Knowledge Engineering Framework for IoT Robotics Applied to Smart Healthcare and Emotional Well-Being.

Social companion robots are getting more attention to assist elderly people to stay independent at home and to decrease their social isolation. When developing solutions, one remaining challenge is to design the right applications that are usable by elderly people. For this purpose, co-creation methodologies involving multiple stakeholders and a multidisciplinary researcher team (e.g., elderly people, medical professionals, and computer scientists such as roboticists or IoT engineers) are designed within the ACCRA (Agile Co-Creation of Robots for Ageing) project. This paper will address this research question: How can Internet of Robotic Things (IoRT) technology and co-creation methodologies help to design emotional-based robotic applications? This is supported by the ACCRA project that develops advanced social robots to support active and healthy ageing, co-created by various stakeholders such as ageing people and physicians. We demonstra this with three robots, Buddy, ASTRO, and RoboHon, used for daily life, mobility, and conversation. The three robots understand and convey emotions in real-time using the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence technologies (e.g., knowledge-based reasoning).

[Adjuvants: A second wind for antibiotics]. / Adjuvants : un second souffle pour les antibiotiques.

TITLE: Adjuvants : un second souffle pour les antibiotiques. ABSTRACT: Dans le cadre de l'unité d'enseignement « Rédiger en sciences ¼ proposée par Aix-Marseille Université, les étudiants du master 2 microbiologie - en partenariat avec l'Institut de Microbiologie, bioénergies et biotechnologie - ont été confrontés aux exigences de l'écriture scientifique. Trois thématiques leur ont été proposées : la résistance aux antibiotiques, les chaperons moléculaires et la polymérase des coronavirus. Les étudiants ont rédigé une Nouvelle soulignant les résultats majeurs et l'originalité des articles étudiés. Complété par un entretien avec leurs auteurs, l'ensemble offre un éclairage original sur la compréhension du vivant dans le domaine de la microbiologie et de la santé.

Diversification of photoperiodic response patterns in a collection of early-flowering mutants of Arabidopsis.

Many plant species exhibit seasonal variation of flowering time in response to daylength. Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) flowers earlier under long days (LDs) than under short days (SDs). This quantitative response to photoperiod is characterized by two parameters, the critical photoperiod (Pc), below which there is a delay in flowering, and the ceiling photoperiod (Pce), below which there is no further delay. Thus Pc and Pce define the thresholds beyond which maximum LD and SD responses are observed, respectively. We studied the quantitative response to photoperiod in 49 mutants selected for early flowering in SDs. Nine of these mutants exhibited normal Pce and Pc, showing that their precocious phenotype was not linked to abnormal measurement of daylength. However, we observed broad diversification in the patterns of quantitative responses in the other mutants. To identify factors involved in abnormal measurement of daylength, we analyzed the association of these various patterns with morphogenetic and rhythmic defects. A high proportion of mutants with altered Pce exhibited abnormal hypocotyl elongation in the dark and altered circadian periods of leaf movements. This suggested that the circadian clock and negative regulators of photomorphogenesis may contribute to the specification of SD responses. In contrast, altered Pc correlated with abnormal hypocotyl elongation in the light and reduced photosynthetic light-input requirements for bolting. This indicated that LD responses may be specified by positive elements of light signal transduction pathways and by regulators of resource allocation. Furthermore, the frequency of circadian defects in mutants with normal photoperiodic responses suggested that the circadian clock may regulate the number of leaves independently of its effect on daylength perception.

[Radiographic characteristics of lanthanum carbonate absorption]. / Aspects radiographiques de l'absorption digestive du carbonate de lanthane.

Lanthanum carbonate is a new nonaluminium, noncalcium phosphate binder. The drug is well-tolerated its side-effects seem comparable to those of other phosphate binders. The most frequent side-effects are gastrointestinal complications. Cerny [New England Journal of Medecine 355(2006)1160.] and Kunzendorf have recently reported another effect of lanthanum carbonate based on its radiographic characteristics. We report another case of opacification of the intestine with lanthanum carbonate which underlines some difficulties in the use of this new phosphate binder.

Calcium signaling via phospholipase C is essential for proline accumulation upon ionic but not nonionic hyperosmotic stresses in Arabidopsis.

