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International audience; PATHWAY-27 will evaluate the effectiveness of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) alone or in combination with two other bioactives, beta-glucan (BG) and anthocyanins (AC) in reducing some risk factors of Metabolic Syndrome MS. These compounds will be used as ingredients of bioactive-enriched foods (BEF), enriching 3 different widely-consumed food matrices (dairy-, bakery-, egg products) and not as pure compounds. This will allow a better understanding of possible synergisms and bioactive-matrix interactions. BEFs to be tested in clinical studies have been designed, selected and produced by different Pathway’ partners. The aim of this multi-centre, randomized, double- blind, parallel pilot study is to identify the BEF achieving the greatest effect on lipid parameters (reduction in serum triglycerides or increase in HDL-C). The selected BEF will then be tested in a subsequent, larger interventional study. Three different matrices containing DHA, BG and AC given alone or of DHA associated with BG or AC will be tested. 300 men and women at risk for MS will be investigated (either one or two of the following criteria should be met: elevated waist circumference, elevated fasting trigycerides, reduced fasting HDL-C, elevated blood pressure or hypotensive treatment or elevated fasting glucose). MRI, ULE, CRNH will investigate BEFs based on either bakery, dairy or egg products, representing a different food matrix. Each pilot study will be conducted on 100 volunteers for a period of 4 weeks. Participants will be divided in 5 groups receiving BEF enriched with DHA, BG, or AC alone or DHA+BG, or DHA+AC. At baseline and after 4 weeks of intervention, fasting blood samples will be collected for further analysis. Additionally, blood pressure and anthropometric data will be determined. The 3 most effective BEF (one for each matrix) having the most significant impact on end-points selected for this study will be used in a larger randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. The aim will be to understand the mechanisms underlying the effects observed on primary and secondary endpoints related to the consumption of BEF. Omics approaches will be used to examine metabolic changes and potentially identify new markers of effects.

Understanding pedestrian behaviour and controlling interactions with pedestrians is of critical importance for autonomous vehicles, but remains a complex and challenging problem. This study infers pedestrian intent during possible road-crossing interactions, to assist autonomous vehicle decisions to yield or not yield when approaching them, and tests a simple heuristic model of intent on pedestrian-vehicle trajectory data for the first time. It relies on a heuristic approach based on the observed positions of the agents over time. The method can predict pedestrian crossing intent, crossing or stopping, with 96% accuracy by the time the pedestrian reaches the curbside, on the standard Daimler pedestrian dataset. This result is important in demarcating scenarios which have a clear winner and can be predicted easily with the simple heuristic, from those which may require more complex game-theoretic models to predict and control.

This paper presents a complete method for automatic and robust control configuration selection for linear systems which relies upon acquired process data under gaussian noise excitation. The selection of the configuration is based on the estimation of the Interaction Measure named Participation Matrix. This estimation is derived with uncertainty bounds, which allows to determine online whether the uncertainty is sufficiently low to derive a robust decision on the control configuration to be used or if the uncertainty should be reduced by e.g. prolonging the experiment to obtain more data. Integrated Process Control based on Distributed In-Situ Sensors into Raw Material and Energy Feedstock, DISIRE OPTi Optimisation of District Heating Cooling systems, OPTi

This poster presents the SET-Nav project model linkage and the SET-Nav case studies which will produce the SET-Nav pathways in order to support the SET-Plan implementation.

A general framework for Region of Attraction (ROA) analysis is presented. The considered system consists of the feedback interconnection of a plant with polynomial dynamics and a bounded operator. The input/output behavior of the latter is characterized using an Integral Quadratic Constraint (IQC), for which it is assumed an hard factorization holds. This formulation allows to analyze problems involving hard-nonlinearities and uncertainties, adding to the state of practice typically limited to polynomial vector fields. An iterative algorithm based on Sum of Squares optimization is proposed to compute inner estimates of the ROA. The effectiveness of this approach is demonstrated on a numerical example featuring a nonlinear closed-loop system with saturated inputs.

