A new low intensity beam profiler for SPIRAL2

WEPF14International audienceIn the framework of SPIRAL 2 ion beams, several beam profile monitors are presently being developed at GANIL. One of them is a low-intensity beam-profile monitor that works as a secondary electron detector. This Emission-Foil Monitor (EFM) will be used in the radioactive beam lines of SPIRAL2 and in the experimental rooms of this new facility. The ions produce secondary electrons when they are stopped in an aluminium emissive foil. The electrons are then accelerated using an electric field and guided using a magnetic field to a double-stage microchannel plate (MCP). A 2D pixellated pad plane placed below the MCP is used to collect the signals. The magnetic field created by permanent magnets in a closed magnetic circuit configuration permits the beam-profile reconstruction to be achieved with a good resolution. The EFM can visualize beam-profile intensities between only a few pps to as much as 109 pps and with energies as low as several keV. This profiler has been under development since 2009 and is currently manufactured. Recent results of this monitor are presented in this article

La maladie chancreuse du pin d'Alep (II). Recherche de moyens d'intervention

Le but était de mieux connaître et maîtriser cette maladie, par le biais de traitements chimiques et culturaux. L'étude montre que : la maladie présente des fluctuations interannuelles, liées aux pluies supérieures à la normale - Les contaminations sont estivales ou automnales - La réceptivité des pousses augmente avec leur âge - La durée d'incubation dépasse le semestre - Les mortalités de pousses se produisent en fin d'été - Certains produits limitent les infections - La lutte sylvicole telle que conçue ici est inefficace

Mechanisms of cell entry by human papillomaviruses: an overview

As the primary etiological agents of cervical cancer, human papillomaviruses (HPVs) must deliver their genetic material into the nucleus of the target cell. The viral capsid has evolved to fulfil various roles that are critical to establish viral infection. The particle interacts with the cell surface via interaction of the major capsid protein, L1, with heparan sulfate proteoglycans. Moreover, accumulating evidence suggests the involvement of a secondary receptor and a possible role for the minor capsid protein, L2, in cell surface interactions

Transmission congénitale de la brucellose bovine d’une génération à l’autre

Plommet M., Renoux G., Philippon Alain, Gestin J., Fenster-Bank R. Transmission congénitale de la brucellose bovine d’une génération à l’autre. In: Bulletin de l'Académie Vétérinaire de France tome 124 n°1, 1971. pp. 53-59

Sporulenes, Heptaprenyl Metabolites from Bacillus subtilis Spores

Sporulene, a C35-terpenoid hydrocarbon with an unusual pentacyclic structure, is produced by Bacillus subtilis during sporulation.Harvard University. Microbial Sciences Initiative (Fellowship

Selection of Medical Diagnostic Codes for Analysis of Electronic Patient Records. Application to Stroke in a Primary Care Database

BACKGROUND: Electronic patient records from primary care databases are increasingly used in public health and health services research but methods used to identify cases with disease are not well described. This study aimed to evaluate the relevance of different codes for the identification of acute stroke in a primary care database, and to evaluate trends in the use of different codes over time.METHODS: Data were obtained from the General Practice Research Database from 1997 to 2006. All subjects had a minimum of 24 months of up-to-standard record before the first recorded stroke diagnosis. Initially, we identified stroke cases using a supplemented version of the set of codes for prevalent stroke used by the Office for National Statistics in Key health statistics from general practice 1998 (ONS codes). The ONS codes were then independently reviewed by four raters and a restricted set of 121 codes for 'acute stroke' was identified but the kappa statistic was low at 0.23.RESULTS: Initial extraction of data using the ONS codes gave 48,239 cases of stroke from 1997 to 2006. Application of the restricted set of codes reduced this to 39,424 cases. There were 2,288 cases whose index medical codes were for 'stroke annual review' and 3,112 for 'stroke monitoring'. The frequency of stroke review and monitoring codes as index codes increased from 9 per year in 1997 to 1,612 in 2004, 1,530 in 2005 and 1,424 in 2006. The one year mortality of cases with the restricted set of codes was 29.1% but for 'stroke annual review,' 4.6% and for 'stroke monitoring codes', 5.7%.CONCLUSION: In the analysis of electronic patient records, different medical codes for a single condition may have varying clinical and prognostic significance; utilisation of different medical codes may change over time; researchers with differing clinical or epidemiological experience may have differing interpretations of the relevance of particular codes. There is a need for greater transparency in the selection of sets of codes for different conditions, for the reporting of sensitivity analyses using different sets of codes, as well as sharing of code sets among researchers

African Rice (Oryza glaberrima Steud.): Lost Crop of the Enslaved Africans Discovered in Suriname1

African Rice (Oryza glaberrimaSteud.): Lost Crop of the Enslaved Africans Discovered in Suriname. African rice (Oryza glaberrima Steud.) was introduced to the Americas during the slave trade years and grown by enslaved Africans for decades before mechanical milling devices facilitated the shift towards Asian rice (O. sativa L.). Literature suggests that African rice is still grown in Guyana and French Guiana, but the most recent herbarium voucher dates from 1938. In this paper, evidence is presented that O. glaberrima is still grown by Saramaccan Maroons both for food and ritual uses. Saramaccan informants claim their forefathers collected their first “black rice” from a mysterious wild rice swamp and cultivated these seeds afterwards. Unmilled spikelets (grains with their husk still attached) are sold in small quantities for ancestor offerings, and even exported to the Netherlands to be used by Maroon immigrants. Little is known of the evolution of O. glaberrima, before and after domestication. Therefore, more research is needed on the different varieties of rice and other “lost crops” grown by these descendants of enslaved Africans who escaped from plantations in the 17th and 18th centuries and maintained much of their African cultural heritage in the deep rainforest

C9ORF72 hexanucleotide repeat exerts toxicity in a stable, inducible motor neuronal cell model, which is rescued by partial depletion of Pten.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating and incurable neurodegenerative disease, characterised by progressive failure of the neuromuscular system. A (G4C2)n repeat expansion in C9ORF72 is the most common genetic cause of ALS and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). To date, the balance of evidence indicates that the (G4C2)n repeat causes toxicity and neurodegeneration via a gain-of-toxic function mechanism; either through direct RNA toxicity or through the production of toxic aggregating dipeptide repeat proteins. Here, we have generated a stable and isogenic motor neuronal NSC34 cell model with inducible expression of a (G4C2)102 repeat, to investigate the gain-of-toxic function mechanisms. The expression of the (G4C2)102 repeat produces RNA foci and also undergoes RAN translation. In addition, the expression of the (G4C2)102 repeat shows cellular toxicity. Through comparison of transcriptomic data from the cellular model with laser-captured spinal motor neurons from C9ORF72-ALS cases, we also demonstrate that the PI3K/Akt cell survival signalling pathway is dysregulated in both systems. Furthermore, partial knockdown of Pten rescues the toxicity observed in the NSC34 (G4C2)102 cellular gain-of-toxic function model of C9ORF72-ALS. Our data indicate that PTEN may provide a potential therapeutic target to ameliorate toxic effects of the (G4C2)n repeat