Open Access Policy: Numbers, Analysis, Effectiveness

The PASTEUR4OA project analyses what makes an Open Access (OA) policy effective. The total number of institutional or funder OA policies worldwide is now 663 (March 2015), over half of them mandatory. ROARMAP, the policy registry, has been rebuilt to record more policy detail and provide more extensive search functionality. Deposit rates were measured for articles in institutions' repositories and compared to the total number of WoS-indexed articles published from those institutions. Average deposit rate was over four times as high for institutions with a mandatory policy. Six positive correlations were found between deposit rates and (1) Must-Deposit; (2) Cannot-Waive-Deposit; (3) Deposit-Linked-to-Research-Evaluation; (4) Cannot-Waive-Rights-Retention; (5) Must-Make-Deposit-OA (after allowable embargo) and (6) Can-Waive-OA. For deposit latency, there is a positive correlation between earlier deposit and (7) Must-Deposit-Immediately as well as with (4) Cannot-Waive-Rights-Retention and with mandate age. There are not yet enough OA policies to test whether still further policy conditions would contribute to mandate effectiveness but the present findings already suggest that it would be useful for current and future OA policies to adopt the seven positive conditions so as to accelerate and maximise the growth of OA.Comment: 49 pages, 21 figures, 15 tables. Pasteur4OA Work Package 3 report: Open Access policies 201

Evolution of endogenous enzyme activities and virgin olive oil characteristics during Chétoui and Chemlali olive ripening

The composition and biochemical characteristics of olive fruits, mainly olive enzymes system, are crucial in determining the final quality of virgin olive oil (VOO). Thus, olives endogenous olive enzyme activities were studied during Chétoui and Chemlali olive ripening. The compositional quality of the corresponding VOO was also studied. Peroxidase (POX) and β-glucosidase activities increased during olives ripening. However, polyphenoloxidase activity decreased slowly. Moreover,the POX enzyme appears to play an essential role in determining VOO total phenol amounts, as the decrease in phenol content registered during olive ripening coincided with the increase in POX activity. A positive correlation between oil antioxidant activity and the total phenol content was established for both the olive cultivars studied. With regard to pigments, chlorophyll content wasmuch higher than that of carotenoids in both Chétoui and Chemlali oils. Moreover, different trends in chlorophyll and carotenoid contents were observed, depending on the olive cultivar. Concerning volatile compounds, our results showed that the highest content of total C6, C5 LOX compounds and pentene dimers was observed at a RI of approximately 3 for both cultivars. However, C6 alcohols and total C5 compounds decreased in Chétoui and Chemlali oils, respectively, during olive ripening

Use of B2O3 films grown by plasma-assisted atomic layer deposition for shallow boron doping in silicon

Plasma-assisted atomic layer deposition (PALD) was carried for growing thin boron oxide films onto silicon aiming at the formation of dopant sources for shallow boron doping of silicon by rapid thermal annealing (RTA). A remote capacitively coupled plasma source powered by GaN microwave oscillators was used for generating oxygen plasma in the PALD process with tris(dimethylamido)borane as boron containing precursor. ALD type growth was obtained; growth per cycle was highest with 0.13 nm at room temperature and decreased with higher temperature. The as-deposited films were highly unstable in ambient air and could be protected by capping with in-situ PALD grown antimony oxide films. After 16 weeks of storage in air, degradation of the film stack was observed in an electron microscope. The instability of the boron oxide, caused by moisture uptake, suggests the application of this film for testing moisture barrier properties of capping materials particularly for those grown by ALD. Boron doping of silicon was demonstrated using the uncapped PALD B2O3 films for RTA processes without exposing them to air. The boron concentration in the silicon could be varied depending on the source layer thickness for very thin films, which favors the application of ALD for semiconductor doping processes.Investment Bank Berlin and EFR

Longitudinal changes in functional connectivity of cortico-basal ganglia networks in manifests and premanifest huntington's disease

Huntington's disease (HD) is a genetic neurological disorder resulting in cognitive and motor impairments. We evaluated the longitudinal changes of functional connectivity in sensorimotor, associative and limbic cortico-basal ganglia networks. We acquired structural MRI and resting-state fMRI in three visits one year apart, in 18 adult HD patients, 24 asymptomatic mutation carriers (preHD) and 18 gender- and age-matched healthy volunteers from the TRACK-HD study. We inferred topological changes in functional connectivity between 182 regions within cortico-basal ganglia networks using graph theory measures. We found significant differences for global graph theory measures in HD but not in preHD. The average shortest path length (L) decreased, which indicated a change toward the random network topology. HD patients also demonstrated increases in degree k, reduced betweeness centrality bc and reduced clustering C. Changes predominated in the sensorimotor network for bc and C and were observed in all circuits for k. Hubs were reduced in preHD and no longer detectable in HD in the sensorimotor and associative networks. Changes in graph theory metrics (L, k, C and bc) correlated with four clinical and cognitive measures (symbol digit modalities test, Stroop, Burden and UHDRS). There were no changes in graph theory metrics across sessions, which suggests that these measures are not reliable biomarkers of longitudinal changes in HD. preHD is characterized by progressive decreasing hub organization, and these changes aggravate in HD patients with changes in local metrics. HD is characterized by progressive changes in global network interconnectivity, whose network topology becomes more random over time. Hum Brain Mapp, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

