Sea surface temperature of the coastal zones of France

Thermal gradients in French coastal zones for the period of one year were mapped in order to enable a coherent study of certain oceanic features detectable by the variations in the sea surface temperature field and their evolution in time. The phenomena examined were mesoscale thermal features in the English Channel, the Bay of Biscay, and the northwestern Mediterranean; thermal gradients generated by French estuary systems; and diurnal heating in the sea surface layer. The investigation was based on Heat Capacity Mapping Mission imagery

Sea surface temperature of the coastal zones of France

The results of an investigation to map the various thermal gradients in the coastal zones of France are presented. Paricular emphasis is given to the natural phenomena and man made thermal effluents. It is shown that a close correlation exist between wind speed direction and the offshore width of the effluent

Opportunités et limites en stylistique computationnelle de la poésie : Détection automatique de l'enjambement en anglais

Plusieurs initiatives internationales témoignent de l'intérêt actuel pour les analyses littéraires assistées par des moyens computationnels, comme le groupement Digital Literary Stylistics (SIG-DLS) de l'Alliance for Digital Humanities Organizations. Le colloque Plotting Poetry montre la variété de phénomènes poétiques abordés à l'aide d'outils informatiques (https://plottingpoetry.wordpress.com/). Un numéro thématique de la revue Langages (2015) en fournit une autre synthèse. Les projets impliquant l'annotation linguistique automatique pour l'analyse littéraire partagent certains soucis : comment opérationnaliser des concepts d'analyse littéraire sur la base d'annotations issues des outils de Traitement automatique des langues (TAL), originalement conçues pour une analyse non-littéraire ? Comment évaluer nos annotations automatiques d'un trait stylistique, en termes de, et au-delà de, la comparaison avec des données de référence annotées manuellement ? Quel gain de connaissance spécifique à l'analyse littéraire est atteignable à travers l'annotation stylistique automatique, qui serait impossible sans traitement informatique ? C'est des questions qui nous occupent également dans notre projet sur la détection automatique de l'enjambement dans la poésie en anglais. L'enjambement implique une discordance entre les pauses requises par la structure métrique (fins de vers ou hémistiche) et des pauses demandées par la syntaxe ou le sens (cf. Golomb, 1979, p. 269). On le rencontre souvent lorsqu'un un syntagme est éclaté sur deux vers successifs, contrariant l'attente d'une pause à la fin du premier vers. Hors cette caractérisation générale, la définition de l'enjambement ne fait pas consensus (cf. Quilis, 1964 ; Hollander, 1975 ; Golomb, 1979 ; Hussein et al., 2018 ; Delente, 2019). C'est une raison pour développer des logiciels qui implémentent les différentes définitions possibles : en détectant automatiquement leurs occurrences sur un grand corpus, les atouts et limites de chaque définition pourront être examinés au vue d'un exemplier large. De plus, il n'y a pas d'études publiées sur la détection automatique de l'enjambement en anglais, contrairement à l'allemand (Hussein et al., 2018) ou espagnol (Ruiz et al., 2017, http://prf1.org/anja/index/). Concernant l'opérationnalisation, nous adoptons une définition à base largement syntaxique (Quilis, 1964) : l'enjambement se produit quand la fin de vers coupe certaines séquences à forte cohésion interne. Ses atouts : premièrement, la facilité d'opérationnalisation. La définition implique des séquences d'étiquettes grammaticales, des dépendances et constituants syntaxiques, fournis par les librairies de TAL. Deuxièmement, l'intérêt de vérifier si cette approche, déjà appliquée en espagnol (Ruiz et al., 2017), serait applicable à l'anglais. Nous avons constaté des limites, ayant modifié la typologie pour mieux gérer l'anglais (voir https://git.unistra.fr/enj/corpus-reference) ; plus généralement, Delente (2019) discute les limites des définitions syntaxiques. La qualité des résultats du TAL décroît pour les textes littéraires (Bamman, 2017). Or, des gains de qualité dans multiples tâches de TAL ont été récemment obtenus par les modèles neuronaux, que nous exploitons, avec les librairies spaCy (Honnibal et Montani, 2017) et AllenNLP (Gardner et al., 2017). Notre étude est une opportunité pour tester leur robustesse sur un corpus exigeant. Pour l'évaluation, nous avons annoté manuellement l'enjambement, selon notre définition, dans 60 poèmes de genres variés des 19e et 20e siècles (voir https://git.unistra.fr/enj/corpus-reference). Le corpus servira à comparer la détection automatique avec l'annotation humaine. Au-delà, on voudrait annoter automatiquement un corpus diachronique large pour déceler de possibles tendances dans la distribution de l'enjambement. Nous aimerions échanger avec la communauté sur les sujets que permet d'examiner ce projet : l'adoption et adaptation de technologies linguistiques pour l'opérationnalisation de concepts littéraires, les problèmes d'évaluation en annotation stylistique automatique, et le potentiel et limites des approches pour contribuer à des nouvelles connaissances en littérature

