Lab-Scale Treatability Tests for the Thermal Desorption of Hydrocarbon-Contaminated Soils

Within an integrated management plan for contaminated site remediation at a given territorial scale, the performance of treatability tests could be useful and/or expressly requested by the control authority on a site-specific basis to evaluate the overall feasibility of a given remedial option. The thermal desorption process appears to be a favorable treatment technology for organic contaminants. In this context, a particular lab-scale, indirectly heated desorber for treatability tests was originally developed and first applied to natural soils with different textures (silty sand, loam, silt clay, and clayey silt) that were “ad hoc” highly contaminated with diesel oil at various desorption process conditions (heating temperature in the range of 300–390°C, and reactor retention time in the range of 40–120 min). The Italian soil threshold level for heavy hydrocarbons (C > 12) of 50 mg kg^?1 (dry matter) was assumed to be the successful goal of the treatability studies. In addition to the individuation of the favorable desorption process conditions for each soil, also in terms of a composite evaluation of heating temperature and retention time, the comparative experimental results provided useful indications of the possible influence of soil texture, the reduction of initial soil organic matter, and the evaluation of kinetic rate constants.     

Altered Phase-Relationship between Peripheral Oscillators and Environmental Time in Cry1 or Cry2 Deficient Mouse Models for Early and Late Chronotypes

The mammalian circadian system is composed of a light-entrainable central clock in the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) of the brain and peripheral clocks in virtually any other tissue. It allows the organism to optimally adjust metabolic, physiological and behavioral functions to the physiological needs it will have at specific time of the day. According to the resonance theory, such rhythms are only advantageous to an organism when in tune with the environment, which is illustrated by the adverse health effects originating from chronic circadian disruption by jetlag and shift work. Using short-period Cry1 and long-period Cry2 deficient mice as models for morningness and eveningness, respectively, we explored the effect of chronotype on the phase relationship between the central SCN clock and peripheral clocks in other organs. Whereas the behavioral activity patterns and circadian gene expression in the SCN of light-entrained Cry1^-/- and Cry2^-/- mice largely overlapped with that of wild type mice, expression of clock and clock controlled genes in liver, kidney, small intestine, and skin was shown to be markedly phase-advanced or phase-delayed, respectively. Likewise, circadian rhythms in urinary corticosterone were shown to display a significantly altered phase relationship similar to that of gene expression in peripheral tissues. We show that the daily dissonance between peripheral clocks and the environment did not affect the lifespan of Cry1^-/- or Cry2^-/- mice. Nonetheless, the phase-shifted peripheral clocks in light-entrained mice with morningness and eveningness-like phenotypes may have implications for personalized preventive and therapeutic (i.e. chronomodulation-based) health care for people with early and late chronotypes.     

Distribution de Megaporellaboulangeri Deloffre et Beun, 1986 (algue dasycladale) dans le Jurassique du bassin atlantique marocain

The recent biostratigraphic and micropaleontologic works permitted to specify the distribution of Megaporellaboulangeri Deloffre and Beun in the Jurassic of the Moroccan Atlantic basin. The lower limit of the extension of this dasycladale alga, earlier attribued to the Early Kimmeridgian by Deloffre and Beun (1986), is currently placed in the Early Callovian, on the basis of the age provided by Megaporellaboulangeri biozone. The Otternstellaarabica biozone dates the upper limit of the extension of the species of the Early Oxfordian. Megaporellaboulangeri proliferates in the borders of the basin where the internal lagoons facies dominate, however it is absent in the western parts with open sea facies.     

Effects of high-fat diet exposure during fetal life on type 2 diabetes development in the progeny

Nutrition during fetal life is a critical factor contributing to diabetes development in adulthood. The aim of our study was to verify: 1) whether a high-fat (HF) diet in young adult mice induces alterations in beta-cell mass, proliferation, neogenesis, and apoptosis, as well as insulin sensitivity and secretion; 2) whether these alterations may be reversible after HF diet suspension; 3) the effects in a first (F1) and second generation (F2) of mice without direct exposure to a HF diet after birth. Type 2 diabetes developed in adult mice on a HF diet, in F1 mice that were HF diet-exposed during fetal or neonatal life, and in F2 mice whose mothers were HF diet-exposed during their fetal life. beta-cell mass, replication, and neogenesis were high in HF diet-exposed mice and decreased after diet suspension. beta-cell mass and replication remained high in F1 mice and decreased in F2 mice whose mothers were exposed to a HF diet. beta-cell neogenesis was present in adult mice on a HF diet and in F1 mice that were HF diet-exposed during fetal and/or neonatal life. We conclude that a HF diet during fetal life, particularly if combined with the same insult during the suckling period, can induce the type 2 diabetes phenotype, which can be directly transmitted to the progeny even in the absence of additional dietary insults.