Charge-Density-Wave like Behavior in the One-Dimensional Charge-Ordered Semiconductor (NbSe4)3I

We report on broadband dielectric spectroscopy on the one-dimensional semiconductor (NbSe4)3I. Below the structural phase transition close to 270 K we observe colossal dielectric constants with a frequency and temperature dependence very similar to what is observed in canonical charge-density wave systems. Guided by structural details we interpret this structural phase transition as driven by complex charge-order processes.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Structural and Luminescence Properties of Silica-Based Hybrids Containing New Silylated-Diketonato Europium(III) Complex

A new betadiketonate ligand displaying a trimethoxysilyl group as grafting function and a diketone moiety as complexing site (TTA-Si = 4,4,4-trifluoro-2-(3-trimethoxysilyl)propyl)-1-3-butanedione (C4H3S)COCH[(CH2)3Si(OCH3)3]COCF3) and its highly luminescent europium(III) complex [Eu(TTA-Si)3] have been synthesized and fully characterized. Luminescent silica-based hybrids have been prepared as well with this new complex grafted on the surface of dense silica nanoparticles (28 (+/-3 nm) or on mesoporous silica particles. The covalent bonding of Eu(TTA-Si)3 inside the core of uniform silica nanoparticles (40 (+/- 5 nm) was also achieved. Luminescence properties are discussed in relation to the europium chemical environment involved in each of the three hybrids. The general methodology proposed allowed high grafting ratios and overcame chelate release and tendency to agglomeration, and it could be applied to any silica matrix (in the core or at the surface, nanosized or not, dense or mesoporous) and therefore numerous applications such as luminescent markers and luminophors could be foreseen

Flexible Usage and Interconnectivity of Diverse Cell Death Pathways Protect against Intracellular Infection.

Programmed cell death contributes to host defense against pathogens. To investigate the relative importance of pyroptosis, necroptosis, and apoptosis during Salmonella infection, we infected mice and macrophages deficient for diverse combinations of caspases-1, -11, -12, and -8 and receptor interacting serine/threonine kinase 3 (RIPK3). Loss of pyroptosis, caspase-8-driven apoptosis, or necroptosis had minor impact on Salmonella control. However, combined deficiency of these cell death pathways caused loss of bacterial control in mice and their macrophages, demonstrating that host defense can employ varying components of several cell death pathways to limit intracellular infections. This flexible use of distinct cell death pathways involved extensive cross-talk between initiators and effectors of pyroptosis and apoptosis, where initiator caspases-1 and -8 also functioned as executioners when all known effectors of cell death were absent. These findings uncover a highly coordinated and flexible cell death system with in-built fail-safe processes that protect the host from intracellular infections.Wellcome Trus

JWST-TST DREAMS: Quartz Clouds in the Atmosphere of WASP-17b

Clouds are prevalent in many of the exoplanet atmospheres that have been observed to date. For transiting exoplanets, we know if clouds are present because they mute spectral features and cause wavelength-dependent scattering. While the exact composition of these clouds is largely unknown, this information is vital to understanding the chemistry and energy budget of planetary atmospheres. In this work, we observe one transit of the hot Jupiter WASP-17b with JWST's MIRI LRS and generate a transmission spectrum from 5-12 $\rm{\mu}$m. These wavelengths allow us to probe absorption due to the vibrational modes of various predicted cloud species. Our transmission spectrum shows additional opacity centered at 8.6 $\rm{\mu}$m, and detailed atmospheric modeling and retrievals identify this feature as SiO$_2$(s) (quartz) clouds. The SiO$_2$(s) clouds model is preferred at 3.5-4.2$\sigma$ versus a cloud-free model and at 2.6$\sigma$ versus a generic aerosol prescription. We find the SiO$_2$(s) clouds are comprised of small ${\sim}0.01$ $\rm{\mu}$m particles, which extend to high altitudes in the atmosphere. The atmosphere also shows a depletion of H$_2$O, a finding consistent with the formation of high-temperature aerosols from oxygen-rich species. This work is part of a series of studies by our JWST Telescope Scientist Team (JWST-TST), in which we will use Guaranteed Time Observations to perform Deep Reconnaissance of Exoplanet Atmospheres through Multi-instrument Spectroscopy (DREAMS).Comment: 19 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

Financial difficulties but not other types of recent negative life events show strong interactions with 5-HTTLPR genotype in the development of depressive symptoms

