In this paper, microalgae are considered to produce bioenergy through firing. Emitted CO2 would then be captured and stored. This "negative emissions" process, called Microalgae-based Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (MBECCS), is quantified for the first time, and compared to "classical" Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) using plants. Our goal is to remove 10 Gt per year of CO2 from the atmosphere using MBECCS only. The needed area for cultivation is 4 times less than with BECCS. Because of the high water consumption, marine microalgae should be used. On the other hand, nutrients taken from world wastewater are insufficient, and remain an issue. Planktonic and biofilm microalgae are considered: the latter offer a better areal productivity and require less energy since they are in a concentrated form. For both planktonic and biofilm microalgae, the process produces net heat. Concerning electrical efficiency, we show that it is better for biofilms, as expected. Moreover, for low productivities, MBECCS consumes electricity, comparably to Direct Air Capture, another energy-consuming negative emissions process. Finally, for higher productivities, we show that MBECCS produces net electricity, comparably to other renewable sources such as wind turbines and to BECCS.

The current performances of single-board microcontrollers render them attractive, not only for basic applications, but also for more elaborate projects, amongst which are physics teaching or research. In this article, we show how temperature-dependent transport measurements can be performed by using an Arduino board, from cryogenic temperatures up to room temperature or above. We focus on two of the main issues for this type of experiments: the determination of the sample temperature and the measurement of its resistance. We also detail two student-led experiments: evidencing the magnetocaloric effect in Gadolinium and measuring the resistive transition of a high critical temperature superconductor.

Friction is a complex phenomenon that is of paramount importance in everyday life. We present an easy-to-build and inexpensive experiment illustrating Coulomb's law of kinetic friction. The so-called friction, or Timoshenko, oscillator consists of a plate set into periodic motion through the competition between gravity and friction on its rotating supports. The period of such an oscillator gives a measurement of the coefficient of kinetic friction μk between the plate and the supports. Our prototype is mainly composed of a motor, LEGO blocks, and a low-cost microcontroller, but despite its simplicity, the results obtained are in good agreement with values of μk found in the literature (enhanced online).

Les micro-organismes peuvent coloniser les surfaces environnantes et s’organiser en un film de plusieurs centaines de microns d’épaisseur, appelé « biofilm ». Ils sécrètent une matrice extracellulaire polymérique qui assure une véritable cohésion et protection physique de la colonie, avec des effets qui peuvent être aussi bien bénéfiques que mortels pour son environnement. Nous nous sommes intéressés aux forces mécaniques structurant cette matière vivante solide et contribuant à maintenir son intégrité. Nous avons travaillé sur des biofilms de bactéries flottant à la surface d’un liquide. Nous montrons que ces systèmes ont des propriétés mécaniques originales et remarquables, du fait de leur capacité à croître et proliférer.

Bacterial biofilms correspond to surface-associated bacterial communities embedded in hydrogel-like matrix, in which high cell density, reduced diffusion and physico-chemical heterogeneity play a protective role and induce novel behaviors. In this review, we present recent advances on the understanding of how bacterial mechanical properties, from single cell to high-cell density community, determine biofilm tri-dimensional growth and eventual dispersion and we attempt to draw a parallel between these properties and the mechanical properties of other well-studied hydrogels and living systems.

Elastic properties of cells are mainly derived from the actin cytoskeleton. However, intermediate filaments are emerging as major contributors to the mechanical properties of cells. Using atomic force microscopy, we studied the elasticity of mouse myoblasts expressing a mutant form of the gene encoding for desmin intermediate filaments, p.D399Y. This variant produces desmin aggregates, the main pathological symptom of myofibrillar myopathies. Here we show that desmin-mutated cells display a 39% increased median elastic modulus compared to wild-type cells. Desmin-mutated cells required higher forces than wild-type cells to reach high indentation depths, where desmin intermediate filaments are typically located. In addition, heat-shock treatment increased the proportion of cells with aggregates and induced a secondary peak in the distribution of Young's moduli. By performing atomic force microscopy mechanical mapping combined with fluorescence microscopy, we show that higher Young's moduli were measured where desmin aggregates were located, indicating that desmin aggregates are rigid. Therefore, we provide evidence that p.D399Y stiffens mouse myoblasts. Based on these results, we suggest that p.D399Y-related myofibrillar myopathy is at least partly due to altered mechanical properties at the single-cell scale, which are propagated to the tissue scale.

