The Project OASIS (Openly Accessible Services and Interacting Society)

Public authorities have been designing and developing several initiatives for more than ten years in the attempt to guarantee an easy access and a wide offer of on-line services to citizens. Moreover, public authorities should guarantee a common heritage of data, accessible for any person at the same conditions. Despite of these initiatives, public bodies are still often dependent on software vendors. The European project OASIS aims to place the user at the center of a sustainable ecosystem where data, described by an open format, are shared among interoperable and reusable services. This approach allows public authorities to reduce costs, citizens to benefit of a wide range of high quality services and service providers to access to linked data for the development of new applications. Providers can also be part of the OASIS ecosystem, thus benefiting of an open a sustainable economic model. This manuscript describes in the details motivations behind the OASIS project and the portal Ozwillo, presents the platform architecture and discusses preliminary results

Cannabinoid CB2 Receptor Potentiates Obesity-Associated Inflammation, Insulin Resistance and Hepatic Steatosis

BACKGROUND: Obesity-associated inflammation is of critical importance in the development of insulin resistance and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Since the cannabinoid receptor CB2 regulates innate immunity, the aim of the present study was to investigate its role in obesity-induced inflammation, insulin resistance and fatty liver. METHODOLOGY: Murine obesity models included genetically leptin-deficient ob/ob mice and wild type (WT) mice fed a high fat diet (HFD), that were compared to their lean counterparts. Animals were treated with pharmacological modulators of CB2 receptors. Experiments were also performed in mice knock-out for CB2 receptors (Cnr2 -/-). PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In both HFD-fed WT mice and ob/ob mice, Cnr2 expression underwent a marked induction in the stromal vascular fraction of epididymal adipose tissue that correlated with increased fat inflammation. Treatment with the CB2 agonist JWH-133 potentiated adipose tissue inflammation in HFD-fed WT mice. Moreover, cultured fat pads isolated from ob/ob mice displayed increased Tnf and Ccl2 expression upon exposure to JWH-133. In keeping, genetic or pharmacological inactivation of CB2 receptors decreased adipose tissue macrophage infiltration associated with obesity, and reduced inductions of Tnf and Ccl2 expressions. In the liver of obese mice, Cnr2 mRNA was only weakly induced, and CB2 receptors moderately contributed to liver inflammation. HFD-induced insulin resistance increased in response to JWH-133 and reduced in Cnr2 -/- mice. Finally, HFD-induced hepatic steatosis was enhanced in WT mice treated with JWH-133 and blunted in Cnr2 -/- mice. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: These data unravel a previously unrecognized contribution of CB2 receptors to obesity-associated inflammation, insulin resistance and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and suggest that CB2 receptor antagonists may open a new therapeutic approach for the management of obesity-associated metabolic disorder

Design of a multimode interferometer-based mid-infrared multispecies gas sensor

International audienceA 1 x 2 multimode interferometer beam splitter based on mid-infrared emitting chalcogenides waveguides is designed. This device multiplexes mid-infrared light in two channels whose respective passbands overlap either CO 2 or CO absorption bands, respectively between 4.20-4.32 μm and 4.50-4.86 μm. The proposed device offers a low-cost solution for monolithic combination of broadband on-chip mid-infrared light emission with dispersive spectroscopic element devoted to mid-IR multigas sensing applications. Based on restrictive interference mechanism in a 1 x 2 multimode interferometer, the multimode section dimensions (width and length) are engineered to increase the imbalance between the two ports for the two passbands and consequently to increase the output contrast ratio. Tolerances to variations from the optimum device design resulting from processing conditions (materials fabrication and sputtering, photolithography and dry etching steps) are assessed. In particular, the 1 x 2 multimode interferometer diplexer spectral transmission is investigated as a function of deposited film refractive index and multimode section dimensions (width and length) deviation from designed values. Input and output ports tapering is introduced to reduce the device insertion loss

Assessment of erythromycin toxicity on activated sludge via batch experiments and microscopic techniques (epifluorescence and CLSM)

This study investigates erythromycin toxicity toward activated sludge as a function of exposure time and antibiotic concentration. Batch experiments were conducted and microscopic techniques ranging from bright-field microscopy to epifluorescence and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM), combined with a fluorescent viability indicator (BacLight ® Bacterial Viability Kit, Molecular Probes), allowed us to study erythromycin time-kill activity. The erythromycin toxicity was observed at lower concentration when exposure time increased. A 4 .g/L erythromycin concentration was toxic to heterotrophic bacteria on a 5-day time exposure, and a 5 mg/L concentration inhibited nitrification. These findings are in agreement with the microscopic studies, which showed a latency time before the lower antibiotic concentrations began to kill bacteria. Microscope slide wells were used as micro-reactors in which erythromycin concentration ranged from 0.1 to 1 mg/L. After 45 min there were 94% (SD 3.8) of living bacteria in control micro-reactors, 67% (SD 3.1) in micro-reactors that contained 0.1 mg/L erythromycin and 37% (SD 18.6) in micro-reactors that contained 1 mg/L erythromycin. CLSM allowed visualization of isolated stained cells in the three-dimensional structure of damaged floc

