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The impact of bird mortality by collision on windfarms has often been evaluated at the individual level, but rarely at the population level. The Lesser kestrel Falco naumanni is an endangered short‐lived migratory raptor, susceptible to collision with wind turbines. We evaluated the impacts of windfarm turbine collisions on the demography of the largest lesser kestrel population in France. Using data from local monitoring of reproduction and windfarm mortality surveys, combined with capture‐recapture ringing data at a nearby population, we quantified vital parameters of fecundity and survival in order to parameterize a matrix population model to study the viability of this population. The breeding success was high and varied in synchrony with survival probabilities. Between 2013 and 2020, 43 carcasses were found below wind turbines, and when accounting for carcass detection and persistence rates, the true mortality should approach 154 individuals in that period, i.e. 3% of the studied population was affected by collisions each year. The matrix model showed that the population growth observed was only possible if there was a constant recruitment of 26 immigrant individuals each year into the population. Without the excess mortality by the windfarm, we predict that this population would have 22% more breeding pairs than what was observed in 2020. Simulations over 30 years showed that, under the current immigration rate, the population should decline if the excess mortality exceeds 11%. If immigration ceases, the population would decline above 5% excess mortality per year. It is urgent to monitor and reduce the excess mortality by windfarm collisions that threatens this lesser kestrel population. More generally, we advocate the use of population matrix demographic models in impact assessment studies to avoid placing new windfarms close to rare species that could not sustain additional mortality by collisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We discuss inline electrical testing to monitor the baseline of Analog Computing hardware using Phase Change Memory (PCM) technology. Tightening the PCM resistance distribution is necessary to meet analog computation requirement. A new yield methodology is introduced. A study of heater process variation, which will affect the heater height and the PCM resistance, will be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hardware acceleration of deep learning using analog non-volatile memory (NVM) requires large arrays with high device yield, high accuracy Multiply-ACcumulate (MAC) operations, and routing frameworks for implementing arbitrary deep neural network (DNN) topologies. In this article, we present a 14-nm test-chip for Analog AI inference—it contains multiple arrays of phase change memory (PCM)-devices, each array capable of storing 512 $\times $ 512 unique DNN weights and executing massively parallel MAC operations at the location of the data. DNN excitations are transported across the chip using a duration representation on a parallel and reconfigurable 2-D mesh. To accurately transfer inference models to the chip, we describe a closed-loop tuning (CLT) algorithm that programs the four PCM conductances in each weight, achieving <3% average weight-error. A row-wise programming scheme and associated circuitry allow us to execute CLT on up to 512 weights concurrently. We show that the test chip can achieve near-software-equivalent accuracy on two different DNNs. We demonstrate tile-to-tile transport with a fully-on-chip two-layer network for MNIST (accuracy degradation ~0.6%) and show resilience to error propagation across long sequences (up to 10 000 characters) with a recurrent long short-term memory (LSTM) network, implementing off-chip activation and vector-vector operations to generate recurrent inputs used in the next on- chip MAC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The aim of the present study was to investigate whether microarray gene expression analysis can be used to predict lymph node status in gastric cancer. Methods: Twenty-nine patients undergoing gastrectomy for cancer were enrolled and subdivided according to the pathologic nodal involvement of their disease (N+ vs N0). Molecular profiling was performed by cDNA microarray on tumor tissue and healthy mucosa. Data were processed to identify differently expressed genes. Selected genes were categorized with gene ontology. Results: Compared to healthy gastric mucosa, 52 genes were differently expressed in N+ patients, and 50 genes in N0 patients. Forty-five genes were similarly regulated in N+ and N0 patients, whereas 12 genes were differently expressed between N+ and N0 patients. Seven genes were exclusively expressed in N+ patients: Egr-1 was upregulated; Claudin-18, AKR1C2, Cathepsin E, CA II, TFF 1, and progastricsin were downregulated. Five genes were exclusively expressed in N0 patients: Complement C5 receptor 1, PLA2/VII, and MMP- 9 were upregulated; MAO-A and ID-4 were downregulated. Conclusions: Microarray analysis could be a valuable tool to identify genes associated with lymph node metastasis in gastric cancer. This technique could improve the selection of patients with locally advanced disease who are candidates for extended lymph node dissection, multimodal treatment options, or alternative therapeutic strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are of clinical interest because of their validated safety profile and their tremendous biological properties. Nonetheless, variable clinical outcomes have been reported in the literature. Non-reproducible results are attributed in part to the cellular heterogeneity of MSCs, which makes consistent conclusions about MSC therapeutic potential difficult. The identification of new characteristics aiming to select homogeneous and functional MSCs batches is a real challenge to spread this therapeutic approach. This is particularly important for complex tissue sources like placenta. Canine placenta-derived MSCs (P-MSC) populations were isolated from 18 placentas collected at full-term and evaluated according to the ISCT minimal criteria, including morphological assessment, phenotypic evaluation, immunomodulatory properties and in vitro differentiation ability. No significant difference was found. Nonetheless, dynamic variations of the expression levels of the CD90 and MHCI markers were reported among the cellular populations during the cell passages. In particular, our data showed that the MHCIlow/CD90high sub-population display high proliferative activity, along with high chondrogenic differentiation ability. These results suggest that a better characterization of the MSCs bulk populations, based on a multiparametric data evaluation may help to standardize the cellular products. This could help to respond to industrial challenges for drug development [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Refractory feline chronic gingivostomatitis (FCGS) is a debilitating oral mucosal inflammatory disease. Two perfusions of 20.10E6 of fresh Adipose Mesenchymal Stromal Cells (MSCs) are necessary to dampen inflammatory clinical signs (Arzi 2017). Neonatal MSCs have potent immunomodulatory functions. In this pilot study, we investigated the feasibility of one infusion of lower dose of cryopreserved neonatal allogeneic MSCs for the treatment of this condition. 8 cats suffering from refractory GSCF (not responding to tooth extraction, total (n=6) or partial (n=2)) were treated by board-certified veterinary dental specialists at 3 medical centers. All cats received a single IV perfusion of 10.10E6 cryopreserved neonatal MSCs. Follow up evaluations were scheduled at 15 days, 2,3, and 6 months following cells administration. Clinical disease severity was evaluated by dental specialists using validated stomatitis disease activity index (SDAI) scoring system (ranging from 0 (no disease) to 24 (severe disease)). Owners completed a questionnaire scoring appetite, wellness, activity level, along with general behavior, on a scale of 0-3 for each parameter. All 8 cats completed the study. No adverse effect has been reported during the 6 months follow up, except one case of mild vomiting during perfusion, a common immediate transfusion reaction in cats. Animals with total tooth extraction (n=6) responded all positively to the treatment with substantial clinical improvement, as assessed by a significant improvement of the SDAI score up to 3 months post-treatment (SDAI score range [9-13] D0 vs [2-9] M3 ; p<0,05; Friedman test). Similar results were observed with the 2 cats with partial tooth extraction (SDAI score decreasing from 14 (D0) to 2 (M6) for both animals). Owners accordingly reported also a satisfactory evolution of their animals. These data reported for the first time that single perfusion of cryopreserved neonatal MSCs is safe and effective for long-term clinical improvement (up to 6 months) in cats suffering from GSCF with total or partial tooth extraction. It paves the way of new therapeutic approaches for the treatment of refractory severe oral lesion and potentially to the translation to human invalidating stomatitis. Arzi B et al., (2017) Therapeutic Efficacy of Fresh, Allogeneic Mesenchymal Stem Cells for Severe Refractory Feline Chronic Gingivostomatitis. Stem Cell Translational Medicine [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]