Perception of Nuclear Energy and Coal in France and the Netherlands

This study focuses on the perception of large scale application of nuclear energy and coal in the Netherlands and France. The application of these energy-sources and the risks and benefits are judged differently by various group in society. In Europe, France has the highest density of nuclear power plants and the Netherlands has one of the lowest. In both countries scientists and social scientists completed a questionnaire assessing the perception of the large scale application of both energy sources. Furthermore, a number of variables relating to the socio cultural and political circumstances were measured. The results indicate that the French had a higher risk perception and a more negative attitude toward nuclear power than the Dutch. But they also assess the benefits of the use of nuclear power to be higher. Explanations for these differences are discussed

The yeast Candida albicans has a clonal mode of reproduction in a population of infected human immunodeficiency virus-positive patients

To ascertain the population structure of Candida albicans, we have carried out a multilocus enzyme electrophoresis study based on the analysis of 21 gene loci. We have thus characterized 55 strains isolated one each from 55 human immunodeficiency virus-positive patients. There is considerable polymorphism among the strains. A population-genetic analysis indicates that the two fundamental consequences of sexual reproduction (i.e., segregation and recombination) are apparently absent in this population of C. albicans. The population structure of C. albicans appears to be clonal, a state of affairs that has important medical and biological consequences

Role of eisosomes in the necrotrophic fungus Alternaria brassicicola

lternaria brassicicola is a fungal necrotroph responsible for the Brassicaceae dark spot disease. This fungus is a seed-borne pathogen that only affects the aerial parts of host plants causing great damages with major incidence on yield and product quality. Its transmission to seed is a major component of pathogen fitness promoting the dispersal and long-term survival of the fungus. Recently, we showed that several eisosomal protein encoding genes were overexpressed when germinated spores of A.brassicicola were exposed to osmotic and hydric stresses, which are the main constraints encountered by the fungus during the seed colonization process. MCC/eisosomes are membrane microdomains whose function is still unclear. They have been proposed to participate in the plasma membrane function by regulating the homeostasis of lipids and would promote the recruitment of specific proteins and their subsequent protection from endocytosis. Here, we deciphered the potential involvement of eisosome in pathogenicity using a reverse genetic approach by generating and characterizing mutants deficient for key eisosomal proteinencoding genes (?pil1, ?nce102, ?lsp1 and ?pil1?lsp1). In parallel, these proteins have been fused to GFP to monitor their cellular location during the plant infection and following the exposure to stresses. Depending on the mutants, the leaf and silique colonization processes were impaired by comparison to the wild-type. We also showed a strong impact of MCC/eisosome proteinmutations on the generation of appressoria-like structures

Superconductivity with hard-core repulsion: BCS-Bose crossover and s-/d-wave competition

We consider fermions on a 2D lattice interacting repulsively on the same site and attractively on the nearest neighbor sites. The model is relevant, for instance, to study the competition between antiferromagnetism and superconductivity in a Kondo lattice. We first solve the two-body problem to show that in the dilute and strong coupling limit the s-wave Bose condensed state is always the ground state. We then consider the many-body problem and treat it at mean-field level by solving exactly the usual gap equation. This guarantees that the superconducting wave-function correctly vanishes when the two fermions (with antiparallel spin) sit on the same site. This fact has important consequences on the superconducting state that are somewhat unusual. In particular this implies a radial node-line for the gap function. When a next neighbor hopping t' is present we find that the s-wave state may develop nodes on the Fermi surface.Comment: 10 pages, 9 fig

Phase Diagram of the 1D Anderson Lattice

We map out the phase diagram of the one--dimensional Anderson lattice by studying the ground state magnetization as a function of band--filling using the density matrix renormalization group technique. For strong coupling, we find that the quarter--filled system has an S=0 ground state with strong antiferromagnetic correlations. As additional electrons are put in, we find first a ferromagnetic phase, as reported by M\"{o}ller and W\"{o}lfle, and then a phase in which the ground state has total spin $S=0$. Within this $S=0$ phase, we find RKKY oscillations in the spin--spin correlation functions.Comment: REVTEX manuscript with 5 Postcript figures included in uu file. Submitted to Phys. Rev.

A new mechanism of SOX9 action to regulate PKC expression in the intestine epithelium

International audienceVariations of protein kinase C (PKC) expression greatly influence the proliferation-to-differentiation transition (PDT) of intestinal epithelial cells and might have an important impact on intestinal tumorigenesis. We demonstrate here that the expression of PKCalpha in proliferating intestinal epithelial cells is repressed both in vitro and in vivo by the SOX9 transcription factor. This repression does not require DNA binding of the SOX9 high-mobility group (HMG) domain but is mediated through a new mechanism of SOX9 action requiring the central and highly conserved region of SOXE members. Because SOX9 expression is itself upregulated by Wnt-APC signaling in intestinal epithelial cells, the present study points out this transcription factor as a molecular link between the Wnt-APC pathway and PKCalpha. These results provide a potential explanation for the decrease of PKCalpha expression in colorectal cancers with constitutive activation of the Wnt-APC pathway

