222 research outputs found
Development of a Portable Device for Thermoelectrical Power Measurement—Application to the Inspection of Duplex Stainless Steel Components
Some cast components of the primary loop of French Pressurized Water Reactors are made of cast duplex stainless steels. The mechanical characteristics of these components, working in the temperature range from 285°C to 325°C, may be altered by thermal aging : the hardness of the materials increases whereas its toughness decreases with aging time and temperature. The metallurgical explanation of this phenomena is the unmixing of the ferritic Fe-Cr-Ni solid solution by spinodal decomposition and the precipitation of intermetallic G-phase particles rich in nickel and silicium [1]
Constitutive expression of clathrin hub hinders elicitor-induced clathrin-mediated endocytosis and defense gene expression in plant cells
AbstractEndocytosis has been recently implicated in the signaling network associated with the recognition of microbes by plants. In a previous study, we showed that the elicitor cryptogein was able to induce clathrin-mediated endocytosis (CME) in tobacco suspension cells. Herein, we investigate further the induced CME by means of a GFP-tagged clathrin light chain and a CME inhibitor, the hub domain of clathrin heavy chain. Hub constitutive expression does affect neither cell growth nor constitutive endocytosis but abolishes cryptogein-induced CME. Such an inhibition has no impact on early events in the cryptogein signaling pathway but reduces the expression of defense-associated genes
Accumulation of Immature Langerhans Cells in Human Lymph Nodes Draining Chronically Inflamed Skin
The coordinated migration and maturation of dendritic cells (DCs) such as intraepithelial Langerhans cells (LCs) is considered critical for T cell priming in response to inflammation in the periphery. However, little is known about the role of inflammatory mediators for LC maturation and recruitment to lymph nodes in vivo. Here we show in human dermatopathic lymphadenitis (DL), which features an expanded population of LCs in one draining lymph node associated with inflammatory lesions in its tributary skin area, that the Langerin/CD207+ LCs constitute a predominant population of immature DCs, which express CD1a, and CD68, but not CD83, CD86, and DC–lysosomal-associated membrane protein (LAMP)/CD208. Using LC-type cells generated in vitro in the presence of transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1, we further found that tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, as a prototype proinflammatory factor, and a variety of inflammatory stimuli and bacterial products, increase Langerin expression and Langerin dependent Birbeck granules formation in cell which nevertheless lack costimulatory molecules, DC–LAMP/CD208 and potent T cell stimulatory activity but express CCR7 and respond to the lymph node homing chemokines CCL19 and CCL21. This indicates that LC migration and maturation can be independently regulated events. We suggest that during DL, inflammatory stimuli in the skin increase the migration of LCs to the lymph node but without associated maturation. Immature LCs might regulate immune responses during chronic inflammation
Acclimation to short-term low temperatures in two Eucalyptus globulus clones with contrasting drought resistance
We tested the hypothesis that Eucalyptus
globulus Labill. genotypes that are more resistant to dry
environments might also exhibit higher cold tolerances
than drought-sensitive plants. The effect of low temperatures
was evaluated in acclimated and unacclimated
ramets of a drought-resistant clone (CN5) and a
drought-sensitive clone (ST51) of E. globulus. We
studied the plants’ response via leaf gas exchanges, leaf
water and osmotic potentials, concentrations of soluble
sugars, several antioxidant enzymes and leaf electrolyte
leakage. Progressively lowering air temperatures (from
24/16 to 10/ 2 C, day/night) led to acclimation of both
clones. Acclimated ramets exhibited higher photosynthetic
rates, stomatal conductances and lower membrane
relative injuries when compared to unacclimated ramets.
Moreover, low temperatures led to significant increases
of soluble sugars and antioxidant enzymes activity
(glutathione reductase, ascorbate peroxidase and superoxide
dismutases) of both clones in comparison to plants
grown at control temperature (24/16 C). On the other
hand, none of the clones, either acclimated or not,
exhibited signs of photoinhibition under low temperatures
and moderate light. The main differences in the
responses to low temperatures between the two clones
resulted mainly from differences in carbon metabolism,
including a higher accumulation of soluble sugars in the
drought-resistant clone CN5 as well as a higher capacity
for osmotic regulation, as compared to the droughtsensitive
clone ST51. Although membrane injury data
suggested that both clones had the same inherent
freezing tolerance before and after cold acclimation,
the results also support the hypothesis that the droughtresistant
clone had a greater cold tolerance at intermediate
levels of acclimation than the drought-sensitive
clone. A higher capacity to acclimate in a short period
can allow a clone to maintain an undamaged leaf surface
area along sudden frost events, increasing growt
The XMM-Newton Wide-Field Survey in the COSMOS field (XMM-COSMOS): demography and multiwavelength properties of obscured and unobscured luminous AGN
We report the final optical identifications of the medium-depth (~60 ksec),
contiguous (2 deg^2) XMM-Newton survey of the COSMOS field. XMM-Newton has
detected ~800 X-ray sources down to limiting fluxes of ~5x10^{-16},
~3x10^{-15}, and ~7x10^{-15} erg/cm2/s in the 0.5-2 keV, 2-10 keV and 5-10 keV
bands, respectively. The work is complemented by an extensive collection of
multi-wavelength data from 24 micron to UV, available from the COSMOS survey,
for each of the X-ray sources, including spectroscopic redshifts for ~50% of
the sample, and high-quality photometric redshifts for the rest. The XMM and
multiwavelength flux limits are well matched: 1760 (98%) of the X-ray sources
have optical counterparts, 1711 (~95%) have IRAC counterparts, and 1394 (~78%)
have MIPS 24micron detections. Thanks to the redshift completeness (almost
100%) we were able to constrain the high-luminosity tail of the X-ray
luminosity function confirming that the peak of the number density of
logL_X>44.5 AGN is at z~2. Spectroscopically-identified obscured and unobscured
AGN, as well as normal and starforming galaxies, present well-defined optical
