Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
The quasi-equilibrium approximation is acceptable when molecular interactions are fast enough compared to circuit dynamics, but is no longer allowed when cellular activities are governed by rare events. A typical example is the lactose operon (lac), one of the most famous paradigms of transcription regulation, for which several theories still coexist to describe its behaviors. The lac system is generally analyzed by using equilibrium constants, contradicting single-event hypotheses long suggested by Novick and Weiner (1957). Enzyme induction as an all-or-none phenomenon. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 43, 553-566) and recently refined in the study of (Choi et al., 2008. A stochastic single-molecule event triggers phenotype switching of a bacterial cell. Science 322, 442-446). In the present report, a lac repressor (LacI)-mediated DNA immunoprecipitation experiment reveals that the natural LacI-lac DNA complex built in vivo is extremely tight and long-lived compared to the time scale of lac expression dynamics, which could functionally disconnect the abortive expression bursts and forbid using the standard modes of lac bistability. As alternatives, purely kinetic mechanisms are examined for their capacity to restrict induction through: (i) widely scattered derepression related to the arrival time variance of a predominantly backward asymmetric random walk and (ii) an induction threshold arising in a single window of derepression without recourse to nonlinear multimeric binding and Hill functions. Considering the complete disengagement of the lac repressor from the lac promoter as the probabilistic consequence of a transient stepwise mechanism, is sufficient to explain the sigmoidal lac responses as functions of time and of inducer concentration. This sigmoidal shape can be misleadingly interpreted as a phenomenon of equilibrium cooperativity classically used to explain bistability, but which has been reported to be weak in this system.
ISSN: 0022-5193

inserm-00818506
http://www.hal.inserm.fr/inserm-00818506
http://www.hal.inserm.fr/inserm-00818506/document
http://www.hal.inserm.fr/inserm-00818506/file/LacI-TeX.pdf
ARXIV : 1312.5566

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Geophysical Union
Résumé : International audience
Both flow field heterogeneity and mass transfer between mobile and immobile domains have been studied separately for explaining observed anomalous transport. Here we investigate non-Fickian transport using high-resolution 3-D X-ray microtomographic images of Berea sandstone containing microporous cement with pore size below the setup resolution. Transport is computed for a set of representative elementary volumes and results from advection and diffusion in the resolved macroporosity (mobile domain) and diffusion in the microporous phase (immobile domain) where the effective diffusion coefficient is calculated from the measured local porosity using a phenomenological model that includes a porosity threshold ( inline image) below which diffusion is null and the exponent n that characterizes tortuosity-porosity power-law relationship. We show that both flow field heterogeneity and microporosity trigger anomalous transport. Breakthrough curve (BTC) tailing is positively correlated to microporosity volume and mobile-immobile interface area. The sensitivity analysis showed that the BTC tailing increases with the value of inline image, due to the increase of the diffusion path tortuosity until the volume of the microporosity becomes negligible. Furthermore, increasing the value of n leads to an increase in the standard deviation of the distribution of effective diffusion coefficients, which in turn results in an increase of the BTC tailing. Finally, we propose a continuous time random walk upscaled model where the transition time is the sum of independently distributed random variables characterized by specific distributions. It allows modeling a 1-D equivalent macroscopic transport honoring both the control of the flow field heterogeneity and the multirate mass transfer between mobile and immobile domains.
ISSN: 0043-1397

hal-01278285
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01278285
DOI : 10.1002/2015WR017645

