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Durability is still a critical factor that limits solid oxide cell (SOC) technology industrialization. In order to maintain a good level of performance for the overall targeted lifetime of about 40 kh, the oxidation of the interconnects made of ferritic stainless steel and Cr volatilization from this material to the cell electrodes have to be restricted. CeCo-based coatings were applied by PVD HiPIMS on AISI441 alloy. Their ability to reduce the thickness of the poorly conductive formed oxide and improve Cr retention was studied at sample scale by measurements of weight gain and Cr content by ICP-OES after 5000 h of exposure in ambient air at 700 and 800 °C. In the testing conditions, post-test characterization by SEM/EDX showed that oxide scale thickness was reduced when coatings were applied compared to bare AISI441 steel. Moreover, the strong oxide scale spallation observed at 800 °C with bare AISI441 steel was avoided. Cr volatilization was also strongly decreased. Post-test SEM/EDX and ToF–SIMS characterization of a short stack integrating coatings on the air side in some repeat units (RU) confirmed the limited Cr diffusion in the strontium doped lanthanum manganite (LSM) contact layer when the coating is present after 5200 h of solid oxide electrolysis cell operation (SOEC). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Loss-of-function mutations in the tumour suppressor APC are an initial step in intestinal tumorigenesis1,2. APC-mutant intestinal stem cells outcompete their wild-type neighbours through the secretion of Wnt antagonists, which accelerates the fixation and subsequent rapid clonal expansion of mutants3–5. Reports of polyclonal intestinal tumours in human patients and mouse models appear at odds with this process6,7. Here we combine multicolour lineage tracing with chemical mutagenesis in mice to show that a large proportion of intestinal tumours have a multiancestral origin. Polyclonal tumours retain a structure comprising subclones with distinct Apc mutations and transcriptional states, driven predominantly by differences in KRAS and MYC signalling. These pathway-level changes are accompanied by profound differences in cancer stem cell phenotypes. Of note, these findings are confirmed by introducing an oncogenic Kras mutation that results in predominantly monoclonal tumour formation. Further, polyclonal tumours have accelerated growth dynamics, suggesting a link between polyclonality and tumour progression. Together, these findings demonstrate the role of interclonal interactions in promoting tumorigenesis through non-cell autonomous pathways that are dependent on the differential activation of oncogenic pathways between clones.Multicolour lineage tracing and mutagenesis studies in a mouse model show that many intestinal tumours are polyclonal, with multiple clones exhibiting independent Apc mutations driven by differences in KRAS and MYC signalling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Obfuscation techniques (e.g., blurring) are employed to protect sensitive information (SI) in images such as individuals' faces. Recent works demonstrated that adversaries can perform deep learning-assisted (DL) attacks to re-identify obfuscated face images. Adversaries are modeled by their goals, knowledge (e.g., background knowledge), and capabilities (e.g., DL-assisted attacks). Nevertheless, enhancing the evaluation methodology of obfuscation techniques and improving the defense strategies against adversaries requires considering more "pessimistic" attacking scenario, i.e., stronger adversaries. According to a 2019 article published by the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), adversaries tend to perform more sophisticated and dangerous attacks when collaborating together. To address these concerns, our paper investigates a novel privacy challenge in the context of image obfuscation. Specifically, we examine whether adversaries, when collaborating together, can amplify their DL-assisted attacks and cause additional privacy breaches against a target dataset of obfuscated images. We empirically demonstrate that federated learning (FL) can be used as a collaborative attack/adversarial strategy to (i) leverage the attacking capabilities of an adversary, (ii) increase the privacy breaches, and (iii) remedy the lack of background knowledge and data shortage without the need to share/disclose the local training datasets in a centralized location. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to consider collaborative and more specifically FL-based attacks in the context of face obfuscation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Objectives: Pseudo-vascular network formation in vitro is considered a key characteristic of vasculogenic mimicry. While many cancer cell lines form pseudo-vascular networks, little is known about the spatiotemporal dynamics of these formations. Methods: Here, we present a framework for monitoring and characterising the dynamic formation and dissolution of pseudo-vascular networks in vitro. The framework combines time-resolved optical microscopy with open-source image analysis for network feature extraction and statistical modelling. The framework is demonstrated by comparing diverse cancer cell lines associated with vasculogenic mimicry, then in detecting response to drug compounds proposed to affect formation of vasculogenic mimics. Dynamic datasets collected were analysed morphometrically and a descriptive statistical analysis model was developed in order to measure stability and dissimilarity characteristics of the pseudo-vascular networks formed. Results: Melanoma cells formed the most stable pseudo-vascular networks and were selected to evaluate the response of their pseudo-vascular networks to treatment with axitinib, brucine and tivantinib. Tivantinib has been found to inhibit the formation of the pseudo-vascular networks more effectively, even in dose an order of magnitude less than the two other agents. Conclusions: Our framework is shown to enable quantitative analysis of both the capacity for network formation, linked vasculogenic mimicry, as well as dynamic responses to treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clustering is an unsupervised machine learning method grouping data samples into clusters of similar objects, used as a system support tool in numerous applications such as banking customers profiling, document retrieval, image segmentation, and e-commerce recommendation engines. The effectiveness of several clustering techniques is sensible to the initialization parameters, and different solutions have been proposed in the literature to overcome this limitation. They require high computational memory consumption when dealing with big data. In this paper, we propose the application of a recent object detection Deep Learning model (YOLO-v5) for assisting the initialization of classical techniques and improving their effectiveness on two-variate datasets, leveraging the accuracy and reducing dramatically the memory and time consumption of classical clustering methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Documenting the organization of the retinal capillaries is of importance to understand the visual consequences of vascular diseases which may differentially affect the microvascular layers. Here we detailed the spatial organization of the macular capillaries in ten healthy human subjects using a prototypic adaptive optics-enhanced optical coherence tomography angiography (AO-OCTA) system. Within the central 6° × 6°, the radial peripapillary capillaries and the superficial, intermediate and deep vascular plexuses (SVP, IVP and DVP, respectively) were consistently resolved. In 8 out of the 10 eyes, the capillary segments composing the perifoveal arcade (PFA) were perfused only by the SVP, while drainage of the PFA showed more variability, comprising a case in which the PFA was drained by the DVP. Around the center, a distinct central avascular zone could be documented for each layer in 7 of the 10 cases; in three eyes, the IVP and SVP merged tangentially around the center. In all eyes, the foveal avascular zone was larger in the DVP than in the SVP and IVP. In one eye with incomplete separation of the inner foveal layers, there was continuity of both the SVP and the IVP; a central avascular zone was only present in the DVP. The diversity of perfusion and drainage patterns supported a connectivity scheme combining parallel and serial organizations, the latter being the most commonly observed in perifoveal vessels. Our results thus help to further characterize the diversity of organization patterns of the macular capillaries and to robustly analyze the IVP, which will help to characterize early stages of microvascular diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the fog computing-based Internet of Things (IoT) architecture, the sensor devices represent the basic elements needed to sense the surrounding environment. They gather and send a huge amount of data to the fog gateway and then to the cloud due to their use in various real-world IoT applications. This would