Morphological analysis of stylolites for paleostress estimation in limestones surrounding the Andra Underground Research Laboratory site

We develop and test a methodology to infer paleostress from the morphology of stylolites within borehole cores. This non-destructive method is based on the analysis of the stylolite trace along the outer cylindrical surface of the cores. It relies on an automatic digitization of high-resolution photographs and on the spatial Fourier spectrum analysis of the stylolite traces. We test and show, on both synthetic and natural examples, that the information from this outer cylindrical surface is equivalent to the one obtained from the destructive planar sections traditionally used. The assessment of paleostress from the stylolite morphology analysis is made using a recent theoretical model, which links the morphological properties to the physical processes acting during stylolite evolution. This model shows that two scaling regimes are to be expected for the stylolite height power spectrum, separated by a cross-over length that depends on the magnitude of the paleostress during formation. We develop a non linear fit method to automatically extract the cross-over lengths from the digitized stylolite profiles. Results on cores from boreholes drilled in the surroundings of the Andra Underground Research Laboratory located at Bure, France, show that different groups of sedimentary stylolites can be distinguished, and correspond to different estimated vertical paleostress values. For the Oxfordian formation, one group of stylolites indicate a paleostress of around 10 MPa, while another group yields 15 MPa. For the Dogger formation, two stylolites indicate a paleostress of around 10 MPa, while others appear to have stopped growing at paleostresses between 30 and 22 MPa, starting at an erosion phase that initiated in the late Cretaceous and continues today. This method has a high potential for further applications on reservoirs or other geological contexts where stylolites are present.Comment: International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences (2013) online firs

A structured annotation frame for the transposable phages: A new proposed family “Saltoviridae” within the Caudovirales

AbstractEnterobacteriophage Mu is the best studied and paradigm member of the transposable phages. Mu-encoded proteins have been annotated in detail in UniProtKB and linked to a controlled vocabulary describing the various steps involved in the phage lytic and lysogenic cycles.Transposable phages are ubiquitous temperate bacterial viruses with a dsDNA linear genome. Twenty-six of them, that infect α, β and γ-proteobacteria, have been sequenced. Their conserved properties are described. Based on these characteristics, we propose a reorganization of the Caudovirales, to allow for the inclusion of a “Saltoviridae” family and two newly proposed subfamilies, the “Myosaltovirinae” and “Siphosaltovirinae”. The latter could temporarily be included in the existing Myoviridae and Siphoviridae families

Characterization of LiFePO4/C Cathode for Lithium Ion Batteries

International audienceLiFePO4/C was synthesized from a mixture of different precursors of Li, Fe, and C by solid-state reaction. The initial mixture obtained was heated in different calcination conditions under inert atmosphere. The precursor of LiFePO4 doped with carbon was studied using different techniques such as thermal analysis, chemical and physical characterizations, and Mosbauer spectroscopy. A calculation of the crystallinity of the final product with two different methods is also presented. The chemical analysis techniques used were IRTF, XRD, and SEM. This characterization confirmed that we obtained a well-crystallized LiFePO4/C in all the operating conditions tested. The SEM showed aggregation and sintering during the calcination process, which were confirmed by the particle-size distribution measurements and by the physical characterizations. Mosbauer spectroscopy was used to determine the quantity of Fe(II) and Fe(III) contained in the final product. Our calcination conditions did not significantly modify the quantity of the two oxidation states

Should We Assess Pituitary Function in Children After a Mild Traumatic Brain Injury? A Prospective Study

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency of hypopituitarism following TBI in a cohort of children who had been hospitalized for mild TBI and to identify the predictive factors for this deficiency.Design: A prospective study was conducted on children between 2 and 16 years of age who had been hospitalized for mild TBI according to the Glasgow Coma Scale between September 2009 and June 2013. Clinical parameters, basal pituitary hormone assessment at 0, 6, and 12 months, as well as a dynamic testing (insulin tolerance test) 12 months after TBI were performed.Results: The study included 109 children, the median age was 8.5 years. Patients were examined 6 months (n = 99) and 12 months (n = 96) after TBI. Somatotropic deficiency (defined by a GH peak <20 mUI/l in two tests, an IGF-1 <-1SDS and a delta height <0SDS) were confirmed in 2 cases. One case of gonadotrophic deficiency occurred 1 year after TBI among 13 pubertal children. No cases of precocious puberty, 5 cases of low prolactin level, no cases of corticotropic insufficiency (cortisol peak <500 nmol/l) and no cases diabetes insipidus were recorded.Conclusion: Pituitary insufficiency was present 1year after mild TBI in about 7% of children. Based on our results, we suggest testing children after mild TBI in case of clinical abnormalities. i.e., for GH axis, IGF-1, which should be assessed in children with a delta height <0 SDS, 6 to 12 months after TBI, and a dynamic GH testing (preferentially by an ITT) should be performed in case of IGF-1 <-1SDS, with a GH threshold at 20 mUI/L. However, if a systematic pituitary assessment is not required for mild TBI, physicians should monitor children 1 year after mild TBI with particular attention to growth and weight gain

