Les progrès récents en sciences de la terre font de plus en plus de données multidisciplinaires disponibles pour l'exploration minière. Cela a permis le développement de méthodologies de calculer la prédictivité pour les zones aurifères basée sur des analyses statistiques des différents paramètres. L'utilisation de nouveaux logiciels développés, la distribution spatiale et la topologie des polygones (e.g. intrusions granitiques) et des polylignes (e.g. zones de cisaillement) sont contrôlées par les paramètres définis par les utilisateurs (par exemple, la densité, la longueur, la surface, etc.). La distance des gisement d'or par rapport à polygones ou polylignes est calculée en utilisant une fonction de probabilité distribution. Les analyses statistiques des résultats de la modélisation montrent que i) les valeurs de la moyenne à la surface relative des polygones, la moyenne de longueur relative de polylignes, le nombre d'objets et leur regroupement sont essentiels à des évaluations statistiques ; ii) tester la validité des différents méthodes d'inversion dépend de l'importance relative sur la corrélation entre les paramètres utilisés; et iii) la robustesse des points d'intérêt de distribution est de déduire des lois à l'égard de la qualité des données d'entrée. Cette approche a été appliquée aux données géologiques et géophysiques de l'Yenissei Ridge d'une surface totale de 75730 km2 pour cartographer la prédictivité de 29 nouvelles zones aurifères correspondant à une surface de 1811 km2. La méthode développée dans cette étude permet de réduire jusqu'à quatre fois de la superficie considérée comme des zones aurifères par des études précédentes. Pour la construction la plus précise des zones aurifères un modèle 3D de densité de l'Yenissei Ridge a été construit. Ce modèle est basé sur les données de surface, gravimetriques et aéromagnétiques (grilles numérique de 1x1km2), profils sismiques et magnétotelluriques de "Batholite" et "Shpate". Ce modèle 3D de densité montre que: a) l'Yenissei Ridge a une structure de couverture pliée, résultant d'un événement de la collision néoprotérozoïque ; b) γNPta granites Tatarsky-Ayhta et zones de cisaillement sont des seuls objets qui présente des relations spatiales avec la minéralisation aurifère.

Our understanding of the complexity of the brain is limited by the data we can collect and analyze. Because of experimental limitations and a desire for greater detail, most investigations focus on just one aspect of the brain. For example, brain function can be studied at many levels of abstraction including, but not limited to, gene expression, protein interactions, anatomical regions, neuronal connectivity, synaptic plasticity, and the electrical activity of neurons. By focusing on each of these levels, neuroscience has built up a detailed picture of how the brain works, but each level is understood mostly in isolation from the others. It is likely that interaction between all these levels is just as important. Therefore, a key hypothesis is that functional units spanning multiple levels of biological organization exist in the brain. This project attempted to combine neuronal circuitry analysis with functional proteomics and anatomical regions of the brain to explore this hypothesis, and took an evolutionary view of the results obtained. During the process we had to solve a number of technical challenges as the tools to undertake this type of research did not exist. Two informatics challenges for this research were to develop ways to analyze neurobiological data, such as brain protein expression patterns, to extract useful information, and how to share and present this data in a way that is fast and easy for anyone to access. This project contributes towards a more wholistic understanding of the fruit fly brain in three ways. Firstly, a screen was conducted to record the expression of proteins in the brain of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. Protein expression patterns in the fruit fly brain were recorded from 535 protein trap lines using confocal microscopy. A total of 884 3D images were annotated and made available on an easy to use website database, BrainTrap, available at fruitfly.inf.ed.ac.uk/braintrap. The website allows 3D images of the protein expression to be viewed interactively in the web browser, and an ontology-based search tool allows users to search for protein expression patterns in specific areas of interest. Different expression patterns mapped to a common template can be viewed simultaneously in multiple colours. This data bridges the gap between anatomical and biomolecular levels of understanding. Secondly, protein trap expression patterns were used to investigate the properties of the fruit fly brain. Thousands of protein-protein interactions have been recorded by methods such as yeast two-hybrid, however many of these protein pairs do not express in the same regions of the fruit fly brain. Using 535 protein expression patterns it was possible to rule out 149 protein-protein interactions. Also, protein expression patterns registered against a common template brain were used to produce new anatomical breakdowns of the fruit fly brain. Clustering techniques were able to naturally segment brain regions based only on the protein expression data. This is just one example of how, by combining proteomics with anatomy, we were able to learn more about both levels of understanding. Results are analysed further in combination with networks such as genetic homology networks, and connectivity networks. We show how the wealth of biological and neuroscience data now available in public databases can be combined with the Brain- Trap data to reveal similarities between areas of the fruit fly and mammalian brain. The