Mirror neuron based alerts for control flight into terrain avoidance

Controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) accidents occur when an aircraft, under the control of the crew, is flown into terrain (or water) with no prior awareness from the part of the crew of the imminent catastrophe (Wiener, 1977). In commercial aviation, CFIT are among the deadliest accidents but the situation has continuously improved this last decade. In particular, a spectacular fall in the number of fatalities was made possible by the introduction of enhanced ground proximity warning systems (EGPWS). However, CFIT accidents remain the second leading cause of on-board fatalities and several crashes of this category involving airplanes equipped with EGPWS occurred since 2007. The human factor plays a major role in that type of disaster and studies show that visual and auditory alarms are not always taken into account. Yet, when a ‘PULL UP’ alert is triggered, the pilot has only a few seconds to react in order to avoid the impending CFIT. Most of the time, the procedure is quite simple: the pilot must pull full back on the stick and apply maximum thrust to gain altitude. In this study, we introduced a new type of visual alert specifically dedicated to activate the mirror neurons that appear to play a key role in both action understanding and imitation (Rizzolatti, 2004). Such motor neurons are known to fire either when a person acts or when a person observes the same action performed by another one. We hypothesized that an immediate understanding of a required behavior, displayed by a video that shows the appropriate actions to perform, will activate the mirror neurons and provoke an extremely rapid reaction from the pilots to prevent a potential collision. We designed short videos displayed in the primary flight displays in which virtual avatars explicitly performed the actions on the levers and on the stick. Three pilots completed 10 different flight scenarios during the approach phase with a full motion A320 flight simulator. In some of the scenarios, an alarm was triggered just before an imminent collision and the pilots had to immediately perform a go-around. The results showed that the videos with avatars allowed much shorter reaction times than the regular textual ‘PULL UP’ alerts. While the anti-collision maneuver was initiated in 7.60 s (SD = 1.83) with the regular alert, video mean reaction time was 1.27 s (SD = 0.31). This encouraging preliminary outcome opens new perspectives on mirror neuron based human machine interfaces

Dihydroceramides in Triglyceride-Enriched VLDL Are Associated with Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease Severity in Type 2 Diabetes

International audiencePlasma dihydroceramides are predictors of type 2 diabetes and related to metabolic dysfunctions, but the underlying mechanisms are not characterized. We compare the relationships between plasma dihydroceramides and biochemical and hepatic parameters in two cohorts of diabetic patients. Hepatic steatosis, steatohepatitis, and fibrosis are assessed by their plasma biomarkers. Plasma lipoprotein sphingolipids are studied in a sub-group of diabetic patients. Liver biopsies from subjects with suspected non-alcoholic fatty liver disease are analyzed for sphingolipid synthesis enzyme expression. Dihydroceramides, contained in triglyceride-rich very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL), are associated with steatosis and steatohepatitis. Expression of sphingolipid synthesis enzymes is correlated with histological steatosis and inflammation grades. In conclusion, association of plasma dihydroceramides with nonalcoholic fatty liver might explain their predictive character for type 2 diabetes. Our results suggest a relationship between hepatic sphingolipid metabolism and steatohepatitis and an involvement of dihydroceramides in the synthesis/secretion of triglyceride-rich VLDL, a hallmark of NAFLD and type 2 diabetes dyslipidemia

Compositional heterogeneity of insoluble organic matter extracted from asteroid Ryugu samples

International audienceAbstract We report a Fourier transform infrared analysis of functional groups in insoluble organic matter (IOM) extracted from a series of 100–500 μm Ryugu grains collected during the two touchdowns of February 22 and July 11, 2019. IOM extracted from most of the samples is very similar to IOM in primitive CI, CM, and CR chondrites, and shows that the extent of thermal metamorphism in Ryugu regolith was, at best, very limited. One sample displays chemical signatures consistent with a very mild heating, likely due to asteroidal collision impacts. We also report a lower carbonyl abundance in Ryugu IOM samples compared to primitive chondrites, which could reflect the accretion of a less oxygenated precursor by Ryugu. The possible effects of hydrothermal alteration and terrestrial weathering are also discussed. Last, no firm conclusions could be drawn on the origin of the soluble outlier phases, observed along with IOM in this study and in the preliminary analysis of Ryugu samples. However, it is clear that the HF/HCl residues presented in this publication are a mix between IOM and the nitrogen‐rich outlier phase

AFM-IR nanospectroscopy of nanoglobule-like particles in Ryugu samples returned by the Hayabusa2 mission

International audienceContext. The JAXA Hayabusa2 mission returned well-preserved samples collected from the carbonaceous asteroid Ryugu, providing unique non-terrestrially weathered samples from a known parent body.Aims. This work aims to provide a better understanding of the formation and evolution of primitive asteroidal matter by studying the fine scale association of organic matter and minerals in Ryugu samples. We characterized the samples by IR nanospectroscopy using infrared photothermal nanospectroscopy (AFM-IR) technique. This technique overcomes the diffraction limit (of several microns) of conventional infrared microspectroscopy (µ-FTIR). The samples were mapped in the mid-IR range at a lateral spatial resolution about a hundred times better than with µ-FTIR. This provided us with unique in situ access to the distribution of the different infrared signatures of organic components at the sub-micron scale present in the Ryugu whole-rock samples as well as to the characterization of the compositional variability of Ryugu in the insoluble organic matter (IOM) chemically extracted from the Ryugu samples.Methods. The AFM-IR maps of whole-rock particles and IOM residues from Ryugu samples were recorded with a lateral resolution of tens of nanometers. Spectra were recorded in the 1900–900 cm−1 spectral range by AFM-IR (Icon-IR) for all samples, and additional spectra were recorded from 2700 to 4000 cm−1 for one IOM sample by an optical photothermal IR (O-PTIR) technique using a mIRage® IR microscope.Results. Organic matter is present in two forms in the whole-rock samples: as a diffuse phase intermixed with the phyllosilicate matrix and as individual organic nanoparticles. We identify the Ryugu organic nanoparticles as nanoglobule-like inclusions texturally resembling nanoglobules present in primitive meteorites. Using AFM-IR, we record for the first time the infrared spectra of Ryugu organic nanoparticles that clearly show enhanced carbonyl (C=O) and CH contributions with respect to the diffuse organic matter in Ryugu whole-rock and IOM residue

