The museum-mediator of Ramiouil from Prehistosite to Prehistomuseum : reforming a musealization project in Flémalle (Liège, Belgium)

Le Préhistosite de Ramioul est situé à Flémalle (Liège, Belgique), au pied de la Grotte Ramioul. Es un projet de tourisme culturel déposé par le Musée de la Préhistoire en Wallonie; il est soutenu par des fonds européens (FEDER) et le Commissariat Général du Tourisme du Service Public de Wallonie. La médiation est pour le Préhistomuseum son principe sa fonctio est de désacraliser le patrimoine et la science aux yeux des publics en rendant compte des processus sociétaux qui soustendent à la muséalisation. Pendant les derniers deux décades le Préhistosite à devenu un centre de formation pour visiteurs, enseignants et pour des étudiants d’écoles ou d’universités. Le futur du musée se raffinerais en 2014-2015, agrandira encore son service éducatif. Le Préhistomuseum se définira vis-à-vis du public comme un musée de 30 hectares situés dans la forêt de la Grotte de Ramioul. Le Préhistomuseum désire sensibiliser les publics à la préservation du patrimoine et à la culture scientifique dans un esprit de tolérance et de neutralité, d’humanité, de citoyenneté et de respect de l’environnement.El Prèhistosite de Ramioul está situado en Flémalle (Lieja, Belgica), al pie de la Grotte Ramioul. Es un proyecto de turismo cultural financiado por el Museo de Prehistoria de Wallonie y financiado por diferentes fondos europeos (FEDER) y el Comisariado General de Turismo del Servicio Público de Wallonie. La mediación es para el Prèhistosite su principio. Su función principal es desacralizar el patrimonio y la ciencia para el público no especializado y rinde cuentas a los proPhilipcesos sociales que sustentan la musealización. A lo largo de las dos últimas décadas, el Prèhistosite se ha convertido en un centro de formación para visitantes, educadores y estudiantes escolares o universitarios. El futuro del museo se redefinirá en 2014-2015, cuando se transformará en Prèhistoseum y aumentará aun más los servicios educativos. El Prèhistoseum se presenta de cara al público como un museo de 30 hectáreas situado en el bosque de la Grotte de Ramiouil. El Prèhistomuseum desea sensibilizar al público en la preservación del patrimonio y en la cultura científica dentro de un espíritu de tolerancia y de neutralidad, de humanidad, ciudadanía y respeto por el entorno natural.Ramiouil Prehistosite is located in Flémalle (Liège, Belgium), by Grotte Ramiouil. This project of cultural tourism is funded by the Prehistory Museum of Wallonie and diverse European funding (FEDER) and the General Tourism Commissioner of Wallonie Public Services. The main principle of Prehistosite is mediation, being its principal function to demystify heritage and science for the general public, reporting the social processes which support musealization. During the last two decades, Prehistosite has become an educational centre for visitors, educators and school or university students. The future of this museum will be redefined on 2014-2015, when it will transform into Prehistomuseum and will increase its educational offer. The Prehistomuseum is presented as a 30 ha. museum located in Grotte Ramiouil forest. The Prehistomuseum seeks to make the public aware about heritage preservation and scientific culture embedded in a tolerance and neutrality, humanity, citizenship and respect for natural environment spirit

Le Musée-Médiateur du Préhistosite de Ramioul au Préhistomuseum reformulation d'un projet muséal à Flémalle (Liège, Belgique)

