A defining characteristic of individuals diagnosed with alcohol use disorder (AUD) is that negative outcomes related to drinking do not lead them to reduce their alcohol use. In rodent models of AUD, this characteristic has been studied by adding the bitter tastant quinine to an ethanol solution. In this study, we extended this approach to a nonhuman primate model in which the ability of quinine to decrease the choice of a 4% ethanol solution vs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFT cell exhaustion refers to a dysfunctional state in which effector T cells present a decreased ability to proliferate and to produce cytokines, while the co-expression of inhibitory receptors increases. We investigated global and donor-specific T cell responses in a cohort of stable, living-donor kidney transplant patients that received similar immunosuppression. After transplantation, an increase in the ratio of TIGIT + /CD226 + in mCD4 + T cells (r = 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntradialytic hypotension can lead to superimposed organ hypoperfusion and ultimately worsens long-term kidney outcomes in critically ill patients requiring kidney replacement therapy. Acetate-free biofiltration (AFB), an alternative technique to bicarbonate-based hemodialysis (B-IHD) that does not require dialysate acidification, may improve hemodynamic and metabolic tolerance of dialysis. In this study, we included 49 mechanically ventilated patients requiring 4 h dialysis (AFB sessions = 66; B-IHD sessions = 62).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Connective tissue diseases, including systemic sclerosis and idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIMs), are a very rare cause of thrombotic microangiopathies (TMAs). Whether dysregulation of the complement pathways underlies these secondary forms of TMA and may be targeted by complement blocking agents remains elusive.
Methods: Kidney pathology and outcomes of 18 critically ill patients with TMA related to inflammatory myopathy flare-up (IIM, =7) or scleroderma renal crisis (SRC, =11; biopsy =9) are assessed.
Introduction: During the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic, several physicians have questioned pursuing belatacept in kidney-transplant patients in order to reduce the risk of nosocomial transmission during the monthly infusion. The effect of the conversion from belatacept to another immunosuppressive regimen is underreported. The aim of the present retrospective study was to assess the effect on kidney function and the clinical outcome of the conversion from belatacept to another regimen.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFKnown in less than half a century, borreliosis, or Lyme disease, is a zoonosis caused by the tick bite. It is the most common vector disease in Europe and the United States. Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, the bacterium in question, is fitted with a "cunning device" that allows it to trick the immune system and implant the infection chronically.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe present work concerns the measurements obtained with the Tungsten (W) Environment in Steady-state Tokamak (WEST) visible spectroscopy system during the first experimental campaign. This system has been developed in the framework of the WEST project that equipped the existing Tore Supra device with a tungsten divertor in order to test actively cooled tungsten Plasma Facing Components (PFC) in view of preparing for ITER operation. The goal of this diagnostic is to measure the PFC sources and the deuterium recycling with spectral, spatial, and temporal resolution adapted to the predicted power deposition profiles on the objects observed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIdentifying the genomic bases of adaptation to novel environments is a long-term objective in evolutionary biology. Because genetic differentiation is expected to increase between locally adapted populations at the genes targeted by selection, scanning the genome for elevated levels of differentiation is a first step towards deciphering the genomic architecture underlying adaptive divergence. The pea aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum is a model of choice to address this question, as it forms a large complex of plant-specialized races and cryptic species, resulting from recent adaptive radiation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe faster evolution of X chromosomes has been documented in several species, and results from the increased efficiency of selection on recessive alleles in hemizygous males and/or from increased drift due to the smaller effective population size of X chromosomes. Aphids are excellent models for evaluating the importance of selection in faster-X evolution because their peculiar life cycle and unusual inheritance of sex chromosomes should generally lead to equivalent effective population sizes for X and autosomes. Because we lack a high-density genetic map for the pea aphid, whose complete genome has been sequenced, we first assigned its entire genome to the X or autosomes based on ratios of sequencing depth in males (X0) to females (XX).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEmergence of polyphagous herbivorous insects entails significant adaptation to recognize, detoxify and digest a variety of host-plants. Despite of its biological and practical importance - since insects eat 20% of crops - no exhaustive analysis of gene repertoires required for adaptations in generalist insect herbivores has previously been performed. The noctuid moth Spodoptera frugiperda ranks as one of the world's worst agricultural pests.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Anaesthesiologists may occasionally manage life-threatening operating room (OR) emergencies. Managing OR emergencies implies real-time analysis of often complicated situations, prompt medical knowledge retrieval, coordinated teamwork and effective decision making in stressful settings. Checklists are recommended to improve performance and reduce the risk of medical errors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnaesth Crit Care Pain Med
February 2017
Background And Objective: High-fidelity medical simulation is a source of stress for participants. The aim of this study was to assess if repeated simulated courses decrease perceived stress and/or physiological stress level and increase performance in anaesthesiology registrars.
