Recovery, assessment, and molecular characterization of minor olive genotypes in Tunisia

Olive is one of the oldest cultivated species in the Mediterranean Basin, including Tunisia, where it has a wide diversity, with more than 200 cultivars, of both wild and feral forms. Many minor cultivars are still present in marginal areas of Tunisia, where they are maintained by farmers in small local groves, but they are poorly characterized and evaluated. In order to recover this neglected germplasm, surveys were conducted in different areas, and 31 genotypes were collected, molecularly characterized with 12 nuclear microsatellite (simple sequence repeat (SSR)) markers, and compared with 26 reference cultivars present in the Tunisian National Olive collection. The analysis revealed an overall high genetic diversity of this olive’s germplasm, but also discovered the presence of synonymies and homonymies among the commercialized varieties. The structure analysis showed the presence of different gene pools in the analyzed germplasm. In particular, the marginal germplasm from Ras Jbal and Azmour is characterized by gene pools not present in commercial (Nurseries) varieties, pointing out the very narrow genetic base of the commercialized olive material in Tunisia, and the need to broaden it to avoid the risk of genetic erosion of this species in this country

Asymptotic Behavior for a Nematic Liquid Crystal Model with Different Kinematic Transport Properties

We study the asymptotic behavior of global solutions to hydrodynamical systems modeling the nematic liquid crystal flows under kinematic transports for molecules of different shapes. The coupling system consists of Navier-Stokes equations and kinematic transport equations for the molecular orientations. We prove the convergence of global strong solutions to single steady states as time tends to infinity as well as estimates on the convergence rate both in 2D for arbitrary regular initial data and in 3D for certain particular cases

Principles of environmentally-sustainable anaesthesia: a global consensus statement from the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists

The Earth’s mean surface temperature is already approximately 1.1°C higher than pre-industrial levels. Exceeding a mean 1.5°C rise by 2050 will make global adaptation to the consequences of climate change less possible. To protect public health, anaesthesia providers need to reduce the contribution their practice makes to global warming. We convened a Working Group of 45 anaesthesia providers with a recognised interest in sustainability, and used a three-stage modified Delphi consensus process to agree on principles of environmentally sustainable anaesthesia that are achievable worldwide. The Working Group agreed on the following three important underlying statements: patient safety should not be compromised by sustainable anaesthetic practices; high-, middle- and low-income countries should support each other appropriately in delivering sustainable healthcare (including anaesthesia); and healthcare systems should be mandated to reduce their contribution to global warming. We set out seven fundamental principles to guide anaesthesia providers in the move to environmentally sustainable practice, including: choice of medications and equipment; minimising waste and overuse of resources; and addressing environmental sustainability in anaesthetists’ education, research, quality improvement and local healthcare leadership activities. These changes are achievable with minimal material resource and financial investment, and should undergo re-evaluation and updates as better evidence is published. This paper discusses each principle individually, and directs readers towards further important references

Exploiting Mitochondrial Dysfunction for Effective Elimination of Imatinib-Resistant Leukemic Cells

Challenges today concern chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients resistant to imatinib. There is growing evidence that imatinib-resistant leukemic cells present abnormal glucose metabolism but the impact on mitochondria has been neglected. Our work aimed to better understand and exploit the metabolic alterations of imatinib-resistant leukemic cells. Imatinib-resistant cells presented high glycolysis as compared to sensitive cells. Consistently, expression of key glycolytic enzymes, at least partly mediated by HIF-1α, was modified in imatinib-resistant cells suggesting that imatinib-resistant cells uncouple glycolytic flux from pyruvate oxidation. Interestingly, mitochondria of imatinib-resistant cells exhibited accumulation of TCA cycle intermediates, increased NADH and low oxygen consumption. These mitochondrial alterations due to the partial failure of ETC were further confirmed in leukemic cells isolated from some imatinib-resistant CML patients. As a consequence, mitochondria generated more ROS than those of imatinib-sensitive cells. This, in turn, resulted in increased death of imatinib-resistant leukemic cells following in vitro or in vivo treatment with the pro-oxidants, PEITC and Trisenox, in a syngeneic mouse tumor model. Conversely, inhibition of glycolysis caused derepression of respiration leading to lower cellular ROS. In conclusion, these findings indicate that imatinib-resistant leukemic cells have an unexpected mitochondrial dysfunction that could be exploited for selective therapeutic intervention

Clorose férrica induzida pelo calcário

Iron chlorosis is one of the most common and difficult to control problems in crops grown on calcareous soils. In alkaline soils, which represent one third of the Earth surface, the bicarbonate ion prevails and is a major induction factor of iron chlorosis. As a result, alkalinity limits Fe bioavailability in the soil solution, Fe reduction and assimilation, as well as transport and uptake within the plant. Due to this nutritional imbalance, plants develop different response strategies which are not entirely successful on calcareous soils. In consequence, yield, fruit quality and harvesting season are negatively affected. Preventing and treating iron chlorosis is highly costly, but is inevitable, in order to ensure crop sustainability in regions where soil calcium carbonate and aridity are limiting factors. In this work, we present a short overview of Fe dynamics in calcareous soils and its influence on crop productivit

Visual Eco-Routing (VER): XGBoost Based Eco-Route Selection From Road Scenes and Vehicle Emissions

