Répartition des cultivars de niébé Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp. du Cameroun : influence du milieu et des facteurs humains

Cowpea landraces were surveyed in Cameroon. 4000 accessions were collected from nearly 900 places. These accessions belong to four cultigroups, namely CG Textilis and CG Melanophthalma (in the Sudano-Sahelian area), CG Biflora (mainly in the Mandara Mountains), CG Unguiculata (in the Guinean area, where it was introduced one or two hundred years ago). Pod and seed characters allowed sorting of accessions into one hundred cultivars, which were mapped. Cultivar spread is limited by both ecological and human constraints. The maps show preferential areas of exchange resulting from ethnic distribution, interchange and migration.Le niébé au Cameroun a fait l'objet d'une enquête variétale. Celle-ci a permis de réunir plus de 4000 numéros de collection, appartenant à 4 cultigroupes. CG Textilis et CG Melanophthalma sont représentés dans la zone soudano-sahélienne. L'aire de CG Biflora est pratiquement réduite aux monts Mandara. CG Unguiculata se rencontre surtout en zone guinéenne où son introduction ne remonte pas à plus de deux siècles. Ces 4000 numéros ont été attribués à une centaine de cultivars au vu de leurs graines et de leurs gousses, et ces cultivars ont été cartographies. Les répartitions observées reflètent l'importance de certaines contraintes écologiques, mais surtout celle de facteurs humains. Ces cartes matérialisent des zones d'échanges préférentielles et sont le reflet de la répartition des différents groupes humains, de leurs relations et de leurs mouvements.Pasquet Rémy S., Fotso Martin. Répartition des cultivars de niébé (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.) du Cameroun : influence du milieu et des facteurs humains. In: Journal d'agriculture traditionnelle et de botanique appliquée, 36ᵉ année, bulletin n°2,1994. Phytogéographie tropicale : réalités et perspectives. Propos d'ethnobiologie, sous la direction de Jacques Barrau et Bernadette Lizet. pp. 93-143

New determination of abundances and stellar parameters for a set of weak G-band stars

Weak G-band (wGb) stars are very peculiar red giants almost devoided of carbon and often mildly enriched in lithium. Despite their very puzzling abundance patterns, very few detailed spectroscopic studies existed up to a few years ago, preventing any clear understanding of the wGb phenomenon. We recently proposed the first consistent analysis of published data for 28 wGb stars and identified them as descendants of early A-type to late B-type stars, without being able to conclude on their evolutionary status or the origin of their peculiar abundance pattern. We used newly obtained high-resolution and high SNR spectra for 19 wGb stars in the southern and northern hemisphere to homogeneously derive their fundamental parameters, metallicities, as well as the spectroscopic abundances for Li, C, N, O, Na, Sr, and Ba. We also computed dedicated stellar evolution models that we used to determine the masses and to investigate the evolutionary status and chemical history of the stars in our sample. We confirm that the wGb stars are stars in the mass range 3.2 to 4.2 M$_\odot$. We suggest that a large fraction could be mildly evolved stars on the SGB currently undergoing the 1st DUP, while a smaller number of stars are more probably in the core He burning phase at the clump. After analysing their abundance pattern, we confirm their strong N enrichment anti-correlated with large C depletion, characteristic of material fully processed through the CNO cycle to an extent not known in other evolved intermediate-mass stars. However, we demonstrate here that such a pattern is very unlikely due to self-enrichment. In the light of the current observational constraints, no solid self-consistent pollution scenario can be presented either, leaving the wGb puzzle largely unsolved.Comment: 19 pages , 14 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

Pilot interministerial operation for remote sensing

Advantages and disadvantages of traditional methods of obtaining required information for land and resources management and the possibilities of remote sensing are discussed. The services available, organization and objectives of the pilot operation are presented. Emphasis is placed on multidisciplinary dialog among designers, builders, operators, interpreters and users in all phases. The principles, operation and practical applications of remote sensing systems and processing systems under the pilot operation are presented

Post-pulse addition of trans-cyclohexane-1,2-diol improves electrotransfer mediated gene expression in mammalian cells

AbstractElectric field mediated gene transfer is facing a problem in expression yield due to the poor transfer across the nuclear envelope. Trans-cyclohexane-1,2-diol (TCHD) was shown to significantly increase chemically mediated transfection by collapsing the permeability barrier of the nuclear pore complex. We indeed observed a significant increase in expression by electrotransfer when cells are treated post pulse by a low non toxic concentration of TCHD. This was obtained for different pulsing conditions, cell strains and plasmid constructs. An interesting improvement in cell viability can be obtained. This can significantly enhance the non-viral gene electrical delivery

Preparation and characterization of the defect–conductivity relationship of Ga-doped ZnO thin films deposited by nonreactive radio-frequency–magnetron sputtering

Ga-doped ZnO (ZnO:Ga) thin films were prepared by radio-frequency–magnetron sputtering on conventional glass substrates at room temperature. The structural, electrical, and optical properties of these films as a function of argon pressure and film thicknesses were studied. All the films crystallized with the hexagonal wurtzite structure. The x-ray diffraction studies show that the ZnO:Ga films are highly oriented with their crystallographic c-axis perpendicular to the substrate. We discuss a methodology of using a “standardized platform” for comparison of samples deposited at different pressures, which provides an insight into the defect–resistivity relationship of each sample with respect to their microstructure. After the first annealing, the electrical properties of the films are dependent on the atmosphere used during postdeposition annealing treatment. A resistivity of 2.5 × 10−3 Ω · cm was obtained after vacuum annealing, and the films became an insulator after air annealing. The reproducibility of this treatment was verified. The average transmittance of all ZnO:Ga thin films is more than 85% in the visible range

