Study of the ternary system Al–H– RE ( RE = Er, La and Y) in liquid state

International audienc

Effect of 5-azacytidine and galectin-1 on growth and differentiation of the human b lymphoma cell line bl36

BACKGROUND: 5-AzaCytidine (AzaC) is a DNA demethylating drugs that has been shown to inhibit cell growth and to induce apoptosis in certain cancer cells. Induced expression of the galectin1 (Gal1) protein, a galactoside-binding protein distributed widely in immune cells, has been described in cultured hepatoma-derived cells treated with AzaC and this event may have a role in the effect of the drug. According to this hypothesis, we investigated the effect of AzaC and Gal1 on human lymphoid B cells phenotype. METHODS: The effect of AzaC and Gal1 on cell growth and phenotype was determined on the Burkitt lymphoma cell line BL36. An immunocytochemical analysis for detection of Gal1 protein expression was performed in AzaC-treated cells. To investigate the direct effects of Gal1, recombinant Gal1 was added to cells. RESULTS: Treatment of lymphoid B cells with AzaC results in: i) a decrease in cell growth with an arrest of the cell cycle at G0/G1 phase, ii) phenotypic changes consistent with a differentiated phenotype, and iii) the expression of p16, a tumor-suppressor gene whose expression was dependent of its promoter demethylation, and of Gal1. A targeting of Gal 1 to the plasma membrane follows its cytosolic expression. To determine which of the effects of AzaC might be secondary to the induction of Gal1, recombinant Gal1 was added to BL36 cells. Treated cells displayed growth inhibition and phenotypic changes consistent with a commitment toward differentiation. CONCLUSIONS: Altered cell growth and expression of the cell surface plasma cell antigen, CD138 are detectable in BL36 cells treated by AzaC as well as by Gal1. It seems that AzaC-induced Gal1 expression and consequent binding of Gal1 on its cell membrane receptor may be, in part, involved in AzaC-induced plasmacytic differentiation

Evaluation of a Real-Time Voice Order Recognition System from Multiple Audio Channels in a Home

International audienceThe SWEET-HOME project aims at providing audio-based interaction technology that lets the user have full control over their home environment, at detecting distress situations and at easing the social inclusion of the elderly and frail population. This paper presents an overview of the project focusing on the implemented techniques for speech and sound recognition as context-aware decision making with uncertainty. A user experiment in a smart home demonstrates the interest of this audio-based technology

Myths and lessons of liberal intervention: The British campaign for the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade to Brazil

This is the Pre-print version of the Article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2012 Martinus NijhoffThis article takes issue with recent references to the British nineteenth century campaign for the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade to Brazil that serve to bolster interventionist or imperialist agendas. In particular, such accounts reproduce two and a half myths about the campaign: that it can serve as a model for the present age; that the success of the campaign can be explained through the actions of the intervening party alone (with a corresponding neglect of those of the ‘target’ state); and the half-myth that the campaign’s success was due to military action (at the expense of institutional (legal) and normative factors and the capacity of the target state). I argue instead that this case – and interventions more generally – would benefit from an analysis that considers the role of force in relation to a series of residual institutional and cultural constraints within the liberal state and to political conditions in the target state. In light of the complexities and contingencies that these factors present the underlying lesson is that military force should be used sparingly, if at all

Communicating processes and fault tolerance : a shared memory multiprocessor experience

The concept of backward recovery is now well established as a means of restoring a consistent state of a fault tolerant system should some faults occur. In this paper, we consider a system of communicating processes mapped onto a multilevel execution support. A shared memory multiprocessor machine is assumed. Our interest is in tolerating the hardware faults that may occur during the execution of a concurrent computation. The machine provides a hardware backard recovery protocol based on a specialized memory device which tracks dependencies between the processors accessing shared data residing in memory. The transparency provided by the protocol is discussed considering successively the models of computation at the various levels of abstraction of the execution support

Influence of climate and river level on the incidence of malaria in Cacao, French Guiana

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The epidemiological profiles of vector-borne diseases, such as malaria, are strongly associated with environmental conditions. An understanding of the effect of the climate on the occurrence of malaria may provide indirect insight into the anopheles mosquito vectors endemic to a particular region. The association between meteorological and hydrographical factors and the occurrence of malaria was studied in a village in French Guiana during an epidemic caused essentially by <it>Plasmodium vivax</it>.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A cohort of confirmed cases of <it>P. vivax </it>malaria occurring between 2002 and 2007 was studied to search for an association between the number of new infection episodes occurring each month, mean, maximum and minimum monthly temperatures, cumulative rainfall for the month and the mean monthly height of the river bordering the village, with the aid of time series. Cross-correlation analysis revealed that these meteorological factors had large effects on the number of episodes, over a study period of 12 months.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Climatic factors supporting the continuance of the epidemic were identified in the short-term (low minimum temperatures during the month), medium-term (low maximum temperatures two months before) and long-term (low maximum temperatures nine months before and high lowest level of the river 12 months before). Cross-correlation analysis showed that the effects of these factors were greatest at the beginning of the short rainy season.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The association between the river level and the number of malaria attacks provides clues to better understand the environment of malaria transmission and the ecological characteristics of the vectors in the region.</p

The Hedgehog Receptor Patched Is Involved in Cholesterol Transport

International audienceBACKGROUND: Sonic hedgehog (Shh) signaling plays a crucial role in growth and patterning during embryonic development, and also in stem cell maintenance and tissue regeneration in adults. Aberrant Shh pathway activation is involved in the development of many tumors, and one of the most affected Shh signaling steps found in these tumors is the regulation of the signaling receptor Smoothened by the Shh receptor Patched. In the present work, we investigated Patched activity and the mechanism by which Patched inhibits Smoothened. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Using the well-known Shh-responding cell line of mouse fibroblasts NIH 3T3, we first observed that enhancement of the intracellular cholesterol concentration induces Smoothened enrichment in the plasma membrane, which is a crucial step for the signaling activation. We found that binding of Shh protein to its receptor Patched, which involves Patched internalization, increases the intracellular concentration of cholesterol and decreases the efflux of a fluorescent cholesterol derivative (BODIPY-cholesterol) from these cells. Treatment of fibroblasts with cyclopamine, an antagonist of Shh signaling, inhibits Patched expression and reduces BODIPY-cholesterol efflux, while treatment with the Shh pathway agonist SAG enhances Patched protein expression and BODIPY-cholesterol efflux. We also show that over-expression of human Patched in the yeast S. cerevisiae results in a significant boost of BODIPY-cholesterol efflux. Furthermore, we demonstrate that purified Patched binds to cholesterol, and that the interaction of Shh with Patched inhibits the binding of Patched to cholesterol. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: Our results suggest that Patched may contribute to cholesterol efflux from cells, and to modulation of the intracellular cholesterol concentration. This activity is likely responsible for the inhibition of the enrichment of Smoothened in the plasma membrane, which is an important step in Shh pathway activation

Santé, précarité, banlieues

Fabrice GirauxPour revenir sur le titre de cette table ronde, je souhaiterais préciser d’emblée que nous ne souhaitons pas discuter ce soir des banlieues en général mais bien essentiellement des zones urbaines sensibles ou des quartiers prioritaires pour la politique de la ville, bref de tous ces lieux le plus souvent situés en périphérie des villes dans lesquels se concentrent aujourd’hui des populations en difficultés. Depuis juillet 1981 et les incendies de voitures aux Minguettes, on parl..