Letteratura scientifica selezionata sul tema "Complex pore structure"

The nuclear pore complex (NPC) serves as the sole bidirectional gateway of macromolecules in and out of the nucleus. Owing to its size and complexity (∼1,000 protein subunits, ∼110 MDa in humans), the NPC has remained one of the foremost challenges for structure determination. Structural studies have now provided atomic-resolution crystal structures of most nucleoporins. The acquisition of these structures, combined with biochemical reconstitution experiments, cross-linking mass spectrometry, and cryo–electron tomography, has facilitated the determination of the near-atomic overall architecture of the symmetric core of the human, fungal, and algal NPCs. Here, we discuss the insights gained from these new advances and outstanding issues regarding NPC structure and function. The powerful combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches toward determining the structure of the NPC offers a paradigm for uncovering the architectures of other complex biological machines to near-atomic resolution.

The structural evolution and sedimentary differentiation of the Sichuan Basin in China are complex, with intricate reservoir pore structures that significantly impact shale gas production. This study examines the complexity and heterogeneity of the microscopic pore structures in the deep marine shale reservoir in the Longmaxi Formation. Pore structure characterization techniques are used to compare deep and shallow–medium marine shales, and siliceous and silty shales. The results reveal the factors influencing pore structure and their impact on exploration and development. The key points are as follows: (1) The pore structure of deep siliceous shale is the most complex due to its diverse range of pore development patterns, pore types, and sizes. (2) The box dimension of full pore size is about 1.52 for deep marine shale and 1.46 for shallow–medium shale. Organic matter (OM) content, the degree of pore development, and inorganic mineral content all correlate positively with the complexity of the pore structure in deep marine shale, which affects the formation of high-quality reservoirs. (3) Lateral heterogeneity of pore structures shows strong regional variations in the study area. Heterogeneity is more pronounced in the deep marine shale than in the medium and shallow shale formations. OM mesopores significantly influence the overall heterogeneity of the shale pore system. The deep marine shale reservoir is situated in an area with strong regional variations. The pore structure of high-quality reservoirs is more complex than those of shallow–medium marine shales, displaying notable heterogeneity. Pore structures with fractal dimension values close to that of the shallow–medium formations (box dimensions within 1.5) offer promising targets for the exploration and development of deep marine shale gas.

Nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) mediate nucleocytoplasmic exchange. They are exceptionally large protein complexes that fuse the inner and outer nuclear membranes to form channels across the nuclear envelope. About 30 different protein components, termed nucleoporins, assemble in multiple copies into an intricate cylindrical architecture. Here, we review our current knowledge of the structure of nucleoporins and how those come together in situ. We delineate architectural principles on several hierarchical organization levels, including isoforms, posttranslational modifications, nucleoporins, and higher-order oligomerization of nucleoporin subcomplexes. We discuss how cells exploit this modularity to faithfully assemble NPCs.

Biology
Ph.D.
Nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) are large macromolecular gateways embedded in the nuclear envelope of Eukaryotic cells that serve to regulate bi-directional trafficking of particles to and from the nucleus. NPCs have been described as creating a selectively permeable barrier mediating the nuclear export of key endogenous cargoes such as mRNA, and pre-ribosomal subunits as well as allow for the nuclear import of nuclear proteins and some viral particles. Remarkably, other particles that are not qualified for nucleocytoplasmic transport are repelled from the NPC, unable to translocate. The NPC is made up of over 30 unique proteins, each present in multiples of eight copies. The two primary protein components of the NPC can be simplified as scaffold nucleoporins which form the main structure of the NPC and the phenylalanine-glycine (FG) motif containing nucleoporins (FG-Nups) which anchor to the scaffold and together create the permeability barrier within the pore. Advances in fluorescence microscopy techniques including single-molecule and super-resolution microscopy have made it possible to label and visualize the dynamic components of the NPC as well as track the rapid nucleocytoplasmic transport process of importing and exporting cargoes. The focus of this dissertation will be on live cell fluorescence microscopy application in probing the dynamic components of the NPC as well as tracking the processes of nucleocytoplasmic transport.
Temple University--Theses

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Biology, May, 2020
Cataloged from the official PDF of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references.
Nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) are the main conduits for molecular exchange across the nuclear envelope. The NPC is a modular assembly of ~500 individual proteins, called nucleoporins or nups, that can be classified into three categories: 1. Stably associated scaffolding nups, 2. Peripheral nups, and 3. Phenylalanine-glycine (FG) repeat containing nups that form the permeability barrier of the NPC. Most scaffolding nups are organized in two multimeric subcomplexes, the Nup84 or Y complex and the Nic96 complex. Working in S. cerevisiae to study the assembly of these two essential subcomplexes, we developed a suite of twelve nanobodies that recognize seven constituent nucleoporins of the Y and Nic96 complexes. The nanobodies bind their targets specifically and with high affinity, albeit with varying kinetics. We mapped the epitope of eight members of the nanobody library via crystal structures of nup-nanobody co-complexes.
Nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) are the main conduits for molecular exchange across the nuclear envelope. The NPC is a modular assembly of ~500 individual proteins, called nucleoporins or nups, that can be classified into three categories: 1. Stably associated scaffolding nups, 2. Peripheral nups, and 3. Phenylalanine-glycine (FG) repeat containing nups that form the permeability barrier of the NPC. Most scaffolding nups are organized in two multimeric subcomplexes, the Nup84 or Y complex and the Nic96 complex. Working in S. cerevisiae to study the assembly of these two essential subcomplexes, we developed a suite of twelve nanobodies that recognize seven constituent nucleoporins of the Y and Nic96 complexes. The nanobodies bind their targets specifically and with high affinity, albeit with varying kinetics. We mapped the epitope of eight members of the nanobody library via crystal structures of nup-nanobody co-complexes.
In two cases, the nanobodies facilitated the crystallization of novel nup structures, namely the full-length Nup84-Nup133 [alpha]-helical domain structure and the Nup133 [beta]-propeller domain structure. Together these two structures completely characterize the S. cerevisiae Y complex molecular assembly. Further, the Nup133 [beta]-propeller domain contains a structurally conserved amphipathic lipid packing sensor (ALPS) motif thought to anchor the Y complex to the nuclear envelope, which we confirmed by liposome interaction studies. An additional nanobody facilitated the structure of Nic96 at an improved resolution, revealing previously missing helices. In addition to the utility of these nanobodies for in vitro characterization of NPC assemblies, we also show that expression of nanobody-fluorescent protein fusions reveals details of the NPC assembly in their native, in vivo environment, and possibly of NPC heterogeneity within the nuclear envelope.
Overall, this suite of nanobodies provides a unique and versatile toolkit for the study of the NPC.
by Sarah Ann Nordeen.
Ph. D.
Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Biology

Calcarenites are the most widely used natural stones in Sicily as building materials. The comprehension of the degradation style of these natural building stone is of great interest in order to preserve the ancient masonry, especially in the case of relevant Cultural Heritages. A large number of Sicilian monuments are included in UNESCO Heritage List as their special cultural or physical significance. Considering the cultural importance of these ones, smart solutions are required in the perspective of their conservation. In the framework of restoration actions, the complete knowledge of the internal structure of building stones is fundamental in order to estimate durability and prevent degradation processes. Salt growth is a significant cause of damage for natural stones. The effects of the salt weathering are, in addition to the properties of the salt itself and the climatic conditions, strongly related to the structural and textural features of materials. For this reason, an integrate study on petrographic, physical, mechanical and porosimetric proprieties changes due to salts crystallization could be useful to highlight correlation among textural, structural and engineering parameters. Moreover, one of the main problems in conservation field is the use of suitable consolidant and protective treatments able to preserve the masonry, being compatible with the stone substrate and not affecting its aesthetical proprieties. There are numerous tests able to verify the efficiency of consolidant or protective products, mainly devoted to verify their ability to not modify the appearance of stone and its physical proprieties, especially against water; however, particularly in the case of consolidant, one of the most important feature is related to its penetration depth, often difficult to evaluate by using the standard test routines. For aforementioned, this research work is devoted to apply a multi-methodological approach for characterizing and modeling pore structure modifications due to weathering processes in a coarse grained Sicilian calcarenite used as building and replace stones in Sicilian Cultural Heritages (Sabucina Stone), also through fractal models and innovative and non invasive methods. The obtained data on Sabucina stone have been employed for planning conservative treatments devoted to coarse grained calcarenite substrates. Therefore, innovative nanostructured and hybrid consolidant and protective products have been experimented and the results of efficiency tests along with the determination of surface and sub-surface changes due to the treatments are proposed. In conclusion, the applied theoretical and empirical approach has allowed to: highlight the potential of classical and innovative complementary methods in quantifying the structural changes in porous materials due to degradation processes and conservative treatments, explain how they help to facilitate the understanding of stone weathering and validate the use of geometrical models in describing complex pore systems.

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Biology, 2017
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references.
The nuclear pore complex (NPC) is a large, modular protein assembly that regulates nucleocytoplasmic transport in all eukaryotes. The ~60-120 MDa NPC is a modular assembly of multiple copies of ~30 distinct proteins that are arranged into biochemically distinct sub-complexes. We believe that the structural characterization of the NPC is essential for understanding its transport mechanisms and various pathologies and human diseases associated with deletions or mutations of constituents. To obtain detailed structural information of the NPC, techniques that span several resolution ranges are necessary due to its large size and complexity. For instance, recent progress in the structural characterization of the overall architecture of the NPC by cryo-electron tomography(cryo-ET) to ~23Å resolution has revealed its size, shape, and course arrangement, but lacks distinguishable protein-protein boundaries and secondary structural details.
Although the entire NPC is not amenable to high resolution X-ray crystallography, we complement the cryo-ET reconstructions with a divide and conquer approach by obtaining high resolution X-ray crystal structures of individual subcomplexes. By taking advantage of the modular nature of the NPC, we can dock subcomplexes into the cryo-ET reconstructions to identify their location within the NPC. This composite structure will bridge the meso resolution cryo-ET reconstructions of the entire NPC and the incomplete but high resolution X-ray crystal structure of individual subcomplexes. As a first step towards understanding the detailed organization of the NPC, our goal is to solve the high resolution structures of the two principal structural scaffold subcomplexes, the Y and Nic96 complexes. In this study, we present the high resolution composite X-ray crystal structure of the Y complex.
Docking the composite model into previously solved random conical tilt(RCT) and tomographic reconstructions of negatively stained samples of the Y complex shows overall consistency between the three methods, yet we highlight important structural differences that constrain possible arrangements of multiple Y complexes within the NPC. By docking the composite model into the cryo-ET reconstructions of the entire NPC, we propose an arrangement of multiple Y complexes that is consistent with our composite structure. In addition, progress on structurally characterizing the Nic96 complex will be presented. Preliminary results suggest that Nup1 92 and Nic96 form a flexible, yet semi-ordered interface. Future directions for characterizing the rest of the Nic96 complex, including current challenges and suggestions will be discussed.
by Kotaro Kelley.
Ph. D.
Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Biology

