Low doses of a neonicotinoid insecticide modify pheromone response thresholds of central but not peripheral olfactory neurons in a pest insect

International audience

Determination of metabolic equivalents during low-and high-intensity resistance exercise in healthy young subjects and patients with type 2 diabetes

The purpose of this study was to quantify the metabolic equivalents (METs) of resistance exercise in obese patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and healthy young subjects and to evaluate whether there were differences between sessions executed at low- versus high-intensity resistance exercise. Twenty obese patients with T2DM (62.9±6.1 years) and 22 young subjects (22.6±1.9 years) performed two training sessions: one at vigorous intensity (80% of 1-repetition maximum (1RM)) and one at moderate intensity (60% of 1RM). Both groups carried out three strength exercises with a 2-day recovery between sessions. Oxygen consumption was continuously measured 15 min before, during and after each training session. Obese T2DM patients showed lower METs values compared with young healthy participants at the baseline phase (F= 2043.86; P<0.01), during training (F=1140.59; P<0.01) and in the post-exercise phase (F=1012.71; P<0.01). No effects were detected in the group x intensity analysis of covariance. In this study, at both light-moderate and vigorous resistance exercise intensities, the METs value that best represented both sessions was 3 METs for the obese elderly T2DM patients and 5 METs for young subjects.

A new low temperature synthesis route of fraipontite (Zn,Al)3(Si,Al)2O5(OH)4

A low temperature synthesis method based on the decomposition of urea at 90°C in water has been developed to synthesise fraipontite. This material is characterised by a basal reflection 001 at 7.44 Å. The trioctahedral nature of the fraipontite is shown by the presence of a 06l band around 1.54 Å, while a minor band around 1.51 Å indicates some cation ordering between Zn and Al resulting in Al-rich areas with a more dioctahedral nature. TEM and IR indicate that no separate kaolinite phase is present. An increase in the Al content however, did result in the formation of some SiO2 in the form of quartz. Minor impurities of carbonate salts were observed during the synthesis caused by to the formation of CO32- during the decomposition of urea.

A Low Cost Controller Board for Teaching Robotics

This paper presents the Smarty Board; a new micro-controller board designed specifically for the robotics teaching needs of Australian schools. The primary motivation for this work was the lack of commercially available and cheap controller boards that would have all their components including interfaces on a single board. Having a single board simplifies the construction of programmable robots that can be used as platforms for teaching and learning robotics. Reducing the cost of the board as much as possible was one of the main design objectives. The target user groups for this device are the secondary and tertiary students, and hobbyists. Previous studies have shown that equipment cost is one of the major obstacles for teaching robotics in Australia. The new controller board was demonstrated at high-school seminars. In these demonstrations the new controller board was used for controlling two robots that we built. These robots are available as kits. Given the strong demand from high-school teachers, new kits will be developed for the next robotic Olympiad to be held in Australia in 2006.