Impact of Growth Habit and Architecture Genes on Adaptation and Performance of Bread Wheat

In bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), flowering time and plant stature are important phenological and agronomic traits for adaptation, yield potential, and yield stability. Timely flowering is critical for production, and the flowering window has to be late enough to avoid early season frosts but early enough to avoid late season stresses such as heat and terminal drought. Flowering time is controlled mainly by vernalization, photoperiod response, and earliness per se genes, which can be exploited to fine‐tune growth and tailor flowering time for the production of desirable wheat cultivars. Tailoring flowering time could help reduce preharvest sprouting problems by escaping high temperatures and late season rainfall, which promote preharvest sprouting, hence yield loss. Concisely summarizing available information on flowering time and identifying research gaps could provide direction for future research. This chapter, therefore, discusses: (i) the progress made in discovering genes involved and the impact of their extensive allelic variation on flowering time, (ii) the potential benefits of tailoring wheat\u27s flowering time to improve yield, and (iii) the benefits of introgressing genes for other complimentary traits, such as semidwarf and preharvest sprouting resistance on advanced lines to achieve higher yield, thus, sustainable food security

The FFAG R&D and medical application project RACCAM

JACoW web site http://accelconf.web.cern.ch/AccelConf/e06/Pre-Press/WEPCH161.pdf WEPCH161International audienceThe RACCAM project (Recherche en ACCelerateurs et Applications Medicales) has recently obtained fundings, extending over three years (2006-2008), from the French National Research Agency (ANR). RACCAM is a tripartite collaboration, involving (i) the CNRS Laboratory IN2P3/LPSC, (ii) the French magnet industrial SIGMAPHI, and (iii) the nuclear medecine Departement of Grenoble Hospital. The project concerns fixed field alternating gradient accelerator (FFAG) research on the one hand, and on the other hand their application as hadrontherapy and biology research machines. RACCAM's goal is three-fold, (i) participate to the on-going international collaborations in the field of FFAGs and recent concepts of "non-scaling" FFAGs, with frames for instance, the Neutrino Factory (NuFact) and the EMMA project of an electron model of a muon FFAG accelerator, (ii) design, build and experiment a prototype of an FFAG magnet proper to fulfil the requirements of rapid cycling acceleration, (iii) develop the concepts, and show the feasibility, of the application of such FFAG beams to hadrontherapy and to biology research

Métacognition : intervention thérapeutique autour de la conscience des troubles chez des patients souffrant de traumatisme crânio-cérébral grave

Unawareness related to brain injury has implications for participation in rehabilitation, functional outcomes, and the emotional well being of patients after an acquired brain injury. However, the development of interventions for improving self-awareness is at an early stage, and research on the effectiveness of interventions is limited. The present paper is an investigation into the efficacy of a metacognitive program on self-awareness in people who have had an acquired brain injury. An experimental group of three patients were included in a “cross-over design” protocol including data from neuropsychological evaluations, cognitive complaints, behavioral and emotional changes. In comparison, a social intervention (communicative abilities, social interaction) was proposed to four other patients in order to estimate the specific effects of the metacognitive program. While no specific effect of the metacognitive program was highlighted on cognitive impairments, a post-intervention assessment indicated that participants had significantly improved behavioral limitations, suggesting a benefit of the metacognitive and social rehabilitations on behavior skills. Because benefits are similar whatever the program, it seems that social functioning implication in rehabilitation process needs to be taken into account in forthcoming interventions