286 research outputs found

    Numérique : 1. Environnement : 0. Avec EcoInfo, changeons nos pratiques

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    National audience2015 : la France préside la 21e Conférence des Nations unies sur les changements climatiques 2015 : EcoInfo, récemment transformé en groupement de service, a 10 ans 2015 : les informaticiens se retrouvent aux JRES ! Une telle conjonction est une occasion unique pour imprimer dans ces JRES 2015 une empreinte Écoresponsable. Paris accueille la conférence sur le climat et nous, informaticiens, resterions en dehors des initiatives et des solutions pour lutter contre les bouleversements climatiques ? Non ! D'autant que les retours d'expérience se multiplient. Alors aujourd'hui, nous avons choisi de donner de la visibilité à vos bonnes pratiques, celles qui se mettent en place dans le monde de l'enseignement supérieur et de la recherche. Alors montez dans le train avec ceux qui y sont déjà et donnons ensemble un coup d'accélérateur à la réduction des émissions de gaz à effet de serre et autres polluants en tout genre ! Prise en compte de critères relatifs au développement durable dans nos achats, gestion de l'énergie de nos salles informatiques, éco-conception des data-centres quelle que soit leur taille, gestion des déchets : les frontières de nos métiers se déplacent. Le temps ou les informaticiens avaient les yeux rivés à l'écran et les mains collées au clavier est révolu, aujourd'hui, les bonnes pratiques émergent et commencent à se répandre. Aujourd'hui, des chercheurs n'ignorent plus les impacts des TICs sur l'environnement. Cette présentation se veut un catalyseur d'échanges autour d'un objectif commun : participer au mouvement COP21. JRES 2015 – Montpellier 1/

    Que faites vous de vos e-déchets ?

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    Poster JRES 2013 : 10 èmes journées Réseaux, Montpellier, FranceNational audienceThis poster analyzes the process, choices and decisions concerning electronic waste in french universities and research institutes

    Constraining mass ratio and extinction in the FU Orionis binary system with infrared integral field spectroscopy

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    We report low resolution near infrared spectroscopic observations of the eruptive star FU Orionis using the Integral Field Spectrograph Project 1640 installed at the Palomar Hale telescope. This work focuses on elucidating the nature of the faint source, located 0.5" south of FU Ori, and identified in 2003 as FU Ori S. We first use our observations in conjunction with published data to demonstrate that the two stars are indeed physically associated and form a true binary pair. We then proceed to extract J and H band spectro-photometry using the damped LOCI algorithm, a reduction method tailored for high contrast science with IFS. This is the first communication reporting the high accuracy of this technique, pioneered by the Project 1640 team, on a faint astronomical source. We use our low resolution near infrared spectrum in conjunction with 10.2 micron interferometric data to constrain the infrared excess of FU Ori S. We then focus on estimating the bulk physical properties of FU Ori S. Our models lead to estimates of an object heavily reddened, A_V =8-12, with an effective temperature of ~ 4000-6500 K . Finally we put these results in the context of the FU Ori N-S system and argue that our analysis provides evidence that FU Ori S might be the more massive component of this binary syste

    ATF2 is required for amino acid-regulated transcription by orchestrating specific histone acetylation

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    The transcriptional activation of CHOP (a CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein-related gene) by amino acid deprivation involves the activating transcription factor 2 (ATF2) and the activating transcription factor 4 (ATF4) binding the amino acid response element (AARE) within the promoter. Using a chromatin immunoprecipitation approach, we report that in vivo binding of phospho-ATF2 and ATF4 to CHOP AARE are associated with acetylation of histones H4 and H2B in response to amino acid starvation. A time course analysis reveals that ATF2 phosphorylation precedes histone acetylation, ATF4 binding and the increase in CHOP mRNA. We also show that ATF4 binding and histone acetylation are two independent events that are required for the CHOP induction upon amino acid starvation. Using ATF2-deficient mouse embryonic fibroblasts, we demonstrate that ATF2 is essential in the acetylation of histone H4 and H2B in vivo. The role of ATF2 on histone H4 acetylation is dependent on its binding to the AARE and can be extended to other amino acid regulated genes. Thus, ATF2 is involved in promoting the modification of the chromatin structure to enhance the transcription of a number of amino acid-regulated genes

    The GCN2 kinase is required for activating autophagy in response to indispensable amino acid deficiencies

