Participative design of conservation agriculture cropping systems in organic agriculture

This paper compares to co-design processes aiming at defining innovative cropping systems that combine conservation agriculture and organic farming

Co-designing innovative cropping systems to improve soil functioning in organic farming

Organic agriculture is called upon to raise production to meet growing demand all the while ensuring the respect of the environment. In this context, improving the soil biological activity is crucial. Farmers are taking great interest in agroecological practices, such as conservation tillage associated with soil cover crops. The inclusion of these practices into current organic crop management systems calls for profound changes in the whole system.In this paper, we present aeight steps method to help farmers designing innovative prototypes of cropping systems. The method involves three design workshops, starting with a given decontextualized situation, before progressively integrating farmers‟ constraints. The method was run with two groups of six and seven farmers respectively in two different regions of France.Of the 28 completed prototypes designed, we present here only the seven most detailed. They differ greatly from current cropping systems in their increased use of cover crops (four times more frequent) and greatly decreased reliance on deep soil tillage (mouldboard plowing was eight times less frequent). Farmers initiated the adoption of these innovations by anticipating technical and pedoclimatic constraints. The method, involving researchers and farmers, produced conditions thatencouraged the famers to act creatively. Further studies in the form of ex post trials are necessary to accurately assess the consequences of such innovative cropping systems on soil functioning and crop performance

Patient-specific image-based computer simulation for theprediction of valve morphology and calcium displacement after TAVI with the Medtronic CoreValve and the Edwards SAPIEN valve

AIMS: Our aim was to validate patient-specific software integrating baseline anatomy and biomechanical properties of both the aortic root and valve for the prediction of valve morphology and aortic leaflet calcium displacement after TAVI. METHODS AND RESULTS: Finite element computer modelling was performed in 39 patients treated with a Medtronic CoreValve System (MCS; n=33) or an Edwards SAPIEN XT (ESV; n=6). Quantitative axial frame morphology at inflow (MCS, ESV) and nadir, coaptation and commissures (MCS) was compared between multislice computed tomography (MSCT) post TAVI and a computer model as well as displacement of the aortic leaflet calcifications, quantified by the distance between the coronary ostium and the closest calcium nodule. Bland-Altman analysis revealed a strong correlation between the observed (MSCT) and predicted frame dimensions, although small differences were detected for, e.g., Dmin at the inflow (mean±SD MSCT vs. MODEL: 21.6±2.4 mm vs. 22.0±2.4 mm; difference±SD: -0.4±1.3 mm, p<0.05) and Dmax (25.6±2.7 mm vs. 26.2±2.7 mm; difference±SD: -0.6±1.0 mm, p<0.01). The observed and predicted calcium displacements were highly correlated for the left and right coronary ostia (R2=0.67 and R2=0.71, respectively p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Dedicated software allows accurate prediction of frame morphology and calcium displacement after valve implantation, which may help to improve outcome

Human detection from aerial imagery for automatic counting of shellfish gatherers

International audienceAutomatic human identification from aerial image time series or video sequences is a challenging issue. We propose here a complete processing chain that operates in the context of recreational shellfish gatherers counting in a coastal environment (the Gulf of Morbihan, South Brittany, France). It starts from a series of aerial photographs and builds a mosaic in order to prevent multiple occurrences of the same objects on the overlapping parts of aerial images. To do so, several stitching techniques are reviewed and discussed in the context of large aerial scenes. Then people detection is addressed through a sliding window analysis combining the HOG descriptor and a supervised classifier. Several classification methods are compared, including SVM, Random Forests, and AdaBoost. Experimental results show the interest of the proposed approach, and provides directions for future research

Combined transcriptome studies identify AFF3 as a mediator of the oncogenic effects of β-catenin in adrenocortical carcinoma

