SPS-prepared targets for sputtering deposition of phase change films.

Phase-change materials like thin films from the systems [Ge1-xPbx]Te and Ge[Te1-xSex] are of interest for data storage. For these compositions amorphous materials can not be obtained by melt quenching. However, Suitable films can be obtained using RF sputtering. Spark plasma sintering (SPS) was used to densify the powders to obtain large targets. Synthesis conditions and characterisations of the targets are reported. Amorphous nano films were obtained using the sintered targets and characterised

Reduced Emissions for Deforestation and Degradation: A Critical Review

“Reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation” (REDD) is emerging as a major new climate change mechanism that could deeply impact the financial, social and institutional dynamics of deforestation, conservation, and development in many developing countries. It has the potential to influence global forest governance in a socially acceptable way. The mechanism as it stands needs much improvement to avoid the pitfalls of earlier forest governance mechanisms. The research, at this stage, is not sufficient to improve it. Most of the literature is fairly slanted towards technical issues and the prospective design of the scheme or normative opposition to it. Despite this copious amounts of scholarly and advocacy work, there is too little attention focused on the social and governance dimensions of the proposals

Associations between anthropometric characteristics and physical performance in male law enforcement officers: A retrospective cohort study

BACKGROUND: Police officers are often required to undertake physically demanding tasks, like lifting, dragging and pursuing a suspect. Therefore, physical performance is a key requirement. METHODS: Retrospective data for 76 male police officers (mean age = 39.42 ± 8.41 years; mean weight = 84.21 ± 12.91 kg) was obtained. Data included anthropometric (skinfolds, estimated percentage body fat, lean body mass and fat mass) and physical performance (1 Repetition Maximum Bench Press, 1–min sit-ups, 1-min push-ups, vertical jump, 300 m run, 1.5 mile run) measures and correlations between anthropometric measurement and fitness score were obtained. RESULTS: Estimated percentage body fat was significantly (p ≤ .001) and negatively correlated with all performance measures, except sit-ups and 300 m and 1.5 mile run performance. Estimated lean body mass was significantly and positively (p ≤ .001) correlated with push-ups, bench press and vertical jump measures, while increasing estimated fat mass was significantly (p ≤ .001) associated with reduced performance on sit-up, vertical jump, 1.5 mile run and estimated maximal voluntary oxygen uptake. CONCLUSIONS: A targeted approach, going beyond just decreasing percentage body fat to also selectively increasing lean mass, should be applied for optimal improvement in physical fitness performance

Pallidal origin of GABA release within the substantia nigra pars reticulata during high-frequency stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus

High-frequency stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (HFS-STN) is an effective treatment for alleviating the motor symptoms of parkinsonian patients. However, the neurochemical basis of its effects remains unknown. We showed previously that 1 h of HFS-STN in normal rats increases extracellular glutamate (Glu) level in the output nuclei of the STN, the globus pallidus (GP), and the substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNr), consistent with an increase in the activity of STN neurons. HFS-STN also increases GABA levels in the SNr, but the origin of this increase is unclear. We investigated the effectiveness of HFS-STN for improving Parkinson's disease symptoms, using intracerebral microdialysis to determine the extracellular Glu and GABA levels of the GP and SNr in response to HFS-STN in anesthetized hemiparkinsonian rats [6-hydroxydopamine lesion of the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc)]. Basal levels of Glu and GABA in the GP and SNr were significantly higher in hemiparkinsonian than in intact rats. HFS-STN did not affect extracellular Glu level in the SNr of hemiparkinsonian rats but doubled the level of GABA. Ibotenic acid lesion of the GP abolished the increase in GABA levels in the SNr induced by HFS-STN in SNc-lesioned rats. These results provide neurochemical confirmation of the hyperactivity of the STN after dopaminergic denervation and suggest that the therapeutic effects of HFS-STN may result partly from the stimulation of pallidonigral fibers, thereby revealing a potential role for pallidal GABA in the inhibition of basal ganglial output structures during HFS-STN

Interactions audio-tactiles et perception de la parole : Comparaisons entre sujets aveugles et voyants

International audienceThe present study investigated whether manual tactile information from a speaker's face modulates the decoding of speech when audio-tactile perception is compared with audio-only perception. Two groups of congenitally blind and sighted adults were compared. Participants performed a syllable decision task across three conditions: audio-only and congruent/incongruent audio-tactile conditions. For the auditory modality, the syllables were presented in a background white noise or without noise. Our results demonstrate that manual tactile information relevant to recovering speech gestures modulates auditory speech perception in case of degraded acoustic information and that these audio-tactile interactions occur similarly in untrained listeners despite differences in sensory skillsLe but de cette expérience était d'évaluer si l'information tactile, obtenu manuellement par le contact avec le visage du locuteur peut moduler le décodage de la parole. La perception audio-tactile de la parole a été comparé à la seule perception auditive chez des sujets aveugles et des sujets voyants. Les participants devaient réaliser une tâche de décision phonémique dans trois conditions : auditive, audio-tactile cohérente et audio-tactile non cohérente, avec ou sans bruit masquant. Les résultats montrent qu'une information tactile sur les gestes de la parole améliore la perception de la parole en cas d'information acoustique dégradée. Malgré de possibles différences de sensibilité sensorielle entre ces deux groupes de sujets, le même type d'interaction audio-tactile a été constaté pour les auditeurs voyants et aveugles

