Field evidence for non-host predator avoidance in a manipulated amphipod.

Manipulative parasites are known to alter the spatial distribution of their intermediate hosts in a way that enables trophic transmission to definitive hosts. However, field data on the ecological implications of such changes are lacking. In particular, little is known about the spatial coexistence between infected prey and dead-end predators after a parasite-induced habitat shift.

Influence of the implantation profiles of Si(+) on the dielectric function and optical transitions in silicon nanocrystals.

We report optical characterization of silicon nanocrystals embedded in silica thin films by spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE). Silicon nanocrystals (nc-Si) are produced by single energy ion implantation and multienergy Si(+) ion implantation into 250 nm of thermal oxide (SiO(2)) layers on silicon substrate. After thermal annealing, the obtained nc-Si have a Gaussian and uniform profiles for single and multienergy implantation, respectively.

Ecological recovery of vegetation on a coke-factory soil: role of plant antioxidant enzymes and possible implications in site restoration.

The present paper investigated the short-term colonization by plants of a highly degraded soil in field conditions. The objectives were to identify, through phytosociological analysis, the plant species able to grow on such polluted areas and to characterize pollutant effects at different biological levels through analyses of plant oxidative status, plant growth or community indexes of richness and biodiversity. Our results showed that among the plants present in the uncontaminated surrounding area, only few species were able to colonize the polluted soil.

The ultrasound-assisted oxidative scission of monoenic fatty acids by ruthenium tetroxide catalysis: influence of the mixture of solvents.

Carboxylic acids and diacids were synthesized from monoenic fatty acids by using RuO4 catalysis, under ultrasonic irradiation, in various mixtures of solvents. Ultrasound associated with Aliquat 336 have promoted in water, the quantitative oxidative cleavage of the CH=CH bond of oleic acid. A design of experiment (DOE) shows that the optimal mixture of solvents (H2O/MeCN, ratio 1/1, 2.

Antioxidant enzyme activities as affected by trivalent and hexavalent chromium species in Fontinalis antipyretica Hedw.

The detoxification mechanisms of the aquatic moss, Fontinalis antipyretica Hedw., exposed to Cr was analyzed. In addition, the influence of Cr salts (as Cr nitrate, chloride and potassium bichromate) on these mechanisms has also been studied.

Apoptosis/necrosis switch in two different cancer cell lines: influence of benzoquinone- and hydrogen peroxide-induced oxidative stress intensity, and glutathione.

Depending on the strength of oxidative stress, cells exhibit proliferative, apoptotic or necrotic responses. We have investigated whether the severity of glutathione (GSH) depletion could determine the type of cell death using 1,4-benzoquinone (BQ) and H(2)O(2) in two different tumor cell lines (human mammary gland carcinoma MCF-7 and rat hepatoma H5-6). BQ-treated surviving cells showed an increase in GSH, but no detectable oxidized glutathione (GSSG) nor reactive oxygen species (ROS) augmentation.

Systematic errors for a Mueller matrix dual rotating compensator ellipsometer.

The characterization of anisotropic materials and complex systems by ellipsometry has pushed the design of instruments to require the measurement of the full reflection Mueller matrix of the sample with a great precision. Therefore Mueller matrix ellipsometers have emerged over the past twenty years. The values of some coefficients of the matrix can be very small and errors due to noise or systematic errors can induce distored analysis.

[General practioners and medical guidelines: a sociological approach].

Background: While designed to help physicians in their account of the changing state of the art and of the evidence-based medicine, the situation of the medical guidelines seem to be critical: they need time, they are too complex, they deal with pathologies as if they were isolated from the whole context.

Methods: In the survey, 279 general practioners were asked to answer a scenario dealing with these difficulties.

Results: More than a half of the practitioners interviewed approve the increasing role of guidelines in medical practice and say they try to take them into account, but they also say they generally rely on their own medical experience to operate a selection among the impressive set of guidelines they receive.

