The ANTENATAL multicentre study to predict postnatal renal outcome in fetuses with posterior urethral valves: objectives and design

Abstract Background Posterior urethral valves (PUV) account for 17% of paediatric end-stage renal disease. A major issue in the management of PUV is prenatal prediction of postnatal renal function. Fetal ultrasound and fetal urine biochemistry are currently employed for this prediction, but clearly lack precision. We previously developed a fetal urine peptide signature that predicted in utero with high precision postnatal renal function in fetuses with PUV. We describe here the objectives and design of the prospective international multicentre ANTENATAL (multicentre validation of a fetal urine peptidome-based classifier to predict postnatal renal function in posterior urethral valves) study, set up to validate this fetal urine peptide signature. Methods Participants will be PUV pregnancies enrolled from 2017 to 2021 and followed up until 2023 in >30 European centres endorsed and supported by European reference networks for rare urological disorders (ERN eUROGEN) and rare kidney diseases (ERN ERKNet). The endpoint will be renal/patient survival at 2 years postnatally. Assuming α = 0.05, 1–β = 0.8 and a mean prevalence of severe renal outcome in PUV individuals of 0.35, 400 patients need to be enrolled to validate the previously reported sensitivity and specificity of the peptide signature. Results In this largest multicentre study of antenatally detected PUV, we anticipate bringing a novel tool to the clinic. Based on urinary peptides and potentially amended in the future with additional omics traits, this tool will be able to precisely quantify postnatal renal survival in PUV pregnancies. The main limitation of the employed approach is the need for specialized equipment. Conclusions Accurate risk assessment in the prenatal period should strongly improve the management of fetuses with PUV

Laminar plume formation by high pressure CO2

International audienc

Double Emulsions Stabilized by PGPR and Arabic Gum as Capsules: The Surprising Stabilizing Role of Inner Droplets

The encapsulation efficiency and stability over time of either vitamin B12, a model hydrophilic drug, or an aqueous suspension of Cydia pomonella granulovirus (CpGV), which is a biopesticide, using a water-in-sunflower oil-in-water (W1/O/W2) double emulsion, are studied. Two antagonistic stabilizers are used to prepare the double emulsion: the mainly lipophilic polyglycerol polyricinoleate (PGPR) and the mainly hydrophilic polysaccharide Arabic gum (AG). Combining ultraviolet–visible (UV–visible) titration, rheology, and oil globule size measurement allows assessing drug release, emulsion elasticity, and globule evolution as a function of time. A stability diagram is plotted as a function of two determining parameters: the nonadsorbed PGPR concentration in the oil and the inner water droplet fraction. To understand the presence of the nonstability domains, the influence of the two identified parameters on the outermost interfacial tension is examined. Surprisingly, the inner water drop volume fraction exhibits a stabilizing phenomenon that is discussed in terms of interfacial shielding to PGPR adsorption

Shear-Induced Instabilities in Oil-in-Water Emulsions Comprising Partially Crystallized Droplets

We produced triglyceride-in-water emulsions comprising semicrystallized droplets, stabilized by a mixture of protein and low molecular weight surfactant. In these systems, partial (unrelaxed) coalescence could be produced by a thermal treatment referred to as tempering or by the application of a shear. Both primary emulsions and thermally induced gels were submitted to shear strains of variable amplitude, and the resulting transitions were identified. Partial or total destruction of the materials took place and was revealed by the formation of macroscopic clumps. We examined the impact of the initial average droplet size and of the interface composition (controlled by the bulk surfactant-to-protein molar ratio) on the sensitivity to partial coalescence. The evolution under shear occurred via two limiting mechanisms, depending on the susceptibility to partial coalescence. Materials that exhibited fast partial coalescence underwent gelling followed by phase inversion and partial expulsion of the aqueous phase. Alternatively, when the rate of partial coalescence was quite low, large clumps were randomly distributed over the volume and coexisted with a fluid emulsion. The same phenomenology was observed under both oscillatory and steady shear conditions. Interestingly, in oscillatory conditions, clumping was observed above a very well-defined and reproducible value of the strain amplitude independent of the initial state of the system (emulsion or gel)

