Definitions and classification of malformations of cortical development: Practical guidelines

Malformations of cortical development are a group of rare disorders commonly manifesting with developmental delay, cerebral palsy or seizures. The neurological outcome is extremely variable depending on the type, extent and severity of the malformation and the involved genetic pathways of brain development. Neuroimaging plays an essential role in the diagnosis of these malformations, but several issues regarding malformations of cortical development definitions and classification remain unclear. The purpose of this consensus statement is to provide standardized malformations of cortical development terminology and classification for neuroradiological pattern interpretation. A committee of international experts in paediatric neuroradiology prepared systematic literature reviews and formulated neuroimaging recommendations in collaboration with geneticists, paediatric neurologists and pathologists during consensus meetings in the context of the European Network Neuro-MIG initiative on Brain Malformations (https://www.neuro-mig.org/). Malformations of cortical development neuroimaging features and practical recommendations are provided to aid both expert and non-expert radiologists and neurologists who may encounter patients with malformations of cortical development in their practice, with the aim of improving malformations of cortical development diagnosis and imaging interpretation worldwide

Multiwavelength studies of MHD waves in the solar chromosphere: An overview of recent results

The chromosphere is a thin layer of the solar atmosphere that bridges the relatively cool photosphere and the intensely heated transition region and corona. Compressible and incompressible waves propagating through the chromosphere can supply significant amounts of energy to the interface region and corona. In recent years an abundance of high-resolution observations from state-of-the-art facilities have provided new and exciting ways of disentangling the characteristics of oscillatory phenomena propagating through the dynamic chromosphere. Coupled with rapid advancements in magnetohydrodynamic wave theory, we are now in an ideal position to thoroughly investigate the role waves play in supplying energy to sustain chromospheric and coronal heating. Here, we review the recent progress made in characterising, categorising and interpreting oscillations manifesting in the solar chromosphere, with an impetus placed on their intrinsic energetics.Comment: 48 pages, 25 figures, accepted into Space Science Review

The European Solar Telescope

The European Solar Telescope (EST) is a project aimed at studying the magnetic connectivity of the solar atmosphere, from the deep photosphere to the upper chromosphere. Its design combines the knowledge and expertise gathered by the European solar physics community during the construction and operation of state-of-the-art solar telescopes operating in visible and near-infrared wavelengths: the Swedish 1m Solar Telescope, the German Vacuum Tower Telescope and GREGOR, the French Télescope Héliographique pour l'Étude du Magnétisme et des Instabilités Solaires, and the Dutch Open Telescope. With its 4.2 m primary mirror and an open configuration, EST will become the most powerful European ground-based facility to study the Sun in the coming decades in the visible and near-infrared bands. EST uses the most innovative technological advances: the first adaptive secondary mirror ever used in a solar telescope, a complex multi-conjugate adaptive optics with deformable mirrors that form part of the optical design in a natural way, a polarimetrically compensated telescope design that eliminates the complex temporal variation and wavelength dependence of the telescope Mueller matrix, and an instrument suite containing several (etalon-based) tunable imaging spectropolarimeters and several integral field unit spectropolarimeters. This publication summarises some fundamental science questions that can be addressed with the telescope, together with a complete description of its major subsystems

Methods for high-dimensonal analysis of cells dissociated from cyropreserved synovial tissue

Background: Detailed molecular analyses of cells from rheumatoid arthritis (RA) synovium hold promise in identifying cellular phenotypes that drive tissue pathology and joint damage. The Accelerating Medicines Partnership RA/SLE Network aims to deconstruct autoimmune pathology by examining cells within target tissues through multiple high-dimensional assays. Robust standardized protocols need to be developed before cellular phenotypes at a single cell level can be effectively compared across patient samples. Methods: Multiple clinical sites collected cryopreserved synovial tissue fragments from arthroplasty and synovial biopsy in a 10% DMSO solution. Mechanical and enzymatic dissociation parameters were optimized for viable cell extraction and surface protein preservation for cell sorting and mass cytometry, as well as for reproducibility in RNA sequencing (RNA-seq). Cryopreserved synovial samples were collectively analyzed at a central processing site by a custom-designed and validated 35-marker mass cytometry panel. In parallel, each sample was flow sorted into fibroblast, T-cell, B-cell, and macrophage suspensions for bulk population RNA-seq and plate-based single-cell CEL-Seq2 RNA-seq. Results: Upon dissociation, cryopreserved synovial tissue fragments yielded a high frequency of viable cells, comparable to samples undergoing immediate processing. Optimization of synovial tissue dissociation across six clinical collection sites with ~ 30 arthroplasty and ~ 20 biopsy samples yielded a consensus digestion protocol using 100 μg/ml of Liberase™ TL enzyme preparation. This protocol yielded immune and stromal cell lineages with preserved surface markers and minimized variability across replicate RNA-seq transcriptomes. Mass cytometry analysis of cells from cryopreserved synovium distinguished diverse fibroblast phenotypes, distinct populations of memory B cells and antibody-secreting cells, and multiple CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell activation states. Bulk RNA-seq of sorted cell populations demonstrated robust separation of synovial lymphocytes, fibroblasts, and macrophages. Single-cell RNA-seq produced transcriptomes of over 1000 genes/cell, including transcripts encoding characteristic lineage markers identified. Conclusions: We have established a robust protocol to acquire viable cells from cryopreserved synovial tissue with intact transcriptomes and cell surface phenotypes. A centralized pipeline to generate multiple high-dimensional analyses of synovial tissue samples collected across a collaborative network was developed. Integrated analysis of such datasets from large patient cohorts may help define molecular heterogeneity within RA pathology and identify new therapeutic targets and biomarkers

