Identification et caractérisation d'une "bonne pratique" industrielle pour un benchmarking interne

International audienceLe benchmarking interne s'impose actuellement comme une démarche d'amélioration de la performance industrielle particulièrement efficace. Il s'agit pour l'entreprise de localiser, de caractériser et de formaliser de bonnes pratiques détenues en interne, et ceci avec l'objectif de les déployer dans d'autres secteurs de l'organisation. Le plus souvent, ces bonnes pratiques correspondent à des processus opérationnels, de support ou de management de l'entreprise. Ce papier décrit les critères qui peuvent être utilisés pour déterminer si un processus donné correspond ou non à une bonne pratique à déployer. Nous détaillons ensuite la méthode permettant de caractériser cette bonne pratique. La méthode proposée se base sur l'identification des facteurs à l'origine de l'efficacité, de l'efficience et/ou de l'excellence d'un processus donné, chacun de ces facteurs se rattachant à l'une des activités génériques de la partie opérante ou de la partie management de ce processus. Une illustration de l'application de la méthode est donnée avec la caractérisation réalisée par l'entreprise Tecumseh Europe sur le processus de maîtrise statistique de procédés de l'un de ses sites de fabrication

Identification et caractérisation d'une "bonne pratique" industrielle pour un benchmarking interne

International audienceLe benchmarking interne s'impose actuellement comme une démarche d'amélioration de la performance industrielle particulièrement efficace. Il s'agit pour l'entreprise de localiser, de caractériser et de formaliser de bonnes pratiques détenues en interne, et ceci avec l'objectif de les déployer dans d'autres secteurs de l'organisation. Le plus souvent, ces bonnes pratiques correspondent à des processus opérationnels, de support ou de management de l'entreprise. Ce papier décrit les critères qui peuvent être utilisés pour déterminer si un processus donné correspond ou non à une bonne pratique à déployer. Nous détaillons ensuite la méthode permettant de caractériser cette bonne pratique. La méthode proposée se base sur l'identification des facteurs à l'origine de l'efficacité, de l'efficience et/ou de l'excellence d'un processus donné, chacun de ces facteurs se rattachant à l'une des activités génériques de la partie opérante ou de la partie management de ce processus. Une illustration de l'application de la méthode est donnée avec la caractérisation réalisée par l'entreprise Tecumseh Europe sur le processus de maîtrise statistique de procédés de l'un de ses sites de fabrication

Continuous transfer and laser guiding between two cold atom traps

10 pages, 8 figuresInternational audienceWe have demonstrated and modeled a simple and efficient method to transfer atoms from a first Magneto-Optical Trap (MOT) to a second one. Two independent setups, with cesium and rubidium atoms respectively, have shown that a high power and slightly diverging laser beam optimizes the transfer between the two traps when its frequency is red-detuned from the atomic transition. This pushing laser extracts a continuous beam of slow and cold atoms out of the first MOT and also provides a guiding to the second one through the dipolar force. In order to optimize the transfer efficiency, the dependence of the atomic flux on the pushing laser parameters (power, detuning, divergence and waist) is investigated. The atomic flux is found to be proportional to the first MOT loading rate. Experimentally, the transfer efficiency reaches 70%, corresponding to a transfer rate up to 2.7x10^8 atoms/s with a final velocity of 5.5 m/s. We present a simple analysis of the atomic motion inside the pushing-guiding laser, in good agreement with the experimental data

DROM: Enabling Efficient and Effortless Malleability for Resource Managers

In the design of future HPC systems, research in resource management is showing an increasing interest in a more dynamic control of the available resources. It has been proven that enabling the jobs to change the number of computing resources at run time, i.e. their malleability, can significantly improve HPC system performance. However, job schedulers and applications typically do not support malleability due to the common belief that it introduces additional programming complexity and performance impact. This paper presents DROM, an interface that provides efficient malleability with no effort for program developers. The running application is enabled to adapt the number of threads to the number of assigned computing resources in a completely transparent way to the user through the integration of DROM with standard programming models, such as OpenMP/OmpSs, and MPI. We designed the APIs to be easily used by any programming model, application and job scheduler or resource manager. Our experimental results from two realistic use cases analysis, based on malleability by reducing the number of cores a job is using per node and jobs co-allocation, show the potential of DROM for improving the performance of HPC systems. In particular, the workload of two MPI+OpenMP neuro-simulators are tested, reporting improvement in system metrics, such as total run time and average response time, up to 8% and 48%, respectively.This work is partially supported by the Span- ish Government through Programa Severo Ochoa (SEV-2015-0493), by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology through TIN2015-65316-P project, by the Generalitat de Catalunya (contract 2017-SGR-1414) and from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 under grant agreement No 785907 (HBP SGA2)Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Comparative Evaluation of Three Automated Systems for DNA Extraction in Conjunction with Three Commercially Available Real-Time PCR Assays for Quantitation of Plasma Cytomegalovirus DNAemia in Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplant Recipients▿

