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<p>Land degradation resulting from increased continental surface erosion is a worldwide and systemic phenomenon due to human activities. Already fragile, the intertropical zone is likely to be further affected by climate change and increased aridity, an aggravating factor of soil erosion and land degradation. A major challenge is thus to provide the necessary knowledge to not only deepen our understanding of the Earth system and its critical thresholds but also to help achieving sustainable development goals. Understanding the factors that control the properties and processes of the critical zone, and especially what will be its responses to ongoing climate and land use changes, requires multidisciplinary efforts to tackle time scales that are compatible with morphogenesis and soil development as well as environmental disturbances of anthropogenic origin. Due to its prominent ecological importance, the Brazilian Cerrado biome is an ideal natural laboratory were to gauge the consequences of recent and strong human activities on continental surface erosion. We focused on the region of Brasília where our approach allows confronting the temporal scales of long-lived and stable cosmogenic nuclides with that of short-lived radioactive isotopes, through a comparison of natural and anthropogenically disturbed land surfaces. Our results indicate that long-term, background denudation rates are lower than 10 mm kyr<sup>-1</sup>whereas recent erosion rates due to human activities may reach rates at least 160 times higher, exceeding by far the sustainability rates of the soil resource.</p>

International audienceIn the present work, the potential of an electronic nose to differentiate the geographical origin of the Moroccan virgin olive oils based on their volatile profile was investigated. An electronic gas sensor array system composed of 6 metal oxide semiconductor sensors was used to generate a chemical fingerprint (pattern) of the volatile compounds present in olive oils. Multivariate statistical approach showed good discrimination between the classes of the 27-sample of the dataset population. The results of this study provide promising perspectives for the use of a low-cost and rapid system for the verification of geographical origin of the olive oils based on their volatile profile

Today, various kinds of pressure garments are designed for specific applications in medical and sports fields. Knitted garments are the most used in these applications due to their high extensibility. The objective of the investigation reported in this article was to develop a theoretical relationship based on Laplace’s law, which describes the compression behavior of knitted compression samples in quasi-static deformation from an initially relaxed state to an extended state. Even though several researchers have used Laplace’s law, there is some discord between theoretical and experimental results. So, it is essential to pinpoint the most important parameters that influence the mechanical properties of the compression knitted garment in order to better describe the interface pressure it applies to the human body. Fabric parameters that influenced the interface pressure, such as elasticity modulus, strain, and thickness, were determined and integrated into Laplace’s law.

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