Institut de l'Information Scientifique et Technique

A nonlinear least-squares optimization algorithm based on the Newton model modified with Levenberg parameter, is described for the extraction of the five illuminated solar cell parameters from the experimental data. An initialization routine based on the reduced nonlinear least-squares technique in which only two parameters have to be initialized, is introduced to overcome the difficulty in initializing the cell parameters. The program when incorporated into a microcomputer-based data acquisition software, allows an in-situ theoretical modelling of solar cells in laboratories. Results obtained for a commercial solar cell and a module are given.

diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publis ou non, manant des tablissements d'enseignement et de recherche franais ou trangers, des laboratoires publics ou privs.

To make full use of research data, the bioscience community needs to adopt technologies and reward mechanisms that support interoperability and promote the growth of an open 'data commoning' culture. Here we describe the prerequisites for data commoning and present an established and growing ecosystem of solutions using the shared 'Investigation-Study-Assay' framework to support that vision.

The Atlas of Genetics and Cytogenetics in Oncology and Haematology (http://AtlasGeneticsOncology.org) is a peer-reviewed internet journal/encyclopaedia/database focused on genes implicated in cancer, cytogenetics and clinical entities in cancer and cancer-prone hereditary diseases. The main goal of the Atlas is to provide review articles that describe complementary topics, namely, genes, genetic abnormalities, histopathology, clinical diagnoses and a large iconography. This description, which was historically based on karyotypic abnormalities and in situ hybridization (fluorescence in situ hybridization) techniques, now benefits from comparative genomic hybridization and massive sequencing, uncovering a tremendous amount of genetic rearrangements. As the Atlas combines different types of information (genes, genetic abnormalities, histopathology, clinical diagnoses and external links), its content is currently unique. The Atlas is a cognitive tool for fundamental and clinical research and has developed into an encyclopaedic work. In clinical practice, it contributes to the cytogenetic diagnosis and may guide treatment decision making, particularly regarding rare diseases (because they are numerous and are frequently encountered). Readers as well as the authors of the Atlas are researchers and/or clinicians.

Composite technology, where a novel artificial material is fabricated by combining, for example, ceramic and polymer materials in an ordered manner or just by mixing, was earlier used widely for sonar, medical diagnostics, and NDT purposes. However, in recent decades, large numbers of ceramic–polymer composites have been introduced for telecommunication and microelectronic applications. For these purposes, composites of 0–3 connectivity (a three‐dimensionally connected polymer phase is loaded with isolated ceramic particles) are the most attractive from the application point of view. Composites of 0–3 connectivity enable flexible forms and very different shapes with very inexpensive fabrication methods including simply mixing and molding. In this brief review, we gather together the research carried out within 0–3 ceramic–polymer composites for microwave substrates, also including embedded capacitor, inductor, or microwave‐absorbing performances.

SUMMARY In this paper, the problem of obtaining a good decomposition of the manufacturing system into manufacturing cells is addressed. The parts can be partitioned into families, whereby each part family is assigned to a single cell. A simple twofold heuristic algorithm capable of minimizing inter-cell material movement, and addressing industrial applications of realistic dimensions is presented. The first step of the proposed heuristic is a bottom-up aggregation procedure to minimize what is defined as 'Normalized Inter-Cell Traffic'. The second step is a procedure to attempt further improvement, in which the significance of a machine to a cell is validated. A large scale industrial application of the system is also presented.

