144 research outputs found

    ÉpidĂ©miologie clinique et grande diversitĂ© gĂ©nĂ©tique parmi les isolats de Cryptococcus spp. infectant les personnes vivant avec le VIH Ă  Kinshasa, RĂ©publique dĂ©mocratique du Congo

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    Neuromeningeal cryptococcosis (NMC) is a life-threatening opportunistic infection in advanced HIV disease patients (AHDP). It is caused by Cryptococcus spp. complexes and mainly occurs in sub-Saharan Africa. In this study, we performed molecular characterization and antifungal susceptibility profiling of Cryptococcus isolates from AHDP in Kinshasa (DRC). Additionally, we investigated a possible association between NMC severity factors and the Cryptococcus neoformans (Cn) multilocus sequence typing (MLST) profiles. We characterized the isolates using PCR serotyping, MALDI-TOF MS, internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequencing, and MLST. Susceptibility testing for the major antifungal drugs was performed according to the EUCAST guidelines. Parameters associated with NMC severity, such as hypoglycorrhachia ( 30 cm H2O), and poor therapeutic outcome were compared with the Cn MLST sequences type (ST). Twenty-three out of 29 Cryptococcus isolates were identified as serotype A using PCR serotyping (79.3%; 95% IC: 65.5-93.1), while six (20.7%; 95% IC: 6.9-34.5) were not serotypable. The 29 isolates were identified by ITS sequencing as follows: Cryptococcus neoformans (23/29, 79.3%), Cutaneotrichosporon curvatus (previously called Cryptococcus curvatus) (5/29, 17.2%), and Papiliotrema laurentii (Cryptococcus laurentii) (1/29, 3.5%). Using the ISHAM MLST scheme, all Cn isolates were identified as molecular type VNI. These comprised seven different STs: ST93 (n = 15), ST5 (n = 2), ST53 (n = 1), ST31 (n = 1), ST4 (n = 1), ST69 (n = 1), and one novel ST that has not yet been reported from other parts of the world and was subsequently assigned as ST659 (n = 2). Of the included strains, only Papiliotrema laurentii was resistant to amphoterin B (1/29, 3.5%), 6.8% (2/29) were resistant to 5-flucytosine (the single Papiliotrema laurentii strain and one Cryptococcus neoformans isolate), and 13.8% (4/29) to fluconazole, including two of five (40%) Cutaneotrichosporon curvatus and two of 23 (8.7%) C. neoformans strains. We found a significative association between poor therapeutic outcome and a non-ST93 sequence type of causative strains (these concerned the less common sequence types: ST53, ST31, ST5, ST4, ST659, and ST69) (87.5% versus 40%, p = 0.02). Molecular analysis of Cryptococcus spp. isolates showed a wide species diversity and genetic heterogenicity of Cn within the VNI molecular type. Furthermore, it is worrying that among included strains we found resistances to several of the commonly used antifungals.Cryptococcose chez les personnes vivant avec le VIH à Kinshasa : étude épidémiologique et moléculaire3. Good health and well-bein

    SKIM, a candidate satellite mission exploring global ocean currents and waves

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    The Sea surface KInematics Multiscale monitoring (SKIM) satellite mission is designed to explore ocean surface current and waves. This includes tropical currents, notably the poorly known patterns of divergence and their impact on the ocean heat budget, and monitoring of the emerging Arctic up to 82.5°N. SKIM will also make unprecedented direct measurements of strong currents, from boundary currents to the Antarctic circumpolar current, and their interaction with ocean waves with expected impacts on air-sea fluxes and extreme waves. For the first time, SKIM will directly measure the ocean surface current vector from space. The main instrument on SKIM is a Ka-band conically scanning, multi-beam Doppler radar altimeter/wave scatterometer that includes a state-of-the-art nadir beam comparable to the Poseidon-4 instrument on Sentinel 6. The well proven Doppler pulse-pair technique will give a surface drift velocity representative of the top meter of the ocean, after subtracting a large wave-induced contribution. Horizontal velocity components will be obtained with an accuracy better than 7 cm/s for horizontal wavelengths larger than 80 km and time resolutions larger than 15 days, with a mean revisit time of 4 days for of 99% of the global oceans. This will provide unique and innovative measurements that will further our understanding of the transports in the upper ocean layer, permanently distributing heat, carbon, plankton, and plastics. SKIM will also benefit from co-located measurements of water vapor, rain rate, sea ice concentration, and wind vectors provided by the European operational satellite MetOp-SG(B), allowing many joint analyses. SKIM is one of the two candidate satellite missions under development for ESA Earth Explorer 9. The other candidate is the Far infrared Radiation Understanding and Monitoring (FORUM). The final selection will be announced by September 2019, for a launch in the coming decade

