Moving forward in the Euro-Mediterranean research and innovation partnership : the experience of the MIRA project

Research and innovation offer significant opportunities for Mediterranean Partner Countries (MPCs) to develop and exploit their assets for the benefit of their economies and of their peoples, as drivers of economic and social development. In this spirit, this book presents the main outcomes of the MIRA project, a coordination and support action acting as a think-tank and an implementation actor of the Euro-Mediterranean Cooperation in Science and Innovation in the Mediterranean area. The book presents the efforts, analysis, reflections on the past and future of EU - MPC cooperation in research and technology development, as well as models and challenges of structuring this cooperation, and a compilation of the lessons learnt along the development of the project. It contains a reflection on policy aspects, analysis and concrete proposals to support the implementation of a future road map of scientific and innovation cooperation for the mutual benefits . The book reflects the internal and external dialogue of the MIRA project consortium on the targeted objective of supporting the EU-MPC dialogue on scientific and innovation cooperation

Influence of oxygen deficiency on optical and dielectric properties of La0.75Ba0.10Sr0.15FeO2.875-δ compounds

Using the conventional sol-gel process, the series of non-stoichiometric oxygen lanthanum ferrites with the formula 0.750.100.152.875 ― (δ=0.00, 0.125 and 0.25) were prepared. X-ray diffraction analysis confirmed the formation of the orthorhombic structure with Pnma space group. In the present work, we confirm the potential of 0.750.100.15 2.875 ― (δ=0.00, 0.125 and 0.25) as an efficient dielectric material. All samples show high absorbance in the visible region with wavelength above 300 nm. The optical band gaps are found to increase from 3.25 to 4.1 with increasing oxygen vacancy concentration. The dielectric constant, dielectric loss and loss factor were carried out as a function of oxygen vacancy concentration and frequency (102 -106 Hz) at room temperature. The variation of dielectric constant with frequency indicates dispersive behavior and giant dielectric response (more than 104 ) at low frequencies for compounds deficient in oxygen. Such value of makes ′ these samples an interesting material to be used in applications namely the reduction of electronic components size. To summarize, incorporating vacancy oxygen enhances the dielectric properties. Thus, the interesting dielectric constant and weak loss strengthen the use for potential applications.publishe

Effects of fluoride on primary cultured haemocytes from the marine gastropod Haliotis tuberculata

International audienceAs a consequence of human's activities, fluoride concentration in many aquatic ecosystems is significantly increasing. Nevertheless, little is known about fluoride toxicity to aquatic life. In this study the effect of exposure to different concentrations of sodium fluoride (2, 10, 50, 250 and 1,250 μg mL −1) during 24 h on primary cultured haemocytes of the gastropod Haliotis tuberculata was realized. Results indicate no significant effect of NaF on cell viability, Lysosomal membrane stability, phagocytosis and ROS production at concentrations of 2, 10, 50 and 250 μg mL −1. Nevertheless, lysosomal membrane alterations, a decrease of phagocytosis and morphological changes of H. tuberculata haemocytes were observed at concentration of 1,250 µg mL −1 NaF suggesting a potential impact of NaF at high concentration in the environment

Caractérisation du lait des races laitières bretonnes : les vaches Bretonne Pie-Noir et Froment du Léon, la chèvre des Fossés

Caractérisation du lait des races laitières bretonnes : les vaches Bretonne Pie-Noir et Froment du Léon, la chèvre des Fossés. 24. Rencontres autour des Recherches sur les Ruminants (3R

Volatile Constituents And Antimicrobial Activity Of Lavandula Stoechas L. Oil From Tunisia

International audienceAn oil obtained from the dried leaves of Lavandula stoechas L. in 0.77% yield was analyzed by capillary GC and GUMS. Fenchone (68.2%) and camphor (11.2%) were the main components of the 28 identified molecules. This oil has been tested for antimicrobial activity against six bacteria, and two fungi. The results showed that this oil was active against all of the tested strains; Staphylococcus aureus was the more sensitive strain

ERS International Congress 2022: highlights from the Respiratory Clinical Care and Physiology Assembly

