Geometric depolarization in patterns formed by backscattered light

We formulate a framework for the depolarization of linearly polarized backscattered light based on the concept of geometric phase, {\it i.e} Berry's phase. The predictions of this theory are applied to the patterns formed by backscattered light between crossed or parallel polarizers. This theory should be particularly adapted to the situation in which polarized light is scattered many times but predominantly in the forward direction. We apply these ideas to the patterns which we obtained experimentally with backscattered polarized light from a colloidal suspension.Comment: 3 pages and 3 figure

Genome sequencing project has begun on two plant trypanosomatids (Phytomonas)

Some trypanosomatids are responsible for wilt in tropical crops, such as hartrot disease in the coconut palm. They have a major economic impact in Latin America and the Caribbean. In the latex vessels of some plants, other trypanosomatids appear to be "symbiont-like", without any negative effect on their host, and others multiply in fruits and seeds. The latter usually belong to the genera #Crithidia#, #Herpetomonas# and #Leptomonas#, formerly known as "lower trypanosomatids". Only one arbitrary genus name has been proposed as yet for all these trypanosomatids living in plants, in different tissues, with different consequences: #Phytomonas#. After the Trytrip project and the recent discovery of lower trypanosomatids in immuno-suppressed patients, it became increasingly interesting to compare genome sequences outside #Trypanosoma# and #Leishmania# in order to better understand the molecular evolutionary relationships within the protozoan order Kinetoplastida. In 2008, the French National Research Agency (ANR) decided to sponsor a project on the sequencing of two plant trypanosomatids, one -Hart 1, group H - responsible for a disease of coconut (hartrot) in Latin America, and non-pathogenic one -EM1, group D - from Euphorbia in France. Sequencing of the isolates was performed using data from three different technologies (454 Titanium, Illumina GAIIx and Sanger). Assemblies obtained by Newbler (Roche) showed high continuity. We also obtained cDNA sequences using 454 Titanium to help annotation. The assemblies were of sufficient continuity to start an automatic annotation phase, using procedures that involve cDNA, matches to protein data, and de novo gene finding. (Résumé d'auteur

GALDIERO is CO-FIRST AUTHOR. Phagocytes as Corrupted Policemen in Cancer-Related Inflammation

Inflammation is a key component of the tumor microenvironment. Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) and tumor-associated neutrophils (TANs) are prototypic inflammatory cells in cancer-related inflammation. Macrophages provide a first line of resistance against infectious agents but in the ecological niche of cancer behave as corrupted policemen. TAMs promote tumor growth and metastasis by direct interactions with cancer cells, including cancer stem cells, as well as by promoting angiogenesis and tissue remodeling and suppressing effective adaptive immunity. In addition, the efficacy of chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and checkpoint blockade inhibitors is profoundly affected by regulation of TAMs. In particular, TAMs can protect and rescue tumor cells from cytotoxic therapy by orchestrating a misguided tissue repair response. Following extensive preclinical studies, there is now proof of concept that targeting tumor-promoting macrophages by diverse strategies (e.g., Trabectedin, anti-colony-stimulating factor-1 receptor antibodies) can result in antitumor activity in human cancer and further studies are ongoing. Neutrophils have long been overlooked as a minor component of the tumor microenvironment, but there is evidence for an important role of TANs in tumor progression. Targeting phagocytes (TAMs and TANs) as corrupted policemen in cancer may pave the way to innovative therapeutic strategies complementing cytoreductive therapies and immunotherapy

Runtime Code Polymorphism as a Protection against Physical Attacks

International audienceWe present a generic framework for runtime code polymorphism,applicable to a large class of computing platforms up to embeddedsystems with low computing resources (e.g. microcontrollers withfew kilo-bytes of memory). Code polymorphism is dened as the abilityto change the observable behaviour of a software component withoutchanging its functional properties. In our framework, code polymorphismis achieved thanks to runtime code generation, which oers many leversfor code transformations: we describe the use of random register allocation,random instruction selection, instruction shuing and insertion ofnoise instructions.We evaluate the eectiveness of our framework againstdierential power analysis and its overhead impact. As compared to areference implementation of AES where the cipher key could be recoveredby DPA in less than 50 traces in average, in our implementation thekey cipher could not be extracted after 10000 traces. Our experimentalevaluation shows a moderate impact in terms of performance overhead

Adhesive thickness influence on a structural methacrylate adhesive behavior

Structural adhesive bonding importance has been growing steadily in the last decades as transport sector’s current problematic is to there products’ reduce mass. In addition, compared to riveting and welding, adhesive bonding offers better properties when joining dissimilar materials such as metals and composites which are a pair used more and more frequently. However, adhesive bonding suffers great-ly from a lack of confidence from industries as validating the bond quality need either destructive testing or long and costly nondestructive testing. Both these solutions can hardly be implemented at an industrial level. Nevertheless, with the implementation of robotics it is possible to auto-mate and control the entire bonding processes. In this con-text a collaborative project called S3PAC (Système de Supervision et de Simulation de la Production d’Assemblage par Collage) has been launched in order to offer a fully supervised and automated industrial bonding process

Dual-beam-scan Doppler optical coherence angiography for birefringence-artifact-free vasculature imaging

