The Mid-Infrared Spectrum of the Zodiacal and Exozodiacal Light

The zodiacal light is the dominant source of the mid-infrared sky brightness seen from Earth, and exozodiacal light is the dominant emission from planetary and debris systems around other stars. We observed the zodiacal light spectrum with ISOCAM over 5-16 over a wide range of orientations relative to the Sun and the ecliptic. We present theoretical models for a wide range of particle size distributions and compositions. The observed temperature is as expected for large (>10 um radius), low-albedo (< 0.08), rapidly-rotating, grey particles 1 AU from the Sun. In addition to the continuum, we detect a weak excess in the 9-11 um range, with an amplitude of 6% of the continuum. The shape of the feature can be matched by a mixture of silicates: amorphous forsterite/olivine, dirty crystalline olivine, and a hydrous silicate (montmorillonite). The presence of hydrous silicate suggests the parent bodies of those particles were formed in the inner solar nebula. Large particles dominate the size distribution, but at least some small particles (radii ~1 um) are required to produce the silicate emission feature. To compare the properties of zodiacal dust to dust around other main sequence stars, we reanalyzed the exozodiacal light spectrum for Beta Pic. The exozodiacal spectra are dominated by cold dust, with emission peaking in the far-infrared, while the zodiacal spectrum peaks around 20 um. The shape of the silicate feature from Beta Pic is nearly identical to that derived from the ISO spectrum of 51 Oph; both exozodiacal features are very different from that of the zodiacal light. The exozodiacal features are roughly triangular, peaking at 10.3 um while the zodiacal feature is more boxy.Comment: accepted to Icaru

Spanish oils at Marseilles. Mediterranean trade flows in 18th Century

El aceite de oliva constituyó durante mucho tiempo una de las mercancias más importantes del negocio internacional de Marsella. Cada año, el gran puerto provenzal acogía a centenares de navíos que descargaban toneles repletos de ese cuerpo graso natural típicamente mediterráneo. Algunos veleros traían de distintos lugares costeros españoles, los excedentes de la producción española que va a estar dirigida sobre todo a la fabricación local de jabón, que compiten con los muy reputados de Alicante y Cartagena. Esta rama del tráfico portuario marsellés, parte de las relaciones comerciales hispano-francesas en la época moderna, merece ser singularizado, medido y analizado en la larga duración, para un mejor conocimiento de la historia oleícola común.During a long period, olive oil was one of the key commodities of the international trading in Marseille’s Port. Every year, the huge Provencal port was a hub were hundreds of ships unloaded barrels full of the typically Mediterranean fat good. Some of them brought exceeds from the Spanish production from several coastal places, which would be destined to local soap production, competing with reputed producers like Alicante and Cartagena. This branch of the port traffic of Marseille derives from the commercial relationships between Spain and France, and it deserves to be analyzed, measured and singularized in the long term, for a best knowledge of the common oil history

Le positionnement social dans la diplomatie humanitaire : le cas des organisations non gouvernementales internationales (ONGI) en Corée du Nord

This article shows how the theoretical approach of ‘the practice turn’ can be useful when studying humanitarian diplomacy in international relations. The research argues that the social position of organisations influences the implementation of their humanitarian diplomacy. The article uses, as a central example, the case of international non governmental organisations (INGOs) providing humanitarian aid to North Korea. To paint a picture of the field of humanitarian aid in North Korea, this  research uses multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) to analyse around 2,000 pieces of qualitative information. The research shows that the field is made up of three groups of INGOs. We will present their social characteristics and their impact on the humanitarian aid sector in North Korea.Cet article montre l’utilité de l'approche du tournant pratique en relations internationales pour étudier la diplomatie humanitaire. La recherche soutient que la position sociale des organisations influence la mise en oeuvre de leur diplomatie humanitaire. L’article utilise comme exemple central, le cas des organisations internationales non gouvernementales (ONGI) fournissant de l’aide humanitaire à la Corée du Nord. En recourant à l'analyse des correspondances multiples (ACM), nous analysons de manière statistique environ 2000 informations qualitatives afin de brosser un portrait du champ de l’aide humanitaire en Corée du Nord. Nous constatons que le champ est constitué de trois groupes d’ONGI. L’article poursuit en présentant leurs caractéristiques sociales et leurs impacts dans le secteur de l’aide humanitaire en Corée du Nord

