Age and heat stress as determinants of telomere length in a long-lived fish, the Siberian Sturgeon

Telomeres shorten at each cell division due to the end-replication problem but also in response to oxidative stress. Consequently, telomeres shorten with age in many endotherms, and this shortening is accelerated under stressful environmental conditions. Data in ectotherm vertebrates remain scarce so far, so our goal was to review existing data for fish and to test the influence of age and stress on telomere length in a very long-lived fish, the Siberian sturgeon (Acipenser baerii). Our review of the literature revealed age-related telomere shortening in approximately half of the published studies. In the Siberian sturgeon, we found a significant telomere shortening with age, both at the intraindividual level using red blood cells (−12.5% in 16 mo) and at the interindividual level using cross-sectional samples of fin over an age range of 8 yr. We also found that heat stress (30°C) significantly reduced telomere length by 15.0% after only 1 mo of exposure. Our results highlight that both age and stressful environmental conditions might be important determinants of telomere length in fish

Brain delivery of vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) following nasal administration to rats

The aim of this work was to study in rats the nasal route for the brain delivery of the vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) neuropeptide. After evaluating VIP stability in solutions obtained from nasal washes, the effect of formulation parameters (pH 4-9, 0-1% (w/v) lauroylcarnitine (LC), hypo- or isoosmolality) on the brain uptake of intranasally administered VIP (10(-8)M)/125I-VIP (300,000 cpm/ml) was studied, using an in situ perfusion technique. Brain radioactivity distribution was assessed by quantitative autoradiographic analysis. Results were compared to intravenously administered VIP. With a hypotonic formulation at pH 4 containing 0.1% LC and 1% bovine serum albumin, VIP stability was satisfactory and loss by adsorption was minimal. Using this formulation, around 0.11% of initial radioactivity was found in the brain after 30 min perfusion and was located in the olfactory bulbs, the midbrain and the cerebellum. HPLC analysis of brain and blood extracts demonstrated the presence of intact VIP in brain and its complete degradation in the blood compartment. By intravenous administration, no intact VIP was found either in brain or in blood. In conclusion, intact VIP could be delivered successfully to the brain using the intranasal route for administration

Proposition of a PLM tool to support textile design: A case study applied to the definition of the early stages of design requirements

The current climate of economic competition forces businesses to adapt more than ever to the expectations of their customers. Faced with new challenges, practices in textile design have evolved in order to be able to manage projects in new work environments. After presenting a state of the art overview of collaborative tools used in product design and making functional comparison between PLM solutions, our paper proposes a case study for the development and testing of a collaborative platform in the textile industry, focusing on the definition of early stages of design needs. The scientific contributions presented in this paper are a state of the art of current PLM solutions and their application in the field of textile design; and a case study where we will present, define, and test the mock-up of a collaborative tool to assist the early stages, based on identified intermediary representations

Back analysis of the institutional and social responses to the eruption and the lahars of Mount Pinatubo Volcano from 1991 to 1998 (Central Luzon, Philippines)

International audienceMount Pinatubo volcano erupted in June 1991 in the main island of Luzon belonging to the Philippines archipelago. Huge economic losses and population exodus have followed. This major crisis has been relayed with other crises due to rainfed lahars which have been supplied with eruption deposits. These lahars have occurred every year since 1991 during the rainy season. They will probably last until 2005. After a brief presentation of the Philippine official response system to disasters, this paper draws up a critical analysis of the different kinds of institutional and social responses deployed to manage the different crisis and post-crisis phases of this event. Based on three viewpoints: from population, media and other actors, this analysis attempts to point out the strengths and weaknesses of the official management system, especially by studying the efficiency and the range of the solutions taken. So, it appears that the management of the June 1991 main crisis (eruption) was a success. On the other hand, difficulties have occurred with lahars risk management. Indeed, these lahars have obliged the authorities to protect and relocate thousands of people. In spite of persistent problems, the management system (monitoring/warning/evacuation) of lahar crises improves year after year. Failures appear especially within the rehabilitation program (protection/rehousing). Many direct (lack of means, preparedness, coordination, dialog,etc.) and indirect (politico-administrative, socio-economic, cultural contexts) factors come together to lock the wheels ofthe institutional response system. They defer the socio-economic start of this vital northern Philippines area

Cartographie de la vulnérabilité des populations face aux phénomènes volcaniques et aux lahars du Mont Pinatubo (Philippines) : cas du bassin de la rivière Pasig-Potrero (province de Pampanga)

International audienceThis study aims at assessing the vulnerability of populations in the Pasig-Potrero River basin, who are threatened by the recurrent lahars of Mt Pinatubo volcano (Philippines) in the aftermath of its 1991 eruption. A survey, carried out between February and March 1998, enabled us to define and to map different levels of risk perception, the quality of potential behavioural patterns in the event of further lahars, and attitudes in the event of an evacuation order. It was then possible to work out a classification and to map the patterns of human vulnerability in the study area. This study points out that, while risk perception is quite high, some problems remain, notably concerning the warning systems and the behaviour of the population in the case of an evacuation. Theses results should assist in elaborating risk and disaster scenarios. They are intended to be used for operational purposes in crisis management such as the organization of disaster relief, and in land use planning

