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Kristof Haneca Groene veteranen. Levende getuigen van de eerste wereldbrand. [Green veterans. Living witnesses of the First World War.]In en rond de voormalige frontzone in de Westhoek veroorzaakten niet alleen het oorlogsgeweld, maar ook de grootschalige ontbossing als gevolg van de grote vraag naar constructie- en brandhout, een desolaat en boomloos landschap. Of toch niet helemaal? In de buurt van het voormalige front blijken verrassend genoeg enkele oude bomen wel degelijk de oorlog overleefd te hebben. Kristof Haneca wijst op het bestaan van deze zeldzame reuzen, misschien zelfs talrijker dan gedacht, die in zich letterlijk de wonden dragen van de Eerste Wereldoorlog. Ongeliefd bij houthandelaren door de talrijke inclusies van metaal, zijn ze vandaag de nog levende getuigen van een honderd jaar oud conflict.Eva Bouton, Thomas Coomans en Pascal Delheye De neogotische gymnastiekzaal van de voormalige Rijksnormaalschool te Brugge in cultuurhistorische context. [The Neo-Gothic gymnasium of the former State Teachers College in Bruges in a cultural-historical context.]Vaak ten onrechte vergeleken met de gotische schuur van Ter Doest is de neogotische gymnastiekzaal van de Brugse stadsarchitect Louis Delacenserie niettemin een architecturaal unicum. Gebouwd in 1880-1883 volgens de richtlijnen van het officieel onderwijs, is dit voornamelijk houten interieur nog altijd even indrukwekkend en monumentaal qua afmetingen en materiaalafwerking. Het heeft zijn oorspronkelijke functie al die jaren kunnen behouden en is beschermd als monument. Het toenmalige getouwtrek tussen de Duitse en de Zweedse gymnastiekscholen is af te leiden uit bepaalde keuzes van binnen afwerking en turntoestellen. Eva Bouton, Thomas Coomans en Pascal Delheye bestudeerden dit merkwaardig ontwerp vanuit hun uiteenlopende disciplines en gingen tevens op zoek naar nog andere historische gymzalen uit die periode.Thomas Van Driessche, Geert Bossaert en Herman van den Bossche Het bloeiende grafveld van de Duitse militaire begraafplaats Hooglede bestendigd. [Restoration of the German military cemetery in Hooglede.]De militaire begraafplaatsen in de Westhoek zijn vandaag schreeuwende aanklachten tegen oorlogsgeweld dat zoveel individueel en familiaal leed veroorzaakte. Toch is er verschil in aanpak. De Commonwealth begraafplaatsen benadrukken met hun rechtopstaande individuele melkwitte grafstenen in strak gelid op keurig gemaaide grasvelden de triomf van de overwinnaars. Op de Duitse militaire verzamelbegraafplaatsen uit de jaren 1950 vervangen platte naamstenen en verspreide groepen van 5 kruisen thans de originele individuele gedenktekens. In Hooglede rusten de Duitse gesneuvelden in een bloeiend heideveld onder bomen. Thomas Van Driessche, Geert Bossaert en Herman van den Bossche doen het relaas van het ontstaan, de evolutie en de recente restauratie en herinrichting van deze begraafplaats.Summar

The association of coffee intake with liver cancer risk is mediated by biomarkers of inflammation and hepatocellular injury: data from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition.

