Intensity Control in GANIL's Experimental Rooms

TUPF31International audienceThe safety re-examination of existing GANIL facilities requires the implementation of a safety system which makes a control of the beam intensity sent to the experimental rooms possible. The aim is to demonstrate that beam intensities stay below the authorized limits defined by the safety GANIL group. The challenge is to be able to measure by a non-interceptive method a wide range of beam intensities from 5nA to 5 A with a maximum uncertainty of 5%, independently of the frequency (from 7 to 14.5MHz) and the beam energy (from 1.2 to 95MeV.A). After a comparative study, two types of high frequency diagnostics were selected, the capacitive pick-up and the fast current transformer. This paper presents the signal simulations from diagnostics with different beam energies, the uncertainty calculations and the results of the first tests with beam

A multicenter randomized phase IIb efficacy study of Vx-001, a peptide-based cancer vaccine as maintenance treatment in advanced non-smallcell lung cancer: treatment rationale and protocol dynamics. Clin Lung Cancer 2013

Abstract We present the treatment rationale and study design of a multicenter, open-label, randomized, 2-arm, phase IIb study. Patients with stage IV or recurrent stage I to III non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose disease does not progress after 4 cycles of first-line platinum-based chemotherapy will be randomized in a 1:1 ratio to 1 of 2 study arms. Patients will receive the cancer vaccine Vx-001 ϩ Montanide ISA51 VG (Seppic, Paris, France) adjuvant subcutaneously, at a dose of 2 mg, or placebo ϩ Montanide ISA51 VG adjuvant subcutaneously. The vaccination protocol comprises 2 injections with the TYR-Vx001 or placebo (1 at day 0 and another at week 3) and 4 injections with the ARG-Vx001 or placebo, at weeks 6, 9, 12, and 15. After the treatment assessment at week 18, patients will receive the ARG-Vx001 or placebo every 12 weeks starting from week 27 until disease progression, unacceptable toxicity, withdrawal of informed consent, or death. The primary end point of this study is the survival rate at 12 months. Secondary end points include time-to-event comparison of overall survival and comparison of time to treatment failure. Exploratory objectives include comparison of disease control rate after the end of subsequent second-line treatments, comparisons of vaccine immune responses, comparison of survival rate at 12 months in patients with vaccine-induced immune response detected after the second and sixth injections, identification of biomarkers on lymphocytes and on tumors, and comparison of safety and tolerability

A statistical gap-filling method to interpolate global monthly surface ocean carbon dioxide data

We have developed a statistical gap-filling method adapted to the specific coverage and prop-erties of observed fugacity of surface ocean CO2(fCO2). We have used this method to interpolate the Sur-face Ocean CO2Atlas (SOCAT) v2 database on a 2.5832.58 global grid (south of 708N) for 1985–2011 atmonthly resolution. The method combines a spatial interpolation based on a ‘‘radius of influence’’ to deter-mine nearby similar fCO2values with temporal harmonic and cubic spline curve-fitting, and also fits long-term trends and seasonal cycles. Interannual variability is established using deviations of observations fromthe fitted trends and seasonal cycles. An uncertainty is computed for all interpolated values based on thespatial and temporal range of the interpolation. Tests of the method using model data show that it performsas well as or better than previous regional interpolation methods, but in addition it provides a near-globaland interannual coverage

Ethylene signaling causing tolerance of arabidopsis thaliana roots to low pH stress is linked to class III peroxidase activity

One irreversible consequence of acidic pH for roots is cell death. Growing evidence suggests the role of hormones and cell wall-related enzymes in response to acidic pH that could possibly avoid cell mortality. Here, we have investigated the role of ethylene and class III peroxidases (CIII Prxs) activity on sensitivity to further low pH treatment. Seedlings of Arabidopsis thaliana were pretreated with ethylene, at various concentrations for various times, and then exposed to low pH. In contrast to non-treated roots, roots pretreated with ethylene for 3 h became tolerant to subsequent low pH, with negligible cell mortality in meristematic (MZ), transition (TZ), and early elongation (EZ) zones. This effect of ethylene was time dependent since it was achieved only when seedlings were pre-incubated with ethylene for at least 3 h. This tolerance induced by ethylene was not observed in the gain-of-function mutation etr1-1 (insensitive to ethylene 1–1). Besides, it was prevented by salicylhydroxamic acid (SHAM) which is an inhibitor of CIII Prxs activity. In late EZ, the decrease in cell expansion due to low pH was dependent on both ethylene signaling and a SHAM-sensitive process. The responses mediated by ethylene signaling might involve CIII Prxs-dependent cell wall modifications, leading to tolerance to low pH and arrest in cell expansion during stress

