Selected physico-chemical properties of succinylated legumin from pea (Pisum sativum L.)

Selected physico-chemical properties of pea legumin before and after succinylation have been investigated using isoelectric focusing, PAGE, SDS-PAGE, hydrophobicity measurements, SE-HPLC and RP-HPLC. Exhaustive succinylation shifted the I.P. of legumin from 4.75 to 3.5. The stepwise dissociation of legumin by increasing succinylation has been confirmed both by means of PAGE in a nondenaturing system, and by SE-HPLC. The results of SDS-PAGE provided evidence for the exposure of α-polypeptide chains in the native legumin. High succinylation resulted in a decrease of the surface hydrophobicity (S₀) measured by both fluorescence probes (cis-parinaric acid and anilino-naphtalene sulfonic acid). RP-HPLC gave a response both to conformational changes and the introduced succinyl residues.     

Modeling and Analysis of UAV-Assisted Mobile Network with Imperfect Beam Alignment

With the rapid development of emerging 5G and beyond (B5G), Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are increasingly important to improve the performance of dense cellular networks. As a conventional metric, coverage probability has been widely studied in communication systems due to the increasing density of users and complexity of the heterogeneous environment. In recent years, stochastic geometry has attracted more attention as a mathematical tool for modeling mobile network systems. In this paper, an analytical approach to the coverage probability analysis of UAV-assisted cellular networks with imperfect beam alignment has been proposed. An assumption was considered that all users are distributed according to Poisson Cluster Process (PCP) around base stations, in particular, Thomas Cluster Process (TCP). Using this model, the impact of beam alignment errors on the coverage probability was investigated. Initially, the Probability Density Function (PDF) of directional antenna gain between the user and its serving base station was obtained. Then, association probability with each tier was achieved. A tractable expression was derived for coverage probability in both Line-of-Sight (LoS) and Non-Line-of-Sight (NLoS) condition links. Numerical results demonstrated that at low UAVs altitude, beam alignment errors significantly degrade coverage performance. Moreover, for a small cluster size, alignment errors do not necessarily affect the coverage performance.     

High prevalence of antibodies to Mycoplasma penetrans in human immunodeficiency virus-seronegative and -seropositive populations in Brazzaville, Congo

In industrialized countries, the prevalence of antibodies to Mycoplasma penetrans is higher among human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-seropositive homosexuals than other HIV-seropositive and HIV-seronegative groups. In an African heterosexual population, we found a higher prevalence of M. penetrans antibodies in HIV-seronegative blood donors (15.5%) than in France (0.9%) or the United States (0.3%) and a prevalence of 13.4% in HIV-seropositive individuals. HIV-seropositive individuals with less than 5% CD4 cells had a higher prevalence of M. penetrans antibodies than individuals with 5% or more CD4 cells (25.0 versus 8.5%).     

Relationship between blood pressure and weight characteristics in childhood and adolescence. II.--Blood pressure, fatness, lean body mass and non lean body mass (author's transl)

The relationship between adiposity and blood pressure has been studied among 17,067 healthy children aged 4 to 18 years old. The correlation of blood pressure with fatness, expressed as non lean body mass, is smaller than the correlation with lean body mass, especially in boys. Blood pressure association with lean body mass strongly increases during puberty growth in boys. These data suggest that during adolescence blood pressure association with weight is mainly due to growth and physical-maturation and that fatness has less influence. A careful analysis of somatic features of adolescents with high blood pressure seems necessary before advocating and improved system of weight control. Preference of blood pressure reference to height is again strengthened.     

Local Mutual Information for Dissimilarity-Based Image Segmentation

Connective segmentation based on the definition of a dissimilarity measure on pairs of adjacent pixels is an appealing framework to develop new hierarchical segmentation methods. Usually, the dissimilarity is fully determined by the intensity values of the considered pair of adjacent pixels, so that it is independent of the values of the other image pixels. In this paper, we explore dissimilarity measures depending on the overall image content encapsulated in its local mutual information and show its invariance to information preserving transforms. This is investigated in the framework of the connective segmentation and constrained connectivity paradigms and leads to the concept of dependent connectivities. An efficient probability estimator based on depth functions is proposed to handle multi-dimensional images. Experiments conducted on hyper-spectral and multi-angular remote sensing images highlight the robustness of the proposed approach.     

