La coulée sous pression à Creusot-Loire Industrie : comment déterminer la pertinence d’un investissement ?

Le procédé de coulée sous pression a été développé par AMSTED Chicago. En 1965, les premiers contacts sont établis par cette entreprise avec les métallurgistes du Creusot, à un moment où Creusot-Loire, grâce à ses ateliers et à ses bureaux d’étude, concevait et produisait de nombreux équipements destinés aux industries français, mais aussi pour les marchés à l’exportation. Mais ce n’est que bien plus tard que Creusot-Loire Industrie (CLI) réalise les investissements nécessaires à la mise en place de ce procédé. Aujourd’hui désinvestie, l’installation de coulée sous pression des brames possédait plusieurs atouts pour une aciérie de la taille de celle du Creusot. La mise au mille est meilleure qu’avec la voie lingots. L’investissement est moindre que dans le cas de la coulée continue. Par ailleurs, le procédé permettait d’obtenir des brames de 400 mm d’épaisseur tout en répondant aux caractéristiques des nuances d’acier des années 1980.The die-casting process was developed by AMSTED Chicago. In 1965, the first contacts were established by this company with the metallurgists of Le Creusot, at a time when Creusot-Loire, thanks to its workshops and design offices, was designing and producing numerous pieces of equipment for French industries, but also for export. But it was only much later that Creusot-Loire Industrie (CLI) made the necessary investments to set up this process. Now disinvested, the slab die-casting installation had several advantages for a steelworks the size of Le Creusot. The yield is better than with the ingot process. The investment is lower than in the case of continuous casting. In addition, the process made it possible to obtain 400 mm thick slabs while meeting the characteristics of the steel grades of the 1980s

Share and protect our health data: an evidence based approach to rare disease patients’ perspectives on data sharing and data protection - Quantitative survey and recommendations

The needs and benefits of sharing health data to advance scientific research and improve clinical benefits have been well documented in recent years, specifically in the field of rare diseases where knowledge and expertise are limited and patient populations are geographically dispersed. Understanding what patients want and need from rare disease research and data sharing is important to ensure their participation and engagement in the process, and to ensure that these wishes and needs are embedded within research design. EURORDIS-Rare Diseases Europe regularly surveys the rare disease community to identify its perspectives and needs on a number of issues in order to represent rare disease patients and be their voice within European and International initiatives and policy developments. Here, we present key findings from a large quantitative survey conducted with patients with rare diseases and family members as part of a continuous evidence-based advocacy process developed at EURORDIS. The aim of this survey was to explore patient and family perspectives on data sharing and data protection in research and healthcare settings and develop relevant recommendations to support shaping of future data sharing initiatives in rare disease research. This survey, translated into 23 languages, was carried out via the Rare Barometer Programme and was designed to be accessible to a diverse population with a wide range of education backgrounds. It was widely disseminated via patient organisations worldwide to ensure that a wide range of voices and experiences were represented. Main findings Rare disease patients, regardless of the severity of their disease and their socio-demographic profile, are clearly supportive of data sharing to foster research and improve healthcare. However, rare disease patients’ willingness to share their data does come with specific requirements in order to respect their privacy, choices and needs for information regarding the use of their data. Conclusions To ensure sustainability and success of international data sharing initiatives in health and research for rare diseases, appropriate legislations need to be implemented and multi-stakeholder efforts need to be pursued to foster cultural and technological changes enabling the systematic integration of patients’ preferences regarding sharing of their own health data

Vertical farming goes dynamic: optimizing resource use efficiency, product quality, and energy costs

Vertical farming is considered to be a key enabler for transforming agrifood systems, especially in or nearby urbanized areas. Vertical farming systems (VFS) are advanced indoor cropping systems that allow for highly intensified and standardized plant production. The close control of environmental parameters makes crop production stable and repeatable, ensuring year-round uniform product quality and quantity irrespective of location. However, due to continuous changes in plant physiology and development, as well as frequent changes in electricity prices, the optimum conditions for crop production and its associated costs can change within days or even minutes. This makes it beneficial to dynamically adjust setpoints for light (intensity, spectrum, pattern, and daylength), CO2, temperature, humidity, air flow, and water and nutrient availability. In this review, we highlight the beneficial effects that dynamic growth conditions can have on key plant processes, including improvements in photosynthetic gas exchange, transpiration, organ growth, development, light interception, flowering, and product quality. Our novel findings based on modeling and experimentation demonstrate that a dynamic daily light intensity pattern that responds to frequent changes in electricity prices can save costs without reducing biomass. Further, we argue that a smart, dynamic VFS climate management requires feedback mechanisms: several mobile and immobile sensors could work in combination to continuously monitor the crop, generating data that feeds into crop growth models, which, in turn, generate climate setpoints. In addition, we posit that breeding for the VFS environment is at a very early stage and highlight traits for breeding for this specialized environment. We envision a continuous feedback loop between dynamic crop management, crop monitoring, and trait selection for genotypes that are specialized for these conditions

