Sideroflexins (SLC56 family) are highly conserved multi-spanning transmembrane proteins inserted in the inner mitochondrial membrane in eukaryotes. Few data are available on their molecular function but, since their first description, they were thought to be metabolite transporters probably required for iron utilization inside the mitochondrion. Such as numerous mitochondrial transporters, sideroflexins remain poorly characterized. The prototypic member SFXN1 has been recently identified as the previously unknown mitochondrial transporter of serine. Nevertheless, pending questions on the molecular function of sideroflexins remain unsolved, especially their link with iron metabolism. Here, we review the current knowledge on sideroflexins, their presumed mitochondrial functions and the sparse - but growing - evidence linking sideroflexins to iron homeostasis and iron-sulfur cluster biogenesis. Since an imbalance in iron homeostasis can be detrimental at the cellular and organismal levels, we also investigate the relationship between sideroflexins, iron and physiological disorders. Investigating Sideroflexins’ functions constitutes an emerging research field of great interest and will certainly lead to main discoveries on mitochondrial physiopathology.

The present article describes a one-pot and cascade mode process using biocompatible/biodegradable reagents, for directly and simply obtaining surfactant compositions of mixtures of D-mannuronic acid and L-guluronic acid directly from oligoalginates or semi-refined alginates (mixtures of alginate, cellulose, hemicellulose, laminaran and fucan). Simple treatments of partial purification of the reaction crudes (elimination of the salts and/or the residual fatty alcohols) or isolation of the surfactant compositions result in derived compounds and in compositions having performance levels appropriate to applications in detergency. In addition, the challenging extension of this cascading one-pot synthesis technology to crude milled brown seaweeds was successfully carried out to provide promising surface-active compositions made up of alkyl uronate and alkyl glycoside monosaccharides.

Sideroflexins (SFXN) are evolutionarily conserved mitochondrial carriers belonging to the SCL56 family. Until recently, the metabolites transported by SFXN were unknown and they were thought to be transporters of a metabolite involved in iron homeostasis. SFXN1 is now known as the mitochondrial serine transporter. Because little is known about SFXN1 interactome, we launched a high-throughput search of SFXN1 binding partners with the aim to better understand its mitochondrial functions. Using a large-scale identification of SFXN1 physical partners based on co-immunoprecipitation followed by shotgun mass spectrometry (coIP-MS), we identified 96 putative SFXN1 interactants in the MCF7 human cell line. Our in-silico analysis of the SFXN1 interactome highlights biological processes linked to mitochondrial organization, electron transport chain and transmembrane transport. Among SFXN1 potential physical partners, ATAD3A and 17-HSD10, two proteins associated with neurological disorders and neurodegeneration, were further confirmed as interactants using different human cell lines. Further work will be needed to investigate the significance of these interactions in neurological disorders.

Hashimoto thyroiditis, also known as chronic autoimmune thyroiditis or chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis, is an autoimmune illness in which thyroid cells are damaged by immunological mechanisms involving cells and antibodies. Thyroid peroxidase and/or thyroglobulin autoantibodies in the serum are biochemical indicators of the condition, with females having a higher incidence than males and increasing with age. It's the leading cause of hypothyroidism in affluent countries. Inadequate dietary iodine intake, on the other hand, is the most common cause of hypothyroidism worldwide. The development of antithyroid antibodies that target the thyroid tissue, causing gradual fibrosis, is the pathogenesis of Hashimoto thyroiditis. The diagnosis can be difficult, and as a result, the problem is frequently not detected until late in the disease process. The most prevalent laboratory findings are raised TSH and low thyroxine (T4) levels, as well as enhanced antithyroid peroxidase (anti-TPO) antibodies. The pathogenesis, diagnosis, and management of Hashimoto thyroiditis are discussed in this article.

While the majority of previous studies assessing pain-related variables in psychopaths used electric shocks, little is known about the effectiveness of alternative pain-inducing methods to increase emotional responses such as fear and anxiety. A small sample of healthy undergraduate men (N = 15) was recruited to assess the effectiveness of a heat stimulus to induce pain in an immediate versus delayed punishment paradigm. Although pain catastrophizing, anxiety, and threat of pain did not increase throughout the experiment, participants experienced a significant increase of fear of pain and pain intensity, indicating that the heat stimulus was effective in inducing pain. Furthermore, subjects were slower in initiating the pain stimulus during the first five trials, but no time difference was found during the 15 remaining trials. No correlation was found between psychopathic traits and pain-related variables, with the exception of inconsistent results within the Fearless Dominance factor. Findings are discussed in terms of improvement for a larger scale study involving psychopathic individuals.

Lynch syndrome (LS) is an autosomal dominant genetic condition caused by mutations in the DNA mismatch repair (MMR) genes in the germline. Colorectal cancer and/or LS-associated cancer are more likely in people who carry pathogenic mutations in these genes. Cancers of the endometrium, small intestine, stomach, pancreas, and biliary tract, ovarian, brain, upper urinary tract, and skin are among the cancer types linked to LS. The criteria for a clinical diagnosis of LS, as well as the processes for genetic testing to identify carriers of pathogenetic mutations in MMR genes, have been known for a long time. The precise description of the pathogenicity associated with MMR genetic variants is critical in the mutation detection analysis, especially in order to enroll mutation carriers in endoscopic surveillance programs that are more suited to them. As a result, this may aid in the improvement of LS-related cancer prevention efforts. In this review, we discuss recent advances in the molecular genetics of LS.

On estimation scales ranging from 0.1 nm to 100 nm, the nanoscale is part of the capacitance components of the physical-synthetic and natural environment. Dimensionality, morphology, structure, uniformity, and agglomeration are all used to classify nanoparticles. Its functionality and effect on the environment and species are influenced by its shape and morphology. The priority research is to determine the effects of nanoparticles on any biological entity that is necessary when designing nanotechnology-based biotechnological and biomedical products. Bacteria have a remarkable ability to reduce metal ions, making them one of the most promising candidates for nanoparticle biosynthesis. Nanoparticles have been researched in the biomedical field for antimicrobial, biosensor, diagnostic imaging, and drug delivery applications. These natural technologies appear to be capable of producing stable nanoparticles with well-defined dimensions, morphologies, and compositions by optimizing reaction conditions and selecting the best bacteria. This work includes a list of the most commonly used microorganisms and associated Nanoparticles, as well as a discussion of current biotechnology and biomedical developments.

Hormones must be balanced and dynamically controlled for the Female Reproductive Tract (FRT) to function correctly during the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, and delivery. Gamete selection and successful transfer to the uterus, where it implants and pregnancy occurs, is supported by the mucosal epithelial lining of the FRT ovaries, uterus, cervix, fallopian tubes, and vagina. Successful implantation and placentation in humans and other animals rely on complex interactions between the embryo and a receptive female reproductive system. The FRT's recent breakthroughs in three-dimensional (3D) organoid systems now provide critical experimental models that match the organ's physiological, functional, and anatomical characteristics in vitro. This article summarizes the current state of the art on organoids generated from various parts of the FRT. The current analysis examines recent developments in the creation of organoid models of reproductive organs, as well as their future directions.

Background. The markerless motion capture system (MLS) is a new technology that uses deep learning to detect body segments from digital images. This study tested the agreement between the MLS and a force-plate based system (FPS, “gold standard”) to quantify stability control and motor performance (MP) during gait initiation (GI). Methods. Healthy adults (young and elderly) and patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) performed GI series at spontaneous and maximal velocity on an FPS while being filmed by an MLS. Signals from both systems were used to compute the peak of forward center-of-mass velocity (indicator of MP) and the braking index (BI, indicator of stability control). Results. Descriptive statistics indicated that both systems detected between-groups differences and velocity effects similarly, while a Bland-Altman (BA) plot anal-ysis showed that BI and MP mean biases were virtually zero in all groups and conditions. Bayes factor 01 indicated strong (for BI) and moderate (for MP) evidence that both systems provided equivalent values. However, trial-by-trial analysis of BA plots revealed the possibility of differ-ences > 10% between the two systems. Conclusion. Although non-negligible differences do occur, MLS appears to be as efficient as FPS in detecting PD and velocity condition effects on BI and MP

Phytoremediation, a method of phytomanagement using the plant holobiont to clean up polluted soils, is particularly effective for degrading organic pollutants, such as alkanes and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHS). However, the respective contributions of host plants and their associated microbiota within the holobiont to the efficiency of phytoremediation is poorly understood. Identification of plant-associated bacteria capable of efficiently utilizing these compounds as carbon source while stimulating plant-growth, is a keystone for phytomanagement engineering in order to improve the efficiency of pollutant removal. In this study, we sampled the rhizosphere and the surrounding bulk soil of Salix purpurea and Eleocharis obusta from the site of a former petrochemical plant in Varennes, QC, Canada. Our objectives were to: (i) isolate and identify indigenous bacteria inhabiting these biotopes; (ii) assess the ability of isolated bacteria to utilize alkanes (dodecane and hexadecane) and PAHs (naphthalene, phenanthrene and pyrene) as the sole carbon source, and (iii) determine the plant growth-promoting (PGP) potential of the isolates using five key traits. A total of 438 morphologically different bacterial isolates were obtained, purified, preserved and identified through PCR and 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Identified isolates represent 62 genera, including taxa such as Acinetobacter, Arthrobacter, Bacillus, Enterobacter, Nocardia, Pseudomonas, Rhodococcus, Streptomyces and Variovorax. Approximately, 32% of bacterial isolates, including Arthrobacter, Pseudomonas, Streptomyces, Enterobacter, Nocardia, Acinetobacter and Microbacterium, were able to utilize all five different hydrocarbons compounds. Additionally, 5% of tested isolates belonging to genera Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter, Serratia, Klebsiella, Microbacterium, Bacillus and Stenotrophomonas possessed all five of the tested PGP functional traits. This culture collection of diverse, petroleum-hydrocarbon degrading bacteria, with multiple PGP traits, represents a valuable resource for future use in environmental bio- and phyto-technology applications, including phytoremediation of petroleum hydrocarbons contaminated soils and phytomanagement of anthropized areas.

This study presents a French translation and validation of the Durand Adaptive Psychopathic Traits Questionnaire (DAPTQ), an instrument for assessing adaptive traits known to correlate with the psychopathic personality. Bilingual (French and English) individuals from France and Canada (N = 141, 52% in France, M_age = 29.73, SD = 9.09) completed both versions of the DAPTQ (French and English), alongside measurements of perceived stress, trait anxiety, authentic leadership and creativity. Correlation between the DAPTQ total and subscales across versions showed strong associations (r = .84 to .96). The DAPTQ – French version also demonstrated good internal consistency (α = .87), convergent validity, and concurrent validity. These findings support the cross-cultural equivalence of the DAPTQ and therefore its effectiveness as a valid assessment method of adaptive traits.

Soil contamination with petroleum hydrocarbons (PHCs) has become a global concern in the word due to intensification of industrial activities. This creates a serious environmental issue, therefore there is a need to find solutions, including application of efficient remediation technologies, or to improve current techniques. Rhizoremediation is a sub-category of the phytoremediation which refers to Phytomanagement that uses plants and their associated microbiota. These green technologies have received a global attention as a cost-effective and possible efficient remediation technique that can be applied to cleanup PHCs-polluted soils. The mechanism of rhizoremediation process is that plant roots stimulate soil microbes to mineralize organic contaminants to H2O and CO2. However, this multipartite interaction is much complex because many biotic and abiotic factors can influence microbial processes in the soil, making the efficiency of rhizoremediation unpredictable. This review reports the progress made on rhizoremediation approaches that can overcome the limitations and improve the efficiency of PHCs-contaminated soils. The addressed approaches in this review include: 1) selecting plants with desired characteristics suitable for rhizoremediation, 2) the exploitation and manipulation of plant microbiome by using inoculant containing plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) or hydrocarbon-degrading microbes, or a combination of both types of organisms, and 3) enhancement of the understanding of how host-plant assembles a beneficial microbiome, and how it functions, under pollutant stress.

Emotional intelligence and educational level are commonly associated with success in life and well-being. While multiple studies have explored these concepts independently, few studies have examined the impact of educational level on emotional intelligence and associated variables, such as well-being. A total of N = 202 participants were recruited online. Participants completed measures of emotional intelligence, well-being (i.e., happiness, self-esteem, personal growth). Overall, participants who previously obtained a bachelor’s degree displayed higher levels of emotional intelligence, happiness, self-esteem, and personal growth compared to those without an undergraduate degree. However, no differences were observed on any variable between individuals currently enrolled in a university and non-students. The results suggest that, while completing a university degree increases emotional intelligence and well-being, the stress of being a student may negatively impact the benefits obtained from attending university. Limitations and possible directions for future research are discussed.

Organizational skills are a set of cognitive abilities responsible for goal-directed behaviors. While they are moderately studied in clinical settings, the assessment of organizational skills in the general population remains under-studied. This paper presents the new Durand Organizational Skills Questionnaire (DOSQ), which was developed to examine the factors associated with organizational abilities in the general population. Exploratory factor analysis, validated by a confirmatory factor analysis, suggests eight factors: Work Organization, Communication Clarity, Punctuality, Goal-Oriented Behavior, Assiduity, Workspace Organization, Strategies, and Attentiveness. Three studies using samples from the general population provided evidence for the reliability and validity of the DOSQ’s scores. Overall, the results suggest that the DOSQ offers a valid approach to measuring organizational skills in the general population.

