Origine et impact du chenal Tchad-Cameroun sur la propagation de Chromolaena odorata (L.) R. M. King and H. Robinson (Asteraceae) de Meiganga à Touboro

L’objectif de ce travail est de déterminer l’origine et les effets du chenal Tchad-Cameroun sur la propagation de Chromolaena odorata, Asteraceae, considérée comme mauvaise herbe dans la zone d’étude. La méthodologie suivie a comporté trois étapes : la prospection générale de la zone d’étude, le choix des itinéraires d’étude et la confection des relevés floristiques de Chromolaena odorata. L’espèce héliophile est présente dans toute la zone d’étude. Dans l’itinéraire 1, de Garoua Boulaï à Meiganga (Centrafrique vers Cameroun), l’abondance-dominance et le recouvrement moyen ont des maxima. Les indices d’abondancedominance et de recouvrement moyen élevés hors chenal dans cet itinéraire justifient l’origine centrafricaine de cette espèce, d’où le nom commun de « bokassa » utilisée par les populations pour la désigner. De Meiganga à Mbaï-mboum (itinéraire 2), Chromolaena odorata recouvre également plus de 3/4 de la surface et les individus occupent 87,5% de cet itinéraire. De Mbaï-mboum à Ngaoundéré (itinéraire 3), les deux indices décroissent simultanément montrant l’influence du chenal sur la résurgence et l’importance de Chromolaena odorata. Les méthodes culturales utilisées pour éradiquer C. odorata sont la coupe des tiges de la plante associée à un dessouchage des organes souterrains.Mots clés : Chromolaena odorata, origine, impact, chenal, propagatio

Controlled release of human growth hormone fused with a human hybrid Fc fragment through a nanoporous polymer membrane

Nanotechnology has been applied to the development of more effective and compatible drug delivery systems for therapeutic proteins. Human growth hormone (hGH) was fused with a hybrid Fc fragment containing partial Fc domains of human IgD and IgG(4) to produce a long-acting fusion protein. The fusion protein, hGH-hyFc, resulted in the increase of the hydrodynamic diameter (ca. 11 nm) compared with the diameter (ca. 5 nm) of the recombinant hGH. A diblock copolymer membrane with nanopores (average diameter of 14.3 nm) exhibited a constant release rate of hGH-hyFc. The hGH-hyFc protein released in a controlled manner for one month was found to trigger the phosphorylation of Janus kinase 2 (JAK2) in human B lymphocyte and to exhibit an almost identical circular dichroism spectrum to that of the original hGH-hyFc, suggesting that the released fusion protein should maintain the functional and structural integrity of hGH. Thus, the nanoporous release device could be a potential delivery system for the long-term controlled release of therapeutic proteins fused with the hybrid Fc fragment.X111313sciescopu

The effect of moving to East Village, the former London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games Athletes' Village, on mode of travel (ENABLE London study, a natural experiment)

Background Interventions to encourage active modes of travel (walking, cycling) may improve physical activity levels, but longitudinal evidence is limited and major change in the built environment / travel infrastructure may be needed. East Village (the former London 2012 Olympic Games Athletes Village) has been repurposed on active design principles with improved walkability, open space and public transport and restrictions on residential car parking. We examined the effect of moving to East Village on adult travel patterns. Methods One thousand two hundred seventy-eight adults (16+ years) seeking to move into social, intermediate, and market-rent East Village accommodation were recruited in 2013–2015, and followed up after 2 years. Individual objective measures of physical activity using accelerometry (ActiGraph GT3X+) and geographic location using GPS travel recorders (QStarz) were time-matched and a validated algorithm assigned four travel modes (walking, cycling, motorised vehicle, train). We examined change in time spent in different travel modes, using multilevel linear regresssion models adjusting for sex, age group, ethnicity, housing group (fixed effects) and household (random effect), comparing those who had moved to East Village at follow-up with those who did not. Results Of 877 adults (69%) followed-up, 578 (66%) provided valid accelerometry and GPS data for at least 1 day (≥540 min) at both time points; half had moved to East Village. Despite no overall effects on physical activity levels, sizeable improvements in walkability and access to public transport in East Village resulted in decreased daily vehicle travel (8.3 mins, 95%CI 2.5,14.0), particularly in the intermediate housing group (9.6 mins, 95%CI 2.2,16.9), and increased underground travel (3.9 mins, 95%CI 1.2,6.5), more so in the market-rent group (11.5 mins, 95%CI 4.4,18.6). However, there were no effects on time spent walking or cycling

Lie detector

Novel, semicrystalline polyamides and copolyamides were synthesized from a new carbohydrate-based diamine, namely isoidide-2,5-dimethyleneamine (IIDMA). In combination with 1,6-hexamethylene diamine (1,6-HDA) as well as the biobased sebacic acid (SA) or brassylic acid (BrA), the desired copolyamides were obtained via melt polymerization of the nylon salts followed by a solid-state polycondensation (SSPC) process. Depending on the chemical compositions, the number average molecular weights (Mn) of the polyamides were in the range of 4000–49000 g/mol. With increasing IIDMA content in the synthesized copolyamides, their corresponding glass transition temperatures (Tg) increased from 50 °C to approximately 60–67 °C while the melting temperatures (Tm) decreased from 220 to 160 °C. The chemical structures of the polyamides were analyzed by NMR and FT-IR spectroscopy. Both differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) analyses revealed the semicrystalline character of these novel copolyamides. Variable-temperature (VT) 13C{1H} cross-polarization/magic-angle spinning (CP/MAS) NMR and FT-IR techniques were employed to study the crystal structures as well as the distribution of IIDMA moieties over the crystalline and amorphous phases of the copolyamides. The performed ab initio calculations reveal that the stability of the IIDMA moieties is due to a pronounced boat conformation of the bicyclic rings. The incorporation of methylene segments in between the isohexide group and the amide groups enables the hydrogen bonds formation and organization of the polymer chain fragments. Given the sufficiently high Tm values (200 °C) of the copolyamides containing less than 50% of IIDMA, these biobased semicrystalline copolyamides can be useful for engineering plastic applications

