Sublinear and continuous order-preserving functions for noncomplete preorders

We characterize the existence of a nonnegative, sublinear and continuous order-preserving function for a not necessarily complete preorder on a real convex cone in an arbitrary topological real vector space. As a corollary of the main result, we present necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of such an order-preserving function for a complete preorder.Comment: 8 page

ECO-LABELING STRATEGIES: THE ECO-PREMIUM PUZZLE IN THE WINE INDUSTRY

Eco-labeling signals that a product has been eco-certified. While there is increasing use of eco-labeling practices, there is still little understanding of the conditions under which eco-labels can command price premiums. In this paper, we argue that the certification of environmental practices by a third party should be analyzed as a strategy distinct from although related to the advertisement of the eco-certification through a label posted on the product. By assessing eco-labeling and eco-certification strategies separately, we are able to identify benefits associated with the certification process independently from those associated with the actual label. More specifically, we argue in the context of the wine industry that eco-certification can provide benefits, such as improved reputation in the industry or increased product quality, which can lead to a price premium without the need to use the eco-label. We estimate this price premium of wine due to the eco-certification of grapes using 13,400 observations of wine price, quality rating, varietals, vintage, and number of bottles produced, for the period 1998-2005. Overall, certifying wine increases the price by 13%, yet including an eco-label reduces the price by 20%. This result confirms the negative connotation associated by consumers with organic wine. The price premium of this luxury good due to certification acts independently from its label, a confounding result not previously demonstrated by related literature.organic wine, wine market, price premium, eco-wine, Demand and Price Analysis, Environmental Economics and Policy,

Optimal branching asymmetry of hydrodynamic pulsatile trees

Most of the studies on optimal transport are done for steady state regime conditions. Yet, there exists numerous examples in living systems where supply tree networks have to deliver products in a limited time due to the pulsatile character of the flow. This is the case for mammals respiration for which air has to reach the gas exchange units before the start of expiration. We report here that introducing a systematic branching asymmetry allows to reduce the average delivery time of the products. It simultaneously increases its robustness against the unevitable variability of sizes related to morphogenesis. We then apply this approach to the human tracheobronchial tree. We show that in this case all extremities are supplied with fresh air, provided that the asymmetry is smaller than a critical threshold which happens to fit with the asymmetry measured in the human lung. This could indicate that the structure is adjusted at the maximum asymmetry level that allows to feed all terminal units with fresh air.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Structural properties of a calcium aluminosilicate glass from molecular-dynamics simulations: A finite size effects study

We study a calcium aluminosilicate glass of composition (SiO$_2$)$_{0.67}$-(Al$_2$O$_3$)$_{0.12}$-(CaO)$_{0.21}$ by means of molecular-dynamics (MD) simulations, using a potential made of two-body and three-body interactions. In order to prepare small samples that can subsequently be studied by first-principles, the finite size effects on the liquid dynamics and on the glass structural properties are investigated. We find that finite size effects affect the Si-O-Si and Si-O-Al angular distributions, the first peaks of the Si-O, Al-O and Ca-O pair correlation functions, the Ca coordination and the oxygen atoms environment in the smallest system (100 atoms). We give evidence that these finite size effects can be directly attributed to the use of three-body interactions.Comment: 36 pages, 14 figures. Journal of Chem. Phys., in pres

Vpu-dependent block to incorporation of GaLV Env into lentiviral vectors

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The gibbon ape leukemia virus (GaLV) Env protein mediates entry into a wide range of human cells and is frequently used to pseudotype retroviral vectors. However, an incompatibility exists between GaLV Env and lentiviral vectors that results in decreased steady-state levels of the mature GaLV Env in cells and prevents its incorporation into lentiviral vector particles.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We identified the HIV-1 Vpu protein as the major cause of the depletion in GaLV Env levels that occurs when lentiviral vector components are present. This activity of Vpu targeted the mature (cleaved) form of the GaLV Env that exists within or beyond the trans-Golgi. The activity required two conserved phospho-serines in the cytoplasmic tail of Vpu that are known to recruit β TrCP, a substrate adaptor for an SCF E3 ubiquitin ligase complex, and could be blocked by mutation of lysine 618 in the GaLV Env tail. Moreover, the Vpu-mediated decrease of GaLV Env levels was inhibited by the lysosomal inhibitor, bafilomycin A1. Interestingly, this activity of Vpu was only observed in the presence of other lentiviral vector components.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Similar to the mechanism whereby Vpu targets BST-2/tetherin for degradation, these findings implicate β-TrCP-mediated ubiquitination and the endo-lysosomal pathway in the degradation of the GaLV Env by lentiviral vector components. Possibly, the cytoplasmic tail of the GaLV Env contains features that mimic <it>bona fide </it>targets of Vpu, important to HIV-1 replication. Furthermore, the lack of effect of Vpu on GaLV Env in the absence of other HIV-1 proteins, suggests that a more complex interaction may exist between Vpu and its target proteins, with the additional involvement of one or more component(s) of the HIV-1 replication machinery.</p

Loss of testosterone impairs anti-tumor neutrophil function.