Psychological and self-management support for people with vasculitis or connective tissue diseases: UK health professionals' perspectives

© The Author(s) 2020. Objectives. CTD and systemic vasculitis impact on health-related quality of life. Treatment can be complex, involving multiple medical specialities. The aim of this study was to investigate psychological and self-management support for patients in secondary care. Methods. An online survey of health professionals in the UK, including 45 multiple-choice and freetext questions, was analysed descriptively. Free-text survey responses were analysed thematically to identify health professionals' perceptions of best practice and unmet needs. Results. The online survey included 120 health professionals (34% specialist nurses, 51% doctors and 12% allied health professionals), predominantly working in rheumatology (52.9%) and nephrology (21.5%) departments. Access to self-management programmes or clinics for people with CTD or vasculitis was available in 23% of rheumatology and 8% of nephrology departments. In response to 'How well is your team providing self-management support to people with CTD or vasculitis?', 38% of respondents reported 'not very well' or 'not well at all'. Direct access to psychological support was available in 76.9% of nephrology and 32.8% of rheumatology departments. More than 80% of respondents would like additional training. Key themes from the qualitative data (free-text survey responses) included the importance of: Dedicated psychological support and self-management programmes for people with CTD and vasculitis, a whole-team approach (specialist teams empowering people to manage their own care), staff training (e.g. brief psychological interventions) and signposting to resources, including patient charities. Conclusion. People with CTD and vasculitis have complex needs, and improvements in selfmanagement and psychological support are required in UK rheumatology and nephrology departments

How far-red light enrichment modulates tomato resistance towards Botrytis cinerea

Light is essential for plant growth. Red and blue light are the major wavelength which are absorbed by leaf tissue and used for photosynthesis while others, i.e yellow and green light are reflected giving the plants their natural color. Far-red light (FR), which is invisible to the human eye, is transmitted by green plant tissues and constitute an important signal for plants to sense neighboring vegetation. At high planting density, the absorption of red light and the reflection of far-red light lead to a decrease in the ratio between red and far-red light (R:FR). Upon detection of a low R:FR, plants elongate and move their leaves upwards (hyponasty) in order to outcompete their neighbors and capture more light above the canopy. These changes in plant architecture called “shade avoidance” have been shown to enhance plant susceptibility to herbivores and pathogens including B. cinerea. In this thesis, we investigated how low R:FR can manipulate defense responses of tomato plants towards B. cinerea. The addition of FR LEDs to a white light background or a red and blue light background could change tomato morphology leading to stem and petiole elongation; typical traits of shade avoidance. The addition of FR also led to an increase in susceptibility to B. cinerea when perceived before the inoculation occurred. Through an RNA sequencing analysis, we investigated how FR exposure interferes with the plant’s capacity to defend itself against B. cinerea following a 30-hour time course. We found that the increased susceptibility caused by FR-enrichment relied on a delay in pathogen detection and in plant defense activation compared to control conditions. Plant defense against B. cinerea are known to be mainly based on the production of plant defense hormones, namely jasmonic acid and ethylene. Our data revealed that FR delayed the induction of a set of six genes known to be regulated by those two hormones. These genes, known as PROTEINASE INHIBITOR (PI) genes. We validated that jasmonic acid and ethylene are both needed for the full induction of PI which did not occur after FR exposure. The lack of PI induction in FR-treated plants could point at a decrease in hormone sensitivity, which could result in a delay in plant defense activation against B. cinerea. The RNA sequencing results also hinted at altered carbohydrate metabolism and we hypothesized that FR might cause changes in the sugar status of the plant indirectly promoting the growth of the fungus in plant tissue. Plants experiencing FR light accumulate more monosaccharides (glucose and fructose) than plants in control conditions which was correlated with a faster development of the fungus. This sugar-mediated susceptibility was also observed when only a single leaflet was exposed to FR. Soluble sugar levels were increased at the site of illumination but also in older leaves (located below) which did not receive FR themselves. Interestingly, wherever an increase in soluble sugars was observed, also an increase in plant susceptibility was found, suggesting that soluble sugars play a role in the FR-induced susceptibility in tomato