Chemical and mineralogical effects of saline water movement through a soil during evaporation

Cet article illustre les résultats d'une expérience menée dans le but d'étudier les effets de l'évaporation dans un sol homogène reconstitué. Les conditions expérimentales sont celles qui caractérisent les zones de polders du lac Tchad. Les données obtenues montrent que les phénomènes de capillarité déterminent un transfert des ions en solution vers la surface du sol. Puisque l'évaporation se réalise dans cette zone, les concentrations ioniques des solutions deviennent très élevées. Les simulations et les calculs théoriques montrent que dans ce milieu et sous ces conditions des argiles magnésiennes précipitent : ceci est confirmé par leurs observations au microscope électronique à transmissio

Retinitis pigmentosa: rapid neurodegeneration is governed by slow cell death mechanisms

For most neurodegenerative diseases the precise duration of an individual cell's death is unknown, which is an obstacle when counteractive measures are being considered. To address this, we used the rd1 mouse model for retinal neurodegeneration, characterized by phosphodiesterase-6 (PDE6) dysfunction and photoreceptor death triggered by high cyclic guanosinemono-phosphate (cGMP) levels. Using cellular data on cGMP accumulation, cell death, and survival, we created mathematical models to simulate the temporal development of the degeneration. We validated model predictions using organotypic retinal explant cultures derived from wild-type animals and exposed to the selective PDE6 inhibitor zaprinast. Together, photoreceptor data and modeling for the first time delineated three major cell death phases in a complex neuronal tissue: (1) initiation, taking up to 36 h, (2) execution, lasting another 40 h, and finally (3) clearance, lasting about 7 h. Surprisingly, photoreceptor neurodegeneration was noticeably slower than necrosis or apoptosis, suggesting a different mechanism of death for these neurons. Cell Death and Disease (2013) 4, e488; doi: 10.1038/cddis.2013.12; published online 7 February 201

Towards supplier maturity evaluation in terms of PLM collaboration

The product lifecycle management (PLM) system has a significant role to support the collaboration and manage the partnership between OEM and Supplier to enable the success of supplier integration. Today great rates of co- operation as suppliers have been dedicated to SMEs. Since one of the PLM task is to control the collaboration between OEM and suppliers, this paper provide supplier (SMEs) a framework to find their place in this relationship in the concept of PLM. To respond to this trend, we defined a methodology based on collaborative matrix maturity levels and four PLM axes of strategic, organization, process and tools levels. Finally according to this ma- trix, we proposed a structure of a proper questionnaire and example that show suppliers how to evaluate their positions in terms of collaboration in PLM

Migrant Semipalmated Sandpipers (Calidris pusilla) Have Over Four Decades Steadily Shifted Towards Safer Stopover Locations

Peregrine falcons (Falco peregrinus) have undergone a steady hemisphere-wide recovery since the ban on DDT in 1973, resulting in an ongoing increase in the level of danger posed for migrant birds, such as Arctic-breeding sandpipers. We anticipate that in response migrant semipalmated sandpipers (Calidris pusilla) have adjusted migratory behavior, including a shift in stopover site usage toward locations offering greater safety from falcon predation. We assessed semipalmated sandpiper stopover usage within the Atlantic Canada Shorebird Survey dataset. Based on 3,030 surveys (totalling ~32M birds) made during southward migration, 1974–2017, at 198 stopover locations, we assessed the spatial distribution of site usage in each year (with a “priority matching distribution” index, PMD) in relation to the size (intertidal area) and safety (proportion of a site\u27s intertidal area further than 150 m of the shoreline) of each location. The PMD index value is >1 when usage is concentrated at dangerous locations, 1.0 when usage matches location size, and <1 when usage is concentrated at safer locations. A large majority of migrants were found at the safest sites in all years, however our analysis of the PMD demonstrated that the fraction using safer sites increased over time. In 1974, 80% of birds were found at the safest 20% of the sites, while in 2017, this had increased to 97%. A sensitivity analysis shows that the shift was made specifically toward safer (and not just larger) sites. The shift as measured by a PMD index decline cannot be accounted for by possible biases inherent in the data set. We conclude that the data support the prediction that increasing predator danger has induced a shift by southbound migrant semipalmated sandpipers to safer sites

A New Scenario on the Metal-Insulator Transition in VO2

The metal-insulator transition in VO2 was investigated using the three-band Hubbard model, in which the degeneracy of the 3d orbitals, the on-site Coulomb and exchange interactions, and the effects of lattice distortion were considered. A new scenario on the phase transition is proposed, where the increase in energy level separation among the t_2g orbitals caused by the lattice distortion triggers an abrupt change in the electronic configuration in doubly occupied sites from an S=1 Hund's coupling state to a spin S=0 state with much larger energy, and this strongly suppresses the charge fluctuation. Although the material is expected to be a Mott-Hubbard insulator in the insulating phase, the metal-to-insulator transition is not caused by an increase in relative strength of the Coulomb interaction against the electron hopping as in the usual Mott transition, but by the level splitting among the t_2g orbitals against the on-site exchange interaction. The metal-insulator transition in Ti2O3 can also be explained by the same scenario. Such a large change in the 3d orbital occupation at the phase transition can be detected by linear dichroic V 2p x-ray absorption measurements.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, to be published in J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. Vol. 72 No. 1