Psychological and physiological evaluation of emotional effects of a perfume in menopausal women

International audienceIn the present study, we familiarized menopausal women with a pleasant smell in the skin care products, they used for 1 week and assessed whether their mood and emotions improved using behavioural and physiological tools. Eventually, we studied the effects of inhaling the familiar fragrance on physiological response of the subjects. An anhedonia questionnaire was used to distinguish the effects of the test products according to low vs. high score of anhedonia. Familiarization with the fragrance induced a modification of some physiological parameters, reflecting a relaxing effect, and these unconscious effects paralleled the conscious positive effects on mood recorded during the familiarization phase; it appeared that the effects were more prominent in subjects with higher scores of anhedonia. These results suggest that the pleasant smell of a skin care product contributes to the quality of life in a population of menopausal women with low easiness to experience pleasure

Variations in the TRPV1 gene are associated to exertional heat stroke

International audienceOBJECTIVES: Exertional Heat Stroke (EHS) is one of the top three causes of sudden death in athletes. Extrinsic and intrinsic risk factors have been identified but the genetic causes still remain unclear. Our aim was to identify genes responsible for EHS, which is a necessary step to identify patients at risk and prevent crises. DESIGN: Genetic and functional laboratory studies METHODS: Whole Exome Sequencing (WES) was performed to search for candidate genes in a cohort of 15 soldiers who had a documented EHS episode. In silico and in vitro functional studies were performed to evaluate the effect of mutations identified in the candidate gene TRPV1. RESULTS: WES led to the identification of two missense variations in the TRPV1 gene. These variations were very rare or unreported in control databases and located in critical domains of the protein. In vitro functional studies revealed that both variations induce a strong modification of the channel response to one of its natural agonist, the capsaicin. CONCLUSIONS: We evidenced mutations altering channel properties of the TRPV1 gene and demonstrated that TRPV1, which is involved in thermoregulation and nociception, is a new candidate gene for EHS. Our data provide the bases to explore genetic causes and molecular mechanisms governing the pathophysiology of EHS

An Experimental Environment for Exchanging Engineering Design Knowledge By Cognitive Agents

Large engineering design projects involve many different disciplines each with their own area of concern and expertise. A large amount of information (design data and knowledge) is processed and exchanged among such disciplines, and even within each discipline. Traditional computer environments cannot cope easily with such complex situations. Hence new approaches must be sought. This paper presents an experimental design environment organized as a population of asynchronous cognitive agents. Issues about the general architecture, the internal structure of an agent and inter-agent communication mechanism are discussed. A prototype including a number of independent agents is then presented and demonstrated on a small mechanical design. Keywords Cognitive Agents, Engineering Design Knowledge, CAD, Mechanical Design. 1 INTRODUCTION Large engineering design projects require the cooperation of multidisciplinary design teams using sophisticated and powerful engineering tools such as comme..