Anodic bonding of mid-infrared transparent germanate glasses for high pressure - high temperature microfluidic applications

High pressure/high-temperature microreactors based on silicon-Pyrex® microfabrication technologies have attracted increasing interest in various applications providing optical access in high-pressure flow processes. However, they cannot be coupled to infrared spectroscopy due to the limited optical transparency (up to ~2.7 μm in the infrared region) of the Pyrex® glass substrate employed in the microreactor fabrication. To address this limitation, the alternative approach proposed in this work consists in replacing the Pyrex® glass in the microreactor by a mid-infrared transparent glass with thermal and mechanical properties as close as possible or even better to those of the Pyrex®, including its ability for silicon-wafers coupling by the anodic bonding process. Glasses based on germanate GeO2, known for their excellent transmission in the mid-infrared range and thermal/thermo-mechanical properties, have been thus evaluated and developed for this purpose. The optical, mechanical, thermal and electrical conductivity properties of adapted glass compositions belonging to five vitreous systems have been systemically investigated. The glass composition 70GeO2-15Al2O3-10La2O3-5Na2O (mol.%) was defined as the best candidate and produced in large plates of 50 mm diameter and 1 mm thickness. Anodic bonding tests with Si-wafers have been then successfully conducted, paving the way for the development of fully mid-infrared transparent silicon-glass microreactors.Micro-laboratoires géologiques sur puce pour l'étude des processus clés du transport réactif multiphasique appliqués au stockage géologique du CO2

Quelles compétences pour les futurs agriculteurs ? : Le point de vue d’élèves en formation, de formateurs et d’agriculteurs

Les formations initiales agricoles évoluent régulièrement. En 2009, le baccalauréat professionnel CGEA (Conduite et Gestion de l’Exploitation Agricole) a été réformé et sa durée est passée de 4 à 3 ans. Actuellement, le bac Pro CGEA est le niveau minimal requis pour pouvoir prétendre aux aides à l’installation. La part plus importante accordée aux compétences et non plus aux seules connaissances est une des évolutions majeures de ces changements (ChloroFil, 2013). A l’avenir et en cas de nouvelles évolutions, il est donc légitime de se demander quelles seraient les compétences requises pour les agriculteurs de demain. Une enquête a ainsi été réalisée auprès d’élèves, d’enseignants et d’éleveurs pour identifier les compétences importantes selon eux pour être agriculteur demain. Ils ont également été interrogés sur l’avenir du métier d’agriculteur, afin d’identifier les manques éventuels dans la formation selon eux

Reversing cold tumor microenvironment with targeted alpha-therapy

Actual cancer therapies are facing numerous challenges towards tumor cell destruction : tumor microenvironment involves immunoregulatory cells and cytokines, which prevent anti-tumoral immune response. Therapeutic combination could be the key to turn these « cold » tumor microenvironment into « hot » ones : more vascularised and infiltrated with immune cells. To this end, this project focus on combining targeted alpha-therapy (TAT) and adoptive T-cells transfer (ACT).JRC.G.I.5-Advanced Nuclear Knowledg

Comparative study of Er-doped Ga-Ge-Sb-S thin films fabricated by sputtering and pulsed laser deposition

International audienceDespite the renewed interest in rare earth-doped chalcogenide glasses lying mainly in mid-infrared applications, a few comprehensive studies so far have presented the photoluminescence of amorphous chalcogenide films from visible to mid-infrared. This work reports the fabrication of luminescent quaternary sulfide thin films using radio-frequency sputtering and pulsed laser deposition, and the characterization of their chemical composition, morphology, structure, refractive index and Er photoluminescence. The study of ErI level lifetimes enables developing suitable deposition parameters; the dependency of composition, structural and spectroscopic properties on deposition parameters provides a way to tailor the RE-doped thin film properties. The surface roughness is very low for both deposition methods, ensuring reasonable propagation optical losses. The effects of annealing on the sulfide films spectroscopy and lifetimes were assessed. PLD appears consistent composition-wise, and largely independent of the deposition conditions, but radiofrequency magnetron sputtering seems to be more versatile, as one may tailor the film properties through deposition parameters manipulation. The luminescence via rare earth-doped chalcogenide waveguiding micro-structures might find easy-to-use applications concerning telecommunications or on-chip optical sensors for which luminescent sources or amplifiers operating at different wavelengths are required