In Europe, iron deficiency is considered to be one of the main nutritional deficiency disorders affecting large fractions of the population, particularly such physiological groups as children, menstruating women and pregnant women. Some factors such as type of contraception in women, blood donation or minor pathological blood loss (haemorrhoids, gynaecological bleeding...) considerably increase the difficulty of covering iron needs. Moreover, women, especially adolescents consuming low-energy diets, vegetarians and vegans are at high risk of iron deficiency. Although there is no evidence that an absence of iron stores has any adverse consequences, it does indicate that iron nutrition is borderline, since any further reduction in body iron is associated with a decrease in the level of functional compounds such as haemoglobin. The prevalence of iron-deficient anaemia has slightly decreased in infants and menstruating women. Some positive factors may have contributed to reducing the prevalence of iron-deficiency anaemia in some groups of population: the use of iron-fortified formulas and iron-fortified cereals; the use of oral contraceptives and increased enrichment of iron in several countries; and the use of iron supplements during pregnancy in some European countries. It is possible to prevent and control iron deficiency by counseling individuals and families about sound iron nutrition during infancy and beyond, and about iron supplementation during pregnancy, by screening persons on the basis of their risk for iron deficiency, and by treating and following up persons with presumptive iron deficiency. This may help to reduce manifestations of iron deficiency and thus improve public health. Evidence linking iron status with risk of cardiovascular disease or cancer is unconvincing and does not justify changes in food fortification or medical practice, particularly because the benefits of assuring adequate iron intake during growth and development are well established. But stronger evidence is needed before rejecting the hypothesis that greater iron stores increase the incidence of CVD or cancer. At present, currently available data do not support radical changes in dietary recommendations. They include all means for increasing the content of dietary factors enhancing iron absorption or reducing the content of factors inhibiting iron absorption. Increased knowledge and increased information about factors may be important tools in the prevention of iron deficiency in Europe.

This article summarizes the various ways one may use to construct the Skew Brownian motion, and shows their connections. Recent applications of this process in modelling and numerical simulation motivates this survey. This article ends with a brief account of related results, extensions and applications of the Skew Brownian motion.

The "SUpplementation en VItamines et MinérauxAntioXydants" (SU.VI.MAX) study is a randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled, primary prevention trial designed to test the efficacy of daily supplementation with antioxidant vitamins (vitamin C, 120 mg; vitamin E, 30 mg; and beta-carotene, 6 mg) and minerals (selenium, 100 micrograms; and zinc, 20 mg), at nutritional doses (one to three times the daily recommended dietary allowances), in reducing the frequency of major health problems in industrialized countries, and especially the main causes of premature death (cancers and cardiovascular diseases). The study involves 12,735 eligible subjects (women aged 35 to 60 years; men aged 45 to 60 years) included in 1994 in France. They will be followed up for 8 years. The objectives and the specific design of this intervention study are linked to its public health aim. The targeted population is the general population (not simply high-risk subjects) and the antioxidant agents tested are being administered at a level which is not pharmacologic and which may be attained by dietary intake of natural sources of these micronutrients and/or enriched foods. The amounts we are testing in the SU.VI.MAX study are those which, in observational studies have been associated with the lowest risk of diseases. This report presents the rationale and discusses the justification of the design, doses and combination of antioxidant micronutrients chosen in the SU.VI.MAX study.

The objectives are to identify and integrate through regression analysis those fundamental clinical variables predicting survival of patients with inoperable lung cancer managed in a modern setting. Median survival time from first treatment in 129 patients with limited disease and 187 patients with extensive disease was 36 and 14 weeks, respectively. Within the proposed survival model for limited disease, weight loss was the major prognosticator followed by symptom status, supraclavicular metastases, and age. Within extensive disease, symptom status and age were dominant variables followed by weight loss and metastases to liver, opposite hemithorax, brain, and bone. Survival by cell type was similar within the limited and extensive disease groups. The data identify the essential factors which must be controlled or accounted for in studies analyzing survival as a dependent variable.

BACKGROUND: Volatile agents alter inhibitory postsynaptic currents (IPSCs) at clinically relevant concentrations, an action that is thought to make an important contribution to their behavioral effects. The authors investigated the mechanisms underlying these effects by evaluating the concentration dependence of modulation by enflurane, isoflurane, and halothane of IPSCs in rat hippocampal slices. METHODS: Action potential-independent gamma-aminobutyric acid(A) IPSCs (miniature IPSCs [mIPSCs]) were recorded from CA1 pyramidal neurons. The effects on mIPSC amplitude were used to distinguish between presynaptic (altered release) and postsynaptic (altered receptor response) actions of volatile agents. The concentration dependence of blocking and prolonging actions was compared among the volatile agents to determine whether a single modulatory process could account for both effects. RESULTS: The application of volatile anesthetics prolonged the decay and reduced the amplitude of mIPSCs in a dose-dependent manner. The effects on decay time for isoflurane and enflurane could not be distinguished. However, the blocking effect of enflurane was significantly greater than that of isoflurane at all concentrations. Despite the blocking effect, the net action of these agents was enhanced inhibition, because charge transfer was always significantly greater than control. Isoflurane, and to a lesser extent enflurane and halothane, caused a picrotoxin-sensitive increase in baseline noise. Moderate increases in mIPSC frequency were also observed for all agents. CONCLUSIONS: These results show that enflurane, isoflurane, and halothane reduce IPSC amplitude through a direct postsynaptic action. Furthermore, the concentration dependence of the actions of the agents reveals a dissociation between the effects on the amplitude and the time course of IPSCs, suggesting that distinct mechanisms underlie the two actions.