Dual-beam-scan Doppler optical coherence angiography (DB-OCA) enables high-speed, high-sensitivity blood flow imaging. However, birefringence of biological tissues is an obstacle to vasculature imaging. Here, the influence of polarization and birefringence on DB-OCA imaging was analyzed. A DB-OCA system without birefringence artifact has been developed by introducing a Faraday rotator. The performance was confirmed in vitro using chicken muscle and in vivo using the human eye. Birefringence artifacts due to birefringent tissues were suppressed. Micro-vasculatures in the lamina cribrosa and nerve fiber layer of human eyes were visualized in vivo. High-speed and high-sensitivity micro-vasculature imaging involving birefringent tissues is available with polarization multiplexing DB-OCA

Trust Management within Virtual Communities: Adaptive and Socially-Compliant Trust Model

21 pagesRecent years have witnessed increasing interest of people in sharing, collaborating and interacting in many different ways among new social structures called Virtual Communities (VC). They represent aggrega- tions of entities with common interests, goals, practices or values. VCs are particularly complex environments wherein trust became, rapidly, a prerequisite for the decision-making process, and where traditional trust establishment techniques are regularly challenged. In our work we are considering how individual and collective trust policies can be managed, adapted and combined. To this aim, we propose an Adaptive and Socially-Compliant Trust Management System (ASC-TMS) based on multi-agent technologies. In this framework, policies are used as concrete implementations of trust models in order to specify both (i) user-centred (i.e. personal) and community-centred (i.e. collective) trust requirements. Agents are used to manage and combine these different policies in a decentralized and flexible way. We describe the functionalities and the architecture that supports them and discuss also a prototype implementation

Parabolic BM-scan technique for full range Doppler spectral domain optical coherence tomography

A full range spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) technique that relies on the linear phase modulation of one of the interferometer arms has been widely utilized. Although this method is useful, the mirror image elimination is not perfect for samples in which regions with high axial motion exist. In this paper, we introduce a new modulation pattern to overcome this mirror image elimination failure. This new modulation is a parabolic phase modulation in the transverse scanning direction, and is applied to the SD-OCT reference beam by an electro-optic modulator. Flow phantom and in vivo experiments demonstrate that for moving structures with large velocities, this parabolic phase modulation technique presents better mirror image elimination than a standard linear phase modulation method. A direct consequence of this enhanced mirror image removal is an improved velocity range obtained with phase-resolved Doppler imaging. Consequently, applying the proposed technique in retinal blood flow measurements may be useful for ophthalmologic diagnosis.This paper was published in Optics Express and is made available as an electronic reprint with the permission of OSA. The paper can be found at the following URL on the OSA website: http://www.opticsinfobase.org/abstract.cfm?uri=oe-18-2-1358. Systematic or multiple reproduction or distribution to multiple locations via electronic or other means is prohibited and is subject to penalties under law

Modelling the influence of MDR1 polymorphism on digoxin pharmacokinetic parameters.

OBJECTIVES: Digoxin is a well-known probe for the activity of P-glycoprotein. The objective of this work was to apply different methods for covariate selection in non-linear mixed-effect models to study the relationship between the pharmacokinetic parameters of digoxin and the genotype for two major exons located on the multi-drug-resistance 1 (MDR1) gene coding for P-glycoprotein. METHODS: Thirty-two healthy volunteers were recruited in three pharmacokinetic drug interaction studies. The data after a single oral administration of digoxin alone were pooled. All subjects were genotyped for the MDR1 C3435T and G2677T/A genotypes. The concentration-time profile of digoxin was established using 12-16 blood samples taken between 15 min and 72 h after administration. We modelled the pharmacokinetics of digoxin using non-linear mixed-effect models. Parameter estimation was performed using the stochastic approximation EM method (SAEM). We used three methods to select the covariate model: selection from a full model using Wald tests, forward inclusion using the log-likelihood ratio test and model selection using the Bayesian Information Criterion. RESULTS: The three covariate inclusion methods led to the same final model. Carriers of two T alleles for the C3435T polymorphism in exon 26 of MDR1 had a lower apparent volume of distribution than carriers of a C allele. The only other covariate effect was a shorter absorption time-lag in women. CONCLUSION: The apparent volume of distribution of digoxin is lower in TT subjects, probably reflecting differences in bioavailability. Non-linear mixed-effect models can be useful for detecting the influence of covariates on pharmacokinetic parameters

Gestion de la confiance et intégration des exigences sociales au sein de communautés virtuelles

http://www.emse.fr/~picard/publications/yaich11jfsma.pdfInternational audienceLa confiance est devenue un facteur clé des processus de décision au sein de communautés virtuelles. Le caractère ouvert et décentralisé de ces environnements couplés à leur dimension sociale défient les mécanismes actuelles de gestion de la confiance. Notamment pour ce qui concerne la gestion et l'intégration des exigences de confiance des utilisateurs et ceux de leurs communautés. Afin de répondre à ce problème, nous proposons SC-TMS, un système de gestion de la confiance adaptatif basé sur le principe de conformité sociale [4]. En nous appuyant sur les technologies multi-agents, des politiques de confiance sont utilisées pour spécifier à la fois les modèles de confiance centrés utilisateur et les modèles centrés communauté. Les agents y sont utilisés pour gérer et combiner ces différentes politiques de manière flexible et décentralisée. Nous décrivons les fonctionnalités et l'architecture qui les mettent en oeuvre et discutons de leur implémentation