Impact of sodium aluminate on the hydration process of alkali-activated ground granulated blast furnace slag

In the present investigation, the effect of the presence of highly soluble alumina source (sodium aluminate, NaAlO2) on Ground Granulated Blast furnace Slag (GGBS) hydration was considered. The GGBS was alkali-activated with sodium hydroxide (NaOH) or sodium carbonate (Na2CO3). The impact on the evolution on the setting time, hydration kinetics and strength development was first considered. In the case of NaOH-activated mixes, the presence of the alumina source led to the delay in setting and an extension of the induction period. The alumina additive led then to an extension of the workable time of the binder. For instance the initial setting time was extended from 30 min to more than 6 hours when adding 1% by weight of NaAlO2. The strength development was also significantly improved with addition of NaAlO2, both at early age and long term. In contrast, addition of NaAlO2 to the Na2CO3-activated mixes led to almost complete cessation of hydration (no measurable strength) within the whole dosage rate interval considered (0.1% to 2% of NaAlO2). Different techniques were used to investigate the impact of NaAlO2 on the hydration products development, including XRD, SEM image analysis and 27Al/29Si/23Na high-resolution NMR spectroscopy. It was found that the presence of the highly soluble alumina source led to rapid precipitation of Afm phases. It is suspected that, due to the low pH level in the case of the Na2CO3-activated mixes, the calcium ions are mainly distributed near the slag grain surfaces. The Afm phases may then mainly precipitate on the slag grains leading hydration blockage. Actually only Afm phases and Gaylussite were detected in the case of NaAlO2 blended Na2CO3-blended mixes

A Myc-regulated transcriptional network controls B-cell fate in response to BCR triggering

BACKGROUND: The B cell antigen receptor (BCR) is a signaling complex that mediates the differentiation of stage-specific cell fate decisions in B lymphocytes. While several studies have shown differences in signal transduction components as being key to contrasting phenotypic outcomes, little is known about the differential BCR-triggered gene transcription downstream of the signaling cascades. RESULTS: Here we define the transcriptional changes that underlie BCR-induced apoptosis and proliferation of immature and mature B cells, respectively. Comparative genome-wide expression profiling identified 24 genes that discriminated between the early responses of the two cell types to BCR stimulation. Using mice with a conditional Myc-deletion, we validated the microarray data by demonstrating that Myc is critical to promoting BCR-triggered B-cell proliferation. We further investigated the Myc-dependent molecular mechanisms and found that Myc promotes a BCR-dependent clonal expansion of mature B cells by inducing proliferation and inhibiting differentiation. CONCLUSION: This work provides the first comprehensive analysis of the early transcriptional events that lead to either deletion or clonal expansion of B cells upon antigen recognition, and demonstrates that Myc functions as the hub of a transcriptional network that control B-cell fate in the periphery

Anxiety onset in adolescents : a machine-learning prediction

Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s).Recent longitudinal studies in youth have reported MRI correlates of prospective anxiety symptoms during adolescence, a vulnerable period for the onset of anxiety disorders. However, their predictive value has not been established. Individual prediction through machine-learning algorithms might help bridge the gap to clinical relevance. A voting classifier with Random Forest, Support Vector Machine and Logistic Regression algorithms was used to evaluate the predictive pertinence of gray matter volumes of interest and psychometric scores in the detection of prospective clinical anxiety. Participants with clinical anxiety at age 18–23 (N = 156) were investigated at age 14 along with healthy controls (N = 424). Shapley values were extracted for in-depth interpretation of feature importance. Prospective prediction of pooled anxiety disorders relied mostly on psychometric features and achieved moderate performance (area under the receiver operating curve = 0.68), while generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) prediction achieved similar performance. MRI regional volumes did not improve the prediction performance of prospective pooled anxiety disorders with respect to psychometric features alone, but they improved the prediction performance of GAD, with the caudate and pallidum volumes being among the most contributing features. To conclude, in non-anxious 14 year old adolescents, future clinical anxiety onset 4–8 years later could be individually predicted. Psychometric features such as neuroticism, hopelessness and emotional symptoms were the main contributors to pooled anxiety disorders prediction. Neuroanatomical data, such as caudate and pallidum volume, proved valuable for GAD and should be included in prospective clinical anxiety prediction in adolescents.Peer reviewe

Genetic variations within human gained enhancer elements affect human brain sulcal morphology.