Several studies indicate that 5-HTTLPR mediates the effect of childhood adversity in the development of depression, while results are contradictory for recent negative life events. For childhood adversity the interaction with genotype is strongest for sexual abuse, but not for other types of childhood maltreatment; however, possible interactions with specific recent life events have not been investigated separately. The aim of our study was to investigate the effect of four distinct types of recent life events in the development of depressive symptoms in a large community sample. Interaction between different types of recent life events measured by the List of Threatening Experiences and the 5-HTTLPR genotype on current depression measured by the depression subscale and additional items of the Brief Symptom Inventory was investigated in 2588 subjects in Manchester and Budapest. Only a nominal interaction was found between life events overall and 5-HTTLPR on depression, which failed to survive correction for multiple testing. However, subcategorising life events into four categories showed a robust interaction between financial difficulties and the 5-HTTLPR genotype, and a weaker interaction in the case of illness/injury. No interaction effect for the other two life event categories was present. We investigated a general non-representative sample in a cross-sectional approach. Depressive symptoms and life event evaluations were self-reported. The 5-HTTLPR polymorphism showed a differential interaction pattern with different types of recent life events, with the strongest interaction effects of financial difficulties on depressive symptoms. This specificity of interaction with only particular types of life events may help to explain previous contradictory findings

A Multiconsistency Memory Protocol Test Environment on Chorus

this paper, we describe the structure of our experimental test environment built on top of the Chorus micro-kernel. The results of our study will be the basis of a distributed shared virtual memory subsystem. We also provide centralised synchronization services, enhanced mechanisms will be studied in future works. Fault tolerance constraints have not been considered in our design. Section 2 of this paper recalls the Chorus memory abstractions used to build our environment. Section 3 describes the multiconsistency test environment. Section 4 concludes with future works. 2. The Chorus Memory Model Chorus extends the basic memory abstractions (actors, segments, regions and local caches) [Ortega93] [Chorus94b] to support distribution and implementation of application personalities: . subsystem : A subsystem is a collection of actors and libraries that exports a given system interface to users. This interface offers a well defined memory model. It hides the underlying distribution of data. The subsystem has its own memory consistency semantic. . mapper : A mapper is a system actor dedicated to data management. Mappers serve kernel page requests. These requests are mainly page faults and page flushes, they concern segments local caches. We refine this definition. - segment mapper : A segment mapper, also called real mapper, serves kernel data requests to disk repository. It can provide other facilities as naming or access control management. - memory consistency mapper : Segments can be mapped on more than one site. Consequently, the coherency of different copies of a same segment has to be maintained following the subsystem consistency policy. Memory consistency is handled at cache level. A protocol between memory mappers guarantees the required memory consistency semantic. ..

Produire du fourrage avec des populations de pays : exemple de la luzerne et du sainfoin à faibles intrants dans le Sud-Aveyron

La gestion de l'incertitude en production fourragère, compliquée par la nécessaire réduction des intrants et les aléas climatiques, plaide pour une résilience accrue des populations et de mélanges fourragers semées. Dans ce contexte, il est intéressant de réévaluer les performances des populations, espèces et mélanges utilisés en production fourragère, et notamment de reconsidérer l'intérêt que peut présenter localement l'utilisation de populations de pays ayant évolué dans les prairies des éleveurs. Pour ce faire, l'INRA de Toulouse et l'Association Vétérinaires Eleveurs du Millavois se sont associés dans un projet de recherche participative. Des populations de pays, des accessions sorties de banque de graines et des variétés commerciales ont ainsi été comparées. D'une part, un essai agronomique a été mis en place pour tester au champ des mélanges de luzerne - sainfoin - dactyle en fauche. D'autre part, une collection a été constituée sur le Causse du Larzac pour évaluer la pérennité de diverses populations de sainfoin dans des conditions environnentales très contraignantes. Dans les conditions de ces essais, les mélanges à base de populations de pays apparaissent aussi productifs et plus pérennes que les mélanges à base de variétés commerciales. Parmi les variétés commerciales testées, la luzerne intermédiaire entre les types « sud » et « nord » s'est avérée la mieux adaptée aux conditions agronomiques de la zone. Ce travail révèle, d'une part, l'intérêt de conserver in-situ les populations de pays en les maintenant en production et, d'autre part, la nécessité de développer l'offre variétale de plantes fourragères intermédiaires entre des types nord et sud pour l'élevage en zone séchante

Prototyping QoS based Architecture for Power Plant Control Applications". submitted to the

The goal of the project in this paper is to gain experience on QoS (Quality of Service) based distributed system for EDF's power control applications. EDF is the French power utility. QoS is related to time constraints in our case. We adopted a distributed system approach to build our execution platform. The first prototype uses a modified ChorusOS micro-kernel with a real-time inter-process communication facility based on an ATM network and supports a specific real-time java virtual machine. Our second proposal attempts to build an equivalent architecture using off-the-shelf product. Reality constraints leads to a CoS (Classification of Service) based design. We show that there is no available off-the-shelf QoS nor CoS based technology today for real-time object oriented distributed applications. 1