Development and validation of methods for the trace determination of phthalates in sludge and vegetables

A routine method which is simple, quick and precise has been set up and validated for phthalate analysis in environmental samples (tomato plants and sewage sludges). Six phthalates have been studied simultaneously: dimethylphthalate, diethylphthalate, dibutylphthalate, butylbenzylphthalate, di(ethyl)hexylphthalate and dioctylphthalate. Optimization of sample, solvent extraction uses a Soxtec apparatus and extract purification with an SPE cartridge allows between 90 to 110 % recovery of phthalates. Precise, sensitive and selective identification and quantifying of analytes is by GC-MS in SIM mode. This protocol allows analytes with concentrations as low as 10µg/kg Dry Matter (DM) to be determined from small (1 to 2 g DM) samples. This analytical method has been applied to the phthalate transfer study for agricultural recycling of sludges, where phthalate bioavailability has been studied in aquiculture using two types of experiments. Tomatoes have been grown in containers where the trace organics have been directly introduced as pure substances, and in a second experiment under the same growth conditions, sewage sludge has replaced the pure substances. Transfer of these trace organics has been followed into the various parts of the tomato plant and in general only the DEHP is worthy of note although its percentage transfer remains very low even in an experiment designed to maximize this

Points of Positive Density for Smooth Functionals

This is the published version, also available here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/EJP.v3-23.In this paper we show that the set of points where the density of a Wiener functional is strictly positive is an open connected set, assuming some regularity conditions

Dip-coated La2Ti2O7 as a buffer layer for growth of Bi3.25La0.75Ti3O12 films with enhanced (0 1 1) orientation

Thin-films of La2Ti2O7 were obtained by dip-coating process using a precursor salt in nitric acid solution. The effects of solution concentration, withdrawal speed, post-annealing duration and temperature were investigated both on grain size and orientation of the La2Ti2O7 thin layers. In addition, a target with the required stoichiometry for PVD deposition of La-substituted Bi4Ti3O12 (BLT) was successfully sintered by spark plasma sintering (SPS) at 750 ◦C. Finally (0 1 1)-oriented BLT ferroelectric films have been grown by RF sputtering on (1 1 0)-oriented La2Ti2O7 polycrystalline thin-film. A preferential orientation of BLT thin films has been obtained after annealing at a temperature lower than 650 ◦C

"School Strike 4 Climate": Social Media and the International Youth Protest on Climate Change

Beginning in 2018, youth across the globe participated in protest activities aimed at encouraging government action on climate change. This activism was initiated and led by Swedish teenager, Greta Thunberg. Like other contemporary movements, the School Strike 4 Climate used social media. For this article, we use Twitter trace data to examine the global dynamics of the student strike on March 15, 2019. We offer a nuanced analysis of 993 tweets, employing a combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis. Like other movements, the primary function of these tweets was to share information, but we highlight a unique type of information shared in these tweets - documentation of local events across the globe. We also examine opinions shared about youth, the tactic (protest/strike), and climate change, as well as the assignment of blame on government and other institutions for their inaction and compliance in the climate crisis. This global climate strike reflects a trend in international protest events, which are connected through social media and other digital media tools. More broadly, it allows us to rethink how social media platforms are transforming political engagement by offering actors - especially the younger generation - agency through the ability to voice their concerns to a global audience

Development, A question of Opportunity. A critique of the 2006 World Development Report, Equity and Development

The World Bank’s World Development Report 2006 addresses Equity and Development. It defines equity as respect for equal opportunities combined with the avoidance of absolute deprivation. Even though justice theories have long been interested in equity (given that equality of opportunity is one of the recognised values of Western society), it has hitherto remained a marginal issue in development economics. Our critique presents a detailed analysis of this report in the light of recent economic studies on this subject and endeavours to place it in the context of the evolution of World Bank thinking and policies. The first part illustrates the wealth of this concept, with its downside being that it is hard to accurately define. The second part demonstrates the gap between the prospects opened up by the enlargement of the development goals beyond poverty reduction and the report’s policy recommendations, which are generally an extension of the World Bank’s traditional analyses. The future of the equity concept for development policy-making could be closely dependent on the development community’s ability to take on board both all its complexity and wealth.

Predicting Ozone Peaks : A combined CBR and cell mapping approach

http://www.iemss.org/iemss2002/proceedings/pdf/volume%20tre/139_pearson.pdfInternational audienceIn this paper we present a new approach for predicting ozone peaks when monitoring atmospheric pollution. Our main idea is that atmospheric pollution is closely monitored and over the past 5 to 10 years we have built up fairly extensive databases concerning it. Thus, rather than looking for a physical model in the first instance, maybe we should look for patterns and repeatability in the historical data. The approach presented is a hybrid one based on case based reasoning and cell mapping. Essentially, we forget all about a model in the first instance and simply search historical data to see if we can construct cases. We then extend this idea to include notions from cell mapping to see if we can build a cell map from the cases. The method is applied to real data coming from the Rhône-Alpes region of France

Characterization of Thymic Nurse-Cell Lymphocytes, Using an Improved Procedure for Nurse-Cell Isolation

Thymic nurse cells (TNC), multicellular complexes consisting of lymphoid cells enclosed within cortical epithelial cells, were isolated from mouse thymus by a modified procedure allowing immunofluorescent labeling and flow cytometric analysis of their lymphoid contents (TNC-L). Collagenase was the only protease used for tissue digestion, to ensure that surface antigen markers remained intact. Zonal unit-gravity elutriation was used to enrich the TNC on the basis of their high sedimentation rate, followed by immunomagnetic bead depletion to remove residual mononuclear cell contaminants and a density separation to remove debris. The TNC-L were then released from inside TNC by a short period of culture. The measured contamination of TNC-L with exogenous thymocytes was around 0.5%. Three-color immunofluorescent labeling revealed that TNC-L included, as well as a maiority of immature CD4+8+3low thymocytes, about 12% of apparently mature CD4+8-3high and CD4-8+3high thymocytes. TNC are located in the cortex, where mature cells are rare; the occurrence of mature phenotype cells within these structures suggests that they represent a microenvironment for the selection and generation of mature T cells

Nuclear Ca2+ signalling in arbuscular mycorrhizal and actinorhizal endosymbioses: on the trail of novel underground signals

Root endosymbioses are beneficial associations formed between terrestrial plants and either bacterial or fungal micro-organisms. A common feature of these intracellular symbioses is the requirement for mutual recognition between the two partners before host-regulated microbial entry. As part of this molecular dialogue, symbiosis-specific microbial factors set in motion a highly conserved plant signal transduction pathway, of which a central component is the activation of sustained nuclear Ca2+ oscillations in target cells of the host epidermis. Here, we focus on recent findings concerning this crucial Ca2+-dependent signalling step for endosymbiotic associations involving either arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi or nitrogen-fixing Frankia actinomycetes, and in particular how this knowledge is contributing to the identification of the respective microbial factors