lead to high data traffic, increased energy consumption, and slow decisions at the fog gateway. Therefore, it is important to reduce the transmitted data to save energy and provide an accurate decision regarding the safety and health of the building’s environment. This paper suggests an energy-aware data transmission approach with decision-making (EDaTAD) for Fog Computing-based IoT applications. It works on two-level nodes in the fog computing-based TI architecture: sensor devices and fog gateways. The EDaTAD implements a Lightweight Redundant Data Removing (LiReDaR) algorithm at the sensor device level to lower the gathered data before sending it to the fog gateway. In the fog gateway, a decision-making model is proposed to provide suitable decisions to the monitoring staff in remote monitoring applications. Finally, it executes a Data Set Redundancy Elimination (DaSeRE) approach to discard the repetitive data sets before sending them to the cloud for archiving and further analysis. EDaTAD outperforms other methods in terms of transmitted data, energy consumption, and data accuracy. Furthermore, it assesses the risk efficiently and provides suitable decisions while decreasing the latency time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fetal development of organs and functions is vulnerable to perturbation by maternal inflammation which may increase susceptibility to disorders after birth. Because it is not well understood how the placenta and fetus respond to acute lung- inflammation, we characterize the response to maternal pulmonary lipopolysaccharide exposure across 24 h in maternal and fetal organs using multi-omics, imaging and integrative analyses. Unlike maternal organs, which mount strong inflammatory immune responses, the placenta upregulates immuno-modulatory genes, in particular the IL-6 signaling suppressor Socs3. Similarly, we observe no immune response in the fetal liver, which instead displays metabolic changes, including increases in lipids containing docosahexaenoic acid, crucial for fetal brain development. The maternal liver and plasma display similar metabolic alterations, potentially increasing bioavailability of docosahexaenoic acid for the mother and fetus. Thus, our integrated temporal analysis shows that systemic inflammation in the mother leads to a metabolic perturbation in the fetus. Maternal immune activation during pregnancy can negatively impact the developing fetus. Here, applying multi-omics (RNA-seq, phosphoproteomics and lipidomics) and imaging, the authors show that while maternal immune activation induces strong innate response in maternal organs it does not extend through the placenta but leads to fetal metabolic changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The MAJIS (Moons And Jupiter Imaging Spectrometer) instrument on board the ESA JUICE (JUpiter ICy moon Explorer) mission is an imaging spectrometer operating in the visible and near-infrared spectral range from 0.50 to 5.55 μm in two spectral channels with a boundary at 2.3 μm and spectral samplings for the VISNIR and IR channels better than 4 nm/band and 7 nm/band, respectively. The IFOV is 150 μrad over a total of 400 pixels. As already amply demonstrated by the past and present operative planetary space missions, an imaging spectrometer of this type can span a wide range of scientific objectives, from the surface through the atmosphere and exosphere. MAJIS is then perfectly suitable for a comprehensive study of the icy satellites, with particular emphasis on Ganymede, the Jupiter atmosphere, including its aurorae and the spectral characterization of the whole Jupiter system, including the ring system, small inner moons, and targets of opportunity whenever feasible. The accurate measurement of radiance from the different targets, in some case particularly faint due to strong absorption features, requires a very sensitive cryogenic instrument operating in a severe radiation environment. In this respect MAJIS is the state-of-the-art imaging spectrometer devoted to these objectives in the outer Solar System and its passive cooling system without cryocoolers makes it potentially robust for a long-life mission as JUICE is. In this paper we report the scientific objectives, discuss the design of the instrument including its complex on-board pipeline, highlight the achieved performance, and address the observation plan with the relevant instrument modes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aerial images obtained by drones are increasingly used for ecological research such as wildlife monitoring. Yet detectability issues resulting from animal activity or visibility are rarely considered, although these may lead to biased population size and trend estimates. In this study, we investigated detectability in a census of Malagasy pond heron Ardeola idae colonies on the island of Mayotte. We conducted repeated drone flights over breeding colonies in mangrove habitats during two breeding seasons. We then identified individuals and nests in the images and fitted closed capture-recapture models on nest-detection histories. We observed seasonal variation in the relative abundance of individuals, and intra-daily variation in the relative abundance of individuals—especially immature birds—affecting the availability of nests for detection. The detection probability of nests estimated by capture–recapture varied between 0.58 and 0.74 depending on flyover days and decreased 25% from early to late morning. A simulation showed that three flyovers are necessary to detect a 5–6% decline in colonies of 50 to 200 nests. These results indicate that the detectability of nests of forest-canopy breeding species from airborne imagery can vary over space and time; we recommend the use of capture-recapture methods to control for this bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy is increasingly used in patients with refractory haematological malignancies but can induce severe adverse events. We aimed to describe the clinical features and outcomes of patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) after CAR-T therapy. Methods: This retrospective observational cohort study included consecutive adults admitted to either of two French ICUs in 2018–2022 within 3 months after CAR-T therapy. Results: Among 238 patients given CAR-T therapy, 84 (35.3%) required ICU admission and were included in the study, a median of 5 [0–7] days after CAR-T infusion. Median SOFA and SAPSII scores were 3 [2–6] and 39 [30–48], respectively. Criteria for cytokine release syndrome were met in 80/84 (95.2%) patients, including 18/80 (22.5%) with grade 3–4 toxicity. Immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome (ICANS) occurred in 46/84 (54.8%) patients, including 29/46 (63%) with grade 3–4 toxicity. Haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis was diagnosed in 15/84 (17.9%) patients. Tocilizumab was used in 73/84 (86.9%) patients, with a median of 2 [1–4] doses. Steroids were given to 55/84 (65.5%) patients, including 21/55 (38.2%) given high-dose pulse therapy. Overall, 23/84 (27.4%) patients had bacterial infections, 3/84 (3.6%) had fungal infections (1 invasive pulmonary aspergillosis and 2 Mucorales), and 2 (2.4%) had cytomegalovirus infection. Vasopressors were required in 23/84 (27.4%), invasive mechanical ventilation in 12/84 (14.3%), and dialysis in 4/84 (4.8%) patients. Four patients died in the ICU (including 2 after ICU readmission, i.e., overall mortality was 4.8% of patients). One year after CAR-T therapy, 41/84 (48.9%) patients were alive and in complete remission, 14/84 (16.7%) were alive and in relapse, and 29/84 (34.5%) had died. These outcomes were similar to those of patients never admitted to the ICU. Conclusion: ICU admission is common after CAR-T therapy and is usually performed to manage specific toxicities. Our experience is encouraging, with low ICU mortality despite a high rate of grade 3–4 toxicities, and half of patients being alive and in complete remission at one year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has recently been a rising interest in inventing new efficient cryptographic algorithms, thanks to advances in the field of Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) technology. Current cryptographic algorithms have been implemented with GPUs, including the Advanced Encryption Standard algorithm (AES) and the Secure-Hash Algorithm 3 (SHA3). However, the currently available cryptographic approaches cannot fully benefit from the GPU's capabilities, as they are not designated in accordance with the GPU characteristics. Therefore, they are not carried out in an efficient manner. Thus, the need to design new cryptographic algorithms that can achieve the best performances without degrading the security level. In this work, a new message Encryption and Authentication Algorithm (MEAA) is specifically proposed for graphics processing units (GPUs). It consists of one-round encryption and authentication functions that are based on the dynamic key-dependent scheme. Experimental results indicate that the proposed approach reaches a throughput of over 580 GB/s over the GPU Tesla A100. Additionally, it demonstrates that the performance improvement ratio is better than that of existing methods. On the other hand, the proposed MEAA is impervious to well-known cryptanalysis attacks since it is based on the dynamic key strategy, and different primitives of cryptography, which are employed for each new input message. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image obfuscation techniques (e.g., pixelation, blurring and masking,...) have been developed to protect sensitive information in images (e.g. individuals' faces). In a previous work, we designed a recommendation framework that evaluates the robustness of image obfuscation techniques and recommends the most resilient obfuscation against Deep-Learning assisted attacks. In this paper, we extend the framework due to two main reasons. First, to the best of our knowledge there is not a standardized evaluation methodology nor a defined model for adversaries when evaluating the robustness of image obfuscation and more specifically face obfuscation techniques. Therefore, we adapt a three-components adversary model (goal, knowledge and capabilities) to our application domain (i.e., facial features obfuscations) and embed it in our framework. Second, considering several attacking scenarios is vital when evaluating the robustness of image obfuscation techniques. Hence, we define three threat levels and explore new aspects of an adversary and its capabilities by extending the background knowledge to include the obfuscation technique along with its hyper-parameters and the identities of the target individuals. We conduct three sets of experiments on a publicly available celebrity faces dataset. Throughout the first experiment, we implement and evaluate the recommendation framework by considering four adversaries attacking obfuscation techniques (e.g. pixelating, Gaussian/motion blur and masking) via restoration-based attacks. Throughout the second and third experiments, we demonstrate how the adversary's attacking capabilities (recognition-based and Restoration & Recognition-based attacks) scale with its background knowledge and how it increases the potential risk of breaching the identities of blurred faces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture expansion is a major cause of habitat loss and exposure to phytochemical pollution for non-human primates. In addition to endocrine disruption, exposure to pesticides may have other sublethal physiological consequences for animals, such as generation of oxidative damage to macromolecules. In this study, we analyzed the pesticides contained in the river water across the home range of wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) in Sebitoli area located on the Northern part of Kibale National Park (Uganda). We tested whether levels of three urinary markers of oxidative damage vary among individuals in relation to their ranging patterns, as a proxy for pesticide exposure intensity. To better characterize the foraging habitat use, the trophic level, and the energetic status of study individuals, we also quantified urinary levels of carbon and nitrogen stable isotope signatures and of C-peptide. Among the 511 pesticides screened, 18 compounds including herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides were found in the water sampled in the Western part of the home range of chimpanzees. In this area, chimpanzees used to feed on maize crops. By contrast, in the Eastern part where crop feeding was never observed, we found only seven pesticides. According to their ranging patterns and thus crop feeding frequency, the 139 urine samples collected from 43 Sebitoli chimpanzees were categorized as belonging to low, medium, and high exposure level. Chimpanzees from the high exposure zone had higher oxidative DNA damage (8-OHdG) than chimpanzees from both the low and medium exposure groups, who had similar levels of oxidative DNA damage. In addition, individuals with higher C-peptide tended to have significantly higher oxidative DNA damage and lipid peroxides. The three exposure groups had similar levels of urinary 8-isoprostanes and of urinary lipid peroxides. These results were robust for any potential confounding effect of other variables because neither age category nor sex or isotope levels were significantly associated with markers of oxidative damage. Our study points to genotoxic effects as one potential sublethal consequence of ranging in proximity of agricultural fields owing to exposure to pesticides or other unidentified sources of stress. Given our phylogenetic proximity, this information is relevant for the conservation of this species which is endangered and also sentinel for human health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Municipalities can foster the social participation of aging adults. Although making municipalities age-friendly is recognized as a promising way to help aging adults stay involved in their communities, little is known about the key components (e.g., services and structures) that foster social participation. This study thus aimed to identify key age-friendly components (AFC) best associated with the social participation of older Canadians. Secondary analyses were carried out using baseline data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (n = 25,411) in selected municipalities (m = 110 with ≥ 30 respondents), the Age-friendly Survey, and census data. Social participation was estimated based on the number of community activities outside the home per month. AFC included housing, transportation, outdoor spaces and buildings, safety, recreation, workforce participation, information, respect, health, and community services. Multilevel models were used to examine the association between individual social participation, key AFC, and environmental characteristics, while controlling for individual characteristics. Aged between 45 and 89, half of the participants were women who were engaged in 20.2±12.5 activities per month. About 2.5% of the variance in social participation was attributable to municipalities. Better outdoor spaces and buildings (p < 0.001), worse communication and information (p < 0.01), and lower material deprivation (p < 0.001) were associated with higher social participation. Age was the only individual-level variable to have a significant random effect, indicating that municipal contexts may mediate its impact with social participation. This study provides insights to help facilitate social participation and promote age-friendliness, by maintaining safe indoor and outdoor mobility, and informing older adults of available activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, the number of Internet of things (IoT) devices has rapidly increased due to their increasing use in different real-world applications. The sensor devices represent the basic element of the IoT network because they gather data from various environments and situations, while the sink node serves as the network's brain because it processes the data and makes decisions. However, the large amount of data that the sensor devices gather and send to the gateway toward the sink, on the one hand, causes the sensor's limited energy to be depleted and, on the other hand, makes it more difficult to achieve the decisions using these data at the sink. Therefore, before sending data to the gateway, it is important to get rid of any duplicate data while maintaining a high level of data quality. In this paper, a distributed prediction–compression-based mechanism (DiPCoM) for saving power in IoT networks is suggested. DiPCoM makes periodic decisions on sending the data to the gateway. It uses the autoregressive integrated moving average prediction method in each period to predict the next period's data and decide whether the current data should be sent to the gateway. When the decision is made to send the data to the gateway, an effective compression approach is used by DiPCoM to get rid of the duplicate data. It combines different data transmission reduction techniques such as adaptive piecewise constant approximation, differential encoding, symbolic aggregate approximation, and Lempel–Ziv–Welch. Simulation results based on real-world data show that the DiPCoM method is better than other techniques in terms of energy consumption, data reduction ratio, transferred data size, and data accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data preservation is a mandatory specification for any present and future experimental facility and it is a cost-effective way of doing fundamental research by exploiting unique data sets in the light of the continuously increasing theoretical understanding. This document summarizes the status of data preservation in high energy physics. The paradigms and the methodological advances are discussed from a perspective of more than ten years of experience with a structured effort at international level. The status and the scientific return related to the preservation of data accumulated at large collider experiments are presented, together with an account of ongoing efforts to ensure long-term analysis capabilities for ongoing and future experiments. Transverse