460 research outputs found
Influence of limestone filler and of the size of the aggregates on DEF
This experimental study aims to determine the effect of limestone filler on
concrete expansion due to delayed ettringite formation (DEF). Different mortars
made with different sizes and percentages of limestone filler and Portland
cement CEM I 52.5N are conserved in water. The expansion of the specimens is
measured. Results show that DEF is not inhibited by limestone filler. The
kinetics and the amplitude of the swelling depend on the size of the limestone
filler. The volume fraction of aggregates changes only the kinetics: the
relation between swelling and water uptake depends only on the size of the
aggregates.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures, 4 table
Conserved Charges in the Principal Chiral Model on a Supergroup
The classical principal chiral model in 1+1 dimensions with target space a
compact Lie supergroup is investigated. It is shown how to construct a local
conserved charge given an invariant tensor of the Lie superalgebra. We
calculate the super-Poisson brackets of these currents and argue that they are
finitely generated. We show how to derive an infinite number of local charges
in involution. We demonstrate that these charges Poisson commute with the
non-local charges of the model
PDB50 MODELLING THE CLINICAL CONSEQUENCES OF RIMONABANT IN ADDITION TO DIET AND EXERCISE IN ABDOMINALLY OBESE PATIENTS WITH TYPE-2 DIABETES
Silencing of the Violaxanthin De-Epoxidase Gene in the Diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum Reduces Diatoxanthin Synthesis and Non-Photochemical Quenching
Diatoms are a major group of primary producers ubiquitous in all aquatic ecosystems. To protect themselves from photooxidative damage in a fluctuating light climate potentially punctuated with regular excess light exposures, diatoms have developed several photoprotective mechanisms. The xanthophyll cycle (XC) dependent non-photochemical chlorophyll fluorescence quenching (NPQ) is one of the most important photoprotective processes that rapidly regulate photosynthesis in diatoms. NPQ depends on the conversion of diadinoxanthin (DD) into diatoxanthin (DT) by the violaxanthin de-epoxidase (VDE), also called DD de-epoxidase (DDE). To study the role of DDE in controlling NPQ, we generated transformants of P. tricornutum in which the gene (Vde/Dde) encoding for DDE was silenced. RNA interference was induced by genetic transformation of the cells with plasmids containing either short (198 bp) or long (523 bp) antisense (AS) fragments or, alternatively, with a plasmid mediating the expression of a self-complementary hairpin-like construct (inverted repeat, IR). The silencing approaches generated diatom transformants with a phenotype clearly distinguishable from wildtype (WT) cells, i.e. a lower degree as well as slower kinetics of both DD de-epoxidation and NPQ induction. Real-time PCR based quantification of Dde transcripts revealed differences in transcript levels between AS transformants and WT cells but also between AS and IR transformants, suggesting the possible presence of two different gene silencing mediating mechanisms. This was confirmed by the differential effect of the light intensity on the respective silencing efficiency of both types of transformants. The characterization of the transformants strengthened some of the specific features of the XC and NPQ and confirmed the most recent mechanistic model of the DT/NPQ relationship in diatoms
Response of the Diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum to Photooxidative Stress Resulting from High Light Exposure
The response of microalgae to photooxidative stress resulting from high light exposure is a well-studied phenomenon. However, direct analyses of photosystem II (PSII) D1 protein (the main target of photoinhibition) in diatoms are scarce. In this study, the response of the diatom model species Phaeodactylum tricornutum to short-term exposure to high light was examined and the levels of D1 protein determined immunochemically. Low light (LL) acclimated cells (40 µmol photons m−2 s−1) subjected to high light (HL, 1,250 µmol photons m−2 s−1) showed rapid induction of non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) and ca. 20-fold increase in diatoxanthin (DT) concentration. This resulted from the conversion of diadinoxanthin (DD) to DT through the activation of the DD-cycle. D1 protein levels under LL decreased about 30% after 1 h of the addition of lincomycin (LINC), a chloroplast protein synthesis inhibitor, showing significant D1 degradation and repair under low irradiance. Exposure to HL lead to a 3.2-fold increase in D1 degradation rate, whereas average D1 repair rate was 1.3-x higher under HL than LL, leading to decreased levels of D1 protein under HL. There were significant effects of both HL and LINC on P. tricornutum maximum quantum yield of PSII (Fv/Fm), showing a reduction of active PSII reaction centres. Partial recovery of Fv/Fm in the dark demonstrates the photosynthetic resilience of this diatom to changes in the light regime. P. tricornutum showed high allocation of total protein to D1 and an active D1-repair cycle to limit photoinhibition
OPENCoastS: An open-access service for the automatic generation of coastal forecast systems
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Antiangiogenic Tocotrienol Derivatives from Garcinia amplexicaulis
Phytochemical investigation of a dichloromethane extract from Garcinia amplexicaulis stem bark led to the isolation of four new tocotrienols; two known tocotrienols, two triterpenes, and a xanthone were also isolated. Their structures were mainly established using NMR and MS methods. The main compounds isolated, δ-amplexichromanol (1) and γ-amplexichromanol, were evaluated on VEGF-induced angiogenesis using a Matrigel assay. Compounds 1 and 2 inhibited in vitro angiogenesis of VEGF-induced human primary endothelial cells in the low nanomolar range. Their capacity to inhibit VEGF-induced proliferation of endothelial cells partially explained this activity, although δ-amplexichromanol also prevented adhesion and migration processes
IA-CCF: Individual accountability for permissioned ledgers
Permissioned ledger systems allow a consortium of members that do not trust one another to execute transactions safely on a set of replicas. Such systems typically use Byzantine fault tolerance (BFT) protocols to distribute trust, which only ensures safety when fewer than 1/3 of the replicas misbehave. Providing guarantees beyond this threshold is a challenge: current systems assume that the ledger is corrupt and fail to identify misbehaving replicas or hold the members that operate them accountable—instead all members share the blame. We describe IA-CCF, a new permissioned ledger system that provides individual accountability. It can assign blame to the individual members that operate misbehaving replicas regardless of the number of misbehaving replicas or members. IA-CCF achieves this by signing and logging BFT protocol messages in the ledger, and by using Merkle trees to provide clients with succinct, universally-verifiable receipts as evidence of successful transaction execution. Anyone can audit the ledger against a set of receipts to discover inconsistencies and identify replicas that signed contradictory statements. IACCF also supports changes to consortium membership and replicas by tracking signing keys using a sub-ledger of governance transactions. IA-CCF provides strong disincentives to misbehavior with low overhead: it executes 47,000 tx/s while providing clients with receipts in two network round trips
Coincidence measurement of residues and light particles in the reaction 56Fe+p at 1 GeV per nucleon with SPALADIN
The spallation of Fe in collisions with hydrogen at 1 A GeV has been
studied in inverse kinematics with the large-aperture setup SPALADIN at GSI.
Coincidences of residues with low-center-of-mass kinetic energy light particles
and fragments have been measured allowing the decomposition of the total
reaction cross-section into the different possible de-excitation channels.
Detailed information on the evolution of these de-excitation channels with
excitation energy has also been obtained. The comparison of the data with
predictions of several de-excitation models coupled to the INCL4 intra-nuclear
cascade model shows that only GEMINI can reasonably account for the bulk of
collected results, indicating that in a light system with no compression and
little angular momentum, multifragmentation might not be necessary to explain
the data.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, revised version accepted in Phys. Rev. Let
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