Limits of feedback control in bacterial chemotaxis

Inputs to signaling pathways can have complex statistics that depend on the environment and on the behavioral response to previous stimuli. Such behavioral feedback is particularly important in navigation. Successful navigation relies on proper coupling between sensors, which gather information during motion, and actuators, which control behavior. Because reorientation conditions future inputs, behavioral feedback can place sensors and actuators in an operational regime different from the resting state. How then can organisms maintain proper information transfer through the pathway while navigating diverse environments? In bacterial chemotaxis, robust performance is often attributed to the zero integral feedback control of the sensor, which guarantees that activity returns to resting state when the input remains constant. While this property provides sensitivity over a wide range of signal intensities, it remains unclear how other parameters affect chemotactic performance, especially when considering that the swimming behavior of the cell determines the input signal. Using analytical models and simulations that incorporate recent experimental evidences about behavioral feedback and flagellar motor adaptation we identify an operational regime of the pathway that maximizes drift velocity for various environments and sensor adaptation rates. This optimal regime is outside the dynamic range of the motor response, but maximizes the contrast between run duration up and down gradients. In steep gradients, the feedback from chemotactic drift can push the system through a bifurcation. This creates a non-chemotactic state that traps cells unless the motor is allowed to adapt. Although motor adaptation helps, we find that as the strength of the feedback increases individual phenotypes cannot maintain the optimal operational regime in all environments, suggesting that diversity could be beneficial.Comment: Corrected one typo. First two authors contributed equally. Notably, there were various typos in the values of the parameters in the model of motor adaptation. The results remain unchange

Plasma wet and dry approaches for agriculture: limitations, challenges and opportunities

International audienceCold atmospheric plasma processes are routinely investigated in regard of their ability to induce relevant biological effects like improving seeds germination, promoting stems length or increasing crops yields. If research works have already demonstrated how plasma processes can successfully drive to such agronomical benefits, few of them are focused on the underlying energetical costs. This parameter, although at the interface of science and economy, is of major importance to make plasma agriculture a sustainable model

The influence of power and frequency on the filamentary behavior of a flowing DBD-application to the splitting of CO2

In this experimental study, a flowing dielectric barrier discharge operating at atmospheric pressure is used for the splitting of CO2 into O2 and CO. The influence of the applied frequency and plasma power on the microdischarge properties is investigated to understand their role on the CO2 conversion. Electrical measurements are carried out to explain the conversion trends and to characterize the microdischarges through their number, their lifetime, their intensity and the induced electrical charge. Their influence on the gas and electrode temperatures is also evidenced through optical emission spectroscopy and infrared imaging. It is shown that, in our configuration, the conversion depends mostly on the charge delivered in the plasma and not on the effective plasma voltage when the applied power is modified. Similarly, at constant total current, a better conversion is observed at low frequencies, where a less filamentary discharge regime with a higher effective plasma voltage than that at a higher frequency is obtained

Etude expérimentale et simulation des micro-plasmas générés dans des micro-cathodes creuses

The micro-plasmas are a promising technology for a lot of applications: environmental remediation, surface treatment, bio-medical applications, aerodynamic acceleration ... Our micro-plasmas are generated in micro-hollow cathode (M.H.C) structures, supplied by direct current and studied in rare gases (helium or argon). To understand the physical mechanisms ruling their behaviour, they have been characterized by several diagnostics, especially ICCD camera and optical emission spectroscopy. This last diagnostic has been used to determine the micro-plasma gas temperature, by analysing the bands 1.3 and 0.2 (from the second positive system of nitrogen), but also to measure the electron density by analyzing the Stark broadening of the H beta line. We have also carried out simulations with a fully fluid model to obtain the spatial profiles of the electric field, the charge species densities and the gas temperature. Thus, we have studied the breakdown, the self-pulsing regime and the normal glow regime of our micro-plasmas. We have also demonstrated that a micro-plasma can work in the abnormal glow regime, at the condition to limit the cathode surface of the micro-device. For increasing values of current, this abnormal glow regime is accompanied by a fast increase of the gas temperature. Moreover, when the micro-plasma is supplied by a linear increasing-decreasing DC voltage ramp, this regime is accompanied by the formation of a hysteresis phenomenon. At last, in the case of a micro-device with several micro-hollow cathodes in parallel, we explain how the cathode limitation favours the parallel ignition and is an alternative issue to the individual ballasting.Les micro-plasmas constituent une technologie d'avenir pour des applications aussi nombreuses que diverses : dépollution, traitement de surface, applications bio-médicales, accélération aérodynamique... Nous avons étudié ces micro-plasmas dans des gaz inertes (hélium ou argon), en les alimentant en courant continu dans des structures de type micro-cathode creuse. Afin de comprendre les mécanismes physiques régissant leur comportement, nous les avons caractérisés par plusieurs diagnostics, notamment par caméra ICCD et par spectrométrie d'émission optique. Ce dernier diagnostic nous a permis de déterminer la température du gaz des micro-plasmas, par l’analyse de la structure rovibrationnelle des raies du second système positif de l’azote (présent à l’état de traces), mais aussi d’effectuer des mesures de densité électronique, en analysant l’élargissement Stark de la raie H béta. Ces paramètres physiques obtenus expérimentalement, ont été comparés à leurs équivalents obtenus par simulation (logiciel GdSIM du laboratoire Laplace). Ce travail de thèse a également permis de montrer la possibilité d’atteindre le régime luminescent anormal d’un micro-plasma, en réduisant l’aire de la surface cathodique extérieure de la micro-cathode creuse. Ce régime de fonctionnement s’accompagne d’une hausse rapide de la température du gaz, ainsi que d’un phénomène d’hystérésis qui apparaît sur une courbe I-V, pour une rampe d’alimentation en courant linéairement croissante puis décroissante. Dans le cas de plusieurs micro-plasmas fonctionnant en parallèle, nous avons mis à jour un nouveau mécanisme, expliquant l’allumage des cavités de proche en proche

Immune monitoring of patients with septic shock by measurement of intraleukocyte cytokines

Objective: To assess the immune competence of patients presenting with septic shock by measuring on-line the production of intracellular cytokines by circulating leukocytes. Design and setting: Prospective study in a 18-bed medical intensive care unit of a university hospital. Patients and participants: 21 patients with septic shock, and 11 volunteers. Interventions: Single-step isolation of leukocytes from whole blood obtained within the first 24h after admission. Leukocytes were fixed immediately or after treatment with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and/or heterologous plasma. Measurements and results: Leukocytes were permeabilized, and the intracellular cytokine expression of TNF-α and IL-10 was quantified by immunostaining and flow cytometry. LPS treatment significantly increased monocyte intracellular cytokine TNF-α and IL-10 as well as lymphocyte intracellular cytokine IL-10 in normal leukocytes. Septic monocytes and granulocytes had nonstimulated intracellular cytokine TNF-α concentrations lower than those measured in volunteers and were severely hyporesponsive to LPS. These phenotypic changes were correlated with disease severity and could be reproduced by treatment of normal leukocytes with plasma from patients with septic shock. Conclusions: Intracellular cytokine staining is a simple and rapid method to assess in situ and on-line the inflammatory balance and responsiveness of leukocyte subpopulations and could therefore represent a useful monitoring tool to assess the immune competence of critically ill patients. This study identifies the cellular source of cytokines in whole blood and confirms prior reports showing that septic phagocytes are characterized by a predominant anti-inflammatory phenotype, with hyporesponsiveness to LPS, depending on a plasma deactivation facto