International audienceAdrenocortical cancer (ACC) is a very aggressive tumor, and genomics studies demonstrate that the most frequent alterations of driver genes in these cancers activate the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. However, the adrenal-specific targets of oncogenic β-catenin-mediating tumorigenesis have not being established. A combined transcriptomic analysis from two series of human tumors and the human ACC cell line H295R harboring a spontaneous β-catenin activating mutation was done to identify the Wnt/β-catenin targets. Seven genes were consistently identified in the three studies. Among these genes, we found that AFF3 mediates the oncogenic effects of β-catenin in ACC. The Wnt response element site located at nucleotide position − 1408 of the AFF3 transcriptional start sites (TSS) mediates the regulation by the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. AFF3 silencing decreases cell proliferation and increases apoptosis in the ACC cell line H295R. AFF3 is located in nuclear speckles, which play an important role in RNA splicing. AFF3 overexpression in adrenocortical cells interferes with the organization and/or biogenesis of these nuclear speckles and alters the distribution of CDK9 and cyclin T1 such that they accumulate at the sites of AFF3/speckles. We demonstrate that AFF3 is a new target of Wnt/β-catenin pathway involved in ACC, acting on transcription and RNA splicing

Search for muon-neutrino emission from GeV and TeV gamma-ray flaring blazars using five years of data of the ANTARES telescope

The ANTARES telescope is well-suited for detecting astrophysical transient neutrino sources as it can observe a full hemisphere of the sky at all times with a high duty cycle. The background due to atmospheric particles can be drastically reduced, and the point-source sensitivity improved, by selecting a narrow time window around possible neutrino production periods. Blazars, being radio-loud active galactic nuclei with their jets pointing almost directly towards the observer, are particularly attractive potential neutrino point sources, since they are among the most likely sources of the very high-energy cosmic rays. Neutrinos and gamma rays may be produced in hadronic interactions with the surrounding medium. Moreover, blazars generally show high time variability in their light curves at different wavelengths and on various time scales. This paper presents a time-dependent analysis applied to a selection of flaring gamma-ray blazars observed by the FERMI/LAT experiment and by TeV Cherenkov telescopes using five years of ANTARES data taken from 2008 to 2012. The results are compatible with fluctuations of the background. Upper limits on the neutrino fluence have been produced and compared to the measured gamma-ray spectral energy distribution.Comment: 27 pages, 16 figure

The Antares Collaboration : Contributions to the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC 2015, The Hague)

The ANTARES detector, completed in 2008, is the largest neutrino telescope in the Northern hemisphere. Located at a depth of 2.5 km in the Mediterranean Sea, 40 km off the Toulon shore, its main goal is the search for astrophysical high energy neutrinos. In this paper we collect the 21 contributions of the ANTARES collaboration to the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC 2015). The scientific output is very rich and the contributions included in these proceedings cover the main physics results, ranging from steady point sources, diffuse searches, multi-messenger analyses to exotic physics

It's Complicated: People and Their Democracy in Germany, France, Britain, Poland, and the United States

This in-depth study explores how citizens in five countries (Germany, France, Britain, Poland, and the United States) feel about democracy, their frustrations, and their demands, with a particular focus on those with an ambivalent relationship with democracy

Nonparametric monitoring of sunspot number observations: a case study

Solar activity is an important driver of long-term climate trends and must be accounted for in climate models. Unfortunately, direct measurements of this quantity over long periods do not exist. The only observation related to solar activity whose records reach back to the seventeenth century are sunspots. Surprisingly, determining the number of sunspots consistently over time has remained until today a challenging statistical problem. It arises from the need of consolidating data from multiple observing stations around the world in a context of low signal-to-noise ratios, non-stationarity, missing data, non-standard distributions and many kinds of errors. The data from some stations experience therefore severe and various deviations over time. In this paper, we propose the first systematic and thorough statistical approach for monitoring these complex and important series. It consists of three steps essential for successful treatment of the data: smoothing on multiple timescales, monitoring using block bootstrap calibrated CUSUM charts and classifying of out-of-control situations by support vector techniques. This approach allows us to detect a wide range of anomalies (such as sudden jumps or more progressive drifts), unseen in previous analyses. It helps us to identify the causes of major deviations, which are often observer or equipment related. Their detection and identification will contribute to improve future observations. Their elimination or correction in past data will lead to a more precise reconstruction of the world reference index for solar activity: the International Sunspot Number.Comment: 27 pages (without appendices), 6 figure

Extraction non supervisée de descripteurs pour des suivis environnementaux aériens

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