The long-term prospective multi-centre nationwide (French) observational study FRANCISCO will provide new information on perimembranous ventricular septal defect with left ventricular overload but no pulmonary hypertension in children older than 1 year. Outcomes will be compared according to treatment strategy (watchful waiting, surgical closure, or percutaneous closure) and anatomic features of the defect. The results are expected to provide additional guidance about the optimal treatment of this specific population, which is unclear at present.

Several studies in Western countries have shown an association between cognitive disorders and low BMI or weight loss in elderly people. However, few data are available in Africa. We analysed the association between cognitive disorders and undernutrition among elderly people in Central Africa. A cross-sectional, multicentre, population-based study using a two-phase design was carried out in subjects aged 65 years and above in the Central African Republic (CAR) and the Republic of Congo (ROC). All subjects were interviewed using the Community Screening Interview for Dementia, and those with low performance were clinically assessed by a neurologist and underwent further psychometrical tests. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-IV and Petersen's criteria were required for the diagnoses of dementia and mild cognitive impairment (MCI), respectively. Undernutrition was evaluated using mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) < 24 cm, BMI < 18·5 kg/m2 and arm muscular circumference (AMC) < 5th percentile. Multivariate binary logistic regression models were used to estimate the associations. In CAR, MCI was associated with MUAC < 24 cm (OR 0·7, 95 % CI 0·4, 1·0) and dementia with BMI < 18·5 kg/m2 (OR 2·3, 95 % CI 1·6, 3·1), AMC < 5th percentile (OR 2·3, 95 % CI 1·1, 4·6) and MUAC < 24 cm (OR 1·8, 95 % CI 1·4, 2·4). In ROC, both MCI and dementia were associated with all markers of undernutrition, but only AMC < 5th percentile was significantly associated with MCI (OR 3·1, 95 % CI 1·9, 4·8). In conclusion, cognitive disorders were associated with undernutrition. However, further studies are needed to elucidate the relationship between MCI and undernutrition in CAR.

We present herein a joint physical/physico-chemical study and, more specifically, the first application of Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization coupled with Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) to analyze small-sized ZnO quantum dots (QDs) (2.8-3.1 nm diameter range) synthesized by sol-gel chemistry and stabilized through an aminosilane coating. A careful investigation of the stability of ZnO QDs was initiated once these dots were dispersed in different media (water, biological buffer) for a period up to 3 weeks. Positive ion mode mass spectra MALDI-TOF-MS combined with optical spectrometry was used to monitor the stability of ZnO QDs when aging. Such a unique combination of MALDI-TOF-MS and physico-chemical techniques is likely to bring new insights into the structure analysis, the stability and consequently the potential toxicity of QDs.

We consider a computational model comparing the possible roles of “association” and “simulation” in phonetic decoding, demonstrating that these two routes can contain similar information in some “perfect” communication situations and highlighting situations where their decoding performance differs. We conclude that optimal decoding should involve some sort of fusion of association and simulation in the human brain.

Background: The medical care of elderly patients with psychotic disorders is a matter of major concern. The aim of the study was to investigate health conditions and treatment of elderly patients with psychotic disorders in France.

Methods: The SAGE (Schizophrenia AGEd) study (observational, cross-sectional) was a survey conducted among 123 physicians in France, regarding prescriptions of antipsychotic drugs in elderly patients (≥60 years) suffering from psychotic disorders. The survey was based on a questionnaire addressing the mental and somatic health management of the patients.

Results: Data from 930 patients (mean age: 70.4 years) were collected. Most patients (58.5%) suffered from schizophrenia, 20.8% had delusional disorder and 20.6% hallucinatory chronic psychosis (very-late-onset schizophrenia-like psychosis). 70.8% of them were outpatients, while 29.2% were inpatients. The severity of psychotic symptoms was assessed in 97.8% of patients, but cognitive function was only evaluated in 41.6%. Some 46.5% of patients were treated with atypical antipsychotics alone, 36.2% with classical antipsychotics alone and 17.3% received a combination of both, atypical and classical antipsychotics; 36.3% patients were given antiparkinsonian medication, of whom only 17.8% as preventive treatment; 51.1% of patients had somatic comorbidities, particularly cardiovascular disorders (34.0%). Evaluation of renal and/or liver function to adjust the dose of treatment was done in only 32.1% of patients. Over the previous 12 months, almost half of the patients had had no ECG, glycemia or creatininemia investigated and HDL-cholesterol and triglycerides were available for less than one-third of them.