BrainTrap data also informs us on the process of evolution and we show that genes found in fruit fly, yeast and mouse are more likely to be generally expressed throughout the brain, whereas genes found only in fruit fly and mouse, but not yeast, are more likely to have a specific expression pattern in the fruit fly brain. Thus, by combining data from multiple sources we can gain further insight into the complexity of the brain. Neural connectivity data is also analyzed and a new technique for enhanced motifs is developed for the combined analysis of connectivity data with other information such as neuron type data and potentially protein expression data. Thirdly, I investigated techniques for imaging the protein trap lines at higher resolution using electron microscopy (EM) and developed new informatics techniques for the automated analysis of neural connectivity data collected from serial section transmission electron microscopy (ssTEM). Measurement of the connectivity between neurons requires high resolution imaging techniques, such as electron microscopy, and images produced by this method are currently annotated manually to produce very detailed maps of cell morphology and connectivity. This is an extremely time consuming process and the volume of tissue and number of neurons that can be reconstructed is severely limited by the annotation step. I developed a set of computer vision algorithms to improve the alignment between consecutive images, and to perform partial annotation automatically by detecting membrane, synapses and mitochondria present in the images. Accuracy of the automatic annotation was evaluated on a small dataset and 96% of membrane could be identified at the cost of 13% false positives. This research demonstrates that informatics technology can help us to automatically analyze biological images and bring together genetic, anatomical, and connectivity data in a meaningful way. This combination of multiple data sources reveals more detail about each individual level of understanding, and gives us a more wholistic view of the fruit fly brain.

La géothermie est considérée comme une source d'énergie propre et inépuisable à échelle humaine. Actuellement, le rendement des centrales géothermiques est limité à l'exploitation de fluides de températures inférieures à 300°C. L'association de l'activité tectonique et volcanique aux dorsales océaniques fait de l'Islande un lieu où l'extraction de fluides supercritiques (T°>400°C) peut être envisagée. Cette exploitation pourrait multiplier par dix la puissance électrique délivrée par les puits géothermiques. Ces fluides peuvent-ils circuler dans la croûte océanique ? Ce travail propose de contraindre les observations géophysiques et de prédire le fonctionnement des réservoirs hydro-géothermaux de très haute température par l'étude des propriétés physiques des basaltes. La première approche est focalisée sur l'étude de roches ayant accueilli une circulation hydrothermale par le passé. L'étude de ces roches au site ODP 1256, montre que leur porosité est associée à la présence de minéraux d'altération hydrothermale du faciès amphibolite (T°>500°C ). La seconde approche a consisté à recréer en laboratoire les conditions des systèmes hydrothermaux à très haute température afin de prédire les propriétés mécaniques et électriques des basaltes dans ces conditions. Les résultats mécaniques indiquent que la transition fragile/ductile, souvent associée à une forte décroissance de perméabilité, intervient à une température d'environ 550°C. La mise en place d'une cellule de mesure de la conductivité électrique de haute températures a fournit les premiers résultats utiles à l'analyse des données géophysiques. Appliqués aux conditions de la croûte basaltique Islandaise, ces résultats indiquent que des fluides hydrothermaux pourraient circuler au moins transitoirement à l'état supercritique jusqu'à ~ 5 km de profondeur. / Geothermal energy is considered as a green and infinite energy source at human scale. Currently, the yield of geothermal power plants is limited to temperatures of the operating fluid which 300 °C. From tectonic and volcanic activity at mid-ocean ridges, Iceland is a locuswhere supercritical fluid extraction (T > 400° C) can considered for the near future. Exploiting such fluids could theoretically multiply by a factor of ten the electrical power delivered by geothermal wells. Can such fluids circulate at the base of brittle oceanic crust? This work investigates the petrophysical properties of basalts in order to constrain geophysical observations in Iceland and predict the behavior of very high temperature hydro-geothermal reservoirs. The first approach consisted in studying the physical properties of rocks that have hosted deep hydrothermal circulations at oceanic ridges. The study of these rocks at ODP Site 1256 shows that the porosity mea sured both in the field and in the lab is associated with amphibolite facies alteration minerals (T > 500° C). The second approach was to recreate in the laboratory the conditions of pressure, temperature and pore fluid pressure of high temperature to supercritical hydrothermal systems to predict the mechanical and electrical properties of basalts under these conditions. The mechanical results indicate that the brittle/ductile transition occurs at a temperature of about 550° C, where a strong permeability decrease is expected. The implementation and calibration of a new cell for measuring electrical conductivity at high temperature provide the first results for the interpretation of geophysical data. When applied to basaltic crustal conditions in Iceland, these results indicate that hydrothermal fluids could circulate, at least temporarily, in a supercritical state up to 5 km depth.