Le Préhistosite de Ramioul est situé à Flémalle (Liège, Belgique), au pied de la Grotte Ramioul. Es un projet de tourisme culturel déposé par le Musée de la Préhistoire en Wallonie; il est soutenu par des fonds européens (FEDER) et le Commissariat Général du Tourisme du Service Public de Wallonie. La médiation est pour le Préhistomuseum son principe sa fonctio est de désacraliser le patrimoine et la science aux yeux des publics en rendant compte des processus sociétaux qui soustendent à la muséalisation. Pendant les derniers deux décades le Préhistosite à devenu un centre de formation pour visiteurs, enseignants et pour des étudiants d'écoles ou d'universités. Le futur du musée se raffinerais en 2014-2015, agrandira encore son service éducatif. Le Préhistomuseum se définira vis-à-vis du public comme un musée de 30 hectares situés dans la forêt de la Grotte de Ramioul. Le Préhistomuseum désire sensibiliser les publics à la préservation du patrimoine et à la culture scientifique dans un esprit de tolérance et de neutralité, d'humanité, de citoyenneté et de respect de l'environnement.El Prèhistosite de Ramioul está situado en Flémalle (Lieja, Belgica), al pie de la Grotte Ramioul. Es un proyecto de turismo cultural financiado por el Museo de Prehistoria de Wallonie y financiado por diferentes fondos europeos (FEDER) y el Comisariado General de Turismo del Servicio Público de Wallonie. La mediación es para el Prèhistosite su principio. Su función principal es desacralizar el patrimonio y la ciencia para el público no especializado y rinde cuentas a los proPhilipcesos sociales que sustentan la musealización. A lo largo de las dos últimas décadas, el Prèhistosite se ha convertido en un centro de formación para visitantes, educadores y estudiantes escolares o universitarios. El futuro del museo se redefinirá en 2014-2015, cuando se transformará en Prèhistoseum y aumentará aun más los servicios educativos. El Prèhistoseum se presenta de cara al público como un museo de 30 hectáreas situado en el bosque de la Grotte de Ramiouil. El Prèhistomuseum desea sensibilizar al público en la preservación del patrimonio y en la cultura científica dentro de un espíritu de tolerancia y de neutralidad, de humanidad, ciudadanía y respeto por el entorno natural.Ramiouil Prehistosite is located in Flémalle (Liège, Belgium), by Grotte Ramiouil. This project of cultural tourism is funded by the Prehistory Museum of Wallonie and diverse European funding (FEDER) and the General Tourism Commissioner of Wallonie Public Services. The main principle of Prehistosite is mediation, being its principal function to demystify heritage and science for the general public, reporting the social processes which support musealization. During the last two decades, Prehistosite has become an educational centre for visitors, educators and school or university students. The future of this museum will be redefined on 2014-2015, when it will transform into Prehistomuseum and will increase its educational offer. The Prehistomuseum is presented as a 30 ha. museum located in Grotte Ramiouil forest. The Prehistomuseum seeks to make the public aware about heritage preservation and scientific culture embedded in a tolerance and neutrality, humanity, citizenship and respect for natural environment spirit

The Dual Role of Neutrophils in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases

peer reviewedInflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), including Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, are characterised by aberrant immunological responses leading to chronic inflammation without tissue regeneration. These two diseases are considered distinct entities, and there is some evidence that neutrophil behaviour, above all other aspects of immunity, clearly separate them. Neutrophils are the first immune cells recruited to the site of inflammation, and their action is crucial to limit invasion by microorganisms. Furthermore, they play an essential role in proper resolution of inflammation. When these processes are not tightly regulated, they can trigger positive feedback amplification loops that promote neutrophil activation, leading to significant tissue damage and evolution toward chronic disease. Defective chemotaxis, as observed in Crohn's disease, can also contribute to the disease through impaired microbe elimination. In addition, through NET production, neutrophils may be involved in thrombo-embolic events frequently observed in IBD patients. While the role of neutrophils has been studied in different animal models of IBD for many years, their contribution to the pathogenesis of IBD remains poorly understood, and no molecules targeting neutrophils are used and validated for the treatment of these pathologies. Therefore, it is crucial to improve our understanding of their mode of action in these particular conditions in order to provide new therapeutic avenues for IBD

Sequence and analysis of the genome of the pathogenic yeast Candida orthopsilosis

Candida orthopsilosis is closely related to the fungal pathogen Candida parapsilosis. However, whereas C. parapsilosis is a major cause of disease in immunosuppressed individuals and in premature neonates, C. orthopsilosis is more rarely associated with infection. We sequenced the C. orthopsilosis genome to facilitate the identification of genes associated with virulence. Here, we report the de novo assembly and annotation of the genome of a Type 2 isolate of C. orthopsilosis. The sequence was obtained by combining data from next generation sequencing (454 Life Sciences and Illumina) with paired-end Sanger reads from a fosmid library. The final assembly contains 12.6 Mb on 8 chromosomes. The genome was annotated using an automated pipeline based on comparative analysis of genomes of Candida species, together with manual identification of introns. We identified 5700 protein-coding genes in C. orthopsilosis, of which 5570 have an ortholog in C. parapsilosis. The time of divergence between C. orthopsilosis and C. parapsilosis is estimated to be twice as great as that between Candida albicans and Candida dubliniensis. There has been an expansion of the Hyr/Iff family of cell wall genes and the JEN family of monocarboxylic transporters in C. parapsilosis relative to C. orthopsilosis. We identified one gene from a Maltose/Galactoside O-acetyltransferase family that originated by horizontal gene transfer from a bacterium to the common ancestor of C. orthopsilosis and C. parapsilosis. We report that TFB3, a component of the general transcription factor TFIIH, undergoes alternative splicing by intron retention in multiple Candida species. We also show that an intein in the vacuolar ATPase gene VMA1 is present in C. orthopsilosis but not C. parapsilosis, and has a patchy distribution in Candida species. Our results suggest that the difference in virulence between C. parapsilosis and C. orthopsilosis may be associated with expansion of gene families