The expansion of the cerebral cortex is one of the most distinctive changes in the evolution of the human brain. Cortical expansion and related increases in cortical folding may have contributed to emergence of our capacities for high-order cognitive abilities. Molecular analysis of humans, archaic hominins, and non-human primates has allowed identification of chromosomal regions showing evolutionary changes at different points of our phylogenetic history. In this study, we assessed the contributions of genomic annotations spanning 30 million years to human sulcal morphology measured via MRI in more than 18,000 participants from the UK Biobank. We found that variation within brain-expressed human gained enhancers, regulatory genetic elements that emerged since our last common ancestor with Old World monkeys, explained more trait heritability than expected for the left and right calloso-marginal posterior fissures and the right central sulcus. Intriguingly, these are sulci that have been previously linked to the evolution of locomotion in primates and later on bipedalism in our hominin ancestors

Multiscale structure description of positon Emission tomography difference images

A method is presented here which aims at analyzing Positon Emission Tomography difference images . This method is based on a explicit description of the structure of the images. Positon Emission Tomography images are used to investigate the functional organisation of the brain, looking at the cerebral blood flow . The differences between two images from the same subject lead to th e changes of activity between two particular states . These differences, called "functional activations", are supposed to be specific o f a particular task . The aim is then to detect functional activations while preserving individual information, unlike classical statistica l methods which look mainly for the average information across several subjects . We then build a 3-dimensional linear scale-spac e from the original image. Objects are extracted at each level of scale in a fully-automatic way. Then they are linked across th e scales to get multi-scale objects in the scale-space . A vector of measures is associated to each of these multi-scale objects in order to characterize functional activations . We present a short study to determine the relevancy of these measures and the way the y can be used .Nous présentons ici une méthode d'analyse d'images de différence issues de la Tomographie par Emission de Positons (TEP) qui repose sur une description explicite de la structure de ces images. Les images TEP permettent, par l'intermédiaire du débit sanguin cérébral, de rendre compte de l'état fonctionnel du cerveau. En utilisant la différence entre deux images d'un même sujet, on essaye de déterminer les différences d'activité cérébrale entre deux états. Ces différences sont supposées être spécifiques d'une tâche isolée par la différence entre les deux états, et nous les appellerons « activations fonctionnelles ». L'objectif est donc de caractériser les activations fonctionnelles dans ces images de différence, tout en préservant l'information individuelle propre au sujet, ce qui n'est pas le cas des méthodes statistiques classiques, qui s'intéressent surtout à l'information moyenne sur l'ensemble des sujets. Un espace d'échelles (« scale-space ») linéaire tri-dimensionnel est d'abord construit à partir de l'image de différence originale, puis des objets sont extraits à chaque niveau d'échelle de manière entièrement automatique. ces objets sont ensuites liés dans les échelles pour former d'autres objets dans le scale-space. Des mesures sont alors définies et associées à chacun d'eux, afin de caractériser les activations fonctionnelles. Une étude sur la pertinence des objets définis et l'utilisation possible des mesures associées est présentée

Dermatologic findings in 16 patients with Cockayne syndrome and cerebro-oculo-facial-skeletal syndrome