Method: Fourteen anaesthesiology specialty registrars participated individually in three successive sessions of crisis simulation in the operating room.
Study Objective: Clinical reasoning by anesthesiology residents in emergency situations where optimal management is uncertain could be improved by setting up a tutored practice exchange group. This study attempted to evaluate the impact of a practice exchange group (PEG), tutored by a senior anesthesiologist, on anesthesiology residents in emergency situations. Changes in clinical reasoning were measured by script concordance tests (SCT).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: This pilot study attempted to evaluate the impact of a practice exchange group (PEG) tutored by a senior anaesthesiologist on clinical reasoning performance of anaesthesiology residents for uncertain situations. Changes in clinical reasoning were measured by script concordance tests (SCT).
Methods: First, a curriculum, with educational objectives and assessment tools, was proposed to all residents at the beginning of their 6-month training.
Unmapped reads are often discarded from the analysis of whole-genome re-sequencing, but new biological information and insights can be uncovered through their analysis. In this paper, we investigate unmapped reads from the re-sequencing data of 33 pea aphid genomes from individuals specialized on different host plants. The unmapped reads for each individual were retrieved following mapping to the Acyrthosiphon pisum reference genome and its mitochondrial and symbiont genomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBioinformatics
December 2014
Motivation: Insertions play an important role in genome evolution. However, such variants are difficult to detect from short-read sequencing data, especially when they exceed the paired-end insert size. Many approaches have been proposed to call short insertion variants based on paired-end mapping.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) has heterogeneous clinical and biological behavior. Whole-genome and -exome sequencing has contributed to the characterization of the mutational spectrum of the disease, but the underlying transcriptional profile is still poorly understood. We have performed deep RNA sequencing in different subpopulations of normal B-lymphocytes and CLL cells from a cohort of 98 patients, and characterized the CLL transcriptional landscape with unprecedented resolution.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHealth Care Manag Sci
March 2013
The work presented here is with a view to improving performance of sterilization services in hospitals. We carried out a survey in a large number of health establishments in the Rhône-Alpes region in France. Based on the results of this survey and a detailed study of a specific service, we have built a generic model.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnnu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc
April 2009
Elders live preferently in their own home, but with aging comes the loss of autonomy and associated risks. In order to help them live longer in safe conditions, we need a tool to automatically detect their loss of autonomy by assessing the degree of performance of activities of daily living. This article presents an approach enabling the activities recognition of an elder living alone in a home equipped with noninvasive sensors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnnu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc
March 2008
In order to help elders living alone to age in place independently and safely, it can be useful to have an assistant tool that can automatically assess their dependence and issue an alert if there is any loss of autonomy. The dependence can be assessed by the degree of performance, by the elders, of activities of daily living. This article presents an approach enabling the activity recognition for an elder living alone in a Health Smart Home equipped with noninvasive sensors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDeveloping chick motoneurons depend on as yet unidentified factors from the periphery and the central nervous system for their survival. Using cultures of purified embryonic motoneurons, we show that basic fibroblast growth factor (FGF-2) or transforming growth factor-beta 3 (TGF beta 3) each have only low survival-promoting activity when tested alone, but act synergistically to keep motoneurons alive for at least 3 days. Glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), another member of the TGF beta family, was itself sufficient to maintain a population of motoneurons.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe compared the survival requirements of early- and late-born motoneurons from E5 chicken spinal cord. Density gradient centrifugation followed by immunopanning using SC1 antibody allowed us to purify two size classes of motoneuron. Large motoneurons retained by 6.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeuromuscul Disord
June 1994
The existence of factors that promote motoneuron survival in the spinal cord at critical stages of development was first deduced 50 yr ago. The large amount of work that has been put into characterizing such factors reflects both their biological importance and the hope that such molecules may be used therapeutically to slow motoneuron death in pathologies such as the spinal muscular atrophies and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Since 1990, several factors have been shown to have in vitro and/or in vivo activities that suggest they play a role in regulating motoneuron survival.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEmbryonic spinal motor neurons are thought to depend for survival on unidentified factors secreted both by their peripheral targets and by cells within the central nervous system. The neurotrophins are a family of polypeptides required for survival of discrete central and peripheral neuronal populations in vivo and in vitro. In spite of their ability to reduce motor neuron death in vivo, the known neurotrophins have been thought to be without direct effect on motor neurons.
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