La regeneración es un proceso crítico en la dinámica de los bosques, que presenta una marcada heterogeneidad temporal y espacial. En este trabajo se pretende avanzar en el conocimiento de las variables bióticas y abióticas que determinan a escala local la presencia, abundancia y crecimiento primario de plántulas de tres especies de pino: Pinus sylvestris, P. nigra y P. uncinata, y determinar el efecto relativo del clima. Para ello se muestrearon 216 parcelas distribuidas a lo largo de gradientes climáticos en siete localidades montañosas. Se censaron las plántulas recién emergidas y el resto de juveniles, y se midieron los crecimientos anuales. Los resultados mostraron diferencias significativas entre especies con efectos directos e indirectos del clima sobre la demografía y el estado de los juveniles. En las tres especies se apreció que la supervivencia de los juveniles aparecía desplazada hacia altitudes mayores respecto donde se producía el óptimo de la emergencia. Las relaciones locales de competencia y facilitación ejercieron efectos importantes sobre la regeneración de las tres especies, siendo éstos modulados por el clima. Ministerio Español de Innovación y Ciencia Consolider-Montes (CSD2008_00040), Los autores agradecen a toda la gente que hizo posible el trabajo de campo: R. Freire, B. Santamaría, J. Martínez, D. López, R. Ruíz-Puche, E. Molina, L. Ivorra, S. Martín, B. Ros y C. Boubekeur. También el apoyo estadístico de R. Manson. Proyecto europeo BACCARA (CE: FP7-226299, 7FP) 13 páginas, 4 figuras y 3 tablas Peer reviewed

International audience; AbstractHoneybee workers develop from fertilised eggs, but those reared in a queenless colony develop into ‘rebel’ workers, which are more queen-like than typical workers. Rebels develop after an old queen leaves with a swarm and before a new queen hatches. We hypothesised that larval food lacking queen mandibular pheromones trigger the rebel phenotype. Larvae reared under queenright or queenless conditions were additionally fed with water or a drop of macerated queen mandibular glands. After following development of the bees and subjecting them to dissection, we found that those reared with a queen or fed the macerated glands under queenless conditions developed into typical workers. Only those workers reared without a queen and without macerated glands added to their food developed into rebels; these rebels had more ovarioles, smaller hypopharyngeal glands, and larger mandibular and Dufour’s glands than did typical workers. This is the first evidence that larval perception of the presence or absence of queen pheromones causes an alternative development strategy.

Sharpshooters (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae, Cicadellinae) and spittlebugs (Hemiptera: Cercopoidea) are potential vectors of X. fastidiosa, which is associated with Olive leaf scorch (OLS) in Brazil. Identification of key vector species involved in OLS spread depends on systematic surveys of these insects in olive orchards. Here we compared methods for sampling sharpshooters and spittlebugs in orchards of two localities in the states of Minas Gerais (Maria da Fé) and São Paulo (Cabreúva), from June/2015 to Nov/2016. In each orchard, yellow sticky cards (30 x 10 cm) were fortnightly hanged on nine olive trees. Two cards were placed per tree, at 0.8 and 1.6 m above ground. In addition, sweep net samplings were performed every 3 months on the tree canopy (2 sweeps per tree; 60 trees per orchard) and ground cover (3 samples per orchard; 30 sweeps per sample). Among 28 prevalent species of sharpshooters and spittlebugs, few were common to both areas (25%) or to both sampling methods (sweep net and sticky traps) in the two areas (26.7-50%). The prevalent species were trapped in similar numbers at 0.8 and 1.6 m by sticky cards, except for 5 species that were more frequent at 0.8 m. In contrast, few species (7.7-20%) were common by sweeping the canopy vs. ground cover. The observed variations indicate that vector surveys should be done in various localities over a growing region, by combining sticky traps (preferably at 0.8 m above ground) and sweep net (on trees and ground cover).