In vitro irradiation station for broad beam radiobiological experiments

The study of the interaction of charged particles with living matter is of prime importance to the fields of radiotherapy, radioprotection and space radiobiology. Particle accelerators and their associated equipment are proven to be helpful tools in performing basic science in all these fields. Indeed, they can accelerate virtually any ions to a given energy and flux and let them interact with living matter either in vivo or in vitro. In this context, the University of Namur has developed a broad beam in vitro irradiation station for use in radiobiological experiments. Cells are handled in GLP conditions and can be irradiated at various fluxes with ions ranging from hydrogen to carbon. The station is mounted on a 2 MV tandem accelerator, and the energy range can be set up in the linear energy transfer (LET) ranges that are useful for radiobiological experiments. This paper describes the current status of the hardware that has been developed, and presents results related to its performance in term of dose-rate, energy range and beam uniformity for protons, alpha particles and carbon ions. The results of clonogenic assays of A549 lung adenocarcinoma cells irradiated with protons and alpha particles are also presented and compared with literature. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Low-Dose Hypersensitivity and Bystander Effect are Not Mutually Exclusive in A549 Lung Carcinoma Cells after Irradiation with Charged Particles

The purpose of this study was to measure survival fraction of A549 lung carcinoma cells irradiated with charged particles of various LET and to determine mechanisms responsible for enhanced cell killing in the low-dose region. A549 cells were irradiated with a broadbeam of either 10 and 25 keV/μm protons or 100 keV/μm alpha particles and then processed for clonogenic assays and phospho-histone H3 staining. The survival fraction of unirradiated A549 cells co-cultured with irradiated cells was also evaluated. A549 cells were shown to exhibit low-dose hypersensitivity (HRS) for both protons and alpha particles. The dose threshold at which HRS occurs decreased with increasing linear energy transfer (LET), whereas αs, the initial survival curve slope, increased with increasing LET. In addition, the enhanced cell killing observed after irradiation with alpha particles was partly attributed to the bystander effect, due to the low proportion of hit cells at very low doses. Co-culture experiments suggest a gap junction-mediated bystander signal. Our results indicate that HRS is likely to be dependent on LET, and that a bystander effect and low-dose hypersensitivity may co-exist within a given cell line

Comparison of the clonogenic survival of A549 non-small cell lung adenocarcinoma cells after irradiation with low-dose-rate beta particles and high-dose-rate X-rays

Purpose: Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death. Among the new modalities to treat cancer, internal radiotherapy seems to be very promising. However, the achievable dose-rate is two orders of magnitude lower than the one used in conventional external radiotherapy, and data has to be collected to evaluate the cell response to highlight the potential effectiveness of low-dose-rate beta particles irradiation. This work investigates the phosphorus beta irradiation ( P) dose response on the clonogenicity of human A549 non-small cell lung adenocarcinoma cells and compares it to high-dose-rate X-irradiations results. Materials and methods: Cell survival was evaluated by a colony forming assay eight days after low-dose-rate P beta irradiations (0.8 Gy/h) and high-dose-rate X-ray irradiations (0.855 Gy/min). Results: Survival curves were obtained for both types of irradiations, and showed hyper-radiosensitivity at very low doses. Radiosensitivity parameters were obtained by using the linear-quadratic and induced-repair models. Conclusions: Comparison with high-dose-rate X-rays shows a similar surviving fraction, confirming the effectiveness of beta particles for tumor sterilization. © 2012 Informa UK, Ltd

Magnetic shielding of open and semi-closed bulk superconductor tubes: the role of a cap

peer reviewedIn this paper we investigate the magnetic shielding of hollow and semi-closed bulk superconducting tubes at 77 K. We first consider the properties of a commercial Bi-2223 tube closed by a disk-shaped cap placed against its extremity. The results are compared with those obtained on a bulk large grain Y-Ba-Cu-O (YBCO) tube produced by buffer-aided top seeded melt growth. In this process, the disk-shaped pellet and the tubular sample are grown together, resulting in a tube naturally closed at one extremity. The field to be shielded is either parallel or perpendicular to the main axis of the tube. The experimental results are compared with the results of finite element numerical modeling carried out either in two dimensions (for the axial configuration) or three dimensions (for the transverse configuration). In the axial configuration, the results show that the shielded volume can be enhanced easily by increasing the thickness of the cap. In the transverse configuration, the results show the critical role played by the superconducting current loops flowing between the tube and the cap for magnetic shielding. If the tube and the cap are separated by a non-superconducting joint or air gap, the presence of a cap leads only to a small improvement of the transverse shielding factor, even for a configuration where the gap between the cap and the tube contains a 90° bend. The cap leads to a significant increase in the transverse shielding when the cap and the tube are naturally grown in the same process, i.e., made of a continuous superconducting material. The experimental results can be reproduced qualitatively by 3-D numerical modeling