Dans un contexte de changements globaux et de transitions écologiques et énergétiques, le changement climatique induit une sècheresse récurrente et de crise de la ressource en eau dans plusieurs régions et continents. Il est donc crucial d'étudier les aquifères d'eaux douces afin d'accompagner ces transitions et assurer une gestion et une utilisation durable et raisonnée de cette ressource vitale. En l'occurrence, la zone vadose qui joue un rôle important dans la recharge de ces aquifères et le transfert d'éventuels polluants et d'intrants. La plupart du temps, cette zone non saturée en eau, se caractérise par la présence d'hétérogénéités (structure de pores, fractures, variation minéralogique) multi-échelles notamment lorsqu'il s'agit d'un milieu calcaire. Ces hétérogénéités sont complexifiées par les processus diagenétiques liés principalement à l'altération physico-chimique et minéralogique. La surimposition de ces phénomènes primaires et secondaires rend difficile l'estimation des propriétés pétrophysiques (porosité, perméabilité, saturation en eau) à partir des méthodes géophysiques. Parmi ces méthodes couramment utilisées, les méthodes acoustique et électrique sont bien adaptées car il existe, à priori, un lien étroit entre les hétérogénéités et les propriétés mesurées.Les travaux de recherche menés dans le cadre de cette thèse s'appuient ainsi sur une approche multi-géophysique permettant de mieux caractériser un réservoir carbonaté complexe en se basant notamment sur une analyse pétrophysique combinée à une description microstructurale fine.Dans ce travail, nous avons démontré l'influence de la microstructure sur la prédiction et la modélisation des propriétés pétroacoustiques ce qui conduit à une bonne discrimination de certains faciès, utile pour améliorer les modèles de simulation d'écoulements. De plus, ce travail a aussi permis de montrer la pertinence de la conductivité complexe dans la caractérisation des calcaires et la prédiction de leur perméabilité. Cependant, des développements supplémentaires sont nécessaires concernant la problématique du changement d'échelles des réservoirs complexes et hétérogènes
In a context of global changes and ecological and energy transitions, climate change induces recurrent drought and water resource crisis in several regions and continents. It is crucial to study groundwaters in order to support these transitions and ensure effective management and use of this vital resource. In particular, the vadose zone which plays an important role in the recharge of these groundwaters and the transfer of possible pollutants and inputs. Most of the time this unsaturated zone is characterized by multi-scale heterogeneities (e.g., pore structure, fractures, mineralogical variation) particularly in a limestone environment. These heterogeneities are complexified by diagenetic processes linked mainly to physicochemical and mineralogical alteration which leads to uncertainty in reservoir property (e.g., porosity, permeability, water saturation) estimation from geophysical methods. Among these methods, acoustic and electrical methods are well suited because of the strong relation between heterogeneities and the measured properties.This thesis relies on a multi-geophysical approach in order to better characterize a complex carbonate reservoir using petrophysical measurements combined with microstructural descriptions. Based on this approach, we demonstrated the influence of rock structure on the prediction and modeling of petroacoustic properties. This work leads to a good discrimination of some facies, which can be used to improve simulation and flow models. In addition, we demonstrate the relevance of complex conductivity measurements in limestone characterization and permeability prediction. However, additional developments are needed to understand the upscaling problematic for heterogeneous and complex reservoirs

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Biology, 2010.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 136-151).
Formation of an endomembrane system in the eukaryotic cell is a hallmark of biological evolution. One such system is the nuclear envelope (NE), composed of an inner and outer membrane, used to form a nucleus and enclose the cell's genome. Access to the nucleus from the cytoplasm is mediated by a massive macromolecular machine called the nuclear pore complex (NPC). The NPC resides as a circular opening embedded in the NE and is composed of only -30 proteins that assemble with octagonal symmetry as biochemically defined subcomplexes to form the NPC. One such subcomplex is the Nspl / Nup62 complex, composed of three proteins and stabilized by coiled-coil interactions. Here we reconstitute a tetrameric assembly between the Nspl-complex and a fourth nucleoporin (Nup) Nic96. Nic96 harbors a 20 kDa coiled-coil domain at the N-terminus followed by a 65 kDa stacked helical domain. The coiled-coil domain of the Nspl -complex and the N-terminus of Nic96 combine to form a tetrameric assembly, integrated into the NPC lattice scaffold via the stacked helical domain of Nic96. We characterized the coiled-coil assembly with size exclusion chromatography and analytical ultracentrifugation. Deletion experiments and point mutations, directed by hydrophobic cluster analysis, were used to map connecting helices between members of the protein assembly. Although the core of the NPC is a rigid scaffold built for structural integrity, the NPC as a whole is a dynamic macromolecular machine. Protein transport is regulated by the small G protein Ran. Ran interacts with the NPC of metazoa via two asymmetrically localized components, Nupl53 at the nuclear face and Nup358 at the cytoplasmic face. Both Nups contain distinct RANBP2 type zinc finger (ZnF) domains. We present crystallographic data detailing the interaction between Nup1 53-ZnFs and RanGDP. A crystal-engineering approach led to well-diffracting crystals so that all ZnF-Ran complex structures are refined to high resolution. Each of the four zinc finger modules of Nup1 53 binds one Ran molecule in largely independent fashion. Nupl53-ZnFs bind RanGDP with higher affinity than RanGTP, however the modest difference suggests that this may not be physiologically meaningful. ZnFs may be used to concentrate Ran at the NPC to facilitate nucleocytoplasmic transport. In a separate study we present a structural analysis of the HECT domain from the E3 ubiquitin ligase HUWE1 and with biophysical data we show that an N-terminal helix stabilizes the HECT domain. This element modulates activity, as measured by self-ubiquitination induced in the absence of this helix, distinct from its effects on Ub conjugation of substrate Mcl-1. Such subtle structural elements in this domain potentially regulate the variable substrate specificity displayed by all HECT domain type, E3 ubiquitin ligases.
by James R. Partridge.
Ph.D.

The glomerulus performs its functions with three major cell types. Endothelial cells and visceral epithelial cells (podocytes) lie on the inside and outside of the glomerular basement membrane, and together these three structures form the glomerular filtration barrier. Mesangial cells sit in the axial region. Pathologies of all these regions and cell types can be identified. Parietal epithelial cells lining Bowman’s capsule participate in crescent formation, and at the tubular pole some of these cells seem to represent a stem cell population for tubular cells and podocytes. The extraglomerular mesangium and juxtaglomerular apparatus complete the description of the glomerular corpuscle. The structure of these elements, and how they relate to function, are illustrated in detail.

Despite being the product of Roger Corman's AIP exploitation studio, House of Usher enjoys a high standing. But while the impact and cult status of Corman's Edgar Allan Poe cycle is often discussed in histories of gothic, horror, and exploitation cinema, no extended analysis and critical discussion has been published to date that explores specifically the aesthetic appeal of House of Usher. This book provides a complete study of the aesthetic appeal of Corman's influential first Poe picture. The book explores the underlying narrative structure borrowed from Poe's original story and shows how closely Richard Matheson's script followed Poe's theory of short fiction. It goes on to explore the formal techniques of allegory and symbolism employed to represent the house as a monster before focusing on Corman's imagery, showing how the use of specific camera angles, lenses, colors, and sound effects create and sustain the simultaneously morbid and beautiful atmosphere of gothic decay. Finally, the book situates horror icon Vincent Price's performance as Roderick Usher in the context of the nineteenth-century Romantic misfit and the postwar countercultural antihero, two closely related cultural identities.

Focusing on four East European polities—Bosnia, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Romania—this book examines the dynamics and implications of processes of commercialization of security that have occurred following the collapse of communist regimes. These processes have been central to post-communist liberalization, and have profoundly shaped those states and their integration into European institutional structures and global economic and political circuits. They have also affected—and been shaped by—the behavior and power of regional and global actors (e.g. European institutions, regional and global corporations) in Eastern Europe. By virtue of the fact that they combine in complex ways local, national, regional, and global dynamics and actors, processes of security commercialization in the former Eastern bloc can be seen as instances of “glocalization.” Several aspects of security commercialization are particularly important. To begin with, private actors—specifically private security companies (PSCs)—have been reconstituted as partial agents of public power. As such, they have come to be systematically involved in performing security practices traditionally associated with the state. In addition, a potent commercial logic has come to permeate public security institutions. This has led to redefinition of the relationship between the state and its population in ways that defy conventional wisdom about the role of the state, and pose difficult normative challenges. More broadly, processes of security commercialization in Eastern Europe, which involve important performative dimensions, have led to the emergence of complex, hybrid networks of security providers that transcend domestic/international, public/private boundaries and behave, in many ways, as entrepreneurs.

Imitating Authors analyses the theory and practice of imitatio (the imitation of one author by another) from early Greek texts right up to recent fictions about clones and artificial humans. At its centre lie the imitating authors of the English Renaissance, including Ben Jonson and the most imitated imitator of them all, John Milton. Imitating Authors argues that imitation is not simply a matter of borrowing words, or of alluding to an earlier author. Imitators learn practices from earlier writers. They imitate the structures and forms of earlier writing in ways that enable them to create a new style which itself could be imitated. That makes imitation an engine of literary change. Imitating Authors also shows how the metaphors used by theorists to explain this complex practice fed into works which were themselves imitations, how those metaphors changed, and how they have come to influence present-day anxieties about imitation human beings and artificial forms of intelligence. It explores relationships between imitation and authorial style, its fraught connections with plagiarism, and how emerging ideas of genius and intellectual property changed how imitation was practised. Imitating Authors includes detailed discussion of authors who imitated (notably Virgil, Lucretius, Petrarch, Cervantes, Ben Jonson, Milton, Pope, Wordsworth, Mary Shelley, and Kazuo Ishiguro) and of the theory of imitating authors in Plato, Cicero, Quintilian, Longinus, Castiglione, the Ciceronian controversies of the sixteenth century, in legal and philosophical discourses of the Enlightenment, and in recent discussions about computer-generated poems.

As the world business climate globalizes and national economies become closely interlinked, India looms as the largest country in the world to embrace the market economy. Bullis maintains that not only will India be changed by international market forces, it will have a significant impact upon the world economy as it emerges as a mass consumer market and an extended, low-cost manufacturing center. But India has problems that pose difficulties for offshore investors. Only with a clear idea of Indian business thinking and the relationship of commerce to India's complex mix of traditional, caste, and religious practices can businesspeople from the West gain any real hope of success. This work provides the sort of far-reaching information and advice essential for international businesspeople and for researchers and scholars in the academic community who want to be a part of India's economic future. Bullis asserts that Indian businesspeople are far more knowledgeable about international markets than most international businesspeople are about India. Yet, India's long period of socialist dormancy produced very different concepts of management, employee relations, the role of competition, marketing, finance, and business-government relations. All these factors will play critical roles in the success or failure of investment plans formulated outside India's borders. Moreover, Indian people have a more diverse and compartmentalized culture than any other people, posing a marketing challenge (and challenges of other kinds) that outsiders may be ill-equipped to handle. Bullis's descriptions and analyses of the Indian economy, social structure, history, and business practices will provide the kind of understandings that Westerners need to enter the Indian market and compete successfully.

This book sets out to answer a question of global importance: how does inequality persist in our increasingly mobile world? It is a contentious problem. From Barack Obama to Pope Francis, inequality is often referred to as the greatest threat to our democracy, society and economy. Yet in an era some call the ‘age of migration’, opportunity has apparently never been more accessible. Long and short distance transport—from motorbikes to aeroplanes—are available to more people than ever before. What’s more, physical mobility tells only part of the story. Telecommunications have transformed our lives, ushering in an era of translocality, in which the behaviour of people and communities are influenced from hundreds or even thousands of miles apart. Nevertheless, amidst ever more complex flows of people, ideas, and capital, persistent inequality cuts a jarringly static figure. The worst off all too often remain impervious to the winds of economic dynamism, whilst those who were better off in one place remain so in another. This is an age-old story enmeshed in modern complexities. The vast economic successes of India and China have redrawn the map of global poverty in recent decades, contributing to falling inequality between countries even as inequality within countries is on the rise. Scale, in other words, matters and this book sets out to show why. Eschewing the international cross-sectional analysis employed in others on the topic of inequality, in favour of a deep dive approach to its subject, its eight chapters bring together a decade of research across multiple contexts to cast a forensic eye over the many of faces of inequality in a rapidly changing environment. Tracing a “miraculous” decade of development in Cambodia, one of the world’s fastest growing economies since the turn of the millennium, it brings together a broad toolbox of data to make a case for inequality not as an economic phenomenon, but as a ‘total social fact’ in which stories, stigma, obligation, and assets combine to lock social structures in place.

