The deep-sea macrobenthos on the continental slope of the northwestern Mediterranean Sea: a quantitative approach

As part of the ECOMARGE operation (J.G.O.F.S. France), macrobenthic assemblages in the Toulon Canyon were described and quantified on the basis of sampling carried out between 250 and 2000 m depth on the Mediterranean continental slope. Results show that Mediterranean bathyal assemblages are made up mainly of continental shelf eurybathic species. The qualitative and quantitative composition of populations varies with depth on the slope and also varies with station position at equivalent depth, whether on the flanks or in the canyon channel. Various analyses have provided evidence on the factors responsible for this population distribution pattern. No single factor emerges as predominant, but rather a group of factors, which are related to the nature and origin of sediments and more particularly their grain size distribution, geochemical composition and mode of transportation and sedimentation (benthic nepheloid or originating from the water column), act in conjunction to determine the pattern. Comparison with ocean continental slopes shows that in the Mediterranean Sea the absence of tidal current modifies the trophic structure of the macrobenthic assemblages, which are characterized by a dominance of surface and subsurface deposit feeders as compared to a dominance of suspension feeders and carnivores in the upper and median part of the slope in the ocean. Surface dumping of dredge spoil at the canyon head and channelling of waste induces an increase of organic matter and pollutant concentrations in sediment from the upper part of the canyon channel but does not give rise to any marked population degradation

Responses to hydric stress in the seed-borne necrotrophic fungus Alternaria brassicicola

Alternaria brassicicola is a necrotrophic fungus causing black spot disease and is an economically important seed-borne pathogen of cultivated brassicas. Seed transmission is a crucial component of its parasitic cycle as it promotes long-term survival and dispersal. Recent studies, conducted with the Arabidopsis thaliana/A. brassicicola pathosystem, showed that the level of susceptibility of the fungus to water stress strongly influenced its seed transmission ability. In this study, we gained further insights into the mechanisms involved in the seed infection process by analyzing the transcriptomic and metabolomic responses of germinated spores of A. brassicicola exposed to water stress. Then, the repertoire of putative hydrophilins, a group of proteins that are assumed to be involved in cellular dehydration tolerance, was established in A. brassicicola based on the expression data and additional structural and biochemical criteria. Phenotyping of single deletion mutants deficient for fungal hydrophilin-like proteins showed that they were affected in their transmission to A. thaliana seeds, although their aggressiveness on host vegetative tissues remained intact

Limits on the production of scalar leptoquarks from Z (0) decays at LEP

A search has been made for pairs and for single production of scalar leptoquarks of the first and second generations using a data sample of 392000 Z0 decays from the DELPHI detector at LEP 1. No signal was found and limits on the leptoquark mass, production cross section and branching ratio were set. A mass limit at 95% confidence level of 45.5 GeV/c2 was obtained for leptoquark pair production. The search for the production of a single leptoquark probed the mass region above this limit and its results exclude first and second generation leptoquarks D0 with masses below 65 GeV/c2 and 73 GeV/c2 respectively, at 95% confidence level, assuming that the D0lq Yukawa coupling alpha(lambda) is equal to the electromagnetic one. An upper limit is also given on the coupling alpha(lambda) as a function of the leptoquark mass m(D0)

Effects of eight neuropsychiatric copy number variants on human brain structure

Many copy number variants (CNVs) confer risk for the same range of neurodevelopmental symptoms and psychiatric conditions including autism and schizophrenia. Yet, to date neuroimaging studies have typically been carried out one mutation at a time, showing that CNVs have large effects on brain anatomy. Here, we aimed to characterize and quantify the distinct brain morphometry effects and latent dimensions across 8 neuropsychiatric CNVs. We analyzed T1-weighted MRI data from clinically and non-clinically ascertained CNV carriers (deletion/duplication) at the 1q21.1 (n = 39/28), 16p11.2 (n = 87/78), 22q11.2 (n = 75/30), and 15q11.2 (n = 72/76) loci as well as 1296 non-carriers (controls). Case-control contrasts of all examined genomic loci demonstrated effects on brain anatomy, with deletions and duplications showing mirror effects at the global and regional levels. Although CNVs mainly showed distinct brain patterns, principal component analysis (PCA) loaded subsets of CNVs on two latent brain dimensions, which explained 32 and 29% of the variance of the 8 Cohen’s d maps. The cingulate gyrus, insula, supplementary motor cortex, and cerebellum were identified by PCA and multi-view pattern learning as top regions contributing to latent dimension shared across subsets of CNVs. The large proportion of distinct CNV effects on brain morphology may explain the small neuroimaging effect sizes reported in polygenic psychiatric conditions. Nevertheless, latent gene brain morphology dimensions will help subgroup the rapidly expanding landscape of neuropsychiatric variants and dissect the heterogeneity of idiopathic conditions

Multiancestry analysis of the HLA locus in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases uncovers a shared adaptive immune response mediated by HLA-DRB1*04 subtypes

