Social media in the Global South: A Network Dataset of the Malian Twittersphere

With the expansion of mobile communications infrastructure, social media usage in the Global South is surging. Compared to the Global North, populations of the Global South have had less prior experience with social media from stationary computers and wired Internet. Many countries are experiencing violent conflicts that have a profound effect on their societies. As a result, social networks develop under different conditions than elsewhere, and our goal is to provide data for studying this phenomenon. In this dataset paper, we present a data collection of a national Twittersphere in a West African country of conflict. While not the largest social network in terms of users, Twitter is an important platform where people engage in public discussion. The focus is on Mali, a country beset by conflict since 2012 that has recently had a relatively precarious media ecology. The dataset consists of tweets and Twitter users in Mali and was collected in June 2022, when the Malian conflict became more violent internally both towards external and international actors. In a preliminary analysis, we assume that the conflictual context influences how people access social media and, therefore, the shape of the Twittersphere and its characteristics. The aim of this paper is to primarily invite researchers from various disciplines including complex networks and social sciences scholars to explore the data at hand further. We collected the dataset using a scraping strategy of the follower network and the identification of characteristics of a Malian Twitter user. The given snapshot of the Malian Twitter follower network contains around seven million accounts, of which 56,000 are clearly identifiable as Malian. In addition, we present the tweets. The dataset is available at: https://osf.io/mj2q/?view_only=460f5daef1024f05a0d45e082d26059f (peer review version).Comment: 17 pages, 6 figure

Ecosystem-based assessment of a widespread Mediterranean marine habitat: The Coastal Detrital Bottoms, with a special focus on epibenthic assemblages

IntroductionCoastal detrital bottoms (CDB) are one of the most extensive habitats of the continental shelf worldwide, in the upper levels of the circalittoral zone. Hosting a diverse community structured by sediment grain size, trophic interactions and calcified organisms, CDB exhibit important ecological functions. In the Mediterranean Sea, CDB are constituted by recent elements partly provided by adjacent infralittoral and circalittoral ecosystems. Since the 2010s, the offshore extension of many Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) has resulted in the incorporation of vast areas of CDB, raising the issue of their management. The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) has embraced the concept of an ecosystem-based approach involving taking into account the functioning of marine habitats and their related ecosystem services. The purpose of this paper is to propose an ecosystem-based quality index (EBQI) tested on CDB from the north-western Mediterranean Sea, focusing mainly on epibenthic assemblages.MethodsThe first step has been to define a conceptual model of the CDB functioning, including the main trophic compartments and their relative weighting, then to identify appropriate assessment methods and potential descriptors. Twenty-nine sites were sampled along the coast of Provence and French Riviera (Southern France). Study sites were chosen with a view to encompassing a wide range of hydrological conditions and human pressures.ResultsVery well-preserved sites were found in Provence in areas without trawling and terrigenous inputs, while impacted and low-ES sites were located in the vicinity of urbanized areas. The cover of rhodoliths characterizes the seascape and might be an indicator of the good ES of CDB and reduced human pressure. However, the absence of rhodoliths may also be induced by natural phenomena.DiscussionThe EBQI designed for CDB proved representative and useful for a functional assessment based on epibenthic assemblages. However, some descriptors have shown their limitations and should be further explored. We highlight here the priority of establishing an index corresponding to a societal demand (e.g., European Directives, Barcelona convention) as a basis for a broad and large-scale assessment, for practical reasons. We stress the need to better apprehend the role of the macro-infauna and to extend this index over a wider geographical scale

eScriptorium : de la transcription automatique à l'édition numérique. Le cas des manuscrits hébreux: Les rendez-vous de la philologie numérique

Deux fois par mois, Noëmie Lucas discutera avec un invité, porteur d'un projet d'humanités numériques, autour des questions de reconnaissance automatique des caractères, d’encodage et de fouilles des textes, de catalogage, ou encore de publication.▶ Mardi 11 mai, de 17h à 18h30, en ligne eScriptorium : de la transcription automatique à l'édition numérique. Le cas des manuscrits hébreuxIntervenants : Daniel Stökl Ben Ezra et Noëmie Luca

