Action and representation of action during childhood and adolescence: a functional approach.

Our scientific activity is focused on the field of action and representation of action from various adaptative situations during the life span, including pathology and extreme environment such as microgravity. The early action/perception matching, subserving the motor simulation network, is probably a major milestone for the building of action and representation of action during the course of ontogenesis. We have developed a functional approach of motor development based on a gradual mastering of coordination, adaptation and anticipation in postural control in the course of ontogenesis from babies to adolescents.

Purification processes involved in sludge treatment by a vertical flow wetland system: focus on the role of the substrate and plants on N and P removal.

Vertical-flow wetland systems were tested for treatment of liquid waste activated sludge with high content of organic compounds from a soft drink factory. A mesocosm experiment was carried out on planted and unplanted systems to understand the relative importance of substrate and plants in purification processes and to compare three species: Phragmites australis Cav., Typha latifolia L.

Accuracy and quality assessment of 454 GS-FLX Titanium pyrosequencing.

Background: The rapid evolution of 454 GS-FLX sequencing technology has not been accompanied by a reassessment of the quality and accuracy of the sequences obtained. Current strategies for decision-making and error-correction are based on an initial analysis by Huse et al. in 2007, for the older GS20 system based on experimental sequences.

[Reproductive health and abortion in Antananarivo (Madagascar): results of an original research].

In Madagascar, voluntary termination of pregnancy is totally forbidden. However, many women resort to it, most especially in the capital, Antananarivo. These secret abortions are carried out not only by traditional birth attendants but also by private medical practitioners.

Missing data imputation and corrected statistics for large-scale behavioral databases.

This article presents a new methodology for solving problems resulting from missing data in large-scale item performance behavioral databases. Useful statistics corrected for missing data are described, and a new method of imputation for missing data is proposed. This methodology is applied to the Dutch Lexicon Project database recently published by Keuleers, Diependaele, and Brysbaert (Frontiers in Psychology, 1, 174, 2010), which allows us to conclude that this database fulfills the conditions of use of the method recently proposed by Courrieu, Brand-D'Abrescia, Peereman, Spieler, and Rey (2011) for testing item performance models.

Mild musculoskeletal and locomotor alterations in adult rats with white matter injury following prenatal ischemia.

Early brain injury including white matter damage (WMD) appears strongly correlated to perinatal hypoxia-ischemia and adverse neurological outcomes in preterm survivors. Indeed, WMD has been widely associated with subtle to major motor disturbances, sensory, behavioral and cognitive impairments in preterm infants who afterward develop cerebral palsy (CP). Prenatal ischemia (PI) has been shown to reproduce the main features of WMD observed in preterm infants.

Validated intraclass correlation statistics to test item performance models.

A new method, with an application program in Matlab code, is proposed for testing item performance models on empirical databases. This method uses data intraclass correlation statistics as expected correlations to which one compares simple functions of correlations between model predictions and observed item performance. The method rests on a data population model whose validity for the considered data is suitably tested and has been verified for three behavioural measure databases.

Use of urban composts for the regeneration of a burnt Mediterranean soil: a laboratory approach.

In Mediterranean region, forest fires are a major problem leading to the desertification of the environment. Use of composts is considered as a solution for soil and vegetation rehabilitation. In this study, we determined under laboratory conditions the effects of three urban composts and their mode of application (laid on the soil surface or mixed into the soil) on soil restoration after fire: a municipal waste compost (MWC), a compost of sewage sludge mixed with green waste (SSC) and a green waste compost (GWC).

An integrative model of tinnitus based on a central gain controlling neural sensitivity.

The purpose of the current review is to propose a model highlighting the putative connections between hearing loss and the phantom perception of tinnitus (tinnitus being accompanied by hearing loss in the majority, if not all, subjects). Sensory deprivation is followed by dramatic functional and structural changes in the auditory system. Notably, while cochlear injuries are accompanied by a reduced activity in the cochlear nerve, neural activity is increased at virtually all levels in the central auditory system.

A motor cortex excitability and gait analysis on Parkinsonian patients.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) parameters were recorded in a lower limb muscle and correlated with the gait parameters of 25 patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) with and without dopamine substitution treatment (DST) and 10 control subjects. Single and paired-pulse TMS were recorded in the tibialis anterior muscle (TA). Gait analysis was performed using a 3D motion analysis system.

Excitability of the lower-limb area of the motor cortex in Parkinson's disease.

Summary Objective: The excitability of the lower-limb area of the motor cortex was investigated in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and in control subjects. Our results were compared to literature data assessing upper-limb cortical area. We analysed the effect of dopaminergic substitution therapy (DST).

Cross-species amplification of 41 microsatellites in European cyprinids: A tool for evolutionary, population genetics and hybridization studies.

Background: Cyprinids display the most abundant and widespread species among the European freshwater Teleostei and are known to hybridize quite commonly. Nevertheless, a limited number of markers for conducting comparative differentiation, evolutionary and hybridization dynamics studies are available to date.

Findings: Five multiplex PCR sets were optimized in order to assay 41 cyprinid-specific polymorphic microsatellite loci (including 10 novel loci isolated from Chondrostoma nasus nasus, Chondrostoma toxostoma toxostoma and Leuciscus leuciscus) for 503 individuals (440 purebred specimens and 63 hybrids) from 15 European cyprinid species.

[Developmental and locomotor disorders in children].

