High quality factor nitride-based optical cavities: microdisks with embedded GaN/Al(Ga)N quantum dots

We compare the quality factor values of the whispery gallery modes of microdisks incorporating GaN quantum dots (QDs) grown on AlN and AlGaN barriers by performing room temperature photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. The PL measurements show a large number of high Q factor (Q) resonant modes on the whole spectrum which allows us to identify the different radial mode families and to compare them with simulations. We report a considerable improvement of the Q factor which reflect the etching quality and the relatively low cavity loss by inserting QDs into the cavity. GaN/AlN QDs based microdisks show very high Q values (Q > 7000) whereas the Q factor is only up to 2000 in microdisks embedding QDs grown on AlGaN barrier layer. We attribute this difference to the lower absorption below bandgap for AlN barrier layers at the energies of our experimental investigation

A new model depicting the role of PME during dehydration and germination of pollen grain

International audienc

Involvement of Pectin methylesterases in Arabidopsis pollen imbibitions and germination

International audienc

Laser emission with excitonic gain in a ZnO planar microcavity

The lasing operation of a ZnO planar microcavity under optical pumping is demonstrated from T=80 K to 300 K. At the laser threshold, the cavity switches from the strong coupling to the weak coupling regime. A gain-related transition, which appears while still observing polariton branches and, thus, with stable excitons, is observed below 240K. This shows that exciton scattering processes, typical of II-VI semiconductors, are involved in the gain process

Relaxation and emission of Bragg-mode and cavity-mode polaritons in a ZnO microcavity at room temperature

The strong coupling regime in a ZnO microcavity is investigated through room temperature photoluminescence and reflectivity experiments. The simultaneous strong coupling of excitons to the cavity mode and the first Bragg mode is demonstrated at room temperature. The polariton relaxation is followed as a function of the excitation density. A relaxation bottleneck is evidenced in the Bragg-mode polariton branch. It is partly broken under strong excitation density, so that the emission from this branch dominates the one from cavity-mode polaritons

Clearance of Genotype 1b Hepatitis C Virus in Chimpanzees in the Presence of Vaccine-Induced E1-Neutralizing Antibodies

Accumulating evidence indicates that neutralizing antibodies play an important role in protection from chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Efforts to elicit such responses by immunization with intact heterodimeric E1E2 envelope proteins have met with limited success. To determine whether antigenic sites, which are not exposed by the combined E1E2 heterodimer structure, are capable of eliciting neutralizing antibody responses, we expressed and purified each as separate recombinant proteins E1 and E2, from which the immunodominant hypervariable region (HVR-1) was deleted. Immunization of chimpanzees with either E1 or E2 alone induced antigen-specific T-helper cytokines of similar magnitude. Unexpectedly, the capacity to neutralize HCV was observed in E1 but not in animals immunized with E2 devoid of HVR-1. Furthermore, in vivo only E1-vaccinated animals exposed to the heterologous HCV-1b inoculum cleared HCV infection

Designing Focused Chemical Libraries Enriched in Protein-Protein Interaction Inhibitors using Machine-Learning Methods

Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) may represent one of the next major classes of therapeutic targets. So far, only a minute fraction of the estimated 650,000 PPIs that comprise the human interactome are known with a tiny number of complexes being drugged. Such intricate biological systems cannot be cost-efficiently tackled using conventional high-throughput screening methods. Rather, time has come for designing new strategies that will maximize the chance for hit identification through a rationalization of the PPI inhibitor chemical space and the design of PPI-focused compound libraries (global or target-specific). Here, we train machine-learning-based models, mainly decision trees, using a dataset of known PPI inhibitors and of regular drugs in order to determine a global physico-chemical profile for putative PPI inhibitors. This statistical analysis unravels two important molecular descriptors for PPI inhibitors characterizing specific molecular shapes and the presence of a privileged number of aromatic bonds. The best model has been transposed into a computer program, PPI-HitProfiler, that can output from any drug-like compound collection a focused chemical library enriched in putative PPI inhibitors. Our PPI inhibitor profiler is challenged on the experimental screening results of 11 different PPIs among which the p53/MDM2 interaction screened within our own CDithem platform, that in addition to the validation of our concept led to the identification of 4 novel p53/MDM2 inhibitors. Collectively, our tool shows a robust behavior on the 11 experimental datasets by correctly profiling 70% of the experimentally identified hits while removing 52% of the inactive compounds from the initial compound collections. We strongly believe that this new tool can be used as a global PPI inhibitor profiler prior to screening assays to reduce the size of the compound collections to be experimentally screened while keeping most of the true PPI inhibitors. PPI-HitProfiler is freely available on request from our CDithem platform website, www.CDithem.com

Influenza symptoms and their impact on elderly adults: randomised trial of AS03-adjuvanted or non-adjuvanted inactivated trivalent seasonal influenza vaccines.

Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) are particularly relevant in influenza vaccine trials in the elderly where reduction in symptom severity could prevent illness-related functional impairment

Necrotrophism Is a Quorum-Sensing-Regulated Lifestyle in Bacillus thuringiensis

How pathogenic bacteria infect and kill their host is currently widely investigated. In comparison, the fate of pathogens after the death of their host receives less attention. We studied Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) infection of an insect host, and show that NprR, a quorum sensor, is active after death of the insect and allows Bt to survive in the cadavers as vegetative cells. Transcriptomic analysis revealed that NprR regulates at least 41 genes, including many encoding degradative enzymes or proteins involved in the synthesis of a nonribosomal peptide named kurstakin. These degradative enzymes are essential in vitro to degrade several substrates and are specifically expressed after host death suggesting that Bt has an active necrotrophic lifestyle in the cadaver. We show that kurstakin is essential for Bt survival during necrotrophic development. It is required for swarming mobility and biofilm formation, presumably through a pore forming activity. A nprR deficient mutant does not develop necrotrophically and does not sporulate efficiently in the cadaver. We report that necrotrophism is a highly regulated mechanism essential for the Bt infectious cycle, contributing to spore spreading