Political and Social Significance of Islam in the Middle East

While its operation is difficult to specify, and illusive in its character, anyone who lives in the area constantly feels the effect of its influence. We are to determine this morning, as far as one can in a single lecture, something of the character and place of this spiritual influence in the social and political life of the Middle East

Leaf morphological differentiation between Quercus robur and Quercus petraea is stable across western European mixed oak stands

© INRA, EDP Sciences 2002Leaf morphology was assessed in nine mixed oak stands (Quercus petraea and Q. robur ) located in eight European countries. Exhaustive sampling was used in an area of each stand where the two species coexisted in approximately equal proportions (about 170 trees/species/stand). Fourteen leaf characters were assessed on each of 5 to10 leaves collected from the upper part of each tree. Three multivariate statistical techniques (CDA, canonical discriminant analysis; PCA, principal component analysis; MCA, multiple correspondence analysis) were used in two different ways: first on the total set of leaves over all stands (global analysis) and second, separately within each stand (local analysis). There was a general agreement of the results among the statistical methods used and between the analyses conducted (global and local). The first synthetic variable derived by each multivariate analysis exhibited a clear and sharp bimodal distribution, with overlapping in the central part. The two modes were interpreted as the two species, and the overlapping region was interpreted as an area where the within-species variations were superimposed. There was no discontinuity in the distribution or no visible evidence of a third mode which would have indicated the existence of a third population composed of trees with intermediate morphologies. Based on petiole length and number of intercalary veins, an "easy to use" discriminant function applicable to a major part of the natural distribution of the species was constructed. Validation on an independent set of trees provided a 98% rate of correct identification. The results were interpreted in the light of earlier reports about extensive hybridization occurring in mixed oak stands. Maternal effects on morphological characters, as well as a lower frequency or fitness of hybrids in comparison with parent species could explain the maintenance of two modes, which might be composed of either pure species or pure species and introgressed forms.Antoine Kremer, Jean Luc Dupouey, J. Douglas Deans, Joan Cottrell, Ulrike Csaikl, Reiner Finkeldey, Santiago Espinel, Jan Jensen, Jochen Kleinschmit, Barbara Van Dam, Alexis Ducousso, Ian Forrest, U. Lopez de Heredia, Andrew J. Lowe, Marcela Tutkova, Robert C. Munro, Sabine Steinhoff and Vincent Badea

New trends in globalization of science and engineering education

Three decades ago most research and design were conducted in each country independently. But the world has become quite different since then. Global changes in technology and society changed the concept of an engineer. There is the need for engineers who can work effectively in changing global and technical environments. Less interest has been paid to the globalization of science and technology. This article reviews the stimulus, that impact the engineering profession and gives the recommendations concerning the profession of engineering, the technology and innovation

Renal clearable catalytic gold nanoclusters for in vivo disease monitoring

Ultra-small gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) have emerged as agile probes for in vivo imaging, as they exhibit exceptional tumour accumulation and efficient renal clearance properties. However, their intrinsic catalytic activity, which can enable increased detection sensitivity, has yet to be explored for in vivo sensing. By exploiting the peroxidase-mimicking activity of AuNCs and the precise nanometer size filtration of the kidney, we designed multifunctional protease nanosensors that respond to disease microenvironments to produce a direct colorimetric urinary readout of disease state in less than 1 h. We monitored the catalytic activity of AuNCs in collected urine of a mouse model of colorectal cancer where tumour-bearing mice showed a 13-fold increase in colorimetric signal compared to healthy mice. Nanosensors were eliminated completely through hepatic and renal excretion within 4 weeks after injection with no evidence of toxicity. We envision that this modular approach will enable rapid detection of a diverse range of diseases by exploiting their specific enzymatic signatures

Use of agricultural statistics to verify the interannual variability in land surface models: a case study over France with ISBA-A-gs

In order to verify the interannual variability of the above-ground biomass of herbaceous vegetation simulated by the ISBA-A-gs land surface model, within the SUR-FEX modelling platform, French agricultural statistics for C3 crops and grasslands were compared with the simulations for the 1994-2008 period. While excellent correlations are obtained for grasslands, representing the interannual variability of crops is more difficult. It is shown that, the Maximum Available soil Water Capacity (MaxAWC) has a large influence on the correlation between the model and the agricultural statistics. In particular, high values of MaxAWC tend to reduce the impact of the climate interannual variability on the simulated biomass. Also, high values of MaxAWC allow the simulation of a negative trend in biomass production, in relation to a marked warming trend, of about 0.12Kyr(-1) on average, affecting the daily maximum air temperature during the growing period (April-June). This trend is particularly acute in Northern France. The estimates of MaxAWC for C3 crops and grasslands, currently used in SURFEX, are about 129 mm and do not vary much. Therefore, more accurate grid-cell values of this parameter are needed

Stocks de carbone dans les sols de France : quelles estimations ?

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