Impact of earthworm activity on the chemical fertility of irrigated soil with urban effluents

The reuse of urban effluents to irrigate the soils of peri-urban grasslands in the vicinity of the town of Setif (northeastern Algeria) is an old and widespread practice. In this context, the present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of the irrigation with urban effluents on the biological and chemical behavior of soils. Effluents analysis showed significant organic and particulate pollution, the latter contributed to earthworm abundance and increased the richness of irrigated soils with nutrients. The analysis of turricules revealed the role of earthworms through the activity of bioturbation in the increase of the rate of organic matter as well as in the bioavailability of the nutrients of the irrigated soils. In space, permanent vegetation cover has played an important role as a biofilter. This was confirmed by the inter-site differences recorded through the measured variables particularly organic ones.Keywords: Natural grasslands, urban effluents, earthworm activity, turricles, organic matte

Speech Audio Synthesis from Tagged MRI and Non-Negative Matrix Factorization via Plastic Transformer

The tongue's intricate 3D structure, comprising localized functional units, plays a crucial role in the production of speech. When measured using tagged MRI, these functional units exhibit cohesive displacements and derived quantities that facilitate the complex process of speech production. Non-negative matrix factorization-based approaches have been shown to estimate the functional units through motion features, yielding a set of building blocks and a corresponding weighting map. Investigating the link between weighting maps and speech acoustics can offer significant insights into the intricate process of speech production. To this end, in this work, we utilize two-dimensional spectrograms as a proxy representation, and develop an end-to-end deep learning framework for translating weighting maps to their corresponding audio waveforms. Our proposed plastic light transformer (PLT) framework is based on directional product relative position bias and single-level spatial pyramid pooling, thus enabling flexible processing of weighting maps with variable size to fixed-size spectrograms, without input information loss or dimension expansion. Additionally, our PLT framework efficiently models the global correlation of wide matrix input. To improve the realism of our generated spectrograms with relatively limited training samples, we apply pair-wise utterance consistency with Maximum Mean Discrepancy constraint and adversarial training. Experimental results on a dataset of 29 subjects speaking two utterances demonstrated that our framework is able to synthesize speech audio waveforms from weighting maps, outperforming conventional convolution and transformer models.Comment: MICCAI 2023 (Oral presentation

Discrete moving frames on lattice varieties and lattice based multispace

In this paper, we develop the theory of the discrete moving frame in two different ways. In the first half of the paper, we consider a discrete moving frame defined on a lattice variety and the equivalence classes of global syzygies that result from the first fundamental group of the variety. In the second half, we consider the continuum limit of discrete moving frames as a local lattice coalesces to a point. To achieve a well-defined limit of discrete frames, we construct multispace, a generalization of the jet bundle that also generalizes Olver’s one dimensional construction. Using interpolation to provide coordinates, we prove that it is a manifold containing the usual jet bundle as a submanifold. We show that continuity of a multispace moving frame ensures that the discrete moving frame converges to a continuous one as lattices coalesce. The smooth frame is, at the same time, the restriction of the multispace frame to the embedded jet bundle. We prove further that the discrete invariants and syzygies approximate their smooth counterparts. In effect, a frame on multispace allows smooth frames and their discretisations to be studied simultaneously. In our last chapter we discuss two important applications, one to the discrete variational calculus, and the second to discrete integrable systems. Finally, in an appendix, we discuss a more general result concerning equicontinuous families of discretisations of moving frames, which are consistent with a smooth frame

Pyrvinium Targets the Unfolded Protein Response to Hypoglycemia and Its Anti-Tumor Activity Is Enhanced by Combination Therapy

We identified pyrvinium pamoate, an old anthelminthic medicine, which preferentially inhibits anchorage-independent growth of cancer cells over anchorage-dependent growth (∼10 fold). It was also reported by others to have anti-tumor activity in vivo and selective toxicity against cancer cells under glucose starvation in vitro, but with unknown mechanism. Here, we provide evidence that pyrvinium suppresses the transcriptional activation of GRP78 and GRP94 induced by glucose deprivation or 2-deoxyglucose (2DG, a glycolysis inhibitor), but not by tunicamycin or A23187. Other UPR pathways induced by glucose starvation, e.g. XBP-1, ATF4, were also found suppressed by pyrvinium. Constitutive expression of GRP78 via transgene partially protected cells from pyrvinium induced cell death under glucose starvation, suggesting that suppression of the UPR is involved in pyrvinium mediated cytotoxicity under glucose starvation. Xenograft experiments showed rather marginal overall anti-tumor activity for pyrvinium as a monotherapy. However, the combination of pyrvinium and Doxorubicin demonstrated significantly enhanced efficacy in vivo, supporting a mechanistic treatment concept based on tumor hypoglycemia and UPR

