[Bridging the gap between the first year of the Health Sciences bachelor's degree and the second year at Ifsi]. / Passerelle entre la première année de licence Sciences pour la santé et la deuxième année d'Ifsi.

Université Paris-Est Créteil offers a gateway to the second year of a nursing training institute after the first year of a Health Sciences degree. Eight students entered the second year of nursing training institute via this gateway. At the end of session 1, seven of them were able to move on to the third year of nursing training institute. The results are encouraging, both in terms of theoretical knowledge acquisition and qualitative feedback from students.

Disease-associated microbiome signature species in the gut.

There is an accumulation of evidence that the human gut microbiota plays a role in maintaining health, and that an altered gut microbiota (sometimes called dysbiosis) associates with risk for many noncommunicable diseases. However, the dynamics of disease-linked bacteria in the gut and other body sites remain unclear. If microbiome alterations prove causative in particular diseases, therapeutic intervention may be possible. Furthermore, microbial signature taxa have been established for the diagnosis of some diseases like colon cancer. We identified 163 disease-enriched and 98 disease-depleted gut microbiome signature taxa at species-level resolution (signature species) from 10 meta-analyses of multiple diseases such as colorectal cancer, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, irritable bowel syndrome, pancreatic cancer, and COVID-19 infection. Eight signature species were enriched and nine were depleted across at least half of the diseases studied. Compared with signature species depleted in diseases, a significantly higher proportion of disease-enriched signature species were identified as extra-intestinal (primarily oral) inhabitants, had been reported in bacteremia cases from the literature, and were aerotolerant anaerobes. These findings highlight the potential involvement of oral microbes, bacteremia isolates, and aerotolerant anaerobes in disease-associated gut microbiome alterations, and they have implications for patient care and disease management.

The impact of place attachment on the environmentally responsible behavior of residents in National Park gateway communities and the mediating effect of environmental commitment: a case of China National Park.

As a member of the national park, the environmentally responsible behavior of the entrance community residents has an important impact on the ecological protection of the national park. However, there are still insufficient studies on the mechanism of influence of community residents' place attachment on environmentally responsible behavior and the role of environmental commitment. Based on the theory of interdependence, this study explored the impact of residents' place attachment in a national park gateway community on environmentally responsible behavior, and examined the mediating role of environmental commitment. We conducted empirical research on Shuiman gateway community of the Hainan Tropical Rainforest China National Park. Through structural equation modeling, the survey of 375 residents yielded the following conclusions: (1) place dependence indirectly affect environmentally responsible behavior via the mediating effect of place identity; (2) both place dependence and place identity have a positive and significant impact on environmental commitment; (3) environmental commitment has a positive and significant impact on environmentally responsible behavior; (4) the mediating effect of environmental commitment on the impact of place dependence on environmentally responsible behavior is significant and "place identity-environmental commitment" also has a significant mediating effect. Finally, three managerial insights were discussed. This study enriches the connotation and application scope of interdependence theory, explains the different roles of place dependence, place identity, and environmental commitment in the study of environmentally responsible behavior, and provides some inspiration for future research and practice of environmentally responsible behavior. It is helpful for community residents to participate in the ecological environment governance of national parks and achieve sustainable development.

Design and Enhancement of a Fog-Enabled Air Quality Monitoring and Prediction System: An Optimized Lightweight Deep Learning Model for a Smart Fog Environmental Gateway.

