Ultrasonic texture motion analysis: theory and simulation.

A theoretical model was previously developed to evaluate the relationship between the dynamics of ultrasonic speckle and its underlying tissue. The model is divided into an instrumental part represented by the point spread function (in the far field) of the ultrasonic apparatus and a moving tissue component described by a collection of scatterers. By computing the convolution of these terms and then the envelope, one obtains a simulated ultrasonic speckle pattern sequence which shows speckle motions closely linked to the tissue dynamics when small motion amplitudes are involved.

[Cardiac surgery: predictive mortality index, severity and care of illness. 243 cases].

Objectives: Medical teams are keenly aware of the need to evaluate health care quality and the cost/benefit ratio. We prospectively applied three proposed indexes, designed for predicting mortality, for evaluating disease gravity, and for evaluating health care in intensive care patients, in two populations of patients undergoing heart surgery.

Methods: From January to June 1991, 243 patients (mean age 58.

ORL1, a novel member of the opioid receptor family. Cloning, functional expression and localization.

Selective PCR amplification of human and mouse genomic DNAs with oligonucleotides encoding highly conserved regions of the delta-opioid and somatostatin receptors generated a human DNA probe (hOP01, 761 bp) and its murine counterpart (mOP86, 447 bp). hOP01 was used to screen a cDNA library from human brainstem. A clone (named hORL1) was isolated, sequenced and found to encode a protein of 370 amino acids whose primary structure displays the seven putative membrane-spanning domains of a G protein-coupled membrane receptor.

[Susceptibility of Anopheles gambiae to insecticides in the Ivory Coast].

Studies on the susceptibility of Anopheles gambiae to insecticides were carried out in rice field areas of Côte-d'Ivoire. An. gambiae larvae populations from Côte-d'Ivoire were resistant to DDT but susceptible to organophosphorous insecticides.

SK-N-BE: a human neuroblastoma cell line containing two subtypes of delta-opioid receptors.

A human neuroblastoma cell line, SK-N-BE, was shown to express a substantial amount of opioid receptors (200-300 fmol/mg of protein). A ligand binding profile of these receptors revealed that they could belong to two distinct subtypes of delta-opioid receptors. Results from sucrose-gradient sedimentation experiments were compared with similar data obtained with the mu-opioid receptor of the rabbit cerebellum and the delta-opioid receptor of the hybrid NG108-15 cell line and have shown that the opioid receptor of the SK-N-BE cell line behaved hydrodynamically as an intermediate between mu- and delta-opioid receptors.

Chronic morphine induces tolerance and desensitization of mu-opioid receptor but not down-regulation in rabbit.

Tolerance to chronic morphine treatment was studied in adult rabbits and modifications in the number and the state of coupling of the mu-opioid receptors were investigated in the cerebellum. Tolerance was induced by the subcutaneous injection of progressively increasing doses of morphine (5-100 mg/kg/injection) over 6 days and its occurrence was controlled by a nociceptive test: electrical stimulation of the dental pulp. At the end of the treatment, the rabbits were tolerant to the analgesic effects of morphine and the tolerance phenomenon correlated well with a significant decrease in the adenylate cyclase inhibition (approximately 60%).

[Aspects of malaria in a village of the humid savannah of the Ivory Coast].

Malaria is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in Ivory Coast. This fact justifies further epidemiological investigations to define regional features and allow implementation of the most suitable control measures. To this end, a study focusing on transmission of malaria was conducted between January and May 1993 concurrently with malarial parasite identification in Allokoukro, a village in the humid savannah in the central region of Ivory Coast.

[Value of the superior trans-septal approach in mitral valve replacements].

Mitral valve exposure is widely improved by the superior-transseptal approach (STS). The diffusion of this technique has been restricted because of the possibility of detrimental effects of sino-atrial arrhythmias, especially in patients in sinus rhythm preoperatively. Between April 1991 and December 1992, we performed mitral valve replacement (MVR) on 55 patients by an STS approach.

Factors affecting reproducibility of random amplified polymorphic DNA fingerprinting.

The reproducibility of random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) was tested using two different thermal cyclers and three brands of Taq DNA polymerase. Three different oligonucleotides were used to obtain patterns of amplified fragments from three DNA samples (Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, and Thermococcus littoralis). Experiments were repeated three to six times.

Staining technique for phosphatases in polyacrylamide gels.

The described staining technique affords a means to detect and evaluate directly on the electrophoresis polyacrylamide gel the activity of phosphatases present in complex extracts or in purified solutions, in particular phosphatases requiring alkaline pH for optimum activity, e.g. fructose bisphosphatase, sedoheptulose bisphosphatase, and alkaline phosphatase, and 5'-nucleotidase.

Immobilization as a tool for the stabilization of lignin peroxidase produced by Phanerochaete chrysosporium INA-12.

Lignin peroxidase immobilization was achieved by covalent coupling on CNBr-Sepharose 4B. Protein immobilization yield was around 80%. For veratryl alcohol oxidation, in the presence of hydrogen peroxide, both soluble and bound enzymes exhibited the same pH profile with an optimum near 2.

[Opioid receptors, tolerance and dependence].

Opioid substances act, both in the central and peripheral nervous systems, by regulating--via a specific receptor of the mu, delta or kappa type and a G protein--the activity of either of three recognized cellular effectors: adenylate cyclase, a K+ channel and a Ca++ channel. In the short term, opioid effects are of a neuromodulatory origin: they are likely to reflect opioid inhibition of neurotransmitter release (e.g.

An improved method for the purification of lignin peroxidases from Phanerochaete chrysosporium INA-12: properties of two major isoforms.

1. Phanerochaete chrysosporium INA-12 secretes several lignin peroxidase isoenzymes. This paper reports an improved procedure for the purification of the different isoforms compared to those previously described.

The delta-opioid receptor in neuroblastoma x glioma NG 108-15 hybrid cells is strongly precoupled to a G-protein.

Neuroblastoma x glioma NG 108-15 hybrid cells contain a homogeneous population of delta-opioid receptors. NG 108-15 membranes were labelled either with the opiate agonist, [3H]etorphine or the opiate antagonist [3H]diprenorphine under various conditions: absence or presence of Na+ and/or 5'-guanylylimidophosphate (GppNHp). Ultracentrifugation in linear sucrose gradients after digitonin solubilization of prelabeled receptor was performed.

Effect of temperature and pH on factor XIIIa from human placenta.

1. The activation of the native enzyme was achieved by a proteolytic procedure involving thrombin. 2.

[Cardiac compression by a large thymic cyst. Apropos of a case, review of the literature].

Thymic cysts are rare and almost always asymptomatic. The authors report the case of a 45 year old woman with a thymic cyst diagnosed after recurrent right sided heart failure resulting in signs suggestive of adiastole, regressing after "pleural" (mainly cystic) aspiration and diuretic therapy without any morphological or functional changes on Doppler echocardiography. This report concerns a rare tumour, with an exceptional volume (2 litres) extending down the cardiac borders and causing cardiac compression.

Two-sites immunoradiometric assay using monoclonal antibodies for the determination of serum human sex hormone binding globulin.

An immunoradiometric assay (IRMA) for the determination of human Sex Hormone Binding Globulin (SHBG) in serum is described. This IRMA uses three mouse monoclonal antibodies. Two monoclonals anti-human SHBG are coated on tubes and used as capture antibodies.