Over the past 10 years, we have developed at University Paris-Sud a first year course on geometrical optics centered on experimentation. In contrast with the traditional top-down learning structure usually applied at university, in which practical sessions are often a mere verification of the laws taught during preceding lectures, this course promotes 'active learning' and focuses on experiments made by the students. Interaction among students and self questioning is strongly encouraged and practicing comes first, before any theoretical knowledge. Through a series of concrete examples, the present paper describes the philosophy underlying the teaching in this course. We demonstrate that not only geometrical optics can be taught through experiments, but also that it can serve as a useful introduction to experimental physics. Feedback over the last 10 years shows that our approach succeeds in helping students to learn better and acquire motivation and autonomy. This approach can easily be applied to other fields of physics.

Background:A significant comorbidity between attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and affective disorders has been consistently reported in adults. Less data regarding the role of personality traits, and the influence of ADHD co-occurrence on clinical characteristics and outcome of mood disorders are currently available.Methods:The sample consisted of 296 subjects, divided into three homogeneous groups according to demographic characteristics: 106 subjects diagnosed with major depressive disorder, 92 with bipolar disorders and 98 healthy controls. ADHD diagnosis was based on DSM-IV-TR criteria. Childhood and adult ADHD features were measured with the Wender Utah Rating Scale (WURS), the Adult ADHD Self-rating Scale (ASRS) and the Brown Attention Deficit Disorder Scale (ADD). The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HAD) and the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) were also administered to the clinical groups, in order to investigate depressive/anxious symptoms and personality dimensions.Results:The prevalence of adult ADHD in subjects with bipolar disorders or major depressive disorder was 22.0% and 8.5% respectively (p < .001), compared to 3.1% in healthy controls. Significant associations between personality traits, depressive/anxious symptoms and ADHD features were found.Discussion:The present study emphasises the close relationship between affective disorders, especially bipolar disorders, and ADHD in adults. Our findings support the need to assess subjects with mood disorders in the clinical setting for possible co-existing ADHD and to further investigate personality traits to better understand the etiology of affective disorders and ADHD co-occurrence.

This case-control study found an association between Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and a single nucleotide polymorphism (intronic rs2072621) of the gene encoding GPR50 (an orphan member of the G protein-coupled melatonin receptor subfamily) in females. This may represent a gender-specific risk factor and a molecular link between melatonin and SAD.

Le DSM-5 s’écarte sur de nombreux points des éditions précédentes, apportant plusieurs changements concernant les paraphilies. Ces changements ont été principalement motivés par des considérations légales. Plusieurs modifications ont été apportées au texte descriptif de ces troubles, au détriment des critères diagnostiques qui étaient soumis à beaucoup moins de révision. L’Association Américaine de Psychiatrie a opté pour la conservation intégrale des huit catégories des troubles paraphiliques, en association avec deux catégories résiduelles : « autre trouble paraphilique spécifié » et « trouble paraphilique non spécifié ». Les différents changements ayant concerné les critères des troubles paraphiliques exigent principalement la considération des faux positifs potentiels, ayant comme risque notamment le fait d’assigner plus facilement des diagnostics psychiatriques aux prédateurs sexuellement violents. La classification de certains comportements sexuels comme pathologiques, même en l’absence de détresse, révèle une conception morale sous-jacente qui continue à sanctionner des comportements socialement répréhensibles. De ce fait, certains auteurs remettent en question la fiabilité diagnostique des paraphilies, et vont jusqu’à suggérer des changements révolutionnaires, dépathologisant les paraphilies et les supprimant des systèmes de classification des troubles mentaux.The 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) aimed to improve the reliability of psychiatric diagnoses, to address problems identified in DSM-IV, and to improve its clinical and forensic utility. Some of the changes in the diagnostic criteria for the paraphilic disorders in the DSM-5 were guided by forensic concerns, since these are the ones of most interest to forensic psychiatrists. The aim of this paper is to describe and comment the changes made from DSM-IV to DSM-5 concerning paraphilic disorders, and to discuss their legal implications.PubMed and Medline search, Scopus, journal and textbook articles have been accessed for a detailed literature review on DSM-5 changes related to paraphilic disorders. We conducted the search using the following keywords: Paraphilia; DSM-5; Diagnosis; Diagnostic criteria.Several minor but important changes have been made to the paraphilic disorders diagnostic criteria in DSM-5. DSM-5 redefines the term “paraphilia” which now refers to non pathological, atypical sexual interests (Criterion A); and introduced the term “paraphilic disorder” which is reserved for individuals who meet both Criterion A and Criterion B (individuals who have clinically significant distress or impairment). The DSM-IV category of “paraphilia not otherwise specified” has been replaced with two disorders in DSM-5, “other specified paraphilic disorder” and “unspecified paraphilic disorder”. Both of these categories are considered to be residual. The decision to use one or other of the two disorders depends on whether the clinician wants to specify explicitly the type of atypical paraphilic focus. These residual categories don’t have the same degree of utility as the specific named categories, and can be misused in forensic contexts. In addition, for all of the paraphilic disorders except pedophilic disorder, there are two new course specifiers, “in full remission” and “in a controlled environment”. The decision to provide a specific duration threshold at which the individual must not have acted on his paraphilic urges nor have experienced any distress or impairment, was mainly motivated by forensic issues. Otherwise, three conditions were considered for inclusion in DSM-5: “hypersexual disorder”, “paraphilic coercive disorder”, and “pedophebophilic disorder”. Hypersexual disorder was defined as intense interest in normal sex that was causing problems. Paraphilic coercive disorder was defined as sexual arousal by coercive sex in men who do not meet the diagnostic criteria for sexual sadism. In pedophebophilic disorder, the range of pathologic sexual interest was extended to include adolescents. These proposed diagnosis have received considerable Criticism, and have been abandoned, largely due to a lack of empirical evidence.Changes proposed in the DSM treatment of paraphilic disorders are relatively modest and the core of the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria is retained. Many of the changes that occur in paraphilic disorders diagnostic criteria increase the risk of false-positive diagnoses by making it easier to assign a specific paraphilia to an individual, and must be considered with caution. The classification of certain sexual behaviors as pathological, even in the absence of distress, reveals an underlying moral design. As a result, some authors question the validity and reliability of paraphilic disorders, and suggest revolutionary changes, depathologizing paraphilias and removing them from systems of mental disorder classification.