Assessment of rheological and thermodynamic properties of the Pd40Ni40P20 bulk metallic glass around glass transition using an indentation creep technique

The thermodynamic and rheological properties of the Pd₄₀Ni₄₀P₂₀ bulk metallic glass are explored by means of an indentation creep technique around the glass transition. We have developed a dedicated instrumented indentation apparatus allowing to assess the mechanical properties at elevated temperatures. The analysis of results is made possible by using the viscoelastic solutions of contact mechanics. We also analyse the thermodynamics of creep around glass transition to estimate the activation free energy changes from the activation free enthalpy changes via the shear modulus – temperature data. The shear viscosity values extracted using this technique allow for the derivation of activation energies (free enthalpy 210 kJ/mol, enthalpy 456 kJ/mol, entropy 410 J/mol/K) for the flow process. All these properties were found to closely match with those obtained using conventional techniques for viscosity measurements. Compared to the latter, the indentation creep technique requires small volumes and samples are easy to prepare. It is therefore expected that such a technique might be employed for the study of glass transition in metallic glasses.     

Composite pressure vessels for hydrogen storage in fire conditions: Fire tests and burst simulation

A type IV composite pressure vessel subjected to fire may burst because of the degradation of the outer layers, but when the inner pressure is less than a critical value, leak is observed instead of burst. This phenomenon is due to the heat transfer through the composite shell which leads to liner melting. In order to characterize this failure mechanisms, engulfing fire tests have been performed in the framework of the FireComp project whose objective is to understand and simulate the fire performance of hydrogen storage. An experimental set-up has been implemented to expose the cylinders to fire by the means of gas injectors. A simple FE model has been developed to simulate the coupled effects of mechanical damage and of temperature. This approach is found to accurately predict the time to burst of the composite tank, as well as the transition between burst and leak.     

Amorphous Ge‐Sb‐Se thin films fabricated by co‐sputtering: Properties and photosensitivity

Amorphous Ge–Sb–Se thin films were fabricated by a rf‐magnetron co‐sputtering technique employing the following cathodes: GeSe₂, Sb₂Se₃, and Ge₂₈Sb₁₂Se₆₀. The influence of the composition, determined by energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy, on the optical properties was studied. Optical properties were analyzed based on variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometry and UV‐Vis‐NIR spectrophotometry. The results show that the optical bandgap range 1.35‐2.08 eV with corresponding refractive index ranging from 3.33 to 2.36 can be reliably covered. Furthermore, morphological and topographical properties of selenide‐sputtered films studied by scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy showed a good quality of fabricated films. In addition, structure of the films was controlled using Raman scattering spectroscopy. Finally, irreversible photoinduced changes by means of change in optical bandgap energy and refractive index of co‐sputtered films were studied revealing the photobleaching effect in Ge‐rich films when irradiated by near‐bandgap light under Ar atmosphere. The photobleaching effect tends to decrease with increasing antimony content.     

Safety and efficacy of probiotic lactobacilli in promoting growth in post-weaning Swiss mice

Lactobacillus rhamnosus MA27/6B and L. acidophilus MA27/6R are strains used in feed as probiotics. Their safety profiles and growth-stimulating properties were investigated via in vivo studies on young Swiss mice. After repeated administrations of different probiotic preparations in drinking water, safety parameters determined from liver, spleen and total weight remained unchanged. The growth-stimulating properties of viable or dead lactobacilli were studied after supplementation in drinking water. The feed intake (FI), water intake and body weight gain (WG) of the animals were compared to those of control mice. The lactobacilli supplementation of a sub-optimal diet made of barley allow recording of measurable growth performance of mice. It significantly increased WG compared to control groups (P < 0.01), by +28.9% and +31.7% for L. rhamnosus MA27/6B and L. acidophilus MA27/6R, respectively. This WG was correlated with a decrease in the consumption index. The effect of the dose ingested was also investigated: 10(8) lactobacilli CFU/mouse/day produced greater WG than 10(2), 10(4) or 10(6) CFU/mouse/day. No significant differences in growth performance parameters were observed between mice fed with 10(8) cells of viable or nonviable preparations. The mouse assay described could be used as a preliminary criterion when screening candidate probiotics for growth performance properties.     

Cross-collection Searching: A Pandora's Box or the Holy Grail?

As digital libraries have expanded to absorb existing collectionsas well as to create new ones, it has become clear that crosscollection discovery is not simply desirable, but is increasinglya necessity demanded by users. Similarly, in the digital humanitiescommunity, thematic research collections once distinct fromone another now would seem to benefit from interoperability.However, efforts to aggregate disparate resources are oftenstymied by differing metadata schema and controlled vocabulary.Using the lessons learned from the Thomas MacGreevy Archive,The University of Maryland Libraries designed its digital repositoryto provide for discovery across object types and collectionsusing Fedora as the underlying architecture. To facilitate accessto multiple collections within one repository, University ofMaryland developed a flexible metadata standard. This metadataschema is used to describe varying types of materials at varyinglevels of granularity, while allowing for controlled vocabulariesappropriate to specific collections.