Is the freshwater gammarid, Dikerogammarus villosus, a suitable sentinel species for the implementation of histochemical biomarkers?

In order to enlarge the range of potential sentinel species for the implementation of a multiple biomarker approach, spatial and monthly morphological variations of four cellular compartments and contents were assessed during two years in the hepatopancreatic caeca of the freshwater gammarid, Dikerogammarus villosus (Crustacea, Amphipoda), using histochemistry coupled to image analysis. Among the three study sites, the second one, located in a reservoir receiving the overheated and copper-contaminated waters of a nuclear power plant, was the most anthropised. During this passive biomonitoring survey, unsaturated neutral lipids were more abundant, the surface densities of the lysosomal and peroxisomal systems were, respectively less and more important, and lipofuscin granules tended to accumulate in the amphipods from the second site compared to both others.

An acanthocephalan parasite boosts the escape performance of its intermediate host facing non-host predators.

Among the potential effects of parasitism on host condition, the 'increased host abilities' hypothesis is a counterintuitive pattern which might be predicted in complex-life-cycle parasites. In the case of trophic transmission, a parasite increasing its intermediate host's performance facing non-host predators improves its probability of transmission to an adequate, definitive host. In the present study, we investigated the cost of infection with the acanthocephalan Polymorphus minutus on the locomotor/escape performance of its intermediate host, the crustacean Gammarus roeseli.

Multifractality and randomness in the unstable plastic flow near the lower strain-rate boundary of instability.

The unstable plastic flow of an AlMg alloy, associated with the Portevin-Le Chatelier effect, was studied near the lower strain-rate boundary of instability using multifractal analysis. Self-similarity of deformation curves, indicating long-range time correlations of stress serrations, was detected within the strain-rate range where serrations are commonly ascribed to the occurrence of uncorrelated deformation bands. The deformation curves display a wide range of shapes that are characterized by different groupings of serrations.

Understanding the resistivity and absolute thermoelectric power of disordered metals and alloys.

We recall definitions of the electronic transport properties, direct coefficients like electrical and thermal transport conductivities and crossed thermoelectric coefficients like the Seebeck, Peltier and Thomson coefficients. We discuss the links between the different electronic transport coefficients and the experimental problems in measuring these properties in liquid metals. The electronic transport properties are interpreted in terms of the scattering of electrons by 'pseudo-atoms'.

Single and multiple cross sections for ionizing processes of biological molecules by protons and alpha-particle impact: a classical Monte Carlo approach.

A classical trajectory model has been used to predict total cross sections of single and double ionizing processes (including capture processes) for several ion-biological molecule collisional systems in the intermediate and high energy range. In this work, the systems studied are water, adenine or cytosine targets ionized by protons and alpha-particles with kinetic energies ranging from 25 keV amu(-1) to 3000 keV amu(-1). In our approach, we have combined several features of two classical methods namely the classical trajectory Monte Carlo (CTMC) and the classical over-barrier (COB) models.

Laser ablation mass spectrometry of inorganic transition metal compounds. Additional knowledge for the understanding of ion formation.

Laser ablation of transition-metal oxides have been investigated to better understand the formation processes of inorganic cluster ions. The study of binary oxide mixtures and the relative distribution of the ions produced suggest three salient mechanisms that occur after laser/matter interaction, that function to produce the observed ensemble of ionic species. Molecular recombination reactions, unimolecular dissociation processes, emission of small neutrals, including molecular oxygen from transition-metal oxide samples, or from species expelled in gas phase appear to be a significant mechanism, especially under high laser irradiance conditions.

Elevated aluminium concentration in acidified headwater streams lowers aquatic hyphomycete diversity and impairs leaf-litter breakdown.

Aquatic hyphomycetes play an essential role in the decomposition of allochthonous organic matter which is a fundamental process driving the functioning of forested headwater streams. We studied the effect of anthropogenic acidification on aquatic hyphomycetes associated with decaying leaves of Fagus sylvatica in six forested headwater streams (pH range, 4.3-7.