OBJECTIVE: To review studies on the morbidity, mortality and nutrition of migrant populations in France. DESIGN: A systematic search of the bibliographic database Medline, and direct contact with associations and institutions concerned with migrants' health. RESULTS: In France, as in other host countries, migrants belong to the lowest socio-economic strata. They have on average better health and lower mortality than the local-born population. Health benefits are particularly noticeable in Mediterranean men, especially for affluence-related diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases. North African men smoke as heavily as the local-born of the same occupational categories, and yet their mortality rates from lung cancer are notably lower. Such a paradox may be the result of a synergy between different phenomena such as the selection of the fittest applicants for immigration and the maintenance of healthy lifestyles from the countries of origin. In contrast, migrant women do not enjoy the same health advantages, possibly because they are less likely to be selected on the basis of their health and because they are often non-working. Adult migrants from southern Europe and North Africa report dietary practices consistent with the typical Mediterranean diet, which is renowned for its positive effects on health. CONCLUSIONS: The diet of Mediterranean adults living in France may partly explain the low rates of chronic diseases and high adult life expectancy observed in migrant men from northern Africa. Information about their diets might provide clues for the design of nutritional education campaigns aimed at low-income people.

Juvenile settlement of 3 sparid fish species, Diplodus puntazzo, Djplodus sargus and D~ploclus vulgan's, was studied over 3 yr at 20 stations located at 5 sites in the NW Mediterranean Sea: 1 site in Spaln (Girona), 2 In France (Ranyuls and ~Marseille) and 2 in Italy (Portofino and Elba). When all sites and years were combined, 71' :' 0 of the settlers recorded belonged to D, vulgaris, 25 X to D. sargus and 4 % to D. puntazzo. Settlement was seasonal, with D. sargus settling in May-June. D. puntazzo in October-November, and D. vulgaris in 2 pulses, the first in November-December and the second in January-February. Settlement intensity varied spatially, temporally, and among species. At a small spatlal scale (with~n site), settlement intensity varied between stations and particularly between years. At a large spatial scale (among sites), settlement intensity varied among sites, with Marseille and Girona generally experiencing higher settlement than other sites. No difference in settlement intensity was observed between protected and unprotected areas The settlement of D. sargus was higher in 1994 than in 1993 and 1995 at all sites, suggesting the influence of meso-scale hydroclimatic conditions on the settlement success of t h ~s species. The settlement of D. vulgaris was higher in 1993 in the western part of the NW Mediterranean, and in 1994 in the eastern part. No consistent spatial trend over t ~m e was seen for D. puntazzo. Thus, settlement intensity of Diplodus species to nearshore habitats in the NW Mediterranean exhibited high year-to-year variations at both local and regional scales.