IMPORTANCE: Cockayne syndrome (CS) and cerebro-oculo-facial-skeletal (COFS) syndrome are autosomal recessive diseases that belong to the family of nucleotide excision repair disorders. Our aim was to describe the cutaneous phenotype of patients with these rare diseases. OBSERVATIONS: A systematic dermatologic examination of 16 patients included in a European study of CS was performed. The patients were aged 1 to 28 years. Six patients (38%) had mutations in the Cockayne syndrome A (CSA) gene, and the remaining had Cockayne syndrome B (CSB) gene mutations. Fourteen patients were classified clinically as having CS and 2 as having COFS syndrome. Photosensitivity was present in 75% of the patients and was characterized by sunburn after brief sun exposure. Six patients developed symptoms after short sun exposure through a windshield. Six patients had pigmented macules on sun-exposed skin, but none developed a skin neoplasm. Twelve patients (75%) displayed cyanotic acral edema of the extremities. Eight patients had nail dystrophies and 7 had hair anomalies. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: The dermatologic findings of 16 cases of CS and COFS syndrome highlight the high prevalence of photosensitivity and hair and nail disorders. Cyanotic acral edema was present in 75% of our patients, a finding not previously reported in CS

Marker-assisted introgression of the salinity tolerance locus Saltol in temperate japonica rice

Background Rice is one of the most salt sensitive crops at seedling, early vegetative and reproductive stages. Varieties with salinity tolerance at seedling stage promote an efficient growth at early stages in salt affected soils, leading to healthy vegetative growth that protects crop yield. Saltol major QTL confers capacity to young rice plants growing under salt condition by maintaining a low Na+/ K+ molar ratio in the shoots. Results Marker-assisted backcross (MABC) procedure was adopted to transfer Saltol locus conferring salt tolerance at seedling stage from donor indica IR64-Saltol to two temperate japonica varieties, Vialone Nano and Onice. Forward and background selections were accomplished using polymorphic KASP markers and a final evaluation of genetic background recovery of the selected lines was conducted using 15,580 SNP markers obtained from Genotyping by Sequencing. Three MABC generations followed by two selfing, allowed the identification of introgression lines achieving a recovery of the recurrent parent (RP) genome up to 100% (based on KASP markers) or 98.97% (based on GBS). Lines with highest RP genome recovery (RPGR) were evaluated for agronomical-phenological traits in field under nonsalinized conditions. VN1, VN4, O1 lines were selected considering the agronomic evaluations and the RPGR% results as the most interesting for commercial exploitation. A physiological characterization was conducted by evaluating salt tolerance under hydroponic conditions. The selected lines showed lower standard evaluation system (SES) scores: 62% of VN4, and 57% of O1 plants reaching SES 3 or SES 5 respectively, while only 40% of Vialone Nano and 25% of Onice plants recorded scores from 3 to 5, respectively. VN1, VN4 and O1 showed a reduced electrolyte leakage values, and limited negative effects on relative water content and shoot/root fresh weight ratio. Conclusion The Saltol locus was successfully transferred to two elite varieties by MABC in a time frame of three years. The application of background selection until BC3F3 allowed the selection of lines with a RPGR up to 98.97%. Physiological evaluations for the selected lines indicate an improved salinity tolerance at seedling stage. The results supported the effectiveness of the Saltol locus in temperate japonica and of the MABC procedure for recovering of the RP favorable traits

Retrieving Aerosol Characteristics From the PACE Mission, Part 1: Ocean Color Instrument

NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Clouds, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) satellite mission is scheduled to launch in 2022, with the Ocean Color Instrument (OCI) on board. For the first time reflected sunlight from the Earth across a broad spectrum from the ultraviolet (UV: 350 nm) to the short wave infrared (SWIR: 2260 nm) will be measured from a single instrument at 1 km spatial resolution. While seven discrete bands will represent the SWIR, the spectrum from 350 to 890 nm will be continuously covered with a spectral resolution of 5 nm. OCI will thus combine in a single instrument (and at an enhanced spatial resolution for the UV) the heritage capabilities of the Moderate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI), while covering the oxygen A-band (O2A). Designed for ocean color and ocean biology retrievals, OCI also enables continuation of heritage satellite aerosol products and the development of new aerosol characterization from space. In particular the combination of MODIS and OMI characteristics allows deriving aerosol height, absorption and optical depth along with a measure of particle size distribution. This is achieved by using the traditional MODIS visible-to-SWIR wavelengths to constrain spectral aerosol optical depth and particle size. Extrapolating this information to the UV channels allows retrieval of aerosol absorption and layer height. A more direct method to derive aerosol layer height makes use of O2A absorption methods, despite the relative coarseness of the nominal 5 nm spectral resolution of OCI. Altogether the PACE mission with OCI will be an unprecedented opportunity for aerosol characterization that will continue climate data records from the past decades and propel aerosol science forward toward new opportunities