Archaeal Communities of Frozen Quaternary Sediments of Marine Origin on the Coast of Western Spitsbergen

The archaeal composition of permafrost samples taken during the drilling of frozen marine sediments in the area of the Barentsburg coal mine on the east coast of Grønfjord Bay of Western Spitsbergen has been studied. This study is based on an analysis of the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene, carried out using next-generation sequencing. The general phyla of the Archaea domain are Euryarchaeota, Bathyarchaeota, Thaumarchaeota, and Asgardarchaea. As a result of a phylogenetic analysis of the dominant operational taxonomic units, representatives of methanogenic and methane- and ammonium-oxidizing archaea, as well as heterotrophic archaea, are found. The methanogenic archaea of Euryarchaeota phylum, Methanobacteria class, are found in permafrost with controversial genesis, while the methane-oxidizing archaea of Methanomicrobia class Methanosarcinales order are found in the marine permafrost at Cape Finneset: the ANME-2a, -2b group in layers of 8.6 and 11.7 m and the ANME-2d group (Candidatus Methanoperedens) in a layer of 6.5 m. Ammonium-oxidizing archaea of phylum Thaumarchaeota is present in all types of permafrost, while the order of Nitrososphaerales is found in permafrost with controversial genesis and the order Nitrosopumilales is in permafrost with marine and controversial genesis. Representatives of phylum Bathyarchaeota are found stratigraphically in the most ancient samples under study. Asgardarchaeota superfylum is excluded in the layers of permafrost with marine genesis and is represented by the phyla Lokiarchaeota, Thorarchaeota, and an unclassified group belonging to this superphylum. The presence of methane, ethylene, and ethane in the permafrost of the first sea terrace of Cape Finneset at a depth of 11.7 m, as well as the composition of the archaeal community, give us reason to assume that, before freezing, microbiological processes of anaerobic methane oxidation took place in it, probably received from Tertiary rocks. The results of both this and previous works present the Spitsbergen permafrost as a rich archive of genetic information of little-studied prokaryotic groups

On electromagnetic interactions for massive mixed symmetry field

In this paper we investigate electromagnetic interactions for simplest massive mixed symmetry field. Using frame-like gauge invariant formulation we extend Fradkin-Vasiliev procedure, initially proposed for investigation of gravitational interactions for massless particles in AdS space, to the case of electromagnetic interactions for massive particles leaving in (A)dS space with arbitrary value of cosmological constant including flat Minkowski space. At first, as an illustration of general procedure, we re-derive our previous results on massive spin 2 electromagnetic interactions and then we apply this procedure to massive mixed symmetry field. These two cases are just the simplest representatives of two general class of fields, namely completely symmetric and mixed symmetry ones, and it is clear that the results obtained admit straightforward generalization to higher spins as well.Comment: 17 pages. Some clarifications added. Version to appear in JHE

Bacterial Communities of Frozen Quaternary Sediments of Marine Origin on the Coast of Western Spitsbergen

The bacterial composition of permafrost samples taken during drilling of frozen marine sediments in the area of Barentsburg coal mine on the east coast of Grønfjord Bay of Western Spitsbergen has been studied. The study was based on the analysis of the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene, carried out using next generation sequencing, as well as using classical microbiological methods (direct luminescence microscopy and aerobic cultivation).The total cell number in permafrost samples ranges from 6.73 ± 0.73 × 106 to 3.37 ± 0.19 107 cells per g. The number of cultivable aerobic bacteria in frozen samples on 1/5 TSA and R2A media ranges from 0 to 6.20 ± 0.45 × 104 CFU/g. Isolates of aerobic bacteria were identified by 16S rRNA gene analysis as representatives of the genera Arthrobacter, Pseudarthrobacter, Psychrobacter, and Rhodoferax. The dominant phyla of the domain Bacteria were Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, Chloroflexi, Nitrospirae and Firmicutes. As a result of phylogenetic analysis of the dominant operational taxonomic units, representatives of methane oxidizing, sulfate reducing bacteria, as well as heterotrophic bacteria involved in the transformation of organic matter were found

Spin 3 cubic vertices in a frame-like formalism

Till now most of the results on interaction vertices for massless higher spin fields were obtained in a metric-like formalism using completely symmetric (spin-)tensors. In this, the Lagrangians turn out to be very complicated and the main reason is that the higher the spin one want to consider the more derivatives one has to introduce. In this paper we show that such investigations can be greatly simplified if one works in a frame-like formalism. As an illustration we consider massless spin 3 particle and reconstruct a number of vertices describing its interactions with lower spin 2, 1 and 0 ones. In all cases considered we give explicit expressions for the Lagrangians and gauge transformations and check that the algebra of gauge transformations is indeed closed.Comment: 17 pades, no figure