Mid-ocean ridge hydrothermal systems play an important role in the cycling of energy and mass between the solid earth and oceans. The on-axis low-temperature diffuse fluids (temperature lower than ~100 °C) carry ~90% of the on-axis heat fluxes, but diffuse fluids generation is poorly constrained. This study uses the abundance of the chalcophile elements, which form metal-sulphides in the rock record, to test models for diffuse fluids generation. These include mixing between seawater and high-temperature hydrothermal fluids and conductive cooling of high- temperature hydrothermal fluids. This thesis determined the concentrations of the elements of interest (As, Mo, Ag, Cd, Sn, and Tl) in geological reference materials using standard addition method in ICP-MS. These values were used to calibrate the analysis of samples from Pito Deep to trace the abundance of these elements within the upper oceanic crust. The results show that the Zn, Cu, As, Ag, Cd, Tl, and Pb are generally depleted in sheeted dikes and enriched in the lava unit and/or the transition zone, which is consistent with previous studies on fast-spreading EPR crust at Hole 504B, Hess Deep and Hole 1256D. The enrichment of these elements in the lava unit and/or the transition zone suggests that cooling high-temperature hydrothermal fluids to form diffuse fluids occurred in this iii iv area of the oceanic crust. Molybdenum and Sb are added into all units of the crust by recharging seawater. The concentrations of chalcophile elements in diffuse fluids were calculated by a mass balance. The results of this study favored a diffuse fluids generation model that involves mixing of seawater and high-temperature hydrothermal fluids. Results also show that the observed concentrations of Mo and Sb requires extra input source besides recharging seawater and oceanic crust, possibly particulates in seawater. / Graduate / juliatian2013@gmail.com

La circulation hydrothermale océanique est un élément clé dans le transfert de chaleur et de matière des profondeurs de la Terre vers sa surface. Certains sites hydrothermaux produisent de grandes quantités d’hydrogène et de méthane. C’est le cas du site de Rainbow (36°N), situé sur la dorsale médio-atlantique, auquel on s’intéresse ici. Les fortes concentrations d’hydrogène ([H2]=16 mM kg-1) et de méthane ([CH4]=2,5 mM kg-1) des fluides chauds (~365°C) émis par ce site ont été interprétées comme étant issues de l’hydratation des péridotites du diapir mantellique qui constitue son socle géologique du site, mais l’altération d’assemblages gabbroïques pourrait également être à l’origine de sa production d’hydrogène. Ces processus géochimiques dépendent fortement des caractéristiques de l’écoulement des fluides au sein de la matrice poreuse et fracturée du site. Cette étude a donc consisté au développement et à l’application de modèle numériques, thermo-hydrogéologique et géochimique et de leur chaînage, dans le but de caractériser la circulation hydrothermale, la production d’hydrogène et son transport au sein du site de Rainbow. Plusieurs résultats découlent de ces modélisations : la circulation hydrothermale est tridimensionnelle, de faible extension horizontale (Ø~2-8km), doit très probablement être canalisée par un chemin préférentiel de forte perméabilité, et peut être stable sur plusieurs milliers d’années. Nous avons pu montrer que l’hydrogène est produit par serpentinisation en amont de la zone de décharge et estimer les coefficients cinétiques in situ, la quantité d’hydrogène produite et montrer la possibilité d’une production d’une durée supérieure à 25 000 ans. / Hydrothermal activity along the axis of mid-ocean ridges is a key driver for energy and matter transfer from the Earth’s interior to the ocean floor. Numerous hydrothermal sites have been discovered, and some of them emit high quantities of hydrogen and methane. In this manuscript, the presented studies focus on the Rainbow site (36°N), situated on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge crest. The high hydrogen and methane concentrations ([H2]=16 mM kg-1and [CH4]=2,5 mM kg-1) of the hot fluids at this site have been interpreted as indicators of ongoing serpentinization processes. However, such high hydrogen and methane concentrations might be also produced by gabbroic alteration processes which could lead to a mineral assemblage such as chlorite + talc + magnetite + tremolite. These alteration processes are strongly dependent on the hydrothermal circulation characteristics and behaviours. In this study, we developed and used thermo-hydrogeological and geochemical numerical models, and their coupling, for characterization of hydrothermal circulation, and hydrogen production and transport, of the Rainbow vent site. We showed that hydrothermal circulation is conditioned by its 3D spatial configuration. This circulation is of small dimension (Ø > 2km), and should probably be organized by a preferential pathway of high permeability values. It has remained stable for several thousand years. We also showed that hydrogen was a product of serpentinization process that occurs far from the discharge zone. We estimated in situ kinetic coefficients, and the hydrogen mass currently produced each year. We showed the possibility of a long lifetime hydrogen production (>25000 yrs).