Impact of aging on the phase behavior of cocoa butter and copra oil blends

Aging of cocoa butter (CB)/copra oil (CO) binary blends (noted CB/CO) is investigated through a multi-technique approach. Indeed, the phase behavior of non-aged and 30 days-aged cocoa butter/copra oil binary blends (CB/CO) at 4°C is studied, using a combination of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD). During subsequent heating from 4°C to 40°C, solid fat content depression between 15°C and 20°C is shown with NMR, with the most pronounced occurring at two different compositions for the non-aged (60% CO addition in CB) and for the 30 days-aged mixtures (80% CO addition in CB). In agreement, DSC exposes melting enthalpy and melting temperature depression for the aged-blend 80/20 CB/CO. XRD highlights fat interactions at the nanoscopic scale and allows the precise attribution of polymorphic transitions perceived with DSC. The melt-mediated transformation of CB crystals from β'2-2L to β2-3L is shown in non-aged blends containing 0% to 10% of CO in CB, whereas it is shown to occur in blends containing 0% to 60% CO in CB for the 30 days aged-blends. As a result of this study, all the results obtained with the various methods are used to build the very first complete pseudo-phase diagram of 4°C-aged CB/CO blends, it highlights the shift of the eutectic points after 30 days of storage. We think that such a fundamental work can bring new understanding of a well-known issue as encountered in chocolate-based products storage

Interfacial rheology of model water-air microgels laden interfaces: effect of cross-linking

International audienceHypothesis The mechanical properties of model air/water interfaces covered by poly(Nisopropylacrylamide) microgels depend on the microgels deformability or in other words on the amount of cross-linker added during synthesis.Experiments The study is carried out by measuring the apparent dilational, the compression and the shear moduli using three complementary methods: 1) the pendant drop method with perturbative areas, 2) the Langmuir trough compression, and 3) shear rheology using a double wall ring cell mounted onto a Langmuir through.Findings In the range of surface coverages studied, the interfaces exhibit a solid-like behavior and elasticity goes through a maximum as a function of the surface pressure. This is observable whatever the investigation method. This maximum elasticity depends on the microgel deformability: the softer the microgels the higher the value of the moduli. The mechanical behavior of model interfaces is discussed, taking into account the core-shell structure of the particles and their packing at the interface

Formulation of concentrated oil-in-water-in-oil double emulsions for fragrance encapsulation

We report the formulation of a concentrated double oil-in-water-in-oil (O/W/O) emulsion for fragrance encapsulation.As their water-in-oil-in-water homologous, these O/W/O emulsions, seldom described in literature, also require the use of two antagonist surfactants: a hydrophilic one (HS) to stabilize the fragrance-inwater droplets and a lipophilic one (LS) to stabilize the aqueous globules dispersed in oil, containing themselves the direct emulsion. An important issue in cosmetics is the necessity to adapt the formulation to each fragrance, so that a major progress would be the successful elaboration of an O/W/O emulsion insensitive to fragrance changes. In order to approach such a composition, two model fragrances composed of 10 and 13 molecules representative of the most used molecules in this domain were specially assembled for the study. The aim was to identify possible hydrophilic and lipophilic stabilizers leading to a double O/W/O emulsionsand determine compositions able to encapsulate both fragrances. The double emulsion was prepared by a twostepprocess, allowing varying the double emulsion composition i.e the amount of both surfactants as well asthe quantity of droplets inside the globules. By plotting “feasibility diagrams” we can propose a best compositionshared by the two fragrances. Such a double emulsion is composed of 20 wt% of fragrance dropletswith respect to the globule volume, 75 wt% of globules with respect to the total emulsion, 7.5 wt% of HS withrespect to the intermediate aqueous phase and 10 wt% of LS with respect to external oil phase. The robustnessof this optimized composition against molecule changes was tested using a third fragrance. Then the encapsulatedefficiency was measured showing the high encapsulation rate (close to 99 %) of the selected system

