Self-recording portable soil penetrometer

A lightweight portable penetrometer for testing soil characteristics is described. The penetrometer is composed of a handle, data recording, and probe components detachably joined together. The data recording component has an easily removed recording drum which rotates according to the downward force applied on the handle, and a stylus means for marking the drum along its height according to the penetration depth of probe into the soil

β-cell dysfunctional ERAD/ubiquitin/proteasome system in type 2 diabetes mediated by islet amyloid polypeptide-induced UCH-L1 deficiency.

ObjectiveThe islet in type 2 diabetes is characterized by β-cell apoptosis, β-cell endoplasmic reticulum stress, and islet amyloid deposits derived from islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP). Toxic oligomers of IAPP form intracellularly in β-cells in humans with type 2 diabetes, suggesting impaired clearance of misfolded proteins. In this study, we investigated whether human-IAPP (h-IAPP) disrupts the endoplasmic reticulum-associated degradation/ubiquitin/proteasome system.Research design and methodsWe used pancreatic tissue from humans with and without type 2 diabetes, isolated islets from h-IAPP transgenic rats, isolated human islets, and INS 832/13 cells transduced with adenoviruses expressing either h-IAPP or a comparable expression of rodent-IAPP. Immunofluorescence and Western blotting were used to detect polyubiquitinated proteins and ubiquitin carboxyl-terminal hydrolase L1 (UCH-L1) protein levels. Proteasome activity was measured in isolated rat and human islets. UCH-L1 was knocked down by small-interfering RNA in INS 832/13 cells and apoptosis was evaluated.ResultsWe report accumulation of polyubiquinated proteins and UCH-L1 deficiency in β-cells of humans with type 2 diabetes. These findings were reproduced by expression of oligomeric h-IAPP but not soluble rat-IAPP. Downregulation of UCH-L1 expression and activity to reproduce that caused by h-IAPP in β-cells induced endoplasmic reticulum stress leading to apoptosis.ConclusionsOur results indicate that defective protein degradation in β-cells in type 2 diabetes can, at least in part, be attributed to misfolded h-IAPP leading to UCH-L1 deficiency, which in turn further compromises β-cell viability

Preparation and characterization of electrolytic alumina deposit on austenitic stainless steel

Conversion coating modified by alumina has been studied as a way for improving the resistance to thermal oxidation of an austenitic stainless steel. Conversion coating, characterized by a particular morphology and strong interfacial adhesion with the substrate, facilitate the electrochemical deposition of ceramic layers and enhance their adhesion to the substrate. The influence of the current density and treatment time on alumina deposit was studied using statistical experimental designs like Doehlert uniform shell design. After heating, coatings present a continuous composition gradient with refractory compounds at the surface. The behavior at high temperature (1000 8C) of the alumina coating was investigated. The presence of alumina increases the oxidation resistance of an austenitic stainless steel at 1000 8C. The morphology and the chemical composition of the deposit are analyzed. Results on the thermal stability of coating on austenitic stainless steel are presented

Oxydation humide des polluants organiques par l'oxygène moléculaire activée par le couple H²O²/Fe²+: Optimisation des paramètres opératoires

