e-Flooding: Crisis Management through Two Temporal Loops

Floods, particularly fast ones, are recurrent natural disasters with a large impact on people and infrastructures. In order to mitigate their impact most countries created regulatory frameworks to coordinate the large number of actors participating to the response of these crises. Several levels from rescue to infrastructure restoration are involved. This article proposes to improve the management of risk and resilience in areas subject to flash floods. The innovative autonomic approach presented in this article is twofold: A short-term feedback loop using a large range of information to help managing the current flood; A long-term feedback loop aiming at improving the resilience of the area to reduce the impact of future crises. The originality of these two loops consists in their link which helps improving the quality of both by feeding each other. This article also describes a scenario showing several benefits of the proposed approach

Imaging malaria sporozoites in the dermis of the mammalian host

The initial phase of malaria infection is the pre-erythrocytic phase, which begins when parasites are injected by the mosquito into the dermis and ends when parasites are released from hepatocytes into the blood. We present here a protocol for the in vivo imaging of GFP-expressing sporozoites in the dermis of rodents, using the combination of a high-speed spinning-disk confocal microscope and a high-speed charge-coupled device (CCD) camera permitting rapid in vivo acquisitions. the steps of this protocol indicate how to infect mice through the bite of infected Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes, record the sporozoites' fate in the mouse ear and to present the data as maximum-fluorescence-intensity projections, time-lapse representations and movie clips. This protocol permits investigating the various aspects of sporozoite behavior in a quantitative manner, such as motility in the matrix, cell traversal, crossing the endothelial barrier of both blood and lymphatic vessels and intravascular gliding. Applied to genetically modified parasites and/or mice, these imaging techniques should be useful for studying the cellular and molecular bases of Plasmodium sporozoite infection in vivo.Inst Pasteur, Unite Biol & Genet Paludisme, F-75724 Paris 15, FranceWeb of Scienc

Processing of blood samples influences PBMC viability and outcome of cell-mediated immune responses in antiretroviral therapy-naïve HIV-1-infected patients

AbstractIntracellular cytokine staining (ICS) assay is increasingly used in vaccine clinical trials to measure antigen-specific T-cell mediated immune (CMI) responses in cryopreserved peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and whole blood. However, recent observations indicate that several parameters involved in blood processing can impact PBMC viability and CMI responses, especially in antiretroviral therapy (ART)-naïve HIV-1-infected individuals.In this phase I study (NCT01610427), we collected blood samples from 22 ART-naïve HIV-1-infected adults. PBMCs were isolated and processed for ICS assay. The individual and combined effects of the following parameters were investigated: time between blood collection and PBMC processing (time-to-process: 2, 7 or 24h); time between PBMC thawing and initiation of in vitro stimulation with HIV-1 antigens (resting-time: 0, 2, 6 and 18h); and duration of antigen-stimulation in PBMC cultures (stimulation-time: 6h or overnight). The cell recovery after thawing, cell viability after ICS and magnitude of HIV-specific CD8+ T-cell responses were considered to determine the optimal combination of process conditions. The impact of time-to-process (2 or 4h) on HIV-specific CD8+ T-cell responses was also assessed in a whole blood ICS assay.A higher quality of cells in terms of recovery and viability (up to 81% and >80% respectively) was obtained with shorter time-to-process (less than 7h) and resting-time (less than 2h) intervals. Longer (overnight) rather than shorter (6h) stimulation-time intervals increased the frequency of CD8+-specific T-cell responses using ICS in PBMCs without change of the functionality. The CD8+ specific T-cell responses detected using fresh whole blood showed a good correlation with the responses detected using frozen PBMCs.Our results support the need of standardized procedures for the evaluation of CMI responses, especially in HIV-1-infected, ART-naïve patients

