Polyphemus : une plate-forme multimodèles pour la pollution atmosphérique et l'évaluation des risques

National audienceCet article présente le système de modélisation de la qualité de l'air Polyphemus, ses principales fonctionnalités et quelques applications. Polyphemus est dédié à la modélisation de la dispersion atmosphérique de traceurs passifs ou d'espèces réactives aux échelles locale, régionale et continentale. Polyphemus est développé au CEREA, laboratoire commun entre EDF R&D et lʼÉcole des Ponts et au sein dʼun projet commun avec lʼInstitut national de recherche en informatique et automatique (INRIA), avec le soutien de lʼIRSN et de lʼINERIS. Polyphemus est un système dʼun type nouveau qui se distingue de lʼapproche classique du " modèle tout en un " par sa construction modulaire, notamment fondée sur des bibliothèques et des pilotes manipulant les modèles de dispersion. Accueillant plusieurs modèles, Polyphemus est une plate-forme et non un modèle. Une de ses fonctionnalités notables est sa capacité à effectuer des simulations multimodèles, ce qui permet d'évaluer des incertitudes. Plusieurs méthodes dʼassimilation de données font aussi partie du système afin de pouvoir intégrer des données fournies par des réseaux de mesure

Are Distal and Proximal Visual Cues Equally Important during Spatial Learning in Mice? A Pilot Study of Overshadowing in the Spatial Domain

Animals use distal and proximal visual cues to accurately navigate in their environment, with the possibility of the occurrence of associative mechanisms such as cue competition as previously reported in honey-bees, rats, birds and humans. In this pilot study, we investigated one of the most common forms of cue competition, namely the overshadowing effect, between visual landmarks during spatial learning in mice. To this end, C57BL/6J × Sv129 mice were given a two-trial place recognition task in a T-maze, based on a novelty free-choice exploration paradigm previously developed to study spatial memory in rodents. As this procedure implies the use of different aspects of the environment to navigate (i.e., mice can perceive from each arm of the maze), we manipulated the distal and proximal visual landmarks during both the acquisition and retrieval phases. Our prospective findings provide a first set of clues in favor of the occurrence of an overshadowing between visual cues during a spatial learning task in mice when both types of cues are of the same modality but at varying distances from the goal. In addition, the observed overshadowing seems to be non-reciprocal, as distal visual cues tend to overshadow the proximal ones when competition occurs, but not vice versa. The results of the present study offer a first insight about the occurrence of associative mechanisms during spatial learning in mice, and may open the way to promising new investigations in this area of research. Furthermore, the methodology used in this study brings a new, useful and easy-to-use tool for the investigation of perceptive, cognitive and/or attentional deficits in rodents

First description of Campylobacter lanienae from feces of organic and conventional pigs, in France

In the frame of the CORE Organic II funded European project SafeOrganic, fecal samples of 58 conventional pigs and 56 organic pigs, originated from 31 organic herds and 31 conventional herds, were collected in a slaughterhouse in order to isolate Campylobacter coli. Direct streaking from feces and incubation at 37°C of the Karmali plates allowed the isolation of another Campylobacter species: Campylobacter lanienae. Indeed, among the 381 typical Campylobacter colonies isolated, it was not possible to identify the species for 118 isolates with the Wang’s multiplex-PCR. However, 85 of these isolates were confirmed C. lanienae by Maldi-Tof and by 16S rRNA PCR. With the two species, coli and lanienae, the occurrence of Campylobacter in pig was estimated to 87.9% (51/58) for conventional pigs and 96.5% (52/56) for organic pigs. A total of 55 isolates of C. lanienae were tested for their resistance to 7 antibiotics. Only one was pansusceptible. Natural resistance of this species to Nalidixic acid was confirmed. Resistance to Tetracycline was significantly different between the two productions (p to 0.98). No link between PFGE profile and isolate origin or antibiotic resistance pattern was evidenced. This study allowed us to demonstrate for the first time in France that pigs may also carry in their feces a species rarely highlighted: C. lanienae. The lower level of antibiotic resistance and multiresistance of C. lanienae strains for organic pigs may be related to the restricted use of antibiotics in this production