L'oxydation humide par l'oxygène moléculaire (procédé WAO) activée par le couple (H202/Fe2+) a été mise en oeuvre pour l'oxydation de la pollution organique aqueuse à travers deux composés modèles: l'acide succinique, normalement oxydable, et l'acide acétique, réputé réfractaire. L'influence des différents facteurs a été étudiée par la planification d'expériences. Après leur recensement, une étape préliminaire de criblage a été menée à bien en utilisant une matrice de Plackett et Burman. Seuls les paramètres les plus influents ont été gardés pour l'étape ultérieure d'établissement de modèles prévisionnels à partir d'une matrice composite centrée orthogonale. Les modèles établis ont été validés et ont permis de déterminer les conditions optimales de fonctionnement. L'effet de la température fait apparaître un optimum, à environ 200 °C, au-delà duquel la décomposition du peroxyde devient trop rapide. L'effet de la quantité de peroxyde d'hydrogène introduit est déterminant et l'ajout de moins de 20 % de la quantité stoechiomé- trique permet d'obtenir à 200 °C, avec environ 10 ppm de sels de fer, une efficacité de traitement d'environ 70% pour un composé normalement oxydable. Dans des conditions analogues, le procédé conventionnel sans promoteur conduit à une efficacité inférieure à 5 %.Wet air oxidation (WAO) is a liquid phase oxidation process using molecular oxygen at high temperature (250-300°C) and high pressure (50-150 bar). It can help treating toxic organic aqueous wastes from chemical industries with efficiencies up to 98% after 1 hour. The process can also help treating sludges from domestic sewage treatment facilities. It is usually very cost effective because of the very high operating pressure.This paper deals with the promoted wet air oxidation of acetic acid, rnodel compound for refractory wastes, and succinic acid, model for readily oxidized wastes. The study was conducted in order to determine the promoting effect when adding small dosages of hydrogen peroxide (with iron salts) during oxidation by molecular oxygen. It was previously shown that the initiating step is very temperature dependent (Reaction I) and limits the overall oxidation process The addition of small amounts of H2O2/Fe2+ (Fenton's reagent) can promote the forrnation of very reactive OH• radicals able to develop R• radicals (Reaction IV), even at a low temperature. Then, the oxidation (Reactions VI and VII) continues using molecular oxygen, but the peroxide should be added continuously during a batch test in order to maintain the initiating step.An optimal design methodology was used in order to assess the dependency of the oxidation effrciency on the various parameters and mainly on the promotors. At frrst, a Plackett and Burman design of experiments (PE1) was used to screen the most important variables among those likely to have an effect. The design of experiments, the conditions of the runs and the results (tables 1 to 3) allowed the determination of a new experimental domain and the selection of the four most important variables for the further design of experiments. At the same time, the effect of an addition of phenol (able to reduce iron to the ferrous species, more efficient) was considered. For succinic acid oxidation, a central composite optimal design (PE2) was used (tables 4 and 5). The results allowed us to establish a predictive model (Relationship lX, table 6 and figure 2) and typical results are presented in figures 3 and 4. Approximately 50% oxidation efficiencies could be obtained at 200°C; without peroxide addition, only 5% efficiency is obtained under similar conditions. Moreover, it was observed that the optimum temperature is around 205°C and that phenol is not compatible with peroxide as a promotor. A third optimal design (PE3) was used to predict the efficiency of the method for the treatrnent of acetic acid, a model for a refractory waste. It is composed only of a fractional factorial design (table 7 and 8) and the bias corresponds to the main quadratic effect of temperature (Relationship XIII and table 10). The optimum temperâture is also 205°C and greater than 20% oxidation efficiencies are obtained; at such a temperature, acetic acid cannot be oxidized with the conventional process.The results obtained for the two model compounds validate this oxidation technique. The addition of about 10 ppm of ferrous iron and of less than 20% of the stoichiometric amount in hydrogen peroxide can turn a high pressure WAO process into a medium pressure one

Chemical Evolution of the Galactic Bulge as Derived from High-Resolution Infrared Spectroscopy of K and M Red Giants

We present chemical abundances in K and M red-giant members of the Galactic bulge derived from high-resolution infrared spectra obtained with the Phoenix spectrograph on Gemini-South. The elements studied are carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, sodium, titanium, and iron. The evolution of C and N abundances in the studied red-giants show that their oxygen abundances represent the original values with which the stars were born. Oxygen is a superior element for probing the timescale of bulge chemical enrichment via [O/Fe] versus [Fe/H]. The [O/Fe]-[Fe/H] relation in the bulge does not follow the disk relation, with [O/Fe] values falling above those of the disk. Titanium also behaves similarly to oxygen with respect to iron. Based on these elevated values of [O/Fe] and [Ti/Fe] extending to large Fe abundances, it is suggested that the bulge underwent a more rapid chemical enrichment than the halo. In addition, there are declines in both [O/Fe] and [Ti/Fe] in those bulge targets with the largest Fe abundances, signifying another source affecting chemical evolution: perhaps Supernovae of Type Ia. Sodium abundances increase dramatically in the bulge with increasing metallicity, possibly reflecting the metallicity dependant yields from supernovae of Type II, although Na contamination from H-burning in intermediate mass stars cannot be ruled out.Comment: ApJ in pres

A New Swiss Federal Act on Gambling: From Missed Opportunities towards a Public Health Approach?

In January 2019, a new Swiss Federal Act on Gambling (Loi federal de jeux d'argent: LJAr) entered into force following a vote by the Swiss electorate. Intended to modernize and harmonize previous law and open the market for online casinos; the new regulations have highlighted the need for a comprehensive monitoring system. The present article outlines work undertaken by experts within the field to identify and elaborate the first steps towards developing such a monitoring system. This work includes the mapping of institutional actors and draft conceptualization of an impact model, including structural (i.e., prevention and intervention-based components), process (means), and outcomes (effect) indicators. Initial estimations of effective access to indicators and their perceived priority for data gathering are also described. Subsequent steps necessary for implementation of this public health approach for gambling are considered including grey areas for future action