Die Implementierung und Anwendung von Soil-Vegetation-Atmosphere-Transport-Modellen (SVAT) in der Landwirtschaft erfordert die Kenntnis der aerodynamischen Eigenschaften der Unterlage. Diese sind die Verschiebungslänge d, die Rauhigkeitslänge z0 und weitere Parameter welche den Effekt der Rauhigkeitsschicht unmittelbar über dem Pflanzenbestand beschreiben, wie die Schichthöhen für den Transfer von Impuls Zm* und Skalaren Zs*. Umfangreiche Literaturangaben über einen weiten Bereich von Bestandsmerkmalen wurden zur Entwicklung und Ableitung neuer Schätzfunktionen der genannten Parameter genutzt. Ein neues Modell wird für d als Funktion der Bestandeshöhe hc und dem Plant Area Index PAI vorgeschlagen. Ein semi¬empirisches Vorhersagemodell wird für die Längenskale Ls in Abhängigkeit von hc, PAI, der relativen Kronenhöhe und dem mittleren Abstand zwischen Rauhigkeitselementen entwickelt. Mit Schätzwerten für d, Ls, Zm* und anderen Inputs wurde eine Gleichung für z0 entwickelt und geprüft. Unter Berücksichtigung der Rauhigkeitsschicht werden geschlossene analytische Lösungen für die Schubspannungsgeschwindigkeit, das Windprofil und den aerodynamischen Widerstand präsentiert. Es wird ein Energiebilanzmodell für teilweise mit Folien bedeckten Erddämmen vorgestellt. Bekannte Vorgehensweisen aus der Literatur wurden hinsichtlich der Effekte des peripheren Strahlungsanteils der Sonne, der Modifizierung des kurzwelligen und langwelligen Strahlungstransfers durch den Damm selbst und der winkelabhängigen Transmission und Reflexion von Folien erweitert. Nur 3 Parameter mussten aus stündlichen Messwerten der Bodentemperatur über einen Monat bestimmt werden. Beim Gesamttest des Modells zeigte sich eine mittlere quadratische Abweichung zwischen Simulationen und Messungen der Dammtemperatur von 1.5-1.9 K in Abhängigkeit vom Standort. Testsimulationen zeigten, dass für strahlungsundurchlässige Folien eine präzise Darstellung der winkelabhängigen Reflexion nicht notwendig ist. Für transparente Folien sind zur Beschreibung von Transmission und Reflexion auch einfache Ansätze ausreichend. Nur wenige Inputs sind zur Simulation erforderlich wie die Gehalte an Humus, Sand und Ton, die Dammgeometrie und die Transmissions- und Reflexionsgrade der eingesetzten Folien. / Implementation and application of Soil Vegetation Atmosphere Transport Models (SVAT) in agriculture require knowledge of aerodynamic properties of the exchanging surface. These are the zero plane displacement d, the roughness length for momentum z0, and additional parameters describing the roughness layer just above the canopy as the height of the roughness layer for momentum and scalars (Zm*, Zs*), and parameters of the modified diffusivity profile functions. Several data summaries from the literature on aerodynamic properties over a broad range of plant canopies are used to develop and test predictive models for a number of needed aerodynamic parameters. A new model for d is presented as a function of canopy height hc and Plant Area Index PAI. A semi-empirical equation for the canopy length scale Ls is derived from hc, PAI, fractional crown height, and inter-element spacing of roughness elements. Having estimates of d, Ls, Zm* and other inputs one can derive predictive equations for z0. Closed form analytical expressions are given for the friction velocity, the horizontal wind speed profile and the aerodynamic resistance, which account for both stability and roughness layer effects. An energy balance model for a two-dimensional ridge surface partly covered by a plastic mulch is presented. Previous approaches are modified and extended to include (1) the circumsolar part of diffuse radiation and (2) the altered interception of diffuse short- and long-wave radiation due to horizon obstructions and surface slope and (3) the directional dependence of transmissivity and reflectivity of plastic mulches. Only three parameters had to be estimated from data taken over one month at one site. Overall, simulated data fitted with the whole data set on soil temperatures, with root mean square errors of 1.5 K and 1.9 K for both sites, respectively. Test simulations established that for opaque plastics, detailed analysis of directional radiative properties is not necessary, and for transparent plastics, rather simpler approaches are sufficient. Only a few inputs have to be provided to apply the model: the soil humus content and texture, the shape of the ridge, and the transmissivities and reflectivities of the used plastic mulches in the short-wave and long-wave range.