TOWARDS THE NEW LIFE Theology and Importance of Christian Initiation for the Life of Faith The book is in equal parts a presentation and an invitation. The subject matter of both is the mystagogical initiation leading to the personal encounter with God and eventually to the union within the Church in Christ, which happens initially and particualry in the sacramental liturgy. Mystagogy was the essential experience of life in the early Church and now is being so intensely discussed and postulated by the ecclesial Magisterium and through the teaching of the recent popes and synods. Within the ten chapters of this book the reader proceeds through the aspects strictly associated with Christian initiation, noticeable in catechumenate and suggestive for further Christian life. It is not surprising then, that the study begins with answering the question about the sense of dealing with catechumenate at all. The response developed in the first chapter covers four key points: the contemporary state of our faith, the need for dialogue in evangelization, the importance of liturgy in the renewal of faith and the obvious requirement of follo- wing the Church’s Magisterium, quite explicit in the subject undertaken within this book. The introductory chapter is meant to evoke interest in catechumenate as such and encourage comprehension of its essence, in order to keep it in mind while planning contemporary evangelization. For doing this with success and avoiding pastoral archeology, we need a competent insight into the main message and goal of Christian initiation. Catechumenate is the first and most venerable model of formation and growth in faith and therefore worth knowing. The second chapter tries to cope with the reasons and ways of the present return to the sources of catechumenate with respect to Christian initiation understood to be the building of the relationship with God. The example of catechumenate helps us to discover, how to learn wisely from the history. This would definitely mean to keep the structure and liturgy of catechumenate as a vehicle of God’s message, which must be interpreted and adapted always anew and with careful and intelligent consideration of the historical flavour on particular stages within the history of salvation and cultural conditions of the recipients. For that reason we refer to the Biblical resources and to the historical examples of catechumenate including its flourishing and declining periods, after which we are slowly approaching the present reinterpretation of the catechumenal process enhanced by the official teaching of the Church. As the result of the latter, particularly owing to the Vatican Council II, we are now dealing with the renewed liturgy of baptism displayed in two liturgical books: The Rite of Baptism for Children and the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA). This version for adults is the subjectmatter of the whole chapter, in which a reader can find theological analyses of the particular rites as well as numerous indications for improving one’s life with Christ in the Church. You can find interesting associations among the rites of initiation themselves and astounding coherence between those rites and the sacraments of the Eucharist, penance and other sacraments, which simply means the ordinary life of faith. Deep and convincing theology of the process of initiation proves the inspiring spiritual power of the initial and constitutive sacraments of baptism and confirmation, which may seem attractive not only for catechumens but also for the faithful baptized in their infancy, and even more, since they might have not yet had a chance to see what a plausible treasure they have been conveying in their baptismal personality. How much challenge for further and constant realization in life may offer these introductory events of Christian initiation, yet not sufficiently appreciated by those who have already been baptized and confirmed! We all should submit to permanent re-evangelization according to this primary pattern, which always remains essential and fundamental. Very typical and very post-conciliar approach to Christian formation appears in the communal dimension, which guards and guarantees the ecclesial profile of initiation and prepares a person to be a living member of the Church. The sixth chapter of the book is dealing with ecclesial issues in liturgy. They refer to comprehending the word of God, especially in the context of liturgy, which brings about a peculiar theological sense to it and giving a special character to proclaiming the Gospel, which the Pope Francis calls “liturgical proclamation”. The ecclesial premises influence the responsibility for the fact of accompanying the candidates, who aim at becoming Christ’s disciples. As the Church is teaching also in the theological and pastoral introduction to the RCIA, this is the duty of all Christians, which means: priests, religious and the lay, because the Church is one organism in whose womb the new members are conceived and raised. As this fact is strongly claimed by the Church the method of initiation arises to great importance. The seventh chapter is dedicated to the analysis of the catechumenal method stemming from Christ’s pedagogy and His mystery of Incarnation introducing a very important issue of implementing the Divine into the human. The chapter concerning this method opens a more practical part of the book. The crucial message of it is to make mystagogy a natural and obvious method which is the way of building bonds with Christ in the community of the people who already have these bonds and who are eager to tighten them and are aware of the beauty and necessity of closeness with Christ. Christian initiation is the process of entering the Kingdom of God and meeting Christ up to the union with Him – not so much learning dogmas and moral requirements. This is a special time when candidates-catechumens-elected mature in love and in their attitude to Christ and people, which results in prayer and new way of life. As in the past catechumenate nowadays inspires the faithful in their imagination of love and mercy as well as reminds us about various important details of the paschal way of life, which constitute our baptismal vocation, but may be forgotten and now with the help of catechumenate can be recognized anew, while accompanying adults on their catechumenal way. The book is meant for those who are already involved in catechumenal process and are responsible for the rites and formation as well as for those who are interested in what the Church is offering to all who consciously decide to know and follow Christ. You can learn from this book, what is the nature and specificity of the method suggested by the Rite itself for guiding people to God the Saviour and to the community of His people. The aim of the study is to present the universal way of evangelization, which was suggested and revealed by God in His pedagogy, particularly through Jesus Christ and smoothly adopted by the early Church. This way, which can be called a method, is so complete, substantial and clear that it deserves rediscovery, description and promotion, which has already started in the Church’s teaching by making direct references to such categories as: initiation, catechumenate, liturgical formation, the rereading the Mystery of Christ, the living participation in the Mystery and faith nourished by the Mystery. The most engaging point with Christian initiation is the fact, that this seems to be the most effective way of reviving the parish, taking place on the solid and safe ground of liturgy with the most convincing and objective fact that is our baptism and our new identity born in baptismal regenerating bath. On the grounds of our personal relationship with God and our Christian vocation we can become active apostles of Christ. Evangelization begins with ourselves and in our hearts. Thinking about the Church’s mission, we should have in mind our personal mission within the Church and we should refer to it’s roots – first to our immersion into Christ’s death and resurrection and to the anointment with the Holy Spirit. In this Spirit we have all been sent to follow Christ wherever He goes, not necessarily where we would like to direct our steps, but He would. Let us cling to Him and follow Him! Together with the constantly transforming and growing Church! Towards the new life!