Global burden of human brucellosis : a systematic review of disease frequency

BACKGROUND: This report presents a systematic review of scientific literature published between 1990-2010 relating to the frequency of human brucellosis, commissioned by WHO. The objectives were to identify high quality disease incidence data to complement existing knowledge of the global disease burden and, ultimately, to contribute towards the calculation of a Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALY) estimate for brucellosis.METHODS/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Thirty three databases were searched, identifying 2,385 articles relating to human brucellosis. Based on strict screening criteria, 60 studies were selected for quality assessment, of which only 29 were of sufficient quality for data analysis. Data were only available from 15 countries in the regions of Northern Africa and Middle East, Western Europe, Central and South America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Central Asia. Half of the studies presented incidence data, six of which were longitudinal prospective studies, and half presented seroprevalence data which were converted to incidence rates. Brucellosis incidence varied widely between, and within, countries. Although study biases cannot be ruled out, demographic, occupational, and socioeconomic factors likely play a role. Aggregated data at national or regional levels do not capture these complexities of disease dynamics and, consequently, at-risk populations or areas may be overlooked. In many brucellosis-endemic countries, health systems are weak and passively-acquired official data underestimate the true disease burden.CONCLUSIONS: High quality research is essential for an accurate assessment of disease burden, particularly in Eastern Europe, the Asia-Pacific, Central and South America and Africa where data are lacking. Providing formal epidemiological and statistical training to researchers is essential for improving study quality. An integrated approach to disease surveillance involving both human health and veterinary services would allow a better understand of disease dynamics at the animal-human interface, as well as a more cost-effective utilisation of resources

Identification of multiple root disease resistant wheat germplasm against cereal nematodes and dryland root rot and their validation in regions of economic importance

História da literatura portuguesa coordenada por Giulia Lanciani - primeiras páginas de um total pp. 7-108)História literária do século XVIII portuguêsGoverno de Portuga

Genetic variability, chemotype distribution, and aggressiveness of Fusarium culmorum on durum wheat in Tunisia

Fusarium culmorum is the most commonly reported root rot pathogen in Tunisian durum wheat. Isolates of the pathogen from four durum wheat growing areas in the north of Tunisia were analyzed for their chemotypes. Two chemotypes were detected at unequal abundance (96% of 3-ADON and 4% of NIV). Distribution of a SNP mutation located at the position 34 bp after the first exon of the EF-1\u3b1 partial sequence was analysed, to verify whether the haplotype was specifically associated to Fusarium root rot. A and T haplotypes were homogeneously distributed in three different Tunisian regions (Mateur, Beja and Bousalem) but not for the region of Bizerte, from which greatest number of A haplotype strains were detected. The isolates were tested for their virulence under glasshouse conditions, and a mean of 91% of crown and root infection was observed. Chemotype influenced virulence, but there was no significant influence of the geographical origin or haplotype on virulence. The distribution of three inter simple sequence repeats (ISSR) was examined, to better understand the structure of F. culmorum populations in Tunisia. A total of 27 fragments were obtained with eight polymorphic bands. Cluster analysis showed a high level of similarity between isolates. Analysis of molecular variance confirmed that there was little genetic differentiation among F. culmorum strains from different locations

Evaluation and optimization of a commercial enzyme linked immunosorbent assay for detection of Chlamydophila pneumoniae IgA antibodies

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Serologic diagnosis of <it>Chlamydophila pneumoniae </it>(Cpn) infection routinely involves assays for the presence of IgG and IgM antibodies to Cpn. Although IgA antibodies to Cpn have been found to be of interest in the diagnosis of chronic infections, their significance in serological diagnosis remains unclear. The microimmunofluorescence (MIF) test is the current method for the measurement of Cpn antibodies. While commercial enzyme linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) have been developed, they have not been fully validated. We therefore evaluated and optimized a commercial ELISA kit, the SeroCP IgA test, for the detection of Cpn IgA antibodies.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Serum samples from 94 patients with anti-Cpn IgG titers ≥ 256 (study group) and from 100 healthy blood donors (control group) were tested for the presence of IgA antibodies to Cpn, using our in-house MIF test and the SeroCP IgA test. Two graph receiver operating characteristic (TG-ROC) curves were created to optimize the cut off given by the manufacturer.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The MIF and SeroCP IgA tests detected Cpn IgA antibodies in 72% and 89%, respectively, of sera from the study group, and in 9% and 35%, respectively, of sera from the control group. Using the MIF test as the reference method and the cut-off value of the ELISA test specified by the manufacturer for seropositivity and negativity, the two tests correlated in 76% of the samples, with an agreement of Ƙ = 0.54. When we applied the optimized cut-off value using TG-ROC analysis, 1.65, we observed better concordance (86%) and agreement (0.72) between the MIF and SeroCP IgA tests.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Use of TG-ROC analysis may help standardize and optimize ELISAs, which are simpler, more objective and less time consuming than the MIF test. Standardization and optimization of commercial ELISA kits may result in better performance.</p