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This paper addresses the numerical characterization of microstructures by the concept of tortuosity. After a brief review of geometric tortuosities, some definitions are considered for a benchmarking analysis. The focus is on the M-tortuosity definition, which is revised by expliciting the link to percolation theory, among other things. This operator fits with the analysis of real samples of materials whatever their complexity. A contribution of this paper is a new formulation of the M-tortuosity, making it generic to many situations. Additionally, the comparison of the various tortuosimetric descriptors, state-of-the-art definitions and M-tortuosity, is proposed by considering several scenarios thanks to stochastic multi-scale models of complex materials. The relationships with porosity, morphological heterogeneity and structural anisotropy are investigated. The results highlight the similarities and differences between the descriptors while attesting that the M-tortuosity is equivalent to the state-of-the-art definitions, for a potential use in diffusion and conductivity analyses. Moreover, the M-tortuosity handles correctly situations where state-of the-art algorithms fail. The anisotropic case highlights some limitations of the state-of-the-art definitions behaving differently according to the given propagation direction. In the case of unknown propagation and irregular piece of materials, the M-tortuosity provides a unique tortuosity value representative of the whole microstructure while detecting the anisotropy. These operators are freely available within the plug im! platform.

Background & Aims: Metabolic imbalance and inflammation are common features of chronic liver diseases. Molecular factors controlling these mechanisms represent potential therapeutic targets. CD73 is the major enzyme that dephosphorylates extracellular adenosine monophosphate (AMP) to form the anti-inflammatory adenosine. CD73 is expressed on pericentral hepatocytes, which are important for long-term liver homeostasis. We aimed to determine if CD73 has nonredundant hepatoprotective functions. Methods: Liver-specific CD73 knockout (CD73-LKO) mice were generated by targeting the Nt5e gene in hepatocytes. The CD73-LKO mice and hepatocytes were characterized using multiple approaches. Results: Deletion of hepatocyte Nt5e resulted in an approximately 70% reduction in total liver CD73 protein (P < .0001). Male and female CD73-LKO mice developed normally during the first 21 weeks without significant liver phenotypes. Between 21 and 42 weeks, the CD73-LKO mice developed spontaneous-onset liver disease, with significant severity in male mice. Middle-aged male CD73-LKO mice showed hepatocyte swelling and ballooning (P < .05), inflammation (P < .01), and variable steatosis. Female CD73-LKO mice had lower serum albumin levels (P < .05) and increased inflammatory genes (P < .01), but did not show the spectrum of histopathologic changes in male mice, potentially owing to compensatory induction of adenosine receptors. Serum analysis and proteomic profiling of hepatocytes from male CD73-LKO mice showed significant metabolic imbalance, with increased blood urea nitrogen (P < .0001) and impairments in major metabolic pathways, including oxidative phosphorylation and AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) signaling. There was significant hypophosphorylation of AMPK substrates in CD73-LKO livers (P < .0001), while in isolated hepatocytes treated with AMP, soluble CD73 induced AMPK activation (P < .001). Conclusions: Hepatocyte CD73 supports long-term metabolic liver homeostasis through AMPK in a sex-dependent manner. These findings have implications for human liver diseases marked by CD73 dysregulation.

In our recent publication, we derived a solution that allows the coupling between the Yang-Mills theory and the space-time curvature; Progr. Phys., 2021, v.18, 97-102 [1]. This result was achieved by considering a specific manifold which we named the Weyl-Einstein manifold spanned by the connection coefficients displaying a 4-vector. We then deduced a Weyl-Einstein tensor, which was found to be conserved. The Weyl-Einstein 4-vector was directly identified with the Yang-Mills gauge field vectors as described in the Minkowski space tangent to the Weyl-Einstein manifold. In the present work, we investigate further this topic, and we examine how this coupling fits into the field equations., Notations Throughout this text, we assume the Einstein summation, whereby a repeated index implies summation over all values of this index. 4-tensor or 4-vector: small Latin indices a, b,... = [...]