Nationalism: Past as Prologue began as a single volume being compiled by Ad Akande, a scholar from South Africa, who proposed it to me as co-author about two years ago. The original idea was to examine how the damaging roots of nationalism have been corroding political systems around the world, and creating dangerous obstacles for necessary international cooperation. Since I (Bruce E. Johansen) has written profusely about climate change (global warming, a.k.a. infrared forcing), I suggested a concerted effort in that direction. This is a worldwide existential threat that affects every living thing on Earth. It often compounds upon itself, so delays in reducing emissions of fossil fuels are shortening the amount of time remaining to eliminate the use of fossil fuels to preserve a livable planet. Nationalism often impedes solutions to this problem (among many others), as nations place their singular needs above the common good. Our initial proposal got around, and abstracts on many subjects arrived. Within a few weeks, we had enough good material for a 100,000-word book. The book then fattened to two moderate volumes and then to four two very hefty tomes. We tried several different titles as good submissions swelled. We also discovered that our best contributors were experts in their fields, which ranged the world. We settled on three stand-alone books:” 1/ nationalism and racial justice. Our first volume grew as the growth of Black Lives Matter following the brutal killing of George Floyd ignited protests over police brutality and other issues during 2020, following the police assassination of Floyd in Minneapolis. It is estimated that more people took part in protests of police brutality during the summer of 2020 than any other series of marches in United States history. This includes upheavals during the 1960s over racial issues and against the war in Southeast Asia (notably Vietnam). We choose a volume on racism because it is one of nationalism’s main motive forces. This volume provides a worldwide array of work on nationalism’s growth in various countries, usually by authors residing in them, or in the United States with ethnic ties to the nation being examined, often recent immigrants to the United States from them. Our roster of contributors comprises a small United Nations of insightful, well-written research and commentary from Indonesia, New Zealand, Australia, China, India, South Africa, France, Portugal, Estonia, Hungary, Russia, Poland, Kazakhstan, Georgia, and the United States. Volume 2 (this one) describes and analyzes nationalism, by country, around the world, except for the United States; and 3/material directly related to President Donald Trump, and the United States. The first volume is under consideration at the Texas A & M University Press. The other two are under contract to Nova Science Publishers (which includes social sciences). These three volumes may be used individually or as a set. Environmental material is taken up in appropriate places in each of the three books. * * * * * What became the United States of America has been strongly nationalist since the English of present-day Massachusetts and Jamestown first hit North America’s eastern shores. The country propelled itself across North America with the self-serving ideology of “manifest destiny” for four centuries before Donald Trump came along. Anyone who believes that a Trumpian affection for deportation of “illegals” is a new thing ought to take a look at immigration and deportation statistics in Adam Goodman’s The Deportation Machine: America’s Long History of Deporting Immigrants (Princeton University Press, 2020). Between 1920 and 2018, the United States deported 56.3 million people, compared with 51.7 million who were granted legal immigration status during the same dates. Nearly nine of ten deportees were Mexican (Nolan, 2020, 83). This kind of nationalism, has become an assassin of democracy as well as an impediment to solving global problems. Paul Krugman wrote in the New York Times (2019:A-25): that “In their 2018 book, How Democracies Die, the political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt documented how this process has played out in many countries, from Vladimir Putin’s Russia, to Recep Erdogan’s Turkey, to Viktor Orban’s Hungary. Add to these India’s Narendra Modi, China’s Xi Jinping, and the United States’ Donald Trump, among others. Bit by bit, the guardrails of democracy have been torn down, as institutions meant to serve the public became tools of ruling parties and self-serving ideologies, weaponized to punish and intimidate opposition parties’ opponents. On paper, these countries are still democracies; in practice, they have become one-party regimes….And it’s happening here [the United States] as we speak. If you are not worried about the future of American democracy, you aren’t paying attention” (Krugmam, 2019, A-25). We are reminded continuously that the late Carl Sagan, one of our most insightful scientific public intellectuals, had an interesting theory about highly developed civilizations. Given the number of stars and planets that must exist in the vast reaches of the universe, he said, there must be other highly developed and organized forms of life. Distance may keep us from making physical contact, but Sagan said that another reason we may never be on speaking terms with another intelligent race is (judging from our own example) could be their penchant for destroying themselves in relatively short order after reaching technological complexity. This book’s chapters, introduction, and conclusion examine the worldwide rise of partisan nationalism and the damage it has wrought on the worldwide pursuit of solutions for issues requiring worldwide scope, such scientific co-operation public health and others, mixing analysis of both. We use both historical description and analysis. This analysis concludes with a description of why we must avoid the isolating nature of nationalism that isolates people and encourages separation if we are to deal with issues of world-wide concern, and to maintain a sustainable, survivable Earth, placing the dominant political movement of our time against the Earth’s existential crises. Our contributors, all experts in their fields, each have assumed responsibility for a country, or two if they are related. This work entwines themes of worldwide concern with the political growth of nationalism because leaders with such a worldview are disinclined to co-operate internationally at a time when nations must find ways to solve common problems, such as the climate crisis. Inability to cooperate at this stage may doom everyone, eventually, to an overheated, stormy future plagued by droughts and deluges portending shortages of food and other essential commodities, meanwhile destroying large coastal urban areas because of rising sea levels. Future historians may look back at our time and wonder why as well as how our world succumbed to isolating nationalism at a time when time was so short for cooperative intervention which is crucial for survival of a sustainable earth. Pride in language and culture is salubrious to individuals’ sense of history and identity. Excess nationalism that prevents international co-operation on harmful worldwide maladies is quite another. As Pope Francis has pointed out: For all of our connectivity due to expansion of social media, ability to communicate can breed contempt as well as mutual trust. “For all our hyper-connectivity,” said Francis, “We witnessed a fragmentation that made it more difficult to resolve problems that affect us all” (Horowitz, 2020, A-12). The pope’s encyclical, titled “Brothers All,” also said: “The forces of myopic, extremist, resentful, and aggressive nationalism are on the rise.” The pope’s document also advocates support for migrants, as well as resistance to nationalist and tribal populism. Francis broadened his critique to the role of market capitalism, as well as nationalism has failed the peoples of the world when they need co-operation and solidarity in the face of the world-wide corona virus pandemic. Humankind needs to unite into “a new sense of the human family [Fratelli Tutti, “Brothers All”], that rejects war at all costs” (Pope, 2020, 6-A). Our journey takes us first to Russia, with the able eye and honed expertise of Richard D. Anderson, Jr. who teaches as UCLA and publishes on the subject of his chapter: “Putin, Russian identity, and Russia’s conduct at home and abroad.” Readers should find Dr. Anderson’s analysis fascinating because Vladimir Putin, the singular leader of Russian foreign and domestic policy these days (and perhaps for the rest of his life, given how malleable Russia’s Constitution has become) may be a short man physically, but has high ambitions. One of these involves restoring the old Russian (and Soviet) empire, which would involve re-subjugating a number of nations that broke off as the old order dissolved about 30 years ago. President (shall we say czar?) Putin also has international ambitions, notably by destabilizing the United States, where election meddling has become a specialty. The sight of Putin and U.S. president Donald Trump, two very rich men (Putin $70-$200 billion; Trump $2.5 billion), nuzzling in friendship would probably set Thomas Jefferson and Vladimir Lenin spinning in their graves. The road of history can take some unanticipated twists and turns. Consider Poland, from which we have an expert native analysis in chapter 2, Bartosz Hlebowicz, who is a Polish anthropologist and journalist. His piece is titled “Lawless and Unjust: How to Quickly Make Your Own Country a Puppet State Run by a Group of Hoodlums – the Hopeless Case of Poland (2015–2020).” When I visited Poland to teach and lecture twice between 2006 and 2008, most people seemed to be walking on air induced by freedom to conduct their own affairs to an unusual degree for a state usually squeezed between nationalists in Germany and Russia. What did the Poles then do in a couple of decades? Read Hlebowicz’ chapter and decide. It certainly isn’t soft-bellied liberalism. In Chapter 3, with Bruce E. Johansen, we visit China’s western provinces, the lands of Tibet as well as the Uighurs and other Muslims in the Xinjiang region, who would most assuredly resent being characterized as being possessed by the Chinese of the Han to the east. As a student of Native American history, I had never before thought of the Tibetans and Uighurs as Native peoples struggling against the Independence-minded peoples of a land that is called an adjunct of China on most of our maps. The random act of sitting next to a young woman on an Air India flight out of Hyderabad, bound for New Delhi taught me that the Tibetans had something to share with the Lakota, the Iroquois, and hundreds of other Native American states and nations in North America. Active resistance to Chinese rule lasted into the mid-nineteenth century, and continues today in a subversive manner, even in song, as I learned in 2018 when I acted as a foreign adjudicator on a Ph.D. dissertation by a Tibetan student at the University of Madras (in what is now in a city called Chennai), in southwestern India on resistance in song during Tibet’s recent history. Tibet is one of very few places on Earth where a young dissident can get shot to death for singing a song that troubles China’s Quest for Lebensraum. The situation in Xinjiang region, where close to a million Muslims have been interned in “reeducation” camps surrounded with brick walls and barbed wire. They sing, too. Come with us and hear the music. Back to Europe now, in Chapter 4, to Portugal and Spain, we find a break in the general pattern of nationalism. Portugal has been more progressive governmentally than most. Spain varies from a liberal majority to military coups, a pattern which has been exported to Latin America. A situation such as this can make use of the term “populism” problematic, because general usage in our time usually ties the word into a right-wing connotative straightjacket. “Populism” can be used to describe progressive (left-wing) insurgencies as well. José Pinto, who is native to Portugal and also researches and writes in Spanish as well as English, in “Populism in Portugal and Spain: a Real Neighbourhood?” provides insight into these historical paradoxes. Hungary shares some historical inclinations with Poland (above). Both emerged from Soviet dominance in an air of developing freedom and multicultural diversity after the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union collapsed. Then, gradually at first, right wing-forces began to tighten up, stripping structures supporting popular freedom, from the courts, mass media, and other institutions. In Chapter 5, Bernard Tamas, in “From Youth Movement to Right-Liberal Wing Authoritarianism: The Rise of Fidesz and the Decline of Hungarian Democracy” puts the renewed growth of political and social repression into a context of worldwide nationalism. Tamas, an associate professor of political science at Valdosta State University, has been a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University and a Fulbright scholar at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. His books include From Dissident to Party Politics: The Struggle for Democracy in Post-Communist Hungary (2007). Bear in mind that not everyone shares Orbán’s vision of what will make this nation great, again. On graffiti-covered walls in Budapest, Runes (traditional Hungarian script) has been found that read “Orbán is a motherfucker” (Mikanowski, 2019, 58). Also in Europe, in Chapter 6, Professor Ronan Le Coadic, of the University of Rennes, Rennes, France, in “Is There a Revival of French Nationalism?” Stating this title in the form of a question is quite appropriate because France’s nationalistic shift has built and ebbed several times during the last few decades. For a time after 2000, it came close to assuming the role of a substantial minority, only to ebb after that. In 2017, the candidate of the National Front reached the second round of the French presidential election. This was the second time this nationalist party reached the second round of the presidential election in the history of the Fifth Republic. In 2002, however, Jean-Marie Le Pen had only obtained 17.79% of the votes, while fifteen years later his daughter, Marine Le Pen, almost doubled her father's record, reaching 33.90% of the votes cast. Moreover, in the 2019 European elections, re-named Rassemblement National obtained the largest number of votes of all French political formations and can therefore boast of being "the leading party in France.” The brutality of oppressive nationalism may be expressed in personal relationships, such as child abuse. While Indonesia and Aotearoa [the Maoris’ name for New Zealand] hold very different ranks in the United Nations Human Development Programme assessments, where Indonesia is classified as a medium development country and Aotearoa New Zealand as a very high development country. In Chapter 7, “Domestic Violence Against Women in Indonesia and Aotearoa New Zealand: Making Sense of Differences and Similarities” co-authors, in Chapter 8, Mandy Morgan and Dr. Elli N. Hayati, from New Zealand and Indonesia respectively, found that despite their socio-economic differences, one in three women in each country experience physical or sexual intimate partner violence over their lifetime. In this chapter ther authors aim to deepen understandings of domestic violence through discussion of the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of theit countries to address domestic violence alongside studies of women’s attitudes to gender norms and experiences of intimate partner violence. One of the most surprising and upsetting scholarly journeys that a North American student may take involves Adolf Hitler’s comments on oppression of American Indians and Blacks as he imagined the construction of the Nazi state, a genesis of nationalism that is all but unknown in the United States of America, traced in this volume (Chapter 8) by co-editor Johansen. Beginning in Mein Kampf, during the 1920s, Hitler explicitly used the westward expansion of the United States across North America as a model and justification for Nazi conquest and anticipated colonization by Germans of what the Nazis called the “wild East” – the Slavic nations of Poland, the Baltic states, Ukraine, and Russia, most of which were under control of the Soviet Union. The Volga River (in Russia) was styled by Hitler as the Germans’ Mississippi, and covered wagons were readied for the German “manifest destiny” of imprisoning, eradicating, and replacing peoples the Nazis deemed inferior, all with direct references to events in North America during the previous century. At the same time, with no sense of contradiction, the Nazis partook of a long-standing German romanticism of Native Americans. One of Goebbels’ less propitious schemes was to confer honorary Aryan status on Native American tribes, in the hope that they would rise up against their oppressors. U.S. racial attitudes were “evidence [to the Nazis] that America was evolving in the right direction, despite its specious rhetoric about equality.” Ming Xie, originally from Beijing, in the People’s Republic of China, in Chapter 9, “News Coverage and Public Perceptions of the Social Credit System in China,” writes that The State Council of China in 2014 announced “that a nationwide social credit system would be established” in China. “Under this system, individuals, private companies, social organizations, and governmental agencies are assigned a score which will be calculated based on their trustworthiness and daily actions such as transaction history, professional conduct, obedience to law, corruption, tax evasion, and academic plagiarism.” The “nationalism” in this case is that of the state over the individual. China has 1.4 billion people; this system takes their measure for the purpose of state control. Once fully operational, control will be more subtle. People who are subject to it, through modern technology (most often smart phones) will prompt many people to self-censor. Orwell, modernized, might write: “Your smart phone is watching you.” Ming Xie holds two Ph.Ds, one in Public Administration from University of Nebraska at Omaha and another in Cultural Anthropology from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, where she also worked for more than 10 years at a national think tank in the same institution. While there she summarized news from non-Chinese sources for senior members of the Chinese Communist Party. Ming is presently an assistant professor at the Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice, West Texas A&M University. In Chapter 10, analyzing native peoples and nationhood, Barbara Alice Mann, Professor of Honours at the University of Toledo, in “Divide, et Impera: The Self-Genocide Game” details ways in which European-American invaders deprive the conquered of their sense of nationhood as part of a subjugation system that amounts to genocide, rubbing out their languages and cultures -- and ultimately forcing the native peoples to assimilate on their own, for survival in a culture that is foreign to them. Mann is one of Native American Studies’ most acute critics of conquests’ contradictions, and an author who retrieves Native history with a powerful sense of voice and purpose, having authored roughly a dozen books and numerous book chapters, among many other works, who has traveled around the world lecturing and publishing on many subjects. Nalanda Roy and S. Mae Pedron in Chapter 11, “Understanding the Face of Humanity: The Rohingya Genocide.” describe one of the largest forced migrations in the history of the human race, the removal of 700,000 to 800,000 Muslims from Buddhist Myanmar to Bangladesh, which itself is already one of the most crowded and impoverished nations on Earth. With about 150 million people packed into an area the size of Nebraska and Iowa (population less than a tenth that of Bangladesh, a country that is losing land steadily to rising sea levels and erosion of the Ganges river delta. The Rohingyas’ refugee camp has been squeezed onto a gigantic, eroding, muddy slope that contains nearly no vegetation. However, Bangladesh is majority Muslim, so while the Rohingya may starve, they won’t be shot to death by marauding armies. Both authors of this exquisite (and excruciating) account teach at Georgia Southern University in Savannah, Georgia, Roy as an associate professor of International Studies and Asian politics, and Pedron as a graduate student; Roy originally hails from very eastern India, close to both Myanmar and Bangladesh, so he has special insight into the context of one of the most brutal genocides of our time, or any other. This is our case describing the problems that nationalism has and will pose for the sustainability of the Earth as our little blue-and-green orb becomes more crowded over time. The old ways, in which national arguments often end in devastating wars, are obsolete, given that the Earth and all the people, plants, and other animals that it sustains are faced with the existential threat of a climate crisis that within two centuries, more or less, will flood large parts of coastal cities, and endanger many species of plants and animals. To survive, we must listen to the Earth, and observe her travails, because they are increasingly our own.