projects aimed at generic solutions, most of which are specifically inspired by open science and FAIR principles, are presented as well. A prospective and an action plan are also indicated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tropical gar (Atractosteus tropicus) is the smallest member of the family Lepisosteidae; yet this species has a large socioeconomic impact in México and Central America where it is traditionally harvested commercially and for subsistence. While natural populations of tropical gar have been dwindling throughout its natural range, it is also an emergent aquaculture species that is produced in local hatcheries and grown out in privately owned ponds. The increased pressure on natural populations of A. tropicus and its increasing use in aquaculture production poses potential conflicts for the management and conservation of natural populations. Here, we investigated the population genetic structure of tropical gar populations, including over 200 individuals sampled in México, El Salvador, and Costa Rica. Using 11 microsatellite loci, we identified three genetic clusters with distinct geographic distributions, including a cluster in drainages along the Pacific versant of Central America, a cluster in the Grijalva and Usumacinta River basins that drain into the Gulf of México, and a cluster in the Río San Juan that drains into the Caribbean Sea. Given the degree of divergence observed, these results indicate the potential presence of evolutionary significant units within tropical gar that warrant separate fisheries and conservation management. We also found that tropical gar from an aquaculture facility along the Pacific versant of México were derived from Atlantic versant populations, indicating that individuals have already been translocated across biogeographic boundaries. We discuss how such translocations can negatively impact the natural population structure of tropical gar and provide recommendations for future research and aquaculture practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) can lead to life-threatening complications that may require intensive care unit (ICU) management. It has been advocated that early preemptive (ePE) ICU admission, before the onset of organ failure, could benefit some high-risk patients such as those with hyperleukocytosis. The aim of this study was to retrospectively analyze the outcome of newly diagnosed AML patients who required ICU admission in five academic centers with a special focus on patients with an ePE admission strategy, i.e., those transferred to the ICU without any organ failure (modified SOFA score ≤ 2 [omitting thrombocytopenia] and no life-sustaining intervention in the first 24 h following ICU admission) before the start of induction therapy. Between January 2017 and December 2019, 428 patients were included among which 101 were admitted to the ICU. Among patients requiring life-sustaining interventions (n = 83), 18 (22%) died while in the ICU but ICU survivors had the same survival as those not admitted to the ICU. Patients with an ePE admission (n = 18) had more comorbidities and high-risk disease features such as hyperleukocytosis but required no life-sustaining interventions while in the ICU. In a subgroup analysis of patients with hyperleukocytosis ≥ 50 G/l at diagnosis (n = 85), patients not admitted to the ICU and those admitted with an ePE strategy had similar outcomes. This study provides encouraging results about ICU outcome in AML patients during induction therapy but the potential benefit of an ePE strategy must be confirmed prospectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this Perspective, we put forward an integrative framework to improve estimates of land-atmosphere carbon exchange based on the accumulation of carbon in the landscape as constrained by its lateral export through rivers. The framework uses the watershed as the fundamental spatial unit and integrates all terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems as well as their hydrologic carbon exchanges. Application of the framework should help bridge the existing gap between land and atmosphere-based approaches and offers a platform to increase communication and synergy among the terrestrial, aquatic, and atmospheric research communities that is paramount to advance landscape carbon budget assessments. One of the main sources of uncertainty in carbon budgets is that continental landscapes are made up of a heterogeneous mosaic of ecosystems. Here the authors put forward an integrative framework to improve estimates of land-atmosphere carbon exchange based on the accumulation of carbon in the landscape as constrained by its lateral export through rivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: 1) To test the hypothesis of the existence of a perinatal vitamin A (VA) programming of VA metabolism and to better understand the intestinal regulation of VA metabolism. Methods: Offspring from rats reared on a control (C) or a VA-deficient (D) diet from 6 weeks before mating until offspring weaning, i.e., 7 weeks after mating, were themselves reared on a C or D diet for 19 weeks, resulting in the following groups: C–C (parents fed C—offspring fed C), D-C, C-D and D-D. VA concentrations were measured in plasma and liver. β-Carotene bioavailability and its intestinal conversion rate to VA, as well as vitamin D and E bioavailability, were assessed after gavages with these vitamins. Expression of genes involved in VA metabolism and transport was measured in intestine and liver. Results: C–D and D–D had no detectable retinyl esters in their liver. Retinolemia, hepatic retinol concentrations and postprandial plasma retinol response to β-carotene gavage were higher in D–C than in C–C. Intestinal expression of Isx was abolished in C–D and D–D and this was concomitant with a higher expression of Bco1, Scarb1, Cd36 and Lrat in males receiving a D diet as compared to those receiving a C diet. β-Carotene, vitamin D and E bio-availabilities were lower in offspring receiving a D diet as compared to those receiving a C diet. Conclusion: A VA-deficient diet during the perinatal period modifies the metabolism of this vitamin in the offspring. Isx-mediated regulation of Bco1 and Scarb1 expression exists only in males severely deficient in this vitamin. Severe VA deficiency impairs β-carotene and vitamin D and E bioavailability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conjugation is a contact-dependent mechanism for the transfer of plasmid DNA between bacterial cells, which contributes to the dissemination of antibiotic resistance. Here, we use live-cell microscopy to visualise the intracellular dynamics of conjugative transfer of F-plasmid in E. coli, in real time. We show that the transfer of plasmid in single-stranded form (ssDNA) and its subsequent conversion into double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) are fast and efficient processes that occur with specific timing and subcellular localisation. Notably, the ssDNA-to-dsDNA conversion determines the timing of plasmid-encoded protein production. The leading region that first enters the recipient cell carries single-stranded promoters that allow the early and transient synthesis of leading proteins immediately upon entry of the ssDNA plasmid. The subsequent conversion into dsDNA turns off leading gene expression, and activates the expression of other plasmid genes under the control of conventional double-stranded promoters. This molecular strategy allows for the timely production of factors sequentially involved in establishing, maintaining and disseminating the plasmid.Conjugation is a contact-dependent mechanism for the transfer of plasmid DNA between bacterial cells. Here, Couturier et al. use live-cell microscopy to visualise the intracellular dynamics of conjugation in real time, revealing a molecular strategy that allows the sequential production of factors involved in establishing, maintaining and disseminating the plasmid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Little is known about the association between executive function and the magnitude of improvement from personalised exercise interventions on gait performance among older-old adults. Aim: We examined whether the effectiveness of personalised intervention on gait performance is dependent on the patient's baseline dysexecutive syndrome, as assessed by the Frontal Assessment Battery. Methods: A total of 175 older community-dwellers (83.57 ± 5.2 years; 70.2% female) were recruited from the day centre for after-care and rehabilitation in the Nantes Ambulatory Centre of the Clinical Gerontology (France), and were followed during a pre–post-intervention, single-arm retrospective design. The intervention consisted of an individual personalised rehabilitation program over a period of 7 weeks, with twice-weekly sessions (45 min each). Gait speed in four conditions (preferred, fast, and under two dual-task conditions), Timed Up and Go test, and handgrip strength test were assessed. Results: Using a pre–post analysis of covariance, a significant increase in dual-task gait speed while counting (+ 0.10 m/s; + 15%) and in dual-fluency