The use of a DMT to monitor the stability of the slopes of a clay exploitation pit in the Boom clay in Belgium

In Belgium the Boom Clay is a well known overconsolidated clay formation. This Tertiary clay, with the same geological origin as the London Clay, is used for the fabrication of bricks, roofing tiles. In the article is described how the DMT can be used to evaluate the stability of slopes, to determine the risk of instability and how the cause of the failure directly could be related to the results of the DMT-measurement. The results of the tests before the period of instability, during the period of instability and after stabilization are discussed. The KD-value is a representative value to judge the risk of instability

Glycemic index, nutrient density, and promotion of aberrant crypt foci in rat colon

We speculated that a diet with a high glycemic index (GI), or a diet with a low nutrient density (nutrient-to-calorie ratio), would enhance colon carcinogenesis, presuma-bly via increased insulin resistance. Forty-eight female Sprague -Dawley rats (SD) received an azoxymethane injection (20mg /kg) and were randomized to 5 groups given an AIN76 diet containing (1) 65% starch by wt. (2) 65% glucose, GI=100, (3) 65% fructose, GI=23, (4) 82% starch, or (5) 39% oil and 39% sucrose. The nutrient density was halved in 4﷓5 diets compared to 1﷓3 diets. Promotion was assessed by the multi-plicity (number of crypts) of aberrant crypt foci (ACF), an early marker of colon carcinogenesis. Insulin resistance was estimated by (blood insulin x blood glucose), by plasma triglycerides, and by visceral fat. To confirm the results in another rat strain, the whole experiment was duplicated in 48 female Fischer F344 rats. Results show that: (i) ACF multiplicity was not different in glucose- and fructose-fed rats (p>0.7): diets with contrasting GI had the same effect on ACF growth. (ii) Diets of low nutrient density increased visceral fat (p<0.05), but reduced the ACF size in F344 (p<0.001, no reduction in SD). (iii) Indirect insulin resistance markers (FIRI index, blood triglycerides, visceral fat) did not correlate with ACF multiplicity. These results do not support the hypothesis that diets with a high glycemic index, or of low nutrient density, or diets that increase some indirect insulin resistance markers, can promote colon carcinogenesis in female rats

LArGe: Background suppression using liquid argon (LAr) scintillation for 0νββ\nu\beta\beta decay search with enriched germanium (Ge) detectors

Measurements with a bare p-type high purity germanium diode (HPGe) submerged in a 19 kg liquid argon (LAr) scintillation detector at MPIK Heidelberg are reported. The liquid argon--germanium system (LArGe) is operated as a 4$\pi$ anti-Compton spectrometer to suppress backgrounds in the HPGe. This R&D is carried out in the framework of the GERDA experiment which searches for 0$\nu\beta\beta$ decays with HPGe detectors enriched in $^{76}$Ge. The goal of this work is to develop a novel method to discriminate backgrounds in 0$\nu\beta\beta$ search which would ultimately allow to investigate the effective neutrino mass free of background events down to the inverse mass hierarchy scale. Other applications in low-background counting are expected.Comment: 3 pages, 6 figures, conference proceedings of the 10th Topical Seminar on Innovative Particle and Radiation Detectors (IPRD06) 1 - 5 October 2006 Siena, Ital

Insulin Injections Promote the Growth of Aberrant Crypt Foci in the Colon of Rats

The main objective of the present study was to test the hypothesis that exogenous insulin would enhance colon carcinogenesis. Thirty-six female F344 rats, fed ad libitum a low fat rodent chow, received a single azoxymethane injection (20 mg/kg), and were randomized a week later to two groups. Control rats were given 5 days a week a s.c. saline injection, and experimental rats were given ultralente bovine insulin, 20 U/kg. The promoting effect of insulin injections was assessed by the multiplicity (number of crypts) of aberrant crypt foci after 100 d of treatment (72 injections). The rats given insulin ate more and were heavier than controls (215 ± 11 vs. 182 ± 7 g, p<0.001). Insulin injections also increased the amount of abdominal fat, the plasma triglycerides, and the insulinemia, and decreased blood glucose (all p<0.05). The number of aberrant crypt foci was the same in both groups, but their multiplicity was significantly increased by the insulin injections (2.8 ± 0.3 vs. 2.5 ± 0.2 crypt/focus in controls, p=0.007). Besides, the proportion of sialomucin producing foci was higher in insulin injected rats than in controls (p=0.04). These data show that exogenous insulin can promote colon carcinogenesis in rats, and suggest that lifestyle and diets leading to low blood insulin might protect humans against colorectal cancer

Bench-scale centrifuge testing to determine the hydraulic conductivity of chayey soils

The purpose of this research is to validate a mathematical model for flow through saturated and unsaturated porous media using a bench-scale centrifuge for an accurate determination of the hydraulic conductivity (function of the saturation degree of a soil) within a limited time at a reasonable price. The aim of this paper is to show preliminary results of this investigation where the validation and calibration of the mathematical model is performed determining the hydraulic conductivity of saturated porous media, such as kaolin clay and glass porous filters, with a bench-scale centrifuge