The upper limb force-velocity relationship (FVR) is a crucial aspect of athletic performance, par-ticularly in para sports where upper limb movements play a leading role in activities such as wheelchair propulsion. Athletes’ mechanical capacities can be evaluated on the field or in lab conditions. However, no studies have indicated a relationship between ergometers and field FVR or performances. Understanding para-athletes’ upper limb FVR can provide important insights for developing effective training programs and improving athletic performance in wheelchair bas-ketball players. Twenty-three wheelchair basketball players (12 women and 11 men) from French national teams performed a battery of three tests consisting of a 20 m sprint (SP) with Inertial measurement units (IMU) on wheels, a horizontal upper limb push-offs on a frictionless sled with two Kistler force plates (HBP), and a crank ergometer sprints test (CES) derived from arm er-gometer sprints using Brachumera, Lode. For the SP test, the FVR was computed with an estimation of force from the acceleration, the rolling resistance, and an estimation of the air resistance. Correlations between each variable measured were computed via Pearson correlations in R, as-suming strong relationships for r=0.7-1.0, moderate when r=0.40-0.69, and weak relationship when r<0.1-0.39. Significant differences were assumed when p<0.05. Strong correlations were found between the results of three tests conducted. The correlation coefficient between maximal theo-retical force (F0) data ranged from 0.85 to 0.88 and that between maximal theoretical power (P0) data ranged from 0.87 to 0.94. However, for maximal theoretical velocity (V0) data, the correlations between the three tests were less important. The performance variables showed a strong corre-lation with power measured on the HBP test without load. There is a significant relationship between HBP, CES, and SP variables. There is a correlation between performances on the three tests in our population, especially for the power. However, the V0 value of HBP was not representative of any performances. This work can show multiple protocols to assess para-athletes’ performances and show that upper limb symmetry depends on the gesture of the task and personal sports’ wheelchairs.

As Li-ion batteries use is spreading, incidents in large energy storage systems (stationary storage containers, …) or in large-scale cell and battery storages (warehouse, recyclers, …), often leading to fire, are occurring on regular basis. Water remains one of the most efficient fire extinguishing agents for tackling those battery incidents and large quantities are usually necessary. Since bat-teries contains various potentially harmful components (metals and their oxides or salts, sol-vents…) and that thermal runway induced battery incidents are accompanied with complex and potentially multistage fume emissions (containing both gas and particles) the potential impact of fire run-off water on the environment should be considered and assessed carefully. The tests presented in this paper focus on the analysis of the composition of run-off waters used to spray NMC Li-ion modules under thermal runaway. It highlights that waters used for fire-fighting are susceptible to contain many metals, including Ni, Mn, Co, Li and Al mixed with other carbonaceous species (soot, tarballs) and sometimes undecomposed solvents used in the elec-trolyte. Extra-polation of pollutant concentrations compared with PNEC values showed that, for large scale incidents, run-off water could be potentially hazardous to the environment.

In this article, the multitouch option, also called the n  touch option (or the “baseball” option when n  3 ) is analyzed and valued in closed form. This is a kind of barrier option that sets a gradual knockout / knock-in mechanism based on the number of times the underlying asset has crossed a predefined barrier in various time intervals before expiry. The higher the number of predefined time intervals during which the barrier has been touched, the lower the value of a knock-out contract at expiry, and conversely for a knock-in one. Multitouch options can be viewed as an extension of step barrier options, preserving the ability of the latter to adjust the exposure to risk over time, while eliminating the notorious danger of “sudden death” that holders of step barrier options are faced with. Unlike occupation time derivatives, the payoff at expiry does not depend on the amount of time spent outside the authorized range, but on the number of passages beyond the authorized range.

The Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) are the new global development trends that inform global and regional climate change research. They have the potential to foster the integration of socioeconomic scenarios within assessments of future climate-related health impacts. To date, such assessments have primarily superimposed climate scenarios on current socioeconomic conditions only. Until now, the few assessments of future health risks that employed the SSPs have focused on future human exposure—i.e., mainly future population patterns—neglecting future human vulnerability. This paper first explores the research gaps—mainly linked to the paucity of available projections—that explain such a lack of consideration of human vulnerability under the SSPs. It then highlights the need for projections of socioeconomic variables covering the wide range of determinants of human vulnerability, available at relevant spatial and temporal scales, and accounting for local specificities through sectoral and regional extended versions of the global SSPs. Finally, this paper presents two innovative methods of obtaining and computing such socioeconomic projections under the SSPs—namely the scenario matching approach and an approach based on experts’ elicitation and correlation analyses—and applies them to the case of Europe. They offer a variety of possibilities for practical application, producing projections at sub-national level of various drivers of human vulnerability such as demographic and social characteristics, urbanization, state of the environment, infrastructure, health status, and living arrangements. Both the innovative approaches presented in this paper and existing methods—such as the spatial disaggregation of existing projections and the use of sectoral models—show great potential to enhance the availability of relevant projections of determinants of human vulnerability. Assessments of future climate-related health impacts should thus rely on these methods to account for future human vulnerability—under varying levels of socioeconomic development—and to explore its influence on future health risks under different degrees of climate change.

Multiple studies reported a negative relationship between the Honesty-Humility factor of the HEXACO model and psychopathy. The Durand Adaptive Psychopathic Traits Questionnaire (DAPTQ), which was developed to assess adaptive traits known to be related to psychopathic traits, has previously demonstrate positive relationships with all factors of the Big Five Model, at the exception of a negative relationship with neuroticism. The current study aims to validate the previously reported association between the DAPTQ and the five major components of the personality, while also examining its relationship with the Honesty-Humility factor as defined by the HEXACO model. The results (N = 171) support the good internal consistency, two weeks test-retest validity and inter-correlation of the DAPTQ. A Confirmatory Factor Analysis further supports the nine-factor model of the DAPTQ. When compared to the HEXACO, the DAPTQ did not display any relationship with the Honesty-Humility factor, nor the Agreeableness and Openness factors, but kept its similar association to Emotionality, Extroversion, and Conscientiousness as initially reported in its development phase. Overall, the results support the discriminant validity of the DAPTQ to assess adaptive traits related to the psychopathic personality without overlapping with psychopathic personality traits. Results are discussed in terms of implications and further improvements to validate the DAPTQ.

The goal of background reconstruction is to recover the background image of a scene from a sequence of frames showing this scene cluttered by various moving objects. This task is fundamental in image analysis, and is generally the first step before more advanced processing, but difficult because there is no formal definition of what should be considered as background or foreground and the results may be severely impacted by various challenges such as illumination changes, intermittent object motions, highly cluttered scenes, etc. We propose in this paper a new iterative algorithm for background reconstruction, where the current estimate of the background is used to guess which image pixels are background pixels and a new background estimation is performed using those pixels only. We then show that the proposed algorithm, which uses stochastic gradient descent for improved regularization, is more accurate than the state of the art on the challenging SBMnet dataset, especially for short videos with low frame rates, and is also fast, reaching an average of 52 fps on this dataset when parameterized for maximal accuracy using GPU acceleration and a Python implementation.

Pain is frequently reported during cancer disease, and still remains poorly controlled in 40% of patients. Recent developments in oncology have helped to better control pain. Targeted treatments may cure cancer disease and significantly increase survival. Thereby, a novel population of patients (cancer survivors) has emerged, also enduring chronic pain (27.6% moderate to severe pain). The present review discuss the different options currently available to manage pain in (former) cancer patients in the light of progress made in the last decade. Major progress in the field are recent development of a chronic cancer pain taxonomy now included in International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) and update of WHO analgesic ladder. Until recently, cancer pain management has mostly relied on pharmacotherapy, opioids being considered as mainstay. The opioids crisis has prompted the reassessment of opioids use, both in cancer patients and cancer survivors. The review focuses on the current utilization of opioids, on the neuropathic pain component often neglected and on techniques and non-pharmacological strategies available which help to personalize patient’s treatment. Cancer pain management is now closer to the management of chronic non-cancer pain i.e. “an integrative pain care” aiming to improve patient’s quality of life.

Morphological dissimilarity and its evolution over time are one of the most unexpected variations found when comparing cell cultures in 2D and 3D. Monolayer cells appear to flatten in the lower part of the plate, adhering to and spreading in the horizontal plane while not extending vertically. Consequently, cells developed in two dimensions have a forced apex-basal polarity. Co-cultivation and crosstalking between multiple cell types, which control development and formation in the in vivo counterpart, are possible in 3D cultures. With or without a scaffold matrix, 3D model culture may exhibit more in vivo-like morphology and physiology. 3D cultures mimic relevant physiological cellular processes, transforming them into one-of-a-kind drug screening platforms. The structures and dynamics of regulatory networks, which are increasingly studied with live-imaging microscopy, must be considered to help and guarantee the functional maintenance of a 3D structure. However, commercially available technologies that can be used for current laboratory needs are minimal, despite the need to make it easier to acquire cellular kinetics with high spatial and temporal resolution, in order to improve visual efficiency and, as a result, experimentation performance. The CELLviewer is a newly developed multi-technology instrument that integrates and synchronizes the work of various scientific disciplines. The aim of this study is to test the device using two different models: a single Jurkat cell and an MCF-7 spheroid. The two models are loaded into the microfluidic cartridge for each experiment after they have been grown and captured in time-lapse for a total of 4 hours. The samples used are tracked under the operation of the optics after adaptive autofocus, while slipping inside the cartridge chamber, and the 3D rotation was successfully obtained experimentally. The MitoGreen dye, a fluorescence marker selectively permeable to live cells, was then used to determine cell viability. To measure the model diameter, construct fluorescence intensity graphs along a straight line passing through the cell, and visualize the spatial fluorescence intensity distribution in 3D, ImageJ software was used.

Weaning is a critical period in the pig’s life. Piglets are confronted with abrupt changes to their physical and social environment, as well as management and nutritional changes. Weaning was always associated with a growth check and was frequently accompanied by post-weaning diarrhea in piglets. However, rapid increases in litter size, in the last decade, has increased within-litter piglet weight variation, with piglets now generally lighter at weaning, making the challenges associated with weaning even greater. Many interventions can be employed during the suckling period to ease the weaning transition for piglets. Pre-weaning strategies such as supervised farrowing (assistance with suckling, oxytocin provision), provision of pain relief to sows around farrowing, split-suckling, early oral supplementation with glucose, bovine colostrum, fecal microbiota transplantation, feed additives, solid and liquid creep feeding (milk and liquid feed) have all been investigated. The objective of these strategies is to stimulate earlier maturation of the digestive tract, improve immunity, reduce latency to the first feed post-weaning and increase early post-weaning feed intake and growth. This review focuses in particular on: 1) pain relief provision to sows around farrowing, 2) split-suckling of piglets, 3) pre-weaning provision of supplementary milk and/or liquid feed, 4) other strategies to stimulate earlier enzyme production (e.g. enzyme supplementation) and 5) other nutritional strategies to promote improved gut structure and function (e.g. L-glutamine supplementation). Correctly implementing these strategies can not only increase post-weaning growth and reduce mortality but also maximize lifetime growth in pigs.

We proposed in this work the introduction of a new vision of stochastic processes through geometry induced by dilation. The dilation matrices of a given process are obtained by a composition of rotation matrices built in with respect to partial correlation coefficients. Particularly interesting is the fact that the obtention of dilation matrices is regardless of the stationarity of the underlying process. When the process is stationary, only one dilation matrix is obtained and it corresponds therefore to Naimark dilation. When the process is nonstationary, a set of dilation matrices is obtained. They correspond to Kolmogorov decomposition. In this work, the nonstationary class of periodically correlated processes was of interest. The underlying periodicity of correlation coefficients is then transmitted to the set of dilation matrices. Because this set lives on the Lie group of rotation matrices, we can see them as points of a closed curve on the Lie group. Geometrical aspects can then be investigated through the shape of the obtained curves, and to give a complete insight into the space of curves, a metric and the derived geodesic equations are provided. The general results are adapted to the more specific case where the base manifold is the Lie group of rotation matrices, and because the metric in the space of curve naturally extends to the space of shapes, this enables a comparison between curves’ shapes and allows then the classification of processes’ measure.

The wheat aleurone layer is, according to millers, the main bran fraction. It is a source of nutritionally valuable compounds, such as dietary fibres, proteins, minerals and vitamins, that may exhibit health benefits. Despite these advantages, the aleurone layer is scarce on the market, probably due to issues related to its extraction. Many processes exist with some patents, but a choice must be made between the quality and quantity of the resulting product. Nonetheless, its potential has been studied mainly in bread and pasta. While the nutritional benefits of aleurone-rich flour addition to bread agree, opposite results have been obtained concerning its effects on end-product characteristics (namely loaf volume and sensory characteristics), thus ensuing different acceptability responses from consumers. However, the observed negative effects of aleurone-rich flour on bread dough could be reduced by subjecting it to pre- or post-extracting treatments meant to either reduce the particle size of the aleurone’s fibres or to change the conformation of its components.

Numerical optimization methods are widely used for designing turbomachinery components due to the cost and time savings they can provide. In the available literature, shape optimization of radial compressors is mainly focused on improving the impeller alone. However, it is a well-established knowledge that the volute plays a key role in the overall performance of the compressor. The aim of the present paper is to perform the adjoint-based optimization of a volute that is designed for the SRV2-O compressor. The CAD model is first created, using a parametrization of 33 design parameters. Then, a butterfly topology is applied to mesh the computational domain with a multi-block structured grid, and an elliptic smoothing procedure is then used to improve the quality of the fluid grid. A steady-state RANS CFD solver with Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model is used to solve the Navier-Stokes equations, and flow sensitivities are computed with an adjoint solver. The objective function consists in minimizing the loss coefficient of the volute. The optimization is performed to obtain an improved design with 14% losses reduction. Detailed flow and design analysis is carried out to highlight the loss reduction mechanisms followed by the optimizer. Finally, the compressor map of the full stage is compared between the baseline and the optimized volute through CFD simulations using a mixing plane interface. This research demonstrates the successful use of a gradient-based optimization technique to improve the volute of a radial compressor and opens the door towards optimizing simultaneously the wheel and the volute.

This work proposes a simple model to take into account the annual volatility of the mortality level observed on the scale of a country like France in the construction of prospective mortality tables. By assigning a fragility factor to a basic hazard function, we generalize the Lee-Carter model. The impact on prospective life expectancies and capital requirements in the context of a life annuity scheme is analyzed in detail.

