Teaching creativity in a technological design context

We want to teach creativity techniques to prospective technological designers in a domainindependent way. To facilitate this, we adopt a format and nomenclature that is close to the terminology used by engineers. Central notions are concepts, attributes and values. A crucial role is played by, what we call, productive attributes: attributes that come with a set of values that can easily be enumerated. In this paper we show how this format supports several creativity techniques and how it allows engineers to explore option spaces in a structured manner. We briefly discuss some practical experiences with our approach

Socioeconomic disparities in diet vary according to migration status among adolescents in Belgium

Little information concerning social disparities in adolescent dietary habits is currently available, especially regarding migration status. The aim of the present study was to estimate socioeconomic disparities in dietary habits of school adolescents from different migration backgrounds. In the 2014 cross-sectional Health Behavior in School-Aged Children survey in Belgium, food consumption was estimated using a self-administrated short food frequency questionnaire. In total, 19,172 school adolescents aged 10-19 years were included in analyses. Multilevel multiple binary and multinomial logistic regressions were performed, stratified by migration status (natives, 2nd- and 1st-generation immigrants). Overall, immigrants more frequently consumed both healthy and unhealthy foods. Indeed, 32.4% of 1st-generation immigrants, 26.5% of 2nd-generation immigrants, and 16.7% of natives consumed fish two days a week. Compared to those having a high family affluence scale (FAS), adolescents with a low FAS were more likely to consume chips and fries once a day (vs. <once a day: Natives aRRR = 1.39 (95%CI: 1.12-1.73); NS in immigrants). Immigrants at schools in Flanders were less likely than those in Brussels to consume sugar-sweetened beverages 2-6 days a week (vs. once a week: Natives aRRR = 1.86 (95%CI: 1.32-2.62); 2nd-generation immigrants aRRR = 1.52 (1.11-2.09); NS in 1st-generation immigrants). The migration gradient observed here underlines a process of acculturation. Narrower socioeconomic disparities in immigrant dietary habits compared with natives suggest that such habits are primarily defined by culture of origin. Nutrition interventions should thus include cultural components of dietary habits

Evidence for a Causal Association Between Human Cytomegalovirus Infection and Chronic Back Pain:A One-Sample Mendelian Randomization Study

Background: Chronic back pain (CBP) is a major cause of disability globally. While its etiology is multifactorial, specific contributing genetic and environmental factors remain to be discovered. Paraspinal muscle fat has been shown in human and preclinical studies to be related to CBP. One potential risk factor is infection by cytomegalovirus (CMV) because CMV is trophic for fat. CMV may reside in the paraspinal muscle adipose tissue. We set out to test the hypothesis that previous CMV infection is linked to CPB using a one-sample Mendelian randomization (MR). Method: The sample comprised 5140 UK Biobank participants with information about CMV serology and CBP status. A one-sample MR based on independent genetic variants predicting CMV positivity was conducted in Northern European participants. To validate the association further, the MR study was repeated using a CMV polygenic risk score (PRS). As a negative control for confounding and spurious causal inference, we used Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) serology, because EBV is another common viral infection but is not trophic for adipose tissue. Results: A genome-wide association study for CMV seropositivity revealed 86 independent SNPs having p-value &lt; (Formula presented.) that have been used to define genetically-predicted categories of CMV infection risk. The CMV predicted categories were found statistically significantly associated with CBP (OR = 1.150; 95% CI: 1.005–1.317, p-value = 0.043). Stronger significant results were obtained using the PRS for CMV seropositivity (OR = 1.290; 95% CI: 1.133–1.469, p-value = 12E-4). No such association was seen between EBV and CBP. Conclusion: Our results provide evidence for a causal relationship between CMV infection and CBP. Further investigation is warranted to get insight into the mechanism by which CMV might contribute to the pathogenesis of CBP.</p

Investigation of PARP-1, PARP-2, and PARG interactomes by affinity-purification mass spectrometry

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerases (PARPs) catalyze the formation of poly(ADP-ribose) (pADPr), a post-translational modification involved in several important biological processes, namely surveillance of genome integrity, cell cycle progression, initiation of the DNA damage response, apoptosis, and regulation of transcription. Poly(ADP-ribose) glycohydrolase (PARG), on the other hand, catabolizes pADPr and thereby accounts for the transient nature of poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation. Our investigation of the interactomes of PARP-1, PARP-2, and PARG by affinity-purification mass spectrometry (AP-MS) aimed, on the one hand, to confirm current knowledge on these interactomes and, on the other hand, to discover new protein partners which could offer insights into PARPs and PARG functions.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>PARP-1, PARP-2, and PARG were immunoprecipitated from human cells, and pulled-down proteins were separated by gel electrophoresis prior to in-gel trypsin digestion. Peptides were identified by tandem mass spectrometry. Our AP-MS experiments resulted in the identifications of 179 interactions, 139 of which are novel interactions. Gene Ontology analysis of the identified protein interactors points to five biological processes in which PARP-1, PARP-2 and PARG may be involved: RNA metabolism for PARP-1, PARP-2 and PARG; DNA repair and apoptosis for PARP-1 and PARP-2; and glycolysis and cell cycle for PARP-1.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study reveals several novel protein partners for PARP-1, PARP-2 and PARG. It provides a global view of the interactomes of these proteins as well as a roadmap to establish the systems biology of poly(ADP-ribose) metabolism.</p

