Université de Sherbrooke

About: Université de Sherbrooke is a education organization based out in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Receptor. The organization has 14922 authors who have published 28783 publications receiving 792511 citations. The organization is also known as: Universite de Sherbrooke & Sherbrooke University.

Mixotrophic cultivation of green microalgae Scenedesmus obliquus on cheese whey permeate for biodiesel production

Abstract: Microalgae mass cultivation for biodiesel production might very well become the next marketable biofuel The main challenge to overcome however is the development of high efficiency strategies for the large-scale production of oleaginous microalgae at low costs In the present work, the use of cheese whey permeate (WP) in mixotrophic microalgae cultures is proposed Pure lactose, the main constituent of WP (> 80% w/w of the total dissolved solids), can support Scenedesmus growth under heterotrophic culture conditions (absence of light) Substituting 40% (v/v) of the culture medium with WP significantly stimulates Scenedesmus obliquus growth under mixotrophic (μ max = 1083 ± 0030 day − 1 ) and heterotrophic (μ max = 0702 ± 0025 day − 1 ) conditions, compared to photoautotrophic control cultures (μ max = 0267 ± 0083 day − 1 ) As growth occurs in the presence of lactose, a significant reduction of its concentration is observed, while the galactose and glucose concentrations actually increase in the culture medium Culture medium analyses showed complete exhaustion of extracellular nitrogen (nitrate and ammonium), while intracellular lipid analyses showed neutral lipid (NL) accumulation, particularly under conditions of high pH (> 95) Photoautotrophic control cultures accumulated more lipids (per dry weight) than WP-supplemented cultures, an aspect which is discussed in the context of lipid enrichment strategies A fast and simple method for NL cellular content estimation is also described

IL-10 neutralization augments mouse resistance to systemic Mycobacterium avium infections.

Abstract: In this contribution, we examined the involvement of the cytokine IL-10 in the progression of experimental murine Mycobacterium avium infections in susceptible BALB/c mice. Addition of anti-IL-10 antibodies in the supernatants of peritoneal macrophages infected with virulent M. avium resulted in a significantly enhanced mycobacteriostatic activity of macrophages. In BALB/c mice infected with the B101 or B102 virulent M. avium strains, examination of the cytokine release profile in splenocytes from infected mice showed that infection was associated with an initial copious release of both IFN-gamma and IL-10. IL-10 production increased as the infection progressed, whereas IFN-gamma levels diminished. Infected mice were given repeated infusions of a rat mAb against mouse IL-10 or rat IgM. Examination of IgM serum levels in anti-IL-10-treated mice (infected or not) showed that depletion of endogenous IL-10 resulted in much decreased IgM levels. Results showed that infusions of large dosages of the monoclonal anti-IL-10 resulted in a very significantly diminished bacterial growth in the spleens. These findings indicate that IL-10 may have a negative impact on resistance to M. avium infections, due, at least in part, to decreased macrophage activity.

Introducing patients' and the public's perspectives to health technology assessment: A systematic review of international experiences.

Abstract: Objectives: The aim of this study was to review international experiences of patient or public involvement in the field of health technology assessment (HTA).Methods: A systematic review of the scientific literature was conducted. A literature search was performed across nine databases. Other literature was identified through citation tracking, government websites (HTA agencies), and Internet search engines. Characteristics of the studies, description of the activities related to patient or public involvement, impact of these activities on the HTA process, and factors facilitating or limiting involvement were abstracted independently by two reviewers.Results: A total of 1,441 potentially relevant papers were identified by the main search strategy. Among these, seventeen papers met the inclusion criteria; other search strategies identified seven additional documents. The findings reveal that patient or public involvement in HTA activities was reported in two domains, research and HTA process. In the research domain, patients are consulted to gather evidence about their perspectives, experiences, or preferences about a health technology. These perspectives could add key dimensions to the evaluation of health technologies that might otherwise be overlooked. In the domain of the HTA process, patients or public representatives participate in different stages of this process: prioritization, evidence assessment, or dissemination of findings.Conclusions: There are few published examples of experiences involving patients and the public in HTA. These examples show that patients' or the public's perspectives could add important dimensions to the evaluation of health technologies. However, there is a need to develop more systematic approaches to considering patients' and the public's perspectives in HTA.

Mapping canopy height using a combination of digital stereo-photogrammetry and lidar

Abstract: Ranging techniques such as lidar (LIght Detection And Ranging) and digital stereo-photogrammetry show great promise for mapping forest canopy height. In this study, we combine these techniques to create hybrid photo-lidar canopy height models (CHMs). First, photogrammetric digital surface models (DSMs) created using automated stereo-matching were registered to corresponding lidar digital terrain models (DTMs). Photo-lidar CHMs were then produced by subtracting the lidar DTM from the photogrammetric DSM. This approach opens up the possibility of retrospective mapping of forest structure using archived aerial photographs. The main objective of the study was to evaluate the accuracy of photo-lidar CHMs by comparing them to reference lidar CHMs. The assessment revealed that stereo-matching parameters and left-right image dissimilarities caused by sunlight and viewing geometry have a significant influence on the quality of the photo DSMs. Our study showed that photo-lidar CHMs are well correlated to their lidar counterparts on a pixel-wise basis (r up to 0.89 in the best stereo-matching conditions), but have a lower resolution and accuracy. It also demonstrated that plot metrics extracted from the lidar and photo-lidar CHMs, such as height at the 95th percentile of 20 m×20 m windows, are highly correlated (r up to 0.95 in general matching conditions).