Combining different points of view on plant descriptions: mapping agricultural plant roles and biological taxa.

This article describes our study on the alignment of two complementary knowledge graphs useful in agriculture: the thesaurus of cultivated plants in France named French Crop Usage (FCU) and the French national taxonomic repository TAXREF for fauna, flora, and fungi. FCU describes the usages of plants in agriculture: "tomatoes" are crops used for human food, and "grapevines" are crops used for human beverage. TAXREF describes biological taxa and associated scientific names: for example, a tomato species may be "Solanum lycopersicum" or a grapevine species may be "Vitis vinifera". Both knowledge graphs contain vernacular names of plants but those names are ambiguous. Thus, a group of agricultural experts produced some mappings from FCU crops to TAXREF taxa. Moreover, new RDF properties have been defined to declare those new types of mapping relations between plant descriptions. The metadata for the mappings and the mapping set are encoded with the Simple Standard for Sharing Ontological Mappings (SSSOM), a new model which, among other qualities, offers means to report on provenance of particular interest for this study. The produced mappings are available for download in Recherche Data Gouv, the federated national platform for research data in France.

The CI MuMuFe - A New MMN Paradigm for Measuring Music Discrimination in Electric Hearing.

Cochlear implants (CIs) allow good perception of speech while music listening is unsatisfactory, leading to reduced music enjoyment. Hence, a number of ongoing efforts aim to improve music perception with a CI. Regardless of the nature of these efforts, effect measurements must be valid and reliable. While auditory skills are typically examined by behavioral methods, recording of the mismatch negativity (MMN) response, using electroencephalography (EEG), has recently been applied successfully as a supplementary objective measure. Eleven adult CI users and 14 normally hearing (NH) controls took part in the present study. To measure their detailed discrimination of fundamental features of music we applied a new multifeature MMN-paradigm which presented four music deviants at four levels of magnitude, incorporating a novel "no-standard" approach to be tested with CI users for the first time. A supplementary test measured behavioral discrimination of the same deviants and levels. The MMN-paradigm elicited significant MMN responses to all levels of deviants in both groups. Furthermore, the CI-users' MMN amplitudes and latencies were not significantly different from those of NH controls. Both groups showed MMN strength that was in overall alignment with the deviation magnitude. In CI users, however, discrimination of pitch levels remained undifferentiated. On average, CI users' behavioral performance was significantly below that of the NH group, mainly due to poor pitch discrimination. Although no significant effects were found, CI users' behavioral results tended to be in accordance with deviation magnitude, most prominently manifested in discrimination of the rhythm deviant. In summary, the study indicates that CI users may be able to discriminate subtle changes in basic musical features both in terms of automatic neural responses and of attended behavioral detection. Despite high complexity, the new CI MuMuFe paradigm and the "no-standard" approach provided reliable results, suggesting that it may serve as a relevant tool in future CI research. For clinical use, future studies should investigate the possibility of applying the paradigm with the purpose of assessing discrimination skills not only at the group level but also at the individual level.

Comparison of threshold estimation in infants with hearing loss or normal hearing using auditory steady-state response evoked by narrow band CE-chirps and auditory brainstem response evoked by tone pips.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to compare air-conduction thresholds obtained with ASSR evoked by narrow band (NB) CE-chirps and ABR evoked by tone pips (tpABR) in infants with various degrees of hearing loss. DESIGN: Thresholds were measured at 500, 1000, 2000 and 4000 Hz. Data on each participant were collected at the same day. STUDY SAMPLE: Sixty-seven infants aged 4 d to 22 months (median age = 96 days), resulting in 57, 52, 87 and 56 ears for 500, 1000, 2000 and 4000 Hz, respectively. RESULTS: Statistical analysis was performed for ears with hearing loss (HL) and showed a very strong correlation between tpABR and ASSR evoked by NB CE-chirps: 0.90 (n = 28), 0.90 (n = 28), 0.96 (n = 42) and 0.95 (n = 30) for 500, 1000, 2000 and 4000 Hz, respectively. At these frequencies, the mean difference between tpABR and ASSR was -3.6 dB (± 7.0), -5.2 dB (± 7.3), -3.9 dB (± 5.2) and -5.2 dB (± 4.7). Linear regression analysis indicated that the relationship was not influenced by the degree of hearing loss. CONCLUSION: We propose that dB nHL to dB eHL correction values for ASSR evoked by NB CE-chirps should be 5 dB lower than values used for tpABR.

Progressively Recovering Auditory Brainstem Response in a Cochlear-implanted Child After Meningitis: A Case Report.

OBJECTIVE: I describe the case of an 8-year-old boy who developed meningitis several years after implantation and how electrically evoked auditory brainstem response (EABR) is used in the assessment of his hearing performance after recovery. PATIENT: An 8-year-old boy stopped using both his cochlear implants because of streptococcal meningitis accompanied with acute otitis media on the left ear. After recovery his hearing was quickly restored on the right ear, but he complained of not hearing well on the left ear. INTERVENTION: Diagnostic. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: EABRs were measured on both ears 2 months after meningitis offset. Testing was repeated on the left ear 12 and 18 months after the first session. Responses were evoked by apical, mid-array, and basal electrodes. RESULTS: At initial testing EABRs were normal on the right ear. They were absent on the left ear for the apical electrode and present but with delayed wave latencies for the middle and basal electrodes. At the second and third sessions, EABRs were present for all electrodes and wave eV latencies were shorter. The stimulus level needed to evoke an EABR was considerably reduced on all electrodes from the first to the third session. There was good agreement between these findings and the subjective feedback from the patient. CONCLUSION: EABR provided valuable information throughout the patient's hearing recovery. Its use should be considered in difficult patients, especially those who cannot give feedback.

