Awe and time perception.

The aim of this study was to systematically examine the effect of awe-inducing stimuli on the judgment of time. Three experiments were conducted using temporal bisection tasks in which participants viewed awe-inducing and no awe-inducing images presented for different durations and were asked to judge whether their duration was similar to a short or long anchor duration. Images of panoramic landscapes and images of the faces of well-known and admired people were used in experiments 1 and 2, respectively.

The feeling of the passage of time against the time of the external clock.

When people say that time is passing faster or slower, they are referring to the clock time. What exactly is the role of this reference to clock time in the awareness of the passage of time? Three experiments were conducted to examine this question. In Experiment 1, participants performed an easy and a difficult task in a condition with or without an external clock.

Simultaneous time processing in children and adults: When attention predicts temporal interference effects.

Children from 5 to 8 years of age, as well as adults, performed a temporal reproduction task in both a solo-timing condition and a multi-timing condition, with different durations presented simultaneously. In the multi-timing condition, all durations were processed because the participants did not know in advance which stimulus needed to be judged. In a first experiment, two or three durations were presented with a synchrony of their onset.

The beneficial effect of synchronized action on motor and perceptual timing in children.

We examined the role of action in motor and perceptual timing across development. Adults and children aged 5 or 8 years old learned the duration of a rhythmic interval with or without concurrent action. We compared the effects of sensorimotor versus visual learning on subsequent timing behaviour in three different tasks: rhythm reproduction (Experiment 1), rhythm discrimination (Experiment 2) and interval discrimination (Experiment 3).

Development of sensorimotor synchronization abilities: Motor and cognitive components.

The aim of the present study was to examine both the development of sensorimotor synchronization in children in the age range from 5 to 8 years and the involvement of motor and cognitive capacities. Children performed a spontaneous motor tempo task and a synchronization-continuation task using an external auditory stimulus presented at three different inter-stimulus intervals: 500, 700, and 900 ms. Their motor and cognitive abilities (short-term memory, working memory, and attention) were also assessed with various neuropsychological tests.

Experience with an Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) Program for Bariatric Surgery: Comparison of MGB and LSG in 374 Patients.

Background: Strategic multidisciplinary protocols for "enhanced recovery after surgery" (ERAS) have demonstrated reductions in length of hospital stay (LOS), morbidity, and costs in conjunction with bariatric procedures.

Methods: We prospectively investigated the effectiveness and safety of an ERAS protocol with laparoscopic omega loop gastric bypass ("mini" gastric bypass, MGB) and LSG in morbidly obese patients.

Results: Average LOS was 1.

Synchrony and emotion in children and adults.

This study examined both the development of synchronisation activities and the way emotion affects these activities in children and adults. Children aged from 3 to 8 years, as well as adults, performed a spontaneous motor tempo (SMT) task and a synchronisation task with a 500-millisecond and 700-millisecond inter-stimulus interval (ISI), followed by a continuation task, in both an emotion-free and an emotional context (High-Arousal, Low-Arousal, and Neutral). The results showed that the SMT was faster and more variable in the younger children.

Genes Involved in Interleukin-1 Receptor Type II Activities Are Associated With Asthmatic Phenotypes.

Purpose: Interleukin-1 (IL-1) plays a key role in inflammation and immunity and its decoy receptor, IL-1R2, has been implicated in transcriptomic and genetic studies of asthma.

Methods: Two large asthma family collections, the French-Canadian Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean (SLSJ) study and the French Epidemiological Study on the Genetics and Environment of Asthma (EGEA), were used to investigate the association of SNPs in 10 genes that modulate IL-1R2 activities with asthma, allergic asthma, and atopy. Gene-gene interactions were also tested.

[Assessment of postoperative pain after corneal collagen cross-linking by iontophoresis vs the rapid epithelium-off technique in progressive keratoconus patients].

Introduction: Cross-linking (CXL) increases corneal biomechanical strength in progressive keratoconus. Since riboflavin cannot penetrate intact corneal epithelium, removal of epithelium is necessary for the classic CXL procedure (epi-off), but can cause severe postoperative pain. To avoid this problem, a method preserving the epithelium (epi-on) is used.

Assessment of dietary patterns in nutritional epidemiology: principal component analysis compared with confirmatory factor analysis.

Background: In the field of nutritional epidemiology, principal component analysis (PCA) has been used to derive patterns, but the robustness of interpretation might be an issue when the sample size is small. The authors proposed the alternative use of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to define such patterns.

Objective: The aim was to compare dietary patterns derived through PCA and CFA used as equivalent approaches in terms of stability and relevance.

The ANO3/MUC15 locus is associated with eczema in families ascertained through asthma.

Background: A previous genome-wide linkage scan in 295 families of the French Epidemiological Study on the Genetics and Environment of Asthma (EGEA) reported strong evidence of linkage of 11p14 to eczema.

Objective: Our purpose was to conduct fine-scale mapping of the 11p14 region to identify the genetic variants associated with eczema.

Methods: Association analyses were first conducted in the family sample from the French EGEA by using 2 methods: the family-based association method and logistic regression.

Associations between nitric oxide synthase genes and exhaled NO-related phenotypes according to asthma status.

Background: The nitric oxide (NO) pathway is involved in asthma, and eosinophils participate in the regulation of the NO pool in pulmonary tissues. We investigated associations between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of NO synthase genes (NOS) and biological NO-related phenotypes measured in two compartments (exhaled breath condensate and plasma) and blood eosinophil counts.