Unfolded protein response in cancer: the Physician's perspective

The unfolded protein response (UPR) is a cascade of intracellular stress signaling events in response to an accumulation of unfolded or misfolded proteins in the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Cancer cells are often exposed to hypoxia, nutrient starvation, oxidative stress and other metabolic dysregulation that cause ER stress and activation of the UPR. Depending on the duration and degree of ER stress, the UPR can provide either survival signals by activating adaptive and antiapoptotic pathways, or death signals by inducing cell death programs. Sustained induction or repression of UPR pharmacologically may thus have beneficial and therapeutic effects against cancer. In this review, we discuss the basic mechanisms of UPR and highlight the importance of UPR in cancer biology. We also update the UPR-targeted cancer therapeutics currently in clinical trials

Blood lead, cadmium and mercury among children from urban, industrial and rural areas of Fez Boulemane Region (Morocco): Relevant factors and early renal effects

Objectives: To describe blood lead (Pb-B), cadmium (Cd-B) and mercury (Hg-B) levels in children living in urban, industrial and rural areas in Fez city (north of Morocco) and to identify the determinants and some renal effects of exposure. Material and Methods: The study was conducted from June 2007 to January 2008 in 209 school children (113 girls, 96 boys), aged 6-12 years, from urban, industrial and rural areas in Fez city. Interview and questionnaires data were obtained. Blood and urinary samples were analyzed. Results: The mean of blood lead levels (Pb-B) in our population was 55.53 μg/l (range: 7.5-231.1 μg/l). Children from the urban area had higher blood lead levels (BLLs) mean (82.36 μg/l) than children from industrial and rural areas (48.23 and 35.99 μg/l, respectively); with no significant difference between boys and girls. BLLs were associated with traffic intensity, passive smoking and infancy in the urban area. The mean of blood cadmium levels (BCLs) was 0.22 μg/l (range: 0.06-0.68 μg/l), with no difference between various areas. Rural boys had higher BCLs mean than rural girls, but no gender influence was noticed in the other areas. BCLs were associated with the number of cigarettes smoked at children's homes. The blood mercury levels (BMLs) mean was 0.49 μg/l (range: 0.01-5.31 μg/l). The BMLs mean was higher in urban and industrial areas than in the rural area with no gender-related difference. BMLs were associated with amalgam fillings and infancy in the urban area. About 8% of the children had BLLs ≥ 100 μg/l particularly in the urban area, microalbuminuria and a decrease in height were noticed in girls from the inner city of Fez and that can be related to high BLLs (89.45 μg/l). Conclusions: There is a need to control and regulate potential sources of contamination by these trace elements in children; particularly for lead

The James Webb Space Telescope Mission

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least $4m$. With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000 people realized that vision as the $6.5m$ James Webb Space Telescope. A generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of the mission, potentially as long as 20 years, and beyond. This report and the scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000 team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit.Comment: Accepted by PASP for the special issue on The James Webb Space Telescope Overview, 29 pages, 4 figure

Evaluating the effect of biochar addition on the anaerobic digestion of swine manure: application of Py-GC/MS

The anaerobic digestion process of swine manure was studied when char was used as supplement for improving performance. The use of pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS) was proposed for assessing the organic matter degradation. The assessment on biogas production was carried out using samples of swine manure (SM) supplemented with char in one case and pre-treated by microwave irradiation in the other. This experimental set-up allows for the comparison of the biological degradation observed under these two different configurations and therefore aids in understanding the effect of char particles on the process. Results showed similar performance for both systems, with an average improvement of 39% being obtained in methane production when compared to the single digestion of SM. The analysis of digestate samples by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and Py-GC/MS showed improved degradation of proteins, with the Py-GC/MS technique also capable of identifying an increase in microbial-derived material when char was added, therefore highlighting the relevant role of carbon conductive particles on biological systems. Py-GC/MS along with the use of FTIR spectroscopy has proven to be useful tools when evaluating anaerobic digestion