Pierre-and-Marie-Curie University

About: Pierre-and-Marie-Curie University is a education organization based out in Paris, France. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Raman spectroscopy. The organization has 34448 authors who have published 56139 publications receiving 2392398 citations.

Monge-Ampère equations in big cohomology classes

Abstract: We define non-pluripolar products of an arbitrary number of closed positive (1, 1)-currents on a compact Kahler manifold X. Given a big (1, 1)-cohomology class α on X (i.e. a class that can be represented by a strictly positive current) and a positive measure μ on X of total mass equal to the volume of α and putting no mass on pluripolar sets, we show that μ can be written in a unique way as the top-degree self-intersection in the non-pluripolar sense of a closed positive current in α. We then extend Kolodziedj’s approach to sup-norm estimates to show that the solution has minimal singularities in the sense of Demailly if μ has L1+e-density with respect to Lebesgue measure. If μ is smooth and positive everywhere, we prove that T is smooth on the ample locus of α provided α is nef. Using a fixed point theorem, we finally explain how to construct singular Kahler–Einstein volume forms with minimal singularities on varieties of general type.

De novo mutations in ATP1A3 cause alternating hemiplegia of childhood

Abstract: Alternating hemiplegia of childhood (AHC) is a rare, severe neurodevelopmental syndrome characterized by recurrent hemiplegic episodes and distinct neurological manifestations. AHC is usually a sporadic disorder and has unknown etiology. We used exome sequencing of seven patients with AHC and their unaffected parents to identify de novo nonsynonymous mutations in ATP1A3 in all seven individuals. In a subsequent sequence analysis of ATP1A3 in 98 other patients with AHC, we found that ATP1A3 mutations were likely to be responsible for at least 74% of the cases; we also identified one inherited mutation in a case of familial AHC. Notably, most AHC cases are caused by one of seven recurrent ATP1A3 mutations, one of which was observed in 36 patients. Unlike ATP1A3 mutations that cause rapid-onset dystonia-parkinsonism, AHC-causing mutations in this gene caused consistent reductions in ATPase activity without affecting the level of protein expression. This work identifies de novo ATP1A3 mutations as the primary cause of AHC and offers insight into disease pathophysiology by expanding the spectrum of phenotypes associated with mutations in ATP1A3.

Risk factors of influenza transmission in households

Abstract: Background: Influenza transmission in households is a subject of renewed interest, as the vaccination of children is currently under debate and antiviral treatments have been approved for prophylactic use. Aims: To quantify the risk factors of influenza transmission in households. Design of study: A prospective study conducted during the 1999 to 2000 winter season in France. Setting: Nine hundred and forty-six households where a member, the index patient, had visited their general practitioner (GP) because of an influenza-like illness were enrolled in the study. Five hundred and ten of the index patients tested positive for influenza A (subtype H3N2). A standardised daily questionnaire allowed for identification of secondary cases of influenza among their household contacts, who were followed-up for 15 days. Of the 395 (77%) households that completed the questionnaire, we selected 279 where no additional cases had occurred on the day of the index patient's visit to the GP. Methods: Secondary cases of influenza were those household contacts who had developed clinical influenza within 5 days of the disease onset in the index patient. Hazard ratios for individual clinical and demographic characteristics of the contact and their index patient were derived from a Cox regression model. Results: Overall in the 279 households, 131 (24.1%) secondary cases occurred among the 543 household contacts. There was an increased risk of influenza transmission in preschool contacts (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.85, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.09 to 3.26) as compared with school-age and adult contacts. There was also an increased risk in contacts exposed to preschool index patients (HR = 1.93, 95% CI = 1.09 to 3.42) and school-age index patients (HR = 1.68, 95% CI = 1.07 to 2.65), compared with those exposed to adult index cases. No other factor was associated with transmission of the disease. Conclusion: Our results support the major role of children in the dissemination of influenza in households. Vaccination of children or prophylaxis with neuraminidase inhibitors would prevent, respectively, 32–38% and 21–41% of secondary cases caused by exposure to a sick child in the household.

Social personalities influence natal dispersal in a lizard.

Abstract: Animal personalities are common across taxa and have important evolutionary and ecological implications. Such consistent individual differences correlate with important life-history traits such as dispersal. Indeed, some environmental conditions are supposed to determine dispersers with a specific personality. For example, an increased density should promote the departure of individuals with less social tolerance. Therefore, we hypothesized that dispersers from high-density populations should primarily be asocial individuals, whereas dispersers from low-density populations should be social individuals. In the common lizard (Lacerta vivipara), we measured attraction towards the odour of conspecifics on juveniles at birth as a metric of social tolerance. We then released these juveniles into populations of different densities and measured dispersal and settlement behaviours with regard to social tolerance. One year later, we again measured the social tolerance of surviving individuals. The social tolerance is constant across time and strongly reflects the individual's dispersal and settlement patterns with respect to population density. These results strongly suggest that social personalities exist and influence dispersal decisions. Further studies will help to elucidate the proximate and ultimate determinants of social personalities.

The VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey (VIPERS) - Galaxy clustering and redshift-space distortions at z ≃ 0.8 in the first data release

Abstract: We present in this paper the general real- and redshift-space clustering properties of galaxies as measured in the first data release of the VIPERS survey. VIPERS is a large redshift survey designed to probe the distant Universe and its large-scale structure at 0.5 < z < 1.2. We describe in this analysis the global properties of the sample and discuss the survey completeness and associated corrections. This sample allows us to measure the galaxy clustering with an unprecedented accuracy at these redshifts. From the redshift-space distortions observed in the galaxy clustering pattern we provide a first measurement of the growth rate of structure at z = 0.8: f\sigma_8 = 0.47 +/- 0.08. This is completely consistent with the predictions of standard cosmological models based on Einstein gravity, although this measurement alone does not discriminate between different gravity models.