This project was dedicated to the problem of improving a non-invasive blood glucose monitor being developed by the VivaScan Corporation. The company has made some progress in the non-invasive blood glucose device development and approached WPI for a statistical assistance in the improvement of their model in order to predict the glucose level more accurately. The main goal of this project was to improve the ability of the non-invasive blood glucose monitor to predict the glucose values more precisely. The goal was achieved by finding and implementing the best regression model. The methods included ordinary least squared regression, partial least squares regression, robust regression method, weighted least squares regression, local regression, and ridge regression. VivaScan calibration data for seven patients were analyzed in this project. For each of these patients, the individual regression models were built and compared based on the two factors that evaluate the model prediction ability. It was determined that partial least squares and ridge regressions are two best methods among the others that were considered in this work. Using these two methods gave better glucose prediction. The additional problem of data reduction to minimize the data collection time was also considered in this work.

Advances in molecular marker technologies have led to the development of high throughput genotyping techniques such as Genotyping by Sequencing (GBS), driving the application of genomics in crop research and breeding. They have also supported the use of novel mapping approaches, including Multi-parent Advanced Generation Inter-Cross (MAGIC) populations which have increased precision in identifying markers to inform plant breeding practices. In the first part of this thesis, a high density physical map derived from GBS was used to identify QTLs controlling key agronomic traits of wheat in a genome-wide association study (GWAS) and to demonstrate the practicability of genomic selection for predicting the trait values. The results from GBS were compared to a previous study conducted on the same association mapping panel using a less dense physical map derived from diversity arrays technology (DArT) markers. GBS detected more QTLs than DArT markers although some of the QTLs were detected by DArT markers alone. Prediction accuracies from the two marker platforms were mostly similar and largely dependent on trait genetic architecture. The second part of this thesis focused on MAGIC populations, which incorporate diversity and novel allelic combinations from several generations of recombination. Pedigrees representing a wild rice MAGIC population were used to model MAGIC populations by simulation to assess the level of recombination and creation of novel haplotypes. The wild rice species are an important reservoir of beneficial genes that have been variously introgressed into rice varieties using bi-parental population approaches. The level of recombination was found to be highly dependent on the number of crosses made and on the resulting population size. Creation of MAGIC populations require adequate planning in order to make sufficient number of crosses that capture optimal haplotype diversity. The third part of the thesis considers models that have been proposed for genomic prediction. The ridge regression best linear unbiased prediction (RR-BLUP) is based on the assumption that all genotyped molecular markers make equal contributions to the variations of a phenotype. Information from underlying candidate molecular markers are however of greater significance and can be used to improve the accuracy of prediction. Here, an existing Differentially Penalized Regression (DiPR) model which uses modifications to a standard RR-BLUP package and allows two or more marker sets from different platforms to be independently weighted was used. The DiPR model performed better than single or combined marker sets for predicting most of the traits both in a MAGIC population and an association mapping panel. Overall the work presented in this thesis shows that while these techniques have great promise, they should be carefully evaluated before introduction into breeding programmes.