Traffic-related pollution significantly contributes to environmental degradation. The escalating demand for vehicles, coupled with consumer preferences for larger utility vehicles, poses a challenge to achieving targeted carbon emission reductions in common fleet vehicles. To address the inefficiencies in existing route planning methods, this paper introduces a novel eco-routing approach known as Visual Eco-Routing (VER). VER is designed to understand the non-linear relationships between road scenes and emissions data, providing a comprehensive insight into the real-time dynamics of roads and their influence on vehicle performance characteristics. On-road experimental cycles are conducted to gather data, creating a new dataset called the Vehicle Activity Dataset (VAD). To assess viability of the VER approach, a model named VER-XGB based on eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) is proposed. Performance comparisons are made by individual training and benchmarking three selected models, both without VER association and separately with VER association. The comparison reveals significantly lower prediction errors in models with VER, with VER-XGB exhibiting enhanced reliability, yielding MAPE of 4.83% with VAD. Additionally, an aggregate factor termed the emission factor is introduced to explore the correlation between emission gases and distinct groups of visual features defined in the study. The analysis indicates a high correlation between infrastructure features such as traffic signals and stop signs on the road and vehicle emissions. Concluding the study, a qualitative examination is undertaken to evaluate the real-world applicability of the model by predicting an eco-route for a given origin and destination pair. The MAPE for this route for predictions from VER-XGB is found to be 6.21%, affirming the practical utility of the proposed VER-XGB model in real-world scenarios

Nutrient demand prediction model in peach trees

1 .pdf (1 Tabl.) copia del Póster original presentado por los autores en el Meeting.Nutrient deficiencies occur in most areas devoted to agricultural practices, causing major losses to farmers. For instance, Fe deficiency in fruit trees growing in calcareous soils leads to decreases in fruit quality, yield and also to early tree death. Nutritional disorders in crops are corrected by adding mineral elements in standard routine treatments, often ignoring the real nutritional status of trees. Thereby, application of fertilisers on a regular basis can lead to an excess of available nutrients in relation to the real nutrient demand of crops. Such nutrient surplus can be either immobilised in the soil or leached, and can consequently contaminate superficial and underground waters. Therefore, our knowledge about nutrient budgets in fruit tree crops should be improved.This study was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Project AGL2006-1416, co-financed with FEDER), the European Commission (Project Isafruit, Thematic Priority 5-Food Quality and Safety, 6th Framework RTD Programme, Contract no. FP6-FOOD-CT-2006-016279), AECID (Project A/8333/07) and DGA (Group 03).Peer reviewe

Nutrient (including iron) demand model in peach trees

1 .pdf copia del póster original presentado por los autores al Simposio Internacional. Se acompaña de 1 .pdf copia del resumen oficial.Nutrient deficiencies occur in most areas devoted to agricultural practices, causing major losses to farmers. For instance, Fe deficiency in fruit trees growing in calcareous soils leads to decreases in fruit quality, yield and to early tree death. Nutritional disorders in crops are often corrected by adding mineral elements in standard routine treatments, often ignoring the real nutritional status of trees. Thereby, application of fertilisers on a regular basis can lead to an excess of available nutrients in relation to the real nutrient demand of crops. Such nutrient surplus can be either immobilised in the soil or leached, and can consequently contaminate superficial and underground waters. Therefore, our knowledge about nutrient budgets in fruit tree crops should be improved. This work is aimed to estimate the amounts of macro- (N, P, K Ca and Mg), and micro-elements (Fe, Cu, Zn and Mn) needed during a vegetative season by peach trees, by developing and validating a nutrient uptake model. The model is being developed by using orchard characteristics as well as experimental data concerning biomass and nutrient concentration (pruning materials, flowers, fruits, leaves, trunk and root) and growth parameters easy to be measured in the field and related to biomass increase, such as trunk and rootstock diameter. The model is expected to be able to predict the amount of nutrients needed by trees using only growth parameters. The model will be validated and refined with data collected in further growth seasons. Two different peach orchards (Prunus persica L. Batsch) grown in calcareous soils in the Northeast of Spain are being used in this study. Both orchards were flood irrigated, but rootstocks, cultivars, number of trees, frames, tree age and tree dimensions were different in the two orchards used. The use of this kind of models is expected to permit optimization of the amount of fertilizers applied to the orchards, thereby minimizing costs and decreasing soil and water contamination.This study was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Education (projects AGL2006-1416 and AGL2007-61948, co-financed with FEDER), the European Commission (EU 6th Framework Integrated Project ISAFRUIT), and the Aragón Government (group A03).Peer reviewe

Kinetics of the dissolution of sand into alkaline solutions: application of a modified shrinking core model

International audienceThe batch dissolution kinetics of sand particles in concentrated alkaline sodium hydroxide solutions was investigated at high temperature and high pressure. The influence of the particle size, the operating temperature (150-220 degreesC) and the hydroxide ion molality on the kinetic rate were studied. Experimental data fit well into a developed model based on the shrinking core model approach in which a variable activation energy term was introduced. Kinetic analysis of the experimental results reveals that the associated energy and the rate-controlling mechanism are dependent upon both sample temperature as well as the extent of the reaction