Simultaneous Localization of Robots and Mapping of Wireless Sensor NodesCooperative Robots and Sensor Networks 2014

This chapter presents the use of a mobile robot to solve the problem of node localization in Wireless Sensor Network (WSN). The algorithms we propose are inspired by the algorithms developed in robotics to solve the robot localization problem exploiting landmarks in the environment. The robotics community developed algorithms of Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM), in which the robot pose is estimated while simultaneously mapping the position of the landmarks in the environment. Similarly, we simultaneously estimate the robot pose with the position of the nodes of a WSN using range measurements. The assumption is that a mobile robot can estimate the distance to nearby nodes of the WSN by measuring the Radio Signal Strenght (RSS) of the received radio messages. The intrinsic variability of RSS measurements due to interferences and reflections of radio signals, however, makes the ranging measure very noisy, thus limiting the accuracy of simple localization techniques. We first present a SLAM technique based on an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF-SLAM) to integrate RSS measurements from the different nodes over time, while the robot moves in the environment. Successively, we show that combining the EKF-SLAM algorithm with an initialization phase based on a Delayed Particle Filter (DPF) can greatly improve the performance of the algorithm. We then discuss possible extensions of the approach by using advanced RSS measurement techniques, and multidimensional scaling localization. Finally, we compare the different approaches on the same experimental testbed, both for indoor and outdoor scenarios

Characterization of Influenza Vaccine Immunogenicity Using Influenza Antigen Microarrays

10.1371/journal.pone.0064555PLoS ONE85e6455

QTL analyses of seed germination and seedling pre-emergence growth under abiotic stresses in Medicago truncatula

International audienceIncreasing knowledge on the genetic basis of seed germination and seedling heterotrophic growth under abiotic stresses is of major importance for improving crop establishment in the context of climate changes. Among stresses, sub‐ and supra‐optimal temperatures and water deficit, highly compromise these early stages of development and limit crop distribution. The present chapter synthesizes genetic analyses carried out in Medicago truncatula on seed germination and seedling heterotrophic growth under stress conditions, with a focus on low temperatures. A specific attention was paid to hypocotyl growth, as varieties with high potential for upward shoot elongation were required in stressful environments. Traits were characterized at seed, organ, or cellular levels on nested core collections and recombinant inbred line populations (RIL4 and RIL5) considered for the contrasted behaviors of the parental accessions based on an ecophysiological model framework for crop emergence predictions. A first Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) analysis was carried out at sub‐ (5 °C, 10 °C) and supra‐optimal (20 °C) temperatures. At 20 °C, imbibition and germination rates as well as early embryonic axis growth were measured in RIL4 using an automated image capture and analysis device. At low temperatures, seed germination and hypocotyl heterotrophic growth were characterized on RIL5. The phenotypic framework defined for measuring traits allowed distinguishing stages and thus identifying distinct QTLs for seed mass, imbibition, germination, and heterotrophic growth. A common QTL was found for hypocotyl elongation under both low temperature and water deficit. Finally, those QTLs controlling hypocotyl elongation at low temperature due to epidermal cell number pre‐established in the seeds and those due to elongation of these cells, two key determinants of hypocotyl elongation under stress at cellular level, were identified in RIL5. Together with working on a model plant, the QTL approach developed will facilitate the identification of genes specific to each stage. With this aim in view, an initial set of putative candidate genes was highlighted within the support intervals of some QTLs based on the role of hormone balance regulating germination at high temperature, the molecular cascade in response to cold‐stress and hypotheses on changes in cell elongation with changes in temperature based on studies at the whole plant scale