A priori and a posteriori analysis of non-conforming finite elements with face penalty for advection-diffusion equations

We analyse a non-conforming finite-element method to approximate advection-diffusion-reaction equations. The method is stabilized by penalizing the jumps of the solution and those of its advective derivative across mesh interfaces. The a priori error analysis leads to (quasi-)optimal estimates in the mesh size (sub-optimal by order ½ in the L2-norm and optimal in the broken graph norm for quasi-uniform meshes) keeping the Péclet number fixed. Then, we investigate a residual a posteriori error estimator for the method. The estimator is semi-robust in the sense that it yields lower and upper bounds of the error which differ by a factor equal at most to the square root of the Péclet number. Finally, to illustrate the theory we present numerical results including adaptively generated meshe

Étude préliminaire sur les échanges de phosphore à l'interface eau- sédiment au sein de la retenue d'Al Massira (Maroc)

Les échanges de phosphore à l'interface eau-sédiment ont été étudiés dans la retenue Al Massira. La campagne de prélèvements a été menée pendant la faible oxygénation des eaux profondes au mois d'octobre 1991. Les mesures des échanges de phosphore ont été réalisées in situ en chambre benthique.Les valeurs de pH sont élevées et reflètent clairement l'influence de la nature géologique du bassin versant sur la composition chimique des eaux. Ce bassin versant, formé essentiellement de roches sédimentaires calcaires, est vraisemblablement à l'origine des concentrations élevées en calcium mesurées dans les chambres benthiques.En période de faible oxygénation, on note une augmentation des teneurs en phosphore particulaire dans les eaux surnageantes en raison de la présence de complexes calcium-phosphore, fer-phosphore et manganèse-phosphore. En période d'anoxie, la réduction de ces complexes est accompagnée d'une aug- mentation des teneurs en phosphore.La densité bactérienne et la concentration en phosphore total et notamment en orthophosphates suivent une évolution temporelle comparable. Une fraction non négligeable du phosphore particulaire serait liée aux bactéries.Des mesures drastiques de déphosphatation du tributaire Oum Errbia doivent être prises pour éviter la dissociation des complexes Ca, Fe, Mn-Phosphore et le relargage de phosphore biodisponible.Phosphorus exchange at the sediment-water interface was studied in the Al Massira reservoir. This reservoir, located on the Oum Errbia river, is the most important freshwater resource in Morocco. It provides drinking water to the whole population of Casablanca and contributes to farming and to the functioning of several industrial plants. Our investigations were made in October 1991 and coincided with low oxygen concentrations in the deep layers. The measurements of phosphorus exchange have been made in sitn with a benthic chamber device.The results showed that these exchanges were regulated by a combination ofthe physical chemical variability of the environment and the geological composition of the catchment basin.The pH, which permanently exceeded 7 in Massira, suggests that calcium-bound phosphorus was primarily CaHFO4. Moreover, given the high phosphonrs inputs into the reservoir (570 tonnes. year-1), and despite the fact that, as soon as it reached the reservoir, a large fraction of this element was associated with to calcium, it's likely that the Massira reservoir is subject to eutrophication.In low oxygenated deep layers, we observed an increase in particulate phosphorus concentrations of the overlying water, due to the simultaneous presence of calcium-phosphorus, iron-phosphorus and manganese-phosphorus forms. Under anoxic conditions, the reduction ofthese complexes resulted in an increase of phosphorus concentrations.Bacterial cell numbers and total phosphorus concentratioru showed a comparable temporal behaviour. This would suggest that attached bacteria contributed at least partially to the total particulate phosphoms concentrations.We suggest that a drastic control of phosphorus inputs into the waters must be done through a program of dephosphorylation of tributaries to avoid the dissocation of calcium-, iron-, manganese-bound phosphorus with release upwards of bioavailable phosphorus

Étude du régime alimentaire de deux souches de truite arc-en-ciel marocaine et bulgare dans deux plans d'eau du Moyen-Atlas Amghass I et Amghass II

