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.

Estimating the impact of school closure on influenza transmission from Sentinel data

Abstract: The threat posed by the highly pathogenic H5N1 influenza virus requires public health authorities to prepare for a human pandemic. Although pre-pandemic vaccines and antiviral drugs might significantly reduce illness rates, their stockpiling is too expensive to be practical for many countries. Consequently, alternative control strategies, based on non-pharmaceutical interventions, are a potentially attractive policy option. School closure is the measure most often considered. The high social and economic costs of closing schools for months make it an expensive and therefore controversial policy, and the current absence of quantitative data on the role of schools during influenza epidemics means there is little consensus on the probable effectiveness of school closure in reducing the impact of a pandemic. Here, from the joint analysis of surveillance data and holiday timing in France, we quantify the role of schools in influenza epidemics and predict the effect of school closure during a pandemic. We show that holidays lead to a 20-29% reduction in the rate at which influenza is transmitted to children, but that they have no detectable effect on the contact patterns of adults. Holidays prevent 16-18% of seasonal influenza cases (18-21% in children). By extrapolation, we find that prolonged school closure during a pandemic might reduce the cumulative number of cases by 13-17% (18-23% in children) and peak attack rates by up to 39-45% (47-52% in children). The impact of school closure would be reduced if it proved difficult to maintain low contact rates among children for a prolonged period.

Clouds, circulation and climate sensitivity

Abstract: Our understanding of the interactions between clouds, circulation and climate is limited. Four central research questions — now tractable through advances in models, concepts and observations — are proposed to accelerate future progress.

Axonal transport deficits and neurodegenerative diseases

Abstract: The intracellular transport of organelles along an axon is crucial for the maintenance and function of a neuron. Anterograde axonal transport has a role in supplying proteins and lipids to the distal synapse and mitochondria for local energy requirements, whereas retrograde transport is involved in the clearance of misfolded and aggregated proteins from the axon and the intracellular transport of distal trophic signals to the soma. Axonal transport can be affected by alterations to various components of the transport machinery. Here, we review the current state of knowledge about axonal transport defects that might contribute to the pathogenesis of particular neurodegenerative diseases.

Massive Phytoplankton Blooms Under Arctic Sea Ice

Abstract: Phytoplankton blooms over Arctic Ocean continental shelves are thought to be restricted to waters free of sea ice Here, we document a massive phytoplankton bloom beneath fully consolidated pack ice far from the ice edge in the Chukchi Sea, where light transmission has increased in recent decades because of thinning ice cover and proliferation of melt ponds The bloom was characterized by high diatom biomass and rates of growth and primary production Evidence suggests that under-ice phytoplankton blooms may be more widespread over nutrient-rich Arctic continental shelves and that satellite-based estimates of annual primary production in these waters may be underestimated by up to 10-fold