A new way to apply ultrasound in cross-flow ultrafiltration: application to colloidal suspensions.

A new coupling of ultrasound device with membrane process has been developed in order to enhance cross-flow ultrafiltration of colloidal suspensions usually involved in several industrial applications included bio and agro industries, water and sludge treatment. In order to reduce mass transfer resistances induced by fouling and concentration polarization, which both are main limitations in membrane separation process continuous ultrasound is applied with the help of a vibrating blade (20 kHz) located in the feed channel all over the membrane surface (8mm between membrane surface and the blade). Hydrodynamic aspects were also taking into account by the control of the rectangular geometry of the feed channel.

The extreme variety of genotoxic response to benzo[a]pyrene in three different human cell lines from three different organs.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are associated with occupational exposure and urban atmospheric pollution. Determination of the genotoxic properties of these compounds is thus of outmost importance. For this purpose a variety of cellular models have been widely used.

Elastic models of the fast traps of carnivorous Dionaea and Aldrovanda.

The carnivorous aquatic waterwheel plant (Aldrovanda vesiculosa L.) and the closely related terrestrial Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula Sol. ex J.

Live-attenuated bacteria as a cancer vaccine vector.

In the emerging field of active and specific cancer immunotherapy, strategies using live-attenuated bacterial vectors have matured in terms of academic and industrial development. Different bacterial species can be genetically engineered to deliver antigen to APCs with strong adjuvant effects due to their microbial origin. Proteic or DNA-encoding antigen delivery routes and natural bacterial tropisms might differ among species, permitting different applications.

Genetic and pharmacologic inhibition of mTORC1 promotes EMT by a TGF-β-independent mechanism.

Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a transdifferentiation process that converts epithelial cells into highly motile mesenchymal cells. This physiologic process occurs largely during embryonic development but is aberrantly reactivated in different pathologic situations, including fibrosis and cancer. We conducted a siRNA screening targeted to the human kinome with the aim of discovering new EMT effectors.

Efficient photocatalytic hydrogen production in water using a cobalt(III) tetraaza-macrocyclic catalyst: electrochemical generation of the low-valent Co(I) species and its reactivity toward proton reduction.

A very efficient homogeneous system for visible-light driven hydrogen production in water is reported. This comprises the [Co(CR)Cl2](+) cobalt(III) tetraaza-macrocyclic complex (Cat1) as a noble metal-free catalyst, [Ru(bpy)3]Cl2 as a photosensitizer and ascorbate/ascorbic acid as a sacrificial electron donor and buffer. This system gives up to 1000 turnovers at pH 4.

Detecting variations of blood volume shift due to heart beat from respiratory inductive plethysmography measurements in man.

The simultaneous study of the cardiac and respiratory activities and their interactions is of great physiological and clinical interest. For this purpose, we want to investigate if respiratory inductive plethysmography (RIP) can be used for cardiac functional exploration. We propose a system, based on RIP technology and time-scale approaches of signal processing, for the extraction of cardiac information.

Optical feedback stabilized laser tuned by single-sideband modulation.

We report a subkilohertz-linewidth distributed-feedback diode laser that is optical-feedback locked to a highly stable V-shaped cavity with drift rates below 20 Hz/s. This source is continuously tunable over 1 THz around 1590 nm by selecting a cavity mode and using an innovative single-sideband modulation scheme, which allows for frequency shifting over up to 40 GHz with millihertz accuracy. This robust setup achieves high performance without advanced vibration isolation and will be a powerful tool for metrological applications, in particular a redetermination of the Boltzmann constant by molecular spectroscopy.

Measurement of direct CP violation parameters in B± → J/ψK± and B± → J/ψπ± decays with 10.4 fb-1 of Tevatron data.

We present a measurement of the direct CP-violating charge asymmetry in B(±) mesons decaying to J/ψK(±) and J/ψπ(±) where J/ψ decays to μ(+) μ(-), using the full run II data set of 10.4 fb(-1) of proton-antiproton collisions collected using the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. A difference in the yield of B(-) and B(+) mesons in these decays is found by fitting to the difference between their reconstructed invariant mass distributions resulting in asymmetries of A(J/ψK) = [0.

[What are patients' attitudes towards generic drugs? The example of metformin].

The success of cost containment with generic drugs is based on consumer's willingness to accept substitution. This investigation reveals 3 major themes that can explain attitudes of patients towards generics: 1) personal beliefs and knowledge (coming from the media issues, family, friends) are fragmented and sometimes erroneous, with a background of suspicion on the quality of the generics; 2) relation with the prescriber (indirectly pharmacist) is central to build up patient's trust; suspicious professionals generate an anxious patient; 3) previous experience from the consumer with generics. Starting from patients' experiences and beliefs allows to anticipate their resistance to the generic and to adapt drug prescription choices.

Experimental assessment of CO2-mineral-toxic ion interactions in a simplified freshwater aquifer: implications for CO2 leakage from deep geological storage.

The possible intrusion of CO2 into a given freshwater aquifer due to leakage from deep geological storage involves a decrease in pH, which has been directly associated with the remobilization of hazardous trace elements via mineral dissolution and/or via desorption processes. In an effort to evaluate the potential risks to potable water quality, the present study is devoted to experimental investigation of the effects of CO2 intrusion on the mobility of toxic ions in simplified equilibrated aquifers. We demonstrate that remobilization of trace elements by CO2 intrusion is not a universal physicochemical effect.

