SPHERE (Beuzit et al,. 2019) has now been in operation at the VLT for more than 5 years, demonstrating a high level of performance. SPHERE has produced outstanding results using a variety of ...operating modes, primarily in the field of direct imaging of exoplanetary systems, focusing on exoplanets as point sources and circumstellar disks as extended objects. The achievements obtained thus far with SPHERE (~200 refereed publications) in different areas (exoplanets, disks, solar system, stellar physics...) have motivated a large consortium to propose an even more ambitious set of science cases, and its corresponding technical implementation in the form of an upgrade. The SPHERE+ project capitalizes on the expertise and lessons learned from SPHERE to push high contrast imaging performance to its limits on the VLT 8m-telescope. The scientific program of SPHERE+ described in this document will open a new and compelling scientific window for the upcoming decade in strong synergy with ground-based facilities (VLT/I, ELT, ALMA, and SKA) and space missions (Gaia, JWST, PLATO and WFIRST). While SPHERE has sampled the outer parts of planetary systems beyond a few tens of AU, SPHERE+ will dig into the inner regions around stars to reveal and characterize by mean of spectroscopy the giant planet population down to the snow line. Building on SPHERE's scientific heritage and resounding success, SPHERE+ will be a dedicated survey instrument which will strengthen the leadership of ESO and the European community in the very competitive field of direct imaging of exoplanetary systems. With enhanced capabilities, it will enable an even broader diversity of science cases including the study of the solar system, the birth and death of stars and the exploration of the inner regions of active galactic nuclei.
In 2005, a serological study was carried out on horses in five ecologically contrasted zones of the Senegal River basin (Senegal) to assess West Nile virus (WNV) transmission and investigate ...underlying environmental risk factors. In each study zone, horses were randomly selected and blood samples taken. A land-cover map of the five study areas was built using two satellite ETM+ images. Blood samples were screened by ELISA for anti-WNV IgM and IgG and positive samples were confirmed by seroneutralization. Environmental data were analysed using a principal components analysis. The overall IgG seroprevalence rate was 85% (n=367; 95% CI 0·81–0·89). The proximity to sea water, flooded banks and salted mudflats were identified as protective factors. These environmental components are unfavourable to the presence of Culex mosquitoes suggesting that in Senegal, the distribution of the vector species is more limiting for WNV transmission than for the hosts' distribution.
We studied the temporal variation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) levels in the wild musselMytilus galloprovincialis, water and sediment from 3 sampling sites on the Galician coast of Spain ...between the rias of Arousa and Muros, which were dramatically affected by the large oil spill from the oil tanker ‘Prestige’. The samples were collected periodically, from November 22, 2002, 3 d after the tanker sank, until December 23, 2003. The total hydrocarbon content in the water and sediment samples was determined by fluorescence and expressed as concentration of chrysene. In addition, individual PAHs—analytes recommended by the US Environmental Protection Agency—were analysed in the mussel samples by HPLC using fluorimetric detection. A maximum concentration of 2.07 × 10³ μg equiv. of chrysene l–1was found in the water column at the sampling site of Furnas on November 29, 2002 which decreased to 0.21 μg l–1by October 2003. Likewise, the concentrations of the sum of the 16 PAHs determined in the mussel samples collected at the sampling points were between 2.5 × 10³ and 5.9 × 10³ μg kg–1dry weight in the days immediately following the oil spill and then decreased to 0.13 × 10³ μg kg–1in October 2003. However, no relevant information could be obtained from the PAH content of the sediment samples. A relation between parent PAHs accumulated in the mussels and their molecular weight (MW) has been found to provide an indication of hydrocarbon pollution. A good approximation was obtained when the total PAH content (ΣPAH) was represented versus the ratio of low MW PAHs to high MW PAHs (ΣLPAH:ΣHPAH). When the depuration raterof individual PAHs by the mussels was fitted to an exponential model, 2 different values ofrwere found depending on the PAH concentration. The change from a slow to fast depuration rate was produced when the logarithm of the concentration was 1.0.
In Africa, where growth retardation is highly prevalent, the use of expensive and time-consuming diet assessment techniques is a major obstacle to the collection of dietary data on large samples of ...children. The 24-h recall could be a valuable alternative. Its validity and reproducibility were assessed by comparison with the precise weighing technique.
Intakes of complementary foods of 45 Senegalese weanlings, aged 11-18 months, were estimated with both techniques on the same days.
There was neither a level-dependent nor a systematic bias with the 24-h recall for energy and macronutrient intakes. Mean differences between techniques were < 11% of mean intakes. Rank order correlations (r) ranged from 0.60 to 0.81 for energy and macronutrients. However, the analysis by food group showed that the 24-h recall was less precise than the reference, especially for foods from the household common pot (r ranged from 0.31 to 0.61 for rice, oil and fish). In particular, measuring rice intake as a number of 'handfuls' was not satisfactory. The technique needs further improvement for these foods.
Since it provides unbiased estimates of weanlings' intakes, the 24-h recall can be used for diet surveys of groups of children. Its lack of precision, which could cause attenuation in epidemiological studies, can be compensated by increasing the number of days of survey. This study suggests that a precision equivalent to that of a 1-day weighed survey could be obtained with two 24-h recalls, at a considerably lower cost.