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    ORGANIZING COMMITTEEChairs: Didier Attaix - Lydie Combaret - Daniel TaillandierDaniel Béchet - Agnès Claustre - Cécile Coudy-Gandilhon - Christiane Deval - Gérard Donadille - Cécile PolgeSCIENTIFIC COMMITTEEDidier Attaix - Lydie Combaret - Alfred L. Goldberg - Ron Hay - Germana Meroni - Marco Sandri - Daniel Taillandier - Keiji Tanaka - Simon S. WingPoster Session 3 - AutophagyImbalances in dietary amino acid (AA) supply, including deficits in one or more indispensable amino acids (IAA), are stressful conditions for the organism that needs to modulate a number of physiological functions to adapt to this situation. In particular, since there is no system dedicated for storing AA in the body, the release of free AA occurs by proteolysis at the expense of functional proteins, notably in the liver by up-regulating autophagy. This process can be rapidly mobilized within the cell in response to a number of stresses, by post-translational regulations of autophagy-related proteins already present in the cytosol. The protein kinase GCN2 is activated upon IAA scarcity in order to promote cell adaptation to a nutritional stress condition. In response to IAA limitation, GCN2 couples the accumulation of uncharged transfer RNAs to the phosphorylation of eIF2a on serine 51. By this mean, GCN2 diminishes the overall protein synthesis rate, while simultaneously activating a gene expression program mediated by the translational upregulation of the transcription factor ATF4. Our recent work has shown that the GCN2/p-eIF2a/ATF4 signaling pathway plays an essential role in the induction of transcription of a number of autophagy-related genes involved in the maintenance of the autophagic process in response to an IAA deficiency (B’chir et al., 2013). In the present study we sought to determine whether GCN2 could play a role in regulating the early stages of autophagy. The most upstream complex for triggering the autophagic process (initiation complex) is notably composed of the ULK kinase and the ATG13 bridging protein, and is classically viewed to be controlled by mTORC1. Indeed, the activity of the autophagy initiation complex has been shown to be modulated according to AA availability by the activity of mTORC1, which phosphorylates different sites in ULK. Here, by using a GCN2 knock-out mouse model we investigated the role of GCN2 in the upregulation of autophagy in the first hour of an IAA deficiency. Our results show that 1) GCN2 is required for upregulating liver autophagy in response to an IAA-deficient diet, which is confirmed in cell culture model; 2) this early activation of the autophagic process does not require the transcription factor ATF4; 3) moreover, while this effect can occur without concomitant inhibition of mTORC1 activity, our results suggest that ULK/ATG13 couple is involved in the GCN2-dependent activation of autophagy. Our results demonstrate that in the particular model of an IAA deficiency GCN2 plays a preponderant role in triggering the adaptive autophagy upregulation, a mechanism which can operate without concomitant inhibition of mTORC1 activit

    Cdk1 inactivation terminates mitotic checkpoint surveillance and stabilizes kinetochore attachments in anaphase

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    Two mechanisms safeguard the bipolar attachment of chromosomes in mitosis. A correction mechanism destabilizes erroneous attachments that do not generate tension across sister kinetochores [1]. In response to unattached kinetochores, the mitotic checkpoint delays anaphase onset by inhibiting the anaphase-promoting complex/cyclosome (APC/CCdc20) [2]. Upon satisfaction of both pathways, the APC/CCdc20 elicits the degradation of securin and cyclin B [3]. This liberates separase triggering sister chromatid disjunction and inactivates cyclin-dependent kinase 1 (Cdk1) causing mitotic exit. How eukaryotic cells avoid the engagement of attachment monitoring mechanisms when sister chromatids split and tension is lost at anaphase is poorly understood [4]. Here we show that Cdk1 inactivation disables mitotic checkpoint surveillance at anaphase onset in human cells. Preventing cyclin B1 proteolysis at the time of sister chromatid disjunction destabilizes kinetochore-microtubule attachments and triggers the engagement of the mitotic checkpoint. As a consequence, mitotic checkpoint proteins accumulate at anaphase kinetochores, the APC/CCdc20 is inhibited, and securin reaccumulates. Conversely, acute pharmacological inhibition of Cdk1 abrogates the engagement and maintenance of the mitotic checkpoint upon microtubule depolymerization. We propose that the simultaneous destruction of securin and cyclin B elicited by the APC/CCdc20 couples chromosome segregation to the dissolution of attachment monitoring mechanisms during mitotic exit

    A New High Contrast Imaging Program at Palomar Observatory

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    We describe a new instrument that forms the core of a long-term high contrast imaging program at the 200-inch Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory. The primary scientific thrust is to obtain images and low-resolution spectroscopy of brown dwarfs and young Jovian mass exoplanets in the vicinity of stars within 50 parsecs of the Sun. The instrument is a microlens-based integral field spectrograph integrated with a diffraction limited, apodized-pupil Lyot coronagraph, mounted behind the Palomar adaptive optics system. The spectrograph obtains imaging in 23 channels across the J and H bands (1.06 - 1.78 microns). In addition to obtaining spectra, this wavelength resolution allows suppression of the chromatically dependent speckle noise, which we describe. We have recently installed a novel internal wave front calibration system that will provide continuous updates to the AO system every 0.5 - 1.0 minutes by sensing the wave front within the coronagraph. The Palomar AO system is undergoing an upgrade to a much higher-order AO system ("PALM-3000"): a 3388-actuator tweeter deformable mirror working together with the existing 241-actuator mirror. This system will allow correction with subapertures as small as 8cm at the telescope pupil using natural guide stars. The coronagraph alone has achieved an initial dynamic range in the H-band of 2 X 10^-4 at 1 arcsecond, without speckle noise suppression. We demonstrate that spectral speckle suppression is providing a factor of 10-20 improvement over this bringing our current contrast at an arcsecond to ~2 X 10^-5. This system is the first of a new generation of apodized pupil coronagraphs combined with high-order adaptive optics and integral field spectrographs (e.g. GPI, SPHERE, HiCIAO), and we anticipate this instrument will make a lasting contribution to high contrast imaging in the Northern Hemisphere for years.Comment: Accepted to PASP: 12 pages, 12 figure

    Electric Field Conjugation with the Project 1640 coronagraph

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    The Project 1640 instrument on the 200-inch Hale telescope at Palomar Observatory is a coronagraphic instrument with an integral field spectrograph at the back end, designed to find young, self-luminous planets around nearby stars. To reach the necessary contrast for this, the PALM-3000 adaptive optics system corrects for fast atmospheric speckles, while CAL, a phase-shifting interferometer in a Mach-Zehnder configuration, measures the quasistatic components of the complex electric field in the pupil plane following the coronagraphic stop. Two additional sensors measure and control low-order modes. These field measurements may then be combined with a system model and data taken separately using a white-light source internal to the AO system to correct for both phase and amplitude aberrations. Here, we discuss and demonstrate the procedure to maintain a half-plane dark hole in the image plane while the spectrograph is taking data, including initial on-sky performance.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, in Proceedings of SPIE, 8864-19 (2013
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