Term vascular dysfunctional refers to a wide spectrum of vascular abnormalities including pathogenesis of tumors, their proliferation and leading to malfunctioned conditions. The treatment of most of the vascular anomalies including peripheral arterial disease and cardiac disease is multi factor procedure which include the embolic therapy, laser-based treatments and coagulation are all plating important role in managing the disease associated with vascular breakdown. The research proposal defines the treatment and diagnosis procedures involved in treatment of vascular abnormalities with a deep emphasis on techniques, efficiency and complications resulted from various other procedure and use of mapping and sequencing techniques based on genetics of variants of selected genes PIk3CA which will ultimately be more effective.

There was no significant difference in bacterial adhesion between the 3 bone graft types tested, regardless of the bacterial strain used (p &gt; 0.22). After 72 hours of culture, there was no significant difference between the Fresh and Frozen bone groups, while the number of CFU in the Decellularised group was significantly lower (p &lt; 0.01), averaging -0.72 +/- 0.08 lg, -0.20 +/- 0.01 lg and -0.78 +/- 0.48 lg with S. epidermidis, S. aureus and E. coli respectively. Absolute values differences are low, and considering fresh bone (equivalent to autograft) as the gold standard due to its low infection rates in clinical studies, we can conclude that adhesion and biolfilm development characteristics are similar between Fresh, Frozen and Decellularised bone grafts..

The control of oxidative stress with natural active substances could limit the development of numerous pathologies. Our objective was to study the antiradical effects of resveratrol (RSV), ε-viniferin (VNF) and vitisin B (VB) alone or in a combination, and those of a stilbene-enriched ex-tract (fraction). In the DPPH, FRAP, and NO scavenging assays, RSV present the highest activity with an IC50 of 83.69, 15.38 and 229 µM, respectively. Binary combinations resulted in additive interaction in the DPPH assay, synergic interaction for RSV+VNF and antagonistic for the others in the FRAP assay, and additive interaction for RSV+VNF or RSV+VB and antagonistic for VNF+VB in the NO scavenging assay. There was no significant difference between the antioxi-dant activity of the fraction and the combination RSV+VNF. In conclusion, RSV presented the highest effects, followed by VNF and VB. Interactions revealed additive or synergistic effects, depending on the combination of stilbenes and the assay.

The cost effective design of tidal turbines requires a good estimation of the loading cycles and their extrema that are related to the unsteady fluctuations of the current velocity. Apart from the ambient turbulence, the main source of velocity fluctuations is the presence of surface waves. In the present study, we analyse the effect of waves propagating against the current on the performance and the loads of a twin vertical axis tidal turbine by an experimental approach at a 1/20 scale. Overall, the results show little or no effect of the waves on the average power and loads compared to the condition with current only, but a significant impact on their standard deviation that rises linearly with the waves amplitude. The drag, lift and pitching moment show extended ranges up to 7.5 times higher and extreme values exceedance by 60 to 100 % with irregular waves compared to the condition without waves. Those load and power fluctuation increase are fully due to the presence of waves as the coherence function between the rotor torque or the loads and the velocity spectra exceed 0.5 on the whole wave frequency bandwidth. The results also reveal a rotational sampling of the waves by the rotors that had also been observed on horizontal axis turbines. From a structural design point of view, the authors recommand to conduct tests in irregular wave conditions as the loads range and extreme values are 1.5 to 2 times higher than those encountered with regular waves of the same significant height and period.

Surgical knots are sequences of half-knots (H) or half-hitches (S), defined by their number of throws, by an opposite or similar rotation compared with the previous one and for half-hitches, whether sliding (s) or blocking (b). Opposite rotation results in (more secure) symmetric (s) knots, similar rotation in asymmetric (a) knots, and changing active and passive ends has the same effect as changing rotation. Loop security is the force to keep tissue together after a first half-knot or sliding half-hitches. With polyfilament sutures H2, H3, SSs and SSsSsSs have a loop security of 10, 18, 28 and 48 Newton (N), respectively. With monofilament sutures, they are only 7, 16, 18 and 25N. Since many knots can reorganise, the definition of knot security as the force at which the knot opens or the suture breaks should be replaced by the clinically more relevant percentage of clinically dangerous and insecure knots. Secure knots with polyfilament sutures require a minimum of 4 or 5 throws, but the risk of destabilisation is high. With monofilament sutures, only 2 symmetric+4 asymmetric blocking half-hitches are secure. In conclusion, half-hitch sequences are recommended since mandatory for monofilament sutures, adding flexibility for loop security with less risk of destabilisation.

We have proposed a simple algorithm to retrieve the total ozone column and snow properties (spectral albedo and effective light absorption path) using the high spatial resolution single – view MSI/S-2 measurements over Antarctica.

There is growing interest in the application of fecal microbiota transplants (FMTs) in small animal medicine, but there are few published studies that have tested their effectiveness in the domestic cat (Felis catus). Here we use 16S rRNA gene sequencing to examine fecal microbiome changes in 68 domestic cats with chronic digestive issues that underwent FMT treatment using lyophilized stool that was delivered in oral capsules. Fecal samples were collected from FMT recipients before and two weeks after treatment, as well as from their stool donors, and healthy animals. We found that according to their owners, 77% of cats were reported to show improvement in their clinical signs (termed ‘Responders’), and 23% were reported to exhibit no change or a worsening of their clinical signs (termed ‘Non-Responders’). Variation in the fecal microbiomes of FMT recipients most strongly correlated with host clinical signs, diet, and IBD diagnosis. The relative abundances of Collinsella, Negativibacillus, Parabacteroides, and Peptoclostridium changed differentially in FMT recipients. Overall, on average 13% of the bacterial amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) were shared between stool donors and FMT recipients (excluding ASVs already present in FMT recipients prior to treatment). The most commonly shared ASVs were classified as Prevotella 9, Peptoclostridium, Bacteroides, Collinsella and unclassified Lachnospiraceae. Lastly, FMT recipients that had recently taken antibiotics exhibited increases in microbiome similarity to an age-matched healthy reference set compared to other cats. Cats that had diarrhea or diarrhea with vomiting became more similar to healthy cats than did cats exhibiting other clinical signs. Overall, our results suggest that oral capsule FMT treatment was effective in this group of cats and microbiome responses may be modulated by the FMT recipient’s initial presenting clinical signs, prior IBD diagnosis, recent antibiotic use, and their diet.

(1) Background: TNF inhibitors (TNFi) have revolutionized the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). However, 30-40 % of RA patients do not respond adequately to those biologics. In addition to neutralizing soluble TNF, TNFi have the ability to bind the transmembrane form of TNF, tmTNF. Importantly, tmTNF can act itself as a receptor that induces a “Reverse Signaling” (RS) in cells. We previously showed that certolizumab, a Fab’ TNFi, activates RS in human primary monocytes, at least in part through the transcription factor NRF2 that is known to regulate the expression of genes involved in anti-inflammatory response and oxidative stress. (2) Methods: Here, we have developed an assay for the prediction of clinical response of RA patients to TNF inhibitors. This assay is based on mRNA quantitation of CD36 activation and of 6 genes induced by NRF2 following tmTNF RS in fresh monocytes. (3) Results: We could predict the response to anti-TNF monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) with 93.3 % accuracy. However, our method was not suitable for the prediction of the response to TNF soluble receptor etanercept. (4) Conclusions: We have developed a rather simple, short-term, test that can be standardized. Predicting the response to TNF mAbs will help physicians offer the best available treatment and provide patients with personalized medicine.

Understanding ecological interactions is a key in managing phytopathology. Although entomologists rely mostly on both traditional molecular methods and morphological characteristics to identify pests, next-generation sequencing is becoming the go-to avenue for scientists studying fungal and oomycete phytopathogens. These organisms sometimes infect plants together with insects. There are many relationships yet to be discovered and much to learn about how these organisms interact with one another. Considering the growing number of exotic insect introductions in Canada, a high-throughput strategy for screening those insects is already implemented by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). However, no plan is deployed to investigate the phytopathogenic fungal and oomycete species interacting with insects. Metagenomics analysis was performed on the preservation fluids from CFIA’s insect traps across Canada. Using the Ion Torrent PGM technology and fusion primers for multiplexing and indexing, community profiling was conducted on the different semiochemicals used in the insect traps and the various areas where these traps were placed. Internal transcribed spacer 1 (fungi and oomycetes) and adenosine triphosphate synthase subunit 9-nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide dehydrogenase subunit 9 spacer amplicons were generated. Although direct links between organisms could not be established, moderately phytopathogenic fungi (e.g., Leptographium spp. and Meria laricis) and oomycetes (mainly Peronospora spp. and Pythium spp.) unique to every type of semiochemical were discovered. The entomopathogenic yeast Candida michaelii was also detected. This project demonstrated our ability to screen for unwanted species faster and at a higher scale and throughput than traditional pathogen diagnostic techniques. Additionally, minimal modifications to this approach would allow it to be used in other phytopathology fields.

In New Orleans, Louisiana the population’s poor baseline health led to its establishment as an early epicenter for severe acute COVID-19. Antici-pating future outbreaks of COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses, we need to identify correlates of outcome, from real clinical experience. 89 patients were recruited into the ClinSeqSer acute COVID-19 longitudinal observational study, from the beginning of the outbreak in March to July 2020. Patients admitted for acute COVID-19 were enrolled in person. The cohort is unique as it is 68% Black, 53% female, of average age of early 60s, and prevalence of obesity and hypertension respectively of 55% and 83%. The outcomes are: 53% severe (20% fatal, 33% non-fatal) and 47% non-severe, with severe defined as death or requiring mechanical ventila-tion or high flow oxygen. Obesity and admit systolic blood pressure (SBP) >140mmHg are each associated with severe outcome and, despite respective sensitivity of 71% and 76%, specificity ~66% for both, and ac-curacy of 60% and 70% by ROC analysis, would likely provide useful predictors of outcome in critically stressed health care systems. We discuss pathophysiologic hypotheses to explain why high admit SBP is observed only in half of patients with pre-COVID hypertension and is associated with severe outcome.

It is now well accepted that most chronic diseases have a common feature which is “low-grade” inflammation. Whether inflammation is causal or rather consequent to these diseases is still a matter of debate. A key factor of inflammation is considered to be “oxidative stress”, which is the result of an alteration of redox homeostasis which is critical for the regulation of physiological cell and organ metabolism and proliferation. The term “oxidative stress” is how-ever often used in an inappropriate manner as the primary target of the initial oxidative radical, superoxide ion, is nitric oxide which, being in large excess, acts as a “buffer”, yielding reactive nitrogen species. It is only once the superoxide fluxes exceed the nitric oxide fluxes that true “oxidative stress” occurs. Nitro-oxidative stress is a more appropriate term which takes into account the evolving generation of reactive nitrogen and oxygen species and their effects on cell and organ pathophysiology. The molecular bases of redox homeostasis and nitro-oxidative stress will be presented and discussed using obesity-linked inflammation as a path-ophysiological example.

The characteristics of the Sentinel-2 mission with a decametric resolution and frequent acquisitions allow to improve the identification of crops. The majority of the studies on crop classification using RS were targeted at herbaceous and gramineous crop classes while fewer results were obtained on woody crops which present a strong variability in management practices that make their identification difficult. Thus, this study aimed to propose a rapid, accurate, and cost-effective analytical approach for the delineation of fruit orchards (OC), vineyards (VY), and olive groves (OL) in the Mediterranean (Southern France) considering two locations. A classification based on phenology metrics (PM) de-rived from temporal Sentinel-2 time series was developed to perform the classification. The PM were computed by fitting a double logistic model on temporal profiles of vegeta-tion indices to delineate OC, VY, and a DC class gathering all remaining surfaces. The generated PM were introduced in a random forest (RF) algorithm to identify woody crops across the two sites. The method was tested on different vegetation indices, the best results being obtained with the leaf area index (LAI). To delineate OL in the DC class, the tem-poral features of the green chlorophyll vegetation index (GCVI) were found to be the most appropriated with a typical drop of the signal during the mid-season (DOY 150-250). As a final result, we obtained an overall accuracy ranging from 89-96% and Kappa of 0.86-0.95 by considering each study site and year (2016-2021), separately. This accuracy is much better than applying the RF algorithm on the LAI times series, which led to a Kappa rang-ing between 0.3 and 0.52 and demonstrates the interest of using phenological traits rather than the raw time series of the RS data. The method can be well reproduced from one year to another. Moreover, it is possible to apply the classification model of a given year to an-other, keeping good accuracy. This is an interesting feature to reduce the burden of col-lecting ground truth information. On the contrary, the use of a classification model cali-brated in one site and applied to another led to a strong degradation of the classification accuracy. Woody crop phenology is dependent on site climatic conditions as well as the cultivar and management practices that can differ from one site to another.

The newly developed friction-interlocking armor unit, called ‘Double cube’ (DC), has been designed to improve the performance of the concrete armor unit used in river/marine structures against currents/waves actions. DC unit, is an octagonal-shaped block, made up of two parts: an upper cube set on a lower base that is either square or octagonal in shape. The innovative design aims to provide a good performance in terms of stability, high tolerance placement with various contact points and ease of placement. DC’s shape and placement enhance the stability by bringing the center of gravity closer to the underlayer and providing a large contact surfaces with surrounding blocks that reduce the chance of extraction and limit movements (rocking, lifting) via "keystone" effect. The characteristics of this new unit provides a relatively high hydraulic stability number for the armor layer (NS=2.9), a favorable hydraulic performance due to energy dissipation from turbulence and aeration, as well as a high roughness coefficient (γf≈0.46) helping to reduce the overtopping.

Non-Linear Simulation by Harmonic Balance Techniques of Load Modulated Power Amplifier Driven by Random Modulated Signals. Comparison with measured results.