Soils in the Senegal River Delta are naturally sodic and saline due to the presence of fossil salt deposits in the subsoil. Such soils are being used for rice (
Oryza sativa L.), using pump ...irrigation. Before the onset of the growing season, farmers dry till and flush their rice field with fresh irrigation water to wash out salts from the root zone. We tested the potential of plowing under water-saturated conditions (puddling) to increase the amount of salt washed out from the topsoil with surface drainage. In a 1995 field experiment, salt removal using conventional dry soil-tillage and five irrigation-drainage cycles was compared with wet tillage (1, 2 or 3 times puddling) using a hydro-tiller and five irrigation-drainage cycles. Repetitive puddling and surface water drainage was very effective in removing salt from the soil profile. Each puddling, followed by surface drainage removed ca. 4.3
t salt
ha
−1, as opposed to ≈1
t salt
ha
−1 per flushing in the dry tilled plots. However, depth of the puddled layer increased after each puddling, and new salt from the subsoil was, therefore, brought in solution. Puddling had a negative effect on rice seedling establishment, presumably because it induced a lower but homogeneous salt distribution in the puddled layer. We concluded that introduction of the hydro-tiller in the Senegal River Delta as a replacement for conventional dry tillage cannot be recommended. The hydro-tiller may be used to accelerate reclamation of highly saline areas for rice cropping if a constant tillage depth can be maintained, and if the soil is allowed to regain structure after puddling. Before a reclaimed field is direct-seeded, test sowing and monitoring of survival rate for at least a week is recommended.
Introduction
The diet of breastfeeding mothers could bring nurslings into contact with flavor compounds putatively contributing to early sensory programming of the infant. The study investigates ...whether tastants from a customary curry dish consumed by mothers are detectable in their milk afterwards and can be perceived by the infant.
Methods and Results
Sensory evaluation identifies pungency as the dominating taste impression of the curry dish. Its ingredients of chili, pepper, and ginger suggest the flavor compounds capsaicin, piperine, and 6‐gingerol as analytical targets. Breastfeeding mothers are recruited for an intervention trial involving the consumption of the curry dish and subsequent collection of milk samples for flavor compound analysis. Targeted and untargeted mass spectrometric (MS)‐ investigations identify exclusively piperine as an intervention‐derived compound in human milk. However, concentrations are below the human taste threshold.
Conclusion
Piperine from pepper‐containing foods transfers into the mother's milk within 1 h and is delivered to the nursling. Concentrations of 50 and 200 nM of piperine are 70–350 times below the human taste threshold, but TRPV1 (Transient Receptor Potential Vanilloid‐1 ion channel) desensitization through frequent exposure to sub‐taste‐threshold concentrations could contribute to an increased tolerance at a later age.
Exposure to oral impressions during infancy could contribute to the development of increased tolerance or food preference in later life. In a human intervention study, nursing mothers consume a standardized spicy curry dish and collect milk samples afterwards. Targeted and untargeted analysis shows that the pungent compound piperine migrates from the diet into the milk and thus exposes the breastfed nursling to sub‐threshold concentrations over extended time.
The spiking activity of single neurons in the primate motor cortex is correlated with various limb movement parameters, including velocity. Recent findings obtained using local field potentials ...suggest that hand speed may also be encoded in the summed activity of neuronal populations. At this macroscopic level, the motor cortex has also been shown to display synchronized rhythmic activity modulated by motor behavior. Yet whether and how neural oscillations might be related to limb speed control is still poorly understood. Here, we applied magnetoencephalography (MEG) source imaging to the ongoing brain activity in subjects performing a continuous visuomotor (VM) task. We used coherence and phase synchronization to investigate the coupling between the estimated activity throughout the brain and the simultaneously recorded instantaneous hand speed. We found significant phase locking between slow (2- to 5-Hz) oscillatory activity in the contralateral primary motor cortex and time-varying hand speed. In addition, we report long-range task-related coupling between primary motor cortex and multiple brain regions in the same frequency band. The detected large-scale VM network spans several cortical and subcortical areas, including structures of the frontoparietal circuit and the cerebello-thalamo-cortical pathway. These findings suggest a role for slow coherent oscillations in mediating neural representations of hand kinematics in humans and provide further support for the putative role of long-range neural synchronization in large-scale VM integration. Our findings are discussed in the context of corticomotor communication, distributed motor encoding, and possible implications for brain-machine interfaces.
Abstract Post-translational modifications of autoantigens are hypothesized to affect their immunogenicity. We here report that nitration of tyrosine 40 in Myelin Oligodendrocyte Glycoprotein (MOG) ...abrogates its encephalitogenicity both at protein and peptide levels in the experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) model in H2 b C57BL/6 mice. Furthermore, nitrated MOG displays inferior antigen-specific proliferation of 2D2 splenocytes in vitro . Conversely, H2 q DBA1 mice remain fully susceptible to EAE induction using nitrated MOG as the dominant epitope of H2 q mice is unaltered. Molecular modeling analysis the of the MOG35 – 55 /H2-IA b complex and bioinformatics peptide binding predictions indicate that the lack of T cell reactivity towards nitrated MOG can be attributed to the inability of murine H2-IA b to efficiently present the altered peptide ligand of MOG35 – 55 because the nitrated tyrosine 40 cannot be accommodated in the p1 anchor pocket. In conclusion we demonstrate nitration as a relevant determinant affecting T cell recognition of carrier antigen depending on MHC haplotype. Our data have implications for understanding the role of post-translationally modified antigen in autoimmunity.
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