and infrared properties. We devised a robust method to identify a sample of
~150 high redshift (z>1), obscured AGN candidates for which optical
spectroscopy is not available. We were able to determine that the fraction of
the obscured AGN population at the highest (L_X>10^{44} erg s^{-1}) X-ray
luminosity is ~15-30% when selection effects are taken into account, providing
an important observational constraint for X-ray background synthesis. We
studied in detail the optical spectrum and the overall spectral energy
distribution of a prototypical Type 2 QSO, caught in a stage transitioning from
being starburst dominated to AGN dominated, which was possible to isolate only
thanks to the combination of X-ray and infrared observations.Comment: ApJ, in press. 59 pages, 14 figures, 2 Tables. A few typos corrected
and a reference added. Table 2 is also available at
http://www.mpe.mpg.de/XMMCosmos/xmm53_release ; a version of the paper in ApJ
format (27 pages) is available at
http://www.mpe.mpg.de/XMMCosmos/xmm53_release/brusa_xmmcosmos_optid.pd
Hypofractionated radiotherapy has the potential for second cancer reduction
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background and Purpose</p> <p>A model for carcinoma and sarcoma induction was used to study the dependence of carcinogenesis after radiotherapy on fractionation.</p> <p>Materials and methods</p> <p>A cancer induction model for radiotherapy doses including fractionation was used to model carcinoma and sarcoma induction after a radiation treatment. For different fractionation schemes the dose response relationships were obtained. Tumor induction was studied as a function of dose per fraction.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>If it is assumed that the tumor is treated up to the same biologically equivalent dose it was found that large dose fractions could decrease second cancer induction. The risk decreases approximately linear with increasing fraction size and is more pronounced for sarcoma induction. Carcinoma induction decreases by around 10% per 1 Gy increase in fraction dose. Sarcoma risk is decreased by about 15% per 1 Gy increase in fractionation. It is also found that tissue which is irradiated using large dose fractions to dose levels lower than 10% of the target dose potentially develop less sarcomas when compared to tissues irradiated to all dose levels. This is not observed for carcinoma induction.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>It was found that carcinoma as well as sarcoma risk decreases with increasing fractionation dose. The reduction of sarcoma risk is even more pronounced than carcinoma risk. Hypofractionation is potentially beneficial with regard to second cancer induction.</p
Analysis of Brain Functional Connectivity by Frequent Pattern Mining in Graphs. Application to the Characterization of Murine Models
Precision photometric redshift calibration for galaxy-galaxy weak lensing
Accurate photometric redshifts are among the key requirements for precision weak lensing measurements. Both the large size of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and the existence of large spectroscopic redshift samples that are flux-limited beyond its depth have made it the optimal data source for developing methods to properly calibrate photometric redshifts for lensing. Here, we focus on galaxy-galaxy lensing in a survey with spectroscopic lens redshifts, as in the SDSS. We develop statistics that quantify the effect of source redshift errors on the lensing calibration and on the weighting scheme, and show how they can be used in the presence of redshift failure and sampling variance. We then demonstrate their use with 2838 source galaxies with spectroscopy from DEEP2 and zCOSMOS, evaluating several public photometric redshift algorithms, in two cases including a full p(z) for each object, and find lensing calibration biases as low as <1 per cent (due to fortuitous cancellation of two types of bias) or as high as 20 per cent for methods in active use (despite the small mean photoz bias of these algorithms). Our work demonstrates that lensing-specific statistics must be used to reliably calibrate the lensing signal, due to asymmetric effects of (frequently non-Gaussian) photoz errors. We also demonstrate that large-scale structure (LSS) can strongly impact the photoz calibration and its error estimation, due to a correlation between the LSS and the photoz errors, and argue that at least two independent degree-scale spectroscopic samples are needed to suppress its effects. Given the size of our spectroscopic sample, we can reduce the galaxy-galaxy lensing calibration error well below current SDSS statistical error
Precision photometric redshift calibration for galaxy–galaxy weak lensing
Accurate photometric redshifts are among the key requirements for precision weak lensing measurements. Both the large size of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and the existence of large spectroscopic redshift samples that are flux-limited beyond its depth have made it the optimal data source for developing methods to properly calibrate photometric redshifts for lensing. Here, we focus on galaxy–galaxy lensing in a survey with spectroscopic lens redshifts, as in the SDSS. We develop statistics that quantify the effect of source redshift errors on the lensing calibration and on the weighting scheme, and show how they can be used in the presence of redshift failure and sampling variance. We then demonstrate their use with 2838 source galaxies with spectroscopy from DEEP2 and zCOSMOS, evaluating several public photometric redshift algorithms, in two cases including a full p(z) for each object, and find lensing calibration biases as low as <1 per cent (due to fortuitous cancellation of two types of bias) or as high as 20 per cent for methods in active use (despite the small mean photoz bias of these algorithms). Our work demonstrates that lensing-specific statistics must be used to reliably calibrate the lensing signal, due to asymmetric effects of (frequently non-Gaussian) photoz errors. We also demonstrate that large-scale structure (LSS) can strongly impact the photoz calibration and its error estimation, due to a correlation between the LSS and the photoz errors, and argue that at least two independent degree-scale spectroscopic samples are needed to suppress its effects. Given the size of our spectroscopic sample, we can reduce the galaxy–galaxy lensing calibration error well below current SDSS statistical errors
Analyse de la connectivité fonctionnelle cérébrale de modèles murins par extraction de motifs fréquents dans des graphes
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