Physiology of ducks during force-feeding : study of hepatic steatosis

The objective of this study was to examine morphological and functional modifications in force-fed ducks (Cairina moschata x Anas platyrhynchos), subjected to 3 cycles of two-week periods of force-feeding followed by four weeks of normal feeding. The hepatomegaly following a two-week period of forcefeeding was associated with reduced blood purification capabilities. Then, when these animals were fed normally, all the morphological, chemical, biochemical and functional parameters were similar to those measured in control animals. Therefore, the animals were able to withstand three consecutive cycles of force-feeding followed by a four-week period of rest, as no pathological signs were found, and all the measured or calculated parameters were not statistically different from those measured or calculated in control animals. Therefore, when carried out according to professional standards and on a small scale, force-feeding does not induce diet-related pathological changes, as the steatosis is totally reversible. It is therefore possible to create acceptable conditions preserving the animal welfare.L'objectif de ce travail était d'étudier les modifications morphologiques et fonctionnelles chez des canards gavés (Cairina moschata x Anas platyrhynchos), soumis à trois cycles de deux semaines de gavage suivies de quatre semaines de repos alimentaire. Il est démontré que suite à une période de gavage, l'hépatomégalie obtenue se traduit par une diminution de la capacité d'épuration. Si ces animaux ont accès à une alimentation libre, l'ensemble des paramètres morphologiques, chimiques et biochimiques, ainsi que les paramètres du test à la BSP, sont du même ordre de grandeur que ceux mesurés sur les animaux témoins. Les animaux supportent bien trois cycles consécutifs de gavage-dégavage, puisqu'ils ne présentent pas de signe de manifestation pathologique et que l'ensemble des paramètres mesurés ou calculés ne sont pas statistiquement différents de ceux observés ou mesurés sur les animaux témoins du même âge. Ainsi, lorsque le gavage est conduit suivant les standards professionnels, dans des conditions artisanales, la stéatose induite est réversible ; il ne s'oppose pas, au plan clinique, aux critères définissant les conditions de bien-être acceptables pour les animaux en élevage

Modeling the growth of stylolites in sedimentary rocks

[1] Stylolites are ubiquitous pressure solution seams found in sedimentary rocks. Their morphology is shown to follow two self-affine regimes. Analyzing the scaling properties of their height over their average direction shows that (1) at small scale, they are self-affine surfaces with a Hurst exponent around 1, and (2) at large scale, they follow another self-affine scaling with Hurst exponent around 0.5. In the present paper, we show theoretically the influence of the main principal stress and the local geometry of the stylolitic interface on the dissolution reaction rate. We compute how it is affected by the deviation between the principal stress axis and the local interface between the rock and the soft material in the stylolite. The free energy entering in the dissolution reaction kinetics is expressed from the surface energy term and via integration from the stress perturbations due to these local misalignments. The resulting model shows the interface evolution at different stress conditions. In the stylolitic case, i.e., when the main principal stress is normal to the interface, two different stabilizing terms dominate at small and large scales which are linked respectively to the surface energy and to the elastic interactions. Integrating the presence of small-scale heterogeneities related to the rock properties of the grains in the model leads to the formulation of a Langevin equation predicting the dynamic evolution of the surface. This equation leads to saturated surfaces obeying the two observed scaling laws. Analytical and numerical analysis of this surface evolution model shows that the crossover length separating both scaling regimes depends directly on the applied far-field stress magnitude. This method gives the basis for the development of a paleostress magnitude marker. We apply the computation of this marker, i.e., the morphological analysis, on a stylolite found in the Dogger limestone layer located in the neighborhood of the ANDRA Underground Research Laboratory at Bure (eastern France). The results are consistent with the two scaling regimes expected, and the practical determination of the major principal paleostress, from the estimation of a crossover length, is illustrated on this example

Stress-Induced Premature Senescence or Stress-Induced Senescence-Like Phenotype: One In Vivo

No consensus exists so far on the definition of cellular senescence. The narrowest definition of senescence is irreversible growth arrest triggered by telomere shortening counting cell generations (definition 1). Other authors gave an enlarged functional definition encompassing any kind of irreversible arrest of proliferative cell types induced by damaging agents or cell cycle deregulations after overexpression of proto-oncogenes (definition 2). As stress increases, the proportion of cells in “stress-induced premature senescence-like phenotype” according to definition 1 or “stress-induced premature senescence,” according to definition 2, should increase when a culture reaches growth arrest, and the proportion of cells that reached telomere-dependent replicative senescence due to the end-replication problem should decrease. Stress-induced premature senescence-like phenotype and telomere-dependent replicatively senescent cells share basic similarities such as irreversible growth arrest and resistance to apoptosis, which may appear through different pathways. Irreversible growth arrest after exposure to oxidative stress and generation of DNA damage could be as efficient in avoiding immortalisation as “telomere-dependent” replicative senescence. Probabilities are higher that the senescent cells (according to definition 2) appearing in vivo are in stress-induced premature senescence rather than in telomere-dependent replicative senescence. Examples are given suggesting these cells affect in vivo tissue (patho)physiology and aging