Furfuryl alcohol (FA) is a biobased monomer derived from lignocellulosic biomass. The present work describes its polymerization in presence of protic polar solvents, i.e. water or isopropyl alcohol (IPA), using maleic anhydride (MA) as acidic initiator. The polymerization was followed from the liquid to the rubbery state by combining DSC and DMA data. In the liquid state, IPA disrupts the expected reactions during all the FA polymerization due to a stabilization of the furfuryl carbenium center. This causes the initiation of the polymerization at higher temperature, which is also reflected by higher activation energy. In water system, the MA opening allows to start the reaction at lower temperature. A higher pre-exponential factor value is obtained in that case. The DMA study of final branching reaction occurring in the rubbery state has highlighted continuous increase of elastic modulus until 290 °C. This increasing tendency of modulus was exploited to obtain activation energy dependences (Eα) of FA polymerization in the rubbery state.

Introduction: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the first cause of dementia worldwide without any current curative treatment. Facing an increasing prevalence and its associated costs, AD represents a public health challenge. Usual diagnostic methods still rely on extended interviews and paper tests provided by an exterior examiner. We aim to create a novel, quick cognitive-screening tool on a numerical tablet. Methods: This program, built and edited with Unity®, runs on Android® for the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 FE®. Composed of seven tasks inspired by the Mini-Mental Status Examination and the Montréal Cognitive Assessment, it browses several cognitive functions. The architectural design of this tablet application is distinguished by its multifaceted capabilities, encompassing not only seamless offline functionality but also a mechanism to ensure the singularity of data amalgamated from diverse sites. Additionally, a paramount emphasis is placed on safeguarding the confidentiality of patient information in the healthcare domain. Furthermore, the application empowers individual site managers to access and peruse specific datasets, enhancing their operational efficacy and decision-making processes. We performed a preliminary usability assessment among healthy subjects. Results: 24 healthy patients were included with a final F-SUS score of "excellent". Participants perceived the tool as simple to use and achieved the test in a mean time of 142 seconds. No technical errors occurred. Conclusion: These preliminary results suggest that our new assessment on a numerical tablet allows a short cognitive screening.

Gas-liquid reactors pose transfer difficulties due to diffusion effects. It is necessary to master the aeration and hydrodynamics of the medium to conduct the reaction well and get a good performance. For this purpose, a study in a submerged membrane bioreactor with a useful volume of 30L, consisting of a microfiltration membrane with an average pore size of 0.14 mm having an effective surface area of 0.2 m2 and a PVC cylindrical air diffuser of radius 4 cm has been studied. The saline tracing method associated with a conductimetric follow-up made it possible to determine the residence times and the mixing time in the reactor at 4 different points both in recirculation and in the absence of recirculation. Gas retention was measured by the manometric method. The experiments were carried out at different temperatures of 25 ° C, at 45 ° C, with a variable air flow rate of 0.5 to 16 mL / s and different solutions (osmosis water, ammonium formate solution, solution ammonium formate + salt, synthetic rubber effluent). The results show that the mixing time varies from one point to another and the recirculation of the mixture reduces the mixing time. One of the positions is limiting, the transfer is done most by diffusion with a mixing time of 115 min without circulation and 65 min with circulation. Gas retention increases with aeration rate and temperature. On the other hand, the more the medium becomes rich in organic substances, the more the gaseous retention decreases. The homogeneous fine-bubble regime is obtained for an air flow rate of between 3 and 10 mL / s of aeration. Beyond this flow rate, the regime becomes heterogeneous without a transition phase for ammonium formate and formate ammonium + salt solutions.

In the land use planning framework in the neighbourhood of industrial facilities, the current approach to predicting the consequences of massive toxic gas releases is generally based on Gaussian or integral models. For many years, CFD models have been more and more used in this context, in accordance with the development of High-Performance Computing (HPC). The present paper focuses on harmonizing input data for Atmospheric Transport and Dispersion (AT&amp;D) modelling between the widely used approaches. First, a synthesis of the practice’s harmonization for atmospheric dispersion modelling within the framework of risk assessment is presented. Then, these practices are applied to a large-scale INERIS ammonia experimental release. For illustration purposes, the impact of the proposed harmonization will be evaluated using different approaches: the SLAB model, the FDS model and the Code_Saturne model. The two main focuses of this paper are the adaptation of the source term dealing with a massive release and the wind flow modelling performance using an experimental signal for CFD models inflow. Finally, comparisons between the modelling and experimental results enable checking the consistency of these approaches and reinforce the importance of the input data harmonization for each AT&amp;D modelling approach.

Generative models for images, audio, text and other low-dimension data have achieved great success in recent years. Generating artificial human movements can also be useful for many applications, including improvement of data augmentation methods for human gesture recognition. The object of this research is to develop a generative model for skeletal human movement, allowing to control the action type of generated motion while keeping the authenticity of the result and the natural style variability of gesture execution. We propose to use a conditional Deep Convolutional Generative Adversarial Network (DC-GAN) applied to pseudo-images representing skeletal pose sequences using Tree Structure Skeleton Image format. We evaluate our approach on the 3D-skeleton data provided in the large NTU RGB+D public dataset. Our generative model can output qualitatively correct skeletal human movements for any of its 60 action classes. We also quantitatively evaluate the performance of our model by computing Frechet Inception Distances, which shows strong correlation to human judgement. Up to our knowledge, our work is the first successful class-conditioned generative model for human skeletal motions based on pseudo-image representation of skeletal pose sequences.

Invasion ecology has a long tradition of searching for traits distinguishing alien invasive and non-invasive plants. Surprisingly, this approach has been so far poorly used to understand why some arable weeds are abundant and widespread while others are rare and narrowly distributed. In the present study, we focused on the characteristics of successful weeds occurring in maize fields, one of the most import crop worldwide. Two national weed surveys conducted in France were used to identify increasing and decreasing species based on 175 and 484 surveyed fields in the 1970s and the 2000s, respectively. Weed trait values related to regional frequency, local abundance and specialization to maize were identified with Phylogenetic Generalized Least-Squares (PGLS). We found a positive relationship between regional frequency and local abundance, i.e. the most widespread weeds were also locally more abundant. We highlighted that weeds with the C4 photosynthetic pathway and summer emergence were more abundant, more frequent and more specialized to maize crops. More generally, we highlighted two successful strategies: on the one hand, traits related to a general weediness syndrome with rapid resource acquisition (high SLA and Ellenberg-N) and high colonization capacity (seed longevity, fecundity and wind dispersal), on the other hand, traits related to specific adaptation to spring cultivation (thermophilous species with summer emergence, late flowering and C4 photosynthetic pathway). Deviations from the abundancy-frequency relationships also indicated that species of the Panicoideae sub-family, species with Triazine-resistant populations and neophyte species were more abundant than expected by their regional frequency. To some extent, it is therefore possible to predict which species can be troublesome in maize crops and use this information in weed risk assessment tools to prevent new introductions or favor early detection and eradication. This study showed how tools developed in functional and macro-ecology can be used to improve our understanding of weed ecology and to develop more preventive management strategies.

This study aims to investigate the impact of body heat loss on the thermal and aerodynamic conditions in a whole-body cryotherapy chamber. The underlying hypothesis is that the heat generated by the human body alters the thermal and aerodynamic environment inside the cabin. A numerical study was conducted to test this hypothesis to analyze the thermodynamic exchanges between the human body and the cabin during a 3-minute whole-body cryotherapy session. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach was used to study the unsteady heat transfer between the human body and the interior of the cryotherapy cabin. A thermal boundary condition, based on a mathematical model developed from experimental data, was applied to simulate skin cooling kinetics over time. The post-processing of the 3D results, including temperature, velocity fields, and thermal flux maps at the body surface, provided insight into the thermo-convective mechanisms involved in a whole-body cryotherapy session. The study found that body heat loss significantly affects the temperature fields inside the cabin, leading to global modifications of the aeraulic and thermal conditions. These findings suggest that cryotherapy protocols may need to be adjusted or the cabin set temperature optimized to enhance the therapeutic benefits.

Home care centers face both an increase in demand and many variations during the execution of routes, compromising the routes initially planned: robust solutions are not effective enough, it is necessary to move on to resilient approaches. We create a close to reality use case supported by interviews of staff at home health care centers, where caregivers are faced with unexpected events that compromise their initial route. We model, analyze and compare three resilient approaches to deal with these disruptions: a baseline approach without any collaboration, a distributed collaborative approach, and a centralized collaborative approach, where we propose a centralization and sharing of information to improve local decision-making. The latter reduces the number of late arrivals by 11% and the total time of late arrival by 21%, and also halves the number of routes exceeding the end of work time (contrary to the distributed collaborative approach, due to the time wasted reaching colleagues). The use of a device, such as a smartphone application, to centralize and share information thus allows better mutual assistance between caregivers. Moreover, we highlight several possible openings like the coupling of simulation and optimization to propose a more resilient approach.

The relationship between tissue effects, intensity (I), and voltage (V) of a high-frequency alternative current seems well known. However, the translation of the settings of the electrosurgical unit and their use during surgery seems not to be unanimously understood by all surgeons. This results in many variations of surgical technique and plenty of specific questions asked during live surgery. Above 200 V, the heat of the sparks results in the explosion of superficial cells and a cutting effect. With higher voltages, the associated coagulation is increasing. Voltage and amount of energy (Watt=I*V) are independent since a similar amount of energy can be obtained with a continuous current or an intermittent current half the time and a double voltage. Below 200 V, tissue is heated until the steam from boiling tissue stops the current. Therefore, slower heating with less energy or a larger contact area permits deeper coagulation. The maximal output (W) of the electrosurgical unit results in versatility of use besides being a safety measure. The current intensity increases with the area of contact. Therefore, when I*V exceeds the preset output, V has to drop. A limited maximal output thus permits using the same instrument for non-contact cutting with >200V and sparks and coagulation when the contact area is much larger. In conclusion, the tissue effects of electrosurgery vary with the device’s voltage setting (often indicated as force) and the maximal output. The sur-geon’s choice to cut or coagulate by changing the contact area adds versatility.

Analytical data platform have been used for decades for improving the organizational performance. Starting from the data warehouses used primarily for structured data processing, through the data lakes oriented for raw data storage and post-hoc data analyses, to the data lakehouses − a combination of raw storage and business intelligence pre-processing for improving the platform efficacy. But in recent years a new architecture called Data Mesh has emerged. The main promise of this architecture is to remove the barriers between operational and analytical teams in order to boost the overall value extraction from the big data. A number of attempts has been made to formalise and to implement it in existing projects. Although being defined as a socio-technical paradigm, data mesh still lacks the technology support for enabling its widespread adoption. To overcome this limitation, we propose a new view of the platform requirements alongside the formal governance definition that we believe can help in successful adoption of the data mesh. It is based on fundamental aspects such as decentralized data domains and federated computational governance. In addition, we also present a blockchain-based implementation of a mesh platform as a practical validation to our theoretical proposal. Overall, this article demonstrates a novel research direction of the information system decentralization technologies.

Abstract: Agarose is known to form a homogeneous thermoreversible gel in aqueous medium over a critical polymer concentration. The solid-liquid phase transitions are thermoreversible but depend on the molecular structure of the agarose sample tested. Then, in a first step, the structure was characterised by 1H and 13C NMR in D2O and in DMSO which is a solvent of agarose whatever the temperature. A low yield in methyl substituent on the D-galactose unit was determined. Then, evolution of the 1H NMR spectrum was followed as a function of temperature in increasing and decreasing temperature process from 25 to 80°C. A large thermal hysteresis is obtained and discussed. It helps to interpret rheological behaviour. In fact, NMR signals are related to proton relaxation and especially to proton involved in H-bonds between water and -OH agarose for tightly bound water and agarose/agarose in chain packing. In a second step, water was exchanged against ethanol which is a non solvent of agarose. A stable gel was demonstrated and characterised by rheology to be compared with aqueous behaviour. Bound water playing the role of plasticizer is probably removed and the gel is much stronger (and brittle) in ethanol with a larger thermal stability. It is the first time that such gel is characterised without phase transition when passing from a good-solvent to a non-solvent. This extends the domains of application of agarose.

The emergence of Life has been a subject of intensive research for decades. Different approaches and different environmental “cradles” have been studied, from space to the deep-sea. Since the recent discovery of a natural electrical current through the deep-sea hydrothermal vent, a new energy source is considered for the transition from inorganic to organic. This energy source is used by modern microorganisms using a new trophic type, called electrotrophy. In this review, we draw the parallel between this metabolism and a new theory for the emergence of Life based on this electrical electron flow. Each step of the creation of Life is revised in the new light of this prebiotic electrochemical context, going from the evaluation of similar electrical current during the Hadean, the CO electroreduction into a prebiotic primordial soup, the production of proto-membranes, the energetic system inspired of the nitrate reduction, the proton gradient, and the transition to a planktonic proto-cell. Finally, this theory is compared to the two other theories in hydrothermal context, to assess its relevance to overcome the limitations of each one. Many critical factors that were limiting each theory can be overcome with the effect of the electrochemical reactions and the environmental changes produced.

Recent findings support an association between childhood maltreatment and the presence of elevated psychopathic traits in adulthood. Using a community sample recruited online (N = 210), we sought to (1) confirm the relationship between childhood traumas and psychopathic traits, and (2) investigate the role of parenting styles in psychopathic traits. Consistent with our predictions, we found an association between all types of childhood traumas and disinhibition. Age and gender moderated the relations between psychopathic traits and childhood maltreatments. Parental rejection and overprotection were positively correlated with the presence of psychopathic traits, while parental emotional warmth was negative correlated. Although our results converge with previous findings, the strength of the correlations observed was not as compelling as in research on undergraduate students. We discuss the numerous interpretations for our findings, and highlight the limitations of research in the field of psychopathy and childhood trauma in the general population.