PLoS One

Introduction Evidence on childbearing desire and reproductive behaviors in women living with HIV on antiretroviral therapy (ART) is scarce, particularly in West Africa. We investigated the prevalence and associated factors of childbearing desire in HIV-infected women in care in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire and explored whether such desires were translated into behaviors related to contraceptive use and communication with health personnel. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted in two HIV-care facilities in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire in 2015. Eligible women were non-pregnant, non-menopausal, aged 18–49 years and diagnosed as HIV-infected. The outcomes were childbearing desire, prevalence of modern contraceptive use, unmet needs for family planning and intention of the last pregnancy since HIV diagnosis. Women wishing to conceive immediately were asked whether they had discussed their desire with HIV healthcare workers. Logistic regression models were used to assess the associations between the outcomes and women’s characteristics. Results Of 1,631 women, 80% declared having childbearing desire. No association was found between women’s childbearing desire and ART status or its duration. In multivariate models, younger age, being in a stable relationship and having no or only one child were significantly associated with increased childbearing desire. Of the women wishing to conceive immediately (n = 713), only 43% reported having had fertility-related dialogue with healthcare provider. Among sexually active women wanting to avoid or delay pregnancy (n = 650), unmet needs for family planning was 40%. Regarding the last pregnancy since HIV diagnosis, one in three women reported not having wanted a baby at that time. Conclusions Pregnancy desire in women living with HIV in Abidjan was extremely high. Integration of safe conception strategies as well as improvement of contraceptive uptake among women in need of family planning are of utmost importance to ensure optimal conception and to avoid transmission of HIV to the male partner or to the forthcoming child

Recommendations for the non-pharmacological treatment of apathy in brain disorders

Apathy is a common neuropsychiatric syndrome observed across many neurocognitive and psychiatric disorders. Although there are currently no definitive standard therapies for the treatment of apathy, non-pharmacological treatment (NPT) is often considered to be at the forefront of clinical management. However, guidelines on how to select, prescribe and administer NPT in clinical practice are lacking. Furthermore, although new Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are beginning to be employed in NPT, their role is still unclear. The objective of the present work is to provide recommendations for the use of NPT for apathy, and to discuss the role of ICT in this domain, based on opinions gathered from experts in the field. The expert panel included 20 researchers and healthcare professionals working on brain disorders and apathy. Following a standard Delphi methodology, experts answered questions via several rounds of web-surveys, and then discussed the results in a plenary meeting. The experts suggested that NPT are useful to consider as therapy for people presenting with different neurocognitive and psychiatric diseases at all stages, with evidence of apathy across domains. The presence of a therapist and/or a caregiver is important in delivering NPT effectively, but parts of the treatment may be performed by the patient alone. NPT can be delivered both in clinical settings and at home. However, while remote treatment delivery may be cost and time-effective, it should be considered with caution, and tailored based on the patient's cognitive and physical profile and living conditions

Characterization of Photochromic Dye Solar Cells Using Small-Signal Perturbation Techniques

Photochromic dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are novel semi-transparent photovoltaic devices that self-adjust their optical properties to the irradiation conditions, a feature that makes them especially suitable for building integrated photovoltaics. These novel solar cells have already achieved efficiencies above 4%, and there are multiple pathways to improve the performance. In this work, we conduct a full characterization of DSSCs with the photochromic dye NPI, combining electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and intensity-modulated photocurrent spectroscopy (IMPS). We argue that the inherent properties of the photochromic dye, which result in a modification of the functioning of the solar cell by the optical excitation that also acts as a probe, pose unique challenges to the interpretation of the results using conventional models. Absorption of light in the visible range significantly increases when the NPI dye is in the activated state; however, the recombination rate also increases, thus limiting the efficiency. We identify and quantify the mechanism of enhanced recombination when the photochromic dye is activated using a combination of EIS and IMPS. From the comparison to a state-of-the-art reference dye (RK1), we were able to detect a new feature in the IMPS spectrum that is associated with the optical activation of the photochromic dye, providing a useful tool for assessing the electronic behavior of the device under different conditions of light excitation. This study provides guidelines to adequate characterization protocols of photochromic solar cells and essential insights on the interfacial electronic processes.Universidad Pablo de Olavide / CEA Grenobl