Social brain activation during mentalizing in a large autism cohort: The Longitudinal European Autism Project

Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition with key deficits in social functioning. It is widely assumed that the biological underpinnings of social impairment are neurofunctional alterations in the "social brain," a neural circuitry involved in inferring the mental state of a social partner. However, previous evidence comes from small-scale studies and findings have been mixed. We therefore carried out the to-date largest study on neural correlates of mentalizing in ASD. Methods: As part of the Longitudinal European Autism Project, we performed functional magnetic resonance imaging at six European sites in a large, well-powered, and deeply phenotyped sample of individuals with ASD (N = 205) and typically developing (TD) individuals (N = 189) aged 6 to 30 years. We presented an animated shapes task to assess and comprehensively characterize social brain activation during mentalizing. We tested for effects of age, diagnosis, and their association with symptom measures, including a continuous measure of autistic traits. Results: We observed robust effects of task. Within the ASD sample, autistic traits were moderately associated with functional activation in one of the key regions of the social brain, the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex. However, there were no significant effects of diagnosis on task performance and no effects of age and diagnosis on social brain responses. Besides a lack of mean group differences, our data provide no evidence for meaningful differences in the distribution of brain response measures. Extensive control analyses suggest that the lack of case-control differences was not due to a variety of potential confounders. Conclusions: Contrary to prior reports, this large-scale study does not support the assumption that altered social brain activation during mentalizing forms a common neural marker of ASD, at least with the paradigm we employed. Yet, autistic individuals show socio-behavioral deficits. Our work therefore highlights the need to interrogate social brain function with other brain measures, such as connectivity and network-based approaches, using other paradigms, or applying complementary analysis approaches to assess individual differences in this heterogeneous condition

Epigenetic variance in dopamine D2 receptor: A marker of IQ malleability?

Genetic and environmental factors both contribute to cognitive test performance. A substantial increase in average intelligence test results in the second half of the previous century within one generation is unlikely to be explained by genetic changes. One possible explanation for the strong malleability of cognitive performance measure is that environmental factors modify gene expression via epigenetic mechanisms. Epigenetic factors may help to understand the recent observations of an association between dopamine-dependent encoding of reward prediction errors and cognitive capacity, which was modulated by adverse life events. The possible manifestation of malleable biomarkers contributing to variance in cognitive test performance, and thus possibly contributing to the “missing heritability” between estimates from twin studies and variance explained by genetic markers, is still unclear. Here we show in 1475 healthy adolescents from the IMaging and GENetics (IMAGEN) sample that general IQ (gIQ) is associated with (1) polygenic scores for intelligence, (2) epigenetic modification of DRD2 gene, (3) gray matter density in striatum, and (4) functional striatal activation elicited by temporarily surprising reward-predicting cues. Comparing the relative importance for the prediction of gIQ in an overlapping subsample, our results demonstrate neurobiological correlates of the malleability of gIQ and point to equal importance of genetic variance, epigenetic modification of DRD2 receptor gene, as well as functional striatal activation, known to influence dopamine neurotransmission. Peripheral epigenetic markers are in need of confirmation in the central nervous system and should be tested in longitudinal settings specifically assessing individual and environmental factors that modify epigenetic structure