Activity of novel Cdc25 inhibitors and preliminary evaluation of their potentiation of chemotherapeutic drugs in human breast cancer cells.

Dual-specific phosphatases Cdc25 play a critical role in the cell cycle regulation by activating kinases of Cdk/cyclin complexes. Three Cdc25 isoforms (A, B and C) have been identified in mammalians. Cdc25A and B display oncogenic properties and are over-expressed in different tumors.

Synthesis and protective effects of coumarin derivatives against oxidative stress induced by doxorubicin.

The use of doxorubicin (DOX) in the treatment of solid tumors is limited by cardiotoxicity essentially due to oxidative stress generation. The aim of this study was to identify coumarin derivatives displaying a protective antioxidant activity without affecting DOX antitumoral efficiency. A set of eighteen coumarinic derivatives was synthesized.

CELLDOSE: a Monte Carlo code to assess electron dose distribution--S values for 131I in spheres of various sizes.

Unlabelled: Monte Carlo simulation can be particularly suitable for modeling the microscopic distribution of energy received by normal tissues or cancer cells and for evaluating the relative merits of different radiopharmaceuticals. We used a new code, CELLDOSE, to assess electron dose for isolated spheres with radii varying from 2,500 mum down to 0.05 mum, in which (131)I is homogeneously distributed.

Effects of size on the dynamics of dislocations in ice single crystals.

Single crystals of ice subjected to primary creep in torsion exhibit a softening behavior: the plastic strain rate increases with time. In a cylindrical sample, the size of the radius affects this response. The smaller the radius of the sample becomes while keeping constant the average shear stress across a section, the softer the response.

Positron follow-up in liquid water: II. Spatial and energetic study for the most important radioisotopes used in PET.

With the increasing development of positron emission tomography (PET), beta(+)-emitters are more and more regularly used in nuclear medicine. Therefore, today it is of prime importance to have a reliable description of their behavior in living matter in order to quantify the full spectra of the molecular damages potentially radio-induced and then to access a cellular dosimetry. In this work, we present a detailed inter-comparison of the main isotopes commonly used in PET: (18)F, (11)C, (13)N, (15)O, (68)Ga and (82)Rb.

Interaction of the electrophilic ketoprofenyl-glucuronide and ketoprofenyl-coenzyme A conjugates with cytosolic glutathione S-transferases.

Carboxylic acid-containing drugs are metabolized mainly through the formation of glucuronide and coenzyme A esters. These conjugates have been suspected to be responsible for the toxicity of several nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs because of the reactivity of the electrophilic ester bond. In the present study we investigated the reactivity of ketoprofenyl-acylglucuronide (KPF-OG) and ketoprofenyl-acyl-coenzyme A (KPF-SCoA) toward cytosolic rat liver glutathione S-transferases (GST).

Accuracy of orientation distribution function determination based on EBSD data-A case study of a recrystallized low alloyed Zr sheet.

The question of the statistical accuracy of EBSD data for global texture calculation was re-explored on the basis of a very large grain population (83 000 grains measured on a recrystallized low-alloyed Zr sheet). Previous works aimed mainly at identifying and quantifying the main texture components and were based on much smaller data sets. The present work attempts to quantify the accuracy of the complete texture, including low-density regions of the orientation space.

Genotoxic effects and induction of phytochelatins in the presence of cadmium in Vicia faba roots.

This study investigates different effects in roots of Vicia faba (broad bean) after exposure to cadmium. Genotoxic effects were assessed by use of the well-known Vicia root tip micronucleus assay. Cytotoxic effects were evaluated by determining the mitotic index in root tip cells.

Laser-induced Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry of organic and inorganic compounds: methodologies and applications.

The combination of a laser with a Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer (FTICRMS) enables a variety of MS experiments to be conducted. The laser can be used either as an intense photonic source for the photoionization of neutral species introduced in a variety of ways into the FTICR cell, or it can be made to directly interact with a solid, generating gas-phase ions. Depending on the experimental conditions used, various laser-matter interactions can occur.