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.

Ductile Fracture by Void Growth to Coalescence

Abstract: Publisher Summary An important failure mechanism in ductile metals and their alloys is by growth and coalescence of microscopic voids. In structural materials, the voids nucleate at inclusions and second-phase particles by decohesion of the particle–matrix interface or by particle cracking. Void growth is driven by plastic deformation of the surrounding matrix. Early micromechanical treatments of this phenomenon considered the growth of isolated voids. Later, constitutive equations for porous ductile solids were developed based on homogenization theory. Among these, the most widely known model was developed by Gurson for spherical and cylindrical voids.

The netrin receptor UNC5B mediates guidance events controlling morphogenesis of the vascular system

Abstract: Blood vessels and nerves are complex, branched structures that share a high degree of anatomical similarity. Guidance of vessels and nerves has to be exquisitely regulated to ensure proper wiring of both systems. Several regulators of axon guidance have been identified and some of these are also expressed in endothelial cells; however, the extent to which their guidance functions are conserved in the vascular system is still incompletely understood. We show here that the repulsive netrin receptor UNC5B is expressed by endothelial tip cells of the vascular system. Disruption of the Unc5b gene in mice, or of Unc5b or netrin-1a in zebrafish, leads to aberrant extension of endothelial tip cell filopodia, excessive vessel branching and abnormal navigation. Netrin-1 causes endothelial filopodial retraction, but only when UNC5B is present. Thus, UNC5B functions as a repulsive netrin receptor in endothelial cells controlling morphogenesis of the vascular system.

Variation in PCSK9 and HMGCR and risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes

Abstract: BackgroundPharmacologic inhibitors of proprotein convertase subtilisin–kexin type 9 (PCSK9) are being evaluated in clinical trials for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. The effect of lowering low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels by inhibiting PCSK9 on the risk of cardiovascular events or diabetes is unknown. MethodsWe used genetic scores consisting of independently inherited variants in the genes encoding PCSK9 and 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl–coenzyme A reductase (HMGCR; the target of statins) as instruments to randomly assign 112,772 participants from 14 studies, with 14,120 cardiovascular events and 10,635 cases of diabetes, to groups according to the number of LDL cholesterol–lowering alleles that they had inherited. We compared the effects of lower LDL cholesterol levels that were mediated by variants in PCSK9, HMGCR, or both on the risk of cardiovascular events and the risk of diabetes. ResultsVariants in PCSK9 and HMGCR were associated with nearly identical protective effects on th...