University of Avignon

About: University of Avignon is a education organization based out in Avignon, Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur, France. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Speaker recognition. The organization has 1526 authors who have published 3766 publications receiving 88928 citations.

Assessment of the impacts of climate variability on total water storage across Africa: implications for groundwater resources management

Abstract: The links between climate variability, depicted by time series of oceanic indices, and changes in total water and groundwater storage are investigated across nine large aquifer basins of the African continent. The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission’s observations represent a remarkable tool that can provide insight into the dynamics of terrestrial hydrology in areas where direct in situ observations are limited. In order to evaluate the impact of interannual and multidecadal climate variability on groundwater resources, this study assesses the relationship between synoptic controls on climate and total water storage estimates from (i) GRACE from 2002 to 2013 and (ii) a two-variable climate-driven model that is able to reconstruct past storage changes from 1982 to 2011. The estimates are then compared to time series of groundwater levels to show the extent to which total water storage covaries with groundwater storage. Results indicate that rainfall patterns associated with the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) are the main driver of changes in interannual groundwater storage, whereas the Atlantic MultiDecadal Oscillation (AMO) plays a significant role in decadal to multidecadal variability. The combined effect of ENSO and AMO could trigger significant changes in recharge to the aquifers and groundwater storage, in particular in the Sahel. These findings could help decision-makers prepare more effective climate-change adaptation plans at both national and transboundary levels.

Effects of apple orchard management strategies on the great tit (Parus major) in southeastern France.

Abstract: The impact of conventional, organic, and integrated pest management (IPM) strategies of apple orchards on the reproduction of the great tit Parus major was investigated during a three-year period in southeastern France. The colonization process, egg-laying dates, clutch sizes, and fledging success were similar among pairs of P. major nesting in orchards conducted under the three studied management strategies. However, the mean number of young produced per ha (orchard productivity) was significantly higher in organic orchards than in both conventional and IPM orchards. Such divergences between both fledging success and orchard productivity primarily resulted from higher densities of P. major nesting pairs, but also from lower rates of nest abandonment during incubation in organic orchards. We suggest that intensive pesticide use under both IPM and conventional managements may have resulted in a substantial reduction in insect prey availability that enhanced intraspecific competition, which then led to failure in reproduction in pairs with low competitive ability. Our results highlight the relevance of P. major in assessing the environmental impact of apple orchard management strategies.

Overview of the INEX 2011 Question Answering Track (QA@INEX)

Abstract: The INEX QA track aimed to evaluate complex question-answering tasks where answers are short texts generated from the Wikipedia by extraction of relevant short passages and aggregation into a coherent summary. In such a task, Question-answering, XML/passage retrieval and automatic summarization are combined in order to get closer to real information needs. Based on the groundwork carried out in 2009-2010 edition to determine the sub-tasks and a novel evaluation methodology, the 2011 edition experimented contextualizing tweets using a recent cleaned dump of the Wikipedia. Participants had to contextualize 132 tweets from the New York Times (NYT). Informativeness of answers has been evaluated, as well as their readability. 13 teams from 6 countries actively participated to this track. This tweet contextualization task will continue in 2012 as part of the CLEF INEX lab with same methodology and baseline but on a much wider range of tweet types.

Quality traits prediction of the passion fruit pulp using NIR and MIR spectroscopy

Abstract: Near (NIR) and Mid (MIR) infrared spectroscopy were investigated as rapid methods for evaluating quality traits of fresh passion fruit pulp. Models to predict soluble solids content (SSC), titratable acidity (TA), glucose (GLC), fructose (FRU), sucrose (SUC) and vitamin C (ascorbic acid) were developed using linear partial least square (PLS) regression analysis. The PLS models in MIR provided better prediction results than in NIR. Prediction models in MIR were better for SSC (R2v = 0.95), TA (R2v = 0.86), glucose (R2v = 0.93), fructose (R2v = 0.84) and sucrose (R2v = 0,74). However, due to its low level in pulp, ascorbic acid was not satisfactorily predicted either by NIR or MIR.

Cardiac Function During Exercise in Obese Prepubertal Boys: Effect of Degree of Obesity

Abstract: The purpose of the study was to evaluate the dynamics of diastolic and systolic function from rest to maximal exercise using conventional echocardiography and tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) in obese prepubertal boys compared to agematched lean controls. Eighteen obese (10 with first degree obesity and 8 with second degree obesity according to French curves, BMI: 23.3 ± 1.8 and 29.0 ± 2.0 kg/m 2 , respectively) and 17 lean controls (BMI = 17.6 ± 0.6 kg/m 2 , P < 0.001), aged 10–12 years were recruited. After resting echocardiography, all children performed a maximal exercise test. Regional diastolic and systolic myocardial velocities were acquired at rest and each workload. Stroke volume and cardiac output were calculated. At rest, obese boys had greater left ventricular (LV) diameters and LV mass. Boys in the first degree group showed no diastolic or systolic dysfunction, whereas boys with second degree obesity showed subtle diastolic dysfunction. During exercise, both obese groups showed greater stroke volume and cardiac output. First degree obese boys exhibited greater systolic and diastolic tissue Doppler velocities than controls, whereas second degree obese boys had lower diastolic tissue velocities irrespective of exercise intensity and lower fractional shortening at high exercise intensities than controls. In conclusion, no impairment in diastolic or systolic function is noticed in prepubertal boys with first degree of obesity. Enhanced regional myocardial function response to exercise was also demonstrated in this population, suggesting adaptive compensatory cardiac changes in mild obesity. However, when obesity becomes more severe, impaired global and regional cardiac function at rest and during exercise can be observed.