CNN photometric redshifts in the SDSS at r≤20r\leq 20

We release photometric redshifts, reaching $\sim$0.7, for $\sim$14M galaxies at $r\leq 20$ in the 11,500 deg$^2$ of the SDSS north and south galactic caps. These estimates were inferred from a convolution neural network (CNN) trained on $ugriz$ stamp images of galaxies labelled with a spectroscopic redshift from the SDSS, GAMA and BOSS surveys. Representative training sets of $\sim$370k galaxies were constructed from the much larger combined spectroscopic data to limit biases, particularly those arising from the over-representation of Luminous Red Galaxies. The CNN outputs a redshift classification that offers all the benefits of a well-behaved PDF, with a width efficiently signaling unreliable estimates due to poor photometry or stellar sources. The dispersion, mean bias and rate of catastrophic failures of the median point estimate are of order $\sigma_{\rm MAD}=0.014$, $=0.0015$, $\eta(|\Delta z_{\rm norm}|>0.05)=4\%$ on a representative test sample at $r<19.8$, out-performing currently published estimates. The distributions in narrow intervals of magnitudes of the redshifts inferred for the photometric sample are in good agreement with the results of tomographic analyses. The inferred redshifts also match the photometric redshifts of the redMaPPer galaxy clusters for the probable cluster members. The CNN input and output are available at: https://deepdip.iap.fr/treyer+2023.Comment: Submitted to MNRA

Topotecan-vincristine-doxorubicin in stage 4 high risk neuroblastoma patients failing to achieve a complete metastatic response to rapid COJEC : a SIOPEN study

Purpose : Metastatic response to induction therapy for high-risk neuroblastoma is a prognostic factor. In the International Society of Paediatric Oncology Europe Neuroblastoma (SIOPEN) HR-NBL-1 protocol, only patients with metastatic complete response (CR) or partial response (PR) with <= three abnormal skeletal areas on iodine 123-metaiodobenzylguanidine ([I-123] mIBG) scintigraphy and no bone marrow disease proceed to high dose therapy (HDT). In this study, topotecan-vincristine-doxorubicin (TVD) was evaluated in patients failing to achieve these criteria, with the aim of improving the metastatic response rate. Materials and Methods : Patients with metastatic high-risk neuroblastoma who had not achieved the SIOPEN criteria for HDT after induction received two courses of topotecan 1.5 mg/m(2)/day for 5 days, followed by a 48-hour infusion of vincristine, 2 mg/m(2), and doxorubicin, 45 mg/m(2). Results : Sixty-three patients were eligible and evaluable. Following two courses of TVD, four (6.4%) patients had an overall CR, while 28 (44.4%) had a PR with a combined response rate of 50.8% (95% confidence interval [CI], 37.9 to 63.6). Of these, 23 patients achieved a metastatic CR or a PR with <= 3 mIBG skeletal areas and no bone marrow disease (36.5%; 95% CI, 24.7 to 49.6) and were eligible to receive HDT. Toxicity was mostly haematological, affecting 106 of the 126 courses (84.1%; 95% CI, 76.5 to 90.0), and dose reduction was necessary in six patients. Stomatitis was the second most common nonhematological toxicity, occurring in 20 patients (31.7%). Conclusion : TVD was effective in improving the response rate of high-risk neuroblastoma patients after induction with COJEC enabling them to proceed to HDT. However, the long-term benefits of TVD needs to be determined in randomized clinical trials

A multimaterial based on metallic copper and spinel oxide made by powder bed laser fusion: A new nanostructured material for inert anode dedicated to aluminum electrolysis

Coherent 3D parts of cermets, made of spinel ferrite and metallic copper, are prepared in a nitrogen atmosphere by powder bed additive manufacturing of a mixture of oxide and metallic powders. The cermets obtained are constituted by the association of blocks of about 500 μm, which create between them, a relatively large porosity (# 35%). Each block is subdivided into intimately nested zones that are either predominantly metallic or predominantly oxide type. In the metal parts, a dispersion of oxide crystals is observed, whose size varies from ten nanometers to a few micrometers. A similar distribution of metal particles in the oxide zones is also demonstrated. The chemical compositions of metallic and oxide phases are slightly different from those in the initial powders. Due to the high energy density of the laser, the melting temperature of the metal and oxides could be reached and therefore this could explain the chemical composition variations in the phases and the shape of oxide and metallic nanometric grains. The process used can therefore be described as powder bed fusion. These nanostructured cermets have been used as "inert" anodes for the electrolysis of aluminum in molten cryolite. Although penalized by a high porosity, 5 mm in diameter anodes allowed to carry out an electrolysis for 4 h. Since Spark Plasma Sintering can greatly reduce their porosity, while retaining their specific microstructure, the implementation of additive manufacturing for producing "inert" anodes is therefore of real interest