Critical agitation for microcarrier suspension in orbital shaken bioreactors : Experimental study and dimensional analysis

Orbital shaken bioreactors are widely used at the laboratory scale for the culture of animal cells in suspension mode. In the case of adherent-dependent cell lines,the choice of agitation conditions at which all particles are just-suspended (or attain complete suspension) has often to be determined.Indeed, with orbital shaken bioreactors,this choice results from the combination of two parameters : the orbital diameter and the agitation rate. That is why an experimental protocol for the determination of critical agitation conditions for microcarrier complete suspension has been developed in this paper.It consisted in a side-view visualization of blue-stained particles in shaken Erlenmeyer flasks and cylindrical flasks. 220 experiments representative of animal cell culture conditions have been carried out to study the effect of various operating conditions (bioreactor size and geometry, particle type, density and diameter,liquid viscosity, shaking diameter, filling ratio). Furthermore, a dimensional analysis has been performed, leading to a correlation relating a Froude number (in which the critical agitation Nc for complete particle suspension is sembedded) to four other dimensionless numbers. Then,the critical agitation conditions determined in this paper were analyzed and discussed with respect to the data available in the literature on the flow structure occurring inside the flask.Our findings revealed that high orbital shaking diameters and large cylindrical vessels should be promoted to get microcarriers into suspension at a minimized power dissipation per unit of volume

Desarrollo de la inhibición: comparación de medidas neuropsicológicas y de seguimiento de ojos

Inhibition is the ability to stop an automatic response when a stimulus is presented. It is one main component of executive function models. Few studies have evaluated the development of this ability’s in children between five and eight years of age using eye tracking measures. The first objective of this exploratory study is to evaluate the performance difference of younger compared to older children. The second objective is to evaluate if inhibition assessed via three different neuropsychological tests develops at a similar rate as inhibition assessed via two eye tracking tasks. Forty-six children aged 5.7 to 8.4 years completed both types of tests. Results show that one neuropsychological test was sensitive to the children’ increasing inhibition ability, while both eye tracking tests were. Additionally, scores from one eye tracking task correlated with scores from one neuropsychological test. Possible explanations of moderate relations between tasks are discussed.La inhibición es la capacidad de detener una respuesta automática. Es una de las funciones ejecutivas principales. Pocos estudios han evaluado su desarrollo en niños de cinco a ocho años utilizando pruebas de seguimiento de ojos. Este estudio exploratorio tiene, como primer objetivo, evaluar la diferencia de rendimiento entre los más jóvenes y los mayores. El segundo objetivo es evaluar si la inhibición se desarrolla a un ritmo similar en tres pruebas neuropsicológicas y dos pruebas de seguimiento de ojos. Cuarenta y seis niños, de 5 años y 8 meses a 8 años y 5 meses, realizaron ambos tipos de pruebas. Los resultados muestran que una de las pruebas neuropsicológicas y ambas pruebas de seguimiento de ojos fueron sensibles a la mejora de la inhibición. Además, resultados de una prueba de seguimiento de ojos y de una prueba neuropsicológica estaban correlacionados. Se discuten las explicaciones posibles de las relaciones entre las tareas

Modeling the evolution of the Milky Way from Gaia DR3

Galactic stellar populations are good tracers of the history of the Milky Way. Their study via Gaia astrometric and photometric data should allow to pinpoint the star formation history (SFH) in the disc and halo in a self-consistent dynamical model. Population synthesis models are efficient tools to measure the SFH from the distribution of the stars in the Hess diagram, thanks to different locations of stars according to their age and metallicity. We present the iterative strategy planned to fit the IMF and the SFH of the thin disk using the BGMFast scheme (del Alcazar et al., see poster) based on approximate bayesian computation (ABC) performed with HPC tools and, at the same time, the attempt to keep the self-consistent dynamical model by fitting the gravitational potential of the Milky Way to the stellar kinematics and densities from Gaia data (Robin et al., 2022)

Déterminants socioculturels et psychosociaux de l’implication dans la vie sexuelle parmi les jeunes adultes francophones du Québec

Afin de dégager les facteurs qui interviennent dans l'entrée dans la vie sexuelle des jeunes adultes francophones du Québec, un échantillon de 2828 sujets, dont 42,3 % d'hommes et 57,7 % de femmes, inscrits dans les établissements d'enseignement collégial du Québec ont répondu à un questionnaire à remplir soi-même portant, entre autres choses, sur leurs scénarios sexuels, dont la présence d'activités génitales. Les résultats indiquent que la proportion des élèves actifs sexuellement est plus élevée chez les femmes que chez les hommes. De plus, l'entrée dans la vie sexuelle semble s'appuyer sur des considérations d'ordre sociodémographique, socioculturel et psycho-social qui renvoient à des configurations spécifiques selon le genre. Ces résultats peuvent aider à orienter les interventions sociales sur le plan de la sexualité.In order to understand the factors which intervene in the sexual implication of French-speaking college students in Québec, a sample of 2828 subjects, 42,3 % males et 57,7 % females, have answered a self-administered questionnaire dealing, among others, with their sexual scenarios and genital activities. Results indicate that the proportion of sexually active students is higher among females than males. Furthermore sexual activity depends upon sociodemographic, sociocultural and psychosocial factors, some of them varying according to gender. These results can help to design psychosocial interventions oriented towards these populations in the field of prevention and psychological well-being