Expanding Duplication of Free Fatty Acid Receptor-2 (GPR43) Genes in the Chicken Genome

International audienceFree fatty acid receptors (FFAR) belong to a family of five G-protein coupled receptors that are involved in the regulation of lipidmetabolism, so that their loss of function increases the risk of obesity. The aim of this study was to determine the expansion of genesencoding paralogs of FFAR2 in the chicken, considered as amodel organism for developmental biology and biomedical research. Byestimating the gene copy number using quantitative polymerase chain reaction, genomic DNA resequencing, and RNA sequencingdata, we showed the existence of 23 ±1.5 genes encoding FFAR2 paralogs in the chicken genome. The FFAR2 paralogs shared anidentity from 87.2%up to 99%. Extensive gene conversion was responsible for this high degree of sequence similarities betweenthese genes, and this concerned especially the four amino acids known to be critical for ligand binding. Moreover, elevated nonsynonymous/synonymous substitutionratios onsomeamino acids withinor inclose-vicinity of the ligand-bindinggroove suggest thatpositive selectionmay have reduced the effective rate of gene conversion in this region, thus contributing to diversify the function ofsome FFAR2 paralogs. All the FFAR2 paralogs were located on a microchromosome in a same linkage group. FFAR2 genes wereexpressed in different tissues and cells such as spleen, peripheral blood mononuclear cells, abdominal adipose tissue, intestine, andlung, with the highest rate of expression in testis. Further investigations are needed to determine whether these chicken-specificevents along evolution are the consequence of domestication and may play a role in regulating lipid metabolism in this species

Identification of Quantitative Trait Loci responsible for embryonic lethality in mice assessed by ultrasonography.

Recurrent Spontaneous Abortion (RSA) is a frequent pathology affecting 1 to 5% of couples. In approximately 50 % of cases, the aetiology is unknown suggesting a subtle interaction between genetic and environmental factors. Previous attempts to describe genetic factors using the candidate gene approach have been relatively unsuccessful due to the physiological, cellular and genetic complexity of mammalian reproduction. Indeed, fertility can be considered as a quantitative feature resulting from the interaction of genetic, epigenetic and environmental factors. Herein, we identified Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) associated with diverse embryonic lethality phenotypes and the subsequent embryonic resorption in 39 inter-specific recombinant congenic mice strains, using in vivo ultrasound bio-microscopy. The short chromosomal intervals related to the phenotypes will facilitate the study of a restricted number of candidate genes which are potentially dysregulated in patients affected by RSA

A functional link between bone morphogenetic proteins and insulin-like peptide 3 signaling in modulating ovarian androgen production

Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMP) are firmly implicated as intra-ovarian regulators of follicle development and steroidogenesis. Here we report a microarray analysis showing that treatment of cultured bovine theca cells (TC) with BMP6 significantly (>2-fold; P<0.01) up- or down-regulated expression of 445 genes. Insulin-like peptide 3 (INSL3) was the most heavily down-regulated gene (-43-fold) with CYP17A1 and other key transcripts involved in TC steroidogenesis including LHCGR, INHA, STAR, CYP11A1 and HSD3B1 also down-regulated. BMP6 also reduced expression of NR5A1 encoding steroidogenic factor-1 known to target the promoter regions of the aforementioned genes. Real-time PCR confirmed these findings and also revealed a marked reduction in expression of INSL3 receptor (RXFP2). Secretion of INSL3 protein and androstenedione were also suppressed suggesting a functional link between BMP and INSL3 pathways in controlling androgen synthesis. RNAi-mediated knockdown of INSL3 reduced INSL3 mRNA and secreted protein level (75 and 94%, respectively) and elicited a 77% reduction in CYP17A1 mRNA level and 83% reduction in androstenedione secretion. Knockdown of RXFP2 also reduced CYP17A1 mRNA level (81%) and androstenedione secretion (88%). Conversely, treatment with exogenous (human) INSL3 increased androstenedione secretion ~2-fold. The CYP17 inhibitor abiraterone abolished androgen secretion and reduced expression of both INSL3 and RXFP2. Collectively, these findings indicate a positive autoregulatory role for INSL3 signaling in maintaining thecal androgen production, and visa versa. Moreover, BMP6-induced suppression of thecal androgen synthesis may be mediated, at least in part, by reduced INSL3-RXFP2 signaling

Identification of differential gene expression in in vitro FSH treated pig granulosa cells using suppression subtractive hybridization

FSH, which binds to specific receptors on granulosa cells in mammals, plays a key role in folliculogenesis. Its biological activity involves stimulation of intercellular communication and upregulation of steroidogenesis, but the entire spectrum of the genes regulated by FSH has yet to be fully characterized. In order to find new regulated transcripts, however rare, we have used a Suppression Subtractive Hybridization approach (SSH) on pig granulosa cells in primary culture treated or not with FSH. Two SSH libraries were generated and 76 clones were sequenced after selection by differential screening. Sixty four different sequences were identified, including 3 novel sequences. Experiments demonstrated the presence of 25 regulated transcripts. A gene ontology analysis of these 25 genes revealed (1) catalytic; (2) transport; (3) signal transducer; (4) binding; (5) anti-oxidant and (6) structural activities. These findings may deepen our understanding of FSH's effects. Particularly, they suggest that FSH is involved in the modulation of peroxidase activity and remodelling of chromatin

The Insulin-Like Growth Factor System in the Long-Lived Naked Mole-Rat.

Naked mole-rats (Heterocephalus glaber) (NMRs) are the longest living rodents known. They show negligible senescence, and are resistant to cancers and certain damaging effects associated with aging. The insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) have pluripotent actions, influencing growth processes in virtually every system of the body. They are established contributors to the aging process, confirmed by the demonstration that decreased IGF signaling results in life-extending effects in a variety of species. The IGFs are likewise involved in progression of cancers by mediating survival signals in malignant cells. This report presents a full characterization of the IGF system in the NMR: ligands, receptors, IGF binding proteins (IGFBPs), and IGFBP proteases. A particular emphasis was placed on the IGFBP protease, pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A (PAPP-A), shown to be an important lifespan modulator in mice. Comparisons of IGF-related genes in the NMR with human and murine sequences indicated no major differences in essential parts of the IGF system, including PAPP-A. The protease was shown to possess an intact active site despite the report of a contradictory genome sequence. Furthermore, PAPP-A was expressed and translated in NMRs cells and retained IGF-dependent proteolytic activity towards IGFBP-4 and IGF-independent activity towards IGFBP-5. However, experimental data suggest differential regulatory mechanisms for PAPP-A expression in NMRs than those described in humans and mice. This overall description of the IGF system in the NMR represents an initial step towards elucidating the complex molecular mechanisms underlying longevity, and how these animals have evolved to ensure a delayed and healthy aging process