Le présent travail porte sur l'étude du régime alimentaire de deux souches de truites arc-en-ciel : la souche marocaine issue de croisements de truites arc-en-ciel en provenance d'Europe et d'Amérique du nord et la souche bulgare introduite au Maroc en 1987. Les milieux d'étude sont deux plans d'eau du Moyen-Atlas marocain (Amghass I et Amghass II) présentant des eaux de bonne qualité physique et chimique et une diversité biologique (invertébrés) assez importante. Afin de déterminer les préférences alimentaires de ces deux souches nous avons évalué : le spectre alimentaire, déterminé par les abondances relatives, les coefficients d'occurrence des proies ingérées, l'indice alimentaire de Lauzanne pour les différentes catégories de proies et l'intensité de prédation des truites.Les résultats ont montré une similitude au niveau des régimes alimentaires des deux souches caractérisés par une nette préférence pour les larves et nymphes d'Insectes considérées comme proies essentielles.This current work is about the study of the dietary regime of two species of rainbow trout. The Moroccan kind is a cross breed of the European and North American Rainbow trout and the Bulgarian trout introduced into Morocco since 1987.The environments of study are two stretches of water in the "Moyen-Atlas" (Amghass I and Amghass II), which present water of good physical and chemical quality and are of quite important biological diversity.To determine the dietary preferences of the two species, we evaluated several parameters: the dietary spectrum which is determined by the relative abundance and the coefficient of occurence of ingested prey, the index alimentary of Lauzanne for the different categories of prey and how predatory the trout areThe results have shown a similarity in the level of dietary regimes of the two populations outlined by a clear preference for larvae and nymph insects which are considered to be essential prey

Dynamique des populations microphytobenthiques couplée à leur composition biochimique au sein du réservoir Allal El Fassi (Maroc)

L'étude du métabolisme des populations microphytobenthiques par le biais des principaux constituants cellulaires à savoir les glucides, les protéines et les lipides a été réalisée du mois d'août 1996 au mois de juillet 1997 au sein du réservoir Allal El Fassi, situé sous climat semi-aride.Les résultats issus d'un échantillonnage sur substrats artificiels permettent de montrer que :- la température, l'oxygène, l'azote et le phosphore influencent l'orientation métabolique des populations microphytobenthiques ;- les plus fortes concentrations en glucides, en protéines et en lipides correspondent à des populations estivales ;- les lipides sont susceptibles de fournir une estimation satisfaisante de la biomasse microphytobenthiques ;- le métabolisme du microphytobenthos s'oriente vers la synthèse préférentielle des protéines.Most of the works achieved so far in semi-arid lakes have been focused especially on the dynamics, structure and metabolic of phytoplankton. However, this issue has not been addressed in term of metabolic microphytobenthic cells activity. With an aim increasing the relative scientific knowledge relating to the functioning of lacustrian ecosystems in the Maghreb for which the data are still very fragmentary, special attention has been granted to the study of the microphytobenthos metabolism, by means of determining essential cellular constituents (carbohydrates, proteins and lipids) of the reservoir Allal El Fassi.The Allal El Fassi reservoir is about 47 km of Fez. It was built in 1992, and is 7 km long, 0.7 km wide and 34 m maximum depth. The reservoir is classed as mesotrophic and used for irrigation, recreation and to supply drinking water.The study was conducted between August 1996 and July 1997. Samples were taken vertically from the deepest point of the reservoir by means of a Van-Dorn sampler from seven depths: Near the surface, - 2 m, - 5 m, - 10 m, - 15 m, - 20 m and close to the bottom. The samples were analysed for physical, chemical and metabolism of Diatom. Analysis of Nitrogen and phosphate was done following Golterman method and oxygen dissolved by the Winkler method.Given the advantage that presents the artificial substrata (polyethylene leaves) for sample of periphyton, we have opted for the utilization of these substrata similar to these already used by WATANABE et al. (1988). These substrata are submerged during four weeks at different depths.The evaluation of the microphytobenthic biomass has been carried out according to the method of LOHMAN (1908) after enumerations to the microscope Olympus following the technique of LECLERCQ (1984).The dosage of the carbohydrates has been undertaken according to the method of MOAL et al. (1985), while concentrations of proteins have been determined according to the method of LOWRY (1951) and lipids have been extracted according to the method chloroform/methanol.The results show that microphytobenthic biomass presents important fluctuations since extreme values are respectively 0.25·104 µg·cm-2 and 14.95·104 µg·cm-z.Carbohydrates and lipids concentrations (mean=4.52 µg·cm-z and 2.27 µg·cm-z, respectively) are clearly less high than those of proteins (mean=81.84 µg·cm-2). This result indicates that the metabolism of the microphytobenthos of the Allal El Fassi reservoir is oriented towards the preferential protein synthesis. The vertical distribution of proteins, carbohydrates and lipids concentrations shows a well marked stratification, maximal concentrations generally recorded between 0 and 5 m. These high concentrations are attributed to the development of Niztchia, Navicula, Cymbella, Cyclotella, Melosira and Cocconeis.Proteins and carbohydrates concentrations were significantly correlated (r=0.84, p=0.01 at 0m and r=0.52, p=0.10 at 5 m). On the opposite, concentrations of lipids have no correlation neither with those of proteins, nor with those of the carbohydrates.The correlation between the lipids concentrations and the microphytobenthic biomass, is highly significant (r=0.48, p=0.10). This correlation results notably into the fact that lipids visualise well the evolution of the microphytobenthic biomass. However, no significant correlation was found between proteins, carbohydrates concentrations and biomass microphytobenthic.Many works prove the influences of some environmental factors namely light intensity and the temperature on the biochemical composition of the microphytobenthic. In this way, we observe that in period of high temperature, the synthesis of lipids is important. The positive correlation between temperature and lipids (r=0.48, p=0.10) support the observed increase in the concentrations of this variable with increasing temperature. Nevertheless, no significant correlation was found between proteins and carbohydrates concentrations and temperature, which suggests that the synthesis of these components is made independently from this factor. Oxygen dissolved and nitrogen intervene equally in the synthesis of lipids

Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence and Reconnection in the Magnetotail

We have used a global MHD simulation with high spatial resolution to investigate the origin and properties of turbulence in the plasma sheet. In this simulation we imposed a steady southward IMF with a magnitude of 5 nT at the upstream simulation boundary for more than three hours followed by ninety minutes of northward IMF of the same magnitude. The solar wind number density was 20 cm-3, the thermal pressure was 20 pPa, and the velocity was 500 km/s in the x direction. The moderately high dynamic pressure confined the magnetotail to the high-grid resolution region. Even for these nominal solar wind parameters and steady driving the plasma sheet became turbulent. The power spectral densities and probability distribution functions computed from the simulations were comparable to those obtained from spacecraft observations. The largest scale vortices were associated with reconnection outflows and, in the southward IMF case, with the diversion of high speed flows in the near-Earth region. Both time and space domain analyses revealed that there were three scales present, the large scale of the driving processes, the intermediate inertial scale and the dissipative scale

Turbulence in a global magnetohydrodynamic simulation of the Earth's magnetosphere during northward and southward interplanetary magnetic field

We report the results of MHD simulations of Earth's magnetosphere for idealized steady solar wind plasma and interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) conditions. The simulations feature purely northward and southward magnetic fields and were designed to study turbulence in the magnetotail plasma sheet. We found that the power spectral densities (PSDs) for both northward and southward IMF had the characteristics of turbulent flow. In both cases, the PSDs showed the three scale ranges expected from theory: the energy-containing scale, the inertial range, and the dissipative range. The results were generally consistent with in-situ observations and theoretical predictions. While the two cases studied, northward and southward IMF, had some similar characteristics, there were significant differences as well. For southward IMF, localized reconnection was the main energy source for the turbulence. For northward IMF, remnant reconnection contributed to driving the turbulence. Boundary waves may also have contributed. In both cases, the PSD slopes had spatial distributions in the dissipative range that reflected the pattern of resistive dissipation. For southward IMF there was a trend toward steeper slopes in the dissipative range with distance down the tail. For northward IMF there was a marked dusk-dawn asymmetry with steeper slopes on the dusk side of the tail. The inertial scale PSDs had a dusk-dawn symmetry during the northward IMF interval with steeper slopes on the dawn side. This asymmetry was not found in the distribution of inertial range slopes for southward IMF. The inertial range PSD slopes were clustered around values close to the theoretical expectation for both northward and southward IMF. In the dissipative range, however, the slopes were broadly distributed and the median values were significantly different, consistent with a different distribution of resistivity

Preparation and characterization of electrolytic alumina deposit on austenitic stainless steel

Conversion coating modified by alumina has been studied as a way for improving the resistance to thermal oxidation of an austenitic stainless steel. Conversion coating, characterized by a particular morphology and strong interfacial adhesion with the substrate, facilitate the electrochemical deposition of ceramic layers and enhance their adhesion to the substrate. The influence of the current density and treatment time on alumina deposit was studied using statistical experimental designs like Doehlert uniform shell design. After heating, coatings present a continuous composition gradient with refractory compounds at the surface. The behavior at high temperature (1000 8C) of the alumina coating was investigated. The presence of alumina increases the oxidation resistance of an austenitic stainless steel at 1000 8C. The morphology and the chemical composition of the deposit are analyzed. Results on the thermal stability of coating on austenitic stainless steel are presented

Test of the CLAS12 RICH large scale prototype in the direct proximity focusing configuration

A large area ring-imaging Cherenkov detector has been designed to provide clean hadron identification capability in the momentum range from 3 GeV/c up to 8 GeV/c for the CLAS12 experiments at the upgraded 12 GeV continuous electron beam accelerator facility of Jefferson Laboratory. The adopted solution foresees a novel hybrid optics design based on aerogel radiator, composite mirrors and high-packed and high-segmented photon detectors. Cherenkov light will either be imaged directly (forward tracks) or after two mirror reflections (large angle tracks). We report here the results of the tests of a large scale prototype of the RICH detector performed with the hadron beam of the CERN T9 experimental hall for the direct detection configuration. The tests demonstrated that the proposed design provides the required pion-to-kaon rejection factor of 1:500 in the whole momentum range.Comment: 15 pages, 23 figures, to appear on EPJ