The Eye on Mitochondrial Disorders.

Ophthalmologic manifestations of mitochondrial disorders are frequently neglected or overlooked because they are often not regarded as part of the phenotype. This review aims at summarizing and discussing the etiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment of ophthalmologic manifestations of mitochondrial disorders. Review of publications about ophthalmologic involvement in mitochondrial disorders by search of Medline applying appropriate search terms. The eye is frequently affected by syndromic as well as nonsyndromic mitochondrial disorders. Primary and secondary ophthalmologic manifestations can be differentiated. The most frequent ophthalmologic manifestations of mitochondrial disorders include ptosis, progressive external ophthalmoplegia, optic atrophy, retinopathy, and cataract. More rarely occurring are nystagmus and abnormalities of the cornea, ciliary body, intraocular pressure, the choroidea, or the brain secondarily affecting the eyes. It is important to recognize and diagnose ophthalmologic manifestations of mitochondrial disorders as early as possible because most are accessible to symptomatic treatment with partial or complete short-term or long-term beneficial effect. Ophthalmologic manifestations of mitochondrial disorders need to be appropriately diagnosed to initiate the most effective management and guarantee optimal outcome

Survivability in hierarchical telecommunications networks under dual homing

Cataloged from PDF version of article.The motivation behind this study is the essential need for survivability in the telecommunications networks. An optical signal should find its destination even if the network experiences an occasional fiber cut. We consider the design of a two-level survivable telecommunications network. Terminals compiling the access layer communicate through hubs forming the backbone layer. To hedge against single link failures in the network, we require the backbone subgraph to be two-edge connected and the terminal nodes to connect to the backbone layer in a dual-homed fashion, i.e., at two distinct hubs. The underlying design problem partitions a given set of nodes into hubs and terminals, chooses a set of connections between the hubs such that the resulting backbone network is two-edge connected, and for each terminal chooses two hubs to provide the dual-homing backbone access. All of these decisions are jointly made based on some cost considerations. We give alternative formulations using cut inequalities, compare these formulations, provide a polyhedral analysis of the smallsized formulation, describe valid inequalities, study the associated separation problems, and design variable fixing rules. All of these findings are then utilized in devising an efficient branch-and-cut algorithm to solve this network design problem

Quantification and Identification of Road Organic Matter in an Absorbing Storm Basin, RN 20 Olivet-Orléans, France.

The deterioration of the quality of superficial and subsurface waters by motorway organic pollution is a problem of great concern nowadays. The absorption of road runoff waters through sinkhole clay filled in a karstic area has been proposed as a way to the attenuation pollution. The groundwaters near of surface are very vulnerable at this pollution. The study of the storm basin of Belle-Croix (RN 20 Loiret) indicates a diminution of DOC levels through the first meter of infiltration in sinkhole, and then little change occurs down 5 meters. However only the > 10 KD (10 nm) organic fraction is retained. This fraction is weakly fluorescent and should correspond to black carbon (BC) matter associated to clays as it is suggested by Electron Microscopy in Transmission EMT observation. The < 10 KD fraction which are the more fluorescent account for up to 80 % of total DOC at 5 meter depth, at the contact with the limestone

Messinian salinity crisis impact on the groundwater quality in Kert aquifer NE Morocco: Hydrochemical and statistical approaches.

Groundwater's studies at middle Kert aquifer in northeast of Morocco are very important due to the semi-arid character and its geological history. The region is recognized by messinian salinity crisis already 5.6 Ma. Water chemistry is mainly dominated by dissolution of evaporate rocks (Halite and Gypsum) related to outcropping and basement limits developed in Messinian age. Freshwater with total dissolved solids 740 mg/l (average value) in Tafersite district is chemically distinct from saline water with total dissolved solids of 9803 mg/l in the south zone. In wadis, water is S04-Cl-Ca type; they are influenced by the surrounding highlands located at the south of the plain. The investigation reveals that weathering of evaporated rocks is the processes responsible for high Na+, Ca2+, Mg2+, Cl andSO42- concentrations. Also, hydro chemical data displays that freshwater observed in the northwest part reflect the influence of freshwaters coming from metamorphic massive of Temsamane. The factorial analysis reveal three sources of salinization, the principal one is described above, whilst the dissolution of carbonates and human influence represented by NO3- played only a secondary role

Experiments and modelling in N2-H2 capacitively coupled radio-frequency discharges at low pressure

This work uses experiments and simulations to analyze the modifications induced in pure N2 capacitively coupled radio-frequency discharges, running at low pressure (0.6–1.2 mbar) and low power (5–20 W), by the addition of small amounts of H2 (up to 5%). Simulations use a hybrid code coupling a two-dimensional time-dependent fluid module, describing the dynamics of the charged particles, to a zero-dimensional kinetic module, describing the production and destruction of nitrogen and hydrogen neutral species. The discussion is particularly focused on the results obtained for the electron density and the radiative transition intensities with nitrogen species. Model predictions are in qualitative agreement with measurements, for the evolution of these quantities with changes in both the gas pressure and the hydrogen percentage in the gas mixture.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Vulnerability assessment of spatial networks: models and solutions

In this paper we present a collection of combinatorial optimization problems that allows to assess the vulnerability of spatial networks in the presence of disruptions. The proposed measures of vulnerability along with the model of failure are suitable in many applications where the consideration of failures in the transportation system is crucial. By means of computational results, we show how the proposed methodology allows us to find useful information regarding the capacity of a network to resist disruptions and under which circumstances the network collapses