In this paper, we study a macroscopic system of electrically interacting metallic beads organized as a sequence along an annulus. A random mechanical shaking mimics the thermal excitation. We exhibit non-Fickian diffusion (single-file diffusion) at large time. We measure the mobility of the particles and compare it to theoretical expectations. We show that our system cannot be accurately described by theories assuming only hard-sphere interactions. Its behavior is qualitatively described by a theory extended to more realistic potentials [M. Kollmann, Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 180602 (2003)]. A correct quantitative agreement is shown and we interpret the discrepancies by the violation of the assumption of overdamped dynamics, which is a key point in the theory. We recast previous results on colloids with known interaction potentials and compare them quantitatively to the theory. Focusing on the transition between ordinary and single-file diffusions, we exhibit a dimensionless crossover time that is of order 1 both for colloids and our system, although the time and length scales differ by several orders of magnitude.

Background: Psychoeducation is now considered as part of the integrated treatment for bipolar disorder. But the psychological changes involved in it have been poorly studied.Method: We compared the locus of control (LOC, a key variable for health-related behaviours as well as for education practices), the knowledge about lithium [Lithium Knowledge Questionnaire (LKQ)] and attitude about lithium [Attitude towards Lithium Questionnaire (ALQ)] before and after a brief hospital based psychoeducational programme for euthymic patients with bipolar disorder (ICD-10 criteria) receiving lithium prophylaxis. The occurrence of hospitalisations was recorded during the two years before and after the patients underwent psychoeducation. All patients were reassessed after 24 months.Results: 50 consecutive participants at a psychoeducational programme were evaluated. The LKQ but not the ALQ scores increased significantly after the programme. The external "powerful others" component of the LOC significantly increased after psychoeducation. The observed changes were maintained after 24 months. The patients' level of satisfaction was excellent and sustained. There was only a trend for a decrease in the rate of hospitalisations. Limitations: The knowledge about lithium was assessed with an experimental instrument. Patients followed in a university department may not be representative of bipolar patients at large.Conclusions: Psychoeducation enduringly increases the knowledge about lithium and induces long term changes in the locus of control that may reflect a shift in illness representations. The LOC may be an important target of psychoeducation for euthymic patients with bipolar disorder. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

We study the dynamics of charged macroscopic particles (millimetric steel balls) confined in a linear channel of finite length, sufficiently narrow to avoid particles crossing. We show that their individual response to thermal fluctuations strongly depends either on their position in the channel or the local potential they experience. Three different dynamical regimes are identified. At small times, a "free regime" takes place, with the outermost particles exhibiting the highest diffusion coefficient. This effect results from an "echo" of the thermal fluctuations reflected by the channel wall. Then, forbidden crossing induces a correlated regime similar to single file diffusion. Surprisingly, the corresponding mobility increases with the local potential. Lastly, the finite length of the channel induces the saturation of fluctuations. We show that those behaviors may be described heuristically with the help of models for N hard-core interacting particles diffusing in a finite channel of length L, provided that we replace the uniform interparticle distance L/N by a characteristic distance (k(B)T/K)(1/2) built upon the temperature T and the stiffness K of the local potential. It provides a very satisfactory estimate for the fluctuations sizes, whereas they are greatly overestimated assuming hard-core interactions.

