COBRA : Une plate-forme de RàPC basée sur des ontologies

International audienceCet article présente un projet en cours qui a pour objectif de développer une plate-forme de RàPC pour le diagnostic basée sur des ontologies, appelée COBRA. Cette plate-forme est constituée de deux parties principales : les modèles de connaissances décrits par des ontologies, et les processus de raisonnement. Nous travaillons actuellement sur la défaillance des barrières de sécurité installées sur des sites industriels. Cependant, notre objectif est de rendre la plate-forme générique et indépendante du domaine d'application. Nous affirmons que, pour mieux exploiter les avantages des ontologies dans les systèmes de RàPC, il est important de pouvoir utiliser n'importe quel concept dans la description des cas. Ainsi, COBRA permet de définir les attributs de chaque cas dynamiquement au moment de l'exécution, ce qui conduit à une base de cas hétérogène. Dans cet article, nous présentons l'architecture de la plate-forme, les modèles de connaissances, les processus principaux, ainsi que les problèmes rencontrés en travaillant avec des cas hétérogènes

Therapeutic gymnastic: Effects on the quality of life at two months in postpartum period

Abstract. The structured training program at the third trimester of pregnancy (24th : T1 to 36th week) essentially centred on the trunk fitness allows benefice on the quality of life (QoL) measured by using the questionnaire (SF36). At postpartum period (T2 after 2 months in postpartum), the comparison between the control group (CG) vs training group (TG) show that all the items of (SF36) increase in (TG) while they decrease in (CG). In consequence, all the items of the SF36 were more important in TG at T2 compared with CG. The benefice in QoL seems more important than in others studies. Even if more studies are necessary, we conclude that centred the physical activity on trunk fitness during the third trimester pregnancy seems promising

EVASEP: A Noninterventional Study Describing the Perception of Neurologists, Patients, and Caregivers on Caregivers’ Role in the Support of Patients Suffering from Multiple Sclerosis Treated with Subcutaneous Interferon Beta 1a

Background. The perception of the role of caregivers for people with multiple sclerosis (MS) is important but poorly studied, particularly in patients with low levels of disability. Objectives. To describe the perceptions of the role of caregivers from the perspective of the caregiver, the patient, and neurologists. Methods. This observational study was conducted in France on patients with relapsing remitting MS treated with subcutaneous (SC) interferon-β-1a (IFN-β-1a) for more than 24 months. Results. Caregiver, patients, and neurologists all considered providing moral support and fighting against the disease as the most important role of the care provider. Moral support was considered significantly more important by caregivers than the patients and neurologists (p=0.002) and caregivers considered their role in helping patients to fight disease more important than did the neurologists (p=0.006). Knowledge of disease and available treatments were less important among support providers than patients (p=0.007 and p=0.001). Conclusion. There are many unmet needs in the perception of the role of caregivers for people with MS which need to be addressed to deliver the most effective care package for patients and to support the needs of the support provider

The Interplay between Chemistry and Mechanics in the Transduction of a Mechanical Signal into a Biochemical Function

There are many processes in biology in which mechanical forces are generated. Force-bearing networks can transduce locally developed mechanical signals very extensively over different parts of the cell or tissues. In this article we conduct an overview of this kind of mechanical transduction, focusing in particular on the multiple layers of complexity displayed by the mechanisms that control and trigger the conversion of a mechanical signal into a biochemical function. Single molecule methodologies, through their capability to introduce the force in studies of biological processes in which mechanical stresses are developed, are unveiling subtle intertwining mechanisms between chemistry and mechanics and in particular are revealing how chemistry can control mechanics. The possibility that chemistry interplays with mechanics should be always considered in biochemical studies.Comment: 50 pages, 18 figure

Case retrieval in ontology-based CBR systems

International audienceThis paper presents our knowledge-intensive Case-Based Reasoning platform for diagnosis, COBRA. It integrates domain knowledge along with cases in an ontological structure. COBRA allows users to describe cases using any concept or instance of a domain ontology, which leads to a heterogeneous case base. Cases heterogeneity complicates their retrieval since correspondences must be identified between query and case attributes. We present in this paper our system architecture and the case retrieval phase. Then, we introduce the notions of similarity regions and attributes' roles used to overcome cases heterogeneity problems

Managing knowledge to improve industrial safety

International audienceThe capacity to manage risks and maintain industrial safety is largely based on the capacity of various actors to acquire, maintain and share knowledge on a large variety of subjects. The actors are, of course, the plant operator but also the employees, the competent authorities, the external maintenance teams or internal or external experts in charge of risk assessment and design of risk management. The knowledge ranges from the regulatory framework to the details of a machine or a process but also includes the general knowledge about the industrial safety, the hazardous phenomena, or the properties of the substances. Part of this knowledge is also largely tacit. It lies in the brain of the scientific experts or the employees who are able to make the connection between apparently disconnected pieces of knowledge. Detecting, extracting, maintaining and communicating this knowledge are typical knowledge management activities. The authors have been developing for several years knowledge access tools dedicated to the communication of generic knowledge on the industrial safety. The structure and content of this system is described in the present paper. New developments are now in progress to improve the capacity to retrieve and exploit this knowledge as well as to facilitate the management of specific knowledge. These developments are based on an ontology of industrial safety. The basic principles for developing and using ontologies are recalled. The process for building such an ontology in the industrial safety domain is then described as well as its use for indexing and searching documents in an industrial safety web platform. Other applications of this ontology are also briefly presente

Troubles cognitifs et émotionnels dans la sclérose en plaques récurrente-rémittente (de la déconnexion interhémisphérique au syndrome de déconnexions multiples)

Dans cette thèse, nous avons exploré l'hypothèse d'un processus de déconnexions cortico-sous-corticales sous-jacent aux perturbations cognitives et émotionnelles observées dans la sclérose en plaques (SEP). Dans cet objectif, nous avons utilisé des méthodes issues de la neuropsychologie expérimentale et clinique, de l'imagerie médicale et de la neuropsychologie pour évaluer les fonctions cognitives, émotionnelles et le transfert interhémisphérique (TIH) chez des patients atteints de forme récurrente-rémittente de SEP (SEP-RR) peu évoluée appariés à une population témoin. Les résultats souignent que les perturbations cognitives, émotionnelles et du TIH ne semblent pas uniquement liées à un dysfonctionnement du transfert calleux, mais semblent plutôt être la conséquence de ruptures de connexions corticales et sous-corticales diffuses. Ces perturbations entraîneraient une désynchronisation de l'activité cérébrale, majorée par les lésions intra- et péri-calleuses. La SEP pourrait donc représenter une illustration du syndrome de déconnexions multiples, plutôt qu'un syndrome spécifique de déconnexion interhémisphériqueIn this thesis, we have explored the hypothesis of a cortical-subcortical disconnexion process underlying cognitive and emotional disturbances in multiple sclerosis (MS). For this purpose, we used emthods related to experimental and clinical neuropsychology, medical imaging and neurophysiology in order to assess cognitive and emotional functions and interhemispheric transfer (IHT) in patients with early relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS), matched to a control population. The results underline that the cognitive, emotional and IHT disorders are not exclusively related to the abnormal callosal transfer, but rather seem to be the result of disrupted cortico-subcortical connections. These disturbances could lead to a desynchronisation of brain activity, increased by intra and per-callosal lesions. MS could therefore be considered as an illustration of the mutiple disconnections syndrome, rather than a specific syndrome of interhemispheric disconnectionLILLE3-BU (590092101) / SudocSudocFranceF

Knowledge management for industrial safety, generic resource platform combined with an ontology based approach