Limited data are available on the performance of different automated extraction platforms and commercially available quantitative real-time PCR (QRT-PCR) methods for the quantitation of cytomegalovirus (CMV) DNA in plasma. We compared the performance characteristics of the Abbott mSample preparation system DNA kit on the m24 SP instrument (Abbott), the High Pure viral nucleic acid kit on the COBAS AmpliPrep system (Roche), and the EZ1 Virus 2.0 kit on the BioRobot EZ1 extraction platform (Qiagen) coupled with the Abbott CMV PCR kit, the LightCycler CMV Quant kit (Roche), and the Q-CMV complete kit (Nanogen), for both plasma specimens from allogeneic stem cell transplant (Allo-SCT) recipients (n = 42) and the OptiQuant CMV DNA panel (AcroMetrix). The EZ1 system displayed the highest extraction efficiency over a wide range of CMV plasma DNA loads, followed by the m24 and the AmpliPrep methods. The Nanogen PCR assay yielded higher mean CMV plasma DNA values than the Abbott and the Roche PCR assays, regardless of the platform used for DNA extraction. Overall, the effects of the extraction method and the QRT-PCR used on CMV plasma DNA load measurements were less pronounced for specimens with high CMV DNA content (>10,000 copies/ml). The performance characteristics of the extraction methods and QRT-PCR assays evaluated herein for clinical samples were extensible at cell-based standards from AcroMetrix. In conclusion, different automated systems are not equally efficient for CMV DNA extraction from plasma specimens, and the plasma CMV DNA loads measured by commercially available QRT-PCRs can differ significantly. The above findings should be taken into consideration for the establishment of cutoff values for the initiation or cessation of preemptive antiviral therapies and for the interpretation of data from clinical studies in the Allo-SCT setting

JAK inhibition in Aicardi-Goutières syndrome: a monocentric multidisciplinary real-world approach study

International audienceThe paradigm type I interferonopathy Aicardi-Goutières syndrome (AGS) is most typically characterized by severe neurological involvement. AGS is considered an immune-mediated disease, poorly responsive to conventional immunosuppression. Premised on a chronic enhancement of type I interferon signaling, JAK1/2 inhibition has been trialed in AGS, with clear improvements in cutaneous and systemic disease manifestations. Contrastingly, treatment efficacy at the level of the neurological system has been less conclusive. Here, we report our real-word approach study of JAK1/2 inhibition in 11 patients with AGS, providing extensive assessments of clinical and radiological status; interferon signaling, including in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF); and drug concentrations in blood and CSF. Over a median follow-up of 17 months, we observed a clear benefit of JAK1/2 inhibition on certain systemic features of AGS, and reproduced results reported using the AGS neurologic severity scale. In contrast, there was no change in other scales assessing neurological status; using the caregiver scale, only patient comfort, but no other domain of everyday-life care, was improved. Serious bacterial infections occurred in 4 out of the 11 patients. Overall, our data lead us to conclude that other approaches to treatment are urgently required for the neurologic features of AGS. We suggest that earlier diagnosis and adequate central nervous system penetration likely remain the major factors determining the efficacy of therapy in preventing irreversible brain damage, implying the importance of early and rapid genetic testing and the consideration of intrathecal drug delivery

Productive Parvovirus B19 Infection of Primary Human Erythroid Progenitor Cells at Hypoxia Is Regulated by STAT5A and MEK Signaling but not HIFα

Human parvovirus B19 (B19V) causes a variety of human diseases. Disease outcomes of bone marrow failure in patients with high turnover of red blood cells and immunocompromised conditions, and fetal hydrops in pregnant women are resulted from the targeting and destruction of specifically erythroid progenitors of the human bone marrow by B19V. Although the ex vivo expanded erythroid progenitor cells recently used for studies of B19V infection are highly permissive, they produce progeny viruses inefficiently. In the current study, we aimed to identify the mechanism that underlies productive B19V infection of erythroid progenitor cells cultured in a physiologically relevant environment. Here, we demonstrate an effective reverse genetic system of B19V, and that B19V infection of ex vivo expanded erythroid progenitor cells at 1% O2 (hypoxia) produces progeny viruses continuously and efficiently at a level of approximately 10 times higher than that seen in the context of normoxia. With regard to mechanism, we show that hypoxia promotes replication of the B19V genome within the nucleus, and that this is independent of the canonical PHD/HIFα pathway, but dependent on STAT5A and MEK/ERK signaling. We further show that simultaneous upregulation of STAT5A signaling and down-regulation of MEK/ERK signaling boosts the level of B19V infection in erythroid progenitor cells under normoxia to that in cells under hypoxia. We conclude that B19V infection of ex vivo expanded erythroid progenitor cells at hypoxia closely mimics native infection of erythroid progenitors in human bone marrow, maintains erythroid progenitors at a stage conducive to efficient production of progeny viruses, and is regulated by the STAT5A and MEK/ERK pathways