In men, the incidence of melanoma rises rapidly after age 50, and nearly two thirds of melanoma deaths are male. The immune system is known to play a key role in controlling the growth and spread of malignancies, but whether age- and sex-dependent changes in immune cell function account for this effect remains unknown. Here, we show that in castrated male mice, neutrophil maturation and function are impaired, leading to elevated metastatic burden in two models of melanoma. Replacement of testosterone effectively normalized the tumor burden in castrated male mice. Further, the aberrant neutrophil phenotype was also observed in prostate cancer patients receiving androgen deprivation therapy, highlighting the evolutionary conservation and clinical relevance of the phenotype. Taken together, these results provide a better understanding of the role of androgen signaling in neutrophil function and the impact of this biology on immune control of malignancies

Fusarium on french garlic, etiology and characterization of an emerging disease

Background: Yearly, France produces more than 20000 tons of garlic representing 3500 producersand 3000 ha. Since the mid-2000s and in spite of high demanding production specifications, aphytopathogenic fungus belonging to genus Fusarium, causes damage during storage leading to rootand bulb rots. The annual losses have a major impact on the viability of the French industry.Objectives: Two major objectives were to :• Elucidate the etiology of the disease on garlic• Develop a test to evaluate the aggressiveness of strainsMethods: Strains were isolated from the two major French production areas (South West and SouthEast) during the 2017 and 2018 production campaigns. Eleven garlic varieties on more than 90 plotswere used. All tested cloves were surface-sterilized with NaOCl and fungi were allowed to develop onPDA.To evaluate aggressiveness of each strain, twelve surface-sterilized cloves soaked in 1.0*106spores/mL were used. All cloves were placed separately at 23°C at saturated humidity for 18 days.Symptoms were noted with rating scale from 0 (absence of symptoms) to 5 (clove entirely brown).Every 2 days, Area Under the Disease Progress Curve was calculated for each clove.Results: In total, 1580 strains were successfully isolated, 262 identified (98% F. proliferatum and 2%F. oxysporum) and 48 tested for their aggressiveness. All varieties seemed to be infected equally,some plots more than the others. All tested strains shows aggressiveness on garlic, from 60 to 140%as compared to a reference strain

First-principles molecular-dynamics simulations of a hydrous silica melt: Structural properties and hydrogen diffusion mechanism

We use {\it ab initio} molecular dynamics simulations to study a sample of liquid silica containing 3.84 wt.% H$_2$O.We find that, for temperatures of 3000 K and 3500 K,water is almost exclusively dissolved as hydroxyl groups, the silica network is partially broken and static and dynamical properties of the silica network change considerably upon the addition of water.Water molecules or free O-H groups occur only at the highest temperature but are not stable and disintegrate rapidly.Structural properties of this system are compared to those of pure silica and sodium tetrasilicate melts at equivalent temperatures. These comparisons confirm the picture of a partially broken tetrahedral network in the hydrous liquid and suggest that the structure of the matrix is as much changed by the addition of water than it is by the addition of the same amount (in mole %) of sodium oxide. On larger length scales, correlations are qualitatively similar but seem to be more pronounced in the hydrous silica liquid. Finally, we study the diffusion mechanisms of the hydrogen atoms in the melt. It turns out that HOSi$_2$ triclusters and SiO dangling bonds play a decisive role as intermediate states for the hydrogen diffusion.Comment: 25 pages, 18 figures. submitte

Efecto prebiótico de los nanoliposomas con fructanos de agave tequilana en lactobacilos

Como objetivo inicial era encontrar lactobacilos que pudieran ser aislados de un producto comercial e identificar su especie genéticamente, para después utilizar esta cepa y probar durante el crecimiento de los lactobacilos, el efecto prebiótico de los fructanos libres y encapsulados a través de las curvas de crecimiento bacteriano y curvas de liberación de contenido fluorescente de los liposomas. Se encontró que los lactobacilos de fuentes comerciales como: Yakult y JustBiotics no presentaron crecimiento alguno bajo ninguna condición de caldo nutritivo, mientras que los lactobacilos contenidos en un suplemento alimenticio liofilizado de marca genérica, así como la cepa pura de L. Plantarum de Raff Lactoingredientes, si tuvieron crecimiento adecuado, pero la viabilidad de la cepa pura L. Plantarum no fue adecuada, por eso se probó otra fuente comercial: Florify, que si presentó crecimiento pero quedó pendiente la clasificación genética. Las cepas de lactobacilos idóneos que crecieron favorablemente, se identificaron genéticamente como L. Plantarum. Se caracterizó por dispersión de luz dinámica el tamaño de partícula de los liposomas y su estabilidad a través de los valores de potencial Z, y por espectrofluorometría se evaluó el tiempo de desestabilizacipon de los liposomas, a través de la liberación de una concentración de fluoróforo del interior de los liposomas. Sin embargo, estos resultados solo pudieron ser estimados en base a dos trabajos que emplearon el mismo método de fabricación y caracterización de liposomas, debido a que para este proyecto no se pudo realizar, por consecuencia de la contingencia sanitaria provocada por el virus COVID-19.ITESO, A.C

Isotonies on ordered cones throught the concept of a decreasing scale

Using techniques based on decreasing scales, necessary and sufficient conditions are presented for the existence of a continuous and homogeneous of degree one real-valued function representing a (not necessarily complete) preorder defined on a cone of a real vector space. Applications to measure theory and expected utility are given as consequences