Le travail de recherche qui sera présenté porte sur la mise en évidence des différentes formes du cuivre présentes et des échanges qui existent entre les fractions particulaires, dissoutes et colloïdales du milieu profond. Il s’intéresse à la zone de mélange entre les sources profondes et l’eau de mer. L’amélioration de nos connaissances et l’optimisation de l’instrumentation permettent aujourd’hui de proposer le développement d’une stratégie d’échantillonnage et d’une approche qui prennent en compte les contraintes associées à la nature et à l’accessibilité de ces milieux éloignés. Ce travail a donné lieu à la mise en place de méthodes d’analyse effectives pour la mesure du cuivre et de ses ligands. Nos résultats ont montré que la spéciation physique semble essentiellement contrôlée par le pH et l’évolution des caractéristiques oxydoréductrices du milieu au cours de la dilution du fluide hydrothermal par l’eau de mer. La spéciation chimique du cuivre semble quant à elle principalement contrôlée par les ligands soufrés et le caractère oxydant du milieu. Elle a montré que le milieu est globalement plus complexant sur le site hydrothermal Lucky Strike que dans le bassin de Guaymas. A l’échelle du fumeur, la pseudopolarographie et les mesures de capacité complexante ont montré que le milieu est plus complexant dans la zone anoxique, près de la source, que dans la zone oxique où le cuivre est généralement labile et en excès par rapport à ses ligands (ses concentrations peuvent atteindre 100 nM). Dans la zone oxique, environ 27% des complexes formés sont dissociés par oxydation, tandis qu’environ 73% des complexes organiques et inorganiques CuHS+ est stabilisée. / This work presents the copper speciation in the deep ocean and the exchanges existing between different size fractions : particulate, dissolved and colloidal. It focus on the mixing zone between deep sources and seawater. The enhancement of our knowledge and the optimization of instrumentation make possible the development of sampling and analysis strategies accorded with the nature and the accessibility of these extreme environments. A part of this work consisted in the development of effective analysis methods for the quantification of copper and copper’s ligands. Our results showed that physical speciation seems to be essentially controlled by the variations of pH and oxydoreductive caracteristics during the dilution of the hydrothermal fluid by seawater. The chemical speciation of copper seems essentially controlled by sulfide ligands and the oxydative caracteristics of the environment. The environment is generally more complexing on Lucky Strike vent field than in Guaymas Basin. Around each vent, pseudopolarography and complexing capacities showed that the environment is more complexing in the anoxic zone, near the source, than in the oxic zone. In the oxic zone, copper is generally labile and its concentrations (they can reach 100 nM) exceed the ligands concentrations. In the oxic zone, around 27% of the complexes are dissociated, whereas around 73% remains stabilised.

Waterways have been geomorphically altered or disturbed by development, mining, agriculture and other human activities for many years. Section 404 of the Clean Water Act determined that these impacts to our waterways must be mitigated for channel alterations. Stream restoration has been one method to mitigate for these impacts to our water resources. Stream restoration is considered to be a measurable improvement to the channel stability, water quality, habitat or overall function of a degraded stream system. Practices of stream restoration have changed in the last 10 to 20 years with the introduction of natural channel design methods. Natural channel design involves rebuilding a stream channel with the appropriate channel dimensions, slope, and planform to accommodate water and sediment inputs from its drainage basin without excessively aggrading or degrading. Dimensions of restored stream channels are based on a stage that is termed bankfull. The bankfull discharge is the flow that fills the channel just to the tops of its banks to the incipient point of flooding. Design dimensions used in natural channel design are based on bankfull stage and discharge because practitioners believe it is responsible for the average morphology of a stream channel. Practitioners of stream restoration use two tools to aid in the determination of these stable channel conditions: they are 1) regional channel geometry and discharge relations to drainage area (regional curves) and 2) reference reach derived dimensionless bankfull channel geometry ratios. These tools are developed for ecoregions that have similar climates, topography, geology, soils, hydrology and vegetation because these are also the features that dictate stream channel form. Regional curves and reference reach dimensionless ratios were developed for the Level III Ecoregion 67 Ridge and Valley, Tennessee. The regional power function equations of bankfull cross sectional area, width, mean depth, and discharge to drainage, and the dimensionless bankfull channel geometry ratios of reference reaches will help determine the bankfull channel dimensions used in natural channel design.