Sirs—Compared with non-Hispanic Whites, Hispanics in the US are poorer and less educated, and yet they enjoy a lower all-cause mortality rate. This so-called ‘Hispanic Paradox’ has received much attention over the past 20 years, both in the epidemiological and demographic literature. Besides artefactual explanations (i.e. possible under-reporting of Hispanic deaths on death certificates), competing theories fall into two categories: the ‘salmon bias hypothesis’, according to which migrants are likely to return to their country of origin after they retire or become seriously ill, and, the ‘healthy migrant hypothesis’, according to which those who migrate and remain in the host country are the healthiest and strongest members of their population of origin. To date, two reviews have documented extensively the wealth of literature on the Hispanic paradox. One, which is very critical of the concept, focuses on low birthweight and infant mortality;1 the other, which is relatively supportive, covers all the different health components involved in the paradox (mortality, infant mortality, violence, AIDS, coronary heart disease, stroke, cancer, and diabetes).2 The first concludes that the evidence supporting the paradox is fragile and highlights the potential role of selective processes in explaining the migrants’ advantage, while the second puts forward the complexity of the picture, with variations by age, gender, type of Hispanic group, degree of acculturation, and specific disease or cause of death. Recently, a paper—to be considered as a landmark in the field—has very elegantly established that neither the salmon bias, nor the selection of healthy Hispanic migrants into the US could explain the mortality advantage of the Hispanics, and called for further research on cultural factors, especially those involving favourable health behaviours, to shed more light on this issue.3 While much controversy surrounds the very existence and interpretations of the Hispanic paradox, it has been argued that ‘investigation of this “paradox” may provide additional insights into the ways that social factors affect the health of the population at-large’,2 and that ‘the Hispanic paradox should be a motivator for further research ...’.1 With this in mind, our purpose is to place the Hispanic paradox in a wider geographical and cultural perspective, by pinpointing the remarkable mortality advantage that some Mediterranean migrant groups enjoy in Germany and France. While the literature on migrants’ mortality is relatively scarce in Europe, two methodologically sound studies have provided quite an unexpected picture. In Germany, analysis of register data has established that the age-adjusted mortality of the 2 million Turkish residents was consistently half that of the Germans, and also less than half that of an urban population in Turkey.4 The former findings, which concerned males and females equally, were confirmed by a cohort study (‘German Socio-Economic Panel’) unlikely to be subject to the inaccuracies of denominator figures.5 Convergent features have emerged from a study based on register and census data in France which highlighted the surprisingly low mortality of Moroccan immigrants, whose number had swollen in the early 1980s to nearly 600 000.6 Using an indirect demographic method originally devised to estimate the completeness of vital statistics in developing countries, the authors have found that the proportion of missing deaths among Moroccans was about 23% for men, and negligible for women. After having corrected the numbers of male deaths accordingly, they found an adjusted life expectancy of 73.7 years in the 1980s, as opposed to 71.3 in the French population, and 78.8 in females as opposed to 79.6 in the French population. And yet, the socio-demographic profile of those migrants—they are frequently illiterate, single, and employed largely as manual workers (83%)—is expected to favour higher mortality. Echoing the Hispanic mortality paradox in the US, the above findings convincingly set the case for a Mediterranean migrants mortality paradox in some Western European countries, and have led to a questioning of the classical interpretations prevalent in the epidemiological and demographic literature. Rather than referring to a ‘salmon bias’, the authors of the European studies have wondered about the existence of a ‘mobility bias’ resulting from an inflation of the denominator base, due to migrants often returning to their home country for short or long periods, be it in relation to their health status or not. Indeed, the Mediterranean countries of Southern Europe and North Africa are geographically close to France and Germany, and migrants often return to their home country during holidays or for family reasons. Individual follow-up such as that implemented in the German Socio-Economic Panel provides strong support for the substantive nature of the mortality advantage, as does the persistence of a substantial under-mortality in the Moroccans study after correction for under-registration of deaths. Possible explanations are then either the role of selective processes (‘healthy migrant hypothesis’) or that of health-protective behaviours. The ‘healthy migrant hypothesis’ is particularly difficult to investigate: first, mortality estimates in countries of origin are not always available for comparative purposes; second, even when they are, differences in health care between countries render the comparisons meaningless, and; third, the regions of origin of the migrants in their home countries are likely to be different in their mortality profile from the national average. In Abraido-Lanza et al.’s paper,3 the mortality rates in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Mexico were found to be lower than those of the US, and this was interpreted by the authors as consistent with a cultural explanation of the Latino mortality paradox. Those comparisons, however, were not very convincing, given that, as pointed out by Landen,7 they involved crude rather than age-standardized mortality rates. In Europe, the French study is the only one which has incorporated comparisons with the country of origin of the migrants (Morocco). The picture which emerges is that of a much higher life expectancy for the migrants than that estimated for the population of Morocco: the gain in life expectancy was 9.9 years for men, and 11.6 years for women. This may reflect the healthy migrant hypothesis, but not necessarily. Generally speaking, international comparisons are extremely difficult to interpret, with countries differing in numerous factors which influence all-cause mortality, among which are social class, economic indicators, and effectiveness and accessibility of health care and other services.8 In addition, one may legitimately wonder to what extent the selection of applicants for immigration on the basis of their health is a plausible explanation of the mortality paradox. Indeed, two questions are left unanswered: first, do the health selection effects persist long enough to explain a mortality advantage decades after it has taken place, and second, if the migrants are healthier at entry, what are the factors underlying their superior health? Concerning the