy output.publishedVersio

Risk-Sensitive Optimal Control of Hidden Markov Models: Structural Results

We consider a risk-sensitive optimal control problem for hidden Markov models (HMM), i.e. controlled Markov chains where state information is only available to the controller via an output (message) process. Building upon recent results by Baras, James and Elliott, we report in this paper result of an investigation on the nature and structure of risk-sensitive controllers. The question we pose is: How does risk-sensitivity manifest itself in the structure of a controller? We present the dynamic programming equations for risk-sensitive control of HMMs and show a number of structural properties of the value function (e.g., concavity and piecewise linearity) and the optimal risk-sensitive controller, and compare these to the corresponding results for the risk- neutral case. Furthermore, we show that indeed the risk-sensitive controller and its corresponding information state converge to the known solutions for the risk-neutral situation, as the risk factor goes to zero. We also study the infinite and general risk aversion cases. In addition, we present a particular case study of a popular benchmark machine replacement problem

Discrete-time controlled markov processes with average cost criterion: a survey

This work is a survey of the average cost control problem for discrete-time Markov processes. The authors have attempted to put together a comprehensive account of the considerable research on this problem over the past three decades. The exposition ranges from finite to Borel state and action spaces and includes a variety of methodologies to find and characterize optimal policies. The authors have included a brief historical perspective of the research efforts in this area and have compiled a substantial yet not exhaustive bibliography. The authors have also identified several important questions that are still open to investigation

Risk-Sensitive Optimal Control of Hidden Markov Models: A Case Study

We consider a risk-sensitive optimal control problem for hidden Markov models (HMM). Building upon recent results by Baras, James and Elliott, we investigate the structure of risk-sensitive controllers for HMM, via an examination of a popular benchmark problem. We obtain new results on the structure of the risk- sensitive controller by first proving concavity and piecewise linearity of the value function. Furthermore, we compare the structure of risk-sensitive and risk-neutral controllers

Human melanoma cells inhibit the earliest differentiation steps of human Langerhans cell precursors but failed to affect the functional maturation of epidermal Langerhans cells

Tumour-derived factors suppress differentiation and function of in vitro generated DC. Here, we investigate the effect of two melanoma clones differing in their invasive and metastatic properties on the generation and/or functional maturation of human epidermal LC. LC were generated from CD34+ cord blood progenitors under GM-CSF/TNF-α/TGF-β1. CD34+ cells were co-cultured with or without melanoma cells using Transwell dishes. After 11 days of co-culture, CD34+-derived cells display a non-adherent undifferentiated morphology, a high level of monocytic CD14 marker, a down-regulated expression of LC markers (CD1a, E-cadherin) and DC markers (CD40, CD80, CD54, CD58, CD83, CD86, HLA-DR, HLA-class I). These cells were less potent than control LC in inducing allogeneic T cell proliferation. The generation of the CD14+ population was correlated with a decrease in the CD1a+ population, without any statistical differences between the two clones. Melanoma cells diverted the differentiation of CD34+ cells towards a dominant CD14+ population only if the progenitors were in an early growth phase. IL-10, TGF-β1 and VEGF were not responsible for these effects, as assessed by using blocking antibodies. By contrast, co-culture of fresh epidermal LC with melanoma cells did not affect their phenotype and function. Our data demonstrate that melanoma cells inhibit the earliest steps of LC differentiation, but failed to affect the functional maturation of epidermal LC. This suggests that melanoma cells participate in their own escape from immunosurveillance by preventing LC generation in the local cutaneous microenvironment. © 2001 Cancer Research Campaign http://www.bjcancer.co

Un cadre méthodologique pour évaluer l'équivalence entre pertes et gains de biodiversité induits par les projets d'aménagement et leurs mesures compensatoires

In France, the Mitigation hierarchy aims to achieve the "no net loss" (NNL) of biodiversity at the development projects scale. One of the key issues to achieve this goal is to demonstrate the ecological equivalence between the gains associated with offsets and the losses caused by the impacts. Despite regulatory improvements, the French law does not include a method to follow for determining equivalence, and none is unanimously recognized. This leads to heterogeneous practices and difficulty in reaching the NNL. In this context, we have developed a methodological framework for assessing equivalence adapted to the French regulatory and ecological context and combining three challenges: operationality, scientific basis and comprehensiveness. This methodological framework makes it possible 1 / to evaluate the biodiversity found on impacted and compensating sites by taking into account ordinary biodiversity and the one of interest, with a focus on functionalities; 2 / to estimate the value of the indicators after impact and MC, in the short and long term, taking into account associated uncertainties; and 3 / calculating losses and gains leading to a quantitative and transparent equivalence assessment. The use of the methodological framework favors dialogue between actors and also allows monitoring of offsets over time.En France, la séquence « Eviter Réduire Compenser » (ERC) a pour objectif d'atteindre « l'absence de perte nette (APN) » de biodiversité à l'échelle des projets d'aménagement. Un des enjeux clé pour y arriver consiste à démontrer l'équivalence écologique entre les gains associés aux mesures compensatoire (MC) et les pertes occasionnées par les impacts. Malgré les avancées règlementaires, le cadre français n'inclut pas de méthode à suivre pour déterminer l'équivalence et aucune n'est unanimement reconnue. Cela amène à des pratiques hétérogènes et une difficulté d'atteindre l'APN. Dans ce contexte, nous avons développé un cadre méthodologique d'évaluation de l'équivalence adapté au contexte règlementaire et écologique français, répondant à trois défis : opérationnalité, bases scientifiques et exhaustivité. Ce cadre méthodologique permet 1/ d'évaluer la biodiversité des sites impactés et compensatoires en tenant compte de la biodiversité ordinaire et à enjeu en insistant sur les fonctionnalités, 2/ d'estimer la valeur des indicateurs après impact et MC à court et long terme, en prenant en compte les incertitudes associées et 3/ de calculer les pertes et des gains, aboutissant ainsi à une évaluation quantitative et transparente de l'équivalence. L'utilisation du cadre méthodologique favorise la concertation entre acteurs et permet également un suivi des MC dans le temps