Gates to Gregg High Voltage Transmission Line Study

The usefulness of LANDSAT data in the planning of transmission line routes was assessed. LANDSAT digital data and image processing techniques, specifically a multi-date supervised classification aproach, were used to develop a land cover map for an agricultural area near Fresno, California. Twenty-six land cover classes were identified, of which twenty classes were agricultural crops. High classification accuracies (greater than 80%) were attained for several classes, including cotton, grain, and vineyards. The primary products generated were 1:24,000, 1:100,000 and 1:250,000 scale maps of the classification and acreage summaries for all land cover classes within four alternate transmission line routes

HSFA1a modulates plant heat stress responses and alters the 3D chromatin organization of enhancer-promoter interactions

The complex and dynamic three-dimensional organization of chromatin within the nucleus makes understanding the control of gene expression challenging, but also opens up possible ways to epigenetically modulate gene expression. Because plants are sessile, they evolved sophisticated ways to rapidly modulate gene expression in response to environmental stress, that are thought to be coordinated by changes in chromatin conformation to mediate specific cellular and physiological responses. However, to what extent and how stress induces dynamic changes in chromatin reorganization remains poorly understood. Here, we comprehensively investigated genome-wide chromatin changes associated with transcriptional reprogramming response to heat stress in tomato. Our data show that heat stress induces rapid changes in chromatin architecture, leading to the transient formation of promoter-enhancer contacts, likely driving the expression of heat-stress responsive genes. Furthermore, we demonstrate that chromatin spatial reorganization requires HSFA1a, a transcription factor (TF) essential for heat stress tolerance in tomato. In light of our findings, we propose that TFs play a key role in controlling dynamic transcriptional responses through 3D reconfiguration of promoter-enhancer contacts

Modeling microbial competition in food: Application to the behavior of <i>Listeria monocytogenes</i> and lactic acid flora in pork meat products

Competition between background microflora and microbial pathogens raises questions about the application of predictive microbiology in situ, i.e., in non-sterile naturally contaminated foods. In this article, we present a review of the models developed in predictive microbiology to describe interactions between microflora in foods, with a special focus on two approaches: one based on the Jameson effect (simultaneous deceleration of all microbial populations) and one based on the Lotka-Volterra competition model. As an illustration of the potential of these models, we propose various modeling examples in estimation and in prediction of microbial growth curves, all related to the behavior of Listeria monocytogenes with lactic acid bacteria in three pork meat products (fresh pork meat and two types of diced bacon). (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Modeling microbial competition in food: Application to the behavior of Listeria monocytogenes and lactic acid flora in pork meat products

International audienc

How the cold chain impacts the shelf life of a ready-to-eat food regarding listeria monocytogenes

2nd IIR International conference on Sustainability and the Cold Chain, ICCC2013, Paris, FRA, 02-/04/2013 - 04/04/2013International audienceFor RTE foods that are able to support the growth of L. monocytogenes, a European Regulation (n°2073/2005) specifies that the 100-CFU/g limit &amp;#8220;applies if the manufacturer is able to demonstrate that the product will not exceed the limit of 100 CFU/g throughout the shelf-life&amp;#8221;. Many factors can interfere on the evolution of the pathogen (time-temperature history, pH, aw, associated microflora,...). The objective of this work was to demonstrate the impact of the cold chain on the shelf-life of a deli meat, sliced cooked ham. Sliced cooked ham data were obtained from challenge-tests with artificially inoculated packages with L. monocytogenes. These data are useful for estimating growth parameters and model validation. We tested different scenarios of storage temperature: from theoretical to more realistic scenarios based on data from a survey carried out in France. The variability of temperatures as well as characteristics of the product, and initial contamination level at the end of the manufacturing line, were taken into account in predictive models to calculate the time to reach the regulatory limit and to determine the shelf life. We showed that shelf-life determination is strongly dependant of the scenario chosen to simulate the cold chain