Conventional methods of crop mapping need ground truth information to train the classifier. Thanks to the frequent acquisition allowed by recent satellite missions (Sentinel 2), we can identify temporal patterns that depend on both phenology and crop management. Some of these patterns are specific to a given crop and thus can be used to map it. Thus, we can substitute ground truth information used in conventional methods with agronomic knowledge. This approach was applied to identify irrigated permanent grasslands (IPG) in the Crau area (Southern France) which play a crucial role in groundwater recharge. The grassland is managed by making three mows during the May-October period which leads to a specific temporal pattern of leaf area index (LAI). The mowing detection algorithm was designed using the temporal LAI signal derived from Sentinel 2 observations. The algorithm includes some filtering to remove noise in the signal that might lead to false mowing detection. A pixel is considered a grassland if the number of detected mows is greater than 1. A data set covering five years (2016-2020) was used. The detection mowing number was done at the pixel level and then results are aggregated at the plot level. A validation data set including 780 plots was used to assess the performances of the classification. We obtained a Kappa index ranging between 0.94-0.99 according to the year. These results were better than other supervised classification methods that include training data sets. The analysis of land-use changes shows that misclassified plots concern grasslands managed less intensively with strong intra-parcel heterogeneity due to irrigation defects or year-round grazing. Time series analysis, therefore, allows us to understand different management practices. Real land-use change in use can be observed, but long time series are needed to confirm the change and remove ambiguities with heterogeneous grasslands.

The building sector has a big potential to reduce the material resource demand needed for building construction and therefore, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Digitalisation can help to make use of this potential and improve sustainability throughout the entire building’s life cycle. One way to address this potential is through the integration of Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) into the building process by employing Building Information Modelling (BIM). BIM can reduce the effort needed to carry out an LCA and therefore facilitate the integration into the building process. A review of current industry practice and scientific literature shows two main approaches to address BIM-LCA integration. Either the LCA is performed in a simplified way at the beginning of the building process, or it is done at the very end when all the needed information is available, but it is too late for decision-making. One reason for this is the lack of methods, workflows and tools to implement BIM-LCA integration over the entire building process. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to develop an integrated BIM-LCA workflow implemented into a method for the whole building process using an existing structure for cost estimation. A tool is created and used in a case study in Switzerland to test the developed approach. The results of this study show that LCA can be performed continuously in each building phase over the entire building process using existing BIM modelling techniques. The main benefit of this approach is that the re-work caused by the need for re-entering data and the usage of many different software tools that characterise most of the current LCA practices is minimised. Furthermore, decision-making, both at the element and building levels, is supported.

This narrative review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the scientific literature on wheelchair badminton and its distinctive aspects, encompassing abilities and disabilities, propulsion technique, and the use of a racket. The relatively young history of wheelchair badminton is reflected in the scarcity of scientific studies within this domain, highlighting the need for further investigation. The review systematically covers existing articles on wheelchair badminton, offering a nearly exhaustive compilation of knowledge in this area. Findings suggest that WH2 athletes engage in more intense matches with a higher frequency of offensive shots compared to WH1 athletes. Moreover, backward propulsion induces distinct physiological responses and alterations in propulsion kinematics, potentially leading to performance decrements. The use of a badminton racket further influences propulsion kinetics and kinematics, potentially impacting performance and injury risk. Further research is imperative to explore additional perspectives, address existing gaps, and expand the scope of study within the wheelchair badminton domain. This narrative review serves as a foundation for future investigations, emphasizing the necessity of continued research to enhance our understanding of wheelchair badminton.

Adipose stem cells (ASCs) have multilineage differentiation capacity and hold great potential for regenerative medicine. Compared to bone-marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (bmMSCs), ASCs are easier to isolate from abundant sources with significantly higher yields. It is generally accepted that bmMSCs show age-related changes in their proliferation and differentiation potentials, whereas this aspect is still controversial in the case of ASCs. In this review, we evaluated the existing data on the effect of donor age on the osteogenic potential of human ASCs. Overall, a poor agreement has been achieved because of inconsistent findings in the previous studies. Finally, we attempted to delineate the possible reasons behind the lack of agreements reported in the literature. ASCs represent a heterogeneous cell population and the osteogenic potential of ASCs can be influenced by donor-related factors such as age, but also gender, lifestyle, and the underlying health and metabolic state of donors. Furthermore, future studies should consider experimental factors in in-vitro conditions, including passaging, cryopreservation, culture conditions, variations in differentiation protocols, and readout methods.

Many engineering systems are described by using differential models whose solutions, generally obtained after discretization, can exhibit a noticeable deviation with respect to the response of the physical systems that those models are expected to represent. In those circumstances one possibility consists of enriching the model in order to reproduce the physical system behavior. The present paper considers a dynamical system, and proposes enriching the model solution by learning the dynamical model of the gap between the system response and the model-based prediction, while ensuring that the time integration of the learnt model remains stable. The proposed methodology is applied on the simulation of the top-oil temperature evolution of a power transformer, whose data is provided by RTE, the French Electricity Transmission System Operator.

The urbanisation phenomenon and related cities expansion and transport networks entail preventing the increase of population exposed to environmental pollution. Regarding noise exposure, the Environmental Noise Directive demands on main metropolis to produce noise maps. While based on standard methods, these latter are usually generated by proprietary software and require numerous input data concerning, for example, the buildings, land use, transportation network and traffic. The present work describes an open source implementation of a noise mapping tool fully implemented in a Geographic Information System compliant with the Open Geospatial Consortium standards. This integration makes easier at once the formatting and harvesting of noise model input data, cartographic rendering and output data linkage with population data. An application is given for a French city, which consists in estimating the impact of road traffic-related scenarios in terms of population exposure to noise levels both in relation to a threshold value and level classes.

Repetitive elements are a major component of DNA sequences due to their ability to propagate through the genome. Characterization of Metazoan repetitive profiles is picking up, however, current pipelines are failing to identify a significant proportion of divergent repeats in non-model organisms. The order Decapoda, for which repeat content analyses are largely lacking, is characterized by extremely variable genome sizes that suggest an important presence of repetitive elements. Here we developed a new standardized pipeline to annotate repetitive elements in non-model organisms, which we applied on 20 Decapoda and 6 other crustacean genomes. With our new tool we identify 10% more repetitive elements than standard pipelines. Repetitive elements were more abundant in Decapoda species than in other crustaceans, with an incredibly large number of highly repeated satDNA families. Moreover, we demonstrated a high correlation between assembly size and transposable elements and a different repeat dynamics between Dendrobranchiata and Reptantia. The patterns of repetitive elements largely reflect the phylogenetic relationships of Decapoda and the distinct evolutionary trajectories within Crustacea. In summary, our results highlight the impact of repetitive elements on genome evolution in Decapoda and the value of our novel annotation pipeline, which will provide a baseline for future comparative analyses.

Natural killer (NK) cells are part of the innate immune system, protects against pathogens and tumor cells and are the main cell effectors of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) generating antibody-dependent cell cytotoxicity (ADCC). Hence it is relevant to understand NK physiology and status to investigate the biological effect of mAbs in the clinic. The presence of viral-sculpted NK cell populations has already been described, but the presence of cancer-sculpted NK remains unknown. Cancer induces a broad NK cell dysfunction. We investigated the NK cell population by Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection (UMAP) embed maps in Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients at diagnosis and at least 30 days after treatment, which correlates with tumor cell clearance. The NK lineage largely responded to the tumor by generating antitumor NK cells and renewing the population with a subset of immature NK cells. However, we failed to identify specific “memory-like” subsets. Moreover, in patients in relapse we found essentially the same NK populations that at diagnostic, suggesting that NK cells equally respond to the first or second tumor rise. Finally, previous CMV infection largely affects tumor-associated changes in NK population, but the CMV-associated CD57+NKG2C+ NKs do not appear to play any role in tumor immunity.

In France, veterinarians are allowed to both prescribe and deliver drugs, a questioned situation from the perspective of antimicrobial use (AMU) reduction in order to ovoid AM resistance (AMR). This situation places veterinarians in direct commercial relationships with the pharmaceutical industry. The present study aims to describe contracts between pharmaceutical companies and veterinarians during the period 2008-2014. 382 contracts related to 47 drugs belonging to the 8 main pharmaceutical firms (2,320 observations) in France were collected. The price per unit after rebate (PUR) was calculated for each drug and contract. The descriptive analysis demonstrated a high disparity between the content of contracts and the way in which they are presented. A linear regression was then used to explain the PUR with the explanatory variables, which were the yearly purchase objective, the year, the type of drug and type of rebate. The decrease in PUR for each extra €1,000 objective per drug category was established to be €0.061 per 100 kg body weight (BW) for anticoccidiosis treatments, €0.029 per 100 kg BW for anti-inflammatories, €0.0125 per 100 kg BW, €0.0845 per animal for antiparasitics, and €0.031 per animal for intramammary antimicrobials. Applying agency theory shows that veterinarians can be considered the agents in case of monopolistic or oligopolistic situations of pharmaceutical firms, they are considered the principals otherwise. Policies that focus on maintaining veterinarians as principals may help reach the better societal benefit since this helps them maintain access to veterinary services throughout the region at low public cost while being liable for AMU.

Infection with the porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus type 1 (PRRSV-1) has serious economic consequences for the pig industry. Swine practitioners and other agricultural advisors often describe an increase in antibiotic use when PRRSV-1 is circulating. Our objective was to assess the impact of PRRSV-1 stabilization programmes on reducing antibiotic use. The study was carried out on 19 French farrow-to-finish farms that successfully implemented a PRRSV-1 stabilization protocol between 2007 and 2019. For each farm, antibiotic consumption (expressed in mg/PCU and ALEA) were compared one year before (P1) and one year after (P2) the implementation of such a protocol and the change between P1 and P2 were calculated in percentages. Data were then analysed by level of consumption. Antibiotic use decreased significantly between P1 and P2 if expressed in mg/PCU and showed a decreased tendency in terms of exposure (ALEA). Concerning the change from P1 to P2, our results showed that the higher consumption levels in P1, the greater antibiotic reduction in P2. This study highlights the ability of a stabilization protocol against PRRSV-1 to reduce antibiotic use, especially on farms that have high consumption. These hopeful results show that further investigations about the relationship between PRRSV-1 and antibiotic usage could be beneficial.

Let us all take a moment to talk, once again, about this new coronavirus pandemic that the world has been facing since November 2019 and about its global response. After a short period marked by the pandemic underestimation risk by most governments, the Western world went nuts and overreacted, most probably so as not to be accused of inaction. In many cases, the overall benefits of the chosen policies were not sufficiently questioned, which resulted in many side effects on global health .The medical motto “primum non nocere”, a moral principle everyone should at least consider following, was evidently not taken into account. It has been overlooked, and the virus has become an obsession, to the extent that nearly everything else, even the most valuable things in life, is still now under appreciated if not simply ignored. This review highlighted facts against this simplistic, one-dimensional view.

Most very premature newborns (< 32 weeks of gestation) receive parenteral nutrition (PN) that is inherently contaminated with peroxides. Oxidative stress induced by PN is associated with bronchopulmonary dysplasia, a main pathological complication in these babies who have weak antioxidant capacity to detoxify peroxides because of their glutathione deficiency. In animals, glutathione supplementation of PN prevented oxidative stress and alveolar loss (the main characteristic of bronchopulmonary dysplasia). Of its two forms - disulfide (GSSG) and free thiol (GSH) - GSSG was used because of its better stability in PN. However, a 30% loss of GSSG in PN is observed. The potentially high therapeutic benefits of GSSG supplementation on the health of very premature babies makes the study of its stability highly important. Thus, GSSG was incubated in combination with the following components of PN: dextrose, multivitamins, Primene, Travasol, as well as with cysteine, cystine and peroxides for 24h. Total glutathione in these solutions was measured 0-24h after the addition of GSSG. The combination of cysteine and multivitamins caused the maximum loss of glutathione. Removing the cysteine prevented the degradation of glutathione. GSSG reacts with cysteine to form cysteine-glutathione disulfide, another suitable glutathione substrate for preterm neonates.

Modulation of the amplitude of high-frequency cortical field activity locked to changes in phase of a slower brain rhythm is known as phase-amplitude coupling (PAC). The study of this phenomenon has been gaining traction in neuroscience because of several reports on its appearance in normal and pathological brain processes in humans as well as across different mammalian species. This has led to the suggestion that PAC may be an intrinsic brain process that facilitates brain inter-area communication across different spatiotemporal scales. Several methods have been proposed to measure the PAC process, but few of these enable detailed study of its time course. It appears that no studies have reported details of PAC dynamics including its possible directional delay characteristics. Here, we study and characterize the use of a novel information theoretic measure that may address this limitation: local transfer entropy. We use both simulated and actual intracranial electroencephalographic data, and in both cases we observe initial indications that local transfer entropy can be used to detect the onset and offset of modulation process periods revealed by mutual information phase-amplitude coupling (MIPAC). We review our results in the context of current theories about PAC in brain electrical activity, and discuss technical issues that must be addressed to see local transfer entropy more widely applied to PAC analysis.

Introduction. Musculoskeletal disorders related to work might follow with a cumulative effect during working life. We aimed to develop a new model to allow to compare the accuracy of duration of work and intensity/frequency associations in application to severe knee pain. Methods. The CONSTANCES cohort is used with data from n=66553 subjects who were working at inclusion and coded. From a biomechanical job exposure matrix “JEM Constances”, intensity/frequency of heavy lifting and kneeling/squatting were used and applied to the work history in comparison to severe knee pain. An innovative model was developed and evaluated, allowing to compare the accuracy of duration of work and intensity/frequency associations. Results. The mean age is 49 years at inception with 46 percent of women. The G model developed was slightly better than regular models. In men, odds ratios of the highest quartile for the duration and low intensity were not significant for both exposures, whereas intensity/duration were for every duration. Results in women were less interpretable. Conclusion. Though increased duration increased strength of association with severe knee pain, intensity/frequency were important predictors among men. Exposure estimation along working history should have emphasis on such parameters, though other outcomes should be studied such as women.