Proline (Pro) accumulation occurs in various plant organisms in response to environmental stresses. To identify the signaling components involved in the regulation of Pro metabolism upon water stress in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), a pharmacological approach was developed. The role of phosphoinositide-specific phospholipases C (PLCs) in Pro accumulation was assessed by the use of the aminosteroid U73122, a commonly employed specific inhibitor of receptor-mediated PLCs. We found that U73122 reduced pyrroline-5-carboxylate synthetase transcript and protein as well as Pro levels in salt-treated seedlings. Inhibition of PLC activity by U73122 was quantified by measuring the decrease of inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (InsP(3)) levels. Moreover, the utilization of diacylglycerol kinase and InsP(3)-gated calcium release receptor inhibitors suggested that InsP(3) or its derivatives are essential for Pro accumulation upon salt stress, involving calcium as a second messenger in ionic stress signaling. This observation was further supported by a partial restoration of Pro accumulation in salt- and U73122-treated seedlings after addition of extracellular calcium, or when calcium homeostasis was perturbed by cyclopiazonic acid, a blocker of plant type IIA calcium pumps. Taken together, our data indicate that PLC-based signaling is a committed step in Pro biosynthesis upon salinity but not in the case of mannitol stress. Calcium acts as a molecular switch to trigger downstream signaling events. These results also demonstrated the specific involvement of lipid signaling pathway to discriminate between ionic and nonionic stresses.

Comparison of environmental and mutational variation in flowering time in Arabidopsis.

Developmental dynamics can be influenced by external and endogenous factors in a more or less analogous manner. To compare the phenotypic effects of (i) environmental [i.e. standard (stPhP) and extended (exPhP) photoperiods] changes in Arabidopsis wild types and (ii) endogenous genetic variation in eav1-eav61 early flowering mutants, two temporal indicators were analysed, the time to bolting (DtB) and the number of leaves (TLN). It was found that DtB and TLN are differentially affected in different environmental and genetic contexts, and some factors of dynamic convergence were identified. The quantitative response to photoperiod is markedly contingent on the phototrophic input for DtB, but less so for TLN. To discriminate the light quantity and period components in DtB, two novel temporal indicators were determined, LtB (photosynthetic time to bolting) and PChron (DtB h(-1) of photoperiod), respectively. The use of PChron results in a coincidence of the variation profiles across stPhP and exPhP, interpreted as a buffering of the trophic response. Unlike natural accessions and later flowering mutants, the variation profiles across stPhP and eav mutants are significantly divergent, pointing to differences in environmental and genetic variation in flowering time. Yet, phenocopy effects and dynamic convergence between wild-type and mutant profiles are detected by using exPhP and the LtB indicator. Additional analyses of the cauline leaf number (CLN) show that the apical and basal boundaries of the primary inflorescence vary co-ordinately. The finding that the correlativity between CLN and TLN changes across photoperiods suggests that different states of intra-connectedness are involved in ontogenetic specification of flowering time and embodied in the primary inflorescence.

Extensive phenotypic variation in early flowering mutants of Arabidopsis.

Flowering time, the major regulatory transition of plant sequential development, is modulated by multiple endogenous and environmental factors. By phenotypic profiling of 80 early flowering mutants of Arabidopsis, we examine how mutational reduction of floral repression is associated with changes in phenotypic plasticity and stability. Flowering time measurements in mutants reveal deviations from the linear relationship between the number of leaves and number of days to bolting described for natural accessions and late flowering mutants. The deviations correspond to relative early bolting and relative late bolting phenotypes. Only a minority of mutants presents no detectable phenotypic variation. Mutants are characterized by a broad release of morphological pleiotropy under short days, with leaf characters being most variable. They also exhibit changes in phenotypic plasticity across environments for florigenic-related responses, including the reaction to light and dark, photoperiodic behavior, and Suc sensitivity. Morphological pleiotropy and plasticity modifications are differentially distributed among mutants, resulting in a large diversity of multiple phenotypic changes. The pleiotropic effects observed may indicate that floral repression defects are linked to global developmental perturbations. This first, to our knowledge, extensive characterization of phenotypic variation in early flowering mutants correlates with the reports that most factors recruited in floral repression at the molecular genetic level correspond to ubiquitous regulators. We discuss the importance of functional ubiquity for floral repression with respect to robustness and flexibility of network biological systems.

Phospholipase D is a negative regulator of proline biosynthesis in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Accumulation of proline has been observed in a large number of plant species in response to drought and salt stresses, suggesting a key role of this amino acid in plant stress adaptation. Upstream components of the proline biosynthesis signal transduction pathways are still poorly defined. We provide experimental evidence that phospholipase D (PLD) is involved in the regulation of proline metabolism in Arabidopsis thaliana. The application of primary butyl alcohols, which divert part of PLD-derived phosphatidic acid by transphosphatidylation, stimulated proline biosynthesis even without hyperosmotic constraints. Moreover, application of primary butyl alcohols enhanced the proline responsiveness of seedlings to mild hyperosmotic stress. These data indicate that some PLDs are negative regulators of proline biosynthesis and that plants present a higher proline responsiveness to hyperosmotic stress when this regulator is abolished. We clearly demonstrate that PLD signaling for proline biosynthesis is similar to RD29A gene expression and different from the abscisic acid-dependent RAB18 gene expression. Our data reveal that PLDs play positive and negative roles in hyperosmotic stress signal transduction in plants, contributing to a precise regulation of ion homeostasis and plant salt tolerance.