gait speed (+ 0.06 m/s; + 10%), and in Timed Up and Go performance (− 2.9 s; + 17.8%) was observed after the rehabilitation program, regardless the baseline executive status. Discussion: An individual personalized intervention is effective to improve mobility performance and the dual-task gait speed in older-old adults. The magnitude of those effects is independent of the patient's baseline characteristics including the executive function status. Conclusions: Even the most deficient baseline characteristics of patients should not be viewed as clinical barrier for implementing a beneficial individual intervention in high-risk older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to ESA's "Voyage 2050" announcement of opportunity, we propose an ambitious L-class mission to explore one of the most exciting bodies in the Solar System, Saturn's largest moon Titan. Titan, a "world with two oceans", is an organic-rich body with interior-surface-atmosphere interactions that are comparable in complexity to the Earth. Titan is also one of the few places in the Solar System with habitability potential. Titan's remarkable nature was only partly revealed by the Cassini-Huygens mission and still holds mysteries requiring a complete exploration using a variety of vehicles and instruments. The proposed mission concept POSEIDON (Titan POlar Scout/orbitEr and In situ lake lander DrONe explorer) would perform joint orbital and in situ investigations of Titan. It is designed to build on and exceed the scope and scientific/technological accomplishments of Cassini-Huygens, exploring Titan in ways that were not previously possible, in particular through full close-up and in situ coverage over long periods of time. In the proposed mission architecture, POSEIDON consists of two major elements: a spacecraft with a large set of instruments that would orbit Titan, preferably in a low-eccentricity polar orbit, and a suite of in situ investigation components, i.e. a lake lander, a "heavy" drone (possibly amphibious) and/or a fleet of mini-drones, dedicated to the exploration of the polar regions. The ideal arrival time at Titan would be slightly before the next northern Spring equinox (2039), as equinoxes are the most active periods to monitor still largely unknown atmospheric and surface seasonal changes. The exploration of Titan's northern latitudes with an orbiter and in situ element(s) would be highly complementary in terms of timing (with possible mission timing overlap), locations, and science goals with the upcoming NASA New Frontiers Dragonfly mission that will provide in situ exploration of Titan's equatorial regions, in the mid-2030s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The von Hippel-Lindau disease is an autosomal dominant syndrome associated with tumour formation in various tissues, such as retina, central nervous system, kidney, and adrenal glands. VHL gene deletion or mutations support the development of various cancers. Unclassified VHL variants also referred as "of unknown significance" result from gene mutations that have an unknown or unclear effect on protein functions. The P81S mutation has been linked to low penetrance Type 1 disease but its pathogenic function was not clearly determined.Methods: We established a stable cell line expressing the pVHL213 (c.241C>T, P81S) mutant. Using biochemical and physiological approaches, we herein analysed pVHL folding, stability and function in the context of this VHL single missense mutation.Results: The P81S mutation mostly affects the non-canonical function of the pVHL protein. The cells expressing the pVHL213P81S acquire invasive properties in relation with modified architecture network.Conclusion: We demonstrated the pathogenic role of this mutation in tumour development in vhl patients and confirm a medical follow up of family carrying the c.241C>T, P81S. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Live biotherapeutic products constitute an emerging therapeutic approach to prevent or treat inflammatory bowel diseases. Lactobacillus acidophilus is a constituent of the human microbiota with probiotic potential, that is illustrated by improvement of intestinal inflammation and antimicrobial activity against several pathogens. In this study, we evaluated the immunomodulatory properties of the L. acidophilus strain BIO5768 at steady state and upon acute inflammation. Supplementation of naïve mice with BIO5768 heightened the transcript level of some IL-17 target genes encoding for protein with microbicidal activity independently of NOD2 signaling. Of these, the BIO5768-induced expression of Angiogenin-4 was blunted in monocolonized mice that are deficient for the receptor of IL-17 (but not for NOD2). Interestingly, priming of bone marrow derived dendritic cells by BIO5768 enhanced their ability to support the secretion of IL-17 by CD4+ T cells. Equally of importance, the production of IL-22 by type 3 innate lymphoid cells is concomitantly heightened in response to BIO5768. When administered alone or in combination with Bifidobacterium animalis spp. lactis BIO5764 and Limosilactobacillus reuteri, BIO5768 was able to alleviate at least partially intestinal inflammation induced by Citrobacter rodentium infection. Furthermore, BIO5768 was also able to improve colitis induced by 2,4,6-trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS). In conclusion, we identify a new potential probiotic strain for the management of inflammatory bowel diseases, and provide some insights into its IL-17-dependent and independent mode of action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indole, which is produced by the intestinal microbiota from l-tryptophan, is recovered at millimolar concentrations in the human feces. Indoxyl sulfate (IS), the main indole co-metabolite, can be synthesized by the host tissues. Although indole has been shown to restore intestinal barrier function in experimental colitis, little is known on the effects of indole and IS on colonic epithelial cell metabolism and physiology. In this study, we compared the effects of indole and IS on the human colonic epithelial HT-29 Glc−/+ and Caco-2 cell lines, exposed to these compounds for 1–48 h. Indole, but not IS, was cytotoxic at 5 mM, altering markedly colonocyte proliferation. Both molecules, used up to 2.5 mM, induced a transient oxidative stress in colonocytes, that was detected after 1 h, but not after 48 h exposure. This was associated with the induction after 24 h of the expression of glutathione reductase, heme oxygenase, and cytochrome P450 (CYP)1B1. Indole and IS used at 2.5 mM impaired colonocyte respiration by diminishing mitochondrial oxygen consumption and maximal respiratory capacity. Indole, but not IS, displayed a slight genotoxic effect on colonocytes. Indole, but not IS, increased transepithelial resistance in colonocyte monolayers. Indole and IS used at 2.5 mM, induced a secretion of the pro-inflammatory interleukin-8 after 3 h incubation, and an increase of tumor necrosis factor-α secretion after 48 h. Although our results suggest beneficial effect of indole on epithelial integrity, overall they indicate that indole and IS share adverse effects on colonocyte respiration and production of reactive oxygen species, in association with the induction of enzymes of the antioxidant defense system. This latter process can be viewed as an adaptive response toward oxidative stress. Both compounds increased the production of inflammatory cytokines from colonocytes. However, only indole, but not IS, affected DNA integrity in colonocytes. Since colonocytes little convert indole to IS, the deleterious effects of indole on colonocytes appear to be unrelated to its conversion to IS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, benefiting from the advancement in the Graphic Processing Unit (GPU) technology, there is an increased interest in implementing and designing new efficient cryptographic schemes. Existing cryptographic algorithms, especially the Message Authentication Algorithms (MAAs) such as Hash Message Authentication Code (HMAC) and Ciphered Message Authentication Code (CMAC), are not designed to benefit from the GPU characteristics, which results in degraded performance of their GPU implementations. This gives rise to a trade-off between the design concept and the performance level. In this paper, a new MAA, called 'DKEMA', is proposed to better suit the GPU functionality. This scheme is based on the dynamic key-dependent scheme with one round of substitution and diffusion operations. The experimental results show that the proposed solution is highly effective on Tesla V100 and A100 GPUs, and the throughput is, respectively, more than 400GB/s and 500GB/s. Therefore, DKEMA can be considered as a promising MAA candidate for GPU implementation, achieving the desired cryptographic properties such as high randomness, collision tolerance in addition to message and key avalanche effect. The experimental results show that the proposed solution, based on the dynamic key approach, is immune towards well-known authentication and cryptanalysis attacks. In addition, DKEMA, consisting of one round compression function, presents an enhancement in terms of performance compared to existing algorithms (e.g. AES and SHA). The code is available in GitHub: https://github.com/rcouturier/GPU-DKEMA.git. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The occurrence and combination of extreme meteorological events may lead to severe (megadisturbance) impacts on conserved forests and protected areas all over the world. Recent research has shown that megadisturbance impacts (after the events of hurricanes and prolonged drought) may be detected in subtropical forest cover using changes in spectral indices derived from satellite imagery. The objective of this study is to assess the impact of megadisturbance on forest types of the Alejandro de Humboldt National Park, Republic of Cuba in the 2001–2017 time-period. The Global Forest Cover Change (GFCC, available on the Global Forest Watch website) product was validated and indicated the prominence of megadisturbance for year 2016 (85% of the total disturbed area), largely associated with the Hurricane Matthew event. A robust estimator of the disturbed forest area, based on GFCC-stratified sampled verification sites, suggests that 11,110 ± 1,771 hectares of forest (~ 16% of the Park's total area) was affected by megadisturbance between 2001 and 2017. In 2017, about 1276 hectares of forests were impacted, presumably related to a long-lasting effect of megadisturbance due to Hurricane Matthew and prolonged droughts in previous years. Four types of tropical rainforests (especially lowland rainforest and submountainous sclerophyllous rainforest on serpentinite), that cover 43% of the National Park, accounted for about 85% of the impacts by megadisturbance. The Easternmost portion of these forests should be prioritized for conservation monitoring and possibly for forest restoration strategies. This study contributes to establishing methodological guidelines for rapid environmental assessment of remote, tropical protected areas facing the impacts of extreme meteorological events and climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chromosomal instability (CIN) results in the accumulation of large-scale losses, gains and rearrangements of DNA1. The broad genomic complexity caused by CIN is a hallmark of cancer2; however, there is no systematic framework to measure different types of CIN and their effect on clinical phenotypes pan-cancer. Here we evaluate the extent, diversity and origin of CIN across 7,880 tumours representing 33 cancer types. We present a compendium of 17 copy number signatures that characterize specific types of CIN, with putative aetiologies supported by multiple independent data sources. The signatures predict drug response and identify new drug targets. Our framework refines the understanding of impaired homologous recombination, which is one of the most therapeutically targetable types of CIN. Our results illuminate a fundamental structure underlying genomic complexity in human cancers and provide a resource to guide future CIN research.Copy number signatures characterize different types of chromosomal instability and predict drug response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data confidentiality is one of the most critical security services. Many encryption algorithms are currently used to provide data confidentiality. That is why there are continuous research efforts on the design and implementation of efficient cipher schemes. For this purpose, different lightweight cipher algorithms have been presented and implemented on GPUs with different optimizations to reach high performance. Some examples of these ciphers are Speck, Simon which both require less latency compared to Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). However, these solutions require a higher number of rounds but with a more simple round function compared to AES. Therefore, in this paper, a new cipher scheme called "ORSCA" is defined which only requires one round with the dynamic key-dependent approach. The proposed cipher is designed according to the GPU characteristics. The proposed one-round stream cipher solution is suitable for the high data rate applications. According to the performance results, it can achieve high data throughput compared to existing ones, with throughput greater than 5 Terabits/s on a Tesla A100 GPU. Thus, this approach can be considered as a promising candidate for real-time applications. Finally, the security level is ensured by using the dynamic cryptographic primitives that can be changed for each new input message (or for a set of messages: sub-session key). Thus, the proposed solution is a promising candidate for high secure GPU cryptographic algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several recent research has centered on maximizing Internet of Things (IoT) devices' lifetime by deploying data reduction techniques on IoT nodes to reduce data transmission. Data compression methods can be seen as a direct way of achieving energy efficiency. The trade-off between compression ratio and data distortion is usually considered when using a lossy compressor. This paper proposes a light SZ compressor with a maximal compression ratio without considering this trade-off. The proposed approach was tested on ESP Wroom 32 and WiFi LoRa 32 microcontrollers. Given the importance of data quality arriving at the gateway for analysis, the proposed lossy compressor with a high compression ratio can discard important data features and patterns. This paper solves this problem by proposing a method for data enhancement based on the U-Net architecture. Therefore, the contribution of this paper is twofold: (1) Efficient data reduction approach for energy optimization at the level of IoT nodes. (2) 1D U-Net-based data recovery approach at the level of the edge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ApoE4, the strongest genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD), has been shown to be associated with both beta-amyloid (Aβ) and tau pathology, with the strongest evidence for effects on Aβ, while the association between ApoE4 and tau pathology remains inconsistent. This study aimed to investigate the associations between ApoE4 with CSF Aβ42, total tau (t-tau), phospho-tau181 (p-tau), and with the progression of decline in a large cohort of MCI subjects, both progressors to AD and other dementias, as well as non-progressors. We analyzed associations of CSF Aβ42, p-tau and t-tau with ApoE4 allele frequency cross-sectionally and longitudinally over 3 years of follow-up in 195 individuals with a diagnosis of MCI-stable, MCI-AD converters and MCI progressing to other dementias from the German Dementia Competence Network. In the total sample, ApoE4 carriers had lower concentrations of CSF Aβ42, and increased concentrations of t-tau and p-tau compared to non-carriers in a gene dose-dependent manner. Comparisons of these associations stratified by MCI-progression groups showed a significant influence of ApoE4 carriership and diagnostic group on all CSF biomarker levels. The effect of ApoE4 was present in MCI-stable individuals but not in the other groups, with ApoE4 + carriers having decreased CSF Aβ 42 levels, and increased concentration of t-tau and p-tau. Longitudinally, individuals with abnormal t-tau and Aβ42 had a more rapid progression of cognitive and clinical decline, independently of ApoE4 genotype. Overall, our results contribute to an emerging framework in which ApoE4 involves mechanisms associated with both CSF amyloid-β burden and tau aggregation at specific time points in AD pathogenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The well-known method of median filtering is used both in a wide range of application frameworks and as a standalone filter. Small-window median filters can highly reduce the power of salt and pepper or additive Gaussian noise and minimize edge blurring. Large-window filters are also used, for example to estimate the background of images. Currently, the window size should not be an issue as a constant time algorithm and several implementations, including GPU-based codes, have been proposed in recent years. Unfortunately, none of these constant time implementations manage to fully exploit the capabilities of modern GPUs, and thus the throughputs of large-window median filters remain far below the peak throughputs allowed by recent GPU models. This paper aims at showing that a separable approximation of a 2D median filtering is often stronger than its full 2D implementation. Statistical and theoretical analysis are conducted to show and explain this fact which had so far remained unobserved. It is confirmed by experimentations on a dataset composed of 10,000 images, corrupted by different levels of salt and pepper noise. Separable and full 2D median filter algorithms are compared with several metrics, notably PSNR and MSSIM. In addition, a GPU implementation of 2D separable median filters is also proposed. This implementation is able to output up to 125 billion pixels per second on a recent Volta V100, which significantly outperforms existing implementations like Nvidia's NPP library or Green's code, resulting in the fastest median filtering solution to date. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