From one year of age, gait and balance disorders are frequent complaints in neurology. During the first year following the acquisition of independent walking, most of the gait, such as transition from digitigrade to plantigrade locomotion, parameters are well-established in children. Nevertheless, bipedal locomotion means solving a large number of balance problems.

Complete mitochondrial sequences for haplogroups M23 and M46: insights into the Asian ancestry of the Malagasy population.

Through the sequencing of the complete mitochondrial genome of three individuals of Malagasy ancestry, we completed the characterization of the island southeastern Asian specific M46 haplogroup. We assumed that the association of the np 3588 and np 16278 polymorphisms were M46 specific. In addition, we characterized a novel basal M subhaplogroup: M23.

QDD: a user-friendly program to select microsatellite markers and design primers from large sequencing projects.

Summary: QDD is an open access program providing a user-friendly tool for microsatellite detection and primer design from large sets of DNA sequences. The program is designed to deal with all steps of treatment of raw sequences obtained from pyrosequencing of enriched DNA libraries, but it is also applicable to data obtained through other sequencing methods, using FASTA files as input. The following tasks are completed by QDD: tag sorting, adapter/vector removal, elimination of redundant sequences, detection of possible genomic multicopies (duplicated loci or transposable elements), stringent selection of target microsatellites and customizable primer design.

Trade-off between morphological convergence and opportunistic diet behavior in fish hybrid zone.

Background: The invasive Chondrostoma nasus nasus has colonized part of the distribution area of the protected endemic species Chondrostoma toxostoma toxostoma. This hybrid zone is a complex system where multiple effects such as inter-species competition, bi-directional introgression, strong environmental pressure and so on are combined. Why do sympatric Chondrostoma fish present a unidirectional change in body shape? Is this the result of inter-species interactions and/or a response to environmental effects or the result of trade-offs? Studies focusing on the understanding of a trade-off between multiple parameters are still rare.

Feasibility of using an organic substrate in a wetland system treating sewage sludge: Impact of plant species.

A vertical-flow wetland system was tested for treatment of liquid sludge with high organic concentrations using an organic substrate (peat/crushed pine bark, 1/1) as growing medium. Mesocosms (1 m(3)) were planted with either Phragmites australis Cav., Typha latifolia L.

Isolation and characterization of polymorphic microsatellite loci for the dace complex: Leuciscus leuciscus (Teleostei: Cyprinidae).

Ten novel polymorphic microsatellites were isolated from the dace complex (Leuciscus leuciscus), which is a European cyprinid species. Four multiplex polymerase chain reaction sets were optimized in order to genotype 26 polymorphic loci in all, including 16 previously published cyprinid-specific loci. The level of genetic diversity was assessed in 142 dace individuals.

Isolation and characterization of polymorphic microsatellite loci in the freshwater fishes Telestes souffia and Telestes muticellus (Teleostei: Cyprinidae).

Ten novel polymorphic microsatellites (seven with perfect motifs) were isolated from vairone species (Telestes souffia and Telestes muticellus), which are endangered European cyprinid species. Together with 11 previously published cyprinid-specific loci, five multiplex sets were optimized, allowing the genotyping of 21 polymorphic loci. The level of genetic diversity was assessed in 97 individuals from the two species T.

Vestibular syndrome: a change in internal spatial representation.

The vestibular system contributes to a wide range of functions from reflexes to spatial representation. This paper reviews behavioral, perceptive, and cognitive data that highlight the role of changes in internal spatial representation on the vestibular syndrome. Firstly, we review how visual vertical perception and postural orientation depend on multiple reference frames and multisensory integration and how reference frames are selected according to the status of the peripheral vestibular system (i.

Gardens in urbanizing rural areas reveal an unexpected floral diversity related to housing density.

The increasing urbanization of rural areas leads to a strong development of horticultural flora, which is the main source of alien and invasive plants. In order to assess the pool of cultivated species under different urbanization pressures, the diversity and distribution of horticultural flora were studied in 120 Mediterranean gardens belonging to three housing density types. The results showed a great richness and heterogeneity of this flora, and similarities in species composition between gardens of the same housing density types.

Widespread distribution of archaeal reverse gyrase in thermophilic bacteria suggests a complex history of vertical inheritance and lateral gene transfers.

Reverse gyrase, an enzyme of uncertain funtion, is present in all hyperthermophilic archaea and bacteria. Previous phylogenetic studies have suggested that the gene for reverse gyrase has an archaeal origin and was transferred laterally (LGT) to the ancestors of the two bacterial hyperthermophilic phyla, Thermotogales and Aquificales. Here, we performed an in-depth analysis of the evolutionary history of reverse gyrase in light of genomic progress.

Influence of spatial information on responses of tonically active neurons in the monkey striatum.

Previous studies have demonstrated that tonically active neurons (TANs) in the primate striatum play an important role in the detection of rewarding events. However, the influence of the spatial features of stimuli or actions required to obtain reward remains unclear. Here, we examined the activity of TANs in the striatum of monkeys trained to make spatially directed movements elicited by visual stimuli presented ipsilaterally or contralaterally to the moving arm.

An emerging phylogenetic core of Archaea: phylogenies of transcription and translation machineries converge following addition of new genome sequences.

Background: The concept of a genomic core, defined as the set of genes ubiquitous in all genomes of a monophyletic group, has become crucial in comparative and evolutionary genomics. However, it is still a matter of debate whether lateral gene transfers (LGT) may affect the components of genomic cores, preventing their use to retrace species evolution. We have recently reconstructed the phylogeny of Archaea by using two large concatenated datasets of core proteins involved in translation and transcription, respectively.