A multifunctional, synthetic Gaussia princeps luciferase reporter for live imaging of Candida albicans infections

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Redundant analog to digital conversion architectures in CMOS technology

The operation of modern electronic devices in different fields as communications, signal processing, and sensor interface is critically affected with robust, high performance and scalable Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADCs), that can be considered as one of the main blocks in many systems, since they are mandatory to make the link between the analog outside world and the evermore-ubiquitous digital computer world. The design of these ADCs come distinct tradeoffs between speed, power, resolution, and die area embodied within many data conversion architectural variations. The flash ADC structure are often the base structure for high-speed operation and simple architecture analog-to-digital converters (ADCs). As the input signal is applied to (

The Fungal Cell Wall : Structure, Biosynthesis, and Function

N.G. is funded by the Wellcome Trust via a senior investigator award and a strategic award and by the MRC Centre for Medical Mycology. C.M. acknowledges the support of the Wellcome Trust and the MRC. N.G. and C.M. are part of the MRC Centre for Medical Mycology. J.P.L. acknowledges support from ANR, Aviesan, and FRM.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Beneficial effect of Mentha suaveolens essential oil in the treatment of vaginal candidiasis assessed by real-time monitoring of infection

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Vaginal candidiasis is a frequent and common distressing disease affecting up to 75% of the women of fertile age; most of these women have recurrent episodes. Essential oils from aromatic plants have been shown to have antimicrobial and antifungal activities. This study was aimed at assessing the anti-fungal activity of essential oil from <it>Mentha suaveolens </it>(EOMS) in an experimental infection of vaginal candidiasis.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The <it>in vitro </it>and <it>in vivo </it>activity of EOMS was assessed. The <it>in vitro </it>activity was evaluated under standard CLSI methods, and the <it>in vivo </it>analysis was carried out by exploiting a novel, non-invasive model of vaginal candidiasis in mice based on an <it>in vivo </it>imaging technique.</p> <p>Differences between essential oil treated and saline treated mice were evaluated by the non-parametric Mann-Whitney U-test. Viable count data from a time kill assay and yeast and hyphae survival test were compared using the Student's t-test (two-tailed).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Our main findings were: i) EOMS shows potent candidastatic and candidacidal activity in an <it>in vitro </it>experimental system; ii) EOMS gives a degree of protection against vaginal candidiasis in an <it>in vivo </it>experimental system.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study shows for the first time that the essential oil of a Moroccan plant <it>Mentha suaveolens </it>is candidastatic and candidacidal <it>in vitro</it>, and has a degree of anticandidal activity in a model of vaginal infection, as demonstrated in an <it>in vivo </it>monitoring imaging system. We conclude that our findings lay the ground for further, more extensive investigations to identify the active EOMS component(s), promising in the therapeutically problematic setting of chronic vaginal candidiasis in humans.</p

Thermal and mechanical properties of hemp fabric-reinforced nanoclay-cement nano-composites

The influence of nanoclay on thermal and mechanical properties of hemp fabric-reinforced cement composite is presented in this paper. Results indicate that these properties are improved as a result of nanoclay addition. An optimum replacement of ordinary Portland cement with 1 wt% nanoclay is observed through improved thermal stability, reduced porosity and water absorption as well as increased density, flexural strength, fracture toughness and impact strength of hemp fabric-reinforced nanocomposite. The microstructural analyses indicate that the nanoclay behaves not only as a filler to improve the microstructure but also as an activator to promote the pozzolanic reaction and thus improve the adhesion between hemp fabric and nanomatrix