GeneFarm, structural and functional annotation of Arabidopsis gene and protein families by a network of experts

Genomic projects heavily depend on genome annotations and are limited by the current deficiencies in the published predictions of gene structure and function. It follows that, improved annotation will allow better data mining of genomes, and more secure planning and design of experiments. The purpose of the GeneFarm project is to obtain homogeneous, reliable, documented and traceable annotations for Arabidopsis nuclear genes and gene products, and to enter them into an added-value database. This re-annotation project is being performed exhaustively on every member of each gene family. Performing a family-wide annotation makes the task easier and more efficient than a gene-by-gene approach since many features obtained for one gene can be extrapolated to some or all the other genes of a family. A complete annotation procedure based on the most efficient prediction tools available is being used by 16 partner laboratories, each contributing annotated families from its field of expertise. A database, named GeneFarm, and an associated user-friendly interface to query the annotations have been developed. More than 3000 genes distributed over 300 families have been annotated and are available at http://genoplante-info.infobiogen.fr/Genefarm/. Furthermore, collaboration with the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics is underway to integrate the GeneFarm data into the protein knowledgebase Swiss-Prot

GeneFarm, structural and functional annotation of Arabidopsis gene and protein families by a network of experts

Genomic projects heavily depend on genome annotations and are limited by the current deficiencies in the published predictions of gene structure and function. It follows that, improved annotation will allow better data mining of genomes, and more secure planning and design of experiments. The purpose of the GeneFarm project is to obtain homogeneous, reliable, documented and traceable annotations for Arabidopsis nuclear genes and gene products, and to enter them into an added-value database. This re-annotation project is being performed exhaustively on every member of each gene family. Performing a family-wide annotation makes the task easier and more efficient than a gene-by-gene approach since many features obtained for one gene can be extrapolated to some or all the other genes of a family. A complete annotation procedure based on the most efficient prediction tools available is being used by 16 partner laboratories, each contributing annotated families from its field of expertise. A database, named GeneFarm, and an associated user-friendly interface to query the annotations have been developed. More than 3000 genes distributed over 300 families have been annotated and are available at http://genoplante-info.infobiogen.fr/Genefarm/. Furthermore, collaboration with the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics is underway to integrate the GeneFarm data into the protein knowledgebase Swiss-Pro

Community-Level Responses to Iron Availability in Open Ocean Plankton Ecosystems

Predicting responses of plankton to variations in essential nutrients is hampered by limited in situ measurements, a poor understanding of community composition, and the lack of reference gene catalogs for key taxa. Iron is a key driver of plankton dynamics and, therefore, of global biogeochemical cycles and climate. To assess the impact of iron availability on plankton communities, we explored the comprehensive bio-oceanographic and bio-omics data sets from Tara Oceans in the context of the iron products from two state-of-the-art global scale biogeochemical models. We obtained novel information about adaptation and acclimation toward iron in a range of phytoplankton, including picocyanobacteria and diatoms, and identified whole subcommunities covarying with iron. Many of the observed global patterns were recapitulated in the Marquesas archipelago, where frequent plankton blooms are believed to be caused by natural iron fertilization, although they are not captured in large-scale biogeochemical models. This work provides a proof of concept that integrative analyses, spanning from genes to ecosystems and viruses to zooplankton, can disentangle the complexity of plankton communities and can lead to more accurate formulations of resource bioavailability in biogeochemical models, thus improving our understanding of plankton resilience in a changing environment

Travailler avec des adultes en vue de l’insertion professionnelle : introduction

Notre propos concerne une collaboration de recherche entre praticiens de la formation et chercheurs universitaires sur une problématique partagée qui émane des préoccupations des praticiens. C’est à l’occasion du lancement, en 1999 par le GPLI, d’un appel à projets que Jean-Pierre Gaté et le GRILL proposent d’engager deux chantiers de recherche. L’un se penchera plutôt sur le milieu éducatif, l’autre sur le milieu du travail, tous deux en relation avec les problèmes liés à l’illettrisme. La s..