    Altimetry for the future: Building on 25 years of progress

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    In 2018 we celebrated 25 years of development of radar altimetry, and the progress achieved by this methodology in the fields of global and coastal oceanography, hydrology, geodesy and cryospheric sciences. Many symbolic major events have celebrated these developments, e.g., in Venice, Italy, the 15th (2006) and 20th (2012) years of progress and more recently, in 2018, in Ponta Delgada, Portugal, 25 Years of Progress in Radar Altimetry. On this latter occasion it was decided to collect contributions of scientists, engineers and managers involved in the worldwide altimetry community to depict the state of altimetry and propose recommendations for the altimetry of the future. This paper summarizes contributions and recommendations that were collected and provides guidance for future mission design, research activities, and sustainable operational radar altimetry data exploitation. Recommendations provided are fundamental for optimizing further scientific and operational advances of oceanographic observations by altimetry, including requirements for spatial and temporal resolution of altimetric measurements, their accuracy and continuity. There are also new challenges and new openings mentioned in the paper that are particularly crucial for observations at higher latitudes, for coastal oceanography, for cryospheric studies and for hydrology. The paper starts with a general introduction followed by a section on Earth System Science including Ocean Dynamics, Sea Level, the Coastal Ocean, Hydrology, the Cryosphere and Polar Oceans and the ‘‘Green” Ocean, extending the frontier from biogeochemistry to marine ecology. Applications are described in a subsequent section, which covers Operational Oceanography, Weather, Hurricane Wave and Wind Forecasting, Climate projection. Instruments’ development and satellite missions’ evolutions are described in a fourth section. A fifth section covers the key observations that altimeters provide and their potential complements, from other Earth observation measurements to in situ data. Section 6 identifies the data and methods and provides some accuracy and resolution requirements for the wet tropospheric correction, the orbit and other geodetic requirements, the Mean Sea Surface, Geoid and Mean Dynamic Topography, Calibration and Validation, data accuracy, data access and handling (including the DUACS system). Section 7 brings a transversal view on scales, integration, artificial intelligence, and capacity building (education and training). Section 8 reviews the programmatic issues followed by a conclusion

    Death and the Societies of Late Antiquity

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    Ce volume bilingue, comprenant un ensemble de 28 contributions disponibles en français et en anglais (dans leur version longue ou abrĂ©gĂ©e), propose d’établir un Ă©tat des lieux des rĂ©flexions, recherches et Ă©tudes conduites sur le fait funĂ©raire Ă  l’époque tardo-antique au sein des provinces de l’Empire romain et sur leurs rĂ©gions limitrophes, afin d’ouvrir de nouvelles perspectives sur ses Ă©volutions possibles. Au cours des trois derniĂšres dĂ©cennies, les transformations considĂ©rables des mĂ©thodologies dĂ©ployĂ©es sur le terrain et en laboratoire ont permis un renouveau des questionnements sur les populations et les pratiques funĂ©raires de l’AntiquitĂ© tardive, pĂ©riode marquĂ©e par de multiples changements politiques, sociaux, dĂ©mographiques et culturels. L’apparition de ce qui a Ă©tĂ© initialement dĂ©signĂ© comme une « Anthropologie de terrain », qui fut le dĂ©but de la dĂ©marche archĂ©othanatologique, puis le rĂ©cent dĂ©veloppement d’approches collaboratives entre des domaines scientifiques divers (archĂ©othanatologie, biochimie et gĂ©ochimie, gĂ©nĂ©tique, histoire, Ă©pigraphie par exemple) ont Ă©tĂ© dĂ©cisives pour le renouvellement des problĂ©matiques d’étude : rĂ©vision d’anciens concepts comme apparition d’axes d’analyse inĂ©dits. Les recherches rassemblĂ©es dans cet ouvrage sont articulĂ©es autour de quatre grands thĂšmes : l’évolution des pratiques funĂ©raires dans le temps, l’identitĂ© sociale dans la mort, les ensembles funĂ©raires en transformation (organisation et topographie) et les territoires de l’empire (du cƓur aux marges). Ces Ă©tudes proposent un rĂ©examen et une rĂ©vision des donnĂ©es, tant anthropologiques qu’archĂ©ologiques ou historiques sur l’AntiquitĂ© tardive, et rĂ©vĂšlent, Ă  cet Ă©gard, une mosaĂŻque de paysages politiques, sociaux et culturels singuliĂšrement riches et complexes. Elles accroissent nos connaissances sur le traitement des dĂ©funts, l’emplacement des aires funĂ©raires ou encore la structure des sĂ©pultures, en rĂ©vĂ©lant une diversitĂ© de pratiques, et permettent au final de relancer la rĂ©flexion sur la maniĂšre dont les sociĂ©tĂ©s tardo-antiques envisagent la mort et sur les Ă©lĂ©ments permettant d’identifier et de dĂ©finir la diversitĂ© des groupes qui les composent. Elles dĂ©montrent ce faisant que nous pouvons vĂ©ritablement apprĂ©hender les structures culturelles et sociales des communautĂ©s anciennes et leurs potentielles transformations, Ă  partir de l’étude des pratiques funĂ©raires.This bilingual volume proposes to draw up an assessment of the recent research conducted on funerary behavior during Late Antiquity in the provinces of the Roman Empire and on their borders, in order to open new perspectives on its possible developments. The considerable transformations of the methodologies have raised the need for a renewal of the questions on the funerary practices during Late Antiquity, a period marked by multiple political, social, demographic and cultural changes. The emergence field anthropology, which was the beginning of archaeothanatology, and then the recent development of collaborative approaches between various scientific fields (archaeothanatology, biochemistry and geochemistry, genetics, history, epigraphy, for example), have been decisive. The research collected in this book is structured around four main themes: Evolution of funerary practices over time; Social identity through death; Changing burial grounds (organisation and topography); Territories of the Empire (from the heart to the margins). These studies propose a review and a revision of the data, both anthropological and archaeological or historical on Late Antiquity, and reveal a mosaic of political, social, and cultural landscapes singularly rich and complex. In doing so, they demonstrate that we can truly understand the cultural and social structures of ancient communities and their potential transformations, based on the study of funerary practices