In situ investigation of an organic micro‐globule and its mineralogical context within a Ryugu “sand” grain

International audienceThe Hayabusa2 mission from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) returned to the Earth samples of carbonaceous asteroid (162173) Ryugu. This mission offers a unique opportunity to investigate in the laboratory samples from a C‐type asteroid, without physical or chemical alteration by the terrestrial atmosphere. Here, we report on an investigation of the mineralogy and the organo‐chemistry of Hayabusa2 samples using a combination of micro‐ and nano‐infrared spectroscopy. Particles investigated with conventional FTIR spectroscopy have spectra dominated by phyllosilicate‐related absorption, as observed for samples of CI‐chondrites, selected ungrouped carbonaceous chondrites, and selected hydrated micrometeorites. Ryugu samples show smaller sulfate‐related absorption than CI‐chondrites. Our samples that were only briefly exposed to the Earth atmosphere show absorptions related to molecular water, revealing fast terrestrial contamination of the spectral signature at 3 μm. Overall, our FTIR data are in agreement with other work done on Ryugu samples, revealing a low degree of mineralogical variability across Ryugu samples. AFM‐IR mapping of the grains shows the presence of a micrometer‐sized organic globule in one of our analyzed grains. The AFM‐IR spectra obtained on this globule are similar to IR spectra obtained on IOM suggesting that it is constituted of refractory organic matter. This globule may host silicate in its interior, with a different mineralogy than bulk Ryugu phyllosilicate. The shape, presence of peculiar silicate, and the nature of organic constituting the globule point toward a pre‐accretionary origin of this globule and that at least part of Ryugu organics were inherited from the protosolar nebulae or the interstellar media. Altogether, our results show the similarities between Ryugu samples and CI chondrites

In situ investigation of an organic micro‐globule and its mineralogical context within a Ryugu “sand” grain

International audienceThe Hayabusa2 mission from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) returned to the Earth samples of carbonaceous asteroid (162173) Ryugu. This mission offers a unique opportunity to investigate in the laboratory samples from a C‐type asteroid, without physical or chemical alteration by the terrestrial atmosphere. Here, we report on an investigation of the mineralogy and the organo‐chemistry of Hayabusa2 samples using a combination of micro‐ and nano‐infrared spectroscopy. Particles investigated with conventional FTIR spectroscopy have spectra dominated by phyllosilicate‐related absorption, as observed for samples of CI‐chondrites, selected ungrouped carbonaceous chondrites, and selected hydrated micrometeorites. Ryugu samples show smaller sulfate‐related absorption than CI‐chondrites. Our samples that were only briefly exposed to the Earth atmosphere show absorptions related to molecular water, revealing fast terrestrial contamination of the spectral signature at 3 μm. Overall, our FTIR data are in agreement with other work done on Ryugu samples, revealing a low degree of mineralogical variability across Ryugu samples. AFM‐IR mapping of the grains shows the presence of a micrometer‐sized organic globule in one of our analyzed grains. The AFM‐IR spectra obtained on this globule are similar to IR spectra obtained on IOM suggesting that it is constituted of refractory organic matter. This globule may host silicate in its interior, with a different mineralogy than bulk Ryugu phyllosilicate. The shape, presence of peculiar silicate, and the nature of organic constituting the globule point toward a pre‐accretionary origin of this globule and that at least part of Ryugu organics were inherited from the protosolar nebulae or the interstellar media. Altogether, our results show the similarities between Ryugu samples and CI chondrites

Electron microscopy observations of the diversity of Ryugu organic matter and its relationship to minerals at the micro-to-nanoscale

International audienceTransmission electron microscopy analyses of Hayabusa2 samples show that Ryugu organic matter exhibits a range of morphologies, elemental compositions, and carbon functional chemistries consistent with those of carbonaceous chondrites that have experienced low-temperature aqueous alteration. Both nanoglobules and diffuse organic matter are abundant. Non-globular organic particles are also present, and including some that contain nanodiamond clusters. Diffuse organic matter is finely distributed in and around phyllosilicates, forms coatings on other minerals, and is also preserved in vesicles in secondary minerals such as carbonate and pyrrhotite. The average elemental compositions determined by energy-dispersive spectroscopy of extracted, demineralized insoluble organic matter samples A0107 and C0106 are C100N3O9S1 and C100N3O7S1, respectively, with the difference in O/C slightly outside the difference in the standard error of the mean. The functional chemistry of the nanoglobules varies from mostly aromatic C=C to mixtures of aromatic C=C, ketone C=O, aliphatic (CHn), and carboxyl (COOH) groups. Diffuse organic matter associated with phyllosilicates has variable aromatic C, ketone and carboxyl groups, and some localized aliphatics, but is dominated by molecular carbonate (CO3) absorption, comparable to prior observations of clay-bound organic matter in CI meteorites