Histolocalization and physico-chemical characterization of dihydrochalcones: Insight into the role of apple major flavonoids

Flavonoids, like other metabolites synthesized via the phenylpropanoid pathway, possess a wide range of biological activities including functions in plant development and its interaction with the environment. Dihydrochalcones (mainly phloridzin, sieboldin, trilobatin, phloretin) represent the major flavonoid subgroup in apple green tissues. Although this class of phenolic compounds is found in very large amounts in some tissues (≈200 mg/g of leaf DW), their physiological significance remains unclear. In the present study, we highlight their tissue-specific localization in young growing shoots suggesting a specific role in important physiological processes, most notably in response to biotic stress. Indeed, dihydrochalcones could constitute a basal defense, in particular phloretin which exhibits a strong broad-range bactericidal and fungicidal activity. Our results also indicate that sieboldin forms complexes with iron with strong affinity, reinforcing its antioxidant properties and conferring to this dihydrochalcone a potential for iron seclusion and/or storage. The importance of localization and biochemical properties of dihydrochalcones are discussed in view of the apple tree defense strategy against both biotic and abiotic stresses

Cellular Skeletons: A New Approach to Topological Skeletons with Geometric Features

This paper introduces a new kind of skeleton for binary volumes called the cellular skeleton. This skeleton is not a subset of voxels of a volume nor a subcomplex of a cubical complex: it is a chain complex together with a reduction from the original complex. Starting from the binary volume we build a cubical complex which represents it regarding 6 or 26-connectivity. Then the complex is thinned using the proposed method based on elementary collapses, which preserves significant geometric features. The final step reduces the number of cells using Discrete Morse Theory. The resulting skeleton is a reduction which preserves the homology of the original complex and the geometrical information of the output of the previous step. The result of this method, besides its skeletonization content, can be used for computing the homology of the original complex, which usually provides well shaped homology generators

Genetic analysis of the breeding system of an invasive subterranean termite, Reticulitermes santonensis, in urban and natural habitats.

Reticulitermes santonensis is a subterranean termite that invades urban areas in France and elsewhere where it causes damage to human-built structures. We investigated the breeding system, colony and population genetic structure, and mode of dispersal of two French populations of R. santonensis. Termite workers were sampled from 43 and 31 collection points, respectively, from a natural population in west-central France (in and around the island of Oleron) and an urban population (Paris). Ten to 20 workers per collection point were genotyped at nine variable microsatellite loci to determine colony identity and to infer colony breeding structure. There was a total of 26 colonies, some of which were spatially expansive, extending up to 320 linear metres. Altogether, the analysis of genotype distribution, F-statistics and relatedness coefficients suggested that all colonies were extended families headed by numerous neotenics (nonwinged precocious reproductives) probably descended from pairs of primary (winged) reproductives. Isolation by distance among collection points within two large colonies from both populations suggested spatially separated reproductive centres with restricted movement of workers and neotenics. There was a moderate level of genetic differentiation (F(ST) = 0.10) between the Oleron and Paris populations, and the number of alleles was significantly higher in Oleron than in Paris, as expected if the Paris population went through bottlenecks when it was introduced from western France. We hypothesize that the diverse and flexible breeding systems found in subterranean termites pre-adapt them to invade new or marginal habitats. Considering that R. santonensis may be an introduced population of the North American species R. flavipes, a breeding system consisting primarily of extended family colonies containing many neotenic reproductives may facilitate human-mediated spread and establishment of R. santonensis in urban areas with harsh climates

Renforcement du verre par revêtement polymérique

La tenue mécanique du verre étant conditionnée en partie par la présence de défauts surfaciques, plusieurs études montrent le rôle renforçant d’un revêtement. Nous nous sommes intéressés au cours de notre étude à l’impact du comportement mécanique d’un revêtement polymérique confiné sur le renforcement du verre et à la propagation d’une fracture renforcée. Nous cherchons ainsi à comprendre les mécanismes initiaux de la propagation d’une fracture renforcée et l’origine du renforcement

