Evaluation of AID-COM, a communication-focused program for family carers of people with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease: a pilot study (innovative practice)

Families providing care to relatives with Alzheimer’s disease are quickly destabilized by changes that disrupt communication. This pilot mixed-design study aimed to provide a quantitative and qualitative evaluation of a communication-based training program for carers of people with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease. Five participants received three training sessions. The use of communication strategies by participants and their effectiveness were evaluated before and after the training, and a focus group was conducted to gather participants’ impressions about the impacts of the training on communication with the person they cared for. The AID-COM (AID for COMmunication) program appears to have met expectations. © The Author(s) 2019

Training Symbol-Based Equalization for Quadrature Duobinary PDM-FTN Systems

A training symbol-based equalization algorithm is proposed for polarization de-multiplexing in quadrature duobinary (QDB) modulated polarization division multiplexedfaster-than-Nyquist (FTN) coherent optical systems. The proposed algorithm is based on the least mean square algorithm, and multiple location candidates of a symbol are considered in order to make use of the training symbols with QDB modulation.Results show that an excellent convergence performance is obtained using the proposed algorithm under different polarization alignment scenarios. The optical signal-to-noise ratio required to attain a bit error rate of 2*10-2 is reduced by 1.7 and 1.8 dB using the proposed algorithm, compared to systems using the constant modulus algorithm with differential coding for 4-ary quadrature amplitude modulation(4-QAM) and 16-QAM systems with symbol-by-symbol detection, respectively.Furthermore, comparisons with the Tomlinson-Harashima precoding-based FTN systems illustrate that QDB is preferable when 4-QAM is utilized

Interopérabilité des systèmes d'information : approches dirigées par les modèles

National audienceInformation systems are more and more often based on aggregation of other systems that must be maintained and evolved in an agile way and with no entropy creation. This is not without interoperability problems! Among others, the aim of Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) is to provide solutions for interoperability issues between systems. This paper summarizes thoughts that have come up from the specific action "Interoper- ability of information systems and model-driven engineering: What challenges? What solutions?" supported by inforsid. We propose a summary of approaches that are based on MDE and knowledge engineering and that tackle interoperability issues in the industry. Open questions and limitations that raised during the meetings are also reported

Les traitements pharmacologiques dans le trouble de la personnalité borderline (aspects méthodologiques et revue des résultats)

PARIS7-Villemin (751102101) / SudocPARIS-BIUM (751062103) / SudocSudocFranceF

Terahertz near-field imaging using batch-fabricated cantilevers with 70 μm long tips

International audienceBatch-fabricated atomic force microscopy cantilevers with tip longer than 70 μm are reported. They are designed to increase terahertz focusing in scattering optical nearfield imaging. Terahertz imaging of graphene samples with sub-100 nm features is presented

s-SNOM imaging of a THz photonic mode

International audienceWe report on the imaging by THz s-SNOM of the field concentration associated to the photonic mode of a split-ring resonator with a 2 µm small gap. The ability to concentrate and probe THz radiations at this scale is of interest for studies on micro and nano objects. Our results are interpreted with numerical calculations as an interplay between the confined near-field and the directional far-field emission of the system

Functional connectivity is preserved but reorganized across several anesthetic regimes

International audienceUnder anesthesia, systemic variables and CBF are modified. How does this alter the connectivity measures obtained with rs-fMRI? To tackle this question, we explored the effect of four different anesthetics on Long Evans and Wistar rats with multimodal recordings of rs-fMRI, systemic variables and CBF. After multimodal signal processing, we show that the blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) variations and functional connectivity (FC) evaluated at low frequencies (0.031-0.25 Hz) do not depend on systemic variables and are preserved across a large interval of baseline CBF values. Based on these findings, we found that most brain areas remain functionally active under any anesthetics, i.e. connected to at least one other brain area, as shown by the connectivity graphs. In addition, we quantified the influence of nodes by a measure of functional connectivity strength to show the specific areas targeted by anesthetics and compare correlation values of edges at different levels. These measures enable us to highlight the specific network alterations induced by anesthetics. Altogether, this suggests that changes in connectivity could be evaluated under anesthesia, routinely used in the control of neurological injury

Management and treatment of uncomplicated imported malaria in adults. Update of the French malaria clinical guidelines

International audienceThe diagnosis of malaria should always be considered in travelers returning from an endemic area and presenting with fever or a history of fever, either isolated or combined with other general, digestive, and/or respiratory symptoms, even if appropriate chemoprophylaxis was used.• Outpatient management of uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria may be implemented if precise clinical and biological criteria are met and if medical follow-up is possible.• Admission to hospital is recommended for individuals at risk of complications (young children and elderly, comorbidity, pregnancy, splenectomy, etc.).• The first-line treatment of uncomplicated P. falciparum malaria in adults is an artemisinin-derivative combination therapy (ACT): artemether-lumefantrine or artenimol-piperaquine. When such treatment is unavailable, not tolerated, or contraindicated, if interactions with concomitant medication are possible, or if ACT fails, then treatment with atovaquone-proguanil is an alternative option. Pregnant women (1st trimester) presenting with uncomplicated P. falciparum malaria should be hospitalized and treated with atovaquone-proguanil, or quinine if vomiting occurs. From the 2nd trimester on, priority should be given to artemether-lumefantrine or artenimol-piperaquine.• Uncomplicated malaria caused by species other than P. falciparum (i.e., P. vivax, P. ovale, P. malariae, or P. knowlesi) is treated with chloroquine or ACT. The latter is preferable in cases of co-infection or P. vivax malaria in travelers returning from a region known for resistance to chloroquine.• To prevent relapses in individuals infected with P. vivax or P. ovale, the dormant liver forms must be eliminated using primaquine, for which temporary use authorization (TUA) may be obtained once possible contraindications have been ruled out (glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase [G6PD] deficiency, pregnancy, breastfeeding)

Impact of cerebral blood flow level on the fluctuations of resting-state BOLD fMRI in anesthetized rats

International audienceThe Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) signal, used in resting-state functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), is tighly linked to Cerebral Blood Flow (CBF). This study evaluates the impact of the CBF on the low-frequencies BOLD fluctuations and four physiological parameters during resting state in 5 groups of rats (Wistar and Long-Evans) anesthetized with Isoflurane, Medetomidine, Etomidate and Urethane. It is shown that the CBF is not related to physiological parameters, and there exists a range of CBF values where the BOLD fluctations are sufficiently high for being used in any other analysis

Characterization of glucan-producing Leuconostoc strains isolated from sourdough

International audienceSourdough was previously demonstrated to be a fruitful biotope for isolation of lactic acid bacteria producing exopolysaccharides and more accurately diverse glycan polymers which have interesting applications as texturing agents or prebiotics. Characterization of polymers by (1)H and (13)C NMR spectroscopy analysis demonstrated that these strains could synthesize glucans of high structural variety and containing different amounts of alpha-(1 -> 2), alpha-(1 -> 3) and alpha-(1 -> 6) linkages. In this study, fifteen glucan-producing Leuconostoc mesenteroides and L citreum strains from sourdoughs were characterized according to carbohydrate fermentation, rep-PCR fingerprinting using (GTG)(5) primers and glycansucrase activity (soluble or cell-associated). Enzyme characterization using SOS-PAGE and in situ polymer production after incubation with sucrose correlated with synthesis of classical or alpha-(1 -> 2) branched dextrans, alternan and levan. In addition, the presence of genes coding for alternansucrase was detected by PCR and partially characterized by sequence analysis. We thus provide new information on the biodiversity of glucan production by sourdough Leuconostoc strains. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved