Designing Vibrotactile Widgets with Printed Actuators and Sensors

Physical controls are fabricated through complicated assembly of parts requiring expensive machinery and are prone to mechanical wear. One solution is to embed controls directly in interactive surfaces, but the proprioceptive part of gestural interaction that makes physical controls discoverable and usable solely by hand gestures is lost and has to be compensated, by vibrotactile feedback for instance. Vibrotactile actuators face the same aforementioned issues as for physical controls. We propose printed vibrotactile actuators and sensors. They are printed on plastic sheets, with piezoelectric ink for actuation, and with silver ink for conductive elements, such as wires and capacitive sensors. These printed actuators and sensors make it possible to design vibrotactile widgets on curved surfaces, without complicated mechanical assembly

Replication Stress at Telomeric and Mitochondrial DNA: Common Origins and Consequences on Ageing

Senescence is defined as a stress-induced durable cell cycle arrest. We herein revisit the origin of two of these stresses, namely mitochondrial metabolic compromise, associated with reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, and replicative senescence, activated by extreme telomere shortening. We discuss how replication stress-induced DNA damage of telomeric DNA (telDNA) and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) can be considered a common origin of senescence in vitro, with consequences on ageing in vivo. Unexpectedly, mtDNA and telDNA share common features indicative of a high degree of replicative stress, such as G-quadruplexes, D-loops, RNA:DNA heteroduplexes, epigenetic marks, or supercoiling. To avoid these stresses, both compartments use similar enzymatic strategies involving, for instance, endonucleases, topoisomerases, helicases, or primases. Surprisingly, many of these replication helpers are active at both telDNA and mtDNA (e.g., RNAse H1, FEN1, DNA2, RecQ helicases, Top2α, Top2β, TOP3A, DNMT1/3a/3b, SIRT1). In addition, specialized telomeric proteins, such as TERT (telomerase reverse transcriptase) and TERC (telomerase RNA component), or TIN2 (shelterin complex), shuttle from telomeres to mitochondria, and, by doing so, modulate mitochondrial metabolism and the production of ROS, in a feedback manner. Hence, mitochondria and telomeres use common weapons and cooperate to resist/prevent replication stresses, otherwise producing common consequences, namely senescence and ageing

Future planning abilities in the common cuttlefish

International audienceRecently, the cognitive abilities of Sepia officinalis, in particular its memory, have been the subject of several studies. As memory is thought to be intrinsically directed toward the future, cuttlefish may possess the ability of foresight. However, some claims that animals cannot anticipate their future needs as they cannot escape their present state. To challenge this hypothesis, we conducted an experiment on 13 captive – reared juvenile and 18 wild – caught adult cuttlefish. Each cuttlefish was tested in a Y – maze, where they were fed until satiety. Afterwards they were proposed a choice between two arms: one with a shelter, but without any prey, and the other without a shelter but with a prey. They were confined inside the chosen arm overnight. The following day, after being fed until satiety, the same choice test was undertaken. If cuttlefish were bound to their current needs, they should choose the shelter on the two tests. However, if they anticipated their future needs (hunger during the following night) irrespective of their current needs (hiding), they should prefer the arm with the food the second day. All cuttlefish but two went to the shelter the first day, a choice consistent with their current state of motivation. The second day, whereas juvenile cuttlefish and control adults still chose the shelter, half of the adult cuttlefish preferred the arm with the food. Although the number of adults was too low to reach statistical significance, these results provide the first indication of an ability of adult cuttlefish to anticipate their future

Data FM Cuttlefish

15 subadult cuttlefish were tested in a false memory experiment, in four different conditions (visual test V, olfactory & visual test OV, reinforcer control R, neutral control N). Three different tubes with random patterns were used, presented in a random order and position.</p

Genetic diversity, Population structure, parentage analysis, and construction of core collections in the French apple germplasm based on SSR markers

In-depth characterization of apple genetic resources is a prerequisite for genetic improvement and for germplasm management. In this study, we fingerprinted a very large French collection of 2163 accessions with 24 SSR markers in order to evaluate its genetic diversity, population structure and genetic relationships, to link these features with cultivar selection date or usage (old or modern, dessert or cider cultivars), and to construct core collections. Most markers were highly discriminating and powerful for varietal identification, with a probability of identity P(ID) over the 21 retained SSR loci close to 10-28. Pairwise comparisons revealed 34% redundancy and 18.5% putative triploids. The results showed that the germplasm is highly diverse with an expected heterozygosity He of 0.82 and observed heterozygosity Ho of 0.83. A Bayesian model-based clustering approach revealed a weak but significant structure in three subgroups (FST = 0.014-0.048) corresponding, albeit approximately, to the three subpopulations defined beforehand (Old Dessert, Old Cider and Moderncultivars). Parentage analyses established already known and yet unknown relationships, notably between old cultivars, with the frequent occurrence of cultivars such as ‘King of Pippin’ and ‘Calville Rouge d’Hiver’ as founders. Finally, core collections based on allelic diversity were constructed. A large dessert core collection of 278 cultivars contained 90% of the total dessert allelic diversity, whereas a dessert sub-core collection of 48 cultivars contained 71% of diversity. For cider apples, a 48-cultivars core collection contained 83% of the total cider allelic diversity

Misidentification of the emerging pathogenic yeasts Candida nivariensis as Zygosaccharamyces sp.

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PHILEOS ( haemoPHILia and ostEoporOSis ) Study: protocol of a multicentre prospective case–control study

International audienceIntroduction Two meta-analyses showed lower bone mineral density (BMD) in patients with haemophilia (haemophilia type and severity were often not specified) compared with healthy controls. This finding could be related to reduced mobility and sedentary lifestyle, and/or hepatitis C or HIV infection. The aim of this study is to determine osteoporosis prevalence in patients with haemophilia classified in function of the disease type (A or B) and severity, and to evaluate the potential role of regular prophylactic factor replacement (early vs delayed initiation) in preserving or restoring BMD. Methods and analysis The haemoPHILia and ostEoporOSis Study is a prospective, controlled, multicentre study that will include patients in France (13 haemophilia treatment centres), Belgium (1 centre) and Romania (1 centre). In total, 240 patients with haemophilia and 240 matched healthy controls will be recruited (1:1). The primary objective is to determine osteoporosis prevalence in patients with severe haemophilia A and B (HA and HB) without prophylaxis, compared with healthy controls. Secondary outcomes include: prevalence of osteoporosis and osteopenia in patients with mild, moderate and severe HA or HB with prophylaxis (grouped in function of their age at prophylaxis initiation), compared with healthy subjects; BMD in patients with HA and HB of comparable severity; correlation between BMD and basal factor VIII/IX levels and thrombin potential; and quantification of plasmatic markers of bone remodelling (formation and resorption) in patients with haemophilia. Ethics and dissemination The protocol was approved by the French Ethics Committee and by the French National Agency for Medicines and Health Products Safety (number: 2019-A03358-49). The results of this study will be actively disseminated through scientific publications and conference presentations. Trial registration number NCT04384341

Static and Dynamic Studies of Electro-Active Polymer Actuators and Integration in a Demonstrator

Nowadays, the haptic effect is used and developed for many applications—particularly in the automotive industry, where the mechanical feedback induced by a haptic system enables the user to receive information while their attention is kept on the road and on driving. This article presents the development of a vibrotactile button based on printed piezoelectric polymer actuation. Firstly, the characterization of the electro-active polymer used as the actuator and the development of a model able to predict the electromechanical behavior of this device are summarized. Then, the design of circular membranes and their dynamic characterization are presented. Finally, this work is concluded with the construction of a fully functional demonstrator, integrating haptic buttons leading to a clear haptic sensation for the user

The apoptosis inhibitor Bcl-xL controls breast cancer cell migration through mitochondria-dependent reactive oxygen species production

International audienceThe Bcl-xL apoptosis inhibitor plays a major role in vertebrate development. In addition to its effect on apoptosis, Bcl-xL is also involved in cell migration and mitochondrial metabolism. These effects may favour the onset and dissemination of metastasis. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain to be fully understood. Here we focus on the control of cell migration by Bcl-xL in the context of breast cancer cells. We show that Bcl-xL silencing led to migration defects in Hs578T and MDA-MB231 cells. These defects were rescued by re-expressing mitochondria-addressed, but not endoplasmic reticulum-addressed, Bcl-xL. The use of BH3 mimetics, such as ABT-737 and WEHI-539 confirmed that the effect of Bcl-xL on migration did not depend on interactions with BH3-containing death accelerators such as Bax or BH3-only proteins. In contrast, the use of a BH4 peptide that disrupts the Bcl-xL/VDAC1 complex supports that Bcl-xL by acting on VDAC1 permeability contributes to cell migration through the promotion of reactive oxygen species production by the electron transport chain. Collectively our data highlight the key role of Bcl-xL at the interface between cell metabolism, cell death, and cell migration, thus exposing the VDAC1/Bcl-xL interaction as a promising target for anti-tumour therapy in the context of metastatic breast cancer