AbstractA novel numerical approach, namely Material Point Method (MPM), is applied to analyze the build-up of pore water pressure inside the landslide body during the impact against different types of structures. To this aim, the landslide soil is schematized as a two-phase elasto-plastic material, while the structural materials are assumed as one-phase elasto-plastic bodies. The complex Landslide-Structure Interaction (LSI) is simulated for different landslide scenarios, including the formation of “dead-zones” behind the structures and/or the run-up mechanisms, even including in some cases unacceptable displacements or the complete disruption of the impacted structure. Independent on site-specific conditions, it is shown that landslide pore water pressures undergo significant tempo-spatial evolution during a dynamic impact, meaning that a hydro-mechanical coupled approach is fully needed for an adequate LSI analysis.

AbstractTo better analyze the reinforcing mechanisms of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in cementitious composites, the micromorphological characteristics of the fracture surface of cement-based specimens under the Brazilian split test were investigated. The results demonstrated that the addition of CNTs promoted nucleation and pore filling effects that optimized the pore structure and inhibited the development of microcracks in the cement matrix during loading. Due to the ultra-high specific surface area and bridging effects of CNTs, the formation of hydration products was promoted, internal microcracks and micropores were effectively reduced, and the regularity and integrity of the samples also improved. Therefore, under tensile loading, CNT-reinforced cementitious composites absorbed more energy, resulting in more complex stress paths and rougher fracture surfaces.

Abstract The nuclear pore complex (NPC) is an excellent example of a bio-molecular motor, since it operates primarily via energy dependent processes, and performs some of the most vital functions required for the survival of a cell. In the presence of appropriate chemical stimuli, the NPC apparently opens or closes, like a gating mechanism, and permits the flow of material in to and out of the nucleus. An NPC, with typical dimensions of 100–200 nm, is a megadalton (MDa) heteromultimeric protein complex, which spans the nuclear envelope and is postulated to possess a transporter-containing central cylindrical body embedded between cytoplasmic and nucleoplasmic rings as shown in Fig.1. A cell has many, presumably identical, NPCs, each of which participates in the import and export of nuclear material from within the nucleus [1–2]. Exactly how this transport occurs through the NPC is an open question, and a very important one, with profound implications for nanoscale devices for fluidic transport, genetic engineering and targeted drug delivery.

Abstract The structure of a thermally sprayed coating is generally of lamellar structure. There is generally porosity in the coating. The examination shows that the relationship between properties and porosity for conventionally processed porous materials is difficult to be applied to thermally sprayed coating because of complex pore networks. The lamellar structure of the coating and the bonding at the interfaces between lamellae often determine the properties of coating. It is generally difficult to evaluate quantitatively the structure of a thermally sprayed coating because of complicated pore networks in the coating. With the filling of the material different from the composition of the coating into the pores the structure of the coating including nonbonded interface area and also generally referred pores can be visualized. According to the distribution of filler in the coating the structure of a coating can be quantitatively evaluated using structural parameters such as lamellar thickness, lamellar bonding ratio, the width of interface gap and so on. The structural parameters necessary to describe the lamellar structure of thermal sprayed coatings and a method based on the pore filling and analysis of the distribution of filled materials are proposed.

The conventional rock physics models used for interpretation of resistivity measurements (e.g., Archie’s model) need to be calibrated using core measurements. This becomes challenging when core measurements are not available or significant vertical variation in rock types and pore structure is commonplace. Conventional models also assume homogeneous pore structure and uni-modal pore-size distribution. To overcome these challenges, we introduce a new workflow for water/hydrocarbon saturation assessment, in which model parameters are geometry related and can be estimated from analysis of the pore structure. Such workflow enables reliable interpretation of resistivity measurements in the presence of complex multi-modal pore structure. Furthermore, we investigate the consistency of the estimated model parameters (i.e., electrical constriction factor and tortuosity) in the pore-scale domain through the same rock types, for the purpose of developing a workflow for field applications. We first obtain high-resolution pore-scale computerized tomography (CT) images from rock samples in the same rock type and quantify pore-network characteristics (e.g., constriction factor, pore- and throat-size distributions) of the samples at different water saturation levels. Image analysis is used to obtain geometrical constriction factor. We obtain electrical resistivity of the samples through numerically solving Maxwell’s equations, which is used as an input in the introduced model. We successfully applied the introduced method to pore-scale images from three carbonate formations. We verified the consistency of the obtained parameters in the pore-scale domain by applying the method in other rock samples of the same rock type. Results demonstrated consistency in estimated electrical constriction factors and tortuosity values in each rock type. We observed variation of model parameters in different rock types. The introduced method successfully captured the variation of the pore structure within the formation and honored the geometrical heterogeneity of the complex carbonate rocks. Finally, we used the new workflow and Archie’s model to estimate water saturation. The new workflow enhanced water saturation estimates by 30% compared to Archie’s model with default parameters (i.e., a=1 and m=n=2). The outcomes of this paper can potentially minimize core-based calibration efforts for well-log-based water saturation assessment in rocks with complex pore structures such as carbonates. The introduced rock physics model captures the complexity of pore-network geometry and rock fabric and converged toward a more mechanistic model where most parameters have physical and geometrical meaning. The results are promising for enhanced assessment of water saturation in carbonate formations with minimal calibration efforts.

ABSTRACT: The reservoir space of metamorphic buried hill reservoirs are complex and the heterogeneity is strong. It is difficult to fully characterize the micro pore and fracture structure of single resolution digital core. In this paper, multi-resolution CT and FIB-SEM scanning were performed on the cores of metamorphic buried hill reservoirs. The image registration method is used to match the core images of different resolutions. The union of pore structure at each resolution is taken to characterize the distribution law of pore and fractures quantitatively. The results showed that multi-scale digital core can more fully reflect the multi-type and multi-scale pore and fracture structure of metamorphic buried hill reservoir; The total porosity of the core is 1.25 %. The fracture is the main storage and seepage space. This method realizes the multi-scale characterization of the microscopic pore and fracture structure of metamorphic buried hill reservoirs, and provides a reference for similar complex reservoir research. 1. INTRODUCTION A large number of buried hill reservoirs have been recognized worldwide, such as Zeit Bay, Bach Ho, Bozhong 19-6 fields, and so on (Mi et al., 2023; Trice et al., 2022). A buried hill is defined as a hydrocarbon accumulation in younger sedimentary formations in buried hill traps. The lithologies of buried hill reservoirs include metamorphic, igneous, and sedimentary rocks (Han et al., 2020). According to statistics, metamorphic rocks account for 40% of the world's total buried hill reservoirs, and oil and gas reserves account for 75% of the total reserves (Zhang et al., 2023). However, the metamorphic buried hill reservoir has developed fractures, complex spatial structure, and strong heterogeneity (Liu et al., 2020). An accurate understanding of the microstructure of metamorphic buried hill reservoirs is the key to the efficient development of such reservoirs. The digital core has the unique advantages of non-destructive and three-dimensional characterization, which greatly retains the original characteristics of reservoir pores and fractures, and is an effective means of reservoir microstructure research. However, there is a contradiction between the field of view and the resolution of the digital core (Lin et al., 2019). When the resolution is low, a larger core size can be obtained, but at the same time, some microstructure information will be lost. When the resolution is high, the microscopic characteristics of the core are more refined, but there may be a problem that the representative volume unit (Gitman et al., 2007; Kanit et al., 2003) cannot be obtained. Therefore, it is necessary to integrate multi-scale information to describe the core structure.

Tillage modifies soil structure, altering conditions for plant growth and transport processes through the soil. However, the resulting loose structure is unstable and susceptible to collapse due to aggregate fragmentation during wetting and drying cycles, and coalescense of moist aggregates by internal capillary forces and external compactive stresses. Presently, limited understanding of these complex processes often leads to consideration of the soil plow layer as a static porous medium. With the purpose of filling some of this knowledge gap, the objectives of this Project were to: 1) Identify and quantify the major factors causing breakdown of primary soil fragments produced by tillage into smaller secondary fragments; 2) Identify and quantify the. physical processes involved in the coalescence of primary and secondary fragments and surfaces of weakness; 3) Measure temporal changes in pore-size distributions and hydraulic properties of reconstructed aggregate beds as a function of specified initial conditions and wetting/drying events; and 4) Construct a process-based model of post-tillage changes in soil structural and hydraulic properties of the plow layer and validate it against field experiments. A dynamic theory of capillary-driven plastic deformation of adjoining aggregates was developed, where instantaneous rate of change in geometry of aggregates and inter-aggregate pores was related to current geometry of the solid-gas-liquid system and measured soil rheological functions. The theory and supporting data showed that consolidation of aggregate beds is largely an event-driven process, restricted to a fairly narrow range of soil water contents where capillary suction is great enough to generate coalescence but where soil mechanical strength is still low enough to allow plastic deforn1ation of aggregates. The theory was also used to explain effects of transient external loading on compaction of aggregate beds. A stochastic forInalism was developed for modeling soil pore space evolution, based on the Fokker Planck equation (FPE). Analytical solutions for the FPE were developed, with parameters which can be measured empirically or related to the mechanistic aggregate deformation model. Pre-existing results from field experiments were used to illustrate how the FPE formalism can be applied to field data. Fragmentation of soil clods after tillage was observed to be an event-driven (as opposed to continuous) process that occurred only during wetting, and only as clods approached the saturation point. The major mechanism of fragmentation of large aggregates seemed to be differential soil swelling behind the wetting front. Aggregate "explosion" due to air entrapment seemed limited to small aggregates wetted simultaneously over their entire surface. Breakdown of large aggregates from 11 clay soils during successive wetting and drying cycles produced fragment size distributions which differed primarily by a scale factor l (essentially equivalent to the Van Bavel mean weight diameter), so that evolution of fragment size distributions could be modeled in terms of changes in l. For a given number of wetting and drying cycles, l decreased systematically with increasing plasticity index. When air-dry soil clods were slightly weakened by a single wetting event, and then allowed to "age" for six weeks at constant high water content, drop-shatter resistance in aged relative to non-aged clods was found to increase in proportion to plasticity index. This seemed consistent with the rheological model, which predicts faster plastic coalescence around small voids and sharp cracks (with resulting soil strengthening) in soils with low resistance to plastic yield and flow. A new theory of crack growth in "idealized" elastoplastic materials was formulated, with potential application to soil fracture phenomena. The theory was preliminarily (and successfully) tested using carbon steel, a ductile material which closely approximates ideal elastoplastic behavior, and for which the necessary fracture data existed in the literature.

As with all public policy work, education policies are demanding. Policy workers need to ‘know’ a lot—about the problems they are addressing, the people who need to be engaged, the promises they can make in response, the context they are working in, and the processes they will follow to implement. Most policy workers answer questions about such issues within the structures of plan and control processes used to devise budgets and projects. These structures limit their knowledge gathering, organization and sense-making activities to up-front planning activities, and even though sophisticated tools like Theories of Change suggest planners ‘know’ all that is needed for policy success, they often do not. Policies are often fraught with ‘unknowns’ that cannot be captured in passive planning processes and thus repeatedly undermine even the best laid plans. Through a novel strategy that asks how much one knows about the answers to 25 essential policy questions, and an application to recent education policy interventions in Mozambique, this paper shows that it is possible to get real about unknowns in policy work. Just recognizing these unknowns exist—and understanding why they do and what kind of challenge they pose to policy workers—can help promote a more modest and realistic approach to doing complex policy work.