BACKGROUND: Higher coffee intake has been purportedly related to a lower risk of liver cancer. However, it remains unclear whether this association may be accounted for by specific biological mechanisms. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to evaluate the potential mediating roles of inflammatory, metabolic, liver injury, and iron metabolism biomarkers on the association between coffee intake and the primary form of liver cancer-hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). DESIGN: We conducted a prospective nested case-control study within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition among 125 incident HCC cases matched to 250 controls using an incidence-density sampling procedure. The association of coffee intake with HCC risk was evaluated by using multivariable-adjusted conditional logistic regression that accounted for smoking, alcohol consumption, hepatitis infection, and other established liver cancer risk factors. The mediating effects of 21 biomarkers were evaluated on the basis of percentage changes and associated 95% CIs in the estimated regression coefficients of models with and without adjustment for biomarkers individually and in combination. RESULTS: The multivariable-adjusted RR of having ≥4 cups (600 mL) coffee/d compared with <2 cups (300 mL)/d was 0.25 (95% CI: 0.11, 0.62; P-trend = 0.006). A statistically significant attenuation of the association between coffee intake and HCC risk and thereby suspected mediation was confirmed for the inflammatory biomarker IL-6 and for the biomarkers of hepatocellular injury glutamate dehydrogenase, alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase (AST), γ-glutamyltransferase (GGT), and total bilirubin, which-in combination-attenuated the regression coefficients by 72% (95% CI: 7%, 239%). Of the investigated biomarkers, IL-6, AST, and GGT produced the highest change in the regression coefficients: 40%, 56%, and 60%, respectively. CONCLUSION: These data suggest that the inverse association of coffee intake with HCC risk was partly accounted for by biomarkers of inflammation and hepatocellular injury.This is the final version of the article. It was first available from American Society for Nutrition via http://dx.doi.org/10.3945/​ajcn.115.11609

Molecular pedomorphism underlies craniofacial skeletal evolution in Antarctic notothenioid fishes

Background Pedomorphism is the retention of ancestrally juvenile traits by adults in a descendant taxon. Despite its importance for evolutionary change, there are few examples of a molecular basis for this phenomenon. Notothenioids represent one of the best described species flocks among marine fishes, but their diversity is currently threatened by the rapidly changing Antarctic climate. Notothenioid evolutionary history is characterized by parallel radiations from a benthic ancestor to pelagic predators, which was accompanied by the appearance of several pedomorphic traits, including the reduction of skeletal mineralization that resulted in increased buoyancy. Results We compared craniofacial skeletal development in two pelagic notothenioids, Chaenocephalus aceratus and Pleuragramma antarcticum, to that in a benthic species, Notothenia coriiceps, and two outgroups, the threespine stickleback and the zebrafish. Relative to these other species, pelagic notothenioids exhibited a delay in pharyngeal bone development, which was associated with discrete heterochronic shifts in skeletal gene expression that were consistent with persistence of the chondrogenic program and a delay in the osteogenic program during larval development. Morphological analysis also revealed a bias toward the development of anterior and ventral elements of the notothenioid pharyngeal skeleton relative to dorsal and posterior elements. Conclusions Our data support the hypothesis that early shifts in the relative timing of craniofacial skeletal gene expression may have had a significant impact on the adaptive radiation of Antarctic notothenioids into pelagic habitats

The Arabidopsis leucine-rich repeat receptor kinase MIK2/LRR-KISS connects cell wall integrity sensing, root growth and response to abiotic and biotic stresses

Plants actively perceive and respond to perturbations in their cell walls which arise during growth, biotic and abiotic stresses. However, few components involved in plant cell wall integrity sensing have been described to date. Using a reverse-genetic approach, we identified the Arabidopsis thaliana leucine-rich repeat receptor kinase MIK2 as an important regulator of cell wall damage responses triggered upon cellulose biosynthesis inhibition. Indeed, loss-of-function mik2 alleles are strongly affected in immune marker gene expression, jasmonic acid production and lignin deposition. MIK2 has both overlapping and distinct functions with THE1, a malectin-like receptor kinase previously proposed as cell wall integrity sensor. In addition, mik2 mutant plants exhibit enhanced leftward root skewing when grown on vertical plates. Notably, natural variation in MIK2 (also named LRR-KISS) has been correlated recently to mild salt stress tolerance, which we could confirm using our insertional alleles. Strikingly, both the increased root skewing and salt stress sensitivity phenotypes observed in the mik2 mutant are dependent on THE1. Finally, we found that MIK2 is required for resistance to the fungal root pathogen Fusarium oxysporum. Together, our data identify MIK2 as a novel component in cell wall integrity sensing and suggest that MIK2 is a nexus linking cell wall integrity sensing to growth and environmental cues

CIFU XIII, Vienne août 2022

Tous les cinq ans a lieu le grand congrès mondial des finno-ougristes – sauf quand une pandémie le retarde de deux ans. En 2022, il a eu lieu à Vienne, pour la première fois dans un pays ne parlant pas une langue finno-ougrienne, et les participants français se sont concertés pour partager leur expérience.Non peer reviewe

Can we calculate the value of Rock-Eval parameters for the 0-50 layer from the measured values on the layers 0-30 and 30-50 cm?