Tesselations by Connection in Orders

The watershed transformation is a powerful tool for segmenting images, but its precise definition in discrete spaces raises difficult problems. We propose a new approach in the framework of orders. We introduce the tesselation by connection, which is a transformation that preserves the connectivity, and can be implemented by a parallel algorithm

Surface response to rain events throughout the West African monsoon

This study analyses the response of the continental surface to rain events, taking advantage of the long-term near-surface measurements over different vegetation types at different latitudes, acquired during the African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis (AMMA) by the AMMA-CATCH observing system. The simulated surface response by nine land surface models involved in AMMA Land Model Intercomparison Project (ALMIP), is compared to the observations. The surface response, described via the evaporative fraction (EF), evolves in two steps: the immediate surface response (corresponding to an increase of EF occurring immediately after the rain) and the surface recovery (characterized by a decrease of EF over several days after the rain). It is shown that, for all the experimental sites, the immediate surface response is mainly dependent on the soil moisture content and the recovery period follows an exponential relationship whose rate is strongly dependent on the vegetation type (from 1 day over bare soil to 70 days over forest) and plant functional type (below and above 10 days for annual and perennial plants, respectively). The ALMIP model ensemble depicts a broad range of relationships between EF and soil moisture, with the worst results for the drier sites (high latitudes). The land surface models tend to simulate a realistic surface recovery for vegetated sites, but a slower and more variable EF decrease is simulated over bare soil than observed

Investigation on the fine structure of sea breeze during ESCOMPTE experiment

Surface and remote-sensing instruments deployed during ESCOMPTE experiment over the Marseille area, along the Mediterranean coast, were used to investigate the fine structure of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) during sea-breeze circulation in relation to pollutant transport and diffusion. Six sea-breeze events are analyzed with a particular focus on 25 June 2001. Advection of cool and humid marine air over land has a profound influence on the daytime ABL characteristics. This impact decreases rapidly with the inland distance from the sea. Nearby the coast (3 km inland), the mixing height Zi rises up to 750 m and falls down after 15:00 (UT) when the breeze flow reaches its maximum intensity. A more classical evolution of the ABL is observed at only 11-km inland where Zi culminates in the morning and stabilizes in the afternoon at about 1000 m height. Fine inspection of the data revealed an oscillation of the sea-breeze with a period about 2 h 47 min. This feature, clearly discernable for 3 days at least, is present in several atmospheric variables such as wind, temperature, not only at the ground but also aloft in the ABL as observed by sodar/RASS and UHF wind profilers. In particular, the mixing height Zi deduced from UHF profilers observations is affected also by the same periodicity. This pulsated sea-breeze is observed principally above Marseille and, at the northern and eastern shores of the Berre pond. In summary, the periodic intrusion over land of cool marine air modifies the structure of the ABL in the vicinity of the coast from the point of view of stability, turbulent motions and pollutants concentration. An explanation of the source of this pulsated sea-breeze is suggested

Reply to 'Comments on "Comparison of rafar reflectivity and vertical velocity observed with a scannable c-band doppler radar and two UHF profilers in the lower troposphere"'

The objective of Lothon et al.'s (2002, hereafter L2002) paper was to investigate the ability of a scannable C-band Doppler meteorological radar for the documentation of the lower clear atmosphere with an emphasis on the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL). Comparison with the observations of two UHF wind profilers provided the opportunity to address the problem of the so-called downward bias of UHF vertical velocity measurements made in a fully developed and turbulent convective ABL previously put in evidence and described by Angevine (1997). Worthington's (2003) reproach of a too-narrow review of the different aspects of this problem is valid, but a thorough survey of this question was beyond the scope of the paper. The ambition of the authors was to bring some elements of discussion to this open debate—elements that tend to confirm Angevine's conclusion on the existence of UHF downward bias of instrumental origin.In the reply presented in the following section we discuss Worthington's (2003) suggestion of the possible meteorological origin of the UHF vertical velocity bias observed in the ABL. Coming back to certain arguments developed previously in L2002, the importance of which seems underestimated in Worthington's comment, and with new data analysis, we reinforce our position on a most probable instrumental origin of the UHF vertical bias