Manipulating Fock states of a harmonic oscillator while preserving its linearity

We present a new scheme for controlling the quantum state of a harmonic oscillator by coupling it to an anharmonic multilevel system (MLS) with first to second excited state transition frequency on-resonance with the oscillator. In this scheme that we call "ef-resonant", the spurious oscillator Kerr non-linearity inherited from the MLS is very small, while its Fock states can still be selectively addressed via an MLS transition at a frequency that depends on the number of photons. We implement this concept in a circuit-QED setup with a microwave 3D cavity (the oscillator, with frequency 6.4 GHz and quality factor QO=2E-6) embedding a frequency tunable transmon qubit (the MLS). We characterize the system spectroscopically and demonstrate selective addressing of Fock states and a Kerr non-linearity below 350 Hz. At times much longer than the transmon coherence times, a non-linear cavity response with driving power is also observed and explained.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

Impact of Bradykinin Generation During Thrombolysis in Ischemic Stroke

Ischemic stroke is one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide. Current medical management in the acute phase is based on the activation of the fibrinolytic cascade by intravenous injection of a plasminogen activator (such as tissue-type plasminogen activator, tPA) that promotes restauration of the cerebral blood flow and improves stroke outcome. Unfortunately, the use of tPA is associated with deleterious effects such as hemorrhagic transformation, symptomatic brain edema, and angioedema, which limit the efficacy of this therapeutic strategy. Preclinical and clinical evidence suggests that intravenous thrombolysis generates large amounts of bradykinin, a peptide with potent pro-inflammatory, and pro-edematous effects. This tPA-triggered generation of bradykinin could participate in the deleterious effects of thrombolysis and is a potential target to improve neurological outcome in tPA-treated patients. The present review aims at summarizing current evidence linking thrombolysis, bradykinin generation, and neurovascular damage

Post-synaptic Release of the Neuronal Tissue-Type Plasminogen Activator (tPA)

The neuronal serine protease tissue-type Plasminogen Activator (tPA) is an important player of the neuronal survival and of the synaptic plasticity. Thus, a better understanding the mechanisms regulating the neuronal trafficking of tPA is required to further understand how tPA can influence brain functions. Using confocal imaging including living cells and high-resolution cell imaging combined with an innovating labeling of tPA, we demonstrate that the neuronal tPA is contained in endosomal vesicles positives for Rabs and in exosomal vesicles positives for synaptobrevin-2 (VAMP2) in dendrites and axons. tPA-containing vesicles differ in their dynamics with the dendritic tPA containing-vesicles less mobile than the axonal tPA-containing vesicles, these laters displaying mainly a retrograde trafficking. Interestingly spontaneous exocytosis of tPA containing-vesicles occurs largely in dendrites

Toward Whole-Brain Minimally-Invasive Vascular Imaging

Imaging the brain vasculature can be critical for cerebral perfusion monitoring in the context of neurocritical care. Although ultrasensitive Doppler (UD) can provide good sensitivity to cerebral blood volume (CBV) in a large field of view, it remains difficult to perform through the skull. In this work, we investigate how a minimally invasive burr hole, performed for intracranial pressure (ICP) monitoring, could be used to map the entire brain vascular tree. We explored the use of a small motorized phased array probe with a non-implantable preclinical prototype in pigs. The scan duration (18 min) and coverage (62 $\pm$ 12 % of the brain) obtained allowed global CBV variations detection (relative in brain Dopplerdecrease =-3[-4-+16]% \& Dopplerincrease. = +1[-3-+15]%, n = 6 \& 5) and stroke detection (relative in core Dopplerstroke. =-25%, n = 1). This technology could one day be miniaturized to be implanted for brain perfusion monitoring in neurocritical care

Inverse modeling of NOx emissions at regional scale over northern France: Preliminary investigation of the second-order sensitivity

International audienceThe purpose of this article is to perform the inverse modeling of emissions at regional scale for photochemical applications. The case study is the region of Lille in northern France for simulations in May 1998. The chemistry-transport model, Polair3D, has been validated with 1 year of model-to-observation comparisons over Lille. Polair3D has an adjoint mode, which enables inverse modeling with a variational approach. A sensitivity analysis has been performed so as to select the emission parameters to be modified in order to improve ozone forecasts. It has been shown that inverse modeling of the time distribution of nitrogen oxide emissions leads to satisfactory improvements even after the learning period. A key issue is the robustness of the inverted emissions with respect to uncertain parameters. A brute force second-order sensitivity analysis of the optimized emissions has been performed with respect to other parameters and has proven that the optimized time distribution of NOx emissions is robust