Effective air quality monitoring and forecasting are essential for safeguarding public health, protecting the environment, and promoting sustainable development in smart cities. Conventional systems are cloud-based, incur high costs, lack accurate Deep Learning (DL)models for multi-step forecasting, and fail to optimize DL models for fog nodes. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a Fog-enabled Air Quality Monitoring and Prediction (FAQMP) system by integrating the Internet of Things (IoT), Fog Computing (FC), Low-Power Wide-Area Networks (LPWANs), and Deep Learning (DL) for improved accuracy and efficiency in monitoring and forecasting air quality levels. The three-layered FAQMP system includes a low-cost Air Quality Monitoring (AQM) node transmitting data via LoRa to the Fog Computing layer and then the cloud layer for complex processing. The Smart Fog Environmental Gateway (SFEG) in the FC layer introduces efficient Fog Intelligence by employing an optimized lightweight DL-based Sequence-to-Sequence (Seq2Seq) Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU) attention model, enabling real-time processing, accurate forecasting, and timely warnings of dangerous AQI levels while optimizing fog resource usage. Initially, the Seq2Seq GRU Attention model, validated for multi-step forecasting, outperformed the state-of-the-art DL methods with an average RMSE of 5.5576, MAE of 3.4975, MAPE of 19.1991%, R2 of 0.6926, and Theil's U1 of 0.1325. This model is then made lightweight and optimized using post-training quantization (PTQ), specifically dynamic range quantization, which reduced the model size to less than a quarter of the original, improved execution time by 81.53% while maintaining forecast accuracy. This optimization enables efficient deployment on resource-constrained fog nodes like SFEG by balancing performance and computational efficiency, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of the FAQMP system through efficient Fog Intelligence. The FAQMP system, supported by the EnviroWeb application, provides real-time AQI updates, forecasts, and alerts, aiding the government in proactively addressing pollution concerns, maintaining air quality standards, and fostering a healthier and more sustainable environment.

Multinational evaluation of anthropometric age (AnthropoAge) as a measure of biological age in the USA, England, Mexico, Costa Rica, and China: a population-based longitudinal study.

OBJECTIVE: To validate AnthropoAge, a new metric of biological age (BA), for prediction of all-cause mortality and age-related outcomes and characterize population-specific aging patterns using multinational longitudinal cohorts. METHODS: We analyzed harmonized multinational data from the Gateway to Global Aging, including studies from the US, England, Mexico, Costa Rica, and China. We used body mass index and waist-to-height ratio to estimate AnthropoAge and AnthropoAgeAccel in participants aged 50-90 years old as proxies of BA and age acceleration, respectively. We compared the predictive capacity for all-cause mortality of AnthropoAge and chronological age (CA) using Cox models, described aging trends in all countries and explored the utility of longitudinal assessments of AnthropoAgeAccel to predict new-onset functional decline and age-related diseases using generalized estimating equations (GEE). FINDINGS: Using data from 55,628 participants, we found AnthropoAge (c-statistic 0.772) outperformed CA (0.76) for prediction of mortality independently of comorbidities, sex, race/ethnicity, education, and lifestyle; this result was replicated in most countries individually except for Mexico. Individuals with accelerated aging had a ~39% higher risk of death, and AnthropoAge also identified trends of faster biological aging per year. In longitudinal analyses, higher AnthropoAgeAccel values were independently predictive of self-reported health deterioration and new-onset deficits in basic/instrumental activities of daily living (ADL/IADL), diabetes, hypertension, cancer, chronic lung disease, myocardial infarction, and stroke. CONCLUSIONS: AnthropoAge is a robust and reproducible BA metric associated with age-related outcomes. Its implementation could facilitate modeling trends of biological aging acceleration in different populations, although recalibration may enhance its utility in underrepresented populations such as individuals from Latin America.

Versatile Cloning Strategy for Efficient Multigene Editing in Arabidopsis.

CRISPR-Cas9 technology has become an essential tool for plant genome editing. Recent advancements have significantly improved the ability to target multiple genes simultaneously within the same genetic background through various strategies. Additionally, there has been significant progress in developing methods for inducible or tissue-specific editing. These advancements offer numerous possibilities for tailored genome modifications. Building upon existing research, we have developed an optimized and modular strategy allowing the targeting of several genes simultaneously in combination with the synchronized expression of the Cas9 endonuclease in the egg cell. This system allows significant editing efficiency while avoiding mosaicism. In addition, the versatile system we propose allows adaptation to inducible and/or tissue-specific edition according to the promoter chosen to drive the expression of the Cas9 gene. Here, we describe a step-by-step protocol for generating the binary vector necessary for establishing Arabidopsis edited lines using a versatile cloning strategy that combines Gateway® and Golden Gate technologies. We describe a versatile system that allows the cloning of as many guides as needed to target DNA, which can be multiplexed into a polycistronic gene and combined in the same construct with sequences for the expression of the Cas9 endonuclease. The expression of Cas9 is controlled by selecting from among a collection of promoters, including constitutive, inducible, ubiquitous, or tissue-specific promoters. Only one vector containing the polycistronic gene (tRNA-sgRNA) needs to be constructed. For that, sgRNA (composed of protospacers chosen to target the gene of interest and sgRNA scaffold) is cloned in tandem with the pre-tRNA sequence. Then, a single recombination reaction is required to assemble the promoter, the zCas9 coding sequence, and the tRNA-gRNA polycistronic gene. Each element is cloned in an entry vector and finally assembled according to the Multisite Gateway® Technology. Here, we detail the process to express zCas9 under the control of egg cell promoter fused to enhancer sequence (EC1.2en-EC1.1p) and to simultaneously target two multiple C2 domains and transmembrane region protein genes (MCTP3 and MCTP4, respectively at3g57880 and at1g51570), using one or two sgRNA per gene. Key features • A simple method for Arabidopsis edited lines establishment using CRISPR-Cas9 technology • Versatile cloning strategy combining various technologies for convenient cloning (Gateway®, Golden Gate) • Multigene targeting with high efficiency.

