Arousal responses linked to locus coeruleus noradrenergic (LC-NA) activity affect cognition. However, the mechanisms that control modes of LC-NA activity remain unknown. Here, we reveal a local ...population of GABAergic neurons (LC-GABA) capable of modulating LC-NA activity and arousal. Retrograde tracing shows that inputs to LC-GABA and LC-NA neurons arise from similar regions, though a few regions provide differential inputs to one subtype over the other. Recordings in the locus coeruleus demonstrate two modes of LC-GABA responses whereby spiking is either correlated or broadly anticorrelated with LC-NA responses, reflecting anatomically similar and functionally coincident inputs, or differential and non-coincident inputs, to LC-NA and LC-GABA neurons. Coincident inputs control the gain of LC-NA-mediated arousal responses, whereas non-coincident inputs, such as from the prefrontal cortex to the locus coeruleus, alter global arousal levels. These findings demonstrate distinct modes by which an inhibitory locus coeruleus circuit regulates arousal in the brain.
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•Flow regulation can durably alter the natural trajectories of riparian communities.•Using vegetation resurvey, changes in plant preferences and strategies were tested.•In 40 years, ...abiotic conditions have become less hygrophilic and more sciaphilic.•In response, communities have become more competitive and less stress-tolerant.•Anthropogenic changes have favored more stable environments and more mature stages.
Vegetation resurvey has proven effective in understanding long-term trajectories of plant communities. Combined with information related to ecological preferences and ecological strategies of plants, this framework can provide insight into the dynamics of communities and associated ecological processes over several decades. By comparing old and recent vegetation surveys, we sought to understand how past changes in flow and sediment regimes along a 100-km reach of the Rhône river still influence the structure of riparian plant communities. Specifically, we studied variations in the mean and dispersion values of light, nutrient availability and soil moisture, as well as of competitors, stress tolerators and ruderals, at the community scale over four decades and along connectivity and productivity gradients. Results showed that communities were composed of more hygrophilous and heliophilous species in old surveys and that this decrease in soil moisture and light over time was broadly consistent along environmental gradients. In response to these environmental changes, the ecological strategies of riparian vegetation have evolved into more competitive and less stress-tolerant communities. This was illustrated by the decline of the pioneer species Salix alba, but the increase in several post-pioneer woody species. Given that these changes were observed on almost all the plots studied, irrespective of their position along the connectivity and productivity gradients, our results reflect to some extent an overall evolution of the system towards more mature and closed successional stages. Thus, over a period of 40-years, and probably due to the legacy effects of anthropogenic modifications to flow and sediment regimes that have favored more stable riparian environments, a directional shift of riparian communities towards more advanced successional stages was highlighted. In a context where past and present anthropogenic stressors are accumulating, we infer that these changes in riparian ecosystem properties are probably irreversible and represent a major challenge for restoration.
This paper describes the successes and failures after 4 years of continuous operation of a network of sensors, communicating nodes, and gateways deployed on the Etna Volcano in Sicily since 2019, ...including a period of Etna intense volcanic activity that occurred in 2021 and resulted in over 60 paroxysms. It documents how the installation of gateways at medium altitude allowed for data collection from sensors up to the summit craters. Most of the sensors left on the volcanic edifice during winters and during this period of intense volcanic activity were destroyed, but the whole gateway infrastructure remained fully operational, allowing for a very fruitful new field campaign two years later, in August 2023. Our experience has shown that the best strategy for IoT deployment on very active and/or high-altitude volcanoes like Etna is to permanently install gateways in areas where they are protected both from meteorological and volcanic hazards, that is mainly at the foot of the volcanic edifice, and to deploy temporary sensors and communicating nodes in the more exposed areas during field trips or in the summer season.
Mineral springs in Massif Central, France can be characterized by higher levels of natural radioactivity in comparison to the background. The biota in these waters is constantly under radiation ...exposure mainly from the alpha-emitters of the natural decay chains, with .sup.226 Ra in sediments ranging from 21 Bq/g to 43 Bq/g and .sup.222 Rn activity concentrations in water up to 4600 Bq/L. This study couples for the first time micro- and nanodosimetric approaches to radioecology by combining GATE and Geant4-DNA to assess the dose rates and DNA damages to microorganisms living in these naturally radioactive ecosystems. It focuses on unicellular eukaryotic microalgae (diatoms) which display an exceptional abundance of teratological forms in the most radioactive mineral springs in Auvergne. Using spherical geometries for the microorganisms and based on gamma-spectrometric analyses, we evaluate the impact of the external exposure to 1000 Bq/L .sup.222 Rn dissolved in the water and 30 Bq/g .sup.226 Ra in the sediments. Our results show that the external dose rates for diatoms are significant (9.7 muGy/h) and comparable to the threshold (10 muGy/h) for the protection of the ecosystems suggested by the literature. In a first attempt of simulating the radiation induced DNA damage on this species, the rate of DNA Double Strand Breaks per day is estimated to 1.11E-04. Our study confirms the significant mutational pressure from natural radioactivity to which microbial biodiversity has been exposed since Earth origin in hydrothermal springs.
The locus coeruleus (LC), a small brainstem nucleus, is the primary source of the neuromodulator norepinephrine (NE) in the brain. The LC receives input from widespread brain regions, and projects ...throughout the forebrain, brainstem, cerebellum, and spinal cord. LC neurons release NE to control arousal, but also in the context of a variety of sensory-motor and behavioral functions. Despite its brain-wide effects, much about the role of LC-NE in behavior and the circuits controlling LC activity is unknown. New evidence suggests that the modular input-output organization of the LC could enable transient, task-specific modulation of distinct brain regions. Future work must further assess whether this spatial modularity coincides with functional differences in LC-NE subpopulations acting at specific times, and how such spatiotemporal specificity might influence learned behaviors. Here, we summarize the state of the field and present new ideas on the role of LC-NE in learned behaviors.