Hannelore Storms,1 Kristel Marquet,1,2 Neree Claes1,3 1Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences, Hasselt University, Hasselt, Belgium; 2Quality and Safety Department, Jessa Hospital, Hasselt, Belgium; 3vzw Wit-Gele Kruis Limburg, Genk, Belgium Background: General practitioners (GPs) and primary-care nurses (PCNs) often feel inexperienced or inadequately educated to address unmet needs of people with disabilities (PDs). In this research, GPs’ and PCNs’ communication with PDs and health care professionals, as well as their awareness of supportive measures relevant to PDs (sensory disabilities excluded), was examined. Materials and methods: An electronic questionnaire was sent out to 545 GPs and 1,547 PCNs employed in Limburg (Belgium). GPs and PCNs self-reported about both communication with parties involved in care for PDs (scale very good, good, bad, very bad) and their level of awareness of supportive measures relevant for PDs (scale unaware, inadequately aware, adequately aware). Results: Of the questionnaire recipients, 6.6% (36 of 545) of GPs and 37.6% (588 of 1,547) of PCNs participated: 68.8% of 32 GPs and 45.8% of 443 PCNs categorized themselves as communicating well with PDs, and attributed miscommunication to limited intellectual capacities of PDs. GPs and PCNs reported communicating well with other health care professionals. Inadequate awareness was reported for tools to communicate (88.3% of GPs, 89% of PCNs) and benefits for PDs (44.1% of GPs, 66.9% of PCNs). Conclusion: GPs’ and PCNs’ lacking awareness of communication aids is problematic. Involvement in a multidisciplinary, expert network might bypass inadequate awareness of practical and social support measures. Keywords: nursing care, disability, primary care, family medicine, networks, integrated care, unmet needs, quality, accessibility

Manon Marquet, Pierre Missotten, Sarah Schroyen, Desiderate Nindaba, Stéphane Adam Psychology of Aging Unit, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium Background: Recent cross-cultural comparisons between Asian and Western cultures have shown that ageism arises more from the lack of availability of social and economic resources for older adults than from the culture itself. We tested this assumption by conducting a survey among people living in a least developed country compared with those living in a developed country.Participants and methods: Twenty-seven Belgians living in Belgium, 29 Burundians living in Belgium, and 32 Burundians living in Burundi were included in this study. Their attitudes toward older adults were assessed using several self-reported measures.Results: Statistical analyses confirmed that older people are more negatively perceived by Burundians living in Burundi than by Burundians and Belgians living in Belgium, whose attitudes did not differ from each other.Conclusion: Consistent with our hypothesis, our results suggest that the level of development of a country and more particularly the lack of government spending on older people (pension and health care systems) may contribute to their younger counterparts perceiving them more negatively. Keywords: attitudes toward older adults, cross-cultural differences, socioeconomic development, intergenerational relations

Tritium is released abundantly to the environment by nuclear power plants (NPP), as a product of neutron capture by hydrogen and deuterium. In normal running conditions, released cooling waters may contain levels of tritium close to or even larger than the maximum authorised limit for human consumption (drinking and irrigation). The European Council Directive 2013/51/Euratom requires a maximum level of tritium in water for human consumption lower than 100 Bq=L. Current monitoring of tritium activity in water by liquid scintillating method takes about two days and can only be carried out in a dedicated laboratory. This system is not appropriate for real time monitoring. At present, there exists no available detector device with enough sensitivity to monitor waters for human consumption with high enough sensitivity. The goal of the TRITIUM project is to build a tritium monitor capable to measure tritium activities with detection limit close to 100Bq=L, using instrumentation technique developed in recent years for Nuclear and Particle Physics, such as scintillating fibres and silicon photomultipliers (SiPM). In this paper the current status of the TRITIUM project is presented and he results of first prototypes are discussed. A detector system based on scintillating fibers read out either photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) or silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) arrays is under development and will be installed in the vicinity of Almaraz nuclear power plant (Cáceres, Spain) by the fourth term of 2019.

Evaluation of Contamination of the Food Chain by Trace Elements (Cu, Co, Zn, Pb, Cd, U, V and As) in the Basin of the Upper Lufira (Katanga/DR Congo). Seven trace elements (Cu, Co, Zn, Cd, Pb, U, V and As) were analyzed using a HR ICP-MS in samples of water, plankton, leaves of Phragmites australis, muscle and gills of three fish species (Oreochromis macrochir, Tilapia rendalli, Clarias gariepinus) collected in the basin of the upper Lufira. The results indicate a high copper (70.9 ppm) and cobalt (32.3 ppm) content in the effluent of complex hydrometallurgical Shituru. If contamination of rivers decreases with distance from the pollution source, the values are very high in lake Tshangalele for plankton and leaves of P. australis. For fish, the results indicate that Pb, U, V, Cu, Co and Cd accumulates preferentially in the gills but Zn accumulates more in the muscles. As accumulates in the same order of magnitude in both organs. These results confirm the pollution of the basin by the effluents from Lufira complex hydrometallurgical Shituru.

