Pentafulvene-Maleimide Cycloaddition for Bioorthogonal Ligation.

The applications of bioconjugation chemistry are rapidly expanding, and the addition of new strategies to the bioconjugation and ligation toolbox will further advance progress in this field. Herein, we present a detailed study of the Diels-Alder cycloaddition (DAC) reaction between pentafulvenes and maleimides in aqueous solutions and investigate the reaction as an emerging bioconjugation strategy. The DAC reactions were found to proceed efficiently, quantitatively yielding cycloadducts with reaction rates ranging up to ∼0.

Hindcasting the impacts of land-use changes on bird communities with species distribution models of Bird Atlas data.

Habitat loss and degradation induced by human development are among the major threats to biodiversity worldwide. In this study, we tested our ability to predict the response of bird communities (128 species) to land-use changes in southern Quebec (~483,100 km ) over the last 30 yr (between 1984-1989 and 2010-2014) by using species distribution models (299,302 occurrences in 30,408 locations) from a hindcasting perspective. Results were grouped by functional guilds to infer potential impacts on ecosystem services, and to relate model transferability (i.

Laparoscopic Pyloromyotomy: A Study of the Learning Curve.

Introduction:  Laparoscopic pyloromyotomy (LPM) is a minimally invasive surgical technique used in pyloric stenosis treatment. This technique is safe, effective, and does not show more complications than laparotomy. Nevertheless, this technique requires an acquisition period to be optimally applied.

Multispecies mass mortality of marine fauna linked to a toxic dinoflagellate bloom.

Following heavy precipitation, we observed an intense algal bloom in the St. Lawrence Estuary (SLE) that coincided with an unusually high mortality of several species of marine fish, birds and mammals, including species designated at risk. The algal species was identified as Alexandrium tamarense and was determined to contain a potent mixture of paralytic shellfish toxins (PST).

Neonatal gastric outlet obstruction by isolated pyloric atresia, an often forgotten diagnosis.

Background: Pyloric atresia (PA) is a rare condition, and may be misdiagnosed and especially confused for duodenal atresia pre-operatively. We looked for clues to avoiding pre-operative misdiagnosis and hence allow the best neonatal medical and surgical management.

Methods: A retrospective case-note review was carried out of the five patients managed in four centres with the diagnosis of isolated PA.

Validation of the Charlson comorbidity index in patients undergoing revision total hip arthroplasty.

Purpose: The Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) was developed to quantify the influence of comorbidities on survival. The age-related CCI respects patients' age as an additional risk factor. There are several studies available based on administrative data regarding functional outcome, implant survival, resource use and length of hospital stay in patients undergoing primary total hip arthroplasty (THA).

Acetabular defect reconstruction in revision hip arthroplasty with a modular revision system and biological defect augmentation.

Purpose: Revision of failed total hip arthroplasty with severe acetabular bone loss represents a rare but challenging problem. Anatomic reconstruction with biological defect augmentation as solid bone transplants or cancellous bone restores bone stock while providing good component stability. The objective of this study was to present short- to mid-term results of revision total hip arthroplasty with a modular ring system in a consecutive series of patients with severe acetabular bone loss.

Management of severe periacetabular bone loss combined with pelvic discontinuity in revision hip arthroplasty.

Purpose: Revision of failed total hip arthroplasty with massive acetabular bone loss resulting in pelvic discontinuity represents a rare but challenging problem. The objective of this study was to present short to mid-term results of revision total hip arthroplasty with a custom-made acetabular implant in a consecutive series of patients with pelvic discontinuity.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 18 consecutive patients with massive acetabular bone loss (Paprosky Type 3B) resulting in pelvic discontinuity reconstructed with revision total hip arthroplasty using a custom-made acetabular component.

Involvement of germline DDX1-MYCN duplication in inherited nephroblastoma.

This report concerns a 3-year-old girl with prenatal bilateral nephroblastomatosis and a family history of nephroblastoma. This girl had a chromosome 8 pericentric inversion inherited from her father. This inversion was observed in healthy individuals of the family and was absent in other individuals suffering from embryonic kidney tumor.

On the conversion of tritium units to mass fractions for hydrologic applications.

We develop a general equation for converting laboratory-reported tritium levels, expressed either as concentrations (tritium isotope number fractions) or mass-based specific activities, to mass fractions in aqueous systems. Assuming that all tritium is in the form of monotritiated water simplifies the derivation and is shown to be reasonable for most environmental settings encountered in practice. The general equation is nonlinear.