Predicting how a genetic change affects a given character is a major challenge in biology, and being able to tackle this problem relies on our ability to develop realistic models of gene networks. However, such models are rarely tractable mathematically. In this paper, we propose a mathematical analysis of the sigmoid variant of the Wagner gene-network model. By considering the simplest case, that is, one unique self-regulating gene, we show that numerical simulations are not the only tool available to study such models: theoretical studies can be done too, by mathematical analysis of discrete dynamical systems. It is first shown that the particular sigmoid function can be theoretically investigated. Secondly, we provide an illustration on how to apply such investigations in the case of the dynamical system representing the one self-regulating gene.

Introduction: Nephrotic syndrome (NS) remains the most frequent mode of presentation of glo-merular diseases in children; in addition, the NS is primitive, i.e., idiopathic in 90% of cases with an average age of onset between 2 and 10 years. The objective of our study was to describe the char-acteristics and outcome of NS in children from 3 major hospitals from one of the poorest countries worldwide (Chad). Patients and Methods: Observational, cross-sectional, descriptive and multicenter study which took place over a period of 36 months (January 1,2019-December 31,2021) carried out in 3 hospitals in N’Djamena (Chad). All children aged 1-15 years presenting with NS were included. Results: Out of 16,776 children hospitalized or followed-up in outpatient clinics, 24 cases of NS were identified, giving a prevalence of 0.14%. The median age at presentation was 6.16(1-10) years. Nineteen children were male (sex ratio 3.8). There were 8 impure NS (33.3%). Edema was present in all patients, oliguria in 29.16%(n=7), and arterial hypertension in 20.83%(n=5) of cases. Mean proteinuria, albuminemia and total proteins were 2.86g/L, 19.13g/L and 30.41g/L respectively. Median serum creatinine was 87.3 µmol/L(75-1375µmol/L); three patients had acute renal failure on admission. Four patients had secondary NS. All patients (n=20) with idiopathic NS had received corticosteroid therapy; steroid-sensitivity was found in 90% of patients. Those who were not ster-oid-sensitive or relapsed underwent kidney biopsy (n=7); the most represented histological lesion was focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS; n=4), followed by minimal change disease (n=2), and membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis (n=1). The median length of hospitalization stay was 10.67 (5-27) days. None of the patients with idiopathic NS died. At last follow-up sixteen patients (80%) achieved long-term complete remission with normal renal function; however, 4 had subse-quent relapses. 16 patients. One patient with secondary NS died. Conclusion: In Chad childhood idiopathic nephrotic syndrome involves mostly young male; steroid sensitivity is as high as 95% and in the long-term 80% of the patients are in remission with normal renal function.

The vulnerability of alpine environments to climate change presses an urgent need to accurately model and understand these ecosystems. Popularity in use of digital elevation models (DEMs) to derive proxy environmental variables has increased over the past decade, particularly as DEMs are relatively cheaply acquired at very high resolutions (VHR; <1m spatial resolution). Here, we implement a multiscale framework and compare DEM-derived variables produced by Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) and stereo-photogrammetry (PHOTO) methods, with the aims of assessing their relevance and utility in species distribution modelling (SDM). Using a case study on the arctic-alpine plant Arabis alpina in two valleys in the western Swiss Alps, we show that both LiDAR and PHOTO technologies can be relevant for producing DEM-derived variables for use in SDMs. We demonstrate that PHOTO DEMs rivalled the accuracy of LiDAR, putting the current paradigm of LiDAR being the more accurate of the two methods into question. We obtained DEMs at spatial resolutions of 6.25cm-8m for PHOTO and 50cm-32m for LiDAR, where we determined that the optimal spatial resolutions of DEM-derived variables in SDM were between 1 and 32m, depending on the variable and site characteristics. We found that the reduced extent of PHOTO DEMs altered the calculations of all derived variables, which had particular consequences on their relevance at the site with heterogenous terrain. However, for the homogenous site, we found that SDMs based on PHOTO-derived variables generally had higher predictive powers than those derived from LiDAR at matching resolutions. From our results, we recommend carefully considering the required DEM extent to produce relevant derived variables. We also advocate implementing a multiscale framework to appropriately assess the ecological relevance of derived variables, where we caution against the use of VHR-DEMs finer than 50cm in such studies.

Black variety of tiger nut tubers (Cyperus esculentus) were differently processed in ascorbic acid and alkaline (Ca(OH)2 and Kanwa) solutions at different concentrations and temperatures. The effect of these treatments on the water content (swelling), soluble loss, dehulling efficiency and microbial load was investigated. Water content or swelling of the tiger nut soaked in acid and alkaline solutions can be predicted by Peleg model like with brown variety. This swelling lead to enhance dehulling efficiency of tuber but caused soluble solute loss overall at the highest temperature of soaking in vitamin C solution. Like soaking in water, the constant of Peleg (k1) decrease with the increase of the temperature of soaking, whereas the constant of capacity of Peleg (k2) is approximately 0.018% for all the conditions. Dehulling efficiency also increased with increasing temperatures (65% at 20°C to 70% at 60°C) for tiger nut tubers soaked in water (0 g/L), dehulling efficiency appeared most strongly affected by concentrations and temperatures of soaking solutions. Like dehulling efficiency, ascorbic solutions has given the best results in term of reduction of microbial load compared to the other soaking solutions. This reduction is considerable at the higher temperatures, reaching a maximum of 4.8 log reduction. Soaking and dehulling treatments gave to tiger nut tuber effective decontamination in term of microbial load and obtained good microbiological quality for final process.

Many dioecious plants have sex chromosomes that are cytologically heteromorphic, but about half of species lack cytological differences between males and females and are thus homomorphic. Very little is known about the size and content of the non-recombining sex-determining region (SDR) in these species. Here, we assess the size and content of the SDR of the diploid dioecious herb Mercurialis annua, which has homomorphic sex chromosomes and shows signatures of mild Y-chromosome degeneration. We used RNAseq to identify new Y-linked markers for M. annua. Twelve of 24 transcripts with male-specific and male-biased expression could only be PCR-amplified from males and are thus Y-linked. We found a further six Y-linked sequences that were present in males but not females using genome capture data from multiple populations. We used the Y-linked sequences to identify and sequence 17 sex-linked bacterial artificial chromosomes (BACs), which form 11 groups of non-overlapping sequence, covering a total sequence length of about 1.5 Mb. Content analysis of this region suggests it is enriched for repeats, has a low gene density and contains few candidate sex-determining genes. The BACs map to a subset of the sex-linked region of the genetic map, which is estimated to be at least 14.5 Mb. This is substantially larger than estimates for other dioecious plants with homomorphic sex chromosomes, especially given the small genome size of M. annua. Our data provide a rare, high-resolution view of the homomorphic Y chromosome of a dioecious plant.

Objective Ovarian pregnancy is a rare but well-known pathology. However, pathophysiology, diagnosis and treatment are not clearly established. Data sources. All case reports published in Pubmed from Nov 2011 till Nov 2022. Study eligibility criteria. A systematic review and 2 case reports of ovarian pregnancy Study appraisal and synthesis methods. Not applicable Results Ovarian pregnancies occur in 8% of women without or blocked oviducts and in 23% on the other side than the corpus luteum and the symptoms of ovarian pregnancies are not specific. Therefore ovarian pregnancy has to be suspected in all women with abdominal bleeding. As for extrauterine pregnancies, the presence of an intrauterine pregnancy does not rule out an ovarian pregnancy. Surgical excision is the preferred treatment. Important is that in women with both an intra-uterine and an ovarian pregnancy, care should be taken not to damage the corpus luteum. Conclusions Ovarian pregnancies can occur in women with blocked tubes, on the other side of the corpus luteum, in the presence of an intrauterine pregnancy, and even when pregnancy tests or tranvaginal ultrasonography are negative. The diagnosis being difficult to exclude, a laparoscopy is indicated in all women with intra-abdominal bleeding, keeping in mind that an intra-uterine pregnancy cannot be exluded and that a corpus luteum need to be respected.

The loop and knot securities of 2 braided and 2 monofilament sutures of four diameters (3.0, 2.0, 0, 1) were evaluated with a tensiometer for four 4-throw knots known to be secure with a 2.0 polyfilament suture. Loop security of monocryl 1 is low, being 14.7 + 3.0 Newton (N) for a 3-throw half-knot (H3) and 15.4 + 2.4 N and 28.3+ 10 N for 2 (SSs) and 4-throw (SSsSsSs) symmetrical sliding half-hitches. This is lower than 18, 24, and 46 N for similar knots with vicryl. Polyfilament sutures have excellent knot security for all diameters. Occasionally, some slide to open with slightly lower knot security, especially for larger diameters, although not clinically problematic. Knot se-curity of monofilament sutures was unpredictable for all 4 knots, especially for larger diameters, resulting in many clinically insecure knots. A secure monofilament knot requires a 6-throw knot with 2 symmetrical sliding half-hitches or 2 symmetrical half-knots secured with 4 asymmetric blocking half-hitches. In conclusion, with polyfilament sutures, 4 or 5-throw half-knot or half-hitch sequences result in secure knots. For monofilament sutures, loop and knot security is much less, half-knot combinations should be avoided, and secure knots require 6-throw knots with 4 asym-metric half hitches. This conclusion is valid for gynecologic laparoscopic and open surgery, and for surgery in general.

BK polyomavirus (BKPyV) is still a real threat in the management of kidney transplantation. Immunosuppressive treatment disrupts the equilibrium between virus replication and immune response, and uncontrolled BKPyV replication leads to nephropathy (BKPyV nephropathy). The first evidence of BKPyV reactivation in transplant recipients is the detection of viral shedding in urine, which appears in 20% to 60% of patients, followed by BKPyV viremia in 10-20% of kidney transplant recipients. BKPyV nephropathy eventually occurs in 1-10% of this population, mainly within the first 2 years post-transplantation, causing graft loss in about half of those patients. Few data exist regarding the pediatric population and we focus on them. In this paper, we review the existing diagnostic methods, we summarize the evidences on the role of BKPyV humoral and cellular immunity in the modulation of the clinical course of BKPyV infection and as potential predictors of the outcome. We look at the known risk factors of BKPyV nephropathy in the immunosuppressed patient. Finally, we propose a sensible clinical attitude in order to screen and manage BKPyV infection in kidney transplant children.

Mutations in epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) occur in about 48% of Asian and 19% of Western patients with lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD), leading to its constitutive activation and subsequent uncontrolled cell proliferation. To counteract this, tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) have been developed, targeting EGFR activity. However, the emergence of metastases and resistance mutations often undermines the durability of the treatment response. Knowledge-based mechanistic models that replicate existing clinical trial outcomes, tailored to specific population characteristics, provide invaluable assistance in designing future clinical trials. These models are particularly effective in identifying optimal responders to specific treatments, thereby enhancing therapeutic efficacy. We have developed physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) models for gefitinib and osimertinib, representing two distinct generations of EGFR TKIs, to accurately simulate the drugs’ distribution within the primary tumor and metastatic sites following oral administration. These models were integrated with a pathophysiological mechanistic model of EGFR-mutant LUAD, enabling the representation of the effects of both gefitinib and osimertinib on EGFR activation-induced signaling pathways. This comprehensive model outputs detailed evolutions of the primary tumor and each metastatic site, facilitating the evaluation of patient progression in alignment with RECIST guidelines (version 1.1). Notably, the model encapsulates the heterogeneity within the tumor, through the representation of various subclones, each characterized by unique mutation profiles, thereby reflecting differential responses to treatment. Calibration of the model was achieved using publicly available data from the NEJ002 and FLAURA clinical trials. Rigorous visual predictive checks and statistical tests were employed to ensure the proper behavior of the model. The model adeptly replicated the time to progression observed in real clinical trials in EGFR-mutant LUAD patients receiving gefitinib or osimertinib as first-line therapy. In addition, the model was able to reproduce the results from a retrospective study comparing gefitinib and osimertinib, a study that was not used to inform the model. With a consistent virtual population as a reference, the combined model facilitated a comparative analysis of the efficacy of both treatments, thereby underscoring its utility in evaluating therapeutic strategies. The faithful replication of real-world data significantly enhances the credibility of our model, rendering it a vital investigational tool for deriving pertinent insights and informing treatment strategies, particularly in identifying optimal responders to various generations of EGFR TKIs. Following its consecutive prospective validations in the FLAURA2 and MARIPOSA trials, the model is poised to facilitate the generation of synthetic control arms in future clinical trials. This advancement promises a more nuanced analysis of covariate relationships, especially when comparing investigational treatments to established standards of care. Additionally, it potentially reduces the required patient cohort size in such trials, optimizing resource utilization.

Adenomyosis (ADM) is a multifaceted uterine pathology characterized by the ectopic infiltration of endometrial tissue into the myometrium, afflicting approximately 20% of women in the reproductive age group seeking gynecological care. This condition manifests as a range of debilitating symptoms, including dysmenorrhea, menorrhagia, impaired fertility, and heightened susceptibility to miscarriage and obstetric complications. Substantial research has been dedicated to exploring its underlying molecular mechanisms and developing non-invasive precision medical therapies. ADM is primarily characterized by a dysregulation in sex-steroid hormone homeostasis, particularly estrogen and progesterone. However, emerging evidence suggests that additional endocrine mediators and disruptors may exert contributory roles in the etiology of ADM. Furthermore, genetic and epigenetic alterations of endocrine signaling pathways have been implicated as prevailing mechanisms underlying the development and progression of the disease. The present review aims to provide an updated and comprehensive overview of the current understanding of the pathophysiology of ADM, with a particular emphasis on the dysregulated hormonal milieu and the potential involvement of endocrine disruptors. By elucidating these intricate molecular mechanisms, this review seeks to pave the way for novel research directions in the development of targeted therapeutic strategies for ADM management.

Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is a mycotoxin considered as a potent carcinogenic for humans that contaminates a wide range of crops. Various strategies have been established to reduce or block the synthesis of AFB1 in food and feeds. The use of aqueous extracts derived from plants with high antioxidant activity has been a subject of study in recent years due to their efficacy in inhibiting AFB1. In this study, we assessed the effect of Aloysia citrodora aqueous extract on Aspergillus flavus growth and on AFB1 production. A bio-guided fractionation followed by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and Mass spectrometry analysis of active fraction were applied to identify the candidate molecules responsible for the dose-effect inhibition of AFB1 synthesis. Our results revealed that polyphenols are the molecules implicated in AFB1 inhibition, achieving almost a total inhibition of the toxin production (99%). We identified luteoline 7- diglucuronide as one of the main constituents in A. citrodora extract, and demonstrated that it is able to inhibit, by itself, AFB1 production by 57%. This is the first study demonstrating the anti-Aflatoxin B1 effect of this molecule, while other polyphenols surely intervene in A. citrodora anti-AFB1 activity.

Plastid gene expression involves many post-transcriptional maturation steps resulting in a complex transcriptome composed of multiple isoforms. Although short read RNA-seq has considerably improved our understanding of the molecular mechanisms controlling these processes, it is unable to sequence full-length transcripts. This information is however crucial when it comes to understand the interplay between the various steps of plastid gene expression. Here, the study of the Arabidopsis leaf plastid transcriptome using Nanopore sequencing showed that many splicing and editing events were not independent but co-occurring. For a given transcript, maturation events also appeared to be chronologically ordered with splicing happening after most sites are edited.

Understanding speech in noise is particularly difficult for individuals occupationally exposed to noise due to a to a mix between noise-induced auditory lesions and energetic masking of speech signal. For years, the monitoring of conventional audiometric thresholds has been the usual way to check and preserve the auditory function. But the highlighting of supra-threshold deficits, notably speech in noise understanding difficulties, has pointed out the need for new monitoring tools. The present study aims to identify the most important variables that predict speech in noise under-standing in order to suggest a new way of regular monitoring. Physiological (distortion products of otoacoustic emissions, electrocochleography) and behavioral (amplitude and frequency modula-tion detection thresholds, conventional and extended high frequency audiometric thresholds) variables were collected in a population of individuals presenting a relative homogeneous occu-pational noise exposure. Those variables were used as predictors in a statistical model (random forest) to predict scores of three different speech in noise tests and a self-report of speech in noise ability. The extended high frequency threshold appears to be the best predictor and therefore an interesting candidate for a new way of monitoring noise exposed professionals.

This article delves deeply into digital forensics, covering computer forensics, network 1 forensics, and mobile device forensics. It analyzes the techniques and methodologies used by forensic 2 investigators in various disciplines. It underlines the diffculties investigators encounter and the 3 importance of thorough investigations to combat ever-increasing cyber risks. The paper emphasizes 4 the necessity of leveraging digital forensic tools to improve cybersecurity and provides a thorough 5 list of widely used Python libraries suitable for each investigation strategy, allowing for effective 6 comparison. Furthermore, it emphasizes the availability and suitability of these Python libraries in 7 computer device investigations (PyTSK3, Volatility, Pyregf, and Pyevtx), mobile device investigations 8 (Pytsk3, Volatility, Pyewf, dfVFS, Androguard, and pyMobileDevice), and network forensics (Scapy, 9 Bro/Zeek, Dpkt, pypcap, and NetworkX). The creation of these libraries recognizes the complexities 10 of digital crimes and the importance of applying modern techniques in forensic investigations. 11 Particularly, digital forensics plays an important role for healthcare providers because modern 12 medical devices produce, store, and transmit large amounts of patient and therapy information, 13 which could provide a forensic investigator with a treasure trove of potential digital evidence.

Evidence-based data for endometriosis management are limited. Experiments are excluded without adequate animal models. Data are limited to symptomatic women and occasional observations. Hormonal medical therapy cannot be blinded if recognised by the patient. Randomised controlled trials are not realistic for surgery since a variable disease with low numbers. Each diagnosis and treatment is an experiment with an outcome and experience is Bayesian updating from the past. If the experience of many is similar, this has more value than an opinion. The combined experience of a group of endometriosis surgeons was used to discuss problems in the management of endometriosis. Considering endometriosis as several genetically/epigenetically different diseases is important for medical therapy. Imaging cannot exclude endometriosis and diagnostic accuracy is limited for superficial lesions, deep lesions, and cystic corpora lutea. Surgery should not be avoided for emotional reasons. Shifting infertility treatment to IVF without considering fertility surgery is questionable. The concept of complete excision should be reconsidered. Surgeons should introduce quality control and teaching should move to explain why it is done. The perception of information has a personal bias. These are the major problems in the management of endometriosis identified by the combined experience of endometriosis surgeons.

The effect of the strain rate on damage in carbon black filled EPDM stretched during single and multiple uniaxial loading is investigated. This has been performed by analysing the stress-strain response, the evolution of damage by Digital Image Correlation (DIC), the associated dissipative heat source by InfraRed thermography (IR), and the chains network damage by swelling. The strain rates were selected to cover the transition from quasi-static to medium strain rate conditions. In single loading conditions, the increase of the strain rate yields in a preferential damage of the filler network while rubber network is preserved. Such damage is accompanied by a stress softening and an adiabatic heat source rise. Conversely, increasing the strain rate in cyclic loading conditions yields in a filler network accommodation and a high self-heating whose combined effect is proposed as a possible cause of the ability of filled EPDM to limit damage, by reducing cavities opening during loading and favoring cavities closing upon unloading.

Abstract: Two novel low-dimensional molecular magnetic materials were prepared by a self-assembling of 3d- and 5d-metal complexes. These are the first neutral heterobimetallic cyanobridged compounds involving one anisotropic Mn(III) Schiff base complex and one octacyanotungstate(V) per molecular unit. A slow diffusion of the constituents’ solutions leads to a formation of the 0D crystalline complex 1 due to coordination of a water molecule to the Mn center prevents a polymer formation. A rapid mixing of reagents results in a precipitation of the microcrystalline powder of the complex 2, which on a totality of experimental data possess 1D polymeric structure. The magnetic studies have shown that antiferromagnetic exchange interactions are dominating in 1 J/k_B= -13.1(7) K, D=-3.0(1.3) K, zJ'= -0.16(20) K and g_av=2.00(1); while the presence of the significant intramolecular Mn(III)–W(V) ferromagnetic couplings through cyanide bridges is characteristic for 2 (J/k_B = 46.1(5) K g_Mn = 2.11(3), fixed g_W = 2.0). Due to the weak interchain interactions, zJ'/k_B = –0.8(2) K, compound 2 is a metamagnet with the Néel temperature of 9.5 K undergoing a spin-flip transition at 2 kOe. The slow magnetization dynamics of 2 was investigated at DС field of 0 and 2 kOe, giving the values of τ₀ 32(15) and 36(15) ps respectively, well within the range typical for SCMs. The respective ∆_τ/k_B values were 48.4(1.2) and 44.9(1.0) K.

Substances derived from herbals are much in demand in doping practices because of their interesting biological properties for physical exercise and sport. This review aimed to investigate anti-fatigue herbals, their properties, analysis methods and toxicity. Data indicate that phytomolecules have beneficial effects on the physiological and biochemical parameters of the body undergoing exercise. They reduce fatigue and promote recovery by improving antioxidant enzyme activities, immune responses, blood pressure, body composition and by reducing the accumulation of toxic metabolites and systemic inflammation. Thus, the use of herbal could provide relief to people who exert intense physical activities such as farmers and athletes; for this, these peoples must do careful, the use of doping herbal must be done in accordance with all the previsions which take into account the need for the use of herbal supplement, the doses. In addition, these benefits attributed to herbals should not conceal the drawbacks of using them in sport.Some phytomolecules are toxic when used in large quantities, and others, in this case alkaloids, should be avoided by athletes.

The ubiquitous deployment of Li-ion batteries (LIBs) in more demanding applications has reinforced the need to understand root-causes of thermal runaway. Herein we perform a forensic simulation of a real-case failure scenario, using localised heating of Li(Ni0.5Mn0.3Co0.2)O2 versus graphite 18650 cylindrical cells. This study determined the localised temperatures that would lead to venting and thermal runaway of these cells, as well as correlating the gases produced as a function of degradation pathway. Catastrophic failure, involving melting (with internal cell temperatures exceeding 1085°C), deformation and ejection of cell componentry, was induced by locally applying 200 °C and 250 °C to a fully charged cell. Conversely, catastrophic failure was not observed when the same temperatures were applied to the cells at lower state of charge (SOC). This work highlights the importance of SOC, chemistry and heat in driving the thermal failure mode of Ni-rich LIB cells, allowing for a better understanding of battery safety and associated design improvements.

Gastric mixing relies both on enzymatic reactions and mechanical solicitations through antral contraction waves (ACWs). This work aims at discussing the influence of ACWs frequency and digesta viscosity on human gastric mixing efficiency by comparison with that of a soft elastic reactor (SER), that induces mixing by vibration of its wall in a similar way as ACWs promote stomach motility. The SER mixing curve was considered in order to determine the flow regime reached during gastric mixing. The number of contractions required to achieve homogenization was found to depend on the viscosity of the stomach content and the ACWs amplitude. Moreover, it was deduced from the same range of SER and ACWs operating points that the mechanical solicitation provided by human peristalsis was low and that gastric mixing was confined in laminar regime. Further efforts are needed to investigate the role of other physiological processes such as gastric secretions and emptying in overall gastric mixing performance.

Globally, sacred groves represent a traditional form of community-based conservation system, recognized for their capacity to preserve areas that are of cultural and religious importance to local people. In most cases, the entire community takes on a watchdog role to guard against encroachment and unauthorized access either by its members or outsiders who might desecrate such sites. Our paper investigates the effects of different governance arrangements on three sacred groves in southwest Nigeria⎯Osun Osogbo Sacred Grove (UNESCO World Heritage Site); Idanre Hills (Nigerian National Monument) and Igbo-Olodumare (local cultural site)⎯on their socio-economic and religio-cultural benefits and contribution to biodiversity conservation. Using a mixed-methods design of a semi-structured questionnaire (n=167), key informant interviews (n=2), and focus groups (n=7), we collected data from local community members, traditional priests, sacred grove devotees and tourism officials. We found that customary institutions have guided reverence for sacralized spaces and wise utilization of their unique resources. The growing recognition of sacred groves has paved the way for socioeconomic rewards for individuals and government as cultural tourism increases. We found that the involvement of formal institutions alongside customary institutions in sacred grove management reinforces compliance with conservation laws within the sacred groves, especially where traditional norms are weak or may be disregarded. We discuss the implications of these observations and offer suggestions to improve community engagement, uphold traditional ecological knowledge, and develop ecotourism within the groves. We conclude that the co-existence of community-based conservation through a system of established traditional norms and prohibitions as well as formal government legislation and management, offers assurance for the long-term preservation of sacred groves and their biodiversity.

Introduction: The COVID-19 severely marred the Indian poultry industry, worth approximately one trillion INR. Hence, this study was conducted to understand the COVID-19 related factors that harmed the poultry production and distribution network and explore their varied impact on its actors in Gujarat, India. Methods: An exploratory qualitative study, using semi-structured interviews, was conducted with 34 poultry stakeholders in Gujarat. The data were thematically analysed using an interpretative phenomenological approach. Results: The study revealed that COVID-19 and the associated lockdown had hugely impacted the production, distribution and consumption of poultry products. The first COVID-19 lockdown disrupted the supply of production inputs and the distribution of poultry and poultry products because of movement restrictions. Rumours also played a crucial role in decreasing the consumption of poultry products between March and June 2020. The market situation, including the prices and availability of poultry products, was found to be improved post-lockdown as there was an increase in consumption; however, the profits were not sufficient to immediately compensate for the losses incurred during the lockdown. Conclusion: The first COVID-19 lockdown restricted the production and distribution of essential goods and influenced the perception of consumers regarding poultry products. COVID-19 resulted in many short- and medium-term challenges in the poultry sectors in India, which need to be addressed to make this sector more resilient to face any such crisis in future.