Musculoskeletal perturbations of deep space radiation: Assessment using a Gateway MRI.

Human space exploration expansion from Low-Earth Orbit to deep space is accelerating the need to monitor and address the known health concerns related to deep space radiation. The human musculoskeletal system is vulnerable to these risks (alongside microgravity) and its health reflects the well-being of other body systems. Multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an important approach for assessing temporal physiological changes in the musculoskeletal system. We propose that ultra-low-field MRI provides an optimal low Size Weight and Power (SwaP) solution for non-invasively monitoring muscle and bone changes on the planned Gateway lunar space station. Our proposed ultra-low-field Gateway MRI meets low SWaP design specifications mandated by limited room in the lunar space station. This review summarizes the current state of our knowledge on musculoskeletal consequences of spaceflight, especially with respect to radiation, and then elaborates how MRI can be used to monitor the deleterious effects of space travel and the efficacy of putative countermeasures. We argue that an ultra-low-field MRI in cis-lunar space on the Gateway can provide valuable research and medical insights into the effects of deep space radiation exposure on astronauts. Such an MRI would also allow the development of imaging protocols that would facilitate Earth-bound teams to monitor space personnel musculoskeletal changes during future interplanetary spaceflight. It will especially have a role in monitoring countermeasures, such as the use of melanin, in protecting space explorers.

Whole-Genome Deep Sequencing of the Healthy Adult Nasal Microbiome.

This study aimed to determine shifts in microbial populations regarding richness and diversity from the daily use of a popular over-the-counter nasal spray. In addition, the finding of nasal commensal bacterial species that overlap with the oral microbiome may prove to be potential probiotics for the "gateway microbiomes". Nasal swab samples were obtained before and after using the most popular over-the-counter (OTC) nasal spray in 10 participants aged 18-48. All participants were healthy volunteers with no significant medical histories. The participants were randomly assigned a number by randomizing software and consisted of five men and five women. The sampling consisted of placing a nasal swab atraumatically into the nasal cavity. The samples were preserved and sent to Northwestern University Sequencing Center for whole-genome deep sequencing. After 21 days of OTC nasal spray use twice daily, the participants returned for further nasal microbiome sampling. The microbial analysis included all bacteria, archaea, viruses, molds, and yeasts via deep sequencing for species analysis. The Northwestern University Sequencing Center utilized artificial intelligence analysis to determine shifts in species and strains following nasal spray use that resulted in changes in diversity and richness.

RADAR-IoT: An Open-Source, Interoperable, and Extensible IoT Gateway Framework for Health Research.

IoT sensors offer a wide range of sensing capabilities, many of which have potential health applications. Existing solutions for IoT in healthcare have notable limitations, such as closed-source, limited I/O protocols, limited cloud platform support, and missing specific functionality for health use cases. Developing an open-source internet of things (IoT) gateway solution that addresses these limitations and provides reliability, broad applicability, and utility is highly desirable. Combining a wide range of sensor data streams from IoT devices with ambulatory mHealth data would open up the potential to provide a detailed 360-degree view of the relationship between patient physiology, behavior, and environment. We have developed RADAR-IoT as an open-source IoT gateway framework, to harness this potential. It aims to connect multiple IoT devices at the edge, perform limited on-device data processing and analysis, and integrate with cloud-based mobile health platforms, such as RADAR-base, enabling real-time data processing. We also present a proof-of-concept data collection from this framework, using prototype hardware in two locations. The RADAR-IoT framework, combined with the RADAR-base mHealth platform, provides a comprehensive view of a user's health and environment by integrating static IoT sensors and wearable devices. Despite its current limitations, it offers a promising open-source solution for health research, with potential applications in managing infection control, monitoring chronic pulmonary disorders, and assisting patients with impaired motor control or cognitive ability.