first point, surprisingly little has been published. Study of an industrial cohort in Great Britain has shown that the ‘healthy worker effect’ was no longer visible 15 years after entry in the cohort,9 while conversely an analysis of the Assets and Health Dynamics of the Oldest Old (AHEAD) in the US concludes that good health of a population at young ages is maintained throughout the lifespan.10 As for Hispanics, the literature indicates that their health and health behaviours deteriorate with acculturation.11 Clearly, more empirical and theoretical studies are needed. Supposing health selection is the key explanation to the mortality advantage, then what are the factors underlying the superior health of the migrants? Do they have lower mortality rates just because the health checks have filtered out the disabled and chronically ill? Or do they have more favourable health behaviours? According to Uitenbroek and Verhoeff,12 who have investigated mortality of the Mediterranean migrants in Amsterdam, selection at entry is not a convincing explanation for their remarkable life expectancy. Indeed, in their twenties and early thirties ‘symptoms of the major causes of death, i.e. cancers and cardiovascular disease are rarely present, and it is difficult to imagine how these young people could have been selected on their future susceptibility’ to those diseases. Those authors, in accord with Razum et al.4 are more supportive of the ‘unhealthy re-migration hypothesis’; in fact a more elaborated version of the ‘salmon bias hypothesis’ which assumes that migrants who re-migrate are those who do not cope well socially and economically, and that those migrants are more likely to experience higher mortality in the future. This can be viewed as a kind of ‘indirect selection’ on factors connected to both socio-occupational skills and health capital, similar to that which has been conceptualized regarding unemployment:13 ‘the mechanism would be that both unemployment and health are related to a certain personality trait’. Could we imagine also that an indirect selection is involved in the migration process, with factors connected to both the will and capacity to migrate and to health? In relation to the ‘salmon bias’ concept, Razum et al.4 also question the plausibility of re-migration of severely ill migrants, considering that it is unlikely that Turkish residents return to their home country when they suffer from ‘conditions such as cardiovascular disease for which medical treatment in Germany is readily available and almost free.’ Economic considerations could therefore deter sick migrants from going home, unless they are moribund, but in this case do they have the strength to undertake a journey back home? Abraido-Lanza et al. consider that the role of cultural factors involving favourable health behaviours is an attractive hypothesis to be tested. If it is confirmed, then this would mean that the migrants would be benefiting from the ‘best of both worlds’:14 the favourable habits of their country of origin and the efficiency of the health care system of their host country. Of the two studies in Europe, the one which has examined causes of death and gathered data on health-related habits is the French one, and the results are quite mixed: on one hand, the death rates from cancers and cardiovascular diseases are much lower among Moroccan males than in the French population, on the other hand, their lifetime consumption of tobacco is comparable, though there are indications that their nutritional habits could be more favourable.15 One important feature of the Moroccan community in France is that they drink very little alcohol, and this could play a major role in their mortality advantage: of all countries in the European Community, France is the one with the highest percentage of heavy alcohol drinkers, and it is characterized by a high alcohol-related premature mortality. There might be cohort effects involved in the lower lung cancer mortality of the Moroccans in France, with heavy smoking limited to the younger cohorts who have not yet reached the age at which lung cancer rates start to rise. Also, a role for alcohol consumption in lung cancer aetiology has been suggested in some studies,16 and one may wonder whether Moroccans are protected from lung cancer in part because they drink very little alcohol. Lastly, the potential role of differential exposure to genetic factors of susceptibility to lung cancer17 is worthy of consideration. Greeks in Australia are another Mediterranean migrant group which was found to have an exceptionally high life expectancy in spite of continuing high rates of cigarette smoking, and this was attributed to the offsetting effects of the Mediterranean diet.14 One of the reviews of the Hispanic paradox concluded by saying that there was a reasonable degree of certainty that the paradox was real for some subgroups, among them older Hispanics.2 In France and Germany, the older cohorts of migrants were precisely those which had the most difficult and hazardous working conditions,18,19 in the mines and the automobile industry. They would, therefore, be expected to have higher mortality. In fact, this was the case for migrants from Eastern European countries but not for Mediterranean migrants.20 To date, the causes of the paradox are largely unknown, be it in the US or in Europe, and, as pointed out by Franzini et al.: if the reasons are largely cultural, then the paradox will only exist for as long as a large percentage of Hispanics remain culturally distinct from the rest of the US ... a rare window of opportunity now exists to learn more about how cultural factors influence one’s health....2 The migrants’ mortality paradox raises challenging questions about the nature of the selective processes related to migration, and those questions have a bearing on health-based selection in general and on the potential role of indirect selection in explaining part of the association between socio-demographic factors and health. The opening up of new research avenues is desirable to meet the challenge, along the lines recently delineated by Schwartz, Susser, and Susser.21 More attention should be paid to the historical context of migration and the past living conditions of the different waves of migrants, before and after migration, and to the legal and jurisdictional aspects of re-migration. Shifting the emphasis from individual-based studies to studies of communities as a whole and of the cultural factors that are related to management of health and disease may provide explanatory leads. As pointed out by Palloni,1 studies of migrants in their host countries should be complemented by: studies of the sending populations, including those people who have returned after being migrants, those who could have been migrants but were not, and those who tried unsuccessfully to be migrants. Also, qualitative studies are potentially very informative with respect to the acculturation process and its health-related aspects, to the cultural representations of health, and the range of motives for re-migration. Last but not least, an international perspective on the subject would throw new light on the how’s and why’s of this enduring epidemiological enigma.