International audienceThe capacity to manage risks and maintain industrial safety is largely based on the capacity of various actors to acquire, maintain and share knowledge on a large variety of subjects. The actors are, of course, the plant operator but also the employees, the competent authorities, the external maintenance teams or internal or external experts in charge of risk assessment and design of risk management. The knowledge ranges from the regulatory framework to the details of a machine or a process but also includes the general knowledge about industrial safety, the hazardous phenomena, the properties of the substances. Part of this knowledge is also largely tacit. It lies in the brain of the scientific experts or the employees who are able to make the connection between apparently disconnected pieces of knowledge. Detecting, extracting, maintaining and communicating this knowledge are typical knowledge management activities. This is the reason why INERIS has initiated a research program dedicated to knowledge management with several initial outcomes that will be presented in this paper together with the general objectives of the program and the perspectives for the coming years. The first part of the paper is dedicated to a recall of the knowledge management principles based mainly on the typology of knowledge introduced by Nonaka. It is put in relation with the typology of knowledge used in safety management activities. Two examples of knowledge management systems are presented and related to the typology of knowledge previously described. In both cases, the added value resides in the capacity to establish relations between different knowledge elements. This is partly realised by documents indexing and the use of efficient information retrieval tools. The development of an ontology of industrial safety contributes to achieving these goals. It constitutes a reference for indexing and will offer a structure for future developments of semantic web-based tools. Such an ontology is presently under development. Its use to improve the indexing and information retrieval in the knowledge management systems is illustrated

Posture control and skeletal mechanical acclimation in terrestrial plants: Implications for mechanical modeling of plant architecture

Self-supporting plant stems are slender, erect structures that remain standing while growing in highly variable mechanical environments. Such ability is not merely related to an adapted mechanical design in terms of material-specific stiffness and stem tapering. As many terrestrial standing animals do, plant stems regulate posture through active and coordinated control of motor systems and acclimate their skeletal growth to prevailing loads. This analogy probably results from mechanical challenges on standing organisms in an aerial environment with low buoyancy and high turbulence. But the continuous growth of plants submits them to a greater challenge. In response to these challenges, land plants implemented mixed skeletal and motor functions in the same anatomical elements. There are two types of kinematic design: (1) plants with localized active movement (arthrophytes) and (2) plants with continuously distributed active movements (contortionists). The control of these active supporting systems involves gravi- and mechanoperception, but little is known about their coordination at the whole plant level. This more active view of the control of plant growth and form has been insufficiently considered in the modeling of plant architecture. Progress in our understanding of plant posture and mechanical acclimation will require new biomechanical models of plant architectural development

Relationship between emotion recognition and cognition in multiple sclerosis: a meta-analysis protocol

Introduction Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory and neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system characterised by a broad and unpredictable range of symptoms, including cognitive and socio-cognitive dysfunction. Alongside the well-known deficits in information processing speed (IPS), executive functioning and episodic memory, recent evidence also highlighted socio-cognitive impairments in MS, such as emotion-recognition deficits. Recently, several studies investigated the association between emotion-recognition and cognitive impairment to assess whether social cognition is parallel to (or even dependent on) general cognitive dysfunction. Yet, there have been inconsistent findings, raising the need for a meta-analysis of the literature.Objectives The aim of the present paper is to outline the protocol for an upcoming meta-analysis we designed to clarify these conclusions.Methods and analysis We plan to estimate combined effect sizes for the association between emotion-recognition and cognitive impairment in MS across three cognitive domains (IPS, executive functions and episodic memory) and 7 emotion scores of interests (total and by 6-basic emotions subscores). Further, we plan to investigate whether identified variables are the cause for heterogeneity in any combined association. To that end, we will conduct additional meta-regression analyses to explore whether overall correlations differ according to clinical characteristics of MS patients (ie, disease duration, MS-phenotype, severity of depression and disability). Ultimately, this study will provide support either for an association of these disorders (in which emotion-recognition deficits might result from more fundamental cognitive dysfunction), or for two distinct sets of symptoms which may occur independently, for targeted patient profiles