Th17 Cells and IL-17 in Protective Immunity to Vaginal Candidiasis

Background: Th17 cells play a major role in coordinating the host defence in oropharyngeal candidiasis. In this study we investigated the involvement of the Th17 response in an animal model of vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC). Methods: To monitor the course of infection we exploited a new in vivo imaging technique. Results: i) The progression of VVC leads to a strong influx of neutrophils in the vagina soon after the challenge which persisted despite the resolution of infection; ii) IL-17, produced by vaginal cells, particularly CD4 T cells, was detected in the vaginal wash during the infection, reaching a maximum 14 days after the challenge; iii) The amount and kinetics of IL-23 in vaginal fluids were comparable to those in vaginal cells; iv) The inhibition of Th17 differentiation led to significant inhibition of IL-17 production with consequent exacerbation of infection; v) An increased production of bdefensin 2 was manifested in cells of infected mice. This production was strongly reduced when Th17 differentiation was inhibited and was increased by rIL-17 treatment. Conclusions: These results imply that IL-17 and Th17, along with innate antimicrobial factors, have a role in the immune response to vaginal candidiasis

Fungal vaccines and immunotherapeutics: current concepts and future challenges

Purpose of review The remarkable advances in modern medicine have paradoxically resulted in a rapidly expanding population of immunocompromised patients displaying extreme susceptibility to life-threatening fungal infections. There are currently no licensed vaccines, and the prophylaxis and therapy of fungal infections in at-risk individuals remains challenging, contributing to undesirable mortality and morbidity rates. The design of successful antifungal preventive approaches has been hampered by an insufficient understanding of the dynamics of the host-fungus interaction and the mechanisms that underlie heterogenous immune responses to vaccines and immunotherapy. Recent findings Recent advances in proteomics and glycomics have contributed to the identification of candidate antigens for use in subunit vaccines, novel adjuvants, and delivery systems to boost the efficacy of protective vaccination responses that are becoming available, and several targets are being exploited in immunotherapeutic approaches. Summary We review some of the emerging concepts as well as the inherent challenges to the development of fungal vaccines and immunotherapies to protect at-risk individuals.ThisworkwassupportedbytheNorthernPortugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000013), and the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) (contracts IF/00735/ 2014 to A.C., and SFRH/BPD/96176/2013 to C.C).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Protection by Anti-β-Glucan Antibodies Is Associated with Restricted β-1,3 Glucan Binding Specificity and Inhibition of Fungal Growth and Adherence

Anti-β-glucan antibodies elicited by a laminarin-conjugate vaccine confer cross-protection to mice challenged with major fungal pathogens such as Candida albicans, Aspergillus fumigatus and Cryptococcus neoformans. To gain insights into protective β-glucan epitope(s) and protection mechanisms, we studied two anti-β-glucan monoclonal antibodies (mAb) with identical complementarity-determining regions but different isotypes (mAb 2G8, IgG2b and mAb 1E12, IgM). C. albicans, the most relevant fungal pathogen for humans, was used as a model

Etude de la synchronisation temporelle dans les systèmes MIMO-OFDM appliqués aux réseaux mobiles