Development of pENTR-NeCo-lacZα vectors for the preparation of negative control constructs in Gateway cloning.

Gateway cloning is a useful technology for the simple and reliable preparation of various construct in many organisms. However, there is a problem regarding the negative control construct in the Gateway cloning system. In this study, we developed the pENTR-NeCo-lacZα vector system to create an empty vector that can be used as a negative control construct in Gateway cloning.

The "Gateway" hypothesis: evaluation of evidence and alternative explanations.

BACKGROUND: Electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) offer a substantial harm reduction opportunity for adults who smoke and are unlikely to quit. However, a major concern about ENDS is their use by non-smoking youth, and particularly whether ENDS are acting as a "gateway" that leads youth to later start smoking cigarettes. However, evidence for the gateway hypothesis can be interpreted in alternative ways, e.g. that youth who have certain characteristics were already predisposed to use both ENDS and cigarettes ("common liability" explanation). AIMS: This commentary provides an evaluation of the gateway hypothesis that is accessible by a lay audience. This paper first reviews and evaluates the evidence interpreted as supporting the gateway hypothesis. Important alternative explanations (i.e., common liability) are discussed, as are different types of evidence (i.e., population-level trends) that can help differentiate between these competing explanations. OVERVIEW: Evidence for the gateway hypothesis is based on the finding that youth who use ENDS are more likely to also smoke cigarettes. However, this evidence suffers from an important flaw: these studies fail to fully account for some youths' pre-existing tendency to use products containing nicotine, and inappropriately interpret the results as ENDS use causing some youth to smoke. Common liability studies suggest that ENDS use does not, in and of itself, directly cause youth to later smoke cigarettes, beyond their pre-existing tendency to use products containing nicotine. Population-level trends show that youth cigarette smoking declined faster after ENDS use became common, which contradicts the central prediction of the gateway hypothesis (i.e. that youth smoking would be more common following ENDS uptake, than otherwise be expected). CONCLUSION: Evidence offered in support of the gateway hypothesis does not establish that ENDS use causes youth to also smoke cigarettes. Instead, this evidence is better interpreted as resulting from a common liability to use both ENDS and cigarettes. Population-level trends are inconsistent with the gateway hypothesis, and instead are consistent with (but do not prove) ENDS displacing cigarettes. Policies based on misinterpreting a causal gateway effect may be ineffective at best, and risk the negative unintended consequence of increased cigarette smoking.

Examining the Gateway Hypothesis and Mapping Substance Use Pathways on Social Media: Machine Learning Approach.