International audienceCurrent studies investigating soils use different sampling methods. Generally, soils are sampled in different soil horizons and the sampling depths may vary across studies or according to the soil profile composition. For some soil properties such as soil organic carbon stock, it is possible to calculate the organic carbon content of a soil profile by adding the values measured in each horizon. Soil organic carbon stock is therefore independent from the sampling strategy. In the recent years, Rock-Eval has been proposed as a reliable method to investigate soil organic carbon stock and its stability. The objective of this study is to determine, whether Rock-Eval parameters of soil organic matter in a given soil horizon, can also be calculated from Rock-Eval parameters measured in subhorizons; an idea which would greatly facilitate the comparison of results of studies using different sampling methods. In this study, samples from 10 French forest sites encompassing a variety of pedoclimates were used. At each site, samples were collected from two depth ranges, 0-30 and 30-50 cm. To test the linearity of the mixing of RE indicators, binary mixtures of surface and deep soil were composed for each site using five different mixing ratios (10:90, 25:75, 50:50, 75:25, 90:10). All 70 samples were then analysed using Rock-Eval, resulting in five classical RE parameters for each sample. The values of the RE parameters measured on composite samples were generally in good agreement with theoretical values, which were calculated using values measured on 0-30 cm and 30-50 cm according to the mixing equation. This is particularly the case for the following parameters: TOCRE6, PC,RC and OI. However, for HI the relationship between measured and calculated values is unsatisfactory. For sites with a clay-rich deep soil horizon layer and a surface layer with a coarser texture the variation was the highest. Retention of hydrocarbons by clay minerals is a common mineral matrix effect in pyrolysis methods and could explain this observation. Future research should include quantification of the mineral matrix effect for different soil types and calculation of a correction factor for the addition of parameters in a soil profile. Therefore, we conclude that in most temperate soils, most classical RE parameters of a soil profile can be indeed calculated as a sum of the different horizons

Predicting Rock-Eval (R) thermal analysis parameters of a soil layer based on samples from its sublayers; an experimental study on forest soils

International audienceSoil sampling depths strongly vary across soil studies. Stocks of elements (such as C, N) or organic matter in a soil layer can be simply calculated from stocks measured in its sublayers. This calculation is less obvious for other soil characteristics, such as soil organic carbon (SOC) persistence, complicating the comparison of results from different studies. Here, we tested whether Rock-Eval (R) parameters of a soil layer, characterizing soil organic matter and its biogeochemical stability, can be determined using Rock-Eval (R) data measured on its sublayers. Soil samples collected in 10 plots located in eight French forest sites, taken up at two different depths (0-30 cm, 30-50 cm), and their mixtures were analysed with Rock-Eval (R). Expected values for the Rock-Eval (R) parameters of the soil mixtures were calculated either: (1) as the weighted mean of Rock-Eval (R) parameters measured on the two sublayers, or (2) based on a signal reconstructed as the weighted mean of Rock-Eval (R) thermograms recorded on the two sublayers. Our results showed a good agreement between measured and expected Rock-Eval (R) parameter values. However, when the clay content strongly differed between the two soil sublayers, the amount of pyrolyzed hydrocarbons measured on the soil mixtures was slightly lower than expected. We conclude that it is reasonable to calculate Rock-Eval (R) parameters of a soil layer, from the Rock-Eval (R) signature of its sublayers. Our findings facilitate the harmonization of Rock-Eval (R) data from large scale soil studies using different sampling depths