Influence of ligand presentation density on the molecular recognition of mannose-functionalised glyconanoparticles by bacterial lectin BC2L-A.

Polyvalent carbohydrate-protein interactions play a key role in bio- and pathological processes, including cell-cell communication and pathogen invasion. In order to study, control and manipulate these interactions gold nanoparticles have been employed as a 3D scaffold, presenting carbohydrate ligands in a multivalent fashion for use as high affinity binding partners and a model system for oligosaccharide presentation at biomacromolecular surfaces. In this study, the binding of a series of mannose-functionalised gold nanoparticles to the dimeric BC2L-A lectin from Burkholderia cenocepacia has been evaluated.

Spatial cooperativity in microchannel flows of soft jammed materials: a mesoscopic approach.

The flow of amorphous solids results from a combination of elastic deformation and local structural rearrangements, which induce nonlocal elastic deformations. These elements are incorporated into a mechanically consistent mesoscopic model of interacting elastoplastic blocks. We investigate the specific case of channel flow with numerical simulations, paying particular attention to situations of strong confinement.

Light control of the flow of phototactic microswimmer suspensions.

Some microalgae are sensitive to light intensity gradients. This property is known as phototaxis: The algae swim toward a light source (positive phototaxis). We use this property to control the motion of microalgae within a Poiseuille flow using light.

Charge transport in photoswitchable dimethyldihydropyrene-type single-molecule junctions.

The conductance properties of a photoswitchable dimethyldihydropyrene (DHP) derivative have been investigated for the first time in single-molecule junctions using the mechanically controllable break junction technique. We demonstrate that the reversible structure changes induced by isomerization of a single bispyridine-substituted DHP molecule are correlated with a large drop of the conductance value. We found a very high ON/OFF ratio (>10(4)) and an excellent reversibility of conductance switching.

Flexible synthesis and evaluation of diverse anti-Apicomplexa cyclic peptides.

A modular approach to synthesize anti-Apicomplexa parasite inhibitors was developed that takes advantage of a pluripotent cyclic tetrapeptide scaffold capable of adjusting appendage and skeletal diversities in only a few steps (one to three steps). The diversification processes make use of selective radical coupling reactions and involve a new example of a reductive carbon-nitrogen cleavage reaction with SmI2. The resulting bioactive cyclic peptides have revealed new insights into structural factors that govern selectivity between Apicomplexa parasites such as Toxoplasma and Plasmodium and human cells.

A safe bacterial microsyringe for in vivo antigen delivery and immunotherapy.

The industrial development of active immunotherapy based on live-attenuated bacterial vectors has matured. We developed a microsyringe for antigen delivery based on the type III secretion system (T3SS) of P. aeruginosa.

Nanoscale radiative heat flow due to surface plasmons in graphene and doped silicon.

Owing to its two-dimensional electronic structure, graphene exhibits many unique properties. One of them is a wave vector and temperature dependent plasmon in the infrared range. Theory predicts that due to these plasmons, graphene can be used as a universal material to enhance nanoscale radiative heat exchange for any dielectric substrate.

The corneal epithelium and lens develop independently from a common pool of precursors.

Background: The corneal epithelium (CE) overlays a stroma, which is derived from neural crest cells, and appears to be committed during chick development, but appears still labile in adult rabbit. Its specification was hitherto regarded as resolved and dependent upon the lens, although without experimental support. Here, we challenged CE fate by changing its environment at different stages.

The binding mode of Ni-(L-His)2 in NikA revealed by X-ray crystallography.

The ABC-type importer NikABCDE mediates nickel acquisition in Escherichia coli. The periplasmic nickel-binding component NikA has a folding similar to that of the peptide transporter OppA and does not bind free nickel. Instead, we showed that the metal is tetra-coordinated by an organic tri-dentate molecule and His416.

Liquid Methanol from DFT and DFT/MM Molecular Dynamics Simulations.

We present a comparative study of computational protocols for the description of liquid methanol from ab initio molecular dynamics simulations, in view of further applications directed at the modeling of chemical reactivity of organic and organometallic molecules in (explicit) methanol solution. We tested density functional theory molecular dynamics (DFT-MD) in its Car-Parrinello Molecular Dynamics (CPMD) and Quickstep/Born-Oppenheimer MD (CP2K) implementations, employing six popular density functionals with and without corrections for dispersion interactions (namely BLYP, BLYP-D2, BLYP-D3, BP86, BP86-D2, and B97-D2). Selected functionals were also tested within the two QM/MM frameworks implemented in CPMD and CP2K, considering one DFT molecule in a MM environment (described by the OPLS model of methanol).

Comparative testicular transcriptome of wild type and globozoospermic Dpy19l2 knock out mice.

Background: Globozoospermia is a male infertility phenotype characterized by the presence in the ejaculate of near 100% acrosomeless round-headed spermatozoa with normal chromosomal content. Following intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) these spermatozoa give a poor fertilization rate and embryonic development. We showed previously that most patients have a 200 kb homozygous deletion, which includes DPY19L2 whole coding sequence.