Phase separation in a lattice model of a superconductor with pair hopping

We have studied the extended Hubbard model with pair hopping in the atomic limit for arbitrary electron density and chemical potential. The Hamiltonian considered consists of (i) the effective on-site interaction U and (ii) the intersite charge exchange interactions I, determining the hopping of electron pairs between nearest-neighbour sites. The model can be treated as a simple effective model of a superconductor with very short coherence length in which electrons are localized and only electron pairs have possibility of transferring. The phase diagrams and thermodynamic properties of this model have been determined within the variational approach, which treats the on-site interaction term exactly and the intersite interactions within the mean-field approximation. We have also obtained rigorous results for a linear chain (d=1) in the ground state. Moreover, at T=0 some results derived within the random phase approximation (and the spin-wave approximation) for d=2 and d=3 lattices and within the low density expansions for d=3 lattices are presented. Our investigation of the general case (as a function of the electron concentration and as a function of the chemical potential) shows that, depending on the values of interaction parameters, the system can exhibit not only the homogeneous phases: superconducting (SS) and nonordered (NO), but also the phase separated states (PS: SS-NO). The system considered exhibits interesting multicritical behaviour including tricritical points.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures; pdf-ReVTeX, final version, corrected typos; submitted to Journal of Physics: Condensed Matte

First Report of Root and Collar Rot Caused by Fusarium tricinctum and Fusarium avenaceum on Carrot in France

In 2017, carrot (Daucus carota L.) seed production represented around 22% of the area devoted to the production of vegetable fine seeds. Since 2015, symptoms of root and collar rot have been observed in carrot seed parcels located in the Central Region, one of the most important production zone in France. Diseased plants became dried prematurely, compromising seed development. Depending on the year and the climatic conditions, the disease in a same field can be considered as epidemic (rate losses between 30 to 100% of plants in 2016) or can impact plants more sporadically (less than 10% in 2017 and 2018). Sixteen diseased carrot samples (Nantaise type) were collected from five fields of seed production in the Central Region: two fields in 2016 and 2017, one field in 2018. Seven fungal isolates, obtained from lesions, were grown on Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) medium and incubated for one week at 20°C in darkness. From the colony top, fluffy mycelium pigmented in pink, red, purple or orange was observed, with a red color at the reverse. To induce sporulation, isolates were grown on Synthetischer Nährstoffarmer Agar (SNA) medium during three weeks at 24°C in near-UV radiations under a 12h-photoperiod. Four isolates (FT001, FT003, FT007, FT017) developed orange sporodochia with lunar or crescent-shaped macroconidia (40.3 ± 0.8 × 5.9 ± 0.1 µm; n=90) and lime or pear-shaped microconidia (10.7 ± 0.2 × 7.7 ± 0.2 µm; n=60), as described in Fusarium tricinctum (Leslie and Summerell 2006). Three isolates (FA001, FA002, FA006) developed orange sporodochia with sickle-shaped macroconidia (50.5 ± 1.1 × 5.0 ± 0.1 µm; n= 60), but no microconidia, as observed in Fusarium avenaceum (Leslie and Summerell 2006). To confirm the identification, DNA was extracted from the mycelium of the seven isolates and molecular markers (ATP citrate lyase, ACL1; RNA polymerase II, RPB2) were used for PCR amplification (Gräfenhan et al. 2011; O’Donnell et al. 2013). The ACL1 sequences from the seven field isolates (GenBank Accession numbers MK183788-MK183791; MK181528-MK181530) were 99-100% identical with the ACL1 sequence of a reference F. tricinctum isolate (query coverages 99-100%; E-values of 0.0) and a reference F. avenaceum isolate (query coverages 98-99%; E-values of 0.0) [respectively DAOM 235630 isolate, GenBank Acc. No. JX397813 and BBA64135 isolate, GenBank Acc. No. JX397768, Niessen et al. 2012]. Using RPB2, sequences from field isolates (GenBank Acc. No. MK183109-MK183115) were 98.5-99.9% identical with the RPB2 sequence of a reference F. tricinctum isolate (query coverages 96-100%; E-values of 0.0) and a reference F. avenaceum isolate (query coverages 95-100%; E-values of 0.0) [respectively MRC 1895 isolate, GenBank Acc. No. MH582113 and MRC 1413 isolate, GenBank Acc. No. MH582082, O’Donnell et al. 2018]. To confirm pathogenicity, FT001 and FA002 were inoculated on collars of 10-weeks old carrot plants in the greenhouse. Forty plants per isolate and 40 control plants were used. Ten microliters of a conidial suspension (105 conidia.mL-1) - or sterile water for the controls - were deposited at the collar, previously wounded using a scalpel blade. Necrotic lesions developed at 20 dpi (FT001) and at 30 dpi (FA002). Fusarium tricinctum and F. avenaceum were re-isolated from the lesions and identified by sequencing using ACL1 and RPB2 markers. No isolation of Fusarium was obtained from the controls. To our knowledge, this is the first report of F. tricinctum and F. avenaceum in carrot in France