L’activité de l’AMPK garante de la barrière épithéliale de l’intestin

International audienc

Effects of a (poly)phenol-rich berry mix on gas production in healthy individuals: An integrated clinical, metagenomic, and metabolomic proof-of-concept study

Dietary (poly)phenols are metabolized by intestinal microbiota, but their potential effect on intestinal gas production and gas-reated symptoms remain uncertain. The aim of this study was to correlate gas production, digestive sensations, gut microbiota composition, and metabolites in urine and feces upon (poly)phenols consumption. Twenty-three healthy subjects consumed a (poly)phenol-rich berry mix for 18 days. The (poly)phenol-rich mix initially increased anal gas evacuation and induced gas-related sensations, which reverted by 18 days of dietary administration, indicating that they were metabolized and induced an adaptation of the microbiota. Upon consumption, microbiota composition adapted, exhibiting significant correlations between some taxa, bile acids, and digestive sensations, like L. pectinoschiza, positively associated with digestive well-being. Notably, the steroid-like metabolite cortolone decreased 7-fold (p < 0.001), and the bile acid 7-ketodeoxycholic acid decreased 5-fold (p < 0.001) in the urine. These preliminary data suggest that consumption of a (poly)phenol-rich berry mix induces an adaptation of the gut microbiota with beneficial effects on gas-related sensations

The FASEB Journal

Given the growing evidence that gut dysfunction, including changes in gut microbiota composition, plays a critical role in the development of inflammation and metabolic diseases, the identification of novel probiotic bacteria with immunometabolic properties has recently attracted more attention. Herein, bacterial strains were first isolated from dairy products and human feces and then screened in vitro for their immunomodulatory activity. Five selected strains were further analyzed in vivo, using a mouse model of diet‐induced obesity. C57BL/6 mice were fed a high‐fat high‐sucrose diet, in combination with 1 of 3 Lactobacillus strains (Lb38, L. plantarum; L79, L. paracaseil casei; Lbl02, L. rhamnosus) or Bifidobacterium strains (Bf26, Bfl41, 2 different strains of B. animalis ssp. lactis species) administered for 8 wk at 109 colony‐forming units/d. Whereas 3 strains showed only modest (Lb38, Bf26) or no (L79) effects, Lbl02 and Bfl41 reduced diet‐induced obesity, visceral fat accretion, and inflammation, concomitant with improvement of glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity. Further analysis revealed that Lbl02 and Bf141 enhanced intestinal integrity markers in association with selective changes in gut microbiota composition. We have thus identified 2 new potential probiotic bacterial strains with immunometabolic properties to alleviate obesity development and associated metabolic disturbances.—Le Barz, M., Daniel, N., Varin, T. V., Naimi, S., Demers‐Mathieu, V., Pilon, G., Audy, J., Laurin, E., Roy, D., Urdaci, M. C., St‐Gelais, D., Fliss, I, Marette, A. In vivo screening of multiple bacterial strains identifies Lactobacillus rhamnosus Lbl02 and Bifidobacterium animalis ssp. lactis Bf 141 as probiotics that improve metabolic disorders in a mouse model of obesity. FASEB J. 33, 4921—4935 (2019)

Social media in the Global South: A Network Dataset of the Malian Twittersphere

With the expansion of mobile communications infrastructure, social mediausage in the Global South is surging. Compared to the Global North, populationsof the Global South have had less prior experience with social media fromstationary computers and wired Internet. Many countries are experiencingviolent conflicts that have a profound effect on their societies. As a result,social networks develop under different conditions than elsewhere, and our goalis to provide data for studying this phenomenon. In this dataset paper, wepresent a data collection of a national Twittersphere in a West African countryof conflict. While not the largest social network in terms of users, Twitter isan important platform where people engage in public discussion. The focus is onMali, a country beset by conflict since 2012 that has recently had a relativelyprecarious media ecology. The dataset consists of tweets and Twitter users inMali and was collected in June 2022, when the Malian conflict became moreviolent internally both towards external and international actors. In apreliminary analysis, we assume that the conflictual context influences howpeople access social media and, therefore, the shape of the Twittersphere andits characteristics. The aim of this paper is to primarily invite researchersfrom various disciplines including complex networks and social sciencesscholars to explore the data at hand further. We collected the dataset using ascraping strategy of the follower network and the identification ofcharacteristics of a Malian Twitter user. The given snapshot of the MalianTwitter follower network contains around seven million accounts, of which56,000 are clearly identifiable as Malian. In addition, we present the tweets.The dataset is available at: https://osf.io/mj2qt/Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