Causality and Predictability of Complex Systems pose fundamental challenges even under well-defined structural stochastic-dynamic conditions where the laws of motion and system symmetries are known. However, the edifice of complexity can be profoundly transformed by structural-functional coevolution and non-recurrent elusive mechanisms changing the very same invariants of motion that had been taken for granted. This leads to recurrence collapse and memory loss, precluding the ability of traditional stochastic-dynamic and information-theoretic metrics to provide reliable information about the non-recurrent emergence of fundamental new properties absent from the a priori kinematic geometric and statistical features. Unveiling causal mechanisms and eliciting system dynamic predictability under such challenging conditions is not only a fundamental problem in mathematical and statistical physics, but also one of critical importance to dynamic modelling, risk assessment and decision support e.g. regarding non-recurrent critical transitions and extreme events. In order to address these challenges, generalized metrics in non-ergodic information physics are hereby introduced for unveiling elusive dynamics, causality and predictability of complex dynamical systems undergoing far-from-equilibrium structural-functional coevolution. With these methodological developments at hand, hidden dynamic information is hereby brought out and explicitly quantified even beyond post-critical regime collapse, long after statistical information is lost. The added causal insights and operational predictive value are further highlighted by evaluating the new information metrics among statistically independent variables, where traditional techniques therefore find no information links. Notwithstanding the factorability of the distributions associated to the aforementioned independent variables, synergistic and redundant information are found to emerge from microphysical, event-scale codependencies in far-from-equilibrium nonlinear statistical mechanics. The findings are illustrated to shed light onto fundamental causal mechanisms and unveil elusive dynamic predictability of non-recurrent critical transitions and extreme events across multiscale hydro-climatic problems.

Brazil is characterized by large inequalities in income, access to health care, and health status. This paper uses data from the 1998 Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios to analyze the complex relationships among health, income, health insurance and health care utilization to gain a better understanding of the various factors determining differences in the health of the population, especially between the poor and non-poor. The authors use a structural equation model in which health, wealth and access to health care are specified as latent variables.

Objectives: The overall goal of the project was to build an ultrastructural model of the Agrobacterium tumefaciens type IV secretion system (T4SS) based on electron microscopy, genetics, and immunolocalization of its components. There were four original aims: Aim 1: Define the contributions of contact-dependent and -independent plant signals to formation of novel morphological changes at the A. tumefaciens polar membrane. Aim 2: Genetic basis for morphological changes at the A. tumefaciens polar membrane. Aim 3: Immuno-localization of VirB proteins Aim 4: Structural definition of the substrate translocation route. There were no major revisions to the aims, and the work focused on the above questions. Background: Agrobacterium presents a unique example of inter-kingdom gene transfer. The process involves cell to cell transfer of both protein and DNA substrates via a contact-dependent mechanism akin to bacterial conjugation. Transfer is mediated by a T4SS. Intensive study of the Agrobacterium T4SS has made it an archetypal model for the genetics and biochemistry. The channel is assembled from eleven protein components encoded on the B operon in the virulence region of the tumor-inducing plasmid, plus an additional coupling protein, VirD4. During the course of our project two structural studies were published presenting X-ray crystallography and three-dimensional reconstruction from electron microscopy of a core complex of the channel assembled in vitro from homologous proteins of E. coli, representing VirB7, VirB9, and VirB10. Another study was published claiming that the secretion channels in Agrobacterium appear on helical arrays around the membrane perimeter and along the entire length of the bacterium. Helical arrangements in bacterial membranes have since fallen from favor however, and that finding was partially retracted in a second publication. Overall, the localization of the T4SS within the bacterial membranes remains enigmatic in the literature, and we believe that our results from this project make a significant advance. Summary of achievements : We found that polar inflations and other membrane disturbances relate to the activation conditions rather than to virulence protein expression. Activation requires low pH and nutrient-poor medium. These stress conditions are also reflected in DNA condensation to varying degrees. Nonetheless, they must be considered in modeling the T4SS as they represent the relevant conditions for its expression and activity. We identified the T4SS core component VirB7 at native expression levels using state of the art super-resolution light microscopy. This marker of the secretion system was found almost exclusively at the cell poles, and typically one pole. Immuno-electron microscopy identified the protein at the inner membrane, rather than at bridges across the inner and outer membranes. This suggests a rare or transient assembly of the secretion-competent channel, or alternatively a two-step secretion involving an intermediate step in the periplasmic space. We followed the expression of the major secreted effector, VirE2. This is a single-stranded DNA binding protein that forms a capsid around the transferred oligonucleotide, adapting the bacterial conjugation to the eukaryotic host. We found that over-expressed VirE2 forms filamentous complexes in the bacterial cytoplasm that could be observed both by conventional fluorescence microscopy and by correlative electron cryo-tomography. Using a non-retentive mutant we observed secretion of VirE2 from bacterial poles. We labeled the secreted substrates in vivo in order detect their secretion and appearance in the plant cells. However the low transfer efficiency and significant background signal have so far hampered this approach.

This is the most comprehensive compilation of the geology of the Albuquerque Basin to be printed in 30 years. The area covered by this new compilation, though not as large as the earlier map, is presented at a scale nearly four times the detail (1:50,000 scale compared to the earlier map's 1:190,000 scale). This new geologic map is a compilation of sixteen 7.5-min USGS quadrangle maps and encompasses an area from Tijeras Arroyo on the south to Santa Ana Mesa north of Santa Ana and San Felipe Pueblos, and from the crest of the Sandia Mountains westward across the Rio Grande and onto the Llano de Albuquerque (West Mesa) west of the city limits of Albuquerque and Rio Rancho.This geologic map graphically displays information on the distribution, character, orientation, and stratigraphic relationships of rock and surficial units and structural features. The map and accompanying cross sections were compiled from geologic field mapping and additionally from available aerial photography, satellite imagery, and drill-hole data (many published and unpublished reports, examination of lithologic cuttings, and from the interpretation of borehole geophysical log data).The map and accompanying cross sections represent the most informed interpretations of the known faults in the Albuquerque-Rio Rancho area that are presently available. In addition to the positions of many faults, the cross sections show the approximate vertical extent of poorly consolidated earth materials that may pose liquefaction hazards. This map also contains derivative maps selected to portray geologically important features in the metropolitan area, such as elevations of ground water levels, and the mostly buried boundary between generally poorly consolidated and saturated aquifer materials and the more consolidated underlying materials. The gravity anomaly map is a geophysical dataset that shows major geological structures buried beneath the metropolitan area and vicinity.

Ce travail a pour objectif de nourrir la réflexion en présentant un état des lieux de différents services nationaux de données. Il porte sur sept infrastructures de services qui se sont développées dans des contextes différents mais qui partagent un grand nombre de points communs, à commencer par offrir un accès à un service de données à l’ensemble des chercheurs, à l’échelle nationale. Que ce soit pour faciliter l’accès et le partage de l’information scientifique ou répondre aux exigences des bailleurs de fonds, les services nationaux de données qui font l’objet de cette étude se sont développés autour d’un noyau de fonctionnalités communes : - un service de dépôt, - un service d’archivage pérenne, - un service d’assistance et d’accompagnement à la gestion des données. La plupart d’entre eux ont aussi choisi de proposer un service de signalement et d’accès qui s’appuie soit sur un outil de découverte interne, soit sur un moteur de recherche fédérant l’accès à des données provenant de services externes à celles déposées dans leurs entrepôts. Fruit de projets au long cours, les services nationaux de données restent des initiatives plutôt récentes, l’une d’entre elles doit ouvrir ses services au début de l’année 2021. Compte tenu du contexte très dynamique qui voient se multiplier les projets d’entrepôts institutionnels, le “temps long” qui caractérise la mise en place de services nationaux incite les opérateurs à opter pour des solutions techniques et organisationnelles flexibles, de manière à pouvoir s’adapter à l’évolution des usages et des attentes des utilisateurs. Dès le stade du projet, la consultation des acteurs clés et représentatifs de la diversité des écosystèmes scientifiques s’avère incontournable pour construire l’offre de services au plus près des attentes des publics visés. Une fois le service mis en place, ce principe de co-construction prévaut tout autant : rôle déterminant des institutions partenaires au sein des comités consultatifs, appels à projets de service, implication des chercheurs pour développer de nouveaux outils (ex. retours exprimés par les utilisateurs, recueil des besoins, tests). De la même manière, les services de données inscrivent leur activité au sein de réseaux nationaux et internationaux, ce qui participe à définir et renforcer leur rôle. La majeure partie de ces infrastructures nationales s’appuie sur le financement structurel assuré par le ministère de la recherche ou un bailleur de fonds public. En s’appuyant sur la collaboration ou la fédération, l’objectif de ces initiatives nationales est aussi de réduire les coûts pour l’ensemble des partenaires. Ces économies d’échelle, l’évaluation continue des services, l'interopérabilité des outils avec les écosystèmes existants et la fiabilité des solutions techniques représentent des points d’attention déterminants pour l’ensemble de ces dispositifs car ils conditionnent leur pérennité.