Abstract Explicit substitutions were proposed by Abadi, Cardelli, Curien, Hardin and Lévy to internalise substitutions into λ-calculus and to propose a mechanism for computing on substitutions. λν is another view of the same concept which aims to explain the process of substitution and to decompose it in small steps. It favours simplicity and preservation of strong normalisation. This way, another important property is missed, namely confluence on open terms. In spirit, λν is closely related to another calculus of explicit substitutions proposed by de Bruijn and called C λξΦ. In this paper, we introduce λν, we present C λξΦ in the same framework as λν and we compare both calculi. Moreover, we prove properties of λν; namely λν correctly implements β reduction, λν is confluent on closed terms, i.e. on terms of classical λ-calculus and on all terms that are derived from those terms, and finally λν preserves strong normalisation in the following sense: strongly β normalising terms are strongly λν normalising.

Celesstin, a system that converts mechanical engineering drawings into a format suitable for CAD, is described. Celesstin integrates several modules in a blackboard-based interpretation system. Once a drawing has been digitized, a first processing step separates the text and the dimensioning lines from the pure graphics part. Celesstin vectorizes the graphics part and assembles the resulting lines into blocks, the basic elements for the technical entities that it creates. The result is transferred to the CAD system. Celesstin tries to match the extracted entities with the corresponding models from the CAD library. It puts the remaining blocks and lines into different layers of the CAD description. The system is based on the assumption that even when the vectorized drawing is distorted, it can be correctly interpreted by using knowledge about the representation rules used in technical drawings and about the manufacturing technology associated with the represented objects.>

BACKGROUND: Preconditioning against myocardial infarction by volatile anesthetics is well known. The authors tested the hypothesis that new emulsified formulations of halogenated anesthetics administered intravenously reduce myocardial infarct size when administered either 1 or 24 h before prolonged ischemia and reperfusion. METHODS: Pentobarbital-anesthetized rabbits (n = 39) were instrumented for measurement of hemodynamics and randomly assigned to receive intravenous saline (control), lipid vehicle, or infusions (3.5 ml . kg . h for 30 min) of emulsified isoflurane (6.9%), enflurane (7.1%), or sevoflurane (7.5%). Infusions were discontinued 30 min before a 30-min coronary occlusion and 3 h of reperfusion. In three additional groups, conscious rabbits (n = 21) received saline, lipid vehicle, or emulsified sevoflurane (7.5%) infusions (3.5 ml . kg . h for 30 min) 24 h before ischemia and reperfusion. Infarct size was determined using triphenyltetrazolium staining. RESULTS: Lipid vehicle produced transient increases in heart rate, whereas emulsified volatile anesthetics had no effect on hemodynamics before coronary occlusion. Lipid vehicle did not affect infarct size (38 +/- 2% of the area at risk; mean +/- SEM) as compared with saline control (41 +/- 4%). In contrast, emulsified isoflurane, enflurane, and sevoflurane reduced infarct size (20 +/- 3%, 20 +/- 3%, and 21 +/- 2% of the area at risk, respectively; P < 0.05). Administration of lipid vehicle or emulsified sevoflurane did not produce sedation or respiratory depression in conscious rabbits. Emulsified sevoflurane (18 +/- 2%) but not lipid vehicle (44 +/- 2%) reduced infarct size as compared with control in delayed preconditioning experiments. CONCLUSIONS: Intravenous emulsified halogenated anesthetics produce acute and delayed preconditioning against myocardial infarction.