It is a challenge to keep abreast of all the clinical and scientific advances in the field of respiratory medicine. This article contains an overview of the laboratory-based science, clinical trials and qualitative research that were presented during the 2022 European Respiratory Society International Congress within the sessions from the five groups of Assembly 1 (Respiratory Clinical Care and Physiology). Selected presentations are summarised from a wide range of topics: clinical problems, rehabilitation and chronic care, general practice and primary care, mobile/electronic health (m-health/e-health), clinical respiratory physiology, exercise and functional imaging

Grain Surface Models and Data for Astrochemistry

AbstractThe cross-disciplinary field of astrochemistry exists to understand the formation, destruction, and survival of molecules in astrophysical environments. Molecules in space are synthesized via a large variety of gas-phase reactions, and reactions on dust-grain surfaces, where the surface acts as a catalyst. A broad consensus has been reached in the astrochemistry community on how to suitably treat gas-phase processes in models, and also on how to present the necessary reaction data in databases; however, no such consensus has yet been reached for grain-surface processes. A team of ∼25 experts covering observational, laboratory and theoretical (astro)chemistry met in summer of 2014 at the Lorentz Center in Leiden with the aim to provide solutions for this problem and to review the current state-of-the-art of grain surface models, both in terms of technical implementation into models as well as the most up-to-date information available from experiments and chemical computations. This review builds on the results of this workshop and gives an outlook for future directions

Smashing WEP in A Passive Attack

In this paper, we report extremely fast and optimised active and passive attacks against the old IEEE 802.11 wireless communication protocol WEP. This was achieved through a huge amount of theoretical and experimental analysis (capturing WiFi packets), refinement and optimisation of all the former known attacks and methodologies against RC4 stream cipher in WEP mode. We support all our claims by providing an implementation of this attack as a publicly available patch on Aircrack-ng. Our new attacks improve its success probability drastically. We adapt our theoretical analysis in Eurocrypt 2011 to real-world scenarios and we perform a slight adjustment to match the empirical observations. Our active attack, based on ARP injection, requires 22 500 packets to gain success probability of 50% against a 104-bit WEP key, using Aircrack-ng in non-interactive mode. It runs in less than 5 seconds on an off-the-shelf PC. Using the same number of packets, Aicrack-ng yields around 3% success rate. Furthermore, we describe very fast passive only attacks by just eavesdropping TCP/IPv4 packets in a WiFi communication. Our passive attack requires 27 500 packets. This is much less than the number of packets Aircrack-ng requires in active mode (around 37 500), which is a huge improvement.We believe that our analysis brings on further insight to the security of RC4

A homozygous MED11 C-terminal variant causes a lethal neurodegenerative disease

Purpose: The mediator (MED) multisubunit-complex modulates the activity of the transcriptional machinery, and genetic defects in different MED subunits (17, 20, 27) have been implicated in neurologic diseases. In this study, we identified a recurrent homozygous variant in MED11 (c.325C>T; p.Arg109Ter) in 7 affected individuals from 5 unrelated families. Methods: To investigate the genetic cause of the disease, exome or genome sequencing were performed in 5 unrelated families identified via different research networks and Matchmaker Exchange. Deep clinical and brain imaging evaluations were performed by clinical pediatric neurologists and neuroradiologists. The functional effect of the candidate variant on both MED11 RNA and protein was assessed using reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction and western blotting using fibroblast cell lines derived from 1 affected individual and controls and through computational approaches. Knockouts in zebrafish were generated using clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/Cas9. Results: The disease was characterized by microcephaly, profound neurodevelopmental impairment, exaggerated startle response, myoclonic seizures, progressive widespread neurodegeneration, and premature death. Functional studies on patient-derived fibroblasts did not show a loss of protein function but rather disruption of the C-terminal of MED11, likely impairing binding to other MED subunits. A zebrafish knockout model recapitulates key clinical phenotypes. Conclusion: Loss of the C-terminal of MED subunit 11 may affect its binding efficiency to other MED subunits, thus implicating the MED-complex stability in brain development and neurodegeneration