112 ⟨ 111 ⟩ β twins are observed in a superelastic β Ti-24Nb-4Zr-8Sn (wt.%) single crystal after tensile test. A careful Schmid factor analysis shows that these twins are formed in the antitwinning sense regarding the classical 112 ⟨ 111 ⟩ β twinning system of bcc structures. These are then 112 ⟨ 111 ⟩ β antitwins. Moreover, a full stress-induced martensitic (SIM) transformation of β phase into α" martensite is evidenced from in situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction. This transformation is fully accomplished before the onset of plastic deformation and, in turn, the formation of twins. From crystallographic reconstruction, 112 ⟨ 111 ⟩ β antitwins are shown to be passively formed from the reversion, during the reverse SIM transformation when the stress is released, of 110 110 α ″ twins actually formed in α" martensite. The martensitic transformation occurring before twinning plays a key role in the activation of antitwinning systems by reducing both shear and shuffle magnitudes of twinning. Variant selection of stress-induced martensite and Schmid factor analysis show that the classical 112 ⟨ 111 ⟩ β twins can never be activated in β titanium alloys involving SIM transformation, while the non-classical 112 ⟨ 111 ⟩ β twinning system in the antitwinning sense is always favored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To evaluate the effectiveness of vitamin D3 supplementation, in secondary prevention, on cardiac remodeling and function, as well as lipid profile, in a mouse model of diet-induced type 2 diabetes. Methods: Mice were fed a high fat and sucrose diet for 10 weeks. Afterward, diet was maintained for 15 more weeks and two groups were formed, with and without cholecalciferol supplementation. A control group was fed with normal chow. Glucose homeostasis and cardiac function were assessed at baseline and at the 10th and 24th weeks. Animals were killed at the 10th and 25th weeks for plasma and cardiac sample analysis. Cardiac lipid profile was characterized by LC-MS/MS. Results: After 10 weeks of diet, mice exhibited pre-diabetes, mild left ventricle hypertrophy, and impaired longitudinal strain, but preserved myocardial circumferential as well as global diastolic and systolic cardiac function. After 15 more weeks of diet, animals presented with well-established type 2 diabetes, pathological cardiac hypertrophy, and impaired regional myocardial function. Cholecalciferol supplementation had no effect on glucose homeostasis but improved cardiac remodeling and regional myocardial function. After 25 weeks, non-supplemented mice exhibited increased myocardial levels of ceramides and diacylglycerol, both of which were normalized by vitamin D3 supplementation. Conclusion: This work brought to light the beneficial effects of cholecalciferol supplementation, in secondary prevention, on cardiac remodeling and function in a mouse model of diet-induced type 2 diabetes. Those cardioprotective effects may be, at least in part, attributed to the modulation of myocardial levels of lipotoxic species by vitamin D. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2013, the protection status of the Nevado de Toluca Volcano was changed from National Park to a less restrictive category. Much controversy has arisen surrounding this decision as the new category allows forest harvesting practices in most of the natural protected area. We assessed the forest cover loss in the Nevado de Toluca protected area and a 20 km buffer zone around it, before and after the change in protection status, and we established a map of forest types in view of assessing biodiversity vulnerability to the protection change in the forest harvesting areas. The forest type classification was carried out applying a Random Forest algorithm to Sentinel-2 imagery. The forest cover loss was assessed using the Landsat-based Global Forest Watch product during the period 2001–2019. Forest cover loss increased after the change of the Nevado de Toluca protection status; 39.7 hectares/year (± 16.7 ha/year) between 2001 and 2013 versus 106.0 hectares/year (± 40.2 ha/year) between 2014 and 2019. Clear-cut deforestation occurred in 49.6 hectares during year 2018. According to our forest map, 7171 ha (54.8%) of the Abies religiosa forest and 6511 ha (32.5%) of the pine forests of the Nevado de Toluca protected area are inside the forest harvesting zonation. Also, forest cover loss around the natural protected area has increased, especially in 2018, indicating that allowing forest harvesting practices in the natural protected area has not reduced the pressure in the surrounding forests either. We ponder the consequences of the category change and give some suggestions for the future of the forests in the Nevado de Toluca protected area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coverage control represents an important research challenge during the design of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) in an energy-efficient way. It is an indicator used to assess network services performance. In order to provide network services quality guarantee, it is essential to ensure the network coverage with a minimum consumed energy to extend the lifespan of the network. In this paper, an Energy-saving Distributed Monitoring based Firefly Algorithm (EDiMoFA) Protocol in wireless sensor networks is proposed to ensure the coverage and to enhance the lifetime of WSNs. In the first phase, the sensing field is divided into smaller virtual regions using the concept divide-and conquer. The EDiMoFA protocol is distributed on every node in the resulted small regions in the second phase. The EDiMoFA protocol mixes three powerful approaches to work efficiently: virtual network division, dynamic distributed virtual region head selection in every region, wireless nodes scheduling-based Firefly Algorithm (FA) is performed by every chosen head of the virtual region. The EDiMoFA protocol is periodic. Every period is composed of two different phases: a steady-state phase and monitoring one. The network information exchange, virtual region head selection, and a wireless sensors scheduling optimization-based FA are achieved in the steady-state phase. In the monitoring phase, the best sensor devices schedule produced by the FA will take the responsibility for monitoring the sensing field in every virtual region. The produced sensors schedule ensures coverage at a low consumed energy cost. Simulation results, which are obtained using the OMNeT++ network simulator, prove that the EDiMoFA protocol can increase the wireless sensors' lifetime and produces enhanced coverage control performances in comparison with some recent existing works in the literature. The EDiMoFA protocol has, respectively, prolonged the network lifetime from 3.2% up to 21.8%, from 10.4% up to 86.4%, from 35.2% up to 68.4%, and from 1.6% up to 6.7% in comparison with the DiLCO, DESK, GAF, and PeCO protocols while maintaining the suitable level of coverage for the sensing field of interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Measuring the mechanical properties of cells and tissues often involves indentation with a sphere or compression between two plates. Different theoretical approaches have been developed to retrieve material parameters (e.g., elastic modulus) or state variables (e.g., pressure) from such experiments. Here, we extend previous theoretical work on indentation of a spherical pressurized shell by a point force to cover indentation by a spherical probe or a plate. We provide formulae that enable the modulus or pressure to be deduced from experimental results with realistic contact geometries, giving different results that are applicable depending on pressure level. We expect our results to be broadly useful when investigating biomechanics or mechanobiology of cells and tissues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hyperpolarized [1-13C]pyruvate enables direct in vivo assessment of real-time liver enzymatic activities by 13C magnetic resonance. However, the technique usually requires the injection of a highly supraphysiological dose of pyruvate. We herein demonstrate that liver metabolism can be measured in vivo with hyperpolarized [1-13C]pyruvate administered at two- to three-fold the basal plasma concentration. The flux through pyruvate dehydrogenase, assessed by 13C-labeling of bicarbonate in the fed condition, was found to be saturated or partially inhibited by supraphysiological doses of hyperpolarized [1-13C]pyruvate. The [13C]bicarbonate signal detected in the liver of fasted rats nearly vanished after treatment with a phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK) inhibitor, indicating that the signal originates from the flux through PEPCK. In addition, the normalized [13C]bicarbonate signal in fasted untreated animals is dose independent across a 10-fold range, highlighting that PEPCK and pyruvate carboxylase are not saturated and that hepatic gluconeogenesis can be directly probed in vivo with hyperpolarized [1-13C]pyruvate. Can et al. demonstrate the ability to use hyperpolarized [1-13C]pyruvate at nearphysiological concentrations to directly assess liver enzymatic activities by 13C magnetic resonance. While in the fed state, the normalized [13C]bicarbonate signal produced from hyperpolarized [1-13C]pyruvate derives from PDH activity, which is saturated at supraphysiological doses, it results from PEPCK in the fasted state and is dose-independent, allowing non-invasive in vivo detection of hepatic gluconeogenesis." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Security and privacy concerns have emerged as critical challenges in the Internet-of-Things (IoT) era. These issues need to be carefully addressed due to the sensitive data within IoT systems. However, some IoT devices have various limitations in terms of energy, memory capacity, and computational resources, which makes them extremely vulnerable to security attacks. Data integrity with source authentication are essential security services for protecting IoT data value and utility. Existing message authentication algorithms (MAAs), which are either based on block ciphers or keyed hash functions, require multiple rounds and complex operations, which leads to unacceptable overhead for resource-limited devices and delay-sensitive applications. Moreover, the high number of IoT connected devices generates a huge amount of data, which challenges even the capacity of powerful network devices to handle the security of such Big Data. As such, the protection of such amounts of generated data calls for lightweight security solutions. In this paper, we propose a lightweight MAA that provides data integrity and source authentication. The proposed solution is based on a dynamic key structure with a single round and simple operations. The used cryptographic primitives (substitution and permutation tables) are dynamic and get updated for each new input message by using specific update primitives. The dynamic structure of the proposed MAA allows for decreasing the required number of rounds to just one, while maintaining a high degree of security. The security tests results show that the proposed keyed hash functions (1) achieve the desired cryptographic properties, (2) are immune against existing attacks and (3) require low overhead in terms of computational and storage resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To determine the prevalence of diabetic retinopathy (DR) and its risk factors in adult type 1 diabetes (T1D) patients Methods: In this cross-sectional study, all T1D patients followed in the University Center for Diabetes and its Complications of Lariboisière Hospital (Paris, France) between January 2017 and February 2019 were included. Ophthalmologic and systemic data were collected from electronic records. The association between DR (and each grade) and associated factors were estimated by univariate and multivariate analyses using logistic regression models. Results: A total of 1464 patients (46.2% of women, mean age: 42.2 ± 15.8 years) were included. The mean hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) was 7.8 ± 1.7% and the mean diabetes duration was 20.5 ± 13.5 years. DR prevalence was 50.1% (47.4–52.6) and the prevalence of mild, moderate, and severe non-proliferative DR and proliferative DR was 19.1%, 9.4%, 3.9%, and 17.6%, respectively. DR was significantly associated with male gender, an older age, former and current smoking status, a higher BMI, the presence of nephropathy and neuropathy, higher HBA1c, and longer diabetes duration. Patients with HbA1c > 10% had an adjusted odds ratio (OR) of 3.25 (1.77–6.01) of having DR compared to patients with HbA1c < 6.5%. Patients with a diabetes duration > 30 years had an adjusted OR of 24.87 (14.82–42.67) higher of having DR compared to patients with a diabetes duration < 10 years. Conclusion: In this study, 50.1% of adult T1D patients had DR and 17.6% had proliferative DR. Diabetes duration and HbA1c were major risk factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mus musculus is the classic mammalian model for biomedical research. Despite global efforts to standardize breeding and experimental procedures, the undefined composition and interindividual diversity of the microbiota of laboratory mice remains a limitation. In an attempt to standardize the gut microbiome in preclinical mouse studies, here we report the development of a simplified mouse microbiota composed of 15 strains from 7 of the 20 most prevalent bacterial families representative of the fecal microbiota of C57BL/6J Specific (and Opportunistic) Pathogen-Free (SPF/SOPF) animals and the derivation of a standardized gnotobiotic mouse model called GM15. GM15 recapitulates extensively the functionalities found in the C57BL/6J SOPF microbiota metagenome, and GM15 animals are phenotypically similar to SOPF or SPF animals in two different facilities. They are also less sensitive to the deleterious effects of post-weaning malnutrition. In this work, we show that the GM15 model provides increased reproducibility and robustness of preclinical studies by limiting the confounding effect of fluctuation in microbiota composition, and offers opportunities for research focused on how the microbiota shapes host physiology in health and disease. Here, the authors develop and characterize a mouse microbiota composed of 15 strains representative of the intestinal microbiota found in C57BL/6J specific opportunistic- and pathogen-free (C57Bl/6J SOPF) mice and derive a new standardized gnotobiotic mouse model, called GM15, which recapitulates the phenotypes of SOPF or SPF animals in different animal facilities with improved reproducibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we report the conception and the use of dialysis-based medical device for the extraction of metals. The medical device is obtained by addition in the dialysate of a functionalized chitosan that can chelate endogenous metals like iron or copper. This water-soluble functionalized chitosan is obtained after controlled reacetylation and grafting of DOTAGA. Due to the high mass of chitosan, the polymer cannot cross through the membrane and the metals are trapped in the dialysate during hemodialysis. Copper extraction has been evaluated in vitro using an hemodialysis protocol. Feasibility study has been performed on healthy sheep showing no acute toxicity througout the entire dialysis procedure and first insights of metallic extraction even on healthy animals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Studies have shown benefits of exercise interventions on preferred and fast gait speed in healthy older adults, but the impact of a personalised rehabilitation program targeting a large cohort of non-disabled older-old adults has rarely been examined. Aims: The purpose was to determine whether personalised intervention-related improvements in gait and mobility performance in older-old adults were dependent on cognitive status and/or history of falls. Methods: Based on a pre-post design, 483 older-old persons (mean age: 83.3 ± 5.1 years) were followed during a personalised rehabilitation program over a period of 7 weeks, with twice-weekly sessions (45 min each). Gait speed in four conditions (preferred, fast, and under two dual-task conditions), static postural sway, Timed Up and Go test, Five Times Sit to Stand test, the ability to rise from the floor, and handgrip strength test were assessed. Results: Using a pre-post analysis of covariance, a significant increase in preferred gait speed (+ 20.1%), fast gait speed (+ 15.8%), and dual-task speed while counting (+ 13.4%) was observed after the rehabilitation, regardless of the baseline cognitive status and fall history. Similar improvements in TUG and maximal handgrip force were observed, with a significant reduction of performance time (-19.5%) or an increase of handgrip strength (+ 6.2%). Discussion: Results suggest the effectiveness of personalised intervention to improve a battery of physical performance measures in older-old adults, even for the frailest participants. Conclusion: Implementing a personalised intervention for targeting the high-risk older-old adults in priority is critical regarding the clinically meaningful change in gait speed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Close-in co-orbital planets (in a 1:1 mean-motion resonance) can experience strong tidal interactions with the central star. Here, we develop an analytical model adapted to the study of the tidal evolution of those systems. We use a Hamiltonian version of the constant time-lag tidal model, which extends the Hamiltonian formalism developed for the point-mass case. We show that co-orbital systems undergoing tidal dissipation favour either the Lagrange or the anti-Lagrange configurations, depending on the system parameters. However, for all range of parameters and initial conditions, both configurations become unstable, although the timescale for the destruction of the system can be larger than the lifetime of the star. We provide an easy-to-use criterion to determine whether an already known close-in exoplanet may have an undetected co-orbital companion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]