BACKGROUND: Substance misuse presents significant global public health challenges. Understanding transitions between substance types and the timing of shifts to polysubstance use is vital to developing effective prevention and recovery strategies. The gateway hypothesis suggests that high-risk substance use is preceded by lower-risk substance use. However, the source of this correlation is hotly contested. While some claim that low-risk substance use causes subsequent, riskier substance use, most people using low-risk substances also do not escalate to higher-risk substances. Social media data hold the potential to shed light on the factors contributing to substance use transitions. OBJECTIVE: By leveraging social media data, our study aimed to gain a better understanding of substance use pathways. By identifying and analyzing the transitions of individuals between different risk levels of substance use, our goal was to find specific linguistic cues in individuals' social media posts that could indicate escalating or de-escalating patterns in substance use. METHODS: We conducted a large-scale analysis using data from Reddit, collected between 2015 and 2019, consisting of over 2.29 million posts and approximately 29.37 million comments by around 1.4 million users from subreddits. These data, derived from substance use subreddits, facilitated the creation of a risk transition data set reflecting the substance use behaviors of over 1.4 million users. We deployed deep learning and machine learning techniques to predict the escalation or de-escalation transitions in risk levels, based on initial transition phases documented in posts and comments. We conducted a linguistic analysis to analyze the language patterns associated with transitions in substance use, emphasizing the role of n-gram features in predicting future risk trajectories. RESULTS: Our results showed promise in predicting the escalation or de-escalation transition in risk levels, based on the historical data of Reddit users created on initial transition phases among drug-related subreddits, with an accuracy of 78.48% and an F1-score of 79.20%. We highlighted the vital predictive features, such as specific substance names and tools indicative of future risk escalations. Our linguistic analysis showed that terms linked with harm reduction strategies were instrumental in signaling de-escalation, whereas descriptors of frequent substance use were characteristic of escalating transitions. CONCLUSIONS: This study sheds light on the complexities surrounding the gateway hypothesis of substance use through an examination of web-based behavior on Reddit. While certain findings validate the hypothesis, indicating a progression from lower-risk substances such as marijuana to higher-risk ones, a significant number of individuals did not show this transition. The research underscores the potential of using machine learning with social media analysis to predict substance use transitions. Our results point toward future directions for leveraging social media data in substance use research, underlining the importance of continued exploration before suggesting direct implications for interventions.

Exploring the opinions and potential impact of unflavoured e-liquid on smoking cessation among people who smoke and smoking relapse among people who previously smoked and now use e-cigarettes: findings from a UK-based mixed methods study.

BACKGROUND: Although electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) appear to be effective in helping people who smoke to stop smoking, concerns about use of e-cigarettes among young people have led to restrictions on non-tobacco flavoured e-liquids in some countries and some US states. These restrictions could reduce the appeal of these products to non-smoking youth but could have negative consequences for people who smoke or use e-cigarettes. METHODS: In this mixed methods study, we recruited UK adults who smoked or used to smoke and subsequently vaped to explore their opinions of unflavoured e-liquids and their beliefs about how they would be impacted by hypothetical e-liquid flavour restrictions. Participants trialled an unflavoured e-liquid instead of their usual nicotine product for four hours and completed a survey and an online interview. RESULTS: Using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis and graphically presented data, we found differences in participants' opinions of unflavoured e-liquid. If only unflavoured, tobacco flavoured, and menthol flavoured e-liquids remained on the UK market, some people who smoke or vape may be unaffected, but some may relapse to smoking or continue smoking. Despite most wanting to prevent young people from initiating vaping, participants had varying opinions on whether flavour restrictions would be an effective method. CONCLUSIONS: The findings highlight that people who smoke and vape could be impacted by flavour restrictions in a range of ways, some of which could have a potential adverse impact on harm reduction efforts in the UK (e.g., by making smoking more appealing than vaping).

Industrial Internet of Things Gateway with OPC UA Based on Sitara AM335X with ModbusE Acquisition Cycle Performance Analysis.

This article presents the hardware and software architectures used to implement the Modbus Extension (ModbusE) IIoT gateway, the performance of the acquisition cycle at the PRU real-time programmable core level, the acquisition cycle communication flow-dispatcher-OPC UA server (Linux)-OPC UA client (Windows) as well as the performance analysis of data communications between the IIoT ModbusE gateway and the OPC UA client (Windows). In order to be able to implement both the ModbusE acquisition cycle and the OPC UA server, the BeagleBone Black Board was chosen as the hardware platform. This board uses the Sitara AM335x processor (Texas Instruments (TI), Dallas, TX, USA) from Texas Instruments. Thus, the acquisition cycle was implemented on the PRU0 real-time core, and the OPC UA server, running under the Linux operating system, was implemented on the ARM Cortex A8 processor. From the analysis of the communication speed of the messages between the OPC UA client and the ModbusE servers, it was found that the ModbusE acquisition cycle speed was higher than the acquisition speed of the OPC UA client.

Transitions between smoking and vaping: Evidence (or lack thereof) on potential differences by gender and sex.

