Discovery of a tsunami deposit from the Bronze Age Santorini eruption at Malia (Crete): impact, chronology, extension.

A geomorphological survey immediately west of the Minoan town of Malia (Crete) shows that a tsunami resulting from the Bronze Age Santorini eruption reached the outskirts of the Palatial center. Sediment cores testify a unique erosional event during the Late Minoan period, followed locally by a high energy sand unit comprising marine fauna. This confirms that a tsunami impacted northern Crete and caused an inundation up to 400 m inland at Malia.

[Therapeutic education, a source of inspiration for students].

Therapeutic education contributes to improving the health of patients suffering from chronic diseases, their quality of life and that of their loved ones. It is complementary and inseparable from treatment and care, symptom relief and prevention of complications. Inspired by the modalities of this approach towards children suffering from cystic fibrosis, students from a nursing training institute in Ile-de-France share their work on this theme.

Parents' expectations of staff in the early bonding process with their premature babies in the intensive care setting: a qualitative multicenter study with 60 parents.

Background: During the first weeks of hospitalization, premature babies and their parents encounter difficulties in establishing early bonds and interactions. Only a few studies have explored what caregivers can do to meet parents' needs in relation to these interactions and help optimize them. This study sought to explore parents' perception of these first interactions and to identify the actions of caregivers that help or hinder its development.

Capnography in spontaneously breathing preterm infants with bronchopulmonary dysplasia.

Background: In adult patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, there is a gradient between end-tidal carbon dioxide (EtCO(2)) and arterial carbon dioxide pressure (PaCO(2)), and the slope of the ascending phase of the capnogram is decreased due to obstruction. Corresponding data are lacking in infants with bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD).

Objectives: To compare PCO(2) -EtCO(2) gradient and capnogram shape in two groups of spontaneously breathing preterm subjects: infants with BPD and infants without respiratory disease (controls).

A conserved switch in sensory processing prepares developing neocortex for vision.

Developing cortex generates endogenous activity that modulates the formation of functional units, but how this activity is altered to support mature function is poorly understood. Using recordings from the visual cortex of preterm human infants and neonatal rats, we report a "bursting" period of visual responsiveness during which the weak retinal output is amplified by endogenous network oscillations, enabling a primitive form of vision. This period ends shortly before delivery in humans and eye opening in rodents with an abrupt switch to the mature visual response.

[Apnea of prematurity: what's new?].

Prematurity apnea remains a major clinical problem that requires treatment choices which are sometimes difficult. Prematurity apnea occurs in most infants of gestational age at birth less than 33 weeks. It is a developmental disorder which usually reflects a "physiological" immaturity of respiratory control.

[Abnormal ocular findings in the nursery and in the first few weeks of life: a mandatory, yet difficult and neglected screening].

Recommendations issued by the French Health Ministry include ocular screening in the first days of life and at 2 and 4 months. The aim is to detect ocular abnormalities requiring early treatment, in order to improve the prognosis. Paediatricians working in the nursery should therefore be trained in order to perform ocular screening, which requires using an ophthalmoscope.

A multicenter, randomized, placebo-controlled trial of prophylactic recombinant granulocyte-colony stimulating factor in preterm neonates with neutropenia.

Objective: To test the hypothesis that prophylactic treatment of neutropenic premature neonates with recombinant granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (rG-CSF) would reduce the incidence of nosocomial infections (NIs).

Study Design: A total of 25 neonatal intensive care units participated in this multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Premature infants of gestational age (GA) View Article and Find Full Text PDF

[Abnormalities of hepatocyte nuclear factor (HNF)-1beta: biological mechanisms, phenotypes, and clinical consequences].

The hepatocyte nuclear factor-1beta encoded by the TCF2 gene plays a role in the specific regulation of gene expression in various tissues such as liver, kidney, intestine, and pancreatic islets and is involved in the embryonic development of these organs. TCF2 mutations are known to be responsible for maturity-onset diabetes of the young type 5, associated with renal manifestations. Several studies have shown that TCF2 mutations are involved in restricted renal phenotypes.

Renal phenotypes related to hepatocyte nuclear factor-1beta (TCF2) mutations in a pediatric cohort.

The hepatocyte nuclear factor-1beta encoded by the TCF2 gene plays a role for the specific regulation of gene expression in various tissues such as liver, kidney, intestine, and pancreatic islets and is involved in the embryonic development of these organs. TCF2 mutations are known to be responsible for the maturity-onset diabetes of the young type 5 associated with renal manifestations. Several observations have suggested that TCF2 mutations may be involved in restricted renal phenotypes.