Conclusions: Antipsychotic and antiparkinsonian drug prescriptions in French aged psychotic patients follow only partially the clinical guidelines and recommendations of consensus conferences. Moreover, cognitive, cardiac and metabolic aspects are not fully managed as expected.

Initiatives for the sustainable development of aquaculture have so far focused on theproduction of codes of conduct, of best management practices, of standards etc., most ofwhich have been developed by international organisations, the industrial sector and nongovernmental organisations. They were, to a large extent, produced using a “topdown” process and inspired by models from intensive industrial shrimp and sea fish farming(mainly salmon). However, most of global aquaculture production comes from small- andmedium-sized farms, essentially in Asia which contributes 92% of the total worldaquaculture production volume. The objective of this article is to define the contours ofsystemic typologies that are able to express the sustainability conditions of aquaculturesystems. The proposed approach builds on surveys of aquaculture systems which differ interms of their biogeographical nature (temperate/tropical and north/south countries) ortheir farming techniques and their governance systems. This work is a prerequisite to anyattempt at an individualised and comparative evaluation of specific aquaculture systemsfrom either global or territorial viewpoints. In order to go beyond the cleavage of atypology based on the differentiation between developed and developing countries, threetypologies were produced. These typologies allow for discriminatory variables to beidentified such as for example the marketing methods or the pace of innovation: astructural typology, a functional typology and a systemic typology. Finally, therepresentations of aquaculture activity and of its sustainability that producers have ofthe 4 different types that emerge from the systemic typology were recorded andanalyzed.

The copper precursor N,N'-diisopropylacetamidinate has been decomposed at low temperature (80-110°C) in a liquid process under a moderate H2 pressure. Depending on the choice of the solvent, the process leads to a colloidal solution of well controlled copper nanoparticles or the deposition of composite Cu-SiO2 films on the surfaces. The latter layer is highly adhesive to silica surface, behaves as an active seed layer for electroless copper deposition and allows a conformal covering inside deep trenches.

Functional hybrid coatings have been elaborated from a polymer matrix incorporating iron oxide nanoparticles. Stable aqueous suspensions of goethite (α-FeOOH) nanorods, obtained by controlled precipitation of Fe3+ ions, were introduced in 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA). The films were spin-coated on glass substrates from the solutions prior to a UV light induced free radical polymerization step. Nanoindentation tests were carried out to investigate the mechanical properties of the hybrid coatings. Swelling measurements and Fourier Transformed Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) were used to characterize the interface between the iron oxide nanoparticles and the PHEMA matrix. Cross-sectional scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was performed to evaluate the dispersion state of the iron oxide particles through the matrix. From a mechanical point of view, iron oxide nanorods yield to a strong reinforcement effect of PHEMA (increase in modulus and hardness by a factor 2 with 5%vol goethite nanoparticles). Origins of such reinforcement are attributed to the existence of highly favourable interactions at the goethite-PHEMA interface combined with a homogeneous dispersion of the particles. The nature of these interactions and evidences of there influence on the mechanical behaviour of the nanohybrid coatings are reported.

The purpose of this study was to assess quantitative and qualitative changes that occurred in the drawing of the human figure during depression and dementia in the elderly. A modified scale version of the Draw a Person Test (DAP) is presented. The first study (80 subjects) enabled the reduction of the number of items from 73 to 20 according to interrater reliability and diagnostic sensitivity to differentiate patients with dementia from control subjects. The second study (160 subjects: 51 with dementia, 70 with major depression, 39 elderly controls) used this 20-item DAP for cognitive assessment. The second study also featured an additional qualitative assessment (DAP 50) considering five components based upon a projective examination of the drawings. Combination of the 20-item DAP and the DAP 50 provides a complete approach to patients in accordance with the affective dimension. Results showed the ability of the 20-item DAP to discriminate dementia from depression with a better cutoff score of 7 and the usefulness of the DAP 50 in the investigation of impaired components during depression and dementia in the elderly, with the goal of specifying key aspects of psychopathology in dementia.