    Altimetry for the future: building on 25 years of progress

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    In 2018 we celebrated 25 years of development of radar altimetry, and the progress achieved by this methodology in the fields of global and coastal oceanography, hydrology, geodesy and cryospheric sciences. Many symbolic major events have celebrated these developments, e.g., in Venice, Italy, the 15th (2006) and 20th (2012) years of progress and more recently, in 2018, in Ponta Delgada, Portugal, 25 Years of Progress in Radar Altimetry. On this latter occasion it was decided to collect contributions of scientists, engineers and managers involved in the worldwide altimetry community to depict the state of altimetry and propose recommendations for the altimetry of the future. This paper summarizes contributions and recommendations that were collected and provides guidance for future mission design, research activities, and sustainable operational radar altimetry data exploitation. Recommendations provided are fundamental for optimizing further scientific and operational advances of oceanographic observations by altimetry, including requirements for spatial and temporal resolution of altimetric measurements, their accuracy and continuity. There are also new challenges and new openings mentioned in the paper that are particularly crucial for observations at higher latitudes, for coastal oceanography, for cryospheric studies and for hydrology. The paper starts with a general introduction followed by a section on Earth System Science including Ocean Dynamics, Sea Level, the Coastal Ocean, Hydrology, the Cryosphere and Polar Oceans and the “Green” Ocean, extending the frontier from biogeochemistry to marine ecology. Applications are described in a subsequent section, which covers Operational Oceanography, Weather, Hurricane Wave and Wind Forecasting, Climate projection. Instruments’ development and satellite missions’ evolutions are described in a fourth section. A fifth section covers the key observations that altimeters provide and their potential complements, from other Earth observation measurements to in situ data. Section 6 identifies the data and methods and provides some accuracy and resolution requirements for the wet tropospheric correction, the orbit and other geodetic requirements, the Mean Sea Surface, Geoid and Mean Dynamic Topography, Calibration and Validation, data accuracy, data access and handling (including the DUACS system). Section 7 brings a transversal view on scales, integration, artificial intelligence, and capacity building (education and training). Section 8 reviews the programmatic issues followed by a conclusion

    Discussion du rapport de M. l’abbĂ© Royer concernant les Quinze-Vingts, lors de la sĂ©ance du 5 juillet 1791

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    Martineau Louis Simon, Roederer Pierre-Louis, Merle AndrĂ©-Marie, Gaultier de Biauzat Jean-François. Discussion du rapport de M. l’abbĂ© Royer concernant les Quinze-Vingts, lors de la sĂ©ance du 5 juillet 1791. In: Archives Parlementaires de 1787 Ă  1860 - PremiĂšre sĂ©rie (1787-1799) Tome XXVII - Du 6 juin au 5 juillet 1791. Paris : Librairie Administrative P. Dupont, 1887. pp. 764-765
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