We develop a site-bond percolation model, called PERCOVID, in order to describe the time evolution of all epidemics propagating through respiratory tract or by skin contacts in human populations. ...This model is based on a network of social relationships representing interconnected households experiencing governmental non-pharmaceutical interventions. As a very first testing ground, we apply our model to the understanding of the dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic in France from December 2019 up to December 2021. Our model shows the impact of lockdowns and curfews, as well as the influence of the progressive vaccination campaign in order to keep COVID-19 pandemic under the percolation threshold. We illustrate the role played by social interactions by comparing two typical scenarios with low or high strengths of social relationships as compared to France during the first wave in March 2020. We investigate finally the role played by the α and δ variants in the evolution of the epidemic in France till autumn 2021, paying particular attention to the essential role played by the vaccination. Our model predicts that the rise of the epidemic observed in July and August 2021 would not result in a new major epidemic wave in France.
Understanding the spatial dynamics of invasive alien plants is a growing concern for many scientists and land managers hoping to effectively tackle invasions or mitigate their impacts. Consequently, ...there is an urgent need for the development of efficient tools for large scale mapping of invasive plant populations and the monitoring of colonization fronts. Remote sensing using very high resolution satellite and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) imagery is increasingly considered for such purposes. Here, we assessed the potential of several single- and multi-date indices derived from satellite and UAV imagery (i.e., UAV-generated Canopy Height Models—CHMs; and Bi-Temporal Band Ratios—BTBRs) for the detection and mapping of the highly problematic Asian knotweeds (Fallopia japonica; Fallopia × bohemica) in two different landscapes (i.e., open vs. highly heterogeneous areas). The idea was to develop a simple classification procedure using the Random Forest classifier in eCognition, usable in various contexts and requiring little training to be used by non-experts. We also rationalized errors of omission by applying simple “buffer” boundaries around knotweed predictions to know if heterogeneity across multi-date images could lead to unfairly harsh accuracy assessment and, therefore, ill-advised decisions. Although our “crisp” satellite results were rather average, our UAV classifications achieved high detection accuracies. Multi-date spectral indices and CHMs consistently improved classification results of both datasets. To the best of our knowledge, it was the first time that UAV-generated CHMs were used to map invasive plants and their use substantially facilitated knotweed detection in heterogeneous vegetation contexts. Additionally, the “buffer” boundary results showed detection rates often exceeding 90–95% for both satellite and UAV images, suggesting that classical accuracy assessments were overly conservative. Considering these results, it seems that knotweed can be satisfactorily mapped and monitored via remote sensing with moderate time and money investment but that the choice of the most appropriate method will depend on the landscape context and the spatial scale of the invaded area.
Plasticity of cortical responses in vivo involves activity-dependent changes at synapses, but the manner in which different forms of synaptic plasticity act together to create functional changes in ...neurons remains unknown. We found that spike timing-induced receptive field plasticity of visual cortex neurons in mice is anchored by increases in the synaptic strength of identified spines. This is accompanied by a decrease in the strength of adjacent spines on a slower time scale. The locally coordinated potentiation and depression of spines involves prominent AMPA receptor redistribution via targeted expression of the immediate early gene product Arc. Hebbian strengthening of activated synapses and heterosynaptic weakening of adjacent synapses thus cooperatively orchestrate cell-wide plasticity of functional neuronal responses.
•We explore parameters for mechanistically modelling DNA damage in a simple geometry.•Simulations are run using a versatile simulations framework implemented in Geant4-DNA.•We show different physics ...models can double the amount of DNA damage.•We produce a set of parameters that replicates past simulations using Geant4-DNA.
Mechanistic modelling of DNA damage in Monte Carlo simulations is highly sensitive to the parameters that define DNA damage. In this work, we use a simple testing geometry to investigate how different choices of physics models and damage model parameters can change the estimation of DNA damage in a mechanistic DNA damage simulation built in Geant4-DNA. The choice of physics model can lead to variations by up to a factor of two in the yield of physically induced strand breaks, and the parameters that determine scavenging, and physical and chemical single strand break induction can have even larger consequences. Using low energy electrons as primary particles, a variety of parameters are tested in this geometry in order to arrive at a parameter set consistent with past simulation studies. We find that the modelling of scavenging can play an important role in determining results, and speculate that high-scavenging regimes, where only chemical radicals within 1 nm of DNA are simulated, could provide a good means of testing mechanistic DNA simulations.
Understanding SARS-CoV-2 dynamics and transmission is a serious issue. Its propagation needs to be modeled and controlled. The Alsace region in the East of France has been among the first French ...COVID-19 clusters in 2020.
We confront evidence from three independent and retrospective sources: a population-based survey through internet, an analysis of the medical records from hospital emergency care services, and a review of medical biology laboratory data. We also check the role played in virus propagation by a large religious meeting that gathered over 2000 participants from all over France mid-February in Mulhouse.
Our results suggest that SARS-CoV-2 was circulating several weeks before the first officially recognized case in Alsace on 26 February 2020 and the sanitary alert on 3 March 2020. The religious gathering seems to have played a role for secondary dissemination of the epidemic in France, but not in creating the local outbreak.
Our results illustrate how the integration of data coming from multiple sources could help trigger an early alarm in the context of an emerging disease. Good information data systems, able to produce earlier alerts, could have avoided a general lockdown in France.
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