Abstract Acid soil and solution culture studies showed that ‘Atlas 66’ wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.) from North Carolina was more tolerant to excess Al but less tolerant to excess Mn than ‘Monon’ wheat from Indiana. In greenhouse pots of Al‐toxic Bladen soil (pH 4.6 to 5.1) the top yields of Atlas 66 were significantly higher (5% level) than those of Monon; liming the soil to pH 5.8, however, equalized top yields of the two varieties. In Mn‐toxic Zanesville soil (pH 4.7 to 5.2) the varietal yield difference was just the reverse. At pH 5.2 the tops of Monon plants had fewer leaf symptoms (rolling and chlorotic spots) and yielded significantly more than those of Atlas 66; at pH 5.9 or 6.9, however, the two varieties were not significantly different in top yield. In nutrient solutions containing between 4 and 32 ppm Mn at pH 4.6 the tops of Monon showed fewer leaf symptoms of Mn toxicity and yielded significantly more than those of Atlas 66, but with O or 2 ppm Mn added, the top yields of the two varieties were not significantly different. With Mn levels of 2 to 32 ppm, Monon root yields were significantly higher than those of Atlas 66, but with no Mn added the two root yields were not significantly different. At all Mn levels of 2 to 32 ppm in solution both tops and roots of Monon contained higher Mn concentrations than those of Atlas 66, but Monon plants showed less injury. For example, in Monon tops 2,561 ppm Mn was associated with a yield reduction of 12%. In Atlas 66 tops 1,250 ppm Mn (the highest concentration reached in Atlas 66) was accompanied by a yield reduction of 21%. In Monon roots 8,534 ppm Mn was associated with a root yield reduction of 20%, but 7,172 ppm Mn in Atlas 66 roots coincided with a 45% reduction in root yield. Tolerance to one acid soil factor in a given plant genotype does not necessarily mean tolerance to another.

The SHARC Interest Group of the Research Data Alliance was established to improve research crediting and rewarding mechanisms for scientists who wish to organise their data (and material resources) for community sharing. This requires that data are findable and accessible on the Web, and comply with shared standards making them interoperable and reusable in alignment with the FAIR principles. It takes considerable time, energy, expertise and motivation. It is imperative to facilitate the processes to encourage scientists to share their data. To that aim, supporting FAIR principles compliance processes and increasing the human understanding of FAIRness criteria – i.e., promoting FAIRness literacy – and not only the machine-readability of the criteria, are critical steps in the data sharing process. Appropriate human-understandable criteria must be the first identified in the FAIRness assessment processes and roadmap. This paper reports on the lessons learned from the RDA SHARC Interest Group on identifying the processes required to prepare FAIR implementation in various communities not specifically data skilled, and on the procedures and training that must be deployed and adapted to each practice and level of understanding. These are essential milestones in developing adapted support and credit back mechanisms not yet in place.

We have cloned and characterized VvNHX1, a gene encoding a vacuolar cation/H(+) antiporter from Vitis vinifera cv. Cabernet Sauvignon. VvNHX1 belongs to the vacuolar NHX protein family and showed high similarity to other known vacuolar antiporters. The expression of VvNHX1 partially complements the salt- and hygromycin-sensitive phenotypes of an ena1-4 nhx1 yeast strain. Immunoblots of vacuoles of yeast expressing a VvNHX1, together with the expression of a VvNHX1-GFP (green fluorescent protein) chimera demonstrated that VvNHX1 localized to the vacuoles. VvNHX1 displayed low affinity K(+)/H(+) and Na(+)/H(+) exchange activities (12.8 and 40.2 mM, respectively). The high levels of expression of VvNHX1 during the véraison and post-véraison stages would indicate that the increase in vacuolar K(+) accumulation, mediated by VvNHX1, is needed for vacuolar expansion. This process, together with the rapid accumulation of reducing sugars, would drive water uptake to the berry and the concomitant berry size increase, typical of the post-véraison stage of growth.