The current wireless communication systems, mobile phones, satellite services and wireless internet networks require a very high data rate and a highly reliable degree. These rates have increased rapidly in the new applications of data transmission of new generation. To take into account the spectrum limitations, the OFDM has been proposed thanks the orthogonality between sub-carriers and the data rate that approaches to the Nyquist-Shannon sampling rate. Furthermore, the antennas technic (MIMO) can provide significant various gains, a diversity gain that improves the link reliability and the spatial multiplexing gain where different data streams are transmitted over different antennas. The combination of these two systems (MIMO and OFDM) allows to exploit the robustness of the link on the frequency-selective channels and uncorrelated channels in space. One of the issue in the combination MIO-OFDM resides on the synchronization methods. The synchronization is divided into sub parts, timing synchronization and frequency synchronization. Timing synchronization is also divided into two parts, firstly, the coarse timing synchronization is used to estimate the beginning of each received frame, and secondly, the fine timing synchronization which detects the beginning of each OFDM symbol in the received frame. The principle of the frequency synchronization is to find the shifted phase between the transmitted frequency and the local frequency at the receiver. In a first part, we have proposed different methods for timing synchronization based on synchronization sequences known at the receiver. We did a study for various existing sequences to compare the efficiencies of each of these sequences in timing synchronization for MIMO-OFDM systems. In a second part, Matlab’s simulations were conducted to study the performance of our proposed methods in multi-paths frequency-selective channels. Simulations results show the acquisition timing synchronization probability in terms of SNR.L'évolution rapide dans les systèmes de communications sansfil couplée à l'utilisation de téléphones mobiles, des services satellite, de l'internet sur les réseaux sans fil et les réseaux locaux nécessitent un débit de données très élevé et une grande fiabilité. Ces débits ont augmenté rapidement dans les nouvelles applications de transmission de données de nouvelle génération. Pour répondre aux contraintes de la limitation du spectre disponible, les systèmes à porteuses multiples (OFDM), permettent une haute efficacité spectrale à cause de l'orthogonalité et un débit total s'approchant du débit de Nyquist. Par ailleurs, un système de réseaux des antennes à multi-entrées et multi-sorties (MIMO) apporte des gains importants, à la fois, pour les liens et les capacités du réseau, sans transmission de puissance supplémentaire ou sans consommation de la bande passante. La combinaison de ces deux systèmes (MIMO et OFDM) permet d’exploiter la robustesse de la liaison sur des canaux sélectifs en fréquence et sur des canaux non corrélés en espace. Une des problématiques de cette combinaison réside dans les méthodes de synchronisation. La synchronisation se divise en deux parties, la synchronisation temporelle et la synchronisation fréquentielle. La synchronisation temporelle se fait, d'une part par la synchronisation grossière qui consiste à estimer le début de chaque trame reçue, et d'autre par la synchronisation fine qui détecte le début de chaque symbole OFDM dans la trame reçue. Le principe de la synchronisation fréquentielle est de trouver le déphasage entre la fréquence à l'émission et la fréquence locale du récepteur. Dans une première partie, nous avons proposé des méthodes pour la synchronisation temporelle en se basant sur des séquences de synchronisation connues au niveau du récepteur. Nous avons réalisé une étude des différentes séquences existantes afin de comparer les efficacités de chacune de ces séquences pour la synchronisation dans un système MIMOOFDM. Dans une deuxième partie, un travail de simulation sous Matlab a été réalisé afin d'étudier les performances de nos méthodes proposées dans des canaux sélectifs en fréquence et à trajets multiples. Les résultats de simulations de ces méthodes expriment la probabilité d’acquisition de synchronisation temporelle selon le SNR

Catalytic reduction of nitrates in the presence of bimetallic catalysts on different supports

Les lignes directrices pour les pays du Moyen-Orient et d'Europe encouragent les pays à assurer et à restaurer la qualité de leurs ressources en eau afin d'atteindre un bon état chimique et écologique. En général, de nombreuses actions sont nécessaires pour maintenir ou améliorer la qualité des ressources en eau : empêcher la pollution des eaux usées domestiques et industrielles, promouvoir la pollution diffuse causée par l'agriculture, protéger les eaux souterraines, encourager les utilisateurs d'eau à économiser l'eau et réduire la pollution de l'air. Le secteur des nanotechnologies offre plus d'alternatives et les catalyseurs bimétalliques ont montrés des capacités supérieures aux technologies traditionnelles de traitement de l'eau.L'objectif principal de cette thèse est de développer un nouveau catalyseur bimétallique supporté, dédié à la réduction catalytique du nitrate dans l'eau potable sans production d'ammonium.The guidelines for Middle East and European countries encourage countries to ensure and restore the quality of their water resources in order to achieve good chemical and ecological status. In general, many actions are needed to maintain or improve the quality of water resources: preventing domestic and industrial wastewater pollution, promoting diffuse pollution from agriculture, protecting groundwater, encouraging water users to conserve water, and reducing air pollution). The nanotechnology sector offers more alternatives and the bimetallic catalysts have shown superior capabilities to traditional water treatment technologies. The main objective of this thesis is to develop a new supported bimetallic catalyst dedicated to the catalytic reduction of nitrate in drinking water without ammonium production