Across multiancestry groups, we analyzed Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) associations in over 176,000 individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) versus controls. We demonstrate that the two diseases share the same protective association at the HLA locus. HLA-specific fine-mapping showed that hierarchical protective effects of HLA-DRB1*04 subtypes best accounted for the association, strongest with HLA-DRB1*04:04 and HLA-DRB1*04:07, and intermediary with HLA-DRB1*04:01 and HLA-DRB1*04:03. The same signal was associated with decreased neurofibrillary tangles in postmortem brains and was associated with reduced tau levels in cerebrospinal fluid and to a lower extent with increased Aβ42. Protective HLA-DRB1*04 subtypes strongly bound the aggregation-prone tau PHF6 sequence, however only when acetylated at a lysine (K311), a common posttranslational modification central to tau aggregation. An HLA-DRB1*04-mediated adaptive immune response decreases PD and AD risks, potentially by acting against tau, offering the possibility of therapeutic avenues

Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker initiation on organ support-free days in patients hospitalized with COVID-19

IMPORTANCE Overactivation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) may contribute to poor clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Objective To determine whether angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) initiation improves outcomes in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In an ongoing, adaptive platform randomized clinical trial, 721 critically ill and 58 non–critically ill hospitalized adults were randomized to receive an RAS inhibitor or control between March 16, 2021, and February 25, 2022, at 69 sites in 7 countries (final follow-up on June 1, 2022). INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to receive open-label initiation of an ACE inhibitor (n = 257), ARB (n = 248), ARB in combination with DMX-200 (a chemokine receptor-2 inhibitor; n = 10), or no RAS inhibitor (control; n = 264) for up to 10 days. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was organ support–free days, a composite of hospital survival and days alive without cardiovascular or respiratory organ support through 21 days. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model. Odds ratios (ORs) greater than 1 represent improved outcomes. RESULTS On February 25, 2022, enrollment was discontinued due to safety concerns. Among 679 critically ill patients with available primary outcome data, the median age was 56 years and 239 participants (35.2%) were women. Median (IQR) organ support–free days among critically ill patients was 10 (–1 to 16) in the ACE inhibitor group (n = 231), 8 (–1 to 17) in the ARB group (n = 217), and 12 (0 to 17) in the control group (n = 231) (median adjusted odds ratios of 0.77 [95% bayesian credible interval, 0.58-1.06] for improvement for ACE inhibitor and 0.76 [95% credible interval, 0.56-1.05] for ARB compared with control). The posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitors and ARBs worsened organ support–free days compared with control were 94.9% and 95.4%, respectively. Hospital survival occurred in 166 of 231 critically ill participants (71.9%) in the ACE inhibitor group, 152 of 217 (70.0%) in the ARB group, and 182 of 231 (78.8%) in the control group (posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitor and ARB worsened hospital survival compared with control were 95.3% and 98.1%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this trial, among critically ill adults with COVID-19, initiation of an ACE inhibitor or ARB did not improve, and likely worsened, clinical outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0273570

Inférences et compréhension de texte

Summary : Inferences and text comprehension. Two types of inferences are produced during text comprehension : inferences that are necessary to construct the coherence of the representation and optional inferences. Optional inferences are elaborative and depend on world knowledge. They are regrouped in three categories : particularization, prediction and superordinate information. Globalist (Singer, Graesser and Trabasso, 1994) and minimalist theories (McKoon and Ratcliff, 1992) predict that optional inferences are rarely generated while comprehending a text. A review of experimental studies shows that their generation is favored by the following factors : the semantic associations provided by the text, the inference's typicality, and the superordinate status of the inference. Other factors do not only favor the generation of optional inferences, but also contribute to building the coherence of the representation : explicit mention of an instrument, text information causally linked to the inference, focalization of readers attention on information related to the inference, causal explanatory status ofthe superordinate inference. Recent studies suggest that the generation process begins with a transitory, and sometimes partial, activation of the inference content and ends with the integration of this activated information at different levels of the representation built from the text. Furthermore, the generation process could only reach the first activation stages for the optional inferences. This partial generation would facilitate complete generation, when additional factors intervene. Thus, beyond the controversy that opposed the globalist and minimalist views of inference generation, a more graduai view of inference processes in text comprehension is proposed. Key words : text comprehension, elaborative inference, prediction, coherence.Résumé Lors de la compréhension de textes, les lecteurs sont amenés à produire des inférences nécessaires à la construction de la cohérence de la représentation et des inférences dites « élaborations optionnelles ». Les élaborations optionnelles sont regroupées en trois catégories : les particularisations, les prédictions et les informations sur-ordonnées. Les théories globalistes (Singer, Graesser et Trabasso, 1994) et minimalistes (McKoon et Ratcliff, 1992) prédisent que les élaborations optionnelles sont rarement générées pendant la compréhension du texte. Une revue des études expérimentales fait apparaître que la génération de ces inférences est favorisée par : a) la présence dans le texte d'informations associées au contenu de l'inférence, la typicalité de l'inférence, le statut d'information sur-ordonnée ; b) les facteurs liés à des processus de construction de la cohérence de la représentation : mention explicite de l'instrument, men- tion d'informations causalement liées à la prédiction, focalisation de l'attention du lecteur par reprise d'informations liées à l'inférence, rôle de l'information sur-ordonnée. La génération de ces inférences correspondrait à un processus d'activation graduel qui n'aboutirait pas toujours à l'encodage de propositions spécifiques, mais entraînerait des modifications partielles et transitoires de la représentation construite par le lecteur. Mots-clés : compréhension de texte, élaboration, prédiction, cohérence, inférence.Campion N., Rossi Jean-Pierre. Inférences et compréhension de texte. In: L'année psychologique. 1999 vol. 99, n°3. pp. 493-527