Genetic control of biennial bearing in apple

Although flowering in mature fruit trees is recurrent, floral induction can be strongly inhibited by concurrent fruiting, leading to a pattern of irregular fruiting across consecutive years referred to as biennial bearing. The genetic determinants of biennial bearing in apple were investigated using the 114 flowering individuals from an F1 population of 122 genotypes, from a ‘Starkrimson’ (strong biennial bearer)בGranny Smith’ (regular bearer) cross. The number of inflorescences, and the number and the mass of harvested fruit were recorded over 6 years and used to calculate 26 variables and indices quantifying yield, precocity of production, and biennial bearing. Inflorescence traits exhibited the highest genotypic effect, and three quantitative trait loci (QTLs) on linkage group (LG) 4, LG8, and LG10 explained 50% of the phenotypic variability for biennial bearing. Apple orthologues of flowering and hormone-related genes were retrieved from the whole-genome assembly of ‘Golden Delicious’ and their position was compared with QTLs. Four main genomic regions that contain floral integrator genes, meristem identity genes, and gibberellin oxidase genes co-located with QTLs. The results indicated that flowering genes are less likely to be responsible for biennial bearing than hormone-related genes. New hypotheses for the control of biennial bearing emerged from QTL and candidate gene co-locations and suggest the involvement of different physiological processes such as the regulation of flowering genes by hormones. The correlation between tree architecture and biennial bearing is also discussed

Supramolecular assemblies involving metal organic ring interactions: Heterometallic Cu(II)-Ln(III) two dimensional coordination polymers

Three isostructural two-dimensional coordination polymers of the general formula [Ln2(CuL)3(H2O)9]$5.5H2O, where Ln is La (1), Nd (2), and Gd (3), have been synthesized and isolated from aqueous solutions and their single-crystal structures determined by X-ray diffraction. The supramolecular interaction between the non-aromatic metallorings plays an important role in stabilizing the structure of these compounds. The thermal stability, reversible solvent uptake, electronic properties and magnetic studies of these compounds are also reported

MuSCA: A multi-scale source-sink carbon allocation model to explore carbon allocation in plants. An application to static apple tree structures

Background and aims: Carbon allocation in plants is usually represented at a topological scale, specific to each model. This makes the results obtained with different models, and the impact of their scales of representation, difficult to compare. In this study, we developed a multi-scale carbon allocation model (MuSCA) that allows the use of different, user-defined, topological scales of a plant, and assessment of the impact of each spatial scale on simulated results and computation time. Methods: Model multi-scale consistency and behaviour were tested on three realistic apple tree structures. Carbon allocation was computed at five scales, spanning from the metamer (the finest scale, used as a reference) up to first-order branches, and for different values of a sap friction coefficient. Fruit dry mass increments were compared across spatial scales and with field data. Key Results: The model was able to represent effects of competition for carbon assimilates on fruit growth. Intermediate friction parameter values provided results that best fitted field data. Fruit growth simulated at the metamer scale differed of ~1 % in respect to results obtained at growth unit scale and up to 60 % in respect to first order branch and fruiting unit scales. Generally, the coarser the spatial scale the more predicted fruit growth diverged from the reference. Coherence in fruit growth across scales was also differentially impacted, depending on the tree structure considered. Decreasing the topological resolution reduced computation time by up to four orders of magnitude. Conclusions: MuSCA revealed that the topological scale has a major influence on the simulation of carbon allocation. This suggests that the scale should be a factor that is carefully evaluated when using a carbon allocation model, or when comparing results produced by different models. Finally, with MuSCA, trade-off between computation time and prediction accuracy can be evaluated by changing topological scales

A Multi-Scale Model to explore Carbon Allocation in Plants

International audienceUnderstanding and simulating carbon allocation in plants is necessary to distribute carbohydrates among growing and competing organs and to predict plant growth and structure development in relation to climatic conditions. In this context several carbon allocation models have been developed but no clear consensus exists on (i) the most appropriate topological scale (organ, metamer, compartment...) to represent this process on complex plant structures, (ii) the importance of distances between organs in carbon transport, (iii) the priorities in carbon allocation among plant parts, that can depend on growth stages. Multi-scale tree graph (MTG) is a formalism allowing the representation of geometry and topology of a tree structure at different scales. In this study, several models were implemented to compute carbon allocation at user-defined spatial scales by using the MTG formalism. This allows multiple scales (e.g. metamer, growing unit, branch) to be combined during the computation of carbon allocation (e.g. allocation first within leafy shoots at metamer scale and then between growing units). The model describes carbon transport, taking into account the distances between sources and sinks, the strength of the sinks and the available carbohydrates, following the equations of the SIMWAL and QualiTree models. Simulations on simplified branching structures, represented at different scales, showed how the scales chosen to represent the system influence the results of predicted carbon allocation. This modelling approach will be first applied to apple tree to analyze the impact of the scale of representation (branch, growth unit, metamer, and inflorescence) on the predicted fruit growth variability which, in turn, will be compared with field observations. The present work is available through the OpenAlea platform and provides existing Functional Structural Plant Models with a new generic model to simulate carbon allocation in plants depending on user-defined biological hypotheses, such as the choice of the scale of representation or the effect of distance