In biomedical research, interpretation of microarray data requires confrontation of data and knowledge from heterogeneous resources, either in the biomedical domain or in genomics, as well as restitution and analysis methods adapted to huge amounts of data. We present a combined approach that relies on two components: BioMeKE annotates sets of genes using biomedical GO and UMLS concepts, and GEDAW, a Gene Expression Data Warehouse, uses BioMeKE to enrich experimental results with biomedical concepts, thus performing complex analyses of expression measurements through analysis workflows. The strength of our approach has been demonstrated within the framework of analysis of data resulting from the liver transcriptome study. It allowed new genes potentially associated with liver diseases to be highlighted.

This is the first comprehensive study of freshwater decapoda crustaceans from Vanuatu. Of the nineteen species collected during this study, eighteen appear to be new records for the archipelago. However none of these species is endemic to Vanuatu, nine having a Pacific distribution and ten an Indo-Pacific distribution. Half of the species recorded were widely distributed in Vanuatu, whereas the others were more restricted. A comparison is made with the freshwater decapoda fauna of the two neighbouring archipelagoes namely, those of Fiji and New Caledonia, which have already been thoroughly surveyed.

Stiphodon julieni, new species, is described on the basis of 8 specimens collected from a high gradient stream on Rapa in French Polynesia. Stiphodon julieni, new species, is the largest species of Stiphodon known to occur in French Polynesia and is distinguished from all other congeners in French Polynesia by the following combination of characteristics: predorsal midline with 10-14 cycloid scales; lateral scales 31-36 reaching upper pectoral base; transverse series back (TRB) 8-9; transverse series forward (TRF) 9-12; upper jaw teeth 33-38.

Lentipes kaaea, new species, is described on the basis of 28 specimens collected from high gradient streams occurring in eastern slope region of North Province on New Caledonia and streams in the island nation of Vanuatu. Lentipes kaaea, new species, is distinguished from all other congeners by the following combination of characteristics: males and females with a single pair of fleshy lobes associated with and attached basally with urogenital papilla, lobes always apparent in males and only apparent in gravid females; usually 17 (17-18) pectoral rays; usually 10 (9-10) segmented rays in second dorsal fin; caudal peduncle with cycloid scales, few ctenoid scales may be present along midline in females, between belly and first dorsal fin ctenoid scales with 3 to 5 large spike like ctenii present on males and absent in females; cephalic sensory pore system with pores A, B, C, D, F, H, K, L, N and O, pore D singular with all other pores paired, oculoscapular canal divided into posterior and anterior canals between pores H and K; males bright red to purplish on head and on posterior half of body, second dorsal fin with a black spot between spine and ray 1, individuals may have more than one spot present, first dorsal fin bluish to purplish and usually without spots, anal fin reddish to purplish basally and bluish distally; females usually whitish with variable tan to brownish markings that may include a distinct lateral band and a spot at medial base of caudal fin, above midline dusky bars and bands may be present, dusky saddles may be present dorsally, fin rays and spines with basal half slightly brownish and distally without pigment, membrane in all fins generally clear.

We derive a factorization formula for forward production of two jets in dilutedense collisions that is valid for an arbitrary value of the momentum imbalance of the jets, kt. This generalizes the transverse momentum dependent (TMD) factorization formula that has been derived before by Dominguez et al. Their formula is valid only for small values of the transverse momentum of the small-x gluon from the target; it has kt dependent TMD gluon distributions, but on-shell hard matrix elements. We extend the TMD formula to all ranges of kt by including off-shell matrix elements. We also add finite Nc corrections. The new formula encompasses both, the TMD factorization for small kt on the order of the saturation scale, and the High Energy Factorization (HEF) for large kt on the order of the momentum of the jets. The TMD and HEF factorizations can be derived from the Color Glass Condensate (CGC) formula for forward di-jet production in the appropriate limits. We show explicitly the equivalence of HEF and CGC in the dilute target approximation.