Platelet signalling networks: pathways perturbation demonstrates differential sensitivity of ADP secretion and fibinogen binding.

Platelet signalling responses to single agonists have been identified previously. However a model of the total platelet signalling network is still lacking. In order to gain insights into this network, we explored the effects of a range of platelet-function inhibitors in two independent assays of platelet function, namely fibrinogen binding and ADP secretion. In this study, we targeted the intracellular signalling molecules Syk and PI3K, the prostaglandin synthesis enzyme COX, surface receptors for TxA2 and ADP (P2Y1 and P2Y12) and the integrin cell adhesion molecule, aIIbb3. We demonstrate that the platelet responses of fibrinogen binding and secretion can be differentially affected by the individual inhibitors permitting the generation of a model delineating novel regulatory links in the platelet signal network. Importantly, the model illustrates the interconnections among portions that are traditionally studied as separate modules, promoting a more integrated view of the platelet

An ensemble approach to assess hydrological models’ contribution to uncertainties in the analysis of climate change impact on water resources

Over the recent years, several research efforts investigated the impact of climate change on water resources for different regions of the world. The projection of future river flows is affected by different sources of uncertainty in the hydro-climatic modelling chain. One of the aims of the QBic3 5 project (Que´bec-Bavarian International Collaboration on Climate Change) is to assess the contribution to uncertainty of hydrological models by using an ensemble of hydrological models presenting a diversity of structural complexity (i.e. lumped, semi distributed and distributed models). The study investigates two humid, mid-latitude catchments with natural flow conditions; one located in 10 Southern Que´bec (Canada) and one in Southern Bavaria (Germany). Daily flow is simulated with four different hydrological models, forced by outputs from regional climate models driven by a given number of GCMs’ members over a reference (1971–2000) and a future (2041–2070) periods. The results show that the choice of the hydrological model does strongly affect the climate change response of selected hydrological indicators, especially those related to low flows. Indicators related to high flows seem less sensitive on the choice of the hydrological model. Therefore, the computationally less demanding models (usually simple, lumped and conceptual) give a significant level of trust for high and overall mean flows

On the need for bias correction in regional climate scenarios to assess climate change impacts on river runoff

In climate change impact research, the assessment of future river runoff as well as the catchment scale water balance is impeded by different sources of modeling uncertainty. Some research has already been done in order to quantify the uncertainty of climate 5 projections originating from the climate models and the downscaling techniques as well as from the internal variability evaluated from climate model member ensembles. Yet, the use of hydrological models adds another layer of incertitude. Within the QBic3 project (Qu´ebec-Bavaria International Collaboration on Climate Change) the relative contributions to the overall uncertainty from the whole model chain (from global climate 10 models to water management models) are investigated using an ensemble of multiple climate and hydrological models. Although there are many options to downscale global climate projections to the regional scale, recent impact studies tend to use Regional Climate Models (RCMs). One reason for that is that the physical coherence between atmospheric and land-surface 15 variables is preserved. The coherence between temperature and precipitation is of particular interest in hydrology. However, the regional climate model outputs often are biased compared to the observed climatology of a given region. Therefore, biases in those outputs are often corrected to reproduce historic runoff conditions from hydrological models using them, even if those corrections alter the relationship between temperature and precipitation. So, as bias correction may affect the consistency between RCM output variables, the use of correction techniques and even the use of (biased) climate model data itself is sometimes disputed among scientists. For those reasons, the effect of bias correction on simulated runoff regimes and the relative change in selected runoff indicators is explored. If it affects the conclusion of climate change analysis in 25 hydrology, we should consider it as a source of uncertainty. If not, the application of bias correction methods is either unnecessary in hydro-climatic projections, or safe to use as it does not alter the change signal of river runoff. The results of the present paper highlight the analysis of daily runoff simulated with four different hydrological models in two natural-flow catchments, driven by different regional climate models for a reference and a future period. As expected, bias correction of climate model outputs is important for the reproduction of the runoff regime of the 5 past regardless of the hydrological model used. Then again, its impact on the relative change of flow indicators between reference and future period is weak for most indicators with the exception of the timing of the spring flood peak. Still, our results indicate that the impact of bias correction on runoff indicators increases with bias in the climate simulations

Activated-carbon/TiO2 composites preparation: An original grafting by milling approach for solar water treatment applications