OBJECTIVE: To synthesize existing evidence on possible differential effects by sex and gender from two Cochrane reviews evaluating vaping and smoking transitions. METHODS: We screened included studies from two Cochrane reviews for studies reporting smoking outcomes based on gender or sex. The first review examines the effects of using e-cigarettes to help people quit smoking and includes randomized controlled trials and uncontrolled intervention studies published to July 2023. The second review aims to assess the evidence on the relationship between the use and availability of e-cigarettes and subsequent smoking in young people (aged 29 and younger) and includes quasi-experimental and cohort studies published to April 2023. Due to the paucity and heterogeneity of data, we report results narratively. RESULTS: 10 of 161 studies included in the two relevant reviews met our criteria. Only five reported analyzing whether observed effects or associations varied based on sex and/or gender. A further three provided relevant descriptive information, and two did not report overall outcomes regarding vaping and smoking transitions but did investigate whether these differed by sex/gender. Synthesized data were largely inconclusive, but there was some suggestion that vaping was more strongly associated with subsequent smoking in young males than females. No studies reported data on nonbinary participants. CONCLUSIONS: Despite plausible reasons why sex and gender may be moderators of vaping and smoking transitions, there is little evidence investigating this. Future studies of vaping and smoking transitions should conduct and report analyses investigating potential differences based on sex and gender.

The gateway reflex regulates tissue-specific autoimmune diseases.

The dynamic interaction and movement of substances and cells between the central nervous system (CNS) and peripheral organs are meticulously controlled by a specialized vascular structure, the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Experimental and clinical research has shown that disruptions in the BBB are characteristic of various neuroinflammatory disorders, including multiple sclerosis. We have been elucidating a mechanism termed the "gateway reflex" that details the entry of immune cells, notably autoreactive T cells, into the CNS at the onset of such diseases. This process is initiated through local neural responses to a range of environmental stimuli, such as gravity, electricity, pain, stress, light, and joint inflammation. These stimuli specifically activate neural pathways to open gateways at targeted blood vessels for blood immune cell entry. The gateway reflex is pivotal in managing tissue-specific inflammatory diseases, and its improper activation is linked to disease progression. In this review, we present a comprehensive examination of the gateway reflex mechanism.

Improving Software Defined Network controllers in a multi-vendor environment.

Software Defined Networking (SDN) is an emerging networking paradigm with the potential to foster innovation through programmable networks. SDNs are characterized by the separation of control and data planes where, in a logically centralized controller, it's possible to make routing decisions on behalf of forwarding elements. For this, there are different protocols proposed and used like Open Flow, Forward and Control Element Separation (FORCES), Path Computation Element Protocol (PCEP), Network Configuration Protocol (NETCONF), and Interface to Routing System (IRS), among others. Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is one such protocol that enables the network programmability promised by SDNs. The controllers used in BGP as control plane protocols leverage RESTCONF (RFC 8040) as management plane protocol to interact with physical routers, switches, and network service firewalls. Therefore, the aim of this work is to improve the performance of SDN controllers using BGP enabling a multi-vendor environment without requiring infrastructure upgrade showcasing how interoperability can be achieved. The proposed system is implemented using OpenDaylight controllers. The performance of the prototype is evaluated using Latency, Throughput, CPU consumption, and TTL (Time to Live). Based on the simulation results it is observed that the SDN controllers that use BGP show average throughput of 49.6 Gbps, maximum latency of 7 µs, and average CPU consumption 89% and maximum TTL value of 600 msec. The overall performance of the proposed system shows better results when compared with previous works.

2 in 1 Vectors Improve in Planta BiFC and FRET Analysis.

Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) play vital roles in all subcellular processes, and a number of tools have been developed for their detection and analysis. Each method has its unique set of benefits and drawbacks that need to be considered prior application. In fact, researchers are spoilt for choice when it comes to deciding which method to use for the initial detection of a PPI and which to corroborate the findings. With constant improvements in microscope development, the possibilities of techniques to study PPIs in vivo, and in real time, are continuously enhanced and expanded. Here, we describe three common approaches, their recent improvements incorporating a 2-in-1 cloning approach, and their application in plant cell biology: ratiometric bimolecular fluorescence complementation (rBiFC), FRET acceptor photobleaching (FRET-AB), and fluorescent lifetime imaging (FRET-FLIM), using Nicotiana benthamiana leaves and Arabidopsis thaliana cell culture protoplasts as transient expression systems.