Isolation and characterization of different promising fungi for biological waste management of polyurethanes

International audienceAs a highly resistant polymer family, polyurethanes (PU) are responsible for increasing environmental issues. Then, PU biodegradation is a challenging way to develop sustainable waste management processes based on biological recycling. Since the metabolic diversity of fungi is a major asset for polymer degradation, nearly thirty strains were isolated from sampling on six different PU wastes-containing environments. A screening of the fungi on four thermoplastic PU (TPU) with different macromolecular architectures led to the selection of three strains able to use two polyester PU as sole carbon source: Alternaria sp., Penicillium section Lanata-Divaricata and Aspergillus section flavi. Weight loss, FT-IR, Scanning Electron Microscopy and Size Exclusion Chromatography analyses revealed that these three fungi degrade slightly and similarly a fatty acid dimer-based TPU while variability of degradation was noticed on a polycaprolactone-based TPU. On this last TPU, robust analysis of the degraded polymers showed that the Penicillium strain was the best degrading microorganism. Membrane enzymes seemed to be involved in this degradation. It is the first time that a strain of Penicillium of the section Lanata-Divaricata displaying PU biodegradation ability is isolated. These newly discovered fungi are promising for the development of polyester PU waste management process

Bitumen@SiO2 core-shell particles green synthesis towards flowable powdered bitumen and their binder applications

International audienceMineralization of flocculated bitumen emulsions allows producing bitumen powders, also referred to as Bitumen@SiO2 hybrid particles, that can resist storage in hard conditions, with a load up to 8 kPa at 50 °C during 20 h, without alteration of their morphology or release of their bitumen core. Thanks to the flocculation, final Bitumen@SiO2 powders are not highly pulverulent and allow transportation and handling of bitumen at ambienttemperature without the need of water as it is the case for bitumen emulsions. This “water free” storage particularity exhibits the double advantage of reducing the cost of transport and of avoiding inhibition of bitumen adhesion at mineral aggregates through the presence of water, therefore rendering the bitumen its high quality of binder. The silica shell is responsible for the high storage stability and, when mixed with aggregates for enduse of asphalt, as for example in pavement applications, serves as mineral charge to the bitumen, modifying the bitumen flow properties. Indeed, when heated at 100 °C and crushed, the capsules break releasing thus the bitumen. This suspension made of bitumen and silica shell fragments exhibits an interesting shear-thinning behavior that can be attributed to the presence of the remnant fragments. Indeed, when shell fragments havebeen transferred into a silicon oil, initially exhibiting a Newtonian behavior, the mixture of fragments and oil also exhibited a shear thinning rheogram demonstrating the effect of the silica shell fragments. The benefit of such a behavior modification is the possibility to reduce or avoid the usual addition of fillers. Passive adhesion has been tested by generating asphalt concretes with Bitumen@SiO2 powders and showed high stability

Pickering Emulsions: What Are the Main Parameters Determining the Emulsion Type and Interfacial Properties?

We synthesized surface-active lipophilic core−hydrophilic shell latex particles, and we probed their efficiency as emulsion stabilizers. The relative weight percentage of the shell, RS/P, was varied to trigger the balance between lipophilicity and hydrophilicity of the particles. Particle wettability could concomitantly be tuned by the pH of the aqueous phase determining the surface charge. Emulsions covering a wide range of RS/P and pH values were fabricated, and their type, oil-inwater (O/W) or water-in-oil (W/O), and kinetic stability weresystematically assessed. By adapting the particle gel trapping technique to pH-variable systems and by exploiting the limited coalescence process, we were able to determine the proportion of oil/water interfacial area, C, covered by the particles as well as their contact angle, θ. All of these data were gathered into a single generic diagram showing good correlation between the emulsion type and the particle contact angle (O/W for θ 90°) in agreement with the empirical Finkle rule....