Contexte Ce rapport a pour objectif de présenter les résultats d’une recherche-action visant le développement d’un modèle d’intervention préventive en santé et sécurité du travail (SST) par et pour les préposés aux bénéficiaires (PAB) dans les centres d’hébergement et de soins de longue durée (CHSLD) du Québec. Les PAB sont au cœur des soins prodigués dans les milieux gériatriques. Malheureusement, l’augmentation du nombre de blessures et l’accentuation des problématiques de santé psychologique subies par ce personnel depuis quelques années fragilisent leur situation, ce qui se prouve en termes de faible rétention et de fort absentéisme chronique de ce personnel. Ce projet, qui est issu au départ d’une demande du milieu, visait à implanter une démarche d’intervention dans trois CHSLD du Québec, en nous inspirant d’autres études menées dans d’autres types d’organisation, comme les centres jeunesse. Revue de littérature La littérature scientifique nous enseigne que la participation des travailleurs au développement et à l’implantation de programme de prévention de la SST est une condition clé de leur succès, et ce préférablement à une intervention unilatéralement « classique » davantage axée uniquement sur la formation du personnel. Néanmoins, les CHSLD ne sont pas reconnus comme des milieux innovants, dans lesquels les PAB peuvent participer activement au développement des programmes de formation qui les concerne. La participation des PAB à une intervention préventive en SST, même si elle leur est destinée, apparaît comme un défi particulièrement important et difficile à relever. Objectifs L’objectif principal de cette recherche-action consistait à développer des modalités d’interventions préventives innovantes en matière de SST portées principalement par les PAB en CHSLD, afin d’en tirer des connaissances généralisables à d’autres milieux. Nos objectifs spécifiques visaient à : 1) cerner, dans les CHSLD, les facteurs de risque ainsi que les facteurs de protection présents ; 2) documenter et évaluer un processus mené « pour et par des PAB » qui vise à réduire les contraintes ciblées dans chaque milieu ; 3) documenter et évaluer le processus d’implantation de ces mesures ainsi que la participation des PAB dans la mise en place de la démarche ; 4) documenter les effets attendus des interventions proposées au sein des groupes de soutien à l’intervention (GSI) ; 5) dresser un inventaire des conditions (dimensions contextuelles et organisationnelles) favorables ou défavorables à l’implantation d’une intervention préventive misant sur la participation des préposés aux bénéficiaires. Cadre d’intervention L’étude a pris la forme d’une recherche-action. Selon cette approche, c’est principalement par l’action que l’on peut générer des connaissances scientifiques pour comprendre et changer la réalité sociale des individus et des systèmes, donc d’organisations telles que les CHSLD. Dans cette perspective, la théorie découle donc de l’action. Dans le cadre d’une recherche-action, on vise notamment à garantir que l’objet réponde à la fois aux problèmes pratiques des membres de l’organisation ainsi qu’aux préoccupations théoriques de recherche. Aussi, nous nous sommes appuyé sur le cadre proposé par Goldenhar et al., (2001) pour élaborer la démarche d’intervention. Il s’agit d’un modèle en 3 phases : le développement (l’identification a priori des risques ciblant des priorités sur lesquelles agir), l’implantation (l’implantation d’une intervention cohérente avec ces cibles via un GSI) et l’évaluation de l’intervention (l’étude de l’efficacité de l’intervention). Méthodologie Notre processus méthodologique a suivi le cadre d’intervention précité, soit trois phases de recherche-action : le diagnostic (phase I), l’intervention (phase II) et l’évaluation (phase III), et ce, dans trois CHSLD différents. Mentionnons que nous avons rajouté une phase d’entrevues, à la suite de la pandémie de la COVID-19 (phase I-B). Nous avons réalisé un total de 50 entrevues, soit 36 lors de la phase I (trois sites) et 21 en phase I-B. Nous avons réalisé également des heures d’intervention dans le cadre de la phase II, afin de développer les GSI. Lors des phases II et III, 15 informateurs clés ont été rencontrés sur une base individuelle et volontaire, et ce dans les deux CHSLD où ont été implantés des GSI. Notons que la pandémie a considérablement freiné notre projet et limité la portée de notre action. Il a été décidé, à la suite de la phase I-B, qu’un CHSLD serait supprimé de notre projet, tant les enjeux de recrutement pour les entrevues (phase I-B) et GSI (phase II) semblaient complexes. Résultats Les résultats de la phase I et I-B mettent de l’avant, dans les trois milieux, des facteurs de risque et des facteurs de protection relatifs à la charge de travail, au manque de soutien des collègues ou des supérieurs, à la faible reconnaissance et à la faible autonomie décisionnelle. Ce diagnostic a permis de préciser certaines pistes d’action pour les deux CHSLD participant à la phase II. Nous présentons ces pistes, de même que le processus complexe par lequel nous avons pu (ou non) développer des innovations organisationnelles dans les milieux. Dans le CHSLD du Hameau, quatre mesures ont été retenues (p. ex. : procéder à un exercice de clarification des rôles, des tâches partagées). Au CHSLD du Parvis, quatre mesures ont été aussi retenues (p. ex. élaborer un plan de contingence sur les unités). En guise d’évaluation, nous présentons plusieurs conditions gagnantes et défis identifiés par les acteurs des milieux interrogés. Discussion Notre projet a permis de documenter la complexité de développer des projets participatifs en CHSLD, notamment lorsqu’ils visent les PAB. Un premier facteur de complexité porte sur la structure hiérarchique même de l’organisation, qui donne peu de place et de pouvoir aux PAB, alors même que cette catégorie d’emploi est centrale en CHSLD. Un second facteur a trait à la fragilité importante de ces processus d’innovations lorsque des contraintes extérieures entravent ou bouleversent les pratiques quotidiennes. Certaines contraintes peuvent être importantes et de courte durée (comme la pandémie de la COVID-19), mais d’autres sont relativement récurrentes et fragilisent tout autant le même processus (manque de main-d’œuvre ponctuelle, épidémie d’influenza, visites de qualité, etc.). Des facteurs de soutien sont identifiés, comme l’engagement structuré de l’ensemble de l’organisation envers le projet (des hautes directions comme SAPA aux gestionnaires immédiats), la composition rigoureuse du comité chargé de développer et d’implanter les mesures proposées et le développement d’une perspective de pérennisation à moyen et long terme.

Low-moisture foods (LMF) are increasingly involved in foodborne illness. While bacteria cannot grow in LMF due to the low water content, pathogens such as Salmonella can still survive in dry foods and pose health risks to consumer. We recently found that Salmonella secretes a proteinaceous compound during desiccation, which we identified as OsmY, an osmotic stress response protein of 177 amino acids. To elucidate the role of OsmY in conferring tolerance against desiccation and other stresses in Salmonella entericaserovarTyphimurium (STm), our specific objectives were: (1) Characterize the involvement of OsmY in desiccation tolerance; (2) Perform structure-function analysis of OsmY; (3) Study OsmY expression under various growth- and environmental conditions of relevance to agriculture; (4) Examine the involvement of OsmY in response to other stresses of relevance to agriculture; and (5) Elucidate regulatory pathways involved in controlling osmY expression. We demonstrated that an osmY-mutant strain is impaired in both desiccation tolerance (DT) and in long-term persistence during cold storage (LTP). Genetic complementation and addition of a recombinantOsmY (rOsmY) restored the mutant survival back to that of the wild type (wt). To analyze the function of specific domains we have generated a recombinantOsmY (rOsmY) protein. A dose-response DT study showed that rOsmY has the highest protection at a concentration of 0.5 nM. This effect was protein- specific as a comparable amount of bovine serum albumin, an unrelated protein, had a three-time lower protection level. Further characterization of OsmY revealed that the protein has a surfactant activity and is involved in swarming motility. OsmY was shown to facilitate biofilm formation during dehydration but not during bacterial growth under optimal growth conditions. This finding suggests that expression and secretion of OsmY under stress conditions was potentially associated with facilitating biofilm production. OsmY contains two conserved BON domains. To better understand the role of the BON sites in OsmY-mediated dehydration tolerance, we have generated two additional rOsmY constructs, lacking either BON1 or BON2 sites. BON1-minus (but not BON2) protein has decreased dehydration tolerance compared to intact rOsmY, suggesting that BON1 is required for maximal OsmY-mediated activity. Addition of BON1-peptide at concentration below 0.4 µM did not affect STm survival. Interestingly, a toxic effect of BON1 peptide was observed in concentration as low as 0.4 µM. Higher concentrations resulted in complete abrogation of the rOsmY effect, supporting the notion that BON-mediated interaction is essential for rOsmY activity. We performed extensive analysis of RNA expression of STm undergoing desiccation after exponential and stationary growth, identifying all categories of genes that are differentially expressed during this process. We also performed massively in-parallel screening of all genes in which mutation caused changes in fitness during drying, identifying over 400 such genes, which are now undergoing confirmation. As expected OsmY is one of these genes. In conclusion, this is the first study to identify that OsmY protein secreted during dehydration contributes to desiccation tolerance in Salmonella by facilitating dehydration- mediated biofilm formation. Expression of OsmY also enhances swarming motility, apparently through its surfactant activity. The BON1 domain is required for full OsmY activity, demonstrating a potential intervention to reduce pathogen survival in food processing. Expression and fitness screens have begun to elucidate the processes of desiccation, with the potential to uncover additional specific targets for efforts to mitigate pathogen survival in desiccation.