The aim of this work was to highlight feasibility of a new approach to synthesize Activated-Carbon (AC)/TiO2 composite materials. The main interest of these materials is for pollutants removal applications thanks to their multi-functionality. AC/TiO2 composites were prepared by one-step mechanosynthesis route. Morphological and structural properties were investigated through SEM, EDS, XRD, and BET techniques. It was found that the preparation process leads to the formation of an aggregate shape homogenously composed AC/TiO2 powder with a narrow particles size distribution, which mean diameter was 3.75 μm. Initial component structural properties were found to be strongly affected by the process, resulting in significant changes of TiO2 crystallinity and AC microtexture. The introduction of 5 min pauses during the process was enough to totally preserve TiO2 phases, crystallinity, and AC microporous network. Composites multi-functional properties were investigated using batch adsorption and photodegradation experiments. Adsorption studies revealed that AC/TiO2 aggregates exhibit good adsorption capacity with caffeine and a maximum adsorbed amount of 353 mg.g−1. Photocatalytic experiments highlighted that AC/TiO2 presents a photo-oxidation ability. Photodegradation apparent kinetic rate fitted with a first-order law gave a value of 1.04 × 10-5 s-1 for the composite and ten times higher for pure TiO2. These results allowed to conclude that mechanosynthesis is an effective route to produce bi-functional AC/TiO2 composites with efficient adsorption capacity for water treatment applications. It also suggests the need of further radiative transfer studies to understand light scattering and absorption inside these materials, which could lead to some improvement of these promising materials

An ensemble approach to assess hydrological models' contribution to uncertainties in the analysis of climate change impact on water resources

Over the recent years, several research efforts investigated the impact of climate change on water resources for different regions of the world. The projection of future river flows is affected by different sources of uncertainty in the hydro-climatic modelling chain. One of the aims of the QBic<sup>3</sup> project (Québec-Bavarian International Collaboration on Climate Change) is to assess the contribution to uncertainty of hydrological models by using an ensemble of hydrological models presenting a diversity of structural complexity (i.e., lumped, semi distributed and distributed models). The study investigates two humid, mid-latitude catchments with natural flow conditions; one located in Southern Québec (Canada) and one in Southern Bavaria (Germany). Daily flow is simulated with four different hydrological models, forced by outputs from regional climate models driven by global climate models over a reference (1971–2000) and a future (2041–2070) period. The results show that, for our hydrological model ensemble, the choice of model strongly affects the climate change response of selected hydrological indicators, especially those related to low flows. Indicators related to high flows seem less sensitive on the choice of the hydrological model

Etude structurale de la formation des sols et des gels de zircone en presence d'ultrasons

Available from INIST (FR), Document Supply Service, under shelf-number : T 83050 / INIST-CNRS - Institut de l'Information Scientifique et TechniqueSIGLEFRFranc

Relaxor behaviour and phase transition of perovskite ferroelectrics-type complex oxides (1–x)Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3–xCaTiO3 system

Abstract Polycrystalline powders of (1–x)Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3–xCaTiO3 ((1–x)NBT–xCT, 0 ≤ x ≤ 0.55) have been synthesized by solid state route. The effects of simultaneous substitution of Na+/Bi3+ at A-site in NBT on structural and dielectric properties were investigated. X-ray diffraction analysis revealed the phase transition from rhombohedral structure (x = 0) to orthorhombic structure (x ≥ 0.15). A distinct behaviour in dielectric properties was obtained, where for x = 0, a normal ferroelectric behaviour was observed, whereas for x ≥ 0.15, a broad dielectric anomaly was revealed such that the maximum temperature (T m) strongly depended on the frequency and shifted towards low temperature with CT. The dielectric dispersion indicated a relaxor behaviour revealed by the degree of diffuseness and modelled via Vogel–Fulcher relation. The study highlighted the relaxor behaviour as a function of frequency and proved the transformation from a relaxor high-frequency dependence to a paraelectric phase at temperature T s. The distinct variation of the Raman spectra at room temperature was correlated with X-ray diffraction results and proved the already mentioned transition. On heating (-193–500 °C), the Raman spectra confirmed the structural stability (Pnma) of the materials. The phonon behaviour for x = 0.15 was discussed in terms of the appearance of polar nanoregions (PNRs) into a non-polar orthorhombic matrix responsible of the relaxor behaviour. For x = 0.20, unchanged phonon behaviour confirmed the variation in dielectric behaviour where the solids transformed from a relaxor to a paraelectric state without structural phase transition

Partial cation-substitution in the sulphide kesterite: Absorber and heterojunction engineering

International audienceThe kesterite-based solar cells still suffer from a low conversion efficiency due to the large defect of the open circuit voltage Voc. This defect is mainly due to several problems related to the absorber material and the device interfaces. It has been reported that the partial cation substitution in the kesterite structure, can improve many properties of the absorbent layer and the device, i.e. improve the grain size, minimise the anti-site defects and disorder in the Cu-Zn plane, ameliorate the charge separation at the buffer/absorber interface. In this work, thin films of suphide kesterite are made by substituting copper (Cu) with silver (Ag) and zinc with manganese (Mn) or cadmium (Cd). Different concentrations have been applied to explain the influence of the chemical composition on the properties. The films were layered on glass substrate from colloidal solution by spin coating technique followed by heat treatment under sulphide. The p-n junctions were made by chemical bath (CBD) deposition of CdS on the kesterite thin films. An in-depth study by XPS has been applied to determine the band alignment through the heterojunctions. By this work, we have been able to evaluate experimentally the electronic properties of the Kesterite alloy with different cations and to validate this strategy to reduce the heterointerfaces recombination