Technical support for Life Sciences communities on a production grid infrastructure.

Production operation of large distributed computing infrastructures (DCI) still requires a lot of human intervention to reach acceptable quality of service. This may be achievable for scientific communities with solid IT support, but it remains a show-stopper for others. Some application execution environments are used to hide runtime technical issues from end users. But they mostly aim at fault-tolerance rather than incident resolution, and their operation still requires substantial manpower. A longer-term support activity is thus needed to ensure sustained quality of service for Virtual Organisations (VO). This paper describes how the biomed VO has addressed this challenge by setting up a technical support team. Its organisation, tooling, daily tasks, and procedures are described. Results are shown in terms of resource usage by end users, amount of reported incidents, and developed software tools. Based on our experience, we suggest ways to measure the impact of the technical support, perspectives to decrease its human cost and make it more community-specific.

NeuroLOG: sharing neuroimaging data using an ontology-based federated approach.

This paper describes the design of the NeuroLOG middleware data management layer, which provides a platform to share heterogeneous and distributed neuroimaging data using a federated approach. The semantics of shared information is captured through a multi-layer application ontology and a derived Federated Schema used to align the heterogeneous database schemata from different legacy repositories. The system also provides a facility to translate the relational data into a semantic representation that can be queried using a semantic search engine thus enabling the exploitation of knowledge embedded in the ontology. This work shows the relevance of the distributed approach for neurosciences data management. Although more complex than a centralized approach, it is also more realistic when considering the federation of large data sets, and open strong perspectives to implement multi-centric neurosciences studies.

A dyad as photocatalyst for light-driven sulfide oxygenation with water as the unique oxygen atom source.

With the objective to convert light energy into chemical oxidation energy, a ruthenium-based dyad constituted of the assembly of a photosensitizer and a catalytic fragment was synthesized. Upon irradiation with blue LEDs, and in the presence of an electron acceptor, the complex is able to catalyze selective sulfide oxygenation involving an oxygen atom transfer from water to the substrate. Electrochemical and photophysical studies highlighted a proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) to access to a high valent oxidant Ru(IV) oxo species.

Grid-wide neuroimaging data federation in the context of the NeuroLOG project.

Grid technologies are appealing to deal with the challenges raised by computational neurosciences and support multi-centric brain studies. However, core grids middleware hardly cope with the complex neuroimaging data representation and multi-layer data federation needs. Moreover, legacy neuroscience environments need to be preserved and cannot be simply superseded by grid services. This paper describes the NeuroLOG platform design and implementation, shedding light on its Data Management Layer. It addresses the integration of brain image files, associated relational metadata and neuroscience semantic data in a heterogeneous distributed environment, integrating legacy data managers through a mediation layer.

Alkali ocular burns in Martinique (French West Indies) Evaluation of the use of an amphoteric solution as the rinsing product.

PRECIS: During the 4 years of this study, we noted 66 cases of alkali ocular burns, or approximately 16 cases per year, nearly half (45.5%) of which are due to an assault. For grade 1 and 2 burns the time elapsed to reepithelialization appears to be shorter when rinsed with Diphoterine* versus physiological solution. PURPOSE: Comparison of the effectiveness of two rinsing solutions for emergency use: a physiological solution and an amphoteric solution (Diphoterine*, Laboratories Prevor, Valmondois, France). Description of the clinical and progressive characteristics of alkali burns treated at the University Hospital Center of Fort de France in Martinique (French West Indies). DESIGN: Prospective consecutive observational case series and nonrandomized comparative study. PARTICIPANTS: Sixty-six patients were included. The total number of burned eyes is 104. Forty-eight eyes (46%) were rinsed with physiological solution and 56 eyes (54%) with Diphoterine*. METHODS: All patients benefited from an ocular rinse with 500ml of physiological solution or Diphoterine*, followed by a complete ophthalmologic exam. The ocular injuries were classified according to the Roper-Hall modification of the Hughes classification system. The same standardized therapeutic protocol was applied and adapted to the seriousness of the burn. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Demographic data, time to corneal reepithelialization, final best corrected visual acuity and complications were analysed. RESULTS: Twenty-eight (42.4%) patients have a unilateral burn and 38 (57.6%) patients have bilateral burns. In decreasing order of frequency, the circumstances surrounding the injury are: assaults in 45.5% of cases (n=30), work-related accidents in 32% of cases (n=31), and domestic accidents in 23% of cases (n=15). For grade 1 and 2 burns the time elapsed to reepithelialization appears to be shorter when rinsed with Diphoterine* versus physiological solution (respectively): 1.9+/-1 days versus 11.1+/-1.4 days (p=10(-7)) and 5.6+/-4.9 days versus 10+/-9.2 days (p=0.02). For grade 3 and 4 burns, there are complications in 11 cases (11.6%): 8 corneal opacities and 3 perforations. CONCLUSIONS: This study is the first conducted in humans that takes into account the type of ocular rinse product used in the progressive follow-up study of injuries. The time elapsed to reepithelialization is shorter with Diphoterine* for grade 1 and 2 burns. There are not enough cases of grade 3 and 4 burns to make a conclusion. Diphoterine* seems very effective in terms of its mechanism of action and the experimental and clinical results.