Objectives: Pregnant women represent a population category at high risk of severe rubella infection, capable of adversely affecting their fetus. This study was conducted to determine the seroprevalence of anti-rubella antibodies in pregnant women seen in prenatal consultations at the Sino-Gabonese Friendship Hospital in Franceville Patients and Methods: A prospective, cross-sectional study was conducted at the Sino-Gabonese Friendship Hospital in Franceville, from April 3 to July 27, 2023. Using a structured and pre-established questionnaire, sociodemographic and obstetrical characteristics were obtained... Three milliliters of blood were collected from participants to measure rubella-specific IgG antibody levels using the OnSite Rapid Test Rubella IgG/IgM COMBO lateral flow immunochromatographic assay. Results were considered significant at p≤0.05. Results: The study included 107 pregnant women seen in prenatal consultations. With a mean age of 27.9±7.1 years, anti-Rubella IgG antibodies were found in 87 pregnant women, indicating an overall seroprevalence of 81.30% (95% CI: [0.72 - 0.87). Of these, 6.9% (n = 6) of the women were serum anti-Rubivirus IgM carriers. In univariate analysis, it was indicated that pregnant women in the study aged between 21-30 years (OR =0.33; 95% CI: [0.12-0.9] p=0.0027), student (OR =6.35; 95% CI: [1.39-29.09] p=0.001), or without professional status (OR =0.05; 95% CI: [0.01- 0.27] p<0.001), high school education (OR =8.24; 95% CI: [2.83-23.96] p<0.001), single (OR =0.3; 95% CI: [0.11-0.85] p=0.0021) or cohabiting OR =3.91; 95% CI: [1.21-12.64] p=0.0017) Residing in an urban area (OR =49; 95% CI: [1.43-16.75] p=0.006), in the first trimester of their pregnancy (OR = 0.29; 95% CI: [0.09-0.94] p= 0.033), with a history of spontaneous abortion (OR = 0.09; 95% CI: [1.04; 11.30] p= 0. 037), and unvaccinated (OR = 0.13; 95% CI: [0.05; 0.13] p<0.000), had an elevated risk of Rubella, After adjusting for risk factors by logistic regression, residence in a rural area (ORA = 139.87 95% CI : [1.74 -11236.216] p=0.027),and no vaccination (ORA = 43.3 95% CI: [1.13 -1662.7] p= 0.043), were identified as the only significant risk factors for Rubella for the present study population Conclusion: The high rate of susceptibility to rubella among pregnant women in the present study indicates that any short-term vaccination strategy aimed at reducing the number of susceptible women of childbearing age is imperative

(1) Background: Malaria remains a global public health problem. Unfortunately, the resistance of malaria vectors to insecticides commonly used threatens disease control and elimination efforts. Molecular mechanisms helping some malaria vectors to now survive to greater doses of insecticides remains poorly understood. Here, we elucidated the pattern of resistance escalation in the main malaria vector Anopheles gambiae in a pesticide-driven agricultural hotspot in Cameroon and its impact on vector control tools; (2) Methods: Larval stages and indoor blood-fed females (F0) were collected in Mangoum in May and November and forced to lay eggs; the emerging mosquitoes were used for WHO tube, synergist and cone tests. Molecular identification was done using SINE PCR whereas TaqMan-based PCR was used for genotyping of L1014F/S and N1575Y kdr and the G119S-ACE1 resistance markers. Transcription profile of candidate resistance genes was performed using qRT-PCR methods. Characterization of the breeding water and soil from Mangoum was also performed using HPLC technique; (3) Results: An. gambiae s.s. was the only species in Mangoum with 4.10 % infection with Plasmodium. These mosquitoes were resistant to all the four classes of insecticides with mortality rates &lt;7% for pyrethroids and DDT and &lt;54% for carbamates and organophophates. This population also exhibited high resistance intensity to pyrethroids (permethrin, alpha-cypermethrin and deltamethrin) after exposure to 5X and 10X discriminating doses and Synergist assays with PBO revealed only a partial recovery of susceptibility to permethrin, alpha-cypermethrin and deltamethrin. Only PBO-based nets (Olyset plus and permaNet 3.0) and Royal Guard showed an optimal efficacy. A high amount of alpha-cypermethrin was detected in breeding sites (5.16 fold LOD) suggesting ongoing selection from agricultural pesticides. The 1014F-kdr allele was fixed (100%) whereas the 1575Y-kdr (37.5%) and the 119S Ace-1R (51.1%) are moderately present. Elevated expression of P450s respectively in permethrin and deltamethrin resistant mosquitoes [CYP6M2 (10 and 34-fold), CYP6Z1(17 and 29-fold), CYP6Z2 (13 and 65-fold), CYP9K1 (13 and 87-fold)] supports their role in the observed resistance besides other mechanisms including chemosensory genes as SAP1 (28 and 13-fold), SAP2 (5 and 5-fold),SAP3 (24 and 8-fold) and cuticular genes as CYP4G16 (6 and 8-fold) and CYP4G17 (5 and 27-fold). However, these candidate genes were not associated with resistance escalation as expression level did not differ significantly between 1x, 5x and 10x surviving mosquitoes. (4) Conclusions: Intensive and multiple resistance is being selected in malaria vectors from pesticide-based agricultural hotspot of Cameroon leading to loss of efficacy of pyrethroid-only nets. Further studies are needed to decipher the molecular basis underlying such resistance escalation to better assess its impact on control interventions.

In South Western Indian ocean (IO), Extended-Spectrum β-Lactamase producing Enterobacteriaceae (ESBL) are a main public health issue. In livestock, ESBL burden was unknown. The aim of this study was estimating the prevalence of ESBL on commercial farms in Reunion, Mayotte and Madagascar and genes involved. Secondly, risk factors of ESBL occurrence in broiler, beef cattle and pig farms were explored. In 2016-2017, commercial farms were sampled using boot swabs and samples stored at 4°C before microbiological analysis for phenotypical ESBL and gene characterization. A semi-directive questionnaire was performed. Prevalences observed in all production types and territories were elevated, except for beef cattle in Reunion which differed significantly. The most common ESBL gene was the CTX-M-1 subtype. Generalized linear models explaining ESBL occurrence varied between livestock production sectors and allowed identifying main protective (e.g., water quality control and detergent use for cleaning) and risk factors (e.g., recent antibiotic use, other farmers visiting the exploitation, pet presence). This study is the first to explore tools for antibiotic resistance management in IO farms. It provides interesting hypothesis to explore about antibiotic use in IO and ESBL transmission between pig, beef cattle and humans in Madagascar.

: Given that cancer is a disease that is rampant in the world and especially in Africa where the population has enormous difficulty in treating it, plants are a safer and less expensive alterna-tive. Cassava is one of the plant species valued in Benin because of its numerous medicinal and nutritional virtues. This study evaluated the biological activities of amygdalin from the organs of three cassava varieties most produced in Benin (BEN, RB, and MJ). HPLC analysis was used to quantify amygdalin in cassava organs and derivatives. Phytochemical screening was performed to determine secondary metabolite groups. DPPH and FRAP methods were used to assess anti-oxidant activity. Cytotoxicity of the extracts was tested on Artemia salina larvae. The an-ti-inflammatory activity was evaluated in vivo on albino mouse paw edema model induced by 5% formalin. The anticancer activity was evaluated in vivo on Wistar rats rendered cancerous by 1,2-dimethylhydrazine (DMH) using 5-fluorouracil as reference molecule. The results showed that the organs of all three-cassava varieties contained glycosides, flavonoids, saponosides, ster-oids, tannins, coumarins, and cyanogenic derivatives. Young stems and fresh leaves of cassava had the highest amygdalin concentration with 11142.99 µg 10 g-1 and 9251.14 µg 10 g-1 respec-tively. The Agbeli derivative was more concentrated in amygdalin with a content of 401.56 µg 10 g-1 than the others derivatives. The antioxidant activity results showed that the amygdalin ex-tracts were found to be DPPH radical scavengers with IC50 values ranging from 0.18 mg mL-1 to 2.35 mg mL-1. The cytotoxicity test showed no toxicity of the extracts toward shrimp larvae. Ad-ministration of amygdalin extracts from the leaves of BEN and MJ varieties prevents inflamma-tory edema. The percentages of edema inhibition varied between 21.77% and 27.89%. These val-ues are similar (p> 0.05) to that of acetylsalicylic acid (25.20%). Amygdalin extract of BEN variety significantly (p<0.0001) reduces edema. Cancer induction with DMH was inhibited by both BEN extract. In both preventive and curative treatments, rats fed with amygdalin extracts showed low anti-cancer activity under the effect of DMH and the significant difference in biochemical results. Thus, the organs of all three cassava varieties studied have secondary metabolites and good an-tioxydant activity. The leaves contain high levels of amygdalin and can be used as an-ti-inflammatory and anticancer agents.

Peritoneal fluid is an ovarian exudate from the growing follicle or corpus luteum. Therefore, the free concentrations of estrogens and progesterone are always much higher than in plasma, especially after ovulation. The peritoneum is not vascularised, and peritoneal implants and the superficial portion of deep endometriosis are likely influenced mainly by peritoneal fluid. Follicular phase progesterone concentrations are as high as during the luteal phase in plasma. This explains that most peritoneal implants are rarely proliferative and out of phase with the endometrium. From some 5 mm of depth onwards, endometriosis is rather influenced by plasma hormone concentra-tions, and the deeper parts can be proliferative as the endometrium. Because of these progesterone concentrations, progesterone resistance has to be postulated, permitting endometriosis lesions to initiate and develop. This opens the discussion of whether endometriosis is similar to the basal endometrium. These peritoneal fluid concentrations are important to understand the natural history and medical therapy of endometriosis. Most medical therapies decrease ovarian function and affect peritoneal fluid steroid hormone concentrations. It is suggested that the efficacy of medical therapy for endometriosis-associated pain is a consequence of the decreased estrogen concentrations in the peritoneal cavity and that the local effect of progestins may not be determinant for pain relief. If this is true, a history of endometriosis should not be considered a contraindication for hormone re-placement therapy.

In humans and animal models, intermittent fasting (IF) interventions promote body weight loss, improve metabolic health, and are thought to lower cardiovascular disease risk. However, there is a paucity of reports on the relevancy of such nutritional interventions in the context of dyslipidemia and atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases. The present study assessed the metabolic and atheroprotective effects of intermittent fasting intervention (IF) in atherosclerosis-prone apolipoprotein E-deficient (Apoe-/-) mice. Groups of male and female Apoe-/- mice were fed a regular (chow) or atherogenic (high-fat, high-cholesterol, HFCD) diet for 4 months, either ad libitum or in an alternate-day fasting manner. The results show that IF intervention improved glucose and lipid metabolism independently of sex. However, IF only decreased body weight gain in males fed chow diet and differentially modulated adipose tissue parameters and liver steatosis in a diet composition-dependent manner. Finally, IF prevented spontaneous aortic atherosclerotic lesions formation in mice fed chow diet, irrespective of sex but failed to reduce HFCD-diet-induced atherosclerosis. Overall, the current work indicates that IF interventions can efficiently improve glucose homeostasis and treat atherogenic dyslipidemia, but a degree of caution is warranted with regard to the individual sex and the composition of the dietary regimen.

ATC is a rare cancer with a slightly growing incidence and a poor prognosis determined by the delay of treatment, usually revealed by an enlarging goiter with compressive symptoms and, more rarely, by inflammatory and thyrotoxic symptoms, a clinic entity called malignant pseudothyroiditis (MPT) mimicking subacute thyroiditis (SAT). With the advent of COVID-19 pandemic, many cases of COVID-19 related SAT were described with the usual clinical presentation enriched by the COVID-19 symptoms, leading to the emergence of atypic clinical pictures. We present the case of a 60-year-old patient who developed, one month after a COVID 19 acute infection, a clinical presentation of SAT with atypical ultrasound features leading to the diagnosis of MPT; histological atypia was misleading, finally making precise diagnosis was difficult. To our best knowledge, this is the first ever reported case of MPT mimicking COVID-19 SAT. We reviewed thirty five cases published to date and discuss the mechanisms underlying MPT physiopathogenesis and the ultrasound and histological features. We point out the similarities between MPT and SAT and the role of ultrasound at clinical presentation workup. Finally there are two key points to remind: First, to perform neck ultrasound in any painful goiter and, in case of atypia, perform a US guided core-needle biopsy, a complementary CT-scan and quickly refer the patient to an expert center. Second, always think that COVID-19 infection is a recent entity and be aware that it can influence the clinical presentation of any disease.

COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and its enablers would shape community uptake of non-covid vaccines such as oral cholera vaccine (OCV) in the post-COVID-19 era. This study assessed the impact of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and its drivers on OCV hesitancy in a cholera endemic region of the Democratic Republic of Congo. We conducted a community-based survey in Bukavu. The survey included characteristics, intention to take OCV and COVID-19, reasons for COVID-19 hesitancy, and thinking and feeling about COVID-19 vaccines. Poisson regression analyses were performed. Of the 1708 respondents, 84.66% and 77.57% were hesitant to OCV alone and to both OCV and COVID-19, respectively. Hesitancy to COVID-19 vaccines rose OCV hesitancy by 12% (crude Prevalence Ratio, [cPR]=1.12, 95%CI[1.03-1.21]). Independent predictors of OCV hesitancy were living in semi-urban area (adjusted Prevalence Ratio [aPR]=1.10, 95%CI[1.03-1.12]), religious refusal of vaccines (aPR=1.06, 95%CI[1.02-1.12]), concerns about vaccine safety (aPR=1.05, 95%CI[1.01-1.11]) and adverse effects (aPR=1.06, 95%CI[1.01-1.12]), as well as poor knowledge (aPR=1.07, 95%CI[1.01-1.14]). Conversely, the belief about COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness reduced OCV hesitancy (aPR=0.76, 95%CI[0.62-0.93]). COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and its drivers exhibiting a significant domino effect on OCV uptake. Addressing vaccine hesitancy through community-based health literacy interventions would likely improve the introduction of novel non-COVID-19 vaccines in post-COVID-19 era.

The paper presents the first retrievals of clean snow properties using spaceborne hyperspectral The Environmental Mapping and Analysis Program (EnMAP) observations. The location close to the Dome C in Antarctica has been selected. At this location the atmospheric effects except molecular light scattering and absorption are weak and the simplified atmospheric correction scheme can be applied. The ice grain size, snow specific surface area and snow spectral and broadband albedos have been retrieved using single view EnMAP measurements. In addition, we propose the technique to retrieve trace gas concentrations (e.g., water vapor, ozone) from EnMAP observations over the snow surfaces. Close correspondence of satellite and ground measured parameters has been found.

This article presents a decentralized phase-shedding technique for multiphase converters. The usual central digital controller is replaced by identical local controllers forming a daisy-chain structure. Phase-shedding decisions are taken locally based on a local inductor current monitoring and threshold crossing management. This control strategy allows to implement as many phases as desired in a modular manner. In order to handle specific events such as load current inrush or a start-up sequence and to guarantee optimal transient responses, additional functions are included into each local controllers. The inter-cell communication protocol is described, along with necessary design considerations of threshold and timing values. Finally, functional simulations are carried out on a 5-leg 12V/1.2V 60W multiphase converter, which validate the proposed decentralized phase-shedding strategy for a microcontroller power supply implementation.