Introduction. - The occurrence of depression during pregnancy is a frequent situation that must be distinguished from postpartum depression. It raises many questions regarding its complications and therapeutic options.Objectives. - To provide a systematic review of available data on prevalence, risk factors, and adverse outcomes of antepartum depression, as well as on screening tools and treatments currently available.Methods. - Studies, reviews, and meta-analyses were searched through the Pubmed and Embase databases. Articles related to postpartum depression or specifically focusing on bipolar disorder were excluded.Results. - Epidemiology: Prevalence is estimated between 5 and 15%. Risk factors, in addition to those of any depression, are an ambivalent attitude towards pregnancy, previous miscarriages, and medically-assisted or complicated pregnancies. Diagnosis and screening: No specific tool has yet been designed to diagnose or screen antepartum depression, but some scales (EPDS, PRIME-MD PHQ) have been validated. Adverse outcomes: For the mother, adverse outcomes are those of any depression, in addition to an increased risk of delivery complications and of postpartum depression. For the child, there is an increased risk for preterm birth, low birth-weight, and possibly sudden death. Treatments: - Tricyclic antidepressants are widely described as safe during pregnancy. SSRIs show much reassuring data, even though recent studies have raised concerns about cardiac malformations and persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn. Electroconvulsive therapy is only indicated in the most severe cases but appears secure under specific safety measures. Most psychotherapies have not been specifically assessed during pregnancy. Other treatments (bright light therapy, rTMS ... ) have shown some promising but not robust results.Conclusion. - Antepartum depression is frequent, and potentially severe if not treated. Validation of specific screening tools is warranted. Pharmacological treatment should not be postponed in cases of severe depression. Regarding moderate depressions, it appears reasonable to turn to non-pharmacological treatments, primarily psychotherapies, which therefore should be more thoroughly studied. (C) L'Encephale, Paris, 2010.

Background The impact of personality dysfunction on the outcome of treatment for depression remains debated. Aims To examine the relationship between the number of prior depressive episodes, personality dysfunction and treatment response for depression. Method In a large sample ( n = 8229) of adult out-patients with a major depressive episode (DSM–IV), personality dysfunction was assessed using the Standardised Assessment of Personality – Abbreviated Scale (SAPAS). Potential predictors of treatment response at 6 weeks were examined via structural equation modelling. Results The amount of personality dysfunction and number of prior episodes of depression were both associated with poor response to treatment. Once personality dysfunction was controlled for, the number of prior episodes of depression was not associated with treatment response. Conclusions Personality dysfunction is associated with impaired short-term response to antidepressant treatment in major depression. The apparent detrimental effect of prior depression on treatment response may be accounted for by pre-existing personality dysfunction.

Background: The 8-item "Scale for Atypical Symptoms" (SAS) and its structured interview, the SIGH-SAD, have been developed to assess atypical symptoms of depression in winter depression. Although they are commonly used, no validation Study has yet been conducted.Methods: 270 consecutive depressed inpatients were assessed prospectively. Pearson's correlation coefficients between fulfilment of Liebowitz criteria for atypical depression and both the SAS Score and the atypical balance [ratio of the AS Score to the total score on the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale 29-item (HDRS-29)] were calculated. The SAS was evaluated against Liebowitz criteria using binary logistic regression. A ROC curve was performed with the atypical balance against the fulfilment of Liebowitz Criteria.Results: 18.5% of patients met the criteria for atypical depression. The presence of an atypical depression was significantly correlated with both the atypical score (r = 0.42) and the atypical balance (r = 0.51). The logistic regression showed that a higher score oil the SAS, the absence of a somatic syndrome (ICD-10) and a lower HDRS-21 score were independent predictors of ail atypical depression while age, gender and bipolarity were not. The ROC curve showed that an atypical balance of 29% was the optimal threshold for the diagnosis of atypical depression (sensitivity = 0.86, specificity = 0.79).Limitation: Patients with bipolar I and II were not distinguished.Conclusion: Atypical depression is relatively frequent in hospitalised patients. The concurrent validity of the French version of the SAS and its structured interview, the SIGH-SAD is satisfactory. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.