Methodology: SNPs (N = 121) belonging to NOS1, NOS2 and NOS3 genes were genotyped in 1277 adults from the French Epidemiological study on the Genetics and Environment of Asthma (EGEA).

17q21 variants modify the association between early respiratory infections and asthma.

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at chromosome 17q21 confer an increased risk of early-onset asthma. The objective was to study whether 17q21 SNPs modify associations between early respiratory infections and asthma. Association analysis was conducted in 499 children (268 with asthma, median age 11 yrs) from the Epidemiological Study on the Genetics and Environment of Asthma (EGEA).

[Coronary stents and anaesthesia: it is time to have national data].

We report 13 cases of coronary stent patients, undergoing a non cardiac surgery. Despite an heterogenous perioperative management of antiplatelet agents, none of these patients developed any significant complications. Recently, several case reports of postoperative drug eluting stent thrombosis have been reported.

Circulating matrix metalloproteinases 1, 2, 9 and their inhibitors TIMP-1 and TIMP-2 as serum markers of liver fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis C: comparison with PIIINP and hyaluronic acid.

Objectives: Histological examination of liver biopsy is currently required in the management of patients with chronic hepatitis C. Our aim was to evaluate the diagnostic utility of a panel of circulating markers in detecting the stage of fibrosis.

Methods: One hundred and ninety four-patients who had undergone a percutaneous liver biopsy before antiviral treatment, and 194 age- and sex-matched healthy subjects were studied.

Search for resolution of chiral fluorohalogenomethanes and parity-violation effects at the molecular level.

The first observation of a parity-violation effect in molecules induced by weak interactions is still a dream that requires the synthesis and, eventually, the resolution of the enantiomers of well-chosen simple chiral molecules together with an appropriate experimental set-up for high-resolution spectroscopy. Performing IR spectroscopy on highly enantiomerically enriched samples of bromochlorofluoromethane succeeded in giving an upper limit of 10(-13) for the relative vibrational energy difference between the two enantiomers. These results led us to conceive a new experimental set-up based on a supersonic molecular beam and to work on other chiral molecules, such as chlorofluoroiodomethane.

Urinary release of 72 and 92 kDa gelatinases, TIMPs, N-GAL and conventional prognostic factors in urothelial carcinomas.

Objectives: A urinary release of gelatinases A and B matrix metalloproteinases-2, -9 (MMP-2, -9), and tissue inhibitors (TIMP-1, -2) occurs during normal epithelial turnover. A proteinase increase, reduced inhibitors or both potentially account for cell mobility and bladder cancer progression. In order to define normal levels and thresholds for transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) patients, urinary gelatinases, tissue inhibitors and neutrophil-gelatinase-associated lipocalin (N-GAL) were investigated for end-point clinical status and compared with normal subjects during a 2-year follow-up prospective study.

Role of metalloproteases and inhibitors in the occurrence and progression of diabetic renal lesions.

Renal remodelling in hyperinsulinic/insulinopenic states is mediated by glucotoxicity, endothelial dysfunction and vascular and nephron collagen turnover. Hypertensive and renal links are renewed by renoprotective interventions of renin-angiotensin. Vasoactive peptide processing and vascular collagen deposition are under the tight control of two zinc metalloproteinase families that regulate vascular tone and trophicity: gluzincins (or vasopeptidases) are convertases of angiotensins, endothelins or atrial natriuretic factors; and metzincins or matrix metalloproteases (MMP, matrixins)] regulate vascular type IV collagen basement membrane proteolysis.

Gelatinase isoforms in urine from bladder cancer patients.

Matrix metalloproteinases are involved in tumor invasion and metastasis in many types of human carcinomas, in leukocyte infiltration and inflammatory reactions. Three metalloproteinases with gelatinolytic activity were isolated from the urine of patients with untreated high grade bladder cancer or with functioning renal grafts (control). Urinary proteins were fractionated after concentration by continuous-elution SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis.

Expression and activation of matrix metalloproteinases in wounds: modulation by the tripeptide-copper complex glycyl-L-histidyl-L-lysine-Cu2+.

We investigated the expression and activation of matrix metalloproteinases in a model of experimental wounds in rats, and their modulation by glycyl-L-histidyl-L-lysine-Cu(II), a potent activator of wound repair. Wound chambers were inserted under the skin of Sprague-Dawley rats and received serial injections of either 2 mg glycyl-L-histidyl-L-lysine-Cu(II) or the same volume of saline. The wound fluid and the neosynthetized connective tissue deposited in the chambers were collected and analyzed for matrix metalloproteinase expression and/or activity.

[Focalized matrix proteolysis and inflammation].

The zinc metalloproteinases (MMPs or matrixins) are capable of damaging most of the constituents of the extra-cellular matrix and the basement membrane. The matrix proteolysis is the result of an imbalance both in the turnover of these constituants and in the ratio of the tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (TIMPs) versus metalloproteinases. After a brief description of the nature and structure of MMPs and TIMPs, this article reports on recent progress concerning the intra and extra-cellular activation mechanisms of proenzymes (proMMPs) which bring into play a series of proteolytic activations involving different proteinase families.

Long-term variability of serum lipoprotein(a) concentrations in healthy fertile women.

Lipoprotein(a) is a unique lipoprotein with atherothrombogenic properties. Although its blood concentration is mainly genetically determined, various factors exist which may cause variability. These may influence the clinical use of the results.