Chronic widespread musculoskeletal pain shares a highly heritable latent pathway with atherosclerosis and arterial stiffness

publishedVersio

2012 Activity Report of the Regional Research Programme on Hadrontherapy for the ETOILE Center

2012 is the penultimate year of financial support by the CPER 2007-2013 for ETOILE's research program, sustained by the PRRH at the University Claude Bernard. As with each edition we make the annual review of the research in this group, so active for over 12 years now. Over the difficulties in the decision-making process for the implementation of the ETOILE Center, towards which all our efforts are focussed, some "themes" (work packages) were strengthened, others have progressed, or have been dropped. This is the case of the eighth theme (technological developments), centered around the technology for rotative beam distribution heads (gantries) and, after being synchronized with the developments of ULICE's WP6, remained so by ceasing its activities, coinciding also with the retirement of its historic leader at IPNL, Marcel Bajard. Topic number 5 ("In silico simulations") has suffered the departure of its leader, Benjamin Ribba, although the work has still been provided by Branka Bernard, a former postdoctoral fellow in Lyon Sud, and now back home in Croatia, still in contract with UCBL for the ULICE project. Aside from these two issues (and the fact that the theme "Medico-economical simulations" is now directly linked to the first one ("Medical Project"), the rest of the teams are growing, as evidenced by the publication statistics at the beginning of this report. This is obviously due to the financial support of our always faithful regional institutions, but also to the synergy that the previous years, the European projects, the arrival of the PRIMES LabEx, and the national France Hadron infrastructure have managed to impulse. The Rhone-Alpes hadron team, which naturally includes the researchers of LPC at Clermont, should also see its influence result in a strong presence in France Hadron's regional node, which is being organized. The future of this regional research is not yet fully guaranteed, especially in the still uncertain context of ETOILE, but the tracks are beginning to emerge to allow past and present efforts translate into a long future that we all want to see established. Each of the researchers in PRRH is aware that 2013 will be (and already is) the year of great challenge : for ETOILE, for the PRRH, for hadron therapy in France, for French hadrontherapy in Europe (after the opening and beginning of treatments in the German [HIT Heidelberg, Marburg], Italian [CNAO, Pavia] and Austrian [MedAustron, Wien Neuerstadt]) centers. Let us meet again in early 2014 for a comprehensive review of the past and a perspective for the future ..

Measurements of the pp → ZZ production cross section and the Z → 4ℓ branching fraction, and constraints on anomalous triple gauge couplings at √s = 13 TeV

Four-lepton production in proton-proton collisions, pp -> (Z/gamma*)(Z/gamma*) -> 4l, where l = e or mu, is studied at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV with the CMS detector at the LHC. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb(-1). The ZZ production cross section, sigma(pp -> ZZ) = 17.2 +/- 0.5 (stat) +/- 0.7 (syst) +/- 0.4 (theo) +/- 0.4 (lumi) pb, measured using events with two opposite-sign, same-flavor lepton pairs produced in the mass region 60 4l) = 4.83(-0.22)(+0.23) (stat)(-0.29)(+0.32) (syst) +/- 0.08 (theo) +/- 0.12(lumi) x 10(-6) for events with a four-lepton invariant mass in the range 80 4GeV for all opposite-sign, same-flavor lepton pairs. The results agree with standard model predictions. The invariant mass distribution of the four-lepton system is used to set limits on anomalous ZZZ and ZZ. couplings at 95% confidence level: -0.0012 < f(4)(Z) < 0.0010, -0.0010 < f(5)(Z) < 0.0013, -0.0012 < f(4)(gamma) < 0.0013, -0.0012 < f(5)(gamma) < 0.0013

Comparative proteome analysis of human epithelial ovarian cancer

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Epithelial ovarian cancer is a devastating disease associated with low survival prognosis mainly because of the lack of early detection markers and the asymptomatic nature of the cancer until late stage. Using two complementary proteomics approaches, a differential protein expression profile was carried out between low and highly transformed epithelial ovarian cancer cell lines which realistically mimic the phenotypic changes observed during evolution of a tumour metastasis. This investigation was aimed at a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying differentiation, proliferation and neoplastic progression of ovarian cancer.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The quantitative profiling of epithelial ovarian cancer model cell lines TOV-81D and TOV-112D generated using iTRAQ analysis and two-dimensional electrophoresis coupled to liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry revealed some proteins with altered expression levels. Several of these proteins have been the object of interest in cancer research but others were unrecognized as differentially expressed in a context of ovarian cancer. Among these, series of proteins involved in transcriptional activity, cellular metabolism, cell adhesion or motility and cytoskeleton organization were identified, suggesting their possible role in the emergence of oncogenic pathways leading to aggressive cellular behavior.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The differential protein expression profile generated by the two proteomics approaches combined to complementary characterizations studies will open the way to more exhaustive and systematic representation of the disease and will provide valuable information that may be helpful to uncover the molecular mechanisms related to epithelial ovarian cancer.</p

Intensity-dependent reflectance modulation of femtosecond laser pulses in GaAs nanocylinders with magnetic resonances

Abstract We experimentally demonstrate modulation of reflectance in periodic arrays of subwavelength gallium arsenide nanocylinders with Mie-type resonances due to absorption saturation and changes in the refractive index of the semiconductor material of metasurface. The intensity-dependent reflectance modulation of up to 30% in the vicinity of the magnetic dipole resonance at a low laser fluence below 200 μ J/cm 2 is shown by I-scan measurements