Metals, trace elements, polychlorinated biphenyls, organochlorine pesticides, and brominated flame retardants in tissues of Barrow's goldeneyes (Bucephala islandica) wintering in the St. Lawrence marine ecosystem, eastern Canada.

The eastern North American population of Barrow's goldeneyes winters in the St. Lawrence Estuary and Gulf of St. Lawrence where the sediments and food web are known to be contaminated with inorganic and organic compounds.

[Theodor Huzella and the initiation of research on the interactions between cells and the extracellular matrix].

Interactions between cells and the surrounding "biomatrix", mediated by receptors as integrins or the elastin receptor is the most important topic in up to date research on connective tissues. Looking for the origin of this concept, one finds the pioneering work of Theodor Huzella, professor of histology-embryology at the Medical University of Budapest during pre-world war II decades. Using time-laps micro-cinematography in reflected light, he visualized the important role of connective tissue fibers, prepared in his laboratory, for the oriented migration of normal and malignant cells.

[Fiftieth anniversary of the French Society for Connective Tissue Research].

The Society was founded in 1962, at an international meeting organized at the Biomedical Institute rue des Saints-Pères, in Paris in the Department of Biochemistry headed at that time by Pr. Max F. Jayle, and published in the "Exposés Annuels de Biochimie Médicale" in 1963.

Rapid homeostatic response of H4IIE cells to diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid is not due to changes in the amount or localization of ZnT-1 protein.

We have demonstrated that reducing zinc availability with the extracellular chelator diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA) causes rapid inhibition of cellular zinc efflux in H4IIE hepatoma cells but increases zinc efflux in primary hepatocytes. Similar differences were also observed between the rat anterior pituitary cell line GH3 and primary anterior pituitary cells. We hypothesized that the difference between the transformed and primary cells is due to differential regulation of ZnT-1 or SLC-30A-1 because this is the only zinc efflux transporter localized to the plasma membrane.

Contrasting residence times and fluxes of water and sulfate in two small forested watersheds in Virginia, USA.

Watershed mass balances for solutes of atmospheric origin may be complicated by the residence times of water and solutes at various time scales. In two small forested headwater catchments in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, USA, mean annual export rates of SO(4)(=) differ by a factor of 2, and seasonal variations in SO(4)(=) concentrations in atmospheric deposition and stream water are out of phase. These features were investigated by comparing (3)H, (35)S, delta(34)S, delta(2)H, delta(18)O, delta(3)He, CFC-12, SF(6), and chemical analyses of open deposition, throughfall, stream water, and spring water.

Resonant laser ablation of metals detected by atomic emission in a microwave plasma and by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry.

It has been shown that an increase in sensitivity and selectivity of detection of an analyte can be achieved by tuning the ablation laser wavelength to match that of a resonant gas-phase transition of that analyte. This has been termed resonant laser ablation (RLA). For a pulsed tunable nanosecond laser, the data presented here illustrate the resonant enhancement effect in pure copper and aluminum samples, chromium oxide thin films, and for trace molybdenum in stainless steel samples, and indicate two main characteristics of the RLA phenomenon.

[Failures of endoscopic treatment of vesico-ureteric reflux in children using Macroplastique].

Introduction: Macroplastique has been used since 1993 for the endoscopic treatment of vesico-ureteric reflux in children with a failure rate per injected ureteric unit of 21%. The objective of this study was to analyse these failures on the basis of endoscopic findings on injection, ultrasound data at 2 months post-endoscopy and operative findings during the secondary reimplantation.

Material And Methods: The authors retrospectively reviewed cases of failure of Macroplastique treatment from September 1993 to December 2002.

[Endoscopic treatment of vesicoureteric reflux (VUR) in children: results of 9 years of use of Macroplastique (polydimethylsiloxane)].

Objective: Since 1993, the authors have used a Macroplastique (polydimethylsiloxane) implant for the endoscopic treatment of vesicoureteric reflux (VUR) in children instead of Teflon (polytetrafluoroethylene). They report their results after 9 years of use of Macroplastique and analyse their failures.

Material And Methods: 477 children with 669 refluxing ureters, classified as grade I reflux in 96 cases (14%), grade II reflux in 435 cases (65%), grade III reflux in 125 cases (19%), and grade IV reflux in 13 cases (2%), were treated at Tours University Hospital by the same surgeon, by injection of 0.

Increase in total blood antioxidant status and selenium levels in black patients with active vitiligo.

Background: Oxidative stress could be an important phenomenon leading to melanocyte death in vitiligo. The accumulation of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and low catalase levels have recently been demonstrated in the epidermis of vitiligo patients. Few abnormalities of antioxidants have been found in the blood of patients with vitiligo, except for an elevation of selenium.