Rapport de jury - Concours (session 2009) de recrutement des conservateurs des bibliothèques[Fonction publique d’Etat]

Rapport de jury du concours de conservateur d\u27Etat externe et interne : Observations et statistiques générales, Résultats des épreuves écrites du concours, résultats des épreuves orale

Lossy compression of plant architectures

International audiencePlants usually show intricate structures whose representation and management are an important source of complexity of models. Yet plant structures are also repetitive: although not identical, the organs, axes, and branches at different positions are often highly similar. From a formal perspective, this repetitive character of plant structures was first exploited in fractal-based plant models (Barnsley, 2000; Ferraro et al., 2005; Prusinkiewicz and Hanan, 1989; Smith, 1984). In particular, L-systems have extensively been used in the last two decades to amplify parsimonious rule-based models into complex branching structures by specifying how fundamental units are repeatedly duplicated and modified in space and over time (Prusinkiewicz et al., 2001). However, the inverse problem of finding a compact representation of a branching structure has remained largely opened, and is now becoming a key issue in modeling applications as it needs to be solved to both get insight into the complex organization of plants and to decrease time and space complexity of simulation algorithms. The idea is that a compressed version of a plant structure might be much more efficient to manipulate than the original extensive branching structure. For instance, Soler et al. (2003) have shown that the complexity of radiation simulation can be drastically reduced if self-similar representations of plants are used. Unfor- tunately, strict self-similarity has a limited range of applications, because neither real plants nor more sophisticated plant models are exactly self-similar. Consequently, we propose in this paper an algorithm that exploit approximate self-similarity to compress plant structures to various degrees, representing a tradeoff between compression rate and accuracy. This new compression method aims at making possible to efficiently model, simulate and analyze plants using these compressed representations

Cartographie de la vulnérabilité aux phénomènes volcaniques et aux lahars du Pinatubo(Philippines). Cas du bassin de la rivière Pasig-Potrero (Province de Pampanga)

International audienceThis study aims at assessing the population vulnerability in the Pasig-Potrero River basin threatened by the recurrent lahars of Mt Pinatubo volcano (Philippines) subsequent to its 1991 eruption. A survey carried out between February and March 1998 enabled us to define and to map different levels of risk perception, the quality of the potential behaviors in the event of further lahars and of the demeanors in case of evacuation order. It was then possible to work out a typology and a cartography of human vulnerability in this study area.This study points out that, even though the risk perception is quite high, some problems remain, notably concerning warning and behaviors in case of evacuation.This work is part of a larger framework including population vulnerability assessment around Mt Pinatubo (social and institutional vulnerability). It also aims at estimating the effects, notably the territorial consequences, occurred as a result of a crisis linked to the volcano and its lahars, and that has been lasting for eight years. These results should allow to elaborate some risk and disaster scenarios. They are intended to be used as operational purposes in crises management such as relief arrangement, land use planning.Cette étude a pour objectif d'évaluer la vulnérabilité des populations du bassin de la rivière Pasig-Potrero menacé par les lahars récurrents du volcan Pinatubo (Philippines) suite à l'éruption de 1991. A partir d'une campagne d'enquêtes sur le terrain, réalisée entre février et mars 1998, on a pu définir et cartographier différents niveaux de perception du risque, la qualité des comportements potentiels face aux lahars ainsi que des attitudes en cas d'ordre d'évacuation. Ces données ont ensuite permis de réaliser une typologie et une cartographie de la vulnérabilité dans le secteur d'étude.Il en ressort que si la perception du risque est assez élevée, des problèmes subsistent, notamment en matière d'alerte et de comportements en cas d'évacuation. La qualité de l'alerte a aussi montré, dans le passé, des carences qu'il convient aujourd'hui de combler.Ce travail s’inscrit dans un cadre plus large d'évaluation de la vulnérabilité des populations face au volcan Pinatubo (vulnérabilité sociale, institutionnelle...) el des conséquences, notamment territoriales, de huit années de crises liées à l'éruption, puis aux lahars.Ces conclusions peuvent guider l'élaboration de scénarios de risque et de catastrophe, utiles à des fins opérationnelles (planification des secours, aide à la gestion des crises, aménagement du territoire...)

Case-based lung image categorization and retrieval for interstitial lung diseases: clinical workflows

Purpose: Clinical workflows and user interfaces of image-based computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) for interstitial lung diseases in high-resolution computed tomography are introduced and discussed. Methods: Three use cases are implemented to assist students, radiologists, and physicians in the diagnosis workup of interstitial lung diseases. Results: In a first step, the proposed system shows a three-dimensional map of categorized lung tissue patterns with quantification of the diseases based on texture analysis of the lung parenchyma. Then, based on the proportions of abnormal and normal lung tissue as well as clinical data of the patients, retrieval of similar cases is enabled using a multimodal distance aggregating content-based image retrieval (CBIR) and text-based information search. The global system leads to a hybrid detection-CBIR-based CAD, where detection-based and CBIR-based CAD show to be complementary both on the user's side and on the algorithmic side. Conclusions: The proposed approach is in accordance with the classical workflow of clinicians searching for similar cases in textbooks and personal collections. The developed system enables objective and customizable inter-case similarity assessment, and the performance measures obtained with a leave-one-patient-out cross-validation (LOPO CV) are representative of a clinical usage of the syste