Cette étude porte sur une des innovations contemporaines liées à l’économie de la publication scientifique : les accords dits transformants, un objet relativement circonscrit au sein des relations entre consortiums de bibliothèques et éditeurs scientifiques, et temporellement situé entre 2015 et 2020. Ce type d’accords a pour objectif affiché d’organiser la transition du modèle traditionnel de l’abonnement à des revues (souvent proposées par regroupements thématiques ou collections) vers celui de l’accès ouvert en opérant une réaffectation des budgets qui y sont consacrés. Notre travail d’analyse sociologique constitue une première étude systématique de cet objet, fondée sur la recension de 197 accords. Le corpus ainsi constitué inclut des accords caractérisés par la coprésence d’une composante d’abonnement et d’une composante de publication en accès ouvert, même minimale (« jetons » de publication offerts, réduction sur les APC...). En conséquence, ont été exclus de l’analyse les accords portant uniquement sur du financement centralisé de publication en accès ouvert, que ce soit avec des éditeurs ne proposant que des revues avec paiement par l’auteur (PLOS, Frontiers, MDPI...) ou des éditeurs dont une partie du catalogue est constitué de revues en accès ouvert. L’accord le plus ancien de notre corpus a été signé en 2010, les plus récents en 2020 – les accords ne commençant qu’en 2021, même annoncés au cours de l’étude, n’ont pas été retenus. Plusieurs résultats se dégagent de notre analyse. Tout d’abord, on note une grande diversité des acteurs impliqués avec 22 pays et 39 éditeurs, même si certains consortiums (Pays-Bas, Suède, Autriche, Allemagne) et éditeurs (CUP, Elsevier, RSC, Springer) en ont signé beaucoup plus que d’autres. Ensuite, la durée des accords, comprise entre une et six années, révèle une distribution très inégalitaire, avec plus de la moitié des accords (103) signés pour 3 ans, ainsi qu’une faible proportion pour 4 ans ou plus (22 accords). Enfin, en dépit d’appels répétés à la transparence, moins de la moitié des accords (96) ont un texte accessible au moment de cette étude, sans qu’on puisse observer une tendance récente à une plus grande disponibilité. L’analyse montre également des degrés d’ouverture très variables, allant d’une simple information sur le répertoire ESAC en passant par la mise à disposition d’un format annotable jusqu’à l’attribution d’un DOI et d’une licence de réutilisation (CC-BY), en incluant le détail des sommes monétaires. Parmi les 96 accords disponibles, dont 47 signés en 2020, 62 ont fait l’objet d’une analyse en profondeur. C’est à notre connaissance la première analyse à cette échelle, sur un type de matériel non seulement inédit, mais qui était auparavant soumis à des clauses de confidentialité. Fondée sur une lecture minutieuse, l’étude décrit de manière fine leurs propriétés, depuis la matérialité du document jusqu’aux formules financières, en passant par leur morphologie et l’ensemble des droits et devoirs des parties. Les contenus des accords sont donc analysés comme une collection dont nous cherchons à déterminer les points communs et les variations, à travers des codages explicites sur certaines de leurs caractéristiques. L’étude pointe également des incertitudes, et notamment leur caractère « transitionnel », qui demeure fortement discuté. D’un point de vue morphologique, les accords montrent une grande diversité en matière de taille (de 7 à 488 pages) et de structure. Néanmoins, par définition, ils articulent tous deux objets essentiels : d’une part, les conditions de réalisation d’une lecture d’articles de revues, sous forme d’abonnement, mêlant des préoccupations d’accès et de sécurité ; d’autre part, les modalités de publication en accès ouvert, articulant la gestion d’un nouveau type de workflow à toute une série d’options possibles. Parmi ces options, mentionnons notamment le périmètre des revues considérées (hybrides et/ou accès ouvert), les licences disponibles, le degré d’obligation de cette publication, les auteurs éligibles ou le volume d’articles publiables. L’un des résultats les plus importants de cette analyse approfondie est la mise au jour d’un découplage presque complet, au sein même des accords, entre l’objet abonnement et l’objet publication. Bien entendu, l’abonnement est systématiquement configuré dans un monde fermé, soumis à paiement qui déclenche des séries d’identification des circulations légitimes tant du contenu informationnel que des usagers. Il insiste notamment sur les interdictions de réutilisation ou même de copie des articles scientifiques. À l’opposé, la publication en accès ouvert est attachée à un monde régi par l’accès gratuit au contenu, ce qui induit des préoccupations de gestion du workflow et des modalités d’accessibilité. De plus, les différents éléments constitutifs de ces objets contractuels ne sont pas couplés : d’un côté, les lecteurs sont constitués de l’ensemble des membres des institutions abonnées, de l’autre, seuls les auteurs correspondants (« corresponding authors ») sont concernés ; les listes de revues accessibles à la lecture et celles réservées à la publication en accès ouvert sont le plus souvent distinctes ; les workflows ont des objectifs et des organisations matérielles totalement différentes, etc. L’articulation entre les deux objets contractuels relève uniquement d’une formule de distribution financière qui, outre des combinaisons particulières entre l’un et l’autre, permet d’attribuer des étiquettes distinctes aux accords (offset agreement, publish & read, read & publish, read & free articles, read & discount). Au-delà de cette distribution, l’étude des arrangements financiers montre une gamme de dispositions allant d’une prévisibilité budgétaire totale, donc identique aux accords d’abonnement antérieurs, à une incertitude sur le volume de publication ou sur le montant définitif des sommes échangées. Les modalités concrètes de calcul des montants associés à la publication en accès ouvert sont relativement variées. S’il existe effectivement des formules récurrentes (volume d’articles multiplié par un prix individuel, reprise de la moyenne des sommes totales d’APC des années précédentes...), le calcul des sommes en jeu est toujours le résultat d’une négociation singulière entre un consortium et un éditeur scientifique, et aboutit parfois à des formules originales et complexes. À ce titre, l’espace des possibles en matière de formules financières n’est jamais totalement clos. Par ailleurs, la volonté des consortiums d’opérer une « transformation » de leurs accords vers la publication à coût constant renvoie à des définitions diversifiées du « coût » (inclusion ou non des dépenses d’APC préexistantes) et de la constance (admission ou pas d’une « inflation » à 2 ou 3%). De plus, nous n’avons observé aucune disposition contractuelle permettant d’anticiper les sommes en jeu au-delà de l’horizon temporel de l’accord courant. La grande diversité des accords provient d’une part des conditions initiales des relations entre consortiums et éditeurs scientifiques – les sommes dépensées en abonnement étant le point de départ des nouveaux accords –, d’autre part des objectifs de chaque partie. Même si cette étude excluait volontairement les négociations, les accords portent des traces de ces objectifs. Ainsi, de nombreux accords sont de nature explicitement expérimentale, quand certains visent un contrôle budgétaire strict, ou d’autres ambitionnent, dans la période plus récente, la publication du plus grand nombre possible d’articles en accès ouvert. C’est dans ce dernier cas qu’on touche à l’ambiguïté des attentes générales sur les accords transformants. En effet, pour les consortiums, la dimension « transformante » consiste essentiellement à transférer les sommes traditionnellement allouées à l’abonnement vers la publication en accès ouvert. Mais l’objectif n’est jamais de transformer le modèle économique des revues, c'est-à-dire de faire basculer des revues sous abonnement ou hybrides en revues entièrement en accès ouvert. D’ailleurs, aucune clause ne vise une telle fin – à l’exception du modèle d’accord proposé par l’éditeur ACM. Du côté des éditeurs, et notamment de Springer, le caractère cumulatif des accords nationaux passés vise à projeter un monde de la publication où l’accès ouvert devient de fait quantitativement très dominant, sans pour autant modifier de manière pérenne le modèle économique de leurs revues. Notre étude montre que les accords transformants actuels ne permettent pas d’assurer de manière durable une transition de l’économie de la publication vers l’accès ouvert, dans la mesure où ils n’offrent pas de garantie sur le contrôle des dépenses ni sur la pérennité de l’ouverture des contenus. L’avenir des relations entre consortium et éditeur demeure largement indéterminé.Cette étude porte sur une des innovations contemporaines liées à l’économie de la publication scientifique : les accords dits transformants, un objet relativement circonscrit au sein des relations entre consortiums de bibliothèques et éditeurs scientifiques, et temporellement situé entre 2015 et 2020. Ce type d’accords a pour objectif affiché d’organiser la transition du modèle traditionnel de l’abonnement à des revues (souvent proposées par regroupements thématiques ou collections) vers celui de l’accès ouvert en opérant une réaffectation des budgets qui y sont consacrés. Notre travail d’analyse sociologique constitue une première étude systématique de cet objet, fondée sur la recension de 197 accords. Le corpus ainsi constitué inclut des accords caractérisés par la coprésence d’une composante d’abonnement et d’une composante de publication en accès ouvert, même minimale (« jetons » de publication offerts, réduction sur les APC...). En conséquence, ont été exclus de l’analyse les accords portant uniquement sur du financement centralisé de publication en accès ouvert, que ce soit avec des éditeurs ne proposant que des revues avec paiement par l’auteur (PLOS, Frontiers, MDPI...) ou des éditeurs dont une partie du catalogue est constitué de revues en accès ouvert. L’accord le plus ancien de notre corpus a été signé en 2010, les plus récents en 2020 – les accords ne commençant qu’en 2021, même annoncés au cours de l’étude, n’ont pas été retenus. Plusieurs résultats se dégagent de notre analyse. Tout d’abord, on note une grande diversité des acteurs impliqués avec 22 pays et 39 éditeurs, même si certains consortiums (Pays-Bas, Suède, Autriche, Allemagne) et éditeurs (CUP, Elsevier, RSC, Springer) en ont signé beaucoup plus que d’autres. Ensuite, la durée des accords, comprise entre une et six années, révèle une distribution très inégalitaire, avec plus de la moitié des accords (103) signés pour 3 ans, ainsi qu’une faible proportion pour 4 ans ou plus (22 accords). Enfin, en dépit d’appels répétés à la transparence, moins de la moitié des accords (96) ont un texte accessible au moment de cette étude, sans qu’on puisse observer une tendance récente à une plus grande disponibilité. L’analyse montre également des degrés d’ouverture très variables, allant d’une simple information sur le répertoire ESAC en passant par la mise à disposition d’un format annotable jusqu’à l’attribution d’un DOI et d’une licence de réutilisation (CC-BY), en incluant le détail des sommes monétaires. Parmi les 96 accords disponibles, dont 47 signés en 2020, 62 ont fait l’objet d’une analyse en profondeur. C’est à notre connaissance la première analyse à cette échelle, sur un type de matériel non seulement inédit, mais qui était auparavant soumis à des clauses de confidentialité. Fondée sur une lecture minutieuse, l’étude décrit de manière fine leurs propriétés, depuis la matérialité du document jusqu’aux formules financières, en passant par leur morphologie et l’ensemble des droits et devoirs des parties. Les contenus des accords sont donc analysés comme une collection dont nous cherchons à déterminer les points communs et les variations, à travers des codages explicites sur certaines de leurs caractéristiques. L’étude pointe également des incertitudes, et notamment leur caractère « transitionnel », qui demeure fortement discuté. D’un point de vue morphologique, les accords montrent une grande diversité en matière de taille (de 7 à 488 pages) et de structure. Néanmoins, par définition, ils articulent tous deux objets essentiels : d’une part, les conditions de réalisation d’une lecture d’articles de revues, sous forme d’abonnement, mêlant des préoccupations d’accès et de sécurité ; d’autre part, les modalités de publication en accès ouvert, articulant la gestion d’un nouveau type de workflow à toute une série d’options possibles. Parmi ces options, mentionnons notamment le périmètre des revues considérées (hybrides et/ou accès ouvert), les licences disponibles, le degré d’obligation de cette publication, les auteurs éligibles ou le volume d’articles publiables. L’un des résultats les plus importants de cette analyse approfondie est la mise au jour d’un découplage presque complet, au sein même des accords, entre l’objet abonnement et l’objet publication. Bien entendu, l’abonnement est systématiquement configuré dans un monde fermé, soumis à paiement qui déclenche des séries d’identification des circulations légitimes tant du contenu informationnel que des usagers. Il insiste notamment sur les interdictions de réutilisation ou même de copie des articles scientifiques. À l’opposé, la publication en accès ouvert est attachée à un monde régi par l’accès gratuit au contenu, ce qui induit des préoccupations de gestion du workflow et des modalités d’accessibilité. De plus, les différents éléments constitutifs de ces objets contractuels ne sont pas couplés : d’un côté, les lecteurs sont constitués de l’ensemble des membres des institutions abonnées, de l’autre, seuls les auteurs correspondants (« corresponding authors ») sont concernés ; les listes de revues accessibles à la lecture et celles réservées à la publication en accès ouvert sont le plus souvent distinctes ; les workflows ont des objectifs et des organisations matérielles totalement différentes, etc. L’articulation entre les deux objets contractuels relève uniquement d’une formule de distribution financière qui, outre des combinaisons particulières entre l’un et l’autre, permet d’attribuer des étiquettes distinctes aux accords (offset agreement, publish & read, read & publish, read & free articles, read & discount). Au-delà de cette distribution, l’étude des arrangements financiers montre une gamme de dispositions allant d’une prévisibilité budgétaire totale, donc identique aux accords d’abonnement antérieurs, à une incertitude sur le volume de publication ou sur le montant définitif des sommes échangées. Les modalités concrètes de calcul des montants associés à la publication en accès ouvert sont relativement variées. S’il existe effectivement des formules récurrentes (volume d’articles multiplié par un prix individuel, reprise de la moyenne des sommes totales d’APC des années précédentes...), le calcul des sommes en jeu est toujours le résultat d’une négociation singulière entre un consortium et un éditeur scientifique, et aboutit parfois à des formules originales et complexes. À ce titre, l’espace des possibles en matière de formules financières n’est jamais totalement clos. Par ailleurs, la volonté des consortiums d’opérer une « transformation » de leurs accords vers la publication à coût constant renvoie à des définitions diversifiées du « coût » (inclusion ou non des dépenses d’APC préexistantes) et de la constance (admission ou pas d’une « inflation » à 2 ou 3%). De plus, nous n’avons observé aucune disposition contractuelle permettant d’anticiper les sommes en jeu au-delà de l’horizon temporel de l’accord courant. La grande diversité des accords provient d’une part des conditions initiales des relations entre consortiums et éditeurs scientifiques – les sommes dépensées en abonnement étant le point de départ des nouveaux accords –, d’autre part des objectifs de chaque partie. Même si cette étude excluait volontairement les négociations, les accords portent des traces de ces objectifs. Ainsi, de nombreux accords sont de nature explicitement expérimentale, quand certains visent un contrôle budgétaire strict, ou d’autres ambitionnent, dans la période plus récente, la publication du plus grand nombre possible d’articles en accès ouvert. C’est dans ce dernier cas qu’on touche à l’ambiguïté des attentes générales sur les accords transformants. En effet, pour les consortiums, la dimension « transformante » consiste essentiellement à transférer les sommes traditionnellement allouées à l’abonnement vers la publication en accès ouvert. Mais l’objectif n’est jamais de transformer le modèle économique des revues, c'est-à-dire de faire basculer des revues sous abonnement ou hybrides en revues entièrement en accès ouvert. D’ailleurs, aucune clause ne vise une telle fin – à l’exception du modèle d’accord proposé par l’éditeur ACM. Du côté des éditeurs, et notamment de Springer, le caractère cumulatif des accords nationaux passés vise à projeter un monde de la publication où l’accès ouvert devient de fait quantitativement très dominant, sans pour autant modifier de manière pérenne le modèle économique de leurs revues. Notre étude montre que les accords transformants actuels ne permettent pas d’assurer de manière durable une transition de l’économie de la publication vers l’accès ouvert, dans la mesure où ils n’offrent pas de garantie sur le contrôle des dépenses ni sur la pérennité de l’ouverture des contenus. L’avenir des relations entre consortium et éditeur demeure largement indéterminé.