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Oxford University Press (OUP)
Résumé : International audience
STUDY QUESTION: Is there evidence at the population level of associations between different male genital disorders, outside Scandinavian countries? SUMMARY ANSWER: At an international scale, there is evidence for a number of correlations between rates of four male reproductive disorders (hypospadias, cryptorchidism, testicular cancer and low sperm concentration). WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY: Some associations between these outcomes have been shown in studies focusing on individuals and mainly in Nordic European countries. These associations, together with histological evidence of a dysgenesis pattern in testicular tissue specimens, have generated the concept of the existence of a 'testicular dysgenesis syndrome' originating in utero. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION: This is a geographical correlation study using cancer, malformations rates and sperm quality data collected between the years 1998 and 2005. PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS: Incidence rates of testicular cancer were extracted from International Agency for Research on Cancer registries and Globocan, while cryptorchidism and hypospadias prevalence rates were obtained from EUROCAT and International Clearinghouse for Birth Defects Surveillance and Research registries. Sperm concentration data were extracted from recent studies using standardized methodology. A total of 39 registries and 9 sperm studies were selected. Non-parametric Spearman correlation tests were used to test the association between these four disorders. Correlations were computed for all registries together, for registries with high-quality matching coverage only and by continents. Sensitivity analyses were also conducted using data from prospective clinical studies to take into account potential bias related mainly to ascertainment of malformation rates. MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE: We found positive correlations between testicular cancer and hypospadias (r = 0.32, P = 0.05) and between hypospadias and cryptorchidism (r = 0.70, P = 0.008). Stronger correlations were observed when using registries with high-quality matching coverage. Among these registries, differences between Europe and the rest of the world appeared (the positive correlation between testicular cancer and cryptorchidism was stronger outside Europe, r = 0.83, P = 0.01 compared with 0.40, P = 0.60 for European registries). A negative correlation between testicular cancer and sperm concentration was observed (r = -0.88, P = 0.002). These correlations support our initial hypothesis but remain only suggestive due to the intrinsic limitations in the study design (i.e. geographical correlation study) and do not allow causal inference. LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION: Differences in the ascertainment of malformations rates (definition, length of follow-up) make the international comparison difficult. The small number of registries for some conditions (cryptorchidism) or of studies (for sperm quality) and the absence of information about major risk factors such as ethnicity and socioeconomic status in the registries are also limitations. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS: Our findings are in agreement with results of studies focusing on individuals and suggest that shared risk factors are present in the populations studied.
ISSN: 0268-1161

inserm-00863412
http://www.hal.inserm.fr/inserm-00863412
DOI : 10.1093/humrep/det111
PUBMED : 23670171

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
In this work we perform a statistical analysis of global solar radiation measured at two sites, Petit Canal and Pointe a Pitre, 38 km distant from, Guadeloupe, French West Indies. We have established a correlation model based on the coefficient of variation assuming a time scale separation. The coefficient of variation is calculated on 10 min interval with data measured at 1 Hz. This analysis highlights the dynamic correlation that can occur between measurements from two different sites with a time step of 1 s. From these results, knowing the coefficient of variation on a site, we have established a new correlation model on this parameter for another site. A diagram linking the standard deviation for the studied sites, for a given coefficient of variation is proposed for correlated and non-correlated cases. Moreover this analysis evidences the existence of a threshold time under which there is no significant correlation. The methodology and the model can be applied to any other sites to establish diagrams of the coefficient of variation.This model can be useful in choosing new sites of PV production in establishing correlation from on site to another
ISSN: 0960-1481

hal-01528078
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01528078
DOI : 10.1016/j.renene.2015.10.049

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD World Scientific
Résumé : The present paper presents a laboratory experiment of rip current circulations over a moveable bed. The rip current characteristics over four distinct beach morphologies, exhibiting more or less developed nature-like bar-rip morphology,were investigated. For each video run, the same off shore shore-normal waves were generated by the wave maker with the same mean water level in order to study the sensitivity of the rip current characteristics as a function of the beach morphology only. In each case, a 1-hour video run was used to track a large number (~30) of drifters released within the surf zone. Image coordinates were then rectifie d to still water level Cartesian coordinates to compute drifter velocities, mean characteristics and surf zone rete ntion rates. Results show the presence of classic rip current patterns with counter-rotating cells and a relatively narrowoffshore-directed jet with, for three of the situations, a reasonably symmetric shape. Non-surprisingly, it was found that rip current intensity increases with increasing relative depth of the rip channel. The wave-driven circulations were strongly unstable. Computed standard deviation in fl ow intensity and direction provides high resolution information on the spatial variability of the rip current insta bilities with, for instance, highly-pulsating and weakly directionally variable offshore-directed flow in the rip channel. Conversely to what was previously hypothesized in the literature, there was hardly trace of vortices being shed offs hore and drifters exiting the surf zone compartment were not systematically caught by a pulsating jet. The cause for drifter exiting the semi-enclosed surf zone compartment remains, however, elusive and deserves further investigations. The computed surf zone retention rates (~90%) were of the order of those previously observed in the field, with no clear relationship with the mean rip current velocity or relative depth of the rip channel. Further video-runs will have to be analyzed to explore potential explanations
Proceedings of Coastal Dynamics 2009 Impacts of Human Activities on Dynamic Coastal Processes

ISBN : 978-981-4282-46
hal-00854534
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00854534