Social media in the Global South: A Network Dataset of the Malian Twittersphere

With the expansion of mobile communications infrastructure, social media usage in the Global South is surging. Compared to the Global North, populations of the Global South have had less prior experience with social media from stationary computers and wired Internet. Many countries are experiencing violent conflicts that have a profound effect on their societies. As a result, social networks develop under different conditions than elsewhere, and our goal is to provide data for studying this phenomenon. In this dataset paper, we present a data collection of a national Twittersphere in a West African country of conflict. While not the largest social network in terms of users, Twitter is an important platform where people engage in public discussion. The focus is on Mali, a country beset by conflict since 2012 that has recently had a relatively precarious media ecology. The dataset consists of tweets and Twitter users in Mali and was collected in June 2022, when the Malian conflict became more violent internally both towards external and international actors. In a preliminary analysis, we assume that the conflictual context influences how people access social media and, therefore, the shape of the Twittersphere and its characteristics. The aim of this paper is to primarily invite researchers from various disciplines including complex networks and social sciences scholars to explore the data at hand further. We collected the dataset using a scraping strategy of the follower network and the identification of characteristics of a Malian Twitter user. The given snapshot of the Malian Twitter follower network contains around seven million accounts, of which 56,000 are clearly identifiable as Malian. In addition, we present the tweets. The dataset is available at: https://osf.io/mj2qt

Local Delivery of Streptomycin in Microcontainers Facilitates Colonization of Streptomycin-Resistant <i>Escherichia coli</i> in the Rat Colon

Oral antibiotic treatment is often applied in animal studies in order to allow establishment of an introduced antibiotic-resistant bacterium in the gut. Here, we compared the application of streptomycin dosed orally in microcontainers to dosage through drinking water. The selective effect on a resistant bacterial strain, as well as the effects on fecal, luminal, and mucosal microbiota composition, were investigated. Three groups of rats (n = 10 per group) were orally dosed with microcontainers daily for 3 days. One of these groups (STR-M) received streptomycin-loaded microcontainers designed for release in the distal ileum, while the other two groups (controls [CTR] and STR-W) received empty microcontainers. The STR-W group was additionally dosed with streptomycin through the drinking water. A streptomycin-resistant Escherichia coli strain was orally inoculated into all animals. Three days after inoculation, the resistant E. coli was found only in the cecum and colon of animals receiving streptomycin in microcontainers but in all intestinal compartments of animals receiving streptomycin in the drinking water. 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing revealed significant changes in the fecal microbiota of both groups of streptomycin-treated animals. Investigation of the inner colonic mucus layer by confocal laser scanning microscopy and laser capture microdissection revealed no significant effect of streptomycin treatment on the mucus-inhabiting microbiota or on E. coli encroachment into the inner mucus. Streptomycin-loaded microcontainers thus enhanced proliferation of an introduced streptomycin-resistant E. coli in the cecum and colon without affecting the small intestine environment. While improvements of the drug delivery system are needed to facilitate optimal local concentration and release of streptomycin, the application of microcontainers provides new prospects for antibiotic treatment. IMPORTANCE Delivery of antibiotics in microcontainer devices designed for release at specific sites of the gut represents a novel approach which might reduce the amount of antibiotic needed to obtain a local selective effect. We propose that the application of microcontainers may have the potential to open novel opportunities for antibiotic treatment of humans and animals with fewer side effects on nontarget bacterial populations. In the current study, we therefore elucidated the effects of streptomycin, delivered in microcontainers coated with pH-sensitive lids, on the selective effect on a resistant bacterium, as well as on the surrounding intestinal microbiota in rats