Using Set Covering to Generate Databases for Holistic Steganalysis

Within an operational framework, covers used by a steganographer are likely to come from different sensors and different processing pipelines than the ones used by researchers for training their steganalysis models. Thus, a performance gap is unavoidable when it comes to out-of-distributions covers, an extremely frequent scenario called Cover Source Mismatch (CSM). Here, we explore a grid of processing pipelines to study the origins of CSM, to better understand it, and to better tackle it. A set-covering greedy algorithm is used to select representative pipelines minimizing the maximum regret between the representative and the pipelines within the set. Our main contribution is a methodology for generating relevant bases able to tackle operational CSM. Experimental validation highlights that, for a given number of training samples, our set covering selection is a better strategy than selecting random pipelines or using all the available pipelines. Our analysis also shows that parameters as denoising, sharpening, and downsampling are very important to foster diversity. Finally, different benchmarks for classical and wild databases show the good generalization property of the extracted databases. Additional resources are available at github.com/RonyAbecidan/HolisticSteganalysisWithSetCovering

Autotaxin and Lipoprotein Metabolism in Calcific Aortic Valve Disease

Calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD) is a complex trait disorder characterized by calcific remodeling of leaflets. Genome-wide association (GWA) study and Mendelian randomization (MR) have highlighted that LPA, which encodes for apolipoprotein(a) [apo(a)], is causally associated with CAVD. Apo(a) is the protein component of Lp(a), a LDL-like particle, which transports oxidized phospholipids (OxPLs). Autotaxin (ATX), which is encoded by ENPP2, is a member of the ecto-nucleotidase family of enzymes, which is, however, a lysophospholipase. As such, ATX converts phospholipids into lysophosphatidic acid (LysoPA), a metabolite with potent and diverse biological properties. Studies have recently underlined that ATX is enriched in the Lp(a) lipid fraction. Functional experiments and data obtained in mouse models suggest that ATX mediates inflammation and mineralization of the aortic valve. Recent findings also indicate that epigenetically-driven processes lower the expression of phospholipid phosphatase 3 (PLPP3) and increased LysoPA signaling and inflammation in the aortic valve during CAVD. These recent data thus provide novel insights about how lipoproteins mediate the development of CAVD. Herein, we review the implication of lipoproteins in CAVD and examine the role of ATX in promoting the osteogenic transition of valve interstitial cells (VICs)

An extended model of vesicle fusion at the plasma membrane to estimate protein lateral diffusion from TIRF microscopy images.

BACKGROUND: Characterizing membrane dynamics is a key issue to understand cell exchanges with the extra-cellular medium. Total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy (TIRFM) is well suited to focus on the late steps of exocytosis at the plasma membrane. However, it is still a challenging task to quantify (lateral) diffusion and estimate local dynamics of proteins. RESULTS: A new model was introduced to represent the behavior of cargo transmembrane proteins during the vesicle fusion to the plasma membrane at the end of the exocytosis process. Two biophysical parameters, the diffusion coefficient and the release rate parameter, are automatically estimated from TIRFM image sequences, to account for both the lateral diffusion of molecules at the membrane and the continuous release of the proteins from the vesicle to the plasma membrane. Quantitative evaluation on 300 realistic computer-generated image sequences demonstrated the efficiency and accuracy of the method. The application of our method on 16 real TIRFM image sequences additionally revealed differences in the dynamic behavior of Transferrin Receptor (TfR) and Langerin proteins. CONCLUSION: An automated method has been designed to simultaneously estimate the diffusion coefficient and the release rate for each individual vesicle fusion event at the plasma membrane in TIRFM image sequences. It can be exploited for further deciphering cell membrane dynamics

Composing for the interactive medium

We present a discussion of the role of the composer when developing content for the composer when developing content for the interactive, participatory medium. We describe compositional tensions which emerged during the creation and enactment of our interactive performance, humanaquarium, and discuss how the intertwined nature of interactive and aesthetic concerns inspired our creative innovation in the composition process